Chapter 6
Neville (no, that's not a typo) wandered to his next class. He liked Nellie. He thought she was very pretty. He liked her hair. Neville suddenly realized he was attracted to red hair on girls. He remembered the Yule Ball with Ginny, but now she really doesn't like him anymore. She always glares at him now. Neville sighed and walked into a wall.
"Ow!" he said, reaching up to clutch his forehead. His books tumbled from his arms.
"Awww." He moaned. He stooped down to pick them up. Someone else reached down, too.
"Here." Nellie said, handing Neville his Divination book.
"T-Thanks." He said. "You- you goin' to Divination?"
"No." Nellie said. "I'm going to Study of Ancient Runes."
"Oh. Well. See you later." Neville said.
"Yeah. See you later." Nellie walked past Neville and went up the stairs half concealed by a door. Neville sighed deeply.
"Neville. Neville. Neville." Harry said, prodding Neville in the back.
"Hmmm?" he asked.
"You're going to be late for class." Harry said.
"Oh right. Um." Neville turned away from the staircase and hurried after his friends.
In class,
"My DEARS!" Professor Trewlawny gushed as class started. "I have the most terrible news! I was just sitting in my chair and a vision washed over me." Ron began to giggle.
"Someone, in the upcoming year, will DIE!!!!! Yes, students! Someone will truly DIE!!!!!" Lavender and Pavarti gasped and hugged each other in fear.
"I advise all of you to stray your eyes from the words of the Daily Prophet. You may never know what you could find out!" Pavarti raised her hand.
"Yes?"
"Can me and Lavender burn our copies now?"
"Yes. You are excused to go and extinguish those horrid papers from your lives." Lavender and Pavarti scrambled down the ladder.
"Now. The rest of you, be assured that the worst will come to an end." Dean raised his hand.
"I have a question." He said.
"Of course you do." Professor Trewlawny purred. "What is it?"
"Well," Dean said slyly and the boys instantly knew he was lying and sucking up at the same time.
"It's not REALLY a question. It's just that you've been working here a loooooooong time." he drew out the word long. "And you, being MY personal favorite teacher, deserve a break."
"Well. I was thinking about taking some time off, but there is no one who is free to teach my classes!"
"But what if." Dean continued. "Someone was willing to teach us some real, I mean, teach us while you were gone. Say, in Maui?"
"Maui?" Professor Trewlawny eyes grew bigger from behind the frames of her bug-eyed glasses.
"Yes." Ron said, hoping to get Professor Trewlawny off their back. "Maui. Palm trees. White sand."
"There's even a national Divinator society there." Harry spoke up. The rest of the bored class murmured together as one.
"I'll think about." Professor Trewlawny said. Dean sat back down in his pouf. Seamus gave him a thumbs up. As professor Trewlawny prepared to start class, Ron whispered to Harry.
"If she goes, we'll have to get Professor Midrigge to tell us all the psychic stuff she knows. Then this class will be worth it." Harry nodded in agreement.
Divination went by as slow as usual. When the bell had rung, everyone was eager to go to lunch. Hermione was already at the Gryffindor table.
"I wonder where Malfoy and his friends went." She said to Harry and Ron as they sat down and began to wolf down sandwiches. "They aren't back yet."
"I dwanno." Ron said, mouth full. Little did they know, what was keeping them so long..
"What is taking them so long?" Voldemort sneered, pacing back in forth in front of his living room.
"Master, you know they have leave class, go outside, enter the roots of that wretched tree, and go underneath the basement of your new palace, then walk two, or three blocks and-"
"I GET THE POINT!" Voldemort yelled. Wormtail shrunk back.
"Now. Once they get here, they better succeed in what I am going to ask them to do."
"Master?" the voice of Draco Malfoy called out, through the front door.
"Ah. Come in, my pets." Voldemort hissed. Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle entered the front room.
"You, um, called for us, Master?"
"Yes. I have something for you all."
"Food?" Goyle asked hopefully.
"No, you ungrateful little booger. Wormtail?" Wormtail shuffled over and handed each of the boys an envelope. They stood there looking at them.
"Well? Aren't you going to open them?" Voldemort snapped. They opened their envelopes.
"A party to honor The Great Lord Voldemort and his new palace headquarters, tonight at 7:30 p.m." Draco read aloud. "Thank you Master, for greatly inviting us to your party."
"You're very welcome, Young Malfoy. But there is something I want you three to do for the party."
"Buy food?" Crabbe suggested.
"Set up food?" Goyle added in.
"Buy decorations?" Draco asked.
"No. I want you to invite someone in particular."
"Who's that?" asked Draco. "Professor Snape?"
"He has already received his invitation. I want you to invited a girl."
"You don't mean, Pansy?" Goyle said, horrified.
"Or Millicent?" said Crabbe, terrified.
"No." Voldemort smiled evilly down on his young Death Eaters. "Nellie Vonwit." All three boys stared.
"Why-" Draco began.
"Dare you question me?"
"N- No." Draco stuttered.
"G- Good!" Voldemort taunted. "Now you will get her to come, understand?" They nodded.
"Now. Get back to class!" Voldemort screeched. Malfoy and friends scattered.
It was potions class now. Snape was trailing about the classroom, gushing over everyone's hard work over the summer vacation.
"How wonderful you all are!" he trilled and literally skipped over to his desk.
"Now. I won't be able to help any of you after class." He told them, dropping off some papers. As if anyone wanted to stay and have a tea party with their now demented once evil potions teacher while he tutored them. Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle came in.
"How nice of you to join us, boys!" he chirped. He gave each of them a worksheet to fill out. It was a crossword puzzle.
"All you have to do is find all the ingredients hidden within the other not necessary words of a Utopicharmak potion for people with severe sunburns." Snape said.
"Uh. Okay." Malfoy said. He scanned the room to try to find Nellie. She was stuck at a table with Neville Longbottom who seemed very flattered about that. Malfoy glared. Hermione was already finished and was starting on her homework. Ron and Harry were doodling on their papers. Crabbe and Goyle headed back to their other table and Malfoy slowly followed.
"Nellie." He whispered in her ear.
"Oh! Draco! You're back!" she said.
"Yeah. Uh, I gotta talk to you after class." He said.
"Sure." Nellie said. She turned back to Neville's worksheet. "No, Neville. Baggtrot isn't an ingredient. That's just there to fool you." Nellie explained.
"Gee, Nellie." Neville said. "You're good at worksheets."
"We had worksheets like this for extra credit at the Salem Witches Society." She explained. Draco hurried and finished his crossword puzzle and let his buddies copy. He then spent the rest of the class trying to think of ways to persuade Nellie to come to Voldemort's house party. The bell rang then.
"Buh Bye! Buh Bye! Buh Bye!" Snape said, smiling cheekily at the students, waving like some lunatic as they left the classroom. Malfoy turned to his teacher when he was leaving.
"Are you going. Um, to that thing tonight, Professor?" he asked. Snape's happy look melted off his face.
"I must." He said. "I must go. Or I will be punished. I do not want to be punished. I must." He whispered in a harsh voice.
"Okay. See you." Malfoy said and kind of waved. Snape reached up and grabbed Malfoy's wrist.
"He wants her." He said.
"Who? Nellie?"
"DON'T SAY THAT NAME!" Snape cried out. "He wants to use her." Draco got a very disgusted look on his face.
"Ew! He wants to. USE her?"
"Yes!" Snape said. "For some of his evil plots to kill."
"Oh." Draco said, exhaling.
"Don't let him take her." He whispered, his grip on Malfoy's wrist tightening. "There is no return to innocence." Snape then cleared his throat and looked at his hand holding Malfoy's wrist.
"Have a nice day." Snape said. Malfoy ran out of the classroom. Nellie was casually waiting for him at the top of the dungeon staircases.
"You said you needed to talk to me?" she asked, flipping her red hair over her shoulder.
"Yeah. Um. There's this party." he said.
"Are you trying to ask me out?" she asked.
"No! No, no, no. He said. "I wanted to know if you wanted to come. Not with me. Well, you would be going with me. But not as in a date type of thing. Do you get it?"
"Yes." She said. "What kind of party?"
"Um. It's kind of some open house party in Hogsmeade." He said.
"Oh. I guess I'll go. It might be fun." She said.
"Great." He said. "Well. Um, it's at 7:30 and so we should leave at around 7:10."
"Sounds good. I'll see you in front of the Great Hall." Nellie said. "Should I wear anything special?"
"Uh. I think Pansy has this plain black robe. Ask her if you could wear that."
"What's wrong with my school robes?"
"Um. Hers is nicer."
"All right." They were at the Slytherin House entrance.
"Charismatic." Draco said and the stone wall opened. Crabbe and Goyle were scarfing down slices of the leftover pies. Draco left to his dormitory and so did Nellie. Pansy was filing her nails on her bed. Nellie asked if she had a plain black robe she could borrow.
"Sure." Pansy said and magicked it out of her trunk and made it glide over to Nellie with her wand.
"Thanks." Nellie said. She fingered the silk robe, thinking about the party tonight.
"Ouch." She said, feeling something prick her finger.
"You okay?" asked Pansy.
"Yeah. I think so." She looked at her finger. The one with the black stain where she had touched the Dark Mark. It was now a glowing blood red color, slowly fading back to black.
Back at the Lion's Den, (do you have the hang of it yet? We're at Gryffindor tower.), Harry and Ron started on their homework.
"You should have started it in class." Hermione said. "I got mine done."
"Good. Then you can help us with our notes on rare half breeds." Ron suggested.
"Do your own." Hermione said. Ron grumbled and opened up his book. Hermione started reading a book titled, "The Most Boring History Book About Boring But Quite Interesting History." It must have been boring since soon, Hermione had fallen asleep reading it. Her head tilted and rested on Harry's shoulder. Ron sniggered and reached over to grab her Defense Against the Dark Arts notes. Harry was somewhat pleased. As Hermione fell into a deeper sleep, she snuggled up to Harry like a little bunny. Or that bear in those Muggle laundry commercials.
"Guess she didn't get enough sleep last night." Ron whispered, sliding Hermione's notes back in her folder.
"I didn't either." Harry said. "Well, much sleep."
"Hi guys!" Neville said, coming over.
"Shhhhh!" Harry and Ron said.
"Oops!" Neville whispered. "Uh. I'm going to get some food in the Great Hall. Want to come?"
"What's that on your book covers?" Ron asked quietly pointing to one of the books that Neville had in his arms.
"Nothing!" Neville said going red. Ron snatched a book.
"Nellie. Nellie. Nellie. Nellie. Nellie. Nellie. Nellie. Nellie. Nellie." He read, turning the book at different angles to read the name Neville had wrote all over his transfiguration book. Ron shoved the book back, smiling.
"Neville finally has a crush!" he said.
"Shut up." Neville said.
"Okay. We'll get some food." Harry said. He gently placed a hand on Hermione's shoulder.
"Hermione?" he asked. Hermione slightly grunted. Harry leaned down and whispered some more.
"Hermione. Wake up." He whispered. Hermione only cuddled closer.
"Hermione." He whispered. "I'll be back tonight." He whispered.
"Harry." Hermione said, just about driving Harry to embarrassment as she spoke his name. Ron began to laugh and Hermione woke with a jolt.
"Huh?" she said.
"Yes?" Harry asked. Hermione then realized she had fallen asleep.
"Oh. Sorry, Harry!" she apologized.
"We're going to get some food in the Great Hall. Want to come? I didn't want to just leave you sleeping on the couch here." Harry said.
"Sure." She said.
In the Great Hall, Neville spelled out Nellie as many times as he could with the letters of his alphabet soup.
"I swear he is so obsessed." Ron whispered to Hermione who seemed to be concerned.
"Well. It's about time he's had his mind off of things. Ever since You-Know-Who came back and that last visit with his parents he told us about." The three were quiet, remembering Neville coming back from Christmas vacation, blubbering and telling everyone what had happened.
Meanwhile, Malfoy kept checking his watch. He hated wearing his plain robes. They brought back the bad memories when his father had been put in Azkaban for trying to make him be evil in his 5th year. The spell had been broken, but there was something inside of him that said that being evil was his destiny and he had to follow in his father's steps. It was 7:08. He beckoned to Crabbe and Goyle and they exited the Great Hall. Nellie was already waiting there for them. She looked very pretty in the black robe. No one said anything as they walked out to the grounds by the Greenhouses where they would have class in the late afternoon tomorrow. They headed towards a tree with moving limbs. Nellie thought it was strange because there was no wind. Draco picked up a long branch from the ground and motioned everyone to follow after him. He hurried around the tree and prodded a twisted wooden knot on the tree. It stopped moving.
"You first." Malfoy told Crabbe. Crabbe hurried in the gap of the massive tree roots. Goyle was next.
"Hurry before it starts moving again." Draco told Nellie. She hurried in, Draco behind her. The tree leaves began to shake again. They were walking along a tunnel. The light from their wands weren't enough to light it all up. The path sloped and Nellie saw Crabbe reach up and open a trapdoor. They had emerged into a very dark basement with a bunch of chairs, logs for fires, and a cauldron. A pair of stairs were in front of them. Thank goodness they were lighted. Malfoy shoved his way past Crabbe so he could lead. Up the stairs, Nellie could hear the murmuring of voices. As they went higher, the voices got louder. And louder. Malfoy opened a door. They were in very large kitchen with marble counters and shiny pots and pans. Nellie was fascinated by all the rich lifestyle that was all in the halls and the rooms they passed through.
"Master. We're here." Draco said, interrupting Nellie's thoughts.
"Good. Here are your party hats." Said the man with the black hair. He looked over Crabbe and Goyle's head. His lips turned up in a big, toothy smile. His mouth open and Nellie could see sharp canine's emerge.
"Well hello there. How nice of you to come to my house party." He said in a hissing voice to Nellie. "My pet." Nellie couldn't hide the fear in her eyes. It was Lord Voldemort. And she was standing in his new palace, facing what could be her doom.
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