Everyone has Secrets: Part 2
By kozumikku tenshi
Since you all liked Neville's new attitude so very much, I may change the story line that I have plotted out to fit him in a little more. Maybe. Anywho, this part'll be a little longer. If wanna know the disclaimers and spoilers, I suggest you check out the first story. Well . . .read it already! ^_^
*~*~*~*~*~*
Harry walked wearily up one of Hogwarts many flights of staircases. It had been an uneventful day on the whole, except for the fact that Malfoy had dropped in almost every class, just to criticize him. He still had a few grades to give out before he went to bed, too.
Many of the portraits said 'Hello' and ''Evenin' Mr Potter' as he climbed. He was just about to his room/office (he had recently combined the two to make room for all the paperwork he had), when something caught his eye: It was outside the window in the hall, and he stepped to the window to get a better look.
It was a shadow, nothing more, nothing less, but Harry swore he had seen it move, right along the outside of the Forbidden Forest. Oh, well, he thought. It must be my tired mind playing tricks on me. He thought no more of it, and entered his office.
*~*~*~*~*
"Now, today class, we're going to do something a little different!" Harry announced.
"What?" a girl in the back sneered. 'We're going to have fun?!"
Harry frowned. This 4th year Sytherin class was a handful. "Are you, Ms. Higgins, suggesting that my class is boring? That'll be 10 points from Sytherin, for that very rude remark."
Eliza Higgins frowned, then turned on her desk mate and started to annoy her.
"As I was saying," Harry continued, "We're going to learn how to deflect a dark spell given by an animal!"
Eliza's deskmate coughed suddenly and said, "But how could a animal give a dark spell? They can't use wands! And if it could cast a spell without a wand, wouldn't that be covered in Care of Magical Creatures? And . . . Eliza, stop poking me! Ouch!"
Harry peered over his glasses at the girl. He'd never noticed her before., and she appeared to be the kind that stood out: She had shoulder length blonde hair, with a wide green streak running down one side. Her nails were painted a dark purple, and so were her lips. Like Harry, she had glasses, but underneath them, her eyelashes were purple. Harry especially noticed a large ornamental ring on her right hand. Very strange looking, indeed.
"Well, yes, that usually would be covered in the Care of Magical creatures class, but no amount of animal handling can stop a dark spell, Ms - I'm sorry, I don't believe I caught you're name . . ."
She looked at him beneath her purple eyelashes and smiled. "Alexa Riddle. My name is Alexa Riddle."
Some people gasped, and others, thinking this was a tremendous joke, laughed. Riddle had been Voldemorts name, long ago. Although he had been vanquished for good, by Harry himself, most wizards would still not speak his name.
Alexa sat back and smiled lazily at their stunned faces, and Eliza moved her chair over to another desk. Harry sent some sparks into the air with his wands, and eventually got the classes attention. "Well, OK, Ms Riddle. As I was saying, many animals use physical properties to protect themselves and get their food, like snakes use their fangs, but some can use magic as well. It's always best to be prepared."
Harry made the class gather their things, and he lead them outside. No one would walk were Alexa was, and their was a large empty circle around her. She didn't seem to mind this in the slightest. In fact, she actually looked like he was enjoying it.
The class came to a halt at the foot of the large lake on school grounds. "Now,' Harry began. "Who knows what a basilisk is?"
The class let loose a collective gasp. Surely the teacher wouldn't bring a basilisk to school! But Alexa smiled nonchalantly and shot her hand into the air.
"A basilisk is a snake that can kill people just by looking into there eyes. There was one in the school about 15 or 20 years ago, but no one was killed. A few people got turned to stone, though, because if you look at it through, say, a camera lense, it only turns them to stone."
"Absolutely right!" Harry crowed. "Of course, I would never bring a real basilisk to school, gracious no! What I have here, at the bottom of this lake, is a basiliskette. It's a cross between a basiliskette and a regular snake. Very tricky to make, because you have to blind fold the basilisk." Here, the class emitted a series of giggles, right on cue. "Anyway," Harry went on. "Even though a basiliskette has only enough magic to turn you to stone for a short while, please were these special sunglasses so I don't have to drag any students back to class."
Harry began to pass out the glasses, and continued, " Now, this is an independent assignment. I want you to think of a spell you've already learned, and use it to immobilize. Not kill, just stun, OK? I'll be marking you on your creativity and the effectiveness of your choice of spell." He crouched by the lake, and began to hiss. Only he could here himself saying, in Parsel tongue "You can come out now." And only he could here the answer, "Alright Potter, I'm coming. You'd better remember our deal! Yum, I can almost taste those jackrabbits!"
Everyone stood in line with their sunglasses on, but caught something in the corner of his eye: It was Alexa, sneaking along behind the line. She stopped for a moment behind a girl named Carrie Stevens, then resumed her place in the back of the line. Odd, Harry thought.
The basiliskette reached the surface of the lake, and Harry put a protective spell on it so each person would have a turn.
Eliza, who'd pushed and shoved her way to the front of the line, went first. She advanced on the snake like she was a quarterback, and Harry actually thought she was going to tackle it. She stopped a foott from it, and shouted something. An icy blue beam shot from her wand, straight towards the snake, a but it shattered on the snakes shield. "Nice work, Eliza! Steven, that would've skinned it! Not very creative Carrie!" It went on like that, until, finally only Alexa was left.
Everyone watched tensely as Alexa stepped up to the snake nervously. She reached into her robe and pulled out something. To Harry's suprise, she didn't have a wand in her hand, but a pocket-mirror. "Hey!" Carrie shouted. "That's my mirror! You pick-pocket, give it back!" Alexa paid no attention to her, and in the space of a milli-second, had taken off her glasses and placed the mirror in front of her face, so it was facing towards the snake. The basiliskette, looked into Alexa's eyes, as it had been instructed, but instead found himself staring straight into his own eyes.
It's skin turn a rough gray, like concrete, and it began to go stiff. It had turns itself to stone!
Some people didn't know what'd happened, and tried desperately to peer over each others shoulders. Alexa grinned, posititively basking in the confusion she'd caused. But Harry sprang to action at once. He pulled a small vial from inside his robes, and slowly poured it onto the snake. The snake almost immediately began to come back to life. "Nothing to worry about!" he yelled to his class, which was now in a state of utter panic. "Everybody, head back to the classroom! Not you, Ms Riddle, I need to speak with you!"
As confused as they were, the class obeyed, and Alexa crossed her arms and waited. After Harry had set the clearly ticked-off snake back into the water, he turned to Alexa.
"That was . . . . resourceful, but why didn't you just use your wand?" At this, she turned almost as purple as her lips, gave Harry a cold stare, and stormed back into Hogwarts. Harry threw his arms into the arm resignedly and entered the school building as well.
But before he could reach it, Malfoy sauntered out. "Well, Potter, having trouble with your classes? Tsk, tsk! Don't let the pressure get to you!" He threw his head back and laughed, his silvery blonde hair bouncing this way and that. Harry walked calmly up to him, though his blood was practically boiling, and said "What, do you mean the same pressure that's been in your head ever since you fell down the stairs?" and breezed past him into the school building.
*~*~*~*~*
Harry watched patiently as Neville downed his mug of Butterbeer. He'd said he had something to tell Harry, but wouldn't say a word until after his drink.
"Well, anyway," Neville said finally, smacking his lips in content. "I suppose I can tell you now. There's someone waiting for you in your office. Or 'someones'???" He gave a great mischeviously grin.
Harry's mouth hung open. Who could be waiting for him? He stood up slowly and made his way towards his office, adn when he was halfway there, Malfoy came storming down the steps. He didn't say anything, only glared coldly at Harry, and stomped off. Harry looked after him and muttered "Curiouser and curiouser," (A/N: That's from 'Alice in Wonderland', people!!) something he'd heard in a book or movie of some sort. After a few more minutes, he'd reached his office, paused, and opened the door.
"Ron! Hermione! . . . Viktor?" Harry laughed. "I knew I hadn't seen the last of you guys!"
Ron was still red haired and freckled, and Hermione's hair lay a little bit more flat against her head than it did the last time he saw her. Viktor, of course, looked almost exactly the same since Harru'd sen him at Hermione's and Viktor's wedding. I just hope he can pronounce her name right, now, Harry thought.
"So Ron, what poor country have you been sucking the money out of lately?" Ron laughed and tried to look offended. 'That hurts, Harry! Romania. I've been helping Charlie with the dragon's he has left. Been dieing out lately, you know. The dragons, not Charlie."
"And Hermione," Harry laughed. "How's Canada been treating you?"
"It's great, Harry! You should see Alberta. Simply teeming with wizards! Never seen so many wizards in a muggle place in all my life! Only bad thing is the weather. Very hot summers, very cold winters." Hermione paused to smile lovingly at Viktor. 'But we can tough it out.'
"Yes," Viktor added. "And the muggles are so friendly!"
Harry laughed heartily. "Good to see you all doing so well!"
"What about you, Harry?" Viktor asked. 'How go's the teaching job?"
Harry sighed. "Not so good. Malfoys teaching potions . . ." "Yeah, we saw him," Ron added. "Gave us a look that freeze your blood! then he just stormed down the stairs." " . . . . and he's critisizing me every chance he gets," Harry continued. "On top of that, Dumbledore's feeling ill. The poor old fellow had to go on sick leave for the first time in 15 years!"
"Oh, don't you worry about Dumbledore. He'll survive another 30 years, you just watch!!" Ron said cheerily.
"That's not the least of my troubles," Harry sighed. "I've got a very troublesome student in my fourth year Slytherin class. Scaring the other students with her antics. And . . . " Harry bit his lip. "Her last name is Riddle."
Hermione gasped. "But wasn't that . . . ?!"
"Voldemort's last name?" Harry finished. "Yes."
Ron shuddered. "Please don't say that name."
Viktor sighed and said "Well, we'll be here for a veek, at least." Harry noticed that he let his accent slip a little, but Viktor didn't seem to care. 'Maybe we can help you!"
"I sure hope you can, Viktor. I sure hope you can."
*~*~*~*~*
Okay, that's it for now. I'll have a new part up every day, I hope. Don't worry, it isn't a VERY long story.
By kozumikku tenshi
Since you all liked Neville's new attitude so very much, I may change the story line that I have plotted out to fit him in a little more. Maybe. Anywho, this part'll be a little longer. If wanna know the disclaimers and spoilers, I suggest you check out the first story. Well . . .read it already! ^_^
*~*~*~*~*~*
Harry walked wearily up one of Hogwarts many flights of staircases. It had been an uneventful day on the whole, except for the fact that Malfoy had dropped in almost every class, just to criticize him. He still had a few grades to give out before he went to bed, too.
Many of the portraits said 'Hello' and ''Evenin' Mr Potter' as he climbed. He was just about to his room/office (he had recently combined the two to make room for all the paperwork he had), when something caught his eye: It was outside the window in the hall, and he stepped to the window to get a better look.
It was a shadow, nothing more, nothing less, but Harry swore he had seen it move, right along the outside of the Forbidden Forest. Oh, well, he thought. It must be my tired mind playing tricks on me. He thought no more of it, and entered his office.
*~*~*~*~*
"Now, today class, we're going to do something a little different!" Harry announced.
"What?" a girl in the back sneered. 'We're going to have fun?!"
Harry frowned. This 4th year Sytherin class was a handful. "Are you, Ms. Higgins, suggesting that my class is boring? That'll be 10 points from Sytherin, for that very rude remark."
Eliza Higgins frowned, then turned on her desk mate and started to annoy her.
"As I was saying," Harry continued, "We're going to learn how to deflect a dark spell given by an animal!"
Eliza's deskmate coughed suddenly and said, "But how could a animal give a dark spell? They can't use wands! And if it could cast a spell without a wand, wouldn't that be covered in Care of Magical Creatures? And . . . Eliza, stop poking me! Ouch!"
Harry peered over his glasses at the girl. He'd never noticed her before., and she appeared to be the kind that stood out: She had shoulder length blonde hair, with a wide green streak running down one side. Her nails were painted a dark purple, and so were her lips. Like Harry, she had glasses, but underneath them, her eyelashes were purple. Harry especially noticed a large ornamental ring on her right hand. Very strange looking, indeed.
"Well, yes, that usually would be covered in the Care of Magical creatures class, but no amount of animal handling can stop a dark spell, Ms - I'm sorry, I don't believe I caught you're name . . ."
She looked at him beneath her purple eyelashes and smiled. "Alexa Riddle. My name is Alexa Riddle."
Some people gasped, and others, thinking this was a tremendous joke, laughed. Riddle had been Voldemorts name, long ago. Although he had been vanquished for good, by Harry himself, most wizards would still not speak his name.
Alexa sat back and smiled lazily at their stunned faces, and Eliza moved her chair over to another desk. Harry sent some sparks into the air with his wands, and eventually got the classes attention. "Well, OK, Ms Riddle. As I was saying, many animals use physical properties to protect themselves and get their food, like snakes use their fangs, but some can use magic as well. It's always best to be prepared."
Harry made the class gather their things, and he lead them outside. No one would walk were Alexa was, and their was a large empty circle around her. She didn't seem to mind this in the slightest. In fact, she actually looked like he was enjoying it.
The class came to a halt at the foot of the large lake on school grounds. "Now,' Harry began. "Who knows what a basilisk is?"
The class let loose a collective gasp. Surely the teacher wouldn't bring a basilisk to school! But Alexa smiled nonchalantly and shot her hand into the air.
"A basilisk is a snake that can kill people just by looking into there eyes. There was one in the school about 15 or 20 years ago, but no one was killed. A few people got turned to stone, though, because if you look at it through, say, a camera lense, it only turns them to stone."
"Absolutely right!" Harry crowed. "Of course, I would never bring a real basilisk to school, gracious no! What I have here, at the bottom of this lake, is a basiliskette. It's a cross between a basiliskette and a regular snake. Very tricky to make, because you have to blind fold the basilisk." Here, the class emitted a series of giggles, right on cue. "Anyway," Harry went on. "Even though a basiliskette has only enough magic to turn you to stone for a short while, please were these special sunglasses so I don't have to drag any students back to class."
Harry began to pass out the glasses, and continued, " Now, this is an independent assignment. I want you to think of a spell you've already learned, and use it to immobilize. Not kill, just stun, OK? I'll be marking you on your creativity and the effectiveness of your choice of spell." He crouched by the lake, and began to hiss. Only he could here himself saying, in Parsel tongue "You can come out now." And only he could here the answer, "Alright Potter, I'm coming. You'd better remember our deal! Yum, I can almost taste those jackrabbits!"
Everyone stood in line with their sunglasses on, but caught something in the corner of his eye: It was Alexa, sneaking along behind the line. She stopped for a moment behind a girl named Carrie Stevens, then resumed her place in the back of the line. Odd, Harry thought.
The basiliskette reached the surface of the lake, and Harry put a protective spell on it so each person would have a turn.
Eliza, who'd pushed and shoved her way to the front of the line, went first. She advanced on the snake like she was a quarterback, and Harry actually thought she was going to tackle it. She stopped a foott from it, and shouted something. An icy blue beam shot from her wand, straight towards the snake, a but it shattered on the snakes shield. "Nice work, Eliza! Steven, that would've skinned it! Not very creative Carrie!" It went on like that, until, finally only Alexa was left.
Everyone watched tensely as Alexa stepped up to the snake nervously. She reached into her robe and pulled out something. To Harry's suprise, she didn't have a wand in her hand, but a pocket-mirror. "Hey!" Carrie shouted. "That's my mirror! You pick-pocket, give it back!" Alexa paid no attention to her, and in the space of a milli-second, had taken off her glasses and placed the mirror in front of her face, so it was facing towards the snake. The basiliskette, looked into Alexa's eyes, as it had been instructed, but instead found himself staring straight into his own eyes.
It's skin turn a rough gray, like concrete, and it began to go stiff. It had turns itself to stone!
Some people didn't know what'd happened, and tried desperately to peer over each others shoulders. Alexa grinned, posititively basking in the confusion she'd caused. But Harry sprang to action at once. He pulled a small vial from inside his robes, and slowly poured it onto the snake. The snake almost immediately began to come back to life. "Nothing to worry about!" he yelled to his class, which was now in a state of utter panic. "Everybody, head back to the classroom! Not you, Ms Riddle, I need to speak with you!"
As confused as they were, the class obeyed, and Alexa crossed her arms and waited. After Harry had set the clearly ticked-off snake back into the water, he turned to Alexa.
"That was . . . . resourceful, but why didn't you just use your wand?" At this, she turned almost as purple as her lips, gave Harry a cold stare, and stormed back into Hogwarts. Harry threw his arms into the arm resignedly and entered the school building as well.
But before he could reach it, Malfoy sauntered out. "Well, Potter, having trouble with your classes? Tsk, tsk! Don't let the pressure get to you!" He threw his head back and laughed, his silvery blonde hair bouncing this way and that. Harry walked calmly up to him, though his blood was practically boiling, and said "What, do you mean the same pressure that's been in your head ever since you fell down the stairs?" and breezed past him into the school building.
*~*~*~*~*
Harry watched patiently as Neville downed his mug of Butterbeer. He'd said he had something to tell Harry, but wouldn't say a word until after his drink.
"Well, anyway," Neville said finally, smacking his lips in content. "I suppose I can tell you now. There's someone waiting for you in your office. Or 'someones'???" He gave a great mischeviously grin.
Harry's mouth hung open. Who could be waiting for him? He stood up slowly and made his way towards his office, adn when he was halfway there, Malfoy came storming down the steps. He didn't say anything, only glared coldly at Harry, and stomped off. Harry looked after him and muttered "Curiouser and curiouser," (A/N: That's from 'Alice in Wonderland', people!!) something he'd heard in a book or movie of some sort. After a few more minutes, he'd reached his office, paused, and opened the door.
"Ron! Hermione! . . . Viktor?" Harry laughed. "I knew I hadn't seen the last of you guys!"
Ron was still red haired and freckled, and Hermione's hair lay a little bit more flat against her head than it did the last time he saw her. Viktor, of course, looked almost exactly the same since Harru'd sen him at Hermione's and Viktor's wedding. I just hope he can pronounce her name right, now, Harry thought.
"So Ron, what poor country have you been sucking the money out of lately?" Ron laughed and tried to look offended. 'That hurts, Harry! Romania. I've been helping Charlie with the dragon's he has left. Been dieing out lately, you know. The dragons, not Charlie."
"And Hermione," Harry laughed. "How's Canada been treating you?"
"It's great, Harry! You should see Alberta. Simply teeming with wizards! Never seen so many wizards in a muggle place in all my life! Only bad thing is the weather. Very hot summers, very cold winters." Hermione paused to smile lovingly at Viktor. 'But we can tough it out.'
"Yes," Viktor added. "And the muggles are so friendly!"
Harry laughed heartily. "Good to see you all doing so well!"
"What about you, Harry?" Viktor asked. 'How go's the teaching job?"
Harry sighed. "Not so good. Malfoys teaching potions . . ." "Yeah, we saw him," Ron added. "Gave us a look that freeze your blood! then he just stormed down the stairs." " . . . . and he's critisizing me every chance he gets," Harry continued. "On top of that, Dumbledore's feeling ill. The poor old fellow had to go on sick leave for the first time in 15 years!"
"Oh, don't you worry about Dumbledore. He'll survive another 30 years, you just watch!!" Ron said cheerily.
"That's not the least of my troubles," Harry sighed. "I've got a very troublesome student in my fourth year Slytherin class. Scaring the other students with her antics. And . . . " Harry bit his lip. "Her last name is Riddle."
Hermione gasped. "But wasn't that . . . ?!"
"Voldemort's last name?" Harry finished. "Yes."
Ron shuddered. "Please don't say that name."
Viktor sighed and said "Well, we'll be here for a veek, at least." Harry noticed that he let his accent slip a little, but Viktor didn't seem to care. 'Maybe we can help you!"
"I sure hope you can, Viktor. I sure hope you can."
*~*~*~*~*
Okay, that's it for now. I'll have a new part up every day, I hope. Don't worry, it isn't a VERY long story.