The New Scar

Chapter Three:

As we walked along the dew-drenched lawn to the greenhouses, I felt very vulnerable. I had a feeling of being watched. I felt quite the opposite of how I had felt in the common room. I saw that I was lagging behind a little, and took a few quick steps to catch up.

The greenhouses were set along the back lawn of Hogwarts, a few yards in front of the Forbidden Forest. A short, plump woman with gray frizzled hair stepped out from the 4^th greenhouse. She looked like a very happy-go-lucky person, yet she was covered in dirt. "Right into the greenhouse chaps!" She stepped back from the door and ushered us inside. She pulled me back from the students though. "McGerald?" she asked me.

"The one and only." I thought that I should respect this teacher's good mood and keep her in it.

"I'm Professor Sprout, your Herbology professor." She smiled and went on. "I hear tell that you did very well in Herbology at your school in America."

"Well, I guess that you heard right." It was true. Herbology had to be one of my better subjects. I knew more about plants in the Muggle world, but I was growing my own patch of gillyweed at home. Professor Sprout clapped me on the back, still smiling and ushered me inside.

The smell of fertilizer and a rain forest mixed wonderfully inside my nostrils. It was so warm in greenhouse 4 that there was fog on the windows. I found Hermione, who was standing behind a table with Harry and Ron, (not that much of a surprise), and walked over to them.

Professor Sprout stood in front of the class. "Good morning children! Today, and throughout the year, we will be growing your own Venomous Tentactulas!" She sounded very happy and looked as if she was about to burst. Apparently this woman had one serious love for plants. I looked over her shoulder at a fully-grown Tentactula sitting in an overly large pot in the corner. It was about 7 feet high and dark red. Its feelers were sticking out of the top and had been swaying back and forth with excitement ever since we had entered the greenhouse.

"Well, come on now, at least 4 to a table let's go!" She gave each one of us a single bean-like seed that just fit in my palm. It had a few tentacle-like arms wiggling from the sides of it. The four of us went to a table with 5 pots with dirt in them. A few seconds later, we were joined by a dark-haired Ravenclaw girl with glasses. "Hi. You must be Cassie. I'm Cho. Cho Chang." And with that she stuck out her hand. I took it. "Hey Cho." She dropped my hand and said, "You guys mind if I join you? The other tables are full."

"Nah, we don't mind." I looked at the other three. "Do we?" I thought that if this girl was yet another enemy of either one of them, I'd better back off. But, Hermione didn't seem to mind, and Ron was busy trying to shove his seed into the pot before him. The tentacles didn't seem to want to be inside the dirt. Harry, to my great surprise, looked speechless.

"Harry, you still there?" I waved my hand in front of his face.

He jump-started out of his trance. "What? Yeah, I...I'm...fine...it's fine...she..."

I interrupted before he could make a fool of himself. "I get it. Stop talking before you hurt yourself." I turned to Cho. "It's fine."

The rest of the period seemed...fine. We didn't talk that much because we were trying to get the seed into the pot. Afterwards, we watered them and let them sit next to the fully-grown one; after all, they were its seedlings.

<*>

The next few classes, I had proven to be gifted in. Charms was a breeze. My wand did everything that I wanted it to do. We were working on Hearing Charms which allow us to hear things from an abnormal hearing range.

Transfiguration was slightly more difficult, but I finished the hour to the satisfaction of Professor McGonagall. We were supposed to be changing our quills into full birds, but when I tried to change it back, all I got was a "squawk" from the bird and a small explosion of ink left on the front of my robes. But my quill fluttered down from the air.

During lunch, I was still trying to get the ink off of my front.

Arithmancy and Study of Ancient Runes were difficult, no doubt about that. But with Hermione helping me, it made all the difference.

Care of Magical Creatures had to be, by far, my best and favorite. We didn't have this class at Shawmain because there were no magical creatures that could be claimed or written about. Hermione and I caught up with Harry and Ron after their Divination lesson. "So, what did that old crack pot tell you today Harry? Oh wait, let me guess..." Hermione closed her eyes and put her fingertips to her head as we walked outside. "You're going to die?"

Harry laughed. "Oh don't be silly Hermione. It's only the beginning of the year, she's got plenty of time to predict my death."

I was listening, but I had absolutely no idea what they were talking about. But I didn't have much time to think about it because we were nearing the hut where Care for Magical Creatures was to take place.

From the doorway, an enormous figure appeared. It had a tangled mass of black fur, (as we got closer, I realized that it was hair and a beard.) with a huge body. I thought that this was going to be a creature that we were to be working with. But to my utmost horror, Harry led us right up to the figure. "Hey Hagrid."

The gigantic thing spoke. "All rig' Harry? Who've ya got here?" It looked at me with beady black eyes.

"This is Cassie." Harry looked at me. It seemed as though he wanted me to finish the introduction myself.

I spoke up. "M-McGerald."

I think that the thing called Hagrid smiled. His whiskers went up anyway. "Mighty nice ter meet ya." And he turned and walked to the backyard of the hut. The other three followed, and I was, once again, swept forward in the flow of students (mostly Slytherins).

We walked around to the back and were greeted by...grass. "Hold on a minute." Hagrid approached a bush planted next to the hut. He placed his huge hand in the air above it and let it hover there until...he plunged his hand into the bush. He dug around for a few seconds while the students around me watched eagerly. He finally stopped moving his hand and it seemed that he had grabbed a hold of something, and he pulled out a creature that looked about 2 feet in height. It was covered in black shaggy fur and was rubbing its exceptionally large nose. As Hagrid set it down, it swayed back and forth grounding its cloven feet into the earth.

"Porlock." Hagrid said. "Found one last week to guard my hut, and thought that he'd make an interesting topic." As Hagrid slowly let go of the porlock's fur on top of it's head, it looked at each one of us with a look of fear. Its eyes were watering and I'll bet that not only I was feeling sympathy towards it.

"So, whadd'ya think?" Hagrid asked rocking back and forth on his heels.

A cold drawling voice came from behind the rest of the students. "It looks like a stupid little house elf to me." Malfoy stepped from amidst everyone else. The groups of students were looking at him as he approached the front of the group, and he stood next to me and stared at the sad looking Porlock. As Malfoy glared down at it, the poor little thing grasped Hagrid's shin and took cover behind it.

"Have anything else to say Mr. Malfoy?" Hagrid asked him. I looked to my right at Malfoy who had a very noticeable look of malice in his eyes. Yet just under his left eye, I noticed a very large bruise that I myself had given him.

"Only that we've been learning about things with weaknesses for far too long don't you think?" He paused to let us hear the sniggers and murmurs of assent from the Slytherins. "How about a Manticore, or a Chimaera? Bet you'd love to have one of those wouldn't you...sir?"

I looked up to Hagrid. He seemed to be fighting the urge to smack Malfoy right into the ground. "Going back to the Porlock..." Hagrid went on, but I wasn't paying any heed to what he said. I looked to my side and caught Malfoy's cold eye. He slowly passed me with his eye on mine. Eventually, he looked away and headed back to the Slytherin group.

I was snapped back to reality because Hermione elbowed me in the side. Hagrid was still going on. "These little devils live to guard houses or herds of animals. Don't like humans though. Hide at their approach."

The Porlock was bent over with its short stubby arms leaning on the ground and it was eating mouthfuls of grass.

Hagrid chuckled. "Love grass they do." He smiled and looked up at the class. "Any questions?"

I heard Malfoy say something under his breath, but it obviously was not audible enough for Hagrid to hear. I turned my head back around to him and gave him a dark look. He returned it. It had become a stare down. I was determined to win, but his gaze was...unbeatable. I cast my eyes down and turned my head back. How could you?! I thought.

A few minutes later we were to return to the school for Potions. Harry groaned as he looked at his schedule. "I can't believe it. But...wait a minute...Hufflepuff? That's unusual."

"Why?" I inquired.

Ron answered. "We usually have Potions with Slytherin. It'll be a big change not having Snape pick on us all the time."

"Oh, I dunno Ron. Snape will think of something." We continued down to the dungeons. Unlike the dungeons of Shawmain, these were incredibly dry. Shawmain's had usual floods and things like that. It was a slight relief to go to Potions and stay dry.

We walked into the classroom and the four of us split into twos. Hermione sat with Ron and Harry sat with me, the tables being one behind another.

It took a few minutes for us to get settled...and to notice that Snape was not in the classroom. Most of the class was murmuring and exchanging confused looks.

"Wonder where he is." Hermione muttered.

All of a sudden, the door to the classroom swung open with a bang as Severus Snape entered. He had sallow skin and incredibly greasy hair. He looked worried and was briskly walking, with his black robes billowing behind him. I noticed that he was pulling one arm of his robes down from his shoulder. I looked over at Ron since we were all turned to the aisle between the tables. He was staring at Snape in a searching, wondering, and slightly accusing manner.

Snape walked up behind his desk. "Umm...I...uh, don't have any lesson plans for today." He said nervously as he shuffled and stacked the papers on his desk. "So...uh...." He wiped his brow. "Just...work on other homework..." he looked off into space. "Yes...." Then, Snape looked at his students. "Well? Didn't you hear me? Get to work!"

There was an immediate rustling of papers around me and I followed suit. My eyes stayed on Snape though. As I kept my head down, my eyes followed him out of the room, and I saw the door slam shut.

The three new friends of mine and I each looked at each other. "What the hell was that about?" I asked them.

Hermione hunched back over to Harry and I and her mouth was open as if she was going to explain something, but her eyes caught the sight of the other students in the room. "Common room, after supper." And with that, she turned back around. She looked at Ron, and he nodded.

<*>

So, after supper, Hermione, Harry, Ron and I all went up to the common room behind the flow of students. We walked in casually, (or, they did, and I just did what they did.), and sat at a table in the corner and laid out our homework as if we were working on it, and began our conversation.

"Ok, so what'd I miss? Although it really isn't any of our business of a teacher's personal life." I asked the three of them.

Ron groaned playfully, "Oh, you sound like Hermione did at the beginning of 1^st year."

"Ron!" Hermione hissed severely. "This is serious. Cassie, you know what a Death Eater is right?"

Did I know what a Death Eater was? Who didn't? Even in America we had them. A whole freaking pack of them had attacked my town when I was about 4. John and Ann had told me to hide. I did, but I still heard the screams of poor muggles and I saw blood flow in the street in front of me and under the car where I was concealed...

"Yeah." I answered.

"Snape is one." She said breathlessly.

I didn't believe it. "Yeah. Sure."

Harry nodded and replied slowly, "He is."

I sat back in my chair. "You're kidding. Dumbledore'd know wouldn't he?"

"Dumbledore doesn't believe that Snape could still be one. He doesn't usually go to the meetings." Ron looked slightly afraid of this talk about Death Eaters.

"So...he's got the...you know." I patted my shoulder. "The Mark?"

All three of them nodded. "So, he was at a meeting today?"

Hermione answered. "Most likely. You-Know-Who's probably getting very interested in Harry, and now that you're here..." She stopped there as if I should know what she was talking about.

" 'Now that I'm here...' what?" I knew that she meant my scar, but I wanted her to say it.

But Ron did. "You know...your mark." He reached over to my arm and pushed back the sleeve. Again, hands revealed my scar that I didn't want anyone to see or feel. I pushed back my chair, stood, and said quietly, "Voldemort...is not after me." And I quietly ascended the staircase to the dormitories.

<*>

As I lay in my four-poster bed, I thought a lot of things. Most of the things swirling around in my brain were incredibly pessimistic things. What was I doing here? Is there really a Dark Lord after me? Why can't I just go home? As I thought these things over and over, I fell into a sleep. I didn't dream at all, (or not that I can remember).

All of a sudden, a staggering pain shot up through my arm as if it had been cut off. I instantly sat up and grasped my scar. It was dark and I couldn't see a thing, but I didn't need to, to know that I was in severe and absolute pain. I rocked back and forth on my bed and gasped and whimpered trying not to wake Hermione.

"Cassie?" A groggy voice issued from behind my curtains. Too late.

Hermione pulled back my curtains and sat on my bed. "Are you ok?" she asked as she lit my candle with her wand. And she looked at me with deepest concern. The light from the candle cast shadows under her eyes.

Tears were streaming down my eyes. "No." I managed to crack out in between whimpers and sniffs. Hermione slipped her hand over my arm and pulled it out of my reach. I faced away and put my head down. I knew that my scar wouldn't look any different than it had hours before, but it hurt worse than ever.

I felt Hermione's fingers trace the lightning shape. "W-w-what are you doing?" I looked up and saw that her forehead was wrinkled with concentration.

"Does it hurt when I touch it?" she asked still examining my scar.

"No," I whimpered out. "It just hurts either way." I put my head down again

Hermione stood up and said, "I'll check my books for something on curse scars. I couldn't find anything for Harry, but I may find something in my new books." And she went over to the trunk at the end of her bed, and rummaged through it.

As she pulled out a book, my head snapped up with a sudden thought... "Harry." I breathed aloud.

"What?" Hermione asked as she flipped the pages.

I looked to her. "Harry." I choked out. "Harry's in pain...go get him."

Hermione looked at me in shock. "What do you mean? Can you hear him?"

I failed in fighting back tears from pain and worry. "Just go get him damnit!"

Hermione jumped up and without a backward glance, she left the dormitory. I lay back in my bed, again, clutching my arm. How did I know that he was in pain? In the back of my mind itched a thought that I tried not to bring out for fear that it would make me hurt worse. When I did let it out, Harry came into focus. He was crouched over sitting up in his bed grasping his head. He, as I had been, was rocking back and forth, and Ron was sitting on his bed, as Hermione had done mine.

Hermione came back a minute later with Ron and Harry. Harry's forehead was clutched in his hand and I saw a look of extreme pain on his face. Hermione steered Harry over to my bed and Ron gently pushed him down on it.

As Ron looked from me to Harry with both worry and curiosity, he said, "What is going on here? You two'd better tell us or..."

"Ron!" Hermione nudged him. "Can't you tell that they're in pain?"

We sat in awkwardness for a few seconds. I had gone back to nursing my arm. It felt as if it was on fire. And I could tell that Harry felt the same way.

Hermione sat on my left side. "What's the matter Cassie? What's going on?"

My pain had slightly subsided and I was able to speak without stopping for a few seconds. "I saw Harry." Harry looked up still clutching his forehead. "He was in his bed holding the place on his head where his scar was. And..." I stopped to steady myself and take a breath. "I knew that it was happening as I saw it. I knew that he was in pain."

Harry slung his upper body over his legs over the side of my bed. Hermione had her arm hand on my shoulder. The only thing that was even remotely funny about this moment, was Ron's crazed expression that said, "you're all nuts."

"Me too." I heard Harry mutter from his position.

"What?" I looked over at him.

Harry lifted his head and took a sharp intake of breath. "I saw you too."