I'm going to start this chapter by going into my usual routine of apologizing for taking so long to update the story. Many factors have contributed to this, but the main ones I would say is projects, assignments, tests and then of course procrastination. Before I forget, as promised previously, I said I would let you all know when 'The one and only Zeus' would put their first story up and now I am doing that. Their first story has been posted and I must say it is a good story. I would recommend giving the story a read, as it is very unique. On to the reviews!
Melissa89: That's a pity about having to change your name! I'd hate to have to do that. Thanks for your review, I try to portray all of the characters as I feel they would appropriately be in the story. Thanks very much for the encouragement, and the review finds me with a broken finger as you were asking, so typing as been a pain. Lol. Thanks for the review!
Foolishangel87: Who is in the storeroom? The question many readers seem to have on their minds. Well, maybe you'll find out who is in there or maybe not. You'll have to read this chapter to find out:-) Yeah, I felt it was a little over time for Harry's temper to flare up again. Glad you thought it worked out! Thanks for the review!
Bledding black rose: Thanks for your review! I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter. I feel so out of sorts when I update after long periods of not writing. I'm happy you feel the story was still in context. Snape is bad as you say, but having him makes the story more interesting I feel. Thanks again! I'll try to update quicker.
One and only Zeus: Thanks for the review! Don't worry about taking long to read my chapters. I take forever to update so I should be apologising, which I am continually doing it seems. Snape is great to work with because he's a character you love to hate. The story just wouldn't be the same without him, you are so right when you say that!
A3: What a surprise when I saw that you had reviewed my story! I wasn't sure if you'd want to read it. Thank you so much for the heartfelt review and all of the praise and encouragement. I believe that you were being far to kind, but I really do appreciate it all! You raised many interesting points in your review and I hope all of your questions were answered in the email I sent you. Well, here is the chapter you've been waiting for, I hope it lives up to your expectations.
Tiffanishee: Welcome to a new reviewer! I hope you continue to read the story and enjoy it as much as you say you've enjoyed it thus far. Thanks for the review!
Disclaimer: Harry Potter and Co. is owned and trademarks of JK Rowling and Warner Bros. Inc. I own only the attempt at a plot and characters that I have created (eg. Reace Myrn and the people of his time).
II
Harry took a step back, wondering if he had just heard correct. He thought that he had heard a shuffling sound inside followed by a moan. But why would there be somebody confined inside of Snape's potions cupboard? Harry put his ear to the door again and listened. This time he heard nothing and started to wonder if his mind was not playing tricks on him. Then the image of Snape storming into the potions storeroom and exiting with his wand held in his hand flashed in Harry's mind. No, he was sure that he was not mistaken.
He pressed his ear against the door again and heard a sound that made his hair stand on end. It was a voice, a voice that at this very moment he wished had not spoken. This voice was not a moan, for the person speaking was in complete control of himself and in no pain whatsoever. The voice sent a shiver down Harry's spine because the voice that had spoken had not come from inside of the potion's cupboard, but from behind him. The voice belonged to the last person on earth he wanted to see right now. The voice belonged to none other than Professor Severus Snape.
"Well, well, well, whatever have we here? Get away from that door Potter! NOW!" Professor Snape snarled at Harry.
Harry backed away and gulped down a lump that had suddenly formed in his throat. He knew that he was now in for it. He had been told by Snape not to go near the door and here he was caught red-handed doing exactly what he had been told not to do.
"Rules are above you, aren't they Potter! No rule is good enough for the great Harry Potter to obey, oh no! Neither are instructions it seems! Oh no, they are beneath the great Harry Potter, because he is too special to obey them like any other ordinary student! No rule is safe when Harry Potter is around, because he's going to break them all! Even when you're being punished you still see fit to break the rules! In a detention!" Snape spat at Harry, who could now notice a vein standing out on Snape's forehead.
"If I had my way Potter you would be thrown out of this school! You don't deserve any of what is being done for you! You don't care about other people!" Snape yelled his voice increasing in volume with every passing moment.
"Don't care about people? What about you? Who've you been abusing in there?" Harry replied to Professor Snape before he realized what he had said.
"What?" Professor Snape said in a low menacing voice, sounding more dangerous now in his softer tones than when he was just about yelling.
"The person in there, I heard them groaning." Harry quickly replied, now gaining in confidence but seemingly digging his own grave deeper all the while.
"You will not breathe a word of this to anybody Potter!" Snape hissed at Harry seizing him by his robes and he looked like he was about to strike Harry for a moment.
"Guilty conscience?" Harry again said before thinking.
"Out. GET OUT! NOW! We will discuss your further punishment tomorrow! OUT!" Snape yelled pushing Harry away.
Harry fortunately held his tongue now and bolted out of Professor Snape's office and ran straight for the Gryffindor Common Room.
'Not tell anybody, yeah right, who does that greasy haired baboon think he's kidding. He's up to something.' Harry thought to himself as he ran towards the common room.
As he ran the nights events started to sink in to his brain. He stopped running and leant against a nearby wall. He had really pushed his luck tonight. Not only had he once again successfully upset Professor Snape to totally new levels, but he had also provoked Professor Snape as well as managed to get himself caught snooping in the potion masters office. Being caught doing that in Snape's office was a bad enough offence on its own, but to be caught doing the deed as well as acknowledging what he had heard was totally stupid.
Harry silently cursed himself for he lack of good judgment. He should have held his tongue instead of directly tell the enraged potions teacher that he knew what was in the potions cupboard and then to top it all off accuse Snape of having a guilty conscience. Harry sighed, he was really deep in it now. He shook his head and made his way to the Gryffindor Common Room. Suddenly he felt very foolish and worried and hoped that the punishments that Snape was planning for him at this very moment would not be too severe.
II
"That was a very foolish thing you did Harry." Hermione said.
"Thanks for stating the obvious Hermione!" Harry retorted in an irritated voice.
"And he caught you listening at the door? Man, you luck sucks mate!" Ron said.
"But, what did you hear?" Ginny asked Harry.
Harry had arrived moments earlier and had found his three friends waiting for him while most had already gone to bed. He had told them that he had taunted Snape and was caught listening at the door of the potions storeroom after having been told not to do just that.
"Well, like I was saying, I thought I had heard some movement, or a moan coming from inside of the storeroom. It just seemed very suspicious because when there had been a sound earlier Snape had stalked in the room, there was some more noise and then he came out brandishing his wand." Harry said very quickly.
"So, old Snape has taken up on torturing people. Probably students. Hmm, hey! That's it! Snape is torturing those students that he really hates! You'd better be careful Harry, you might be next!" Ron said to Harry in an earnest voice.
"Oh honestly Ron! How many times must I tell you, Professor Dumbledore trusts Professor Snape, regardless of how much we dislike Snape. And at any rate, there is no way that Professor Dumbledore would allow Snape to do such a thing. Especially seeing as that is exactly what he has been denying Filch all of these years." Hermione said in her usual matter of fact tone that they had all heard so many times before.
"He could be doing it behind Professor Dumbledore's back." Ron said in a rather deflated voice.
"Ron that would be highly unlikely. There is just about nothing that goes on in this castle that Professor Dumbledore does not know about." Hermione retorted continuing in her matter of fact tone.
"Professor Dumbledore is a brilliant wizard Hermione but he is still human. He doesn't know about everything. I mean, what about in our second year? Even Professor Dumbledore didn't know where the Chamber of Secrets was!" Ron said stating a very sound argument.
"I, well, that is." Hermione fell quiet at Ron's statement.
"I believe Ron has you there Hermione, he does have a valid point." Harry said chuckling at the fact that Ron actually came up with a point to the discussion that Hermione could not actually answer.
"True enough Ron, you do have a valid point, but I stay by my original statement. If Professor Dumbledore trusts Snape then that is good enough for me." Hermione said regaining her composure.
"Oh yeah! This is a moment to be remembered all! Hermione said I had a valid statement. Finally I didn't just crash and burn." Ron said feeling very pleased with himself.
The group chuckled, even Hermione, at Ron's statement. The heavy tension that had been hanging over the group of friends like a dark cloud seemed to have lifted for the moment. Some idle conversation drifted to and fro between them, ranging from the house cup, to quidditch and then to their future exams. At long last it was Ginny who brought up the old topic of conversation that had prompted this entire meeting.
"I don't want to be a wet blanket guys, but we still haven't decided exactly what we're going to do. I mean, we know that Harry heard something in the room, we also know that Snape does not want Harry or anybody to know what is in the room and finally Snape's odd behavior points to the fact that he is hiding something. What are we going to do?" Ginny asked.
The group sat in silence for a few moments before it was Ron that broke the silence.
"I guess the answer is obvious isn't it?" Ron said in a voice that seemed to be concealing a hidden sort of excitement.
"And what pray tell would that be Ron?" Hermione asked, a slight irritated tone in her voice.
"We have to go to Snape's store room cupboard and see what exactly it is that he is hiding." Ron said in a voice that made this seem like the easiest thing in the world to do.
"Hmmm, I guess you were right Ron, that is an obvious answer. You really are on the ball tonight, I must commend you for that. But it's not going to be an easy thing to do." Hermione said and smiled warmly at Ron causing him to blush.
"If only Fred and George were still here. Doing this sort of mischievous thing is certainly their speciality." Ginny said leaning her elbows on her knees and head in her cupped hands.
"That's it!" Harry said in a somewhat louder voice than he had meant to, causing a few of the other students that were still in the common room to jerk up and cast a confused or curious glance over at the huddled group.
"What is mate?" Ron asked Harry as all of group focused their attention on Harry.
"We just need to do as Fred and George would do. We need to form a perfect distraction without getting caught. Oh sure Snape will immediately point a finger at us, or rather me, for it, but what we need is a scape goat." Harry said grinning.
"Brilliant mate! But how are we going to go about doing this?" Ron asked.
"I'm sure you'll like this Ron. Like I said, we need a scape goat, somebody else to take the blame or aid us in causing the distraction, so who better than our dear friend Malfoy?" Harry said looking at each person as he said this.
"Malfoy? Why would he help us? I mean, I would love to see him get the blame and all, but just how are we going to go about doing this?" Ron asked confused.
"Hold on, I see what Harry is getting at! The moment anything happens that Malfoy doesn't like then he runs off to Snape to try and get us in trouble. We need to be split in separate groups for this to work. One group would do something that would cause a proper distraction. Harry can't be the one going to the store room, that would be too obvious. He would have to help cause the distraction. Harry and Ron, I mean, who does Snape as well as Malfoy hate more than you two?" Hermione said smiling.
"No argument there, look at my detentions." Harry said.
"And I've got the perfect plan! Listen closely, we'll do it after the next potions class." Hermione said and leant forward to relate her plan to the group.
They talked for some time until they were finally happy with the plan. It was going to be risky, but if each person played his or her role perfectly, then it would hopefully succeed. They bid each other good night as they each went to their respective dorms to sleep.
II
The following potions lesson came and found Hermione and Harry preparing to leave the potions class as the lesson was ending. As per usual professor Snape gave a ton of homework to the class and remarked at how poorly Harry was doing in potions. Harry and Hermione were the first two people out of the dungeon classroom.
"You all ready Harry?" Hemrione hissed to Harry.
"All ready. This bag is irritating carrying it this way." Harry whispered back as he showed Hermione the way he was holding his bag.
The bag containing all his parchments, ink, quills and books was being held together by barley one strand of stitching at where Harry would hook the bag over his shoulder. His hand was currently holding over this part making sure that the bag did not fall off of his shoulder. Just then Ron hurried over to them.
"Ginny's already set the plan in motion, you'd better get going Hermione." Ron said as he took his place next to Harry who turned his back to the corridor and struck up a conversation with Ron who was leaning against the wall while Hermione hurried off.
"I mean, how dumb can you be to get such a simple potion wrong? Only an idiot like Potter could do something like that!" Came Draco Malfoy's drawling voice from the dungeon as he, along with Crabbe and Goyle, exited the classroom.
Harry ignored the remark as Malfoy carried on with other such lewd comments at Harry's expense. As Malfoy was about to pass them, Harry moved his hand away from the single strand of stitching holding his bag to its shoulder strap. Immediately the weight of the bag forced the strand to snap and the bag fell to the floor, right in front of Malfoy's feet. As expected Malfoy tripped over Harry's fallen bag and started cursing as Crabbe and Goyle helped him back to his feet.
"You did that on purpose Potter!" Malfoy yelled at Harry.
"I did no such thing! My shoulder strap came loose." Harry said in his defence staring back at Malfoy.
"Bullshit Potter! You've been asking for this for a long time!" Malfoy said and lunged at Harry grabbing him by the front of his robes.
Ron couldn't do anything because Crabbe and Goyle had pinned him to the wall as Malfoy hit Harry in the nose.
"What is going on here?" Came two voices from either side of the corridor.
The first voice belonged to Professor Snape who had just stepped out of his classroom and the other belonged to Professor McGonogall who was standing next to Ginny, who 'appeared' very shocked by what was going on.
"Potter tried to attack me sir! He tripped me up! Ask Crabbe and Goyle sir!" Malfoy immediately said and both Crabbe and Goyle nodded their heads in unison as they let go of Ron.
"Is that so? I believe some points are to be deducted from Gryffindor then. There are three witnesses to the two who oppose them professor McGonogall." Professor Snape said in an oily voice of superiority.
"Is this true Potter?" McGonogall asked as she walked over still be assisted by her cane and still with Ginny at her side.
"No ma'am. The shoulder strap on my bag broke and Malfoy tripped over my bag. You can check it professor. My ink bottles are all broken! You can even check the strap, I didn't magically make it break if that's what Malfoy is saying." Harry said indicating to his bag that was lying in a pool of ink as he wiped his bloody nose.
"Please pass that bag to me Ginny." Professor McGonogall asked Ginny who immediately obliged.
After a few moments of inspection professor McGonogall looked satisfied.
"It would appear that Potter is telling the truth professor Snape. You may examine the bag yourself. Because as I happened upon the scene I saw a student from your house lunge at one in mine. You may examine the bag yourself because Potter is telling the truth. I believe that it is actually your student who deserves to have some points deducted." Professor McGonogall stated and both professors stared each other in the eyes.
Professor Snape took the bag and examined it for a long time. He appeared to be shaking with rage as he caste a withering gaze at Harry and then turned it to Malfoy.
"Fine, ten points from Slytherin Malfoy, don't let it happen again." Snape spat and threw Harry's bag at him before storming off.
II
At that very moment Hermione was currently in professor Snape's office and had just opened the store room door. She had her wand in hand and peeked around the corner. She could not see anybody in the room. She was about to leave when she saw a small dark patch on the ground. Upon closer examination she saw that it was dried blood! Even stranger was that there was a few small pieces of hair around it. On closer inspection Hermione realized that it wasn't hair that belonged to a person, it an animals hair!
"Rat hair!" she exclaimed and hurried out of the store room.
II
A/N That is where I leave this chapter loyal readers. Again I apologise for the late update. I'm currently working on three stories and am struggling to keep up. Poor excuses, but I will try and update each story once a week. Meaning that every three weeks this story should be updated. Thanks to those who are still reading and reviewing this story. I really appreciate it and hope I didn't disappoint in this chapter because it has been so long since I've written this story.
Cheers
Lost in A World of Pain