Fixing the past (Sirry)

Chapter 19

Summer was creeping over the grounds around the castle; sky and lake alike turned periwinkle blue and flowers large as cabbages burst into bloom in the greenhouses.

Harry had written two letters home, one to Mr. and Mrs. Granger and one to his aunt and uncle, informing them of Hermione's condition and how the witch was safe but helping a Ravenclaw girl ended up in the crossfire, that's what she asked to be told to her parents and that's what he did. The response was as expected, both families were desperate and Lucius Malfoy's blood was clamoured for by his Aunt Walburga, it was a miracle that Orion had not given in to his wife and rendered his aunt's marriage contract null and void.

Harry and Ron had tried to visit Hermione in broad daylight, but even visits to the infirmary were forbidden.

"We're taking no more chances," Madam Pomfrey told them severely through a crack in the infirmary door. "No, I'm sorry, there's every chance the attacker might come back to finish these people off..."

Of course Harry made her pay dearly for those words, he started crying in the doorway and then it was a small disaster in his common room where several lions saw him with his face between his knees trembling as Ron hugged him, that gossip spread fast all over Hogwarts and the matron was being corrupted by the pain of forbidding two children to visit their friend.

But if one thing didn't change, it was that now that Dumbledore was gone, fear had spread as never before, so that the sun warming the castle walls outside seemed to stop at the mullioned windows. There was barely a face to be seen in the school that didn't look worried and tense, and any laughter that rang through the corridors sounded shrill and unnatural and was quickly stifled.

Ron was increasingly apprehensive about Hagrid's hint about the spiders even though he knew he was in no real danger. Then there was the added difficulty and tension of not being allowed to go anywhere alone, but always having to travel in a group with the Gryffindor students when the three of them were used to wandering around the castle in the hidden and quicker passages.

Most of their fellow students seemed glad that they were being shepherded from class to class by teachers, but Harry found it very irksome.

One person, however, seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the atmosphere of terror and suspicion. Draco Malfoy was strutting around the school as though he had just been appointed Head Boy. Harry understood, he really did, that the blond was only pretending and that he was just as terrified for Hermione, he himself had picked him up from his common room and taken him to the infirmary to see her, but that didn't stop it from driving him out of his mind.

About two weeks after Dumbledore and Hagrid had left, when, sitting right behind Malfoy, Harry overheard him gloating to Crabbe and Goyle.

"I always thought Father might be the one who got rid of Dumbledore," he said, not troubling to keep his voice down. "I told you he thinks Dumbledore's the worst headmaster the school's ever had. Maybe we'll get a decent headmaster now. Someone who won't want the Chamber of Secrets closed. McGonagall won't last long, she's only filling in..."

Snape swept past Harry, making no comment about Hermione's empty seat and cauldron.

"Sir," said Malfoy loudly. "Sir, why don't you apply for the headmaster's job?"

"Now, now, Malfoy," said Snape, though he couldn't suppress a thin-lipped smile. "Professor Dumbledore has only been suspended by the governors. I daresay he'll be back with us soon enough."

"He'll be back and then I'll knock him out of that place," Harry promised darkly, "Just as I'll make sure you'll never be Headmaster."

"Yeah, right," said Malfoy, smirking. "I expect you'd have Father's vote, sir, if you wanted to apply for the job — I'll tell Father you're the best teacher here, sir —"