Like Father, Like Son

Thirteenth Chapter

*

Sick Seeker

*

The weather was horrible. It was raining dogs and cats, and a cold breeze flew over the school grounds. Yet nobody dared to go inside. A Quidditch match was currently going on.

One could have never expected anybody to be so interested in a Ravenclaw versus Slytherin match. However, when Harry'd become Remy, the Gryffindor team had been at a loss. Their new seeker Ginny Weasley, while good, was nowhere near Harry. As the Hufflepuffs had their worst team for years, everybody knew that the Quidditch Cup would be fought over between Ravenclaw and Slytherin.

The game had been going on for four hours now, and neither of the Seekers had yet shown a sign of seeing the Snitch yet. Neither of the teams had asked to postpone the match because of the weather, though. And so, everybody stayed glued to their benches, staring at the little figures up on the sky.

The Chasers were all doing a fairly good job on both sides, the points being currently even at 300. Everyone's attention was at least partly on the Seekers, however, as the match wouldn't be over before one of them caught the Snitch.

Then suddenly, Draco Malfoy dived gracefully down. Cho Chang immediately followed him, accelerating to reach her competitor. The ground came nearer, and Malfoy reached out his hand. Chang went even faster --

And then Malfoy suddenly curved back up, a wide grin on his face. He hadn't caught the Snitch -- he hadn't even seen it -- but his trick had managed. Chang flew right against the ground, only managing to slow down a bit.

Madam Pomfrey was immediately at the fallen Seeker's side. "She cannot continue playing, she broke her arm," she then announced. "Does Ravenclaw have a secondary Seeker?"

At this, Samantha stood up shyly. "I am," she said quietly.

"Fine. On the field with you," Madam Hooch said, pointing at the field. Samantha nodded, grabbing her broomstick -- of course she hadn't known something would happen, but she'd wanted to be ready immediately in case she was needed, especially when the match got just longer and longer -- and headed towards the field.

Soon enough, the match was in full speed again. Well, not just so -- Malfoy was maybe more experienced, but Samantha was a lot less tired, plus she'd had an excellent teacher. The Firebolt seemed to be made especially for her as she flew over the field, carrying her small, light form with a speed that it had never managed with Harry. Therefore, when she suddenly dived, Malfoy trying to follow her, there was no doubt who was going to catch the Snitch.

*

"That was brilliant, Samantha!" Remy said later as the Ravenclaws celebrated their victory. "Especially Malfoy's expression when he realized you'd already caught the Snitch. That was just splendid!"

"I couldn't have done it without your training, though," the girl replied, blushing at the praise she was getting. "Or without your broom."

"Well, hopefully you now know that you don't need any magical broomsticks to win," the young wizard said, smirking. Then he turned towards Hermione. "Have they found out anything about the monster yet, by the way?"

The curly-haired witch shook her head. "I don't think so," she said. "The scans have only shown that it seemingly didn't die even from its flight down from the plane. The dungeons will probably just be sealed tightly to prevent anybody from going there again. It might cost too much to go to fight a monster who can survive that kind of a fall."

Remy nodded. Then he turned towards Samantha again. "I heard that they're going to make you the primary Seeker instead of Chang," he said. "You truly would deserve that. I've rarely seen such performance on a broom as yours today."

"True," said then a nasty voice behind them. As they all turned to look, they saw Jimmy Crow, his nastiest scowl on his face. "I've never seen such a performance, either. That must have been the first time ever I've seen somebody almost falling from their broomstick because the wind blows a bit stronger than a moment earlier."

"Well, she did catch the Snitch, and right in front of Malfoy's nose, too," Hermione snapped. "I do think that tells something of her skills."

"No. It tells of a dumb's luck," the sixth-year replied. "I wouldn't call that skill, Granger. She was merely trying to fool Malfoy and just accidentally found the Snitch."

"You know what, Crow?" Remy said sharply. "Just shut up now. If you know what's best for you, you will shut up."

"Oh, is young mister Snape threatening me?" the elder boy asked mockingly. "I'm so scared I'm trembling of fear! Oh, don't hurt me, oh mighty mister Snape!"

"I'm not threatening you," Remy said coolly. "I'm merely stating the truth." With that, he turned away. "Come on, girls," he said to his friends. "He's not worth our attention."

Crow was left glaring after them, fuming silently.

*

A week later, Remy, Hermione, and Samantha were all making their way out of the Great Hall. However, suddenly Remy noticed something that he'd somehow managed to ignore before. "Samantha?" he asked worriedly. "Are you sure you are okay? You look rather pale."

"Of course I am okay," she replied, a bit irritated. This was understandable, though. Ever since she'd told Remy and then Hermione about her disease, Lacentria, they'd been watching out for any sign of illness in her. "Look, Remy, I'm just feeling a bit tired at the moment, okay? That doesn't have to mean that I was dying on you or something. Even I have the right to be tired occasionally, or at least I had it the last time I checked."

"Of course you have," the boy admitted. "But you don't look tired, you look sick."

"He's right, you know," Hermione spoke up. "You truly look pretty bad. Maybe you should go to rest for a while?"

"Believe it at last, I'm fine," Samantha snapped. "The next thing I know you'll probably insist on carrying me around!" With this, she stormed off -- or at least she tried to. However, she seemingly had been more than just "a bit tired", since this rushed departure made her faint after only a few steps.

Remy sighed as he caught the little girl just before she hit the floor. "She would do well in Divination," he said dryly as she gathered her on his arms. "Knows what happens next, and intent on lying."

With this he started to carry her towards the Infirmary, Hermione whirling around him worriedly. *

"What's wrong with her?" demanded Hermione worriedly from Madam Pomfrey. "Tell us, please!"

The mediwitch sighed a bit. "Well, she fainted," she started, only to be interrupted by Remy's annoyed huff from the foot of Samantha's bed.

"Well, that much was rather obvious," the young wizard snorted. "The point is, why did she faint?"

"I'm not sure if I can tell you," Pomfrey replied hesitantly. "You see, she --"

"If you mean the fact that she has Lacentria, she has already told us," Remy interrupted her again. "So if it's about that, you can safely tell us. It is about it, isn't it?" he added.

"Well, yes," the mediwitch admitted, sighing a bit. "It's not exactly the disease itself that has put her down -- it cannot do that yet. However, it lowers her defences. So, that horribly long Quidditch match made her catch a Wizarding pneumonia, which then caused her to faint."

"Is it dangerous?" asked Hermione, looking rather pale. Remy merely nodded grimly, his eyes now fixed on his unconscious friend instead of the mediwitch.

"With the right treatment, fortunately not," Pomfrey answered. "However, I'll keep her here for a few weeks to make sure that she doesn't exhaust herself during her recovery. Don't worry, though," she added with a slight smile as she saw a tiny frown appearing between Hermione's eyebrows. "She will be well up and about for the exams!" Then, a small smile still playing on her lips, she said, "Now to the lesson with you two. I'll write a note to your teacher, if you need one."

"No, thanks," Remy replied, "we're currently late from Potions. When will she wake up?" he added then.

"Check here after your lessons," Madam Pomfrey replied. "Bring some of her schoolbooks or the like -- for anything I know about Ravenclaws, she would be bored out of her mind to spend weeks here without anything useful to do."

"On that you're right," Remy replied. Then, after a last glance at their tiny friend, he and Hermione departed from the Infirmary.

*

"Samantha!" exclaimed Hermione as she saw her tiny friend sitting on the hospital bed. "You're awake!"

"Yes, I am," the little girl admitted. "Madam Pomfrey told you brought me here. Thank you," she said then, sounding very much like her previously shy self.

"Don't mention it," Remy said, walking in after Hermione, his arms loaded with books. "What should we have done, left you lying on the floor? People have friends for a reason, you know."

"Well, thanks anyway," Samantha replied, smiling a bit. "What are those?" she asked then curiously as Remy put the pile of books on her nightstand, where they could already see a couple of medicine phials.

"We brought your schoolbooks," the young wizard replied. "Well, your schoolbooks and this." He took something from the pile.

"What is it, then?" asked Samantha curiously. The object Remy had in his hand looked like an old text book, but she doubted it had anything to do with any school subject.

"Well," Remy said with a mischievous grin, "to anybody else it will look like additional reading for Charms. Like you notice if you take a look at it, however, it is anything but that."

The tiny girl took the offered book. As she now saw better the coverlet of the book and the letters etched to it, she gasped aloud. "But -- isn't this --" she stammered.

"'Animagia Exclusiva?' Yes, it is," Hermione said. "We've both as good as memorized it, and Remy thought that it would give you something to do with your time here."

"It is, after all, the best guide to Animagia in existence," the boy continued with a grin. "Hermione thought that we shouldn't give it to you in case something happens, but I figured that your little adventure in the dungeons taught you a lesson about carefulness and disrespect to rules."

Samantha blushed heavily. "You'll never let me live it down, will you?" she asked.

"Not as long as that scar stays on my back, no," replied Remy cheerily. "And it's going to stay there forever."

"It could be healed in five minutes, it's not that deep," Hermione mentioned dryly. "Remy, being Remy, however, didn't let Madam Pomfrey do that."

"Of course I didn't," the boy replied calmly. "If she did heal it, then what excuse would I have for teasing Samantha?"

"Remus Snape, you're an insufferable git," Hermione huffed. She, however, like Samantha, was smiling.

*

The next day Remy was sitting in the library. He wasn't doing his homework; that he would have worked with in his parents' quarters, where good and not-so-good advices were always at hand. Instead, he was doing research -- research on a subject that could have led to awkward questions, had his parents known of it.

In front of him lay several books, all on the same subject -- magical diseases. Each of them was open on the point of the same disease -- or, rather, curse. To be exact, Lacentria.

He'd now found out a lot about the disease that had killed Samantha's mother, and was threatening the girl herself, too. None of what he'd found had been pleasant to read.

Unlike most inheritable diseases that only concerned one gender, and that usually only affected men, this would only show up in witches. Lowering the defences of their bodies and weakening their immune system was not all that the disease did. On one point or another of their life, it would start draining them, of both magical power and life energy. At last, the witches' bodies were simply too exhausted to go on living.

The life expectance was from fifteen to forty. Samantha's mother, having been thirty-seven when she died, had got almost all there was the life could offer to her. Samantha might still have twenty-seven years in front of her -- or just as well two. It could not be said, as Lacentria never warned beforehand before it started to work on its most deadly part. After the draining had begun, it took from half a year to a whole one. Then the ill witch died.

Despite that Lacentria was one of the worst curses known to the wizardingkind, and it had been known for thousands of years, nobody had still managed to invent a cure to it. Many had tried, true -- but none had managed. So, at the moment there was very little hope left for Samantha. This of course disappointed Remy, but it didn't make him give up. Even if nobody else had found the cure, he would. He knew he would.

Suddenly, a voice startled him from his thoughts. "So you're researching Lacentria," said Remus, who'd just stopped next to him. "She told you at last, then?"

"Well, yes," Remy said, hiding quickly his surprise. "But how did you know? She's told that not even the professors know of it!" he added with a bit accusing tone.

"As your Head of House, I'm kind of required to know," replied his elder namesake just as calmly.

Now, Remy couldn't help but just stare at the werewolf, for two reasons, even. One: He knew very well that Remus had been a Gryffindor, even though he would have made a worthy Ravenclaw. Two: They did not have a Head of House.

Truly, none of them actually knew who was the Head of Ravenclaw now, or whether anybody was that. Professor Flitwick had stayed at the school for a couple of months even after Sirius had taken his teaching position. Halfway through November, however, he'd finally retired completely. As there were no other Ravenclaws in the staff, they were now a House without a Head.

...Or so they'd thought.

"I am really the Head of Ravenclaw," Remus told him with a slight smile. "When Filius retired, there was nobody to take his place. I then got re-Sorted, and ended up in Ravenclaw. Nobody aside from the Ravenclaw Prefects and a couple of other students knows yet, though -- well, except for Dumbledore, Severus, Minerva, and Pomona, of course."

"Why haven't you told anybody?" questioned Remy curiously. "What harm could that do?"

"Well, none in fact," replied the werewolf with a slight shrug. "However, the school governors are having enough difficulty with the fact that I'm a werewolf and teaching here. I think Albus wants to give them some time to get used to that thought before revealing that I'm a Head of House, too."

"Sounds reasonable." Then Remy turned again towards his books, frowning a bit. "There are still a couple of things about this I'd like to make clearer," he said. "You don't happen to know where I could find more information?"

"Sure I do," his Head of House replied, smiling a bit. "Just follow me."

And follow Remy did.