Hi-de-ho campers.
Sorry for the delay in getting this out, but the big earthquake we had here made me thing twice about the original direction of this chapter, as you can tell by the title. So I guess you can say that this chapter is dedicated to the Christchurch residents that were rattled around in the wee hours of that particular morning.
Some would say that the earthquake was an Act of God, but given that there were zero quake caused fatalities it makes me wonder if the Act of God was the quake itself, or the hundreds of near-death misses that people keep reporting; like the train driver who had no idea the quake was happening (you just don't notice things like that on trains) but still slammed on the breaks because of a problem with his lights... only to stop metres away from some serious track damage that would have derailed the train. (True story! Honest! I know someone who has the full story of that incident).
Chapter 14 - Aftershocks
Every significant event leaves ripples throughout history. Things that nobody expected to occur but can all be tied back to the main event.
In a disaster, it is often these ripples or 'aftershocks' that cause more damage than the main event. Nothing shows this better than an earthquake. For instance, did you know that in the Christchurch, NZ earthquake of 2010, there were approximately four hundred significant quakes in the span of two weeks following the main quake?
Another, less known, scenario is one that was postulated by Einstein, and has thankfully not happened yet. Einstein has been credited as saying that if the bees were to ever die off, then the people of the world could expect to only have four years left to live.
Why? Aftershocks. One not so concerning event (i.e. the bees dying) would have after effects that could very well lead to a collapse of the entire global food-chain. It's enough to make one think twice about breaking out the insecticide.
~oOo~
Hedwig shook her head slightly as she flew out of the window, turning her back on yet another fight that Click-click-hoot had gotten into with the local residents of the Hogwarts owlery. When were they going to learn to not get on Click-click-hoot's nerves? Especially when said owl was tired.
Speaking of tired, Hedwig let out another owlish yawn as she zeroed in on one of the owl-entrances to the main hall. Even though she was a diurnal owl, she had still been up most of the night tracking the magic-user that Twoo-Twick had seen in the forest. The younger owl had managed to track the foul presence of the magic-user for quite a while, but had eventually been spotted and had to fall-back to the point where she had lost the trail.
It had taken all of them scouring the area to be able to get any indication on where the person had gone, and when they had tracked it back to the castle, Hedwig had to admit that she wasn't all that surprised. She knew she had been correct about there being something wrong with funny-smelling magic-user. Why he was allowed near so many fledgelings, she just could not fathom.
Finally reaching the entrance, she swooped inside and made a bee-line for her charge's human companions. He wasn't here yet, so it seemed that she would have to wait a moment before taking over the watch from Brill-hic. Who knew, she thought to herself after landing, perhaps she could... just rest... her... eyes... fo-
What was that? Hmmm. Ooh, that felt so gooood.
Hey! Wait a moment... was that? It was... that presence... it was HERE!
Reacting immediately, Hedwig's eyes snapped open and she lashed out at whatever it was that she was feeling on the side of her head. A startled cry later and Hedwig was blinking rather, er, owlishly at the realisation that while that particular magic-user was close by, they weren't exactly 'here' here.
And that she had just tried to bite off a finger of one of the nearby fledgelings.
Um, oops?
~oOo~
Megan trudged towards the Great Hall with bleary eyes. She didn't know how much sleep she had gotten last night, but she could tell that it wasn't much.
After they had all finally gathered at Hagrid's hut, Hagrid had promptly hustled them all back up to the castle... all except for Harry. Professor Dumbledore (whom she had been very surprised to see there) had taken him off into the hut to talk to him. She didn't know what for, but she had a strong suspicion that it had something to do with why he had come out of the forest covered in glowing unicorn blood.
Hmm, perhaps he even knew what it was that had caused the hairs on the back of her neck to stand on end and for Ronan to suddenly demand that they leave the forest...
Megan mentally frowned to herself for a moment. The professor had been quick to remove the blood from Harry, and yet the centaur he had shown up with didn't seem all that phased by it. Even though Harry had gotten a great deal of it upon its back.
Shaking her head at the odd thought, she passed through the doors into the great cacophony that was widely referred to as breakfast and walked down the Hufflepuff table towards her year-mates. At least she had been able to ask Tonks what had happened between her and Weasley.
He-he-he, she chuckled to herself. Who would have thought that being a metamorphmagus would mean that you could fake a werewolf transformation?
Smirking slightly at the sight of Hedwig dozing in an empty spot on the table, she sat down and reached out to scratch her behind her crests. Her smirk turned into a full-blown grin as Hedwig turned her head into the scratching and let out a few pleased-sounding noises in her sleep.
"You like that, do you?"
She gave a few more scratches before she pulled her hand back with a startled yelp. Hedwig may have liked the scratching, but it seemed that she didn't like being woken up.
"Hey!" she admonished the bird that had just tried to bite her. "I'm rather attached to that finger!"
"Serves you right for waking her," Susan commented from across from her. Susan's slight grin faded as she looked around the table and it was soon replaced with a slight frown. "Hey, where's Harry?"
Megan glanced around as well and was surprised to see that Harry wasn't there. It was odd as he was normally the first one of them to show up at breakfast.
"Perhaps he's still sleeping?" she suggested. After all, they had gotten in rather late last night.
"Nah," Zach rebutted, "he's in the hospital wing."
"What?" Megan exclaimed as she snapped her head around to the boy in question.
What little colour she had drained from her face as she remembered the sight of him last night... covered in blood. Beside here, Hedwig quickly took flight. Though she had no proof, she was certain that the bird was heading towards the hospital wing, further solidifying her burgeoning theory that Hedwig was one very odd owl.
"Wizard's flu, we think," Ernie continued with a scrunched nose. "He woke us up vomiting all over the floor."
"Thank Merlin for house-elves," Zach finished, praising the little beings that had removed the horrible smelling mess from their dorm so they could go back to sleep.
Megan winced in sympathy. She had had a dose of wizard's flu last year and could attest to the fact that it was highly unpleasant. But still... she never had the vomiting. Resolving to check up on her friend, she pulled a couple of pieces of toast towards her. Perhaps she could also find out what had happened to him in the forest.
A memory from the other night struck her suddenly and she took up a thoughtful expression whilst she nibbled at the toast; where had she heard the name 'Flamel' before?
~oOo~
Poppy greedily inhaled the cup of Earl Grey that had just been delivered to her from the kitchens. On mornings like these, she was always acutely reminded that she was far from being able to consider herself a 'spring chicken' and thus a surge of caffeine was always greatly appreciated.
She had had her nose in her reference books for the past three hours, trying to find a reason for Harry's illness. Luckily, she had been able to recognise similar symptoms to what he had described to her over the Christmas break, when she had diagnosed him as suffering from Mó Liú Syndrome; something that he should never have come down with at all, given who his parents were.
Whilst she had never heard of it ever resurfacing in a child, she had been able to confirm that it had, in fact, resurfaced so had used what few of the ingredients she had left to produce another dose Jiāqiáng potion. It had helped somewhat, but unfortunately it was not enough to ease all of his current symptoms.
After placing an early morning floo call to an old friend at St Mungo's (in the hope of procuring some more of the rare ingredients) she had began pulling all the reference material she could on that particular ailment, and others of similar nature. Whilst she had rediscovered many pieces of highly useless information, she had yet to uncover anything that could actually help.
If that wasn't concerning enough, there was the fact that everything she could learn from her diagnostic spellwork was pointing to link between Harry's current ailment and that fiery globe that they would always show over his birth-mark. Especially when she noticed that, instead of a single fine silvery fracture which appeared only when he was working magic, there was now a fine spider-web of glowing fissures that spread out from that initial fracture. All of these were clearly visible, even when he was unconscious.
She had tried everything she could think of to identify what that globe was, or even what the silvery, or sometimes golden glow was, but she hadn't had any luck with that either. She had even followed an outrageous idea that it was some sort of block on the boy's magic; even if it was preposterous (he had, after all, been successfully wielding a wand for months). Thankfully, that had proven to be a dead end.
So far, all she had been able to determine was that it was either the glow that was triggering the ailment, or that it was the... damage?... to the fiery globe that was causing it. Either way, about the only thing she could do for him at the moment was to see if he could ride it out (at least until she had the ingredients to brew some more potion). As a healer, it was not a course of action that she liked taking.
A sudden gong sound brought Poppy back to the here and now, and a quick glance at the crystal ball on her desk showed the deputy head striding through her hospital wing, towards her office.
"What brings you here this early, Minerva?" she inquired when her friend crossed the threshold.
"Pomona just told me. How is he?"
"Now, Minerva, you know that I can't just-"
"I know, I know. But being the deputy head means that you can tell me some of it. You should know that even Pomona doesn't seem to be buying you story of wizard's flu."
Poppy regarded her friend for a moment. She was right; as deputy head, she was entitled to know the general story, particularly if there was something that may endanger others. But still, whatever she told Minerva may just find its way back to Albus. She would have to tread carefully.
"You would be correct with that line of thinking," she replied slowly, considering what she was saying as she went. "At first it looked similar to wizard's flu, but now I'm not so sure."
The wizards flu story had been a bit of quick thinking on her part. The symptoms (which were caused by powerful bursts of uncontrollable magic surging through a child's body) were similar, until you started with the diagnostic charms, and it was an easy story for children raised in the magical world to believe.
"I don't suppose it could be a curse, could it?"
Poppy blinked to herself and cast a puzzled look towards her friend. "What do you mean?"
"Something powerfully magical tripped one of the wards last night. From what Albus has told me, it came from somewhere in the forest. Young Harry was in the forest last night serving a detention under Hagrid's supervision-"
Poppy's eyebrows shot up at that statement. In the forest... at night? Tripped the wards? She hadn't known about that.
"- it may be that he and his companions were affected somehow."
Poppy furrowed her brow back down in thought. Powerful magic... tripped wards... a mysterious ailment... were they all linked? Powerful... fiery globe... broken?... keeping something out or maybe keeping something in? Hmm, perhaps there was something to all of this.
'That prophecy of Dumbledore's, about the special child? Well... it's Harry.'
Those were Lily's words to her, but they were words that she believed more and more each time she saw him. Could it have been? Was it even possible? Had Harry tripped the wards? She'd needed more information, but she couldn't just ask Minerva or Albus for it...
"You said there were others?" she eventually asked.
"Yes, three others, plus Hagrid."
And yet only Harry was in a hospital bed...
"I'd like to see the others in here as soon as possible. Just to make sure, of course."
And to find out what happened out there...
~oOo~
By the end of the day, Poppy had managed to wrangle little pieces of information out of the other people involved in the late-night trek through the forest; everything from jumpy centaurs through to werewolves (to which she had given Nymphadora a very stern telling off) and dark beings feasting on unicorn blood.
Nothing really shed any more light on what was happening with Harry, but there was sufficient information to indicate that Harry had been in an encounter with that dark being. Whatever it was would have to wait until he recovered.
That time turned out to be two days later. However, while the final symptoms of his ailment had passed as he rested, the fractures in the globe had still remained. It seemed to Poppy that whatever had happened had been permanent. She could only hope that that was a good thing and not a bad one.
While discussing what had happened in the forest with Harry, she had been told as much as what he had told Albus. While it wasn't conclusive, she had enough to realise that it may well have been Harry that had tripped the wards and that that globe of his must have been damaged at the same time. Two questions answered, but a whole lot more of them asked.
She had eventually discharged him from her care with an admonition for him to return if there were any reoccurrences of the symptoms he had shown. Unfortunately she didn't know of one key symptom that he had yet to tell anyone. A symptom that was about to become much worse for him as the weeks passed by.
~oOo~
"It's coming your way!"
"Got it!"
"Watch out!"
"My God, that thing smells worse than week old socks"
"What do you think you're doing?"
"There was only enough for one"
"Why are you down here?"
"What do you see?"
"Harry Potter."
"Harry Potter."
"Harry Potter."
"Mr Potter!"
"Harry!"
Harry jumped as Steven Cornfoot hissed in his ear and jabbed him in the side of his ribs with an elbow. Harry threw the boy an irritated look, but Steven just motioned towards the front of the classroom. Confused, Harry looked to the front of the classroom to find Professor Fraser, the substitute Herbology professor staring at him.
"I am most pleased that you saw fit to grace us with your attention, Mr Potter. Now, perhaps you would like to answer the question?"
Harry sat there for a few seconds with his mouth ajar. There was a spattering of snickers from the other side of the room as Harry realised that he had no idea what the question was. Slumping back in his seat, he finally spoke up.
"Sorry, Professor, but I didn't hear the question."
The professor didn't look too pleased with that answer. "Ten points from Hufflepuff, for not paying attention, Mr Potter. I won't tolerate that sort of behaviour in my classes and I'm fairly certain that Professor Sprout doesn't either. Now many of you may think that Herbology is a simple, boring subject, but you will learn, soon enough, just how dangerous it can be, and how important these theory sessions really are.
"Now then, Miss Granger, how would you answer the question?"
"According to One Thousand and One Magical Herbs and Fungi; If the Tibetan Solarius Fern doesn't get at least five hours of direct sunlight each day, then the the flowers will loose pigmentation and toxins will build up, causing them to become poisonous and therefore no good for use in potions."
"Very good answer, Miss Granger. Five points to Gryffindor."
"So, as you can tell the planting locations of Solarius ferns is very important. If you take a look up on the board..."
Harry joined the rest of the class in his note-taking, scribbling rapidly so that he could catch up on what he missed during his daydreaming, all the while not noticing the eyes that were frowning at his back.
He had been having trouble paying attention ever since he sat down in his chair this afternoon. It wasn't that he didn't like the theory sessions for Herbology, in fact he found that they could sometime be rather fascinating. It was just that Professor Fraser (the substitute professor that Professor Sprout had arranged) spoke with a soft, lilting voice which, when combined with the warmth of the late-spring sun filtering in through the windows, was enough to make him feel rather sleepy and start daydreaming. The only consolation that he had at the moment was that Professor Sprout was due back from her trip to Canada that weekend, so this was hopefully the last lesson where he had to fight the need to drift off.
The subject of Professor Sprout's unexpected disappearance had been a topic of much gossip in the castle. Even so, Hannah's reasoning of it being because of something to do with the North American bees had stumped many with disbelief. It had taken Susan Bones (whose father actually worked for Hannah's parents in the magical plant industry) emphatically confirming this story before anyone would actually consider believing it. Even so, Harry had to admit that it did make a certain amount of sense. After all, bees were needed to pollinate many different types of plants.
When the bell finally rang to signal the end of class, Harry gathered up his books and notes and made for the exit. He didn't make it far before someone sidled up beside him.
"Are you okay, Harry? You looked rather far away back there."
"I'm fine, Hannah. I guess I just shouldn't sit in the sun on a warm afternoon."
Hannah didn't look too convinced though. "Perhaps you should go see Madam Pomfrey. You never know, you might be coming down with something. A relapse of wizard's flu, perhaps."
"Hannah, I'm fine, okay? I was just daydreaming when I shouldn't have been."
"Daydreaming? About what?"
Harry stopped walking suddenly, causing Hannah to take an extra couple of steps before she realised he had stopped. He stood there with his head cocked to his side in confused thought.
"I... don't exactly know."
Going by her worried expression, Harry could tell that that seemed to be the wrong thing to say to Hannah, so he hastened to explain.
"It was like... I don't know. Have you ever been in a room where there's a lot of people talking?" Hannah nodded. "It was kind of like that, all these people were saying different things, and it didn't make any sense."
"Well... that doesn't sound like any daydream I've ever heard off," Hannah said slowly.
"Great." Harry ran a frustrated hand through his head and started walking again.
This hadn't been the first time this had happened to him in class and he was beginning to get concerned about it. So far he had managed to keep it to himself, but even he had noticed that his marks were starting to slip. Especially in the harder subjects, like Transfiguration. No matter how hard he had pushed himself to concentrate, or to catch up, it seemed to be happening more and more frequently.
Then there was that dream that kept popping up. Firenze's words about evil in the castle... the mirror... fire... screams... death.
Hannah picked up the pace beside him, casting him worried glances every now and then. Eventually the silence got to her. "Harry?" Still Harry remained silent. "Harry, what's wrong?"
"I don't know, okay!" Harry snapped, before stopping again and closing his eyes. "I'm sorry, Hannah. It's just so... confusing. Ever since that night in the forest, I been, I don't know okay? I just drift off, I guess. It's just... doesn't make any sense."
Hannah stood there for a moment as though she was trying to decide something. He could tell that she obviously reached a decision because she grabbed him firmly by the arm and towing him rapidly down a side corridor.
"Um, Hannah, where are you taking me?"
It was a few moments before Hannah responded. "You may have noticed that I get a bit wound up sometimes."
"Really? I hadn't noticed."
Hannah threw him a dark glare strong enough to cause him to wince and apologise. Harry couldn't help but think that maybe there were some detrimental side-effects from spending too much time around Tonks. Most prominently: saying things without thinking.
"Well, anyway, it's because I was home-schooled with Susan before I came here. Susan's lucky in that learning things comes easy to her but I kind of get overwhelmed with it all from time to time. I got cornered one day by one of the prefects, Samantha, and she dragged me away from my homework and took me somewhere to unwind a- Ah, here we are."
They had arrived at a heavy wooden door located at the end of a corridor that Harry was sure he had never been in before. Hannah struggled with the door a bit, so Harry put his bag down and helped her open it before they stepped out onto what appeared to be the battlements that ran down one side of the castle. Harry moved out into the light and looked out at the view. He could clearly see all the way down to the Forbidden Forest, on his left; and out across the lake to Hogsmeade, on his right.
Harry took a deep breath of the crisp air. It really was quite...
...crazy. This was crazy! Why was he even contemplating it?
He took another look over the edge, towards the forest. If he wanted to get there first then he needed every advantage he could get. He could do this... he could... it was just... well, bloody bonkers!
"Just remember to never skydive without a parachute," he murmured to himself before he adjusted his glasses and started running towards the edge, wand in hand.
One leap up onto the ledge and another one forwards sent him sailing over the edge. There, he'd done it... and wow, was this an adrenaline rush, or what? Rapidly remembering that he was currently plummeting to his doom, he jerked his body around...
... and around he rolled before he came to a stop, staring up at the sky with Hannah sitting on top of him. Before he could wonder how he had ended up like this, Hannah began to pound her fists on his chest.
"What the bloody hell do you think you doing?" she screamed at him. "Were you trying to get yourself killed?"
Killed? What? Harry's mind frantically tried to work out what was going on, but kept coming up short. And damn, that girl knew how to hit!
"What? What happened?"
Hannah paused in her violence in order to look down incredulously at her friend for a second. Snapping an arm out to point away from the castle, she told him, "You tried to jump over the edge!"
Harry stared at her, in shock. He tried to what? No... he had, hadn't he? But? No... what? What was going on? He watched silently as Hannah stood up and turned her back towards him and hugged her arms to herself.
"What's happening to you, Harry?" she begged.
"I, I don't know," he admitted as he sat up.
And he didn't know. He didn't understand any of it. Why was this happening to him? Why couldn't he be just like every one else?
His answer hadn't been what Hannah had been wanting to hear, he could tell, even though she had her back towards him. He knew that it was because she didn't want him to see her cry (and he felt like an utter cad that he was making her do so), but it still stung him to have a friend turn their back on him.
Deep down, he didn't want her to do that.
So he told her. He told her everything. The the jumping off the castle, the voices, the dreams, the mirror, the snowball fight, the knowing things he shouldn't. All of it. As much as he could remember.
"Why is this happening to me?" he plaintively asked when he was done.
Hannah, who by this stage had taken a seat next to him, was frowning in thought. "I, I think... well, maybe..." she broke off with a slight growl as she tilted her head back to look up at the clouds. A moment later, her expression cleared and she asked a question that Harry wasn't expecting at all.
"How to muggles know when it's going to rain?"
"What?"
"How to muggles know when it's going to rain?" she asked as again as she turned to him.
"Well... they listen to the weatherman, I guess."
"And how does he know?"
"I... I don't actually know. I mean, I know there are maps and stuff. With arrows and clouds and shapes and things, but I don't know how it all works."
"Oh. Well. In the wizarding world, there aren't any maps, or arrow or shapes. There's just our equivalent of the weatherman. He just knows what the weather is going to do."
"Huh?" turned to his friend, with a thoroughly perplexed expression.
"There are some people," she tried to explain, "who can use magic to know certain things, we call it divination. One person may know what the weather is going to do, another may know where the best place to fish is, and another may know which tree will bare the most fruit. They can just know things. I... I think you maybe doing something similar."
"What? Like knowing the future?"
Damn. Hey, did that mean he was going to jump of the castle?
"Maybe. Ugh, I don't know, Harry. But you need to talk about it to a professor or someone. Before your try to jump off the castle again!"
They sat in silence as they both thought about what had been said. Maybe she had a point, Harry mused to himself.
"Come on," Hannah said eventually, "it's got to be almost dinner time by now."
~oOo~
Harry did eventually end up talking to Madam Pomfrey about what Hannah had told him. To say that Poppy had been shocked about what he had kept to himself would be an understatement. She had also been somewhat dismayed as it added yet another unwanted variable in her search for finding out exactly had happened to Harry during his trip through the forest.
Also, for all she knew, this was part of the prophecy and thus something that she needed to keep hidden from Albus, as per her oath.
On that note, she spent some of her personal time browsing through Flourish and Blotts for some suitable books for him to read. Hopefully they could work out how to either curtail or control these outbursts before he tried jumping off any more tall buildings.
Many times, Hannah would stumble upon Harry reading these books in that little part of the castle that she had claimed for herself. She didn't mind that Harry was there, except for when he was by himself. Each time she saw him there she kept imagining what it would be like to look over the edge and see her friend splattered upon the courtyard below.
~oOo~
"Ugh, only one more class to go," Hannah groaned as she leaned her back against the wall outside the DADA classroom. "I swear, my brain's about to explode."
"It's not really that difficult, you know," commented the boy across from her, "All you need to do is to start revising earlier. I started back in April, myself."
Hannah threw the boy a dark glare. Trust a ravenclaw to start revising for their end-of-year exams before they had even finished learning what it was they were supposed to be revising. She really didn't need to hear comments like that at the moment. Not only was she struggling with all the revision, but the cramps were starting up again. She would need to make a visit to the Hospital Wing for another potion after this class.
The ravenclaw was saved from being snapped at by the arrival of Professor Quirrell. "T-t-terribly s-orry there. I was ju-ust in a meeting w-with an former co-coleague."
Hannah inwardly groaned as they entered and took their seats. It was the last official class of the year for the first-year hufflepuffs and they had to spend it trying to understand someone who could barely speak two words with out either stuttering or jumping at the sight of Hedwig, who seemed to like following Harry to this particular class.
She snorted to herself as she idly took out her class books. Lately Professor Quirrell had been especially jumpy around the hufflepuff first-years, of all people. The big bad Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher seemed to be scared of eleven and twelve year-olds, especially... Hannah paused in laying out her quill. Was it just her imagination, or was Professor Quirrell especially jumpy around a certain friend of hers?
"B-books away, now. I t-thought that w-we might... h-ha-ve some fun today," Professor Quirrell stammered.
Whatever the fun was, Hannah could only hope that it was more enjoyable than sitting through another of his murderous revision lectures. Even if the professor didn't seem to be looking forward to whatever activity he had planned. There was a general rumble of curiosity as everyone put their books back into their book bags.
"Ss-ince it is your your l-ast class, I thought that you you could get in-in-into pairs and have a pa-pa-par-ractice at some of the c-counter-jinxes you have learned this-is year. Now, h-every one move t-to the side there, w-while I c-c-clear the desks awa-way."
The hufflepuffs and ravenclaws moved to stand next to the wall that was indicate to them and they watched as the Quirrell deftly moved the desks to the back of the room. Hannah couldn't help but wonder how it was that a man that was so easily spooked could have such a control of his wand. She figured that it had to help that she had never heard him enunciate a spell before. Professor Flitwick and Professor McGonagall had both been very clear on the need to speak the spell clearly when learning it and couldn't help but wonder how Professor Quirrell had ever been able to learn with his stutter.
What followed, for Hannah, proved to be rather enjoyable, if incredibly chaotic.
They had been able to form their own pairs and were given free range to practice any of a number of particular jinxes and counter-jinxes that they had been taught. Given the size of the room that they were using, it was inevitable that they all got into each other's way, which resulted in some fairly interesting spell combinations. Terry Boot, in particular, ended up in a rather precarious situation when he was hit by a twitchy ears jinx, a jelly-legs jinx and a tickling jinx all at the same time. The boy had been floundering around on the floor for a good minute before those around him realised that he and his partner needed help to remove the jinxes. Not that she was particularly inclined to help in that case, after all he had been the one that was annoying her while they were waiting in the corridor.
Surprisingly enough for Hannah, the two hours of chaos and mayhem had turned out to be a very good thing for her. Even though she awoke the following Monday feeling that her body was rebelling against her just at the mere prospect of having to sit exams. Still, she managed to make it though the initial exams with the enjoyable memories of a stuck-up, big-mouthed, jinxed ravenclaw, rolling around on the floor... well, that and a handy little potion that Madam Pomfrey had her to take a spoonful of, each morning for one week out of each month.
Before she knew it, the week was winding down, and with it their last exam. The only thing left was their Charms practical.
"Relax, Hannah, it can't be that hard," Susan said to the girl whilst the first-years were waiting outside Professor Flitwick's classroom.
"But, you saw the exam he wrote. It was the longest one we had! If he could come up with a written portion that large, just think about what he's going to make us do in there."
Susan grabbed Hannah's hands which had appeared to have declared their own private battle to the death with each other. "Hannah," she said quietly as she stared her worrying friend in the eye, "you will be fine. It'll be just like it was during classes."
"Just remember to breath," she jokingly added.
It didn't seem to help though as Hannah's eyes all but popped out of her head at the possibility of forgetting to breath. Susan never got a chance to retract her last piece of advise because Professor Flitwick chose that exact moment to announce that the practical examination had now began, and that Hannah, with a surname of 'Abbot', was up first.
Hannah entered the charms class room and moved to stand by the table in the middle as Flitwick closed the door. Once the door was closed with no chance of others overhearing them, Flitwick joined the nervous girl, climbed up on a chair so he could was closer to eye-level and picked up a clipboard.
"Breath, just breath," the girl mumbled to herself as she took in great gulps of air.
"Okay, Miss Abbot," the professor squeaked, causing Hannah to jump, "this is just a simple test to see if you are able to remember and perform a number of charms that you learned during the year. Now, we will need... oh my, where is... ah, that will do."
With a flick of the professor's wand, a banana sailed over from the Professor Flitwick's desk and landed on the table in front of Hannah, where it promptly changed into a large stuffed-toy.
"To begin with I want you to make this toy mouse here float at least two feet off the desk, if you will."
Hannah felt a rush of relief, she remembered this one. With a swish and a flick of her wrist, and a surprisingly confident 'Wingardium Leviosa', she began to levitated the toy mouse into the air. Unfortunately, her nervousness rebelled on her at the wrong time and she not only cleared the two feet, but ended up sending the stuffed mouse crashing into the ceiling.
"Oh my, bonus points for height on that one, Miss Abbott," Flitwick called out excitedly, doing much to solidify Hannah's confidence that she may actually succeed in doing this, despite her current jumpiness.
For the next five minutes, Professor Flitwick had Hannah abuse poor the poor toy by making dance, roll and bounce around the table whilst cycling it though various colours. Hannah was quiet please with herself in the end, as aside from that one incident of trying to launch the mouse into low earth orbit (a mistake that Professor Flitwick seemed to think was good enough for bonus points), she had only made one other mistake.
She had just finished rolling the toy down the length of the table and back, and was about to change the colour of its fur again, when she missed on her wand aim. Instead of changing the colour of the toy, she accidentally turned Professor Flitwick's robes from light blue to hot pink. A colour she thought he looked surprisingly good in (not that she mentioned it though).
Finally, after one last charm to return the toy to its original colour, Hannah was released with the strict instructions to not talk to anybody about what she had been required to do until the others had been through their practical as well. So instead of remaining with her friends and tempting fate, she chose to wait for them outside in the sun while they were being tested.
It turned out that choosing to wait outside wasn't completely uneventful, once others also decided to do the same.
She had just spotted Harry walking over to join a group of the boys that were down by the lake when she heard arguing voices drifting across the field. Turning towards the voices, she saw Longbottom and Granger walking up towards the castle from Mr Hagrid's hut.
"But, Neville, if we tell Professor McGonagall then she can tell Professor Dumbledore."
"Hermione! I already told you, Professor Dumbledore hasn't been here all week. There's an ICW conference happening in Italy. My Gran is there as well; she's part of the group that went from the Wizengamot. If Snape wanted to go for the stone then now is his best chance."
"Well, Professor McGonagall should be able to stop him then."
"Do you really think that McGonagall could stop Snape? Gran says that he used to be a Death Eater-"
There was a gasp from behind Hannah, causing her to turn. It seemed that she wasn't the only one who had heard the arguing Gryffindors.
"Professor Snape was a Death Eater?" Susan whispered in shock. "What's a Death Eater doing teaching in a school? Why isn't he locked up?"
"Don't know," said Megan as she joined the gossip. "My mum always said that Death Eaters were idiots. If he could avoid getting locked up, then I don't think he could be classed as an idiot."
The other two girls stared at her incredulously.
"Is your mum insane? The Death Eaters were killers," Hannah whispered harshly.
Megan shrugged her shoulders. "She probably is. I mean, one can only survive so many hits from a bludger."
Hannah rolled her eyes at the quidditch comment and turned back to the two Gryffindors. All her dorm-mates had learned about Megan's dislike for quidditch within the first week of school. An unexpected turn of events, given who her mother was.
"... still not sure about it, Neville. I mean, the protections have to have been designed to be able to stop dark wizards, and you expect us to be able to get through them?"
"We have to, Hermione. It's the only way to stop the stone from falling into the wrong hands. If we get to it first, then we know it's going to be safe. Besides, you're the brightest witch in the school; if anyone can work out a way though the protections, you can."
"Well... I can try."
"Those stupid gryffindors..." groaned Megan.
The secret of the philosopher's stone hadn't remained a secret for long once Megan had remembered where she had heard the name Flamel before. But still, it wasn't like they went around telling everyone about it.
"... Not only are they standing out in the open, blabbing about something that is supposed to be a secret, but they honestly think that they can protect the stone by stealing it?"
"Fluffy's going to chew them up like a bone," added Susan.
"We need to tell Professor Sprout," Hannah declared.