Gryff's POV

There was a good thing about the new curriculum, and a bad thing too, I thought, pouting in annoyance.

All the students in Hogwarts were gathered at the Great Hall, as per usual, when we arrived at the school. I imagined that school would start tomorrow, and I would have, at least, a few more hours of free time before I had to go back to school.

And so I arrived at Hogwarts with a light heart, and a good feeling about this year.

But Professor McGonagall bursted my happy bubble (NOOOO MY HAPPY BUBBLE).

When all the students were gathered at the Great Hall, the first thing she did was to make an announcement about the new seventh-year curriculum.

Fortunately, the classes would be cut shorter, which meant we had more free time. At first, when I heard the news, I was so happy I was ready to bounce out of my seat with joy.. And I'm a happy and optimistic person, so that was pretty extreme.

However, she continued that announcement with the news that we would be having more homework this year. Which, I concluded, is why we were allowed to have more free time. To do our homework.

WHAT IS THE USE OF GIVING US FREE TIME BUT TELLING US WE HAVE TO DO HOMEWORK?

And, in addition to that, we would have two classes before we could go to the dorms and fall asleep. Why? Because the train's schedule had been pushed forward, so we were all at Hogwarts early, and therefore we should be able to get a feeling of how lessons will be like this year.

REALLY? REALLY?

By that point of time, I wanted to bash my head against the table and never look up again. Heaven forbid she told us we had to take our exams twice to make sure the scores we received were accurate.

Is that even logical?

Probably not.

Anyways, the first years' sorting was as exciting as always, and I managed to cheer for every single student who joined Ravenclaw without losing my voice and Professor McGonagall telling me off. Yes! I hope the kids were encouraged, though. Must be hard starting a new school, much less a wizarding school of all things. I didn't think it was particularly different starting muggle school and normal school, but Caley says some people need time to adapt.

Figures why she's nicer to the first years than the second years. Seeing a senior super nice (considering it's Caley) to you in your first year, then act like a dragon to you when you're in second year? Must be even more shocking.

It was interesting to see that Ravenclaw had a new teacher as the head of house. Professor Lilian looked fine, but a bit too strict. I think we'd get along well. As long as she's not teaching me any subjects. I made a mental note not to sign up for Arithmancy as an elective this year. Better safe than sorry.

Hey, I just want to get out of school with good grades. Do not judge.

Then, after the introduction of the new teachers, it was dinnertime! They should have called it lunner. 'Cause it was like dinner and lunch at the same time because it was too early for dinner and too late for lunch? You get me?

The food was as amazing as usual, and I can safely say I ate the most in the whole year. I had ten chicken wings, five puddings, and the list just goes on forever. When the feast finally ended, us seventh years had to go get our new timetables. The Ravenclaw line was beside the Slytherin line, so I saw Caley picking up her timetable, taking a Time Turner on the way.

I rolled my eyes. Typical Caley, always wanting to do her best. It was my turn to fetch my timetable after a bit, and I quickly scanned everything to make sure that I had the subjects I wanted...not. Frankly, I was just checking that I had enough free time to still have free time, and to be able to finish my homework. This year was going to be difficult.

Torie's POV

Okay, I never thought that I'd be able to make a plan for gathering the most power and authority in the whole of Hogwarts, but this whole thing seems easier than I thought.

At first I thought I'd have to resort to desperate measures - after all, Head Prefect is, the easiest way to gain power in school, but it's quite hard to actually be able to become Head Prefect. For one, although only a few students sign up every year, five at most, they're always bound to be the best of the best.

Take Caley Diablo, for example. I didn't expect to have her as competition - after all, she hardly cares about anything, so I didn't assume she would even try, but then again, she does seem to care a lot about her studies. Stating a true fact here, she got the best grades in whole grade last year.

As queen bee of the entire Hogwarts, and a critical judge of other people, even I would have to admit I'd give Caley Diablo full marks for academics and intelligence, and sadly, I'd also have to give her full marks for looks, because considering the fact that she probably doesn't even know what the hell BB cream is, that girl looks fucking perfect (and no, I am not lesbian, thank you very much).

Why is the world so unfair?, I think, but I console myself with the fact that I'd have to give that Caley Diablo a near zero in the section of social and communication abilities. I'm pretty sure the girl knows how to use a phone - I saw her typing on one - and yet she appears to have no friends at all. Well, except her beloved cousin Gryff.

Speaking of Gryff, that;s where my master plan comes in. Using my authority over my minions, I had immediately been able to find out several facts about Caley Diablo and Gryff Crawford. Despite the different last names, they were, indeed, cousins, which explained the identical black hair and blue eyes. And the fact that they were both fucking rich.

When I say fucking rich, I'm being serious. I mean the fact that I managed to find out that Gryff's parents own ten properties, houses at that, and Diablo''s parents used to own the same, if not much more properties. No idea what happened to them, though.

Darn Caley Diablo and the lack of personal information she gives out to other people. My master plan will solve all of this and make me the queen of the whole of Hogwarts, though.

Since Gryff Crawford is rich and all, the most wanted bachelor in school, AND he should have all the information, all the juicy gossip on Diablo - I was sure he had almost revealed some of her very very personal information last time - and so, if I can get him wrapped around my little finger, all will be well.

With his money, I can bribe the minority of the student population who doesn't support me to vote for me, allowing me to become the next Head Prefect, and if I can get the school's most wanted bachelor, then I can become more popular. After all, the minority of the student population who realise me for my true self and think of me as a bitch, are the ones who support Gryff Crawford, so if I can get him, then that part of the student population might accept me. And with the information that he'll give me, Caley Diablo won't be able to become Head Prefect - I'll blackmail her.

See? Perfect plan. The only thing I need to do now to make my dreams come true?

Woo Gryff Crawford.

And the way the world is allowing me to do this shows my luck this year - I'm in the same class as Gryff Crawford. Literally, every single class. Spending most of the day with him will surely cause him to abandon Caley and fraternise with me instead. With this, my plan is easily working and on its way.

I nod to myself as I slip into my classroom for my first class, and am quite pleased to find that Gryff has, to the advantage of my plan, chosen one of the seats in the first row, and the only seat left is the one beside him.

Smirking, I slide into the seat, but plaster on my very atrociously fake smile that no one seems to see is fake, and I turn to my target, hand out, silently requesting for a handshake. But when he turns around, I'm quite shocked, because not only is this the first time I'm looking at Gryff Crawford closely, and carefully, he's actually pretty handsome. Like Cedric Diggory, but with black hair and blue eyes.

The last part reminds of the fact that Caley and Gryff look so alike they should be siblings, which makes me remember my plan, and so, to cover up that awkward moment of silence, I stretch my fake smile even further, as if that would even help.

"Nice to meet you! I'm Torie, and you are?" I pip in what I think is a cute voice - Jane's always doing it, and saying it's cute, so I try it (but I don't have eyes, so I can't do puppy eyes well) - and flash my beaming Barbie-like smile at my new seatmate.

Being the hyperactive and energetic person I had pretty much guessed he was, Gryff turned around immediately at the sound of my voice.

"Hey! Um…," seriously, you don't know me?, "Torie, right? I helped you when you were injured!" he answers, eyes sparkling. Yes, dumbass, you did. Even an idiot would be able to tell me that. I stifle a giggle, and he looks surprised, but pleased at the genuine smile suddenly blooming on my face. But he is an idiot.

"Yeah! …," I can feel the atmosphere become more quiet as both of us think of what to say.

"Anyways… what subject is this?" Gryff suddenly questions, and with a jolt, I realise that I have no idea which classroom this is, and which teacher is supposed to be teaching the subject here.

"Actually… I don't know…" I admit sheepishly, my cheeks flaming.

"Wait a bit, I'll check!" he replies as he dives towards his bookbag, and I wrinkle my nose at the sight of it. His bookbag looks like it used to be very expensive-looking and nice, but now there are frays of fabric sticking off the edge, and I wonder why such a rich person would be carrying around such a shabby looking old bag - after all, I'm not rich, but I do own a pretty awesome wardrobe, if I do say so myself.

Gryff flips through the pages, head shaking left and right as he checks his timetable, shaggy black hair flopping back and forth, and I watch it, as if I'm in a daze.

"Wait - ," he suddenly says to me, before turning to a blushing girl who's sitting behind him, swooning over him. For some reason, i find myself wanting to punch her in the face. He gives her a mega-watt smile as if she's the first human he's seeing after a very very long time.

"Excuse me… I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but could you tell me which subject this whole classroom is for?" Gryff questions, and I almost narrow my eyes at the girl before remembering the mask I have to put on this year before smiling sweetly at her.

"U-umm...erm…." the girl seems flustered at being questioned by two of the most popular students in Hogwarts. Of course she would be, I think, if I were a stupid puppy who likes to follow super popular fabulous people, I would too.

"I - I… this classroom is for Arithmancy…"

"Oh, really? I must be in the wrong classroom! I have to go, sorry!" he tells the girl, ruffling his hair in apology.

"What class are you supposed to have, Torie?" Gryff questions me.

"Care for Magical Creatures." I answer simply.

His eyes brighten.

"Great! I'm supposed to be having that lesson too! Let's go!" he shouts as he pulls me out of the classroom. Getting over the fact that my heart is beating quickly - from the strain of running quickly, mind you - I smirk, lowering my head so that Gryff won't notice me.

My plan is definitely going to work.

Caley's POV

I swear, Gryff is way too nice for his own good.

That was the only thought running through my head as I paced up and down the hallway, waiting for Gryff to hurry up and come to our little hidey-hole. Staring at my wristwatch (were these even allowed in Hogwarts?), my eyebrows furrowed, nearly meeting in the middle as I realised that he was already ten minutes late.

There was no way he'd forgotten - we met up here so often that he couldn't have forgotten because it was simply a force of habit - so what could have kept him? I resumed my never-ending pacing as I walked this way and that, looking calm, except for the occasional licking of my lips (a nervous habit of mine).

OUt of the blue, there came a sound of scuffling feet, and I trained my eyes on the door immediately, flashing out my wand to wipe away the person's memories - whoever it was - because they could not find out that I was here. Because then I'd have nowhere to hide anymore. I trusted that it wasn't a teacher, simply because there were no classrooms around here, and I doubted that any of the teachers had enough time to busy themselves with things like these.

And so it had to be a student. Frankly, I did not care for any of my classmates, and I wouldn't mind brainwashing one of them. But a sharp pain pierced my head as I thought this, and my mind immediately told me: You're being too soft, Caley. You're becoming too nice.

Yes, I would not regret brainwashing them But I retracted my thoughts straight away - school is not an opportunity for me to fuel my anger towards...those people…, but for me to learn. So I bent my legs into an attacking pose, my wand poised well in front of me, ready to fight.

"Ob - " the first syllable of the memory spell had barely left my lips when Gryff burst in, limbs flailing wildly, and my first reaction was to rush forward, dropping my wand as I looked over him, making sure he wasn't harmed in any way. After I finished checking - apart from a few messy clothes, and a burnt corner on his robe, nothing bad seemed to have had happened to him.

Relieved, but still quite irritated - I had OCD about everything - , I strode two steps back, and hands on my hips, I glared at Gryff.

"Would it really hurt you to be punctual at least once?"

Forever the cheeky one, Gryff shook his head (I immediately thought of a puppy), and replied with a "I could but I don't wanna."

I sighed.

"So, how's your classes?" he asked, attempting to distract me from lecturing him about the pros, and only the pros o punctuality. Rolling my eyes at his attempt to divert my attention, I still went along with it, giving him an answer almost immediately.

"Not bad. Snape's okay. But Malfoy as the teacher for Defense against the Dark Arts...really? He's like… two years older than you? Three years older than me, I think." I complain, Honestly, is it even allowed for schools to employ teachers who are just a tad older than their students?

Gryff shrugs in response.

"As long as I manage to pass with him as the teacher, I really don't care. But you should seriously see Ravenclaw's new head of house… she's so strict. And she teaches Arithmancy, the most boring subject in the history of the world! Whyyyyy?" he half-answers, half-whines, and I resist the temptation to facepalm as he says this, Trust Gryff to be like this. I groan, running my hands through my hair, soothing my annoyance.

"Well, it's better than...well, you know. There." I say. Here in mine and Gryff's hiding place, I don't have to pretend to be that cold, unapproachable person that everyone thinks I am, just poor little me, the person without a place to stay. It's better than having to justify myself all the time, at least.

"Oh! And you know the girl I helped this morning?"

"Yeah, the one who made you late?" I answer, but I can see the way Gryff's cheeks flush red for a second when he mentions her, and I have to mentally punch myself so I don't break out in a childish dance, singing "Gryff and what's-her-name=again, sitting on a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g", but at least I shut myself up.

"Yeah, her Seriously, Cal, use her name. TORIE," Gryff answers, "and she's in most of my classes this year."

"Really?" I raise my eyebrows..

"She's surprisingly quite nice. Stubborn, though."

For once, I am lost for words, because I've never seen Gryff talk about a girl before. Never ever. For some reason, I don't feel very good about her, like she's tricking Gryff or something. She could have good reasons to (I'd seen many a girl try to woo Gryff because our family was filthy rich), and as his cousin, I had to admit that he didn't look half bad. But then again, as much as I hate to admit it, we were both given good genes by our family. Mostly, good genes at least.

I look at my watch. Nine o'clock, around one hour away from my curfew, but I need to go. I need time and space to think. Because my thoughts are so jumbled up in my mind, I have no idea what I should think anymore, so under my breath, I mutter something along the lines of "curfew, have to go", and luckily, I make it out of the door, out of the secret hallway, ignoring Gryff's whispers of "what;s wrong, Caley?"

As I stride down the hallway, the bottoms of my flats, purposely chosen quiet ones, pad lightly across the hallway, heading towards the signing=up cup, as I am fond of calling it, just to check.

It's not possible anyone else has already signed up for the election to join head prefect, right? I mean, although you get all that power, there's so much responsibility, and it's so annoying, so no one would even think of signing up, right:?

Apparently, I'm wrong, because once I turn the corner, making my way towards the cup, blue flames billowing out of it, I spot the bronze plaque below it, and see that it has been flipped to another number. Instead of the one that had appeared when I had signed up first thing when I got to Hogwarts, the bronze plaque flashed an engraved number two, and I almost jumped in pure shock/

Someone other than me had actually signed up to join the Head Prefect election,.Darn it. I stomped my foot, an action reminiscent of childhood actions, when I could afford to do such things.

No, no, stop thinking about that again, I will myself as I spin on my heel immediately, resolutely turning on my heel and walking out of the room, only to bump into someone. I look up in shock.

I must be out of it recently, I'm even bumping into people, I rub the spot between my brows and sigh, before I look up and see my Defence against the Dark Arts teacher. You guessed it, Professor Malfoy, or if I daresay, Draco Malfoy. He's only three years older than me after all.

But I have to keep my record of being a perfect student - aka I can't associate with teachers like this who they think are evil, just to prove myself, so I hastily murmur and apology, accompanied with a swift, practiced bow of my head. Immediately afterwards, I edge to the left and attempt to pass without any attention from the teacher, but oh, just my luck, he moves towards my left, his right, too, and proceeds to block me.

"I'm sorry, Professor Malfoy, but could you please move? It's almost curfew, and I'd like to get back to the dormitory as soon as possible, if you don't mind." I mutter, trying my best not to sound sarcastic or like I want to punch him in the head. Today has not been a good day, and I don't need another person to aggravate me, I need to go back to the dorm and start planning for my campaign.

"You're lucky you're in my house, Ms. Diablo," he replies, with all the sickly sweetness there could ever be in the world, "or I'd deduct a hundred house points from your house. However, I would like Slytherin to win, so consider yourself… safe for now." With that, his smirk seems to deepen even further, and I wait patiently for him to move to the side so I can pass.

"Excuse me, sir?"

"Oh yes, what was it I needed to talk to you about...hm…," he seems to ponder and think for a few seconds, and I grasp the opportunity, while he's distracted, to dodge under his arm and escape back to the safety of my dorm room - being a Seeker and going through all that training has its occasional advantages.

The second I get back safely to my dorm room, I'm about to flop into my bed when I notice the pairs of wide eyes staring at me from all corners - more like none, the room's a circle - like I'm some kind of predator and they are the prey.

I even have to keep my composure here, even though I'm living in this place, I sigh in my head, rolling my eyes with my head down so no one will notice. For the sake of seeming like a perfect person - my cover so far - I gently place the bag I'm carrying on the hook beside my bed, setting my books carefully, as if they are diamonds, on my bedside table.

Slotting out my trunk from beneath my bed, I flip it open without a sound, fetch my neatly folded clothes, close it, lock it, slot it back under my bed, and make way to the bathroom, right next to the entrance to my dorm room.

By the time I re enter the room, my thoughts finally collected, all the lights are turned out, and the rest of the girls are neatly tucked into bed. Probably because they don't want to see me.

I snort.

Typical behaviour from idiotic little girls.

But how I wish I could be exactly like them. I smack my head the minute I think that. No, Caley, no bad thoughts. You have to do well this year. You have to prove yourself to them.

Curling up into my blankets, I realise with a pang, that I really wish I could be like those idiotic little girls.