Ello everyone! I hope we all had a great Halloween two days ago! And if you don't practice that then well I hope you had a great day regardless! Anyway, please enjoy this chapter :)
Chapter 16: Studying and Dragons?
Meissa had led Hermione to the shore of Black Lake before she was willing to have an in-depth conversation with her regarding the stone and its' defenses. Even then she was wary of being too loud and obvious - and told her as much. Hermione looked skeptical at first but she decided not to begrudge her friend's paranoia.
And so Meissa explains to Hermione the conclusion Daphne and her had came to the other day - all while keeping a mindful eye on their surroundings. How they suspect that the headmaster may have an ulterior motive in mind - that he may be so paranoid to believe the return of Voldemort.
"Aren't you being too paranoid now?" Hermione asks after it was clear to her that Meissa was done talking. "I mean, he's renown across the country for the defeat of a Dark Lord!"
"I know," Meissa whispers lowly, "But you can't deny that things are a bit suspicious. I mean, he used Hagrid to not only fetch the item but for the first line of defense? You can't tell me he doesn't know about the fact that the man has a tongue looser than a bar of soap."
"That makes no sense!"
"It makes perfect sense 'Mione!"
"No, I'm talking about your analogy. A bar of soap, really?"
Meissa glowers at her friend and snaps her fingers at her, "Focus, 'Mione, focus."
Hermione shakes her head. "I can't really think negatively of the professor…"
"That's fine. But you understand my concern, right?"
"Well, of course… but."
"But what?"
"Why would he want to do something like this?"
Meissa didn't really have an answer for that. She has no idea why he would do anything - she has her suspicions as to what his plans may be but not the motives or the end goal. She suspects that it involves Harry - so far the events around Hogwarts seem to suggest that he was trying to encourage Harry's sense of recklessness.
"I don't really know…" She sighs as she tucks her hands away into the pockets of her trousers. "But I thought it would be best for you to know my suspicions now rather than later."
Hermione reaches a hand over to her friend, pressing her palm against the brunette's bicep - she felt the twitch of Meissa flinching away. "I appreciate it," she tells the other girl, ignoring the reaction she had. "And I will keep it in mind," she promises, moving her hand up to her shoulder, sensing the small tremors in the Slytherin's body.
"Thanks," Meissa mutters before the contact gets too much for her and took a small step away from Hermione's hand. "Keep me updated on what's going on, ok?"
"Of course," Hermione agrees easily. "Is there anything else?"
"No, I don't think so." Meissa picks up a pebble from the beach they were standing on, skipping the pebble with a flick of her wrist. "Oh!" she snaps her fingers as she recalls the other thing she wanted to bring up. "Do you want to study together?"
Hermione looks surprised at first, not expecting to have received an offer from someone. "It'll be appreciated," she finally decides, "Oh, would you mind helping me tutor the boys?"
Meissa grimaces at the suggestion, "Have they been making an effort to do their homework?" she asks, almost pleading for a yes. Though the look on Hermione's face seems to suggest that no, they have not. "Ugh, that'll be so much fun," she groans in disbelief.
She glances at Hermione's hopeful face and sighs, "Okay. But I'll bring Daphne with me. There's no way I'll have the patience to deal with them for hours on end."
Hermione giggles as she hooks her arm with the Slytherin. "That's fine with me, so long she's willing to help me with Harry and Ron." The Gryffindor girl shakes her head in exasperation.
"Honestly, those boys should be focusing on their studies."
"What do you do to study?"
"What do you mean?"
Hermione shoots her friend a look that implied she should know what she meant. But all she got from Meissa was a confused look. "I mean… do you have any special tricks to study?"
"Oh~! That's what you mean!" Meissa chuckles warily, squirming at the prolonged contact. "I just… study?"
"Do you retain everything you read?"
"No?"
"What's with the question? Either it's yes or no."
"Well, I'm not really sure what you mean."
Hermione rolls her eyes as she releases her friend's arm. "Do you find it easy to recall things?"
"No."
"Do you have an instant understanding of what you read?"
"Sometimes?" Meissa hesitates in answering the question, confused and essentially thrown off by the questions. "Honestly, 'Mione, what are you fishing for?"
"Well, I was wondering if you have photographic memory."
"…What?"
Hermione sighs and set out to explain the concept to the Slytherin girl, leading her back to Hogwarts now that the more serious conversation have been resolved.
~MJB~
The Easter holidays arrived with little fanfare, with the professors loading them with tons of homework on top of the studying they needed to do in order to pass their first year.
Meissa was quick to lose her patience with the boys and Daphne was often intervening to keep the Black heiress from blasting them into oblivion. Daphne was patient when it came to trying to teach the boys something although Ron's frequent derision towards Daphne often provoked Meissa to spelling his mouth shut.
Once she snarled the incantation so loudly she got a glare from the librarian and a stern reprimand - though she was not instructed to undo the spell. When her senses came back to her Meissa later reflected that Madam Pince was relieved to not hear Ron's voice for the duration of the spell.
In either case, Meissa was penning out a rough idea of what her essay would contain. Daphne was reading an essay Meissa had written for Transfiguration - marking corrections, either spelling or grammar, for Meissa to review later when she rewrites it. Harry was looking up 'Dittany' for his potion paper in One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi. Hermione was practicing the wand gestures for a transfiguration spell - repeatedly going through the same set of gestures.
Meissa briefly recalls her godfather having her research the various ingredients commonly used in potions. Dittany, however, she recalls the most due to her frequent scrapes and the like when she was growing up. She had to consume tiny portions of it a few times due to minor injuries refusing to heal, either by spell or naturally.
Ron, on the other hand, was still moaning and groaning about being inside despite the excellent weather they were experiencing. The sky was a clear blue shade that could make people feel a weightless sensation and the wind carried with it the warmth of summer.
"I'll never remember this!" Ron bursts out, breaking the comfortable silence that had settled around them, throwing down his quill.
"Merlin's beard," Meissa swore quietly, "don't you ever stop whining, Weasley?"
"I'm not whining!" Ron protests, "How can you stand being inside on such a brilliant day?!"
"Could you not argue so loudly?" Daphne cuts in before they could get any louder. She knew that her friend would probably snap at the redhead and do something drastic - possibly something far worse in comparison to having his mouth sealed temporarily.
"Sorry," Meissa apologizes to the blonde, not bothering to tear her attention from the boy across from her. "If you'd just do your work when you needed to instead of putting it off to the last second then we wouldn't be having this problem."
"Oi!" he jumps up, knocking his chair over and caused a loud ruckus.
"You're going to get us kicked out!" Hermione hisses at the redhead.
"I ought to make him a midget," Meissa grumps, her dominate hand raised as if she was prepared to free her wand from its' holster. "Maybe two inches tall so that he can scream all he wants and not draw attention to us."
"Correction," Daphne drawls from her seat as she points to her friend, "she's going to get us kicked out."
"Hey," the raven-haired girl protests with a wry smirk - halfheartedly shoving at her friend for her comment.
"Hagrid!" Ron suddenly cries, prompting everyone to look away from their respective tasks to find that the giant of a man was standing near the end of the bookshelves that created their little nook. "What are you doing in the library?"
Meissa narrows her eyes at him, watching him shuffle into view with his arms behind his back. She still didn't know him too well but suspects that him walking around with his hands behind his back wasn't something he'd normally do. Not only that but the whole gesture was suspicious.
Not to mention he looked out of place in his moleskin overcoat.
She pause at that thought before deciding that it really wasn't time to be making fashion judgments.
"Jus' lookin'," Hagrid answers in a shifty voice that caught their attention at once. "An' what're you lot up ter?" Meissa didn't miss the way he deflected attention from his actions. "Yer not still lookin' fer Nicolas Flamel, are yeh?"
"Oh, we found out who he is ages ago," Ron says, acting like he was some big shot for finding it - Meissa had to scoff at him trying to take the credit for the discovery. Even if he was unaware of her involvement Meissa knew that Hermione had been the one to reveal the information to the boys and therefore should've been the one to retrieve credit. "And we know what that dog's guarding."
Meissa jerks her head up from the book she was skimming, throwing her palm out as she snaps out a 'Silencio'. To her shock and vague amusement his voice died in his mouth just before he could finish the rest of his sentence. (1)
"Now you're doing wandless magic?" Hermione asks in disbelief.
"Um," Meissa flexes her fingers, still a bit amused that she managed that little feat. Though it could've gone very, very wrong. "I think that was a fluke," she remarks.
"I swear, Meissa, you're far too advanced for your own good," Daphne shakes her head in disbelief while Ron has taken to gesturing as he tries to grab someone's attention.
Hagrid still hasn't left in the moments that had transpired since Meissa had silenced the redhead. "Aren't yer gonna undo the spell?" he asks the raven-haired Slytherin nervously.
"It should wear off on its own," Meissa dismisses. "Anyway, as Ron was so thoughtlessly saying we know what's in there."
"Sh~!" Hagrid hisses, glancing around nervously, "Don't go shoutin' bout it." Meissa tilts her head in confusion - she hadn't been talking louder than a normal conversation level. "What's the matter with yeh?"
"Actually, there are a few things we wanted to ask you," Harry starts, "about what's guarding the-."
This time Meissa was ready with her wand and she cast a quick 'Silencio' on him as well before Daphne snatches her wand away.
"Stop casting the silencing charm on the boys!" Hermione scolds.
"Wha~? They were being all thoughtless!" Meissa defends, her motives were pure though she was actually grateful for the fact that they were now silent.
Hagrid was starting to edge away from them - something the boys both saw and started to gesture wildly at the girls. Hermione was the first to notice and turned to find him trying to sneak away.
"Hold on, Hagrid, we still want to ask you some questions about it," Hermione calls him back.
"Listen - come an' see me later, I'm not promisin' I'll tell yeh anythin', mind, but don' go rabbitin' about it in here," Hagrid tries to leave. "Students aren't s'pposed ter know. They'll think I've told yeh-"
Harry was still gesturing but this time he settled for a goodbye wave before he points at Meissa and his mouth. Hagrid took this chance to shuffle off.
"Wha~?" she tilts her head at him before she gathers what he's trying to say and points at Daphne who still held her wand. "She has my wand, go ask her to dispel the charm!"
The Blackthorn wand shone in the lighting of the library, a result of the tender care Meissa puts into her wand. Her wand, from what she had observed so far in casual observations, was unique in its own sort of way - the wood black near the bottom of the wand, lightening gradually until it reached the tip where it is white in a similar shade of Hermione's wand. With the handle formed by grooves made long reaching… something that reminds her vaguely of bones.
Her wand's solid state meant that even if she lost a duel with someone the loyalty of her wand would not be won from her - though she still needed to win the loyalty from her wand. Though it performs the spells she cast flawlessly there was still a barrier between the wand and her.
"Maybe we should leave them like this," Daphne teases, a mischievous smirk on her face.
Ron started making wild gestures that threatened to hit someone smack in the face. Meissa just leaned away from him, picking up the quill she had dropped when Ron was being noisy.
"What was he hiding behind his back?" Hermione wonders, peering into the direction where he had shuffled off to.
"Do you think it had something to do with…" Daphne trails off meaningfully, arching a fine eyebrow at the Gryffindor girl. Hermione could only shrug her shoulders, clearly unwilling to make an assumption. Ron made a gesture as he stood up, pointing in the direction Hagrid had appeared from and at his eyes before he stalks off. Disappearing around the bend to where Hagrid had likely been before he was spotted.
Meissa glances at Daphne and made a gesture for her wand, the look she was giving to the other girl made it plain that she really wanted it back. Though the blonde wanted to keep the other girl from casting even more silencing spells she saw that there was something almost… desperate glinting in the Black heiress' eyes. So she gave the wand back, just so that she didn't have to see the desperate look in her eyes again.
With the wand back in hand Meissa cast a Finite Incantatem on Harry who immediately hummed a few notes before looking incredibly relieved to have his voice back. "Please don't do that again," he pleads with Meissa.
"If you'd stop talking about it where someone can overhear you then yes I'll stop," Meissa retorts, flicking her bangs out of her face.
She glances at her essay but before she could even set the tip of the quill to the parchment Ron came back burdened with a stack of books, dropping them onto the table with a loud bang. He then lifts one of the books, jabbing at the title where 'Dragon' could be plainly seen.
Meissa looks up after she caps her inkwell - grateful that she had managed to slap a hand down on it before it could spill over due to the table shaking. Her eyes land on the title before she registers what she was seeing.
"Dragons!" Meissa breathes in awe before she snatches a book off the top of the stack, excited by this treasure trove of information. "I never thought to come here for books on dragons," she mutters as she turns the pages to study its' contents.
"Hagrid was looking up things about dragons?" Hermione picks up one of the books. "Dragon Species of Great Britain and Ireland," she reads the title out loud, "From egg to Inferno. A Dragon Keeper's Guide."
"Hagrid's always wanted a dragon, he told me so the first time I ever met him," Harry remarks. Though the fact he was talking was more important to Ron than what he had remarked.
Meissa glances up from the tome to find that Ron was now really angry, his face such a vivid shade of red that she was surprised he hadn't burst something. "What has him all twisted up?" she asks.
"I think he wants his voice back," Daphne remarks.
"Oh… um," Meissa twirls her hair around her finger before she concedes and points her wand at him, "Finite Incantatem."
"It's about bloody time!" Ron burst out loudly though he did shut his mouth when Meissa raised her wand again. "Anyway, it's against our laws," he starts to inform Harry and Hermione. "Dragon breeding was outlawed by the Warlocks' Convention of 1709. Everyone knows that."
"Not everyone," Meissa cuts in with a sharp glare at the redhead, "Those raised in the muggle world wouldn't know such a thing off the bat."
"Well, yeah, but everyone else does," Ron stutters awkwardly.
"True," Daphne interrupts before the two could start bickering. "In any case it would not be ideal to raise dragons - as unobservant muggles can be they would notice a large fire-breathing dragon in a wizard's backyard."
Meissa nods her head in agreement before adding, "There's no known methods to tame a dragon so it's incredibly dangerous not only for the person attempting to tame them but also anyone in the immediate vicinity."
"Yeah, you should see the burns Charlie's got off wild ones in Romania."
"But there aren't wild dragons in Britain?" Harry asks.
"There are," Meissa corrects.
"They're the Common Welsh Green and Hebridean Blacks," Ron injects, getting an eye roll from the Black heiress before she picks up the tome and decided to let Ron continue the conversation.
After Ron had explained that there have been occasional sightings among the muggles and that the Ministry of Magic had the thankless job of wiping the memories from the witnesses, Meissa tuned back into the conversation to overhear Hermione wondering what Hagrid was up to.
~MJB~
It was another hour before they were done with the homework they wanted to finish and by that point they decided they'd use the time left to visit Hagrid before supper.
Daphne decided that she rather go back to the Slytherin common room and read a bit before supper and Meissa was tempted to go along with her - if it wasn't for the fact that one of them needed to stay on the topic of the Philosopher's stone. Meissa didn't doubt that Hermione would keep them up to date but she wanted first hand information so that she could think things over. As good as Hermione's memories are no one's memories were so good that they could recall a conversation word for word to share with another.
And so, Meissa accompanied the Gryffindors to the gamekeeper's hut. Since the start of the year this was only the second time she had been to his hut so she did not notice anything amiss. It was only when Hermione grasped her friend by the elbow that she realized that something was up.
"What is it?" she asks, tilting her head at the other girl.
"He has the curtains drawn shut." Meissa frowns at the hut, worrying now that she knows about this particularly detail. Harry and Ron had been walking ahead of them so they were the first to reach the door and knocked on it to alert Hagrid of their presence.
So by the time Meissa and Hermione had joined them Hagrid had opened the door to let them in. When she stepped into the hut she felt a blast of hot air hit her face, the heat searing the breath from her.
"Merlin's pants-" Meissa swore under her breath, grimacing at the influx of hot air. She couldn't understand why there was a blazing fire in the fire pit when it's already a warm day. She ended up shrugging off her robes, tugging uncomfortably on her shirt, while Hagrid made them tea and offered sandwiches.
Meissa nearly accepted, her stomach reminding her that she had skipped breakfast, when she saw what went into them. After that her stomach was revolting at the thought of even taking a bite.
"So," Hagrid starts, settling in one of the chairs while the Gryffindors claimed the other chairs. With only four chairs in the hunt Meissa opted for standing, choosing to be within arm's reach of both Harry and Hermione. "Yeh wanted to ask me somethin'?"
"Yes," Harry set his cup on the table, "we were wondering if you could tell us what's guarding the Philosopher's stone apart from Fluffy."
Hagrid frowned at them - though Meissa had to wonder why he would ask. Unless he thought that Hagrid could confirm the information for them? "O' course I can't," the giant shook his head. "Number one, I don't know meself. Number two, yeh know too much already, so I wouldn't tell yeh if I could. That stone's here fer a good reason."
"But Hagrid, surely you see that having a stone here would bring danger to the school," Hermione tries to plead with him though Meissa was quick to bring a hand to the girl's shoulder, squeezing a fraction to warn her. Meissa saw no good in having their suspicions aired - especially with someone who might be a close confidante of the headmaster, the center of her suspicions.
"Nonsense! Hogwarts is the safest place in the world fer anything yeh want ter keep safe," the groundskeeper dismisses. "It was almost stolen outta Gringotts, as yeh probably already know."
"That's the thing Hagrid," Harry injects, "if Gringotts is supposed to be safe then how was it broken into?"
"I- well - the Daily Prophet might've been right 'bout somethin's," was all he had to say on the subject. "In any case I can't tell yeh nothing. Beats me how yeh even know abou' Fluffy."
Meissa couldn't help the slight disbelieving look on her face - there was literally only one way they would've discovered the existence of the Cerberus inside Hogwarts. She was seriously considering him as one of those 'fire's lit but the cauldron's empty' sort of folks.
"Oh come on, Hagrid," Hermione starts, her voice warm and prompted Meissa to glance at her in curiosity, "you might not want to tell us, but you do know. You know everything that goes on round here." Meissa was sure her eyebrows were reaching for her hairline at the flattering tone. But when she saw Hagrid's beard twitch in a sure indication of a smile she realized what she was trying to do and stepped back, her cup of tea in hand to hide her smirking lips. "We only wondered who had done the guarding, really. We wondered who Dumbledore had trusted enough to help him, apart from you."
Meissa nearly burst into laughter when she saw Hagrid's chest swell in pride at her last bit of words. Though she did sober up quickly when she realized something - was he so love starved that mere praises is enough to make him earn more?
"Well… I don' s'pose it could hurt ter tell yeh that... let's see... he borrowed Fluffy from me... then some o' the teachers did enchantments... Professor Sprout, Professor Flitwick… Professor McGonagall -" he ticked them off on his fingers as he recalled them. "Professor Quirrell. O' an' Dumbledore himself did somethin', o' course." Meissa nodded to herself before she frowns, realizing that that was only six. Was she off on her theory?
"Hang on," Hagrid mutters, his brows furrowing as he peered at his fingers, "I've forgotten someone." He mutters to himself for a moment before he practically snaps his fingers, "Oh yeah, Professor Snape."
Seven lines of defenses. And each of them exactly the person she had theorized to be involved.
But it didn't relieve her as it should've. Because she still didn't know who would be interested in grabbing the stone.
"Snape?" Ron practically gasped. Either missing or completely ignoring the sharp glare from Meissa.
"Yeah. Yer not still on abou' that, are yeh?" Hagrid shakes his head, "Look, Snape helped protect the stone, he's not about ter steal it."
"You're the only one who knows how to get past Fluffy, aren't you Hagrid?" Harry asks anxiously. "And you wouldn't tell anyone, would you? Not even one of the professors?"
Meissa crosses her arms, thinking - just about anyone could get the information about how to bypass Cerberus from Hagrid if they really made an effort. It wouldn't have to be a professor - except she saw no other recourse. Hogwarts is a secured school and she doubted that anyone could get into the school to make an attempt to steal the stone - especially since its' presence is supposed to be secret. As much as she doubted Hagrid's ability to keep a secret she had doubts he would blab the presence of the stone to just about anyone, he did seem to have some common sense.
"Not a soul knows except me an' Dumbledore," Hagrid answers, straightening his overcoat proudly.
"Well, that's something," she hears Harry mutter softly to the others.
"Hagrid, can we have a window open?" Ron pipes up, "I'm boiling."
"Can't, sorry," Hagrid apologizes. Meissa notices the giant glancing at the fire and for the first time she really studies the fire, realizing that there was a kettle. It was what's in the fires itself that really caught her attention.
It was a fairly large black egg about maybe a foot long and likely growing. The realization of what the egg is sinks in quickly and she's left staring at it in disbelief.
"Hagrid…" Harry mutters, "what's that?"
"Ah," Hagrid starts to fiddle with his beard, "That's er…"
"Where did you get it, Hagrid?" Ron crouches over the fire to get a closer look at the egg, "It must've cost you a fortune."
"Won it," Hagrid answers. "Las' night. I was down in the village havin' a few drinks an' got into a game o' cards with a stranger. Think he was quite glad ter get rid of it, ter be honest."
Wait…Hagrid gets a dragon egg after wishing for one…
Meissa narrows her eyes at this bit of information, setting the cup back onto the table with a thoughtful look on her face.
"But what are you going to do with it when it's hatched?" Hermione asks worriedly, glancing at Meissa in concern - especially at the wooden structure of the cottage.
Hagrid pulls out a fairly large book from under his pillow and Meissa catches the title - Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit. She barely heard him ramble on and on about what he learned from the book as she peers at the egg. It's dark smooth surface glinting in the dancing fire light - she wanted to reach out and brush her fingers against it but forced herself to stand before she did something stupid.
"This isn't going to end well," she mutters to Hermione who nods in agreement.
Notes/Translations
1) Silencio - silencing charm
Laura All Round - thanks for your review and for pointing out that I've had Meissa and Hermione compare and contrast the two worlds. I hadn't realized that I've been doing that. I knew that Meissa was going to be different from most purebloods but I hadn't expected this level of difference. As for Meissa's friendship with Daphne, I'm glad you like how it's progressing!
Suzululu4moe - I've realized that I goofed up on that aspect. I'm still debating how to rework that aspect but at the moment it'll have to stay like so.