Destiny Trilogy: The War

Chapter 3: Misfiled

The Halloween feast was fantastic as usual, with its live, flying bats and floating pumpkins. Dumbledore had even ordered a large amount of the fluttering bats from Honeydukes as a special school treat, but even that failed to improve Hermione's mood. Harry and Ron sighed as they made their way down to the dungeons. Double Potions with Snape in an especially vindictive mood was hardly the first thing they needed on a Tuesday morning right after the Halloween feast to top up Hermione's bad temper.

"Look on the bright side," Ron told Hermione. "At least she probably won't be joining us for lessons."

"Lucky for you two!" Hermione snapped. "I will have to sleep in the same room as her every night!"

"Might not be a permanent thing," Harry pointed out as made their way to their usual place at the back of the class and sat down.

Snape strolled in from his office at the back. He scanned the faces of the Gryffindors and frowned. Just then, there was a knock at the door. The class craned their necks to look.

"Yes, come in, Miss Ladon," Snape said, smiling.

Harry could hear a low hissing coming from Hermione, like a boiling kettle. She looked as if she was going to explode anytime soon. But although Harry agreed that Kera was a bit arrogant, he couldn't help feeling a little sorry for her when he saw that smile on Snape's face, which could only mean one thing if it wasn't directed at a Slytherin.

"Take a seat here, next to Mr. Malfoy," Snape told her, pointing to the desk right in front of him. Ron made a sympathetic noise despite Hermione's angry hissing beside him, earning himself a hard kick under the table. The rest of the Gryffindors watched with bated breath, wondering what horrors Snape had in store for Kera.

But Snape just went back to starting the lesson, listing ingredients on the board and announcing that they were making a revealing potion to counter last week's invisibility potion. Harry and Ron exchanged uneasy looks. Snape hadn't even taken points off from Kera. They ignored Hermione's venomous look and started discussing in hushed whispers if there was any way of warning Kera about the potential danger she was in without drawing the attention of Malfoy, who was looking absolutely repulsed at having a Gryffindor sit near him.

"Has anyone found out what is a drawback of using the skin of the Elbisiv root in the invisibility potion we did last Friday?" Snape asked the class. All of them turned to Hermione, but to their surprise, for the first time she had absolutely no idea as well.

"Not even Miss Granger?" Snape smiled his chilling half-smile reserved specially for Harry. "Perhaps Mr. Potter would like to find out for us by tasting his potion? In fact I wonder why he hasn't already tried it to see if he can get into more trouble yet go unpunished..."

Harry kept his head down, refusing to rise to the bait just yet. All Snape needed was a little excuse to relief him of his Prefect badge for Malfoy to lord over him. Besides, it wouldn't do to have Snape 'accidentally' let loose the fact that he had an invisibility cloak. To their surprise, Kera's hand went up.

"Yes, Miss Ladon?" Snape asked, surprised.

"The skin of the Elbisiv root releases a toxic substance when exposed to oxygen. Since this is inevitable, the potion is unsuitable for consumption and application to most living creatures," she replied quietly.

"Saved by a first year student, Mr. Potter," Snape sneered, and the Slytherins laughed appreciatively. Hermione looked about two nanoseconds away from blowing up.

"Five points to Gryffindor," Snape said rather reluctantly. The Slytherins stopped laughing. Even Hermione was surprised enough to stop being irritated. The Gryffindors began to speak in hushed whispers to each other all at once.

"Silence! Ten points from the lot of you for talking in class."

Snape made them work in pairs after that. Smiling nastily, he had made Harry team up with Neville so Hermione wouldn't be able to 'fix' his mistakes. Harry thought Snape seemed to be hoping for something to go wrong so he could set up Harry for detention into the next week. Initially, Malfoy complained loudly to Goyle, who was seated beside him, about having to work with Gryffindors who messed everything up, but he soon shut up. It turned out that Kera was pretty good at Potions herself.

When they were peeling the visumera seedpods, Snape stopped at Kera and Malfoy's table.

"I was rather surprised at the Sorting Hat's decision," Snape said softly to Kera so that only they could hear, eyeing the Gryffindor crest on her robes distastefully.

"Sorry to disappoint you, Professor," she replied, without looking up. "I was rather surprised myself."

She added the ingredients to the rest of the shimmering potion, which turned a pale grey. Snape nodded approvingly as she stirred the thickening potion.

"Look at how your classmates have managed to get their potion to such a perfect consistency!" Snape smiled indulgingly at her and Malfoy. "Miss Granger, perhaps you would do well to learn more from Miss Ladon."

"That disgusting, stuck-up girl," Hermione muttered as she stirred her own perfect potion furiously, her opinion of Kera obviously having reached a new low. "Since Snape likes her so much she should just transfer to stinking Slytherin!"

Harry and Ron exchanged a look and raised their eyebrows. Hermione usually didn't put much stock into the Gryffindor-Slytherin rivalry, and had in fact chastised both boys at least once about picking childish fights with the Slytherins. Malfoy on the other hand seemed to have changed his mind about not speaking to Gryffindors and was trying to strike up a conversation with Kera. Stirring his own potion (which had ended up sort of pinkish-grey) Harry watched Malfoy lean over to say something to Kera. It looked like it was going to be another very long year in Potions.

*~*~~*~**~*~*~~*

"I can't stand her!" Hermione exploded, her shrill voice almost echoing in Hagrid's little hut, now occupied by Charlie Weasley.

It was amazing how Hermione could forget every word in the Prefects' Handbook about personal opinion of fellow students where Kera was concerned, especially after Kera had obtained full marks as well for their Ancient Runes assignment. Charlie smiled as he set down mugs of tea on the table, rolling his eyes at Ron and Harry. Girls.

Although Charlie had also taken over the gamekeeping duties, there was a strange absence of dead fowl and hams hanging from the ceiling. Instead, it was now cluttered with other things--books, photographs and little souvenir odds and ends from Romania. There was even a vase of herbs and flowers from Ginny, who had been spending a lot of time with Charlie, chatting as she did her homework.

"And what do the two guys really think of the new girl?" Charlie asked, grinning at the look of horror on their faces when both girls snapped around to shoot venomous looks at them, daring them to express different sentiments.

"Well...uh...she's kinda creepy," Ron admitted.

"And she's a bit...sure of herself, I suppose," Harry said uncomfortably.

"Before you two girls strangle them for voicing such vague opinions," Charlie said, his eyes twinkling wickedly, "it's her first year here after all. It has been rather disorientating and it doesn't help that she never stays in one class long enough to make friends."

"But she has no respect for the prefects..."

"It's no excuse, but she's fifteen too, you know. Perhaps she just didn't like following the orders of someone the same age as her."

"She's making friends with the Slytherins!" Ginny protested.

"So she's not acquainted with the House prejudices. I don't see why that's not a good thing." Charlie shrugged. "Besides, if all the Gryffindors are treating her like the two of you do, it's no wonder that she has decided to make other friends."

Harry felt a little guilty. Come to think of it, he and Ron had passed their judgement on her the moment they had set their eyes on her. But then, so had the rest of Gryffindor...and the rest of the school, for that matter. Harry frowned.

"There must be some reason, though," Harry said.

"Some reason for what?" Ron asked, puzzled.

"The moment we saw her, we decided she had to be a Slytherin...as if there was something about her that we could feel would make her better off in Slytherin."

"Planning a career as the next Sorting Hat?" Charlie teased. Harry noticed a strange flicker in his eyes, like he wasn't being entirely truthful with them. A glance at Ron told him he had caught it too.

"But what about Snape?" Ron asked. "He gave her points." Charlie looked suitably impressed.

"All the teachers have had to tutor her intensively for the past two months to make sure she can cope with skipping straight to fifth year, although she had private lessons before coming to Hogwarts. If she is as good at Potions as you say she is, I wouldn't be surprised if Severus took a liking to her. In fact, I found her rather endearing myself." Charlie stood up to collect their mugs. "Well, I'll have to chase you off now. I need to prepare for class."

The boys lagged behind a little as they left the hut. Once they were sure they were out of earshot, Ron turned to Harry. "Do you get the feeling he's just making a lot of excuses for her?"

Charlie knew something about Kera Ladon that he wasn't telling.

*~*~~*~**~*~*~~*

The cold waves seemed to stretch forever. Storm clouds rumbled overhead, lightning threatening to strike the black stone tower in the middle of the tempest-tossed ocean. Icy spray whipped up in the already freezing wind hit at the stone walls futilely, not quite able to block out the faint moans and muffled screaming within. It looked like a place that had never seen the sun.

A man was speaking calmly to the monstrous guards of the wizard gaol, almost entirely unaffected by them, and even perhaps relishing the hellish shrieks from within--even if they were made by his faithful followers.

"You will not have only this miserable lot to feed on," he said, a thin smile in his pale face, his hand gesturing to the cold stone prison. "In fact, I have brought some...gifts...for you. In exchange."

The tall cloaked figure motioned for two struggling figures in tattered muggle clothes to be brought forward. The hooded nightmare figures of the Dementors swarmed forward greedily, reaching out for their screaming victims...

His scar was on fire, but then the familiar, unpleasant cold kept coming, making him feel the rest of his body was freezing from the inside, paralysing him. The Dementor leant forward, its breath stinking of rotting things...

Harry's eyes jerked open, panting like he had just run twenty times around the Quidditch field. The whole History of Magic class was looking at him, and even Professor Binns had stopped his boring lecture to peer at him through his ghostly glasses.

"Harry, are you okay?" Hermione asked, concerned.

"No," Harry replied. "Excuse me, Professor." He grabbed his bag and rushed out of the class, accidentally going right through Professor Binns in his haste.

By the time he had reached Professor Dumbledore's office, the blood was rushing to his head and he could hardly breathe. The dull throbbing of his scar hadn't quite faded yet, and he absent-mindedly rubbed it as he shouted out candy names at the gargoyle.

"Chocolate bats! Cockroach Cluster! Sherbet Lemon! Um...Squiggly Gums?"

"What are you doing here, Mr. Potter?" a deceptively silky voice said behind him. "Shouldn't you be at lessons? Tsk, tsk... a Prefect, no less."

Harry turned around. As much as he hated Snape with all his being, he knew Dumbledore trusted Snape for some unfathomable reason. We're on the same side, he tried to convince himself.

"Could you tell me the password...please?" Harry finally managed, his voice shaking a little from trying not to scream at Snape for always managing to be such a petty, self-centred prick especially at times like this.

Snape frowned, apparently thrown off by Harry's attempt at civility. "The Headmaster is not in."

"Do you know of any way of contacting him now?" said Harry urgently, resisting the urge to swear. Then Snape's eyes hardened, turning even blacker than they usually were.

"What is it?" Snape asked, his voice suddenly sharp and alert.

Harry took a deep breath, hesitating for a moment. He would have preferred to inform Dumbledore directly, but there was too much at stake.

"The Dementors have gone back to Voldemort."