Chapter 11:
Michelle would have sworn she'd been through every book in the restricted section. It was almost time for holiday break. Her dream hadn't changed; it was as if it were stuck on repeat. She and Trelawny had been meeting before dinner almost every night. The meetings seemed redundant to Michelle. She felt like she was no closer to finding the answers than she had been at the start of term.
Everyone else was looking forward to the upcoming Christmas party. Michelle just wanted to get through her exams. Once the students had gone home for break, she would be virtually alone at the school. Maybe, with no distractions, she would be able to really concentrate and make some progress.
Her Advanced Wand Use test was first for the day. Michelle was afraid she'd tear up the room if she wasn't paying attention. She was strong enough to not really use her wand. Luckily, she was able to stay in control and she, and her classmates, came out of the test unscathed. The rest of the day moved forward without incident. She went to take her last test of the term. Michelle and the rest of her class waited outside of Snape's room. Apparently, the 6th years will still taking their test. Michelle spent the next few minutes reviewing her notes. The door opened and students began exiting the room talking excitedly. Michelle looked up and saw Malfoy and his goons come into the hall. Malfoy looked like he was ready to kill anyone who got in his way. Neville came out shortly afterward and Michelle called out to him.
"Neville! What's going on? Why does Malfoy looked so pissed off?" she asked as he came over to her.
Neville tried to hide a smile. "He just got caught trying to cheat. Somehow, he found out what potion we were going to be tested on...he brought it in with him."
"How did he do that? I thought the room was bewitched to detect that sort of thing."
"It only detects the exact potion. Malfoy had half the ingredients in one bottle and the other half in another bottle. Since it wasn't complete, the bewitching spell didn't work."
"I hate to say it, but that's pretty clever of him."
"Not clever enough though. Hermione could hear Crabbe making noise behind her and when she looked at their table, she saw Malfoy sneaking the bottles out of his robes."
"What did Snape do?"
"He checked out Malfoy's supplies and found the bottles. Malfoy had to do a completely different potion. Snape also took 100 points from Slytherian, which I don't think he was very pleased about..."
"Ouch, that had to hurt." Michelle watched as Hermione left the classroom with Harry and Ron close by. "Malfoy's not going to forget this anytime soon."
Michelle sat on her bed reading. She had slipped out of the Great Hall while everyone else was finishing eating. Hearing students returning to the common room, Michelle wasn't surprised when the door opened and two of her roommates came inside.
"Hi Michelle." Daphne smiled as she went to pull a coat out of her wardrobe.
"Hey..." Michelle sat down her book and stretched her legs out over her covers.
"How long have you been up here? I didn't see you leave the table." The other girl, Elizabeth, was also grabbing her coat.
"An hour I guess."
Daphne zipped her jacket and pulled on her mittens. "Some of us are going outside to have fun in the snow before it gets too dark. Do you want to come along?"
Elizabeth came over to stand by the edge of Michelle's bed. "It's going to be great. We can gang up on the boys!"
"I still have to get back at Seamus for last year..." Daphne sat down on Michelle's bed.
"He fancies you, you know." Elizabeth said.
"Does not!" Daphne sounded shocked, but her cheeks had gone pink. "Besides, he's a sixth year."
"I don't think he cares about the age difference."
"Speaking of 6th years, " Daphne looked to Michelle to change the subject, "Harry will probably be down there."
Michelle shot Daphne a look. "Why would I care if he were going or not?"
Elizabeth rolled her eyes, "C'mon, everyone has noticed the way he looks at you..."
Daphne interrupted, "Plus, we heard about what happened between you, Harry, and Draco."
Michelle felt her face starting to burn. "Nothing happened." She didn't sound very convincing to the girls or to herself.
"Just come with us." Daphne stood and began tugging on Michelle's arm.
Elizabeth grabbed the other wrist. "Yeah, or we'll send Harry up here..."
"We'll tell him you sent us looking for him..."
"And, you want to see him alone!!!" Elizabeth giggled as she saw fear creep into Michelle's expression. "He'd be very pleased."
"I bet his glasses would fog up!"
"Enough, enough!!" Michelle stood up on the bed and hopped to the floor, almost pulling the girls over as she did. "Just give me a second." She sounded annoyed, but Daphne noticed her smiling as she threw on her shoes, coat and gloves.
Once she was dressed, they all went outside together. Michelle saw all kinds of kids horsing around. There were several snowball fights going on at once. It didn't take long till Michelle spotted Harry and his friends. Ron's red hair stood out in the white snow. Someone had nailed him with a snowball and his hat had been knocked off. Harry and Hermione were on either side of him sending their snowballs flying, as was Ginny. Seamus, Dean, and Neville were ducking from the assault coming their way.
Daphne called out, "Oy! Alright if we join in?"
Seamus smiled, "Sure!" Just then, one of the balls hit him in the shoulder. "Hurry up!"
The girls ran over. Scooping up snow, they each let a ball fly. Michelle hadn't done it exactly on purpose, but her snowball skimmed the top of Harry's head. He scanned the group to see who tossed it. After a look of surprise covered his face, he smiled and quickly sent a snowball in Michelle's direction. She ducked and it hit Dean, who had come over to talk to Elizabeth.
Ginny yelled, "Hey that's not fair! You've got one more older kid than we have!" She ducked quickly to avoid being hit.
Daphne looked at Elizabeth, who had a wicked expression on her face.
"Okay. We'll send Michelle over!!" She yelled out as she and Elizabeth pushed Michelle out into the fray. She turned to glare at them, but had to run quickly to the other side as her former teammates began pelting her. She jumped the small snow barrier that had been made and slipped. Michelle landed hard on her butt.
"Owww..." She moved to a crouching position and brushed the snow off of her. Peering over the barrier, she timed her throw and got Daphne on the arm. "Ha! Payback's a..."
Harry interrupted her, "You okay? Looks like you fell hard." He'd come over to her.
"I'm okay. My butt is going to be frozen. Price you pay for fun I guess." Suddenly, she reached up and pulled on the front of his coat, dragging him down till he was just inches from her. Several snow balls went zooming past where Harry's face had just been.
"Whoa, how did you know..."
Michelle's eyes did a nervous dance as she tried to come up with an answer. "Lucky guess?"
"Thanks." He smiled nervously, noticing how close she was to him. His gaze moved to her hand, which was still holding onto the front of his coat. "You could probably let go now."
"Oh!" Michelle pulled away like she'd touched something hot. "Sorry...sorry..." she began to move away, her eyes turning downward to avoid Harry's. Before she knew what was happening, something cold and hard hit her in the face. Momentarily stunned, she picked up the snowball that had struck her. It was practically a chunk of solid ice. Looking up, she saw Malfoy peering from behind a tree. He and a couple of other Slytherians were behind them, arms raised to assault them with snowballs.
Harry had turned when the snowball went flying by his face. He too saw Malfoy and had just started to warn Hermione and Ron when the snowballs came their way. Everyone ducked. Harry threw a protective arm over Michelle. Ron tried to shelter both Hermione and Ginny. Before they could react, their Gryffindor classmates were sending an attack over their heads towards Malfoy. As the Slytherians ducked for cover, Ron, Harry and the rest quickly made snowballs for a second assault. Malfoy and his group came rushing from the trees, tossing snowballs as they ran. Hermione got hit in the arm, causing her to yelp a little in pain. Ron went straight for Malfoy and they fell to the snow. Harry and the others ran to help. They had just reached the melee when Dean yelled at them.
"Filch is coming! Looks like he's rounding us up to go back inside."
Everyone began to seperate. Michelle realized she had lost a glove in the action. Spotting it near the snow barricade they'd hidden behind, she went to retrieve it. Bending down, she saw something red dotting the snow. It was then she noticed the taste of blood in her mouth. Reaching up, she felt her lip had been cut open by the snowball that had hit her. She cursed to herself. This was the second time Malfoy had caused her to bleed from the lips. Making sure no one was watching, she spit out the blood that had gathered in her mouth. Michelle was about to walk away, but she looked at the fresh blood in the snow. It seemed to have come out in a pattern. She knelt back down, staring at it closely. It sort of looked like a person crouched in an uncomfortable position. In front of the person, three lines pointed at the figure. There also appeared to be a shape resembling a half moon. Hearing footsteps behind her, she stood and rubbed out the blood pattern.
"We're going back inside...bloody hell!!" Harry noticed Michelle's lip as she turned to face him.
"Crazy what a flying chunk of ice will do to a person's face isn't it."
"Does it hurt?" He winced as he got closer.
"My face is frozen, so, no, not really." She pulled her glove on to give her something to do other than stare at Harry.
"Better get you inside then."
"Sitting by the fire would be nice about now." Michelle knew she should move, but she couldn't seem to get her feet to go anywhere. They stood looking at each other for several moments till Harry felt a snowball hit his shoulder. He turned quickly and saw Ron motioning to them. They jogged over to where everyone else had gathered.
"Daphne, I think this is yours." Dean handed her a mitten.
"Ron, here's your hat." Neville passed it to him.
"Hermione, I think you dropped this..." Ginny gave her a folded piece of paper. Hermione took it, but seemed to not know what it was.
Once they had made their way back to the castle, Harry paused to wipe his glasses.
Daphne smiled as she passed him and turned to call back to Michelle. "Told you his glasses would fog up."
Harry was confused, he looked back at Michelle, who was shooting Daphne an odd look. "What is she talking about?"
"Nothing..." Michelle smiled weakly as she passed him. As they made their way back to the common room, Michelle moved to the back of the group. She noticed Hermione opening the note and reading it as they climbed the stairs. A strange look of surprise came over Hermione's face. She even stumbled as they stepped through the portrait opening. Michelle continued to watch her. Hermione gave Ron an odd look as the boys went into their room.
Michelle passed her and the stairs and couldn't help saying something. "Hermione, everything all right?"
Hermione quickly pocketed the note, "Yeah, fine." She went into her room distracted.
Michelle would have sworn she'd been through every book in the restricted section. It was almost time for holiday break. Her dream hadn't changed; it was as if it were stuck on repeat. She and Trelawny had been meeting before dinner almost every night. The meetings seemed redundant to Michelle. She felt like she was no closer to finding the answers than she had been at the start of term.
Everyone else was looking forward to the upcoming Christmas party. Michelle just wanted to get through her exams. Once the students had gone home for break, she would be virtually alone at the school. Maybe, with no distractions, she would be able to really concentrate and make some progress.
Her Advanced Wand Use test was first for the day. Michelle was afraid she'd tear up the room if she wasn't paying attention. She was strong enough to not really use her wand. Luckily, she was able to stay in control and she, and her classmates, came out of the test unscathed. The rest of the day moved forward without incident. She went to take her last test of the term. Michelle and the rest of her class waited outside of Snape's room. Apparently, the 6th years will still taking their test. Michelle spent the next few minutes reviewing her notes. The door opened and students began exiting the room talking excitedly. Michelle looked up and saw Malfoy and his goons come into the hall. Malfoy looked like he was ready to kill anyone who got in his way. Neville came out shortly afterward and Michelle called out to him.
"Neville! What's going on? Why does Malfoy looked so pissed off?" she asked as he came over to her.
Neville tried to hide a smile. "He just got caught trying to cheat. Somehow, he found out what potion we were going to be tested on...he brought it in with him."
"How did he do that? I thought the room was bewitched to detect that sort of thing."
"It only detects the exact potion. Malfoy had half the ingredients in one bottle and the other half in another bottle. Since it wasn't complete, the bewitching spell didn't work."
"I hate to say it, but that's pretty clever of him."
"Not clever enough though. Hermione could hear Crabbe making noise behind her and when she looked at their table, she saw Malfoy sneaking the bottles out of his robes."
"What did Snape do?"
"He checked out Malfoy's supplies and found the bottles. Malfoy had to do a completely different potion. Snape also took 100 points from Slytherian, which I don't think he was very pleased about..."
"Ouch, that had to hurt." Michelle watched as Hermione left the classroom with Harry and Ron close by. "Malfoy's not going to forget this anytime soon."
Michelle sat on her bed reading. She had slipped out of the Great Hall while everyone else was finishing eating. Hearing students returning to the common room, Michelle wasn't surprised when the door opened and two of her roommates came inside.
"Hi Michelle." Daphne smiled as she went to pull a coat out of her wardrobe.
"Hey..." Michelle sat down her book and stretched her legs out over her covers.
"How long have you been up here? I didn't see you leave the table." The other girl, Elizabeth, was also grabbing her coat.
"An hour I guess."
Daphne zipped her jacket and pulled on her mittens. "Some of us are going outside to have fun in the snow before it gets too dark. Do you want to come along?"
Elizabeth came over to stand by the edge of Michelle's bed. "It's going to be great. We can gang up on the boys!"
"I still have to get back at Seamus for last year..." Daphne sat down on Michelle's bed.
"He fancies you, you know." Elizabeth said.
"Does not!" Daphne sounded shocked, but her cheeks had gone pink. "Besides, he's a sixth year."
"I don't think he cares about the age difference."
"Speaking of 6th years, " Daphne looked to Michelle to change the subject, "Harry will probably be down there."
Michelle shot Daphne a look. "Why would I care if he were going or not?"
Elizabeth rolled her eyes, "C'mon, everyone has noticed the way he looks at you..."
Daphne interrupted, "Plus, we heard about what happened between you, Harry, and Draco."
Michelle felt her face starting to burn. "Nothing happened." She didn't sound very convincing to the girls or to herself.
"Just come with us." Daphne stood and began tugging on Michelle's arm.
Elizabeth grabbed the other wrist. "Yeah, or we'll send Harry up here..."
"We'll tell him you sent us looking for him..."
"And, you want to see him alone!!!" Elizabeth giggled as she saw fear creep into Michelle's expression. "He'd be very pleased."
"I bet his glasses would fog up!"
"Enough, enough!!" Michelle stood up on the bed and hopped to the floor, almost pulling the girls over as she did. "Just give me a second." She sounded annoyed, but Daphne noticed her smiling as she threw on her shoes, coat and gloves.
Once she was dressed, they all went outside together. Michelle saw all kinds of kids horsing around. There were several snowball fights going on at once. It didn't take long till Michelle spotted Harry and his friends. Ron's red hair stood out in the white snow. Someone had nailed him with a snowball and his hat had been knocked off. Harry and Hermione were on either side of him sending their snowballs flying, as was Ginny. Seamus, Dean, and Neville were ducking from the assault coming their way.
Daphne called out, "Oy! Alright if we join in?"
Seamus smiled, "Sure!" Just then, one of the balls hit him in the shoulder. "Hurry up!"
The girls ran over. Scooping up snow, they each let a ball fly. Michelle hadn't done it exactly on purpose, but her snowball skimmed the top of Harry's head. He scanned the group to see who tossed it. After a look of surprise covered his face, he smiled and quickly sent a snowball in Michelle's direction. She ducked and it hit Dean, who had come over to talk to Elizabeth.
Ginny yelled, "Hey that's not fair! You've got one more older kid than we have!" She ducked quickly to avoid being hit.
Daphne looked at Elizabeth, who had a wicked expression on her face.
"Okay. We'll send Michelle over!!" She yelled out as she and Elizabeth pushed Michelle out into the fray. She turned to glare at them, but had to run quickly to the other side as her former teammates began pelting her. She jumped the small snow barrier that had been made and slipped. Michelle landed hard on her butt.
"Owww..." She moved to a crouching position and brushed the snow off of her. Peering over the barrier, she timed her throw and got Daphne on the arm. "Ha! Payback's a..."
Harry interrupted her, "You okay? Looks like you fell hard." He'd come over to her.
"I'm okay. My butt is going to be frozen. Price you pay for fun I guess." Suddenly, she reached up and pulled on the front of his coat, dragging him down till he was just inches from her. Several snow balls went zooming past where Harry's face had just been.
"Whoa, how did you know..."
Michelle's eyes did a nervous dance as she tried to come up with an answer. "Lucky guess?"
"Thanks." He smiled nervously, noticing how close she was to him. His gaze moved to her hand, which was still holding onto the front of his coat. "You could probably let go now."
"Oh!" Michelle pulled away like she'd touched something hot. "Sorry...sorry..." she began to move away, her eyes turning downward to avoid Harry's. Before she knew what was happening, something cold and hard hit her in the face. Momentarily stunned, she picked up the snowball that had struck her. It was practically a chunk of solid ice. Looking up, she saw Malfoy peering from behind a tree. He and a couple of other Slytherians were behind them, arms raised to assault them with snowballs.
Harry had turned when the snowball went flying by his face. He too saw Malfoy and had just started to warn Hermione and Ron when the snowballs came their way. Everyone ducked. Harry threw a protective arm over Michelle. Ron tried to shelter both Hermione and Ginny. Before they could react, their Gryffindor classmates were sending an attack over their heads towards Malfoy. As the Slytherians ducked for cover, Ron, Harry and the rest quickly made snowballs for a second assault. Malfoy and his group came rushing from the trees, tossing snowballs as they ran. Hermione got hit in the arm, causing her to yelp a little in pain. Ron went straight for Malfoy and they fell to the snow. Harry and the others ran to help. They had just reached the melee when Dean yelled at them.
"Filch is coming! Looks like he's rounding us up to go back inside."
Everyone began to seperate. Michelle realized she had lost a glove in the action. Spotting it near the snow barricade they'd hidden behind, she went to retrieve it. Bending down, she saw something red dotting the snow. It was then she noticed the taste of blood in her mouth. Reaching up, she felt her lip had been cut open by the snowball that had hit her. She cursed to herself. This was the second time Malfoy had caused her to bleed from the lips. Making sure no one was watching, she spit out the blood that had gathered in her mouth. Michelle was about to walk away, but she looked at the fresh blood in the snow. It seemed to have come out in a pattern. She knelt back down, staring at it closely. It sort of looked like a person crouched in an uncomfortable position. In front of the person, three lines pointed at the figure. There also appeared to be a shape resembling a half moon. Hearing footsteps behind her, she stood and rubbed out the blood pattern.
"We're going back inside...bloody hell!!" Harry noticed Michelle's lip as she turned to face him.
"Crazy what a flying chunk of ice will do to a person's face isn't it."
"Does it hurt?" He winced as he got closer.
"My face is frozen, so, no, not really." She pulled her glove on to give her something to do other than stare at Harry.
"Better get you inside then."
"Sitting by the fire would be nice about now." Michelle knew she should move, but she couldn't seem to get her feet to go anywhere. They stood looking at each other for several moments till Harry felt a snowball hit his shoulder. He turned quickly and saw Ron motioning to them. They jogged over to where everyone else had gathered.
"Daphne, I think this is yours." Dean handed her a mitten.
"Ron, here's your hat." Neville passed it to him.
"Hermione, I think you dropped this..." Ginny gave her a folded piece of paper. Hermione took it, but seemed to not know what it was.
Once they had made their way back to the castle, Harry paused to wipe his glasses.
Daphne smiled as she passed him and turned to call back to Michelle. "Told you his glasses would fog up."
Harry was confused, he looked back at Michelle, who was shooting Daphne an odd look. "What is she talking about?"
"Nothing..." Michelle smiled weakly as she passed him. As they made their way back to the common room, Michelle moved to the back of the group. She noticed Hermione opening the note and reading it as they climbed the stairs. A strange look of surprise came over Hermione's face. She even stumbled as they stepped through the portrait opening. Michelle continued to watch her. Hermione gave Ron an odd look as the boys went into their room.
Michelle passed her and the stairs and couldn't help saying something. "Hermione, everything all right?"
Hermione quickly pocketed the note, "Yeah, fine." She went into her room distracted.
