Author's note: Thanks for waiting for this update. I've been quite busy lately as usual. I hope this chapter has been debugged of mistakes, but I think I've missed some. I'm still thinking there are sloppy parts in this chapter, so I'll try to find and improve them. Please kindly leave a review and tell me what you think of this chapter. Thanks! I'll try to post the next chapter as soon as I can.
Chapter 13
The Stray Snitch
Russelpunk had been barely gone for a minute, yet Harry and Hermione had virtually not moved an inch and had not said anything. They were busy figuring out for themselves what their DADA teacher had been doing with the chest that contained Hogwarts' official Quidditch balls alone in the ball room.
"Hermione, do you think he had tampered with one of the balls?" Harry asked her finally, not even sure if this was the reason why Russelpunk had been here. He probably had other motives, but this was the first thing that came into Harry's mind.
Hermione moved around and pondered the possibility, but like Harry, she was not sure about that, too. "I don't know, Harry. Why don't we try and examine the balls to find out if he did?"
Harry rolled his eyes. It was the most obvious thing that he would have done first right after Russelpunk had left, but it never came into his mind at all. Perhaps it was because he was a Quidditch player, and the thought of opening up the chest without Madam Hooch's knowledge was the most dishonorable thing he could do in his life. Therefore, it took him long enough to make a move towards the chest.
"Hermione," he said undecidedly, "why don't you…"
It was Hermione's turn to roll her eyes this time. She immediately understood why Harry was so reluctant to even touch the chest. She went over to it, knelt down on both knees, looked for the latch, and opened it.
At first glance, the balls looked untouched and normal. Hermione then looked back at Harry and said, "So which one do you think he manipulated?"
"It's the Snitch," Harry replied confidently. "He mentioned today it's the very thing he was most interested on. If it's the Bludger, he would've been knocked out on the spot…"
Hermione found the info about Russelpunk's specific interest for the Snitch highly surprising and suspicious; Harry told her about his conversation with Russelpunk about Quidditch in the Defence Against the Dark Arts class she missed today. Hermione nodded her head after she heard Harry's story and turned her attention back to the Snitch, which was securely fastened inside its own mini-compartment.
"Do you think there's some kind of an alarm when I touch one of the balls?" she asked apprehensively while opening the mini-compartment. She examined the Snitch very closely without trying to touch it.
"I don't think there are," Harry said, thinking deeply. "Remember that Dobby had once rigged the Bludger and nobody found out…"
Convinced, Hermione removed the Snitch, and handed it over to Harry. As soon as it landed on Harry's open palm, it fluttered its wings. Harry looked at it closely for any signs of damage or sabotage, but he couldn't find anything yet.
Harry then prodded it upwards, making it fly around the ball room in its usual abrupt manner. He allowed it to stay airborne for a few silent minutes, ready to take note of any unusual behavior, and at last caught it when it strayed in the path of his quick grasp.
"Well?" Hermione said expectantly.
"Looks okay to me," Harry muttered. All along he was certain Russelpunk had sabotaged the Snitch in some way, but Harry at the moment was inconclusive. "Do you think we should go tell Madam Hooch about this?"
Hermione immediately shook her head. "No, Harry," she said seriously, "she'll know we've been inside the ball room illegally and we'll surely have lots of explaining to do…"
"Then how can we know for sure the Snitch hasn't been tampered with?" Harry asked her patiently. "The game's next Friday…"
"You have one more practice session on Wednesday, right?" Hermione said after she thought about it. "We'll try to find out if it's been sabotaged then - if it was, we'll tell someone of what we know. How about Dumbledore - though we must only tell him after we're certain it's rigged and we'll tell Russelpunk on him then. Otherwise, he will think we're just be reacting out of our imagination."
Harry agreed with her at once. He'd only let the Snitch loose for a few moments, and the best time to really observe it for unusual behavior was next Wednesday. At least, he didn't have to worry about the match on Friday yet.
"Okay, that's a good idea," he said finally and Hermione smiled, though in a reserved way. She couldn't also help but suspect there was something wrong with the Snitch, too.
"You know, I'm starting to feel Russelpunk's not a good guy anymore," Harry said darkly as he gave back Hermione the Snitch, which she carefully returned in its slot. "I was thinking about telling him about the dreams I had about him, but now I don't feel like it…"
"Harry, we don't know what he did with the balls today," Hermione said while she closed the chest. "He acted strangely and a bit scary moments ago, yes, but we shouldn't judge him yet until we're quite sure what he's really up to - though I admit I feel the same thing you do. Tell you what - let's make a new rogues list and Russelpunk's suspect Number Two…"
Harry managed to chuckle amid the seriousness of the matter knowing about Hermione's practice of listing down her own suspects when some kind of conspiracy was afoot. "So who's suspect Number One?" Harry asked testily.
"Whipple, of course," she said brightly. "And that includes everyone Fudge has sent in from the Ministry. There's just too many of them and if we put Russelpunk at the bottom of the list, he'd be number twenty…not good…"
Harry and Hermione agreed that after detention they would definitely check on the place where Harry had found Russelpunk hovering alone in the dark the previous night. They hid themselves under the Invisibility cloak and got out of the ball room as quietly as they could.
Dinner was still more than an hour to go so they decided to use the time up towards it by researching about the Metavira potion at the Library. The prospect of spending time in the library poring over books provided Hermione a very good reason to smile as she walked awkwardly with Harry under the cloak. Harry, on the other hand, seemed to have been lost in thought wondering about how Russelpunk might be a threat to him now that he had actually witnessed his bizarre behavior.
The grounds seemed deserted then, except for more than a few wizards patrolling around randomly. Harry and Hermione had not been spotted so far, meaning not all the wizards could see through the cloak as Moody had feared, which was a good sign that the cloak could still be relied upon when doing some detective work (though they were still not sure about Whipple and some other wizards). They decided to take off the cloak behind Hagrid's hut because reappearing in the middle of the grounds would look suspicious for the odd wizard who might spot them. Ignoring Fang's excited barking from Hagrid's pumpkin patch, they walked casually towards the castle for the library with the cloak bulging under Harry's robes.
-o0o-
"I think I've found it!" Hermione exclaimed as softly as she could in the library after opening up her the next book from the stack of thirty possible references of the Metavira Potion.
"About time!" Harry yawned, closing a very thick and moldy Manual of Deadly Magical Concoctions by Crisselda Poizen. "What, then, is Metavira?"
Hermione cleared her throat.
"Metavira," she read orally, "was discovered in 1982 by an amateur potions hobbyist named Willard Waldo Wraskon. Preceding its discovery, more than ninety five percent of medicinal potions that existed for serious magical maladies lacked an unknown ingredient to sustain their healing effects for an extended period of time. Potions researchers over a thousand years had not been able to devise such an ingredient, thus magical accidents were almost always treated with charms because potions were not too dependable remedies until then.
"The Metavira Potion is a mixture of 95% Wiggenwald potion, 0.50% essence of fallow sap, 4% Quinkard syrup, and the rest by a series of simple spells to bind all ingredients together to create a potent mix. Metavira proved to be a valuable missing link to thousands of potions invented before it to treat ailments and injuries, boosting the power of existing working potions, and has opened the doors for the discovery of other important potions thereafter, which includes Nuron, the long sought-after cure for DZT (the dreaded degenerative disease comparable to cancer for Muggles).
"Metavira also proved to be useful for other than medicinal purposes only as many scientists and chemists have discovered more about its secrets a decade after its introduction. Enterprising wizards have noticed it was also an excellent ingredient to sugarless candies to eliminate the side effects of sugar substitutes, food and beverage manufacture, and product packaging, among its other uses. Because of its wide range of applications, Mr. Wraskon was awarded the Crisanthium Prize, the highest award for magical science. He has vehemently refused to patent his own discovery and donated its formula the Wizards Potion Masters Society, thereby forgoing the fortune he would have amassed if he agreed to otherwise. Instructions to properly make the Metavira potion can be found in Appendix G…"
Harry and Hermione looked at each other silently because besides knowing what Metavira was really about, they didn't quite get why Voldemort might be interested with the potion.
"If Willard had really donated the formula to the public," Hermione mused, "why then would Voldemort kidnap him at all? He could just buy this book and he could do it all by himself - even a nine-year-old can do it, I bet…"
"Right," Harry said, his eyebrows furrowing with the question. "Perhaps he saw potential in Willard's talents? Voldemort might be trying to mix up something for a specific reason, so maybe that's why he also had his sights on other famous potions masters - the big question is…what?"
Hermione nodded. "Even if we list all the potions Willard and the other scientists had done throughout their lives, it would be next to impossible to find out what their potions can do if we mix them all up together. There are literally millions of possibilities!"
"Concentrating on that would be a big waste of time," Harry groaned. "Damn you, Voldemort! What're you up to now?" he growled quietly.
"At least we know what Willard had contributed to the wizard world," consoled Hermione. "I'm very glad to know Metavira was invented for something good. Can you believe Snape? I don't think the potion is useless - he's just a bitter little prat. I wish Voldemort took him away instead of Willard…"
Harry sighed. He agreed with Hermione that it was relieving to know the true background of the Metavira potion, but it also introduced more questions than answers. He began to feel sad about Willard again. It was not a pleasant feeling to keep wondering how he was right at the moment, if he was even still alive. Coupled with his newfound uncertainties about Russelpunk, his mind began to buzz constantly.
"I think I have a big headache now…" Harry grunted, rubbing his face and head with his hands. Hermione looked on at him sadly because she knew all what was happening around her and Harry was indeed having a big toll on them. Hermione sighed deeply and began collecting some of the books they have pulled out of the bookshelves.
"Maybe you're just hungry," she murmured, hoping that this would help Harry think of other things besides the most recent disturbing events. "You stay here and rest a little while I return all the books, and we'll go to the Great Hall for dinner together, okay?" She then looked on at Harry fondly, smiling.
Harry nodded at her gratefully, thanked her, and rested his head lazily on his arms. He had almost fallen asleep moments later; he jumped a bit after he realized he had drifted off. He wasn't sure for how long he had slept, but by looking at the stack of books at his front, he guessed he had for only less than a minute. Hermione hadn't taken off more books from the stack and she wasn't nearby because she might have gotten some books from a far shelf, he thought. Thinking that she still had a lot of walking back and forth to do because of the volume of books they have brought at their table, he decided to help lessen her burden.
He took a big chunk out of the tall stack. Luckily, most of the books he handled belonged to nearby shelves and he didn't have to walk far from their table. After half an hour and only two more books to go, Harry began to wonder where Hermione might be - she had not returned for a long time to get some more books.
It was almost dinner so the library was almost deserted, except for Madam Pince who was busily reorganizing the unreturned books of other students on a cart just a few shelves away.
"Madam Pince," Harry called her quietly. "Have you seen Hermione somewhere?"
"Yes, Potter," she replied loudly (she was the librarian, so she thought she had the power to violate her own rules). "Row E, but that was a long time ago. I'm sure she's still here - I know who's getting in and out of the library without even looking at them - students, teachers - even animals and the few ministry wizards who seem to have developed an interest with my book collection…" she trailed off with perceptible pride on her face.
Harry thanked Madam Pince absently, and he decided to try Row E anyway. He had a bad feeling about this, and he thought he had a strong suspicion of what might have happened to Hermione already, if she still was suffering from her medical condition. As Pince had said, she saw here last and there was no sign of her there. Getting his bearings, Harry guessed the path she might have chosen to walk back towards their table from Row E, and like being in a grocery store, he checked all the adjacent rows. When he got to Row G, Harry dropped his breath.
Hermione was slumped on the floor, with some books splattered around her; part of her body leaned against a bookshelf and she looked unconscious. Harry ran over to help her fearing that she might have had another attack. Just as soon as Harry had reached her, she stirred.
"H-Hermione, what happened?" Harry said breathlessly. He knelt down beside her, removed a couple of dusty books on top, and helping lift her head up.
"Harry, I-I don't know," she said groggily and weakly. "How long have I been out?"
"No idea," Harry replied, now helping her sit up. "I guess you just had another attack - you know, your memory lapses…"
"Oh, yeah, it's - " she then paused as if she had realized something and then said, "No - No! It was not a memory lapse - I'm perfectly fine…"
"We must get to Madam Pomfrey - she said to tell her each time you had…"
"NO!" Hermione shouted. "No! My problem is absolutely gone - I swear! I just, I just…" she looked around, obviously trying to think of a good reason why Harry had found her in this state. "I was just reaching for a good book and I guess I was too eager and some fell on my head - yes, that's it!" She then rubbed the top of her head and winced in pain.
Harry, however, was not convinced - Hermione wasn't a very good actress. Still, out of instinct, he tried to examine Hermione's head for injuries, but she fended off his hands as he tried to reach it.
"D-Don't worry, Harry," she said, pushing Harry's hands away from her head, "I'm okay…help me up, will you, please?"
Hermione slowly stood up with her own strength from the floor; Harry gave her support by pulling her up by her arms. Hermione seemed to be frail and she struggled to balance herself upright even though she leaned on Harry very heavily.
"Hermione, please don't be afraid to see Madam Pomfrey - she's the right person who could help you…"
"No, I'm all right! I don't have a condition anymore!" she growled furiously. She now looked straight into Harry with tearful eyes. "Please?"
Harry was at a loss on what to say or do next. As much as he wanted to help Hermione out with her medical problem, which seemed to be worsening rather than tapering off, he also couldn't force her to see Madam Pomfrey if she didn't want to. It was either she refused to seek help or was in denial that she wasn't getting well at all.
Hermione wiped her tears quietly and didn't wait for Harry's response. "C'mon, we're gonna be late for dinner…" she sniffed, and pulled Harry by his hand. They walked together silently towards the Great Hall. It was Harry who was the most pensive between the two and Hermione had noticed it.
"Harry," she whispered, "please don't worry about me - "
"But you're not well!" Harry reasoned gently, stomping his feet on the floor and facing her as they kept walking. "I don't want it to get worse…"
"I don't deny I still have a problem," she interrupted gently, surprising Harry. "But I'm afraid if I go to Madam Pomfrey tonight, she might insist to admit me in the hospital wing and I can't stand by you when you serve detention…"
Harry stopped on his tracks as he stared at her, and Hermione turned to face him. The look on her face was unmistakable. She was more worried about him than for herself and this made Harry feel guilty more than ever. Hermione was actually more concerned about his safety than risking going down to the deep end by ignoring her condition.
"Harry, not tonight, please?" she pleaded. "For me?"
Harry didn't answer and just stared at her.
"If it happens again next time," she continued, "I promise I'll agree to see Madam Pomfrey anytime. But not tonight, please?"
"Are you feeling fine right now?" Harry asked.
"Yes, I don't feel bad at all - I swear…"
"Just this once, Hermione," Harry conceded reluctantly after a long pause. "Just this once…I'll literally stun you if you refuse to see Madam Pomfrey when it happens again - I don't know why I'm saying that…"
Hermione broke into a smile, and went on to embrace Harry wholeheartedly. Harry, however, was still unwilling to give in to Hermione's twisted wishes but hoped that was the last of her memory attacks so that he didn't have to make good his threat to stun her.
"Just one question," he said as they broke apart. "What was the last memory you had before you had another attack?"
"Leaving you at the table and replacing some books at Row G," she replied, starting to walk to the Great Hall again. "Then blackness - and then I saw you looking down at me…" she trailed off.
Harry merely nodded and didn't say anything else anymore.
-o0o-
Harry and Hermione ate their dinner with the rest of the school without much talking. Hermione was slightly ashamed at Harry for attempting to lie about by she had passed out (though she never mentioned it), while Harry's mind was overloaded with thoughts pertaining to today's distressing events. Hermione's dementia attacks was an additional worry for him on top of what he saw in the ball room with Russelpunk earlier, and the unknown reason for Willard's disappearance. His mind was literally buzzing with overlapping concerns that he didn't remember what he had been chewing at all (good thing Harry didn't swallow the paper of his cupcake).
Hermione, who had put her recent memory attack behind her quickly, was at the same time preoccupied watching Russelpunk darkly while he eating his dinner at the teachers table as she munched her pie. McGonagall strangely wasn't in the Great Hall tonight for dinner, she observed.
For the first time like Harry, Hermione deeply suspected Russelpunk had a hidden dark secret beneath the clumsy personality he had portrayed to the whole school since the opening of the school year. Was it that he was a secret asset of Voldemort who was also into the plot to capture Harry? What she saw today in the ball room was merely suggestive of something sinister judging from his eerie laughter, but she knew she had to have incriminating proof to link with the effort to hand over Harry to the Dark Lord. She felt another severe headache coming. She squeezed her forehead as she staggered slightly forward towards her dish.
"You okay, Hermione?" asked Harry concernedly. She just nodded, trying hard to wear an assuring smile, but this didn't cause the desired effect on Harry.
"…I tell you, it's beginning to get more distressing by the day," said Seamus from across the table in the middle of a conversation with Dean Thomas, Neville, and the Weasleys.
"Why, what happened?" Harry asked, making Seamus look at him as if he wasn't listening. Harry looked around and saw worried looking faces surrounding him.
"Didn't you hear what I say, Harry?" said Seamus impatiently. "Professor McGonagall was relieved as Deputy Headmistress this afternoon…"
"What???" exclaimed Hermione, looking horrorstruck and forgetting her headache. "Why…why? What happened?"
"Remember the three students from Hufflepuff were caught violating the two-man rule?" Neville replied for Seamus. "McGonagall tried to defend them in front of Whipple - she let slip of what she thought about Fudge and it wasn't pleasant, I hear. Whipple judged she made a dissenting opinion against the 'true authority' and arrested her on the spot."
"How did Dumbledore take it?"
"I don't know - he's still here. He might try to bail her out in London but he had not done so today. Nobody's sure if Fudge would budge - he's become a monster already…oops!" Neville covered his own mouth and looked around for signs of ministry wizards nearby. Fortunately there wasn't.
"So what happened with the students?" Harry asked next.
"Expelled. Arbitrarily."
"What?" Hermione exclaimed again. "That's highly irregular! That's…that's just wrong!"
"SHHHHH!" everyone hissed around her, panic stricken, including Ron.
After Hermione, it was now Harry's turn to squeeze his forehead. He had his own headache coming. This was another unfortunate event that made a tight situation they were in much more troublesome. He didn't know how he could take it much longer, and he still had to start serving detention tonight.
"Who replaced her?" Hermione said.
"It's not been announced yet," replied Fred, "but I hope it's not Snape…"
The expulsion of the three Hufflepuffs had an instant effect on all the students, and it was evident after dinner when everybody was expected to return to their dormitories. Nobody seemed to be willing to fight their way through the exit of the Great Hall because everybody may have thought they might be detained when they crowded it. Harry became impatient and wormed his way through the reluctant crowd with Hermione in tow.
"I really don't like what's happening at all," he whined as he had cleared the exit to the hallway.
"Who does?" Hermione said in agreement. They got the answer quite instantly.
"Looks like you're beginning to lose some real good friends, Potter," drawled Draco. "First it's Weasley, now McGonagall. I know it's going to be Granger the next time…"
"Don't listen to that rubbish," Hermione urged Harry at once who was looking daggers at Draco, pushing him further away. "You know that would never happen."
"Yeah, what does he know about you, right?" Harry grunted.
They both headed towards McGonagall's office to get his clearance I.D. for detention, but they weren't sure how they were going to get it now that McGonagall was brought forcibly out of Hogwarts. They went in her office anyway, which was unlocked, hoping that she had left Harry the I.D. somewhere before she got sacked. Who they found sitting behind her desk gave them quite a shock.
"Ah, Mr. Potter," said Horace Whipple, looking up from doing some paperwork, "I've been expecting you to come here tonight to get your clearance I.D." He pulled open a drawer and took out a shimmering card with Harry's name on it under the bold letters saying "Detention" and "After Dinner to Ten for Ten Nights".
Harry suddenly felt insecure inside McGonagall's office facing the man that might be the leader of the Death Eaters at Hogwarts. He felt that anyone could jump and cover his and Hermione's heads with a sack and it's "hello, Xanthius" all over again, though he did his best to look unnerved in front of Whipple. Hermione thought of the same thing, too, because she kept looking around especially behind her. More so, Harry didn't dare to say anything at all lest he would say something accidentally that would cause him to be expelled, but Hermione thought otherwise.
"Administrator Whipple," Hermione said severely, "what do you think you're doing inside Professor McGonagall's office?"
Harry snapped his head at her, both shocked and speechless at her boldness.
Whipple, however, smirked and replied "It's unfortunate that she denounced the Minister of Magic today and that caused us to arrest her in the spirit of the State of Emergency, Miss Granger. Since the Minister didn't trust any of the teachers to replace her, he appointed me as Deputy Headmaster, Officer-in-Charge."
Judging from the look of Hermione's face, Harry knew what was coming.
"Why, he's a… Ow!" Hermione shrieked. Harry had stomped on her foot to stop her from talking her way to more trouble.
"What she's trying to say, sir," Harry said quickly, "that it was good for the Minister to appoint someone immediately to the post to prevent a power vacuum in the school…isn't that right Hermione?" Harry stared at her sternly, silently warning her to shut up. Hermione however, just looked away from either Harry or Whipple begrudgingly.
"Yes, yes, he made a very quick decision, and a good one at that," Whipple said. He handed Harry his clearance I.D. "Make sure you present that to the security wizards upon demand. Miss Granger, you have clearance to accompany Mr. Potter wherever he goes. Good night, both of you."
Harry didn't wait a second too long to get out of the office at the soonest possible time. As soon as they got out of the office (Harry exhaled deeply and shook from head to foot), Hermione growled "I can't believe you said you thought having him in that office in there," (she pointed at McGonagall's door angrily), "was the best thing that ever happened to this school! I was just about to protest that in front of him!!!"
"And you get expelled in process? No, thanks. Be thankful I stopped you, Hermione," Harry said hotly.
"Better expelled than sucking up to that prat!"
Even though Harry wanted her to realize that was the stupidest thing to do in the present state of affairs in Hogwarts, he chose not to infuriate Hermione further by just keeping quiet all the way to the first floor boy's bathroom. As soon as they reached its door, Harry turned to Hermione and said, "I think I can take it from here, Hermione."
"Don't be stupid, Harry," she frowned, "you heard what Whipple said. I can now look after you as much as I want - I have clearance. I can't leave you here all alone - something bad might happen to you!"
"Well, it wouldn't have made a difference anyway if you got expelled tonight," Harry said, rolling his eyes.
Hermione paused and momentarily her face went pale after she realized what she almost brought herself into. "Merlin's beard…you're right! What was I thinking of back there???" she said, slapping her forehead.
"Keep your cool from now on if you refuse to let me out of your sight," he replied, smiling away from Hermione's sight. A bit of reverse psychology worked on her. He walked inside the door and conjured a pail full of soap water, some scrubbing tools, and a large mop and then prepared himself to go to work. Hermione walked in next, settled herself down on a chair she conjured for herself to watch Harry do some cleaning.
Professor Flitwick entered the bathroom seconds later, making Hermione blush and say, "Oh, sorry, Professor, I'll be out by the door until you finish…"
"Don't worry about it, Miss Granger - as you were," the tiny teacher chuckled. "I'm supposed to see if Harry's doing his work for detention because Minerva has been transported to London to contest her arrest." Flitwick then frowned. "Those wizards are getting out of hand and Fudge's so evil now I couldn't recognize him anymore."
Harry and Hermione murmured in agreement.
"I trust Harry will do what he was ought to do, so he doesn't need my attention, I'm sure," Flitwick squeaked. "I still have a lot of grading to do for the next few nights. Besides, I fully trust the brightest witch of our age to watch over you, Harry." Hermione beamed after hearing Flitwick's kind words, and she bent down very low towards the professor, because he was signaling to her that he wanted to whisper something on her ear.
"Why don't you use…" was the only perceptible words Harry could hear from Flitwick and he got back to cleaning the tiled floor. Hermione's face, meanwhile, brightened while Flitwick whispered something more to her. He ended it with a wink, and whistled all the way out of the bathroom.
Harry smiled as he watched Flitwick's back disappear behind the door. It was nice to know Flitwick trusted him not to try to escape detention, which he has no intention to do at the first place. Cleaning the deep-seated grime on the tiles around the vast bathroom was hard work at first, but soon the dirt seemed to have become much softer to remove and less tiring to scrub, much to his pleasant surprise. Hermione, meanwhile, was now humming to herself at a corner, tapping her wand on her thigh at even beats.
"I can't help but think Whipple arrested McGonagall just to take over her job," said Hermione halfway through Harry's detention.
"Yeah, me, too," Harry mumbled.
"Do you think he might be gunning for Dumbledore's office down the line?"
"He can if he wanted to…Fudge seem to have given him lots of power, don't you agree?"
Hermione clicked her tongue and shook her head. "If that happens then the Death Eaters're going to have free reign around Hogwarts. I think Whipple had all the chance in the world tonight inside McGonagall's office to wrap you up like a present for Voldemort - I wonder why he hadn't done so then. I think it's because I was with you…"
"They can't really do that while Dumbledore's still here, right?"
"Oh - that's true…" Hermione said, her cheeks going red. "But having no McGonagall surely will make our lives more difficult…"
Harry couldn't agree less.
"Hermione, I didn't really mean what I said to Whipple back there," Harry said soothingly a little later. "I just said that to save you from being kicked out…"
"I know, Harry," she grinned. "I know. And thanks for stepping on my foot, I needed that."
Harry grinned back at her and laughed. The boy's bathroom gleamed like new a little later. Harry couldn't believe it, but it took him less than an hour to finish everything what seemed to take ages to even scratch the top layers of grime, let alone making everything squeaky clean. "I think I'm done for tonight," he said, stretching and snapping his finger joints.
Hermione was slightly startled and stopped humming (the soapy sponge Harry last used then ceased to move around in circles - he didn't notice it). "Oh, wow!" she said brightly. "Well done, Harry, well done! Now can we go and take a look at Seymour's office?"
"Sure, I've been looking quite forward to it," said Harry, making all the cleaning tools vanish from sight with his wand. "That wasn't so hard like I thought it would be," he thought loudly. "Got the cloak with you?"
Hermione nodded and pulled out Harry's invisibility cloak from under her robes and spread it over their heads. They both carefully trekked to the section of Hogwarts where Filch's storage room was located. They had passed by a number of security wizards who didn't sense them at all.
"It's still an hour until start of curfew, so let's take our time," Hermione hissed, and Harry nodded. They reached their objective and looked around for any sign of clues. As usual at this time of the night, the corridors were dark and they could disappear through the blackness without being seen for more than a hundred feet from any direction (except for the dim firelights at the opposite end of the corridors). They carefully removed the invisibility cloak while looking around to allow themselves more freedom of movement.
"Can't see a thing at all," Hermione whispered. "Use the Nocturnal Charm on your glasses, Harry."
Harry nodded in the dark, took off his glasses, tapped it with his wand, and muttered, "Nocturno!" Putting his glasses back, he could now see ahead of him as bright as day. "Here's the door to Seymour's office," he said. "Russelpunk looked like he was very interested in this office…and damn, it's locked…"
He tried the Alohomora Charm, but it didn't work. He cursed under his breath and tried to look through the smoked glass on the door; he could not see anything inside, too. Harry examined the door more closely and looked up - he saw a clear-glass transom on top of the door. Then he understood.
"Russelpunk was hovering because he might have been peeking through that transom," Harry hissed at Hermione.
"Okay, so try to see what he saw that night then," Hermione suggested quietly. "I'll levitate you - Wingardium Leviosa!" She guided Harry up just at the right height to let him see through the transom. "So, what, do you see?" she said, looking around alertly for any sign of movement from the corridor.
"Have you ever been inside Seymour's office, Hermione," he asked. "I mean, he keeps asking for your help…"
"No, never," she replied.
Harry tried to see what was inside the office that looked really intriguing. The office had the usual table and chair - unopened boxes were strewn around (Harry thought Seymour had no time to unpack his belongings). The only thing that stood out was an old chest beside his chair. Harry tried to see if the transom was fixed or if it can be opened - maybe he could slip through it. Unfortunately it was the awning type. Even if he was the skinniest person alive, he could not fit in through at all. Harry longed to open the chest just a few feet away and see what was inside of it - he was so intrigued of it. He felt Hermione tugging at his pant leg from below urgently.
"Harry, I think I could feel somebody's coming," she hissed. Harry looked around, and he saw Russelpunk just meters away feeling himself in the dark. Panicking, he landed on the floor quickly and fumbled with the cloak, just in time to cover himself and Hermione when Russelpunk used his wand to illuminate the area. They moved to a much safer spot and Harry was the only one who could see what Russelpunk was doing.
For Harry's extreme annoyance, Hermione snatched his spectacles to try to use it and see what Russelpunk was up to but she returned it shortly. His eyeglasses might have been too much for her perfect vision.
Russelpunk seemed to be eager to get in Seymour's office. He tried a few spells and charms on the door knob, apparently trying to learn them earlier today, but he failed each time to open the door. Perhaps Seymour had subjected his lock with a very powerful locking spell of his own, Harry thought. Russelpunk roared as quietly as he could out of frustration, and hovered to see through the awning like Harry had done earlier. Shortly, Russelpunk pounded on the stone wall, landed back on the floor, and walked away fuming.
"C'mon, let's get out of here before anyone does see us," Harry whispered to Hermione, and they started to move back to the Gryffindor tower.
They didn't find anything at all tonight, except for the fact that Russelpunk wanted something badly from Seymour's office. The question for Harry and Hermione now was "what?"
-o0o-
With the common room void of other students late in the evening, Harry and Hermione talked in hushed voices beside the fireplace to discuss Russelpunk's probable motives for acting ever so suspiciously. Harry had seen him doing such things for three times already, Hermione two.
"I'm afraid I'm also as stumped as you are, Harry," Hermione sighed. "I don't have good theories to what Russelpunk did to the balls this afternoon, and his interest of something in Seymour's office. It doesn't make sense…I can't connect the dots."
"Yeah, I understand," Harry said, blowing out some air. "I can't help but think Seymour is probably the uncorrupted wizard from the Ministry Olga talked about, and Russelpunk is Whipple's secret agent. I bet Whipple sent Russelpunk to sabotage the next Quidditch match…"
"Why? To hurt you?" Hermione asked. "I don't know what good it'll do if they want to take you out of Hogwarts. Madam Pomfrey is so strict with hospital wing security. I found that out earlier this term, but I admit she's a little lax sometimes. Chadron almost tried to stab Dumbledore to death and nobody saw him. I'm sure they'd have a hard time spiriting you out of the hospital wing. Besides, if Russelpunk rigged the Quidditch balls, we'll know by Wednesday at practice…"
"Thanks, Hermione," Harry said, staring at the dying fire. "We'll try to see if my theory's correct - Seymour always sees you, maybe you could keep observing his demeanor…"
"So far he seems okay - he's a little bit demanding sometimes, but very gentle in the end. I hope we're right about him, but sure, I'll take a good a look at him - even Dinky." Harry nodded at her gratefully. Hermione then stood up from her seat, stretched, and yawned. "Lots of shockers happening in one day," she said. "It's absolutely draining. We need to get some sleep…"
Harry nodded at her again and said, "Sure, good night." She started to go up the spiral staircase, but Harry called her softly.
"Hermione," he said and she stopped to turn around to look at Harry. "Thanks for being a big help today - and thanks for watching out for me…"
Hermione grinned. "Thanks for doing the same thing for me, too, Harry." Giving Harry another grateful smile, she walked daintily up to her dormitory and disappeared from sight.
Harry breathed and stared back at the cinders in the fireplace. He thought he was beginning to adapt pretty well with a life of not having Ron around anymore, and he admitted it made his relationship with her much stronger than ever before because they had never been together more constantly like this. Harry knew Hermione was his only true friend left he could fully trust as each passing day seemed to get more dangerous for him with more disturbing events. He didn't know what it would then be like anymore if something terrible happened to her, too - most importantly, her seemingly incurable dementia attacks. That was about the only thing he kept worrying about most.
-o0o-
Lucius could not seem to stay put in a single spot for more than a minute the whole night. His plan was going on pretty well as expected, but he could not help but think his original idea, which was still operational, was flawed.
He knew the Dark Lord was getting impatient for results. Lucius had the daily habit to reassure him that all was working as planned and he will deliver Harry Potter "very, very soon" but he knew his time was running out. He didn't dare to divulge to the Dark Lord the first stumbling block they have experienced during the holidays for fear of his wrath. The Death Eaters were working with Plan B all along from the very beginning.
This was what Lucius was concerned about the most. It was all too late to change the plans lest he'd delay even more further the delivery of his package to Voldemort, yet he was tempted to just get it over with and do away with the meticulous measures. He could have done just that but it always boiled down to…
"I can't get Potter with Dumbledore around," he growled. Even if he'd found a way to get rid of him, the magic in Hogwarts was still too strong to snatch Harry Potter just like that, as they have learned by being unable to take over Hogwarts the last time. Removing Dumbledore was just a mere step closer towards the final objective but concentrating on that too much and worrying about the Hogwarts magic next would mean more delays, and he didn't want the Dark Lord to think he was just buying time.
"How do we lure Harry Potter out of Hogwarts and pounce on him?" Lucius kept asking himself over and over again. As if a deity from down below had answered his silent evil prayers, a Death Eater went inside his office at his manor for some encouraging development.
"Our people have reported from Hogwarts," the Death Eater announced. "There's a way to get Harry Potter possibly before the end of this week thanks to Rowwel Russelpunk - if you agree to deviate from the old plan!"
"Talk to me!" Lucius said, encouraged with the news. The Death Eater laid out the proposal from the agents at Hogwarts in front of Lucius, and each word he muttered made Lucius' face grow brighter.
"That's excellent," Lucius said excitedly. Sticking all along with Plan B wasn't for naught after all and it had paid off, he thought. "Tell them I approve of the new plan - it's way too much better than what I have conceived! Before the end of the week, they say? I couldn't hope for a result with the old plan within weeks! Good work! If possible, bring the asset along with Potter - the Dark Lord will surely have the pleasure torturing and killing the Mudblood." Lucius cackled with the thought. "Keep me posted all the time with the arrangements - I must give the final approval to move.
"I'm confident our mission will be done soon," said the Death Eater. He didn't wait for a second longer and went on to notify the people at Hogwarts that the new plan was a go, leaving Lucius in his den cackling with laughter.
-o0o-
Harry and Hermione couldn't wait to know what Russelpunk might have done with the Quidditch balls until Wednesday afternoon. The days before that were uneventful, and like before, Hermione wished there was a way to speed up time magically.
On Tuesday, they had the usual DADA class with Russelpunk. Harry and Hermione chose to sit at the back of the class and didn't feel like participating with the teacher who had called them to demonstrate some useful defensive spells they have suggested at the first place. Russelpunk looked visibly troubled why Harry and Hermione had suddenly become dry with him and why they had all sorts of alibis why they thought some of their classmates deserved to be at the receiving end of his lesson, much to Ron's disadvantage. Harry and Hermione kept avoiding Russelpunk altogether in class and along the corridors the whole school week.
"Do you think he suspects why we're suddenly avoiding him?" Hermione asked Harry on the way towards their Potions class Tuesday afternoon.
"Who cares?" Harry replied apathetically.
Hermione became busier with her prefect duties towards Wednesday. Sometimes she wasn't with Harry for an extended period of time and she was often seen assisting Seymour and his partner. Still, she always found time to spend with Harry in the end and they both derived more pleasure by being alone with each other every time. They sometimes acted as a loner kind of couple, preferring to distance themselves from the other students. Perhaps they hadn't noticed it at all, but they were actually growing fond of each other as time went by, even feeling disappointed together when they had to separate to get to their own dormitories for bedtime.
Their growing affection didn't stop them from concentrating on the most pressing concerns they laid out for themselves. Wednesday afternoon had come; Hermione watched Harry and the rest of the Gryffindor team very closely (from her snow-covered seat) practice for their next match with Hufflepuff. She had her eyes peeled all the time for any signs of strange behavior to all the four balls of Quidditch, which was a very difficult thing to do in real practice. Shivering and rattling in the extreme cold made that even much harder.
Harry had caught the Snitch dozens of times ahead Angelina's screams of "Chase the Snitch even if it takes you all the way to Alaska!" Their ticket to the Quidditch Finals leaned heavily on Harry's ability to catch the Snitch at the next game if the Chasers couldn't shoot more goals than Hufflepuff.
Hermione felt slightly disappointment instead of relief seeing nothing out of the ordinary with the balls for today's practice. The Bludgers acted normally, and the Snitch didn't go beyond what it was designed to do. The Quaffle was the least magical of the three and it obeyed every law of physics. She concluded that the balls weren't rigged as they have suspected all along. It made her even confused. She kept asking herself what Russelpunk was doing in the ball room last Monday afternoon. Harry looked as mystified as her when the team was dismissed before six in the evening.
"I don't understand it," Harry said in detention that night.
"Me, too," Hermione sighed. "We're supposed to be glad nothing was wrong with the balls, but why aren't we happy?"
"Maybe we were hoping Russelpunk would be the bad guy…maybe he just wanted to see the Quidditch balls up close last Monday," Harry conceded. "I mean, we shouldn't have judged him like that at once - he might be okay after all."
"How about his other obsession outside Seymour's office?" Hermione reminded Harry.
"I don't know, but he's just attracted to something inside there, probably - he really does act like a little kid like everybody says. Boys will be boys…" Harry shrugged.
"I suppose," Hermione said quietly, although she still had a nagging thought of Russelpunk otherwise. "And we treated him like a traitor yesterday…"
"We'll try to give him the benefit of the doubt from now on, what do you think?" Harry proposed and Hermione agreed with him, though halfheartedly. By Thursday, Harry and Hermione resumed talking to Russelpunk like they had before, much to his pleasure. Maybe they could learn more about him much more closely if they did.
-o0o-
The match between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff came as scheduled on Friday morning. Despite the bad snowy weather that didn't seem to let off, Horace Whipple had insisted on not calling it off to show normalcy in Hogwarts. After all, it was what Fudge had demanded from Dumbledore and the Minister of Magic traveled all the way from London to witness it. For the sake of protocol and courtesy, Dumbledore sat beside Fudge at the central tower of the stadium, though they didn't exchange the usual pleasantries. Dumbledore was extremely furious with Fudge because of McGonagall's unjust detention.
Hermione had settled at her usual place at the stands and cheered for no one but Harry. She felt confident that there would not be any untoward incident for this game because the balls weren't rigged like they thought. The only thing that made her feel awkward was that Ron also took his usual place beside her.
"How are you, Hermione?" Ron said timidly to her for the first time ever since the holidays. "How's Harry, too?"
Hermione didn't smile at him, still feeling angry with him for what he had said to her back at the Great Hall about Krum. Too late the hero, she thought.
"Fine," she said coldly, and shifted her body away from Ron. Ron didn't say anything else and just tightened his lips like he always did when he felt very guilty of something.
"AND T-T-THEY'RRRRE OFF!" Lee Jordan announced through the sound system. "H-h-huffle-p-p-uff is l-l-leading the standings, b-b-but will G-G-Grrr-Gryffindor be on t-top of the list after todays g-g-game?" He was obviously shivering and having a hard time talking in the cold.
Twenty seconds into the game, Angelina scored the first ten points for Gryffindor. The whole of Gryffindor went wild amid the "boos" from the Slytherins. Harry was hovering high up above the pitch, searching for the Snitch like a hawk, and skillfully dodging a bludger that was sent to him by a Hufflepuff beater.
The Snitch seemed to be much harder to spot in a real game than at practice, and nobody really knew why. The Hufflepuff Seeker, Wilson O'Brien, shadowed Harry rather than actively searching for the Snitch by himself.
"Hufflepuff S-scores!" groaned Lee. "Score is t-t-tied at ten each!!! Oh, t-talking under th-this w-w-weather is impossible!" Lee then suddenly resigned for the rest of the match (except to tell the scores) and most of the game was watched without his commentaries, with much protest from the fans. After all, McGonagall wasn't around to force him to keep commenting.
Thirty minutes later, Gryffindor had gained over 170 points over Hufflepuff. Even if the Hufflepuff seeker caught the Snitch, Gryffindor was guaranteed to take the lead in the standings. For Angelina, an additional hundred fifty points could also give them a very comfortable lead over the other three houses, and she didn't let Harry up with her demands to still look for the Snitch to clinch the game.
"What's the matter with you, Potter?!?" she roared when she hovered beside him. "Why can't you find the Snitch like you did at practice???"
Harry didn't look at her, and still scanned the whole area for any sign of the Snitch. Then his eyes caught a glint just beside the Gryffindor goal post. He dove his Firebolt towards it.
"Go, Potter, go!" screamed Angelina.
The startled Snitch zoomed away evasively from Harry's outstretched hand. An exciting chase ensued amid the roars of the Gryffindor house. Harry rolled, turned as abruptly as the agile Snitch around the pitch. He fought numbness across his face due to the cold wind as the Snitch struggled to widen its lead ahead of him. They were speeding from the Hufflepuff home court all the way through the length of the pitch, and they quickly approached the other end.
Harry expected the Snitch to change course before it went out of bounds and prepared well for it. However, it kept on going until they had gotten out of the pitch. Surprised and beffudled, Harry stopped in midair uncertainly while he watched the Snitch keeping on zooming away towards the Forbidden Forest. Most of he spectators became silent because it was strange for the Snitch to do that - it never been out of the pitch for centuries.
Harry looked around for Madam Hooch for guidance, and from the edge of the stadium he saw a yellow blur speed off to run after for the Snitch. The Hufflepuff Seeker didn't hesitate and went out of the pitch to go after it.
"Potter, you idiot!" yelled Angelina. "What'd I say to you? Go after the Snitch even if it takes you all the way to Alaska!!!"
The Hufflepuff Seeker was now a tiny yellow speck from Harry's position. Because of his determination to get to the Snitch first, he leaned over his Firebolt to speed up and pursue it, too. From the stands far away from Harry, Hermione looked tremendously afraid. She knew this very wrong and highly suspicious.
"Harry! Harry! Don't do it!!! Come back!!!" she screamed. Her classmates looked on at her in bewilderment, not knowing what went into Hermione's mind to try to stop their Seeker from earning more points for Gryffindor.
Harry was now zooming at full speed away from the stadium, and now he was over the Forbidden Forest. He had gotten within feet behind O'Brien who was almost on top of the Snitch; it was just a few inches away from his hand. Harry grunted, squeezing even more speed to his Firebolt. The Snitch went on straightly, seemingly adamant not to stop at all.
O'Brien's Cleansweep Seven was no match to Harry's Firebolt, and soon Harry had overtaken him slightly. The Cleansweep had an emergency booster attached to it and it fired. The two Seekers were now abreast at each other. Harry was confident the booster pack would not sustain itself for more than two minutes, so if he kept on going O'Brien would be left behind soon. However, O'Brien suddenly decided to get aggressive and go against the rules by ramming Harry to the side in an attempt to dislodge him.
Harry was shocked at O'Brien's conduct. He fought to remain on his flight path and on the broomstick even if O'Brien kept on bumping him, but then he felt an arm go around his neck! Furious, Harry snapped his head towards O'Brien to retaliate, but what he saw almost knocked him off his broom by itself.
The Seeker was not from Hufflepuff, and he had a Death Eater mask on his face! It was a trap! Knowing he was in extreme danger and all alone now, Harry punched an elbow on the Death Eater's ribs and tried to fight off the locked arm around his neck. Harry was precariously losing his grip on his broomstick. He struggled to get free of the Death Eater's grasp, but he was just too strong.
Almost left with no air and with one more desperate effort before he passed out, Harry reached for the Death Eaters neck and choked him from under the chin. He didn't let go with the neck and the broomstick with his other hand. The tide soon had turned against the Death Eater because he was denied of air to his lungs much quicker. Harry took the opportunity to whisk his Firebolt away from his attacker. He looked for his bearings, and accelerated to escape back to Hogwarts.
His attacker now used magic to catch Harry from behind. Taking out his wand, he whipped it like a lasso and it caught Harry right around his arms and chest. He tried to take the lasso off him, but it was impossible - it stuck to him like glue. Determined not to lose this fight, Harry struggled to stay on his broomstick - his only ticket to safety back in Hogwarts, even if it meant breaking his ribs by pulling the Death Eater all the way up to there. Hogwarts still looked tiny from where he was; the lasso around his arms and chest was taking a toll on his strength like it was also draining his energy gradually. He felt his consciousness ebbing away with every inch he traveled. Still, Harry refused to get caught by the Death Eater and fought on stubbornly even if his Firebolt was losing speed.
Finally, Harry's hands didn't have enough strength to grip his Firebolt and he saw the broom fall to the ground ahead of him to a hollow in the Forest. Harry was now left hanging in midair by the lasso, which the Death Eater held from up above. Fighting sleepiness, he saw a small clearing in the middle of the Forbidden Forest up ahead where his Firebolt had landed, and a couple more Death Eaters waiting for him at the middle of it. They were wearing the robes similar to what he saw in the graveyard with Voldemort, and in Xanthius when he was there last.
Soon, he felt his feet brush against the grass jutting out of the snow. The Death Eater on the broomstick snapped the rope off his wand (though the rope around Harry was still binding him) and he slumped on the ground. To weak to resist, he felt some hands grab his arm and drag him to another spot in the clearing. He heard laughter all around him - laughter of sweet success, laughter for his defeat. Harry couldn't believe after suspecting all along the Snitch was tampered with, he still fell for the trap.
The Death Eaters had him at last for Voldemort, Harry thought, and there was no one around to help him now.
-o0o-
Chapter 14 coming soon. New messages from the author will be posted on top of this chapter, so you may want to check it out to know when to expect the next chapter would be coming out. Again, I thank you for reading this story.