Babebunny: What's odd? By the way, to reply ur last review, yes I'm going to talk more about Harry's scar. In fact, you might find some in this chapter.
Harry-Potter-Rule: Oh thanks! Er yeah I do know that Harry could speak to snakes, and I was darn sure I wanted to include something about talking to the snake but somehow I just got distracted and forgot about it altogether. Also, I was thinking the snake should be able to attack Harry even if Harry can talk to it coz in CoS, under the orders of Tom Riddle, the basilisk did attack Harry. Anyway, I promise I'll be careful the next time. Thanks for pointing our the mistake.
Daughter of Darkness: Ohhhh! So sorry to keep you waiting. Anyway, I think I wanted to reply to your last review but forgot about it. I wanted to say that James' eyes are hazel. No doubt about it. Coz in OotP, the part where Harry saw Snape's worst memory, they mentioned that.
BeOt: I'm glad you finally posted a review lol. Thank you!
And thanks to Butlerphan666 and Celby for your kind reviews. Now back to the story!
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Chapter 8: Identity Crisis
Janieve stirred. Her body was aching and the lump on the back of her head was still throbbing. The events leading up to her unconsciousness came flooding back to her. She bolted upright and snapped her eyes open. Harry!
Her visions swum back into focus and Janieve found herself sitting on an old wiry mattress. The room was bare except for a dusty writing desk and cobwebs hung around the corners of the room.
She dashed out of the room and bounded down the stairs, the wooden steps creaking loudly under her weight. She realised that she was in a small wooden shack, with some of the planks missing from the floor. She hopped around, eyes trained on the ground, careful not to step on a hollow patch, and reached the door that will lead out of the house.
She tugged at the door but it refused to budge. Janieve grabbed the knob with all her strength and pulled. She slipped on a missing plank and stumbled backwards. Her left palm hit something small and hard and she yelped in pain. Nursing her bruised hand, she studied the object that had caused her injury. It was golden but rusty, and like a circular hoop. She had seen this before…
Professor Snape had pulled at something like this before the night Janieve was out under Harry's invisibility cloak. It was a trapdoor. She pulled with the ring and the door sprang open easily. Climbing down into the hole, she found herself in a long stretch of tunnel.
Crawling and climbing through, she emerged on the grounds of Hogwarts. Dusting off her knees and hands, she began walking towards the school.
Whoop!
Barely walked a few steps, she found herself a few yards down by something long and strong. She rolled on her back painfully and realised that she was hit by the Whomping Willow. The willow actually leads to a shack?
But she did not have time to ponder upon that. She needed to find Harry. Halfway to the castle and she spotted Harry coming out of the Quidditch pitch.
"Harry!"
His head snapped in her direction. A look of relief crossed his face.
"Jan!" He ran towards her, "You alright? Are you hurt?" he asked, his fingers gripping into her shoulders rather roughly.
"Wha-?" How could he have known about her meeting with the Killets and being knocked out cold by someone? Janieve shook her head, trying to clear her head. Harry meanwhile seemed to take that gesture as her answers.
"How did you know I was…?" Janieve began.
"Where did you go?" Harry asked at the same time.
Janieve shook her head again. A sudden thought crossed her mind and she panicked. What if her attacker, the spy, was still around the area?
"Harry, I need to talk to you. Let's go back to the castle. We can use the room of requirement," she said quietly but quickly.
Harry's face contorted into anger. "What are you playing at!" he yelled.
"What? What are you talking about?" Janieve spluttered.
"You asked me to the room of requirement last night and I found not you, but a seven feet long Boa Constrictor," Harry spat angrily, "And now here you are asking me to go to the room of requirement again. Did you really think I would believe you?"
"No, wait, Harry," Janieve said, her head spinning, "When did I asked you to go to the room of requirement?"
"Oh, so acting innocent now?" Harry said, voice dripping with sarcasm, "I had no idea you were capable of that."
"Harry! I swear –"
"What now, Lestrange?" Harry sneered, "Gone back to work for your father?"
Janieve reeled back, stung. "I can't believe you, Harry," she said angrily, and stormed off towards the castle at top speed.
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Harry had not meant to say those nasty things to her. In his mind, there was no doubt that he believed in her innocence. But having been attacked by a vicious creature, and being overwhelmed with anxiety for the past fifteen hours about Janieve's safety only to find her dishevelled but perfectly fine, Harry found it hard to contain the rush of mixed emotions from spilling over.
When she reeled back in anger, Harry knew he had gone too far.
"I can't believe you, Harry," she said angrily, and stormed off towards the castle at top speed.
But once he started, there was no turning back.
"Say hi to your father for me!" Harry yelled after her. She started running off and Harry kicked at the loose gravel in frustration.
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It was a clear Saturday and Janieve found herself sitting in the library, whispering her encounter to Hermione, earning glares from the librarian, Madam Pince.
"Well, he was really worried about you," Hermione said under her breath, "He kept asking me to check the girls' dorm to see if you were back. He was acting like he had when he had that dream of Sirius at the Ministry of Magic."
"But that's no excuse to say those things he said," Janieve said heatedly. Madam Pince started walking towards them.
"I'm afraid I may have to ask you to leave if you keep up with the racket you're making," she said authoritatively.
"Sorry," Janieve said and rolled her eyes when the librarian walked away.
"Look, I woke up in this shack that leads to the Whomping Willow," Janieve said quietly.
"The Shrieking Shack," Hermione supplied.
"And," Janieve continued, "he came yelling at me. I haven't even seen him since he was flirting with the blonde at Quidditch."
"But he definitely thought he saw you," Hermione said, "In fact, I suspect he might be hallucinating. He thought he saw Sirius too."
"What!" Janieve blurted. Madam Pince shot them another venomous glare.
"He said he saw Sirius and started following him. And that was when you jumped out at him and demanded to meet him at the room of requirement. He's been having these crazy ideas that Sirius might still be alive," Hermione explained.
"No, something isn't right," Janieve said, not really hearing her friend, "He couldn't have hallucinated the snake, could he? And there's this things the Killets told me. They said Voldemort has a spy in Hogwarts. It is very possible that the spy had impersonated as me and sent Harry there!"
"Polyjuice potion," Hermione said, catching on.
"Yes, that's very plausible," Janieve agreed.
"But who could it be?" Hermione asked.
Random faces ran through Janieve's head and they paused at Corianne. Could it be her? She was new, wasn't she? What about the Defence teacher? He was new too, wasn't he? And that did not eliminate the possibility that it could be someone who had been their friend all along and had suddenly switched allies. Peter Pettigrew had done that.
"Harry's here, maybe you should –" Hermione said.
"No," Janieve cut her off firmly, "I'll see you around." She picked up her belongings and made to leave. She kept her eyes trained straight ahead when she brushed past Harry on her way out of the library.
Janieve nearly toppled over when she crashed into a squatting figure next to the aisle. "I'm so sorry!" Janieve apologised to the wincing girl.
"No problem," she said, and turned back to scanning the bottom shelves.
"What are you looking for?" Janieve asked.
"My things," she said airily, "Sometimes they hide them here."
"Who?" Janieve asked, confused.
"The students," she replied, "they find it amusing."
A surge of sympathy coursed through Janieve's entire being. "I'll help you," Janieve offered. But before she could crouch down next to her, the girl had already stood up.
"Never mind," she said dismissively, "They will come back. I don't really need them now anyway."
Janieve gave her a small smile. "I'm Janieve," she said.
"I'm Luna Lovegood," she replied.
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Harry knew Hermione had wanted to talk to him about Janieve but Harry had averted the topic by steering her away with a random subject or pretended he had not heard her by staring intently at the Quidditch book spread open in front of him.
Hermione had given up shortly and headed for dinner. Harry had had a late and heavy lunch and did not really feel much like talking. So, he busied himself by poring over the Quidditch books in the almost deserted library.
The stick figures he had drawn on the parchment before him blurred as Harry felt his eyelids drooped. Fatigued overtook him and he dozed off onto the table. When he regained consciousness, the library was dark and empty. Checking his watch, he found out to his horror that it was half past eleven. Why the librarian had not woken him up, Harry had no inkling. Cursing between not having his Invisibility Cloak with him and having fallen asleep for so long with no one to wake him up, Harry crept out of the cold vacant library.
Edging along the dimly lit corridors, Harry nearly screamed when he came face to face with the teacher he least wished to see – Professor Severus Snape. However, what happened next left Harry even more bewildered.
Shocked registered on Snape's face, he went on his knees and started kissing Harry's robes. "Master," he cried, "What are you doing here, Master!"
Horrified, Harry fled from his ex-Potions Master and did not stop sprinting until he had reached his dorm and thrown himself onto his bed, breath ragged and heart thumping wildly.
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Next Chapter: Unsure… I've just decided not to post the date that I'll be posting again coz first, I don't want to end up like the last chapter again, making you guys wait for nothing. Second, I find that everytime I set myself a dateline, I tend to rush through writing and make foolish mistakes about the story. So I hope you'll understand. Sorry about that.