a/n: Sorry I've been gone for a while. I've been a little too sad to work on anything Harry Potter-related. I'll tell my tale to you here so I don't have to answer your questions in reviews:
I absolutely loved Half-Blood Prince. It was just…awesome! It's definitely right up there with books 3 and 4 as far as ShrugDuckie's favorites go. It took me 11 hours to finish it (Don't give me grief if you finished it in 2—I fell asleep for a couple hours and I had to work!) and after I shut the book I found myself thoroughly depressed. I cried myself to sleep with the book in my arms…lol! Don't make fun of me! Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed the book as much as I did. And all my 'ships got together, so I enjoyed it very, very much…(wink)
That being said, I hope you enjoy the last segment of Reading Between the Lines. (bows everyone into the chapter)
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, but I do own this handkerchief I keep having to blow my nose on because…b-b-because…(starts sobbing again)
Chapter 30: All Hope is Lost
Claire could do nothing but gape open-mouthed at Professor Snape, like a fish out of water. Robin was breathing very loud and very fast beside her.
"C'mon now, get up! Up!" Snape grabbed each of them by the scruff of their robes and pulled them to their feet. "Accio Wands!"
Claire's and Robin's wands zoomed out of their hands or pockets straight into their professor's greasy hand.
"Move along! Go!" Snape ordered, jabbing the three wands into the lash Claire had received from the Whomping Willow. She winced in pain as he began marching them towards the deadly tree.
Claire found her voice first.
"Professor, you don't understand—we don't have anything to do with this—please—" she begged him.
"Enough of your foolishness," the professor said menacingly. "Don't think I don't know precisely what's been going on here—oh yes, I know, Woods. And you, Gregory! I should've thought you'd know better than to meddle with affairs such as this. But no matter, justice will be served tonight, at long last…"
Robin looked petrified. Claire felt sick. Was it even possible that Snape could know the girls' reasons for being on the grounds so late at night? Claire didn't think so, but the triumph in his eyes was enough to make her knees knock together in fear.
A tree branch was trying desperately to pound the girls and teacher into the ground, but they were just barely out of its reach. Snape smirked.
"Grab that branch the werewolf used, Gregory, before I lose patience with you two all together…"
Robin, not daring to disobey him, bent down and picked up the long tree branch that was laying a little ways to her left. As she turned to hand it to the formidable potions master, she caught Claire's eye. She automatically read Robin's thoughts: Keep quiet until we figure out what to do.
"After you," Snape said after prodding the knot, pointing his wand threateningly at Claire and Robin. Their wands resided in his other hand along with Harry's Invisibility Cloak.
The girls exchanged a frightened glance before Claire slid down into the darkened tunnel, Robin following directly behind.
The minutes crept on as the tunnel started to slope slowly upward. Claire was fighting the impulse to turn around and attack Snape, all wands forgotten. On the one hand, she and Robin needed to get away before they were present in a very critical scene, but on the other, Snape needed to be there in order for the events to play out properly. Claire didn't know what to do…
Before Claire could think of anything and before the silence was broken, she spotted it; the light at the end of the tunnel leading into the Shrieking Shack. Robin was shaking slightly next to her; apparently, she had not had a life-saving brainwave either.
"Move faster!" Snape said fiercely from behind them. Claire chanced a glance over her shoulder to see that he was still holding his wand at the ready, a sinister smile spreading across his lips. She felt determination rising in her chest—she could not, under any circumstance, let Sirius be taken back to the castle in the hands of his boyhood enemy. She had to do whatever she could to prevent that from happening.
Claire and Robin, after feeling a sharp poke from their professor's wand, hoisted themselves up into the dusty room above them. The furniture all around them was broken and gnawed upon. As Snape appeared beside them, they heard voices coming from the room above them.
"At long last, I will have my revenge…" Snape muttered almost inaudibly. "Upstairs, you two, I'm not yet finished with you…"
They followed the sound of the voices up the stairs and down a long hallway. There, at the end of the corridor, a door was standing slightly ajar, a thin strip of light playing against the dust-ridden floorboards. Snape urged them forward until they were standing just outside it. Claire felt her spine prickle in foreboding as a hoarse voice suddenly spoke from within the room.
"Snape?" said the hoarse voice sharply. "What's Snape got to do with it?"
"He's here, Sirius," Lupin answered him. "He's teaching here as well." He paused for a moment before going on, "Professor Snape was at school with us. He fought very hard against my appointment to the Defense Against the Dark Arts job. He has been telling Dumbledore all year that I am not to be trusted. He has his reasons…you see, Sirius here played a trick on him which nearly killed him, a trick which involved me—"
Sirius made a noise that sounded close to a snort.
"It served him right," Sirius sneered. "Sneaking around, trying to find out what we were up to…hoping to get us expelled…"
Beside Claire and Robin, Snape was slipping on the Invisibility Cloak. He pulled the two girls underneath it with him and slipped in through the slightly open door. No one in the room was paying the entrance any attention with the exception of Wormtail, whose mouse eyes were darting around in search of an escape root. Everyone was too immersed in Lupin's explanation to care about the door inching open.
"Snape glimpsed me though," Lupin was saying to a rapt Harry, Ron, and Hermione, "at the end of the tunnel. He was forbidden by Dumbledore to tell anybody, but from that time on he knew what I was…"
"So that's why Snape doesn't like you," Harry said, sounding as if he was working on putting two and two together, "because he thought you were in on the joke?"
Claire knew what was about to happen a moment before it did. Robin grabbed her arm, as if frightened Claire was going to run away.
"That's right," Snape said coldly, throwing off the Invisibility Cloak.
Hermione let out a scream as Sirius jumped to his feet. Harry was staring from Claire, to Robin, to Snape, looking a cross between confused and shocked.
"Claire?" he asked. "What are you—with him?—Did you—"
"Enough of your chattiness, Potter," Snape cut him off. He was gripping Robin's and Claire's shoulders very tightly, preventing the girls from moving. He looked up at a stunned Remus Lupin and said, "You're wondering perhaps, how I knew you were here? Well, you were never very good at keeping secrets, Lupin, you're lovely little friends made sure of that…"
"Severus—" Lupin began, shaking his head.
"I've told the headmaster again and again that you're helping you old friend Black into the castle, Lupin, and here's the proof."
He clapped a hand on Claire's bruised and cut shoulder, thrusting her forward as though she was a murder weapon in a case that Snape had been dying to solve. She winced, wondering what in the world Snape was on about.
"Severus, think of what you're saying!" Lupin said in surprise. "Claire? How could she possibly be involved in—?"
"Snivillus!" Snape shouted triumphantly. Claire actually turned to stare at him. Had he completely lost it?
"Severus, what are you—?"
"This girl destroyed my classroom and wrote the name across my face, Lupin!" Snape spat out. The corners of Sirius's mouth twitched even though his expression was one of bewilderment and resentment. "Who else could have told her that was what you're charming little friends used to call me? Admit it! You've been using Woods and Gregory to keep tabs on your old friend, and help him get into the castle!"
Lupin's mouth actually fell open in surprise. Harry was staring between Claire and Snape, looking flabbergasted.
"How could you possibly think that?" Lupin said, stunned.
"I've seen this girl's owl, flying off to Hogsmeade at least twice a day!" Snape clapped Claire painfully on the shoulder. "Explain to me what that owl was doing there so often, if not to keep tabs on your filthy, escapee friend…"
Claire gasped. So that was why Crookshanks wasn't there! It was Aquinas who had been helping Sirius, not the cat! Therefore, Crookshanks had never had a chance to so much as meet Sirius properly, because Sirius didn't have to sneak out to get food, Aquinas had been bringing it to him! So how could Crookshanks have ever met him, let alone gained his trust enough to assist him in sneaking into the castle? It was a mistake made by Claire and Aquinas together after the Hufflepuff vs. Gryffindor Quidditch match…
At last the astonished silence was broken by Lupin, who said in a raspy voice, "Severus, these girls have no idea what is going on here tonight. They're not involved in the slightest. Let them go, we can explain, if you'd just—"
"Dumbledore may buy your fickle excuses but if you think I'm about to then you are sadly mistaken, werewolf!" Snape snarled.
"Severus, you must listen to me," Lupin was saying in a voice of forced-calm. "Sirius is not here to kill Harry. Robin and Claire have not been assisting Sirius into the castle and neither have I—you have to hear the whole story—"
"I am no fool!" Snape exclaimed, spraying spit down on Claire and Robin as a vein pulsed in his temple.
"Could have fooled me…" Sirius muttered darkly.
There was a blast of light and a dozen chords sprang out of nowhere, bounding and gagging Sirius.
"NO!" Harry shouted, raising his wand at Snape.
But Snape was too quick for him. His wand was already level with Harry's eyes.
"Give me a reason," he whispered. "Give me a reason to do it and I swear I will."
Claire felt her heart pounding against her bruised rib cage. This scene had become seriously mangled. It was Lupin who should have been bound and gagged, not Sirius, and it was Sirius who should have been threatened by Snape, not Harry. Hermione put a trembling hand over her mouth in the corner. Ron's face was chalk-white from where he sat on the bed and if looks could kill, Snape would be dead on the spot from the way Harry was glaring at him.
"Professor Snape—please—" Hermione began, taking a brave step forward. "Please don't—let them explain—"
"For once in your life, Miss Granger, hold your tongue," Snape spat.
"But you're making a mistake—"
"KEEP QUIET, YOU STUPID GIRL!" Snape exploded. "DON'T TALK ABOUT WHAT YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND—"
"Harry," Robin said over Snape's continued shouting. "Harry, you can do it. You can do it. Just think happy thoughts."
Harry blinked at her, trying to watch Snape and her at the same time.
"What're you talking—?" he began.
"Just remember that, Harry." Robin's eyes were fierce with determination. "Just think happy thoughts and you can do it."
"QUIET!" Snape bellowed over at them.
He walked slowly over to where Sirius lay, bound and gagged, staring up at Snape with the utmost loathing.
The potion's master raised his wand.
"Vengeance is very sweet," Snape breathed. "How I hoped I would be the one to catch you, to give you back to the dementors. Your life grows short, Sirius Black, very short—"
"YOU'RE PATHETIC!" Harry shouted, unable to contain himself a moment longer. "JUST BECAUSE THEY MADE A FOOL OF YOU AT SCHOOL, YOU WON'T EVEN LISTEN!"
"ENOUGH!" Snape bellowed.
There was another great flash of light and Remus Lupin fell limply to the floor, his wand clattering to the ground beside him. Apparently he had been trying to hex Snape when he was preoccupied with his vengeance speech to Sirius.
"NO!" Claire said, rushing to Lupin's side.
"STEP ASIDE YOU FOOLISH GIRL!" Snape bellowed, his wand directed at Claire's heart.
She froze in mid-step, but not because of the threat. She had heard that somewhere before…
Snape turned back to face Harry.
"You are too much like your father for your own good, Potter," Snape snarled, "and your pitiful godfather as well. I was going to take him back to the dementors, but this opportunity is too great to miss…"
He turned and pointed his wand at Sirius, who lay helplessly at his feet.
"Good riddance…" Snape said, raising his wand.
"NO!"
Harry had physically shoved Snape out of the way, whereas Claire and Robin had stepped between him and Sirius. Ron and Hermione had both raised their wands.
"Potter, you too have been a sore in my neck for—EXPELLIARMUS!"
Harry flew against the back wall, dust falling all around him.
"HARRY!"
"The Dark Lord should have defeated you long ago, Potter," Snape was muttering as he advanced upon Harry, who was struggling to stand. "I shall do the job for him tonight…"
"No!" Claire exclaimed rushing forward. "No, please! You can't kill Harry! This is my fault, all mine! Please!"
"She's telling the truth! You can't do this!" Robin chimed in, running after her.
Suddenly, the two girls froze and stared at each other. The voices they heard when they were near the dementors…it had been this.
"STAND ASIDE!" Snape said, raising his wand.
"CLAIRE, RUN!"
Robin grabbed Claire by the arm and pulled her to the floor just as the room became alight with curses. Ron and Hermione were hurling every spell they knew at Snape, who seemed to be using all three wands at once. Harry had flung his arms around Snape's neck as Robin pulled Claire out the door. The last thing she saw before running down the hallway was Sirius and Lupin's limp forms, lying completely motionless on the floor.
"SIRIUS!" Claire yelled. "HELP! SIRIUS!"
"Claire, keep moving!"
"Robin, we can't just leave them here like this!" Claire screeched as she ran down the stairs.
"Claire, we have to get out of her NOW!" Robin yelled, over the curses being shouted upstairs. "We have to get our now why there's still the slimmest of chances—"
"THERE'S NO CHANCE TO SAVE ANY OF THEM IF WE LEAVE NOW!" Claire exclaimed as Robin shoved her into the trapdoor in the floor. "THEY'LL KILL EACH OTHER! THE BOOKS WILL BE DESTROYED!"
"TRUST ME!" Robin screamed, grabbing Claire's hand and sprinting as fast as she could up the tunnel.
"NO! SIRIUS! "
"COME BACK HERE, WOODS!" Snape was on their tail. Had he managed to kill the trio before he had been able to come after them?
"Claire! Run faster!" Robin was yelling.
She reached the end of the tunnel first, jumping out in a single bound and throwing her hand back in to help Claire.
"Run! Grab my hand!"
"WOODS!"
A jet of red light whizzed past Claire's ear as she ran.
"ROBIN! HELP!"
"GRAB MY HAND!"
Claire leapt up and grabbed Robin's hand, which pulled her up just as a hex grazed Claire's feet.
"This way!" Robin said, jumping to the side of the tree.
Claire followed her lead, hoping the Whomping Willow would slow Snape down.
"Quick, tell me how you sent yourself home!" Robin said, continuing to run, stumbling on tree branches as she went.
"HOME!" Claire said in disbelief. "Robin, we can't go home now! Lupin and Sirius might be dead!"
"Claire, listen to me!" Robin said, pulling her into the forest and shaking her shoulders. "It's our only chance, we've got to get home now. Tell me quickly how you do it and give me your address!"
"My address!" Claire hissed. "Are you insane! Now is no time to go home and write letters! Harry could be DEAD!"
"CLAIRE JUST GIVE IT TO ME!" Robin yelled, growing frustrated. "You've got to trust me!"
"Oh, no need to listen to her, Claire Woods," said a voice from behind the nearest tree. "No need…"
Both girls turned sharply to see a cloaked figure step out into the moonlight. The intruder had an evil smirk on her face. It was—
"Bethany?" Robin and Claire asked together.
"What are you—?" Claire began.
"—doing here?" Bethany finished for her, fingering her wand. "I could ask you the same question."
Claire and Robin glanced at each other. They could still hear Snape's angry cries from the grounds. He was mere moments away from finding them—
"Bethany, listen to me!" Claire hissed at her. "Go back to the castle! Skirt around the trees to avoid Snape, it's far too dangerous to be out here…"
"Go back to the castle?" Bethany said, her grin spreading wider across her face as she raised her wand. "I don't think so."
Robin and Claire moved automatically closer together. Snape still had their wands.
"Bethany what're you DOING?" Robin whispered urgently, as if this was some sort of joke. "What the hell do you think you are doing?"
"Bringing justice," Bethany said, inching towards them (Claire and Robin automatically took a giant step backwards), "to the two people who single-handedly destroyed the Harry Potter books."
Claire hadn't thought it was possible for her heart to beat any faster. Then those words reached her ears, and she was certain her heart was going to burst from her chest.
"You have the Gift," Robin said, glaring at the girl who was advancing upon them.
Bethany merely nodded.
"Never miss a trick, do you, Gregory?" she said. "I swore that I would bring justice to the girls who killed Harry Potter, to the girls who ruined the adventure for all of us. I've been planning it for ages, and now that I've finally got you cornered, your days of ruining our books are over."
She raised her wand higher, triumph in her eyes.
"Bethany—please—"
"THERE!" Snape shouted, pointing the three wands in his hand at Claire and Robin. He had brought a whole battalion of people with him, Claire couldn't see who they were.
It was then she realized Robin was right—they had to leave. Now.
"I WISH I HAD NEVER COME TO HOGWARTS!" Claire screamed into the night, grabbing Robin's arm.
The familiar sensation of flying into the sky followed. They were flailing about, soaring higher and father into the night, the full moon illuminated behind them…
THUMP.
It was the final sound Claire heard before she lost her fight with consciousness.
A bird was singing. Claire rolled over and groaned, pounding her pillow with her fist. The sun was shining so brightly through her window that it was impossible for her to fall back asleep. Her eyes snapped open, staring around her room.
She sat up slowly, swinging her legs over the side of her bed and rubbing her eyes. Had it all just been a horrendously long nightmare?
Claire looked down and felt her heart drop into her stomach like a brick of lead. She was wearing her Hogwarts robes, torn and tattered from her fight with the Whomping Willow. Her pulse rocketed.
It had been real.
She stood up so fast she knocked the lamp off her bedside table. She ran over to her bookshelf where Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban had been replaced so neatly. How or why it was back on the shelf she didn't care, she just wanted to see what had happened. Was Harry dead? Was Lupin? Was Sirius? What had become of Ron and Hermione? She had to know…
She was riffling through the pages when the door to her bedroom swung open without invitation. Her mother was standing in the doorway, her eyes red and puffy and face stained with tears.
"Not now, Mom," Claire said. She hadn't bothered to look up as she flicked through page after page of her book, trying to find out what had happened.
"Claire, we need to talk," Mrs. Woods said in a tearful voice. Claire looked up in surprise and saw the state her mother was in.
"Mom, what—?"
Mrs. Woods crossed the room briskly and took the book from her daughter's hands. Claire stood up, feeling the panic rise in her chest. She needed the book now! If Harry was dead it was all her fault! She was already starting to formulate an argument to get her great-grandmother to send her back into the books, to repair her mistakes…
"Claire…" Mrs. Woods started, taking Claire's hand and sitting down on the edge of her bed.
"Mom, can't this—"
Claire was about to say "wait" when her mother sobbed dryly. Claire began to feel an entirely different kind of panic rise in her chest.
"Mom, what is it?" she asked, sitting down beside her. "What happened?"
Her mother regained her composure and turned to her daughter.
"Sweetie, it's Grandma," Mrs. Woods said, taking her daughter's hands in hers.
Claire wasn't aware she was holding her breath, nor was she aware how tightly she was squeezing her mother's fingers.
"She's all right…right?" Claire said slowly. She was amazed how different the voice coming out of her mouth was from the voice she remembered. It sounded hollow and panicky.
Mrs. Woods shook her head sadly.
"Your dad and I went in to wake her up this morning," she said, "and we found…sweetie, I'm sorry, but she was very old, you know…"
"What happened to her!" Claire exclaimed, jumping to her feet.
Her mother sighed.
"Sweetie, she passed away last night."
All emotion, all feeling, everything left Claire at that moment. Dead? How could her great-grandmother be dead? She had just seen her not but a couple hours ago! It wasn't possible…
"No," Claire said, shaking her head. "Grandma Paulette is fine, I just saw her—"
"Claire, she was a very old woman," Mrs. Woods said, trying to take her daughter's hand again—but Claire retreated, shaking her head harder as if it would fix things.
"But she was FINE!" Claire shouted. "She was perfectly well when she got here yesterday! She's FINE!"
Mr. Woods came into the room, holding Claire's little brother, Dylan, by the hand.
"The doctors said she was under a lot of stress, Claire," Mr. Woods said, sitting down next to his wife on Claire's bed and pulling Dylan into his lap. "The ambulance arrived just a few minutes ago—"
But Claire wasn't listening. So it was her fault…her fault her great-grandmother had died. She had warned Claire that she wasn't supposed to go into the story twice, told her it wasn't allowed and was very complicated, but Claire had pushed her to send her back anyway. And now she was dead—all because of Claire.
Not only was this weight bearing down on Claire, but she also realized that her last chance to save Harry was gone as well. In a single day, she had single-handedly destroyed the world and woman she had loved more than anything.
"I'm sorry, Claire," Mrs. Woods said, pulling her daughter into a warm embrace.
But Claire felt no warmth. She felt cold and alone. Nothing could possibly fix things now…
All hope was lost.
THE END.
a/n: The sequel, To Judge a Book By Its Cover, will be coming soon, along with all the answers to the unfinished mysteries in this story…until then…(Disapparates)