The Keeper's Curse

Note: Chapter 5 is finally here, it's been a while since I updated this story.

Chapter Five

The Malfoy Mob

The next morning, the sun came up. The rays of the sun penetrated through the windows of Hogwarts, saturating the stone walls with warmth. At 9:00 AM the students were pouring out of the Great Hall and walking toward their morning classes.

“Oliver!” Penelope Clearwater shouted at a figure sitting on the floor to the side of a suit of armor, “What are you doing here?” As she moved closer to him, she saw his scraggy looking hair and heavy purplish bags covering bloodshot eyes.

He looked suspiciously from side to side, “Hi.”

“Whoa, what happened? Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, I just pulled an all-nighter studying for finals, and you know how it is.” He pulled his textbooks up close to his chest and stood up, trying hard not to look her in the eye.

“Are you sure you’re okay? Why don’t you go see Madame Pomfrey, cause you don’t look so hot.”

“No, I’m alright, I—I’m going to be late for History of Magic, gotta run, bye.”

Penelope stood there staring at Oliver’s display of anxiety. “I’ll see you later, but I need to talk to you though.”

“Ummm… yeah, meet me at that empty room across from the Slytherin common room in the basement, in the afternoon,” Oliver carefully replied.

Penelope thought to herself, “Why does he always have to secretive. There’s something off about that.” She looked as if she was expecting something from him before he left. So, upon leaving, Oliver nudged her in the shoulder in a friendly way, not realizing it was kind of a guy thing to do.

“OW… Well I’ll see you later, I guess,” she said, raising an eyebrow, as Oliver raced down the corridor. Just as she was about to turn around and walk away, someone tapped her on the shoulder.

“Penelope Clearwater… Ms. Clearwater, I’m surprised to see you here this beautiful day. I couldn’t say the same for yesterday night, it was quite dreadful with the heavy rain and all; don’t you agree? You probably know, since you weren’t in the building and I thought you were—” Percy said haughtily.

“Of course I was… Mr. Weasley. One shouldn’t make assumptions about what one does not understand. No time to converse, Mr. Weasley, I’m already late for Muggle Studies. Excuse me.” She brushed past his shoulder and crossed to the entrance of the left hall.

“Hmmm… Penelope’s kind of uptight today, too uptight, almost suspiciously… I wish she would just tell me what she’s thinking. I want to save her before she is too far away from herself,” he silently thought to himself.

An uproar was caused at the far end of the corridor near the staircase. “Who needs a potion? I’ll knock your teeth out and shove it down your windpipe right here, right now Malfoy!” It was the voice of Ron that echoed toward Percy. The intimidating air protruding from the group of third-years signaled Percy’s mental Head Boy badge to glow bright red, almost like the bat signal for Batman, (he’s a Muggle superhero in case some of you wizards don’t know).

Percy briskly walked down the corridor, the taunts of “Fight! Fight! Fight!” became louder and louder.

“Okay, okay, break it up Ron, Malfoy.” He pulled the two fist-clenched boys apart with less difficulty than usual. “That’ll be all, proceed to your classes third-years, there’s nothing to see here.”

The group of third-years dispersed to their next classes. “That was weird,” Ron told Harry.

“What was weird?” Harry replied.

“Percy! He didn’t take any points off of Gryffindor!” Ron explained.

“Well, don’t remind him, Ron! Let’s just walk away slowly and unassumingly… slowly and unassumingly.” The two boys tried not to look back as they silently walked to the end of the hall, and they scurried past the corner.

Draco Malfoy and his two stooges were still standing stiffly in front of Percy. “Now that means you three as well. Go to class!”

Draco Malfoy crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. Crabbe and Goyle stared dumbly at Percy.

“Are you deaf or dumb or something? I said to clear the hall third years,” Percy repeated.

“You’re losing your touch Weasley, so what is it?”

“What are you talking about?”

“There’s something up between you and—” Draco paused to think about it, “anyway, I can sense it.”

“There’s nothing wrong here, I don’t need your concern… Now what do you not understand about, go to class!”

“Hold on just a second, you’re trying out for the school-wide Quidditch team aren’t you Weasley?” Draco lazily inquired. Percy’s eyes shifted from side to side, and he nodded cautiously. “Which position?” Draco added.

“Keeper,” Percy answered abruptly.

Draco thought about this for a moment, and he looked across Percy’s shoulder and saw the Gryffindor Keeper stumble across the hall to the left. Then he made a sudden realization, a light bulb seemed to light up above his head. “I see what the problem is, you’re up against Oliver Wood, that’s a tough one to beat, for a Gryffindor of course…”

Percy’s eyes widened, surprised at how Draco Malfoy found out. “Say, I’ll make you a deal; I’ll help you… eliminate Wood from the competition. That’ll be easy enough,” Draco added.

Percy squinted at the instances that he uttered that dreaded name. “Really, go on, what else?” Percy suddenly became interested in his idea.

“I have a proposition for you, I’ll handle Oliver Wood during the Quidditch tryouts, if you can dispose of… Harry Potter.”

“Wait, wait, wait… You want me to kill Harry Potter?”

“No, no, no… I just want you to dispose of him. The killing part is not necessary. But you know, if you really want to kill him you can—“

“Oh! Mr. Malfoy! I’ll have to—“ Percy quickly pulled out his checklist from the inside pocket of his robes.

“Umm… You can’t do that Weasley, or I’ll have to tell Dumbledore that you were planning to sabotage Wood. You wouldn’t want that would you?”

Percy’s arm flinched as he reluctantly pulled the checklist back into his pocket. “Alright then, so what’s the deal?”

“Meet me at the abandoned storeroom in the dungeon at 4:30 today where we can negotiate, bring no one, tell no one,” Draco Malfoy whispered as he squinted toward Percy. “Crabbe, Goyle, we’re off. And by the way, I’m beginning to like this new side of you, Weasley, you should keep it up.” And the three of them strutted down the corridor and up the stairs.