Ominous Meetings
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Harry bustled quickly down the stone steps, through the dreary yet somewhat adorned halls towards the potions classroom. He was eager to get there so as to leave as early as he possibly could. Without thinking, he burst into the classroom and stopped in his tracks. Miss Evans was sitting on a desk surrounded by an array of candles. The candles were levitating eerily around her and revolving at an increasing speed. The candles dripped no wax, which may have had something to do with the green flames. Harry stood rooted to the spot. At first he had thought he had barged into the wrong room. That thought was quickly abolished when he noticed Snape's desk and the many cauldrons and potion supplies scattered about the room. Harry instinctively reached for his wand; he was not one to flee at the hint of danger. It had barely traced the edges of his fingers when a deep echo voiced, "Expelliarmus!" The room seemed to rumble and Harry's wand was sent flying. Miss Evans' eyes opened suddenly and seemed to want to pop at how wide she opened them. A large grin snaked across her face.
"Hello Harry. Nice to see you here so promptly." She said smoothly, never blinking let alone moving her eyes from him.
"Where's Professor Snape?" He said, wishing that perhaps she had not considered that. He knew what her answer would be though.
"He had other things to attend to this evening."
Not leaving time to think things out, Harry used the only element he had, surprise. He charged at her and was inches away from her when she said lazily, "Petrificus Totalus."
With those two words, Harry knew that unless there was someone rushing to his rescue, that there was nothing he could do. He struggled, but there was no point. He thanked Merlin that she had not cast Avada Kedavra right then and there but that also meant that she had some other purpose for him.
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Hermione raced back to the dormitory after a late conference with Professor McGonagall. She had no idea where the time had gone, all she knew was that she had to get to her rooms, get ready and meet Draco in less than 10 minutes. There was no way she was going to be on time and punctuality to Hermione was a virtue. She needed at least time to run a comb through the wild beast known as her hair, and she could not possibly even go near Draco without brushing her teeth. She never would give that muggle tradition up. Even if she wanted to, her parents would never allow it.
She finally decided that all had been done that could possibly be done without making Draco think she wasn't going to show. By the time she reached the library though, she'd be almost twenty minutes late. She stormed out of the dormitory and wished that she had a copy of the Marauder's Map.
Draco walked serenely out of the Head Boy quarters, feeling absolute delight in every way. He decided to take a short cut for the library because he knew that Hermione would be annoyingly punctual as usual and ended up walking through the side passages in the dungeons. He had been through here many times but they seemed to have a different feel today. He stopped walking as he heard a voice; it was laughing. He took a sudden turn that would lead him to the normal hallways and headed towards Snape's classroom. The door was closed as it normally was but Snape was meeting with his father this evening, so no one should be in there. Thinking of the potions that Snape had been working on, Draco tried hurriedly to budge the door open. "Alohomora!" Draco cried out at the stone obstacle blocking his path. He heard the lock click open and he immediately nudged the door open. His eyes were instantly drawn to Miss Evans who was standing over something lying in a heap on the floor. Draco knew the sight of Dark magic but for once he wasn't sure what to do. It was a body lying on the floor. Draco began to grow uneasy. He did not want to be here. He wanted to leave, to find Dumbledore, anyone who could help but he couldn't peel his eyes away from what was happening. She was pouring and sprinkling all sorts of herbaceous and most likely evil components around and on the human form lying helplessly on the floor. She began an incantation and pulled an ancient and mystical dagger from a sheath. It was inlaid with emerald and black gems that seemed to glow. She straddled the figure and sliced open his shirts. "Bleeding hell, it's Potter. I should have known." Draco cursed. There was no time now for a teacher. She cut his skin delicately with the dagger, drawing a pattern of symbols upon his chest. She raised the dagger above her head, about to drive it into him and Draco cried out the first spell that came to mind, "Immobulus!" She was frozen before she even noticed he was there. He walked towards her and tried to figure out just what was going on. He knew almost every dark spell and ritual known to the wizarding world but this was something he could not even begin to imagine. He pushed her off of him and looked Harry over carefully. He had been petrified but was still conscious.
He raised his wand and was about to do the counter curse when he felt a gut wrenching pain in his right leg. Miss Evans had awoken and driven the dagger deep into his leg. He fell to the ground and struggled to keep consciousness. With all his strength he rose to his feet only to find the dagger lying on the floor next to Harry and the room completely empty.
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Snape arrived at the Malfoy Manor with a somewhat apprehensive disposition. He had heard that Narcissa had fallen ill, but he could not help think that it had had something to do with a certain cane that Lucius liked to sport. None-the-less he strolled nonchalantly up to the door and lifted the heavy knocker that matched the rest of the Slytherin-like décor that the Malfoy Manor entailed.
"Please enter." A rather sorry looking house-elf greeted. He took Snape's large cloak and led him into the parlor. The elf lifted a log twice the size of itself over to the fireplace and almost fell into the hearth along with it. He then proceeded to offer Snape a glass of aged Woringtoad. Snape kindly refused the poor servant, the last thing he needed at this point was to be drunk.
Lucius entered the room shortly after, always believing that it was best to make your guests wait. He sat with a glass already in hand.
"I trust Narcissa is feeling better?" Snape asked politely.
"Yes, she should be fine in a week or so." Lucius said brushing that topic aside. "I am to tell you that there will be a revel of sorts in two weeks. All the festivities will be included of course." He said with smirk that would frighten most that were not used to it. "There is more news of course to discuss. I am being investigated by the Ministry once again which complicates my life even more than usual."
"They are bothersome." Snape replied in a dry tone. He wanted Lucius to get to the bloody point so he could out of there.
"Draco seems to be making great progress. I don't doubt that he will be able to finish this simple task in short measure. It occurs to me however, that it could be sped along. It would require the use of your exceptional potion skills of course. I am of course referring to a lust potion even perhaps to the extent of a brew to guarantee...shall we say...fertilization."
Snape had learned to school his emotions extremely well and so after only a moment's pause he replied, "That may not be possible Lucius."
"I'm sure with your skills it would be. It would need to be completed in the next week. Our Lord is expecting this also Severus." Lucius added in smoothly.
"I will try. Now if that is all, I must ask you to excuse me." Snape said icily as he rose from the chair, snatched his coat from the elf and stormed out the door.
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Hermione sat in the library at a desk waiting. She knew he wasn't coming. It was almost an hour past their meeting time and so Hermione took one last breath and rose to leave.
"Hermione! There you are. Have you seen Harry?" Ginny yelled.
"Sorry Gin, not yet."
"Ron said he had a meeting with Snape, I guess he's not finished yet."
"I guess not. Well, I'm going back to the dormitory to get my books." Hermione said leaving the library slightly let down.
"Hermione, Dumbledore needs to see you, immediately." Professor McGonagall said quietly to her. "It's very urgent, I'm afraid something terrible has happened."