Nope I own nothing but the Harry Potter books I bought and the computer I wrote this story on!
Not sure if I will get time to post another chapter before Christmas so if not...
Merry Chrsitmas, Happy Hoildays! and Happy New Year!
Chapter Twenty-nine
Head Boy and Wonky Spells
"Well, how was the party?" Hermione asked after a few minutes, as she watched Taylor spooning potatoes onto her plate, taking in the blush that still covered her friend's cheeks and the small smile.
Taylor glanced up at her friend only to blush more. "It… it was fine."
"Fine?" Ginny asked from her other side. "Fine is going to a party in the Gryffindor common room, without a boyfriend. Now spill. Did he kiss you?"
"No!" Taylor cried as her face burnt red, and she looked up at her red-haired friend.
"What! He better not have!" Harry exclaimed angrily.
"No! He didn't." Taylor repeated a little more quietly, so the next table couldn't hear what she was saying. "We just, talked."
"That must have been some talk. He looked very comfortable with his hand on your back." Ginny said mischievously.
Taylor could see Harry's face darkening in anger before she turned to set her friend straight, "We just talked, Ginny. Nothing more! Now you can calm your boyfriend down before I have to jinx him. If he so much as looks at Greg funny again I'll make sure he can't sit still for a month!"
Ginny laughed but she reached out and placed her hand on Harry's arm to calm him.
The rest of the meal went by uneventfully. The two girls teased Taylor and the two boys looked as if they were trying to ignore the girls' conversation.
Taylor had looked over at the Hufflepuff table a couple of times. Once Greg had been looking over at her too. She had blushed and looked away. When the meal was finally over the students started to leave the Great Hall.
"We have research with Shacklebolt tonight, Taylor." Harry said in a controlled tone as he stood.
"Yeah, I remember." Taylor replied quietly as she followed Harry out of the Great Hall and up to the Defence classroom.
"I don't like this Taylor." Harry said when they arrived at the classroom a few minutes early and stood waiting for Shacklebolt to arrive.
"Don't like what Harry?" Taylor asked, but she knew exactly what he didn't like.
"Don't play dumb. I don't like Hunter. He looks at you like…"
"Like what? Like you look at Ginny? Like Ron looks at Hermione? Why is it so terrible that a guy has finally noticed me? Do you think I haven't thought of all the reasons that I shouldn't see him? That I know I can never really trust him in case he is somehow trying to get to you through me? God Harry! Do you think I'm that dumb?" Taylor growled in a low voice.
Shacklebolt and Moody turned the corner just then and cut off any reply Harry was going to make.
It was another grueling training session that had Taylor sweating and picking herself up off the floor countless times. It was only a small consolation to see Harry struggling as much as she was. When they were finished, they helped put the classroom back together. Shacklebolt had said it was good practice.
"Potter, Porter, the Order decided that it will be best if you do not leave on the Hogwarts Express, so an escort will be waiting to take you to Order headquarters for the holidays. The Order also thinks it is best if you go to the Ministry for the census the next day." Moody growled in his gravelly voice. The school was letting out on a Sunday, the last day of November.
Harry and Taylor nodded, as Taylor remembered that she hadn't yet spoken to Dumbledore about her lack of documentation to present to the Ministry officials for the census. This week had flown by.
When Harry and Taylor finally arrived back at the fat lady, and clamored through the portrait hole, the common room was almost deserted. Only Ginny and two others were still up. Ron and Hermione were still out on patrol. They joined Ginny on the sofa.
Ginny put up a silencing charm and the three talked about their search of the castle and where they were going to search tomorrow.
"I think we should get up early and finish searching the main floors while the halls are basically empty on Sunday morning. Then later, when the halls are going to be more crowded, we could search the Room of Requirement." Taylor said thoughtfully, she had been thinking about the most likely places to find a Horcrux and she couldn't help but think of the Room of Requirement.
When Ron and Hermione returned a few minutes later, the five-some sat down to plan the next day's search. The others had agreed that Taylor had a good idea.
By eleven the next day the five friends were tired and frustrated. They had risen early that morning, at six thirty, because that was when Taylor had roused them out of their warm beds. They had finished searching the main floors and turned up nothing. They still had the dungeons to search but they were going to start on them the first of the week. Taylor had told them about searching the Hufflepuff common room while she was at the party the day before. The chance of seeing someone in the halls was getting greater as they walked toward the seventh floor and the Room of Requirement. They had grabbed a bite to eat earlier, in the Great Hall, but other than that they hadn't stopped.
Taylor reached the stretch of blank wall, opposite the statue of the trolls, first and began to pace back and forth thinking, 'I need a room where I can find the thing I desire'. When the others joined her, an old wooden door was materializing out of the blank wall.
Harry opened the door and went in. The others followed. A huge room greeted them filled from floor to ceiling with thousands and thousands of every kind of knick-knack imaginable. A heavy coating of dust covered everything. A few things still had enough magic left in them to sputter sporadically.
"Where do we start?" Ron asked wide-eyed as he looked at the mounds of things that they were going to have to search through.
"I say we start by searching for anything with Dark Magic in it like we have been doing in the halls and if," Hermione paused and looked at a grotesquely shaped dead animal in the first pile, "or when, we find something with Dark Magic that looks promising, we have Taylor test it with her spell."
Hours later the five Gryffindor's were sweating and covered in dirt as a strange green tinge hovered in the air from the many revealing spells that Taylor had used. The room seemed to magnify the simple combined magic spell and made it smoke more each time she used it.
Tempers were starting to fray and more than once the five friends had started arguing about one thing or another.
"Here, try this Taylor," Ron said as he levitated an old chipped plate over to where Taylor was searching through a pile of what looked like rags.
Taylor looked at Ron and shook her head in frustration. "Do you see anything on it indicating it was one of the founders?"
"No, but it does have a Dark Magic trace." Ron snipped back.
Out of pure frustration Taylor closed her eyes and said without even thinking, "Horcrux Accio!" Taylor's eyes flew open as her wand started to vibrate, and the strangest sensation, as if somehow a giant vacuum was sucking the magic out of her, her pendant burning hot against her neck. She was vaguely aware of the startled yells from her friends as her knees gave out and she landed on an old tea set, slicing through her jeans as it shattered.
"Taylor! Taylor! Are you alright?"
"Hermione get me something to stop the bleeding."
"Here, use this, just pour it on, it will help to stop the bleeding."
"Do you think we should take her to Madame Pomfrey?"
"What the hell happened?"
"I'm not sure. I'd say she used Dark Magic."
"But she's used Dark Magic before and nothing like this has ever happened!"
Taylor could hear the voices but they seemed far away and she couldn't tell who was saying what. She was completely exhausted as if she had tried to produce a shield charm and not let it down before she passed out, but somehow way worse than that.
"I know. Maybe she just tried too difficult of a spell?" Hermione said, her voice thick with concern.
"A harder spell than putting a curse on Snape? I don't think so. All she did was try to summon the Horcrux." Harry's voice was heavy with concern and confusion.
"She didn't try to combine the two magics again, did she?" Ginny asked.
Taylor was slowly becoming aware that her friends were right beside her. She could even feel one of their hands on her shoulder. With an effort she said, "No, I didn't combine them. I just used the summoning charm. Did it work?"
"Are you alright?" Harry asked.
"Yeah, I will be, in a few minutes," Taylor answered her voice slow and tired.
"What happened?" Hermione asked.
Taylor could feel her energy coming back little by little and she opened her eyes. Her four friends were all kneeling down beside her, looking anxious.
"I'm not really sure. All I did was a simple summoning charm, and no, before you ask again, I didn't combine the two magics." She met her brother's worried green eyes for a moment and then looked at Hermione.
"So what happened? It looked like you just fainted, but why?" Hermione asked in her stern Professor McGonagall tone.
"I don't know. It might have looked like I fainted, but it felt more like all my magic was being sucked out of me." Taylor said slowly as she tried to explain what it had felt like. "Did I actually manage to summon anything?"
"Maybe it is all the Dark Magic and Dark Arts in this room that caused it to happen." Ginny suggested.
"Well, I'll be damned!" Ron exclaimed, he had stood up a minute ago to look around and he spotted a shinning, gold tiara sitting in the narrow path between the towering piles of discarded items. Bending he slipped his wand tip through it and picked it up.
Hermione scrambled to her feet and went to look. "I… I think it's Rowena Ravenclaw's! It has a bird on it." Hermione carefully moved her wand around it. "It has definitely had Dark Magic used on it!" she said excitedly.
Harry and Ginny stood for a closer look too. Taylor wasn't sure if she could sit up yet, let alone stand.
Hermione, her eyes shining, looked over at Taylor. "I think you did it! This could be another Horcrux!"
"You can tell us Taylor." Ron said eagerly.
Taylor was just about to say that she didn't think she should try right now when her brother spoke for her.
"I don't think Taylor should be doing any magic right now. If this is a Horcrux then it isn't going to disappear in a couple of days. Hermione put it in your bag and I will put it in my trunk when we get back to Gryffindor Tower. We'll take Taylor to the hospital wing first."
"I'm not going to the hospital wing! Hermione's potion healed my cuts and after I have something to eat I'll be right as rain." Taylor growled, with a little more energy then she actually felt.
"But Taylor we still don't know what happened. Maybe Madame Pomfrey should take a look at you to make sure you are okay," Hermione said as she folded the tiara up in a piece of cloth and put it carefully in her bag.
"I'm not going to the hospital." Taylor growled again as she forced her weak body to sit up.
Hermione looked at her skeptically but she didn't push it any more.
Taylor met Harry's eyes though and she could see that he still wanted her to go.
"Taylor, maybe you should go…" Harry began.
"What am I going to tell Madame Pomfrey, Harry? That I've been dabbling in Dark Magic? I'll be fine in a little while. I feel a lot better already. I'll just stop at the first bathroom and wash up." Taylor said firmly as she again forced her trembling limbs to obey her commands and stood shakily.
Harry knew if he hadn't reached out and steadied his sister she would have fallen. He didn't push it again either. He didn't want anyone else finding out about his sister's ability, and even though the school nurse usually didn't ask too many questions, he didn't really want to try it this time. Taylor was looking better. A little colour had returned to her face, even if a fine sweat had covered it at her effort to stand up.
"Here, lean on me." Harry said as he wrapped his arm around his sister's waist to help hold her up. Ron supported Taylor from the other side, and half carrying his sister, the five Gryffindors headed out of the Room of Requirement.
Taking some of the less traveled corridors and stairs they managed to make it down three floors before they saw a single person.
Taylor was walking more on her own now and not leaning as heavily on Harry and Ron. Her legs were still shaky though and she felt weak as a kitten.
However the first person that they had the misfortune to run into was one of the last people that Taylor would have wanted to run into in this condition.
They had just reached the bottom of a set of stairs and had to go halfway down that corridor to reach the next stairway. A small group of students turned the far corner as the five-some set out down the corridor.
"Taylor?" called a familiar voice.
Taylor groaned and Harry uttered a soft curse.
A tall dark haired boy broke away from the group he was with and hurried toward the five dirty Gryffindors.
"What happened?" Greg asked as he came closer and then he took in their filthy appearance and Taylor's pale face as she was being supported between Potter and Weasley. "Taylor, are you alright? Were you attacked?"
"I'm fine," Taylor said.
"Like hell you are! You look like you are about to collapse." Greg growled stopping in front of Taylor.
"Look Hunter, Taylor said she was fine, so just back off." Ron said aggressively as he moved more in front of Taylor, shielding her from the Hufflepuff.
"Look Weasley, if someone attacked you guys I want to know." Greg growled meeting Ron's aggressiveness with some of his own.
"No one attacked us Hunter." Harry snarled through his teeth as he stepped in front of Taylor too.
"Then what the hell happened?" Greg demanded as his friends that he had been walking with stopped beside him.
Taylor elbowed her way in front of Ron and Harry again so she could see Greg properly when she spoke to him. Harry's arm reached out to steady her though as she swayed a little. "Greg calm down. I did a spell that kind of went a little wonky is all."
Greg narrowed his eyes and studied the dirt and sweat on Taylor's face, as well as how drawn and pale it looked. Her filthy clothes, ripped jeans and the blood stains on them. "Just a spell gone wonky?" He asked skeptically, raising an eyebrow.
"Look Hunter, why don't you clear out of the way?" Ron said in the same aggressive voice.
Taylor decided to try a different tactic before Ron or Harry decided to move Greg out of the way. She knew she wasn't going to say any more about what happened and the longer they stood in the corridor the more likely that someone else would come along.
"I need to go to the washroom. How about I meet you down in the Great Hall in a few minutes for supper, okay Greg?"
"You look more like you need to go to the hospital wing to me." Greg growled but he turned to his friends and nodded his head. The group walked out around the Gryffindors and continued down the corridor and out of sight.
"Bloody git!" Ron growled.
"What are you going to tell him?" Ginny asked as she moved around in front of Taylor.
Taylor just shook her head wearily and Harry's arm tightened around her waist. She glanced up at her brother and saw the concern in his eyes. "Just what I already told him, I guess."
On the other side of the stairs they were going to take, was a girl's washroom, and Ginny and Hermione accompanied Taylor into it, with one on either side in case she needed the help.
Taylor looked at her reflection in the mirror as she leaned heavily on the sink. She decided she looked like hell.
"Well, we can't very well go to supper looking like this," Hermione muttered as she looked at her dirty face in the mirror. Pulling out her wand she performed a cleaning spell on the three of them, siphoning off all the dirt, and in Taylor's case dried blood. She also repaired the ripped jeans.
The three girls then fixed their hair and after Taylor splashed cold water on her face, more to revive herself then to remove any dirt, they headed back out to join the two boys.
Only there were three boys waiting. It seemed Greg had doubled back to talk to Taylor.
"What would you like, Greg? I thought you were going to wait for Taylor in the Great Hall?" Hermione asked as soon as she spotted the Head Boy. Hermione noticed that Harry and Ron had cleaned up too, although she could see a few remaining dirt smudges at their collars and the cuffs of their jeans. The boys just weren't as thorough as she.
Greg took in their clean clothes and, other then the paleness of Taylor's face, no one would likely think anything unusual had happened to the Gryffindors. "I thought maybe Taylor might be more willing to talk away from the crowd in the Great Hall. Plus I wanted to make sure she really is alright." Greg said pinning Taylor with a hard stare.
Taylor sighed and shook her head, but her steps were slow as she started down the corridor. Harry and Ron immediately falling in beside her, in case she needed their support. "I'm fine. Maybe not up to taking on a bunch of Slytherins right now but just give me an hour or so and I'll be raring to go."
Greg fell into step beside the Gryffindors as he asked, "So you aren't going to tell me what happened?"
"I already told you. One of my spells went a little wonky." Taylor said as Harry pulled the tapestry aside and Ron started down the stairway first to catch Taylor if she fell.
Greg watched the red headed girl with glasses make her way carefully down the steps, hidden much of the time by the two tall boys who had been supporting her. He didn't believe her story, but he knew that if he kept asking, Weasley and probably Potter too, were likely to step in and force him to leave. That he had no intention of doing.
The six of them silently made their way slowly down towards the Great Hall. By the time they reached the last tapestry that opened into the Entrance Hall, a fine sweat covered Taylor's face and her knees were trembling. She couldn't believe how weak she felt and she hoped that sitting for a while and eating would bring back her strength.
"You know Potter if you carry Taylor into the Great Hall you're going to stir up the gossip nest." Greg said quietly from the back of the group.
"Yeah? So?" Harry turned a bit to glare up at the Hufflepuff.
"People might start asking questions." Greg said in an off hand way.
"What's your point Hunter?" Ron growled.
"Well if I helped her and we all went in as a group, we wouldn't cause much of a stir, especially from the teachers, not after yesterday." Greg answered with a smug grin. He had noticed that Potter and his friends often tried to stay below notice as much as possible, and he suspected that might even be more important to them at the moment. He hadn't missed their constant watching and how they were trying to avoid running into anyone on their way down.
Taylor wiped the sweat off her face. She wished she wasn't quite so tired. She'd set that Hunter straight herself. Of course if she felt a little better she would have strode off into the Great Hall with out looking back. She caught the look on Harry's face as he was about to say something, probably to tell Greg where he could stuff his suggestion.
"I don't feel like arguing, Harry," Taylor said tiredly, "and unless you have a better idea, then Greg's is fine with me."
Taylor watched as the smug grin grew on Greg's face as he slipped down past Hermione, Ginny and Harry. He winked at her as he put his arm around her and pulled her possessively against his side. Taylor put her arm around the Hufflepuff and leaned heavily against him. When his blue eyes met hers again though, the cockiness was gone and there was concern in them and he searched her face for a second before he looked away.
With a disgruntled look Ron pushed the tapestry aside and Greg walked out into the Entrance Hall with Taylor.
Greg had been surprised at how heavily the Gryffindor girl had leaned into him. To him it was a clear indication that she wasn't fine, and was a long way from it. Half way across the crowded Entrance Hall he leaned down and asked quietly, "Taylor, are you sure you are alright?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine. I just want to sit down."
The words were whispered quietly, but Greg didn't miss how tired they sounded. He steered the girl through the crowd, very aware of the other four Gryffindors following closely behind him, and into the Great Hall to the Gryffindor Table. Helping Taylor sit, he took the seat next to her as if he did so all the time. He knew it would draw a fair amount of attention but he had no plans of leaving Taylor until he knew she was feeling better.
After the initial murmur and head turning, the student body settled down to eat their meal. It was already running rampant through the school about Taylor Porter going to the Hufflepuff party with the Head Boy, then the two of them disappearing for the rest of the afternoon. The gossip mill just accepted the fact that Hunter was now sitting at the Gryffindor table with Porter as a clear indication that the two were indeed dating.
The rest and the food did wonders for Taylor and by the time the meal was over she was almost feeling like herself again. Hermione and Ginny had carried most of the conversation, which wasn't unusual, during the meal and Seamus and Neville, who were sitting next to Greg, talked to the newcomer at the Gryffindor table also.
Greg had been very aware of the red haired girl with glasses sitting beside him throughout the meal. He noticed too that she was quiet for most of it; whether this was normal or not he wasn't sure. He did notice though that by the end of the meal her face had finally regained its usual color and her hazel eyes were once again sparkling.
"I don't suppose you'd agree to stay and talk with me for a while would you?" Greg asked as students rose and headed off towards their dormitories or the library.
Taylor looked up at Greg and her heart gave a flutter. The Hufflepuff had stayed doggedly near her ever since he had first seen that she had been hurt, showing quite clearly that he did care for her. She could see the hope in his eyes as he waited for her answer. She hated to disappoint him.
"I'm sorry Greg, but I really have to go. I have a ton of homework yet to do."
"Oh, well, okay." His voice sounding as disappointed as his face was. "I don't suppose you'd be going to the library would you? We could study together."
Taylor couldn't help the smile that played at her lips, but she glanced up to see her brother and the others waiting for her by the double doors. What would Harry say if she agreed to go to the library? They could do some research as well as homework… "Yeah, I could go to the library. I need to look up something for that essay of Slughorn's anyway."
A/N Well another chapter! I know it might seem like Greg and Taylor are expressing alot of 'caring' for one another rather fast but when I thought back to when I was young...ger :) well I could remember that when I liked someone I REALLY liked them and it seemed to happen overnight so hopefully it is some what believeable! What about Taylor and that 'Wonky spell"? hmmmmm... ;) Did it make you question what she did? If it did then good that was what I was aiming for! :)
A HUGE THANK YOU to those who have added this story to thier favorites and alerts! And a very speacial THANK YOU to those of you who have taken the time to review! Those make my day! Thank you again to my wonderful bata barbc!
Happy Hoildays! Until next time, cytpotter
