Chapter Five: Battle of Hogwarts, Part One

Harry sought Charlotte out in class a couple days after holidays ended, right before dinner. "I need to talk to you. It's of dire importance."

She glanced at Seamus. "Go on. I'll be in there soon." He nodded and continued into the Great Hall with Dean and Isobel. "So, what's going on?"

He led her to an empty classroom before he said anything. "First off, Dumbledore's been giving me private lessons. He's been showing me a bit of Voldemort's history and he thinks Voldemort did something called a Horcrux. That's why he brought Slughorn back and I'm supposed to get the original memory from him, but the thing is, I don't have any idea how I'm supposed to do that." He took a breath. "Secondly, I think Malfoy's a Death Eater."

Charlotte, whose mouth had dropped after he mentioned Horcruxes, closed it. "Rubbish. Malfoy's not a Death Eater."

"And how do you know?" Harry asked, bristling. "His dad was one!"

"Because he's my friend and I highly doubt he'd join Voldemort's ranks just to impress his father." She retorted. "There's things about Draco you don't know, Harry, so stop it."

"Why're you taking up for him? He's been a git to you all term!"

"He's had a lot on his mind. He's already apologized for that and has been back to normal. You're just determined to look for the worst in him because you hate him. He's not a bad guy, Harry."

He scoffed. "I thought…you usually believe me. You always have my back! Ron and Hermione think I'm nuts for thinking that and I fig-"

"I think you're a nutter for thinking that." She stated resolutely. "I'm not siding with you on this, so forget it."

Harry swore under his breath and stomped off. She followed, sliding in beside Seamus at the Ravenclaw table. "What happened?" Isobel asked.

"Harry's got this crazy idea and he's mad at me because I think it's not true."

The next few weeks passed quickly. Ravenclaw was in the lead for the Quidditch Cup, as her team had won every game they'd played by at least fifty points. She had no time to worry about Harry with Quidditch practices, homework, and Seamus. A few days into March, Ron came up to her, out of breath and slightly panicky. "Harry-poisoned-hospital wing." He was trying to speak and catch his breath at the same time.

Charlotte ran up the stairs two at a time, leaving a very confused Seamus in the Great Hall. She burst through the hospital wing doors. Hermione was already there, her eyes a bit red. "How is he?"

"He's out right now." Hermione answered, sniffing. "Madam Pomfrey says he'll be here for a week probably. He has to keep taking essence of rue."

Ron was back and, to his surprise, Charlotte hugged him tightly. "Thank Merlin you thought of a bezoar, Ron."

He patted her back awkwardly. "It was a good thing one was in there."

"It's not someone trying to bump off Gryffindor's Quidditch team, is it?" Charlotte wondered as Ginny came in. "First Katie, now Harry…"

"There's a connection, I think, but it's not Quidditch." Hermione spoke softly, sounding as if she had a bad head cold. Charlotte sat down carefully on the edge of his bed, wanting to hear what Hermione thought. "Both attacks ought to have been fatal, and they weren't, and neither the necklace nor the mead reached the person it was intended for." She pointed out, as Samuel and Sirius rushed in.

"What's going on?" Sirius rounded on Dumbledore, who'd just appeared with McGonagall and Slughorn. "Why'd Harry get poisoned?"

"Siri, calm down." Samuel said, staring at Harry as if he was already dead.

"Don't tell me to calm down! My godson was just poisoned!"

"Sirius, please, that's why we're here." Dumbledore said soothingly and firmly. "Horace, you say you bought the mead for a present? Who were you intending to give it to?"

"You, Albus." He said sheepishly. "Rosmerta herself picked it out for me."

Sirius took a deep breath. "Will he be alright?"

"Yes, he will." Madam Pomfrey said. "Don't forget, Sirius, I took care of you plenty of times. Harry will be fine."

"Er-my-knee." The boy in questioned muttered, shifting in his magically induced sleep.

Ginny and Ron finally smiled, relieved. "Now, you all need to leave." The head nurse said sternly. "Come back later."

When they were walking back down, Samuel and Sirius both embraced Ron tightly. "Thank you, Ron." Samuel said. "I don't know what I'd do if Harry was dead."

Ron looked down sheepishly and muttered something about Harry doing the same for him. "I'm sure he would too." Sirius affirmed. "But still, thank you."

When the news of Harry's poisoning reached the students, Zacharias Smith was ecstatic. "I wonder how Gryffindor's going to win their match now?" He said tauntingly in Transfiguration. "Their star Seeker went and got himself poisoned. Probably to postpone the match, because he's scared."

Charlotte, having already mastered the spell they were practicing, turned around in her seat, her eyes flashing. No matter their fight about Draco, he was still her cousin, and she was tired of Smith's mouth. Seamus, instead of trying to stop her, grinned broadly and proceeded to watch what was going to happen. "He did not get poisoned on purpose, you idiot." She hissed.

"Oh yeah? Convenient that it happened so close to the match, though. He's a bloody coward, too, just like you."

Her fists clenched. "Shut up."

"Or what? How about I tell the whole class how you went down on Davies for the position of Keeper, huh Potter?" He raised his voice, so everyone heard. "It's not like you're that good…at Quidditch anyways. Rumor is you're averaging 'Outstanding' in shagging."

Seamus jumped to his feet. Smith mirrored his movements and both boys had their wands pointed at each other. Charlotte, however, was standing in front of Seamus. McGonagall had walked out of the class for a few minutes, leaving them unsupervised. "Say another feckin' word, Smith, and I'll hex your ass into next week." Seamus snarled.

"Oh, you two are back together?" He asked gleefully. "Tell me, how does it feel to be dating Hogwarts' easiest witch?" He stopped. "Or does she not give you any, Finnigan?"

"Engorgio Skullus! Don't you ever talk about me girl like that again." Seamus hissed.

Smith ran off, presumably to the hospital wing to get it fixed.

When McGonagall walked back in, she noticed Smith's absence. "Where's Smith?"

"Bathroom, I think." Justin Finch-Fletchley, another Hufflepuff, lied. "He didn't really say anything before he left though."

The Gryffindor-Hufflepuff match was absolutely horrible, as Gryffindor lost three hundred and twenty to sixty, as McLaggen, playing Keeper as Ginny filled in for Seeker, hit a Bludger at Ron, who was playing as a Chaser, and put him in the hospital wing as well.

When Harry and Ron both got out of the hospital wing on Monday, it seemed Harry had forgiven Charlotte for not taking his side with his Malfoy-is-a-Death-Eater theory, and only restrained from seriously injuring McLaggen when Charlotte promised to get him back for messing up so grandly.

Later that night, before dinner, she had sneaked down to the Great Hall and set up the modified Shield Charm, and, as she sat with the Gryffindors, she waited. McLaggen strutted up to the Great Hall, stumbling backwards when he couldn't get in. He tried three times, falling over on the third try. "What's the matter, McLaggen?" Charlotte taunted him.

"Potter! You let me through right now! Or else-"

"Or else what?" She asked loudly, in order to be heard over the laughter. "You'll crack my head open with a Bludger as well and make Ravenclaw lose as bad as you made Gryffindor?"

His face flushed, but he walked off. Cheers and wolf-whistles filled the Great Hall, and after Charlotte took down the barrier, she turned to face her fellow students. She bowed, laughing with them, and sat back down. Harry and Ron had tears streaming down their faces from laughing so hard. "Remind me to never get on your bad side again." Ron wheezed. "You're evil. Hilarious and evil. It's amazing."

"Sometimes, I honestly think you should've been in Slytherin." Harry said wryly, wiping his eyes.

"Yeah, I know, but I'm not." She grinned. "Anyways, next time you lose, it's on you."

"Next time? Our next game is with you." Harry reminded her.

"Oh, I know. That's why I said next time." She winked at her cousin. "But don't worry. I'll try not to embarrass you like McLaggen did."

"I really appreciate it." Harry muttered sarcastically.

"You're quite welcome." She matched his sarcasm, smirking at him. "So, change of subject. When are you going to try to get that thing from Slughorn?"

"Tonight. I'm going to use a bit of that lucky potion."

"Well, good luck."

The first weekend in May dawned, and so did the last Quidditch game of the season. Charlotte, feeling their chances at the Cup were a lot better after Harry almost killed Draco (which caused the two cousins to have another row and were no longer speaking…again), greeted her team with enthusiasm. "Alright, Ravenclaws. This is the last game of the season. Are we going to let those lions scare us? Are we going to give them the satisfaction of winning the Cup again? NO! We are eagles! If we play like we did yesterday, that Cup is ours. Now, go out there and kick their arse, by any means necessary and don't get caught by Madam Hooch, okay?" The team nodded, some of them smirking. "Good. Let's go, Eagles!"

She walked out on the pitch, leading her team proudly. Katie Bell stood there as Acting Captain and Charlotte gulped. She wasn't counting on Katie being back from St. Mungo's. However, the two girls shook hands and then, the game began. Ravenclaw started out strong, but as Ron's confidence grew, their hopes diminished and they lost, once again, four hundred and fifty to a hundred and forty.

But, something happened that drove all thoughts of hexing the Gryffindor team out of pure spite out of her head. Harry ran over to her when she and Seamus were sneaking out of the Marauders' secret room after a particularly satisfying snogging session. "Dumbledore's found a Horcrux. I'm leaving tonight. Look, keep an eye on Malfoy, would you? I know you think I'm nuts, but please, just do it." And he took off, up toward Gryffindor Tower.

Charlotte then followed Seamus up to the Gryffindor Tower, where Harry was telling Ron and Hermione to split the rest of the Felix Felicis with her, and he was gone right after he said that. "What do you think is going to happen?" Ron asked worriedly as Charlotte sat down on the floor, leaning on Seamus' legs.

For almost three hours, nothing happened, and then, someone who sounded an awful lot like Draco Malfoy bellowed, "Morsmordre!"

Charlotte and Hermione were out of the common room in a split second. "Stupefy!" Charlotte yelled, Stunning Draco. "What are you doing?!"

"I have to!" Draco yelled back, pain in his eyes. "He'll kill my family, Charli!"

He ran off toward the Astronomy Tower, and Charlotte let him go, as someone else had caught her attention.

A/N: Cliffhanger! duh duh duh...Don't hate me for this :) I promise it'll be worth it in the end. Shout-out to Kaylee13133 for the awesome reviews and suggestions she's made for Year Five and this story :) as always, review! I love them!