A/N: Well, here at last is another chapter and I am writing to you all from New York. Long vacation ahead of me, I have big plans but main hurdle is to work through this sudden appearance of Writer's Block and get these chapters in. I really want to be finished before Deathly Hallows is published. That shouldn't be too much of a problem though, I have my new laptop! Yay for me! Enjoy.
Disclaimer: Not mine, but working on mine again. Toughest critic I've encountered so far: my own mother.
*****
Chapter Six
As we raced up to the Infimary, which Rigel was firmly convinced we were going to get to before the others, he finally noticed that I was still wearing the same clothes he'd left me in the night before. Without stopping he asked, "Run out of clean clothing, Potter?"
I looked down at myself. "It's a short story: Kimberly and Witch Weekly."
He decided not to enquire further, and instead said, "I can get us inside but we're going to have to stay in the background and out of sight."
I suddenly wished I hadn't left the cloak in my room, and that I'd told him about it before. He was my best friend and no fool; there was no way he'd ever tell anyone about it and especially his grandmother. Where on earth did my parents get the idea that he would? There was nothing to be done about that now though, so I replied, "Okay."
We were taking a secret passageway, concealed behind a statue in the hall beside the left-hand staircase leading to the second floor. There was another staircase here, which only led to the floor below the Infirmary's, so that we'd have an open race to it before the others came. And all the while we ran, Rigel had been muttering under his breath, "Why didn't he do anything before? Treating werewolf bites is first year stuff! And even if he didn't remember that he damned sure knows which herbs to use to treat wounds, or potions, Herbology and Potions are his two best subjects! Why didn't he do anything...?"
Usually I would have taken the mickey out of him for talking to himself, given the rarity of the moments when he acted like a normal person, but this was not a normal day. When I could take it no more I asked, "What are you talking about? Who are you talking about?"
"Connor," he replied. "He's good at Potions; frightfully good at Potions, and Herbology and Defence Against the Dark Arts… he can't not know anything about treating wounds, about treating these kinds of wounds. Why didn't he do anything last night?"
"Last night?" I asked, confused.
"Cousin Remus didn't get attacked this morning," he replied over his shoulder.
Even more perplexed, I asked, "What?"
"Connor was with him last night and he didn't do a thing to help him after he'd been attacked, why?"
"Connor had left the school last night?" I asked, hopelessly lost and nearly breathless now for the length of our climbing run. Thankfully though, we had at last come to the top of the staircase, behind a portrait, and he had barely stopped running before he was checking round it for unwanted company. He answered, slightly irritated, "Don't be thick, did Connor look as if he just went out? He's been out all night; he sat there all night watching his father bleed and did nothing…."
The coast was apparently clear for he hopped out then, turned and reached a hand for me. And I was barely standing shakily beside him before he was dragging me to the stairs and up them all the way to the Infirmary. There, we burst in to absolute silence, which was good, it meant that they weren't there yet and the Infirmary was empty. He quickly selected a corner that was easily hidden from view by a screen and once we were safely behind it, turned to me and whispered, "Tell me, did you see Connor in the Common Room last night?"
Remembering the map I shook my head, "No, I didn't see him."
"That's what I mean. He wasn't anywhere in the castle last night, I know it. One of his friends was looking for him and another actually had the nerve to ask me if I'd done anything to him," he replied.
"What did you tell him?" I asked.
"That I'd dumped his body in the lake. Anyway, since he'd come down to the dungeons to ask I guessed that Connor must have left the school and the little git hadn't bothered to tell anyone else how," he replied.
"You two don't talk, why should he tell you anything?-why is that by the way? That you two don't talk?" I asked.
He brushed my question off as if shaking off a fly, giving a headshake that fluttered the ends of his hair into his eyes and then nodded to the door, "They're here."
I looked up just as Madam Pomfrey, the OGB and Connor, along with the rest of the school, burst in and surrounded the first available bed. A few gruff barks cleared the students out shortly after, but they crushed into the doorway and against the doors so that it was clear that they hadn't and weren't going anywhere. Madam Pomfrey ignored this though, to ask Connor, "What did this to him?"
"Another werewolf," he replied.
I gasped, but it was thankfully covered by the alarmed cries of the others without. The OGB barked at them again and they hushed quickly, then he asked Connor, "Did it attack you too?"
"No sir," said Connor, firmly. "It heard me coming and ran off."
"Why would it do that?" asked Madam Pomfrey, absently.
The OGB cut across Connor's response to ask, "Where were you when the attack happened?"
This time Connor didn't immediately reply, halting halfway through the response he was apparently going to give to Madam Pomfrey so that the following stumbled into a mutter and died. Then he was silent for so long that the OGB was forced to repeat the question before he uttered, as softly as he could, "The Shrieking Shack."
The OGB reacted as expected, "Detention! And one hundred points from Gryffindor for leaving school grounds!"
My Housemates audibly groaned in the hall, while Rigel beside me stifled a smile. That immediately took out the advantage in the race to the House Cup we'd gained in the Quidditch match. Connor gave no visible reaction to this though, just continued to silently stare down at his father while Madam Pomfrey ran him over with a series of muttered spells and her wand.
Looking at him then, still wearing his thick cloak, hat and scarf in the unrelentingly warm castle, covered in his father's freeze-dried blood, I could almost feel his pain; the expression on his face spoke volumes. But the empathy-less OGB wasn't finished with him yet. He continued as Madam Pomfrey began some frantic spell casting, first to warm up Uncle Lupin and to seal some of the more minor wounds, "I can see that Madam Pomfrey has her work cut out for her and we're apparently getting in her way. Come with me, we'll finish this conversation in my office."
Here Madam Pomfrey tried to interject, a surprising development given her history. She stopped midway through a spell and looked the OGB directly in the eyes, "His father was just attacked and is in grave condition, he should be here if he wants to be."
He blankly looked back at her, and then asked Connor, "When was he attacked?"
"Last night, l-late, around ten o' clock," he replied, his voice thick with emotion now.
The OGB turned back to Madam Pomfrey, "He spent the entire night watching him. If he expires while we are away the boy had clearly had enough time to say what he needed to."
Startled and understandably so, Connor looked up at him sharply. He said nothing, but I did not miss the wild rage in his eyes, now a dark, cold grey, colder even than anything Rigel had ever managed. It was certainly something I hoped not to be on the receiving end of. Yet when the OGB blithely began to head to the door, he quietly fell in step behind him.
There was no time to think it over, I turned to Rigel immediately. "I have to follow them. You stay here and watch Uncle Lupin."
"What?" he asked, turning to me, but it was too late. I was already slipping as quietly as I could away from him looking for a way out of the Infirmary unnoticed. It came when Madam Pomfrey turned away to go to her storeroom for some supplies. I took the chance and raced through the doors into the remnants of the crowd. They saw me and started, then began calling after me: "Magnolia...? What did you see?" "Is he still alive?" "Where's Snape taking Lupin?" "Magnolia, did Connor get bitten?"
I ignored them all. I was on a mission, I had to get to my room, get the cloak and use that and the map to find Connor and the OGB. Once I found them, well, I didn't know, but I had to find them. I took the steps two at a time and pushed carelessly past people to the portrait hole. I swept up the stairs to my dormitory, snatched up the cloak not noticing or caring if I was being seen and then sped back down and out of the tower altogether to the stairs. Later I would have to come up with some form of excuse for my behaviour, but that was later when I wasn't hoping and then not, that this was just a random act of violence.
How to explain the fact that it happened in the Shrieking Shack then? I was working on it.
I found them just as they got to the stairs that led down to the dungeons. Checking around quickly, I ducked behind a pillar and slipped on the cloak, then pulled the map from my pocket and hastily searched it for the easiest route to the dungeons. There were none, but the best chance was down the stairs directly behind them, holding my breath where possible and moving as slowly as the situation would allow, stifling the sound of my footfalls.
In practice this proved more difficult.
Neither the OGB nor Connor said anything to each other as they went. Footsteps echoed as they were made, despite the crackling torches and occasional creepy noise that filled the darkness all the way down. I was eventually forced to allow them to go all the way before attempting to follow, using the map to track them. But that revealed a serious problem. The OGB went directly to his office with Connor close on his heels, and just down that same corridor was Peeves taunting Filch.
My heart leapt into my throat, either one of them discovering me then was going to lose Gryffindor at least fifty more points. But I had to hear what they were talking about, so hoping that Peeves was too busy with Filch and vice versa (and not to mention that Mrs Norris was miles away) I crept down the final steps as quietly as humanly possible. It took a painful amount of time, when I finally got to the OGB's office-sure enough finding Peeves and Filch in the midst of a heated exchange (on Filch's part at least)-I found the him and Connor in mid-conversation. The OGB was speaking.
"-you do anything? You let him suffer an entire night when you knew the simplest solution to end his misery! You had the opportunity, why didn't you seize it!"
"End his misery?" I had a feeling that that wasn't good. For the fact that I knew that the OGB and Uncle Lupin were lifelong enemies, I could be assured that he wasn't talking about Connor coming back to school for help. Connor's response then shocked me slightly.
"He wasn't attacking me!"
"That is no excuse! You allowed him to lie there in pain while you sat there and cried like a little boy! I taught you better than that! You have an opportunity, take it!"
Connor didn't respond then and I imagined him glaring at the OGB in a manner that suggested "if looks could kill". How dare he suggest what he did? Who did he think he was? What kind of person did he think Connor was?
He continued casually, "Anyway, a werewolf you say...? Did you see anything of it?"
Just down the corridor Peeves levitated Filch's mop bucket half-filled of a slimy-looking liquid precariously over his head. Filch suddenly looked less inclined to argue, eyeing the bucket cautiously, but I could still feel his rage emanating off of him in waves. I willed them to continue with each other and not notice me; I didn't and couldn't possibly come up with a good excuse if they did.
"No, it left just as I was coming in," Connor replied.
"You did not interact with it at all?" asked the OGB, and I could hear something like scepticism in his voice.
"No sir," said Connor, firmly, and then added, more than a little rudely, "you can clearly see that I haven't been bitten."
"Did you prearrange to meet your father last night?" asked the OGB, surprisingly ignoring Connor's tone.
Peeves began to toy with the bucket over Filch's head, tilting it forward and then bringing it back upright. If Filch moved it followed him, if he swore it tilted forward just a little more.
"It was the full moon," said Connor, continuing as insolently as before.
"Did you intend to see him anyway?"
"I'm not stupid."
"I know that you are fascinated... no, obsessed with werewolves, as far as I can recall you have always been."
"My father is one. You always say that knowledge is power, if I have to live with him I should know everything there is to know about people with his condition."
"I distinctly recall an incident involving Rigel Weasley-"
"-That was a prank-"
"-So you say but you seemed to have-"
Peeves took just that moment to dump the bucket of slime on Filch's head, causing him to erupt into a roar of
"PEEVES!" and a string of curses that echoed through the unnaturally quiet dungeon. I covered my left ear
with my hand and pressed the other against the door. Neither Connor nor the OGB seemed to have reacted, I wondered if
they even heard a thing. But I certainly couldn't now, their words kept coming in snatches and breaks that meant
nothing out of context. I was eventually forced to wait against the door while Filch rage and hope for it to
subside.
It wasn't to be long though, for suddenly the Bloody Baron appeared, floating up the corridor from the shadows
with a distinctly displeased expression on his face. Peeves vanished so fast I was sure he'd been banished. Filch
was left to roar at the blank space in the wall where he'd been hovering and then stalk, slimily and rather smelly,
away up the stairs that led back up to the Great Hall. The Bloody Baron went along his mournful, menacing way and I was
forced to return to the conversation just as it ended with the OGB saying to Connor, "-now go, and don't ever
leave this school again without permission. You could have been killed by that werewolf, and then what would your
father have done about his doses of Wolfsbane? My hands are no longer as steady as they used to be and your mother is
useless, and you know that. His life is in your hands."
There was a pause as Connor began to head towards the door-I began to shuffle away for safety-and then he said
something that made my heart seize, "But isn't that a good thing?"
At last it seemed that he had gone too far, the OGB's voice was nothing but cold fury as he snapped, "I don't think your house could stand to lose more points so I shall ignore that statement. What we do is not for my benefit, but yours, and don't you ever forget that! Now go!"
I flattened myself against the wall as Connor emerged from the office and headed back up the steps. The OGB remained within at his desk, and just before the door closed I spied him staring at his hands as if they'd offended him.
Apparently they had, and how my father would have loved to hear that bit of information. The only thing that had kept the OGB out of Azkaban really was his Potions work. I pressed on the door gently, it gave a little and I looked in at him flexing his fingers and massaging his palms and at once decided against telling my father. If he was going to find out about this he was going to have to do it on his own. In the meantime I was going back up to find out what had happened with Uncle Lupin while I was away. Somebody had to look out for him, since it appeared-and the thought repulsed me-that his son wasn't going to.
*****
Rigel met me just as I arrived at the Infirmary floor, out of the cloak, and at once dragged me away back downstairs. I made no attempt to resist his manhandling, he was rightly confused and upset about the way I'd run off earlier without explanation. As soon as we were free of the main crowd, slowed to a stroll amidst only the prying eyes and ears of the portraits and the dim light coming through the snow-blocked windows, he demanded, "Where were you?"
"What happened with Uncle Lupin, could Madam Pomfrey do anything for him?" I asked, refusing to answer.
"They've sent him to St Mungo's and Madam Pomfrey is trying to contact Aunt Tonks-where were you?" he demanded, refusing to be distracted.
I relented, "Trying to eavesdrop on the OGB and Connor, it's the same thing he said before, it was a werewolf."
"Was there anyone else with him? Was he out there alone?" he asked, somewhat fervently.
"Should there have been?" I asked, trying to stall him, not wanting to admit that I hadn't really heard anything useful.
He was on his guard, "Was there anyone?"
"I don't know, I didn't hear that much," I replied.
"Did he see the werewolf?" he asked.
"Apparently not."
"Was he going out to meet someone?"
"Snape seems to think so; said Connor's obsessed with werewolves and he thought that he was going out to study them because it's the full moon. By the way, what happened between you and him when you were younger? The OGB was explaining until Peeves dropped a bucket of slime of Filch's head," I said.
He intentionally ignored my question, "Peeves and Filch?"
"Rigel..." I warned.
For a second it appeared that he was going to answer, and then he said, "I think we should send a letter to your parents about this, it might be the same person who arranged to attack you before. He must have figured out somehow that Cousin Remus was trying to protect you."
"I can't talk to them directly, Uncle Lupin was the contact," I protested.
"Then how about Aunt Luna, I know she gave you something from them last week," he replied.
The memory of the cloak flitted into my mind and I stammered, "Oh... uh... er... yeah, I don't know what
good it'll do but let's go."
We turned around and headed to the stairs to go up to Gryffindor Tower.
For the rest of the day the school discussed the morning's events. Understandably the Gryffindors were most upset by Connor's actions, and though some were sympathetic due to his father's condition, others were not. One hundred points were a lot to lose in one go. My mother had told me about the time in her first year when she, Dad and Uncle Neville had lost Gryffindor one hundred and fifty... Connor was going to be shunned for some time to come.
The others Houses had mixed reactions. While the Slytherins were clearly joyous, to the extent that many walked the corridors calling out "Lupin for Head Boy!" the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws presented themselves as torn between hope for success and empathy for Connor.
I, on the other hand, preoccupied myself with pondering the little I'd overheard of Connor and the OGB's conversation. It sounded wrong, it felt wrong, it was wrong, but I had no proof of anything. At fourteen Connor couldn't possibly generate the energy needed to use the Killing Curse, I knew that Voldemort had used it at sixteen but he was evil. Access to the more dangerous herbs and potions ingredients was severely restricted for obvious reasons. And Connor simply couldn't kill his father; even if he used "Diffindo" creatively he wouldn't do it. As far as I had seen of them together, which wasn't much but more than enough anyway, he just couldn't.
Yet what was that "isn't that a good thing" comment?
At last Rigel could take it no more and demanded, "You heard more than you told me, didn't you? What did you hear?"
"I told you exactly what I told my parents," I replied.
We had been wandering around the school since sending the letter off to Aunt Luna that morning. It had been a slow and quiet walk, with both of us lost in our own thoughts, and had now come to a stop in the corridor alongside the courtyard, where we stood watching the snowfall slowly stifle the grounds. Someone had removed the tree that had been set up there, forever taking a beating from the wind, but I could see Hagrid in the distance dragging a particularly large one over the grounds to the castle. I observed it all with a sense of detachment, the stillborn Christmas spirit in me was just about to be declared dead.
Rigel stepped into my line of sight, looked me dead in the eye and asked again, "What did you hear?"
Not breaking his gaze I said, "I can't tell you, I'm not going to tell you. I don't have to."
"What were Connor and Snape talking about?" he asked.
"I told you."
"Then it has something to do with him being out of school," he said, looking at me carefully, searching for the slightest hint.
I got angry, "Why can't you listen? I'm not going to tell you. I just-"
"-Magnolia Potter!" called a frightfully familiar voice.
I firmly refused to turn around, though I knew that wouldn't stop her. When she wanted to, Professor Trelawney could be a force to be reckoned with. But Rigel decided to take a more proactive approach to avoiding her.
Grasping my arm, he began walking us briskly towards a side exit where a group of his Housemates were gathered talking. We both pretended that we couldn't hear her calling still, "Magnolia! Magnolia!" as we went and the group did nothing to alert us to it. To them he was Rigel Malfoy and no one interfered with a Malfoy in Slytherin House.
But just as we got to the exit door, an arched alcove that was really a false wall, she caught up with us, snatched my other arm, forcing us to stop, and said gravely, "Miss Potter, I have been looking at the cards again. Your father took heed of my warnings and I expect that you will do the same. Be warned, actions have consequences and consequences will be delivered upon those who have wronged! Beware of the hound lover, darkness surrounds him. Beware of the attendant, born of madness and consuming hate, death is her. I have been watching you from the beginning, I was right the first time, I am right now. Be vigilant when you walk into darkened woods."
And with that she released my arm, straightened her battered old cloak and walked away, taking the scent of her cooking sherry perfume with her. The others began to laugh, but with a look from Rigel they immediately stopped.
I looked off to the corridor she'd disappeared down and then said, "I'm going to my room." And I did not wait for him to respond before walking away.
He quickly caught up with me. "Don't tell me you're taking that barmy woman seriously."
"I'm not, I'm tired, we've been walking around all day," I lied. Actually I just wanted to be alone but I couldn't say that.
"We can sit," he said.
"Not here, and I don't want to be in the Great Hall, there are too many people around," I replied, half-heartedly now trying to get rid of him.
He stopped a moment, thinking, and then said, "Let's go to the library then."
"Madam Pince will put us out if we start talking," I pointed out.
"Well then we won't talk, we can sit quietly. I'll pretend to read and you can go to sleep like everyone else does," he replied.
I could see that he wasn't going to give up and allowed him to lead me away.
*****
Sitting in the library while Rigel read for his homework, I lay my head on a couple of books and stared out the window at the darkening navy twilight and thickening snowfall. There really was a blizzard coming now, and again the image of being at home in my bed flitted into my mind, away from werewolves and murderous sons and crazy false Seers. There I would be safe, with hot chocolate and my father whistling Christmas carols loudly, though he was awful, and my siblings trying to find out where Mum had hidden our presents. There I wouldn't have to wonder if Connor was evil and the OGB brainwashed him. There I wouldn't have to wonder which werewolf my father had offended and how recently for them to come after me now. There I could just go about life as if I was just another thirteen year old witch. I wrapped my arms round myself and closed my eyes, trying to picture it and shut out the world.
Moments later Rigel was shaking me awake. "Get up Potter; go for a walk or something, Pince is coming!"
I was up in an instant and wincing at a pain in my chest from the sudden movement, got off the bench and hurried away. If she caught me sleeping on the books I would be chased from the library, loudly, and the last thing I wanted was to draw attention to myself.
I made my way deeper into the library, heading for the shelves nearest the Restricted Section, which were usually quieter than the rest. There I could hide a bit until I felt that she had gone and then I would go back to the table and Rigel, though I didn't really want to. I could go to my room of course, but alone up there I was undoubtedly going to be flooded with thoughts about the days events. Worrying about Uncle Lupin, wondering about the OGB, Connor and Professor Trelawney's warning (she had been right the first time), and unable to sleep, I'd probably go mad.
Then I saw something that stopped me cold. With three more shelves to go I had slowed my pace and tried to make my movements less urgent, to appear more casual than I actually was. My undoubtedly puffy and red eyes, imprinted skin and already hoarse voice would be a dead giveaway up close, but from the distance I hoped to get away with it. And then I heard them.
They were between the last shelves at a desk tucked neatly into an alcove, heads together and speaking in low voices. Connor, looking glum, was attempting to stare a hole into the table before them. Camilla had her arm around him and her chin on his shoulder, whispering what were probably (what I hoped were) words of encouragement into his ear. There were piles of books and papers spread out on the table before them to give the illusion of a study session but not many would be fooled by it. Since when did a Sixth Year Slytherin, who didn't have a reputation for kindness in the first place, tutor a Fourth Year Gryffindor, who, from reports I'd received thus far, didn't need it? And what could she possibly be helping him with in the first place? No, no one would believe it, but they would certainly think something else was going on. They looked so comfortable, so casual that I knew this wasn't the first time they must have sat like this. It was too... intimate. I felt as if I'd walked in on something I shouldn't have seen, shouldn't be seeing and at once turned and headed back to Rigel.
I had no idea. I didn't think it was true, I'd heard the rumours and from Rigel too, who didn't often get into gossip, and I didn't believe them. But apparently they were. Connor and Camilla... I'd seen the look she had given him when we'd gone out to search for my earring. It was all true after all, Connor and Camilla....
I was forced to stop a few shelves down to clear my head with a headshake that would make anyone looking on think I'd lost my mind. And surely I had, what was I worrying about? I was just Connor's friend, and so was she, maybe. I hung around with Rigel and everyone always thought we were a couple, though we weren't, it was all in the way it looked, how they perceived us. And then Connor's father had been seriously hurt this morning, she was just doing what a good friend would do, comforting him now that he really needed it. I was being stupid and silly and needed a reality check, Connor and I weren't that good friends.
I took a deep breath and set off again. But when I was almost at Rigel's table I saw Madam Pince standing nearby and without hesitating turned and left the library altogether. I had had enough of the library for the evening; I needed to be in my room.
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