When I sat down at the breakfast table the next morning, Hermione had turned an expression of wintry disapproval upon Harry.
"Was this spell, by any chance, another one from that potion book of yours?" she asked.
"Are we still talking about the potions book?" I asked as I sat down and began loading my plate with food.
"It could be dangerous!" said Hermione in a defensive tone.
"Look, Hermione, Harry is not going to change his mind—"
"She's not wrong," Harry added.
"— and it hasn't done any harm yet, so..."
"It took Tom Riddle's diary a while didn't it!"
" Hey, Harry, I'm supposed to give you this."
I turned around and saw Ginny, holding out a piece of paper. Her face was a little white, but her jaw was set firm. A red blush was creeping up Hermione's neck.
"Thanks, Ginny... It's Dumbledore's next lesson!" Harry told us, pulling open the parchment and quickly reading its contents.
"Monday evening!" He smiled.
"Want to come with us to Hogsmeade, Ginny?" I asked.
"I'm going with Dean — might see you there," she replied, waving at us as she left.
"And off walks the heart breaker," I said, smiling with pride.
"Oi," exclaimed Ron. "That's my sister!"
"Be proud." I leaned across the table and patted him on the shoulder. Ron glared at me, but stayed silent. I glanced over at Harry, and noticed he seemed just as bothered as Ron. Hermione gave me a knowing look. Where all my friends going to couple up?
"Let's head off to Hogsmeade," said Hermione. We all got up. Flinch's security check was illogical and annoying, but we got through it all right.
It was snowing in Hogsmeade. Our breath froze like clouds in front of us. On our way to three broomsticks, Harry barely got out of going to another Slughorn Party.
"Hermione," I said as we stood in front of Three Broomsticks. Harry and Ron were talking to some man. "What am a supposed to wear for the party tonight?"
Hermione shrugged. "Just wear what you wore last time."
"But that's Jazz's dress. I can't keep wearing her clothes."
"You should have brought your own dress," said Hermione.
"But it wasn't on the school list."
Hermione looked at me incredulously. "You only bring the clothes it tells you on the list?"
"No... but I didn't think I would need anything fancy."
There was a thud. I whirled around and saw Harry pinning the man to the brick wall by the throat. His form was sloppy. He pulled out his wand.
"Harry!" squealed Hermione.
"Don't lock your elbows," I advised.
"You took that from Sirius's house," said Harry, who was almost nose to nose with Mundungus and was breathing in an unpleasant smell of old tobacco and spirits. "That had the Black family crest on it."
He unlocked his elbows, and Mundungus started turning blue.
"I — no — what —?" spluttered Mundungus, who was slowly turning purple.
"What did you do, go back the night he died and strip the place?" snarled Harry.
I stood next to Harry, glaring at the man. "Are you some kind of Grave Robber?"
There was a bang, and Harry's hands fly off Mundungus's throat. I jumped forward to grab him but was to late. Gasping and spluttering, Mundungus seized his fallen case, then — CRACK — he Disapparated.
Harry swore at the top of his voice, spinning on the spot to see where Mundungus had gone. "COME BACK, YOU THIEVING —!"
"There's no point, Harry." Tonks had appeared out of nowhere, her mousy hair wet with sleet. "Mundungus will probably be in London by now. There's no point yelling."
"He's nicked Sirius's stuff! Nicked it!"
"Yes, but still," said Tonks, who seemed perfectly untroubled by this piece of information. "You should get out of the cold."
She watched us go through the door of the Three Broom-sticks. The moment he was inside, Harry burst out, "He was nicking Sirius's stuff!"
"I know, Harry, but please don't shout, people are staring," whispered Hermione. "Go and sit down, I'll get you a drink."
"Harry," I reached out to touch his arm, "The Order can put up more wards around the house."
His face was still furious. "What about the things he already stole?"
"Harry, I'd be annoyed too," Hermione places the drinks on the table, "I know it's your things he's stealing —"
Harry gagged on his butterbeer. "Yeah, it's my stuff!No wonder he wasn't pleased to see me! Well, I'm going to tell Dumbledore what's going on, he's the only one who scares Mundungus."
"Good idea," said Hermione hastily. Harry seemed to be calming down. Ron and Hermione got in another squabble. According to Harry they seemed to argue much more than they used to. I rolled my eyes and Harry smirked a little.
"Well I'm done with my drink." I stood up, cutting Hermione off mid sentence.
"Me too," said Harry. Ron and Hermione stood up, just as Katie Bell and her friends left the store.
"Let's call it a day, eh?" said Ron once we were outside.
"It's nothing to do with you, Leanne!" exclaimed Katie.
We rounded a corner in the lane, sleet coming thick and fast. Leanne made to grab hold of the package Katie was holding; Katie tugged it back and the package fell to the ground.
At once, Katie rose into the air, ngracefully, her arms outstretched, as though she was about to fly. Yet there was something wrong, something eerie... Her hair was whipped around her by the fierce wind, but her eyes were closed and her face was quite empty of expression. Then, six feet above the ground, Katie let out a terrible scream. Her eyes flew open but whatever she could see, or whatever she was feeling, was clearly causing her terrible anguish. She screamed and screamed.
I rushed forward and grabbed her calf, as soon as I touched her, she collapsed on me. I managed to catch her, but she was writhing so much I could hardly hold her. I dropped to the ground, holding Katie on my lap, pinning her arms to her sides. She thrashed and screamed, but I held her as still as I could.
"Stay there!" Harry shouted over the howling wind. "I'm going for help!"
"Does it look like I'm going anywhere?" I yelled back.
Katie's leg kicked my side. "Hermione, hold her legs!"
Hermione held her legs together and I held the rest of her. The last thing we wanted was Katie to hurt herself.
"They're back!" cried Leanne.
"Get back!" shouted Hagrid. "Lemme see her!"
Hermione and I put her on the ground and stepped back.
"Something's happened to her!" sobbed Leanne. "I don't know what —"
Hagrid stared at Katie for a second, then without a word, bent down, scooped her into his arms, and ran off toward the castle with her. Within seconds, Katie's piercing screams had died away and the only sound was the roar of the wind.
Hermione hurried over to Katie's wailing friend and put an arm around her. "It's Leanne, isn't it?"
The girl nodded.
"Did it just happen all of a sudden, or —?"
"It was when that package tore," sobbed Leanne, pointing at the now sodden brown-paper package on the ground, which had split open to reveal a greenish glitter. Ron bent down, his hand out-stretched, but Harry seized his arm and pulled him back.
"It's probably cursed," I explained.
"I've seen that before," said Harry, staring at the thing. "It was on display in Borgin and Burkes ages ago. The label said it was cursed. Katie must have touched it." He looked up at Leanne, who had started to shake uncontrollably. "How did Katie get hold of this?"
"Well, that's why we were arguing. She came back from the bathroom in the Three Broomsticks holding it, said it was a surprise for somebody at Hogwarts and she had to deliver it. She looked all funny when she said it... Oh no, oh no, I bet she'd been Imperiused and I didn't realize!"
Leanne shook with renewed sobs. Hermione patted her shoulder gently. "She didn't say who'd given it to her, Leanne?"
"No... she wouldn't tell me... and I said she was being stupid and not to take it up to school, but she just wouldn't listen and... and then I tried to grab it from her... and — and —"
Leanne let out a wail of despair. I glanced around, surprised there wasn't a crowd.
"We'd better get up to school," said Hermione, her arm still around Leanne. "We'll be able to find out how she is. Come on..."
Harry hesitated for a moment, then pulled his scarf from around his face and, ignoring Ron's gasp, carefully covered the necklace in it and picked it up.
"We'll need to show this to Madam Pomfrey," he said.
After we were almost to the castle, Harry started talking. "Malfoy knows about this necklace. It was in a case at Borgin and Burkes four years ago, I saw him having a good look at it while I was hiding from him and his dad. This is what he was buying that day when we followed him! He remembered it and he went back for it!"
I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Harry, the necklace was found in the girls bathroom."
"She said she came back from the bathroom with it, she didn't necessarily get it in the bathroom itself —"
"McGonagall!" said Ron warningly.
I looked up and saw that Grandmother was hurrying down the stone steps through swirling sleet to meet us.
"Hagrid says you four saw what happened to Katie Bell — upstairs to my office at once, please! What's that you're holding, Potter?"
"It's the thing she touched," said Harry.
"Good lord," said Grandmother, looking alarmed as she took the necklace from Harry. "No, no, Filch, they're with me!" she added hastily, as Filch came shuffling eagerly across the entrance hall holding his Secrecy Sensor aloft. "Take this necklace to Professor Snape at once, but be sure not to touch it, keep it wrapped in the scarf!"
Well?" she said sharply. "What happened?"
We were standing in her office, and her eagle eyes were piercing into us. Leanne told her what happened. We could barely make out what she was saying behind all the sobs. When she got to the part where Katie was cursed, she was overcome and could not speak through the tears.
"right," said Grandmother, not unkindly, "go up to the hospital wing, please, Leanne, and get Madam Pomfrey to give you something for shock."
When she had left the room, Grandmother turned back to us. "What happened when Katie touched the necklace?"
"She rose up in the air," said Harry, before either anyone could speak, "and then began to scream, and collapsed. Professor, can I see Professor
Dumbledore, please?"
"The headmaster is away until Monday, Potter," said Grandmother looking surprised.
"Away?" Harry repeated angrily.
"Yes, Potter, away!" said Professor McGonagall tartly. "But anything you have to say about this horrible business can be said to me, I'm sure!"
"I think Draco Malfoy gave Katie that necklace, Professor."
"God damnit, Harry," I groaned.
"That is a very serious accusation, Potter," said Professor McGonagall, after a shocked pause. "Do you have any proof?"
"No," said Harry, "but..." and he told her about following Malfoy to Borgin and Burkes and the conversation they had over-heard between him and The Shop Owner.
Professor McGonagall looked slightly confused. "Malfoy took something to Borgin and Burkes for repair?"
"No, Professor, he just wanted Borgin to tell him how to mend something, he didn't have it with him. But that's not the point, the thing is that he bought something at the same time, and I think it was that necklace —"
"You saw Malfoy leaving the shop with a similar package?" "No, Professor, he told Borgin to keep it in the shop for him —"
"But Harry," Hermione interrupted, "Borgin asked him if he wanted to take it with him, and Malfoy said no —"
"Because he didn't want to touch it, obviously!" said Harry angrily.
"What he actually said was, 'How would I look carrying that down the street?'" said Hermione.
"Well, he would look a bit of a prat carrying a necklace," interjected Ron.
"Don't gender stereotype," I said off handedly.
"Oh, Ron," said Hermione despairingly, "it would be all wrapped up, so he wouldn't have to touch it, and quite easy to hide inside a cloak, so nobody would see it! I think whatever he reserved at Borgin and Burkes was noisy or bulky, something he knew would draw attention to him if he carried it down the street — and in any case," she pressed on loudly, before Harry could interrupt, "I asked Borgin about the necklace, don't you remember? When I went in to try and find out what Malfoy had asked him to keep, I saw it there. And Borgin just told me the price, he didn't say it was already sold or anything —"
"Well, you were being really obvious, he realized what you were up to within about five seconds, of course he wasn't going to tell you — anyway, Malfoy could've sent off for it since —"
Hold up a minute," I said. "All this stuff happened and you didn't tell me?"
"You said you didn't want to come," said Harry. He look annoyed.
"I didn't want to stalk my ex, but if you actually saw something important of course you should have told me!"
"That's enough!" said Grandmother , as Hermione opened her mouth to retort, looking furious. "Potter, I appreciate you telling me this, but we cannot point the finger of blame at Mr. Malfoy purely because he visited the shop where this necklace might have been purchased. The same is probably true of hundreds of people —"
"— that's what I said —" muttered Ron.
"— and in any case, we have put stringent security measures in place this year. I do not believe that necklace can possibly have entered this school without our knowledge —"
"But —"
"— and what is more," said Professor McGonagall, with an air of awful finality, "Mr. Malfoy was not in Hogsmeade today."
Harry gaped at her, deflating. "How do you know, Professor?"
"Because he was doing detention with me. He has now failed to complete his Transfiguration homework twice in a row. So, thank you for telling me your suspicions, Potter," she said as she marched past them, "but I need to go up to the hospital wing now to check on Katie Bell. Good day to you all."
She held open her office door. We had no choice but to file past her without another word.
"So who do you reckon Katie was supposed to give the necklace to?" asked Ron, as they climbed the stairs to the common room.
"Goodness only knows," said Hermione. "But whoever it was has had a narrow escape. No one could have opened that package without touching the necklace."
"It could've been meant for loads of people," said Harry. "Dumbledore — the Death Eaters would love to get rid of him, he must be one of their top targets. Or Slughorn — Dumbledore reckons Voldemort really wanted him and they can't be pleased that he's sided with Dumbledore. Or —"
"Or you," I pointed out.
"Couldn't have been," said Harry, "or Katie would've just turned around in the lane and given it to me, wouldn't she? I was behind her all the way out of the Three Broomsticks. It would have made much more sense to deliver the parcel outside Hogwarts, what with Filch searching everyone who goes in and out. I wonder why Malfoy told her to take it into the castle?"
"Harry, Malfoy wasn't in Hogsmeade!" said Hermione, who stomped her foot in frustration.
"And you don't know when she was told to give it to you. It would make much sense to just give it to you in a crowded place. It would alert someone to quickly and you would have gotten help, like Katie did." I added.
Hermione opened the portrait and we walked in.
"I wonder how Malfoy—"
I whirled around to look at Harry. "If I here you say Malfoy one more time I scream."
I whirled back around and went to my dorm.
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Hey Everyone, Happy New Year!
Forever and Always,
Me.