Chapter 13 – The Mysterious Boy
James stood in silence looking at the word written on the wall before he realised what he had to do. He had to get out of there before anyone saw him. The last thing he needed was any suspicion falling on him that he was somehow involved with 'mudbloods beware' being written on the school wall in what looked like blood. With everything else that had happened to him this year at Hogwarts people would stop thinking it was just a coincidence that he always seemed to be there when trouble was occurring.
James fled back to the Gryffindor common room as fast as he could, unseen and re-joined the party, acting like nothing had happened.
The next morning at breakfast Professor McGonagall had asked all students to be present and she addressed them all.
"There has been some unfortunate instances of graffiti in the school," she said sternly with a look of fury on her face. "This will not be tolerated and WHEN the culprit is found they will be punished. If anyone knows anything about this you must report it to me immediately. That is all."
McGonagall stepped down from the lectern as all the students began to talk amongst themselves, wondering what the graffiti had been.
"I bet it was Greta," Polly fumed to some of the other Gryffindors who were sat near her at the table. "I bet she wrote 'mudblood'. It wouldn't be the first time she'd done that."
James thought that was true but couldn't see Greta doing something that bad and risk being expelled. Although the fact McGonagall had mentioned there had been 'instances' of graffiti meant they must have finally found the one down in the dungeon, though he was surprised it had taken them that long. But then again James doubted if he could have found it again if he tried, it was like a maze down in the dungeons and where the graffiti had been hadn't looked like it was used much so probably no one went down there that often.
James debated whether he should say anything to McGonagall. Should he mention the boy he had seen? But who even was he? He had only seen him from behind so he wouldn't recognise him even if he saw him again. James thought it was better to stay quiet and not get involved.
The following week James had his first lesson with the new Herbology teacher, Professor Van Bloom. She was a very tall woman and big like she could have been a rugby player. Her face was rather saggy, her hair was ginger and tied up tightly in a bun and she always seemed to be in a grumpy mood.
"Quiet!" she bellowed out as she slammed four large bags of compost on the table that she had been carrying like they were as light as a feather.
Everyone suddenly was silent.
"Open Goshawk's Guide to Herbology to page twenty-one," Van Bloom ordered to the class but everyone looked at each other in confusion and everyone was a bit scared to say anything.
"Excuse me Professor," Polly finally said.
"Yes?" Van Bloom said rather curtly.
"We don't have that text book Miss. It's not part of our required reading for first year."
"What? What the bloody broomsticks are they teaching you then?" Van Bloom replied furiously. "Very well listen closely then."
Professor Van Bloom waved her wand towards the back of the class and a dozen or so plants in pots started to fly towards their desk and landed spread out in front of everyone.
"Today we will be learning about a plant called Snake Fingers."
However Snake Fingers were not as exciting as they sounded. It was simply a plant that had numerous stems that wiggled about a lot. Cuttings from the stems were used in various healing potions. The whole lesson the students listen to Van Bloom tell them about how to look after the plant and what various potions the cuttings were used in. She didn't even let them tend to the plants themselves. They just sat on the desk in front of everyone wiggling furiously.
As James left the class he hoped Neville regained his memory soon as if Herbology classes continued like that they'd be giving Professor Binns' History of Magic lessons a run for their money as the most boring. Though Neville and Polly were the only ones that seemed to have enjoyed it.
"That was so informative," Polly declared as the students walked back to the castle. "I can't wait to get to the library and start doing the additional reading Van Bloom set us."
"Did she really just say she can't wait to get to the library to do reading?" James said quietly to Noah who was beside him. "That girl needs to get out more."
The next day in Potions, Professor Slughorn had them continuing with the brewing of their Remembering potion that was now just a week away from being completed as well as preparing a sleeping draught, which could be completed within the lesson.
"This looks like it's coming along nicely Potter," Professor Slughorn said to James as he looked into the contents of the cauldron at the sleeping draught and made no mention of Noah who was brewing it along with him. "Just wanted to let you know I will be having another get together next Friday evening. I look forward to seeing you there."
Once again James didn't feel like it was an invitation that was open to refusing. He really didn't want to go again and have Slughorn spend the whole evening talking about his father like last time, which was rather embarrassing especially because of how bored everyone else looked. But then again Potions was the class he was doing best in but only because Slughorn was giving him excellent marks despite his poor potion skills so James felt like he had to keep the professor sweet.
That evening James was working on his History of Magic assignment in the Gryffindor common room with some of his friends that was due the next day. They had to write four sides of parchment on the Werewolf Code of Conduct and even without Binns present they were finding it all rather boring. So much so Anwar had fallen asleep face first in his textbook.
"I think I'm going to call it a night," Noah said after letting out a massive yawn. I've only got half a page left to do and I'll finish it in the morning and just make my writing twice as big. You coming?"
"No I'll keep going for a bit longer but I'll be up soon," James replied, not even looking up from his work.
Noah gave Anwar a nudge to wake him and they both packed up their stuff and headed up to their dormitory, leaving James to it.
As James continued to work the door to the common room swung open and in walked Polly carrying a stack of Herbology books. No doubt she had completed her History assignment days ago and was already starting on her Herbology one which was not due for a couple of weeks.
As Polly walked past she gave James a disapproving look like a mother would as if to say, 'why didn't you do that sooner?' but she didn't say a word to him and headed up to her dorm.
James looked up at the clock and it was nearly midnight. He hadn't realised he had been working that long and the common room was almost deserted. There was one other student who had fallen asleep in an armchair but everyone else was now in bed. James decided to call it a night and started to pack his things away.
As James got up he realised the door to the common room was still wide open, which was odd as the Fat Lady always closed the portrait once someone had entered. James stepped out into the hallway and could see the Fat Lady was not in her portrait. He looked around to the nearby pictures to see if she had maybe popped into another one but all he saw were sleeping faces, none of which belonged to the Fat Lady.
As he stood over the banister of the staircase and looked down towards more portraits he noticed a boy further down. The boy had his back to James but from the black hair it looked like the boy he had seen standing by the graffiti the other day.
James contemplated calling out to the boy but didn't want to frighten him so he started to make his way down the stairs as quietly as he could. The boy never turned around but started to run down the stairs as if he had realised someone was approaching him. James began to run too, all the way down the stairs but the boy never seemed to relent despite James himself being out of breath as he reached the bottoms of the stairs. The boy continued to run and was now headed for the stairs to the basement.
James debated giving up the chase as he paused for a second to catch his breath but then he continued his pursuit through the empty corridors.
As he descended into the dungeon James thought for a second he had lost the boy but as he rounded a corner he saw him up ahead.
"Wait, I just want to talk to you. I'm not going to hurt you," James called out but the boy didn't listen and continued on.
James followed him down yet more stairs to a part of the castle he didn't recognise. The corridors down here were dimly lit, the walls were bare of any portraits and James could feel himself getting lost. Once or twice he had turned back around to check where he had come from and he could have sworn the passage behind him was blocked. But James kept on going none the less with the boy seemingly always just turning a corner out of sight whenever he was getting close.
James eventually turned another corner and the boy was nowhere in sight but at the end of the corridor was a large stone door. The boy must have gone through there James thought to himself. He tried the ornate silver handle of the door but it was locked. Had the boy locked it behind him? Or had he not actually gone in there? James looked around to see if there was anywhere the boy could have gone but there was nowhere else. He must be in the room beyond the door.
"Alohomora," James said as he pointed his wand at the door and he heard a loud click as it unlocked.
James tried the handle again and this time the door opened with a large creak. The room beyond was pitch black. James cautiously stepped in with his wand stretched out in front of him.
"Lumos," James said and he could now see a few feet in front of him as his wand shone brightly. He stepped further into the room but still couldn't see anything in there. It seemed as if it was empty.
"Hello? Is anyone in here?" James called out but got no reply. In fact he couldn't hear anything at all, the room was deathly silent. There wasn't even an echo from his voice.
Suddenly the door behind him slammed shut but when James turned around he couldn't see a door, only solid brick wall. He continued to turn, making sure he hadn't been confused in the dark but there was no door in sight anywhere.
With his wand still held out in front of him James slowly started to walk in the only direction where there wasn't a brick wall in front of him. The room seemed long and he continued to walk and again despite him stepping on the stone floor there was no sound of his footsteps. The only sound he could hear was his own heartbeat, thumping in his chest.
It was then that he finally heard another sound. A voice, faint at first but it started to get louder the further he walked along the room. And then he realised what the voice was. It was the voice in the language he didn't recognise.
"Who's there?" James called out but the voice continued on in its own uninterrupted way.
As he moved forward on guard suddenly from the shadows ahead something began to emerge. Whatever it was it seemed to be towering over him as James looked up at what looked like a huge mouth. As more of the object came into view of the light from his wand he could see it was made of solid stone and it wasn't moving. It was a huge statue of a giant snake, it's head raised up and looking down on James. It was then that James noticed the voice had stopped.
James cast his light over the rest of the statue and could see it's body coiled underneath it. It had to be at least ten feet high and despite it all being made of stone, there was something unnerving about it's cold eyes, as if it was actually watching him.
Behind the statue James could see another brick wall. There seemed to be no doors leading out of the room and the boy, who he was still sure had entered, was nowhere in sight.
James was about to retrace his steps and try and find the door back out when he heard a rumbling noise. He turned back to the huge snake statue and he could have sworn its mouth had been closed seconds ago. All of a sudden a stone forked tongue shot out of the snake's mouth and it began to hiss violently at him. James hastily backed away from the snake but found himself against a brick wall as the stone snake moved itself towards him, it's mouth still open and it's head raised above James, looking down on him with it's cold stone eyes.
James held his lit wand up to the snake, hoping the bright light would deter it, but it's tongue snapped at his wand and knocked it out of its hand. The wand lay on the floor nearby, still alight and casting enough light for James to see as the snake struck towards him.
James woke up with a start and jerked his head up from the table where he had fallen asleep. He glanced around apprehensively but was relieved to see he was still in the Gryffindor common room and it had just been a bad dream. After pulling himself together James picked up his stuff and decided it was definitely time for bed. But one thought stopped him from falling asleep. It was the dread of what he had seen in his dream and what had happened with his past dreams. They had all come true.
The next morning it was obvious to Noah that something was up with James. He had barely said a word and hadn't eaten anything at breakfast and all through Transfiguration he had seemed distant.
"What's up with you today?" Noah finally asked.
"Nothing I just didn't sleep well last night," James replied unconvincingly.
"Well we've got History next so you can catch up on your sleep then."
However James couldn't sleep during his History of Magic lesson. He still couldn't think of anything but his dream. So far he hadn't heard of any incidents in the school yet. No one had been attacked by a giant stone snake. But had it got something to do with the boy he had seen? Was the boy going to be the victim? Who was he?
At lunch time James headed back to his dormitory alone whilst everyone else went to the Great Hall to eat, everyone except Noah, who was concerned for James and had seen him sneak off.
When James entered his dorm he dived onto his bed, head first and buried his face in his pillow.
"So are you going to tell me what's really going on?" Noah asked and made James jump, having thought he was alone.
"Nothing is wrong. I'm just tired," James said before burying his head back in his pillow.
"I'm your friend James, I know when something is up. So are you going to tell me? Or I'm I going to have to sit here and annoy you till you do?" Noah said as he took a seat on his bed that was besides James'.
Truth be told James had wanted to tell someone about all the things he had been seeing in his dreams and the voice he kept hearing for a while but he was worried what they might think of him. If he had told a teacher they might have sent him to St Mungos thinking he wasn't 'right in the head' or worse yet, tell his parents. And that was the last thing they needed to be worrying about, especially his father who was under so much pressure at the Ministry right now over the muggle's death. But he knew he could trust Noah. Noah was a good friend, his best friend in fact and James knew he wouldn't judge him badly for what he was about to tell him.
And James told him everything. His dreams about the vegetable patch, the knight statues and being attacked by a plant, all which occurred before similar things happened in real life. He told Noah about the strange voice in the unknown language he had heard several times and the boy he had seen by the 'mudbloods beware' graffiti. And finally he told him about his dream from last night.
"You don't think it's all got something to do with me do you?" James said, sounding afraid.
"How do you mean?" Noah asked.
"Like when I dream something it comes true. It's been happening ever since I found that wand in my trunk. It's like I'm cursed."
"Don't be stupid," Noah replied instantly. "You're not causing these bad things to happen."
"Yeah but it's too much of a coincidence not to be connected."
"Well maybe you're not causing them to happen but… like you're predicting them," Noah suggested, thinking it through in his head. "Maybe you've got some gift. You should talk to the Divination professor. What's her name? Trelleny?"
"Trelawney," James replied.
"Yeah that's the one."
"I'm not sure that would be much use," James said unenthusiastically. "I've not heard good things about her. My dad said she's only made a couple of good predictions in her life and everything else was nonsense. In fact my aunt said Divination was a load of tosh and advised me against taking it up in my third year as she said it was a waste of time."
"OK well go over again exactly what you've seen in all of these dreams. Maybe there was something you saw that could help give us some answers," Noah suggested.
"I think I've gone over everything, it's hard to remember exactly what I saw after I've woken up."
"There might be some small detail. Try to remember," Noah pleaded to his friend.
"I can't remember anything more," James said despondently.
James and Noah looked at each other, both looking slightly dejected and not knowing what to do next. That was until Noah had a bright idea.
"What you need is a Remembering potion!"