Chapter 13: Gifts and Rewards

There was a conspiracy going on here, Diana was certain of it!

The two know-it-alls had been radiating pure joy since yesterday, and it ticked her off not knowing what it was that they were so happy about. She had tried asking mind you, but all she got was a:

"I'll tell you my secret if you tell me yours," from her sister, which literary translated in tell me how you got that Outstanding in History of Magic and I'll tell you what I'm so happy about. It hurt her slightly that her sister didn't believe she was capable of getting good grades on her own, but, truth be told, if she were her sister, she'd probably be suspicious too.

However, her sister's secret could wait for another time, right now, Diana and Neville were busy trying to get operation Payback into action.

"So, how are we doing this?" Neville asked again.

"Well, first we need to find that blasted poltergeist and convince it to follow Lockhart around the school all day, and give him hell for the rest of the semester, then we'll head out in the forest and get Rusty and his pals to do a number on the bastard, and then we'll have to take care of Malfoy and his goons," Diana said, ticking the steps on her fingers.

"Right," Neville nodded. "Wait," he suddenly seemed confused. "What's Malfoy got to do with getting rid of Lockhart?" asked the plump boy.

"Nothing. That's plan two," Diana reminded, "Operation save Dobby!"

"Oh, yeah," Neville nodded. "I remember."

The duo were currently snooping down the dungeon floor in search for Peeves the troublesome Poltergeist.

"Are you sure you want to miss Heidi's Quidditch match against Hufflepuff?" Neville asked for what felt like the thousand time.

"I told you already! This is the perfect timing to set our trap and have Lockhart out of here before sundown – hopefully – Heidi'll win the match indifferent of the fact that we're there or not. Diggory has no chance against her," Diana said confidently. "And besides, do you want to be caught snooping in the dungeons by the Slytherin little rascals? Because there'll be quite a few of them lurking around after the game!" Neville shuck his head furiously. "Then let's go!" Diana prompted and grabbed a hold of his arm.

Heidi was feeling better then she had in months! She had tried out the Draught of Living Death two days ago and it worked like a charm! Two fantastic days of Voldemort-free nights and she felt herself regain all the drained up energy from the sleepless nights she'd had to endure so far. She was grinning madly, and Diggory and his puff team were about to get squashed!

"Captains shake hands," Madam Hooch called out; whistle firmly held in one hand and a broomstick in the other.

Oliver marched forward to shake hands with the Hufflepuff captain, a seventh year, bulky boy Heidi had no interest in.

"On my mark," the gray-haired lady called as she lifted the whistle to her lips.

Heidi was bouncing with excitement and her eyes were glued to the small struggling ball in madam Hooch's hand. The rush of adrenalin was somewhat intoxicating; she felt nothing less then a junky that was currently on a sugar-rush, but damn if she cared. She nearly jumped off the ground as she saw madam Hooch release the Snitch, but Fred (who'd taken notice of her strange behavior) was keeping a firm grip on her wrist.

The Snitch zoomed around the players for a few seconds, and then began its fast ascend towards the heavens above, while Heidi's eyes followed it like a predator chasing its destined pray.

Madam Hooch's whistle mercifully blew after a few short seconds and Heidi all but forgot about Diana's warning to not trash Diggory in today's match, or Oliver's advice to let them score as may points as they could get and leaped after the tiny golden ball, snatching it from the air before Angelina even got the chance to catch the Quaffle, shocking her team-mates and the crowd speechless.

"AMAZING!" Lee Jordan's voice boomed from the commenter's stand. "POTTER CAUGHT THE SNITCH IN LESS THEN 5 SECONDS! IT'S A NEW RECORD LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!"

Heidi took a few dives of joy as she looked gleefully at the tiny struggling ball in her hands, while Angelina, who was closest to her, crashed head-first into her and throttled her till she was green. Fred and George were soon to catch up with them, followed closely by Katy Bell and Alicia Spinet, Wood was last to arrive.

"That was amazing," Wood said and he kissed her on the cheek and enveloped her in a bone crushing hug.

"Thanks," Heidi said cheerfully and let herself be carried away by her team-mates towards the stands where the overly-excited crowd was waiting.

Hermione was giving her a worried look, which Heidi completely missed as she was hurled up into the air by the cheering Gryffindor fans.

"What is wrong with you?" asked Hermione when she finally managed to corner Heidi in the locket room after the others had left.

"Nothing's wrong with me," Heidi smiled brightly at her.

"Oh, really?" asked a skeptical looking Hermione. "So trashing Diggory in today's match by beating the record of fastest catch in a game when they'd been completely trashed by Slytherin in their previous match seems like normal to your?"

Heidi's good mood seemed to drop all of a sudden.

"I..." she tried to say, but words seemed to evade her at the moment.

"I honestly don't know what came over me," Heidi finally managed to choke out.

"I think it's the combined effect of the two potions," Hermione said worriedly. "It'll be best if you stopped taking them for a little while so that we can research the two more thoroughly," she suggested.

Heidi was quick to disagree and pointedly ignored her friend's comments all throughout the day.

As Heidi's adrenaline rush seemed to have returned to normal the following day, Hermione dismissed the events of the Quidditch match as the girl's joy of finally having an annoying weight lifted of her shoulders and thought nothing less of it, though for caution's sake she set upon researching the two potions and their side effects in more detail, just to be on the safe side.

Heidi, however, too ashamed of seeing the Hufflepuff's desolated face, made it her life's mission to avoid Diggory at all cause, diving behind corners or in deserted classrooms and forcing the group to take the long way to some classes when they happened to cross ways with the Hufflepuff boy in the hallway, something which earned her more then a few shouting matches with her sister.

The Weasley twins soon caught on to Heidi's weird behavior and decided to help her out by offering to prank the fourth year up until his brains rot, an offer which Heidi politely declined. Still hoping to be of some kind of use, the two decided to give Heidi an early birthday present.

"It's the secret of our success," whispered Fred conspicuously.

"It's a wrench, giving it to you," said George sourly. "But we'll do whatever it takes to keep our prized Seeker out of harm's way!" Heidi glared pointedly at them and George rushed to add: "Within the boundaries of your excellencies requests, of course."

The gift turned out to be a piece of parchment, which after a quick incantation of: "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," whispered by George turned out to be the best gift Heidi had got since the invisibility cloak (which she still had no idea who had sent her).

"Wow," Heidi whispered mystified. "And you're giving this to me?" she asked almost bouncing with excitement.

"Indeed we are milady," one of the twins nodded merrily.

Heidi had kissed the both on the cheek, making them turn a bright shad of red in a matter of seconds and rushed off to find her sister and friends. Needless to say avoiding Diggory became a piece of cake after they got the hang of how to use the map.

Diana was overly excited about the map and decided to put it to good use immediately, by stalking Lockhart around and playing pranks on him in the most bizarre of moments. The Weasley twins offered their help in their struggle against the barmy professor, which Diana was soon to accept, so, it was no surprise when by the end of May, Lockhart was threatening to resign under claim that the castle had somehow cursed him with bad-luck.

Lucius Malfoy, Head of the Board of Governments of Hogwarts, wasted no time in apparating to school, with the soul intention of causing as much trouble for Dumbledore as he could, with regards to Lockhart's complains. He had rushed out in such a hurry, that he forgot all about his poor elf, Dobby, who was hanging miserably behind him and trying to polish his shoes.

Diana wasted no time in seizing the opportunity.

"Mister Malfoy, what a pleasure it is to see you again," she greeted cheerily.

"Good day, milady," Malfoy Sr. greeted in return. "I'm glad to see you in good health. Unfortunately I have an urgent matter to discuss with your Headmaster today, so if you will excuse me, we shall speak another time." The blond said and tried to politely slip pass the red-head.

"Oh, then please don't let me keep you," Diana hastily replied. "I just wanted to offer you this small token of appreciation which my mother bought for your wife," she pulled out a small package from her school bag-pack and handed it to the Malfoy patriarch. "I was about to hand it over to your son today so that he might owl it to you, since our owl is rather confused as to where your house is and has come back with it on more then one occasion."

Malfoy Sr. took the package with a polite smile. "Thank you for your trouble, but you needn't have bothered," he replied courteously.

"Oh, no trouble at all! I wish you a good day sir," Diana gave him a slight bow and took her leave. She rounded a corner where Neville was sitting with the Marauder's Map in had and waited, fingers crossed behind her back, hoping that her plan would work.

It did.

After Diana was out of sight, Malfoy Sr. hurriedly thruster the package in Dobby's hands and began his march down the corridor and towards Dumbledore's office.

"Dobby!" Diana called.

The small elf jumped in surprise and spun around wildly only to give her a surprised look.

"Miss Potter?" Dobby asked confused.

"Open it!" Diana prompted. "The box," she pointed at the unwrapped package. "Now!"

Dobby gave her a confused look, but proceeded to open the package inside. A squeal of delight escaped him as he saw what was within.

"Dobby!" Lucius Malfoy turned to give the poor elf a reproachful look. "Keep it down!" he warned.

"Master has given Dobby an embroider," the elf squealed happily.

"What are you talking about?" Lucius Malfoy asked surprised. Then he saw the box which Diana had given him at the elf's feet, and then he noticed a white piece of fabric in the creature's tiny little hands which had one of the most beautiful designs he had ever seen engraved onto it.

"Dobby is free!" the elf cried in delight and threw his hands in the air in joy, singing and dancing through the silent corridor.

"NO! That was not meant for you!" Lucius tried to say, but Dobby couldn't care less as he disappeared with a pop right in front of his eyes leaving an enraged Malfoy patriarch behind. Diana and Neville were soon to follow his example and scatter from the corridor.

The elf sought them out a few hours later and offered his eternal loyalty to them, which Diana wanted to decline, but Heidi disagreed by pointing out that the now free elf needed a place to stay.

"He can work for us," Heidi said. "We'll pay him," she promised. "Give him free weekends, days off, clothes, even a room of his own, which I think is more then he ever got from the Malfoy!"

Dobby had immediately agreed to Heidi's proposal, and Diana reluctantly let the matter drop. Dobby, however, remained at Hogwarts with the girls for the remainder of the semester since the girls had to first talk their parents into agreeing of the elf's presence in their house.

A few days after Malfoy Sr.'s visit, Ginny Weasley finally regained consciousness, and she was soon to claim that she'd been possessed by the memory of a spirit - she wouldn't tell the name. Dumbledore was convinced it was Voldemort, and assured the girl she'd be spared of any punishment with regards to her actions (something which irked the quartet, since they hadn't been spared of any punishment).

The Match versus Ravenclaw was barely worth mentioning at all, seeing how, in spite of all the team's effort, and their brilliant flying maneuvers, their Seeker was terrible. Cho Chang, a third year new-recruit, could hardly see the Snitch flying a few feet in front of her, so the match went to Gryffindor with 210 to 70.

Wood was practically spitting with joy of finally winning the Quidditch cup and had drunk himself half to death, that by the end of the night, he's proposed to Angelina, butchered the Hallelujah Muggle-song, managed to take the term ridiculous to a whole new level by dancing the monkey dance, snogged Heidi for a whole minute, before rushing off and throwing up on Colin Creevey. Fred and George had tied him to his bed for the rest of the night, in hopes of saving some of his rapidly-dying-dignity and then proceeded to tease Heidi about the kiss Oliver gave her up until the girl was rushed up to her room by her sister and Hermione, for fear of killing the two.

The teasing didn't end there however; Diana kept nagging her about the whole ordeal even a few weeks after the exam results came. Heidi was only too glad when it turned out that Wood had been so drunk that night that he'd forgotten all about it and so was rather confused as to why people were giving him such meaningful looks every time he came within a few feet of Heidi. It didn't help much that the kiss reminded her of her dreams of teenage-Voldemort and she sometimes found herself missing the feel of his soft yet demanding lips upon hers and the goose-bumps which formed on her skin as his hands trailed gently around her back, up through her hair and...

"Heidi!" Diana's snappish voice brought the ember eyed girl back to reality.

"What?" Heidi asked annoyed.

"You were spacing out," Hermione said. "Are you feeling ok?" she asked concerned.

"Yes," Heidi smiled reassuringly. It's better this way, she reminded herself. "So, what did I miss?"

"We were planning out our summer map," Diana said. "You know where to go when, at whose house and so on."

"Oh! OK!" Heidi nodded leaning in slightly closer to her friends.

The quartet were currently barricaded in one of the compartments of the Hogwarts Express, already a good two hours had passed by since the trains departure from Hogsmead.

"I suggest coming to my house first, I don't wanna be alone with granny this week," Neville said and the girls nodded.

"Sure, we'll just have to pick up Dudley and we'll be there tomorrow," Diana told him.

"That sounds good," Hermione agreed. "We should ask your Grandmother to help us get started on our Defense lessons; after all we don't know who our professor will be nest year. It's such a shame that professor Lockhart left," Hermione sighed sadly.

"Yeah, big shame," Diana said sarcastically.

"Speaking of lessons," Heidi said turning to give her sister a pointed look. "You still haven't told me how you managed to score that Exceeds Expectations in Herbology!"

"I studied really hard," said Diana throwing her sister a pointed glare. Ever since their grade results had come, her sister and Hermione kept pressing her for information on how she'd managed to get such good grades, despite the fact that she'd yet to open a single book which wasn't related to healing magic, a subject to which she was completely devoted to.

"Really?" Heidi asked skeptically.

"Really!" said Diana snappishly. As much as she loved her sister, there was just something good about having someone there which you could confide in and know that that being was entirely yours, a secret from everybody else around, which nobody had to know about, something which belonged only to her! And as selfish as it might sound, that's how Diana wanted to keep Tom Riddle, a secret from everybody else.

"Fine!" Heidi said moodily and turned away from her sister. She knew she was hiding something, but she couldn't exactly blame her, after all, she hadn't told her about the fact that she was taking sleeping potion every night either, so she guessed they were even in some way, for now at least.

"Fine!" Diana turned towards Neville and began a hushed conversation with him, while Heidi, in turn, began whispering to Hermione. Neville and Hermione rolled their eyes at the childish behavior and sighed in defeat. It looked like they were about to have a loooooong summer ahead of them.

AN: PLEAS READ!

So, second year is finished, sorry if it seemed kind of rushed, but there really wasn't anything else left for this year, so, yeah.

Now, for my main problem: third year. The problem with this is, I'm barely half-way into writing chapter one of POA and my finals are due to start in three weeks time, and I have projects to complete and all the other blah, blah, stuff...so, seeing as I'm gonna be rather busy in the upcoming two months, I've decided to let it up to the readers' choice as to how I'll publish year three. Now, you have two options:

You let me take a break from fanfic and finish writing POA, then, when I'm done, I start posting the chapters one per week (as per normal), and start writing GOF in the meantime.

Or

I post the chapters as I write them.

Now, I'm sure you understand the advantages and disadvantages that both options have, so, I'll leave it up to you to choose. Go to my profile and vote for whichever you want, and I'll be announcing the results of the pool in two week's time in the form of the first chapter of POA (if that is what you decide), or an announcement on my profile page. Thanks to those who've reviewed and favorited the story, and oh, before I forget, Neville will be paired up with Luna (she topped Ginny with one vote).