Chapter 14: No Unity without Discord

"So long as an opinion is strongly rooted in the feelings, I gains rather than loses in stability by having a preponderating weight of arguments against it."
--John Stuart Mill-

\|/\|/\|/

Harry woke to find the cracked plaster ceiling of the Hospital Wing above him.

"Harry?" a voice asked.

"Hey, Harry's awake!"

Hermione, Ron, Ernie, and Justin quickly gathered around him.

"You won!" Ron announced.

"We did?" Harry asked.

"You caught the snitch," Ron said.

"But…" Harry frowned. "Didn't Madam Hooch blow the whistle? I thought she had called time out or something because of my broom malfunctioning."

Ron shook his head. "Nope, the game clock was still running. Forty-two minutes, thirteen seconds, not bad for a rookie Seeker."

"That's not fair," Harry said.

"What? The time?" Ron asked. "Perfectly fair. Kahn Cussion managed to catch the snitch thirty-five minutes into his first game, but you've only been flying for two months and he'd been on a broomstick for years before he became a fly-on Seeker for the Arrows."

"No, I mean about the game still going," Harry said, pushing himself up until he was sitting up.

"And where do you think you are going?" a stern voice asked as Madam Pomfrey swept between Ernie and Justin.

"I need to talk to Madam Hooch," Harry said. "Our victory wasn't fair. I need—"

"Ms. Capper and Mr. Laveran have already had this discussion with Madam Hooch, there will be no rematch," she said sternly. "Morgana only knows what injuries you would arrive in my hospital wing with were one to be held. No, Mr. Potter, the final score stands. Congratulations." She stopped waving her wand over him. "Three hours more, Mr. Potter, than you can go."

"I feel fine," Harry protested.

"And you won't feel at all fine if you try to get out of that bed in less than three hours," the medi-witch said sternly.

She turned and swept away, but he could hear her mutter that only a Hufflepuff would demand a rematch for a game they'd won.

"Cedric and the Ravenclaw Seeker, Kipling, have already been released," Ernie said. "They caught you and slowed you down, but Kipling caught a bludger and was thrown from his broom and you all crashed down together. You ended up in the bottom of the pile."

"Figures," Harry sighed. "Does anyone know what happened to my broom? I mean, I read about brooms some but there wasn't enough time to read everything. Was there something I should have been looking for?"

"Harry…" Hermione began. She looked at the others who shrugged. She turned back to Harry and gave him and helpless look. "What happened to your broom, Harry, it wasn't accidental."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked.

"What happened wasn't a malfunction or some aspect of the charms going wrong," Hermione said. "What I mean to say is…it was deliberate. Someone purposely sabotaged your broom."

The door of the infirmary opened and Hagrid walked in. "Harry!" he said. "Good to see yer up."

"Hello, Hagrid," Harry said.

"Hagrid watched the game with us," Ernie said. "It was pretty good until…well…"

"I brought yeh this," Hagrid said, a small golden ball appearing in his giant hand. "Figured yeh might want ter keep it. Good luck an' such."

"Thanks, Hagrid," Harry said, taking the ball.

"Hagrid, we think Elissa Blackthorn may be trying to kill Harry," Hermione said.

"What?" Harry blurted at the same time as Hagrid said, "Allie?"

"The Headmaster said that she's spent a couple years studying advanced magic," Ron said.

Hagrid snorted as Harry stared at Hermione in shock. "Bushwah. Allie weren' at the game."

"She didn't need to be," Hermione said. "She could have put the spells on the broom one at a time over days, even weeks, if need be."

"Harry didn' keep 'is broom in the shed," Hagrid said.

"The Hufflepuff common room has a standing open door policy to friends in other houses," Ernie said. "She could have snuck in at any time."

"You said that it took Dark magic to influence a broom," Ron said. "She says she has a dangerous Talent. And with what the Headmaster said…" he looked at Hagrid expectantly.

"I've known Allie fer years," Hagrid said. "Had a problem in mah hut with a g—"

Ron cut him off. "She's probably working with Snape to get whatever it is that is being guarded behind that three-headed dog!"

"How do yeh know 'bout Fluffy?" Hagrid asked.

"Fluffy?" Harry blurted.

"Yeah," Hagrid said slowly. "He's mine, bough' him off a Greek chappie I met in the pub las' year, I lent him ter Dumbledore ter guard the…" he stopped, frowning suddenly.

"Yes?" Harry asked eagerly.

"Now, don' ask me anymore," Hagrid said gruffly. "That's top secret, that is."

"But Snape's trying to steal it!" Ron nearly shouted.

"Rubbish," Hagrid said. "Snape's a Hogwarts teacher, he'd do nothin' of the sort."

"So then why are he and Allie trying to kill Harry?" Hermione asked. The events of the afternoon had clearly changed her mind about the two Slytherins. "Even if you're right about her not having the knowledge, I bet Snape could have taught her. If Harry kept the broom in his dorm then how else would the broom have been cursed?"

"I'm telling yeh, yer wrong!" Hagrid said hotly. "I don' know why Harry's broom acted like that, but Allie wouldn' try ter kill anyone, and Snape wouldn' help her try an' kill a student. Harry, I'm surprised yeh aren' objecting, I thought Allie was yer friend!"

Harry felt ill, but he looked away from Hagrid. The words wouldn't come.

"Now yeh listen ter me," Hagrid said after a moment, "the whole lot of yeh. Allie didn' try ter kill yeh, Harry, an' neither did Snape. Yer meddlin' in things that don' concern yeh. It's dangerous. You forget that dog, an' yeh forget what it's guardin'. That's between Professor Dumbledore an' Nicolas Flamel."

Hagrid turned and stormed from the room before Harry could say anything else.

"Well," Hermione said, "we did learn one thing."

"We did?" Ernie asked.

"Yeah," Harry said slowly. "There's someone named Nicolas Flamel involved."

\|/\|/\|/

Harry paused outside the doors of Allie's lab in the Tower of Turmoil. He screwed up his courage and knocked.

"Come in."

On top of the long bench that dominated the center of the room was a complex array of stoppered flasks over small fires. Connecting the flasks were miles of glass tubes. All of this met in the center where there was a cauldron over a blue flame but under a glass enclosure. The tubes entered the enclosure and were extended over the cauldron. A small spigot on the outside of the enclosure was connected to more tubing which ran into the side of a water faucet from which water ran freely.

"What is all of this?" Harry asked, unable to overcome his curiosity.

"Alchemy," Allie said, "among other things. I'm just generating a few precursor agents for a potion I want to try. This one happens to require a vacuum. Can I help you with something?"

"We need to talk," Harry said. "Not here, there's an unused classroom we're meeting in."

She looked up at him and frowned. "Right now?"

He nodded.

"I'll need a minute," she said.

"That would be fine," Harry said. He left, shutting the door behind him, and waited uneasily until she came out.

"What's the problem?" she asked.

Harry shook his head mutely and led her out of the tower and down the gallery.

"Harry?" Allie asked.

"You'll see in a bit," he said, opening a secret passageway. It was narrow, low, and very, very dusty. The passageway let out near the charms corridor, and Harry went to the first unused classroom on the right.

"Well?" Ernie asked as he walked in.

Allie followed him in and stopped, her hand on the door-handle as she took in both the High Lords of Chaos, plus two. "Granger, Weasley," she said, her tone polite, but cool. "I see that the gang's all here, though I can't imagine why you'd want to do anything with Weasley."

"That was before you tried to kill Harry," Ron said hotly.

Harry froze as Allie's familiar smirk disappeared. For a moment her face was twisted, ugly with rage and hate, that made him take a step back, but then she schooled her face into a blank, expressionless mask.

"You've got nothing, Weasley."

"We know that you tried to kill Harry," Ron repeated. "We know how you did. We know why you did it. We know when you did it." When Allie didn't reply he smirked. "Don't have anything to say to that, do you?"

"All I've heard so far is hot air, Weasley," Allie said. "Sly hinting and innuendo, from a little boy who thinks he is far more clever than he really is. If I wanted to listen to this I'd go listen to Malfoy blather." Ron started to retort, but Allie pressed on. "If you really did have some evidence of what you are suggesting I did, Weasley, then I would be having this conversation with the Law Enforcement Patrol."

"We have evidence," Ron protested.

Harry watched Allie raise an eyebrow toward Ron, then slowly turn and look at him. "Do you think I tried to murder you?" she asked.

Harry hesitated and then slowly said, "Ron really does have a convincing argument, Allie."

Her cool mask cracked and a look of unfeigned shock stared at him for a moment. "Parvati? Padma?"

Parvati shrugged and examined the floor while Padma crossed her arms. "I'm not convinced," she said, glaring at Ron. "I still think it was Snape. You may not have seen it, Weasley, but he was staring at Harry's broom and chanting. He didn't even blink. Eye-contact is important for that kind of magic, even Granger agrees with me about that."

"About the requirements of a jinx," Hermione said sharply. "I never said that I thought Snape was on the one responsible and nobody else saw him performing one."

"That's because you were all too busy watching Cedric save Harry," Padma spat.

"It doesn't matter, Hermione," Ron said before Hermione could retort. "Snape's in league with her."

"You can't be serious," Allie muttered.

"Oh he is," Padma said darkly. "He's utterly deluded, of course, but quite serious."

"And you're going along with this, Harry?"

"I don't know what to think!" Harry exploded. The roller coaster of emotions of the last day, from knowing he was going to die, to his unexpected rescue, to Ron accusing his friend and sounding so reasonable about it, all becoming too much. "There, I've said, alright? I don't know. All I know is that someone tried to kill me. And maybe Padma's right, maybe it was Snape. Or maybe Ron is. But I don't know and it's not like we can question Snape."

"Tonks, Diggory, why are you here?" Allie asked flatly.

"Representing the interesting of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team," Tonks said before Cedric could reply.

Harry looked at the older student to find her normally brightly-colored hair a mousy-brown.

"I'm withholding judgment," she added.

"I just want to hear your side," Cedric said.

"Oh, so I have a side now?" Allie asked caustically.

Harry felt a glimmer of impending disaster as she glanced at him.

"I didn't think I'd need one among…friends." She turned and headed towards the door. "I think I'll pass."

"Wait," Harry said. She paused and turned back to him. "We just…" he shrugged lamely, unable to voice the question that bothered him.

"You just…what?" she asked, cocking her head to one side.

"I don't know," Harry said.

"I think you do," she told him, fixing him with a look that made him feel like a bug that was about to be pinned to a board by a bug collector. After a moment she smirked. It was a twisted specter of her usual expression, cold and arrogant and hurtful, without any of the warm humorous mocking-at-the-world that her normal smirk contained.

"Tell us, Weasley," she continued without turning her head, her voice dropping into a silken whisper that hid a razor's edge, "just what is it that you think you know." The subtle stress on the think made a soft echo in the stone-walled chamber, like the clang of a gauntlet cast onto the floor.

"We know that you know where the Hufflepuff common room is and how to get in," Ron said. "We know that you know a potion that gives off fumes that make people sleep deeply. We know that…" he glanced at Hermione, "…not a lot of magic can influence a broom, and we know that you spent years studying magic privately."

"And for all of those years spent studying, so far I have been unable to turn a matchstick into a needle," Allie said dryly. "And I've yet to hear anything that suggests what I learned could have influenced a broom."

"We know that you studied powerful magic," Ron said. "Stuff not taught in Hogwarts."

"Are you sure?" Allie asked. "To the best of my knowledge, none of those in this room are taking seventh year ancient runes. I would question how a person with less than four months of learning in this fine institution would know all of what is taught in Hogwarts. But for argument's sake, I'll concede that point, Weasley. Yes, I may have studied magic not normally taught in Hogwarts."

"You have the means, and you have the opportunity," Hermione said.

"Opportunity, maybe," Allie allowed. "I'll eve admit that I could probably destroy a broom easily enough. I'd just have to transform it into a needle or take Hagrid's axe to it. But to get the effects you are suggesting, Granger, I'd have to be better at charms than…oh, whoever got the highest score on their Charms O.W.L. last year, at the very least."

"Better," Tonks interjected.

"Which, in case you haven't noticed, I'm not. Nor could I have pulled whatever it is you think I've done out of my hat. I might be a fair hand with runes and arithmancy, and know a bit more about how brooms are enchanted than the average wizard or witch, but messing up a broom to do what the stories say Harry's did is so far beyond me it'd be like asking Weasley here to go and enchant a copy of the Great Hall's ceiling."

"What about a ward?" Padma asked.

Harry looked at her and he wasn't the only one.

"What?" she asked. "Remember your birthday present, Harry?"

Harry nodded slowly and looked back at Harry.

"Wards aren't exactly designed to be mobile," Allie said dryly. "And trying to enchant a few minor defensive spells into something like a broom, even if it could be done, wouldn't have that kind of effect. Besides," she said, rolling back a sleeve to expose a silver band that was wrapped around her wrist, "my best stuff is binding magic.

"Even if I, for the sake of argument, had gone out and bought my own broom to practice on, it'd still have taken all of my free time to design a binding and expect it to work without exploding. And there's the little fact that if I had done just that—and mind you I think I can find enough witnesses to say that I didn't spend all or even most of my free time in hovering over a broom in some secret lair—"

"Sure you could," Ron said. "You don't think we haven't seen the way you go running off after classes. I bet your witnesses are Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle."

"I think I might be able to surprise you," Allie sneered. "In fact, I'm almost certain I can think of at least one Gryffindor who'd admit that I haven't been spending all my time working on some broom binding."

"What Gryffindor would want to spend time with a slimy snake like you?" Ron asked.

"As opposed to a Gryffindor that has completely missed the point?" Allie asked acerbically.

"And what is that again?" Ron asked. "That you live in a cave?"

"That a binding would make the broom not work bloody first place!" Allie gave them a scornful look that made Harry wince. "Bindings are binding Weasley. With enough time and effort I could probably get a broom to not work at all, though I have no idea why I'd want to. It might even be possible to use some sort of delay function so a broom would stop working in mid-air, but no binding would make a broom try to buck its rider off first.

"And I still haven't heard anyone explain why I'd have the sudden desire to kill my best friend."

Harry winced again. This was not going anything like the way he'd wanted it to. He just wanted answers. Snape seemed to hate him for some reason, but he couldn't think of why the professor would want him dead. And Allie had made no secret that her magic was dangerous, had even seemed wary of his help getting him into Hogwarts. And Ron had already helped save his and Hermione's life from that troll, they all had, and Allie had been nowhere to be seen for that. Even Tonks and Cedric had been around for that.

"Ron thinks that you—"

"Ron thinks?" Allie asked him sharply. "Malfoy hides behind what his father thinks and says. Let Weasley say what he thinks to my face. At least don't hide behind him if you decide to speak your piece."

"You warned me that not all of Volde—I mean, You-Know-Who's, followers were imprisoned. That some of them still wandered free. You said that your father was one of them, and Dumbledore didn't want you in Hogwarts because he considered you a danger," Harry said.

Allie looked at him with an expression of shock that was so perfect, she could not have looked more surprised if he had walked up to her and hit her with a fish. Part of Harry felt a grim sort of satisfaction at that look. A larger part of him recoiled at it.

"I see," she said in a bleak voice. She shook herself slightly and repeated in a stronger voice, "I see. You think I'm one of Voldemort's followers, do you?"

Ron and most of the others in the room flinched.

"Or on some twisted revenge kick for my father being in Azkaban? Well unless Voldemort was inducting toddlers into his twisted little band of mass-murderers, I'm not the former, and my father can rot in Azkaban for all I care."

"The fact that you say You-Know-Who's name is proof that you're with him!"

"Oh grow a pair, Weasley," Allie said. "It's a name. A name of a wizard and nothing more. It isn't even a particularly good name."

"I remember what it was like when he was still around, Blackthorn," Tonks said.

"And if you expect me to lie down and whimper at the name of a man who got himself killed ten years ago by an infant?" Allie asked. She turned to Harry. "Go ahead, Harry, why don't you tell me what you really think."

"You lied to me," Harry said. "You said that your family trust only covered Hogwarts, but Ron told me that all of the Thorne's have been home-taught and we couldn't find any other Thornes, or unexplained Hawthorns or Blackthorns, in the old yearbooks in the library."

"Well what do you know, Weasley was right about one thing," Allie said sarcastically. "To bad that's his one smart observation for the year."

"Hey!" Ron said. He started forward, whether to throw a punch or a spell Harry didn't know, but Hermione grabbed onto his robes and held him back

"My mother died when I was nine," Allie continued coolly. "All for the better since she had been incapable of really taking care of herself—let alone raising me—for years before that. My grandmother—long may her soul rot—is kept alive on machines, magic, and pure vile spite. She loathes me, and the feeling is entirely mutual. I spent the next years living with the Patils, Master G after that. Home-study was never an option for me, and the trust does cover Hogwarts even if no Thorne has ever needed to avail herself to it, and does not cover an outside apprenticeship."

"Stop trying to confuse the issue," Hermione said suddenly.

"I'm not," Allie said, crossing her arms. "Granger, my patience was never great and the lot of you are straining it mightily."

"You don't have an alibi or witnesses," Hermione said.

"Which if I was going to murder someone of Harry's public stature I would make sure to have," Allie said, nodding. "Thank you for helping my point."

"You could be faking it," Ron blurted.

Harry looked at him. "It?" he asked.

"Motion sickness," Ron said. "She got ill just from watching Neville bob around on a broom a little."

"A broken wrist is hardly what I would call a little 'bobbing around on a broom,'" Allie said dryly. "But please, Weasley, do continue."

"Well, everyone thinks you're in the hospital wing which gives you a chance to—"

"Why would they think that?" Allie asked as Harry gave his friend a confused look.

"Because you have motion sickness," Ron said.

Padma snickered.

"Er…" Harry hesitated. "I, uh, think motion sickness come from watching the motion, Ron."

"She's twisting you around, Harry, just like I told you she would," Ron said with a glare towards the Slytherin. "You haven't been in Potions with her. Snape likes her, likes her as much as he does Malfoy. We know Snape's going for whatever it is that is being hidden in the Forbidden Corridor, Cedric saw him on Halloween, and Padma saw him today at the match trying to help along whatever jinx she—" he waved a hand grandly at Allie "—put on your broom. And you said it yourself, Harry. She used you to get into Hogwarts.

"I'll bet she let the troll into the dungeons for Quirrell to find so that Snape had an excuse to go check the corridor. She probably did too because I didn't see her heading towards the Slytherin common room—the twins showed me where it was. Cedric probably just didn't notice her when he noticed Snape, or maybe she arrived late, after Cedric had to leave." He turned to Allie, "Bet you don't have anything to say to that, do you?" he asked snidely.

"I shouldn't have to say anything in the first place," Allie told him. She looked around at the others, and Harry looked away before she could get to him.

He honestly didn't know what he was supposed to think. What Ron said made a lot of sense. It explained what Padma saw at the game. Allie had proven herself almost as spectacularly inept as Neville Longbottom at practical magic where a wand was concerned, but yet she was still able to perform amazing bits using longer rituals and stuff so maybe she did have the skills to curse his broom. It explained how the troll got into the dungeons while the others had agreed that Snape hadn't had time to do it before the feast…unless the troll had already been there under some kind of time-delay charm or something.

"Harry?" she asked.

He refused to meet her gaze.

"I see," he heard her say. That made him look up, and almost immediately he wished he hadn't for she asked, "You really think Weasley has a point, do you?"

"I just don't know," he admitted after a moment of hesitation. "It's just…Ron makes some good points and you can't counter them."

"No," she said softly, "I don't suppose I can."

Before Harry could say anything, she turned and stormed out of the room.

"You know, Weasley, you are even more stupid that I thought you were when you made that 'motion sickness' crack," Padma said. "And Harry, I honestly expected better from you. Isn't loyalty supposed to be what you badgers are good at? I'm going after her…maybe it isn't too late for our friendship."

"What?" Ron asked as Padma disappeared, her sister shuffling out the door behind her.

"You're the one who knows where the Slytherin dorms are," Cedric said slowly.

Harry looked at him, not sure where Cedric was going with this.

"So?"

"So where is it?" Cedric asked.

"Down in the dungeons, where else do you think slimy snakes live?"

"So you have to ask yourself," Tonks said, following Cedric to the door, "would Dumbledore really allow a quarter of his students to go traipsing around the dungeons if he thought there was a troll in them?"

The door slammed shut behind her, leaving Harry alone in the unused classroom with Ron and Hermione.

"Good riddance," Ron muttered. "What do you say we go play some wizard's chess?"

"I…" Harry stopped. "Think I'd like to be alone for a little while, Ron," he said as he headed for the door.

"What? Why?"

As Harry stepped out into the corridor he heard Hermione say: "Ron! Honestly." Then the door slammed shut.