Summary: In which Ginny blushes, Cho faints, Ron disappears, and Hermione makes good use of a cleaning charm.
Who Killed Mr. Potter?
Chapter 9- The come and go room
"Harry, you're alive!" Ginny squealed giving him a hug and a swift kiss on the cheek. Hermione leaned against Ron with relief, pleased that something had been figured out. Ron just stood there staring at Harry, thinking very hard.
Ron shook his head. "Nah, it can't be," he muttered, then, coming to his senses-- "Glad you're back from the dead, mate, Ginny was going spare without you."
Harry blinked again and looked at the very pretty redhead hanging on to him as though to make sure he didn't slip away. Harry smiled reassuringly at her, Ginny smiled back blushing furiously, something she hadn't done in his presence for two years.
Ron and Hermione sat down on a couple chairs while Ginny seemed unable to let Harry go. They remained on the floor while Ron explained to Harry what had been happening.
"... and we couldn't find Cho or Dean or Neville so we went to the lounge and found your body missing and then Dobby showed up and-"
"Dobby?" Harry cut in. "How'd he get in here?"
Hermione shrugged. "Something about his own magic..."
There was a loud bang from out in the hall, they all jumped.
"You two stay here," Ron ordered as he and Hermione left the room, wands at the ready. "Where did that sound come from?"
Hermione on the other hand had moved over to the staircase where she saw Cho lying sprawled at the bottom.
"Do you think the murderer got her too?" Ron asked while Hermione walked cautiously down the stairs and looked around.
"You know, there's nothing down here, no doors or anything, just walls," Hermione commented.
Ron walked down the stairs and looked around. "That doesn't make any sense, why have stairs if they don't lead anywhere?"
"But it does make sense," Hermione countered, looking around. "In all the pictures of the Boddy mansion it shows only the main floor with stairs going down, you never see what's downstairs." Hermione picked up a glass of water that she had made appear and splashed Cho with it.
Cho woke up quickly, looked around in fright and saw Ron and Hermione watching her apprehensively.
Suddenly Ron disappeared.
"Hey!" Hermione squealed.
"He keeps throwing water at me!" Cho said.
"I was the one who did that, now bring him back!"
"Alright, alright," Cho sighed.
Ron reappeared as abruptly as he had left. He was feeling dizzy and nauseous and he lurched sideways into Hermione, throwing up all over her shoes.
"Lovely," Hermione said sarcastically using a cleaning charm to get rid of the mess.
"Sorry, Hermione," Ron said sheepishly.
"Come on," Ron said taking her hand and leading her up the stairs. "Let's get back to the others."
When Ron, Hermione, and Cho returned the library, they immediately saw that Harry was lying on the table, eyes closed. Ginny was no where in sight.
"Someone came back to finish him off!" Hermione squeaked.
"Hermione, have you gone mental?" Ginny's voice came from behind a large stack of books. She emerged with the entire Clue series in her arms. "I love these books, by the way," she told her.
Their talking had woken Harry. He sat up groggily, rubbing his head. "I was trying to take a nap," he complained. "I have a killer headache."
And, for the third time, Cho fainted.