Chapter 6 - Confrontations
"Obliviate!" Harry shouted, spinning around suddenly to point his wand at whoever or whatever had snuck up on him in the darkness. Hopefully it would work in his favor, keeping him from getting caught.
After recovering from the shock of being hit, the girl shakily stood up and asked, "What's going on? Who am I?"
Harry said the first thing that came to his mind. "You're a muggle." That's when he actually looked at her, and saw that she was wearing Hufflepuff robes and had been carrying lots of books, which were now scattered around the floor of the library.
"A muggle? What's a muggle?" Harry now realized that he should not have told her she was a muggle, and had to risk obliviating the girl again in order to fix the problem.
"Stand still and don't move until I tell you to."
The confused girl froze, partly in terror of the boy she knew nothing about, and partly in fear of what he might do next.
"Obliviate!"
Again the girl reeled from the shock of the spell being cast so close to her body. "Who am I? I demand to know! Stop torturing me like this!"
Quickly sneaking a glance at a notebook cover, Harry found the girl's name. "You are Abby Bennington. You live in Hufflepuff House. We'll have to get you back there right away."
"Where are we now?"
"Well, we are in England, at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."
"Who are you? What are you doing?" This third year, Abby Bennington, was a very curious girl. She almost reminded Harry of Hermione.
Not wanting to scare Abby even more, he replied, "I am nobody important."
"Your face. There is something peculiar about your face. May I look at it?"
"Well," Harry paused, "Only if you don't make fun of me." He knew she did not know who he was, since he had obliviated her memory twice. There was no harm in letting her see him, was there?
The girl let out a slight gasp when she saw his face up close. "You have a scar."
"So? A lot of people have scars on their faces."
"I suppose you're right," Abby said, sitting down at a table. Then suddenly, "Harry Potter," she whispered to herself.
"Whom are you talking about?" Harry queried, having overheard her slight noise.
"I dunno," Abby looked down almost ashamedly. "That name just popped into my head from somewhere."
Harry was quite startled by this statement, so he quickly decided to take action.
"It's late. You should get back to your Common Room."
"I don't know where it is," Abby said. "Can you bring me there?"
Not wanting to leave the library, and really not wanting to get caught, Harry sat down across from Abby and started writing down directions for her to follow back to the Hufflepuff dormitory. He was hoping that the obliviate spells would not have affected her long-term memory for finding her way around the immense castle with the help of the directions.
"Here. Follow these directions and you will find yourself back at the Hufflepuff Common Room." Harry rose from the table and began to escort the girl toward the library door.
"You mean you're not coming with me?"
"No. I can't. I have too much work to do here," he lied.
"Oh." Abby looked down at her feet as she shuffled out the door. "Thank you for helping me, Harry," she quietly said as she left his presence.
Abby tried hard to follow Harry's directions. She made it about halfway back to Hufflepuff House, but the staircases were not lined up the way Harry had said they would be. She went the right way, but ended up on the wrong landing of the moving paths.
"What's your problem? Watch where you're going!" someone shouted as he brushed past her.
"I'm sorry…didn't see you," she replied.
"Yeah I'm sure you didn't. I haven't seen you before. What's your name?"
"Abby Bennington. I'm a third year Hufflepuff."
"Hufflepuff? Hah!"
"What's wrong with Hufflepuff?" Abby asked, insulted.
"Sorry bunch that you are. Full of nobodies."
"What do you mean nobodies? Cedric Diggory was a Hufflepuff!"
"That whiner? Hah. Good thing he died. One less of you."
"He wasn't a whiner.... You never told me who you are. What are you saying? Who are you?"
"I'm Draco Malfoy, sixth year Slytherin. I don't even know why I'm wasting my time here. I need to get back to my dorm."
"So what have you done to make an impression on the Hogwarts community? You don't seem like anyone important. I need to get back to my dorm too..."
"Lucius Malfoy is my father. He is a very high-ranking employee of the Ministry of Magic. You don't even have the right to be in my presence."
"I most certainly do! Where is the sign that says I cannot stand here in this hallway? And who are you to tell me what I can or cannot do?" Abby asked, getting angry at his pigheadedness.
"Right there," he said, pointing toward the ceiling.
"Where? I don't see any sign."
Draco then pushes Abby, causing her to stumble forward a few feet. "Haha, clumsy girl."
"No fair! You pushed me!"
Finally having enough of this little girl, Draco stepped toward her and knocked all of her books off of the now moving staircase. "Whoops," he said casually.
"No!" Abby screamed. "You bastard!" She was sick of his priggishness, and just wished everything would stop. She was very tired of being harassed.
"Sorry about that."
"You have ears, don't you?"
"I dare you to say that again." Draco sneered, not expecting Abby to come back at him again.
"You Bastard! You're the second one tonight who has harassed me."
"Hah! Harassed? Was the other one Goyle?"
"No."
"Damn, that fat ass can't do anything right. Well, lucky for you that he didn't."
"What am I going to do about my books? I can't get them back." Abby felt ready to cry at this point, after so much frustration.
"I said 'whoops'."
"That's not going to help anything…"
"Excuse me, I've got to go."
"No. You're getting my books back for me first."
Draco's nostrils flared like a wild stallion's. He shot Abby a disgustingly evil glare and pushed past her to continue back to Slytherin House. Unfortunately, the force of the physical contact caused Abby to lose her balance, and she fell to the floor with a scream.
"Oh, what now?" Draco obviously didn't want to be bothered any more.
Suddenly, a voice rang out from somewhere above them in the castle. "What is causing all that racket down there?"
At the sound of this voice, Draco took off at a run. Abby was left in a heap on the cold stone floor. Hot tears had begun trickling down her face. She didn't even know why she bothered, but she just sat there, calling, "Help me! Please somebody help me!" hoping that someone would eventually come to her aid.
