Despite having found out nothing from neither Snape nor the library, Harry, Neville, and Hermione –especially Hermione – refused to give up. Their efforts, though, appeared to be futile. Searching through the books in the library was about as useful as searching for a needle in a pile of hay, which, when Harry thought about it, was essentially exactly what they were doing.
They had tried asking other teachers. The next Monday, Hermione had gone to Professor Cauverina, but she was not able to give an answer. After that, despite his reluctance to bring it to the Head of House, Harry went to ask Professor McGonagall on Hermione's incessant prompting. Unfortunately, she, too, could not pin anything down for certain.
'My speciality is transfiguration, Mister Potter,' she had said apologetically. 'My knowledge of potions does not extend very far from the general Hogwarts curriculum. I'm sorry. If you really are that interested in finding out the answer, I could bring this up with Headmaster Dumbledore. I will have to warn you, though, that he is currently very busy, and might not be able to get back to you very quickly.'
Harry shook his head, thinking that their curiosity was probably not worth taking time out of Dumbledore's busy schedule. 'It's okay, Professor. Thank you.'
After looking for nearly a week and finding nothing, they were forced to call off their search by the mountain of schoolwork that had piled up because of it. The question, though, did not stop nagging at Harry's mind, and he was sure that Neville and Hermione felt similarly. One simply could not look so hard for an answer, not find it, and be satisfied with giving up.
The middle of November brought with it the first snow in the Highlands. That Friday night, as snow was falling, Ravenclaw played Hufflepuff in the second Quidditch match of the year, and Hermione and Neville shamelessly engaged in Schadenfreude as the timer ran out with Hufflepuff forty points ahead, Chang unable to find the Snitch in the snow and the Hufflepuff Seeker not even bothering to try.
'Oxley really shouldn't have had Chang go after the Snitch,' Hermione said to Neville as they descended the stairs from the stands at the match's end. 'Shouldn't he have known that she'd never be able to see it in this weather?'
Neville shrugged. 'I don't think it would've mattered. The Hufflepuff Chasers are far too good, even if Ravenclaw had all four of theirs to play with. I heard their Seeker Vestergaard was even a hopeful for the Dane-Norwegian national side in the World Cup two summers ago. And you're not feeling sorry for Ravenclaw, are you?'
'No way,' Hermione said, looking taken aback at the suggestion that she could feel such a thing. 'But I am worried about how we'll do against Hufflepuff. We play them next, don't we?'
'We do,' Neville affirmed. 'But I don't see any reason to think we wouldn't have a chance. Hufflepuff has good players, but their Captain isn't really the greatest strategist. Wood is better.'
Harry could not help but laugh a little at the scene. Hermione, who had rolled her eyes one too many times at Ron and his friends talking about Quidditch, was now animatedly discussing it herself. Hermione seemed to know immediately what he was laughing at and cast him a glare without heat. Harry simply shrugged and grinned at her.
Harry woke up late the next morning and, as a result, missed breakfast. Because of that, he was one of the first at lunch, and when he arrived, he found the Great Hall nearly completely empty. The staff table, too, was empty except for Headmaster Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall, who were talking with a woman that Harry had never seen before. By her appearance, she looked almost young enough to be a student, but the robes she had on were completely different from those that Hogwarts students wore, and there was no sign of a House crest anywhere on her chest.
'Who is she?' Hermione asked when she and Neville came into the Great Hall and took their seats next to Harry. 'She can't be a student, right?'
'No, those robes aren't a student's,' Neville said. 'I doubt she's a new transfer from one of the other schools, either. It's too late in the year for transfers.'
'Maybe she could be a visitor?' Harry proposed. 'From the Ministry or somewhere?'
'I doubt it,' Neville replied. 'She isn't wearing robes with a Ministry seal on them, and anyhow, the people at the Ministry important enough to be sent on Hogwarts visits are usually at least about Professor McGonagall's age.'
As Harry ate, he noticed that every new teacher who came into the Great Hall was beckoned over by Dumbledore and introduced to the new woman. They were still left in the dark as to her identity, however, even as the new woman took a seat next to Professor McGonagall at the staff table. It was not until the end of lunch, just as the last of the food was cleared away, that Dumbledore stood up at the head table, clapping his hands and silencing the entire Great Hall.
'Now, I'll apologise in advance for keeping you from enjoying an afternoon in the snow,' he began, 'but as some of you may have noticed, we have someone with us this morning.'
'It most certainly wouldn't be proper to not introduce our guest,' Dumbledore continued, 'especially considering that she will, in all likelihood, be staying with us for some time. Please give a warm welcome to our newest member of staff, Miss Anna Vesnova.'
There was immediately a ripple of whispering through the gathered students, as well as many looks exchanged in silence. Only after several moments did a lukewarm applause begin, starting from the Gryffindor side of the Great Hall and spreading to the other tables.
Harry looked towards Hermione and Neville. 'Wasn't she the one – '
'Accused of breaking into Gringotts, yeah,' Hermione said. 'Well, one of the two, anyway. The other one who was accused is in Germany.'
'Isn't she in Prussia?' Neville asked.
'Oh, sorry, I meant Prussia,' Hermione corrected herself. 'I forgot that there's no country of Germany in the magical world. There's no Prussia in the muggle world, just Germany.'
'It would also not be proper, of course, to not give you a short introduction of a teacher that some of you may soon have,' Dumbledore continued. 'Miss Vesnova is originally from the Russian Empire, but she is unable to return home due to circumstances that I am sure many of you are aware of. She holds an advanced qualification in potions and elixirs, along with leaving qualifications with High Distinction in all other disciplines from the All-Russian Koldostvorets. Additionally, she has been studying towards a Magister in potions, and will be continuing to do so here at Hogwarts.'
'Now, as some of you may know, the Modern Languages elective has been missing teachers for the past several years, partly because of the same situations that have made Miss Vesnova returning home impossible. As such, she will take the Russian language professorship, as well as, temporarily, the German professorship until we can find a better candidate. Additionally, she has also agreed to host "question sessions" in the library for any student who wants help with any materials – class-related or otherwise. Your Heads of Houses will post information on those shortly.'
'And a final remark, one which I personally consider the most important. Many of you will undoubtedly have seen Miss – or should I say, Professor – Vesnova's name in the news recently,' Dumbledore continued, his voice turning serious and hard. 'If you have, you will know that she had been, without evidence, implicated in a criminal case involving Gringotts. You will also know that the Department of Security has found her innocent of any wrongdoing. As such, I will be expecting you all to treat her as respectfully as you would any other of your teachers.'
'Now, with that done, please give another round of applause to wish Professor Vesnova the best of luck, and please bundle up before you go outside today. Madam Pomfrey has informed me that her supply of Pepper-Up Potions is rather low.'
There was another round of applause, this time a little more enthusiastic, and soon after, students began trickling back out of the Great Hall, many of them chattering excitedly about the weather. Harry, having admired the landscape from his window earlier in the morning, also wanted to go out for a walk around the snow-covered grounds, and he, Hermione, and Neville returned to Gryffindor Tower to get their coats and jumpers.
'Does Prussia really not exist in the muggle world?' Neville asked suddenly as they descended the stairs from Gryffindor Tower, all three of them dressed in multiple layers.
'It hasn't existed for maybe a hundred years,' Harry answered, recalling the project on Germany that another pupil in his class had done last year. 'It's been "Germany" since…I don't know, maybe 1900?'
'Well, technically, Germany – reunified – has only existed for about a year,' Hermione added. 'But Prussia as its own country hasn't been around for at least a century.'
'That's odd,' Neville said, looking curious and perplexed. 'Does Austria-Hungary not exist, too? What about Denmark-Norway? France? Russia?'
'Austria-Hungary isn't around anymore. It split into a bunch of different countries decades ago,' Hermione replied. 'Denmark, Norway, and France are all still around, though. So is Russia, but it isn't the Russian Empire anymore – now it's called the Soviet Union.'
That reminded Harry of something Dumbledore had said earlier. 'What did Headmaster Dumbledore mean by the "circumstances"?'
'What circumstances?'
'When Dumbledore said Professor Vesnova wouldn't be able to return home because of "circumstances",' Harry clarified, 'and also when he said that he couldn't find teachers for Modern Languages. What did he mean?'
'Oh, that,' Neville said. 'From what I overheard from Gran, there's some sort of war in Russia. I don't know how that relates to Prussia, but from what Gran said, Britain and Prussia aren't exactly friends right now. And I'm sure whatever happened after the Gringotts break-in, with the Ministry accusing the Prussian woman, just made everything worse.'
'A war?' Hermione asked. 'Why're they fighting? Was there some kind of invasion?'
'No, I think it's a civil war,' Neville replied. 'But I'm not sure who's fighting whom, or over what. I only know as much as I've heard from Gran, and she hadn't told me much. It's been going on for a while, though, at least a few years.'
They walked the rest of the way down from Gryffindor Tower in silence. Many students were already out on the grounds by the time they went out through the Entrance Hall. Some were trying to have snowball fights or build snowmen – though they were struggling to work with the little snow that had fallen. Others seemed to have the same idea as Harry, and simply walked around the grounds, admiring the scenery.
They walked around the castle, across the grounds, then almost to the edge of the forest before deciding to stop by at Hagrid's hut. Harry introduced Hermione and Neville to Hagrid, who seemed pleased to meet them. They talked for some time, drinking cups of hot tea that were more than welcome in the cold weather, before they left, returning up to the castle. From a distance, the white towers and roofs of the school looked more regal than ever, especially among the backdrop of snow-capped mountains and trees behind it.
As they were walking up the moving staircases to the entrance to Gryffindor Tower, Hermione suddenly stopped, turning around and looking at them with a curious expression on her face. Her eyes were alight, as if she had suddenly had an idea about something.
'What?' asked Harry.
'Remember what Headmaster Dumbledore said?'
'Dumbledore said a lot,' Harry said, chuckling. 'You have to be a little more specific.'
Hermione rolled her eyes. 'When he was introducing Professor Vesnova. Remember what he said she had an advanced qualification in?'
'Potions and elixirs,' Harry replied, and he understood immediately. 'You're saying that you think she might know something about what happened in potions last week.'
'Exactly! Maybe she would be able to tell us what happened,' Hermione said excitedly. 'Or if she doesn't know exactly, she might at least be able to point us in the right direction.'
'Do you think she'd know, though?' Harry asked, feeling a little more cautious and sceptical than Hermione. 'I mean, neither Professor Cauverina nor Professor McGonagall knew.'
'But neither of them studied potions,' Hermione argued. 'Professor Cauverina's specialty is arithmancy, and Professor McGonagall's is transfiguration. Professor Snape studied potions and obviously realised what happened immediately, even if he refuses to tell us anything. If Professor Versova studied potions, I'll bet that she'd at least have some idea of what's going on.'
'And hopefully she'd be a little more willing to talk about whatever she knows than Professor Snape,' Harry said, thinking back to Snape's reaction when Hermione had tried to approach him and cringing at the memory.
Hermione nodded. 'Hopefully.'
The notice for the 'question sessions' was put in the next Monday after classes. After putting down their things in their dormitories, Harry, Hermione, and Neville gathered around the notice board in the almost empty Gryffindor Common Room, studying the timetable.
'There's one tonight from seven to nine,' Harry read out. 'We don't have much homework. Let's just get this over with.'
Hermione nodded. 'Let's go just before nine. The library will be emptier then, and we might not have to wait.'
'I doubt there'd be many people in the library tonight anyway,' Neville said. 'The finals of the Continental Duelling Cup start at eight. I'll bet you everyone's going to be huddled around their Wizarding Wireless.'
'We could go another night then if you don't want to miss that,' Hermione suggested.
'Nah, I've never had much interest in duelling,' Neville replied with a wave. 'It's a dull sport. Quidditch is much more interesting.'
Much as Neville predicted, the Gryffindor Common Room was packed that night. Fred and George Weasley and Lee Jordan had somehow managed to get their hands on an enormous Wizarding Wireless set, along with several bottles of a drink that they called 'Firewhiskey' which Ron seemed desperate to get his hands on.
The Common Room grew so loud and boisterous as the match began that it became impossible for Harry to focus on his homework. Giving up, he put away his things and tried to listen in on the radio, curious as to what duelling was all about.
'It doesn't seem that dull,' Harry noted, listening to the commentator call out the spells that the two contenders were flinging at each other, describing their movements in vivid detail.
'When you actually watch it, it is that dull,' Neville replied with a dismissive yawn. 'It's just lights and two people rolling around a mat. Occasionally, someone will transfigure a rock into a lion or something, but that's rare even in high-level matches. It takes too much energy to do anything interesting. It's rare that anyone actually needs to use their brain. Duelling is completely a game of reflexes, stamina, rote practice, and how fast you can cast spells.'
Eight-fifty came, and Harry, Hermione, and Neville cleaned up their things and slipped out of the Common Room, thankful to leave the commotion behind. They descended the almost deserted main staircase and made their way down to the library on the first floor.
They checked in with their wands and proceeded to the second mezzanine level, where the notice had said the question sessions were taking place. As they wound through the bookshelves to the small reading area just before the Restricted Section, Harry began to catch the faint sounds of two voices in conversation.
'…jako xeti ojw Gindprekasetiwent tewa?' asked a voice that Harry recognised as Dumbledore's.
'Ejt,' answered a female voice. 'Ni heg delheh orwadb njew ubje tosja. Mam heg isz ubje tosja orwadbi?'
'What're they saying?' Hermione asked in a whisper as Harry held out a hand, stopping the others a few rows behind where Dumbledore stood, wanting to not disrupt their conversation.
'I think they're speaking in Eltrys,' Neville replied. 'I don't know what they're saying, though. I only know the words for greetings and a few insults.'
'Why're they speaking Eltrys?' Hermione questioned.
'Maybe they don't want to be overheard?' Neville suggested. 'Not a lot of people can speak Eltrys at all, and fewer well.
'Wjej ymos njekwedew en Hogwarts, luczwaluw wjej is Nicholas Flamel,' Dumbledore was saying.
'Njekwedes is Nicholas Flamel? In Hogwarts?' the female voice that Harry realised must have been Professor Vesnova's asked, her voice suddenly rising in apparent excitement. 'Kwed yus luczwal is Nicholas Flamel?'
'What's in Hogwarts? And what – who – is Nicholas Flamel?' Hermione asked in a whisper.
Harry and Neville both shrugged, both as lost as she was.
The conversation continued, and the three of them continued to listen in, though not understanding anything. The name that Dumbledore and Professor Vesnova had mentioned – Nicholas Flamel – came up several more times. It must have been someone famous or notable, Harry thought, but he could not recall the name in any of the books that he had read.
'Nicholas Flamel has to be someone important, right?' Harry asked, looking at Neville for answers. 'Is he like…some kind of wizard celebrity?'
'I don't know,' Neville replied after a moment. 'I don't think I've heard of the name before.'
There was another short stretch of conversation before Headmaster Dumbledore bade his farewell. 'Thank you, Anna,' he said. 'Good night. See you tomorrow.'
Fading footsteps indicated Dumbledore's departure, and Harry waited some minutes behind their row of bookshelves, wanting to not appear like they had been eavesdropping – not that Harry had understood what they were talking except for the name of some 'Nicholas Flamel', which kept coming up. Through the bookshelves, Harry could hear Professor Vesnova muttering excitedly about something, but in a language that Harry could not understand.
'Are we going to talk to her or not?' Hermione asked rather impatiently after several minutes of waiting, looking at her watch. 'It's almost nine.'
'We will,' Harry said. 'I just didn't want to make it seem like we were eavesdropping. Let's go.'
They came out from behind the bookshelf and made a right. The end of the row of bookshelves opened into a small reading area, in the centre of which was a large desk, strewn with books and notes. Behind the desk, concurrently reading several books and taking notes on a roll of parchment, sat Professor Vesnova.
Harry knew that she was young – the Daily Prophet had said that she was only nineteen or twenty – but now that Harry got a better look at her, she looked no older than some of the seventh-year students that he had seen around Hogwarts. If given a set of Hogwarts robes, she might even pass for the Head Girl. Something about her, though – perhaps the way she held herself – seemed to suggest that she was somehow older than her physical age might suggest, or maybe far more tired than a nineteen-year-old should be.
Professor Vesnova noticed them approaching and looked up. 'Hello,' she said without much of a smile, and Harry noticed bags under her eyes.
'Hi,' Harry replied awkwardly.
'Hello,' Professor Vesnova repeated. There was a pause. 'What're your names?'
'I'm Hermione Granger,' Hermione said.
'And I'm Neville Longbottom.'
'I'm Harry Potter,' Harry said.
The professor's eyes lingered on Harry for noticeably longer than they did on the others. 'Did you need something?' she asked.
Hermione inhaled sharply. 'May we ask a question?' she said. 'If you aren't busy…or…'
'Sure. I'm not too busy,' Professor Vesnova replied, gesturing at the chairs in front of the table. 'You can sit if you want.'
Uncomfortably, the three of them pulled out the chairs and sat down, Harry in the middle between Hermione and Neville. 'What did you want to ask about?'
'There was something that happened in Potions class last week,' Harry began. 'And we don't know why it happened or how to explain it. We were…uh…we were wondering if you'd be able to tell us something about it.'
'Well, I can try,' Professor Vesnova replied. 'Is this something that happened in class? Or…?'
'Sort of,' Harry answered. 'We were…uh…well, it was during a test that we were taking in Potions. For it, we had to brew a Voice-Changing Potion. During the test, one of our classmates' potions turned bright purple, and when our teacher saw it, he stopped the test immediately. He collected a vial of the potion, too, before he vanished everything.'
'I tried to ask Professor Snape what happened the day after,' Hermione added. 'But he refused to tell me anything. We were just curious…it might be nothing, but we wanted to know what caused the potion to turn that colour.'
'I see. Bright purple, you said the potion turned?' Professor Vesnova asked. Harry nodded in reply. 'That is a little odd. Bright purple is a very uncommon colour for a potion.'
'It is?'
Professor Vesnova nodded. 'Few potions are bright purple at any stage. It is not a colour that should occur often. The nature of the ingredients that can react to produce such colour must be very specific.'
'So Professor Snape must have known that Tracey had accidentally made the potion into something else!' Harry said excitedly to Hermione and Neville before turning back to Professor Vesnova. 'What potions can be bright purple?' he asked.
She thought for several long moments. 'Well, there are several that come to mind,' she answered. 'If you mean the end product being bright purple, I only know four or five, and they're all very complicated to brew. There are more potions that could be bright purple at some step of brewing, but I can't say anything more specific unless you remember what steps this student had done before their potion turned purple.'
Harry walked through the first eight steps from memory – they had looked up the recipe for the Voice-Changing Potion and researched it extensively following that Potions class, though to no avail. As they narrated through each step, Professor Vesnova took notes on a scrap of parchment.
'For step eight, we were supposed to add the remaining bouncing spider venom,' Harry said. 'But Tracey mixed that up with step nine and added two Standard Spoons of sugar instead. That was when the potion turned bright purple. My potion had turned orange with the correct step eight.'
'So was mine,' Hermione added.
'It should be orange,' Professor Vesnova affirmed. 'Orange or red with the spider venom, depending on how much you add. With sugar…well, sugar can produce many different colours. But purple…'
She looked at the piece of parchment for several more minutes, drawing arrows, crossing things out, and occasionally muttering things that Harry could not understand. 'I don't think that there is any way that any of the ingredients here could have combined in any order to form a purple potion. You are sure that the colour of the potion was bright purple?'
Harry, Hermione, and Neville exchanged a look with each other, and Harry gave a small shake of his head. He had seen the potion clearly before Professor Snape had taken it away – it was unmistakeably bright purple.
'I'm sure it was.'
Professor Vesnova looked over her notes again. 'I don't think any of these ingredients could have produced a purple potion. I may be wrong, but if there was not another ingredient…contamination…'
'What if there was another ingredient?' Hermione forwarded. 'Could these ingredients have created a purple potion?'
'Let me see,' Professor Vesnova said. She pulled a book off the top of one of her piles and flipped all the way to the back, cross-referencing what she had written down on the parchment with pages of charts in the back of the book, noting something down every so often.
'I was a student at the Reichszaubereigymnasium in Berlin for two years,' Professor Vesnova recalled with a small, nostalgic smile as she worked. 'On the wall of the Potions Library there was an enormous chart with almost every potion ingredient listed. It was so large that you sometimes had to walk to find the one you were looking for. I wish we had one like it here.'
Harry cast a sideways glance at Hermione, and as he had expected, she had a look on her face that suggested that she thought that having such a chart at Hogwarts would not be a bad idea. Professor Vesnova, meanwhile, continued to work. Several times, she looked up a little to reach for something, and Harry could see an almost scared expression on her face.
'I've narrowed down the ingredients,' she said finally, looking back up and putting down her quill. Her face looked slightly disturbed, as if there was something she had just found out that put her ill at ease.
'I found four that could have caused that colour to appear at step eight,' she continued, rubbing her eyes with her palms. 'Let me say that your teacher, this Professor Snape? It was good that he recognised immediately that something was wrong.'
'Why?' Harry asked, feeling concerned. 'What are these ingredients?'
'The first is the tongue of an adder,' Professor Vesnova said. 'It would have created a purple colour in step six, when combined with the honey. That would have been the predecessor of several other potions, most of which are poisons.'
Harry felt a shudder down his spine as she continued. 'The second is bloodroot. It would have created a purple potion in step four, but this purple should be dull and almost blue, so this one seems more unlikely to be the ingredient involved.'
'In third is moonseed. It has similar properties to bloodroot, but would create a purple potion when combined in step five.'
'And finally,' she said with a sigh. 'Angel's trumpet extract. This…this possibility worries me.'
'Why?' Hermione asked, sounding scared to hear the answer.
'Because angel's trumpet extract is a powerful poison on its own,' Professor Vesnova answered. 'Any dose over two Standard Spoons can kill. But that's not all. When combined with bouncing spider venom extract, it creates a predecessor to a lethal poison that is colourless and tasteless. When combined with sugar, it creates a predecessor to another lethal poison that is purple in colour and smells faintly of vinegar.'
Harry gulped. 'Do you think it could've been that…the uh…angel's trumpet extract…in Tracey's potion?'
'Possible,' Professor Vesnova said grimly. 'I can't know for sure unless I get a sample of the potion to test, but it's possible.'
She rubbed her eyes again, and when she looked up, her face was gaunt. 'This student was very lucky. If she had not accidentally switched the two steps, there might have been no way that your teacher would have known what was happening. The spider venom combines with the extract in a two-to-one ratio. The only reason that the potion turned purple as it did was because the student added the sugar before the rest of the spider venom, which left some extract free to combine with the sugar.'
'You're saying that if Tracey brewed the potion exactly as she was supposed to…' Harry breathed.
'Yes, she would have created a potent poison that nobody would have been able to visually detect,' Professor Vesnova finished gravely.
'And Professor Snape was going to make us drink the potion as a test…' Hermione whispered. 'If he did…'
'Your teacher was going to make you drink the potion?' Professor Vesnova asked, sounding slightly shocked. 'A potion that you brewed for a test?'
'Well, after he saw what happened to Tracey's potion, he called off the test entirely,' Harry replied. 'But he was originally going to.'
'That doesn't sound very responsible at all,' Professor Vesnova said, looking rather indignant. 'You should never drink a potion that you can't be sure you brewed correctly. That's how accidents happen. If you need any example…' she gestured at the notes and books piled in front of her.
'How did such a poison get into Tracey's cauldron, though?' Neville wondered out loud. 'Angel's trumpet extract has to be a pretty highly controlled substance, right?'
'It is. In the Reichszaubereigymnasium, at least, things half as poisonous as it are locked behind several layers of enchanted locks,' Professor Vesnova said. 'Something like that should not have just fallen into the cauldron of a…you're first-years?' They all nodded. 'Something like that should definitely never have been anywhere near a first-year.'
'We didn't use our own cauldrons for the test,' Harry recalled. 'Professor Snape set out cauldrons on each table and told us to use them. Could the cauldron that she used have been…I don't know…not washed properly?'
'It's not impossible,' Professor Vesnova replied. 'But with a simple Vanishing Charm and several cauldron-cleaning spells any residue still on the inside of the cauldron should have been cleaned off.'
'You don't think it could've been there by accident?'
'No.'
'So…you're saying that…that…' Harry felt goosebumps appear on his back and limbs as he came to the conclusion. 'Someone must have put the extract in the cauldron?'
Professor Vesnova nodded. 'Yes. And knowingly, too. You cannot just mistake something this dangerous for some other potion ingredient. And probably more alarmingly, it was put there on purpose. That means that whoever put the extract there did it with the express purpose of poisoning someone. They knew the potion that you were going to brew that day and laced the cauldron with that specific poison. It has to be intentional.'
'But who would want to do that to a first-year?' Neville asked. 'I mean…I've heard of wizards poisoning each other, but that's always…you know…politicians or someone who wants something. What could Tracey Davis have done to anyone?'
'I cannot tell you, but what is obvious is that there is someone out there who wants to kill someone,' Professor Vesnova said darkly, lowering her voice. 'Maybe they are acting on their own interests, maybe someone higher is directing them. Either way, you need to be careful. Harry, especially you. I don't think I need to repeat to you why. In the Russian Empire, when the war first began, it was the most notable and famous that were killed first.'
The three of them nodded, and Harry, for what must have been the ninth or tenth time that night, felt a shiver down his spine, accompanied by cold sweat. 'Does Headmaster Dumbledore know about this?' Harry asked, hoping that perhaps he had mentioned something to her that might suggest that Snape had told him what had happened – if Neville was to be believed, if Dumbledore knew what was going on and he was looking out for them, they would be safe.
'I don't know if he does, but I will tell him everything that you have told me,' Professor Vesnova promised. 'Once again, be careful. Don't think that with Albus's protection, you can be careless. No man is infallible.'
There was a long, tense silence as they all mulled over the meaning of their conversation. Professor Vesnova had essentially just told Harry that someone might be out to do him harm – kill him, even. Strangely, though, Harry could not feel any fear – a part of him even thought it was ridiculous. He was but an eleven-year-old. Sure, somehow, he had contributed to Voldemort's downfall, but he was still only an eleven-year-old schoolboy. What threat did he pose to anyone that they would feel the need to kill him?
'I can also keep an eye out if that makes you feel any better,' Professor Vesnova offered. 'And I will tell the head of your House – you're Gryffindors, so Minerva McGonagall, right? But what I said before is still true. Keep your guard up. The real world is not as safe and perfect as a children's tale about wizards and magic makes it out to be.'
Harry felt numb on the walk back to Gryffindor Tower – all of them did, probably. There was no conversation, and they all walked silently through the corridors, looking at the ground, out the windows, at the ceiling, but not at one another. Just before they got back to the entrance to the staircase to Gryffindor Tower, Hermione suddenly pulled them into an alcove which looked out onto the grounds off the side of the corridor.
'What?' Harry protested, rubbing the spot on his neck that the collar of his shirt had scratched when Hermione pulled him.
Hermione peeked up and down the hall, making sure that there was no one there with them, before turning back to Harry and Neville. 'Do you believe it? Do you believe that someone put the poison in Tracey's cauldron on purpose?'
'I…well, I don't want to,' Harry replied. 'But what other explanation is there? The extract is a deadly poison that, if Professor Vesnova was right, shouldn't even be in Hogwarts. Someone must have picked it out specifically and put it in Tracey's cauldron. Do you not think so?'
'I mean…it's certainly plausible,' Hermione said, looking out at the night sky. 'The…mechanics…of the incident make sense – I can't think of a better explanation than what we came up with earlier. The thing that makes no sense, though, is why they would want to kill a first-year. What blood feud could someone already have against Tracey Davis to want to murder her?'
'That part doesn't make sense,' Neville agreed. 'I've heard Gran talk about the Davis family maybe…three times? Their main thing is…uh…I think they traded shares in companies, but they always dealt on the straight-and-narrow, and never really had a huge scheme going on.'
'What does that have to do with Tracey?' Harry asked.
'Well, if you're in business, you don't want to run afoul of any of the groups from Knockturn Alley,' Neville explained. 'But you don't just accidentally one day get involved with the syndicates from Knockturn Alley, you know. You'd have to actually seek them out if you want to dip your hands into that kind of business, and even then, not everyone can actually do it. The Davis business doesn't seem like the type that would want to get involved in that sort of under-the-table stuff. What I mean to say is that the chances that someone from Knockturn Alley might want to do the Davises any harm is low – and even if they wanted to, they'd go after Tracey's father first, not her.'
'Could it have been for some political reason?' Hermione suggested. 'Sometimes in the muggle world, people assassinate politicians that they think wronged them for some reason.'
Neville shook his head. 'Doesn't seem too likely, either. I don't think the Davises ever got personally involved with the things that go on in the Ejwentos. I mean, Gran's never talked about them besides their business. Anyone who's important in the Ejwentos, Gran would know. Even if they did, again, they'd go after her father first, not her.'
'So why do you think they wanted to kill Tracey?'
'Maybe it wasn't Tracey they wanted to kill,' Harry muttered, clarity coming to him as if a lightning bolt from the sky. 'Maybe it was me.'
'You?' Hermione gasped, disbelieving. 'What did you do wrong?'
'Remember what Professor Vesnova said?' Harry replied. 'That when the war in Russia started, they went after the important people first? Well…I guess I'm rather important.'
'But…but the poison wasn't even in your cauldron – '
'I was the one sitting right next to Tracey,' Harry interrupted, not certain why he wanted so eagerly to further a theory that spelled his own doom but forging on. 'Someone who might've wanted to kill me might have…I don't know…put the poison in the wrong cauldron – Tracey's. It's a plausible mistake to make.'
'But…'
'I'm responsible for the death of Voldemort, right?' Harry said with a dry chuckle. 'Maybe there is someone who's out to become the next Dark Lord…or maybe someone out for revenge. They could've found out what Snape was planning on doing for the test and picked the right poison, wanting to give it to me, but messed up.'
Hermione and Neville both looked shaken by the end of Harry's theory. 'Harry…don't say that,' Hermione said, her voice trembling a little. 'You…it's like you're trying to predict your own death!'
'But it's possible, isn't it?' Harry asked, the prospect of his own mortality somehow not scaring him. 'Someone wanting to poison me is far more likely than someone wanting to poison Tracey. What do you think, Neville?'
Neville's face may have been even paler in the moonlight than it could naturally get. 'I…I, well…'
'Be honest.'
'Yes,' Neville breathed. 'It's more likely.'
'Neville!' cried Hermione. She looked at Harry. 'So let's assume that someone is out to get you. Who could've administered the poison?'
Harry thought in silence for some minutes before the answer occurred to him, as clear as day. 'Maybe it was Snape.'
Hermione stared at him, her jaw hanging open. 'You think Professor Snape tried to poison you?'
'He would be the perfect person to do it, wouldn't he?' Harry replied. 'Only three people in this castle, as far as we know, know enough to pull off something like that. I doubt Headmaster Dumbledore would want to do something like that. Professor Vesnova only arrived last weekend, and anyway, she doesn't seem like a person who would try to poison me. That leaves only Professor Snape. He obviously knows enough – he knew immediately that he had made a mistake when he saw Tracey's potion. Oh, and I forgot! He was also hovering over me as I did steps eight and nine. He must've been looking out to see if his plan was going right by checking the colour of my potion.'
'But why would Professor Snape want to poison you?' Hermione challenged. 'He's a schoolteacher. Why would he want to murder one of his students?'
'Gran said that Professor Snape used to be a Death Eater,' Neville offered an answer. 'Those were You-Know-Who's servants, back when he was still around. Of course, Headmaster Dumbledore proved to the Ejwent Asztyrajom that he was innocent before he was allowed to teach at Hogwarts, but…maybe…maybe he secretly wants revenge for his master.'
'I don't know how you could be so calm about this, Harry,' Neville breathed nervously, examining him.
Harry shrugged. Perhaps it was shock, but he really could not feel anything, even as they discussed a teacher possibly wanting to murder him. Part of him, too, felt some hope of security. His mind flitted to a picture of Dumbledore sitting at the head table. He wanted to believe that, as long as Dumbledore was sitting there, they were all safe.
And then, suddenly, Harry remembered something. 'Or maybe, he wants something more,' he proposed. 'The night the troll incident happened, Snape wasn't sitting with the rest of the teachers in the Great Hall. Remember where the troll was when Quirrell first spotted it?'
'The dungeons,' Hermione recalled, and then, suddenly, her eyes widened in understanding. 'You're suggesting…you're suggesting that Professor Snape sent the troll as a distraction?'
'Exactly,' Harry affirmed. 'Snape could've sent the troll to the dungeons to lure the teachers away from the third-floor corridor, and then tried to get through the trap door. Remember how he was walking with a slight limp the next day? I thought that he had gotten hurt fighting the troll, but what if…what if he got that from the Cerberus? Professor Cauverina had an injury on her face, but she got it healed, remember? But Professor Snape…his injury wasn't. If he had gone after the trap door, then that makes sense. He obviously couldn't get it treated with Madam Pomfrey, or she'd know that he had gotten into the forbidden corridor!'
'I mean…the poisoning theory is plausible,' Neville said, 'but this one seems a little far-fetched. What does this have to do with anything, anyway?'
'Maybe Snape doesn't just want revenge – he wants to become powerful himself,' Harry suggested. 'Doesn't he seem like the type who might be rather hungry for power? Whatever's being kept in the third-floor corridor must be powerful – why else would Dumbledore need a three-headed dog to guard it?'
Hermione swallowed, and she seemed to be fighting with herself somehow, possibly over whether to believe the theory or not before finally cracking. 'I…I don't know for certain. It still seems very far-fetched, but I guess it's possible,' she conceded. 'It makes sense together, but…well…it relies on a lot of assumptions. I mean, it could be right – our theory about Professor Vesnova turned out to be right…'
'Assuming we're correct, what could Snape be after, though?' Neville asked. 'What is the Cerberus guarding?'
'Nicholas Flamel,' Hermione said suddenly. 'Dumbledore said something about being in Hogwarts, I think – or at least it sounded like it. And then the name "Nicholas Flamel" came up several times. That name has to be connected to whatever's in Hogwarts, and it might be something important.'
'Do you think this "Nicholas Flamel" could be connected to what's under the trap door?' Harry asked. 'What Snape is trying to steal?'
'Supposedly trying to steal,' Hermione corrected, evidently still not fully convinced about Snape's complicity.
'It's plausible,' Neville said. 'I mean…you don't just speak Eltrys for fun – not many people can speak it fluently, anyway. If Headmaster Dumbledore started the conversation speaking it, then he must've wanted to make sure other people couldn't understand what they're talking about…regarding Nicholas Flamel.'
'Do any of you know who "Nicholas Flamel" is?' Harry asked again.
Hermione and Neville shook their heads. 'No, I don't think I've ever heard of him, either,' Hermione answered.
'What should we do about this, then?' Harry put forth. 'About what we know?'
'Maybe we should just assume the theory is true,' Neville suggested. 'You heard what Professor Vesnova said, right? We need to be cautious, especially around Snape.'
They all nodded grimly. 'Should we tell Headmaster Dumbledore our theory?' Hermione asked after a pause. 'Or Professor McGonagall or Cauverina or someone?'
'Maybe we shouldn't,' Harry said after a pause. 'Headmaster Dumbledore would probably know everything we do. And Professor McGonagall and Cauverina…if Professor Snape is willing to try to poison me, what might he do to an adult who knows what he's up to?'
'But the more people who know and can help us, the better, right?'
Neville shook his head. 'Maybe not. The more people know a secret, the easier it could get out. What if Snape ends up finding out and does something crazy that puts everyone in danger?'
'Okay…but what about Dumbledore?' Hermione asked. 'Should we put full faith in the hope that he knows exactly what's going on?'
'Professor Vesnova promised to tell him, didn't she?' Harry said. 'He definitely knows more than we do. He's smart enough to come to the same conclusion himself if we really were right. I mean, he realised that the version of the Gringotts break-in in the Daily Prophet was wrong long before we did.'
Hermione looked a little uncomfortable at that thought, but did not raise a protest. Having reached the end of their discussion, they began climbing the stairs back to Gryffindor Tower slowly and in silence. Now, in the quiet, the understanding that there was someone out there looking for his death began to settle in in Harry's mind in a way that it had not before. This was not like the night with the troll – he had considered it only a freak accident then, not as an attempt at murder. But now…knowing that there was someone after him, someone who would use poison on a first-year to achieve their aims…
Was that how his parents had felt when they were in hiding with him? Had they hoped for a miracle, for Dumbledore to be there to protect them? Or had they counted down the days, the greatest happiness being the sight of another sunrise?
That was the type of doom that was beginning to settle into Harry now as he slowly began to process what their theory, if true, really meant. If he went to sleep, would he even wake up again?
