Year One - Chapter 28

I woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom; when I got up I realized that Hermione's bed was already made, but when I looked outside the window, it was still too dark to be morning. I grabbed my wand under the pillow.

—Tempus.

I whispered as low as I could, I didn't want to wake up the other girls, from the tip of my wand appeared the red numbers, it was almost one in the morning. I can't believe that Hermione again fell asleep in the common room while reading.

I put away my wand in one of the pockets of my pyjama, and went to the common room to take Hermione to the room; it was almost pitch black, but the moonlight illuminated the sofas, and there was no one in them.

—Hermione? —I whispered.

I walked closer to the sofas, thinking that maybe she had fallen asleep on the floor, but I tripped with something and fall on my knees.

—What…? Neville! —He was completely paralyzed; his arms were stuck to his body and his legs were also stuck together. He could only move his eyes; I grabbed my wand and pointed it to him.— Finite Incantatem! Nev, what happened? Who did this to you?

—Hermione… —Neville said while trying to get up from the floor, I grabbed his left arm and helped him to sit in one of the armchairs. I can't imagine how his body feels after being stiff for so long.

—Hermione? Are you sure?

—Yeah… She, Harry, and Ron wanted to go out the common room, so… I tried to stop them, but Hermione paralyzed me, after that they left the common room and they haven't returned.

—Do you know what they wanted to do? Where they were going?

—I don't know, they only said that it was something important… I only overheard something about a dog.

—Ok… Uhm… Stay here, Nev. I'll go find them.

Please, I hope it's not what I'm thinking about. They could be talking about Fang, right? And not that three-headed dog…

I left running the common room, luckily, I only had my socks on, so I wasn't making so much noise. I think it's already too late for a teacher or prefect to be patrolling the halls, and I suppose that Filch also must sleep at some point, but I was attentive to any sound anyway.

I got to the corridor of the third floor without any problem, I was about to make an unlocking charm when I saw that the door was slightly opened, so I carefully opened it just enough to stick my head in and take a look; the three-headed dog that Ron had mentioned was still here, but the worst of all is that there was an opened trap door next to him. I couldn't see more because the dog saw me and started to get close to me, so I quickly closed the door and walked away as far as I could.

What should I do? I have no way to know that it really is them the ones down there, besides, there's also the fact that I don't know how to get through the dog without losing any part of my body. I moved my foot and felt something, but when I looked down I saw nothing, I started to touch the air with my hands, in an attempt to know what it was and I felt a soft piece of cloth; when I picked it up I realized that it's the invisibility cape that Harry had the other day.

I covered myself with the cape, maybe I can get through the trap door like this; I opened the door again and saw that the dog was sleeping extremely close to the door and was also covering the trap-door with his body.

I decided to go with the only person that I knew that could help me; I ran down the stairs to the first floor, I was still wearing Harry's cape, so I didn't care if I was making some noise; when I got to the Entrance Hall, I kept running down the stairs to the dungeons and finally to my dad's office.

I opened the door, took off the cape and hid it under the couch then I went to his room, it must be something close to two in the morning, so it wasn't a surprise that he was sleeping, I walked up to him, put my hand on his shoulder and started moving him.

—Dad! Wake up!

It didn't take long for him to wake up, as soon as he saw me, he got up and grabbed my arms.

—What's wrong, Eileen? Are you hurt?

—No, but… I-I think that Harry, Ron, and Hermione are trying to get the Philosopher's Stone, they think that you are trying to steal it.

—Wha-? How do you know about that?

—It doesn't matter right now! I don't know what's down there and… And… Dad, what if something happens to them?

He carried me as if I weighed nothing and sat me on the bad, he grabbed my face with both of his hands and made me look at him.

—Eileen, I need you to concentrate, how do you know is them?

—Uh… I-I got up to go to the bathroom and noticed that Hermione's bed was still made, so I thought that she had fallen asleep in the common room, because it had happened already… Anyway, when I got down there I tripped over Neville, he was paralyzed, and when I did the counter-spell, he told me that they did it, well, Hermione did it but they were with her, then he told me that they left and hadn't come back; I knew they suspected that you were trying to steal the stone and decided to go to the third-floor corridor, hoping that everything would look normal, but the door was slightly opened as well as the trap-door, I thought about getting in there but the dog saw me and blocked the entranced so I… I came running to you, because I don't know what to do… They're my friends, I don't want them to die.

I was about to tell him about the invisibility cape, but I knew that he was going to confiscate it and even though I was still angry with Harry (Am I still angry with him?) I would never do that to him.

—Where are you going?

He got up the bed and left the room, I followed him; he was looking for something in one of his potion's cabinets.

—Here, drink this, you are too shaken.

—A calming potion? Shouldn't it be blue? It looks… Dark.

—It is only because there is no good lighting in here.

I grabbed the vial and drank the liquid, I started to feel a bit light and tired, this isn't supposed to happen with calming potions… Oh no.

I was having a weird dream, I was riding a dragon and we were flying really high, but then everything started to shake, like if the dragon didn't know how to fly, and I was hearing a distant voice.

—Eileen, wake up.

—5 more minutes…

—Eileen, I need you to go with me to the Headmaster's Office. Miss Granger and Mister Weasley are already there.

I opened my eyes, the memories of what happened last night started to flood my mind and got up.

—Hermione? Is she all right? What about Harry? Where is he?

—Miss Granger is fine, just a couple of scratches, Potter is… In the infirmary, but he will be fine.

—Oh, all right… —I got up from the bed and he transfigured a pillow into a pair of slippers for me; when I put them on, I followed him and we started walking to Dumbledore's office, I've never been there, so I have no idea where is it.— Why do I need to go to Dumbledore's office?

—We need to ask you three some questions.

—Am I… Am I in trouble?

—Probably.

We kept walking until we got to a wall, are we lost? Because there's only an ugly statue of a gargoyle.

—Sherbet lemon.

I thought my dad had gone crazy, talking to a statue, but the gargoyle started to move and revealed some stairs. I climbed them up behind my dad until we got to a door; when he opened it, I started to inspect every corner of the office, there were several windows and portraits of several people, but it was also filled with bookshelves with hundreds of books each.

—Ah, Severus, you're finally here. —Dumbledore said, he was sitting behind a huge desk. My dad went to stand next to McGonagall, who was standing next to Dumbledore.— Miss Snape, please, take a seat.

I approached one of the chairs and sat to the right of Hermione, while Ron was sitting at her left. They both turned to see me, and now there was no hate in Ron's gaze.

—Could you please start by explaining to us how you find out about the stone?

—Well… —Hermione said and looked at me.— Eileen gave us the book that mentioned it.

—Is that true, Miss Snape?

—Yes, but I didn't know that's what the dog was protecting.

—Then… How did you find out about the stone in the first place?

—I heard them talking about Nicolas Flamel one day, and they were talking about him like if he were a big secret, so of course I had to find out who was he; I asked someone if they recognized the name and just told me he was an alchemist. From there it was not difficult to find information about the stone. That's all I know.

—All right, thank you, Miss Snape. Now, Mr Weasley? Miss Granger? How did you find out about Nicolas Flamel?

—We heard someone saying that the dog was guarding something that belonged to him and… With time, we started to think that someone was trying to steal it for He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.

—And who did you think was trying to steal it? —McGonagall asked.

—Professor Snape… —Ron said.

—Ah. —Dumbledore had a smile on his face, does he really think this is funny?— I suppose that's what caused the distance between you four, isn't it? Well, as you can see, Professor Snape was protecting the Stone, the one who wanted to steal it was Professor Quirrell…

—What? —I said.— Quirrell? But he was afraid of his own shadow!

—That was all an act along with… Well, now that everything is resolved, I think that the best for you is to go to your dorms. Do not worry about Mr Potter, he is resting right now in the infirmary.

The three of us left the office and walked down the stairs in silence, we were heading to the Tower when I remembered that I left Harry's cape in my dad's office.

—You can go without me, I forgot something in my dad's office.

—We'll go with you. —Hermione said.

—Oh, uhm… 'Kay.

The walk was in complete silence, but for some reason it was not an uncomfortable silence, it was actually kinda nice. When we got to my dad's office, I opened the door and kneeled next to the couch I had hidden the cape, it took me a while to find it and I started to think that my dad had taken it, but finally, I felt the soft silk in my hands and grabbed it, when I got up I folded it as small as I could.

—That's Harry's cape, why do you have it?

—You left it in the corridor of the third floor, Ron. I was thinking about using it to go and get you, but the dog blocked the entrance, so I used it to get here.

—Thanks, by the way. —Hermione said while we were waking up the stairs that led to the Entrance Hall.— For telling Professor Snape to come to find us.

—That's what every person would do, I guess, so you don't have to thank me.

We kept walking in silence and were in the fourth floor when Hermione suddenly stopped.

—What's wrong?

—I'm so sorry, Eileen.

I looked at Ron, but he only lifted his shoulders, not knowing what's going on.

—About what?

—We should've listened to you, but I guess I was blinded for what I saw in that Quidditch match… I'm really sorry we accused Professor Snape of such horrible things.

—Oh.

—Can you forgive us?

—I did it a long time ago, Ron. I know that my dad was acting suspiciously a lot of the time and that didn't help so that you could believe me. I…I think I would've thought the same if I were in your shoes.

—Then why didn't you talk to us?

—Well, because obviously, I wasn't going to let something like this to slide. I know I was hard on you sometimes, Mione, but… I don't know, I guess I just wanted you guys to realize what you did wrong and apologize.

I hugged Hermione and she did the same, then I felt that Ron was also hugging us.

—I missed you guys so much.

—And we missed you, Leen.

—Can we go now? —Ron asked.— I'm so tired.

—Sure, but later you have to tell me everything that happened last night.

Three days had passed, and we still had no news about Harry; Madam Pomfrey would always tell us that he was resting, and I was starting to worry, what if something bad happened to him?

—When do you think Harry will recover? —Hermione asked before taking a spoonful of her tomato soup.

—I don't know. I hope soon. —Ron said.— It's been almost four days.

We were about to leave out seats in the Great Hall when McGonagall approached us.

I think you would like to know that Mr Potter is better, if Madam Pomfrey lets you, maybe you could see him today.

The three of us smiled when we heard that and quickly ran to the infirmary. The door was locked, so I started to knock. I didn't take long for Madam Pomfrey to opened it.

—Mr Potter is not ready for visits.

—Please! Just five minutes.

—I said no.

She closed the doors in our faces; we weren't going to leave until we see Harry, so we sat in the ground, resting our backs on the wall.

—Maybe we could use Harry's cape.

—But we would have to wait until midnight, Leen. Besides, I don't think we can open the door with a simple Alohomora.

As soon as Ron said that, the door opened. Hermione and I looked at him, shocked, I didn't know that Ron could do wandless magic!

Oh wait, no, it was Madam Pomfrey the one who opened the door.

—Just five minutes.

We got up from the floor and walked into the infirmary.

—Harry! —Hermione looked like it was ready to launch herself and hug Harry.— Oh Harry… We were sure that… Dumbledore looked so worried…

—The whole school is talking about it. —Ron said.— What happened?

Harry started to tell us everything about what happened after Hermione and Ron left; he told us everything about Quirrell, the mirror, the stone and about the Dark Lord.

—By the way… I owe you an apology, Eileen. We should've believed in you when you told us that Snape wasn't the one trying to steal the stone. Dumbledore told me that he was actually trying to save me that day, during the Quidditch match, he was making the counter-spell.

—Oh, don't worry, I know that my dad acted suspiciously the entire year, but I hope that now is clear for you three that he would never do something like that. He's mean but not evil. —The three nodded.— So, Flamel is going to die?

—That's what I said, but Dumbledore… What did he say? Ah yes, 'to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.'

—I've always thought that he is crazy. —Ron said and I chuckled, Dumbledore is pretty weird sometimes.

—And what happened to you two?

—Well, after drinking the liquid, I came back to try and wake up Ron, it took me a while; then when we were on our way to the owlery, we ran into Dumbledore in the Entrance Hall and he looked like he knew because he only told us 'Harry went after him, right?' and went to the third floor.

—Do you think he wanted you to do it? —Ron asked.— Giving you your dad's cape and all…

—Well… If he really did it… That's terrible! You could've died!

—No, I don't think so… I think he only wanted to give me a chance. He knows everything that is going on around here; he knew I was going to try it and instead of stopping us, he taught us enough to make it. It's like he thinks I had a right to confront Voldemort.

—I don't know, Harry. —I said, crossing my arms.— I'm with Hermione, I don't know what kind of person in their right mind would send an eleven-year-old kid against the Dark Lord. Doesn't matter how prepared you are; besides, if Hermione hadn't been with you, you would've been killed by the Devil's Snare, and if he knew about the Dark Lord, why did he put us all at risk whit being so close to him?

—Well, it doesn't matter, everything went well. —Ron said.— Harry, you must be up tomorrow, is the party of the end of the year. Slytherin won, of course, you lost the last Quidditch match against Ravenclaw and without you, they won. But the food will be amazing.

—You've been here for fifteen minutes. Out.

The next day, Hermione and I were waiting in the common room for Ron and Neville, to go to the party together. When we walked into the Great Hall, the four of us made a face after seeing everything decorated with Slytherin colours.

When we entered, most of the students from Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff looked at us in a not so nice way, it looks like they are still mad that Slytherin won because of us. We sat in the first empty places that we found; Neville and I sat next to each other, while Hermione and Ron sat in front of us.

After a while, Harry entered the Hall and everyone went quiet, the noise turned into whispers and we all turned to see him, he only walked as fast as he could and sat between Ron and Hermione.

—Another year gone! —Dumbledore said.— And another one that I will have to bother you with the speech of an old man before enjoying the feast. What a year! I hope your heads are fuller than they were, so now you have the whole summer to empty them!

—As I understand it, we have to award the House Cup. —He continued.— And the points stand as follow; in fourth place, Gryffindor with three hundred two points; in third place, Hufflepuff with three hundred and fifty-two, Ravenclaw with four hundred and twenty-six, and finally, Slytherin with four hundred and seventy-two.

Cheering and stamping broke out of the Slytherin table, even my dad looked extremely happy.

—Well done, Slytherin. —Dumbledore spoke again.— However, recent events should be considered.

Slowly, the screams and smiles from the Slytherins started to fade away.

—I have some last-minute points to give… To Mr Ronald Weasley, for the best game played of chess that Hogwarts has seen in many years, I award Gryffindor with fifty points.

We all started to scream and applaud to Ron, while he was only smiling and trying to hide his face; it was as red as his hair.

—Second, to Miss Hermione Granger, for the use of cold logic in the face of fire, I award Gryffindor with fifty points.

Hermione buried her face between her arms while everyone else was clapping, I stretched out enough to try and hug her from the other side of the table.

—Third, to Mr Harry Potter, for his pure nerve and outstanding courage, I award Gryffindor with sixty points.

I think the screams could be heard all the way to Hogsmeade, but we were still ten points below Slytherin, if only he had given sixty points to Ron and Hermione as well…

—Next, to Miss Eileen Snape. —Wait, what? Me? What did I do?— For being calm during a moment of danger and doing the right thing when her friends were in danger, I award Gryffindor ten points.

I smiled widely, but was extremely confused, he gave me points for being a coward? Anyway, we were now tied with Slytherin, so everyone started cheering again, but now also some people from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, even my dad was smiling and clapping, something that he didn't do for Harry, Ron or Hermione; I found Roger in the Ravenclaw table and he was also clapping, and when he saw me, he gave me two thumbs up.

—There are different kinds of courage, you need to have a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but even more to stand up to our friends. I award Mr Neville Longbottom with ten points.

Now I'm definitely sure that the screams can be heard all the way to Hogsmeade and even more, I hugged Neville and he was as pale as a ghost; Harry, Hermione, Ron and I stood to congratulate Neville and then everyone in Gryffindor was doing the same.

—Which means that we have to make a change in the decoration.

In an instant, the green and silver decorations turned into scarlet and gold ones, and the big snaked turned into a lion.

My dad shook hands with McGonagall, although he had a fake smile. The food appeared over the table and I started to grab a little bit of everything.

I knew I would have an amazing year at Hogwarts.

We had finally got our test results; Hermione had the highest marks in almost all of the subjects, she and I had the highest ones in Potions and DADA, and in the rest of them I got acceptable marks, I even got a really good mark in History of Magic.

Suddenly our wardrobes were empty, and our trunks were ready. It took me a while to convince my dad to pick me up at King's Cross instead of just apparating directly at home, but after showing him my marks, he finally agreed.

In the middle of the trip, Roger went to find me in our compartment, after finding one that was empty, we sat to talk.

—I'm sorry for ignoring you, Eileen.

—I don't even understand why you would be mad at me, I mean, if you were a Gryffindor, yeah sure, you would have every right to be mad, but you're not, so why did it bother you?

—Well, because I didn't want Slytherin to win.

—I know! But why did you have to depend on Gryffindor to beat them? You could've just won points for your own house and try to win the cup, you were close to Slytherin, you could've won.

—I-I guess I just got carried away with everything that happened, it was so fast, one day it looked as if Slytherin was finally going to lose the house cup after so many years and the next that possibility was gone.

I sighed and looked out through the window, looking at the buildings of muggle towns; I'm tired of being mad a people.

—Fine. I forgive you.

—Really?

—Yeah, but I hope that this does not happens again.

—Don't worry, if you lose more than a hundred points next year, I'm sure that you and your friends will get them back at the end of the year.

I laughed and we both got out of the compartment, he accompanied me to the one where my friends were, but before entering, he grabbed my hand and put a piece of parchment in my hand.

—What's this?

—That's my address, write to me during the summer, yeah?

—Sure. See you next year.

I got back into my compartment and Ron spent the rest of it asking me how and why I was so popular with the older guys. 'Just because three of them talk to me doesn't make me popular, Ron' I said, but apparently, it was not enough.

We finally got to platform nine and three-quarters, although it took us a while to get out of the platform; there was a man by the barrier, making us go in groups of three or four people so that we wouldn't scare the muggles.

—You three have to come and stay this summer. —Ron said.— I'll send you an owl.

—Thanks.

People were pushing us while we were trying to move to the barrier, some people were even saying goodbye to Harry.

—So, you're still famous, Harry. —Ron said.

—Not where I'm going, I can assure you that.

The four of us finally crossed the barrier.

—There he is, mum!

A little red-haired girl couldn't stop pointing at Harry, Ron looked a little bit embarrassed, so it's safe to assume that she's his sister.

—Hey, we found your admirer number one, Harry. —I said while laughing a little, the woman (who I suppose is Mrs Weasley) said something to the girl and she stopped pointing.

—Busy year? —Asked Mrs Weasley.

—A lot. —Harry answered.— Thanks for the sweater and the cake, Mrs Weasley.

—Oh, it was nothing, dear.

—Ready, boy? —A tall, corpulent man with a moustache approached us, his face had a purple tone, is this Harry's uncle? No wonder he hates living with them, they seem to be horrible muggles. Behind him, there was a woman who was looking at me weirdly, as if she were scared.— Hurry up, we don't have all day.

Before grabbing his stuff, Harry turned to see us.

—I'll see you during the summer, I suppose.

—I… I hope you have a nice summer. —Hermione said while looking at Harry's Uncle. I wanted to say something but I felt disgusted being so close to the worse type of muggle that could exist.

—Oh, they will be. —Harry was smiling; oh no, his encounter with the Dark Lord made him have a couple of screws loose.— They don't know we can't do magic outside of school, I'll have so much fun with Dudley this summer…

I chuckled and finally, Harry left, I turned to see Mrs Weasley, since I was interrupted before having the chance to thank her for the sweater.

—Nice to meet you, Mrs Weasley, my name is Eileen Snape, I wanted to thank you for the sweater that you sent me on Christmas. I loved it, I used it the whole winter.

—Oh, it was no problem, darling, I'm so happy that you liked it.

She smiled at me in a weird way, I had never seen Aunt Cissy smiled like this, well, at least not with me, only with Draco a couple of times; I wonder if all mothers do the same. But why would she be smiling at me like that?

—We need to see each other during the summer, you and me. —I told Hermione.— I have to tell you so many things, maybe we could have a sleepover one day?

—Oh, that would be amazing, Eileen! —Hermione said while hugging me.— I'll send you a letter during the summer.

—Perfect. —I said while hugging her back.— Well, I already saw my dad, see you.

I said goodbye to everyone, even Fred and George, that had arrived while we were saying goodbye to Harry; I grabbed my things and started to walk towards where he was, he grabbed my trunk and got out of King's Cross and walked until we found a dark alley, where we could apparate close to our home.

When we finally got to the house, I ran up the stairs to my bedroom, everything was in the same place as I had left it, I laid on my bed and closed my eyes.

It's amazing to be at Hogwarts, but it's a thousand times better to be at home.

Well, this is the end of the first book, but! It is not the end of the story, I won't publish the second book right away, but I hope it won't take me long to write a decent amount of chapters so that I can start posting them. I'll post the second book in this story, so you'll get a notification when I start posting it.
I can't thank enough to the people that left their comments, it's a great feeling to know that people are enjoying what I write, and make me really happy. I hope you'll keep liking the rest of the story.
Take care!