Alexandra Potter

Chapter Ten: A Woman's Weapons

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The next day whispers followed Alex wherever she went.

"There she is..."

"...You Know Who..."

"...yes, the Doppelganger Transformation..."

"... not even Dumbledore..."

It seemed that the school had finally remembered: Alexandra Potter was the Girl Who Lived. It made Alex uncomfortable, the way everyone seemed to part before her in the hallway. The way they pointed without caring that it was rude. The way some of them actually lookedscaredof her.

One person who wasn't scared of her was Professor McGonagall. She was, however, furious. The next morning Alex and Taggart were summoned to her office.

"Your lack of forethought is staggering," McGonagall said. She was sitting behind her desk, her hands palm down on the wood. Next to her right hand lay her wand. The rest of the office was rather bare - almost spartan. Her only decorations were the hundreds of books lining the walls.

Alex, sitting opposite McGonagall, developed a sudden interest in her shoes.

"Especially you, Taggart," she continued. "As a prefect, your first duty is always the safety of your fellow students."

"I know it went wrong," said Taggart, himself unable to meet McGonagall's eye. "But it's not like it's particularly unusual - Enchanter's Duels, that is. There were at least five last year."

McGonagall's nostrils flared.

"Be that as it may, Taggart, the rules are there for a reason." She paused to take a piece of parchment from a drawer - a form. "For exactlythisreason. A girl almost died, for goodness sake!"

"I'm sorry, Professor."

"Your apology is accepted. However," - she started filling in the parchment - "you cannot remain a prefect. I will require your badge."

Taggart took the badge from his pocket - he hadn't been wearing it - and placed it on the desk.

"Very good," said McGonagall, not looking up. "You're dismissed."

Alex got up to leave, but -

"Not you, Miss Potter."

Alex swallowed and sat back down. They sat in silence for a while, after Taggart had left, the only sound the scratching of quill on paper. Alex fidgeted. What was going to happen to her? Was she going to be expelled?

At last, McGonagall put her quill down and sighed.

"When I picked you up this summer, Miss Potter, you were everything I had hoped. Everything I had thought you could never be, growing up with... those people. You were polite. Curious. Humble. Even a little shy." Alex waited for the other shoe to drop. "Since arriving at Hogwarts, what have you achieved?"

Alex wasn't sure if that was the kind of question she was supposed to answer, so she kept quiet.

"You have argued with your closest friends. You have developed a feud with Miss Greengrass." Alex frowned - how did McGonagall know all that? "Don't look so surprised, Miss Potter. We teachers are not blind." She stood up and walked around the desk to sit in the chair Taggart had vacated. "And now you have involved yourself in a fight with Miss Granger - a girl who by all rights should be a good friend."

"I-"

"I haven't finished," said McGonagall. "Now, it bears mentioning that you haven't broken any rules. Your duel was sanctioned - instigated, even - by a prefect, and no Dark magic was involved. Moreover, Miss Granger foolishly cast that spell herself." She reached over to Alex and pushed up her chin with one finger, making Alex meet her eyes.

"But you need to take a good, hard look at yourself, Alex. At the person you're becoming. By all accounts youtrickedMiss Granger into casting that spell - we both know how. Just as you provoked the duel in the first place."

Alex licked her lips and looked down again. She felt... ashamed. If she'd been given detention, that was one thing. But she remembered, now, her trip to Diagon Alley with McGonagall. How pleased the older woman had been with Alex. She didn't like disappointing her.

"You cannot be held officially accountable. But we both know that Miss Granger now lies in the Hospital Wing because of your decisions, Alex."

She stood up and returned to her desk.

"I look forward to hearing of you turning over a new leaf, Miss Potter."

The dismissal was clear. Alex left without saying a word, closing the door quietly. And then she found an empty toilet, locked herself in the cubicle, and cried.I never meant for anyone to get hurt, she thought.I just wanted to be... better. And Hermione - she doesn't exactly make things easy!She wiped her eyes.I told her not to try the spell. So did Taggart. I'm sorry that it ended like it did, but it's not really my fault.

Still. Alex thought it would be a good idea not to get into another duel any time soon. Not that she'd need to - she'd won the one against Hermione so thoroughly that no one was going to challenge her any time soon. Except maybe Daphne. She really isn't afraid of me.

Drying her eyes, Alex left the bathroom intending to find Lily. She'd got back late the previous night, after accompanying the unconscious Hermione to the hospital wing, and hadn't seen her since it had happened.

She found her in the library of all places, sitting with a group of Slytherin girls at the end of one of the stacks.

"Oh yeah, Alex has all sorts of secret training," said Lily, and Alex froze the other side of the bookcase. "That's why she's so good at everything, you know? Dumbledore's been teaching her magic since she was little. You know she's gone to his office loads of times, since she's got here?"

I don't believe it, thought Alex.I thought I could trust her!But it was clear as day: Lily was spreading stories about her, with enough truth mixed with the lies to make it hard to deny. Yes, she'd been visiting Dumbledore - but just to talk. He wasn't training her in duelling, or Defence Against the Dark Arts, or anything like that. The poisons were an exception, but no one knew about that. They were all obliviated - Dumbledore had said so.

"No way!" said Priscilla Lokey.

"Yes way," said Lily, "of course, she only shares this stuff with us Hufflepuff girls. She's told us all sorts of secret curses Dumbledore's taught her."

Urgh!

Alex didn't want to hear any more. She turned around and walked away as quickly and quietly as she could, looking around for an empty table. But the library was particularly busy that day, and she ended up going deeper and deeper, until she was almost at the Restricted Section.

It was there that she found an unoccupied table - though it was covered in books. She pulled out a chair and glanced through them.Jinxes, said one rather plainly. Another was calledThe Noble Beast- a peak inside confirmed that it was about dragons. At the bottom of the pile was a rather tatty tome entitledSomniamancy.

That looks like something from the Restricted Section. Curious, she went to open it - only for someone to snatch the book right from her hands.

"That's mine," said Astrid Lestrange. She was a tall, skinny girl with long black hair and pale skin. "You're in my seat."

Alex's first instinct was to snap back, but McGonagall's words were still fresh in her mind.

"I'm sorry," she said, "can I sit with you?"

"No," said Astrid, but she took the seat opposite Alex anyway. "Go away."

McGonagall's way sucks, Alex thought. "That's an interesting book," she said, "can I see it?"

"No," said Astrid. She was really beginning to try Alex's patience. "Go away." Her insistence only made Alex want to stay more.

"Where'd you get it from?" she asked, ignoring Astrid's rudeness. "I didn't think you could find books like that in the main library."

"That's because you're stupid."

Alex lost her smile. She didnotlike being called stupid.

"Last I checked I was top of our class, not you," said Alex, and Astrid looked up from her book to glare at her.

"There's more to magic than class," she said.

"Like the Dark Arts?" said Alex, raising an eyebrow. "I wonder what Professor Veigel would say, if he knew you had that book..."

Astrid put the book down. "If I let you read it, will you shut up?"

Alex grinned.

"Sure!" she said, and she pulled the book over. She felt a thrill just from holding it.Forbidden knowledge. Who knew what Dark and powerful secrets lay within?

She opened the book reverently.

Somniamancy is a branch of magic which concerns itself with the manipulation of dreams...

...and nightmares.