Chapter 18

Thanks to over one hundred days' hard work, extra help from her professors, tutoring from Hermione and other classmates, frequent use of the time turner and not a little talent, Imogen had virtually completed fourth year in her chosen subjects - potions, transfiguration, charms and defence against the dark arts. In this last subject, she was in fact rather ahead of her peers —other than Harry— for her classmates' education in this subject had been quite neglected in their first and second years, and of course they had learned little in their fifth. Imogen was thus able to participate in "Dumbledore's Army" without any feelings of inferiority.

When duelling with Neville, Cho, Luna or almost any of the others, Imogen found that generally she was at least able to give as good as she got. But the Weasley twins were usually able to best her, although each was careful to do so in a way that did not rub it in - they were always very encouraging and even gentlemanly - a side of their personality that they seemed to reserve only for Imogen. Hermione too more often than not got the better of Imogen. Not only was she faster, but she had a quality which perhaps Imogen lacked, for Hermione seemed to duel almost without fear, whereas Imogen would often flinch as she saw her opponent's wand rise in preparation for casting a curse. Harry, though, was clearly Imogen's superior. She could not even pretend to duel with him on anything resembling even terms. The one time she managed to deprive him of his wand with the disarming curse, she was quite sure he had allowed her to do so.

Tonight's meeting was almost sure to be the last before Christmas, and now everyone was working on the stunning spell. She was paired with Ernie Macmillan, who was far less effective than usual this evening, for he had never quite gotten over his first encounter with Imogen more than three months before, at King's Cross Station on Platform Nine and three-quarters. He watched as Imogen dodged his latest effort, slipping as she did so. Had he not been thinking about who his opponent was instead of what she was doing, he would have seen that she was momentarily helpless, and he could have easily fired a second blast. Instead, he inadvertently granted the girl a second's respite, and this would have been fatal in a real duel. Thanks to McGonagall's one-on-one training, Imogen had been working very hard on casting spells from awkward postures, and so she did not need to regain her feet. Still moving and on all fours, she raised her right hand and with almost no warning managed to send a stunning curse at Ernie's head. Only at the last second did Ernie awake to the danger, barely avoiding the red blast that shot past his ear.

"Oh, well done, Imogen!" he started to say, but was silenced when Imogen followed up her first effort with a second.

Hannah Abbott walked over to the dazed Ernie, and having satisfied herself that no harm had been done, prodded his moaning form with her foot.

"You'll find things will go better if you don't congratulate your opponent in mid-duel," said Hannah. Ernie knew that he looked the fool, and his face reddened as he tried but failed to get to his feet.

"Just wasn't expecting it, that's all."

"How about this, then," said Hannah, adding almost casually — "Stupefy!" This curse was rather more powerful than Imogen's, and Ernie was stunned into unconsciousness. Hannah had watched Ernie struggling to conceal his delight when he was paired with Imogen. She had seen how ineffective he was when duelling the blond newcomer compared to when fighting anyone else, and was surprised to find how much it bothered her.

Imogen watched the incident with amusement, for she easily understood Hannah's motive in punishing her helpless housemate. Imogen also noted the extra power afforded Hannah's curse by the genuine anger that had been in her when she'd cast the spell. She recalled the words of Bellatrix Lestrange to Harry, when he tried but failed to inflict the Cruciatus curse on her. "You have to really mean it!" Perhaps that applied to other spells, too. She filed the thought away for further consideration when time permitted.

There was no doubt in Imogen's mind about why she'd done so well at the DA meeting. She'd arrived exhilarated from one of her regular meetings with Snape in his dungeon office. She'd been quietly working on Snape for weeks, governing her thoughts with the utmost care before allowing him to see into her mind, for Snape had never ceased his probing, and continued to do so at every opportunity. After Neville had earned house points some weeks before with the Contendo potion, she'd allowed Snape to sense her great approval of his decision to reward Neville. Since then, she had focused on the same theme before every encounter with Snape. She had sensed for some time that Snape wanted Imogen's approval, and his behaviour had changed somewhat, Snape now taking small, hesitant steps to match what he sensed in her mind would be the ideal Professor Snape. He was not consciously aware that he was doing this, and would have vociferously and sincerely denied it if anyone had suggested to him that he had developed a crush on a student. But Imogen was quite sure this was the case, and it had been her intention all along to foster such feelings in the Potions Master. In her meeting with the professor this evening, she had noticed that his manner normal and polite - exceptional conduct for someone usually so abrupt and rude. She allowed herself to feel optimism about what was to come, and had headed for the DA meeting with tremendous enthusiasm.

The members of the DA slipped out in twos and threes, Imogen departing with Fred and George, leaving Harry, Cho and a few others. Outside the Room of Requirement was waiting the caretaker's cat, Mrs. Norris, her sly eyes observing everyone as they left. Once Imogen came into view, the cat scampered off.

"I keep coming across that cat," said Imogen. "I used to go days without seeing her, and yet this is the third or fourth time this week that I've seen her and she's run."

"We should ask Hermione to set Crookshanks after her," suggested Fred.

"Yeah!" agreed George. "Maybe Crookshanks could catch her in a deserted hallway and do her in - maybe even make it look like an accident."

"Speaking of deserted hallways," replied Imogen, "Did you speak to your father? Does he understand that he must be careful tonight, and above all, must not be alone at the Ministry?"

"We sent him and our mum an owl," said George. "And mum wrote us back, telling us that they'd already been warned by Dumbledore. What's going to happen, anyways? What's the danger?"

"There's probably none, now," said Imogen. "And I'll tell you what its all about, but you both must promise to tell no one but Ron, and not even him if you don't think he needs to know." Receiving assurances from both twins, Imogen continued. "Voldemort is going to try to get into the Department of Mysteries this evening, and your father was to have guard duty - alone. I knew that unless extra care were taken, your father would be attacked, and injured - very badly, to the point where he would be very close to death."

"If Trelawney gets sacked, you can take over for her," said Fred. "But seriously, the family's really grateful that you gave us the warning."

The three were speaking quietly as they walked through the halls toward the tower containing Gryffindor's common room. It was evening and the castle was very dark, the way lit only by the odd torch here and there. Ahead of them stretched another long passageway, with a few pools of flickering yellow light under each flame, the rest of the corridor dark and unknowable. Lately Imogen had been wary about walking through Hogwarts, and for the last few weeks had tried always to make sure she had someone with her. And she avoided the night if at all possible. A small rodent scurried across their path, and Imogen froze, gripping the arm of the twin nearest her.

"Oy, that's a bit forward, grabbing on to me like that," said George. "Didn't know you felt about me that way."

"How do you know she knows it's you," said Fred. "It's not like she can tell us apart, especially when she can't see. Maybe she meant to grab my arm."

"Very funny." Imogen cursed herself for being afraid of a mouse. With either twin she was very safe from any threat, and with both virtually untouchable. Foolish of her to be scared. But she knew that had she been alone, she would have screamed.

"I felt I had to warn your father," she continued. "Just because I know some bad things are going to happen, doesn't mean that they're supposed to happen - at least, I don't think so. It was impossible for me to say nothing, and then let your entire family have a terrifying experience, thinking that your father might actually die." In fact, Imogen's fear was that Mr. Weasley would not survive the attack. So much had changed now from what was in "the books", she had little confidence that her knowledge of the future bore any relation to what was actually going to happen. Perhaps there would be no attack at all at the Ministry tonight. But if there were an attack, and Mr. Weasley unprepared, perhaps he would not be lucky enough to survive it. Perhaps Harry would not have the dream that would save Mr. Weasley's life. Harry, after all, had never undergone torture with Umbridge's quill. Neither he, nor Fred nor George had been banned from Quidditch, because the match with Slytherin leading to their ban had not taken place. She could not count on anything remaining as it ought to.

The walk back to the common room took far, far longer than usual, and Imogen remarked on this.

"The stairways moved around a lot in the last couple of hours," said Fred. "Normal route was blocked - had to take a completely different path."

"But no harm done," said George. "Anyway, here we are - the Fat Lady."

As the three stepped into the common room, Imogen saw Hermione, Ron and even Harry, whom Imogen had left behind - evidently her trip back had taken much, much longer than necessary, and she instantly divined the reason - the Weasley twins had simply wanted the pleasure of her company and had taken an unnecessarily long route. She turned on them, slapping the nearest twin on the back of his head. Fred started to laugh.

"We were wondering if you'd figure it out," he said. "After all, we went through the same corridor three times at least!"

"Making fun of my sense of direction is like mocking a blind man for not being able to see!" said Imogen. "There's just no point. I don't pretend to be Magellan - there are parts of the castle I don't go to alone because I'll get lost. Don't be mean!" Fred and George both headed up to their dormitory, laughing.

Imogen was laughing too as she turned to greet her friends. But Harry, Ron and Hermione were not sharing the joke, and looked rather serious.

"We need to talk to you, Imogen - right now," said Hermione. There was a tone of reproach in her voice which Imogen had heard many times, but almost never directed at her - Hermione had not spoken to her this way since she had learned of Imogen's contact with Rita Skeeter. Imogen swallowed her annoyance, and sat in a chair near the fire, the other three taking seats nearby.

"It's been more than a month since Hagrid's come back," said Harry. "At least, that's what we thought. But you know what Hagrid's like: he has trouble keeping a secret. And today he just let slip that he saw you - in September - and you never told us. For a couple of months you heard all of us speculating about Hagrid, worrying about him, and you said nothing." Hermione and Ron added their own, similar comments to Harry's reproach.

"That's just not fair," said Imogen. "Hagrid wasn't supposed to see me, or anyone else. Fang got loose and Hagrid went to fetch him, and we bumped into each other, that's all. And the next day Professor McGonagall told me that I was to tell no one that I'd seen Hagrid. In particular, she mentioned that I wasn't to tell you three, because she knew how close you are to him."

"Since when did you become someone who followed rules all the time?" demanded Ron. "It doesn't matter what McGonagall said - you still could have told us."

"Really!" said Imogen, her face revealing genuine incredulity.

"Yes, really," said Hermione, now openly angry.

Imogen could have diffused the situation. It would not have been all that hard to explain that when she'd first arrived at the school, she had no friends, and was not close to Harry, Ron and Hermione. Thus when McGonagall had told her to keep silent, this had created no divided loyalty within her. Thereafter she had simply forgotten about the encounter. Her friends were mistaken to think she'd heard them all wondering about Hagrid's absence. Doubtless they had, but not around her. Perhaps if they had mentioned Hagrid, she might have remembered, and perhaps would have told them.

As she pondered her reply, Imogen felt the rage building within her, the same rage that had caused her to lash out against Malfoy in the dungeon outside Potions class, against the rude clerk at Prada's, and more recently against Filch. She could not allow herself to become so angry with her friends. She excused herself with a few short words, and spilling a few tears not of sadness but of anger, dashed for the stairs and up to the dormitory. She was asleep (or at least pretending to be) by the time Hermione came up to bed.

Imogen woke up the next morning, and was immediately reminded of the harsh words she'd exchanged with her friends when she found Hermione to be abrupt and stand-offish. Her friend hurried off to the Great Hall and ignored Imogen's attempt at conversation. Hermione had risen a bit earlier that Imogen, and it was a few minutes before Imogen was ready to join her and the others. Imogen hoped that she would not find Harry and Ron in the same mood as Hermione, and she skipped down the stairs to breakfast, feeling very hungry. But her appetite vanished when she looked about the Gryffindor table, to see that Harry, Ron, George, Fred and Ginny were all missing.

Hermione too had been puzzled by the absence of Harry and all the Weasleys, but one look at Imogen told her something serious had happened.

"Imogen, obviously you know something. What's going on? Where are Harry and Ron and the other Weasleys?"

Imogen struggled not to cry, and left the hall almost at a run, heading outside into the cold winter weather even though she was not properly dressed. She was not conscious of the biting cold, the stares of other students nor Hermione at her heels, asking questions.

"Imogen! What 'yer doin' outside like this? Ye'll catch yer death, you will! And you too, Hermione!" Hagrid was out for a walk with Fang, dressed properly for the weather. The day was overcast as well as cold, the sunlight very weak at this time of year and this far north. Imogen allowed herself to be ushered into Hagrid's cabin, Hermione of course also being invited. Now safely inside the hut with the door closed, Imogen began to sob uncontrollably to the point where it was difficult for her to breathe.

Hermione looked at Hagrid's larder, and seeing the necessary ingredients, quickly whipped together a calming draught - a potion she'd been taught some years before at Hogwarts. Her almost perfect memory allowed her easily to recall the ingredients and directions, and in short order she gave the potion to Imogen, who drank it without asking what it was. The effect was immediate, and the tears stopped, leaving in their wake depression and angst.

"Can you explain now, Imogen?" asked Hermione gently. "I mean about why Harry and Ron and the others are all gone?"

Imogen's affect was very flat, her tone almost dead as she began to explain.

"I warned Mr. Weasley, and he knew what was coming - they all knew, the whole Order must have known. But one thing I really wanted to change, to prevent, did not change." In response to the vacant looks from Hagrid and Hermione, Imogen continued.

"There was an attack last night at the Ministry. Mr. Weasley was guarding the Department of Mysteries, and he was attacked by a poisonous snake. I knew this was going to happen, and Professor Dumbledore learned it the very night I arrived at Hogwarts, when he and Professor McGonagall questioned me under veritaserum. But I wanted to make sure there would be no mistake, and I told Fred and George some weeks ago exactly what was to happen, and only last night I reminded them again. They promised me that their father knew, and so he and the Order must have taken precautions. But still something went very, very wrong, and the whole family was taken from the school last night. I imagine they're at St. Mungo's right now - if their father is still alive."