Disclaimer: Yes, J. K. Rowling owns everything. Repressing the urge to say 'yadayadayada'.
A/N: I can't believe how many weird misspellings there were in that last A/N. We were afraid it would be so, since I wrote it one o'clock in the morning. I'd run it through spellcheck, but some of the words became joined together when I uploaded it.
It's fixed now. And yes, we are back a day earlier. That is because I wrote the wrong day in my last A/N. Because I was half-asleep. We're very sorry.
Akalei, Maddie and Keemew2, we're glad you're staying with us and we hope you'll keep reading. Keemew2, spellcheck is our god! Maddie, a short answer to your question: yes. Rachel, we did invite people to flame, it's true. If you ever get this far into the story, which you probably won't, seeing as you hate it, all we can say is that we wholeheartedly agree with you.
FFF
17.- Class Cancelled
"Oh, Ginny, I need to ask you something," said Kya. "You see a lot of Ron, don't you?"
"Well, he is my brother," said Ginny. "Why?"
She and Kya had been sitting talking confidentially to one another for a couple of hours, and that didn't happen very often, so Ginny was in a good mood. She knew that the only reason why Kya was paying so much attention to her was because Harry and Hermione were away, and she couldn't find them anywhere. Still, it made Ginny feel better, knowing she was Kya's third choice for companionship. Most people couldn't say as much.
"Oh, I'm getting these vibes from him," Kya sighed. "Bad vibes. It's like he's trying to avoid me. He gives me these looks, and when I look back at him, he avoids my eyes."
She appeared to be genuinely unhappy. She was smiling, but it was in an uncertain way; her huge, beautiful eyes were sparkling with unshed tears and it seemed as if she was trying her best not to wrinkle her brow in despair. She looked trusting and defenceless.
Ginny of course knew exactly what was the matter with Ron, and why he avoided Kya. This presented an interesting dilemma for her. She knew that she had promised Ron not to tell the older girl about their discussion, and yet she felt strangely compelled to reveal everything to Kya. Kya did have the right to know, and Ginny really wanted to be closer friends with her, but still, she had promised.
Ginny let her gaze drift to the crackling fire. She did her best to look thoughtful, as if trying to recall if Ron had ever talked to her about it.
"Well, I don't know if he's said anything," she began, but as she happened to glance back at Kya, she was brought up short.
The expression on Kya's exquisite face had lost all of its tragic softness. Instead a look of feral anticipation adorned her features. She seemed to be hanging on to every word Ginny was saying, silently urging her to continue, waiting for her to make an important slip. That realization hit Ginny hard. She didn't know what to say. Ron's conspiracy theories couldn't be correct, but all was not right; she could see that…
Thankfully, they were then interrupted by none other than the object of their talk.
"Hello girls," Ron said, a bit too cheerfully.
Ginny felt very relieved.
"What happened to you two?" she asked, bringing Kya's attention to Harry and Hermione, who both sported two black eyes.
"Oh, yeah, that," said Harry, looking a bit sheepish. "Potions experiment that went wrong."
"We were making you a birthday present," Hermione explained. "And it blew up in our faces. We don't seem to be able to do anything properly without you, Kya."
"Oh, I was wondering what you were up to," said Kya, beaming. "You remembered my birthday's next week! Oh, I'm so flattered."
Ron had to keep firm control over himself, to stop from gaping at her. She had really memory charmed herself. She was really that stupid. Well, that could certainly work in their favour.
Immediately he noticed that Harry and Hermione were staring at Kya. Under the pretence of having to help them apply salve to their eyes, as they couldn't see properly, he muttered,
"And avoid her eyes, or you'll have to go through this again!" under his breath. Harry and Hermione quickly averted their eyes from her. Instead, they turned to Ginny.
"We're going to bed," Hermione told her.
"Yes, to… heal up," said Harry. They went to their dormitories.
Ron and Neville also decided to retreat, leaving Ginny to fend for herself.
"No, I don't think he has said anything to me about you, except that he thought your dress at the ball was nice," she said.
Kya brightened up.
"Really? He thought my dress was nice?"
Ginny decided to plunge on recklessly.
"Yes, actually, I remember now; he's been watching you a lot. I think he said to me once, that he wished he were in Ma - Draco's shoes."
Kya didn't notice the hesitation. She was too delighted with what she was hearing.
"Oh yes," said Ginny. "He adores your hair. And your eyes."
Kya was loving what Ginny was saying. Of course she was, thought Ginny - who wouldn't love to hear such a thing? And Kya seemed to believe in it all. She must be very innocent. How could Ron think such bad things about such a sweet person?
"Especially your eyes, he thinks they're gorgeous," Ginny couldn't stop herself from adding.
"Yes, they are quite perfect, aren't they?" said Kya dreamily, clearly thinking out loud. She twirled a strand of her hair around her forefinger.
On the other hand, there was a fine line between childlike innocence and narcissism.
Suddenly, Ginny felt a great urge to be alone.
The next morning, professor McGonagall noted that there were two empty seats at the breakfast table of the staff. Professor Dumbledore hadn't joined them for breakfast during the last couple of weeks. She understood that it must be very stressful for him to try to handle both the school and the Dark Lord at the same time. Still, she was worried about him. It couldn't be healthy for a man of his age and constitution, to seclude himself and immerse himself in work like that. But that was nothing new.
What was more strange was the absence of Rhona Jacobson. She had turned up for breakfast every morning since she had started teaching, despite the fact that she lived in Hogsmeade and despite her many hangovers. Where could she be? If she was sick, surely she could have sent an owl.
Well, one had to try to excuse Rhona's erratic behaviour, and so far, professor McGonagall had done her best. She had heard all about the suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of Rhona's husband and sister that summer. Killed by Death Eaters, and in a horribly savage way… it was happening all over again…
But Rhona had five classes to teach today! Professor McGonagall's lips thinned. She would have to reprimand the Defence teacher. Such irresponsibility was unacceptable, really. It was easy to overlook many things with Rhona, but this went too far, McGonagall told herself. Too far. She would tell her off nicely, and let the students know that their Defence lessons would be cancelled, if the professor did not appear at all during the day. She would have to keep an eye out. She'd send an owl, to find out what was wrong, unless Jacobson was just exceptionally late this particular morning. With her, you never knew.
It really was rather strange, some of the Gryffindors thought, that neither Harry, Hermione, Ron or Neville got particularly upset when they all received detentions from professor Snape that day, simply because Neville had dropped a quill into his potion.
"Well, I suppose they're used to it," Parvati remarked to Kya, as they left class. "And besides, Snape's in a bad mood. It's not the first time he's been incredibly unfair to them."
The four stayed behind after the lesson, to discuss their "detention."
"Professor Jacobson wasn't here today," said Snape. "I trust you all realize what this means?"
"Do you think anything has happened to her, professor?" asked Hermione.
"I'm quite convinced something has happened to her," said Snape, wearily. "I just don't know what."
"Do you think she's on to us?" said Ron. "Kya, I mean."
"It's possible," said Snape, who had started to pace the classroom. "It's also possible that she saw her pick up Luna that night, and simply wanted revenge."
"What do you think has happened to her?" asked Ron.
"I couldn't say, but we should assume that she's dead."
"She's dead?" said Harry and Hermione at the same time.
Snape looked up at them, irritably.
"No, I'm not saying she's definitely dead, but that we should plan for the worst."
He paced the room some more. The others fell silent. After some time, Hermione said,
"But professor, do you really think Kya would risk it? To kill a professor, just for revenge. I mean, people would notice she was gone…"
"Would they really?" said Snape, frowning at her. "Morris may seem overly confident now, but she has good reason to be. I'd wager, miss Granger, that if she had the hold on you today that she had on you yesterday, she could make all of your close friends disappear without you ever knowing."
Hermione opened her mouth, and closed it again, without uttering a word.
"Professor McGonagall is the only teacher, besides myself, who has realized that professor Jacobson failed to appear today. However, she never sent the owl, like she had planned. By tomorrow, she too will have forgotten that Rhona Jacobson ever worked in this school."
"But our classes," said Harry. "They'll notice if we aren't having any Defence lessons…"
"Will they?" said Snape.
They fell silent again.
"But… professor," said Hermione, after a while. "Kya couldn't have done the same thing to professor Jacobson as she did to Luna, could she?"
Snape stopped pacing and frowned at her, but didn't say anything.
"I mean, professor Jacobson isn't here after hours, is she? She lives in Hogsmeade," said Hermione, seemingly developing the idea as she went along. "Kya visited Luna for ages in the hospital wing, remember? She wouldn't have had the time to put professor Jacobson in that kind of trance. Besides, professor Jacobson has never been really affected by her, has she?"
"There are other ways to commit murder, Granger," said Snape. "Remember that Morris didn't personally attempt to kill Mr Lovegood. Either way, we have to move fast now," he added, resuming his pacing. "We have to draw her out, and expose her to the whole school. We need to make them see what she is and what she is capable of doing."
"How?" said Ron.
"You tell me," Snape snapped. "You know her."
"Well, I don't really know her. I never talk to her," said Ron. "She thinks I'm beneath her. I'm a sidekick, remember?"
"She's really full of herself, isn't she," said Neville, unexpectedly stepping in. "Maybe we should insult her. You know, try and make her go so mad, she'll do something stupid?"
"That would have to be a pretty serious insult," said Ron, doubtfully.
"It's not such a bad idea though," said Hermione. "She might get really angry. As long as we can do it in front of the entire school."
"Like during Quidditch?" Harry suggested. "The last match this term is in a week."
"If we did it at the end of the match," said Snape, thoughtfully, "she might be tired enough to make a mistake."
"But what could we say?" said Ron. "What have we got on her?"
"Is there anything she really cares about, that we could make fun of?" said Neville. "What did she like to talk about with you?"
He looked imploringly at Harry and Hermione.
"Well, she talked to me about poetry apparently, although I swear I can't remember any of it," said Harry.
"Her own poetry," said Neville. "That's great!"
"And she kept going on about fashion, and makeup, and hair," said Hermione. "I think she really cares about her appearance."
"I think she cares about herself the most," said Harry. "Remember how she reacted when we told her about her birthday party? If she actually did memory charm herself, just so that it would be a surprise…"
Snape finally came to a complete stop. His stare should by rights have burnt holes through Harry's scull.
"She did what?"
"She memory charmed herself," said Hermione, "so that the birthday party we supposedly planned yesterday would be a surprise."
"We think she went through with it too," said Ron.
"Is she that arrogant?" said Snape, apparently fascinated by such a weakness in an enemy. "Well, then we'll strike out at her self esteem, at the end of the Quidditch match. You will easily think of something that will make her lose her head completely, I suspect. I'll leave that to you. Weasley, I suggest that you be the one to deliver the insult."
Ron was surprised.
"Why me?" he demanded. The consequences of insulting Kya could not be pleasant.
"It has to be someone on the team, if it's going to be at the end of the match," said Hermione.
"And I think we should keep Potter's and Granger's involvement in this a secret, for as long as we can," said Snape. "Since they are so close to her, she is not suspicious of them, and if our plan doesn't work smoothly we might still be able to use the element of surprise."
"The element of surprise? How?" said Ron, exasperated. "What good will it be if we don't know how to use it? Besides, this whole insult thing seems like a rather thin plan, if you ask me."
"Do you have a better idea?" Hermione asked him.
He didn't, and they all knew it.
"That's settled, then," said Snape. "I think we have discussed your detentions long enough. I'll see you here at six o'clock."
"What?" they exclaimed.
"You need to learn to be more careful, Longbottom," said Snape, smirking. "If there had been a little more ink on that quill, the potion would have combusted instantaneously, and I think that five hundred blown up cauldrons are quite enough. You three should have learnt by now, that Longbottom needs to be watched closely so that that kind of thing does not happen."
He smiled nastily at them, before he delivered their sentence.
"By nine o'clock, I expect this classroom to be impeccably clean – floor, walls, ceiling and desks. By muggle means. Good afternoon."
