Ch. 15: The House Curses
Surprisingly enough, details about Harry's and Ron's stunt in the Ravenclaw bathroom didn't spread through the school. Hermione thought that maybe the Ravenclaw boys were too mortified at being spied on under the showers to tell anybody. They sure did avoid Harry and Ron, only shooting hostile glares in their direction. On their part, Harry and Ron had nothing to boost about, so they kept quiet as well, suffering through their week-long detention with Snape in silence, to avoid having to admit what they did to deserve it.
Hermione saw them come back to the common room, literally seconds before the curfew, looking tired and sometimes dirty, but didn't know the details of the detention. True to her word, she didn't even think of speaking with them until, a week after the incident, Shion asked her if she had forced Harry and Ron to apologise. He told her that they came up to him out of nowhere, mumbled "I'm sorry" and ran for it, because Nezumi happened to be there and he conjured up some fiery thing that chased them away. She could see that he didn't approve of Nezumi's attitude, even if he couldn't quite stop his lips from twitching into a smile when he told her about the incident.
As much as she was amused by the mental images that conversation produced, she sent a message to Harry and Ron, saying that it didn't count as a proper apology, considering the magnitude of their stupidity. She knew that their stunt made Shion seriously consider leaving Hogwarts and, from Safu's and Elizabeth's whispered conversation, she knew that he didn't come back to the Ravenclaw tower for a week. However, after the fifth time Ron found a spider on his desk and got a detention for screaming and disturbing the lesson, and the third time Harry managed to trip his cauldron onto Snape and earn a detention, Hermione started to wonder if Harry and Ron would be able to deliver a proper apology, even if they wanted to.
In attempt to not overthink that and to silence her guilty conscience, because Harry and Ron were her best friends and she started to feel sorry for them, Hermione busied herself with the "earring mystery", as she dubbed it for herself. She started with the "Noble and Pure Blood Families", a book detailing all the pure-blood families. It's most recent edition, from just the previous year, was in the library and there she found out that Nezumi, born on the 14th of December, was adopted into the Phantomhive family. Even though adoptions were not common in the wizarding world, it didn't surprise her all that much and, expecting that it would at least be mentioned in the Daily Prophet, she started skimming though the archives, starting from November sixteen years ago.
She found her answer on the last day of school before Christmas. The faded picture of a burning house on the front cover from the 15th of December caught her attention and she flipped to read about it, even though she was sure it wouldn't help her. She wished she had been right. The article took a whole page and, with some horror, Hermione read about a fire that consumed the Rutherford family house, killing Mr and Mrs Rutherford, while their son, Gratien Rutherford was miraculously rescued by a Muggle, Jeremy Allen, although it wasn't certain that the boy would survive the burns. There were photos also: one of a noble looking couple with a small child and one of a man who looked like an older version of Shion.
An irrational thought that Nezumi has been a cute kid crossed her mind before she went on to the following issues, finding out that the Phantomhives adopted the son of their friends, that the fire was magical, that- With a shudder, she realised that the fire occurred on the day of Ciel's and Nezumi's fourth birthday.
The next day, sitting on the train with Ciel, Nezumi, Shion, Safu and Elizabeth, she couldn't get the words and the photos out of her head. She couldn't even look at Nezumi and she couldn't focus on the conversation. It must have been noticeable, but nobody said anything for the whole trip. Only when the train arrived in London, Ciel, who was the last one to leave the compartment, except for her, turned to her and told her that it was alright and it was well in the past and they didn't really remember anything. Afterwards he left and she stood there, shocked, for another minute or so.
Hermione ended up having a nice Christmas break with her parents and, having received an invitation from Elizabeth on the first day of Christmas, she spent New Year's Eve with Lizzy, Safu, Shion and the twins. She got drunk, on champagne, for the first time in her life, she kissed everybody when they played "spin the bottle", and they played it until everybody kissed everybody at least once, and she saw the most amazing show of magical fireworks. Only when she was back on the train to Hogwarts did she remember about Ron and Harry and her ecstatic mood at having managed to steal another kiss from Nezumi faded away.
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'So what have you done over Christmas break?' Lavender asked Hermione as they were walking, together with Parvati, towards the Defence against the Dark Arts classroom for the first lesson of the subject after Christmas. Hermione felt herself blush.
'You know, spending time with parents, nothing special,' she lied, but the girls weren't fooled. They kept pestering her until she caved in. 'Okay, okay, I might have gone to a funny party for New Year's Eve,' she admitted.
'Tell us, tell us,' Parvati insisted. 'Who did you party with?' she asked. It was not a secret anymore that something happened between Hermione and her two best friends and the Gryffindor tower was buzzing with gossip. The girls asked her a couple of times, but she always told them that she didn't want to talk about it.
'Did you party with Nezumi?' Lavender insisted, squealing, together with Parvati, when Hermione thought that her face felt hot. 'Did you really? Is there anything for real between you and him?' Hermione shushed them before they would get the attention of the whole corridor.
'No, there is nothing between us, I promise,' she said in a whisper. 'I was with him, his brother, Shion, Safu and Lizzy. It was really fun and,' she paused and bit her lip, unsuccessfully trying to stop herself from smiling. 'And I kissed him again,' she added and shushed the squealing girls again.
'How was it?' Lavender asked, while Parvati demanded how it was possible. Hermione giggled at their replies, finding that she enjoyed this part of gossip immensely. Also, she was feeling surprisingly liberated after the experiences of the New Year's party and she decided that it was time to change her image of a bookworm a bit.
'We were playing "spin the bottle",' she amended. 'I know it's a silly game, but if it lets you kiss hot guys, well, I'm willing to play it,' she paused for the other two to have time to agree with her. 'So I got to kiss not only Nezumi, but his brother as well and let me tell you, they are both better at it than Victor Krum,' she informed them, gleeful when their eyes grew as bit as saucers. Of course, she admitted "accidentally" that she kissed Victor Krum as well, so that was only to be expected.
'Wait, what if the bottle chose you and another girl?' Parvati asked, after she and Lavender had calmed down a little. Hermione giggled, thinking that, judging by the frequency of that occurring during the evening, Nezumi helped the odds more than a little bit.
'I kissed the other girl of course,' she replied as though it was obvious. Lavender asked her if she was the same Hermione that went to school with them before holidays, but they reached the classroom, so Hermione didn't have time to reply. Instead, she waved at Ciel and Nezumi, who were already sitting inside. She felt herself blush again, when Lavender and Parvati giggled behind her and the twins shared a confused look.
'I'm glad to see that you are so cheerful after your holidays,' Professor Cain Kruspe said drily and Hermione immediately slipped onto her chair, which still was between Harry and Ron. Lavender and Parvati stopped giggling and the twins turned to face the teacher. 'Better,' he commented, looking around the classroom.
'If any of you have read your book ahead,' he continued after a brief pause and Hermione was sure that his eyes flickered to her for split of a second. 'You would surely notice that the next chapter treats about the so called "House Curses".' Hermione noticed that Ciel and Nezumi twitched slightly, when the last two words left the teacher's lips. 'They are curses most likely encountered in old, abandoned buildings, especially buildings from the Victorian times or older. Can anybody tell me why?' he asked, looking at Hermione almost before she managed to raise her hand. 'Miss Granger?'
'The "House Curses", used by wizards to protect their homes, hence their name, are considered as dark magic and are forbidden. However, until after the Victorian times, the concept of "dark magic" was not well formed and thus many curses dating from that period or before are of questionable nature,' she said, ignoring Malfoy's condescending snicker. In front of her, Ciel wrote something on a piece of paper and pushed it towards his brother, who read the note and nodded almost imperceptibly.
'Correct, Miss Granger. Five points to Gryffindor,' Professor Kruspe said. 'During the Victorian times the anti-apparition wards were invented and most of the House Curses became redundant and were removed. This is why, today, they are more of a legend than reality,' he added and paused to sigh. 'I will not lie to you: you are never going to encounter them on your exams, because they are more than rare. I would have skipped that chapter completely, but there is a chance that some of you might venture to go treasure hunting and thus I am obliged to warn you.'
Hermione thought that she shouldn't be saying that if he wanted his students to do whatever homework he would assign. Herself, she listened with interest, as usual when a new kind of magic was in question. She made notes when Professor Kruspe listed the types of curses that were grouped under the inconspicuous name of "House Curses". There were the, so called, "entrance curses", usually placed on doorways, preventing people from entering. They were by far the most popular, except in vaults and private areas of public buildings, where "entrapment curses", which prevented a potential thief from leaving, were often used. While the latter usually took a form of a cage, materialising from thin air, around the culprit, there was no general pattern for the mechanism of the former. They were often fatal which, as Professor Kruspe said, was the main danger for people hunting for treasures in old, abandoned buildings or simply those charged with renovation. The third group, "alarm curses" was the least problematic although there were cases of people going deaf from prolonged exposure.
She found all that interesting, although from a purely academic point of view, until the teacher finished the lecture by mentioning that all the information about those curses was, of course, in the Restricted Section of the library. He didn't even give them homework! This is my chance to get an excuse to go there, she realised, heart beating faster. She took her time to pack her notebook and, when the classroom was almost empty, she walked up to the teacher.
'Yes, Miss Granger?' he asked pleasantly. 'I suppose you would like a permission to go to the Restricted Section now, wouldn't you?' he added with a knowing smirk and she felt that she was blushing.
'Well, yes,' she admitted. 'It is really fascinating. I have never heard about those curses before,' she added, biting her lower lip. Professor Kruspe laughed shortly and wrote her a permission to go to the Restricted Section, warning her that it was only valid for one week because he expected her to have time for regular homework after the next lesson. Grinning happily, she thanked him and turned to leave the classroom.
Only then did she realise that she wasn't alone with the teacher. Her smile faded when her eyes met a cold, blue gaze. However, before she had time to say anything, Ciel turned around and left the classroom.