The Snake

Disclaimer: I don't own HP.

'What happened? What did Mcgonagall say?' said Kitty when she saw Harry.

'I've been banned from the Quidditch team. So's Fred and George,' said Harry dully.

'WHAT!' said Kitty, Ron and Hermione together.

Harry nodded.

'What do you mean banned? Why did Mcgonagall…' began Hermione.

'Not Mcgonagall. It was Umbridge.'

'That explains it,' said Kitty, pounding her fist on the table in rage.

'Umbridge's taken my Firebolt,' said Harry.

'What happened?' asked Angelina rushing over.

Harry didn't have the heart to tell her. Kitty told her how Umbridge had banned them.

'It's just so unfair,' said Alicia numbly. 'I mean, what about Crabbe and that Bludger he hit after the whistle had been blown? Has she banned him?'

'No,' said Ginny, 'he just got lines.'

'I'm going to bed,' said Angelina, getting slowly to her feet. 'Maybe this will all turn out to have been a bad dream ... maybe I'll wake up tomorrow and find we haven't played yet ...'

She was soon followed by Alicia and Katie. Fred and George sloped off to bed some time later, glowering at everyone they passed, and Ginny went not long after that.

'Well,' said Hermione, her voice trembling slightly. 'I can think of one thing that might cheer you up.'

'Oh yeah?' said Harry sceptically.

'Yeah,' said Hermione, a broad smile spreading across her face. 'Hagrid's back.'

The next day at breakfast, Harry joined Kitty and Vandyll and said to them, 'Hey, listen, you guys. We went to meet Hagrid yesterday and guess what he told us? He and Madame Maxime, you remember that big Beauxbatons woman, well they, on Dumbledore's orders, went to see the giants.'

Kitty stared at Harry.

'Yes, Dumbledore told them to go persuade the giants not to join Voldemort and to fight for us instead.'

'And they agreed?' said Vandyll.

'No. Hagrid said that they almost managed to persuade their leader, but then the next day the leader was killed and a few Death Eaters showed up to persuade the new one. And what's more Hagrid looks like he's been wrestling trolls. He's all injured. And while we were talking to him, Umbridge showed up.'

Kitty clapped a hand to her mouth.

'We hid under the Invisibility Cloak. She seems to suspect him. She wouldn't believe him when he said that he'd gone on a vacation. She'll be inspecting his class today, I bet,' finished Harry.

'Oh Harry, Umbridge's horrible. Remus told me she hates half beings. She'll try to get him sacked. You tell Hagrid to be careful and to teach you something harmless and docile to your class today.'

'We did tell him, Kat. Anyway, I'd better go now for Charms. See you later.'

Kitty arrived early with Vandyll, Luna and Dennis for their last DA meeting before the holidays.

'OK,' Harry said, calling them all to order. 'I thought this evening we should just go over the things we've done so far, because it's the last meeting before the holidays and there's no point starting anything new right before a three-week break-'

'We're not doing anything new?' said Zacharias Smith, in a disgruntled whisper loud enough to carry through the room. 'If I'd known that, I wouldn't have come.'

'We're all really sorry Harry didn't tell you, then,' said Fred loudly. Kitty sniggered.

'-we can practise in pairs,' said Harry. 'We'll start with the Impediment Jinx, for ten minutes, and then we can get out the cushions and try Stunning again.'

They all divided up obediently; Harry partnered Neville as usual.

Kitty was not very good at the Impediment Jinx, but Harry told her that she was holding the wand wrong. Soon, she had frozen her partner, Vandyll four times.

Neville had improved beyond all recognition. After a while, when Harry had unfrozen three times in a row, he had Neville join Ron and Hermione again so that he could walk around the room and watch the others. When he passed Cho she beamed at him; he resisted the temptation to walk past her several more times.

After ten minutes on the Impediment Jinx, they laid out cushions all over the floor and started practising Stunning again. Space was really too confined to allow them all to work this spell at once; half the group observed the others for a while, then swapped over.

Harry felt himself positively swelling with pride as he watched them all. True, Neville did Stun Padma Patil rather than Dean, at whom he had been aiming, but it was a much closer miss than usual, and everybody else had made enormous progress. Even Kitty had managed to stun Vandyll, and she was the worst in the room, after Neville.

At the end of an hour, Harry called a halt.

'You're getting really good,' he said, beaming around at them. 'When we get back from the holidays we can start doing some of the big stuff-maybe even Patronuses.'

There was a murmur of excitement. The room began to clear in the usual twos and threes; most people wished Harry a 'Happy Christmas' as they went. Feeling cheerful, he collected up the cushions with Ron, Kitty and Hermione and stacked them neatly away. Ron and Hermione left before he did; he hung back a little, because Cho was still there and he was hoping to receive a 'Merry Christmas' from her.

'Good luck, Harry,' said Kitty knowingly, as she left the room with Vandyll and Luna.

'Wake up! Wake up, Ms. Potter!' someone was saying. Kitty rolled over in her sleep and opened her eyes.

'Who's there?' she called.

'Ms. Potter, wake up,' said a voice that sounded suspiciously like Mcgonagall.

Kitty sat up bold upright. 'What's the matter?' she said.

'Your brother has just had a nightmare…well it's not exactly a nightmare. It's more like he had a vision. He saw Mr. Weasley being attacked by a large snake. The Weasley children have been informed, and Professor Dumbledore has asked you to get dressed quickly and come to his office. Your brother and you, along with the Weasley children will be going to Grimmauld Place right now.'

Kitty stared at Mcgonagall, wondering if it was a dream.

'Well, make haste, Ms. Potter, I'm waiting outside the Ravenclaw Tower. Come out in two minutes.'

In a few minutes, she was standing in Dumbledore's office, looking shaken. 'You have all used a Portkey before?' asked Dumbledore, and they nodded, each reaching out to touch some part of the blackened kettle. 'Good. On the count of three, then ... one ... two ...three.'

Kitty felt a powerful jerk behind her navel, the ground vanished from beneath her feet, her hand was glued to the kettle; she was banging into the others as they all sped forwards in a swirl of colours and a rush of wind, the kettle pulling them onwards ... until her feet hit the ground so hard her knees buckled, the kettle clattered to the ground, and somewhere close at hand a voice said:

'Back again, the blood-traitor brats. Is it true their father's dying?'

'OUT!' roared a second voice.

Kitty looked around; they had arrived in the gloomy basement kitchen of number twelve, Grimmauld Place. The only sources of light were the fire and one guttering candle, which illuminated the remains of a solitary supper.

'What's going on?' said Sirius, stretching out a hand to help Kitty up. 'Phineas Nigellus said Arthur's been badly injured-'

'Ask Harry,' said Fred.

'Yeah, I want to hear this for myself,' said George.

The twins, Kitty and Ginny were staring at him.

'It was-' Harry began; this was even worse than telling McGonagall and Dumbledore. 'I had a-a kind of-vision ...'

And he told them all that he had seen, though he altered the story so that it sounded as though he had watched from the sidelines as the snake attacked, rather than from behind the snake's own eyes. Ron, who was still very white, gave him a fleeting look, but did not speak. When Harry had finished, Fred, George and Ginny continued to stare at him for a moment. Harry did not know whether he was imagining it or not, but he fancied there was something accusatory in their looks. Well, if they were going to blame him just for seeing the attack, he was glad he had not told them that he had been inside the snake at the time.

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