CHAPTER NINETEEN
❛Are you stupid, 'Mione?❜
Once their yearly exams had finished, Hope Lupin-Black couldn't help but feel relieved, never thinking she'd pass any of them. Ever since resolving their issues in detention, Draco Malfoy wouldn't dare let his friends be mean to the Lupin-Black girl. Though it was one afternoon nearing summer that Hermione Granger and Hope couldn't come to an agreement.
"Those were far easier than I thought they would be," Hermione commented as the four friends sat down on the sunny grounds of Hogwarts. "There were so many things I didn't even need to study, like werewolves for one."
Harry Potter glanced at Hope before muttering. "Don't get her started on the werewolves."
Hermione furrowed her brows, looking over to her friend. "Have you been studying up on them, too? The Ministry thinks they're very dangerous—"
"I'm just gonna stop you now," Hope stated calmly. "I don't want to hear about what you read. I don't want to hear about werewolves or talk about them with you. But I will tell you the Ministry is wrong."
"I don't know, there has to be a reason why they're thought of as dangerous beasts," Hermione shrugged her shoulders. "You have to see what I'm saying, don't you?"
"And now you've got her started—"
Hope's face began to get red with anger as she explained. "I don't see what you're saying, actually. They're misunderstood, and it isn't their fault they're that way. Maybe if you spent less time reading stupid books and used your brain, you could see that."
"Excuse me?"
"I believe you heard what I said," snapped Hope, rolling her eyes. "Are you stupid, 'Mione?"
Ron tried to place his hand on Hope's shoulder. "Hope, just calm down—"
"Do not tell me to calm down."
As Cedric Diggory walked past the Gryffindor table, he couldn't help but notice his best friend growing furious with the Granger girl. He quickly rushed over, standing behind Hope as she continued to go off on Hermione.
"Hope," Cedric called out as he reached her. "What are you doing? I could hear you from Africa probably."
"I'm sorry but I had to tell Hermione what's what, Ced," Hope Lupin-Black explained with a glare. "She was saying stuff about werewolves—"
The Diggory boy glanced over at Hermione, who was now silent. "I, well, that doesn't mean you need to yell at people. Let her act stupid on her own, you don't have to call her out like that."
"Have you met her?" Ron scoffed, taking a drink of his pumpkin juice. "I don't think she knows what leaving it alone means."
He let out a sigh, looking at his best friend. "Let's go, Hope, come on."
"Nope, not until Hermione admits that she is wrong. Would you stop being stupid? Open your mind to the world around you. Oh wait, you can't do that. You're too busy following the book." Hope raged, attempting to get out of Cedric's grip to lunge forward.
"You know for a fact I'm not letting you hit her."
Hope rolled her eyes as she shrugged. "Doesn't mean I can't try."
As Oliver Wood walked by the five students standing there, he noticed Hope Lupin-Black having to be held back by the Diggory boy. Oliver approached, chuckling at the two Quidditch players. "Having fun, are we?"
"Loads of it."
"You guys really need to stop angering my Chaser," laughed Oliver before turning around to face Hope. "Wanna go practice?"
Cedric held his hand to his heart as he said. "You are like my hero right now, did you know that?"
"How could I ever say no to Quidditch?"
Hope Lupin-Black sat down at Hagrid's Hut sipping tea after Quidditch practice, hoping for things to get better. Hermione's opinions from her research made Hope want to punch her, but deep down knew she had a right to her opinions.
"Hagrid, you don't understand, she called them beasts!" the youngest Lupin exclaimed. "She was just being stupid."
"I know, Hope," Hagrid sighed, trying to calm the first-year down. "But she didn't mean it."
The Lupin-Black girl crossed her arms against her chest. "But she should know that the beasts and beings' labels are stupid. It doesn't make them beasts, and I'd never say that Papa or Alfie is a beast."
Hagrid looked down at the young girl with sympathy lacing his features. "I know, I know. Remus was a smart boy, always carin' about his friends. And Alfie's teh same."
"Do you think I'm like them?"
"In some ways, I think yeh care about yer friends like Remus," explained Hagrid, hesitant to continue. "Yer more like James and Sirius were though, it's like the two of them were combined into one."
Hope looked up with a smile. "You think I'm like my Uncle James?"
"I'd say you're the best of all of them."
In the distance, Hagrid and Hope could hear Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger come running down the hill that led to the hut where the two sat outside on the front steps.
"Hello," he greeted the three with a kind smile. "Got time fer a drink?"
"Yes, please," Ron answered as Hope handed him a glass of tea.
Harry shook his head, giving Ron a stern look before turning to Hagrid. "No, we're in a hurry. Hagrid, I've got to ask you something. You know the night you won Norbert? What did the stranger you were playing cards with look like?"
"Dunno," Hagrid said with a shrug, not seeming to care. "He wouldn' take his cloak off."
Hope furrowed her brows, almost not believing that their friend could be that oblivious. "Hagrid, don't you think that's unusual?"
"It's not that unusual, yeh get a lot of funny folk in the Hog's Head," he tried to convince the four first-years. "That's the pub down in the village. Might of bin a dragon dealer? But I wouldn' know, I never saw his face 'cause he kept his hood up."
Harry exchanged a worried glance with Hope, asking more. "What did you talk to him about, Hagrid? Did you mention Hogwarts at all?"
"Might have come up," Hagrid confessed, frowning as he tried to remember. "Yeh, he asked what I did an' I told him I was a gamekeeper here. He asked a bit about the sorta creatures I took after, so I told him an' I said what I'd always really wanted was a dragon."
"You told him you wanted a dragon, and he just happened to have one?"
The gamekeeper shrugged his shoulders again. "I can' remember too well, cause he kept buyin' me drinks. Let's see, yeah, then he said he had the dragon egg an' we could play cards fer it if I wanted. But he had ter be sure I could handle it, he didn' want it ter go ter any old home. So I told him, after Fluffy, a dragon would be easy—"
The Potter boy quickly cut him off. "And did he, did he seem interested in Fluffy?"
"Well yeah, how many three-headed dogs do yeh meet, even around Hogwarts?" he questioned in reply. "So I told him Fluffy's a piece of cake if yeh know how to calm him down. Jus' play him a bit of music an' he'll go straight ter sleep—"
"You told him that?"
Hagrid's face quickly shifted to a mortified expression. "I shouldn'ta told yeh that! Forget I said it! Wait, where yeh goin'?"
Not one of the four first-years spoke to one another as they ran back to Hogwarts, once they reached the Entrance Hall they came to a stop. They stood in the gloomy hall with gold decorations, all startled by what Hagrid had confessed to them.
"We've got to go to Dumbledore," Harry insisted immediately. "Hagrid told that stranger how to get past Fluffy, and it was either Snape or Voldemort under that cloak. It must've been easy once he'd got Hagrid drunk. I just hope Dumbledore believes us. Firenze might back us up if Bane doesn't stop him— Hey, where's Dumbledore's Office?"
"Wait a minute," said Hope, stopping in her tracks. "How do we know if it was one or the other? We don't know who's all involved, it doesn't have to be one of them."
Ron rolled his eyes as he asked. "Why would it be anyone else?"
"Even the ones you think are loyal aren't always," she shrugged her shoulders. "I'm just saying, what if we're wrong here? If we're wrong then we're trying to get an innocent guy sent to Azkaban."
"You out of everyone hates Snape." the Weasley boy tried to argue back.
"What are you four doing inside?" the voice of Professor McGonagall came from behind them. The Transfiguration professor carried a large pile of books as she walked. "Everyone's out in the courtyard, so should you."
Everyone went silent, unsure of how to start but Hermione spoke up first. "We need to see Professor Dumbledore."
"See Professor Dumbledore?" McGonagall repeated to herself, growing suspicious. "Why?"
The four looked at each other before Harry answered. "It's sort of a secret."
"Professor Dumbledore left ten minutes ago," she told them coldly. "He received an urgent owl from the Ministry of Magic and flew off for London at once."
"He's gone?" asked Ron, his voice getting frantic. "Now?"
Professor McGonagall narrowed her eyes as she explained. "Professor Dumbledore is a very great wizard, Mister Weasley, he has many demands on his time—"
"But this is important."
"Something you have to say is more important than the Ministry of Magic, Lupin?" she questioned.
Hermione Granger let out a sigh, deciding that there was no other choice but to seek help. "Look, Professor, it's about the Philosopher's Stone—"
Her words made the Transfiguration Professor drop all of the books from her hands, but luckily Hope was quick to catch them with a wandless spell that nobody noticed. She hadn't meant to, only wishing to catch them, but it made her curiosity about what she could do grow.
"How do you know about that?" McGonagall managed to splutter out.
"Professor, I think, well I know that Sn—" Harry stopped himself as Hope glared at him. "That someone's going to try and steal the stone. We've got to talk to Professor Dumbledore."
She eyed the four first-years with a mixture of shock and suspicion. "Professor Dumbledore will be back tomorrow. I don't know how you found out about the stone, but rest assured, no one can possibly steal it. It's too well protected."
"But, Professor—"
"Potter, I know what I'm talking about," the Head of Gryffindor house replied shortly. "Thank you for catching my books, Miss Lupin, but I suggest you all go back outside and enjoy the sunshine."
Once McGonagall walked away and was out of earshot, Hope smacked the back of Harry and Ron's heads with a frown. Groaning loudly as she said. "You just had to."
"Ow, that hurt."
"You just had to talk to her, didn't you?" she complained, then turned to the Granger girl. "And you, you just had to tell her that we knew about the stone? Way to go, Granger."
Harry let out a sigh as he tried to say. "But what can we—"
Before he had a chance to continue on, Hermione let out a gasp at the presence of someone behind them. Professor Snape stood behind the four Gryffindors with a displeased look on his face, shaking his head at the first years.
"Good afternoon," he said smoothly, continuing to stare at them. His smile twisted as he sneered. "You shouldn't be inside on a day like this."
"We were actually on our way out, don't you worry," Hope told him with her familiar smirk, trying to drag her friends on.
"You might want to be more careful," Snape spoke lowly. "Hanging around like this, and people will think you're up to something. And I don't think Gryffindor can really afford to lose any more points, can it?"
Hope Lupin-Black glared her eyes as they turned to go outside. But before they made it out the door, Snape called out.
"Be warned, Black. Any more nighttime wanderings and I will personally make sure you are expelled. And that everyone knows who you really are."
As the four Gryffindor first-years sat in the common room of Gryffindor Tower, they couldn't help but think about what they had heard from Hagrid, what McGonagall said about Dumbledore, and how Snape acted. Harry Potter paced the room in worry as he continued to think.
Hope Lupin-Black looked up from her sketch of a dragon, sighing as she commented. "You're creating a draft, you know—"
"I'm getting out of here tonight," Harry blurted out. "I'm going to try and get to the Stone first."
Ron's eyes went wide as he exclaimed. "You're mad!"
"You can't," yelled Hermione, shaking her head insistently. "After what McGonagall and Snape have said? You'll be expelled for sure!"
"I suppose I could get dressed first—"
"So what?" Harry shouted back. "Don't you understand? If Snape gets hold of the stone, Voldemort's coming back! Haven't you heard what it was like when he was trying to take over? There won't be any Hogwarts to get expelled from. He'll flatten it or turn it into a school for the Dark Arts. Losing points doesn't matter anymore, can't you see? Do you think he'll leave you and your families alone if Gryffindor wins the house cup? If I get caught before I can get to the stone, well I'll have to go back to the Dursleys and wait for Voldemort to find me there. It's only dying a bit later than I would have because I'm never going over to the dark side. I'm going through that trapdoor tonight and nothing any of you say is going to stop me. Voldemort killed my parents, remember?"
The Lupin-Black girl nodded along, forcing a smile as she said. "Harry, we've got your back. Many people lost family to Voldemort and his followers. Getting the stone is serious."
"I agree with Hope," Hermione spoke in a small voice. "We could help you."
"No, I'll just use the invisibility cloak," Harry tried to explain. "It's just lucky I got it back."
"But will it cover all four of us?" asked Ron.
Harry furrowed his eyebrows at his best friend's words. "All, all four of us?"
"Oh, come off it," the Weasley boy scoffed, rolling his eyes. "You didn't think we'd let you go alone, did you?"
Hope let out a loud laugh, shaking her head. "Of course not, I literally just told you we have your back. You're not getting that stone all by yourself, Potter."
Hermione Granger got up from her seat, walking towards the stairs that led up to the girls' dormitory. "I'd better go and look through my books, there might be something useful in there that could help."
"But if we get caught," Harry tried to add. "You three will be expelled too."
"Like that even matters."
rewritten as of 02/01/2023
hey guys! I've been going on a writing spree tonight and loving every minute of it. seeing hope and cedric's bond in earlier chapters warms my heart. their friendship is gold to me, he makes her a better person and the passion they share. ugh, it makes me sad.
have a wonderful day and thank you for reading!