Title: Harry Potter and the Staff of Slytherin
Summary: A friend of Harry's comes to visit, and with her come strange things. What does she have to do with the new events?
Disclaimer: All Harry Potter related things belong to Joanne Kathleen Rowling, Scholastic Books, Bloomsbury Books, Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc.
Rating: PG-13 for Violence, Language, and minor Sexual Content
Pairing: Harry Potter/Original Character, Ron Weasley/Hermione Granger and a bunch of other confusing pairs that aren't real
Author's Note: Wow... that took a while. I just got back from camp when I wrote this. Then my Beta had trouble at school and we had issues getting the files to one another. I thought I was gonna cry in frustration. But here it is, hope you enjoy it.
Chapter 5
The Plan
Michelle didn't come into the common room until late. Everyone but a few seventh years were tucked into their beds. Harry was awake as well, waiting for her to come in. He wasn't going to let her slide this time. She had gotten by for a week without telling him anything, but after what Harry had witnessed in the dungeons, he wasn't about to allow her to continue.
If Harry hadn't been staring at the portrait hole, he wouldn't have known she had come in. The door opened silently and when she came through, she made no noise. Her cloak made no sound as it fluttered with her movements, and she herself appeared as a shadow. He felt his mind drifting away as he looked at her. Michelle caught felt his gaze, and without even the slightest hesitation, she sat beside him.
"Hello Harry. I assume you stayed awake for me?"
"Ooh, very smart," he spat out.
"Are you mad at me? You don't have a rea-"
He cut her off mid sentence "Of course I'm mad! You lied to me about everything. You told Ron about your schedule before me. You never told me you were a witch, although I'm almost over that. AND YOU WERE FLIRTING WITH SNAPE!"
"Oh," her eyes widened. "You saw that?"
"YES, I SAW THAT!"
"Listen, Harry, I wasn't flirting. Professor Snape was just worried about me."
"Don't you mean Sevvy?" She blushed.
"No, I don't. Snape is one of my many guardians. Just like you have Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon, I have guardians too. My main guardian, my uncle, was murdered. You heard about that. I will not go to my father. I won't live with the Dursleys. So what remains is Professors Snape, McGonagall, Dumbledore, Madame Pomfrey, and a few of the witches and wizards of the order," as she said these, she held up fingers "and my guardians keep going out like candles. I don't know how many I'll have left by the end of this year. But the agreement I have with the teachers is to only address them casually in private. In public I'm just like everyone else."
"You know the order?"
"Most of them. I know every member, but not every single member knows me." There was a twinkle in her eye not unlike Dumbledore's.
"What about the Weasleys?"
"Like the Weasleys for example, they have no clue In exist, and there is only one member of the order that is in the ministry knows my identity. Only two other people in the order besides the teachers have actual legal possession over me, but one passed away and the other is too scared to allow me around the house." She leaned back into the chair, watching as Harry calculated what she had said.
"Was he afraid of being killed?" his eyes were wide with information.
"No, he was more worried about him killing me. You see, he's a-"
"Werewolf?"
Now it was her turn to be surprised "Yes, how did you know?"
"Remus Lupin, one of my dad's old friends. Him and-" Harry's face fell, and he figured out who the other one was.
"Sirius... Sirius Black," Michelle looked like she was about to cry, so Harry put an arm around her, and she placed her head on his shoulder. "I miss him..."
"We all do."
"Someday I will take revenge on the people responsible."
"If you do, you'll only get hurt. That's the only lesson I've learned from fighting him. All my friends have been injured, and I only barely scrape by myself. I'm meant to fight him. No one else."
"But you don't have his weapon."
"I have it's brother."
"Not that one!" she sat up "There's another that he lost about fifteen years ago, and he's doing whatever he takes to get it back."
"You have it, don't you?" he glared at her accusingly.
"Of coarse not," she giggled, "but he thinks I do. I wish I knew where it was though."
"Why does he think you have it?"
"Because he is one of only two people who can even touch it, and I'm the other." Michelle's lips widened into a gigantic yawn. "I'm tired," she stood up, "Good night Harry."
She left Harry pondering everything she had said. He didn't get to sleep that night.
---
"Harry?" Someone was shaking him. It was a deep voice that seemed very far away. He was too tired to move, and was very comfortable with not responding to the person.
"Geway!" Harry swatted his hand at the air.
"Get up now, class ended five minutes ago! We're late for transfiguration."
"Iduncare," he threw his hand around once more, this time hitting his target.
"OW!" that woke Harry up and he jolted straight, glaring at Ron, who was clutching his bruised shoulder, with half lidded eyes. "What's wrong with you? I was just trying to make sure you wouldn't get into any trouble!"
The ebony haired boy surveyed his surroundings. He was in the History of Magic classroom. He had been forced to take this class as a part of the auror training program, although he wished he had just chosen another occupation to pursue. History was a slow death.
Harry gathered his things and stood up, "Sorry about that," and he slapped Ron's injured shoulder, making the redhead cry out in pain.
They heard a chuckle from the door and Michelle came in, "I was sent by the Professor to hunt you two down. Now I see what you've been doing. Napping and beating each other up," she said, shaking her finger at them. "What an immature thing to do."
"Oh please, like you wouldn't do the same, you big hypocrite!" Harry yelled in her face.
"Looks like someone's cranky from their nappy wappy. Does ickle Harry need his blankie?" Ron was giggling under his breath at the site of Harry. He was bright red with anger and glaring at Michelle in the fiercest way he could muster until he burst into a fit of laughter as well. "McGonagall is going to have my head if you two don't move it so let's go."
They walked out of the classroom, looked both ways for any sign of an unfriendly shadow (like Filch the caretaker or Snape) and then walked as slowly as possible towards the transfiguration classroom.
"Listen..." Ron whispered as they were walking "I need some advice."
"Why are you whispering?" Harry whispered back.
"Because the walls could hear us," and just as Ron suspected, the stone walls seemed to be leaning towards them, but straightened out at their stares. Some things Harry still had yet to understand about this school. "All right... I want to know how to get Hermione to date me."
"Is that all?" Michelle blurted out, not continuing the silent pattern. "That's easy. Everyone but you seems to realize she likes you!"
"But what if she doesn't?"
"Just play hard to get, a man who's taken or is a challenge is more appealing, especially to Hermione, the challenge seeker." She said this with such a matter of fact tone that anyone coming down the hall would have thought it was Hermione herself.
"How do I do that?"
"Yes, how does he do that?" Harry said.
"Easy, get a girl to pretend to be your girlfriend, then make it seem like you're not interested in her. If she comes to me complaining, I'll tell her to ask you out."
"That's all it takes?" the boys were in shock, but Ron was the one who spoke up.
"Yup. You didn't know? Everyone else does." Her smile was a mile wide.
"Man," Ron said with a huge sigh "Girls need handbooks."
"And that's what you have me and your sister for. But just come to me, I've talked to Ginny, and although she's super, she's a real trouble maker."
"You think I haven't noticed? All she needs is a friend and she could be the next troublesome twosome."
"First it was my dad and Sirius," Harry interjected "Then Fred and George. But does Ginny have any friends?" Michelle glared at this snide remark and he only winked in return.
"Who cares?" Ron said, rudely changing the subject back. "Who's going to be my 'girlfriend?'" he inquired, quoting the word girlfriend with his fingers.
"Someone close. Someone who you can trust. Someone who's a good actor..." Michelle stared into space, thinking.
"LUNA!" Harry shouted the name as if it was the cure for cancer.
"What?!? No way! I won't! She's psycho!" he exaggerated the words by waving his arms.
"She's perfect," Harry said.
"Who's Luna?" Michelle looked so confused.
"Right, you don't know her. Her name is Luna Lovegood. She's a friend of Ginny's in Ravenclaw, a fifth year. We met her last year. She a bit... unusual, but really useful. She helped us out when we went to fight Voldemort," Ron flinched, but Michelle stayed calm, "at the ministry."
"Hmm, all right, if she's your friend and we can make her pretty, and she's a good actress, she'll do." She nodded, and Harry nodded with her. Ron was still protesting the idea, but it was now out of his hands. "We have to talk to her as soon as possible. How about the next quidditch match?"