Chapter 20
After the Divination class was over, Professor Midrigge walked back to her office. She shut the door behind her with a click. Gazing around her newly arranged office, she sighed heavily. She needed to find a rug to cover the hole that Voldemort's Death Eaters would be making. She sank back into her arm chair.
"How did I get myself into this?" she asked aloud.
`You should have never made that love potion, Ophielus' her conscience told her.
"There was no other way. That was the only way someone would be able to fool around with Voldemort." She spoke to her conscious again.
`Alas. Yes. True. Very true. But mind you, you still have Christmas to deal with.' Ophielus sighed again and got up. She opened the top of her roll-top desk and opened a small cabinet with a lock on it. Inside lay a small black box. About the size to keep cuff links in them. She petted the velvety fabric of the box as she sat back down. Opening the box made rainbowy forms of light dance on her face in the office. It was a ring. A diamond ring. She never wore it. Afraid some of the nosy teachers (*coughmcgonagallcough*) would ask who the lucky guy was. She didn't need to use her powers to find that out. It came naturally.
"Remus." She whispered, slipping the ring onto her left hand. "If only you knew how much good I'm doing."
Note: Hey kids! It's time for the Adventures of the Mini-Goddesses! Just kidding, but it is the adventures of James Potter! (coming to fanfiction.net after this story is finally done.) Here's a flashback preview. Mu ha ha ha.
The Hogwarts express chugged towards Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The uniforms and the outfits the young students wore were quite different. About around the late1950's (Voldemort is 77 during the modern times of the story. Not in the flashback. I did the math, okay? And I suck at math so go along with the story. If you read COS really carefully you can found out the math. Ha.). Lilly Evans (sorry! Hopefully this will be the last note, I am using Evans since that is what most people think Lily Potters maiden name was) and her friend Ophielus Midrigge and Ophielus' sister Veronica sat in a compartment chatting away. Veronica was going into her second year and Ophielus and Lily were starting their first. Veronica was filling them in on the Whomping Willow, the mysterious tree planted at the end of Veronica's first year.
"And it moves! It's chilling! I don't like it at all." Veronica said.
"Don't go near it then." Ophielus said.
"I'll be sure not to!" Lily piped up. "Moving trees! Moving stairs! Magic everywhere! And imagine! Eleven months surrounded by it!"
"Being Muggle Born is quite common." Veronica said. "Don't worry. You'll be fine." Ophielus was quiet for quite some time while Veronica answered Lily's questions about the school. Ophielus turned her head towards the compartment door. She stared at the oak wood, but not seeing that. She saw through the wood and out into the aisle of the train. 3 boys, one blonde (lucious malfoy) and two dark haired (severus snape and igor kakaroff) were heading down towards…. Ophielus held up a hand to her head and concentrated on where they were heading. Oh. James Potter's compartment, occupied by also Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew. Once the boys had passed, Ophielus looked away from the door.
"I'm going to step out for a moment." She announced.
"Okay Phillie!" Veronica said. Phillie was a nickname for her. Ophielus hurried after the boys and kept watch from a safe distance.
The door of James Potter and company's compartment rattled open.
"Well, well, well. Having a round of `Go-fish' are we?" Lucious Malfoy sneered at the 3 boys playing which was noticeably a game of Exploding Snap.
"Yes." James answered politely. That annoying son-of-a-wand who ridiculed him often, as they leaved quite near each other.
"Why aren't you playing, Peter? You could try to win some luck. You'll need it." Lucious said. Severus and Igor snickered behind their hands. Peter shrunk back in his corner. The boys laughed harder.
"Leave him alone, will yah?" Remus asked.
"Who are YOU to tell ME what to do, ragamuffin?" Lucious snapped. Remus looked down at his cards. Sirius stood up.
"Leave all of us alone, can't you go annoy someone like…."
"Like yourselves?" Severus asked in a still (ha ha) oily voice.
"I'm serious!" Sirius yelled.
"I know you're Sirius." Lucious said. They nearly were rolling on the floor with laughter. James took Sirius' cards from the floor and Remus' cards from his hand. He gathered all of the cards up and packed them together tightly.
"Why can't we get along?" James asked. "We be nice to you, and you be nice to us."
"Why?" Lucious asked.
"Things can be a lot better that way. Would you like to play a game with us?" James walked closer to them. Severus and Igor stepped back.
"What kind of game?" Lucious asked, eyeing the cards which had faintly began to smoke.
"It's a really fun game. Called `Cowboys'." The cards were really smoking now.
"How do you play?" Lucious asked.
"Easy." James smirked. He threw the cards in Lucious' face. "Round `em up!" He slammed the door just as the cards exploded. James high-fived all of his friends. They heard Lucious and his friends stomp off.
Ophielus giggled silently as purple smoke engulfed the three bullies. She waited until they were past before heading up to the cabin door. She took a breath and knocked.
"Careful James! Don't open the door! It could be them ready to return the attack!" squeaked a voice.
"Don't worry. James can use my pumpkin juice." Sirius offered. The door opened. The boys seemed surprised to see a girl standing at their door. Even though hormones were just kicking in, the boys all blushed.
"R.J." Ophielus spoke in the direction of Remus. "I need to talk to you."
"Ooooooooooooooooooh." Sirius and James said. Remus stood up and walked slowly out of the compartment.
"Who are you?" Remus asked.
"Ophielus Midrigge. You can call me Phillie. And listen up here bucko." Her tomboyish acts were pulled into action. She grabbed the front of his roves and slammed him against the wall.
"I know your secret. I'm here to tell you how to use the Whomping Willow."
"The… what? How?"
"I'm Psychic. Is that enough for you?" Ophielus snapped. Remus nodded.
"You need to prod the knot on the tree with a stick. The tree will stop moving briefly. Then you need to walk down the path until you get to the trap door. Then you're free to do whatever werewolfish things you do in the house you end up in." She left go of his robes. Remus patted dust from them.
"Why are you telling me this?" Remus asked.
"Someone had to do it. See you around." She turned on her heel and headed back to her compartment.
"Hey, Phillie?"
"Yeah?"
"Did anyone ever tell you, you look really cute when you're mad?" he asked, blushing furiously.
"No. Thanks." Ophielus said without turning around. A smile grew on her young face. It had started it all.
Professor Midrigge snapped awake from her flashback/dream. She slid off the ring and put it back in the box. Then she left to go to the Great Hall for Lunch.
Oh! This part is SO dedicated to Christopher Allen Krebs, my longest running boyfriend before he decided to become a total @$$hole which is now his new title. Thanks!
Christmas break was already here. The Lion's Den had been almost completely emptied. Ginny, Ron, Harry, Hermione, Nellie, and Neville were staying along with some third and second years. Hermione had hardly spoken a word to Harry she was so angry with him about the letter from Cho. In fact, tonight was the night he was going to go into Dorset and meet her for dinner.
"Hermione. Listen to me." Harry pleaded once more. "It's just dinner! Please!"
"Harry, how am I supposed to believe that? That… That.. Girl is going to steal you back! You can tell! It's written in between the lines!"
"Hermione! That's not true!"
"Don't even try to explain!" Hermione burst into tears and ran upstairs to her dorm. The door slammed.
"Way to go." Said a third year.
"Shut up." Harry said. He stuffed his wallet in his back pocket and headed out with his signed permission slip from Dumbledore.
Harry had been given a horseless coach to take him to the nearest town where he could get a taxi to Dorset. In the taxi, snow sprinkled the windows. The windshield wipers squeaked against the wet glass.
"Thanks." Harry muttered to the driver who had stopped just outside The Woodward Café (I hope that's right Haydn). He paid the driver and stared at the Café. It was friendly cheerful looking place with a wreath on the front door. Tiny bells chimed as Harry walked into the Café.
"HARRY!" a voice cried. There she was. Harry didn't think he would have been this nervous. His legs felt like jelly, His stomach churned. He weakly smiled and made his way to a booth at the far side of the Café.
"Harry! I'm SO glad you made it!" Cho took his hand and shoved him in the seat opposite her.
"We have SO much to catch up on." She said. "I ordered us both low fat Lattes and slices of warm apple pie. There was a big crash from back in the kitchens.
"RANDALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Mrs. Woodward, the owner of the Café yelled at one of her sons who had apparently smashed several plates. Cho took up speaking again.
"How's school doing for you? I'm SO glad I got out of that place while I could."
`And I could SO get away from you right now'. Thought Harry. This wasn't as fun as it had with Cho before.
"……. I mean, working in a Muggle office building is okay……." The boy who crashed the plates walked over and gave them their low fat lattes and their slices of pie.
"……… and then the traffic! Can you BELIEVE? Sometimes its so hectic…."
Harry obediently shoveled a piece of pie in his mouth to refrain from answering.
"Well! You seem awfully quiet today, hon!" Cho perkily asked, her titled eyes glinting in the lamplight.
"Well. You're doing most of the talking."
"You haven't changed at all, Harry, have you? Still a virgin?" Harry immediately felt enraged.
"YES." He said firmly.
"Good little Danger Boy." Harry flinched. That name again. This wasn't at all turning out to be a friendly little get together.
"Yeah, well……." Said Harry softly. Cho dropped her fork.
"Oh my gosh! You like someone else! Who is it?" She leaned her elbows on the table and stared at his face.
"How could you tell?" Harry asked instead.
"It's easy. I'm a girl. I know these things. Its that red-haired girl, isn't it? She always had the hots for you."
"Ginny? No." Harry was surprised that Cho had even asked that.
"Then it's that preppy little girl with the colored name."
"Lavender? She has a boyfriend---"
"Who?"
"Seamus Finnigan."
"Do they get it on?" Cho asked. Who WAS this girl? Harry wildly thought.
"I don't know. I don't bug into people's personal love lives." He said harshly.
"Oh." Cho picked up her fork. "So, are you gonna tell me who it is?"
"No." Harry said. There was a silence. Cho suddenly began giggling and snorting.
"Remember?" *snort giggle laugh* "Our Quidditch game at the end of last year? When you yelled across the field, `I love you'?"
"I yelled, `Look out behind you' because you almost got nailed in the head with a Bludger."
"Well, when I flew over to you, I didn't get hit, did I?" Cho shot back.
"Well, getting hugged and kissed isn't great when your groin area is getting nailed into your broomstick." Harry angrily snapped. He threw his napkin on the table.
"Cho, what is wrong with you? You're so different now! I know it's just barely over a year since we broke up, but a ton of things have changed."
"I know that." Cho said.
"Well, so do I. You're not who I thought you were. I thought you would be the same. Not some love life obsessed jerk." Cho's mouth hung open.
"See? This is why I dumped you in the first place."
"Really then? Then what was the junk about me being too dangerous and always wanting you to come search the school with us? I never asked you. You just assumed. You know what? You never stop to think about what someone is or isn't going to do. I'm leaving."
"Hermione." Cho whispered. Harry stopped from getting up.
"What?" Harry asked.
"That's who it is. That brown haired girl that always hung around you and Ron. I always saw it in her eyes. She loves you Harry. I did too. I still do."
"Then why don't you show it? You can't just say that you love someone and then ignore for almost a month before coming out and telling them how you really feel. Goodbye Cho." Harry finally got up this time.
"Wait! I told the owners you would be paying!" Cho called after him. The bells ringed as the door shut after Harry. He shoved his hands in his pockets and proceeded down the snowy streets. Windows were still lit up. It was only around 7:30 and the stores will still open. For last minute Christmas shopping. Harry stopped and gazed at the window of a fine sweets shop. No Hogsmeade meant no presents from friends. Only family. And Harry had none. Neither did Nellie, or Neville. Harry placed his hands on the window, staring in. He then made up his mind.
"Where is he? Why isn't he back yet?" Hermione asked Ginny who was in the 7th year girls dorm.
"Why are you so worried? I thought you were mad at him."
"I am! But--- I…."
"You're not really mad at him. You're jealous." Hermione fell to the floor, clutching Crookshanks close.
"Oh Ginny! I'm afraid! Not jealous! A bit jealous, but mostly afraid he'll fall for her again. I love him too much for him to leave me! Or me to leave him!(Take that Chris!) But there's nothing I could do if he chooses her instead of me." Crookshanks purred and licked a tear that was rolling down Hermione's cheek.
"Don't worry. I'm sure everything will turn out all right in the end." The end. What end? When Harry came back? Or the end of the school year? The end of their relationship? Hermione just didn't know.
Voldemort strutted around his palace in green and red attire.
"The tree is still crooked!" Voldemort sang.
"Yes, master. I will fix it." Wormtail said, straightening the large tree Voldemort had ordered put up to celebrate his `good' feelings for his one and only love, Ophielus.
"And I want GARLAND!" Voldemort trilled, dancing more around the room, his black hair swinging around his face. "And CRANBERRY strings! EVERYTHING!"
"A bag of chips, too sir?"
"Hush, young Malfoy." Voldemort stopped spinning and faced Crabbe, Goyle, and Draco who were helping decorate. Draco stopped smiling.
"Where is Nellie?" Voldemort asked.
"Here I am, Master." Nellie slowly walked into the parlor with a large bowl of popcorn. Goyle and Crabbe began to drool.
"Good girl. Start stringing them together. Then, I want to speak to you." He stroked Nellie's chin with one slender finger.
"Yes Master." Nellie looked down at the thread she had and began to string popcorn. Voldemort danced off, shaking his hips softly singing:
"I like big butts and I cannot lie. Any brothas you can't deny. When a girl walks in with an itty bitty waist, and a round thing in your face, you get SPRUNG! Baby, I want to get witcha! I want to take your piccha!…."
Note: Sorry! I just HAD to make him sing that song. Little does he know what a doofus he's acting like under the love spell. Mu ha ha ha.
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