"This is totally unacceptable," McGonagall said.
I was sitting in the Headmaster's office facing Dumbledore, Snape, and McGonagall Millie was beside me, and so were the two bullys. They hadn't taken their eyes off me the entire time.
"I was protecting my roommate," I said. "What more do you want me to say?"
"These boys deny that they did anything wrong; they say that you simply attacked them out of the blue."
"And why would I do that?" I asked. "I've been here two weeks and I haven't attacked a single Gryffindor. I actually pushed for better school brooms that would help keep some of them safe."
"There have been... incidents between the Slytherins and the Gryffindors," she said.
"And since when have I cared about house politics?"
I found myself getting irritated despite myself. This was feeling a lot like one of my visits to Blackwell's office, where nothing I said made any difference if it didn't fit the party line.
"Even if what you say is true, you should have come for a teacher," McGonagall said. "Not dangled a student at a height that would have almost certainly killed him, and broken his wand."
"She kicked me in the face and broke my tooth too," one of the boys said.
"And what would have happened if I'd gone to a teacher?" I asked. "They'd have lied and said they hadn't done anything; for all I know they'd have been the ones dangling her off the side of the stairs, and then they'd claim that she was lying, because of course Slytherins always lie."
"You shouldn't have resorted to physical violence," McGonagall insisted. "We have been making allowances for your... situation, but there have to be limits."
"Because Gryffindors are always pure and good, and Slytherins are always evil?" I asked.
Considering that two of my judges had been Gryffindors, I doubted that this was a good avenue of attack, but I found myself getting irritated by the injustice of it all.
"Because a student could have died," she said. "And this isn't the first time."
There was that. Sooner or later I was going to find a student whose robes weren't up to snuff, and that would be that.
"There's no proof I was involved in that last thing,' I said quickly.
"But plenty of proof that you probably were," she said. "These boys have accused Mr. Longbottom of giving you the password to the Gryffindor common room. Is that true?"
"He has never said anything about that to me," I said. "And I haven't used him to get any information of that sort."
"We shall see," she said grimly. "You should know that it is an infraction for a student to be found in the common room of another house."
"More serious than being accused of attempted murder?" I asked, with an eyebrow raised.
Snape was watching both of us quietly. I suspected that he had conflicting feelings about this situation. He genuinely seemed to dislike the Gryffindors; I had no idea why. Maybe it was the result of his having years of them acting out in school and causing explosions, maybe it was something from his own school days.
It didn't matter.
Despite his appearance of indifference, he seemed to empathize with, and want to support his snakes. The fact that I'd done so, even to a half blood like Millie had to push some buttons with him.
However, he'd told me time and time again that my violence was going to get me killed or imprisoned.
The way he was handling this so far was to stay quiet and to simply observe what was happening. Maybe he hoped it was going to resolve itself without his input.
There was a knock at the door.
Snape spoke for the first time. "When I first heard Miss Hebert's story, she mentioned that there might be some witnesses. She described them, and I sent a prefect to summon them."
The door opened, and Gemma entered with the three Hufflepuffs that I had seen.
"I've brought them," she said. "Hannah Abbott, Susan Bones, and Wayne Hopkins."
The three looked tiny and they shrunk back as they saw everyone's eyes on them.
"Miss Abbott," Snape said. "Please tell us what you saw occur an hour ago between these four students."
She swallowed and then looked at all of us. "The big ones had backed the Slytherin girl against a wall. They were saying some... pretty mean things to her. They called her a pig and a snake, and said some other stuff. They started to push her, and the other one came around the corner, and warned them off."
"She didn't attack first?"
"No," Hannah said. "He did."
"What happened then?"
"She got hit in the arm with a stunner, and she kept coming. She hit him with a spell sending him flying, and then we decided to go look for a teacher."
Everyone was quiet for a moment.
McGonagall gave a cold, hard stare at the boys, who had the grace to look guilty.
"Do any of you have anything to add?" Snape asked.
The other two shook their heads.
"You are dismissed," Snape said.
The Hufflepuffs , but Gemma remained, standing quietly against the far wall. I wasn't sure why she was here for this; did prefects have something to do with discipline? In that case, shouldn't it be the Head Girl standing there?
Once they had left, McGonagall said, "You did not say that they attacked first."
"Would it have made a difference?" I asked. "Either you believe me or you don't."
McGonagall turned to the boys. "Return to your rooms. We will discuss your punishment in the morning."
They got up to leave, glaring at me as they passed by. I ignored them.
Dumbledore had been silently sucking on a piece of candy. He seemed neither amused nor angry.
"It is possible that Miss Hebert went too far in protecting her classmate," he said. "But she was the one who was attacked, and she defended herself. Yet threatening his life was unnecessary and dangerous, and isn't behavior we should encourage."
"They each outweighed me by sixty pounds... I don't know how many stone it is, or whatever weight system you people use. If I had a lot of power, I could choose to be merciful. But because I don't, I have to fight back ten times as hard, and I have to make sure that anyone who does come after me regrets it."
"The professors are here to protect you," McGonagall said.
I chuckled bitterly. "And when you aren't there? Who's going to protect me or any of us in the dark hallways when no one is around?"
Millie spoke up.
"Nobody's ever stood up for me before," she said. Her voice was almost imperceptible.
"What was that?"
"My own family thinks I'm ugly and stupid," she said, more loudly this time. "And when those boys started saying all that... it's nothing I didn't hear at home. But she stood up for me, and that... I don't know.... it's important."
"It's good that she wanted to protect someone," McGonagall said. "But hurting people isn't the way that things are done here.
I chuckled again, and McGonagall gave me a sharp look.
"Your situation is already precarious enough with your house, Miss Hebert. If I start taking points, it will not do you any favors."
"Perhaps Detention," Snape said. "One session with each head of the four houses, and one session with the groundskeeper. I have been unable to pierce that thick skull of hers, perhaps one of the other heads might have better luck."
"I'm sure Pomona will be happy that you volunteered her," McGonagall said dryly.
"I think Flitwick likes me," I said brightly.
"These will be punishments, and not ways for you to learn yet more creative ways to cause destruction,' Snape said.
I stared at him, even though I didn't feel particularly betrayed. Five days of detention for essentially threatening to murder a student was probably lenient, considered that I'd almost murdered a different student a couple of weeks ago.
It might not even have happened at Winslow; the administration would back up whoever caused them less problems. However, I'd heard of schools where even taking weapons to school would get a student expelled, or even jailed.
A third of the students at Winslow had been armed at one time or another, so expelling them all simply hadn't been feasible. Everyone here was armed
"I suppose that's fair," I said. "Unless the Gryffindors just get a slap on the wrist."
"They will be punished," McGonagall said grimly. "But that is none of your concern. It is not your job to police the halls."
"I think that's the problem," I said. "When things that are wrong happen, everybody says that it's not their job to fix it. So what happens when everybody stands by and waits for the people in power to save them?"
"You are a child," McGonagall said. "If you want to seek justice, become an auror when you are older. Perhaps by then you will have learned that every problem is not solved by hitting it."
"The pure bloods solve their problems with money," I said. "I just use mine differently."
McGonagall gave me a long, cold stare. I suspected that she wanted to take house points, but she suspected correctly that something like that wouldn't bother me at all.
"Perhaps you should have Miss Farley to take Miss Hebert to her room," Dumbledore said.
Snape nodded.
"Miss Farley?" Snape said. "Make sure that Miss Hebert reaches her rooms, and that she does not leave them until tomorrow morning."
Gemma nodded.
She gestured, and I rose to my feet, following her.
We walked in silence for a couple of minutes. Finally, Gemma spoke to me in a low voice without looking at me.
"We're not all like that, you know," she said.
"What?" I asked.
"Not everybody in Slytherin is a muggle hater," she said. "Not even all the pure bloods."
"That's... surprising," I said.
"Well, a lot of people don't really like them, but wanting to hurt them? That's something completely different."
So low level racism instead of hard core. I could work with that. I was unlikely to change the opinions of the most die hard of them, but the rest, I might have a chance.
"There are those who do, though. The ones who are tend to come from powerful families," she said in a low voice. "And there have been... disappearances from the families of people who tried to fight back. The rest of us have learned to keep our heads down."
"You think that's an option for me?" I asked. "They are offended that I'm in Slytherin at all."
Finally, she looked at me.
"You need to stop making waves," she said. "Or you'll make everything harder for the rest of us."
"And why should I care about that?"
"Because right now you've only got about a third of Slytherin and whatever Gryffindors you've offended against you. If you keep acting mental, it'll be all of us."
"I've got to defend myself," I said. "And watching people get bullied...I can't abide by that, Maybe if you prefects were doing your job..."
"We can't be everywhere," Gemma said impatiently. "But if I'd known what they were trying to do that first night, I'd have stopped them."
"You'd have tried."
"I'd have succeeded," Gemma said. "Ordinary people follow the rules, even when they are inconvenient. Gryffindors don't, but Slytherins learn to work with the rules."
"Because Slytherins are the ones who make the rules," I said dryly.
I thought she was being a little naïve. Those boys had intended to hurt me, and I'd been researching the spells that Wizards used to maintain their secrecy. There were apparently memory charms that could make memories inaccessible; the aurors used them all the time on muggles.
She might have tried to stop them, but she might not even have remembered what happened next.
She shrugged. "If you don't like it, change it. You were chosen to be in this house, so there has to be more to you than just a low level thug. You've got a brain; use it. If you go around snapping people's wands and beating them, one day they'll be the ones dropping you off a set of stairs, and nobody will be sorry that you've gone."
"I'll quit when they do," I said. "If they leave me alone, I'd be happy to keep my head down and learn magic."
If it weren't for the Death Eaters, I might actually be able to enjoy this world as a retirement. As a Wizard who knew the muggle world, I'd lack for nothing. I'd be able to supply almost all of my own needs and I'd probably be able to live in relative luxury.
"We're already in a low level war with Gryffindor," Gemma said. She shook her head. "This is going to start things up again after last year. We can't afford this; if they start coming after us, we'll give you to them rather than starting the whole thing all over again."
"And what happened last year?"
Gemma glanced at me. "Things got ugly. You-Know-Who is back, and there's a faction of pure bloods who think that means it's only a matter of time before things are returned to their rightful place."
"Rightful place?" I asked. I suspected I knew, but I wanted her to spell it out for me.
"With Wizardly boots on muggle necks," she said. "And the muggleborn out in the cold."
"That's not going to happen," I said. "Thre's six thousand muggles for every Wizard, and they'd got weapons that could chew through Wizards before a single muggle got within Wand range. Your whole species would be extinct in a year."
"Our whole species," Gemma said. "I'm not one of the pureblood supremacy idiots. I'm half-blooded myself, and I grew up around muggles. I knew how stupid the whole idea is, and so does the Ministry, otherwise they wouldn't put so much work into the whole Secrecy thing."
We were walking down the final set of stairs heading for the dungeon.
"But there's a faction that believes that Wizards have been cheated of their rightful place. They like to pretend that Wizards were once the rulers of the world, when the truth is there were never enough of us to do that, even back in the old days. There are actually fewer Wizards and Witches now than in the past, due to the last war."
"And it's starting over again."
"People are scared," Gemma said. "And when people are scared, they get angry. They tend to lash out at people who are the closest to them, and against whom they already have grudges."
"Is that what happened last year?" I asked.
She shook her head. "I'm still not clear on what started it. I think a lot of people were picking up on stress from their parents, and they brought it here with them. That's why you need to calm down; this place is a powder keg waiting to explode, and you are a match."
Her being a half-blood seemed likely if she was making that kind of analogy.
"So what do I do?" I asked.
"Stay out in public," she said. "Never walk alone. Don't make people angry. I'm going to try to talk to the prefects of the other houses to see if we can defuse the situation, and maybe keep the Gryffindors off your back. I'll make sure that the prefects know what actually happened... I'm sure those boys are probably saying all kinds of things that aren't true."
"It may not help," I said.
"Then we'll deal with it the right way," she said. "I've been watching you, and it's like the little remarks don't really bother you. That's good. If your feelings were easily hurt we'd have a lot bigger problem."
"For the remark to hurt, I'd have to value whatever person was saying them," I said. I looked at her coldly. "And frankly, I haven't talked to anybody here who seems worth getting upset about. You want to help me? Fine. Keep people off my back, and I'll make your job easier. But if they keep coming after me, then I'll hurt them until they learn to leave me alone."
"I'd take points for you talking like that," she said after a moment of silence. "But you really don't care, do you?"
"Why would I?" I asked. "If I had friends in Slytherin, I might care. If there were even people helping me instead of standing by, I might care. But people who stand by and do nothing when they know something is wrong... that's cowardice."
Gemma stopped.
She turned to me. "I've got a little sister; she'll probably be in Hogwarts in a couple of years. I love her more than I love anything. If I act like I love mudbloods, there's a chance that I'll wake up one day and find out that my sister, or my Mom or my Dad has gone missing."
"It's easy to talk about being courageous when you have nothing to lose. You're an orphan who barely has any friends... the only thing they can do to you is to kill you or hurt you. Me...they can kill my family. You don't get to look down on people who have nothing to gain and everything to lose from helping you."
I stared at her coldly, and she finally shook her head and escorted me to my room.1719ShayneTApr 13, 2019View discussionThreadmarks HagridView contentShayneTApr 15, 2019#7,565"I want to thank you," I said. "Actually, we do."
Millie was standing behind me, staring at the floor. We were in the library, and a lot of the other students were out watching tryouts for something called Quidditch. I had a vague notion about what it was, but I'd never been particularly into sports. I'd heard that they flew around and tried to hit each other with bats, which sounded ridiculously dangerous, even if I'd probably be good at it.
"Why?" Susan Bones asked. "For telling the truth?"
"There are people who wouldn't have said anything."
"My aunt is the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. She told me that justice would be done a lot more often if people were willing to speak up."
"That takes courage," Millie muttered from behind me.
"Well, I'm no Gryffindor," Susan said, "But I know wrong when I see it. What those boys were doing was wrong."
The girl next to her, Hannah Abbott said "We really were looking for a teacher, or at least a prefect. But we still get lost sometimes around here."
"You're lucky to be in Hufflepuff. You've got people to watch your back," I said.
Susan nodded slowly. "I don't suppose that you have that. It was pretty brave, what you did with those boys. I don't think I could have charged them like that."
So they'd seen a little more than they'd admitted to. What they'd said had been enough, however.
I hesitated. "I'm starting a new study group. You probably know Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom. Me and Millie here will make four."
"A study group with all four houses?" Susan asked. "And what will you be studying?"
"Everything," I said. "Anything one of us is weak in, the others who are stronger will help them."
"That sounds a lot like what they tell us in Hufflepuff," Hannah said. "I wouldn't have thought to hear that from a Slytherin."
I leaned forward. "I'm not really a Slytherin, you know."
"What?" she asked.
"I'm a Gryffindor undercover," I said. "I used ventriloquism on the hat to make everybody think I'm a Slytherin."
Hannah stared at me.
Susan giggled. "That sounds like exactly the kind of lie a Slytherin would tell a Hufflepuff."
I grinned at her. "What's more likely? That I'm a Gryffindor in disguise, or that a muggleborn actually got into Slytherin?"
"Well, there's a lot of rumors going around about you," Susan admitted. "People wondering about who you really are."
"Oh?" I asked casually. "What are they saying about me?"
I probably knew, of course, but even with my bugs I couldn't be listening everywhere all the time at once.
"Some of them are saying that you've been planted here by the Americans to find you-know-who."
"And what would I do if I found him?" I asked. "They'd have sent someone older."
Not that I wouldn't try to kill him if I was strong enough. I had a lot of experience and cutting the head off the snake did tend to be an effective tactic.
But it was likely going to be a long time before that happened. After all, he was reputed to be the second strongest Wizard in all of Britain, behind only Dumbledore.
I'd never seen Dumbledore do a lot of magic, and I wished I had that chance, because it would give me a hint about what I was dealing with. Were the Weasely Twins any good at all, or were we just schoolkids playing without a hint of the speed or knowledge that real Wizards had.
"I guess that's true," she said."It's not like you really are some kind of monster in disguise."
"Growl?" I said, then grinned at her. "Maybe I'm really the undead revenant of a murdered girl out to get the people who went after my family."
Her face went blank. "You shouldn't joke about that."
"Given the way things are, I'm pretty sure that me and the other muggleborns are pretty much the only ones who can joke about that kind of thing."
"My entire family was murdered by You-Know-Who," Susan said. "During the last war. I'm not the only one either. Don't think that just because we're pure bloods we're all on the same side."
I raised my hands.
"I'm sorry," I said. "I didn't know. Then you understand what it's like."
She nodded slowly.
"Maybe you don't want to join our group,' I said. "I'm sure there are people who are going to pressure you into not joining."
She gave me a look.
"I believe in doing the right thing," she said. "If other people had I might still have a family."
She hesitated. "When are you meeting?"
"Tomorrow night in the library after dinner," I said. "I've got detention tonight."
"At the rate you're going, that's where you'll be spending the rest of the year," she said. She thought for a moment, then finally nodded. "I'll be there."
"Me too," Hannah said quietly. "I wish I'd been more brave when those boys were acting like that."
"It's hard to be brave," I said. "But getting better is easy. You just have to want it, and work for it."
"That's what they say in Hufflepuff too," Hannah said. "It's weird to hear it from a Slytherin."
"I'm not a normal Slytherin," I said. "And neither is Millie here. You should have seen her pounding that boy's face into the ground."
Millie flushed and stared at the ground.
"We'll see you tomorrow evening," Susan said.
I smiled at her, and for once I meant it. I wasn't going to be able to do this alone; I was going to need allies, and the close knit nature of the Hufflepuffs meant that they were more easily influenced by their members than people in other houses.
If I could convince Susan and Hannah that I was a good person to know, they'd convince their classmates for me, and my job would become exponentially easier.
Getting the Hufflepuffs on my side would be a decisive victory. Hermione was working on the Ravenclaws, but they tended to be standoffish, and the Gryffindors were giving Neville flack about his association with me.
Figuring out how to turn the tide of opinion in my favor wasn't going to be easy. It wasn't as simple as having good publicity, because I didn't have any of the usual Protectorate or Cauldron methods of manipulating opinions.
Still, I'd at least sat through some of Glen Chamber's classes on public relations, and I had a general idea of what I had to do, which was more than could be said of a genuine eleven year old in my position. My original self at this age would have been clueless.
"Come along Millie," I said. "We still have things to do before dark."
She followed behind me. It was disturbing how much her opinion of me had changed in the space of a day. She'd been cautious and avoided me before, watching me as though I was a Cobra about to strike.
She watched me just as much now, but it was clear that she had a very different opinion of me now. It actually felt a little uncomfortable.
We walked.
"Pansy," I said.
She looked up at me. Her hands were still a little discolored from what had happened to me, although it was fading fast.
"What?" she snapped.
"I'm glad you're feeling better," I said.
She stared at me. "And I should care what a mudblood thinks why?"
I leaned forward.
"Who do you think got revenge for what happened to you?"
She continued to stare at me; her gaze wasn't any friendlier. "I heard that he fell in the tub himself. That's what the aurors say."
I shrugged. "That might be true."
"Are you saying it's not?"
"I'm not saying anything," I said. "But let's say hypothetically that you knew someone who was willing to do all kinds of crazy things to get back at the people who hurt her friends. Wouldn't it be a good idea to actually be friends with her, instead of being one of those people."
"Those people?"
"People who don't have much of a survival instinct," I said. "Idiots."
She flushed. "Are you calling me an idiot?"
"Other than opening my mail, I haven't seen you do anything actually stupid," I said. "And that wasn't really stupid, it was just naive."
"You can't go your whole life not opening mail," she said. "It's the mail."
"In any case, I'm glad you weren't hurt worse."
She made a gesture that I didn't understand. It looked like a reversed peace sign. The gasp from Millie behind me gave me a little context though.
"Or not," I said.
I suspected that the Pansy might be a lost cause. She wasn't particularly bright as far as I could see, and she didn't have the flexibility of mind to look past her own prejudices.
Someone like Draco Malfoy, on the other hand was actually a better candidate for conversion. He was one of the brighter people in class, and his family was known to be opportunistic. They went where the power was, and that meant they were willing to bend.
When a Dark Lord arose, that meant they might be prone to falter, but it also meant that they respected power and those who had it.
He was already taking my advice and bragging less. He'd really enjoyed the attention he'd gotten when the new brooms were delivered to the class; I'd seen him sneaking looks art me, although I'd been careful to pretend not to notice.
While having people openly on my side was important, having people on my side that no one knew about might be even more useful.
Hermione was struggling to convert the Ravenclaws in part because they knew she was my friend, and so anything she said about me was suspect. Anything said by the Weasleys, or by Draco, should I manage to convince him would be given a lot more weight.
"You can't win everyone over," I said to Millie as we walked away. "But it doesn't hurt to give them a chance."
She nodded, as though everything I was saying was important. Maybe to her it was.
From what I'd overheard her talking about to Tracey, she hadn't just been ignored by her family for being a half blood; after all, her mother was a muggle. However, the final nail in the coffin had been the fact that she had never been considered pretty, not even as a child.
That meant that her value to the family was much less; it was going to be a lot harder for her to get married and have the children that the family seemed to value so much.
Now I was telling her that the important thing wasn't how you looked, but what you could accomplish. That had to be enormously attractive to her; a final option for her to make her place in the world when looks or status wouldn't do.
The fact that Pansy, who had both looks and status would reject me wasn't likely to deter Millie. She'd seen that kind of behavior her entire life. The fact that it didn't bother me though, that was probably new and refreshing.
She'd been following me around all day like a puppy. It would have irritated me, but Gemma was right; there was safety in numbers. While it was true that there were some bullies who wouldn't be deterred by multiple victims, most of them preferred to wait until their target was alone. It wasn't always because they were cowards either; sometimes it was just for plausible deniability. Without witnesses it would be my word against theirs.
The rest of the day went without incident.
My first detention was to be with the groundskeeper, the Case 53 I'd seen at the train station. Some of the Slytherins thought he was a half-giant, but I had a hard time imagining a normal human mating with something that was even larger than he was. Was cross species breeding even possible? People had said that Flitwick was part goblin, but it was possible that they were just an offshoot human species, maybe even Homo floresiensis. The effects of magic might have mutated them even further, and it was possible that Wizards had altered their genetics.
Were Wizards essentially bio-tinkers? How many of the magical species that existed the results of Wizardly tampering, and how many of them were natural species? The history books didn't even try to speculate, and I hadn't seen anybody who was even trying to theorize about the subject.
I was directed across the lawn, towards the groundskeeper's hut. It was massively oversized, which made sense.
A familiar head of white hair was in front of me. I blinked. Malfoy was serving detention?
I hurried to catch up to him.
"Why are you here?" I asked.
"Same as you," he said without looking at me. "I got into a fight with a Gryffindor"
As we approached the hut, I realized that I recognized several other people waiting outside. Terence Higgs was a third year, and team seeker. Miles Bletchly was the Keeper, and Hestia Carrow wasn't anything. All were third years.
Hagrid stepped out of the hut. He was even more massive close up than I had remembered; most of the time I'd seen him since the first he'd been sitting down at dinner.
"Listen up," he said. "Yer all here fer fightin. I'd have thought after last year, you lot would have learned better. Normally the Gryffindors would be right here with you, but the Headmaster didn't think you could be trusted not to get into a scuffle so they're going to be here tomorrow night instead."
Had there been that many incidents that I wasn't aware of? I'd thought I'd been doing a good job, but it was disturbing to think about just how many things I might be missing.
"Gather round," Hagrid said. "Tonight we go into the Forbidden Forest."
I frowned, looked around and found a stick on the ground. I transfigured it into a Bowie knife.
"What are you doing?" Malfoy asked. He looked a little pale.
"I've heard there are werewolves in the forest," I said, teasing him. I'd heard him trying to scare some of the other first years with speculations about what might be in the forest. I held up the blade. "I hope silver plating is enough. Pure silver is too soft to make a good weapon."
He moaned low in his throat, but he clearly didn't want to look like a coward in front of the older boys.
I leaned close to him. "If anything comes after us, all you have to do is be faster than them, and you'll be fine."
"Why?"
"Most things stop and eat what they catch," I said. "Which will give us plenty of time to run."
He blinked at that and looked faintly nauseous.
I suppressed my urge to grin at him. The school wouldn't be sending us into danger, and it looked like Hagrid was big enough to handle anything that should come up. In any case, there were three other older students to help. We were going to be fine.
"What will we be doing?" Hestia Carrow asked. She had a twin sister, who curiously wasn't here. I found myself wondering which Griffendor she'd gotten into a fight with.
"There's a unicorn about to give birth in the forest. Yer gonna help me make sure that there's no problems. She's had problems birthing before, and she hasn't looked well recently. I got word from some of the Centaurs that she's already started. This will be a rare opportunity to see something that Wizards hardly ever see."
"So we're going to be acting like farmers?" Bletchly asked, scowling.
Hagrid shrugged. "If you didn't wanna get yer hands dirty, you shouldn't have been fightin in the halls."
His eye slid past them toward me.
"Yer a young one to be out here," he said.
"She's the meanest one out of all of us," Bletchly said. "Beat up two fourth year Gryffindors that were bullying a half-blood."
There was a tone in his voice; almost one of satisfaction and pride. I'd never heard him say anything against the muggleborn, or even me in particular, but he seemed to dislike the Gryffindors quite a bit. It must have something to do with having some of them fly around trying to hit him with bats.
"Now, what we're gonna do tonight is dangerous," Hagrid said. "So I'm gonna need you all to stay with me. Keep to the path and you'll be fine. Do you all know the spell to send up flares?"
We nodded. Flitwick had taught us last week, and we'd left scorch marks in the ceiling of the classroom. That had been an entertaining class.
"If you get separated from the rest of us, send up a flare and stay put, and we'll come for you."
"We should stay in the middle of the group," I said to Draco. "That way nothing comes up from behind us, and if anything is ahead, the others can take care of it."
He nodded. He still looked a little pale, but his color was coming back.
"We're going to be fine," I said. "Stick next to me, and I'll keep you safe."
"I don't need a mu... muggleborn to keep me safe," he said. I noticed, however that he didn't step away from me.
"All right then," Hagrid said. "Let's go into the forest. With any luck, we'll be back before dawn."1746ShayneTApr 15, 2019View discussionThreadmarks BirthView contentShayneTApr 17, 2019#7,766Hogwarts castle was filled with bugs, but it was nothing to the explosion of life in the forest. I could almost feel the life all around me; the sheer weight of the bugs was something that I hadn't felt in a long time.
The trees were massive and old. We had old trees in Brockton Bay, but they tended to be isolated, surrounded by younger trees. Here, every tree was old, and most of them were massive and weather beaten. I could see many different kinds of trees; beech, oak, pine, sycamore, yew...it made me wonder if this was one of the places Wizards harvested their wand materials from. I didn't see any gouges on the trees, not in the limited light that was available.
The undergrowth was thick, seeming almost impassible off the path. There were thorns and knotgrass to both sides of us. I didn't like it; it funnelled us into a single line, and anything that could actually move through the underbrush would be able to ambush us with impunity.
I'd know beforehand, but if it was something really dangerous, it might not make a difference.
Everyone had their wands out, all of them lit and I kept a careful eye on the students behind me. I had bugs on every one of the others just in case one of them should turn and try to attack me. I doubted that they would, not with Hagrid right there, but it would also be useful if anyone got lost.
It would be very easy to get lost here; there were massive tree trunks, some of which interesected the path, and while you were watching your footing, you could easily lose sight of the trail. I walked assuredly, stepping over roots without even looking.
I heard Draco stumbling from behind me.
"You must have eyes like a cat," he muttered.
I ignored him, and I checked ahead of us for any dangers. Even without my bug sense I would have been able to tell things were safe; there were sounds of insects everywhere. It was when things got quiet that you had to worry. If the birds and insects sensed something dangerous, they had the sense to hide.
It seemed as though we walked forever, although it was most likely just half an hour. I found myself tense, waiting for one of the Slytherins to turn and attack me even though I rationally knew that it was unlikely.
We passed through several splittings of the trail; getting separated from Hagrid would be disastrous, because I wasn't even sure that I'd be able to find my way out of here.
Moonlight shone through the canopy at times, and it gave the entire forest an eerie look, even though it was beautiful in its own way.
None of the Slytherins complained, most likely because none of them wanted to look weak in front of their peers. Or maybe they were afraid of Hagrid; I hadn't heard about him being dangerous, other than his size, but obviously I'd missed some things.
We reached a clearing in the forest, and I was the first to notice movement in the darkness. Even the bugs were having trouble seeing in parts of the undergrowth, although they compensated with other senses.
I saw a form move n the darkness. Hagrid tensed.
It took me a moment to recognize it, even with my bug senses; it was a man with the body of a horse. A centaur; I'd heard there were some in the forest, but I'd never seen one.
"Hagrid," the centaur said neutrally.
"Ronan," Hagrid said. "Good ter see ya."
"Pluto is in transition," the Centaur said. "Change is coming."
"Right," Hagrid said. He didn't sound like he knew what the centaur was talking about; neither did I.
Glancing over at Draco, I noticed that he seemed trouble. Maybe he put greater store in this astrology stuff than I did? Maybe astronomy class gave some insight into the future; yet from what I'd heard the divination classes at Hogwarts used tea leaves instead of telescopes. It was very perplexing.
"Have you seen the mare?" Hagrid asked.
"She's in the south glen, two clearings to the east," the centaur said. "It is a difficult birth."
"We'll hurry up then," Hagrid said.
As we walked past the centaur, I thought I saw him staring at me specifically, although it was possible that it was a trick of the light.
We did indeed pick up the pace, and it wasn't long at all before I saw the silhouette of Hagrid hold up his hand.
"There's a whole herd of them up ahead," he said. "And they can get a little tetchy when they are protecting a mother that's foaling. I want everybody to move slowly, and don't make any moves that could be interpreted as aggressive. I don' want to explain to yer parents why you died with a unicorn horn in your chest."
I heard a gasp from Hestia Carrow up ahead, and then I stepped out into the clearing.
I'd been busy looking behind us and to the sides, so the sight of the unicorn herd in the moonlight took me by surprise. I found my breath catch in my chest as I saw them running around in the middle of the glade in the moonlight.
It was easy for me to forget, sometimes, the child that I'd once been. But I'd had the Unicorn Trapper Keepers that all the other girls had, and I'd had the posters on my walls. When I'd really been eleven, I'd dreamed of unicorns when I wasn't dreaming of Alexandria, and now that they were really here, something in my chest felt tight.
They were stunning.
The herd was poetry in motion, a river of white so beautiful that it made my heart ache. I couldn't catch my breath as I stared at them, and I found that I wanted to do nothing else but stand there forever.
It made the excitement I'd felt when I'd first seen Hogwarts castle pale in comparison. This was the kind of magic I'd always dreamed of... not just a tool, and not a weapon, but sheer wonder.
Draco shoved me a little from behind, and the spell was broken. I let myself breathe, and I steeped aside, and watched as he took sight of the Unicorns.
For a moment, I saw a look of wonder on his face as well, but he saw me watching, and his face tightened.
"Stupid horses," he said, but it didn't sound like his heart was in it. If it had just been a single unicorn during the light of day, he probably could have dismissed it like it was just another animal, but this was a herd of thirty, and the moonlight gave them an unearthly beauty.
"If there's any blood, don't put it in yer mouth," Hagrid said. "I wouldn't think I'd have to tell you that, but there's always one.... yer cursed for life if you do that. That means you wash yer hands and yer wand after ye get through with this, with good magic."
"You make it sound like we're going to put our fist up inside the thing," Terence Higgs said.
"If yer lucky, ye just might. It'll probably be one of the girls, though. They get nervous around the boys," Hagrid said.
He gestured toward me and Hestia Carrow.
"We're gonna see if they'll accept ye," he said. "If they do, ye'll help me with the foal. I've been workin with em for their entire lives, and they still sometimes take better to a young girl."
Turning to the boys, he said, "I wouldn't get near to the herd. Stay here and call out if you see anything dangerous. If they think you're trying to hurt the mare they can get dangerous."
"So we're just going to stand around?" Draco asked.
"Better than going in the middle of that," Terence muttered. "They'd turn us into pincushions."
I was going to get to actually touch one of them? They seemed too perfect to touch, ethereal, even incandescent. It was like a dream, and the moment I reached out my hand it would all be over.
Suddenly I felt a moment of horror. What if they really could read the content of a person's soul? I'd done terrible things in the past, from the time I was fifteen onwards. I'd killed a lot of people. I'd killed a baby. I'd stolen people's free will, and I hadn't even hesitated.
Sure, I'd done it to save humanity, but the kinds of things I'd done tended to stain the soul. Was I even still a good person, had I ever been? Most of the time I ignored questions like that; I escaped the pain by focusing on what was in front of me. But here? Now?
I felt Hagrid's hand on my shoulder.
"I'm gonna be with ye;" he said. "And if there's danger, get behind me. I'll protect ye."
Physical danger wasn't what I was worried about. Being rejected by this, the culmination of my childhood dreams... I wasn't sure I could stand the crushing disappointment.
"She's afraid she's too evil," Terence Higgs said, knowingly.
I blinked, and looked back at him. He smirked, but there was something in his expression that bothered me, a sort of sympathy that wasn't anything at all like I'd ever expected to see on a Slytherin face.
He'd had thoughts like that himself; that was the only way he'd be able to understand what I was feeling. Did that mean that he really thought he as evil, or did that mean that he wasn't because he was worried about it?
"Nonsense," Hagrid said.
He pushed me forward.
The herd stopped, and they turnd to stare at us. I saw a sea of horns pointed in my direction, and I forced myself to stay loose. Animals could sense fear, and while I wasn't afraid of them, I was afraid of their judgement.
As I slowly stepped forward, the air felt leaden and still. My stomach was tied up in knots. As far as I knew, these were just stupid animals. Did it really mean anything if they rejected me and I had to stay back with the boys?
Somehow it did. It felt like I was being judged by a universe that didn't care about all the good I had done, only the bad.
I walked forward slowly, and I felt Hestia Carrow behind me. She put her hand on my shoulder, and her hand tightened reassuringly. I could see Hagrid putting his hand on hers shoulder through my bugs' vision.
The strange thing was that not a single bug was on any of the Unicorns. Not one mite, not one flea not a single fly. It was as though they were so pure that even the bugs knew that they were inviolate.
I could have probably forced a bug onto one of them, but I found that I didn't want to. It would have felt like a desecration.
Instead I continued to walk forward. The unicorns stared at me, and for a moment I thought they were going to lunge forward, to attack me like the monster I sometimes felt that I was.
One unicorn was larger than all the others; presumably he was the Stallion of the herd. He stepped forward and for a moment I thought he was going to try to spear me.
Instead he lowered his head, and I reached up and I touched his face. I felt a strange wetness on my eyes; I wasn't sure what it was, but I ignored it. I could have stood like that forever, but I heard Hagrid say, "The mare needs us, girl."
I stepped around the stallion, and I saw that the herd had opened before us, leaving space to walk between them. As I walked past the unicorns, I reached up and touched their flanks. They were softer than anything I'd ever touched in my life.
There was a mare lying in the middle of the clearing. Her sides were heaving and she was lying on her side. Of all the unicorns she was the most beautiful, and I found my hands trembling as I dropped to my knees beside her. There was a silvery, luminescent blood staining her hindquarters, which probably wasn't a good sign.
I reached out cautiously, and I put my hand on her flank. She was warm, and I felt a jolt of something passing through me as I touched her.
Her side moved convulsively. If felt like she was having trouble breathing.
Carefully, I said, "I think she's having a contraction."
"She had problems with the last foaling, which is why we've been keeping an eye on her," Hagrid said.
This was something outside my experience. In Chicago as a Ward, I'd never had to assist in birthing a baby, although there had been other Wards who had. Generally, there had always been someone on the other end of the communicator who would be able to help you through it.
I'd had basic instruction in what to do, of course; it was part of our training as heroes. That had been training in what to do with a human childbirth, though. I had no idea what to do with a horse birth, much less in the birth of a magical creature.
"She's startin to push it out," Hagrid said to Hestia, "But she's havin trouble. The hooves will come out first, but if ye see them bottom sides up, that means the foal is backwards or upside down and we'll have to turn her."
"What do you want me to do?" I asked.
He reached into his pocket, and pulled out something that looked like berries.
Hagrid handed them to me. "I want ye to try to feed these to her, and try to keep her calm. Watch her horn; this is going to hurt her, and she might get aggressive."
"What is this?" I asked.
"Berries soaked in calming potion," Hagrid said. "It won't hurt the foal, and it'll help her keep from panicking. Some will probably soak through your skin, but it won't hurt ye any."
He could have told me that before he'd put it in my bare hand. I grimaced, but I didn't complain. There was too much going on right now.
He gestured toward Hestia.
"Now you get to get yer hands dirty. Remember what I said about washing em."
The girl grimaced, but she kneeled down behind the Unicorn obediently.
"Watch her hooves," Hagrid said. "She might kick."
I found myself at the front of the unicorn, staring into her eyes. I carefully reached out, berries in hand. I kept my hand out flat and open so that she could lip the berries from my hand.
For the next thirty minutes, I simply stared into her eyes and ran my hand gently down her neck. I heard Hagrid barking instructions to Hestia, and there was worry in his voice.
Finally, I heard Hagrid say, "Hold her now; this is gonna be tricky."
I nodded, and I tightened my grip on the Unicorn's head. She struggled a little, but it was a moment before I saw something moving on Hagrid's end.
It wasn't a pure white like the other Unicorns, or even silver like some of the foals. It was of the purest gold, and it had eyes that seemed as large as the universe.
I was the first thing it saw as it peered around the flanks of its mother, and it stared at me as though it loved me, as though I was the most wonderful thing that it had ever seen.
Of course, I was the only thing it had ever seen, but I couldn't find the energy to be cynical right now. All I could do is stare at it for the next several minutes.
It finally rose to its feet on staggering legs, and it took a couple of steps toward me.
Hagrid spoke for the first time in several minutes to Hestia.
"The foal is all right, but the mother isn't out of the woods. I need you kids to head back to the castle; have Madam Pomprey come back here; she'll be able to help us keep the old gal alive."
I stared at him.
"Isn't there some magical way for you to summon her?" I asked.
"Don't have my wand," he said. "And I never was much of a wizard anyway. One of the older boys will be able to find his way back. Now hurry. Hestia here is gonna stay and help me."
I felt curiously empty as I slowly moved the Unicorn's head from my knee and set it on the soft loam of the forest floor. There was a look in her eye that I sisn't like; it almost seemed like one of hopeless resignation, as though she knew that she was going to die.
Would her foal even survive witrhout its mother?
Silently, I rose to my feet, and I headed back toward the others.
"I couldn't see anything," Draco complained. "All we'vbe done is stand around all night and stare at a bunch of horses."
"Hagrid says we need to go ang get Madam Pomprey," I said. "The Mare isn't doing very well."
"He wants us to go into the Forest by ourselves?" Draco asked. He looked like his eyes were about to bug out.
"Sooner we get out of here, the better," Terence said. "Better if all of us go together instead of one or two of us... it'll be harder for something to pick us off."
I nodded.
Apparently some Slytherins had some sense.
"All right, let's go," I said.1721ShayneTApr 17, 2019View discussionThreadmarks EncounterView contentShayneTApr 19, 2019#7,938"Does anyone know how to get back?" I asked.
"Uh...right through there," Terence said, pointing at an opening in the thick underbrush. "I think we took two lefts?"
That vaguely fit with what I remembered, and if we started to get lost, I could always send my bugs up above the canopy to check the location of the castle. With their poor vision, they likely wouldn't be able to see it very well, but they'd be able to see the lights well enough.
"Let's go," I said. Without asking anyone I plunged into the underbrush, and I heard Miles Bletchley and Terence Higgs follow me without comment. I could see Draco with my bugs hesitating, but then he too followed behind us.
Plunging into the dark, I didn't even bother to light my wand. The light from the wands of the others behind me created a dim light, but I was mostly moving by feeling the insects under my feet.
Miles caught up to me from behind.
"So you really are a girl," he said.
"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked. The bliss that I'd experienced from being with the Unicorns was wearing off, and in its place was anxiety at the thought that we wouldn't make it in time.
"Some people thought you were a Death Eater polyjuiced as a way to test us," he said. "Weed out the ones who weren't really into the whole racial purity thing."
"Then why would I beat up on those three idiots the first night?" I asked.
"I didn't say it was a good theory," he said. "But you have to admit you aren't normal."
I glanced back at him. "I don't know what you mean."
"Just the way you move... it's creepy. You sit and stare past people like they aren't even there, but you see everything."
I shrugged. "What do you want me do? Act weak and helpless?"
"Act like a human being," he said. "It's like you're some kind of spider or something, just waiting to pounce on anybody that walks by."
"All I want is to be left alone," I said. "Then I can act like a human being and enjoy the unicorns."
"There's always some people who can't leave enough alone," he said. He glanced behind him; the others were further back along the trail. "Not all of us feel that way."
"But nobody wants to do anything about it," I said. "Yeah, I've heard."
"Who says help has to be obvious?" he asked. "It's not like we're all Gryffindors, and won't do anything unless we have an audience to clap for us."
I frowned.
"If you can't keep people off my back, what can you do?"
"Slip a word here and there," he said. "About how it's not worth it to step on a mudblood when the Gryffindors are the real enemy. Oooor.... it would be easy to get the people who want to give it a shot even more reason to hate you."
"So what do you want?" I asked.
"I want to beat the Gryffindors," he said. "And that won't happen as long as our house is fighting itself. Sooner or later, you're going to end up seriously injuring a member of the Quidditch team, or they'll be suspended for killing you. Dumbledore doesn't like us all that much anyway, and he's probably looking for a chance to chuck us out on our ear."
"So keep your people in line," I said. "Convince them, and I'll remember who not to thank."
He blinked for a moment, and then he nodded. "Right. Best not."
"I remember my friends," I said. "And the people who cross me. It doesn't mean that everybody has to fit in one category or the other."
"None of this means I like you," he said. "I think you're the worst thing that happened to this House since the Potter kid got sorted...not because you're a mudblood, but because you're a really violent person. If it had been one of us purebloods who did all the crap you've done, we'd have been out on our ear."
"I was Sorted before Potter was," I said, ignoring his comment about be being violent. It was actually somewhat true, even if I'd had my reasons.
"Yeah, but you didn't start beating people until afterwards," he said. "Or dropping them in boil potion."
"He fell in himself," I said. "The aurors said so."
"Right... only an idiot would actually believe that," he said.
"As long as you make sure the idiots know that, I think we should be able to..." I stopped.
There was something moving in the underbrush. It was too dark for me to see well, even with the bugs, but it was massive.
We stepped out into a clearing, and I reached into my fanny pack for the knife. Contrary to what I'd told Draco, I hadn't actually managed to turn it silver, or even silver plated, even with two weeks of obsessive transfiguration practice. I had managed to make it shiny, but if there really were werewolves in the forest, I might regret not learning to make it silver.
With my other hand I pulled out my wand.
"There's something coming," I said. "Something big."
The others were bunching up behind me. That wasn't good tactically; something big enough would be able to plow through all of us at the same time, and we'd get in each other's way trying to fight back. Sticking together had worked in the days of melee weapons and shield walls, but none of us were particularly big or strong. Wizard tactics were likely close to riflemen tactics anyway.
A moment later the others heard the sound of something pushing its way through the undergrowth.
I smelled it before I saw it. It stank worse than any boy's locker room that I'd ever been in, not that I'd been in many. I'd smelled gas stop bathrooms that were easier on the nose.
As it broke through the undergrowth, I saw it; in the dark it looked taller than Hagrid, although it was possible that was an illusion. It had greenish, rubbery flesh, and it had straggly green hair.
I heard Draco give out a scream, and it grunted and began to come toward us.
Miles and Terence gamely stepped forward and began to launch stunners at the thing, but it didn't seem to have much of an effect.
I launched the flare spell at one of its eyes, and while it didn't seem to hurt it, it stopped and batted at the fire in its face.
Terence seemed to get the idea first; he launched his own flare spell at its face, and then Miles followed suit. Draco stopped screaming and did so as well.
The thing was roaring and swinging its club around, but it didn't look like it intended to run. It was putting one hand over its face and swinging its club blindly. Sooner or later it was going to hit one of us, and when it did, someone was going to die.
Slipping my wand into the fanny pack, I tensed, watching its movements. I couldn't afford to make a mistake here, or I was dead.
I watched the way its club was moving, and then I darted forward.
The way it had pushed through the underbrush told me that its skin had to be tough; it was obviously somewhat resistant to magic, and the way the tree cracked when it struck it with its club told me that it had massive amounts of strength.
The one saving grace was that it seemed to be slow, not just physically, but mentally.
I darted between its legs, and I slashed upward. I felt my knife connect, and then a putrid liquid splashed all over me. I wasn't sure what it was, but I doubted that I wanted to think about it too much. The thing roared and tried to dance back, stomping at me.
It dropped its own club on its foot and it screamed again.
I took the opportunity to slash at its thigh, where the femoral artery would be on a human. Its skin really was tough, but I managed to jam it in as hard as I could and drag my way down, putting my entire weight into it. My hands were slick, but I managed to catch hold of the knife.
A hand reached down to grab me, but I rolled aside. The thing roared in pain, and its claws caught at my robes. It started to lift me up, but I managed to slip out of them, leaving it to stare stupidly at my empty robes. The knife was still stuck in its thigh.
The boys were shooting flares at its face, but it was ignoring them now, concentrating on trying to find me. I grabbed the knife and yanked it out again, and then I ducked as a massive hand came down to where I had just been. I rolled to the side as a foot stomped at me, and I slashed at the back of it's leg, trying to hamstring it.
My knife didn't cut deep enough, and I grimaced as I slipped on what was becoming an increasingly slippery section of ground. The thing was bleeding heavily, but it was so large that it had to have a lot of blood.
I cut at it again and again, slashing at it with my knife. I felt it bite into the tendon, and then I hit it again in the other leg. It screamed again, and then I felt it starting to collapse.
Lunging to get out from under it, I was almost fast enough, but my feet slipped out from under me, and I landed on my arm just as the thing landed on me. I felt a sickening crunch, followed by a sensation of cold on the outside, and hot embers on the inside of my arm.
Worse, I was partially trapped under the thing, and from close up it smelled infinitely worse than it had when I'd fought it from a distance.
Without the light from their wands, everything was in shadows. I looked up and saw the three boys standing in the distance.
"Is it dead?" Draco asked. "Is she dead?"
"You couldn't be that lucky," I called out.
Slowly, cautiously the three of them approached. I saw Miles standing over me, and he simply stood there, watching me. My wand was in my fanny pack, under a ton of whatever this thing was, and my knife was lost, probably stuck in the thing somewhere.
I was completely helpless, unable to move, and if he wanted to kill me, he could do it now, easily. He could even blame it on the monster, and no one would ask any questions. They'd think I was really stupid, and then they'd go back to their day to day lives.
He was silent for a moment, and I wondered what he was thinking. Finally he spoke.
"Can you move?" he asked.
"No," I said, wondering if I was making a mistake.
"We won't be able to lift the whole thing," he said, "But if the two of us use the levitation spell, Draco might be able to pull you out."
"Fine," I said.
A moment later they gave it their first try.
"You stink," Draco muttered as he put his hands under my shoulder blades. I felt a jolt of intense pain in my arm as I slid out from under it.
The boys lifted with the spell, and Draco pulled while I pushed with my feet. It took us four tries before I was out.
Miles held his wand up, lit.
I could see the white of the bone sticking out of my arm.
"Either of you know any healing spells?" I asked.
"Not that'll heal that," Miles said.
"Give me your robes," I told Draco.
"What?" he asked.
"If I bleed out, I'll be dead before we get to the castle. Lend me your robes."
My own robes were drying in a pool of monster blood.
He cursed under his breath, and then he pulled them over his head. A moment later I wrapped them around my arm, putting pressure on it. I pulled it tight, and I ignored the sudden burst of pain. When I was satisfied that I'd done the best I could I stood up.
"Doesn't that hurt?" he asked.
"Does it look like it hurts?" I asked testily. "We can stand around talking, or we can get back to the castle."
We started walking faster. I was feeling a little faint; whether it was from blood loss or shock I wasn't sure, It wasn't a good sign. It didn't matter; leaving me alone in the forest wasn't an option, and getting help for myself and the Unicorn was a priority.
"What the hell was that?" I asked.
The others were no longer trailing far behind. They were all crowded up behind me, although whether it was because they thought I was going to protect them, or whether they thought they could protect me I didn't know. In my current condition I wasn't going to be able to protect anyone.
"That was a forest troll!" Draco said. "It's an XXXX creature! That's a wizard killer!"
"No... XXXXX creatures are wizard killers." Miles said.
"We're wizards, it would have killed us..." Draco said. "I can't believe that you killed it with a knife. You stabbed it right in the stones!"
"What else was I going to do?" I asked. "Run away?"
"Yes...?" Draco asked. "Most people's response to a troll isn't to run up and stab it in the crotch."
"Have you met her?" Miles muttered. He was staring at me like he'd never seen me before. Most likely he was re-evaluating how dangerous I was.
"It could move through the undergrowth faster than we could move through the trail," I said. "And it would have caught one of us sooner or later."
We broke through the undergrowth, and we were suddenly back on the lawn.
Making our way up the slope was hard, but I forced myself to do so. In the light I could see that I looked like Carrie after her prom; I probably smelled twice as bad. I was leaving blood on the grass as I walked, although it was rapidly drying.
It wasn't bedtime yet for the older students, and I heard gasps as I stepped into the hallway. I ignored them, and concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other. The last thing my reputation needed was for me to collapse right in the main hall.
The crowd parted in front of us, and everyone was silent as I walked past. No one said a word, but I felt the weight of dozens of eyes on me. Every step felt heavy, but I kept my head up and my face as neutral as I could.
Madam Pomprey was on her feet the moment she saw us. "What in the world?"
"I killed a troll," I said. "I need you to stabilize me, and then go out to the forest to help Hagrid. One of the Unicorns is dying."
"Students are my first priority," she said. Her wand was out. "You must be in a lot of pain."
"You should see the other guy," I joked. "Just stop me from bleeding and get me to a bed, and then you can get to Hagrid."
Snape stepped into the room.
"Is Miss Carrow still alive?" he asked after doing a mental head count.
"This is from a troll," I said. "I just need the bleeding stopped, and then Madam Pomprey needs to get out to help Hagrid with a dying Unicorn."
He stared at me for a long moment, then turned to Pomprey.
"Is Miss Hebert in any danger?"
"She needs treatment," Pomprey said. "She's in tremendous pain."
"My experience is that if a student says they can tolerate their pain, and they are not a Gryffindor, then they probably can. I will stabilize Miss Hebert."
She looked at me for a moment, and I waved my good hand at her. "I'll be fine," I said. "It only hurts when I laugh."
"Are your ribs injured?" she asked, frowning. "I didn't see anything when I...?"
"I was joking," I said. "I don't laugh."
Her lips tightened, and she said,"If you are well enough to joke, then perhaps Professor Snape can help you. I'll go get my supplies."
I sat on the edge of a bed, ignoring the mess I was making, and I watched as Snape began to make preparations to treat me. I hadn't had any experience with Wizardly healing, and it was going to be interesting seeing how different it was from Panacea.
"Drink this," Snape said.
"Is that going to make me sleep?" I asked suspiciously. I'd already been dosed by calm inducing berries this evening without my consent; I wasn't going to drink anything without knowing what it did.
"It reduces pain," Snape said.
"I'll do without it," I said.
The last thing I needed was to be in the infirmary alone with people knowing I was hurt.
"Fine," he said. He pulled out his wand and pointed his wand. "Brackium Emendo."
Wizardly healing, as it turns out is much more painful than what Panacea had used. I managed to keep my face calm throughout however.
"Now you need to drink this," Snape said. "It is a blood replenishing potion."
I looked at him suspiciously.
"You have lost copious amounts of blood. You will be required to stay here overnight because of the possibility of infection. Trolls are filthy creatures."
"Fine," I said.1863ShayneTApr 19, 2019View discussionThreadmarks InfirmaryView contentShayneTApr 22, 2019#8,343I woke to a clicking sound.
It took me a moment to remember where I was; apparently the blood loss from the night before had affected me more than I'd been aware of. The fact that I'd survived far worse injuries in the past didn't change the fact that my new body wasn't nearly as durable as my last one.
Passing out in the middle of everything wasn't going to do my reputation much good.
It rook me a moment to recognize the source of the clicking sound. A familiar white haired man was entering the infirmary, tapping his cane on the ground as he went. Was this his way of warning me of his presence? He didn't seem to need the cane to walk.
I turned my head to focus on him, even as I fumbled for my wand in my fanny pack. I'd lost the knife somewhere in the fight last night, and I didn't have another stick to transfigure. Turning the stick into a knife had been a basic modification of the matchstick to needle spell; a matter of visualization. I wasn't sure, however, whether I could transfigure something not made of wood.
In a pinch, I could transfigure my second wand, but that seemed like a bad idea for a number of reasons.
I very carefully kept my wand on top of the covers, pointed in his direction. He ignored it, carefully sitting down beside me.
"Miss Hebert," he said. He was staring down at me like I was an intriguing specimen of insect.
I stared at him silently. He worked for Voldemort, which meant he was possibly here to kill me, but his wand wasn't out. I doubted that he'd try to kill me in any other way, and I had a relatively amicable relationship with his son, although I couldn't be sure how much he had been told about that.
The fact that I couldn't tell where his wand was, despite the fact that he moved with the quiet assurance of someone who was armed worried me. I'd have to rely on his eyes to tell me when he was going to draw, and hope that it wasn't too late.
"You present me with an unusual problem," he said. "Currently the winds of change are blowing against your kind, but you have rendered a service to my son not once, but twice."
Apparently Draco had been keeping his father informed.
"The Malfoys do not forget," he said. "Whether it is a service, or a slight. Yet to support you openly would be to put us at even greater disadvantage."
Ah... he was trying to pretend not to be one of the people who was trying to kill me. There was no reason for me to let him know that I knew otherwise, and many reasons for me not to do so.
"So don't," I said.
"Yet sooner or later you will face someone you cannot simply... dispose of," he said. "Adult wizards who are fully aware of just how...dangerous you can be."
"I'm harder to kill than most people think."
His eyes darted toward the wand pointed at him.
"So it would seem," he said. "One wonders how an eleven year old girl knew how to kill with such.... proficiency."
"I lived in a tough neighborhood," I said.
It had the virtue of even being somewhat true. Neither Brockton bay nor Chicago had exactly been walks in the park.
"I wasn't aware that the muggle world was so dangerous," he said.
"You'd be surprised at the things you have to deal with in certain parts of that world," I said. "Even if most of it seems drab and decidedly boring."
"I've heard some foolish prattling that you intend to become a Dark Lord yourself," he said. "That you were able to fool the unicorns through some sort of dark magic, and that you plan to take over all of Wizarding Britain."
"I'd prefer to be left alone," I said. "But if I am pushed, I'll do whatever I have to."
"I can get you a transfer to Ilvermorny," he said. "As an American, you should be there anyway, and you would be assured of being allowed to pursue your education uninterrupted by British politics."
He called murder politics.
I frowned.
My reasons for staying hadn't changed. The authorities in America were almost certain to do a better search of my background than the ones here had; I'd looked it up, and they didn't have an equivalent to Hogwarts book and quill. They'd find out that I was actually Molly Scrivener, and then they'd try to find out why I was pretending to be an American.
I shook my head.
"I appreciate the offer, but I'm going to stay here. There's nothing left for me back at home."
"I will not be able to protect you," he said. "Should you stay, you are only likely to find death and suffering. In the coming years, this will not be a welcoming place for your kind."
"Oh?" I asked. "Why is that?"
He stared at me, then grimaced. "You know why. My son says you seem to know more than you should; more than any child your age should, and I am inclined to believe him."
"What could I possibly know that would be dangerous?" I asked. "The identities of the people who have... questionable affiliations maybe? Ones who have children here?"
"What are you saying?" he asked carefully.
"Just that they have more to lose than I do," I said. "My family is dead, and there is no one in the world that I care about. That leaves me with a certain... freedom to act."
His face tightened.
"You'd threaten children?"
"Not Draco," I said. "Since he seems to be a little more sensible than the rest of them."
"But the others?"
"I don't particularly like hurting people," I said. "I'd much prefer to be left alone. If certain factions wish me dead, maybe it would be wiser to wait until the school year is over."
He was silent for a long moment, his eyes searching my face. I wondered whether he was a legilimens; in case he was, I focused on my absolute sincerity and determination that I meant what I was saying
"Those aren't the words of a normal child," he said. "Don't you fear anything?"
I stared at him steadily. "If I were a Gryffindor, maybe I'd tell you."
For the first time he smirked a little. "Perhaps you really do belong in this house,"
"I tried to get the Hat to place me elsewhere," I said. "It seemed to think that Slytherin was the only place for me."
He scowled. "In my day, the Hat always gave preference to the wishes of the student. Perhaps it is becoming senile."
"It could use a cleaning," I said.
"The Malfoys do not forget," he said as he rose to his feet. "And neither will I."
"I don't either," I said. "I'm not a threat to anyone who isn't a threat to me. Get people to leave me alone, and I will feel myself amply repaid."
He nodded slightly, and a moment later he was gone.
I closed my eyes again, and it seemed like no time at all before I heard a heavy footstep entering the Infirmary.
It was Hagrid; he looked stricken.
"Did the Unicorn make it?" I asked.
"She's gonna make it," Hagrid said. "But I never shouldda left yeh out there."
I shrugged. "I can handle myself."
"Most of the trolls are in the north side of the forest right now," Hagrid said. "It musta been a male shoved out of the pack, lookin for better huntin by himself."
"What's going to happen to you?" I asked. "Mr. Malfoy looked pretty angry."
"Suspended without pay for a month," Hagrid said. "I'd be out on my ear if Dumbledore hadn't stood up for me."
"I'd imagine that there's not a lot in the forest that's dangerous to you," I said. "Even that troll last night."
Hagrid shrugged. "We'd have batted each other round a bit, then go on our own ways. I'm sorry yeh had ter kill him."
"I didn't have much choice," I said. "Maybe if I'd been a fifth year, but I don't know a lot of magic yet."
"I'm sorry yeh got hurt," he said. He hesitated. "I wouldn't have thought such a little thing like you could kill somethin as big as that troll. It bled out almost right away."
"It was built like a human," I said. I shrugged. "It wasn't that hard."
He looked unconvinced. "The others said you moved so fast they barely saw you."
"It was dark," I said. "And they were shooting flares instead of lighting the path. With the way the lumnos spell probably hurt their night vision, I'm surprised they saw anything."
"I'll do better next time," Hagrid said.
"Just remember that all first years aren't as tough as me," I said. "You have to treat them like they are babies."
He nodded, and a moment later he was gone.
For the first time I became aware of the fact that someone had changed my clothes and bathed me, or perhaps used magic to do it, as I didn't have any troll blood on my body.
I rose to my feet, and I felt a little woozy. Apparently blood replentishing potion wasn't nearly as effective as Panacea, something I was going to have to take into account as I went forward. I couldn't simply push my body to the extent that I had in the past, and not simply because I was out of shape.
In my old world, even after Panacea had become... unavailable, there had been other healers. I'd had a support team that was there should I get injured. Here I was on my own. Learning healing spells needed to be something that I learned sooner than later.
It wasn't just for myself; if one of the others had been injured last night, I wouldn't have been able to help them other than whatever first aid I could render using the materials at hand; and that wouldn't have been a lot.
I managed to reach the bathroom despite my dizziness, and after completing my ablutions, I returned to the infirmary, where I found Madam Pomfrey waiting for me.
"You should not be out of bed," she said.
"I needed to use the bathroom," I said. "And I figured that it would be less dangerous than a troll."
"There is a strong possibility that you could faint and hit your head," she said. "Which very well may be more dangerous to you than a troll."
"You don't seem surprised."
"I'm familiar with your capabilities," she said. "After all, I'm the one who has been treating the people you have sent here."
"They attacked me first," I said.
"I'm sure that's a great comfort to their parents."
I frowned at her; was she giving me shade? She wasn't even looking at me; instead she was mixing something in a bowl on a cart.
As I crawled back into the bed, I asked her, "Is there any chance that I could learn some basic healing magic from you?"
"You should ask Professor Flitwick," she said. "Those spells are generally reserved for upper years."
"I've got more need for them than most people," I said.
"That seems to be true," she said. "I would prefer that you stop sending me patients in the middle of the night."
"I could start waiting until the middle of the day...?"
The look she gave me was not friendly. I closed my mouth and I accepted the liquid she gave me. It tasted like the blood replenishing potion Snape had given me the night before, with something else added.
"This will help you sleep more," she said. "And when you wake, you will need to eat something to help the potion along. You will not feel like eating, but you need to push yourself to do so."
"I'd rather not sleep," I said. "Considering that people know I am here, and there are those who don't wish me well."
Madam Pomprey stared at me and shook her head. "I will be here watching over you, and after last night, I doubt that most of the students would bother to come after you anyway."
She didn't seem to be lying; I'd had some classes on detecting lies from suspects and she had none of the usual tells. Still, it'd be embarrassing to wake up dead.
"Without sleep, you will continue to be weak," she said. "For quite some time. There is only so much magical healing can do. Your blood loss last night was severe enough that I am surprised that you were still standing. I certainly wouldn't have left if I had realized you were in that condition."
I hadn't even been aware that I was in that kind of shape. I was going to have to test my new body more so that I could know what to expect; otherwise, I'd end up bleeding to death over some embarrassing accident without even being aware of it.
"Then it's a good thing you didn't know," I said. "There aren't enough Unicorns in the world."
"There's only one of you," Pomprey said. "And the life of a wizard... or even a muggle is more important than the life of a Unicorn."
Watching her, I wondered if she even realized that she'd just implied that Wizarding lives were more important than muggle lives. It was probably an attitude so deeply ingrained that she wasn't even aware that she had it.
Still, she seemed to mean well.
"Fine," I said. I drank the concoction and grimaced. "I'm holding you to the protection thing. I won't be amused if I wake up and find that one of the Weasley twins has drawn a mustache and goatee on my face."
They'd do it, too.
"I'll do my best to keep that from happening," she said dryly. "Although they do have their ways."
I was feeling sleepy again. The potion worked faster than any medications I'd had, and I was out again.
By the time I woke, the sun was shining brightly through the windows. Hermione was sitting on a chair next to my bed, and I forced myself to keep from grimacing. I'd been alert enough to wake up when Lucius Malfoy had entered, but I'd had no idea that Hermione had come in.
While she was known to be my friend, there were all sorts of situations where she might have turned against me, ones that Pomprey had no idea about. It would be best if I not accept sedating potions in the future, not while I was in a location like this where nothing was safe.
"Taylor!" Hermione said when she saw that I was awake."I was so worried!"
"I'm fine," I said.
"You're in the infirmary!" she said. "You're not fine! People are saying all kinds of crazy things... that you killed a troll with your bare hands, that you killed one of the Slytherin girls.... that Hagrid killed one of the girls and you killed him. But I knew that none of it could be true. What really happened?"
"I killed a troll," I said. "With a knife, while the others distracted it with flares."
She stared at me, seemingly speechless. The idea of a child of her age being faced by a real danger was foreign to her; the thought that a teacher would allow something like that was even more so. I'd been doing my best to subtly disabuse her of the notion that adults always knew best.
"H...how did you know how?"
"I lived in a bad place before," I said.
"America?"
"Not all of it... but there are places that are dangerous, just as there are in Britain. Even Wizarding Britain has Knock turn Alley."
"But to know how to use a... where did you even get a knife?"
"It's not that hard to turn a stick into a knife if you know how to turn a matchstick into a needle," I said. "It's just differs in a matter of degree."
She stared at me. "But you'd have to know what a knife is really like to visualize it that well."
"I've carried one before," I said. "We had a real gang problem where I grew up. I was taught how to use one by a good friend... to protect myself."
"I can't imagine that," she said. She looked down. "I must seem silly to you, prattling on about little things when you've had real things to worry about."
If things grew worse for muggleborns, she had things to worry about too. Preparing her for that wasn't going to be easy.
"I saw unicorns last night," I said. I let a little of the genuine wonder that I'd felt leak out onto my face. "It helped me realize that not everything is dark and evil, that there is some beauty still left in the world. I think it's good that I have normal kids around me... it reminds me that I don't have to be kind of person I was back then, that I can be better."
It was even true, to a point.