Chapter 4
A Strange Behavior
It was Christmas Break and the entire school was in an uproar. Most of the students were too afraid to say Lord Voldemort, much less prepare to fight him. The first years were so scared, that tapping them on the shoulder could make them scream. Other students just wanted to be prepared for Lord Voldemort's rise to power.
Classes stunk for all of the students. There was so much homework to do that Quidditch was cancelled for the year. Most of the students had so much work that they were up until midnight or later trying to get all of it done.
To add to this, many of the students, mainly Slytherins, were acting quite weird. Surprisingly, A.J. seemed to be acting the weirdest. It was as if she was hiding something extremely important, that if let loose, could result in something serious.
"Just ignore her! She's a seventh year. What do you expect?" Ron said to Harry. They were discussing what had been going on in the castle lately.
"Do you think she could be connected to You-Know-Who?" George asked.
Harry shook his head. "Not likely, but I think she knows something about Voldemort." The group flinched at the sound of his name.
"What could she possibly know?" Fred wondered.
"I don't really know," Harry replied.
Hermione cleared her throat. "Look, I've said this enough times, leave the poor girl alone! Who said A.J. even knows something about You-Know-Who? That could just be the way she acts!"
George shook his head. "Nope. We have her for a few classes, remember? She usually really cheerful."
"Oh, well," Harry said as he stood from his chair. "We just need to start keeping an eye on this girl."
*~*~*~*~*~*
Professor Louv're walked into the Great Hall wearing the most stunning robes. In fact, they didn't really LOOK like robes at all. It was more of a dress, the kind a muggle woman would probably wear to a fancy dinner party. The robes had gold trim, was made of green velvet, and had red lacing. To top it off, her beautiful smile made her the second most attractive lady in Hogwarts.
Only Maret could have topped her, which she had done. Her long golden hair stood out perfectly with her robes, making her look like something out of a beautiful dream. She walked over to the table where A.J. and Fred were sitting, holding her body perfectly. "Hi! Mind if I sit down?"
A.J. turned in her chair, grinning evily. "No, you can't. You're too young."
Fred elbowed her in the arm and said, "Ignore her. She's just full of shit."
A.J. laughed as she waved to George and Lee. "I really am! My dad says my eyes show how much shit I'm full of. In other words, completely."
Maret and Fred snorted, both while eating.
A.J. had big brown eyes, or as she would put it, big brown turds. She also had brown hair with natural red streaks, which was a few inches past her armpits. She was quite short, only 5 foot 1, and hated being so short. She also had light freckles on her cheekbones which were getting darker every year.
"Oh god, there's Malfoy," Maret said as he walked past a group of 7th years, looking very mad. He stormed over to Hermione and stood in front of her.
"You filthy mudblood!" he yelled, his face getting red. The entire school stopped eating to see what would happen next. "Giving me LOVE potions?"
Hermione glared at him and rose to her full height. "Hey, at least I can MAKE one, unlike you."
Malfoy's face got even redder as the Gryffindors started laughing. "You better watch out, mudblood! You'll be next and sorry!" He yelled as she stormed off to the Slytherin table.
Harry starred as Malfoy stormed off. "I wonder what he meant by 'You'll be next and sorry.'?"
Ron nodded, agreeing. "You know it can't be good. This is Malfoy we're talking about here."
*~*~*~*~*~*
A.J. woke to find herself covered in sweat. She sighed and rolled onto her back. 'I've got to quit having these nightmares,' A.J. thought. She had been getting them ever since the time she had fallen asleep on the Hogwarts Express, back in September. 'I've got to talk to Madam Pomfrey about this. I mean, is it natural to have the same dream every few days, each time the picture getting clearer?' She sighed, pulling the blankets to her chin, hoping to sleep peacefully for a rest of the night.
*~*~*~*~*~*
"Listen wench!" screamed the man.
"I'm not a wench!" the girl yelled back.
"Then what the hell are you?"
"I'm your daughter!"
"No daughter of mine would ever dare to act like this!"
"Well, maybe it's because I'm different!"
"Yes. That's TOO true. Your sister was much more loyal to me."
"Look, It's not my fault AFIN was so stupid!" she yelled, trying to hold back her tears.
"But then she had to start siding with you! Why do you think I had to kill AFIN?"
"You MONSTER!"
"Yes, young A.J. Solo, and you will learn to be loyal to me, or you shall never see your father again!"
*~*~*~*~*~*
"Okay, I think it's time we start watching A.J. She's started sneaking around the castle at night," Ron said as sat in front of the fire place in the Gryffindor common room. Since it was Christmas Break, most of the students had gone home to be with their families.
Hermione entered the common room, carrying three huge mugs of hot chocolate and sat next to Harry, giving Ron and him each a mug. "What could she possibly be looking for?"
Harry shrugged. "Malfoy has been acting pretty strange lately, too."
"Do you think he could know something about A.J.?" Hermione asked.
"We better start keeping an eye on both of them." Ron said.
"Yeah, but what if they catch us?" Hermione wondered.
Harry looked into the fireplace. "Well, we'll just have to make sure they don't."