Summery – The Door Marked F! … When all spells are washed away, the truth may be a bit shocking.
Disclaimer – J.K. Rowling, I am not… there are some direct quotes, some mixed quotes, and some indirect quotes from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in this, but I did try to make it fun to re-read what you've probably read before if you're reading Harry Potter fanfiction.
Segment 7 – Jamie Goes Down the Hole
The only good thing about Valentine's Day was that it fell on a Sunday this year, and Jamie could hide in her room most of the day. Unfortunately she didn't have that option as she couldn't take meals there and had an errand to run for her aunt, letters to send, and yet another detention to serve with the gleaming git.
The morning started off with Cormac McLaggen cornering her in the common room and asking her to go with him to Hogsmeade on a date. This was pretty easy for her to turn down as second-years were not permitted to go to Hogsmeade, but the boy was very persistent until the blessed intervention of the Terror Twins allowed Jamie to escape down to the Great Hall for breakfast. Being rather tired from the late Quidditch practice the night before, where Jamie would have sworn Oliver was trying to kill the whole team in preparation for the match against Ravenclaw next weekend, she didn't notice anything amiss until she sat down in her usual seat at the Gryffindor table.
Pink.
Pinks of every hue were plastered on every surface Jaime's eye landed on, with large, lurid pink flowers dominating the walls, dark pink confetti hearts falling from the pale pink enchanted ceiling, and the worst by far was the gleaming git himself, in pink robes, beaming his unnatural smile at every one and taking credit for the decorations. The other professors did not look pleased, judging from the muscle twitching on Professor McGonagall's cheek and the darkest scowl Jamie had ever seen on Snape's face (even darker than what he usually directed at herself). Lockhart then clapped his hands saying he'd hired Cupids to help pass notes around for the day as a dozen sourly dwarves in angel wings and carrying harps and toy bows came into the Great Hall.
"And here I thought Lavender was bad," Hermione said as she sat down beside Jamie, "that girl must be in heaven today."
"True," Jamie replied, thinking of how Lavender had changed all the Gryffindor colors on her bed to various shades of pink instead. "But this does give me an idea."
"This… gives you an idea?" Hermione asked incredulously.
"Sure. After McLaggen's little display this morning, I feel like I'm likely to get at least a few notes by dwarves from him at least. So anytime I get a note, I'll send the dwarf off with one to either Lockhart or Snape with love notes from one to the other. I'll even give them a Galleon to sing the note badly if there happens to be witnesses nearby."
"You Miss Potter?" one of the dwarves asked her suddenly.
"Yes."
"I have a Valentine here for you."
"Hermione dear," Jamie said sweetly, batting her eyelashes playfully at the other girl, "I seem to have left my bag in the room, may I borrow a quill and some parchment please?"
Hermione muttered something like "aiding and abetting" as she handed over the supplies.
Writing a quick Valentine, Jamie handed it to the Dwarf, "Please deliver this after breakfast."
"You're going to get them all killed you know." Hermione said after the dwarf had moved away.
"Nah… Snape will go after the one that caused it first."
"Meaning you?"
"Well, he comes after me anyway… but I meant Lockhart."
Curious, Hermione asked, "Who is your Valentine from?"
"Don't know, and don't care." Jamie replied setting it on fire unopened.
Both girls then grabbed a couple slices of toast and some bacon, trying to avoid as much confetti as possible, as they left the Great Hall.
Heading back to Gryffindor Tower from having sent a letter to Master Crushbone regarding the "staff" listed for the properties she now owned and one to Cousin Andromeda asking about some of the things she'd read in the etiquette books Hermione had given her for Christmas, Jamie was cornered by a very annoying dwarf who had a Valentine for her. Unlike the ten or so before that she'd just burned instead of opening, this Valentine the dwarf had been ordered to sing to her. Clearing his throat, the dwarf sang:
Her eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad,
Her hair is as dark as a blackboard.
I wish she was mine, she's really divine,
The hero who conquered the Dark Lord.
Jamie hung her head in shame at how bad it was, and was about to hand the dwarf her next Valentine to Snape, when she paused, "Wait… who is that from?"
"Don't know. 'Andsome chap didn't give 'is name."
"Would you describe him for me please?"
"'Bout your height, blonde, grey eyes… had two big kids following 'im around."
Rummaging through her bag she pulled out a clean parchment and quickly wrote:
Dear Cousin Draco,
What's that thing called,
Where your crush likes you back?
Oh yes!
Your DREAMS.
With Love,
Harriett
"That'll confuse him." Jamie muttered, handing a Galleon to the dwarf, "Please deliver this Singing Valentine during lunch."
Lunch was a rather amusing affair; after burning anther three Valentine's notes unopened, the show began. At the head table, a rather timid looking dwarf approached Snape, the sound dampening spell the professors used to keep their conversations from reaching the ears of students prevented Jamie from knowing just which of her sonnets were about to be delivered in badly sung verse, but Snape blanched when the dwarf appeared to start singing and strumming his harp. The other professors appeared highly amused at this, as Lockhart was openly laughing and Professor McGonagall hid her chuckles in her napkin. Jamie could easily tell when the tune ended, as Snape then looked furious, Lockhart blanched, and Headmaster Dumbledore even started chuckling.
While Jamie was focused on the Head Table, another dwarf had apparently stopped next to her cousin at the Slytherin table and started singing to him. The whole hall burst into laughter as Malfoy turned beet red; then Crabbe scratched his head and asked, "Who's Harriett?" This made those who heard the question, laugh even harder.
Rushing to get to her detention on time after lunch, Jamie ducked into the loo near the DADA class and had the unfortunate opportunity to make acquaintances with Myrtle, the resident moping ghost in the third stall. How Jamie managed to get out of there without being drenched in toilet water she didn't know, but it might have had something to do with being polite and agreeing to come back and talk to the ghost some more.
A more pleasant surprise awaited her at the DADA classroom however, as little Professor Flitwick was handling her detention instead of Lockhart. Instead of writing endless platitudes to the simpering hordes of Lockhart fans, she spent the afternoon ducking, dodging, and countering spells as the part goblin showed off his dueling skills.
Starting to grow tired, Jamie cast a spell she'd studied from her mother's notes, rolling her wand about the outside of her hand and crying, "Aster-aspis!" as she slashed it along the floor in front of her. A mostly transparent wall shimmered into existence, slightly distorting the sight of her opponent, and then stopped to catch her breath.
Professor Flitwick, seeking to press his advantage, kept firing spells at the girl and was a little surprised that they were all being deflected away from her. After a moment, and a dozen spells, the little professor stopped and started analyzing the shield wall Jamie had thrown up.
"Intriguing, Miss Potter, where ever did you come up with this?" Professor Flitwick asked as if they hadn't been dueling for an hour.
"It was… in my mother's notes… I thought they… were from her time… here at Hogwarts…" Jamie panted in response.
"Your mother indeed! She was quite gifted but this? This could be very useful. Would you mind if I took a look at those notes, Miss Potter?"
"I suppose so… she said something about… rejecting this one though… something about it… making it hard to… cast other spells while using it… It does nothing… against physical attacks."
"What is it called?"
"Aster-aspis, the Star Shield… the counter is Apoluo!" Jamie said demonstrating by taking the wall down.
"Well then. I'm not sure it's proper, Miss Potter, this being a detention and all, but five points to Gryffindor."
"Thank you, sir." Jamie said, her breathing finally starting to slow.
"Shall we continue?"
Reluctantly, Jamie raised her holly wood wand, and readied herself for a lot more exercise.
With Easter rapidly approaching, Oliver was once again stepping up the Quidditch practices saying that their win over Ravenclaw by ten points was too close and he never wanted that to happen again, and the second year students had a new dilemma dropped on them; what electives to take starting third year.
"I'm signing up for everything," Hermione stated boldly.
"I don't think you can," Jamie replied, "besides, you can get the OWLs for Magizoology, Divination and Muggle Studies without taking the actual classes… so I'm thinking Arithmacy, Ancient Runes, and… I don't know… Ancient Studies maybe? That will at least be more interesting than History of Magic."
Both girls were rather disappointed in the boys of their year, as all of them chose to do the 'easy' classes of Divination and Magizoology, or Care of Magical Creatures, as they called it.
On the 17th, Jamie had just tied her shoulder length hair up into a high pony tail in preparation for the game against Hufflepuff that was about to begin in about five minutes, when Professor McGonagall burst into the locker room stating that the game had been cancelled and that all students were to return to their common rooms at once, before telling Jamie to follow her elsewhere.
"What has happened Professor?" Jamie asked, quickly following the Deputy Headmistress back up to the castle.
Professor McGonagall looked grim, "There has been another attack.
"Surely they aren't blaming this on me again? I've been in the locker room with the team since breakfast."
"Not this time, Miss Potter, but the two victims are, the sixth year Ravenclaw prefect, Miss Clearwater and," She paused for a second, "Your friend Miss Granger."
"Hermione!"
"The two girls were found just outside of the library. You would not happen to know why she was in the library this morning would you, Jamie?"
"Not specifically. We've been doing some research on Parseltongue and Parsel-magic lately, but also research for Professor Flitwick on some charms my mother made. If Miss Clearwater was with her though… she might have just been revising for exams again."
When they arrived at the Hospital Wing, Madam Pomfrey asked Jamie about a mirror the girl was holding so tightly they couldn't pull it from her hand. Jamie wasn't sure, but mentioned the angle suggested trying to look around a corner at something rather than at her own reflection. Not long after Professor McGonagall left to speak with the Headmaster about Jamie's speculation, Madam Pomfrey shooed Jamie out of the infirmary as well.
Two days later, Jamie was rather disappointed, but not really surprised, that Madam Pomfrey had closed the Hospital Wing to visitors, when she and Ginny went to see Hermione. Most of the school had been traipsing in there trying to get a look at "Slytherin's Victims" as some had taken to calling the petrified students. While walking back to Gryffindor Tower, however, Jamie suddenly stopped in the middle of the hall.
Turning slowly in place, Jamie was flipping her hand around and whispering to herself to quietly for Ginny to hear, so the young redhead asked, "What is it?"
"Oh… just thinking," Jamie said as she turned and started walking again.
"About?" Ginny inquired.
"The attacks."
The younger girl sighed, "Of course…"
"Think about it," Jamie said stopping again, next to a new tapestry that was covering the bloody message from Halloween, that Mr. Filch had not been able to remove yet, "Mrs. Norris, just here. Nick and Justin over that way near the Charms classroom. Hermione and Penelope over that way near at the library. Everything that has happened has happened near here."
"So?"
"I overheard the Headmaster talking to Madam Pomfrey and Professor McGonagall when Colin was attacked. The chamber has been opened before and a student died as a result."
"Okay?"
"What if she never left?"
"You mean Myrtle?" Ginny looked a little afraid of the ghost.
"I mean Myrtle," Jamie affirmed. "She told me she died in the stall she stays. In that loo there," Jamie pointed to the nearby lavatory.
"You don't think?"
Jamie shrugged, "Only way to find out is to go look."
Ten minutes of searching later, Jamie noticed a small snake engraved on the wall behind the sink directly across from the third stall, and after only a few tries, she said "Sahissah" and the sink dropped through the floor so quickly that Jamie was caught off balance and fell in, as Ginny screamed.
-Author's Notes-
Who wants detention with Professor Flitwick?
I wish you all could read this the way I see it as I type it out… it's so much better looking in the Blacksword font I use (it's free if you want to check it out).
For those of you who are curious…
Aster-aspis = Star Shield (Greek) a glowing, semi-transparent, prism wall that skews magic passing through it, making it very difficult to hit your target with direct spells
Apoluo = Release (Greek)
As always… Like / Review / Whatever… till next time.