I just had a relapse of panic attacks last night… This isn't over yet!!!
Chapter 11: The Mentor's Key
Harry ran until he reached his dormitory where he collapsed on his bed, panting. Everything had gone wrong. If only he could be like the Malfoy twins, thought Harry wistfully. Rich, good-looking, with a powerful father… why hadn't I taken the suggestion of the sorting hat so many years ago and joined Slytherin? He felt betrayed and worthless, hating everything. But it's not just me, is it? He thought. I did nothing wrong! It's their fault! It's the Malfoys and Amber and my stupid parents and stupid Voldemort and stupid Sirrus and this stupid, stupid cursed body that I was put into! It's all their fault! It's them, them, them!
Harry felt lethargic. He knew he should be in class, conjuring up mothballs, but he had no energy. Even if he had tried, he thought his muscles simply wouldn't have reacted. He lay on his bed, staring up moodily. His thoughts, before a concentrated stream of hate had ran out into the sea of oblivion, and Harry simply lay there for what seemed like an eternity. He was neither sleeping nor awake, simply a body floating upon the hell that was this world. After a long time, he heard tentative footsteps into the dormitory. Who cares?, he thought. It didn't matter.
"Harry?"
Harry remained silent.
"Harry, are you okay?"
NO!, Harry wanted to shout. No, I'm not okay, and you're not okay and nothing is okay. Why do you even ask such a stupid question?
"Harry, look at me. I know you're awake."
Why should I? It would be so much work for nothing. He felt a hand shake him gently. Let them do what they want to me. They can kill me if they want to.
"Harry, are you sick? Do you want to go to Madam Pomphrey?"
Why would anyone care about someone like Harry? Weakly, he turned his head over. It was Ron.
"Harry, you don't look too good. You should go to Madam Pomphrey right away."
"You sound like Hermione," Harry said weakly. Talking was helping him, he was already feeling better.
"I guess so. So tell me what happened. Were you jinxed by Devin?"
"No, I'm perfectly fine."
"You miss class to lie on your bed and can barely even talk and you say you're fine?"
"Yeah," said Harry, making a valiant attempt at a grin. He had gotten over the initial shock of seeing Malfoy and Amber together.
"Well then, do you want to go down to lunch?"
"Nah, I'm not very hungry."
"This is about Amber, isn't it?"
Harry remained silent.
"Look, how about Annette? I saw you when you stayed at my house, both of you were into each other."
"Annette's gone. I don't know if I'll ever see her again. And if I did, she might be bald…"
"Listen, you've got to cheer up. You don't want the type of girl who would go out with a Malfoy, anyway."
It was the wrong thing to say. Harry remained silent.
"Hey, maybe she's under the Imperius curse!"
"Why? So Draco could feel good about having a girlfriend that weighed less than Pansy Parkinson?"
"I don't know. The sorting hat put her in Gryffindor…"
"The sorting hat also put Devin in Gryffindor. That hat has made some strange decisions this year."
"Listen, Harry, I know how you feel right now-"
"No you don't! You've never loved somebody the way I loved Amber!"
"Yes, I have. I still do."
"Who?"
Ron paused for a second, and then said "Forget it. Let's just go have lunch."
"Alright," said Harry moodily. "It's just… well, I liked her."
"Well, she's hot, I won't deny that. But you didn't love her, Harry. You never got to know her."
"I guess so. It just sort of shocked me."
Harry got up and followed Ron to lunch.
For the next month, Harry eagerly anticipated word from The Forgotten, but he received no message. They continued to fight the vampire. They now fought in groups of five while Professor Artemis and the other group watched. In Quidditch, Harry and Ron were not too good about scheduling regular practice sessions, but they played whenever they could fit them in. Ron and Ginny had been working on new moves over the summer and Malfoy brought moves from his old school. The team was nearly as strong as it was last year (when Harry and the Weasley twins were allowed to play). Harry was getting better at guitar, and, on the first Hogsmeade weekend, Harry picked up his very own base guitar. Seamus, Harry and Ron played until the early hours of every morning until Neville or Devin told them to shut up. Overall, Harry's life was improving, and he was forcing himself to get over Amber.
They hadn't seen Dumbledore since the start-of-term feast, and the staff table looked oddly empty without him. Lupin was right, with Dumbledore out of action, Voldemort and his Death Eaters could stride right into Hogwarts and there would be little the students and faculty could do against them. Professor McGonagall had unofficially taken over all of Dumbledore's duties.
One day, after completing a particularly difficult essay for Snape on the properties and indications of the confusion concoction, Harry crashed sleepily into bed. He felt something strange underneath him. He rolled on his side and found a small piece of paper. The writing on it was scribbled and difficult to read, but Harry could just barely make out some words.
be in vegetable patch 11:30 tomorrow night
"What's that?' asked Ron, putting on his pajamas.
"Here, take a look."
Ron put it under the light and read it to himself.
"Do you think I should go?" asked Harry.
"I…I don't know. Maybe someone's trying to lure you out there… But… Maybe you should ask Hermione, she can deal with these things better."
Harry opened the door to the dormitories and looked down at the common room where Hermione had been when Harry went up to his room. Hermione was down there, wand out, looking daggers at Amber, who was across the room from her, equally prepared for battle. Both were quivering as they circled each other slowly. Many Gryffindors had gathered around to watch and were cheering on their favorite contestant (most were cheering Hermione; Amber had made herself quite unpopular).
"Neville…Ron…C'mon, let's go watch."
"What's happening?" asked Neville.
"I think Hermione and Amber are about to fight."
They ran down the stairs just in time to see the first spell.
"IMPEDIMENTIA!" yelled Hermione.
Amber grabbed Colin Creevy, who was standing behind her, his mouth open in awe, and threw him in front of her. Colin took the full blast of Hermione's spell, falling soundlessly to the floor. The onlookers backed away from Amber.
"ANASCARA!" said Amber quietly.
Beams of multicolored light shot out from both sides of her wand, streaming towards Hermione chillingly.
"PORTEGO!" said Hermione, tying to block the curse.
Hermione's shield spell hit one of the beams causing an explosion of color in midair. The rest of the beams struck Hermione, all directly at the center of her chest. She gasped painfully and fell to the floor.
"STUPEFY!" she screamed, holding her wand up towards Amber.
Amber jumped straight up and caught a chandelier hanging from the common room ceiling by a long chain. She flipped upwards, so she was standing perilously atop the swinging chandelier above Hermione, surrounded by candles.
"So, you want to do this for real?" asked Amber, reaching under her robe.
Hermione remained still, awaiting Amber's next move. Amber pulled out a small vial of a purple potion that was about halfway used and placed a single drop on her tongue before corking it back up. In seconds, her whole body seemed to change. Her lean physique became muscular, her fingers lengthened and her eyes seemed to glow purple. Her ender body began to shake, the chandelier rattling worryingly.
"Tonight, I will deal with this problem," she said, a hard edge to her voice.
And then Hermione made her move.
"REDUCTO!"
The curse hit the chain holding the chandelier. The chain broke and Amber and the chandelier crashed to the ground with a clatter. Amber jumped, and when she did she flew higher than Harry had ever seen anyone do. From eight feet in the air, she reached under the other side of her robe; she removed a different vial of potion, this time a bubbling orange-red brew that was entirely full. She threw the potion down to the floor. Lavender pulled Hermione out of the way just in time. There was a deafening explosion, sending small shards of flak in all directions. As the dust settled, Amber landed deftly on the other side on one foot, her wand pointed threateningly at Lavender and Hermione.
"You have help, I see. No matter, I can deal with you both. EXPELLIMENTRUS!"
Hermione's wand flew over the debris of some chairs, and both Lavender and Hermione were sent hurtling back into the crowd who caught them and pushed them back to the fight. Lavender threw her wand to Hermione and dashed back into the crowd.
"SYNERAVA!" yelled Amber, planting her other foot on the ground.
Her own wand and Hermione's quivered for a second and then with a yellow glow became a single wand. Amber laughed and pointed her new wand straight at Hermione.
"STUPEFY!" Amber yelled.
"PORTEGO!" countered Hermione.
The stunner seemed to plow right through Hermione's shield spell, sending a shower of sparks all over the room and hit Hermione straight in the chest. Gasping, Hermione shot backwards once again into the crowd.
"TETHRIASC!" yelled Hermione.
A beam of concentrated white light crossed the room and hit Amber. Amber stumbled for a second and then (to the applause of many watching boys) all her clothes fell off. Amber gave Hermione a look of pure hatred.
"I didn't want to have to do this but… CRUCIO!"
Strangled gasps and screams emerged from the crowd. Amber had just used an unforgivable curse, a crime that could land her a lifetime sentence in Azkaban. The curse flew across the room and hit Hermione directly. Hermione let out a scream, and then a whimper. She had curled up into a ball and was rocking back and forth letting out strangled cries of pain.
Just then, Professor McGonagall appeared through the portrait hole and surveyed the wreckage of the room. The whole of Gryffindor was standing behind Hermione watching. Hermione was whimpering in pain. Between them, fires were breaking out from the spilled candles and there was fluff from the wreckage of the chairs and chips of wood from tables. Further along, Amber, completely naked was holding a yellow-glowing wand pointing straight at Hermione standing in a ripped pile of her clothes and Colin Creevy lay rigid at her feet.
"Stop," said McGonagall in a deathly voice. Amber lowered her wand and Hermione collapsed to the ground crying.
"Put some clothes on," she instructed Amber. "We're going to see Dumbledore."
"I saw him yesterday in my seeing pool," Amber said with a cruel smile. "He can't even walk."
"No… but I can. GO!"
Amber looked daggers at Hermione and then turned without a word and walked upstairs, followed by the eyes of most of the older boys.
"Somebody explain what happened," said McGonagall. Nobody seemed to want to answer.
"They had a fight," said Ron lamely.
There was silence for a moment. Then, as an afterthought, Professor McGonagall pointed her wand at Colin and the jinx was lifted.
"Very well," said McGonagall finally. "I will ask the house elves to come fix this. Everybody go to bed. Hermione, stand up, you're coming with me."
For a second, nobody moved, but, upon seeing McGonagall's face, everybody turned unwillingly away and, whispering, went back up to their rooms.
"How'd it start?" Neville asked Seamus, the only one who had been down there at the time.
"Amber called Hermione a mudblood," he answered, setting the alarm on his watch carefully.
"But both Malfoys," Ron said, glancing at Devin, "have called her that before."
"Yeah, well, then Hermione wanted to put her in detention. Amber spat at her. Then she lost her temper."
"That doesn't seem like Hermione," Harry said, getting under his blankets.
"Well, Hermione's under a lot of pressure from all her classes now. And Amber's been goading her since the start of term."
"Will you please shut up?" Devin said. "I'm trying to get some sleep here."
Harry shut the curtains and fell promptly to sleep.
The next day at breakfast, Harry was surprised to see Amber was still at the school, looking quite cheerful. The fight in Gryffindor tower was the talk of the whole school. Hermione was silent and brooding at breakfast, but she excelled in Defense against the Dark Arts that day, when their team that had been reduced to four (Harry, Hermione, Neville and Ron) successfully defeated the vampire with only Neville down for the count. In Potions that day, Snape explained what the purple potion Amber had drunk was.
"There is a potion called Amethyst Eyes, due to the way that it makes the eyes turn purple. It can make a person exceptionally strong and fast. However, more than a drop of it can kill someone, so its use has been made illegal."
That day at dinner, Professor McGonagall got up to speak.
"May I have your attention?"
They all focused on her wondering if she was going to talk about the fight the night before.
"We have just received a letter that has invited our school to participate in the Junior World Quidditch Cup. Madam Hooch will assemble a team of seven students to be the school team. Tryouts will be held soon. Schools from all over the world will compete for the title of champion. For this reason, the inter-house Quidditch cup will cease to continue; however any players who were on their house teams are eligible to try out for the school team. Contact Madam Hooch for further details."
"Cool!" said Seamus, leaning across the table. "Are you going to try out?"
"Are you kidding me? Of course!" said Ron.
"Yeah, me too," said Harry.
"I'm in," Ginny agreed.
"I think everyone is trying out," said Devin. "So why waste your time all agreeing to it?"
They ignored him.
"So, where do you think it's going to be held? The same place as the real World Cup?"
"Nah, I heard that they're building some kind of stadium in Switzerland," said Seamus.
"Yeah, that'd be nice. I've always wanted to go to Switzerland."
"Who do you think will make the team?"
"Pretty much all of the Gryffindor players are excellent. I'm sure Harry will make the team, and maybe me," said Ginny.
"Yeah," Seamus said, "Harry will definitely make the team."
"Well, the other seekers are pretty good too. I mean, Ernie Macmillan is okay, but Cho Chang and Draco Malfoy are really good."
"No, my brother sucks," said Devin.
"Wow, you're actually sticking up for Gryffindor?" asked Ron.
"No, I'm just telling the truth."
They continued to talk about the upcoming world cup until dinner was over and returned to the now-repaired Gryffindor common room. Harry remembered the note from the previous night and wondered if he should go or not. It might be a trap, but, on the other hand, it might be Lupin or another member of the Order trying to tell him something. He finally decided to take Ron's idea and ask Hermione.
"Don't go," were the first words out of her mouth.
"But what if this is something important?" asked Harry.
"Then they could have at least told you who it was."
"But what if they couldn't? Or didn't want to?"
"Well, if your heart's so set on going, I won't stop you. But I'm going with you."
"What? Hermione!"
"Listen, if we're together, it's much safer."
"Alright, thanks. I'll meet you here at 11 with the cloak."
At about 11:00 they met outside the portrait hole and threw on the invisibility cloak.
"All set?" asked Hermione.
"Yep, let's go."
They crept downstairs and out of the castle. As they stepped outside, the air was freezing cold. Hermione shivered beneath the cloak. They got closer together for warmth and started towards the flesh-eating pumpkins. The wind was howling, and the shadows of trees in the forbidden forest swayed eerily. When they reached the vegetable patch, they didn't see anyone there. And then four shrouded figures stepped out and surrounded them.
"How can they see us?" whispered Hermione.
Studying the figures more closely, Harry thought he knew them. Joyfully, he threw off the cloak and smiled. Amy, Annette, Sarah and Zack were there.
"Did we scare you?' asked Sarah. "Because that would be so cool."
"Um… sort of," said Hermione.
"Oh, Hermione, you're here too?" asked Amy.
"Yeah," said Hermione. "We thought it might've been a trap.
"Where's Benny?" asked Harry. "It's not full moon for a while."
"Oh, he and some guy named Remus Lupin are hanging out at that house you told us about," said Annette.
"You don't mean Grimmauld Place?" asked Harry, surprised.
"Yeah, those guys believe us. As for Kevin… well, I assume Hermione's already told you?"
"Yeah. I'm sorry…"
"Anyway," said Annette, "Harry, we have to talk to you alone."
"I'll go back," offered Hermione.
"No need," said Sarah. "I'll stay with you."
Zack, Amy and Annette led Harry away towards the forbidden forest. Once they stopped, no one spoke for a moment.
"So, what's this all about, asked Harry finally.
"Remember when we first met you said you had the Silver Drakhen?" said Amy.
"Yeah."
"Well, we used our focus to trace it, and assured ourselves that it had chosen you. It gave itself to your mother years ago, who stored it away for you. She died before she was going to give it to you."
"What do you mean it's chosen me?"
Zack answered this time. "It means that you're the one who's meant to go inside it."
"Why me?"
"Because in there is the power to defeat Voldemort."
"You know about the Prophecy?"
"Yes, Lupin told us."
"What building is it?"
"We don't know," said Zack, "but we think it might be Salazar Slytherin's tomb. It's called the Tomb of Time because in there, time works differently than out here… we don't understand exactly everything about it, but we can tell you that to defeat Voldemort, you have to go in there."
"So, can't this wait?"
"There are eight more months until Voldemort has sapped all of Dumbledore's power... and then he will be unstoppable."
"You mean within the next eight months, I have to go in there?"
"Right."
"How do you know all this?"
"Because the Mentor told us. The Mentor was the one who gave it to your mother. His family had been protecting it for generations."
"Okay, but don't you need a key to get inside?"
"Right…that's the difficult part. The Mentor has the key."
"Didn't they take it off him when he went to Azkaban?"
"No, I don't think so."
"Which means…"
"Right," said Annette, piping up for the first time. "We need to go to Azkaban."