Written In The Body
Poetheather
A/N: Well, here we go, another week of fun. I am glad you are all enjoying this crazy ride so far. Working on chapter 32 right now so plenty more story to come. Can you believe that we are coming up on 6 months of this fic being posted? Wow… so I am deciding if I give you a longer chapter or an extra chapter in celebration for the June 10th posting. What do you all think?
Still not JKR.
Twenty-six
The mail owl flew into the Great Hall during lunch, which was unusual in and of itself, and with no other birds getting in its way it flew straight towards the head table. The bird, a tawny owl, landed in front of the Headmistress rather delicately and stuck out its leg, letting the woman untie the raggedy looking note that was on there. Once the Headmistress had the note in hand the bird took off, winging its way out of the room with all eyes split between watching the bird or the Headmistress. The strangeness of the owl's entrance had everybody in the room watching, trying to figure out exactly what was going on.
Headmistress McGonnagall unrolled the note and looked at it for a moment then furrowed her brows somewhat confused as she appeared to be reading it a second time. She turned it over a few times and nothing became clearer as from what anyone could tell there was no writing on either side of the old looking parchment. She turned to Professor Flitwick and as she spoke the room exploded with several huge bursts of multicolored powder that filled the whole room in a vast cloud of colorful smoke. Lots of coughing was quickly heard from all about the Great Hall as was the sound of a number of air purifying spells being cast. Soon the varihued haze was gone from over the tables but what remained had some people screaming and some laughing.
The fading wisps of color began to dance about towards the ceiling on the air currents, beginning to look more and more like the ghostly forms of a large dog, a werewolf and a stag. That had many members of the Head Table gawking as opposed to the majority of the students who were primarily staring at the fact that their hair and skin were all colored a different house color from their own. And the even more troubling things was that it wasn't consistent. Each table had a mixture of the other three Houses represented in the color of the people seated there. Even the House banners had been hit, sporting rainbow hues. When finally the rest of the color cloud had faded, the moving images remained for another few moments before they all turned, bowing towards the Head Table and vanishing completely, whisked away by the air currents. Pandemonium erupted in the Great Hall.
The Headmistress stood and, after apparently casting Sonorus on herself, boomed out with a bit more brogue than was usual, "Quiet!"
Everyone slowly settled down and regained their seats, a bit too afraid to cross Headmistress McGonnagall. She applied the counter charm to the sonorus and asked in a more normal tone of voice, pitching her voice loud enough to be heard through the hall, "Now is anyone hurt?"
When no one raised their hand or indicated that they were injured in some way, she nodded. There was no indication on her face if she were pleased or not with the fact that there were no injuries. "Now then, Professor Flitwick will be coming around to your tables in order to remove this so don't worry. We will get to the bottom of this and punish those responsible. Resume eating your meals and remain calm. Miss Granger, Mister Boyle, a word please."
Hermione had already schooled her face to where it needed to be, quite prepared for going up and talking with the Headmistress. Knowing that this was going to happen had allowed her to settle her thoughts in regards to this event against Legilimency. While she did love and respect Headmistress McGonnagall more than any other instructor at Hogwarts, this whole thing with the pranking was pretty fun so far and she had to admit that she was enjoying herself immensely. Thinking through all the possible ways in which they could get caught, setting up the delivery system, ensuring that the trigger would work, the various charms they had to use, and the everything else had been some degree of fun and definitely challenging work. The Marauders notes had been an absolutely invaluable tool in that endeavor. This wasn't a repeat of any prank they had pulled back in their time but it was an extrapolation off something that Remus had mentioned as a potential prank against the Slytherins, making their hair all turn Gryffindor colors after such a colorful display. All she had done was to simply take that core idea and run with it to its logical extreme.
Once the Head Boy and Girl were both at the Head Table the Headmistress looked at them, each colored in the House colors of the other, and said, "I need you to get the Prefects together so you can try and find who might have done this. I would suggest at the very minimum that it would be someone fifth year and up by the complexity of the work needed in order to make that happen. I want them found and brought to my office as soon as you can manage it."
"What was on the note Headmistress?" asked Cameron.
"Nothing. That's what's so strange. The owl delivered a blank note." Headmistress McGonnagall sounded rather frustrated and put out.
Hermione looked up at the ceiling where the figures had been and then back towards the note speculatively. She had to play this correctly if she was going to plant the seed but not shift focus too much onto her, "Headmistress, you don't think…"
"What Miss Granger?" The piercing green eyes bored into her, as if trying to interpret her intention by sight alone.
"Well, those three shapes. I know you know that they were familiar. Could they possibly be…?" Hermione was not overly proud of the fact that she had become a better liar since having met the boys but even she had to admit that there were times when the skill was useful. After all, the ability to lie convincingly had saved her life when she was lying there on the cold marble floor of Malfoy Manor.
The Headmistress nodded, following along the train of thought that Hermione had laid out. She had tried to make it subtle and not overly obvious and she hoped that she had succeeded. "I am not sure what to think Miss Granger, but what do you think that means for the note."
"Well, from what Harry has said, uhm… the three of them could spell paper to look completely normal and plain but it could actually carry hidden messages that would not be revealed unless you knew the code word or phrase. Apparently that was how they hid a number of things from teachers and Prefects." explained Hermione.
"They? They who?" asked Cameron, clearly confused. There were parts of this conversation that he knew he did not even remotely understand and it seemed that Hermione and the Headmistress had no intention of filling him in.
The Headmistress quirked an eyebrow at this statement, obviously following the implication that Hermione was making. "Could they now? That would explain a lot actually."
"Anyway, that's what Harry said." Hermione replied with a shrug. "I don't know much more than that."
The Headmistress tapped the blank page in order to get it to reveal the words and sure enough words appeared. The three of them looked at the note to see what would appear. The ink resolved itself into reading, Mssrs. Padfoot, Moony, and Prongs bid Minnie a good day and do hope that she enjoyed the show.
McGonnagall frowned and tapped the page again, her eyes narrowing in consternation. It was clear that she was trying to get through whatever this was to discover the real message hidden below. The writing changed again, the letters shifting into, Mssr. Moony is wondering if perhaps your bun is wound a bit too tight since you keep bothering us.
With a very feline hiss at that, she cast a few more spells onto the page before it read. Mssr. Padfoot regrets not being there to give the honorable Headmistress a big wet kiss in front of everyone but must decline since he has been otherwise detained.
"Sirius…" she growled growing annoyed with this whole process. The Headmistress closed her eyes, took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, clearly focusing herself. She then tapped the page again and Hermione could actually feel the rush of magic this time.
The words changed again. Mssr. Prongs wonders how exactly Minnie is going to deal with all of this if she blows her top with just this first one. Perhaps a vacation will help?
"First one?" After she said those words, the note burst into flames, making the Headmistress drop the sheet in surprise. The parchment was enveloped by the fire which burned out before it hit the floor, leaving only a black spot of ash on the floor of the Great Hall. The three of them stared at the remains of the message in astonishment.
"Headmistress, uh… what do you want us to do? Should we still check to see if we can find someone who did this?" asked Hermione, trying to sound a bit worried and stunned at the same time.
"This is obviously the work of some prankster with a sick sense of humor and we will find them. You and Boyle will need to ferret them out no matter who they are. And for them to use the images of those three…" McGonnagall just shook her head as her voice trailed off. She gave Hermione a speculative look before scoffing and shaking her head, as if she could not believe that she had even entertained that particular notion.
"Headmistress, what three? Who are you two talking about?" Cameron was clearly not following much of what was going on in the conversation and that was making him sound just a bit testy.
"Those three figures and the three mentioned on the note used to be students here at Hogwarts, many years ago. I want you to imagine the Weasley twins only worse and three of them, and that was them. They called themselves the Marauders and they were pranksters and troublemakers. All of them died at some point in the fight against Voldemort, the last of them this spring." That was about all that was important at this point. Hermione was glad that McGonnagall stopped there. Letting Cameron know much more about Remus, Sirius and James at this point might be a bit too much. Information control would be important if she wanted to manage this correctly and keep she and Ginny from being too obviously suspects.
"Well, do you think that it could be their ghosts doing this?" he asked, trying to work this out logically. From a certain point of view, having ghosts pulling a prank like this made a certain sort of sense. "I mean, there are stories of some ghosts having the power to effect things, besides poltergeists. If they had some sort of connection to the school wouldn't it be a possibility?"
McGonnagall nodded slowly, clearly finding that train of thought appealing to a degree. "I could see at least two of them doing this or at least get caught attempting it. And one of them did die here in May so it just might be possible for that to be the case, though it would be rare. It is a scenario worth considering but until we have proof that your guess is correct, you both will work on trying to figure out someone more tangible who this could be."
"Yes ma'am." After a quick word with each other to arrange a meeting time, the two of them headed back towards their respective tables and sat back down to finish what was left of their lunch despite the hubbub.
Hermione was instantly bombarded by questions as she took her seat. She held up her hands to forestall any more attempts to pry answers from her and said calmly, "Hold on everybody. Cameron and I are going to be looking into this. The Prefects will also be called in to help with this search for the culprits as well. The teachers are on top of this. Hopefully they can get this color mess sorted soon and we won't all look so…."
But the teachers couldn't eliminate the colors off anyone or even from the House banners. Thanks to Lupin's notes, Flitwick's teaching and her own studies backed by Ginny's knowledge of the Twin's own pranking techniques they had been able to come up with a way to link the all of the individual color patterns together into one larger matrix with a Protean Charm, meaning that they all had to come down at once, which took a great deal of power, or the teachers would have to allow the effect to fade over time, which was already preset. The only thing that made Hermione happy about her research was that this combination was too tricky to be used with any spell that was much more complex than the one they used as the whole thing would come apart under the stress of the differing spell energies. Thankfully that meant she had not weaponized a spell matrix for use on a large group, but after some more thought she figured that if she really wanted to she could find a way to make it work with a number of more deadly spells. So that guaranteed that those notes got burned, something that Ginny agreed with after some discussion. While that technique would be great for their particular pranking purposes other people might not be as nice and put that knowledge to far more nefarious aims. It was safer locked in their heads than on paper.
The fact that the students were colored with different house colors seemed to have some fun effects, as over the following two days as the spell lingered there was a bit more intermingling between the Houses, as if this had somehow let down a barrier between them. It seemed that everyone was in the same boat, all differently colored so they had that clearly in common so why not? When they had been planning things, Ginny had chosen to be Ravenclaw colored supposedly to better reflect her girlfriend while she had gone with Slytherin to show how sneaky she was. And naturally there was no progress in the investigation as to who had pulled this prank, as Hermione was not likely to find any information indicating that she was a likely suspect in her own prank and the other Prefects or Cameron had no clue what they were actually looking for. Even the owl that had delivered the note had vanished without a trace.
But now Hermione was simply focusing on the more important things, her schoolwork, Ginny, and trying to learn everything she could get her hands on that wasn't nailed down. Having a permanent pass into the Restricted Section of the Library was a lovely thing to have as she could get any of the books she needed to supplement her own resources when she looked into anything, even pranks. It had already proven its usefulness to her. Thanks to a book she found there, Lupin's notes, and her own theories she had been able to finally follow through on her desire to make her patrolling infinitely easier by making something that she could attach to the Marauder's Map in order to help her with that particular task. Now, thanks to what she had cobbled together, she could just sit back and study in peace unless the map gave her a warning tone that someone who was not on the approved list was out and about wandering the halls. During the initial test it had already shown how helpful it was by helping her catch a pair of Slytherin six years, who had been looking for somewhere private for an intimate rendezvous and a Ravenclaw third year who had been sneaking down to the Kitchen's for a late night snack. Each time she had gone straight to them and each time she had been able to get back to her studying quite quickly, with very little fuss, much to the confusion of the Head Boy.
It was certainly making this onerous portion of her work as Head Girl far easier than it could have been. While Cameron was patrolling around like usual, she was nice and comfortable, reading and then rushing directly to a trouble spot to handle to out of bounds individual before they could really get anywhere. He couldn't seem to understand how she was able to do that and be so amazingly accurate. Naturally Hermione decided not to share with him the secret to her success as it would have taken far too long to explain the whole thing and might have directed unwanted attention her way about her pranking. And then there was the whole issue of the Marauders Map in the first place and how it could be considered a violation of privacy.
However, the map wasn't helping her with the big hunt that she really cared about, catching those older Slytherins who were picking on the younger members of the different houses. Despite having an overwhelming urge to strangle them, she had to give them points for being both smart and cunning, ensuring that the students they jumped could not identify them through one means or another and their use of the Confundus Charm to make things even more confused showed that they were rather clever. What was worrying Hermione was that it seemed that they were moving up in terms of bad things done to people, moving to harsher hexes, and meaner pranks as they gained more and more of a taste for it. It concerned her and made her wish she could catch them faster, before someone got seriously hurt due to this nonsense. All it would take was her being in the right place in the right time and it would be all over for those idiots. She was certain that she could take out five or six lower years without breathing hard, unless one of them ogt in a lucky shot.
However she had more important things to worry about at the moment rather than pranks or thugs, as she and Madam Pomfrey were currently on their way up to speak with Headmistress McGonagall. They had talked about Simon a couple more times and realized that they absolutely needed to take it to the next level, because the Nurse had come to the unfortunate conclusion that what Simon had gone through had to have been systematic abuse rather than being a one-time thing. Neither woman was pleased with the situation as they rode up the spiral staircase lost to their own thoughts.
"Come in."
The Headmistress looked up from her work and seemed a bit surprised to see the two of them, raising an eyebrow in question at their appearance. Poppy took the lead as they came over and took seats, "Minerva, we have a bit of a problem that is beyond our ability to deal with and we need your assistance."
Minerva's eyes cut over to Hermione worriedly. The girl shook her head and tried to be a touch reassuring as she said, "No, the problem is not with me oddly enough but rather it's with a first year Gryffindor I have taken a liking to, Simon Cresswell. I think that you may have met him at my birthday party. He is a really sweet kid and is doing well in his classes but well… it seems that he has been physically abused, possibly from his family."
The Headmistress looked quite surprised and a bit shocked at this, eyes wide. "Good lord, Poppy is this true?"
The nurse nodded her head sadly as she replied, "Yes, I'm afraid so. Based on a hunch of Miss Granger, I checked the boy the day after the welcome feast and he had a number of bruises and contusions in places that would be easy to hide with clothing. He does have a number of indicators for abuse, specifically in the way he interacts with people, is often withdrawn, apparently trouble with making friends, is quite compliant with whatever Miss Granger and her friends ask, soaks up affection as if it is a rare thing, and that is including several rather severe injuries that have healed. There are also a few signs that he might have a bit of malnourishment, but he should be over that in a short while with all the food here. Miss Granger here said that when she met him he was acting a lot like Mr. Potter did when he first arrived and we all remember what my opinion was then."
The painting of Dumbledore took the rather pointed glare from the Healer in stride and simply smiled serenely at the three of them.
"Yes, well, have you questioned the boy about any of this?" asked McGonnagall, her brows furrowed in concentration.
"Not yet." said Hermione apologetically. "See, that's part of the problem. He has been busy acclimating himself to the school, magic, and the difficulty of making friends. He is muggleborn, like me and so a lot of this is new to him and it is throwing him for a loop. There are so many things that he does not know how to deal with. Ginny, Luna, and I have been helping him as best we can and he is starting to make a few friends among his year mates however we did not want to push it, alienating him, but we did know that we just couldn't sit on this problem forever as it would only get worse. This is an issue that needs some resolution for several reasons."
"I see. And so the both of you thought to come here and dump this whole mess on me?" Headmistress McGonnagall said with a bit of a grin, taking the bite out of the comment.
"Exactly. You are the Headmistress of the school after all." said Poppy. "Besides the boy has a couple of younger siblings and after further reflection since we are not sure if the abuse is because of his magic or what not, his family should be formally investigated. I have a friend of mine who works at St. Mungo's sort of watching the family now informally to see if we can get any visual evidence of abuse. However, the only one who we can really ask for such a thing is you and we know that you can only do that if you have questioned Simon. We are only trying to cut out the middle portion of this whole thing." The Nurse summed up their agreed upon points rather succinctly. This was the crux of their concerns after all.
The Headmistress nodded as she followed along with Poppy's explanation, obviously tracking the argument they were making. "Fair enough. And what exactly should I tell Mr. Cresswell about how I know about these things? These are things that I should not know without having some sort of reason. You are aware that he is going to ask."
Hermione grinned at McGonnagall as something occurred to her. It was a little rude, but the person to whom it was rude really did not have a stake in this argument. Besides, if this was able to help Simon she would be okay with most anything. "Well, speaking from my own experience, with him being a Muggleborn, Simon doesn't really know the limitations of what magic can and cannot do at this point. There is no reason for him not to believe that finding this out by magic is just something that the Headmistress can do. So I think all you will have to do at this point is pull a Dumbledore on him."
The painting of Snape started snickering at this point, which startled Hermione but earned the painting of the former Potions Master and brief Headmaster of Hogwarts glares from both the painting of Dumbledore and Headmistress McGonnagall. When he looked up he looked at both of them and gave a snort of disbelief, "Oh please, you can't even remotely deny the fact that you always acted like you knew everything. You cannot argue with that Albus."
The painting of Dumbledore sighed, having to yield to that particular point, "No, you know that I cannot Severus. Despite all that, perhaps Miss Granger's plan might actually work Minerva."
"You know I do not appreciate lying Albus and do not even begin to spout off any of your Greater Good nonsense at me over this. I am trying to find a way to help a young boy who is possibly in the same sort of trouble that Harry was in while he was living with the Dursley's not prevent a magical war. You wouldn't let me do anything to help fix the situation with Harry but by Merlin I will fix this one if I can!" Minerva glowered at the painting, who had did look a bit abashed by this dressing down.
Severus snickered again, obviously amused by the dressing down Dumbledore was getting. He seemed inordinately pleased with himself.
Hermione was feeling a bit uncomfortable, shifting in her seat, as the sight of McGonnagall bickering with Dumbledore made her feel awkward, like watching her grandparents argue, and it was disturbing. However there was no question in her mind that the image of Snape smiling and snickering with very human emotions was simply downright creepy. McGonnagall turned from the paintings and back to her visitors. "Sorry for that. I will talk to him and then look into the matter myself. I would hate for one of our students to have to endure such treatment if there is something that we are able to do something about it. Thank you for bringing this matter to my attention. I would hate to have to fail another boy the way we failed Harry."
"Excellent. Well, I can already tell you that the food and the reduction in stress is helping the boy feel less timid and put upon than when he had first arrived, which leads me to believe that it is an issue with his home life. If we can solve this other issue than maybe we can figure out how best we can take care of him." stated Madam Pomfrey with a slight smile.
"If these allegations are true, it will have to be dealt with and we will have to get him out of that house. There is no other recourse. Since he is not bound by any sort of prophecy nor is he being chased by a dark lord nor does he need blood wards to stay there I have absolutely no compunctions with getting him out of a harmful environment in order to get him to safety. The question then becomes a matter of what we can do with him? I suppose it's obvious that he can stay here during the school year but what are the options over the summer?"
Hermione blushed a little, barely believing that she was thinking about doing this. It was a crazy idea but she knew that if she did it she would be able to keep Simon safe, and so because of that she would totally do it. But it was such a radically different idea from what she usually would think of that it was difficult to see it as her own thought but she knew no one had been meddling. "You know… I could take him over the summers."
"You Hermione?" Headmistress McGonnagall seemed surprised at what Hermione was saying.
"Well, uhm… yes. I am currently of age and have been for several years. I will be getting some sort of employment when I graduate from here, I am absolutely positive of that. I can find a flat and take care of the both of us after that. It would surely be a far more preferable situation to him staying in an abusive home." offered Hermione, trying to clarify her point of view on the matter. While part of her could not believe that she was saying this, another part of her was sure that this was the right choice to be making. Hopefully Ginny wouldn't kill her over this whole idea however. "He is a very nice boy and it is such a shame for him to be in such a state."
"Hermione, you will just be starting out your adult life, are you really going to be ready to take up the responsibility of being the parent of a teenager even if it is only an occasional thing?" asked Headmistress McGonnagall gently.
Hermione bit her bottom lip. She was aware that this idea was pretty insane and that she was only eight years older than Simon. They were very hefty years thanks to the war and everything. Granted, at his age that gap was pretty huge in terms of perception but it really wasn't all that large. And she knew the Headmistress was right, in so many ways but what choice did she really have? "I honestly don't know. All I know is that if I can take care of him I will. It's just not fair that he might be in the same situation that Harry was in and no one will be there to take care of him. He doesn't have the Weasley's to run to half way through the summer or Grimmauld place. He would be stuck there. It's not right. Sure I might not be the best option but I am here and I am willing to do this."
Madam Pomfey and the Headmistress both looked rather proud of her at that moment, even though she did feel like a bit of a lunatic for even suggesting this. Minerva spoke, "Well, let's not put the cart before the Thestral, shall we? There are other things that need to be worked out before who watches him is even discussed. First things first if this actually does becomes a need then we will return to this topic of discussion but until then we should focus on taking care of Simon. We should not act as if our worst fear is what is true until it has been confirmed."
Hermione smiled and nodded, a bit relieved.
"Good. I shall set up an appointment to talk to Mr. Cresswell later. Once I have gotten the information from him I will check out his family, to see if there is any reason to worry. So long as Simon is here that is all we can do. Well, I shall talk to you both later. And Hermione?" The Headmistress turned her green eyes on her and they were rather friendly at the moment.
"Yes?"
"We still need to have that discussion you wanted about your potential career options." said McGonnagall with a smile.
"Thank you for reminding me Headmistress. Things have been pretty crazy since we have gotten back. I'll get it set up soon. I promise." She smiled at her and left her office, thinking about everything that had just happened.
As she walked through the halls she thought about Simon and what she had suggested. Watching out for an eleven year old boy was a pretty serious bit of work and a tremendous commitment. She was fairly certain of that, and by the time she would have to watch him he would be twelve. She was nineteen years old, a good eight years older than him and despite that she had to admit he really brought out the maternal instincts in her to the forefront. He was a good kid and the fact that someone had hurt him badly was despicable. Life really was unfair when she thought about it, not always but often enough. But was she ready to take care of Simon? Was she even capable of it?
She supposed that she could do it if she had to. She was very responsible and she did know what she would need to do in order to make sure that Simon had a nice place to stay, good food to eat, clothes to wear, school supplies, and the like. And if she got into any problems that she was not able to deal with she was sure either her parents or Mrs. Weasley would be more than happy to jump in and help her out of any potential jam she might find herself in. But to effectively become a parent to an eleven year old boy… could she really do that? That would be a very serious step. And what would that mean for her and Ginny? Would Ginny object to raising him? Would she even want to become a mother so early in their relationship? Would they even be mothering him so much as watching him? She had so many questions running through her head.
And Ginny was only six years older than Simon, not nearly as big a gap in age, which made this whole thing seem a bit crazy the more she thought about it. Shaking her head in worry, as her thoughts continued to whirl about, Hermione headed back towards the common room, trying to make some sort of sense of things. Part of her was well aware that this was the right thing to do but another part of her also knew that this was a bit insane, like clearly a Harry level of insane. She hadn't even dealt with the issue of telling Ron about her and Ginny or even coming out to the Weasleys so how could she honestly think she could handle being a parent, or at least a parental figure to a teenage boy? She must be mad, maybe even as mad as Bellatrix.
When she got to the common room, she did not spot the shock of red hair that she so desperately needed to see right then, knowing that even the sight of Ginny would help settle her nerves. This was a crazy situation and she was at a loss how to proceed. She recalled that there was currently a Quidditch thing scheduled for that afternoon. With a roll of the eyes and a sigh she sat down in her favorite chair by one of the windows and decided that maybe now she could get into the book she had bought on lesbian relationships in the magical world or whatever that particular book was actually about. The whole book had been rather vague if one went by the title since it hadn't really said anything. All you could really tell by the title was that it was designed for lesbian witches. It was still the one thing on the subject that she owned that she hadn't really looked into and she had that book with her the whole time, which made her feel a bit like an idiot. Life had been busy right after she had bought it and it wasn't a surprise that she hadn't read it before. Impulse had gotten her to put it in her bag before leaving to head up to school, mostly in the hopes that she would have some free time to read it between studying and everything else and now it looked like she did.
The book sounded like just the thing she might need in order to get her mind off the issues surrounding Simon and back onto a subject that gave her far, far more happiness, Ginny. Once she got settled she pulled out the book and made sure that no one could read the title and started reading the first chapter. This was something she was looking forward to. Who knows, there might even be something fun in there that she could use on Ginny to make her scream in ecstasy or maybe it would tell her something she needed to know about how lesbians got along in the magical world. Either would work for her, but she was kind of hoping for the screaming.