It was Bea's turn to polish the Hufflepuff trophies that evening. There weren't many.
On a shelf in the Trophy Room, between the Gryffindor and Slytherin shelves, were nine golden cups won by Hufflepuff. Just nine, over the course of almost a thousand years! There were so many cups won by the other three houses that only the most recent were on display. The rest were in storage.
Bea took out a clean rag from her blouse pocket and touched it with her wand. The first cup that she began polishing was won in 1344, something about a fortune telling contest between the houses. The second was the Quidditch Cup, dated 1803. She was staring at the name of one of the team chasers etched on the front, 'Helene Wogg,' when she was startled by a very thin film of black substance coming out from under the storage closet door, a short ways to her right.
She turned to face the strange sight, not knowing what to make of it, and wondering if she should perhaps run out of the room, just in case.
The thin film suddenly rose up vertically, and became a full-figured young woman in a torn black gown.
Bea was astonished. Her wand pulled itself free of her hand and flew to the waiting palm of this mysterious witch. Bea's astonishment changed to a chill fear.
"Stay where you are and keep quiet," said the woman, smiling as she stroked Bea's wand and gave it a swish. Her own wand, a short and knobby one that looked like one of the school wands used in Charms for experiments, lay on the floor where she had dropped it.
The swished wand sent out a bouquet of stars and little rainbows.
"Ah ha! Ah ha! You see it chooses me! I was right to trust my instinct! Tell me, what is the wood type, its length and core?"
Bea was speechless.
"Answer me!"
"It's sandalwood. Eleven inches. Hair of sphnix core."
Hexaba tilted back her head, her mouth open in a smile of wonder.
"Sphinx!" she breathed. "That explains it then. My mother was an Egyptian snake charmer. Now, stand still," she said in a stern voice.
Bea could do nothing else. Her mind was a mass of confusion. Who was this person and what was going on? Her fright had become a numb tingling and was beginning to make her tremble.
Hexaba walked slowly around the girl, eyeing her up and down. "Yes... yes... I think you'll do fine. The right height and build. Similar hair color. You look a bit too different, but I can fix that easily enough."
"I don't know what you mean. Are you a new teacher?"
"It isn't your place to ask questions. Close your eyes a moment."
Bea automatically did as she was told. No sooner did she close her eyes than she felt herself falling backwards. It was more like floating, like a feather drifting down. The strangest feeling had her imagining herself as thin as a slip of paper.
She was on her back, sliding across the stone floor. She opened her eyes. All she could see was the lofty vaulted ceiling. She felt herself moving over the discarded wand. Then she realized that she was sliding under the door of the storage closet.
The ceiling here arched over numerous high shelves full of all sorts of artefacts and momentos. She glimpsed what seemed to her to be the Goblet of Fire, shining dully on one of the shelves.
Then the oddest thing of all. She watched a wooden frame pass over her, and suddenly she was outside in a field of lush grass and wildflowers. The sky was heavy with storm clouds. She heard a crow cawing in the nearby elm trees.
"Inflatus," intoned Hexaba.
Bea rose up like an inflated balloon, now her normal shape, standing there in a state of shock.
"Snap out of it, girl!"
"Wait here," Snape said. He reached back and inadvertently touched Giselle in a place that made her blush.
She stopped so abruptly that Hermione bumped into her. Glancing back she saw that Harry and Charlie had stepped to one side of the passage and were gazing ahead with looks of excited curiosity. Hermione put a hand on Giselle's shoulder and said to her, "Look at this!"
Giselle turned, looking around from behind Snape, who was walking forward, and saw a stark landscape: a few stunted leafless trees, with a dark round tower in the background.
"The scene of a painting," Snape said. He extended his wand into the scene. It was exactly as if they had come to the end of a passage that opened onto this barren hilltop. The tower looked very forbidding to Giselle. She shivered.
Charlie came up beside her and said to Snape, "Did you expect this? Will we be going through a series of paintings?"
Giselle was flabbergasted to hear this. Harry and Hermione were whispering in amazement.
"It would appear so," Snape replied. He was staring at the tower. "The hermitage of Sanguino, if I'm not mistaken. This painting hung in the Slytherin Common Room before Filch took it down on orders from Dumbledore."
"Now I get it," Charlie said and gave a soft chuckle of worried amusement, as though he were both disturbed and tickled. "Professor McGonagall explained the situation to me before dinner, about some of the portraits having their vitality sucked out of them by the painted image of Sanguino."
Harry and Hermione gasped. Giselle turned to them and said under her breath, "It's true, I met Sanguino in the dungeon and he's almost as real as we are!"
"And more powerful," Snape remarked.
"What can we expect now?" asked Charlie.
Snape smiled grimly. "Resistance," he said. "Let us proceed to the tower. We have the collective shield spell for our initial defense. Remember," he added, looking back at the three nervous students, "you are to cast stun spells at any figure we encounter. If more advanced spells are needed, don't hesitate to use them. However, we are dealing with essentially spiritual forces. Some spells may not be effective against them. Your main concern is to protect yourselves, rather than overcome an adversary."
Charlie looked surprised. "Isn't it just this Sanguino chap? Are there more of these rogue portraits?"
"Sanguino has at least one living confederate, a witch who, like us, is able to enter the scenes. There may be more."
"So," said Harry, "we're here to save the portraits from getting.... murdered."
Hermione sighed a faint laugh.
Snape gave Harry a snide look. "Very astute, Potter. One point for Gryffindor."
They started off across the rocky bare earth of the hilltop. Such an odd sensation, walking into a painting that seemed so real.
Giselle stared at the ground behind Snape's steady stride, his black robe swaying over the stones and patches of wilted grass. She was feverishly trying to remember the tactics that Professor Lupin taught last year. Distract your opponent, confuse him, use illusions, stun him if you can get past his defense...
Suddenly the shadow of the tower was upon them.
Snape went up the curving stairs to the tower door. Not knowing what else to do, Giselle followed him. Charlie, Harry, and Hermione were gazing up at the small square windows high above. The conical roof seemed to touch the dark clouds. A musty breeze was blowing. A crow was heard.
The tall iron door groaned as it slowly opened. Rust sprinkled down from the hinges.
Giselle could see a shadowy hall, the foot of a spiral stairwell at the far end. The smell was awful. Except for Snape's footsteps on the dirty flagstones of the hall, it was silent. Giselle, wand held ready and her heart in her throat, followed close behind him.
Hearing a scuffling noise, she turned, gasping, and was then relieved to see Charlie enter the hall, with Harry and Hermione following.
"Spread out!" said Snape. "Something is coming down the stairwell."
Giselle staggered back against Charlie. He put an arm around her waist, holding his wand out in front of her. Harry and Hermione advanced, crouching down and pointing their wands at the darkened stairs, their faces taut with excitement.
A tall silhouette, spindly legged, appeared at the foot of the stairs; two glowing white orbs in its odd-shaped head.
"A boggart!" said Charlie.
It was beginning to change shape.
Hermione and Harry cried in unison, "Ridickulus!"
The two spells cancelled each other out. The boggart expanded and contracted, its height growing. It was facing Snape.
Giselle put a hand to her mouth, her eyes wide with anxiety. What Snape feared most was now going to appear.
In seconds it became a large goblin, its arms flexing and its sharp teeth gnashing menacingly. It was dressed in leather and held a staff that throbbed like an erect serpent.
Snape stepped back as he raised his wand. Sweat beaded his forehead. He was grimacing. What terrible memories crossed his mind, Giselle could not imagine.
"Ridickulus," he intoned.
A swirl of dark motion. An entirely different image appeared.
Harry brushed past Giselle as Charlie's arm dropped from her waist. She looked confusedly at Harry standing beside Snape, his wand hanging from his lax fingers. Harry's expression was one of painful shock.
"Dad--?"
The boggart seemed to be trying to escape itself.
"HA!" shouted Snape in a tone of derision.
With that, the boggart fled up the stairwell.
Harry turned to Snape, shaking with disgust and anger.
"That was despicable, sir," he said, his face contorted with loathing.
Snape looked at him snidely. "One point from Gryffindor," he said.
From above came a woman's cry of surprise and heartbreak. "James!"
Charlie was astonished. "I know that voice!" he said, as Giselle stared up at him wonderingly. Whose? she thought, a volt of jealousy running through her.
Snape seemed stunned. Harry turned to Charlie, his face now full of pathos. "You know her? Who is she?"
"Silence!" said Snape, glaring at Charlie. For a moment Snape was indecisive, then he said quietly, "I will go up and investigate. McGonagall will accompany me."
"Wait! No!" said Charlie, stepping toward him. "We don't know what's up there! It could be a trick. Go by yourself or let ME go with you."
Snape gestured to Giselle to come to him. To Charlie he said, "I am quite capable of protecting Miss McGonagall. You are responsible for the protection of Potter and Granger. If your assistance is required I shall call you."
Charlie went to Giselle and seized her by the shoulders. She had a mad desire to kiss him. She would have done so but for his desperate attitude. "You don't have to go up there if you don't want to."
She looked over at Harry. He was distraught. Hermione said, "Professor, maybe it would be better if I went with you."
Snape had gone to the stairwell. He looked back at Hermione and said, "I have my reasons for choosing Miss McGonagall."
And then Giselle understood. It was about Harry's mother. Giselle couldn't let Hermione take her place. If Hermione were to recognize Lily Potter, and tell Harry...
"I'll come," Giselle said.
Charlie slid his hands down her arms. "You're sure?"
"Yes."
A woman's scream echoed down the stairs.
Giselle jumped in alarm.
"Don't go!" said Charlie. But when she saw Harry's stricken face she said in a rush, "No, it's all right, I'll go."
She crossed the hall on trembling legs to where Snape stood with a hand on the curving wall of the stairs. "Be concerned only with shielding yourself," he said.
They could hear vague voices above, like the fitful sounds of a wind.
Giselle followed him. The stairs curved continuously clockwise, the steps chipped and cracked, the darkness barely relieved by smoldering torches in brackets above their heads.
Giselle heard Charlie say, "No, Harry, stay! It's not what you think!"
Then Hermione saying determinedly, "I can't just wait here. I'm going."
Giselle had unconsciously gripped a handful of Snape's robe, stumbling along in his wake. She could hear Hermione's steps coming quickly upward.
Then there was a dull greyish light where the stairwell ended. Snape slowed. The patter of Hermione's ascent didn't seem to register with him. He crossed a narrow landing and stood in an archway, Giselle huddling at his back, watching for Hermione.
She came up to them and stood next to Giselle. They were listening to indistinct voices somewhere ahead, in one of the small chambers that circled this level of the tower. But Giselle could not understand the words.
Snape entered the first chamber. Aside from the three narrow windows in the far wall there was little to see; a few sticks of furniture and a braid rug. Then Snape was flourishing his wand at something Giselle could barely see. The boggart?
She recognized a developing illusion. The silhouette creature hurried into it, thinking it was a room full of potential victims that extended beyond the far wall. When it realized its mistake it was too late. Snape cast a vise hex. The illusion closed in on itself like an accordian and vanished, taking the boggart, or whatever it was, into an inescapable dimension.
The voices ceased.
Snape motioned for Giselle to follow him. He frowned at Hermione but said nothing.
Giselle could scarcely breathe. She leaned against Hermione's shoulder as together they tiptoed after Snape.
A short dim passageway. The smell was getting worse.
Ahead was another arch. Beyond it Giselle could see a tapestry on a stone wall that depicted dancing goblins. There were thick squat candles on a table. The sound of Sanguino's breathy laugh came to them and Giselle momentarily halted. Hermione put an arm around her. They continued until they came to the arch.
Snape had gone inside the chamber.
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