Introduction: Hi, guys! And so we reached the end of another year at Hogwarts. This is the last chapter of Athena's third year and I'll give it some time for you to review it, say what you thought about the year as a whole and your expectations for the fourth year. I wanna send a big shout out to Thay and Andouille, who left sweet comments. I'll use this time to correct the mistakes on the previous chapters, so there aren't any incoherencies. So if you see anything, please let me know. As you guys already know, any comments, critiques or concerns, feel free to contact me.
Chapter Twenty Four – Bittersweet Ending
Apparently, Merula did try to run straight to Professor Snape and spill the beans, but she didn't count with a well-prepared Tonks waiting right outside the library, armed with all sorts of prank devices.
"Zonko's has these Memory Drops," she says, shaking a small tin with what seems to be a bunch of small mints. "They make you forget the last ten minutes. I stuffed it in their mouths after I hit them with Petrificus Totalus when they were running from my Fanged Frisbee."
"I'm so proud of you!" Tulip says, messing her bright pink hair.
"I haven't told you the best part!" she says. "Snape came racing through the corridor and when he saw Merula and Ismelda frozen on the floor, he didn't scold me! He just asked me if you were okay," Tonks looks at me and shrugs. "I didn't even have time to speak and then he left."
As weird as it sounded, the weirdest part was the fact that we broke another curse and no one seemed to know of our involvement. Apparently, it took forever for Charlie to find the Snitch and he eventually got it before Nate. Everyone went to Hogsmeade to celebrate and Tonks spent a long time bothering Madam Pince – who didn't notice someone had entered the Restricted Section – until she saw us safely leaving the library.
"She threated to remove all the points from Hufflepuff if I didn't leave," she smiles.
"Like that would make much of a difference," Penny says. "You're always losing the points I gain."
Professor Snape said nothing during our next encounters, but he did stare at me several times, making me wonder if he was reading my mind and knew everything I've done. However, he didn't treat me with coldness or disappointment; if anything, he seemed to be relieved.
People started to question the Boggarts' whereabouts only three weeks after we managed to open the vault – which we tenderly nicknamed The Vault of Fear – and rumors about my possible involvement started to run through the school.
"If anything happens," I said to my friends. "I'll say I acted alone."
"No," Barnaby said, fiercely. "We're all in this together."
I tried to remain away from the spotlight as much as I could, spending all my time in the library helping Barnaby study, sharing mints without Madam Pince noticing, pretending I hadn't been adventuring inside the Restricted Section. In fact, when I finally returned the books, she looked like she didn't know anything.
"Broke another curse, Lockhart?" my choir mate, the Slytherin called Mia who helped Flitwick when he was locked inside the cursed ice, seemed to be finally showing her slithering side.
"Mind your own business, Mia," Barnaby said.
"I'm not stupid," she said. "Nobody saw you in the last Quidditch game. Was that when you decided to enter another Cursed Vault?"
"Athena was at the game," Chester's voice startled me when he came walking in our direction.
"No one saw her there," Mia insisted.
"But I'm stating she was there," Chester said. "It's not my fault if you see nothing but yourself. Now move on."
Chester, surprisingly, didn't seem to be mad at me as well. In fact, he asked me to meet him one more time behind the Greenhouses.
"What's up with you and Chester, after all?" Barnaby asks while I'm leaving the library to meet Chester. "Is he your boyfriend?"
I almost swallow my mint.
"No," I giggle. "Just a mentor. Why?"
"No reason," he says, but I could swear his cheeks blushed a little.
Chester seems happy to see me, his wand already in hand, his chocolate hair swaying in the wind. Even though we had a turbulent start, I feel like I'll really miss having him around when he graduates.
"Thanks for the other day," I say and he makes a gesture for me not to talk about it.
"We can talk about it later," he says. "Today I want to teach you two spells. One is Alarte Ascendare and the other is Aresto Momentum."
Apparently, the first spell is used to shoot a target high into the air and Chester seems to have a lot of fun throwing me very high up in the sky and using the other spell to make me descend slowly.
After a bunch of repetitions, I don't even feel nervous when I begin to fall, casting Aresto Mometum on myself. He carefully teaches me all the correct wrist and arm movements and even allows me to use Alarte Ascendare on him a single time.
"Now," he says, carelessly sitting over the grass. "Do you finally understand why I've been teaching you all these spells?"
"Because you' re leaving?" I shrug. "Because you're a great wizard?"
He shakes his head.
"So I can get more house points?" I say and he smiles.
"Partly," he says. "But also because you have great potential, Athena. I know I've been really harsh on you, but only because I want you to understand the consequences of your actions. However, you've shown me you are a great witch, being an outstanding singer and seeker even under the terrible happenings in your family," he sighs. "I'll really miss you, but I hope to leave a little bit of me before I leave. Perhaps, one day, you can too become a Prefect and a Head Girl."
I snicker, feeling my cheeks flushing with his compliments.
"I mean it, Athena," he says. "You definitively have what it takes. All our professors agree. Even though you started with quite a bad reputation and done a lot of reckless things, you still managed to succeed in everything you tried. And the fact that you've been carefully studying the vaults and breaking the curses is the cherry on top."
"I... well... thank you, Chester," I say. "Thank you so much."
"Just promise me one thing," he says.
"Anything."
"When my brother Roger comes to Hogwarts, please, lead him the right way," he asks. "Be a good mentor for him too."
"I promise."
Butterbeer seems to taste even better now that the imminent threat is controlled. The eight of us – Rowan, Penny, Ben, Bill, Tulip, Tonks, Barnaby and I – sit together in a big table, sipping the marvelous amber beverage and enjoying the blissful relaxation for a bit.
"So next year we'll attempt to enter the Forbidden Forest," Tulip says. "I'll drink to that!"
"I can't stop thinking about the letter R in the corner of the map," Bill says. "We used to think it could be Merula, but now Rita Skeeter is also a valid suspect."
"Yeah, Benjamin!" Rowan says, staring at Ben. "Who is R, after all?"
"Why are you looking at me?" he asks, scared.
"Last year, we found letters addressed to you that were signed with the same R," she says.
"And I told you I don't remember anything after being frozen in the cursed ice!" he shrieks.
"I swear to God, Ben, if you're lying to me..."
"I'm not!"
"No one else lost their memory after getting frozen by the cursed ice," she squints her eyes. "If you know anything, spit it out right now."
"I'm... sorry," he says with a sad face. "I can't. I don't know anything about this mysterious R."
"I hope you aren't lying to protect us," Rowan continues. "We can't help each other unless we know what's going on."
"I'm not lying to protect you," he says with a trembling voice. "I promise."
"Let's worry about this another day," I say, raising my mug. "For now, I just wanna take this moment to thank you guys for everything. And a toast to the new additions to our gang, Barnaby and Tonks."
"Cheers!"
A gentle tap on the window makes us aware of a very flushed ginger boy standing outside the pub. He gets in, fixing his hair messed up by the wind, and looks at us with a big smile.
"Hi guys," Charlie says and I notice Rowan sinking in the chair next to me.
"Hey Charlie," I say with a smile.
"Athena, Dumbledore is looking for you," he says and this time it's my turn to sink in my chair. "He said he's waiting for you in front of Honeydukes."
"Argh," I moan, getting up and giving away my seat for Charlie.
He's eating wine gums when I get there, observing the students passing with a pensive expression in his blue eyes. When he sees me coming, he blinks his eyes from behind the half-moon glasses.
"This has become something for a tradition," he says with a sweet voice. "Let's take a walk, Miss Lockhart."
I stroll next to him for a while, walking among the excited students and the buzzing stores, until we reach the fence that separates the village from the Shrieking Shack. It's a very recluse place, which people tend to avoid, even though it's now covered by a beautiful green grass and wild flowers.
"Wine gum?" he says, offering me the candy box.
"No, thanks, sir," I say, holding my hands behind my back, waiting for the lecture to come.
"I suppose this is our annual opportunity to discuss your unprecedented heroics and egregious misbehavior," he says, his blue eyes sparkling.
"If I may, sir," I say. "How did you know?"
He flashes me a gentle smile.
"It is my very job to know what happens inside Hogwarts," he says. "Though the fact that you didn't try to dissuade me made it very clear that you were the one responsible for breaking another curse."
I sigh and stare at the abandoned house in the distance.
"I understand that a substantial amount of mayhem transpired in my absence," he continues. "Dragons in the Common Rooms, werewolves in the Greenhouses, Voldemort himself lurking in every cupboard. Apparently, even I made more than one appearance in Boggart form."
I release a subtle giggle.
"Is it true that all the Boggarts are gone?" I ask, raising my eyes to meet his.
"Boggarts can never be truly banished, because they are born of human emotion," he explains. "Fortunately, they can be of some use. I'm sure a few Boggarts were nothing compared to what you faced inside the vault. Please, tell me everything."
I notice this is not a request; Dumbledore may be very gentle and speak very kindly, but he's also very imposing. I take a deep breath and begin to tell everything that I experienced inside the vault, taking care not to mention my friends, even though Barnaby said we're all in this together.
Dumbledore listens in silence, blinking from time to time and raising his brows during some passages. A crow's shriek makes me shiver, even though the day is sunny and very comfortable.
"From what you've told me, it sounds as though someone else tampered with the Cursed Vaults, releasing the Boggarts," he says.
"That's my understanding," I say. "But you would know better than me."
"There's someone who would know better than us both," he says. "Do you know where I've been this year?"
I shake my head.
"Seeking the world's finest Curse-Breaker," he tells me. "One who has intimate experience with the Cursed Vaults. She was an exceptional pupil of mine, back when my beard was a little shorter," he smiles. "At present, she's exploring recently discovered ruins under the Brazilian wizarding school, Castelobruxo."
I raise my eyebrows, wondering who "she" is.
"When the next year begins, she'll be here at Hogwarts. I will be most interested to hear her opinion of the vaults," he says. "And of you."
This time, there's a bit of irritation inside his blue eyes.
"You have once again directly disobeyed me, Miss Lockhart," he says. "Yet, you have once again broken a curse that threatened us all. I am running out of excuses for you. Break one more rule and I will not be able to insulate you from serious punishment."
"I understand," I say. "I'm very sorry, sir."
"Actions are far better than apologies. Take Fawkes, for instance. From time to time, the phoenix is reborn, fresh and rejuvenated. You have that power too. Take the rest of the school year and the summer and when you return to Hogwarts, start fresh," he says. "Nevertheless, I'll reward you with a hundred points for-"
"I don't want them," I say, interrupting him. "The house points."
"May I question your motives?" he says.
"I have already been awarded fifty points by Professor Flitwick, after Rita Skeeter's obvious manipulation, for reasons still unknown to me," I say. "So I don't want you to reward me, sir, for being reckless and disrespecting your orders."
"Miss Lockhart," he begins saying, but I continue.
"I know these points could help Ravenclaw," I say. "But then again, this is just a competition. I may be wrong and it may sound selfish, but I honestly believe there are more important things to worry about."
This time he doesn't say anything; he simply smiles at me, very kindly, and nods.
"Thank you for the stroll, Professor," I say, politely, heading back to my friends. Though I feel like the things will be terribly harder when I come back for my fourth year, I also feel lighter and, somehow, wiser.
With two things still left for me to succeed in – my last Quidditch match and the final exams – I'm practicing and studying really hard, finally enjoying some peaceful time at school, without cursed ice or boggarts lurking in the dark.
"Alright, guys," Isaac says with a smile on his lips; a smile that is, at the same time, happy and sad. "It has been a true honor playing next to you. As you already know, you won't be seeing Jack and I anymore, because we will be very busy playing for the WIMBOURNE WASPS!"
We explode in applauses and ovations, and Isaac and Jack gracefully bow at us.
"However, we still have to succeed in this last match," Isaac says. "Because I'll kick all your arses if we don't get the Quidditch Cup."
"Hurray!" Will says vigorously.
"And there's also the fact that you won't be only losing an awesome keeper, but also your adored Captain," Isaac continues and Will punches his arm. "It is time for me to name a new Captain. A Captain that I'm sure will lead Ravenclaw to another victory," he makes a dramatic pause. "Matt, I name you as the next Captain."
"Yes!" Matt says, falling to his knees and making a victorious gesture.
"Now," Isaac says. "Let's finish those Gryffindors!"
We train under sun and rain, heavy winds and gentle breezes, until May 30th finally arrives. Charlie seems to be very confident and Rowan still seems to have conflicted feelings about who she's supposed to root for.
"Root for him," I shrug. "He's your boyfriend."
"He's not my boyfriend!" she shrieks.
"Rowan," I say. "Will you ever tell me what's going on?"
She moans.
"I... I don't know," she says. "Charlie is amazing. He knows dragons more than anything and it's... really nice to be with him. But I can't."
"You still have feelings for Bill?" I ponder.
"No," she sighs. "That has vanished a long time ago. It's just... I'm beginning to really like him... Charlie... but I can't allow this to happen."
"Why?" I ask. "You didn't seem worried when it was about Bill."
"It's because I hadn't really thought about it," Rowan complains. "The thing is... I really don't want to hurt Charlie."
"I don't see your point."
"Athie, you know I've been promised to Dev," she sighs. "Though I don't know him and really don't wish to marry him, I can't turn my back on my family. And I can't lead a relationship with Charlie knowing that, one day, I'll have to end everything in order to marry another guy."
I look at her, slightly gaped, feeling my heart tightening.
"Oh, Row," I say, pulling her for a hug. "Your heart truly is pure. And I agree with you. It is unfair to Charlie. But then again, why shouldn't you enjoy it while you still can? I mean... make him aware of the situation. And if, even then, he's up to it, then seize the years you have to be with him."
She looks at me and her face seems to light up a bit.
"I'll talk to him," she moans. "But only after the summer. If he still has feelings for me after it, then I'll do it."
"Fair enough," I say. "Now go root for your future boyfriend. I'll still manage to win without your support," I wink and she slaps my arm in a friendly way.
I fix my uniform and grab my Silver Arrow, feeling the confidence building inside my chest. After everything I've been through this year, a Quidditch match looks like child's play.
My team heads to the pitch and I happily follow them, a big smile upon my face, my soul flooding with energy when our feet touch the green lawn and the bright blue sky greets us. I allow the sun and the wind to kiss my skin, opening my eyes to the blue immensity.
And I soar.
