Disclaimer: See Chapter One

-CHAPTER FIVE-

Belladonna and Nettle Tea

"I am afraid that Professor Raven will not be until taking your lesson this morning, Year Three," Professor McGonagall informed the class as they stood in a line outside of the Defence Against the dark Arts classroom.

"Is she alright?" Ron asked anxiously, desperately trying not to blush scarlet in front of Professor McGonagall.

"Thank you for your concern Mr Weasley. It's nothing too serious I am glad to say," she continued as she handed Professor Sprout the pot-plant she was holding in her arms. "I feel partly responsible." McGonagall sighed. "I suggested Severus do something to smooth things over with Morwenna, but don't know what possessed him to give her that plant, surely after she missed several of his classes due to being in the hospital wing, he would have remembered that she was allergic Belladonna?"

"Guess it must have just slipped his mind, Minerva," Professor Sprout shrugged her shoulders with a small sigh. "But don't worry," she said while giving the pot a good friendly slap. "I'll give this little beauty a good home. It's a glorious specimen, cost a pretty penny too I dare say, Belladonna doesn't come cheap these days." And with that, the dumpy little Herbology teacher waddled off back to the school greenhouses.

"Professor McGonagall," Ron piped up in a small squeaky voice looking worried.

"Right then Year Three. You shall take this lesson as a free period, and may I advice you to use it wisely…Well? What are you waiting for?"

"But professor..." Ron protested. "Snape's trying to kill Professor Raven; we learnt only a few days ago that people can have very serious reactions to Belladonna…"

"Really, Mr Weasley," Professor McGonagall said sternly raising an eyebrow. "Professor Snape isn't trying to kill anyone, I am sure that the Belladonna was a genuine, if unfortunate mistake, he obviously thought Professor Raven was allergic to Hemlock or something similar, it's an easy enough to do, there's nothing sinister about it…"

"Yeah, sure," Ron retorted unconvinced.

"I realise that Professor Snape isn't high on your list of favourite teachers, Mr Weasley, but this could be construed as victimization, we've only been back four days and you're already letting your imagination run away with you."

"But…but-"

"But nothing, Mr Weasley, Professor Snape has apologized to Professor Raven for upsetting her the other evening." Professor McGonagall lips pursed into a thin line giving them all the impression that what she really meant was Snape had been forced into an apology. "And if Professor Raven is satisfied with that then so should you, now may I suggest that you spend less of your time worrying about Professor Snape and more on your studies." And with that Professor McGonagall turned sharply on her heels and strode off down the corridor.

"Me victimize Snape! That's rich..." snorted Ron indignantly as he and Harry started to walk in the direction of the library but Hermione pulled on Harry's robe.

"Let's go and see Hagrid," she whispered, glancing up to make sure that no one else had heard her. Harry tunred back to her, shocked that she was suggesting that they do anything but study.

"I think it's about time we picked his brains over Professor Raven and maybe he's know something about this amulet that Snape's accused her of stealing."

"No, that can' be righ' Hermione, yer must have got it wrong," Hagrid said, shaking his shaggy head as he poured them all a cup of nettle tea. "Morwenna Raven could no longer steal this amulet and betray Professor Dumbledore than I could myself, we owe him far too much."

"What do you mean?" questioned Harry as he took a cautious sip of his tea.

"Well I don' expect it will do yer any harm knowing, I mean...it's not as if it's a secret or anything. Morwenna's an orphan, her parents and older brother were murdered by Death Eaters on the very evening poor Morwenna firs' arrived at Hogwarts'. I don' know how she managed to pass her exams to ge' inta the second year, let alone get such good grades."

"Do you know why they were killed?" Hermione asked cautiously.

"They were Auors, Dark wizard hunters, and good ones too. It's my guess they were jus' abou' to expose some big wizards as being a Dark and were murdered in order to silence them. It was a cruel, brutal attack, the nasty buggers even killed the pet cat, shocked the wizarding community as the Ravens were a very old and distinguished pure blood family but not corrupt and arrogant, like the Malfoys. The Ravens had been attending Hogwarts since it was founded, I believe the first Raven to enter the school was a distant cousin of Rowenna Ravenclaw, and they were all Ravenclaws, until Morwenna. I think that she choose to live with her uncle, odd man there are some that claim he was a werewolf which could account for her great interes' in their welfare and rights."

"Cool…do you know she was nearly killed by one," added Ron.

"No…really?" replied Hagrid looking a little anxious.

"You seem to know a lot about Professor Raven, Hagrid?" questioned Hermione with an inquiring frown.

"Wel,l yer see, I use to let 'er come down here down here, with 'er best friend Claire to have tea and play with Fang, he was just a puppy then," Hagrid explained with a distant, misty look in his eyes. "I reckoned it was the least I could do for the poor girl, Professor Dumbledore sort of took her under his wing…"

"I wonder why the Sorting Hat chose to put her in Gryffindor then?" Harry interrupted, finally giving up on the nettle tea.

"I don' know, you'd have t'ask it, I mean Ravenclaws are considered the most wise and Morwenna certainly had brains."

"We know we've seen her final report" said Hermione with some envy.

"But Gryffindors are brave and loyal, maybe the Sorting Hat knew what was going to happen with her family," Ron suggested.

"Maybe, all I know is that she was a very talented witch; she was Snape's star pupil, and no one has been able to hold a candle to Morwenna Raven, 'til our Hermione here." Hermione blushed with pride. "But that didn't mean she had it an easy time of it, Snape gave her no recompense for her tragic loss in fact he seemed to pushed her all the harder…"

"Heartless slimy git," Ron muttered under his breath. "He's still giving her a hard time now."

"Snape's only jealous Ron, I guess he was pretty bitter having to admit his star pupil was a Gryffindor," Hermione soothed. "But even so, if her family had just been murdered, you would think that even Snape would have been a bit more understanding…"

"He's a heartless git," growled Ron.

"So we are all lead to believe…funny how things turn out…" Hagrid suddenly stopped as he always did, when he realised he was just about to say something that he shouldn't, the trouble was he was getting better at it, letting far less things slip out. Harry looked at him with a questioning frown.

"Er…I mean...it's funny that Morwenna Raven should come back to Hogwarts…well actually that isn't so strange as she had considered becoming a teacher, that or work for the Ministry of Magic. But she disappeared, without a word the morning after her graduation ball…near broke Professor Dumbledore's heart that did, I think he looked upon her something like a daughter."

"Do you think her sudden disappearance has got anything to do with the amulet that Snape is accusing her of stealing?" said Hermione.

"I don't know Hermione," Hagrid shrugged. "I guess we'll never know for sure who took the Amulet of Sekhmet."

"The Amulet of Sekhmet!" cried Hermione.

"I shouldn't have told yer that…" grumbled Hagrid looking angry with himself.

"So what is the Amulet of Sekhemat?" asked Ron looking none the wiser for knowing the objects name.

"Se-kh-met, "Hermione corrected him with a smile. "It's sounds ancient Egyptian to me."

"I don't know, I never saw the amulet and I only know because Professor Dumbledore questioned me to see if Morwenna had ever mentioned it to me. Yer see, there were only three people at Hogwarts that knew about the amulet. Professor Dumbledore who was looking after it for a friend, Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape…"

"My moneys on Snape taking it," said Ron,

"To tell yer the truth, there are those who suspected Professor Snape…all a very queer business if you ask me."

"Extremely suspicious," agreed Hermione.

"So why didn't Professor Dumbledore sack Snape if he thought that he had taken the amulet?"

Hagrid shrugged again. "No proof…but there are some people who believe this is why Snape keeps getting overlooked for the job as Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher; that Professor Dumbledore doesn't entirely trust him."

"That's just what Snape said," added Harry.

"Did he? Well Professor Dumbledore never does anything without a good reason; very wise man is our Headmaster. Oh, look at the time, you lot best be getting back to the castle before you miss your next lesson," Hagrid said suddenly rising from his stool. "And I best be taking Fang for his morning walk."

"He knows something else," Hermione whispered to Harry, as they left the hut and made their back to the castle. "Something about Snape and Professor Raven."

"Yes," Harry agree.d "I got that feeling as well, but I wonder what?"

After another lively lesson with Professor Planchette, in which he spoke at length in his usual enthusiastic dramatic manner about South American talismans and his father's near escape from booby trapped Aztec pyramid, they made their way to the great hall for lunch only to get stuck behind a group of older students.

"I've been asked to the ball by Jason Winter, even the teachers have to find partners to accompany them," mused a pretty strawberry blond sixth year Hufflepuff girl walking slowly between two Ravenclaws, both of whom just answered with girlish giggles.

"I wonder," the strawberry blond continued, "...who Professor Planchette's going to take? He's just so dreamy."

"Planchette's bound to ask Professor Raven, I mean, I would if I was him she's a stunner alright," chipped in Cedric Diggory, the captain of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team. "Of course, Raven might always choose to go with Snape…" Cedric chuckled rather unkindly and the three girls erupted into laughed along with him, "…but then again I think he's got more of a chance of actually becoming the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher than getting Raven to go to the ball with him."

"Yeah," giggled the strawberry blond girl. "I bet he'll ask her though lure her down into the dungeons to feed that awful raven of his or something and try to catch her off guard."

"Don't Miranda," shuddered one of the Ravenclaw girls. "That bird gives me nightmares."

"Snape won't ask Raven, he's not that stupid he knows he's ugly as sin, besides, everyone knows Snape can't dance and I heard she's really good herself."

"What do they mean we've got to ask a girl to the ball?" demanded Ron in a low whisper.

"Naturally you have to ask a girl to accompany you," Hermione scolde.d "You got to have a dance partner."

"Dancing." Harry and Ron gulped together still reeling from the shock that they were going to have to summon the courage to ask someone to the ball.

"But...I thought they were only joking!" croaked Ron worriedly.

"Of course there will be dancing Ron, what else do you think you would be doing at a ball," sighed Hermione in disbelief.

"Well I thought there would be food and…"

"Really!" Hermione stormed off into the great hall leaving Harry and Ron staring blankly at each other.

"Bloody hell," groaned Ron. "I don't know how to dance, do you?"

"No," replied Harry with a shrug. "Maybe there be lessons"

"Great…something else that I can do badly at." But Harry wasn't listening to him, his mind had already started to wander, thinking how if he managed to find the nerve he was going to ask Cho Chang, the extremely pretty Seeker on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team to accompany him to the ball.

TBC...

R&R!

AN... Thankyou for people reviewing, it means alot - Especially Tancred Torsson!