Sirius Black's Secret Love

Chapter 14 - Gran Longbottom

Nevile´s body began to shake and his face grew pale.

"What are you remembering?" asked Dumbledore.

"Gran was putting me to bed," Neville said hesitantly. "She is putting a lamp in my window and then walks to the door, she stops and listens for a few moments. The doorbell rings. I hear my dad´s voice. `Barty, what beings you here?´ The voices are getting louder, I´m getting scared. Gran looks over and sees the look on my face. She casts a spell on me so I can´t make a sound. I hear my dad screaming in pain, then my mum crying for them to make it stop. I wanted to go to them. I wanted my mum. I tried to climb out of bed, but Gran stopped me."

"How did she stop you?" asked Dumbledore.

"She did the full body bind, Petrificus Totalus," Neville said dully.

Harry felt his stomach sink. Hermione had used the same curse to stop Neville four years ago. What if his body remembered having that done to him before? Harry started grasping at straws for a good explanation. He wanted to believe that this story wasn´t as bad as it seemed at first blush.

"Maybe she was just trying to hide your presence, to protect you from being attacked by the Death Eaters," Harry suggested.

Neville turned and looked at him with sorrowful eyes, "I don´t think so, because then she went downstairs to join them. Gran was the one who started torturing my mum."

Professor Figg looked like she was going to be ill.

"It didn´t do any good though. My dad still wouldn´t tell them what they wanted to know. The sound of my mum screaming in pain..." Neville shuddered and fought back tears. "Then I heard Gran start screaming at my dad. She said he was a disgrace, that he didn´t have proper Wizarding pride. She said it was his fault that my Grandad was killed by the Dark Lord. I heard her slap him. Then they started discussing what to do with my mum and dad. One man suggested that they kill my parents since they wouldn´t talk. My Gran disagreed and said that it would send a stronger message to leave them alive, but unable to function. She said that it was a fate worse than death. If they were willing to die without telling their secrets it would be thought of as a noble deed, but to be catatonic is pitiable. She then placed a Catatonia curse on them. She said she would recast it as often as necessary."

Dumbledore walked over to Neville and placed a hand reassuringly on his shoulder. "It is hard to know the truth, but right now we must concern ourselves with the safety of your parents. Your grandmother is the only one who can get them out of St. Mungo´s and yet, she is the one who is keeping them there." He then turned to Snape, "Severus, I shall need your help. I will contact Lucretia Longbottom through my fire and tell her that Neville is near death and that she must come here immediately. I want you to meet her in Hogsmeade and bring her back to this room without delay. Then we will do whatever we have to in order to get her compliance."

Neville swallowed hard and then looked over at his relative lying dead on the floor. "What´s going to happen to my Great Uncle Algie?"

"We shall have to move him for right now," Dumbledore said quietly.

"We need to bury him. I know he´s evil, but Professor Dumbledore everyone deserves a proper burial."

"You are right about that Neville," Dumbledore said solemnly. "However, it is not safe to have a public funeral for him. Not yet, anyway. Once it leaks out that he´s dead those who were in league with him would then know to change their plans. That might mean that your parents would die in their sleep one night without any good explanation. I worry about their safety at St. Mungo´s. We need to get them out of there and back here. After that we´ll talk again about when we should arrange a funeral for him."

Dumbledore then raised his wand and transfigured the dead wizard back into a toad. He picked up the amphibian and deposited it into an empty glass and handed it to Snape. "I think you should hide this in plain sight."

Snape nodded and took the glass. Harry started thinking about all the strange looking jars with toads, frogs and other creatures suspended in liquid in the Potions dungeon. He started wondering just what all those jars really contained.

The next fifteen minutes seemed like fifteen hours. The wait for Gran Longbottom to arrive seemed to stretch on forever. No one seemed to know what to say, so there was an awkward sense of silence that hung in the air. Finally, voices were heard outside the door. Tufty leapt from Professor Figg´s lap, ran to the door and immediately arched his back.

"Why are we going here? The hospital wing is down that hallway."

"Neville was too fragile to move," Snape said reassuringly, "he´s in here."

As soon as Snape opened the door and she entered, Dumbledore disarmed Neville´s grandmother and conjured ropes around her. Obviously, Dumbledore was not going to take any chances that she might also be holding a suicide pill in her hands. She was aghast at being bound and shocked to see her grandson alive, well and sitting in the room. As Gran Longbottom looked around the room and recognized Mrs. Norris she became enraged.

"YOU!" she screamed. "YOU are the reason that my grandson became an idiot! I had such great plans for him. I was going to make sure that I didn´t fail him like I had with Frank." She then cast a scathing look at Dumbledore, "And you stole my son away from me. All that nonsense about equality poisoned his mind. If I had only known what kind of example you set, I would never have sent him here. He would have gone to Durmstrang where he would have gotten a proper education. Instead, he became enamored of a Mudblood, Muggle loving fool!"

"Why don´t you sit down Lucretia?" Dumbledore said coolly. "There´s a lot we need to catch up on."

Gran stood her ground and refused to move. Snape then forcibly moved her over to a chair and pushed her down.

"That´s better. Maybe we should all be seated," Dumbledore said, "get comfortable. I think we may be here for awhile." He sat and looked at Gran Longbottom carefully. "Neville´s started to remember things from his youth. It seems that he recalls that you were the one to lead the torture of Claire and that it was your suggestion to spare their lives and keep them as mental prisoners."

She snarled at Neville. He looked back at her with stone cold eyes.

"We were also having a little chat with your twin brother," continued Dumbledore. "He admitted to trying to kill your grandson repeatedly over the years. He never explained why though. Perhaps you could enlighten us about that."

Gran Longbottom looked at everyone in the room and then got an evil smile on her face. "Yes, you see Algie thought that Neville was a liability. He worried that one day Neville would remember everything and turn me in. I was afraid that if he were killed outright that it would look too suspicious, so Algie kept trying to make it look like an accident. I wouldn´t have had all those worries and problems raising him if it weren´t for that bitch who screwed up his memory to begin with!"

Mrs. Norris stared back at Gran without flinching.

"I wasn´t worried about Neville telling anyone about the incident, because he had been slow in speaking," Gran said smiling. "He still was using his own made up words more than real ones at that point. I knew that if I gave him the proper training that he would turn out to be a wizard that I could be proud of instead of a turncoat like my son. But since that idiot witch couldn´t leave well enough alone, I had to change the way I wanted to raise him. His mind was so damaged that as a child he would walk into the kitchen because he was hungry, but by the time he got there he had forgotten what he went in there for. I didn´t know if he even possessed enough magical ability to make it here, let alone Durmstrang. After Algie´s plans to dispose of our embarrassing problem had all failed, I decided he needed to come here to monitor Neville. I transfigured him and he was to report back to me if there was any change in his childhood memories. He also used to croak incantations at night in Neville´s ear."

Professor Figg crossed the room and knocked Gran Longbottom´s hat off her head. She yanked Gran´s head back and held her face inches above the evil old witch´s face, "You are evil! Ever. So. Evil. How you could treat your own son and grandson like that?"

"And you are a meddling bitch!" Gran Longbottom spat in her face. "When I heard you were teaching here I knew there was going to be trouble. Shortly after this school year began Neville started asking me questions about his parents, asking to see pictures of them and wanting to know what they were like. I couldn´t refuse to answer his questions for fear I would incriminate myself, but I knew something was up. I knew you had to be behind it. So I´ve taken extra precautions to assure my own survival."

"Lucretia, did Frank know that you were a supporter of Voldemort?" asked Dumbledore.

"No. At first we were afraid of the Dark Lord like most wizards, but we came to realize that he is only trying to help our race in response to the oppression and persecution by Muggles. That´s when we joined his side. Frank should have understood that fact because we raised him to know of my family´s history. He knew that my mother was a small girl when she was taken to the village square to watch as her grandmother was burned to death for being a witch. My family had to hide what they were from the Muggles for fear that they would also suffer the same fate. After Llewelyn and I married, we shunned everything to do with Muggles and dealt only with the Wizarding World. Frank had not even met any Muggles until he came here. And you," she said scornfully at Dumbledore, "all your talks about tolerance undermined our belief system with Frank. He became best friends with a Muggle-born wizard. By the time he came home after his first year, he couldn´t stop talking about how wrong his father and I were about Muggles. Frank conveniently forgot how they vastly outnumber us and how they have persecuted our kind for thousands of years. Forgetting that my mother listened to the screams of her grandmother as the flames licked her skin."

"Like I had to listen to my mother scream as my grandmother tortured her?" interrupted Neville with a cold voice.

"Your mother and father are race traitors," she snarled. "What I did was for the good of all witches and wizards."

"You can´t honestly believe that," said Professor Figg.

"Yes I do," Gran Longbottom replied with her head held high in the air. "Dumbledore may be a beloved headmaster, but he has dangerous ideas about the mixing of races. That certainly wasn´t the case when I went here and Armando Dippet was headmaster."

"Lucretia, the answer to hatred and bigotry is not more hatred and bigotry," Dumbledore replied. "That leads only to a perpetual cycle of violence and continued bloodshed. Did you ever stop to think that the actions of Voldemort and his followers are the kinds of crimes that breed hatred towards all magical beings?"

"It doesn´t matter what we do. The fact that we even exist is enough for Muggles to want to kill us," insisted Gran. "My great-grandmother had been the village healer, but when she became a widow her neighbor wanted her property. All he had to do was accuse her of witchcraft and point to a cow that died of old age and it was enough to have her put to death. She had even saved his youngest son from scarlet fever the winter before. No, nothing will change my mind about the sanctity of our cause. I was heartbroken when Frank rejected the recruitment effort to join the Dark Lord. I thought we had instilled the proper Wizarding pride in him, but instead he set a trap and arrested dear Thanatos Travers. We had hoped that Frank would be a good mole for our side in the Ministry, but instead he became a zealot searching us out. Llewelyn and I had to hide our actions and feelings around our own son. Frank started to suspect his father though. He actually came to me with his concerns," she gave a laugh that was chilling. "Little did he know that we were both Death Eaters. He was getting too close to the truth, so when he accused his father of committing certain crimes I told him that Llewelyn was under the Imperius curse."

"Why was your husband murdered?" asked Dumbledore.

"Because the Dark Lord wanted to punish me for my failure," she said simply. "He said that when Frank confronted me that I should never have tried to deny our belonging to him. I should have either killed Frank or put him under the Imperius curse myself. Because I failed the Dark Lord, he killed my husband as a lesson to me. I learned my lesson after that and will no longer show mercy for anyone."

Gran Longbottom then looked at Mrs. Norris and got a leer on her face. "Iona, did you ever wonder who tipped off Cy? After you left my house and had screwed up my grandson, I knew that you would turn traitor. And you had such a pedestrian lover. If you had at least a piddling amount of talent and would have been worth his time, the Dark Lord could have provided you with much better lovers. I insisted upon that when I was recruited. Little did Luscious Malfoy realize when he brought me into the fold, that he´d be the one to have to satisfy my carnal desires."

Mrs. Norris walked angrily across the room and slapped Gran´s face. "Lucius has a wife and son. You ought to be ashamed of yourself!"

"Your son-in-law has enough to go around," she said lewdly.

Son-in-law? Harry couldn´t believe his ears. Was Mrs. Norris Draco Malfoy´s grandmother? Harry looked at Mrs. Norris carefully and realized the resemblance that had been nagging him. She looked like an older version of Narcissa Malfoy. Harry then thought of how Draco strutted around the school feeling as if he owned the place because of his family´s wealth. Harry wondered if he had any idea that his grandfather had been imprisoned for torturing the parents of a fellow student. Or that his grandmother preferred the love of a Squib to a cruel but pure-blooded wizard and wound up becoming the school caretaker´s despised cat. Or even that his mother was the product of a date rape. The whole thing seemed so absurdly bizarre and funny that he wanted to laugh except for the look of anger that he saw on both women´s faces. Their rage was real and it was far from funny.

Harry also thought about the essays everyone wrote about how Voldemort´s forces might try to recruit them by offering enticements. He wondered if Draco or the other legacies would reconsider wanting to join the Dark Side if they realized that they might be compelled to service the sexual desires of evil women such as Lucretia Longbottom. He shuddered at the thought. That certainly wouldn´t be something that would be listed on a recruitment poster. If the whole situation weren´t so tragic for Neville, Harry would have openly laughed at the thought of Lucius Malfoy in bed with an old lady who had the bizarre fashion sense for wearing hideous vulture stuffed hats.

"Luscious stopped his visits after the Dark Lord fell years ago. He was forced to resume them after I demanded repayment for my steadfast loyalty by repeatedly cursing my son and his pathetic wife. This past year has been one of the most pleasurable years of my life," she gloated. Then she started leering at Snape, "Severus, perhaps I should have requested that the Dark Lord provide me with a little gothic variety. You look like the kind that would have been very entertaining for me."

Snape bared his yellow teeth and looked as if he wanted to strangle her.

"Lucretia, I think we´ve heard enough of your exploits," said Dumbledore sounding irritated. "I believe that we would all like to be able to eat food at some point today. Please refrain from any further discussion in this vein."

"Yes, the question now is, what are you planning on doing with me?" Lucretia said lazily. "You know that turning me over to the Ministry would be pointless, as we´ve fully infiltrated it by now. You cannot kill me, not if you ever want to see Frank and Claire alive again. If anything out of the ordinary happens, there are standing orders to kill them. Immediately."

"Yes, things are never easy are they, Lucretia?" Dumbledore said coldly. His eyes looked as if they were blocks of ice. "However, I don´t plan on giving up on Frank and Claire. I´ve always hoped that there might be a way to bring them back to sanity. Now we know it is possible, the trick will be getting them out of St. Mungo´s. You of course, will be the key."

He raised his wand and roared, "Stupefy!"

Gran Longbottom slumped in her chair, unconscious.

"Severus, it is clear to me that we will need you to brew up some Polyjuice Potion and have someone impersonate her. That will be the only way to get the Longbottoms out of harm´s way."

"Yes, I have all the ingredients, but it does take several weeks to brew before it will be ready," said Snape.

"Start today. Arabella can I count on you to play the part of Lucretia?"

Professor Figg looked worried, like she was contemplating something. "Actually, I think Iona would be a better choice. She can spend all day long with Lucretia. After all, both of them have to be kept out of sight and with a little `motivation´ properly applied, I´m sure that Lucretia will be a wealth of information. Plus, I´m sure Iona knows Avery."

Dumbledore then looked at Mrs. Norris carefully. "Iona, are you up to the challenge?"

Mrs. Norris then looked at Neville kindly. "Yes. It´s the least I can do to help this nice young man get his parents back."

Dumbledore nodded and then went over to Neville and Harry. "I think it´s time that you two returned to your dormitory. I am sure that you both realize that nothing you learned here today can be told to anyone, anytime soon."

"What´s going to happen with Gran?" asked Neville.

"We will have to keep her here I´m afraid. Until we can retrieve your parents from the clutches of Death Eaters at St. Mungo´s, we cannot risk involving the Ministry. Don´t worry, she won´t be harmed. Just inconvenienced."

"I´m sorry about all of this Neville," Professor Figg said kindly. "I always had suspicions about your grandmother, but never any evidence to base it on. It was more intuition than anything. Don´t worry, we will get your parents back."

Neville nodded, but looked unsure of himself as he and Harry left the classroom.

"I don´t know what to say," said Harry.

"I´m glad you came Harry," Neville said. "I´m going to need your help working through all of this. Do you know what my Gran meant when she was talking to Snape? I mean, how could You-Know-Who have made him sleep with her?"

Harry stopped walking and motioned Neville to the side.

"This is something else that you cannot breathe a word of to anyone," Harry whispered. "Snape used to be a Death Eater."

Neville´s eyes grew wide and his mouth opened in shock.

"But he turned spy for Dumbledore before Voldemort fell. Dumbledore trusts him completely," Harry said quietly. "Hmm...I wonder if Snape knew anything about your Gran. Maybe that´s why he was so upset when you used him and your gran´s clothes for the boggart lesson during our third year."

Neville looked at Harry and then they both broke out laughing.

"Maybe that´s why he turned back to our side. He didn´t want to have to service old ladies," Harry howled. "Or be forced to wear their clothes!"

"Stop, stop it Harry," Neville said laughing. "My sides are killing me."

Both boys fell on the floor holding their sides with laughter.

"Oh, I cannot believe today!" said Neville sobering. "This has got to be one of the worst days of my life."

"Yeah, but at least you didn´t wind up in the hospital wing," said Harry. "I always seem to find myself there at least once a year."

"Well I guess I have something to be thankful for," agreed Neville. "Oh and if anyone asks about what happened to Trevor, tell them that I took him outside near the lake. He swam around for a bit before the giant squid had him for a snack."

"That´ll work," Harry said as he checked his watch. "It´s almost time for dinner."

"Yeah, like I´ll be able to get anything down!" laughed Neville.

*

By the time Harry turned in his first statement to the Board of Governors, it had gone through at least five drafts. Hermione had helped him go through the text word for word. This tightened and strengthened the document so that it no longer appeared to be a confession by a guilty party. Instead, the final statement defended his actions while minimizing his culpability.

After Harry sent that letter off with Hedwig, he gave a great sigh of relief. His worries weren´t over, but his first hurdle was completed. He also had an entire week before he had to worry about doing any rebuttal statements. Hermione used this time to find a quiet corner and read ahead for her classes. For the first time in weeks, Harry only saw her during classes and mealtimes. Harry spent his time studying with Ron during this week. Ron had tried to help Harry with the legal defence, but quickly found that he was a distraction. Hermione wound up re-explaining legal concepts to Ron and he began to feel as if they be better off without him around and getting in the way.

A week´s respite from working on the expulsion hearing ended much too soon in Harry´s mind. As promised, on Thursday, May 2^nd he received copies of all the testimony that had been submitted. The owl post that day reminded him of war movies where a fleet of war planes would bomb a target in rapid succession. The Gryffindor table was pelted with sheafs of letters. Each package held twenty sheets of parchment. There were two hundred and twenty separate testimonies that had been submitted and catalogued. Harry didn´t even want to open the parcels. Just looking at them made his stomach sink. He knew that many of them would probably contain lies about him and he just didn´t have the heart to read them.

Hermione on the other hand seemed to look at all the parcels as a great challenge. Once they had stuffed all the packages of letters into their now bulging book bags, she insisted that she be the first to look at them and sort them out. Harry was in no mood to argue and in fact was relieved that she was taking charge once again in this matter.

The next day Hermione had secured the large table in the back of the library. She had covered the table with books and papers.

"I sorted everything into three piles," said Hermione. "The first are those who were too far away to see anything. We can basically just catalogue those and give a blanket response to cover them. The second are those who were supportive of you. We might want to pull some of those highlights out for your oral testimony. And the third category are those that are critical or damaging to you. We will need to respond to those point by point. We´ll have to figure out a way to carefully discuss the problems with eyewitness testimony, without undermining the testimony that is supportive of you."

"What are the problems with eyewitness testimony? Either you saw something or you didn´t," said Harry perplexed.

"It´s not as simple as that," said Hermione. "Lawyers know that people are sometimes very unreliable in interpreting actions that happen right in front of them. For example, I came across a story about a bank robbery that happened a few years ago in Texas. The bank was crowded and everyone gave a description of the bank robber and how the robbery took place. The problem was that no one described the robber as only having one arm."

Harry laughed at that, "I guess he must have had a really big gun."

"Exactly. The witnesses overlooked something important because they were focusing on something else. That´s why we need to be careful. I don´t want to totally dismiss the legitimacy of eyewitness testimony because we have some eyewitness statements that are supportive of you, but we also have many statements that are harmful and claim to have seen you cast two spells."

She straightened the stacks of paper and Harry once again started feeling his stomach sink. This was turning into such an overwhelming task, yet Hermione seemed undaunted by the challenge. As she leaned towards him to grab a sheet of parchment that had gotten loose, Harry caught a whiff of her perfume. He had never noticed her wearing perfume before. She had always just had the clean smell of shampoo that was pleasant. Now, she had the heady scent of musk.

Harry had noticed that other girls in his year had started wearing perfume and makeup. Lavender wore green eye shadow and bright red lipstick as well as smelling like a bouquet of roses. Parvati started wearing dark eyeliner and fuschia lipstick. Harry had once had the misfortune to walk behind her and found himself enveloped in a cloud of perfume that smelled like grape bubble gum. It had given him a splitting headache.

As he breathed in Hermione´s scent he could only think of one word to describe it. Intoxicating. He closed his eyes and allowed his mind to drift. He imagined that he was far away from Hogwarts, without any worries of expulsion, exams, or Dark Wizards. He saw himself and Hermione standing alone on a warm tropical beach in the moonlight. She was wearing a gauzy dress that billowed in the wind clinging gently to her body. He leaned forward to bring her into his arms...

"Harry?"

Fingers were being snapped in front of his face.

"Harry? Did you hear anything I said?" asked Hermione.

"Umm, sorry. I must have drifted off," he said dazed.

"I know this is hard, but we have so much ground to cover in only a few weeks. Plus with our regular homework, your Quidditch practices, our upcoming final exams, along with the O.W.L.s, it´s going to be tough getting everything done in time. But we´ll do it. We have to."

Harry looked Hermione in the eye. He had never seen such fierce determination in them. The raw power that he saw there awed him. Especially when he considered that such loyalty was being shown towards him.

"What did I ever do to deserve you?" he asked softly.

She looked at him and squeezed his hand, "You´re my best friend. I don´t ever want to lose you."

Harry swallowed hard. It seemed that he had thought of nothing else for weeks. The fears he had about his future after blowing up Aunt Marge were now magnified ten fold. He worried where he would go and what he would do if he were expelled. Would Dumbledore be able to keep him around Hogwarts like he did after Hagrid´s expulsion? Or would there be too much political pressure on Dumbledore to not allow Harry to stay? He also thought about how old and tired Dumbledore had been looking. If Harry were kept on at Hogwarts and Dumbledore died, what would happen then? Would he even be welcome in the Wizarding World if they thought he was a Dark Lord in training? And what would it be like if he were forced to go back to the Dursleys? Would he have to go to Stonewall High? Live like a "normal" Muggle teenager? What would he do to make a living as an adult? That is if Voldemort would let him live. Maybe he´d try to live in Little Whinging with Sirius or maybe the two of them would wind up being fugitives together. Sleeping in caves and living off rats. Harry´s worst thoughts centered about possibly losing contact with Ron and Hermione. His head ached.

Harry looked again at Hermione, it hurt just looking at her. He was so afraid he´d never see her again if he were expelled. He tried to speak, but he couldn´t make any words come out. Instead he merely nodded at her and gave a wan smile. I don´t ever want to lose you either, he thought.

*

After Neville´s memory was restored he became a new person. He no longer struggled to remember things and started raising his hand regularly to answer questions in class. Snape even seemed downright civil to Neville. He didn´t ridicule him at all and Neville was now making potions with ease. Ron teased him and suggested that Neville should have lost his toad years ago. Harry wondered whether or not this had anything to do with Ron´s clairvoyance or if he was merely joking about a pet that had annoyed him for years.

Harry kept surreptitiously asking Neville about how the plans were coming along to rescue his parents. Finally on the third Saturday of May, Neville told him in the morning that they were set to attempt it that day. Snape and Professor Figg were going to accompany him and Mrs. Norris who was going disguised as Gran Longbottom. Dumbledore had borrowed a large vehicle from an old friend and they were going to use that to transport the Longbottoms back to Hogwarts.

Even though he had a full day packed with Quidditch practice, reviewing rebuttal statements with Hermione and his regular studies, the day seemed to last an eternity for Harry. His thoughts were with Neville and his mind still wound up drifting towards what was happening at St. Mungo´s.

It wasn´t until late that evening that Neville finally returned to Gryffindor Tower, looking exhausted. Harry went up to him and asked how it all went down.

"Not here," Neville whispered. "Is anyone upstairs?"

Harry shook his head and they headed up to their bedroom. When they entered the room, Neville collapsed on his bed.

"They´re here and they´re safe," he sighed.

"What happened?"

Neville sat up and looked at Harry with a pained expression in his face. "Avery gave us a hard time. He didn´t want to discharge them at all. Figg had come up with the plan to use the sores on the hands as an excuse to get them out. So, Mrs. Norris said that she wanted to take her son and daughter-in-law out of there so that they could get `home care.´ She said she had a nurse all lined up to take care of them at home. It looked like it was going to take all day for them to release my parents. I don´t know what they doing, but it took forever. Finally they had all the papers signed and we got to move them into the van. As soon as we left the hospital, Snape did something that I thought was strange. He clamped off their feeding tubes. I didn´t understand why he did that and he wouldn´t explain until later."

"What was wrong?" Harry asked.

"He did some kind of test when we got back. He took some of the food and added some powdered chemicals and heated it in a glass tube. A silvery-black film was produced and he said it was arsenic. Harry, they had been poisoning my parents. That´s what the dark spots on their hands were due to. My grandmother knew what caused those spots because she must have authorized Avery to slowly poison them to death. Snape thinks that the amount put in the last feeding bag was a lethal dose. If he hadn´t stopped it when he did..." Neville shuddered.

"So did someone take the Catatonia curse off them?"

"Yeah, Figg did. But they´re still not well," Neville said sadly. "Madam Pomfrey is looking after them. They´re in a private room off of the hospital ward so that no one will know they´re there. She said that the long term repeated use of the Catatonia curse has devastated their minds. She likens it to stroke victims who have to relearn how to walk and talk. Plus their muscle tone is completely gone. She has started them on Spirulina to help rid their bodies of the arsenic. She thinks it may be a month or so before they´ll even start looking like their old selves again."

"Did they recognize you?" Harry asked nervously.

"No, not yet. I think it´s going to take a while for them to recognize anything. They do look awake now, so that´s progress. I plan on visiting them everyday and reading to them. Talking to them and letting them get to know me."

"That sounds very nice Neville."

"I just kind of wonder what´s going to happen with Gran."

"Did Dumbledore say anything about that?" Harry asked.

"He told me that until my parents can provide testimony to the Ministry of Magic, that he would continue to `inconvenience´ her. He said that my testimony alone wouldn´t be good enough. Because I was a small child when it happened as well as having a bad memory charm in place would make my testimony suspect."

"What about the arsenic in the feeding bags? Surely that can be used as evidence?" Harry asked.

"I thought so too, but Snape said that they´d only accuse us of spiking the bags later in an attempt to plant evidence." Neville then paused. "I wonder where Dumbledore is keeping my gran."

"Well the castle is a large place and there are many secret rooms and passages. I´m sure he´s got her stored away someplace safe," Harry said reassuringly.

Later that night as Harry was drifting off to sleep he saw the image of the lush terrarium with a large black beetle that he had seen in Dumbledore´s office. Sitting on the table next to it was an aquarium with a large brown fish with dark black spots on it that had a jawbone resembling a horseshoe with teeth on the bottom of the fish tank. It was sucking the scum off the glass.

*

As the month of May wore on, Harry and Hermione started to have a little friction. He found that every waking hour was spent either in class, doing homework, practicing Quidditch or working on his rebuttals. Hermione thought he should be spending more of his time working on the rebuttals and less time in Quidditch practices. This was something that he simply wouldn´t compromise on. Not only did he feel it was necessary, but he also needed to do something physical that took his mind off all the worries he had regarding expulsion.

The final Quidditch game of the season was going to be held on the last Saturday of the month and it was between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. It would decide who would win the Quidditch Cup. Harry was feeling incredible pressure about this game. Not only might it be the last game he would ever play in, but he knew that the victory would depend on him. Ron was now unstoppable and would probably shut out all attempts by the Ravenclaw Chasers to score. The match would come down to which Seeker was luckier that day.

Harry had been amazed at how well Cho had flown in the earlier two Ravenclaw matches. Other Quidditch players had seemed a bit rusty in the first match of the year, but not Cho, she had dramatically improved over the summer holidays. Harry thought that she must live somewhere remote enough to not worry about Muggles seeing her fly on a broomstick over the summer holidays. He guessed that she had practiced obsessively during the summertime as a coping response to Cedric´s death. Plus she now owned a Nimbus 2001 broomstick. It wasn´t as fast as Harry´s Firebolt, but it was still an incredible racing broom. So Harry was really worried about his prospects in facing her.

Two weeks before the match, the tension on the campus started to grow. Ravenclaw hadn´t won the Quidditch Cup in fifteen years and they were hungry. Very hungry. They wanted that cup in a bad way. There wasn´t the animosity that was shown two years before between Slytherin and Gryffindor at that championship game, but there was a strong smell of competitiveness in the air. Ravenclaw house was almost willing their victory by sheer desire. Hufflepuff hadn´t won the Quidditch Cup in over twenty-five years and so understood and supported Ravenclaw´s quest for victory. Slytherin for the first time in decades had lost every game of the season and was rooting heavily for a Gryffindor defeat.

Another thing that added to Harry´s anxiety was that Cho was the captain for the Ravenclaw team. It was being looked at as not only Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw, but also Harry Potter versus Cho Chang. Rumours about how Cedric died and Harry´s attentions towards Cho were being floated once again by Slytherins in an attempt to undermine his confidence and concentration.

The morning of the Quidditch match was bright and sunny. The teams flew onto the Quidditch Pitch and Harry went forward to shake Cho´s hand before the start of the game. As he looked at her, he realized that he no longer had a crush on her. He still thought she looked really hot, but it was more a dispassionate analysis than it was a physical reaction by him. Cho looked him squarely in the eye and gave him a firm handshake.

"May the best team win," she said.

"Agreed," he said.

They mounted their brooms and took their positions in the air. Madam Hooch stepped forward to release the balls and start the game.

"Welcome to the final Quidditch match of the year where the Quidditch Cup will be decided. Gryffindor leads the contest by only fifty points over Ravenclaw. It is really anyone´s game," announced Lee Jordan. "The Quaffle is released! Angelina Johnson grabs possession of the Quaffle. She flies to the Ravenclaw end and passes to Katie Bell who SCORES! Ten points for Gryffindor!"

The Gryffindor Chasers then started in their formation to defend the scoring area. The Ravenclaws had trained extensively to react to the zone defence. Mandy Brocklehurst and Lisa Turpin were both Chasers and they passed the Quaffle back and forth trying to get into a good scoring position.

"Turpin has the Quaffle and shoots and ohhh, shot down by Ron Weasley the Gryffindor Keeper."

This set up a pattern where Gryffindor had possession of the Quaffle and would score on most of the attempts, but Ravenclaw was unable to score at all. After an hour, the score was 70-0 Gryffindor.

"Ravenclaw could still win outright if they catch the Golden Snitch before Gryffindor gets 100 points. No sign of the Snitch yet, though," announced Jordan. "And another amazing stop by Keeper Weasley! He´s on fire today."

Harry had been scanning the skies and the field but hadn´t seen the Snitch. He found the brightness of the day to be distracting. The sun kept reflecting off of gold watches, earrings, bracelets, and other objects. He had seen the glints and almost took off flying a half dozen times when he realized that the sparkle was coming from the stands.

The heat of the day also was difficult because of the long robes they wore as uniforms. Harry started to sweat and was worried that he´d soon start having sweat pouring down his forehead and smearing his glasses.

"The score is now 80-0, Gryffindor. If Ravenclaw wants to end their fifteen year drought, they´re going to have to get on the board!"

Harry saw Cho squinting as well. She had an angry look on her face. She wanted to win badly and felt embarrassed that her team was being shut out. It would be up to her to win. Her house started chanting her name.

"Cho! Cho! Cho! Cho!"

The Gryffindors responded with pounding and clapping of "We Will Rock You!" The sounds in the stands became deafening.

Just then Harry saw something shiny glint coming in front of the Slytherin stand. He turned his broom towards it and as he screamed in the air towards it, he realized that it was a trick. Someone had taken a mirror and was catching the sun´s rays on it. Meanwhile Cho had started to track him. When he slowed down, she flew past him. He heard her curse when she realized that the Snitch was nowhere near there. Her flying was becoming reckless.

"Another goal by Angelina Johnson! 90-0 Gryffindor."

Harry looked at Cho. She had a desperate look about her. She was scanning and muttering under her breath. Suddenly he saw the Golden Snitch. It was flying near where the Ravenclaw Chasers were trying to get around the Gryffindor zone defence. Harry pointed his Firebolt in the direction and went after the prize. He barely missed flying into Alicia Spinnet as the Snitch flew beneath the Chaser. Cho quickly followed Harry and she screamed a war whoop as she came barreling up behind him. He had barely missed being hit by a Bludger when he seized the Snitch and held it tightly in his hand. Cho was there a split second after Harry, but she was unable to change the course of her flight. Her broomstick impaled Harry. He felt as if a javelin was being driven through him. He screamed in agony as he felt the hardened wood splinter his ribcage and enter his liver. The midair collision knocked both of them to the ground. Blood was everywhere on the field. He blacked out from the pain as he crashed to the earth.

Harry woke up later in the hospital wing. As he looked up, he saw Madam Pomfrey and felt her hands touch his bare chest. There was an ethereal white light that emanated from them, a warmth spread where she had touched him.

"Mr. Potter, I was wondering when I´d see you as a patient this year," Madam Pomfrey said wryly.

"What happened?" Harry asked groggily.

"You and Miss Chang collided in midair. You broke both legs, several ribs and your liver was a complete mess. It´s a good thing Professor McGonagall brought you here when she did. You might have bled to death otherwise. And it´s a damned good thing you didn´t do this in the Muggle world. You would have had surgery that could have lasted for hours, if you would have survived at all."

"Is Cho okay?" Harry asked.

"Yes, she´s in the bed next to you," Madam Pomfrey replied gesturing towards Cho.

"I´m so sorry Harry," Cho said tearfully. "I just really wanted to win and I lost all control. I know that Quidditch is a rough sport, but I almost killed you. If my broomstick had been a slightly different angle I could have pierced your heart rather than your liver. I am so sorry."

"Yes, it is a bloody sport," Madam Pomfrey muttered. "I´ll never understand why everyone gets so wrapped up in it. Here Mr. Potter, drink this."

She handed him a glass that held a greenish black liquid.

"Eccch. This tastes awful," complained Harry.

"Yes, that potion has bile in it. Right now you need that to help your liver mend itself. Drink," she commanded.

Harry complied and finished drinking the vile tasting liquid. Madam Pomfrey then turned down the sheets and placed her hands on his bare legs. The white light shone once again and he felt his bones mending.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"I´m fixing your broken legs, dear boy. You may have the Sight, but I have the Touch," said Madam Pomfrey.

As his other leg was being set, Harry noticed that Cho was looking at his legs. He felt quite self-conscious that all he seemed to be wearing were knickers. Madam Pomfrey then took a cloth and placed it in a basin of warm water. She squeezed out the excess water and then cleaned the dried blood that was on his legs, arms and chest. The water quickly turned a reddish brown color. She followed that with a towel to dry him off and then pulled the sheet and blankets back to cover him.

Madam Pomfrey then started tending to Cho´s broken bones. Harry tried hard not to stare at her legs in return, but found himself stealing a few glances. Seeing the radiating light from Madam Pomfrey´s hands was so fascinating that he couldn´t help but watch the healing process. He now wished again for the thousandth time that Gilderoy Lockhart hadn´t tried to fix his arm during his second year. He would rather have had her healing touch than become de-boned and have to painfully re-grow all his bones overnight.

After Pomfrey finished with Cho, she spoke to them, "Both of you will need to stay here for the night to allow your bones to mend fully and for Mr. Potter´s liver to start healing. Hopefully you´ll be able to leave sometime tomorrow afternoon. Excuse me, while I go speak with your friends."

Madam Pomfrey then walked over to the infirmary´s doors. Outside came the sound of dozens of students all speaking at once.

"They need their rest. Both of them will be fine, but they´ve been through a terrible ordeal and need bed-rest."

Harry then heard Hermione´s voice pleading to come visit. He couldn´t quite make out the words, but recognized the voice. Just hearing her being concerned about his welfare felt reassuring.

"All right," Madam Pomfrey relented. "Two visitors for each patient and only for two minutes."

Lisa Turpin and Terry Boot came over to sit next to Cho. Harry then looked up and saw Ron and Hermione sitting down next to him. Hermione´s eyes looked red and swollen. She looked like she wanted to throw herself to hug him, but was restraining herself because of his injuries. Instead she grabbed his hand and squeezed.

"Harry, how are you?" she asked.

"Sore, but otherwise okay. Please don´t worry about me," he said.

"Don´t worry? You don´t know how awful it was to watch you almost die. I don´t know if I´ll ever be able to go to another Quidditch match. I don´t think I could take seeing something like that again," she said as her eyes welled with tears.

"It was wicked," said Ron. "After McGonagall conjured stretchers and brought you here, Professor Figg went out on the field and cleaned up all the blood. It was a real mess."

"Well after today´s game I don´t think anyone can say that girls aren´t as competitive as guys," Harry said weakly.

Harry watched the tears stream down Hermione´s face. He tried to reach up to brush them away, except that when he moved his arm, he found that it caused a sharp pain to course through his chest. Hermione saw his face wince with pain.

"Don´t move Harry," she said. "Please just rest."

"Yes, that´s what they both need. Rest. Your time is up," said Madam Pomfrey.

Hermione nodded and squeezed Harry´s hand again. She then leaned forward and fingered his amulet before moving it to the center of his neck. She looked in his eyes as if to ask him about it, but decided against it. Instead she gave him a kiss on the cheek. He could feel the wetness on her cheeks and tasted the saltiness of her tears.

"I´ll come by tomorrow," she said.

"Come on, Hermione. We need to get going," said Ron pulling on her arm. "There´s a party back at Gryffindor Tower. We don´t want to miss all the food."

She nodded and then cast a sideways glance at Cho before she turned to leave. Ron then put his arm around her in a comforting gesture as they left the room.

Later Madam Pomfrey brought some rich broth for them to drink that seemed to warm Harry´s very soul. As they lay there quietly watching the rays from the sunset bouncing off the walls, Cho broke the silence.

"Harry, I never really thanked you for helping me out last fall. After your Quidditch match, Summers Montague left me alone. I really appreciated your help."

"It was nothing," he said dismissively.

"No. It really helped and you stood up for me against a thuggish brute."

"And I want to thank you for standing up for me on the first day of school," Harry replied.

"Right after I did that, I had a ton of girls come up and ask about you. They all wanted to know what you were really like. You know Harry," she said coyly, "you could have your pick of girls around here if you tried."

Harry started to feel very uncomfortable about where this conversation was going. Here was his first crush telling him how desirable he was to everyone else in school. He didn´t quite know what to make of it. This felt worse than being the guy who girls turned to talk to about their "boy problems."

"How about you? Have you found anyone?" Harry asked desperately trying to change the subject.

Immediately after he spoke, he wished he could have taken his words back. Would she think that he was once again asking if she were interested in him?

"Yeah," Cho said smiling. "I just started dating someone. He´s been my study buddy for years, but we only recently started thinking of each other as `more than friends.´ We haven´t gone public yet, so I can´t tell you who it is."

Harry considered her statement and wondered if she were telling him the truth or if she just trying to kindly brush him off again. He then thought about how awkward it would be if they did try to date. He was in some part responsible for Cedric´s death and now she almost caused Harry´s death. Not a good start for a healthy relationship.

"That´s nice. I´m happy for you," he said dully.

"Harry, I think Hermione might like it if you two were `more than friends.´"

"Why do you say that?" he asked nervously.

"A girl can tell. I think she was very uncomfortable that we´re here together tonight. I saw a look of jealousy in her eyes before she left."

"Maybe she just doesn´t want me to get hurt."

"Maybe. Harry you don´t want to wait too long. You might miss your chance again," she said slyly.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well, if you hadn´t waited so long to ask me to the Yule Ball, you might have asked me before Cedric did. I would have said yes."

Harry swallowed hard. "Would you have changed your mind about going with me when Cedric asked you?"

She shook her head. "I wouldn´t go back on a promise like that."

"So we...?"

"You never know what might have been," Cho said softly. "I´m sorry Harry, but after Cedric´s death I can´t even look at you without thinking of him. It´s just too painful," then she gave him a small smile. "Anyway, I just don´t want you to miss your opportunity again. Hermione is really beginning to blossom. The guys are beginning to take notice and if you wait too long again..."

"Why do you think I want Hermione as a girlfriend?" Harry asked defensively. "I mean she´s already got a big bulls-eye painted on her back for being my close friend. Why would I want to endanger her anymore than that?"

"I´ve seen you two together in the library. You look very comfortable together. I think you´re in love with her," she said simply. "But you just don´t want to admit it to yourself."

Harry lay there looking at the ceiling and thinking about what Cho had said. In love? Had he fallen in love with Hermione? He had been thinking about her a lot this past year. She had started to dominate his dreams, but it was either that or Voldemort. He started remembering how nice it was walking arm in arm with her under his Invisibility Cloak. Then he thought of when he held her in his arms and comforted her after her break-up with Krum. How soft her hair felt as he stroked it and how wonderful it smelled. He had been there for her as a friend, but he found himself drawing as much strength from her arms as he knew he was giving her. His mind started drifting to all the hours spent with her working on his legal defence. Selfishly he felt glad that he had been able to spend as much time with her alone and to sit so close to her. Smelling her perfume and thinking pleasant thoughts. It was undeniable the attraction that he was feeling towards her, but was that Love or was it just his hormones?

Harry didn´t want to see her hurt. That thought seemed to immediately follow any amorous feelings he ever had towards her. Maybe she´d be better off if she dated some else altogether. He started wondering who else might be interested in her. As soon as he started going through the guys in his year several faces immediately jumped out in his mind.

Draco Malfoy. He had cruelly teased her for years. Could it be that he was trying to cover up being attracted to her? Harry scoffed at the very thought of Hermione and Draco. She´s sooner hex him than kiss him.

Neville Longbottom. He had asked her to the Yule Ball. She had always been kind to him when others were thoughtless or cruel. Now that Neville´s memory had been restored, he had become confident and self-assured. Maybe Neville would now try to reach out to her.

Dean Thomas. He and Hermione had enjoyed leading the Gryffindor house in cheers at the Quidditch games. Except for the spat about Millicent Bulstrode, Harry couldn´t think of any time when Hermione and Dean had argued. They seemed to get along famously.

Then Harry realized who was probably the one person who was most likely to be in love with Hermione. Ron. He had been intensely jealous and critical of Viktor Krum. He was also overprotective and overly sensitive towards her at the same time. This led to them bickering almost constantly. Harry began to wonder if this was Ron´s inept way of showing that he was interested in her.

Harry then thought of how Ron had pulled Hermione out of the infirmary earlier that night and then put his arm around her. Ron would have then comforted Hermione, similar to how Harry had done after her break-up with Krum. Ron would be holding her in his arms and tonight they would be together celebrating Gryffindor House´s win. They would be relaxing and enjoying each other´s company without Harry being there. Would Ron use this opportunity to make his move with Hermione? Ron had seemed rather put off by all the time Harry and Hermione had spent together in the last two months working on his expulsion hearing. Was Ron jealous of him? Harry wondered.

Then Harry realized that he didn´t have a problem with the idea of Hermione being with Neville or Dean, but he couldn´t bear the thought of Hermione and Ron together. No. Hermione would still be in great danger from Voldemort and Harry would then feel like an outsider with his two best friends. No, he did not want to even consider Ron and Hermione as a couple.

Harry had never tried to use his Mind´s Eye before, but now he started to concentrate on the Gryffindor common room. He wasn´t even sure if he were having a vision or merely imagining what was happening. He saw himself travelling through the castle, through the portrait hole and into the common room. It was filled with Gryffindors rejoicing the win of the Quidditch Cup. He saw Neville chatting amiably with Lavender and Parvati. Dean and Seamus were talking with a group of fourth year students. The twins were holding court with Lee Jordan, Angelina, Katie and Alicia. Ron and Hermione had just filled their plates with food and were walking over to an empty spot on the couch. It was barely large enough for two people. They both squeezed in and Ron at first had sat with his arms firmly at his side. But it was too crowded for him to eat, so he moved one arm around Hermione´s shoulders. She looked a little surprised at first, but Ron gave her a friendly smile. Then the quality of his smile changed and he began to lean closer to her.

"STOP!" Harry screamed inside his head.

Ron´s face looked up startled as if he had heard Harry´s cry. Then the vision ended and Harry looked nervously around the infirmary.

"Stop what?" Cho asked.

"I-I didn´t say anything," Harry protested.

"You´re right, you didn´t. I must have just imagined that," said Cho. "Sorry if I woke you."

"I wasn´t sleeping. Now, thanks to you all I can think about is Hermione."

"Like you didn´t spend a lot of time thinking about her before," she said bemusedly. "I´m sure that all she´s thinking about tonight is what you and I are talking about right now. I´m sure she´s very worried about what you´re feeling towards me."

Better than her connecting with Ron, Harry thought to himself.

*

After Harry was released from the hospital wing, he had one week to finish all the rebuttals. Hermione had made notations on each sheet of testimony and decided which ones needed responding to individually. By the time they were finished there were over thirty sheets of parchment to send off to the Board of Governors. Hermione had spent so much time working on Harry´s defence that she actually received a less than perfect score on essays for the History of Magic and Charms classes.

As Hedwig and Athena took off from the owlery carrying the two packages of parchments, Harry and Hermione collapsed in a heap of exhaustion.

"That´s finally over," he sighed.

Hermione nodded, "Yeah, but we have the O.W.L.s starting a week from Wednesday and final exams the week after that. And yes, then on the 24^th we have your oral defence, but at least you´re done with the Quidditch season."

Harry shook his head at her smiling, "Can´t we just take one night off? Relax a little?"

She looked him square in the eye and said, "I won´t be able to relax until I know you´re coming back next year. Besides, I am so far behind in reading for my classes to get ready for finals that it isn´t even funny."

*

That Friday after the Defence Against the Dark Arts class was dismissed, Professor Figg asked Harry to stay after class. Following the rest of the class out the door, Ron and Hermione looked at Harry quizzically while he just shrugged his shoulders. He walked up to the desk to see what his teacher wanted. He noticed that she looked very tired, more than he had ever remembered seeing her look.

"Umm, what is it?" Harry asked as he pushed up his glasses.

She looked at him and tugged at her ear, "So, Harry I need to ask your help with something."

"Sure. What do you need?"

"First of all, could you bring that chair over here, my feet are killing me."

"You look really tired," he observed as he picked up one of the chairs and brought it behind her desk.

"I am, but I don´t think the Headmaster would appreciate one of his instructors taking afternoons off simply because they needed a nap," she said yawning. Professor Figg then propped her feet up on the chair and Harry noticed how swollen her ankles were. His eyes then traveled up her legs and noticed the way her robes hung on her body. There was a large mound on her abdomen.

"Are you...?" he started.

"Yes, Harry," she said smiling. "I´m pregnant. That´s what I need your help with. I´m due any day and I want you and Hermione to help with my delivery."

**

Copious author end notes: I´d like to thank the following readers for reviewing my work: actongirlie, Cousin Yogurt 99 aka *~Sparky~*, HeXe, Maria 1314, Mione Anne Potter, Parselmouth and Sonya Rose Jaime Potter. A special message to Draco Malfoy 68: I´m sorry you had to find out about your maternal grandmother that way, and of course your father´s extracurricular nighttime activities!

I´d like to say a few words about memory charm theories. Elkins did a fabulous job assembling the various memory charm and reverse-memory charm theories that have been floated on the Harry Potter for Grown Ups List Serv. I decided to pick and choose things that seemed likely to me and also fit my plotline - as well as throwing my own ideas to make things extra complicated and unpredictable. Anyone interested in reading about alternative theories on this topic can join the list at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/ and be sure to check the archives starting at message 38812. This topic generated numerous replies and is quite a lengthy discussion of various theories, some are incredibly creative and wildly imaginative.

After I had a Freudian slip when I was turning dialogue over in my head and came up with the name `Luscious Malfoy,´ I had such a fit of maniacal laughter that I knew I would have to include it in my story. I know that I´ll never be able to read or hear his name the same way ever again.

In case anyone was wondering, the test that Snape did is called the Marsh test. I couldn´t resist throwing in a little clinical chemistry in there. Of course there are newer and sophisticated tests used today to detect arsenic, but the Wizarding World isn´t exactly up on the latest technology now are they? And yes, the black sores on their hands (and feet) is a symptom of arsenicosis.

There were a few people that picked up on Arabella being mit kinder, such as my wonderful beta reader Cara Hicks, actongirlie, Cousin Yogurt 99 aka *~Sparky~*´s cousin Lindsey, Lanski, and Lisse Granger. I wanted to give some clues, but hoped that I wasn´t being too obvious. I did wind up throwing *~Sparky~* off track by sending an email message merely asking, "What ever did you base that on?" I wasn´t denying it, I was just wondering what clues were the ones that rang the bells. (Ducks to avoid the hurled cyber vegetables being chucked my way.)

I was wondering how many other readers knew that she was pregnant? Was I too obvious with my clues with that part of the story or just subtle enough? And that is why I had Sirius offstage in this story for so long. He´s an excited father-to-be that would be all gushy. I mean, where´s the Drama in that?

Anyway, stay tuned. We´re coming upon the end of the school year when everything seems to heat up. There are only four more chapters to go. Coming soon - Chapter 15 - Labour of Love. Where we see the birth of Arabella´s baby and the long awaited return of Sirius Black!