Chapter Six: Christmas
Draco Malfoy awoke in the infirmary, much to his own surprise. Even more surprising was the presence of a strange doctor.
"What happened to me?"
Xavier Pantely was not in a kind mood. "To be blunt, you attacked a fellow student who countered your curse with a shielding spell."
"I never attacked anyone."
Dr. Pantely laughed at the boy. "I examined your wand. I know the last spell you cast. And I know your last statement was a brazen lie."
"He provoked me," Draco said defensively.
"Possibly." Dr. Pantely made it obvious he did not believe Draco. "Your friends also said the same thing after being caught in a similar lie, while the boy you attacked is remaining closemouthed about what he did. As things stand, the matter will end here as long as there is no repetition. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Sir," Malfoy said with oily ease. "In the future I will ignore Potter's taunts." He paused. "May I ask who you are? And what happened to Madam Pomfrey?"
"I am Doctor Pantely. I am an old friend of your headmaster. He informed me of your case since I was in the area and I came immediately to observe your condition. Curing Curses is a specialty of mine."
Draco frowned. "I've heard of you. You work with werewolves. What happened to me that was so interesting?"
"You honor me with your knowledge." Pantely said. "And you were not as interesting as you sounded. The result from the backlash of your spell put you in a time loop. You kept repeating the last second before you were struck. All I had to do was cancel the spell."
"I was in a time loop?" Draco was already thinking of how he could make this sound impressive on his own behalf.
"You might be curious to know that, as a result, you will probably live four hours longer than you would have otherwise."
Amused at the thought, Draco thanked the doctor with minimal politeness and left the infirmary. He would have to eat a late dinner but other than that he foresaw no problems with his reputation.
Dr. Pantely watched him leave, then went to the headmaster's office where three people were waiting for him.
"Xavier?" Dumbledore asked as he entered.
"The boy is fine, but I did have a chance to examine the spell before I cancelled it." Pantely eyed Charles Potter as he said this. "The spell appeared to be weak, but well crafted. I would be curious to know how it was cast, as you did not use your wand."
"I do not know, Sir," Charles said nervously. "I explained to Professor Dumbledore that I remembered moving my fingers in some kind of pattern but I know I did not say anything."
Dumbledore nodded his head. "It appears to have been a reflex action on the part of Mister Potter. He has always been honest with me in the past and I see no reason to doubt him now."
"Another puzzle," Pantely said with annoyance. "Please, Charles, remember your past soon. I have too many questions to ask you."
"Another puzzle, Sir?" Charles asked.
Madam Pomfrey noted the hesitant looks in the eyes of both men, and frowned. "Albus, He should remember his past soon enough. It might help if we explained a few things to him."
Albus smiled as though relieved. "Thank you, Poppy. That is an excellent idea. Charles, you may consider this as an early Christmas present, or a bad joke. It seems that your doctor has observed another spell similar to the one that you unwittingly cast earlier today."
Charles stared as he understood what that other spell might be. He looked at Dr. Pantely, who explained the situation.
"It seems, Charles, that your memory loss is the result of a curse placed on you by someone. It repressed your memory. It is a very complex spell but it is also very weak. And it is finally falling apart. You could recover your memories as early as this week. At worst, within the month."
"That is good news," Charles admitted.
"Perhaps," Madam Pomfrey said. "There is another problem, Charles. You did suffer a severe shock at the time of your initial memory loss. Your mind may not want to remember what happened. Once we know the curse is completely gone, I want you to talk to either myself or Professor Sprout as soon as you begin to remember anything, however odd or normal it may seem. I've learned that talking is the best way to recover. If you describe your memories, they will come easier. Even the bad memories."
"You've frightened him, Poppy," Pantely said as he noticed Charles' face.
"I'm only being practical," Pomfrey replied. "Memory recovery can be a frightening experience, even if you know what is happening. Memories do not return all at once, except in rare cases."
Albus smiled at Charles. "It is always wise to err on the side of caution, especially when one of our students is involved. Charles, you may go now and please be careful around Draco Malfoy. I do not expect a repeat of today's incident but if it does happen again I will hold both of you responsible."
"Yes, Sir. I understand. And thank you for being honest with me."
"Please note, Charles, that I have not always been honest with you. I did not tell you about the curse. But I have always had your best interests at heart. Are you prepared for Christmas?"
"I still need to wrap my presents, Sir. I will find out the day after tomorrow how well I chose my gifts."
"I am sure you have done fine."
After Charles left, the three adults looked at each other. Dr. Pantely spoke first. "The spell the boy cast was not even as powerful as the curse that was cast on him but it had an interesting feature. It used none of the boy's magic. It gained its strength from the other boy's spell. That is how he managed to create a time loop."
Albus was startled. "Xavier, did you say that the protective spell used the magic from the spell that it deflected? I was not aware such a thing was possible."
"To my knowledge it isn't. Reflecting a spell back on its castor is common enough, but I have never before come across such a case where the spell was altered before it was cast back. Before today I would have said such a thing was impossible. Now I will say that no one knows how to cast such a spell."
Albus rubbed his forehead. "Then we will have to wait, and hope for the best."
Hermione rose early, before the sun was up. She dressed quickly and went to the common room where Harry and Ron were already waiting. She would have been surprised by this on any other day but it was Christmas. The bags were already packed with the presents and they were off. If their plan worked, they would have been waking Charles within the hour and celebrating Christmas in his common room.
"I wish they would have let Charlie stay in Gryffindor," Ron said. "It would have made everything easier."
"I asked," Harry said, "but there's only one other person in Hufflepuff. It wouldn't be right to leave her there alone."
"They could put all of us together in one house," Hermione noted. "Would either of you mind sharing a room with Malfoy?"
"You made your point," Harry admitted. "Do you know where we are?"
"We're almost there," Hermione said, and pointed at the painting of a snow-covered field. She unfolded a piece of parchment and said, "Mandragora."
All three jumped in surprise when the wall caved in. From their own experience they expected the picture to move. Laughing to themselves, they quietly slipped into the Hufflepuff common room.
"This is nice," Ron said appreciatively. "Harry, this almost feels like home."
"You're right, Ron. At least it feels like your home."
"Could you be quiet?" Hermione said. "Charlie might be able to hear us."
"He's in the chapel, dears," Professor Sprout said suddenly from behind them. "You have plenty of time to get ready." She laughed. "You should see your faces. All three of you must have jumped five feet into the air."
"We didn't expect you," Hermione said, stating the obvious.
"I would blame Cedric Diggory for that. When he asked me if you could come over, I told him specifically to have you talk to me if there were any problems since I would be staying over for the holidays."
Ron and Hermione busied themselves with placing all the gifts under the tree. Ron noticed there were already some gifts for Charlie there, as well as for the three of them and a girl named Rachel Cauldwell.
"I suppose she's the other one who stayed."
"Now I know whose name to put on the gift."
Ron looked surprised. "You bought a gift for a complete stranger?"
"I didn't want to be rude. After all, this is her house, not ours."
Ron looked chastised at the remark, and picked up one of the gifts he had sat down. He turned the tag around and wrote Rachel's name. As he put it back in the pile, he saw Hermione watching him. "It's only Chocolate Frogs."
"I know she'll love them." The way Hermione said that made Ron feel ten feet tall.
"Professor Sprout," Harry asked. "You said that Charlie went to the chapel?"
"Yes, with Rachel Cauldwell. She's a fourth year. Her mother came down with magic measles last week and Rachel had to stay at school. It was such a surprise, considering her mother's age. She'll be fine but she can't have any company while she's contagious."
"About the chapel?" Harry asked again.
"No, your brother hasn't remembered anything. And I told him he should have told you. After all, you are his brother. He shouldn't keep any secrets from you."
Harry nodded, fully aware of the secrets he was keeping from Charlie. Such as the potion brewing in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.
"I'm sure he had a good reason for not telling me, Professor."
"He told me you would want to come with him if you knew. He wanted to let you sleep late on sundays."
Harry gave Professor Sprout a confused look.
"Mr. Potter, sometimes you are completely hopeless," Professor Sprout said in a huff. "You do understand that there are several students at the school who are Catholic?"
"I never thought about it," Harry said sheepishly.
"Well, Rachel is one of them. Every Sunday, a priest from Beauxbatons visits the school to perform religious services." Sprout huffed again. "Why are you looking cross-eyed at me now?"
"You said the priest came from . . . where."
Sprout smiled in reassurance. "I'm the fool here, Harry. Not you. I've known things all my life. I assumed you did too. Beauxbatons is another school of magic, in France. Naturally, almost everyone at that school is Catholic."
"I should have realized," Harry said softly.
"Not to worry, dear, but let me finish explaining about Charlie. He isn't a Catholic, mind you, but he doesn't remember what religion he was raised in. He just feels comfortable going to the chapel." She laughed slightly. "He told me he feels strange sitting there, as though the priest is doing everything slightly wrong."
Harry nodded thoughtfully and thanked Professor Sprout. He had never had any kind of religious upbringing. The closest he ever came to religion was Uncle Vernon's occasional swears, and even those were rare. It felt strange to think of another difference between him and his brother. He turned around to start setting the presents under the tree, when he noticed the bags were all empty.
"Sorry, I shouldn't have talked so much."
Ron smirked. "You had perfect timing, Harry. Besides, we worked quietly so we could listen in on most of what you were talking about."
"Now all you have to do is wait," Professor Sprout said.
"Wait for what," Charlie asked as he and Rachel walked into the Hufflepuff common room. "Harry?"
"Merry Christmas, Charlie."
Professor Sprout chose this moment to leave discreetly. This was a time for the students.
"Harry, why are you here?"
"We decided to celebrate the holiday with you. We brought all the presents over here."
"Presents?"
Harry smiled, remembering his reaction from the previous Christmas.
"Presents," he said. "For all of us."
Rachel squeezed Charlie's arm. "I'll leave you to your fun."
"You can't do that," Hermione complained. "All of our presents are here. That includes you."
Rachel and Hermione were laughing out loud. Harry and Ron were wearing their new sweaters from Mrs. Weasley, both were maroon with an H and R respectively. Charlie was wearing a maroon tent with the letter C.
"What is this supposed to be?"
Ron stopped laughing long enough to explain. "That's probably the sweater for my brother Charlie in Romania. I guess Mum mixed up the packages, what with the two of you having the same name."
"I have lost my arms," Charlie said as he tried to pull up a bulky sleeve. He caught Harry's eye and both began to laugh anew.
"What is it now?" Ron asked.
"We were thinking about your brother," Harry laughed. "How he must look wearing his sweater."
"I wager his friends are also rolling on the floor," Charlie added.
In the corner where they were sitting, Rachel commented, "They really are twins. They even think alike."
Hermione agreed. "I'm glad Charlie's in Hufflepuff. If he was in Gryffindor, I'd go mad trying to deal with them and the Weasley twins."
Rachel paused. "Hermione, thank you for making me stay. This was what I needed."
"Chocolate Frogs?"
They started laughing again and the boys just stared at them.
"There's one more gift," Harry said, and ran to the back of the tree. He pulled out a long broom-shaped package and handed it to Charlie. "Remus Lupin helped me get it."
"What could it be?" Charlie asked facetiously. He opened the package and spotted the markings.
"It's only a Nimbus 2000," Harry said. "I can't have you flying a better broom than me. Especially when we play against each other."
"I wouldn't have flown it against you," Charlie said. "If you had given me a faster broom, I would have let Cedric use it against you." He paused. "You shouldn't have. There is no way I can repay you."
"You already have," Harry laughed. "I paid for it out of your half of our inheritance."
"He didn't pay for it at all," Ron said quickly. "Professor McGonagall gave it to him to give to you."
"She bought it for me?"
"All I know," Harry said, in a more serious tone, "is that I saw Remus Lupin give her this broom and then she waved me over. And I know Uncle Remus can't afford it."
Charlie accepted the broom happily. It was a rich gift but the best he could do would be to use it well.
Charlie walked into the infirmary to be stopped by Madame Pomfrey. "She doesn't want anyone to see her."
"I heard she was here but I was not told why. I came to find out how she is."
"She's going to be fine, but it will take time."
"Could I at least talk to her? You said she did not want anyone to SEE her."
Madame Pomfrey told him to wait, and walked to the partition that was set up. Charlie noted that it was the same partition he had slept behind. Madam Pomfrey came back and told him he could talk, but not for long.
Charlie walked over to the partition. "Hermione."
"I'm here," a sour voice said.
"I came to make sure you were not hurt badly. Harry said there was an accident."
"I'm not hurt at all. It was an accident with a potion I was experimenting with. I made a mistake."
"Oh." Charlie pondered the explanation. "Does that mean you are hiding out of embarrassment? I would hate to think that you looked hideous."
"I don't look hideous," Hermione complained.
"Oh?" Charlie thought it an odd complaint. He heard a strange noise, almost like a growl, then heard Hermione angrily tell him to take a look. Charlie hesitated until Hermione threatened to get out of bed to show him what happened. Gingerly, he looked around the partition and saw something unexpected. Hermione looked liked an oversized kitten forced into a human shape. She even had a tail which was poking out from under the blanket. He made a great effort and managed to keep a straight face.
"You were right, Hermione. This is much worse than being hideous. You are . . . cute."
Charlie hesitated when he heard another strange noise, a rumbling sound. Suddenly he realized that Hermione was laughing. He blushed for no reason and began to laugh as well.
Hermione looked at him with her yellow eyes. "I was ready to claw you the instant you said the wrong thing."
"I was tempted," Charlie admitted, "but now I am merely curious how this happened."
"You know about the Heir of Slytherin," she said. "We were trying to figure out if Malfoy was the Heir, or if he knew who it was."
"He is not, nor does he know," Charlie answered authoritatively.
"How did you know?"
"He told me. He finally cornered me when I was by myself, and tried to talk me into being his friend. He told me the thing he liked best was that I did not believe Harry was the heir. He also admitted that he did not know who the heir was. As it is, the conversation ended badly."
"You never said anything about that."
"You never mentioned the potion."
Hermione nodded her head and her tail swished slightly. "We didn't want you to worry."
Charlie smiled at the comment. "I did not want to frighten you by what I did."
Cat eyes locked themselves on Charlie. "What did you do?"
"I do not know, but Malfoy spent half the day in the infirmary as a result."
"Can you do it again?" Hermione made the laughing noise.
"Truthfully, I do not know. It was a reflex. Apparently I was taught some magic before I came here."
"Then you may know other spells! Charlie if you could remember them, you could be a royal pain to Malfoy, and we would all love you for it."
"If I could remember anything, we would not be having this conversation, regardless of how royal I was. I could turn out to be a vain young wizard and you would not even care to look at me when I walked down the hall."
Hermione smiled. "I would look at you anyway. A cat may look at a king."
"Excuse me?" Charlie asked.
"You were talking about how royal you were. I thought it would be funny to use that euphemism because I'm, well, you know."
"A cat? It is a curious phrase though. I doubt I have ever heard it before."
Hermione paused in thought. Charlie Potter always proved to be an enigma. That phrase, from her experience, was common to both muggles and wizards, yet he said he was not familiar with it. It turns out that he learned magic before he lost his memory, but he was always surprised at every new thing he saw at Hogwarts. She had plenty of time. She would puzzle it out.
For his part, Charlie determined to make it a point to ask Harry about cats and kings.
