Chapter Nine
Olive
They were back in Hogwarts, in one of the first floor corridors.
A black-haired girl with lightly-tanned skin who looked to be somewhere around fifth year strolled with purpose down the hall.
"I think that's who we're supposed to be paying attention to," Albus said, pointing to the girl.
"When are we?" James asked. He was used to time travel, but not nearly this far back.
"Who knows?" Lynne asked. "This is just a memory, so we can't interact or ask anyone what year it is. We're going to have to figure it out ourselves. It might be easier if we listen for names, so we can look them up later."
"Wait, something's happening," Elijah said.
Another girl, a brunette with facial acne and glasses, had just left a bathroom carrying a small stack of books. She looked up and saw the girl that the group had already decided to pay attention to. With a look of horror, she turned around and tried to go into the bathroom again.
But she couldn't go back quickly enough. The first girl had grabbed her by the back of her collar, making her drop her books. "What's the matter? Scared to see me? How could you see me, with those giant glasses of yours?"
The brunette just stood there quietly, on the verge of tears. Courtney could tell this was not the first time these two had interacted like this.
"Olive," a guy's voice said, approaching the two girls. "Knock it off."
The guy who walked up to them was astonishingly good-looking. Tall, with dark hair and eyes, and emitting a vibe of confidence.
Olive weighed her options and decided that messing with the other girl was not worth it. "See you later," she said ominously as she left.
"Thank you," the other girl muttered to the boy, looking down shily.
"Don't mention it," he replied. He knelt down to pick up the fallen books, then hand them back to the girl. "Here you go."
"Talk about smooth," James said, his arms folded. "I mean, I probably wouldn't give her a six, but that was textbook right there."
"But that's a good point," Rose admitted. "Why would he get on Olive's bad side for this other girl's sake?"
"Maybe they're already friends?" Courtney suggested.
"I don't know about you," Lynne said. "But from where I'm standing, she looks pretty surprised that her knight in shining armor came to the rescue. I doubt they were already friends before, or at least not close friends."
"So we've got three people we're paying attention to here," Albus said. "We still don't know what this has to do with Dark magic, or with Ly-"
They were abruptly taken back to the present. When they emerged from the Pensieve, there was a dark air around the Room of Requirement.
Another Dementor.
It opened its arms toward Courtney. "Expecto Patronum!" Elijah shouted. It was incorporeal, but still slowed the Dementor considerably.
"My word, a Dementor. Expecto Patronum." A silver angelfish came from Cartesius's wand, out of the portrait, and swam through the air until it collided with the Dementor. By this point, James had his wand out.
"Expecto Patronum!" The staggard returned. The Dementor saw that it was outnumbered by the two Patronuses, and immediately left.
"That time the Dementor wasn't going for Lynne," Courtney realized. "It was going for me."
"No, I would say not," Cartesius agreed, a glimmer in his eyes. "So what is your conclusion from that information?"
"That Scorpius was aiming for Lynne, but the Dementors don't care," Albus replied.
Cartesius winced. "Oh, so close, yet so far. How about this: How do you suppose a Dementor got into the Room of Requirement in the first place? Or how it had anything to do with the flashback you just witnessed?"
"We need to know more about the Dementors," Lynne concluded. "I could check the library…"
"Wait," Rose said. "I think I know somewhere better to look."
"Can we talk to you about something?" James asked Professor Lochram.
"But of course!" Lochram exclaimed. "Go forth, Potter. Tell me what you need."
"It's about Dementors," Courtney said. "Professor Vector said at the beginning of the year that you were attacked by fourteen of them."
"Fifteen, now, actually," he noted. "One of the foul monsters managed to strike even on Hogwarts grounds."
"Courtney and I have each been attacked twice now," Lynne told him. "We wanted to know if you had any idea why some people are being attacked by Dementors more than others."
"Polaris is still freaking out because she's the only Hufflepuff in our year whose family hasn't gotten attacked," Elijah added.
"Well, I would be lying if I said I have not looked into it," Lochram said. "And a liar I refuse to be! Normally, Dementors are drawn to the people who've had the greatest horrors in their pasts. These are the people who are most vulnerable to them, and oft the ones who cannot cast the Patronus Charm."
"But we haven't had any major horrors," Lynne said. "And you can make a Patronus, yet you've gotten more attacks than any of us."
"Indeed," Lochram said. "And curiously, Professor Longbottom has confided that in his life he has never cast a corporeal Patronus, and the heavens only know the demons of his past, yet he has not been a victim even once of this outbreak. Therefore, I am led to believe that this is a Darker force - that someone is out there commanding the Dementors to go after specific targets, myself and you children included. But why us? Alas, there I am as lost as you."
Courtney thought about what Cartesius said before. This had to have something to do with the flashback they were watching, but what? Olive had seemed, at least at the end, like the sort of person who might grow up to cause problems like these for innocent people. But that still didn't explain why she was targeting Professor Lochram and the others… Unless Lochram was the boy in the Pensieve…
So did this mean the LMM was really uninvolved? Or were they connected to Olive? And what did any of this have to do with Scorpius and the Imperius Curse? Courtney's head was starting to hurt from all the different pieces of information that just didn't add up.
"Thanks for the help," Rose said. "If we find anything out, you'll be the first to know."
