Two short author's notes: First, I have been asked what is so terrible about a chimera as Shimmy reappears in this chapter. You can look them up in the Harry Potter Lexicon or in "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them." Suffice it to say, they are extremely violent and uncontrollable creatures. I know I wouldn't want to meet one in a dark alley. Just the sort of thing Hagrid would like!

Second, just a reminder that I will publish chapter 29 in two days as usual but after that the chapters will be four days apart, so expect the next chapter on the 11th and so on. Sorry, but it takes me about that long to do each chapter and I have run out of pre-written material.

Thanks for reading and enjoying the story. Reviews have been messed up the last few days, but when I can see your reviews, they have really been encouraging. I appreciate each and every one.

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Chapter 28

Unexpected Revelations

Cassie groaned and rolled over in bed. Morning had come too early today. She looked at Ginny's smiling face above her. "How do you do it? I'm exhausted."

"Wednesday mornings are always hard for me, too. But, classes end early today so I sometimes take a nap in the afternoon."

"Nap . . . nap . . . nap. I'll just keep saying that over and over again today."

Ginny laughed gently. "At least today should be easy for you. I think Hermione's got every single class marked green."

"Really? You aren't just trying to make me feel good?" Cassie was almost afraid to hope that Ginny was telling the truth.

"Nope. I'm serious. It should be a great day. Come on, let's get going."

Cassie got out of bed and grabbed her bathrobe, grateful for the warmth of her flannel nightgown. She hurriedly slipped her feet into her slippers and they started downstairs quickly. She decided as she stood patiently a few minutes later while Ginny dried her hair that tonight she would braid her hair again so she wouldn't have to get up as early in the morning. It would be a nice change. Ginny had been wonderful, getting up early to help her out with her hair and it would give her a chance to also sleep in.

The pre-breakfast planning meeting (or PPM Cassie called it to herself) was fairly unexciting as, like Ginny had promised, the day looked like a fairly easy one. She did laugh out loud though as she looked carefully at the schedule and saw what class she had in the afternoon. "Muggle Studies? You actually take a class in Muggle Studies? I don't know whether to be intrigued or insulted! What do you learn about in there?"

Ginny looked a little embarrassed. "Hermione took it. I don't think it was too bad, was it, Hermione?"

"It's not really bad. You just have to . . . be a little patient with the Professor. Understand where he's coming from and all that. And be careful what you say. Everyone knew I was Muggle born so I could say anything and they understood. You, on the other hand, are supposed to be pure-blood."

"Does that mean I have to hate all things Muggle?" She didn't know how that would work if she had to pretend to hate, uh, herself.

"No, no. Of course not. I mean, look at Ginny. In fact, why don't you take your cues from Ginny."

"All right. I guess I can do that."

The five trooped down to the Great hall for breakfast where the boys greedily ladled heaps of eggs, sausages, and bacon onto their plates. Ginny and Hermione took much smaller helpings. Cassie, on the other hand, stared blankly at the large platters of meat and eggs and instead selected half of a grapefruit and a couple of slices of wheat toast, mumbling something about not being up to eating a lot when she would rather be back in bed. She felt better after a few minutes and sat contentedly watching the students at the various tables throughout the room. Right on schedule, there was the rustling of wings and the mail owls came through the window. Cassie smiled to herself. She never got tired of watching this because it was absolutely fascinating to see as the owls found the recipients for the mail they held and dropped whatever it was they held in their talons. It was interesting because they seemed to be able to judge the path for each piece as they (almost without exception) fell directly in front of the correct student. Cassie had no idea how the owls knew who was who. But she had stopped worrying about that. She just liked watching it. Harry got a newspaper and read it over quickly though he never commented on anything from the day's edition that Cassie heard. Hermione got a letter and she read it, whispering quietly to Ron as she did so. Elspeth also got a letter. Cassie watched as the picked the letter up off the table and looked at it, then smiled wanly and tucked it into her book bag.

"Aren't you going to open that?" Colin asked. The two had taken to sitting by each other at every meal and Cassie thought they were adorable together.

"No." Elspeth tried to look casual, but Cassie noticed that her hands were trembling as she picked up her glass of juice. "I know what it says." Cassie didn't keep staring at her, but she noticed out of the corner of her eye that Elspeth didn't eat any more of her breakfast, despite Colin's gentle nagging that she hadn't had enough to sustain life yet. Colin got up a few minutes later, patting Elspeth gently on the shoulder as he left.

"I've got to run back up to the dorm because I forgot a book. Sorry. I'll meet you in Defense, okay?"

"Sure. See you in a minute." Cassie watched as Colin left the Great Hall and then despite herself turned to watch Elspeth, whose eyes had also followed Colin as he left. Elspeth reached into her book bag and pulled the envelope out, opening it quickly and scanning its contents. She bit her lip as she read, her eyes suspiciously bright by the time she got to the bottom a minute later. She smiled half-heartedly at Cassie and then got up from the table and left, stuffing the letter back into her bag as she walked out of the room.

Cassie was tempted to call out to her and ask if she could help. The girl was obviously upset and Cassie wondered what was wrong. However, she decided against it, not wanting to be too interfering. "Well, I guess we better go, Pia. We've got Defense this morning." As they both stood up, Harry stood up, also.

"I'll walk you two to class, if that's all right." Ginny looked up at him with surprise, her eyes narrowed with suspicion.

"It's all right, but don't you have class yourself?"

"Not today. I've got something else going on."

"Is everything okay, Harry?"

"Yeah. It's great." Ginny looked at Cassie and it was easy to read the worry in her eyes. Cassie thought that it must be very hard to be Harry Potter's girlfriend, constantly worried about his safety and wondering when and where he would be in trouble next. They walked through the halls toward the Defense classroom, Ginny and Harry holding hands and talking about nothing in particular. However, Cassie could sense the worry under Ginny's smile and hoped that she was worrying for nothing. "See you two in a few minutes, okay?" Harry said rather enigmatically as they went into the classroom. Ginny's brows furrowed together.

"Okay. Bye, Harry." Ginny turned to Cassie as the door closed behind them. "What do you think is wrong?"

"Nothing. Maybe he just wanted to walk with you to class."

"Maybe. But I doubt it. That's not like him." Ginny walked to her seat, a look of concern on her features. Cassie saw Elspeth sitting next to Colin and hoped the girl was happier now. But she took one look at Elspeth's face and realized that she was not. She had obviously been crying, her eyes were red and her face was sticky. Cassie couldn't just sit down and pretend she hadn't seen.

"What's wrong, Elspeth?"

"Nothing I didn't expect." The girl said, as she wiped at new tears. "I got a letter from my parents basically telling me to get myself under control."

"I don't . . ."

"Colin. They know about Colin and don't want me to ever talk to him again." Cassie stared at her.

"You're kidding. Tell me you're kidding."

"I knew they'd find out. I don't know why I thought I could get away with it." Cassie was about to respond with a rather sharp retort when Remus entered the classroom.

"I'll talk to you later." Elspeth smiled and Colin looked with grateful eyes up at Cassie. She slipped into her chair next to Ginny. "I can't believe it. Elspeth's letter from home was warning her to never see Colin again."

"Ah. I thought that might be it."

"You don't sound very indignant on behalf of your roommate."

"Why should I be? My being angry isn't going to change her parents' minds. I told you that they wouldn't be happy and so did she."

"But, you don't think they're right, do you?"

"Of course I don't but . . . Look, Pia. Could we talk about this later?" Remus was staring at the two of them and Cassie realized that he was trying to start class.

"Sorry." She looked back at Remus and smiled apologetically.

"Okay, class. Let's get started now that we've all settled down. We've now talked about the Imperius and the Cruciatus curses over the last two class periods. What do you think we are going to talk about today?" There was a smattering of nervous laughter and Cassie wondered what they were going to talk about. Another really bad curse, she gathered from everyone's reaction. "That's right, Avarda Kedavra."

"Who'll be volunteering for a demonstration today, Professor?" a student asked and everyone laughed, including Remus.

"I thought I'd let you, Kit. The other students have put in a special request." More laughter rippled through the room. After a minute, Remus continued. "Obviously I won't be doing a demonstration today, but I do want to talk about it today." Cassie looked at Remus and noticed that he looked exhausted. She vaguely wondered what was bothering him.

"Avarda Kedavra is also known as the killing curse. It is the most powerful curse known to wizards. It kills immediately without leaving a mark on the victim and there is no way to fight it or negate its effects."

"So why are we talking about it?" It was the boy named Kit again, who Cassie realized had been the skeptical student during the last two lessons.

"Well, I'm glad you asked that. You need to know about it. There's no use going through life ignorant so that you make an easy target. We all know that there is only one person in the world who has ever survived being hit with the killing curse. No, we don't know how he did it. But you may not know that this same person has had the curse cast at him about six times now and has managed to live through it each time. That is what I want to talk about today. And so, I want to go directly to the source, so to speak. I'd like you all to welcome a guest speaker today, Harry Potter." Cassie gasped in surprise. She hadn't expected that at all. She had had no idea that he was talking about Harry. But it was obvious from Ginny's expression that she had right from the beginning of the lecture, although she also seemed surprised that Harry was speaking to the class. The other students in the class were whispering excitedly amongst themselves as well.

"I guess now we know why he walked us to class."

"Yeah. That's a relief. I was worried."

"Harry you can come in now," Remus called and the door opened. Harry poked his head in and it was obvious he was looking around for Ginny. He found her and it seemed to calm him. He walked slowly into the classroom and up to the front. "Hi, Harry. How are you doing?"

"I'm okay. I feel like an idiot, though."

"I know you don't normally like to talk about your experiences fighting You-Know-Who and dodging the curses he's thrown at you, but I think you have some valuable pointers."

"If you say so, Remus." Harry turned and faced the classroom. "I . . . I'm supposed to talk to you about what it's like to have the Avarda Kedavra curse cast at you and what I've done to avoid being hit with it." The room was so quiet that Cassie would have sworn she could have heard a pin drop if someone had had one. "I want to tell you, first of all, that I've only been hit with it once and lived and that was when I was a baby and I don't remember very much about it. I remember seeing the green light . . . but I think that was when, um, You-Know-Who killed my mum, not when it hit me. So, other than that, I don't know anything about it. I don't remember if it hurt or anything. The other times . . .I've never been hit with it or I'm sure I'd be dead just like any of you would be." Harry looked with a vaguely panicked expression at Remus. "I don't know what else you want me to talk about, Remus."

"Why don't you tell about the other times it was cast at you and what you did?"

"Um, well. Let me see. The first time was during my fourth year, the time when Volde- um, You-Know-Who, came back." Cassie watched with intense fascination as Harry continued talking about his encounters with Voldemort. After the first few minutes, he relaxed and although he was still quiet, Harry related some very dramatic events in a clear understandable way. The rest of the class seemed just as entranced as she was. After what seemed like a very long recitation, he finally was quiet and stood looking at the class. "I guess that's it, really. Mostly, I was just lucky."

"The thing, Harry, that has impressed me about your stories, because I've heard them before of course, is that you refuse to give up." Harry nodded, looking as confused as the rest of the class. "I mean, most wizards, knowing that Avarda Kedavra was going to be cast at them, would just stand there and wait to die. But you don't do that."

"No. I refuse to be standing there like an idiot when he kills me. I want to fight him. He's going to have to work if he wants to hit me with it again."

"That's exactly the point, Harry, that I want these students to learn. You can fight back and sometimes, with a little bit of luck and some good defense skills, you can escape. I think most wizards would not be expecting a fight and would be surprised to have someone attempt to defend themselves against the three unforgiveable curses, particularly Avarda Kedavra."

"Yeah. I think you're right, Remus. Voldemort always seems surprised. You'd think by now he'd have figured out that I'm not just going to let him kill me. But I'm pretty sure that's what he wants to do." More nervous laughter, some of it, Cassie thought, was because Harry had used Voldemort's name.

Remus and Harry talked for several more minutes about Harry's experiences against Voldemort and the entire class listened with interest. "The thing is that I didn't do anything special. Any of you could have done the same thing. I'm not that powerful of a wizard or anything, really. I just . . . I guess I'm just too stubborn to let him kill me."

"Okay, we have a few more minutes before our time is up, students. Has anyone got any questions for Harry?"

Almost everyone's hand shot up instantly and Cassie looked around. Harry blushed. But he started answering questions, quietly and carefully addressing each of them. Some of them were strange like "What does You-Know-Who look like?" Some of them were completely off topic, like "What's your favorite color?" Some of them were, in Cassie's opinion, sort of sad, "Do you remember your mum and dad at all?" and "I heard your scar kind of warns you about bad stuff. How does it do that?"

Cassie was surprised when Remus interrupted a little later. "That's all we have time for today, I think. Thanks, Harry. I know you were hesitant to come today, but you've done a really good job. Students, I just want to emphasize one more time what Harry has talked about today. If you think that someone is going to cast a curse on you, I don't care if it's Imperius or Cruciatus or even Avarda Kedavra, don't just stand there and wait to be hit. Fight back. You may not avoid it. But at least you will know that you made the effort." The class clapped enthusiastically and the students stood up to leave.

"I thought this was supposed to be a two-hour class, Ginny."

"Yeah." Ginny walked over to Harry, slipping her arms around his waist and hugging him tightly. Cassie glanced down at her watch and her eyes widened in shock. It had been almost two hours. She would have sworn that only 30 minutes or so had passed since Harry had started talking. Whoa. She had been so entranced by what he had said that time had passed unnoticed. The classroom emptied out and Harry (and Ginny who was still hugging him) was still talking to Remus. Cassie went up to join them. Remus smiled at her as she came to stand by Ginny.

"Hello, Pia. How are you doing?"

"I'm doing pretty well. You don't look very good though. Are you all right?"

"I'm fine." Remus waved his wand and the door to the classroom closed. "I actually wanted to let you know that your safe house is almost ready for you."

"Oh." Cassie felt her stomach lurch. She really did not want to go to a safe house. Harry had been so lonely. She knew that she would not be able to stand to be alone for weeks on end. But she knew that they were just trying to keep her safe, so she really shouldn't complain. Before she could ask any questions about it, though, Remus continued.

"You're doing so well here at Hogwarts, though, that we've decided to leave you here for a while longer." Again, mixed feelings. She liked it here, but she was having to do a lot of lying and she couldn't keep up the pretense of being magic forever, could she? "We'll probably let you stay to the end of term, which is less than two weeks away, unless something should change."

"Okay." She wanted to ask more questions, but she didn't. She felt ungrateful for complaining. After all, everyone was going to all this work to keep her safe. And if she was miserable for a few days, it wouldn't kill her. Harry had managed. So could she.

"I think you'll be happy there, Pia. No need to look so worried."

"Do you think it will be that long before we figure out who was at the meeting?" She kept thinking that certainly by now they had discovered who had been at the meeting and what they wanted to do. For heck sakes, these were wizards. They should be able to work out this little mystery pretty quickly.

"At the rate we're going, yes. We just keep running into dead ends. Most people of the Order assume that we're going to have to wait until they actually do something before we can move against them. We're not figuring anything out. You gave us a big clue last night and we're trying to use that to make progress, so maybe something will change but if I were you, I wouldn't count on leaving us any time in the immediate future. Are you that miserable?"

"I'm not miserable, Remus. It's just hard to keep up the charade, you know what I mean?"

"I understand. But I must say I've been impressed with the success of your efforts. Everyone who has met you is convinced you are a powerful witch. Even Sybil Trelawney was discussing you in fairly glowing terms although she said it was a pity that you were related to the Weasleys. She thinks that it clouds your Inner Eye." Remus said this with some real amusement in his voice and the three students laughed in response.

"What sort of a clue did you give them, Pia? You had detention last night, didn't you? Did Snape say something to you?"

"No. I . . . I remembered something." Cassie was about to elaborate about seeing the wizards walking and particularly about the one with the bad limp, but Harry glanced down at his watch.

"Aaah! We'd better run. Ron is going to be mad if we don't get up there fast. We've got to get over to Hagrid's!" A quick glance at her own watch confirmed that Harry was right. They had less than 10 minutes before their Care of Magical Creatures class started. Not that she was in a hurry to get there.

"Do you think he'll still have that awful chimera?" She gasped as the three of them practically ran down the steps to the front entrance hall, where Ron was standing, looking disgusted.

"Oh, yeah. Unless it's escaped or eaten Fang."

"Fang? Who's Fang?' Ginny started laughing then, and the other two had to stop as she bent over, holding her stomach.

"Sorry. Sorry." she gasped, trying to catch her breath between her outbursts of laughter.

"What's so funny?" Ron had come up to meet them.

"It's Pia. She just asked who Fang was?"

"Yeah? Why is that funny?"

"Oh, Ron." Ginny stood up, recovering from her near hysteria. "Haven't you figured it out?"

"Obviously not. Come on, you can explain why that practically sent you into spasms of amusement as we walk." Ron shot his sister a disgusted look and started back down the steps.

"Think about it. Hagrid has all these horrible creatures all the time. And what does he name them? There was Fluffy . . . and Norbert . . . and now Shimmy."

"Yeah. So?"

"Then he has this boarhound that wouldn't hurt a fly. The worst thing he would do to you is drool you to death. . . ."

"Oh, I get where you're going!"

"And he names him Fang!" All three of them finished together and Cassie laughed with them.

"It just struck me as so funny all of a sudden, I don't know why." Ginny tried hard to compose herself as they crossed the lawn, her snickers coming further and further apart as they walked.

They approached the small cluster of black-robed students who were standing near the paddock, looking at the still menacing chimera. It was not tied down anymore and was pacing back and forth in the paddock, growling at the students. Harry said, "Let's go up closer to the fence."

"Are you mental, Harry?" Ron asked. "I want to stay back here where I'm at least relatively safe. If that thing escapes, it'll eat the kids standing nearest the fence first." Cassie blanched. Was it really possible that it would eat students?

"Oh, come on. You've faced Death Eaters. You can face Shimmy."

"Well, truthfully, mate, I think I'd rather face Death Eaters. At least they don't have sharp teeth!" But all four of them stepped up to the fence, trying to support Hagrid. Cassie watched the chimera pace back and forth. It was certainly ugly and it still didn't look like a baby. She would hate to see it when it was fully grown. It was already the size of a small pony.

The other students in the class were obviously not as forgiving of Hagrid's eccentricities as the Gryffindors were. Cassie heard them muttering about the large man as they stood and waited for him to emerge from his cabin. "I sent an owl to my mum about this on Monday. I haven't heard back but I assume she's going to write the Headmaster to get me out of this class." Cassie glanced behind her to see if she knew who was talking. It was one of the Hufflepuff students who had gotten caught by Filch on Monday.

"If you hate it so much, why are you taking it? He's always been like this."

"Have to. I want to get N.E.W.T. certification in Magical Creatures, but honestly, I'm not learning anything. He's hopeless as a teacher. He's either got horrible creatures or stupid ones. Remember the skrewts?"

"Yeah. How could I forget? You'd have thought they were cuddly teddy bears, the way he fretted over them. I think it's because of the Giant blood. He's half giant, remember?."

"I know. Too bad the human side of him doesn't have a chance against it. His brains are questionable, too." Cassie glared at the two of them, but didn't say anything. Harry had also turned to glare at them.

"Don't talk badly about Hagrid."

"Oh, stuff it, Potter. We all know you like him. Typical of you. You're always hanging out with undesirables." Harry's eyes flared, and Cassie decided that she was really glad she was not an enemy of Harry's.

"Do you care to elaborate on that, Dagger?" Harry pulled his wand out and Cassie swallowed. The other boy, who she suddenly recognized as the Quidditch team Keeper, pulled his out, too.

"I think your girlfriend is evidence enough . . ." Cassie gasped. Ginny was talking to Ron and hadn't heard what was said. Harry's knuckles whitened on his wand.

"Take that back, now!" His voice was low, controlled, but menacing and Cassie thought that it was no wonder Death Eaters were scared of him. He practically radiated power, no matter what he said.

"I won't. It's the truth." Harry raised his wand as did the other student but Hagrid stepped in between them.

"What's goin' on, Harry? What're ya fightin' about?"

"Nothing important, Hagrid." The big man looked between the two students, confused, but apparently unsure how to get them to admit the problem.

"Well, then, put your wands away. We've got a lot to do today. Don't want'ya wastin' time."

Harry tucked his wand away as did the other student, who Cassie thought looked secretly relieved although he kept up the brave front. They all turned back to Hagrid, who had climbed into the paddock and was trying to catch the chimera so that he could show them his front paws, apparently unique in the animal kingdom. Cassie just smiled faintly to herself. It may be hard here, but at least it was never boring.