Janna Black and The Cite of the Dead

Therefore More Suspicious

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In the Room of Requirements the boys huddled with Janna on her bed, she had told them everything of what the file had to offer "We don't need a dementor, we just need me, all I need to do is touch the stone and then summon the dead—"

   "Problem is we don't have the Cite" Jake said.

Janna nodded pursing her lips thinking of where the portrait would be that hid the stone's partner "we need to do this more subtly, so we don't draw anymore attention to ourselves, possibly search books and not ask teachers questions—from personal experience"

Jake yawned "Well, we might need to get back to the dorm... Or else Filch will catch us"

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At the shadow of the castle in the Forbidden forest stood Greyback, he was leaning against a tree attempting to keep control of Janna, it was seeming harder and harder to do so as she was diverted further from his plan, his plans of bringing back his master, he needed to puppet Janna to his will, he needed help from their side... Maybe someone people wouldn't expect.

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Snuffles watched a mass as the end of the tree line in the darkness of the forest, he was waiting in a painting of a feast, he watched the shadow carefully, knowing who it was. He had to watch around the castle for Dumbledore, not allowing himself to be seen by Janna or anyone else.

The next month rushed past, Snuffles watched through the paintings while Janna learnt charms with her friends, bored of watching he would sometimes fall asleep but realise that she had left when he woke up.

In the Room of Requirements he eavesdropped on Janna, sometimes whispering ideas into her ears from a portrait on the wall. Trelawney, a seer who was the divination, had been reading crystal balls, reporting to McGonagall who at first didn't believe the claims but noticed them when some of the claims came true when she saw Janna and her antics with the boys becoming far more flaked, therefore more suspicious.

During Janna's Quidditch practices Snuffles watched his niece from a far, but still able to see her, he noted her skills were like that of his brother's, Sirius became more impatient, he wanted to show himself to Janna now, even asking Dumbledore who said to be more patient.

Snuffles spied on Harry during Dark Art classes when Janna was in Herbology, he hoped Harry would help Janna.

Sometimes Albus Potter would be in his father's class, Snuffles scoffed at the boy's middle name, thinking why Harry named his son that. Albus was a strange boy, he was friends with a round faced girl named Sofia Warren and Scorpius Malfoy. Snuffles couldn't question Harry's parenting skills since he himself didn't have much experience either.

One night near the end of November the four decided to check on another portrait which turned out to be vacant since it's owner didn't seem to be in his portrait so the students went up to the astronomy tower, sharing ideas on what they could do to better her chances of not getting caught planning the resurrection. Not talking about it in the open thought Snuffles, showing a doggy grin, he threw his head back to take a swig of whiskey.

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December brought snow, crispy winter air and the holidays; Janna stayed at Hogwarts while her friends left to their homes for Christmas. Ash easily quivered in the cold air so Janna used a spell called reducio she had found in her charms textbook to shrink one of her frumpy, linty jumpers. She pulled his head through the neck of the jumper and his arms reached to the middle of the long sleeves so she rolled the sleeves up to show his feet.

The first day of holiday was the 2nd of December just a day before the full moon, Janna went down the stairs to breakfast from the Room of Requirements to the Great Hall, she was wrapped in a pink and white striped turtleneck with her unusually long scarf hanging around her neck and swinging at her ankles. Janna loved winter since there was no possibility she would overheat while covering her scars, she also enjoyed having her sleeves going over her fingers so she could feel safer.

At the Gryffindor table there were a few older students, a couple sat by the Hufflepuff table and about a dozen at Ravenclaw who were playing some sort of chess, the Slytherin table had only a very small handful of students, one of which was Albus. He was sitting by himself spooning at his porridge but when he saw Janna his head lifted from his palm where his chin had been resting.

Janna silently stared at the floor as she walked, making sure she wouldn't trip so she wouldn't attract attention, but she had Albus' attention. He crossed past the Ravenclaw table before coming to Janna who sat at the middle of the table, she looked up at him, his eyes were more darker than they were last time she had spoken to him "Good morning Albus" Janna let Ash crawl into the table from a fold in her scarf.

    "Oh... M-Morning Janna" Albus stuttered as he sat next to Janna "Long time n-no see, ey?" Albus chuckled nervously, Janna looked at him, feeling his nervousness.

   "Are you alright?" Janna inquired "you're a bit twitchy"

Albus looked at her slowly, his eyes shot at the Slytherin table before he rubbed his hands together looking at Janna "I'm... fine, I...er..." Albus' eyes flickered around Janna's face, stopping at her nose but not looking at her nose "I'm just jittery in this cold, you know, I m-must have also inherited Scorpius' fear of girls, beside Sof, though"

Janna's nose crinkled as she smiled "Shame, well, I can't hurt you" she paused "not right now, anyways"

    "What do you mean not right now?" Albus' face flushed red, his ears turned pinkish "Are you saying you-you might date me?"

Janna laughed lowly, she wrapped an arm around Albus around his shoulders "as I said, not right now, I might scare you away." Janna then hugged his shoulders, Albus closed his eyes, hugging her forearm, he wished she would hug him more often "it's so nice to talk to you, Albus," Janna released the hug "but why aren't you at your home?"

Carefully, Albus peered at Janna's eyes, he took in a deep breath searching the grain of the table  "I didn't want to face my dad head on so I stayed behind, I know he's disappointed I landed up in Slytherin, James is, Lily will definitely question me—" Albus saw Janna's eyes staring at his eyes, he flushed again, finally breaking the silence by clearing his throat "you don't want to hear about my family politics"

The corkscrews of Janna's hair shook as she swayed her head to and fro "I find this all very interesting, you can talk about this problem in your head, I don't mind" Albus smiled softly, his head lowered as Janna's leaned her arm on the table, facing him straight on.