Unofficial Portkey Archive

Chapter 3

(Part of the 'Emerald Spellbook' series)

Harry Potter and all the characters are not mine blah blah blah. The only things/people I own are Wendy Potter, Esmeralda Carney, the spell creation course, the mermaid language course, the broom making course, and "The Secret Lives of Spirits". Please do not use them in a story without asking me. Thoughts are in italics.

The transfiguration students were getting impatient. They had been in their seats for nearly fifteen minutes and Professor McGonagall still had yet to arrive. Footsteps sounded behind the door to the classroom. McGonagall strode in with a look of unease on her face. She stopped short of her desk and turned around to face the class. She took a deep breath and spoke. "Colin Creevey was injured this morning. His leg was badly broken. Now normally this would not be something I needed to announce to you, but this is a special circumstance. We believe this was not an accident." Murmuring broke out among the students. A sharp look from McGonagall made them stop quickly. "Mister Creevey claims that someone hit his leg with a Quidditch club. His attacker is unknown due to having been concealed in the shadows. What this means for the rest of you is that you should take care to be watchful between classes. We do not know if the assailant will try this again. Now, if you would please take out yours worms and continue with the lesson from yesterday."

There was an immediate rustle of papers. All the students took out small boxes and opened them, laying their contents on their desks. Parvati wrinkled her nose in mild disgust at the worm that now slimed it's was across her desk. Then she sighed and took out her wand.

Seamus tapped his worm again. "Tornare saxum," he said as the worm shuddered and turned a bright shade of green. It was supposed to turn into a rock.

McGonagall, being used to Seamus' mistakes, simply sighed and tapped the worm with her wand, returning it to it's normal color. "You're not pronouncing it correctly Mister Finnigan," she said. Then she smiled with satisfaction at seeing Hermione's worm had been turned into a perfectly round stone about the size of a baseball.

"Excellent Miss Granger," McGonagall commented.

Hermione smiled. Though it wasn't the smug smile she wore in her first year. It was simply a smile of happiness.

"Alright, everyone read chapters twenty six through twenty seven for homework. There will be a test tomorrow on the subject," McGonagall said. At this announcement there was a flurry of groans from the class. The bell rang and everyone left the classroom.

Harry, Hermione and Ron walked together down the hall to their next class. On the way they saw Wendy coming out of her only third year class. Charms. McGonagall had given her permission to take an advanced class so she could have more time with people closer to her own age. She was also going to be taking extra courses over the summer with Hermione as her tutor so, hopefully, she could go straight into fourth year next term.Wendy smiled and waved to the others. As she started down the hall toward them Harry saw a ghostly hand coming out of the floor....reaching for her ankle.

"Wendy look out!" Harry yelled. He ran to her with the others close at his heals. The hand made contact with her ankle and grabbed tight. She fell hard, face first on the stone floor. Screeching in surprise as she went. She howled in pain from a small gash on her right cheek, made from the writing end of her quill.

Hermione skidded to a stop and knelt down in front of Wendy. She touched her wand to her cheek and used a healing spell. The cut sealed itself in seconds. Wendy gingerly touched her cheek where the cut had been. "Thanks Mione," she said gratefully.

Hermione smiled. "Not a problem."

Harry and Ron were busy looking for the hand that had been poking out of the floor. "I don't see it," Harry declared at last.

Wendy stood up and brushed off her robes just as Sirius came running out of his defense against the dark arts class. He had done so well with McGonagall's classes the previous year that Dumbledore had offered him a permanent position. "What happened?" he asked with concern.

Harry quickly relayed everything to his Godfather. When he had finished he waited for his reply. "Sirius?" he prodded.

Sirius sighed. "This is the third report I've heard of ghosts trying to hurt students." He ran a hand through his long black hair. "I'm going to go back to my class. You four, go to yours. I'll talk to Dumbledore before the day is out. I think we might have an angry spirit on our hands," he said as he glared at nothing in particular. "I'll see you guys later." He turned around and headed back to his students.

After Wendy had assured everyone that she was alright the four students ran to their next classes as fast as their legs would carry them.

"Are you kidding??" Ron said in disbelief. The trio were sitting in the common room, picking out their electives for the year.

"I don't see what the problem is Ron. It's an easy subject," Hermione said with a raised eyebrow.

"For you maybe," Ron retorted.

"Fred and George both took spell creation and they did very well," Hermione pointed out.

"That's only cause they needed it for their business!" Ron said in a slightly raised voice, crunching the schedule in his hand. He suddenly realized that he had rumpled a fairly important piece of paper and quickly smoothed it back out again. "What are you taking anyway?" he asked in a slightly mocking manner.

"Magical medicine, spell creation and advanced herbology," Hermione replied without missing a beat.

"I think I'll take spell creation too. It sounds like fun," Harry chimed in with a smile.

Ron glared at his best friend in annoyance. "Fine!" he said, throwing his hands in the air in defeat. "I'll take it too."

Not giving Ron a chance to breath Hermione started in on him again. "So what else are you taking?"

Ron sighed heavily. "I don't know. I was thinking maybe Introduction to aurors." Everyone stared at Ron in disbelief. "I thought it might be a cool career," he said, trying to defend his position.

Harry ran a hand through his raven black hair. "Yeah.....but..... You're just not usually the type who wants something with that much responsibility," he said gently.

Ron crossed his arms. "Well I think it'll be dead useful."

Harry opened his mouth to make another comment, but Hermione waved him off. "Let's just drop it. At least he's actually picking classes," she said as she went back to scanning the somewhat short list of electives. There were only twelve. "What about broom making Ron?" she suggested.

Ron picked up his list. "Where do you see that?" Hermione reached over and pointed to number ten. Ron's eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "How'd I miss that?"

Hermione shrugged and started helping Harry with his last choice. He had already decided to take broom making."There!" Harry said with determination.

Hermione looked at the subject Harry was pointing to. "Introduction to wandless magic?" she said, confused. "Harry? What do you need that class for? You can already do wandless magic."

"I know. But I'm hoping I can learn to control it better," he replied as he sat down next to Hermione.

"Good thinking Harry," Hermione said with approval.

Harry smiled and yawned widely. "Well, now that that's taken care of, I say we go to bed."

Ron walked over to the table in the center of the room. "I'll be up in a bit Harry. I've still got to put away my chessboard," he said as he began picking up the pawns.

"Okay," Harry said as he headed toward the boys dorm, pausing to give Hermione a quick kiss on the way.

Not long after Harry had disappeared from view, a small clattering noise caught Ron's attention. He turned around to see Esmeralda Carney picking up the chess piece she had just dropped. He sucked in a breath. He was surprised to see her, but having been around ghosts all his life, he wasn't afraid. She held out the knight she had in her hand. "You forgot this one," she said meekly.

Ron reached out and took the piece from Esmeralda. "Th..thanks," he said.

Esmeralda looked a little hurt. "You're not scared of me are you?" biting her transparent lower lip.

"Not really. It's just......." he trailed off.

"What?" she prodded.

"I don't know. For some reason I feel....uneasy when you're around," Ron said. Esmeralda looked dejected. "Why did you try to get sorted anyway?" he asked suddenly.

Esmeralda bit her lip again. "I.....I woke up that day in the back of the sorting line." She laughed joylessly. "I thought, for one glorious moment that it had been all some sort of horrible nightmare." Waterless tears welled up in her eyes. "But when the sorting hat reacted the way it did, I realized I was just being foolish."

Ron looked sympathetic, but curious. "That what had been a horrible nightmare?" he asked, feeling more uneasy by the second.

"Being dead. I died horribley......." Esmeralda began.

Suddenly a loud, raspy voice echoed through out the common room. "Silence!"

Esmeralda looked terrified. Ron was looking all around the room trying to determine where the voice was coming from. "You have to know! Down in the dungeons......" she began again.

The voice rounded on Esmeralda again. "I said SILENCE!" it roared as a large black shape soared out of the shadows and grabbed her by the neck. As soon as it had her it flew off again. Her screams as she was pulled into the far wall brought the rest of the Gryffindors down from the dorms.

Harry gently grabbed Ron by the shoulder. "Ron? What happened?"

Ron simply stood, transfixed by the place on the wall where Esmeralda had disappeared. "Mate. I think we have a problem," he said softly.

.........TO BE CONTINUED