Chapter Thirty-Four: The Diary of Harry Potter
A beginning-of-classes gloom to infiltrate the castle as the last two weeks of holiday sped by. Andrea spent her last weeks on a Quidditch team that, with her help, pulled itself from last to first place. To keep Andrea’s suspicions quelled, Lottie stopped sneaking off without her and later took advantage of Andrea’s Quiddich games by stealing away into the library.
The diary remained just as suspicious and just as empty through all of her inspections. Lottie had tried every revealing spell she found in the ancient tomes from the library, but, unsurprisingly, none worked.
In the last days of holiday, Lottie gave up trying to find a spell to open it altogether, but didn’t stop carrying it. It felt almost wrong to leave it alone in the dormitory. Even when she left it for a few minutes to shower, she could sense its absence and feel a growing paranoia that it would get taken.
On the first day of term, Lottie grimly donned her uniform. With the start of term feast just fifteen minutes away, she desperately searched for some place to carry the book in her pocketless outfit. The rectangular bulge on her stomach was painfully apparent when she tried keeping it under her sweater, and she almost broke the seam in her skirt trying to fit it in the waist; finally she settled on slipping it into the top of her boot before running down to the Great Hall. “Excited for fourth year?” she asked Andrea as she plopped down next to her at the Palmyitor’s table.
“I’m nervous,” Andrea said. “Apparently the workload increases a lot.”
“Yeah, but we’re prepared,” Lottie whispered. “We must be two years ahead in dueling now.”
“You are going to get yourself in trouble,” Andrea said seriously. “Don’t use any of those spells you learned this summer. You could seriously hurt someone, Lottie.”
“But””
“Shh!”
The doors opened. The first years, even smaller than Lottie had ever seen, shuffled inside behind Maelioric. “Is it just me,” Andrea began, “or are there fewer new students this year?”
Lottie frowned. She hadn’t noticed, but with a quick head count, she discovered that there were only twenty-nine first years. “That’s weird,” she said under her breath. “There are forty of us. What does that mean?”
“No idea.”
The sorting began. Michael Anderson was immediately sorted into Palmyitor, but it took nearly five silent minutes to sort Samantha Alls into Maelioric.
“Do you think,” Lottie whispered, “that it has to do with the Dark Lord?”
“What?”
“How few firsties there are. Do you think he could be”could be eliminating Muggle-borns from the population?”
“I don’t know,” Andrea said thoughtfully. “He clearly doesn’t like Muggles, so it’s plausible.”
“I don’t think he would do that. I mean””
“Shut it, will you?” snapped Matilda Keith, the sixth year prefect. Her splotchy face frowned menacingly over a large, white parsnip.
Lottie stuck her tongue out at the back of Matilda’s head and sulked through the rest of the sorting. It seemed to be taking especially long this year. Every decision seemed increasingly painful for the heads to make. “It the Table broken?” Andrea whispered. “It’s not lighting up nearly as brightly as it normally does.”
“I don’t””
A chorus of applause cut Lottie off. Palmyitor stood before the students with crossed arms. “Welcome,” she said, “to the beginning of a new year. We would like to”” she grimaced though saying such kind words stung “”extend an especially warm welcome to our new students and staff.”
Mumbles echoed through the hall. “New staff?” Lottie asked.
“Due to”to the tragic death of Professor Gabaldon, we have had to hire a new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.” Palmyitor stood as still as a stone in front of them. Her lips hardly moved as she spoke. Lottie could tell that she was putting up her best defenses to appear strong in front of her students.
“Please join me in welcoming Professor Robert Dewitt.” Polite applause filled the hall.
“I was kind of hoping Maelioric would stick to it,” Lottie said as she clapped her hands together. “He made the class at least a little bit enjoyable.”
“He has more important things to do,” Andrea said.
“Enjoy your feast,” Palmyitor said from the head of the hall.
Lottie lunged for the chicken immediately and piled it onto her plate. “Honestly, Lottie,” Andrea said as she furiously buttered a roll. “Save some for the first years. They’re practically starving.”
The first class the fourth year Palmyitors had the next morning was Defense Against the Dark Arts. Lottie kept the diary tucked safely in her boot as they headed to the classroom.
“This Dewitt guy better give us a break,” Lottie said loudly as they took their seats. “We haven’t dueled for about two months.”
“And what if I don’t, Charlotte?” came a smooth voice from the back of the classroom. Nearly the entire class jumped. Dewitt glided to the front of the room. He reminded Lottie of a Dementor at first; his long cloak completely hid his legs. His steps were so even that Lottie felt as though he wasn’t walking at all; it seemed the earth was moving away from him and he contented himself to watch it go by. The light never caught his face, though Lottie thought she could make out a short beard and sunken cheekbones. “Welcome to Defense Against the Dark Arts,” he said with a flashy smile.
“It’s Lottie, not Charlotte,” Lottie said with her hand in the air.
“Charlotte, sir.”
“Mmm… sir.” Lottie slumped back in her chair. She had thought that nobody could be worse than Gabaldon, but apparently, she was wrong.
“Well, contrary to Charlotte’s”” Lottie ground her teeth “”wishes, I will not give you a break. No, you just had a very long holiday, I believe. So”up. Take out your wands.”
Lottie pulled out her wand and glanced around. Nobody else seemed to be as concerned about this new teacher as she was. “You will be dueling. Oh no.” He smiled at Andrea’s attempt to inch towards Lottie. “No, no, Andrea. I’ll be picking your partners.”
None of the other students seemed unnerved that Dewitt was referring to them by their first names”or even knew their names at all. “Charlotte, you and Edgar will duel.”
Lottie shrugged at Edgar Payne and pulled out her wand. “I”I’m not very good at dueling,” he confessed as they made their way to the other side of the room.
Hiding a smile, Lottie said, “Well that’s okay. I mean”I’m not too great either.”
Once all of the other pairs had been made, Dewitt flicked his wand and hissed, “Go.”
After a quick bow, Lottie shouted, “Stupefy!”
Edgar tried to make a shield, but it flickered and died before the spell even reached him. He managed to dodge out of the way quickly enough and held his wand out. “Expelliarmus!”
The spell was not strong at all. Lottie could feel her wand quiver as the spell collided with her, but managed to hold onto it. She smirked, but before she had time to celebrate, a searing pain scorched her ankle and shot up her leg. It felt like fire had spread across her bone and was pressing against her Achilles’ heel. Her leg collapsed, causing her to plummet to the ground. She clutched her ankle, hissing and spitting profanities at the floor.
Edgar looked just as surprised as Lottie was. The panic rose in his voice as she said, “It”it was just a disarming””
Out of the corner of her eye, Lottie glanced at Andrea. The goal was to win, wasn’t it? And now was the perfect time to catch Edgar off guard. “Sectumsempra!” she shouted from the ground.
Edgar shouted in pain as the spell hit his shoulder. Blood gushed from his wound like water from a tap. Clutching his arm, he sank to his knees. The room grew silent to Lottie; all she could hear was her own pounding heart, which drowned out all of the other duelers’ incantations and shouts. “Stupefy,”she growled, pushing herself up off he ground. Edgar rolled out of the way just in time. “Stupefy. Stupefy!”
At least one of Lottie’s Stunners hit him; eyes still wide in shock, Edgar keeled over. His head hit the ground with a loud smack. Grinning triumphantly, Lottie spun around to watch the progress of her other classmates. The room was silent. Every other student stared at her, dumbstruck. Dewitt grinned from behind his desk.
“I didn’t know we were supposed to actually hurt them,” Julianne said blankly.
“We weren’t,” Andrea said, an I-told-you-so sort of smirk creeping onto her face.
“Well done,” snarled Dewitt. “Yes, well done, Charlotte.”
“”Lottie””
“Devin,” he went on, “maybe you would like to take dear Edgar to the hospital wing?”
Devin stared blankly from his from his passed out best friend to Lottie. “O-okay. Ennervate.” Edgar sat up slowly, rubbing his blood-soaked arm. “Come on, mate,” Devin said, giving Edgar a hand up. “Let’s take you to get that patched up.”
“Take a seat, class,” Dewitt said. The door clicked shut. “Have you all taken note of what Charlotte did? She did not let him take his turns. You do not have to be polite when dueling. Well done, Charlotte; you are ruthless.”
Lottie stared blankly at the professor; somehow that didn’t seem like a compliment.
“I want you all to write a paper on a famous dueler in history,” Dewitt said. “A foot long. For tomorrow.” Groans of frustrations filled the classroom. “Except you, Charlotte. Take the night off.” Lottie burned bright red. “The rest of you, I want a description of their tactics and signature spells. Class dismissed.”
The class filed out slowly. Lottie felt some particularly vile glances in her direction, but she kept her focus solely on the latch of her bag, which was now suddenly incredibly interesting. “Charlotte?” Lottie looked up. She was now alone with Professor Dewitt. The corners of his lips upturned into a sly smile. “Congratulations.”
Lottie shivered. “Th-thanks.” Without another word, she dashed out of the classroom.
“What did I tell you?” Andrea asked once Lottie shut the door to the Defense Against the Dark Arts room behind her. “Using Dark Magic will just get you in trouble. Do you believe me now?”
“It’ll get me in trouble now,” Lottie said indignantly. “But you’ll get in trouble later for not using it. So”erm”what’s our next class?”
“Dueling. And I hope for our classmates’ sake that we won’t have to fight again.”
When Lottie entered the common room that night, the crowd fell silent. With the hairs on the back of her neck standing up, Lottie went with Andrea and took a seat in the most remote corner she could find. “News travels fast, huh?”
“And with good reason,” Andrea said as the volume began to steadily increase again. “You did almost kill””
“Okay, okay, that’s a bit of an overstatement, don’t you think? It’s just a little cut. Edgar’s fine.” Andrea didn’t respond, but pulled out a textbook and buried her nose in it. “You know what? Fine. I’m leaving. I don’t want to sit here and be told what a horrible person I am for winning a duel. Good night. And good luck on your essay.”
The common room silenced again as she left. With a flurry of dirty blond hair, Lottie spun around furiously and pounded down the stairs. “Stupid Edgar Payne,” she growled to her reflection in the window next to her bed. “Just because he doesn’t know how to duel doesn’t mean it’s my fault.” She leaned down to untie her boots. “Or my pro””
The diary toppled out of her shoe. Thick, yellow pus oozed out of her boot and pooled on the cold wooden floor. She pinched the corners of the little book and pulled it out of the goo. It was completely clean. Nothing covered the old journal except its dark, cracking leather and a thin layer of dust. She stared, dumbfounded, completely ignoring the pulsating pain in her foot. An angry scorch mark was left where the book had been”right where she had felt a burn when she was dueling.
What spell had Edgar performed that made it burn? It had hurt so badly right after he tried to disarmed her. Lottie pointed her wand at the book. “Expelliarmus.” The brown leather turned bright red for a moment before cooling back to its original color.
Lottie grabbed it off the bed. It fell open to the last page. It was no longer empty; a hastily scribbled sentence read, ‘If you have found this, you are a true friend; you know what to do next.’
“Potter,” Lottie growled. Why were there so many security measures? It all seemed a bit ridiculous.
“Lottie?”
Quicker than she could have Vanished it, Lottie stuffed the diary in the front of her pajama shirt. “What?” she asked.
Andrea peaked in. “Can I come in?”
“Well it’s your room too, isn’t it?”
“I just wanted to say I’m sorry.”
Lottie let the pause stretch on to the point of awkwardness. She couldn’t believe that Andrea was apologizing for something so insignificant when something so mysterious was hidden under Lottie’s sweater, just waiting to be revealed.
Andrea took a breath and continued. “You’re just doing what you were told”and it works. I guess I’m just jealous.” Andrea chewed the inside of her lip as she thought. “But that’s not to say,” she added, “that I’m not worried about you. I think Dark magic is a bad habit to get into.”
“Well”you may have a point.” Lottie wasn’t sure if she could sound interested even if she tried. Being upset with Andrea was so inconsequential compared to what she had just found. “Don’t worry about it. Thanks.” She smiled.
“And”I was wondering if you could help me with my dueling essay,” Andrea said quickly. “I mean, not a lot, but””
“Wait, do my ears serve me correctly? Me help you?”
“Well, it’s just that I can’t decide between writing about Ursula the Unbeatable or Adolfo the Amazing,” Andrea said. “That’s all I need help with, really.”
“If I were you,” Lottie said thoughtfully, “I’d do something totally unexpected like”like the Dark Lord or something. Information will be easier to find and you’ll get points for being so relative to the times.”
“Oh…” Andrea looked winded. “Lottie, I think you may be getting yourself in too deep.”
“What do you mean?”
“The first thing you think of is the Dark Lord?”
Lottie snorted. “Please. It wasn’t the first thing I thought of. I’ve been thinking about it since he assigned it. I mean”do what you want. I just think Dewitt might enjoy the creativity.”
Andrea smiled meekly. “I”er”I think I might do Ursula,” she said timidly.
Lottie scratched the back of her neck. “Oh”good idea,” she said. “I mean, she’s who I thought of first also. Got to love…er…her.”
Andrea nodded and looked at the floor. “Yeah… Well”thanks. I’m going to go work on that.”
“Okay.” Lottie waved. “Good luck”don’t work too hard.”
The door clicked shut. Immediately, Lottie reached for the diary. It said his friends would know how to open it; then what did she have to do? “Harry Potter is my friend,” she told the diary. Nothing happened. “I would trust Harry Potter with my life.” Again, the diary was unaffected.
For an hour, Lottie tried as many combinations of sentences including “Harry Potter” and “friend” that she could think of. Once she even tried throwing it against the wall, though she had no conviction that it would work. Finally, when Julianne came in to ready for bed, Lottie gave up, stuffed the diary safely in her duffel and fell into a fitful sleep.
Thunder crashed outside; the entire castle seemed to quiver in its wake. Lottie sat up. Through her four-poster curtains, she could hear the rhythmic breathing of her dorm mates. Lightning flashed and illuminated the entire dormitory for a fraction of a second. Adrenaline pumped through her veins.
Restlessly, she rummaged through her duffel and pulled out the diary. “I am a”er”companion of Harry Potter,” she whispered with a new determination to figure the thing out. “Harry and I are very close”ow!”
The ragged edges of the book sliced the top of her finger. Blood welled on top of the cut and dribbled down the side of her hand, leaving a trail of scarlet behind. “Merlin.” She tried to push the book out of the way, but it was too late. The drop of blood splashed against the leather cover of the diary.
Once again, the book glared red. Lottie dropped it and watched it glow until it returned to its regular brown. She opened it hungrily. This time, it was filled with that same hurried writing from the front. Every single page was full of scribbles.
She turned to the beginning. “Lumos.” Her wandlight illuminated the book completely. Carefully, she began at the front.
‘I assume if you are reading this,’ it read, ‘you are a friend. I made it so that only my own friends’ blood could open it. It was a bit of Dark magic, but the security is worth it.’
Lottie put the book down. How had she opened it then? He had died fifty years ago”how would he know she was going to find the journal?
‘I also guess if you are reading this, the worst has happened. I’m putting everything I know in this journal, so hopefully, it can give you some help in defeating Voldemort.’
Lottie screamed and dropped the book as though its cover were made of acid.
“What?” Andrea’s groggy voice came from the next bed.
Lottie extinguished her wand. “It was”was”” She had never seen the Dark Lord’s name printed before. “A spider. One crawled out of my bed.”
“Honestly? That’s it?” A rustling of sheets told her that Andrea had rolled over. “Go to bed, Lottie.”
“Mmm. Right.”
She sat there for a good five minutes. Once she was sure Andrea had fallen asleep, she lit her wand again.
‘My parents were enemies of Voldemort.’
Lottie shivered, but made sure not to scream again.
‘He offered them high-ranking positions as Death Eaters, but they turned him down. They were both members of the Order of the Phoenix. Not long after, a prophecy was made by Sybill Trelawney, predicting the birth of a boy who could overthrow Voldemort…’
Hours passed. Lottie’s eyes remained glued to the page as she read the story of Lily and James Potter. The grey-tinged sun peaked through the dark storm clouds when Lottie read the line, ‘So Hagrid took me from the rubble of our Godric’s Hollow home, under Dumbledore’s orders, to my aunt and uncle. For ten miserable years, I lived with my uncle, Vernon Dursley, my aunt, Petunia Dursley and my cousin, Dudley Dursley.’
Numbness spread through Lottie’s body in less than a second. All she could feel was the pulsing of her heart in her fingertips. It wasn’t possible that… The book tumbled from her hands and landed, softly, innocently unaware of the havoc it had caused.
How did she not know? How had her mother never told her? Surely Palmyitor knew”and that was why she let her go to France, open the enchanted objects. She must have thought that Lottie has some special power because of…
The sound of curtains sliding open brought her back to her sense. Hastily, she stuffed the book under the covers. “Lottie?” came Andrea’s voice from the other side of the curtain. “You awake?”
“Yeah,” Lottie said, opening her curtains. “Sorry, I had a rough night.”
“Looks like it.” Andrea chuckled as she laced up her boots. “Have you slept at all?”
“No. I just”just kept thinking of those spiders crawling all over me.” She shivered.
“Mmm. Terrifying. Well, you better hurry up. We have Potions first.”
The dungeon that morning felt twenty times colder than it had ever in this part of the year. Thin layers of ice formed on the cylinders of purple liquid they were going to have to boil. “We might have to start layering our clothes early this year,” Andrea said as they waited for Professor Dyer to show up.
“Sounds good,” Lottie said distractedly. Her mind was tucked into the ankle of her boot along with Harry Potter’s diary.
Andrea surveyed her through the rims of her new glasses. “What has been wrong with you lately?” she asked. “You never seen to be completely paying attention. I think””
“Good morning, class,” Dyer croaked from the doorframe. The Palmyitor and Clynalmoy fourth years rumbled a tired hello. “I know if you were to pick a time to have class, it would not be early in the morning. And I know you will have trouble focusing during this period.”
“True,” murmured Sophie.
“So today…” Dyer went on, describing the potion they were making and each specific direction. Andrea sat beside Lottie taking frantic but miraculously neat notes. Every thought Lottie had echoed what she found in the diary.
“Psst.” Andrea nudged her not-so-gently. “You might want to start working. I reckon you’ll get a T if you just sit there like that for the entire class.”
“Oh”er”right.” Lottie blankly pulled out whatever ingredients reached her fingertips first. Beside her, Andrea was lighting a fire. Lottie did the same. Slyly, she glanced over at Andrea’s handwritten instructions and poured some water in to boil.
Fifty minutes later, the potion she had was bright orange and spewing what looked like miniature quiches; she wasn’t particularly concerned.
“Rowe,” Dyer called from across the room. “Let’s see it, then.”
Lottie held up her cauldron.
“Mmm… This potion makes me wonder if you even took my class last year.” Lottie could hear Ally Overton’s laughter from two rows behind her. “Every technique I taught you, you ignored. This potion is supposed to be red with hints of gold, not orange with hints of chunks. This is a difficult potion and I expected them”” he nodded to the rest of the class “”to fail, but not you. Sad.”
“Okay,” Lottie said. One grade? One grade was nothing compared to the secret she had discovered.
The bell for the end of class rang. “No marks for today, Rowe,” Dyer said as she packed up her bags.
“Do”do you not care?” Andrea asked in the corridor. Lottie shrugged. “We”we’ve got Charms next. We”hey where are you going?”
Lottie turned around. She had been headed down the stairs instead of up, unconsciously going to the Palmyitor common room. “Oh, er”sorry. Got a bit distracted.” She ran up the stairs, two at a time. “Wh-what are we doing in Charms this year?”
“I’ve got no idea,” Andrea said. “But I think we’re a bit ahead from this summer.”
The Charms room was much emptier than it normally was. Only the seven Palmyitor fourth years filled the first two rows of desks. “Good morning,” Hermione said from the front desk. She smiled at Andrea and Lottie. “Today, unlike in most of your classes, we will not have a practical lesson. Instead…”
The lecture continued. Lottie’s eyes unfocused as she watched the jagged motions of the quills in the front row. Hermione seemed not to notice that Lottie was not taking notes.
Lottie glanced around the room. Nobody was paying any attention to her. Slowly, she reached into her boot and pulled out the leather diary. Andrea didn’t even look her way. Both nausea and excitement filled her at once. She opened the book, but the writing that had previously been crammed into every inch had disappeared. She reached for her wand. She almost had muttered the incantation, when Hermione’s head snapped toward her. “Rowe, what are you doing?”
Lottie looked up. The entire class stared at her with her wand pointed to the empty book on the desk. “Er”er””
“What is that?” Hermione took the book from the desk.
“No!” Lottie rose to her feet. “Give it back”it’s mine.”
“Miss Rowe, if you wish to write in diaries, you have plenty of time to do it after class.” Hermione reached to open the front cover.
“No”Expelliarmus!”
The spell shot from her wand with such a force that Lottie stumbled backwards a few steps. The entire class fell silent and watched the spell, seeming to be in slow motion, crash into Hermione. She collapsed with the strength of it. The diary flew through the air, red from the spell and landed in Lottie’s open palm.
Andrea shrieked and ran to Hermione’s side. “Her”er”Professor Stainthorpe, are you alright?”
Hermione delicately picked herself up and brushed off the lining of her robe. “Yes, thank you dear. It seems that today’s lesson must be cut short. Class dismissed”except you, Rowe.”
The class packed up, murmuring to each other under their breath. “Something is definitely off about her,” Lottie heard Devin Hackitt tell Edgar. “If she’s so willing to attack all of these people.”
Lottie turned to Hermione as the class filed out. She looked rather less than amused.
“Now,” Hermione began.
“I’m sorry!” exclaimed Lottie. “I really am. I just”that diary is really important and””
“That does not give you any right to attack a teacher,” Hermione said. “What is that book?”
“I found it,” Lottie explained, “in Grimmauld Place. It”it was Harry Potter’s journal.”
Silence. “What?”
“Yeah.” Lottie glanced at her lap. “It was. I just found out.” Hermione held out her palm. The veins beneath her thin skin seemed to pulse with excitement. “It’s empty at first glance, but I figured out how to open it.”
“How?”
“Here.” Lottie took the book back. Wincing, she picked the scab off her finger and pressed the blood to the cover of the book. Warmth emanated from the journal as it glowed red again.
Hermione stared hungrily at the book. Lottie thought she could see tears creeping into the corners of her eyes.
“But you knew him,” Lottie said suddenly, struck by an idea. “I’m not”not sure if something in here is true or not.”
“What?” Hermione inched closer to the book.
Flipping through the pages, Lottie found the sentence she had read last. “Here,” she said. “’I lived with my uncle, Vernon Dursley, my aunt, Petunia Dursley and my cousin, Dudley Dursley.’”
Hermione blinked. Apparently, that was not the mystery she was expecting. “Yes,” she said. “That”that’s right. He grew up with his aunt and uncle.”
A wave of nausea crashed onto Lottie. She slumped back into her chair for a moment, completely numb with shock.
“Why?” Hermione asked.
“Do you know what my mother’s maiden name is?” Lottie whispered. “Dursley.”
Halfway to Infinity by Eponine
Chapter Notes: I'm always apologizing, but I really mean it--I'm sorry for the really long wait on this one, guys. To make up for it, here's an extra-long chapter!
Thanks as always to my lovely beta, TheBird, for sprucing up this chapter!
This chapter is dedicated to my awesome aunt and uncle who came and visited this weekend.