Chapter Nineteen
"Do you think he's going for treatment?" Daphne said, a few weeks after their visit to Hagrid and the meal with Slughorn.
"Who?" Harry mumbled through a mouthful of toast.
"Dumbledore." Daphne said, trying not to roll her eyes, "I've seen him maybe twice in three weeks."
Harry had also noticed Dumbledore's absence from meals but not as closely as Daphne apparently had.
"He's a busy man." Pansy said, "He could be any number of places. And the Ministry is paying attention to him again now, I've seen his name in the paper quite a few times to do with Ministry briefings."
"His hand doesn't seem any better." Draco sighed.
Harry ran a finger across his scar again, the idea that it had been some sort of curse that had destroyed Dumbledore's hand hadn't left him and the idea of teams of mediwizards working on him for weeks with no luck was worrying.
Worrying in part for Dumbledore and then also worrying for several reasons that were more selfish.
Firstly, Dumbledore seemed to be the only person alive that Voldemort was afraid off and it would certainly leave them all more vulnerable if they were to loose him.
Secondly, Dumbledore was loved throughout the country and if they couldn't fix his hand, with all the funding and attention he would be getting, what chance did Sirius have?
"Harry you really do seem away with the fairies right now!" Pansy chided, bringing Harry back to his breakfast.
"Sorry, what?" Harry asked the three worried and frustrated faces around him.
"Are you coming to Hogsmead with us or do you need to work on the lesson plan some more for the DA?" Draco repeated himself, slightly more slowly than was really needed.
"I'm coming." Harry smiled, "I finished it the other night."
"Brilliant!" Daphne smiled, "Then I'm booking Madam Puddifoot's for what? Eight of us?"
"Really?" Draco said, sneering in disgust.
"Oh really Draco!" Daphne said rolling her eyes, "I don't care what you say about it being too pink, it does the best cheese toasties and you know it!"
Draco couldn't argue that point, "Well who are the other two then? You said eight."
"William and Cho of course." Pansy sighed, trying not to blush at the thought of William, it seemed to be an annoying habit of her face currently.
"And what if I wanted to invite someone?" Draco grumbled with a smirk.
"Well when you have a girl friend or boy friend then you may invite them for yummy cheese toasties." Daphne laughed.
"Or any other sort of toastie they may choose." Pansy added with mock seriousness, "We don't judge people for liking different types of toastie."
"What sort of weirdo doesn't like cheese toasties?" Daphne gasped, wrinkling her nose.
"Harry… help." Draco begged.
Harry laughed, "Sorry Draco but they're right, we shouldn't judge people over their toastie choices."
"Wait until my father hears about this." Draco said, sticking his nose in the air and pretending to ignore them all.
"Harry Potter?" a nervous looking first year Ravenclaw said, walking over to them.
Harry nodded and turned around, "Yeah that's me. You wanting to join the DA?"
"No, well yeah but mum says I'm too young, maybe next year. I actually just had to give you this." he said, handing over the scroll he was clutching at.
"Thanks." Harry smiled, "See you around."
He beamed at Harry for a moment before running off back to a giggly group of friends. Harry pulled the scroll open. It wasn't from Slughorn as it was sealed with a plain wax blob rather than a bright purple ribbon.
"It's from Dumbledore, the date of my next private lesson." Harry said quietly, "It's tomorrow, same as the DA is meant to be."
"Well that's annoying." Daphne said with a small frown, "Should we reschedule?"
"I think it'll be OK." Harry said, "We can just start DA earlier, about six, that should give people enough time to have an early dinner and then we'll be done in time for my lesson at eight. Just means I get away with not having to help tidy up." he grinned.
"Of course you will!" Draco sniggered.
They finished their breakfast and waited in the entrance hall to meet up with Cho, William, Neville and Hermione.
It wasn't long before the large group of them were heading down towards Hogsmead, chatting loudly. Harry spotted Gemini prowling around the edge of the grounds, she nor her brothers were permitted to leave the school grounds until the summer, when they would be retuned to Malfoy Manor and not permitted to leave there.
Harry wondered why she was walking around but quickly dismissed it as Cho slipped her arm through his and gave him a smile that made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.
"What could we possibly be trying to smuggle out of the school?" Daphne demanded to know, as Filch insisted on prodding them with his ridiculous dark magic detector.
"Ministry orders." Filch grunted, sneering at them and giving Cho and extra hard poke.
"Watch it!" Harry hissed, pushing passed him, "Power hungry…"
"It's OK Harry." Cho smiled, "I get worse from Quidditch."
The weather was mild, considering it was quickly heading towards winter, the first snow couldn't be too far away now leaving the air feeling crisp and fresh.
Madam Puddifoot's was, as always, sickly sweet inside. Thankfully it wasn't a holiday so the walls were covered in their normal painted pictures of the highlands. The walls were always shocking pink but the decorations were thankfully more muted.
Madam Puddifoot herself beamed at the large gaggle of students as the entered the tea shop, making the little bell above the door tinkle loudly.
"I got your owl!" Madam Puddifoot told them, "And I have set aside a table for you, against the back wall. Can I get you any drinks to start with?"
"I think we'll check the specials first if that's all right?" Daphne smiled, slipping her cardigan off and placing it on the back of her chair.
Madam Puddifoot smiled and nodded to them, "Of course! I'll pop back in a few!"
Harry had only ever been in her once before, on his rather awful first date with Cho, he was immensely glad that all the pink streamers were gone but still found himself more panicked than he would of liked.
"Been a while, huh?" Cho asked, looking a little nervous herself as she slid into the seat, Harry pushing in her chair for her.
"Well I know the cake is great…" Harry said, trying to reassure her, sitting down himself, "Have you been back since last time?"
Cho nodded, "Took a little while but… I've always really liked it here. I spotted Daphne and Pansy coming in one day and they said I could join them. You?"
Harry shook his head, "Nope. Very glad to see it's not as pink as before."
Cho giggled, "True. Although still pink enough I fear! Umbridge rather ruined the colour for me."
Harry grinned and nodded his agreement before picking up the menu to look over. He wasn't sure if Madam Puddifoot had added more to it since the last time he'd been or if he'd just forgotten how seemingly never ending list of cakes, pies, sandwiches and other such delights was.
"Everyone ready?" Madam Puddifoot asked, coming back over with a small notepad and pencil.
"Hot chocolate, with cream and marshmallows, cheese and onion toastie and lemon drizzle cake please." Harry said when it was time to give his order.
It wasn't long before filled mugs and heaped plates arrived at the table. Harry quickly scooped up a dollop of cream that was running down the edge of the mug with his spoon and popped it into his mouth.
"Does anyone have any balsamic vinegar for my salad?" Cho asked, brushing crumbs off her finger tips from her toastie.
"I don't think so…" Draco said, checking the small basket of condiments, "No, sorry."
"I'll grab you some." Harry offered, he was filled with the urge to reach over and kiss her but also knew that would be completely inappropriate. They were, currently, 'just friends' and he'd made it very clear that he was leaving it up to her to make the first move.
He slid out of the chair and wondered over to the counter, Madam Puddifoot was in the kitchen but he assumed it wouldn't be long. Harry glanced around the room, his eyes falling on a recently empty table by the window that had a bottle of balsamic vinegar sitting in its basket.
Harry walked over to grab it and froze. Gemini Lestrange had just walked passed, he was sure that she had. Wrapped in a thick cloak with the hood up but he was sure that it was her.
Harry dashed from the café, not wasting time telling his friends where he was going. The streets were almost empty, a chill had filled the air so most people had popped inside for a warm drink. Even at this distance Harry could hear the noise coming from The Three Broomsticks.
"Gemini!" Harry yelled.
She turned around and grinned at Harry before disappearing down a side ally, he was more sure than ever that it was her.
"STOP!" Harry yelled, crashing into a wall as he spun round the corner down the dead end ally, "What the…"
It was empty.
Not only was there no Gemini, there was no anyone. Harry was completely alone. He'd seen her run down the there, even if it hadn't been Gemini it was someone.
"Harry what's wrong?"
Harry spun round at the noise, breathing heavily and trying not to think about the pain in his grazed arm. Ron stood at the entrance to the ally, looking very confused.
"I… where did you come from?" Harry asked, looking behind him, hoping that someone had appeared from the empty ally behind him; there wasn't even anything she could be hiding behind.
"Honeydukes." Ron shrugged, "Then I saw you were running down here so I followed you. Why were you running?"
Harry took a deep breath, "I thought I saw…" should he tell Ron? He was going to have to tell someone, Gemini had gotten out of that ally somehow and he needed to catch up with her before she got back to the castle, "I thought I saw Gemini Lestrange."
"But she's meant to be stuck at school?" Ron asked, confusion giving way to worry.
Harry nodded, "My friends are at Madam Puddifoots, can you tell them what I saw and that I'm heading to the school, to catch her before she gets back."
"Yeah sure." Ron nodded, "But Harry…"
Harry took off at a sprint. It was a fair walk to the school, and there hadn't been much Quidditch practice so far that year so Harry was out of breath, trying to ignore the shooting pain in his side as he barged passed Filch who was waiting for the students to return.
Filch's yells of annoyance and anger at Harry fell on deaf ears as Harry bounded the last leg up to the castle, taking the old stone steps two at a time.
"Dad! Dad!" Harry yelled seeing Severus heading down towards his office.
"Harry? What on earth is wrong?" Severus asked, catching his son as he ran passed.
"I saw Gemini in Hogsmead." Harry gasped.
"Are you sure?" Severus asked, letting him go and looking grave.
Harry nodded, "She slipped by me but… but there's no way she's been back long. We have to catch her!"
Severus followed Harry quickly to the Slytherin common rooms, leading the way up the stairs into the girls dorms, passed several shocked and confused looking students.
Gemini's dorm was on the top floor and Severus knocked.
"Dad, hurry up!" Harry hissed.
"Harry there are rules that must be followed!" Severus hissed back, "You shouldn't even be up here."
"Who is it?" a voice called clearly from inside.
"Teacher." Severus replied.
The door swung open to see Gemini Lestrange glaring at them. She was wearing a neat pair of black, flannelette pyjamas with silver trimming, her hair wrapped in a towel and twisted up on to her head.
"Can I help you Professor?" Gemini hissed, glaring at them both, "Boys aren't meant to be up here, Potter."
"He's with me, Miss Lestrange." Severus said calmly, "There have been reports of you being seen in Hogsmead village. Now, as I'm sure you are aware, you are not permitted to leave Hogwarts grounds."
"I haven't." Gemini snapped.
"Are you sure?" Severus asked, still remaining far calmer than Harry was, "As I said, there have been reports."
"I've been in the shower." Gemini rolled her eyes.
"I saw you!" Harry snapped, "I saw you in Hogsmead, like fifteen minutes ago."
Gemini smiled at him, the same smile she'd given him in Hogsmead, "Then how have I managed to shower?"
"You haven't!" Harry yelled, "You just stuck your pyjamas on to pretend."
"Harry, that's enough." Severus warned.
Gemini reached up and pulled the towel from her head, letting her wet hair fall down her back and over her shoulders. It was long enough to reach the top of her hips with all the ringlets pulled out from the weight of the water.
"I…" Harry wasn't sure what to say.
"Will that satisfy your worries, Professor?" Gemini asked, "Or would you like to smell me as well? Make sure I actually washed?"
It wasn't needed, the release of her hair had let a cloud of strawberry scent fill the room and Harry was suddenly feeling very foolish.
"I'm very sorry to trouble you Miss Lestrange." Severus said with a smile, "It appears the reports were wrong."
"Well," Gemini hissed, "Maybe next time your step-son comes to you trying to cause trouble you will think his nonsense through!"
She spun round and slammed the door in their faces, muttering about her pyjamas getting wet. Harry followed Severus back down the stairs in silence and out of the common room.
"What was all that about?" Severus asked, once they had ducked into an empty classroom.
"I saw her, I swear!" Harry said. He was starting to doubt what he had seen, but he couldn't doubt the feeling he'd had. Why would he have panicked if he hadn't been sure?
"I don't doubt you, however, it was clear that she had showered…" Severus said carefully, "How long did it take you to get here? After you saw…"
"I ran straight here, near enough. It can't of been more than twenty minutes at very most." Harry said, trying to think of how she managed to get back before him, never mind with enough time to shower and change.
"This makes no sense." Harry whispered to himself.
"I suggest we leave the issue. I'll make sure that there are extra checks for next time anyone leaves the castle." Severus assured him, "I suggest you get back to your friends."
Harry nodded and forced a smile, giving his father a quick hug. He walked lost in thought back through the long corridors.
It made no sense, he knew that, but he also knew that some how Gemini had managed to run a mile and get back into a guarded castle and shower in fifteen minutes, twenty at most.
There was something very strange going on…