A/N: I'd like to thank everyone who wrote May the Force be with you! or just thought of me when I was having exams, it helped a lot! Now I'm ready with my exams, and I feel so happy! I got really good marks, so I'm not only happy, but proud, too :)
Imagine, what a crazy dream I had the
other day: in my dream I was watching the Chamber of Secrets, and saw the
chamber-scene. But in my dream the chamber looked quite different from the real
one: it had several shelves with books in it. Tom Riddle cast a curse at Harry,
but it didn't hit Harry, it hit a book on a shelf. The book fell off because of
the impact, and Harry caught it. It turned out to be Riddle's diary. Then Tom
shouted Avada Kedavra at Harry, but Harry held out the diary and the curse
rebounded off the diary, hitting Tom. The impact made Tom's attire change into
the clothes of an 18th century man - he looked a lot like Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart! He pulled a baton out of his pocket and started to conduct. And Harry
began to sing the Ode to Joy in French... and that was when I woke up! I was so
mad
that I couldn't listen to the whole Ode of Joy in French sung by Harry and
conducted by Voldemort...
I put the whole newspaper article in italics, but last time I did that with
Slytherin's diary ffnet turned most of the text back into normal text. I don't
know whether it does that again, but in case it does, it's not my fault. The
whole article is supposed to be in italics.
Chapter 13
The Imaginer
Daniel had no idea what the headmaster wanted from him at such a late hour. It was nearly midnight and he was drowsy, wishing for his four-poster bed with warm and fluffy quilts… but instead he was steered upstairs by his parents. After several minutes of walking, they reached an ugly stone gargoyle, and Harry uttered the password: 'Treacle tart'. To Dan's surprise the gargoyle jumped aside and a door opened in the wall.
"Go, son. We'll wait for you here," his father said.
The boy nodded and stepped onto a spiral staircase that was moving upwards like a Muggle escalator. The escalator took him up to a massive oak door with a brass griffin knocker. He was just about to knock when the door opened, as though it had been operated by remote control.
"I've been waiting for you, Daniel," Albus Dumbledore's voice came from inside. "Come in, please, and have a seat."
Young Potter stepped into the room and was overwhelmed by its beauty. Everything in here seemed to be standing and hanging on just the right places – all the paintings and whirring little contraptions, simply everything was in harmony with each other, contributing to the perfection of the round room. The old headmaster must have known a lot about feng shui, Daniel thought, basking in the warm feeling of peace that was radiating from every object.
"Wonderful room, sir," he told Albus.
"I'm glad you like it," Dumbledore smiled, pointing at the chair opposite his desk. Dan seated himself, but couldn't sit calmly for a second; he kept looking around again and again, marvelling at the sight. His glance finally stopped on a huge red bird that had golden tail-feathers.
"You seem to like Fawkes," Albus said with an amused expression.
"Fawkes? Is that the phoenix whose tail-feather is in my dad's wand?"
"Exactly. He only gave two single tail-feathers throughout his whole life…"
"… and the other belonged to Voldemort," Dan nodded knowingly. "Dad told me. I think it's somehow creepy… that the two of them used brother-wands. I wish my wand had a brother… it would be so exciting… But no, mine doesn't have one," he added, pouting. "It has a simple unicorn-tail hair in it, according to Mr. Ollivander."
"I'm sure that your wand is just as excellent as any other Ollivander wand, and believe me, it is better that it has no brother," Albus replied. "But the reason why I asked you to come here was not to discuss wands… Professor McGonagall informed me that you have been present when the spider-attack took place. I thought you could probably fill in the gaps…"
"What gaps, sir?"
"The reason why the beasts turned into ice-sculptures," the headmaster gave the boy an encouraging glance that gave Dan the feeling of being X-rayed. "Do you know anything about it? Did you see anything that Professor McGonagall and my brother didn't?"
There are some people to whom one just cannot lie. This person is different for everyone – for some it's their mother or father, for others it's their best friend, for again others it's their teacher. For Daniel it was Dumbledore.
"I didn't see anything, but… I know what happened. I just don't understand it, sir," he replied.
"Then maybe you should tell me what you know and together we might be able to understand it," Albus suggested.
Dan heaved a deep sigh. "I… I did it."
"You?"
"Yes… at least I think so," the boy nodded. "This wasn't the first time that I did something like that, though… the first time was when I blew up the Snitch."
"So it was you, then!" the headmaster gave him an 'I-have-always-suspected'-look.
"Yes," Dan hung his head. "You can punish me for it, sir, but I swear I don't know how I did it. Or partly I know, but I still can't explain…"
"At least try."
"Well… you know that my relationship to my cousins isn't exactly spiffing," Albus nodded. "In fact, I joined the Slytherin Quidditch team to show my cousins that I wasn't that much of a dunderhead… and when the twins managed to knock me off my broom, I got very angry with them… or rather with myself, because I couldn't show them that I wasn't a dunderhead. Do you understand this, sir?" he looked up to meet Dumbledore's clear blue eyes.
"Certainly, Daniel. Everyone has a bit of a thirst to prove himself and you might have a bit bigger dose of it than the others, given that you were born a squib and now want to prove that you are still someone," Albus made his assessment. "You don't need to feel ashamed because of it, it's quite a natural reaction of the human mind – once you are considered as worthless, your self-defence kicks in and you want to prove yourself being more valuable than the others think. So… you blew up the Snitch because you were angry."
"Yes, sir… and I don't understand how… I mean… mere seconds before Kevin could have caught the Snitch, I imagined it exploding, and then it did! Tonight I saw my dad and professor Lupin fighting the spiders and I imagined the spiders being frozen… and they froze. In both cases I felt some energy leaving my body – or was I just imagining it? Can you explain this to me?" Dan said with an imploring voice. "I have to know, professor! This is driving me nuts, this uncertainty! What are these powers I possess? And why haven't I possessed them before?"
Albus seemed contemplative for a moment, as if trying to connect Daniel's words to something else, putting the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle together.
"May I ask you a rather personal question, Mr. Potter?"
Dan looked surprised, but nodded. "Certainly, go ahead."
"Have you had your first erection yet?"
Dan was dumbstruck by this question. When Albus told him that he wanted to ask something personal, he thought it would be something like 'Have you ever called Professor Snape a slimy git behind his back?' He was not in the least prepared for a question like this. He blushed to the roots of his hair and stared at the mahogany surface of the headmaster's table.
"I take it that means yes," Albus said. Dan nodded and slowly looked up to meet Dumbledore's cheerfully glinting eyes.
"But professor… what does this have to do with…?"
"A lot, Mr. Potter, a lot. More than you could possibly imagine," Albus replied and stood up. Dan watched as he walked up to the door and disappeared down the escalator.
*Is he making fun of me?* he thought bitterly. *First he asks whether I have had a hard-on, and now that I admitted, he leaves.*
One minute later the headmaster returned with Harry and Ginny in tow. Dan felt as if his heart had been tossed up into his throat, forming an irritably pulsating lump in there. Why had Dumbledore brought up his parents? Did he want to tell his mother that he…? Better not think of it, better not think of it! He thought he'd die of embarrassment if his mother had got to know… talking with his father about it was quite okay, but his mum… well, she was female, for heaven's sake! And females always burst into peals of giggles when talking about things like this… not that Ginny was the stupidly giggling type like Yvette Weasley or Lavinia Flint, but still… a woman.
Dumbledore conjured two more seats and the Potter couple sat down.
"I have asked you to join Daniel and me because I have interesting news to share with you," Albus said.
Daniel slipped a bit lower in his chair, as if he had shrunk in the wash. *Interesting news, eh?* he fumed, already fearing what his mother would say when she got to know that he had blown up the Snitch, frozen three acromantulas and even had an erection…
"What news, Albus?" Harry asked with a worried expression.
"Is it about our son?" Ginny breathed.
"Yes, it is… but don't worry, Ginny," Dumbledore gave her a gentle smile. "It's not bad news. On the contrary. It's something wonderful."
*Yeah… something wonderful… imagine, your son is no little boy anymore, if you get what I mean!* Dan saw Albus saying this in his mind's eye. Lucky that this imagining stuff didn't work all the time, or else Dumbledore would have really uttered those words. But to Daniel's great surprise Albus said the following:
"Harry, Ginny… your son is an Imaginer."
"A what?" the Potter parents asked.
"An Imaginer. A very rare type of wizard… in fact Great Britain's history only knows of one other Imaginer… Rowena Ravenclaw and Godric Gryffindor's son, Godwin."
"Gryffindor's son?" Harry raised an eyebrow. "I always thought that Gryffindor had no heirs."
"Oh, yes, the history books say that he never got married nor did he father children… The wizarding population of Britain has been under a delusion for a millennium… but I know the truth, given that one of my ancestors witnessed the whole story," Albus replied. "My ancestor, Lady Helga Hufflepuff, who married Archibald Dumbledore."
"Wow, sir, you are the descendant of a founder, then?" Daniel breathed, forgetting about his worries that Dumbledore might reveal more to his mother than he should. "How cool is it!"
"Yes, cool, isn't it, Mr. Potter?" Albus smiled at the boy. "And you are a descendant of two founders."
"What?" Harry and Daniel gasped.
"Let me tell you the whole story, then," the headmaster replied. "It all began with Lady Rowena getting married to Salazar Slytherin – an arranged marriage, of course. Their fathers had decided about it. But Rowena loved Godric, and once Salazar left the country for several months, she gave birth to Godric's son. The only persons who knew about the birth were her best friend Helga and Helga's husband. Although Rowena managed to keep her pregnancy a secret by placing illusion-charms on herself, showing herself slim, she couldn't have hidden her son from Salazar's wrath. So she gave him away, to a well-to-do wizarding couple who couldn't have children – the Potters. The Potters raised Gryffindor's son as their own, this way you, Harry, and you, Daniel, are Gryffindor's heirs."
"Gryffindor's heir in Slytherin," Dan grunted. "How ironic."
"Let me continue," Albus hushed him. "So, Godwin was raised by the Potters… but there was a little bit of a problem with him. He was born a squib. The Potters didn't really mind having a non-magic child, they were happy to have a child to care for at all. The Potter father loved fishing a lot, and one day he happened to catch a Magic Goldfish. At those times the waters of Europe were teeming with Magic Goldfish that fulfilled one wish. As the centuries passed, there were less and less of these fish thus they started to fulfil three wishes to keep the balance. Potter caught a fish, and had one single wish – to turn his son a wizard. The story is familiar, is it not, Harry?"
Harry nodded with a small smile, still gratefully thinking of Desideria, the goldfish who used to live in Durmstrang's lake. As his third wish he had asked the fish to make sure that all his descendants would be magic… he still wondered sometimes why the fish had demurred… what could be wrong with that wish?
"So, Godric Gryffindor's son became magic just like me?" Dan asked.
"Yes," the headmaster nodded. "And he also became an Imaginer."
"Excuse me, Professor Dumbledore, but what is an Imaginer?" Ginny asked.
"An Imaginer has the power to make things come true by merely imagining them. A very rare gift – and likely it was transferred into your son by the goldfish's fulfilment of the wish. In Godwin's case, his special powers only kicked in when he turned sexually mature – just like in your son's case."
"What?" Ginny blinked, her stare slipping from Dumbledore to her furiously blushing son. "Oh… I had no idea. Did you, Harry?"
Her husband gave her an impish grin. "'Course I knew, honey… it's men's business."
"Oh, I see," Ginny grinned and turned back to Albus, deciding that she wouldn't make her son feel even more embarrassed. "So… Daniel has turned an Imaginer?"
"Yes, and he was the one who saved you from the spiders," Albus told Harry.
"My son?" Harry's eyes widened. "Really, Dan?"
"Yeah, dad. I imagined that they froze," the boy shrugged.
"Wow," was all that Harry could comment. "And can you… can you just imagine anything and make it real?"
"Nope," Dan shook his head. "I have only managed twice before, dad. Tonight, and once before that…" he turned slightly red again, "with the Snitch."
"Hah! So you made it explode?" Professor Potter gasped. "You little tyke!"
"You blew up the Snitch? But Daniel!" Ginny scowled a bit.
"It wasn't intentional, mum. I was just so angry and… it happened."
"Yes, exactly," the headmaster said. "The powers of a fledgling Imaginer are restricted. They are only usable when the Imaginer feels strong emotions like anger or fear…"
"… or love?" Daniel added insecurely. He didn't like the idea of stripping poor Liu Chang in front of the Great Hall in the middle of a wild fantasy… then again he hadn't done anything to Liu when they had been kissing in the bush – although he had been feeling rather strong emotions then. Or was that only his hormones? He wasn't really able to tell love from attraction, but no children of his age were capable of that.
"Well, I'm not sure that love is on the list, Mr. Potter," replied the headmaster. "But in case it is, then you might imagine something um… interesting about the lady you love, so that is why I believe that you have to be trained."
"Trained, sir?"
"Yes, trained," Albus nodded. "You have no idea how many funny and not-so-funny things have happened due to Godwin Potter's freely flowing emotions… he had no trainer and had to learn to control himself on his own – it took him almost his whole life, but fortunately he had been supported all along by my ancestor – his best friend, son of Helga Hufflepuff. My dear ancestor happened to write Godwin's mishaps into his diary – it was my favourite childhood reading, I used to be rolling on the floor laughing… um, well, the point is that my ancestor wrote down the way his best friend learned to control himself to some extent, and following the diary we will be able to tutor you, so that you will learn to use your powers consciously, not just on instinct. I cannot guarantee you that you'll become a fully-trained Imaginer, because I cannot teach you as properly from a diary as I could from a book, but I'll do everything in my power to help you," seeing a wide grin spread on the boy's face, he added: "You must note, Mr. Potter, that you have been given a great gift, and great gifts need great sense of responsibility."
"I understand, sir," Dan nodded.
"Good," Albus smiled. "First of all, I must ask you not to mention this to anyone. You will be trained in secret, so that no one can take advantage of your powers."
Daniel grimaced. "I fear that… Gilda and Norbert know already. Well, sort of."
"Sort of?" Dumbledore knitted his eyebrows.
"I told them that I imagined stuff that came true… that's all," the boy shrugged. "Is it a problem?"
"Hm… the beans are spilt, but we still might be able to push them back into the sack…" the headmaster mused. "You just need to deny everything from now on. If they ask you, say that you were wrong and you couldn't make things happen, after all. To the public it shall be Professor Lupin who did away with the spiders – he is the Defence against the Dark Arts teacher, after all."
Dan nodded. "I understand."
"All right. And now, off to bed with you! Chop-chop!"
* * * * *
Daniel was utterly exhausted by the time he got into bed. Abu greeted him with a friendly squeak, only to earn a 'shut your ruddy monkey up!' from Donald Rookwood who had already been asleep, but got awakened by Abu's greeting of his master.
"Norbert?" Dan asked the boy lying on the adjacent bed.
"What is it?" young Malfoy grunted, still in his vampire costume.
"Where have you been all along? You missed everything."
"You mean the spider thing and Snape's ridiculous costume?" Norbert drawled. "The other boys told me about them."
"But where have you been all along?"
"In here."
"What were you doing here, instead of partying with the others?" Dan wondered, taking his starry, pointed Merlin-hat off his head and throwing off his also starry robes.
"I didn't feel like partying… after I talked to my dear brother," Norbert spat the word 'brother' with utter disgust.
"Will you two shut up?" Iago Rosier snapped from the end of the room.
"Oh… you fell out again?" Dan asked, as though he hadn't heard Iago's complaint.
"Fell out? That's a grave understatement! It was the greatest quarrel of our lives! Mother would have got a heart-attack if she had heard us shouting at each other like that," came Norbert's answer in a rather upset tone. "Draco's making my life miserable! He hates me! But no matter, because I hate him, too, so we are quits."
"You just… ran down here after quarrelling with your brother and didn't feel like coming back to the tent?" Dan asked, pulling on his pyjamas.
"Yeah. I wanted to be alone, because I feared that I'd just curse someone in that state of mind… I left. But this way I missed all those wonderful meals, too…" he sighed. "I'm hungry, thirsty and very mad at Draco! Really, how did good old Snape get saved? People say that the spiders froze, but how did it happen?"
"Er… it was done by Professor Lupin," Daniel replied. "Allegedly he used a unique freezing charm that he had learnt in Peru over the summer."
"Really?" his friend gave him an incredulous look. "I thought it might have been you."
"Me?" Dan blinked. "Oh… you think of that imagining stuff… Well, no. I was wrong. I don't have powers to blow things up or freeze spiders, or…"
"Then how did the Snitch blow up?"
"Dunno. Might have been someone's nasty joke. It was a mere coincidence that I imagined it exploding just before it actually did," young Potter shrugged, trying to look as nonchalant as possible, and slipped under the covers.
"Oh… pity," Norbert sighed. "It would have been cool if you had such talents."
"Yeah, I'd also be happy if I possessed such powers, but unfortunately I do not. Period," Dan replied, pulling the curtains around his bed to hide him from his friend.
"And how's Snape?"
"He'll live, according to dad," Dan said through the curtain. "You know what? I'm happy that he didn't die. I don't hate him that much anymore."
* * * * *
The next morning everyone woke up late. Harry was having breakfast, sitting next to his sister-in-law at a rather empty staff table. All the other teachers who didn't have a first lesson were still asleep, some of them even recovering from a serious hangover.
"I have made a decision, Hermione," he spoke up.
"Whaaaaat?" she yawned.
"I'm going to read Hogwarts, a history."
Hermione almost dropped the bowl of marmalade she was holding. "Excuse me? Have I heard it right? Harry Potter wants to read Hogwarts, a history? Do you have fever, Harry?"
"No," he shook his head with a grin. "I'm serious. I want to read that book, to get to know more about Godric Gryffindor."
"Why? Don't you know enough of him already?" she raised an eyebrow. "He was a brave guy, whose favourite colours were red and gold and he used to have a coat-of-arms with a lion. Anything else?"
"Definitely. I'd like to know about his relationship with Rowena Ravenclaw."
"His what?" Hermione blinked. "He was a single man who never got married and no one knew about him being involved with anyone!"
"But he was involved with Rowena. Actually they had a child together."
"Where are you getting these ideas from, eh?"
"Dumbledore told me, last night," Harry said seriously. "Although Rowena married Slytherin, she had a son from Gryffindor – a son called Godwin, whom she gave away to the Potters to raise."
"To the… heavens!" she breathed. "Then you are…"
"Gryffindor's heir, yes," Harry nodded, amused by his sister-in-law's dumbfounded expression. "That's why I'd like to know more about him. About my ancestor."
"Well… the second and fifth chapter of Hogwarts, a history tell a lot about him… but apparently not enough," she mumbled, still amazed. "How did Dumbledore know about this at all? I have read many books on the founders, but none of them mentioned anything about this…"
"Albus knows it from his ancestors who have been passing down this from father to son like a family secret for a millennium. You know, Albus is the descendant of Helga Hufflepuff and Helga was a close friend of Rowena's. No one but Helga and her husband, Archie Dumbledore, knew about Gryffindor's illegitimate son."
"Wow… Then you have both Gryffindor's and Ravenclaw's blood coursing in your veins… and Dumbledore's got Hufflepuff's. We only need a Slytherin and the circle shall be full."
"Don't joke about that, Hermione… you know that the last descendant of Slytherin's was Voldemort."
"Yeah, fortunately," she nodded. "But tell me, Harry, how came that Albus told you this… after all these years? He could have told you while you were at school… for example when you fought against the basilisk with Gryffindor's sword."
Harry shrugged. "Dunno. Speaking of basilisk, did you know that someone was playing a rather nasty little joke on the Forbidden Forest's residents?"
"What nasty joke?"
"Someone put an illusion charm on a trunk to make it look like a basilisk, this way scaring the acromantulas out of the woods so that they could trample on Snape."
"Trample on Snape?" Hermione gasped.
"Yeah. It seems that someone wanted to kill him. He had been sent a note that his life was in danger and that he was to meet someone on the edge of the forest – someone who would help him. He went there, found no one and almost got killed by the spiders."
"But… who would have a reason to kill him?" she pondered.
"A good question. But he said something… scaring, Hermione. He said that his Dark Mark was occasionally hurting. And, truth be told," he turned to look directly into her eyes, "I'm also having headaches… not exactly my scar aches, but somewhere around it. It's not a sharp pain as it used to be when Voldemort was alive, it's dull, still… alarming."
"But… he can't be… alive, Harry. He can't be," she stuttered. "He died. He exploded, his body went up in a cloud of smoke, all of us saw it! Or could he…" she looked like deeply immersed in her thoughts for a minute, "No, he can't."
"He can't what?"
"Have reincarnated."
"Reincarnated?" Harry gulped.
"Yes… I suddenly remembered that mad Tatyana who was reincarnating for centuries… but Voldemort couldn't have, don't worry."
"Are you sure?" a chill ran down Harry's spine at the mention of Tatyana's name. The worst memories of his life were in connection with her.
"Yes, I'm totally sure. I read a book about wizard-reincarnation and it said that only people who were obsessed with reaching something and didn't reach it in their lives would reincarnate. Like Tatyana… she wanted to re-awaken that crazy lover of hers and she kept being reborn just to accomplish it."
"And what about Voldemort? I mean… he wanted to rule over the world and get immortal… and didn't reach his goal," Harry reasoned.
"I know, still he couldn't have reincarnated. There is a number-one rule in the netherworld: if you have killed one single person in your life – I mean if you did it out of evilness, you are denied the chance to be reborn. As far as we know Tatyana didn't murder anyone in any of her lives. She was evil, yes, but she wasn't a murderer. She only killed Anor in her very last life… so now not even she can reincarnate anymore. But Voldemort… you couldn't count the people he killed out of pure evilness, greed and hatred. He is rotting in hell and can't come back."
"Whew… what a relief," Harry sighed and downed a cup of tea. "I was really scared out of my wits, you know… I don't feel like ever meeting him again."
"Then just be a good boy, Harry, and then you won't need to fear that you'd meet him in hell," she gave him a small smile.
"But then… why these symptoms? Snape's Mark hurting and stuff?"
"No idea. Ignore it, Harry. He might only have rheumatics and you might have been too nervous lately because of your son…"
"You must be right. I was nervous about him."
"And nervousness can give you nasty headaches," she added knowingly.
In the next instant an owl swooped down on Hermione with the Daily Prophet.
MAYHEM AT THE HOGWARTS HALLOWEEN PARTY – said the headline on the front page.
"Hm… I was kind of expecting something like this," the young Arithmancy professor said. "The writer is… would you look at that!"
"What?" Harry asked, stuffing the last chunk of his beacon sandwich into his mouth.
"That!" Hermione pointed at the journalist's name. Rhea Skeeter.
"Skeeter? Is she related to good old Rita?" Harry frowned.
"Must be. I wonder whether she has Rita's endearing style," she replied and they both started reading the article.
You would think that a huge festivity like the celebration of the 1000th birthday of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry would surely be adequately organised beforehand – but you'd be disappointed. Never in the last thousand years has the old castle seen a party this unplanned and disorderly. We might wonder what Albus Dumbledore, unworthy headmaster of the school, has done with all the money the Hogwarts Foundation has received from the Ministry for the occasion – but we can be sure that the amount was NOT spent on the organisation of the event.
For those who entered the Festivity Tent yesterday evening, had to be seriously disappointed with the lack of order there – even Muggle pubs seem to be more orderly. Not that the decorations weren't attention-awakening (although they clearly showed the headmaster's and the staff-members' serious lack of taste), but the rest of the programme barely met your expectations. The food served by the Hogwarts house-elves was so to say inedible, not to mention that weak wine they dared call 'mulled mead'.
Those who were invited were excitedly awaiting the awarding ceremony, in which the three students wearing the best costumes were given so called presents (if you can call 50 galleons a 'present' in our days when the inflation makes a loaf of bread cost fifty sickles and you cannot get a wand for less than eleven galleons. Oh, the good old times when a wand cost only seven galleons! Not that the Ministry of Magic does anything to stop the inflation, though!) However excited the guests were to get to know the winners, they had to be disappointed again – the Hogwarts teachers proved to be as short sighted and conservative as possible, giving the first award to a boy in pumpkin costume. Pumpkin! At Halloween, when everything is full of pumpkins! Absolutely ridiculous. And if that was not enough, the second place got occupied by none other than Albus Dumbledore's great-niece, Julie Dumbledore. We might only wonder what the headmaster has threatened the staff-members with to vote for little Julie's costume.
To add to the party's already too ludicrous atmosphere, the three awarded children chose Severus Snape's (Potions Master at Hogwarts) transvestite outfit as the best of all the teachers'. Yes, you did not read it wrong – the professor was indeed dressed up as a transvestite – in lacy female robes, a typical hat of an old lady with an ugly vulture on it, and a red handbag. He looked only a little bit worse than Professor Trelawney, the eighty-year-old Divination teacher, who dared to wear a belly-dancer costume, showing so much of herself that those who did not get sick at her sight had serious difficulties of stopping laughing. We might wonder why Albus Dumbledore let the staff-members wear immoral outfits like these.
The only worth-of-mentioning event at the whole 'party' was the acromantula attack on the 'transvestite' Severus Snape. We might only guess what five huge acromantulas could have been doing out of the Forbidden Forest, but very possibly we will never get to know – either because no one in the whole blundering Hogwarts staff knows the answer, or because they'll try to hush it up.
As the article ended, Harry and Hermione exchanged a dark glance.
"Indeed Rita's style," Harry grunted, eyeing the moving picture of the vulture-hat-wearing Snape under the text. A paparazzi might have taken the photo when Snape didn't notice, because the Potions Master wasn't the type to let anyone leave the Hogwarts grounds with such a picture of him in his camera.
"Rita's style, all right, and Rita's grudge against Dumbledore," Hermione perceived. "I wonder why these Skeeter women have it in for Albus."
Harry shrugged. "I rather wonder who has it in for Snape… and Gilda Lockhart. Imagine, someone wiped her memories yesterday at the ball."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Her mother, Anck-sun-Amun, has told Dumbledore that Gilda had about half an hour of her life missing. You know that Sunny's the daughter of Abysmal-sun-Amun, the widely-known memory-back-lurer who also happened to be here at the party. Abysmal knows how to retrieve lost memories without addling the person's brain. Only few wizards are capable of that, it needs a lot of knowledge and practice, so I heard. And Abysmal will surely make it very careful – it's about his only grandchild, after all…"
Remus Lupin entered the hall and headed for the staff table, but sat down as far from Harry and Hermione as possible.
"Why did he look at you like that?" Hermione whispered to her brother-in-law. "As if he was trying to kill you with his eyes!"
"Oh… another little detail that you don't know yet, Herm," Harry sighed. "So… you know the Discord Potion, right?"
* * * * *
Most of the students were slumbering during Transfiguration that morning. Many of them even missed breakfast, trying to get out of bed and into the classroom as soon as possible after having overslept. McGonagall must have been aware of the students' unusual drowsiness because she didn't really push them, just made them exercise things the class had already covered.
Daniel and Norbert were only kept awake by Gilda, who insisted that it was impolite to sleep in class (though she was rather sleepy, too).
Julie Dumbledore, however, didn't seem sleepy – she looked rather sad about something. When the bell signalling the end of the lesson rang and the students left the classroom, Minerva called after the girl.
"Yes, Professor?" Julie doubled back and shuffled back to McGonagall's desk. She seemed to have shrunk – perhaps she was afraid of the deputy-headmistress, who – up till now – hadn't been too nice to her.
"I have noticed that you are concerned about something, Miss Dumbledore."
Julie shrugged. "Not really."
Minerva gave her a small smile. "You can tell me what's bothering you – maybe I can help."
"You cannot help, Professor," the little girl shook her head. "You can't help, unless you can turn back time and prevent Rhea Skeeter from writing her article."
"Oh, that article!" Minerva waved. "I know. That woman wrote that Albus had been…"
"…favouring me, yes," Julie hung her head. "And I know that it is what everybody thinks… that I got second place because I'm related to the headmaster!" a tear ran down her cheek.
"Oh, child!" McGonagall breathed and gathered her into a hug. "Don't even listen to that silly cow!"
The little girl looked up, grinning. "Professor, you have just called someone a silly cow!" she seemed to think it was very amusing.
"Yes, I did, and I don't care! Rhea Skeeter is exactly like her aunt who was a silly cow, too! I just wonder why these Skeeter women keep being so nasty to poor Albus… But just forget what she wrote, okay? Don't give a damn about her – or anyone else's – opinion. I for one really liked your costume, Julie, it was a very original idea," Minerva added with a wink.
A bright smile spread on Julie's face. "I never thought that the strict Professor McGonagall could be like this!"
"She can," the old woman smiled. "Your great-grandpa's fault – his behaviour rubbed off on me."
Julie chuckled. "It's so nice to know that you can be… other than just an austere professor. And I thought that you hated me… you don't hate me, do you, Professor?"
"Oh, no, dear. I was just a bit… surprised to get to know that my Aby had a great-granddaughter, that's all. I'm not too good at adjusting to new situations, I suppose. Sorry if I was nasty to you. I apologise."
"Apology accepted," Julie beamed. "Can we be friends from now on?"
"We can," Minerva nodded. "But only outside class."
"Okay," the girl smiled. "Thank you, Professor."
"We're outside class now. Call me Minerva."
* * * * *
"Revocare deponit memoriam," said Abysmal-sun-Amun, pointing his wand at Gilda. His granddaughter seemed to have sunk into some kind of a half-sleeping state, her eyes closed, but her mind open to her grandfather's words. "What do you remember of that half an hour of which you had no memories, my child?" he asked in a soothing voice.
"I remember… a man in black robes and black mask," the girl mumbled, her eyes still shut, concentrating on the memory her grandfather had retrieved from the deepest recesses of her mind.
"What is he doing?"
"He is saying… Imperio, and pushing two things into my hands… a little bit of folded parchment and a small vial with translucent liquid."
"What is on that parchment and what's in the vial?" asked Mr. sun-Amun.
"I… don't know. I'm not allowed to have a look at them… I'm just fulfilling the orders I'm given…"
"What orders?"
"I have to… give Professor Snape the parchment and… disappear into the crowd before he could see that it was me… and I have to pour a bit of the vial's contents into two glasses of champagne… the glasses belong to Professor Lupin and Professor Potter… then… it's over. That's all."
"Thank you, Mr. sun-Amun," Dumbledore said and turned to Gilda. "Don't you remember anything of that person who cast Imperius on you?"
"No. He wasn't too tall, I guess, but that was all I saw of him, since his whole body was covered in black… it was a bit like a Zorro costume, but not entirely, because the mask covered his whole face, not just around his eyes… and he had a deep, rumbling voice. I can't tell more."
"Well, thank you, Gilda," replied Dumbledore after Abysmal sun-Amun woke up the girl from her trance. "You may go now."
As the girl left the staff room with her grandpa, Albus, Aberforth, Minerva, Harry, Lupin and Hermione exchanged shocked glances.
"So it was her," the headmaster said. "We've got to tell Snape as well as soon as he awakes. Madame Pomfrey has given him a rather strong sleeping draught."
"What will happen to that poor girl, Albus?" Hermione asked.
"Nothing, of course. We cannot punish her for something she has done under Imperius." Dumbledore replied. "I'm off to the infirmary – maybe Severus has awoken already."
* * * * *
"It's all my fault."
"No, it's not."
"But it is, Professor Snape," sighed Bert Bradley. "If I hadn't talked you into wearing that stupid costume, you wouldn't be regarded as a transvestite in that article."
"Listen to me, Mr. Bradley," replied Severus, "I wanted to wear that outfit. This was my apology to Neville Longbottom for having made his seven years at Hogwarts a living hell…"
"Oh, Professor Snape!" the caretaker chuckled. "A sign of humanity!"
"Yeah… recently I've been feeling a bit humane, though I don't know why… it hasn't happened to me for… thirty years."
"Thirty? Isn't that a bit too much?" Bert folded his arms, giving the Potions Master a curious look.
"No, it was in fact… thirty-three years ago that I last acted humanely," Snape said with a hint of bitterness in his voice. "That was when the only love of my life married another. And from that time on I stopped having human feelings… I stopped feeling at all… but lately I have started to have certain feelings again – I just don't know what those are, can't interpret them… Maybe someone who hasn't had feelings so long has forgotten what it feels like to feel," he met the caretaker's eyes and shook his head. "And I have no idea why I'm pouring my heart out to you, Mr. Bradley. I'm not the type to go all emotional… it must be the shock of the attack…"
"Or maybe it's just friendship," Bert replied softly.
"Friendship?" Severus raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah… you have poured your heart out to me because you regarded me as your friend."
Snape snorted. "Friends! If I knew what that word meant!"
"It means trust, Professor. It means patience… and tolerance towards the other's bad qualities. It means accepting him the way he is."
Snape's expression was unreadable. No one in his whole life had told him anything like this. No one in his whole life had called himself his friend. But Bradley did.
He felt an urge to sit up, grab the caretaker's hand and shake it as fervently as he could, but he restrained himself. Potions Masters usually didn't make friends with mere caretakers (especially if they were Muggles), now did they? True that Snape had hit it off with Filch quite well, but only because both of them desired to catch students out of bed and punish them – besides their dislike for children they had nothing in common. But Bradley was different… he liked Potions! He understood it and could even teach Snape things he didn't know about Muggle Chemistry. He was nice to talk to – the only person Severus liked talking to since Lily had married that ruddy James Potter. Lily Evans had been the first – and up till now only – person he liked talking to… but she hadn't liked Potions. Bradley did.
The awkward silence between the two of them got interrupted by Vernon Dursley rising from his bed and looking for the bathroom. Petunia Dursley was still asleep, blissfully unaware of the fact that she was still in the oh-so-hated wizard school.
The caretaker excused himself from Snape and left – just when Albus entered.
"Looking much healthier than yesterday, Severus," the headmaster smiled. "I have interesting news for you."
While Dumbledore filled him in on Gilda's case, Petunia woke up.
"Where am I?" she blinked, rubbing her eyes.
"At Hogwarts, Mrs. Dursley," Albus replied, stepping to her bed. "Had a nice sleep, I trust?"
"Hogwarts? That lunatic ward?" she shrieked and jumped out of the bed just as her husband returned from the toilet. "We are leaving, Vernon! I'm not spending any more time among these freaks!"
"Hm… I fear, Mrs. Dursley, that there's no train until tomorrow afternoon. You have missed today's train while you were sleeping," with an impish grin Albus added: "You will have to put up with our hospitality for another twenty hours. Until then, feel yourself at home."
A/N:
revocare deponit memoriam = to retrieve deleted memory (thanks to PadmeSykwalker for her help on this one)
Nefertiri: hm… your crossover sounds cool :) Is it going to be long? About the person wiping Gilda's memory, setting the spiders on Snape, etc… well, he/she might be the greatest enemy… you may never know ;)
Wood's secret lover: sure, we have QttA and FBaWTFT here in Hungary. I like QttA more than the other one, it's funnier. I don't know whether you can still get them, but I think in Hungary you can. *shrugs* haven't been to a bookshop for ages.
goldenstar555: thanks a lot :)
Kit Cloudkicker: oh, yes, definitely they are.
seashell: yeah, the Ents were great. And that flying dragon, too. But Gollum was a bit Dobbyish, don't you think?
jennaration: I'm glad I could make you happy with dedicating the last chapter to you :)
Sean Mulligan: why would Daniel win a prize for the Merlin costume? Merlin is over-used and boring, and I deliberately made him wear something as common so that he wouldn't win that prize. And of course I know that Rowan Atkinson is Mr. Bean, I LOOOOOVE Mr Bean! (in my profile I mention Rowan Atkinson as one of my fave actors!) I guess I've seen all the Mr Bean episodes – have you? My favourite scene is in a Christmas episode, when Mr Bean goes to a warehouse, picks up a toy T-Rex and pretends to be threatening the toy Virgin Mary with it. It's simply hilarious!
Altec: I'm also sure that there are more than 11 teachers at Hogwarts, but some of them voted for other people whose names Dumbledore didn't read out, because they got only one vote and he just read out the names of the three people who got the most votes.
Wizzabee: book five comes out on 21st June. About Gilda… well, now you know her involvement, but she wasn't manipulated the same way Ginny was in CoS, she just got Imperius.
Missy: no, I'm not good at playing the piano at all, because I haven't been exercising it for about a year. I'm ashamed of it, I admit, but I just don't feel like playing anymore. But when I played, I loved playing Bach.
Sky: I didn't like the fight between Harry and Remus, too, but it had to happen. Btw, you know how funny I feel every time I read your name? In my college there's a boy whose nickname is Sky – he got 'named' after an ice cream called Sky! :) But you're a girl, right?
Black Ice: I'm also rooting for Slytherin… though I cannot promise you that Slytherin wins the house-cup this year.
sabby: thanks a lot :) Mysterious, huh? Good… because that's why I gave it 'mystery' as second genre.
The Millennium One: I'm glad that you think that this is my best fic yet, because that's my opinion, too (and it's still far from being 'really good', that comes later). About Bradley… hm… you have a vivid imagination. Ginny having Voldemort in herself and passing it down to Dan? That's an interesting one, too. But no, it's not true.
King Jasbon: no, Voldemort had no children.
ruffled owl: of course no tears yet, that comes in chapter 16.
Lana Riddle: thanks :)
Bamboo Anime: ah, I guess I've seen a film-version of Annie! Now that you told me the story of it, it sounded somehow familiar. As far as I remember, Annie was a little redhead in the film.
TaMaraR: well, now you know what Gilda did last summer… er… last night :)
Cassandra Anthemyst: yes, I LOVE evil cliffies. :D
Ameena Raynor: welcome back, I'm happy to see you again! I was wondering what happened to LilBit :)
Alexander Phoenix: of course Harry wouldn't tell Remus. But Remus might still get to know somehow… who knows? :)
Princess Ginny: in the high school we had lots of bomb threats, and we thought they were fun because we could leave the school :) But in most cases we had to make up for the lost lessons :(
C-chan: perhaps I'll read that fic of yours… it sounds interesting. But is the whole thing slash? Because I'm not exactly a fan of slash. My Latin dictionary is a book, but it wouldn't make any use if I told you the author, because the author is Hungarian, and it's a Hungarian/Latin dictionary.
FireBolt9000: WHAT? No, Gilda isn't pregnant! And I promise you that no underage people will have sex in this fic, so they won't be able to get pregnant. In this story only the adults have sex, the children don't. I thought that TGSiHH had enough of teenage pregnancies :))
2Coolio: just keep reading, and I PROMISE you that you WON'T be displeased! You have my word. You'll see why in chapter… um… 20?
Katrina: why are you blaming poor Mr. Bradley? ;)
candycaneOgram: I can't tell you whether a teacher made the basilisk-illusion or not, sorry. Dan and Gilda – well, perhaps ;) No, Voldemort had no children or siblings.
Romina: you mean the Moldiemort robes? LOL, I love those, too :) "I mocked Voldemort, ask me how" – teehee! Anya's such a great author!
Joyce: glad you liked it!
figgiesblazin: no, the chapter title didn't have anything to do with Tom Riddle.
jasper: when will you find out who was doing everything? Well… in chapter 27 *Agi cackles evilly*
nimacu: I will :)
X-Tow-Naga: you have a dirty mind to think that Snape and Bradley were hinting at something else when mentioning Hydrogen's isotopes. They were referring to Hydrogen's isotopes for real, no hidden meaning. About the centaur thingie… you're partly on the right track. Just partly. I won't order OotP online, because there's a bookshop in Budapest that pre-orders many copies and will start to sell them on 21st June. I'll just have to phone them and make sure they reserve a copy for me :) No, the Hungarian translation doesn't come out the same day, it'll come out about half a year later. But who cares when I can get it in English? :)) Yes, your review was the longest for this fic, but the ones you wrote for TGSaWCS were even longer.
Kamatazi Yumi: no, I don't know that music group. Thank you very much for your appraisal, it brightened my day when I was very depressed about my upcoming exam (but I managed it wonderfully!). I'm very happy to hear that I managed to fill this fic with suspense – and it's still far from being really suspenseful. By the time you reach chapter 24, you'll be hopelessly confused, LOL. But don't worry, you'll understand everything when the time comes. I admit that I showed the story to a Hungarian woman (besides my mother) to get a "reader's opinion" beforehand (since I considered my mum and Sienn as my betas and not my readers). So I needed a test-reader who didn't give me beta-suggestions on the plot just read it and told me her opinion of the whole thing so that I knew what to expect from the ffnet readers. This woman said I managed to confuse her pretty much, but when I solved all riddles at the end, the only comment she could say was 'bloody brilliant' :) I hope that everyone here on ffnet will think the same as she did.
rebkos: NO underage people will have sex in this fic, and rape is totally out of the question. I wouldn't be that rude to poor little Gilda, now would I? I like being rude to Harry, but not to poor kids. Cho-Harry affair? Well… not the way you'd think.
Lady Schezar: was last chapter odd? Well, then be prepared because lot odder things are coming!
Indigo Ziona: I don't think Snape wanted to win the contest :)
sk8reagle: glad you liked it.
apple-pie: yes, Snape is one of my favourite characters as well. You'll understand Bert when the time comes.
Houou: no, Voldie didn't have siblings.
Bucky: between you and me: can't tell. Yes, Cho's a b***h, I totally agree! As for Dan/Gilda – hm… might be ;)
Any last requests: well, now you know that Norbert was in the Slytherin dorm. And no, Draco didn't turn into Lupin with Polyjuice. Glad you liked Snape as Neville's grandma :)
Red Ridding Hood: I'm also happy about the book five release. It was high time, really! Glad you liked Snape's costume :D
Philip: no, you were totally on the wrong track, Gilda just got Imperius.
Aimee: mysterious, huh? And it's still far from being really mysterious! Bradley looked gay, didn't he? LOL.
reviewer: we don't really know Cho's personality, since Rowling didn't make her say more than five lines in the books. And even if she were a shy/non-lusty girl, she might have changed over all those years. She's 32 in this fic, and many people behave in a different way at the age of 32 than they behaved when they were 15. Anyway, my reason for hating her is exactly what you mentioned: I felt sorry for Harry for being rejected by her, and I wanted Harry to reject her now. On the other hand, there are several different Cho-descriptions in fanfiction, and they are usually very different from the one in the books (but remember again that we DON'T know her real personality!) I'm sure that no fanfic writer would ever write Cho the way Rowling would. Just think of all those things fanfic authors write about certain characters: e.g. Hermione falling for Snape, Draco falling for Ginny, Remus falling for Sirius, etc. Rowling would never write such things, but in fanfiction everything is possible. Btw, why did you think that Cho would have a bigger role in the upcoming books? Did Rowling say so? I thought she said that GINNY would have a bigger role in the upcoming books, and that made me think that Harry would finally start to like her and forget about Cho. I wouldn't mind if Harry dated Cho a bit, as long as he realises that Cho's not the one for him. And yes, I also felt sorry for Cho when Cedric died, but I just don't want to see her together with our beloved Harry. I'm saving Harry for Ginny :))
PepsiAngel: I don't have a schedule for updating. I update when I feel like or when I have time. But I update at least once a week.
Laina: I hope you are feeling better now, I prayed for you :) I'm happy that you get excited every time I update this fic :D
heavenly182angel: we don't have a release date for OotP in Hungary yet. The Hungarian publisher said that our translator will get the book only on 21st June, and it'll take him months to translate it, so it might not be out by Christmas, only in January 2004. But I don't care as long as I get it (and I hope I will get it) in English! :) I share your opinion: the Malfoys aren't that bad, really! I don't understand people who keep describing Draco as some terribly evil person. I think he's nasty, mean, but not exactly evil. Of course I couldn't say the same thing about Lucius… he's really evil, IMHO.
MauiGoddess3: Dan and Gilda? Hm… later :) Glad you found Snape's emotions towards Bradley funny!
gigi-radcliffe: Dan and Gilda, not Dan and Liu. Dan will have something to do with Liu, too, but I bet you wouldn't guess what it is :D
Katie Bell: in the real books, Lupin is FAR from being boring, it's just my fic in which I decided to make him a little bit 'less interesting'.
Waldomier: Snape and Bradley – in love? Yeah, they might be. You said that it was strange for the culture you grew up in. May I ask where you grew up? I'm curious, really. Perhaps you mentioned this before, but I forgot, sorry.
Autumn Dreams: Remus might get to know about Harry's third wish, but definitely not from Harry. So, you wanted to cry, because the last chapter was so sad? Ooooohhhh, then I don't dare imagine what you'll say when reading chapter 16. Make sure you'll have a hanky, I was crying when I wrote it, perhaps you'll be crying when you read it.
AmandaPanda: yeah, I guess that you thought that the fight between Harry and Remus was ooc. Well, of course it was, it was supposed to be ooc! :)
Neus: Dan as "sex bomb"? Hahaha, you have no idea how much I laughed when I read that! That medieval city sounded interesting, do tell me more about it! :) We also have medieval ruins here in Budapest, and also ruins from the Roman times.
Rab: yes, I am really evil :)) You don't like Bert? Hm… you might start to like him later. He is one of my mum's favourite characters, but of course she knows everything about him while you don't know much yet ;)
HP Blone Crazy Chick: sorry, but you're on the wrong track. No, there won't be a sequel to this fic, because – as you'll see at the end – this fic very much concludes the whole story. But I might write other HP fics about H/G :) Right now I'm working on a short piece of TGSiHH outtake about Ron/Hermione's first time. It think it'll be R-rated, not NC-17, so I might upload it to ffnet some time around Valentine's Day :)
BaileyBallinger: yeah, Dan is a bit like Harry, but only from a certain point of view. From another PoV he's very different from Harry. Gilda acts a bit like Hermione, but Hermione would never have played Quidditch or climbed trees or beaten the crap out of a bunch of boys… :) And yes, Norbert is a bit like Ron, but not too much. He's a Malfoy, after all. Yes, in the CoS book Rowling didn't tell that the huge spiders were called acromantulas, but when I read Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, I realised that acromantula was the name of their species. What should I explain about Dan and Liu?
Kristen Michelle: the last line of your review made me grin madly and I couldn't wipe the grin off my face for minutes :)) Thanks. I'll try and think of an original story some day. Yes, Gilda does have a crush on Dannie, and they might get together ;)
Zenon Lee: I also hope to get book five the same day the British and the Americans. Well, now you know what kind of powers Daniel has and you were right about the goldfish' involvement. Are you related to Trelawney, by any chance?
Myr Halcyon: you wrote: Too many "exclaimed"s and "proclaimed"s make writing seem kind of awkward' Hm… I typed 'exclaim' and 'proclaim' into the search program and it found no 'exclaim' or 'proclaim' in chapter 12 at all. So, what exactly was your problem? Where there too many "shouted"s or what? The search program counted those too, and there were six of them. Is that too much in such a long chapter? Sorry, I have no idea, you know that English isn't my native language and I don't know much about writing style, at least not in English. But I took your advice and changed many "said"s in chapter 12 into "replied" and other synonyms (but only in my computer, I didn't feel like re-uploading it to ffnet). Feel free to make suggestions on my writing style whenever you want!
the crazy girl: thanks a lot, glad you like my fics so much! You have read them pretty quickly if you just discovered them a month ago! Yes, I love putting little hints everywhere, and it's funny that 95% of the readers don't notice them, but they tend to notice things that aren't important… :) Where do I get my ideas from? Hm… good question. Sometimes I just dream them, for example the idea of the Moon Ron in TGSiHH came from a dream I had two years ago. Some things come from my own life, for example Lily later in this story will say things that are my own opinion of something/someone – I'll tell you when I upload that chapter. Then I get ideas from various mythologies: Egyptian, Viking, Russian, etc. And besides that, I've been watching way too many Southern-American soap operas, and believe it or not, they give interesting ideas! For example when I was writing TGSiHH I watched an episode of an Argentine soap opera and the female character decided to pretend she was amnesiac to make the male character mad. And I thought: 'amnesia? Hm… good idea' ;)
Prongs: so, you're a French SW fan? Great :)) I can't tell you whether Dan is the enemy, I'd be giving away too much if I said clearly 'yes'/'no'. For the time being I'm not planning to put any French into my fic, but if I'll need French things in my future fics, I'll ask you :)
LilGinny: good luck with your exams! In Hungary book five will be out half a year later, because the translator will need a lot of time to do a quality-work. But I hope I'll get it in English on 21st June.
Rose: thanks, I was happy that Sabrinette decided to translate it into French. About a year ago a Mexican boy told me he'd translate it into Spanish, but I haven't heard about him ever since, so I have no idea whether he translated it or not. And imagine, a Hungarian woman is translating it into Hungarian! It feels so good to see my story in my beloved mother language at last! :))
Punky Poet: I'm happy that you're addicted ;)
Toby Haine: it's okay, I understand that you don't have time, I had the same problems while I was having exams. Glad you found the last chapter exciting :)
kryptKnight: he'll use his animagus form, yes. But it won't be that really important.
Saphron: I know what it's like to have finals and lack of sleep. Though I usually try to sleep even then… but I kind of gave up eating when I was having exams. Now I'm eating again :)