Ch 13: - Mysteries

By the time it got too dark to fly safely, the team hadall tried out at least a couple of activities each and were walking back to the castle, in the midst of an energetic discussion of the comparative abilities of the Firebolt and the latest version of the Nimbus.

Harry was beginning to lose the thread of the argumentwhen his attention was caught by a tall figure leaving the main doors and walking quickly away round the other side of the school. He nudged Ron.

'Is that who I think it is?' he said, quietly.

'Trelawney?'.

'You think so too, hmm?'

'Yep. Ginny?' Ron pointed at the rapidly moving figure. 'Does that look like Trelawney to you?' .

'Yeah, what's she doing out here at this time of night?'

'It's not that late' muttered Colin.

Alison looked at the clock on the astronomy tower. 'It is for me, I'll be out of bounds in ten minutes!' She started to hurry. 'I'd better go on ahead. See you in the common room.'

'Hold on, I'm coming with you!' called Colin, rushing off after her.

The rest of them strolled into the entrance hall with the last few students who had been down to the lake.

'Ron?' asked Harry, 'could you take my brooms up to the common room, please?'

'Sure, Harry, where are you off to?'

'I'm just going to have quick look round the greenhouse area.'

'Could you take mine as well please Ron, I'm going with Harry. I've still got an hour.' stated Ginny, firmly.

Harry hesitated, then decided not to argue. He and Ginny stepped back out into the cool evening air of dusk.

'Thanks,' he said.'After you?'

'No, after you.'

Together,they walked quickly along the front of the castle and stopped at the corner. Harry sneaked a quick look round. That side of the castle was even darker, but nothing seemed to be moving. They slithered round the corner and eased along the wall for several feet, to stop themselves being silhouetted against the stronger light in front of the castle.

The outhouses and potting sheds around the greenhouses were dark, except for one or two flickering torches, though the greenhouses themselves glowed with an eerie blue-green light. Harry crept along the side of the castle until he reached a buttress, where he waited for Ginny to catch up.

They stood silently for several minutes, almost hidden by the buttress, whispering to each other occasionally.

'I'm getting cold, just standing here.' grumbled Ginny. She moved slightly, so their shoulders touched.

Harry manfully resisted a sudden desperate urge to hug her and moved away a bit.

'Me too, he murmured, 'you want to go back?'

He heard her sigh.

'No, lets give it a few more minutes.' she muttered in a resigned voice. 'Keep your eye on the way we came, I don't want someone sneaking up on us.'

Harry smiled to himself. That was typical Ginny; go along, then start to take charge. He looked back towards the front of the castle.

The light was now fading fast and couple of minutes later, Ginny patted Harry's arm and pointed towards the potting sheds.

A movement between the sheds. A crouched figure hurrying towards the castle.

'That's Filch!' hissed Ginny.

'Yeah! What's he up to?'

'Dunno, but he's heading back into the courtyard. Come on!'

Ginny sidled along the wall, keeping in the darkest areas, until she was one buttress away from the courtyard door. Harry crept along behind her, covering their retreat. The door was still open, faint light spilling through from the torches inside. Filch had already gone through and they expected it to close any second, but nothing happened. Together they reached the door and peered round.

The courtyard was empty.

'This is no good, Harry.' murmured Ginny. 'We've lost him – or her, - or it. Let's have a look at the potting sheds.'

'It's getting a bit dark. I reckon we ought to go inside now. We can look over the potting sheds tomorrow, in daylight.'

Ginny's eyes glittered in the torchlight. For a second or two, Harry was sure she was going to call him a wimp, but he was quite wrong.

'Right! There's something weird about this, I can feel it. Let's get out of here. Do we shut the door?'

Harry hesitated for a moment. 'Yeah, we close it. Anyone outside who has a right to be in the castle can go through the main doors and their alarms.They're always open and it's not far.

Together they closed the door and hurried off towards the centre of the castle. As they walked, Harry told Ginny about seeing someone like Trelawney at the end of the corridor on the Tuesday night. Ginny told Harry that Linney and McDonald had seen Trelawney acting suspiciously one afternoon.

'I'd better tell Moody, I reckon.'

Ginny smiled at him conspiratorially. 'Don't tell him we've been checking up on her though.'

Harry smiled back. 'You think I'm mad? He'd tear me to shreds.'

Finally they reached the entrance to Gryffindor tower.

'Passion Flower Hotel.' mumbled Harry.

The portrait swung open and they slipped back into the homely atmosphere of the common room.

Quite a few of the older students were still sitting around, reading and playing games. Ron and Hermione were by the fireplace with Quidditch magazine and text book respectively. Katie and Jack Sloper were discussing the practice and Seamus, Neville and Dean were playing cards.

Dean stood up and confronted them as they entered.

'Where've you been, Ginny?'he grumbled,giving Harry a suspicious glance. 'You said you'd be right back after practice.'

Ginny's smile slipped away. 'Sorry.' She glanced at Harry.

He looked at each of them. 'I'll – er – I need to talk to Hermione. Later, hmm?'

'Yeah. Later.' muttered Ginny, then she turned to Dean and smiled at him. 'So, were you waiting for me to make up a foursome then?' she said, as she led him back to the card table.

Harry wandered over to Ron and Hermione.

'Hi Harry.' she said brightly. 'Ron says the practice went well. What's this about Trelawney?'

Harry glance back across the room. Ginny had joined the card game and was laughing at one of Seamus's slightly off colour jokes.

'Only that we saw her heading for the greenhouses.'

'Did you and Ginny follow her?'

'Yeah. Didn't see her though. We saw Filch sneaking round the greenhouses a bit later, but he disappeared too.'

'Wasted effort then?'

'Worse than wasted. Dean just had a go at Ginny for not coming straight back here.'

'Dean's an idiot!' murmured Ron.

'No, he isn't.' argued Hermione. 'Mind you, he'll do himself no good being possessive'

'Good!'

Harry gave up.

'I'm going to have an early night. See you at breakfast.'

''Night, Harry,

'Yeah, 'night, Harry.'

Harry lay awake for a long time, thinking about his many troubles. He heard Ron go to bed, and Seamus and Neville arrived a bit later, but of Dean there was no sign.

- o -

The next morning, Harry woke well before anyone else. The greenhouses and potting sheds were still on his mind and early morning seemed to be a good opportunity to investigate them, before anyone disturbed any tracks or something. He remembered saying to Ginny that they would both look round, but somehow he didn't really feel up to talking to her right then; she'd probably be pretty late getting up anyway.

Washed and dressed, Harry headed downstairs. The common room was still warm and, to Harry's surprise, included a rather uncomfortable looking Dean, fast asleep in one of the armchairs. Some magazines lay on the floor around his feet.

After a few seconds thought, Harry decided against disturbing him and headed for the portrait hole.

- o -

The school was still silent as Harry retraced his and Ginny's steps of the previous night. The greenhouses glittered as the light from the just risen sun glanced off the heavy early morning dew. It was still cold, but in the sun Harry could feel warmth beginning to spread through his cloak.

The potting shed roofs began to steam as Harry searched round the little yards and alleys in the garden complex. He looked in the sheds and wandered up and down inside the warm greenhouses. Try as he might, though, Harry couldn't find anything obviously suspicious.

One of the sheds had reminded him of something, though. The smell had included an unusual component, but its significance eluded him completely and after a while, the smell seemed no different from the other sheds.

Still beating his brain to try to unravel the mystery of the unusual smell, Harry finally headed for the Great Hall and some breakfast.

- o -

The Hall was fairly well filled, although some students seemed to be taking the opportunity for a bit of a lie in. Hermione was engrossed in the Saturday Daily Prophet whilst Ron and Ginny had obviously just finished a raging argument.

Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil were giggling and sneaking glances at Ginny whilst Seamus and Neville were just finishing their pumpkin juice and preparing to bail out in a hurry.

Harry took in the scene and turned to leave, reasoning that hunger was a small price to pay for keeping out of what appeared to be a war zone.

'Harry!'

Darn it, too late.

Ginny grabbed his arm and hauled him down onto the bench.

'Where the blazes have you been?'

'Me?'

'Yes, You?'

'I went out to look at the greenhouses and sheds. To look for any clues.'

Ginny glared at him. 'I thought we were going to look together?'

Harry wondered What in Merlin's name was wrong with her.

'I woke up early and didn't feel like staying in bed!' he protested. 'I thought I'd go and look before anyone started working on the plants. I didn't think you'd be up by now even - after having a late night.'

Ron snorted, whilst Hermione choked on her juice.

'I did NOT have a "Late Night"!'

Harry stared at Ginny. She was absolutely furious. He noticed out of the corner of his eye that Parvati and Lavender were in hysterics.

'Well Dean did, and you were with Dean.'

Ginny just stopped herself from pinning Harry's hand to the table with a fork.

'Listen to me Mr.Potter!' she snarled. 'I went to bed at the same time as Seamus and Neville, and they'll back me up!' She looked round to find they had disappeared. 'Dean stayed in the common room reading some magazines!'

'OK, OK, I believe you!' Harry tried to calm her down. He decided that voicing his thought that she could have gone back down to the common room could possibly be a fatal mistake. 'Anyway, why do you care what I think?'

Ginny paused. 'I just do, OK?' she began to calm down. 'How do you know Dean had a late night?' she continued.

'He was asleep in an armchair when I went through the common room to go outside.'

'Well, why didn't you wake him up? It was him being found down there that started all this!'

Harry shrugged, 'He looked like he could do with the slee- OWW, that's going to leave a bruise!'

Ginny glared at him.

'OK.' Harry sighed, 'Sorry. Look Ginny, Dean's not my responsibility, I didn't even think there'd be a problem. Why would I?'

Ginny looked round. Most of the Gryffindors had finished breakfast, even Parvati and Lavender were leaving. She gave a big sigh. 'Oh, I'm sorry, Harry. It's not your fault. It's Parvati and Lavender, they found Dean. There was never this trouble over Michael.'

'P'raps it's because you're in the same house.'

'Ron and Hermione are in the same house! No one's winding them up!'

Harry chuckled. 'Everyone's been expecting Ron and Hermione to get together for so long, I reckon they're just glad the screaming's stopped.'

Ginny slowly smiled and stood up 'Suppose so. Are you going to watch Ravenclaw practice? We're playing them first, this year.'

'Maybe. See you later.'

'Yeah, - later. - Oh, did you find anything around the greenhouses?

'No, just - no, - nothing.'

- o -

Harry could hear Alastor Moody stumping about in his study as he approached, but the clumping noise stopped as soon as Harry knocked. Harry could feel himself being scrutinised by various magical means for several seconds - before the door creaked open.

'Morning, Harry.' growled Moody. His real eye looked steadily at Harry whilst his magical eye looked up and down the corridor. He motioned Harry into the study and shut the door.

'Problems?'

'Not with the teaching, Professor'

Moody sort of smiled. 'No? A class of statues and a suspension, on the first day?'

'I – erm – I hadn't planned to be that hard, Professor.'

'Really? I heard you had all the spells off pat ready to go!'

'Well, yes, but I didn't expect to use them all at once!'

Harry realised Moody was trying not to laugh.

'HA!' he exploded, 'I wish I'd seen it! I wish I'd seen Snape's face when the Headmaster gave the Pritchard boy a suspension!'

'I'm glad I didn't.' muttered Harry.

Moody stopped laughing and regarded Harry thoughtfully.

'Snape still bothering you?'

'No, Professor. I haven't even spoken to him since we had an argument before term started.'

'I heard about that, too. The Headmaster reckoned he finally lost it.'

Harry nodded silently.

'What did you say to him?'

Harry thought back 'I suppose the main thing was telling him he keeps his worst memories to feed his hate.'

'What worst memories?'

Harry hesitated. Now he was going to have to explain about the pensieve.

'Harry?' Moody sounded impatient.

'His memories of being bullied at school by my Dad!'

Moody looked closely at Harry, with both eyes.

'And you know about this because?'

Harry was now feeling thoroughly uncomfortable.

'He stored them in a pensieve whilst he was supposedly teaching me Occlumency.'

'And?'

Harry squirmed under Moody's magically enhanced gaze.

'And I looked in it, when he was called out to help Filch.'

Moody turned away and limped over to his desk. He sat down and considered Harry carefully.

'Was that the last time he taught you Occlumency?'

Harry nodded.

'Not surprised! Though I'm surprised that's his worst memory. Severus Snape has secrets even I don't know, but even the ones I do know are worse than a bit of bullying!' Moody thought for a few seconds. 'Maybe those were just the ones he most hated the thought of you seeing.'

'You mean he has even worse memories?'

Moody looked at Harry steadily

'You know Severus Snape was a Death Eater?'

'Yes' whispered Harry.

'I wonder what memories he has of those days, Harry.'

Harry thought back to his conversation with Snape. Had he mentioned the memories of bullying, or just memories?

Harry gasped as he remembered more of the argument with Snape.

Moody had heard the gasp

'Well? What is it?''

'I just said he was keeping his worst memories to feed his hate, not just memories of school. Maybe he thought I'd seen other memories, from his time with the Dark Lord.'

'Could be,' agreed Moody. 'What did he actually say then?'

Harry shivered as he remembered. 'He said I'd die for it.

'And then?'

'I asked him how.' said Harry simply. 'I must have been mad. I said poison would be too obvious and then – then I asked if the Dark Lord would instruct him how to kill me! Not Lord Voldemort – The Dark Lord! That's what tipped Snape over the edge!'

Moody's face didn't change, but Harry could see his astonishment in the way he had suddenly sat bolt upright.

'You joked about it? When Severus Snape said you'd die?'

Harry felt about six inches tall.

Moody sighed and leaned back in his chair. His magical eye stopped staring at Harry and went for a quick tour round the room.

'Merlin! Potter steps forth where Dragons fear to tread.' He sighed again and shook his head. 'Well, you're bloody lucky to still be alive, Harry. Don't do it again, hmm?'

Harry shook his head dumbly.

A further thought struck him. 'Did you tell the Headmaster this?'

'No, Professor. He was watching.'

'Did he see it all?'

'I - think so.'

'I might have word with him anyway. Now, what did you really come to see me about?'

Harry was taken aback by the rapid change of subject.

'It's – er – Professor Trelawney.'

'What is?'

'What I wanted to see you about.'

'Well get on with it then!'

Harry took a firm hold on his temper and started again. 'Professor Trelawney's behaving oddly, Professor!'

Moody suddenly looked defensive.

'What do you mean, oddly?'

'She appeared outside the castle last night, and went round to the gardens, then she – disappeared.'

'Disappeared?'

'When Ginny Weasley and I went to look for her, she'd gone.'

'Why did you go after her?'

'She's supposed to be in danger, - isn't she?'

Moody stumped over to the window and looked out over the quidditch pitch. Harry could see the odd glimpse of a Ravenclaw team member zooming up, before diving back out of sight.

'Yeah, you're right, she is. Is that it?'

'No. I saw what looked like her at the end of the corridor outside classroom 14 late on Tuesday evening.'

Moody turned back to look at Harry. 'Anything else?'

Harry attempted to look diffident. 'Oh, just a couple of third years were twittering on about her acting strangely.'

'In her lessons?'

'Don't think so, Professor.'

Moody looked sourly at the papers on his desk.

'I thought she always acted oddly in her lessons, but outside, well, that's a bit different.

Moody appeared to make a decision.

'I'll have word with her, tonight, if not sooner. OK Harry?'

Harry wondered what that would do, but kept his thoughts to himself.

'Thanks, Professor. I'd better be going, I said I'd watch Ravenclaw practice with Katie Bell.' He turned to go.

'Thanks for telling me, Harry,' said Moody, as Harry reached the corridor 'Better not go telling any one else about Sybil's behaviour.'

Harry shut the study door and hurried off to the main entrance. Something was going on, he thought, but as usual, he didn't have clue what it was.

- o -

Harry reached the Quidditch pitch as the Ravenclaw team took a short break in training. Katie and Jack Sloper were sitting in one of the stands, close to the back. Alison Linney and Ginny were sitting at the front of one of the other stands.

Harry leaned against one of the stand pillars and watched the Ravenclaw team talking and gesticulating at each other. It didn't look like practice was going too well.

Roger Davies had left at the end of the previous year and it seemed as though Cho Chang had been made captain; he didn't envy her the task. Harry wondered how easy it would be to be captain and seeker.

Eventually the team climbed onto their brooms and took off again. Harry saw the beaters knocking the bludgers back and forth across the pitch as the chasers practised throwing the quaffle to each other and trying for goals between the rapidly moving bludgers. Cho Chang was cruising about at high level, watching the team work and waiting for the team assistant near Harry to release the snitch.

The assistant was Michael Corner. Harry ambled over to stand next to him.

'Morning Michael.'

'Harry.' muttered Corner, looking at Harry suspiciously.

'Don't worry, I'm not here to sabotage you.'

Corner didn't look mollified. ' What are you here for, then?'

'To see how Cho's managing the team.' Harry saw the look of suspicion deepen. 'I never reckoned that being seeker and captain would be too easy. I can't watch for the snitch and see what the rest of the team are up to, myself.'

'She's doing fine!'

'Yeah, well, good! I'm glad! We don't want it to be a walkover, now do we.' Harry looked upwards, 'I think she's waited long enough, don't you?' he said, then strolled away round the touch line to another stand.

Corner gave Harry a glare and released the snitch. Immediately, it shot off across the pitch, zigzagging like crazy, and disappeared amongst the melee of players. Harry sat back and watched the fun.

- o -

What were you doing talking to Michael?' asked Ginny, as they made their way back to the school for lunch.

'Just sowing a few seeds of doubt' chuckled Harry.

Ginny didn't look convinced. 'Being subtle then?'

'Very.'

'Hah!'

Harry ignored Ginny's scorn and turned to Alison. 'Think you could beat Cho Chang?'

Alison looked dubious. 'I – don't know. I might be able to – '

'Well, you can try out against Ginny and me tomorrow morning.' He rubbed his hands together, 'It should be fun!'

- o -

Sunday morning was clear and still. Tendrils of mist rose from the lake, curling along the surface before disappearing. As the team stood yawning in the pale sunlight, Harry wondered for the hundredth time what on earth he was doing standing in a cold field when he could be warm in bed.

Katie was in fine form however, 'OK all of you, some of you saw the Ravenclaw practice yesterday, so you know what we're up against. Don't worry about Hufflepuff and Slytherin yet, we'll take it one game at a time – and we're going to win!' She smacked fist into palm for emphasis and grinned at her team, who stared stolidly back as if she'd suddenly grown another head.

'Er – well – OK! Lets get moving then! Harry, could you and Ginny try some seeker practice with Alison? Colin and I will do some passing and shooting practice with Ron and our beaters, OK?'

A ragged chorus of OKs greeted her suggestion and the team straggled out onto the pitch to take off.

Harry motioned Alison and Ginny to hold back.

'I'll release the snitch and follow it. Alison, you follow me and Ginny, please follow Alison. Two minutes each to try and catch it then hand over to the next. If you do catch it, drop it and tag on the back again, OK?'

He took off without waiting for a reply.

- o -

It took Harry over half a minute of twisting and diving to catch the snitch the first time, then he dropped it and peeled round to follow Ginny.

Alison, predictably, had trouble even following the snitch let alone catching it and peeled off after two minutes, using words Harry never expected to hear from such a demure girl.

Ginny was obviously intent on showing how good she was, throwing her broom into the tightest curves and steepest dives Harry had seen her ever produce. Even then, she took longer than Harry had taken and she dropped the snitch and got out of the way, using words Harry didn't even know.

On the third attempt, Alison managed to grab the snitch after it dived suddenly, by means of some spectacularly unorthodox flying. Seeing her push downwards into an outside loop and catch the snitch whilst flying upside down, ten feet above the ground, had Harry's breath caught in his throat and his heart in his mouth.

As Alison released the tiny ball Harry called for a break, chased and caught the snitch, and landed.

'Very good, Alison!' he said, as she landed beside him 'but I'd rather you didn't do it again! – Please?'

Alison smiled nervously, 'But I caught the snitch!'

Harry sighed ' You also nearly caught the ground!'

'Woah, you two!' exclaimed Ginny, smiling. 'Harry, you go and practice chasing, I'll take over here.'

Harry looked from one to the other. Ginny suddenly seemed a great deal less sceptical of Alison

'Yeah, right, - I'll do that. I'll just – er – right.' He shook his head and took off. He could almost swear they'd winked at one another.

- o -

'Great work, Team!'

Katie was full of praise by the end of the session.

'If we can build on today's achievements to maximise our potential in a structured manner, we should be able to set the standard for the implementation of team based activities within this august academic establishment!'

'What?'

Katie sighed sadly. 'If we keep improving at this rate, we'll be the best at quidditch.'

'Oh, yeah! Right. – You sure that's what you said?'