Something About That Girl

Something about that girl (4)

"I am going away for the rest of the year, so this will be your final Potions lesson, Miss Parker. You will of course spend the rest of this year learning the last bits that will enable you to live up to the same standards as your fellow seventh years," Snape said in his usual low voice. He spoke clearly and looked into her eyes while giving these orders. Then he turned his head away from her and said very quickly without looking into her eyes, "I must confess, Miss Parker, that I had not imagined you would learn this quickly. Consider yourself talented. You can go now." Elizabeth looked at him in surprise. He had turned his back on her and was apparently meddling with the ingredients. Though he had never been uncivil, this was the first compliment she had ever received from him.

"Thank you, sir. Thank you for taking time to teach me. Have a nice holiday," she said kindly, and meant it.

As Snape turned and watched her walk out of the door, something in his heart loosened up a little.

Snape's departure was a great mystery to all the students since nobody believed the official version: he was taking time of in lieu of unpaid overtime.

"Maybe he's visiting some family," Lavender suggested.

"Come on, who'd want to admit they were related to that git?" Parvati answered grimly. "I bet he's searching for some nasty ingredients for a really vile potion, he's going to make us do."

It was nearly lunchtime and Elizabeth was sitting in her dormitory with Parvati, Lavender, Ginny and Hermione. Lavender was combing Parvati's long black hair and Elizabeth was sketching them. Ginny sat next to Elizabeth and sipped a mug of tea while she watched her draw. Hermione was quiet because she was reading a book.

"Well, I don't understand why you don't want to believe the official explanation. After all, he's been teaching me since January. That must count as overtime. And do you really think he's that bad?" Elizabeth said.

Even Hermione raised her head. By the looks she got, Elizabeth concluded that they did think he was that bad.

"That bad?" Lavender asked, awestruck, "Elizabeth, he is the devil personified!" she said while getting up. "He is positively the most ugly, unfair, stupid bastard that ever taught this place!"

We're going to get some lunch so we trust you, Hermione, to make her sound more like a Gryffindor," Parvati said and the two girls left.

Elizabeth smiled. "All right, I give in! I just don't see why Snape leaving should be so odd. What could he possibly be doing?"

"Snape has a record of great weirdness, Eliza," Hermione said with a wry smile while closing her book. "He used to support Voldemort and it is still a mystery why Dumbledore trusts him. For us Muggleborns, it's difficult to imagine what "Death Eater" means, but for girls like Parvati and Lavender - their parents, well, sort of made them believe that the world is divided into Death Eaters and good guys."

"Yeah," Ginny said, "even though Snape is the perfect example of how untrue that is: he is truly an obnoxious git - but he is a good obnoxious git," she said with a sly smile.

Elizabeth smiled and put down her sketchpad. She had been thinking about a question for a while now. "Hermione, you're a Muggleborn like m... I mean you're a Muggleborn..." she began and felt very clumsy. "Does it ever stop? I mean that feeling that you're the stupidest person on the entire school because you have to ask people about things they knew when they were five?"

Hermione looked thoughtful for a moment. "Well, I can't say that it does. Why do you think I study so much? I guess I do it to compensate for my non-magical background. I can tell you the names of all the headmasters of Hogwarts - chronologically," she said and they smiled at each other, "but I can't tell you what it's like to have a magical family. I think the best example must be magical people's reaction to the name "Voldemort".

Elizabeth nodded. "Why do they get so angry when they hear that name?" she asked. "I mean, I understand he's a bad wizard, but don't you think they overreact?"

"Well," Hermione said, "all their lives they have been told about what he did and most of them live with the consequences of the first war. Take Neville for example. His parents have been tortured into insanity by Voldemort's Death Eaters because they had sympathy for Muggles and Muggleborns like us." Elizabeth's eyes widened in horror as Hermione spoke.

"Oh my God," she said quietly. "Poor Neville! It sounds almost like World War Two." She shuddered and suddenly felt very uncomfortable.

"I wasn't even born when the war was raging and it still gives me the creeps." Ginny said.

"Yes," Hermione said sounding sad, "it's horrible isn't it? It's racism. Imagine a Hitler - with unlimited magical powers."

Elizabeth met her eyes. "I think I suddenly got a step closer of understanding what it's like to grow up as a witch."

Hermione smiled sadly.

Ginny changed the subject to something less scary. "Want to go down and get some lunch?" she asked.

"Can I see your drawings first?" Hermione asked Elizabeth. "I've been dying to see them for a long time!" Elizabeth felt her face burning slightly. "Sure, but they're really not that good," she said and knew that wasn't true. Hermione took the sketchpad as Ginny left them to find her boyfriend Dean. Hermione admired the sketch of Parvati and Lavender and before Elizabeth could stop her, Hermione had turned the page and was now staring at the drawing of Harry. Elizabeth blushed. She wasn't sure why she was so embarrassed, but something told her that it would give Hermione a clue that Elizabeth liked Harry more than just as a friend.

Hermione suddenly laughed. "Is this supposed to be Harry?"

Elizabeth looked at her in surprise. Why was she laughing? "Yes," she said, slightly indignant.

"But... He looks like Brad Pitt - with glasses and a scar!" Hermione said and laughed even harder. Elizabeth took the drawing and looked at it. Then she could not help but laugh too. He actually did look like a ridiculous action figure with glasses. She chuckled and looked at Hermione who had stopped laughing but was still smiling broadly. "So what is it with you and Harry?" Hermione said. "Are you in love with him?"

Elizabeth felt a bit pressured. "I don't know," she said, "I definitely like him, but love him... I'm not sure. What about you and Ron?" she said with a smile.

"Yes, let's go get some lunch," Hermione suddenly said and got up.

Elizabeth soon found out that springtime also meant "mating season" at Hogwarts: love letters were passed back and forth through all of the classes and the sunny grounds were full of couples hiding their kisses behind heavy books. Even the news about the deserting Dementors could not dampen the high spirits of the students.

And then something happened at the end of the last D.A.D.A. lesson before the holidays.

They were almost finished with the lesson and they were sitting in a couch, talking. Elizabeth noticed that Harry seemed to be a little uneasy and she also felt nervous around him.

Harry cleared his throat. "Well, I guess we're finished for today, then."

"Yeah," Elizabeth said, unable to say anything else. They looked at each other for a long moment. Elizabeth could feel her heart beating fast.

Harry cleared his throat again. "So, we'd better get up then," he said hoarsely without rising from his seat.

"Yes," Elizabeth said breathlessly and quickly got up, but she had forgotten that she had her books on her lab and they all fell to the floor. She got down on her knees to pick them up but so did Harry.

Again they looked at each other for a long moment and Elizabeth finally leaned in and placed a quick kiss on Harry's lips. It happened too fast for her to feel anything but surprise. She did not know where she got the courage.

Elizabeth could feel Harry breath. She looked into his eyes. Her heart pounded very fast as he approached her. He wrapped his arms around her waist and she placed hers around his neck. This was what she had been waiting for, she suddenly realised. She trembled as their lips met again. Unable to think or feel anything but him, for a moment, she was all happiness. While seeking his hands, she opened her eyes and saw deep into his.

But as their eyes met, a bright flash of light suddenly blinded her and made her pull away from Harry in surprise.

"Eliza?" he asked, sounding puzzled.

But his green eyes floated out of Elizabeth's focus. Harry's voice came from far away and she felt like she was drowning. Then her heart stopped beating.

She saw inside her head, so vividly, a young man and a woman, lying lifeless on the floor with their eyes wide open and a baby with a large cut across its forehead screaming in pain. The flash of a little black haired boy with glasses much to large for him appeared: he was being humiliated in school, neglected by his foster parents and locked in a small room alone for hours at a time. A thousand images raced by in her head, all with a small, lonely boy in them.

She heard his mother and father scream and saw the one who caused it. Tears ran down her cheeks when she saw him face a tall, hooded and terrible creature.

She saw a teenage boy thrust himself desperately forward, trying to save a man who was falling through a veil.

Elizabeth fell to the floor in a cramp while experiencing Harry's last two meetings with Lord Voldemort. Fighting an urge to throw up, she was there when Voldemort rose from a large vessel, tormenting and possessing Harry.

Gasping for breath, she didn't hear Harry's desperate attempts to keep her conscious. The unfairness and feeling of being totally powerless overwhelmed her and everything turned black in her eyes.

Harry was terrified. Elizabeth, who was lying in his arms, was murmuring with her eyes closed and her face was as white as chalk. He found his wand and pointed at her: "Mobilicorpus," he said in a shaking voice. He had to get her to the hospital wing.

What happened? he asked himself. She had said his name, and Voldemort's. He didn't understand.

Harry ran to Dumbledore's office as fast as he could. He knew Dumbledore was the only one who could explain this.

On his way, he stumbled into several students without noticing. He scampered down the corridors, barked the password "Chocolate Frog" as he reached the entrance and impetuously hammered his fists against the door to the office.

"Come in", Dumbledore said, and Harry did.

Almost completely out of breath he met Dumbledore's eyes and said, "It's Elizabeth... She's - in - the Hospital wing..."

Dumbledore rose very swiftly from his seat. The portraits exchanged worried looks and muttered. "What has happened?" he asked.

"I- we..." Harry didn't know how to say it.

"Did you kiss her?" Dumbledore asked. Harry hesitated for a moment, and then nodded. How could that man know everything?

"And she saw." Dumbledore said, addressing himself more than Harry.

Harry was surprised that a man of Dumbledore's age could move so fast, but Harry could barely keep up with him. They reached the Hospital wing where Madam Pomfrey, who assured them that Elizabeth was fine, received them. She was about to explain Elizabeth's condition when the patient suddenly appeared from behind the bed screen. Elizabeth had to hold on the bed knob to keep her self up, but her face looked like a thunderstorm. Madam Pomfrey urged forward to get her patient back to bed, but Elizabeth refused.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?" she shouted very angrily at the Headmaster, to everyone but Dumbledore's great surprise.

He calmly responded, "I thought you not knowing would be a help." Harry was stunned. He had never heard anybody but himself speak to Dumbledore like that before.

Dumbledore turned to Harry and said, "I realize I have some explaining to do to both of you. Please sit down." Harry helped Elizabeth down on the bed. She had her right hand pressed to her forehead and her face was contorted in pain. But her left hand was holding Harry's.

"Elizabeth, you know Harry's story now. Voldemort hunts him. I'm sorry you had to experience it. An old man's mistake," he said and gave a tired smiled. Then he turned to Harry who was bursting with questions.

"Harry, when you and Elizabeth kissed, she saw - "

"My life," Harry interrupted. Dumbledore looked mildly surprised.

"Yes. Elizabeth is not just any passer-by at Hogwarts." They both looked at him as if this explained it all. And then Harry noticed that Elizabeth's nose was identical to Dumbledore's and that they both had the same blue eyes.

"I don't understand," Harry said. "And why do you two look so much like each other?"

"Ah. You have an excellent eye, Harry. The explanation is thus: Elizabeth also has a middle name. It's Dumbledore. She is my granddaughter."

Dumbledore smiled gently.

(End of chapter 4)