The New Scar

Chapter Six

After that moment, all four of us got incredibly quiet for another moment.

At first, Ron dismissed it good-naturedly, "Yeah right. There's no way. Where would a Slytherin get a hold of something like that?"

"We don't know," Hermione explained. "But we're sure that's what it is. And..." she hesitated, "if Snape, as well as the books that we've read are right, then you have a few weeks before you either go insane with the pain, or..." her voice quivered. It took a moment for her to compose herself. "Or it'll attack the nearest available body part."

Ron stared at her in horror. "Y-you don't mean..." He put his hand to the wrap over his wound.

We all nodded in a grave, simultaneous motion.

He began to breathe very quickly. "But...but this was weeks ago! Why didn't I know this before? Or..." he gulped. "Why am I not dead yet?"

"Ron we didn't know. You seemed fine, then that fever happened..." Harry's voice trailed off. He looked at me briefly. He was sorting something out, I could tell, but I didn't know what.

I sighed, again trying to break the uncomfortable silence. "Well, who's going to bring him up to speed on his...on his...him... on the...er..."

Harry put his hand on my shoulder to stop me. Hermione volunteered to do it, and Harry helped steer me out of the hospital wing. After we had said good-bye to Ron for the night, and told Hermione that we'd see her later, we climbed the stairs to Gryffindor common room.

"Ron doesn't look too good," Harry commented as he looked at the stairs as we walked up them.

"No," I agreed. "He doesn't."

After a few more minutes of thoughts racing through my mind, I realized that we had passed the common room long ago.

"Uh, Harry?"

"Yeah?"

"You do remember where the common room is right?" I slowed my steps.

"'Course I do. It's right there." He pointed to the astronomy classroom door.

I looked at him uneasily. "Harry...umm, that's the astronomy classroom."

He shook his head as if to clear his head of unwelcome thoughts. "Oh yeah," he chuckled. "I must be really tired." Harry leaned against the wall of the stairway and closed his eyes.

"Harry you ok?" We had stopped, and I walked before him. "What's wrong? You've gone here for 5 years. No way that you'd not know where the common room is." There was something wrong. Even I could feel it. A serious vibe was in the air and neither of us liked it. "Harry," I added slightly shakily, "I don't want to be here. Let's get to the common room."

"Fine by me," he answered. We descended the stairway side-by-side, tensely, waiting for something to jump from behind a suit of armor, or appear around a corner.

When we reached the common room, we spoke the password, (Levacious), and entered. Hermione was sitting in her usual chair by the fire and was reading in an old potions textbook.

"Find anything?" I asked as I sat down near her.

She looked up at me with bagged eyes. She looked more tired than I had ever seen her. "Nothing that even mentions it. I've looked through every book, every assignment left in the pages, and there's nothing!"

Harry came up behind her and patted her back. "Don't worry 'Mione. You did your best. We'll all just try harder." He looked at me. In his eyes was a huge burden laid before him. I couldn't believe that just a 15-year-old boy could have gone through so much pain and torture throughout his life. I cast my eyes away. The look there made me want to cry. "How'd Ron take it?" he asked.

"He just sat there with this look on his face, like he couldn't believe what I was saying." She turned a few pages scanning the words with a glazed over look.

"I wouldn't believe it either," Harry said. "Well, I wouldn't want to. Who would?"

The common room was darker than usual, with a few people in it. Most had gone up to bed after dinner, but a few had stayed behind to work on assignments. My eyes hadn't adjusted to the dimness of the room until now. They hurt from thinking so much about Ron and school. I felt sick for home. I wanted out of here again. My feelings were so mixed up, I didn't know what to think or say except, "I'm going to bed."

I bid Harry and Hermione goodnight, and climbed the stairs. I felt heated, and the dormitory seemed tight and close. You're just tired. Get to sleep and you'll feel better in the morning. Undressed, I climbed into bed. While putting my glasses on the nightstand I thought about Ron. What kind of pain was he feeling? Why did this have to happen to him? You'd think that that Slytherin would have cut my head, me being a "Scar" and all. But they picked Ron. With a million thoughts swirling in my head, I drifted off to sleep.

The dream that I dreamt was caused by those thoughts. It started out in the hospital wing. Hermione and Harry were sitting with Ron as he was sleeping. Hermione was crying silently as Harry put his hand on her shoulder to comfort her. I stood in the background, seeing though my own eyes. In a flash of green light, they were gone, and a giant face was floating in front of me. Eyes pinkish-red and shaped like a snake's. The nose was two mere slits and they were flaring in anger. I woke after I heard a loud hissing sound in my head. As I shakily sat on the side of bed, the hissing echoed through my head, and the green light and the face played over and over on my eyelids every time that I blinked.

I looked over at Hermione's bed. A large lump indicated that she was still asleep. It was a Saturday, so she'd probably either take Harry and me to the library, or visit Ron and prod and probe him 'till she found out how to cure him. I dressed as quietly as I could and slipped downstairs.

I found the air cooler in the common room. But I didn't stay to enjoy it. I walked down to the Great Hall to eat something. As I walked in, I noticed that a lot of students weren't in there. I looked at the ceiling, which was quite dark, and I figured that it was still early morning. Looking at the Gryffindor table, I noticed one person. I walked over and sat down next to him. "Hey Harry."

"Hi," he mumbled. "Thought you'd still be asleep."

I shrugged. "Had a bad dream, and I figured that it'd be pointless to go back to sleep."

He was staring at the table. "Yeah I've done that a few times."

We sat in silence for a while. I looked around at the tables and noticed a few more students eating and talking in quiet, sleepy tones. I looked at the table, preventing eye contact with the boy sitting next to me.

"Want to visit Ron today?" I prompted.

He sighed heavily. "No, not really. Maybe I'll go to the library before Hermione has the chance to drag me there." Harry stood up and began to walk out of the hall.

"Harry?" I called after him.

He turned. "Yeah?"

I looked at him like he should know what to say. "Well, can't I come?"

He shrugged irritably, "Didn't say you couldn't."

Following him, I felt tense. He didn't seem to want to talk to me, so spending a morning and an afternoon in a library with me seemed almost unbearable to him. My pace had slowed and I jogged to keep up. "Hermione was still asleep when I left the dormitory. I figured that I'd let her sleep in."

"Good thing. She needs it. Poor girl looks terrible." His head was down as he skulked to the library. When he was a good four steps past it, I grabbed his arm, his head still down, and steered him into the room.

Madame Pince looked at us sharply, as if judging us for coming in so early, and watched us as we turned away from her view around a shelf of books. "That woman has problems," I muttered, hoping to get at least a half-smile from Harry. But I didn't get jack squat. I rustled through the rows of books noisily as Harry did it noiselessly. After hours of looking through books, I became frustrated and shoved a book back onto the shelf a little too hard and it pushed the books on the other side right through. With a loud series of 'thuds', I flinched and finally looked through the other side. It was the Restricted Section. I could almost fit my head through the gap I had made with the books. I was about to fill it up with other books, and make it look as though nothing had happened, when a large lettered title caught my eye. Moste Potente Potions. I was sure that there'd be an answer in there.

I pulled out my wand, "Wingardium Leviosa." The book floated from the shelf to my hands. I made sure no one was looking, and went to Harry.

Showing him the book, I said, "There. Now how do you miss something like that?"

Harry stood in what looked like stunned silence. Then, his happiness broke through. "Cassie. You're-you're a genius!" He began to laugh. And being slightly taller than me, he gathered me in his arms and squeezed me as hard as he could. That's hard.

"Harry..." I wheezed. "Harry can you let go of me please?"

He put me down and took the book from my hands. "Why didn't I think of this before?" He smiled and looked at me. He kissed me deeply, his arm around my waist, hand on my back making me nearly lose my balance, grabbed my hand and slipped out of the library with a shocked and confused me, not even bothering to check the book out.

<*>

Hermione was just as happy as Harry was and did almost a repeat of his actions in the library.

"How could I have forgotten? I'm so stupid!" She thumbed through the pages stopping at a page headed, The Polyjuice Potion. "This was the biggest potion I ever made. How could I have forgotten this?"

"Again, Hermione, I don't know. I just saw it and thought it would help." Her questions were rhetorical, but I answered them anyway.

"Let's hope it does." Harry sat down next to Hermione. In the common room, it just looked as though Hermione had just found another book for passion. God only knows how many times one could read Hogwarts: A History without tiring of it.

Harry tried to absorb himself in looking for a cure for Ron. He had avoided eye contact with me ever since we gave the book to Hermione. He smiled at me as if to say "good job", but then he must have realized what he had done because he turned red and didn't look at me for a while.

The book was very large and contained so many gruesome potions that I decided not to look for the sake of sleep, which had been escaping me so easily these past few weeks.

Hours passed as well as the people. A lot of Gryffindors were out on the grounds or elsewhere in the school. When it was finally Harry, Hermione, me, Fred and George in the room, I heard my name whispered from the corner. I turned my head and saw the twins sitting in two armchairs facing each other with what looked like a game board in between them. I pulled on Harry's sleeve and motioned over Fred and George. "What do they want?" he asked.

I shrugged and stood up. "Be right back Hermione." She didn't respond and I crossed over the room, Harry behind me.

"Hey you two. Have a seat on the floor. We're discussing Quidditch tactics." Fred explained.

"That's great Fred," I started, "but wouldn't it be better to have the rest of the team here?"

George snorted. "Those three are out with Wood. Seemed to have grown to like him since he came back." He had a disgusted look on his face.

"Yeah," Fred agreed. "He is gorgeous isn't he?"

I laughed and punched him playfully in the arm. "So, what've we got here?"

"This, my American friend, is a Game Board." George said proudly.

"Well no kidding," I said, "but what for?"

Fred rolled his eyes, "Quidditch! What else? It allows us to move players along this "field" here and see what happens when we decide on a play. Really quite intriguing actually."

I was interested. I'd never seen anything like this before, but apparently Harry and the other two had, so I tried to be casual about it. "Well, try a play of yours lets see what happens."

"Alright," George said expertly. He rolled up his sleeves and pulled out his wand. He tapped it three times on the board and hit each player figure on the head. Instantly, the board came to life. The three chasers passed a small Quaffle back and forth, as little bludgers raced at each player. As the Fred and George figures flew to a small Slytherin, whom I recognized to be Adrien Pucy, captain of the team, one of the bludgers flew at my figure and knocked me off. Fred and George's figures both hit Adrien over the head with their beater's clubs, and raised them triumphantly, but since there was no Cassie figure, there was no keeper, and the Slytherins scored.

I felt a lurch in my stomach.

Harry let out a queer moan, and said, voice cracking, "I want Wood back."

George scratched his head with the tip of his wand, thinking. "Yeah, that wasn't very good was it? We'll just have to try again Fred."

They nodded to each other, and hunched over the board talking in hushed tones as if Harry and I couldn't hear what they were saying. We left them and went back to Hermione. She was still sifting though pages at great speed. Her breath had become more and more anxious; I could hear it from a few feet away.

She let loose, "There's nothing in here! Not even a footnote! I just can't believe it!"

Harry quickly and nervously raised his index finger to his lips to try and quiet her so as not to raise suspicion. Hermione let out a huge and agitated breath. "We'll just have to try again, and again, and again!" At the last "again" she slammed the book shut with a loud noise. But also, she slammed it shut with a small piece of paper wedged in the back.

"What's that?" I asked taking hold of it. It was a full piece of paper folded into a small wad. The other two paid close attention. With my brow knitted, I unfolded its tight creases. It looked to be very old, but it had kept well in its position. After I had gotten to the last crease, I saw what my eyes had been hungering to see ever since I saw the name of its enemy: Crut. Potion Cure

<*>

Hermione seemed unimpressed. "How do we know that it's the cure we're looking for? It could be anything."

Harry looked at her, "What else could it be? I know it doesn't say exactly what it is, but what else has the prefix 'Crut?'"

I scanned the page at the ingredients. It was a very cruel potion, but I expected the actual Cruciatus Potion to be more intense.

"What does it say?" Hermione peered over the top of the page.

I held it out before myself and the other two. It read:

Crut. Potion Cure

4 crushed Kelpie hooves

12 pairs of Doxy wings

1 Puffskein tongue

2 mL Re'em blood

Boil Re'em blood at 135 degrees F. Add Doxy wings. Stir for 3 days, or until wings have dissolved. After that, sprinkle the kelpie hooves over the top and let sit for 18 hours. Drop the Puffskein tongue into the potion and stir until it steams loudly.

WARNING: Follow directions exactly. Failure to do so may result in the wrong potion.

There was serious silence followed after we all had finished it. Hating silence, I responded, "Well, that-that could be a lot worse you know. I suggest we start now."

No sooner than I had finished my sentence, Hermione broke in with, "Where are we supposed to get Re'em blood? Those beasts are only from America. Everything else is bound to be in either the lake or the forest." She seemed to be panicking like I had never seen her do before.

"Hermione! Have you forgotten where I'm from? I can just have Ann send some of her sister's stuff over. That woman never got rid of anything." As I said before, Ann's sister was a witch. She had lived with us while she was sick. She died after the siege of Death Eaters in our town. Cece, her name, left a lot behind after that. Ann refused to get rid of anything, (despite John's protests), and hoped that one day it'd be of some use to me.

After more discussion on the potion, I went up to my dormitory while Harry and Hermione stayed downstairs. I flopped on my bed and rubbed my temples. There was so much going on now. I didn't want to pull the muggles into it, but I had no choice if I wanted to help Ron.

The parchment I had pulled out was still blank with my quill hovering over it. How could I tell them what I needed and why, while still staying inconspicuous?

Ann and John,

How's everything over there? Here isn't so bad. I've made some great friends. Though I miss Shawmain, here is ok too. I just can't help wondering how that girl from here is doing there, and how you guys are getting on without me.

Okay, good so far. Now to business.

I need to ask a favor. We're doing a project here for Potions class, and I need some supplies. If you could look in Cece's stuff for something called "Re'em blood", and sent it back here with Arella, it'd be great. Also, would you mind sending me some sleeping draft? I'd hate to bother some of the other kids for theirs.

Love,

Cassie

I rolled up the parchment, tied it with a small piece of rope, and walked down to the Owlry.

I had never been in here before, and as soon as I walked in, I realized that I never wanted to be in there again. There was rat and mouse waste everywhere on the straw. Trying as hard as I could to not step in anything, I made my way over to my owl.

At the sight of me, she swooped down and landed on my shoulder. I felt her grip me with her talons and nip my ear lovingly. I stroked her breast.

"I missed you too baby. Up to a trip?"

She hooted loudly, arousing some of the others in the room. I laughed and set her on an empty perch. Arella put out her leg and let me tie my letter to her. She hopped onto my forearm. I kissed her head and petted her back. "Straight to Ann ok?"

It seemed that she nodded understandingly, and fluttered lightly out of the window.

<*>

By now the staff of Hogwarts was getting more and more suspicious with Ron's illness. We had told them lie after lie: He hit his head in Potions and got some Swelling Solution in it, He hit his head coming out of bed and it got infected with...something. Our most recent one had been our last resort.

"All Ron did professor," Hermione began, "was, he got into a bit of a brawl with Fred for not postponing Quidditch try-outs and...well, Fred must have put a bit of a hex on him."

McGonagall's face was unchanging. She had called us to her classroom during lunch. She obviously was fed up with the fabrication that we had been pulling over everyone's eyes, and wanted to know the truth. "Really now Miss Granger. Did you think that you could pull it off? I don't know what's wrong with Weasley, but I know that there's something wrong with him. And as he is in my house, I want to know what."

There was a dead silence. Her eyes were so narrow that I had to look away when she gazed at me for a moment. Frightened to death that she'd say my name, I became fascinated in the floor.

"Potter!" she barked out. I briefly broke my gaze too look at Harry who, sitting next to me, had become very interested in my legs. He jumped in his seat.

"Yes!"

"Can you tell me what's wrong with Weasley?" Her eyes (if possible) got narrower and I saw Harry cringing under the penetrating stare.

"Well, you see professor...uh...we don't really know what's wrong with Ron as of now." He began very slowly.

"Then why didn't you ask for help?"

No one answered for a few moments as the professor looked to each one of us. Obligated once again to fill in the silence, I spoke up, "We took him to Madame Pomfrey didn't we?"

There was a ringing in my ears as the blood pounded. What was I doing? Sure I had told lies before, but a friend's life was on the line here. I couldn't keep up this façade for long.

"Yes. Yes that's true Miss McGerald, but what I can't figure out for the life of me, is why didn't you come to me? Or Dumbledore?"

I was about to explain everything truthfully, but a small voice to the left of me beat me to it, "A Slytherin did it."

Harry and I looked over at the small voice's owner. Hermione sat hunched over in her seat, her knees pinched together her hands on the edges of the seat of her chair, staring at the floor.

Professor McGonagall leaned back in her chair, satisfied that the cat was coming out of the bag, so to speak. "Go on Granger."

Hermione didn't seem to have the strength within her to do so, so I helped out. "Ron and I were walking in the corridors that day when we didn't come to your class, and we were," I swallowed, "attacked I guess by two Slytherins."

The professor inhaled deeply, "And do you know which ones? Get any faces?"

No one spoke for so many seconds that even I was afraid to speak. Should I tell her? According to everyone else, Malfoy deserved whatever I could give him. And as for the boy that cut Ron, I didn't even know the name.

McGonagall eased up the pressure by speaking very softly as if talking to a 5 year old that had been hurt. "Cassie? Did one of them do something to you?"

I looked this woman in the eye. There was deep concern in her face that couldn't be fathomed. I spoke very timidly and monotonously. "Yes"

"Can you tell me what?"

I looked to Hermione and Harry for help. But the looked away as if to say, "Hey, you're on your own on this one."

"Well, one of them, I...uh, think it was Malfoy, he kind of, pushed me against the wall and..."

"And what? What did he do to you?"

I looked at her. She was really worried about me. I could feel it. "All he did was tell me that I didn't belong here because of my...well..." I pulled up my sleeve to reveal my scar. I couldn't believe that I had done it so willingly, as if I do it all the time.

She leaned back again, "And of the one who hurt Weasley?"

I shrugged, "We don't know." It was the truth. A view from the back is never a good way to get someone's profile.

After that whole episode with the head of Gryffindor house, the three of us went to the Hospital Wing to see Ron.

Hermione flopped into a chair next to his bed tiredly. "What a day."

I stretched myself on a bed by Ron's, "No need to tell me twice."

"There's always a plus side to a bad day you know," Harry spoke, "don't forget that we did find the cure."

Ron literally jumped out of his dazed and miserable state. "Really?" His voice cracked with puberty and excitement. "When am I gonna get it?"

"Slow down cowboy," I said. "There's always the grueling process of getting the ingredients you know. We'll just have to wait for Ann to get us one of the necessary supplies."

Ron leaned back into his pillows. "Well, hopefully, we've got enough time before I..." he swallowed, and couldn't finish what he was going to say.

Hermione put her hand on his. "It's ok Ron. We'll have plenty of time."

It may have been the way she didn't sound so confident in what she said, or what was right in front of us, but I wasn't so sure that time would be on our side.