A/N: Thank you so much to all who reviewed last chapter! It makes my day. Sorry this one took so long,but I was on spring break the last week. Once again, personal notes are dispensed to all who review:
Kiara Ananda - I applaud your consistent liking of my stories even though (even I must admit this) they sometimes suck. ;) It really means a lot to me! Me Myself and I - Thank you SO much for beta-reading. How did I ever get along without beta-readers? simplefan - Wow, you're one of my favorite authors, you actually reviewed my story! *cheers* ChaserOfDreamsWisherOfStars - Well, when it comes to the students, I think Dumbledore's pretty protective. He may not really be inclined to believe Snape...yet. ^_^ ashkickerchic - My favorite pairing! How did you guess? ;) Fluff - here ya go! Librastar14 - yeah, your name's REALLY Misteria, is it? ;) Has your fic got any more reviews yet? I'll email you about scanning. Brent! - I took a bit longer with this chapter 'cause it's my first one that's been beta-read, so hope it's better and enjoy! Crazy Poet - You've reviewed HBD! I remember! I'm flattered. ^_^; It's reviewers like you that keep me writing... Kat - wow, you're really enthusiastic! ^_^; I love it when people get that into my stories .. ;)
This chapter is dedicated to my beta-readers, Me Myself and I and Kiara Ananda - my first taste of beta-ing and I have to say I've loved it! ~CM
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DEATH ANGEL
Chapter Four
The First Victim
That night in the common room, Harry and Hermione sat together in front of the fire. Lavender and Ron were in a chair together next to them. No one said anything; they were all thinking about troubling subjects.
Hermione was worrying that Harry and she weren't the right couple. Maybe they had been mistaken. If they could get in a fight that easily, over a new girl ..
Harry was trying to think. He knew he'd been having a dream last night, a bad one, but he couldn't remember what it was about.
Lavender and Ron were both thinking about Lystra. Lavender, in spite of herself, was starting to like Lystra. She had a sarcasm factor to beat even Ron's.
Just then, Lystra walked in. She came over to the cozy scene in front of the fire.
"Where've you been?" Hermione asked.
"Detention," Lystra said. "I had to scrub out the dungeon after hurling that bottle of toad mucus at Snape's head."
Everyone else snorted with laughter, even Hermione. It added another dimension to Lystra's mystery; she seemed like she would've been Slytherin, but yet she hated Snape.
"Come on, sit down," Ron said.
Lystra's eyes glinted suddenly in the light of the fire. Voldemort had told her to set her sights on splitting up another couple .. and here was a perfect one. Ron and Lavender. Swiftly, she sat down between them and arranged herself so that one of her legs was touching his.
Ron looked uncomfortable. Lavender looked livid.
"So," Lystra said smoothly, flashing dazzingly white teeth at Ron, "I hear you're great at chess, Ron."
"Uh, yeah," Ron said, embarrassed yet pleased. "I love to play. I could show you how to sometime, if you like."
"I'm sure you know the best ways to win," Lystra said suggestively.
Hermione cleared her throat quickly, seeing that Lavender was nearly ready to punch Lystra out. "Yeah, he is pretty good. He helped us beat Professor McGonagall's giant chess set in our first year."
"Is that so," Lystra smiled. "You must be awfully brave, to do something like that. I know I never could."
Ron shifted uncomfortably. Lavender was fuming, but there was a beautiful sexy girl flirting with him and it was almost beyond him not to accept her invitations. "Uh.. yeah.." he said embarrassedly. "It was really Harry, though, that was the brave one.."
"Oh, we hear enough about Harry's virtues," Lystra said carelessly. "We never hear anything about his close friends!"
Hermione frowned. She was really striking a sensitive spot with Ron, who always felt overshadowed by Harry's name and scar.
Lavender clutched Ron's arm tighter than ever and growled, "Ron is a really special guy, and he doesn't need you to defend him."
Ron cast a look at her. It was really finishing him off, Hermione could tell, sitting there between two girls who were fighting over him.
"Yeah?" Lystra said, speaking calmly yet her eyes shooting daggers at Lavender, "Want to keep him all to yourself, eh? Aren't you acting a bit .. possesive?"
"Oh, that is IT!" Lavender screamed, leaping up from the scarlet couch. "I can't TAKE this anymore! Ron, if you want to go ahead and make out with Ms. Perfect Sexy Body here, go ahead! I don't give a damn!" She shot a furious glance at Lystra and stomped away, up the stairs to the dormitories.
Hermione leaped up from the couch too, and Harry looked up at her. "I've got to go talk to her," she explained, though in truth she thought she was about to throw up at Lystra's blatant flirting. She followed Lavender up the stairs.
Lystra snuggled up to Ron on the couch. "Who cares about her," she said, reaching up and touching Ron's freckles. He looked in suprise down at her. "We can be fine all by ourselves."
Harry got up quickly. "I'll go .. uh, help Hermione," he said, and dashed up the stairs after her.
When he got to the top, he saw that the door of the girls' dormitory was partly open. Inside, he could see Lavender sobbing into her pillow and Hermione bending over to talk to her.
"Come on in, Harry," Hermione said, spotting him.
Cautiously, he came into the girls' dorm and approached the bed where Lavender was crying.
"She was being so horrible!" Lavender sobbed, her words muffled by the pillow. "And Ron was just sitting there enjoying it! He knew she was flirting with him, and he just sat there and let it happen!"
Hermione cast a helpless glance at Harry, who looked uncomfortable. "It's OK, Lavender," she said, patting Lavender's shoulder. "I'm sure he'll apologize tomorrow, and you two will be back together again."
"No!" Lavender gasped, sitting up straight and clutching her pillow so tight feathers fluttered from it. "No! If he's going to be such a wimp about a pretty face, then maybe it's just as well we broke up!"
Hermione was shocked. "Oh, Lavender! Do you really mean that? I mean, you two were such a perfect couple!"
She looked up at Harry, who stared back at her with wide eyes. "Come on, Harry, you've got to admit it now! Lystra is bad news! Look at her, what she's done to Lavender and Ron!"
Harry rolled his eyes, but felt he couldn't really say anything in front of Lavender. Hermione frowned at him and turned back to Lavender.
"Don't say that, Lav. You and Ron have been through harder things than this."
Lavender just shook her head, tears running down her face. "Just let it be, Hermione. I know you always think things always have a perfect ending, but they don't. They don't. I'll get over it." She dived into the pillow again, and her voice was muffled as she said, "Just let me alone. Please."
Hermione, looking concerned, patted her on the back again and rose to leave. "Come on, Harry."
Harry cast one last look at the weeping Lavender and followed her outside.
*
The news had spread throughout the house by morning, and Lavender emerged from her bed with a red nose and haughty look, as if determined to ignore it.
Whispers followed her, Ron, and Lystra through the halls, and after breakfast was over, most of the other houses had heard that Ron had dumped Lavender for Lystra.
"That's not true at all!" Hermione said angrily to a Ravenclaw girl who whispered to her in Charms if it was true that Lavender had found Ron making out with Lystra.
"Honestly," she said, turning to Harry, who was sitting next to her, "I don't know where people get this stuff! Poor Lavender!"
"Ron doesn't look exactly broken up," Harry said, pointing to Ron, who was sitting next to Lystra and talking animatedly to her, as if trying to prove Lavender. As Harry and Hermione watched, Lystra leaned over and kissed Ron on the nose. He blushed.
"Sickening," said Hermione, turning away. "We've got to get Lav and Ron back together, before this gets out of hand."
"I'd say it has already," Harry said.
She punched him playfully. "You're no help."
"Well, what do you want me to do?"
She thought. "Talk to Ron. Try and get him to get back with Lavender."
Harry frowned. "That'll just make him mad at me. You know how touchy Ron is about his love life."
Hermione snorted. "Yeah. He's got none. Why is Lystra moving in on him like that? I mean, no offense to Ron, but he's not exactly the type of guy that girls swoon over. Why is she targeting him?"
"Don't you think you're being just a tad melodramatic, Hermione?"
Hermione sighed and rolled her eyes.
"Class," tiny Professor Flitwick squeaked, "today we are learning about the Power-Absorption spell. It is a very advanced charm, wherein you transfer one being's life-energy and strength to another. Today, you will be practicing it on these small plants."
Before long they each had a pot with a small green weed in it, and were trying (mostly unsuccessfully) to absorb the plant's life-energy.
"Hermione," Harry complained, turning to her, "can you help me do this? I keep trying, but for some reason I can't!"
"Whoa!" Seamus Finnigan yelled; they both looked up automatically.
Neville Longbottom was lying on the floor, passed out, with his wand near him. On the table, his plant was rapidly growing, getting thicker and spreading vines across the table.
"Get this boy up to the hospital wing!" Professor Flitwick ordered, taking Neville's pulse. "He must've performed the opposite spell, the Power-Transfer Spell. He's transfered his strength to the plant instead. He'll be fine in a while."
"The plant!" yelled Lavender, pointing a shaking finger at it.
The vine was now as thick as a tree trunk; it had anchored itself with a dozen vines to the table, and was waving thick green tentacles menacingly in the air.
By that evening (they luckily managed to stop the plant before it took over the classroom) the rumor had spread that Ron and Lystra were going out on a date that very night. Hermione doubted it immensely until dinner, when Ron and Lystra walked in arm in arm, and she began to have second thoughts.
"So.." she said tentatively as the pair sat down together, "is it true, Ron? Are you two going on a date tonight?"
Ron and Lystra beamed at each other and Ron nodded excitedly. "We've worked out a deal with Fred and George. They're going to drop a couple Dung Bombs to keep Filch occupied while we slip out and have a walk along the lake."
"What?" said Hermione so loudly that they all stared at her. "Isn't that a bit dangerous? I mean, with You-Know-Who back?"
"Don't be ridiculous, Hermione," Ron said, stuffing a roll into his mouth. "Whuth can happenth to uth? We wonth go far. Pwomith."
Hermione shook her head. "What's the point in taking chances?" she mumbled, too low for anyone to hear.
*
At seven later that night, Hermione watched with a frown on her face as Ron and Lystra giggled, watching Fred and George slip out with grins on their faces.
"I wonder what Ron's paying them to do this?" Harry said at her elbow.
She glanced at him. "I don't know..I still don't think this is the greatest idea."
Harry shrugged. Sitting down, he pulled her into his lap. "Hermione," he said, looking earnestly into her eyes, "life's all about taking chances. If you don't risk anything, then you'll never really have lived - don't you see? If Voldemort makes us all afraid to do anything, then he'll have won!"
Hermione sighed. "Once again, the famous Harry Potter bests me in intellect."
Harry laughed and kissed her on the nose. "Not intellect, Hermione. Just experience."
"Experience," said Hermione, snuggling up beside him, "the one thing I DON'T have."
*
Ron was giddy with excitement. He breathed in the cold, sharp air through his nose, and there was a beautiful girl beside him, laughing flirtatiously.
Finally, there was something he had and Harry didn't.
Lystra.
He chanced a look into her eyes, and was awed by their beauty. Such a lovely dark turquoise, a blue-green you could fall into.
Lystra caught him looking and grinned at him, pinching his cheek mischievously. "Now, now," she scolded, smirking, "Ronniekins better watch himself."
Ron managed a half-grin, though his insides were all one joyful sweep of ectasy. She was so beautiful, it was inhuman, Ron thought.
They wandered along the lake, watching for the giant squid and laughing at each other. Lystra's inky-black hair caught the glints from the water, turning it into rivers of blue. Ron, without thinking, reached out to touch her hair as it waved.
It was silky, soft, like he had always imagined. Lystra shook her hair out of his grasp and glanced at him playfully.
"Just wait, Ronniekins, just wait," she said, flashing her teeth in a smile. "There's more in store for you than you ever dreamed of.."
Lystra loved this. It was so fun. In a few minutes this boy would be totally at her mercy, and he was so unknowing now, it was easy to manipulate his simple mind. I am death, she thought, exalting in the feeling. I am death, all of me, every inch, down to my lips.
"Uh..okay," the silly red-headed boy said in a kind of awed voice.
Lystra couldn't help laughing.
*
Hermione was just dozing off in Harry's arms when she was jerked to life as the portrait swung aside with a crash and a black-haired girl with wild turquoise eyes stumbled through. It was Lystra.
"Help!" she shrieked in panic, her eyes darting all over and fixing on Harry and Hermione. "Oh, my God, please help me! Ron - it's Ron - he - he -"
Hermione leapt out of Harry's arms and raced for Lystra, catching the girl in her arms as Lystra stumbled and collapsed.
"Lystra - what's wrong with Ron?" she said urgently. "Where is he?"
Lystra stared wild-eyed at her. Her hair was in a mess and her lipstick smudged. "Ron-" she gasped. "Oh, Ron--"
Harry was suddenly at her side, bending over Lystra too. "Lystra, where is Ron?" he said, calmly but firmly.
"Outside," Lystra mumbled, closing her eyes and seemingly trying to shrink into herself.
Harry leapt up and raced for the portrait hole. In a second, he was gone.
"Lystra - you'll be all right," Hermione promised, propping her against a chair and sprinting after Harry.
She scrambled out the portrait hole and looked wildly around. Outside! Where was the nearest door?
Thinking quickly, Hermione whirled and headed for the entrance hall. She dashed down the stairs and flew across the marble floors of the Great Hall, praying to God that Ron was all right. The doors burst open before her at a wild flick of her wand.
The lawn was covered in melting snow, and the night air was frigid. Hermione shivered as she scanned the grounds, searching for any sign of Ron or Harry ..
Down by the lake, two figures. She spotted them and, letting out a yell, ran for them as fast as she could.
When she arrived, shaking in the cold, she found Harry bending over an unconscious Ron, trying to wake him. Ron was stretched out on the grounds, his eyes shut and his face slack, yet his fingers clutched tightly at his sides. His lips, Hermione saw with a chill, were looking an eerie mottled green in the reflection from the lake.
"Oh, no," Hermione whispered, dropping to her knees at Ron's side. "Dear God, what happened to him?"
"I don't know!" Harry choked, turning his frantic eyes on her. "I don't know what's wrong with him!"
"Harry- calm down!" she yelled at him, placing a hand on his back. "Now, pick him up," she instructed, once Harry had been quieted a bit. "You need help?"
"No," Harry assured her, Ron's limp body in his arms.
"Now - let's get him to the castle!" she said.
Harry broke into a run, slipping and sliding on the melting snow, and Hermione followed him all the way back up to the castle.
*
A/N: Hahahaha! I'm resorting to my old continual habit - cliffies. What can I say? They're extremely addictive. That, my friends, is the definitive chapter ... I've taken the liberty of (oh, this was so much fun!) distributing a mystery into the chapters. The first clue was planted earlier, but they'll all add up to Lystra's secret ... her method of killing. It's a very small inconsistency, and I doubt anyone'll find it, but 500 points to anyone who does! ;) Happy hunting, and cya!
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