The three of them made their way to the Three Broomsticks and managed to get a table in the back corner of the crowded restaurant.
"You might wanna hide," Freddie whispered to Ziggy as Madam Rosmerta approached. "I'm not sure animals are allowed inside."
Ziggy gave her an affronted look, as if he couldn't believe she'd called him an animal, but slipped out of the booth and hid under the table behind her boots when Rosmerta came to take their order.
"Hello again, loves. Sorry it's a bit of a madhouse in here today. Always is when it's this nice of a weekend. What can I get you?"
"Butterbeer and a burger," Freddie said.
"Chips?"
"Yes, please."
"And for you, dearie?"
"Uh...water with lemon and a chef salad. Light Italian dressing," Amelia said, sounding distracted.
"You got it," Rosmerta said and disappeared back into the kitchen.
"What the heck? I thought you were dying for a burger, what's with the salad?" Freddie asked curiously.
Amelia said nothing but she was scowling across the room. Freddie followed her line of sight and saw Brian was sitting on the other side of the room at a booth with Bobby Drake, Phillip Calhoun, and a pretty blonde girl that Freddie didn't recognize. Brian had his arm around the girl.
"Oh. What a jerk," Freddie said, scowling as well as Brian fake-laughed loudly and leaned against the girl.
"We didn't even officially break up, we just had a stupid fight," Amelia said darkly, but Freddie could hear the hint of sadness in her voice. Madam Rosmerta brought their drinks and Freddie uncorked her butterbeer and took a swig.
"He's a bastard...Who is that anyway?" she asked, trying to discreetly crane her neck to get a better look at the girl.
"Lucy Grimes. She's a Ravenclaw. Fourth year."
"Oh yeah..." She'd helped teach a class that Grimes was in last year, with Snape.
"She's really pretty," Amelia said dejectedly, sipping her water.
"No way!" Freddie said quickly. "I've seen her in one of Snape's classes, she's not that pretty. She's like a skeleton. Way too skinny. And look at her hair – super boring. You're way better than that ditsy blonde."
Amelia smiled weakly but didn't say anything else. Her mood had soured and Freddie couldn't help but glare at Brian across the crowded restaurant. Several people accidentally caught her eye then quickly looked away in a panic, spilling their drinks or dropping their utensils loudly. Brian flushed and avoided her gaze, but didn't stop his all-too-obvious peacocking.
A few minutes passed and all of a sudden Brian let out a girlish yelp of pain that caused every head in the pub to turn and look at him. For a split second Freddie worried she'd accidentally used her magic against him – then she noticed a streak of reddish brown fur dart out from beneath Brian's table.
"The little shit bit me!" Brian declared, his voice several octaves higher than usual.
Several people made a grab for Ziggy but he was too quick – flying past outstretched hands, leaping over kicks aimed his way, and landing in Freddie's lap. She couldn't help but laugh and scratch him on his ears as Ziggy purred proudly.
"I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to ask you to take your cat outside," Madam Rosmerta said, appearing next to their table, looking frazzled.
"He's not a cat, he's a kneazle," Amelia said before Freddie could even open her mouth. "And if he's leaving, we're leaving too."
"I'll bag up your food and bring it to you out back," Madam Rosmerta said with a nod.
Freddie slung her bag over one shoulder and gathered Ziggy in her arms. Amelia grabbed her shopping bags and they all made their way outside, going to the back of the building to wait on their food.
"Good Ziggy," Amelia crooned, petting his head, and Ziggy purred loudly. "What a good boy you are!"
Freddie let Ziggy down gently on the ground, giving his ears a scratch. He wound his way around her ankles and then Amelia's, his purr so loud they could probably hear it inside.
"I can't believe he bit him!" Freddie laughed incredulously.
"I know, right? Why would he do that? I didn't even realize he wasn't under the table anymore."
"He's a very intuitive creature. I guess he knew Brian pissed us off."
"Smart, handsome boy," Amelia cooed, squatting to pet him some more. "I don't suppose his fangs are poisonous?"
"I don't think so," Freddie chuckled.
The back door opened and Madam Rosmerta came out carrying two cartons of food.
"Sorry about the commotion, Madam Rosmerta," Amelia said apologetically.
"Ziggy's just a baby," Freddie explained quickly. "He's, uh...teething."
"The guy he bit – that your ex-boyfriend?" Rosmerta asked Amelia.
"Well I guess he is now, since he's hanging all over Grimes. I didn't know we were broken up."
"Ah, I see," she said sympathetically. She looked around quickly, then reached into her apron and dropped several shrimp on the ground for Ziggy. "Good kitty."
"Thanks," Freddie said as Ziggy pounced on the shrimp. She pulled out her coin pouch to pay but Madam Rosmerta waved her off.
"This ones on the house," she said with a smile. "There's a little picnic table over there where my cook goes out to smoke on his break, if you girls want to eat outside."
"Thank you," Freddie said again.
"Best get back to it. Just knock on the back door if you need anything," Madam Rosmerta said and hurried back into the pub.
"She's even cooler than I thought," Amelia said as they made their way to the little picnic table. "I think she's my new favorite person."
"Ziggy's too," she replied as the kneazle trotted after them, licking his lips.
"I'm gonna buy you a whole bucket of shrimp," Amelia told Ziggy when he hopped up on the table as they sat down.
Freddie was starving at that point and she quickly started to chow down on her burger and chips. When she noticed Amelia pushed her salad around half-heartedly she cut her burger in half with a plastic knife and put the un-bitten half of it on her tray.
"Oh, no, Freddie it's fine. I don't need the carbs."
"Oh please," she scoffed. "You don't want to end up looking like miss Skeleton Grimes. You're perfect just the way you are."
"You really think so?"
"Yeah. And I bet Phillip Dalton thinks so too. He thought you looked pretty good this morning, remember?"
Amelia brightened considerably and picked up the burger.
After they ate they decided to head back towards the castle. They got their brooms from Madam Rosmerta's broom shed and walked with them up the path leading out of Hogsmeade. Before they left the village something in a shop window caught Freddie's eye. It was a small boutique shop called Gladstone's and the thing that caught her eye was a sharp-dressed mannequin wearing a black leather jacket.
"Is that dragonhide?" Freddie wondered aloud.
"Most likely," Amelia said, following her gaze. "Gladstone's is an expensive, big name designer shop. I don't think they'd have anything leather that wasn't dragon."
"How expensive?" Freddie asked curiously.
"Why don't you go in and look?" Amelia encouraged. "I can wait outside with Ziggy – I don't think they'll allow pets inside. They're too fancy for that."
"I dunno if I want to go in any shop where I can't bring Ziggy," she said doubtfully. "They sound like a bunch of snobs. I probably shouldn't spend a whole lot of money anyway. I have to save up for an apartment when I graduate."
"Go on, Freddie. When's the last time you treated yourself to something nice?"
"Well I just got some boomslang skin at the Apothecary this morning-"
"Potions stuff doesn't count," Amelia said, rolling her eyes. She nudged Freddie towards the door. "You should at least try it on! Then you'll be almost as sexy as me."
Ten minutes later Freddie walked out of Gladstone's wearing her new dragonhide leather jacket that fit like a glove, her money pouch considerably lighter. Amelia and Ziggy were waiting for her right outside the door and Amelia whooped when she saw her.
"Now that's what I'm talking about! That thing fits like a glove, like a second skin," she said.
"Yeah," Freddie said, feeling her cheeks flush lightly. "It feels really good. Of course I'm gonna need to go to Gringott's one day soon."
"I'm sure you can get Professor Snape to take you," Amelia said, linking her arm with Freddie's. "Come on – I think the Slytherin quidditch team is practicing this afternoon. If we hurry we can sit in the bleachers and watch them."
"And you can ogle Phillip Dalton," she said knowingly.
"Damn straight," Amelia laughed.
They flew back to the castle in record time and quickly stowed their brooms, hoping that they wouldn't get in trouble for flying to Hogsmeade without permission. The Slytherin team was already running drills on the Quidditch pitch. Amelia and Freddie weren't the only ones who had come out to watch them practice. There were several students scattered about watching them, or just lounging about chatting with their friends. Freddie noticed most of them were girls, probably girlfriends of the guys on the team.
Freddie only stayed in the stands with Amelia for about an hour. That was all she could take of girls fawning over brutish guys who played rough. To his credit Phillip Dalton didn't seem to be one of the overly-aggressive players, even though Beaters usually were. And he didn't have a Beaters build either. Beaters were usually big and muscly but Dalton was thin. He looked to be over 6 feet tall. His skin was almost impossibly pale and he was dressed in all-black.
"Do you think he could be a vampire?" Freddie mused aloud.
"I don't think so. I've never seen him drink blood. He eats in the Great Hall like the rest of us."
"Yeah but vampires can eat normal food, too. We studied them in Defense Against the Dark Arts in third year. You know Muggles think they can't go out in sunlight?"
"I remember that. I didn't know they could eat regular food, too."
"Yep."
"Well, I'd let him suck on my neck," Amelia said with a sly smile and Freddie laughed.
It didn't take long for Freddie to get bored watching the practice. She stuck it out for a while longer, playing with Ziggy, but when the kneazle stretched out in the sunlight to take a nap she got up and stretched.
"I'm gonna head inside and see if Professor Snape needs any help with anything," she told Amelia. "I haven't seen him yet today."
"Alright. I'm gonna stay out here and watch the rest of practice. Maybe Dalton will come talk to me afterwards if he sees me sitting out here alone," she said, flipping her colorful hair over her shoulder.
"Good luck," she said with a grin. "You coming, Zig? You can stay out here with Amelia if you want."
Ziggy blinked his green eyes slowly, like he was considering it, then got to his paws and stretched.
"Oh, I almost forgot!" Amelia said, quickly digging through her bags. "I got you something!"
"You didn't have to do that," Freddie said.
"Here," she said, tossing her a small package. "Check em out when you get inside. I know you'll love em."
"Thanks," she said awkwardly, tucking the package in her bag. "Catch you later."
Freddie and Ziggy left the quidditch pitch and headed towards the castle. They were almost to the front door when she noticed what looked like an enormous pumpkin with legs staggering up the stone steps.
"Hey Hagrid," Freddie said, bemused. "Need a hand? Or a wand?"
"Oh hey there Freddie," he said, his shaggy sweating head appearing from behind the pumpkin. "And yeah if yer don't mind. I've got a dozen of these ter bring in to the Great Hall for the Halloween feast tonight. Jus' be careful. They're the bes' ones I've ever grown. I didn' know they'd be so heavy."
"No problem," she said, pulling her wand from the pocket of her new jacket. "Wingardium Leviosa."
The enormous vegetable lifted itself gently from Hagrid's arms and he let out a sigh of relief. He directed Freddie up the steps and into the Great Hall where several professors were decorating. McGonagall was transfiguring goblets into live bats and sending them up to the ceiling. Professor Sprout and Flitwick were carving jack o'lanterns from average size pumpkins along the tables. One huge pumpkin already sat at one end of the staff table and Hagrid told her to put it down at the other end. She did so carefully.
"Thanks, Freddie. If yer not too busy, I could use some help with the other ones. I've got ter get 'em all up here by 5 o'clock. It'd go a lot faster with yer wand."
"Sure," Freddie said, checking her watch. It was only 3 o'clock. "I was going to see if Professor Snape had any work for me to do, but I don't mind helping. I like Halloween."
"I haven' seen Snape since breakfast," Hagrid said as they left the castle. "He wasn' at lunch. 'Course tha's not unusual, he prob'ly workin on somethin' in his office."
"Probably," Freddie said with a nod. What she didn't say was that if Snape was working on something, he would have told her. Or at least she thought he would have.
Freddie tried to help Hagrid quickly while also being as careful as she could not to drop a pumpkin. They took them up two at a time with Hagrid carrying one and Freddie levitating another. She didn't even notice that Ziggy wasn't following them around anymore until they brought in the last of the pumpkins and she spied her kneazle kit stretched out on his back on the staff table while McGonagall scratched his belly. Curious, Freddie took the small set of steps that led to the staff table. She approached the table awkwardly, knowing that this was a place for teachers and she was still a student.
"Wow," Freddie said. "I've never seen Ziggy let anyone pet him before when I wasn't nearby."
"I have a special touch when it comes to cats – or in this case, kneazles. So this is what you've been hiding in the pouch around your neck in my classroom, Miss Gray," McGonagall said, her eyes glittering behind her spectacles.
"Oh, um, yes. Yes ma'am," she said, looking down at her boots. She thought McGonagall might reprimand her but instead the transfiguration professor chuckled as she continued to pet Ziggy. "I'm sorry. I tried to keep him quiet during class. I couldn't leave him alone, you see, I had to bottle-feed him. I've had him since he was just a few days old. His mother abandoned him."
"How sad," McGonagall said sympathetically as Ziggy rolled over onto his belly so she could stroke his back. "Don't fret, Miss Gray. He – you said his name is Ziggy?"
"Yes ma'am, after Zygmunt Budge, author of the Book of Potions."
"Ziggy never caused any disruption in my class, but very little, if anything, escapes my notice in this castle. In my own classroom in particular. However, your work did not suffer so I did not say anything – even if you did take a few more bathroom breaks than normal."
"I had to feed him every four hours," she said sheepishly. "I tried my best to time it between classes but sometimes he woke up."
"Babies can be quite unpredictable," McGonagall said with a hint of fondness and she fondled Ziggy's ears. "He's certainly growing into quite a handsome young kitten. You're doing a fine job, indeed."
"Thank you, Professor."
"How are you coming along with your Animagus trial?"
"Well I've had a leaf in my mouth for a month now," she said, absently poking it with her tongue just to ensure it was still there. "And tonight is the full moon."
"And you're clear on what you have to do next."
"Yes ma'am."
"Do you need someone to go out with you after dinner so you can make your mixture? I am available to accompany you, if need be, since it will be after hours."
"Um, I'm sure Professor Snape will take me. He usually does and he knows how important this is to me."
"Of course," McGonagall said with an incline of her head. "I'm sure he'll be back by then."
"Back?" Freddie repeated, frowning slightly.
"Indeed," she said, peering down at her over her spectacles. "I saw him leave earlier. I thought he was going to the village but he Disapparated when he reached the gate."
"Where was he going?" she wondered aloud.
"I'm sure if he wanted you to know he would have told you, Miss Gray," McGonagall said with a hint of her usual strict tone coming to the surface. Freddie decided it was best to make a hasty retreat.
"Yes ma'am, of course. Well, I should be getting along. I'm supposed to meet a friend in just a minute."
"Very well," McGonagall said, giving Ziggy's ears a final scratch. The kneazle stood, shook himself once, and leapt down to the floor to follow Freddie out.
"One moment, Miss Gray," McGonagall called sharply before Freddie had even made it down the few steps. She couldn't help but cringe and she turned and walked back up.
"Yes, Professor McGonagall?" she asked cautiously. The woman was scribbling something with a piece of parchment and a quill that had appeared seemingly out of thin air.
"A pass." McGonagall said, signing her name quickly and handing it to her. "To be out after hours. In case Severus doesn't return in time."
"Oh! Thank you," she said, surprised.
"It's important that you not miss this opportunity, Miss Gray. If you do not go out tonight you will have to start all over again."
"Yes ma'am, I understand perfectly. Thank you again," she said quickly, then hurried out of the Great Hall before she had any more awkward encounters with teachers.
Author's Note: Hey guys! So I haven't been doing my AuthorNotes with every chapter because honestly nothing has changed. I'm still suffering with my depression and anxiety (especially pandemic-anxiety, though now I'm fully vaccinated so maybe that'll ease off. I know I still have to be careful, wear a mask and wash/sanitize my hands constantly, but at least I probably won't die if I do happen to get the virus lol AND my mom's age group for the vaccine finally came up in my state and her oncologist approves of her getting it, so she is actually gonna get it! As her caretaker it is a HUGE load off my mind and I'm extra-shocked because she's normally kind of an anti-vaxxer when it comes to new vaccines. Like, my siblings and I didn't get the chickenpox vaccine bc it was "too new" so we just got chickenpox :P And I didn't get to get the Gardasil vaccine as a teen bc it had just come out and she didn't trust it, so like I guess I just get to maybe have HPV? At least I won't have to worry about her dying from coronavirus or being on a ventilator if she gets it, which was extremely likely because her cancer had spread to her lungs. She was reluctant at first but between her oncologist and me, we finally talked her into it. Which is like, HUGE, because I have literally NEVER changed my mother's mind on ANYTHING she is a hard-headed Southern woman to the core! I love her tho! Sorry I just blabbed all this personal crapola, I'll stop now).
Anywayyyy I'm still soldiering through and I really, really want to get this fic finished, no matter how long it takes. I may not communicate it frequently, but I LOVE you all for reading and ESPECIALLY those who take the time to review, even if it's just simple words of encouragement or telling me you loved a chapter. It really just makes my whole day. 3 I know it's not always easy to leave a review – heck, I don't always leave a review on things I read, even though I know firsthand how much it is appreciated. Reviews on a long, slow-moving fic is like water in a desert for me!
Anyway, I do have some idea of how this is going to end now (YAY!) but it is still a ways off (yay? Maybe?) and mostly because sometimes I sit down to write and move the plot forward and instead what comes out is chapter 116, which basically wrote itself with no actual input from me other than I wanted Freddie to have a nice leather jacket. Why? I don't even know, it was just an image of Snape grabbing her by the jacket that popped into my head. Thus ten pages were born. It's nice when that happens and a fic tries to write itself, but it really doesn't help move me towards the end any quicker. Hopefully you guys don't mind and it's not terrible writing!
One last thing before I end this AN and sign off for the evening – eventually the Potions Championship that Freddie is participating in will come up. I know that it is going to take place in December and that it will be 'away' somewhere our beloved couple will have to travel to. What is still not 100% formed in my brain is what sort of challenges Freddie will face during the Championship. The only half-formed idea is one challenge similar to what the Golden Trio had to get past in Book 1 to reach the Philosopher's Stone, the one that Snape set up that was conveniently left out of the movies (damn you screenwriters!). SO if you guys have ANY ideas (seriously I don't care how far-fetched, you never know which sparks will make fire!) please let me know in a review or PM or even feel free to email me directly at redpandaprincess93
That's all for now and I'll update again soon.
Love to you all and hope everyone is hanging in there during these troubled times!
~RPP