Author's Note: Please understand that this story was written before Book 4
came out, so it doesn't make sense a lot of the time. Also, I wrote it a
few years ago, so the writing skills aren't necessarily up to par. Thankee.
The Smallest Breeze
Susan Bones walked down the main corridor of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She passed the open door of the empty Transfiguration classroom, where the desks were vacant, waiting for the next bunch of laughing students to arrive, and Professor McGonagall's desk was strewn with quills and un-graded parchment.
She walked right by the corridor that led to the Great Hall. She knew that no one would be there, since everyone, excluding first and second years, was at Hogsmeade. Hannah and Sally-Anne had promised to bring Susan plenty of her favorite candies, Pepper Imps and Chocolate Frogs. They didn't want her to feel bad about not being able to go. She would have gone to Hogsmeade as well, but Madame Pomfrey had insisted she rest another day after being sick. She seemed to forget that Susan had already wasted two days resting, but Susan knew better than to argue. She was lucky that she had at least gotten out of that infirmarary. Madame Pomfrey had agreed to it, but not before giving Susan another dose of medicine. Susan worked her jaw, trying to get rid of the flavor. Honestly, it tasted worse than her grandfather's herbal teas, of which Susan strongly suspected he had misplaced his glasses while picking the herbs. She was pretty certain that chamomile wasn't supposed to taste like that.
Susan went down a flight of stair and stopped in front of a large wooden door that had a carving of a rose on it. Turning the brass knob, she recited the password.
"Dragon sails."
The door opened to reveal a large common room. She smiled faintly. Doing that without the password would uncover a blank wall.
The Hufflepuff common room was what most would consider a cheery room. The walls were painted a pale yellow with white trimmings at the corners and the windows, and bright torches were placed periodically around the room. Scattered about were dark yellow squishy armchairs. A group of second years were grouped around the fireplace. When Susan walked in, they turned around to look at her. A girl with long dark brown hair- Susan thought her name was Bet- giggled.
"How come you're not at Hogsmeade, Susan? Did Snape give you a detention or something?"
A girl with short blonde hair gave a laugh at some private joke. Her friend shoved her lightly, giggling. "Be quiet, Marysia!"
Susan eyed them all tiredly. "I was sick, in case you didn't notice, and Madame Pomfrey wouldn't let me leave."
The third girl shrieked with laughter. "Pomfrey got her!" All three cracked up at their little unknown joke.
Susan rolled her eyes, sighed, and walked up to her dormitory.
She tried to shut out their laughter as she climbed the stairs. It made her think about how she missed Hannah and Sally-Anne. Even being sick for a few days made her lonely. Her only company in the infirmary was Madame Pomfrey and a grumpy Ravenclaw 6th year. And, during visits, Hannah's detailed descriptions of what they were doing didn't help. As she described the new animals Hagrid had brought in for Care of Magical Creatures, Susan regretted not being able to learn about them. When she talked of how the Hufflepuff Quidditch team had made a spectacular comeback against Ravenclaw, after last season's defeat that had kept them out of the finals, it had only made Susan wish even harder that she had been there.
Susan opened the door marked "5th years". She walked in slowly and sat down on her large canopy bed that was draped with pale yellow hangings.
With a sigh, she began to do a spell that her grandmother had taught her when she had left for her first year at Hogwarts.
"Whenever you're lonely," Granma had said, "just do what I told you and you'll always hear me."
Susan pinched her fingers in the way Granma had shown her, and made a sharp turn of the wrist. Smiling, she did the same with her left hand, and began moving her hands in a circular motion.
Within minutes there was a sphere of air in Susan's hands, and her grandmother's voice was emerging, singing an old lullaby she had sung to Susan when she was a baby.
Susan sighed, basking in the comfort of hearing her grandmother's voice. This little trick made it possible for Susan to hear almost any voice she wanted to. Unfortunately, there was, as there is in all things, a catch. The voice couldn't belong to someone who was dead. So, in the end, Susan couldn't hear the two voices she longed to hear the most: her parents'.
Susan had hear rumors that Harry Potter- famous Harry Potter- could hear his parents' voices when ever a dementor got too close. Of course, there were always the counter rumors that although he could hear his parents, is was their last moments. Susan envied him anyway. To be able to hear her parents.
Susan had always felt a sort of connection between Harry and herself, even though she had never really spoken to him, unless the occasional "Do you have spare parchment I could borrow?" counted. She felt this connection for one simple, sad reason. She lived with her grandparents for the same reason he was stuck with his aunt and uncle; she hated and feared one wizard for the same reason as Harry.
Her parents had been killed in one of Voldemort's random massacres, so there had been no warning. As soon as they realized what was happening, they had hidden Susan and her older sister in a bathtub on the second floor. It may seem a stupid hiding place for two children under the age of three, but it had worked. Voldemort hadn't known how many people were in the house, and Mr. and Mrs. Bones had realized that. They had waited downstairs for him, knowing that they couldn't hide with their beloved children or he would find them all, hoping above all hopes that, if they couldn't defeat him, at least he would think they were the only ones in the house.
When the searchers came, looking for the few survivors of the massacre, they found a small two year-old girl and her sleeping one year- old sister in a bathtub, while their parents lay in death in the ground floor. Susan's grandparents, overcome with grief at the loss of their daughter and son in-law, had immediately taken Susan and her sister in.
Susan both had a deep fear and hatred for the dark wizard who had orphaned her before she had learned to even walk. He had taken from her the two people who had given her life, whom she had loved above all things. She longed for maybe one conversation with her parents, but all she had was a wizard picture of them in her locket. Susan held her locket close and sighed again, listening to her Granma's voice, trying to remember her parents.
At that moment, footsteps came running up the stairs. The Hogsmeade kids were back. Susan gave a sigh and pulled her hands slowly apart. The air she had trapped was released back into the flow.
The door opened and Sally-Anne came in, followed by Hannah. They were both laden down with candy.
"We'll have to drop off some of our candy first," Hannah was saying. "Then we can go visit-"
"Susan! You're back!" Sally-Anne interrupted as she dropped her load of candy onto her bed and saw her friend.
"Pomfrey actually let you out?" Hannah asked incredulously, peering around the huge pile of sweets she had in her arms.
"Yup, amazing as it may seem, she did," Susan responded happily, looking eagerly through the sweets Sally-Anne had dropped on the bed.
Hannah opened her mouth to respond, but a small beeping noise filled the room. She and Susan turned to see Sally-Anne fumbling with a digital watch.
"I'll never understand why you wear that thing," Hannah muttered. "All it does is beep and annoy us all out of our minds."
Sally-Anne ignored her. "We've got Herbology in five minutes."
Susan stared at her stupidly, dropping the Fizzing Whizbee she had been eating. "But we're not supposed to have classes on Hogsmeade days!"
"Try telling that to the Professors," Hannah sighed as she flopped down on the bed and dropped all her candy on the floor. "They don't care that we need rest, relaxation, maybe the occasional break from homework."
"Don't mind her," Sally-Anne told Susan over the noise of beans of every flavor rolling around underneath their beds. "I think she's on the verge of rebelling."
Susan laughed. It was good to be back with her friends. "I promise to help hold her back if she does."
"You know something interesting?" Susan and Sally-Anne turned. "While you two are talking about my futile attempts to end homework everywhere," Hannah said casually, "Herbology is starting."
Sally-Anne gasped, "We're late!" and dragged Hannah and Susan outside to the greenhouses.
Professor Sprout looked at them sharply as the came in, but she didn't bother to stop what she was saying.
"-should be seeing some results by the end of class. Now-" She was again interrupted by someone coming into the greenhouse. This time it was a Gryffindor- the Hufflepuffs still had Herbology with them.
"I'm sorry Professor!" gasped a panting Neville Longbottom. "I completely forgot-"
"It's all right, Longbottom," Professor Sprout said, looking slightly annoyed at the fact that her lesson was being interrupted so many times. "As I was saying, you may break up into your groups-" Immediately everyone began talking, getting into their groups of two. Professor Sprout now looked thoroughly annoyed as she tried to shout over the din, "You can pick up your plants at my desk!"
Susan looked around at her classmates, wishing she knew what they were doing, wishing she had a partner, wishing Hannah and Sally-Anne hadn't already picked each other.
"Ah, Miss Bones."
Susan looked up as Professor Sprout smiled at her. "I suppose you're wondering what everyone is doing." Susan nodded, and the Professor smiled again.
"To make a long lesson short, everyone broke up into groups of two. Each group was given a pot in which a seed was planted a few days before they were handed out. It's your job- and your partner's- to figure out what it is and what care it should be given.
Susan nodded again. "But Professor, I don't have a partner."
"Yes, that does pose a problem.. "Professor Sprout walked over to her desk and picked up a piece of parchment, pausing to swat at a long vine that was creeping toward an inkwell. "I believe there was an odd number." she murmured, gazing at the list. Suddenly she jabbed a dirt-covered finger at the bottom of the page.
"We had one group of three," she said, looking up to spot the culprits.
"Potter!" the Professor called out. "Come over here!"
Harry Potter looked up from where he and Ron Weasley had been arguing with Hermione Granger about the amount of water to add to their plant.
"You've got a partner now," she told him as he walked over, nodding toward Susan.
Harry shrugged. "Sure, Professor." Susan saw him glance back at his friends once and immediately felt guilty for taking him away from them.
Professor Sprout pointed out the spot where they were to work, and they walked over to the desk, carrying a large pot.
"So, um, what exactly are we supposed to do?" Susan asked, putting their pot down next to a large, thick plant with pink blossoms. She felt a little uncertain about what to say. This was, after all, Harry Potter.
Harry grinned a little. "I'm not sure, exactly. I haven't really had the best experience on this project. Personally," he said, glancing at Ron and Hermione, "I think Hermione's going just a tad overboard."
Susan watched as Hermione stalked toward the watering cans in a decided manner. Ron grabbed her arm and pointed angrily toward their plant, which was literally dripping with water. "I see what you mean, "she said dryly. "So, only one watering can for ours?"
Harry smiled. "Sure."
The two set to work, Harry magicking a few solar spells, Susan watering. Both tried to follow Professor Sprout's instructions and take notes, but by the end of class all they had in the pot was a lump of dirt.
"Well," Susan said cheerfully as she packed up the pot to take back to her dormitory for the night, "maybe she'll give us good marks for originality."
Harry laughed. "Yeah, we'll get a B for 'Everyone else's looks Bigger.' See you around," he said over his shoulder as he joined up with Ron and Hermione on the way out.
Later that night, Susan was going to the library to work on her Potions homework. It was dark, and the feeble torchlight seemed to be stretching itself to the maximum, struggling to get it's light to reach every corner.
Susan made a mental note to check a Herbology book. During the course of the afternoon her plant had grown. It was one plant, yet two stems grew from it, separate at first and then intertwining with each other, ending in two beautiful blue blossoms that still hadn't quite bloomed.
Susan squinted at the walls. Was it her imagination or was the light of each torch getting dimmer as she headed toward the end of the corrider?
She stopped short as a clattering noise filled the hallway. As she began to look for its source in curiosity, it revealed itself as a small figure coming hurriedly down the hall. The young girl looked up, an expression of fear on her face, as Susan drew nearer.
"What's wrong? Why are you running?" Susan asked kindly, though she felt nervous herself at the sight of the frightened girl. She knew this girl a little. She was a Hufflepuff second year, one of the laughing trio from earlier. She was known among many Hufflepuffs for not scaring easily
The girl was shaking uncontrollably, too hard to speak. Even the brown curls that framed her face seemed to be twitching with fear. Susan put a comforting arm around her shoulders. "Calm down. It's all right." Gradually the girl's shaking began to subside.
"First of all, I never had the pleasure of learning your name, "Susan told her. "Why don't you tell me, and then you can say what happened."
The girl took a small gasping breath. "Wynn."
"That's your name?" Wynn nodded. "It's really pretty."
Wynn gave another small nod, and finally her story came flooding out. "I was going to the library, but when I got there it was dark, all except- all except one corner. I went over to it, because I though Madame Pince was doing something over there, and I- I wanted to ask her about the books I needed." She stopped for a breath. "I think- I think You-Know-Who was there. And so- so was Harry Potter."
Susan felt fear welling up inside her, and yet at the same time she could feel her face hardening.
"Voldemort, here?" she said stiffly, part with fear, part with anger. She glanced down to she Wynn cringe at the name.
"Listen," Susan told her, quickly softening her voice. "You go back to the common room. I'll come in a minute. I have to.er.do something first."
Wynn looked uncertain.
"I'll be fine, really!" Susan said. "Go back, and don't tell anyone about what you saw, not yet."
Wynn nodded slightly and hurried away, glancing nervously over her shoulder every few steps.
Susan turned to face the direction of the library. It was her turn to settle the score.
In the library there was no light whatsoever, except in one corner that Susan could see through spaces in the bookshelves. She was fairly certain that was where Voldemort was.
There was no sign of Madame Pince at the desk. Susan swallowed as she tried not to think about what could have happened to her. Instead she walked as quietly ad quickly as she could toward that light, attempting to ignore the knot in her stomach that grew constantly larger with each step. Stopping behind the last bookshelf, Susan's heart almost stopped as she heard a chilling voice, filled with mirth.
"So, Potter," it cackled. "You don't really think you can defeat me, not now that I have more than twice the power I did before?"
There was no response, but Susan could see Harry from her spot behind the bookshelves. He was glaring at Voldemort with such hatred that Susan almost had to look away. He was backed up against a wall, gripping his wand so tightly that his hand shook.
Voldemort took no notice of Harry's lack of response and continued thoughtfully. "Of course, it's perfectly possible for me to kill you. After all, I did come very close last time, didn't I?"
As Susan watched, something in Harry snapped. She ducked quickly as something red shot out of his wand. A split second later, Susan heard laughter, and she raised her head to see to see that its source was Voldemort. He had obviously created something to block Harry's spell.
"Nice, Potter," he murmured. "Very nice"
With a movement so quick that it took Susan a few moments to realize that there had been any at all, Voldemort shot a purple and blue streak at Harry, knocking him down. Voldemort walked toward Harry, his voice crackling with glee as he watched Harry struggling to get to his feet.
"You're lucky, Potter. Only one of those spells won't kill you, only immobilize you momentarily. A few more, of course." Voldemort trailed off, grinning wickedly at the thought of dragging out Harry's death. All the while he kept advancing.
Behind the bookshelves, Susan's fear was quickly being replaced by a rage at what was happening, what would happen, and what had happened. Before Susan knew what she was doing, she began the spell that that her grandmother had so knowingly taught her.
It was a good thing her hands knew what they were doing, because her head was spinning, caught between confusion and anger.
What am I doing? This spell won't hurt him-
He must be stopped. He can't kill any more.
But this spell is just for hearing people, it can't kill anyone-
Voldemort must be stopped.
Susan gave in to the anger. Her hands continued shaping the air around her into its familiar sphere, making it larger than they ever had before, and now that Susan was back in control of her thoughts, she was thinking furiously while she did the spell.
This is for Granma and Granpa, she thought as she finished creating the sphere, because of what they had to go through, losing their daughter and gaining two more in the same day.
This is for my sister, she thought as she went over it for any mistakes, since she had to grow up sooner than anyone else.
This is for everyone whose lives were changed because of him, she thought as she decided it was ready.
"But most of all," she whispered passionately, "this is for Mum and Dad!"
With that, she flung the sphere at Voldemort.
After that everything seemed to move in slow motion. Voldemort, who had been standing over Harry, laughing victoriously, turned around. His pale face filed with horror and fury as he saw the mass of air hurtling toward him. The sphere had hundreds of voices screaming from it- but the voiced were different from before. They were the voices of all the people Voldemort had killed, all screaming their anger and pain at him. As the spheres hit Voldemort, there were four voices screaming louder than the rest.
At that moment, Voldemort's red eyes focused directly on her, Susan Bones. She let out a small gasp and hid behind some books, but she knew that he had seen her, and that he knew what she had done. She stayed there, shaking, for a few seconds, until she worked up the courage to lift her head again. She looked up just in time to see Voldemort disappear.
Suddenly a seemingly unnatural silence filled the library. The silence was a sign that the Dark Lord was gone, a quiet sign of victory. But the silence was too silent. There shouldn't be complete silence. After all, there was still another person in the room. Feeling nervous, Susan slowly turned to look at Harry. She was immediately hit with a wave of relief and panic; relief because Harry was alive, and panic because for the second time that night a pair of eyes met hers. This time, though, the eyes were bright green and were shielded by a pair of glasses.
Susan scrambled backwards and ran out of the library. As she hurried out she heard a voice say something behind her. She didn't bother to stop. She didn't even know why she was running, which might have been why Harry was able to catch up with her. He grabbed her elbow, causing her to stop running.
"Why are you running?" he panted. "I'm not going to hurt you or anything."
Susan choked, gasping for breath, though she wasn't sure whether it was from running or from the night's events. "I don't know- I mean, I know, I mean-" she broke off, breathing hard. She shook her head silently.
Harry looked at her. "You know, you- you saved my life just then."
Susan was silent, looking at the hem of her robes. She was still overwhelmed at what she had just done. She said quietly, still not looking at Harry, "Do you think he'll come back?"
Harry laughed coldly, and Susan saw him out of the corner of her eye. "I'm sure of it," he said, gazing out a window with a sad expression on his face. "He's back for good this time, and everyone knows it." Susan nodded. "But maybe- just maybe- he can be defeated." She felt him look at her, and she finally looked into his eyes. "But it would be much easier if everyone was as brave as you."
And then he kissed her.
Not a huge, romantic kiss, like you see in Muggle movies. Just a small one, as though Harry were nervous himself. But it seemed like the most wonderful thing ever to Susan. As they pulled away, she smiled.
"Thanks," she said, though she would never be sure whether she meant for the compliment or the kiss.
"It's a good thing there are people like you in this world," Harry said, taking her hand. "I don't know what anyone would do without you."
"Same to you," Susan said softly, gazing back at the library in a quiet manner. She walked with Harry down the hall, her hand in his.
* * *
A few nights later, Susan lay alone on her bed in her common room, smiling to herself. She was thinking about the past few days. Harry had gone straight to Dumbledore after the incident in the library. Susan grinned as she remembered the next meal in the Great Hall, during which Dumbledore awarded her and Harry with medals for what they did. Hers hung in a place of honor above her bed. Sally-Anne and Hannah had acted a bit star struck around her for a few hours, until she finally told them to knock it off. They had acted a little embarrassed, but now they were back to treating her like they normally did. Susan almost laughed out loud as she remembered the looks on their faces when she told them about her and Harry. Amazingly enough, no one really seemed to care that a Hufflepuff and a Gryffindor were going out. Well, most of the Slytherins in her year would tease her during Defense Against the Dark Arts, and once she had seen a group of Ravenclaw girls giggle as she walked past, but everyone else seemed to be taking it quite well.
She paused for a second, gazing at the plant from Herbology. The blossoms had finally bloomed, and it was the most beautiful plant she or Harry had ever seen. She smiled at it, and then started the spell that she had learned from her grandmother. Just for old time's sake. She hadn't really felt a need for the spell lately. She hadn't had a moment to be lonely.
Suddenly Susan sat up straight. That wasn't Granma singing. In fact. she listened closely. there were two voices singing. One, a soft, sweet tone that could hit high notes without even sounding like it was straining, the other, a deep bass that was powerful enough to fill the room, yet it never over powered the soprano voice above it. Susan puzzled over this for a few moments. Then she lay back and smiled. She fell asleep listening to the sound of her parents singing in harmony.
The Smallest Breeze
Susan Bones walked down the main corridor of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She passed the open door of the empty Transfiguration classroom, where the desks were vacant, waiting for the next bunch of laughing students to arrive, and Professor McGonagall's desk was strewn with quills and un-graded parchment.
She walked right by the corridor that led to the Great Hall. She knew that no one would be there, since everyone, excluding first and second years, was at Hogsmeade. Hannah and Sally-Anne had promised to bring Susan plenty of her favorite candies, Pepper Imps and Chocolate Frogs. They didn't want her to feel bad about not being able to go. She would have gone to Hogsmeade as well, but Madame Pomfrey had insisted she rest another day after being sick. She seemed to forget that Susan had already wasted two days resting, but Susan knew better than to argue. She was lucky that she had at least gotten out of that infirmarary. Madame Pomfrey had agreed to it, but not before giving Susan another dose of medicine. Susan worked her jaw, trying to get rid of the flavor. Honestly, it tasted worse than her grandfather's herbal teas, of which Susan strongly suspected he had misplaced his glasses while picking the herbs. She was pretty certain that chamomile wasn't supposed to taste like that.
Susan went down a flight of stair and stopped in front of a large wooden door that had a carving of a rose on it. Turning the brass knob, she recited the password.
"Dragon sails."
The door opened to reveal a large common room. She smiled faintly. Doing that without the password would uncover a blank wall.
The Hufflepuff common room was what most would consider a cheery room. The walls were painted a pale yellow with white trimmings at the corners and the windows, and bright torches were placed periodically around the room. Scattered about were dark yellow squishy armchairs. A group of second years were grouped around the fireplace. When Susan walked in, they turned around to look at her. A girl with long dark brown hair- Susan thought her name was Bet- giggled.
"How come you're not at Hogsmeade, Susan? Did Snape give you a detention or something?"
A girl with short blonde hair gave a laugh at some private joke. Her friend shoved her lightly, giggling. "Be quiet, Marysia!"
Susan eyed them all tiredly. "I was sick, in case you didn't notice, and Madame Pomfrey wouldn't let me leave."
The third girl shrieked with laughter. "Pomfrey got her!" All three cracked up at their little unknown joke.
Susan rolled her eyes, sighed, and walked up to her dormitory.
She tried to shut out their laughter as she climbed the stairs. It made her think about how she missed Hannah and Sally-Anne. Even being sick for a few days made her lonely. Her only company in the infirmary was Madame Pomfrey and a grumpy Ravenclaw 6th year. And, during visits, Hannah's detailed descriptions of what they were doing didn't help. As she described the new animals Hagrid had brought in for Care of Magical Creatures, Susan regretted not being able to learn about them. When she talked of how the Hufflepuff Quidditch team had made a spectacular comeback against Ravenclaw, after last season's defeat that had kept them out of the finals, it had only made Susan wish even harder that she had been there.
Susan opened the door marked "5th years". She walked in slowly and sat down on her large canopy bed that was draped with pale yellow hangings.
With a sigh, she began to do a spell that her grandmother had taught her when she had left for her first year at Hogwarts.
"Whenever you're lonely," Granma had said, "just do what I told you and you'll always hear me."
Susan pinched her fingers in the way Granma had shown her, and made a sharp turn of the wrist. Smiling, she did the same with her left hand, and began moving her hands in a circular motion.
Within minutes there was a sphere of air in Susan's hands, and her grandmother's voice was emerging, singing an old lullaby she had sung to Susan when she was a baby.
Susan sighed, basking in the comfort of hearing her grandmother's voice. This little trick made it possible for Susan to hear almost any voice she wanted to. Unfortunately, there was, as there is in all things, a catch. The voice couldn't belong to someone who was dead. So, in the end, Susan couldn't hear the two voices she longed to hear the most: her parents'.
Susan had hear rumors that Harry Potter- famous Harry Potter- could hear his parents' voices when ever a dementor got too close. Of course, there were always the counter rumors that although he could hear his parents, is was their last moments. Susan envied him anyway. To be able to hear her parents.
Susan had always felt a sort of connection between Harry and herself, even though she had never really spoken to him, unless the occasional "Do you have spare parchment I could borrow?" counted. She felt this connection for one simple, sad reason. She lived with her grandparents for the same reason he was stuck with his aunt and uncle; she hated and feared one wizard for the same reason as Harry.
Her parents had been killed in one of Voldemort's random massacres, so there had been no warning. As soon as they realized what was happening, they had hidden Susan and her older sister in a bathtub on the second floor. It may seem a stupid hiding place for two children under the age of three, but it had worked. Voldemort hadn't known how many people were in the house, and Mr. and Mrs. Bones had realized that. They had waited downstairs for him, knowing that they couldn't hide with their beloved children or he would find them all, hoping above all hopes that, if they couldn't defeat him, at least he would think they were the only ones in the house.
When the searchers came, looking for the few survivors of the massacre, they found a small two year-old girl and her sleeping one year- old sister in a bathtub, while their parents lay in death in the ground floor. Susan's grandparents, overcome with grief at the loss of their daughter and son in-law, had immediately taken Susan and her sister in.
Susan both had a deep fear and hatred for the dark wizard who had orphaned her before she had learned to even walk. He had taken from her the two people who had given her life, whom she had loved above all things. She longed for maybe one conversation with her parents, but all she had was a wizard picture of them in her locket. Susan held her locket close and sighed again, listening to her Granma's voice, trying to remember her parents.
At that moment, footsteps came running up the stairs. The Hogsmeade kids were back. Susan gave a sigh and pulled her hands slowly apart. The air she had trapped was released back into the flow.
The door opened and Sally-Anne came in, followed by Hannah. They were both laden down with candy.
"We'll have to drop off some of our candy first," Hannah was saying. "Then we can go visit-"
"Susan! You're back!" Sally-Anne interrupted as she dropped her load of candy onto her bed and saw her friend.
"Pomfrey actually let you out?" Hannah asked incredulously, peering around the huge pile of sweets she had in her arms.
"Yup, amazing as it may seem, she did," Susan responded happily, looking eagerly through the sweets Sally-Anne had dropped on the bed.
Hannah opened her mouth to respond, but a small beeping noise filled the room. She and Susan turned to see Sally-Anne fumbling with a digital watch.
"I'll never understand why you wear that thing," Hannah muttered. "All it does is beep and annoy us all out of our minds."
Sally-Anne ignored her. "We've got Herbology in five minutes."
Susan stared at her stupidly, dropping the Fizzing Whizbee she had been eating. "But we're not supposed to have classes on Hogsmeade days!"
"Try telling that to the Professors," Hannah sighed as she flopped down on the bed and dropped all her candy on the floor. "They don't care that we need rest, relaxation, maybe the occasional break from homework."
"Don't mind her," Sally-Anne told Susan over the noise of beans of every flavor rolling around underneath their beds. "I think she's on the verge of rebelling."
Susan laughed. It was good to be back with her friends. "I promise to help hold her back if she does."
"You know something interesting?" Susan and Sally-Anne turned. "While you two are talking about my futile attempts to end homework everywhere," Hannah said casually, "Herbology is starting."
Sally-Anne gasped, "We're late!" and dragged Hannah and Susan outside to the greenhouses.
Professor Sprout looked at them sharply as the came in, but she didn't bother to stop what she was saying.
"-should be seeing some results by the end of class. Now-" She was again interrupted by someone coming into the greenhouse. This time it was a Gryffindor- the Hufflepuffs still had Herbology with them.
"I'm sorry Professor!" gasped a panting Neville Longbottom. "I completely forgot-"
"It's all right, Longbottom," Professor Sprout said, looking slightly annoyed at the fact that her lesson was being interrupted so many times. "As I was saying, you may break up into your groups-" Immediately everyone began talking, getting into their groups of two. Professor Sprout now looked thoroughly annoyed as she tried to shout over the din, "You can pick up your plants at my desk!"
Susan looked around at her classmates, wishing she knew what they were doing, wishing she had a partner, wishing Hannah and Sally-Anne hadn't already picked each other.
"Ah, Miss Bones."
Susan looked up as Professor Sprout smiled at her. "I suppose you're wondering what everyone is doing." Susan nodded, and the Professor smiled again.
"To make a long lesson short, everyone broke up into groups of two. Each group was given a pot in which a seed was planted a few days before they were handed out. It's your job- and your partner's- to figure out what it is and what care it should be given.
Susan nodded again. "But Professor, I don't have a partner."
"Yes, that does pose a problem.. "Professor Sprout walked over to her desk and picked up a piece of parchment, pausing to swat at a long vine that was creeping toward an inkwell. "I believe there was an odd number." she murmured, gazing at the list. Suddenly she jabbed a dirt-covered finger at the bottom of the page.
"We had one group of three," she said, looking up to spot the culprits.
"Potter!" the Professor called out. "Come over here!"
Harry Potter looked up from where he and Ron Weasley had been arguing with Hermione Granger about the amount of water to add to their plant.
"You've got a partner now," she told him as he walked over, nodding toward Susan.
Harry shrugged. "Sure, Professor." Susan saw him glance back at his friends once and immediately felt guilty for taking him away from them.
Professor Sprout pointed out the spot where they were to work, and they walked over to the desk, carrying a large pot.
"So, um, what exactly are we supposed to do?" Susan asked, putting their pot down next to a large, thick plant with pink blossoms. She felt a little uncertain about what to say. This was, after all, Harry Potter.
Harry grinned a little. "I'm not sure, exactly. I haven't really had the best experience on this project. Personally," he said, glancing at Ron and Hermione, "I think Hermione's going just a tad overboard."
Susan watched as Hermione stalked toward the watering cans in a decided manner. Ron grabbed her arm and pointed angrily toward their plant, which was literally dripping with water. "I see what you mean, "she said dryly. "So, only one watering can for ours?"
Harry smiled. "Sure."
The two set to work, Harry magicking a few solar spells, Susan watering. Both tried to follow Professor Sprout's instructions and take notes, but by the end of class all they had in the pot was a lump of dirt.
"Well," Susan said cheerfully as she packed up the pot to take back to her dormitory for the night, "maybe she'll give us good marks for originality."
Harry laughed. "Yeah, we'll get a B for 'Everyone else's looks Bigger.' See you around," he said over his shoulder as he joined up with Ron and Hermione on the way out.
Later that night, Susan was going to the library to work on her Potions homework. It was dark, and the feeble torchlight seemed to be stretching itself to the maximum, struggling to get it's light to reach every corner.
Susan made a mental note to check a Herbology book. During the course of the afternoon her plant had grown. It was one plant, yet two stems grew from it, separate at first and then intertwining with each other, ending in two beautiful blue blossoms that still hadn't quite bloomed.
Susan squinted at the walls. Was it her imagination or was the light of each torch getting dimmer as she headed toward the end of the corrider?
She stopped short as a clattering noise filled the hallway. As she began to look for its source in curiosity, it revealed itself as a small figure coming hurriedly down the hall. The young girl looked up, an expression of fear on her face, as Susan drew nearer.
"What's wrong? Why are you running?" Susan asked kindly, though she felt nervous herself at the sight of the frightened girl. She knew this girl a little. She was a Hufflepuff second year, one of the laughing trio from earlier. She was known among many Hufflepuffs for not scaring easily
The girl was shaking uncontrollably, too hard to speak. Even the brown curls that framed her face seemed to be twitching with fear. Susan put a comforting arm around her shoulders. "Calm down. It's all right." Gradually the girl's shaking began to subside.
"First of all, I never had the pleasure of learning your name, "Susan told her. "Why don't you tell me, and then you can say what happened."
The girl took a small gasping breath. "Wynn."
"That's your name?" Wynn nodded. "It's really pretty."
Wynn gave another small nod, and finally her story came flooding out. "I was going to the library, but when I got there it was dark, all except- all except one corner. I went over to it, because I though Madame Pince was doing something over there, and I- I wanted to ask her about the books I needed." She stopped for a breath. "I think- I think You-Know-Who was there. And so- so was Harry Potter."
Susan felt fear welling up inside her, and yet at the same time she could feel her face hardening.
"Voldemort, here?" she said stiffly, part with fear, part with anger. She glanced down to she Wynn cringe at the name.
"Listen," Susan told her, quickly softening her voice. "You go back to the common room. I'll come in a minute. I have to.er.do something first."
Wynn looked uncertain.
"I'll be fine, really!" Susan said. "Go back, and don't tell anyone about what you saw, not yet."
Wynn nodded slightly and hurried away, glancing nervously over her shoulder every few steps.
Susan turned to face the direction of the library. It was her turn to settle the score.
In the library there was no light whatsoever, except in one corner that Susan could see through spaces in the bookshelves. She was fairly certain that was where Voldemort was.
There was no sign of Madame Pince at the desk. Susan swallowed as she tried not to think about what could have happened to her. Instead she walked as quietly ad quickly as she could toward that light, attempting to ignore the knot in her stomach that grew constantly larger with each step. Stopping behind the last bookshelf, Susan's heart almost stopped as she heard a chilling voice, filled with mirth.
"So, Potter," it cackled. "You don't really think you can defeat me, not now that I have more than twice the power I did before?"
There was no response, but Susan could see Harry from her spot behind the bookshelves. He was glaring at Voldemort with such hatred that Susan almost had to look away. He was backed up against a wall, gripping his wand so tightly that his hand shook.
Voldemort took no notice of Harry's lack of response and continued thoughtfully. "Of course, it's perfectly possible for me to kill you. After all, I did come very close last time, didn't I?"
As Susan watched, something in Harry snapped. She ducked quickly as something red shot out of his wand. A split second later, Susan heard laughter, and she raised her head to see to see that its source was Voldemort. He had obviously created something to block Harry's spell.
"Nice, Potter," he murmured. "Very nice"
With a movement so quick that it took Susan a few moments to realize that there had been any at all, Voldemort shot a purple and blue streak at Harry, knocking him down. Voldemort walked toward Harry, his voice crackling with glee as he watched Harry struggling to get to his feet.
"You're lucky, Potter. Only one of those spells won't kill you, only immobilize you momentarily. A few more, of course." Voldemort trailed off, grinning wickedly at the thought of dragging out Harry's death. All the while he kept advancing.
Behind the bookshelves, Susan's fear was quickly being replaced by a rage at what was happening, what would happen, and what had happened. Before Susan knew what she was doing, she began the spell that that her grandmother had so knowingly taught her.
It was a good thing her hands knew what they were doing, because her head was spinning, caught between confusion and anger.
What am I doing? This spell won't hurt him-
He must be stopped. He can't kill any more.
But this spell is just for hearing people, it can't kill anyone-
Voldemort must be stopped.
Susan gave in to the anger. Her hands continued shaping the air around her into its familiar sphere, making it larger than they ever had before, and now that Susan was back in control of her thoughts, she was thinking furiously while she did the spell.
This is for Granma and Granpa, she thought as she finished creating the sphere, because of what they had to go through, losing their daughter and gaining two more in the same day.
This is for my sister, she thought as she went over it for any mistakes, since she had to grow up sooner than anyone else.
This is for everyone whose lives were changed because of him, she thought as she decided it was ready.
"But most of all," she whispered passionately, "this is for Mum and Dad!"
With that, she flung the sphere at Voldemort.
After that everything seemed to move in slow motion. Voldemort, who had been standing over Harry, laughing victoriously, turned around. His pale face filed with horror and fury as he saw the mass of air hurtling toward him. The sphere had hundreds of voices screaming from it- but the voiced were different from before. They were the voices of all the people Voldemort had killed, all screaming their anger and pain at him. As the spheres hit Voldemort, there were four voices screaming louder than the rest.
At that moment, Voldemort's red eyes focused directly on her, Susan Bones. She let out a small gasp and hid behind some books, but she knew that he had seen her, and that he knew what she had done. She stayed there, shaking, for a few seconds, until she worked up the courage to lift her head again. She looked up just in time to see Voldemort disappear.
Suddenly a seemingly unnatural silence filled the library. The silence was a sign that the Dark Lord was gone, a quiet sign of victory. But the silence was too silent. There shouldn't be complete silence. After all, there was still another person in the room. Feeling nervous, Susan slowly turned to look at Harry. She was immediately hit with a wave of relief and panic; relief because Harry was alive, and panic because for the second time that night a pair of eyes met hers. This time, though, the eyes were bright green and were shielded by a pair of glasses.
Susan scrambled backwards and ran out of the library. As she hurried out she heard a voice say something behind her. She didn't bother to stop. She didn't even know why she was running, which might have been why Harry was able to catch up with her. He grabbed her elbow, causing her to stop running.
"Why are you running?" he panted. "I'm not going to hurt you or anything."
Susan choked, gasping for breath, though she wasn't sure whether it was from running or from the night's events. "I don't know- I mean, I know, I mean-" she broke off, breathing hard. She shook her head silently.
Harry looked at her. "You know, you- you saved my life just then."
Susan was silent, looking at the hem of her robes. She was still overwhelmed at what she had just done. She said quietly, still not looking at Harry, "Do you think he'll come back?"
Harry laughed coldly, and Susan saw him out of the corner of her eye. "I'm sure of it," he said, gazing out a window with a sad expression on his face. "He's back for good this time, and everyone knows it." Susan nodded. "But maybe- just maybe- he can be defeated." She felt him look at her, and she finally looked into his eyes. "But it would be much easier if everyone was as brave as you."
And then he kissed her.
Not a huge, romantic kiss, like you see in Muggle movies. Just a small one, as though Harry were nervous himself. But it seemed like the most wonderful thing ever to Susan. As they pulled away, she smiled.
"Thanks," she said, though she would never be sure whether she meant for the compliment or the kiss.
"It's a good thing there are people like you in this world," Harry said, taking her hand. "I don't know what anyone would do without you."
"Same to you," Susan said softly, gazing back at the library in a quiet manner. She walked with Harry down the hall, her hand in his.
* * *
A few nights later, Susan lay alone on her bed in her common room, smiling to herself. She was thinking about the past few days. Harry had gone straight to Dumbledore after the incident in the library. Susan grinned as she remembered the next meal in the Great Hall, during which Dumbledore awarded her and Harry with medals for what they did. Hers hung in a place of honor above her bed. Sally-Anne and Hannah had acted a bit star struck around her for a few hours, until she finally told them to knock it off. They had acted a little embarrassed, but now they were back to treating her like they normally did. Susan almost laughed out loud as she remembered the looks on their faces when she told them about her and Harry. Amazingly enough, no one really seemed to care that a Hufflepuff and a Gryffindor were going out. Well, most of the Slytherins in her year would tease her during Defense Against the Dark Arts, and once she had seen a group of Ravenclaw girls giggle as she walked past, but everyone else seemed to be taking it quite well.
She paused for a second, gazing at the plant from Herbology. The blossoms had finally bloomed, and it was the most beautiful plant she or Harry had ever seen. She smiled at it, and then started the spell that she had learned from her grandmother. Just for old time's sake. She hadn't really felt a need for the spell lately. She hadn't had a moment to be lonely.
Suddenly Susan sat up straight. That wasn't Granma singing. In fact. she listened closely. there were two voices singing. One, a soft, sweet tone that could hit high notes without even sounding like it was straining, the other, a deep bass that was powerful enough to fill the room, yet it never over powered the soprano voice above it. Susan puzzled over this for a few moments. Then she lay back and smiled. She fell asleep listening to the sound of her parents singing in harmony.