DISCLAIMER: All things Harry Potter belong to the wonderful JKRowling. not me.
Amber Potter and the Traitor Within.
Blurb …
Follow the antics of 11-year-old cousins, Amber-Leigh Potter and Rosemary Weasley, during their first year at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry, along with their new friend, Alice Longbottom.
Find out what happens when you mix an evil plot, an invisibility cloak and two girls with extraordinary powers and a world full of magic.
CHAPTER NINE: Midnight meeting.
Rosemary's head was perked to the side and Alice was frowning slightly. All four of them went to the darkening window to see two lone figures slip into the dense trees of the forest. Even at this distance, Amber could tell who it was-Snape and Lyra.
Curiosity flew through Amber and she reached into her bag and pulled the invisibility cloak. What in Merlins name were Snape and Lyra going into the forest at nightfall when there were supposed werewolves in there?
"Come on." Amber said, throwing the cloak over herself and beckoning the other two forward. Rosemary came under at once, but Alice hesitated.
"Um … aren't there werewolves in there-"she began, but Rosemary grabbed her arm and she muttered "Oh, ok then." And they set off out the front door, with Hagrid calling after them.
"Hey! Where are yeh going?" Then to himself, "Why Harry gave them that cloak I'll never know …"
Amber sniggered to herself when they entered the trees, still under the cloak. Now they had a harder job-finding Snape and Lyra.
"Where did they go?" Alice asked.
"There were here a minute ago!" Rosemary whispered.
A breeze picked up, giving Amber and by the looks of it, Alice, goosebumps. Amber looked over her shoulder. They were far into the forest now and the sun had set properly so they were plunged into pitch black. Amber jumped when she felt Rosemary's breath on her neck and couldn't help feeling that they were being watched.
Trying not to think about what creatures were in this forest, Amber pulled out her wand and whispered "Lumos." Just like Alice had done before they went into the passage way behind the one-eyed witch.
Rosemary and Alice did the same. Now they were huddled under the cloak in a small circle of light.
"Uh … Amber?" Rosemary asked.
"Yeah Rosie?"
"Isn't a spider colony meant to be in here somewhere?"
Amber noticed the panic in her voice. Rosemary had inherited Uncle Ron's fear of spiders.
"Um …" Amber didn't want to say the truthful answer which was a "Yes." But Rosemary guessed the answer by the look on Amber's face. She gulped and they stoped walking-they had hit a clearing.
"Where to from now?" Alice asked. Then Rosemary hissed "Shhhh!" All three of them perked their heads, listening. Amber heard it. A far away, distant noise, but unmistakably the sound of two voices having a heated discussion.
They hurried through the undergrowth, with Alice breathing in sharp breaths and they burst into another clearing-with two people standing in the middle. Snape in a swishing black cloak and Professor Lyra, in her usual pale blue robes.
"… look, the dark lord wants answers Snape, and if you're not going to give them-" Lyra was saying. Amber, Rosemary and Alice all whispered "Nox." At the same time and their wand tips went out and they were once again standing in pitch black.
"I never said that I wasn't going to give them, just delay them-"
"If the dark lord finds out-"
"The dark lord will not find out. He is not the dark lord-yet." Professor Lyra snorted. Snape looked at her with a piercing stare.
"Do you seriously think that he will ever be as good as the dark lord?" She asked.
Snape considered her for a moment. Then he smiled.
"No Sara, I do not. But I assure you-would you ever tell him?"
Professor Lyra looked insulted.
"Of course not, he'd kill me."
"Yes indeed. It will not be long before the wizarding community hears of his name. But all the same-"
"Look he wants the job done, if Longbottom's not kill before-"
Alice gasped. Amber panicked and attempted to pull her back, tripped over a tree root and nearly fell over. In her hast to get back up right, she grabbed hold of Rosemary's sleeve and pulled her self up. But with a horrible ripping noise, the sleeve ripped from the shoulder. A horrible, ripping, loud noise-
"What was that?" Snape suddenly said, looking right at Rosemary who gave a little squeak. Amber hissed "Shut up!" and they all stumbled backwards.
"It was nothing Severus, stop being paranoid. Honestly, you're as bad as old Mad-eye Moody-"
"I swear-last time we were talking i heard something-"
"Stop it! I was serious about the Mad-eye comment ..." Lyra smirked at Snape. Snape said nothing, but swished his cloak around and stormed off through the trees. Lyra followed him.
Alice was breathing in un-even breaths.
"I don't believe them!" she choked "How do they think they could possibly get away with murdering my dad?"
"I don't know Alice." Rosemary said, giving her a little hug to comfort her. They stood there in the darkness for a while, until a distant crash jerked them back to reality with a jolt.
"What was that?!" Rosemary squeaked and looked frightened. Amber knew she was thinking of the spiders.
"I don't know-" Amber began, but she stoped. They all turned their heads to the right and listened-a distant noise was coming closer. A galloping-through-the-trees noise. And it sounded as if the creature was big.
"All those who suggest we run, say "Quidditch"." Alice said. Amber screamed "Quidditch!" while Rosemary squeaked again and the three turned left and ran through the trees.
It was impossible to run full pelt through thick brambles and stooping branches with the cloak on. So Amber ripped it off and stuffed it into her bag. The thing, whatever it was, was definitely getting closer.
They burst into another clearing which was opened at the top so they could see the stars over head. They illuminated the ground and trees surrounding, and Amber stopped short, and Rosemary and Alice ran straight into her, panting and almost knocking her over.
The place was so magical. The moonlight cast an odd silver glow on everything and fairies zoomed around, giggling. Alice whispered "Wow." And Rosemary just gaped at the sight. Another deafening crash right behind them tore them from their trance.
They spun around and saw trees rustling. As if a gigantic something was slowly making it's way through the trees, just out of sight of their vision. Then the rustling stopped.
"What do you think its doing?" Alice whispered.
"Getting ready to attack us." Rosemary said which didn't really help in the circumstances.
"D'you think it's gone-"
But at that moment, a monstrous creature leapt out of the trees and Alice got such a surprise she tripped and fell over. Rosemary gasped and Amber thought she had surely walked into a nightmare.
They were looking into the eyes of a huge dog. But not just any dog. This dog had three heads. Three pairs of eyes, looking down at them, three noses sniffing their fear, three pairs of ears hearing for the slightest noise …
Rosemary screamed and the dog reared up onto its hind legs in surprise at the sudden noise. Alice and Amber joined in with a scream and Rosemary and Amber bent down, picked Alice up off the ground entirely and ran for their lives through the trees behind them, Alice still screaming and wands forgotten about. All Amber cared about was getting as far away from that thing as possible.
When the deep booming barks of the dog subsided and Amber and Rosemary put the now whimpering Alice down on the ground, she sank onto the hard earth and just sat there. Amber was panting hard and Rosemary looked as if she would rather go looking for the spider colony than see that dog again.
"What. Was. That. Thing?" She said through gritted teeth.
"I don't-" Amber began, but then she remembered … a story told by her dad … "Fluffy."
"What?" Alice gasped.
"Fluffy. That three-headed dog that guarded the Philosopher's Stone back in Dad's first year?" Amber said, "It belonged to Hagrid, after the stone was destroyed there was no used for him, so they let him loose in the forest."
"He guarded the stone?" Alice asked "Wouldn't have Fluffy ripped their legs off?"
"They did something to it, I can't remember what." Amber said, racking her brains, trying to remember what dad had said.
"Me either." Rosemary said, sounding like she neither knew, nor cared.
"Look, I don't care how to stop it, as long as we never see it again!" Alice said, her voice wobbling un-controllably. She tried to stand up, failing because her legs were shaking so badly and sank back onto the ground. "I thought I was going to have a panic attack!"
"That was the scariest." Rosemary whispered.
Suddenly, there were distant, yet unmistakable deep, loud, booming, barks. Coming closer and closer …
"I don't it's over yet!" Amber said and quickly said "Alice-can you walk?"
"Uh-"
"Ok, not enough time-" Amber bent down and picked her up again, throwing Alice over her shoulder, so Alice could see behind them. They took off through the trees.
"Amber!" Rosemary yelled.
"What?" Amber yelled back, as they crashed through a vine.
"Where are we going?"
"Anywhere but here!"
"I could have thought of that." Rosemary said thoughtfully as they tripped on a log and nearly fell over, Alice calling "Watch it!"
"We're lost aren't we?"
"No-"
"Uh … guys?" Alice called and they stoped to listen.
"What?" Amber said. She listened and couldn't here anything except for the sound of the branches whipping around in the wind.
"I suggest we run faster-" she whispered. The Amber and Rosemary turned around to see what Alice could see. In the darkness of the forest trees, they could see 6 pairs of mad eyes, coming ever closer. "NOW!"
Amber and Rosemary took off again, screaming and yelling as branches wipped their faces, Amber leading and having no idea where they were going. Suddenly the trees seemed to be thinning-they were reaching the edge of the forest.
They burst out off the trees and into the cool night air of the Hogwarts grounds. They collapsed onto the ground, dispite it being covered in snow and lay there shivering on the ground.
"I don't believe Hagrid." Rosemary said after a while. "How can he want a pet that tries to bit your legs off?"
"That's Hagrid apparently." Amber said, sitting up and checking she still had all body parts. "He has a strange obsession with large and dangerous creatures."
"Honestly, I thought I was going to die." Alice said faintly. She pulled herself up into a sitting position. "How on earth did your parents get past him?"
"I can't remember!" Amber said, frustrated. It really was starting to annoy her.
Amber couldn't believe how lucky they were. Stupid Snape and Lyra … if they hadn't been talking so loudly, they wouldn't have heard them and followed-
"Hold on-we've completely forgotten about Snape and Lyra!" Amber said loudly, standing up and picking up her bag.
"Oh yeah-I completely forgot seeing as we were being chased by a 10-foot monster!" Rosemary snarled, also standing up.
"Look, Lyra's working for someone and he wants answers-but she won't give them." Amber retorted, as they swung the invisibility cloak over themselves and started to head back to the castle.
"And Snape's trying to get her to tell them." Rosemary added. "But what answers? And who are they working for?"
"I'm sure they mentioned a name, I just can't remember what." Amber said. She glanced sideways at Alice, who was looking pale and Amber noticed that she had streams of tears under her eyes. Obviously, she'd started to cry with fear.
"What's wrong?" Amber asked.
"Nothing." Alice said, wiping her eyes. "I was just scared. But I can't believe that they think they could possibly get away with killing dad-"
She broke off as they entered the cark castle. It was now way past midnight and there were teachers everywhere for some reason.
They only started talking again when they reached the safety of the common room, thrown of the cloak and sunk onto a sofa in front of the fire.
"Look. We've overheard two Snape-Lyra conversations." Amber said, trying to think when she was so tired "Why don't we just go to Professor Longbottom and say that Lyra and Snape are no good?"
"We don't have any proof." Alice said, rubbing her eyes. "They won't believe us."
Rosemary yawned loudly.
"I think we need to go to bed." Amber said, standing up, "Come on."
They stood up and headed off up the stairs to the dormitories. They changed into pyjamas and got into bed, Alice and Rosemary falling asleep at once. But Amber stayed awake.
Who was it that they were working for? Who was it that wanted Alice's dad dead? Amber didn't know, but she knew if she wanted to get any proof, she'd have to find out …
A/N: Hurrah! Yes, fluffy is actualy in the forbidden forest (I read it somewhere) and i just had to put him in there. Poor Alice-she tends to lose her head when scared or under pressure.
Not a good combination.
Plus i think it's been a long time since i updated, but i was waiting for more reviews you see ... ok, so i don't have many, but come on, everyone loves reviews.
Oh well, reviews ARE appriciated and i seriously love everyone who's reviewed. If there's anyone out there who is reading but not reviewing-then please please do. It means so much to me.
Ok, i don't really like this chapter that much, but i guess it's for you guys to decide. See you next time ...