Chapter 8: Double, Double Toil and Trouble
October 9, 1991
The morning dawned very bright and cold. At breakfast the Great Hall was full of the delicious smell of fried sausages and the cheerful chatter of everyone looking forward to a good Quidditch match.
"Buffy! Harry! Dawn!"
Buffy, Dawn and Harry turned at the sound of their names and saw Joyce walking toward them.
"Mom," Dawn said as she jumped up and ran to Joyce, who wrapped her arms around Dawn.
Buffy, Harry and Dawn had written to Joyce to let her know that Harry was on the Quidditch team. Joyce had written back to tell them she would come to the first match.
"Harry, Buffy," Joyce said as she sat with Dawn at the table.
"Hi, Aunt Joyce," Harry said as he hugged the woman.
"Hi," Buffy said as she too hugged Joyce.
"Still trying to figure out what to call me I see," Joyce said as she returned Buffy's embrace. "That's all right, Buffy. As I said in my first letter. Take your time. It doesn't matter to me either way. You will always be my daughter, even if you are actually my niece."
By eleven o'clock the whole school seemed to be out in the stands around the Quidditch pitch. Many students had binoculars. The seats might be raised high in the air, but it was still difficult to see what was going on sometimes.
Willow, Ron and Hermione joined Buffy, Dawn and Joyce up in the top row.
The Gryffindor team came out of the locker room and walked onto the field to loud cheers.
Madam Hooch was refereeing. She stood in the middle of the field waiting for the two teams, her broom in her hand. "Now, I want a nice fair game, all of you," she said, once they were all gathered around her. "Mount your brooms, please."
Harry clambered onto his Nimbus Two Thousand.
Madam Hooch gave a loud blast on her silver whistle.
Fifteen brooms rose up, high, high into the air. They were off.
"And the Quaffle is taken immediately by Angelina Johnson of Gryffindor—what an excellent Chaser that girl is, and rather attractive, too—"
"JORDAN!"
"Sorry, Professor."
The Weasley twins' friend, Lee Jordan, was doing the commentary for the match, closely watched by McGonagall.
"And she's really belting along up there, a neat pass to Alicia Spinnet, a good find of Oliver Wood's, last year only a reserve—back to Johnson and—no, the Slytherins have taken the Quaffle, Slytherin Captain Marcus Flint gains the Quaffle and off he goes—Flint flying like an eagle up there—he's going to sc—no, stopped by an excellent move by Gryffindor Keeper Wood and the Gryffindors take the Quaffle—that's Chaser Katie Bell of Gryffindor there, nice dive around Flint, off up the field and—OUCH—that must have hurt, hit in the back of the head by a Bludger—Quaffle taken by the Slytherins—that's Adrian Pucey speeding off toward the goal posts, but he's blocked by a second Bludger—sent his way by Fred or George Weasley, can't tell which—nice play by the Gryffindor Beater, anyway, and Johnson back in possession of the Quaffle, a clear field ahead and off she goes—she's really flying—dodges a speeding Bludger—the goal posts are ahead—come on, now, Angelina—Keeper Bletchley dives—misses—GRYFFINDORS SCORE!"
Gryffindor cheers filled the cold air, with howls and moans from the Slytherins.
"Budge up there, move along."
Way up above his family, Harry was gliding over the game, squinting about for some sign of the Snitch. Once he caught sight of a flash of gold, but it was just a reflection from one of the Weasleys' wristwatches, and once a Bludger decided to come pelting his way, more like a cannonball than anything, but Harry dodged it and Fred Weasley came chasing after it.
"All right there, Harry?" he had time to yell, as he beat the Bludger furiously toward Marcus Flint.
"Slytherin in possession," Lee Jordan was saying, "Chaser Pucey ducks two Bludgers, two Weasleys, and Chaser Bell, and speeds toward the—wait a moment—was that the Snitch?"
A murmur ran through the crowd as Adrian Pucey dropped the Quaffle, too busy looking over his shoulder at the flash of gold that had passed his left ear.
Harry saw it. In a great rush of excitement, he dived downward after the streak of gold. Slytherin Seeker Terence Higgs had seen it, too. Neck and neck they hurtled toward the Snitch—all the Chasers seemed to have forgotten what they were supposed to be doing as they hung in midair to watch.
Harry was faster than Higgs—he could see the little round ball, wings fluttering, darting up ahead—he put on an extra spurt of speed—WHAM! A roar of rage echoed from the Gryffindors below—Marcus Flint had blocked Harry on purpose, and Harry's broom spun off course, Harry holding on for dear life.
"No," Buffy screamed. She felt Joyce's arms wrap around her.
Madam Hooch spoke angrily to Flint and then ordered a free shot at the goal posts for Gryffindor. But in all the confusion, of course, the Golden Snitch had disappeared from sight again.
Lee Jordan was finding it difficult not to take sides. "So—after that obvious and disgusting bit of cheating—"
"Jordan!" growled McGonagall.
"I mean, after that open and revolting foul—"
"Jordan, I'm warning you—"
"All right, all right. Flint nearly kills the Gryffindor Seeker, which could happen to anyone, I'm sure, so a penalty to Gryffindor, taken by Spinnet, who puts it away, no trouble, and we continue play, Gryffindor still in possession."
It was as Harry dodged another Bludger, which went spinning dangerously past his head, that it happened. His broom gave a sudden, frightening lurch. For a split second, he thought he was going to fall. He gripped the broom tightly with both his hands and knees. He'd never felt anything like that.
Suddenly it was as though the broom was trying to buck him off. But Nimbus Two Thousands did not suddenly decide to buck their riders off. Harry tried to turn back toward the Gryffindor goal posts—he had half a mind to ask Wood to call time-out—and then he realized that his broom was completely out of his control. He couldn't turn it. He couldn't direct it at all.
"What's wrong with Harry's broom?" Dawn asked as she, Buffy, Joyce, Ron, Willow and Hermione turned to look at Harry. They saw that Harry's broom was zigzagging through the air, and every now and then making violent swishing movements that almost unseated him.
Lee was still commentating. "Slytherin in possession—Flint with the Quaffle—passes Spinnet—passes Bell—hit hard in the face by a Bludger, hope it broke his nose—only joking, Professor—Slytherins score—oh no…"
The Slytherins were cheering. The only ones who seemed to have noticed that Harry's broom was behaving strangely was his family and friends. His broom was carrying him slowly higher, away from the game, jerking and twitching as it went.
"That's impossible," Joyce said as she watched her nephew fight his broom. "The only way anything could interfere with a broom is power Dark magic."
Suddenly, people were pointing up at Harry all over the stands. His broom had started to roll over and over, with him only just managing to hold on. Then Buffy and Dawn gasped. Harry's broom had given a wild jerk and Harry swung off it. He was now dangling from it, holding on with only one hand.
Hermione seized Ron's binoculars, but instead of looking up at Harry, she started looking frantically at the crowd.
"What are you doing?" moaned Ron, gray-faced.
"I knew it," Hermione gasped, "Snape—look."
Ron grabbed the binoculars. Snape was in the middle of the stands opposite them. He had his eyes fixed on Harry and was muttering nonstop under his breath.
"What?" Joyce asked as Ron handed her the binoculars and pointed toward Snape. She looked and frowned. "I never did trust him even in school."
"He's doing something—jinxing the broom," said Hermione.
"What should we do?" Dawn asked.
"Leave it to me," Hermione said but as she started to stand she noticed that Buffy was missing. "Where's Buffy?"
They turned and looked at the empty spot next to Joyce.
Buffy fought her way across to the stand where Snape stood, and raced along the row behind him; she didn't even stop to say sorry as she knocked Professor Quirrell headfirst into the row in front.
Reaching Snape, she crouched down, pulled out her wand, and whispered a few, well-chosen words. Bright blue flames shot from her wand onto the hem of Snape's robes.
It took perhaps thirty seconds for Snape to realize that he was on fire. A sudden yelp told Buffy she had done her job. Scooping the fire off him into a little jar in her pocket, Buffy scrambled back along the row—Snape would never know what had happened.
It was enough. Up in the air, Harry was suddenly able to clamber back on to his broom.
"Dawn, you can look!" Joyce said as she looked over at her daughter. Dawn had been sobbing into Joyce's jacket.
Dawn looked as she wiped her tears and saw Harry was speeding toward the ground when the crowd saw him clap his hand to his mouth as though he was about to be sick—he hit the field on all fours—coughed—and something gold fell into his hand.
"I've got the Snitch!" he shouted, waving it above his head, and the game ended in complete confusion.
"He didn't catch it, he nearly swallowed it," Flint was still howling twenty minutes later, but it made no difference Gryffindor had won by one hundred and seventy points to sixty.
Buffy, Harry and Dawn heard none of this, though. They, Joyce, Ron, Willow and Hermione were enjoying a cup of tea in Hagrid's hut, before Joyce had to leave and return to London to finish house hunting.
"It was Snape," Ron explained.
"It looked like he was cursing your broomstick," Joyce said, furious that a teacher would do such a thing.
"Rubbish," said Hagrid. "Why would Snape do somethin' like that?"
"Hagrid," Joyce said. "Do you not remember how much James hated him? It was mutual. It would not surprise me if his grudge with James had transferred to Buffy and Harry."
"I found out something about him," Harry said. "He tried to get past that three-headed dog on Halloween. It bit him. We think he was trying to steal whatever it's guarding."
"What three-headed dog?" Joyce asked.
Hagrid dropped the teapot. "How do you know about Fluffy?" he said.
"Fluffy?" Joyce said as she looked toward Hagrid.
"Yeah—he's mine—bought him off a Greek chappie I met in the pub las' year—I lent him to Dumbledore to guard the—"
"Yes?" said Harry eagerly.
"Now, don't ask me anymore," said Hagrid gruffly. "That's top secret, that is."
"Whatever it is it's guarding," Dawn said. "He's after it. He may even been working with that woman who's after me."
"Rubbish," said Hagrid again. "Snape's a Hogwarts teacher, he'd do nothin' of the sort."
"Are you sure of that Hagrid?" Joyce asked shaking with anger. "I personally would not put it past him. After all it looked like he was trying to kill Harry! I know a jinx when I see one, Hagrid! You've got to keep eye contact, and Snape wasn't blinking at all, I saw him!"
"Joyce, yeh have ter be wrong!" said Hagrid hotly. "I don' know why Harry's broom acted like that, but Snape wouldn' try an' kill a student! As far as what Fluffy's guarding, forget it, that's between Professor Dumbledore an' Nicolas Flamel—"
"I recognize that name," Joyce said. "Then I will take this up with Professor Dumbledore." She stood and marched out of the hut.
"Buffy," Hermione said as she, Harry, Dawn, Buffy, Ron and Willow followed Joyce out of the hut. "What did you do to distract him?"
"Well I made his robes catch on fire. I figured that would distract him enough to break eye contact." Buffy said.
Harry hugged his sister.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Joyce stormed into Albus Dumbledore's office. "You want to tell me why Severus Snape is trying to kill my nephew?" she asked the headmaster.
"What do you mean?" Dumbledore asked. "Are you talking about what happened to Harry's broom?"
"Yes," Joyce said hotly. "I saw him staring unblinking at Harry. I know a jinx when I see one, Professor. And I remember the feud between James and Severus. I do not for a second think it beyond the realm of possibility that he would not transfer the feud to Harry and Buffy."
"I will look into this, Joyce, personally," Dumbledore said.
Joyce stormed back out of the office. She passed Harry, Buffy and Dawn as the three of them entered the castle through the front doors. She stopped and embraced each of them. "I will see the three of you at Christmas. When they ask to know whose leaving tell them you three are staying until I arrive. I'm still in the process of moving. Hopefully by then I will be moved out of Hank's house and have a house here for us to go to for the rest of Christmas break."
December 12, 1991
Buffy, Dawn, Harry, Ron, Willow and Hermione spent the weeks between the Quidditch match and Christmas looking into Glory and and Nicolas Flamel with no luck.
The morning of Christmas Buffy made her way downstairs and overheard Harry's excitement.
"Merry Christmas," said Ron.
"You, too," said Harry. "Will you look at this? I've got some presents!"
Buffy laughed at her brother, "Of course you got presents, you didn't think I or mom – Aunt Joyce – or Dawn would forget you, did you?"
Harry shook his head and laughed, handing Buffy a small box. She slowly opened it to find a small locket. When she opened it a tear fell from her eye; inside the locket were two pictures, one of her birth parents – James and Lily. The other of the both of them taken the day after they had first met. "It's beautiful Harry. Where did you get the pictures from?"
Harry smiled, "You can blame Aunt Joyce. I wrote to her after the Quidditch match and told her what I wanted to get you for Christmas. She helped me get the pictures."
Buffy ran over and hugged her brother, "Thank you it's perfect," she said. She picked up a box and handed it to Harry who proceeded to unwrap it.
Harry smiled at Buffy as he opened the gift, she had gotten him. He pulled out a watch and showed it to Ron, the face was a replica of a Snitch with the wings keeping the time. "I love it, Bells."
Dawn decided to come down the stairs at that time, accompanied by Willow. They looked at the twins and smiled, "So did you two keep all the presents to yourselves or are there more?"
The group proceeded to open the rest of the presents till there were only two left, one with Harry's name and the other with Buffy's. Harry looked at Buffy and then Dawn, the twins then proceeded to open the packages.
Buffy looked at the card that game with the present, it read: 'This was left in my possession by your mother, use it wisely.'
"Yours say the same thing mine does?" Harry asked seeing his sister's face.
Buffy looked at Harry and nodded, "I think so. Mine says, 'this was left in my possession by your mother before she died, use it well'." She held up a necklace with an emerald butterfly at the center of the pendant.
Harry held up a cloak, "Mine says almost the same thing, except it says dad left it with whoever before he died."
Dawn walked over to Buffy and helped her to put the necklace on. Buffy's fingers lightly brushed against the butterfly, and a moment later she had vanished. Dawn stared at where Buffy had been with utter shock, "Buffy, where did you go?"
Buffy looked at Dawn and noticed the shocked expression on her face. "What do you mean where did I go, I'm right here."
Dawn shook her head, "No you're not you're like invisible."
Buffy looked down and saw she was indeed invisible as she could not see the rest of her body. She brought her hand up to where she felt the pendant was and brushed her hand against the butterfly on it and became visible again, "That is so wicked, and useful."
Ron looked at Buffy and then at Harry and the cloak, "I think I know what that is. If that's what I think it is — it's really rare, and really valuable."
"What is it?" Harry asked.
"It's an invisibility cloak," said Ron, a look of awe on his face. "I'm sure it is — try it on."
Harry threw the cloak around his shoulders and Ron gave a yell. "It is! Look down!"
Harry looked down and noticed he had no body, "Wow your right, Bells that is wicked, and useful." He took the cloak off and set it aside as Joyce walked into the common room.
Joyce smiled at Buffy, Harry and Dawn. They noticed she wasn't carrying any presents and they asked her why. "Well my Christmas present can't be put in a box. I found a home for us to live in. In fact, it's not far from the Burrow, where Ron and Willow's family lives. I thought you three might like to spend the rest of the holiday's there decorating your rooms. Ron, Willow, I've already spoken with Molly and Arthur and they said you two can come stay for the rest of the holidays as well. We will leave tomorrow morning so you all need to get packed now."
Harry, Buffy, and Dawn jumped up and hugged Joyce happy that they would be staying with her for the rest of the holidays. They were even more excited to find that they would be living within walking distance of the Weasley family home.
That night Harry and Buffy were out after curfew, Harry using his cloak and Buffy her pendant so that they would not be seen. They planned to sneak into the restricted section in the library to look for any information on Glory or Nicolas Flamel. They ran into Snape and Quirrell in the hall, who appeared to be in a heated argument, none of which Buffy or Harry heard as they slipped by the two professors. They came to the library and entered the restricted section. They each picked up a book and opened it. At that moment a high-pitched shriek came from both of the books. They took off and just managed to sneak by Filch as he came into the Library. By the time they got back to Snape and Quirrell, Filch was there.
"You asked me to come directly to you, Professor, if anyone was wandering around at night, and somebody's been in the library Restricted Section," Filch said.
Buffy felt the blood drain out of her face. Filch must have known a shortcut to get to Snape before they had.
Snape looked to Quirrell, "We will finish this later." He then turned to face Filch as Quirrell left, "The Restricted Section? Well, they can't be far, we'll catch them."
Harry and Buffy silently moved past them and into a nearby room so as to avoid detection. They noticed the room was largely empty except a large mirror. Buffy touched her pendant and became visible as Harry shrugged out of his cloak,
"What is a mirror doing here?" Buffy asked.
Harry wasn't sure and as he looked at the mirror he saw two people standing beside him. He recognized them from the picture that he himself had placed in Buffy's locket. "Bells, come here."
Buffy stood in front of the mirror and her jaw just dropped, "Is that?" Harry nodded at the question, "Mom and Dad."
As the twins stared at the mirror, they noticed the images of their parents place their hands on their shoulders. The twins reached up and touched their shoulders, wanting desperately to feel the touch that the mirror showed them.
How long they stood there, they didn't know. The reflections did not fade and he looked and looked until a distant noise brought the twins back to their senses. They couldn't stay there; they could feel how tired they were and knew they needed to head to bed. Buffy and Harry looked at their parents and whispered, "We'll come back." With that they headed for their dormitories.
The next morning, they woke to find everyone was in the common waiting for them so they could head home for the rest of the Christmas break.