Generations: Tales of the last stand
PART VI
There was no twinkle in his eyes as the girl was used to seeing whenever the old man looked upon her. His expression was grave and extremely sad; the youngster felt incredibly guilty to have caused the headmaster to feel such concern. So many people had now been dragged into an issue that was strictly her concern alone. It was painful to think of so many people suffering, but Leshia couldn't let them get to her, if so then her suffering, along with everybody else's would have been for nothing. She had to get her act together and sort this out before more and more people got hurt along the way.
"Please, take a seat," Dumbledore offered the girl, speaking tentatively, and watching the youngster for any sign of distress. Aside from a little light bruising, she seemed to be perfectly fine, which was a miracle considering the amount of grief her small body had sustained over the last few months. "I trust you are feeling well?"
"Yes sir." With a heavy sigh the headmaster took his own seat behind his desk, the grave expression never leaving his aged face.
"I have spoken with your parents, and I see that they are under the impression that you are going to try and resolve your problem on your own grounds." From the tone the headmaster was using, it was evident that he didn't agree with them.
"I'd like to try sir," Leshia said softly.
"Yes I'm sure you would, but Leshia this has now gone so out of control, that the decision is no longer in your hands, on two occasions you have nearly perished. I cannot allow a gang of dangerously aggressive children to go unchecked in this school, I have the safety of the other pupils to think about."
"But sir they're not after the other pupils, they're after me!"
"And your safety means nothing?" The headmaster's gaze seemed coolly determined. "I am sure that even if you do not hold your life in such high esteem, then your parents and friends would beg to differ."
"I don't go looking for trouble," Leshia interrupted indignantly.
"And yet nonetheless it finds you." For a moment the two stared into one another's eyes with equal feelings of determination; Leshia to keep her secret from the headmaster, and Dumbledore to put an end to this before either the parent body found out, or the gang of assailants finally succeeded in their mission. "I cannot make you tell me of course…"
'Damn right,' the girl thought fiercely. For a moment Dumbledore paused and actually smiled at the girl, as though he too had been witness to Leshia's private thought. Leshia's cheeks blushed furiously, and she realised it was stupid of her not to realise that the most powerful wizard in all the land was probably very capable of legilimensy. If that were the case though, then why could he not simply read her mind and extract the information he wanted?
"There is no way for me to find out what you keep most secret, without you actually telling me, or with the use of truth potion, which I am happy to say is forbidden to be used on a student."
"Well then can I go?" the young girl asked boldly; so boldly in fact that the old headmaster smiled.
"Not yet," he said with steely determination in his eyes. "I would like to show you something." With this Dumbledore got to his feet and walked towards a beautifully ornate cupboard on the other side of his study. "Come, join me please." As Leshia scrambled to her feet and made her way open, the old man opened the cupboard doors to reveal a stone bowl-shaped object that Leshia had seen once before. It was a pensieve, which could only mean that the headmaster was ready to share his memories with her. For a moment the girl was struck with mixed emotions: curiosity and fear. Last time the headmaster had been very efficient in changing Leshia's mind over her affections for her father, when she had been furious with him, would he be so effective once more? However, she was also curious over what memory the headmaster had chosen to mimic her situation? "I take it you are still familiar with this device?"
"Yes sir," Leshia said softly.
"You needn't look so alarmed child," Dumbledore said lightly before he lifted his wand to his head, urging the bright strand of memory to depart from his head.
"I'm not alarmed sir," Leshia grumbled and she waited patiently until the memory had been transported to the bowl, promptly turning into a cloud of swirling energy. The old headmaster was watching Leshia with a significant look and she realised that it was evidently time to dive face first into the mysterious swirling memory cloud. After inhaling slowly, as though gathering about herself the strength to resist whatever secret weapon the headmaster had conjured, the girl leant over, pressing her face into the memory. After a strange swirling sensation she found herself back in Dumbledore's study. The headmaster hadn't changed and neither had the surroundings. How curious, he was evidently showing her a recent memory, but what could it be…
There was a knock at the door and Leshia rushed to the side of the headmaster's desk to await whoever it was that had come to see Albus Dumbledore. Moments later she wished dearly that she could retreat from this particular memory as there, on the threshold of the grand door stood Hermione, looking the worse for wear with eyes red from crying.
"My dear Hermione, come in," Dumbledore called out to the young woman, and she rushed in, taking the seat inches from Leshia's eavesdropping presence.
"Oh Albus, she's so stubborn," Hermione exclaimed sounding almost quite stubborn herself, so much so that the old headmaster smiled broadly.
"Children often have little choice but to follow in their parents footsteps," the headmaster said kindly. "I feel you and Draco have imparted onto her more stubbornness than you would have liked."
"But this is serious," Hermione sighed and she seemed to gather her wits about her, looking ashamed for allowing herself to lose her precious control. "Whoever it was is going to try again, and the next time she might not be so lucky."
"You must try to urge her to reveal the identity of her attackers Hermione, I worry that these children are going unpunished," Dumbledore sighed, and Leshia noticed that the twinkle had left his eyes and he looked grave. "To attack a defenceless girl is inexcusable. Many years ago, back when I was a pupil at this very school, events similar to these occurred. A bitter rivalry between two children led to the ritual thrashing of a young boy several times a month, who eventually succumbed to the trauma, and to the very last days of his life he lay irreparable in St Mundos." Hermione winced and looked to her lap, feeling pained at the thought of such a fate overcoming her daughter. "That young man never revealed the identity of his assailants, and when it had become too late he was incapable of doing so. Whoever was responsible, and we the student body had a very good idea over who it was, got away."
"I just couldn't lose her Albus…not again," Hermione whispered and tears welled up in her eyes once more, an image so distressing that Leshia had to look away, forcing herself to concentrate on Fawkes the Headmaster's loyal Phoenix, who silently slept on the other side of the office. "Draco's furious, I'm scared of what he might do…"
"Something that is no doubt troubling your daughter also. However, I would suggest we worry more for what young Leshia intends to do. She is much like her father, revenge is likely to be at the forefront of her thinking." A silence followed, in which Leshia dared to look back at her mother, but soon she wished she hadn't. Hermione had shut her eyes tightly, and a few tears were trickling over her cheeks. The pain of seeing the trauma Leshia had caused her mother was most acute and for a fleeting second the girl was ready to confess everything she had fought so hard to withhold.
"I doubt there's anything that I could say that would make her change her mind," Hermione finally said softly and she opened her eyes, an action that only intensified the agonised expression on her face, as they were filled with sorrow. "Perhaps…perhaps we should leave this place…" Dumbledore looked shocked, as did Leshia's ghost-like presence.
"No!" Leshia cried out angrily.
"I don't think the situation warrants such an extreme action yet," Dumbledore countered quickly.
"Exactly!" Leshia grumbled, her feelings of remorse dissipating like a cloud of smoke. Hermione shook her head, suddenly looking determined.
"If that's the only way I can protect my daughter, then that is what I'll do," she said softly. "I missed out on nearly six years of her life Albus. Those are six years I will never get back. I will not lose out on the rest of her life if she is going to lie incapacitated in St Mundos from now on." Leshia started to feel angry again, there was no chance that was going to leave school, especially not over someone so revolting as Damian Allseyer, and the fact that Hermione was suggesting it made her feel angry towards her mother also.
"We'll see how things develop Hermione, you mustn't make any rash decisions, perhaps this was a one-off event and it will not happen again," Dumbledore said seriously. "Though you must do what you feel is right of course…" The office started to dissolve into a swirl of colours and soon Leshia found herself standing beside the present day headmaster and the swirling memory in the pensieve. Dumbledore looked almost expectant as Leshia turned to look up at him, but was dismayed by the angry frown on her face and the coldness of her grey eyes.
"Can I go now please sir?" the girl asked sounding detached, the anger stirring deep within her when she noticed the look of disappointment that crossed the headmaster's face. She had never seen such a look cross his kindly face before, and its materialisation fuelled her anger. How dare everyone try to meddle in something that was strictly her business! Well-intentioned or not, this did not excuse every Good Samaritan from poking their noses in where they weren't wanted.
"Yes you may go," the old man finally said softly, and he watched with saddened eyes as Leshia turned on heal and walked straight out of his study. It would seem that Leshia had turned out more like her father than he had ever imagined. That girl was definitely a Malfoy…perhaps beyond redemption and forever so.
Waiting at the bottom of the phoenix statue stood Draco, who breathed out a sigh of relief when he saw his daughter appear once more. Though the sour look on her face set of innumerable alarm bells in his head.
"What's wrong?" he asked her with a frown.
"I'm not leaving school dad," the girl said firmly. "Whatever rubbish mum's been talking about, I am not leaving."
"Don't talk about your mother that way," Draco said gruffly. Leshia exhaled exasperatedly and she shook her head with an angry look.
"Just leave me alone," she complained and pushed past her father, heading towards her common room.
"Leshia," Draco called after her brusquely, but the girl ignored him, and for now, he let her go. Once more he spoke the password to the statue and ascended the spiral staircase as soon as it allowed him passage. It was time to get to the bottom of this. What was all this nonsense about Leshia leaving school, what had Hermione been saying?
XXX
For the second time in Leshia's time at Hogwarts, people turned to stare at her as though she were on the Ministry's top ten most wanted criminals list as she passed them in the corridor on her way to Gryffindor tower. For the most part Leshia ignored them, but when Ryan Lofting and his friends stood in her path, blocking the way forward, she looked up at them defiantly.
"What are you doing?" Ryan asked accusingly. Leshia wrinkled her brow and looked from one concerned face to the next.
"What does it look like? I'm walking."
"Very funny, I mean what are you doing on your own?" the seventh year captain said sternly.
"Oh don't you start, I don't need an armed escort to walk from one end of the school to the other."
"Well evidently you do."
"It didn't help last time did it?" Leshia complained angrily, but then felt bad for belittling Katie's attempt to defuse the situation down at the lake. "I didn't mean that," she added quickly sounding calmer. Ryan looked on the girl with an almost agonising expression of concern.
"None of us want anything to happen to you Malfoy," he said gruffly, making Leshia feel a little despairing; what was it about her that made every male turn into her father whenever they were around her?
"Everyone's been really worried," Ryan's friend Luka chimed in.
"Look it's not going to happen again," Leshia said darkly, and for a moment she looked truly evil. "Trust me."
"What are you going to do?" Ryan asked nervously.
"Whatever it takes," the girl replied, before she shook her head once and then beamed up at her quidditch captain. "Anyway, is it okay if I go now? I bet the other's are wondering where I've got to." Ryan nodded slowly, before he reached out and squeezed the back of Leshia's neck.
"Look after yourself," he said emotionally, before the three seventh year boys cleared the path, allowing Leshia through, watching her back retreating with varying degrees of worry. Collectively they thought of the young girl as a little sister to their group, and the thought of anyone hurting her was almost unbearable.
Leshia suffered no further interruptions on her way to Gryffindor tower and soon she had spoken the password at the portrait hole and was granted access into the common room. Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared as Leshia walked in, but then promptly looked away when she looked fiercely at them all. All of the girl's friends were gathered by their usual window box and Leshia slinked over to them, squeezing onto the chair Rachel was occupying as she took part in the wizarding chess match with Rodeo – the pair had got quite friendly since their forced pairing for the Widgling assignment.
"Are you all right?" the redhead asked softly, her brow furrowed in concern. Leshia smiled warmly at her and nodded.
"Never better," she said firmly, before seeking out Katie's worried eyes. "How are you feeling?"
"Good," Katie replied lightly.
"She's been complaining all weekend about her poor head," Rachel chuckled.
"Have not."
"I kept telling her that a bump on the head is nothing compared to having your whole head put together again like you had, but she wouldn't stop." The two cousins were grinning at one another, something that made Leshia feel fantastically good. It was nice to see her friend's weren't intending on wrapping her in cotton wool and that they had found a way to make light of the awful situation.
"It's not funny." Everyone turned to look at Rodeo in surprise and noticed that he seemed to be waging some sort of internal battle. "You could have been killed Leshia! Why can't you leave well enough alone?"
"Excuse me?" the blonde girl managed sounding shocked.
"You heard me, just stop letting them hurt you! And now to make things worse you've dragged Katie into it! You're being so selfish!" Leshia's jaw dropped, and a jealous ripple coursed up her spine. So, he was only really concerned about Katie. Well, that was nice, considering all Katie had endured was a small bump on the head when Leshia had been beaten to within an inch of her life.
"Rodes," Parys said urgently, glaring at the boy for being cruel to Leshia after all that she had been through.
"No! She has to be told! Your friends would do anything for you and you're being so selfish putting them in such danger!" Rodeo continued on, like a steam train with no hope of abating the angry words.
"Rodeo…" Katie tried desperately, worried to upset Leshia even more.
"No Katie she has to be told, and you're too nice to tell her yourself…"
"I would never purposefully endanger my friends," Leshia hissed angrily. "They mean everything to me!"
"Doesn't seem like it," the boy grumbled, looking worriedly to Katie, as she was looking very upset now.
"Look if you fancy Katie then why don't you bloody well do something about it?" Leshia yelled angrily and everyone looked at her in surprise. The girl glared furiously at Rodeo, before she climbed to her feet. "Excuse me." With this she rushed off heading for the dormitories, leaving her friends staring at one another in shock.
"Well done," Rachel grumbled and she got to her feet following in Leshia's footsteps, leaving Katie glowing bright red and avoiding Rodeo's gaze.
"Katie…" he said softly.
"I have to go check on Leesh," the raven-haired girl uttered and then she too rushed off in the direction of the dormitories. Moments later she found Rachel and Leshia sat on top of one of the window benches in the dormitory. The blonde girl's face crumpled in apology when she saw Katie.
"I'm so sorry Katie, I didn't mean to be so horrible. I just…I feel so bad for what happened to you."
"Don't be stupid," Katie said brusquely. "I put myself in that situation." The tall girl sat down on the other side of Leshia, cocooning her in protectively. "Ignore Rodeo, he's just been worried that's all. He is a boy after all." Leshia sighed and shook her head.
"It's not just him though is it?"
"What do you mean?" Rachel asked.
"My mum, she wants to take me out of school…or at least she did after the first time I got beaten up. I don't understand how she thinks that would help."
"Take you out of school? What, for good?" Rachel gasped looking too horrified for words. Leshia nodded glumly.
"She wouldn't," Katie quickly added, trying to sound self-assured, but failing miserably. Despite their differences, Leshia was a very valued member of Katie's life and if she were to go, then the raven-haired girl would feel most distressed.
"Come on, dinner's going to be ready soon," Rachel said bravely, forcing away the panic that was spreading through her chest. The three girls were very sombre indeed as they made their way down to the great hall, a journey in which the two cousins guarded their friend protectively, by walking either side of her, casting any curious onlookers feisty glares. Most of the Gryffindors surreptitiously watched as Leshia walked down their ranks, her head held high, until she found a place by their fellow second years, her back turned on the rest of the school – many of whom were watching her curiously; almost the entire student body had witnessed the girl's broken and bleeding body being rushed up to the school and were amazed to see she had remained in tact after such brutal injuries.
"How are you Leesh?" Nicola asked looking concerned.
"Never better," Leshia replied with a beaming smile. "Wow, this looks so good," she added quickly, deftly changing the subject to the delicious dishes adorning the grand table. "The food in the hospital wing is abysmal!" There was an element of truth to her words, and it puzzled the girl why the hospital wing offered such a sub par version of dinner; perhaps it was to deter pupils from returning.
The girls were thoroughly enjoying themselves as the second years caught Leshia up on the school gossip. Leshia couldn't contain her raucous laughter when she heard that poor Millie Mitten from Hufflepuff had found herself stuck in one of the bathroom cubicles due to the her enormous size.
"So how did she get out?" Leshia asked looking amazed that such a thing could have happened.
"They had to use the enlargement charm on the cubicle," Ashley sniggered.
"God, her cheeks were scarlet all day," Rachel sighed. Leshia peered over her shoulder at the Hufflepuff table where the girl in question was sitting silently contemplating her plate of greens.
"Professor Sprout has put her on a diet," Katie added when she saw Leshia looking, but Leshia didn't respond, she was instead watching with a furrowed brow as Julius Black approached their table.
"What does he want?" Rachel scowled.
"Rach," Leshia whispered hoarsely. "Calm down."
"I was wondering if you wanted to work on the project after dinner?" Julius asked the moment he had reached the girl's side. "Seeing as we were meant to yesterday, but you were otherwise occupied."
"If when you say otherwise occupied you mean held against my wishes the hospital wing, then yeah."
"Of course," Julius said with a dark smile.
"Fine, I'll meet you there after dinner."
"We'll come too," Rodeo's voice came and Leshia spun around glaring accusingly at the boy, feeling very unlikely to want to speak to him in the near future.
"Oh you're joking," Rachel exclaimed. "I've still got that transfiguration essay to do for tomorrow."
"Well you should have done it earlier, we're going," Rodeo said firmly.
"Fine," Julius said simply and he left in order to return to his table. Leshia watched him go and briefly caught eyes with Allseyer. The despicable boy was smirking at her darkly, something that enraged Leshia. However, she managed to contain her anger, and instead rolled her eyes and shook her head, as though letting the boy know his act was getting old. The rest of dinner went by awkwardly, with Katie being off with Rodeo for showing a keen urge to guard Leshia and Rachel fed up that she was going to have to work through the night to finish her essay. Leshia kept to herself, wondering how she was going to crack Julius Black in order to utilise him as an ally.
When the time came to head over to the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom the children walked in silence to the end of the hall where Leshia was waylaid by her mother, who looked determined – never a good thing.
"Mum we have to get to work on our widgling project," Leshia said bluntly.
"It'll only take a minute," Hermione said with equal force. Leshia rolled her eyes in true teenage-fashion, before she nodded to her friends.
"I'll meet you guys there." Within moments they had disappeared from sight and Hermione started to lead her daughter in the direction they had gone at a much slower pace.
"How are you feeling?" the anxious mother asked, adopting a much softer expression now. Leshia nodded with a shrug.
"Fine."
"I hear you had words with the headmaster."
"He's angry with me isn't he?"
"No, not angry…" Hermione trailed off and sighed. "Just concerned that you're not making the right choice. He seems most displeased with your father and I for encouraging you." Leshia frowned and looked up at her mother.
"Mum if you want me to sort this out then why are you planning on taking me out of school?" Hermione looked saddened.
"I don't want to do anything," she sighed. "But if you can't stop this insanity on your own terms and you won't tell us who's behind it, then none of us will be coming back next year." Leshia lowered her brow in anger.
"Dad didn't seem so keen on the idea."
"Yes well I've talked to him, and made him see sense," Hermione countered.
"How did you do that?"
"I explained to him that if we didn't then you'd probably wind up dead, and believe it or not but your life is worth more to us than our jobs."
"I'd hate you forever," Leshia uttered darkly, feeling a painful sob wracking her chest, trying to get out; the thought of leaving Hogwarts was too painful to bear. Her mother sighed and closed her eyes tightly.
"I know," she whispered, before coming to a halt outside the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, from within which the loud sounds of Rachel and Rodeo arguing over their next move with their Widgling. "It hasn't come to that yet Leshia, and I pray that it doesn't. I would do anything to keep you safe sweetheart, I hope you can understand that one day." Leshia looked to the floor angrily, yet she didn't pull away when her mother leant down and kissed the top of her hanging head. With this Hermione walked away, feeling tears stinging her eyes and threatening to fall.
"Leesh?" Rachel's muffled voice came and then her head poked round the door. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," Leshia sighed and she smiled reassuringly at her friend. "Everything's fine." With this the girls retreated into the classroom and Leshia found Rodeo and Julius knelt down in front of their cage trying to coax the widglings into their hands. However, thus far the only things they'd managed to encourage into their hands was a painful collection of widgling spit. "What are you doing?" Leshia asked with a smirk.
"What does it look like?" Rodeo grumbled and he pulled back his hands, looking at his blistering fingers angrily. "Damn animals."
"Maybe they just don't like being touched," Leshia suggested and she crouched down beside Julius, pulling his arm back out of the cage. The widglings instantly calmed down as she did so.
"We shouldn't give up on them," Julius said softly and he looked to Leshia with a probing look. "Nobody is beyond saving."
XXX
In the weeks that followed Julius behaviour during their widgling sessions became tamer and tamer. Leshia was convinced the boy felt bad over what had happened to her out by the lake. Had he known and failed to prevent it from happening? Whatever his motives, Leshia was sure she was getting closer to manipulating him over to her side.
Life at Hogwarts seemed to be dying down to an almost monotonous rate, but the young Malfoy (and her parents) were happy for the change in pace. Many afternoons were spent down at the library trying to research the chamber of secrets, but very little information was ever of any use to the girls. Harry, of course, had absolutely refused to give away the entrance to the chamber and most of the parents still insisted that it had been destroyed.
"Maybe if we write off to the prophet again," Rachel whispered to her blonde haired friend during one particularly boring Muggle Studies lesson, who furrowed her brow, before shaking her head.
"If they didn't write back to us before, they're not going to start now. Besides, I heard a rumour that most of their archives got destroyed around the Battle of the Ages," Leshia whispered back.
"Uh, excuse me girls?" Ramble interrupted the pair of best friends, and they looked up in surprise. "If you have anything to contribute on Muggle medical institutions then please, speak up so as the rest of the class can hear?" Leshia and Rachel kept silent, but shook their heads. "Very well, then please, keep quiet, I won't warn you again." The girls waited five minutes for the teacher to get enthralled in her lecture on Muggle Hospitals, before they turned to each other once more.
"Maybe someone still has a copy," Rachel whispered softly.
"Who would keep newspapers from when our parents were our age?"
"Grandma keeps lots of old newspapers, maybe she has one."
"Yeah but she's not going to help us is she? Our parents have probably warned her…"
"That is it," Ramble snapped angrily, and both Leshia and Rachel looked up in surprise. What on earth was the matter with their normally charming teacher? "Detention, both of you. Come to my office at eight-o clock." Leshia and Rachel exchanged a grim expression.
"But Professor Ramble, I've got quidditch practice after dinner," Leshia tried.
"Well they're going to have to manage without you," Ramble said sternly. "For now as the pair of you seem incapable of keeping quiet, Leshia come and sit at the front of the class." With a roll of her eyes Leshia complied, grumbling to herself about this about change in Ramble's persona. Perhaps she was having a bad hair day.
For the remainder of the lesson Leshia leant her cheek on her hand and drifted off to Ramble's monotone lull about hospitals – had she been taking lessons from Professor Binns, the ghostly History of Magic teacher? As the bell rang she collected her possessions and leapt to her feet, rushing out before any of her peers. It was only the first lesson of the day on their most boring day of the week (despite the lengthy free period they had at the end of the day, to compensate for the dull astrology lesson they would be having at midnight), and consequently, by the time dinner arrived Leshia and Rachel were in foul moods at the thought of their impending detention. Katie's insistence that they work on their Potions homework (a rare group assignment) during their free period at the end of the day had not helped matters.
"You only have yourselves to blame," Katie said with a big smile when she saw the thunderous looks on her friends' faces.
"Shut up Katie," they chimed in unison.
"What the heck is up with Ramble?" Leshia grumbled. "She's always been so easy going up until now."
"Yeah, and seriously one warning and then straight to detention? Not even your dad is that bad!" Rachel added grumpily.
"Maybe she had lots of work to do and needed help, so she was trying to find an excuse to give someone detention," Katie suggested. Leshia shrugged.
"I'm sure she could have found someone more worthy of detention than us if that were the case. There's Lofting," the girl suddenly piped up when she saw Ryan Lofting approaching the table hand in hand with Julie Walling. "I've got to go and worm my way out of quidditch."
"I'll come with you, it's nearly eight, we may as well go," Rachel sighed and the two girls climbed to their feet. "Enjoy your evening alone," the red-haired girl shot at her cousin, before the two girls ambled their way up the table to where the seventh-year quidditch captain had just made himself comfortable.
"Lofting," Leshia called to him as they approached.
"Malfoy, what can I do you for?" Ryan countered cheerfully.
"I won't be able to make it to practice," the girl told him, and he instantly morphed into a fond-frown.
"Let me guess…" he began.
"Oh you don't have to, it's obvious," Leshia sighed.
"Who's it this time?" Luka asked at his friend's side.
"Ramble."
"You're going to have to make it up next time," Ryan said cheerfully.
"How?"
"Oh you know, couple of dozen laps round the pitch should do it." Leshia grinned and rolled her eyes.
"I'll have to make sure I get detention on Thursday too," she said happily and she waltzed off with Rachel in tow. Their ambling walk to Ramble's office dragged out their margin before eight-o clock and as such, by the time they'd reached the disorganised office they were five minutes late.
"Thank you for coming girls," Ramble told them, seemingly back to sorts; she didn't even remark on their tardiness. "There's your chore," the woman continued and she pointed to a number of oblong objects wrapped in old newspapers. "I've had one of my old colleague's old collection sent on from Australia and I'd like you to unwrap them carefully and organise them into boxes for later study. I've got a meeting so I won't be able to supervise you. Good luck." The teacher promptly left the girls to it and with two heavy sighs they sat down by the collection of old junk.
"What would she want with this rubbish anyway?" Rachel grumbled as she tore the paper off an old strange metallic object with two slits in it (had she paid more attention in last years Muggle Studies class when they covered muggle appliances, she might have recognised it as a toaster).
"Who cares? Let's just do this so we can go." And so the pair of them got to work, carefully unwrapping the old Muggle objects and sorting them into the boxes provided.
XXX
Katie, rather at a loss of what to do with herself decided that she would work on their Potions assignment alone. As she stepped out of the portrait hole though, it would seem she was not going to have to spend the evening alone.
"Hey Katie, wait for me!" Rodeo's call came and Katie spun around, her cheeks reddening, to find the boy clambering out of the hole after her, bearing a pile of Defence Against the Dark Arts books and a roll of parchment. "I'm going to start writing up some of the widgling project, mind if I tag along?"
"No not at all," Katie managed. The smile Rodeo granted her made her head swim and her knees feel week, but she managed to take control of her senses and together the pair of them made their way to the library. Rodeo talked and talked non-stop, which made it easier for the suddenly shy Katie to get away with her embarrassed silence. Once in the library, Rodeo was forced to silence by the irate librarian, but this didn't stop him from shooting Katie charming grins every few minutes. At times Katie's resolve was put to the test as the boy leaned close to her, whispering in her ear such things as,
"What's another word for horrible?"
The raven-haired girl was aware of what the boy was doing, and the alarm bells were going off in her head, but she didn't retreat and she didn't stop him. She was powerless to resist his charms; she had after all been swooning over him for many months. Besides, Leshia had given them her approval…hadn't she? Half an hour passed, and finally Rodeo shut his books.
"I'm heading back, you coming?" he asked hopefully. Katie wasn't quite ready to go yet, but she felt that if she refused then she would possibly be missing out on one of the most crucial moments of her life, so she nodded quickly.
"Yeah, sure." The two youngsters packed up their things and started back, ambling slowly, with Rodeo going in to a veritable overdrive of talkativeness. Had Katie known him a little better, she would have realised that this was Rodeo's nervous behaviour. The portrait hole was nearing, but before they reached it Rodeo suddenly stopped.
"Katie," he managed in a strangled tone. "I really like you." The raven-haired girl's heart started beating a mile a minute and she managed a wobbly smile.
"I really like you too," she said softly and she hung her had a little, avoiding Rodeo's keen eyes. In what seemed like a lightning motion the boy had suddenly lunged at her and was kissing her firmly. Katie didn't pull away.
XXX
Half an hour had passed in Ramble's study, in which the majority of Leshia and Rachel's task had been done, when suddenly Leshia froze as she stared at the object in her hands.
"What's wrong?" Rachel asked with a frown. "You look like you've seen a ghost."
"I have," Leshia quickly explained and she turned the object round to show her friend the picture of a young ghost. Dressed in a uniform that could only have come from Hogwarts, and drifting miserably through a bathroom that definitely looked as though it were in Hogwarts, it would be safe to assume the girl was in their school.
"I've never seen that ghost before," Rachel frowned. "What's it say?" Leshia quickly turned the object round once more and glanced to the title.
"Oh my God," she whispered. "Teenaged ghost holds key to location of secret chamber in school," the girl read aloud.
"You don't think?" Rachel began sounding equally as shocked. The sound of footsteps from up the corridor prompted Leshia to rip the paper off the muggle artefact and stuff it down her jumper. Just in time too, as the door handle turned and Ramble appeared with a big smile on her face.
"How are you getting on?" she asked them.
"Fine," the two girls replied quickly.
"Oh look what a wonderful job you've done. I'll tell you what, five more minutes and then you can go." The last five minutes of their detention positively crawled by, but finally Ramble gave them leave to go. Within moments the girls had scarpered and as soon as they headed off down the corridor Leshia pulled out the newspaper and the girl's poured over the story, which was evidently about the whole Chamber of Secrets palaver in their parents' second year.
"You don't think this ghost is Moaning Myrtle do you?" Leshia asked excitedly once they had reached the end of the article for the second time.
"Is she that ghost Amy and Sarah warned us about? The one that haunts the bathroom on the…"
"Yeah that's the one," Leshia interrupted her; she was far too excited to allow for any long deliberation on this. "If it is then we can just ask her can't we? I'll bet it is her and I'll bet she'll tell us. I hear she's a real loner and will talk your ear off if you go in there."
"Well what are we waiting for, let's go ask her," Rachel said hurriedly with a big smile.
"Let's go get Katie first!" Leshia countered and the two girl's hurried on, excited with the clues they had uncovered. Their excitement soon came to a rapid halt however, as they rounded the corner onto the portrait-hole corridor.
"Oh no," Rachel exclaimed in complete disgust as her eyes fell on Katie and Rodeo up the corridor. Leshia remained deadly silent, though her eyes did narrowed so enormously that Rachel was sure the girl oughtn't have been able to see anything. In the distance Katie pulled away from Rodeo looking surprised, before she noticed her two friends staring at her.
"Oh…" she exclaimed sounding mangled. For several moments the only movements the children made was to slowly turn and look at Leshia, who eventually managed to morph her expression into a neutral one.
"Come on, let's go tell her about the newspaper," Leshia said lightly and she started to walk towards the pair of kissers. Seeing the girl approach, Rodeo quickly glanced to Katie apologetically before he rushed ahead to the portrait hole and spoke the password, giving way to his escape route.
"Leshia, I…" Katie began sounding desperate.
"What?" Leshia interrupted with forced casualness. "I don't care," she added quickly. "Look at what we found in Ramble's detention." Katie glanced briefly to her cousin and was wounded by the accusing glare that lay there, but she reached out and took the paper nonetheless.
"Oh my goodness," Katie exclaimed in surprise, and the colour in her cheeks started to withdraw. "This is unbelievable. All this time and we only had to ask Moaning Myrtle!"
"We're going to go talk to her, are you coming?" Leshia asked, her grey eyes cold.
"Let me just drop this stuff off," Katie said quickly, indicating her heavy satchel of books. Without waiting for a response she rushed off, leaving Rachel watching her best friend anxiously.
"Are you sure you're okay about this?"
"Rach come on, just leave it will you?" Leshia complained and she sounded borderline angry. "I told you before I don't care what Rodeo does. If he fancies Katie then good for him, and if she fancies him back, then even better for him. I don't care!" By the anger that had crept into the girl's voice, and the frown that had slowly adorned her forehead, Rachel could immediately see through the lies, but if Leshia wanted to pretend, then so be it.
"Okay, so what are we going to ask Myrtle?"
Once Katie had rejoined her friends they discussed this issue in a very subdued manner. Eventually they reached the bathroom on the second floor that Moaning Myrtle had taken to haunting since her sudden demise many years ago. None of the girls had ever stepped foot inside the girls' toilets; even on one occasion when Katie had been absolutely desperate for the loo, she had chosen to sprint to the next toilets two corridors away. It looked no different to any of the other girls' toilets across the school. Granted, it had fallen into disrepair and puddles of water littered the cracked tiles; these toilets evidently were not used on a daily basis. However, the very reason for this, the cantankerous ghost said to haunt them, was nowhere to be seen.
"Myrtle?" Leshia called out unsurely, hoping that they had come to the right place. "Myrtle are you there?" The girl glanced to her friends with a furrowed brow; maybe this had been some elaborate joke by the upper-years to scare new students. The sudden sloshing sound from one of the cubicles however, soon put an end to that line of thought.
"Who's there?" a whining voice demanded.
"Uh…well my name's Leshia and these are my friends Rachel and Katie."
"What do you want?"
"We just wanted to talk to you," Rachel replied as tentatively as she could manage. A silence followed, in which more sloshing could be heard, but this was interrupted by a torrent of water exploding from the cubicle and suddenly a teenaged ghost had appeared before the girls. Petulant didn't even begin to describe the manner in which she glared at the trio of friends.
"Um, hello Myrtle," Leshia said kindly and she smiled uneasily at the grumpy ghost.
"Why would you want to talk to me? Nobody ever wants to talk to me!" the ghost wailed, before she drifted dramatically down the length of the cubicles, before perching on the window that lay there.
"Well, we've heard all about you from our parents, they said you were such a nice ghost…" Katie tried.
"Your parents?" Myrtle sniffed, unsure she believed anyone could ever say anything remotely resembling kind about her.
"Perhaps you remember them? My dad's Ron Weasley, and Leshia here, well her mum's Hermione Granger…"
"Oh yes, I know her, she comes to visit me from time to time," Myrtle sniffed elaborately.
"Really?" Leshia asked incredulously, unsure of why her mother could possibly want to visit this grumbling ghost. In response to her exclamation Myrtle made an extremely insulted noise, which soon turned into a wail, and Rachel and Katie gave Leshia a tired look, this was not the time to be insulting the ghostly girl. "I'm sorry," Leshia quickly called out. "She just never mentioned it, that's all."
"I'm not surprised, why would she mention poor insignificant moaning Myrtle?" the ghost whined. "What about you? You look familiar?" Leshia and Rachel turned to Katie and nodded urgently.
"Well my mum's Ginny Weasley and my dad is Harry Potter," the girl explained; this was a story she was tired of telling. She hated it that her dad's fame was worldwide, and that whenever people found out about her famous descent they would probe her with questions concerning her 'fabulous' father.
"Harry Potter?" Myrtle repeated sounding shocked. "Harry Potter got married? And had children?" Her tone had risen to an angry shriek, so much so that the girls fought the urge to cover their ears. Another wail followed, before Myrtle had evidently had enough and she dived into one of the toilets headfirst, leaving the girls looking at one another in surprise.
"Well that went well," Leshia sighed and she tentatively approached the cubicle. "Myrtle, who cares who our parents were? We just wanted to talk to you."
"Go away!" the ill-tempered reply came and another burst of water ejected from the toilet, giving Leshia barely enough time to jump out of the way.
"But we just want to talk, I don't suppose you get many visitors down here," Leshia persevered; she was so close to the information she needed and was not about to back down now.
"Why would anyone want to talk to miserable me?"
"Well…I have to confess we have an ulterior motive?"
"Leesh," Rachel hissed, but Leshia shook her head quickly, as though saying 'I know what I'm doing'.
"What is it?" Myrtle demanded from the U-bend of her chosen toilet.
"We saw you in this newspaper and were wondering if you could tell us how to get into the chamber of secrets?" More silence, and suspecting that Myrtle was going to emerge in a wave of toilet water once more, the girls backed away, lest they be caught in the flow. Their estimation was not mistaken, and soon Myrtle had reappeared, smiling gleefully at them.
"I'm in a newspaper?"
"Yes," Rachel said happily.
"An Australian one," Leshia added and she lifted the newspaper up for the ghost to see, who quickly descended on them to inspect the picture.
"Oh," she finally wailed. "They've taken a horrible picture!"
"What are you talking about?" Leshia countered charmingly. "I think you look beautiful in it."
"Liar!" Myrtle shrieked and Leshia looked affronted.
"Well no wonder you're lonely and miserable if you can't take a compliment."
"So that's why you've come, to poke fun at miserable, ugly, moaning Myrtle!" the ghost wailed and she once more returned to her perch on the windowsill. "Your annoying parents were just the same! They never came back after they found the entrance…"
"You mean it's in here?" Leshia asked sounding surprised. Myrtle glared at her furiously.
"It's by that sink if you must know, but fat lot of good it'll do you, you won't be able to open it!" With this the ghost shrieked once more and dove into her toilet. The girls didn't care however, they'd rushed over to the sink Myrtle had pointed to and examined every inch of it.
"How is this a gateway to the chamber of secrets?" Rachel asked sounding exasperated. "I mean what are we meant to do, climb down the plughole?"
"Hey! Look at this!" Katie quickly exclaimed in surprise and her friends rushed to her side to examine the strange serpent symbol on the side of the tap. "What do you suppose that means?"
"Try pushing it," Leshia suggested.
"Maybe we need a key or something, that fits into it?" Rachel added. The girls tried with no use to manipulate the tap in order to gain entrance to the chamber, until finally Leshia exclaimed an extremely angry profanity that caused Katie to admonish her.
"Myrtle how does it work?" Leshia called out and she marched over to Myrtle's toilet.
"I shan't tell you."
"The sooner you tell us, the sooner we'll leave you alone!"
"I told you, you'll never open it," the jeering voice of Myrtle came and her head poked out of the toilet. "You have to speak that special snake language…"
"Parseltongue?" Katie asked sounding surprised. "Is that how it's done? No wonder my dad could open it, he's a parseltongue!" Myrtle started to cackle teasingly.
"And none of you are. You're never going to get it open, I told you…" Fed up with the ghost's teasing Leshia reached out and flushed the toilet, causing the ghost to wail out angrily, before disappearing down the toilet. She was shaking slightly.
"Leesh…are you okay?" Rachel asked worriedly.
"She's right," the blonde girl exclaimed despairingly. "None of us speak parseltongue, and your dad's never going to help us. I'm never going to be able to sort Allseyer out, and I'll get taken out of school." A few tears fell from Leshia's angry eyes as the weight of her predicament came crashing down around her feet.
"Well maybe we can try something else?" Katie suggested gently.
"What's the point? I may as well just get used to the fact that he's won…"
XXX
Following their disastrous encounter with Myrtle, Leshia sunk into a state of continuous depression. The thought of leaving Hogwarts brought her near to tears and now she had resigned herself to this fate, nothing could rouse her from her misery. This sudden change in disposition was clear for all to see, and it triggered many changes around her that she was unaware of in her reclusive state. Allseyer stepped up his jeering, seeing his nemesis was near breaking point. Julius Black seemed incredibly tentative towards the girl in their widgling sessions. Leshia's own parents began to despair at their daughter's condition, which triggered all sorts of disputes between them. And last of all Rodeo, fearing this change in her temperament to be his doing, stayed well away from Katie, not even deigning to speak to her.
In order to combat her daughter's depression, Hermione started forcing the girl to join her parents at private family dinners several times a week. Leshia barely spoke and when she did, she managed to make her parents despair more at the morbidity of her thoughts. To make matters worse for the girl, ever since Valentine's Day, when she had received the frightening note from her grandfather, more had started appearing in the strangest of circumstances. They bore such messages as, 'You can't hide' and 'I'll reclaim what was taken from me', and had the strangest abilities of showing up in Leshia's satchel at the end of the day, or underneath her dinner plate in the main hall. For the most part she kept them hidden from her friends, but on one particularly horrible day, after which Leshia was forced to dine with her parents, she almost revealed everything to them in a moment of complete despair.
Sensing that his daughter was hiding something so sinister from him that he daren't find out what it was, but knowing he had to protect her, Draco joined her on the settee after dinner while Hermione set the plates to work.
"I don't know what to do," he said softy. Leshia barely managed to look up at him. Her father seemed incredibly withdrawn and grave. "I don't know how to protect you if you won't tell me what the matter is."
"There's nothing you can do," Leshia said softly and she hung her head, her heavy eyelashes closing, forcing away the tears that were gathering there. To cause her parents such grief was too much for the already despondent girl.
"But I want to help you! Just tell me how," Draco tried urgently, only to have Leshia shake her head sadly. "Please?" There was such pleading in his voice that Leshia finally looked up at him once more, and hated the desperation that lay in her father's face. She had caused him this pain. It was her fault. Once more however, she shook her head. "I won't be mad, whatever you want to do, we'll do it! Whatever you've done, I just don't care."
"Dad stop," Leshia interrupted him, on the brink of tears. "There's nothing you, or I, or anyone can do okay? There's nothing anyone can do." As she spoke these last words her voice constricted and a few tears fell. "Excuse me," she whispered, before she jumped to her feet and ran out of her parents' chambers, leaving her father hunched over, his face in his hands. What more could he do? He was failing as a father; where his main job was to protect his child and he was incapable of doing so.
That night Leshia threw herself into quidditch practice, and performed outstandingly. The only good thing to come out of her despondency was the passion she forced into quidditch training. The spring rains had arrived and would regularly drench the Gryffindor team; this night was no different. So much so, that Ryan called a premature end to the training.
"We'll have to regroup tomorrow," Ryan told the team grimly.
"Is it okay if I stay?" Leshia asked him as many of the others started retreating. Ryan's face contorted into a worried frown.
"I'm not so sure it's safe Malfoy, you should probably just come in with the rest of us," he told her.
"Please?" Leshia asked forcefully. "I have to!" Her captain looked to his friends for advice, but they merely shook their heads in concern; all of them were worried for their recently changed seeker and wished nothing more to help her through this evidently difficult time.
"You've got fifteen minutes! I'll come and get you," Ryan told Leshia, who nodded to him, before she took off again without a word. Lap after lap, the girl raced around the pitch, the torrential rain slamming into her skin with such force she could have sworn her face ought to be covered by bruises, but care she did not. Nothing mattered anymore; either Allseyer and his cronies were finally going to do her in, her parents were going to take her out of school, or her grandfather was going to capture her. All of these inevitable options meant the end of Leshia's world, and as such she was beginning to wonder what the point of living was. Even if she told her parents of Allseyer's identity, there would be more Slytherins waiting in the wings to take his place. She would never be safe.
Far down below on the sodden pitch a figure approached; hooded and tall, there was no doubt in Leshia's mind who this person was, and with a sudden anger she pelted down to the ground and started running towards the cloaked man she was sure was her grandfather.
"Take me then!" she yelled at him, her voice carried away from her on the rainy gales. "Just do it! What are you afraid of?" The girl's voice broke with her passion, and she stopped in her tracks watching as the figure too held his ground. A cruel laughter was brought to her by the winds and she shut her eyes tightly. "Just take me, please!" she cried out.
"Malfoy? What the hell are you doing?" This was Ryan's voice and Leshia prised her eyes open to see the figure had gone. "Who were you yelling at?" The tall seventh year had reached the girl's side and he flung an arm around her shoulders, dragging her back towards the school.
"Didn't you see it? The figure?" Leshia asked desperately.
"No, I didn't, now come on before you catch your death out here." Leshia allowed herself to be led back to Gryffindor Tower, where she quickly changed into her nightclothes and spent the rest of the evening looking out over the rain-swept grounds. More than once she could have sworn she saw the silhouette of the cloaked figure that was haunting her steps.
XXX
It was the last lesson of the week, a triple period of Defence Against the Dark Arts. Leshia and her friends arrived late at the queue outside the classroom, as Rachel and Katie had found it exceedingly difficult to motivate Leshia into returning to class after lunch. Their arrival prompted a chorus of laughter from the unpleasant Slytherins, who had all been relishing in Leshia's sombre demeanour and taking claim for it. Only Julius refrained from joining in and leant against the wall looking the other way.
"Hello blood-traitor, having a nice day?" Allseyer cackled jeeringly. Leshia stared at him with a dead expression.
"Ignore him Leesh," Rachel said firmly and she grabbed Leshia's arm, spinning her away from the hoard of Slytherin bullies.
"Yeah go on, run and hide, it won't stop us from finding you," Allseyer jeered cruelly. "Your time's nearly up Malfoy make with it what you will." Leshia's brow barely furrowed in pain and anger, and her lack of response was misconstrued as cowardice by her nemesis, who once more triggered a chorus of malicious laughter. The sounds of heavy footsteps coming from down the corridor promptly put an end to their jeering and soon Draco had reached the group, taking note of his daughter's expression and the mirth on the Slytherins' faces. Right. They were going to pay for that one.
"Is there any reason you feel the need to cause so much racket I could hear you two corridors away?" he asked the Slytherins darkly, anger lacing every single word he spoke.
"No sir," several of the children exclaimed quickly, earning them mocking smirks from their Gryffindor counterparts – all except Leshia, who continued to hang her head shamefully.
"Five points from each of you, now get in," the unpredictable teacher ordered angrily and he flung the door open for the children to follow, which they did uncertainly. Rarely before had they seen Professor Malfoy so enraged. As the lesson started Leshia barely managed to lift her head to watch her father and for the most part she failed, her gaze drifting somewhere around his ankles. Her complete despondency was heartbreaking for her father, and every time he turned to look at her Slytherin tormentors he felt his blood boil slightly.
Everything seemed to come to a head when Draco requested the children take their textbooks out, and on doing so Leshia accidentally pulled out an ink jar, which fell to the ground and split open, all over Katie's shoes. It was all too much for the girl, who instantly lifted her elbow to her desk and dropped her forehead on her palm, her eyes tightly closed shut, in defeat. Draco's shoulders dropped at her resignation to defeat, but the Slytherins in the classroom found it hilarious and started laughing raucously, none so loud as Allseyer.
"It is the lowest form of cowardice to find amusement in another's struggle," Draco suddenly snapped, and he stalked over to the Slytherin side of the classroom and cast such a dangerous glare at Allseyer that he instantly stopped laughing. "And of all the cowards I have seen you feature amongst the lowest Allseyer." Draco's voice was rising, and in return, Allseyer was looking more and more afraid. "The rest of the class need not be hindered by your ways, so get out!" Everyone stared in horror at their teacher; had he gone mad?
"But sir…" Allseyer began petulantly.
"I said out!" Draco yelled and as he had now reached the boy's side her overturned the desk angrily; something that even caught Leshia's attention. Allseyer didn't need telling again, and he dropped to the ground, picked up his things and hurried out, muttering about his father and Dumbledore on his way out. Draco panted from anger and stalked to the front of the classroom where he took his seat behind his desk.
"Reach chapter nine in your books," he said softly, his head hanging. And so most of the class managed to do as he asked, ignoring the overturned desk in their midst and the look of complete defeat on their teacher's face. Only one continued to watch him in distress, and this was his daughter. How had she caused her father such sorrow…how had she let it come to this?
XXX
The following morning brought the arrival of the penultimate quidditch game of the year for Leshia and the rest of the Gryffindor team. Ravenclaw, their toughest challenge from the year before, would this year promise to be more scalable. With the entire team comprising of new additions. Last year's beaten champions had all been seventh years, but they had been secretly training replacements for when they graduated school. Leshia's main concern was Martin Lahara, the once commentator for quidditch, now turned Ravenclaw Seeker. He had been taught everything by his older brother Evan Lahara, the once seeker for Ravenclaw that Leshia had barely beaten the year before.
None of the other Gryffindors seemed worried about the way the game would turn out, as the line-up for their team hadn't changed and last year they had been crowned Quidditch Champions. All in the whole table was extremely exuberant on the morning of the match. Only Leshia hung her head over her breakfast, barely nibbling at the toast she had buttered for herself.
"Don't worry Leesh, you know you can win," Katie said reassuringly.
"Yeah, you've always caught it before haven't you?" Rachel added. Leshia shrugged her shoulders.
"It's raining," she merely responded. These were the only words the girls managed to eek out of their friend before they waved her off on her way to the changing rooms.
"She's totally and utterly lost it," Rachel sighed heavily.
"Rachel!" Katie admonished her cousin. "Don't be so mean."
"Well she has!" Rachel countered and her eyes revealed fresh tears. With all the insanity that was going on at home, the last thing Rachel had needed was for her best friend, her pillar of support, to lose her mind.
Ryan Lofting offered his team a thrilling and motivating speech that even managed to captivate Leshia's attention long enough for her to raise her eyes from the ground and watch, as the charming seventh year told them of how they would tread the path to victory. As the team walked out onto the sodden pitch they encountered a wall of sound, delivered by the entire student body. Everyone had turned out, not to be put off by the torrential rains, which had not abated since the beginning of March.
"Players, take your positions!" Madam Hooch called to the teams once Ryan had shook hands with Martin Lahara. Leshia instantly rose to the sky and once the whistle had been blown she took off to dizzying heights with such speed that many of the spectators 'ooohed' and 'aaahed' appreciatively. The game turned out to be more gruelling than anyone could have predicted, as the Ravenclaws had employed the help of a near unbeatable keeper. Where exactly, this miracle goal saving witch had come from, no one could say, but she was making it extremely difficult for the very able team of Gryffindor chasers to get a goal in. An hour into the game and the score still stood at merely twenty points to nothing in favour of Gryffindor.
This was not to say that the game was boring; quite the contrary, the spectacular attacks by the Gryffindor chasers, unbelievable saves by the Ravenclaw keeper and a magnificent airborne show put on by Leshia as she tried desperately to find the snitch in the horrendous weather, while pulling off some of her best ever flying, all culminated into this game being one of the most beautiful to watch in the history of Hogwarts Quidditch.
Leshia didn't allow herself any time to think, instead she kept herself on the move, flitting from one side of the pitch to the next, pulling off hair razing dives and ascents through the level of play in her search. Lahara could barely keep up with her. Several times the poor boy nearly collided with the battling chasers as he foolishly followed the more able seeker through the mid-level traffic.
It would seem though, that Lahara would be the first to catch sight of the elusive golden ball that would seal the fate of this match, and as soon as he caught sight of it he threw himself into a dive. Leshia spotted him and immediately caught up with him. They were evenly matched for speed, each having the same broom, and what followed was a violent battle of shoving, for who would be granted the front space and thus access to the snitch. The battling seekers were nearing the ground when finally, out of desperation Lahara threw out his elbow catching Leshia in the mouth. Warm blood coursed over the girl's tongue and she knew her lip had been split open. The pain of it briefly caused her to falter, and in this moment of opportunity Lahara pulled ahead, but the moments his tail twigs came into view something snapped deep within the Gryffindor seeker.
"No," she said firmly, as feelings of adequacy and anger at being walked over filled her. She was not a pushover, and she was not a loser! Feeling invigorated by her sudden will to live again; Leshia bent low over her broom and took off after Lahara, who was practically on top of the snitch. All around them the pupils of Hogwarts were yelling their throats hoarse as the suspense gripped them.
Never before had Leshia flown so fast as she did now. Lahara didn't see her coming, he was too foolishly pleased with himself as his fingers reached out to touch the golden ball, that he didn't notice Leshia appearing from below him and taking the ball from his grasp, before she violently ascended in front of him. Her sudden appearance caused the boy to spin viciously and embarrassingly out of control and it took him several terrifying moments to regain control of his wayward broom.
The Gryffindors were going positively mad and started chanting for their victorious reigning champion team. Leshia meanwhile had floated to the ground where several of her team mates were rushing over to her. As soon as they reached the young seeker they lifted her up into a messy hug.
"You star!" Daniella Wood, one of the seventh year chasers, crowed happily in Leshia's ear and the girl's face split into a happy smile.
"Malfoy are you alright? You're smiling!" Ryan exclaimed in fond teasing, and Leshia reached out and punched his arm.
"Shut up," she laughed. "And find me a medic before I bleed to death."
Thankfully, it never came to that and after Madam Pomfry had quickly healed Leshia's split swollen lip right there on the pitch the girl was given leave to go. She was instantly buried under her friends' vigorous embraces, but Leshia fought them off as kindly as she could; there were two people she needed to see. Her parents were waiting on the side of the pitch, and without thinking Leshia escaped her friends and ran straight over to them, not stopping as she reached their sides. Instead she threw her arms around both of them.
"I'm sorry," her muffled voice came from between their sides, causing her parents to exchange a surprised look; had their daughter finally returned to normal? "I'm sorry for being so horrible," Leshia continued and she pulled back, looking up at their faces anxiously. "I feel better now." Hermione smiled shakily as tears threatened to fall and she leant down and hugged the girl firmly.
"Thank God you're alright," she whispered.
"I'm so sorry," Leshia whispered back. "I never meant to hurt you." After squeezing the girl tightly Hermione stepped back and looked up at her husband, who looked amused.
"I don't understand you anymore," he said almost sadly, but then a smile pulled onto his handsome face. "But that's all right, I hear I'm not meant to." With this he pulled his daughter into a firm embrace and kissed the top of her sodden head. "Can you stop being a teenager now please?" he asked softly, wheedling a laugh out of both his wife and daughter.
"I don't think it's refundable," Leshia replied and she leant her chin on her father's chest, grinning up at him.
"Pity, I liked you much better before," her father said cheerfully.
"Draco," Hermione laughed and she hit his arm fondly. "That's a horrible thing to say." But Leshia was grinning and she shrugged her response.
"Did you get in trouble for…you know, the other day?" she asked worriedly, and finally pulled away from Draco to look him in the face properly. He grinned and shrugged.
"Course not," he said happily and he slung an arm around his daughter's shoulders and his other around Hermione's waist, leading his family back to the school in the wake of the cheerful quidditch supporters. "I mean if old Mad Eye Moody…or whoever he was…could get away with performing unforgivable curses in the classroom, then I should at least be allowed to turn over a desk or two."
XXX
"So you're telling me, that the next time you're upset, I can just punch you in the mouth and you'll snap out of it?" Rachel asked with a big grin as the three best friends gathered in their usual window box, still reeling from the quidditch glory. Leshia laughed loudly and shook her head.
"No you idiot, and besides, it's not going to happen again," she said firmly. "I can't believe I let it all get on top of me. So what we can't speak parseltongue, I bet there's a way round it! And if not, then we'll have to think of another way to silence that pig once and for all."
"Oh yeah, Julius wanted me to tell you that he wants to meet up with you at four to work on the widglings," Rachel suddenly piped up. That left several hours to kill, and for once Katie didn't pressure her friends to do their homework, and instead initiated an exuberant game of wizarding chess between her friends. By the time four rolled by Leshia was positively beaming. Julius seemed to register her change in disposition with two raised eyebrows, but he managed to refrain himself from remarking on it.
"Aren't you going to congratulate me on winning?" Leshia asked as she dropped down beside the cage and peered in at Gryff and Peekie, who seemed intensely happy to see her. Socialising the two widglings had come at a cost (severely blistered fingers for one, and the sacrifice of an enormous amount of free time), but finally the two widglings had developed into almost pleasant creatures. Gryff even allowed young Julius to hold him from time to time. With only a week left till the end of term, the young man felt it was time to start saying goodbye and to start writing up their essays on the matter.
"You seem to be congratulating yourself enough for the both of us," Julius remarked lightly. Leshia wrinkled her brow at the boy as she took out her thick notebook, which held a chronology of all their successes and failures with the widglings.
"You know," she said boldly, feeling determined from her earlier win, to try and get this boy on side. "You're not like the other Slytherins." The dark haired boy turned his pale probing eyes on her, his expression cold and calculating.
"Don't presume to know me Malfoy," he said darkly.
"Well you're not, there's no point in pretending to be like them. Come on, admit it, I bet you wish you hadn't been put in that house." For a moment there was silence, in which the boy's expression darkened.
"I am what I am," he finally growled. "And that is a Slytherin. You are what you are, a Gryffindor," he continued, placing cruel emphasis on the word Gryffindor. "I may not pander to that cretin Allseyer's whims and join in with his idiotic jeering, but that doesn't make me less of a Slytherin. It is he who brings the rest of us down." Leshia glared back at the boy.
"I don't believe you," she countered. "If you were truly a Slytherin, then you'd be horrible to me, instead your…" The girl trailed off, feeling a little humiliated. It would seem she had misread Julius Black.
"No please, carry on?" the boy crowed with a cruel smile. "Did you honestly think me to be your friend Malfoy? Did you think that I had fallen in with your fan club? Don't be so vein." Leshia glared furiously at the boy.
"I'm not vein," she hissed.
"Nor am I your friend," Julius snapped. "Don't forget who your enemies are Malfoy." For the remainder of the sessions the pair worked in silence, only speaking when it concerned the widglings. As six-o clock rolled by Leshia got to her feet and packed away her notes.
"I don't think we need to have another session," she said coldly. "I've got all I need to write the report."
"I agree," Julius approved equally as coldly. Without another word Leshia turned around and left, feeling her cheeks stinging with embarrassment. How had she misread Black so badly? Back in Gryffindor Tower Katie and Rachel were in their dormitory engrossed in their Transfiguration textbooks, trying to complete the difficult homework McGonagall had set them.
"Hey Leesh, something the matter?" Rachel asked warily, had their friend already changed her mind on cheering up?
"That idiot Julius Black is the matter," Leshia grumbled and she threw her notebook down on her bed angrily, before joining the others on Katie's bed. "I tried to get him to open up and he blew up in my face. He's more Slytherin than I ever imagined! I hate him!"
XXX
The last week of school flew by with the girls spending the majority of their time writing the massively long widgling reports for Defence Against the Dark Arts. Finally the time came to make the carriage journey down to station where the Hogwarts Express was waiting to bear the pupils back to London. Leshia, Katie and Rachel, along with their dormitory friends Ashley and Nicola, claimed a carriage for themselves, and spent the majority of the journey back gossiping, while gorging themselves on sweets from the trolley. The nearer London grew, the more reclusive and sad Rachel seemed to become, until eventually she ceased talking altogether.
Finally the train pulled into Kings Cross station to by met by a wall of eager parents, excitedly awaiting the return of their children for the holidays. The girls helped each other with their various trunks and pets and soon they were weaving through happily reuniting families, trying to catch sight of their own parents. It was Katie who spotted them first.
"Mum, dad!" the girl called out happily and she took off down the platform, straight into the arms of her jubilant parents. Rachel quickly followed, and her face split into a beaming smile when she saw the happy look on her father's face. He seemed much more joyful than the last time she saw him and would soon find out why.
"Where's mum?" the redhead asked warily.
"Spain, I think," Ron said simply. Leshia was happy for the joyous look on Rachel's face and then looked around curiously for her own parents. Where on earth had they gone? As the crowds started to disperse Leshia finally caught sight of her father's iconic shorn head and she started to rush forward, only to stop dead in her tracks when she saw why her parents were delayed. Draco was listening with narrowed eyes as a short and rather bulky man berated him. At the man's side Allseyer was smirking, and Leshia could only guess that this was his father.
"That idiot," she grumbled and she started forward once more, to protect her father from the evident slating he was receiving. Before she could reach her father's side however, Hermione suddenly appeared in her path.
"Don't sweetheart, let your father deal with this," Hermione ordered her gently, and Leshia scrunched up her face in agitation, but watched anyway as Draco nodded every so often to whatever this Allseyer senior was saying. Finally Leshia heard her father say,
"As I said, if you have any complaints then you really ought to take them up with the headmaster."
"I did, and a fat lot of good that did me, you're still teaching I see," Allseyer Senior grumbled. Draco forced a cold smile onto his face.
"There's very little I can do. I suggest, instead of haranguing teachers on the platform, you ought to go through official channels to uphold your complaint." Leshia could sense the danger in her father's tone and was surprised that the little man harassing him didn't seem the slightest bit perturbed by it. This was about to change though, as Draco (evidently a purposeful way to intimidate the little man before him) pushed the sleeves of his jumper up, revealing the faded dark mark on his arm. Allseyer Senior instantly saw it and then looked to his son.
"Come on, we're going," he said angrily and led the boy away. Draco shook his head with a tired sigh, before he turned round and grinned at his family.
"Ready to go home?" he asked them.
"Hang on a sec, I've got to say goodbye!" Leshia complained, and after thrusting Philly's (her wayward cat) lead into her mother's hand, she ran back to where the others were still getting reacquainted. "I'm going now," she called to her friends, and she hugged Katie firmly.
"Try not to turn into too much a swot before I see you again," she said fondly, before she pulled back and hugged Rachel. "Remember, only a grate away," she whispered and then once more she pulled back and beamed at her friends, before she turned on heal and ran to where her parents were talking softly. They waved fondly to their friends as Leshia joined their side and then led the girl home.
XXX
Home enabled everyone in the Malfoy family to relax after the stresses of a very busy term. Hermione could get back to her two favourite things: researching new dig sites, and exploring new recipes in the kitchen. Draco enjoyed the peace of the townhouse so much more to the hassles of Hogwarts, and even though every now and then some God-awful music would waft down from Leshia's room, he couldn't have been happier – he even managed to say no to the majority of extra work the ministry always sent him whenever he returned home. Leshia loved the pace of home life and she would wile away her mornings in front of the television in the 'muggle room' and then pester her parents for attention she would inevitably be granted. Teasing Tally became a daily routine again; so much so that every time the girl left the house the old houself sighed with relief.
On the first Friday of the holiday Hermione and Draco went out for the day. They were going abroad; Hermione to research some fascinating new dig site and Draco to meet up with an old friend who was heading up the site. Leshia had been invited also, but the thought of spending the day in a dusty desert was far too much for the girl and she declined, choosing instead to spend the morning sleeping in and the afternoon in the 'muggle room' relaxing.
When noon rolled by and Leshia started to feel a bit peckish and bored of lying around, she clambered out of bed and made her way down to the kitchen to make herself a sandwich. Here she found a note from her mother:
We'll be back by nine, Tally will make you dinner, but you can fix your own lunch right darling? We've left some money for you to go into town if you like, why don't you invite Rachel and Katie, I'm sure they'd like to come.
Thinking of you
Love mum
Underneath this her father had scribbled:
Don't get into trouble
Leshia grinned and rolled her eyes, before she pushed the note away and went about making herself some food. Her parents had in fact left her quite a lot of muggle money – evidently intended for the muggle clothes shops, which served as the girls' favourite shopping locations, but for the life of her Leshia couldn't muster the energy to go.
The girl wiled away the afternoon in front of the television, contemplating getting started on a long Charms essay they had been set over the holidays. She wondered how she would get any books to help her, as she couldn't just pop down to the Hogwarts Library. This is when it occurred to her that her father's study was practically a library.
'Won't have any books I need though,' the girl thoughts fondly. 'Unless I want to do an essay on dark gifts and…' She paused mid-thought and suddenly her brain went into overdrive. Her father's books! Why hadn't she thought of it before? If ever she wanted to know anything about parseltongue then now was the time to sneak into his study and find out. With her mission set she rushed off to the hall and peered down the dark tunnel-like hallway leading to her father's study under the stairs. She absolutely hated going in there, but this was important.
So with a resigned sigh she tiptoed forward and pressed against the heavy door leading her into the dark and musty study. Books lined the floor-to-ceiling cupboards and Leshia instantly started scouring the titles. Several of the volumes looked exceedingly interesting. 'Defying death and beyond' seemed particularly good, but Leshia refrained from taking it down and instead continued searching. An hour passed, and still Leshia had had no luck. It would seem, that her father's books had only shed light on the fact that parseltongue could not be learned; it was a gift you either had or did not have. Feeling put out the girl turned to go, but this is when her eyes drifted to the papers on her father's desk.
"Oh no," she whispered when she saw her widgling report poking out from under a pile of others. Here and there red ink shone out at her from between her own words, so evidently it had been marked. Feeling wicked she stood routed to the spot, her fingers on the edge of her paper, knowing that it would be cheating to defy her father's trust and find out what mark he had given her, but wicked was in her blood; she was a Malfoy after all. So ever so gently she pulled it out from the pile and flitted through the rolls to the very last page where a large 'O' gleamed out at her.
"Yes," the girl cheered softly and she quickly replaced the reports the way she had found them and then skipped out. Feeling invigorated by her excellent mark she contacted her friends through the floo network and invited them over. They happily agreed and soon the three best friends were heading towards the muggle high street intent on spending their well-deserved pocket money on clothes galore, followed by a visit to the local snack food bar.
XXX
Over the following week Leshia was exceedingly affectionate to her father, happy that he had given her such a good mark. Ever the suspicious one Draco was curious over her intentions, but didn't complain when his daughter wanted to spend so much time with him. The amount of joyous trips down to Diagon Alley they had together made the week an incredibly happy one, but this brought Good Friday to the family, which meant that it was time to go to Ron and Lavender's cosy country house where a beautiful lunch was being prepared outside as it was such a nice day.
The Malfoys arrived in time for Hermione to help Ginny in the kitchen, and for Draco to help Harry and Ron set up the long table outside. Ron seemed uncharacteristically (as of late) happy, and Lavender's continuing absence could account for this. Rachel's many little sisters were happily playing a game of football down at the bottom of the garden with Michael, Katie's little brother, and upon Leshia's arrival the three friends joined in with the fun.
"So men?" Ron said cheerfully as his friends took the comfortable seats on the terrace at the back of the house. "What can I get you to drink?"
"I don't suppose you've got much whiskey lying about the place do you Weasley?" Draco asked with a grin.
"Why wouldn't I?"
"Oh you know," Draco said cheerfully and he shrugged his shoulders. "You're general inability to keep just one glass of the stuff down."
"Malfoy you're exaggerating," Harry joined in happily. "One glass is giving him a bit too much credit." Ron smiled sarcastically, before he rushed off to get the whiskey and prove the other two wrong.
"Oh no," Ginny groaned when Ron burst into the kitchen taking down three tumblers and going in search of a very dusty bottle of half-drunk whiskey (still left from the last time Harry and Draco had come for dinner). "Not again, why is it that every time you boys get together it turns into a who's the manliest man competition?"
"Don't know what you're talking about," Ron told his little sister haughtily.
"Did Draco put you up to this?" Hermione laughed. "Ron just ignore him, you know he's just a big bully."
"Look what's the problem with a man enjoying a glass of whiskey on a glorious day?" Ron countered with a big grin. "This is my house, so if you don't like it you can get out." After on last cheeky grin the redhead scarpered once more leaving Ginny and Hermione laughing fondly, so happy that Ron had reverted back to normal in Lavender's absence.
The men had barely managed a sip when suddenly the children down at the bottom of the garden started screaming. Nerves still on edge from the days of the war, the men were on their feet in moments and they ran down to the bottom of the garden, instantly to be surrounded by their panicked children.
"What's wrong?" Ron asked one of his many daughters.
"It's a snake daddy," little Ria, Rachel's eight-year-old sister exclaimed wildly and she pointed over to where a small grass snake was winding its way innocently through the grass.
"What that little thing?" Harry laughed. "It's not going to hurt you," he assured the children, but they were watching him with wide eyes.
"It can still bite," Leshia complained from Draco's side, who she promptly poked in the side when he snorted derisively at her cowardice.
"Okay, I'll get rid of it," Harry chuckled and he stepped forward and crouched down in front of the snake. What came next seemed entirely strange to the children as Harry opened his mouth to speak, but the strange hissing sounds of a snake escaped instead.
Katie looked surprised by her father's sudden parseltongue speech as she always did. Rachel looked a little disgruntled, feeling uneasy with the sound of the snake language. Leshia however, had adopted her calculating expression and her eyes were narrowed in thought, before she looked to Rachel significantly.
"What?" Rachel mouthed. Leshia however, kept silent until the dads had returned to their drinks, the grass snake happily on its way away from the frightened children. As soon as the football game resumed Rachel and Katie turned on their shorter blonde friend.
"Is there a reason you glared at me just now?" Rachel asked amusedly.
"I didn't glare at you you muppet," Leshia chuckled. "I was just thinking, do you still have your speech stealer?"
"Yeah, why?" Rachel asked with a furrowed brow.
"Leesh that's brilliant!" Katie suddenly exclaimed. "I wonder if it would work."
"Am I missing something here?" the redhead interrupted with a frown, but then it slowly dawned on her what had her friends so excited. "Oh! You want to see if it can steal parseltongue don't you?" Leshia nodded fervently, before the three best friends ran back towards the house and up to Rachel's entirely messy room. It was a wonder the redhead knew where any of her possessions were at any one time, but she knew exactly where to find the speech stealer she had received for Christmas. It lay under a pile of old books and magazines; along with a few other discarded Christmas things the girl had forgotten to take with her to Hogwarts in January.
"Great, now all we need is to make your dad speak parseltongue, and then we're all set," Leshia crowed happily and she flopped back on Rachel's bed feeling as though she were as high as a kite. They had the key they needed to break into the chamber of secrets. Allseyer was going to get his comeuppance.
XXX
Getting Harry to speak parseltongue though was harder than the girls had imagined. He refused to speak it for the girls when they requested it later at lunch, and their many attempts to fool him into thinking a snake had attacked them again went unheeded and disbelieved. By the time midnight drew by after the glorious afternoon and evening the girls were adamant to meet up over the next day to concoct a plan. As soon as Leshia climbed out of the grate back at home Draco, who had gone first, turned on her with crossed arms.
"So you, are you going to tell me what sort of trouble you're brewing, or do we have to go through the whole me having to find out what it is palaver first? Either way I'm going to find out eventually, so can't you just spare me the hassle?" he told her looking amused and yet also slightly warning.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Leshia said lightly and she headed off for the stairs with Draco in pursuit.
"Oh yes you do," he called after her. "You forget, I've spent the last thirteen years inadvertently turning you into me, so I know when you're planning something devious."
"Dad come off it, there's nothing devious going on," Leshia complained and it was into this somewhat-argument that Hermione materialised in the grate. The sounds of her family's voices wafted in from the hall.
"You and I differ on the meaning of devious," Draco countered.
"Oh no," Hermione sighed and she rushed out and stood between her husband and daughter. "No you don't," she told them. "We've just had a lovely evening and you're not going to ruin it. You, up to bed," she told her daughter, before turning on her husband. "And you, in the kitchen, you need to help me fix the stove before everyone comes round tomorrow."
"We'll finish this in the morning," Draco called after their daughter's fast retreating back. Hermione grinned and shook her head.
"No you won't," she countered and she led her husband through to the kitchen. "Just let it go Draco, you know what she's doing. You're the one that encouraged her to do it in the first place."
XXX
The following day Leshia woke early to the sounds of Hermione hard at work in the kitchen. After yawning dramatically, the young girl changed and then rushed downstairs to see if she could help prepare for lunch, when everyone would be descending on their back garden for a repeat of yesterday's performance.
"Good morning darling," Hermione called brightly to her daughter.
"Good morning, can I help?" Leshia asked eagerly and she picked up the knife that lay on the chopping board, ready to be granted a task to be done. Hermione beamed at her.
"You can chop the onions if you want?" Leshia quickly got to work, but within moments her sensitive eyes started to water due to the potency of the chopped onions. Hermione only noticed when her daughter made a loud sniff. "Oh look at you," Hermione laughed fondly. "You're as bad as your father, come here." Lovingly Hermione tilted her daughter's head up and she took out her wand. "Finis fleo." Instantly Leshia's tears dried up and she was able to continue with her task unhindered. After an hour's hard work Draco followed his nose through to the kitchen from his study where he had been marking some seventh years' work.
"Smells good ladies," he called to them. "Any chance of a taster?"
"No," Hermione beamed at him. "You're going to have to wait with the rest of them." Draco grinned at her.
"Oh I see, so that's how it's going to be, well in that case, I'm stealing this one," he said indicating Leshia. "Come on trouble, I need your help with something." Leshia shrugged apologetically at her mother, but then wiped her hands and rushed after her father.
"What are we doing?" Leshia asked eagerly.
"We're going into town," her father replied. "To pick up something for your mother." Leshia happily obliged and soon father and daughter had reached Diagon Alley.
"Exactly what are we picking up for mum?"
"You'll see," Draco told her cheerfully and he led his daughter through the busy Saturday crowds to a small chocolatier named Madam Mavis' Marvellous Creations. The tiny shop was packed full of customers eagerly buying the beautiful chocolate creations Madam Mavis had crafted for Easter. Leshia took a particular shine to the little family of yellow chicks, which were enchanted to hop around adorably. The girl loved them so much Draco allowed her to get them for her mother for the following Easter Sunday celebrations.
"Good morning, how may I help you?" Madam Mavis asked as Draco reached the front of the queue finally with Leshia at his side, greedily eyeing up the beautiful assortment of chocolate on the counter.
"I put in an order last week, under the name Malfoy?"
"Ah yes, one moment," Madam Mavis told him jubilantly and she rushed off to collect this mysterious order.
"Leesh," Draco laughed when he saw his daughter reached out to one of the delicious looking sweets on the counter. "Don't touch anything." The girl still didn't seem to want to heed him, so he reached out and pulled her hand back. Within moments Madam Mavis was back and she place a large box on the counter.
"Anything else?" she enquired.
"Yes, these and also one of those bags of hunting eggs," he told the lady, indicating behind her to a row trays containing bags of chocolate eggs specifically created for Easter egg hunts, as they were enchanted to wriggle around moving from one hidden location to the next.
"And," Draco said with a smile. "A bag of these, if it's not too much trouble?" he asked indicating the chocolates Leshia had been eyeing up since he'd brought her to the counter. Ten minutes later and they were heading home, Leshia chewing on one of her chocolates gleefully.
"Don't tell your mother, she'll kill me for ruining your appetite," Draco told his daughter fondly.
"I won't," Leshia's muffled reply came. By the time Draco and Leshia returned home the other families had arrived, and whereas most of the children were enjoying the sunshine in the garden, Leshia found her best friends in her room.
"We've figured it out Leesh!" Rachel exclaimed happily as Leshia walked in.
"What?"
"The way to make my dad speak parseltongue."
XXX
And what a magnificent, yet simple plan it was. All it required was a distraction, and that Leshia was very able to deliver. So the girls waited up in Leshia's room, happily chatting and pouring over magazines, until finally they were called down for lunch. Once more the glorious sunshine ensured that they were eating outside, which only furthered to advantage the girls' plan. Everyone seemed in high spirits as they gorged on Hermione's beautiful cooking.
On cue, as everyone was taking a rest from eating between courses Leshia gathered everyone's attention by screaming loudly and pointing at the middle of the table shouting snake. This in turn created a cascading effect as Rachel joined in, prompting her little sisters to scream also. All this allowed Katie to quietly whisper,
"Serpensortia." And as she had pointed under her napkin nobody saw her conjure up a small adder. The snake darted from under her napkin and onto the table where Leshia was pointing.
"How did that get there?" Hermione gasped, but Harry was already on his feet and making his way down the table. He opened his mouth to speak, but once more, the strange mixed hissing of parseltongue met everyone's ears. The snake was powerless to obey him and soon it had been released in the undergrowth, with the direct instructions to leave the diners in peace. The girls allowed the chatter to continue, before both Leshia and Katie looked to Rachel expectantly. She nodded with a small smile to let them know she had recorded the parseltongue, before she dug into the beautiful pie Hermione had crafted. Leshia helped her mother clear the plates away many hours later, while her friends disappeared upstairs.
"How did the snake get on the table?" Hermione asked her daughter innocently, though her eyebrows were raised in curiosity. Leshia frowned.
"I don't know, maybe one of the kids was playing a joke," she suggested.
"I don't suppose you had anything to do with it?"
"Of course she did," Draco's voice came from behind them, and Leshia spun around to find her father looking at her with eyes narrowed in thought. "What I can't figure out is why."
"Innocent until proven guilty dad," Leshia chirruped happily.
"In your case my dearest, I would say it's the other way round," Draco countered fondly. Leshia grinned at him, before she turned on her mother.
"Can I go now?" she asked happily.
"Yes of course darling." So after skirting round her father, Leshia careened up to her room to find her friends were positively beaming with glee.
"No way," Leshia gasped and she dropped down beside them on the bed. Rachel opened her mouth to speak, but as Harry had done down on the patio, the strangest snake language escaped her mouth. "It works! I can't believe it! Oh this is too good. When we get back to school Damian Allseyer is going to wish he'd never heard the name Leshia Malfoy."
XXXXXXXXXX
END OF PART VI
Thanks for the reviews everybody! Keep up the good work. Sorry this chapter isn't quite 31 pages long, merely 29. Don't know why that bothers me, but hey. Anyway, hope you enjoyed.
Thanks BornBlue, I corrected the Katie/Rachel thing in the last chapter
Anyway, PLEASE review! I get a little desperate when I spend hours writing and the response is sort of 'meh', I mean enough people are reading! Get off your butts and hit the review button, come on give a little as well as taking
