Chapter 2 – The Next Move

"What?" Hermione cried. Several of the other students turned to see what was going on.

"I told you we couldn't trust him," Ron muttered.

"I can't believe he flew out of the dormitory. Where do you think he's headed?"

"Voldemort, where else? He is a death eater, you know."

"Oh, come on! I bet he just wanted to get some fresh air. And he left a note, so it's not like he stole it.

"Noooo, he just took it without asking. That's something completely different," said Ron as ironically as he could.

"Harry's right," said Hermione. "Nathaniel will probably return later today."

"Harry's right!" Ron mimicked in a whiny tone. "Can you say something else for once?"

Hermione shot him a fierce look, but did not say anything back. In stead she turned towards Harry and asked him to question her one last time before the test. When he was about to ask her the first question they saw Snape coming down the hallway. His wide robes flowed around him like an ominous black aura.

"Great," Harry said with a sigh. "Time for one hour of pure agony."

"I heard that, Potter! I'm going to deduct two points from Gryffindor."

"How could he possibly hear that? He was at the other end of the corridor!" Ron hissed.

"Another two points, Weasley!"

"Be quiet, both of you!" said Hermione with a stern, reprimanding voice when Ron opened his mouth to say something more.

Snape unlocked the door to the potions classroom and stepped inside, followed by the students from Gryffindor and Slytherin who had been waiting in the corridor. Hermione was the first one to take her place in her normal seat, pick up her self-inking quill and straighten her back, as she always did before writing a test. Harry and Ron had barely take their seats before the test landed with a heavy thump on their desks. I was just like the nightmare Harry had had the night before. A thick brick with papers filled with questions he had to answer and amounts he had to calculate. Hermione started at once and wrote so quickly that he could just barely make out the contours of the feather. He held his breath and read the first question. He didn't understand. It wasn't that he couldn't answers, he just didn't understand what the question was asking for.

Half an hour in Harry was finally getting started. When looking around he noticed that most of the class were on the same page as him, except for Hermione who had already made it through half the test. Snape was sitting behind the teacher's desks, reading a book covered with something green that looked as if it had dried in. Probably the residues of a poor students potion. The sound of a door being thrown open interrupted his thoughts. With quick steps Nathaniel entered the classroom. Before sitting down he tossed the firebolt at Harry.

"Thanks for the loan," he said with a loud voice that sounded a lot warmer than it did the day before.

The Slytherin students looked hopefully towards Snape, but he didn't even bother to look up from his book. With a small wave of his hand he sent the test to Nathaniel, who started at once. Oddly enough, he was wearing sunglasses. It was the first time he had ever seen a wizard with sunglasses.

...

"I knew it!" said Ron after they had finally left the classroom.

"Did the test go well?" asked Hermione without trying to hide her astonishment.

Ron sighed. "What do you think? I was talking about Nathaniel, obviously. Even the teachers are scared of him. Snape just proved it!"

"Maybe he's just cutting Nathaniel some slack, since it's his first day," Hermione suggested while opening the door to the great hall. It was time for lunch.

"Cutting him some slack? Snape?" said Harry and Ron simultaneously. Hermione couldn't help but too laugh at them. For a moment they had sounded just like Fred and George.

Harry nodded towards Nathaniel who were already sitting at one of the tables. "Let's sit next to him. I want to know what he was up to last night."

"Great," Ron grumbled.

They walked up to Nathaniel and sat next to him.

"How did the test go?" said Hermione. It was obvious that she was trying to sound as friendly as she possibly could. "You finished before everyone else." That last part wad pronounced with a touch of jealousy.

Nathaniel showed her a warm smile. "Quite well. This test was nothing compared to the ones we had at my last school."

Ron literally dropped his jaw. "What kind of school did you attend?"

"Blackfield," Nathaniel answered, still with the same smile. For a brief moment Harry suspected that this guy was actually Nathaniels good twin, but then he reproached himself. Anyone would be nervous on their first day in a new school, it was only natural.

"I've never heard about Blackfield. Where is it?" Hermione asked with that kind of surprised and slightly annoyed tone that she got when there was something she didn't know.

"Very few know where it is, and I can't tell you since it's a secret." He laughed softly. "Pretty weird, right?"

"Why is it a secret?" Hermione asked with a bewildered face.

"So that the ministry won't be able to shut it down. The principal has, after all, been given a very important task." Harry noticed how Nathaniel's face changed from gentle to cruel, and shuddered.

"What task?" Hermione had also noticed the change.

Nathaniel bent forward and whispered something in her ear before he got up and left the hall. He looked back at them an waved, still with the same cruel smile, before the doors shut behind him.

Hermione's face was white and her eyes wide with fright. Harry put his hand on her shoulder in an attempt to calm her down.

"You look like you've seen a ghost. What the hell did tell you?" Ron said, sensitive as always.

Hermione turned towards Ron. "You were right," she said with a quiet voice.

"About what?" Ron still hadn't stopped pushing food into his face, and spoke with his mouth full of grilled chicken and rice.

"Blackfield is a school that trains death eaters.." she whispered.

Ron suddenly choked and started to cough violently. "What!" Several of the students that were sitting nearby turned to look at them, alarmed by Ron's sudden outburst.

"He must've gotten a lot stronger if he dares to do something like that. It's pretty obvious that he's going to make an attempt of taking over soon," Harry said quietly, so that the others around them couldn't hear. Ever since their return from the ministry of magic, at the end of their fifth year, Harry had been waiting for Voldemorts next move, and now he knew what it was.. Or at least parts of it. Voldemort had sent a death eater to Hogwarts. "Did he say something else?" Harry asked with a serious voice. He had grabbed Hermione by the shoulders and turned her towards him.

Hermione hesitated. "He.. He told me to watch out. To really watch out." She blinked, and Harry realized that she was about to start crying, so he hugged her.

"We need to tell Dumbledore about this," Ron exclaimed suddenly. "He probably hasn't realized what a huge mistake he had made.."

Harry nodded. "You're right, for the second time today."

"Let us go at once," Hermione murmured into Harry's shoulder.

Ron looked disappointed. "Can I finish my meal first?"

...

"Hello?" Hermione called out. Fawkes, who were sitting at the top of a bookshelf, watched them closely as they entered Dumbledore's office. McGonagall had let them in, but she hadn't had time to stay.

"Just a moment." Dumbledore's voice came from the top of the stairs in the back of the room. Seconds later he was sitting in his chair behind his desk. "I guess you're not here just to say hello, even if that would be nice for a change," he said and blinked at them. "What's on your mind?"

"We're wondering why Nathaniel is allowed to attend Hogwarts," said Harry immediately.

Dumbledore smiled. "He's here of the same reason as you are. To learn, of course."

Harry couldn't help but to feel slightly annoyed. The head master never gave a straight answer. "He's dangerous, and he made that very clear today."

Hermione stepped forward. "He threatened me."

Dumbledore raised a surprised eyebrow. "Are you sure it wasn't a warning?"

"Yes, I'm sure! He claimed to have attended a school for death eaters." Hermione sounded as annoyed as Harry felt.

With a deep sigh the head master rose from the chair and walked over to the window. "He has a dark past, to say the least, and it will probably take a while for him to adjust. I'd advice you to not give up on him quite yet."

"But he's dangerous to the students!" cried Ron.

Dumbledore turned towards Ron and smiled. "I would never put my students' safety at risk. He has been stripped of his wand and a spell tells me if he tries to use magic. Any more questions?" He looked at Harry.

"Yes. Has he ever killed someone?" he asked with a serious face.

"That's not something that I can answer. You'll have to ask him yourself."

"Why do you take such responsibility for him?" Hermione asked. Right on target, as usual, Harry thought. Dumbledore, how ever, seemed unaffected.

"Because I have great sympathy of him and his background. You should too, Harry." Dumbledore looked out of the window again. After a moments silence he said: "If I'm not mistaken you three should be in your transfiguration class right now. You better hurry, you know how particular Minerva is about punctuality." He smiled towards them one last time before they left.

"Well wasn't very helpful now, was it?" said Ron angrily. Harry sighed. Ron was right, once again. Dumbledore was seldom of any greater use in the kind of situations that hey usually got themselves involved in.

"Well I'm certainly not going to speak to Nathaniel again," said Hermione decidedly. "How about you, Harry?"

Harry shrugged. "I guess I should at least try.. But first of all I want to find out if he is a death eater or not."

"And how will you do that?" Ron muttered. "Nathaniel, would you mind taking of your shirt?" Ron fluttered his eyelashes in a horrible attempt too look seductive.

"You're saying that there's something wrong with that plan?" Both Harry and Ron laughed, despite the fact that they weren't particularly amused. A growing feeling of alarm had taken shape in Harry's stomach as a cold rock with jagged edges. He knew Voldemort would act soon, but he didn't know when or how. If Nathaniel was part of his plan he had to find out about it. He had to know in what way Voldemort was planning on using him, or he wouldn't be able to figure out his next move.