Chapter ten:
"Now, Harry." I said as we struggled to get to our classes the next Monday morning, "We've got our first lesson tonight. And I swear, if you forget-
"You mean if you forget."
I scowled, "Why would I forget?"
"What were we talking about again?"
I threw my potions book at his head, "Harry Potter!" I yelled, ducking the Charms book that had made it's way towards my head.
The sound of a large door sweeping closed rang in our ears, and we hurriedly picked up our books and ran the rest of the way down the hallway to catch up with our friends.
"Tabitha!" Ginny yelled from behind me. "Where are you going?"
I looked at her, then turned to Harry.
Oh.
I don't have potions first.
I ran towards Ginny, quickly swooping into the Muggle Studies. I loved this class. I excelled exceptionally in it.
"Ms. Weasley. Ms. Kibby. Glad you could join us."
From the back of the room, I could tell that the teacher in front was defiantly not Professor Averies.
As I sat, Ginny gulped.
"Professor Sinistra" She whispered, her face twitching in pain.
"Ms. Weasley. You're already late. I DO expect you to behave, at least while I'm acting teacher."
"Didn't know she could act." A ravenclaw retorted, and the rest of us snickered.
She sighed, fell into her chair, and propped her feet up on the table.
"You lot, whatever. Just… don't wake me up." She said, promptly falling asleep, head falling back.
Ginny giggled, "She's certainly a vampire. She's a strict as Mum at midnight."
I groaned, remembering my first astronomy class last week.
"how will I do it?" I asked Ginny. "I'll fall asleep. She makes up lay down! Of COURSE I'll fall asleep!"
Ginny and I spent the rest of the period chatting, right up until a ravenclaw came up to us and tapped my shoulder.
"You're the new girl, right? From the states?"
I nodded, trying to make my face say 'I'm not interested' as much as possible without being rude.
He smiled, flipping his brown hair to the side of his forehead.
"Stewart Ackerley. You've probably heard of me, being co-captain of our Quidditch team and all."
I raised my eyebrows, "The what?"
He stumbled, "The Quidditch team .You know… the…broom...Are you telling me you've never heard of Quidditch before?"
I shook my head, leaning my head forward, so it was barely 5 inches away. "Tell me about it." I said in a sultry voice. I felt Ginny shaking.
He smiled the smile he seemed to think was sexy. Ha.
"Well, there are three goals, right? At each end. There's a seeker, keeper, 2 beaters, and 3 chasers."
"Really." I said, trying to sound interested.
He nodded, and continued. "The seeker chases a golden snitch. The chasers fly around, trying to get a ball called the quaffle into the other team's three goals. The keeper protects the goals, trying not to let them in. That's pretty much it. The most famous game in history."
I smiled. "Maybe you can teach me, someday. You know… let me get a feel for the game?" I asked, slowly inching closer. I glanced at the clock. Perfect.
He smiled, "Maybe I could teach you right now." He inched closer, angling his face…
Just as the bell rang.
I am soooo smooth.
I stood up, giving the guy a puppy dog pout as Ginny dragged me into the hallway, shaking with laughter.
"You are so going straight to hell." She said finally.
I shook my head.
I turned around to see Ron running up the hallway, just as the Stewart guy was coming out the door.
I grabbed Ron's tie when he stopped in front of me, and pulled him in for a bit of PDA. I was hoping for a whole heck of a lot of it.
I kept watch on the Stewart guy out of the corner of my eye. His jaw was lying on his chest, and his books were splattered on the ground. Boy, was he angry.
"Hey!" He yelled at Ron, pulling the back of his robes. "What do you think your doing?"
Ron pulled me close, obviously confused. "Kissing my girlfriend. Is there a problem with that?"
"You're girlfriend?" he spat, looking eerily at me.
Ron nodded, and took my hand, leading me up to the staircase.
When we were climbing the second set, he turned to Ginny and I. "What was that all about?"
Ginny tripped over the next stair. I assumed the giggles had taken over.
"He umm.. was flirting with me during class. So, I decided to give him a little kick in the butt."
Ginny sat up, grinning at me, "She flirted, THEN kissed you. God Ron, you sure are lucky. I swear, it was like she was some kind of Scandinavian seductress or something."
Ron raised an eyebrow and helped Ginny up. "Alright then."
Ginny continued, "It was Mum's worst nightmare. A 16 year old scarlet woman."
I laughed, familiar with the old phrase, "Your mum still uses that phrase?" I asked, not too surprised.
Ginny rolled her eyes, "Merlin's black lace underwear yes! It's the most annoying thing on earth."
Ron agreed.
It was nearing eleven, and Ron and I were having our nightly chat in the common room.
Ron turned me around in his lap to face him. "So now I have a scarlet woman?" He asked, kissing my forehead.
"Of course. The best for the best."
He grinned, trailing kisses down my throat and onto the top of my chest.
We were well into a compromising situation when Professor McGonagall burst through the portrait hole, followed by Professor Dumbledore, and Snape.
I'm betting they had been there for awhile when Ron and I finally heard them whispering.
I shot up off the couch, which wouldn't have been a bad idea, but seeing that Ron was on top of me made it a horrible one.
"As much as we'd like to let you continue your…ah…plans. We have some urgent business we need your opinion in." Professor Dumbledore chided.
I groaned, hoping it was something like knitting patterns.
Professor McGonagall strode to the stairwell, on her way to get Ginny and Hermione I suppose.
Then I thought.
"Uh…Professor? I'll go get them for you." I offered, running to stand beside her.
"Oh, I'll go get them. The Professors need to fill you in on whats-
I shook my head, "Well, at least let me go get Ginny."
She raised an eyebrow, "They have the same dorm, Ms.Kibby, I assure you that I'm able to get them."
I shook my head once again, "Professor, I promise you. You want me to go get Ginny."
She sighed, looked from me to Ron, to me again and nodded, "Fine. Go get Ginny."
I could only imagine the expression on her face when I bounded up the boy's stairwell.
"Harry! Ginny!" I whispered, pulling open Harry's curtains.
If the sight I saw before me was anything like the sight Ron and I had created, I pitied my Professors greatly. I wasn't embarrassed though. I didn't know they'd be running in at midnight.
I closed my eyes and turned around while they tried to make themselves presentable.
"The professors are downstairs waiting. Hurry up."
I walked out of the room, and ran into Hermione on the landing. She grinned.
"Now you know what it feels like, having to get those two up."
I nodded, wanting desperately to get the sight out of my vision.
Ten minutes later, we were all seated in Dumbledore's office.
"The Death Eaters are approaching." He said, quite plainly.
"I expect to battle before Wednesday. I've alerted Charlie with the dragons, Hagrid with the creatures, and everyone else. They'll all be arriving tomorrow." He then turned to Harry and I, "You two will be training with Tonks from five a.m. in the morning, until tomorrow night. the rest of you will be with Moody. You've only had 5 lessons so far. I know that will barely be enough." He turned to me, "Tabitha, are you going to be alright with this?"
I nodded, "You can't help when they come. I wouldn't be 'alright' with this any ways. But It's not like you can help when they plan to attack."
He smiled, patting my hand.
When we left, we were all given potions. "To make us feel rested." when we woke up 4 fours later.
On four hours of sleep, I wasn't sure that I'd ever feel rested again.
And boy, was I wrong.
I woke up feeling stronger than ever.
Meeting Tonks in the Room of Requirement at Five was not on my to do list. She was a very good substitute to black coffee. Her bright pink hair was enough to wake anyone up.
We worked until Lunch. It was awful. My mind was spinning with names and meanings of new spells, charms, curses, defensive strategies. Harry had dark bags under his eyes, and I was sure I looked the same. Ron, Ginny, and Hermione were all late to lunch. They didn't have bags under their eyes, but they were slumped over and took forever to actually get to the table. I leaned against Ron's arm, shutting my eyes closed against the light.
He pushed me back up into a sitting position. "You need to eat love." The rest of them quickly agreed.
I shook my head, "Sleep would be better."
Harry shook his head, "Don't go to sleep. You'll feel worse when you wake up. Just eat. You'll feel better."
By the end of lunch, I had downed 3 helpings of potatoes, 2 chicken breasts, 2 slices of bread, and some kind of fruit salad.
Ron smiled and kissed my hand "I told you you were hungry."
I nodded, and proceeded to fall asleep sitting up.
I woke up as I was being shuffled out of the Great Hall.
"Come on." Harry prodded, helping me up the stairs, "Just a couple more hours to go."
"Harry James Potter you are a complete liar." I grunted, wiping sleep boogers from my eyes.
He smiled, "Sorry."
"Tabitha! Come on now! Harry's just moved to his left! What are you doing?"
"I'm moving to the right." I mumbled.
"Well then? MOVE TO YOUR RIGHT!" She yelled.
"I'M MOVING, YOU JUST CAN'T TELL!" I said, matching her tone.
"Listen, chick, one wrong move when we're actually out there and-
Yeah yeah yeah.
I had gotten used to tuning Tonks out.
"listen," Harry whispered when Tonks wasn't looking, "We only have another hour until she has to let us go. Make it until then, and I'll carry you up to the Gryffindor tower. Please Tabby, just come on. Don't make it any harder."
I started to feel guilty. Harry was tired too, why was I being such a pain?
I nodded, whispering a faint "sorry." As he squeezed my arm.
Turns out, Harry didn't have to carry me up to the tower.
The door swung open at a quarter to eight, and in came Ron, Ginny, Hermione, Neville, and Luna. Moody followed them, but I was surprised when Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnigan, Padma Patil, and Hannah Abbot followed. They looked as tired as the rest of them, and I figured they'd been practicing all day, too.
Tonks sighed, "Are we ready, Moody?"
Moody nodded, and everyone got in place. They were in a circle around us.
Harry and I backed up to each other, and got ready for whatever was coming our way.
Moody and Tonks immediately started shooting spells at us, which most of them were deflected by our human shields, but one or two made their way to Harry or I. We walked back and forth across the room as the circle around us tightened and slowly turned. After 30 minutes or so of doing that, suddenly a small wand-like thing floated beside moody. This is what me and Harry were here for.
"Advada Kerbani!" it cried, mocking the killing curse.
A green light shot towards us, and out circle broke apart, still defending Harry and I, but in a different formation.
Harry and I threw the curse we had been practicing for over an hour.
"Intereo nex of mille nex. Effluo in sepulchrum!" Harry and I cried, and the thing exploded.
Moody and Tonks nodded, signaling us to relax. But with a final curse, expecting to catch us off guard, I ducked, and Harry quickly reflected it with a simple wave of his wand.
Tonks smiled, and Moody clapped, as Harry and I promptly fainted.
We were levitated back to our dorms, and placed in bed. In the morning, though, was a whole other world.
We were up at the crack of dawn. The attack was to be placed on Hogwarts ground.
French, German, and American witches and wizards had flown in, completing My and Harry's plans.
By eight in the morning, everyone was in place, and not a sound was made. Even the dragons were silent, waiting for their cue.
There were loads of potions bottled up, just inside the Hogwarts doors.
We were all dressed in white.
Blood stains white.
I was kissing Ron furiously, clinging to Ginny and Harry, and holding on to Hermione for dear life. I had talked to Kaelei and Sadie that morning. They would be looking out for me on the battle field.
Most of the Hogwarts students had enlisted to help. A sign up sheet hadn't even been placed in the Slytherin common room. We all knew where they would be on that day.
Harry, Ron, Ginny, Hermione, and I marched down the hill to the Quidditch Pitch with pride. We all had tears streaming down our face, but smiles adorned them anyways. We had to be strong. Beside Dumbledore, we were the hope of the people surrounding us.
Even though I tremble,
You're always by my side
Even though I make mistakes,
You're my never-failing aide
You're my wonderful
My through and through
I don't know what I'd do
Without you
That poem was one I wrote last week. So, I own it. No stealie, alright?
Okay guys… we're up to bat.
The next one will be up soon.
I've re-read this last bit over and over, and I don't know what it is about it, but it makes me have goose bumps. I haven't even gone into detail about it, yet. Maybe it's just because I know what's coming. I mean, yeah, we all know what's coming. But I'm throwing a few surprises in there.
