Snakes, Snape and Suspicion
"Enough demonstrating!" Lockhart pontificated, treating everyone in the Hall to a liberal dose of his toothy grin. "I'm going to come amongst you now and put you all into pairs…"
"He is a pear," Ron muttered through the grin that had spread across his face when Snape felled their ridiculous Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. His grin was wiped from his face moments later when Snape appeared and separated him from Harry.
"Well at least he's with Seamus," Hermione whispered a moment later as Snape left them to it with barely a glance, "unlike Harry who's stuck with that odious little bug." She watched with concern as Harry and Malfoy prepared to square off.
"Are you kidding? Seamus will probably blow his eyebrows off! At least with Malfoy Harry doesn't have to worry about hitting him. He's more than a match for him any day."
"Hmmm…" Hermione eventually turned away and at Lockhart's command prepared to cast her spell. Both girls knew the spell so the club was really more about perfecting technique than learning anything new at this stage. Still each was curious to see who would win. As Lockhart counted down, an image of Malfoy bouncing off of the dungeon wall when she had jinxed him popped into Alice's head and she hesitated, afraid of hurting her friend. It was a hesitation too long because Hermione reacted immediately. Alice felt her wand being torn from her hand and watched it go sailing through the air towards her.
Hermione lowered her wand with a grin on her face that was part triumph and part delight so that despite her own chagrin at having hesitated Alice couldn't help but smile back. Unfortunately those around them were having less luck. Wands flew in every direction, as did sparks and spells that were either deliberate - as in Harry and Malfoy's case as they seemed to be engaged in a fight to the death - or utterly involuntary - as in Ron's who seemed to have succeeded in severely winding Seamus with his malfunctioning wand.
"What on earth do they think they are doing?" Hermione queried as she watched Harry's duel whilst Lockhart flapped vainly about the pair trying to get them to stop. It was only once a thoroughly murderous looking Snape stepped in that a sense of order was restored.
Alice looked around the room at the dishevelled pupils and was just thinking that the lesson couldn't have gotten any worse when she heard Snape's words. "How about Malfoy and Potter?"
Alice felt her heart thud in her chest. Was he mad? Getting Harry and Malfoy to fight each other in front of half the school was asking for trouble. Neither was going to back down. Then again, looking at the malicious smirk on Snape's face she was sure he was well aware of that. As she was scowling at him he happened to glance in her direction and an odd expression flashed across his face for a second before he looked away. Her frown deepened as she tried to fathom his expression; maybe it was simply loathing or perhaps she had just imagined it, after all it had been fairly fleeting.
Putting the inner workings of her twisted teacher's mind to the back of her thoughts she concentrated on Harry again. Ron had pushed through the crowd until he was standing behind them and she could tell from his face that he was as concerned as she was. Hermione was watching them with barely concealed panic and was chewing anxiously on the sleeve of her robes as the two of them faced off in the centre of the Hall.
Almost at the same time as Lockhart shouted for them to begin the two boys yelled their own incantations for all they were worth. Malfoy was sent tumbling backwards, but not before a huge serpent had sprung from the tip of his wand eliciting shrieks from those girls closest to the action, including Hermione.
Everything happened in an instant after that. Snape, looking overly pleased with himself, moved to intervene as Lockhart with his usual idiocy blasted the snake several feet into the air, the thing landed hissing, spitting and spoiling for a fight as suddenly Harry was wading into the fray and the snake wasn't the only one hissing.
"Oh Merlin…" Hermione whispered looking sick as she realised what was happening. Ron made a strangled noise and Alice watched in horror as the snake first reared up then settled back in a crouch as Justin Finch-Fletchley exploded in a terrified rage.
"Come on," Ron muttered, taking charge as Snape vanished the serpent. He pushed roughly through the crowd with the girls following behind him and together they quickly hustled a perplexed looking Harry out of the Hall and up the stairs in deathly silence.
"You're a Parselmouth. Why didn't you tell us?" Ron seemed almost livid as he rounded on Harry the minute they were inside the common room.
"I'm a what?" Harry seemed completely thrown by his three friends' reactions.
"A Pars -" Ron was cut off as Alice placed a hand firmly across his mouth.
"Not until you can do it without shouting," she chastised him with greater calm than she felt. The revelation of Harry's gift seemed to have spooked them all.
"You can speak to snakes," Hermione explained in hushed tones. "Didn't you know?"
"Well yes I… I mean I… two years ago I was at the zoo - it had never seen Brazil - I accidently let it loose on Dudley…" Harry stumbled incoherently to a halt as he evidently picked up on the direness of the situation from his friends.
"It had never seen -?" Alice quelled Ron with a look as he began to raise his voice again. She couldn't really blame him though; finding out your best-friend was a Parselmouth wasn't something you expected to happen everyday. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes to compose himself before speaking again. "What did you say to it anyway?"
If possible Harry looked even more confused. "What do you mean? I told it to leave Justin alone - you heard me."
"Harry," Alice was aware she had adopted the sort of tone one uses to break bad news to an elderly relative, "you spoke in a snake language. We don't have a clue what you said. I doubt anyone did; Parseltongue is really rare."
"Oh," he was stunned into momentary silence by this revelation. "But why is that so bad? I mean I can just explain to Justin what happened; I stopped the snake taking a dirty great bite out of him for goodness sake."
"It's not quite that simple Harry," Hermione's eyes were anguished as she looked at him. "The thing is Alice is right, being a Parselmouth is incredibly unusual and… and that's what Salazar Slytherin was famous for and why the Slytherin symbol is a snake in the first place. Now everyone is going to think you're the heir; judging by the expression on his face it's certainly what Justin thought.
Alice watched the blood slowly leave Harry's face as this nugget of information sunk in. "But I can't be." His statement, which lacked any of his usual conviction, was barely discernible.
"Remember what Professor Kreevain said? Slytherin's line was lost centuries ago… For all we know you might be." Hermione seemed to be about to burst into tears as she spoke then without warning she engulfed Harry in another hug. He seemed too stunned by the revelation to respond however and just stood there blinking dumbly over her shoulder. After a few seconds she pulled away and wiped her teary eyes. "Sorry," she whispered.
Her apology seemed to snap Harry out of whatever trance he had been in. "No don't be silly, I just… I think I might go to bed if you don't mind. It's been a long night." Without waiting for any of them to say anything he crossed the room and disappeared up the staircase leaving them all staring worriedly after him.
"Do you think we should…?"
"Nah, just leave him," Ron, in an unusual moment of wisdom, broke across Hermione's question.
"Let him sleep on it," Alice added with a wane smile which she didn't really feel. She doubted he would sleep much tonight.
As it turned out Alice herself didn't get much sleep either. She lay awake listening to Lavender, Sally-Anne and Parvati whispering about what had happened and speculating with ghoulish delight on what it might mean. When they eventually quietened down their commentary on the subject was replaced with her own worries about Harry and the sound of Hermione, who clearly wasn't sleeping either, tossing and turning in the bed next to her. Every so often she would dose off for a few hours only to wake up again long before she was due and start dwelling on the situation again. There was still an hour or so to go before dawn when she finally gave up on the elusive phantom that was a night's sleep and crept downstairs to the common room.
Reaching the bottom of the spiral staircase she pulled her dressing-gown closer against the winter chill and made for the fire which was already crackling merrily in the hearth. To her surprise the space in front of it was occupied. Ginny Weasley sat curled up in an arm chair staring so wretchedly into the flames that Alice felt her heart go out to the girl despite her misgivings about her personally. Clearly something was troubling her.
"Ginny?" She approached tentatively as the girls head shot up from her arm like a startled rabbit.
"What?" Her woebegone look was instantly concealed behind what Alice now suspected was false bravado and innocent expression so reminiscent of her brothers.
"Are you alright?"
"What's it to you?" There it was again, that flash of something Alice couldn't quite put her finger on.
"Nothing, I just… are you worried about Harry?"
"I… no… well… yes." She seemed confused and indecisive, but finally settled on stubborn as her chin jutted out in a challenge and she tossed her sheet of long red hair back from her shoulders.
Running her fingers through her own dark and tousled locks Alice contemplated just leaving her alone as she evidently didn't want to talk about whatever was troubling her. Besides it was too early to get into an argument. The part of her that could never refuse to help someone in trouble wouldn't let her turn and walk away however.
"Ginny, you know I know that if we -" she stopped as her usual incoherence around anyone but her closest friends kicked in and she made herself take a deep breath and fight her blush before continuing. "I know that we don't exactly get along spectacularly, but… well to be blunt you looked miserable just now. If there's ever anything you need to speak to someone about then - I mean it doesn't have to be me, there's Hermione, or Harry or your brothers," Ginny snorted at this. "The point is there are a lot of people who care about you if something's wrong…" Alice wanted to bang her head against the solid stone walls of the castle; for supposedly being one of the most intelligent witches in her year that had been stunningly garbled.
For the first time Ginny was regarding her with something other than antipathy in her honey-brown eyes. "I… I can't…" she sighed and returned her gaze to the fireplace as the older girl took a step closer. "I was just worrying about Harry like you said. I know he's not the Heir of Slytherin or whatever people think."
"You do?"
"Why?" There it was; that defensive tone again. "You don't think he is, do you?"
Alice's eyebrows disappeared under her fringe. "No of course not; even the idea is daft. You just sounded so convinced, as though…"
"What? As though what?" If Alice hadn't known better she would have said Ginny sounded scared, but what did she have to be scared of? Perhaps she didn't want Alice telling Harry about their conversation in case it made her look besotted. Would that be enough to account for the panicked look on her face? Perhaps.
"Nothing. Look forget I said anything about it," the momentary connection she seemed to have made with the girl had gone, "I might just… go back to bed or something." She turned away again intending to go back upstairs to read. At the foot of the staircase she paused and turned back. "I still think you should confide in someone though Ginny; if something is troubling you it's better to get it out." Which was rich she thought, coming from a girl who had spent most of her life bottling things up. It didn't mean she couldn't try though, even if she didn't particularly like Ron's sister. Without waiting for an answer she retreated quietly and left the girl to her thoughts.
Breakfast that morning was painful to put it mildly. Half the school had been at the Duelling Club the night before and the other half had clearly been filled in by their friends as to what had happened. The minute Harry, who looked as though someone had been force feeding him Skele-Gro, and his friends entered the Great Hall muttering broke out along all the tables.
"Just ignore them Harry," Hermione told him brusquely as she marched towards the Gryffindor table with her head held high.
"Easy for you to say," Harry grunted as he shuffled after her.
As the four of them took their seats Seamus, Lavender and their other classmates scooted further away from them without bothering to hide their reactions. Hermione tutted loudly and made some inaudible comment about immaturity before serving herself and Harry a generous helping of breakfast. Harry stared with forced concentration as she piled bacon up in front of him evidently trying to follow her advice and ignore the fact that around the room people were craning to get a look at him and whispering behind their hands. At that moment Alice wanted to punch every one of them in the face.
"All hail Slytherin's Heir!" The triumphal crow, so out of place in the sombre and suspicious atmosphere of the Great Hall that morning, emanated from the only two people Alice had ever known to find something to laugh at no matter what the situation. The twins.
"Say Harry," Fred stretched past him with a wink to reach for a pitcher, "if I promise to do your homework for the rest of the term will you not attack me in the corridor on a dark night?"
"If I do your homework will you promise you will?" George grinned across the table at them.
After a moment or two Harry eventually cracked a smile which made Alice feel a surge of gratitude towards Ron's brothers. At least some people had the sense to realise Harry wasn't some sort of psychotic evil villain.
"We're all on your side Harry," a quiet voice from down the table added. Alice glanced up to see who had spoken and saw Neville, looking drawn and pale as he had done in recent weeks. She felt rather guilty for having neglected him again, but with everything that had been going on in lately she had been rather preoccupied. Still it was no excuse.
"Thanks Neville," Harry smiled thinly.
One person who didn't seem at all pleased with the recent turn of events was Malfoy. Several times that day Alice saw him stalking the corridors, evidently in a foul mood and throwing looks of pure hatred at them every time they passed each other by.
"He's probably just sore that Harry's getting all the credit for something Slytherin," Hermione observed as she, Ron and Alice made their way up to the common room during their cancelled Herbology lesson - Harry had gone to find, and explain himself, to Justin - "especially if his father's involved in some way."
"We need to get to the bottom of what's going on," Alice observed as they reached the Fat Lady, "and now we have to clear Harry's name too."
"I mean," Ron looked unusually sombre, "it's only a matter of time before someone dies or something."
Hermione stopped dead at his words her mouth working furiously like a fish out of water as she tried to find the words to articulate her thought process. Eventually she located them. "Ron you're brilliant!"
"I am?" Clearly he had never expected these words to be coming from Hermione's mouth.
"That's what we were missing before. We were looking for people leaving the school or some report of unusual goings on, but I'll bet you that's what Lucius Malfoy meant when he said more favourable results. I'd bet anything that last time the Chamber was opened someone was seriously hurt or died."
"But then…" Ron still seemed in shock from Hermione's excessive praise. "Wouldn't that have been big news?"
"Not if they covered it up," Alice was warming to the idea now too, "reported it as an accident or something, or slipped it into the obituaries without saying anything about it."
"Come on," Hermione was buzzing with excitement. "We need to go to the Library!"
"Of course we do," Ron sighed with a crooked grin.
They had barely taken three steps back in the opposite direction however when Sally-Anne Perks came flying along the corridor screeching at the top of her lungs.
"There's been another attack! Get back into the common room, it's not safe! There's been -" She stumbled to an uncertain stop in front of them, her dark curls still bobbing about on either side of her head before suddenly sprinting past them and disappearing through the portrait hole leaving them standing stunned in the corridor.
The three of them remained stationary for all of a moment before coming to a silent and unanimous decision and quickly following Sally-Anne. The minute they entered the common room they were hit by a wall of sound; evidently the place was in a bit of an uproar.
"Sally! Sally, what happened?!"
"Another attack? Oh Merlin are they going to close the school?"
"What happened? Where was it?"
"Sally-Anne," Hermione pushed determinedly through the crowd ahead of them that was thronging round the girl, firing questions at her at a rate of knots. "Sally-Anne! What happened? Who's been attacked?"
Sally-Anne turned wide fearful eyes framed by an ashen face towards them. "J- J- it was," before she had even said the word Alice felt with a horrible sinking feeling that she knew who it would be. "It was Justin… they found him p- petrified just like the others…" She looked at them fearfully as a hushed silence fell around the room.
Finally someone at the back of the room asked the question that Alice had been dreading. "Where's Harry Potter?"
"Oh for goodness sake," Hermione stormed, "don't be ridiculous! Harry is no more the Heir of Slytherin than I am!"
"Well you would say that wouldn't you?!"
"Because it's the truth!" Ron was slowly turning an angry Weasley red.
"Harry would never hurt anyone," Alice fought to keep her voice from quavering as she raised it above the low murmurings in the room. How could people be so stupid and narrow minded?
"Where is he then? And how do we know you aren't in league with him as well?" A third year she vaguely recognised piped up.
"Leave off Cyril," Fred Weasley stuck up for them. "I know your face looks like a bin but that's no reason for you to spout rubbish too."
At that Harry's Quidditch teammates pitched in on the argument too. "They're just kids, get a grip!"
"Well you've got to look at the facts -"
"Keep looking at the facts like that Astrid and I'll attack you in a dark corridor," this particularly vicious rejoinder came from Angelina Johnson.
"Come on," Alice whispered, tugging on Ron and Hermione's sleeves as the row swirled around them.
"But -"
"I think they've got it well in hand," she reassured Hermione, "besides we need to find Harry and we're going to be late for Transfiguration." She wasn't sure which part of her sentence swayed her, to be honest in Hermione's mind they probably held equal importance, but whichever it was the two of them turned and followed her from the room. As they were about to let the portrait hole swing shut behind them it was forced back open again by a rather flushed and agitated looking Neville.
"Do you mind if I join you? I don't want to walk down on my own."
Alice smiled at him. "Of course not; we're going to see if we can find Harry too."
Harry however was nowhere to be found. On their way to McGonagall's class they skirted past the Library, which was crammed with students nervously twittering about the latest attack, but they couldn't see him. Nor was he in the Transfiguration classroom when they arrived.
"You don't suppose something else has happened do you?" Hermione glanced around with mounting panic as the rest of the class filed in followed by a grave looking Professor McGonagall. Before any of them had a chance to answer the teacher broke through the chatter of the class in her usual curt tones.
"Settle down please. You will no doubt have heard that another student has been attacked this afternoon." She viewed them all with gravitas. "Upsetting though this is we must not all succumb to panic or we will all end up running around like headless chickens. If anyone has any concerns they can come to me, or any other professors for that matter, after class. But in the meantime can we please try and concentrate on the lesson at hand - this is after all, still a school."
Alice felt a swell of admiration for her teacher as she watched her calmly open a book and begin to explain to them about the basic method of turning a guinea pig into a clothes brush - though when this skill would ever come in handy she couldn't quite fathom. To be able to keep not only yourself, but others, under control in such a stressful situation was highly commendable in her opinion.
Once class had finished she, Neville, Ron and Hermione immediately rushed up to the Professor's desk to ask about Harry.
"He was taken to the Headmaster's office. I have absolutely no idea if he is still there or not."
"Professor Dumbledore?!" Hermione's voice came out several octaves higher than was usual. "He's not going to expel him is he? Because Professor McGonagall Harry didn't do it, he's not the Heir of Slytherin, just because of what happened last night, that wasn't what it looked like, he was protecting Justin, and being Parselmouth doesn't mean he's got anything to do with - I mean Dumbledore can't possibly think that it was him, if he just -" She stopped as Professor McGonagall raised a hand and regarded her over the top of her spectacles.
"Miss Granger, kindly do not give yourself over to hysterical rambling; it is not a quality that suits you. To my knowledge Professor Dumbledore has absolutely no intention of expelling Mr Potter, nor does he believe him to have anything to do with the Chamber of Secrets or these attacks. Does that satisfy you?"
Hermione stared dumbly at her for a moment. "Oh."
"Quite." She swept her gaze once more over the four of them before turning back to her desk. "Now if that is everything I suggest you all return promptly to your common room. It doesn't do to be wandering around the corridors."
They tried to avoid running as they made their way back to Gryffindor Tower but with panic sweeping the school after this third attack it was difficult not to become slightly infected by it. Especially with Hermione still fretting that Harry had been thrown out of school.
"McGonagall said he wouldn't be," Alice soothed her as they approached the common room for what seemed like the millionth time that day, "and I trust her. I'm sure Dumbledore was just -"
"HARRY!" They had just entered the common room and Hermione, catching sight of their bespectacled friend sitting in a corner with Fred and George as the majority of the room gave him the cold shoulder, flew towards him. "Are you alright? McGonagall told us, what did Dumbledore say? He can't expel you, he just can't!"
"Don't worry, he didn't." She had never seen Harry look more depressed.
"Then what's wrong?" Hermione seemed determined to press her point even though Alice suspected that Harry would rather let the matter drop. "What did he say to you?"
"Nothing really. Just told me he knew I didn't do it -"
"Well at least someone's speaking sense!" Ron interjected.
"- and then asked if there was anything I wanted to tell him."
There was a beat of silence before Alice asked the question they were all thinking. "And did you?"
"No. There wasn't anything to tell him." Obviously he didn't want to say too much in front of the twins.
"Well that's good news surely then isn't it?" Ron seemed confused by his friend's behaviour.
"Yeah," Fred chipped in with a grin, "you're getting almost as good as us at avoiding expulsion Harry. Anyone would think you were competing for the title."
Harry barely cracked a smile at this and Fred glanced at Alice and shrugged in defeat.
"What's wrong Harry?" Alice looked at his drawn and ashen face and felt a swell of sympathy. It was so unfair that he had to go through all this; she wished she could do it for him.
"Nothing… well just…" he waved a hand towards the rest of the room who were all either determinedly looking the other way or making no bones about the fact that they were staring suspiciously across at them.
"Ah," Alice sighed unhappily. She hated people's stupidity sometimes. As much as she wanted to, unfortunately without proof of someone else's guilt there was nothing she could do about that.
Thankfully they didn't have to bear the tense atmosphere and pupils blatantly avoiding them, or more particularly Harry, in the corridors for much longer as a few days later it was the end of term and the Christmas holidays were upon them and a mass exodus seemed to occur.
"Well at least it means we can have more leg room," Ron observed that night stretching said limbs out as far as they would reach as he sat in front of the fire.
"Your legs need all the room they can get," Alice grinned at him from where she was sitting on the floor immersed in another pile of Daily Prophets she and Hermione had borrowed from the Library.
He stuck out his tongue. "You're just jealous."
"I'm not that small!"
"You're kidding right?" George shouted over from where he and Fred were sitting in a corner playing exploding snap with Ginny.
Alice chose to ignore them and returned to the newspapers.
"You would think," Hermione complained a short while later, "that a student's death would be something that was easy to find."
"We're only guessing they died," Alice reminded her absently as she skimmed over an article about the Quidditch World Cup of 1942. Seeing what she was looking at Hermione forcibly turned the page of Alice's copy.
"We might get on faster if you lot didn't get distracted every time you saw a reference to a broomstick!"
"You just really don't get Quidditch do you Hermione?" Harry shook his head sorrowfully. "I'll never be able to understand."
"Yes," she sniffed, "well that makes two of us."
"If you would just -" Ron was cut off as Hermione suddenly gasped excitedly.
"Ooh look at this!"
"What?" Harry was by her side in a flash as she jabbed excitedly at a point halfway down the page. "Look in this article about the Ministry awarding a Hogwarts professor an Order of Merlin Third Class."
"What's so special about that?" Alice couldn't see where this was going.
"I'm just getting to that, listen: Such an honour for the School is sure to bring some much needed joy and relief after the dreadful and unfortunate death earlier this year of one of its pupils. This is it!"
"Does it say anything else?" Ron and Alice crowded round as well.
"Erm…" Hermione scanned the article, "just that the student died in June."
"June?! We've got the copies from June here!" Alice dived over to one of the towers of papers she and Hermione had constructed. "Here," she threw a copy to each of them, "start checking."
"But haven't we done June already?"
"Well maybe we missed something." Alice turned back to the paper and began to read.
"This is useless," several hours later Ron looked as though he never wanted to see newsprint again, "there's nothing here and we've checked every single copy for the whole month. Maybe they just didn't report it."
"Of course they would have Ron -"
"Hang on a second," Harry got down on his knees amidst the papers scattered across the floor and began sorting through them carefully and arranging them into piles. His friends watched in silence as he muttered to himself, checking each front page in turn and then putting them down again. By this time the rest of the Weasley's had long since gone to bed so at least they didn't have to explain this erratic behaviour to anyone else. Eventually Hermione's natural curiosity couldn't take anymore.
"Harry what are you-?"
"Just what I thought," Harry looked up at them, his emerald eyes shining triumphantly in the firelight, "there are copies missing."
"What?"
"One from the…" he checked the sheets again, "sixth of June and one from the fourteenth."
"Are you sure?" Hermione dropped to her knees to double-check and then rocked back on her heels when she encountered the same result. "Well I definitely took all the papers that were filed in the Library from June to October for that year, I made sure I did."
"So where are they then?"
"Maybe they just went missing over the years?" Ron speculated as he scratched his head. "I know, I know," he added seeing Harry's sceptical expression, "someone dies and there's no mention of it and then two newspapers are missing from the archive… it was only a thought."
"But then if it was deliberate, who would have taken them?"
"That," Harry looked grim again, "is the question."
A/N: There you go, hope you enjoy! Please R&R I like to hear your comments.
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