THE THIRD YEAR

CHAPTER III

A NEW BEGINNING

The third year consists of two chapters: A New Beginning and The Werewolf's Poison, which I'll upload a bit later

Another year slipped away from her fingers. She could've caught it if she wanted to but this time she didn't even try. Though that year was very successful and fun, who could be such a monster to try to get it back? She knew one thing – that she wasn't. All that blood on the floor. She just couldn't forget it. Everybody was saying that Harry's adventure with the basilisk was a lot scarier, but she couldn't believe it. True, she wasn't there but she knew that a snake couldn't be more dangerous than a wasted innocent blood. After all, she was seeing Snape every day, so she knew what snakes looked like.

She was conceived and sad during the summer. And though she smiled a couple of times neither her sister nor her parents saw her having real fun. She never told them about that night. She never told anyone about what happened and what she felt. But this silence couldn't last forever.

Though she kept her mouth shut in front of her family there was one person she couldn't lie to. She never even tried to tell him that she was fine because she knew that his answer would be: "No, you're not!" That person was a boy, a bit older, he was also studying in Hogwarts and more specifically in Gryffindor. He was always ready to listen to her and that's why almost every night she was sending her owl with a letter to him.

She didn't enjoy her vacation and who could blame her. If there was only the image of a bloody knife in your head, you wouldn't be able to sleep, too. Was she indeed such a coward? That happened almost a year ago and she was still afraid. No. She was just a teenager. Officially because her thirteenth birthday passed, though she didn't want to celebrate it. She said that she wasn't in the mood.

When she entered the platform 9 ¾ she felt nothing – usually there was some sort of contraction in her stomach mixed with excitement, but this time there was nothing. She smiled a few times, when she met her friends but she barely spoke in Hogwarts Express during the whole journey. The only thing she was thinking about was to unpack her stuff. She got the chance to do it after the ceremony ended and she was very happy to finally go somewhere, where she felt safe. When she entered the room, Chida was already sitting on her bed.

-Hi, Rose, - a beautiful smile was shining on her face and it was revealing two rows of white teeth. Rose-red lips, usually used as a septum between her smile and the world were now exuding friendliness and happiness. Her light skin became darker for the summer, that bronze suntan was highlighting her eyes. Never treated with make-up they were hiding all of her thoughts, secrets and feelings. Their brown, almost black color was a way of expressing many things. Her dark winkers and eyebrows were helping other people understand Chida's moods.

-Are you teleporting? – Rose was clearly not in the mood. Otherwise she would never make such a mistake: she knew very well that no one could do that on the territory of Hogwarts, thanks to the protective spells – something that couldn't been forgotten in the professors' thoughts.

-Sorry to disappoint you, but magiporting is something that we're going to study during the sixth year, so… Happy birthday, by the way! I know, it was on the first of August but my owl was sick, so I couldn't send you my letter, but I took it with me, - she got up and showed it to her roommate, Rose went to her bed, took the letter and thanked Chida. She put it in her bag and started unpacking. Chida came closer and continued – I heard, you've been having some troubles with the sleep.

-Why do you care about me? – Rose was ready to cry but she was holding the tears in her eyes, she was not going to show her weakness! Not now!

-I don't know, maybe I want to become your friend, - her smile was so honest. Suddenly she took her wand from her pocket and a light shined in Rose's face – Or maybe I just wanted to do that! – smiled Chida.

-Who told you that I can't sleep? – asked Rose while she was walking to the corner of the room. There was a mirror hanging on the wall and she really wanted to see, what Chida did to her. When she saw her reflection, she was really surprised because she was expecting something ugly and she saw her hair tight in two ponytails. Her make-up was a lot like the make-up of those Russian dolls – with rosy cheeks, red lips and white face. All that was very cute and Rose started laughing from the bottom of her heart.

-I don't know, – said Chida after she laughed quietly but nicely. Then her expression changed: she got serious and worried. – But it's true, isn't it? That you can't sleep, that you're afraid to shut your eyes even for a second? – Chida stopped for a moment. – That you're afraid of anyone living threw what you saw last autumn?

-When you said you wanted to be my friend, we're you serious? – asked Rose and turned away from the mirror.

-Yes, I was, - there was no sense of lie in Chida's voice. – And you know that friends share their happiness and sadness?

-You're right. About everything. I can't calm down and I know that it is stupid to fear something that didn't even happen to me but I can't do anything about it, - Rose said all that so fast that Chida needed a few moments to think about it, but then Rose continued with the slowest possible voice. – And I'm sorry. For two years I've been thinking that you are a bad person without even knowing you. But I want to. I wanna be your friend and I want to know who is standing in front of me right now. And thank you. Because you were acting like a real friend when I was so bad with you.

-You welcome. And by the way, are you and Oliver still "friends"? – Chida was holding her smile but it was really hard not to fall on the floor laughing.

-He is eighteen years old! – said Rose with laugh but almost yelling. – I do like him but I don't have any expectations. If I'm going to have a boyfriend, he will be my age.

-Okay, stop it! Stop it! – suddenly said Chida. – I can't take your words serious when you look like that! – she took her wand again and in a moment the ponytails were gone and Rose's waved hair was falling down on her arms, the silly but really cute doll make-up vanished: her red lips took back their natural color although they looked deep pink on the background of her light skin, her smile was now showing her snow-white teeth and the only make-up she had now was on her eyes – light pink eye shadows were making her brown eyes look deeper.

-How about a dinner? I heard that there'll be a big feast in the Great Hall – Rose started laughing when Chida said that. – There will be sausages, and pumpkin juice, and… Let's go, I'm hungry!

They both smiled and then walked down the stairs. When they entered the Common Room, they were already laughing and talking about boys and dates and stopped only when they got to the Great Hall. Everybody was pleased to see the new Chida: she was nice and polite, ready to help and still she kept that energy and character they all knew. This was the best side of Chida that anyone could imagine. She sat between Fred and Harry and the whole group was laughing on her jocks until they finished with the dinner. When the teens came back to the Common Room they told Chida what happened in the train: about the Dimentors and about what their new Defense teacher – professor Lupin did. They could see that she was familiar with who the Dimentos were, so that part didn't surprise her but she seemed very impressed, when she heard about professor Lupin's spell.

The teens just couldn't wait to have their first class with him. Suddenly Chida changed the subject – she started talking about Quidditch. Everybody loved that game, so the discussion continued. After fifteen minutes Oliver Wood sat next to them and joined the conversation. Rose felt her cheeks heating and soon realized that she was getting red. She was lucky that no one was looking at her – everybody were staring at Chida because they were very surprised how much she knew about Quidditch. The brunet keeper even regretted that she wasn't a part of his team.

That was an amazing evening for all of them, especially for Chida. She finally got herself real friends and she felt like no one remembered what happened in Snape's office the previous year. That was all that she wanted. That day she started a new chapter of her life. For her it was a new beginning.

A group of very excited third year students was standing in front of professor Lupin's office, waiting for their teacher to begin with their first lesson.

It was very interesting to listen about Boggarts but it was way more interesting to try to fight them. Just like professor Lupin explained fighting Boggarts was just like fighting your own fears. Those creatures could take the shape of your fears, so you were supposed to turn them into something that could make you laugh. What you had to do was to imagine that exact thing and say: "Riddikulus!"

The teens lined up and started practicing that spell. There were five students standing in front of Rose and very soon it was her turn. She looked at the Boggart and saw a woman with black eyes and hair, her skin was white like snow and her look was full or hate and rage. She was dressed in black and her face was distorted in a disgusting and threatening smile.

Rose didn't know who that woman was but she could feel her growing fear from her. Lupin on the other hand looked carefully at the woman and recognized her immediately. Rose took a deep breath and while the woman was laughing Rose took her wand, pointed it to that Boggart, she took another deep breath and said:

-Riddikulus! – the slim woman started swelling and soon became like the dolls boxers practice with. She didn't start flying around the classroom, though. Instead she tried to step forwards but feel down. A second before her face hit the floor she got up again, like some invisible power was pulling her. Then she almost fell on her back and returned to the exit position again. The whole class started laughing and the creature just stayed there, waiting for other victim.

While the other students were fighting the Boggart professor Lupin was wandering why. Why was this girl afraid of Bellatrix Lestrange? She could never possibly saw her – about one year after Rose was born Bellatrix was locked up in Azkhaban. He was glad that he was the only one in the classroom, who realized who the Boggart turned to. But he still had to talk with Rosalinda.

While all of those thoughts were flying around his head it was already Orchid's turn. She had a suspicion of what the Boggart was going to turn to, still she stepped forwards. When she opened her eyes a human skull was flying in the middle of the room, a fat snake was creeping closer to it. The girl squeezed her teeth and started breathing throw her mouth. Again Lupin was the only one in classroom who recognized the Boggart but he didn't have time to react because Orchid turned the snake to a very fat and puffy cat and the skull fell on the floor in the form of a red dot. The cat jumped forward, trying to catch it.

-Very good, Ms. Crost! – professor Lupin was not only impressed by her fast reaction but also by the thing that she managed to do it although she was the most scared, - Ms. Crost… Are you okay? – asked the professor quietly when he saw that she was even more frightened now: she was still breathing from her mouth with squeezed teeth, her eyes were full of tears and her cheeks grew redder every second, she was still holding her wand in front of her, pointing it to an empty part of the classroom, where the Boggart was standing a few seconds ago. Her whole body was trembling.

-Ms. Crost! – shouted Remus who was very concerned about the girl. She didn't answer, it was like she didn't even hear him. That class was never so quiet before. Suddenly her hand seemed to soften and she dropped her wand. In the surrounding silence the echo spread the sound of the peace of wood hitting the floor. But she didn't bent to take it, she just turned away and ran out of the room.

Professor Lupin took her teak tree wand with a dragon's heart vein from the floor and looked at the students. He explained that there was no place for panic because fighting your fears could be difficult and stressing, he told them that the lesson should continue and that Orchid was going to be fine. After the lesson ended he asked Rose to stay and told her what he thought about her Boggart. He was very surprised when he understood that the girl had no idea who Bellatrix was or where did she saw her. After that he gave her Orchid's wand and asked the brunet teen to return it to its owner.

Soon Rose was walking down the corridor with Harry, Ron and Hermione while thinking where Chida could be. They couldn't find her: she wasn't in any of the classrooms, she wasn't in her room, neither students from the Gryffindor tower nor any of the professors had seen her after the classes ended. The four friends saw her only at the dinner, where Fred literally dragged her.

Y

Actually I saw nothing.

Or maybe I did. I'm not sure. It was a strange day.

I just got out of the Potion class (it was too long, like always) and I decided to walk in the school park. I don't know why I did it actually, I just know that I was supposed to meet my brother at dinner, so I had some free hours. I was walking on the path, passing trees when I saw her.

It was one of my best friends – Orchid Crost, she was standing between the trees, looking directly to nowhere with her back to me. I was pretty sure that she was crying a few seconds ago but now she was heavily breathing, trying to stop her tears flowing down from her eyes.

I left my bag on the path where I was standing and came closer, I was on about two meters from her when I saw that she've noticed me. I decided to understand what's happened:

-Are you okay? – I could see that she wasn't but that was the first line that came up to my head. I could see her hands trembling nervously although she wanted to hide it. She took another deep breath, this time throw her nose and finally answered:

-I'm fine, - that was the biggest lie, I've ever heard! Did she really think that I was going just to say: "okay" and leave her?!

-Come on, friends don't keep secrets.

-Friends? – she answered after a long silence. She sounded like she didn't know what that was and like she had never thought that she had them.

-Yes, friends… The people you can trust to… The people, who care about you… Those, who will have your back… - I saw a little smile on her face, a pleasant and beautiful one. She seemed really touched although I wasn't trying to say anything beautiful. Still she wasn't ready to talk.

- Come on, low five! – I decided to make her laugh and reached out my hand forward. But then I barely felt her fingers on my hand. I was still looking at her back.

-You didn't even touch it. You have to make good contact, otherwise it doesn't count, - I continued with the friendliest smile I had. Suddenly she turned her face to me, swung and slammed my hand strongly. I didn't let it go. For a few seconds we stayed like that but then I let go of her hand, came closer and hugged her.

The strangest thing was that we've never hugged before. We are definitely best friends, she knows everything about me but we've only heighted five and hit fists – as if she was one of the boys. But then it was different. At the first she was standing there, in my arms with her hands extended down and without moving but after a minute I felt her hands slowly wrapping around my shoulders, as if she was afraid to do it.

We stayed like that for a long time. Neither of us was talking. I knew that she needed a friend but I suspected that she wouldn't like to talk, it would be enough just to be there for her. I felt a few wet drops falling on my shoulder. She didn't even make a sound but in a few minutes a small part of my shirt was wet and salty.

-I'm so much tougher than this! – suddenly I heard a quavered voice. And then I understood that she was ashamed of the fact that she was crying.

-You are. You are tougher than many, - I didn't know what I was supposed to say but I knew that I wasn't lying - I've never known a braver person. – You're tougher than Snape and that's tough.

I heard her laugh and honestly that was one of the most beautiful things I've heard today. Her eyes were closed and her wide smile was shining for a few more moments while her head was on my shoulder.

Slowly her hands let go of me and did the same thing. She sniveled and stepped backwards. She laughed once again and said just a simple:

-Thank you, - and that was enough.

We took our bags from the ground and went back to the building. When we were walking near the Great Hall Chida tried to take up the stairs, when I asked her where she was going.

-I'm not going to eat, - she said as though it was obvious. She turned her face to the stairs again but there was no such an option.

-Oh, yes, you are! – I said and grabbed her elbow. Before she could turn her face to me, I was pulling her to the Great Hall.

-Fred, let me go! – she was saying. But she was also laughing, so I didn't do it until we entered the huge room. We sat on the Gryffindor table and started eating, during the dinner professor McGonagall said that all of the students were going to have free weekend in the end of the week and instead of discussing Chida everyone started talking about how they were going to spend it.

Speaking of which, what should I do then?

It was Friday night. Okay, it was afternoon but Friday night sounds better. The free weekend just begun. The pupils could go wherever they'd want and the third year students weren't an exception. Everybody had plans, but Chida, of course didn't have a damn idea what she was going to do. So she was just walking around the corridors, tossing an apple from one hand to another. Suddenly she dropped it:

-Shi… - she didn't have time to finish because someone's leg caught the fruit. That someone was Fred Weasley. He casted the apple up and caught it in his hand.

-What would you do without me? – he said and returned it to the girl. For a few seconds she was staring at the fruit and then her look went back to the freckled face.

-Probably the same, - she answered and smiled nicely – I never actually eat the damn things I'm just tossing them, you know from hand to hand.

-Yeah, I got it, - said the boy and started walking next to her down the corridor – I wanna know more about you, Crost.

-Well then, I suggest you hang out with me this weekend, Weasley, - that made him smile. But it was not a mocking smile, he wanted to do that but he always thought that he was going to say it. He couldn't understand, what was so different about that girl but he was going to.

-Okay, I was thinking about going to London for a few days, - Fred made this move with his head pretending his hair was pissing him off, but actually he just wanted to look prettier – What are you doing tonight?

-Nothing, - a short and very clear answer. Her voice couldn't give anything more. This girl was such a mystery and Fred Wesley wanted to know everything about mysteries, especially about this one.

-That's cool. Wanna buy you a burger? – after all, which self-respecting boy would leave a girl invite him to hang out? Fred Weasley was definitely not one of them: he had self-esteem, sometimes even too much.

-Sure. But I don't eat burgers, - one new thing that he knew about her. That was a good start. But he wanted to know everything. Where did this sudden interest came from? When he saw her so helpless, crying on his shoulder some days ago, he saw a new part of Orchid Crost, a part that she had never revealed to anyone before. He understood back then - that was the real Chida. She wasn't that tomboy, he knew. She was an honorable girl, with a heart full of emotions.

-What then? – they both had the feeling that "food" wasn't the real theme of their conversation, but neither of them knew, what exactly they were talking about.

-A doner, - Muggle's food was something that they both liked a lot, but if there was even a small chance to get dirty, while you're eating it meant that they were ready to eat tones of it.

-Okay, let it be a doner, - Fred wasn't thinking about the dinner nor about how there were going to get to London. The only thing that was in his mind was a wonder: "Why she've never revealed that part of her to anyone? Wait, why she showed it to me and not to someone else?"

Time was running and everything came back to normal, although many people have changed. Now the former theme in Hogwarts was Quidditch. That year the captain and the keeper of Gryffindor's team was going to finish school and he really wanted to win the competition between the four houses.

As a member of the team, Rose was training eighteen hours a day. Being a chaser was not easy and she had to give her best. Although the trainings were only an excuse for her to be closer to Oliver, who she claimed to be over.

She didn't have much free time: except all of the trainings she had lots of classes and tones of homework (and of course because she liked studying when someone told her: "Write me a two metered essay," she was preparing a twenty metered one) and hanging out with Harry, Ron and Hermione was fulling all of her free time. Although, now there was another person hanging out with them – Chida. Everyone just loved her company and soon Rose admitted that she was enjoying having her around, too.

She was so happy when their first going to Hogsmeed finally begun. She wanted to visit that town so badly and the idea of having a free day itself was tempting. When they finally got to that town she was on the ninth cloud. She wanted to see everything, Hermione wanted to visit their library so she could take some book with her, but Ron only wanted to get inside, where was warm and he could drink something hot. Chida didn't have any claims, she was ready to go wherever they'd wanted as far as it would make them happy.

Finally they decided to go to the local café called "The Tree Brooms" because they were already starving and feeling cold when Chida suddenly stopped in the middle of the street:

-Damned! – she saw that her friends were staring at her, so she explained really fast. – I have to do something like… RIGHT NOW! I really have to go! I'll catch you up later!

-Are you sure?

-Yes! Don't worry about me, - she continued while she was walking backwards to the opposite direction of the café. – I'll meet you at "The Tree Brooms"!

She turned away and started walking really fast down the street, the three friends were ready to turn away (after all she was acting like that all the time), when Rose stopped them. She pointed at Chida's direction and Ron and Hermione saw two muscled seventh year boys from Slytherin on her path.

-Excuse me, can I come through? – she asked but they didn't move, so she tried to walk around them but they blocked her way again. – Okay then…

She turned away and went to a little path between the houses, which was leading the same way as the big road. Suddenly Draco Malfoy and his idiot-bodyguards – Crab and Goyle came out from there. Chida stopped exactly where she was.

-Are you going somewhere? – said Draco jauntily. Not fear but rage could be seen in the girl's eyes. Still she wasn't acting rashly and thought about every movement she was going to make.

-Hi, Draco, - she said, while walking backwards. – I would just love to talk with you guys sometime but now I'm a little bit in a hurry, so… I think I'll just go… Oh…

While she was walking backwards she slammed into another group of Slytherin students, at least two years older than her. She realized what was going on, so she looked at the direction of Ron, Hermione and Rose – her only way to escape. She started running as fast as she could but only after two steps her way got blocked by another group of Slytherins. She looked around – there was no running away.

The circle around her begun to shrink and Draco was laughing mockingly while seeing her despaired face:

-Don't worry, we just want to talk, - he sounded like he really thought she was going to believe him. – You said that you didn't want to be a part of something anymore… It was a huge mistake! – Chida assessed with her eyes each one of the group and a plan came out in her mind. – Join our cause… Or something really bad will happen!

Chida took a deep breath and not because she was scared, she was gathering all of her will to stop herself from punching him. She made a sharp movement with her hand and took the handle of her wand when the blond teen said:

-Expelliarmus! – it flew away from her fingers and fell near Draco's feet. The Slytherins came closer. She knew very well that there were two possible endings. But she was still hoping that someone else would figure out the third way that she had thought about at the first place.

-Immobulus! – the teens heard a voice before two of them fell motionless on the ground. The Slytherins looked around and saw Rose with her wand pointed at them. Only Chida didn't look at her direction, she already knew who made that spell and couldn't be more thankful but while the others were distracted, she got the opportunity to run up to Draco and take her wand from his feet.

-Stupefy! – before he could react she looked at him and hit him with her spell. He staggered back and when Crab tried to catch him he fell down, too. She then turned her face to the Slytherin boys, pointed her wand at them and after a few seconds continued:

-Anyone else? – the teens looked at each other confused, thinking about what they were supposed to do. No one wanted to become her target but some of them weren't as smart as the others.

-Stupefy! – one of the seventh year students tried to surprise the girl. He was sure that this spell would be strong enough to defeat her.

-Protego! – she reacted quickly. She reflexed his spell and it came back to him with doubled power. He flew back and hit the wall of the house he was standing in front of. Everybody looked at him, he was clearly okay but wasn't going to get up for his own safety. Meanwhile, Chida walked out of the circle of Slytherins, her wand was still pointed at them while she was walking backwards to Ron, Rose and Hermione.

-Let's go! – she heard Rose's scream behind her. She was trying to keep her gaze focused on the teens, so they wouldn't manage to hit her in the back. – COME ON!

She finally turned away and ran up to her friends. Then without stopping they got to "The Three Brooms"