Foreshadowing the Past

Chapter 22

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." - Oliver Wendell Holmes

When Connor woke next, the sun had already set, and his parents were sitting at his bedside, holding hands and talking quietly. They hadn't noticed that he was awake yet, and he glanced around to see if anyone else was near by. On a table beside his bed were three enormous bunches of flowers in an assortment of containers, and looked as though they had been stolen from Professor Wexler's greenhouses; he hoped that the Herbology teacher never found out about it, as he was fiercely protective of all of the plants in his care. There were cards scattered over the surface of another table, along with several packets of sweets presumably sent by various friends and cousins. It took a moment to register that his parents were talking about him, and Connor quickly closed his eyes again and lay still, hoping to hear something interesting.

"I just don't know whether to feel sick or angry, or just plain pity the girl," he heard his mother saying. She must have seen his head move in her peripheral vision, because she leaned forward and straightened the blanket coving him before settling back into her chair. "To think that she's been listening to that awful portrait for over a year, letting it poison her and, and taint her."

"I never thought I'd feel sorry for Draco Malfoy," his father's low voice rumbled. "But he's got his work cut out for him, repairing the damage that Bellatrix has done to his daughter. I know there isn't any love lost between us, but it's obvious after meeting Quentin that the Malfoys are trying to raise their children with proper morals."

"Yes," his mother agreed. "Who would have thought it? Prison seems to have done him a world of good."

"I was stunned when he said he wanted Connor to decide what would happen to his daughter," his father said thoughtfully. "I think at first I was convinced that it was some sort of trick on his part; old school rivalry coming to the surface and all that."

"He did come and talk to Connor," his Mum pointed out. "Do you think that he was pleading his case?"

"Probably," his Dad answered, but not sounding overly concerned. "Connor made the right choice, though he may come to regret it later. That girl is something else."

"It's not entirely her fault," his Mum said gently. "Bellatrix was insane and evil; just being in contact with her portrait has to have done her some damage that will take some time to heal. I can only imagine what that old (Connor's Mum said a word that stunned him) told Vanessa to make her act out like this."

"Ginny," his Dad sounded amused to hear his wife swear that way. "Language."

"Well it's true, isn't it?" his Mum demanded hotly. "I'd like to go to Malfoy Manor myself and personally take that portrait and...."

She must have made some sort of gesture in the air, because his father chuckled and suggested, "Why don't you? You're certainly entitled, and after Connor let their daughter stay in school, they'd probably be glad to let you have at it."

"I wish we didn't have to go home tonight," his Mum said with a wistful sigh. "But I can't miss out on anymore school; it's not fair to make Susan take it on all on her own."

"And I have to finish the broom that Mr. Prescott ordered," his dad said, also sounding disappointed. "I was supposed to have it done yesterday."

Connor heard the scrape of a chair and a rustle of clothing, and wondered if his parents were preparing to leave right away. He opened his eyes and looked over, but his father had simply moved his chair closer to his mother's and had put his arm around her.

"Oh Connor!" his Mum said suddenly. "You're awake. How are you feeling?"

"Hungry," he answered at once. As if to punctuate this statement, his stomach gurgled loudly and had his father chuckling. "But other than that, still a bit sore, I guess. Nothing I'd need a potion for, though," he added quickly.

"We'll let Madam Cosgrove be the judge of that," his Mum said, standing and kissing the top of his head. "You look a lot better, though. I'll go see about getting you some dinner."

His Mum left, and his Dad scooted his chair forward toward the bed, the better to talk to him. "Your friends came by after classes, but didn't want to wake you. They've gotten permission to come and see you after dinner, which should be starting just about now."

"Good," Connor answered. "I want to find out how far behind I'm falling in my classes."

"Connor," his father laughed. "You've only been in here for one day."

"It feels like a week," Connor said, shifting into a sitting position, glad that he didn't ache as much as he had that morning.

"I know," his Dad smiled. "I remember it well. I spent more time than I care to remember in this room, and Madam Pomfrey wasn't nearly as nice about visitors as Madam Cosgrove is. The pyjamas itched then too," he added, watching his son scratch at his arm.

"When will I be able to go back to Gryffindor Tower?" Connor asked, trying to keep his voice from sounding babyish.

"Maybe by tomorrow night," his dad answered, taking off his glasses for a moment and cleaning the lenses on the sleeve of his robes. "You still have a bit of bruising in your ribs and your eyes are still a bit blue underneath; you got your clock cleaned pretty good, and it'll take a little while longer to get back up to speed. Madam Cosgrove will probably make you get up tonight and walk up and down the isle a bit to see how your strength is holding up."

Connor groaned when he remembered his shaky trip to the toilet that morning. He wasn't looking forward to having an audience for his next trip, but he supposed that there was nothing for it.

"You did the right thing," his father said suddenly.

"Which thing are you talking about?" Connor asked curiously. "Letting myself get bashed in the head with a marble bust of Godric Gryffindor, or letting Vanessa stay in school?"

"Well I was referring to letting Vanessa Malfoy stay," his father said with a raised eyebrow. "I really can't condone head bashing, you know."

"But did I do the right thing, anyway?" Connor asked. He really wanted his father's opinion about this, and needed to know that his parents were not disappointed in him.

His father sat for a minute, thinking it over, though Connor knew that he had probably already thought this through a million times since it had happened. "You did what I would have done," came the eventual answer. "And then Hermione would have come and scolded me, and told me that the logical thing to have done would be to have just stayed outside, pretending to have hurt myself somehow, until a teacher had come looking for me."

"Oh," Connor said sheepishly, his face flushing with embarrassment. Now that he thought about it, it would have been the more sensible route to take. Still, he took some measure of comfort in knowing that his father would have made the same decisions that he had, overlooking a more obvious choice. "I guess that makes more sense, huh?"

"Probably. I talked to Hermione this morning, and she kind of pointed it out," his father admitted. "But I'll tell you what I told her; Vanessa would have tried again, and it might have been even worse, next time."

"Yeah," Connor said. "And at least now she'll have a much harder time harassing me, if she still wants to try. She's going to have detention every day."

"That might hurt her even more than you think," his Dad said as his Mum came in floating a large tray on the tip of her wand. "This is Vanessa's O.W.L. year, and she's going to need every spare minute she has to study for them, and detention every day is going to cut into that."

"Don't you worry," his Mum said, setting down the tray, which held enough food for all of them to share a meal. "McGonagall will see that Vanessa is kept too busy to plot much."

They all sat together and ate their shepherd's pie, and talked about Gryffindor's chances for winning the Quidditch cup this year, and then when they were finished, Connor said his good-byes to his parents, who needed to get back to Headquarters, as they affectionately called their home. He promised to write to them very soon to let them know that he was okay, and how things were going, and then they were gone. Connor felt a little sad to see them leave, but was almost immediately pounced upon by Madam Cosgrove who, as his dad had predicted, set him the task of walking to the loo and then down the row of neatly made beds and back again until she was satisfied that he was sufficiently exercised.

By the time that Connor was helped back into bed, he was winded, but felt more energized than he had that morning. He was just looking through some of the cards that were propped up onto his table, when the door to the hospital wing burst open, and a large group rustled in. Zack, Quentin, Ivy, and Rachel led the way, followed by a whole horde of Weasleys, all them looking relieved to see him awake and sitting up.

Aiden, along with brothers Jarod (a first year), and Shawn (a fifth year) gathered up chairs from beside other beds as they walked toward Connor, and everyone found a place to sit. Sarah and Marcus, their Blue Ravenclaw ties and patches tucked in among the Gryffindor red and gold, smiled at him, and Victoria and Rachel seemed to be having some sort of small but fierce argument as they came around to the side of the bed to settle down beside Quentin.

"Wow!" Connor was delighted to have so many visitors. "I'm surprised you were all allowed to come!"

"Well, Professor Lupin kind of smoothed things over a bit, and having the Head Girl to keep us all in line worked out in our favor," Aiden answered, pointing over at the Head Girl badge on the front of Sarah's robes.

"The whole Gryffindor Quidditch team wanted to come as well, but McG put her foot down," Aiden said.

"If she ever hears you calling her 'McG'," Ivy said with a giggle, "you'll be in the hospital wing next."

Aiden shrugged as if he wasn't too worried about the possibility. "Mariah said to tell you that we start practicing again day after tomorrow, and that you'd better be ready to play by then."

"She did not!" said Sarah, looking horrified. "Look at him! He's still all beat up! There's no way Madam Cosgrove will be letting him jump on a broom on Friday."

"This is nothing!" Aiden said confidently. "He looked way worse this morning when I poked my head in at break - you were asleep, mate - he'll be fine by the time we have to go to practice!"

"Ridiculous," Sarah muttered. "I love Quidditch as much as the next witch, but it's freezing outside, and Connor's just recovering from a very serious injury!"

"I'll be all right, Sarah," Connor said cheerfully. The thought of Quidditch cheered him enormously, even if it was freezing outside. "Madam Cosgrove is going to keep me here all day tomorrow, but I should be able to sleep in my own bed tomorrow night."

Everyone chattered excitedly about the match with Hufflepuff, (who had won the Quidditch Cup last year) which was coming up in two month's time. After a half an hour had passed, Sarah and Marcus excused themselves to go back to their common room to study, and Aiden, Shawn and Jarod decided to leave as well. Rachel and Victoria seemed to have settled whatever argument they'd been having, and Victoria hurried to catch up with Aiden to discuss a Charms essay they were supposed to be working on. Soon Connor was alone with Zack, Ivy, Rachel and Quentin, and settled down to hear what they had to say.

"Wow, Connor!" Ivy began. "What made you decide to let Vanessa stay?"

"Lots of things, I guess," he shrugged. "Quentin's dad came to talk to me, and that helped me sort it out a bit."

Quentin looked slightly surprised by this, but said nothing.

"Anyway," Zack said, noting that Quentin was still looking a little pale, and had done all day long. "If she doesn't already feel bad about what happened, she will soon enough. I overheard Professor Lupin today saying that he would be supervising her first week of detentions. Didn't he make you and Quint clean out all of the cages and tanks in the DADA room when you had detention with him?"

"Yeah," Connor said, giving a little shudder at the thought of all of the slime. "Yuck."

"Look guys," Quentin said suddenly. "I need to go. My parents are going to be leaving soon, and I wanted to see them before they left."

"Okay," Connor said, studying his friend and not missing the nervous look he'd been wearing. "But listen, I sort of told your dad about the portrait while we were talking; he said he was going to go home and destroy it. I hope that I didn't get you into trouble. I only told him because he was wondering why Vanessa was being so nasty, and I tried to make it sound like you had just stumbled upon it... I didn't go into details or anything."

Quentin swallowed and nodded, then said he would come back tomorrow before hurrying out.

"Has he been like that all day?" Connor asked his other friends as the door swung shut behind the retreating boy.

"Pretty much," Zack nodded. "He seems, I don't know, like he feels guilty."

Ivy nodded in agreement and looked a bit sad, "He won't make eye contact with anyone, and didn't even come to lunch today."

"Do you think it's because he feels guilty or because he's embarrassed?" Rachel asked shrewdly. "I mean, to have your sister do something that mean, people are probably going to say something to you."

"Have you heard anything?" Connor asked, shocked. Everyone knew that Quentin and his sister were complete opposites, didn't they?

"I haven't heard anything," Rachel said. "But then they're not likely to do it when his friends are standing around, are they?"

They talked about what Connor had missed in class that day, and Zack pulled out Connor's transfiguration book and some quills and parchment. "Professor Thompson wanted me to bring you your book so that you could answer the questions at the end of the section about Switching Spells. You and Quentin were apparently the only ones to get an "O" on the paper we handed in just before the holiday, so you don't have to do the essay the rest of us were set."

"Cool," Connor said, actually glad to have something to do to pass the time tomorrow while his friends attended class. He only smiled when Zack pulled out yet another book, and noticed that it was Potions.

"Because Potter failed to show up for class," Zack imitated Snape comically. "He can write a three foot essay on the properties of the Mandrake root as used in a Restorative Draught. To be handed in when this class meets again on Friday!"

"Okay," Connor said. He actually enjoyed potions, anyway, so this assignment shouldn't pose much of a problem. "It's not like I've got anything else to do in here."

"Unless it's your History of Magic work," Zack grinned, pulling out yet another book.

Connor groaned. "Tell me it's not bad."

"It's not bad," Ivy assured him. "Just a summary of the Five Day Goblin war of 1237."

"Anything else?" Connor asked.

"Not really," Zack said. "Flitwick just wants us to practice Reparo Charms, but you've been able to do that one for ages, so I wouldn't worry about those."

"Good, the History of Magic reading will probably put me to sleep, so I'll save that one for later tonight." He set all of the books on the table that Madam Cosgrove usually put his food tray on. "So, have you guys made any progress with the articles Rachel brought from home? Did you use the map yet?"

"Ivy and I have been enlarging the articles and putting them into chronological order, but we haven't used the map yet. We wanted to wait for you." Rachel said.

"Thanks," Connor grinned. He had really been looking forward to trying it out and was glad that they had waited. "Maybe we can take a look at it when they let me out of here tomorrow."

After a few more minutes, Zack and Ivy said they needed to go and get started on their own homework, but Rachel told them to go on ahead, and stayed seated as they said goodbye to Connor.

"What's up, Cousin?" Connor asked when the other two had gone.

"I just wanted to have a chance to talk to you alone," she said. "We haven't talked, just the two of us, in ages. I've been worried about you today."

"I'm all right," Connor said, though he was pleased. Rachel had always been his closest cousin and confidant, and they had spent their childhoods together, getting their pre-Hogwarts schooling and playing together while their fathers worked on their broomstick designs.

"So what did you and Mr. Malfoy talk about?" she asked.

Connor told her about their conversation, and then told her, "When I told McGonagall that I wanted Vanessa to stay, she said it's what my father would have done."

"It isn't," Rachel said. "He wanted her kicked out."

Connor's eyes widened. "How do you know that?"

"Well when you were getting ready to take that potion last night, the one that was going to make you sleep, Professor Lupin herded us all out, and told us to go back to the Great Hall for what was left of dinner. We got to the corridor that leads down, and I heard your Mum and Dad talking as they were hurrying with McGonagall toward the hospital wing." Rachel said. "Professor Lupin had left us at the staircase, so I snuck back to hear what McGonagall had to say to your Mum and Dad."

"What happened?" Connor demanded. "I fell asleep almost as soon as they got there."

"Well you were still awake and you were talking to everyone, and then Madam Cosgrove gave you that stuff, and you fell asleep right away. As soon as your eyes closed, Uncle Harry turned to McGonagall and said, 'Who did this to my son?' and I thought he was going to explode. I expected him to start yelling, he looked so mad, but he never did. I had to get out my extendable ear and slide it under the door so I could hear what they were saying."

"Do you always carry an extendable ear in your pocket?" Connor asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Usually," she answered unconcernedly. She continued with her account of what had happened after the potion had made him go to sleep, and remembered it herself with a little shiver.

"Who did this to my son?" her Uncle Harry had asked. His voice had been quiet and angry, and Rachel had shivered to hear the barely controlled fury behind it. "Was it really Peeves, or was he telling the truth about Vanessa Malfoy?"

"I appears as if he was telling the truth, and that Miss Malfoy did indeed enlist the help of Peeves to execute what she called a 'prank' in which no one was supposed to have been hurt," Professor McGonagall had answered. "It seems very possible at this point that it will be necessary to expel Miss Malfoy from Hogwarts."

"Why hasn't she already been expelled?" Aunt Ginny had asked, her face very white in contrast to Uncle Harry's very red one.

"I am still investigating the matter. Peeves seems to realize that he was in very real trouble and is, for once, cooperating. Miss Malfoy is currently in my office with her head of house, awaiting the arrival of her parents, and I will be rejoining them shortly to really get to the bottom of this. You are, of course, free to come and hear what she has to say for herself. It is probable that she will not be staying in this castle beyond the next twenty four hours, and there will be Ministry officials to contact to confiscate or destroy her wand."

Uncle Harry had flinched at this, but then had looked at Connor lying in the bed in front of him, as Madam Cosgrove applied a thick layer of some sort of paste to the side of his son's head, and his resolve had hardened. "I want to hear what she has to say."

"Of course," Professor McGonagall had agreed. "But I must warn you that you will not be permitted to disrupt the meeting, or threaten any member of the Malfoy family in any way. You may come and observe and ask questions if questions are appropriate, but you must control your temper."

Rachel would have laughed at the way Professor McGonagall was treating her Aunt and Uncle as though they were still students, if the matter hadn't been so horrible. Connor really looked hurt, and watching him take that disgusting smoking potion had been awful. She hoped that the Ministry would show up soon and snap Vanessa's wand in half right in front of her pointy little smug face and chuck her out into the Muggle world.

"The Malfoys should be arriving at any moment. Why don't the two of you go along to my office while I go down to meet them? We will join you shortly." It wasn't a request, and Rachel realized that she needed to get out of there or she would be discovered. Luckily the sound of many feet traveling from the Great Hall began to fill the corridors, and Rachel yanked back the extendable ear and stuffed it in her pocket before scurrying off to join the crowd of students heading to their common rooms to get ready for the day of classes ahead of them.

"But," Connor said when Rachel finished telling him everything she had seen and heard. "My dad told me that I did the right thing when I said she could stay at Hogwarts."

Rachel shrugged. "He must have calmed down quite a bit, then. Maybe once he heard what Vanessa and the Malfoys had to say, he changed his mind, but last night he looked and sounded perfectly capable of destroying her wand himself."

"I guess." Connor didn't mention the fact that Rachel's mother had instantly thought of a way that all of this could have been avoided, and said good-bye to his favorite cousin, promising to work on his homework.