Chapter 14
Chapter 14
The Gryffindor versus Slytherin quidditch game came with some technical difficulties. The game was going okay at first. Harry and Malfoy were mouthing off in the air and searching for the snitch. The rest of the teams were zooming back and forth in the air. I saw a bludger head in Harry’s direction and he barely avoided it. I heard George check on him and hit the bludger toward Adrian Pucey, but the bludger doubled back heading for Harry again.
Harry started flying back and forth with the bludger chasing him. I could tell Fred and George were having a hard time keeping it off him. I stood and glanced over where Xander was sitting with the teachers. He was talking to Professor McGonagall, and he looked back at me and gave a nod. Guess it’s time to try that spell I’ve been working on.
I point my wand in the direction of the broom shed and shout “Accio Nimbus!” I turn to Ron, whom I was sitting next to, and ask, “Can you hold my robes for me?” With an agreement from him, I pull them off quickly and jump over the stands just in time to land on my broom that came flying to me at my summons. I fly beside Harry staying on him, “Just keep playing, I’ll take care of the bludger!” He nods and heads off the bludger still following him as he goes. I watch as Harry dodges and weaves and suddenly makes a sharp turn. I look where he’s heading and laugh. The snitch is hovering just above Malfoy! The bludger slams into Harry’s arm, but he does catch the snitch and falls a short distance to the ground. The bludger slams into the ground right where Harry fell, but he rolled away in time to not get hit again. Once the bludger comes up I pull the scythe from my back and throw it. The scythe zooms through the air slicing the bludger in half and no longer attacking Harry.
By the time I grab the scythe and make my way over to Harry, Professor Lockhart has already made a nuisance of himself and vanished the bones from Harry’s arm! I round on the Professor, “Are you bloody stupid?! You are so vain that you think you are better than a trained healer?! Come near any student with your wand again and it will be you on the other end of my scythe!”
“Mia! Enough!” Xander shouts as he reaches the field. “Let’s get Harry to Madam Pomfrey.” I don’t even speak and just grab Harry pushing Colin Creevey out of the way and make my way to the hospital wing.
Madam Pomfrey throws a fit when she sees Harry. After some words with her and Xander, I set up in the hospital wing for the night to make sure nothing else comes after Harry. It’s well after midnight when I spot a house elf trying to sponge Harry’s head waking him up in the process.
I pull the scythe and hold it ready. “Am I to assume you are Dobby?” I ask.
Harry pushes Dobby off of him and Dobby takes a look at me and jumps into the air. “H-Harry Potter came back to school! Dobby warned and warned Harry Potter! Why didn’t Harry Potter go back home when he had the chance with the train?”
“That was you with the barrier,” I added.
“Indeed, miss. Dobby thought his bludger would help convince Harry Potter home.”
I crouch down to Dobby’s level and look him in the eye. “Have you ever heard of a slayer, Dobby?”
Dobby’s eyes go wide, and he takes a step back. “Dobby has.”
“Harry is perfectly safe while I am around. I promise.”
“Why do you wear that, Dobby?” Harry asks.
“Tis the mark of the house elf’s enslavement, sir. Dobby can only be freed if his masters present him with clothes, sir. Dobby’s family is very careful with clothes or else Dobby would be free to leave them forever,” Dobby explains.
Harry asks Dobby why he’s trying to protect Harry, and the elf just goes on a tangent about how great Harry is and how he was worried now the Chamber is opened again.
“Dobby, do you know who opened it last time,” I ask.
“Dobby can’t! Dobby mustn’t,” Dobby stops as he hears, and I hear as well, footsteps. “Dobby must go!” He pops away.
“Lay down, Harry!” I whisper and move to the door, scythe in hand.
Professor Dumbledore comes in followed by Professor McGonagall and Xander. As well as a petrified Colin Creevey. “Miss Granger, if you could get Madam Pomfrey,” Professor Dumbledore asks.
I go and grab Madam Pomfrey then make my way to Xander, “What do we have?”
“Another attack. I’m thinking of calling back up. How close are you to figuring it out?” He asks.
“I’ve been leaning towards creatures, but it’s a lot to go through. Maybe just someone to help research?”
“I’ll send Leo off with a message for Willow and see if I can get a portkey from Professor Dumbledore.” I give him my agreement and watch the professors check his ever-present camera which goes up in smoke.
I go to check the spot where they found Colin and it’s close to the spot where the message was. I asked Moaning Myrtle if she saw anything, but she was just sitting in her toilet.
The rest of the week the first-year Gryffindors looked spooked. I couldn’t blame them. The whole castle was on edge. It was the following Monday during lunch when the doors to the Great Hall swung open with a bang. In the entrance stood Faith and Willow. “Brains! Where you at?” Faith shouts. I just smirk and grab my fork and throw it aiming for her head. Faith whirls around and catches it and arches a brow. “It’s gonna take more than a magic castle to catch me off guard, Brains.”
Professor Dumbledore moves to the podium, “Students. This is Miss Faith Lehane and Miss Willow Rosenburg. They are a part of the Program that Miss Granger is in and have come to assist us during these troubling times. Do not be surprised to find them throughout the castle and I would also like to announce the start of a new dueling club. The first meeting is tonight at 8.”
Faith moves over to me and Willow goes to Xander at the head table. I make some room next to me and she sits down. “So, this is your school? Five by five.”
“It’s a magic castle and that’s all you have to say?” I ask.
“Well, it’s still a school,” She turns to Harry and Ron. “You two the new scoobies?”
Harry extends his hand, “Harry Potter.”
“Ron Weasley.”
Faith shakes Harry’s hand and nods to Ron. She looks to the table and the food, “Now this I can get with,” and digs in. I give her a small, whispered run down of all I know and show her to the attack locations. “Give me the scythe and go to class I’ll stick around and coordinate with Willow a patrol schedule.”
At 8 Harry, Ron, and I are gathered in the Great Hall with other students. The Great Hall has been transformed into a dueling room similar to when Buffy and I took on the teachers at the end of last year, but now there is a dueling platform.
I turn to Harry. “Oh, I hope it will be Professor Flitwick teaching us. Did you know he was a dueling champion in the past?”
“I don’t know, Mia. As long as it’s not—”
Harry was cut off by, “Gather round, gather round!” Lockhart. “Can everyone see me? Can everyone hear me? Excellent! Now, Professor Dumbledore has permitted me to start this little dueling club, to train you in case you ever need to defend yourselves as I have done on countless occasions— for full details see my published works.”
Professor Lockhart then proceeds to introduce Professor Snape as a teaching assistant, which he does not look the least bit happy about, but after a ‘demonstration,’ Professor Snape knocks Lockhart off his feet. Professor Lockhart tries to brush off his display, but I cut in.
“May I have a go against you, Professor?”
He looks around shiftily and sees wide smiles on everyone’s faces. “You would not have the training to go against me, my dear.”
“If you wish to display your skills, Gilderoy, she would be your best option,” Professor Snape drawls.
I can tell Lockhart sees no way out and he says, “Step up, Miss Granger.”
I jump on the platform and bow according to custom and on three I take off and kick him straight in the chest. I bring my knee to his chest, kick his wand away, and put my wand directly under his throat. I look behind me at Professor Snape, “Did I win?”
“Indeed, Miss Granger,” Professor Snape replies.
I jump off Lockhart and he immediately stands brushing himself off and winces from a hard brush on his chest. “Let’s break into pairs. Weasley you can partner with Finnegan and Potter—”
“Mr. Potter can pair with Mr. Malfoy,” Professor Snape says.
“Disarm only!” Lockhart orders. Everyone crowds the platform as Harry and Malfoy jump up, then they do the custom of bowing and taking steps then they’re off. Spellfire flew through the air with Lockhart shouting, “I said disarm only!”
Malfoy summons a snake and before Professor Snape can vanish it, Lockhart fires a spell that just aggravates it. The snake starts to move towards Justin Finch-Fltechley when Harry steps forward and makes hissing noises. He’s a parselmouth! The snake stops and looks at Harry then turns to Justin again, but before it can move, I take out a stake I have and throw it directly at the snake's head. Justin just eyeballs Harry and asks, “What are you playing at?” Then he storms from the hall.
After Professor Snape dismisses the dueling club in the common room, Ron pushes Harry into a chair, “Why didn’t you tell us you’re a parselmouth?”
“I’m a what?” Harry replies.
“A parselmouth is someone who can talk to snakes,” I tell him.
“Oh, I knew that. I accidentally set a python on my cousin Dudley one time at the zoo. I was just telling it to back off. I bet loads of people here can do it. Why does it matter?”
“No, Harry they can’t,” I reply. “It matters because Salazar Slytherin was famous for talking to snakes. That’s why the symbol for Slytherin House is a snake.”
“Everybody probably thinks you’re the heir of Slytherin now,” Ron comments.
During the next day, everyone was either whispering or directly confronting Harry, calling him the heir of Slytherin. We eventually made our way down to Hagrid’s where one of his roosters was killed. On the way back we were stopped by a grim-looking Xander. “Mia, there’s been another attack.”