Chapter 13
Harry was wondering about the castle lost in thought. He would probably sneak into St. Mungos tonight before his nightly run. It would allow him to see what condition the Longbottoms were in and if it was curable. He knew with how limited magical Britain had made itself with the banning of different types of magic, so it was possible there was a cure.
“Harry!” a voice called out.
Turning Harry spotted Cho walking towards him, her raven hair pulled back with a pink butterfly clip.
“Hi, Cho.” Harry greeted. He4 no longer had a crush on her like he had last year. He now saw her as a child compared to himself.
“How have you been?” She asked nervously.
“Good and yourself?”
“Did you know next Hogsmeade weekend is on Valentine's Day?” She blurts out, before blushing and looking away.
“Uhh… No, I didn’t.” He responds awkwardly. He gets the feeling that she wants him to ask her on a date but that’s not happening.
“Yeah. How crazy is that?” She now smiles at him.
“I’m sure it sometimes happens.” Harry shrugs.
Cho is now frowning but as she opens her mouth-
“Harry!” is yelled again.
Hermione and Ginny rush up to them. Both girls glare at Cho.
“Chang.” Hermione greets.
“Granger. Weasley.” Cho greets with a smirk.
Harry sees what’s happening and hopes he has the patience for dealing with teenage drama.
“Harry, we’ve been looking everywhere for you.” Ginny says, batting her eyelashes.
“Why did you leave the Great Hall? We finally got the proof we need to prove You-Know-Who is back.” Hermione questioned.
“Me and Harry were having a conversation here.” Cho points out.
“Why would he want to talk to you?” Ginny asked nastily.
“We were talking about Valentine’s Day.” Cho smirked, crossing her arms to better look down on the younger girl.
“WHAT!?” Ginny exclaimed face turning red.
Hermione turned up her nose, saying, “You’re lying. Harry wouldn’t take you. Right, Harry? If anyone, he would take Ginny.”
Ginny preens at Hermione’s near demand.
Harry raised his eyebrow, not at all impressed, but the girls were off again before he could get a word in.
“What Harry andI do is none of your business. Don’t you have a Weasel to pant after?”
Hermione pinched her lips as her face started to burn puce colour. “I do not pant after—"
“Harry!” Ginny called sharply. “I’m free on Valentine’s Day.”
Cho latches onto Harry’s arm. “As if he would be interested in a child! What are you, ten and a half?”
“I’m thirteen.” Ginny snaps back. “And at least I don’t look like a troll with makeup.”
Cho gasped in outrage. Letting go of Harry to step closer to the other girls as they continue to insult each other.
Harry decides to just walk away. It's not as if any of them are going to listen to him and he wants absolutely no part of any of that. Turns out he doesn’t have the patience.
“You made him leave!” he hears as he walks around a corner.
Ugh. He hoped that was the last time that would happen.
--*--
Ron was furious as he stomped up to his empty dorm room. He angrily removes his quidditch gear.
“How dare Johnson kick me off the Quidditch team! And replace me with McLaggen! I’m a much better keeper! This is all Potter’s fault!” Ron rants to himself. “If he didn’t quit, Johnson never would have blamed me! I can’t wait until he dies! He’s a useless freak that ruins everything! I’m so much better! Soon people will see!”
Ron sits on his bed. He would need to speak to Dumbledore about this. How was he to be the captain if he wasn’t on the team. Dumbledore would need to take care of Potter, too. Even Hermione is unable to keep him under control and she’s taking it out on him! It’s Potter’s fault not his.
As Ron thinks about Hermione, he’s starting to regret Dumbledore choosing her to be his future wife. While Hermione was able to make herself pretty, she rarely puts in the effort. She’s always wanting to study and constantly going on about becoming the Minister of Magic. She’s also constantly nagging him and being bossy. Hermione also hits him a lot.
Ron wants his future wife to be gorgeous, always. Someone who will stay at home and look after his children while he works as an Auror. She’ll cook his favourite meals and keep the house clean. She will take care of his every need and never question him. What he says goes, it's simple. Someone like Lavender.
Oh, Lavender. She is exactly the kind of girl Ron can appreciate with her hair done up pretty and breasts on display. She doesn’t talk about studying all the time either. Ron saw her watching his Quidditch Practices this year. She knows how great he is. Now if only Johnson wasn’t such a fucking cow! Everything would be perfect.
Ron would speak to Dumbledore without Hermione and hopefully when they kill Potter, Hermione can be taken out too.
--*--
Theo and Blaise stand in front of the greenhouse where they ran into Longbottom during the day.
“Do you think he’s going to show?” Theo asks.
“It’s hard to say. Two Slytherins basically just told him to meet them alone in the dead of night to go onto the Forbidden Forest. So, the only thing I can see convincing him is that while we never stood up for him; neither have we actively done anything to him and he’s a Gryffindor known for their bravery and recklessness.” Blaise smirks after he answers.
“You forgot foolishness.” Longbottom says coming around the greenhouse.
Blaise smiles at him. “I’m glad you came.”
“Yeah... Well...” He flushes and looks away.
Theo raises his eyebrow at the two before shaking his head lightly. “Let’s go.” He declares and starts walking.
“Shall we.” Blaise sweeps his arm forward.
Longbottom nods and begins following Theo. Blaise walks next to Longbottom, allowing Theo to lead. The path was narrow, and the underbrush smacked back into their faces behind Theo who took to it like he walked this path everyday.
Neville wasn’t really sure where they were going and began to regret not asking and coming out here. What if something happened? He would have no idea which way was back and perhaps he should have told somebody. Neville wasn’t really worried about the Slytherins. They seemed alright in his books so far but there are many other things he is worried about. The Gryffindors tell all sorts of stories about the beasts that roam these woods.
Neville doesn’t realize he is shaking until Zabini places a hand on his shoulder, causing Neville to jump. “Eep!”
Zabini removes his hand quickly startled. Neville blushes. “Alright, Longbottom?”
“I—” Whatever Neville was going to say was cut off by Nott’s whispered shout.
“Guys, stop flirting and come take a look at this.”
There on one of the ancient trees at the edge of the clearing is perfectly defined giant claw marks.
Nott walks towards them. He runs his hands over the mark. “He must have done it after taking us back to the castle last time.” Nott remarks.
“Big cats are known to mark their territory.” Zabini commented.
“N-now what?” Neville stutters, eyes wide as he stares at the claw marks. He is definitely regretting coming out here.
“Now we wait and observe the forest around us.” Nott spoke determinedly.
--*--
Harry was under his invisibility cloak walking through St. Mungos. He didn’t expect it to be this easy to break into the hospital, especially the Janus Thickey Ward where the patients are so very vulnerable.
Oh well. Makes this excursion easy for Harry.
Entering the room indicated as the Longbottom’s room, Harry carefully checked for alarms of any sort. The only one he found was a monitoring charm on Frank and Alice Longbottom and it only monitored their vitals. There was nothing against intruders and or stopping someone from using magic against them.
Shaking his head, Harry decided that he would donate to St. Mungos with the stipulation that they were to invest in some wards to protect their patients. While on one hand it made what he came infinite more easier, on the other it was scary to think if he ever ended up in the hospital he would be vulnerable.
Throwing a locking charm on the door Harry took off his cloak and placed it on the chair at the end of Alice’s bed.
“Ladies first.” He muttered and walked closer to Alice. Taking out his wand he cast a complex diagnoses charm on her. Once the results were done, Harry moved on to Frank without reading the results. Only after he had both results did Harry read them.
It would seem that the long term torture and exposure from the Cruciatus Curse is why they were here. However, their comas were magically induced. Whether it was to heal them or nefarious purposes Harry couldn’t say. Looking at the scans though Harry knew a potion created by Salazar Slytherin himself that would heal their minds.
With the muggles witch hunting, it wasn’t unusual to find a witch or wizard that was hurt and had chronic pain. Salazar created the potion in order to fight off the effect that chronic pain had on the mind.
Harry could remember watching his father create the potion. There was a lot of trial and error, but he eventually did it, then he taught his children how to create it, just in case. Harry missed his slightly paranoid father; he had a good life as Hendricus and wished it could have been longer. Unfortunately, he always seems to trust the wrong people.
With a sigh, he shoved the results in his pocket and put on his invisibility cloak. It would take him a week to make the potion, then he would be back.
--*--
“He’s not coming and it's getting late.” Blaise declared.
Theo scowled at his friend.
“What? He would be here already if he was going to.” Blaise shrugged.
“Maybe because we aren’t in danger.” Longbottom spoke up, flushing when they looked at him. He looked away focussing on the cutting he had taken from one of the plants that seemed more magical before speaking again. “W-what? Y-you said he came when you were being attacked by a t-troll and on a full moon.”
“He makes a point. Especially if He is some sort of guardian.” Blaise agreed.
Theo’s shoulders slumped in defeat. “Okay maybe we can try again another night.”
With that the unlikely trio made their way back to the castle.
“Sorry we dragged you out here, Longbottom.” Blaise gave the other boy an apologetic smile.
“I-it’s okay. I had fun.” Longbottom looked at the ground. “I mean, it's crazy how much excess magic the plants are giving off.”
“I wonder how that’s going to affect the creatures that live off them and if it will affect us at the school in any way.” Theo questioned, his mind spinning with the possibilities. He wondered if he ate an edible plant that was affected, how it might affect him.
“I can ask Hagrid if he has noticed anything different about the creatures.”
Both Slytherins grimaced but nodded.
Reaching the Entrance Hall, they bid each other a good night and the two Slytherins headed to the dungeons while the lone Gryffindor made his way to the tower.
--*--
Harry had woken Neville up and basically dragged the sleep deprived boy out of bed. He politely didn’t ask why the other was so tired. He knew yesterday’s paper had hit the boy badly. Unfortunately, it was Monday which meant classes.
They sat down for breakfast and Harry made a plate up for Neville.
“Thanks, Harry.” He mumbled before he began to eat.
“Anytime.” Harry told him before making his own plate up and eating.
After a moment Harry could feel someone glaring at him. Discreetly looking around he spotted Zabini glaring at him. He wondered why and caught the other boy’s eye with a raised eyebrow.
Zabini didn’t look away. It seemed however the impromptu staring contest was noticed by another Slytherin. Nott elbowed Zabini, making the other boy look away from Harry and at his friend. Nott seemed to say something that made Zabini frown.
“Harry?” Neville broke his attention from the two Slytherins. “You, okay?”
“Yeah, I’m good. I just seemed to have another person mad at me for whatever perceived insults that happened in their mind.” Harry shrugged.
Neville glanced at the Slytherin table. “Who?”
Harry however noticed that Zabini was now looking at Neville with a smirk. The Slytherin winked and Neville looked away with a flush. How interesting. Now that he takes a better look at Zabini the boy also looks like he didn’t get a lot of sleep. It could be coincidence, but coincidences rarely happen in Harry’s experience.
“It doesn’t matter.” Harry gave his friend a small smile. “We should get to class.”
Neville nodded and they, and most students, went to their first class.