Hufflepuff Concerto
DISCLAIMER: That Harry Potter Universe and Characters are not, alas, my own.
A/N: Kinda a weird chapter... posted around 4pm. I'm revising it now.
Chapter Fifteen: Flashbacks
Professor Evilman gave her a long suspicious look before continuing on his way down the hall. It was the worst kind of look, the one that said, "I know you didn't do your homework." Hannah shuddered. She could only thank her lucky stars she still had an hour break to copy down the notes she'd missed. But first, she needed to find a prefect.
She searched the great hall and the astronomy tower, but Niobe and Cedric were nowhere to be found. She'd even stopped and asked a blue cat which way it was to the prefect's office, but the cat took off faster than she could follow it. It's prints lead her to St Mungo's hospital and a nurse there insisted on taking her temperature. All the other patients were screaming, and when she looked over, she saw why: There was a magical tornado coming at them.
She ran, but not fast enough. The tornado became a wave looming over her. Every step was an effort. If only she could run fast in her dreams. She fell and clawed at the ground, but it was just sand and she was getting sucked up by the undercurrent. Nothing else seemed affected. Where were the prefects?
In my dreams... this is a dream.
But she was powerless to end it. Hannah tried to remember other dreams where she'd managed to escape this limb slowing fog, but nothing came to mind. Ahead of her was a branch. If she could just get a hold of it. She reached...
Her fingers just managed to touch it. They slid against the smooth, polished wood. And held.
Yew. Seven and a half inches long. Suspended in midair.
The wand burned against her skin, but she couldn't let go. It wouldn't let her. Professor Flitwick shook his head - his beard was strangely green, "Swish and flick, Miss Korvil. Wingarduim Leviosa. Wingardium-" The wand was grounding. Swirling-
"Hannah..."
swirling-
"Hannah!"
Someone was shaking her. Hannah's eye's flew open, suddenly aware of her racing heart and rapid breathing. Jaci - whose hair wasn't very green at all this morning - pulled back awkwardly. Either she hadn't gone to bed yet or she had already donned her Hogwarts uniform for the day.
"Bad dream?" she asked after Hannah's breathing slowed.
"Yeah," Hannah confirmed. It was quickly slipping away, too, "Something about quicksand - or was it the ocean? - and Flitwick swishing and flicking... What time is it?"
"Time to rise and shine," Jaci managed to make the phrase sound more like a point of fact than the enthusiastic mantra of an overzealous morning person. And she was right. The first bits of morning were just starting to peer through the window. Soon, their other roommates would be waking up and, Jaci was quick to point out, "You may as well get up, and beat the morning shower rush. "
Hannah let herself be persuaded. Anyway, there was something about waking up in a cold sweat that made showering an extremely tempting idea. However, "soon," as in "soon everyone will be getting up," Hannah was sad to discover once she was washed and fully awake and looking at a clock for the first time, turned out to have the clause, "if they are stubbornly determined to be the first people in the Hall for breakfast" attached to it.
And, as Hannah followed Jaci down to the deserted Hufflepuff Common Room, she made a mental note not to trust her pureblooded roommate the next time she claimed it was time to get up. Even the Great Hall turned out to be closed when they reached its massive doors. Jaci led onward, then, giving Hannah a quick tour of the academic areas of the castle.
"The dungeons are down there. That's where we had Potions class," she gestured away from the downward staircase and down the hall, "that way and to the left, up the staircase and toward the right is Transfigurations. We have that after lunch. After breakfast is Herbology is in the greenhouses," Jaci launched into a complex array of directions which Hannah didn't even try to follow. They had gone down maybe five hallways and two staircases and she was already uncertain she could find the Great Hall again.
They turned another corner and there it was.
The hall was blazing with color. Tendrils of spells as the other students showed off their newfound abilities over dinner, bounced here and there, making the large doorway look like an expressionist painting. The thought of walking in, magic all around, touching her skin, pressing against her so she didn't know which was the floor, filling her vision, pounding out the sounds of even the loudest noise...
"What is it?"
The Great Hall. Hannah shook her head. There was no magic screen this time, it was just a doorway into a large room lit by an enchanted ceiling - the likes of which her mother would have staunchly disapproved had she been there. Perfectly normal for Hogwarts. Nothing to be afraid of. Adjusting her backpack, she braced herself as she followed Jaci over the threshold and into the dinning room.
Jaci stopped short, causing Hannah to almost walk into her. They weren't alone. A single figure was watching them from the table with the green and silver banners above. Slytherin.
Jaci glared back at the girl for a minute before walking dilberately toward her. Hannah was still trying to figure out who it was. One of the girls from their year, one of the ones from the hallway outside the HeadMaster's office, surely. Which one? She couldn't remember their names or faces.
She didn't particularly remember what had happened either. It was all a blur of fists, hair, and angry voices. She tried to work it out as she reluctantly followed Jaci towards the Slytherin table. She stopped a few paces away, giving the girl a good three meter radius and the big table between them. Her green haired friend - it looked greener in this light - knelt on the bench across from her and leaned in, elbows on the table.
"You're three days early, Patty."
"It's Patricia," the girl corrected. Adams, Hannah's memory supplied belatedly, Patricia Adams. Her eyes flicked to Hannah - or perhaps the door behind her - uncomfortably, "I heard she came back last night. Make it quick."
Jaci stood uncertain for a moment, then turned toward her, "Hannah. Your wand."
"What?" Her heart pounded fiercely.
"Your wand," Jaci repeated, "Give it to Patty -"
" - Patricia. - "
"But - " Hannah fumbled with her backpack, sliding it off and moving into their circle to rest it on the Slytherin bench, "but I don't - " she lost her train of thought as the zipper stuck. "- Professor Sprout hasn't -" the stupid zipper, "- what?" Jaci took the bag from her. In one quick motion it was open. Patricia was watching the Hall doors suspiciously.
"Quickly," Jaci urged as she tipped the bag back in Hannah's direction.
Hannah pulled out the wooden box with shaking hands and placed it on the table. With two fingers, she slid it halfway across to Patricia Adams. She drew back slowly, "What -"
Jaci put her finger to her lips, leaning over to whisper, "She's Olivander's granddaughter."
Adams took the wand out, holding it with a bit of cloth, and squinted closely at it, turning it slowly from this position to that. Hannah found herself reaching out with her mage sense to see what else was happening in her seven and a half inch long stick, but she only felt the barest hint that the sense had ever even existed. A memory of an existence, was all it was.
After a few minutes, Patricia carefully touched the wood with her fingertips and closed her eyes.
She's a mage, too, Hannah thought.
"It's definitely an Olivander wand - or if it's a forgery, it's quite good," Patricia said, opening her eyes at last, "There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it on the surface, but I'd still have the professor look at it. Just because it's one of his doesn't mean it couldn't have been tampered with." She placed the wand back in the box and slid it back to Hannah.
"Thank you," Hannah said quietly, not knowing what else to say. Patricia's gaze was fixed on Jaci.
"I wasn't here," she said suddenly.
"We didn't see you here," Jaci replied.
"Good," Patricia nodded curtly and started walking away.
"Bye, Patty!" Jaci grinned and waved.
"It's Patricia, get it right or I'll call you Jasilope!" she growled, spinning around, walking backwards, spinning back around again and running out of the Great Hall. Jaci giggled. Hannah wasn't sure why.
Jaci was nice enough to let her copy the Herbology notes over breakfast. It was quiet, and she soon became so absorbed in them, she barely noticed when the other students came around. It was all about the different plant classifications and different qualities of each. There must have been a lot of notes, too, because she had barely finished when Jaci pulled notes away saying, "You can finish later. Time for class."
"I'm done, anyway."
The first year Hufflepuffs left the Great Hall as one, trudging through the castle and across the grounds to the greenhouses. A couple Gryffindor boys ran out a few paces behind them and caught up to walk with Nick Wagner and Kevin Whitby.
"Hey Nick," the Gryffindor said as Nick stiffened perceptibly, "We heard about Flying class."
Nick reddened and kept walking, hugging his books.
"Scared of heights, Nick?"
"So what?" he yelled, just a little too loudly. Hannah wanted to hang back and hide, but the others were moving forward so she did too. They broke into a run. Running away, all together.
"It's a Hufflepuff stampede!" Michael Foster and his buddy laughed loudly at their backs.
They regrouped in the greenhouse, all huffing and puffing. It was a nice airy classroom, with desks and chalkboard set up in front, and a greenhouse lab area behind.
She didn't notice Professor Sprout until she asked, "Is it that Gryffindor again?" Hannah spun around to see her behind a flat of flowering plants, "I told his Head of House about him. I'll make sure I find a reason to take Gryffindor points from him. Okay, Nick?" She winked.
"Thank you, Professor," Nick grinned.
"Oh! Here they come," Professor Sprout went back to picking casually at her plants, smiling to herself. The seats here were arranged in threes, rather than twos. Hannah usually sat next to Jaci, but today Jaci had decided to sit inbetween Nick and the Gryffindors. That left one one seat availible next to another Hufflepuff: center front, next to the boy who's name she kept forgetting.
"Hi," she said shyly, putting down her bookbag and slipping in beside him. The other Gryffindors arrived and that boy from the boat came over to her.
"Hey! You're back!" he grinned, taking the seat on the other side of her, "I'm Dennis, remember?"
"Yes. You fell into the lake."
"Yeah!" he beamed with a far away look at the memory, "That was great. What was St Mungo's like?"
"Uh," Hannah opened her mouth, then closed it again, "What makes you think - "
"Everyone's heard about it. So... did they brainwash you?" He leaned forward, ready for what kind of tale Hannah didn't know. And what did he mean by everyone.
"No -"
"Of course you'd say 'no' if they did."
"Dennis..."
Class started eventually. Hannah opened up her two pages - only two? - of notes copied from Jaci. They were in her handwriting, but somehow she couldn't remember having written them. The notes she'd written - she thought - had the classifications set up significantly different. She tried taking notes, but didn't understand well enough to make them make sense.
"One common way of identifying if an unknown plant is magic is by spreading revelleserum on its stem. We will be using this method in lab later today. Michael Foster," Professor Sprout said sharply, "How do you find out if an unknown plan is magical?"
"I don't know."
"Thirty points from Gryffindor," Professor Sprout announced, "For paying more attention to your classmates than the lecture. Dennis Creevey, your chance to redeem your House."
Dennis swallowed, "You spread revelleserum on the leaves."
"Fifteen points to Gryffindor," she nodded, "Tom Prewett. What are the five catagories of magical plants?"
"Um," Hannah heard someone behind her flipping through his notebook, "That was last week, right?" More notebook flipping.
"Anyone? A guess Hannah?"
She recentered her silly little snowflake charm on her forehead as another student read outloud, "Jason said, 'Why d-don't you wan-ant to play with me?' The big beer - big bee-ar. Beeahr." Eleven words. She carefully counted them out on the page.
"Bear," teacher suggested. Teacher's name was forgotten again.
"Big bear said, 'B-beessay-besays - "
"Because. Good work, Robby. Hannah, why don't you continue?" A moment later. "Hannah?" Which one is Hannah? she wondered, glancing around. Teacher was looking right at her, Oh, that's my name. She means me, she told herself. It was a hard name to remember. Hannah. She always forgot. Why couldn't she have been named something easier - Jen, now that was easy. It rhymed with hen and lots of other words. Lots of people were named Jen. Her lips made a little, "oh" and she nodded slowly, looking back down at the book. She had been pretty proud of herself for just being able to follow along based on word length and spaces. The letters themselves looked familiar, but what they meant she didn't really know.
"Because," she picked up where they left off, "Why."
"Sound it out."
"W-o-uuoo."
"What sound does a Y make?"
"Wwwa."
"No, Hannah," teacher said, "Yyya."
"Yyya," she repeated, heart beating faster. Why did teacher call her that? She didn't know that word. What did 'Hannah' mean? It was hard to remember what was going on - but she did it. Better than last week. Last week she forgot she was at school and got scared. Sound out the word using the new sound. "Yyyaaooh-uuhhh."
"Good, now say it faster."
"Yohuh."
Teacher nodded, "You."
"You," she licked her lips. Where did teacher get "you?" from "yohuh"? Must be one of those strange letter tricks like from before in - in that other word that had one. The other students were looking at her now. She could feel their eyes, all wondering what was wrong with her that she couldn't read a word like "you" or remember teacher's name. Next word, "ahhnnnn -"
"It's not an N. What letter is it?"
"Um." Not an N? Had she heard of that one before? Her hands were shaking, fidgetting. She tried putting them flat on the book to make them stop, but they wouldn't. What did her mother - no, teacher - what did teacher want? The letter. Right. The letter that was not an N. She had seen it before, that was for sure, but then, she had seen all of them. This one was more common than some of the others, though, but not as frequent as the vowels. She was taking too long. I should know. Everyone else knows. I should know, too. She made a wild guess, "T?"
"No, Hannah. It's an R. Do you remember what sound an R makes?"
She shook her head.
"Do you want to make a guess? No? Okay, just keep trying, Hannah," teacher said gently, "You're doing much better."
Hannah shook off the weird sense of deja vu as Professer Sprout finished asking her if she'd like to make a guess. She shook her head. She didn't remember the original question now and she wasn't about to ask. They would think she wasn't paying attention or that - that she . . . forgot things. Like she used to.
Time passed slowly. There were more notes to take, and more questions to answer, but Professor Sprout didn't ask her again. She looked like she might, once, but Hannah shook her head slightly and so she'd asked Marcus instead.
If anything, paying attention became more difficult once Professor Sprout lead them into the greenhouse. There were so many distractions. "Hannah," Professor Sprout said at one point - she'd caught her watching a bug, "Why don't you come over by me so you can see better."
"Okay."
And that had helped. After class, she told herself, After class.
