No Body No Crime □■ Hermione Granger

Chapter 19

"Sage is in Magical Languages," Arlene vaguely explained "why don't you keep me company?"

Hermione arched her eyebrows "By playing a game of chess?"

Arlene grinned "Scared, Granger?" she questioned, making fun of Draco.

Hermione chuckled, remembering the dueling club the year before "You wish." She told her in a playful aggressive tone.

She sat down again and crossed her legs, rolling up her sleeves and tying up her hair.

Arlene rolled her eyes and opened the chess set, then made the first move.

"Do you remember that book we were talking about?" Hermione asked, moving her pawn.

Arlene ignored the chess pieces telling her to use the horse "The Fault In Our Stars? Yeah, I loved it, the end ripped out my heart though."

Hermione moved another pawn and sighed "I know, I wanted to hunt down John Green and demand he write another ending."

"I was going to hunt down John Green," Arlene told her "But then I remembered that I won't look good in prison strips."

The bushy haired girl giggled and moved another piece.

"Anyway, he has this other book, Paper Towns, I love it."

"I don't think I've read that." Arlene said, wrinkling her nose in confusion.

Hermione arched an eyebrow in surprise "Really? You should, maybe I can lend it to you sometime."

Arlene nodded "Maybe."

"And maybe 'Maybe' will be our Always."

The chess pieces kept yelling at them to continue playing as they both broke into hysterical laughter.

Eventually Hermione had to leave, but Sage visited her a lot, Blaise and Theo stayed with her for a while and several members of the Quidditch team dropped by.

Jude, who was probably the only American in Hogwarts, got her this weird candy called 'Twinkies', Marcus got her some flowers, Peggy made her a card and Miles got a few boxes of Bertie's Beans, then proceeded to have a mystery bean competition with her.

Her mouth still tasted like dung.

But their visits were short, it wasn't easy getting around Madame Pomfrey, and Arlene was dying out of boredom.

Until Harry, who apparently was still depressed over the broom, spoke up.

"Arlene?" he called out.

"Hmm?"

He turned in his bed to face her "Do you remember at the beginning of the year feast when you told me that you heard voices when the dementor got close?" he asked

Arlene's heart skipped a beat, she had completely forgotten about the conversation she had heard when she passed out.

Arlene nodded absentmindedly, now starting to think about it.

Who was Kreacher? And what the hell was the Infiri?

"When the dementors came at the Quidditch pitch, did you- did you hear anything?"

Arlene opened her mouth then closed it again "Why," She asked "did you hear something?"

"I-" Harry started, then dropped his voice "I heard my mother, the night that Voldemort came. My father was already dead, my mother was begging him to take her instead of me."

Her hand shot up and covered her open jaw "Oh dear," she whispered "that's horrible."

Harry simply nodded, turning his head to the ceiling.

"I heard my dad," Arlene announced "he knew something, the place of a weapon of some sort that Voldemort had. I don't know what it was, I don't know if my mum did, but whatever it is, it was what got him killed."

They both sank into silence after that.

"I'm sorry about you broom." She added, breaking the silence.

Harry nodded glumly "It feels like I've lost a friend, I know it's stupid."

"It's not stupid," Arlene assured him "you had it for two years, it was your first broom, it probably means a lot to you."

"Yeah." Harry sighed absentmindedly.

Arlene frowned at his far away expression "What is it?"

He turned back to her "What's what?"

"There's something on your mind."

He bit his lip "It's just, when I fell I saw, well, I thought I saw a black dog, the grim."

Arlene stared in shock "Oh Merlin."

"It's not the first time, either," he continued "before the start of the year, when the night bus almost hit me, it was there."

Arlene was suddenly reminded of the night Hermione had left Crookshanks with her, through one of the windows, the large black dog that was staring at her...

"Holy shit," she whispered in disbelief "I think I saw it too."

Harry frowned "What? When?"

"The night of the Hippogriff incident." Arlene said, but her mind was occupied with the memory of Draco's arm covered in blood, was that injury meant for her? In a much more fetal place?

Harry was quiet, but she knew he was thinking about it too.

Three times the dog was witnessed, two before Trelaway even told them about it. Arlene would've liked to think that it was just a stray dog, but the same stray dog that appears when Harry is in a life or death situation? It was very far from likely.

Arlene remembered her conversation with Hermione about the grim, trying to understand prophecies only ends badly, the explanation to it all may have nothing to do with the grim, Harry is in life or deaths situations all the time, it doesn't mean anything.

But why did it appear to Arlene?

All that thinking was giving her a headache and the whole other problem of the dementors didn't help.

Why were they even at the game? And why did she keep passing out around them?

Honestly, she wanted it to stop, she didn't want to have her dead father's conversation with her mother about a psychopathic homicidal maniac with daddy issues stuck in her head.

And then there was the conversation itself, why didn't her father trust Dumbledore? What did he find out about Voldemort and who in the name of Merlin was Kreacher?

But then her eyes landed on the Fantastic Beasts book that Sage got her to help her with her homework.

What were the Infiri?