Here's the next chapter. Nina is going to sing another song. It is at the very end. Thank you to my two reviewers. To charmed415, Nina and Apollo will meet up during Christmas break because that's when Titan's Curse will be taking place. To sassiecassie218, Nina and Artemis will also be talking over Christmas break because of Titan's Curse. Enjoy the chapter and don't forget to keep reviewing!
Chapter Thirty Nine: A Boggart and Sirius
Malfoy didn't show up in classes until Thursday. He was milking that wound so bad. If I had a wound like that, I'd be up and training and hour after receiving it. What a wimp. He walked into Potions late and disrupted the whole class. Sev didn't give him detention because he was pretending to play favorites. If you looked into his eyes, you could see how annoyed he really was. Good thing descendants of Hades were really good at masking their emotions. Malfoy began to make up excuses as to why he couldn't cut his roots or skin his shrivelfig. I could almost hear Sev's patience snap. "I know for a fact, Mr. Malfoy, that you are right handed. Your injury is on your left arm. You do not need Miss Jackson's aid in creating your potion." Malfoy scowled at Sev who winked at me. "She is injured far worse than you are and I don't hear her complaining so be quiet and get to work." I smiled at him. He may pretend to favor the Slytherins, but he would always put me first.
I growled when Malfoy began t goad Harry about Sirius. He told Harry that he should go after Sirius for revenge. Malfoy is such an idiot. Why does he have to be so cruel. "Mr. Malfoy, I must insist you stop distracting Potter from his potion. He has enough trouble as it is." The whole class was in shock by the end of Potions. Thank you, Sevvie.
After class, Hermione disappeared. She's been doing that a lot after classes. I wonder where she's running off to. Wait a minute, how is she getting to all her classes? Most of her classes are at the same time as at least one other. I wonder...
After lunch we had Defense Against the Dark Arts. I wasn't nervous about being taught by a werewolf anymore. If he had wanted to kill Lav, Vati, and me, he would have done it on the train instead of saving my life, I mean soul. When we got to his class, he wasn't there.
Good afternoon," he smiled when he walked in. "Would you please put all your books back in your bags. Today we will be having a practical lesson. You will need only your wands." I hoped this wouldn't be like Lockhart's practical lesson last year. That was a catastrophe. "Right then, if you'd follow me." He left the classroom and we all followed.
On the way, we ran into Peeves. He was shoving gum into a keyhole. I was about to tell him to take it out, when he spotted Professor Lupin. "Loony, Loopy, Lupin," he sang. "Loony, Loopy, Lupin, Loony, Loopy, Lupin-" Instead of getting mad, Professor Lupin smiled.
"I'd take that gum out of the keyhole if I were you, Peeves. Mr. Filch won't be able to get into his brooms."
Peeves blew a rather loud raspberry. "Peeves," I said. Lupin looked at me, so did the rest of the class. "Please take out the gum. Filch always yells at you when you do stuff like this, and his voice really hurts my ears."
"Okay, Nina. Peeves will take the gum out for his little friend."
"Thanks Peeves. Means a lot to me." Peeves stuck his tongue out at me and began to pull the gum out.
"I must say, I am impressed. Peeves doesn't listen to anybody except the Bloody Baron," Professor Lupin said.
"You just have to be nice to him. Helping him with a few of his pranks doesn't hurt either. Nobody's nice to him except maybe five of the students, so he doesn't help anyone. He did say he had a soft spot for three men called Prongs, Padfoot, and Moony, whoever they are."
"Three-fourths of the infamous Marauders," Professor Lupin said as he continued down the hall.
"Who?" asked Dean Thomas.
"The Pranking Kings of Hogwarts back in the 70's. I went to school with them. There was never a boring day with those four around."
We all laughed as Professor Lupin led us into the teachers lounge. Sev was walking out as we walked in. He insulted Neville and Hermione on his way out.
"I was hoping Neville could assist me with the first stage of the operation. I'm sure he will perform it admirably." Sev's lip curled as he left. Professor Lupin rolled his eyes at him and I snorted.
Lupin led us to a wardrobe. It was rattling. I wonder what's in there. "Nothing to worry about." Lupin looked directly at Lav, Vati, and me. "There's a boggart in there." I breathed a sigh of relief. That's not too bad. "Boggart's like dark, enclosed spaces. Wardrobes, the gap beneath beds, the cupboards under sinks-I've even met one that lodged itself in a grandfather clock. This one moved in yesterday afternoon. I asked the headmaster if the staff would leave it to give my third years some practice. So, the first question we must ask ourselves is, what is a boggart?"
Hermione raised her hand. "It's a shape-shifter. It can take the shape of whatever it thinks will frighten us most."
"Couldn't have put it better myself," smiled Professor Lupin. Hermione seemed to glow with pride. That girl really needs to get out more. "So, the boggart sitting in the darkness within has not yet assumed a form. He does not yet know what will frighten the person on the other side of the door. Nobody knows what a boggart looks like when he is alone, but when I let him out, he will immediately become what each of us most hears. This means that we have a huge advantage over the boggart before we begin. Have you spotted it, Harry?"
"Er-because there are so many of us, it won't know what shape it should be?"
"Precisely. It's always best to have company when dealing with a boggart. He becomes confused. Which should he become, a headless corpse or a flesh-eating slug. I once saw a boggart make that very mistake- tried to frighten two people at once and turned himself into half a slug. Not remotely frightening. The charm that repels a boggart is simple, yet it requires force of mind. You see, the thing that really finishes a boggart is laughter. What you need to do, is force it to assume a shape that you find amusing. We will practice the charm without wands first. After me please...riddikulus!"
"Riddikulus!" the class said together.
"Perfect. Now, Neville. First things first: what would you say frightens you the most in the whole world?"
Neville murmured something that none of us could hear. "Sorry, Neville, didn't catch that."
Neville took a deep breath. "Professor Snape."
We all started laughing. Even Neville chuckled slightly. "Professor Snape...hmm...Neville, I believe you live with your grandmother?" Neville nodded his head. "I wonder, what sort of clothes does she wear?"
"Well...always the same hat. A tall one with a stuffed vulture on top. And a long dress...green, normally...and sometimes a fox-fur scarf. Oh, and a big, red handbag."
"Right than. Can you picture those cloths very clearly, Neville? Can you see them in your mind?" Neville nodded his head eagerly. "When the boggart bursts out of this wardrobe, Neville, and sees you, it will form Professor Snape. And you will raise your wand and shout 'Riddikulus!" Neville nodded his head again and Lupin opened the door.
Sev stepped out. "Riddikulus!" Neville cried without a moments hesitation. Sev was now wearing exactly what Neville had described. I started laughing with everyone else. I was never going to let him live this one down. The rest of us followed Professor Lupin's instructions and thought of what scared us most. My thoughts flew straight to Agrius. He terrified me more than Ares an Gabe combined. What would make him seem funny? What if I turned him into a guinea pig? Yes, that is funny because of what happened to Percy at Circe's island. Perfect.
"Parvati, forward," laughed Professor Lupin. Snape rounded on her and turned into a dried up hippy mummy. When did she see the Oracle?
"Riddikulus!" the Oracle began to spew green smoke and started choking on it. She collapsed.
"Seamus," called Lupin. A banshee appeared before Seamus. She was about to scream when she lost her voice. It then turned into a rat that chased its tail in a circle. Then, it was a rattlesnake which changed into a bloody eyeball in front of Lavender. She must have seen the cyclops' eye in the attic. I was very disturbing. Dean rushed forward and the eyeball became a severed hand. It flipped over and began to crawl like a crab. Soon it was stuck in a mousetrap. Ron leapt forward and it became a spider. With a wave of his wand, it lost its legs. It began to roll and stopped in front of me.
The boggart shifted into Agrius. I could feel my heart racing. I could hear blood pounding in my ears. I was reliving that day over the summer. His claws had my blood on them. He loped towards me. I raised my wand and he grinned at me. His teeth were stained red from all the blood he had consumed. I took a deep breath, "Riddikulus!" With a crack, Agrius was changed into a guinea pig. I sunk down onto the floor. The guinea pig squealed and ran in front of Harry. Lupin jumped in front of it and it turned into a silvery orb. Neville went in to finish it off. Neville laughed at it and the Boggart disappeared into smoke.
Everyone turned to look at me. Lav and Vati rushed to my side and wrapped me in a hug. I hardly noticed. I was still too wrapped up in memories. "Christina, what was that thing?" I looked up to see Professor Lupin standing over me. I brought my knees up to my chest and rested my head on them.
"His name is Agrius. He a monster from Ancient Greece who I ran into over the summer. He is a half-man and half-bear cannibalistic creature. He is the cause of the wounds on my back. A poison in his claws prevented magic from speeding up the healing process. Everyone gasped.
"That's what Snape meant when he said you were injured worse than Malfoy," Harry whispered. It was so silent that everyone heard. I nodded my head. Lav and Vati helped me stand up. Professor Lupin gave me a sad smile before carrying on with the class. He knew my pain. Werewolf bites hurt almost as bad as my wounds.
When we all left, everyone was laughing about Professor Snape in Neville's grandmother's clothes. Harry was grumbling about how Professor Lupin hadn't let him take on the Boggart. Get over, you should be glad you don't have to see your worst fear. I had to relive that whole thing. It was awful!
Next weekend was a Hogsmeade weekend. I was really excited. I wanted to find Sirius. I was going to search the back streets for him. "I've got," Lav said, slamming her hand down on the table. She grabbed her wand and began to float me out of the common room. Vati ran after us. Lav brought us to the bathroom and closed and locked the door. "Make a rainbow, Nina!" she demanded. I was a little confused, but made one anyways. Lav through a drachma in. "Oh, Iris, goddess of the rainbow, please accept my offering. Show me Sirius Black, I have no idea where he is." The rainbow shimmered and a man appeared on a cave floor.
I gasped and he immediately sat up. He twisted the ring on his finger and it turned into a bronze sword. "Who's there?" His voice was hoarse from lack of use.
"I'm Lavender Brown, daughter of Aphrodite," Lavender said. He looked up at us. "This Is Parvati Patil, also a daughter of Aphrodite."
"I'm Christina Jackson-" before I could say my heritage, he cut me off.
"The daughter of Poseidon." I nodded my head.
"My father visited me in my dreams saying that you were at Hogwarts. When I found out Pettigrew was there too, I broke out to protect you. No one hurts my family. I'm assuming Chiron told you three I'm innocent since you're Iris Messaging me." We nodded our heads. "So, what can I do for you?"
"Well, this weekend is a Hogsmeade weekend, so we were wondering if we could come talk to you." Vati said this all very quickly and Sirius laughed at her.
"Course you can. It does get very lonely up here. Tell you what, I'll meet you at the entrance to Hogsmeade in my animagus form its-"
"I've seen it. I had a dream about you escaping," I interrupted.
He nodded. "Well I'll meet you at the entrance and bring you up here. Then, you can visit whenever you have a Hogsmeade weekend." We nodded and waved our goodbyes. Sirius slashed his sword through the rainbow. Well, that's that taken care of.
The next day at breakfast, Lav and Vati got a letter. Their little sister, Bunny had been killed when she visited her father. A dracaena had taken her life. Vati was trying not to cry as she held a sobbin Lavender outside of the Transfiguration classroom. I hugged both girls. "What's the matter, Lavender?" Hermione asked timidly.
"It's Bunny," Parvati whispered sadly. "She's been killed by a snake."
"Oh, I'm sorry Lavender." Lav just sobbed harder. I began to rub her back.
"I should have known! You know what day it is?"
"Er-" said Hermione.
"The 16th of October! 'That thing you're dreading, it will happen on the 16th of October!' Remember? She was right, she was right!"
Hermione gulped nervously. The whole class had gathered around us. "You-you were dreading your bunny being killed by a snake?" Why did you go and say that, Hermione? You're just going to make it worse. I shot her a glare and continued to rub Lav's back.
"Well, not necessarily a snake, but I was obviously dreading her dying, wasn't I?"
"Oh, was your bunny old?"
"N-no! Sh-she was only s-seven!"
I tightened my arms around Lavender.
"Well, that's pretty old for a rabbit," Hermione retorted. Bunny is a little girl! "Look at it logically. I mean her bunny didn't even die today, did she? Lavender just got the news today. And she can't have been dreading it because it's come as a real shock-"
I had enough. I let go of Lavender and flipped around. "First of all, Granger, seven is very young for Bunny because Bunny is Lavender's little sister!" Everyone gasped and Hermione backed away from me nervously. "Bunny died at 1:00 am New York time! That is today! And just because someone was dreading it doesn't mean they can't be upset about it so will you be quiet!" Hermione shrunk back.
"Don't mind Hermione, Lavender," said Ron rather loudly, "she doesn't think other people's feelings matter very much." I was about to turn to Ron, when Professor McGonagall opened her door.
At the end of class, Professor McGonagall held us back. "One moment please! As you're all in my House, you should hand Hogsmeade permission forms to me. No form, no visiting the village, so don't forget!"
A few weeks later, Halloween, we were all ready to go to Hogsmeade. My back had finally healed and I was walking around freely. I wouldn't stop moving. I loved being able to move around again. I think my movement was annoying everyone else though. Oh well. Not even seeing Filch when we were exiting the Entrance Hall dampened my mood. I skipped the rest of the way down to Hogsmeade.
When we got to the entrance to the village, I dragged Lav and Vati over to where I spotted Sirius in his dog form. He barked happily when he saw us. I laughed and scratched behind his ears. He ran off and we followed behind him up to his cave.
When we were inside the cave, Sirius changed back and led us over to a fire. "So, how's camp these days?"
"Great," I grinned. "It's so much fun. Travis and Connor Stoll, they're your half-brothers, are always pranking everyone. Once, they put a bunch of plastic spiders in the Athena cabin. That was the best."
Sirius laughed. "Sounds like something my siblings would do. You guys didn't bring any food up here, did you? I haven't had a good meal for 12 years."
"Oh yeah! What do you want? I have anything you could possibly imagine."
"Pizza?" I grinned at him and took a hold of my food charm. I wished for pizza. When I opened my eyes, there it was. "But, Gump's law...You can't create food...How?" Sirius stuttered.
"A gift from Lord Apollo," I laughed at his face. He nodded and I handed a slice to everyone. For the next few hours, we ate pizza, drank soda, and talked.
"You guys should be getting back, it's getting late." I looked outside. Wow, time really does fly. We all stood up and Sirius turned back into a dog. We followed him back to the entrance of Hogwarts. We were about to say goodbye, but he kept walking towards the castle. I shrugged and kept following him. When we got back to the castle, he barked and we waved to him. We ran inside to get changed for the Halloween feast.
After the feast, we all went up to the portrait of the Fat Lady. The hallway leading up to her was jam packed with students. "Why isn't anyone going in?" Ron asked from my left. I shrugged.
"Let me through, please," came Percy's voice from behind me. "What's the hold up here? You can't all have forgotten the password-excuse me-I'm Head Boy-"
I rolled my eyes at his arrogance. Percy stopped talking for a bit before he continued, "Somebody get Professor Dumbledore. Quick!"
"What's going on?" asked Ginny who had just arrived.
"Oh my-" gasped Hermione as she caught a glimpse of what was going on ahead. The Fat Lady had vanished from her portrait. There was bronze knife embedded in the wall next to it. It was Celestial Bronze. I looked at Lav and Vati. They nodded to show that they had recognized it too. Sirius must have left it there. Peeves started cackling saying he had seen her.
"Did she say who did it?" Professor Dumbledore asked him.
"Oh yes, Professorhead," said Peeves. "He got very angry when she wouldn't let him in, you see. Nasty temper he's got, that Sirius Black."
Professor Dumbledore sent us all back to the Great Hall. We were joined by the other houses soon after. Everyone was panicking and the Head Boy and Head Girl weren't doing a very good job at calming people down. "Nina, play something," Lavender whispered into my ear. "That always calms people down." Vati nodded her agreement and I summoned my guitar from my bracelet. What to play? Ah, I've got it.
You know the bed feels warmer
Sleeping here alone
You know I dream in colour
And do the things I want
You think you got the best of me
Think you've had the last laugh
Bet you think that everything good is gone
Think you left me broken down
Think that I'd come running back
Baby you don't know me, cause you're dead wrong
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger
Stand a little taller
Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone
What doesn't kill you makes a fighter
Footsteps even lighter
Doesn't mean I'm over cause you're gone
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, stronger
Just me, myself and I
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger
Stand a little taller
Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone
You heard that I was starting over with someone new
They told you I was moving on over you
You didn't think that I'd come back
I'd come back swinging
You try to break me, but you see
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger
Stand a little taller
Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone
What doesn't kill you makes a fighter
Footsteps even lighter
Doesn't mean I'm over cause you're gone
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, stronger
Just me, myself and I
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger
Stand a little taller
Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone
Thanks to you I got a new thing started
Thanks to you I'm not the broken-hearted
Thanks to you I'm finally thinking about me
You know in the end the day you left was just my beginning
In the end...
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger
Stand a little taller
Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone
What doesn't kill you makes a fighter
Footsteps even lighter
Doesn't mean I'm over cause you're gone
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, stronger
Just me, myself and I
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger
Stand a little taller
Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, stronger
Just me, myself and I
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger
Stand a little taller
Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone
When I'm alone
When I was done, everyone began to clap. "Now," I said, "listen to the Head Boy and Girl. They've been trying to get your attention." I sat back down and put my guitar away. That song I had written a few years back. It was to Sally. I don't know why I decided to sing it to these people, it just felt right. I closed my eyes and fell asleep.