Disclaimer: If they were mine, I'd be a rich, rich woman…but alas! They aren't and so I'm just a poor college student. Oh yeah, Carmen and Natalie are mine.
*** Thanks to CurlsofGold, Neoen, Freckles, Slapmesilly, Lindsay and Triniroo for reviewing! It means a lot to me! Thanks again!
Chapter 4: The Beginnings of a Mystery
Ever since that stupid incident out on the Quidditch pitch Malfoy had been sending them gross looks. Of course, that might just have been Malfoy's face so perhaps it wasn't really truly anything new. Harry wanted to hex the ugly git for calling Hermione Mudblood; he was so sick of hearing that word out of Malfoy's foul mouth. Hadn't his parents ever washed his mouth out with soap?
"You are so lucky that Hagrid didn't give you detention Ron, and that he let it slide," Hermione said with an air of superiority wrapping around her words. Ron nodded as he shoveled more food in his mouth. "Disgusting, Ron," Hermione said flatly before going back to her own meal.
Harry watched with some amusement. They really were quite funny together. They played off each other well, he noted. Seeing the smile on Ginny's lips, she must have thought so too.
"Eek!" one of the girls screamed suddenly from down the table. "Fred! George!" she screamed, interrupting all talking in the Great Hall. "How dare you let that…thing in here!" she screeched.
Fred and George, who had been sitting across the table from her, looked at each other curiously. Then they looked at her innocently. She was pointing and screaming frantically, even as McGonagall and Snape left their perch at the Professors' Table to see what all the commotion was about.
The trio, along with their fellow fifth years, watched curiously. Harry only knew the girl as a sixth-year named Carmen. He wasn't even sure of her last name although he thought it was something like Lords or Lourdes or something. He looked strangely. She was still pointing and waving at something that no one else could see, even the teachers.
"Don't you see it?" she shrieked.
McGonagall clasped her hands together and gave the near hysterical girl a stern look. "What kind of prank is this, Miss Lowery?" she asked seriously. If looks could kill, Carmen Lowery would be dead.
Snape took over the conversation from there. He peered the girl down, willing her to sit, which she did although it was with shaking nerves. And then he turned on Fred and George. "What are you two imbeciles doing? Do you have nothing better to do than to play a prank at dinner time?" His gaze moved between the two of them. "I suppose your mother was tired enough from teaching three older children manners and forgot about-
"Severus, please," Professor McGonagall interrupted sharply. "Now, Frederick, George, what did you do to Carmen?"
They looked at one another and then at the two professors staring at them. "Nothing," they said in unison. Harry was surprised to see not even a glimmer of amusement in their like-colored eyes.
Apparently so was Professor McGonagall. She took a heavy step back, frowning and crossing her arms over her chest. She looked to Snape, who stayed angry looking. She seemed to make up her mind about Fred and George because she began looking to the other students, all of whom shrugged, while Snape turned his eyes to his three favorite culprits.
"Perhaps Potter could enlighten us as to what as happened," Snape said slowly, thickly. He stared at Harry. He looked even more displeased than usual.
"I-I cannot," Harry stammered out. He was nervous, even a little frightened looking at Snape but he refused to back down. He was a Gryffindor, after all.
McGonagall clapped her hands together, and the sound echoed throughout the silent Great Hall. "Well then, until the culprit comes forth any trips to Hogsmeade will be canceled," she announced.
The students had to stifle a groan.
"Why does this always happen to us?" Ron wailed. Hermione rolled her eyes and then continued to eat as if nothing had happened. Harry wondered the same thing. His eyes traveled to the Professors' Table. Professor Spangler was the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and while Harry found him to be the best professor they'd had in the subject, well except for Remus Lupin or the not real Mad-Eye Moody (although he was sure the real Moody would've done an excellent job), and Harry was fairly sure the young man wasn't hiding Voldemort under his turban, mainly because he wasn't wearing a turban and nor did he think the guy was a self-absorbed teen heartthrob. All in all, he liked Professor Spangler.
Professor Spangler caught Harry looking at him and smiled warmly. Harry returned the smile and went back to eating as if nothing had happened.
It was like Carmen's outburst hadn't ever occurred.
***
They returned the Common Room in just enough time to change into their practice robes. Hermione said she would've come to watch again except that she had an Arithimancy test that was sure to be really difficult and so she opted to stay in that night. "I'm sure you'll do really well though Ron!" she encouraged, a slight pink coloring her otherwise pale cheeks.
Ron must have noticed this because the tips of his ears turned a light shade of red and he mumbled that it was alright she was staying inside. Then he pulled on Harry's sleeves, anxious to get to the Quidditch pitch.
Just as they were leaving a somber looking McGonagall came in, her hands clasped in front of her. "Quidditch practice has been canceled for the evening. You may use the pitch tomorrow morning," was all she said simply and then she left.
Everyone in the room just sort of stared at each other. Hermione's brown eyes filled with worry and she rubbed her arms as if she were cold. Ron frowned but didn't say anything. Harry looked to Angelina, whose brows came together in concentration. The tip of her tongue was peeking out between her lips and she bit on it. Even Fred and George weren't laughing.
"Has anyone seen Carmen?" a sixth year girl Harry knew as Natalie Pickett, probably one of Carmen's roommates asked. "I haven't seen her since dinner."
The sandy brown haired witch look worried. Of course she was worried, Carmen had flipped her lid during dinner and now she wasn't anywhere around, at least she wasn't in Gryffindor Tower.
No one in the Common Room said they knew her. They all said they'd last seen her at supper.
"Are you sure you don't know where she is Harry?" Natalie asked, as if she knew who Harry was. Oh yeah, everyone knew who Harry was.
Harry shook his head. "No, I'm sorry. But I'll tell her you were looking for her if I see her at all." This didn't seem to make Natalie feel any better.
"I'm really worried about her," she commented, as if none of them knew that, and then she walked on to the next group of students, second years playing some card game Harry recognized but was sure Ron wouldn't.
He could overhear Natalie asking the same thing she had asked him and saw the boys shake their heads. It seemed as if it was futile.
"Hmm," Hermione murmured. "It's odd, isn't it?"
"What part?" Ron asked dryly. "That her friend went nutters in the Great Hall or that her friend went nutters in the Great Hall and then disappears?"
"Both," she said sincerely. Harry agreed with her, well almost agreed with her. He thought that if he did what she did in front of everyone he would find a nice good place to commit suicide.
Ron shrugged, voicing his thoughts which happened to be Harry's exact thoughts too. "I'd want to go hide out too if I flipped my can the way she did," he pointed out.
"Ron!" Hermione scolded, "Don't say it like that! You make it sound like she belongs in Carmen belongs in St. Mungos!"
He smiled candidly. "Maybe she does." He shrugged then. "You hear of witches and wizards who end up in St. Mungos all the time because they start hallucinating or something."
Hermione smiled, although it was tight-lipped and Harry could tell she was going to try to not fight with Ron, although Harry figured they were due for another fight anytime soon, they hadn't had a good one since Ron had turned Crookshanks blue. Just remembering that put a smile on Harry's face. "Maybe she wasn't hallucinating," Hermione countered.
"If McGonagall didn't find anything, or Snape and the twins didn't do anything then I'd say she was hallucinating!" Ron argued.
"Perhaps whatever it was disappeared before they could find it."
"What? You mean like disapparate? Now Hermione, you know you can't apparate and disapparate into Hogwarts. You would know that if you read Hogwarts: a History," Ron teased. Harry knew he did it just to get Hermione's goad…he was quite successful.
Hermione stood up and marched over to him, pointing a fine finger at his nose. "You…great…big…prat!" she managed to get out without screaming.
Ron stood up, towering over her, and glared down at her. "Maybe if you weren't such a know-it-all I wouldn't have to be right about disapparating and apparating!" Ron yelled. "After all, you're the only reason I know that! No one else I know is into reciting that stupid textbook every moment they get!" he continued quite loudly.
Harry looked around the Common Room. No one was looking at them. They were all continuing on with their daily activities as if they expected a fight between Ron and Hermione. Even the first years didn't look surprised.
Hermione reeled back as if he'd slapped her. "How dare you call Hogwarts: a History stupid!" she retorted angrily. Ron looked surprised enough to laugh and more than one person in the room snorted at that comment. They may not have stopped whatever they were doing, but everyone was at least keeping one ear on the yelling match for some good morning gossip. She stamped her foot. "It is not a stupid textbook, Ronald!" she continued madly. "It is quite interesting and maybe if you'd actually read it I wouldn't have to recite everything to you!" she finished with an angry stare.
"Oh yes you would!" Ron yelled.
"Would not!"
"Would too!"
"Would not!" she yelled louder than she ever yelled before, leaving Ron dumbfounded which Harry suspected was her plan all along. She pulled away, crossed her arms over her chest, which Harry guiltily noticed had filled out quite nicely, and had a staring contest with his stupefied friend. "For your information, one can learn a lot from reading. And not just from reading Hogwarts: a History, but from other books too!"
"Like I care!" he responded loudly as he seemed to gain his voice back. "I learn just the same from listening to you nag so why would I read a book?" he shot back.
Hermione threw her hands up in the air angrily. "Oh I don't know, maybe so could actually learn something for yourself!" she retorted.
Ron was clenching and unclenching his fists looking like he wanted to throw something. His glittering blue eyes pierced her and Hermione shivered, although it was a good, tingling shiver not an ominous sign of warning. She didn't even wonder at this. "Maybe," he began, his teeth grinding together, "I don't read those stupid texts because you are the only one that can make me understand!"
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoy this because now I get to enjoy going to bed (yeah—I'm so excited—and maybe I'll even get to sleep in!)! OK, so you know what I want—please drill (as always, flame if you absolutely must but don't try to burn me too much). Thanks again!
