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An Unlikely Friend
Disclaimer: Blaise Zabini, Sibyl Trelawny, Severus Snape, and Professor Flitwick all belong to J.K. Rowlings. Flitwick's first name I made up, as I can't recall it ever mentioned in the HP series. Lynn Alkaiser belongs to me. I first meant this to be only one chapter, but as the first was short, I decided to post the next chapter up also.
Blaise Zabini looked over at Lynn from across the crystal ball.
Carefully checking to make sure Trelawny was out of hearing range she whispered, "You don't see anything in there, do you?"
Lynn smiled helplessly at the Slytherin and shook her head. "I was hoping that you would, actually."
"Now, class," Trelawny's voice slithered across the walls of the classroom. "After today's lesson, I expect you to be able to at least see some sort of shape in the Crystal, be it distinguishable or not," she sniffed, inhaling a toxic amount of the thick perfume wafting in the room.
"Wednesday, I expect you to hand in a fifteen inch essay, describing exactly what you saw in it today."
The black haired Slytherin smirked. Lynn only stared.
"Homework on the first day of school," Zabini scoffed quietly. Then seeing Lynn's worried expression, she waved an impatient hand at her. "Don't worry…we'll just improvise it a bit," the corners of her mouth tugged dangerously upwards.
Noticing the, "we," Lynn glanced at her partner dubiously, then back into the crystal ball.
If she squinted, the wisps of fog seemed to take the shape of a… Well, regardless, they took some sort of shape, and she supposed that was all that mattered.
The bell rang then, and Lynn scooped up her bags and pieces of parchment.
When she looked up, she was surprised to see the Slytherin waiting for her by the trapdoor.
"We have a half an hour break before next period," Blaise informed her. "We have one in the morning and one in the afternoon. I need to go see Professor Snape about something…" She cleared her throat and looked away from Lynn, "Will you come with me?"
Something about the way Blaise phrased the last question made Lynn smile.
She had heard students talking about him, and from what she heard, he was…shall we say, not well liked? Apparently, from Blaise's reaction, he even made students in his own house nervous.
Though, in Blaise's case, it might be for different reasons.
She gave Blaise a nod and was awarded with grateful smile.
"My parents are both wizards," Lynn said as the two girls descended down a flight of stairs.
"Mother's a… 'pure blood', do you call them? …But my dad's half and half."
Blaise nodded and rolled her eyes.
"My family's just as pure as you can get, I guess," she shrugged, as if not really caring for the topic.
"But then again, so are most in Slytherin," she flashed Lynn a sardonic smile.
"You'll find that most of Slytherin is related in some way, be it distant or not."
She was quiet a moment, then she spoke suddenly.
"As a
matter of fact, I think Professor Snape is a distant cousin of my
brother-in-law's.
Lynn looked at her a moment, but
said nothing upon the matter.
Wizarding politics was not a subject she was familiar with.
Descending another flight of stairs, the girls were enveloped in a sudden draft of cold air.
"Dungeons?"
Blaise nodded and smirked, seeing Lynn tighten her robes around herself.
"You get used to it after a while… I suppose he doesn't heat it because of the cauldron fires…"
Lynn pointed out that no one any classes, much less Potion's during break and Blaise forced out a laugh in the bitter cold of the hallway.
"True…maybe our dear professor prefers it this way…"
They arrived at the doorway and Blaise lifted a hand to knock when Lynn halted her, hearing voices on the other side.
Blaise looked at her in confusion until Lynn mouthed, "There's someone else in there."
The two girls pressed their ears against the doorway, Lynn at the top and Blaise at the bottom.
Flitwick's voice echoed throughout the Potion's Chamber.
"Do you think we've made any progress, Severus?"
Instead of the cold and bitter remark Blaise was used to, her professor's tone was tired and downcast.
"I doubt it, Gregory… But the clock is ticking and we've made little, if any advances on the Wolfsbane Charm."
The last phrase had two very different effects on the girls.
Blaise only perked her ear up further and strained to hear more.
Lynn's eyes widened and she nearly fell over on top of Blaise.
She only saved by the heavy doorframe she was holding herself against.
Professor Flitwick started saying something, but stopped and Lynn got the impression that the Potion's Master held up a hand to quiet him.
Lynn thought she heard him utter something, but she wasn't quite sure.
"Miss Zabini, unless you and your friend would prefer to eavesdrop on Professor Flitwick and myself, I would advise you to come in." Blaise widened her eyes, and Lynn lost her hold on the doorframe, falling gracelessly on top of the Slytherin.
Snape opened the doorway, revealing the two girls sprawled all over the floor.
The two quickly scrambled to their feet.
Lynn recognized the man behind Snape as her Charms professor – she had had his class today, and she turned her attention instead to the man looming over herself and her friend.
He was tall. About as tall as Professor Lupin, but then again, she thought, she had read somewhere about magical people being taller than muggles; something to do with the magic in their bodies. Most of the men Lynn had seen were muggles, rather than magical folk and she supposed this was why she wasn't used to the height of wizards; though Professor Flitwick, seemed to be an exception to this.
Professor Snape had dark looming eyes and slick black hair that hung just above his shoulders.
His skin was a bit sallow, and he had a long hooked nose that he looked down at you from.
His shoulders drooped a little, as if from exhaustion and Lynn could tell by the way he was standing that he usually had straight-as-a-board posture most of the time. When he spoke, she could see his yellowed teeth and she supposed he cared little about dental care and other sorts of hygiene.
His robes were black, like many of the professors, but unlike her other teachers, he apparently was wearing all black underneath.
All this she took in in a matter of a few seconds and she averted her eyes before he caught her staring.
"This had better be terribly important, Miss Zabini," said a low voice coming from the back of his throat, and he took a step towards them, deliberately invading their personal space.
His voice sent a shiver up her spine, and Lynn instinctively started to take a step backwards, but she saw Blaise hold her ground from the corner of her eye, so she gulped and remained standing there.
"Uh…no, Professor," her friend said quickly. "It can wait."
He nodded once and began to turn when he suddenly took notice of his student's companion.
He rounded on Lynn, who this time, retreated back a step.
"And what, praytell, is your name, child?" he narrowed his eyes at her.
She spoke out, and she was pleased to note that her voice sounded much stronger than she felt at the time. "Lynn Alkaiser."
She saw his eyes widen for a split-second and she felt, rather than saw his eyes skim over her.
"So…" he breathed. "New student…I hope you have accumulated a sufficient amount of potion's knowledge from wherever you came from," he went on in that silky voice of his. "I have no patience for incompetent dunderheads in my class."
And with that, he bid them good day and retreated back into his classroom, his robes billowing behind him dramatically.
Professor Flitwick raised an amused eyebrow at his colleague and smiled almost reassuringly at the girls, giving them a courteous nod.
After the door closed, Blaise and Lynn took one look at each other and walked away from the dungeons as fast as they could without attracting too much attention.
Blaise propped herself across Lynn's bed.
Dumbledore had decided to give the Alkaisers rooms of their own, due to their condition, and rather than placing them near their house dormitories, he thought it best not to separate them. They each stayed in the guest regions of the castle and shared a small, two-bedroom chamber just south of the Kitchens.
Blaise hadn't asked; she assumed it was because Lynn would only be staying for the year that they hadn't bothered finding her a dormitory.
So that's where Lynn and Blaise were now. Allen was out with those boys they had met on the train, so the latter didn't feel uncomfortable in the chamber.
Lynn had been chewing on her lower lip for a while. "Why'd you suppose they'd be working on a Wolfsbane charm? I thought the potion worked well enough…? And what did they mean by, 'running out of time?'"
She shrugged. "Beats me." She looked thoughtful for a second, "But…" she trailed off.
"What?"
Blaise looked at her a second and shrugged. "No harm in telling you, but…"
She lowered her voice, "You know when You-Know-Who died…not all of his followers just disappeared."
Lynn sat up and stared at her with her amber eyes, intrigued.
"Not many people know it but…there are still mobs of them out there." She looked lost in her thoughts, "Biding their time…organizing for something…and there are…certain creatures that they would rather…" she stopped there and laughed. "I must sound like some paranoid dolt, saying all this."
Lynn only forced a smile and shook her head. "No…It's odd…being homeschooled, I guess I never realized just how bad things were… I never realized…" she trailed off.
Blaise nodded understandingly, her pale blue eyes piercing. "Those were hard times…still are, for some people."
She suddenly remembered the train incident and the rumors on how Professor Lupin was fired from his job for being a…for what he was.
"Like Professor Lupin," she thought out loud.
She didn't realize she had spoken until Blaise followed up on it.
"Yes…like poor Professor Lupin."
Lynn looked up at the Slytherin and by studying her expression, she wasn't sure if she was being sarcastic or not.
Blaise stood up.
"I'd better go before Millicent and Pansy start wondering…" she sighed and shook her head.
"I'll see you tomorrow."
The Meeting
Dumbledore's uncharacteristically melancholy eyes stared down at the Potion's and Charm's professors from beneath his lenses.
"And how's the Wolfsbane charm coming along, gentlemen?"
Snape narrowed and averted his eyes, arms crossed over his chest looking much like the over-grown bat Madam Pomfrey was fond of referring to him by.
Tiny Professor Flitwick piped up, his head barely seen from behind the long table that the entire staff, was sitting around. That is, all the staff except Remus Lupin.
"I'm very sorry to say that we've made little progress. We've managed to work out the basic parts of the charm, but…" he trailed off sadly and the rest of the staff turned toward the Headmaster.
Dumbledore appeared to be deep in thought, as he was twirling his fingers around his beard, as he often did when he was contemplating something.
It was as silent as a grave around the staff table; everyone all around the table, (Sirius Black, Minerva McGonagall, Albus Dumbledore, Severus Snape, Gregory Flitwick, Sylvia Sinistra, Miranda Sprout, Cynthia Vector, Sybil Trelawney, Argus Filch and the others) were quiet, most of them waiting for Dumbledore to explain the matter. Only a few of the staff knew the reason behind the meaning.
The headmaster cleared his throat, but didn't speak immediately. The silence was suddenly broken when Sirius leapt from his chair, scraping it loudly against the floor.
"He has a right to know about this!!" he shouted.
"Sirius…" the Headmaster warned, though not in an unkind tone. "Please sit down."
He swallowed and looked around the table, brushing back his long ebony hair. He reluctantly sat back down after a moment, his dark eyes upon the light colored wood. A few seats down from Dumbledore, the Astronomy professor met Sirius' eyes for a few fleeting moments. They stared at each other in silence for a brief while and she broke the stare first, as if restraining herself from saying anything.
Dumbledore sighed and stood up.
"As you all are aware of, the Dark Lord's final fall has not diminished the entire Death Eater population."
He was replied to by an array of nods and murmurs of agreement.
"The Death Eaters, as I'm sure you all know of, still have a hit list of the many people they would like to…exterminate," he put gently.
"Here at Hogwarts, as you all know, we have their number one target."
Again, he paused, to observe the teachers who now stood still and watched him. Even Snape didn't flinch when Dumbledore continued.
"We must continue to keep watch over young Harry Potter. It's now his final year at the school; I believe that as soon as he is out of the school, Voldemort's minions will double their efforts to capture and destroy him."
Dumbledore looked around the table. Most looked at him steadily; two of the staff held his eyes, waiting for him to get to the reason that they knew was the cause of this particular staff meeting.
"But the truth is," he continued, his eyes taking on a dead serious look in them that many had never seen before. "That there are at least two, and perhaps three, more in the school who are in grave danger."
Sirius finally sat up, paying more attention to the situation at hand, and Snape and Flitwick did likewise. Sylvia, on the other hand, looked down and away suddenly.
Albus Dumbledore cleared his throat again.
"The Death Eaters have a strong hatred for magical creatures who will not rise or…" he gave a weak smile, "I should say, lower themselves, to serve them."
Snape looked down at the table and idly noticed that his knuckles were white against the edge of the table he was gripping.
Dumbledore took a breath and began.
"The Death Eaters have started building concentration camps all through Europe. Our spies are not yet aware of the location, nor do they know if this is happening in other countries."
He looked around the table gravely before proceeding, a slight edge to his tone.
"I won't waste any more time with introductions; the Death Eaters are kidnapping werewolves all over Britain and gathering them together in concentration camps. Just where these concentration camps are located…," Dumbledore shrugged. "We honestly don't know."
He looked around the table.
Most of the professors were sitting straight up in their chairs looking either horror-stricken or deeply concerned.
All except two, who, unlike the others, didn't even meet Dumbledore's eyes.
"Now," he continued. "Our plans to protect both Remus Lupin…," he paused. "And the boy…are - "
"The boy?" Professor Sprout interrupted. "Surely, they wouldn't want one as young as…"
"He's not that young to them, Miranda. And they do not care of their age," he responded shortly. "The truth is, they are after British werewolves and they do not care for either who the lycanthropes are, or what their age is."
Sinistra and Black spent the rest of the meeting staring down at their bone-white hands gripping the table.