Chapter 31
Gina's P.O.V
When Madam Pince told Hermione to put all of her books back, I helped her out and then we headed out and into the corridor. The air was once again brisk and chilly and I could smell the food from the great hall wafting in the wind. We were walking around the corner to go down to Potions when I stopped dead in my tracks.
I saw Jess coming up towards me with Grace and she too stopped dead in her tracks. I looked her in the eyes and when she blinked she ran straight towards me. Her arms tightened around my back and her heart beat raced. I held her tight in my arms, I looked over my shoulder and saw that Hermione nodded and headed down to potions, Grace following after her with a kind smile on her face.
“Jess we need to talk,” I stated as I pulled away from the embrace. She nodded and then looked around to see if anyone was around. I pulled her hand and out through a gap in the wall and into the grounds where the water fountain was the only thing around.
“How are you Jess?” I asked, not totally sure what I was actually supposed to say. I hadn't spoken to her since the night we saw Draco and Pansy kissing. She must of heard some of the rumours that had been going around school by now.
“I'm all right I guess. What about you?” She asked back. I simply nodded. This was going to be an awkward conversation between the both of us but before I could say anything she stopped me with her own words.
“Gina. Professor Dumbledore told me about what you did to Draco and the pig,” she stated. I smiled a little but Jess's face was returning the gesture.
“G you could of got yourself expelled for doing that. It's only that Dumbledore is friendly to us and our family that you have not been,” she sternly said. I turned my head away from her and looked at the water trickling down the water fountain.
“What was I supposed to do Jess? Let some pathetic Slytherin's walk over my sister and do such thing to her?” I spat back. My forehead started to burn and the aching sensation once again stung the back of my neck. Neither of us said anything for a while.
“Thank you.” She honestly said. My head snapped around to see that she had a smile on her face but when I looked into her eyes there was something more alike to strain and anxiety. I smiled back at her and she looked me up and down and then stopped at my neck and then at the bandage slightly sticking out of my shirt.
“What are those markings on your neck from? And what have you done to your shoulder,” she claimed. I looked down to my shirt and quickly buttoned it up so it was hiding the bandage sticking out. Then I looked away. Afraid of what to say to her. Afraid of her reaction. I took a very deep breath in and exhaled and began to recall the story from when I hit Draco and Pansy up until I went to the hospital wing this morning. There were tears in her eyes that slowly fell down her face as she listened carefully throughout my story. I found it hard to explain certain things and something I simply did not feel comfortable to tell anyone. Like what my dream was about and how strong the image of it had become. Another was that Sirius gave me his address so I could write to him.
“I am so sorry Gina. All this is my fault. If I hadn't of gone out with Draco in the first place, none of this would of happened and you would not be hurt." I sighed and shook my head.
“No Jess. None of this is your fault. I should not have done what I did and nothing can be done to change it,” I answered and she said nothing but wiped the tears from her eyes. As jess went to argue the bell for next period went off and she stood up. I copied and hugged her tightly. I found that in my own eyes, liquid had began to collect and a tear was ready to drop. I closed my eyes and it escaped through my eyelids. We pulled away and I wiped the tear from my cheek and rubbed my eyes.
“I guess I better be going,” I said and she nodded. We waked back through the gap of the wall and into the corridor again. I gave her another hug before she left for her lesson. I walked down to the dungeons and met up with Hermoine and Grace. I gave Grace a pleasant nod and then stood by Hermione who looked at me with question.
“I just told Jess about everything. She got a bit upset and I guess I did a bit too,” I whispered so only I and Hermione and maybe even Grace might of caught snippets of what I said.
She nodded and the door swung open to see Snape, in his usual miserable mood, and stropped back in to sit down my his desk. Me and Hermione went in first and sat in our places and was soon joined by Harry and Ron. Snape wrote some instructions on the board and we were soon set off with the task.
Surprisingly there wasn't enough time to listen to anyone gossiping or any little rumours to take in. This one potion Snape had set us to do was becoming a challenge, even for me and Hermione. As I went to the cupboard to get something for the potion I was slightly short of, Grace joined me in the cupboard.
“Jess told me what you did to Draco and Pansy.” She said sternly. I wasn't sure what to say. Her face was emotionless and I couldn't tell whether she was angry at me or what... It was not until she smiled that I knew she meant nothing bad by it.
“It took courage to take on both of them alone. I know Jess appreciates it and I just wanted to say thank you. Jess is a very close friend of mine,” she said with a smile and just as I went to talk back to her Snape came lurking into the cupboard, a grin curled up on his face as he saw the sight of me.
“Trying to get your story told are you Miss Williams?” He snarled. I looked at him, my blood boiling with anger as I looked him in the eye. I could see the enjoyment of embarrassing Gryffindor's and that somehow he was bursting to give away a secret of mine that he had learnt. But why had he been so kind to me the other night? I did not say anything.
“Grace, go.” He ordered and she nodded to him and then looked at me with thankfulness in her eyes. He turned to me, his eyes burning with glee.
“Thought you would have kept your head down and not pride around about your actions.” He grunted at me. “And with such temperaments that you have got I would try and make yourself, less tempted to outrage," he said with a chuckle just after his words had finished. I looked at him, anger building to become a little too uncomfortable. I felt my fingers twitch and it took a very deep breath in to regather just enough calmness to prevent me from lashing out at him. What was I even thinking of lashing out at a teacher?
I grabbed what I needed from the shelf and stormed out passed Snape and to my desk where Hermione was half way through her chopping of octopus rings when she stopped and looked at me. I could feel my body shaking and thankfully my anger was decreasing as I continued with my work. Snape came out of the cupboard a few minutes after with a smile curled up on his lip.
The lesson went pretty quick and after most of us were finishing off our potion I heard Ron and Harry talking among themselves. They were talking about me and wishing that they could have seen Draco's face when I had slapped him. I giggled to myself but stopped suddenly as I was drawing a little too much attention to myself. I finished my potion and poured some into a flask to hand in to be marked. I placed with the rest of them and then began to clean by cauldron out. But clumsy me dropped the cauldron and it splashed all over the floor and over other people tables. Slytherin's began to pound with laughter and I could see from the corner of my eye that Snape was too.
“Oh Williams you clumsy girl. Clean it up!” He snarled and as he did so the bell rang for lunch. People started to exit the room and I told Hermione to carry on and that I'd meet her in the great hall. I started mopping up the floor and got my wand out. I went to flick my wand but Snape stood in front of me.
“What are you doing Williams? I told you to clean up this mess. Why have you got your wand out?” He asked and I shook my shoulder, a smart comment building up in my head.
“Well you never said how I should clean it up.” I snarled and I flicked my wand and the liquid disappeared and the cauldron landed in my arms where I placed it on the side. He looked up at me with his eyebrow raised and I turned away to pack my bag up again.
“Eight o'clock tonight Miss Williams and don't be late.” He instructed sternly and returned to his desk. I picked up my bag and then headed out into the corridor and in to the great hall where not many people were. I walked over to were Ginny, Fred, George, Hermione and Neville were sat. I squashed in between Fred and George and they both put there arms around me. I smiled and picked up a chicken leg and started nibbling away at it.
Neville and Ginny started up a conversation about the possibilities of using snail shells to cure dragon pox while I tried taking in what Neville was saying. But my mind wasn't always listening to him. It kept wondering off to the Shrieking Shack with Sirius. I kept having images of him being on his own and then the next minute he was searching through old books and newspaper. He pulled something out of a draw and I saw something in his eyes. But before I could even see that something, someone clicked their fingers in front of my eyes and I could see normally, the images of Sirius had gone.
“Are you okay Gina?” Neville asked from across the table. I nodded at him and rubbed my shoulder. My wounds were hurting me again and I looked at my watch. I looked over at Hermione who was deep into a book and jotting down notes with her other hand. She looked very serious and concentrated.
“Ginny. Will you come to the dorm with me to sort...” I said eyeing down at my shoulder. She went to say something but Fred cut across her.
“We'll go up with you G,” Fred said.
“Yeah, I mean we were headed up there anyway.” George answered me. I looked at Ginny and nodded to her. I felt a lump grow in my throat and the boys got up and took the last sip of their drinks. I got up from the bench too and walked side by side out of the hall. I took one last look in the hall and spotted Jess watching after me, Grace at her side.
We made our way quickly to the common room by taking some short cuts through passage ways and small tunnels. We didn't speak but we burst out laughing when we saw Umbridge hobble to the next corridor looking stressed out and crazy. Soon we were climbing through the portrait hole and saw that there were only a few people around. We headed up the long stairs and I we went to the top floor. We took seats by the window and opened the window up so a cool breeze blew in.
“So are you going to tell us then?” Fred asked me. I looked at him and felt myself go red in the face. I suppose I would have to tell them, so why not now. I held my finger up to make them stay where they were and ran down into my room and ran over to my suitcase and pulled out my cream and the bandages. I put them in my pocket and headed back up the staircase. They were both talking and they stopped as I walked in.
I walked over to an old mirror that hung to one side and tied my hair up into a pony tail and pulled my sleeve down a little, showing the bandage on my shoulder. They both stood up from where they were sat and came and stood behind me. I pulled the cream tub out of my pocket and placed it next to me. George picked it up and began to read the label.
I began to pull the bandage away from my shoulder, it was quite sticky and it hurt quite a bit to pull away. I bit my lip from the sharp pain and then placed it down on the side. I took the tub off of George with a naughty smile and unscrewed the lid. I dipped my finger in the cream and slowly tried rubbing it on my skin. But as soon as I touched my skin I let out a small cry. George held onto my shoulder and Fred grabbed the tub from my hand before I dropped it.
“Here I'll do it, it might hurt less. George give her your hand,” Fred demanded. George did as he said and gave me his hand. I held onto it while Fred dipped his hands in the cream.
Slowly he too gently dabbed the cream onto the wound. Some how it actually didn't hurt as much as it did when I tried doing it. I squeezed George's hand and bit my lip. Soon though Fred had finished rubbing all the cream on and he peeled the seal off of the bandage and stuck it in place. His hand gently brushed against my skin and I felt something wash around in my stomach. Not the sick kind of feeling but another feeling, the feeling I had earlier before I got hit with a book by Lee Jordan. He felt it too because he hesitated pulling his hand away but looked at George from the corner of his eye.
“So are you going to tell us how you did that and where you've been?” George asked from next to me. I walked away from the both of them and sat on the window ledge, my leg hanging out of the window.
I took a deep breath in readying myself to explain what had happened and where I'd been. Fred and George already knew about me punching Draco so I started explaining what happened in Dumbledore's office. They were both silent as I explained how Draco thought it was me, right up to when Lucius came in and pinned me up in the wall. Their faces turned to shock and anger.
“How can he have the nerve to even touch you! Especially in front of Dumbledore and McGonagall!” Fred spat out. I smiled weakly at his concern.
“I bet Dumbledore soon got him off you though,” George chuckled evilly. I looked away and out of the window, shaking my head.
“They didn't have chance. He threatened me and then I pushed him away and then attacked him. I threw him across the room and pulled his arm far behind his back, giving him my own threat.” I said with a little evil chuckle. But I wasn't laughing for long, the next part of the story was coming up, the part I've been least looking forward to telling them because it meant a long explanation.
“So what happened after that?” Fred asked, his eyebrows were in a line and his eyes were looking into mine. I looked away from his eyes and down to the floor.
“There's something I should of told you both when I met you first. But its complicated and I don't want you to think any worse of me.” I stated starring out of the window, the airy breeze blew my hair behind me and I heard a voice whisper in my ear telling me it was safe to trust them.
“Trust us.” Fred said. I looked at him and into his eyes, there was hope and loyalty in them. I took a deep breath in.
“I'm...I'm a...” I tried telling them but it was hard. “I'm an animagus.” I breathed out in a whisper. I wasn't sure whether or not they heard me, but I think they did. I feared what they would say to me being an animagus. I looked at their faces and a cheeky grin was spread across both of their faces.
“You are not surprised?” I asked them both, and George looked to Fred. They both looked at me and smiled.
“Well we had our suspicions about it but we didn't want to ask,” Fred said calmly. I felt my eyebrow rise and I looked at them suspiciously.
“You could have saved me the worry guys,” I chuckled and they laughed at me but I could see that Fred was edging to ask more questions.
“So what form do you take?” He finally asked me with one of his winning smiles. I tapped my nose sarcastically and he did the puppy eyes.
“I take the form of a wolf,” I commented and they both looked amazed. I could see the excitement in their eyes. The trouble they could have with my form was showing in their eyes. But there was more. “But my animagus form has a strange twist to it. Most animaguses have one animal form. Well, I have two,” I stated and their facial expression changed from amazed to confusion.
“But how can you have two animagus forms?” George said, questioning to me and himself, I could see he was trying to find an answer in his head. I shrugged my shoulder at him.
“I don't know exactly. I know its a rare thing for someone to be two, Jess is exactly the same though, so I'm guessing its just a random gene. None of my other family members are animaguses,” I stated, clearing Georges question up, but I could see he had another to ask and I knew it would not be about me.
“What is Jess's form? Is it some kind of bird?” He asked me and I looked at him questioningly. How the hell did he know that? “I was walking Jess back to her common room not so long ago and we came across an Aurer, she told me to hide in the cupboard whilst she did something. I saw a shadow outside of the door and when she told me to come out I saw a feather on her. A red one.” He recalled and I nodded, cursing at her in my head. Why hadn't she been more careful? Then again, I hadn't been too careful myself. I nodded my head at him.
“Yes, Jess's animagus form is a bird, a phoenix to be exact. She likes to use this form more than her other. She also has the form of a wolf like me, that's something we have in common, and then our second form is different,” I replied and George seemed pleased to be justified. It was unfair that Jess could have an animagus form of a Phoenix and have good control. Mine was quite unpredictable.
“And what is your other form?” Fred asked curiously. I looked out of the window and across the castle. I could Imagen flying around the other towers on the castle and flying over the forbidden forest.
“My other form is a lot less controlled. Mine is bigger and stronger than a phoenix. I'm also a small dragon,” I said out into the distance. I had only transformed into my dragon form once as it was very dangerous. Not only to me but to everyone else. And if the ministry heard or saw me they would have me done and could even try to kill me. After all, it was illegal to keep Dragons in England. I looked back at them and their mouths were gaping open, I giggled to myself.
“So where does this fit in with the story?” Fred asked closing his mouth and shuffling himself up against the wall. I thought back to what I was saying and then began to recall what happened. About me transforming, loosing control and running into the dark forest and then coming face to face with the other animal and that it too transformed into human, Sirius Black.
“You ran into Sirius Black?” George chocked, his eyes widening and his body became a lot more fidgety. I guess he was worried whether I went and told anyone about Sirius, as Sirius had already filled me in about him knowing the Weasley's.
“Yes George I did. And a nice man he is too. He took me to the Shrieking Shack and cleaned me up there. I ended up falling asleep and he cast his patronus and Snape arrived after,” I recited and they both seemed to calm at the fact that Sirius was okay but Fred seemed a bit tense about Snape being there.
“And what did Snape do?” Fred said between his teeth. I thought back to what had happened and debated with myself whether I should tell them about the dream. Why not? I might as well get the whole truth out at once.
“Well I was actually having a bad dream and I heard his voice and woke up. He actually seemed...well, he seemed kind and he was soft talking. He noticed the marks around my neck and said that I had no blame in what I did. Then he told me to go back to sleep and someone from the school would come and pick me up,” I answered looking out of the window once more. I heard Fred jokingly spit.
“Kind? Snape? Never would I of thought Snape would be kind.” Fred chortled. I lifted my head up a little as the back of my neck ones again started to hurt. I rubbed it gently.
“I know. So anyway, McGonagall came and fetched me in the morning took me back here to Dumbledore. He was not angry with me but insisted that I were to tell your parents or at least you two. And he also wanted me to see Snape tonight about my forms and the dreams,” I explained and they both nodded.
I could tell that Fred did not like the idea of me going to see Snape on my own. No one trusted Snape and it didn't help that he had saw me when we pulled the prank on Umbrigde. I looked down at my watch and realised that lunch was almost over. We got up from the side and surprisingly I was engulfed in a giant hug from both of them. I loved these guys!
We walked down to the great hall and I met up with Hermione and they met up with Lee Jordan and we headed off in the direction of our next class. Our next subject was double lessons of DADA and I was not looking forward to this lesson one bit.
Then again the lesson went quickly. We wrote out of text books, like we always did, copied 'information' from them and practically learnt nothing. When I looked up at Umbridge I saw her picking out blobs of glue out of her hair and furiously throwing them in the bin. From that, she gave us a lecture about whoever did it would get into serious trouble. I had to hold in my laughs and I even saw Hermione smile quickly.
But that lesson went quickly and soon the bell rang for the end of the day. I gathered all my things together and me, Hermione, Harry and Ron headed back to the common room. We had a slow walk talking about Umbridge's hair and how long it would take her to pick all the glue out.
We dropped our bags off in the common room and Hermione went off to the library so me, Harry and Ron headed back to the great hall for tea. Fred and George had taken their usual places on the table and I sat down next to Fred, harry and Ron opposite me. I pulled the bowl that was full of meat towards me and scoop a large amount into my own bowl. Ron looked at me as if he were seeing things and I just laughed at him, he did the same.
As we ate, the sky outside was growing darker and darker and soon people were leaving the hall and heading for their common rooms. I caught a quick glimpse of Draco and Pansy as they were leaving the hall. Draco's jaw was swollen and Pansy looked even more grumpy. I laughed out load and Fred looked at me questioningly. I shook my head with another big smile on my face.
It was not long until we started to make out way back to the common room that I remembered that I had to see Snape. Harry and Ron seemed intrigued as to know why I had to go but I didn't say anything, just gave them a hug. I gave Fred a big hug too, but there was something that didn't want to let go of him. I pulled myself away and looked up at Fred as he held me at hips length. I starred into his eyes for only a few moments before Ron called Fred to hurry up and he let go of me. I smiled to cover up the annoyance I felt and turned away from Fred and headed down to the dungeons.
I took a deep breath in, readying myself for Snape's foul mood as I stood at the door. But one thought kept popping into my head.
Did I trust Snape?