How bloodily the sun begins to peer
Above yon busky hill! the day looks pale
At his distemperature
—William Shakespeare, Henry IV
Chapter Nine
"You lost it," Holly shrieked. "You swore you would be careful and you lost it!"
The two of them were standing in the middle of their dorm room, with Parvati and Lavender loyally glaring at Hermione from one of the beds.
Hermione's head ducked down, and she sounded as though she was fighting tears. "I'm sorry, I just forgot. It all happened so quickly, and when I got down to the bottom of the Astronomy Tower, Neville and I were caught by Filch before we even realized that we had forgotten it."
She sounded so pathetic that in other circumstances Holly might have felt sorry for her. When the Gryffindors had gotten up that morning, at first, those passing the giant hourglass that counted House points thought there had been a mistake. After all, how could Gryffindor lose one hundred points over night? But then, the story had started to pick up steam: two firsties had been caught out of bed near the Astronomy Tower. Soon, all of Gryffindor knew who it had been, and Hermione and Neville had been subject to some uncomfortable attention. Hermione had not drawn attention to herself once in class, keeping her head down and working in silence. Neville's face had been red from crying all day. Two Slytherins had been caught out of bed too, but they hadn't lost points, only gotten detention, so that part of the story was soon forgotten.
Holly wouldn't have cared so much, had she not realized at the end of the day that Hermione had never returned the cloak to her. When she had asked for it, Hermione had told her, in a halting voice, that she had left it in the Astronomy Tower. Hermione had immediately left to retrieve it, but when she returned, it became clear that the cloak was gone.
"I don't care! You swore," Holly yelled. "Now, it's gone. It belonged to my father; it was important to me!"
Holly felt herself shaking. She didn't know why she was so mad, it wasn't as though she didn't have other things that belonged to her dad. Sure, the invisibility cloak was cool, but it was just a thing…and yet, Holly couldn't seem to let go of her anger. Her scar was throbbing, but it made her feel strong. Holly rubbed a hand over the puckered skin above her heart. Pure, white hate was all she felt for Hermione Granger.
"You don't understand," Hermione cried, her voice pleading. "There was a dragon, and I had to get it off of the school grounds or Hagrid would be in trouble—"
"Don't try to talk your way out of this," Holly told her coolly. "I wouldn't believe a word that comes out of your mouth anyway, liar."
Hermione burst into tears and ran from the room. Crossing her arms, Holly glared after her. She hadn't been so mad in her entire life, and she desperately wanted to curse stupid Granger so that her hair would fall out, or something.
"Want me to hex her?" Lavender asked, echoing Holly's thoughts. "That might make you feel better."
Huffing, Holly turned from the door and stalked back to her bed. She collapsed atop it. As the velvet comforter embraced her, Holly sighed. "No," she said at length. "I simply want her to disappear." A vicious smile then came over her face. "There is a saying in the Muggle world: 'Let the punishment fit the crime.' Hermione lost my invisibility cloak, but she's about to find out what it truly means to be invisible."
Lavender grinned, and Parvati nodded fervently in agreement.
From that moment on, at the word of Holly Potter, not a single Gryffindor (other than Neville), would speak to Hermione Granger.
She became a pariah in Gryffindor House, Holly had made sure of it. With Lavender and Parvati's help, they had spoken to every gossip in the house, and told them that in addition to losing all those point, Hermione Granger had also lost a family heirloom of Holly's to boot. It hadn't taken much—the Gryffindor's were very protective of their Girl Who Lived, after all—but it resulted in the most public shaming Holly had ever seen. Neville had tried once to speak to Holly on Hermione's behalf, but Holly had simply started ignoring him too.
There had been a malicious satisfaction that Holly had taken in the whole matter. The pain of what Hermione had done was acute, and Holly had revisited it tenfold on the bushy-haired witch. For two and a half weeks, no one spoke to Hermione and Hermione spoke to no one. That all changed the day after the brunette's detention in the Forbidden Forest.
The next day, after Charms, Holly and Lavender had been in the bathroom, washing their hands and talking in low voices about the upcoming Herbology class. Professor Sprout had been giving them harder and harder assignments, and Holly liked them less and less.
The door opened, and Hermione stepped into the bathroom. "Holly, I need to talk to you."
The redheaded witch rolled her eyes, and made to walk past Hermione, but the other witch barred the door. "Move," Holly said, in a low, dangerous voice.
"Listen, just listen!" Hermione said pleadingly.
"We don't want to talk to you, liar," Lavender spitefully told her.
Hermione's eyes filled with tears, but she shook her head and seemed to force herself to speak. "Last night, Neville and I had our detention in the Forbidden Forest with Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson. Something had been killing the unicorns in the Forest, Hagrid had found hints of an injured one and we went in after it. After Malfoy scared Neville, I was sent with him to track the unicorn." Her voice was hushed now, shaking and trembling. Holly thought even the air seemed colder. Hermione whispered, "We made our way into a clearing, and found the unicorn: it was dead. We stepped forward, but a hooded figure came out of the brush, crawling on four legs like some kind of monster. The figure went to the unicorn and…and it began to drink its blood."
Hermione was crying now, but she had her audience silent in attention. "Malfoy let out a scream and bolted, but when the monster saw me alone, it turned and began to charge. Before it could reach me, though, a centaur jumped out of the brush and saved me. Firenze told me: 'it is a monstrous thing to slay a unicorn. Only one who has nothing to lose, and everything to gain, would commit such a crime. The blood of a unicorn will keep you alive, even if you are an inch from death, but at a terrible price. You have slain something pure and defenseless to save yourself, and you will have but a have-life, a cursed life, from the moment the blood touches your lips.' Such a thing would be a stop-gap, you see," Hermione said, looking straight at Holly. "Until such time as you could drink something that would make you immortal."
Holly forgot that she was angry at Hermione, her entire focus was on the other girl's story. "But why would Snape do something like that? He is not sick or dying."
There was pity in Hermione's gaze now. "Can't you think of anyone else who might want it? Someone who has waited many years to return, who has clung to life, just waiting for their chance to strike?"
It was as though an iron fist had closed around Holly's heart. The bathroom seemed to have dropped in temperature in mere seconds, and the dripping of the faucet sounded like the thunder of a waterfall. Against her will, she seemed to hear Professor McGonagall's voice from the day of Dudley's birthday: "Some do say he died, but that seems more like wishful thinking than truth. The fact of the matter is, Miss Potter, I truly doubt he was human enough to die. No, he lost his powers, but he is still out there—just waiting."
"What a load of rubbish."
Lavender's voice made Holly jump in place. She had forgotten the other girl's presence, forgotten everything but her fear. Holly's eyes didn't seem to be working correctly for all she could see was her mother's face, moments before the door to her nursery had blasted open.
"It's not," Hermione insisted. "All this time, I thought Snape wanted the stone for the gold, but I was wrong. Holly, believe me, if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I never would have even thought it to be true. Snape wants the Stone to give it to You-Know-Who, to be his right-hand man, or something."
"Says you," Lavender bit off. "You just want to pay us back for the silent treatment you've been getting. Give poor Holly nightmares about her parents' murderer for revenge—that's sick!"
Hermione shook her head. "I don't! I just want Holly to be on her guard. But it's okay, don't you see? Everyone says that Dumbledore is the only one You-Know-Who was ever afraid of. With Dumbledore around, You-Know-Who won't even touch you."
"I've heard enough," Lavender said, shoving Hermione to the side and pulling open the door to the bathroom. As Holly followed her out, Hermione's voice carried after them.
"Please Holly, be careful!"
Holly had tried, and tried, and tried to forget Hermione's words, but they haunted her. As the final few days before exams loomed, Holly often found herself staring out windows at nothing. Unlike Lavender and Parvati, who were now convinced that everything was a hoax on Hermione's part to drive Holly mad and make her fail her exams, Holly knew that something was coming. Her mind replayed again and again the sound of Voldemort's cruel laughter, as well has her mother's screams. It was a relief, therefore, when the exam week finally arrived.
Afterwards, once it was all over, she would never know how it was she had managed to get through exams when she half-expected Voldemort to come bursting through the door at any minute. Yet, there was almost a strength that her fear gave her. How could she possibly be afraid of exams when she knew that there was something much worse out there?
It was very hot, summer having officially come with June, and it boiled the extra-large classroom where the students assembled to do the written portions of their exams. They also, of course, had to do a practical section too. That, Holly found ridiculously easy. For Professor Flitwick, they had to make a pineapple tap-dance across his desk, and Holly did not only that, but she added a few flips and summersaults for good measure. Professor McGonagall made them turn a mouse into a snuffbox, and happily exclaimed over Holly's jewel encrusted lid. Snape made them brew a forgetfulness potion, which was so ridiculously easy that Holly finished before everyone else in her class and had to sit there waiting, watching as they all sweated.
The written portions were harder, made more so by the fact that Holly's scar had been hurting ever since she heard Hermione's tale. Lavender thought Holly was nervous over exams because she couldn't sleep, but in truth, she kept being woken by her recurring old nightmare, except now it was worse than ever because after her mother died, Voldemort laughed and then turned into a hooded figure, dripping blood from pointed fangs.
Their last exam was History of Magic, something Holly was the least concerned about because she noticed that even with how boring Binns was, he taught from the textbook. She was right, and the exam was ridiculously simple. After it was all over, the students were leaving the castle to head out to the lake when Holly realized she had forgotten her quill. She doubled back, ignoring Parvati's concerned glance, and plucking the forgotten quill from her desk in the exam room. As she was leaving, a very familiar sneering voice made Holly stop in her tracks, ducking behind the tapestry by the door to the classroom.
"No action has been taken at this time," Snape was saying. "It is my belief that whatever slaughtered those unicorns was an unrelated incident."
"Your belief, or what you desire to believe?" a voice answered him. Holly had to keep from moving, so startled was she at the sound of Dumbledore's voice! The Headmaster continued, "You never did see any real danger, Severus, I wonder why that is?"
"And I wonder why it is you seem to see danger around every corner? He is a spineless coward. He is no more in league with the Dark Lord than you are."
"Looks can be deceiving, Severus," Dumbledore said. "Something you never did learn."
"And what is that supposed to mean?" Snape bit off.
"I think you know well what it means," Dumbledore rumbled. "Holly Potter is not a ghost come back to life, and you will be sorely disappointed if you spend your life believing she is."
"The way I treat the girl is no concern of yours."
"It is when your actions cause or could cause her harm. She is under my protection, Severus. Never forget that."
"You think I would ever harm her?" Snape asked, his voice incredulous.
"I think you could cause great harm to her, and not even know that you are doing it—all in the pursuit of some selfish ideal—she is a child!"
"Don't preach at me, Dumbledore," Snape said. "I am not one of your mindless acolytes who needs your sermons. You failed in the one thing I ever asked of you, and for the moment we are united in a common cause: revenge."
"That will never be a cause of mine," the Headmaster said coldly.
"The final defeat of the Dark Lord, then. But once that is done, we will have no more business."
"May I remind you that it is by my word that you are a free man?"
"If you did it for anything but your own ends I would be very much surprised," drawled Snape. "The moment my usefulness ends, will I be sent off to the North Sea in chains? I have no illusions about you, Albus. Please, do me the courtesy of not pretending that you have any about me."
There was a rustle of fabric, the sound of departing footsteps, and then silence. Holly's heart was beating fast, and she clasped a hand over it, as if it would muffle the sound of her heartbeat. Her skin felt like it had been touched by a live wire; goose bumps were breaking out all along her skin.
"You can come out now, Holly," Dumbledore said after a long while.
Timidly, Holly stepped out from behind the tapestry and shot Dumbledore a guilty smile. "Hello."
"Hello," he said, smiling tiredly at her, his blue eyes sad. "I imagine you just got an earful."
"Yes," Holly agreed.
"Come along, my dear," Dumbledore said, extending a hand and wrapping it around her shoulder. She felt safe with him, like he was a grandfather-figure, or something. He led her down the corridor, and Holly realized they were going to the Entrance Hall. "I hope you won't think too badly of Professor Snape due to what you just heard. He is a very complicated man."
"You think he hurt me? That he was the one who sent the Bludger?"
"No," Dumbledore said firmly. "I can say with absolute certainty that he was not; however, not all hurts are of the physical kind."
"You wish me to be wary of him," Holly said, wondering just how long Dumbledore had known she was there, and how much he had wanted her to hear.
"A little caution never hurt anyone," Dumbledore said obliquely. "Now, I believe I have something for you." With that, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a large, silvery cloak.
"My cloak!" Holly exclaimed, taking the invisibility cloak from his hands. "You found it! How…" she trailed off. "Wait, I didn't lose it; Hermione did. How did you know it was mine?"
"Because many years ago, your father placed it into my very hands." Here Dumbledore chuckled. "Though I think he certainly would have approved of you loaning it out so that Miss Granger could smuggle a dragon off school grounds."
"You mean that was true?" Holly exclaimed. Shock and guilt immediately began to war within her. If Hermione had been telling the truth about that…
"Oh, yes. I am afraid that Hagrid has always wanted a dragon, and the temptation was simply too much to resist when he got his hands on an egg," Dumbledore said. He peered down at her then, rather sternly. "And what she did was in service of a friend. She did not mean to lose the cloak, nor did she ever mean for you to hate her."
"I don't hate her," Holly mumbled, looking at the ground. "I was just upset, you know?"
Dumbledore nodded. "I have found over the years that it is the ones we care most about that can cause us the greatest of distress."
"Care? I don't care about her," Holly denied. "She's just my roommate—she is bossy and annoying and—"
"Your equal?" Dumbledore suggested quietly. "She is perhaps the only witch or wizard of your age who could ever come close to matching you, and as I know well, for gifted witches and wizards, that is a rare thing. The two of you have spent the year at odds; imagine, instead, what the two of you could do together…united."
"Maybe." Holly felt deeply uncomfortable, as if Dumbledore had just seen into her soul. She tried desperately to find a way to change the subject, and quickly discovered it when a thought occurred to her. "If my dad gave the cloak to you, that means you sent it," Holly realized. "For Christmas, I mean—you sent it. Why?"
Dumbledore's blue eyes twinkled. "Just in case."
"Albus!"
Holly jumped, turning to see Professor McGonagall hurrying toward them. "An urgent owl has come from the Ministry. You're needed in London."
Dumbledore nodded. "So this, Holly, is where we say farewell. Think about what I said."
"I will, sir," Holly promised.
Holly walked out onto the grounds in no particular direction. She meant to make her way down to the lake to find Lavender and Parvati, but her feet, for some reason, took her in the direction of the gamekeeper's hut. It wasn't until she was near it, and saw Hermione sitting on the steps, that she realized just why she had walked in that direction. Without much thought, she went and sat down right by the other witch's side.
"Hi," she said quietly.
"Hi," Hermione sent back. The bushy-haired witch was curled into herself, her arms wrapped around her knees.
"I know that the dragon was real," Holly finally said, pushing her hands under her thighs to stop them from shaking. "And I got my cloak back today, so, sorry."
"Did you? Oh, that's good," Hermione said, still not looking at her.
"Look, Hermione—" Holly began, forcing herself to meet the brunette's eyes, but then her mouth closed with a snap. She had been feeling like she was forgetting something ever since she had spoken to the Headmaster, and now some of Professor Dumbledore's words came back to her and Holly jumped to her feet. "Where did Mr. Hagrid get the dragon egg?"
"What?" Hermione looked at Holly blankly.
"Professor Dumbledore—he said that Mr. Hagrid has always wanted a dragon."
"Yeah," Hermione said nodding.
"And you said that Mr. Hagrid was the one that provided Fluffy. All the rest of the protections for the stone, they could be gotten around, couldn't they—if it is You-Know-Who behind all this: the Quidditch match, the Stone, the unicorns, maybe even what happened to Mr. Black."
"Yes."
"But Fluffy," Holly continued, pacing now in the grass. "He is the sticking point, because how many people have seen a three-headed dog or even know how to get around it? Except, of course, the gamekeeper who happened to get a dragon egg that he has always wanted at a rather odd time, don't you think?"
Hermione gasped. "No! You don't suppose…?"
"We have to talk to Mr. Hagrid."
They ran around to the other side of the hut. The gamekeeper was sitting in an armchair outside his house, shelling peas into a bowl. Hagrid looked surprised to see them, but he smiled too.
"Hullo," he said. "Finished yer exams, Hermione? Got time fer a drink?"
"Not today, Hagrid. Um, this is Holly Potter." Hermione gestured to the redhead awkwardly.
"Hello," Holly said, waving a bit, feeling like a moron.
Hagrid smiled widely at her. "Las' time I saw you, you was only a baby. Yeh look a lot like yer mum, but yeh've got yer dad's eyes." He held out an enormous hand and shook Holly's whole arm. "Rubeus Hagrid, at yer service."
His eyes were kind, and Holly felt immediately at ease. "It's nice to meet you."
Hermione cleared her throat.
"Oh, right," Holly said. "Mr. Hagrid, you see, Hermione told me all about the Stone."
"Yeh what?" He looked at Hermione in surprise.
"Not now, Hagrid," Hermione said impatiently. "This is important. You know the night you won Norbert—what did the stranger playing cards with you look like?"
Hagrid shifted slightly, glancing at Holly.
"She knows everything, Hagrid," Hermione assured him. "The stranger, Hagrid."
"Well, don' rightly know," Hagrid said. "he wouldn' take his cloak off. Yeh get a lot o' funny folk in the Hog's Head—that's one o' the pubs down in the village. Mighta bin a dragon dealer, mightn' he? I never saw his face, he kept his hood up."
"What did you talk to him about, Mr. Hagrid?" Holly asked. "Did you mention Hogwarts at all?"
"Call me Hagrid, everyone does. Hogwarts mighta come up," he said, frowning. "Yeah, he asked what I did, an' I told him I was gamekeeper here. He asked a bit about the sorta creatures I look after. He said he had the dragon egg an' we could play card fer it if I wanted, but he had to be sure I could handle it, so I told him, after Fluffy, a dragon would be easy."
Holly and Hermione exchanged a glance.
"Did he seem interested in Fluffy?" Holly asked.
"Well, yeah—how many three-headed dogs d'yeh meet, even around Hogwarts? So I told him, Fluffy's a piece o' cake if yeh know how to calm him down, jus' play him a bit o' music an' he'll go straight off ter sleep—" Hagrid suddenly looked horrified. "I shouldn'ta told yeh that! Hey—where're yeh goin'?"
Hermione and Holly ran all the way to the Entrance Hall, coming to a stop with a jolt. "We have to go to Dumbledore," Hermione said. "He can stop it!"
"Dumbledore's gone," Holly told her bleakly. "He went to London to the Ministry."
"McGonagall, then," Hermione said.
"Right," Holly agreed, and they turned to run to the Transfiguration classroom, but stopped short, seeing Snape standing there, staring at them.
"Good afternoon," he said smoothly.
They gazed at him—Holly uncomfortably remembering his discussion with Dumbledore. She wasn't sure what side he was on, most likely his own. He could not be trusted.
"You shouldn't be inside on a day like this," he said, with an odd smile. He was staring right at Holly, and the hair on the back of her neck stood up. A sudden pain caused her to grab at her heart, and she noticed, to her horror, that this only made Snape smile more. "You'll want to be more careful," Snape said. "Standing around like this, people will think you're up to something. And Gryffindor really can't afford to lose any more points, can it?"
Hermione's face turned bright red.
"We were just heading to see Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick," Holly said. "Hermione and I wanted to see which one of us did better on our exams."
"Oh, I am sorry," Snape said, not sounding sorry at all. "Professor McGonagall has left for the day. It seems her husband has been bitten by a Venomous Tentacula. Odd timing, that. Professor Flitwick and Professor Sprout have gone down to Hogsmeade with Madam Pomfrey to assist. I am in charge in their absence." Snape looked overly pleased with himself. "Good day to you."
"Would Hagrid help us?" Holly asked after Snape had gone.
"He hasn't a wand," Hermione told her.
"Professor Sinistra."
"Left after the last exam yesterday," Hermione said. "What about Professor Quirrell?"
"Get real, he couldn't stop a fly, let alone a dark wizard," Holly said, rolling her eyes. She sighed. "Well, that's it then, isn't it? You-Know-Who has nothing left stopping him from going after the Stone tonight."
"Snape could go now," Hermione hissed at her.
Holly sighed. "It's not Snape. I don't know what his plan is, but he is not the one who tried to kill me. That doesn't mean he is innocent though." She plopped down on the front steps. Gazing out over the grounds, Holly felt uncommonly depressed at the scenery. "Venomous Tentacula bites are really poisonous, aren't they?" she asked bleakly.
"Yes, I'm really sorry, Holly," Hermione said quietly, sitting down beside her. "Poor Professor McGonagall."
"I can't think about this now," Holly told her. She continued looking out over the clear and peaceful grounds of Hogwarts, knowing it could all be reduced to ashes by morning. Nodding, Holly stood. "Well, that's it then. We have to go down the trapdoor and get the Stone first."
"You can't," Hermione cried. "This is You-Know-Who we are talking about. Whoever he has working for him probably knows all sorts of spells I haven't even read about. We'd be killed!"
"I don't care," Holly said, clenching her fists. "If the servant of Voldemort gets hold of the Stone, he's coming back! Haven't you heard what it was like when he was trying to take over? There won't be a Hogwarts, or a Diagon Alley, or anything else—he'll flatten them all! I'm going through that trapdoor tonight, and nothing you say is going to stop me! Voldemort killed my parents, remember?"
"You're right, Holly," Hermione said in a small voice.
"I'll use my Invisibility Cloak," Holly said. "It's just lucky that I got it back today."
"But will it cover all four of us?"
Holly turned to see Lavender and Parvati standing behind her, looking rather fierce. "All—all four of us?"
"Did you really think you could leave us behind?" Parvati asked.
"We are with you to the end, Holly," Lavender said. "No matter what."
"As am I," Hermione said, making Holly look at her and smile. Hermione continued, "Though, I better look at my books before we go, there might be something useful in there."
Tears sprang to Holly's eyes but she blinked them back. "Thank you."
"There is just one thing," Lavender said.
"What?" Hermione asked.
"Would you guys mind telling me and Parvati what is going on? All I heard was You-Know-Who is taking over, but I think it would help for us to have a few more details."
Holly half laughed, half sobbed, while Hermione began to tell the other two girls everything.