The Keeper
Chapter 10
The autumn leaves of October blew onto the school grounds as the warmth of September left them. Yulisa's illness cleared up quite nicely after taking Snape's potion regimen, though the Black situation didn't improve. Dementors still haunted the school edge and the newspapers continued to print stories on how Harry Potter would turn up dead any day now. Down in the dungeons, Gryffindor and Slytherin gathered for Potions. Draco Malfoy still complaining about his "injured" arm from a hippogriff incident that happened the first week of school. Yulisa rolled her eyes and Harry laughed, quietly to himself as Professor Snape came marching into the classroom. Silence fell. After their lecture, the students got to work brewing their confusion draughts. Harry had trouble getting his to thicken properly, but Yulisa and Hermione both brewed a perfect potion. "Tolerable." Snape commented as he peered into Hermione's cauldron. "A complete failure." he said moving onto Harry's. He paused for a second looking into Yulisa's. She suspected he was trying to think of the perfect insult. "Not bad, for a Gryffindor." he said not smiling. Yet she couldn't help but return a grin of her own, and both Hermione and Harry looked over at her in shock. Professor Snape never complimented Gryffindor students, if you can call that a compliment. She just shrugged as she smiled innocently back at them.
Despite Snape's unusual attitude toward Yulisa, she still managed to get detention. Something about holding her book upside down. She didn't really care anymore. The Great Hall was in a loud buzz as students celebrated the Halloween feast. Yulisa, Harry, Ron and Hermione sat eating all manner of delicious treats, laughing and talking among each other and friends. Even Malfoy shouting out over the crowd "The dementors send their love, Potter!" didn't falter their spirits. Full and excited, the four walked cheerfully back to Gryffindor tower but then met a crowd of Gryffindors standing in the hall way. "What's going on? Why isn't anyone going inside?" Hermione asked as they stood on their tip toes trying to see. "Move aside, move aside! What's going on? Please move! I am Head Boy!" Percy came shuffling his way toward the portrait. When he got to the front, he paused, many students trying to look through the path he had cleared, and then in an almost high panicked voice he called: "Somebody get Professor Dumbledore!" Finally, the four were able to see what was causing the hold up. The Portrait, it was slashed to pieces. The Fat Lady was nowhere to be seen. Soon Dumbledore arrived, students clearing out of the way to let him through. When he saw the portrait he looked behind him to see Professors McGonagall, Lupin, and Snape arriving. Peeves happily informed the "professorhead" that it was Sirius Black who slashed the Portrait, angry she wouldn't let him in. Yulisa took hold of her necklace under her robes, as if holding it in her hand would make it safer. The Professors sent all the students, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin included, to sleep in the Great Hall that night while the castle was searched. Neither Harry nor Yulisa slept well, each plagued by their own personal fear involving Sirius Black.
The castle was determined clear and students were moved back to their houses and classes continued. There was a tension, though, drifting through the air like a stale draft. Yulisa was down in the dungeons, scrubbing cauldrons as Professor Snape frowned at the "sub par" work he was grading. It was the only place she felt safe now a days. "What year are you grading, sir?" she asked casually. Every few detentions she'd try to make small talk. It rarely succeeded in anything other than annoying him. "First year." he said quietly, not looking up from the parchment in his hand. "You'd think by now they'd have actually learned something." his voice was disapproving as he wrote the grade on top. No doubt it wasn't a very high mark. "Well, this is all so new to them." she said smiling over at him, though he wasn't looking or even appeared to be listening. She was just glad he was finally answering her. "Youth is not an excuse for ignorance, Carmona." he picked up the next parchment and again started reading over it, his expression held little hope for the next first year. Yulisa didn't say anything after that, letting him concentrate.
When she was finally finished with her usual routine, she placed everything just the way he liked it and made her way towards his desk. He just looked over to her work station, not leaving his seat, and then turned back to his work. "You're dismissed." She hesitated. When she hadn't moved, he stopped writing and looked up at her. "Professor, would you please walk with me back to Gryffindor tower?" she asked cautiously. His eyes were confused at her unusual request. "With Black being spotted in the castle a few days ago, I would feel much safer if you would accompany me, sir." she blurted out kinda quickly, seeming a little embarrassed. His confusion turned to amusement as his mouth almost twisted into a small smile. "Now why would a brave Gryffindor, such as yourself, be afraid of Sirius Black?" She couldn't believe he'd actually ask that. "He's a death eater, sir." she tried to say it politely but couldn't prevent it from sounding like it should have been obvious. "So I've heard... but everyone knows Potter's the only one he's after...", not thinking she glanced down to her chest where the necklace was hiding under her robes. "Unless... you have something you think he wants." She looked up at him, her eyes betraying the fear she was trying to hide. "Very peculiar necklace you had in the forest, an amulet?" he asked, his eyes glittering with curiosity. She suddenly felt very uncomfortable. She had never intended for him to know about the opes and didn't feel it was safe to tell him the truth. Knowing she couldn't avoid his question entirely without raising suspicion, she did the only thing she could do, she lied. "A healing charm... it was my mothers." "And why would a death eater want a healing charm?" he had a good point. "He could sell it." it was the only thing she could think of at the moment, though it sounded ridiculous. He too, looked as if he wasn't convinced, but he held out his hand and said: "Let me see it." Her hands shook a little, as she quickly tried to think of a reason not to. Her mind was blank. "Well...' he said impatiently, raising an eyebrow in suspicion. Slowly she lifted the opes from underneath her robes and took a step forward so he could examine it. She would never agree to take it off. Carefully, he looked at it, rolling it back and forth in his palm. He could feel that it wasn't just cut glass, a real crystal, and he had seen her heal the bird with it so he knew it had at least some magical qualities. After a painfully long minute, he spoke. "I doubt anything he'd get for this, is worth the trouble." He let it fall carelessly out of his palm and onto her chest. She quickly replaced it under her robes. He headed for the door and waited for her to join him. She quickly followed him out of the classroom, unsure if what he had said was meant to comfort her or insult her.
Silently, they walked along the corridor and up to Gryffindor tower. When they got to the portrait she said thank you and good night and went up to bed. That night she didn't sleep. For a few hours, she tossed and turned in her bed then got up, abandoning any notion of rest. Slipping her cloak around her she made her way down into the deserted common room and took a seat at one of the tall windows. She held the crystal in her hand, rubbing it with her fingers trying to soothe herself. It left her stomach feeling in knots, how easy it had been for him to trick her into showing the necklace to him. Her mind replaying the memory of her mother's death; how she had made her swear to always protect the necklace. It burned red in her hand again, while storm clouds quickly gathered outside. Yulisa stared out into the darkness. The distant lightning flashed through her eyes, but she sat lost in her own thoughts. The rain suddenly poured like the bottom of a well had just broken through, the thunder, like the loud crashing of stone walls against the ground. The wind screaming in its dismay. Then, as if suddenly jerking awake, she blinked. Her thoughts returning to the present. She released the crystal from her fingers, its red glow instantly fading. She walked over to a soft armchair and curled up next to the fire, resting her heavy head against the chair back. The storm outside stopped, just as abruptly as it had descended.
{Halloween and the discovery of the portrait being slashed come from the book}