Harry Potter: The Vanishing Student
Chapter 14 of my Harry Potter story, enjoy.
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Now onto the story.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or its characters.
Chapter 14
Time had passed and the trio were growing more and more anxious, even the teachers were growing worried, visibly so compared to managing to keep their composure beforehand. It was the last week in May and there was still no sign of Jamie. Due to the staff efforts to keep everything going on as normal, to try and avoid a mass panic amongst the students, three of the remaining four Quidditch matches had taken place and only the Gryffindor Vs. Ravenclaw match remained, due to take place that very Saturday. It was looking grim for Ravenclaw who failed to even score against Slytherin during their match, they were now last in the league table with only 200 points. In comparison Gryffindor had 300 points while Slytherin and Hufflepuff, who had already had their last match, were sitting on 390 and 380 respectively. This meant for Ravenclaw to even have a chance to win the Quidditch cup, they needed 200 points while Gryffindor were simply a catch of the Snitch away from winning the cup. But as evidence of how desperate they were to find Jamie, more so than ever before, Amara, Carla and Jeff didn't even care, even right now, with everybody else talking about the upcoming match, they were out on the training grounds where they'd been able to borrow training dummies from Professor Bennett and were practicing the spells they had been taught.
The grounds echoed with incantations, flying spells and the noises of the dummies being hit.
"Flipendo!"
"Expelliarmus!"
"Petrificus Totalus!"
Together the trio worked hard, trying to keep up their practice, to make sure they had all the useful spells they needed in order to defend themselves if it came to it. They were more worried about Jamie than ever, even after all this time he still hadn't been found.
'According to Hagrid they've searched practically the entire castle.' Jeff reflected worriedly. 'Even Professor Dumbledore is troubled, in addition to other things, although he wasn't supposed to tell us that last part.'
With a sigh Jeff lowered his wand after casting his last spell and looked over to Amara and Carla next to him.
"Hey, guys, I was just thinking." He said warily.
They turned to face him, waiting for him to explain.
"I was just thinking, we're worried about Jamie and hope that finding that book is the key to helping him, but there's something else. Those letters that Hagrid mentioned, that Professor Dumbledore has been getting, do you think they could have something to do with this?"
Sharing a look the girls pondered this before Carla replied.
"I'm...not sure, but, I don't think we're going to get anywhere thinking about it. We just need to follow what clues that we do have."
Amara nodded in agreement and Jeff sighed but nodded.
Finally he raised his wand again, sighing. "I guess so. Alright then, let's keep this up. Expelliarmus."
His cast worked perfectly and the dummy took the hit, he smiled at that, but then suddenly, something happened that made things awkward for them.
They heard footsteps and turned around to see someone that Jeff recognized immediately, Roberta Irvine, one of his Housemates who was walking over to them with an interested expression, she was about to come nosing around in their business, no doubt trying to insert herself into things again and offer her 'views'.
"What's going on? What are you up to with all this?" She asked.
Amara shook her head. "It's nothing, really, we're just…"
Carla intervened. "Just some practise for Defence Against the Dark Arts."
"Oh really, well, that explains a lot." Roberta remarked before the smile became a smirk. "Although if you don't mind me saying, your wand technique could use some work."
"Here we go." Jeff muttered.
The girls shared a look with each other and then over a Jeff who shook his head, but sure enough he was right. Roberta wasted no time offering 'advice' on wand technique, something which made them all uncomfortable as it was interfering with their practice.
"Roberta, there you are."
They all turned to see another girl approaching, one of the Singh twins, once she was close enough for them to see she was a Slytherin they realised it was Lakshmi.
"Lakshimi?" Roberta queried.
"What are you doing here?" She asked. "Didn't you say you were gonna help a few of our classmates study for their exams?"
Roberta froze, eyes wide. "Oh yeah, you're right. Well, another time."
With that Roberta rushed away and the trio smiled.
With relief they turned to Lakshmi and Jeff spoke up.
"Thanks Lakshmi, I was worried we'd be stuck with Roberta for the rest of the day." He remarked.
Lakshmi smiles. "She means well, but she can be a bit much, yes."
They all nodded and then Lakshmi looked at them seriously.
"But really, what are you guys doing out here, with all these training dummies?"
Amara answered quickly. "We're just practising for Defence Against the Dark Arts. Professor Bennett let us borrow the dummies."
Lakshmi nodded slowly. "I see...well, that's good, you're gonna need it."
The trio shared a worried look, it was clear that Lakshmi seemed to guess that they weren't telling the whole truth and had even guessed what they were really up to.
"Need it, why?" Carla asked, hoping to distract her.
Lakshmi sighed. "I know you're worried about Jamie, I am too, a lot of people are, it can't be easy...worried about him with everyone else also feeling the same, but even with that you've got people looking at the Quidditch match and nothing else. When they should be looking past that. You three should as well and work on more than just Defense Against the Dark Arts."
"What do you mean?" Amara asked.
"It's our exams after the match, the exams come in June, remember."
They all started at that, realising they had indeed completely forgot about the exams. Thanking Lakshmi who then left, the trio silently cursed themselves and knew they'd have to get to work right away, they had to study for their upcoming exams.
End of chapter, hope you enjoyed it, read and review please.
