Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Most animals when caught in headlights freeze. It is said that the hypnotic quality of the brightness and intensity of the lights paralyses them when instinct would have them run. We cannot see inside the minds of these creatures so we cannot know for sure, but in a dimly lit hallway in a magical school called Hogwarts, two boys were about to prove that, for humans, black too can be equally hypnotic.
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Draco and Blaise had little time to react as an irate Potions master raged down the corridor towards them at exceptional speed. To turn and run would have caused far too much noise but to stay still ran the risk of being detected. Unable to utter a sound they stood rooted to the spot on one side of the passageway incapable of moving their feet staring with abject horror at the man who drew closer and closer. They clutched each other's arms tightly and prayed to whatever Gods might be listening to send them a little luck.
As Snape stalked around the turn he barely felt the change in the movement of his robe as it caught the two petrified boys. Perhaps he was too preoccupied with thinking of an appropriate task for his class that wouldn't require his supervision, whatever the reason, the shift was not noticed and he continued on his way unaware of their presence.
It was quite some moments before Zabini and Malfoy had calmed down enough to realise that they were safe. Blaise released Draco's arm abruptly, and turned his attention back to the other two Slytherins left in the area. He tugged gently on Draco's robe and pulled him back a safe distance so that they could speak in low whispers without being heard.
Goyle looked at his house mistress's form. Augusta Sinistra was staring intently at the door, lips pursed and a small frown of concentration creasing her brow. He wasn't sure for certain but he thought that she had forgotten about him, he began to back away from her slowly, intent on making as little noise as possible when suddenly she spoke,
"Mr Goyle I want you to think hard and tell me exactly which of your housemates were standing by the doorway as you left."
Goyle scrunched up his face in his effort to recall what he had seen as he had hurried out into the corridor.
"Errr, there was a group of first years, the boys mostly. They were crowded round, um, I can't remember his name. He's the one who's got a ridiculous number of older brothers. The one with the huge family bit like the Weasleys."
Professor Sinistra straightened her shoulders and turned to where she presumed Goyle was and treated him to a cold glare.
"If you are referring to Mr DeVries I suggest you inform yourself better as to his background. The DeVries are one of the oldest and most wealthy wizarding families in the world not to mention one of the most philanthropic. They are not to be classed in the same league as the Weasleys."
Having reprimanded Goyle to her satisfaction she continued, "Now are you quite sure that it was DeVries that you saw?"
"Yes, oh and I think that the reason that everyone was around him was that he was about to show off some complicated charm."
In her head, Augusta silently berated the boy for not mentioning this sooner, then cursed a thousand times as she wondered what sort of locking charm the young DeVries had managed to find. Having been good friends with the boy's mother she had known that the smallest of that particular dynasty was a bit of a bookworm with a penchant for obscure hexes. Though considering that he had nine older brothers to contend with that was probably due more for a need to survive than a true calling into the ancient arts of hexing. Sadly all this meant that it was unlikely that he had formed his idea from the standard texts available to a first year, which in turn meant a headache for her to find its counter. The answer had to lie in a book somewhere, in a second she had made her decision. Hastily she conjured a scrap of parchment and a quill and scribbled a note which she held out in front of her.
"Goyle, take this and give it to Madam Pince, she will give you all the assistance you need. Once she has found all the books I have requested, return here immediately."
Happy that he had an excuse to search out Blaise and Draco, Goyle fairly snatched the note from his Professor's hand and set off at pace towards the library. He rounded the corner and had barely taken two steps when a hand was clamped over his mouth and he was dragged into a hidden alcove. His struggle was cut short as an annoyed voice hissed,
"For Gods' sake Greggo, it's us."
The hand remained firmly clamped over his mouth for a few seconds longer as Blaise made sure that he wouldn't cry out. Once satisfied that this was the case, he was released from the death hold he had been in and shoved forwards.
"Ow!" Goyle said none too quietly, rubbing his arms, though all that could be seen by the other two was a scrap of paper fluttering vigorously in the air. "Did you have to be so rough?"
"Shut up you moron!" Draco whispered, "You might be invisible but you can still be heard. Keep your voice down. What's that in your hand?"
"Sinistra wants me to get books from the library. I get to scare Madam Pince – cool huh?"
"Perfect, we'll come with you. I take it that you didn't manage to get a message into the common about giving us an alibi."
If Gregory's face had been visible, they would have seen it fall. As it was his silence told them all they needed to know. They resumed his journey to the library.
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Madam Pince had her head resting in the palms of her hands and was massaging her temples with her fingertips. Usually the library was not very busy during the day. In fact even in the evenings and weekends it didn't fill up. Students made full use of their privilege to take books back to their common room and study there, only a few books were restricted to library use only, and it was rare that a student would have cause or want to use those. Today, however, was shaping up to be a very crowded day. Almost all the sixth and seventh years that had free periods were present. Had it been the Ravenclaws this would not be untoward, but the presence of Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors, with the exception of Hermione Granger, was unheard of.
When the Towers Cup had been announced Madam Pince had barely registered it. It seemed of little or no significance to her since officially she was neutral when it came to the Houses. Now, she could see that her daily routines would be disrupted for the foreseeable future. Already she had had to deduct points from several pupils who had either been arguing over restricted texts or manhandling some of the more delicate manuscripts. She had split up a group of chattering Hufflepuffs who were threatening to turn her peaceful study area into a noisy youth club and instead of doing the shelving as she would normally be doing at this calm time in the day she was forced to keep a beady eye out for further trouble.
Mentally, she scolded Dumbledore for dropping another 'idea' on the staff without giving anyone time to come up with reasonable objections and viciously hoped that all his jelly beans would forever more be earwax flavour. When she saw a scrap of parchment waving itself under her nose she cursed Dumbledore for driving her to insanity and closed her eyes, counting to ten, trying to bring herself back to reality.
The insistent rustle told her that the paper was still there and she opened her eyes and stared at it, peering over her steel rimmed half-moon spectacles suspiciously. She noted that it had writing on it. She entertained the thought that one of the numerous children was playing a trick on her and she looked around distrustfully. All the students appeared engrossed in whatever it was they were doing. Slowly she reached out her hand and took the note. As she pulled it closer for inspection she recognised Professor Sinistra's handwriting.
In a low voice that was undetectable to the surrounding students she spoke,
"Mr Goyle, are you still here?"
Mindful that he was in the library and aware that Malfoy and Zabini did not want the rest of the school to know what had happened to the Slytherins, Goyle answered her in the same low tone, leaving the other students oblivious to his presence. He followed the librarian as she went to a stack of shelves on one side of the main room, pausing as she bent to say something to Harry and Hermione who were sat on one of the far tables.
They had not been in the dusty shelves for more than five minutes when a resounding crash echoed through the section. Madam Pince rushed out to find Harry Potter and Hermione Granger picking up some of the more ancient texts that had been piled up on their table.
"Mr Potter, Miss Granger! What did you do? I thought I made myself perfectly clear that those books were stacked too high."
"I.. I'm sorry Madam" stammered Hermione, "I just reached across to give something to Harry, I must've knocked them over, I thought I was being careful."
On a normal day, because it was Hermione Granger, Madam Pince would have let the girl off with a minor admonition, unfortunately for the Gryffindors the librarian was reaching the end of her tether.
"Ten points from Gryffindor, I hope you will act on my warnings in the future."
The librarian stood with a disapproving look as she watched the two pick up the books and arrange them in a more sensible manner on the table. Satisfied that they had done as asked this time, she resumed her search for Sinistra's books.
Two minutes later her attention was caught by raised voices. By the time she reached their source a scuffle had broken out between a group of Hufflepuffs and Neville Longbottom and Dean Thomas.
"What is the meaning of this?"
She was met with a clamour of people each simultaneously trying to give their version of what happened. Pinching the bridge of her nose she turned to Hannah Abbot, stopping everyone else so that she could make out what the girl was saying.
"Well, you see, I was sitting here minding my own business when Neville came up behind me and pulled my hair, not just a gentle tug mind, but a real hard pull. Look my head's still sore from it" she bent her head forward and Madam Pince could see the redness on her scalp. She looked over to Neville and raised her eyebrow indicating for him to have his say.
"Madam Pince, I swear, I didn't pull her hair."
She narrowed her eyes and Neville met her gaze unflinchingly. To all intents he seemed to be genuinely telling the truth, yet the marks on the girl also indicated that she wasn't lying either.
"Ten points from both Houses," she held her hands up as both the Gryffindors and the Hufflepuffs protested, "that's enough from all of you. Neville, Dean, I'm not interested, keep away from the Hufflepuffs and you Hufflepuffs the same, keep away from Neville and Dean. I will not tolerate this sort of behaviour in the library."
With that she stalked back to where Goyle was waiting patiently. Barely a minute elapsed before another commotion had her running to the study area. The sight she was met with was one which she had never seen in all her years at Hogwarts. Alan Dirving, a seventh-year Ravenclaw, was sat looking disorientated, blood trickling from a wound in the corner of his forehead, two other Ravenclaws were tending to him. His girlfriend Iona, another Ravenclaw but a year younger, was currently engaged in battering a boy about his head with a rather heavy herbology tome. From the screeches of the enraged girl, Pince was able to make out that the boy she was assaulting had deliberately tripped up Alan.
Feeling her own temper snap, Madam Pince ordered the Ravenclaws on the scene to accompany Dirving to the infirmary, awarding five points for their healing charms but deducting thirty for Iona's behaviour. Ushering them out of the library and shutting the doors to their protests she turned to deal with a mutinous looking James Brook. Giving him no chance to defend himself she took twenty-five points and ordered him to the Hufflepuff common room after giving him a note to give to Professor Sprout.
Inwardly wondering what had gotten into the students she wearily made her way back to her book search; too busy bemoaning her day to note a soft chuckle escaping from the empty air. Wearily settling down for the fourth time to locate the books Sinistra had requested she felt her muscles protest as she bent to look on the bottom shelf.
Having a more enjoyable time in his own search, Blaise Zabini was almost moved to hum in satisfaction. Of course he would never be so uncool as to hum with happiness, but right now, amongst the books in the restricted section, he felt the most pleasant he had in a long while. At the moment, he was feeling incredibly smug. He had had a hunch about a way to communicate with the occupants of the common room and so far all the relevant texts were agreeing with him. Pushing back the very small honest voice that piped up that this was only true because he had discarded as irrelevant all the essays that had disagreed with his theory, he pressed on with his search for the elusive Book of Death which contained the particular enchantment he was seeking.
Now, if you are unfamiliar with the magical world, you might think that a Book of Death was a tome which contained very nasty dark magic. This, of course, serves to illustrate that you are not of a magical nature. The Book of Death, well to be strictly accurate we should say the series of books known as the Books of Death, are in fact recorders of various innocuous charms, spells and potions which have caused, completely unexpectedly, either the caster or the recipient to die. The only reason that the books were in the restricted section was that the powers that be at the school had realised that some students (various incarnations of the Weasleys and Malfoys sprung to mind) might draw on the descriptions and attempt to re-enact them as pranks.
Blaise was looking for book number five in the series. As ever, Sod's law dictated that it was not where it should be. He swept his keen eyes over the section finally noticing that a number of books had fallen down the back of the shelves, their titles obscured by the angle at which they lay. Reaching in, attempting to remove them so that he could he see their spines he was hit by a sudden crack of blue light causing him to cry out. Luckily for him, at the exact same moment, a great hullabaloo started up in the study area.
Madam Pince descended on the students in a foul mood. For the first time in her life she was found herself in complete agreement with Severus Snape and wished that all the students were given a silencing draught as soon as they entered the school. All around her children were speaking angrily at one another. Hermione Granger was leaning against a table-leg trying to undo her shoelaces, which had been tied together. Scattered around her were the old texts, some with loose pages hanging from them, which had been on the desk. Her clothes were rumpled and it was clear that she must have stumbled. Practically the rest of the library had congregated around and were heatedly attributing blame to one another.
Madam Pince had had enough.
"Out!" she roared, "I have had quite enough of this behaviour today. Twenty points from all the houses here for such juvenile behaviour. I do not wish to see any of you here, or in the nearby vicinity for the rest of the day! No arguments. Get OUT!!!!"
The last word she fairly bellowed and shocked everyone, and herself, with its force. Meekly the students filed out of the library, not bothering to clear the tables, figuring accurately, that this would probably only further incense the fuming librarian.
Breathing deeply the librarian surveyed the study area. Something had been not quite right for the previous half hour, but she couldn't for the life of her place what it was. Remembering Goyle and her still incomplete task she tsked to herself and went back to where she had left him.
Seeing the pile of books and realising that Goyle would have difficulty carrying them all in one go, she bade him take as many as he could and return for the remainder, by which time, she hoped, she would be able to complete the search.
As he opened the door to leave Gregory turned and said in an overly loud voice, "I'm just going Madam, I'll be back as soon as I can to collect the rest."
There was a brief pause before she heard the heavy door slam shut and then blissful silence. Madam Pince exhaled a long breath, allowed her shoulders to relax, gave herself a moment of well deserved rest, before busying herself tidying the library.
Outside and out of earshot three boys dissolved into hysterics as Draco described the looks on the faces of his various victims. Unseen to them, outside the Great Hall, the House Board shimmered and morphed to the colours of green and silver indicating that Slytherin had shot into the lead in the House competition.
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Author's Notes:
Hey all and any who are reading. Bit of a longer chap, hence the delay in posting. Am trying to make them shorter and post faster, but it just ain't happening at the mo'.
As ever please read and review, let me know what you think. Cheers m'dears!