Chapter 5
In the morning Allegra joined her father, Cassia and Oliver for breakfast. The accidental kiss last night was remembered in no more than an aren't-we-silly smile, and Oliver left at eleven after Michael had given him his presents.
On Christmas Eve morning Allegra woke up and opened the balcony doors, letting in the freezing December air. She was expecting about fifty billion owls to arrive today and her father had assigned her the job of waiting in her room for them to come and deliver packages and take away the right ones. She put on as many layers as she could comfortably wear and sat down to watch Christmas films. As soon as it hit eleven, owls began to arrive. Cassia came up every hour or so to bring refreshments and take the arriving presents to the tree downstairs.
"It's Christmaaasss!" her dad ran into her room singing, "wake up!"
Allegra began to stir and he ran out of the room and down the hall, still shouting. He was a bit over excited. Allegra got dressed and went downstairs to help Cassia with Christmas dinner. Christmas day was the only day that Cassia would tolerate having Allegra help her cook. Allegra's cooking skills mirrored her potions skills: they left much to be desired. After lunch they opened their presents. Fred was right, he really had outdone himself; he had given her a beautiful silver and sapphire necklace, which she had put on immediately. Charlie had also chosen jewellery, opting for a pretty bead bracelet and a hoodie that had "Hottie" printed on the left breast and "I love Charlie Weasley" on the back. She'd probably never wear it outside of the Gryffindor tower, but it was going to get a lot of use after classes. The other presents she received were all wonderful, and she felt thoroughly spoilt.
Allegra walked down the platform looking for a familiar face in the sea of students.
"Allegra," Ginny put her hands on Allegra's shoulders and spun her around.
"There you are," Allegra smiled and immediately she was pulled sideways and into a hug by Mrs. Weasley.
"Allegra, it's good to see you! I hope you're looking after yourself?" Allegra nodded.
"Wow," Ginny lifted up Allegra's arm to see the bracelet, "where'd you get this?"
"It was my Christmas present from Charlie, actually."
"Mum!' Ginny exclaimed, dropping Allegra's arm, "Charlie got Ali the good stuff."
"He also gave me this," Allegra bent down to her bag and after a moment of rummaging pulled out the hoodie and showed them the back.
Mrs. Weasley put a hand to her cheek, "oh my goodness."
"And two!" Ginny continued, "Why did Ali get two presents and he gave me a t-shirt with "hands off" on it?"
"Because Ali is Charlie's favourite," Hermione said, joining the conversation, "even I know that." Hermione looked at the bracelet herself, and Ginny decided to sulk.
Once they were settled on the train and well on their way back to Hogwarts, Allegra stood.
"I'm just going to find Blaise to thank him for my present, I won't be long."
"Okay, but don't forget I'll be here with these two, alone." Hermione nodded towards Ron and Harry who were having a ridiculous conversation about whether Hagrid or Umbridge would win in a fight.
Allegra expected to find Blaise in a carriage with various people she would sooner lick Ron's feet than look at, but to her surprise he was alone with Draco.
"Hello," she smiled after opening the door, "where's the gremlins?"
"Crabbe and Goyle have gone in search of food," Blaise said.
"No surprises there."
"And Pansy ran off after Draco told her to fuck off."
"Why? Oh, wait - she's Pansy."
Draco nodded, "she's just ..."
"So sexy you wouldn't have been able to help yourself if she'd stayed?"
"No."
"Is it time to initiate plan Brick-and-Lake?"
"Yes, it is. We'll start planning in Potions."
"Anyway, I just came to say thank you again for my Christmas present, I love it."
"No problem," Blaise smiled, "thank you for mine. I love the jacket, it fits perfectly."
"I have a gift for putting men's clothes on and getting them off." They both raised an eyebrow at her. "It's as dirty as it sounds."
"So, Hermione," Pavarti said as the four girls unpacked their trunks, "has Allegra told you what happened after you left school before Christmas, yet?"
Allegra looked up and glared at her.
"I know you guys had an argument," Hermione said coolly. Pavarti sounded like she was trying to start another one.
"Do you know what about?"
"You guys were upset because she didn't hang out with you?" Hermione didn't look up from what she was doing.
"No," Lavender frowned, "we were upset because she spent her time with Malfoy."
"What?" Hermione looked up.
"No I didn't, I spent my time with Blaise," Allegra corrected defensively.
"Allegra, stop being stupid, everyone saw you in the Three Broomsticks. You spoke to him like you had known him for months."
"I sit next to him in Potions and we to paired work together," she kept her voice level, "I have known him for months."
"Allegra, he's Harry's nemesis," Pavarti argued.
"He's Blaise's best friend."
"He didn't have to be there."
Allegra clenched her jaw and turned away, she didn't have anything else to say.
"Did you really?" Hermione had come up quietly behind her and sat on the edge of her bed.
"Yes," Allegra sighed, "but they've made such a fucking big deal out of it."
"It is kind of a big deal," Hermione shrugged.
"It's not, Hermione. It's only surprised everyone because I haven't said that we 'get along'," she made air quotes, "when we're doing out Potions homework." Hermione shrugged again, obviously unsure of what to think. "The day after you'd gone I felt really lonely and tired of them and he noticed I was sulking. He suggested he spoke to Blaise about keeping me entertained."
"Well ..." Hermione started, trying to pick her words carefully, "I just hope it doesn't come back to bite you in the arse."
"It's not going to," Allegra said stubbornly. Hermione took the sign and backed off.
"Did you have a good Christmas?" Neville asked as Allegra walked back to the common room after dinner on the third day of classes.
"Yes, thank you, I thought I was going to be lonely but a family friend came to stay, how was yours?"
"It was alright, I went to visit my parents again ... it's okay but ... it's hard. They don't know who I am. They don't remember anything, not from before, not even my last visit. It feels almost pointless going -"
"ALLEGRA!" Allegra jumped out of her skin and turned to look down the stairs, "GET YOUR FORGETFUL ARSE TO THE QUIDDITCH PITCH, NOW!" Angelina screamed.
"Fuck," Allegra mumbled, "bye, Neville." Allegra sheepishly jogged down the stairs and followed Angelina to the pitch at a distance. When she got there the rest of the team were hovering on their brooms looking down at her, a sympathetic look on their faces. They knew there was a possibility of Allegra being grilled alive.
"Um ... I haven't got any of my things," Allegra mumbled.
"Well fucking "accio" your broom here, now!" Angelina always blew her top whenever anyone forgot anything to do with quidditch. Allegra had forgotten practice once before in her third year, but as far as she could remember Oliver hadn't punished her at all.
"I haven't got my wand."
"YOU'RE A WITCH!" she screeched. Allegra looked down at the ground, hoping it would open up and swallow her. She padded her pockets as though checking for her wand, but she knew she'd left it under her pillow before dinner.
I'm going to die. I am going to die. You're such an idiot! If I could just "accio" it ... Allegra was about to turn and fetch a Shooting Star from the school brooms when her broom appeared hovering in front of her.
"How did you do that?" Harry asked.
"IT DOESN'T MATTER." Angelina shouted.
Everyone quickly dismissed it. Angelina eventually calmed down and didn't punish Allegra in the end as it was obvious she'd been practicing over the holidays and was ready for the match against Slytherin that was scheduled for a fortnight later, unlike the rest of the team.
"How can she do this to me?" Allegra wailed.
"Us," Harry corrected as they returned to the safety of the common room.
"How can she do this to us?"
"She's hell-bent on Gryffindor losing the Quidditch Cup," Ron said, "without you two we can't win." Professor Umbridge had declared Allegra banned from quidditch indefinitely in the Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson for the cheek of putting her wand on her desk, and wands were strictly forbidden in her classroom.
"I'm going to have to kill her," Allegra grabbed onto Ron's shoulders, "help me kill her?" Ron took hold of her wrists to detach her from him and then used them to lower her onto the sofa. "If she's still here next year I'm dropping out," Allegra growled. "I don't care anymore. I don't need NEWTs. And I'll never regret it because she was here, and nothing is worth being within fifty miles of that bitch."
"Ali, you need to calm down," Fred said as he walked her to Transfiguration a few days later. "I think you have taken it worse than all the Gryffindors put together."
"No, I won't calm down," Allegra shook her head, "it's the one thing that I am really good at. Now I can't even sit on my broom!"
"Breathe, Allegra. You've been more spiteful than Pansy Parkinson would be if you slept with Malfoy on their wedding night."
"Mmm, I think it would be Blaise, now." Fred raised an eyebrow, "right, irrelevant."
"I'm sure you could still get away with flying if you do it secretly, from the Astronomy Tower, or something."
"I'll fly whether she likes it or not! Fuck her rules, if she doesn't like it I'll go home and join dad."
Fred sighed and gave Allegra's hand a squeeze, there was nothing more he could say.
"She - drives - me - crazy!" A huge vase at the end of the corridor suddenly shattered.
Fred rolled his eyes, "before you say anything, I didn't set that up. I cannot be held responsible for what people do with our products."
Allegra said goodbye to Fred and went into the classroom. Hermione was sat in their usual spot by the wall in the middle rows of desks.
"Hey, Hermione," Allegra said as she slid onto her seat.
"Still feeling gloomy?"
"A bit," Allegra nodded. Her classmates trickled in and took their seats and after a few minutes Professor Trelawney floated into the room and tried to silence everyone.
"What's she doing here?" Ron asked from behind Allegra. Allegra and Hermione turned to face him and Harry.
"I hope she's not -"
"I'm here to cover your lesson!" Trelawney called across the noise and the students fell quiet. "Unfortunately Professor McGonagall has been called away so Professor Dumbledore has asked me to step in ... considering I have not been able to teach ... so today we will be doing Divination!" Hermione and Allegra groaned. It was no secret that Hermione and Allegra hated Divination, they had hoped they had seen the last of it when they had dropped it. "Today we will be looking into the future and seeing what love holds for you ..." She was trying to be exciting and mysterious, but it wasn't working. "I would like you all to take ten minutes to write a paragraph or two on what love means to you."
The students settled to work. When Allegra had finished she looked up and around at her classmates, she had been the first to finish. Trelawney scuttled over and picked up her parchment in her spindly hands to read it.
"Brilliant, my dear!" she said after a minute, "do you mind if I read it out to the class?"
"Well -"
"Good!" she hurried away with Allegra's work.
"Actually, I was going to say no," Allegra said to Trelawney who was now far away. Hermione smiled sympathetically. Trelawney waited for the majority of students to look up.
"I would like to read you Allegra's, I feel it really captures the essence I wanted to evoke!"
"Oh, god," Hermione rolled her eyes.
"After, we will move on to discovering our romantic futures!" she threw her arms wide. "Love is one of the most important emotions we feel. It can interfere with even the darkest magics and produce a strong protection. Outside of the magical value love has two forms, paternal love between family and friends, and true love between two people who are sexually attracted to each other. If love is not returned or is taken away it can cause severe stress and depression. I think that for me, love can only occur when you trust that person wholly and that their happiness is your priority. Well done, my dear." A few students clapped and Allegra stared at her desk. "Now, I will hand out these boxes," Trelawney waved her wand and the boxes began to levitate to the tables, "you must rip your work up, place the pieces inside the box, add a strand of your hair and a drop of blood."
"Her lessons always involve pain," Hermione said.
"The bottom of the box will turn red once all the steps are completed and the box will lock. Slowly, your love forecast will appear on the top of the box, revealing your future!"
"It's not going to do that, is it?" Harry asked, leaning across his desk.
"No," Allegra said soberly.
"It will not tell you your future lover's name, the fates will not let you change the bare fabric of time!" Two boxes and two needles landed on Allegra's table and Trelawney brought back Allegra's work. She ripped it up and put it inside, pricked her finger, and lastly pulled out a hair.
"Oww!" Hermione gasped as she waved her hand in the air. She quickly squeezed her finger for a drop of blood and then started sucking her finger.
Allegra placed her hair in the box and the lid slammed shut, almost catching her fingers.
"Bloody hell, it's like a ravenous beast!" Ron recoiled quickly from his box.
"Now class, it may take a few minutes for the reading to appear, so be patient!" Trelawney was looking at Crabbe and Goyle at the back of the class, who were slamming their boxes against the wall.
"What's the point of doing this?" Allegra said, turning to Hermione who was waiting for her reading to appear, "if we don't know who it's talking about or anything about it then why do we want to know?"
"I think the idea is that you respect time and are happy for the hint, and one day you'll realise it has come true and have a new found respect for Divination. But this likely won't be true."
Allegra looked down at her box, words were starting to reveal themselves.
"What the hell?"
"What does it say?" Hermione asked turning to Ron. Allegra put her box in her lap and turned her seat around to sit at Harry and Ron's desk.
"It will be obvious once your heart is true, you will stop fighting and love where it's due." Ron looked around at them, confused.
"Well Ron, we're not meant to know who it's talking about, are we?" Harry said.
"Then this is pointless!" Ron said, dropping his box onto the table in frustration, "what does yours say, mate?"
Harry took a deep breath and picked up his box, which had just finished his message.
"She's always been there, there she will always be, because to your eyes, you cannot see. She'll wait for you, until your heart beats true, for that final end when she will have you." Harry scanned their faces for answers.
"What about yours, Hermione?" Allegra asked, picking up Hermione's box from behind her and passing it to her.
"Your lust and desire will be satisfied soon, if you are prepared to forgive and forget, or you will regret, so listen to your heart and not your head."
"Who do you lust for?" Allegra asked.
"No one!" Hermione snapped, her face flushing red, "none of this is true. What does yours say?" Allegra looked at the box in her lap.
"Follow your heart and trust beneath the shadows, wars will rage, trust and passion will give you a love unlike any other."
"These are stupid," Hermione huffed. Allegra put the box on the table behind her.
"Well ... D.A. tonight," Harry said, breaking the thoughtful silence that had fallen upon them.
"We did one of these once, too," Fred laughed as Allegra told him about her lesson, "I'm sure that's all she does in her cover lessons."
"What did you get?"
"I can't really remember, George's said something about making room for a girl amongst his games, and mine was something ominous."
"Ominous?"
"Yeah, but isn't everything in Divination?"
Allegra nodded, "they should just do it with people with real powers, like dreamers and such."
"Yeah right, even Hermione doesn't bother with it, I mean, Hermione! If that doesn't prove it's useless I don't know what does," Fred said. Allegra laughed. "Anyway, how's your Potions going sitting next to Malfoy?"
"It's good."
Fred stopped, "it's good?"
"Yeah, Snape has stopped taking house points from me and I've started getting good grades, too. Malfoy's really good at Potions and he helps me."
"Allegra, you sound like you actually like him," Fred laughed. Allegra joined in sheepishly.
"Yeah ... I like the grades."
Once they arrived at the Room of Requirement the lesson got underway.
"Reducto!" Ginny shouted, and the model Death Eater turned to ash, filtering through a drain in the floor.
"Bloody hell, Ginny!" Ron said, a proud grin on his face as the other members clapped.
"That was amazing, Ginny!" Harry said and Ginny blushed furiously. "Right, your turn Allegra."
Allegra stepped forward as a new Death Eater appeared.
"Reducto!" The model exploded and the students ducked to avoid the debris that flew across the room. Once again everyone clapped.
"Awesome, Ali," Harry smiled. Allegra grinned and moved to the back of the crowd. "Lastly, Neville."
Neville stepped forward nervously, "reducto," he said quietly.
"Come on, Neville, put some feeling into it!"
He gave it another go but the model merely shook.
Be ANGRY Neville!
The Death Eater flew back into the wall and then exploded.
"Brilliant, Neville!"
"Uh, Harry, that wasn't me," he said nervously.
"What? Who did it?" He asked, almost angrily. Everyone looked around. A lot of people looked at Allegra, the model had exploded, just like when she had her turn. "Alright, we'll finish there guys, see you in two weeks - on Allegra's birthday!"
The D.A. members began to disperse.
"Allegra, can you wait a minute?" Harry asked.
"Sure, Harry," Allegra agreed half-heartedly. Surely he couldn't be blaming her for what had just happened? She hadn't done anything. They sat on the cold stone steps to the door.
"I've wanted to talk to you about this for a while, actually, but I had to make sure it wasn't all a fluke."
"What are you talking about?"
"Have you really not noticed?"
"What?"
"Your spells are by far the strongest, you always out do everyone else and being around you is like being around a child who's just coming into their powers."
"What do you mean?"
"All these random things keep happening when you're angry, or laughing, or upset; like when your broom appeared out of nowhere when you needed it."
"I don't know," Allegra said, "I haven't really taken any notice."
"Well I have," Harry persisted, "and I know that was you. There is no one else in the room other than me who could do that spell wordlessly."
"Harry -"
"No, Ali, I'm really sure about this. I think you should talk to Dumbledore."
"What! Why? I'm not even sure that anything's going on!" Allegra stood up, "what am I meant to say? Hey, Dumbledore, a few weird things have happened lately but um, we are at Hogwarts so never mind?"
"Did anything happen while you were at home? And don't lie just to prove a point."
Allegra sighed, "I don't know, maybe. A few, tiny, insignificant things."
"Please, Allegra, you know I'm right about this."
Allegra was still unsure, but agreed. If it continued, she would go and see Professor Dumbledore or Madame Pomfrey, she probably had some kind of virus. Trust Harry to notice it first, they boy who was normally so in his own little world you could dye your eyebrows purple and it would take him a week to notice.