| Jarvey
Join Date: May 2008 Location: Leicester, UK
Posts: 567
Hogwarts RPG Name:
Krysta Hedwig
Sixth Year | 
Chapter 22: Part 2
They approached him gingerly, none of them wanting to speak first. Eventually he sensed their presence and turned from the group of Slytherins he was muttering to. The furrows in his skin deepened as he regarded them with distaste and suspicion.
"Yes?" Snape asked the group of Gryffindors, who looked at Hermione expectantly. Some of the others had come with them for support and the procession had been watched with interest as they had picked their way through the crowd to their Potions Master. He raised an eyebrow as Hermione turned around the book she held in her arms so he could read the page. He watched her for a few seconds before skimming the page quickly. His expression didn't change.
"I don't follow, Miss Granger. Is there some point to this?" Harry and Ron exchanged one of their looks and Hermione took a deep breath before answering.
"Professor, do you think you could make this potion?" she asked. The man scowled at her.
"Is there a reason for your impertinence, girl or is this some kind of Gryffindor joke the rest of use mere mortals don't understand?" he asked. Hermione took her turn to scowl.
"I'll take that as a yes, then." She said boldly and his scowl deepened the crows-feet around his eyes even further.
"Miss Granger I have more important things to…"
"Can you make enough to administer to the entire school?" she asked, cutting him off mid-sentence. He stared at her incredulously.
"The point of that being?" he asked, sounding agitated and bored.
"To get us all out of here." She answered and his frown turned into an expression of annoyed bewilderment.
"Miss Granger I don't know what insane idea you have in your over-inflated head…"
"They can't harm us if we're all a bunch of Pixies." Harry cut in, getting annoyed with the man's insistence to block everything they ever said. Snape looked at him coldly a flicker of loathing crossing his eyes.
"I see, and this was your idea was it Potter? To turn the school into Pixies? Original I have to admit." Snape sneered at him and the Gryffindors chose to ignore the snickering from the Slytherin students.
"Actually it was Ron's idea." Interrupted Hermione scowling back with all the venom that Snape had mustered himself.
"Enough of this nonsense." He turned back around but in a moment of insanity Harry grabbed his arm and pulled him back around to face them.
"They can only harm us if we're human. Any other blood will poison them." He barked, becoming increasingly angry with the man's abstinence.
"Thank you Mister Potter, I hardly need a lesson in The Dark Arts from you." Snape hissed, shaking his arm free.
"No I bet you don't. You learnt all that first hand, didn't you?" Harry bit back, his mouth getting the better of his head. The rage in Snape's eyes overflowed and he raised his hand as if to strike.
"Severus!"
The act was cut short by the loud angry shout. All head turned to face Krysta and Professor McGonagall who both stood together, arms crossed over their chests looking livid.
"The boy was being insolent." Snape hissed, sounding more and more like Nagini in Harry's opinion. The way he was feeling towards the man right now, Harry would rather have been conversing with the dead Python than with the Potions Master.
"Oh well then batter away, Sev. Beat him to a ruddy pulp. That will solve the problem." Retorted Krys who was staring at Snape more with shock than anger.
"I wasn't…" began Snape but decided better of it. Instead he snarled at Harry. "You're not worth it Potter." He growled swishing his cloak around him as majestically as he could manage.
"Miss Granger, I believe you have an idea?" asked Professor McGonagall looking expectantly over her glasses in a way that so resembled Professor Dumbledore, Harry's stomach did a nervous flip. He couldn't be dead. He couldn't.
Hermione looked nervous for a second, but it quickly passed.
"Yes. We can just walk right out of here if we can…transform everyone into something else temporarily." She said quickly, and put in those words, Harry couldn't help thinking how ridiculous it sounded. And in that moment a voice spoke very loudly in his head: It'll never work.
"I see." Said Professor McGonagall sounding more than sceptic.
"They couldn't harm us. If, say, we were all turned into Pixies for just half an hour, we could just walk right out. They'd never catch one of us, Pixies are too quick and skitty. And even if they did, they couldn't bite us. It would poison them." Hermione rushed her words seemingly desperate to get her point across to the woman whose opinion Hermione valued above all Hogwarts teachers. McGonagall simply stared at the girl for a moment, clearly thinking it through.
"There would have to be a distraction. They'd just swarm around the door." Krysta suddenly spoke. Hermione looked at her in surprise. Krysta was clearly thinking this through seriously. "And Pixies are incredibly unpredictable. If you turned everyone into one, there's no telling what would happen. We could end up scattered over a ten mile radius in half an hour." She added.
"Better than being in here." Commented Ron and she looked at him with a faint smile. She nodded once.
"Can you do it?" she was looking at the floor but Snape instinctively knew she was addressing him.
"Krys you can't be serious…"
"Can you do it?" she insisted and she looked up at him. His eyes softened. He nodded. "Good." She said. "The question is, how the hell do we get hold of the ingredients?"
"This is never going to work, it's pointless!"
Hermione flung her arms in the air in exasperation. She was sitting on the floor cross-legged with Lily's pendant in her hands. Opposite her were Krys and Sirius; now in human form again. They were beneath the statue of Salazar Slytherin, apart slightly from the rest of the crowd. Harry, Ron and Professor McGonagall were watching from the edge of the crowd, close enough to hear what was happening.
"Why cant one of you go?" she cried again, looking as though she were about to cry.
"I can't, Hermione. I'd never be able to get to the surface. Dogs aren't as good at climbing." Sirius explained trying to sound soothing at the same time.
"Well Krys then, you're a cat and there's no telling what I would be, even if I did manage it." She wailed, slumping back and getting wet in the process. She pulled her hand out of the small moat of water below the statue and squealed slightly when a large tooth came with it. She threw the long basilisk fang away from her into the crowd, shivering - no one saw the small hand pick it up and slip it into their pocket.
"I have to stay here, Hermione." Krys spoke slowly and quietly and both Harry and Ron had to strain their ears to hear.
"Krys is the only one who can truly handle a large number of vampires if something goes wrong. She can think on her feet. That's what she does." Sirius paused for a moment. "That's what you do Hermione." He added, but she missed the hint he was giving her. She shook her head.
"But it took you 5 years to master this!" she cried at him. He shook his head.
"You're not me, Hermione. Krys has been doing this since she could crawl." Krys nodded solemnly at the girl who just shook her head.
"But you're special." She moaned, discarding the comments. "You're, you know…born for it." She concluded. Krys smiled and took Hermione's hand, covering the Talisman in it with her own.
"So are you, Hermione. Trust me. You can do this. Of anyone in this room…" Krys paused and Hermione looked at Ron and Harry for support of some kind.
Harry stepped forward, but he didn't offer the support she'd been expecting.
"Hermione, I know it sounds crazy…but you can do this. I know you can. Don't ask me why, but trust me." Hermione stared at him shaking her head.
"How about you, Harry Potter, The Boy Who Lived." She started sarcastically. Harry stopped her before she could finish. He knew where she was going with this.
"This isn't about me. This is about something older, and deeper than anything I've ever been involved with. This is something only you can handle." She stared at him as though he'd escaped from St. Mungo's psychiatric ward.
"Why? Because I get good grades? Because I read a lot? I'm not even a pure blood!" she cried.
"No, you're better than that." Krys butted in. Hermione looked at her frowning.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Pure blood Hermione. It's crap." She began and the boys exchanged an expression of surprise at Krys's language.
"Your blood has purer magic in it than anyone in this room." She continued and Hermione stared at her incredulously.
"How can I…" Hermione began but trailed off.
"Hermione, all those people out there." She gestured to the crowd of students. "So-called pure bloods. Their families going back hundreds, even thousands of years some them. Magic passed down through blood, generation after generation. It's diluted, Hermione. Mixed with other blood. It's all genetics. They are all witches and wizards because their parents were, and their parents before them. Passed down like red hair." She smiled at Ron who grinned back goofily. Ron could obviously see where this was going. "And there's nothing wrong with that, don't get me wrong. Look at me. My family's magic goes back to the dawn of time." She explained. "But you Hermione…" she said affectionately and Hermione looked at her, her eyes full of emotions Harry couldn't interpret. "You and all the other Muggle-borns, you are pure; the first in a line. Chosen by Yana itself to possess an incredible gift. You are the true Pure Bloods, Hermione."
Krys fell silent allowing Hermione to take all of this in. Harry could practically hear the cogs turning in her incredible mind and a look of clarity was slowly emerging in her eyes. She clutched the pendant in her hands and looked at Harry.
"Like Lily." She said a faint smile on her lips. Harry returned it and Krys nodded.
"Yes. Exactly like Lily, Hermione."
There was silence again. Then Hermione looked up at them, a look of certainty and confidence in her manner.
"I can do this." She announced. It wasn't a question; it was a statement. She sat up straight and closed her eyes, gripping the pendant as though for comfort and confidence.
She sat that way for nearly half an hour. Harry and Ron watched her in silence, as did everyone else.
"She's one isn't she?"
Harry looked at Ron, not knowing what his friend was referring to.
"She's one of them. One of the three Hugo Dracus is here for. Like Krysta; like your Mother." He continued then looked at Harry sternly. Harry could only nod, guilt overtaking his entire being. Ron was quiet for a moment.
"You should have told me." He said calmly. Harry continued to look at his friend, who in turn was watching the girl meditating on the floor. Ron didn't look or sound angry, and Harry realised that this wasn't the time for such emotions. Ron was simply telling his friend that he'd made a mistake. Harry could only nod. Ron was right after all. Another time Harry might have argued that he hadn't been sure and didn't want to say anything until he was certain. But that would have been pointless.
"Yes. I should have told you." He said.
Harry checked his watch. Time was creeping up on them, sneaking past them when they weren't looking. The evening was approaching and if something didn't happen pretty soon, their plan would never be put into action in time.
"Krys." He whispered and the woman came over to him. "How will we know when she gets back? How will I know when to open the door?"
"We'll just know" replied a new voice and Ginny appeared by Ron's side. She smiled up at brother who just barely returned the gesture. "She'll let us know somehow. And in the meantime, my darling brothers have an idea for that distraction you were talking about." She stood aside and Fred and George took her place holding a large bag in their hands. Krys leaned forward to peer into it and instantly her eyes danced with a broad grin.
"Perfect." She announced grinning at the twins who returned the grin in full.
Harry shuffled on his feet, trying to ignore the ache that was setting in to them. Ron had taken to wandering back and forth, not so much in agitation, but in a vain attempt to calm his nerves. Krys was talking in low voices with Snape, clearly to Sirius' distaste as he wore an expression of pure hatred. Snape's scowl was clear even from the distance between them. Eventually Krys wandered back to them and Sirius threw Snape a scowl, which the teacher ignored and turned his back on them.
"What's his problem now?" Sirius asked in a low voice. Krys sighed deeply and folded her back across her chest.
"He's worried about Hermione." She said quietly much to everyone's surprise. That was the last answer they'd expected.
"Doesn't he think she can do it?" asked Ron, trying not to sound angry.
"Oh yes, he's quite sure she can do it. That's what's worrying him." Ron and Harry exchanged a concerned look and both looked down at their best friend. Through it all, she remained, silent, still and concentrated.
"We're running out of time." Hissed Sirius sounding as though panic wasn't far away. "If Dracus gets here before…"
"He won't. She just needs time. She's nearly there, I can feel it." Krys hissed back.
"Look!" whispered Ginny moving forward slightly. They turned to look at Hermione.
Her eyes were open wide staring at nothing inparticular. Harry and Ron both moved closer, slowly. As they drew close to her, to their astonishment, they could see her eyes up close. But they were not her eyes. But this was not like when Harry had seen his mother's eyes peering out through Ginny's. This was far, far different. Her eyes weren't even human. Golden globes had replaced her usual green-grey orbs; black slits replaced her pupils. They were looking at the eyes of a cat. And even as they watched, to their horror and amazement, Hermione vanished from their midst.
In her place; pointed black-tipped ears twitching; tail flicking back and forth, stood a cunning, bright-eyed Lynx.
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