DISCLAIMER: Don't own HP ... this is getting very old you know ...
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 TWELVE: Another Convo.
After the "Valentine incident" in potions, Snape had given them so much homework, that it was more than the rest they had put together. Also, Malfoy had become increasingly sour towards all the Gryffindor first years, who constantly mocked him about Mandy, who seemed not to be able to leave Malfoy out of her sight.
"She's like his stalker!" Rosemary observed when they left the classroom and all three of them laughed as they past Malfoy looking about to explode, as Mandy and her usual gang of friends followed him about 10 paces behind him.
"Anyway-Alice, you have to help us with our homework." Amber asked desperately, as they made their way out into the crowded courtyard and huddled in a blustery corner, upturning their collars, so as to keep warmer. "Snape gave us so much and I have Quidditch practise tonight."
"And I think Tania would kill you if you miss this practise." Rosemary agreed, "Your next game against Hufflepuff is next Saturday-she wants to win so badly. If you beat them, you'll be coming ahead of Slytherin for the first time since Uncle Harry played!"
Indeed, Slytherin played up against Hufflepuff at the beginning of February. Slytherin won by 50 points, which meant if they beat Hufflepuff also, they would be out of the running for the cup. Something Tania was stressing about and also even more determine to win, as it was her second to last year, and her second to last chance to win the cup.
So if they won, then they would be coming ahead of Slytherin-something that hadn't happened since Amber's dad had played.
"Yeah, I suppose I'll help you this once." Alice said, rolling her eyes. The bell rang and they headed inside for dinner.
"Thanks." Amber said, as they trudged up the front steps and into the still-pink entrance hall and collapsed at the Gryffindor table. "I'm going to need it."
After a hasty dinner, Amber ran up to the dormitories to drop off her bag, and then realised that she didn't have a broom.
"I'll have to mention that." She muttered to herself as she made her way down to the Quidditch pitch.
The rest of the team was already there when she walked into the changing rooms. Andy and Josh were chatting to Thomas Finnegan nearby on the benches, in their red Quidditch robes and brooms in hand. Zoë Jordan-the twin of Chloe and was the other beater was talking to Cecilia Wood, the Keeper, and Tania came strolling out of the captain's office, carrying a set of red Gryffindor Quidditch robes, a magazine and a old broom.
"Ah-Amber. Good, you're here." She handed the robes to Amber, which she noticed had "Potter" sewn on the back. "These are yours. And this-" she handed her a copy of Which Broomstick? "-is to pick out a new broom."
"Oh yeah-see I don't-"
"Don't worry-your brother said you didn't have one, and I've talked it all out with Professor Longbottom, and he says we can bend the first-year rule just this once."
"Oh-well, thanks-" Amber began, but she then called order to her team and everyone fell silent. Amber hung back to stand next to Andy.
"Ok team." Tania said all business like. "We all know that Hufflepuff are a pretty strong team, but i say we can take them down! The captain has been practising all sorts of moves and we have to be able to do them as well if we're going to stand a chance!"
Cecilia snorted. "Sure Tania-last year, we won against them, 170-20!"
"That's how I thought you would take this!" Tania said in exasperation. "Hufflepuff were easy to beat last year but i've been spying on them, and trust me-they are pretty good! They might seem a push-over, but they're not! We must take this seriously! We must win!"
"Ok!" Cecilia said, looking alarmed at Tania's enthusiasm.
"Ok … let's go. Amber-you can borrow this broom for the time being." Tania thrust the old comet 260 that was slightly bent at the front into her hands.
Amber hastily pulled on her new team robes and followed Tania out onto the pitch. Conditions were favourable-a light wind and clouds were blocking the sun, so they wouldn't have any visual problems.
"Ok team-let's play!" Tania yelled and they all kicked off into the air.
All in all, practise went very well. Amber worked well with Josh and Tania and Cecilia was getting good at keeping, saving more and more goals, and Andy and Zoë nearly knocked out Thomas during his search for the snitch, when they both hit the same bludger at the same time. They had to finish early, however, as Andy and Zoë did knock out Thomas 10 minutes later, as they tried the double hit again and he didn't duck fast enough. But Tania said he'd be ok for their match the following Saturday.
Amber was humming quietly as she made her way back up to the common room, when she heard voices-coming from an empty classroom to her right. Amber stopped humming to listen. They voices sounded oddly familiar-and they was no mistaking that sneer and prissy posh voice issuing from the gap between the door and the wall.
Amber's heart gave a twang as she leaned forward to put her ear as close to the door as she could, without moving it and listened to Snape and Lyra argue in the room beyond.
" … Look! You may think you're helping, but you're not! So butt out Severus-"
"Sara-the dark lord has put me in charge of making sure you get your job done. If you don't succeed, he's likely to kill you! And you know that I don't want you killed."
"Ha! And how many times have you said that to gain a death eaters trust? Countless Severus! Countless! You're a traitor to the dark lord, and ought not to be meddled with!"
"Sara-do you honestly think that I would be standing here if I hadn't given satisfactory answers to the dark lord? He too has questioned my loyalty-something he no doubt picked up from the old lord."
"I suppose-well, he is … look, that's not the point! You come here and say he's put you on the job as well? Well with master of mystery-Snape-on the case, it should be over within a week!"
There was a pause from the room beyond and Amber held her breath, listening hard. She heard footsteps coming towards the door and realised that she had no cloak.
Forgetting that she was allowed out, as it was only eight, Amber shrank back into the shadows of the fading light from the corridor window and hid behind a statue of an ugly gargoyle, and heard Snape stalked off, apparently in a towering temper. Amber glanced out from behind her statue and saw Lyra storm out after him, heading in the opposite direction. Amber made sure the coast was clear, and then set off for the common room at a run.
"Then we were right-he is working for Damaan!" Rosemary exclaimed the following Monday in charms, while they were attempting to levitate cushions. They had decided that it was too risky talking about it in the common room, where there were tones of people, so they decided on Charms. After Amber exclaimed "Oh, it's the weekend tomorrow-I'll do my essay then", they had discussed the conversation Amber overheard all weekend that it distracted Amber from everything else, except for Tania's determination to kill her team during practise by working them too hard before their match the following Saturday.
They were now whispering in a low conversation, unlikely to be overheard due to the yell's of Geraldine in the corner and Logan and Toby trying to help Professor Flitwick down from being jinxed to the ceiling by accident, not to mention the Rain that had started that mornning, splattering on the windows.
Charms class, taught by tiny Professor Flitwick, was the ideal place for a conversation you don't want overheard, as normally there was a lot of moment and talking, that people hardily listened in on conversations. Today they were attempting to levitate cushions. They had used feathers, and Professor Flitwick had decided that they ought to move to the next step-using cushions so as they wouldn't hurt anyone if they flew off course. Unfortunately, Carley's cushion flew into the air so fast, it looked like a blur. It bounced off the ceiling and hit professor Flitwick in the head, causing him to topple backwards off his stool of books.
"Yes." Amber whispered, flicking her wand, so her cushion soured into the air and hit Logan in the back of the head. "Lyra thinks he is a traitor and Snape is saying that he's been told to make sure Lyra's doing her job."
"'Job'?!" Alice exclaimed. "Job! Ha! And the job happens to be killing my dad-I honestly don't see the point-why kill the Hogwarts headmaster?"
"That's something that we need to find out." Rosemary said, also flicking her wand and saying "Wingardium Leviosa" and the cushion didn't fly into the air, but flopped weekly on the table and fell off.
The bell rang 10 minutes later, and Professor Flitwick summoned all the cushions to him, but unfortunately the force of them caused him to fall off his chair again. Amber led the way out of the class and to their Transfiguration classroom.
"Obviously, Damaan doesn't trust Lyra to do it all by her self. He's ordered Snape to watch over." Amber concluded as they entered the class and sat down at the back.
"Yeah. Also-" Rosemary began, but she couldn't pursue the subject as Professor Chang slammed the door shut and began to ask round for their essays.
"Uh …" Amber realised that she hadn't done it.
"Ha!" Alice said triumphantly, "You lose! Ten galleons please!" she held out her hand.
"No way! I never said-"
"Yes you did." Alice said, handing over her own essay. "You said quite plainly 'Oh it's the weekend tomorrow-I'll do my essay then!' and continued to talk about the latest Snape-Lyra convo. So that's ten galleons!"
"But is was "Oh it's Sunday tomorrow"!" Amber protested.
"Same difference-fork over!" Alice exclaimed happily. Grumbling, Amber pulled out ten galleons from the bottom of her bag and handed the gold over. Rosemary giggled, but stopped when she realised that she hadn't done it either.
"Right-Potter, Weasley-detention. Tonight. My office." Professor Chang said grimly. "You'll be doing your essay then."
Amber and Rosemary groaned, and exchanged a look with each other.
"You know-if Tania doesn't stop trying to kill us all before Saturday, they'll be none of the team left to play. Yesterday I had to use my Laser to help me limp back to the common room." Amber sighed and winced as she moved on her seat. True, Tania had been working them so hard, that the new broom Amber had ordered from Which broomstick?, the Laser127, was already bent from when Tania had settled for nothing less than the best.
"You'd better win on Saturday." Alice exclaimed, poking her mouse and it turned into half an egg cup. "Damn!"
On the other side of the room, Geraldine was calling excitedly, waving a grey eggcup. "I did it!" she called and earned 10 points for Gryffindor. Alice said "Humpf." And remained in a huffy silence for the rest of the lesson.
"Amber!" Amber heard someone call, and saw Tania running towards her as they left for lunch.
"Yeah?" Amber asked weekly, as she wobbled down the marble staircase, while all her leg mussels ached.
"Practise is cancelled for tonight." Tania said, looking as if she were highly disappointed. "The weather is too bad, and I don't want you lot getting hurt before the game. We've worked too hard-we're going to win!" she added and ran off to join her friends.
"Good thing were not having practise." Amber said as they walked the rest of the way into the great hall and Amber collapsed onto the table, rubbing her legs and rolling her shoulders. "I'm aching all over."
"You too?" Amber heard Andy say, and he and Josh dropped opposite them, wincing as Amber had done.
"It's a nightmare." Said Josh, "We're certain that Tania's trying to kill us all before we can play on Saturday."
"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing." Amber said. "I hope the rain clears up."
"If it doesn't-all well, apparently they've played worse." Andy said, spearing a sausage on his fork. "They played in a thunder storm a few years ago like dad did-remember?"
Amber remembered. The story of how her dad had first lost a game.
"Yeah." She said, while Rosemary hummed a muggle theme song and Alice stared down the table at nothing in particular. "Let's hope."
But the rain did not stop. By Friday, the day before the match, the rain was at breaking point, and the front doors had actually been broken open by the wind, even against the magic holding it together, something that had defiantly never happened before.
"I dunno how I'm going to play tomorrow in this!" Amber bellowed over a new crack of thunder over head, as they ran, pell-mell to the castle from the greenhouses, pulling scarfs around them, but still getting soaked.
"Maybe you can have one of those umbrella hats?" Alice suggested as they hurried up the steps and collapsing into the entrance hall, dripping water everywhere. "You know-the ones that muggles wear?"
"Oh, I've seen those." Rosemary exclaimed, squeezing a considerable amount of water out of her long, red, curly hair. "They look so silly! Just put an impervious jinx on you."
Amber began to grow nervous as the day worn on. None of the team wanted to play tomorrow, except for Tania, who was saying that a little rain never hurt anybody.
"Yeah-but a lot can kill you." Andy grumbled in the common room that night, trying to ignore the howling wind and thunder of rain from outside. "Sounds like the castles going to fall down."
"Too true." Daphne agreed.
She came over and sat down as a thresh wave of thunder rolled over, squeezing a large amount of water out of her red pony tail and muttered a jinx to make her robes dry out.
"I dunno how you're going to play in this." She said, gesturing out of the storm-clad window. "You are either going to drown or be sizzled alive by lightning."
"Tania sounds a lot like wood, doesn't she?" Rosemary said and Amber agreed.
"Who's Wood?" Alice asked.
"The Quidditch captain when dad played." Daphne answered. "He was completely Quidditch mad."
"Maybe they're related?" Amber suggested, but at that moment, Tania herself came through the portrait hole.
"We are still playing tomorrow." She said enthusiastically. "But don't worry-it's good to play in different conditions."
As she walked off, Daphne snorted "Different conditions?" she said in outrage "Is she trying to kill you guys?"
"Yep." Came Josh's voice, and he came over and sat down with them in front of the fire. "I honestly think we should wear aqua-lungs, because at the rate this is going, the grounds will be flooded by the time we get to the pitch tomorrow."
Amber spent the rest of the night trying not to think about tomorrow. She was feeling very queasy and apprehensive about playing in this weather, something that Malfoy was very smug about.
Amber rolled over in her sleep that night, trying to block out the howling of the wind and continuous downpour of rain and claps of thunder and flashes of lightning, but it was proving very difficult.
Maybe I should wear an aqua-lung. She thought, just before drifting off to an un-easy sleep At least then I won't drown.
A/N: Ok, i was at a loss on what to call this-for the want of a better word-chapter. This was just a part between 11 and 13, and it didn't fit anywhere. So oh well.
Oh-and Hurrah! (You didn't think i'd forget, did you?)
Also, the line "A little rain never hurt anybody" "Yeah, but a lot can kill you" I stole from "Jumanji". So none of my credit.
Until next time-
-Moon. : D
PS. Also, i'm reeeeeeeally not liking this story. I think it's 'cause it's not one of my best, but yeah. So trust me, i know it's not wonderful. Lol.