Chapter 25 – On the Quidditch Pitch
Harry raced out of the room and took off down the corridor, holding the map in one had and his wand in the other. He didn't care who he bumped into just so long as he got to the pitch while Malfoy was still there. His breath rasped in his throat, his lungs burned with every breath, but he pushed himself on, rung as fast as he could.
Harry took the grand staircase three steps at a time, landing harshly, jarring his ankles, barging past student and teachers alike, earning himself numerous curses and shouts of anger. Without a single word of apology Harry crossed the hall, running straight through nearly headless Nick. This time shouting a hasty word of apology he darted through the front doors and out into the open air. The cold air in his lungs stopped him briefly in his tracks and he stood there for a moment trying hard to control his breathing.
Harry glanced down at the map to see if Malfoy's dot was still there, it was, hovering around the changing rooms. He set off again.
Harry reached the Quidditch changing rooms out of breath, his robes a complete tangled mess. He kicked open the dark studded oak door and walked inside, wand held in his trembling hand out in front of him. The room was empty. Harry checked the map again quickly, Malfoy's dot was no-where to be seen. How could that be? He couldn't have disapparated from inside of Hogwarts Grounds and the map had never lied to him before. Harry scanned the page in a panic, he wiped the sheet clean and tried again.
"I solemnly swear, I'm up to no good!" he declared, hoping that Malfoy's dot would reappear back inside the quidditch pitch, instead he saw three dots heading down towards him. Ginny, Ron and Hermione. Not far behind another dot, this one moving a little slower, was also heading his way, Professor McGonagall.
Harry swore.
"Now that's not the sort of language I expect from my students!" said a smooth silky voice out of no-where. The voice clearly belonged to a woman, but Harry didn't recognise it's owner. Hastily he blanked the map and stuffed it inside of his robes.
"No need to put that fascinating map away! I've got one of my own!" said the voice "I saw you coming!"
Harry turned round and round on the spot searching for the hidden voice. It started to laugh.
"I thought you would be cleverer than that dear!" she chided him, "Ever the muggle boy eh?" she continued, in a mocking tone of voice. "Raised by stinking muggles, lived like a stinking muggle, I suppose you can die like a stinking muggle."
Harry caught a sudden movement from the corner of his eye, and he dived to the floor, only for nothing to happen. The voice laughed again, this time the shape moved out of the shadow. Slowly revealing the figure of the new Muggle Studies Professor.
"Professor Poppett?" Harry asked looking a little confused.
The professor smiled weakly, "Am I?" she asked, "You seemed pretty certain I was someone else a few moments ago weren't you? And then, you were certain that there was no-one here!"
Harry tried to hide his confusion and instead raised his wand and pointed it at the young teacher.
"I don't know who you are or what you're doing, but you're not going to get away with it!" he bellowed.
She looked down at a piece of parchment held in her hand and smiled, "My dear boy, I just did!" and with that she seemed to melt into nothing, in front of Harry's eyes.
The door bust open and Ginny ran through it, wand held out in front of her pointing it wildly at each corner of the room. Ron and Hermione followed shortly after, both looking out of breath.
"Getting…too…old…for…this!" panted Ron. Hermione smirked at him and turned to Harry,
"Harry, we've found Myrtle, or sort of anyway!" she said. "She's in a painting!"
Harry looked confused, "What do you mean, she's in a painting? How did she get there?"
Hermione looked immensely proud of herself and smiled before launching into her explanation.
"One of the few spells that can actually work against a ghost, can trap the spirit inside the frame of a single portrait. Unlike the portrait owners, they can't move from that frame, and they can't speak either. Unfortunately I don't know the counter spell to free her!"
Ginny looked disappointed, "Great, so we know where she is, but we still don't know who did this to her!"
Harry shook his head "Silandra Poppett!" he said simply.
"Nonsense Potter!" said McGonagall as she entered the changing rooms. "Silandra comes to this school highly recommended. She spent a year working in the muggle community of Canberra, Australia before working here, the Australian Ministry almost insisted that she should come to fill our empty position."
"The ministry, or just one person?" asked Hermione looking suspicious.
"Well really I don't think that's any of your business Miss Granger, do you?" replied McGonagall. She ushered the four of them out of the changing rooms and back up towards the castle. "You should be concentrating on your N.E.W.T.s you know!" she continued, lecturing the four students all the way back to the entrance hall. "You three have certainly developed a flair for mischief these past few years, I was rather looking forward to an uneventful year this year." Harry opened his mouth to speak but the headmistress continued, "And YOU Mr Potter, you should know better than to point the finger at innocent people. After all other people have pointed the finger at you so many times in the past. Now all of you, off you go and get some breakfast." Grudgingly the four of them entered the great hall as instructed and went for breakfast.
Huddled together at the Gryffindor table, Harry, Ron, Ginny and Hermione spent the next half hour talking over the events of the morning. Ron had helped himself to a plate full of bacon, eggs and fried bread and was happily tucking into a second plate of sausages, listening to the other three talking.
"We need to follow her!" said Ron, eager to solve the mystery, his mouth full of food.
Hermione brushed away the crumbs he had just spat across the table and tutted before replying. "Hold on Ron, we need to understand if it is her or not first you know" Said Hermione, "I'm going to the library to see if I can find the counter spell so we can talk to Myrtle! You're coming with me!" she announced pointing at Ron, who had suddenly become extremely interested in his breakfast plate again. Ginny smirked at her brother's discomfort. She knew he didn't enjoy working in the library.
"Don't worry Won-won, I'll follow Poppett around for you." She added, watching his face contort slightly. With his mouth again full of food, Rom mumbled something indistinct and pointed at himself with his fork.
Harry agreed with Ginny's comment, and took out his map for the fourth time to see if he could find the muggle studies teacher.
"Poppett said she had one of these maps. How could she? I thought this was the only one?" he puzzled aloud.
"I suppose it's possible that your dad, Sirius, Lupin and Pettigrew could have made more! I mean you only have to read the front of the map to realise that they meant to sell some of these things. What if she's got one of those?" said Ginny, looking seriously at Harry. "and maybe she found a way around being plotted on the map?"
Harry winced at the thought that his fathers map could be causing him so much trouble, but he had to admit. The map did make it sound like they were trying to make a few Galleons out of it.
"It can't be that simple!" said Ron, spraying a light dusting of toast crumbs across the map, "Malfoy turned up at the presentation, remember, and called that boy an impostor. That couldn't have been her because she was sat with the rest of the staff." Ron picked up another slice of toast and began to chew on it thoughtfully.
Ginny thought this comment over in her head as she and Harry wandered back to their dorm.
"It doesn't really matter who that was does it, the main thing is that Poppett is in it up to her neck, we need to find out who she is and what she knows!"
A light seemed to suddenly switch on inside Harry's Head. He stood up excitedly and ran up the stairs without another word. He emerged a few seconds later, clutching his invisibility cloak. He ran across the room, scooping Ginny up as he passed.
"What the…where are we going?" she complained as he swept her towards the door.
"Grimmauld place!" he said as they emerged from their dorm, Harry ran with Ginny to the Statue of the hump-backed witch, then stumbled as best they could along the passage, eventually emerging some time later into Honeydukes' cellar.
It had been a few years since Harry had last used this passageway from the castle, and had forgotten how small the passageway could be, and how crowded the cellar of the sweetshop could get. There were boxes everywhere, each labelled with a different title. Harry shoved a box of chocolate frogs out of the way, nearly tripping over a box of peppermint imps. He swore gently, and turned to see if Ginny had followed.
Ginny, who had never used this passageway before, was looking around in amazement. "Where are we?" she asked in a whisper. Harry replied by pushing his finger to his lips and pointing at one of the boxes with his lit torch. Ginny saw the Honeydukes name printed on the side of a barrel of acid pops and nodded her head in understanding.
Harry ran up the stairs, stumbling slightly half way up his knees banging on the wooden steps. Ginny cursed his noise and pushed him out of the way, opening the door a crack and pointing her wand out into the deserted shop.
Carefully the couple edged their way out into the darkened store and out from behind the counter. Harry stopped and raised an ear to listen. There was no sound from upstairs except for a soft snoring. Harry eyed the ceiling, dubiously and edged towards the door, which Ginny had quietly unlocked and was holding open for him.
"Feels weird!" Harry muttered as they snuck out into the street.
"What does?" asked Ginny, trying to keep her voice low, but unable to mask an edge of excitement.
"I'm sneaking around out of bounds, and Ron and Hermione aren't here to tell me off!"
Ginny sniggered at Harry's comments and kissed him quickly on the cheek.
Harry suddenly felt paralysed, like his whole body had been frozen and was being crushed slowly. Immediately the sensation stopped and he opened his eyes to see the dark, dreary square outside of number twelve Grimmauld Place.
Ginny laughed at Harry's surprise, having played his own trick on him.
"That was a dirty trick to play you know!" Harry said, knowing full well that he would do the same to her later. Harry crossed the street from the centre of the square and approached the gloomy looking building squashed in between its equally gloomy looking neighbours. The two of them ran up the steps to the front door Harry checking carefully to make sure they hadn't been followed.
"What exactly are we doing here?" Ginny asked as Harry closed the heavy front door behind them and carefully led her upstairs to the first floor study away from the portrait of Sirius' mother.
Harry said nothing as he wandered towards the huge wall-sized tapestry depicting the black family tree and started to search each branch carefully. Ginny followed him, looking over his shoulder, suddenly realizing what he was looking for.
"Found her!" she said making Harry jump slightly. "Grand Daughter of Charis Yaxley and Caspar crouch, Silandra Crouch!, must have changed her name or married."
"Doesn't that make her Narcissa Malfoy's second cousin or something like that?" asked Harry, trying to work out the complex lines of wizard genealogy in his head.
"Something like that! They're very loosely related at least. But probably so am I" Replied Ginny looking worried. "Stands a good chance that she's involved with some of our least desirable families though doesn't it?"
Harry nodded slowly.
"Lets get back to hogsmeade before someone notices we're missing."
"Too late." said Ginny as she turned towards the door. Standing in the shadow of the hallway was the slight figure of the Muggle Studies Teacher, wand held out in front of her, a wide smile across her face.
"Your friends thought they were cleverer than me Potter!" she said in the same silky voice she had used that morning. "Thought I wouldn't notice them following me!"
Both Harry and Ginny looked at the young professor in bewilderment.
"Hanging around, watching me in the library. Ha, as if anyone really spends that much time in the library!"
Harry looked aghast,
"What have you done to them?" he demanded, slightly more angrily than he had intended.
"Done with them?" she replied, grinning wolfishly, "Nothing…yet. Your little friends are going to wake up with a bit of a shock though if they're not careful. The Forbidden Forrest can hide many dark little secrets you know."
Ginny nudged Harry in the side, but he ignored her, staring instead with hatred at the woman stood in the doorway taunting them.
"What do you want then?" he asked, again his voice projecting more anger than he wanted.
"Well Mr Potter, I've watched you, I've wondered, I've puzzled even, why such an unremarkable boy as yourself could have defeated the dark lord. I have read your interviews,. Listened to your speeches, but you explained nothing. I've even put my own son into the school to watch over you!"
Harry interrupted her,
"You mean…the Slytherin Seeker? He's your son?"
Poppett smiled slowly at his understanding.
"Catch on don't you?" she taunted in her mocking lazy voice.
"But why does he look like Draco Malfoy?" asked Ginny, unable to curb her curiosity.
"You mean you recognise the family likeness?" replied the teacher in mock surprise, "You don't think he looks like his father?"
Harry took a couple of seconds to work this one out.
"Lucius and you…"
"Well done! I see you're not as dim as I had thought. Dear Lucius didn't want his dirty little secret to come out, oh no, his lovely wife was far too delicate to be told that he has another son!"
Ginny nudged Harry in the side again, this time a little harder, and Harry risked a glance at her. As soon as Harry turned his view from the professor he knew what he had to do. At the sight of his movement she had raised her wand and held it outstretched straight ahead of her, she shot a bolt of green light towards him, Harry dropped to one knee, revealing what Ginny had been hiding behind his back, her own wand, pointed directly at the teachers face.
"Expelliarmus!" she cried out, Poppetts wand flew high into the air, and Harry leaped up to catch it. Ginny, stepped forwards and hit the now defenceless teacher hard in the face.
"Where's Ron and Hermione?" Harry shouted at her, holding his wand under her chin. Harry saw the fear, as she twitched her eyes towards the door.
"Harry, the Forbidden Forrest, remember!" shouted Ginny, getting to her feet.
"Hold on a second," Harry quickly conjured up ropes and bound his prisoner legs first, then her hands, finally silencing her whimpers with a gag in her mouth.
"Kreacher?" he called. A second later, there was a loud crack and the small house elf appeared.
"Keep an eye on her Kreacher, don't let her leave this house."
With that Harry raced after Ginny, his robes billowing behind him, his wand held ready in his hand.
"Where are we?" asked Ron, looking around at their gloomy surroundings. His legs and feet had been bound together by a strange blue glowing light, he could see Hermione opposite him, watching him, held against a gigantic tree trunk by the same strange blue light. She had buises on her face, and her robes had been roughly torn from one shoulder.
Hermione didn't reply. She seemed to have not heard him.
"'Mione? Are you ok?" he asked, looking at her closer. She seemed to have turned a very pale shade of grey, her gaze fixed steadily at a point behind Ron.
"What are you looking at?" he said, his fear growing steadily. He turned his head to follow the line of her gaze. Stood very still, in a line just behind Ron was a group of five giant black spiders. Ron froze. The middle spider, the biggest of the group, clicked his pincers impatiently. Ron's face drained of all colour too as he stared at the motionless, hairy beasts.
"Hagrid!" Bellowed Harry as he pounded on the door to Hagrid's hut. "Hagrid, please it's Harry, open up!"
There was a muffled scrabbling at the door, that Harry suspected was Fang, Hagrid's giant boarhound, trying to get out, then the door was pulled open a crack, one of Hagrid's beetle black eyes appeared at the opening.
"Hagrid, we need your help, Ron and Hermione are being held somewhere in the Forrest!"
Hagrids eyes opened wide with alarm.
"Yer'd better wait there! I'll get me crossbow!"
A/N: Hi guys, hope you like this update. I have found this one really difficult to write and have re-written it at least three times already. I'm having some difficulty in getting all of my ideas and plans in so that they can be understood. There is so much going on at the moment that It's hard to get the detail in at the right time. Hope you can understand it ok.
Next chapter, we find out what happens to Ron and Hermione, also Harry & Ginny get the chance to relax a little!! (Hope you like!)
Please leave feedback if you liked this chapter, or if you have any comments. (I'm expecting this to be one of my least favourite chapters!)
Thanks for reading!