Chapter 9
I wake up late on the morning of Halloween. Everyone has already gone to Hogsmeade by the time I drug myself downstairs.
I take a quick look around. There are some first and second year students and a few older kids, no third years, no Harry and no one I actually want to talk to. Billie and the others all went to Hogsmeade, too. They told me they'd bring me some candy and promised to meet up with me when they get back.
It's been almost three weeks since I started hanging out with them (also three weeks since I visited Hogsmeade with Fred, which I still haven't told anyone about). I see Jamie and Billie everyday in the common room and eat lunch and dinner with them and the rest any time our schedules allow it. The rest of the time I either spend with Fred and George or at the library. Sometimes I even sit and talk with Neville about whatever he wants to talk about, I feel like he doesn't get enough attention or room to share his thoughts.
I haven't really talked to Harry, Ron or Hermione but it's not because I haven't been talking to them, you know? I just don't have anything to say to them, if I would I'd tell them. Whenever I pass them in the halls or the common room or even look at one of them in class and feel guilt crippling inside me, I tell myself they, too, haven't made any effort to talk to me. It only half helps.
I go back up to my room and get ready to start the day, and by that I mean walk around the castle and then go to the library to work on my "project". Once I've brushed my teeth and put on some decent clothes I go down to the common room and out of the portrait hall.
I start my way to the dungeons, I need some ingredients for a potion that might help me with the notebook I've been working on. Half way there my stomach makes a really loud noise and I think it might be time for breakfast. I know how to get into Snape's supply closet so this shouldn't take long, I'll take what I need and go to the great hall for some food.
I get to the cabinet, look around to make sure nobody is coming and pull out my wand. Professor Snape locks his supply closet with a locking charm and a locking charm for the locking charm. I found that out last year when Fred asked me to help him get the ingredients for a prank he and George were working on, they couldn't figure out how to get into the cabinet so he promised to help me improve my flying skills if I got him what he needed. It took me two day's worth of research and about fifteen minutes of trying every unlocking spell I know until I figured it out. "Evanesco Colloportus." I whisper, pointing my wand at the door. Then I point it at the doorknob and cast the usual unlocking spell, "Alohomora."
Inside I grad everything I need (just enough for the potion so Snape wouldn't notice), I shove everything inside my bag and put my ear to the door to hear if there is anyone outside. When I'm sure enough that it's safe I open the door and get out, I cast the locking spells and start walking towards the great hall.
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After I've eaten I go back to Gryffindor tower to start working on the stuff I brought. When I get to my room I remember I haven't gone to the library to get the books with the instructions for what I'm trying to do. I sigh and reluctantly head back down the stairs.
When I get to the second floor I pass by professor Lupin's office door. I haven't met with him to talk about my parents yet. I promised Harry and myself that I'll do it only when Harry is present and after my fight with him I wasn't very keen on spending anymore time together then necessary. I haven't thought about that in a few weeks if I'm being honest and now, standing here, outside his office I think I might actually break my promise. I want to know. I want to know everything and I don't care what I told my brother. So I knock on the door.
"Come in," Calls professor Lupin.
I open the door and, to my surprise, am met with my brother and Lupin having tea together. At first I'm silent for a second or two and then I gain my composure, close the door and address Harry for the first time in a few weeks, "So that's where you've been hiding today."
"I haven't been hiding anywhere, I just didn't think you'd want to hang out." He says. "You know, considering the last month."
Lupin is looking confusedly between us.
"I'm sorry to interrupt I was just coming to ask if I could take you up on your offer." I tell Lupin. "I see Harry has already bit me to it."
"Nonsense, you're not interrupting anything. Come, have a sit."
Before I can protest there is a knock at the door.
"Come in." Lupin says, again.
The door opens, and in comes Snape, carrying a smoking goblet. I feel a small bubble of panic threatening to show on my face but I pull myself together. He doesn't know. He hasn't caught me, he's just here for Lupin, I tell myself.
He stops at the sight of me and Harry, his black eyes narrowing. I almost recognize the smell of the potion he is holding. It's on the tip of my tongue but I can't remember what it is. This is going to be on my mind all day if I don't figure it out soon.
"Ah, Severus," says Lupin, smiling. "Thanks very much. Could you leave it here on the desk for me?"
The potion is for Lupin. What kind of potion would he need from Snape? Now I have to find out what it is.
Snape sits the smoking goblet down, his eyes wandering between Harry and Lupin, ignoring me.
"I was just showing Harry and Charlotte my Grindylow," says Lupin pleasantly, pointing at a tank that I'm only just now noticing. In the tank there is a small, horned, green skinned creature that I can only describe as a water demon. Of course Professor Lupin wasn't showing me anything but I'm not about to argue that to him.
"Fascinating," says Snape, without looking at the tank. "You should drink that directly, Lupin."
"Yes, yes, I will," says Lupin.
"I made an entire cauldronful," Snape continues . "If you need more."
"I should probably take some again tomorrow. Thanks very much, Severus.״
"Not at all," says Snape, but there is a look in his eye that doesn't sit right with me. He backs out of the room, unsmiling and watchful.
Lupin smiles and says, "Professor Snape has very kindly concocted a potion for me, I have never been much of a potion-brewer and this one is particularly complex." He picks up the goblet and sniffs it. "Pity sugar makes it useless," he adds, taking a sip and shuddering.
I note everything he says to analyze later.
"Why –?" Harry starts.
Lupin looks at him and answers the unfinished question. "I've been feeling a bit offcolour," he says. "This potion is the only thing that helps. I am very lucky to be working alongside Professor Snape. There aren't many wizards who are up to making it."
"Charlotte can." I'm honestly shocked to here Harry say. I mean, I don't know what potion this is but if the smell is so familiar to me then it means I used the ingredients before, which means I can probably work with them. I don't know if I can make the potion but I never expected Harry to be this confident in me.
"Ah, I've heard a lot about your extraordinary talent in potions making." Lupin says to me. "But I'm afraid I cannot entrust you with the responsibility of making this praticular potion."
"But you can trust Snape?!" Harry and I ask at the same time.
Professor Lupin takes another sip and Harry looks like he might reach out to knock the goblet out of his hands. "Professor Snape's very interested in the Dark Arts," he blurts out.
"Really?" Says Lupin, looking only mildly interested as he takes another gulp of potion.
"Some people reckon –" Harry hesitats, then continues, "some people reckon he'd do anything to get the Defence Against the Dark Arts job."
I hold back a laugh, this isn't why I wouldn't trust Snape with making me an important potion. I mean yeah, he is interested in the position of the DADA teacher but I don't think he'd go as far as poison the current one. But the thing about Snape is that he doesn't do anything that he doesn't gain from. I hope Lupin knows what he's doing.
Lupin drains the goblet and pulls a face. "Disgusting," he says. "Well, Harry, I'd better get back to work. And Charlotte, you'll have to take my up on my offer another time. I'll see you both at the feast later."
"Right," says Harry, putting his empty teacup down.
"Ok" I say, already making my way to the door.
We make our way to Gryffindor tower in silence. Half way there I decided I don't want to keep living this way, I don't want to always be fighting with my brother. "So... why do you reckon Lupin needs a potion from Snape?" I ask.
Ok, so maybe it was because I want to figure out what that potion is. But I still made the first move towards a truce.
Harry assesses me for a second or two, probably surprised that I addressed him. "You are talking to me again?"
You know what? Never mind, I think I can go a little longer without talking. "I guess."
That's enough for him. "I don't know." He shrugs. "He says he wasn't feeling well. Maybe it's his medicine."
"I don't know..." I say. "It smelt familiar, but I can't figure out what it is."
While I'm talking I run everything I gathered about the potion in my head.
Smocking. Complex. Sugar makes it useless. Drink directly. Disgusting.
The smell...
The smell is the key to figuring it out. I'm sure of it. If I could just remembered what it smelled like I'd know what it was.
I keep thinking about it until we get to the common room. We say the password and get inside. "Well, I'll see you later?"
"Um.. sure, yeah." Harry say uncertainly, "See you."
I make my way up to my room, I walk to my bad and open the curtains. On my bad I see my bag with all the ingredients I've gotten earlier.
I forgot to get the books again.
I do not have the energy to go down the tower any more today, I'll just have to go tomorrow.
I sit on the bad and take everything out of my bag. I look at the ingredients I brought and the note I made so I'll know what to get.
Ingredients for Baruffio's Brain Elixir:
- 3 Leaping Toadstools (chopped)
- 1 measure of Frog Brains Juice (take 1 jar with Frog Brain)
- 1 measure of Standard Ingredient
- 8 Runespoor Eggs (crushed)
- 1/2 measures of Powdered Dragon Claw
I brought everything I need for the potion except the most important part: the instructions! I'm quite mad at myself. You'd think I took a Forgetfulness Potion.
Forgetfulness Potion...
Maybe I can make a Memory Potion to help me remember what the potion Snape made for Lupin smells like. And this potion I know how to make. Too bad I don't have all the ingredients for that here. I mean I don't have anything for it except the Standard
Ingredients Mixture.
I take the tube with the mixture and open the cork and smell it. Maybe, if I'm lucky, this is what I was trying to remember. It's not.
The only time I remember using this is when Hermione got petrified last year and I tried to find a cure, I made a Wideye Potion. It was a long shot but I tried it anyway. The potion itself was easy enough to make, the only thing I found difficult was the smell of it.
The smell of it. That's it!
That's the smell of the potion I'm trying to figure out.
But why would Lupin need a sleep preventing potion? He said he wasn't feeling well, and that the potion is the only thing that helps. He also said the potion is difficult to make, which rules out the Wideye Potion.
The smell of this potion is very unique to its ingredients.
Actually it's just one particular ingredient.
Wolfsbane.
The smell of Wolfsbane.
But the only other potion I can think of that contains Wolfsbane is...
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"Lupin drank it?" I hear someone gasp as I walk down the stairs to the common room. "Is he mad?"
I get to where they're sitting.
"We'd better go down, you know, the feast'll be starting in five minutes..." Hermione says.
"Hi" I say. They all turn to me. Ron and Hermione look like they've seen a ghost.
"Is it alright if I come with you?" I ask.
"Of course." Hermione breathes. I smile at her. I kind of miss my best friend.
We make our way to the great hall.
"But if he – you know –" Hermione drops her voice, glancing nervously around, "if he was trying to – to poison Lupin – he wouldn't have done it in front of Harry and Charlotte."
"Yeah, maybe," says Harry, as we reach the entrance hall and cross into the great hall. It has been decorated with hundreds and hundreds of candle-filled pumpkins, a cloud of fluttering live bats and many flaming orange streamers.
After we've set down I sort of zone out. I try to remember any other potion I know that contains Wolfsbane. Because if there isn't, if it really was a Wolfsbane Potion, then that means...
There is just no way.
"—Where have you been all day?" I look up to see Billie. He's looking at me like he's waiting for an answer and I realize he'd just asked me a question.
"Sorry, what did you say?" I ask.
"I said: we have been looking for you since we got back from Hogsmeade. Where have you been?"
"Oh." I forgot I was supposed to meet my friends this afternoon, I was otherwise preoccupied. "Sorry, I've been doing my Potions homework and I forgot to check the time."
"That's alright." Says Jamie, who's sitting next to Billie. "'Cause we forgot to bring you back sweets."
"That's a shame." Someone sits down to the left of me, placing an arm around my shoulder. "I mean you've never been to Hogsmeade. You've never tasted Honeyduks candies."
I give him a shove on the arm, "Shut up, Fred." I hiss.
"All I'm saying," he says, "is that a few Chocolate Frogs and some Jelly Slugs would have made your Halloween feast way more Halloweenie." He looks at me with fake pity.
I roll my eyes.
"Anyway," says Billie, "We ran into Diggory at the Three Broomsticks and Kathy and Tom decided to stay there with him and a few other fellas."
"We lost Laura half an hour later at The Haunted Shop." Says Jamie.
"The Haunted Shop?" I ask.
"It's a shop that sells random stuff." Explains Billie. "Everyone call it the Haunted Shop because it's creepy."
Jamie shivers, "Very creepy, but for some reason Laura loves it."
I chuckle. That does sounds like Laura.
I glance at the staff table. Professor Lupin looks cheerful and as well as ever. He's talking animatedly to Professor Flitwick. I look over at Snape next, I might be imagining it, but it looks like Snape's eyes flicker towards Lupin more often than is normal.
We finish eating and start walking towards Gryffindor Tower. On our way out of the Great Hall I hear Malfoy shouts through the crowd "The Dementors send their love, Potter!״
I spin around so fast, Fred and Billie call after me but I'm already making my way towards him.
"It's been over two month already. Why don't you just give it up, Malfoy?" I shout at him.
To be honest, I almost forgot about him. With me trying to avoid Harry as much as possible I also didn't hear much of Malfoy. I don't sit with them in classes or eat with them at the great hall and if I don't hear him I don't really think of Malfoy.
Still, it was selfish of me, leaving Harry to fend for himself. I feel the guilt babbling inside me, fueling my anger as I make my way to where Malfoy is standing with a crew of Slytherins.
Among the group, I spot Gregory Russell. I remember seeing him here and there. He's in the same year as Billie and the others, they even told me once about him. They said he's not that bad in person but he has to go along with the other Slytherins because of his family's rank or some other bullshit excuse. The way I see it, if he's standing there with them laughing at other people's expenses he's just as bad.
I get closer to Malfoy, who was surprisingly brave enough to step away from his friends and face me on his own. "I'll stop when I feel like it." He says with a smirk.
I take another step towards him, "Maybe I should help you with that. You've never quite caught on as fast as the others." I smile fake sweetly at him.
His face reddens in anger.
"And after your unfortunate accident in class in the beginning of the year you've been even slower." I continue, shaking my head. "Can't even cut your own roots, such a shame." I admit, I'm enjoying myself very much right now. I've never actually seen Malfoy speechless before.
He looks at me intently with narrowed eyes and an ugly sneer. "Don't you get tired of acting like a protective mother over your brother all the time." He says, "Is it a psychological thing? You know, because you never actually had one."
I knew where he was going with this as soon as he said the word 'mother' but it still hit where he hoped it would. I refuse to let him hurt me. Whatever he says, I can deal with later, alone. Right now I need to put him in his place. "Don't you get tired of tormenting people? Don't you get tired of pretending that you're better than everyone else when in reality you're just a slimy, dirty little bully?" It's definitely past the point of protecting my brother, this is personal. I take a slow breath, "For the last time, Malfoy," I say calmly, "get off our backs or I'll send you flying on yours."
I walk away before he can respond, as I do I here people wooing and laughing and a small smile spreads on my face.
I walk past Fred, who's grinning at me, and Billie and Jamie, who are looking at me with concern in their eyes. I don't wait for either of them and make my way out of the hall.
When I reach the corridor which end with the pertrait of the Fat Lady, I find it jammed with students. I find Ron, Harry and Hermione and walk up to them but before I get there someone pushes me out of the way.
"Let me through, please," comes Percy's voice, bustling importantly through the crowd. "What's the hold-up here? You can't all have forgotten the password – excuse me, I'm Head Boy –" And then a silence falls over the crowd. I hear Percy say, in a suddenly sharp voice, "Somebody get Professor Dumbledore. Quick."
People's heads turn, those at the back are standing on tiptoe. "What's going on?" Asks Ginny, coming to stand beside me.
Next moment, Professor Dumbledore is here, sweeping towards the portrait. We
squeeze together to let him through, and move closer to see what the problem is.
"Oh, my—" Hermione exclaim and grabs Harry's arm.
The Fat Lady has vanished from her portrait, which has been slashed viciously, strips of canvas are on the floor beneath it. Big chunks of it has been torn away completely.
Dumbledore takes one quick look at the ruined painting and turns, his eyes dark. I turn, too and see Professors McGonagall, Lupin and Snape hurrying towards him.
"We need to find her," says Dumbledore. "Professor McGonagall, please go to Mr Filch at once and tell him to search every painting in the castle for the Fat Lady."
"You'll be lucky!" Says a cackling voice, Peeves the poltergeist, bobbing over the crowd and looking delighted, as he always is, at the sight of wreckage or worry.
"What do you mean, Peeves?" says Dumbledore calmly.
Peeves's grin fades a little. He wouldn't dare taunt Dumbledore. Instead he adopts an oily voice that is no better than his cackle. "Ashamed, Your Headship, sir. Doesn't want to be seen. She's a horrible mess. Saw her running through the landscape up on the fourth floor, sir, dodging between the trees. Crying something dreadful,״ he says happily. "Poor thing," he adds, unconvincingly.
"Did she say who did it?" Asks Dumbledore quietly.
"Oh, yes, Professorhead," says Peeves, "He got very angry when she wouldn't let him in, you see." Peeves flips over, and grins at Dumbledore from between his own legs. "Nasty temper he's got, that Sirius Black."
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Professor Dumbledore sent us back to the Great Hall, ten minutes later we were joined by all the other students from Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin, who all looked extremely confused.
"The teachers and I need to conduct a thorough search of the castle," Professor Dumbledore told us as McGonagall and Flitwick closed all doors into the Hall. "I'm afraid that, for your own safety, you will have to spend the night here. I want the Prefects to stand guard over the entrances to the Hall and I am leaving the Head Boy and Girl in charge. Any disturbance should be reported to me immediately," he added to Percy. "Send word with one of the ghosts.״
Professor Dumbledore moved the long tables to the edges of the Hall and against the walls. Then he covered the floor with hundreds of sleeping bags. All with a wave of his wand, before leaving us for the night.
"Sleep well," he had said, closing the door behind him.
Percy shepherd us all to our sleeping bags while making sure we didn't make much noise.
Billie came up to me and asked if I wanted to sleep with them. I contemplated going to sleep with Harry, Ron and Hermione but at the end I just went with Billie.
"You can't just Apparate in Hogwarts, there are enchantments all around the castle." I heard Laura explain to Jamie and Tom as I got in my sleeping bag. I bid everyone good night, not really feeling like talking and closed my eyes.
It's been almost two hours since then and I still can't fall asleep. I keep trying to come up with explanations, explanation to how Sirius Black could have entered the castle, explanation to what I saw in Harry's tea cup weeks ago, and most frequently, explanation to the potion Snape gave Lupin.
I can't shake the feeling that I'm in the right direction to finding out something big. Really big. I mean if Lupin really is a... then that's a big revolution, but my gut is telling me that this is just the tip of the iceberg. I can't stop digging now.
If Lupin is working with Black and they both want to hurt Harry then I must find out more. I must protect him. But... what if they don't want to hurt him? What if they're trying to help?