Disclaimer: Harry Potter and friends belong to J.K. Rowling. I make no money from this story.
**Any print in italics is quoted directly from J.K. Rowling. I will note which book it was taken from at the bottom of the chapter.**
WARNING: THIS STORY WILL BE RATED M FOR FUTURE CHAPTERS.
A/N: Yes, people we are starting to slip away from cannon from here on out. Some events will happen similarly, but many things will be different. Enjoy!
Thank you to everyone who is following or has favorited my story, you are all my favorite people.
Thank you also to my beta BreanIver for his dedication to this story. You can blame him for any really screwy ideas I decide to use. LOL
A/N: I am starting back to classes and may be slower on updating. I will try to get at least 1 chapter every 2 weeks, hopefully closer to 1 chapter per week. Also, we are almost done with this first book and we will be starting a new story for the second book and each book thereafter. Look for HLP2 – Slytherin's Secrets coming soon.
-Cosmyk
Chapter 9:
Harriet woke the next morning to find Rhonda in a foul mood. She was throwing her books into her bag and grumbling under her breath.
"What's got your knickers in a twist?" Harriet asked, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. She picked up her glasses and propped them on her nose, everything around her suddenly becoming clearer.
"McGonagall gave us detention last night."
"I thought you were in the dorm last night. What happened?" Harriet asked, concerned.
"Herman and I decided we were going to make sure no one caught you going to the tower last night, but Draco came along with Professor McGonagall after we'd only been there a few minutes. She gave us all detention tonight with Hagrid," Rhonda growled, pulling her bag over her shoulder.
"I'm sorry to hear that. I hate to think what sort of detention he will set you to, probably mucking out Thestral stalls or something," Harriet sympathized, "and to have detention with Malfoy of all people, that's rotten luck."
"Yeah, tell me about it," Rhonda moaned, "and not only that, but that two feet of parchment on the properties of owl pellets in potion making due tomorrow and I'm only halfway done. Snape is going to kill me, and so is mum if I fail potions."
"Professor Snape," Harriet corrected absently.
Rhonda shot her a dirty look, "whatever." She pulled out her parchment and quills and opened her potions book.
Harriet sat down beside her. "Would you like some help? I won't do it for you but I'll help you with it." Rhonda smiled gratefully at her and the two were soon engrossed.
Harriet hurried down the hallway towards Gryffindor tower. Oliver Wood was obsessed with winning the Quidditch Cup, and had kept them out late practicing. She muttered about his ancestors under her breath as she hurried down the hall. She still had two feet of parchment due to McGonagall tomorrow on wand movements and color change in transfiguration and she had only completed eight inches of it. She rubbed at her throbbing scar and then stopped walking at the sound of a familiar voice coming from Professor Quirrel's office. She moved closer out of curiosity, heedless to the instincts warning her to flee.
"Send a letter to Dumbledore from the Ministry." The quiet, sibilant voice whispered. It was a voice from her nightmares, from her past. Harriet shuddered as the voice brought back horrific memories.
She had an image of a tall, red-eyed man with a wand standing before her crib in the nursery. Her mother was standing protectively between the man and the crib. "Stand aside you silly girl...stand aside, now."
She sank to her knees and grasped her forehead as pain screamed through her scar. The flashback continued, and she could see her mother standing in front of the bars of the crib.
"Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead –"
"AVADA KEDAVRA" a flash of green light flashed through her memories and she saw her mother throw herself in the path of the light and then collapse to the floor. She could hear a keening sound in the background, but didn't realize it was coming from her.
The voices stopped, but she didn't notice as the pain in her scar had grown more intense.
"Master, it's the Potter girl," she could hear Professor Quirrel's strangely un-stuttered voice coming from the doorway.
"Kill her. We can't leave any witnesses," the hissing voice she now recognized as Lord Voldemort's commanded.
"But master, Dumbledore will know what we have done and then we will never get the stone," Quirrel replied. Suddenly he shrieked in pain, clutching his head.
"Kill her. We will leave her in the Forbidden Forest. I can modify the oaf's memories to make him think he was the one who killed her. After what happened last time, nobody will believe different," Voldemort's voice instructed.
Harriet crabbed backwards, scrambling to her feet and turned to run.
"Yes, master," She saw Professor Quirrel raise his wand toward her, "AVADA –"
"EXPELLIARMUS," two voices bellowed at the same time. Harriet crashed into a hard body. A protective arm wrapped around her and she heard Professor Snape bellow "INCARCEROUS." The comforting scent of feline and peppermint engulfed her and she realized the arm wrapped protectively around her belonged to Professor McGonagall.
"Severus, we must get him to the headmaster," McGonagall turned, leading Harriet alongside her.
"P-professor McGonagall, I heard him talking to V-voldemort," Harriet's voice was low and laced with terror. She could feel her heart pounding near to exploding. Suddenly her tears burst forth and she buried her face in McGonagall's robes.
A scream cut off anything McGonagall would have said and all three turned to watch as Professor Quirrel sank to his knees, blood gushing from his nose. A black shadow emerged from his turban and flew through the open window with a loud wail. Harriet exhaled in relief as her scar, which had still felt as though it were in flames, suddenly stopped hurting.
A/N: I know this is a shorter chapter than most, but I wanted to focus primarily on the confrontation. The next chapter will be the last one of this story. If you want to read the next book in this story, be sure to follow me so you can receive updates when the new story is posted.
-Cosmyk