Chapter 12 - The Chase
The following week on Tuesday afternoon Barney was in a good mood as he always was on a this afternoon. His timetable was a Flying lesson proceeded by a free period, which after he'd learnt that Hufflepuff also had a free period at this time, made it was his favourite time of the week. Even the thought of detention that evening with Silvanna and Professor Strange didn't dampen his happy mood too much.
As he walked down to the lawns for his Flying class he was glad the sun was out though there was a chill in the air and everyone was wearing their winter cloaks, scarves in their house colours and gloves. As he always did when he got to his Flying lesson Barney went and stood with the Ravenclaws, rather than with his fellow Slytherins.
Today Madame Hooch was getting them to do some Quidditch practice by passing balls between each other while they were flying. The class got into pairs and Barney teamed up with Ravenclaw Tilly Greensmith. Madame Hooch had rigged up Tilly a special harness for her broom so she could keep safely on it while flying and use her only hand to catch and pass the ball.
"I've never asked you before, and I hope you don't mind me asking but how did you lose your arm?" Barney asked Tilly, trying to be as sensitive as possible.
"Do you really want to know? It's not a pretty story."
Barney hesitated for a second before answering. "Yeah I do."
"OK then. My father works with dragons. He took me to work one day when I was little and I fell into the cage of an African Bloodvenom. Now the good thing about this type of dragon is that they can't breath fire. The bad thing is their bites are extremely dangerous. This one bit my whole arm off but in its saliva is a venom which infected the wound. I was lucky I got the antidote just in time or I would have died. But the damage it left behind meant no kind of magic could make my arm grow back."
As Barney stood in shock Tilly kicked off the ground and was up and flying away, leaving Barney behind in stunned silence. Ravenclaw Ralph, who'd been listening in to their conversation, came up to Barney.
"She told me she'd got bitten by a werewolf and they had to amputate her arm before it's bite spread and she became a werewolf herself."
Barney took off too and was quick to find Tilly in the skies and they began to pass the ball between them, starting off close by as the flew slowly and then gradually picking up the pace and moving further away as they got more confident.
"So how did you really lose your arm?" Barney called out across to Tilly as he threw the ball back to her. "Ralph told me you told him it was from a werewolf attack."
Tilly laughed as she caught the ball and threw it back to him. Barney, being a little distracted in their conversation barely caught it.
"Do you really want to know?"
"Yes."
"Fine. Catch me and I'll tell you!"
And with that Tilly had sped off on her broom, winding in and out of the other students. Barney, still holding the ball, watched as she streaked away. Up for the challenge he decided to give chase and rushed after her. He weaved in and out of his fellow students, dodging their balls as they threw them to each other. Tilly looked behind and saw Barney was in pursuit so she increased her speed and did a nose dive towards the ground before pulling up and soaring upwards again.
"Greensmith and West you're meant to be passing the ball, not chasing each other," Madame Hooch called out but neither could hear against the rush of the wind.
The other students watched as Barney continued to pursue Tilly, with Tilly doing all sorts of evasive turns, dives and loops to try and throw Barney off. Barney got almost close enough to touch her but Tilly quickly turned upwards as they approached the wall surrounding the lawns. Barney almost didn't see it in time but just managed to pull his broom up and avoid a collision.
"Hey Lara, try and catch me!" Ling Harper, a Ravenclaw student called out to her partner as she dashed off too.
Lara followed and soon everyone else in the class had ditched the task of throwing the balls and were now chasing their partners through the air.
"Students stop this now!" Hooch called out and then blew her whistle but no one listened.
Everard chased Maximille through the air and almost went head first into fellow Slytherin Genevieve who was pursing Odette McCoy, who had just done a barrel roll to evade being caught.
"Everyone come down this instance!" Hooch yelled. Her voice was getting hoarse so she gave up. Instead she watched and waited to catch anyone who fell, but was impressed by some of her students moves through the air.
Barney continued hot on the heels of Tilly, who had the sense to move away from the chaos of the other students and had ventured away from the practice lawns. They flew over the greenhouses and Barney could just make out the students below looking up through the glass as the pair of them bolted by overhead. Tilly was looking behind her and shouted a taunt at Barney though he couldn't hear over the rush of the wind. But Barney noticed where Tilly was heading straight for.
Tilly watch out!" he hollered at the top of his voice hoping she'd hear.
But she didn't and she hurtled straight into the path of the Whomping Willow. Her broom became lodged in it's branches and Tilly frantically tried to free herself as the tree began to shack it's branches wildly, annoyed that someone was on it. Like a crazed bull, the tree tried it's best to buck Tilly off as she desperately tried to unhook herself from her harness, but she struggling with the catch and screamed as another branch swatted her in her face.
Barney landed nearby but out of the reach of the Whomping Willow, which battered down another branch on the ground towards him. He tried to get closer but the tree continued to keep him at bay. He looked up at Tilly, helpless in the tree as she struggled to get free. Barney seized his chance as the Whomping Willow lifted it's branch in readiness for another strike at him. He dashed forward as the branch came crashing down again, hitting the ground just behind him and barely missing him. He raced towards the trunk of the tree and found what he was looking for. At the base of the tree was a small knot and Barney pressed it. The tree suddenly stopped moving and became still except for a rustle of it's leaves caused by the wind. Tilly let out a sigh of relief as she caught her breath.
"Release your harness and I'll catch you," Barney called up to her.
Now the tree was still Tilly had no problem undoing the catch and let go of her broom as Barney has his wand in hand ready and pointed at her.
"Deorsum!"
Tilly floated to the ground like a feather as Barney guided her down with his wand safely. When she landed she immediately gave Barney a big hug.
"Thank you. How did you know to do that with the tree?"
"I read it in a book. Herbology is one of the classes I'm actually doing well at," he replied. "Does this mean I caught you?"
They both laughed.
Tilly used a summoning charm to get the broom down and the pair headed back to the practice lawns as Tilly told him how she really lost her arm.
"I was trying on my mum's wedding dress when I spilled pumpkin juice on it. I tried to use a vanishing charm to get rid of the stain but missed and vanished my arm instead. Apparently because I hadn't done the spell completely right there was no way to undo it. So now my arm is vanished for good."
"And is that the truth?" questioned Barney.
"I swear on all that is magic that is the truth. I just make up the other stories as it's less embarrassing than telling people I accidentally vanished my own arm."
The both laughed again as they reached the practice lawns as the last of the students were coming back down to land. Madame Hooch looked a little annoyed.
"Well class that wasn't quite what I had in mind," she fumed as everyone looked a bit sorry for themselves and avoided eye contact with her.
Barney prayed that he wasn't about to get another detention on top of the one he had tonight.
"But Mr Dorn that was a great double loop you did and Miss St Clair your turning skills were excellent. There's defiantly some future Quidditch players amongst you," Madame Hooch beamed with a proud smile. "Class dismissed."
Barney met up with Thomas and Tabitha in the West Tower of the castle where the Owlery was located. Tabitha had her own owl called Frank who she was feeding treats to as Barney arrived. His hair was a mess and his robes were in disarray.
"What happened to you?" she asked.
"Oh I just had a flying lesson," he said as he tried to pat his wayward hair down.
Thomas seemed afraid of the owls and was stood with his back against the wall, away from their perches.
"So have you managed to find anything out?" Tabitha asked as she now scratched the back of Frank's wing and he hooted to note his satisfaction.
"I've looked all over our dorm and common room but haven't found any evidence of what they were brewing."
"Have you looked in the girl's dorm?" Tabitha asked.
"Obviously not. If I was to get caught in there the other Slytherins would have a field day with the new names they could call me. Have you had any luck?"
"No. I've been following Silvanna whenever I can after lessons but she's not been doing anything out of the ordinary," she relied. "I even went back and tried asking Myrtle if she remembered anything else but she was not helpful at all."
"I still think we should tell Professor McGonagall, " Thomas added before ducking as an owl flew in the window and straight past him before it took a perch with the others.
"Maybe he's right."
"And what evidence do we have?" Tabitha moaned. "I don't even know if Myrtle would back us up and tell them what she saw. She was in a right fowl mood when I saw her."
"So what do we do next?" Thomas asked as he took a puff of his inhaler.
"Maybe we should just confront them and ask what they were making?" suggested Tabitha.
"That's a very bad idea," Barney retorted.
"Or maybe when everyone is at the Halloween feast tomorrow you can search the Slytherin girl's dorm," she said.
"Also a bad idea."
"Come on it's the only place we haven't looked,"Tabitha said with a sly grin that Barney had come to know meant she was concocting some sort of plan that was bound to end badly.
But the more he thought about it the more it seemed logical. If there was any evidence of the potion they were brewing it was the safest place to hide it. In the boys dorm Barney might have stumbled on it. But in the girls dormitory no one else would be going in there except the first year Slytherin girls. And they were all too scared of Silvanna to tell on her if they did find anything that shouldn't be there.
After dinner Barney left the Great Hall and grudgingly headed down to the dungeons to the Potions classroom for his detention with Professor Strange. While he was to spend his evening in detention due to Silvanna's actions, the rest of the school were going to be carving pumpkins, that had been grown by Hagrid, ready for tomorrow's Halloween celebrations. The best carved pumpkins would be awarded house points, as judged by Hagrid himself. When he got to the room the desks were covered with cauldrons, vials, beakers, pestles and mortars, glass jars, spoons, knives and many other utensils. Silvanna arrived just after him.
"Sit down," Strange commanded and they both took seats at separate desks in silence. "You will be cleaning all of the classrooms utensils."
Barney and Silvanna both looked at the hoards of items in front of them. Barney looked into one bowl which had a thick black scum all around it. Another bowl had a green gloop in that he could swear was moving.
Professor Strange got up from his desk and approached the pair of them.
"Your wands please."
"What?" Silvanna queried.
"You will be cleaning everything by hand. No magic."
"But that will take us hours," she protested.
"Have you got somewhere else to be?"
The pair of them reluctantly handed over their wands and got down to the labouring task of cleaning everything by hand. Professor Strange provided them with a bucket of water each and brushes and went back to his desk where he was marking papers. Every now and then he would get up and inspect the pairs work and point out any items that hadn't been cleaned properly and needed doing again.
As they were hard at work Barney heard a creaking noise and turned to see the door to the classroom opening but no one entered. Instead a piece of parchment flew across the room and landed on Professor Strange's desk. The professor picked it up and read it before muttering some incantation and the piece of parchment burnt into flames.
"Students you will remain here and continue with your punishment and I will be back shortly," he said as he got up and walked out of the room without saying any more.
As the door closed Silvanna got up and immediately went over to the professor's desk.
"What are you doing?"
"Mind your own business," she said as she tried to open the draw of the desk but it was locked shut.
"You didn't really think he'd just leave our wands lying around did you?"
"I said mind your own business muggle!" she fumed as she picked up a knife to see if she could force the draw open but to no avail.
"Look the quicker we get this done the quicker we can go so why don't you get back to cleaning. You'll never get it open."
Silvanna knew he was right. It was locked shut with magic and there was no way to open it without knowing the counter-spell or password. But there was no way she was going to admit to him that he was right.
Barney left her to it and got back to his cleaning as Silvanna tried to think of another way to speed up the cleaning process but she knew without her wand there wasn't much she could do. She sat back at her desk and let out a huff of frustration.
They sat in silence for a few minutes as Silvanna sat there doing nothing and Barney continued to work at an exceptionally filthy cauldron covered with something that smelt worse than Maximille's smelly socks that he would leave lying around the dorm.
"Where do you think he's gone?" Barney asked, breaking the silence.
"I really couldn't care muggle."
"It was strange that he burnt the paper. What do you think it said?"
"I'm not a mind reader muggle. Now leave me alone!"
Barney didn't say any more and continued to clean in silence and before long Professor Strange returned. As soon as he did Silvanna started to clean furiously, trying to make it look like she'd been doing it all along since he'd gone.
"You're dismissed," Strange said with no emotion as he walked back to his desk, not even looking at the pair of them.
Neither of them needed to be told twice and they both quickly got up.
"What about our wands Sir?" Silvanna asked.
"Hemlock," Strange muttered under his breath and the draw of his desk opened and he took out the two wands and placed them on his desk.
They both quickly retrieved theirs and exited the classroom without looking back, both glad their detention was other.
"That was odd that he just let us leave like that," Barney noted as they walked through the dungeons back to the Slytherin common room.
"Don't speak to me and don't walk with me!" she raged. "I don't want to go back to the common room with you near me. People might think we're friends and I couldn't think of anything worse."
Barney held back and let Silvanna go as he turned and looked back at the door of the Potions classroom, still wondering what had been written on that piece of parchment.