Chapter 24 – The Heir's Revenge
James felt nowhere nearer to getting any answers. His plan to make Professor Payne incriminate himself had failed and now he was worried whether Polly would keep her mouth shut or if she would say something to Professor McGonagall about the visions he'd been having. For now James felt it best he keep on Polly's good side. He would quit the Slug Club like she asked and he would avoid doing anything that might wind her up so to be on the safe side he was avoiding her where possible.
"Shall we go have lunch outside?" James said to Noah and Neville after entering the Great Hall and seeing Polly sat at the Gryffindor table.
"Sure," Noah replied and they all grabbed themselves some food before heading outside on what was a baking hot June day.
James immediately removed his tie as soon as he stepped outside and rolled the sleeves up on his shirt.
The trio made their way over to the lake, where they found Seth eating alone under the shade of a tree.
"Mind if we join you Seth?" James asked as they approached and Seth was glad of the company as the three boys sat down with him.
"How's your day going?" James asked between bites of his sandwich and suddenly Seth seemed to go rather bashful. "What's up?" James said noticing something was wrong.
"It's nothing," Seth replied, looking at the ground idly.
"Come on Seth, you can tell us. You're amongst friends here," Noah added.
"I had Transfiguration before lunch and we were transfiguring paper into leaves only Greta had to go one better and…" Seth said before stopping, looking rather downcast.
"And what?" James asked anxiously, wanting to know what Greta had been up to now.
Seth was hesitant at first but then he grabbed his bag from behind him and opened it before pouring it's contents out onto the grass in front of them. A pile of logs rolled out to James, Noah and Neville's surprise.
"They're my textbooks," Seth said despondently.
"You need to go to McGonagall and tell her about this," Noah said as he helped Seth pick the logs back up and put them back in his bag.
"Noah's right. You can't let her get away with this," James added, trying to hide how much he was raging inside.
"No it will only make things worse. I just need to figure out how to turn them back or my parents will be furious if they have to buy me new books," Seth said but he had already tried and had no luck.
"Don't worry about that," James said. "We can get Polly to turn them back no problem. Though maybe Noah you can go and ask her with Seth. I don't want to ask her for anymore favours right now."
"Sure," Noah commented. "Shall we go now?"
Seth nodded and he and Noah were about to leave when James spotted Greta and her friends Edward and Nancy in the distance heading their way.
"I bet you think you're so big picking on Seth don't you?" James yelled towards them and jumped up.
"What are you talking about now Potter?" Greta shouted back. "He should be grateful. Now he has an excuse not to read them," she joked but James didn't find it funny and stormed over to her before Noah had chance to pull him back.
Noah jumped up and followed James who was striding over to Greta. Seth and Neville remained by the tree, anxious of what was to come.
"What's your problem Potter?" Greta asked, now James was face to face with her.
"My problem?!" James said furiously. "You're the one with the problem, picking on people. You turned Seth's books to logs, wrote 'mudblood' on his bag!"
"You have no proof I wrote that on his bag," Greta snapped back.
"So you're denying it?" James asked as he boiled with anger inside.
"I mean if someone wrote it on his bag they're well within their rights because he is a filthy mudblood," Greta seethed.
James and Noah were in shock at Greta's malicious words. Even Greta's friends Edward and Nancy looked a little taken aback by what she had just said.
"McGonagall is going to hear about this," James fumed and was resisting the urge to grab his wand and hex her.
"Go on teacher's pet, run to McGonagall. I'll just deny it. My father will stick up for me and tell her how you've been picking on me in class."
"That's a lie," James fumed angrily.
"Well we'll just see who she believes. My dad a teacher or you," Greta said, feeling pleased with herself and began walking off.
Nancy was quickly at her side but Edward briefly remained behind and looked rather uncomfortable and as if he was about to say something to James when Greta turned around.
"Come on Edward you don't want to spend too long near these losers," Greta jested. "It might be contagious."
As Edward hurried after his friends James lunged towards Greta but Noah stopped him and thankfully Greta had already turned back around so hadn't seen.
"You're only going to make things worse," Noah whispered into his friend's ear trying to calm him down.
"I don't think my life can get any worse right now," James fumed and broke free of Noah's grip and headed after Greta.
"Hey Greta there's only one loser around here and that's you!" James shouted after her.
Greta turned around and as quick as a flash she had her wand out and flicked it towards James. "Levicorpus," she shouted and a light shot from her wand in James' direction.
Not having time to grab his wand to cast a spell to deflect Greta's, James dived to the ground and the jinx flew right over him.
Suddenly there was yelling and James quickly got back to his feet and saw Neville hanging upside down, the jinx having struck him instead.
Greta was laughing hysterically and she waved her wand and watched Neville bounce up and down.
"Greta I think you should put him down, he's still a teacher after all," Edward begged but Greta didn't listen and took pleasure in watching Neville squirm as she walked towards him.
"Greta put him down now!" James yelled incensed.
"If you say so," Greta replied and let Neville drop to the ground with a fud.
James and Noah ran over to their friend as Greta continued to laugh.
"Neville are you alright?" Noah asked as he helped Neville to sit up right as he was currently in a heap on the grass.
Neville rubbed his head and could feel a bump.
"I wouldn't worry about any damage. His head is already messed up," Greta joked with no remorse for what she had just done.
"Miss Payne you've got detention for a week," Neville said furiously.
"What? You can't give me a detention," Greta declared.
"Oh yes I can. Thanks to you and this bump on my head I've just got all my memories back so I can give you as many detentions as I want now," Neville said sternly.
"Wait what?... But?... No…" Greta said, stumbling over her words and she was now looking very worried.
"You're to go to the headmistress' office immediately and explain to her why you thought it was acceptable to cast a jinx at another student," Neville stated forcefully.
"But…" Greta pleaded pathetically.
"Just go now or it will be detention for a month," said Neville.
Greta said no more and hastily hurried off towards the castle while her friends Nancy and Edward sheepishly headed off in the other direction before Neville handed them any punishments as well.
James and Noah helped Neville back onto his feet and Neville was still feeling the bump on his head.
"Are you alright?" James asked. "That's great news about your memory though."
"It would be if it were true," Neville said with a smile.
"What?" James said and he, Noah and Seth, who was now beside them, looked at Neville in shock.
"You mean you haven't got your memory back?" Noah said sounding surprised.
"No but you should have seen the look on her face. Hopefully Professor McGonagall will give her some punishment when she tells her what she just did," Neville said and couldn't help but laugh.
James had to admit Neville and put on a brilliant performance and it was great to see Greta getting some comeuppance though he had a bad feeling that now she might be out for revenge.
The following weekend was the last Hogsmeade visit of the school year and with most of the students from the third year and above opting to go as well as many of the teachers, Hogwarts was rather deserted, a fact that hadn't gone unnoticed by James.
"You know today would be a great day to go have a look around the dungeons," he said in a hushed voice, closing the Herbology book he was reading, not being able to take in any more information about magical herbs and enchanted plants as he and Noah sat in their common room trying to catch up on school work.
Like the rest of the school the Gryffindor common room was pretty empty. In fact other than Polly who was reading quietly to herself in the far corner and a pair of second year boys who were playing a game of Wizard chess by an open window, there was no one else around.
"And why would you want to do that?" Noah asked, his voice sounding sceptical.
"Because I still haven't found that room with the snake statue in it," James replied.
"You mean the one from your dream?, Noah said, now sounding even more sceptical. "You don't even know if it actually exists. Plus if you get caught down there you'll get in trouble."
"Well that's why you'll come with me to help keep watch. Plus most of the teachers are in Hogsmeade, who's gonna catch us?"
Noah knew with his luck someone would but he also knew no amount of talking would convince James not to go. And if he didn't tag along James would just go on his own and end up getting himself into some sort of trouble. At least if Noah was with him he could have his back.
They headed down the stairs to the main hall and hadn't passed a single person, which was a good sign. Pretty much everyone who was still at the school were outside as it was such a hot and sunny day.
After checking the coast was clear, they quickly darted down the stairs to the dungeons.
"OK now where?" Noah asked as James seemed to be looking around rather lost.
"Let's just walk and see if anything comes back to me," James replied.
Noah didn't think this was much of a plan. All the corridors down in the dungeon looked the same and they'd probably end up walking around down there in circles for hours. But he said nothing and followed his friend.
James and Noah began walking down corridor after corridor, continually backtracking on themselves to try a different connecting corridor when the previous one they had been down proved unrewarding. Noah didn't know how long they'd been down there but he was already feeling it was a pointless exercise as James hadn't recognised anything.
"There you are," a voice called out, making both James and Noah jump out of their skin.
They turned round to see Polly walking down the corridor towards them.
"What are you doing down here anyway?" she asked as she approached the pair.
"Nothing. What are you doing here?" James snapped back defensively.
"Yeah you gave us a fright," Noah added.
"Probably because you know you shouldn't be here," Polly remarked and gave them both a stern look like she was a teacher telling them off. "Anyway I needed to find you James. I've got something important to show you."
"How did you find us?" James asked, interrupting her.
"I heard you talking in the common room," Polly replied.
"Oh yeah I forgot you have some sort of sonic hearing," James quipped.
"I was going to say something at the time about not coming down here as you'd only get in trouble and lose Gryffindor house points but then I thought you're not my responsibility and if you're too stupid to know any better then that's your problem," Polly said in her usual high and mighty manner.
"Ok so was there a reason you were looking for me or did you just come down here to insult us?" James asked, now finding Polly an annoying inconvenience when he should be searching for the room.
"Yes there was. Take a look at this," Polly said, retrieving a big leather bound book from her bag and flicking through the pages.
"Hey that's mine," James said, recognising his copy of 'The Truth About Magical Creatures', which Hagrid had given him.
"Well if you don't want people reading it you should stop leaving it lying around the common room. Have you actually read it yourself?" Polly said, still flicking through the book trying to find the right page she was looking for.
"Not all of it. It's a big book," James replied, knowing Polly probably had read it all already in the little time she had gotten to have it for.
"Well then you should be glad that I had a look at it too. Here look at this page," she said finally finding what she was looking for and holding the book open for both James and Noah to see.
The book was opened at a page about the Serpalax, which had several pictures of the large serpent creature as well as various information about it.
"Have you just come to wind me up about my dad still not finding out how that muggle was bitten by one of these?" James asked, looking annoyed.
"No stupid, look here," Polly said, thrusting the book closer to James. "It says when non-magical blood is infected with Serpalax venom it takes on unusual properties and can be used in Dark Magic, mainly a Blood Curse that allows the person creating it to influence the thoughts and dreams of the person they're placing it on. So what if that's what's been happening to you? Someone has put a Blood Curse on you."
James grabbed the book and started reading for himself in a stunned silence.
After a while Polly wasn't sure what to make of James' non-response so began explaining again. "It works by the curse being placed on an object. Then all the unsuspecting victim has to do is touch the object and then they're cursed. It was probably put on the wand you found in your trunk. You said everything started after you had found it right?"
There was so much information for James to take in and he was struggling to process it all. But everything Polly was saying was making sense. This Blood Curse would explain exactly why he'd been having all those visions and hearing that voice. The only thing it didn't explain was why someone was doing it to him and who?
"Are you alright James?" Noah asked, noticing his friend was now looking a little pale and as if he was about to faint.
"Yeah I'm fine," James replied, finally speaking. "It pains me to say this but Polly I think you might be right."
Polly's face lit up with a smug smile as James passed the book back to her and she placed it in her bag.
"So what now?" Noah asked.
"We still need to find this room. I know it's important. Whoever is doing all this might be using that room as some sort of base," James said, trying to remain calm despite his head feeling like it was about to explode as he processed this new information.
"What room?" Polly asked.
James was about to answer when they all thought they heard footsteps heading towards them. All three of them turned as the footsteps grew louder and a figure appeared around the corner.
"There you are Potter, I've been looking everywhere for you," Edward the first year Slytherin said, seeming a little out of breath.
"Looks like you're popular today James," Noah joked as they all breathed a sigh of relief it hadn't been a teacher.
"I've just been up to your common room and two boys said you'd probably all be down here," Edward said as he looked at each of them in turn.
"How did they know where we were?" James asked, thinking did everyone know they were somewhere that they weren't meant to be and half expecting a bunch of teachers to turn up any minute.
"I told them," Polly said. "I said I'd heard you two talking about coming down here and was going down to get you back before you got into trouble. Thought it best I had witnesses that I was only down here because of you so I wouldn't get into trouble myself if we got caught."
"So what's so urgent Edward?" James asked, wondering why someone from Slytherin and who seemed to hate him was so keen to speak to him.
"Well… look it's about Greta," Edward said, seeming a bit unsure if he should be saying anything.
"Unless she's developed exploding pimples on her face or someone's cast a tongue tying curse on her and she can't speak for the rest of the term I'm not really interested," James jested.
"Look it's serious," Edward said and suddenly James changed his attitude.
"OK what about Greta?" he asked with his full attention on Edward now.
"I saw her, in her dorm. I went to find her and Nancy to see if they wanted to go hang out by the lake and the door to their room was a jar. I was about to knock when I saw her through the crack. She was alone and she was holding a wand."
"So?" James retorted, thinking Edward was just wasting his time.
"It wasn't her wand. It was a different colour and a completely different shape. And the thing is I think it was the one that you found. The one in your trunk. I heard the description you had given of it and I'm pretty sure it was the same one," Edward said, seeming a little worried that he may be betraying his friend by telling James and the others what he had seen.
"So Greta was the one who cursed you?" Polly said.
"Curse, what curse?" Edward asked, sounding confused.
"It's a long story," Polly replied.
"I don't know. I think all this is pretty advanced magic for someone our age," James said, trying to process yet more information.
"Not if she's in it with her father. Maybe they're working together?" Noah suggested. "After all Professor Payne is the prime suspect."
"Look that doesn't matter now. All that matters is we go tell Professor McGonagall right away and let her deal with it," Polly said, trying to take charge of the situation.
"No you can't do that," Edward protested. "You'll get Greta into trouble."
"I think she's done that all on her own," Polly replied, unconcerned for how much trouble Greta was now in.
"We can't tell McGonagall yet anyway. I think she went to Hogsmeade with the others," Noah noted.
"Well we'll tell another teacher then. Where is Greta now?" Polly asked.
"I dunno. As I was watching her through the crack she started heading towards the door so I hid. She left the common room but I don't know where she went," Edward said.
"Did you guys hear that?" James said and turned away from them and listened.
"Hear what?" Edward asked before James held a hand up to him to signal him to be quiet.
They all listened but heard nothing except James who started to walk down the corridor.
"Hear what?" Edward asked again, looking puzzled.
"He hears voices that no one else can," Noah said in a dismissive manner and trying to explain the situation but Edward ended up even more confused. "Where are you going James?"
James had disappeared down the corridor and Noah thought it best to go with him and started to follow. Not wanting to be left behind Polly and Edward headed after them too.
"Does he hear voices a lot?" Edward asked, wondering if James was maybe not all there in the head but no one bothered to dignify his question with a response.
James suddenly stopped, looking around the corridor as if the source of the voice was about to reveal itself to him. He could still hear it only now it seemed to be making sense to him.
"I think I can understand it now," James said, still listening intently.
"Well what's it saying?" Polly asked.
James was silent for a few seconds in shock as he took in what the voice had just said to him. A feeling of dread filled his body and he felt like he was going to be sick.
"It said…," James said before pausing, not wanting to repeat what the voice had told him. "It said it's taken a Mudblood student. And it's going to kill them."