Bones to Bones

Bones to Bones

Chapter 5: Corporeal Patronus

After the memorial service life settled into a comfortable, if hectic routine in the Hufflepuff common room. Susan found her time divided between keeping up with ever increasing mounds of homework, avoiding Zacharias if at all possible, and helping Rose. Her letters to Aunt Amelia were not very exciting, as there just didn't seem to be much to say about Harry. In fact, Harry had been pretty much pushed to the back of Susan's mind by the day to day demands of being a Hogwarts student.

The Friday before the first Hogsmeade weekend of the year though, all of that was brought back into focus. Susan had just gotten out of a Muggle Studies lesson about something called "computers," and how they were run with special pieces of paper with holes punched in them, when she was intercepted in the hallway by Professor Umbridge.

"Susan dear! How good to see you!" Professor Umbridge's saccharine whisper sent a cold shiver up and down Susan's spine.

"Hello Professor Umbridge," Susan replied, in what she hoped was a neutral voice.

"Susan, I was just wondering if you remembered what we had talked about?"

"Yes ma'am." Of course she remembered. Being asked to spy on other students wasn't exactly the sort of thing you forgot, no matter how badly you wanted to.

"Well, have you come across anyone spreading nasty rumors that You Know Who is back?"

Susan guessed she could answer this one truthfully. She actually hadn't heard anyone saying he was back. Just some whispers wondering if it were possible. Still, Susan figured she should be careful. "Well Professor, I can't say that I've heard anything. Really though, with all the homework I've had, I haven't had much chance to talk to many people, not that I ever do to be honest."

"Oh, that's fine, that's fine Susan," Professor Umbridge said with a grin spreading slowly across her paunchy face. "No reason to apologize for not hearing anything. I'm glad you haven't. Just remember that you can talk to me any time dear."

Susan took a deep breath as she watched Umbridge walk down the hallway towards her office. She'd just barely gotten control of her nerves again when she saw Justin heading towards her.

"What did that old bat want?" Justin asked.

"The usual. You know, she seems to think that I'm going to start turning in other students."

"Ok, I take back old bat. She's definitely an old hag. I don't want to insult old bats like that," Justin said grimly. "Look out for her, she doesn't have your best interests in mind."

"I've noticed, but thanks for the concern."

Susan and Justin walked back to the common room, sharing their views on the inadequacies of Umbridge, and were in a heated debate as to whether she was a worse teacher or human being. When they walked into the common room, they found Ernie and Hannah waiting for them.

"Hey you two," Hannah began. "We just talked with Granger, and she has a pretty cool idea."

Ernie jumped in, saying, "Yeah. She wants us to get together tomorrow at the Hog's Head in Hogsmeade. She thinks we should all work with Potter on our Defense. You know, an opportunity for some practical spellwork. She thinks it will be a good chance for us to not only prepare for our O.W.L.s, but also to brush up on defending ourselves in the outside world."

Susan jumped slightly when she heard Zacharias' slightly nasal voice behind her. "So, are you going Susan?"

"Yeah, I think I am," she responded, hoping her nervousness wasn't evident in her voice.

"Ok, then I'll see you there. I have to get to practice now though."

"I thought he said he didn't want to go listen to Potter?" Ernie asked in a puzzled voice.

"Potter isn't why he's going," Hannah said, exasperated. "You know Susan, you should have said you weren't going. That way, when we all go tomorrow, he wouldn't have wanted to tag along."

"Yeah, well, I haven't figured out a good way to tell him to get lost, and have it stick yet."

"Well, there is always my idea of you and Justin..." Hannah said with a wry smile.

"Not that again!" Susan and Justin said in unison.

"Anyway, back to business. You think it's worth going Susan?" asked Ernie.

"Yeah I do. I wouldn't mind getting a bit of practical spellwork in. It's pretty obvious if we don't do something, our O.W.L scores will be uglier than the score of the last Chudley against Puddlemere United game. Also, I think Hermione may have a point about brushing up on our defense."

"My thoughts exactly!" agreed Ernie.

Justin looked at Susan a moment and said, "So, you think that he's really back?"

"I don't know. Neither does Auntie Em. Still, I don't think we can deny that there is something going on out there. Just look at all the stuff that has happened here in the last four years," Susan said, keeping a close eye on Justin's expression as she spoke. She noted with relief that Justin's expression didn't seem to change with the veiled reference to the year the Chamber of Secrets was opened.

"I, for one, would also like to hear anything that Potter has to say!" added Ernie. "So, it's agreed, we'll drop in on this little meeting tomorrow."

The next morning, Susan and Justin were two of the first students to make breakfast, as they hoped to get a bit of work done before the time came to go into the village. When the morning Owl Post came in, they were surprised to see one of the school owls land in front of Justin, holding out its leg importantly. Justin took the letter from the owl and tore it open. Suddenly, Justin crumpled up the paper in his hand and slammed his fist on the table.

"Justin, what is it?" Susan asked in alarm.

"I got a letter from Emily!" Seeing the confusion in Susan's expression, he explained, "She knows that if she sends a letter to my parents, they'll send it along when they write me."

"I still don't understand. Why is that bad?"

Wordlessly, Justin tossed the wadded up letter to Susan. She took the thin Muggle paper, and smoothed it out, and began to read. At first, the letter seemed fairly ordinary, certainly nothing that could provoke Justin's reaction. However, Susan stiffened when she read the bottom of the page.

Justin, I don't know why you won't tell me what you are doing. I know you are hiding things from me. Don't you trust me anymore? What could there be that would make you keep secrets from me? You aren't some kind of international James Bond after all. You are a student. If you can't tell me the truth, then maybe there is no reason for us to be in contact at all.

Emily

Unsure what else to do, Susan reached across the table, and put her hand on the back of Justin's and gave it a gentle squeeze. She knew that Justin and Emily had been close as long as he could remember. It was hard for the Muggleborns, having to abandon a world they knew, and the friends they had to move into the magical world. Justin's troubles with Emily showed just how hard it was for them to keep their old friendships. "Strangers in a Strange Land" indeed.

"It's ok Susan. I've known this was coming for awhile. I'll try to talk to her at Christmas, though I doubt it will help, since I still won't be able to say anything." After that, the meal passed in silence.

When they finished, they got up and started towards the door, but suddenly a small brunette form zoomed up and grabbed Susan in a tight hug. "Susan! Susan! Look what I got from my parents! I sent them a letter telling them how well I've done on my assignments so far! Thank you! Thank you!" Rose said, thrusting a letter into Susan's hands.

Rose,

We can't tell you how proud we are of how well you are doing in school. We are so glad to see our smart little girl making good. We're sorry if we weren't as supportive as we should have been when you first got there. We were wrong, and you've proved it.

The rest of the letter was filled with stories of home, so Susan handed it back to Rose with a smile. "See Rose, I told you that you could do it."

"I know Susan, and I owe it all to you!" She hugged Susan again, and then zoomed off to join her friends at the table.

Looking up, Susan saw Justin smiling at her. "You know, you've done quite a job with that one. Hard to believe it's the same little girl who was bawling her eyes out in the common room a month ago."

"Yeah, but it makes you feel good, you know? Well, lets go get some work done before it's time to go."

By the time they were ready to head into Hogsmeade, Justin seemed to be in a better mood. The four of them spent the morning just wandering around town, looking around in the shops. Susan liked Honeydukes, and of course she loved the bookstore. Zonko's though, was another matter entirely. She just didn't see the humor in most of their merchandise. After awhile, the time came for them to head to the meeting.

"Where are we supposed to be going again?" asked Justin, as Ernie led them into an unfamiliar part of the village.

"The Hog's Head. It is a somewhat dodgy place on the end of town," Ernie answered. "Not quite sure why she wanted to meet there, but that's where they are."

When they got there, they were surprised to see that quite a crowd was entering. Susan didn't recognize most of the people there. The various Weasleys were hard to miss, and then there was that fourth year who was always carrying a camera everywhere and his brother. Of course she recognized Cho, but she didn't recognize the girl with her. After a few moments of bustle, where one of the Weasley twins ordered butterbeer for everyone, Hermione Granger got up and began to speak.

"Er, well, er... hi." Not a terribly promising start to Susan's mind, but Hermione then continued, "Well..erm..well, you know why you're here. Erm... well, Harry here had this idea, I mean, I had the idea, that it might be good if people who wanted to study Defense Against the Dark Arts, and I mean, really study it, you know, not the rubbish that Umbridge is doing with us, because nobody could call that Defense Against the Dark Arts."

Susan was tempted to laugh at the usually composed Hermione Granger spouting forth an incoherent sentence like that, but she thought better of it when she wondered what would happen if she were the poor soul up there trying to talk. She started to pay attention again when a Ravenclaw in her class asked "You want to pass your Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L, too though, I bet?"

Hermione didn't hesitate when she answered "Of course I do. But I want more than that, I want to be properly trained in Defense because... because... Because Lord Voldemort is back."

Susan felt the blood rush out of her face. Half the people in the room seemed as stunned as she was, and the other half jumped, cried out or otherwise reacted in shock. There it was. The wheels in Susan's head turned quickly. Hermione knew Harry better than about anyone, and she was also well known for being smart, and a real no nonsense sort. She also believed Harry. That said a lot to Susan, that if Hermione was willing to come out and say that You Know Who was back, than she thought there was pretty good reason to do so.

"Where's the proof You Know Who's back?" Susan groaned as soon as she heard Zacharias' voice challenging Hermione.

"Well, Dumbledore believes it," Hermione responded.

"You mean, Dumbledore believes him," Zacharias could be truly offensive when he wanted to be, Susan thought when she heard that.

Ron Weasley responded to Zacharias' rudeness in kind, and for a moment Susan thought the whole meeting was going to break down then and there. Finally though, Harry spoke, and as soon as he opened his mouth, it took the steam out of the building argument.

Susan listened closely as Harry spoke. "What makes me say You Know Who's back? I saw him. But Dumbledore told the whole school what happened last year, and if you didn't believe him, you don't believe me, and I'm not wasting an afternoon trying to convince anyone."

Zacharias kept pushing, trying to get Harry to tell them just how Cedric had died, and that seemed to be one question that Harry was not about to answer. Susan was less listening to Harry's words at this point, and more watching him, and the expression on his face. Either Harry Potter was the best actor that she had ever seen, or he really didn't want to talk about it, and he believed every word he said.

Hermione got up again, and started to talk about organization and meeting times and all that. Looking around the room though, Susan could see some doubt on a fair number of faces, and impulsively, she decided to give the meeting a little nudge.

"Is it true, that you can produce a Patronus?"

Harry was a bit defensive when he answered "Yeah."

"A corporeal Patronus?" Susan pressed.

Harry seemed rather surprised by that, and finally answered "Er, you don't know Madam Bones, do you?"

Susan smiled. Aunt Amelia had a way of making an impression. "She's my auntie. I'm Susan Bones. She told me about your hearing. So- is it really true? You make a stag Patronus?"

"Yes," said Harry.

The Gryffindor who usually did the Quidditch commentary perked up hearing that and said "Blimey Harry! I never knew that."

The whole room seemed to erupt at that, and Susan couldn't catch everything that was said. However, the whole room heard when one of the Ravenclaw prefects asked "And did you kill a basilisk with that sword in Dumbledore's office? That's what one of the portraits on the wall told me when I was in there last year."

"Er- yeah, I did, yeah," said Harry.

Susan heard Justin whistle, but she also felt him tense up. She reached over and squeezed his forearm, noticing that Hannah had done the same on his other side. Justin didn't react any further to that revelation, but she knew him well enough to tell that it had bothered him. It wasn't fair that Justin had to deal with something like that. Then again, Susan hadn't ever really thought life was fair. If it was fair, her father would be healthy, and she wouldn't be the last Bones.

When she started paying attention to what was going on around her, Harry was talking again. "Look, I... I don't want to sound like I'm trying to be modest or anything, but... I had a lot of help with all that stuff..."

A Ravenclaw piped up "Not with that Dragon, you didn't. That was a seriously cool bit of flying."

"Yeah- well," said Harry.

Without even thinking about it, Susan jumped into the conversation again "And nobody helped you get rid of those dementors this summer."

"No," said Harry, "no, okay, I know I did bits of it without help, but the point I'm trying to make is-"

"Are you trying to weasel out of showing us any of this stuff?" said Zacharias. Susan had to give Zacharias credit. She didn't know anyone, with the possible exception of Malfoy, who could get a crowd to turn against him as fast as Zacharias was doing today.

"Here's an idea," said Ron Weasley, "why don't you shut your mouth."

"Well, we've all turned up to learn from him, and now he's telling us he can't really do any of it," Zacharias said.

At that point, one of the Weasley twins (who really could keep them straight anyway?) began to threaten Zacharias with a rather unpleasant looking object he pulled out of his bag. Susan wasn't quite sure what it was, but she was absolutely sure that she wouldn't want it jammed in her ear.

Susan began to tune out slightly when the discussion turned to more mundane issues of when to get together. All the Quidditch players were jumping in to make sure that the meetings didn't interfere with their practices. Susan liked to watch the game from time to time, but she did think that people got just a tad obsessive with it. Susan was a bit startled though when Ernie jumped to his feet from his chair on the far side of Hannah.

"Well said! Personally I believe that is really important, possibly more important than anything else we'll do this year, even with our O.W.L.'s coming up! I, personally, am at a loss to see why the Ministry has foisted such a useless teacher on us at this critical period. Obviously they are in denial about the return of You Know Who, but to give us a teacher who is trying to actively prevent us from using defensive spells-" Susan couldn't help but smile at that. There was just something impressive when Ernie really got himself going, even if it did tend to get just a wee bit pretentious.

Hermione jumped in and said "We think the reason Umbridge doesn't want us trained in Defense Against the Dark Arts is that she's got some... some mad idea that Dumbledore could use the students in the school as a kind of private army. She thinks he'd mobilize us against the Ministry."

Susan sat there in shock. That was just possibly the most absurd idea she'd ever heard. Susan knew the people who worked for her aunt, and she knew that they wouldn't have any real problem even if the whole student body rose up against them. Still, it did explain why they had a teacher who seemed determined to hamstring their education in that particular subject. Susan kept going over those thoughts while she vaguely heard snippets of the overall conversation.

Finally, the meeting was getting ready to break up when Hermione brought out a piece of parchment for them to sign, and asked everyone not to tell Umbridge or anyone else about what they were doing. Ernie was a bit leery to have his name put down, but Harry managed to talk him into it. Susan wasn't totally sure either, but she did trust Hermione to be careful with the paper, so she signed it when her turn came as well.

After they signed, they stepped back out into the blustery day, and decided to head by Honeydukes and lay in a supply of sweets for the inevitable revision sessions to come. Their good mood was spoiled slightly though, when they saw Draco Malfoy walk out with Pansy Parkinson draped all over him, followed by Draco's two thugs. Out of the corner of her eye though, Susan saw one of the Weasley twins point his wand at Draco and Pansy and mutter something. At first, she thought the spell had failed, as nothing seemed to happen, but when Draco and Pansy started to walk away, their robes had "Ferret Love" written on them in large, hot pink letters. Hannah laughed so hard that she fell into the grass rolling around on her back.

They kept laughing about that as they walked back to school. After a bit though, Ernie said, "Congratulations Susan! You actually talked in public!"

Susan could feel the blush building up in her face, but before she got too embarassed, Justin said "Yeah Cornelius, nice speech by the way." Everyone laughed at that, and Susan was glad to see that Ernie seemed to take it in the spirit of gentle teasing.

That night, Susan sat alone in her room lost in thought. She'd made two promises that ran headlong into each other. She'd promised to tell her aunt if anything interesting happened with Harry. On the other hand, she'd promised not to tell anyone what had happened in the Pub. How could she fulfill one promise, without breaking the other? Finally, she sat down and began to write.

Dear Aunt Amelia,

It's been pretty busy here the last few days. Professor Umbridge was trying to get information out of me again. I told her I didn't know anything, which was true. It still worries me though. I have no plans to be her snitch, but if she is going to keep cornering me in the hallways, it could be a problem. What can I do?

Otherwise, we had our first Hogsmeade day today. It was nice to go out and relax after all the homework we've had to do lately.

I've gotten a bit more of a chance to see Harry Potter lately. The more I see him, the more I'm convinced he's being honest. I suppose that he may be mistaken, but I'm quite positive that he believes what he is saying. Also, it is so obvious that he hates all the attention. I just don't see how all these stories in the paper can be true. He just isn't like that.

Looking forward to seeing you at Christmas.

Love,

Susan.

Susan folded up the letter, and put it away so she could give it to Dody on her next visit. She just hoped that her letter managed to keep both promises.