Harry Potter and the Final Curse

Chapter 10 - The Seeker Club

Sat behind the desk in her office, Professor McGonagall goggled at the jar containing the pink furry specimen, unable to identify it. It seemed as though only Professor Greenvale had any knowledge of the substance, as Harry, Hermione, Snape, and Professor Lal was just as bewildered as the Headmistress.

Many theories had been bandied about, as to what the cause was for the strange occurrence with the brooms was. Harry, who naturally assumed that there was some sort of dark force at work, felt a little disappointed that he wasn't able to come up with the answer. Still, he was glad that at least someone found the solution.

"What is this, Flora?" asked McGonagall curiously as she picked up the jar and brought it close to her eyes, being careful to drop it.

"Well to give it its proper name, it's called Silva Comesum," said Professor Greenvale timidly, "but its most common name is Pink Mischief."

Hermione made a sort of gasping noise, like she finally understood what it was all about. She must have either found out about it from Flora herself, or read it in a book somewhere. Knowing Hermione, it was probably both.

"What on earth is 'Pink Mischief?" asked Snape as he look distastefully at the strange thing in the jar. Snape was usually quite knowledgeable about plants, because of their use in potions, but this substance seemed to elude him.

"It's a fairly recent discovery, found growing in the jungles of South America, and thought to be the product of an magical experiment gone wrong," explained Professor Greenvale.

"But what does it do exactly?" asked McGonagall.

"It's a type of parasitic plant that lives on wood, slowly consuming it," she said. "However if the wood is magical in someway, like in a wand, it produces some strange and unpredictable effects; On anything else, like the glass of the jar, this stuff is harmless. It does however take a little while for the plant to adhere to the wood, usually several weeks, but the process can be accelerated significantly if the magic in the wood is active."

"So this is what was on the Gryffindor's broomsticks then?" deduced Harry.

"Yes," verified Professor Greenvale. "I found traces of it on all the Gryffindor's brooms. I checked the Slytherin's brooms, just in case, but they were all clean."

Professor Lal screwed his face up and stared closely at the jar. "But how did a South American parasitic plant find its way onto a set of broomsticks all the way over here?"

"I had a small amount of the plant sent to me from a colleague who works in the Rain Forest, in order for me to study it. I kept it in my greenhouse store, under lock and key of course, but a couple of days ago it was broken into."

"Broken into? Why wasn't this reported?!" snarled Snape, giving Flora a look of utmost contempt.

Professor Greenvale went as quiet as a mouse for a moment before finally summoning the courage to speak up. "I ... I guess I didn't want to bother anyone with it, especially after what's been happening of late," she creaked quietly, avoiding eye contact with anyone.

"WHAT?!" yelled Snape angrily as he scowled at Professor Greenvale. "You stupid woman! A young man is lying in the hospital wing, which could have been prevented if you'd used your dense brain!"

Professor Greenvale started to shed tears, hiding her face with her hands. "I ... I ... I'm sorry."

Harry had already known that Flora was easy to upset, as he had inadvertently done so within his first week. It was all down to a simple misunderstanding involving the seating arrangements in the staff room, which was all very trivial, but it was enough to traumatize her. Harry learned, from then on, to treat her with the utmost care and consideration. Harry thought that Snape had gone a little over the top, but he shared his annoyance in this situation.

Hermione went over and wrapped her arms around Flora in comfort. "I think that was a little uncalled for!" she spat at Snape.

"Yes, Severus," said McGonagall crossly, "that was totally out of line! Flora is not to blame for what happened today. The real culprit is whoever broke into the greenhouse and stole this thing," she pointed at the Pink Mischief.

"When was it stolen exactly?" asked Harry, trying to put the conversation back on track.

"I'm quite sure it must have been halfway through my first year Slytherin and Gryffindor class," said Professor Greenvale, regaining her composure a little. "Most probably when I took young Mr. Garner down to the hospital wing after he cut himself using a pair of shears."

Harry looked at Snape suspiciously for a moment; his long standing mistrust of Slytherins shining through.

"Just because there were Slytherins present at the scene of the crime," said Snape as he noticed Harry's cynical gaze, "it doesn't mean that they were responsible."

"But a member of Slytherin House seems a likely culprit," said McGonagall. "I can't see why any Gryffindor would have tampered with their own team's brooms."

Snape sneered at everyone in the room, which seemed to linger that little bit longer on Harry. "I shall begin my investigations immediately," he said resolutely. "Then we shall find the true guilty party."

Snape headed for the door in order to leave the office, but Hermione stopped half-way with a suggestion.

"You might want to start with Terry Mulligan," she said. "He's always causing trouble, and this sounds right up his street."

Harry, even though he had not been here long, had already gotten to know Mr. Mulligan's reputation for misbehaving. By the end of the first week he had already got into detention half a dozen times for a wide variety of offences. Harry himself had already been forced to penalize him several times.

"I think I know my own house better than you, Miss Granger," criticized Snape. "So if you don't mind, I shall conduct the investigation as I see fit."

Snape nodded politely to McGonagall and promptly left the office in a determined rush, slamming the door behind him.

"Right, well Professor Snape seems to be on the case," said McGonagall, "so I suggest we leave him to it and get down to our own businesses for the time being. Dismissed."

McGonagall continued to study the Pink Mischief in the glass jar, probably a little curious as to what would happen if she stuck her wand into it, as Harry, Hermione, and the other teachers, left her office.

* * *

After parting ways with the other teachers, Harry and Hermione decided to go down to the Great Hall and grab whatever food was left. Just before they could enter through the large double doors, they were greeted by the Gryffindor Quidditch team captain.

"Professor Granger," said Alison, as she eyed Harry nervously. "Can I have a word in private, please?"

Harry looked at Hermione and excused himself. "Ok, I'll meet you in the Great Hall once you're done," he said.

"Actually, this might concern you too, Sir," said Alison.

Harry and Hermione looked at each curiously.

"Lead the way," said Hermione, gesturing onwards.

Alison led them through a door off the entrance hall, and they found themselves in a small, simply furnished, chamber. This room wasn't used much, and it made the perfect place to have a quiet chat with someone.

"What's on your mind?" asked Hermione, perching on the table in the centre of the room.

"It's about the house team," began Alison. "The events that happened earlier today have caused a few problems."

"What kind of problems?" inquired Harry.

"Well for starters there's the morale problem and the fact we have one team member in the hospital wing," she said.

"How is Jason doing now?" asked Hermione with concern.

"He's fine. Madam Mendel says Jason should be up and about in a day or two, and he said that he's happy to still play for the team. The main problem is that Derek Cotton, our Seeker, decided to quit. He says there's no way he's getting on another broom for as long as he lives. This wouldn't ordinarily be a problem, but this year we seem to have a severe lack of capable players. I guess what I'm asking is, I need some help in finding a new Seeker."

"I see," mused Hermione. "Well to be honest Quidditch is not my best subject, and I doubt I'll be of much help, but Professor Potter here just happened to be one of the best Seekers this school ever had."

Hermione was right, Quidditch was not her best subject. Harry could only recall a few times when he had actually seen Hermione on a broom, let alone play Quidditch. She had tried to once, after a lot of persuasion, to play a friendly game of Quidditch among the Gryffindors, but she was pretty useless at it.

"I did hear that you we're supposed to be really good, sir," said Alison. "But I thought that the tales were exaggerated a little. You know what these things are like in school."

"Well I can assure you that the tales were not exaggerated," said Hermione. "You go ask half the teachers and they'll say the same thing."

"I maybe a little rusty, after all I haven't actually done any actual proper Seeking for several years now," said Harry, "but short of playing the position myself, I'll assist you in anyway possible. There maybe one problem though - Professor McGonagall would never allow it, despite her leanings towards the Gryffindors."

"Yes it goes against at least half a dozen school rules, but you could always help the team out, but just make sure you're not seen to be helping the team out," said Hermione slyly.

Harry laughed very slightly. "I suppose it could work, but all the Gryffindors would have to be sworn to secrecy."

Alison looked a little confused. "Just what is the plan exactly?"

"You'll see," said Harry. "Just assemble the entire team in my office tomorrow at 12 o'clock. I'll explain it all then."

* * *

After the initial shock of seeing someone disappear before their very eyes, the Gryffindor team thought the idea of Harry using his invisibility cloak to supervise their training sessions was fantastic. The following week, Harry began to assist the team whenever possible, and on the Friday they had assembled three hopefuls at the Quidditch pitch to try out for the position of Seeker.

"Right I know it's strange talking to someone that's invisible," said Harry to the hopefuls, "but it's the only way we can get away with this."

The three hopefuls - third year Laura Jones, fourth year Daniel Wood, and fifth year Lawrence Powel, looked extremely uneasy, the whole questionable morality of the situation adding to their already existing nerves.

"Right this is the way we're going to do it," began Alison. "First of all we will start by throwing a series of tennis balls up high, and you will be scored on how many you catch and how well you catch them. Ok first up, Laura Jones."

A blond haired girl mounted one of the practice brooms and took off high into the air.

"Are you ready?" asked Alison.

Laura gave a thumbs up, which signalled she was. Alison threw ten tennis balls high into the air, varying the direction, height, and speed. Laura only managed to catch three of them, which was a little disappointing since she was rumoured to be the best of the three. She flew back down to the ground with a very depressed look on her face, and was commiserated by the other two hopefuls.

"Not bad," said Alison, marking the score down on the clipboard she had. "Right, next up - Daniel Wood."

Daniel Wood enthusiastically mounted his practice broom, eager to show everyone that he could fly as well as his father. He tried showing off by performing a tricky manoeuvre, but he only succeeded in nearly falling off his broom, which didn't score well for him.

"Ready, Daniel?" called Alison.

"You bet I am!" yelled Daniel exuberantly.

Alison started throwing tennis balls in the same manner as she had before. Daniel screamed after the first one and performed a quite spectacular catch, impressing the on-looking team members.

"Nice," commented Seamus, nodding his head in approval.

The second and third balls thrown were caught almost as well as the first, but after that things seemed to get worse, and Daniel had obviously used up most of his energy already. Out of the ten balls Alison threw, Daniel managed to catch five, which was a little disappointing but a reasonable score nonetheless.

"Very good," said Alison, marking Daniel's score on the clip board. "Lawrence Powel, you're up."

A very surly looking boy, Lawrence Powel, mounted his broom and flew high up into the air. He seemed to learn from Daniel's lesson about not wearing yourself out too soon, as he remained calm and professional.

"Ready?" shouted Alison.

Lawrence nodded. Alison once again threw ten tennis balls in various directions. Although Lawrence didn't show any fancy moves or techniques, his methods were sound, and he managed to score a quite impressive seven out of ten.

"Nicely done," said Alison, accompanied by applause from the other team members. "Right, 'you-know-who' and I will have a little chat before we begin the second part of the tryouts."

Harry thought about Alison's use of the term 'you-know-who' when describing him, and wondered whether she knew about how the term was used in years past. After a brief discussion regarding the scores and techniques of all three hopefuls, Alison decided to start the second and final phase of the tryouts.

"The second phase of the test will involve an actual snitch," said Alison. "You will be timed on how long it takes you to catch it."

In the same order as before, the three hopefuls flew off and attempted to catch a Snitch that Alison had released for each of them. Laura, still disappointed by her previous performance, took to the air half-heartedly, and showed no real desire to catch the Snitch. She did manage to catch it in the end, but it took nearly half an hour to do so. Her attempt was so boring to watch that Seamus and Diane Langley, one of Chasers, decided to go off and do some training of their own.

Daniel Wood, having regained some of his energy, took to the air confidently and shot after the Snitch at full speed. His attempt was full of a lot of close calls, with his finger tips actually grazing the Snitch at one point, but in the end he took nearly as long as Laura to actually catch it.

Lawrence Powel again showed no fancy techniques and stuck to basic methods, but it seemed to be fairly effective. It only took him about ten minutes to catch the Snitch, but both Harry and Alison agreed that at it was largely due to luck, as he performed an unlikely Plumpton Pass.

Harry was disappointed by the quality of Seeking he had seen today, and was tempted to just hop on a broom and show everyone how it should be done, but he resisted the urge. Despite the fact he was a little out of practice, his Seeking skills were still good, and could have probably caught the Snitch in a couple of minutes.

After a lot of thought, both Harry and Alison agreed that the new Gryffindor seeker would be Lawrence Powel. He was not the ideal choice, and would need some serious training to bring him up to scratch.

* * *

After the tryouts, Harry got the taste for Quidditch and he longed to be up there flying. While the invisibility cloak was initially a good idea, it did pose a few problems. The only reliable way of training the Seeker would be to get up in the air with him, which was extremely difficult when wearing a big heavy cloak. He tried to think of a way of getting round the rules on teachers, other than the head of house, not being allowed to instruct the school Quidditch teams, and eventually came up with the idea of 'The Seeker Club'.

The club would open to any student in the school, regardless of age, that wanted to learn more about being a Seeker, and this way he could actively train the Gryffindor Seeker without showing favouritism. Harry approached Professor McGonagall later that day and told her about the idea, and she agreed to it, giving him the use of the Quidditch pitch on late Wednesday afternoons for one hour. Harry couldn't be sure, but he thought that McGonagall cottoned on to the reason why he was starting the club. She didn't object at all, and actually seemed to be quite fond of the idea.

Harry then began the work he needed to do to set up the club, and so, in his free time, he produced a few posters that were placed at various places in the school. One that he was most proud of was one that had a miniature Quidditch player zooming around the paper trying to catch a tiny Snitch, which was hung up on the main notice board in the entrance hall.

There seemed to be much interest in the club, even by people who had no real interest in being a Seeker in the hopes they might just catch a glimpse of Harry's supposedly godly Seeking skills. It soon became obvious that he would need some help and Stewart Ackerley, who he had been getting on well with the last week, volunteered immediately. After he had been discussing the club with Hermione one day, Professor Asgard overheard and eagerly offered her services too. Harry wasn't sure that he really needed her help, but she asked him so nicely that he couldn't really say no.

When Wednesday afternoon came, Harry made his way to the pitch, dressed in his favourite black and red Quidditch outfit, to see who had turned up. He was both pleased and somewhat surprised to find at least a hundred students waiting, including his daughter Lily. Harry had made sure that Lawrence Powel had also turned up, which was basically the main reason he started the club in the first place.

Panic gripped Harry a little as he wasn't sure he would be able to properly coach this many people, even with the help he had been offered. Thankfully there was only about thirty or so that actually wanted to take part, the rest being curious spectators.

Mr. Ackerley and Professor Asgard, arrived on the pitch shortly afterwards carrying a chest full of practice balls, including several Snitches.

Mr. Ackerley surveyed the students. "Well Professor, it's a good turn out."

"Indeed it is Mr. Ackerley," said Harry. "Thank you again for volunteering."

"Think nothing of it," he said. "I personally can't get enough of Quidditch."

Harry turned to Professor Asgard. "And thank you for coming, Professor."

"Don't mention it," she said sweetly, batting her eyelashes.

Harry pretended not to notice Professor Asgard's obvious flirting, and was really beginning to understand Hermione's warnings about her. She was a nice enough woman, but Harry's affections lie elsewhere.

All the students settled down almost immediately and they excitedly waited for the club to start. Harry gave Lily a quick smile before commencing.

"Thank you all for coming to the first session of the Quidditch Seeker Club," said Harry, loudly enough so everyone could hear him. "This club has two main objectives - to train you all in the role of a seeker and also to have a lot of fun in the process. To begin with we must split you all into three groups. Group one will be those with little or no flying experience, which I would imagine would be mostly first years. Group two will be those who do have adequate flying skills, but who have little or no Seeker experience. And finally group three will consist of those who are already accomplished Seekers."

All the students split up into three groups. Some found themselves a group with no trouble at all but some had to debate whether they belonged in one group or another, but after a few minutes they had all found their place. As it had been decided beforehand, Harry himself would coach group three, Mr. Ackerley would take group two, and Professor Asgard would take group one. Despite Lawrence Powel really belonging in group two, Harry put him in group one so he could train him directly.

After a little bit of administrative work (taking of names, houses, and years) Harry mounted his broom (a Nimbus 3000, which Ginny had bought him for his birthday the previous year) and asked his group to join him high above the stadium. He had six people in his group, which not surprisingly consisted of the main Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin house team seekers. There were also another Hufflepuff and Slytherin there who were backup seekers. Lawrence Powel was the only Gryffindor in the group, and he looked a little out of place.

"Right today will be just be catching the snitch plain and simple so that I can observe your overall performance," said Harry. "In weeks to come we will learn some advanced techniques, including playing under abnormal conditions such as bad weather, and also night time flying."

There was a general murmur of understanding from the group, and Harry produced six snitches that he had in his pockets and set them going around the pitch.

After giving the Snitches a minute's head start, Harry set his team off on the hunt. "Ok, go."

The six members of his group shot of in different directions in search of elusive Snitches, and Harry followed each of them in turn, observing their skills. He took extra care with Lawrence, observing him more closely than the others, trying to find out what his weak points were. His main failing seemed to be his inability to take risks, giving up excellent chances to make a grab for the Snitch because it went to close to obstacles. After making a few mental notes, Harry took time to see how the other groups were doing.

Group one, with Professor Asgard, was going well by the looks of things. At the moment she was instructing them on flying techniques, although they did it not to far from the ground in case anyone fell of their broom, which did occasionally happen. Some people, Harry noticed, were completely useless at flying while others showed great potential.

Group two with Mr. Ackerley was also going well. He had them split up into pairs and made them throw tennis balls at each other while mounted on their brooms a few metres from the ground.

"How are they doing?" asked Harry

"Not bad at all," said Mr. Ackerley. "There's one person in particular that's showing great promise."

"Who's that?" asked Harry curiously.

"Lily Potter," said Mr. Ackerley, "who I understand is your daughter."

It took a moment to locate her among the dozen people who were in the group, and from just a casual glance it appeared that Mr. Baxter was right about her. She seemed to be able to catch the balls with no trouble at all.

"She's a natural Seeker, just like her father it would appear," commented Mr. Ackerely.

"Her mother was a very good Seeker herself," said Harry.

"Did Lily have much practice before she came to Hogwarts?"

"Some. We made sure that she could at least ride a broom adequately, but she was never really that interested in playing Quidditch, so we never forced her."

"Well whatever has made her change her mind in the meantime, be thankful for. She's not quite up to the standard of a proper Seeker, but, with a little training, she could be. I understand that Gryffindor is in need of a better Seeker and she could be just what they need. Which reminds me, how is the current Gryffindor Seeker getting on?"

Harry shrugged. "He's an adequate enough player, I suppose. He's going to need a lot more practice though, before he's up to the expertise of the others."

"Give it time, and I'm sure he'll improve. I have every confidence in you."

"Thanks. I better go and rejoin my group. Keep and eye on Lily for me."

Stewart nodded. "Sure."

Harry flew back up the meeting point he had agreed with his group, and found all of them had already managed to catch a Snitch, even Lawrence Powel. A couple of the better players had even caught it once and let it go again, then caught it again.

"Well done group," said Harry. "You've all done well but we've run out of time for this week. I look forward to seeing you next week."

Group three made their way down to the changing rooms, followed shortly by the other groups. Ten minutes later, all of the students had gone, along with Mr. Ackerley and
Professor Asgard. The Seeker club had been a great success and Harry looked forward to repeating it next week. Hopefully, by then, word will have spread, and they will have some more students come along.

Harry decided to stay late on his own, where he could do a final tidy up and have a little flying time to himself. Although he was really supposed to avoid these sorts of times on his own, the thrill of being up in the air was too much to resist and he took the risk. Mounting his broom once again, Harry shot high into the air at top speed. Although the flying during the Seeker club was quite enjoyable, it was nothing compared to the exhilaration he experienced now. Harry shut off his brain for a moment and let himself go in the moment, the stress from his job felt a million miles away. He reminded himself to do this more often.

After half an hour or so of flying, it began to get dark, and Harry was getting starting to get hungry. He would have liked to spend hours upon hours up here, but his grumbling stomach had other ideas. Harry quickly looked towards the Great Hall, and through the large arched windows he could see a lot of activity, which probably meant that dinner was about to be served. He flew back down to the ground and was halfway towards the Great Hall before he had a slight burning sensation in his scar, just like the other night.

With all that had gone on in the past week, Harry didn't have much time to investigating his scar; the little research he had done was inconclusive. He did however theorise that the pain was a sign that he was due to be attacked any moment soon.

It was still reasonably light outside to get a decent view of his surroundings but Harry could find no sign of anyone. He picked up the pace, eager to get to the castle as quickly as possible, where he would be safer within company. He was getting near to the main doors to the school when he heard an all too familiar sound.

"Avada Kedavra!" said a gravely voice from behind him.

Harry, thanks to his Auror training, was able to dodge the curse easily, and it hit a small shrub instead, which burst into flames. He noticed that their aim had improved since their last encounter.

He looked around hectically, but he could see nobody at all. There were several trees nearby so Harry assumed that the assailant was using them as cover. After drawing his wand, he began to see if he could locate them.

"Avada Kedavra!" the voice said again, from behind Harry. He dodged it easily.

Whoever it was had moved without him noticing. Harry set off in the new direction, which was the location of another tree.

"Avada Kedavra!" this time from another tree. Again Harry was able to evade the attack.

At this point Harry was getting tired of the charade and decided to result to desperate measures. He pointed his wand at the nearest tree.

"Reducto!" he shouted. The tree disintegrated in front of his eyes. Professor Greenvale wouldn't be happy about it, but he would try and rectify the matter later.

The assailant again attempted to cast the killing curse from behind a tree, and Harry disintegrated that one too. After he disintegrated the third tree, a figure, cloaked entirely in black school robes including a hood that obscured their face, was spotted behind its remains.

Harry fired a stunning charm at the figure but at the distance it was too hard to hit, although it was quite close.

The figure ran towards the Forbidden Forest. Harry pursued them by jumping on his broomstick and tore ahead at high speed. He quickly closed the distance and fired a stunning charm at the figure, but they were able to evade the attack. Sweeping around for another pass, Harry aimed his wand and fired again.

"Stupefy!"

Harry's spell was on-target, but the cloaked figure raised their wand in time, "Protego!", and the spell bounced harmlessly off their shield.

"Accio broom!" shouted the figure as they cast the spell directly at Harry's broom, and they were fortunate to hit the target this time, despite Harry's best effort to avoid it.

Harry felt his broom attempt to tug away from him, and he held on tight. He was able to stop his broom from escaping but in the attempt he lost his balance and fell to the ground, although thankfully he was not to far from the ground and only suffered a couple of bruises.

The figure was able to make their escape in the meantime, and Harry watched them as they entered the dark mass of trees that is the Forbidden Forest. He knew from experience that it would near impossible to track them from the air, especially as it was getting rapidly darker, so he left his broom where it lay and went in on foot.

"Lumos!" said Harry, and he pointed the thin ray of light ahead of him as he ran.

The figure was still in sight and Harry fired a few stunning spells at them. However, the trees provided excellent cover and they all missed the target. As he chased the assailant deeper and deeper into the forest, it began to get much harder to keep track of them. Eventually, after what must have been a mile of running, Harry completely lost sight of his quarry.

"Damn," he said.

At that moment he heard the sound of something very large coming from behind him. Thinking it was some large dangerous creature, which he knew there was plenty of in the forest, Harry quickly turned around and got ready to act. Thankfully it was only Hagrid with his crossbow, who must have been following him.

.

"Harry, yeh alrigh'?" asked Hagrid, slightly out of breath.

"Yeah I'm fine thanks, Hagrid," gasped Harry, which wasn't the total truth.

If it were just a straight run, a mile would have been no big deal for Harry, but since it involved a lot of dodging and climbing over obstacles such as the massive tree roots that covered much of the forest floor, it left him a little worse for wear. Hagrid, on the other hand, being more used to the forest and having longer legs, could navigate much more easily.

"I saw what 'appened from me hut," said Hagrid. "Who was'at anyway?"

"I don't know," said Harry. "But whoever it is hasn't given up on trying to kill me."

After they both left the woods, Harry asked Hagrid to keep an eye on the forest for him in case the assailant came out. After grabbing his broomstick, Harry rushed up to the castle in order to inform the Headmistress of what had just happened. As soon as he entered through the great wooden doors, he was greeted by Hermione and Professor McGonagall.

"Harry, thank goodness we found you," said McGonagall.

"Actually, it is fortunate I found you," said Harry. "There's been another attack."

"An attack?" worried Hermione, "Are you ok?"

"No harm done, with the exception of a few trees," said Harry, ignoring his aching bruises, "but whoever it was escaped again, this time into the forest. Hagrid is keeping watch, for now, but I doubt they'll be coming out the same way."

"Any clues this time?" asked McGonagall.

"Nothing I didn't find out last time," said Harry disappointedly. "Their magical ability seems to have improved significantly though. Gave me a real run for my money this time. What did you want to find me for anyway?"

"Professor Snape has finished his investigations into who stole the Pink Mischief," said McGonagall. "But it wasn't Mr. Mulligan as Hermione suspected."

"Which Slytherin was it then?" asked Harry.

"It wasn't a Slytherin," said McGonagall. "It was a Gryffindor."

"Harry," said Hermione sadly. "It was Lily."