MAELSTROM
CHAPTER THIRTY TWO-NIGHT VISION
HERMIONE
I felt so awful for Jenna and Mr. Lupin. Harry kept his arm around me comfortingly.
Professor Snape respectfully began backing away only until Mr. Lupin saw him and stood up, standing in front of him.
Snape was watching Mr. Lupin apprehensively.
Mr. Lupin extended his hand.
Stunned briefly, Professor Snape hesitated before shaking his hand.
"I'm so sorry I blamed you. I should've known you'd never harm Carrie," he said quietly.
Professor Snape nodded and then glanced at Harry and I. Mr. Lupin gave Snape a hug. Snape was shocked too and awkwardly patted Mr. Lupin on the back before he released him.
Snape continued heading down the corridor.
"Who do you think is the person doing this?" Jenna asked wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.
"I'm not sure," I mused. "Let's head back to the common room."
We entered Gryffindors common room and sat down.
Mr. Lupin and Jenna were quiet but now determined to find out who killed Carrie, or Mrs. Lupin.
We sat in thought for a while. The common room was nice and quiet considering all the students were in their classes now.
The warm fire crackled.
Suddenly, I thought of something and snapped my fingers.
"Wait a sec," I said. "Didn't Snape say something about thinking Quirrell was up to something?"
Realization dawned on Jenna's and Harry's faces.
"Yes! That's right!" Jenna said eagerly.
"But why would Quirrell be after the Stone?" Harry mused frowning.
"Same reason why Snape would be after it," I said simply. "Who wouldn't want to live forever?"
"I agree," Mr. Lupin said suddenly. "I think we should question Quirrell tonight. We could use Harry's Invisibility cloak to walk the castle."
There was a rage in his eyes.
I've never seen that type of look in someone's eyes before. It was a bit unnerving.
"Do you really think he's going to say anything?" I asked anxiously.
"Oh yeah," Mr. Lupin said a dangerously low voice that we've heard Snape use before. "You can bet on it."
His eyes narrowed into slits.
That night, Mr. Lupin changed into a wolf. Jenna, Harry and I were huddled under the cloak.
We left the Gryffindor common room and into the darkened corridors. The gray wolf was trotting alongside us even though he couldn't see us but he could smell us clearly.
"This really isn't a good idea," I said biting my bottom lip nervously.
"Wouldn't you rather let my Mum's killer go free?" Jenna demanded.
"No," I muttered.
The wolf lowered its head and sniffed at the floor. He began growling.
"Looks like Dad's got the scent," Jenna whispered.
The wolf began picking up speed.
We quickly followed the wolf. To our surprise and horror, it was leading us out onto the grounds and toward the forbidden forest.
Suddenly, Filch came out of his office and bumped right into us knocking us backward and the cloak fell off exposing us.
"Well, well well," Filch smirked. "We are in trouble."
We looked up into his face and felt dread coming over us.
Things couldn't've been worse.
Filch took us down to Professor McGonagall's study on the first floor, where we sat and waited without saying a word to each other. I was trembling. I knew excuses, alibis and wild stories were floating through everyone's minds. I didn't see how we were going to get out of this one.
How were we going to explain the cloak? Mr. Lupin had stood hunched on all fours in a dark corner of the corridor and watched helplessly. There was no reason on earth Professor McGonagall would accept for us being out of bed and creeping around the school in the dead of night. Although, when Professor McGonagall arrived, leading Neville.
"Jenna!" Neville burst out the moment he spied me and Harry. "I was trying to find you to warn you, I heard that Filch was doing one of his rounds and…"
Jenna shook her head violently to shut Neville up, but McGonagall had seen. She was looking outraged.
"I would have never believed it of any of you. Mr. Filch says you three were up in the corridor. It's one o'clock in the morning. Explain yourselves."
It was the first time I've ever failed to answer a teachers' question. I was just staring at my slippers, still as a statue.
"I think I've got a good idea as to what's going on," McGonagall continued. "It doesn't take a genius to work it out. You thought you could go wandering around the school, playing hero to find Miss Owens' murderer and you told Longbottom to keep it a secret."
Jenna caught Neville's eye and tried to tell him without words that it wasn't true. I mean we were going to question Quirrell, but we never involved Neville. Perhaps he over heard us talking in the common room?
We knew it must've cost him to find them in the dark to warn us.
"I'm disgusted," McGonagall said. "Four students out of bed in one night! I've never heard such a thing before. You, Miss Granger, I thought had more sense. As for you Mr. Potter, I thought Gryffindor meant more to you than this. All three of you will receive detentions—yes, you too, Mr. Longbottom, nothing gives you the right to walk around the school at night, especially these days, it's very dangerous—and fifty points will be taken from Gryffindor."
"Fifty?" Harry gasped.
We would lose the lead that he'd won in the last Quidditch match.
"Fifty points each," said Professor McGonagall, breathing heavily through her long pointed nose.
"Professor—Please…"
"You can't…"
"Don't tell me what I can and can't do, Potter. Now get back to bed, all of you. I've never been more ashamed of Gryffindor students,"
A hundred and fifty points lost. That put Gryffindor in last place. In one night, we'd ruined any chance Gryffindor had for the house cup. Plus, we let down Mr. Lupin in finding Carrie's killer.
At first, Gryffindors passing the giant hourglass that recorded the house points the next day thought there'd been a mistake. How could they suddenly have a hundred and fifty points fewer than yesterday? And then the word started to spread: Harry Potter, the famous Harry Potter, their hero of two Quidditch matches had lost them all the points and a couple of other stupid first years.
From being one of the most popular and admired person in the school, Harry was now the most hated.
Even Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff turned on us because they wanted to see Slytherin lose the house cup. Everywhere we went, people pointed and didn't trouble to lower their voices.
Worst was Jenna. She felt like she let down her Mum even though Mr. Lupin assured her that she didn't.
Slytherins clapped as we walked by, whistled and cheered, "Thanks Potter, we owe you one!"
"They'll forget this in a few weeks," I said with false cheerfulness. "The Davis' twins lose loads of points in the time that they've been here and people still like them."
"They've never lose a 150 points in one go, though, have they?" Harry said miserably.
"Well—no," I admitted.
It was too late to repair the damage, but Harry swore to himself not to go sneaking around anymore.
He felt so ashamed that he went to Oliver Wood and offered to resign from the Quidditch team.
"Resign?" Wood had thundered. "What good'll that do? How are we going to get any points back if we can't win at Quidditch?"
But it seemed to us that even Quidditch had lost its fun to Harry. The rest of the team wouldn't speak to him during practice and if they had to speak about him, they called him "the seeker."
Jenna and I were suffering too. We didn't have as a bad of a time as Harry, but no one would speak to us either. I had stopped attracting attention to myself in class, keeping my head down and working in silence.
We were almost glad that the exams weren't far away. All the studying kept our minds off the misery.
Then, about a week before the exams were due to start, Harry's resolution not to go sneaking around or interfering in anything was put to the test.
He told us that one afternoon, while walking back from the library, he heard whimpering from a classroom up ahead. He said as he drew closer he heard Quirrell sobbing "No—no—not again, please,"
He said it sounded as though someone was threatening him.
Quirrell came hurrying out of the classroom straightening his turban. Harry said he was pale and looked as though he was about to cry.
"Most odd," Mr. Lupin said thoughtfully.
"Could someone else be threatening Quirrell? I mean, we know its not Snape," Jenna said.
"It could very well possibly be," I said. "And from what Harry's told us, it sounds as if whoever was threatening Quirrell has finally forced him to break."
"Whoever it is Quirrell probably told him how to break his Anti-Dark Force spell," Harry added.
"There's still Fluffy though," Mr. Lupin said.
"Maybe the person has found a way to get past him without asking Hagrid," Harry mused. "I bet there's a book somewhere in here telling you how to get past a giant three headed dog. So what do we do?"
The light of adventure was kindling in Harry's eyes but I answered before Jenna could.
"Go to Dumbledore. That's what we should have done ages ago. If we try anything ourselves we'll be thrown out for sure."
"But we've got no proof!" Mr. Lupin said. "Quirrell's too scared to back us up. And whoever is doing this only has to say he didn't know how the troll got in at Halloween and that he was no where near the third floor—who do you think they'll believe him or you guys? I could very well try but people will more than likely think I've gone mental because of Carrie. Don't forget, we're not supposed to know about the Sorcerer's Stone of Fluffy. That'll take a lot of explaining."
I was convinced but Jenna wasn't.
"If we just do a bit of poking around…"
"No," Harry said flatly. "We've done enough poking around."
He pulled a map of Jupiter toward him and started to learn the names of its moons.
The following morning, notes were delivered to Harry, Jenna, Neville and I at the breakfast table. They were all the same:
Your detention will take place at eleven o'clock tonight. Meet Mr. Filch in the entrance hall.
Professor McGonagall
We had almost forgotten we had detention.
At eleven o'clock that night, we said good-bye to Mr. Lupin and went down to the entrance Hall with Neville. Filch was already there.
"Follow me," Filch said lighting a lamp and heading us outside.
"I bet you'll think twice about breaking a school rule again, wont you, eh?" he said leering at us. "Oh yes…hard work and pain are the best teachers if you ask me…It's just a pity they let the old punishments die out…hang you by your wrists from the ceiling for a few days, I've got the chains still in my office, keep 'em well oiled in case they're ever needed…Right, off we go, and don't think of running off now it'll be worse for you if you do."
We marched off across the dark grounds. Neville kept sniffing. I wondered what our punishment was going to be. It must be something really horrible or else Filch wouldn't be sounding so delighted.
The moon was bright, but clouds scudded across it momentarily throwing us into darkness. Ahead, we could see the lighted windows of Hagrid's hut. Then we heard a distant shout:
"Is that you Filch? Hurry up, I want ter get started,"
I could see Harry's relief on his face. Filch must've seen it too because Filch turned to Harry.
"I suppose you think you'll be enjoying yourself with that oaf? Well, think again, boy—it's into the forest you're going and I'm much mistaken if you'll come out in one piece."
At this, Neville let out a little moan and Jenna stopped dead in her tracks.
"The forest?" she repeated sounding terrified. "There are all kinds of monsters in there."
Neville clutched the sleeve of Harry's robe and made a choking noise.
"That's your problem, isn't it?" Filch asked, his voice cracking with glee. "Should've thought about that before you got yourselves into trouble."
Hagrid was striding toward us with Fang at his side.
He was carrying a large crossbow and a quiver of arrows hung over his shoulder.
"Abou' time," he said. "I bin waitin' fer half and hour already. Alright Harry? Hermione? Jenna? Neville?"
"You shouldn't be too friendly toward them, Hagrid," Filch said coldly. "They're here to be punished, after all."
"That's why yer late, is it?" asked Hagrid frowning at Filch. "Bin lecturing them eh? 'Snot your place ter do that. Yeh've done yer bit, I'll take over from here."
"I'll be back at dawn," said Filch. "For what's left of them."
He added nastily and he turned and headed back toward the castle.
Jenna turned toward Hagrid.
"I'm not going into that forest," she said.
"Nothing's gonna hurt you as long as you're with me," Hagrid said softly.
He waited a moment before continuing.
"Right then," Hagrid said. "Now listen carefully, 'cause it's dangerous what we're gonna do tonight, an' I don't want no one takin' risks. Follow me over here a moment."
He led us over to a section near the edge of the forest. A silvery substance was streaked on the ground.
"See that stuff shinin' on the ground? Silvery stuff? That's unicorn blood. There's a unicorn in there bin hurt badly by summat. This is the second time in a week. I found one dead last Wednesday. We're gonna try an' find the poor thing. We might have to put it out of its misery."
"And what if whatever hurt the unicorn finds us first?" Neville said swallowing.
"As I said before…nothing will hurt you if yer with me or Fang," Hagrid said. "Now keep to the path. Right now we're gonna split into two parties and follow the trail in different directions. There's blood all over the place, it must've been staggerin' around since last night.
"So me, Harry and Hermione'll go one way…Neville, Jenna and Fang will go the other. If you find the unicorn we'll send up green sparks right? If any of us get into trouble, we'll send up red. Be careful. Let's go."
Before Hagrid had taken a step, Jenna's eyes slid out of focus and she went rigid.
"A vision," I whispered.