The month after the discovery of the antidote was almost uneventful. Daisy's health improved steadily with the daily injection of antidote and she was expected to wake up very soon. Chris, in the meantime, was developing a good friendship with Cheryl. Their ramp walk together was a success and the Muggle newspapers were all about Chris and his good looks. But Chris never paid attention to them. The ramp walk had been the first and last thing that Chris had done for his parents' field. Anyway, his parents stayed on and supported him whenever he needed them. They had decided on starting a new comedy TV series and were busy with the auditions.
In the meantime, Harry and Ginny were going steady and were rapidly getting serious about each other. Ron and Hermione on the other hand were getting comfortable again but Hermione still hadn't still moved back into Ron's room.
The Galvanising Gem was still a mystery. The Aurors had combed as many books as they could find but there was nothing about the Gem in any of them. Hermione joined in and helped too, but she couldn't find anything either. Finally they remembered Padma and asked for help from her. She wanted to tell them about it but she couldn't. So all in all, the Aurors were stranded again. Soon it was the twelfth of February, two days before Valentine's Day.
Ginny bit her lip, wondering what she and Harry would do on Valentine’s Day, as she sat on a stool next to Daisy's bed. Their relationship was coming through wonderfully and Ginny wondered why she had thought that it wouldn't work out, just a month ago.
“Hey!”
Ginny turned around to see Harry enter the room. She stood up and they kissed briefly before Harry took another seat next to her. He looked at Daisy. “She's had the worst deal in the entire case, hasn't she?”
Ginny sighed. “I don't know, Harry, but I've always sorta felt sorry for her. Somewhere, I don't think she deserved even half of what she got in this case.”
Harry was silent for a while. “We'll see about that. By the way, where are Chris and Pari? I thought they're always here.”
“Chris is coming after a while,” said Ginny. “He said he would meet up with a friend of his after college. And Pari is catching up on her sleep today.”
“Oh,” Harry paused. “Do you want something to eat?”
“Umm yeah, get me sandwiches,” said Ginny. Then she stood up. “Or you know what, I'll just come and eat right there. It won't hurt to leave Daisy alone for some time, I suppose.”
***
“Oh God,” said Cheryl, dropping her fork with a clank.
“What happened?” Chris asked stopping midway through his chicken.
“You see that chick there?”
Chris chuckled and turned to see a young woman staring at them from a few tables away. “Chick? Honestly, Cheryl...”
“Shut up and listen. Now I'm pretty sure that she's gonna come and ask for an autograph.”
“So?”
“I don't like being disturbed in public places like this. And there will be a whole bunch of them once I sign for one,” Cheryl said. “Oh no... Here she comes...”
“Oh shucks.”
“Hello!” said a voice and Chris turned to see the woman standing right behind him. “I'm Miranda,” she said, giving Cheryl a big smile. “Um... I'm a huge fan of yours... Can I have an autograph?”
“Uh... Sure,” said Cheryl beckoning to her to sit down as she rummaged for a pen. She found the pen and Chris watched, raising an eyebrow as she autographed the woman's book. The woman had just left and Chris had taken another bite of his food, when a teenaged girl came and asked for an autograph too. Then there were a bunch of young boys and soon, their table was crowded with people.
Cheryl gave Chris a helpless look and he suddenly had an idea. “I'll just come,” he said, getting up and leaving. He found his way to the cash counter and paid the bill. Then he came back to the table and pushed his way through the crowd. “Let's go,” he said, grasping Cheryl's hand.
She stood up and there was huge commotion as they managed to get out of the restaurant. Chris led her through the street until they reached a lane off it. They took it and finally stopped right in front of the gate to Chris's house. Cheryl smiled up at him. “Thanks for that.”
“That's okay,” Chris said.
“Thank God that we chose a restaurant that's close to your house.”
Chris smiled. “Where have you parked your car?”
“It's at the parking lot of the restaurant,” Cheryl said. “Guess I'll have to pick it up a little later.”
“Do you want me to drop you home in mine? Then I'll pick up your car and drive it to your place later.”
“No, I'll pick it up later myself, thanks,” said Cheryl. “So... What are you going to do now?”
“I'm going to visit Daisy,” Chris said. He had spoken to Cheryl about Daisy a few times now, so Cheryl knew whom he was talking about.
“Oh,” said Cheryl. “How is she?”
“Recovering fast.”
“Can I come and visit her too?”
“Um...” began Chris, wondering what to tell her. “I” er...”
“Come on!”
Chris scratched his eye. “Well... If you have to visit her, there's something you must know.”
“What?”
Chris sighed and pulled out his wand. Cheryl looked at him, bewildered by it. “Why do you always carry that twig around?”
“It's not a twig.”
“Okay then, stick.”
Chris shook his head. “It's a wand. I'm a wizard.”
“Sure. I'm a witch.”
“Are you?”
“No, silly! They don't exist!”
Chris pointed his wand at the gate. “Alohamora.”
Cheryl's eyes widened as it opened. “You... You really are a wizard?”
Chris nodded. “Yes I am.”
“And Daisy is a witch?”
“Yep.”
“And t”those friends of yours...? Rebecca, Pari and that Shaun guy?”
“They're all witches and wizards.”
Cheryl took a step backwards and swayed. “Oh my God...”
Chris grinned and grasped her arm. “Come on! It's not so dramatically surprising.”
She glared at him. “I was about to trip, not faint.”
“Oh. Sorry.” There was silence. “So, we're still friends?” Chris asked her slowly.
“Of course we are!” said Cheryl. “Actually, you being a wizard is sorta cool.”
“Is it?”
“Yeah!”
Chris grinned. “You know, you speak like Daisy sometimes.”
“Is that a compliment?”
“Of course it is.”
“Thanks, then.”
“You're welcome.” Chris and she headed into the courtyard through the open gate. When they were in Chris shut it and said, “Shall we go then?”
“How?”
“We'll take my car.”
“Oh. I was expecting to ride a magic carpet to the hospital. Is she in a wizard hospital?”
“Yes she is.”
“Okay, take me there.”
They had walked to Chris's car. “Get in,” he said, using his wand to open the car door.
“I'll have to get used to this, I guess,” Cheryl said, as she got in.
Chris took the driver's seat. “Listen, don't tell anyone about this, okay?”
“That you're a wizard?”
“Mmm Hmm. We have a Statute of Secrecy and all so...”
“Oh, I won't tell anyone,” said Cheryl. “And even if I do, people are going to make me spend my life in a mental asylum. That's not exactly where I want to live, so don't worry.” Chris grinned at her and turned on the ignition, after which they drove off.
They were walking down Daisy's corridor a little later. Chris had put his lime green robes on and Cheryl was staring around in wonder. Suddenly, she noticed his robes. “When did you get those on?”
“You were staring at the weird patients when I put them on.”
“You look weird too.”
“Thank you so much.”
“Where's her ward? We've been walking around for ages. You wizards should get lifts.”
“Electric objects don't work when there's a lot of magic around. And switch off your mobile, while we're at it.”
“Okay,” said Cheryl, extracting her phone and switching it off. Just as she did so, they were standing outside Daisy's ward.
“Here we are,” said Chris as he pushed the door open. They walked in and took the stools next to Daisy's bed.
“She's lovely,” Cheryl whispered.
“Of course she is,” said Chris, placing his hand on Daisy's. At that moment, Daisy opened her eyes ever so slightly.
“Oh my God,” said Cheryl. “She's waking up.”
Chris frowned. “Daisy?” He squeezed her hand. “Daisy, can you hear me?” She did not respond. Instead, her eyes opened a little more and she blinked once. Chris looked at Cheryl. “Stay next to her. I'll just get the Healer, okay?”
She nodded and took Chris's stool, as he rushed out. He went to Healer Robert's office and knocked at the door. “Come in,” said the Healer.
Chris burst in. “She's waking up!”
“Daisy?!” Robert asked, putting down his cup of tea.
“Yes!”
Healer Robert got up and rushed to Daisy's ward. Chris followed him and met Rebecca outside the ward. “Daisy's waking up!” Chris said excitedly, as Cheryl came out too.
Healer Robert was bent over Daisy as he checked her up. Then he straightened himself. “She's coming out of her coma all right,” he said, “But she isn't actually awake. Her reflexes and everything will be uncoordinated for some time, as they haven't been used for long. It will take her a while to gain full control of herself.”
Chris nodded as the Healer, who went back to his office. Then Cheryl went back into the ward, leaving him alone with Rebecca. He looked at the latter. “When did you come?”
“Just now,” she replied, her eyes swivelling over to Cheryl. “She knows about us...?”
“She does,” said Chris. “She won't tell anybody.”
“I'm going over to Pari's place in some time. Wanna come?”
“No, I'll stay here,” said Chris.
“Okay, so I'll leave now. I just wanted to see how Daisy was.”
“Okay bye,” said Chris, giving her a hug.
She hugged him back tightly. “What happened?”
Chris sighed. “I'm just starting to get the feeling that today isn't a very good day.”
“What are you talking about?” Rebecca asked him, giving him a tight hug. “It's one of the best days! Daisy's waking up.”
Chris smiled at her, his chest feeling suddenly tight. Why was he beginning to sense that he was going to lose Rebecca forever? It was a sudden but strong feeling. Rebecca patted his shoulder. “All okay? Look, don't believe in these stupid intuitions, all right? They are never correct.”
Chris nodded and waved to her as she walked off. Then he returned to the ward. Cheryl was looking at Daisy as the other girl constantly stared at the ceiling, blinking her eyes. “What happened to her, Chris? Why is she like this?”
Chris sat next to Cheryl and explained the case to her. She was plainly shocked. “You mean this is a part of that famous serial killing case?!”
“You know about it?”
“Of course I do. They're mentioned in our newspapers. Oh my God!”
There was silence for a while, as both of them looked at Daisy try to coordinate herself. Then Chris stood up. “Come on, Cheryl, I'll drop you home.”
“Just drop me to your place. I'll go on to mine from there.”
“Sure.” The two of them left the ward, just as they saw Harry and Ginny come down from the far end of the corridor.
***
Daisy suddenly felt something on her hand and heard voices. What was going on? She was aware that she had been asleep for a very long time and something told her that it was time to wake up. But what was the dream that she'd had...?
She willed herself to be strong and lift up her lids. They felt obscenely heavy and she could feel a mild throb in her belly. Finally receiving some strength, she opened her eyes.
The first thing she saw was a blurred image of Chris's face. But next to him was a girl she didn't know. Daisy wanted to talk but she couldn't. She could faintly hear Chris and the unknown girl's voices, as they talked. Then Chris rushed away and the girl placed her hand on Daisy's.
Daisy shut her eyes for a minute or two and then opened them again to see Robert bend over her. After that, she could make out nothing more as blackness pressed itself upon her. What she didn't know was that her eyes were still open.
***
Ginny sat silently next to Daisy's bed, going through the events in the last that had taken place in the last six months. They had sure been hell for a lot of people including Harry, Ron, Hermione, Rebecca, Daisy, Chris and Pari. But really, had the Aurors been on a wild-goose chase for all these months? If they were on the right path then why didn't they even have proper suspects by now?
Ginny sighed and stood up from the stool when Harry entered the ward. “Come to Hermione's office,” he said in a low voice.
“Why?”
“We've found something.”
***
Harry entered Hermione's office with Ginny to find that all the other Aurors were there already. Hermione was there too and she was reading through a thick book that Harry thought he had seen before. When they were inside, Ginny shut and latched the door, while Hermione continued to read. There was five minutes of silence after which Hermione looked up. “This book has everything that you need to know about the Galvanising Gem.”
“Where did you get that from?” Harry asked.
“It's Padma's,” replied Anthony. “All the Unspeakables own such books. She had to take special permission to lend it to us for a day.” Harry frowned. Where had he seen this book before? He didn't know any Unspeakable in person, with the exception of Padma.
Hermione spoke up. “So according to what I've read, the Galvanising Gem empowers the owner with Dark Magic. But that is only after the Gem is activated.”
“And how do you do that?” Irene asked.
“First, you find a dominant figure in your era,” said Hermione, shutting the book. “After that, a potion is to be brewed. Then you must add the blood of seven people who have any kind of positive feelings towards that particular dominating person.”
“So the dominant figure in this case is Harry...” said Anthony.
“Okay, I understand why Harry's the dominant figure” said Romilda, “But why all this ‘positive feeling’ stuff?”
“Love makes you stronger,” Harry said suddenly.
“What?”
Harry looked at Romilda. “Love in any form makes a person strong. It's an old formula.”
Romilda was still confused. “Where does love come into this at all? None of the victims loved Harry. Well, except for Parvati...”
“If you would have noticed,” said Hermione, “All the ‘positive feelings’ were forms of love. Crushes and obsession are love, but sometimes deep attraction towards somebody makes you feel as though you're in love. That's the concept of Love Potions. And admiration is another subtle form of love. It's love for the person's achievements.”
“And what was that attack on Rebecca then?” asked Anthony
“It was a lure,” replied Hermione. “It was to make sure that you'd not make out the connection.”
“So summing it up,” said Ginny, “we have four cases of obsession, one of admiration and one of true love. So what will be the seventh case?”
“Love in friendship,” said Hermione slowly. “The next attack will be on a good friend of Harry's. It will either be me or Ron.”
There was heavy silence as everybody thought over what had just been said. Then Ron broke the silence by asking Hermione a question. “Um... When are we supposed to expect the hooded figure with the butcher's knife?”
Hermione took a deep breath. “Tonight.”
“What?!”
Hermione put a sheet of parchment on her desk and picked up a quill. “Look,” she said, writing down the dates of each of the attacks, “the first five murders took place over five weeks. So that's a seven day gap between each murder. But after Andrew's murder on the first of August, Parvati was killed on the seventh of November, fourteen weeks later. And fourteen weeks after that is””
“The thirteenth of February,” said Harry. “But that's tomorrow.”
Hermione nodded. “At midnight, it will be the thirteenth of February. And this time, the person is not going to wait. Daisy is waking up and she will be telling us about the actual murderer if the killer doesn't make it fast.”
“But how can either of you be attacked in this place? It's safe...” said Irene.
“There's no limit to what the killer can do, Irene,” said Ginny. “Hermione's attack was right under our noses, remember?”
That struck Harry. “Hermione's attack!” he said, “That was thirteen weeks after Andrew died.”
Hermione nodded. “Yes, the last two blood feeds can be either thirteen or fourteen weeks apart.”
“But if only the blood is to be taken,” said Romilda, “then why was everyone killed?”
“The killer must have wanted a clean job,” shrugged Ron. “Must have decided not to give anyone a chance to blurt.”
Hermione looked at Harry. “You believe that the culprit is using someone as a pawn to commit the murders in their stead, don't you?”
“Yes I do,” said Harry. “Why?”
“Because I think Parvati knew beforehand that she was about to be attacked. Till I was conscious, I realised that she was rather jumpy that day. And she also met Daisy in the supermarket. Chances are that she may have found out something either about the culprit or the person who's doing the actual killing and left clues for you.” Hermione turned to Romilda. “You were there with Parvati when she met Daisy at the supermarket, weren't you? Were they talking?”
“Sort of,” said Romilda frowning in recollection. “But for most of the part Parvati was staring weird at Daisy. She sorta looked creepy.”
“She was using Legilimency,” Hermione explained to Romilda. “Harry, are you sure she didn't leave any clues? Was there nothing that was strange or out of place in your room?”
Harry tried to recall the day he had packed and suddenly he remembered those two books in his wardrobe. “Well yes. There were two books in my wardrobe and I remember wondering how they got there.”
“Which ones?”
“Well... There was a thesaurus and... This favourite book of Parvati's... Actually that's Padma's favourite too...”
“Little Women?” asked Anthony. “Was that the one?”
“Yes, yes...” said Harry. “But they can't be clues.”
“They are,” said Hermione. “She was trying to give us names.”
“How?”
“Jo, Beth, Amy, Meg... Oh my God, Daisy!” said Ginny suddenly.
“You're not making sense!” said Harry.
“Daisy's real name is Margaret! Another short form for that is Meg.”
“But she's already knocked out,” said Ron. “How can she be the culprit?”
“This wasn't a clue to find out about the culprit,” said Ginny. “It was to find out about someone who knew about the culprit.”
“But a thesaurus can produce hell a lot of names,” said Ron.
“The thesaurus was for telling us that the other person who knows about the killer is Parineeta Roy,” said Hermione.
“Huh?”
“Parineeta's nickname is ‘Gauri’,” said Hermione. “A thesaurus gives us synonyms. The synonym for ‘Parvati’ is ‘Gauri.’”
“And how do you know that?” Ron asked in awe.
“Parvati just told me in passing once...”
“So now we have to be careful,” said Harry. “But we'll have to go protect Pari also then.”
“Anthony and I can do that,” said Irene. “We'll protect Parineeta. Once we find out about the culprit from her, we'll send out a message to you and you can go and arrest that person. Hermione and Daisy also need protection, so you people can stay here.”
“Okay,” said Harry. “You two must go immediately then.”
Anthony nodded and he and Irene left immediately. “Ginny, Ron, you go and make sure Daisy is protected. Romilda and I will stay with Hermione.”
“But what about Ron?” Hermione asked.
Ron looked at her. “I don't need protection, Hermione. I can take care of myself.”
“And so can I!”
“Hermione, we’re just protecting you as a precaution. We know you can take care of yourself.”
“Okay, then...” said Hermione.
Ginny smiled at her before she and Ron left the room too. Harry took his place on a chair in front of her desk. Romilda did the same and Hermione put her head on her desk with a sigh. This was going to be a long, boring night with just an arrest to spice things up. Or so they thought.
***
Chris stopped the car in front of his house and Cheryl got off. “Now get back to Daisy,” she said, grinning at him.
“Sure,” replied Chris. “See you then!”
“Bye!”
Cheryl watched Chris drive away and kept watching him until the car disappeared. She still hadn't gotten over her crush, but she had seen that Chris loved Daisy, with the way he always spoke about her. This had made Cheryl realise that she didn't stand a chance with Chris. So all that she could really do now was to be a good friend of Chris's.
Cheryl turned around only to see something strange in Chris's house. One of the lights upstairs was switched on. Bewildered, she opened the gates and started to walk up the driveway. How were Mr and Mrs Stevens home so early?
Cheryl had reached the door now. Somehow, she felt that something wrong was going on. Nevertheless, she rang the door bell. After that, Cheryl didn't even remember seeing the door open as a flash of red light hit her, causing her to slump to the ground.
Killer Instincts by Ginny Weasley Potter
Chapter Notes: Hey all!
My uni exams are done! :) :) But there's a catch. My lappie's dead! :( I have to wait for my dad to get back home from work to submit anything, so please bear with me!
And I just realised something weird. I actually got Cheryl's surname from my textbook! I was reading about the 'circle of Willis' before I wrote up her character. I mean, she was a planned OC, but her name was a spur-of-the-moment thing. And since I was reading neuroanat that day, I named her after the arterial system supplying blood to the brain. LOL. And I actually realised it long afterwards. Hehe.
Anyway, please R/R!
This chapter is for Mahikins! Love ya, hon! :)