(8) Something About Hermione

Giselle lay awake in bed that night, thinking about the events of the day.

The behavior of Betsy the flying unicorn bothered her because its association with the Astronomy Tower suggested the Green Star and the observations of it that the Hufflepuff and Slytherin students would be making on Monday night.

Or was Betsy's landing on the tower just a coincidence?  Was it just coincidental that Hermione was riding along when the unicorn changed course dramatically and seemed confused as it shifted about on the tower roof?

Why would a unicorn be affected by the strange things going on in Hogwarts, if indeed these strange things were not illusions?

Giselle flexed the fingers of her left hand. The tingling in the palm was still there. And the strangest thing was that she had noticed a tendency during dinner to reach out with her left hand for things instead of using her right hand. She even began eating with the fork held in her left!

She saw that Bea noticed this too. Giselle couldn't be sure, but she thought that Bea might have seen her palm glowing green for a moment after catching the snitch. But she couldn't ask Bea about it. Auntie wanted all this kept secret.

She had sat on a bench in the front gardens with Auntie after dinner.

"I want you to try and put this odd mystery out of your head, Gee," Auntie had said. "Tomorrow is your Sunday Quidditch practice, and in the afternoon you will want to get your weekend homework done. Stay busy and try not to dwell on these past events. The Headmaster is looking into them and we can be confident that he will find answers, and will see to it that you are quite safe."

"I'll try, Aunt Minerva. And I won't forget to take the new Snor-Alot potion. I took a wee sip earlier, just to see if it tasted better than the old one. And it does. Like licorice."

She had told Auntie about how the snitch had seemed to turn green, and her hand too, for just a few seconds. She mentioned the tingling sensation. This made Auntie's eyes glimmer and had her thin lips forming a tight smile. "I shall pass that on to the Headmaster," she had said in a rather off-handed tone.

Giselle glanced at the bottle on her nightstand. Then she closed the bed curtain and pretended to yawn. Her dorm roommates were surely all fast asleep by now. Cass and Deidre were snoring like a duet. The grandfather clock was ticking much louder than it did during the day. The curtain was ripped away and Harry Potter leaned over her and said, "Come with me. Hermione and I want to show you something."

Giselle tried to scream but her heart seemed lodged in her throat. She could only gasp out her terror.

Harry's eyes behind his glasses were a dull lifeless grey.

"Giselle--?" said Bea in a groggy voice. "What is it?"

Slowly Giselle realized that Harry was gone. She shivered uncontrollably.

"It was... it was just a bad dream, Bea."

"Oh..."

Giselle curled herself into a ball under the covers, squeezing her eyes shut, her heart thumping.

No, not Harry. Not Harry, too!

Giselle was late for Sunday breakfast. Almost everyone was outside, or reading at the tables with cups of coffee or tea, by the time she arrived, her clothes thrown on and her hair a mess.

She had to ask one of the elves if a bit of bacon and egg could be sent up. And of course what appeared was a massive pile of scrambled eggs and a heap of bacon, all smothered in melted cheese.

All the teachers had long since finished eating and elves were busy cleaning the board and chairbacks, sweeping and mopping the floor.

There was no post delivery on Sundays. It was all very quiet and sort of lazy in the Great Hall, the sun turning the mullioned window panes into diamonds.

Giselle glanced at her watch. Its face winked at her and whispered, "You've only ten minutes before Quidditch practice."

"Thanks awfully."

This Sunday it was Ravenclaw and Slytherin's turn to use the stadium for practice. Hufflepuff and Gryffindor practiced on the long stretch of lawn where the first years took their flying lessons.

The two house teams each kept to their respective side of the lawn. But it was easy enough to watch the other team practice their skills and manuevers. As expected, Cass couldn't keep her eyes off Harry and was twice clobbered by a bludger that she ought to have easily avoided.

The Chasers (Cass, Roscoe, and Bea) practiced handing off and tossing the quaffle at the portable goal hoops, with Deidre the Keeper attempting to block the shots while the Beaters (Felix and Lori) took aim at the quaffle carrier and at Deidre. Giselle flew high overhead of the action, alert for the practice snitch that would appear at intervals of one to ten minutes. It did random loops and spirals and zigzags at varying speeds.

Flying a broom is exhilarating but not relaxing. One has to continually flex arm and leg muscles to guide the broom and maintain balance. Thirty minutes of this and the team was ready for a break.

The Hufflepuff house elves had set up a lemonade stand. This was their one opportunity to make some pocket money. It cost five knuts for a frosted mug of iced lemonade.

"Our flying-V formation needs to be tighter," Deidre was telling the Chasers as they lounged in the shade of the outer wall of the castle. "And the Revolving Circle formation needs better synchronization, or it gets all out of shape and leaves the quaffle carrier too vulnerable to bludgers."

"Right, that," said Lori, swishing her bat.

Giselle lay on her back on the sweet-smelling grass, her head resting on the equipment box, her broom balanced across her legs. She was feeling drowsy, but she couldn't stop wondering if her hand really did show a pale green color whenever she reached out for the practice snitch. There was no doubt that she made more catches today than she ever had before, some really spectacular catches. One even had Harry calling out congratulations to her.

"Did you see that goal I made, Harry?" Cass had said quickly.

After a lunch of cheeseburgers and chili fries, Giselle, Bea, and Felix retired to the library to plod through their homework at a table near the shelves of music books, which serenaded them softly.

They had an essay to write for History of Magic, a tedious diagram to work out for Transfiguration, including taking turns changing each other's quills into flobberworms. Then, after cleaning the slime off the table, they practiced their Charm assignment: enchanting their textbooks to flip to pre-selected pages and recite a paragraph backwards and forwards.

Yes, you'll agree, the usual boring homework.

But before you knew it the sun was going down. Madame Pince shooed everyone out and told them not to walk so loudly.

The Sunday banquet featured a folk singer from Godric's Hollow. Everything seemed so normal and innocent that Giselle nearly forgot about her troubles and enjoyed the raspberry cheesecake with a glass of vintage red wine.

After a game of charades in the Common Room, and the traditional sing-along facing the lisping flames in the fireplace with its loveable badger icon, everyone went off to bed.

Giselle slept like a log.

At Monday breakfast she noticed Professor Snape setting a wooden goblet in front of Professor Lupin, who seemed to be struggling to keep his composure. Auntie was speaking earnestly to him. Then Dumbledore got up for the start-of-week announcements.

"A couple of reminders," he began, his hands gripping the owl podium. "Dementors continue to guard the school ground perimeters, and so the seven p.m. curfew remains in effect. Also, tonight is a very special full moon: the rising of the Green Star. As you know, this has a certain historical significance in the wizarding world and is not to be missed. Ravenclaw and Gryffindor will be going up to the Astronomy Tower's observation deck at midnight, followed about an hour later by Slytherin and Hufflepuff. What this all means is that tomorrow morning's classes are cancelled. Tuesday breakfast will begin at nine-thirty."

He smiled around at the house tables. "Be studious in your classes and enjoy this lovely spring day."

Giselle took a deep breath and let it out slowly. A lovely spring day, yes, but what would tonight bring?

Her first period class was Care of Magical Creatures. Betsy again.

This time, Giselle thought, I'll let somebody else ride the flying unicorn.