Chapter 3: Trouble is a friend
Rumours had already spread among the students that Riley was responsible for Cora's incident. Some of the Slytherins were astonished, but treated her with more respect while others were outraged with her, for attacking one of them instead of other houses.
However, it seemed to have worked. Cora hadn't been a problem for her since that day. She was really expecting Cora to retaliate, but nothing came. Sometimes, Cora would give Riley a death glare, but nothing more than that. The only Slytherin who hadn't been impressed was Montague. He was always teasing Riley, saying that she still wasn't a true Slytherin. She didn't mind it anymore, though.
Fred, on the other hand, wasn't talking to her anymore. He ignored her, pretending they didn't know each other. Gryffindors were also acting cold towards her, avoiding her like they avoided the other Slytherins.
Saturday afternoon, she went to the Owlery to send a letter to Remus. She abstained herself from writing everything that had happened, it was hard enough telling him she was a Slytherin, let alone telling him she actually acted like one. When she got there, she saw a Hufflepuff girl struggling with an owl that was pecking her head. Her first reflex was to help the girl.
"Thanks…" the girl said "This owl has a real temper."
"I can see that." Riley giggled, noticing that the girl had blue highlights. "I like your hair."
"Oh, that" she chuckled, and suddenly her hair was no longer blue but yellow.
"Wow, how did you do that?" Riley asked amazed.
"I'm a Metamorphmagus."
"A met… what?"
"It means that I'm able to change my appearance." She answered changing her nose.
"That's the coolest thing I've ever seen! Do they teach that in Hogwarts?"
"Sorry kid, Metamorphmagus are born not made!"
"Oh…" Riley said a bit disappointed. She gave an owl her letter.
"Anyway, thanks again for helping me, if there is anything I can do for you." Riley just smiled in response. They both got back to the castle together. The girl told Riley her name was Nymphadora Tonks but she preferred being called Tonks. When they were in the corridor they bumped into Charlie Weasley and a sandy-haired girl.
"Charlie, Claire!" Tonks exclaimed.
"Hey Tonks, I was looking for you!" Claire said.
"Yeah well… I was attacked by an owl." Tonks replied making both Charlie and Claire laugh. "But this little girl here came to rescue me." She winked at Riley.
Charlie looked at Riley with a frown, making her flush softly. Fred probably told him what she did.
"Riley Potter, right?" Claire asked, smiling at her.
"Yes." She smiled slightly.
"I'm Claire Ackers and he's Charlie Weasley." She said giving him a passionate kiss.
"Yes, I know. We've met."
"Really?" She asked looking puzzled at Charlie. But he remained silent. "Did I lose something?"
"He's mad at me because his brother told him I was the reason why he got detention with Snape." She said coolly before turning towards Tonks. "See ya!"
She walked through the corridors angry, she didn't know if she was angry with Charlie or with herself. Well, she was a true Slytherin now. She managed to earn her place among her housemates, but at what price.
"Riley hey, I was looking for you!" She turned around and saw Adrian.
"Hey Adrian, I was just sending a letter to my godfather."
"Ok, I was going to watch the team practise. Fancy to join me?"
"Yes, let's go." They were heading to the pitch when Riley heard a girl's voice.
"Hey you!" Riley turned her head and saw Sarah Selwyn.
"Yes?"
"Can I talk to you alone?" Riley glanced at Adrian who looked puzzled, but then stepped away from them.
"I heard what you did, with that girl. Not bad for a first year, but in the future I would advise you to target a Gryffindor or a Hufflepuff" she grinned at Riley.
"I'll keep that in mind." She replied coolly.
"Look… I don't know what you saw the other night, but… It wasn't what it looked like." Riley raised an eyebrow. She didn't really care what that girl was doing with Flint.
"And what did it look like?" Riley asked, folding her arms. Sarah raised an eyebrow and laughed.
"Ok then… But just keep in mind that you don't want to make an enemy of me." Selwyn gave her a mischievous smirk before leaving. Riley rolled her yes. What was the matter with those girls?
Several weeks had passed since that day in potions class, and life was good again. Riley had decided that she would keep a low profile. Her new goal in life was to avoid trouble.
The only thing that was still bothering her, were her nightmares. They were more frequent now. Therefore, she wasn't sleeping well. She wrote to Remus asking for advice and he told her to go to see Dumbledore. But she didn't want to. She was afraid he would not take her seriously like Snape.
One night she was in her bed, tossing and turning.
She was in a forest; she couldn't recognize where exactly. She was surrounded by people she didn't know. She saw her parents too, she smiled at them.
But then, the sound of a cold and sharp laugh reached her ears. Her parents suddenly disappeared. She turned around and saw the same creature there. But this time it lifted its wand and said. "Avada Kedavra!"
Riley woke up suddenly, breathing fast. She couldn't take it anymore. She got up, put her dressing-gown on and went to see Snape. She didn't care if it was the middle of the night. All she wanted was to sleep, and she wouldn't leave Snape alone until he gave her that potion. When she was in front of his door, she knocked hard several times.
"What do you think you are doing? It's two in the morning!" She had never seen Snape that angry. He was looking at her as if he wanted to murder her. But she was too tired to mind.
"I can't sleep, I really need that potion!" There was no point on beating around the bush. He looked at her without saying a word, his eyes widened. Then, he lifted his hands to his temples and massaged them.
"Miss Potter, I'll ask again. What do you think you are doing?" He finally asked, taking a step towards her. She didn't step back.
"I wouldn't be bothering you if it wasn't important. You want to go back to sleep, I want to go back to sleep! There is a simple solution. You give me that potion."
She knew she was going too far, and there would be consequences, but she didn't mind. She was too tired to think straight anyway. If this was the price to pay to have a peaceful night of sleep, then she would pay it twice if she had to.
"Very well, Miss Potter. I didn't want to give it to you, but it seems like I have no choice." She allowed herself a smile. Who would have guessed it was that easy? "Detention on Saturday, goodnight." And he slammed the door on her face. Her smile faltered.
She slowly went back to sleep. Ok, maybe it wasn't the smartest decision, but she wasn't to blame, she was too tired to think properly.
The next morning, she was exhausted. She was eating her breakfast in the Great Hall, when Adrian sat down next to her.
"No offense, but you look like shit." Riley looked up at him through narrowed eyes.
"I'm too tired, so I'm going to let that one pass." She said looking at her scrambled eggs again.
"So, Ravenclaw is playing against Hufflepuff tomorrow, who do you think will win?" He asked, making her feel really miserable.
"I can't go, I have detention with Snape."
"What? Why?"
"Long story." She wasn't really in the mood to tell him about how she confronted a professor, like she was some kind of royalty. Adrian frowned.
"Would you just stop getting into trouble, please?" he asked sarcastically.
"Yeah, seems like trouble is a friend of mine."
Fred Weasley looked through the window of his dorm. He stared as the Giant squid appeared under the moonlight. He was playing a game of Snitch Snatcher with George and Lee, but his mind was elsewhere.
"Hey mate, it's your turn!" Lee said, snapping his fingers in front of Fred's eyes.
"Yeah, yeah sorry."
"You have your head in the clouds or what?" Lee asked raising an eyebrow.
"He's thinking about Riley." George said rolling his eyes.
"Am not!" Fred snapped defensively.
"You'd better not, she's a totally b-word." Lee spat.
"Yeah, there are plenty of nice girls anyway, look, Angelina's nice!" George said stretching and yawning.
"And beautiful!" Lee added.
"If you both are so fond of her, then she clearly doesn't need me."
"Look, I'm just saying, Riley's not the only girl in the world." George said calmly.
"For the last time I wasn't thinking of Riley!" Fred snapped getting into his bed. "I'm distracted because it's a boring game!"
"Right…"
Fred ignored his brother's comment. Riley was not worth thinking about, she had made her choice. Now, she was just someone he regretted meeting. He felt stupid when he thought about how he had ignored the fact that she was sorted into Slytherin, telling himself that it wasn't her fault. He should have known better. No, she wasn't worth thinking about, it was the last thing he thought before closing his eyes.
Saturday morning, everyone was excited with the Ravenclaw vs Hufflepuff match. The Slytherins were mocking the Hufflepuff players, saying they were absolutely irrelevant. Even Ravenclaw was more gentle towards Hufflepuff than Slytherin.
Riley was sitting at the Slytherin table playing with her porridge. She was very upset with missing the game. It wasn't fair. Adrian was talking with Montague. Riley dropped her spoon and got up.
"I'm not hungry, I'm heading to the dungeons. See you later." She said to Adrian. She heard Montague asking Adrian why she wasn't going to the game. When he told him why, she heard him saying that she was the only Slytherin that had ever had detention with Snape. Riley chose to ignore his comments, whether she was a real Slytherin, was the least of her concerns.
She knocked the potions classroom door.
"Come in!" She opened the door and saw Snape in there, sitting on his chair. "Miss Potter, I hope you're feeling better." Riley frowned, was him mocking her? She didn't answer, instead she stared at him without revealing any expression. "I talked with Professor Dumbledore about your problem, and he wishes to talk you, so you're going to see him before dinner. In the meantime, we have reached an agreement, so for your detention, you'll brew your own sleeping potion."
Riley's face suddenly enlightened, she was going to obtain her potion after all. She allowed herself a smile. Maybe, it was worth losing the game for.
"Th… Thanks."
"Professor Dumbledore's idea, not mine. I still don't think it's a good idea. Now, here are the instructions." He handed her a piece of parchment. "You can start."
"Won't you help me?"
"I'll verify it before you poison yourself. But I have other things to do."
After four hours, Riley had already started over three times. This potion was very hard to brew, not something you'd ask a first year to do. The feeling of happiness she had felt when Snape told her what she was doing for her detention, was now fading away. She wasn't able to do it with no help. When her potion was turning yellow for the second time, she threw her spatula to the ground in anger and sat down frustrated, folding her arms. She heard footsteps behind her.
"I can't do this." She simply said.
Snape reached her cauldron and glimpsed inside, a slight grin appeared on his face.
"Clearly not!" He stated.
"So are you going to help me?"
"I'm afraid your detention is over for today, but you can come back next Saturday if you want to try again."
"What? That's not fair! This potion is too hard! Will I have to come every bloody Saturday till I get it right?"
"It depends."
"On what?"
"How bad you want this potion."
Riley left the classroom fuming in anger, she was pretty sure Snape was doing this on purpose, maybe it was his little revenge for waking him up in the middle of the night. But if Dumbledore had agreed to it, who was he to say no? Anyway, she was going to see Dumbledore that evening, he would probably help her.
She rushed to the Great Hall looking at her watch, she had only twenty minutes before lunch was over. She saw Adrian sitting in there, eating dessert, so she joined him.
"Hey." She said while putting some mash potatoes with a chicken leg on her plate.
"Hey Rye, so how was detention?"
"Horrible, how was the game?"
"Nice," he said shrugging, "Ravenclaw won, which isn't really surprising, but to be fair, the Hufflepuff keeper was knocked out of his broom."
"Really? I never would've thought that Ravenclaw would do something like that."
"They didn't, it was actually a sixth-year Slytherin who did this. Wouldn't like to be in his place right now." He said dipping his spoon into his pudding.
"A Slytherin you say? No wonder no one likes us in this school." She said seriously but Adrian just chuckled.
That evening Riley went to see Professor Dumbledore. She found herself in a large circular room with many portraits of former headmasters and a private library with an incredible collection of books. She walked towards the headmaster's desk and saw a big red bird next to it.
"Ah Miss Potter, what a wonderful night isn't it? Feel free to help yourself with some candy." He said showing her a silver plate with moving things inside that looked like earthworms. She shook her head politely. "So Professor Snape told me about your nightmares and I found it very curious, could you tell me more about it?"
Riley dithered for a moment. She didn't like talking about it.
"It's about… Well it's not always the same."
"Yes Professor Snape explained it to me. But what I would like to know is if they have something in common."
"Yes." She answered faintly. "They're all about Voldemort." She thought he was going to scold her for pronouncing his name. But he just nodded.
"I'd like you to keep a diary of it." Riley nodded. "Well you can join your housemates for dinner now, I know I'm very hungry." He smiled at her.
"There's another matter I'd like to discuss with you."
"I'm listening."
"Professor Snape told me that you both agreed to give me the sleeping potion, but he made me brew the potion on my own, and well, I failed. And to be honest I don't think he likes me very much." Dumbledore's smile deepened, he was clearly finding the situation very amusing.
"Well, I can assure you that you're wrong Riley."
"Am I?"
"Yes, you remind him of someone he knew a long time ago."
"Who?"
"That's not important." He said, getting up of his chair. "I can almost smell the pumpkin pies, don't worry I'll talk to Professor Snape."
Riley left his office thinking about what he had said. So Snape liked her? She found that hard to believe. She went to the girl's bathroom to wash her hands and bumped into a girl with orange hair that was cutting another girl's hair.
"Hello Tonks, Claire what happened to you?"
"Ah, hello little girl, nothing, it's not a big deal." Tonks said dropping accidentally the scissors onto the floor.
"Seriously Tonks, someday you'll kill someone!" Claire giggled and grabbed the scissors from the floor. "Selwyn found it would be fun to put chewing gum in my hair."
"That's horrible. But why does she hate you so much? You're not even in the same year."
"She's mad because my dad was the one who put her father in Azkaban."
"Azkaban? Why? What did he do?"
"Oh, didn't you know? He's a deatheater."
Riley felt a knot swell in her throat. A deatheater, Voldemort's follower.
"I… no, I didn't know."
"Anyway, it seems like she lives to make my life a living hell."
"Why don't you do something to her?"
"What for? It's a never-ending war. And I'm a prefect, I just take points from her house and put her on detention, it's not very effective, but at least I don't break any rules, believe me it's the best retaliation."
Riley wasn't convinced, she had done one thing and it was enough to get Cora out of her hair. Plus, Claire was older than Sarah Selwyn, she obviously knew more jinxes than her. She didn't understand how someone could live like this for so long.
"So she does these things to you and you do nothing?! If it was me I wouldn't let her get away with it." Riley stated making Claire chuckle.
"Yeah, but, the thing is I'm not… Well…"
"What?"
"I'm not…"
"A fucking Slytherin." A voice came from behind them making the three girls turn around. Riley saw Charlie Weasley. He approached Claire and touched her hair.
"I like it shorter." He winked at her.
"Well don't get used to it, I'm doing a spell to make them grow again." He turned to Riley and scowled.
"What is she doing here?"
"She's just helping us Charlie, don't be daft." Tonks said.
"Helping? That's what you're calling it now?" he spat, "she's probably here on Selwyn's behalf, I'm telling ya."
"I'm not. It's not like I'm friends with all Slytherins." Riley said clearly annoyed. "I understand why you hate me. But it doesn't give you the right to say whatever you want about me, you don't know me! I know that Fred must have told you horrible things about me, but I'm pretty sure he exaggerated. I'm not that monster." She was expecting Charlie to get angry but instead he just laughed, it wasn't a warm laugh, though.
"Well maybe you don't know but… Fred didn't tell me what you did. On the contrary, he kept on defending you, and that's why I'm mad. You're manipulating him, and you don't even feel bad about it!"
Right was astonished, she couldn't believe what Charlie had just said. So, Fred didn't tell anyone what she did. She felt awful, he was really too good for her, and she was wrong, she was that monster after all. But she couldn't bare being that person. Riley sighed, at that precise moment she knew that her project of staying away from trouble was ruined.
Next Saturday, Riley went to the potions classroom. She felt nervous, but it wasn't because of the potion. Snape was already waiting for her in front of a table.
"Miss Potter, you're late." Riley took a look at her watch.
"Three minutes only."
"Yes, three minutes of my life waisted because of you, I already told you not to be late." Riley sighed and started to brew the potion. There was no way Snape liked her. This time Snape stayed in the classroom, correcting some essays from third years. Her potion was brown-yellow and a smelly smoke was raising from it.
"Are you trying to intoxicate us, Miss Potter?" Snape asked without taking his eyes from someone's essay.
"Professor… I have to tell you something…" Riley said making him raise his eyes at her. "I… Well… I" She breathed heavily. "I was the one who made Cora Avery's head shrink." He stared at her with his cold black eyes before saying.
"Yes, I know Miss Potter." He looked back at the essay.
"You… you know?"
"Yes, of course. Do you think I can't identify the effects of a shrinking solution?"
"I… But then, why didn't you say something? Why ain't I on detention?" Riley asked.
"Well, I didn't have any proof of it, and to be honest I was curious to see what you would do. Needless to say that I'm very disappointed with you." Riley lowered her head in shame. "But, here you are, confessing everything. I have to ask, why are you playing the hero now?"
"I don't want to be a hero. But I feel guilty, and I hate it." Snape just nodded and got up of his chair.
"Why did you do it?"
"I just wanted Avery to leave me alone." Snape was now standing next to her. He looked at her cauldron.
"You're putting too much aconite in it." He said before lifting his wand to it "Evanesco!" The cauldron's content vanished away. "Start over!" He said, Riley sighed and started to brew her potion for the third time that day, but this time Snape stood next to her, guiding her. When detention was over, Riley was feeling lighter, it felt good to finally letting it all out. She could cross that out of her list. Now she had just one more thing to do.
She arrived in the Slytherin common room and saw the person she was looking for.
"Selwyn!" Riley called. The girl turned around and when she saw that it was Riley she whispered something to her friend. Her friend grinned at Riley and then left.
"Yes?" She gave Riley the most fake teeth smile she had ever seen.
"Leave Claire Ackers alone or I'll tell your boyfriend what you've been doing when he's not around." Her fake smile faded.
"Are you threatening me?"
"I don't owe you anything. You were the one who wasn't careful enough."
"Maybe you don't owe me anything, but I'd like to remember you that if you say something, you are really going to regret this."
"I don't have to say anything, all I'm asking you, is to leave Claire alone, it's not difficult." She didn't wait for a reply and left to her dorm. She ignored the death glare she received from Cora and lied on her bed. She knew Sarah Selwyn was nothing like Cora, she should not be messing up with fourth-year Slytherins, it was suicidal. But she never intended to say anything about Selwyn, she just wanted to scare her a little. She shook her head in an attempt to wash away her thoughts. She allowed her mind to think about Fred, deep down, Riley was hoping that they could be friends again.
Sarah Selwyn was walking through the Quiddicth pitch. The Slytherin team was practising.
"Marcus!" She yelled at the flying figures into the sky. "MARCUS!" Some player poked Marcus' back, he turned around and saw Sarah calling him. He dived into her direction looking angry.
"What the fuck are you doing here? I'm busy."
"I need to talk to you!"
"Well, I'm having practice now, can't it wait?" He asked impatiently.
"No, it can't actually."
"Well what is it? Spill it out." He snapped.
"That first year, Potter, she's threatening to tell Jason about us."
"What? Why?"
"I don't know, because she wants everyone to like her, I suppose. Why does anyone do that?" She said, putting her hands on her waist. "Anyway, I need you to do something about it, you know, frighten her like you do with the other first years." Marcus scowled at her, he hated being told what to do. She was now very close to him, their lips almost touching. She put her hand behind his neck and said, "Do it or it's over." He pushed her away.
"Anything else princess?" He asked sarcastically.
"No" she smirked and left the pitch flipping her hair. That little Potter girl was going to regret ever being born.
A/N: Thanks for reviewing :)
