Young Writers Society

“ My first question to you is why you have approached me now to offer your assistance. Why now? Why not years ago?”

“ I had thought you would ask me that question. Well Harry. I have sensed for quite some time now that something penultimate fast approaches and that you would benefit from my help. It is now, when everything is beginning and ending that I approach you. Now, after the death of Albus Dumbledore do I approach you offering assistance which I hope you can see would benefit you greatly.” Harry nodded his head and took another sip of his butterbeer.

“ My second question is about your broomstick.”

“ Ah. Now then. I believe I have some explaining for this question.”

“ From my point of view yes.”

“ I have loved to fly ever since I first mounted a broomstick I have felt at peace in the air. A lot like you Harry. I was in the Slytherin Quidditch Team at Hogwarts and I played the position of Keeper until I was moved to play Chaser and finally Seeker after several matches were I told our Seeker where the Snitch was. I would have played Beater if they were not frightened of what would happen if I had a bat in my hand. I would have hit their heads instead of bludgers, as they knew. I was sitting by myself one night, in here, in this very chair staring into the flames in the fireplace. I was remembering all the good times and bad times I’d had on a broomstick. I was remembering my falls on a broom, my arguments on a broom, my triumphs on a broom and the kisses I had on a broom. Also the points I got took off and detentions I got on a broom. I not only flew a broomstick on the Quidditch Pitch. Half of the time I spent on a broom was speeding through the corridors, up to the Astronomy Tower and out the window, diving until I was inches away from the ground then gracefully looping up and up and up into the starry heavens, or else coming into classes late on my broom. I remember Potions lessons’ with Horace Slughorn quite clearly. After the first few breaks in the door he left it open so I could zoom in and topple of my broom and into my chair neatly. One lesson I actually done a lap of honour round the classroom before dropping into an empty seat next to this one boy I had a crush on. He was rather stunned when I just dropped into the seat next to him, flicked my hair out of my eyes which was unsuccessful and said ‘If we’re partnering today I’m working with you.’ And winking at him. That caused quite a few laughs in the dungeon I can tell you that. So here I was, staring into the flames remembering all those fun times on a broom or with a broom and it was then that the thought struck me like lightening. I decided then and there to create my own broomstick. I gathered together everything I would need and I made the broomstick. I put all the charms and other such things every broomstick has as standard. I added a few extra features and personalised it. I then engraved the words Sweet TMR Love CMR. I could not help it. I loved my brother dearly. No matter what he had done I still loved him. How could I not? He was my brother, my own flesh and blood and the one who had captured the love in my heart and had it imprisoned in his twisted and mutilated soul. It was then, in a moment of clear madness, I placed a charm that I had created my self. A charm that meant whenever the broom was flown the riders mind would drift to the one they loved with all there heart. If they could not think of something else within five minutes than the broom took them to the one they loved. I mounted the broom after I had showed it to Mariana who had been eager to see it and I flew into the star-studded sky. The charm worked as promised and my thoughts immediately drifted to Thomas and I could think of nothing else and so with tears in my eyes the broom carried me to where Thomas was. I realized what was happening and so before I reached him I placed the most powerful enchantments I knew, ones I had created myself that changed me into a completely different person. To Thomas I was Selena Keri and…well. I locked the broom up after that and never flew it again.” Harry knew not to ask what had happened and just sipped at his butterbeer.

“ Third question. Do you have Horcruxes like Voldemort?”

“ No. I have found other ways to stop Death from visiting me. Ways that do not mean I have to mar my eternal and everlasting soul.”

“ Fourth question. Why do you protect Mariana?”

“ I would think that obvious Harry. I care about her and I don’t want any unnecessary harm to come to her. She has been through so much and she has managed to come through it all still standing and still strong.”

“ What sort of things has she been through?” Harry asked curiously.

“ That, Harry, is for her to tell you, not me. It is not my place. Just like it is not her place to tell you secrets of mine.” Christina spoke with a voice that plainly told Harry to drop the subject and ask something else.

“ What do you think of Albus Dumbledore?”

“ I think that he is a great man, an intelligent man, a wise man, a man who is not completely right in his head at times and a man who we would be lost without.”

“ It will upset you then to hear that he is dead.”

“ Dead?” Harry nodded his head.

“ Who killed him?”

“ A man by the name of Severus Snape. Up until after he killed Albus Dumbledore he was the Potions Master at Hogwarts.”

“ Severus Snape.” Christina said thoughtfully. There was silence for a few minutes before Christina broke it.

“ No! Surely not!” She exclaimed in surprise. Harry looked at her with confusion.

“ The son of Eileen Prince?”

“ Yes. How do you know that?”

“ I went to school with Eileen! She was highly skilled at Potions. Didn’t really like me all that much until we had a fight and she came out of it much worse for wear than myself. Our opponents, however, were in the Hospital Wing for a week. We became good friends after that fight. She told me that the highlight of her day was Potions and not just because it was her favourite and best subject but because I always came into the class on my broomstick and I always, always, ALWAYS did or said something funny or mischievous.”

“ Sounds a lot like Fred and George.”

“ Fred and George Weasley you mean?” Harry nodded his head.

“ Yes. Well, the only problem with that is there mischief I am afraid cannot and does not compare with my own.”

“ One of your antics then if you could please tell me?” Harry was eager to hear some of thin things Christina Riddle had got up to when she was at Hogwarts.

“ I remember one time I lured all of the professors, the caretaker and groundskeeper into the Room of Requirement, stunned them and got them all drunk. It was hilarious. You should have seen Professor Dippit’s face when he walked in. I will never ever forget that. I offered him what he thought was water and he accepted it gratefully after all I was the smartest girl in school. Just a little bit smarter than Eileen and she was always a bit angry with that. Anyway, it wasn’t water that I had given him and soon enough he was drunk too and was dancing the tango with the Astronomy teacher. Professor Slughorn was sitting on a chair in the corner of the room singing a song about Highlands and Glens and then he collapsed onto the floor snoring. Professor Dumbledore. Well, I can tell you this Harry and be truthful, I have never seen a man move so fast and graceful as he did that night. Later on in the evening there was some kissing going on and I decided to ask that annoying little Gryffindor twerp Joe to take some pictures with his camera. He loved to take pictures with that blasted camera of his and he’d got quite a few hexes because of it but he and his camera had uses that night. The best thing was next day however; all the teachers were too hung over to get us to do any work so we were let off the whole day. It was like a weekend or the holidays. Everyone loved me because of it. Eileen wasn’t too happy because we had double Potions but I cheered her up by zooming along the lake on my broom writing the words ‘Sorry Els’ in the water and in the sky with green and silver sparks. Now, I don’t think that Fred and George would have done anything like that.”

“ They snuck into Hogsmeade and the school kitchens to get food for parties in the Gryffindor Common Room. All the time.”

“ That’s tame. I loved Hogsmeade. It was a great place. Especially Honeydukes. They didn’t like me all that much though.”

“ Why?”

“ My second visit to Honeydukes and Hogsmeade and I trashed the whole place. Sweets everywhere, chocolate everywhere, you name it, it was all over the place. Filled my pockets with everything I could find and ran out the door. I came back in a few seconds later and dropped a few galleons onto the counter. I was banned from there on in. Until my sixth year. They let me back in then. They thought I had matured and so I had. A teeny bit. Third time I went into Honeydukes in my sixth year I was discounted because I behaved so well. Little did they know that I’d planted fireworks in the storeroom. It was so beautiful watching the fireworks and the sweets going off. They weren’t all that happy and they were positive it was me but I acted all innocent and they dismissed the claims from many students that I had been talking about doing it. Honeydukes owners didn’t believe them though. I was the ideal student. A little gem. That’s where I got the nickname ‘evil little gem’ from.”

“ That beats Fred and George most defiantly.”

“ I’d like to meet them sometime. Hear some of the things they did. I would like to meet the Marauders myself but one of them is a Death Eater, one of them is otherwise engaged with my best friend just now, one of them is nowhere to be seen and was thought to be dead until a short while ago and one of them is dead. I hear they were supposed to be quite something.”

“ They made a map of Hogwarts showing all the secret passages and everything. They also showed where each person was and what they were doing.”

“ Ingenious. But unnecessary.”

“ Why is it unnecessary?

“ Well all you needed to do was ask for my little black book. The showed you everything and if you wanted to see what Eileen Prince was doing then what you would do is you would go to page 426 and you’d see exactly what she was doing. In fact you would see her as if you were actually standing in front, behind or to the side from her.”

“ How would you know which page to go to?”

“ Easy. You’d look in the contents. It had the name of every on roll Hogwarts Student and every Hogwarts member of staff and a page number for that specific person.”

“ Wouldn’t the contents get full though with new names being added?”

“ Oh no. See, if you were in your seventh year and you had just boarded the Hogwarts Express the contents would immediately wipe your name off unless it was requested to stay on.”

“ It must have taken a long time to develop?”

“ Yes. It did. Two years. I completed and perfected it in my fourth year.”

“ Did you get any help making it?”

“ No, no. I made it all by myself. Didn’t want anyone to know about it. But soon it leaked out that I carried a ‘little black book’ with me at all times and everyone was in that book and I could see them no matter what they were doing and how they tried to hide themselves. It didn’t work. I could even see through Invisibility Cloaks and spells with it. The same with spells that transfigured you into something else. I could also see you if you were an animagus.”

“ So you must have seen my father and the rest of the Marauders?”

“ Yes. I also saw what they did to Eileen’s son. I am absolutely outraged now that I know that was Els son.”

“ Els?”

“ My nickname for Eileen. I called her Els and she called me Bane. As in Bane of her life.” Harry laughed and took a big gulp of his butterbeer.

“ Well I was Harry. I was a right little mischief-maker. I had so many nicknames. Some people would say ‘here comes minx’ and others would say ‘that’s evil little gem for you’ and whenever Eileen heard a commotion somewhere everyone would hear her sighing and running off saying ‘Bane’s at it again.’”

Will continue with later on.