Chapter 12: Those Emerald Eyes
A/N: I'm sorry, I didn't update as soon as I should have. I haven't felt like writing as much, as my Grandpa has been very sick lately. But enough of that, read and enjoy! These last few chapters shall be very twisted..hehe.
Harry knocked a couple of times on Hagrid's door, hearing him get up and say, "Now what? I thought yeh didn't want to talk with me." Hagrid opened the door, to see Harry looking back at him. "Ah, sorry. Thought ye were someone else."
"It's alright, Hagrid." Harry entered, sitting down, Fang automatically upon him trying to lick his face. Harry scratched Fang's head, making Fang pleased.
"So, what are you doin' here?"
"Er, well, not to be nosy Hagrid," Harry said, "But I heard a bit of you and Professor Lawrence's conversation. Why wouldn't she tell you anything? And why were you asking?"
"Nosy! Of course yer bein' nosy! Interferin' with something yeh don't need ter know! And why do ye want to know, anyway?"
"I was only curious," Harry said, shortly. "And I don't really know her all that well. She seems odd, you know?"
Hagrid didn't say anything. But then, after a time of staring into the mesmerising flames in the hearth, he said, "She's me cousin. On my father's side, of course."
"Wow, that was something I didn't see coming. But what do I care? Why did I even bother to come here?"
When Harry said nothing, as he was lost in his thoughts, Hagrid continued on. "As she's related ter me, I just wanted to know what's been going on with her. She isn't what she used ter be, she used ter be so cheerful and optimistic! The happy-go-lucky sort. But then she disappeared about what? Thirteen years ago? I think that's right..but that don't matter. And now she's back all of a sudden, with a daughter even! Don't even know who the father is! Not someone bad, I 'ope. But now Flora, well, that's her first name, is all bitter. Perhaps hiding an anxiety, even. I don't understand it all! And when I ask her what she'd been doing, she'll just give me the same codswallop about her teaching at Durmstrang, her daughter enrolled in that school. I tell yeh, I saw the list of who was enrolled in that school, and I saw no Jacoba Lawrence written down! Then I ask her for the real truth, but she only shys away. Why did she leave? And she's me only relation I have left, I don't want ter see her or her daughter hurt, no matter how bad they may be!" Hagrid finished, fiercely.
Harry, if possible, became more curious than before. She left, all of a sudden out of nowhere, then comes back about sixteen years later? But why?
"It doesn't make sense, Hagrid," Harry spoke, finally. "Why would she leave but return? Don't you think that that is suspicious? What if...what if she really isn't the real Flora Lawrence? What if it's like Crouch, who was an imposter and locked the real Moody up? Or perhaps she is running away, like most cowardly, lowly Death Eaters have done? But that would mean she would be in service for Voldemort, and maybe it isn't like that at all. There's a lot of cases in the Muggle world where people will run off and come back with a child."
"I don't bloody care what Muggles are like! I just want them ter be safe, and as they're in Hogwarts with Dumbledore, they will be! Voldemort nor anyone bad in this world will get either them or anyone else in this castle! With Hogwarts safer, and the Ministry at our side, it'll be nearly downright impossible for anyone evil to just walk right up to out door!
"I understand your intentions," Harry said, carefully. "But what if the Professor really is the evil one knocking on our door?" Harry left out Jacoba. Why would she have anything to do with it? She probably didn't know anything about it. "She just has to be innocent!" Harry thought firmly, but still had some doubt. You never knew, nowadays. He was going out with her! They both had deeply liked each other so far, so what was there to be paranoid about? It was just all a big mystery.
"I don't really want to think of her like that," Hagrid said, finally. "She originally was the good kind of person, maybe she isn't as much anymore- but she's not fully the bad person yet either."
"I see, well, she is only bad tempered," Harry added, truthfully, "But then again, I can be like that, too. I dunno, but I think I'm gonna head off. See you around, Hagrid." Hagrid said nothing but nodded and gave a small wave, as we was looking back into the fire again. Harry sighed and left, remembering how tired he was. A nice, soft, bed with lovely blankets and fluffy pillows sounded very nice and welcoming as he reached the Portrait of the Fat Lady. His mind was practically saying, "Sleep...sleep!"
"Password, though I should just have you sit out here! I was dreaming nice and pleasant dreams before you awoke me!"
"Er.." Harry said. He couldn't remember, he was much too tired. "I think it's..Slobbering Flobberworms?"
"Correct," Then the Fat Lady swung out, Harry already in and up the stairs to his dormitory by the time she said, "Hmmph! I'll have you know that I don't appreciate rotten students such as you!"
Harry entered his dormitory, jumping on his bed and laying there, spread-eagled. He was near the border of sleep, when he said aloud, "Bloody! I still have that Transfiguration homework to do!" With a groan he got up and grabbed a few books with a parchment and quill, then went down to the common room, starting on his homework.
"What's an Animagus?" He knew he knew the answer, but didn't know it right then. It drove him mad, while his mind was screaming in protest. He needed sleep! But the homework was due tomorrow. He musn't sleep! He fought furiously to stay awake, looking around to see if anything would keep him awake...but by then he was thinking of flying flobberworms, slobbering all over pumpkin patches, when doxies came out of thin air with food and flung it everywhere. Then Malfoy appeared, laughing at him. Harry attacked him with what appeared to be a stick. What? No, it was his wand, but it worked as a servicable stick better...Malfoy then transformed into an old lady that looked like Mrs. Figg, cackling madly while hitting him repeatedly with a bag full of some sort of tin in it. Cat food? He couldn't tell..
Harry snapped back to the waking world, seeing that it was dawn. He looked in front of him and remembered about his Tranfiguration homework, after seeing his blank parchment on the desk and his quill still in his hand. "I should finish this..but I'm too tired still.." He sighed, and grudgingly, he started working on his homework. Surprisingly enough, he finished it, and didn't do such a sloppy job, by Harry's standards. Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he yawned and got up, stretching.
"Mornin' mate, what have you been doing down here?" It was Ron.
"Doing my homework," Harry said, dully. " And now I'm so..tired. I think I'll skip class today."
"Harry, you can't do that!" A new voice joined their conversation. It was Hermione. "I, as a prefect, say you must get better robes on and head down to the Great Hall for breakfast with us!"
"Do you really think I want to go to the Great Hall after spending a night of cleaning that place up! And I've gotten less sleep than Ron has even, because he got out of our detention with the professor after some lousy bite from a doxie," Harry replied, grumpily.
"You said you could handle that work," Ron said, defensively. "And besides, Madam Pomfrey had me awake for a good long while, healing that bite.."
"Nonsense, Ron, she gave you an Energy Potion so you could be awake during the day!"
"Okay, okay...I won't skip class as long as I don't suffer to the arguments you both have!" Harry got up, going up to change into cleaner, fresher (A/N: Now, I wasn't sure about 'fresher,' but 'more fresh' doesn't sound right..ah, whatever) robes, as he hadn't magically cleaned them for awhile. "As long as they don't smell, they're not dirty" was Harry's logical unhygenic way of thinking. Hey, he was a teenage boy, and he had survived the previous summer in a room that looked like chaos had erupted in it. So what was wrong with some dirty clothes?
Once Harry got ready, he walked down with Hermione and Ron into the Great Hall.
"So have either of you two started to study for O.W.Ls yet? I've been studying steadily throughout the whole year- retaining information from every class as usual- and have been studying hard since winter break! I know you both really don't study, which I'm beginning to accept, but honestly, if you haven't even been studying up to this point..it's already halfway through April!"
Harry and Ron exchanged glances. "No, we've just been doing the homework we're supposed to be doing," Harry answered, finally.
"What! But the teachers have been warning us and preparing us for O.W.Ls this whole time!" Hermione exclaimed. "What do you two waste your study time doing, talking about Quidditch?"
"Not just that," Ron said, indignantly, "We've been playing Wizard's Chess, bossing around younger students to do our bidding- quite fun really. Setting off a few Dungbombs here and there.."
"Ron! You of all people! You're a PREFECT, for goodness sake!"
"So?" Ron shrugged. "Not like I asked to be a prefect, or anything."
Hermione was still speaking, ignoring what Ron had said. "Honestly, I'm surprised at the both of you! You both set the worst examples to younger students who have the potential of becoming model students such as..well, me. How are you ever going to survive N.E.W.Ts! You're never going to pass!"
"And you're going to explode trying to stuff all that information that has ever existed into your brain," Ron muttered, darkly, so softly that no one could hear it.
During the process of eating part of his pork at dinner, Jacoba walked by, saying to him, "Harry, I need to talk to you."
"Alright," Harry said. Then he got up and walked with her down to the entrance hall and outside near the lake. He stopped and looked at her, asking, "So, what's this all about?"
"I don't know how to put this, Harry," Jacoba said, carefully, not meeting his gaze. She knew if she did, she wouldn't be able to say it. She'd be lost in those emerald eyes of his..
"Um, I just don't think we should be seeing each other anymore," She finally said, quickly. "I'm sorry, I just...don't feel anything for you anymore."
"I understand," Harry answered, a moment later, although he didn't understand at all. "What? I didn't see this coming..why did this happen?" He felt numb. It was all too soon, all too sudden. Jacoba murmered another sorry and a quick goodbye, turning around and walking away.
"Was it something I said? Something I did wrong?" Harry blurted, confused, sad, shocked, angry at himself, and tired all at once. Those few words were too hard to comprehend.
Jacoba stopped and didn't turn around, but said, "No, Harry, it was me. My fault. Just..don't worry about it too much." What, how was he not supposed to worry about it too much! What was going on?
Once Jacoba had left, Harry walked back up to the castle, dazed. The other students had just gotten done eating, so he blended into the crowd, words replaying over and over in his head. "I'm sorry, I just...don't feel anything for you anymore."
He went up to the common room, Ron finding him and smirking. "So mate, what'd you both have the pleasure of doing this time? Making out the whole time?"
"No, she dumped me." Harry said with no emotion. The words felt strange to say.
"What? What did you do?"
"I don't know, she just said she didn't feel anything for me anymore. It was..really awkward."
"Hmmm, well-" Ron's words were cut off by Hermione's.
"Ah, so the rumors were true. You didn't do anything, Harry," Hermione said, gently. "I heard she has been going out with Blaise or someone. She's been cheating on you, and must've felt guilty for it. I never would've suspected it, she didn't seem the sort..and hearing that rumor from Parvati and Lavender- you aren't about to believe them for everything word they say. I'm sorry, Harry."
"What! I should bloody well walk up to her first thing in the morning and straighten her up-" Hermione interrupted Ron once more.
"Ron, you can't just walk up to someone and tell them to 'straighten up!' Honestly, I thought you had more sense than that..you can just be so daft at times!"
"What else am I supposed to do! She messed with Harry's feelings, then goes off with another guy! Worse than Gin running around with who knows who she's been with!"
"Look, I do appreciate you trying to help, but I just would really like to go to bed now." With this Harry left before hearing anymore from his two best friends. He never knew something he had cared about so much- he had liked her so much more than Cho, maybe even loved her- but it amounted to nothing. Nothing.