Fallen & Risen 11. A Quill and a Fillibum

Previously…

"Professor Snape, I also have something for you," Heley explained, conjuring a small book covered in black leather. A diary. She looked at the little black object with moistened eyes, her hand caressing the cover of the diary. Then, determinedly, she looked up at Snape and handed it to him.

"Professor Snape, this is a diary…" Heley hesitated, "…my mother's diary…" she softly finished. Snape opened his eyes.

"Li-Lily's… diary…?" Snape repeated.

"Yes, my mother's diary," Heley said again. "Inside, she mentions you many times, Professor Snape. She loved you too. Even though she chose my father, she never forgot about you."

". . ." Snape bit his lips to keep them from trembling.

"To tell you the truth, I didn't want to give it to you, since it is a souvenir of her," Heley admitted, her fingers clenching around on the small diary. "But I believe you have more right to possess it than me. I believe that there are many things inside that you have the right to know. So, here! I give it to you!"

For a very long moment, Snape stared at the little book in Heley's hands with hypnotized eyes. Then, with a trembling hand, he extended his hand out of the frame of his portrait and slowly took the diary. He brought it inside the portrait and, still moving ever so slowly, he brought it to his chest.

"Lily…" Snape muttered, hugging the diary against his heart. After a minute of silence, he turned his attention back to Heley. "Th-thank you…" he stuttered, his lips trembling with emotions. Dumbledore's lips curled up in a smile as he watched the two of them.

"That was very honorable of you, Heley," Dumbledore said. "James and Lily would be proud of you." Heley slowly nodded, biting her lips slightly, which had been trembling with emotion, just like Snape's.

"Ah, Miss Potter." Someone came in the room. It was Professor McGonagall. Heley hurriedly swept away her tears. "I'm sorry for making you wait. We can start now. Please, take a seat," Professor McGonagall showed Heley the seat in front of her desk.

"Yes, Professor," Heley murmured quietly, sitting down. Professor McGonagall took out some papers she had carried with her and presented them to Heley a sealed envelope addressed to her.

"This is for you," Professor McGonagall explained. Heley took the envelope and opened it. "I received them this morning. They were send from the Gringotts Wizarding Bank by the Potter lawyer," Professor McGonagall continued while Heley scanned through the content of the envelope. "I was told to make you sign the papers and have them sent back to Gringotts as soon as possible."

The papers stated that all of Harry Potter's possessions were now all transferred to her, since she was the last Potter alive. Heley now owned the Potter's Vault and the Number Twelve, Grimmauled Place, which was left to Harry Potter by Sirius Black. They needed her signature to officially transfer everything to her name.

"Here's a quill for you," Professor McGonagall said as she gave Heley her own quill.

"Thank you, Professor," Heley replied. She was going to extend her left hand to take the quill, but changed for the right hand on the last second. Heley put the paper down on Professor McGonagall's desk and scribbled out her name in a neat handwriting.

Professor McGonagall didn't miss any of Heley's gestures from the moment she held out the quill to Heley. She was disappointed when she saw Heley take the quill with her right hand, and was even more so when she saw Heley's nice and neat handwriting. When Heley finished signing the papers, she brought her eyes up to see Professor McGonagall's sad face, some twinkling in the corner of her eyes.

"Is there anything wrong, Professor?" Heley asked. Professor McGonagall hurriedly swiped her tears and tried to compose herself back together.

"I'm sorry, dear," Professor McGonagall said with a trembling voice while miserably trying to smile. "It's just that you remind me a lot of an old student I had until last year. He was such a fine young man, but he left us this summer. So soon and at such a young age." At the end, the Headmistress couldn't control her tears. She took out her handkerchief to clean them. "I'm sorry, dear," Professor McGonagall said and tried to calm herself. "I knew it is wrong to think that you remind him. You are right hand and your handwriting is neat and clear. He was left hand and his writing was a little bit hard to read. Yet, his handwriting was far better than his friend, Ron Weasley, which was like fly legs." The Professor sadly laughed at the memory.

"Professor…" Heley muttered, trying to make her lips stop trembling.

"I'm sorry for being so emotional, dear," Professor McGonagall apologized, brushing again her face with her handkerchief. "Don't worry about me."

Heley didn't reply back, letting Professor Mcgonagall swept her tears in silence. She remembered why she/Harry started to learn writing with the right hand.

Flashback

It happened after that Harry killed the Basilisk in the Chamber of Secret. Harry got bitten in his left arm and he had thought he was really going to be killed by he snake. He tried to use his wand with his right hand, but his magic was very weak. It was even worst than using a broken wand when he used his right hand.

"Harry, wizards are born with two hands, but most of the time they use only one - either right or left - and neglect the use of the other. But there will be a time you will wish that you know how to use your other hand as well as your main one. In the Chamber of Secret, you couldn't defend yourself using your right hand because its channel of magic had never been developed. You have never held your wand with your right hand before. From now on, you must learn the use of your weaker hand and develop its channel of magic. One day, it will be very useful to you in case your left hand becomes useless," Dumbledore taught Harry.

Harry's first attempts to use his wand with his right hand were disastrous. Next to him, Neville would have been proclaimed a genius. Harry nearly set Dumbledore's beard on fire and had blown up half of the headmaster's office. Dumbledore had immediately told him to put his wand back in his left hand.

"Harry, before you can use your wand with your right hand, I demand that you learn to control it first," Dumbledore said, removing the shield he cast around him to protect himself from the destruction of his office. "Holding your wand with a hand you don't have control over can be dangerous for you as well as for the people around you. Either you cannot properly defend yourself, like in the Chamber of Secret, or you don't have control over your magic, like this," Dumbledore explained, gesturing towards the big hole in his wall. "First, practice using your right hand for everyday uses, such as holding a spoon or a tooth brush. That way, you will slowly build up your control as well as your channel of magic in your right hand. I will also want you to learn how to write with your right hand. It's the best way to see how much control you gain over it. Every month, I want you to write me a foot long essay about your progress and have it sent to me. When I judge that you can write well with your right hand, it would mean that you have developed fairly good control of it. When that happens, you shall learn to use your wand with your right hand again."

And that was how Harry learns to write with his right hand. With constant practice, Harry slowly became ambidextrous over the years.

End flashback

And it was thanks to all those years of patience that Heley could write with her right hand today. Heley had decided that since Harry Potter was left handed, she would be right handed.

Heley watched Professor McGonagall weep, biting her lips.

'I'm sorry, Professor,' Heley thought.

After lunch, she had Herbology with Professor Sprout.

Heley, Hermione, Ron and Neville made their way through the crowd of students in the direction of the third greenhouse. The blatantly huge grin plastered on Neville's face was enough to give to Heley, Hermione and Ron an idea of what the third greenhouse held. The most dangerous as well as the rarest magical plants were cultivated there. Ron was determined to team up with Neville in Herbology because only Neville had the skill to manipulate these plants without getting burned, bitten or any other sort of injuries brought about by these 'innocent and beautiful creations of the Lord', as Neville put them. And, well, Hermione and Heley agreed with Ron. On their way to the greenhouse, Neville presented them with a Fillubum Draconibulum, or Filly, as he named it. It was his latest gift from his uncle Algie, who just came back from a trip in the Amazon. Neville's uncle was proud of Neville's results in Herbology and wanted to encourage his nephew with a new gift. Neville was eager to show his new possession to Professor Sprout.

Neville talked nonstop about his 'beauty encrusted with ruby and amethyst rhinestones', but Heley's personal opinion differed greatly from his. For Heley, the plant looked like a carnivorous flower with severe case of chickenpox consisting of red and purple colored boils. Neville was cooing and baby talking to his 'beauty', saying how gorgeous, nice, pretty, beautiful and unique 'she' was. Heley wondered how Neville knew that the plant was a 'she' and not a 'he'? And since when a plant could be a 'she' or a 'he'? Hearing Neville talk to his plant made Ron want to puke. Ron thought Filly was ugly and not nice at all. The plant spat fire at him, nearly making him bald, just because he had bluntly proclaimed his opinion of 'her'. To be honest, Heley secretly agreed with Ron, but she didn't voice it out to avoid having fire spit out at her. Ironically, Fillubum's boils produce an excellent medicine to cure all kind of skin damages. The red boils cured pimples while the purple ones cured severe burns. Only Hermione eagerly listened to Neville who was telling her extremely detailed instructions on how to take care of his baby. Meanwhile, Ron and the plant were eyeing each other by the corner of their eyes (and where were the plant's eyes anyway?), waiting for the first opportunity to jump on the other's throat, unless they wanted to spit fire to each other again, which was more likely. Heley bit her lips to stop herself from laughing as she watched them. As for Neville, he was so caught in talking about his precious plant that he didn't see the people who were walking out of the hallway across from them. As expected, he didn't realize what would happen next. Everyone knows what happen if you don't look in front of you when you walk.

Bump!

"Ow!" Neville and the other person ran into each other, crashing into the ground.

"Neville! Are you alright?" Hermione asked as she and Heley helped him up. Ron picked up the bag and books Neville had dropped.

"As always, you are still as clumsy as ever, Longbottom," the other victim of the accident drawled out. Neville, Hermione, Heley raised their head to see Blaise Zabini standing up from where he had fallen. "Oww, that hurts!" Blaise complained, massaging the back of his head.

"I told you to look in front of you," Draco grumbled, appearing next to Blaise. Neville, Hermione, Heley and Ron stiffened at the sight of the other Slytherin Head Boy.

'Oh Merlin! Why do we always bump into them when we do everything to avoid them?' the four Gryffindors wondered.

'I'm going to be mocked by them again,' Neville thought, not happy at all.

"I'm sorry," Neville apologized to Blaise without stuttering like he used to do before. "I didn't see you coming."

"Yeah, well, sorry too," Blaise said, grimacing and still nursing his skull. "I can't deny that I was also at fault."

'WHAT?' the four Gryffindors gasped, flabbergasted. Did they hear wrong? A Slytherin had just said 'Sorry' to them after being bumped into and didn't mock them? 'This is not right! Something must be wrong with them! Unless it's our head that have a problem!'

But the two Slytherins weren't paying attention to the Gryffindors.

"Why didn't you tell me that you saw them come, Draco?" Blaise questioned accusingly.

"I did," Draco flatly answered, one elegant eyebrow raised. "It was you who wasn't listening."

The four Gryffindors waited for the Slytherins to spit their poison at them, but nothing came.

'What's happening here?' the Gryffindors wondered. But soon, Neville's attention was diverted to something more important.

"Ah! Filly? Where's Filly?" Neville panicked, searching everywhere for his little plant. Hermione, Heley and Ron looked down around their feet but didn't see the little green thing Neville named Filly anywhere. They completely ignored the two Slytherins standing in front of them.

"Longbottom, are you searching for this?" Draco's voice raised. They all stopped their search to watch Draco. Or more specifically what he was holding in his right hand: Neville's potted plant.

"Fi-Filly…" Neville stuttered, his face draining off color. It was Draco Malfoy who was holding Neville's plant in his hand.

Post on Monday January 11, 2010. Beta-ed on Monday Januray 18.