Alrighty then! Time for chapter two! Fun stuff people! Fun stuff! *Rons glares from the saftey of a corner* Well, -he's- still upset about the firework incident. Don't know why though...Fred doesn't even have any plans for revenge *gives Fred the thumbs up* Okay, since I forgot to do this in the first chapter, I would like to disclaim any of the characters or places and whatnot created by our dear JKR, and contrary to public opinion, I have *not* been keeping Sirius Black prisioner in my room, nor have I been building up an army of hostile grindylows *looks shifty eyed* okay, with that said, let's get to chapter two!
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Lots of thanx to people who reviewed me, I luv u all! Tell me what u like, and what u hate. I'm terribly slow, so any suggestions are well appreciated to get me writing. *grins* Also, for any Harry Potter purists, I'm only human, so please don't lynch me if i get somethings wrong(hopefully I won't:)Will gratefully answer any questions or comments at end of chappie *gives you encouraging hug* Oh yeah, I have a pretty crappy Microsoft thingy, so that's why i can't use italics or bold or anything to make your life a little easier...also, i'm about the world's worst ton-o-writing-writer, so i try to get AT LEAST four pages of writing, sorry if there's not more:) alright, enough of that...
Chapter 2- Hearing
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" - Magnificent Molds- ; -Fantastic Forms- ; -Altering Appearances- ; -Shadow Spells for Spying- ; Oh! Here it is! -Shapeshifters and How to Recognize Them- . This should tell us everything!"
Hermione, Harry, and Ron were in the library looking for information on shapeshifters. Harry had explained to them that lately he had been seeing things watching him out of the corner of his eye -different from the normal stares he got from his fellow students- and that when he turned to look at it, nothing was there. His only thoughts were of a possible shapeshifter following him; something that could easily hide from clear sight. Harry thought that maybe someone -a certain Slytherin- was playing a trick on him. Ron suggested jokingly that maybe Harry was finally starting to crack, but Harry hadn't laughed. "I saw something in Potions, and I saw something else in the common room," he'd said. Ron had certainly seen the common room water spot, but it hadn't appeared to be looking right back at him.
"Don't worry, Harry," Ron told him conspiratorially. "I believe you."
But Harry wasn't even sure if he wanted Ron to believe him. Did he even believe himself? One thing was for sure though; whatever he was seeing was stalking him.
"Here it is!" Hermione exclaimed triumphantly. "I think you've been seeing an Oirek-"
"I've been seeing vacuums?" Harry questioned. Hermione ignored him and Ron looked at Harry, puzzled.
"-...or possibly even a Tridey-Sline. Did you happen to see three blue horns on the thing's neck or forehead?"
"I told you, it just goes away whenever I look at it head on!"
"Well I'm just trying to help, Harry!"
Harry looked frustrated and confused. He didn't mean to snap at her, but he was certain that what he was seeing was not going to be simply found in one of Hermione's books.
"I'm sorry..." Harry said dismayed, feeling sheepish.
"It's alright, mate." Ron lazily leafed through a book called -Your Shadow and You-. "Maybe you're just tired. Fred-" he gulped suddenly, "-had me believing I was seeing pixies for three days...I was getting really paranoid. Turns out I was just sleepy. A good night's rest is all you need."
"Probably," he agreed hopefully. "I mean, it's not like anything's happened -except my potion boiling over." He added with a wry smile, "But even Trelawney would've seen that tragedy coming."
Ron laughed and Hermione gave a scowl that confirmed she still disapproved of Professor Trelawney and her methods of teaching. Ron shut his book with a loud boom. "I'm done here," his stomach grumbled, "and it's about time for dinner."
Hermione closed her book defeatedly, looking like McGonagall had given her less than perfect marks on an essay. "Well, I can't find any creature capable of disappearing so quickly before you can get a good look at it, Harry; and no person can Apparate or Disapparate within Hogwarts grounds, so a human shapeshifter is out of the question."
"It's probably nothing," Harry told her. Feeling his own stomach grumble, he stood up from the table.
"Let's go eat something before we all start full on hallucinating," Ron said with a grin. "We can mull this over with a few jugs of pumpkin juice in us and then figure things out."
"Ron-," Hermione started, but her stomach wouldn't let her finish. "Alright. Let's go, then."
"Just how long have we been in here?"
There were very few students left in the library now so close to dinner.
***********
"Here ya' go, Harry." A first year Hufflepuff, a muggle-born named Cynth Johns, leaned over the Gryffindor table and handed Harry his copy of -Quidditch Through the Ages-. "I understand it now. Kinda like muggle basketball." She was almost laying in his dinner plate to talk to him, and her hand reaching out to steady herself nearly knocked over his goblet.
"You're welcome," Harry told her, trying to steady his goblet and keep the liquid inside from spilling all over. He quickly downed some so that there wouldn't be so much to spill should she dive right into his lap.
"Maybe you should give Weasley a few Quidditch tips, Potter!" Draco Malfoy yelled from across the Slytherin table. Several Slytherins were grinning at him conspiratorially. "Not that it would help! They don't even have to try out! There's already more than enough of them to start their own team!" Pansy Parkinson looked as though she might bust something and Fred and George Weasley were shooting murder at Malfoy. "The Rust-head Weasels!"
The Slytherin table erupted with laughter and it took both Harry and Hermione to keep Ron from beating the crap out of Malfoy right then and there.
"Just ignore him, Ron," Hermione said, letting him go, but keeping an eye on Ron to make sure he wasn't still keen on murder. "He just wants to get you riled up and Gryffindor in trouble."
"Yeah," Harry said, planning some sort of revenge he probably wouldn't get to carry out. "Malfoy's a git. Have a treacle tart." He handed one to Ron and took a sip from his goblet, eyeing Malfoy dangerously. The Slytherin looked back at him, strangely amused and kept whispering to Crabbe and Goyle, who's slow smiles made his mouth taste sour. He downed the rest of his pumpkin juice as Ron grabbed for another tart. "I'll see you back at the common room."
"Do you feel alright?" Hermione's concerned voice caught him as he got up. "Are you ill?"
"Just fine," he said. "I'm not hungry anymore."
And truthfully, he wasn't. Four glasses of chilled pumpkin juice coupled with baked potatoes and sour cream; garden salad, crisps, and more than his share of dessert, topped off with a dish of Malfoy insults was enough to sate anyone's appetite.
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Harry was careful to take the path back to the common room that was furthest away from Filch's office, as he could hear the echoing of screeching Filibusters and several screaming students. He walked calmly back to Gryffindor Tower as he saw several frightened second years run past him, and then he was left alone to the swish-swish of his robes and thoughts.
Just what -had- he been seeing lately? Was it actually possible that Ron was right, and he was just tired? He wasn't exactly feeling well rested. He hadn't been able to have restful sleep in a week, with all the extra Quidditch practice for the game against Slytherin coming, and all the extra study sessions he put in with Hermione. It was a wonder that he hadn't been seeing things sooner.
He was approaching the Fat Lady's portrait and took off his glasses to rub his blurry eyes. Perhaps he was just sleepy...He put his glasses back as the fat lady was talking with her friend from the next portrait. He heard a swish-swish of robes behind him, and looked expectantly for either Ron or Hermione. There was nobody there.
"Hello?" He got silence in return as he peered down the dark hallway. The Fat Lady looked decidedly interested in whatever was going on, and she and her friend watched him quietly.
Harry caught something large out of the corner of his eye, and quickly did an about face, hearing the swish-swish of something other than robes behind him. He flailed out his arms as he turned, thinking that maybe someone other than himself got ahold of an invisibility cloak, and tried to grab his assailant. He was shocked when he felt his hand go through something very cold, and saw something very large retreating into the shadows with a determined swish-swish. He pulled his hand back to him in shock.
"Alright there, Harry?"
Harry jumped about five feet into the air as he turned and saw Nearly Headless Nick behind him. Nick looked decidedly pleased at having succeeding in frightening someone.
"Sorry, Harry. Didn't mean to give you such a fright." The smile that played on the Gryffindor ghost's face told Harry otherwise.
" 's okay," Harry told him. He considered that perhaps the cold he felt had been his flailing hand through Nick's transparent form. However, what it was he had actually seen had definitely not belonged to the pearly white Gryffindor ghost. "Actually, I was wondering...Actually, it sounds rather silly, but did you see anything just a moment ago?"
"See anything?" Nick pondered a moment. "I've seen you, and you seemed distressed, my boy." Harry shrugged and looked down the corridor. Nick looked too, expectantly, but nothing happened.
"I must be seeing things..." Harry took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. //Great,// he thought, //I'm crazy.//
"Peeves is making a terrible racket downstairs," Nick told him. "Right outside Filch's office as a matter of fact. Throwing things all over the place, including students! Terrible mess down there." Harry grinned. "I came up to look for the Baron. He's the only one who can control Peeves. Have you seen him?"
Harry smiled at the thought of Filch being harassed by Peeves and a load of Filibuster fireworks. "No," he said. Momentarily, he forgot the reason why he hadn't yet entered the common room. The Fat Lady and her friend were watching the two without interest and renewed their conversation.
"I must be going now," Nearly Headless Nick told Harry. "There aren't many places the Baron would call his haunts." He bowed and was off through a wall before Harry had a chance to say goodbye.
Harry walked up to the portrait of a harassed looking Fat Lady as he examined the corridor once more. What was that thing he had seen? And he not only saw it, but heard it as well. And he couldn't be sure, but he didn't think that whatever it was was friendly.
"Well?! Are you going in or not?"
Harry gave the Fat Lady the password and jumped through the portrait hole, only to see something that horrified him more than ever.
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How was that? Good, Bad, Crappy? Reviews please:)
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Lots of thanx to people who reviewed me, I luv u all! Tell me what u like, and what u hate. I'm terribly slow, so any suggestions are well appreciated to get me writing. *grins* Also, for any Harry Potter purists, I'm only human, so please don't lynch me if i get somethings wrong(hopefully I won't:)Will gratefully answer any questions or comments at end of chappie *gives you encouraging hug* Oh yeah, I have a pretty crappy Microsoft thingy, so that's why i can't use italics or bold or anything to make your life a little easier...also, i'm about the world's worst ton-o-writing-writer, so i try to get AT LEAST four pages of writing, sorry if there's not more:) alright, enough of that...
Chapter 2- Hearing
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
" - Magnificent Molds- ; -Fantastic Forms- ; -Altering Appearances- ; -Shadow Spells for Spying- ; Oh! Here it is! -Shapeshifters and How to Recognize Them- . This should tell us everything!"
Hermione, Harry, and Ron were in the library looking for information on shapeshifters. Harry had explained to them that lately he had been seeing things watching him out of the corner of his eye -different from the normal stares he got from his fellow students- and that when he turned to look at it, nothing was there. His only thoughts were of a possible shapeshifter following him; something that could easily hide from clear sight. Harry thought that maybe someone -a certain Slytherin- was playing a trick on him. Ron suggested jokingly that maybe Harry was finally starting to crack, but Harry hadn't laughed. "I saw something in Potions, and I saw something else in the common room," he'd said. Ron had certainly seen the common room water spot, but it hadn't appeared to be looking right back at him.
"Don't worry, Harry," Ron told him conspiratorially. "I believe you."
But Harry wasn't even sure if he wanted Ron to believe him. Did he even believe himself? One thing was for sure though; whatever he was seeing was stalking him.
"Here it is!" Hermione exclaimed triumphantly. "I think you've been seeing an Oirek-"
"I've been seeing vacuums?" Harry questioned. Hermione ignored him and Ron looked at Harry, puzzled.
"-...or possibly even a Tridey-Sline. Did you happen to see three blue horns on the thing's neck or forehead?"
"I told you, it just goes away whenever I look at it head on!"
"Well I'm just trying to help, Harry!"
Harry looked frustrated and confused. He didn't mean to snap at her, but he was certain that what he was seeing was not going to be simply found in one of Hermione's books.
"I'm sorry..." Harry said dismayed, feeling sheepish.
"It's alright, mate." Ron lazily leafed through a book called -Your Shadow and You-. "Maybe you're just tired. Fred-" he gulped suddenly, "-had me believing I was seeing pixies for three days...I was getting really paranoid. Turns out I was just sleepy. A good night's rest is all you need."
"Probably," he agreed hopefully. "I mean, it's not like anything's happened -except my potion boiling over." He added with a wry smile, "But even Trelawney would've seen that tragedy coming."
Ron laughed and Hermione gave a scowl that confirmed she still disapproved of Professor Trelawney and her methods of teaching. Ron shut his book with a loud boom. "I'm done here," his stomach grumbled, "and it's about time for dinner."
Hermione closed her book defeatedly, looking like McGonagall had given her less than perfect marks on an essay. "Well, I can't find any creature capable of disappearing so quickly before you can get a good look at it, Harry; and no person can Apparate or Disapparate within Hogwarts grounds, so a human shapeshifter is out of the question."
"It's probably nothing," Harry told her. Feeling his own stomach grumble, he stood up from the table.
"Let's go eat something before we all start full on hallucinating," Ron said with a grin. "We can mull this over with a few jugs of pumpkin juice in us and then figure things out."
"Ron-," Hermione started, but her stomach wouldn't let her finish. "Alright. Let's go, then."
"Just how long have we been in here?"
There were very few students left in the library now so close to dinner.
***********
"Here ya' go, Harry." A first year Hufflepuff, a muggle-born named Cynth Johns, leaned over the Gryffindor table and handed Harry his copy of -Quidditch Through the Ages-. "I understand it now. Kinda like muggle basketball." She was almost laying in his dinner plate to talk to him, and her hand reaching out to steady herself nearly knocked over his goblet.
"You're welcome," Harry told her, trying to steady his goblet and keep the liquid inside from spilling all over. He quickly downed some so that there wouldn't be so much to spill should she dive right into his lap.
"Maybe you should give Weasley a few Quidditch tips, Potter!" Draco Malfoy yelled from across the Slytherin table. Several Slytherins were grinning at him conspiratorially. "Not that it would help! They don't even have to try out! There's already more than enough of them to start their own team!" Pansy Parkinson looked as though she might bust something and Fred and George Weasley were shooting murder at Malfoy. "The Rust-head Weasels!"
The Slytherin table erupted with laughter and it took both Harry and Hermione to keep Ron from beating the crap out of Malfoy right then and there.
"Just ignore him, Ron," Hermione said, letting him go, but keeping an eye on Ron to make sure he wasn't still keen on murder. "He just wants to get you riled up and Gryffindor in trouble."
"Yeah," Harry said, planning some sort of revenge he probably wouldn't get to carry out. "Malfoy's a git. Have a treacle tart." He handed one to Ron and took a sip from his goblet, eyeing Malfoy dangerously. The Slytherin looked back at him, strangely amused and kept whispering to Crabbe and Goyle, who's slow smiles made his mouth taste sour. He downed the rest of his pumpkin juice as Ron grabbed for another tart. "I'll see you back at the common room."
"Do you feel alright?" Hermione's concerned voice caught him as he got up. "Are you ill?"
"Just fine," he said. "I'm not hungry anymore."
And truthfully, he wasn't. Four glasses of chilled pumpkin juice coupled with baked potatoes and sour cream; garden salad, crisps, and more than his share of dessert, topped off with a dish of Malfoy insults was enough to sate anyone's appetite.
***********
Harry was careful to take the path back to the common room that was furthest away from Filch's office, as he could hear the echoing of screeching Filibusters and several screaming students. He walked calmly back to Gryffindor Tower as he saw several frightened second years run past him, and then he was left alone to the swish-swish of his robes and thoughts.
Just what -had- he been seeing lately? Was it actually possible that Ron was right, and he was just tired? He wasn't exactly feeling well rested. He hadn't been able to have restful sleep in a week, with all the extra Quidditch practice for the game against Slytherin coming, and all the extra study sessions he put in with Hermione. It was a wonder that he hadn't been seeing things sooner.
He was approaching the Fat Lady's portrait and took off his glasses to rub his blurry eyes. Perhaps he was just sleepy...He put his glasses back as the fat lady was talking with her friend from the next portrait. He heard a swish-swish of robes behind him, and looked expectantly for either Ron or Hermione. There was nobody there.
"Hello?" He got silence in return as he peered down the dark hallway. The Fat Lady looked decidedly interested in whatever was going on, and she and her friend watched him quietly.
Harry caught something large out of the corner of his eye, and quickly did an about face, hearing the swish-swish of something other than robes behind him. He flailed out his arms as he turned, thinking that maybe someone other than himself got ahold of an invisibility cloak, and tried to grab his assailant. He was shocked when he felt his hand go through something very cold, and saw something very large retreating into the shadows with a determined swish-swish. He pulled his hand back to him in shock.
"Alright there, Harry?"
Harry jumped about five feet into the air as he turned and saw Nearly Headless Nick behind him. Nick looked decidedly pleased at having succeeding in frightening someone.
"Sorry, Harry. Didn't mean to give you such a fright." The smile that played on the Gryffindor ghost's face told Harry otherwise.
" 's okay," Harry told him. He considered that perhaps the cold he felt had been his flailing hand through Nick's transparent form. However, what it was he had actually seen had definitely not belonged to the pearly white Gryffindor ghost. "Actually, I was wondering...Actually, it sounds rather silly, but did you see anything just a moment ago?"
"See anything?" Nick pondered a moment. "I've seen you, and you seemed distressed, my boy." Harry shrugged and looked down the corridor. Nick looked too, expectantly, but nothing happened.
"I must be seeing things..." Harry took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. //Great,// he thought, //I'm crazy.//
"Peeves is making a terrible racket downstairs," Nick told him. "Right outside Filch's office as a matter of fact. Throwing things all over the place, including students! Terrible mess down there." Harry grinned. "I came up to look for the Baron. He's the only one who can control Peeves. Have you seen him?"
Harry smiled at the thought of Filch being harassed by Peeves and a load of Filibuster fireworks. "No," he said. Momentarily, he forgot the reason why he hadn't yet entered the common room. The Fat Lady and her friend were watching the two without interest and renewed their conversation.
"I must be going now," Nearly Headless Nick told Harry. "There aren't many places the Baron would call his haunts." He bowed and was off through a wall before Harry had a chance to say goodbye.
Harry walked up to the portrait of a harassed looking Fat Lady as he examined the corridor once more. What was that thing he had seen? And he not only saw it, but heard it as well. And he couldn't be sure, but he didn't think that whatever it was was friendly.
"Well?! Are you going in or not?"
Harry gave the Fat Lady the password and jumped through the portrait hole, only to see something that horrified him more than ever.
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How was that? Good, Bad, Crappy? Reviews please:)