A/N: we get HP and the Order of the Phoenix in 150 days! (just counted them :) I'll try and upload this fic before it comes out. If ffnet doesn't have a month-long breakdown again, I'll surely manage it.
This chapter is dedicated to jennaration, who has birthday tomorrow. Happy birthday!
I've seen LotR 2 at last. I think it was better than the first, but it still seemed a bit boring to me (at last the first half). The second half with the siege was great, though. Legolas surfing/snowboarding down the steps was hilarious. And I just loved that scene in which the dam broke through, it looked so cool! But all in all, the movie should have been at least half an hour shorter.
I must ask you NOT TO get surprised by anything that happens in this chapter. Just read on, read on…
Chapter 12
Riddles
"Uncle Vernon? Aunt Petunia?" Harry stepped to the newcomers who seemed to be utterly perplexed – maybe even they didn't believe that they had come. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh, I invited them!" David Dursley, clad as Zorro, ran up to his (grand)parents and took them by the hand, pulling them into the tent before they could greet Harry (if they wanted to greet him at all). "I'm so happy you have decided to come, you will have so much fun here!" he said joyfully.
Seeing the expression on the old Dursleys' faces, Harry seriously doubted that they would have fun.
"Are my eyes wrong or are they really your uncle and aunt?" Ron stepped to his friend.
"They seem real. And no one would be stupid enough to use Polyjuice just to turn into them, so they must be real," Harry shrugged and followed the chipper David and his horrified grandparents into the crowd.
"This should be fun," Ron grinned and joined Harry in the 'Dursley-stalking'. As they passed Hermione (who was dressed up as an owl), her eyes also widened and she excused herself from McGonagall to follow the strange little group.
"See, that is professor Dumbledore over there. You know, the headmaster, he's clad as a house-elf, cute, isn't it?" David carried on. Vernon and Petunia's expressions revealed that they found Albus as non-cute as possible. "And that over there is the band SPEW, they are my favourites, I've been to all their concerts, would you like me to lend you some of their records?" As far as Harry could tell, Vernon and Petunia were downright terrified by the idea of having to listen to SPEW at home. "Oh, and these little comets…" David continued, but was a bit late, because a magic comet swooped down on Petunia.
"HEEEEELP!" she screamed and tried to run away from her attacker, just to run into Harry's arms.
"Um, hello, Aunt Petunia," he tried to smile as non-maliciously as possible, which, in the current situation, was quite a hard task. "I don't know whether you have noticed me, but I have already greeted you."
Uncle Vernon gave a grunt as a sign of recognition, while his wife was still quivering in her nephew's arms.
"I tried to admonish you, granny," David apologised. "Those are not real comets, they're just bewitched to scare the guests. Funny, aren't they?" From Petunia's scowling Harry knew that she found it as non-funny as possible.
"Well, a great surprise for me to see you at Hogwarts," Harry said as his aunt disentangled herself from his embrace. "I thought you hated magic."
"Give me some pick-me-up," Petunia growled, adjusting her elegant cream-coloured costume. "I need something to put me right after this shock."
"Try this, Mrs. Dursley," Ron pushed a glass into her hand, and before Harry could question him what that drink was, Petunia downed it in one gulp.
"That's better," she smoothed her hair – or rather she would have smoothed it, if it had been there. But there were feathers instead.
"Petunia!" Vernon howled as his wife had completely turned into a huge bird with pitch-black feathers.
"Damn, I thought Fred and George had stopped making such silly jokes!" Ron fumed. "I had no idea that they had 'poisoned' the butterbeer with Blackbird Brandy. I swear I didn't know, Mr. Dursley…"
"I don't care whether you knew or not!" Vernon bawled. "I want my wife back!"
"Calm down, uncle, she's going to change back in a minute!" Harry said. "And I'll have a few words to say to my dear brother-in-laws."
Indeed, Petunia turned back into her old Muggle self in a couple of seconds and her first words were: "Get me out of here, Vernon! These are a horde of freaks!"
"I told you we shouldn't have come!" Vernon agreed. "I HATE MAGIC!"
"Now, now, Aunt Petunia, you haven't seen the best yet," Harry said soothingly.
"The worst, you mean," his aunt replied, eyeing him suspiciously.
"Nooooo," Harry grinned. "See that pretty little tent over there? Sybill, an excellent friend of mine, is in there, and believe me, you're in for a treat if you enter that tent."
"Really?" Petunia pursed her lips, reading the text over the tent's entrance. "A fortune-teller?"
"The best you can get," Harry winked. "You surely want to know your future, don't you?"
"No, she doesn't," Vernon cut in.
"Why not, Vernon?" his wife snapped.
"Because your nerves are too weak for such things, dear."
"They are not," she replied. "Anyway, what worse could come? I'll definitely go in there!"
"But dear…?" Mr. Dursley called after her as she disappeared into the tent. Her husband followed her in case he had to save her from the freaks the tent was filled with.
"Dad told me they had been like this for ages," David said. "A bit tetchy, you know… always quarrelling with each other… I thought they needed a bit of a change, that's why I invited them."
"But… how did you persuade them to come?" Harry seemed curious. "As far as I knew, there was no force on Earth that could have talked those two into coming to Hogwarts."
"True," the boy grinned, "but I did not only persuade them… I blackmailed them."
"Hah, the little tyke!" Ron said admiringly. "How did you do it?"
"I told them that I'd never ever visit them in the future if they didn't come and visit me now. They got terrified and came. They love me too much to say no," Davie replied, looking rather proud of himself. Harry assumed that if Petunia and Vernon loved David as much as Dudley, then it wasn't so surprising at all that they had let Dave blackmail them into coming.
"And how did they find the way here?" Ron knitted his eyebrows.
"Took the Hogwarts Express, I presume," Harry shrugged. "Then just followed the crowd from Hogsmeade to the castle."
"I wonder whether your uncle had bought some Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans from the trolley-witch," Ron grinned. "I'd like to see him tasting a vomit flavoured one."
Harry and David laughed, but Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Harry, you are evil, you know that?" she said. "Sending her to Trelawney!"
"Don't be a spoilsport, Herm," he smirked. "You have no idea how many days of my life have been spoiled by my dear aunt… now let me return a weenie little part of it…"
* * * * *
"Attention, please, attention!" Albus Dumbledore silenced the crowd a few minutes before ten o' clock. "Soon I am going to announce the winners of the costume contest. The pupil wearing the best costume is going to be awarded 100 points to his or her house and books from Flourish and Blott's in the value of fifty galleons. The second is going to get 40 points and a cheque of 20 galleons that he or she can spend in Gladrags, and the third is going to get 20 points and a huge tart of his choice from Honeydukes that is going to be re-opened in a week. Let me thank the gallant donors in the name of the school – Mr. McGregor, the owner of Flourish and Blotts, Miss Ingalls, owner of Gladrags, and Mrs. Potter, owner of Honeydukes. And now…" he sent the crowd a wide grin, "let us see the magical counting-machine!"
He pointed at a machine looking like a small version of a Muggle scoreboard, showing the votes of the Hogwarts staff.
"Um… one vote is missing," the headmaster said. "Professor Snape's. Where is he at all?"
That was when Harry realised that he hadn't seen Snape the whole evening.
"Ahem… here, Albus," came a voice from the entrance. Every single head in the tent turned in that direction, and a couple of gasps could be heard.
"I don't believe it!" Harry gaped. "Are my eyes deceiving me, or is he really wearing Neville's grandma's outfit?"
Ron wasn't in the state to answer, because he was clutching at his stomach that hurt from the silent laughter.
"Yes, Harry, he is," Hermione replied, casting a sideways glance at Neville, who – along with his parents – was gazing at Snape with his mouth agape.
The buzzing of a fly could have been heard in the silence of the tent as Severus walked up to the headmaster in green robes and a magnificent hat with a vulture. "I hope I'm not too late. My costume needed a bit of… fixing," he added, a slight pinkish shade appearing on his yellowish cheeks.
The crowd burst into laughter and – inexplicably to Snape – started to clap. The laughter and applause was the loudest among those guests who had once been in one class with Neville and happened to attend that memorable 'boggart in the wardrobe' Defence Against the Dark Arts class eighteen years earlier.
"Well, I guess it's too late for me to vote, given that I haven't seen any of the children's costumes, so will you excuse me, Albus? I need a drink," said Severus and disappeared into the crowd.
The cheering only died away when the headmaster flicked his wand, sending up red sparks.
"Well, then, we must put up with one vote less," he said. "And the votes say…" he flicked his wand again, turning on the machine that showed the numbers the teachers voted for. "As I see the third place is Mr. Peter Parker of Ravenclaw for his Spiderman outfit. He received two votes from the staff-members. The second place belongs to Miss Julie Dumbledore of Hufflepuff, for her golden galleon costume… three votes. And the winner of the hundred house points is… Mr. Rowan Atkinson of Hufflepuff for his wonderful Halloween pumpkin costume… he got five votes. The winners please come forward!"
"Of course she won a price, she's the headmaster's grand-niece!" Iago Rosier of Slytherin hissed to his friend, Alan Travers, who nodded, both of them following Julie Dumbedore with their eyes.
"In my opinion she really deserved to get an award – I liked her costume very much!" Daniel Potter said and Liu Chang nodded her agreement. "Right, Norbert?" he turned around to see where his friend was, but he was nowhere to be seen. "Have you seen him, guys?"
"I saw him leaving the tent about fifteen minutes ago," Iago replied.
"He said he wanted to talk to his brother…" Dan mused. "I bet he even missed Snape's great entry… he'll regret it as long as he lives!"
"Very possibly!" Liu chuckled.
"Do you think it was arranged? I mean to make Julie Dumbledore get second place?" Harry frowned, turning to Hermione.
"I don't think so," she replied. "Albus wouldn't do such a thing, you know that. Not even Aberforth would ask the other teachers to vote for his great-granddaughter. I voted for her of my own free will, because I really loved her costume. Whom did you vote for?"
"For a second-year Ravenclaw girl who was dressed up as a Hungarian Horntail," he replied, casting a side-glance at McGonagall. The Transfiguration professor seemed to be eyeing the little 'golden galleon' in a rather friendly way – at least Harry was surprised that she could look at Julie in another way than scowling. That was a good sign – maybe she'd grow to like her in the end. "I've just realised… Julie and Rowan Atkinson are both Hufflepuffs. That means that Hufflepuff got 140 points," he said. "Hm… is it only wishful thinking, or could it be possible that, for a change, Hufflepuff will win the house cup? They haven't received it for centuries. They'd really deserve it."
"Oh, not rooting for ickle Gryffindor, Potter?" came Draco Malfoy's drawling voice from behind.
"As a teacher, I'm impartial, Malfoy," Harry replied. "I just said what I believed in: that Hufflepuff deserved to get the cup at last."
"Sure, Saint Potter playing the little impartial teacher," Draco said in a miffed voice and left.
"What's up with him again?" Harry frowned.
"I saw him quarrelling with his brother," Hermione replied. "So no wonder that his mood is so bad."
"Before you go back to dancing and having fun, we have one more task to do," Albus said. "Our three winners are going to select the best costume from the teachers' outfits, and the winner is going to get a symbolic award – ten free glasses of butterbeer from the charming Madame Rosmerta," he glanced at the owner of the Three Broomsticks, who was holding hands with Sirius. "We give our winners one minute to discuss their decision."
Julie, Rowan and Peter put their heads together, giggling. Harry had a good idea whom they were going to choose for winner.
"Oh, yes, we have it," Dumbledore grinned after the three kids whispered their votes into his ear. "I am pleased to announce that the winner is Professor Snape!"
Everyone started to cheer (with the exception of the clearly hurt Gilderoy Lockhart – he had been sure he'd win), searching for Severus in the crowd, but he had simply disappeared.
"As I see he isn't here anymore… how pity," Albus pouted. "He will of course still get the ten glasses of butterbeer when he visits the Three Broomsticks. Well, let the party continue!"
The SPEW started to play again as Petunia Dursley burst out of 'Sybill's nook', shouting 'We are leaving, Vernon! I'm fed up with all this! First that stupid comet that wanted to kill me, then that drink that turned me into a bird, and now this idiot belly-dancer! Do you have any idea what she predicted to me? No? She said that as soon as I exited the tent, I'd be run over by an elephant-sized spider, but not to worry, because I will only break two arms and a leg and will have amnesia for a year, but that's not that bad at all!'
"A bit irritated, isn't she?" Stella Sinistra smiled at her husband as Petunia left the tent.
"Muggles, I presume," Remus smiled back at her, taking a huge gulp of champagne. "I'll go and have a look at Jamie, all right? I'll be back soon."
"All right," Stella nodded. They weren't too pleased that they had had to leave their son at the castle, but no children under eleven were allowed to attend the party, and a rule was a rule… Mr. Bradley had promised to take care of the boy for the duration of the ball.
"Are you all right, sweetie?" Anck-sun-Amun Lockhart walked up to her daughter, Gilda. "You look so pale."
"I feel funny, mum," the girl replied. "Light-headed… and I don't remember… er, what's the time?"
"Half past ten. Why?"
"Because… I don't remember things…" Gilda massaged her temples as though she were having a bad headache. "The last thing I remember is that I left Daniel with Liu Chang to let them bill and coo in peace and wanted to find dad… but that was ten minutes to ten… and I don't know what happened since then."
"Honey…" her mother gave her a worried look. "It is possible that someone has wiped your memories."
"But why would anyone do that, mum?"
"I don't know," Sunny shook her head. "But whoever they were, they didn't want you to remember seeing or doing something… and unfortunately we are unlikely to find the culprit in this crowd… we'll talk to Dumbledore and your grandfather, okay? Come with me."
Gilda nodded and followed her mother to the headmaster.
* * * * *
Harry decided to follow the freaking Petunia out of the tent, in case she did something stupid in her current state. Maybe it had really been cruel of him to expose her to Sybill… he felt a bit guilty.
"Wait, Aunt Petunia!" he yelled, running after the Dursleys. Petunia was practically hyperventilating, but still kept running, and Vernon could barely keep up with her. They had already passed by the magic fountain and were running at the shore of the lake, heading towards the gate with the winged warthogs, when suddenly Snape appeared from the forest's direction, running as fast as he could.
Harry had almost reached his aunt when he spotted Snape and also the reason why he was running: five acromantulas were chasing him.
"Potter! Help!" he shouted.
"Uncle, aunt, run behind a tree!" Harry ordered the Muggles. It was only then that the irritated Petunia looked up and let out an ear-splitting scream. She was rooted to the spot in fright and couldn't move, but luckily Vernon managed to screw up all his courage and jerked her behind a huge oak.
Seeing that he had got help, Snape stopped running and turned around to face the gigantic spiders. "Stun them at the count of three! One, two, three!" he and Harry both shouted Stupefy! at the spiders, but that must have felt nothing but a tickle for the beasts. They kept coming forward. Harry tried both Impedimenta and Stupefy on a nearby specimen, and managed to disable it, but as it fell, it happened to tumble right upon Severus.
"Snape!" Harry shouted, but the other professor didn't respond – maybe he was dead already, but surely unconscious.
Suddenly Remus appeared from behind. The wizard had only wanted to walk up to the castle to check up on his son, but saw what was happening outside and joined Harry in the fight as soon as he could. "Let's try and stun them!"
"That's a stupid idea! I've already tried with Snape, it didn't work!" Harry yelled angrily, sending spark-showers at the animals, trying to scare them away. No such luck.
"Do you think that sparks would scare four damn big spiders away? Are you out of your mind?" Lupin shouted and aimed his wand at two of the spiders, sending spurts of flames towards them. The spiders seemed to be afraid of fire and retreated a bit. "See, this is how it is done!"
"Really?" Harry asked sarcastically. "If you're so clever, then tell me why they are advancing on us again!"
"Shut up and do something sensible, if you can, dunderhead!"
"Dunderhead? You have no idea how to deal with these monsters, you senile old codger!"
"Senile? Old codger?" Lupin hissed. "How dare you question my expertise, you green little professor's assistant?"
"Assistant?" Harry shouted, sending a stunner at a nearby spider, only managing to make it stay put for ten seconds, "I'm a fully fledged wizard, if you didn't know!"
"Fully fledged my ass, you stuck-up, selfish, hero-wannabe!" Remus growled, pointing at the dangling branch of the tree, making it detach itself from the trunk and swoop down on one of the spiders. "See, you would never have had this idea, Scarhead!"
"Scarhead? Hey, that was Malfoy's line!" Harry yelled. "If you can't even make up an original insult, why open your big mouth at all?" suddenly he felt a jerk – one of the three remaining spiders had picked him up.
"What exactly did you say?" Lupin smirked maliciously, only to be knocked over by another spider. The wand fell out of his hand.
"Holy Snitch!" Daniel gasped. He had only left the tent to have a look at his great-aunt freaking, but he wasn't at all prepared for the sight that greeted him: his father madly trying to get free from an acromantula's grip and professor Lupin lying on the grass, another spider looming menacingly over him.
In the next instant, Dan felt a surge of energy leaving his body and the spider holding Harry suddenly dropped him, the one wanting to kill Remus stopped and all the three spiders that hadn't been disabled before, froze – and not only in the way they would have frozen if they had been stunned. They had actually been frozen in ice, looking like three ugly ice-sculptures.
"What is going on here?" Professor McGonagall, with flipping braids, and Aberforth in his fluffy yeti costume ran up to the disabled spiders. They had just wanted to walk a bit in the moonlight and reminisce over their honeymoon when they saw the huge beasts, and one second later the huge ice statues. "Potter?"
"My dad and Professor Lupin have been attacked," Daniel replied, quivering. "And Professor Snape's there, too!" he pointed at a figure half-buried under an acromantula.
Minerva and Aberforth immediately flicked their wands and lifted the animal off the professor.
"He's alive," Minerva said, touching the vein throbbing on Severus' neck. "But he needs Madame Pomfrey."
"Oh, that pretty hat got destroyed!" Aberforth looked at the Neville's grandma's vulture hat lying torn on the ground, then he crouched down to Harry. "Hey, you all right, kid?"
"I'm fine…" Harry mumbled, massaging his ankle that got sprained as he fell.
"Dad!" Daniel ran into his arms and hugged his father tight. "I was so afraid that you'd die!"
Harry patted his son's head, wondering what had stopped him from dying.
"Your irresponsibility could have killed us all!" Remus growled at him, hoisting himself up to his elbows.
"My irresponsibility?" Harry snapped. "You were more occupied with insulting me than with fighting these beasts!"
Aberforth and McGonagall exchanged worried glanced. This was not the way Harry and Remus used to behave. On the contrary – they had always been great friends…
"A…are they… dead?" Vernon Dursley's quavering voice spoke up behind the oak tree.
"Yeah, you may come out of hiding, they won't harm anyone… I guess," Harry said, sizing up the frozen beasts, not believing his eyes. "Was it you, Professor McGonagall? Or you, Aberforth?"
"What?" Minerva asked.
"Did you freeze them?" Harry pointed at the spiders.
"No," Aberforth shook his head while conjuring up a stretcher and hoisting Snape's body onto it. "We exited the tent at the very second one of the spiders wanted to tread on Remus… then, in the next instant, they were frozen. No idea how it happened."
"Have you seen anything, Potter?" Minerva turned to Daniel. "A wizard or someone who disabled these beasts?"
"No, Professor," the boy replied.
"Are you sure?" McGonagall asked. She had the impression that Daniel wasn't telling the truth. The boy had got on her wrong side weeks earlier when he had caused Gryffindor to lose three hundred points – and although Minerva knew that his intentions had been good, she still couldn't help feeling resentment towards the boy. Though it had happened twenty years earlier that she had caught Harry Potter flying for Neville's Remembrall, she still perfectly remembered Harry's guilty expression after she had told him to follow her into the castle. Now Daniel was wearing the same expression of guilt… this boy knew something but refused to tell. Minerva made a mental note to talk to Albus about young Potter's unusual behaviour.
"All right, then," she spoke up finally. "Let us go into the infirmary as soon as possible. Severus seems to be in a rather bad shape and you two also have some injuries," she told Harry and Lupin. Those two nodded, but carefully avoided each other's stare. "And I guess that your Muggle relatives could do with some sedatives, too."
"May I go back to the party?" Daniel asked.
"Of course. Tell your mum what happened and that she can find me in the hospital wing," his father replied and stepped to the Dursleys. "Come, Aunt Petunia. I'll take you to the school nurse."
"No, you won't!" Vernon growled at him, gathering his trembling wife into a firm embrace, as if trying to protect her from their lunatic nephew. "I'm taking her back to Privet Drive and phone Dr. Smith…"
"Uncle," Harry heaved a sigh. "Listen to me. You cannot take her anywhere in her current condition. She has just got over a nasty shock, she needs to rest a bit. You too. Madame Pomfrey is a trustworthy elderly lady and I can give you my word that she won't do anything dangerous to Aunt Petunia. She has saved my limbs more times than I can remember. Trust me," with that he gently pulled his aunt out of Vernon's arms and began steering her up to the castle. Vernon, given that he could do nothing else, followed them.
* * * * *
"You won't believe what happened just five minutes ago!" Daniel told Gilda. "Where's Norbert?"
"Dunno. Still hasn't turned up," she shrugged. "So, what happened?"
"Five giant spiders attacked dad, Snape and Lupin!"
"Oh… and did anyone die?" she asked anxiously.
"No, but Snape might. He looked quite crushed… a spider fell onto him, a wonder that he is still alive! The spiders nearly killed dad and Lupin, too."
"And how did they survive?"
"Well…" Dan looked down at his shoes. "I guess I did it."
"You? What?"
"I imagined that the spiders froze and so they did," he whispered.
"Wow… so you do have mystical powers, then!" she said admiringly.
"Seems so… but please, don't tell anyone, Gilda!"
"My lips are sealed," she promised. "You have shared a secret with me, so I'm also sharing one with you: someone has wiped my memories here at the ball."
"What?" Dan gaped. "Who? Why? When?"
"I have no idea who it was… but I lost half an hour of my life. So weird… the last thing I remember was leaving you to dally with Miss Geisha…"
"I wasn't dallying with Liu!" Dan grunted.
"Well, anyway, I left you to look for dad and then I don't remember the next half hour of my life… I even missed the awarding ceremony! I don't even know who won! SPEW was already playing after the awarding when I suddenly 'woke up'. I mean… it was like waking up from a deep slumber… my mind cleared and I realised that I had no memories of the past thirty minutes. Only mum, grandpa and the headmaster know about it, and now you. Keep the secret, please."
"I will. But it's still creepy," Dan replied.
After having placed the invalids under Madame Pomfrey's care, Minerva and Aberforth returned to the spiders to see that a little group of people had gathered around them. The headmaster was also eyeing their rigid bodies, shaking his head in disbelief.
"Five acromantulas… what on Earth were they doing out of the Forbidden Forest tonight?"
"No idea, Albus, but they attacked Severus Snape," McGonagall said, calling Dumbledore aside so that the curious guests wouldn't hear. "Harry Potter and Remus Lupin tried to help him but they also got injured. Had these beasts not been frozen somehow, all three of them would probably be dead. Not to mention that Potter and Lupin were behaving rather strangely… as though they had been bewitched or something."
"Bewitched, Minerva?" Albus raised an eyebrow. "A series of strange things seems to have happened tonight – this attack, then there was another inexplicable case: Gilda Lockhart has been memory charmed."
"What?" McGonagall gasped. "But who did that?"
"This is something we cannot even guess," the headmaster shook his head. "Mysteries upon mysteries… how did these acromantulas freeze? Do you have any idea? As far as I know, only the most powerful wizards could have done this with the strongest freezing charms…"
"I don't know how it happened, Albus," Minerva said. "But maybe Daniel Potter does."
"Daniel Potter?"
"Yes. He was closer to his father and Lupin when the spiders got disarmed. He might have seen something that Aby and I didn't…"
"Minnie dear, the boy said he didn't see anything," Aberforth put an arm around his wife.
"I have a reason to believe that he was lying," Minerva said. "You should question him, Albus."
"I will," the headmaster nodded. "But not now. As I see, we have visitors," he pointed at two figures approaching from the Forbidden Forest. Two centaurs.
"Oh, hello, Ronan! Firenze!" Aberforth greeted them. "Nice to see you!"
Ronan waved and galloped to Albus. "The forest is in total chaos, headmaster."
"I suspected something like that," Albus nodded. "Five acromantulas have left the forest and attacked a teacher. Can you explain it?"
"Yes, we suppose we can," Firenze spoke up. "Acromantulas are terribly afraid of basilisks. And there happened to be one in the forest."
"A basilisk?" McGonagall clutched at her heart.
"Well, almost," Ronan replied. "It was just a charm… supposedly a dark charm… someone has turned a gnarly trunk into a basilisk with an illusion spell. The trunk had been made to move, slither and hiss… the spiders saw it and scattered in fright… some of them into the very depths of the forest, the others onto the school grounds… they escaped from the 'basilisk'. Not long ago, the magic wore off and the trunk lost its illusion – turned out to be a mere piece of wood."
"But why… why would someone turn a trunk into such a horrid creature?" Aberforth frowned.
"No idea," Firenze shook his head. "Whoever did it, they might have thought that it would be a good Halloween trick."
"Well… thank you for informing us," Albus said. "We are going to transport the spiders back into the forest and melt them out."
"May the stars not be right this time…" Ronan sighed.
"What do you mean?" Minerva frowned.
"Something terrible is approaching. We have seen bad omens for more than a decade now, and they are just getting worse and worse, signalling that the evil is coming closer and closer… we can just hope that the stars were wrong. Anyway, keep your eyes open. Good night to you all."
The Dumbledore brothers and Minerva watched as the centaurs disappeared into the forest, not even noticing all the curious glances they were getting from the people around.
"I'm going up to the hospital wing," Albus said. "I need to talk to the invalids – especially to Severus. He might know something. I hope he is already in the condition to talk. If not, then we'll wait till morning."
* * * * *
Harry was sitting on a bed in the infirmary, letting Poppy fix a cut on his arm with some liquid that stung like hell. He didn't utter a word, just stared at the floor, trying to comprehend the recent events. Why did those beasts attack Snape? And why was Lupin so rude to him? And why was he so rude to Lupin? He simply didn't understand. He cast a side-ways glance at Remus who was gazing out of the window. He had also got his Pomfrey-treatment and wanted to leave, but the nurse insisted that they all stayed a bit in the hospital wing. Aunt Petunia had been given a very strong sedative, and since Vernon didn't want to calm down either, Poppy force-fed him a bit of Sleepeazy's Dream Potion that made him drop off immediately. His snoring filled the room – it was the only sound for a while.
The very first person Pomfrey had taken care of was Snape, of course. He had several broken ribs, a sprained leg and even internal injuries. According to the nurse he would have died if he had spent another five minutes under the spider. But he had been lucky.
Suddenly, the door of the infirmary burst open and in came (or rather burst) Bert Bradley, the caretaker. He ran up to Snape's bed and dropped to his knees.
"How's he? Is he alive? Will he survive?" he gabbled.
"Of course he will. Two or three days spent in here and he'll be as good as new," the nurse reassured him.
"Oh… good," Bert smiled and hoisted himself up to sit on Severus' bed. For a second the Potions Master opened his eyes and his glance met Bert's.
"Mr. Bradley…" he whispered.
"How are you?" Bert asked.
"I feel just like Neville Longbottom's cauldron would after a Potions class. Crushed," he croaked weakly, but his mouth tucked into a small smile.
The caretaker chuckled and looked relieved. "You have to heal quickly, Professor, because I don't want to miss the discussion about Hydrogen's isotopes that we planned for Friday."
"I can't wait until then," Severus smiled.
The door opened again and Albus entered. "I see Severus is up and about," he sent Snape and Mr. Bradley a grin. "We need to talk. Do you feel up to it?"
Snape nodded.
"But Headmaster!" Poppy protested. "He has just escaped death and isn't in any condition for discussions!"
"I feel well enough to talk, Madame Pomfrey," Severus said, now in a bit stronger voice than he had used when talking to Mr Bradley.
The nurse rolled her eyes. "And I suppose I should leave now."
"If you would be so kind, Poppy," Albus smiled.
"I'm leaving, too," the caretaker said and walked out. Harry also stood up from the bed he was sitting on and Remus headed for the door when Dumbledore said "Stay, you two."
Harry sat back down and Lupin walked back to the window. Dumbledore pulled a chair to Severus' bed and took place, then pointed his wand at the door and magically locked it.
"And now, gentlemen, we are going to talk."
"About what?" Remus growled, sending Harry a piercing look that Harry returned in kind.
"First of all about you two," Albus declared. "Minerva said that you were behaving in a rather peculiar way, and as I see, you seem to be… hostile to each other."
For a while neither of them spoke, then finally Harry said: "I don't know what happened down on the grounds, Albus, but as we were fighting the spiders I felt an inexplicable urge to insult Remus."
"I felt the same," the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor added. "And so we did – we called each other things…"
"What have you drunk in the last hour before starting to fight?" Snape asked.
"Just a glass of champagne," Harry shrugged.
"The same," Remus said.
"Didn't your champagne taste a bit funny?" the Potions Master carried on, though he seemed to be making a great effort to talk in his current state. "Wasn't it a bit sweeter than usual?"
"Perhaps it was," Lupin nodded. "Yeah, I guess it was."
"Definitely it was," Harry agreed. "Why?"
"Because that can mean only one thing: that a potion had been spilt into your drinks – an unusually sweet one… and I must believe, given its effect, that it was the Discord potion," Severus said.
"Discord potion?" Lupin's eyes narrowed. "I never was good at Potions, but I do remember this one – if two people drink it around the same time and meet within an hour, then they become enemies… start to insult each other by saying things that they had thought of the other but would never have uttered under normal circumstances."
"Profound description. Ten points to Remus' house," Snape smirked ironically.
What? So someone had made them drink something that turned them hostile… but who would do such a thing and why? It couldn't have been Fred and George, could it? The twins were great pranksters and one could expect them to pour Blackbird Brandy into the whisky, but they would never go as far as to deliberately create discord between people, Harry was sure of that. But he was quite sure of something else, too… "That means…" he turned to Remus with knitted eyebrows, "that you have always thought I was green and stuck-up… and selfish?"
"Well, not like that, Harry," Lupin replied hastily, "just that you got a bit of a swollen head when you were playing for Puddlemere, you know the way you left the team so that your reputation as ace Seeker wouldn't get spoiled… if that's not self-conceit, then nothing! And leaving your team so suddenly was not only self-conceit, but selfishness as well! You didn't care about your team, only about your damn reputation! Selfish, that's what you are! By the way… did you really think I was a senile old codger?"
"Well… no, just… sometimes you were driving me crazy with being so conservative like the old wizards and… you have changed since you are a normal human again! You have settled down too much and started to stick to everything that provided you a peaceful, secure life! You have become boring, Remus! Hell, yes, that's what I thought and still think!" Harry shouted and jumped up.
"And I did think that you were selfish and still think so!" Lupin banged his fist on a nearby bedside table.
"The Potion still hasn't worn off totally," Severus perceived. "And that's bad because now they know that the insults were the other's real opinion of them… they are likely to continue fighting just because of what they have told each other. Damn that Griselda Grindelwald for inventing the Discord Potion."
Seeing that Harry and Remus were about to start a fistfight, Dumbledore stepped between the two of them. "Calm down, you two. You are still affected by the potion."
"Affected or not, he thought I was senile and old and conservative!" Remus spat.
"And he thought I had a big head! He thought I was selfish!" Harry grunted.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. This is not important now," the headmaster stated. "Now that we know the reason for your sudden hostility, we need to move on to another serious subject – the spider-attack. Two centaurs just told me that a basilisk-illusion has chased the spiders out of the forest."
"A basilisk-illusion?" Harry raised an eyebrow.
"Yes. Someone has apparently put an illusion charm on a gnarly trunk and made it move like the king of serpents. I have every reason to believe that this was not just a joke – not just the childish revenge of a turned down trick-or-treater… it was deliberate. Someone deliberately set the acromantulas on the guests and Severus happened to be the first to get in their way. Right, Severus?"
A concerned expression spread on Snape's face. "It was definitely deliberate, Albus. And I have a reason to think that I was the primary target."
"What do you mean?" Harry asked.
"Not long after I entered the tent, I felt someone push something into my hand, but by the time I turned around to see who it was, he or she had already disappeared into the crowd. It wasn't hard for them to disappear there, was it? Anyway, the thing pushed into my hand was a short letter. In the pocket of my robes, you'll find it," the headmaster lifted Snape's robes from the adjoining bed and fished a little parchment out of its pocket. It read: 'Your life is in danger. I can help you. Meet me by the three pines at 10:10.' "And well, of course I got curious. I thought it was just a joke, but I wanted to make sure, so I left the tent immediately and headed for the three pine trees near the edge of the forest. The sender of the letter never turned up, but instead came those beasts and wanted to kill me."
"But… why would anyone want to kill you?" Remus knitted his eyebrows.
"I don't know," Severus shook his head.
"Has anything strange – besides tonight's event – happened to you recently, Severus?" Albus asked. "Anything out of the ordinary?"
The Potions master seemed to hesitate for a moment. "I guess so. My Dark Mark has been hurting recently."
All the three other men gasped. "How is that possible?" Harry was the first to recover his voice. "Voldemort's dead! We saw him die!"
"Right," Lupin said. "He's dead. How can your Mark hurt you then?"
"I don't know," Severus shook his head. "It started hurting some time in September. At first I thought it was just my rheumatics, but then I realised that none of my other limbs hurt, just the lower part of my left arm. I started to use different pain-easing creams on it, but they didn't really help. The dull pain is almost incessant now."
"Show it to me," Albus ordered and Snape pulled up his sleeve. The skull with the serpent in its mouth was as indistinct as ever. It wasn't black, wasn't turning reddish either. It looked like an old tattoo – and still it hurt. How strange… "I must say that I have no idea what is causing your Mark to ache," the headmaster declared finally, then turned to Harry. "Have you also had pains? I mean, has your scar hurt recently?"
"No," the young Charms professor replied. "I have had some kind of dull headache lately, but it seemed that my whole forehead ached, not exactly my scar. I put it down to my nerves… you know my son has been behaving in a rather worrying way lately. First he got into Slytherin," Harry got a nasty look from Snape, "then he started fighting his cousins with whom he had always been friends before… then he decided to play Quidditch just to take revenge… I was concerned about him and I thought that I got a headache because of constantly being nervous. But for the last two or so weeks the pains got less frequent… maybe because Daniel isn't giving me so much worry nowadays. I don't know, Albus."
"All right, that will suffice now. Thank you, Harry," the headmaster said. "Only one more question to you and Remus: do you have any idea how the spiders got frozen?"
"It wasn't me," Harry shrugged. "Was it you, Lupin?"
"No, Potter," Remus said, not even looking at Harry. "May I leave now, Albus? I have to check on my son. Mr. Bradley has taken care of him but given his current condition," he referred to the caretaker's emotional outburst here in the infirmary, "I don't know who is watching over James now."
"Well, go, of course. Good night, Remus," Albus replied.
"I'm also going. Ginny must be worried," Harry said, watching as Lupin unlocked the door and exited.
"Harry?" Dumbledore called after him.
"Yes?"
"Would you be so kind and escort your son up to my office?" seeing Professor Potter's terrified expression, Albus added with a smile: "Don't worry, I'm not going to punish him for anything because I don't think that he has done anything wrong. I would just like to talk to him."
"Of course, Albus," Harry nodded and left, wondering what the headmaster could have wanted from Daniel.
On the corridor, he saw Remus with his son and wife Stella, who was hugging him and muttering 'I'm so happy you're all right. I was so scared when I was told what happened!'
"Harry!" Ginny jumped up from a chair and ran up to him, tears of relief flowing down her cheeks. Normally, she wouldn't have started to cry, but, being pregnant, her hormones were making her become all too moody and easily brought to tears. "Dan told me what happened!" she flung herself into his arms. "Are you all right, Love?"
"Yes, honey, I'm fine," he sighed, looking over her shoulder to steal a glance at Lupin. The two men's eyes met and Remus diverted his stare.
Harry's heart sank. He felt guilty for hurting Remus by calling him those things… still he felt that he had been right – the ex-werewolf had changed a lot, and not to his advantage. He was still kind-hearted and friendly, but he became too comfort-loving. And that Harry found downright boring. Not that he had ever regretted his second wish to rid Lupin of his lycanthropy, still… Anyway, he would never have thought that Remus had such a low opinion of him. Harry Potter – stuck-up? He just wanted to stop playing Quidditch in his glory not as a superannuated old Seeker whom the papers could write about as 'The Boy Who Almost Fell Off His Broomstick'… If that was self-conceit, then yes, he was conceited. Still Remus had no right to call him stuck-up!
Anyway, it wasn't being called stuck-up that riled Harry the most, but Lupin's assumption that he was selfish. He! Selfish! When he had 'wasted' one of his precious wishes on Remus, although he could have wished for his powers back! But no – he wanted to help his friend more than get his powers back, and after this, after all this, Remus dared call him selfish! Well, of course Remus never got to know about the wish and the reason why he had suddenly 'lost' his lycanthropy, because Harry had asked the people who had been present at Durmstrang to keep it a secret, but now Harry felt like shouting into Lupin's face: 'I have made you become a real human again, I have wasted a wish on you, you ungrateful prat! So, whom do you call selfish now?' But he held himself back, feeling that it was no more worth telling the truth. It wouldn't change anything between him and his friend. Friend?
He reached into his pocket to hand a hanky to Ginny to wipe away her tears, but he found no hanky in there, just a crumpled piece of paper - the parchment from future-telling cookie.
'You are going to lose something important tonight' it said, and it was right – he had indeed lost something tonight. Remus' friendship.
A/N: those who have not read Magical Beasts and Where to Find Them, maybe didn't know that the giant spiders from CoS were called acromantulas. But now you know it :)
Lady Schezar: yes, your guess was right – it was David who invited them, of course. And good luck with your exams!
Bucky: don't worry, Dan won't end up with Liu.
starheart20: you're welcome on reviewing your fic :) I hope you'll update it soon. I'm sure that OotP is much longer than this fic. Although this fic is twice as long as TGSiHH, it's still shorter than OotP.
Katrina: I'm annoyed at the Changs, too (which is funny, because I wrote them to be annoying:). No, Dan won't end up with Liu.
Altec: don't worry, I won't spoil it :) Harry didn't dress up like a famous muggle, just like a normal one. Now you know what Snape's costume was. Bet you didn't expect this from him :)
jennaration: Jamie Lupin will do one important thing, but much later. Good luck with your exams!
goldenstar555: well, you saw how the Dursleys reacted ;)
Alexander Phoenix: it seems I managed to surprise you :DBamboo Anime: thanks for all your prayers :) Unfortunately I don't know Annie. What is it about?
Houou: soap opera, yeah… I can't help, I've seen way too many soap operas, especially central- and southern-americans :)
megamick: yes, Dan is 12 and Liu is 11, but sometimes kids kiss for the first time even earlier. It's rather funny than dangerous at their age.
Missy: yes, I play the piano (though I haven't exercised for about a year :) Good luck with your clarinet playing! And also for finding something for your boyfriend for Valentine's day :)
Princess Ginny: good luck with your algebra text (if you haven't done it already)
amazing typo: *grins* :))
Lana Riddle: I will.
2Coolio: no, I didn't want to leave out the Dursleys, I've always found them hilarious and never hated them. But again… I love Lockhart while almost everyone else hates him… I'm a weirdo, I know.
VegaKeep: Dudley lost a lot of weight in chapter 2 of TGSaWCS, and Millicent also became slim – as I mentioned in chapter 38 of TGSaWCS.
King Jasbon: sorry, you're rooting for the wrong couple.
Laina: about me not biting off the flamer's head… hm… I must admit I felt like doing so, but then she'd just get even nastier. Norbert will prove himself not gay in chapter 15, not chapter 12. No Norbert/Gilda, I promise :)
apple-pie: I haven't read a fic in which Vernon and Petunia were in Hogwarts, too. I thought it'd be a funny idea.
Indigo Ziona: I think you reviewed chapter 10 as well… glad you liked the last chappie.
Kamatazi Yumi: :))))
Kit Cloudkicker: no, Lily isn't the type to knock sense into her house mates. But into someone else… perhaps :)
Wood's secret lover: I don't know when OotP will be translated into Hungarian (perhaps it'll come out 2-3 months after the British release), but I'll get it in English as soon as it's out :) I wonder what that important thing is that Dumbledore wants to tell Harry… perhaps the reason why Voldemort had wanted to kill him all along. I'm really curious to know that!
Cassandra Anthemyst: last chapter didn't even have that evil a cliffie! There'll be much worse cliffies – really mean, evil, terribly nasty ones… be prepared ;)
FireBolt9000: then perhaps you'll be disappointed. :( But I hope you won't give up reading the fic.
Nefertiri: yeah, I'm also happy about the 21st June release! :))
Aimee: well, you got the answers and I hope you liked the winner of the teacher's costume contest ;)
C-chan: sorry, but what is EMRYS? I'm ashamed about my ignorance… No, I haven't read the book you mentioned. 100 points to Slytherin for guessing Snape's costume! :D I felt the same about the book five news as you did – wanted to dance and drink something alcoholic to celebrate :)
Katie Bell: I'm also over the moon that OotP comes out soon! When I got to know the news, I wrote the days on the calendar, starting from 20th June as 'day 1' so that I'll always know how many days to go until the book's released.
ruffled owl: hope I managed to make you laugh again… enjoy all the laughter this fic provides right now, because soon there'll be tears instead of laughter… I'm not kidding (bad Agi, very bad Agi! – knocking her head into the wall, Dobby-style).
heavenly182angel: yes, Dan and Gilda do seem an unlikely couple. Still… who knows? ;) Btw, you said you didn't know how to submit a fic to ffnet. In your next review give me your email-address and I'll send you a 'how to upload on ffnet guide', okay? (and remind me to send it to you)
PepsiAngel: yes, more Draco coming soon! You pronounce Liu as 'Leeoo'. Glad you liked Gildy as Quasimodo :D Gilderoy will continue being funny.
Joyce: thank you very much, both for standing up to the flamer and for… for everything else :) It always makes me happy when people say that my English isn't that bad…
pamela-potter-24: yes, I do have a life outside fanfic… I wish I could spend more time with reading and writing fics, but college doesn't let me.
Any last requests: you live in New Zealand? Oh, I never knew. I wish I could once go to the southern hemisphere to watch the stars from there… and it never occurred to me that the Moon would look upside down there… how weird! But I'd really like to see Crux, Carina, Centaurus, Corona Australis, Vela (not Veela;) and the Phoenix (not Fawkes;)… I remember seeing a Harrison Ford movie in which he and a woman were shipwrecked on an island near Tahiti and the sky was just… wow! And yes, there'll be some Astronomy reference later, in chapter… um… *trying to remember*… 19, I guess.
waldomier: I didn't say that the fifth book was out – it'll be released on 21st June in the USA, Great Britain and Australia (and hopefully I'll manage to get it the same day through a bookshop that orders books from all over the world and is likely to pre-order OotP, too.)
jasper: yes, Cho will cause problems for Harry.
Colibi: well, of course it was Davie :)
seashell: glorious? Oh… *Agi blushing* thanks. Yes, I've seen the quotes from OotP, and I'm sure that the thing that Albus wants to tell Harry is about why Voldemort wanted to kill him all along. Can't wait to find out at last! Oh, great, it seems I'm not the only crazy person who is counting the days until book five comes out :))
AmandaPanda: no, Harry won't really cheat on Ginny. But Cho will still be trouble.
X-Tow-Naga: Snape – gay? Hm… don't be sure about it. You have a sister, too? I thought you only had a brother. No, I won't write a fic about Kevin and Viv and Val's POV. You're close to the truth about Dan's powers. Very close. What did you mean by telling that Uranus was gaseous? I always knew it was gaseous.
Punky Poet: glad that I managed to give you a nice birthday-present! :) What? You do your hair like Snape? I cannot really imagine anyone with hair like his… but you're a girl, aren't you? (sorry if you're a boy, one can never know through Internet).
Ash Black: thanks :) Wet dreams are funny, aren't they? ;) I particularly enjoyed writing Harry having one back in chapter 18 of TGSiHH.
Tyleet: sorry, but I cannot promise you any Bill/Fleur. But H/G and Draco/Gabie galore is promised :)
Romina: thanks. Hope you'll like the fics I recommended.
sikokid: yes, the dark stuff is coming soon. Well, it kind of started in this chapter. Sorry for misleading you about the update, when I mailed you I thought I'd be able to update on Monday, but my exam gave me too much to study and I just didn't have time yesterday.
Wizzabee: glad that my fics brighten your day – your review brightened my day :) I cannot tell you whether you're on the right or the wrong track… that would reveal too much. Sorry.
Red Ridding Hood: no problem that you review late as long as you review :)
Black Ice: yes, on normal sport teams the members get kicked out for such things, but remember what the Slytherins in the first three books did at Quidditch matches (e.g. knocking Angelina with their clubs and saying they thought she was a Bludger) and they never got kicked out of the teams – at least Rowling never said they were.
Rab: yes, Merlin might be overused and I was contemplating whether to make Dan wear some Astronomy-related costume, but then I decided that he should be something simple and not so eye-catching this time.
candycaneOgram: thanks for telling the news, but I already knew :) And I'm over the moon!
Inken: what did you mean by 'did he tell the truth?' Who and about what? No, Dan and Liu didn't hear Harry and Cho's conversation, because they were too occupied with kissing :)
sapphire selia: I'm happy too :) Only 150 days to go!
LilGinny: yes, we also throw money into the waterfalls in the shopping malls.
Chakotaya/Lady Nagini: I'll read your fic as soon as I'm ready with my exams. Could you remind me to do so in about a week? I've only read one Star Trek Voyager fanfic so far, and that was a Star Wars/Voyager crossover. It was wonderful. If you want to read it, it's on www.fanfix.com, the author is Michele and the title is 'As long as we're together' (I think it must be in the Crossover section, but I'm not sure, I haven't been to that site for ages). That fic belongs to the very first SW fics (and the very first fanfics in general) I've ever read, and perhaps that's why it means so much to me. Anyway, Michele is a wonderful author and I've had the pleasure of reading her fics in an SW yahoogroup called Mara_and_Luke as well. Pity that she doesn't publish on ffnet.
Harrysgirl: thanks a lot, glad you liked it. Yes, Liu is getting in the way, but she won't always do so. Hopefully :)
HP Blone Crazy Chick: I agree, AotC was way too mushy. A friend told me that she decided to stand up and leave the cinema if Anakin and Amidala kissed once more… but somehow she managed to sit it through :) Dan and Gilda? Hm… later. Much later. Lily and Chris Wood? Much, much, much, much, much later :)
figgiesblazin: yes, I'm sure that Ginny, Ron and Hermione would also deserve chocolate frog cards, but since Harry is the main character in the HP universe, I only gave him one. So, you thought that in chapter 9 the story was getting sad? Oh my… then I try not to imagine what you'd say after chapter 16… that's a veeeeery sad chapter.
Sky: glad you liked it :)
Toby Haine: no, the greatest enemy ISN'T becoming a man :)) I hope I'll have book five on 21st June, there's a bookshop in Budapest that pre-orders it, and it'll have plenty of copies by 21st June. They said they had had copies of GoF weeks before the release date, but they weren't allowed to sell them until the release date.