I do not own…
Chapter Thirty-Nine: The Game, the map and the lost trial
It wasn't long till the game with Gryffindor and Ravenclaw happened. This is where all the Houses saw his brand new broom as he carried it in the Great Hall. Everyone was in awe, minus the Slytherins'. Even Draco Malfoy was shocked at the sight of Harry's broom. At a quarter to eleven, the Gryffindor team set off for the locker rooms. The weather was clear and clear, better than their last game. Everyone changed into their uniform before heading to the field. The Ravenclaw team was already out in the middle. There Harry saw that Cho Chang, Ravenclaws' Seeker, was the only girl in their team. He couldn't help but notice that she was extremely pretty.
"Wood, Davies, shake hands." Madam Hooch said
The two captains shook hands and they all mounted their brooms. Harry soared around the stadium and began squinting around for the Snitch, listening to the commentary. Lee Jordan kept talking about Harrys' and Vanessas' Firebolts until Professor McGonagall told him to focus on the game. Vanessa, Katie and Angelina were able to get a few goals while Harry was searching for the Snitch. While he did he noticed that Cho Chang was trailing him closely. He nearly got caught but the Beater from Ravenclaw hit a Bludger his way and he lost sight of it. For pay back George hit the second Bludger directly at the offending Beater, who was forced to roll right over in midair to avoid it.
"Gryffindor, leads by eighty points to zero, and look at that Firebolt go! Potter's really putting it through its paces now, see it turn...Chang's Comet is just no match for it, the Firebolt's precision...balance is really noticeable in these long…"
"JORDAN! ARE YOU BEING PAID TO ADVERTISE FIREBOLTS? GET ON WITH THE COMMENTARY!"
Ravenclaw had scored three goals, which put Gryffindor only fifty points ahead. Harry knew that he had to find the Snitch first before Chow did. Whenever he did see it Cho always seemed to block him from it. It got to the point where Wood told him to stop being a gentleman and knocked her down. Harry had flown up knowing that Cho would follow him and made a dive. When she followed him, he pulled the dive up very sharply, which made her hurtled downward. For the third time he spotted the Snitch above the field at the Ravenclaw end. When he went to get it Cho let out a gasping scream. Harry looked down and saw three dementors coming at him. With his wand in his sleeve, he slid it out and roared, "Expecto Patronum!"
Something Silver-white erupted from the end of his wand. He knew it had shot directly at the dementors but didn't pause to watch as he was still looking for the Snitch. He stretched out the hand that was still grasping his wand and just managed to close his fingers over the Snitch.
"Gryffindor Wins!" Madam Hooch said after blowing her whistle.
The whole team crowded Harry and congratulated him. When they made it to the ground everyone in Gryffindor engulfed him in a cheering crowd. Hunter had pushed his way through the crowd so he could hug and congratulate Vanessa before patting Harry's back.
"Hey, Harry, good Patronus!" Vanessa smiled as she hugged him.
"It was indeed." A voice said
Harry turned around to see Professor Lupin, who looked both shaken and pleased.
"The dementors didn't affect me at all!" Harry said excitedly. "I didn't feel a thing!"
"That would be because they-er-weren't dementors." Lupin said "Come and see…"
"Oh this is gonna be good." Hunter smirked
He led them out of the crowd until they were able to see the edge of the field.
"You gave Mr. Malfoy quite a fright." Lupin said
"I hope you don't mind. But I got this to capture the memory." Hunter said, holding up Vanessa's magical camera.
Vanessa laughed as she took the picture. Laying in a crumpled heap on the ground were Draco, Crabbe, Goyle, and Slytherins' team Captain, Marcus Flint, all struggling to remove themselves from long, black, hooded robes. It looked as though Malfoy had been standing on Goyle's shoulders. Standing over them was Professor McGonagall with the utmost fury on her face.
"An Unworthy trick!" She shouted "A low and cowardly attempt to sabotage the Gryffindor Seeker! Detention for all of you, and fifty points from Slytherin! I shall be speaking to Professor Dumbledore about this, make no mistake! Ah here he comes now!"
While this was happening George pulled the two Potters over announcing a party at Gryffindor common room. Fred and George had disappeared for a couple of hours and returned with armfuls of bottles of butterbeer, pumpkin fizz, and several bags full of Honeydukes sweets. The party ended only when Professor McGonagall turned up at one in the morning, telling them all to go to bed. Everyone was so exhausted that they all fell asleep pretty fast. It wasn't until everyone was woken up by someone screaming. All the girls came down to see who it was and found out that it was Ron that screamed.
"Perce...Sirius Black!" Ron said "In our dormitory! With a knife! Woke me up!"
The common room went very still.
"Nonsense!" Percy said, looking startled. "You had too much to eat, Ron...had a nightmare…"
"I'm telling you…"
"Now, really, enough's enough!"
With all the commotion Professor McGonagall was back. She slammed the portrait behind her as she entered the common room and stared furiously around.
"I am delighted that Gryffindor won the match, but this is getting ridiculous! Percy, I expected better of you!" She glared
"I certainly didn't authorize this, Professor!" Percy said "I was just telling them all to get back to bed! My brother Ron here had a nightmare…"
"IT WASN'T A NIGHTMARE!" Ron yelled "PROFESSOR, I WOKE UP, AND SIRIUS BLACK WAS STANDING OVER ME, HOLDING A KNIFE!"
"Don't be ridiculous, Weasley, how could he possibly have gotten through the portrait hole?" McGonagal said
"Ask him!" Ron said, pointing a shaking finger at the back of Sir Cadogan's picture. "Ask him if he saw…"
Glaring suspiciously at Ron, Professor McGonagall pushed the portrait back open and went outside.
"Sir Cadogan, did you just let a man enter Gryffindor Tower?" She asked
"Certainly, good lady!" Sir Cadogan said
"You...you did?" McGonagall said in shock. "But...but the password!"
"He had 'em!" Sir Cadogan said proudly. "Had the whole week's, my lady! Read 'em off a little piece of paper!"
Professor McGonagall came back to the common room where everyone was stunned.
"Which person," She said, her voice shaking. "Which abysmally foolish person wrote down this week's passwords and left them lying around?"
There was nothing but utter silence until the smallest of terrified squeaks. Neville Longbottom, trembling from head to fluffy-slippered toes, raised his hand slowly into the air.
.
.
.
Poor Neville was no longer allowed to go to Hogsmead trips and no one was allowed to tell him the new password. Sir Cadogan was fired and his portrait was taken back to it's lonely hall on the seventh floor. The Fat Lady was able to come back only on one condition, to be extra protected. So a bunch of surly security trolls had been hired to guard her. Ron was enjoying the bit of attention that he was getting because of what happened with Black. The first time he would tell the truth of what happened before he would exaggerate a bit. Though there was a question as to why Black had run off when Ron screamed. Why not silence him and continue his search if he was after Harry.
Since that day Vanessa had decided to keep a close eye on the passageways on Marauder's Map. She had a feeling that that's how Black is getting in Hogwarts. A part of her wants to tell the Headmaster or the Professor but that would mean turning in the map and how she came by it. One night she was looking at the map and she noticed something odd on it. In one of the floors she saw footprints of Peter Pettigrew. This confused her a lot as she remembered Fudge and McGonagall saying that he was dead.
"What are you looking at?"
Vanessa quickly turned around with her wand out and saw that it was Harry.
"Harry? What the hell are you doing out here in the middle of the night?" She asked
"Sorry, but I left the invisibility cloak down here two days ago." He whispered "Ron and I used it when we came back from seeing Hagrid...and we saw Filch coming...so I quickly hid it."
"I'm starting to think of taking that cloak away from you." She glared and placed the map in her inner cloak pocket. "Where did you hide it?"
He told her where it was and they secretly walked down.
"So what were you looking at?" He asked
"Just a map of the castle that has helped the twins and I since first year." She said
When they found the cloak she looked around and took out the map again. She saw that they were on the same floor where "Peter" was supposed to be. Her wand glowed in the dark hallway and she saw nothing. Looking at the map it showed that "Peter" was still looking walking their way. This made Harry look at the map and his eyes widened when he saw what the map looked like. He saw the footprints of Peter nearby and lit up his wand but saw nothing as well. The footprints kept getting closer and closer but there was still no one around. Then the footprints walked round Vanessa and Harry and the two turned around but still there was nothing. When she looked back at the map she mentley cursed in her head when she saw Professor Snape heading their way.
"Hide your cloak. Hurry." She whispered "Mischief managed. Nox."
Once the lights were off the two were able to hide both the map and cloak in time before Snape's wand lit up.
"Potters. What are you doing wandering the corridors at night?" He asked
"I was sleepwalking." Harry said
"And was just trying to help him back to the common room when I saw him." Vanessa said
"How extraordinarily like your father you are, Potter." Snape snided, ignoring what Vanessa said. "He, too, was exceedingly arrogant, strutting about the castle."
"My dad didn't strut. And nor do I." Harry glared "Now, if you don't mind, I would appreciate it if you could lower your wand."
He did a little but noticed that Vanessa was hiding something in her pocket.
"What did you confiscated from him, Ms. Potter?" He asked
She tried saying that she didn't but he wasn't hearing and told her to hand it over. Vanessa did without worries as the map was blanked now.
"What is it?" He asked
"Spare bit of parchment I believe, sir." She said
"Really? Open it." He said
Once again she did without worries and he placed his wand on top of it.
"Reveal your secrets." He incarnated
It stayed blank.
"Show yourself." He said, when it showed nothing again he tried once one. "Professor Severus Snape, master of this school, commands you to yield the information you conceal!"
Only a few things appeared on the parchment with a few words written on it but it wasn't the map. He told her to hand the parchment to Harry and ordered him to read it.
"Mr. Moony presents his compliments to Professor Snape and begs him to keep his abnormally large nose out of other people's business." Harry said
Snape froze. Vanessa stared, dumbstruck, at the message. But the map didn't stop there as more writing appeared.
"Mr. Prongs agrees with Mr. Moony, and would like to add that Professor Snape is an ugly git."
It would have been very funny if the situation hadn't been so serious. Then more writing appeared.
"Mr. Padfoot would like to register his astonishment that an idiot like that ever became a professor."
Vanessa closed her eyes in horror, mentally telling Harry to stop talking but he continued on when another message appeared.
"Mr. Wormtail bids Professor Snape good night, and advises him to wash his hair, the slimeball."
"Why, you insolent little…" Snape glared
"Professor!"
He was cut off by Professor Lupin, who was walking behind him.
"Well, well. Lupin. Out for a little walk in the moonlight, are we?" Snape said, almost in a mocking tone.
"Harry. Vanessa. Are you two all right?" Lupin asked, ignoring what Snape said.
"That remains to be seen." Snape said and snatched the parchment from Harry's hand. "I have now just confiscated a rather curious artifact. Take a look, Lupin. This is supposed to be your area of expertise." He handed it to Lupin. "Clearly, it's full of dark magic."
Lupin looked at it but didn't believe what Snape had said.
"I seriously doubt it, Severus. It looks as though it's a parchment designed to insult anyone who tries to read it." Lupin said and looked at Harry. "I suspect it's a Zonko product."
Snape tried to take it away, luckily Lupin was fast enough to pull it away from him.
"Nevertheless, I shall investigate any hidden qualities it may possess. It is, after all, as you say, my area of expertise." Lupin said to Snape before looking at the two Potters. "Harry, Vanessa, would two come with me, please? Professor, good night."
With that said the two followed Professor Lupin to his office without Snape following him.
"Come in. Now I haven't the faintest idea how this map came to one of your possessions…" Lupin said
"The map is mine, Professor Lupin. Harry has nothing to do with it." Vanessa said
"Well...I am astounded that you didn't hand it in." He said with a disappointed look. "I happen to know that this map was confiscated by Mr. Filch many years ago. Yes, I know it's a map. Did it never occur to you that this, in the hands of Sirius Black...is a map to you two?"
"No, sir. I normally have it hidden quite well." She said
"It's not her fault. I was the one wandering around the hallways while she was on Prefect duties. I lost my dad's cloak and she was trying to help me find it and was gonna escort me back to Gryffindor tower." Harry said "I'm always the one taking the risk. She's the one that always tries to protect me."
"I see. Look, your father never set much store by the rules either, Harry. But he, your mother and her mother gave their lives to save you two. Gambling their sacrifice by wandering the castle unprotected...skilled as you are Vanessa...but with a killer on the loose seems to me a poor way to repay them!" Lupin said "Now, I will not cover up for you two again. Do you hear me?"
"Yes, sir." They said
"Now I want you two to return to your dormitory and stay there. And don't take any detours. If you do, I shall know." He warned them.
They nodded and were about to go until Vanessa remembered what was on the map.
"Professor, just so you know, I don't think the map may be defaulting a bit." She said "Earlier, it showed someone in the castle. Someone I know to be dead."
"Oh, really? And who might that be?" Lupin asked
"Peter Pettigrew." She said
Lupin's eyes nearly widen at the sound of the name.
"That's not possible." He said
"It's just what I saw." She said "Good night, Professor."
.
.
.
After their third trip from Hogsmeade Hermione came to Vanessa, Harry and Ron. With her crying and Vanessa giving him a warning look Ron held in his harsh tone towards her. She told them all that Hagrid lost his case and that Buckbeak is going to be executed.
"He...he sent me this." Hermione said, holding out the letter.
Harry took it. The parchment was damp, and enormous teardrops had smudged the ink so badly in places that it was very difficult to read.
"Dear Hermione." He read. "We lost. I'm allowed to bring him back to Hogwarts. Execution date to be fixed. Becky has enjoyed London. I won't forget all the help you gave us. Hagrid."
"They can't do this." Vanessa said "They can't. Buckbeak isn't dangerous."
"Malfoy's dad. Even with Artism grandfather helping Hagrid, Mr. Malfoy frightened the Committee into it." Hermione said, wiping her eyes. "You know what he's like. They're a bunch of doddery old fools, and they were scared. There'll be an appeal, though, there always is. Only I can't see any hope...Nothing will have changed."
"Yeah, it will." Ron said fiercely. "You won't have to do all the work alone this time, Hermione. I'll help."
"Oh, Ron!"
Hermione flung her arms around Ron's neck and broke down completely. Ron, uncomfortably terrified, patted her head awkwardly until she drew away.
"Ron, I'm really, really sorry about Scabbers…" She sobbed
"Oh...well..he was old." Ron said, relieved that she let him go. "And he was a bit useless. You never know, Mum and Dad might get an owl now."
With the safety measures imposed on the students since Black's second break-in made it impossible for Vanessa, her friends and the golden trio to go and visit Hagrid in the evening. Vanessa, Hunter, Dawn, Uma and Mal were only able to talk to him was during Care of Magical Creature lessons. Today they were learning about Thestrals and they were able to talk to him when he was showing them what to feed them.
"S'all my fault. Got all tongue-tied. They was all sittin' there in black robes an' I kep' droppin' me notes and forgettin' all them dates yeh an' the others looked up fer me, Vanessa. An' then Lucius Malfoy stood up up an' said his bit, and the Committee jus' did exac'ly what he told 'em…"
"There's still the appeal." Hunter said "Don't give up yet, we're all working on it."
The school chimes rang, telling them that class was over.
"S'no good, Hunter." Hagrid said sadly. "That Committee's in Lucius Malfoy's pocket. I'm jus' gonna make sure the rest o' Beaky's time is the happiest he's ever had. I owe him that…"
Hagrid turned around and hurried back towards his cabin, his face buried in his handkerchief. When they were walking up to the castle they spotted Draco and two cronies spying on Hagrid and kept laughing as they watched him cry.
"Look at him blubber!" Malfoy laughed "Have you ever seen anything quite as pathetic? And he's supposed to be our teacher!"
"That's it. I'm turning him into a fucking toad." Mal glared
She was about to point her finger at him but Hunter beat her to it. He took out his wand and sent Crabbe and Goyle flying away before grabbing ahold of Draco's robes and punched him in the face. He ended up breaking Draco's nose and he whimpered when Hunter's wand was against his throat.
"Go ahead. Say one more word. One more word, I'll hex you to the point where your own mother won't be able to recognize you." He glared "I am sick and tired of your bullshit. Thinking that you can do whatever you want just because you're a pureblood. Well guess what...now you have me to deal with. You can cry to your brother but something tells me he wouldn't give two fucks as this is hurting Vanessa. So I suggest that you watch your back...because if I see your ferret face again or hear that you're mocking Hagrid again I'm gonna kick your ass."
"Hunter...come on...he's not worth it." Dawn said
"Besides' there's gonna be more witnesses coming by." Uma said before casting a forgetting charm on Crabbe and Goyal.
Hunter agreed but not before punching Draco in the stomach and let him go. Then he did the same charm on Malfoy but left the mental message imprint in his brain. If Vanessa wasn't mad at Malfoy she would have thought Hunter went a little too far in hurting the thirteen year old but she didn't feel sorry at all.
"I can't wait to knock that smile off his face once Gryffiondor destroys him and his team in the Quidditch final." She muttered