Chapter Forty Five
Harry felt numb in the days that followed Severus's leaving.
Professor Trelawney had been replaced by a centaur from the Forbidden Forest named Firenze, Harry remembered him from his first year at school. He was a fair teacher, almost certainly better than Trelawney had been, but took to often talking in riddles which annoyed Harry greatly.
Severus had yet to be permanently replaced. Dumbledore, as headmaster had the right to find an appropriate member of staff, Umbridge only having the right to do so if Dumbledore was unable to do so for whatever reason.
Dumbledore had contacted Professor Horace Slughorn, an old teacher and head of Slytherin house, unfortunately his reply to the offer had come two days later than the one week deadline, meaning Umbridge, with greedy hands, had snatched at the chance to appoint the Potions teacher herself.
She said that she would consider Slughorn, but there was "a few worrying notes" in his file that would need a "full investigation" from the Ministry before anything could take place.
Harry sat, bored in the lesson with the third substitute teacher they'd had, at least this one was easily understood. She was a middle aged lady, her grey and brown hair in a messy bun, right on the top of her head. She worn heavy horn rimmed glasses and tended to ramble on about unrelated stories whenever she was setting them a task. Harry wasn't too worried, however, about falling behind; she had been a suggestion from Dumbledore and would therefore be gone before the end of the week.
As Easter approached it was suggested that some of the students be allowed to visit home should they wish over the long weekend. It was firmly denied. Professor Umbridge did, however begrudgingly, allow students to gather in larger groups so that family members could spend the four days together without worrying.
Harry, Draco, Daphne, Pansy, Hermione and Neville took full advantage of that and spent the unusually warm days down by the lake. The Friday that they had missed lunch they were down there for so long and as Saturday proved to be an even nicer day, they'd taken extra pastries from breakfast so they could have lunch inside the sunshine. Pansy and Daphne had kicked their shoes off, it was lovely to splash their feet in the water.
"It sucks that Professor Snape had to leave; he was a good teacher." Pansy sighed, rolling one of the DA coins between her fingers.
Harry shrugged. He still wasn't really ready to talk about how alone he felt and didn't want to make his friends feel bad, "I guess, deep down, I always knew it would happen. Umbridge hates the fact that he was my Dad, that I had some sort of contact to the outside world. I'm surprised it took her so long."
Hermione tucked her pencil behind her ear, "What are you thinking about?" she asked Pansy, shuffling over to where Pansy and Daphne were sprawled on the grass.
"I was wondering what we could do to improve the coins." Pansy said, sitting up.
"What sort of thing were you thinking of?" Hermione asked, a little more defensively than she'd meant to, "Sorry, I just was wondering what was wrong with them."
"There's nothing wrong with them; I mean so far they've worked fine. I was just thinking we could maybe somehow making them more personalised?" Pansy suggested, "So we can send messages to different members?"
"That would be difficult." Hermione mused, "I mean, it would be easy, but we'd need to make sure it was only the intended recipient could read it, that would be the tricky bit."
Pansy nodded, "Yep. Making them warm would possibly help as well, make sure everyone could tell that it had changed."
"Again, easier for outsiders to notice that they're not just a normal galleon though." Daphne sighed.
Pansy grinned and waved her hand dismissively, "I'm just over thinking things."
"Bored are we?" Daphne asked.
"A little. More a case of I'd rather be thinking about anything other than school work and stupid O. right now." Pansy smirked, "Plus, as my parents always say, there is always room for improvement."
Hermione shuffled over and took the coin from her hand, "Quite right. Let's move over a little, make sure that we can't be over seen from the windows."
The three girls moved over to the edge of the water, Hermione also kicked off her shoes so they could sit, splashing their feet in the gentle waves. Harry, Draco and Neville shook their heads and laughed a little.
"Come on, ladies! It's a lovely day and we've not got many off now before exams. Take a break and come and do something that doesn't require thinking!" Draco grinned.
"Not hard for some of you." Daphne smirked.
"Go away and play." Hermione joked, waving her hand dismissively behind her, "We're busy."
"We could go and ask the Ravenclaw Quidditch team if we could join in practice?" Neville suggested, "I'm sure Cho and William wouldn't mind."
"No." Pansy said, "It's bad enough Umbridge has been difficult with the Slytherin Quidditch team, we don't need her starting on the Ravenclaws as well. I'm sure you can play by yourselves for a while."
Harry huffed dramatically and pulled a tongue at her before walking away from the water to play catch with Neville and Draco with a snitch Draco had found at the bottom of his trunk while the girls talked over ideas for improvements.
After an hour or so, and twice being checked on from Umbridge, Daphne had worked out a way that, in theory, they could make the coins heat up when the date was changed, and only noticeable for the person bonded with the coin.
It wasn't ideal, the spell could take up to ten minutes to finish bonding with their owner and there was over thirty members in the DA; it was going to take a long time but it would stop the date changes from being missed.
"Daphne! Pansy! Hermione!" Neville shouted, clutching his side with laughter.
The three girls stood up and saw Harry and Draco waltzing around on the grass.
"Look!" Harry beamed, "I think we finally got it!"
Pansy shook her head with laughter as Draco elegantly lowered Harry over his arm and then twirled him back up.
"Only took you more than a year." Daphne laughed.
Hermione grinned and went over, Neville spinning her into the dance. Daphne and Pansy swayed softly, singing two slightly different tunes for them to dance to.
Pansy screamed as the tentacle snapped tight around her ankle and pulled her to the ground. She fell with a thump, her face thankfully hitting a tuft of grass.
"Pansy!" Daphne screamed, reaching for her sobbing friend's hand.
Daphne scrabbled to grab Pansy's hand as she was dragged closer to the water. Another tentacle shot quickly from the water and grabbed Daphne's leg, tossing her in the air where she splashed into the water behind the squid.
Daphne swum quickly to the surface and tried to catch her breath, she managed to take one gasp before the squid pulled her back under the water.
Pansy had managed to grab hold of a tuft of grass and was fighting to escape from the squid, which seemed determined to drag her into the water.
Harry, Hermione, Neville and Draco rushed over, firing shots of stunning spells at the squid to no effect.
"Someone help!" Draco screamed, catching hold of Pansy's hand.
"I feel like my ankle's breaking." Pansy sobbed, clutching at Draco as Neville and Harry tried to pull the tentacle from Pansy's leg.
Hermione jumped into the water, trying to reach Daphne who was still being tossed around in the water. Hermione dodged and dived around the tentacles until she reached the spluttering Daphne.
"Are you OK?" Hermione gasped, grabbing hold of Daphne and pulling her close.
Daphne nodded, coughing out some water. Hermione saw the squid reaching for them and pushed Daphne out the way just in time. Hermione was grabbed and tossed across the lake, hitting the water hard.
Back on the land Draco was still struggling to hold onto Pansy. Nothing they seemed to do had any effect on the squid. Harry and Neville abandoned their wands and were hitting the tentacle with rocks and their bare hands.
"Help!" Screamed Draco, spotting the Ravenclaw Quidditch team leaving the pitch.
The seven players, including Cho and William rushed over, William grabbed Pansy's hand.
"What's happened?" Cho yelled, spotting the squid attacking Hermione and Daphne in the water, "The squid has never attacked anyone before!"
"We don't know." Harry gasped, "It just went nuts and is trying to kill them!"
Pansy screamed as she was pulled out of Draco and William's grip and slid into the water. She felt the water pressing against her face, as her lungs began to scream for air.
She scraped her hands against the rough stone edge of the lake, leaving trails of blood in the water. The squid lifted her up and tossed her around, her ankle burning with pain from the pressure of being thrown around.
"We have to stun it or something!" William screamed, trying to spot Pansy as she was dragged around.
"It's not working!" Harry yelled, feeling utterly helpless as he watched his friends, "We tried!"
"Grab your broom!" Cho said, "We have to try and get them out of the water!"
William nodded, his face white with worry. He grabbed his broom from where he'd dropped it and kicked off from the ground.
"Go and get a teacher, all teachers you come across!" William yelled to the other Quidditch players.
"I'm coming with you." Cho said, mounting her own broom as the others rushed to the castle.
William flew over the water, as soon as he was over the churning surface the squid began to reach for him and Cho as well.
"DUCK!" Cho yelled as she swerved away from a tentacle.
William felt it's sticky skin touch his face as he just managed to move away, his broom flipping around that would have knocked many flyers into the water below.
Pansy was bobbing around in the water, swimming towards Hermione. The squid caught her again and thrashed her around by her waist before dragging her under the surface yet again.
Harry, Draco and Neville were still fighting the squid on land, it's tentacles were snatching out for them, trying to get them into the water as well. Harry slipped and crashed down the embankment, splashing into the water.
William managed to swoop down, avoiding several tentacles, grabbing Pansy and pulling her soaking, shaking form onto his broom.
She coughed loudly and smacked away yet another tentacle, making the broom shake. Cho landed in the water with a crash, her broom splintering into several bits from the impact. The squid was now grabbing for her as well as she tried to swim out the way.
Harry fought the squid himself, as Draco and Neville once again tried to stun the creature from the land, while ducking away from the snatching tentacles.
William swore loudly and grasped for Pansy as the Squid once again caught her ankle, pulling her off the broom.
"I've got you!" William panted, struggling to hold onto Pansy's wet hand.
Pansy clutched to his arm, digging her nails into his skin, the pain in her ankle increased as the squid pulled more tightly.
"Let go!" she sobbed, loosening her grip on William's hand.
"What?! No!" William cried.
"Please!" Pansy cried, she screamed anyway though, as William lost his grip and once again splashed under the water.
William looked on in horror as Pansy, Cho, Hermione, Harry and Daphne all vanished under the lake. The squid pulled in its tentacles and also vanished.
"Can you see them?" William called down to a breathless Neville and Draco who were sprawled on the edge of the lake.
Neville and Draco shook their heads.
"No, can you?" Draco screamed up to him.
William circled the lake panic rising in his chest. He could feel tears brimming at the thought of Pansy struggling under the water, unable to breath.
Pansy had never been this deep in the lake. She couldn't see, the water stinging her eyes as the squid, still firmly wrapped around her ankle moving slowly down to the bottom of the lake.
Her lungs were begging her to breathe as the water pushed on her face, the pressure making her ears pop, increasing her already substantial pain.
And then it stopped. The squid let go, suddenly releasing Pansy's ankle and letting her stop the never ending dissent into the lake. She swam desperately for the surface, gasping for air the moment her face broke through the water.
William swooped down and grabbed her, pulling her up onto his broom again.
"Are you OK?" William asked, clutching onto her.
Pansy shook her head, "No." she sobbed, coughing loudly.
William rubbed her back, trying to sooth her. He glanced over to the shore where a large group of teachers had arrived.
He flew back, dropping Pansy gently on the ground.
"What happened?" Dumbledore asked, watching Harry drag himself ashore, coughing loudly, "Filius, go and get Poppy."
Professor Flitwick nodded and rushed towards the castle. Dumbledore walked over to Harry and helped him onto dry land.
"The squid went nuts." Harry gasped, "Hermione, Cho and Daphne are still in the water."
William, begrudgingly left Pansy and quickly flew out and rescued Hermione and Cho. Daphne managed to reach the side herself, helped dragged ashore by McGonagall and Sprout before William could go and get her.
"Albus, what's happening? Filius said the squid has attacked? It's never harmed a student before." Madam Pomfrey said, looking over the dripping wet students.
"That is correct, from what we can tell." Dumbledore nodded, clearly concerned, "I suggest we get these eight inside to the hospital wing so we can check them over, and hopefully get some more details about what happened."
Madam Pomfrey nodded and helped them to their feet. William slipped an arm around Pansy's waist and helped her inside.