Dear Ginny,Chapter Ten- And the plot thickens…
~*~
Dear Ginny,
You might want to mind your post for a few days. Molly is apparently on a bit of
a... task undertaking mission to set things just right for her grandchildren.
You won't believe this, but Sunday, she owled me a Howler regarding Chloe. I was
quite shocked, as you can imagine. I suspect Chloe wrote to her purposely,
because we had a slight misunderstanding about an essay. Chloe is very well
behaved otherwise, and really I think a little talk with her parents would bring
so much closure to this. It would be nice to know that I don't have to fear any
more incidents at breakfast. I'm sure it would ease the digestion of the staff
at the very least, not to mention prevent both Ron and the kitchen from catching
fire again.
How are Harry and James? Penelope told me that you have a dog now. I was
shocked! Harry loathes dogs! I'm very curious as to how you persuaded him,
although I'm sure you didn't have any trouble. You always did have a knack for
getting Harry to do what you want!
Laura and Ron are doing well, and Laura really seems to love nursery school. I
know nursery school will benefit her social skills enormously and I'm so glad
you're her teacher. I found a very interesting way of incorporating foreign
languages into her extra work she does at home. Perhaps you can take a look at
the packet one weekend. I'm sure quite a few parents would be thrilled if their
children started learning French and German.
See you soon!
Love,
Hermione
~*~
Harry didn't really care for visits to the Muggle world. The last big visit was
to bring Chloe to live with him. And Harry didn't like to think about that….
Chloe was his. If Dudley only knew what he was missing. Chloe never mentioned
the Muggle world and her life before she came to live with him. Granted, she had
only been five, but Harry was certain that Chloe wanted to pretend like he
did…that she had been his daughter all along. Just like he used to pretend when
he was eleven that he had been part of the wizarding world all along.
He strolled along the street, carrying his parcel, and ignoring the loud morning
traffic and the countless drably dressed Muggles doing double takes.
"Harry! What do you think you're doing?"
Harry squinted against the morning sun and looked for the source of the voice.
His eyes lit upon a familiar face, but the entire picture didn't seem to click
as someone he actually knew.
Katie Bell, no, Katherine Linter, was glaring at him. She looked just like one
of them. Harry had seen plenty of wizards in Muggle clothing before, but there
had always been something that set them apart from the Muggles...
"Meeting you for breakfast," Harry answered, feeling a bit awkward.
"You're wearing robes!" Katie exclaimed in a loud whisper as she took him by the
elbow, like a disobedient three-year old. "Why not just start casting spells?"
She pulled them into a small doughnut shop and looked at his clothes again.
"Hello," Harry said sarcastically. "Good to see you after what, a decade?"
"I'll get us some coffee and doughnuts," Katie replied.
Harry took a seat in an orange plastic booth and played idly with the sugar
packets. He could tell that this wasn't going to go well.
Katie returned with the coffee and doughnuts. The definite appraising look at
his robes still remained.
"Ginny doesn't like them much either," Harry remarked with a small smile. "I
think I'm the only one that doesn't see anything wrong with them."
Katie looked past him and sipped her coffee. "Ginny?"
"Ginny Weasley. My wife. Surely you remember her…."
"Ginny Weasley?" Katie said, furrowing her brow. "I remember her... but I
thought she married Neville Longbottom."
"Neville died," Harry replied quietly. ''Ginny married me about six years ago."
Katie appeared to be doing some arithmetic in her head. "But if your daughter is
Finn's age...then she's Neville's?"
"No," Harry shook his head. "She's actually my adopted daughter. Ginny and I
have a son, and he'll be five in December." He pulled a handful of photographs
out of the inside of his robes.
Katie glanced down at a photograph of a much younger Chloe posing giddily with a
handful of Auror officers, wearing bits of their uniforms. ''That's your
daughter?"
"Yes, that's Chloe Grace."
Katie pushed the photographs back towards him as if they were going to bite her
fingers. "She looks very charming."
"Ginny put together a gift for you," Harry said in the painful silence that
followed. He put the parcel he had been carrying on the table. "A wizarding care
package, if you will."
"What is it?" Katie didn't make a motion to take it.
"Quidditch Magazines, teas, and I think my son made her add some Chocolate
Frogs," Harry listed, feeling like he was talking to himself.
Katie glanced at her watch and smiled thinly. ''Tell Ginny thank you for her
unnecessary trouble.''
Harry wasn't going to give up. "Katie, let's just be straightforward. I don't
understand why you've exiled yourself from the wizarding world."
"Shhh!" Katie said angrily. She glanced around nervously.
"I cast a silencing charm over the table," Harry replied impatiently. "You
remember, spells, magic?"
"Why are you so desperate to know why I don't choose to live in the wizarding
world?" Katie snapped.
"Because you used to be my friend," Harry answered. "My teammate. Something
happened to you and I want to help."
"Did it ever occur to you that it's none of your concern? My only concern in
life is my son. He goes to school in the wizarding world, so you shouldn't be
hassling me about anything," Katie replied hotly.
Harry shook his head. "You aren't the same person at all."
Katie looked at him bitterly. "You wouldn't be the same if you came home to find
your husband, killed at the hands of your own kind. Don't sit here and lecture
me, Harry."
"What happened?" He pushed the conversation forward gently.
"He was tortured and murdered," she said, her voice sounding like ice. "He was a
Muggle. I introduced him to the wizarding world and told him everything about
me…and he accepted it all. He embraced a completely new culture even when I
could have easily lived with him in the Muggle world. And they killed him.
"They left me a threat," Katie continued in a slow precise voice, "promising
they would come back for me and my child."
"I'm so sorry,'' he said quietly.
"Are you? You've never come home with your two-year old sleeping on your
shoulder, to discover his father murdered," Katie spat. "Now do you really think
I'm going to stay in the wizarding world and wait for them to come kill us?"
"I was in the war," Harry said softly. "I saw lots of terrible things."
"Yes," Katie answered dryly. "The Aurors. They didn't know how to control the
Death Eaters…. You ran around with your wands and hoped you could come across
them before you saw the Dark Mark."
"Voldemort is dead," Harry said steadily. "That was a dark time for everyone."
"Finn is only going to Hogwarts because You-Know-Who is dead," Katie snapped.
"He would never have found out about anything if I hadn't decided to let him try
magic."
"Why are you letting him try magic?" Harry asked carefully. "Why educate him to
be a wizard when you've exiled yourself from magic?"
"Your daughter hasn't told you anything about my son," Katie replied.
"She has," Harry corrected her. "He sounds very nice."
"Finnigan is the most unselfish creature on this earth,'' she said staring at
the tabletop, "just like his father. He works hard and he's clever but he...he
just never seemed to find his niche in the Muggle world. Finn would be happy
anywhere you put him and he would worry about you before himself."
"Katie, he belongs in the wizarding world and so do you."
Katie snapped her gaze up and glared at him. "If you'd like to pry, Finnigan
hasn't shown any different behavior or talents in the wizarding world than he
has in the Muggle world. He seems to be having a difficult time focusing his
magic."
''Some children take longer to learn how to control their magical abilities,''
Harry argued. ''You know that.''
"There's no need for him to be in any danger," Katie said sharply. "If he
doesn't display magical potential soon, I'm going to bring him back home.''
"That isn't right!'' Harry exclaimed. '' You're taking a rare gift away from
your son!"
"Rather like how the Death Eaters took Jack from me?"
"Katie, you can't do this to Finn...it isn't fair to him!"
"Who do you think you are? I am not going to sit here and listen to you tell me
that I have done a completely terrible job raising my child!"
"Katie, come stay with my family at Havenwood," Harry offered. "Just for a few
days…."
Katie reached furiously for her jacket. "Harry, take your charity back to the
wizarding world and keep your nose in your own bloody business. The subject is
closed."
"Kati--Katherine," Harry groaned in frustration. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to
offend you, but please...just..."
Katie finished collecting her belongings and sighed heavily. ''Harry, I know you
mean well, but I've made my decision.''
~*~
Harry was very much looking forward to going upstairs, switching on his Wireless
and taking in the very first Quidditch scrimmage of the season. He had been
anticipating the season for quite a while now. He had season tickets as usual,
although James probably wouldn't be quite as enthusiastic as Chloe. Harry knew
it was going to be a real wrench going to a game without Chloe. He doubted James
or Ginny would scream hysterically at the exciting parts. James would rather
play with the snacks they purchased him and he didn't quite understand the whole
concept of the game. Ginny was great friends with the other wives in the box and
preferred to chat with them rather than shake her fist at the referee with Harry
and Chloe.
He had just swiped the bag of pretzels out of the pantry when the click-click of
puppy toenails on the tile alerted him that Shoebox was scurrying quickly into
the kitchen.
"G'way," Harry mumbled, not bothering to pull his head out of the pantry. "I'm
not going to feed you. Talk to your mistress about that."
The scuttling toenail noise continued and Harry rolled his eyes. Pathetic. Of
course, anything with legs the size of cocktail sausages would take two hours to
run across the kitchen floor.
Then there was a considerably loud thump.
"Stupid," Harry said shaking his head and closing the pantry door. He looked
down at the puppy, who was panting happily. "You're supposed to stop."
He sorted through the post on the kitchen counter with one hand and weeded out
the ones that looked like bills. Harry smiled when he came across a parchment
with the Hogwarts seal and he ripped it open.
Dear Ginny,
You might want to mind your post for a few days….
Harry stopped and looked at the signature. Not a letter from Chloe. Hermione.
And only to Ginny?
He would have set the letter back on the counter, minded his own business, and
went upstairs to his Quidditch scrimmage if he hadn't seen Chloe's name in the
letter. Harry set the bag of pretzels on the counter and skimmed it quickly.
Minor tiff? Ron catching on fire? Suspect Chloe wrote to Molly on purpose?
Harry rubbed the side of his forehead thoughtfully. What was Hermione talking
about? Also, what was Hermione leaving out? Harry's eyebrows lifted into his
hair and he snorted loudly as he came across a specific paragraph.
"Listen to this," he said making a face at Shoebox. "Penelope told me that you
have a dog now. I was shocked! Harry loathes dogs! I'm very curious as to how
you persuaded him, although I'm sure you didn't have any trouble. You always did
have a knack for getting Harry to do what you want!"
Shoebox stared at Harry with a good-natured blank expression and panted some
more.
Harry nodded at his confidant. "Too right she is, I do loathe dogs. Especially
stupid ones."
Shoebox whined briefly and stared hard at the pretzel bag.
"Exactly," Harry nodded at him, chewing on a pretzel. "I think Hermione only
sent this to Ginny because she thinks that I'll be too easy on Chloe. I wonder
if we should get this story from Chloe too…."
Shoebox barked at the pretzel bag.
"I think we should get rid of the evidence too," Harry said with a cheeky grin.
He balled the letter up and lobbed it into the fireplace. "Incendio!"
He watched the parchment catch fire and become part of the ashes. This should be
interesting. He grabbed his pretzels and smiled as he walked out of the kitchen.
He had a Quidditch scrimmage to listen to and a letter to write to his daughter.
Shoebox yapped behind him and Harry tossed a pretzel over his shoulder before he
went upstairs.
~*~
That evening, Harry knocked off the crumbs on the front of James' robes and the
dirt off the back. He straightened the collar and hurriedly buttoned the top of
his robes James made an ugly face at him when he tried to rub the dirt off his
cheek.
"Going to spit on your handkerchief and clean his face?" Sirius teased, while
observing this.
Harry ignored him and tried to knock off more dirt. "What did you do? Roll in
the dirt?"
James was extremely proud of himself. "Shoebox did! I wanted to too."
"Excellent reason to," Sirius grinned. "Good job, Jamesy."
"That's why he smells!" Harry groaned, glancing at the pet carrier and making a
face.
"He smells like a puppy," James beamed at Sirius. "Mummy said so!"
"He smells like a dog," Harry replied. He pulled out his wand and tapped it on
James' robes. "Lavo."
Sirius peered inside the pet carrier and smiled wickedly. "Don't worry, Shoebox
old boy. I won't tell him what you think he smells like." Shoebox wriggled and
whined and tried to lick Sirius' finger through the bars.
"I wasn't referring to you, Sirius." Harry straightened up and tried to smooth
James' hair down. "I never said I didn't like all dogs."
"Sure you did," Sirius rapped firmly on the wooden door and smiled a very
satisfied smirk. "I had a talk with Ginny. Now what was it…."
"She was exaggerating," Harry put in quickly. "I like dogs."
"Oh, yes…I remember. Slobbery yappy little scraps of fur, was it?"
"Shoebox loves you even though you hate his guts," James told him.
Sirius lowered his voice and nodded at James. "Your daddy has deeply imbedded
psychological issues from his childhood. That very often skews his perception of
selfless love directed towards him. Sometimes this causes him to confuse his own
feelings for those of hatred and malice rather than the true gentility you and I
know him capable of."
James scratched his head, messing up his hair again. "He yells at the Quidditch
players at the game, too. Does that make him siconlomical?"
"Precisely," Sirius replied. "You're a very clever boy." He opened the pet
carrier and handed the squiggling puppy to Jamesy.
Before Harry could even begin to work out what Sirius had said and protest it,
the door opened and Dumbledore's housekeeper smiled warmly at them. "Mr. Black,
Mr. Potter, how very nice of you to visit. The professor said we'd be expecting
you today, and well, he's never wrong."
Harry was trying to quickly remember her name, but Sirus beat him to the punch.
"And how very nice to see you, Elizabeth. Tell me, are you still married to that
Lex chap, or has my luck finally changed?"
Oh brother. Sirius was really turning on the charm for her. All he needed was
for Jamesy to start learning all that.
"Still married, Mr. Black," she smiled, letting them inside.
"Hi," James said looking up at her through his mussed hair. "I like your shoes.
They are pretty."
Elizabeth was delighted. "Hello, darling! I'll bet the cook can find some sweets
in the kitchen for you and some biscuits for your little puppy. Would you like
that?"
"Way to go!" Sirius cheered in an undertone to James and rumpled his hair.
"Can I go, Daddy?" James begged. "Shoebox too?"
Harry nodded. "That's fine. Please mind your manners."
"Professor Dumbledore is upstairs in his study," Elizabeth told them, putting
her hand on James' shoulder. "I'll be up shortly to bring the tea."
Sirius nodded. "We'll show ourselves up then. Thanks."
"I've never been here to this house before," James was telling Elizabeth as they
walked off. "My daddy never told me that they gave out sweets here. Does the
cook live in the kitchen? Our house elves live in the kitchen. I think they live
in the big soup pots. I'm supposed to mind my manners, so maybe you could ask."
"James!" Harry chided in a loud whisper.
"My sister knows 'bout this place. She never said anything 'bout sweets, either.
Do you know her? This is my very first visit to here. I know Daddy's friend
though. He came to my house I think. We have sweets there, but Mummy doesn't
offer them right when I walk in the door," James chattered.
Harry sighed as they headed up the stairs. "He should be a commentator when he
grows up. Of anything."
Sirius grinned good-naturedly. "He's a good boy."
From numerous other visits, Harry knew exactly where Dumbledore's study was. He
rapped gently on the door, and it creaked partly open by itself.
Harry peered in. The curtains were drawn and the room was very dim except for
the light coming from the hearth. "Professor?"
There was no answer and Sirius shrugged at him before pushing the door open all
the way and entering.
Harry followed and he and Sirius found Dumbledore sitting in a chair with a book
in his lap, asleep.
"We should probably leave," Harry muttered to Sirius.
"No need to leave, gentlemen. I was merely resting my eyes and thinking."
Dumbledore opened his eyes and slowly closed his book. "Sit down, sit down." The
old Headmaster raised a weathered hand and smiled at them. A few lights
flickered to life.
"Nice to see you, Headmaster," Sirius said shaking his hand. "Harry brought me
along to watch Jamesy, but your housekeeper seemed to want to take over."
"Headmaster," Dumbledore repeated, smiling. "I retired from that office a
several years ago, Sirius, surely someone told you?"
"I heard," Sirius replied, with a wicked gleam to his eye. "But, I'm still not
convinced you left the school in the hands of a tyrant."
"Don't be so hard on the deputy headmistress, Sirius, I think she's doing a fine
job," Dumbledore replied with a twinkle in his eye. "Severus manages her as well
as he can."
Harry laughed, and he and Sirius took seats by the hearth.
"I've come for a bit of advice," Harry sighed.
Dumbledore closed his eyes and nodded. "Troubles, Harry?"
Harry told him all about this morning's encounter with Katie Bell and what he
had read in the Ministry file.
"So," he sighed. "I'm quite concerned about this. Especially since she wants to
take her son out of Hogwarts because she thinks he's in danger. I think she
needs my help."
"Time, Harry. Years of pain and loss cannot be corrected in a day."
"She won't even recognize she was once a part of the wizarding world," Harry
added. "I was hoping I could get her to stay with us for awhile at Havenwood."
"Perhaps," Dumbledore said with a sympathetic smile, "you need to find a
different approach. Katie would have to confront her emotions about her
husband's death again when she came back. That would be very painful, and I
imagine she's reluctant to do such a thing."
"Let things run their course," Sirius grinned. "I could have told you that,
Harry."
They discussed the problem a bit longer, until James scampered into the room,
his pockets all stuffed with candies and biscuits and Shoebox bouncing along in
the crook of his arm. Elizabeth followed him with a tea service.
"Jamesy," Harry said, clearing his throat. "This isn't our house…remember what
Mum said about running."
"Sorry, Daddy," James said apologetically. He spotted Dumbledore in his chair
and walked over, almost tiptoeing, obviously to appease Harry.
"Hello, Albus Dumbledore," James said solemnly looking at Dumbledore. "I've got
your name. I bet my Daddy told you. When I was a baby, he and Mummy named me
James Albus Potter. The Albus is the part that you have too. I like my name
lots. My sister is Chloe Grace Potter and she calls me Jamesy."
Harry winced when James shoved Shoebox under Dumbledore's nose. "This is my
dog," James said proudly. "His name is Shoebox Dolphin Potter."
Shoebox licked Dumbledore's nose and Harry made a motion to snatch the dog up,
but Dumbledore took the puppy from James and smiled at it. "A very fine specimen
of canine, James Albus Potter."
Harry was amazed, a few years actually seemed to vanish from Dumbledore's face
as he stroked Shoebox and talked to James.
"He barfed up newspaper today all over the rug," James continued, as Shoebox
squirmed in Dumbledore's grasp and licked his face. "It was the sports part."
Sirius turned away and hid a loud laugh into a cough.
"He must have been reading about the Puddlemere United game," Dumbledore said
with a wink for Jamesy.
"Are you a million years old?" James asked Dumbledore curiously. "Paddy says
he's a thousand."
Harry merely shook his head and settled back into his chair, giving up.
Dumbledore chuckled. "Would you like to talk about it over a cup of hot
chocolate, James Albus Potter?"
Jamesy nodded happily. "I bet you know lots of stuff."
~*~
"Ooh,'' Meghan said happily as she shoved Monster further down into her book
bag. ''We're late for Defense Against the Dark Arts. This time we're going to be
the ones causing that weird ticking thing that his mouth does."
"Is she excited?" Finn gaped, hurrying to catch up with Chloe. "He's going to
deduct house points and...."
"It won't be that bad," Chloe interrupted. "My dad said that his class once saw
him wearing an old lady dress with a vulture hat. They didn't die."
"I wasn't talking about dying!"
"At least it's not the Astronomy professor," Chloe told him. "I heard she
chucked a boy off of the tower when he accidentally backed into one of the
telescopes and knocked it over the side."
"You know," Finn panted, following Meghan's bouncing curls as they thundered
down a staircase. "They never tell you any of this in the acceptance letter."
"You worry too much," Meghan said, jumping off the last step.
"He's the Headmaster!"
"We just have to look really apologetic," Chloe said. "Then he'll just take a
few house points off."
"I don't like this at all," Finn said when they reached the doorway.
Meghan took a deep breath and concealed her smile. "Right, just don't look at
his mouth...."
Chloe put her back to the door to push it open, and put on an extremely
exaggerated sorrowful look.
Meghan turned away, trying to stifle her laughter. "Chloe! Don't do that!"
The door creaked loudly as it opened and they crept in. Chloe took extra pains
to hang her head and shuffle her feet slightly.
Snape stopped whatever he had been saying in mid-sentence and their classmates
stole glances back at the door.
"Well, well, well," Snape said icily, "just in time for the roll call, I see."
Chloe looked up from her shoes and tried her best to look more apologetic. Next
to her, Meghan was absolutely failing at disguising her smile.
"Front and center," Snape growled, viciously pointing in front of him. "All
three of you."
They trudged up to the front and Finn's cheeks were turning a deep red.
"We're very sorry we're late, Headmaster," Chloe began, trying to look anywhere
but Snape's mouth, which was indeed doing the odd ticking thing that Meg had
mentioned.
Snape held up his palm to silence her and glared at them. "Hold your tongue! I
don't care why you are late, but you will never be late to my class again or you
will not like the consequences!"
Finn's face and neck were red to the tip of his ears. "We're sorry,
Headmaster," he gulped.
"Ten points from Gryffindor, "Mr. Bell. I told you to keep your silence."
Finn winced and took a small step backwards.
Chloe bit her lower lip and waited for Snape to dismiss them back to their
seats. Of course, his mouth had to be doing that ticking thing, so Meghan was
probably not going to be able to restrain herself much longer....
"Miss Potter, wipe that idiotic look off your face. If you're going to insist on
being in Gryffindor, act like one or I'll put you in Hufflepuff. Ten points from
Gryffindor."
Chloe pressed her lips together and accepted the insult with as much dignity as
she could muster. She supposed she deserved it because she was late for class,
but for goodness sakes, his mouth simply had to stop ticking....
Sure enough, Meghan squeaked when Snape rounded on her and an unmistakable grin
was plastered on her face. Chloe bit fiercely at the inside of her cheek.
Headmaster. He's the Headmaster...don't look at his mouth. He's the Headmaster.
"Twenty-five points from Gryffindor!" Snape roared at Meghan. "Does something
seem funny to you? I'll have you cleaning this castle from the dungeon to the
top of every last tower. Then we'll see if that smirk remains on your face along
with all those freckles!"
Snape sneered at Meghan viciously and luckily she was able to keep her wits
about her and not giggle.
"Get to your seats. You've interrupted my class long enough," Snape ordered.
Chloe nearly sighed with relief and Finn looked as though he might pass out in
front of the entire class. Meghan's eyes were shining due to the excitement and
this made Chloe want to laugh at her.
Chloe accidentally made eye contact with Aidan Malfoy, whom Finn always sat with
and she was most irritated to see that he was smirking at her.
She could have just ignored him, but a streak of spunk and sauciness took hold
of her. He wanted to bother her? Well, she could play this game too.
She smirked right back at him and then stuck out her tongue.
"Tosser," she muttered under her breath as she passed.
Aidan hadn't been expecting that and his mouth opened in surprise.
Chloe took her seat feeling very accomplished. Defense against the Dark Arts,
indeed. She wasn't afraid of Aidan. If he wanted to act spooky and mysterious,
that was his problem. She took out her quill and parchment happily.
"The lesson for today has much practical application in your life as an adult
witch or wizard," Snape announced, drumming his fingertips on his crossed arms
as he paced in front of them. "Sometimes it is necessary to hide information for
safekeeping and in wartime, this can save your life."
Chloe was intrigued. Perhaps this was going to be a lesson on how to make
invisible ink.
"He made fun of my freckles," Meghan whispered to her joyfully. "He's so weird,
it's interesting."
"We will not be studying invisible inks," Snape continued, "as it is readily
available in any wizarding society and is easily removable with the purchase of
a cheap Revealer."
"Did you see Aidan Malfoy's face?" Chloe whispered back.
"You can outwit your enemies by simply learning a few charms to turn your
regular ink invisible. The charm renders a Revealer worthless, and can have many
layers of complexity added to it."
Meghan grinned. "I don't even think the prat realized he was making faces at
us."
"You can password a parchment to reveal its information with a correct spell or
enchant it to withhold information until a correct written or spoken phrase is
given. This is often the simple spell that many joke manufactures and amateur
wizards use to get a cheap laugh, as they can enchant the parchment to insult
and belittle the holder."
Snape stopped pacing and picked up a stack of long strips of parchment.
"Nevertheless, you can read about such ridiculous spells in your textbook
outside of class, as they will be on your examination. I have prepared an
activity for a more practical application of the method. Open your textbooks to
page 909 and read the paragraph about reversing the invisibility charm."
He began passing out strips of parchment to them, but he seemed to be very
choosy over who got which blank piece of parchment.
"You may share what is revealed on your parchment with your classmates, but you
will be marked on an individual basis on if you can reveal the information
completely and correctly, without damaging the message."
Snape handed the last slip of parchment to Finn and cleared his throat. "Begin."
"I wonder which side is the part with the message," Kincaid Gallinatti muttered,
holding his parchment up and squinting at it.
Chloe frowned and ran her wand along the words in her book. "This looks like
it's not going to be easy," she said to Meghan. "You've got to be very careful
with how you control your spell because the parchment can--"
"Where'd my parchment go?" Harry Carrington cried out loudly.
"Disappear," Chloe finished. "Or...in...instigate?"
Meghan yelped and slammed her book on top of her parchment. "Catch on fire!"
"In-cin-erate!" Chloe said stabbing her finger at the word. "Exactly."
Harry Carrington was now crawling around on the floor, feeling around for his
parchment.
"I've got it!" Kincaid exclaimed excitedly.
"What does it say?" Calixta asked, turning around with the rest of them.
"I'm not sure," Kincaid said squinting. "It's sort of fading into
focus...wait...wait, it says...."
"Ooh, what?" Posy said.
"And," Kincaid said happily. "That wasn't so hard."
"And what?" Meghan scoffed. "Your message was the word and?"
"Kincaid got the one with the really important secret on it," snickered
Alexander. "The fate of our school is in his hands."
"There's probably a few more words," Gloria suggested politely.
Chloe ran the tip of her wand across the parchment. " Palabra appereum." She
felt a thrill of anticipation when she saw the sparks of her spell dance on top
of the parchment briefly, but they died away without the appearance of any
words.
"Almost," Chloe murmured to herself as she tried to imagine the letters
appearing bold and dark on her parchment. She liked this class. She could do
this first.
"Poppies," Meghan said, waving her parchment slip over her head. "Or puppies, I
can't quite make it out that well."
Finn was reading his book with his hand tangled in his hair and he was mouthing
the words to himself. "This is hard," he said to Aidan, who was ignoring him and
everyone else.
It was hard. The Defense against the Dark Arts class fretted and wrinkled their
parchments while Professor Snape sat at his desk looking most unapproachable.
Finally, after quite a while the Gryffindors were able to work out how the spell
behaved. The slips of parchment contained information on items to study for
their next examination.
Even though they all passed the parchments around, some of them weren't able to
get the entire message to appear. Finn's message merely only said the word
'Gryffindor' and unfortunately they could only work on their own parchment.
"Write your name on your parchment," Snape ordered. "Miss Biddle, pick them up."
When Posy handed them to him, he flipped through them, raising his eyebrows at a
few of them.
"Study the characteristics of and which is found in the section of your
textbook. How helpful, Mr. Carrington. I'm sure your classmates appreciate
your contribution," Snape commented in a dry sarcastic tone.
"And I see Mr. Bell failed to complete the extra credit slip."
Finn bit his lower lip and looked down on his desk.
Snape tapped his wand on the parchment. "Somehow I think your classmates would
have found 'One hundred points to Gryffindor' much more useful than
'Gryffindor.' " He smirked at the class.
Finn hung his head lower.
"He did that on purpose," Chloe said quietly to Meghan.
"Of course he did," Meghan snorted. "You don't think he's just going to give us
a hundred points."
"Poor Finn," Chloe sighed. "I bet that slip was a little harder too."
"Copy your homework assignments. I suggest some of you take extra care on your
homework, since it appears that some of you did more than poorly on this class
work. I have posted the list with the first round results of the academic
contests which you may look at after I dismiss you."
There was a quite a bit stirring amongst the Gryffindors as they all looked at
each other trying to decide who would be the first in academic standings.
"I bet it's you, Chlo," Meghan whispered. "You get perfect marks in Herbology
and really good ones in Charms and Transfiguration."
"But not in dumb old Potions," Chloe muttered darkly, hurrying to scribble down
the homework.
Everyone scrambled for the door when Snape dismissed them and they crowded
around the list. Chloe was in the back, and she stood on her tiptoes to try and
see the list. She couldn't quite see through thick Harry Carrington, so Meghan
pushed her way through a bit closer.
"I'm not last!" Harry Carrington shouted gleefully.
"You're second to last," snickered Kincaid. "Your mum'll be so proud."
"I'm right in the middle," Posy sighed with relief. "Thank goodness."
"Who's first?" demanded Calixta, who was in the back with Chloe.
"I am," said Aidan Malfoy coolly, pushing his way out of the crowd.
Chloe's jaw dropped. Aidan! That little prat wasn't first! ANYONE but him.
"Chlo, you're fourth!" Meghan called over Kincaid's head. "And I'm...I'm...well,
that's got to be wrong."
Finn appeared next to Chloe, paler than usual with a weak smile.
"I can't believe Aidan Malfoy is FIRST," Chloe hissed angrily. "How can anyone
compete with someone who stays in the corner of the common room, glaring at
everyone over his books. I bet he's just dying for the teachers to start a
course about how to take over the world."
Finn blinked, very confused. "What?"
"Like his father of course," Chloe said, rolling her eyes.
"You know his family?" Finn asked curiously.
"No," said Chloe, catching her slip. "My dad just said something once, that's
all."
Meghan appeared out of the crowd. "I don't know...they have me down as third.
But you deserve my spot more, Chlo. You study more." She shook her head and
shrugged. "If you ask me, this is downright silly anyway."
Finn shrugged. "I'm not happy with my spot either, Chloe. You did quite well,
though. Better than last, anyway."
Chloe gasped. "Oh, Finn! You don't deserve that!"
"Let's go to dinner," suggested Meghan.
"We're going to have the top three spots on that list," Chloe said, very miffed.
"And I'm going to beat Aidan Malfoy if it's the last thing I do. Even if I have
to stop talking to everyone."
"I reckon you'd be right by him if you hadn't got a rotten grade on Professor
Granger's essay," said Meghan. "Suppose we could write to Grandmum again?" she
suggested wickedly.
Finn sighed heavily, brushing his feathery hair out of his eyes. "Do you suppose
you could tell me why you don't like Aidan Malfoy so much?"
"We get marks for Flying when that starts," Chloe said in reply. "I can't wait!"
"Stay tuned," Meghan said to Finn with a smile. "Things are probably going to
get very ugly. She might even drive that prat to start talking, whether it be
nice words or not."
"He started it," Chloe said lightly. "He talked to me first."
"You talked to me first," Finn said slowly. "You haven't got plans to try and
beat me at anything, have you?"
~*~
Author note: Sorry about the chapter delay. Life has been crazy. Really, really,
crazy.
Chloe's Bookshelf has a brand new home. We can be found at
http://www.geocities.com/caitlyn_mc or if you don't want to copy that into your
browser, you can click HERE to bookmark to the bookshelf. ;-)
Thanks VERY much to my betas, Anne and Jilly.
~*~
Dear Ginny,
You might want to mind your post for a few days. Molly is apparently on a bit of
a... task undertaking mission to set things just right for her grandchildren.
You won't believe this, but Sunday, she owled me a Howler regarding Chloe. I was
quite shocked, as you can imagine. I suspect Chloe wrote to her purposely,
because we had a slight misunderstanding about an essay. Chloe is very well
behaved otherwise, and really I think a little talk with her parents would bring
so much closure to this. It would be nice to know that I don't have to fear any
more incidents at breakfast. I'm sure it would ease the digestion of the staff
at the very least, not to mention prevent both Ron and the kitchen from catching
fire again.
How are Harry and James? Penelope told me that you have a dog now. I was
shocked! Harry loathes dogs! I'm very curious as to how you persuaded him,
although I'm sure you didn't have any trouble. You always did have a knack for
getting Harry to do what you want!
Laura and Ron are doing well, and Laura really seems to love nursery school. I
know nursery school will benefit her social skills enormously and I'm so glad
you're her teacher. I found a very interesting way of incorporating foreign
languages into her extra work she does at home. Perhaps you can take a look at
the packet one weekend. I'm sure quite a few parents would be thrilled if their
children started learning French and German.
See you soon!
Love,
Hermione
~*~
Harry didn't really care for visits to the Muggle world. The last big visit was
to bring Chloe to live with him. And Harry didn't like to think about that….
Chloe was his. If Dudley only knew what he was missing. Chloe never mentioned
the Muggle world and her life before she came to live with him. Granted, she had
only been five, but Harry was certain that Chloe wanted to pretend like he
did…that she had been his daughter all along. Just like he used to pretend when
he was eleven that he had been part of the wizarding world all along.
He strolled along the street, carrying his parcel, and ignoring the loud morning
traffic and the countless drably dressed Muggles doing double takes.
"Harry! What do you think you're doing?"
Harry squinted against the morning sun and looked for the source of the voice.
His eyes lit upon a familiar face, but the entire picture didn't seem to click
as someone he actually knew.
Katie Bell, no, Katherine Linter, was glaring at him. She looked just like one
of them. Harry had seen plenty of wizards in Muggle clothing before, but there
had always been something that set them apart from the Muggles...
"Meeting you for breakfast," Harry answered, feeling a bit awkward.
"You're wearing robes!" Katie exclaimed in a loud whisper as she took him by the
elbow, like a disobedient three-year old. "Why not just start casting spells?"
She pulled them into a small doughnut shop and looked at his clothes again.
"Hello," Harry said sarcastically. "Good to see you after what, a decade?"
"I'll get us some coffee and doughnuts," Katie replied.
Harry took a seat in an orange plastic booth and played idly with the sugar
packets. He could tell that this wasn't going to go well.
Katie returned with the coffee and doughnuts. The definite appraising look at
his robes still remained.
"Ginny doesn't like them much either," Harry remarked with a small smile. "I
think I'm the only one that doesn't see anything wrong with them."
Katie looked past him and sipped her coffee. "Ginny?"
"Ginny Weasley. My wife. Surely you remember her…."
"Ginny Weasley?" Katie said, furrowing her brow. "I remember her... but I
thought she married Neville Longbottom."
"Neville died," Harry replied quietly. ''Ginny married me about six years ago."
Katie appeared to be doing some arithmetic in her head. "But if your daughter is
Finn's age...then she's Neville's?"
"No," Harry shook his head. "She's actually my adopted daughter. Ginny and I
have a son, and he'll be five in December." He pulled a handful of photographs
out of the inside of his robes.
Katie glanced down at a photograph of a much younger Chloe posing giddily with a
handful of Auror officers, wearing bits of their uniforms. ''That's your
daughter?"
"Yes, that's Chloe Grace."
Katie pushed the photographs back towards him as if they were going to bite her
fingers. "She looks very charming."
"Ginny put together a gift for you," Harry said in the painful silence that
followed. He put the parcel he had been carrying on the table. "A wizarding care
package, if you will."
"What is it?" Katie didn't make a motion to take it.
"Quidditch Magazines, teas, and I think my son made her add some Chocolate
Frogs," Harry listed, feeling like he was talking to himself.
Katie glanced at her watch and smiled thinly. ''Tell Ginny thank you for her
unnecessary trouble.''
Harry wasn't going to give up. "Katie, let's just be straightforward. I don't
understand why you've exiled yourself from the wizarding world."
"Shhh!" Katie said angrily. She glanced around nervously.
"I cast a silencing charm over the table," Harry replied impatiently. "You
remember, spells, magic?"
"Why are you so desperate to know why I don't choose to live in the wizarding
world?" Katie snapped.
"Because you used to be my friend," Harry answered. "My teammate. Something
happened to you and I want to help."
"Did it ever occur to you that it's none of your concern? My only concern in
life is my son. He goes to school in the wizarding world, so you shouldn't be
hassling me about anything," Katie replied hotly.
Harry shook his head. "You aren't the same person at all."
Katie looked at him bitterly. "You wouldn't be the same if you came home to find
your husband, killed at the hands of your own kind. Don't sit here and lecture
me, Harry."
"What happened?" He pushed the conversation forward gently.
"He was tortured and murdered," she said, her voice sounding like ice. "He was a
Muggle. I introduced him to the wizarding world and told him everything about
me…and he accepted it all. He embraced a completely new culture even when I
could have easily lived with him in the Muggle world. And they killed him.
"They left me a threat," Katie continued in a slow precise voice, "promising
they would come back for me and my child."
"I'm so sorry,'' he said quietly.
"Are you? You've never come home with your two-year old sleeping on your
shoulder, to discover his father murdered," Katie spat. "Now do you really think
I'm going to stay in the wizarding world and wait for them to come kill us?"
"I was in the war," Harry said softly. "I saw lots of terrible things."
"Yes," Katie answered dryly. "The Aurors. They didn't know how to control the
Death Eaters…. You ran around with your wands and hoped you could come across
them before you saw the Dark Mark."
"Voldemort is dead," Harry said steadily. "That was a dark time for everyone."
"Finn is only going to Hogwarts because You-Know-Who is dead," Katie snapped.
"He would never have found out about anything if I hadn't decided to let him try
magic."
"Why are you letting him try magic?" Harry asked carefully. "Why educate him to
be a wizard when you've exiled yourself from magic?"
"Your daughter hasn't told you anything about my son," Katie replied.
"She has," Harry corrected her. "He sounds very nice."
"Finnigan is the most unselfish creature on this earth,'' she said staring at
the tabletop, "just like his father. He works hard and he's clever but he...he
just never seemed to find his niche in the Muggle world. Finn would be happy
anywhere you put him and he would worry about you before himself."
"Katie, he belongs in the wizarding world and so do you."
Katie snapped her gaze up and glared at him. "If you'd like to pry, Finnigan
hasn't shown any different behavior or talents in the wizarding world than he
has in the Muggle world. He seems to be having a difficult time focusing his
magic."
''Some children take longer to learn how to control their magical abilities,''
Harry argued. ''You know that.''
"There's no need for him to be in any danger," Katie said sharply. "If he
doesn't display magical potential soon, I'm going to bring him back home.''
"That isn't right!'' Harry exclaimed. '' You're taking a rare gift away from
your son!"
"Rather like how the Death Eaters took Jack from me?"
"Katie, you can't do this to Finn...it isn't fair to him!"
"Who do you think you are? I am not going to sit here and listen to you tell me
that I have done a completely terrible job raising my child!"
"Katie, come stay with my family at Havenwood," Harry offered. "Just for a few
days…."
Katie reached furiously for her jacket. "Harry, take your charity back to the
wizarding world and keep your nose in your own bloody business. The subject is
closed."
"Kati--Katherine," Harry groaned in frustration. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to
offend you, but please...just..."
Katie finished collecting her belongings and sighed heavily. ''Harry, I know you
mean well, but I've made my decision.''
~*~
Harry was very much looking forward to going upstairs, switching on his Wireless
and taking in the very first Quidditch scrimmage of the season. He had been
anticipating the season for quite a while now. He had season tickets as usual,
although James probably wouldn't be quite as enthusiastic as Chloe. Harry knew
it was going to be a real wrench going to a game without Chloe. He doubted James
or Ginny would scream hysterically at the exciting parts. James would rather
play with the snacks they purchased him and he didn't quite understand the whole
concept of the game. Ginny was great friends with the other wives in the box and
preferred to chat with them rather than shake her fist at the referee with Harry
and Chloe.
He had just swiped the bag of pretzels out of the pantry when the click-click of
puppy toenails on the tile alerted him that Shoebox was scurrying quickly into
the kitchen.
"G'way," Harry mumbled, not bothering to pull his head out of the pantry. "I'm
not going to feed you. Talk to your mistress about that."
The scuttling toenail noise continued and Harry rolled his eyes. Pathetic. Of
course, anything with legs the size of cocktail sausages would take two hours to
run across the kitchen floor.
Then there was a considerably loud thump.
"Stupid," Harry said shaking his head and closing the pantry door. He looked
down at the puppy, who was panting happily. "You're supposed to stop."
He sorted through the post on the kitchen counter with one hand and weeded out
the ones that looked like bills. Harry smiled when he came across a parchment
with the Hogwarts seal and he ripped it open.
Dear Ginny,
You might want to mind your post for a few days….
Harry stopped and looked at the signature. Not a letter from Chloe. Hermione.
And only to Ginny?
He would have set the letter back on the counter, minded his own business, and
went upstairs to his Quidditch scrimmage if he hadn't seen Chloe's name in the
letter. Harry set the bag of pretzels on the counter and skimmed it quickly.
Minor tiff? Ron catching on fire? Suspect Chloe wrote to Molly on purpose?
Harry rubbed the side of his forehead thoughtfully. What was Hermione talking
about? Also, what was Hermione leaving out? Harry's eyebrows lifted into his
hair and he snorted loudly as he came across a specific paragraph.
"Listen to this," he said making a face at Shoebox. "Penelope told me that you
have a dog now. I was shocked! Harry loathes dogs! I'm very curious as to how
you persuaded him, although I'm sure you didn't have any trouble. You always did
have a knack for getting Harry to do what you want!"
Shoebox stared at Harry with a good-natured blank expression and panted some
more.
Harry nodded at his confidant. "Too right she is, I do loathe dogs. Especially
stupid ones."
Shoebox whined briefly and stared hard at the pretzel bag.
"Exactly," Harry nodded at him, chewing on a pretzel. "I think Hermione only
sent this to Ginny because she thinks that I'll be too easy on Chloe. I wonder
if we should get this story from Chloe too…."
Shoebox barked at the pretzel bag.
"I think we should get rid of the evidence too," Harry said with a cheeky grin.
He balled the letter up and lobbed it into the fireplace. "Incendio!"
He watched the parchment catch fire and become part of the ashes. This should be
interesting. He grabbed his pretzels and smiled as he walked out of the kitchen.
He had a Quidditch scrimmage to listen to and a letter to write to his daughter.
Shoebox yapped behind him and Harry tossed a pretzel over his shoulder before he
went upstairs.
~*~
That evening, Harry knocked off the crumbs on the front of James' robes and the
dirt off the back. He straightened the collar and hurriedly buttoned the top of
his robes James made an ugly face at him when he tried to rub the dirt off his
cheek.
"Going to spit on your handkerchief and clean his face?" Sirius teased, while
observing this.
Harry ignored him and tried to knock off more dirt. "What did you do? Roll in
the dirt?"
James was extremely proud of himself. "Shoebox did! I wanted to too."
"Excellent reason to," Sirius grinned. "Good job, Jamesy."
"That's why he smells!" Harry groaned, glancing at the pet carrier and making a
face.
"He smells like a puppy," James beamed at Sirius. "Mummy said so!"
"He smells like a dog," Harry replied. He pulled out his wand and tapped it on
James' robes. "Lavo."
Sirius peered inside the pet carrier and smiled wickedly. "Don't worry, Shoebox
old boy. I won't tell him what you think he smells like." Shoebox wriggled and
whined and tried to lick Sirius' finger through the bars.
"I wasn't referring to you, Sirius." Harry straightened up and tried to smooth
James' hair down. "I never said I didn't like all dogs."
"Sure you did," Sirius rapped firmly on the wooden door and smiled a very
satisfied smirk. "I had a talk with Ginny. Now what was it…."
"She was exaggerating," Harry put in quickly. "I like dogs."
"Oh, yes…I remember. Slobbery yappy little scraps of fur, was it?"
"Shoebox loves you even though you hate his guts," James told him.
Sirius lowered his voice and nodded at James. "Your daddy has deeply imbedded
psychological issues from his childhood. That very often skews his perception of
selfless love directed towards him. Sometimes this causes him to confuse his own
feelings for those of hatred and malice rather than the true gentility you and I
know him capable of."
James scratched his head, messing up his hair again. "He yells at the Quidditch
players at the game, too. Does that make him siconlomical?"
"Precisely," Sirius replied. "You're a very clever boy." He opened the pet
carrier and handed the squiggling puppy to Jamesy.
Before Harry could even begin to work out what Sirius had said and protest it,
the door opened and Dumbledore's housekeeper smiled warmly at them. "Mr. Black,
Mr. Potter, how very nice of you to visit. The professor said we'd be expecting
you today, and well, he's never wrong."
Harry was trying to quickly remember her name, but Sirus beat him to the punch.
"And how very nice to see you, Elizabeth. Tell me, are you still married to that
Lex chap, or has my luck finally changed?"
Oh brother. Sirius was really turning on the charm for her. All he needed was
for Jamesy to start learning all that.
"Still married, Mr. Black," she smiled, letting them inside.
"Hi," James said looking up at her through his mussed hair. "I like your shoes.
They are pretty."
Elizabeth was delighted. "Hello, darling! I'll bet the cook can find some sweets
in the kitchen for you and some biscuits for your little puppy. Would you like
that?"
"Way to go!" Sirius cheered in an undertone to James and rumpled his hair.
"Can I go, Daddy?" James begged. "Shoebox too?"
Harry nodded. "That's fine. Please mind your manners."
"Professor Dumbledore is upstairs in his study," Elizabeth told them, putting
her hand on James' shoulder. "I'll be up shortly to bring the tea."
Sirius nodded. "We'll show ourselves up then. Thanks."
"I've never been here to this house before," James was telling Elizabeth as they
walked off. "My daddy never told me that they gave out sweets here. Does the
cook live in the kitchen? Our house elves live in the kitchen. I think they live
in the big soup pots. I'm supposed to mind my manners, so maybe you could ask."
"James!" Harry chided in a loud whisper.
"My sister knows 'bout this place. She never said anything 'bout sweets, either.
Do you know her? This is my very first visit to here. I know Daddy's friend
though. He came to my house I think. We have sweets there, but Mummy doesn't
offer them right when I walk in the door," James chattered.
Harry sighed as they headed up the stairs. "He should be a commentator when he
grows up. Of anything."
Sirius grinned good-naturedly. "He's a good boy."
From numerous other visits, Harry knew exactly where Dumbledore's study was. He
rapped gently on the door, and it creaked partly open by itself.
Harry peered in. The curtains were drawn and the room was very dim except for
the light coming from the hearth. "Professor?"
There was no answer and Sirius shrugged at him before pushing the door open all
the way and entering.
Harry followed and he and Sirius found Dumbledore sitting in a chair with a book
in his lap, asleep.
"We should probably leave," Harry muttered to Sirius.
"No need to leave, gentlemen. I was merely resting my eyes and thinking."
Dumbledore opened his eyes and slowly closed his book. "Sit down, sit down." The
old Headmaster raised a weathered hand and smiled at them. A few lights
flickered to life.
"Nice to see you, Headmaster," Sirius said shaking his hand. "Harry brought me
along to watch Jamesy, but your housekeeper seemed to want to take over."
"Headmaster," Dumbledore repeated, smiling. "I retired from that office a
several years ago, Sirius, surely someone told you?"
"I heard," Sirius replied, with a wicked gleam to his eye. "But, I'm still not
convinced you left the school in the hands of a tyrant."
"Don't be so hard on the deputy headmistress, Sirius, I think she's doing a fine
job," Dumbledore replied with a twinkle in his eye. "Severus manages her as well
as he can."
Harry laughed, and he and Sirius took seats by the hearth.
"I've come for a bit of advice," Harry sighed.
Dumbledore closed his eyes and nodded. "Troubles, Harry?"
Harry told him all about this morning's encounter with Katie Bell and what he
had read in the Ministry file.
"So," he sighed. "I'm quite concerned about this. Especially since she wants to
take her son out of Hogwarts because she thinks he's in danger. I think she
needs my help."
"Time, Harry. Years of pain and loss cannot be corrected in a day."
"She won't even recognize she was once a part of the wizarding world," Harry
added. "I was hoping I could get her to stay with us for awhile at Havenwood."
"Perhaps," Dumbledore said with a sympathetic smile, "you need to find a
different approach. Katie would have to confront her emotions about her
husband's death again when she came back. That would be very painful, and I
imagine she's reluctant to do such a thing."
"Let things run their course," Sirius grinned. "I could have told you that,
Harry."
They discussed the problem a bit longer, until James scampered into the room,
his pockets all stuffed with candies and biscuits and Shoebox bouncing along in
the crook of his arm. Elizabeth followed him with a tea service.
"Jamesy," Harry said, clearing his throat. "This isn't our house…remember what
Mum said about running."
"Sorry, Daddy," James said apologetically. He spotted Dumbledore in his chair
and walked over, almost tiptoeing, obviously to appease Harry.
"Hello, Albus Dumbledore," James said solemnly looking at Dumbledore. "I've got
your name. I bet my Daddy told you. When I was a baby, he and Mummy named me
James Albus Potter. The Albus is the part that you have too. I like my name
lots. My sister is Chloe Grace Potter and she calls me Jamesy."
Harry winced when James shoved Shoebox under Dumbledore's nose. "This is my
dog," James said proudly. "His name is Shoebox Dolphin Potter."
Shoebox licked Dumbledore's nose and Harry made a motion to snatch the dog up,
but Dumbledore took the puppy from James and smiled at it. "A very fine specimen
of canine, James Albus Potter."
Harry was amazed, a few years actually seemed to vanish from Dumbledore's face
as he stroked Shoebox and talked to James.
"He barfed up newspaper today all over the rug," James continued, as Shoebox
squirmed in Dumbledore's grasp and licked his face. "It was the sports part."
Sirius turned away and hid a loud laugh into a cough.
"He must have been reading about the Puddlemere United game," Dumbledore said
with a wink for Jamesy.
"Are you a million years old?" James asked Dumbledore curiously. "Paddy says
he's a thousand."
Harry merely shook his head and settled back into his chair, giving up.
Dumbledore chuckled. "Would you like to talk about it over a cup of hot
chocolate, James Albus Potter?"
Jamesy nodded happily. "I bet you know lots of stuff."
~*~
"Ooh,'' Meghan said happily as she shoved Monster further down into her book
bag. ''We're late for Defense Against the Dark Arts. This time we're going to be
the ones causing that weird ticking thing that his mouth does."
"Is she excited?" Finn gaped, hurrying to catch up with Chloe. "He's going to
deduct house points and...."
"It won't be that bad," Chloe interrupted. "My dad said that his class once saw
him wearing an old lady dress with a vulture hat. They didn't die."
"I wasn't talking about dying!"
"At least it's not the Astronomy professor," Chloe told him. "I heard she
chucked a boy off of the tower when he accidentally backed into one of the
telescopes and knocked it over the side."
"You know," Finn panted, following Meghan's bouncing curls as they thundered
down a staircase. "They never tell you any of this in the acceptance letter."
"You worry too much," Meghan said, jumping off the last step.
"He's the Headmaster!"
"We just have to look really apologetic," Chloe said. "Then he'll just take a
few house points off."
"I don't like this at all," Finn said when they reached the doorway.
Meghan took a deep breath and concealed her smile. "Right, just don't look at
his mouth...."
Chloe put her back to the door to push it open, and put on an extremely
exaggerated sorrowful look.
Meghan turned away, trying to stifle her laughter. "Chloe! Don't do that!"
The door creaked loudly as it opened and they crept in. Chloe took extra pains
to hang her head and shuffle her feet slightly.
Snape stopped whatever he had been saying in mid-sentence and their classmates
stole glances back at the door.
"Well, well, well," Snape said icily, "just in time for the roll call, I see."
Chloe looked up from her shoes and tried her best to look more apologetic. Next
to her, Meghan was absolutely failing at disguising her smile.
"Front and center," Snape growled, viciously pointing in front of him. "All
three of you."
They trudged up to the front and Finn's cheeks were turning a deep red.
"We're very sorry we're late, Headmaster," Chloe began, trying to look anywhere
but Snape's mouth, which was indeed doing the odd ticking thing that Meg had
mentioned.
Snape held up his palm to silence her and glared at them. "Hold your tongue! I
don't care why you are late, but you will never be late to my class again or you
will not like the consequences!"
Finn's face and neck were red to the tip of his ears. "We're sorry,
Headmaster," he gulped.
"Ten points from Gryffindor, "Mr. Bell. I told you to keep your silence."
Finn winced and took a small step backwards.
Chloe bit her lower lip and waited for Snape to dismiss them back to their
seats. Of course, his mouth had to be doing that ticking thing, so Meghan was
probably not going to be able to restrain herself much longer....
"Miss Potter, wipe that idiotic look off your face. If you're going to insist on
being in Gryffindor, act like one or I'll put you in Hufflepuff. Ten points from
Gryffindor."
Chloe pressed her lips together and accepted the insult with as much dignity as
she could muster. She supposed she deserved it because she was late for class,
but for goodness sakes, his mouth simply had to stop ticking....
Sure enough, Meghan squeaked when Snape rounded on her and an unmistakable grin
was plastered on her face. Chloe bit fiercely at the inside of her cheek.
Headmaster. He's the Headmaster...don't look at his mouth. He's the Headmaster.
"Twenty-five points from Gryffindor!" Snape roared at Meghan. "Does something
seem funny to you? I'll have you cleaning this castle from the dungeon to the
top of every last tower. Then we'll see if that smirk remains on your face along
with all those freckles!"
Snape sneered at Meghan viciously and luckily she was able to keep her wits
about her and not giggle.
"Get to your seats. You've interrupted my class long enough," Snape ordered.
Chloe nearly sighed with relief and Finn looked as though he might pass out in
front of the entire class. Meghan's eyes were shining due to the excitement and
this made Chloe want to laugh at her.
Chloe accidentally made eye contact with Aidan Malfoy, whom Finn always sat with
and she was most irritated to see that he was smirking at her.
She could have just ignored him, but a streak of spunk and sauciness took hold
of her. He wanted to bother her? Well, she could play this game too.
She smirked right back at him and then stuck out her tongue.
"Tosser," she muttered under her breath as she passed.
Aidan hadn't been expecting that and his mouth opened in surprise.
Chloe took her seat feeling very accomplished. Defense against the Dark Arts,
indeed. She wasn't afraid of Aidan. If he wanted to act spooky and mysterious,
that was his problem. She took out her quill and parchment happily.
"The lesson for today has much practical application in your life as an adult
witch or wizard," Snape announced, drumming his fingertips on his crossed arms
as he paced in front of them. "Sometimes it is necessary to hide information for
safekeeping and in wartime, this can save your life."
Chloe was intrigued. Perhaps this was going to be a lesson on how to make
invisible ink.
"He made fun of my freckles," Meghan whispered to her joyfully. "He's so weird,
it's interesting."
"We will not be studying invisible inks," Snape continued, "as it is readily
available in any wizarding society and is easily removable with the purchase of
a cheap Revealer."
"Did you see Aidan Malfoy's face?" Chloe whispered back.
"You can outwit your enemies by simply learning a few charms to turn your
regular ink invisible. The charm renders a Revealer worthless, and can have many
layers of complexity added to it."
Meghan grinned. "I don't even think the prat realized he was making faces at
us."
"You can password a parchment to reveal its information with a correct spell or
enchant it to withhold information until a correct written or spoken phrase is
given. This is often the simple spell that many joke manufactures and amateur
wizards use to get a cheap laugh, as they can enchant the parchment to insult
and belittle the holder."
Snape stopped pacing and picked up a stack of long strips of parchment.
"Nevertheless, you can read about such ridiculous spells in your textbook
outside of class, as they will be on your examination. I have prepared an
activity for a more practical application of the method. Open your textbooks to
page 909 and read the paragraph about reversing the invisibility charm."
He began passing out strips of parchment to them, but he seemed to be very
choosy over who got which blank piece of parchment.
"You may share what is revealed on your parchment with your classmates, but you
will be marked on an individual basis on if you can reveal the information
completely and correctly, without damaging the message."
Snape handed the last slip of parchment to Finn and cleared his throat. "Begin."
"I wonder which side is the part with the message," Kincaid Gallinatti muttered,
holding his parchment up and squinting at it.
Chloe frowned and ran her wand along the words in her book. "This looks like
it's not going to be easy," she said to Meghan. "You've got to be very careful
with how you control your spell because the parchment can--"
"Where'd my parchment go?" Harry Carrington cried out loudly.
"Disappear," Chloe finished. "Or...in...instigate?"
Meghan yelped and slammed her book on top of her parchment. "Catch on fire!"
"In-cin-erate!" Chloe said stabbing her finger at the word. "Exactly."
Harry Carrington was now crawling around on the floor, feeling around for his
parchment.
"I've got it!" Kincaid exclaimed excitedly.
"What does it say?" Calixta asked, turning around with the rest of them.
"I'm not sure," Kincaid said squinting. "It's sort of fading into
focus...wait...wait, it says...."
"Ooh, what?" Posy said.
"And," Kincaid said happily. "That wasn't so hard."
"And what?" Meghan scoffed. "Your message was the word and?"
"Kincaid got the one with the really important secret on it," snickered
Alexander. "The fate of our school is in his hands."
"There's probably a few more words," Gloria suggested politely.
Chloe ran the tip of her wand across the parchment. " Palabra appereum." She
felt a thrill of anticipation when she saw the sparks of her spell dance on top
of the parchment briefly, but they died away without the appearance of any
words.
"Almost," Chloe murmured to herself as she tried to imagine the letters
appearing bold and dark on her parchment. She liked this class. She could do
this first.
"Poppies," Meghan said, waving her parchment slip over her head. "Or puppies, I
can't quite make it out that well."
Finn was reading his book with his hand tangled in his hair and he was mouthing
the words to himself. "This is hard," he said to Aidan, who was ignoring him and
everyone else.
It was hard. The Defense against the Dark Arts class fretted and wrinkled their
parchments while Professor Snape sat at his desk looking most unapproachable.
Finally, after quite a while the Gryffindors were able to work out how the spell
behaved. The slips of parchment contained information on items to study for
their next examination.
Even though they all passed the parchments around, some of them weren't able to
get the entire message to appear. Finn's message merely only said the word
'Gryffindor' and unfortunately they could only work on their own parchment.
"Write your name on your parchment," Snape ordered. "Miss Biddle, pick them up."
When Posy handed them to him, he flipped through them, raising his eyebrows at a
few of them.
"Study the characteristics of and which is found in the section of your
textbook. How helpful, Mr. Carrington. I'm sure your classmates appreciate
your contribution," Snape commented in a dry sarcastic tone.
"And I see Mr. Bell failed to complete the extra credit slip."
Finn bit his lower lip and looked down on his desk.
Snape tapped his wand on the parchment. "Somehow I think your classmates would
have found 'One hundred points to Gryffindor' much more useful than
'Gryffindor.' " He smirked at the class.
Finn hung his head lower.
"He did that on purpose," Chloe said quietly to Meghan.
"Of course he did," Meghan snorted. "You don't think he's just going to give us
a hundred points."
"Poor Finn," Chloe sighed. "I bet that slip was a little harder too."
"Copy your homework assignments. I suggest some of you take extra care on your
homework, since it appears that some of you did more than poorly on this class
work. I have posted the list with the first round results of the academic
contests which you may look at after I dismiss you."
There was a quite a bit stirring amongst the Gryffindors as they all looked at
each other trying to decide who would be the first in academic standings.
"I bet it's you, Chlo," Meghan whispered. "You get perfect marks in Herbology
and really good ones in Charms and Transfiguration."
"But not in dumb old Potions," Chloe muttered darkly, hurrying to scribble down
the homework.
Everyone scrambled for the door when Snape dismissed them and they crowded
around the list. Chloe was in the back, and she stood on her tiptoes to try and
see the list. She couldn't quite see through thick Harry Carrington, so Meghan
pushed her way through a bit closer.
"I'm not last!" Harry Carrington shouted gleefully.
"You're second to last," snickered Kincaid. "Your mum'll be so proud."
"I'm right in the middle," Posy sighed with relief. "Thank goodness."
"Who's first?" demanded Calixta, who was in the back with Chloe.
"I am," said Aidan Malfoy coolly, pushing his way out of the crowd.
Chloe's jaw dropped. Aidan! That little prat wasn't first! ANYONE but him.
"Chlo, you're fourth!" Meghan called over Kincaid's head. "And I'm...I'm...well,
that's got to be wrong."
Finn appeared next to Chloe, paler than usual with a weak smile.
"I can't believe Aidan Malfoy is FIRST," Chloe hissed angrily. "How can anyone
compete with someone who stays in the corner of the common room, glaring at
everyone over his books. I bet he's just dying for the teachers to start a
course about how to take over the world."
Finn blinked, very confused. "What?"
"Like his father of course," Chloe said, rolling her eyes.
"You know his family?" Finn asked curiously.
"No," said Chloe, catching her slip. "My dad just said something once, that's
all."
Meghan appeared out of the crowd. "I don't know...they have me down as third.
But you deserve my spot more, Chlo. You study more." She shook her head and
shrugged. "If you ask me, this is downright silly anyway."
Finn shrugged. "I'm not happy with my spot either, Chloe. You did quite well,
though. Better than last, anyway."
Chloe gasped. "Oh, Finn! You don't deserve that!"
"Let's go to dinner," suggested Meghan.
"We're going to have the top three spots on that list," Chloe said, very miffed.
"And I'm going to beat Aidan Malfoy if it's the last thing I do. Even if I have
to stop talking to everyone."
"I reckon you'd be right by him if you hadn't got a rotten grade on Professor
Granger's essay," said Meghan. "Suppose we could write to Grandmum again?" she
suggested wickedly.
Finn sighed heavily, brushing his feathery hair out of his eyes. "Do you suppose
you could tell me why you don't like Aidan Malfoy so much?"
"We get marks for Flying when that starts," Chloe said in reply. "I can't wait!"
"Stay tuned," Meghan said to Finn with a smile. "Things are probably going to
get very ugly. She might even drive that prat to start talking, whether it be
nice words or not."
"He started it," Chloe said lightly. "He talked to me first."
"You talked to me first," Finn said slowly. "You haven't got plans to try and
beat me at anything, have you?"
~*~
Author note: Sorry about the chapter delay. Life has been crazy. Really, really,
crazy.
Chloe's Bookshelf has a brand new home. We can be found at
http://www.geocities.com/caitlyn_mc or if you don't want to copy that into your
browser, you can click HERE to bookmark to the bookshelf. ;-)
Thanks VERY much to my betas, Anne and Jilly.