On Tuesday evening, after the incident with the first years, Neville, Ginny and Luna sat in the Gryffindor Common Room. Most of their fellow students had gone to bed early, still shaken by the events in the Dining Hall.
"We have to do something!" Neville exclaimed and punched his fist on the armrest. His brown hair was ruffled from all the times he'd pulled his hand through it. "This has gone far enough."
"What do you suggest we do?" Ginny gave her friend an exasperated look. They'd been through this before, and every time they reached the same conclusion. "We don't know where Harry is. The Order is under great pressure. And if we retaliate, the Carrows will not only punish first years, but second years too. It's hopeless!"
"It's not hopeless." Luna's blonde curls danced as she leaned her head to one side. "We just need to find the right angle."
Ginny rolled her eyes. Sometimes she wondered why on earth the blonde had been placed in Ravenclaw. "It would be easier to cut the head off of Nearly-Headless Nick, than find a solution to all of this." She leaned back into the sofa, arms crossed over her mustard colored jumper, and blew out a frustrated steam of air through her lips.
"Hold on." Neville leaned forward, gaining their attention. His eyes narrowed as the wheels in his head were turning. "Cutting. That's it!" He got to his feet and started to pace in front of his two friends in the sofa. One of them thought he had surely lost it, while it suddenly dawned on the other what he was thinking about.
"It's brilliant, Neville." Luna's eyes sparkled, as a dreamy smile crossed her face.
"What are you two talking about?" Ginny's brows furrowed as her eyes darted from Neville to Luna. She hated feeling left out.
"The sword of Gryffindor, of course!" Neville hadn't felt this invigorated in months. And that he of all people had come up with it, was absolutely astonishing. Even to him. "Look." He sat down next to Ginny, and made sure that no one was listening, before he continued in a hushed tone. "Dumbledore left the sword to Harry, but the Minister refused to give it to him. Clearly, the sword is of importance. What if we stole the sword and somehow got it to Harry?"
"Are you mental?" Ginny replied. "First of all." She straightened in her seat. "we have no idea where the sword is. It could be anywhere. And second... how on earth would we get it to Harry? We have no idea where he is either!"
Ginny nearly felt bad about her words when she saw the sorry look on Neville's face.
"We don't have to." Luna placed a comforting hand on Neville's knee. "All we have to do is get the sword to someone in the Order and let them do the rest. One of them ought to know where Harry is, don't you think?"
Ginny had to admit, the Ravenclaw wasn't exactly wrong. "But we still don't know where the sword is."
"I would think it's obvious." Luna gained two skeptical looks. "In the Headmaster's office of course."
"How would we get in?" Neville asked, intrigued by the blonde.
"And how would we be certain it's even there?" Ginny asked, still not convinced of this new found plan. "It's not like we can just walk right in."
"I'll ask around," Luna said. "I'll be discreet."
Ginny and Neville exchanged worried looks, but neither objected. In a world gone mad, at least they had to have faith in one another.
When Luna came back the following day, she had the password and confirmation that the sword was indeed inside the Headmaster's office. They decided to move forward with their plan. It would happen tonight, when everybody else was occupied with dinner.
--
Several floors below, as the Gryffindors mapped out their plan, Cora once again sat in the library with the book she'd been given by her father. Over the last days, she'd spent several hours in the same spot. Thankfully alone.
Turning another page in the old book, she came across a spell that could turn water into blood. She scrunched her nose, and turned another page. Her family history and her father's spells, fascinated her. Some of the spells were really dark, while others seemed both beneficial and even fun.
A part of her wanted to try them out, but where would she start? It wasn't as if she could ask any of her professors or friends to practice with her. Oh, this book? Yeah, it was a gift from Lord Voldemort. Nice of him, wasn't it?
The very thought made her laugh.
Cora hadn't shown her husband the book, either, not knowing if her father would appreciate it. And since neither had exchanged a single word since Sunday, he wasn't the first choice to ask anyway.
Resting her chin in the palm of her hand, while tapping her cheek with her index-finger, she wondered what her next move should be.
She contemplated whether to send her father an owl, asking him to teach her, but wasn't sure if he would appreciate that either. Being the complicated man that he was, she didn't want to step on his toes.
But he did give it to me.
Biting her lip, she pulled out a piece of parchment. It couldn't hurt to send him a small note, could it?
With her best swirling font, she began to write.
Dear father,
I'm intrigued by the gift you gave me. I'm finding several of your spells rather fascinating. Care to share your thoughts on them with me?
~ Cora
Turning her head from one side to another, she gathered that it would have to do. She folded the parchment carefully and went to the nearest fireplace. Fondling with the letter in her hands, she remained in front of the fire a little while.
A small voice inside of her warned her about her decision. She was currently off the Dark Lord's radar. Would it be so wise to be on it?
How else will I get to know him properly if I don't give it a try? She argued with herself.
Resolute, she tapped the letter with her wand, protecting it from the flames, and tossed it into the fire. "Lord Voldemort."
The letter was gone with a green flash, and then the flames went back to normal. Far better than sending him an owl. If he was in a bad mood, at least he wouldn't have a messenger to kill.
Cora turned her back on the fireplace and was about to go to dinner, when the flames suddenly flashed green again. Had the spell gone wrong?
Turning towards the flames again, she saw a small piece of parchment fly through it. It landed elegantly on the table next to her.
Meet me in the Dark Forest on Saturday. ~ Father
Cora blinked.
He actually replied.
She hurried back to her stationary, and hastily wrote a reply, saying where and when she'd meet him. Then she tossed the parchment into the fire.
Less than a minute later, his reply landed on the same spot again.
Looking forward to meet you.
Cora smiled.
After collecting her things, and placing her father's notes inside her book, she made her way towards the Quidditch Pitch. She hadn't spoken properly with Draco since the day of the wedding, and being in a good mood she figured it was time to hear how he was doing. Even if that meant hours of complaining.
Arriving at the Quidditch Pitch, she found the place completely deserted.
"That's odd," she mumbled to herself and stepped into the green field. There was not a player nor broom in sight, and usually the teams would be in practice right now. "Draco?"
Nobody answered.
Feeling slightly confused, she walked back to the castle again. She wandered aimlessly around the corridors, looking for company. When she came across a small group of Ravenclaw girls, they hurried silently past her.
It was suddenly very clear to her - her fellow students didn't just fear her father, but they feared her as well. The thought struck her so hard that she stopped dead in her tracks.
They're actually scared of me.
She cast a sideway glance towards her reflection in a nearby window. Just like losing her virginity didn't make her look different, the casting of her very first Unforgivable Curse, hadn't changed anything about her appearance either.
What am I becoming?
--
"We have to be quick about it." Neville took a last look around the corner, before signaling Luna and Ginny that the coast was clear.
The three of them then hurried towards the gargoyle and spoke the password. Wands at the ready, constantly looking over their shoulders, they moved up the stairs.
Standing at the top, they all drew a collective breath before slowly opening the door. The office was empty.
"Where did you say the sword was?" Ginny asked, scanning the office walls.
"Up there!" Luna pointed. "By the Sorting Hat!"
"I'll get it. You guys watch the door!" Neville ran across the room, towards the shelf where the sword was lying. He ignored the irritating comments from the Sorting Hat, as he grabbed it.
"Come on, let's go," Ginny hissed, eyes darting down the stairs.
"Maybe we should ask professor Dumbledore about its use?" Luna said.
"There's no time." Neville looked up towards the portrait of the former Headmaster. His chair was as empty as the rest of the frame. "Besides, he's not there."
"But if we'll just wait -"
"Luna, we gotta go!" Neville gave her an apologetic look. Despite finding her idea intriguing, he was too scared that the current Headmaster would finish his dinner early. He tugged in the blonde's blue jumper and she reluctantly followed him.
With the sword in one hand and Luna's hand in the other, he hurried towards Ginny.
The trio left the office, just as they'd found it. They could hardly believe how easy it had been, but they weren't out of the woods yet. Not only did they have to carry the sword unnoticed through the castle, but they still didn't know who in the Order they could send it to.
As they ventured down the staircase, Ginny suddenly stopped, so that Neville and Luna almost knocked her off her feet. She quickly drew her wand and pointed it towards something below.
"What's going on?" Neville whispered, but quickly got a reply to his own question.
"What are you doing with that?" Cora asked, wand pointing towards Ginny. She'd noticed the three of them just as the stairs swirled upwards, and found it more than a little suspicious.
"None of your business, Riddle," Ginny spat, taking a small step forward. "Or is it Snape? I can't keep track these days."
Cora gave her a patronizing smirk in return.
"Let us pass," Ginny continued.
"Return the sword to the office, and I'll consider it." Cora's patience was getting thin. On top of everything that had happened lately, she didn't need this. And though she knew she could easily cast the Cruciatus Curse again, she really didn't want to. Unless they gave her a solid reason.
"I'm sorry, Cora, but we can't." Luna said, wand in hand and Neville's hand in the other.
Before Cora could reply, she noticed the small twitch in Ginny's hand, and immediately ducked out of the way. The hex hit the wall where her head had been.
"Not wise, Weasley." Cora saw red and hexed her back. The flashes of green and yellow went back and forth between them, before Cora decided to use one of her father's spells.
"Leviate!" Cora shouted. Ginny ducked and the spell hit Luna straight in the chest. The spell froze her and she began to float upwards. Neville, who had lost grip of her hand, got a hold of her foot. He had a hard time holding on, since Luna was both heavier than usual and were pulling both of them upwards.
The sword fell down a couple of stairs, as he had to use both hands, and landed by Cora's feet. She placed one foot on top of it, while continuing to hex Ginny.
"Luna, hold on!" Neville shouted.
"What's going on?!" The angry voice of professor Snape bellowed over their heads.
Upon hearing his voice, Neville's face lost all color, but he continued his frantic efforts to pull Luna down.
"Finite!"
Luna fell crashing into Neville's arms, as professor Snape cast the spell. He hardly cared that the two of them hit the staircase in a rough manner.
"Miss Weasley, I would advise you to lower your wand," he drawled, standing calmly over the bundle consisting of Luna and Neville. The redhead still had her wand pointing towards Cora, not ready to cave in. "Unless you want my wife to cast the Cruciatus Curse again."
Ginny looked a little uncertain down on Cora, but eventually lowered her wand.
"My office. Now." Professor Snape's voice was low and almost like a growl. He let the three Gryffindors go ahead of him, and then accepted the sword from Cora.
After following him up, she had to listen to him question the trio and then rant about their disrespectful behavior. When he was done, Neville's face wasn't the only one that was white. Cora almost felt sorry for them.
"The next fortnight you will follow Hagrid into the Dark Forrest. Failing to do so, will have you expelled or worse."
"Yes, sir." All three of them nodded solemnly.
Professor Snape then escorted them out of his office towards Hagrid's hut. Not wanting them to escape their detention.
Cora remained in his office with the sword. Her pulse was still running fast after the duel with Ginny.
"How is marriage life agreeing with you, Mrs Snape?"
The voice of the former headmaster startled her. She looked up at his portrait and found his eyes twinkling the way they used to when he was alive. She hadn't noticed him re-appearing in his portrait.
"Well enough, sir," she replied. Despite him being dead, she couldn't shake off her polite tone towards him. "Although I don't think we're a match made in Heaven, if I'm being honest."
"No, probably not." Professor Dumbledore chuckled. "But when has being different ever stopped you?" He smiled mischievously and gave her a pointed look.
Cora returned the smile. She knew what he was referring to.
Although a star student, there were times when the Slytherin genes had gotten the best of her. Using a glue-Charm on the brooms of the Hufflepuff team, so they couldn't get off, were one. Starting a prank-war with the Weasley twins, was another. Smuggling Firewhiskey into professor Trelawney's morning coffee, however, was the best.
The memory of that Divination Class in the winter of 4th grade, still made Cora laugh. Even though it had cost her a month of detention.
Professor Trelawney had been even stranger than usual, and not aware of her own behavior. She cast around prophecies like they were popcorns in a movie theatre. Cora had almost given her a re-fill, to see if she could pull it even further, when the professor suddenly looked her straight in the eye and said: "You will no longer be an orphan by the end of term."
The whole class had broken into a roaring laughter, but something with the professor's ominous statement had made Cora curious.
During detention she had hoped professor Trelawney would prophecy again, but to no avail.
Therefore Cora had asked Draco to contribute instead, and she was rewarded beyond anything she could've imagined.
By the end of term, she had indeed ceased to be an orphan. Now she wished she could've gone back and never poured Firewhiskey into the cup in the first place.
"A sickle for your thoughts." Professor Dumbledore drew her out of her drifting mind.
"Oh, I was just... Never mind." She shook her head.
"Contemplating life, perhaps?"
"Yes, something like that." How was it possible that even as a portrait he was able to read her like an open book?
"Having a hard time knowing which cards to play?"
"More like, what game I'm playing in." Cora sighed, and gave him an exasperated look. For years she couldn't decide whether her life was a chess-game with black and white pieces, or a poker game, where the winner took it all. Both required a certain amount of secrecy and stealth, though, and she was growing tired of it.
Maybe things would've been better if I'd gone to a muggle school instead.
"You still have a choice, you know."
"I've never had a choice," she mumbled and shook her head. All her life she'd felt like life was happening to her. A bunch of circumstances she had no control over. And when she did make choices on purpose, things didn't always end up the way she wanted them to.
Like looking for her parents and finding they were serial killers. And then choosing to live with the Malfoy's, and realizing that the nurses at the orphanage were far more caring and understanding than her relatives.
She'd left Hogwarts with her mother and cousin, instead of standing her ground and stay for professor Dumbledore's funeral. And now her classmates outside of Slytherin didn't look her in the eye or speak to her anymore.
And she'd used the Cruciatus Curse for the first time, to save three fellow students. The aftermath of that was still to reveal itself in total.
"It's not how we fall, that defines us, but how we get up again." Dumbledore's friendly voice drew her out of the negative spiral her mind was trailing. "He will need someone like you, before the end."
"Come again?"
"You heard me, Cora." His tone was warm, but also with a certain seriousness to it.
"I don't think he needs anybody, sir."
"Everybody needs someone in their corner." She had a feeling he was talking more about her than her husband. That they somehow needed each other. "You seem agitated. Is there something else on your mind? A particular reason for why you came here today?"
"Not particularly, no," she lied. The conversation was getting more tedious by the minute. Cora wasn't going to reveal more of her personal life than she had to.
She got to her feet and started pacing carelessly around the office. She could feel the blue eyes behind the half-moon spectacles watch her intently. When she couldn't fake an interest in the office anymore, she turned towards the Headmaster again and crossed her arms over her school uniform.
"You say that everyone needs someone in their corner. Even murderers?"
Hearing her loud question, several of the former headmasters awoke from their slumbers, but none said anything. Damn my temper.
"Severus isn't the only one who has done something questionable, is he?"
Cora's eyes narrowed.
"He's a murderer."
"And you are the daughter of two murderers and tortured a teacher the other day."
"I never killed a teacher." She raised a daring eyebrow at him.
"He had his reasons."
"Why are you defending him?"
Professor Dumbledore closed his mouth. He tilted his head a little and watched her intently.
"Don't beat around the bush, Dumbledore." The professor was getting on her last nerves, and she doubted she'd have this opportunity again. "Why are you defending him? Heck, why are you helping him? He killed you!"
Angry tears were stinging her eyes, but she blinked them away. This was too important to be ruined by her sensitive emotions.
"Yes, he did." Dumbledore was eerily calm about it. He didn't even look sad about it.
"And?"
"There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." Dumbledore smiled secretly, before looking like he suddenly remembered something important. "I must take my leave of you now. Farewell Cora."
"Wait! Professor -"
But he was gone.
"Great, professor Dumbledore knows how to quote Shakespeare," Cora grumbled and sat with a heavy thump on the wooden chair again. Then she looked up at the empty frame and shouted: "But it's not very helpful!"
"What is?" Professor Snape asked, and startled her. He walked briskly towards his desk and sat down behind it. He was in a more sour mood than usual, so Cora held her wise remarks in check.
"Nothing."
He clearly didn't believe her, but didn't pursue the matter. After scribbling down something she couldn't read on a piece of parchment, he looked up at her. "Was there something I could help you with?"
She blinked a couple of times. Was there? She'd followed the Silver Trio out of curiosity, but something else had drawn her to his office as well. Something she couldn't quite put her finger on.
Not wanting to sound stupid, she decided to change his scrutiny over to something other than her.
"Why did Neville and the others try to steal the sword of Gryffindor?"
"Who knows why that halfwit does anything."
"Severus, please." She let her folded arms loosen. "You know why."
"What I do or don't know, is no concern of yours." He ignored her rolling eyes and kept working on whatever was so damn important. When he began scribbling on a new parchment, Cora took her leave of him.
She needed a serious break from both Headmasters.
"See you later then."
He didn't reply.
Cora felt a small sense of relief, as she left the office. He hadn't pushed further for information from her. On the other hand, he wasn't interested in talking with her either. And that saddened her.
His silence and professor Dumbledore's comments made her feel even more lost than ever.
And why had the trio been so obsessed with the sword? Was it just a prank - to gain some sort of mascot for the Gryffindor Common Room? Or was it something more?
As Cora had the house-elf bring her supper in their living room, she contemplated the matter further.
Was there something she didn't know about the sword? Something that perhaps would help Harry Potter win the war?
A small notion was irking in the back of her mind, a sort of connection between Harry and the sword, but she couldn't remember what it was. She'd have to investigate it further.