The other Side
Hogwarts – December 18th 1993
The snow scrunched below their feet as they walked towards the entrance of Hogwarts. Neville had left them an hour ago and so only Hannah accompanied him back from Hogsmeade, where they had spent the second Saturday-visit. Sated and satisfied they felt, their stomach filled with the best roast beef and butterbeer the "Three Broomsticks" had to offer.
A few days ago Snape had surprised Piotr with the news that he not only allowed him to distribute his "corrections and comments" but that furthermore the publisher of 'Magical Drafts and Potions' from Arsenius Bunsen showed his interest. Starting with the next impression they would be part of the book. One hundred gallons they wanted to pay him and his name would be mentioned, even if only very small. But Piotr was very happy about this and more than a bit surprised about Snape's course of action.
He had used a small part of the money to invite Neville and Hannah to the three Broomsticks and used the time in Hogsmeade to buy some presents for the incoming Christmas feast.
"The girl …" Hannah suddenly started to ask, hesitating as if her courage would be leaving her for a moment. As Piotr looked her way with narrowed eyes she sighed and continued. "The girl in the training … the one … you know … that was Irina, your sister, wasn't it?"
"I don't want to speak about it." Piotr's voice was barely controlled, a mix of anger and sorrow shining thru.
"I'm your friend, Piotr. I know these memories …"
"I don't want to speak about it," it wasn't yelling but certainly louder than he normally spoke to her. "Please, Hanna … please skip it. I'm … not ready to speak about it." She really wanted to help him and was sure that he needed someone to speak about it. But his eyes held so much emotion and pleading that she complied and instead continued to walk towards Hogwarts again.
A moment of abstraction was all what his unseen assailant needed to start the attack. The first hint of something happening was Piotr's tripping over his own shoes, going down to the ground at speed, the moment of the attack chosen quite well to send him head first against a small wall, slipping along the bricks with hand and head until Piotr found himself on the floor, bleeding from nose, cheek and hand.
"Piotr, what are you doing," Hannah asked surprised and concerned if not very clever, as she hadn't yet realized that his tumble was the consequence of a trip jinx. Piotr, used to quite more hurting "jokes" back at Durmstrang, stayed calm and used his wand to heal his face before he lifted the jinx on his shoes and stood up. Looking past Hannah he saw – partly hidden behind a tree – Percy looking his way. Percy attacking him with a jinx, Piotr wondered? He hadn't expected the Head Boy to starting something like that. But in this moment another person become visible: Ginny. Her expression was unreadable as she stared at him, nodding to something her brother told her.
Noticing Piotr's odd behavior, Hannah started to turn around as Ginny cast another spell, this time the bat boogey hex. Being able to see her clearly it was no problem for Piotr to defend himself against the hex with a protego spell, something his attacker obviously didn't expect from him. With the rumors about him circulating in Hogwarts – describing him as completely unable to cast a single spell – it wasn't really a surprise for him that someone underestimated him. Likewise unexpected was his reaction afterwards: none. He simply stood still and stared at Ginny with a hint of grief in his eyes, watching how Percy talked insistently to his sister.
Not before Hannah started to move towards the culprit did Piotr react, gripping her arm and forcing her to stop. "Don't, Hannah, leave her."
"What? What do you mean with 'leave her'? Are you dumb? She attacked you. You can't simply ignore that …"
"Hannah, listen …" he strengthened his grip as the girl tried to break free "Hannah, please I don't want to hurt you." As Hannah calmed down a bit he started to explain. "I don't want to involve someone in this. The Weasleys aren't … harmless. I couldn't endure it if one of my friends would get hurt in this senseless dispute. Please stay away from the Weasleys."
Over her shoulder he say Percy stalking away, his sister following him with bowed head and drooping shoulders. Sighed with relief he let go Hannah's arm, only to receive a hard punch in the stomach. "I deserved that. Sorry for the bruise you'll have on your arm tomorrow."
"You deserve quite more, Piotr Iljitsch Kamenew." Hannah chastised him, her voice devoid of humor. "We are friends and friends help each other. That's no one-way-thing, you know. I want to help and protect you …"
Her sentence was interrupted by a kind of howl that left Piotr's throat. "No … I don't want your protection … don't ever do that … no …" His hands gesticulating wildly, his voice nearly unable to suppress the obvious panic and his mind struggling to build comprehensible words, Piotr suddenly turned around and run away, not towards Hogwarts but the lake, leaving the sight of a shocked Hannah within short notice.
.
"He's a bit weird sometimes." Professor Minerva McGonagall stated, looking down on the events from her room, turning to face Hermione. They had been speaking about Hermione's Christmas plans for a while after the girl's return from Hogwarts. Hermione would have preferred to speak about the conversation she had – together with Ron and an invisible Harry – overheard in Hogsmeade, a conversation about Sirius Black and his part in the death of Harry's parents. But she hadn't been able to muster the courage to speak about that and swiftly switched to a more secure theme.
"He isn't weird, only … special. And a very good student, one of the most hardworking I know." Unfazed by Minerva's stern gaze Hermione continued. "And he is really helpful."
Minerva harrumphed dissatisfied. "I heard about his potion tutoring. Snape is quite impressed," she stated with a tune as if it would be a kind of offence. "Obviously Mr. Kamenew has no qualms about working with Slytherins."
"He has no qualms about working with anybody who is willing to learn." For a moment Hermione stared at the teacher she had taken such a liking in the past two years. Certainly Minerva McGonagall was her favorite teacher but sometimes she was a bit too stubborn. "Do you know the reason … why he declined to be chosen to Gryffindor," she asked with a small voice.
"Obviously he doesn't like our house," came Minerva's gruff response.
"No, it isn't this simple," Hermione explained, now fetching Minerva's interest. "In London, before we entered the train … there had been a problem … a conflict … between him and the Weasleys. I don't want to go into details but I assure you that the Weasleys were more to blame for that than him. But Piotr decided to avoid them, to avoid further conflict. And that would be more problematic if he belonged to the same house, sharing most lessons with Ron."
Hermione pointed down to the now empty place below. "You have seen what happened. It wasn't Piotr who cast the hex. In contrary he even declined to counter attack and held Hannah back. He really isn't a troublemaker. And he isn't a Gryffindor hater."
Not fully convinced Minerva stayed silent, pondering about the heard.
"And then there is the detail of Pansy."
"How would Miss Parkinson happen to be part of this?"
"No, she isn't. But there is something … you know how Pansy behaves most of the time. She is hanging around with Draco and tries her best to harass students like me." Hermione hasn't to mention that she meant Muggleborn – or Mudbloods as Draco loved to call her.
"A few days ago there has been an incident. All in all nothing special but the usual Slytherin against Gryffindor hassle. But then something happened. Pansy started to call me … Mudblood," Hermione shook her head to prevent Minerva from interrupting "but … she didn't finish that. She stopped to speak, thought for a moment and called me Muggleborn instead. She added some other cusses – you know how inventive she is – but this one word she didn't use."
"I see that this is a surprise and a nice one to add but …"
"One moment please, Minerva." Hermione really liked that her favorite teacher had allowed her to call her Minerva in private. "Not able to explain this behavior – something which obviously surprised Draco too judging from his expression – I spoke about her with Neville. She had been paired with Neville in the potions lessons by Snape, so they spent some time together. From Neville I heard that Pansy is behaving herself in the potions lessons. She isn't really nice or easy-going, but she cooperates and really rarely use cusses for Neville, at least in the lessons. Out of the class room she is the usual bitch towards him."
Hermione stayed silent for a minute to allow her word to sink into Minerva's mind. "Both – her behavior towards Neville and her restraining of using this special word – has a simple reason: they are the conditions Piotr placed on her participation in his tutoring of her. And as it seems Pansy is intelligent enough to realize that she needs tutoring and that her beloved Slytherins aren't willing or able to fill that place."
.
Hogwarts – Library – December 19th 1993 Afternoon
"You should really try to speak with Professor McGonagall, Piotr. It is kind of …"
"Yeah, whatever," Piotr interrupted Hermione with an irritated voice. "She isn't my House Mistress and I haven't any lessons in Transfigurations. To be honest I'm not really interested in her."
"Piotr …" Hermione nearly screeched, interrupting herself as she noticed the sinister look of Madam Pince.
To prevent another reproof Piotr fetched a pergament from his bag and pushed it towards Hermione. "I have a plea. Would you please take a look at this in the next weeks, perhaps in the Christmas time? It is a spell I'm working on. I called it Tasha's grace."
Shortly both students shared a smile as they thought about their cats. Tasha and Crookshanks had taken an instant liking to each other at their first meeting and since then more than once had been wandering the passages of Hogwarts together.
"I want to achieve a charm to enhance the natural dexterity of a person. It is basically working but the spell is quite exhausting to cast and the duration is way too short. Perhaps you have an idea how to improve."
"You are working on an own spell … belonging to the third year?"
"Err … yes. Don't pretend it didn't happen before … to you." Piotr smiled. "I remember a story about a second-grade who brewed Polyjuice Potion, something normally reserved to the lessons in year six. And with me repeating the third year I'm more or less a fourth-grade," Piotr smiled at her.
"Yes but to develop an own spell …" Hermione hesitated for a moment before she continued with a deep sigh. "Sometimes I forget that you're quite good at casting spells, at least …"
"Yes, at least …" Piotr interrupted, his expression unhappy. "Healing, curse-breaking and charms on persons and animals … all other spells are prohibited or out of my grasp. You can't imagine how often I wished to be able to cast a spell like silence, heat water or clean, something even most first-graders could do. Yes, I'm able to do this 'the Muggles way' and I'm quite good at it and it served me good in hindsight of training my body. But sometimes I would freely trade my strength and endurance for the ability to cast spells like you."
"But only if you aren't just punching Goyle," Hermione responded with a broad smirk.