SILVER LINING

CHAPTER FOURTEEN-STEPHANIE'S SCARE

After a few days, Hermione was set to leave the hospital wing. She was still a bit spooked about her ordeal but managed to talk about it frequently and she was doing much better.

I was in the library reading. I heard someone enter the library. I looked up. It was Harry.

I returned my eyes onto my book and completely ignored him.

"Steph?" I heard him ask tentatively as he approached the table.

I growled warningly at him.

"Please listen to me," he said pleadingly. "I never meant to hurt you. I'm sorry I should've told you my feelings all along."

"Well you did," I snarled my eyes flashing. I knew they turned jaundice already because my vison changed too. "One thing about Advair's Harry...when someone crosses us or makes a fool out of one of us, that's the last thing the person does."

Harry went pale.

"Are you going to kill me?" he asked in a weak voice.

"I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do," I said slamming the book shut.

He jumped a mile from being startled by the loud noise the book made.

"We always try to be loyal and all we ask is that our 'friends' do the same. I don't think that's a lot to ask do you?"

"No," Harry said in an even weaker voice.

"Good-day," I snapped and left the library.

I walked the corridor back to the common room. I really didn't know what to do with Harry. I wouldn't kill him of course...but maybe I can scare him. Advair's mainly want to scare the person that crossed them...just to give them a warning.

I entered the common room. Hallie was sitting with Hermione talking.

They looked up when I entered.

"Hey," Hermione said brightly.

"Hi," I said and plopped down across from them.

"Where's Harry?" Hallie asked.

"Library," I said without emotion

Hallie nodded.

Hermione however, was watching me.

"Is everything okay between you and Harry?"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

Hermione glanced at Hallie.

"Can you do me a favor?" she asked Hallie softly. "Can you run to the library and ask Harry to check out a book called "Mesomoris?" It's for Transfiguration."

Hallie beamed and hurried from the common room.

"Now," Hermione said crossing her legs. "Talk to me. What's going on?"

I sighed.

I told her everything that happened.

When I was done, Hermione had a blank expression on her face.

Finally, she spoke after a few moments.

"Stephanie," she said slowly. "I know for a fact that he likes you."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Funny way of showing it. He told me he loves you,"

"Yeah...like a sister," Hermione said gently and patiently. "That's how I feel about him...only I love him like a brother. I loved Ron."

All the color drained from my face.

"Oh. Shit," I said slapping my forehead with my hand.

"But," Hermione continued. "He really should've chosen his words carefully. I mean anyone could've taken what he said that way."

"I'm going to teach him a little lesson that next time he will," I said smiling conspiratorially.

Hermione smiled back.

That night at dinner, we all sat at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall.

Hermione still had no idea what I was going to do. Neither did Hallie or Harry for that matter.

That night, I changed into the Advair.

Harry had snuck out with the Invisibility Cloak and had gone to the library for some reason. I dropped to all fours and galloped down the corridor.

HARRY.

I felt bad. When I said that I loved Hermione I had really meant like a sister. Stephanie must've taken it the wrong way. Now she was mad at me. I hated it. I tried to talk to her to apologize to her for giving her false information.

I was also a bit worried about what she'd do to me. I knew Advair's never hurt innocents but I also had no idea they didn't tolerate people that cross them either and didn't know what they did to those people.

I had snuck out to the library under the Invisibility Cloak to read more up on the Advairs. I was more frightened of Stephanie now than I did of not trusting her.

I sat under the Invisibility Cloak at a table with my wand lit up, pouring over the book.

So far from what I've read, there's nothing in the book that suggests that Advairs did what Stephanie said.

"She probably said that because she was hurt and angry," I said quietly aloud to myself.

I didn't blame her one bit though.

I heard a noise in the library and quickly extinguished my wand. I easily got up from the seat and pulled the Invisibility Cloak around me tighter.

I scanned the library. It was dark and silent. Shadows fell across the tall bookshelves making long dark patches on the floor.

I heard several books topple to the floor from near the Restricted Section. I carefully slinked over to it and peered in through the metal grate that separated it from the rest of the library.

Then, a pair of jaundice eyes peered out at me from behind one of the bookshelves. I jumped back, my heart hammering in my chest. The animal stepped into the light. It was Stephanie.

The Advair took several steps toward the grate, then galloped straight for it. I continued to back away. The Advair sailed cleanly over the grate and landed gracefully on all fours a few inches from me.

"Steph!" I breathed. "You scared me."

I pulled off the cloak.

The Advair spied me and pulled back the top lip of its snout, exposing the white canines and incisors. It snarled at me.

"Steph?" I asked nervously.

The wolf continued to snarl at me and force me to back up even more until my back hit one of the bookshelves behind me.

The wolf continued to lope toward me with a cool lust in its eyes.

"Stephanie? Please don't do this...I'm really sorry okay? I never meant to give you the wrong information...I love you...I love Hermione like a sister..." I pleaded holding my hands up defensively.

The wolf approached me and reared up on its hind legs, placing its two front paws on my shoulder. It put its snout close to my face. All I could hear was the growling and snarling and felt saliva dripping onto my arm.

I shut my eyes, waiting for it to sink its teeth into my neck.

Nothing happened.

I was breathing heavily. I slowly chanced opening my eyes. The wolf was still there, but it was panting. All the menace gone from its eyes. The ears were pricked forward.

"Steph?" I asked in a shaky voice.

The wolf barked and licked my face.

Hysterical relief flooded over me as well as confusion.

The wolf dropped to all fours again and sat on its haunches.

"What are you doing? You really scared me!" I whispered to the wolf.

The wolf vanished and Stephanie appeared with her arms cross over her robe and uniform.

"That was the plan," she said.

I looked at her with surprise.

"You mean you deliberately scared me?" I asked bewildered.

"Bingo," she said smirking.

I stood looking at her, still completely dumfounded.

"Why?"

Stephanie continued to smirk.

Realization dawned on me.

"Oh, damn," I said.

"Didn't like it did you?" Stephanie continued her eyes flashing. "Didn't like getting the wrong signal."

I swallowed nervously.

"But I heard what you said. Hermione told me that you really like me but love her as a sister," she continued her voice softening slightly.

I nodded, breathing normally now.

"I really am sorry, Steph," I apologized quietly. "I never meant to give you the wrong the idea."

"It's fine," she said grinning.

I grinned back.

She threw her arms around me and hugged me. I hugged her back tightly.

"Come on," she whispered. "We'd best get back to the common room and go to bed."

I threw the cloak around her and we snuck out of the library.

STEPHANIE.

With things back to normal now between Harry and I, we were able to focus our attention back on who the Silver Lining was.

Hermione had said that the girl looked to be from the 13 century.

So the next day, we spend most of our time in the library...again pouring over all old school yearbooks of Hogwarts dating back from when Hogwarts was established.

Hermione and I were looking through the year 1342 and looking through each of the houses.

"Do you have anything yet?" Hermione asked raising her head to Harry.

He was searching through the year 1345.

"Nope," he replied. "Nothing."

We continued our search.

Finally, around the year 1350, Hermione suddenly froze over pictures from the Slytherin house.

"I think I might've found her," she said quietly.

Harry and I leaned in close.

She pointed to a picture of a witch about our age in Slytherin robes. She was smiling brightly. Her long blond hair pulled back into a bun.

"Gina Ross," Hermione read aloud. "That is her. I' m sure of it."

"We should definitely let Dumbledore know," Harry said.

We nodded.

After classes, we rushed to Dumbledore's office.

He looked up and smiled.

"What can I do for you?" he asked kindly.

"We might've figured out who the Silver Lining is," Hermione said showing him the book with the girls' picture.

He looked at it.

"Ah yes," he said quietly. "Miss Ross."

"You've heard of her?" Harry asked shocked.

"I'm afraid so," Dumbledore continued. "Please sit."

He conjured up an extra chair in front of his desk. We sat down.

"I heard from previous headmasters, mainly Headmaster Olsin, who was the headmaster for that year that Miss Ross went missing in her 6th year. No one was able to find her. All of a sudden in the 7th year, she returned to school. She told everyone that she had been kidnaped and was finally released. But what was odd was during that year, murders occurred. Unexplained. Several students went missing but turned up dead the next day with wounds on their bodies. Everyone thought it was a werewolf lose on the grounds. The Ministry of Magic did a sweep of the grounds but found no evidence of a werewolf. Naturally, each student was subjected to werewolf testing. All passed.

So school resumed. But then shortly the killing started again. This time, more students were killed. It was if Voldemort had gained power again. Everyone was terrified to come within 4 feet of Hogwarts. It was donned 'The Evil School'. The Ministry had to do more testing but they were convinced it was some kind of animal. Even the Muggles were starting to die. This was beginning to get very serious. Whatever this thing was it was attacking Muggles also.

The Muggle police had no idea what was happening either. They figured it was some kind of 'wild dog' that had gotten loose in London. The Ministry had to agree with the Muggle police. It was just a wild dog.

So traps were set all around Hogwarts grounds. One night, they caught something in the trap. It was the Silver Lining. But what really terrified everyone was the next morning, Miss Ross had appeared in the spot where the Silver Lining had been."

Harry, Hermione and I looked at each other.

"Needless to say, she was questioned. People thought she had set it free because she was so against cruelty to animals," Dumbledore continued. "But what no one realized is that she had knowledge of the murders in Hogwarts. How could she know when during that time she was supposedly missing?"

We nodded.

"No one really found out the truth of what happened that year," Dumbledore said. "From what you're telling me now it sounds the same and I'm willing to bet Miss Ross is the Silver Lining."

"What do we do?" I asked.

"Well," Dumbledore said rubbing his chin. "I would set up a trap similar to what was used them. It worked then, it might very well work now."

"What sort of trap?" Harry asked.

"They used bait," Dumbledore said. "And lured the Silver Lining into a box. When the creature stepped on a wire, it shut the box's door. Muggles use this method."

"I know what you mean," Hermione said nodding.

"I would set it up where there have been most sightings...outside," Dumbledore said.

We nodded.

"Please be careful though okay?" Dumbledore said. "I would suggest using Professor Lupin's help since the Silver Lining is fearful of him."

We nodded again.

"Thanks,"

We left the office.

"Have any idea as to what we can use for that trap?" Harry asked as we headed to the common room.

"Actually, yeah," Hermione replied. "We'll do it tomorrow and we can contact Professor Lupin as well."

We went to our classes that night and then headed to bed.

The next morning at breakfast, Hermione sent an owl to Professor Lupin.

"That would be good because he would be around to protect us if anything should go wrong,"

"Go wrong?" Harry asked weakly.

"Well, you've seen this thing," Hermione said reasonably. "We need some help. We can't rely on Stephanie for everything."

I smiled.

Harry nodded.

We went to classes and we would have to wait until the next morning for Lupin's answer.

Sure enough, the next morning, an owl arrived with his letter.

Hermione read it and looked up at us, her eyes twinkling.

"He's coming back to Hogwarts," she said. "We'll set the trap up tonight."