Chapter 5
Later found them seated in one of the previously unused lower dungeon classrooms. A fire crackled in a raised bowl to take the chill and damp off with the smoke magically dissipating. Instead of the torches, like in Snape's classroom, there were bunches of candles floating by the walls. The desks lined these walls and there was an open expanse of about 15ft in the middle of the room. On the far wall from the door, sat the teacher's desk, and behind it, a floor to ceiling assortment of cages in the shape of a pyramid. Some cages were opaque, some clear but most were just barred and inside these cages was nothing at all. Seeing no teacher present, it was only five to, the class chattered amongst themselves about the possibilities of this teacher.
Talking stopped once all the candles extinguished as one and the gasps subsided. Then as quickly as they went out, the candles burned again and blinking against the light, the students could make out a figure now sitting at the teacher's desk. This figure stood and walked to the middle of the expanse and make quick work of assessing them.
"I see my little test has fazed not one, but all of you!" she barked. "I know you have had an assortment of Professors, but this is shameful! I could have killed you all."
Eyeing the asssortment of students from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw near the door, and then Slytherins on one side of the room and Gryffindors on the other, she snorted. "How the bloody hell do you expect to survive this war if you cannot even stand one another! The Headmistress assured me that you lot would exceed my expectations, but so far, I have yet to see her point. Clearly I am wasting my time if not one of you even thought to utter 'Lumos'!" she retreated to her table in disgust and began to tap her fingers with gusto. "Get out." she cooly stated, "I will not teach a bunch of snivelling brats with no brains nor willingness to learn! Class dismissed, Get out!"
Confused, the students slowly began to collect their things, all except Hermione, Harry, Ron and surprisingly, Pansy.
Hermione strode to the desk and hissed, "When did we show you that we were unwilling to learn! If you don't teach us, it will be on your conscience if even one of these students dies!"
The woman looked up with a blank stare and stated without emotion, "And what conscience is that girl."
"You cold, heartless, coward! It's not that we can't learn, it's that you can't teach!" she shouted. Everyone froze and stared with new interest at their Head Girl. Harry and Ron began to pick their way forward trying to get to their mental friend and minimize the damage.
"Impress me then, Granger." The woman commanded and seeing the look of surprise on Hermione's face, she continued, "I thought as much, only you would stand up for learning in such a manner, Miss Granger. Your repuation seems to have preceded you in this instance. But if you are the brightest witch in your year, go ahead, impress me."
In a huff, Hermione began to walk away, when she heard the woman mutter, "I thought so."
Enraged, she tore around, pulled her wand and did the one spell that her examinators had been impressed with, "Patronus!" The familiar silver mist poured from her wand and an otter began swimming in the air between her and her professor.
The woman began to clap slowly before standing, and barking to all of them, "Take your seats! You may thank Miss Granger later, but I dearly hope, for your sakes, that you will display the same amount of dedication that she has shown here today."
Holding her hands behind her back she commanded, "Take out your quills and parchment, we have a lot to cover, and I do not use a blackboard, and nor will I allow any of my instruction to go to waste by not taking your own notes! Now, I am Professor Bradshaw, and as you can see I have little tolerance for wastes of my time. I do tend to have a flare for the dramatic but this does not concern you. First we must get rid of this...separation amongst the students. I want everyone in each house to move. Every other student must be of a different house. Begin!" No one made to move, "I thought I said, Move!" A flurry of hands grabbing parchment and chairs being thrown backwards ensued.
Turning back around she saw that her instructions had been followed, she continued, "I will teach you every day at this time, and I detest tardiness! In my experience, Defence is made up of three parts, Magical, Mental and Physical. Any weakness in these three areas is a hole in your defence and any holes can and will be manipulated by the enemy. In this room, you will practice in all areas until I am satisfied. You will upon entering this room, no longer be Slytherins, Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws and Gryffindors but simply students with a common goal. This is a NEWT's class and I expect nothing less than advanced students, I will not be told by anyone of you at anytime that you cannot do this. You can and you will or get out. It's as simple as that, either you are here and you fight for a chance to defend your life or you are out there waiting to die, it is your choice, I cannot make such a decision for you nor will I promise that just because I have taught you, you will not die. This is war, people die, there is no lies about glory and dying for the light coming from my mouth. Death is not glorious by any stretch of the imagination. So do not expect me to tell you that to die at the hands of Death Eaters or Lord Voldemort is a proud death" Here everyone, with the exception of Harry and Hermione, gasped and cringed. "How can you be so afraid of a name? A name that you have never met the person behind? Have any of you been tortured to the point of death for something? A location? A secret? Since you are all standing here before me today, whole and healthy, I do not think this is so. I digress, what happens in this room will stay here, if I transfigure you into a bloody cockroach or command you under imperious, so be it. All I can say is I wouldn't be here if the Headmistress didn't trust me or if your current state of affairs didn't call for dire measures to be taken. I do not expect all of you to make it to the end of the year, on the contrary I expect this class to be empty by half this time tomorrow. The students who persevere and make it to exams are the ones who truly wish to live. That is all for today, Good night." And with that she glided out of the room and it erupted in chatter behind her.
"What the bloody hell was all that?' erupted Ron. "Have you gone mental? You've never yelled at a teacher like that before! Well...except for Divination that one time."
"Was one word I said not true?" asked Hermione a little angrily. "It was all true, every word and she deserved what she got!"
"C'mon Hermione...Ron, lets go to the common room, you haven't been up there yet all year 'Mione!" chastised Harry.
"Okay, anyone up for exploding snap?" asked Ron and everyone laughed.
Days pasted by in quick succession full of classes, homework and organizing prefect patrols. Each night she would watch her marble block and see who was out and about after hours. She didn't fail to notice two dots, very close together, in old classrooms near Gryffindor tower, one labelled Lavender and one labelled Ron.
Soon it was her birthday, and, being a Saturday, a party was thrown in the common room for her. Dobby out did himself in cakes of every flavour, snacks of every type and drinks of every description. She even received presents from the teachers, and funny enough, a majority of these were books covering just about every subject, from A Thousand and One Hair Spells from Lavender, to A History of Extraordinary Magical Mishaps in the Ministry from Luna. Each of these came to be stored in her bookcase and she even tried a few new spells.
It was two nights after her birthday that it happened again, a dream about the blonde lady. Afterwards she woke to the feeling of such remembered grief that she couldn't sleep the rest of the night.
It had started with black nothingness, and then the dark began taking on shapes. A sharp pain was in her back and chest and she didn't know why. Putting a hand against the rough dirt floor she was currently laying on, she slowly pushed herself up causing starbursts to explode in her vision. This certainly felt very real, the coarse fabric of her dress, the tangles in her hair and the chill in the air because the door was open and the fire in the pit had long since burned out. Sliding up a wooden beam, she came to stand and survey the scene before her. A rough-hewn table and three chairs had been over turned, the door hung off its hinges and snow blustered inside the small clay and wooden structure. Straw pallets lay to one side of the room, a cauldron sat in the fireplace, skinned rabbits, herbs and pottery hung from the beams holding the straw roof up.
Confused, she took a step forward, stumbled and fell again. Getting up and feeling a little sturdier this time she looked back to see what she had stepped on. It was a dainty, leather clad foot. Gripping the beam for support, she hestitantly peered around it. What she saw made her sink to the ground and get violently sick.
The foot was attached to a pale leg, which was half covered by a blood soaked skirt. The body was ripped and slashed about the abdomen, and only the abdomen. The arms were bent at awkward angles and the face was staring at her in the throes of an unheard scream of terror. The same blonde hair that she wore adorned this poor soul, but this girl was older and had darker features than hers. By the look of the stomach and fit of the dress, she looked like she was pregnant, but because of the mutilation, she couldn't be sure. Startled she peered around looking for another corpse, maybe that of a baby, to no avail. If whoever this woman was, was indeed pregnant, the baby was gone, dead or alive she could not know.
Unsure of what to do she went to the mantle, where a single book lay. A bible, and curiously, she looked to see what names appeared there to put a name to a face.
Bestowed upon the union of Gregory and Adelaide Hamilton, by Father Tatum
Adelaide (Channing) Hamilton b. March 16th 922 AD
m.Gregory Hamilton July 21st 941 AD
d.
Gregory Hamilton b. April 2nd 917 AD
m1. Natasha Bynes September 7th 938 AD (August 5th 939 AD)
m2. Adelaide Channing July 21st 941 AD
d. May 19th 947
Cassandra (Hamilton) Stykes b. August 4th 939 AD
m. Thomas Stykes June 8th 959 AD (January 17th 961 AD)
d.
Gwyneth (Hamilton)b. July 30th 944 AD.
m.
d.
'I wonder who she is?' wondered Hermione, 'And for that matter, who the bloody hell am I?' Frustrated at her lack of knowledge and current situation, she hurled the book at the wall. 'What am I going to do with this body?' Her wand was no where to be found, and the cold was starting to numb her arms, having woken up with numb fingers.
"Gwen?" a shocked voice said from the door. There stood a woman with dirty blonde hair, brown eyes and age lines evident on her face. "What hast occured?"
"What?" said a confused Hermione, if she was 'Gwen' then the body must be 'Cassandra'? This could be very very bad, particularily if this woman thought she had commited the act.
"Thy sister? What hast occured! Gwenyth, hast the crow plucked out thy tongue? Speak girl!" Called this woman, striding forward and shaking her almost a little too violently. Her aching head began to throb and she slumped to the ground and vomited. The woman had released her because she had caught sight of the body. With a cry she flung herself down beside it and began cradling it, "Cassie, speak girl, mama's here! Open thy eyes!"