...And this would be the Post-Christmas, Mid-Hannukah-slash-New Year's chapter of the fic!
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I surprised myself by writing this today (PS, got back yesterday, Florida was loads of fun, 18-hour car ride either way...less fun...although thanks to 3 books of HP on tape, I've started thinking in a British accent) so anyway, if its weird, then its me.
Of course, I'm not colabing this with anyone, so I guess it couldn't really be anything BUT me at all...agh! Brain hurties.
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Disclaimer: See last chapter
Claimer: Same here, dunderhead
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…
"And you're absolutely certain it was Professor Snape?" Harry blinked.
"I saw him. I've read all about jinxes, and he was most definitely casting one on your broom," Hermione nodded.
The game had ended less than fifteen minutes ago. The rest of Gryffindor House was already back at the castle, heading up to the common room with promises of a stupendous party to celebrate the semi-official maiden flight of their new Seeker, but Hermione had pulled Harry aside before she had gotten out of the stands to explain what had happened. Harry, however, wasn't convinced.
"Hermione, I know Professor Snape doesn't like me," Harry began.
'To put it extremely mildly,' she mentally added.
"But I don't think he would want to kill me."
Hermione frowned, but only in puzzlement.
"It's just not logical at all," the bushy-haired girl said, "Your broom was definitely being jinxed. Maybe someone was trying to give Slytherin an unfair advantage, but Professor Snape was most certainly doing something to your broom…but how could a teacher stoop so low as to cheat like that?"
"Hermione," Harry sighed, "Professor Snape must have been doing something, but I don't think he was jinxing the broom. Whoever was doing it wanted to kill me, I could tell - and please don't give me that look, I'm not being morbid. This is very serious!"
"But why would anyone want to kill you?" Hermione blinked, "And who?"
"…Maybe one of Volde - sorry, one of You-Know-Who's old friends came by to get in some revenge or something," Harry shrugged, deciding to worry about it later, "Who knows? Anyway, we'd better get to the common room now. Fred and George looked a bit put off that I wasn't coming straight back for the party."
Both girls turned, started walking - and nearly ran into someone who had been standing hidden nearby for a bit now. Harry blinked a few times to make certain she wasn't seeing things, but Malfoy remained. He looked like his cloak was full of biting ants, and his gaze flickered to Hermione once, eyeing her uncertainly.
"…Did you…need something?" Harry slowly asked, wondering what - if anything - Malfoy might have overheard.
Flushing red and losing his nerve, Malfoy blurted, "G-Good game," before turning and bolting for the safety of the castle, leaving the Gryffindor girls to slowly make their own way back, Hermione quite amused at the antics of Harry's secret Slytherin admirer.
Harry, however, was thinking - if Malfoy had heard, and had stayed to defend his Head of House…what information might he have divulged?
Unfortunately, there was no time to dwell on this - in the aftermath of the Quidditch victory party, there were still classes to go to, with the subjects growing steadily harder and the castle growing colder as December rolled in. In what seemed like almost no time, McGonagall had passed around the sign-up sheet for those students who were staying at Hogwarts over the holidays.
Harry was one of the first to register that she was staying over for Christmas. Hermione had invited Harry to visit her house, but her muggle parents would have wanted the Dursleys' permission for Harry's visit, and that was something the Dursleys would have had great pleasure in denying. Best to just avoid the problem altogether.
In response to Harry's near-fatal first game, Ron had promptly apologized for being a git and was making efforts to be friends with Harry again. He and Hermione were still fairly cool to one another, but it was close enough that Harry decided to take them to visit Hagrid in his cabin with her, two weeks before the end of the term. The enormous man was pleased as punch to meet some of Harry's little friends - though both were taller than she was - and Hermione and Ron found it hard to be stiff with each other in Hagrid's cozy warm cabin, even with Fang the Boarhound seemingly determined to lick Ron's brain through his ears.
Hagrid served hot tea, which was welcomed, and rock cakes, which Harry knew better than to accept. Hermione and Ron, however, were nursing sore teeth soon enough, while they and Hagrid chatted.
Things got interesting when Ron brought up the three-headed dog he and Hermione had seen all those months ago.
"I mean, do you know what that huge thing could be doing in there, Hagrid?" Ron asked.
Hagrid looked slightly flustered.
"How do yeh know 'bout Fluffy?" the gamekeeper asked in return."It's named Fluffy?" Ron blinked, then added, "How do you know about that - that -err…about…'Fluffy'?"
"Well, obviously 'cause he's mine," Hagrid said, "Bought 'im off a Greek chappie in a pub las' year. Yeah, an' I lent him teh Professor Dumbledore teh guard the -"
Hagrid froze, apparently catching himself. The three students, however, found this MOST interesting.
"Do you know what it's guarding, Hagrid?" Hermione asked.
"Can't tell yeh that," Hagrid said gruffly, "More'n my job's worth teh tell yeh that."
While Hermione and Ron continued to badger Hagrid - at last, they had found something they both enjoyed doing! - Harry started adding things up inside her head.
When they had gone to Gringotts, Hagrid had gotten that tiny thing out of the second vault on Dumbledore's orders. Now there was something hidden in the school, being guarded by - at least - one enormous three-headed dog, suggesting it was something very important indeed. This, again, was on Dumbledore's orders…it couldn't be a coincidence.
"Hagrid," Harry spoke up suddenly, "Whatever happened to that thing you got out of Vault Seven-Hundred and Thirteen, back on my birthday?"
Hagrid flushed scarlet, apparently flustered beyond words and proving Harry's theory.
Very shortly afterwards, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were being ushered out of Hagrid's cabin, rock cakes hastily shoved into their hands, with an exclamation that it was getting VERY late and they needed to get back to the school in time for supper.
"Just give us a hint of what's down there, please?" Ron pleaded as he was stopped and licked by Fang on his way out.
"Keep yer noses out o' that," Hagrid said, putting an enormous foot down, "What that dog's guardin' is between Professor Dumbledore an' Nicholas Flamel, an' I DON'T want teh hear you've been snooping!"
Hagrid closed his door sharply, too flustered to realize he'd given Ron exactly what he had asked for.
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Quietly pooling their information over dinner, Harry, Hermione, and Ron discovered they had found something very intriguing was going on at Hogwarts.
Ron, being from a wizarding family, read the Daily Prophet - the wizarding newspaper - on a regular basis. And on July 31st, Harry's birthday, someone had broken into Gringotts and gotten away without being caught or trapped. The article clearly stated that 'the vault in question had in fact been emptied earlier the same day', which was what Hagrid had done, taking out that little packaged-up thing. And there was also someone named Nicholas Flamel involved…
Hermione, with the help of a reluctant Ron and a less than curious Harry, lead them in a frantic search of the Hogwarts library for anything on this 'Nicholas Flamel'. Searching whenever any of them had free time, Hermione and Ron were soon horrified/annoyed to find there seemed to be absolutely nothing on the man.
Harry couldn't find anything either, but she didn't mind very much. Harry thought she might have heard his name before, but wondering who had tried to kill her seemed to be a more productive use of her time.
Soon enough, though, the term ended and Hermione went home on the train for Christmas, leaving Harry with the parting admonition that it would be a good idea to look in the Restricted Section of the library. The fact that that was the section that not even Hermione could browse without a signed teacher's note didn't seem to factor into her thinking.
Personally, Harry planned to enjoy the holiday taking simple pleasure in her total lack of any Dursleys.
…