Anything that's not blatant is
a riddle
Please read and review if you can!
Author's penname: Elixa Amethyst
Voices of the Past Part II
Written March 2002 onwards, pre Order of the Phoenix.
All characters and things you recognise, are © JKRowling, no infringement
intended.
All references to
"mediwizard" mean healer.
Read Part I at ?storyid1672635
---------------
Chapter Eighteen
Christmas Cheer
The long winter nights quickly slipped into the
Christmas holidays and with them came the lonely feeling I was still getting
used to. Several mornings I had woken up to hear someone had been walking round
in the night by my fellow seventh year female Slytherins. The thought worried me
slightly. It worried me more that I had woken at least twice to find myself
partly or fully dressed. I spoke to Kerry about it, just to see if she'd
noticed whom it was walking around. She listened carefully to me, but something
in me told me that she wasn't going to be trustworthy. What harm could it do
that I was a sleepwalker? I hadn't been caught, so I mustn't have left the
common room. Or had I?
It was at breakfast that Dumbledore addressed the school, and Filch was present
in the great hall.
"This is just to remind you that after curfew, no-one should be out of their dormitories and certainly not out of their house. Mr Filch has been aware that a student, or should it be students, have been up and roaming the corridors in the middle of the night. Whoever it is, please desist, or we will be forced to track you down and enforce a detention. I don't want to have to do that, be we will if you don't stop now." Kerry looked slightly towards me across the table. I looked from Dumbledore to my hands that were knotted together, replicating the tight knot in my stomach. It felt like he was talking to me personally.
Kerry disappeared mid evening and left me talking to Draco and Susan. She went to see Severus, proving my feelings were right about her not being entirely trustworthy on this occasion. Susan was elated about passing an exam in transfiguration, and was describing how pleased Professor McGonagall was. I watched her happy face, wondering how I could have thought she was sinister from going to Albania.
The voice behind the door was distinctly Severus, and Kerry took a deep breath before opening the door to his dungeon office. He was seated at his desk, marking scrolls. He looked up to see Kerry and looked slightly surprised.
"Miss Alanis, shut the door. What are you here for?" Kerry shut the door.
"It's about Elixa." Severus fell silent and regarded Kerry with his black eyes. There was some concern in them. He held a hand out to the chair opposite his desk and the student sat down.
"She's sleepwalking again Professor."
"How do you know this?"
"She told me Sir. She wasn't sure if she was until Dumbledore spoke this morning. I've not caught her at it, but she thinks she is." Severus put his quill down and folded his arms. There seemed to be more to this sleepwalking than was originally thought.
Oddly enough, even thought I didn't know that Kerry had gone to see Severus until much later, the signs that I had sleepwalked stopped. It was as if my body realised I was being watched and took the hint about the warning Dumbledore had given. I turned my mind back to the decision I had to make about Christmas… what to get Severus. I knew he wasn't at all the Christmas sort of person, but it seemed unfair to leave him out because he didn't really enter into the spirit. Some people just didn't enjoy Christmas and in the back of my mind I knew this Christmas wasn't going to be the best I'd seen. It would be my first without my parents. It took a long time to think about, but when I thought of it, I made sure that I sent in my order to Flourish and Blotts in time. I was in luck, they had the book in stock and sent it almost immediately. I was budgeting carefully; I had to live off the money my parents had left me, and the money that the house had sold for. It needed to cover my training to be a mediwizard and I would most probably need to get a job when I left to supplement it.
Christmas day was white. Kerry shook me awake with a red face. I noticed she was wearing outdoor clothes.
"Come on! We need you to come and help!"
"What?" I groaned, rubbing my eyes. Kerry explained briefly and I reluctantly got up and dressed. It was six in the morning, and the sun hadn't woken yet. We came up from the dungeons into the bitter cold of the courtyard. What seemed like most of the Slytherins were there, bewitching the snow and forming snowballs with it. They were putting them into bags.
"We're going to ambush the Gryffindors, someone's found out the password. The wimp Neville gave it to them!" Kerry said a grin on her face.
"We're going to get in huge amounts of trouble!" I lowered my voice to reply.
"Oh come on, live a little, as if you're going to get into trouble." I suddenly had a bright idea.
"I've just had one of the best ideas in
a long time." I said, a very sly grin across my face. It didn't take me
long to set up my cauldron in the end of the dormitory. I managed to push the
small window at the top of the wall open to let any fumes out. It took me next
to no time to produce some temporary invisibility potion. It would only last for
a maximum of fifteen minutes, and I'd been sure to check that.
The prank was planned absolutely accurately. The Gryffindors were just in their
common room ready to go to breakfast when the Slytherins (now invisible from the
potion) opened the common room portal and opened fire. There was an almighty
roar from the Gryffindors who couldn't see their attackers, just the fact
there were snowballs pelting them from all directions. The Slytherins managed to
get out just in time and we all ran down the nearest secret passageway, the
faint figures just starting to reappear by the time we got half way down. By the
time we reached any more public place you could see us all. We walked into the
great hall as if nothing had happened and were met with Professor Snape, arms
folded and looking rather amused.
"Good snowball fight?" He asked. We thought we'd been rumbled. Snape
just nodded and sat down at the staff table. A couple of audible sighs of relief
were made and we sat down.
"I don't believe it, how did he know?" I asked Draco.
"He doesn't, he saw the rest of the
Slytherins in the courtyard having a snowball fight. We made sure that happened.
Unless any of us were spotted, he doesn't know anything. Good idea that
potion. Merry Christmas." I gave a slight smile.
"Merry Christmas Draco."
