Part Two: The Last Journey to Hogwarts, and the First Half of Seventh Year
Chapter 5
TESS
She woke up with a feeling of excitement, but also dread. It was time to go to Hogwarts, and it was also her birthday. But this Hogwarts ride would be her last, and most likely no one would send her any presents because she blew up and left with Malfoy (NOT OF HER OWN VIOLITION).
She felt a little cautious about using magic, but she waved her wand and all her things flew into her trunk, the lid of which closed with a loud, satisfying BANG and locked itself. Her trunk had been sent here, to the Leaky Cauldron, on the second day she'd been here. She'd gone out, gotten all her schoolbooks, and bought herself a pack of raven quills.
She looked around. The room looked just as dark and dank as it had when she'd entered. She went down into Diagon Alley and into the Owl Emporium. There was a beautiful barn owl sitting in a cage in the corner. Tess had been entering every day to look at it. Finally she went up to the counter, dug out a galleon and three sickles, and slapped the coins on the counter. "I'll take—"
"The one that you've been looking at every day since the beginning of time?" the witch behind the counter finished. "Yes, I was wondering when you'd decide. Better hurry along, now, though, because it's nine-thirty." The witch retrieved the owl and Tess left the shop considerably happier.
On the Muggle side of the Leaky Cauldron, with her trunk and owl cage, Tess waved down the Knight Bus. "Good to see you again, Ernie," she said fondly to the bus driver. "King's Cross Station, please."
And so began the wild ride through the streets of London. The passenger next to Tess looked sick, but Tess was laughing uncontrollably. It was like being on a Muggle roller coaster, one that never stopped.
Tess loved roller coasters.
At King's Cross, she made her way onto Platform Nine and Three Quarters, loaded all her things, and found a nice, empty compartment, all before ten-thirty. She let her barn owl out of its cage.
"I think I'll call you Eliic," she decided.
Kids filed in and out of her compartment, the door of which she finally locked magically because she was so tired of having to take her feet off the opposite seat to stand up. Eventually, the Hogwarts Express started moving.
About an hour into the ride, there was a loud, insistent tapping on the glass of her window. A large tawny owl was bobbing wildly in the train's slipstream, carrying a large package and a letter. Tess pointed a warning, stay in here finger at Eliic and opened the window to grab the owl out of the air. It was a Strix aluco: spotted owl. She untied the package from its legs and opened the door to Eliic's cage so that the spotted owl could get a drink. She shut the window absentmindedly, plucking the letter from underneath the twine around the package.
She slipped her fingernail under the fold and ripped it open, earning herself a paper cut, which she ignored. The letter read as such.
Dear Theresa,
Happy birthday!
I'm sorry I couldn't be there to share it with you, but your father insisted I stay away from King's Cross until next year, when you come home. He said hopefully you'd be a bit more understanding by then.
Inside the package is your birthday gift, I do hope you like it. Now that the secret's out I thought it would be okay for me to get you a magical present. Alexa and Sadie also sent you something, but my owl is much faster than theirs because they sent you a large package. VERY LARGE. Just thought I'd warn you.
Have a great year at Hogwarts, honey. See you next year!
Love, Mum
Tess set the letter on the seat beside her and tore open the package with mixed feelings. Inside was a large book. She flipped it over to see the cover.
All the Spells in the World, by Ingrid Opheilixon.
Tess grinned, already plotting ways to get back at Malfoy after she read the book. She opened it and a four-inch notebook fell out, eight and a half by eleven inches, along with a new, fancier inkpot.
"How did she do that?" Tess wondered to herself. She stood and retrieved her trunk to cram her new things in.
There was a loud smack on the window. Two snowy owls had crashed into the part that didn't open and were now sliding down the glass. Tess threw open the window and scooped them into her compartment. "Owls galore," she murmured. Just before she closed the window, a pygmy owl shot in, cheeping so loudly it was offensive. Tess ripped the letter off it and forced an owl treat down its throat to shut it up.
Dear Tess,
Sadie here. Just wanted to say happy birthday and all that crap. Your present should be at Hogwarts or Warthogs or whatever when you get there. Congrats about being of age, whatever the heck that means. Sorry about the owl. Only one left.—Sadie
Actually, Sadie thought it was cute. Quite frankly I think it's annoying. She insisted. Happy birthday. Enjoy your present. Use it well.
-Alexa
Tess nodded. The usual, semi-insulting birthday letter from Sadie and Alexa. Biiiiiiiigg surprise there.
But what was with the snowy owls? She went for the letter tied to one of their legs and touched something. She looked down. Nothing was there.
"It's invisible," Tess exclaimed. She carefully sliced the package off the owls' legs and tore open the vanished wrapping paper. A huge sack of Honeydukes candies fell out. Chocolate, Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Chocolate Frogs, Fizzing Whizbees, Levitating Sherbet balls; you name it, if it was from Honeydukes, it was in there.
"Wow," she said, and shoved it all into her trunk before anyone outside in the corridor saw it and wanted some. She left out a few Chocolate Frogs, though, and started reading All the Spells in the World.
A loud tapping on the window made her look up from her book. All the owls, besides Eliic, were trying to get out. She opened the window for them and they soared off.
She delved back into the book with vigor. Malfoy was going to pay.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
Tess closed her book, shoved it under her sweatshirt, and got up to open the door to the compartment.
"Thanks," Malfoy said, entering and closing the door behind him. Tess should have been prepared. She should have known that she'd have to see him again. She knew she would see him at Hogwarts . . . but she didn't realize that she'd see him so soon. She had thought she'd be able to avoid him on the train. Thankfully, she had a tiny amount of intelligence left in her. "Why do you continue to stalk me?" she demanded.
"Jeez," Malfoy said. "Thought you'd want this, you left it at the Leaky Cauldron." He set a plain box that Tess didn't recognize on the seat near her sweatshirt.
"You knew I was staying there?"
"Of course," Malfoy said. He smiled, actually smiled, and exited the compartment.
"There's something wrong with him," Tess said to Eliic, who hooted calmly and nibbled at her finger.
She cautiously opened the box. A small notecard fell out.
Dear Tess,
A gift for you. Of course you didn't actually leave this in your room, I just thought I'd give you a birthday present (given your current feud with your family, I didn't think you'd be getting many presents), so happy birthday . . . I want to say that I'm really, really sorry about what happened last term. And what my father did. He should have known better. I'm thinking about disowning him.
Malfoy
Tess gasped. "No way."
It's got to be some plot, she thought. Something to get me to trust him so he can perform some other type of Dark Magic on me. Yeah. Nope.
But she opened the box anyway. A slip of parchment on the top read,
Say the word below and your pet rock will activate for you and only you.
Your secret word is: IRE
Enjoy your pet!
Tess put the slip of parchment aside and took the flat gray stone out of the packaging. "Ire," she said uncertainly.
The rock quivered. Suddenly four legs popped out of it, stone legs like a cross between a dragon's and an elephant's leg. It stretched out a little, grew a short, stumpy tail, and then its head popped out. The shape of the head reminded Tess of Toothless, from the Muggle move How to Train Your Dragon. In fact, the entire thing looked a lot like Toothless, but with a wider body and no wings. Also it was dark gray, not black.
"Uh, am I supposed to name you?" Tess asked.
The rock nodded.
"Alriiiiiiight," Tess murmured. "Night Fury."
The rock made a cute, disgusted noise and shook its head.
"Wow," Tess said, raising her eyebrows. "What about Fillmore?"
The rock pretended to die.
"I'm kidding," Tess said. "Glaedr."
The rock jumped into her lap, made a sort of purring noise, and stared up at her with golden eyes. Tess took this as a yes and lifted Glaedr until they were nose to nose. "I think," she said, "that thanks are in order. Ride on my shoulder?"
She placed Glaedr on her shoulder and went out into the hallway, locking the door behind her. No one was going to steal her spellbook. Or any of her birthday presents. Or her owl.
Tess wandered down the hall, glancing in compartments. She didn't find Malfoy in her car, so she decided to go back to her compartment and send her Patronus to him. After casting the Patronus, she fed Glaedr some Honeydukes chocolate and snacked on it herself.
Noon came and went.
No sign of Malfoy.
Tess gave up on waiting for him and buried herself in her spellbook, only rising from its depths to stop Eliic from trying to eat Glaedr, who looked like he was having the time of his life in the owl's beak.
The train arrived at Hogwarts. Tess shoved all her things into her trunk, except Eliic and Glaedr, and found the carriages. She climbed in one and found herself with Luna Lovegood, Ginny Weasley, and a Gryffindor she didn't recognize. "Hi, Luna."
"There—" Luna started.
"Tess," Tess interrupted. "You're recovered from last term, Ginny?"
"Not a single mark," Ginny said, smiling. She gestured to the Gryffindor beside her. "This is Seamus Finnigan."
"Hey," Seamus said.
"You're the kid who blew up his feather in first year Charms," said Tess. "I remember that."
"Everyone always brings that up," Seamus muttered.
"Not one of his finer moments," Ginny pointed out.
Tess grinned.
"I noticed Ron wasn't on the train," Luna said softly, looking up from her magazine. Her wand was tucked behind her ear.
"Oh," Ginny said. "Yeah." Her tone was dark. "He and Hermione and Harry went off to do some top-secret mission for Dumbledore. Something about Horcruxes."
"How'd you know?" Seamus asked, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees.
Ginny grinned. "Fred and George invented these things called Extendable Ears—very helpful for eavesdropping."
Something nibbled on Tess's ear. It was Glaedr. She picked up her rock pet and tickled him under his chin.
"Oh, that's cute," Ginny said, noticing Glaedr. "Where'd you get it?"
"Malfoy gave him to me," Tess said. She realized the enormity of what she'd just said and wished she hadn't.
"Malfoy?" Ginny gasped.
"That git?" Seamus added.
"How nice," Luna said.
"Yeah," Tess agreed. "It was nice. TOO nice. And earlier he came to my house, then took me to his house—"
"How?" Ginny said.
"He Apparated," Tess said. "His birthday's June 5th. Anyway, he took me to his house, and then his dad kicked one of my scars, and then I went to the Leaky Cauldron by way of the Knight Bus, and so did he, although I didn't know he was there." She shook her head. "Something's wrong with him. He's being too nice."
"Wasn't nice to me," Ginny said, an odd look on her face. "She insulted Mum. And Fred and George."
"So he's only being nice to you," Seamus noted.
"He likes you," Luna suggested.
"Uh huh," Tess retorted cynically. "Until two months ago, he thought I was a Muggle-born."
"We all did," Seamus told her.
"You're not?" Ginny demanded.
"As it turns out," Tess explained, "my mother and father both are pure-blooded. Dad works at the Ministry of Magic. Henry Wilford."
"My dad knows him," Ginny said. "Nice chap. His words."
"Me mum talks about him all the time. Says he's the worst thing that happened to the Ministry since Crouch," Seamus said. "Terrible secretary."
An awkward silence fell over the carriage.
"Doesn't mean I think the same thing," Seamus said, as an afterthought.
"He's not too good with tact," Ginny confided to Tess loudly.
"I don't care," Tess said breezily. "Not in the best of relations with my dad currently." She stroked Glaedr's back absentmindedly.
At the Great Hall the four split up, Tess and Luna heading for the Ravenclaw table, Seamus and Ginny to the Gryffindors. "Do you ever wish you were in a different house?" Tess asked Luna.
"Oh, sure," Luna said. They sat down. Tess waited, but Luna didn't elaborate.
"Which one?"
Luna finally looked up from her magazine, fixing Tess with a very serious gaze. "Do you promise you won't tell?"
"Yes," Tess said slowly.
"I'd like to be in Gryffindor," Luna said. She looked over at the Gryffindor table. Tess followed her gaze. She was watching Neville Longbottom, who was smiling and joking around with Seamus.
"He's much more confident now than his first year," Tess noticed.
"He is," Luna murmured, resting her chin on her hand. Tess deferred from pointing out that, seeing as Luna was a sixth year and Neville a seventh, she hadn't been there for his first year. She jumped as the doors creaked open and Professor McGonagall led the new first years in. Tess looked towards the teachers' table out of habit, to see if Rubeus Hagrid was there yet, and instantly nudged Luna.
"Hmm?" Luna said, still observing Neville.
"Where's Dumbledore?" Tess demanded, keeping her voice low. She watched Neville also, waiting for Luna's response. You had to hand it to her, Longbottom was good-looking. Strong jaw, dark hair, and—surprisingly—a confident expression. Just not my type.
Neville happened to glance over and he blushed at the dead serious scrutiny the two Ravenclaws were giving him. He leaned over to whisper to Seamus. Tess snapped her fingers under Luna's nose, pointedly staring past Neville at the Slytherin table. She caught Malfoy's eye and mouthed, Thanks, but he was already looking at the Slytherin next to him.
"What'd you ask me?" Luna said.
Tess pulled herself back to the Ravenclaw table. "Oh. Right. What happened to Dumbledore?"
"He's not there," Luna said. "Not in the headmaster's chair."
"It's Snape," Tess breathed. "He's not the headmaster."
Suddenly the Ravenclaw started cheering; someone had been Sorted into their House. Tess clapped halfheartedly.
"Hopefully he'll be talking about that," Luna said. "Professor Snape."
"Will he continue to teach?" Tess wondered.
"He'll probably assign himself the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts professor," Luna mused.
"Of course," Tess agreed. "I've heard he's been gunning for that position for years."
"He was a Death Eater once," Luna said. "Oooh, he's getting up—"
Snape raised his hands for silence. "Welcome to Hogwarts," he said. "To all students, the Forbidden Forest, is, as its name suggests, strictly off-limits—"
Tess's hand shot into the air, mostly of its own volition. Snape ignored it and went on: "Professor Slughorn will be taking over the position of Potions Master, while I will teach Defense Against the Dark Arts."
"Excuse me?" Tess called.
Several people gasped; no one had ever interrupted a headmaster (or other teacher) when making a speech. Snape ignored her. "As many of you may know, Lord Voldemort is back and planning an attack—"
"And how do you know that?" Seamus yelled, standing up. He looked mad.
Snape took out his wand and flicked it lazily in the Gryffindor's direction. Seamus was shoved into his seat by an invisible hand.
"As I was saying," Snape continued, "Voldemort is planning an attack. He will attack the school when Harry Potter enters."
Tess unobtrusively tucked her legs under her and put her toes on the bench. She pointed her wand at her throat. "Sonorus."
"If any of you are caught sending an owl out of this school, you will be severely—"
Tess stood on the bench and said clearly, "Where's Professor Dumbledore?" Her voice echoed around the Great Hall much louder than Dumbledore's ever had, thanks to the Amplifying Charm she'd used on herself.
Luna tugged on Tess's arm, but the latter was not backing down. "Where's Dumbledore?" she repeated.
Suddenly the entire school (except most of the Slytherin) was standing on their tables, clamoring to know what had happened to the old headmaster.
"Silencio," Snape roared, casting his wand around the hall. Tess felt her vocal chords vanish and sat down with a defeated shake of her head.
"Severely punished," Snape went on, after a moment of silence, which he clearly enjoyed. "Let the feast begin." He clapped his hands. For a minute, nothing happened. When he clapped his hands again, food appeared on the tables. The tension faded from the hall. Snape lifted the Silencing Charm.
"The house-elves are rebelling," a fifth year Ravenclaw said, leaning across the table and grinning.
Tess returned the grin with the barest of smiles.
She finished dinner first and slipped unnoticed from the table, wondering which fifth years were the new prefects. Lilix and Garfield had been them, but they were gone now. Tess's hand strayed to her forehead, where her scar was.
She leaned against the pillar and waited.
It wasn't long before the Slytherin table filed out through the hall. She saw Malfoy and pushed her way through the stream of teens and tweens. She grabbed the front of Malfoy's robes and pulled him along behind her, into a deserted corridor. He was protesting. She spun him around and shoved him up against the wall, her forearm pressing into his throat. "Where. Is. Dumbledore."
"I don't know," Malfoy choked out.
"You would!" Tess shouted, making him jump. "You would know where he is, your father's a freaking Death Eater!"
Malfoy kicked out, his foot hitting her ankles with resounding strength and sweeping her legs out from under her. She landed hard on the floor, lay there dazed for a split second, and shot to her feet.
It was Malfoy's turn to do the shoving. He drove her into the opposite wall, making her head throb with the force, and jammed her shoulders up against the stone. "My father is no Death Eater," he snarled.
Tess stared at him, wide-eyed. Since when was he so . . . not cowardly? He pulled her away from the wall and swung her in a wide arc, letting go at the middle of the arc, where the momentum was. She stumbled backwards and it was all she could do not to fall.
"Leave me alone," Malfoy hissed.
"The only reason I was trying to talk to you was to thank you for Glaedr," Tess hissed back, "but now I realize you don't deserve to be talked to, let alone thanked."
His eyes narrowed. "Who's Glaedr?"
"Figure it out," Tess bit out. "Apparently everyone else thinks you're smart enough." She pointed her wand at the floor. Smoke shot from the tip, hit the floor, and rose up. In the diversion, Tess shot down the hall and sprinted at top speed for the Ravenclaw tower. She barely even listened to the riddle: "If I drink, I die; if I eat, I'm fine. What am I?" She gasped out "Fire" and burst through the door, slamming it hard behind her. She raced up to the dorms and flung herself into her bed. There she panted, absentmindedly touching the back of her throbbing head, and tried to make sense of her emotions. She should use logic. So she sorted out what she was feeling.
She was confused. She was scared. She was angry. She was happy.
Alright, now sort out why you have those emotions, Tess told herself. She was confused because it seemed that no one knew where Dumbledore was, and Malfoy was, just as suddenly as he'd started being nice to her, a twit again. She was scared because Voldemort was going to attack the school, Dumbledore was nowhere to be found, and Malfoy had never shown such . . . she wouldn't call it courage, but it wasn't cowardliness either. She was angry that he'd given her the pet rock, then brushed her off. She was happy to be back at Hogwarts.
She opened her trunk to get out her pajamas and saw her birthday presents. Alexa and Sadie had said that theirs would be waiting in the Owlrey. Tess rummaged around in her trunk and found her homework planner. Her new schedule was sitting on her nightstand. She wrote go to Owlrey to pick up package from A and S on her schedule, then scribbled a hasty find spellbooks in library in her homework planner. She put both items on her nightstand and got ready for bed.
Glaedr jumped onto her lap from the nightstand where she'd put him when she came in. He cuddled up against her stomach and fell asleep, snoring softly. Soon Tess joined him in dreamland.
A/N: Sorry I forgot to tell you about the parts, all in all there are three or four. :)