Chapter 24 – Quidditch and Chamber of Secrets.
After a small break and eating lunch, the hall was changed back to comfier chairs and couches. Hadriana and Sirius were leaning on one another, and Teddy was laying with his head on his mother's lap while Sirius was running his fingers through his hair.
James and Lily were sitting together, then Frank and Alice, and all the other couples were sitting together on their own couch.
Houses were together, though, all houses were also managing to sit with the other house if they wanted to.
"Let's start." Professor McGonagall said and waved at the screen that was coming down the wall.
The screen showed Hogwarts before the scene changed again to show the Gryffindor Quidditch team getting ready to practice on the Quidditch pitch.
"YAY! Quidditch!" squealed James and young Sirius.
"I spent the summer devising a whole new Quidditch program. We're going to train earlier, harder, and longer. What? I don't believe it!" Wood said pausing mid-speech, now he was outraged as he saw some other team training, the Slytherins.
"Where do you think you're going, Flint?" Oliver Wood asked when we came down to the field.
"Quidditch practice." The pimply boy said, shrugging his shoulders.
"I booked the pitch for the Gryffindor team today!" Wood told him.
Flint with the rest of the team was smirking at them. "Easy Wood, I've got a note."
Hermione and Ron were silently looking at one another from where they were sitting.
Wood snatched the note from Flint's hand and began reading it out loud for the rest of his team, "I, Professor Severus Snape, do hereby give the Slytherin team permission to practice today, owing to the need to train their new Seeker."
"You've got a new Seeker, who?" demanded Wood, the Slytherins moved aside to let Draco step forward. A smirk on his face.
"That's how you got onto the team?" Sirius asked and looked towards Draco with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah," Draco said, proud of having had the spot for the rest of his school year. "Though, it was no longer fun after Hadriana quit playing." He said with a pout.
"Sorry for that!" Sirius told him sheepishly, knowing that when he began to spend a lot of time with Hadriana that she wanted to stop playing Quidditch.
"I didn't quit just because of you!" Hadriana told him, before hitting him on the shoulder and rolling her eyes at him fondly.
"I know, but I'm allowed to dream!" he smirked.
Draco rolled his eyes at them, listening to them always getting him to think about his own wife and that he missed his children.
"You quit, quidditch?" James finally asked after getting out of his stupor of shock at hearing that his daughter time in the future quit their sport.
The same could be said about the younger version of Sirius as he too was looking at them with wide eyes and nodding along with his friend.
"Good for her!" Remus said from where he was sitting, knowing that the older you became the more focused you become on your studies.
"Malfoy?" someone asked.
"That's right. That's not all that's new this year!" Flint smirked before all the Slytherins showed off their new brooms.
"Those are Nimbus 2001. How'd you get those?" Ron asked as he and Hermione finally made their way over to where the two teams were standing.
"A gift from Draco's father!" Flint bragged.
"You see Weasley, unlike some, my family can afford the best." Draco gloated.
Draco groaned, why had he been such a brat back then?
"You know Draco, you make your father look bad. If you wanted him to feel proud, why not donate new brooms to the whole school?" Hadriana smirked from somewhere in the crowd.
"Little Hadriana has a point, why hasn't anyone done something like that?" Madam Hootch questioned with a smile. "The brooms we've had in school aren't really fit to play on or practise on!"
Fleamont hummed and looked at his wife with a raised eyebrow. "We can maybe agree to help out!"
Hootch smiled and nodded toward the Potters in agreement with their help towards the school.
"I know for a fact that when there is a scholarship found there is another account that the headmaster can take from to better the school!" Hadriana smiled towards the deputy headmistress.
It reminded Professor McGonagall that there really was a foundation to make improvements, and she had to glare at the headmaster that was looking more and more irritated over not being able to speak.
Like always, someone forgot that Hadriana had spoken of something great.
"At least no one on the Gryffindor team had to buy their way in. They got in on pure talent!" Hermione said proudly.
Draco looked at her in disgust. "No one asked for your opinion. You filthy little Mudblood." He sneered.
A collective gasp rang out all around the hall, not believing that the word would be spoken so out there.
Draco was trying to become invisible in the crowd that was now glaring at him.
Hadriana sighed and stood up walking over to him laying a hand on him trying to comfort him. "I know," she told him with a smile and walked back towards her family with him.
Draco placed himself down on the puff that popped into place on the floor between Sirius and Hadriana. "Thanks" he whispered.
"You're welcome." Sirius hummed and laid a hand on his shoulder before dragging Hadriana back for a hug. Sometimes he couldn't believe that he had gotten this far from how he had been in school, that he and Hadriana had become so supportive of others in the school after the war.
Narcissa smiled sadly towards her grown-up son, seeing Sirius being there for Draco made her a little bit glad that her son had someone to look up too other than her lousy husband.
Lucius on the other hand was sheeting angrily that his son had gone to them for support because it made him look so bad to everyone.
James looked at his daughter proudly, but at the same time, he was angry at the Slytherin that was so clearly changed from what he had been as a twelve-year-old boy. He remembered how hurt his Lily was over her long-time friends saying that word to her.
Severus was looking down at the table regretful over what had transpired two years ago in the field, but he had been angry over how humiliated he had been by the Marauder's prank that he had lashed out at the first person that had tried to help him.
Hadriana looked at them all in confusion, though, she had heard that word before, but she didn't know what it meant.
The rest of the students around her gasped loudly in outrage, Ron included, while Hermione looked down hurt.
"You'll pay for that one Malfoy," Ron said angrily walking up to Draco who looked slightly frightful. "Eat slugs." He said, raising his wand only for the spell to backfire, and make Ron fly backwards.
The Slytherins on the other hand were laughing at Ron loudly, while Hadriana, Hermione and the others in Gryffindor ran over to Ron who looked slightly green.
"You okay, Ron?" Hadriana asked him.
Ron did is best to keep his mouth closed.
"Say something!" Hermione encouraged before Ron spits out a slug, Hadriana looked slightly pale at seeing this.
Suddenly a flash goes off, and Hadriana looked up at Colin, who was holding up his camera. "WoW! Can you turn him around, Hadriana?"
"No, Colin." Hadriana sighed, "Get out of the way. Let us take him to Hagrid, he'll know what to do!" she told Hermione and walked with Colin for a while to talk to him as she watched Hermione walk Ron to Hagrid's hut.
"Why not take him to the Hospital Wing?" Remus asked them.
"Hagrid know a lot when it comes to anything remotely related to creatures." Hadriana paused with a smile and a nod to Hagrid. "Also, he was closer because Ron didn't need everyone laughing at him if we had gone that route." She answered him.
"That's actually pretty good reasoning." Narcissa smiled, and she loved that her son had friends like this after everything it seemed.
While Hermione walked away, she said a couple of words to Colin. "You know you can't go around taking pictures. Do you live in the muggle world?" Hadriana asked him.
"What of it?" asked Colin a little bit offended.
"I do too, so calm yourself," Hadriana said.
"You do?" Colin asked her curiously.
"Yeah, I do. Do you know you can't show those pictures to anyone right when you go home? Right? Muggles aren't supposed to know of our world! You will break the one rule, the statute of secrecy right if you do?" she asked him seriously wondering if he at all knew these rules.
Hearing this made Colin pale, "I didn't know, but I can show them to my family?" he gulped out nervously looking at his magical camera.
"Yeah, you're parents or siblings, but no one else," Hadriana told him and got down on her knees to look him in the eyes. "You also need to be conscious over who you take pictures of, not everyone will take being photographed nicely."
"Okay!" Colin said happily and ran off. "Thank you!"
"What you did there, was nice." Professor McGonagall told her with a smile and regretted it that she had clearly too much on her plate to help her students or talk to wayward students like him about what was right.
Sirius kissed her cheek, "It's because of that right there, that you are one heck of a teacher." He whispered in her ear.
"Thanks'" Hadriana told them with a smile.
After watching him run off, she walked to Hagrid's hut to meet up with the others who were now sitting with a bucket in their hand.
Hagrid was explaining what he had to do when she walked in. "This calls for a specialist. Nothin' to do other than wait till it stops, I'm afraid." He said sympathetic, as they all watched Ron spit up another slug into the bucket.
"You are going to be okay, Ron!" Hadriana said as he plopped down on the other side of Ron, from where Hermione was sitting.
"Who was Ron trying to curse anyway?" asked Hagrid.
"Malfoy. He called Hermione a… well I don't exactly know what it means." Hadriana told them.
"He called me a Muddblood." Revealed Hermione.
Hagrid clasped in shock, "he did not!"
"What's a Muddblood?" Hadriana questioned.
"It means dirty blood. Mudblood's a foul name for someone who is muggle-born. Someone with non-magical parents. Someone like me. It's not a term one usually hears in a civilized conversation." Hermione explained to her friend.
"See the thing is, Hadriana. There are some families like the Malfoys who think they are better than everyone else because they are what people call purebloods." Hagrid continued from where Hermione let it go.
"That's because we are!" Lucius and the other Blacks in the room said in agreement and nodded.
"We aren't!" Draco glared at his father.
Hadriana looked disgusted at hearing this, "that's horrible!"
"It's disgusting!" Hermione said in agreement.
Hagrid looked at her and gave a stern look. "And its codswallop, to boot. Dirty blood… Why. There isn't a wizard today who isn't a half-blood or less. More to the point – they've yet to think of a spell that Hermione can't do. Come here. Don't you think about it? Don't you think on it for a minute, okay?"
Hermione nodded and smiled.
The professors fought to not give Hagrid a smile at this, and they warmed up to the half-giant a little, even the Slytherins were warming up to the man a little alongside the others.
The scene now changed to show Hadriana, who was sitting in Lockhart's office and sorting through a bunch of letters.
"Great!" Regulus mumbled, to his brother who was sitting beside him silently laughing at the Ravenclaw table where the man was sitting.
"Hadriana. Hadriana. Hadriana… Can you possibly imagine a better way to serve detention, than by helping me answer my fan mail?" Lockhart sighed dreamingly, looking at all the letters.
Hadriana silently groaned, she would rather be in detention with Snape than here.
"You had to answer fan mail?" Draco asked disgusted with their teacher.
"Yeah, and he talked about himself all the time." Groaned Hadriana, "I never got a break from that idiot!"
"Yes. I mean no." Hadriana said, correcting herself.
"Nice save!" Evan snorted together with Barty.
"Fame is a fickle friend, Hadriana. Celebrity is as a celebrity does. Remember that!" Lockhart said.
Hadriana looked at him in confusion though she agreed that fame was fickle, and then an eerie, groggily voice stopped her, which made her freeze.
"Come to me… come… come to me."
"Bloody hell, Hadriana. What the hell was that?" Neville asked, jumping in his seat where he sat with Luna.
Many of the younger students clutched onto their neighbours in fright.
The adults leaned forward in confusion, not knowing what it was.
"What?" Hadriana asked loudly, startled.
Lockhart was now the one looking confused. "Sorry?"
"That voice, did you hear it?"
"Voice?" Lockhart asked, looking around him becoming scared himself. "What are you talking about, Hadriana?" he asked, giving her a fearful smile.
"Are you telling us he didn't hear it? That he didn't hear that terrifying voice." Barty yelled staring at the screen.
"Yes!" smirked Hadriana and went back to look at the screen.
"I think you are getting a bit drowsy, Hadriana. Great scott, no wonder. Look at the time. We're being here nearly four hours. Spooky how the time flies, wen ones have fun." Lockhart said, looking up nervously.
"I should have been let go off, hours ago." Hadriana muttered angrily, "spooky, right!" she said, and watched as her teacher fretted. Leaving the room, and as she walked along the hallways of Hogwarts, she heard the voice again.
"Blood. I smell blood. Let me rip you. Let me kill you. Kill. Kill. Kill." It finished off chanting, stopping Hadriana in her tracks.
"That's how it sounded like!" Ron mumbled to Hermione who then nodded with wide eyes.
"Hadriana?" Ron said loudly coming up from behind.
Hadriana jumped, though, she got quickly under control. "Did you hear it?" Hadriana asked him immediately, not giving her friends time to talk.
"Hear what?"
"That voice?" Hadriana questioned, looking at her friends in confusion.
"Voice! What voice?" Hermione asked her.
"I heard it the first time in Lockhart's office, and ten again just-," Hadriana started to explain to them, what she had heard when she was cut off by the voice again.
"It's time."
"Merlin! It's gonna kill someone!" Molly paled, as everyone including the Professors stared at the screen in fear.
"It's moving, I think it's going to kill," Hadriana told them, and ran down the hall, leaving her friends behind, as they were calling her name.
"Why would you run towards it?" The minister yelled.
Many of the adults were agreeing with his statement.
"Just because you are a coward, doesn't mean that anyone else is. Also, you, all of you would never have believed me!" Hadriana told them with a glare at the teachers.
Sirius was also glaring at the teachers for making Hadriana doubt herself, and he could understand her frustration with the teachers.
"Kill?" Hermione questioned, as she and Ron ran after her.
Hadriana was now standing at the end of the hall, looking around and noticing that the floor was filled with water. Ron and Hermione had come up behind her, and they stopped and stared at a row of spiders escaping through a crack in the window.
"Stange. I've never seen spiders act like that!" Hermione said to them, though Ron backed down in fear.
"I don't like spiders," Ron mumbled.
Hadriana's eyes widened looking at them before she noticed something else on the wall. "What's that?" she questioned.
The three of them noticed that something was reflecting in the water and looked up at the writing on the wall that looked like blood.
"The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir, be aware!" Hadriana read out loud.
"No way!" Someone from the Slytherin table exclaimed.
"That can't be true right? I mean the chamber of secrets is only a legend, right?" Barty asked a little bit fearful but also in awe.
Many of the Slytherins were questioning this, but the adults in the room that knew about it exchanged looks.
"It's actually a great place if you clean it up a little!" Sirius smirked to the shocked look of everyone, only his family didn't believe him.
"No way, Hadriana showed you it! Every time we ask, we aren't allowed to go with!" Draco and Hermione exclaimed angrily with a pout.
"It's written in blood," Hadriana commented as an afterthought, as other students came from around the corner. "Look, it's Flitch's cat. It's Mrs Norris." At the cat that appeared dead.
Every other student stopped where they were standing, read the message, and stared back at Hadriana who was standing right underneath it.
Colin wanted to take a picture but remembered what Hadriana had told her.
"Enemies of the heir beware. You'll be next, mudbloods." Malfoy sneered.
Ron was ready to pounce, but Hermione stopped him.
Hadriana was rolling her eyes at them, they had much more to worry about than their feud.
"What's going on here? Make way, make way. Potter… what, are you?" Flitch stopped and was now staring at his cat with tears in his eyes, before he then glared viciously at Hadriana.
Hadriana wondered why he was doing so, there had to be something that she could do that would get everyone to see the truth that she didn't know what had happened.
*You can threaten them by swearing a vow…* Sirius's whispery voice came through her mind.
*What's a vow? * Hadriana quickly asked.
"There are two magical vows', one is an unbreakable and the other a magical vow. Unbreakable you swear on your magic, if you lie about what you've swear on you lose your life. A magical vow is where you swear that what you say is the truth, if you aren't you will lose your magic. *
The explanation of each vow was intricate, and there was surely more to it thought Hadriana, but this would help her now, and maybe even later in life as her life got meaning.
*Hold up your wand, and then swear on your magic and then say that you didn't do it, and end it with…*
Listening to what her best friend said, was great and knowing that there was a way for her to clear her name, was great.
"I'm glad you taught me this, it helped me greatly a lot of the time," Hadriana told Sirius with a smile, and a kiss on his cheek.
"That's good! I still can't believe none of the others thought to tell you of this, and with all the things you had to do." Sirius smiled.
The same did the younger Sirius, and he was kind of proud of himself that his future self had thought about something like teaching her this, and a little bit sad that none of the others had even thought about teaching her this. Not even any of the teachers.
James looked on at them with a proud smile, and it seemed that his daughter had grown up to be smart and love his best friend for everything he had done for her.
Lily looked on at them, not exactly proud but more a little bit confused though she did not know why.
The teachers were shaking their heads at their future selves, they could have done so much more to help the girl who they now saw could end up in situations that everyone sooner or later would believe that one simple girl had done. They could have thought her this vow, it would have been easier than just accusing her of things, and if she had refused to be done it they would know for sure if she had.
Professor McGonagall was glancing at the headmaster who was shaking his head in what seemed to be a disappointment, maybe even anger though it got clearer that with everything his plans were falling on the wayside.
Before Hadriana was allowed to say anything in defence, Flitch looked at her with hatred and yelled: "Mrs Norris? You murdered my cat!" with a sneer.
"No, no!" Hadriana tried to say and was on the way to ask if she could make a vow when the caretaker yelled again.
"I'll kill you!" Flitch said, and then grabbed Hadriana by her robes.
"Why do we have a squib as a caretaker of a magical school, why not someone that can use magic?" Euphemia Potter asked the teacher, who was now looking irritated at the caretaker as she held her son back from doing permanent damage to the man.
"Don't know, but Dumbledore always seemed to defend him!" Professor McGonagall told them.
"Then I say that we all should review everything that goes on in this school!" Fleamont said.
"Aye!" Orion Black agreed because something finally had to be done to help the students.
"Aye!" Alister Moody agreed to many people's surprises.
"Argus! Argus! I…" Flitch was stopped by the teachers who came up behind him, as they all read the message, grave looks were seen on their faces.
"Everyone will proceed to their common rooms immediately… everyone except you three," Dumbledore said, and pointed to Hadriana, Ron and Hermione.
"The cat is not dead, Argus. She has only been petrified."
"Ah, thought so. So, lucky, I wasn't there! I know exactly the kind of person that was speared her." Lockhart told them.
All the professors looked at him before looking back at the trio.
"But how she's been petrified, I cannot say." the headmaster told them all.
"Ask her. It's her that's done it. You saw what she wrote on the wall." Flitch said with a glare.
"It's not true, I was in detention with Lockhart. Also, I would never touch your cat, I can even swear a vow, that I haven't done anything." Hadriana told them, and at once the whole room became quiet.
"That's not necessary, Potter." The headmaster told her, as he was contemplating something and even wondering where she could have read about something like this.
Snape on the other hand was looking at her like she wasn't stupid, "If I might, headmaster? Perhaps Potter and her friends were simply at the wrong place at the wrong time." He defended her.
Hadriana looked at him in shock, and at her friends like she couldn't believe that he had defended her.
"Did Snape just… defend you?" Neville laughed with a smile and sarcasm to everyone's laughter.
"However, the circumstances are suspicious." Snape continued, "I for one don't recall seeing Potter at dinner."
"Oh, never mind." Sighed Neville.
"There are many things in life people should give up figuring out!" Hadriana sighed with a smirk to everyone's confusion.
Sirius was silently laughing at what his wife was saying because he remembers that Snape had helped her sometimes without anyone knowing, and not even she knew quite what the snake was thinking.
Hadriana silently sighed because none of them had even heard what she had said.
"I'm afraid that's my doing, Severus. You see, Hadriana here was helping me answer my fan mail." Lockhart interrupted him.
"That's why Ron and I went looking for her, professor. We'd just found her when she said…" Hermione told them while trailing off wondering what she could say.
"Yes, miss Granger…"
"When I said, I wasn't hungry. We were heading back to the common room when we found Mrs Norris." Hadriana continued with a sigh, because even with what she said no one would believe her.
"Why not just tell it, how it was?" one of the Aurors present asked the grown-up Hadriana.
"Who would believe me?" Hadriana asked, "that I heard a voice no one else heard?"
When no one said anything to that, Hadriana only nodded along "there you go." she said.
"Innocent until proven guilty, Severus." Headmaster Dumbledore said while Flitch looked outraged over it all.
"My cat has been petrified. I want to see some punishment!" the caretaker yelled.
"We will be able to cure her, Argus. As I understand it, professor Sprout has a very healthy growth of Mandrake, when it matures a potion will be made, which will revive Mrs. Norris. In the meantime, ... I strongly recommend caution to all"
With that said, they all went their own way as the scene changed to show them walking through the Gryffindor common room. "A bit strange, isn't it?" Hermione started.
Ron and Hadriana looked at her curiously.
"Strange, what do you mean?" Hadriana asked her.
"You hear this voice… A voice only you can hear, then Mrs Norris turns up petrified. It's just strange…" Hermione finished her thought.
"I know, but should I have told them? Dumbledore and the others I mean?" Hadriana asked.
"Are you mad?" Ron questioned outraged.
"No, Hadriana, even in the wizarding world. Hearing voices isn't a good sign." Hermione told her, and even a portrait agreed with her from where they were standing.
"That's true," Barty mumbled, with other Slytherins nodding in agreement.
Hadriana and Sirius laughed together. *I am glad that you warned me to not write in that book I found. * She said. *If I hadn't known about that, I shudder at what would have happened. *
*It's okay dear…* Sirius told her and hugged her tightly. He too wondered what would have happened if the diary had done something to the woman he now lives with every fibre in his bones.
Teddy looked over to a younger version of his father with fondness, and then to his mother and got a small smile and a nod. He went over to Remus, "Hi, dad." He greeted him shyly.
"Hi…" Remus greeted his son awkwardly, not knowing quite what to do.
"Can I get a hug?" Teddy inquired nervously.
"Of course," Remus said and opened his arms. They hugged with vigour and emotion, as they hugged each other tightly, and all Remus could think about was 'pack'. It was something he hadn't known that he had longed for. "I'm proud of you, son." He whispered into the boy's hair, letting his fondness creep into his voice.
Teddy could feel tears escape his eyes; it had been something he had longed to hear from his father. That he was proud of him and sobbed into his fathers' neck while Remus held him and comforted him.