The first trip to Hogsmeade at the beginning of the school year had taken place when Harry and Sharlen were still getting reacquainted; still unsure around her, especially with his friends so wary of her, Harry, Ron, and Hermione left together and Sharlen watched them walk off to the village with the other students, perched lazily in the Owlery. Leaning on her arms on the window ledge, Hedwig and Stacey's owl Pyotr kept her company as she watched them go. She'd asked Snape once if she would be allowed to go and he had wholeheartedly refused and closed the discussion.
But the second Hogsmeade trip was coming up, and Sharlen had taken to haunting Snape's shadow, complaining her way into getting him to let her go. Since brewing the potion, her mission had been pointedly avoiding the fact that there was a ghost inside her—one she not only had to take a potion to keep at bay but now knew the name of—and threw herself into copying what everyone else was doing: Ignoring the imminent threat of the Dark Lord in favor of typical teenage affairs. She didn't intend to sit alone in the castle again—she felt she had proven herself worthy of leaving the castle grounds. Several times she'd had to go back to McGonagall for a new Hogsmeade permission form because Snape would take them from her and destroy them, to the point where once in the Great Hall Sharlen marched up to the teacher's table, held it up to Snape, and McGonagall shouted "For Merlin's sake, Severus, just sign it already!" at him from several seats down. He'd snatched it from her silently, glowering, but never signed it.
An eventful weekend, the first Quidditch match was scheduled the evening after the older students would be able to go into Hogsmeade, and, as was tradition, the first match was Slytherin vs. Gryffindor. The night before the trip, Sharlen went down to Professor McGonagall's office to hand in an extension; working without a wand, McGonagall had asked her to prepare a presentation on the benefits of wordless spells, as sixth years were beginning to learn to cast them in Transfiguration and Charms.
Truthfully, Professor McGonagall made her extremely nervous—she was always peering at her from across the room, trying to size her up. "Here you are, Professor," she muttered, handing it to her across the desk. "Here's your copy."
"Thank you, Miss Down," McGonagall said with a nod. "Will you be ready to present this week?"
"Yes. Whenever you'd like." With a little wave, Sharlen turned and began back out the door.
"Miss Down," Professor McGonagall called after her, hands sternly clasped in front of her. She looked intimidating but her aura showed she was uneasy. "How are you adjusting here at Hogwarts?"
Sharlen took a few steps closer to her and said, "I'm feeling right at home. Well, I… I don't know why I said that. I don't really know what that would feel like." McGonagall turned one corner of her mouth up good-naturedly; her indigo pity was deepening. "I really like it here," Sharlen assured her, trying to seem grateful and normal. She hadn't meant to say something uncomfortable. "I'm very honored to get to learn here and be with other students."
"I know you've been isolated for much of your life," Professor McGonagall replied. "I'm glad you have the opportunity to prove yourself in a positive light here."
"Me too."
"I actually met you once, many years ago," McGonagall continued, peering at her over her glasses. "Severus came to meet with Professor Dumbledore and brought you in with him. You were only four at the time, and he held your hand throughout the entire castle." She chuckled a little at the memory.
"He held my hand?" Sharlen repeated incredulously.
Professor McGonagall laughed. "He did. You would have followed him around like a little duckling whether he had hold of you or not, though. He is soft somewhere inside, Severus. I know you have known a very different side of him all your life, but he does care about you."
Sharlen said nothing, thinking back to the beating at the start of the semester.
"Before you go, I wanted to give you some advice," McGonagall continued, taking a seat behind her desk. "You are something of a spectacle whether you realize it or not, sitting with the Gryffindors, flying to classes, not using a wand…"
"I don't mean to—" Sharlen started.
McGonagall waved her off firmly. "Oh posh, I think it's delightful. But while the students don't know of your origin, the teachers who do are quite concerned with how close you are to Potter." Sharlen's expression darkened a few degrees. "You can understand the circumstances. Now, Potter and his friends have a knack for… getting in trouble, so to speak. They tend to be in the wrong place at the wrong time quite a lot, actually… And I don't want you to get mixed up in anything that may make it impossible for you to continue with the opportunity to be here in the castle."
"I see," was all she could manage.
"Just be careful," McGonagall urged.
"I will be," Sharlen promised. "Thank you very much, Professor."
When it came down to the morning of the Hogsmeade visit, Sharlen shoved the latest permission form in front of Snape's face roughly and he tore it from her hands in his fury. "YOU'RE. NOT. GOING," he bellowed. Sharlen scrunched up her face angrily at him.
"You're not serious," she muttered, arms crossed. She tried not to think of Stacey, who had demanded they meet up later in the village, or the group of Gryffindors currently exiting the castle.
"Oh, but I am," he sneered.
Without a sound, Sharlen made a quill from his desk scrawl what could pass as his signature as he held the form in the air, and just as he looked up confusedly she had the form fly out of his hand and soar to the dungeon classroom's door, where Professor McGonagall lingered and snatched it from the air. She met his horrified outrage with a smirk as Sharlen transformed and soared wordlessly through Snape's open window to join the students already headed into town.
"What are you thinking?" Snape hissed, rounding on McGonagall menacingly.
Amused smirk never wavering, she tilted her chin down wisely and said, "That child has a lot of frollicking to catch up on. If you recall, she missed quite a lot of it."
Relishing the cold air against her wings, Sharlen didn't even look back to see Snape's appalled face. From above she could easily see the trio making their way to the town and quickly dived down to greet them. Ginny, Neville, Dean, and Luna walked with them and were startled when she landed on Harry's shoulder. She playfully nipped at his ear and he ruffled her feathers.
"You got his permission?" he exclaimed, genuinely surprised. She clicked her beak.
"Hedwig?" Ginny asked.
Sharlen flew to the ground from Harry's shoulder, transforming, a smirk on her face. "Not quite."
"WICKED," Neville and Dean said together. "You are an Animagus!"
"Who even are you?" Ginny said as she rolled her eyes, grabbed Dean's arm, and hurried forward without the rest of them.
"Amazing, right?" Sharlen gushed, ignoring Ginny as the group began walking again. "McGonagall helped a lot. We pretty much tricked him. Also I forged his signature. It's all set." Hermione and Ron glanced at each other and shrugged.
"I'm glad you could make it," Harry said, putting an arm around her shoulders. There were several inches of snow on the ground now, so everyone was bundled up in scarves, hats, and mittens; Sharlen's battered cloak and scarf were torn, but did the job.
"Me too," she said excitedly, watching the other students trudging forward ahead of them. "I've never been to town before."
"You mean you've never been to Hogsmeade before?" Ron asked. "I mean, how could you, this is your first year here."
"Any town!" she responded, grinning. The five of them slowed, staring at her as if she had three heads. Sharlen could hardly notice; after weeks of obsessing over the ghost inside her, escaping the cage she'd been in her whole life was supremely liberating.
"Wait, wait, wait," Ron said, brow furrowed as he waved his arms animatedly. "How have you not been to any town, ever? You have gone outside, yes?"
"Well yes," Sharlen admitted, linking arms with Harry. She became acutely aware that the five of them were staring at her. "I've really only seen the three houses I grew up in, Malfoy Manor, Harry's relatives' house, the meadow… and now the castle. Hogwarts is easily the majority of all the world I've seen." She said it nonchalantly, conversationally. Everywhere she looked, there was white—the starkness was so beautiful. "Hogwarts is so big. It's really amazing."
"Snape didn't let you go out among people?" Ron exclaimed, completely abashed. He really wouldn't let this go. Sharlen looked at him blankly. "You've never been to a store or a restaurant or swimming or anything at all?"
"Well no," she answered, as if it was obvious. "Sometimes I could go out in the yard, though." She watched the snow flurrying around them. "But never in the snow. It leaves tracks. Harry, I don't remember, did we ever go swimming…?"
Harry stopped and pulled her to him tightly, holding her for several long moments. Startled, Sharlen glanced around at the others, who were looking at her with pity on their faces. Even Luna's white aura was tingeing indigo. "Oh no," she muttered against Harry's shoulder, "you're sad. Did I make you sad?"
"In the summer you should come see the Dirigible Plums with me and dad," Luna said softly, brightly. "Or maybe we could go looking for Wrackspurts. Our woods are full of them."
"I used to go to the Forest of Dean with my parents, when I was little," Hermione added. "I know we're traveling for Christmas holiday this year, too. You are more than welcome to join us."
"Or come with Harry and me to my house!" Ron added.
Sharlen was completely speechless. She looked at her hands, overwhelmed by their words. Finally she looked at each in turn, smiling. "You are really the only people who have ever shown me kindness. I am honored just to spend time with you." They smiled back at her and she could see their heavy hearts all around them; she felt extremely self-conscious. "I am sorry I said all of that," she muttered, forehead in her hand, embarrassed the longer time stretched on. "I haven't had much experience with people. I don't know social rules."
Harry put his arm back around her waist and started them forward again. "Come on," he urged her, trying to ease how overwhelmed she visibly was, "We have a lot to show you today." The two walked slightly behind the others as they entered in Hogsmeade and Harry asked if she was okay.
"Of course," she said, meeting his eyes. "I'm very excited to experience this with all of you. And I really feel bad about making all of you uncomfortable back there. I didn't mean to. What I've 'missed out on' doesn't really bother me because I never knew it to miss it. Does that make sense?"
Harry nodded and gave her a brief squeeze. "It does."
There were so many people in Hogsmeade that it was all Sharlen could do to keep up with the group as they walked around to see the wreaths on doors and lights strung between buildings. They walked by the Shrieking Shack and recalled the night they met Sirius (and Pettigrew, who Sharlen kept silent about). She was delighted in Zonko's Joke Shop when she saw the dragon lighting candies as you put in money for them, unable to stop laughing at how small it was ("You should see all the dragons my brother Charlie handles in Romania," Ron boasted proudly). They brought Sharlen to Honeydukes where she split her first Chocolate Frog with Luna ("How in the world have you never had this. How," Ron kept saying over and over again until Hermione finally hit him).
They split up with Neville and Luna who opted to go to Dogweed and Deathcap, a Herbology shop, when they went into the Three Broomsticks for Butterbeers. Sharlen tried not to look too closely at the people; there were all sorts there and she wanted to seem like she belonged. When a waitress came to take their order and Hermione asked for four Butterbeers, Sharlen protested.
"I don't have any money, I'm fine," she said hurriedly. "I'm all set."
Harry laughed and assured her he had it covered. "Don't be silly. This is one thing you absolutely must try." Watching the waitress go, Harry noticed Slughorn up at the bar and quickly turned around to Hermione and Ron. "He's here."
"Who?" Sharlen asked, twisting around to see.
"That's Professor Slughorn," Harry said, gesturing low on the table. "Dumbledore wants me to talk to him about Voldemort."
Sharlen began coughing after a quick gasp of breath. "Sorry," he muttered sheepishly, "I forget that some people are afraid of the name."
"I'm not afraid," she said meaningfully.
"Bloody hell," Ron growled, awkwardly pulling his chair in tighter to the table. The three of them turned to follow his gaze to Dean and Ginny in the corner just as they started kissing. "I'd like to leave."
"Oh, Ron," Hermione and Sharlen chorused together, rolling their eyes.
"That happens to be my sister!"
"Please," Hermione said, amused. "What if she looked over here and saw you snogging me, would you expect her to get up and leave?"
Graciously for all of them, the Butterbeers arrived to save them all from talking any further about it. Before Sharlen had taken her first sip, Slughorn approached the table, beaming, and Harry stood to greet him. The two talked pleasantly about the Three Broomsticks until Slughorn mentioned a dinner party, inviting Harry and Hermione who said they'd be delighted to go. Ron and Sharlen shared a look, feeling only slightly put out as Slughorn told Ron good day and pointedly avoided Sharlen. She watched his aura as he went; he was petrified of her.
When she finally took a sip of the Butterbeer, she whispered an eager, "This is delicious," but was only able to finish half of it, not used to anything so rich. Stacey and her Ravenclaw friends came in and joined them part way through, bringing chairs to their table. Sharlen handed the rest of her Butterbeer to Stacey, who took it eagerly and thanked her with a tiny holly sticker carefully placed on the cuff of her sleeve; Sharlen returned it with a tiny star sticker to her scarf. They spent entirely too long trying to explain to everyone else at the table why they thought the stickers were funny and felt the need to keep using them.
Content with bellies full of warm drinks, the four of them opted to head back to the castle once they were sure Sharlen had been given a sufficient taste of the wonderful and the mundane (she had insisted on stopping in a yarn shop, truly not understanding how commonplace a shop where all the walls were lined with various-colored yarns was). The snow was picking up, and Hermione linked arms between Ron and Harry, Sharlen holding Harry's other hand.
Then one of the girls several feet before them screamed, sending chills hard and fast down their spines. They ran forward to see what was happening and found Katie Bell shaking on the ground, staring at the sky.
Her body began to hover and throw itself side to side, finally rising high up in the air. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Katie's friend stared at her horrified while Sharlen raised her hands; she had seen curses like this before.
"I told her not to touch it!" the friend cried, watching Katie high above.
Sharlen braced herself, waiting, and when Katie finally dropped she used the Arresto Momentum spell to stop her from slamming into the ground. Lowering her gently onto the snow, Sharlen ran and slid over to her in the snow; the girl's eyes were wide and her head shook fitfully. Looking around wildly, she saw Harry inspecting the necklace, half out of its wrappings, that Katie must have opened and touched. "Harry, stay away from it!" she shouted, throwing a hand out to vanish the necklace back inside its wrappings and close it up. Keeping one hand held out to keep the necklace hovering safely away from them, Sharlen ripped off her other glove with her teeth and brought her hand to Katie's freezing face. It occurred to her as she waited for images to flood her senses that she had just promised McGonagall she wouldn't get into any trouble.
Harry watched Sharlen's wide eyes, searching Katie's body distractedly, and said, "What's the vision? What do you see?"
"Vision?" Katie's distressed friend asked.
"She gets visions when she touches someone skin-to-skin," Harry muttered darkly, watching. They heard great footfalls behind them—Hagrid.
"That's got to be a bummer," Ron muttered about the visions as he stared horrified at Katie.
"I don't see anything," Sharlen said, panicking. She moved her hand down Katie's cheek to her neck. "She's empty."
Before they could ask what that meant, Hagrid met them and scooped Katie up. "Saw ther whole thing," he shouted over the snow. "We need ter get 'er back to the castle. And do not touch that necklace!" Harry helped Sharlen up from her knees in the snow. Still guiding the necklace box through the air, Sharlen and the others followed Hagrid quickly back to Hogwarts.
Once Katie and her friend were taken to the hospital wing, it was deduced that she would need to be transferred to St. Mungo's and was taken via Floo along with Madam Pomfrey. Dumbledore was travelling away from the castle, so McGonagall and Snape met to examine the necklace, holding Sharlen and the trio present to explain what they saw.
Sharlen had set the box down on a podium at the head of McGonagall's classroom and narrowed her eyes as the box unwrapped to display the necklace on the velvet pillow it sat on. At her left shoulder, Ron leaned over and whispered, "I don't think I'll ever get use to you just making things move without moving at all." Harry was staring hard at the necklace, fists clenched.
Clearly distressed, McGonagall turned away from the necklace and addressed the trio. "Why is it that when something happens, it is always you three?" She threw a look at Sharlen who mouthed "I'm sorry" in response. "That was quick thinking not touching the necklace, Miss Down."
Sharlen nodded dutifully. "I tried touching her to see if I could get a vision of who gave her the package," she hurried out, anxious to explain, "but nothing came. That's never happened to me before."
Snape swept in and stood by McGonagall to examine the necklace. Wand raised, he brought it up and turned it to inspect it, mouth slightly open. "What do you think, Severus?" McGonagall asked in barely more than a whisper.
"I think Miss Bell is lucky to be alive," he said honestly.
"She was cursed wasn't she?" Harry started, stepping forward. Neither professor turned from the necklace. "I know Katie; off the Quidditch pitch she wouldn't hurt a fly. If she was delivering that to Professor Dumbledore, she wasn't doing it knowingly."
"Yes, she was cursed," McGonagall said sadly.
"It was Malfoy," Harry said boldly. Everyone turned to look at him, Sharlen sharpest of all.
"That is a very serious accusation, Potter," McGonagall said, slightly taken aback.
"Indeed," Snape muttered darkly. "Your evidence?"
"I just know," Harry said, staring him down.
"You just… know," Snape repeated slowly. Sharlen had the terrible urge to jump between them; she often forgot that Snape and Harry had their own history together, that he had been interacting with Harry for six years without her fully understanding their dynamic. Snape continued, straight-faced. "You astonish me with your gifts Potter, gifts mere mortals would only dream of possessing. How grand it must be… to be the Chosen One."
McGonagall blanched and looked at him as if she thought that was very poor bait to set for him; meanwhile, Harry's aura flamed with black hatred. "I think you should all go back to your dormitories," McGonagall ordered quietly. "All of you," she concluded, looking at Sharlen. The trio turned to go, Harry reluctantly budging only when Sharlen pulled on his sleeve.
"Miss Down, come back here," Snape ordered, making her stop in her tracks. Frustrated, McGonagall closed the necklace back in its box with a swipe of her wand.
Her hand in his, Harry clearly wanted her to go with them so they could discuss what happened. She shook her head at him sadly and let his hand go, turning to her Master. No one spoke until the trio left. "Yes Professor?"
"I hope you enjoyed your outing," he drawled, hands in front of him. "You will not be going out again."
"I did nothing wrong," she said sternly, staring him down. "I tried to help!"
McGonagall protested as well. "Severus, it was lucky she was there. Who knows what could have happened if she hadn't secured the necklace?"
"I swore to protect you," he hissed at Sharlen, whose shock showed plainly on her face. "You are my charge and I want you where I can keep an eye on you."
"Then you come out too next time," she threw at him, arms crossed. "Goodness knows you could use the fresh air."
McGonagall tried not to smile.
Clearly self-conscious in front of McGonagall, Snape said, "Get to your dormitory. We'll discuss this later." Sharlen wordlessly obeyed, turning on her heel to set off the way they'd gone. "To the Slytherin dormitories, Sharlen!" he called after her. She didn't acknowledge him.
Pulling out her black book as she walked, she saw a note from Harry. "I've seen that necklace before at Borgin and Burkes, and the Malfoys were there," it read, written hastily. "I know it was him."
Sharlen slowed and stopped to sit in one of the giant windowsills lining the hallway, looking out to the courtyard. She held the book close to her chest and focused on her breathing; the absence of Katie when she touched her had really shaken her, as had Harry's insistence that Draco had done this. Her mind was racing; the blond-haired boy who had chased her around hallways and terrorized her when they were young was now set to kill one of the greatest wizards who ever lived. Katie's friend had explained that she was going to deliver the package to Dumbledore; Sharlen was afraid Harry was right. The past several weeks Draco had looked as if he was wasting away—less cocky and more hostile, especially with her. Avoidant, even. Pulling out a quill, Sharlen replied, "I believe you," and set off for the Slytherin dorms.
Entering the Slytherin common room, Sharlen found Draco with Blaise, Crabbe, and Goyle. Pansy was nowhere to be seen, thankfully; it was bad enough Sharlen slept in the same room with someone so insufferable. She walked over to them by the fire where they quickly ceased their muttering and looked at her suspiciously. Sharlen knelt before Draco to look him in the eyes; he was leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. Inches from his face, she searched him; his aura was a dull gray throughout, which was severely unhealthy. "I'm only going to ask this once," she said quietly, hands in her lap. His eyes were wide and he was paler than usual. "Please abandon this mission before anyone else gets hurt."
"I don't know what you're talking about," he spat at her, sitting back in his chair forcefully. Sharlen didn't move.
"She could have died, Draco," she said quietly, trying to spare the ears of others in the common room.
"You think I don't know that?!" he shouted, standing and hitting an adjacent vase in her direction. He stormed away, his lackeys close behind, and left her on the floor, torn over her lifelong loyalties and what she knew was right. She took her book out onto her lap again and wrote, "I know you're right. We need to keep an eye on him."
