Muggle In Hogwarts

Chapter Four

Cecilia grabbed Brenda by the collar and ran slightly past the librarian and left her in the usual table by the corner with Ron, Harry and Hermsy to return her books. Then she returned to the table where the three were discussing about Cornelius Fudge, the Minister for Magic. Since she had no idea what they were talking about, she kept herself to her book and petting Brenda with her foot.

"He has no business being Minister for Magic if he doesn't know where his values lay."

"He's done well so far but he doesn't know how to react to this 'cause he hasn't lived through it before. He was very young when it happened so he doesn't know where to turn."

"Oh, don't defend him, Harry. He's completely useless."

"I'm not, Hermsy!" The discussion was getting more and more heated. But a small yelp from Cecilia made them forget temporarily what they were discussing about.

"What's wrong?" Hermsy asked alarmed. Cecilia had a horrified look on her face.

"Some-something licked my hand," she stuttered Ron looked relieved.

"Well of course dummy, didn't you have Brenda down there?" Cecilia nodded but the horror look wouldn't leave from her face.

"But Brenda is under my foot, and I was scratching her ears when something licked me." They looked at her amazed. From out of nowhere Draco appeared and, seeing their faces, asked them what was wrong. After being updated, he decided he would look around.

"He isn't under the table anymore," said Cecilia. Draco looked at her strangely.

"How do you know?" he asked, his voice full of suspicion.

"Cause-cause he isn't speaking anymore," she finished silently, standing up from the table. "I don't feel like studying anymore. I'm going to bed." And with that she bolted from the library leaving her four stupefied friends looking after her.

"There's something real strange about her," said Ron. "I mean, if I were her I wouldn't study unless I were paid or something." Draco looked like he was about to say something, but decided against it.

"Besides that," Hermsy said, shooting Draco a warning look as if she knew what he was about to say. "And just because you don't think studying is profitable doesn't mean that other people can't think it is." Hermsy continued matter-of-factly. "And besides, she probably isn't gonna be here much longer, she might as well as learn as much as she can."

"There is someone that'll be able to talk to her, to find out what's the matter," said Draco looking meaningfully at Hermsy.

"Me?" she said gulping. All three boys nodded their heads. "Oh, OK But I'm not promising anything!" And with that she went after the runaway girl.

"What could have spoken to her?" Draco asked.

"Well, maybe she's a Parseltongue and there was a snake under the table," Ron offered. Draco shook his head.

"No, if there would have been a snake then Harry would have heard it, wouldn't you?" Harry sighed.

"I was thinking the same thing, but perhaps it was and I was too into the conversation to hear it ..."

"No way," said Ron. "Remember our second year? When the Basilisk was going around the pipes, and one night we were chatting and suddenly you stopped dead in your tracks saying you had heard it? Well, I doubt you'd be able to be so near a snake and not hear it speak." Draco nodded thoughtfully.

"Weasley has a good point there. But the most important question is: ‘What did this thing say to her?'" All three stayed silent, thinking about what had just occurred.

"Why, hello there, Ingenuita. Welcome back." I kept munching on this phrase, once, and again, and again after Hermsy left our room. I couldn't believe what was happening. It had been an animal, a furry one, too. But its voice was too human. I shook my head. I had been hearing voices since I was born. Never understood them. Sometimes they were happy voices, singing after a long storm. But other times they were suffering voices, like someone being tortured. Sometimes the voices would be soft, like a whisper that had accidentally reached my ears, but other times the voices were screaming so loudly that I wondered who could sleep with that kind of noise. But the problem was that nobody ever heard those voices, except me. The only voice I had ever been able to recognize was Brenda's voice. Yes, she talks to me.

But lately she's been silent, like a tomb. Like my parents' tomb. No, no! I don't want to think about that!

"Having troubles honey?" asked a familiar female voice across the room.

"About time you spoke. You haven't said a word for about two months!" I said.

"Don't exaggerate. It's just that I could sniff something wrong and just couldn't utter a word about it. Besides, every time I say something bad is going to happen you say my name should be Pessimist instead of Brenda," she said as she came from under the bed and lay comfortably on top of it. I smiled.

"Yeah sure, I'm gonna let you sleep on my bed and all, dream on," I chuckled. Brenda suddenly became alert.

"Someone's at the door," she murmured under her breath. I became alert too and tiptoed to the door as carefully as I could. When I was next to it, I silently counted to three and then yanked the door open. There stood a big hairy dog.

"May I come in?" it asked. Again I was amazed by the humanness of his voice.

"Yeah, sure, pal. We're having a dog-human party here and we needed one more to square dance," I said sourly as I let him in. Brenda didn't strike her usual dog-sexy pose as she always did when she saw a dog, which confirmed that he was actually a human or they had meet before and he had dumped her or something.

"OK, now lets get a couple of things straight," I started as the dog took a place next to Brenda on the bed. "For one, are you or are you not the thingy that licked my hand and called me Ingenuita?"

"Guilty of charge," said the dog laughingly.

"OK," I continued. "Second, you are a man, aren't you?" The dog raised it's eyebrows and, instead of answering, with a faint "pop" a man was laying on my bed were the dog had just been. I gasped slightly. I recognized this man. He was older now, but he was Harry's godfather. Harry had pointed him out for me when we were looking at baby pictures. He looked older and his eyes had a faint haunted look to them and his hair was a long dirty mess.

"Sirius Black," I said under my breath. Brenda seemed suddenly very interested in the man next to her.

"Are you truly Sirius Black?" Brenda asked. Sirius didn't seem to hear her.

"Didn't you hear what she just asked you?" I asked annoyed.

"No, sorry. I can only understand and speak that language when I'm a dog." Brenda looked at him insulted.

"Oh, well, she asked if you were the Sirius Black, though I doubt there's another one." He laughed.

"I doubt so too, but yes. I am Sirius Black, the one and only."

"Thank god," Brenda murmured. I laughed. Sirius turned to Brenda and scratched her ears making her stop making fun of him.

"So, another question."

"Shoot," he said.

"Well, what does, Ingenuita mean? 'Cause you aren't the first and something tells me that you aren't gonna be the last one to call me that."

"You'll find out soon enough," he said. When I looked back at him I saw that he had turned again into a dog. "I actually came here cause I heard you and thought you could help me try to catch Harry and Ron and Hermione alone so I can talk to them without Malfoy finding out."

"Wait a minute," I said confused. "Who the hell is Hermione?" After a short pause reality hit me. "Oh! You mean Hermsy! Yeah, sure. And for another, why don't you want Malfoy to hear you? He's a perfectly nice guy! He even walked me to the Hospital Wing when I was lost and Harry and Ron are being friendly with him." He looked at me oddly. Brenda who kept silent said: "It's true. I heard them and they said that Draco was being quite companionable." Sirius lifted a dog-eyebrow at us.

"And what about Hermione - I mean Hermsy? What does she think about him?" I snorted and rolled my eyes.

"Translation: she's possibly one hundred per cent head "over" paws for him," said Brenda laughing. Sirius looked really surprised.

"You're kidding!"

"Nope. But mark my words. She said possibly, meaning we're not sure," I said, warning him.

"No prob. my lips are sealed." Happily I walked to where he was and kissed his forehead.

"Good doggy." All three of us chuckled.

"What can you hear?" Ron whispered anxiously. Hermsy had her ear glued to the room door. After she had left the room she had gone straight to get the guys. She was quite sorry for Draco. There was no way he'd be allowed in the Gryffindor Common Room. Even if Harry and Ron and she vouched for him, all the rest of the Gryffindors were out for his blood. She couldn't help wondering what had talked to Cecilia, and what had it said.

"I can only hear you guys, so shut up!" she whispered. "Wait, I heard her say "Good doggy" or something like that." And right at that moment the door opened and Harry, Ron and Hermsy fell into the room, at Cecilia's feet.

"What have you guys been doing?" she asked accusingly. All three started stuttering incoherent things, but stopped talking when they saw the look on her face. It was a mixture of annoyance and laughter. "Why were you guys - oh, never mind. Come in here, all of you." Silently they entered the room and sat down on Hermsy's bed, only then did they notice the big shaggy dog that was laying on Cecilia's bed next to Brenda, who was striking her usual sexy-dog pose. Harry jumped from the bed.

"Sirius!" he almost yelled.

"Shhhhh!" Cecilia and Hermsy said reprovingly.

"OK, OK," said Harry softly. "Sirius, what are you doing here?" Sirius had been smiling amusedly until Harry popped the question. His face immediately turned serious and as soon as Hermsy locked the door he turned back into himself.

"Always to the point," he grumbled. "Well, it's a very, VERY serious matter."

He said so gravely that it made even Brenda shudder.

"This is too much for me," I whispered as soon as Sirius and the boys were gone. It was true that Sirius was free ever since those two ministry workers had spotted Wormtail, but he was going to meet them in secret, to not alert anybody who still doubted of his innocence.

"Me too, that's why I'm going to sleep, so that I don't have to think about it," said Hermsy, yawning.

"Can you believe that Voldidy is at about two steps from Hogwarts," I asked shuddering. She shuddered too.

"It's just too creepy to think about," she answered.

"Hmm… well, g'night, Hermsy."

"G'night."

"Sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite!" I was answered with light snoring, making me chuckle even more before drifting into what was going to be a bad night.

"How can he just dump all that on us?" Ron asked Harry indignantly as they changed into their pajamas "why didn't he go on and tell Dumbledore."

"'Cause Dumbledore probably already knows, and Sirius just wanted us to be on our guard," said Harry logically, though he silently agreed with Ron. Ron sighed.

"Well, maybe. But still, he can't just dump it like that." Harry laughed as he pulled the covers back to get into his bed.

"You'll never give it up will you?" Harry asked, thankful for Ron's good-natured complaints. Ron pretended to think it over.

"Lemme think … no." Both boys chuckled as they tucked in their warm beds.

"Night, Ron."

"Night, Harry."

While in a similar room in the dungeons of the castle…

Draco looked at the ceiling of his room, which he shared with his "cronies", and a couple of other Slytherin boys. He thought of his four new friends, or at least he considered them so, if the feeling was the same with them was about to be seen. Thinking of the strange events of the day, of having found Ingenuita and all that he found out about Sirius's visit thanks to his faithful owl Grace, who told him all he asked her. He sighed. He hated to spy on them but had actually been spying on Cecilia and Hermsy, given the fact that the meeting was done in their room wasn't his fault, but at least now he knew that, he had to watch his back. He sighed again, turned and tried to fall asleep.

And with that, the five friends were fast asleep, but not for long. Only four hours later, a long cold shadow arrived next to Hagrid's hut, waiting for the right moment to strike. That night, Fang was sleeping outside since Hagrid had bought new animals that were just as dangerous as the Blast-Ended Skrewts. He took a sniff at the air and, smelling the evil that emanated from the shadowy figure, howled a long tormented howl that woke up half of the inhabitants of the castle.

"Wha-what's happening," Hermsy asked groggily as McGonagall entered telling them to hurry and go to the Great Hall. She didn't have to tell them twice.

Hermsy and Cecilia dressed in record time and ran down the stairs, being some of the first students that reached the Great Hall. Cecilia immediately found a pretty brown owl that was bouncing from chair to chair.

"Hey, owl!" she hissed to it. Surprised, the owl turned around and headed towards her. Hermsy was looking at her curiously. Cecilia asked what was going on, which the owl returned in hoots. It hooted for five minutes and then Cecilia breathed: "Thanks, Grace." Then she turned to Hermsy and rapidly explained what the owl said.

"That was Grace, Draco's owl. It seems that Fang started howling and woke everybody up, and Hagrid went out of his hut and found Fang with his throat slit, so they made us all get together 'cause they think it's safer." Hermsy looked at Cecilia opened-eyed. They could only think of one thing: Hagrid.

"Let's go find him," Hermsy said, out of breath. The information was hard to process. She just couldn't fit in her head that Fang was dead, it wasn't possible. But as they ran to the doors of the Great Hall to leave, they found Harry and Ron who looked just as dumbstruck when they found out the news.

"Let's get Draco," said Cecilia suddenly. The other three thought it strange but agreed to look for him.

"Draco! Over here!" Cecilia called as she spotted Draco in the middle of the steadily increasing crowd.

He turned and fought his way towards them.

"What is it? What's happening here?" he asked slightly breathless.

"Fang's dead. Something killed him and that's why they're gonna make us sleep here, all together." Draco's expression changed from shocked to disbelief to exasperation.

"As if the thing that killed Fang will mind if he has to kill a couple more innocent lives." The four silently agreed with him.

"Maybe, but at least we have a better chance to defend ourselves from it if we are all together," came a voice behind them. They turned around to find themselves with Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling as usual. "Now, Mr. Draco Malfoy, Ms Cecilia Politi and Mr. Harry Potter, please follow me into my office." They followed the Headmaster silently.

"He's got the wrong threesome!" Cecilia murmured to Draco as they went. "It should be Harry and Ron and Hermsy, not Harry and us." Draco nodded.

"Dumbledore always has his reasons," Harry who had been listening whispered back.

"I'm not saying he doesn't," she retorted. "He's a very wise man but I just think it strange that he called Draco and me instead of Hermsy and Ron. You are the original threesome, you know." Harry seemed about to reply but Dumbledore's voice interrupted them.

"If you're finished whispering, please do come in. It's getting chilly out here and I don't want my office to go cold." All three scrambled by the door and up the stairs to Dumbledore's office. It was a cheery round room surrounded by pictures of Headmasters that had passed by the school. All seemed to have been awoken in the middle of their sleep because they all wore tired looks and one even had a teddy bear clutched to his chest as he sucked his thumb. Dumbledore sat down behind his large desk and motioned them to sit.

"Well, there are several things I'd like to run by you, most of which you might as well already know, but just in case, I'm going to tell you." The three nodded and he continued. "As you may already suspect, it was Lord Voldemort who slit Fang's throat," The usual shuddering and flinching were strangely not seen as he proclaimed this. "So Mr. Potter, I want you to take care of yourself and always be accompanied by either Mr. Malfoy or Ms Politi, understood?" Harry nodded, looking quizzically at the old Headmaster. "Very well then, if there are no questions I must join the search. You two, keep Harry company," when they were almost at the door

Dumbledore turned to them once more."Oh, and before I forget. Given the fact that his power is steadily increasing and we know not at what time of the day he may act, we shall make an exception of the House Rules and Mr. Malfoy shall be moved to the Gryffindor dormitories with Mr. Potter and company. Professor Snape has agreed to the change and your things are being moved as we speak. Ms Politi, you will accompany the Gryffindors, more specifically Harry through all his classes except DADA and Potions to keep a close eye on him." With that Dumbledore lead them out of his office and towards the Great Hall, where purple sleeping bags, identical to the ones that had been used in their third year when Sirius had had to get in the Gryffindor Common Room to kill Pettigrew, disguised as Scabbers, Ron's pet rat.

"There are Ron and Hermsy with Hagrid," Cecilia pointed out. Ron and Hermsy seemed to be trying their best to comfort a crying Hagrid, who just wouldn't budge.

"I shouldn' 'ave bought the crackin-crosses, then Fang wouldn' 'ave been outside and howled and he'd be livin' right now," Hagrid wailed (I'm truly sorry but I'm not good at writing Hagrid-ish, so it'll sound quite strange.). Hermsy put a comforting hand on his shoulder and talked to him softly but Hagrid kept on crying. But Draco had a better idea of how to make him feel better.

"Cracking-crosses?! " he said alarmed. Hagrid looked at him surprised with his watery beetle eyes. "Do I even want to know what you're gonna do with them? Or even worse why are they called "cracking"?!" Hagrid smiled at him sheepishly.

"Well I ain't sure yet why they're called "crackin'" but if you don' change that attitude of yours I'm gonna feed you to them," he said chuckling slightly. "Actually I was thinkin 'bou' tackin' them to the sixth years to experiment."

"You mean like the Blast-Ended Skrewts?!" asked Ron alarmed. He and the rest of the sixth years didn't exactly have happy memories of the Blast-Ended Skrewts that had explosive ends and sucked your blood with their stomachs. Even Hagrid laughed at the expression of pure terror on Ron's face. And on continued their discussion and speculation about the Cracking"crosses and Fang was out of the conversation. Hagrid was laughing from time to time, enjoying himself and not giving them any clue on how their new "experiment" looked like. "Yeh'll see nex' class," was all he'd say. After about an hour, Hagrid went to bed, and the five of them were up till late hearing Cecilia, Draco and Harry recount their meeting with Dumbledore.

"But why you two?" Hermsy asked for the twentieth time. "No offense, but can't Ron and I do the work just as well? Haven't we done a good enough job for the last six years?" They were in a star position so that all their heads were together and they could see each other when they spoke.

"Did a good job?" said Draco with a small laugh." Must I remind you that every single one of those years Harry came this close to dyeing?" Draco said putting his thumb and forefinger so close they were almost touching. Hermsy flushed slightly.

"Well, maybe. But every single time he came out alive, so there," she argued back.

"Yes, of course he did. But by his own merits if I'm not much mistaken," he said, laughter all too obvious in his tone.

"That may be so," she said, contained laughter also obvious in her own voice. "He can fight the Dark Lord single-handedly but he can't face Transfigurations homework without some help from his great friends." Draco and the others laughed softly at this; after all, most of the students were already asleep.

"Ok, OK Why don't you guys make out so we can get back to the point?" Ron said jokingly. Nobody was really in for serious conversation right then but even so they kept attempting to get to something resolved, without much success.

"Hey, hey, hey! Who said I'd want to make out with Hermione?" Draco asked, trying his best to look indignant.

"Yeah," cut in Harry. "Perhaps he wants to make out with Millicent Bulstrode but doesn't have the guts to say so." Draco looked at Harry horrified, while the others laughed.

"Then why would I be here with you guys?" he asked.

"Good question," Harry commented, but Cecilia seemed, as always, prepared with crazy answer.

"Oh, that's easy. You're just here 'cause you to make her jealous, don't you?" she asked teasingly. All shook with silent laughter, or as silent as it could be. Until Hermione shushed them up. In a minute they were quiet, trying to compose themselves, and think of other funny things to comment about; when whispering voices could be heard some sleeping bags away where five girls from different houses were talking. Hermsy put a finger to her lips to indicate silence and they all did their best to listen.

"...really cute," one girl was saying.

"No way! He is not!" another almost shouted.

"Come on, Jasminee. You gotta admit he has this Dracula kinda charm to him," said the first one.

"No way, Maggie. His hair is too blond and he's too pale," said Jasminee. The four instinctively looked at Draco.

"Well, he is very cute but he's no competition to you-know-who from the Gryffindor table..." a new voice countered. The five girls laughed.

"You mean..." said one. Draco and Ron rolled their eyes at Harry who just sighed resignedly.

"Yup," said the other. "The one and only..."

"Draco, bet you ten galleons they say Harry Potter," said Ron suddenly.

"No way," said Draco. "I don't wanna loose ten galleons." Hermsy and Cecilia just laughed while Harry hid his head.

"Ron Weasley," said one of the five girls suddenly, and all the other four sighed. Harry looked up, Hermsy and Cecilia looked at Ron with eyes as round as platters, Ron looked shocked, and then a blush started to spread all over his face like a plague.

"Hey, is the bet still on?" Draco whispered.

"He's soooo cute!" said Jasmine.

"Did you see him the other day, talking to that new Muggle girl?" said one of them.

"Oh, yeah. Seems they're getting to be friends. Did you see her clothes? They're so cool," said Maggie.

"Well, I can assure you she didn't look like that when she got to Hogwarts," said a snippy voice.

"Well, Florence, you were one of the only ones who got to see her before Dumbledore put a cleaning charm on her. What did she look like?" said Jasmine.

"Well," said Florence in a superior tone. "Her hair was a mess, her clothes were all dirty and, were she not so short and use glasses, I would have thought she was Valenti herself." Cecilia asked Ron who Valenti was.

"She's a very bad witch. She's rumored to be You-Know-Who's daughter." And with that they fell silent again to hear the rest of the girls' conversation.

"Her eyes were flashing madly and she was carrying a corpse around. It seems it was her sister. It's rumored that she keeps the corpse in her bedroom, under her bed and she won't let anybody get near it or bury it or even see it. It's real creepy." Florence continued. Next to Cecilia, Ron moved away jokingly. She gave him a small but firm push, sending him rolling over Hermsy, who squeaked a little before sending him back.

"There's another cute guy in Hogwarts that wasn't mentioned," came the voice of the only girl they didn't know the name of.

"Who, Blaise?" asked Florence. "We marked Draco's the cutest from Slytherin, though Jasmine opposes, Justin's the cutest from Hufflepuff, George's the cutest from Ravenclaw and then there's Ron, the cutie in Gryffindor. We've got the four, who could we possibly be missing?"

"So they've forgotten of the great Potter?" said Draco surprised.

"I bet that's the one they're gonna say they're missing," said Hermsy.

"You know well enough who we're missing. You asked him to go to the Yule Ball with you last year and he said no," said Blaise.

"Oh, yeah!" said Maggie. "The green-eyed wonder!"

"Yeah, he's just gotta be in our list! And even maybe, we could get all five of them to make a list of the four prettiest girls in the sixth year!" said Jasmine.

"They may end up being five," said Florence excitedly.

"Why don't we ask them. They're just over there you know. At least three of the five. They're talking to the Muggle and that Herm-something girl," said Blaise.

"Oh, the one that went to the Yule Ball with Viktor Krum?" asked Maggie.

"Yup, just the one," said Blaise.

"So, are we gonna ask them or not?" said Florence. "They're probably chatting about something. Surely if we shut up we might hear them."

"Think they might mention me?" asked Jasmine, and then a "shut up" and then silence.

"OK," said Cecilia as if they'd been having a conversation. "The cutest guy for me from Hufflepuff...does he have to be in sixth?" she asked to them, trying to make them catch on. Hermsy, being the cleverest witch in the sixth year, answered just as naturally as if they'd been talking all night.

"Sure he has, 'cause if not we won't know him. Well, at least I won't cause the guys couldn't care less," she said to catch their attention. They heard the five girls giggling.

"I do care," Ron whispered. "But not if he's in Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw. The more interesting options are in Gryffindor and Slytherin." He nudged Harry, who managed a faint "Yeah".

"OK," said Cecilia. "You want Slytherin and Gryffindor, I'll give you those. Now let me see... from Slytherin I obviously choose Crabbe, no competition there, he's sooooo cute!" she said imitating Jasmine. The five of them laughed. "And from Gryffindor I choose Neville. He has all those muscles and is so handsome..." She feigned a dreamy sigh. And they all started laughing again.

"What about you guys?" she asked them. And for a long while they forgot about the girls and kept on talking until they finally fell asleep.