Blood Ties
Part 11
Rating, summary and such are same as before.
Note: Thank you Joahn for beta-reading the story!
Willow quickly made her way towards the Great Hall. She had over-slept this morning because she had slept in her own bedroom instead of dormitory and no one woke her up. Hoping that she could catch something to eat before class, the redhead ran down the corridor, her textbooks hugged tightly against her chest.
The redhead jumped down the stairs towards the ground floor when she saw a familiar back at the corner of her eyes. Narrowing her eyes, she found it was Mr. Shacklebolt and Professor McGonagall; the two were standing at the front exit of the castle, chatting. The redhead's face brightened and started moving towards the adults when she heard Shacklebolt comment.
"The Dementors are very upset." Shacklebolt said.
"You are not suggesting that Albus should let them into the castle grounds, are you?" Professor McGonagall frowned. "How are we supposed to teach with those horrors floating around? Besides, they have already attacked Mr. Potter twice. I'm surprised that the Ministry hasn't done anything about it."
"Cornelius trusts the Dementors." Shacklebolt shook his head. "You know how he is. And to tell you the truth, Cornelius is more upset for the fact that a Dementor died instead of the fact that they attacked Mr. Potter."
"He didn't know it was Ms. Slytherin? I would have said it was rather obvious."
"No. The Dementors refused tell him who was responsible. That's why the Minister asked me to come here to investigate. But yes. Cornelius is suspicious of her." The man frowned. "What surprised me though is that the Dementors didn't give Ms. Slytherin up. Do you think there may be a chance that they are scared of her?"
The professor shook her head. "Makes one wonder what kind of horrible person she is to cause fear in such horrible creature." Paused. "Do you think she is a danger?" She asked, worried. "I have seen Mr. Potter spending time with her."
"I honestly don't know, Minerva. I honestly don't know."
Willow had heard enough. She turned and walked away, suddenly not feeling hungry anymore.
"So, Xander, is that true?"
Buffy frowned when the Weasley twins squeezed themselves in between Harry and Ron who were sitting opposite herself and Xander in the Great Hall. The boy-who-lived had just been released from the hospital wing this morning and the gang was now having breakfast together. "What's true?" Hermione, who was sitting on the other side of Buffy, asked.
"That Harris got himself beaten up by Slytherin."
The piece of chicken Ron had put into his mouth shot out like a cannon and landed right in the middle of Neville Longbottom's plate who was sitting beside Xander. "What!"
Neville was about to take a bite on his potato when the bite from Ron landed. He halted, the fork stopped just right in front of his opened mouth as his eyes stared at his plate. Disgust written all over his face, he slowly put down his fork and push the plate away.
"Nice aiming, Ron." Buffy commented dryly.
The twins didn't take notice of Neville or Ron, instead continued staring at Xander with interest. "So, is that true?"
"Of course not!" The dark haired boy claimed just a bit too loud and too quickly. "Who told you that?"
"It's the second thing we heard when we got back to the Common Room." The twin on the right said.
"The first thing was Harry falling from his broom." The other twin added.
"But Willow wouldn't hurt anyone." Hermione frowned. "Besides, Xander's almost double her. How could she beat him up?"
"That's what I said." George/Fred said.
"But then Dean swore seeing Slytherin slapping Xander right across his face." The other twin added. Xander's hand instantly shot up, covering his left cheek.
"And Colin kept talking about how he should have taken a photo out of it."
"I heard some Hufflepuffs were talking about it in the corridor earlier." Neville added. "But I thought I heard it wrong."
"Yeah? Well, they're wrong." Xander said angrily. "I wasn't being beaten up."
"But she did slap you, didn't she?" George/Fred asked excitedly. The look on Xander's face was enough to confirm the rumor. "It's true! Xander got beaten up by a girl!"
"Shut up!" Xander shouted at the twin.
"Why did she?" Harry asked, confused.
"Did she really need a reason?" Ron snorted. "She's a Slytherin."
"Willow may be a Slytherin, but she's not someone who will just go around and slap people." Hermione defended and turned towards Xander. "What did you do?"
"I did nothing!"
"Why are you always siding with her?" Ron asked annoyed.
"I'm not siding with her, I'm just telling the truth." Hermione frowned.
"I'm with Hermione." Buffy said. "Willow's not like that."
"You're just saying that because Slytherin lets you copy her homework."
"Right. And you never copy them." Buffy rolled her eyes at Ron.
"She lends you her homework?" Hermione frowned harder.
Buffy couldn't help but roll her eyes when she saw the look on Hermione's face. "Not the point here."
Harry smiled at his friends before turning towards the Slytherin table. "Willow's not here."
"Probably got sent to the headmaster." George/Fred said.
"Like it matters." Ron snorted again. "I bet Snape would get Dumbledore off her back."
"So, details." George/Fred asked excitingly.
Xander looked around, and found all his friends were now staring at him. He growled in annoyance.
Weeks passed since the Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, but everyone was still talking about how Harry fell from the broom and caused Gryffindor the match or how Xander had been beat up by Willow. Harry frowned a bit when he marched towards the Great Hall with Ron for breakfast. Ever since the game, Harry had not gotten a chance to talk to the redhead, only receiving a bunch of flowers and a get-well card from her when he was still in the hospital wing.
"Where's Xander?" Hermione looked up from the table with Buffy when Harry and Ron took a seat opposite them.
"Sleeping in." Harry replied. "You know how he is."
"Good." Buffy raised an eyebrow at Hermione's comment. The blond witch reached inside her robe and took out an old clipping, putting it onto the table.
"What's this?"
"I've been doing some research..."
"Research? Our first term just ended and you're already starting research?" The redhead boy frowned. "And why am I not surprised by it?"
"Shut up Ron." Buffy growled at the redhead before turning towards Hermione.
"As I said, I've been doing some research," Hermione continued. "Trying to figure out how Sirius Black could come into the castle without alerting anyone."
"That's easy." Buffy frowned. "He must know how to Apparate."
"Apparate?" Harry asked.
"Like um, you disappear in one place and then appear in another out of thin air."
"Or he could just disguise himself." Ron said.
"Honestly, am I the only person who's ever bothered to read 'Hogwarts, a History'?" Hermione asked, immediately earned a 'duh-you-have-to-ask' looks from her friends. She sighed instantly. "The castle is protected by all sorts of enchantments to stop people from entering by stealth. You can't just Apparate in here. Besides, the Dementors are guarding every entrance, remember? I doubt there are any disguises that can fool them."
"So, what you're saying is that there's no way he could sneak in?"
"What I'm saying is that there may be someone in the castle who helped him." Hermione said. "Look," She pointed at the clipping - an article about the pureblood families in England's wizarding world. "Here. The Black family."
"Where did you get this?" Ron frowned.
"I borrowed it from Willow." Hermione saw the skeptic look on Ron's face. "Her mother is a Rosenberg. One of the pureblood families." She explained. "Stop jumping on her whenever things happened. She did save Harry's life."
"I didn't say anything." Ron protested weakly.
"Wait. You talked to Willow?"
Hermione narrowed her eyes. "Got a problem?"
"No." Harry quickly shook his head. "Just wondering. I haven't talk to her for quite a while. That's all."
Hermione shook her head, and pointed at one of the photos where two dark haired boys were smirking at the camera. "Sirius Black and Regulus Black."
"Regulus Black is Xander's father." Buffy said quietly.
"Right. But that's not what I wanted to show you. Sirius and Regulus Black have three cousins: Bellatrix Black, Andromeda Black and Narcissa Black."
"So?"
"Narcissa Black changed her name after she got married." Hermione said. "Narcissa Malfoy."
"WHAT!"
"So... Xander is Draco's cousin?" Ron blinked. "Bloody hell!"
"Once removed. And don't swear." Hermione frowned at Ron before continued. "It's possible that Black snuck into the castle by himself. But if he really got someone to help him into the castle, then Malfoy may be one of them."
"Maybe." Harry thought for a moment. "But I overheard Snape talking to Dumbledore the other night. He suspected it was someone among the professors that helped Sirius Black into the castle."
"Professor?" Hermione sketched her head a little. "I didn't find anyone except Malfoy that had any connection with Black in Hogwarts. Do you know who they were talking about?" Harry shook his head. "Well, at least we knew if Sirius Black really got help here, Malfoy could be one of them." Hermione sighed.
After breakfast, Hermione, as usual, went for the library. Ron had gone back to the dormitory to take a nap, and Buffy had decided to go looking for Professor Giles and see if he heard anything. After his friends' departure, Harry went to visit Professor Lupin, who had been missing Defense Against the Dark Art for quite sometime.
Harry was a bit shocked when he saw how tired the professor was. Dark circles surrounding the professor's eyes, his skin paler than usual, as were his lips. The two had decided to go for a walk near the lake, enjoying the warm sun in the late October. Harry watched as he slowly made his way towards the lake with the professor, before gathering his courage and asking the question that he been bugging him since the accident at the Quidditch match. "Why does the Dementor affect me so... I mean, more than anyone else?" He asked the professor.
Professor Lupin didn't seem to be surprised by the question. Instead, he smiled. "Dementors are among the foulest creatures that walk this earth. They feed on every good feeling, every happy memory, until the person is left with absolutely nothing but his worst experiences." The professor explained. "You are not weak, Harry. The Dementors affected you most of all because there are true horrors in your past, horrors that your classmates can hardly imagine. You have nothing to be ashamed of."
"I'm scared, professor." Harry whispered.
"Well, I'd consider you a fool if you weren't."
"I need to know how to fight them. You could teach me. You made the Dementor on the train go away." Harry asked hopefully.
"There was only one, Harry."
"But you made it go away."
Professor Lupin thought for a moment. "I don't pretend to be an expert, Harry. But since the Dementors seemed to have developed a particular interest in you, perhaps I should teach you." The professor turned towards the beautiful view in front of him. "But after the holidays. For now, I need to rest."
Harry nodded, and quietly enjoying the warm sun with the professor.