Chapter Nine
The Figure Makes an Appearance
Alex and Hermione sat on the bank of the lake enjoying a nice picnic on a beautiful day. Alex smiled. "So do you want something to drink?" Alex asked Hermione. "Sure," she said cheerfully. He smiled, turned to grab the bottled drink he brought a couple of glasses. When he turned back around to her, she was gone. Alex stood up dropping the bottle and the glasses, all of which shattered as they hit the ground. Alex began to call out her name. "Hermione! Hermione! Where are you?" he shouted. There was no reply. He began to run into the dark forest still calling her name. Then he came to a clearing and saw her laying on the ground. "Hermione!" he called and ran to her side. She was covered in blood. He began to shake her lightly still calling her name trying to wake her. Then a figure emerged from the shadows. "Two down, three to go. Who is going to be next?" Alex began shaking Hermione more harder. "Wake up Hermione! WAKE UP!" Alex shouted. The figure laughed. "She is dead you fool!" it said. Alex kept shaking her, saying her name louder. "HERMIONE! WAKE UP!" he shouted.
Alex jerked awake while screaming Hermione's name. He was sitting up now, and as he looked around, he saw everyone in the boys dorm looking at him. He had apparently waken them up. Then the door to the room opened and a few of the girls had been woken up. "What was the screaming?" asked Parvati. "Nothing…I was just…having a nightmare. I'm sorry I woke you all," Alex said. "Well no point in going back to sleep mate, classes start in less than an hour and a half," Ron said. Alex nodded. Harry looked at Alex. Harry knew Alex had had a dream where something bad happened to Hermione. Alex returned his look as if to say "I'll tell you later." Harry gave a slight nod. The girls gave one last look around the dorm, then closed the door and went back to their dorm to get ready. All the boys dressed and headed out into the main room of the common room, all of them doing various different things. Some were scrambling to finish the Potions essay. Others, who were prepared, just sat and played Wizard Chess or Exploding Snap. Alex, however, sat in front of the fire place staring at the burnt ashes (the fire had died and hadn't been rebuilt). Harry walked over to Alex and looked at him. "What were you dreaming about? I mean its obvious it was about Hermione, but what happened?" Harry asked. Alex glanced around the room, searching for eavesdroppers, then spoke. "In my dream, Hermione was killed. I get up and start calling her name. Then I eventually find her, covered in blood. This time the figure said, 'Two down three to go.'" Alex told Harry. Harry was speechless. He didn't know what to say. Alex looked back to the empty fireplace again. "If anything happens to her I don't know what I'll do," Alex said after a few moments. Harry nodded.
That hour and a half passed by rather quick. Almost too quick. Everyone was groaning about going to the first class. The first class was Herbology followed by Potions. Alex didn't know why everyone groaned about Herbology. Personally he thought they'd be worried more about Potions. But he didn't say anything. As they neared the Herbology class room they saw a sign on the door. It read, "Herbology has been canceled for today. You will have double-potions instead. Please go immediately to Potions." Everyone groaned loudly except, of course, Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle. They loved seeing Snape punish the others. Alex sighed and turned heading back toward the Potions class room. "Say, Harry, mind if I take a quick look at your essay for Snape? I need to check and see if I got something right. I mean, Hermione was helping you. So undoubtedly you got it right," Alex said. Harry nodded and took out his essay holding it up for Alex to look at. Alex nodded. "Ok, I got it right. All I did was guess," he said with a slight laugh. Harry chuckled. A moment later Ron, who had apparently forgotten his essay, join Harry and Alex. "Hey," Ron said slightly out of breath. Harry and Alex looked at him. "Where have you been?" Harry asked. "I forgot my essay," Ron said shortly. A moment after that they were outside the Potions class. The whole lot groaned one last time and stepped inside the class room.
Snape wasn't there yet. Everyone took their seats and stared at the front of the room, some of them pouring over the essay one last time. Then Snape stormed in. "I assume that you got your essays done," said Snape scanning the room. No one said anything. "Well, those of you who did, pass them forward now. Then we will get started on today's Potion," Snape barked. And sure enough, five minutes later, Snape was telling them about the Polyjuice Potion. Harry, Ron and Alex exchanged looks, then Alex turned to look behind him where Hermione was sitting, she was beaming. She, of course, already knew how to make it, as did Harry and Ron. Alex, however, not being present when they made it, knew nothing about it, except that it allowed people to change form into someone else. He had witnessed Harry and Ron change into Crabbe and Goyle. But with Hermione, she had made a mistake and transformed into a human cat.
Snape slammed his hand on his desk, and it made everyone jump. "This potion is not in your Potions books! I suggest you all write down the ingredients quickly. I will be erasing them in three minutes," Snape barked, then sat down and began writing something on a piece of parchment. Sure enough three minutes later, Snape erased the potion off the board. Neville looked scared. He hadn't gotten all the ingredients down. Harry saw this, and quietly passed his paper to Neville who looked grateful and finished copying the ingredients.
As the end of class drew near, Snape stood up and spoke. "I hope that everyone has done this right. This is a very complicated Potion and we shall be working on it for the next month. In the mean time, you have an essay! What are the uses of the Polyjuice Potion and why are they used? I expect this on my desk the day after tomorrow. Class dismissed," Snape said. The class filed out, happy to be out. Neville looked at Harry. "I'm glad you gave me your paper to look at Harry. I didn't think I would have gotten all the ingredients in it today if I hadn't had that," he said. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Alex looked at Neville.
"You don't put them all in at once. The potion isn't meant to be made that way. Snape said that," said Hermione looking at Neville, who began to panic. "Oh great! This means I have to start over!" Neville said, turning and walking regrettably back to Snape's class room. Alex couldn't help but feel sorry for Neville. Neville had done the potion right with ingredients, but put them in all at once. Neville was always forgetting the key thing involving Potions. "Alex? You ok?" Harry said looking at Alex. "Huh? Oh yeah, I just feel sorry for poor Neville," Alex said. "Oh, well Hermione said something to you," Harry said. Alex was shocked. Hermione hadn't said anything to him since the Quidditch Tryouts. Alex looked at her. "Sorry Hermione, I was feeling sorry for Neville. What did you say?" Alex asked her. "I was just wondering if you knew that you weren't supposed the ingredients in all at once," she said. "Yeah, I knew. I put that down on my paper as soon as Snape said it," Alex told her. She nodded and walked ahead of them. Apparently she was still slightly upset at him. He sighed and followed Harry and Alex into the Great Hall for lunch.
The rest of the day passed by slowly. They were rather bored of this Care of Magical Creatures class. It was just more flobberworms. Then they were bored through Transfiguration with a boring lesson on transforming their books into giant worms. Finally the end of the day came and they all made their way back to their dormitories. Alex was the first one to enter the common room. Something didn't feel right now. It was cold, even though there was a fire going. He didn't know what, but Alex knew there was something not right about the common room. What was it? He walked up the stairs to boys dorm and went inside. As he entered he came to an immediate dead stop. He felt an even greater sensation of cold pass over him, followed by images from his dream involving Hermione. Hard as he tried, he couldn't shake the feeling off. But then he remembered the reason he came to the dead stop. He looked up, and staring down at him, was the figure from his dream. Behind the figure, he saw Hermione laying there on the ground. Alex managed to unfreeze himself from this position. As he did, he pulled out his wand and pointed it at the figure. "What have you done!" Alex yelled at it. The figure stayed silent. Alex muttered a spell, which hit the figure, but it didn't affect it. "Silly fool! You can't hurt me!" with that, the figure vanished into thin air. Alex rushed over to Hermione's side. He looked at her, she was still breathing. Alex gently shook her and she snapped awake. She looked up at Alex and gave him a faint smile.