Harry Potter And The Female Snape.

[leenielou]

A warning: this fic is a sequel to 'The Female Snape'. (http://www.cosforums.com/showthread.php?t=14809&highlight=female+snape) Reading of it without reading the previous may result in confusion and head explosion!

I don’t own or didn’t think up any of the characters (apart from new ones) and the dead people in this story are only dead because I made them so, so no real spoilers here! (Apart from the whopper that comes later on, I guess.)

Please read and post some feedback (http://www.cosforums.com/showthread.php?p=856925#post856925). Enjoy!

[leenielou]

It wasn’t like the usual journeys to Hogwarts. Usually, Harry would be eager to get back to school, so that he would be with his closest friends again and those that he loved. But this year it was different. Harry didn’t want to go back to Hogwarts at all

The events of the previous year had successfully convinced him that had he not been at school, none of it would have happened. And the events the year before that. And the year before that. And so on, and so on. And so he sat silently in the train compartment that he was sharing with Ginny, Ron, Hermione, Luna and Neville. The others occasionally shot glances of sympathy and concern at him, and talked in hushed voices. It was beginning to annoy him.

‘Look, I’m not dead!’ he finally snapped, and they all turned to look at him guiltily.

‘We never said you were, Harry,’ Ginny said quietly.

‘Yes, but you don’t have to talk as if we’re standing in a funeral parlour! Just…please…I just want to hear everyone as normal. Like nothing has ever happened. Like…’ He screwed up his eyes and turned to look out of the window at the scenery that rushed by. He took a deep breath. ‘Like they haven’t gone.’

The others exchanged looks that spoke of their general feeling: Harry wasn’t the only one hurting here. They had known Hagrid just as well as Harry had, and had all loved Lupin.

Hermione felt angered on Ron and Ginny’s part. They had lost a brother last year, and yet Harry was still angry with them for anything; if they acted cheerful he would sniff about no respect, and if they acted sad he would demand them to be happy. But then she looked at his stiffened back and her heart softened. Harry had seen things that none of them could imagine, and had to endure so much pain in his life that if the only cure for it would be to lay down her own life, she would.

The five began to talk again in louder voices, as Harry sat feeling horribly guilty. He just couldn’t help feeling so angry. He had thought that perhaps the sixth year would be different – he could learn Occlumency and perhaps with it some sort of calm.

But all of that had been shattered when Hagrid had been pulled apart by the giants that had followed Voldemort down to the Hogwarts grounds, and when Wormtail had killed Lupin in his werewolf state. The memory of Wormtail forcing his silver hand into Lupin’s chest as he, Harry, had been forced to watch still brought him out in a cold sweat.

Sometimes he just wanted to give up, and let Voldemort kill him, simply because then he would stop trying. He would stop murdering the people that Harry loved. But then he would realise that, actually, this would solve nothing. Voldemort would carry on killing no matter what happened to Harry.

He turned to look at the faces around him. His five best friends in the world, all who had survived last term with him. Just being around them made him feel stronger. He had to survive for them. He had to force himself to exist, to feel human feelings, for them.

[leenielou]

Chapter One - Back to Hogwarts cont.

Stepping off the train, Harry realised that he had automatically looked around for Hagrid herding off the first years. But this year instead, there stood Professor McGonagall, calling for those just beginning their time at Hogwarts to come forward. Harry noticed that there were considerably less than previous years.

‘Terrified parents,’ Hermione said, reading his thoughts. ‘After the giants, I heard that no one wanted to take any chances. I bet most of them have gone to Beauxbatons or Durmstrang instead.’ This news saddened Harry. Hogwarts was a beautiful, majestic and incredible place. And Voldemort was destroying it.

The Thestrals that pulled the carriages were visible for all of them to see this year. Harry heard Ron’s gasp of surprise, then noted with amusement the look of disgust on his face. Hermione, as Harry had predicted she would, looked at them bravely, clearly realising why it was that she could see them.

‘I wonder who the new gamekeeper will be,’ Hermione said. Harry looked up sharply, and was about to launch a stinging attack on her insensitivity when he realised that it was time to think about these things. It was time to put the sixth year behind him, much as he had painfully done the fifth.

‘Be funny if it was Snape,’ Ginny said, giggling. ‘As a promotion. Oh, I wish I could see that!’ The others laughed too, for it was a funny image, Professor Snape sourly trying to contain a Blast-ended Skrewt or patrolling the edges of the Forbidden Forest at night.

‘I’m just bloody glad that I’ve got no more lessons with him,’ Ron said, sighing. ‘But I will always cherish the memories.’ Everyone looked at him oddly, and he hurried to say, ‘Yeah, right.’

The carriages stopped, and everyone climbed out, hurrying into the Great Hall so as to get a good seat at their House tables. Harry didn’t see the outstretched foot ahead of him until he tripped smack bang over it.

‘Have a nice summer, Potter? Mourning the loss of your half-breed pal?’ Harry picked himself up and wasn’t particularly surprised to see Malfoy.
‘Harry…’ whispered Hermione warningly as she saw anger steal across his face. People stopped to watch, the Slytherins jeering and every other house looking scandalised at Malfoy’s comment. Everyone, however, looked eager to see what Harry would do in return.

‘It was great, Malfoy. This stupid stuck-up git who isn’t a million miles from your father got thrown back in Azkaban!’ he replied, with amusement in his voice. Malfoy flushed at the mention of his father.

‘He’ll get out again, you mark my words, Potter,’ he spat, looking so much like his father that it was eerie. ‘And when he does, he’s coming straight for you and the Mudblood.’

He turned and stalked off with the Slytherins following him.

‘Well done, Harry,’ Hermione said, squeezing his arm. He smiled at her as they took their seats.

Hermione glanced up at the staff table.

‘There’s a new teacher!’ she squeaked in excitement, making Ron roll his eyes. ‘Shut up, Ron,’ she then said before he managed to make a comment. ‘It’s a woman'.

[leenielou]

They all looked, and saw, sitting to the right of Dumbledore, a black haired, high cheek boned woman, whose dark eyes swept the Hall. Harry’s eyes wandered to her left, and alighted on Snape.

‘Look at Snape!’ he said, nudging Ron. ‘He looks even fouler than usual!’

It was true; Snape looked truly murderous. The twitch in the corner of his mouth had come back, and the look in his eyes was a greater hatred than even his especially reserved ‘Harry’ stare. In comparison, the new woman teacher looked completely at ease, staring calmly around. She looked somehow regal, and somehow familiar.

After the sorting was finished, Dumbledore stood to make his usual beginning of term announcements.

‘I would like to remind all students that Forbidden Forest is strictly out of bounds. Unbreakable magic charms have been placed upon its boundaries this year in order to ensure that there is no exit or entrance to or from the school this way.’

‘The giants,’ Hermione whispered.

‘I would also like to announce our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Snape.’

‘Nooo!’ Ron cried into the silence that followed, then clapped his hands to his mouth and turned bright red. Harry looked quickly at Snape.

‘That’s funny,’ he muttered to Ron and Hermione as whispering broke out all over the Hall. ‘He still looks majorly pissed off.’

*********************************************************
Oh no! :D Thanks for reading!

[leenielou]

‘I am, of course, referring to our Potion master’s younger sister, Miss Serendipity Snape, who is joining us this year,’ Dumbledore then said over the din. Another loud silence followed, while everyone fought to get the best look at the new woman. She looked back at the hundreds of eyes staring at her, seeming amused.

‘God, thought I was going to have a heart attack then,’ Ron said, finally removing his hands from his mouth. He looked at the new Snape again. ‘Think I still might….woooh!’ He made a low wolf-whistle noise, and then choked as Hermione leaned over and hit him hard in the stomach.

‘What was that for?’ he demanded, clutching his stomach. ‘I was just…just…making an observation.’ He turned to stare at the new teacher.

Harry grinned at him. They all began to listen to Dumbledore again.

‘Miss Snape shall be with us for just one year. I am sure that we shall all make her welcome. Other new appointments include the permanent return of Professor Grubbly-Plank as Care of Magical Creatures teacher. We have also managed to find a person who we hope will be a worthy replacement for our much beloved gamekeeper; a former pupil of this school, Charlie Weasley.’ Ron looked round at Harry and Hermione in shock.

‘He could’ve told me!’ he fumed. Down the table, Ginny was saying something along the same lines.

‘On a more frivolous note, the teachers and I have decided that there is to be a Yule Ball this Christmas, to alleviate some of the tension that has been accumulating the past months. Although not a solution to our problems, it shall hopefully take a few of them off of our minds for a while. Thank you all, and enjoy the year.’ Dumbledore sat back down, and the plates of food appeared on the tables to signify the beginning of the feast.

‘Well, a nice and startling beginning to the year,’ Hermione commented as she set upon a plate of meat and veg.

‘Wonder if she hates Snape as much as we do,’ Ron burbled through a mouthful of food, still not looking away from Miss Snape.

‘Ginny doesn’t hate you, so I think it’s a good bet that Miss Snape doesn’t hate…Professor Snape,’ Hermione said archly.

‘Just what are you trying to say?’ Ron replied, finally tearing his eyes away. Hermione simply tutted and looked down at her plate.

‘Two Snapes,’ Harry said, shaking his head. ‘Let’s place bets on how confusing this year is going to be.’

‘And how full of Harry-hate it will be,’ Ron added.


Back in the Gryffindor common room, Harry relaxed by the fire. He had eaten a huge meal, probably more than he had ever eaten at school, and so was feeling extremely well fed and sleepy. His eyes were drooping as Ron and Hermione sat bickering, and Crookshanks curled up in his lap as he fell asleep…

He was in a dark forest. The trees were so thick and so tall that when he looked up he could not see the stars. The air inside the forest was thick with stillness, and the dark foliage around him barely rustled as he spun around. Thick leaves had fallen beneath his feet like a carpet, and here and there fronds hanging from the trees tickled his face. He plunged forward into the darkness, searching for a way out.

Lights appeared up ahead. Flickering lights that cast distorted shadows in the dark; they immediately became obvious to Harry as fires. He stopped walking, nervous of who would be setting several fires alight in the middle of a dark forest at night.

But as he looked further he saw that the fires had not been started in the forest. The trees ended upon the edges of a large, circular clearing that rose gently to a peak in the middle and dipped away on the other side. On top of the peak was a single solitary tree, and tied to this tree was a woman in a bright red robe.

The sky above him suddenly split as a crack of thunder cracked loudly. Lightning forks began to flash all around, and Harry peered through the leaves covering him at the woman tied to the tree, who was looking not as fearful as Harry would have expected, but welcoming.

A huge fork of lightning that lit up the whole sky and the outer reaches of the forest suddenly crashed into the tree on the peak. The woman threw back her head and screamed as the electricity coursed through her body, and as one all of the fires were extinguished…

Harry awoke with a start. The fire in the grate had gone out, and he was all alone in the common room apart from Crookshanks, who was annoyed at his sudden awakening.

Harry tipped him off of his lap. ‘Time for bed, I think,’ he said to the cat, who was looking at him with something akin to disdain.

He climbed the stairs to the dormitory, rubbing his eyes as he went. The dream that he had had was puzzling him. Usually his most vivid and disturbing dreams were in some way related to him – his experiences, his past, present and future, but this was new. It felt so real, and yet it was nothing to do with him.

Maybe Hermione was right,[/] he thought, remembering a heated argument from the previous year. [I]Maybe I do only think about myself.

He changed quickly and leapt into bed, pulling the curtains around him. Crookshanks had followed him, and nosed through the curtains to curl up on Harry’s legs. Harry absent-mindedly scratched behind the cat’s ears as he drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

[leenielou]

At breakfast in the morning, their new years worth of timetables were handed out. Harry quietly scanned his and then placed it in his robe pocket. The arrival of the morning post however impeded his attempts to pour milk onto his cereal as a small brown owl crashed straight into his bowl, splashing milk and crisped corn all over him, Ron, and two first year girls sitting near them.

‘Bloody hell, you idiot!’ Ron cried, curiously holding his timetable in the air so that it did not get wet and mopping at his robes with one hand. ‘Whose stupid owl was that?’

Hermione calmly leaned over and detached the newspaper that was hanging just out of the bowl that the owl was now outstretched in.

‘My Daily Prophet deliverer,’ she answered, immediately unrolling it and lifting it up to read so that her face could no longer be seen.

Harry picked a few bits of corn out of his hair, then tipped the owl unceremoniously out of his bowl. It lay sprawled on the table in a puddle of milk and corn crisps, then coughed once and abruptly climbed to its feet and flew off.

‘Must be related to Errol,’ Ron said, moving away from the rapidly spreading puddle and returning to analyse his timetable.
‘Double Defence Against the Dark Arts first,’ he lamented. ‘A new Snape on the first day – what’s the luck of that?’ He stuffed a slice of toast into his mouth with an air of defeat, but his eyes betrayed his excitement.

Hermione snorted. ‘I can tell without even looking at you that you aren’t that disappointed,’ she said from behind the Daily Prophet. Ron scowled at her.

‘Well a new teacher is kind of exciting, Hermione,’ Harry said. Ron looked up, looking pleased that Harry was sticking up for him. ‘It’s not as if we have one every year…’ Harry continued. Ron scowled again at the unappreciated sarcasm and Hermione lowered her paper to grin at Harry.

‘Of course, we’ve never had a female teacher this young and pretty, have we?’ she teased. Ron turned a dull shade of red.

‘That’s a good point, Hermione,’ Harry replied, grinning. ‘I wonder exactly how young she is?’

‘So…what do you two have third?’ Ron asked quickly, quite obviously trying to change the subject. Harry and Hermione shared an amused glance.

‘Arithmancy,’ Hermione said, as Harry said, ‘Transfiguration.’

‘And I’ve got Care of Magical Creatures,’ Ron said dully. ‘It’s going to be so weird without Hagrid.’

Involuntarily, Harry’s hands balled into fists so hard that he felt his short nails pierce his skin. Slowly he unclenched them.

‘I think the whole place is weird without Hagrid,’ Hermione sighed. Harry lowered his eyes to the table. The Hall felt very large around him all of a sudden, empty and silent.

‘Hey, are we going to go down and see Charlie today?’ Ron asked into the silence. ‘I need to give him a couple of punches for not bothering to tell me that he was coming here.’

‘Yeh, course,’ Harry replied distantly. Hermione looked at him sharply.

‘Of course we will, Ron,’ she said, folding up her paper and placing it back on the table with a sigh. ‘Although I don’t know about the punches.’

There was a sudden stir from the ends of the tables near to the door. The three looked up, and Ron choked on his toast.

‘Whoa, easy boy,’ Hermione said slyly, rubbing his back.

Miss Snape had entered the Hall, smiling slightly at the wave of attention she had created. Up close she looked even more perfect than the night before. She was wearing black and emerald robes that looked beautifully cut and very expensive. Her long black hair was pinned up today, displaying her delicate yet determined face fully. Her dark eyes were fixed straight ahead, but as she passed where Harry was sat, they darted sharply to the left and fixed upon him.

Harry felt himself shudder beneath her blank, expressionless gaze, and wished that he was not covered with milk. Funnily enough, the blank stare made him feel more uncomfortable than any other glare full of hate had done before. After she had passed, he said as much to Ron and Hermione.
‘That’s strange,’ Ron said, through his toast, still staring openly at Miss Snape. ‘Usually they just hate you.’

‘I know,’ Harry said. ‘So why does an emotionless stare give me the…the…’

‘Creeps?’ Hermione interjected. ‘Maybe it’s because it’s just different, you know. A Snape that doesn’t openly hate you.’

‘Hmm,’ Harry said, non-commitally, watching Miss Snape greet Dumbledore and take her seat. He had to admit that she was rather striking. He glanced sideways at Ron and wasn’t surprised to see him still staring. ‘What are you going to do in the lesson?’ he asked, not expecting Ron to know what he was talking about.

Ron shook his head. ‘No idea, mate. I can’t wait! That close to…’ He stopped abruptly as he noticed Harry and Hermione looking at him oddly. ‘Perhaps I shouldn’t have let you know I knew what you were talking about,’ he muttered.

*********************************************************

:D Haven't updated in a while. Sorry! Hope it's refreshing your memories, and please leave feedback :)

[leenielou]

They made their way to Defence Against the Dark Arts after Ron had finished his fifth slice of toast. He still had crumbs clinging to his mouth that Hermione kept trying to tell him about, but each time she opened her mouth he would begin to talk about something else.

They arrived at the fourth floor room to find their classmates lined up outside excitedly. Neville was hopping from foot to foot, Lavender and Parvati were gossiping wildly and Dean and Seamus seemed to have exactly the same facial expression as Ron. Even the Slytherins that they were once again subjected to seemed to be filled with anticipation.

‘Looks like you’re the only sensible guy of the lot, Harry,’ Hermione said, looking around. ‘Honestly, anyone would think that she was famous or something.’

‘My aunt says she went to school with her,’ Parvati said. She frowned. ‘But she wouldn’t tell me anything about her.’

‘Why not?’ Hermione asked.

‘Don’t know,’ Parvati replied, shrugging her shoulders. ‘Said she didn’t want to talk about it.’

Harry and Hermione exchanged a puzzled glance, just as the tip-tap of high heels became audible from around the corner.

‘Here she is!’ Ron exclaimed, then appeared to pull himself together and said, ‘Good, the lesson can start now.’

Miss Snape appeared from around the corner, her head held high, in once again a regal fashion, Harry noticed.

‘Good morning, class,’ she said in a firm yet quiet voice. ‘Please enter.’ She waved her wand and the door opened. Everyone walked in. Ron and Neville headed straight for the front seats, as did every other boy. A silent match of Musical Chairs ensued as Ron and Malfoy fought over a stool. Harry and Hermione stood watching in amusement.

‘Let go, Weasley! You can sit at the back, in your natural order,’ Malfoy spat eventually. Miss Snape’s head whipped around in the direction of the disturbance.

‘Are you incapable of taking seats, gentlemen?’ she asked icily. Hermione and Harry sat down on seats in the middle row with a bump, unwilling to incur her strong glare. The boys at the front froze. Ron took advantage of the distraction to plant himself on the stool Malfoy had grabbed.

‘Your name?’ Miss Snape snapped, looking at Malfoy.

‘Draco Malfoy, Miss,’ he purred, grinning slightly at her.

Miss Snape stared at him for a moment, then her face relaxed into a smile.

‘Well, Mr Malfoy, why don’t you take a seat further back?’ she asked, her voice suddenly as soft as honey. Ron looked up at Malfoy in disgust, clearly jealous at his special attention.

‘Of – of course,’ he hurried to say, and practically ran to the back. Crabbe and Goyle followed, allowing Dean and Seamus to take seats on the front row.

‘Really,’ Hermione muttered, watching disapprovingly as the four boys as one leant their head on one hand and gazed up at the female Snape.

‘I wish they’d remember that she’s Snivelly’s sister,’ Harry said to her under his breath.

Miss Snape began by calling the register. Fortunately, she showed no recognition at Harry’s name, which seemed to him too good to be true. However, at Parvati’s name her eyes flickered upwards to focus briefly upon her. Harry remembered that Parvati had said her aunt went to school with Miss Snape. Perhaps she recognises the name, he thought.

Miss Snape shut the book containing the register with a slam and looked out upon her class. The four Gryffindor boys on the front row sighed.

‘I see that you have been well taught in the various creatures and hexes that may pose a threat to you,’ she said, her voice now a neutral, calm tone. ‘However…’

She walked to the front of her desk and withdrew her wand. ‘This is NEWT level, and recent events have dictated certain measures…’ She flicked her wand so suddenly that Ron and the boys on the front row sat up with a start. A loud bang erupted from it, and Harry felt his stool suddenly being dragged across the room in one clean sweep. By the time he had put his hands out to steady himself on the desk though, the movement had stopped. Looking down he saw that the large oak desk had been split in two, the half he was sitting on against one wall and the half Hermione was on against the opposite. This had created a large space in the centre of the room which Miss Snape strode into. The class stared at her in awe, and Ron, Seamus, Dean and Neville quickly swivelled in their chairs to watch her.

‘Most of our lessons this year shall be practical, and in each I expect you to master a new spell,’ she said, eying each of them in turn. ‘Make no mistake, I shall be teaching a hard class and I shall expect results. As the most successful graduation student from Hogwarts ever, I expect – ‘

‘Miss Snape, successful at what?’ asked Parvati suddenly, cutting her off.

Miss Snape’s dark eyes flashed and she turned to look at Parvati.

‘Miss Patil?’ she asked, and Parvati nodded. Harry was quite puzzled as to why Parvati, normally a more reticent member of classes, had dared to interrupt this frankly quite intimidating woman.

‘Miss Patil, I do not tolerate interruptions. You shall listen to me until I finish what I have to say. Consider this, and five points from Gryffindor, as a warning.’ Harry and Hermione looked at each other, disgruntled. They didn’t attempt to say anything though. Parvati was staring at the floor, her dark skin slightly flushed. Miss Snape’s eyes rested on her for a few minutes, and then she continued.

‘Today we shall be learning a more complex blocking spell than any of you will ever have attempted.’ She turned to face the board and spun her wand in a large, lazy circle. ‘The more basic blocking charms should, of course, be easy to you by now.’ Writing and diagrams appeared on the board detailing the Shield and Slowing charms. ‘However, these are not designed to withstand the more brutal Dark Arts.’ Her nostrils flared slightly, and she whipped around.

‘Draco Malfoy!’ she cried. ‘Come here!’

Malfoy got to his feet and strutted arrogantly to the centre of the room, smirking. Ron and Neville looked green with envy.

‘You shall be my volunteer today, Mr Malfoy,’ Miss Snape seemed to purr. Was it Harry’s imagination or did her brown eyes flicker in his direction in an amused expression as she said this?

‘Wh-what do I have to do?’ Malfoy asked, a little fear entering his ratty eyes as he focused upon the tip of her wand swinging from side to side.

She smiled indulgently at him. ‘Firstly, I shall require you to hex me, in order for me to demonstrate the blocking spell. And then…I shall hex you.’

She turned to the rest of the class.

‘This spell name is the Dark Destroyer. It will repel successfully a large number of dark hexes thrown its way more greatly than a simple Shield Charm. Of course, it will not stop something as potent as Avada Kedavra…’

She paused as a visible shiver ran around the room. Hermione shifted uncomfortably on her seat.

‘…and it also requires a very strong individual to perform it to the greatest effect,’ Miss Snape continued. ‘Now, Mr Malfoy,’ she said, turning back to face him. ‘Give me your best shot.’

‘What?’ Malfoy asked, his pale face turning slightly paler.

‘Attack me, Mr Malfoy, or am I not making myself clear enough? Surely you must know some sort of dark spell…’

The hidden accusation hung in the air, and Malfoy’s pointed face glowed a little. Harry and Hermione sat forward eagerly to see what would happen.

Malfoy took a deep breath. ‘Alright then, Miss,’ he said, and drew back his wand. ‘Devoro Cutis!’ he shouted, and a jet of purple light shot out of his wand, straight towards Miss Snape.

Hermione and Lavender audibly squeaked, but Miss Snape was completely calm.

‘Eversor calimalam,’ she said calmly, and moved her wand in an indistinct shape. A deep blue disc appeared in front of her wand, and as the purple light blasted into it, seemed to absorb the energy and digest it. The disc glowed purple briefly, and then disappeared as Miss Snape pulled her wand away.

‘And that is the Dark Destroyer,’ she said, pulling a stray lock of hair out of her eyes. ‘Now, Mr Malfoy, let’s see you try it.’ Malfoy looked petrified. ‘The wand movement is as follows,’ she said, waving her wand in a short circle and then jabbing it towards him. ‘And the incantation is EvErsor CaliMALam,’ she pronounced with exaggeration. Malfoy nodded.

‘Okay then, here we go.’ Miss Snape began to move her wand just as Malfoy asked,

‘Wh-what spell are you going to throw at me?’

Miss Snape grinned almost evilly. ‘Mr Malfoy, would you ever really know that? In battle with a Dark wizard, would you ever know what spell they were going to cast?’

Malfoy shook his head. ‘I guess not,’ he said slowly.

‘I’m glad you understand,’ she replied. ‘Ready? Crinisia!’ she cried, and a red jet of light shot at Malfoy, who looked ready to cry.

‘Ev..evErson…eversor calimal…um…’ he was still dithering as the spell hit him.

‘AAARGHHH!!! YAAAARGHHH!!! RRRGAGAHAHHH!!!’ he yelled, falling to the ground and clutching his behind.

Harry tried to stifle a laugh as he saw a lovely long tail emerge from beneath Malfoy’s clasped hands. The boys on the front row broke their gaze at Miss Snape to get to their feet, pointing and laughing. Hermione giggled along with Lavender and Parvati. Even Crabbe and Goyle seemed to have a hard time keeping a straight face.

A smile twitched at the corner of Miss Snape’s red mouth.

‘Perhaps, Mr Malfoy, you should pay more attention,’ she said, amusedly. Malfoy was holding his tail in front of his face in disbelief. ‘So let’s move on to the theory.’

She turned away and the notes for the Dark Destroyer appeared on the board. Everyone hurried to copy them down, still smirking at Malfoy as he tried to sit on his stool, eventually having to resort to pulling his tail behind him so that it draped down over the seat and pooled on the floor.

At the end of the lesson, Miss Snape undid the hex on Malfoy, and he slunk out of the classroom with Crabbe and Goyle close behind.

‘Oh, people are going to be dining out on that one for years to come,’ Ron sighed as he waited for Hermione to finish packing her bag. ‘Isn’t she just…the coolest?’

Hermione nodded. ‘That was rather funny,’ she said, finally stuffing her notebooks into the leather bag that she used. ‘I don’t think she ever actually thought that Malfoy would be able to protect himself.’

‘I just wish she’d have left the tail on,’ Harry said, as the three of them left the room.

Behind them, Serendipity Snape watched them go, subconsciously rubbing at her left arm....

*********************************************************

This is where Ren really starts to rock :D Sorry I haven't updated in a while, so that was an ooey gooey big one for you! Please oh please leave some feedback (http://www.cosforums.com/showthread.php?p=885241#post885241) and I'll love you forever :)

[leenielou]

Harry struggled in his Transfiguration lesson for an hour, trying to turn a toad into a desk chair. His chair kept on having webbed feet and a slimy, sticky feel to it. Also, being the right size for Professor Flitwick, it was a tad too small.

He felt rather alone in the class without Hermione or Ron. It wasn’t as if he knew many Ravenclaws either, and what with their sharp brains, the classroom rather resembled a furniture showroom of the type that Aunt Petunia favoured, while Harry’s chair still croaked and tried to jump off. At least Neville was with him, but that wasn’t much of a comfort, as Neville had become rather advanced lately since he got a new wand.

‘Come on, Mr Potter, a nice hard swish and that’s it!’ Professor McGonagall encouraged, watching his attempts. ‘Look at Miss Straun. She’s created a rocking chair!’

Harry looked around at Samantha Straun, smiling smugly as she rocked in a beautiful beech chair.

‘Oooh, a rocking chair,’ Harry mimicked under his breath, then felt immediately guilty. Just because I couldn’t work the spell doesn’t mean that I should take it out on others who can, he thought.

The lesson ended with his chair no further along than before, and all of the Ravenclaws cooing over each others. One clever idiot had even conjured up a swinging beech love bench with some intricate carvings on, that prompted Professor McGonagall to give out fifty points on the spot.

‘Oh well, Harry, at least we were both bad,’ Neville said disconsolately as they walked out of the classroom ten minutes late due to some extra coaching and made for lunch. Harry had to admit that that was true. Neville, for all of the newfound cleverness surrounding him, had only succeeded in giving his toad four long wooden legs.

As they passed Miss Snape’s classroom, Harry distinctly heard the sound of raised voices. Neville’s interest visibly picked up.

‘Reckon she’s in there?’ he asked, his voice definitely excited. They both stopped in the middle of the corridor and listened.

‘Just what is your problem?’ they heard. ‘Shouldn’t you be glad for me? Or is it just your own self that you can think about, as it always is?!’

‘She sounds angry,’ Harry muttered. ‘I wonder who she’s talking to?’

The two boys crept nearer to the closed door, and Harry quickly looked through the small glass window. What he saw inside was highly amusing beyond all belief....

*****************************************************************
Ooh, what could it be? :D Pretty pretty please leave me some feedback? I might try slythy's trick and offer something sweet and edible...or maybe I'll just let you all stay alive:evil:

[leenielou]

Miss Snape was sat on a desk, her elegant legs crossed and posture regal and composed, but her face was flushed and she looked furious. Professor Snape stood a few metres away, fists clenched and looking likewise fuming. They both wore identical expressions, their faces eerily alike.

‘What? What is it?’ Neville whined, clamouring for a look. He pushed Harry’s head out of the way and looked in. ‘Wow,’ he said. ‘They sure look mad.’

Harry felt rather uncomfortable listening in on a private conversation, but he wanted to see what the Snapes were so angry about. The corridor was deserted due to them being late out, and so he continued to listen without qualms.

‘My problem is that you just turn up, out of the blue, with no contact for fifteen years – I didn’t know if you were dead or worse Serendipity – and casually take the place at Hogwarts that I have wanted since before I ever began working here!’ Snape snapped.

‘Well perhaps you should have worked a bit harder to get it, shouldn’t you Severus?’ Miss Snape snorted.

‘I have worked harder than the both of us put together!’ he roared. ‘While you were swanning off around the globe I was working for a living, trying to put my life back on track!’

‘And you think that I wasn’t?’ Miss Snape said, menacingly quietly. ‘You think that I was just having a holiday?’

‘Well you disappeared from anyone else’s view well enough!’

‘Maybe I had to!’ she suddenly yelled. ‘Maybe I was thinking about other people rather than myselff!’

‘You’ve never thought about anyone else your entire life!’ he yelled back at her. ‘All of my life I’ve been covering up for you with our parents, running around after you, trying to save…’ Neville sneezed suddenly, and Snape cut off. Harry saw both of their heads whip around in the direction of the door, and ducked.

‘Run, run!’ he whispered to Neville, pushing him away. It was too late, though. The door was yanked open just as Harry and Neville began to run, and an invisible force caught them by the back of their necks and pulled them back into the room.

Harry turned around, expecting to see the male Snape, and so was surprised to see the female Snape right behind him. Her hands were empty, and Harry glanced around the room to see her wand lying on the table that she had been sat on.

Funny, he thought. How did she perform that spell if she isn’t even holding her wand?

‘And what are you two doing?’ she asked, her voice silky smooth but eyes burning like fire. Behind him, Harry heard Neville gulp.

‘Just…going to lunch,’ Harry said, trying to be casual.

‘Oh, well I find that very hard to believe,’ Miss Snape said snappily. Professor Snape had moved to beside her now.

‘What do you think you were doing, Potter?’ he spat. ‘How dare you listen in on a private conversation?’

Harry had to laugh. It was just too funny. Two Snapes, glaring down at him, wearing the exact same expression and looking so eerily alike that it was hilarious.

He burst into laughter. Neville nervously joined in, unsure of what was going on.

‘What’s so funny?’ snapped Miss Snape. ‘Why are you laughing?’

Professor Snape looked dumfounded. ‘Shut up, Potter,’ he said. Harry smothered his laughter and looked up at them again. He could still feel the giggles inside of him, but he tried to restrain them with a smirk.

‘Thirty points from Gryffindor and detention for a week,’ Snape barked, looking at Harry as though he were a thing off the bottom of his shoe. ‘You have no right to listen to private conversations. Especially mine.’

Miss Snape then did something that surprised Harry greatly. She reached out a hand and placed it on her brother’s shoulder, then said softly,

‘That’s a bit harsh, Severus. Just make it ten points, and one night’s detention.’

Snape glared at her in disbelief. ‘Why? Why?!’ he cried. She didn’t reply, and instead stared at him meaningfully.

Harry couldn’t believe it when Snape conceded. ‘Alright, alright,’ he said. ‘One night’s detention Potter, and feel lucky.’

‘And the rest?’ Miss Snape said smoothly, folding her arms.

‘The…rest?’ Snape asked.

‘The twenty points that need to go back on to Gryffindor?’

Snape’s face set. ‘I shall never award Gryffindor points,’ he said in disgust.

‘Really?’ Miss Snape said, widening her eyes. Harry watched the exchange with his breath held.

Snape’s face changed after around a minute of staring to a look of uttermost hatred.

‘Very well,’ he said shortly. He rolled his eyes. ‘TwentypointstoGryffindor,’ he said very quickly, then looked up at the ceiling.

Neville inhaled audibly, and even Harry was shocked. Snape giving points to Gryffindor? What next, Snape in ladies underwear?

‘There, see, it wasn’t that bad,’ Miss Snape cooed. Professor Snape simply shot her a glare and stalked out. Miss Snape began to laugh quietly.

‘That brother of mine…honestly…’ She seemed to become aware that Harry and Neville were still stood there, and suddenly clapped her hands. ‘Come on then, go away, go to lunch,’ she snapped.

Harry and Neville didn’t need telling twice, and turned tail and ran.

*****************************************************************

Intriguing....:elaugh: I'm so glad that I got the opportunity to make Snape award Gryffindor points :evil:

[leenielou]

‘And she said what?’ Hermione asked at dinner that evening.

Harry speared a potato with his fork. ‘She said, did he think that she wasn’t trying to put her life back on track.’ He took a bite of the potato. ‘Then all that happened.’

‘You got to talk to her? Up close?’ Ron said, eyes glazed.

‘Yeh, Ron, it was really sensual the way she dragged me over the floor by my neck,’ Harry replied sarcastically, jabbing his friend’s arm with his knife. Hermione’s eyes closed briefly in disgust at Ron, then she carried on talking.

‘Do you think it means that she was traumatised by Professor Snape joining the Death Eaters?’ she asked, looking interested.

‘Dunno,’ Harry said. ‘Probably not, he said they’d had no contact for fifteen years.’

‘How old do you reckon that’d make her then?’ Ron said, trying to make it seem a perfectly innocent question. Harry and Hermione ignored him.

‘Don’t you think it’s odd how she disappears sixteen years ago, just after…after…’ Harry’s voice trailed off, and he stared down at the table. It should have been okay, he’d accepted his parents deaths long ago. But after last year it had suddenly become harder to think about.

Hermione, realising what he was trying to say, said;

‘Probably just a coincidence.’

‘Yeh, but with our Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher track record, it’s hard not to think something.’

‘I know, Harry, but if Dumbledore trusts her, then you should.’

Harry sighed. He’d heard that all before, about the other Snape.

‘I suppose,’ he muttered.

‘Well, we’ll keep an eye on her, just in case,’ Hermione said, and set to her dinner as though the case were closed.

Ron, staring between the two of them, said through a mouthful of Yorkshire pudding;

‘Whaft?’

*****************************************************************

Dargh, I tried updating this a couple of days ago and it didn't work - guess it had Miri syndrome :lol: So here we are! (Hopefully) I would love it if you could leave some feedback. It's so sad that those who used to post it regularly don't anymore :( I guess it's my own fault though, so thank you for reading, anyway :)

[leenielou]

After dinner, the three went down to the hut that used to be Hagrid’s house to see Charlie. As the heavy door was pulled open, they realised that they weren’t the only ones with that idea.

‘Hey! Ronnie!’ Charlie said, ruffling his brother’s hair. Ron swatted his hand away.

‘Hi Ron, Harry, Hermione,’ came the calls from inside. Ginny, Luna, Fred, George, Lee Jordan and Angelina Johnson were all crammed inside the tiny house that seemed bigger without Hagrid, obviously having a good time.

‘You two just can’t stay away, can you?’ Hermione said to Fred and George, who snickered in reply.

‘We thought we’d come see big bro at work!’ Fred said, gesturing around the hut.

‘And bring him a few house warming gifts,’ George put in.

‘Like what?’ Harry asked, then wished he hadn’t as all around the room, scantily clad life-like female dolls began to dance to non-existent music. Charlie blushed and tried to kick them all under the furniture, resulting in pathetic squeals issuing from under tables and chairs.

‘Something to keep him company on those long, cold nights,’ Fred said, picking a doll up. Hermione rolled her eyes and sat down on the end of a newly installed wooden bench.

‘Honestly,’ she said, as a doll tried to pick a fight with another one about her hair extensions.

Harry left Ron watching a spontaneous dolly limbo dance with Lee and squeezed himself down next to Hermione.

‘So, Harry, we hear you’ve got a new Snape to worry about,’ George said, snatching the doll off of Fred and throwing her over to the other side of the room.

‘What? Who mentioned Snape?’ Ron said, tearing his eyes away from the dolls.

Harry rolled his eyes. ‘Don’t know about her yet,’ he said. ‘She doesn’t seem openly evil like Snape…you know…the other one.’

‘So how come you didn’t tell us that you were coming here, Charlie?’ Hermione suddenly asked, clearly bored with the topic. Charlie groaned.

‘I’ve had that all day,’ he said, stretching, but smiling. ‘Dumbledore offered me it at the end of last year, but, well…I didn’t really want to accept it right away like that…felt a bit morbid.’

They all nodded in agreement. Harry suddenly realised how odd it felt to be in Hagrid’s hut without Hagrid.

But it’s Charlie’s hut now, he thought.

‘And then mum’s been so upset…started on the whole “take every chance” thing…when Dumbledore asked me again, I said yes. I mean, it’s every person who works with animals’ dream to work as gamekeeper at Hogwarts.’ He looked at the floor. ‘Don’t ‘spect I’ll do it as well as Hagrid though.’

Everyone fell silent, each horribly aware of Harry, breathing rather heavily. Hermione laid a hand on his, and he stared at it for a few moments.

‘Well, we’d better get going,’ Ginny said, standing. Luna followed her, and gradually everyone else left to leave just the three and Charlie. Fred and George left for Hogsmeade after saying goodbye to the dolls, who performed an impromptu farewell can-can. Ron and Charlie were talking quietly about their mum, and Harry and Hermione continued to sit silently.

‘You know, you are coping well with this,’ Hermione said. Harry turned to her and saw that her eyes had filled with tears. He sighed.

‘Yeh..well…after Sirius, it’s a bit easier. But if you or Ron…’ He stopped, finding that he couldn’t continue.

‘We can take it,’ Hermione said quietly. ‘We’ve taken everything else.’

‘As long as we’re together,’ Harry said, and then groaned. ‘And just how mushy did that sound?’ He rolled his eyes and stood up. ‘I’m fed up with waiting for Voldemort to just come in and try to kill me.’ He ignored Charlie and Ron flinching. ‘I just want to get on with my life, get some NEWTs, have a good time. Why should I be kept in fear and anticipation by that evil, twisted maniac? I want to live my life the way that I should, the way that my parents and Sirius and Hagrid would have wanted.’

‘That’s the spirit, Harry,’ Charlie said, also standing up. ‘But before you go charging out to perform these noble deeds, I think that you should know there’s a doll gripping onto the seat of your trousers.’
*****************************************************************

Thanks for the feedback guys :D I think after this due to popular demand Ron gets a little less doofy...but it was so much fun having him as dorky :sad:

[leenielou]

The next few weeks seemed easier to Harry than the whole of the summer had been. Now that he had faced up to the fact that he shouldn’t be constantly waiting for Voldemort to strike, he began to loosen up and enjoy himself. The lessons were a lot harder this year, and so much emphasis was placed upon preciseness and efficiency that he quite often began to despair over his Potions. The teacher of which, despite his promise last year to be more civil to Harry, had become alarmingly murderous of late towards everything and anything in his path.

Harry’s first Potions lesson was the third day back from the holidays. It was only he and Hermione from Gryffindor who had actually been accepted into the class, and once again, unsurprisingly, they were in with the Slytherins.

Professor Snape had stormed down into the dungeon, slamming the door open and speaking to no one except to berate Harry about the scruffiness of his hair. The lesson had been no better; he had seemed to have regressed back into his extreme Harry hatred – although Harry could think of no real reason for why – after all, it was his sister that had usurped his place.

‘Don’t be silly, it’s because you were listening to their argument,’ Hermione had said when he had wondered this aloud, and then felt very, very stupid.

And now Harry was in Potions again, once again under the fiery glare of Professor Snape, trying to make his Mandrake Restorative Potion and completely failing.

‘Potter! Why have you not added your essence of monkshood yet?!’ came a sudden bark that startled him into dropping a whole cupful of powdered Grindylow foot into the bubbling cauldron at once. The green liquid inside suddenly exploded, causing huge globules of it to project themselves on the walls, the windows, the ceiling, Harry himself, other students, and, quite amusingly, Professor Snape.

Snape stood there, dripping with green viscous liquid, just looking at Harry. Harry quailed, waiting for the onslaught. He heard Hermione draw in a sharp breath. Everyone was watching, waiting for the shouting to begin.

But it never began. Snape simply stood, glaring at him, and then turned around and stalked out of the room.


*****************************************************************

Only a lickle one today, sorry! :D Can anyone remember what happens next? :evil: Let's just say Serendipity becomes very cool.......:lol:

[leenielou]

‘What happened then?’ Hermione whispered as confused babble broke out over the classroom. Students were cleaning their robes off the best they could.

‘Why on earth did Snape let you in his class, Potty?’ sneered Malfoy as he held his arm out for Crabbe to sponge off. ‘You can’t even pour things properly.’ He pulled a mock baby face. ‘Aww…is you having pwoblems? Does you need to be in the little boys class?’

Harry looked at his smug, pointed face, and wanted to hit it so hard that it bled.

‘Getting angry now, Potty? What are you going to do? Punch me again? Your dead mother hits harder than you.’

Harry began to shake with suppressed anger. Hermione laid a hand on his arm.

‘Harry, just ignore the bleached haired spawn of Satan,’ she said to him, a challenge in her voice.

‘And you can shut your big, ugly mouth, you disgusting Mudblood,’ Malfoy replied. Hermione stepped forward.

‘Do you know, Malfoy, that gets more and more threatening the more you say it,’ she exclaimed, her voice clear as a bell and dangerously calm. ‘One day I might actually be afraid of you. But until then, take your pathetic and frankly disturbing comments elsewhere, because believe me, if we were that bothered about it we’d have some pretty incriminating stuff to say about you and your…family.’

Malfoy looked ready to eat his own hands and feet, his expression was so full of mindless anger.

‘That’s it, Granger,’ he said, voice trembling. ‘I’ve had it with you.’ He pulled out his wand, but before he could cast any of the dark spells that Harry was sure he would have done, the wand was shot out of his hand.

‘And just what is going on here?’

The voice was menacingly sweet, dripping with poisoned honey.

‘Do I see Draco Malfoy about to hex a fellow pupil?’ It continued, and Harry and Hermione turned around to see Miss Snape, looking furious, holding her wand aloft. ‘I don’t know…I come in here, looking for my brother, and instead I find his abandoned class and a pretty boy thinking that he has the right to attack other students!’

Malfoy’s face flushed with suppressed rage, and Hermione had to stifle a giggle.

‘Malfoy, follow me,’ Miss Snape hissed, and he followed her out of the classroom with an extremely bad grace. The class remained silent.

‘What’s going on?’ they heard Snape bark outside of the door. A murmured conversation followed that everyone strained to hear.

Snape’s head popped around the doorway to survey the class with narrowed eyes. Everyone quickly looked busy, cleaning non-existent spills and grinding already dusted roots. The door was slammed.

‘That was amazing,’ Hermione breathed.

‘Thought you were against the adulation?’ Harry said out of the corner of his mouth.

‘Well, yes, but…pretty boy? Priceless!’

‘You cannot punish him and that’s that!’ everyone suddenly heard yelled from the corridor.

‘You cannot stop me, Snivellus, and that’s that!’

The door was flung open almost off of its hinges, and Snape stormed into the room, his face set as thunder. The door that led to his private room magically burst open and slammed shut behind him as he entered. Presently, a steady yet loud thock, thock sound was heard, as though knives were being thrown at something.

‘Looks like sister wins hands down,’ Harry said, grinning to himself.

‘The only thing is, if he’s as unpleasant and twisted as he is, imagine what she’s like?’ was Hermione’s reply. Harry’s grin faded.

*****************************************************************

Ahh...the bit I stole from slythy :evil: And you've just gotta love the two kick-*** females in this update, oui? :D

[leenielou]

The first Quidditch practice was held that night. Harry, feeling perhaps too settled into his post as Captain, managed to forget all about it and finally remembered fifteen minutes after the time that he had called for it to start.

‘What kept you?’ Ginny asked dryly as he ran up to join the rest of the team on the pitch.

‘Sorry,’ he gasped, nodding his greetings to the rest of the team. Ron, polishing his broomstick handle with his robes, grinned at him.

‘Right then, everyone,’ Harry called, and the team gathered around. ‘It’s been four years in a row now that Gryffindor has won the Quidditch Cup. And it’s mine and Ron’s last year now, and I’d like to make it a straight five. I’d like to go out on a win. And I’m sure that you’d like to grind Slytherin into the dirt again.’

The team grinned. ‘’Course we’ll win,’ Ginny said, confidently. ‘We’ve got the best team in the school at the minute.’

‘Best Keeper,’ Ron said, faux modestly.

‘Now that he can catch,’ Ginny replied, and he tried to hit her with his broom. Andrew Kirke staggered backwards as Ginny was pushed into him.

‘Who’re the new kids on the other teams then?’ he asked, shooting an annoyed glance at Ron, who shrugged back at him.

‘Not too sure about Slytherin,’ Harry said in reply, frowning slightly. ‘But I’m sure they’ll be big, mean and ugly. Especially now that Malfoy’s Captain.’

Natalie McDonald, the new Chaser from the previous year, shuddered. ‘I bet he’ll be employing nice tactics,’ she said, and the other Chaser, Emma Dobbs, nodded in agreement.

‘Well, we’ll just have to have better ones. Which shouldn’t be too hard.’ Ron said the last part under his breath, making them all laugh.

‘Who’s the new Ravenclaw Seeker?’ Ginny suddenly asked, and Harry felt a jolt of something that could have been regret.

‘Orla Quirke,’ he replied dully. ‘She’s meant to be quite good.’

‘Quite good?’ Jack Sloper snorted. ‘Have you actually seen her play? I was watching the Ravenclaw practice the other day – she’s amazing.’

‘Well I’m sure that she’s not as good as Harry,’ Ginny said, comfortingly. Jack looked as though he wasn’t so sure. There was silence for a moment as everyone digested this fact.

‘Right then, let’s get on,’ Harry said, walking over to the chest that held the Quaffle, Bludgers and Snitch. ‘If we all start off with the Quaffle, then Ron’ll go in goal and we’ll all try to get some past him.’

Everyone took to the skies, and Harry threw the Quaffle up in the air as far as he could. Ginny caught it, and soon the team were passing and catching as they weaved in and out of each other in the air.

After around five minutes, Harry heard Natalie exclaim:

‘What’s she doing here?’ and in his curiosity to see who she was, he mistimed his throw to Ron and the Quaffle sailed through clean air towards one of the stands.

‘Sorry!’ he began to call, but then noticed that Ron’s attention wasn’t on the Quaffle, or Harry, or even flying. Harry followed his gaze to see Serendipity Snape sat at the top of one of the stands, wrapped in a huge black cloak, eyes upon Harry. As their eyes met, Harry felt incredibly uncomfortable. He looked away quickly; instead focused upon the Quaffle that was still heading for the stand where Miss Snape sat.

‘Um…’ he said. Natalie began to laugh.

‘It’s going to hit her!’ she shrieked.

As if she had heard, Miss Snape looked up at the approaching Quaffle. Harry briefly saw her hand appear from beneath the cloak. There was a brief flash of light, and the red ball blew up.

Harry blinked in surprise as fragments of red Quaffle flew out in all directions, followed by a red cloud of smoke. Ginny and Emma yelled in surprise, and Jack and Andrew began to laugh.

‘On the ground!’ Harry yelled, and the team all landed on the pitch.

‘What the hell did she do that for?’ Harry exclaimed fiercely as soon as he had landed. ‘Now we’ve got to get a new Quaffle and lose practice time! And what’s she doing here in the first place?’

‘Maybe she’s come to watch me,’ Ron said dreamily.

‘Don’t flatter yourself,’ Ginny warned. ‘Don’t worry Harry, I can run up to Madame Hooch for you now and get one. It won’t be too long.’

Harry sighed. ‘We might as well stop now, anyway. I shouldn’t think it’s an exactly good omen, the Quaffle being blown up just during practice.’ He looked up to where Miss Snape had been sat, but the seat was now empty. ‘Did you even see a wand?’ he asked, remembering seeing a pale hand but no more.

Everyone shrugged.

‘I wasn’t really looking,’ Emma confessed, and everyone nodded in agreement. ‘But of course she’ll have had one.’

‘She’s got a really nice wand, come to think of it,’ Natalie said. ‘She told us that it was ash and hazelnut mix. Apparently a mix of woods is really rare, you have to have a really complex character to own one.’

‘What core was it?’ Ron asked, casually.

‘She said it was a raven feather.’ Natalie frowned. ‘I’ve never heard of raven feather being used in wands before.’

Harry became bored with the topic. ‘Come on,’ he said. ‘It’s half seven, we might as well go in.’

The team trooped towards the changing rooms, laughing about the exploding Quaffle and Ron’s crush.

What was she doing here in the first place? Harry thought. A sudden unbidden memory came to the forefront of his mind; a huge black dog sat in the stands, watching him play in the wind and the rain…He shook his head as if to get rid of it.

I wonder if they knew each other?

****************************************************************

Ahhh an update!! How lovely am I? Tell me, do, while I toddle off to make others :D

[leenielou]

There were no interruptions at the further Quidditch practices, and Harry remembered why he had been so proud of his team the year before. To say that Ginny, Natalie and Emma were almost as good as Angelina, Katie and Alicia was an understatement; they worked just as seamlessly as a team, if not better. Jack and Andrew, who had looked so hopeless at the beginning of the previous year, were excellent Beaters without being too ruthless. Of course, they didn’t have the effortless ease of Fred and George, or the humour, but they were still solid players. And Ron was still Ron, shaping up to become a brilliant Keeper. The first match was scheduled for the Saturday after Halloween, against Ravenclaw. Harry had been to watch a Ravenclaw practice and had to admit that Orla Quirke was exceptionally good. An obvious natural on a broomstick, Harry even thought that she might be able to outdo him on some of the tighter turns and loops that she executed.

The worry of this and the increasing work load meant that Harry had little more room inside his head with which to worry about Voldemort and what he was up to now. Hermione hadn’t forgotten though, and constantly sent nagging letters to Tonks asking what was happening. The most she had ever gotten back was a two lined reply saying:

Hermione,
Dumbledore will fill you in soon. Please stop writing, Molly’s getting irate. Tonks.

Ron had laughed his head off at this, imagining his mother’s wrath at an over-curious Hermione.

‘Dumbledore will fill us in soon?’ he said incredulously. ‘Since when has that happened?’

‘New things do occur from time to time, Ron,’ Hermione chastised. ‘I’m just worrying what Voldemort’s objective is this time – last year he just wanted to take Hogwarts.’

Harry, overhearing their conversation, said loudly,

‘No, Hermione, he wanted to kill all of the people that protect me so that he could kill me more easily.’

Hermione fell silent, and Ron frowned.

‘Well it’s the truth,’ he asserted. Hermione looked up at him, and he was surprised to once again see her eyes filling up with tears.

‘Maybe I don’t really want to hear the truth that plainly,’ she said quietly, and Harry felt horribly guilty.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said after a while. ‘It’s just all this work – the stupid essays Snape’s given me on top of everything else and all of the idiot defence spells that I still have to learn for the other Snape’s class…’

‘It’s alright Harry, I know how it feels to have so much work to do,’ Hermione replied, sitting in front of a stack of homework that had all been done in the past hour. Harry didn’t want to reply to that. They were sitting in the library, with the encroaching night pressing against the windows.

‘Speak of the devil…’ Ron muttered, shifting in his seat so that most of his face was hidden behind his Care of Magical Creatures textbook. Miss Snape had entered the library.

Harry watched her greet Madam Pince, then walk straight through to the Restricted Section.

‘More complicated spells for us to learn,’ he groaned.

‘I like her bracelet,’ Hermione said, looking puzzled. ‘I’m sure I’ve seen it somewhere before.’

Harry looked for a bracelet and eventually saw it just emerging from the long sleeves of the tight robes that were her habitual clothing. It was a thick silver band, with engravings upon it that Harry could not properly make out from the distance that he was sat at. He could see the delicately glowing purple stones within it though.

‘Never seen it before,’ he commented.

‘I’m sure…maybe it was just a copy…’ Hermione was muttering to herself. Harry watched Miss Snape’s back through the grilled windows of the Restricted Section, stretching up as she stood high to reach books with her long fingers, her hair occasionally catching the light and glowing like finely polished ebony…

‘You two are as bad as each other,’ Hermione suddenly snapped, and Harry turned to look at her.

‘What?’ he asked.

‘You and Ron salivating over Miss Snape,’ she said dryly, pulling her books towards her. ‘I think I’ll go to the common room; I don’t fancy watching that anymore.’

‘Hermione, don’t be stupid, Ron’s the one that’s completely in love with her, not me,’ Harry scoffed, and Ron kicked him under the table.

‘Yes, well, it didn’t look that way to me,’ she snapped, and stood up so quickly that her chair was knocked over backwards.

‘What’s wrong?’ Harry asked, mystified as to why she had gone into such a bad mood so quickly.

‘Nothing!’ she called over her shoulder as she practically ran out of the library. Harry and Ron looked at each other, totally confused. Harry shook his head.

‘So…what did you get for question nine?’ Ron asked.

[leenielou]

The following day Hermione was fine again. Harry knew better than to broach the subject of her fit in the library, and so instead asked her about Miss Snape’s bracelet.

‘Didn’t you say something about a copy?’ he asked as they fell into step walking to Defence Against the Dark Arts.

‘Well, I’m certain that I’ve read somewhere about a silver and amethyst bracelet that contains some sort of power…I can’t really remember what it was though. I tried to find out last night, but it isn’t in any book that I’ve got.’

‘What kind of power?’ Harry said. There was a silence. ‘What kind of power, Hermione?’ he asked again. She took a deep breath.

‘That’s why I think that it must be a copy…from what I remember it enabled the user to keep permanent tabs upon someone…really useful for spies…’

‘You think that she could be spying on Voldemort for the Order?’ Harry said after thinking for a few seconds. ‘We’ve never heard of her before…and she said she’d been away…maybe she was always keeping track of him.’

‘That’s what I thought…but if she knew exactly where he was then why didn’t she tell someone? Usually a spy passes on important information like that.’

‘Well perhaps she only started to spy when Voldemort came back properly.’

‘If that was true, then they would have been able to stop the attack at the end of last year. And prove to the Ministry the year before that he had actually come back.’ Hermione rubbed the bridge of her nose. ‘Look, we’re here now,’ she said as they drew level with the classroom door. ‘But I’d better just tell you quickly before we go inside…from what I remember, you have to be within the daily sphere of the person you are tracking in order for the magic to work.’

Harry’s eyes widened.

‘You think she might be spying on someone here?!’ he exclaimed.

‘Shhh!’ Hermione looked into the room. ‘Look, just forget about it until I find the actual book. It’s a while since I read about it, I could be wrong.’ She turned to go into the room, but Harry grabbed the back of her robes.

‘Hermione, how many times have you ever been wrong?’ he hissed. She looked at him with fearful eyes.

‘I was wrong about her brother; I don’t want to jump to conclusions about her.’


The next few days were spent mainly in the library, researching the bracelet.

‘Look, Hermione, she can’t be evil,’ Ron protested for about the seventh time.

‘We thought that Moody couldn’t be evil as well, and look what happened there,’ she said without even looking up from the book.

Ron snorted. ‘I don’t think that Miss Snape is a man in disguise. Plus, she seems really nice to us Gryffindors, she’s always giving us points.’

Hermione finally looked up at him. ‘Why don’t you just say that you don’t think she’s a spy because you want a piece of her ***?’ she snapped. Harry tried to disguise the smile that spread over his lips.

‘Go jump off a cliff,’ Ron replied, amiably.

They all read in silence for a moment, then Ron said;

‘Halloween tomorrow.’

‘Quidditch match in two days then,’ Harry said, glumly.

‘Cheer up, Harry, you’ve never been beaten before when you’ve been fully conscious for the entire match.’

‘Orla Quirke’s father used to play for England,’ Hermione put in from behind her book. ‘That’s probably why she’s so good.’

‘I wonder if my dad ever got offered a place on a regional team?’ Harry wondered aloud.

‘I’m sure Sirius would have told you,’ Hermione replied.

‘Maybe he didn’t get chance,’ Harry snapped back, suddenly feeling a little irritable. It looked as though there might be another evil person in the castle again, he had too much homework, Ravenclaw had a brilliant Seeker and he was tired. He pushed away his book, and as he did so, a page flipped over and revealed the picture of the very item that they had been searching for. Hermione immediately grabbed the book and pulled it up to her nose.

‘Hey!’ Harry protested. ‘Let us look too!’

Hermione’s eyes quickly scanned from line to line beneath the picture, and then sat the book down on the table with a satisfied sigh.

‘Thank goodness we’ve found it; that was going to bug me all year.’

Ron rolled his eyes. ‘Look, just forget about your crazy perfectionism for one minute and tell us what it says!’

Hermione leaned forward slightly.

‘It’s called the Band of Isis. No one really knows when it came about, but there is only one of it.’

‘Isis?’ Ron said, screwing up his eyes. ‘Have I heard that name before?’

‘She was an Egyptian Goddess,’ Hermione said distractedly, picking up the book again. ‘Of protection and magic. But apparently, in the making of this band, they harnessed her power in order to keep track of a chosen person.’ She frowned. ‘It doesn’t say anything else though.’

Harry began to feel extremely worried.

‘Nothing else at all?’ he asked. ‘Nothing about spying or watching?’

Hermione pulled a face and shook her head. ‘Nope,’ she said. She closed the book and lay it down on the table.

‘Do you[/] think that she could be a spy?’ Harry asked Hermione, who was chewing her bottom lip. A sudden flash of blood upon it caught his eye, and it was only then that Harry realised how worried Hermione was.

‘I don’t know,’ she sighed. ‘It’s doubtful that Dumbledore would give her a place if her background looked suspicious.’

Harry likewise sighed, realising that this was true.

‘Hang on a minute,’ Ron suddenly said. ‘Background…what exactly do we know about her? Nothing! We know that she disappeared for fifteen years, but not why, or what happened before that. We know that Parvati’s aunt went to school with her, but nothing about her at school except that she was really clever. Isn’t that a bit odd? Plus…you [I]do remember CONSTANT VIGILANCE! Yes?’

Hermione was slowly nodding. ‘We ought to try and find out a bit about her…there must be records somewhere. Or something.’

‘Or maybe we’re just being paranoid,’ Harry snapped. He was very tired, and at the moment it seemed to him that they were making a fuss over nothing.

‘It’s a bracelet, it’s probably a copy, Dumbledore wouldn’t bring anyone into the castle who posed a risk right now. I’ve had seven years of being told to trust Dumbledore, so let’s just try that now, okay? I said I wasn’t going to let Voldemort ruin my last year here, and I won’t, so let’s just stop looking for trouble and…and…have fun,’ he finished lamely.

‘Okay then Harry, we’ll just ignore the possible threat to you and see how well that turns out. Don’t worry, everything’s been fine before, I don’t see how it could possibly turn out badly this year. There’s never been anyone killed or hurt, or maimed due to Voldemort trying to kill you.’ Hermione stood quickly and stormed out of the library.

‘I wish she’d stop doing that,’ Ron muttered.

*****************************************************************

Da-daa! Hope you're all enjoying re-learning or just plain learning all about what's going on...leave me some feedback and tell me how!! :D

[leenielou]

Hellooo everyone, I'm back, and so is this!! :D

**********************************************************

Chapter Nine – Halloween

The morning of Halloween dawned surprisingly fair. When Harry awoke, the sun was shining through the dormitory window, and although the general temperature was quite chilly, the sun beams were warm upon his bed. This put him in a better mood than the previous night, and he whistled as he went down to breakfast.

The Great Hall was decorated in typical fashion for the holiday, and there were festive foods for breakfast. Ron tucked into a pumpkin and marshmallow pie, while Hermione picked at a slice of witch-shaped toast. As Harry sat down with a cheerful grin, they both looked up at him.

‘Morning, mate,’ Ron said through his pie, but Hermione simply nodded. Ron looked at her distastefully out of the corner of his eye, and Harry realised that they had been rowing.

‘What have you two been arguing about this time?’ he asked with a smile. Ron rolled his eyes.

‘She’s still in a grump about us not believing that Miss Snape is evil,’ he said.

‘I never said I didn’t,’ Harry quickly said, but Hermione still looked at him with angry eyes. ‘I just meant that maybe we should wait to see if anything else happens…you know…if she does anything suspicious…’

As one, the three turned to look up at the staff table, where Miss Snape was sat talking animatedly to her brother, dressed today in deep red robes. A sour look still lingered around Professor Snape’s face, but he was replying to every single one of his sister’s comments.

‘Looks like they’re getting on, anyway,’ Ron remarked.

‘Surely Snape would know if she was evil, Hermione?’ Harry wheedled, unwilling to have her mad at him. She stood up.

‘Okay, we’ll give her some more chances. I’m just not comfortable now that I know about the Band of Isis, that’s all.’

‘Well go and tell Dumbledore about it then,’ Ron said curtly. Hermione gave him a withering look.

‘He’ll already know – it’s rather obvious that she’s wearing it.’

‘Well, we’ll just keep an eye on her,’ Harry commented, buttering his warlock –shaped toast. For some reason he could feel himself playing the peace maker in every conversation that they had now. He looked Hermione in the eye. ‘Come on, Hermione, sit down. We are taking it seriously. Really.’

She nodded slightly and sat back down. She smiled at Harry suddenly, making him pause with his toast halfway to his mouth, wondering what he had done.

‘What?’ he asked, feeling slightly alarmed.

‘Nothing!’ she cried. ‘I was just...smiling.’ She looked down at the table quickly, blushing slightly. Harry, feeling extremely confused, continued to eat his toast, occasionally glancing up at the staff table where Miss Snape sat, still in a deep conversation with her brother, waving her fork around to emphasise a point, smiling as she listened to his reply, reaching a hand up to smooth back a stray piece of hair, turning slightly in her seat…

**********************************************************

Biggie chapter this one is....have fun! :D

[leenielou]

Chapter Nine cont.

The feast that night was as spectacular and lavish as it had ever been. Harry, Ron and Hermione were rather subdued though, as they realised that it would be the last one that they would attend at Hogwarts. Ron tried to make it worth his while by eating more than even he could ever previously manage. Charmed candies shaped like leprechauns, ghouls and witches hopped and skipped around the tables until someone got so fed up that they ate them, their screams surprisingly realistic and unnerving. Huge Jack O’ Lanterns lit the air instead of the normal candles, and at several points they belched huge showers of Honeydukes chocolates onto the tables below. Enchanted streamers and showers of glittery stars filled the air, to the point where Harry began to wonder if the lavishness of the feast was a way of saying goodbye.

Eventually, when they had all taken their fill, and everyone was sleepy from too much food, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville and Ginny made their way back up to the common room.

‘Ohhh…I think I ate too much…’ Ron groaned, heaving himself up the staircases. Ginny laughingly pretended to push him along.

‘At this rate we’ll end up having to roll you to your Graduation,’ she quipped.

‘I can’t believe that was our last Halloween here,’ Hermione said sadly, gazing up at the pictures on the walls. ‘I feel as though I want to slow down time completely.’

Harry nodded. He knew exactly what she meant. The previous week, a notice had gone up in the common room detailing a talk on employment once out of Hogwarts, and it only was hitting him now just what that meant.

‘My last year playing Hogwarts Quidditch…’ he said.

‘Last year in the common room,’ Hermione replied, leaning against him as they climbed the staircase to pass by the end of the Defence Against the Dark Arts corridor. Her hand gave his an affectionate squeeze. Harry looked around to see Ginny and Ron with their arms around each other too. Ginny looked upset, and Harry could imagine that it was because she would be the last Weasley in Hogwarts soon.

The sound of running footsteps suddenly brought Harry out of his nostalgic reverie. He looked to his right just in time to see the hooded figure that was barrelling down the corridor towards the group.

‘Watch out!’ he called, and the other four looked around in surprise, but were too late to move out of the way. Whoever it was crashed directly into Ginny and Ron, felling all three to the ground.

‘Erghhhh…what did you do that for? I think I’m going to be sick now,’ Ron grumbled, clearly not seeing what the others were.

Everything seemed to go into slow motion as the person clad in a black, hooded robe scrambled to their feet, a black velvet bag held in their hand. The group fell into a horrified silence as they saw the mask that covered the person’s face. As one, they withdrew their wands.

Another set of running footsteps echoed down the corridor, and Harry managed to tear his eyes away to look in their direction, desperately praying for Dumbledore.

Instead, he saw Miss Snape.

The black-robed figure took advantage of the distraction to push Ginny aside, who had just stood up, and begin to jump down the stairs. Ginny fell straight into Ron again, and the two fell awkwardly to the floor, Ginny clutching the ankle that she had broken two summers ago.

‘Stupefy!’ Miss Snape shrieked, so furiously that the hairs on the back of Harry’s neck stood up, and he felt the power of the spell barge past him. The person on the stairs below let out a scream and crumpled to a heap, continuing down the flight of stairs as a soft, unprotected body, falling clumsily and landing sprawled upon the landing below.

Miss Snape ran past the group without commenting, and down the stairs, pausing at the very bottom with her wand pointing straight at the figure on the floor.

‘Ginny, are you okay?’ Hermione asked desperately, crouching beside her and trying to look at her ankle. Harry began to descend the staircase towards the two people at the bottom, his wand likewise drawn.

‘Miss Snape, is that – ‘ he began, but she cut him off.

‘Be quiet, Potter!’ she snapped, never moving her eyes from the person on the ground. She jerked her head back in the direction from where he had come. ‘Get one of them to get Dumbledore. Hermione needs to stop any other students from coming up here,’ she said through gritted teeth.
Harry turned to look at Hermione, but she had already heard, and she was fearfully standing up.

‘Neville, look after Ginny. I need to go with Hermione,’ Ron said, all traces of discontent erased. The two ran off down the other corridor.

When Harry turned back round, Miss Snape was bending over the sprawled figure and attempting to tug the velvet bag out of their grasp. When she gained it, she immediately ripped the cord open and plunged her hand inside.

Harry saw, in that moment, the movement of the body.

‘Miss Snape!’ he yelled, but the person had already screamed a curse, and Miss Snape staggered backwards onto the stairs, clutching her throat. The velvet bag had been dropped to the floor, and, the person that Harry now knew without a shadow of a doubt to be a Death Eater, quickly retrieved it and then turned to go again.

He found himself running down the stairs before his brain registered what he was doing.

‘Impedimenta!’ he cried, and the Death Eater stumbled, slowing to a walk. Harry could feel their frustration as they attempted to run again. Miss Snape, meanwhile, was still collapsed upon the stairs, breathing as though there were strong hands clasped tightly around her throat. Her wand had fallen to the ground as well, and her fingers were grasping upon thin air, or so Harry thought. Until he heard a shadow of a whisper pass from her lips;

‘Finite Incantatem,’ and she fell to her knees, coughing.

‘Don’t let her get away,’ she gasped, rubbing her throat.

Her? Harry had time to think before he charged after the Death Eater.

‘Petrificus Totalus!’ he yelled, but his spell went wide, and the Death Eater was regaining speed all of the time. In a desperate measure, he leaped, wrapped his arms around…her…head, and pulled her to the ground. As they rolled over, a sudden thought flashed into his mind…

Bellatrix.

**********************************************************

ooooOOOooo.... :scared:

:D

[leenielou]

Chapter Nine cont.

His ears blanked out all sound except for the heavy breathing of the Death Eater and his own heartbeat, and his eyes were blind to everything except the mask that he could see in front of him now…

Miss Snape was beside him before his outstretched hand could rip the mask away from what he was sure was that evil, sneering face beneath. She grabbed hold of his arm and pulled him off of the woman, whose black hair he could now see emerging from beneath the edges of the mask.

‘No! Get off of me!’ he shouted, struggling to get back to the figure and remove that mask. She turned to him, her face feral.

‘Get back up the stairs and away from here! Leave it to me!’

Harry backed away a bit, furious at missing his chance, but did not leave completely. He watched with hatred burning every cell in his body as Bellatrix slowly stood, the velvet bag swinging from one wrist, her wand focused upon Miss Snape…

…whose wand was still on the floor by the stairs.

‘Foolish girl,’ Miss Snape hissed. ‘Did you really think that you could get away with this?’

Harry edged towards the dormant hazelnut and ash wand, never taking his eyes off of Bellatrix and Miss Snape, one seemingly emotionless and one so angry that it put her brother to shame.

‘Crucio!’ Bellatrix screamed, and Miss Snape fell to the floor, making no sound, but her hands were tearing out huge chunks of her hair. Harry, remembering full well the pain of the Cruciatus, and faced with such an opportunity that he had never had before – an unprotected Bellatrix Lestrange – began to speak a curse that he hoped would cause her considerable pain, when she whipped around and directed the Cruciatus at him, releasing Miss Snape.

Without even thinking, Harry said,

‘Eversor calimalam,’ and the deep blue protecting disc appeared in front of him, absorbing the curse and destroying it.

Miss Snape got to her feet, and somehow, she had her wand.

‘Stupefy!’ she cried again, but Bellatrix deflected the spell, and turned to run again.

And all of a sudden, Dumbledore was standing there, in her way. She skidded to a halt, then raised her wand.

‘I wouldn’t do that if I were you,’ Dumbledore said calmly, his blue eyes hard and mouth firm.

She did anyway, and the two began to duel viciously, the beams of their spells hitting the walls, floor, and, to their disgust, the paintings.

‘Dumbledore, it’s Bellatrix!’ Harry yelled, as Miss Snape grabbed hold of him and tried to push him up the stairs.

‘Get back up there and do as you are told!’ she hissed, pushing him onto the first step.

‘No!’ he shouted, openly defying her. ‘I want to see her killed!’

He thought for a moment then that Miss Snape’s eyes appeared to soften; her whole demeanour seemed to sag. But then she let go of him so suddenly that he nearly fell, and spun around to aid Dumbledore. A spell shot just past Harry’s ear and hit the stair rail just below his hand.

‘Harry, get out of here!’ Dumbledore shouted as another sailed past him.

Harry wasn’t going anywhere. He wanted to see Bellatrix die…

A spell knocked her to the ground, and in the next moment Miss Snape was on top of her, tugging the velvet bag from her grasp. Bellatrix reached up a hand to pull Miss Snape’s hair violently down, and she swore aloud. They were grappling now, Dumbledore was yelling at Miss Snape to get off of her, Miss Snape was frantically tugging at the velvet bag with one hand and Bellatrix was trying to say a curse while her mouth was covered with Miss Snape’s other hand, and then…

Miss Snape pulled the mask off.

Dumbledore fell silent, his face suddenly an expression of dismayed disbelief. Miss Snape snatched Bellatrix’s wand and hauled her to her feet.

Harry saw her face.

It wasn’t Bellatrix Lestrange.

**********************************************************

oooOOooo :eyebrows: Who can it beeeee??? :evil:

[leenielou]

And all is revealed....

**********************************************************

Chapter Nine cont.

Footsteps skidded to a halt at the top of the staircase. Harry heard Ron and Hermione gasp. He saw the rest of the staff within the Order behind them. He felt too shocked to do anything; paralysed by complete and absolute astonishment.

Cho Chang’s face was flushed, but proud. Her dark eyes flashed around at the approaching teachers, who were likewise in a state of disbelief. Miss Snape, clearly puzzled at the silence that had fallen over the landing, stepped away from her.

Cho ran.

Miss Snape began to run after her, but Dumbledore put out his hand to stop her.

‘What are you doing?’ she cried, exasperated, but Dumbledore placed his hand upon her shoulder.

‘We are in the position of power, here,’ he said. ‘We know another of his servants.’

‘But she took…’

‘It doesn’t matter. We will just have to send for the star.’

‘And faith?’ Miss Snape asked. Dumbledore nodded, signifying that he did not want to talk about it in front of Harry and the others.

Professor McGonagall was helping Ginny up, letting her lean on her arm. Neville took her other arm.

‘Yes, take Miss Weasley to the Hospital Wing,’ Dumbledore called up, and the three turned to head slowly off towards it. Dumbledore turned to Harry.

‘Are you alright?’ he asked.

‘Um…yeh…that was…wasn’t it?’ Harry managed.

‘It was Miss Chang, yes.’ Dumbledore sighed heavily. ‘This means that Voldemort may have gathered other young supporters.’

Harry noticed that Miss Snape did not flinch at all at the name Voldemort.

‘I suggest that you three go to your dormitories. Please do not tell anyone about this disturbance until we have decided what is to be done,’ Dumbledore continued. They all nodded, clearly still as shocked as each other, and Harry turned to walk up the stairs towards the other two.

‘Harry, do you think that – ‘ Ron began in a small voice as they headed for the portrait door.

‘I don’t want to think about it,’ Harry said firmly. He knew what Ron was going to say. He was going to ask if Cho had only wanted to get closer to him in the fifth year because she was spying. He was going to ask if Cho had given all of the details of the past two years worth of meetings with the DA to Voldemort. He was going to ask if Cho had been a Death Eater all along…

Harry got into bed with his mind whirling. He had always thought that at least one girl had liked him. But now he wasn’t sure at all. Had he been used? Would Cho have taken a chance to hurt him if they had been alone more? And if someone as unlikely to be suspected as being a Death Eater as Cho could not have been trusted, who else was under Voldemort’s sly employ that they knew nothing about?


**********************************************************

:evil:

Hope you enjoyed! :D

[leenielou]

This is an update especially for fenellaevangela and Shellybell18...for kicking me in my lazy *** and getting me to update!! Enjoy! :D

*****************************************************************************************************************************************************
Chapter Ten - Gryffindor v Ravenclaw

The next morning came all too soon for Harry. He was sure that he had not slept for even one minute the whole of the night; instead he had lain awake, staring up at the framework of his curtained bed, going over and over in his head what had happened the night before.

He rose slowly, avoiding Ron’s concerned gaze and went down to breakfast. He was annoyed. Just as he had begun to accept his fate and the things that had happened, Voldemort had to strike below the belt.

Cho was a Death Eater.

Harry blanched at the thought of her pretty face contorted with evil, torturing and killing whilst laughing, being in cohorts with Bellatrix Lestrange.

I wish that it had been Bellatrix, he thought. Then at least I would have known what to expect.

He had almost forgotten about the match that day until Jack Sloper came and slapped him on the back as he was forcing down some cereal, resulting in him spraying it all over the table.

‘What you looking so nervous for, Harry? Come on, let’s eat up, give those stupid Ravenclaws something to fear.’ He sat down next to Harry and piled his plate high with sausage, bacon and eggs. Harry took a sidelong glance and felt sick. He felt as if food was not an option at the present moment.

Andrew Kirke soon joined them, and he and Jack chatted away happily about nonsense. Harry was relieved when he saw Ginny and Neville make their way over, but Ginny looked as bad as he felt.

‘I can’t believe it,’ she whispered as she sat down, and Harry nodded reluctantly. ‘She was always so…so…nice.’

Neville was looking thunderous, which Harry would have found funny if he wasn’t so depressed.

‘And she broke Ginny’s ankle! Madame Pomfrey was up all night – apparently it’s harder to mend if it’s a second break.’

‘We’re just going to have to forget about it for today,’ Harry muttered, watching Ron and Hermione cross the Hall towards them. ‘Because otherwise we won’t win.’

Even as he said the words he felt hollow. At the moment, Quidditch meant nothing to him. It seemed so insignificant, so pointless. Ginny seemed to pick up on what he was thinking.

‘Harry, it will help to take your mind off of things. Besides, it’s something you enjoy, and you have to hold onto that.’

Harry was silent, knowing that she was right.

‘Hello, Harry,’ Hermione said in a small voice as she and Ron sat down. ‘Good luck today.’

He forced a grin. ‘Thanks, Hermione.’ She beamed at him, clearly relieved. He drew in a deep, fortifying breath.

‘Ravenclaw had better be on form today,’ he announced, looking around at the assembled group. ‘Because I’m in the mood to really let out some anger.’

[leenielou]

Woop! I've remembered to update! *does a little dance*

************************************************************************************************************

Chapter Ten cont.

Harry tried to force his worries and turmoil deep down into his brain as the Gryffindor team gathered in the changing room before the match that afternoon. He took a look around at their excited faces and swallowed heavily.

‘Right, we can win this,’ he began, and everyone grinned. ‘Ravenclaw have never put up too much of a threat to us, and their team this year is heavily dependant upon one player.’

‘Guess that’d be Quirke then,’ Jack muttered.

‘Just let me deal with her,’ Harry said, feeling a wave of irritation. ‘Everyone just concentrate on what we’ve been practising, and scoring goals. Ravenclaw’s Keeper seems to be their only weak point; he’s pretty solid, but doesn’t have much imagination.’

He turned to the door. The team followed him silently out onto the pitch, where they were immediately hit by the noise of the crowds cheering above them. The Slytherin stand rang with boos and catcalls as they saw the red and gold robed players emerge, but the Ravenclaws, being a much less aggressive and competitive bunch of people, cheered them.

‘Who are you looking for, Harry?’ Harry heard Ginny say, and realised that he had been looking through each stand.

‘No one,’ he muttered, but then he saw her. Miss Snape was sat with the Gryffindors, wrapped in a huge black coat so as to avoid the cold. He felt uneasy just seeing her there.

‘Captains shake hands,’ Madame Hooch ordered, and Harry hastily shook the Ravenclaw captain’s hand, a seventh year like himself.

‘Mount your brooms!’ came the next cried order, and Harry flung his leg over his broom, preparing to push off as the whistle was blown. The Snitch was released, followed by the two Bludgers. Madame Hooch threw the Quaffle high into the air and blew her whistle, and the game began.

Harry immediately flew high up above the players below, trying desperately to seek out the Snitch before Orla Quirke did. There was no sign of it for the moment however, and so he glanced across at the petite form of Orla, circling on her broom with her blue robes billowing behind her.

Dean Thomas began to commentate on the match.

‘And it’s Gregson for Ravenclaw, straight off towards the Gryffindor end, he passes Weasley, avoids a nasty Bludger from Kirke – bit of a vicious Beater that one, good choice by Potter. There goes another Bludger – and he dodges it again! Has this guy got eyes in the back of his head? And there’s McDonald beneath him, waiting to catch the Quaffle if it drops – surely she should look where she’s going? It’s still Gregson…wait! A Bludger from Sloper hits his broom and he’s dropped the Quaffle! McDonald catches it, nice 180 degree turn there…and McDonald’s off!’

Harry watched the red and gold back of Natalie bent low on her broomstick, streaking towards the other end of the pitch. He glanced over at Orla again, and saw her circling lower and lower towards the pitch, but with no obvious reason.

‘Weasley and Dobbs get into formation with McDonald…wait a minute, they might be on a crash course collision here…Gregson and Floyd for Ravenclaw block them – ouch!’ All four Chasers collided and became tangled together in a huge bunch of legs and arms, and began to fall towards the ground. Harry saw McGonagall stand anxiously in the Gryffindor box.

‘And Weasley’s out of the mess! Dobbs is hanging onto her broom…perfect moment for McDonald to score of course…she shoots…SHE SCORES! Ten points to Gryffindor!’

The Ravenclaw Keeper muttered an obscene word and drew his attention back from the two Chasers who had managed to rectify their fall and were now flying again.

‘Hooper with the Quaffle for Ravenclaw…that was a pretty nasty Bludger, wouldn’t be surprised if that was a foul…but no, play goes on, and it’s Weasley now with the Quaffle, crowded by Floyd and he snatches it…But Weasley’s back, she doesn’t give up this one, her and Dobbs appear to be crowding Floyd…they’re going to crash again if they aren’t careful…’

Ginny and Emma peeled away from Floyd just in time to avoid crashing into Jack and Andrew, and Floyd managed to put the Quaffle past Ron, whose face was almost black with anger.

‘Ten points all!’ Dean yelled.

The game became pretty uneventful after that, the players on both teams being pretty much evenly matched. Ginny and Emma managed to score another two goals apiece, as did the Ravenclaw Chasers. Madame Hooch ordered a penalty to Ravenclaw after one of Jack’s rather enthusiastic Bludgers almost knocked Floyd out, but Gregson who took it fumbled the ball and Ron saved it easily.

‘So…thirty points each…Potter and Quirke are stalking the pitch now, ouch, Potter very nearly got a Bludger in the head there…’

Harry looked around to see Andrew behind him, grinning.

‘Thanks,’ he mouthed, and returned to dodging in and out of the players, hoping to see the Snitch. He couldn't see it anywhere, there were too many bodies around him. The crowd suddenly began to scream and cheer, Harry looked desperately around...

‘Quirke goes into a dive!!!’

********************************************************************************************************
:whistle:

[leenielou]

Okay, okay, I know I was pretty evil last update :evil: Please forgive me? I have lots and lots of cookies? :D

************************************************************************************************************
Chapter Ten cont.

Harry looked around, horrified, to see Orla Quirke racing towards the small glint of gold about six feet off of the ground. There was no way that he was going to get there in time, but he set off anyway, his Firebolt responding to every little touch, corkscrewing him in and out of the players and towards Orla, whose hand was now outstretched and hair streaming out far behind her with the speed that she was travelling at.

‘I don’t think so!’ Harry suddenly heard somebody yell, and out of the corner of his eye became aware of the Bludger that was streaking towards where the Snitch was hovering. At the speed he was going, by the time he reached the spot the Bludger would collide right with the side of his head…

‘Quirke’s going to get hit!’ cried Dean.

Orla clearly hadn’t noticed the Bludger, and so Harry shouted as loud as he could,

‘LOOK OUT!!!’

She looked around briefly, her face changing as she saw the Bludger, and immediately pulled up and away into an out of control spiral.

‘Quirke’s out of danger…but is her broom alright? Floyd takes advantage to try and score, but Weasley casually saves it…Bloody hell!’

McGonagall swiped Dean on the shoulder, but even she looked astounded. The Bludger had slammed into the Golden Snitch, and compared to the huge force, the Snitch exploded.

‘What is it with exploding Quidditch balls???!!!’ Andrew yelled furiously, circling madly.

Harry was still watching Orla though, as she struggled to contain her broom. Eventually she managed to calm it, wiping the sweat from her forehead with her robe sleeve.

‘What do we do now?’ Ginny asked, arriving beside Harry.

‘I don’t know…’ he muttered, watching McGonagall having a rapid discussion with Madame Hooch who had flown up to the stand.

‘The game must be decided on penalty shots!’ Madame Hooch cried as she made her way back to the assembled floating players, all at a loss as to what to do without a Snitch.

‘Penalty shots!’ Dean said from his commentating box. ‘The best out of three wins the game, and Ravenclaw is to take the first shot!’

Harry called his team over into a huddle, floating in the air.

‘Ginny, Emma, Natalie, you all alright to take the shots?’ he asked, looking with concern at a bruise on Emma’s temple.

‘Yes, yes,’ she said, impatiently. ‘More importantly, is Ron alright to save penalties?’

Ron grinned at her. ‘Don’t doubt me, baby,’ he joked, and was rewarded with a dig in the ribs.

‘Right then,’ Harry said, feeling slightly uncertain. He had never read of a game being decided on penalties before in Quidditch Through The Ages. But then again, he had never read of an exploding Snitch or Quaffle. Thinking this, his eyes narrowed. ‘Which one of you two hit that Bludger?’ he asked sharply, eyeing Jack and Andrew. Jack looked back at him, stonily.

‘Neither of us hit a Bludger,’ he said.

‘What the hell do you mean? Someone yelled, ‘I don’t think so’ and hit that Bludger!’ Harry exclaimed, his irritation rising to the surface.

‘I shouted that,’ Andrew admitted, shrugging. ‘But I was about to hit one when that Bludger hit the Snitch.’

‘And I didn’t hit one,’ Jack said adamantly. ‘I guess one just must have been going in that direction anyway.’

‘Players! Take your positions!’ Madame Hooch shouted, blowing on her whistle.

‘That’s quite odd though…’ Harry heard Ginny say as she flew off to the Ravenclaw goalposts. He, Jack and Andrew flew down to the ground and dismounted their brooms.

‘I hope Ron’s been practicing his penalties,’ Andrew muttered.

‘He’ll be fine,’ Harry said through gritted teeth. Did they not realise that he was Ron’s best friend? Did they not watch Ron during practices and matches and see how much he had improved? Had they not heard the Gryffindor version of Weasley Is Our King??

Floyd took the Quaffle from Madame Hooch and hovered in the air for a moment, concentrating. The sound of Ravenclaw voices cheering him on resounded clearly around the pitch. As if echoing Harry’s thoughts, the Gryffindor stand struck up Weasley Is Our King.

Floyd began to fly towards the goal posts.

‘Here he goes, Floyd for Ravenclaw, taking the first penalty…’ Dean said, then loudly groaned as Floyd tricked Ron into going left and put it through the right hoop. ‘And Floyd scores…one-nil to Ravenclaw. Weasley to take the first penalty for Gryffindor…’

Harry craned his neck upwards to see Ginny, hoping and praying that she would get it in. Ginny’s red hair and robes were flowing slightly in the wind, so that she almost looked aflame.

She suddenly darted forward so quickly that Harry could see the Ravenclaw keeper jump, and artfully threw it clean over his head and through the middle hoop.

‘One all! Hooper to take the next penalty for Ravenclaw!’

Ron managed to save Hooper’s shot though, and so it was Emma’s turn to take a shot. Unfortunately, it was also saved, which made Harry gnash his teeth together on the ground below. For once there was nothing that he could do to help win the game, and he felt utterly useless.

‘Gregson to take the last penalty for Ravenclaw…’ Dean said almost quietly. The noise of the stadium had died down, and Jack and Andrew had stopped muttering next to Harry. All of their eyes were fixed upon the figures above. Inexplicably, Harry felt a sudden jolt of pain in his scar, and as he bent his head down to rub it with his hand, his eyes caught Orla Quirke’s. She was standing on the other side of the pitch with the Ravenclaw Beaters, and her eyes were fixed on Harry. Distracted, he lowered his hand and stared back, too tense to be bothered about being rude. She returned the stare unflinchingly, until Dean cried,

‘And Weasley saves it!’ Harry immediately looked upwards, grinning. Jack and Andrew high-fived each other and nudged Harry.

‘As long as Natalie gets it in, we’re fine,’ Jack said, as Andrew whooped, and the crowd cheered.

‘Do we carry on if she doesn’t, you think?’ Harry asked, but Jack shrugged. Before turning his attention to Natalie, Harry glanced back at Orla, but her eyes were locked firmly up in the sky.

The pitch fell completely silent as Natalie flew up level to the posts, the Quaffle under her arm. Harry could literally hear the wind blowing through the grass beneath him, and he swallowed, his mouth dry. Natalie had to get it in…

She began moving, but slowly.

‘What are you doing…what are you doing…’ he heard Andrew say under his breath. The Ravenclaw Keeper was solid in front of his middle post, watching her slow travel through the air towards him.

‘Why is she going so slow?’ Jack mumbled, and Harry shook his head, unable to say anything, knowing, instinctively knowing that the Quaffle would not go in at an approach speed like that…

A collective gasp went up from the crowd as Natalie suddenly dropped through the air, her broom angled sharply towards the ground; then uttered a huge cheer as she steered sharply upwards before the Ravenclaw Keeper had figured out what was going on and neatly slotted the Quaffle through the middle hoop.

‘Yaaaaa-hooooo!’ Jack and Andrew jumped up and down, and Dean victoriously declared the result as being a win to Gryffindor, fifty points to thirty. Ginny, Natalie, Emma and Ron flew down to meet the three already on the ground, and all were high laughing, joking and cheering from the success. The dejected Ravenclaw team trooped off of the pitch, and Harry, in the middle of a scrum of happy Gryffindors, turned his head to watch them go. For a moment his heart stopped. The shiny black haired head of Orla Quirke had looked just like Cho’s had the last time he had played her.

********************************************************************************************************

Ding ding ding ding!! And you really thought I'd let Gryffindor lose?! :lol:

[leenielou]

Woo..sorry for the lateness of the update! Been working on another fic that I hope to continue when I've got a good grounding of the plot etc. In the meantime, feast your eyes on the new update of this! :D

************************************************************************************************************

Chapter Eleven – The Meeting

Still elated from their victory, the Gryffindors returned to their warm common room, some groups rowdily singing Weasley Is Our King while others were singing the Gryffindor chant.

Harry felt physically drained just being within the crowd. The events the previous night and the strange happenings at the Quidditch match seemed to be catching up on him again, and he felt quite comfortable with the idea of sinking into a chair in front of the fire and not getting up again until Christmas. The confused dark cloud of sharp thoughts and emotions that was whirling around in his head seemed to be fogging up his vision and impairing his balance. Walking the corridors he felt as though he were on the edge of a ravine that he could fall off at any moment.

Hermione seemed to pick up on his brooding mood, and gave his arm a supportive squeeze as they climbed through the portrait hole. Harry felt dirty and gritty, but he still headed straight for the chair by the flickering fire, displacing an eager first year with an impatient tilt of his head. The poor boy, astounded that the Captain of the Quidditch team had even deigned to notice him, immediately ran off to tell his friends. Harry watched him, realising that the boy was so excited he had forgotten that Harry was actually Harry Potter, as well as Captain.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have that all of the time? he thought blearily, stretching and rubbing his eyes.

‘Oi, Cap’n,’ someone suddenly said above him, and he felt a sharp poke on his arm. He looked up into the eyes of Ginny, bright with the sounds of party going that was occurring behind his chair.

‘What?’ he murmured, his eyes shutting again.

If it’s something about the party they’re having, I’m going upstairs, he thought.

‘Message for you. Prof Snape wants to see you in her office…that is Miss Snape, not our delightful friend Sevvie,’ Ginny continued in a bright voice. ‘Apparently she grabbed Neville on the way back from the match and told him, but he’s a bit…indisposed at the moment.’

Harry hauled his body around on the chair to see what Neville was doing, and his eyebrows nearly shot off of his head. Clearly someone had smuggled in some more Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes, because Neville had grown wings and was flitting around in a corner of the room near the roof. He quite obviously had no control over the wings, and was whimpering as they carried him ever nearer to the window. A crowd below cheered him on.

‘Well, what does she want?’ he asked, finally registering that he had been summoned to meet Miss Snape.

‘I don’t know, I’m not a mind reader,’ Ginny snapped. ‘But I suggest to go. You know how she can get.’ With that she walked off back to the crowd below Neville, and joined in with the laughter that was making even Neville’s mouth twitch now.

Harry stared into the fire, fuming. What did she want? Why did she have to summon him right after a jubilant Quidditch match? And what did she want?

Mentally, Harry raced through all of the options in his mind that she could possibly want with him. Homework? No, it was all done. Punishment? He hadn’t done anything!

He resigned himself to the fact that he had better go, and so pushed himself up and out of his comfy seat with a groan. He felt quite nervous about meeting Miss Snape alone, after all of the doubts that Hermione had put into his head over the last couple of weeks. All he could do was trust Dumbledore…Dumbledore had placed her in the school…

[leenielou]

Chapter Eleven cont.

Hermione looked up questioningly as he left the room, but he didn’t feel like talking to anyone, so he carried on walking. His footsteps echoed around the stone corridors that led down to the Defence Against the Dark Arts corridor, but he didn’t notice. He suddenly, quite alarmingly realised that it was along here that just the last night had run the Death Eater, Miss Snape in hot pursuit, revealed to be Cho Chang, his one time sort of girlfriend and crush for a few years…

The confusing swirl came back in front of his eyes and he tried to stuff the doubts down as deep as he could. What if everyone he was close to was secretly working against him? What if there was a huge conspiracy to gain his trust and then take him to die?

He stopped abruptly, realising that he had walked just past Miss Snape’s office. Cautiously, he approached the door, reached out his hand and knocked twice.

‘Come in,’ he heard her voice say, and stepped inside.

He had never been inside this office before. Neville had once when he had taken the bad end of a curse from Malfoy during a practical defence lesson, but his lips had been drooping so much for a few days afterwards that he was in no fit state to tell anyone about it, and then they had forgotten. In fact, thinking about it, no wonder Neville’s lip was still a bit twisted. On one of Fred and George’s visits when his lips were still touching the ground they had tied them into a nice bow for him. Complete with pink ribbons.

The thought slightly cheering Harry up, he quickly looked at his surroundings.

Miss Snape was sat behind a wide dark wooded desk that took up the centre of the room. The walls were hung with maps and diagrams of what looked to be complicated potion making, and there were seven tall bookcases behind the desk crammed with books. More books were stacked beside a cupboard of the same colour of the desk, which had delicate twisting vines and bell shapes cut into it. On top of the cupboard was a piece of dark cloth, and resting on the cloth was the famous mixed wood wand.

He looked at Miss Snape, and became aware that she was hurriedly rolling large sheets of parchment that she had clearly been looking at when he had knocked. They too looked like maps and charts, but they were gone before he could take a closer look. Miss Snape settled back in her chair, her hands lightly resting on its arms.

‘I’m sorry that you had to witness that incident last night, Harry,’ she began, her voice level and quiet. ‘It was not something that I would have wished for you to see, without Professor Dumbledore explaining to me exactly who the young woman was.’

Harry remained silent. There wasn’t much that he could think of to say to that.

‘The Headmaster has also asked me to explain to you that subsequently, following on from last night’s visit, there has been an even larger increase in the amount of protection surrounding Hogwarts. Past pupils are now being refused admission until it is vouched for, and all people entering shall have to submit their wands for an examination, much like, as you have seen, at the Ministry of Magic.’

Harry looked up to see her brown eyes boring into his. He shifted on his seat uncomfortably.

‘This means that normal school practice must also come into consideration,’ she continued, her fingers beginning to lightly stroke the padding on her chair’s arms. ‘Pupils will, after tonight, no longer be allowed out of the castle after dark. And, Mr Potter…’ She leaned forward. ‘The doors are being taught to recognise invisibility cloaks. We don’t need anyone gallivanting off anywhere.’

‘What are you saying?!’ Harry cried, surprising even himself. ‘That I break all of the school rules anyway?’

‘I am not implying anything, Mr Potter,’ Miss Snape said stonily, suddenly looking very like her brother. ‘But your track record does give me some cause for concern. Flying off on Thestrals, for instance, on missions that are highly erroneous.’

‘What does my track record have to do with you?’ Harry asked angrily. ‘And don’t even think about talking about that with me. You don’t know me! You don’t know anything about why I’ve done some of the things that I’ve done!’

‘Keep your voice down, and speak to me respectfully’ she snapped, her cheeks flushing. ‘Everyone at this school is working to protect you now.’

Harry felt his face flaming with anger. She was speaking to him like a child, degrading him and mentioning things that she had no idea of, no clue as to how he felt or had felt or what his motivations had been…

‘For that reason, Professor Dumbledore and I have felt it for the best that you do not participate in any Hogsmeade visits this year.’

Harry looked at the cool, dark haired woman sat in front of him, and felt hatred begin to tickle his throat.

‘What?’ he asked, lowly.


********************************************************************************************************

:scared:

[leenielou]

Chapter Eleven cont.

‘I would have prevented all students, could I,’ she continued as though nothing out of the ordinary was taking place. ‘But in the end, you are the only one necessary enough. No other student is likely to tempt the Dark Lord as much as you, therefore, it is safer for you to stay here.’

‘Why?! Because my ex-girlfriend broke in to go after you?!’ he spat, feeling the anger climb higher.

‘What on earth gave you that idea?’ she said, supremely disdainful.

‘Well, she never came near me, even though I was stood right there!. If she was only after you, then I’m at no risk!’

‘Mr Potter, you are talking absolute nonsense. Miss Chang had infiltrated the castle to lay in wait for you, and take you to the Dark Lord.’

‘What, did she tell you that?’ Harry sneered. Miss Snape opened her mouth indignantly to reply, but then shut it again as if she had realised a mistake. A cold, almost wet feeling of distrust wiped itself over Harry, as he wondered if in fact, Cho had told Miss Snape that…because they were in league together…

‘This is of no matter, anyway. There will always be a particular risk for you, no matter what you may say. You will be to report to me if anything out of the usual occurs. That includes dreams.’ She stood up, and walked around to Harry’s side of the table, leaning down to look into his face. ‘I know that you have been taught Occlumency, but let’s see how good at it you really are, shall we?’

Harry stared back at her, trying to mentally prepare himself for a Legilimency attack. He was mildly surprised when it never came, and Miss Snape straightened up.

‘And why do I have to come to you?’ he asked when it became plain that no attack would come.

‘Because I am your Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher!’ she snapped, and placed her hands on her hips. ‘And in future, do not question every single thing that I tell you. You shall return tomorrow evening, when I have reached a decision about your Quidditch playing.’

Harry literally exploded.

‘Quidditch playing??!’ he shouted, standing up. ‘What do you mean? You can’t stop me playing Quidditch!!’

Miss Snape was standing back behind her desk, and she leaned over to look at him closely.

‘Oh yes I can,’ she said slowly and menacingly. ‘And you will have to obey it.’

‘That’s stupid!’ Harry yelled. ‘How on earth can Voldemort possibly get me while I’m playing Quidditch?! I’m flying around inside the grounds for Heaven’s sake!’

‘Sit down and be quiet,’ Miss Snape shouted suddenly. ‘There are always ways! There are always possibilities! The Dark Lord always has a plan!!’

Harry stared at her, speechless with burning anger and suspicion.

‘Now get out,’ she said, waving a hand dismissively towards the door, which clicked open by itself and slammed against the wall. Harry blinked in surprise, and then looked at Miss Snape.

‘Draughts,’ she said shortly, then sat down suddenly. ‘Go on, go! And remember to come back tomorrow night!’

Harry gave her a look which he hoped conveyed his utmost disgust, then stormed from the room.

He raged all the way up to the Gryffindor tower about what Miss Snape had said to him. No Hogsmeade? No going out after dark? Talking to him like he was an idiot? No Quidditch?

He couldn’t decide which was worse; that he had been possibly banned from all of the things that he loved the best, or that she had spoken to him in such a demeaning manner, almost intruding upon his past affairs. For a moment he was transported back to his fifth year, under Umbridge, when it felt as though Hogwarts had become a fascist prison. Except this time it was solely him.

He burst in through the portrait door and stormed straight up to his dormitory, ignoring Ron calling his name and the loud slams of the doors behind him. Harry flung himself down on his bed fully clothed, his chest feeling like someone had stuck red hot knives into it. It was the first time that he had been properly angry all year so far, and it was the canon emotion creeping around inside of him.

Abruptly, a jolt of pain ripped across his scar, and he remembered the pain earlier that day as he looked at Orla Quirke.

Empty your mind…empty your mind… he heard himself think, and gritted his teeth in desperation....


********************************************************************************************************

OoooOOOOoooo.....no Quidditch?! :wow:

[leenielou]

Oooh...a new chapter :D

*****************************************

Chapter Twelve – Defences Broken

Rolling around inside him like boiling hot sand under a hellish sun, Harry’s anger lashed into him time and time again as his scar started pulsing on his forehead. He gripped it, trying to think of something outside of anger…Quidditch…no. No. She couldn’t stop him from playing Quidditch. She just couldn’t….Wait, a new subject. Hermione. He could try and think about her and her silly fascination with doing work and SPEW and what he could buy her for Christmas from Hogsmea –

Hermione’s picture swam in front of his eyes….becoming sharper and more in focus. It really was a photograph of Hermione in front of him now…He put out his hand to touch it, but it seemed as though it was not working. He tried again, but to no avail. And then he heard that voice….high and chilling to the point where it gave him a fine china headache with the instant sharp cold of its pitch.

‘And she tried to stop you?’

There was a low murmur of laughter, and then Harry saw Cho Chang appear in front of him, her fine black hair held back in a severe ponytail, looking relaxed and elegant in a red dress.

‘Yes, she provided some…amusement,’ she said slowly, and her voice was not the Cho that Harry remembered. He felt amused all of a sudden, a heavily ironic humour weighing him down inside of his body inside of….where he was…like a dripping fur.

‘She is an amusing girl,’ Harry heard himself say. But no, it wasn’t himself. Or was it? His head was confused, this hadn’t happened in so long, it couldn’t be happening now, could it? Was he simply dreaming? ‘And now we have the Band.’

Harry saw the long, pale fingers raised in front of his eyes, twirling the delicate silver bracelet within them. The purple stones began to glow, and Harry felt satisfied fire burn his skin…

‘Ah…see, it works. Well done, my dear child. You have succeeded where my Serendipity failed; the charm is broken. Now we may see when Mr Potter is vulnerable…’

A high pitched laugh drilled into Harry’s head and he felt his body rocking with the convulsions, sending his brain swinging off into confused reverbs of Cho and charms and fire and fear…

He sat upright, gripping onto his own state of mind. He was in his bed. It was morning.

*******************************************
I wonder if you all think she's so innocent now....:evil:

[leenielou]

Thanks to ShellyBell and fenellaevangela for leaving me feedback - sorry for not relying I've been really busy! But here's another update for you two...and all the rest of you out there who read it :p

**************************************

Chapter Twelve cont.

‘I’m telling you, it was one of those dreams again!’ Harry stormed as he, Hermione and Ron headed off to their first lessons. He barely noticed as Hermione tripped over a raised stone and Ron had to grab her under the elbow.

‘Hermione, you look really tired,’ he heard Ron mutter, but Harry didn’t register it. At that moment he was far too filled with anxiety, worry and fear about his dream to care about anyone else.

‘I’m alright!’ Hermione snapped, then she addressed Harry; ‘Harry, if you’re sure then we’d better go and tell Dumbledore. You haven’t had one in ages, it really isn’t good to start having them now.’

‘But I’m meant to go to Miss Snape,’ Harry growled, gnashing his teeth just at the thought of her.

‘Why?’ Ron asked, clearly excited through his surprise.

‘Yes, when did that happen?’ Hermione asked, stopping to pick up a book that she had dropped. ‘Was it last night when Ginny said that you had to go and see her?’

Harry waited impatiently while Hermione tried to fit the book into her bag.

‘Yeh…she...well…I’d better just tell you,’ he finished, and then haltingly, due to his rising irritation just thinking about it, divulged what had happened the night before to them both.

After he had finished his tale, Ron kicked the wall.

‘What did you do that for?!’ Hermione shrieked, as he fell to the floor, clutching his foot in agony.

‘Well if Harry gets banned again, there’s no hope of us winning the Cup for our last year here!’

Hermione rolled her eyes. ‘Harry, this is really serious. If what you dreamt about means what it sounds like it means…’

‘Then Miss Snape is evil, yes, I know,’ he finished for her. ‘I ought to go to Dumbledore, he should know.’

‘Yeh, but if she is evil, then you telling Dumbledore about a dream you had would just make her suspicious, wouldn’t it?’ Ron interjected from below them. ‘She’s wonder why you didn’t go to her, and maybe she’d know you knew something.’

‘Good thinking, Ron,’ Hermione said quickly.

‘Thanks, Batman,’ Harry muttered, recalling such a relationship in one of Dudley’s old favourite cartoons. Hermione momentarily giggled, but Ron simply looked perplexed.

‘Well, here’s what we’ll do then. We’ll come with you to Miss Snape, now, this minute, and see what she does, and if it does look bad we’ll go to Dumbledore,’ Hermione said in a rush. ‘But we’ll need to go now, so that it doesn’t look as though we’ve discussed. It’ll be a safe bet that Voldemort knows he was in your mind –‘

‘-I was in his mind-‘

‘- Whatever. So if he’s managed to contact her then she’ll be waiting for you. We’d better go.’ She turned on her heel and began to walk off in the direction of Miss Snape’s office. Ron looked at Harry and rolled his eyes. Hermione was walking so fast that she had almost disappeared.

‘Come on then, Robin,’ Harry said, reaching down a hand to pull Ron up.

‘Huh?’

*****************************

Feedback (http://www.cosforums.com/showthread.php?p=1601895#post1601895) is greatly appreciated and will be rewarded with freshly baked choc-chip cookies :D

[leenielou]

I'm sorry this is so late....I've been so busy and then ill recently that my mind has rather wandered :( Here we are though!

*******************************************

Chapter Twelve cont.


Hermione skidded to a halt outside of Miss Snape’s office, causing Harry and Ron to crash into her.

‘Go on then,’ she hissed at Harry. ‘Knock!’

Harry nudged her out of the way and held out a fist to knock on the door, feeling a surge of anger rush through him at the prospect.

He knocked quietly, and the slight pressure that he had put on the door caused it to swing open slightly.

‘Unlocked?’ Hermione whispered. She reached out with her fingertips and pushed the door wider open. Harry poked his head around the edge and quickly surveyed the office.

‘She doesn’t seem to be there,’ he said lowly, and before he could stop her, Hermione had pushed the door all of the way open and stepped inside.

‘Hermione! She’ll go mental if she knows you’ve been in there!’ Ron exclaimed, his face still screwed up with the pain in his foot.

Hermione however was looking to the left of the door, with an odd expression on her face.

‘What is it?’ Harry hissed, uncertain as to whether he should join her. When she didn’t reply, he stepped forward to her side, and looked in the direction that her eyes were fixed.

There was a door in the wall that Harry had not noticed the day before. A pushed aside tapestry explained this. The door was open, and beyond it could clearly be seen a dark room, illuminated by a single light, where Miss Snape was clearly highlighted with her back to them.

‘You two, what the – ‘ Ron began, and Harry mouthed at him to shut up furiously. First of all Ron looked offended, but then he too took a step inside the room and craned his neck around the door.

Miss Snape was standing with her back to them, a long sleeve dangling to the floor from her left arm, which was held outwards from her body. Harry could just make out her right arm holding a clear glass bottle…and pouring something yellow over the other arm. The liquid was splashing to the ground, and as Harry watched, a sharp sting attacked his forehead, followed by a dull blast of pain that made him jerk suddenly backwards.

Ron and Hermione, alarmed, quickly pulled him out into the corridor.

‘What’s wrong?’ Hermione asked, as she quietly pulled the office door shut. Harry gripped his scar, that was flaming for what seemed like the tenth time in the space of a day.

‘Oh, I wonder,’ Ron drawled sarcastically, shooting Hermione an exasperated look.

‘Come on then, we’ll go back to the common room….’ Hermione said quickly, flushing in an angry manner. ‘I’m sure that was essence of murtlap she was pouring over her arm…her left arm…’

‘Yes, we all figured that out, Hermione,’ Ron continued to snipe, pulling Harry along as she strode off indignantly. ‘Do you think it was?’ he muttered lowly. Harry blinked up at him through the red lights that were dancing in his vision.

‘He’s calling them….I shouldn’t be feeling this!’

‘It’ll be because he penetrated your mind last night, or whatever happened,’ Ron hypothesised in a wondering tone. ‘Probably means that he can come and go easily now.’

Harry tried to concentrate on the basic exercises that he had supposedly mastered the previous year, and failed miserably as another sickening jolt made the bone plates of his head crunch together.

‘I’m fed up with this! Why does it have to happen to me?!’ Harry yelled suddenly, clutching his head. ‘LEAVE ME ALONE!’ he shouted to the empty corridor.

[leenielou]

So...Miss Snape? Pouring murtlap over her arm? Hmm...:huh: Ah well, here's the new update! More filler I'm afraid, but we're getting there!

*************************************************

Chapter Twelve cont.

Harry tried to concentrate on the basic exercises that he had supposedly mastered the previous year, and failed miserably as another sickening jolt made the bone plates of his head crunch together.

‘I’m fed up with this! Why does it have to happen to me?!’ Harry yelled suddenly, clutching his head. ‘LEAVE ME ALONE!’ he shouted to the empty corridor.

‘I’m only trying to help, mate!’ Ron yelled back.

‘Not you!’ Harry cried, exasperated. ‘Look, just….just let me…I’m off for a walk,’ he muttered, whirling round and marching off in the other direction.

‘Harry! What about your lesson?!’ he heard Hermione call, but ignored her. He pushed a tapestry aside and raced down the spiral staircase behind it, through an empty classroom and across the hall that it opened out onto into another room that he knew housed a passage over to the main staircase. Down he ran, and out onto the grounds, not stopping until the cold chill of the air hurt his lungs in the same fine slither of pain that his head felt. Then he began to walk again, instinctively heading towards Hagrid’s hut, until he realised with a jolt that Hagrid was not there any longer. The trio had not been to see Charlie in a while, and so he had slipped from Harry’s mind. The grounds still looked well-tended though, so Harry could only assume that he was still around.

Cautiously, aware that he had never spoken to Charlie one-on-one before, Harry walked up to the hut and knocked on the door.

‘Who is it?!’ barked a short reply. Harry raised his eyebrows. He’d never heard Charlie annoyed before.

‘Harry,’ he called through the door. It was pulled open to reveal an extremely stressed looking Weasley.

‘Hi there, Harry,’ he said, managing a smile. ‘What’s up?’

Harry looked at him, taking in the dishevelled hair, rumpled clothes, dark and bloodshot eyes and hands practically wringing the door handle off. Then he peered around him into the darkened hut, and seeing soil splashed over the floor and rolls of parchment screwed up and thrown at random, he grinned slightly.

‘What’s up with you, is the question, surely?’ he asked.

Charlie heaved a great and frustrated sigh. ‘Darrrgh. Don’t ask. Dumbledore wants me to plan a stupid winter garden for the stupid Yule Ball but the stupid designs won’t mesh together and bloody Professor Sprout keeps putting me off with new ideas and bad ideas and wrong ideas and basically, the whole thing is going to be a complete disaster, and Dumbledore thinks that it’s all going to plan and all ready and it is so far away from any semblance of ready or to plan that it makes my underwear drawer look organised and I’VE HAD IT UP TO HERE!’

He stopped short, breathing heavily, leaning on the door. Then he looked at Harry, grinned, and said,

‘Thanks, I needed to get that out. Come on in, you can have a look at how well it’s not progressing.’

Harry stepped through the door and looked with amusement at the total scene of disaster before him. Soil littered the floor, dotted occasionally with islands of emerald green turf. Scrolls were piled upon the desk, which was also overflowing with all sorts of exotic looking plants, and a toucan, who sat precariously on top of a swaying monkey tree with an apologetic look on his face.

‘Cor blimey,’ it said.

‘SHUT THE –‘ Charlie began, his face screwed up into a furious ball. Harry’s laughter interrupted him abruptly, and he turned to look at him in some sort of amazement. Harry looked at the dirt-smeared walls, the different sizes of lanterns stacked against them, the ashtrays overflowing with cigarette butts (when had Charlie picked up that habit?), the mounds of dirty dishes in the sink by the wall, and his laughter became hysterical, high pitched, painful, and he had to lean against the wall.

‘Harry, stop it! Stop it!’

Harry vaguely became aware of Charlie’s face right in front of his, his upper arms gripped tightly as he was roughly shaken. The wet streams of tears became apparent against the heat of his cheeks. With an effort he contained his laughter, hiccupping slightly.

‘Thought you were going to start hyperventilating then, mate,’ Charlie said, his ruddy face suddenly concerned. Releasing Harry from his grip, he swept a pile of logs off of a previously hidden chair. ‘Here.’ He pushed Harry into the seat, and waded off to the sink, rinsing out a glass before filling it with water.
‘What is it then?’ he asked matter-of-factly as he handed Harry the glass.

Harry held it tightly and looked deep into the water. He sniffed.

‘We just saw Miss Snape pouring essence of murtlap over her arm…well, you know…that arm,’ he said awkwardly. ‘She wanted to stop me going out, stop me from playing Quidditch after the other night. And then I had this dream about Voldemort’ – Charlie tried to stop himself from flinching – ‘where he was talking about her as though he really knew her, and my head is killing me, it’s really bad, and nobody understands, and nobody can help, nobody at all, not even Dumbledore…’

At hearing himself speak his name out loud he trailed off. He ran a robed arm across his face.

Charlie sat back on his heels. ‘Maybe nobody can help, but everyone is trying, just the same,’ he said quietly. ‘And this thing about the second Snape…surely that’s Dumbledore’s area?’

‘Yeh…’ Harry said sheepishly, suddenly wishing to be nowhere in the world but Dumbledore’s office, safe and sound, with the unshakeable safety of the old wizard standing over him.

‘Well, let’s go then,’ Charlie said, standing and grinning. ‘Come on, come on, let’s go, let’s go!’ He practically heaved Harry out of the hut and slammed the door behind them, the huge grin never leaving his face. ‘Out of the hell hole!’ he breathed, standing and sniffing the fresh air with a look of utter bliss. Harry smiled weakly, then had to run to keep up with the gamekeeper as he strode ahead to the castle.

[leenielou]

Okay, I'm so sorry I haven't updated recently - I've worked for about two weeks straight, and now I'm ill! So here for your enjoyment, is where the action starts to pick up...

*****************************************


Chapter Thirteen - Leavers


Standing in front of the stone gargoyle, Harry was suddenly gripped by a fit of paranoia. What if what they had seen had been something else entirely? What if he was about to falsely accuse an innocent woman of spying and treachery?

‘Lindt Bunny,’ he heard Charlie say, and the familiar staircase appeared.

‘Lindt Bunny?’ Harry asked, as they both stepped upon it.

‘Some idiot gave Dumbledore a Lindt bunny on one of his travels this summer,’ Charlie replied, rolling his eyes. ‘So now he’s got them everywhere.’

They emerged into the circular room at the top of the staircase to find it empty. Fawkes made a small noise at seeing Harry, and, delighted at seeing him again, Harry went over to stroke his head.

‘Harry, I think Dumbledore’s in here; I’ll just be a minute,’ Charlie said, rapping on a large oak door and stepping through.

Harry, his heart beating, continued to stroke Fawkes with his finger. The bird turned and gave him an affectionate peck. The thick silence in the room was occasionally broken by the small puffs of the funny silver instruments that were positioned around, and Harry felt himself grow nervous instead of calm. He attempted to take his mind off of things by counting the hugely numerous Lindt bunnies that were positioned in every place imaginable.

The oak door opened, and out stepped Dumbledore. Accompanying him was a beautiful woman with rich chocolate hair and large brown eyes. Her robes were immaculate, and clearly very expensive, and despite her apparent ease of living, she was wringing her hands and looked as though she had been in tears.

‘Thank you for understanding, Professor,’ she said quietly, as Dumbledore motioned towards Harry waiting. ‘I just can’t let them stay here with that woman! I…I’m so sorry,’ she said, her voice breaking.

‘Mrs Patil, please be calm,’ Dumbledore said, also quietly, placing his hands upon her shoulders. ‘Your daughters are free to leave whenever they choose, you know that. And I am happy to let you do as you please.’

The woman nodded, and turned quickly as if to go. Yet her eyes ran over Harry briefly, and, as he was accustomed to, she made a double take and stared at him in what Harry could only interpret as horror.

‘Goodbye, Mrs Patil,’ Dumbledore said hastily, and guided her gently towards the staircase. As she descended, Harry could still see her staring at him.

‘Mr Potter,’ Dumbledore said with a smile. ‘Do sit down. Charlie tells me that you have a problem.’

Harry sat in his usual seat, feeling as though he was repeating a huge rigmarole.

‘It’s my scar, Professor,’ he said, feeling it twitch as he said it. ‘It’s started hurting again, really badly, ever since I had a dream the other night about Voldemort.’

‘You dreamt about Voldemort again?’ Dumbledore asked quietly. ‘What happened?’

Harry swallowed uncomfortably. For some strange reason, now that he had reached the point of no return, he did not want to tell Dumbledore about Miss Snape.

‘It…well…well, Miss Snape…’

‘Did you tell Miss Snape already?’ Dumbledore interjected, his blue eyes seemingly hard all of a sudden.

‘No, well, I tried, but when we, um, when we got there, she was…’ Harry stopped here, wondering how to phrase the doubt that he currently held against the person that he trusted the most in the world.

When he said no more, Dumbledore sighed and said; ‘Harry, Miss Snape is now your first port of call for any emergencies such as this. Her outward appearance should not put you off. She is an extremely compassionate woman.’

Harry did not know what to say. Dumbledore had never been wrong before.

‘I suggest, Harry, that you tell me what was in your dream.’

‘It…it was Voldemort and Cho,’ Harry said slowly. ‘They were…discussing…Miss Snape.’ He looked up into Dumbledore’s face and saw no surprise flicker across it, as he had expected.

‘What were they saying?’ he simply asked, reaching out a hand and casually unwrapping a Lindt Bunny.

Harry screwed up his face as if trying to remember. ‘Voldemort said that a charm was broken…and they had Miss Snape’s bracelet,’ he said, remembering too late that he had made no attempt at Occlumency since last night, and that his mind must be laid bare to Dumbledore.

Dumbledore bit the head off of the chocolate bunny with a sharp crack, and then winced. He chewed and swallowed hastily, then said apologetically;

‘I always forget how thick the chocolate is in these bunnies. No other Muggle sweet has such thick chocolate!’ He put the decapitated bunny down, Harry’s gaze following his hand. ‘So, you know about the Band, do you?’ Dumbledore asked, changing the subject suddenly. ‘I should have known Miss Granger would not have missed that.’ His eyes twinkled merrily, and Harry felt his insides give a sigh of relief. Dumbledore was being himself again. He began to launch into a description of their discovery of what the Band did and his own worries about it, when the stone staircase began to move again, and footsteps ran hurriedly up. Dumbledore stood hastily just as the same woman that Harry had just seen leave appeared at the top, panting heavily, her hair out of place and face flushed and red.

‘Mrs Patil?’ Dumbledore asked, moving towards her.

‘I – I’m sorry, I…’ Once again the lady cast an agonised glance in Harry’s direction. She swallowed. ‘She was waiting for me!’ she suddenly howled, beginning to cry.

*********************************

:evil:

[leenielou]

Chapter Thirteen - Part Two

‘I – I’m sorry, I…’ Once again the lady cast an agonised glance in Harry’s direction. She swallowed. ‘She was waiting for me!’ she suddenly howled, beginning to cry. Harry stood, alarmed, as if to excuse himself from the room, but there was nowhere to go.

‘What do you mean?’ Dumbledore asked gently, guiding her towards the door that the two had exited previously. He beckoned behind him for Harry to stay where he was, but as the door closed, Harry distinctly heard the lady who could only be Padma and Parvati’s mother choke out;

‘Serendipity! She was waiting and she…she asked me why I had done it! She…she looked at me like that again…it brought it all back…torturing Polly…’

The door slammed, and Harry tried very hard to fit what he had just heard into a different context. He failed. Miss Snape was evil.


Stumbling, he made his way back to the common room. Hermione and Ron were sat anxiously on the large armchair nearest to the fire, and when he entered they both jumped up.

‘Where on earth have you been?!’ Hermione began, but Harry cut her off.

‘Where’s Parvati?’ he asked abruptly. Hermione and Ron exchanged worried glances. ‘Where is she?! I’m not joking!’ he barked.

‘She…she left,’ Ron said, in a low voice.

‘What do you mean?’ Harry asked, his heart sinking.

‘She just packed her trunk and went…Padma with her,’ Hermione replied, her big eyes worried. ‘She said her mother wasn’t happy with her being here anymore…we thought it was just because of the war and all…why?’

Harry sank into a seat.

‘Because I’ve just seen her mother in Dumbledore’s office, freaking out over seeing Miss Snape,’ he said heavily. He proceeded to repeat to them what exactly had happened in Dumbledore’s office.

‘So…so…Parvati’s mother is afraid of Miss Snape?’ Ron asked when he had finished.

‘Terrified,’ Harry confirmed.

‘It would make sense,’ Hermione stated, briskly. ‘Parvati said at the beginning of the year that her mother had not wanted to talk about Miss Snape.’

Harry nodded slowly. ‘Which means…she’s either a spy…or…’

Ron appeared confused, however. ‘But…if Miss Snape is a spy, then why did Death Eaters break in to the castle to steal something of hers?’

‘To make it look as though she isn’t!’ Hermione exclaimed, rolling her eyes. ‘Honestly, I thought we went through this this morning, when you had your histrionics and kicked the wall!’

Ron shrugged. ‘I only remember the pain,’ he said, wincing dramatically. Hermione reached over and hit him.

‘You remember what Harry told us Voldemort called her? ‘My Serendipity’. If she wasn’t working for him, then why on earth would he call her that?’

‘Okay, okay,’ Ron muttered. ‘So what do we do?’ he asked. ‘If Dumbledore is as besotted with her as Harry says…’

‘That’s the only thing that makes me think we could be wrong, Harry,’ Hermione interjected. ‘If we can’t trust Dumbledore, we can’t trust anyone. And he trusts her.’

‘Yeah, but he trusted Barty Crouch, didn’t he?’ Harry snapped. Hermione fell silent. All three gazed into the crackling fire. Someone had thrown a doll of Professor Snape onto it, and Harry had to stop himself from smiling as its hair (slicked down with Vaseline for that ultra-real effect) caused the flames to spit and arc themselves higher into the chimney breast.

‘What do we do then?’ Hermione asked eventually. Harry sighed.

‘The only thing we can do, I guess. Wait until she does something that Dumbledore can’t ignore.’

The Professor Snape doll’s face finally melted in the heat from the flames, making Harry feel strangely uneasy within the already confused and jumbled mass of thoughts within his brain.

********************************************

Sorry about the lateness of the update...been so busy lately :shrug:

[leenielou]

Chapter Fourteen – Situations Darken

Life at Hogwarts continued as relatively normal in the weeks after the Patils’ leaving. Lavender Brown was often to be seen moping around the Common Room, clearly missing her giggling partner, and she had even been so desperate as to try and befriend Hermione. Ron and Harry had a hard time not to laugh as they watched Hermione roll her eyes as Lavender dragged her off to the Owlery, or the Library, or trying to tell her about the cute boy in Ravenclaw who had winked at her.

The amount of work was stepping up even more than it had done in the OWLs year, but Harry, this time having no Hagrid or Sirius to distract him tried instead to plough through the mountain of essays and theories as best he could. Quidditch practices continued as normal, with the team improving all the time so that their flying was almost seamless, and Harry felt proud.

Or, at least, he would have done, had not there always been a nagging fear gnawing at the back of his head. Or, rather, several nagging fears. He had not heard much about the activities of Lord Voldemort, simply that everyday came news of at least one more student being taken out of Hogwarts by their worried parents. The latest of these, a young Gryffindor called Mark Evans, had been gleefully pounced upon by Malfoy and his gang, who with much gusto proceeded to tell everyone that Gryffindor had lost the most students so far, ridiculing their doctrine of bravery. The feeling of a tremendous storm brewing could not be shaken from the castle, encouraged by the forced jollity of several of the staff. And, of course, there was the constant threat of Miss Snape, who seemed to have become even more acidic and snappy after her meeting with Harry at Halloween. Twice she had sent message for Harry to go to her office, which he had avoided with cleverly made up excuses involving Quidditch, Ron, Ginny with a nosebleed and a well-timed trip in the corridor.

'Harry, just go and see what she has to say, for goodness sake,' Hermione said to him after his twisted ankle had landed him in the hospital wing. 'At least then you'll know a bit more.'

'No, I'm not going near her,' Harry had replied. 'Even in her lessons my scar burns like crazy - having to sit and talk to her would be too much.'

It was his constant excuse, but he had to admit to himself that it probably wasn't actually the main reason for his reluctance to talk to her. He felt a deep uneasiness whenever she was around, a strange feeling that she knew far too much about him and that she was almost seeing straight through him. However, although Harry knew he felt as though Dumbledore could see through him sometimes, with Miss Snape the feeling was far more unsettling, almost as if she had placed a disturbingly intent interest upon him. More than once he had felt eyes on the back of his neck and turned to see Miss Snape at a distance.

'She's following me, I swear it,' he muttered to Hermione one day (Ron had been cornered by Luna and her new Tell-The-Souls-Of-Leaves machine) as they were crossing the grounds, Miss Snape in a seeming meandering pursuit. Hermione glanced behind her.

'Never mind, we'll be at Potions soon,' she replied. 'Those two are so much at each other's throats, I doubt she'll want to be within a hundred yards of him.'

It was true that Miss and Severus Snape seemed to have a relationship exisiting entirely of animosity. After the fiasco with Malfoy early on in the year, the two had rarely been seen within the vicinity of each other, and one or the other would get up and leave if the other entered. The whole thing provided much amusement to the students.

Hermione and Harry reached Potions, taking their usual seats as far away from Malfoy as possible. Professor Snape had not arrived yet, and so the classroom was relaxed, filled with chatter.

‘So did you manage to finish the essay we were set last week?’ Hermione asked, swinging her bag up onto the desk. Harry sighed.

‘Well, yes and no.’

Hermione raised an eyebrow. ‘Yes and no?’

‘Well, in my head I finished it. But on paper…’

Hermione grinned wickedly. ‘You do know that Snape is going to kill you, don’t you?’

‘Depends which one!’ Harry said, making the comment into a joke. Hermione snorted and turned to her books, flicking through the pages to find the potion that they were up to. Harry watched her slim fingers busy at work, pondering for a moment on how lost he would be without her nimble hands guiding him through each Potions lesson. The blue veins of her wrist seemed unusually close to the surface at the skin, and he stared at them, almost fascinated. To his utter surprise, they began to move, to pulse, to writhe around in front of him…

*************************************************

A fairly more regular update..:blush: Please please pleeease leave some feedback (http://www.cosforums.com/showthread.php?p=1716159#post1716159). You know how much I love it! :D