I've got about a 1 feet of my hair cut (damn, imagine that!) and my grandparents whom I have not seen for 6 years comes to America. I think I'm going to faint! What an amazing night giving me another reason to hate NYC. Well, I was starting to like it, till we were at the subway and when we were coming up, my dad and I got out fine, but the door closed on my grandparents! Imagine this: your grandparents can't speak a flick of english and gets locked in on a train in a strange city in a strange country and you are standing on the platform watching them go god-knows-where. That @#$%ing guy looked out the window when I was banging on the door and he just drove away. Gosh, am I glad to be back in Boston, a city of education and love! *kisses the ground* Ok, maybe not that much love, but still

Er, where was I? Oh yes, the story and I do not own Harry Potter! Go find JK Rowling! Plus, this is a PG-13 story, so

Love in the Stars

Chapter Nine — Samantha's Story

Harry and Terry flew down towards Samantha and then jumped off their brooms. Her face was white and she had a look of terrible fatigue. Her eyes wide with fear and anxiety. Her hair was all over the place and her face was covered with cuts. Her robe was torn and as she managed to get onto land, she looked up at Harry, tried to grab his robe, then croaked something like "Ackins" and fainted.

"We must get her to hospital wing!" said Harry urgently kneeling down and looking over Samantha.

Terry laid a finger to her chest and said, "Yes we must, ah, she's still alive. I believe she will be able to live. Let's go!" With this, he took out his wand and muttered a few words. Bandanges sprung up from the wand and wrapped around Samantha, then after some more muttering, she was taken up in the air and was flying slowly towards the castle with Terry after her.

Just then, Victor Krum came flying over on his broom with Mary behind him. "What on earth happened?" questioned Krum.

"Oh my goodness!" shrieked Mary pointing at the bandaged figure, "could that be Samantha's corpse risen from the dead?"

"Nonsense, Mary," said Terry sternly, "she was never dead in the first place."

"But —but how?" Mary's question was on everyone's mind.

"We'll find out after she gets better," said Terry, "and Harry? Go back and finish today's training with Cho. I'll just take Samantha to the hospital wing and she isn't likely to come around by today judging from her condition. She needs plenty of rest and healing. Maybe a couple of days would do it."

Harry nodded and jumping onto his Firebolt, shot back to field to tell Cho what happened. For the rest of that afternoon, they taught the team a few new moves like the Woollongong Shimmy (Quidditch Through the Ages) which the chasers did very well. However, the Bludger Backbeat (Quidditch Through the Ages) was still very difficult for the beaters as they can't aim well hitting backwards. Harry stressed to them that they are to practice the new moves till perfection as they are very important ones. When the Keeper, Jamie, asked what moves are there for her position, Harry was about to teach her the Starfish With Stick (Quidditch Through the Ages) move, but Cho cut in that it was far too dangerous and should be left for later.

Harry told Ron and Hermione about what happened to Samantha as there were far too many crazy rumours around that it was impossible to know the truth unless from a more direct source. Ron seemed much brighter nowadays, but Harry and Hermione were not impressed.

"It has to be Ackins," said Harry firmly, "there's not a doubt about it. Samantha said the name herself!"

"I completely agree," said Hermione, "you know what? Why don't we all go and visit Samantha? It's been 3 days"

"Yeah, let's," said Ron.

They arrived at the hospital wing and Madam Pomfrey was very reluctant to let them in. "5 minutes," she said scowling.

Samantha seemed much better now, with her cuts all healed save a few little scars. Her hair was neatly spread on the pillow, but her face was still chalk white. She quickly sat up at the sight of Ron, Harry, and Hermione. Giving a weak smile, she said softly, "I'm so glad to see you all. It's been so terrible oh, this is terrible." She suddenly burst into tears. Harry and Ron looked at each other nervously.

"What happened, Samantha?" asked Hermione gently trying to calm her down, "everyone thought you were dead."

Samantha gave a small sob and sighed, "Oh I don't rightly know myself, but you see, I went to look for you, Ron, that day. Then," she frowned, "Mr. Ackins, he kidnapped me. I'm not quite sure how, but all I know is that I felt these invisible threads tightening up."

"Yes, I read about it. It would have been the Invitha spell," nodded Hermione, "go on."

"Well, I was under the Imperius curse and then I was forced to sit upon a broomstick. Mr. Ackins rod in front and then he threw a cloak over us — to make us invisible I suppose — and then he flew us to his house. Oh it was so terrible! I really do not like Mr. Ackins, though my mother still thinks highly of him, well, sort of anyway, because you see, she was married to him before. She left him for my father. Anyway, he locked me in a closet and I was fed food three times a day, just some bread and porridge." Samantha shuddered violently and closed her eyes as tears poured down silently.

"How did you escape?" asked Harry in a forced calm voice.

"Um, he took me off the Imperius curse for a bit and then I quickly knocked him out cold," said Samantha, "literally, because he felt cold. Oh I don't know. But I ran out of the window and it took a long time for me to get back to Hogwarts. I didn't trust anybody you see so I could go out for help. Besides, they were all muggles! I didn't know any witch or wizards that lived nearby." Samantha breathed for a moment.

"My godfather Sirius lives near him," said Harry blankly.

"Well, I didn't know, Harry," said Samantha, "I've never went to Mr. Ackins's house before because my mother and father kept me away from him. Now if you please, let me finish and don't interrupt. Then I ran and ran. I knew that Hogwarts was somewhere north from his house, so I used the point-me spell to find my way here. I found my wand on him after I knocked down Mr. Ackins. Anyway, it wasn't easy coming here. I had to go through a bit of the forbidden forest and it was terrible there. I had ended up in the section where the trees were thick with thorns, but I guess that's better than the part where the dangerous animals are. Then I jumped into the lake and swam all the way here. That was my only chance as I am very good with most water creatures, but forest creatures, no way. Besides, I would have gotten lost and I know that the lake runs all the way to Hogwarts. You can't believe what a relief it was to come back and see you come running to my rescue, Harry."

Everyone was silent. Harry had a couple of questions, but Madam Pomfrey came storming in shouting something about having more than a quarter of an hour already. The three friends decided to go back to their common rooms. Now they knew who the culprit was for sure. Mr. Ackins had to be the one, as there was no one else. And what did Sirius say? He wasn't a very nice man, but desperately wanted Samantha. That explains everything! Except one thing, thought Harry, Samantha talked about how Mr. Ackins locked her up and fed her and everything, but that couldn't be Mr. Ackins was residing in the school for the year. Then again, he could have come and go. But Samantha also said he felt cold when she knocked him down making it possible that it was a clone! Also, how easily was Samantha able to knock down a full grown wizard? It couldn't have been the real Mr. Ackins, yet almost every clue leads to him. Harry left his inner debate to his sleep.

The end year Quidditch game was to be brought back now that Samantha was really alive. However, a most puzzling thing is, Samantha told Ron that she had told Dumbledore about what happened, yet Mr. Ackins was still here. What was this about? Dumbledore not wanting to protect his students?

Harry explained all the evidences against the fact Mr. Ackins was guilty to Ron and Hermione and they were slowly becoming convinced that there was the chance Mr. Ackins wasn't the bad guy. This did not improve Samantha's mood, but she had gone back to her normal lessons and everything. People looked at her strangely though as if she was a ghost that came back from the dead.

"Snape," said Ron suddenly on a May day as they were doing homework in the Gryffindor common room.

"What are you on about now?" said Hermione a little annoyed, "so he took a point off Gryffindor today, the least he ever took, so what? He's still a mean old git."

Harry grinned at Hermione, but Ron waved his hand and said, "No, Hermione, remember how Snape asked Terry about his dad? Maybe Snape was going to the right direction. Terry's dad is a You-Know-Who followers and judging from how they talked, he's probably still alive, which means it's probably him doing all the work!"

"How do you know? We don't even know who he is and he's not in Hogwarts!" said Harry.

"Exactly," said Ron pounding the table, "We don't know who he is which means he could be Krum -."

"Ron!" Hermione scowled.

"Alright fine, Mary."

"She's a girl, Ron."

"Jonas? Malfoy? Dumbledore?"

"Stop Ron! You are calling out random names and it's not very nice," said Hermione angrily.

"Or," said Ron eyes widening, "Mr. Ackins."

"Their names don't even match, Ron," said Hermione sighing.

"But then, who is he?" wondered Ron.

"I think we all want to know," said Harry, "Ugh, this is stupid. We've got to find out who is doing all this stuff before real deaths occurs! Soon, one by one, students are going to fall!"

"Maybe Terry's dad is You-Know-Who," suggested Ron.

"I never heard of Voldemort having kids," laughed Harry, "it's just weird to think of him maternal."

"He's not the mom, Harry," Ron glared at him, then laughed too, "Or maybe he is, you know, transexual."

Hermione slammed her book shut and said suddenly, "I need to go to the library." She ran out of the portrait hole.

Harry and Ron had finished their work, but Hermione was still not back yet. It was very late and the library closed hours ago. Finally, after a few self debates, they decided to go and look for her, with the Invisibility cloak of course. They patrolled around the library areas looking for her, but had to leave as Peeves was throwing books around. They had to quickly sneak off and then ran along an unknown hallway. They found a stunned body in the classroom they had to escape into to avoid Filch's cat.

"Hermione!" whispered Ron.

Harry pulled out his wand and muttered the spell the wake her up. She looked at them in a dazed look at first and then grabbed them by the collars and said in an urgent voice, "Samantha's kidnapped again! We have to hurry! She's the key and he's going to use her to switch with You-Know-Who! He will rise again if we don't hurry!"

"Who, Hermione? Who? Where to hurry to? Hermione!" Cold sweat poured down Harry's forehead and back, his scar burning furiously.

~*~*~

Only one or two chapters left, depending on how much writing space the next event is gonna take. Also, I'm thinking of a sequel, but not something like this story. The sequel would have to be longer, better written, and more complicated. Anyway, tell me if you would like a sequel after I finish writing this one.