Hogwarts: The Legacy

(c)2005 by Josh Cohen. May not be reprinted, except for personal use. The Potterverse was created by JK Rowling, and remains her property. I\'m just borrowing it for a little while.

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TWENTY-FOUR: NOVEMBER FIRST

Warning: serious material ahead.

***

Jason sat in front of Professor Snape’s desk. The Headmaster’s office was not nearly as light and airy as when Professor Colwyn had been in charge – Jason had been hauled up there once, after a fight with Sean Bryson of Hufflepuff in his first week – but it was still a huge room. Professor Snape had decorated the place in dark shades of green, mixed with black and silver accents. He was seated behind his desk, black hair mixing with black robes, black eyes foreboding.

It wasn’t just Professor Snape, though. Professor Flitwick was seated to one side with Professor Vector, who was quite obviously fighting the urge to cry. “Please tell me the story, from the beginning, Mr Goldman,” Professor Snape said, his voice softer than Jason had ever heard it before. “Spare no details, no matter how explicit. I promise you what you say will not leave this room.”

“But what about...” Jason inclined his head toward the anteroom door, where Mr and Mrs Dupree were waiting with Professor Granger and Mr Weasley.

“I will deal with them. Meanwhile, I must know the truth, and you seem to be the only person who has all of it.”

“All right, sir. I’ll do my best.”

“Thank you.”

“Wait a minute,” Professor Vector snapped. “You knew about this? And you told no one?”

“Anna,” Snape said, his tone one of warning.

“Don’t you start with me, Severus,” Vector said, getting up and coming round the desk. She yanked the arm of Jason’s chair and turned him to face her. “You mean to tell me that you knew about this? And you didn’t tell me?”

“I thought you knew,” Jason said quietly. “I’m sorry, Professor, but Jamie asked me to keep it a secret.”

“Then why didn’t you at least go to your Head of House?”

Jason shared a look with Professor Flitwick. “Professor, Jamie... She was my friend. She asked me not to say anything. I broke her confidence twice before; I didn’t want to do it again.”

“Twice?” asked Snape.

“Yes, sir. Some of my friends in Ravenclaw asked what Jamie and I were talking about. I told them that one of the Slytherins had threatened to spread rumors about her.”

“And the second time?”

“I told Professor Stein.”

“So that’s how she found out,” Vector said. She let go of Jason’s chair, and he shuffled it back around to keep both Snape and Vector in his sight as she went back to her seat next to Flitwick.

“Why did you feel more comfortable going to Professor Stein than to Professor Flitwick?” Snape asked. “She’s your aunt, I know, but Professor Flitwick should be considered as a parent while you’re at Hogwarts.”

“I know, Professor,” Jason said. He’d already covered this ground with his Head of House, who had been miffed but had also understood Jason’s predicament. “I just felt more comfortable going to someone who’d been a part of my life since I was three years old.”

“It didn’t bother me, Severus,” Flitwick said. “I’m just glad there was at least a member of the faculty he felt comfortable going to.”

“Indeed.” Snape folded his hands. “Continue, Mr Goldman.”

“Wait a moment,” Professor Snape interrupted. “You confronted Euan MacTavish?”

Jason nodded. “I wouldn’t call it a confrontation, Professor, but yes, I spoke to him.”

“I imagine he didn’t take that well.” For all his skill at Quidditch, Euan MacTavish was a constant thorn in the side of Professor Morrigan, the Slytherin Head of House; she had complained to Severus on more than one occasion.

“No, sir. That was when we both received detention from Mr Weasley. He caught us fighting in the alley around the Pitch.”

“From what I heard about that,” Flitwick said, “MacTavish got his priorities rearranged.”

“A bit, sir.” Jason saw the expression on Snape’s face and half-cringed. “I’m sorry, Professor. It won’t happen again.”

“See that it doesn’t.” He stood and paced behind his desk for a moment. “So Mr MacTavish was the source of the rumors, as Miss Dupree had suspected.”

“Yes, Professor. He had been at the party, and he had seen and heard what she allegedly did.”

“I think we can move past ‘allegedly’, Mr Goldman,” Professor Snape said. “She admitted her actions to you, and as her friend, you believed them. Correct?”

“Yes, sir.” Jason shifted in his seat. He was still in shock, and was refusing to deal with the reality of what had happened. But it was encroaching on him; every time he used the past tense, it became that much more real. “I believed what she said.”

“I don’t,” Vector said flatly. “Jamie never even had a boyfriend at Hogwarts. Or a girlfriend. She was popular, but never got into a relationship. How can I believe that she slept with those two boys? And Jordanna Kollan, for that matter!”

“I’m sorry, Professor.” Jason had run out of platitudes, and felt that he was merely repeating what he’d been saying, that it was losing its effectiveness. But he was sorry – truly sorry – for what had happened, even though he had played no direct role in it. “I can only tell you what Jamie told me, and MacTavish confirmed what he saw.”

“And you believed him?”

“I had no reason not to.”

Snape leaned down, his hands on the back of his desk chair. “Please continue, Mr Goldman.”

“That was the last time you saw her before today?” Professor Snape asked, in a tone that, for him, was gentle.

Jason nodded. “She looked down at the Halloween Feast, so I excused myself to talk to her. We went to one of the study rooms to have some privacy.”

Professor Vector stared at him. “That had better not be some sort of euphemism.”

“No, Professor.” Jason looked down at his folded hands. “I almost wish it was; it would’ve been better than the discussion we did have.”

“And that was?”

He looked at her. “She was worried that she wouldn’t be able to take it much longer.”

“It, Mr Goldman?” asked Snape.

“The rumors, sir. Combined with the fact that she thought she was starting to... you know... show.”

Snape shot a look at Professor Vector. “I would think that some of her friends – and her Head of House – would have noticed.”

“Severus, I’m sure that she wasn’t the first student to get pregnant while still at Hogwarts. But no one ever seems to notice. Why do you think that is?”

“Anna, I am neither a woman nor a medi-wizard. Nor have I ever been married. Nor have I ever spent any great amount of time with a woman as she went through pregnancy. Don’t play the Socratic method with me.”

Professor Vector sighed. “Girls are good at hiding that sort of thing. Especially with magic. Transfigured robes, subtle glamours, even certain clothes made for that occasion. If no one had spread any rumors at all, she might’ve made it to the spring holidays, gone home, delivered, put the baby up for adoption, and no one would have been the wiser.”

“This sort of thing happens?” the Headmaster asked, incredulous.

Vector nodded. “I’ve seen it.”

“In Hogwarts?” Professor Flitwick’s voice was serious – at least as serious as he could make it, given the high pitch his size lent him.

The Arithmancy professor looked down and nodded, blushing.

“You?”

Now she looked up, her eyes blazing. “I will neither confirm nor deny that statement, and I will certainly not be sharing my past with a student present!”

“My apologies.”

“Can we return to the matter at hand?” That was Snape.

Jason couldn’t help but steal a look at Professor Vector. She looked truly distraught. “I’m not quite sure what else there is to say, sir,” Jason said. “Jamie and I talked about how she felt. I told her it would all blow over eventually, faster if she ignored it. She countered with opening her robes and showing me how it was obvious that she was pregnant.”

“Was it?”

Jason nodded. “Jamie is... was...” He swallowed hard. “She was pretty slender. I could tell.” It had been one of the clearest moments in Jason’s young life: Jamie had opened her robes and slid her loose t-shirt upward. The curve of her belly had been shallow, but quite obvious.

“What happened next?” Professor Vector had yet to compose herself, but her voice was steady.

“She started crying again. I hugged her.” And, Jason thought privately, what he’d have died to do two years ago – get physically close to a young, attractive Quidditch seeker – made him taste ash in his mouth. “I didn’t know what else to do.”

“If you had gone to Professor Flitwick, or to me,” Snape said, “perhaps we could have helped her.” Jason opened his mouth, and the headmaster held up his hand. “Yes, yes, I know she swore you to secrecy. We could have kept that under wraps as well.”

Jason looked down again. “I understand, sir. I’m sorry.”

“So am I.”

***

The day started slightly overcast. Jason and the rest of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team sat together at their table in the Great Hall, separated from Hufflepuff by the Gryffindors, confident that today would be the start of their Cup-winning season. They’d all been in that position before – all except Colin Carrington, their newest chaser.

“How do you do it?” Colin asked, staring at a plate of eggs and a fried slice.

Jason shrugged and poured himself more water. “You get used to it.”

Fabian grinned at the youngest players on the team from across the table. “Better eat up, Carrington,” he said. “You’ll need your energy.”

“He’s right,” Andrew added. “Even though they have two new chasers, remember they’ve still got great beaters, and their seeker snatched the snitch from us last year.”

“We won that game,” Wesley grumbled, adding sugar to his mug of coffee.

“Still, better to win with the snitch than to win without it.”

Colin sighed and nibbled at a bit of egg.

“That’s the spirit,” Andrew boomed. “Let’s eat up and suit up.”

At half-nine, the team pushed away their plates – Colin hadn’t managed more than a couple of bites; his stomach was already full of butterflies – and trooped out of the Great Hall to the cheers of the rest of Ravenclaw, as well as a few Gryffindors. Even Amber Locksley at Slytherin gave them a favorable look; after all, she didn’t have to play against them this time.

There was no pep-talk in the locker-room. Jason helped Colin buckle on his armor and struggle into some of the more awkward pieces of it. His yearmate had a Comet 650, a good broom when it came to cornering, but not as fast as the 680, which both Fyretons used.

The brooms were shouldered. The announcements were made. Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw faced off for the first match of the season, just as it had been last year. This year, though, instead of Lisa DeMarco at center, Marianne Flint went nose-to-nose with Hufflepuff’s captain, Richard Savant. Jason matched with Laura Bones, a fifth year, and Colin with Alexei Antonovich from fourth year.

Mr Weasley held the quaffle high.

“Ready!”

“Set!”

“HOLD!” came a booming shout from the pitch below.

Weasley blew his whistle hard and stuck the quaffle under his arm. “What’s going on?” he called, while both teams backed away from the center of the pitch.

It was Professor Bryant who had called up from the players’ entrance.

“The match has been cancelled, by order of the Headmaster! All students are to report to their dormitories and wait there! There will be an assembly in the Great Hall in ninety minutes, and attendance is mandatory!”

Most of the assembled students made sounds of disdain and protest as Mr Weasley cast sonorous on himself and repeated what Professor Bryant had said – just in case any of the students hadn’t heard.

“Sir,” Andrew said as he moved next to the referee, “what’s going on?”

“I don’t know,” Mr Weasley told him. “But Professor Snape says the match is cancelled, so the match is cancelled.” He raised his voice slightly. “All of you, change out of your gear and return to your common rooms. And don’t worry,” he added, “once this is over we’ll see about a make-up game.”

That brightened their spirits a little.

Mr Weasley had been waiting for Jason when he left the locker room. He’d brought him to the Headmaster’s office. And then Professor Snape had told him.

***

“Where were you?” Alison asked in a sharp whisper. “We were worried something happened!”

“I had to talk to the Headmaster,” Jason said dully, plopping down into his usual place in the Great Hall. The last few students had been walking in, trying to figure out what was going on and comparing notes and rumors, when Jason had arrived, coming through the anteroom door near the Head Table.

“What?” Colin, after making the team, had supplanted the second year that normally sat next to Jason at the table. “Why?”

But Jason shook his head.

Caroline knew how he was feeling. She could see the strain in his face. She rested her hand atop his, squeezing his fingers in hers, and he looked over to her, his amber-brown eyes glittering.

“It’ll be all right,” she whispered, sidling closer to him. He slid his left arm round her waist, pulling her body against his. She could feel the tension in his muscles.

The student body grew quiet, as if a silencing charm had been cast, the moment that Professor Snape stepped out onto the dais and stood behind his place at the Head Table. He was flanked by Professors Flitwick and Vector. Some of the other professors were at their usual positions; others were scattered among the student population. Professors Morrigan and Sprout stood at the end of their tables; Professor Bryant stood in for Professor Vector at Gryffindor, and Professor Stein in her wheelchair sat at the far end of Ravenclaw, levitated a few feet off the ground.

Snape looked to the anteroom door and caught Professor Granger’s eyes. She nodded to him, and he turned back to the students.

“I must impart to you some extremely serious news. I would ask that everyone keep their comments to themselves until I am finished speaking. Then, if you have questions, address them to your Head of House after the assembly is over.” A ripple ran through the students, and Professor Snape allowed it, tucking his arms into the voluminous sleeves of his black robes.

“Jamie Dupree, a seventh year Gryffindor, the seeker for their Quidditch team, died this morning at approximately 8:30.”

Now the ripple grew louder, and the professors overseeing each house table murmured calming spells.

“If you will all please restrain yourselves, I will tell you the rest of it.”

He waited, and the noise in the Great Hall slowly abated. Most of the students were surprised that Snape had allowed them to disobey him as much as they had.

“Over the summer, Miss Dupree made some choices that were...” He thought a moment. “Less than ideal.” It was the best compromise he could come up with. “She became pregnant, but wished to complete her Hogwarts education.” He’d discussed the salient points of what he’d planned to say with Professor Granger and Jamie’s parents. “To the best of our knowledge, she had planned to tell no one, and have the baby during the spring holidays.

“That, however, did not happen.”

Professor Snape looked out over the house tables. “Some of the choices Miss Dupree made became rumors that you may have heard in the past two months as you walked these halls. Despite our exhortations that you come to your Head of House, or to me, with any rumors you might hear, only one student was willing to pass on the information we needed to know.” He carefully did not look in the direction of the Ravenclaw table; he had promised Mr Goldman that he would keep the young man’s part in this a secret. “That student told a professor, and that professor told Miss Dupree’s Head of House.” Professor Snape was careful to avoid laying any blame on Professor Vector; they’d had a discussion about it, and the Arithmancy witch had come clean that she didn’t feel she’d pressed hard enough for Jamie to open up to her.

“Miss Dupree, however, chose to keep her condition a secret from everyone. Unfortunately for her, the rumors continued to grow, and her mental state became unbalanced. The student in whom she confided informed us that she was extremely depressed, so depressed that even wizarding charms or muggle medications would have no effect on her.

“This morning, something happened to Miss Dupree. Someone said something to her, or did something to her, and she felt unable to continue.

“She took her own life.”

Not even calming charms could stop the murmurs this time. Professor Snape was forced to raise his voice. “If you will all please be quiet!”

That worked. Any student who’d ever been yelled at by Professor Snape – or who’d seen it happen when he was still teaching Potions – knew that one did not brook the professor when he used that tone.

“Before this year, Miss Dupree was well-liked by many students at Hogwarts. However, the entire faculty is quite distressed at how quickly nearly everyone turned on her once they started hearing the rumors. You are attending this school to become mature adults, capable of making your way in the world, and behavior like this will not be tolerated!” He noticed that some of the students were crying openly, and that others had their eyes downcast. “Those of you who fed the rumor mills, and those of you who spread the rumors, you should be ashamed of yourselves. And those of you who stood idly by and did nothing should be doubly ashamed! You had a chance to help a comrade in need, and you did nothing!”

Some of the students were cringing. Good, Snape thought. They should be.

The Headmaster glared down at the student body for nearly a full minute before speaking again in his normal tone. “A memorial service for Miss Dupree will be held on Monday. It will be private. If you wish to speak to someone about these events, go to your house’s prefects. They will set up an appointment for you to speak with the professor of your choice on this matter. Even if that professor is me.”

Snape looked round once more. “I expect each and every one of you to reflect upon the events that led to Miss Dupree’s death. I expect each and every one of you to do everything you can to keep this from happening again. It is your duty, and you – all of you – owe it to her.

“That is all.”

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Notes: I told you I was foreshadowing something. Were you not listening?