As the Eagle Flies

Chapter Five

Your detention will take place at eight o'clock tonight. Meet Professor Snape in his classroom.

-Professor Flitwick

"Oh, hell," said Ari upon reading the note that Star had dropped in front of her. Actually Star had dropped one in front of each of the girls.

"Damn!" said Ema indignantly. "I was going to go flying! I was hoping to practice a bit because I'm trying out!"

"Well, for once I can't say you brought it upon yourself," said Jamie, who likewise was looking very put out. "I've got a lot of homework! I don't want to spend my time in bloody detention!"

"Damn right," said Ronnie angrily.

Jamie pursed her lips. Her general dislike of swearing, capped with the thought of missing out on homework, was making her too angry to speak.

But Ema, Ari, and Ronnie all continued to swear so much that soon Jamie had had enough and left them to it.

~

It was Friday, the last day of classes. And finally, thought Jamie. I'm so over my head here, I think I might just blow up like a deranged monkey.

It had become clear to the foursome that they did not like each other equally. Ema and Ari had been friends from before, they were the trouble-makers, they loved to gossip and lived to wreak havoc and mayhem.

Jamie and Ronnie were bonding quickly; neither approved of swearing, they abided (for the most part) by the law, and they had quickly acknowledged their mutual love for saying completely random things.

"Oh, duck with an f!" whispered Jamie as she stubbed her toe on a statue of an old wizard who looked somewhat like an ape with a banana for a nose, Jamie thought.

"That wouldn't have been swearing, would it, our dear clean-mouthed one?" Jamie looked up to see Ari grinning at her, Ema in tow.

"No, actually, that wouldn't be. I said no swear word, you patronizing gits."

Ema grinned. "She might not swear, but I wouldn't exactly call her clean-mouthed," she smirked.

"Oh, shut up!" snapped Ronnie, joining them. "Just because we don't feel the need to use cuss words every other sentence doesn't mean..."

"We don't swear every other sentence!" interrupted Ari indignantly.

"Yeah, come on, if you're going to insult us, do it correctly, besides, you should talk, weren't you listening to yourself back there?" said Ema.

"Oh, Potter, I'm gonna get you," said Jamie, but she was grinning. "Oh, you're going to be bloody sorry you messed with me, you little..."

"Don't waste your time, Lastroni, it's not worth getting murdered by me," said Ema lazily. "And put that away, Veronica," she said to Ronnie who was getting out her wand. Ari was staring around at her three friends. It was hard to tell if they were really angry or not. She was wondering whether to step in, when Ema burst into gales of hysterical laughter.

"What?" asked Ari, Ronnie, and Jamie together.

"Your...face..." said Ema pointing at Ari. "You...thought...we..." she couldn't stop laughing, "You...we...were...actually...attack...each...other..." the other three watched her laughing, confused, but soon they couldn't help but join in.

"Come on..." panted Ari. "Potions..."

* * *

Professor Snape was having a rather severe emotional battle. Potter's child...at Hogwarts... and he had to teach her. It was like all the nightmares in the world pouring in on him. He'd seen her once in his class on Tuesday and was glad to see that she had acquired her mother's skill rather than her father's.

WHAT? He was not happy about that at all; it did not give him a chance to fail her. Because he had to hate her, he had to. But he felt he had to protect her too...because Ginny had contacted him with the information about the prophecy...

NO! He did not feel the need to protect her, he had to hate her, it was his job. His class began to file in. The lesson was to begin.

~

"Just what we need; to have to see Snape twice in one bloody day," ranted Ema as they made their way down to the dungeons.

"I don't much like him either, but I think you should try not to get in trouble today, Em," said Ronnie very seriously. "After all, you've already got detention and..."

"And we've lost our house thirty points, I know already! Bloody hell, it's not like I'm a complete idiot!"

"Could've fooled me," said Ari, very quietly.

"Shut up DeLingues, or I'll call you Arwen!" said Ema grumpily.

Ari shut up.

"Well," said Jamie with dignity, "there is the upside that we're not with the Slyths for Potions, that wouldn't be all too pleasant."

"Oh, I like a couple of them," said Ari absently.

They all stared at her.

"Like who?" demanded Ema. "DeLingues, if I here you're falling in love with some puffed up bastard..."

"No, it's Yolanda Flint, Marcus's twin, you know, she's really nice! And so is her friend, Amy Smith..."

"Yeah but the GoB does kind of ruin that, doesn't it." Ema did not say it like a question.

"Yeah, but still, if you guys just talked with Yolanda and Amy..."

"There are a lot of twins in the year," interrupted Jamie. "It's interesting. There are you, Ronnie, and Val, then there are Marcus and Yolanda, there's Amy and Jessica Longbottom--"

"Who?" asked Ema absently as they entered the classroom.

"You know, Amy Longbottom is in Hufflepuff, and Jess is in Gryffindor. You should start getting to know your year!"

"It's only the first week, Jamie," said Ronnie, who looked interested. "So, anyone else?"

"What? Oh, yeah, there's also Jimmy and Jack Finch-Fletchley, Hufflepuff and Gryffindor, and Samantha and Tanya Bones, both in Gryffindor."

"I wonder..." started Ronnie

Her words were cut off by Snape. "Today we will be doing a Cheering Solution. It is not a difficult potion, but I'm sure some of you imbeciles are going to have trouble with it. The ingredients are up on the board."

"What was that?" asked Ema as they got out their ingredients.

"Whether it's a coincidence about all those twins...there was a prophecy..."

"Miss Malfoy, I am speaking..."

Ronnie blushed scarlet and looked up.

"Please, sir, I was the one talking," offered Ema.

"Oh, I see, it's a Potter thing, isn't it? Disrespect for teachers?"

Ema looked right into Snape's eyes defiantly. Then she looked away. For she had seen, not loathing, but uncertainty and sadness. Then she noticed that Snape was right next to her.

"Fascinating though your private conversations must be," he said softly, "You shall not be talking in my class, especially when I am the one talking. Flitwick may grant you a lot of license, I daresay he is not a strict disciplinarian, but I shall not tolerate your behavior! Ten points from Ravenclaw and another detention, Miss Potter."

"What? All I did was talk! That surely doesn't merit a detention?"

"Well, now it merits another one for talking back to me. You will be in my office tonight at eight for your first one, and tomorrow at noon for your second."

"But sir, I'll miss Quiddich tryouts!" Ema wailed.

Snape's mouth curled.

"Yes, I daresay you'll find you will," he hissed.

* * *

"Damn him, the bastard!" stormed Ema after the lesson (Jamie bit her tongue to stop herself Scourgifying Ema's mouth). "Damn him! How dare he?"

"Something wrong, ickle firstie?" They whirled around to see Kenzie, the prefect standing there.

"I'd say something's wrong!" stormed Ema. "That bastard Snape has gone and given me detention during Quiddich tryouts! He did it on purpose! And all I bloody did was talk!"

To everyone's surprise, she then dissolved into tears. "I wanted to be on the team s-s-so badly, and n-now I won't be able to and my dad said that I could be on the team but now he'll be s-s-o d-dissapointed!"

Kenzie looked very taken aback but a moment later regained herself and had the decency to show some sympathy.

"Hey, don't worry; we won't let you miss the chance to tryout! Here, come with me." She helped Ema to her feet and walked away with Ronnie, Jamie and Ari in tow.

* * *

"...So she really wanted to be on the team, do you think we could work something out?" Kenzie was standing next to Ema, talking to the team captain, Joey Moralez.

"Of course we can work something out," said Joey. "If you're anything like your father, you're brilliant! We wouldn't miss a chance to have you on our team. Come out to the pitch with me now and we'll see how you are."

"Thanks," said Ema, feeling embarrassed as she wiped her eyes. "Ari, get over here, I've got something for you." Perplexed, Ari followed her friend to their dormitory.

"Here," said Ema, pulling out a broomstick. It had the words Firebolt Magnum emblazed on its handle and Ari could tell it was a good broom. "It's mine," said Ema, sniffling and stating the obvious. "Best there is, but here --" she pulled out another broom, grinning "-- don't tell anyone I got it for you, hear? I used Dad's money, don't want him finding out, it's a Nimbus Millennium it's really good too, you should try out, I know you want to."

"Of course I want to, you little git!" said Ari, overcome with joy. "Oh, hell, I never thought...bloody hell...I can't wait to try out!"

"Here, read this," said Ema, throwing Quiddich Through the Ages at her. "It'll tell you all you need to know, well, I'm off, bye!"

She raced back to the common room.

* * *

"Okay, here are the positions that are open," said Joey, handing Ema a slip of parchment, "Sorry, didn't know there'd be anyone trying out today, so it's an old list..."

Ema took it and read:

· Keeper: Alana Hapkin

· Chasers: Noah Letina, Joey Moralez

· Seeker:

· Beaters: Freddie Kincade

"So, what's your first choice? We'll try you out for that first, but we'll try you out for everything. Makes you more likely to get on and we'll be more knowing to your potential."

"I would like to be a Chaser," said Ema, almost defiantly.

"Fine, let's go," said Joey, who seemed just a little disappointed. Clearly, she thought that Ema would have the Seeker skill of her father and wanted it on her team.

On the whole, Ema thought she did rather well. Joey thought she was an excellent Chaser but a better Beater. She said that she might well end up as a Beater but would take into account the fact that Ema preferred Chasing. She'd stunk at both Keeping and Seeking but that did not bother her.

By the time Ema got back up to the common room, her three friends had finished their work. Jamie and Ronnie were involved in a wizard-chess game and Ari was reading Quidditch Through the Ages.

"Damn it, why couldn't you guys wait for me?" asked Ema irritably, sitting down and taking out her Potions and Transfiguration.

"Um, take a wild guess?" said Ari as though this were a question. "I'm failing Potions, couldn't very well leave that till later, don't want any more detentions after all, and I needed all the help I can get from these two --" she jerked her head at Ronnie and Jamie " -- so don't you blame them. How'd training go?"

Ema shrugged, "Okay, I guess, though I think I might end up as a Beater when I really wanted to be a Chaser."

"You can be a Beater?" said Ronnie incredulously. She eyes Ema's skinny arms. "How? I don't think you're strong enough."

"Arm wrestle," said Ema. She beat Ronnie in two seconds.

"Never mind," gasped Ronnie, massaging her arm. "You win."

"Still, I don't really want to be a Beater," said Ema. "Though it's better than nothing.

"Well," said Ari with the unmistakable air of one about to show off her knowledge, "the Beaters are quite important. And they're shockingly underestimated. They can be the difference between a win and a loss, depending if they knock a Bludger at their teammates or the other team when the Seekers are diving..."

"Shut up, DeLingues," said Ema. "I know Quidditch, right? I need to work..."

* * *

The four of them knocked on Snape's classroom door two hours later, feeling very nervous. When the door was flung open, Jamie even gave a little squeak of fear.

They filed into the classroom and sat down. Snape still had that odd glint to his eye, Ema noticed. Far from cruel and cold, it was uncertain and nervous. This made Ema, if anything, more nervous; Snape was supposed to be cruel and sarcastic, not uncertain.

Something was not right. If only she knew what it was. However, when Snape spoke, his voice was quite normal. Meaning, quite unpleasant.

"You, Miss Potter, will clean these rat skins. I want not a single remenent of rotting flesh left."

Ema made a face.

"You, Miss Malfoy, will be scrubbing these cauldrons. Miss Lastroni, you will wash those punctured rat spleens and lay them out to dry. And you --" he leered at Ari "--Miss DeLingues, you will be writing, 'I must pay attention' two hundred times on this sheet."

Ari took it, uncertain why she was writing it, as all she'd done was get lost. Ema was the one who had not been paying attention.

The four of them set about their tasks. Jamie was mortified at hers; Ema was quite sure that was why Snape was making her do it. Jamie was always very grossed out by the potion ingredients.

For someone so mortally against swearing, Ema noted with a grin, Jamie was doing a lot of it now. Ari was sitting with her dark hair falling over her face, every once and a while shaking out her hand.

Ronnie was scrubbing so quickly that the cauldrons were clanking very loudly indeed.

Ema, however, was watching Snape. She had always prided herself on being exceptionally good at reading emotions. The emotions in Snape's face was changing rapidly, from worried, to angry, to hate, to love, to sadness. Ema was so confused. She shut her eyes for a moment and then went back to her disgusting task.

Snape's mind was acting very odd indeed. If Ari had heard the argument, she would've said that Snape was morphing into Gollum, the odd creature who argues with himself.

I hate her, she's a Potter, and they're all the same, all bloody arrogant. Their heads are so fat...

No, not this Potter, this Potter...I don't know, she's so innocent, vulnerable...I can't hate her, I must protect her...

She's a danger to you and the noble house of Slytherin, you know who she is, you know her destiny, hers and her friend's...

No, I must make it up to her father, and his father, I have to protect her...

Suddenly a good many things happened all at once. There was a blinding flash of light, a scream, and then darkness.

At least, that's what Ema saw, the rest of them merely saw her shriek in terror and fall to the ground.

"BLOODY HELL!" screamed Ari. "Oh, hell, what's wrong with her?"

Though she tried to hold them back, tears began to spill out of her eyes, and though she didn't want to, she turned to Professor Snape.

"Please," she sobbed. "Please, help her, please, I don't know what's wrong with her. I need help!" Snape wasted no time.

"Do you honestly think," he said quietly, picking up Ema and striding out of the room, "that I would refuse to help a student just because I didn't exactly want to adopt them?"

"No, of...of course not..." Ari was flustered, trying to keep up, but Snape ignored her.

~

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Potter,

Your daughter has been taken ill and is unresponsive. She is in the care of Poppy Pomphrey and we believe that we understand the situation though it cannot be mentioned fully here. Suffice it to say that Twilight is beginning and Dusk will come. If you wish to come up to the school, you are, of course, welcome. However, this is not necessary.

Yours sencerily,

Professor Frederick Flitwick,

Head of Ravenclaw House

"BLOODY HELL!" shouted Harry upon reading this. "Bloody hell, Ginny, we've got to go, come on...damn, I gave Ema my broom."

"Idiot," said Ginny, grabbing the floo powder.

* * *

Ema was in a dark, circular room. This was about all that she could perceive, on her knees and sobbing. Though she didn't know why she was weeping, she had a pretty good idea she was about to find out.

She heard crying. Sobbing other than her own. One of the people around her was also sobbing. Looking up, Ema saw that it was a witch, a very pretty witch with dark hair and eyes that were deep and knowing, as far as Ema could see. They reflected the light. Though she thought she should have been frightened and confused, the first thing that came to mind was, she looks just like Ari. Then it was where am I? How do I get back?

"Now you will pay the consequences of your actions," said a man.

"Godric, Godric, please," sobbed the witch. "Please, don't hurt the girl, she didn't ask for it..."

"No, I will hurt her, you shall watch her suffer and know that you put it upon her yourself, Rowena. Crucio." And Ema felt a pain so intense, so all-consuming that it felt as though the world itself were being ripped from her.

"Stop," said a soft and rather evil voice. Ema looked up. The pain left, though she still felt sore.

"Salazar?" the man called Godric looked alarmed. "I didn't realize you were here,"

Salazar? Salazar...SLYTHERIN? Ema was terrified yet she was a Ravenclaw and, even in the face of terror, Ravenclaws think. So these were the founders. Yes, there's Godric Gryffindor, Salazar Slytherin, Rowena Ravenclaw, so that must be Helga Hufflepuff...

She had to act...now.

"Um, question?" she said, getting to her feet, the four founders looked at her.

Rowena was the first to recover.

"Yes, dear?" she said, trying to sound off-hand and motherly, which, Ema did not point out, did not work well together.

"Um..." Ema hastily tried to think of a question. "Um...why are the first letters of your names the same as the first letters of your surnames?"

* * *

Ari paced up and down the hospital wing. Every once in a while, she gave a strange little leap and a weird sound somewhere between a shriek and a squeak.

Harry assumed that this was because she couldn't take the tension. It was two hours since Ema had fallen unconscious.

The scene that had followed after Harry had read the note from Flitwick was one so similar to the scene in his own fifth year - trying to get to the Department of Mysteries to help Sirius - that it was almost impossible to bear.

At the moment when Ginny had said, "Idiot," and reached for the floo-powder, Ron, Hermione, Fred, Angelina, George, and Katie had all walked in the door.

"Dam it!" Ginny had shouted. "I forgot we were having company."

"No!" said Harry. "You're not all coming with us! No way!"

"Coming where?" Fred had asked.

So the whole thing had been explained. By the time Ginny was done, the entire Weasley family had been crowded into the living room and arguing.

"We care about Ema too, you know!" shouted Fred and George together.

"I'm an Auror!" Hermione had shrieked.

"So am I!" Ginny had yelled.

"If Hermione's going, so am I!" Ron had shouted.

"FINE!" Harry had bellowed. He had grabbed some floo powder, and, swearing, transported himself to Hogwarts.

* * *

The four founders looked at Ema as though she had just asked why one plus one equaled two.

Gryffindor turned back to Slytherin.

"And why," he said icily, "should we leave her alone? She is the one, you know this, she can ruin your house's future! All of our houses. Except for Rowena's." He shot a look of pure hatred at Ravenclaw.

"No," said Slytherin. "It is not her who we want. It is the other, the Mudblood."

"Watch whom you're calling a Mudblood!" said Ema angrily.

Gryffindor advanced on her...something hard hit her head and all went black.

* * *

She was looking at a high ceiling in a brightly lit room. Where was she? "Let me go," she whispered just in case the founders were still there.

"Ema?" said a voice.

Ema looked around and saw no less than eight people standing around her. Okay, maybe more like twenty, she thought. There was Ari, her fingers in her mouth and her eyes very bloodshot, and Ronnie and Jamie, who were hugging each other. Then there were Fred and Angelina, George and Katie, Hermione and Ron, Bill and Fleur and her mother and father. But what made her sit up straight and make them all gasp was Professor Severus Snape, looking uncharacteristically concerned.

"What are you all doing here?" she asked, trying and failing to look like this question was meant for everyone and not merely Snape. And, amazingly, Snape allowed a small smile to penetrate his sneer. "Potter, you were in detention and suddenly you screamed and fell to the ground unconscious, do you really think I wouldn't stay to make sure you were still alive at the end of this? But now I know that you are, I must be off, good day to you all." And he swept out, robes billowing behind him.

* * *

"Oh, it's no good, I'll never be able to sleep," Ema complained, "I'll be too afraid that bastard Gryffindor will show up." It was midnight and Ginny and Harry were the last of the relatives to be present. Harry was dozing slightly. Ari was sitting next to Ginny. She had been giving special permission by Professor Katkin to stay but perhaps this was mostly owed to the fact that she had filled the second floor corridor with pickles borrowed from Fred, who seemed to understand her dilemma. Now she leaned closer to Ema and began to sing softly.

· Red clay rocks on the cliff's edge,
Na, na, na, the cliff's edge,
Some things stay and some things go,
The falling rain and the melting snow
but there will always be a place for the,
Red clay rocks on the cliff's edge,
Na, na, na, the cliff's edge,
Things may laugh and things may cry,
Things may live and things may die
But there will always be a place for the
Red clay rocks on the cliff's edge.

Ema, smiling, sang her part in her slightly raspy low and off-key voice,

· Gray rocks and the sun goes down,
Sing on the waterfront, "Who, who?"
Answered by the river the white waves splash,
"Go bring a friend to the water's edge."
Gray rocks sing and the sun goes down.

It was the song they had made up together and they sang it whenever they were down, now Ari finished in her nice on-key voice,

· Pebbles lying in the sun, near to the ocean,
Singing in the sunset, like the morning blue,
Like a nightingale singing in the moonlight,
Like a bell in the distance, ringing, ringing,
Where the ocean meets the shore,
Pebbles on the beach, singing in the sunrise...

And by the time Ari finished singing Ginny had fallen asleep and Ema was snoring softly.

Author notes: Feedback, feedback! I love to gobble it up!