Chapter 31
Kayla was sitting in the dungeons, waiting for Snape to start class. Zara was sitting in front of her and the Gryffindor recognized, that the Ravenclaw had the same dreamy expression on her face, she had seen on her brothers' face all day.
Wondering what had happened, she almost jumped from her seat, when Snape came in. He wore the same gloomy expression as always when he called "This is today's assignment. Start"
With a flick of his wand he revealed the instructions on the blackboard and went back to his desk. When Kayla recognized what potion it was, she grinned wickedly and nudged Zara in front of her.
"This is better than Christmas and Easter together" she giggled before she started to work. Thinking hard how to manage what she had in mind,
Kayla watched Snape sitting at his desk, obviously grading papers. She bit her lower lip while she added the ingredients to the potion, she had done so many times before.
I need a distraction, she thought and started stirring her potion counter- clockwise. Then, fortunately there was a knock and Snape hurried to get the door. Kayla turned around to see, who the unexpected visitor was and spotted a man with blond hair and cold grey eyes. Snape and the man quickly crossed the class room and entered Snape's office.
At this moment Kayla 'accidentally' dropped her ladle on the floor, picked it up and walked over to the sink to rinse it. While everybody was trying to hear what was going on in the office and wondering why Draco was not in class today, the Gryffindor quickly approached the shelf with the more dangerous ingredients. She grabbed a little box and 4 vials, shoved it in her pocket and returned to her place just in time, when the office door opened.
The girl was so thankful for the wide robes and fortunately none of her classmates had seen her little trip, but Snape's gaze kind of pierced her brain, as if he'd be trying to prove she'd just broken the rules. She finished her potion ahead of everybody and before the potion master asked the final questions about their assignment, she scooped some in an empty vial and put it in her pocket.
The pretty brown-haired girl was shaking slightly, glancing at the professor every once in a while. I'll never get away with this, she thought, when Snape ordered them to fill a sample of their potion into a vial and hand them over to him.
Kayla started to sweat, when she raised from her chair to hand the potion master her sample. What would happen if the vials make any noises in her pocket? If Snape would catch her stealing, she'd surely get expelled.
After Snape had dismissed the class, she hurried upstairs to the Gryffindor common room. All she wanted now was to store her treasures in a safe place. It was still beyond her, how she got away with that. Before she had started at Hogwarts, she always had been the careful one who barely broke the rules, so she also had less experience than her brother or any of her friends.
Right when she entered the common room, her knees became weak and she collapsed right on the floor. Harry and Kelsey were by her side immediately and carried her over to the sofa next to the fire place.
"Did Snape test a potion on you, or why do you look so sick?" Kelsey asked his twin when he settled her head in his lap.
"No, Kel... I just did something I wasn't supposed to be doing" Kayla sighed. She still was a little shaky, but her head was clear now and she felt a lot better already. "I assume my nerves are not used to this sort of stress"
Hermione looked pitifully at her classmate, put down the book she just had been reading and knelt down next to her. She remembered very well what stress did to her in her third year. McGonagall had agreed she could use a time-turner, so she could take more classes and all that extra work had made her all snappy and tired. Hermione decided she'd ask her friend later, what particular sort of stress she was suffering from and offer some help.
Kayla looked around and recognized all the concerned faces of her friends and family members. It must have looked worse than I expected, she thought and sat up on the couch, when she heard something crash.
Her face changed from red/hot to pale/sweaty and back when she recognized what that meant. She jumped from the sofa and ran up to the girls' dorm. Kelsey looked at Harry, Ron and Hermione, shaking his head and not knowing what to say.
"What's wrong with her? Snape MUST have done something." Ron insisted and the rest of his friends shrugged. Nobody noticed that Ginny, obviously very concerned about Kayla followed her upstairs. All they do is talking, the little redhead thought angrily, when she entered the 5th years' dorm.
Snape was standing in his bedroom, silently stuffing a spare robe and other essentials into a black bag.
"Merlin's beard" he growled. "This week's awful. He just couldn't find a better time for that. This is what happens when you don't do the important things first. Why didn't I tell Albus yesterday?"
He took a last look at the picture of his daughter; she had grown so much since this picture had been taken. All he could hope was that she was safe here. The potion master had no time to inform Dumbledore about the current situation, so he grabbed his bag and entered his office.
He sat down and hastily scribbled a note on a piece of parchment, explaining why he had to leave and revealing the identity of the escaped deatheater. Snape sealed the scroll and addressed it to the headmaster, before he walked over to the fireplace.
Turning the flames silver with a bit of powder from a jar on his desk, he threw the scroll into the flames and left the room without looking back.
However the scroll didn't vanish and it never appeared in Dumbledore's office. If Snape would have stayed a minute longer, he could have watched the scroll burn to ashes.
Outside of the castle the potion master met Malfoy and his son Draco. Together they walked across the lawn and Snape made sure the dragons were distracted, when they excited the grounds of Hogwarts. Then the dark-haired wizard started to wonder. How were they supposed to reach Malfoy Manor without floo powder? Draco couldn't apparate yet and they couldn't risk flying.
Just when they arrived at the regular apparating area, the boy said coolly "See you at home dad. Professor Snape, have a nice trip" and with a plop he was gone.
The potion master glared angrily at his former classmate. "I'll explain everything later Severus" the blond man exclaimed and both wizards disapparated.
Kayla pulled off her robes as soon as she reached the dorm. One of the vials was broken, she knew it but fortunately she couldn't feel anything wet so hopefully it wasn't the vial with the potion. She placed her robe carefully on the bed, searched the pocket and withdrew 3 still intact vials and the little box.
"Good" she sighed with relief. "This is something I can easily fix" The pretty Gryffindor put her hand in the pocket once more, turned it inside out and about ten little silver leaves shaped like clover fell on the bedcover.
"Kayla, are you ok?" a worried voice whispered.
"Yes Ginny I'm fine. No need to worry. I just had the biggest shock of my entire life" Kayla answered and smiled happily at the little red-head. Ginny was more than confused; she'd expected anything but not this. "What's that on your bed?"
Kayla beckoned her to sit down on her bed and then she explained her friend why she'd acted so strangely in the common room. The Weasley girls' eye widened in awe, when she listened to Harry's cousin. "And the potion there has this effect?" she asked.
"Yep... do you want to help me to finish my special effect?" Kayla replied and started laughing loudly when her younger friend nodded eagerly.
"Hermione, would you please check on my sister. You know I can't get up the steps" Kelsey asked. The long absence of Kayla worried him more he was ready to admit. Hermione left the common room instantly and walked up the spiral staircase, when she heard muffled laughter from the dorm. She entered and recognized Kayla and Ginny laughing hysterically, what even increased when they saw the perfects' baffled expression.
"Are you two okay?" Hermione asked hesitantly only to watch the girls laughing even louder. "Now, explain yourselves" Hermione called angrily; she couldn't understand what had brought her friends in such a state.
"Sit down and Kayla will explain it" Ginny gasped between giggles. After a few minutes and a few snide comments from the Gryffindor prefect about silly girls, Kayla finally regained her composure and filled Hermione in on her idea during advanced potions. Hermione gasped in shock when Kayla told her how she'd managed to get the extra ingredients and then squeaked as she realized why Kayla had left the common room in such a hurry.
"I know I would have fainted long before I'd have reached Gryffindor tower. If Snape had caught you...."
"He'd have expelled me most definitely" Kayla admitted gloomily.
"When will you do it?" Ginny interjected.
"I have no idea yet. Malfoy missed class today, so fortunately he won't expect anything"
"He wasn't in class?" Hermione wondered. "I know he went back to the castle with us after Hagrid's lesson, but where did he go if not to class?"
"Maybe he just skipped it. But I know that Snape won't tolerate that and he'll probably give him detention" Ginny added happily.
"We'll see tomorrow morning. If he's not back then, I'll ask Snape" Hermione said sternly. "We better get back down. The boys are worried, you know?"
"Go ahead Hermione. I'll have to talk to Ginny about something. We'll be coming down shortly."
Snape dropped his bag in the big entrance hall of Malfoy Manor. Two house- elves rushed at his side and one took the potion masters' cloak, while the other bowed and picked up the bag. After the house-elves had left Snape crossed the entrance hall and followed his host to the drawing room. He watched Malfoy kissing his wife quickly and sending his son to his room, before he beckoned his former classmate to take a seat.
"First of all Lucius...would you care to explain, why your son knows how to apparate? I thought he just turned 15 and if I'm not mistaken, he can't have a license yet." Severus sneered.
Malfoy waved his hand dismissively and answered arrogantly "Oh Severus! You know exactly that I don't care very much about the rules the MOM has set up for ordinary people. An aristocrat like me knows how to bend the law to make life comfortable"
Snape didn't answer. He knew every comment was useless, because the blond wizard was so convinced about the fact that he was better than ordinary people and unfortunately his son was already taking the same wrong turn. "Can you please hand me the note, you've talked about earlier" he finally asked.
Malfoy got up and walked over to a large bookshelf. After a tip of his wand, the shelf slid to the side and revealed a small, dark chamber. After a minute, Malfoy emerged from the chamber, holding up a dark green envelope with a dragon imprint. The shelf moved back to his place when Snape cautiously opened the envelope and enfolded the letter. His face turned a shade of grey-green and a shiver went down his spine, as he deciphered the Dark Lords' handwriting.
"When are we going to leave?" he asked and he scolded himself for the lack of control he had over his voice.
"Tomorrow morning. I trust you want to inform your employer about it, but I warn you.... Don't say anything that could endanger our mission." Malfoy stated with a cold, threatening voice. "I will send a note to Hogwarts immediately. The headmaster has to take care of a replacement for me."
Kayla looked at the redhead, who shifted uncomfortable and didn't dare to look at her.
"Ginny" she took her friends hand and squeezed it gently. "You really like Harry, don't you?"
Ginny nodded but didn't say a word. "You don't need to talk about it, if you don't want to. But sometimes it's easier when you get it out. Just pretend I'm your big sister" Kayla smiled when the younger girl looked at her gratefully.
"I like him since the first time I saw him" Ginny started to explain. "When my brother Ron started his first year at Hogwarts, we met Harry at Kings Cross. I knew right away who he was and although he is known to everybody in the wizarding world, he's so modest and friendly to all of us. Ron was talking about him all summer and how he'd defeated Quirell, so you can imagine how exited I was when I started my first year. And when he rescued me from Tom Riddle in the chamber and I saw the concern on his face when I woke up..." Ginny broke up and Kayla could see tears falling on her midnight-blue quilt.
"Last year, before the Yule Ball I hoped he would ask me out, but all he did was run after that cow from Ravenclaw" Kayla heard the bitterness in the girls' voice, when she tried to remember in what way her cousin was looking at this particular girl now.
"Cho Chang" Ginny spat as she continued. "She is such a show-off. Everybody was sad and shocked when Cedric was murdered, but she was crying and howling like she had been married to him for ages. They had just started dating after the Yule Ball and now she's already after the Ravenclaw keeper."
With sarcasm in her voice that would melt stone she added "So what sort of grief is that. I know I can't compete with her. She is a beauty with raven-black hair and I'm red and have these wretched freckles" she finally sighed and Kayla could hear quiet sobs from under the hair that covered Ginny's face.
"I know Harry is not so shallow to go only for looks. I just believe he never considered you anything other than his best friends' little sister" by the heart-breaking look in Ginny's eyes, she continued hastily "but if you want to I can give him a subtle hint"
The redheads' eyes grew wide now and her jaw dropped "Isn't that too pathetic?"
"All is fair in love and war" Kayla laughed and wrapped a protective arm around her fellow Gryffindor. Happy that Ginny finally smiled again she got up and dragged the girl downstairs.