Chapter 22
Goodbye, She-Cat
"Ivy, what?" I asked, feeling faint as I sat down.
Ivy took a deep breath and looked me right in the eye "Harry's right. Malfoy is a Death Eater." she said.
I paled, feeling the need to take a page out of Luke Skywalker's book "That's not true! That's impossible!" I said.
"Han, it is. I looked into Malfoy's memory, and I managed to see him in the Room of Requirement working with a Vanishing Cabinet, I went a little deeper to see if I could see him getting the Mark, but I couldn't get it. It was Occlumency. Bellatrix Lestrange is a master at Occlumency, she must have taught it to Malfoy after he was Marked. I recognized the blockage of that skill when I see it. Believe it or not, last term you were so upset about you and Malfoy breaking up that you blocked me out of your mind." Ivy explained.
I blinked "Then if you didn't see the memory of Draco getting the Mark, then how do you know he is a Death Eater?" I asked.
"Han, Malfoy was using Occlumency against me. No one uses Occlumency unless they have something to hide or to protect their memory." Ivy said honestly.
I bit my lip as I opened my potions book and took out the knave of spades from the tarot deck Trelawney gave me. "Then…then this means something." I said, handing the card to Ivy.
"A knave of spades?" Ivy asked, handing the card to Watson.
"What does it mean, Sherlock?" Watson asked.
"She's just showing you a card?" Jamie Vain said, sitting on the bed next to Ivy. "Let's see." she said, taking the card before gasping. "You got this off a tarot deck, didn't you?" she asked.
I nodded "Trelawney gave me one." I explained.
Jamie gulped "Dude, what did she say?"
I shrugged "She said the card name, and then a dark young man, possibly troubled, one who dislikes the questioner."
Jamie gasped. "Han, do you know what this means?"
I shrugged "Someone no doubt has issues with someone questioning them?" I asked.
"No. Malfoy, the knave of spades. MALFOY IS THE DARK YOUNG MAN!" she shouted, gripping my forearms "He's a Death Eater! You have a golden opportunity!"
"An opportunity for what?" I asked.
"To defeat You Know Who from inside the operation!" Jamie breathed "You can hold Malfoy ransom and…"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa there, slick." I said, holding my hands up "Me. Hold my boyfriend. For ransom?" I asked "I couldn't even hold a pair of Monique Clearwater's dragon hide boots longer than she let me borrow them. What makes you think I could hold a person hostage?"
Jamie looked down "Right, sorry." she said, shaking her head "Just got a little over imaginative."
"Gee, ya think?" I asked, laughing "But I admire your moxie."
"Thanks, Han." Jamie said before Drosie and O'Neil came in.
"Well, well, well, lookie who we've got here. A little snake!" Drosie cackled.
"Oh, at least I'm not lying about my blood, Drosie. Or, if you really are a Muggleborn like you say you are…would that be…Dursley?"
Drosie paled "How do you know that?"
I smirked "For future reference 'Mudblood'," I said, putting her fake blood status in air quotes "the next time you want people to believe you are Muggleborn, don't go around calling your own kind 'filthy little Mudbloods', you'll get a highly inquisitive girl such as myself suspicious and have her do some research on your family name." I smirked "Oh, and I didn't know you had three siblings. Are they all bitches, or are you the only one?" I asked.
"Shut your face, Potter!" Drosie spat.
"I don't think I will, cousin." I drawled "Gee, I guess we're somewhat related. Your mother is related to my uncle."
"Yes, you think I'm proud of the fact that the stupid idiot Girl Who Lived is my cousin?" Drosie demanded.
"I'll take that snippy retort as a no." I said with the tone of someone talking to a two year old.
"Shut up with that tone, Potter, before I really get nasty!" Drosie snapped.
"Oh, what are you going to do, cousin, lie me to death?" I asked, smirking.
Drosie growled and jumped at me. "YOU NOSY LITTLE BITCH!" she screamed, pinning me to the floor of the dorms.
I growled, glaring into Drosie's eyes. Metallic blue met brown as I fought an arm free, groping for my wand and using a spell I found in the Half Blood Prince's book.
Levicorpus!
Suddenly, Drosie was lifted into the air by the ankle as she screamed bloody murder.
"GET ME DOWN, YOU FREAK!" she screamed as her face went red from anger and the blood rushing to her head.
I snarled again. "Don't. Call. Me. A. Freak!" I snapped slowly, drawing my wand back and thinking Libracorpus!
Drosie dropped as I tucked my wand back into my holster.
Ivy, Jamie and Watson laughed as O'Neil stood there, shocked as I turned to her.
"You have anything to say?" I demanded to her.
Drosie paled and backed away from me, grabbing O'Neil by the arm and running "Go! Run!" she screamed.
Ivy laughed again and looked at me before gaping "Hannah! Your eyes!" she gasped.
Jamie and Watson looked at me, too and gasped.
"What? What's going on?" I asked, terrified at the look they were giving me.
"Your eyes…they're all red!" Watson breathed, handing me a mirror to look.
I took one look in the mirror and screamed. My irises were blood red! I closed my eyes and shook my head to see if it would change them back. I sighed in relief when I looked myself in the eye again and saw that they had changed from the blood red to the regular metallic blue.
"How did this happen?" I asked, still scared at what I had seen. My eyes for the briefest of moments, made me look like a newborn vampire!
"Well, I didn't want to frighten you with Drosie right there but," Ivy said nervously "It all started when Drosie called you a freak. Your eyes…they started darkening. For a minute, I thought it was just the light, but after a minute, they were…well, you know…"
"Blood red?" I asked, nodding. "Yeah, I think I do." I said faintly before falling onto Watson's bed "But how? They've never changed colour before!"
"Maybe it's just us. It could be nothing." Mione said.
"No, Mione, there could be something new with Hannah we don't know." Jamie said, shaking her head. "Maybe it could just be us all seeing things, but it could also be something serious. Hannah, have you had contact with any vampires at all?"
I nodded "There was the one at Slughorn's Christmas party, but we just chatted." I said simply.
"Maybe that's what he wanted you to think!" Hermione gasped, taking a hold of my neck and drawing it to her and screaming.
"What? What!?" I screamed.
"There's bite marks on your neck! You've been bitten by a vampire!" Watson screamed.
"What?" I asked, rolling my eyes and taking the mirror from Ivy and shaking my head and laughing "Hermione! Those aren't vampire teeth. Those are Draco's teeth! We were snogging earlier!" I said, smirking and setting the mirror down. "You guys are all being ridiculous! It obviously just a trick of the light that made my eyes appear red." I said, smiling as I grabbed my Invisibility Cloak "I'd better head back to the common room." I said, scratching my nose. "I'll see you later." I added, walking out.
"See you!" Jamie, Watson and Ivy said together as I walked out.
…
I never thought about my eyes changing colour again for a while after that. But on my way to the common room, I ran into She-Cat…and…she was…sobbing?
"She-Cat?" I whispered.
"H-Hannah?" She-Cat replied, looking up at me from her spot on the floor "I-Is that you?" she asked.
I nodded, sliding down next to her. "What's wrong? I've never seen you so upset."
"I-I-It's my adoptive parents." She-Cat sobbed. "Professor Sprout took me into her office just a little bit ago and told me that they…they were…" She-Cat burst into hysterical sobs.
"What, She-Cat?" I asked, taking her in my arms "What's wrong? What's with your adoptive parents?" I asked.
"Dead!" She-Cat wailed "Both of them! Killed in their beds!" she sobbed "I leave tomorrow."
"No! You can't leave, what about exams? What about Sheila?" I asked. What about me? I thought to myself.
"No, I can't stay." She-Cat sniffed. "I never told you, but I have two little adoptive brothers and sisters each that need to be taken care of for now. I have to take care of them. I won't let them live in an orphanage if I can help it."
"No, She-Cat! Dumbledore can bring them here, to Hogwarts, they'll be safe here from Voldemort!" I suggested.
"No, Han, you're creative, in fact, you're the woman with the plan." She-Cat said, smiling like her typical She-Cat self. "But I got to take care of them in their own environment. They won't get Hogwarts, if they're sent here, they can't leave my dorm. I don't want that." she said before smiling more like She-Cat "And besides, this She-Cat's gotta She-Cat it up in the Muggle world!"
I laughed before I started crying "We're gonna miss you, She-Cat." I said, sobbing as I let her go.
"Hey, hey," She-Cat said, taking me in her arms as I bawled my eyes out "don't cry, or I'll have to go Transfigure Snape's wardrobe into pink bikinis with ponies to make you smile."
I started laughing through my tears.
"There's the Han I grew up with." she said, grinning "And hey, when this war's over, maybe I can dump Alec, Harmony, Melody and Jackson with my Aunt Jeanne and Uncle Albert and redo this year. At least, that's what Professor Sprout said."
I smiled, but I still cried. Now I knew how the friends of those pulled out of school felt when their friends were gone. "I'll miss you, She-Cat."
She-Cat grinned and stood up, looking down at me as if it was me leaving Hogwarts for possibly ever and her staying "Hey, if you ever miss me, either owl me or think about how I helped get you and Ferret Boy together."
I laughed and stood up. "I have to head into my common room now." I said sadly. "I guess this is goodbye." I said.
Weirdly enough, She-Cat started laughing.
I rolled my eyes and for what I felt like was going to be the last time said "Why are my best friends so insane?"
She-Cat grinned "Hey, you picked us and your life would suck without me, Sheila and Ivy. And besides, goodbyes don't mean forever, and they don't mean the end, they'll simply mean I'll miss you until we meet again."
I blinked and started crying all over again, wrapping my arms around She-Cat again "You…you made sense! For the first time since I met you, you've made perfect sense!" I wailed happily.
"Hey, when I'm in mourning, I make perfect sense sometimes!" She-Cat said defensively, patting my back to make me let go. "Now get back to your common room before a Professor catches you." she ordered, nodding to the dungeons. "And I don't think they'll be so lenient on you, what with you being a prefect and almost shoe in for Head Girl next year."
I beamed. "I'll miss ya, She-Cat." I said, tearing up.
She-Cat beamed with me "Meow!" she shouted for one last time, throwing her hands up in the air as she skipped away.
I watched one of my best friends leave my sight for the last time in Hogwarts and instantly thought:
That girl may be insane, but she could be a beacon of hope for us.
I picked my Invisibility Cloak up, dabbing my eyes and nose on it (for as long as I could remember, I couldn't stand goodbyes. My parents were to thank for that.) before heading back to my common room.
…
I crawled into my bed and Hellion, my black cat jumped into my bed, Diablo, my midnight blue Pygmy Puff hopping in her cage to be let out.
"All right, Hellion, I'm letting Diablo out, can you behave?" I whispered, earning a head butt from her (Hellion's way of hugging me.).
"I'll take that as a yes." I said, opening the cage and letting Diablo hop onto my pillow as Hellion curled up in the blankets with me to be petted.
As I pet her, I looked into her eyes and saw that she was purring, like She-Cat would when I scratched her ears.
I smiled, a few tears falling down my cheeks as I closed my eyes. My last thought before falling asleep was directed directly into She-Cat's mind, like I did with Ivy sometimes.
Goodbye, She-Cat.
