The Gifted Curse

Chapter 16 - The Golden Trio

Pansy Parkinson had been the last person to leave the girl's dormitories that morning except for Orah and Geneva. Geneva was desperate to break the silence and did so the moment the door clicked shut. She was sat on the edge of her bed, pulling up her socks and immediately launched into the question that had been sitting on her lips since last night. Orah was lazily making her bed.

"Orah, why did you tell Professor Snape the news about my Dad?"

"Because you were struggling in class and I thought it might make him go easy on you."

"When did you tell him?"

"When he gave you that permission slip. After class."

"Shouldn't that have been enough?" Geneva stated, baring her palm. What more could she have wanted? Wasn't it obvious? "You didn't have to go and tell him why."

"Why is it a big deal?"

Geneva's mouth fell at her friend's obliviousness.

"Because it's confidential!"

"Exactly," Orah rested assure, plumping her pillow. "Snape isn't going to tell anyone, is he? He's our head of house – the person you're supposed to go to for things like this."

"But that's my decision, not yours. This is private. I can't believe you would just spill my private life like that. Why do you think I ran out of the Great Hall when I got the letter? I didn't want anyone to know."

Orah stood taken aback by her friend's abrupt reaction with widened eyes, then pulled her shoes from under the bed. "If it hadn't of been for me we wouldn't have gotten out of that scrape last night outside the Room of Requirement."

Geneva was silent, knowing she was right. She bent her knee up on the wooden beam of her bed to do up her shoe and slumped her arms on top with a sigh.

"Sorry Orah, I'm just extra sensitive right now. Dad...Luna...Lupin...all of this."

Orah came over and sat down beside her, offering an arm of comfort, which only turned on the waterworks as Geneva's head fell to her shoulder, her ponytail cascading between them.

"I know," Orah sympathized, rubbing her back. "We'll find Harry today, okay? Hermione...we'll search the library. Maybe they know something."

Once Geneva had tidied her uniform and wiped her face, the girls made their way down to breakfast. Dumbledore's absence was noticed by all. Professor McGonagall took to the stand that morning in his place, to the students dismay, without additional information, but simply to reiterate the rules of the school safety and earlier curfew. Geneva and Orah had been alternating their attention toward the Gryffindor table that morning, waiting for the moment the trio – Harry, Ron and Hermione left their spaces. Orah nudged Geneva after a while and grabbed their bags, still with a triangle of toast hanging from her mouth. She'd spotted Hermione getting up and the girls made a bee-line for her, trying to match her strides but remaining inconspicuous all the same if that was possible. They caught her on the way out.

"Hermione!" Geneva exclaimed, slightly breathless. She turned round. "Can we talk?"

Hermione looked at Orah with an upturned nose - who had just stuffed the last piece of toast in her face - as if she were positively revolted.

"I don't have time," Hermione snubbed.

"Hermione, please," Geneva begged. "Do you know anything? It's just that last night we couldn't get into..."

"None of us could," she answered, in the know.

"It's true then," Geneva confirmed. "Last night I said it was like someone had put a charm on it. The door never appeared."

"Yeah," Orah chimed in. "Snape caught us."

Hermione suddenly looked interested and pulled them both aside so that they were huddled against a wall, lowering her head in enquiry.

"Professor Snape caught you trying to get in?"

"Yes!"

"But he let us off easily," Geneva added.

Hermione went to speak but no sound came out, instead she pursed her lips and brushed past them.

"I have to go, and so do you. We have class."

Orah sighed, rolling her eyes at Hermione's bolting flee. "She is such a doo-gooder. Would it kill her to be bloody late for a class?" Again they were left hanging.

The girls walked back into the Great Hall hoping to catch Harry or Ron, but in the time they had spoken to Hermione, they boys had left.

Geneva contemplated during Transfiguration sending a note over to Hermione's table, but it was far too risky and absolutely out of the equation. Both girls tried desperately to get her visual attention, but there was absolutely nothing tearing Hermione away from her books.

Professor McGonagall's voice was suddenly directed toward them. "Miss Gulf, Miss Azur, would you two girls kindly pay attention."

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Friday. There was a whole weekend ahead. Surely some light would come of the suspicions flying around, if Geneva could only arrange to meet with the trio.

Finally, on the way from Transfiguration to lunch, Hermione thrust a note into Geneva's hands. She had disappeared in large strides before she'd even had a chance to look up and realise what had happened. She unrolled the piece of parchment hastily.

Library, 2:30. Saturday.

Saturday came, and the girls made their way to the library, searching for the trio of Gryffindors. Geneva was glad to be in their own clothes and not their house colours. At least this way it more incognito that they were essentially conversing with - what most Slytherins would coin - the enemy.

"Over here," Hermione ushered them. She led them down a back aisle of the library that Geneva had never visited. The books were dusty and falling apart at their spines.

"Harry knows about Snape," Hermione burst, shooting him a look.

"If he let you get away that easily then he definitely knows about the DADA classes. He's drawing you away from the room. Something is happening in there." Harry assured. He paused, gathering his thoughts. "Geneva, Orah...I've known Professor Lupin is a werewolf before now, we all have," he pointed to Ron and Hermione who nodded coherently.

"Snape knows too. He's the one who makes it possible for Lupin to stay at Hogwarts. He provides him with a potion – Wolvesbane. It brings his symptoms to a standstill when the full moon rises."

"How did you know he's a werewolf?" Orah asked.

"I've seen it," Harry brushed off, as if were no big deal. "Look...something must have happened – the Wolvesbane – he's always in constant supply. Maybe someone stole it from his quarters."

"He was running into the Forbidden Forrest," Hermione interjected where Harry left off. "A werewolf is rabid by nature. Can you imagine how scared he must have been? He must have taken off into the Forrest and then transformed. Transforming in the castle walls would have been a massacre."

"He must have realised he was out of Wolvesbane," Ron added.

Hermione shot him a dumbfounded look. "Obviously Ronald."

"Snape saw you outside the Room of Requirement," Harry added, suddenly speaking quicker, "Snape is the one who provides Lupin with Wolvesbane. I think Snape was the one to take it from Lupin's quarters. He wanted this to happen – for Lupin to be revealed. He knows about the classes. He's trying to stop us from learning defensive magic."

"Wait..." Geneva halted, with a raised hand. "I know these classes are meant to be kept secret, but why would Snape..."

"Tell them," Ron nodded.

Hermione took a deep breath, slowly closing her eyes.

"Snape used to be a death eater. We believe he could still be working along side...You Know Who."

Geneva was suddenly overwhelmed with information, as though every book around her had tumbled from the shelves into a large cloud of dust and was suffocating her lungs.

Hermione peeked around the corner of the shelves to see if they had been noticed as the nature of their conversation grew more sinister. The coast was clear.

"Are you kidding?!" Orah exclaimed. "What is he doing at Hogwarts?"

"Dumbledore trusts him," Ron informed them. "Apparently. Says he's turned it around..." His twisted expression did not look convinced. "He'll know dark magic that none of the others do."

Geneva appeared spaced out as every moment between her and Professor Snape flooded her – the looks across the Great Hall, the conversations they'd had, the Christmas gift he wore, the way he'd helped her recover from the bludger, their intimate moment...unknown to everyone but her. Her eyes filled with tears, fearful to reveal the secret she'd been keeping since November. As if things couldn't get any worse...

"What about Luna?" Geneva asked, diverting a reason to warrant her bleary eyes, trying to stifle her tears. "She wouldn't leave the castle without her wand, and at night too."

Harry sighed. "We think something must have led her there, into the forest."

"Snape has to be still involved in the Dark Arts," Ron conversed. "At least, that's what we believe. Maybe it could have been him? Or...he got someone to do it for him."

"So this is a set up," Orah surmised.

"Has to be." Harry was convinced.

Geneva turned to Orah, eyes widened in revelation. "Pansy Parkinson! She said we were out of our dorms that night, do you remember? We were on our way back from DADA class and we met her, Billy and Malfoy in the corridor. She's been giving us funny looks for weeks."

Orah's eyes widened to mirror Geneva's "Pansy!"

"She's been watching us." Hermione looked adamant. "I don't like that girl. Typical Slyt-" she was about to say Slytherin but trailed off. "She's close with Malfoy. It makes me vomit."

"I hate that little git," Orah mumbled.

"We all do," Ron declared as they huddled closer.

Harry's voice sped up, using his hands to talk. "His father is Lucius. Lucius discovered Luna's body. Lucius is close with Snape and the Ministry...Lucius is a death eater."

Geneva heart pounded as things fell in place. Orah gripped her robes as she too was feeling the effects of the unveiling.

"I don't know why," Harry continued with ragging breath, "but Luna was led to her death for a reason."

"To prove something," Hermione insisted. "And we need to find out what."