Love Leaves a Marking

Chapter Two: A Moment of Truth

. . . Harmony . . .

On my third day at Hogwarts, the first thought that passed through my head was 'damn you, alarm clock'. It's true. Although I'd had more than my fair share of beauty sleep - breakfast had started fifteen minutes before I awoke - I was more than a little cranky. It took at least half a minute of my alarm clock annoyingly ringing right down my ear for me to finally yawn, sit up, and turn it off.

Why did the summer hols have to END? I asked myself as I changed into my uniform: black robes, dark red tie with gold stripes - everything else was pretty much the same as the normal Hogwarts uniform. I was actually the age of a seventh year, but I had taken my NEWTs in sixth year and my OWLs in fourth. I was ready to roll, and I wasn't going to stop until I reached the bottom of the hill.

Before leaving my quarters, I pinned to my collar a badge that said clearly, 'Teaching Assistant'. I picked up my bag - satchel to be precise - and headed for the great hall. I spotted Hermione. Depending on which way I looked at it, it was both surprising and unsurprising that Harry and Ron weren't with her - surprising because my first impression was that they did everything and went everywhere together; unsurprising because my second impression was that Harry and Ron were snoozers.

I sat down next to Hermione. We greeted each other with a simple 'hi', and then all my concentration was on my breakfast. It astonished me how delicious the food at Hogwarts was. I was halfway through my plate of food when Gadriela came into the great hall and sat down opposite Hermione and I. Harry and Ron came after her. Ron sat next to Gadriela, and Harry sat on the other side of Hermione. Because there was nothing to talk about, none of us tried to start a conversation.

Looking up at the staff table, I saw Dumbledore engrossed in a heated discussion with Minnie, as I liked to call her (it's Minerva now, but not until I left my teens did I stop calling her Minnie, or Min). I squinted to watch. He said something to her. She raised her eyebrows. He nodded. She said something. They both started laughing. Then the heated discussion ended and they went back to eating their breakfast. You could say I was suspicious.

I pulled my timetable out of my pocket and looked at it. The first lesson on it was '6th Year Gryffindor/Slytherin'. It was the first time I would see Hermione and Gadriela in class, and I was looking forward to it.

"We've got Transfiguration first," Hermione told Gadriela, making her the first to speak in quite a long period of time - I know two minutes isn't very long, but considering the fact that Harry and Ron never shut up, it was a long period of time.

"With Professor McGonnall?" Gadriela asked.

Hermione smiled. "You mean Professor McGonagall?"

Gadriela blushed a little and nodded. I smiled knowingly. I knew exactly how she felt - I'd had to look twice at the name when I got my job summary. Upon consulting my watch I decided it was time to start heading for the classroom. "See you guys later," I said by means of goodbye, and left the great hall. From there, the Transfiguration classroom was just down the corridor, which I was grateful for. On the other hand, I was definitely not grateful for the fact that Gryffindor Tower was on the seventh floor - six floors difference between them?!

Minnie was already in the room, searching through her desk - in other words, she was oblivious to the fact that I was there. It was my chance. I remember being over the moon because I was able to simply put my hand out and the chosen object would come flying towards me. That was what I did. I concentrated on Minerva's hairpins and slowly reached out. For a moment nothing happened, but a second later my hand was closed and in it were quite a lot of small, straight hairpins.

"Harmony! What on earth are you doing?" Minerva demanded. She had only just become aware of my presence.

"Stealing your hairpins," I said impishly. I know I was annoying, but I have no regrets.

"Give them back."

I grinned. "What's in it for me?" I teased. She didn't say anything, but her eyes narrowed. "Come on... if you let me have them and see you with your hair down for one lesson... then you can think of something for me to do in return."

"Does behave yourself sound good?"

"Tell me more."

"If I do this, you have to behave yourself and not bother me in any way whatsoever for the rest of this week."

To a sixteen-year-old girl, that didn't sound fair. "Hey, that isn't fair! You have to wear your hair down for a lesson and I have to behave in class for a week!" I protested angrily.

Minerva sighed. "Alright. I'll wear my hair down for a day. You have to behave yourself in class for a week, because you know how much I hate wearing my hair down. Does that sound fair to you?"

I nodded. Unknown to Minerva, I had a trick up my sleeve. She had told me to behave myself in class... there was nothing in the rules about behaving myself out of class...Grinning, I stowed the hairpins away in my pocket and took out of my bag a wad of graded essays. Minerva had set them for homework, to see how much the class had remembered. I had already memorised the seating plan, so I shot around the classroom, placing the essays on their respective desks. I finished the task just as the class came in, Draco Malfoy at the front. I wasn't really expecting anything else. I fought back the urge to burst into laughter as he sat down. His essay had been given a D. D for dreadful, which it most certainly was.

. . . Gadriela . . .

I was quite nervous as I entered the Transfiguration classroom for my first lesson. Harmony was pacing up and down the room with an unnatural smile on her face. She struck me then as a lover of mischief. I assumed that the only desk without an essay on it was mine, and luckily it was next to Hermione's. I sat down, silent while everyone else was chatting away. Professor McGonagall was nowhere in sight, but sitting on the desk was a black and silver striped tabby cat. There was something about it that unnerved me - the way it looked around the room with an expression of foreboding, the way its eyes narrowed at a group of giggling girls that included Lavender and Parvati.

Suddenly, out of the blue, there was a whisper in my ear. "Don't do anything that might make her angry."

I turned around to face Harmony. "Make who angry?"

She nodded towards the front of the class. "The cat." The look I gave her then was the most puzzled, disbelieving look I have ever given anyone (I think). Harmony laughed. "Professor McGonagall can turn into a cat." My eyes widened - that was all I needed. Harmony smiled and nodded, moving away from me to approach the boy that had caught my eye in the great hall. I watched and listened curiously. Some of the complicated words they were saying I didn't understand, but I used what I did know to piece the sentences together.

"Why the long face?" Harmony asked the boy cheerfully. He looked positively fuming while she was as happy as the day was long.

"Did you mark this?" he snarled. Ouch. Attitude, I thought.

"Yes," she replied simply.

"Why have you given me a D?" he demanded.

For a moment, Harmony was silent. Then a smile graced her features. Then she began to laugh. "Because it's crap!" she replied, giggling. I fought the overwhelming urge to start giggling as well. The effect of that simple sentence on the Slytherin boy was incredible. He was absolutely furious and I could tell. Harmony, on the other hand, had just finished laughing uncontrollably and was standing there shaking her head in amusement. "Look, Malfoy, if you're going to hand in a crap essay, you're gonna suffer for it." Well said.

She walked away from him. I could see that this 'Malfoy' was an arrogant git, but he still stood out from everyone else. I nudged Hermione. "Who is he?" I asked her, nodding towards him.

Hermione wrinkled her nose. "Him? Oh, that's Draco Malfoy. He's in Slytherin. Stay away from him; he's a git."

So she confirmed my suspicions. She'd told me he was a git, and I knew it myself. But when I looked at his white blonde hair, his slate blue eyes, I felt something. I didn't know what at the time, but I felt something. Knowing that I would continue to feel that 'something' if I continued to look at him, I turned away and looked to see what Professor McGonagall was writing on the board. "What does that say?" I asked Hermione.

She looked. "Turn to page 245 of your books and answer the questions," she read. She waited for Professor McGonagall to write the rest. "Extension work: activity on page 248." I raised my eyebrows. She pulled my copy of NEWT Transfiguration towards her and flicked to page 245. "Answer those questions," she said, pointing, "and then do this," she said, turning to page 248 and indicating a practical activity. I nodded and looked at the title, REVISING FOR YOUR NEWTS, and then looked at the questions.

1) Transfiguration means what?

I'll admit it. I was surprised. I thought about it for a moment, then pulled a piece of parchment, a quill and an inkwell towards me and began writing. Transfiguration means changing something into something else, I wrote. It was good enough for me. That was what we did in Transfiguration, wasn't it? Change things into something else. Harmony had said that Professor McGonagall could turn into a cat - she was turning from a human to an animal.

2) What is an Animagus?

An Animagus... an Animagus... An Animagus is a witch or wizard who can turn into an animal. Professor McGonagall.

3) The wizard chooses the animal. True or false?

True.

That one was easy.

. . . Hermione . . .

I don't like to admit it, but Transfiguration that day was... boring. I was the only one who finished the thirty questions and reached the extension activity, which was changing the content of a book. I managed that and spent the remaining half hour of the lesson with nothing to do, as both Harmony and Professor McGonagall were running around the classroom, stopping the Slytherins blowing themselves up.

When Transfiguration finished I was, for the first time, happy. Charms was a lot less boring as we practised a new spell, but 'time flies when you're enjoying yourself' was a saying proved true. I was half pleased and half disappointed when the lesson ended and the time came for us to have a break. I headed for the grounds after pouring myself a glass of pumpkin juice, and settled myself in the shade under a tree. A few minutes passed, with me taking casual sips of my juice, and then Harry came out to sit with me.

"Hey," I greeted.

"Hey," he responded.

"How are you feeling?" I asked.

He thought for a moment before replying, "I don't really know. I think I'm sort of in shock. Nothing seems real, not since Sirius died... I can't believe he's gone, 'Mione. I thought he'd always be there." I didn't know what to say. His words moved me, and I was fighting the urge to cry. But I knew I had to be strong for him. He had always been strong for me.

"He hasn't gone," I said softly. "He's right here." I placed my hand over Harry's heart. "So are your mum and dad. And you have Ron and me. You'll always have Ron and me."

He looked down at my hand, and then up at me. "Thanks, Hermione."

"Don't worry about it," I assured him. "If anyone is going to win this fight, it's going to be you. Not... not Voldemort, you."

He smiled, but the light had disappeared from his eyes. Fear gripped me. "Hermione," he whispered. "There's something I need to tell you." He looked right at me, and a shiver ran down my spine. "Remember the prediction Professor Trelawney made in third year? The one about Pettigrew?" I nodded. "We thought it was her first real prediction. After we came back from the Department of Mysteries, Dumbledore asked to speak to me. He told me it wasn't." My eyes widened and he continued. "Sixteen years ago, Dumbledore started interviewing people to find a new Divination teacher. Professor Trelawney was one of the applicants. He took her to the Hog's Head and she told him something." I might have been intrigued, but I was scared out of my wits. "She told him about a prophecy."

I'm positive that the fear showed in my eyes as Harry carried on. "The prophecy stated that the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord would be born as the seventh month died." I thought that was bad enough, but the worst was yet to come. "It stated that one must live and the other must die - the other being either the Dark Lord, or the one with the power to vanquish him. That's me, Hermione. I was born as the seventh month died. I'm the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord." As he said those words, I realised for the first time that I didn't know if the light in his eyes would ever come back.

To be continued...