Chapter 32
Valentines and Attacks
January at Hogwarts passed by rather quickly, except for the detentions. Adonia had been serving in either the potions room as an ingredient preparer, where she would pickle, dry, chop, dice, grind, bottle, or mix whatever general ingredient Professor Snape wanted to be available in the student locker, a very taxing detention as Snape was always breathing down her neck to make sure she prepared every item to his exact specifications. Her other detention was taking care of Professor McGonagall Transfiguration animals, Adonia spent more time avoiding getting bitten by the mice and birds, as she spent trying to feed the animals and clean their cages, McGonagall, unlike Snape, let her go at her own pace without supervision.
But as rough as Adonia had it, poor George and Fred had to help the House Elves clean up the pots and pans in the kitchen, four hours on end. Professor Snape also had them cleaning all the cauldrons from his potions class, since most of the potions had been sitting in the cauldron for at least a couple of hours, what was left of the potion was caked to the bottom. Both would go back to their dorm with blisters along all their fingers and cricks in their backs, though they were starting to gain calluses on their fingers, they have been working at their detentions for a month.
Hermione finally returned to classes at the beginning of February, all tail, fur, and whiskery free. She and her friends, Ron and Harry, were never seen apart since then. They were discussing some book; Adonia caught some mention about it and a Tom Riddle, when she passed them the morning of February 14, her least favorite day of the year.
Professor Lockhart decided that he was just the man to lift the 'depressing' gloom around the school. Everyone knows that the pranks that Adonia and the Twins played had nothing to do with lifting the doom and gloom around the school. His idea was almost enough to make the students physically sick at what he had done to the Great Hall. Using magic he pasted large, pink flowers to the walls, and instead of the snow that should be falling from the cloudy skies, there was heart-shaped confetti piling on the shoulders of students and on the tables. It was Lockhart's robes that sickened most people, well anyone who weren't enamored with the showy professor, they were bright pink.
With the girls giggling over his decorations, Lockhart gave a speech…something along the lines of have a nice day, uplift from the dim atmosphere, and his little cupids. Adonia, like normal when a professor she does not care for starts to talk, was not paying attention, so only caught bits and pieces of the speech. Which is why it came as a surprise when a dwarf dressed up as a little cupid grabbed her arm after lunch. Her first response to being grabbed would have been to squeak, but when she was pulled around she gave out a yell of fright at the strange creature.
"Wat cha yellin for…I got uh a valentine for ya. Here ya go," the dwarf handed Adonia her personalized monstrosity of a card.
"Oh…uh…thanks." Adonia had to shout out her thanks as the cupid had already gone off to continue his deliveries.
The rest of February past by in much the same way, lots of Lockhart making everyone sick, and tons of detention for the pranksters. By March, Adonia was looking forward to the sunshine, and with it the next Quidditch game, Gryffindor against Hufflepuff, an easy win for her Twins and her half house.
The day of the match was nice and sunny, with a slight chill still to the air. Adonia had promised Fred that she would go and watch today's match, as she had been to so few over the last two years. This was why Adonia was walking up from her room in the dungeons at the hour of 9:46 in the morning, a little late already for the game, when she heard the creepy voice again.
The same voice that she knew Harry could hear too, the voice she has heard before every attack. Giving a silent apology to Fred and George for missing yet another of their games, she followed the voice in its roundabout way. Hermione was running towards the library, not in itself an odd occurrence, but with the game today she would usually be down on the field supporting Harry.
The voice led her up a couple of more flights before it yelled out a delighted, "KILL!" almost like it had just received an actual order. Adonia was scared it seemed it was about to attack, she listened to the voice to pinpoint where it was going; it went down almost directly down. According to the copy she had made of the Marauder's map form the Twins, the library was directly below her. Adonia took off with that destination in mind, hoping to save who ever the intended pray of the voice was this time.
Coming around the corner towards the library, Adonia stepped onto a mirror, only to have its slick back slide out from under her foot, causing her to fall to the ground. Her landing was nice and soft, not hard as one would think the stone floor of the castle would feel like. Adonia looked down and realized that she was too late to save the prey; her soft landing was the body of Hermione and some other girl, both still had a plus, though weak, so she knew they were only petrified, so not a full killing yet.
As the full ramifications of the situation hit Adonia, ran towards the nearest teacher or adult, and since she was right outside the library it was the librarian.
"There has been another attack, right outside the library" before Adonia could go on, Madam Pince ran off to inform the other professors. ~Well, that was nice.~
Seeing as she was no longer useful, Adonia left the library making her way to the Gryffindor common room, her friends would need some comfort as they all knew Hermione. She would have gone out to the game field, but she already heard the panicked footsteps of her fellow students rushing back into the school. She had just come up the stairs to the Gryffindor common room when Professor McGonagall came rushing up behind her.
"Adonia, I realize you have a lot of friends in Gryffindor, but each head has to take role of their students. You will need to go down to the Slytherin common room I am sorry."
"Oh, fine then…" by the time Adonia had finished, she was gone. Adonia turned around and went back to her room. Once there she checked in with a frazzled looking Snape, she went to her bed and tried to actively scan thoughts, something she had not practiced in a while. While she was scanning she felt a mental nudge, something that happens when someone wants to talk to her, this nudge came from Fred, it had his flavor so to speak.
~Hey Fred.~
~Kitty Cat, there has been another attack! No one knows yet who it was, but McGonagall seemsreally upset.~
~I know there was another attack…I was the one to find the students. Fred…are you and George sitting down?~
~Yeah, why. Wait you know who it was right?~
~It was Hermione…Hermione Granger and some other girl I didn't recognize. I am sorry…I tried to get up to the Gryffindor common room but McGonagall made me come here. I'm sure…~
~McGonagall just announced who it was that was attacked…Ron and Harry look crushed. So does Percy…~
~That's because that other girl, Penelope Clearwater, was his girlfriend.~
~Oh…I didn't know he was dating anyone…~
~Kitty…sorry to interrupt, but we have to go…McGonagall is having us all do something…we will see you at dinner.~
~Right, bye guys!~ After saying goodbye to her friends she went back to scanning, this time she caught some very interesting things. One of the most interesting was from Harry, something about the Tom Riddle he was interested in earlier last month and turning Hagrid in for attacking students. She really could not see Hagrid, the Jolly Non-Green Giant as Slytherin's Heir. But Harry wanted to confront Hagrid about it tonight…he had some way to go unseen through the castle to get to his shack. Adonia decided she would try and follow Harry and Ron mentally tonight, she could probably get out without being seen as well, but did not want to test it with the professors so tense. Tonight would be a late night, but an interesting one.
Hey everyone. Thank you all so much for reading my story…I know I said this one would be the last one before the time skip…turn out I lied, there will be at the most two more, but I believe the next one should be the last. Thank you all again, don't forget to leave a review! ^.^
A special thanks to EllaPotter1988 for favoriteing my story.