Hey,

Thank you for the love! I was so enthusiastic about this chapter. And about the next. You will find out about Hermione's mom in the next chapter or the one after that.

Let this reviews come!

Enjoy this chapter!

TempeGeller


Chapter 4: The truth about Leyla….

Luna, Ginny and Hermione stepped of the train followed by Ron and Harry. Draco Malfoy was staring at Harry, a part of him felt looked at.

"Hey Potter, I heard there's a cell in Azkaban with your name on it." Draco smiled as Harry flew to him. Luckily, Ron could intercept it.
"He's not worth it." Hermione whispered.
"Yeah, listen to your mudblood girlfriend." Draco laughed

"Go play with your foolish friend." Ginny laughed "Oh yeah, you have none."
"He does have those two doggies." Luna said in a high voice. "What's their name? Crabbe and Goyle? Following you around?"
"They're not smart enough to know what friend means…." Hermione smiled "And just smart enough to do your dirty doing."

"Well, yeah at least my parents aren't muggles."
"Well Hermione's parents…" Luna wanted to say but she was stopped by a silent push of Hermione. They continued their road to the carriages. Harry was amazed as he walked to the road, the carriages weren't pulled by themselves anymore. They were pulled by strangely looking horse figures. Why had Hogwarts changed this? Was magic not able to pull the carriages anymore.
"Can you see them?" Harry turned to Hermione and Ron. "The animals pulling the carriages…"

"Harry, they're pulling themselves…" Hermione turned to him. "Like always."

"Don't worry." Luna put her hand carefully on his back. "I can see them too. You're just as sane as I am."


Ron stared at Hermione over dinner. He saw that she didn't look hungry, she was just playing with her food. He wanted to help her, but nothing inside him could ever understand how exactly Hermione felt.
"Dad, he's been reading about this thing CCTV." Ron smiled "He's been obsessed with it for the past year. He has one of those 'camera's'. He knows all about it."
"Ron!" Hermione rolled her eyes. "Why are you talking about camera's?"

"You were born in 1981, right?" Ron turned to her. "This just came to me in the 70's and the 80's the muggles started experimenting with the stuff. Mainly in your neighborhood."

"Now even I am lost…" Hermione rolled her eyes. "What does experimenting with camera's have to do with our dinner?"
"Nothing." Ron had a glaring smile. "We have been talking about finding your mom the magical way, what if we try the muggle way."
"Now I am terrible lost…" Harry raised an eyebrow.

"Go on Ron." Hermione turned to him. "I think you're on to something."
"Maybe your mom didn't know about the CCTV thing, wizards didn't care for muggle devices. If she were a full blood wizard, she wouldn't have cared to get caught on tape. If we can get the tapes of that night, we could get an image of your mother. It's always possible it doesn't get us anywhere, but it could."
"Ron, I never thought I said this." Hermione smiled "But you're a genius."

"If we have an image we could compare it to any pictures in Hogwarts archives." Harry explained "If she went to school here, we will find her."
"About Leyla…" Harry turned to Ron and Hermione. "I want to know everything about a friend of my mom. Hagrid might know her. I mean it is possible."
"Well, we could have a talk with McGonagall." Hermione said. "But Hagrid is a safe bet. If Leyla was as nice as people say she was, Hagrid would have known her."

"So how are we going to get the footage…"

"I…"

"Welcome back to Hogwarts." Dumbledore stepped in front of the big group. He seemed different from previous year, like he was trying to hold back. "There are two changes this year, professor Crumble came back to replace professor Hagrid while he's away on business."
"Hagrid is away on business?" Ron turned to Harry. "I guess we will have to find someone else to ask about Leyla."

"And I would like to present professor Delores Umbridge ,who will be teaching you defense against the dark arts." An incredidble high laugh came from a person dressed in pink right next to Professor Snape. Harry recognized her from his hearing. She had short hair and almost seemed to say that she didn't like the way Dumbledore spoke. "I'm sure we wish luck to Professor Umbridge."
"How about not…" Ron whispered.

"Caretaker Viltch would like to remind you…" Dumbledore continued as the laugh of the woman cut him off. Hermione rolled her eyes in anger, why did this woman have to act like this? Did she not respect people enough to let them finish. Almost directly she rose to her feet. Her pink shoes made soft knocks on the floor.

"She was at my hearing." Harry whispered. "She works for the ministry."

"Thank you, Headmaster, for those kind words of welcome. And how lovely to see all your bright, happy faces smiling up at me. I'm sure we're all going to be very good friends."
"That's very unlikely." The soft voices of Fred and George were heard by Ron, it released a smile on his face.

"Please, Ronald."
"The Ministry of Magic has always considered the education of young witches and wizards to be of vital importance. Although each headmaster has brought something new to this historic school,… progress for the sake of progress must be discouraged. Let us preserve what must be preserved, perfect what can be perfected, and prune practices that ought to be prohibited." Umbridged moved from the one side to the other, never taking her eyes off Dumbledore.
"Thank you professor Umbridged." He paused "That was that really was most illuminating."

"What does she mean?" Harry turned to Hermione.
"It means the ministry is interfering in Hogwarts."


"I don't know." Hermione turned to Harry. "Something about Professor Umbridge feels off to me. She said progress was bad. I feel like any of the changes in defense of the dark arts would be a bad idea. I think that…."
"Well, I don't think we should worry about this." Harry turned to her. "Right now our prime focus is to figure out who your mom is and find out more about Leyla."
"What about any of the professors?" Ron spoke "Professor Flitwick has been here for years."

"Or professor Beery?" Hermione said "Or Professor Binns?"

"Yeah most likely." Ron spoke "The last one has been here for years. I mean one of them has to know how outspoken she was. Maybe she did have a lot of enemies."
"I think Sirius has to be right…" Harry turned to Ron. "Snape must have…"

"Potter…" They almost bumped in the Professor Snape. Hermione was not sure if Snape heard his name. She moved a bit closer to Harry, the darkness in Snape's eyes almost made her scared. "Granger, Weasley."
"Professor Snape." Hermione stared at him.
"Aren't you supposed to go to your common room." Professor Snape pulled his arms closer to his body. "It doesn't seem like you're going there."
"We want to check something in the library." Hermione smiled "It's important."

"Not so important miss Granger." Snape pulled his arms away from his body. "You should go to the common room, you don't want Gryffindor to lose any points."

Harry turned around. Hermione, Ron and Harry walked in the direction of the common room of Gryffindor. They didn't need problems from Snape.
"We'll have to look for a spell later." Ron spoke "You could hit the library after class tomorrow."
"I'm not looking forward to the defense of the dark arts." Ron said.

"Can you believe that we start with History of magic's?" Harry Potter turned to Ron.

"Well, we could overhear the professor about Leyla." Hermione smiled "But we have a weekend first, so we could always hit the books. Ron, how do you think we could get in to the CCTV."
"I don't know yet." Ron reacted "I'm trying to find a magical way to obtain those. Or a person to help us. We could message Lupin."

"Do you want to get Lupin involved?" Hermione turned to Ron. "You say your dad is obsessed with this CCTV, he could try to get those. I'm sure the ministry has its ways, no one has to know. I mean the ministry won't care…"

"That's true…" Harry smiled "Write to your dad."

"I will." Ron smiled "Why didn't I think about that?"
"Because your Brilliance only reaches so far." Hermione smiled "After that we hit the library."
"Hit the library." Luna smiled "That sounds interesting. Can I help?"
"We're on a double mission." Ron smiled "Aren't you supposed to be in the common room?"
"I told professor Snape I was looking for my missing sock…" Luna laughed "He had no idea what to say. Always works."

"no, Ron…." Hermione gave him a playful push. "Wouldn't work on us…"

"So what's this double mission you're referring too?" Luna smiled
"Finding Leyla and Hermione's mom." Ron spoke "We're thinking about asking the professors."
"I'm sure the head of our house Flitwick knows her." Luna spoke "We ravenclaws always knows how to find him. He loves to talk about ex-students."

"What about we have that talk tomorrow morning." Harry smiled

"Harry, do you think Leyla is honestly a priority." Hermione turned to him. "I mean my mom has to be a priority. I mean she's my mom, we could always ask about your mom's friend later."
"Hermione, she has blond hair and blue eyes." Ron explained "She could be a possibility. Plus, it will take a while before dad can get the tapes to us. So, in the meanwhile we could ask around about Leyla. Plus that conversation will be an hour. We can still hit the books after that."
"You're right, Ron."

They continued their path, Luna turned around and skipped in the direction of the Ravenclaw common room. When they entered the common room, everyone was looking at them. There was no sound. The daily prophet was in front of them, the words Potter Plotter were on it.
"Dean, Seamus…" Harry turned to them. "How were you holydays?"
"Good, Seamus…"
"My mother almost didn't let me come back." Seamus stood up. "Because of you. The daily prophet is telling that you're not right about you know who. They say you and Dumbledore have been lying."
"And you believe them?"

"Well,…" Seamus turned to him. "No one was there the night Cedric Diggory died."
"Well.." Harry turned to him. "And you and your mother believe that?"
Ron stared at Seamus, he tried to make Harry stop. But he didn't want to believe what was going on either. He believed the story Harry was telling, no one would lie about Voldemort.
"Just let it be, Seamus." Ron turned to him.
"Do you believe the madness he's telling about "The madness he's been telling about you-know-who?"
"I do."

"Does anyone else got a problem with Harry?" The whole common room stared at the trio. Hermione slowly pulled Harry up the stairs and was followed by Ron. The three of them ran upstairs. The first thing Harry did was loosen his tie. It made him feel like he didn't get any air.
"You shouldn't listen to them, Harry." Hermione smiled "They want to believe the ministry is right. It's tragic to believe that he's back. People want to stay in their clear happy…"
"Hermione."

"You can't blame them for not believing." Ron stared at him. "If I didn't know you, I wouldn't want to believe either. I mean the world was a mess when you-know-who walked around. People fear him and the truth."

"And we should focus on Leyla and my mom." Hermione smiled "Think about what we could figure out. We could find out a lot…"
"Yeah, Harry don't let them get to you." Ron spoke "They'll believe when they're ready to believe. I know they don't make it easy, but you should just ignore."
"Well, that's hard." Hermione smiled "How about…"

"Let's just talk about something else."


"You guys are very on time." Luna smiled as she stepped next to them. "How was your breakfast? I had eggs, they were very good."
"It was…" Hermione raised her eyebrows. "Like always."
"I take pleasure in enjoying everything." Luna smiled "Plus I enjoy mysteries like this. Flitwick is in the library. I asked him yesterday, if he knew Leyla."
"And did he?"

"Not by name." Luna smiled "It wasn't until I told him she was McGonagall's daughter, he knew who I was talking about. Her name is officially Leyviena Theresa McGonagall."
"Leyla is her nickname." Luna explained "He knows her. He remembers her very well. He went to the library to find pictures. He asked us to meet him there."
"Meeting with a professor…"

They all stepped towards the library. Luna was skipping, like she always did. Happiness was a thing that was always written in her movement. She was her own person and didn't care what people thought of her. She was very aware of people calling her Looney Lovegood. Yet she didn't care. Even Hermione respected her for her unique personality, but the things she said were weird at times.
"Oh, dad said he could have those tapes by tomorrow." Ron smiled "Don't ask me how, but he did. I asked the tapes of your neighborhood. He has your address, any camera that could have caught her, will be in our hands. We will have to go through a lot of movies."
"Sounds cool?" Luna smiled "Can I help you with this project?"

"Why not?" Harry turned to Ron. "How are we going to play these tapes?"
"Magic?" Ron smiled "We can use a tape player and we'll find something to play it on."
"Right."

Luna once again started skipping faster. She was ahead of all of them, turning around at times. Her turns were always playful and not subtle. You always knew she was watching you. Entering the library, they saw Professor Flitwick at one of the tables. Slowly they sat down at the table.
"So…" Flitwick turned to them. "You know Leyviena…"
"She was friends with my mother."

"Oh yeah, the dynamic duo." Flitwick laughed "I remind Leyviena like it was yesterday. In her Hogwarts days she was the nicest. Always helping people. Bright, she was the smartest girl ever. There are only a few students like Leyviena, you are one of them. And Lily off course, they were always together. Like the boys they liked to experiment with magic. I remember one day Leyviena accidently changed a professor in a mouse for a day. When she was around, the school was different. She had powers that went over Dumbledore's head. The sky always had butterfly's in them. One time she was o down, the whole great hall was flushed. When she was happy, the sun was shining. And once the whole castle had snowed under. Dumbledore could do nothing about it. He was powerless against her powers, she's easily the strongest witch I have ever seen."

"If she's the strangest witch you ever saw.." Luna turned to him. "Why would she fear Voldemort? She could just kill…"
"That's it…" Flitwick smiled "Her power had its limits. Creating was something she did easily, but if she would even think about hurting someone she suffered. She can defend herself, but if she would to kill a person. She would die…"

"Why?"

"I don't know." Flitwick smiled "I don't know the powers she had, I knew the person she was. She loved to help the innocent, but not punish the guilty. She told people that was someone else's job. The last thing she could do was watch while people got hurt."

"When was the last time you saw her?"

"9th November 1978." Flitwick explained "It was on the break."

FLASHBACK

Professor Flitwick closed the doors to his chamber. He walked through the halls, the students were starting to go to their common room.
"Ley, don't go." Snape's voice was heard. "You should keep yourself safe."
"I'm not about to let people suffer, because you are blind to their suffering." Leyla spoke "I can't believe that you are on his side."

"You know why!"

"I don't like it." Leyla screamed. "You have so much more to do, Severus join me. Fight with me."

"You're getting yourself hurt." Flitwick turned around the corner and saw how Snape had her hand in his. There was blood on her ropes and she seemed to have a sever wound. "You can't tell me you just fell. This is a stab wound."
"I was saving this muggle…" Leyla smiled "I wasn't fast enough. The knife just…"
"They stabbed you." Snape pulled her closer. "You can't go out there, come with me. To…"
"No." Leyla pulled her arm away. "I asked you for a healing spell, not more. If it didn't hurt so dam much I wouldn't even be here."

"What about this bruise?" Snape reached for the mark on her face. "And the cut?"
"I was over mastered." Leyla smiled "It will heal. I'm not always fast enough."

"if that knife would have been 5 centimeters father, you would have died." Snape put his hand on her forehead. "If that fall had been harder you …"
"I don't ask you to worry, Severus." Leyla turned to him. "My life isn't worth as much as all of those lives I save. I'm…"
"All of the things I do…" Snape took her hand. "I did them for you."

"I didn't ask you too…" Leyla pulled her arm away.
"Ley, why don't you join the order?" Snape turned to her.

"They don't take actions when needed." Leyla turned to Snape. "I need to help the people who are in danger, they need to find a way to get your V-boss out of the way."

Flitwick stepped away. He saw how Leyla disappeared in a burst of white light. It looked beautiful. Snape stayed behind with tears in his eyes.

"Snape with tears in his eyes?" Ron turned to Harry. "Is that possible?"
"They were very close." Flitwick reacted. "He called her his blue butterfly. Ever since Leyla left here, the school doesn't have anything beyond Dumbledore's control. Only a small part of the gardens. There the butterfly keep flying. McGonagall told Hagrid to take care of them, now I do. She misses her. So I heard the theory about Professor Snape killing Leyla and when you look at him, you could imagine he could. Not if you saw him that night. Torn and destroyed. That wasn't the man that would kill Leyviena. I don't know who got to him."

"So you think she's dead?"

"I think she cared more of others than she did for herself." Flitwick pushed a picture closer. "What I'm saying is that she was to slow."


What's the best idea: Ron's CCTV idea or using spells to read the letter? Or a parental test like someone in the reviews suggested? Who killed Leyla?