Harry Potter and Claire Smith's Adventures: Book Four

Cracking Cases & Sleazy Faces

Though neither did Jeremy. Claire thought bitterly.

She then thought about the stranger Voldemort made Wormtail tortured. Why would he kill Jeremy if they were working for the same person? And who the heck was the girl Voldemort kept talking about? Claire tried to search through her memories of the previous dreams she had, but nothing came up. Then Claire remembered something, but it wasn't from her dreams; it was from the Quidditch World Cup when one of the Death Eaters tied her up and tried to torture her.

She struggled against her binds as the cloaked figure stood over her. The figure raised his wand. "The Dark Lord has been waiting for you, Claire Smith. He will reward me greatly if I turn you in. But first, let's see how well you can handle pain. Cruc—"

Claire shook the memory from her head. Why would Voldemort want her? There wasn't anything special about her. It was just another thing that made no sense. I'm overthinking this. Claire thought. There's no reason why I would be the girl Voldemort's after.

"Claire?" Hermione had entered their dorm. Her hair was back in its frizzy bushy curls.

"Good morning, 'Mione." Claire forced a smile, but then noticed there was something off about Hermione. "What's going on?"

Hermione gave her a sympathetic look; one which Claire loathe.

"Professor Dumbledore wants to see you in his office. There are Ministry officials here. They want to talk about last night." Hermione said, sitting on the edge of Claire's bed.

Claire's smile disappeared. "I'm not going."

"Claire, someone died last night." Hermione said.

"You think I don't know that!" Claire snapped. "I saw the body! I'm not stupid!"

Claire felt her eyes burn. She looked away and stared at the opposite side of the room. She was not in the mood to talk about it. Heck, she didn't even know what she was suppose to feel about the whole incident considering she was probably the girl Jeremy, her supposed friend, was going to give to Voldemort.

"I can't imagine how you feel, Claire. I'm sorry he's dead—" Hermione began.

"You wouldn't feel sorry if you knew what I knew." Claire muttered acidly to herself. Hermione didn't hear her though and continued to talk.

"—but if you want any sort of justice for Jeremy, you need to talk to Dumbledore." Hermione said, putting a hand on Claire's shoulder. "I'll even go with you."

Claire ran her hand through her hair sighing in defeat. She was going to have to talk to Dumbledore no matter what. If her father was really involved with Voldemort and Jeremy was a Death Eater—well, she wasn't sure what was going to happen. "Fine. I'll meet you in the common room."

Claire grabbed some clothes and a pair of shoes and went to change in the bathroom. She didn't bother putting her hair up. When she was finished, she made her way down to the common room. Hermione saw her and then they made their way to Dumbledore's office. When they reached the statue to the entrance of Dumbledore's office, they discovered they weren't the only ones Dumbledore wanted to talk to. Fred, George, Ginny, Ron, Harry, and a no-longer-confused-Evy were there as well.

"Hey, what are all of you doing here?" Claire asked them.

"Dumbledore wanted to speak to us—" Fred motioned to himself and the others, "—about last night."

Claire furrowed her eyebrows. "Why?"

"Eyewitness reports, probably," George said.

"I'm sorry about Jeremy, Claire," Evy said.