Qwest finally here, after much time away. First of all, let me start by
saying I'm sorry it took me forever and day to up date. It's not my fault,
honestly. I blame tests, Thanksgiving, writer's block, and Final Fantasy X-
2. Well, I don't blame Thanksgiving so much as all the family that
invariably show up on Thanksgiving. I have cousins. Too many little,
screaming cousins. ::sigh:: But their gone now. And my writer's block is
also partially gone. I'm still working through it.
Second of all, let me give very big thankies to everybody who listed me as a favorite author. Branson1, Foz, Sobek, pheonix friend, Sable1, dreamon2223, isc-atenista, and Crookykanks. THANKIES ^_^
Third of all, everybody noticed the dude/dud mix up. Hehehe. Sorry. But I'm glad you all got a laugh out of it. It's not my fault, really. I blame spell check.
Fourth of all, comments to reviews will be at the end of the chapter. There aren't many comments this go around, there weren't many questions. But you guys know how I am with a lot of junk at the top of a chapter. And this is already adding up to a lot of junk. So check out the end for comments if you're interested.
Fifth of all, I don't own Harry Potter. I have never owned Harry Potter and I am fairly sure I never will own Harry Potter. Alas, he belongs to some one else.
Sixth of all, read and enjoy :)
~*~*~*~*~*
Chapter 8
Owl over the High Hoop
"Black with red eyes, huh?"
Harry nodded, looking over at Mindy as she pushed eggs around on her plate. Hermione and Ron sat across from the two of them at the Gryffindor table having breakfast. "Black with red eyes." He said. He had been catching Mindy up on the events of the day before. He hadn't seen her again that night. She was off, presumably researching. "Have you ever seen an owl like that?"
Mindy shook her head. "No. Owls don't usually have red eyes. Are you sure they weren't orange?"
"I'm pretty sure." Harry answered. "It's eyes looked like they were almost glowing."
"That's...different." Mindy said thoughtfully.
"What I think is odd." Hermione said, said looking up from her sausage. "Is that Harry forgot seeing it. Even if he only caught a glimpse of the owl, he shouldn't have forgotten it."
"You think someone caused him to forget?" Mindy asked.
Hermione nodded. "It's possible. A simple memory charm would do the trick."
"But why?" Ron asked. "What difference would it make to see an owl? They're all over the school; nobody would think it was strange to see one in the hall."
Hermione shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe whoever owned the owl thought Harry might take to much notice of it."
"I didn't see anybody that night, though." Harry said. "Of course if someone used a memory charm to make me forget an owl he could just as easily make me forget him too."
Hermione shook her head. "You may not have seen any one. He wouldn't necessarily have to make eye contact with you to perform the charm. A shot in the back works just as well as a shot in the front."
"Well, if memory charms are involved." Mindy said. "We could probably count out any students in fourth year or below as the owner of the owl."
"How's that?" Ron asked.
"Memory charms are tricky things to pull off." Mindy explained. "My guess is, its at least a sixth year that's doing this."
"At least a sixth year, huh." Ron said. "Who do we know that's a sixth year and has a definite grudge against Harry and has ties with You- Know-Who?" He glanced over at the Slytherin table his eyes searching out Pansy Parkinson.
"Ron." Hermione said, following his gaze. "We don't know that it's her."
"All the evidence points to her."
"But it's all very circumstantial."
"Ron does have a point." Mindy put in. "If you had heard the way she yelled at Harry in Potions you'd think it was her too."
"I agree she may have something to do with this." Hermione said. "But I don't think its her, or at least, not her alone. You said it yourself, Mindy, memory charms are tricky to pull off. It could take a fully trained wizard years to master them. Pansy just isn't smart enough."
Mindy nodded. "You may be right, Hermione. At any rate, it couldn't hurt to find out what kind of owl she owns. If it's a black one, we'll at least know we're headed in the right direction."
Hermione nodded and jerked back as a large grey owl landed in front of her spilling her pumpkin juice. Harry looked up just as a flood of owls came pouring through the high windows. They landed haphazardly among the food on the tables hooting for treats as they deposited letters and packages.
Hermione took the 'Daily Prophet' from the owl in front of her and absently shoved a knut into the pouch on its leg. It hooted loudly before spreading its grey-white wings and soaring off. Hermione immediately unrolled the paper and disappeared behind it.
"Oh, go away." Mindy said, trying to shove away a small brown owl that was nibbling at the edge of her toast.
"I think it has a letter for you." Ron said, noticing the roll of parchment tied to its left leg.
"Oh." Mindy said. She managed to seize the letter just before the owl snagged her toast and flew off again. "Ill mannered creature." Mindy frowned at the spot the owl had been in, then opened her letter. She raised her eyebrows at its contents.
"What is it?" Harry asked, catching the expression on her face.
"Nothing." Mindy answered, folding the parchment and stuffing it into her pocket. She glanced up at the professors' table then went back to her breakfast.
"I can't believe this!" Hermione exclaimed.
Harry, Ron, and Mindy looked at her, a bit surprised by her outburst.
"What's the matter?" Ron asked.
Hermione didn't answer. Instead she turned the newspaper around so that they all could see. Above a head line reading "Foe or Friend: The Ministry says Friend" was a picture of Lucius Malfoy grinning and waving.
Ron snatched the paper from Hermione and began reading out loud. " 'Yesterday Lucius Malfoy, accused Dark wizard and Death Eater, was released from Azkaban. According to a Ministry official there was not enough evidence to hold him...' Not enough evidence." Ron frowned. "That's absolutely insane. He was practically kissing You-Know-Who's feet." He slung the paper aside. "This is complete rubbish."
Mindy scooped up the newspaper, quickly turning to the article. "It says all the Aurors are in an uproar over the decision." Mindy said, before reading, " 'Kingsley Shacklebolt is quoted as saying "Freeing Malfoy is not only the greatest wrong committed by the wizarding world, but a severe danger to us all." However, the Ministry does not agree. Trixe- Bella Greats, the Ministry official that authorized the release of Malfoy says, "It would be a grave injustice to hold an innocent man. There is not enough proof that these crimes had been committed by Mr. Lucius Malfoy, and it is only right that he is released." Greats is also working on the freeing Crabbe and Gole, also accused Death Eaters.'" Mindy the folded the paper and looked over at Harry.
Harry slowly became aware that Ron and Hermione were watching him too. He knew they were trying to gage his reaction. Harry didn't say anything. He couldn't quite believe what he was hearing. 'Not enough evidence'. There was more than enough evidence. Malfoy was there, turning wand on his friends, trying to kill them all. Harry pushed away from the table. He suddenly wasn't hungry anymore.
"Harry?" Hermione said, as he stood and started away.
"I have to go." Harry said. He felt their eyes on him as he walked off, but he didn't look back.
~*~*~*~*
Mindy looked over at Harry sitting silently in the desk beside hers. He had been quiet all period, a slight frown creasing his face. Mindy couldn't begin to imagine what he must have been feeling. After what Lucius Malfoy had been apart of, and then being released as if he had done nothing wrong. Mindy couldn't blame Harry for being upset. She just wished he'd talk to her.
"Mr. Potter? Harry?"
Harry blinked and looked up at Professor Lupin. "Huh?" Professor Lupin raised one eyebrow and Harry added, "Sir."
"I had asked everyone to tell me what animal they had decided on." Professor Lupin said. "Have chosen one?"
Harry nodded. "I think a stag." He answered.
Professor Lupin smiled and looked at Mindy. "What about you Ms. James?"
Mindy looked at Lupin. She hadn't given which animal she should choose to transfigure into much thought. She was thinking cat, but everyone in the room knew Professor McGonagall could turn herself into a cat. Of course that was her animagus form. If she went with cat now, she could make herself look differently. She was sure none of the students would put it together. "Cat." She answered.
Professor Lupin nodded. "Good choice." He said, then looked back at Lavender. "What about you, Ms. Brown?"
"Butterfly." Lavender said immediately.
"I asked you to choose only mammals." Professor Lupin frowned.
"Alright then." Lavender shrugged. "I'll be a hairy butterfly."
"Pick a mammal, Ms. Brown."
"But I really want to turn myself into...oh, fine then. I'll pick a mammal."
"Thank you." Professor Lupin said. "Ms. Patil. Have you chosen something, and please don't say ladybug."
"I...oh, um. Can I have a little more time to think about then?"
Professor Lupin nodded. "Decide quickly, though. Today we are going to work on the transfiguration spell. It's important you have a good idea of what you want to be in mind."
"You mean we're actually going to transfigure ourselves." Dean asked, a huge hopeful smile spreading across his face.
"You're going to attempt to transfigure yourself." Professor Lupin answered.
"Alright." Seamus said. "I thought we'd never stop going over theory."
"You'll be thanking me for all that theory in a few minutes." Professor Lupin said. "Everybody up, wands out."
Everyone stood, pulling out their wands eagerly. Mindy glanced over at Harry. He finally seemed to be focusing on what was going on around him. She still didn't like the idea of the students attempting to turn themselves into animals, but she was glad Harry seemed to be coming out of the mood he had settled into.
"Everyone won't get it right first try." Professor Lupin said, as he waved his wand causing the desks to slid against the walls, leaving a good- size open area. "Don't worry about that. It is a very difficult spell and will require some practice. It's just important that you learn the words and the proper wand movements today." Professor Lupin turned to the black board and aiming his wand at it the words 'Metaus Soulesius' script across in neat white letters. "You'll need to say those words." He said, "While maintaining a clear image of the animal you want to become in your mind. It is very important that you hold onto the image of the animal you want to be until your transformation is complete. The moment you let go of the picture the transformation ends."
"Is that why Viktor Crum didn't turn all the way into a shark?" Seamus asked, raising his hand.
Professor Lupin nodded. "That is probably part of the reason. Concentration is key to performing the spell. You'll need to focus to complete the transformation. If you have a short attention span, I suggest you work on extending it. I think we should take it in turns. Who would like to try first?"
Dean's hand shot up. "I'll go." He volunteered happily.
Professor Lupin nodded. "You were going to try for buffalo, correct?" Dean nodded. "To the center of the room, then." Dean moved to middle of the circle the students had formed, clutching his wand. "You'll need to flick the wand like so." Professor Lupin said, demonstrating the wand movement necessary for the spell.
Dean nodded. He screwed his face up in concentration and then said loudly, "Metaus Soulesius."
At first, nothing seemed to be happening. Dean squeezed his eyes shut and ever so slowly, Mindy began to see the changes. Dean's hair became thicker and curly. He started to develop a pair of horns. A long tail sprouted and his hands and feet were steadily becoming hooves. And then he sneezed. The transformation stopped instantly, leaving Dean more boy than buffalo.
Dean opened his eyes, looked down at himself, and burst out laughing. Most of the class followed suit, but Professor Lupin quieted everyone quickly. "That was a very good try." Professor Lupin said, performing the reversal spell and turning Dean back into his normal self. "Most people don't get that far their first time."
"I would have turned all the way if I didn't have to sneeze." Dean said as he fell back into the group.
"I'm sure you would have." Professor Lupin smiled. "Who wants to go next?"
And so the class proceeded with one student after another, stepping into the middle of the room and attempting to turn themselves into an assortment of animals. Most were only able to grow extra hair or sprout tails before loosing concentration and ending the transformation.
Lavender, who had finally decided on a mink, did fairly well. She had grown silver fur, had shrunk down to about three feet, and had sprouted a long fluffy tail all with in five minutes. Her down fall came when she began to sprout whiskers. Lavender was apparently very ticklish, and her newly grown whiskers kept brushing against her cheeks and neck (which were still quite human) and she succumb to a giggling fit.
"You did very well, Ms. Brown." Professor Lupin said, turning a still giggling Lavender back into a girl. "You were more mink than girl. I think that deserves ten points."
Parvati, who had decided on rabbit, didn't do so well. She couldn't even manage a cotton tail. "I can't concentrate with everyone watching." She complained as she stomped back into the group.
Ron, who had chosen to become a lion, could only manage to grow a long, flowing, fire red mane. Even after the reversal spell, it seemed his hair was still a little bit longish. If it was possible, Harry did worse than Parvati. He couldn't even grow the velvet fur of a stag. Mindy knew it was because his head wasn't really in the lesson that day. Harry tried for a few minutes longer, then shook his head. "Sorry, Professor Lupin." He said. "Maybe next time."
Professor Lupin nodded. "Next time, then."
Hermione did best of the students. With in minutes of uttering the spell, she became a beautiful sphinx. Her face remained the same, though her eyes were definitely feline.
"I didn't think Hermione would want to become anything cat related." Ron whispered to Harry. "Considering what happened in second year."
"What happened in second year?" Mindy asked, looking over at Ron and Harry.
"I'll tell you later." Harry answered, quietly.
Mindy nodded. She had always wondered about the events that occurred during that year, that led Harry to find the chamber of secrets. Dumbledore had never really given her the details.
"That is excellent, Hermione." Professor Lupin grinned. "Twenty points for Gryffindor."
Soon it was Mindy's turn. She stepped to the middle of the room and thought for a second about what kind of cat she would like to be. A Siamese cat was very different from her animagus form. She nodded and closed her eyes and thought 'white Siamese'. Raising her wand, Mindy said " 'Metaus Soulesius'." And swiftly became a cat. She opened her eyes, seeing the world as only a cat would; noticing not color or objects, but motion. She watched Professor Lupin's slightest movement, not listening to his words. The hem of his robe wiggled tantalizingly in front of her, and she was sorely tempted to pounce it. She scrubbed one ear with her paw. It was always disorienting becoming an animal. That was why she preferred her animagus form. One always remained more human than beast.
Suddenly she was becoming Mindy again. She jerked out of the animal form so quickly it actually dazed her. She blinked, confused for a second, then grinned sheepishly, remembering where she was.
"...Very, very good." Professor Lupin was saying, lowering his wand. "Thirty points for Gryffindor."
Mindy smiled and, ignoring the stares she received, stepped back into the group.
~*~*~*~*
The next few days passed in a blur. Harry found himself incredibly busy. Between D. A, Quidditch and Potions, he wondered how he had time for anything else. Harry, Ron, and Mindy soon had to stop researching possible cures of basilisk poison to devote more time to Quidditch. Harry felt a little guilty about leaving Hermione to work out the puzzle alone, but with the Gryffindor/Ravenclaw game fast approaching (it was to be held Halloween evening, only a week away) he felt they needed the practice more. Mindy missed most of the evening practices. She had managed to get herself detention with Snape again for a solid week, so Harry found himself working with her during breaks and lunch.
Harry didn't mind the extra work, though. It kept his mind off Lucius Malfoy's release. Harry had been slightly surprised to discover how much he hated the man. He didn't hate him the way he hated Bellatrix LeStrange, but he certainly despised him. Malfoy was a part of the group that took away all the family Harry had ever had. He had nearly caused the deaths of his friends. And now he was being released to walk the streets like an innocent man. It wasn't right. He didn't deserve it.
"Harry. Your quill hasn't moved in ten minutes."
Harry looked over at Mindy. They were in Gryffindor common room, sitting next to each other on the couch in front of the fireplace. A fire was roaring inside, warm and rosy colored. He smiled at Mindy, her cheeks were glowing the fire light.
"Sorry. I was...thinking." Harry said, looking down at the potions work he should have been doing. He hadn't done any more than scrawl the title of the essay he was to write on the effects of sleeping potions and their reversals.
Mindy leaned against him, resting her head on his shoulder. "Tell me what you're thinking?"
Harry looked down at her and grinned. "I was thinking that you are the most beautiful person I've ever seen."
Mindy laughed. "That's a good answer. Probably not the truth, but still a good answer."
Harry smiled and, leaning down, kissed her on the nose.
"Ugh. If you two are going to do that, get a room."
Harry looked back to see Ginny standing just behind the sofa, making a face at the two of them. Ron was behind her, looking minorly embarrassed.
Mindy sat up and smiled wickedly at Ginny. "You're one to talk." She said, as the other girl walked around the couch and plopped down in the arm chair. "I saw you and Dean the other day."
"Saw her and Dean doing what?" Ron asked, jerking around to look at his little sister.
"Having a good snog." Mindy answered.
"Oh, no you weren't." Ron yelled.
Ginny rolled her eyes. "Oh, shut up, Ron. Anyway, Harry, we wanted to know if you were still holding practice this afternoon."
Harry nodded. "I was planning on it." He answered.
"It's almost six now." Ginny said.
Harry looked at the clock, surprised to see that it was already 5:50. He had started his potions an hour and an half ago. "I didn't know it was so late." He said, closing his Potions book. "We had better go."
"I suppose we'll finish this when we get back." Mindy said, closing her book as well.
"You're coming?" Ron asked. "You don't have detention with Snape?"
"It was moved down to 7:30. I can stay for most of the practice." Mindy answered.
They left Gryffindor tower, heading for the entrance of the castle and the Quidditch pitch beyond that. As they headed passed the Great Hall they ran across Neville and Lavender. Their heads were bent together and they appeared to be in deep discussion about something. Neville looked up and spotted the four Gryffindors coming his way. His round face turned a lovely shade of pink. He left Lavender and walked over to meet them.
"We're looking for Hermione." Neville said, looking back at Lavender who was leaning casually against the Great Hall's door frame. "Have you seen her?"
"Try the library." Ron suggested. "I saw her there last."
"Thanks." Neville said. He waved Lavender over and the two of them headed off in the direction of the library.
"I wonder what's going on with them." Ginny said, watching them go. "They seem to be spending a lot of time together lately."
"What do you mean?" Ron asked, opening the school doors and stepping out into the cold evening air.
"I saw them in the library the other day." Ginny said, pulling her cloak tight around her shoulders. "They were sitting awfully close."
"And they've been eating lunch and dinner together." Mindy added.
"They have been?" Harry asked.
"Yeah." Mindy said. "Haven't you noticed?"
Harry and Ron exchanged looks. "No." Harry said.
"Boys." Ginny said. "Leave it to them to notice nothing."
Mindy laughed, then asked. "Do you suppose Lavender and Neville are, you know, a couple?"
Ginny wrinkled her nose in thought. "I don't know. I just can't see those two together. They seem so..."
"Different." Mindy supplied.
Ginny nodded. "But I suppose it's possible. Neville is sweet."
"And adorable." Mindy added. "And smart."
"And brave." Ginny said. "You wouldn't believe how brave he is. And when he took me to the Yule Ball he was very polite."
Mindy nodded. "But still, Lavender and Neville."
Ginny shrugged. "I suppose its possible."
Mindy looked back at Harry and grinned. "I'm starting to think anything is possible." She said.
They hurried across the icy grounds towards the Quidditch pitch and changing rooms. The early cold that had arrived in the beginning of October had been chased away by a small warm spell. All the snow had melted down into a slush that froze anew every night. The weather hadn't been quite right for snow again, only icy rain. Harry was very thankful it wasn't raining tonight. He hoped the weather held up till after their Quidditch match next week.
When they stepped into the warm changing rooms, they found the twins and Tobias already there. Tobias was fully dressed, his small head buried in a large book. The twins were half way changed and seemed to have been in the middle of a lively swatting match. They immediately stopped swing their robes at each others heads as the group came bustling in.
Simon smiled. "What took you--" "So long?" Simone finished. The two had an initially annoying habit of finishing each others sentences. Ron said Fred and George did that sometimes when they were very excited about something and didn't feel the other was telling it fast enough. But Simon and Simone did it constantly. At first it irritated Harry to no end. If he asked one a question, the other was just as likely to answer. When having a conversation with them, he never knew in which direction to look. He was starting to get used to it, though he still couldn't tell which would speak. Only Ron seemed able to anticipate which one would be talking and when.
"Lost track of time." Harry answered. "Finish changing. I want to get into the air while there's still a little light."
The two nodded, and quickly donned the robes they had been fighting with minutes earlier. Ten minutes later, everyone was changed and zipping through the air on their brooms. Harry watched the players while keeping an eye opened for the snitch. He wasn't so concerned with catching it as he was with making sure everyone played well together.
"Over here." Ginny called and Mindy slung her the Quaffle.
Ginny caught it and flew at Ron, attempting a goal. Ron stopped it easily and tossed the Quaffle to Tobias. The boy attempted an immediate, but failing, score. Simon and Simone flew about in circles, batting away stray Buldgers, making sure none of the balls got near the Chasers, and occasionally shooting one at each other.
Simone ducked a Buldger her brother had aimed at her head. "Hey, that was a little too close." She yelled.
"You should have been paying attention." Simon called.
"Oh, really." Simone flew after a Buldger and batted it as hard as she could at her brother. It clipped the end of his broom causing him to spinning in the air. "What happened, Simon. Weren't you paying attention?"
"Come on guys, stop playing." Harry called. "We need to practice."
"Sorry." The twins said in unison.
Harry shook his head. He hoped those two could be serious for the match. He searched for the Buldger Simone had hit at her brother, trying to spot where it had flown, and spied it flying low at the edge of the Quidditch pitch, heading for the forbidden forest. He watched its progress, wondering how far it would go before it turned back and headed for the center of the pitch. As he watched the Buldger swooping past the line of the forest he noticed something else, a figure emerging from the woods.
Harry dropped in altitude squinting in the descending dark, trying to make out who it was. It wasn't Hagrid. The person was too small. It might have been one of the students.
"Is something wrong?"
Harry looked over to see Mindy hovering beside him. "Can you see who that is?" He asked, nodding in the direction of the figure. The person was walking along the lake now, heading towards the school. Mindy wrinkled her nose in concentration, then flew to the edge of the pitch; Harry followed behind her. "It's definitely a girl." Mindy said, still squinting at the person, who was now climbing the steps towards the great doors. "It looks like..." The girl opened the door. The light from inside illuminated her face. She looked back towards the forest again, before stepping inside the school, and in that moment Harry got a clear view of her.
"Pansy Parkinson." He said.
Mindy frowned and looked at Harry. "Where was she coming from?"
"The Forbidden Forest." Harry answered.
"What was she doing back there?"
Harry only shook his head and shrugged.
"Whatever it was." Mindy said. "She couldn't have been up to any good."
~*~*~*~*
They arrived back at Gryffindor common room cold and tired. And Mindy's night was not through yet. She shuddered to think what Snape would dig up for her to do tonight. She had brewed and taken her de-aging potion last night. Now he would probably put her to work cleaning crud out of the cracks in class room floor. She was really starting to regret telling the person next to her, rather loudly, that Snape wore pink tights under his robes.
Mindy, Harry, Ron and Ginny sat down as close as they could get to the fire without the risk of serious injury. Tobias, yawning, headed off to the boys dorms. Simon followed, his sister going in the opposite direction.
"You work us just as hard as Angelina, Harry." Ron said, his eyes half closed. "I thought you would take it easy on us."
Harry shook his head. "I just want us to be good."
"We are." Ginny said.
Mindy nodded her agreement. The Gryffindor team was good. They would win the Quidditch cup this year for sure.
"I need a nice hot bath." Ginny said, pushing up from her sitting position. "See you guys later."
"Bye." Ron said, never opening his eyes.
Harry looked over at Mindy. "Aren't you late for your detention?" He asked.
"I am." Mindy answered. "A little more than half an hour late, but I don't care. I think I'm going to rest for a bit."
"Snape's bound to be angry." Harry warned.
"When is he not?" Mindy decided to follow Ron's example and closed her eyes. She felt herself drifting off when she heard some one approaching.
"It's about time you guys got back."
Mindy opened her eyes to see Hermione standing over her, arms loaded with books. Neville was just behind, carrying just as many books as Hermione.
"What's going on?" Ron asked, groggily.
"We might have found something that can cure Colin." Hermione answered, dumping the books down on small coffee table in front of the fire place.
This got all of their attentions. Mindy sat up straighter, hardly believing what she was hearing. She had gone along with their endeavor to find a cure for Colin, but she didn't think they would actually come up with something. Professor Snape was having trouble and he was a potions master. "What?" She asked.
"Unicorn trees." Hermione answered, beaming. "It's so simple, I don't know why we didn't think of it before."
Mindy frowned. "I know unicorn tree sap can be used to cure minor poisons, but it isn't strong enough for some thing like basilisk blood."
Neville shook his head and stepped forward. "Actually it would be." He said. "If you used the sap from a mature tree."
"Huh?" Ron asked.
"You see." Neville explained. "It takes unicorn trees about five hundred years to mature. That's entirely to long to wait when growing them for commercial use. But about after fifty years, the sap of a young tree is potent enough to be used as cures. Most commercially grown trees never live past one hundred and fifty, though. Tapping them at a young age has an ill effect on their life span."
"How do you know all that?" Harry asked.
"I have to research a magical plant for advanced Herbology." Neville explained. "I choose unicorn trees."
"Neville is quite knowledgeable on the subject." Hermione said. "I wouldn't be surprised if he knew more than Professor Sprout."
Neville blushed bright pink. "I don't think I do." He said.
"I do." Hermione replied matter-of-factly. "At any rate, its been proven that the older the unicorn tree is the more potent its sap. We did a little a research and discovered that, way back when unicorn trees were fairly abundant, the sap was used to cure everything from salamander burns to black leopard spider venom."
"Black leopard spider?" Ron asked, nervously.
"Huge spiders." Mindy answered. "That possesses one of the world's most deadly venom's."
Hermione nodded. "Exactly. We thought that if unicorn sap could be used to cure leopard spider venom, it could probably be used to cure basilisk poison. After a little tweaking of course."
"That actually sounds like a plan." Harry grinned.
"But where would find a mature unicorn tree?" Ron asked. "If all the ones that are grown now don't live past a hundred and fifty?"
"The forbidden forest." Neville answered. "Remember, Hagrid had us catch tree nymphs so that they wouldn't get into the stand of unicorn trees in the middle of the forest."
"Oh, yeah." Ron answered.
"After class, the other day, I asked him how long the unicorn trees had been in the forest." Neville went on. "He said, since before Hogwarts. They'll definitely be mature."
"And extremely potent." Hermione said.
"I can't believe it." Mindy said. "But that might actually work. I have to go tell Professor Snape. He'll need to hear about this."
"And we also need to talk to Professor Sprout." Neville said.
"And Professor Dumbledore." Harry added. "He'll want to know too."
"And Hagrid." Hermione stated. "He'll have to get to the trees. Come on Ron, let's go see if we can find him."
"I'll go see Professor Dumbledore." Harry said. "And Neville..."
"I'll find Professor Sprout." Neville finished.
They split, heading off to find various professors. Snape was initially angry with Mindy for being tardy to her detention, but quickly got over it when he heard what she had to say. He was still a bit skeptical, but Mindy knew he had no other strong leads and he was willing to listen (albeit grudgingly) to Neville.
No more than half an hour later all three Professors and Neville were gathered in Professor Dumbledore's office. It was decided rather quickly that they should give Neville's idea a shot, seeing as they had no other plans. Neville (to his great displeasure) was to work with Professor Snape in refining the unicorn tree sap. As it turned out, he really was more knowledgeable on the subject of unicorn trees than Professor Sprout. Over the past couple of hundred years or so the tree sap had gain the reputation of being only good for severe acne and mild headaches, and was fairly low on Professor Sprout's list of plants to learn everything about. But she wasn't upset that Neville knew more about the tree than her. She was extremely proud of him. For days after the decision she could be heard talking rather loudly and very fondly of the brilliance of her star pupil.
Neville would have been quite miserable, having to work with Snape every evening, if he had not been branded a hero. He was very obviously uncomfortable in the role, but he seemed to enjoy the attention and special treatment he suddenly started receiving. It seemed his professors would find any excuse at all to award him points.
Dennis Creevey followed him about, eager to do anything he could to help the boy that would save his brother's life. Mindy knew Neville didn't enjoy having Dennis constantly at his heels, but he didn't know how to ask him to leave.
"Sometimes, I don't know if I should be happy for Neville, or feel sorry for him." Hermione said one day at lunch as she watched Neville enter the great hall carrying an arm load of books and being followed by a small gaggle of students (mostly first years led by Dennis) eager to help him carry them.
"It'll blow over." Harry said, watching Neville detach himself from the crowd and take a seat next to Lavender.
"Yeah." Ron agreed. "And then he'll find the cure and it'll start all over again."
"You think he will?" Hermione asked.
"I'm sure he will." Ron answered confidently.
"I just wish he'd take a break." Mindy said. "He's been working awful hard lately."
"I'm sure he will tomorrow." Hermione said. "It's Halloween."
"And the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw match." Harry added. "I asked him earlier and he said he'd be there."
"Well, we'll know he's not working for at least one hour." Hermione said. "Are you ready for the match?" She asked looking at Harry.
Harry nodded. "I think so. We've been doing alright in practice."
"Have you seen anymore of Pansy?" Hermione asked, leaning in a little closer. "While practicing?"
Mindy shook her head. "No." After the immediate fanfare of Neville's discovery had passed, Harry and Mindy had told Ron and Hermione about Pansy. They had been watching her when they could ever since. But she had done nothing suspicious in the past few days, and Mindy was beginning to question if what they thought they had seen was true.
"We need to find a way to keep up with her." Ron said. "Watching her between and during classes isn't going to do us any good. She can't very well do something odd during the middle of the day."
"I agree, but how?" Hermione asked.
"Short of following her around in Harry's invisibility cloak, there isn't any way." Mindy answered.
Harry looked at her curiously. "How did you know I had an invisibility cloak?"
Mindy had to fight to keep her expression normal. She couldn't believe she had done it again. She had completely forgotten she wasn't suppose to know about the invisibility cloak. "You mentioned it to me." She answered as casually as she could. "Don't you remember?"
"Er."
"You probably don't. You were half sleep when you told me." Mindy said.
"Oh, right." Harry said, still looking slightly confused
Mindy smiled, hoping they all bought her little white lie. Dumbledore would kill her if she let herself be found out now. Mindy suddenly wondered if she should tell Professor Dumbledore about Pansy Parkinson. She hadn't mentioned the owl or the threat Pansy had shouted at Harry the second day of school. She hadn't mentioned the threat at first because if really did sound like the ranting of an angry girl, but now... She couldn't believe the thought to tell Professor Dumbledore what was going hadn't even crossed her mind. She was suppose to report anything that might be a danger to Harry, to hopefully keep the boy out of trouble. And here she was, going along with them. What was getting into her? Was the de-aging potion really having that strong of an effect on her? Mindy made up her mind to talk to Professor Dumbledore first chance she got.
But for now, she probably should try to keep Harry, Ron, and Hermione from putting themselves into a potentially dangerous position. Mindy could tell by the looks on Harry's and Ron's faces that they were actually considering her idea of following Pansy around under the invisibility cloak. "I think we ought to wait a little longer." Mindy suggested. "We still haven't found Pansy's owl..."
"That's because it's probably off delivering deadly poison to another un-suspecting student." Ron said.
"But we can't follow her under the cloak." Mindy frowned. "We'd get caught, most likely almost instantly."
"Mindy's right." Hermione said. "The cloak is good for sneaking places, but not for following people. She'll still be able to hear us walking or breathing. We'll just have to do another polyjuice potion."
"A what?" Mindy asked surprised. When did they brew a polyjuice potion?
"We did that second year." Harry explained. "To get inside the Slytherin house and see what Malfoy knew about the chamber of secrets."
"Which is also how Hermione got herself turned into a cat." Ron added. "She was stuck that way for a good while."
"But I got better." Hermione said. "And this time won't get the hair mixed up."
"We can't do that either." Harry said. "It's takes entirely too long to brew a polyjuice potion and we'd have to break into Snape's ingredient cabinet. We need to figure out what Pansy's up to now."
"Why don't we transfigure ourselves?" Ron suggested. "Into mice or something small, and follow her. We'll be able to see whatever she's doing."
Mindy shook her head. "Transfiguring yourself isn't that easy." She said. "It could take just as long to figure out how to do it properly and even longer to figure out how to reverse it by yourself."
"Oh, really." Ron grumbled. "You made it look so easy the other day."
Mindy felt herself blushing. She had transfigured to easily. She should have held back. She didn't know why she did that in the first place. Was she showing off? Maybe she was trying to impress Harry. This thought made her blush even more and she looked away.
"Ron." Hermione frowned at him. "But I do think it's a good idea. We've worked out harder things. What do you think, Harry?"
Harry nodded. "I don't see as we have any other options." He answered. "Mindy?"
Mindy looked up. She should go along, just to make sure they didn't get themselves killed, or stuck as rodents. "Alright, then."
Harry smiled. "Then it's settled. We'll get to the bottom of this, one way or another."
Mindy looked at the three, just now gaining a full appreciation for how resourceful they were. No wonder they always knew exactly what was going on, even when everyone would work so hard to keep certain knowledge from them. No wonder at all that they always managed to get themselves right in the middle of everything. She only hoped they didn't get themselves killed this time. Or worse, expelled.
~*~*~*~*
Harry awoke around eight the next morning feeling, surprisingly, nervous. He hadn't expected to feel anxious about the match that day. Ravenclaw/Gryffindor games were always fairly friendly. But he supposed it was always good to be a little nervous before a big event. He had heard somewhere that that made you perform better.
Ron was already gone, and Harry assumed he must be down at breakfast. Washing and dressing quickly, Harry headed down as well. The Great Hall was decorated with orange and black in honor of Halloween. Enchanted bats flew around the ceiling that was reflecting an overcast sky. Among the normal breakfast food were bowls of candy corn and smoking cauldrons of assorted sweets. Harry spotted Hermione and Mindy sitting amidst flowing cob webs, buttering orange colored toast with black colored jam.
Sweeping cob webs aside he sat next to Mindy and pulled a plate towards him. "Have you seen Ron?" He asked, grabbing a few slices of bacon and a couple of slices of orange toast.
Hermione nodded. "He and Ginny went out to the pitch early this morning to get in a little extra practice."
"Which was a complete waste of time."
Harry looked around, as a scowling Ginny took a seat next to him.
"Didn't it go well?" Hermione asked.
"It went fine." Ron said, as he found a seat next to Hermione.
"It went well for you." Ginny corrected. "I didn't get a single goal. Ron's an unbeatable keeper."
"That's a good thing." Mindy said.
"Sure it is." Ginny agreed. "If you're not out of your nice warm bed at five in the morning shooting Quaffles at a boy who won't even let you have a goal."
"What good would it do you if I let you have one?" Ron asked. "Besides, I thought you wanted to think up a way to get one past me."
"Well, I'm done trying to come up with something, because I don't think there is anything."
"Again, that's a good thing." Mindy said.
Ginny fumed. "I just wish I had slept in."
"Aren't you going to have breakfast, Ron?" Hermione asked, noticing that Ron hadn't immediately reached for a plate and began piling everything in sight on it as he usually did.
Ron shook his head. "I can't eat."
"You shouldn't be nervous." Mindy said.
"Yeah." Harry agreed. "Ginny's right. You are an unbeatable Keeper." Harry had noticed during the practices that Ron was getting substantially better. In yesterday's practice, no one could get anything past him; not even Tobias who lighting fast on his broom.
Ron shook his head. "I still can't eat. Maybe a little pumpkin juice though." He said reaching for the jug.
"The morning owls are coming." Ginny said, looking up. "I bet mum sent us candy."
And sure enough, Erol, the Weasley family owl came flying (actually it looked as if he was more or less falling) in, burden with a huge package. He landed haphazardly on the table, scattering bowls of candy corn and nearly toppling the jug of pumpkin juice.
"Poor Erol." Ginny said, quickly relieving the owl of the package. "He must have flown his heart out to make it here on time."
Erol dunk his head in Ron's glass of pumpkin juice, then feebly spread his wings to take off again. But he seem to think better of it, and instead nestled down in the middle of the table and fell off to sleep.
"Poor creature." Mindy sighed. "We'll have to take him up to owlery."
"He'll make it alright on his own." Ron said, frowning at loose owl down floating in his glass. "Look what he did to my juice."
"Oh, be quiet, Ron." Ginny frowned. "Erol's old and after he flew all night hauling candy for you, you ought to be glad to let him drink from you glass. Here." She shoved a black bag tied with an orange ribbon at Ron. "There's one for you Harry, and for you too Hermione." Ginny said, handing Hermione an orange bag with a black ribbon and Harry a bag similar to Ron's.
Harry took the bag and saw that his name was stitched in with orange thread. "Mrs. Wesley personalized them." He said.
Ron nodded, fingering his own name. "Mum has too much free time." He said.
"I think there lovely." Hermione said. "I'll have to send Mrs. Weasley a nice thank you."
"Mum will like that." Ginny said, standing up. "I have to go find Dean. She sent candy for him too. See you."
"Would you like some?" Harry asked, offering Mindy some of his candy.
"No thank you." Mindy answered. "It's not good for the teeth."
"But it's good for a smile." Ron said, opening a chocolate frog.
"I thought you said you couldn't eat." Hermione said.
"This isn't food. It's chocolate." Ron said, looking at the card. "Hey, Harry. I've got one of you."
"What?" Harry asked. "I'm on chocolate frog cards?" Ron handed him the card and he looked at the picture. It was the one of him that had been in the Daily Prophet, back when he was a contestant in the Tri-Wizard tournament. It wasn't the best picture. He looked confused in it, as if he didn't know what he was doing there.
Mindy peeked over his shoulder at it and laughed. "On second thought, Harry, I think I'd like a chocolate frog."
Harry handed her his bag of candy and Mindy was digging through it when a post owl landed in front of her. It hooted to get her attention and Mindy looked up. "Oh." She took the letter from it and the owl flew off as quickly as it had come. Mindy opened the letter and grinned. "He wrote back." She said. "It had been so long I was starting think he wasn't going to."
"Who wrote back?" Harry asked.
"Tom." Mindy answered.
"Tom?" Harry frowned. There was only one Tom he knew of. "The owner of the Leaky Cauldron."
Mindy nodded. "I wrote and asked if any Hogwarts students had stayed there towards the end of the summer." Mindy explained.
"And he told you?" Hermione asked, surprised. "Why would he give you that information?"
"I can be very persuasive." Mindy said, reading over the letter. She frowned. "Tom says he had only two patrons this summer. Me and some one named Trixe-Bella Greats." Mindy looked up. "Isn't that..."
"The Ministry official that got Lucius Malfoy out." Hermione nodded.
"Why does a Ministry official have to stay at the Leaky Cauldron?" Ron asked.
"Something definitely isn't right about it." Mindy agreed. "Do you suppose the owl belongs to her?"
"If it does." Harry said. "What's it doing at Hogwarts?"
"I think we ought to find out as much as we can about this Trixe- Bella Greats. It wouldn't be the first time a Ministry official is crocked." Hermione said.
"Can we, though?" Ron asked. "It's not like we can look her up in a book."
"Actually we can." Hermione answered. "So to speak. There are public records for all ministry employees. I should be able to get something through the library."
"And what about Pansy?" Mindy asked.
"We should still watch her, I think." Harry said. "She's mixed up in this somehow. She has to be."
"I should head over to library and put in my request." Hermione said, pushing away from the table. "It could take some time for the records to arrive." She explain before hurrying out of the Great Hall.
Ron watched her go and then looked back at Harry. "I'm starting to get a very dark feeling about all of this."
~*~*~*~*
The day past quickly and all too soon the evening had arrived. The clouds had brought with them a light rain. While it made everything damp, it was nothing like the downpours Harry have had to play through before. Harry stepped out onto the Quidditch pitch looking forward to the match. It would take his mind off of everything going on. For a little while at least, he would be able to forget Snape and potions, not think about Pansy Parkinson, and pretend a sinister black owl didn't exist.
"Captains shake hands." Madam Hooch, acting as umpire once again, ordered.
Harry stepped to the center of the field and found himself face to face with Cho Chang. He hadn't thought about who would be captain of the Ravenclaw house team before, and the thought that it would be Cho certainly never crossed his mind.
Cho grinned at him. "Good luck, Harry." She said, holding his hand a little longer than necessary.
"Er, you too." Harry replied, taking his hand back quickly and glancing over at Mindy. From the death glare she was throwing Cho, Harry could tell Mindy hadn't missed the extra long hand shake.
"Mount your brooms." Madam Hooch called, then placed her whistle in her mouth and blew.
The balls were released and the players shot into the air. Harry glanced around once, watching as his team flew to their positions, then gained altitude and started a wide lap around the stadium searching for a spark of gold. Harry caught a glimpse of Cho out the corner of his eye. She was flying just below him, almost mirroring his path. Deciding to take a different rout, Harry veered right and gain a bit more altitude still searching out the Snitch.
"...And Weasley has the Quaffle, she passes to James, oh but Martins intercepts and is flying fast for a goal. He shoots and Weasley stops it. That was a magnificent save by Ron Weasley."
Harry looked back down the field just as Ron tossed the Quaffle back out to Ginny. The new commentator (Albert Allgood, a HufflePuff fifth year) wasn't bad. He wasn't as entertaining to listen to as Lee Jordan, but not bad at all. Harry shook his head, turning his thoughts back to searching out that elusive hint of gold, which was becoming progressively harder to do. The sky had darkened and the light rain was steadily becoming a downpour. Harry wasn't soaked through just yet, but it wouldn't be long before he was.
Dropping in altitude a bit, Harry began another wide sweep of the field. The Snitch had to be somewhere.
"...And that's the fourth goal for Grffyndor making the score one hundred points to zero. Wow, that Walker can really go."
Harry looked around as Tobias came zipping away from the Ravenclaw goals, heading to the center of the pitch to await his chance to take the Quaffle. Then he spotted Cho on the other side of field go into a steep dive. Harry's first thought was to head her way, but then she pulled to a stop in mid-air. She looked about herself, did a 360 degree rotation and shook her head frowning.
"It looks as if the Ravenclaw captain and Seeker had spotted the Snitch but lost it. Too bad folks."
Harry once again started moving through the air. He had to focus on finding the Snitch or they'd loose the game. He looked up and high above the goals Ron was protecting he saw something flash in the ever increasing dark. Harry rose, heading for it, but as he got close he saw that it wasn't the Snitch. It was an eye, two eyes flashing crimson and gold in the night. "The owl!" Harry whispered, catching the outline of the bird's body, almost invisible against the dark sky and the pouring rain. It wasn't watching him, or anyone else in the air. Instead, as it soared high above their heads, it stared out at the stands. Harry turned looking into the stands, hoping for a chance to see what it could possibly be watching. But it was impossible to tell. It was definitely looking into the Gryffindor crowd, but Harry couldn't tell what, or who, it was looking at. The owl could have been watching anyone. Harry could see Hermione, watching the game with interest. Neville was sitting beside her, catching up on the sleep he had been going with out the past few days. Lavender was behind him, poking him awake whenever something exciting was about to happen. He spotted Dean not to far away, jumping to his feet as Ginny scored another goal. Seamus was up a split second later and the rest of Gryffindor house followed. There was no way to know what the owl was looking for in the crowd.
"Harry. What are you doing?"
Harry looked around. Mindy was floating beside him, staring at him curiously. Harry suddenly realized he hadn't moved in maybe five minutes. "Oh." He said, "I saw..." He looked back to where the owl had been, but it was gone. He frowned.
"Get going, Harry." Mindy said, before zooming off again.
Harry nodded and turned his attention back to searching out the Snitch and spotted it almost immediately. It had just buzzed past Cho's ear, but she didn't seem to have noticed it. And to Harry's great displeasure the Snitch had decided to hover no more than an arms length behind Cho. The Ravenclaw was currently looking in the other direction. She was completely unaware of the golden ball buzzing behind her head.
Harry knew if waited another second longer he would miss his chance to get the Snitch. Gripping his broom handle, he leaned down and flew at top speed across the stadium, aiming seemingly right at Cho. Cho noticed this and squeaked. Harry could tell her first reaction was to get out of the way, but then something seemed to click and she must have realized the only the reason Harry would be flying at her so fast was if the Snitch was near. She looked about herself and saw it, still hovering less than an arms length away.
"And it looks like Walker is going for a goal. He shoots..."
Harry knew then that it was too late. Even as he continued his high speed dash towards her, he knew he would never be able to make it before she grabbed the Snitch. Cho knew it too. She looked back, throwing Harry a triumphed smile, before reaching out casually and plucking the Snitch out of the air. Harry pulled up sharply, stopping almost instantly, as Cho held the golden ball high above her head.
"What's this, Chang has caught the Snitch. The game is over Chang caught the Snitch. But Walker just made a goal. Is it good?"
Madam Hooch floated to the center of the pitch and announced, "The final goal made by Tobias Walker was scored just before the Snitch was caught. The twenty points count."
"The goal counts! Giving Gryffindor team a final score 170 points. The final score Gryffindor 170; Ravenclaw 150. Gryffindor wins even though Ravenclaw caught the Snitch. What a game!"
The crowd was roaring, the Gryffindor's loudest of them all. But Harry wasn't listening to the crowd as he landed and dismounted, or paying much attention to the slaps on the back. His mind was otherwise occupied. The owl was there tonight. It was there watching the Gryffindor students. Something bad was going to happen. He just knew it was.
The following morning, while eating breakfast, Harry's fear came true, although not in the way he had expected. It happened quite suddenly. One moment everything was normal. Kids were up about, talking and laughing and going on as usual. The next moment everything was silent. One by one everyone in the Great Hall fell still. Everyone was turning around, staring back at the Great Hall doors.
Harry's back was to the doors. He knew something was back there. Something that couldn't be good. He turned slowly, dreading what he might see. And as he faced the doors, he immediately regretted his decision to look. Both of the double doors were wide open and standing dead in the center of the arched door was Draco Malfoy.
~*~*~*~*~*
Ha! He's back. Betcha thought he really wasn't going to be in this fic. Well, he is. But is he still the same ol' rotten stinkin' Malfoy that everybody loves to hate? Or will he be not so bad this time around? You tell me. No really, you tell me. I've been conflicted over what Draco's character should be like after he spent sometime away, where ever away has been (don't worry I actually sent him someplace and you all will find out where as the story goes on). I've seen where a lot people has wrote him as being not so bad, and I rather like him that way. But in the HP series thus far he's absolutely rotten. So should I move away from the series and make him a decent human being or should I keep with the current Rowling story line and leave him yucky?
So many choices. I just don't know. So guess what time it is? That's right. It's voting time! Do you want to see a nasty Draco or a not so bad Draco? However you vote is however I will write him. So don't delay! Caste your vote today!
And remember, you can't vote unless you review. So REVIEW!!!
And here's comments to reviews as I promised. I always keep my word.
superhpfreak: How's it going? My characters sound English? Nifty. I really wanted to keep them as English as I could. I try to weed out the American slang, but it's very difficult to do. But I'm glad it working a little bit.
And there you go, jumping to conclusions about Neville and Lavender. Are they dating, or is something else entirely? That's for me to know you to gradually find out as the story progresses.
Rita...Skeeter...Hey it does rhyme, sort of. Anyways her name got messed up as a spell check era. You know how you hit spell check and then you just get into the habit of hitting change, change, change, one after another. Well, that's what happened with her name. I have Dumbledore, Severus, Snape, Hermione, and Ron in my dictionary so I don't have to keep hitting ignore all when I get to one of their names. I have no reason to stick Skeeter in there, so there you go.
And yeah, I'm pretty sure Harry's scare hurt. It wasn't the "Ow! Ow! Searing, burning fires of hell pain! Ow!" kind of hurt. But it hurt. Dumbledore took over mostly because of Snape's problem with Harry. I'm thinking after the thing with the pensive in book five, Snape isn't gonna wanna teach Harry Occlumency anymore, anyway.
Harry and Co. were looking for antidotes mostly to help Ron out. He felt somewhat responsible for what happened to Colin and Hermione thought it would make him feel better if they were doing something that might help the kid. And you know Hermione, once she set her mind to do something, she likes to see it through.
Yeah, I thought about that, how a bird could have one black feather here and one speckled feather there, but I was just going to make the bird all black anyway. I didn't want to complicate the plot too much more. It's plenty complicated as it is.
And finally, I don't mind long reviews. I rather enjoy them in fact.
Marz1: If you're referring to the scene where Dumbledore is talking to Mindy/Minerva about her and Harry, he's just a little teed off about one of his best Professors having to start a relationship with one of his favorite students.
ping*pong5: You are ever so close, but your guess isn't quite right. I won't tell what's going on. But if you keep thinking about it, you may very well figure it out. And please note that the crimson eyes have nothing to do with a particular person per se (say that three time fast ~_^). I just had to make something about the owl different enough that it would be immediately recognizable as not a normal owl.
To everybody else who reviewed and left such wonderful comments: Thanks a million and a half.
Well that is all from me. Don't forget to vote, or else I'll make Draco a bland character who does nothing, says nothing, and is just generally boring. You don't want that. I don't want that. Nobody wants that. Only you can prevent boring Draco. Do your part and vote.
Ya'll come back now, ya here!
P. S. The next chapter may be delayed. If I get the time to write I will up date in about a week or less. If not it maybe three weeks (not until after Christmas) before I can get the next one up. I will try to get it up sooner, but don't hold your breath.
P.P.S. Review and most importantly vote.
Second of all, let me give very big thankies to everybody who listed me as a favorite author. Branson1, Foz, Sobek, pheonix friend, Sable1, dreamon2223, isc-atenista, and Crookykanks. THANKIES ^_^
Third of all, everybody noticed the dude/dud mix up. Hehehe. Sorry. But I'm glad you all got a laugh out of it. It's not my fault, really. I blame spell check.
Fourth of all, comments to reviews will be at the end of the chapter. There aren't many comments this go around, there weren't many questions. But you guys know how I am with a lot of junk at the top of a chapter. And this is already adding up to a lot of junk. So check out the end for comments if you're interested.
Fifth of all, I don't own Harry Potter. I have never owned Harry Potter and I am fairly sure I never will own Harry Potter. Alas, he belongs to some one else.
Sixth of all, read and enjoy :)
~*~*~*~*~*
Chapter 8
Owl over the High Hoop
"Black with red eyes, huh?"
Harry nodded, looking over at Mindy as she pushed eggs around on her plate. Hermione and Ron sat across from the two of them at the Gryffindor table having breakfast. "Black with red eyes." He said. He had been catching Mindy up on the events of the day before. He hadn't seen her again that night. She was off, presumably researching. "Have you ever seen an owl like that?"
Mindy shook her head. "No. Owls don't usually have red eyes. Are you sure they weren't orange?"
"I'm pretty sure." Harry answered. "It's eyes looked like they were almost glowing."
"That's...different." Mindy said thoughtfully.
"What I think is odd." Hermione said, said looking up from her sausage. "Is that Harry forgot seeing it. Even if he only caught a glimpse of the owl, he shouldn't have forgotten it."
"You think someone caused him to forget?" Mindy asked.
Hermione nodded. "It's possible. A simple memory charm would do the trick."
"But why?" Ron asked. "What difference would it make to see an owl? They're all over the school; nobody would think it was strange to see one in the hall."
Hermione shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe whoever owned the owl thought Harry might take to much notice of it."
"I didn't see anybody that night, though." Harry said. "Of course if someone used a memory charm to make me forget an owl he could just as easily make me forget him too."
Hermione shook her head. "You may not have seen any one. He wouldn't necessarily have to make eye contact with you to perform the charm. A shot in the back works just as well as a shot in the front."
"Well, if memory charms are involved." Mindy said. "We could probably count out any students in fourth year or below as the owner of the owl."
"How's that?" Ron asked.
"Memory charms are tricky things to pull off." Mindy explained. "My guess is, its at least a sixth year that's doing this."
"At least a sixth year, huh." Ron said. "Who do we know that's a sixth year and has a definite grudge against Harry and has ties with You- Know-Who?" He glanced over at the Slytherin table his eyes searching out Pansy Parkinson.
"Ron." Hermione said, following his gaze. "We don't know that it's her."
"All the evidence points to her."
"But it's all very circumstantial."
"Ron does have a point." Mindy put in. "If you had heard the way she yelled at Harry in Potions you'd think it was her too."
"I agree she may have something to do with this." Hermione said. "But I don't think its her, or at least, not her alone. You said it yourself, Mindy, memory charms are tricky to pull off. It could take a fully trained wizard years to master them. Pansy just isn't smart enough."
Mindy nodded. "You may be right, Hermione. At any rate, it couldn't hurt to find out what kind of owl she owns. If it's a black one, we'll at least know we're headed in the right direction."
Hermione nodded and jerked back as a large grey owl landed in front of her spilling her pumpkin juice. Harry looked up just as a flood of owls came pouring through the high windows. They landed haphazardly among the food on the tables hooting for treats as they deposited letters and packages.
Hermione took the 'Daily Prophet' from the owl in front of her and absently shoved a knut into the pouch on its leg. It hooted loudly before spreading its grey-white wings and soaring off. Hermione immediately unrolled the paper and disappeared behind it.
"Oh, go away." Mindy said, trying to shove away a small brown owl that was nibbling at the edge of her toast.
"I think it has a letter for you." Ron said, noticing the roll of parchment tied to its left leg.
"Oh." Mindy said. She managed to seize the letter just before the owl snagged her toast and flew off again. "Ill mannered creature." Mindy frowned at the spot the owl had been in, then opened her letter. She raised her eyebrows at its contents.
"What is it?" Harry asked, catching the expression on her face.
"Nothing." Mindy answered, folding the parchment and stuffing it into her pocket. She glanced up at the professors' table then went back to her breakfast.
"I can't believe this!" Hermione exclaimed.
Harry, Ron, and Mindy looked at her, a bit surprised by her outburst.
"What's the matter?" Ron asked.
Hermione didn't answer. Instead she turned the newspaper around so that they all could see. Above a head line reading "Foe or Friend: The Ministry says Friend" was a picture of Lucius Malfoy grinning and waving.
Ron snatched the paper from Hermione and began reading out loud. " 'Yesterday Lucius Malfoy, accused Dark wizard and Death Eater, was released from Azkaban. According to a Ministry official there was not enough evidence to hold him...' Not enough evidence." Ron frowned. "That's absolutely insane. He was practically kissing You-Know-Who's feet." He slung the paper aside. "This is complete rubbish."
Mindy scooped up the newspaper, quickly turning to the article. "It says all the Aurors are in an uproar over the decision." Mindy said, before reading, " 'Kingsley Shacklebolt is quoted as saying "Freeing Malfoy is not only the greatest wrong committed by the wizarding world, but a severe danger to us all." However, the Ministry does not agree. Trixe- Bella Greats, the Ministry official that authorized the release of Malfoy says, "It would be a grave injustice to hold an innocent man. There is not enough proof that these crimes had been committed by Mr. Lucius Malfoy, and it is only right that he is released." Greats is also working on the freeing Crabbe and Gole, also accused Death Eaters.'" Mindy the folded the paper and looked over at Harry.
Harry slowly became aware that Ron and Hermione were watching him too. He knew they were trying to gage his reaction. Harry didn't say anything. He couldn't quite believe what he was hearing. 'Not enough evidence'. There was more than enough evidence. Malfoy was there, turning wand on his friends, trying to kill them all. Harry pushed away from the table. He suddenly wasn't hungry anymore.
"Harry?" Hermione said, as he stood and started away.
"I have to go." Harry said. He felt their eyes on him as he walked off, but he didn't look back.
~*~*~*~*
Mindy looked over at Harry sitting silently in the desk beside hers. He had been quiet all period, a slight frown creasing his face. Mindy couldn't begin to imagine what he must have been feeling. After what Lucius Malfoy had been apart of, and then being released as if he had done nothing wrong. Mindy couldn't blame Harry for being upset. She just wished he'd talk to her.
"Mr. Potter? Harry?"
Harry blinked and looked up at Professor Lupin. "Huh?" Professor Lupin raised one eyebrow and Harry added, "Sir."
"I had asked everyone to tell me what animal they had decided on." Professor Lupin said. "Have chosen one?"
Harry nodded. "I think a stag." He answered.
Professor Lupin smiled and looked at Mindy. "What about you Ms. James?"
Mindy looked at Lupin. She hadn't given which animal she should choose to transfigure into much thought. She was thinking cat, but everyone in the room knew Professor McGonagall could turn herself into a cat. Of course that was her animagus form. If she went with cat now, she could make herself look differently. She was sure none of the students would put it together. "Cat." She answered.
Professor Lupin nodded. "Good choice." He said, then looked back at Lavender. "What about you, Ms. Brown?"
"Butterfly." Lavender said immediately.
"I asked you to choose only mammals." Professor Lupin frowned.
"Alright then." Lavender shrugged. "I'll be a hairy butterfly."
"Pick a mammal, Ms. Brown."
"But I really want to turn myself into...oh, fine then. I'll pick a mammal."
"Thank you." Professor Lupin said. "Ms. Patil. Have you chosen something, and please don't say ladybug."
"I...oh, um. Can I have a little more time to think about then?"
Professor Lupin nodded. "Decide quickly, though. Today we are going to work on the transfiguration spell. It's important you have a good idea of what you want to be in mind."
"You mean we're actually going to transfigure ourselves." Dean asked, a huge hopeful smile spreading across his face.
"You're going to attempt to transfigure yourself." Professor Lupin answered.
"Alright." Seamus said. "I thought we'd never stop going over theory."
"You'll be thanking me for all that theory in a few minutes." Professor Lupin said. "Everybody up, wands out."
Everyone stood, pulling out their wands eagerly. Mindy glanced over at Harry. He finally seemed to be focusing on what was going on around him. She still didn't like the idea of the students attempting to turn themselves into animals, but she was glad Harry seemed to be coming out of the mood he had settled into.
"Everyone won't get it right first try." Professor Lupin said, as he waved his wand causing the desks to slid against the walls, leaving a good- size open area. "Don't worry about that. It is a very difficult spell and will require some practice. It's just important that you learn the words and the proper wand movements today." Professor Lupin turned to the black board and aiming his wand at it the words 'Metaus Soulesius' script across in neat white letters. "You'll need to say those words." He said, "While maintaining a clear image of the animal you want to become in your mind. It is very important that you hold onto the image of the animal you want to be until your transformation is complete. The moment you let go of the picture the transformation ends."
"Is that why Viktor Crum didn't turn all the way into a shark?" Seamus asked, raising his hand.
Professor Lupin nodded. "That is probably part of the reason. Concentration is key to performing the spell. You'll need to focus to complete the transformation. If you have a short attention span, I suggest you work on extending it. I think we should take it in turns. Who would like to try first?"
Dean's hand shot up. "I'll go." He volunteered happily.
Professor Lupin nodded. "You were going to try for buffalo, correct?" Dean nodded. "To the center of the room, then." Dean moved to middle of the circle the students had formed, clutching his wand. "You'll need to flick the wand like so." Professor Lupin said, demonstrating the wand movement necessary for the spell.
Dean nodded. He screwed his face up in concentration and then said loudly, "Metaus Soulesius."
At first, nothing seemed to be happening. Dean squeezed his eyes shut and ever so slowly, Mindy began to see the changes. Dean's hair became thicker and curly. He started to develop a pair of horns. A long tail sprouted and his hands and feet were steadily becoming hooves. And then he sneezed. The transformation stopped instantly, leaving Dean more boy than buffalo.
Dean opened his eyes, looked down at himself, and burst out laughing. Most of the class followed suit, but Professor Lupin quieted everyone quickly. "That was a very good try." Professor Lupin said, performing the reversal spell and turning Dean back into his normal self. "Most people don't get that far their first time."
"I would have turned all the way if I didn't have to sneeze." Dean said as he fell back into the group.
"I'm sure you would have." Professor Lupin smiled. "Who wants to go next?"
And so the class proceeded with one student after another, stepping into the middle of the room and attempting to turn themselves into an assortment of animals. Most were only able to grow extra hair or sprout tails before loosing concentration and ending the transformation.
Lavender, who had finally decided on a mink, did fairly well. She had grown silver fur, had shrunk down to about three feet, and had sprouted a long fluffy tail all with in five minutes. Her down fall came when she began to sprout whiskers. Lavender was apparently very ticklish, and her newly grown whiskers kept brushing against her cheeks and neck (which were still quite human) and she succumb to a giggling fit.
"You did very well, Ms. Brown." Professor Lupin said, turning a still giggling Lavender back into a girl. "You were more mink than girl. I think that deserves ten points."
Parvati, who had decided on rabbit, didn't do so well. She couldn't even manage a cotton tail. "I can't concentrate with everyone watching." She complained as she stomped back into the group.
Ron, who had chosen to become a lion, could only manage to grow a long, flowing, fire red mane. Even after the reversal spell, it seemed his hair was still a little bit longish. If it was possible, Harry did worse than Parvati. He couldn't even grow the velvet fur of a stag. Mindy knew it was because his head wasn't really in the lesson that day. Harry tried for a few minutes longer, then shook his head. "Sorry, Professor Lupin." He said. "Maybe next time."
Professor Lupin nodded. "Next time, then."
Hermione did best of the students. With in minutes of uttering the spell, she became a beautiful sphinx. Her face remained the same, though her eyes were definitely feline.
"I didn't think Hermione would want to become anything cat related." Ron whispered to Harry. "Considering what happened in second year."
"What happened in second year?" Mindy asked, looking over at Ron and Harry.
"I'll tell you later." Harry answered, quietly.
Mindy nodded. She had always wondered about the events that occurred during that year, that led Harry to find the chamber of secrets. Dumbledore had never really given her the details.
"That is excellent, Hermione." Professor Lupin grinned. "Twenty points for Gryffindor."
Soon it was Mindy's turn. She stepped to the middle of the room and thought for a second about what kind of cat she would like to be. A Siamese cat was very different from her animagus form. She nodded and closed her eyes and thought 'white Siamese'. Raising her wand, Mindy said " 'Metaus Soulesius'." And swiftly became a cat. She opened her eyes, seeing the world as only a cat would; noticing not color or objects, but motion. She watched Professor Lupin's slightest movement, not listening to his words. The hem of his robe wiggled tantalizingly in front of her, and she was sorely tempted to pounce it. She scrubbed one ear with her paw. It was always disorienting becoming an animal. That was why she preferred her animagus form. One always remained more human than beast.
Suddenly she was becoming Mindy again. She jerked out of the animal form so quickly it actually dazed her. She blinked, confused for a second, then grinned sheepishly, remembering where she was.
"...Very, very good." Professor Lupin was saying, lowering his wand. "Thirty points for Gryffindor."
Mindy smiled and, ignoring the stares she received, stepped back into the group.
~*~*~*~*
The next few days passed in a blur. Harry found himself incredibly busy. Between D. A, Quidditch and Potions, he wondered how he had time for anything else. Harry, Ron, and Mindy soon had to stop researching possible cures of basilisk poison to devote more time to Quidditch. Harry felt a little guilty about leaving Hermione to work out the puzzle alone, but with the Gryffindor/Ravenclaw game fast approaching (it was to be held Halloween evening, only a week away) he felt they needed the practice more. Mindy missed most of the evening practices. She had managed to get herself detention with Snape again for a solid week, so Harry found himself working with her during breaks and lunch.
Harry didn't mind the extra work, though. It kept his mind off Lucius Malfoy's release. Harry had been slightly surprised to discover how much he hated the man. He didn't hate him the way he hated Bellatrix LeStrange, but he certainly despised him. Malfoy was a part of the group that took away all the family Harry had ever had. He had nearly caused the deaths of his friends. And now he was being released to walk the streets like an innocent man. It wasn't right. He didn't deserve it.
"Harry. Your quill hasn't moved in ten minutes."
Harry looked over at Mindy. They were in Gryffindor common room, sitting next to each other on the couch in front of the fireplace. A fire was roaring inside, warm and rosy colored. He smiled at Mindy, her cheeks were glowing the fire light.
"Sorry. I was...thinking." Harry said, looking down at the potions work he should have been doing. He hadn't done any more than scrawl the title of the essay he was to write on the effects of sleeping potions and their reversals.
Mindy leaned against him, resting her head on his shoulder. "Tell me what you're thinking?"
Harry looked down at her and grinned. "I was thinking that you are the most beautiful person I've ever seen."
Mindy laughed. "That's a good answer. Probably not the truth, but still a good answer."
Harry smiled and, leaning down, kissed her on the nose.
"Ugh. If you two are going to do that, get a room."
Harry looked back to see Ginny standing just behind the sofa, making a face at the two of them. Ron was behind her, looking minorly embarrassed.
Mindy sat up and smiled wickedly at Ginny. "You're one to talk." She said, as the other girl walked around the couch and plopped down in the arm chair. "I saw you and Dean the other day."
"Saw her and Dean doing what?" Ron asked, jerking around to look at his little sister.
"Having a good snog." Mindy answered.
"Oh, no you weren't." Ron yelled.
Ginny rolled her eyes. "Oh, shut up, Ron. Anyway, Harry, we wanted to know if you were still holding practice this afternoon."
Harry nodded. "I was planning on it." He answered.
"It's almost six now." Ginny said.
Harry looked at the clock, surprised to see that it was already 5:50. He had started his potions an hour and an half ago. "I didn't know it was so late." He said, closing his Potions book. "We had better go."
"I suppose we'll finish this when we get back." Mindy said, closing her book as well.
"You're coming?" Ron asked. "You don't have detention with Snape?"
"It was moved down to 7:30. I can stay for most of the practice." Mindy answered.
They left Gryffindor tower, heading for the entrance of the castle and the Quidditch pitch beyond that. As they headed passed the Great Hall they ran across Neville and Lavender. Their heads were bent together and they appeared to be in deep discussion about something. Neville looked up and spotted the four Gryffindors coming his way. His round face turned a lovely shade of pink. He left Lavender and walked over to meet them.
"We're looking for Hermione." Neville said, looking back at Lavender who was leaning casually against the Great Hall's door frame. "Have you seen her?"
"Try the library." Ron suggested. "I saw her there last."
"Thanks." Neville said. He waved Lavender over and the two of them headed off in the direction of the library.
"I wonder what's going on with them." Ginny said, watching them go. "They seem to be spending a lot of time together lately."
"What do you mean?" Ron asked, opening the school doors and stepping out into the cold evening air.
"I saw them in the library the other day." Ginny said, pulling her cloak tight around her shoulders. "They were sitting awfully close."
"And they've been eating lunch and dinner together." Mindy added.
"They have been?" Harry asked.
"Yeah." Mindy said. "Haven't you noticed?"
Harry and Ron exchanged looks. "No." Harry said.
"Boys." Ginny said. "Leave it to them to notice nothing."
Mindy laughed, then asked. "Do you suppose Lavender and Neville are, you know, a couple?"
Ginny wrinkled her nose in thought. "I don't know. I just can't see those two together. They seem so..."
"Different." Mindy supplied.
Ginny nodded. "But I suppose it's possible. Neville is sweet."
"And adorable." Mindy added. "And smart."
"And brave." Ginny said. "You wouldn't believe how brave he is. And when he took me to the Yule Ball he was very polite."
Mindy nodded. "But still, Lavender and Neville."
Ginny shrugged. "I suppose its possible."
Mindy looked back at Harry and grinned. "I'm starting to think anything is possible." She said.
They hurried across the icy grounds towards the Quidditch pitch and changing rooms. The early cold that had arrived in the beginning of October had been chased away by a small warm spell. All the snow had melted down into a slush that froze anew every night. The weather hadn't been quite right for snow again, only icy rain. Harry was very thankful it wasn't raining tonight. He hoped the weather held up till after their Quidditch match next week.
When they stepped into the warm changing rooms, they found the twins and Tobias already there. Tobias was fully dressed, his small head buried in a large book. The twins were half way changed and seemed to have been in the middle of a lively swatting match. They immediately stopped swing their robes at each others heads as the group came bustling in.
Simon smiled. "What took you--" "So long?" Simone finished. The two had an initially annoying habit of finishing each others sentences. Ron said Fred and George did that sometimes when they were very excited about something and didn't feel the other was telling it fast enough. But Simon and Simone did it constantly. At first it irritated Harry to no end. If he asked one a question, the other was just as likely to answer. When having a conversation with them, he never knew in which direction to look. He was starting to get used to it, though he still couldn't tell which would speak. Only Ron seemed able to anticipate which one would be talking and when.
"Lost track of time." Harry answered. "Finish changing. I want to get into the air while there's still a little light."
The two nodded, and quickly donned the robes they had been fighting with minutes earlier. Ten minutes later, everyone was changed and zipping through the air on their brooms. Harry watched the players while keeping an eye opened for the snitch. He wasn't so concerned with catching it as he was with making sure everyone played well together.
"Over here." Ginny called and Mindy slung her the Quaffle.
Ginny caught it and flew at Ron, attempting a goal. Ron stopped it easily and tossed the Quaffle to Tobias. The boy attempted an immediate, but failing, score. Simon and Simone flew about in circles, batting away stray Buldgers, making sure none of the balls got near the Chasers, and occasionally shooting one at each other.
Simone ducked a Buldger her brother had aimed at her head. "Hey, that was a little too close." She yelled.
"You should have been paying attention." Simon called.
"Oh, really." Simone flew after a Buldger and batted it as hard as she could at her brother. It clipped the end of his broom causing him to spinning in the air. "What happened, Simon. Weren't you paying attention?"
"Come on guys, stop playing." Harry called. "We need to practice."
"Sorry." The twins said in unison.
Harry shook his head. He hoped those two could be serious for the match. He searched for the Buldger Simone had hit at her brother, trying to spot where it had flown, and spied it flying low at the edge of the Quidditch pitch, heading for the forbidden forest. He watched its progress, wondering how far it would go before it turned back and headed for the center of the pitch. As he watched the Buldger swooping past the line of the forest he noticed something else, a figure emerging from the woods.
Harry dropped in altitude squinting in the descending dark, trying to make out who it was. It wasn't Hagrid. The person was too small. It might have been one of the students.
"Is something wrong?"
Harry looked over to see Mindy hovering beside him. "Can you see who that is?" He asked, nodding in the direction of the figure. The person was walking along the lake now, heading towards the school. Mindy wrinkled her nose in concentration, then flew to the edge of the pitch; Harry followed behind her. "It's definitely a girl." Mindy said, still squinting at the person, who was now climbing the steps towards the great doors. "It looks like..." The girl opened the door. The light from inside illuminated her face. She looked back towards the forest again, before stepping inside the school, and in that moment Harry got a clear view of her.
"Pansy Parkinson." He said.
Mindy frowned and looked at Harry. "Where was she coming from?"
"The Forbidden Forest." Harry answered.
"What was she doing back there?"
Harry only shook his head and shrugged.
"Whatever it was." Mindy said. "She couldn't have been up to any good."
~*~*~*~*
They arrived back at Gryffindor common room cold and tired. And Mindy's night was not through yet. She shuddered to think what Snape would dig up for her to do tonight. She had brewed and taken her de-aging potion last night. Now he would probably put her to work cleaning crud out of the cracks in class room floor. She was really starting to regret telling the person next to her, rather loudly, that Snape wore pink tights under his robes.
Mindy, Harry, Ron and Ginny sat down as close as they could get to the fire without the risk of serious injury. Tobias, yawning, headed off to the boys dorms. Simon followed, his sister going in the opposite direction.
"You work us just as hard as Angelina, Harry." Ron said, his eyes half closed. "I thought you would take it easy on us."
Harry shook his head. "I just want us to be good."
"We are." Ginny said.
Mindy nodded her agreement. The Gryffindor team was good. They would win the Quidditch cup this year for sure.
"I need a nice hot bath." Ginny said, pushing up from her sitting position. "See you guys later."
"Bye." Ron said, never opening his eyes.
Harry looked over at Mindy. "Aren't you late for your detention?" He asked.
"I am." Mindy answered. "A little more than half an hour late, but I don't care. I think I'm going to rest for a bit."
"Snape's bound to be angry." Harry warned.
"When is he not?" Mindy decided to follow Ron's example and closed her eyes. She felt herself drifting off when she heard some one approaching.
"It's about time you guys got back."
Mindy opened her eyes to see Hermione standing over her, arms loaded with books. Neville was just behind, carrying just as many books as Hermione.
"What's going on?" Ron asked, groggily.
"We might have found something that can cure Colin." Hermione answered, dumping the books down on small coffee table in front of the fire place.
This got all of their attentions. Mindy sat up straighter, hardly believing what she was hearing. She had gone along with their endeavor to find a cure for Colin, but she didn't think they would actually come up with something. Professor Snape was having trouble and he was a potions master. "What?" She asked.
"Unicorn trees." Hermione answered, beaming. "It's so simple, I don't know why we didn't think of it before."
Mindy frowned. "I know unicorn tree sap can be used to cure minor poisons, but it isn't strong enough for some thing like basilisk blood."
Neville shook his head and stepped forward. "Actually it would be." He said. "If you used the sap from a mature tree."
"Huh?" Ron asked.
"You see." Neville explained. "It takes unicorn trees about five hundred years to mature. That's entirely to long to wait when growing them for commercial use. But about after fifty years, the sap of a young tree is potent enough to be used as cures. Most commercially grown trees never live past one hundred and fifty, though. Tapping them at a young age has an ill effect on their life span."
"How do you know all that?" Harry asked.
"I have to research a magical plant for advanced Herbology." Neville explained. "I choose unicorn trees."
"Neville is quite knowledgeable on the subject." Hermione said. "I wouldn't be surprised if he knew more than Professor Sprout."
Neville blushed bright pink. "I don't think I do." He said.
"I do." Hermione replied matter-of-factly. "At any rate, its been proven that the older the unicorn tree is the more potent its sap. We did a little a research and discovered that, way back when unicorn trees were fairly abundant, the sap was used to cure everything from salamander burns to black leopard spider venom."
"Black leopard spider?" Ron asked, nervously.
"Huge spiders." Mindy answered. "That possesses one of the world's most deadly venom's."
Hermione nodded. "Exactly. We thought that if unicorn sap could be used to cure leopard spider venom, it could probably be used to cure basilisk poison. After a little tweaking of course."
"That actually sounds like a plan." Harry grinned.
"But where would find a mature unicorn tree?" Ron asked. "If all the ones that are grown now don't live past a hundred and fifty?"
"The forbidden forest." Neville answered. "Remember, Hagrid had us catch tree nymphs so that they wouldn't get into the stand of unicorn trees in the middle of the forest."
"Oh, yeah." Ron answered.
"After class, the other day, I asked him how long the unicorn trees had been in the forest." Neville went on. "He said, since before Hogwarts. They'll definitely be mature."
"And extremely potent." Hermione said.
"I can't believe it." Mindy said. "But that might actually work. I have to go tell Professor Snape. He'll need to hear about this."
"And we also need to talk to Professor Sprout." Neville said.
"And Professor Dumbledore." Harry added. "He'll want to know too."
"And Hagrid." Hermione stated. "He'll have to get to the trees. Come on Ron, let's go see if we can find him."
"I'll go see Professor Dumbledore." Harry said. "And Neville..."
"I'll find Professor Sprout." Neville finished.
They split, heading off to find various professors. Snape was initially angry with Mindy for being tardy to her detention, but quickly got over it when he heard what she had to say. He was still a bit skeptical, but Mindy knew he had no other strong leads and he was willing to listen (albeit grudgingly) to Neville.
No more than half an hour later all three Professors and Neville were gathered in Professor Dumbledore's office. It was decided rather quickly that they should give Neville's idea a shot, seeing as they had no other plans. Neville (to his great displeasure) was to work with Professor Snape in refining the unicorn tree sap. As it turned out, he really was more knowledgeable on the subject of unicorn trees than Professor Sprout. Over the past couple of hundred years or so the tree sap had gain the reputation of being only good for severe acne and mild headaches, and was fairly low on Professor Sprout's list of plants to learn everything about. But she wasn't upset that Neville knew more about the tree than her. She was extremely proud of him. For days after the decision she could be heard talking rather loudly and very fondly of the brilliance of her star pupil.
Neville would have been quite miserable, having to work with Snape every evening, if he had not been branded a hero. He was very obviously uncomfortable in the role, but he seemed to enjoy the attention and special treatment he suddenly started receiving. It seemed his professors would find any excuse at all to award him points.
Dennis Creevey followed him about, eager to do anything he could to help the boy that would save his brother's life. Mindy knew Neville didn't enjoy having Dennis constantly at his heels, but he didn't know how to ask him to leave.
"Sometimes, I don't know if I should be happy for Neville, or feel sorry for him." Hermione said one day at lunch as she watched Neville enter the great hall carrying an arm load of books and being followed by a small gaggle of students (mostly first years led by Dennis) eager to help him carry them.
"It'll blow over." Harry said, watching Neville detach himself from the crowd and take a seat next to Lavender.
"Yeah." Ron agreed. "And then he'll find the cure and it'll start all over again."
"You think he will?" Hermione asked.
"I'm sure he will." Ron answered confidently.
"I just wish he'd take a break." Mindy said. "He's been working awful hard lately."
"I'm sure he will tomorrow." Hermione said. "It's Halloween."
"And the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw match." Harry added. "I asked him earlier and he said he'd be there."
"Well, we'll know he's not working for at least one hour." Hermione said. "Are you ready for the match?" She asked looking at Harry.
Harry nodded. "I think so. We've been doing alright in practice."
"Have you seen anymore of Pansy?" Hermione asked, leaning in a little closer. "While practicing?"
Mindy shook her head. "No." After the immediate fanfare of Neville's discovery had passed, Harry and Mindy had told Ron and Hermione about Pansy. They had been watching her when they could ever since. But she had done nothing suspicious in the past few days, and Mindy was beginning to question if what they thought they had seen was true.
"We need to find a way to keep up with her." Ron said. "Watching her between and during classes isn't going to do us any good. She can't very well do something odd during the middle of the day."
"I agree, but how?" Hermione asked.
"Short of following her around in Harry's invisibility cloak, there isn't any way." Mindy answered.
Harry looked at her curiously. "How did you know I had an invisibility cloak?"
Mindy had to fight to keep her expression normal. She couldn't believe she had done it again. She had completely forgotten she wasn't suppose to know about the invisibility cloak. "You mentioned it to me." She answered as casually as she could. "Don't you remember?"
"Er."
"You probably don't. You were half sleep when you told me." Mindy said.
"Oh, right." Harry said, still looking slightly confused
Mindy smiled, hoping they all bought her little white lie. Dumbledore would kill her if she let herself be found out now. Mindy suddenly wondered if she should tell Professor Dumbledore about Pansy Parkinson. She hadn't mentioned the owl or the threat Pansy had shouted at Harry the second day of school. She hadn't mentioned the threat at first because if really did sound like the ranting of an angry girl, but now... She couldn't believe the thought to tell Professor Dumbledore what was going hadn't even crossed her mind. She was suppose to report anything that might be a danger to Harry, to hopefully keep the boy out of trouble. And here she was, going along with them. What was getting into her? Was the de-aging potion really having that strong of an effect on her? Mindy made up her mind to talk to Professor Dumbledore first chance she got.
But for now, she probably should try to keep Harry, Ron, and Hermione from putting themselves into a potentially dangerous position. Mindy could tell by the looks on Harry's and Ron's faces that they were actually considering her idea of following Pansy around under the invisibility cloak. "I think we ought to wait a little longer." Mindy suggested. "We still haven't found Pansy's owl..."
"That's because it's probably off delivering deadly poison to another un-suspecting student." Ron said.
"But we can't follow her under the cloak." Mindy frowned. "We'd get caught, most likely almost instantly."
"Mindy's right." Hermione said. "The cloak is good for sneaking places, but not for following people. She'll still be able to hear us walking or breathing. We'll just have to do another polyjuice potion."
"A what?" Mindy asked surprised. When did they brew a polyjuice potion?
"We did that second year." Harry explained. "To get inside the Slytherin house and see what Malfoy knew about the chamber of secrets."
"Which is also how Hermione got herself turned into a cat." Ron added. "She was stuck that way for a good while."
"But I got better." Hermione said. "And this time won't get the hair mixed up."
"We can't do that either." Harry said. "It's takes entirely too long to brew a polyjuice potion and we'd have to break into Snape's ingredient cabinet. We need to figure out what Pansy's up to now."
"Why don't we transfigure ourselves?" Ron suggested. "Into mice or something small, and follow her. We'll be able to see whatever she's doing."
Mindy shook her head. "Transfiguring yourself isn't that easy." She said. "It could take just as long to figure out how to do it properly and even longer to figure out how to reverse it by yourself."
"Oh, really." Ron grumbled. "You made it look so easy the other day."
Mindy felt herself blushing. She had transfigured to easily. She should have held back. She didn't know why she did that in the first place. Was she showing off? Maybe she was trying to impress Harry. This thought made her blush even more and she looked away.
"Ron." Hermione frowned at him. "But I do think it's a good idea. We've worked out harder things. What do you think, Harry?"
Harry nodded. "I don't see as we have any other options." He answered. "Mindy?"
Mindy looked up. She should go along, just to make sure they didn't get themselves killed, or stuck as rodents. "Alright, then."
Harry smiled. "Then it's settled. We'll get to the bottom of this, one way or another."
Mindy looked at the three, just now gaining a full appreciation for how resourceful they were. No wonder they always knew exactly what was going on, even when everyone would work so hard to keep certain knowledge from them. No wonder at all that they always managed to get themselves right in the middle of everything. She only hoped they didn't get themselves killed this time. Or worse, expelled.
~*~*~*~*
Harry awoke around eight the next morning feeling, surprisingly, nervous. He hadn't expected to feel anxious about the match that day. Ravenclaw/Gryffindor games were always fairly friendly. But he supposed it was always good to be a little nervous before a big event. He had heard somewhere that that made you perform better.
Ron was already gone, and Harry assumed he must be down at breakfast. Washing and dressing quickly, Harry headed down as well. The Great Hall was decorated with orange and black in honor of Halloween. Enchanted bats flew around the ceiling that was reflecting an overcast sky. Among the normal breakfast food were bowls of candy corn and smoking cauldrons of assorted sweets. Harry spotted Hermione and Mindy sitting amidst flowing cob webs, buttering orange colored toast with black colored jam.
Sweeping cob webs aside he sat next to Mindy and pulled a plate towards him. "Have you seen Ron?" He asked, grabbing a few slices of bacon and a couple of slices of orange toast.
Hermione nodded. "He and Ginny went out to the pitch early this morning to get in a little extra practice."
"Which was a complete waste of time."
Harry looked around, as a scowling Ginny took a seat next to him.
"Didn't it go well?" Hermione asked.
"It went fine." Ron said, as he found a seat next to Hermione.
"It went well for you." Ginny corrected. "I didn't get a single goal. Ron's an unbeatable keeper."
"That's a good thing." Mindy said.
"Sure it is." Ginny agreed. "If you're not out of your nice warm bed at five in the morning shooting Quaffles at a boy who won't even let you have a goal."
"What good would it do you if I let you have one?" Ron asked. "Besides, I thought you wanted to think up a way to get one past me."
"Well, I'm done trying to come up with something, because I don't think there is anything."
"Again, that's a good thing." Mindy said.
Ginny fumed. "I just wish I had slept in."
"Aren't you going to have breakfast, Ron?" Hermione asked, noticing that Ron hadn't immediately reached for a plate and began piling everything in sight on it as he usually did.
Ron shook his head. "I can't eat."
"You shouldn't be nervous." Mindy said.
"Yeah." Harry agreed. "Ginny's right. You are an unbeatable Keeper." Harry had noticed during the practices that Ron was getting substantially better. In yesterday's practice, no one could get anything past him; not even Tobias who lighting fast on his broom.
Ron shook his head. "I still can't eat. Maybe a little pumpkin juice though." He said reaching for the jug.
"The morning owls are coming." Ginny said, looking up. "I bet mum sent us candy."
And sure enough, Erol, the Weasley family owl came flying (actually it looked as if he was more or less falling) in, burden with a huge package. He landed haphazardly on the table, scattering bowls of candy corn and nearly toppling the jug of pumpkin juice.
"Poor Erol." Ginny said, quickly relieving the owl of the package. "He must have flown his heart out to make it here on time."
Erol dunk his head in Ron's glass of pumpkin juice, then feebly spread his wings to take off again. But he seem to think better of it, and instead nestled down in the middle of the table and fell off to sleep.
"Poor creature." Mindy sighed. "We'll have to take him up to owlery."
"He'll make it alright on his own." Ron said, frowning at loose owl down floating in his glass. "Look what he did to my juice."
"Oh, be quiet, Ron." Ginny frowned. "Erol's old and after he flew all night hauling candy for you, you ought to be glad to let him drink from you glass. Here." She shoved a black bag tied with an orange ribbon at Ron. "There's one for you Harry, and for you too Hermione." Ginny said, handing Hermione an orange bag with a black ribbon and Harry a bag similar to Ron's.
Harry took the bag and saw that his name was stitched in with orange thread. "Mrs. Wesley personalized them." He said.
Ron nodded, fingering his own name. "Mum has too much free time." He said.
"I think there lovely." Hermione said. "I'll have to send Mrs. Weasley a nice thank you."
"Mum will like that." Ginny said, standing up. "I have to go find Dean. She sent candy for him too. See you."
"Would you like some?" Harry asked, offering Mindy some of his candy.
"No thank you." Mindy answered. "It's not good for the teeth."
"But it's good for a smile." Ron said, opening a chocolate frog.
"I thought you said you couldn't eat." Hermione said.
"This isn't food. It's chocolate." Ron said, looking at the card. "Hey, Harry. I've got one of you."
"What?" Harry asked. "I'm on chocolate frog cards?" Ron handed him the card and he looked at the picture. It was the one of him that had been in the Daily Prophet, back when he was a contestant in the Tri-Wizard tournament. It wasn't the best picture. He looked confused in it, as if he didn't know what he was doing there.
Mindy peeked over his shoulder at it and laughed. "On second thought, Harry, I think I'd like a chocolate frog."
Harry handed her his bag of candy and Mindy was digging through it when a post owl landed in front of her. It hooted to get her attention and Mindy looked up. "Oh." She took the letter from it and the owl flew off as quickly as it had come. Mindy opened the letter and grinned. "He wrote back." She said. "It had been so long I was starting think he wasn't going to."
"Who wrote back?" Harry asked.
"Tom." Mindy answered.
"Tom?" Harry frowned. There was only one Tom he knew of. "The owner of the Leaky Cauldron."
Mindy nodded. "I wrote and asked if any Hogwarts students had stayed there towards the end of the summer." Mindy explained.
"And he told you?" Hermione asked, surprised. "Why would he give you that information?"
"I can be very persuasive." Mindy said, reading over the letter. She frowned. "Tom says he had only two patrons this summer. Me and some one named Trixe-Bella Greats." Mindy looked up. "Isn't that..."
"The Ministry official that got Lucius Malfoy out." Hermione nodded.
"Why does a Ministry official have to stay at the Leaky Cauldron?" Ron asked.
"Something definitely isn't right about it." Mindy agreed. "Do you suppose the owl belongs to her?"
"If it does." Harry said. "What's it doing at Hogwarts?"
"I think we ought to find out as much as we can about this Trixe- Bella Greats. It wouldn't be the first time a Ministry official is crocked." Hermione said.
"Can we, though?" Ron asked. "It's not like we can look her up in a book."
"Actually we can." Hermione answered. "So to speak. There are public records for all ministry employees. I should be able to get something through the library."
"And what about Pansy?" Mindy asked.
"We should still watch her, I think." Harry said. "She's mixed up in this somehow. She has to be."
"I should head over to library and put in my request." Hermione said, pushing away from the table. "It could take some time for the records to arrive." She explain before hurrying out of the Great Hall.
Ron watched her go and then looked back at Harry. "I'm starting to get a very dark feeling about all of this."
~*~*~*~*
The day past quickly and all too soon the evening had arrived. The clouds had brought with them a light rain. While it made everything damp, it was nothing like the downpours Harry have had to play through before. Harry stepped out onto the Quidditch pitch looking forward to the match. It would take his mind off of everything going on. For a little while at least, he would be able to forget Snape and potions, not think about Pansy Parkinson, and pretend a sinister black owl didn't exist.
"Captains shake hands." Madam Hooch, acting as umpire once again, ordered.
Harry stepped to the center of the field and found himself face to face with Cho Chang. He hadn't thought about who would be captain of the Ravenclaw house team before, and the thought that it would be Cho certainly never crossed his mind.
Cho grinned at him. "Good luck, Harry." She said, holding his hand a little longer than necessary.
"Er, you too." Harry replied, taking his hand back quickly and glancing over at Mindy. From the death glare she was throwing Cho, Harry could tell Mindy hadn't missed the extra long hand shake.
"Mount your brooms." Madam Hooch called, then placed her whistle in her mouth and blew.
The balls were released and the players shot into the air. Harry glanced around once, watching as his team flew to their positions, then gained altitude and started a wide lap around the stadium searching for a spark of gold. Harry caught a glimpse of Cho out the corner of his eye. She was flying just below him, almost mirroring his path. Deciding to take a different rout, Harry veered right and gain a bit more altitude still searching out the Snitch.
"...And Weasley has the Quaffle, she passes to James, oh but Martins intercepts and is flying fast for a goal. He shoots and Weasley stops it. That was a magnificent save by Ron Weasley."
Harry looked back down the field just as Ron tossed the Quaffle back out to Ginny. The new commentator (Albert Allgood, a HufflePuff fifth year) wasn't bad. He wasn't as entertaining to listen to as Lee Jordan, but not bad at all. Harry shook his head, turning his thoughts back to searching out that elusive hint of gold, which was becoming progressively harder to do. The sky had darkened and the light rain was steadily becoming a downpour. Harry wasn't soaked through just yet, but it wouldn't be long before he was.
Dropping in altitude a bit, Harry began another wide sweep of the field. The Snitch had to be somewhere.
"...And that's the fourth goal for Grffyndor making the score one hundred points to zero. Wow, that Walker can really go."
Harry looked around as Tobias came zipping away from the Ravenclaw goals, heading to the center of the pitch to await his chance to take the Quaffle. Then he spotted Cho on the other side of field go into a steep dive. Harry's first thought was to head her way, but then she pulled to a stop in mid-air. She looked about herself, did a 360 degree rotation and shook her head frowning.
"It looks as if the Ravenclaw captain and Seeker had spotted the Snitch but lost it. Too bad folks."
Harry once again started moving through the air. He had to focus on finding the Snitch or they'd loose the game. He looked up and high above the goals Ron was protecting he saw something flash in the ever increasing dark. Harry rose, heading for it, but as he got close he saw that it wasn't the Snitch. It was an eye, two eyes flashing crimson and gold in the night. "The owl!" Harry whispered, catching the outline of the bird's body, almost invisible against the dark sky and the pouring rain. It wasn't watching him, or anyone else in the air. Instead, as it soared high above their heads, it stared out at the stands. Harry turned looking into the stands, hoping for a chance to see what it could possibly be watching. But it was impossible to tell. It was definitely looking into the Gryffindor crowd, but Harry couldn't tell what, or who, it was looking at. The owl could have been watching anyone. Harry could see Hermione, watching the game with interest. Neville was sitting beside her, catching up on the sleep he had been going with out the past few days. Lavender was behind him, poking him awake whenever something exciting was about to happen. He spotted Dean not to far away, jumping to his feet as Ginny scored another goal. Seamus was up a split second later and the rest of Gryffindor house followed. There was no way to know what the owl was looking for in the crowd.
"Harry. What are you doing?"
Harry looked around. Mindy was floating beside him, staring at him curiously. Harry suddenly realized he hadn't moved in maybe five minutes. "Oh." He said, "I saw..." He looked back to where the owl had been, but it was gone. He frowned.
"Get going, Harry." Mindy said, before zooming off again.
Harry nodded and turned his attention back to searching out the Snitch and spotted it almost immediately. It had just buzzed past Cho's ear, but she didn't seem to have noticed it. And to Harry's great displeasure the Snitch had decided to hover no more than an arms length behind Cho. The Ravenclaw was currently looking in the other direction. She was completely unaware of the golden ball buzzing behind her head.
Harry knew if waited another second longer he would miss his chance to get the Snitch. Gripping his broom handle, he leaned down and flew at top speed across the stadium, aiming seemingly right at Cho. Cho noticed this and squeaked. Harry could tell her first reaction was to get out of the way, but then something seemed to click and she must have realized the only the reason Harry would be flying at her so fast was if the Snitch was near. She looked about herself and saw it, still hovering less than an arms length away.
"And it looks like Walker is going for a goal. He shoots..."
Harry knew then that it was too late. Even as he continued his high speed dash towards her, he knew he would never be able to make it before she grabbed the Snitch. Cho knew it too. She looked back, throwing Harry a triumphed smile, before reaching out casually and plucking the Snitch out of the air. Harry pulled up sharply, stopping almost instantly, as Cho held the golden ball high above her head.
"What's this, Chang has caught the Snitch. The game is over Chang caught the Snitch. But Walker just made a goal. Is it good?"
Madam Hooch floated to the center of the pitch and announced, "The final goal made by Tobias Walker was scored just before the Snitch was caught. The twenty points count."
"The goal counts! Giving Gryffindor team a final score 170 points. The final score Gryffindor 170; Ravenclaw 150. Gryffindor wins even though Ravenclaw caught the Snitch. What a game!"
The crowd was roaring, the Gryffindor's loudest of them all. But Harry wasn't listening to the crowd as he landed and dismounted, or paying much attention to the slaps on the back. His mind was otherwise occupied. The owl was there tonight. It was there watching the Gryffindor students. Something bad was going to happen. He just knew it was.
The following morning, while eating breakfast, Harry's fear came true, although not in the way he had expected. It happened quite suddenly. One moment everything was normal. Kids were up about, talking and laughing and going on as usual. The next moment everything was silent. One by one everyone in the Great Hall fell still. Everyone was turning around, staring back at the Great Hall doors.
Harry's back was to the doors. He knew something was back there. Something that couldn't be good. He turned slowly, dreading what he might see. And as he faced the doors, he immediately regretted his decision to look. Both of the double doors were wide open and standing dead in the center of the arched door was Draco Malfoy.
~*~*~*~*~*
Ha! He's back. Betcha thought he really wasn't going to be in this fic. Well, he is. But is he still the same ol' rotten stinkin' Malfoy that everybody loves to hate? Or will he be not so bad this time around? You tell me. No really, you tell me. I've been conflicted over what Draco's character should be like after he spent sometime away, where ever away has been (don't worry I actually sent him someplace and you all will find out where as the story goes on). I've seen where a lot people has wrote him as being not so bad, and I rather like him that way. But in the HP series thus far he's absolutely rotten. So should I move away from the series and make him a decent human being or should I keep with the current Rowling story line and leave him yucky?
So many choices. I just don't know. So guess what time it is? That's right. It's voting time! Do you want to see a nasty Draco or a not so bad Draco? However you vote is however I will write him. So don't delay! Caste your vote today!
And remember, you can't vote unless you review. So REVIEW!!!
And here's comments to reviews as I promised. I always keep my word.
superhpfreak: How's it going? My characters sound English? Nifty. I really wanted to keep them as English as I could. I try to weed out the American slang, but it's very difficult to do. But I'm glad it working a little bit.
And there you go, jumping to conclusions about Neville and Lavender. Are they dating, or is something else entirely? That's for me to know you to gradually find out as the story progresses.
Rita...Skeeter...Hey it does rhyme, sort of. Anyways her name got messed up as a spell check era. You know how you hit spell check and then you just get into the habit of hitting change, change, change, one after another. Well, that's what happened with her name. I have Dumbledore, Severus, Snape, Hermione, and Ron in my dictionary so I don't have to keep hitting ignore all when I get to one of their names. I have no reason to stick Skeeter in there, so there you go.
And yeah, I'm pretty sure Harry's scare hurt. It wasn't the "Ow! Ow! Searing, burning fires of hell pain! Ow!" kind of hurt. But it hurt. Dumbledore took over mostly because of Snape's problem with Harry. I'm thinking after the thing with the pensive in book five, Snape isn't gonna wanna teach Harry Occlumency anymore, anyway.
Harry and Co. were looking for antidotes mostly to help Ron out. He felt somewhat responsible for what happened to Colin and Hermione thought it would make him feel better if they were doing something that might help the kid. And you know Hermione, once she set her mind to do something, she likes to see it through.
Yeah, I thought about that, how a bird could have one black feather here and one speckled feather there, but I was just going to make the bird all black anyway. I didn't want to complicate the plot too much more. It's plenty complicated as it is.
And finally, I don't mind long reviews. I rather enjoy them in fact.
Marz1: If you're referring to the scene where Dumbledore is talking to Mindy/Minerva about her and Harry, he's just a little teed off about one of his best Professors having to start a relationship with one of his favorite students.
ping*pong5: You are ever so close, but your guess isn't quite right. I won't tell what's going on. But if you keep thinking about it, you may very well figure it out. And please note that the crimson eyes have nothing to do with a particular person per se (say that three time fast ~_^). I just had to make something about the owl different enough that it would be immediately recognizable as not a normal owl.
To everybody else who reviewed and left such wonderful comments: Thanks a million and a half.
Well that is all from me. Don't forget to vote, or else I'll make Draco a bland character who does nothing, says nothing, and is just generally boring. You don't want that. I don't want that. Nobody wants that. Only you can prevent boring Draco. Do your part and vote.
Ya'll come back now, ya here!
P. S. The next chapter may be delayed. If I get the time to write I will up date in about a week or less. If not it maybe three weeks (not until after Christmas) before I can get the next one up. I will try to get it up sooner, but don't hold your breath.
P.P.S. Review and most importantly vote.