After their classes Draco, Blaise, Braxton and Ashton practically sprinted to the Slytherin common room. They skidded to a stop just inside the portrait hole when they spotted Nia sitting alone with her arms wrapped around her knees and her forehead resting on them lightly.

"Nia?" Blaise said uncertainly.

The girl looked up with sad brown eyes.

"Hey guys." She said quietly. Her voice cracked slightly and she put her head back down on her knees.

"Where's Cameron?" Draco asked slightly nervously. "Is he okay?" the blonde couldn't help but consider the worst case scenario. Nia gestured half heartedly with her head.

"He's in his room." She said.

The boys ran towards the seventh year dorm while Ashton trailed behind them. Cameron was lying face down on his bed with a pillow situated over his head.

"Cameron?" Draco called uncertainly.

The form on the bed raised his hand slowly and pointed to a rolled piece of parchment on his bedside table. Blaise grabbed it and unrolled it.

Braxton and Draco were standing on either side of Blaise.

"This parchment awards Cameron Scott freedom from one week's worth of homework in D.A.D.A. and offers a free pass from the next test."

Blaise looked up with a confused expression. Cameron was now lying on his side with one hand propping his head up. A broad grin was etched over his face. Ashton grabbed the pillow off the nearest bed and began pummeling her friend with it. Cameron laughed.

"You. Stupid. Git!" Ashton cried with each hit. "I thought you'd lost!"

Cameron laughed harder as Draco, Blaise, and Braxton got in on the attack.

"NIA!" Cameron shouted, covering his head with his arms. Nia burst into the room giggling madly.

"We got you! We got you!" she chanted happily.

Blaise turned and attacked her with the pillow, causing her to squeal in surprise.

"I thought you couldn't keep a secret!" he cried though his eyes were shining happily. Nia chuckled as she found a pillow off another bed and began defending herself with it.

"I can't but I can act just fine!" she exclaimed.

Blaise laughed and surrendered. The other's had finally stopped attacking Cameron as well and everyone was grinning broadly.

"So…tell us everything!" Braxton demanded.

"You sound like a girl mate." Draco said with a shake of the head. Braxton glared playfully at him. Cameron shrugged.

"I don't know. It was just a duel I guess. Anyway I couldn't have done it without you guys. I can't tell you how much I appreciate all your help." He said sincerely.

His friends nodded in acknowledgement.

"He's just being modest! You guys should have seen it!" Nia exclaimed. "Cameron dodged and blocked and attacked so awesome! Dawson tried to blast him off his feet but he totally jumped right over it…twice! I was completely shocked. Everyone laughed when Cameron stunned Dawson!"

Everyone chuckled at the image.

Ashton patted Cameron on the arm and offered a proud nod.

"I knew you could do it." She said with a grin.

Cameron smiled and nodded.

"Thanks for that. I actually heard you talking…well it was more like yelling…in my head while I was fighting him." He said sheepishly.

Ashton's grin expanded into a full smile which she tried to hide by bowing her head slightly so her hair fell over her face. Cameron's own grin broadened as he watched Ashton but he suddenly remembered the rest of his friends were still in the room and quickly stood up to hide the rush of heat that had just attacked his cheeks.

"So I'm erm, going to go see Kit. Yeah." He said quickly.

"Hurry back! We still have to celebrate properly!" Blaise called.

Cameron waved his acknowledgement without turning around. He rubbed his hands over his face in an effort to scrub away the blush he knew had crept up on him. Slowly the heat in his cheeks began to fade and he dropped his hands.

Cameron wandered the corridors smoothly until he arrived at the statue in front of the Ravenclaw house. He'd been waiting for ten minutes when a fifth year emerged.

"Wotcher Reagan." Cameron said to the boy with dark brown hair and matching eyes. Surprise followed by recognition flashed over the boy's features.

"Cameron!" he said happily. "It's been a long time."

Cameron shrugged. Reagan and Kit had gone together a few years back and while it lasted Cameron had become friends with the Ravenclaw boy, much to Braxton's horror.

"Is Kit around?"

Reagan shook his head.

"No, actually I think she might be in the library."

"Alright, I suppose I'll have a look then."

"Good luck."

Cameron thanked the boy before heading towards the library where he found his sister sitting at a table, surrounded by books. He sat down across from her, rearranging the piles to create a window between them. Kit barely looked up from the essay she was working on.

"O. are a kick in the arse." Cameron said lightly.

Kit looked up at him wearily and nodded. She stuck her quill into the ink pot and sighed heavily.

"This is ridiculous. I've got four essays, each twelve inches long, and all due by next week!" she exclaimed.

Cameron nodded his understanding.

"Yeah, it gets pretty crazy but I could help you anytime. I did get decent marks on my tests you know." He said with a grin.

Kit rolled her eyes but smiled in return.

"Help sounds brilliant." She said, shuffling books away from her so she had room to rest her arms on the table. "Let's talk about something other than school work, please." She groaned.

Cameron nodded.

"Well we had a big class duel in my Defense class today."

Kit's eyes immediately brightened with excitement. Defense Against the Dark Arts was her favorite class.

"That's wicked!" she cried. "Professor Knowlen doesn't let us duel each other yet."

"Don't worry, you'll get there soon, especially with O. coming up."

"Cameron…" Kit groaned pathetically at the mention of the tests. Her brother laughed lightly.

"Sorry." He said with a shrug.

"Tell me more about the duel!" Kit said.

"Well we were broken up into six groups of three. I had Valarie Tennor and Thomas Cross on my team…"

Kit made a gagging sound.

"That Cross is a real nasty piece of work. We saw him snooping around our locker room the other day. Madame Hooch checked it out before we went in but there was nothing missing or destroyed or cursed even."

Cameron's brow immediately furrowed.

"That's odd. I wonder what he was doing by your locker rooms. Slytherin's are all the way across the pitch." He said.

Kit shrugged.

"I don't have a clue."

Cameron fell into a thoughtful silence until his sister prompted him into sharing more about the duel. He told her the whole story except that he'd faced Dawson. Kit knew the story between Dawson and Cameron and would probably get either angry or hysterical over hearing it.

"So we won a get out of homework free card." Cameron said with a shrug.

Kit squealed as quietly as possible before running around the table and hugging her brother tight around the neck.

"Oh Cameron that's so great! Congratulations!"

Cameron returned his sister's hug happily.

"Thanks Kit." He said. "Draco and the others want to celebrate…do you want to join us?"

Kit nodded excitedly.

"Sure! It sounds like a lot more fun than torturing myself with more studying."

Cameron nodded and helped his sister return the books to their shelves, something he was able to do quickly due to his detention with Pince. The siblings were soon walking through the corridors talking happily about nothing in particular. Suddenly Kit's expression turned into one of confusion.

"Do you hear that?" she asked, stopping in her tracks.

Cameron fell silent and listened as well. The faintest sounds of scattered screams echoed throughout the corridors.

"What is that?" Cameron asked. Kit slowly edged closer to her brother who put his arm over her shoulders protectively.

"Come on." He instructed.

They continued the same path they'd been following but kept mostly quiet. The screams grew steadily louder and the reason became apparent when Cameron and Kit rounded the next corner.

Students were either screaming and jumping or just screaming and standing still with their arms held out in front of them. Kit pulled Cameron with her when she spotted Lilia standing beside her older brother, Vince was staring at his hand with tears pooling in his eyes as he bit into his bottom lip to keep from screaming out.

"What's happening?" Kit asked.

Lilia turned with wide, terrified eyes.

"I don't know but it's happening to all the Hufflepuffs this time." She responded. When she reached out to touch Vince's arm to grab his attention the boy flinched violently and squeezed his eyes shut against some sort of pain.

"What's wrong Vince?" Cameron asked.

The Hufflepuff seemed reluctant to release his bite on his bottom lift but gently waved his hands in front of him. Lilia carefully grabbed his sleeves and pulled them up past his elbow.

"Bloody hell." Lilia, Cameron, and Kit said in unison.

Bright red burn marks covered every couple of inches of Vince's freckly skin. Clear pus was already seeping out of the tiny wounds.

"We've got to get him to the hospital wing!" Lilia cried hysterically.

"Good idea." Cameron said, stepping aside so Lilia could carefully guide her pain stricken brother away. Around them the injured Hufflepuffs were shuffling towards the Hospital Wing as well.

Kit watched them all with a mixed expression.

"It doesn't make sense." She said.

Cameron glanced at her.

"What?" he asked.

"How come only one house got affected…again?"

Cameron shrugged, unable to answer the question.

"Come on, let's get out of here." He said.

Kit nodded and followed her brother to the Slytherin House. Ashton, Nia, Draco, Braxton, and Blaise were waiting outside the portrait hole. When they spotted Kit and Cameron they all ran towards them grinning like Cheshire cats.

"What?" Cameron asked.

"Right after you left, Dawson showed up." Draco said.

"He's so angry!" Nia added.

Blaise nodded.

"Yeah, he kicked practically everyone out of the common room and before we made it out he went mad!"

"He started beating the hell out of the couch cushions." Ashton said.

"It was brilliant." Braxton put in, proudly patting Cameron on the shoulder.

It took the teens several seconds to realize their friend had paled a few shades. Kit quickly hugged her brother from the side, resting her head on his arm.

The grins melted off of everyone else's face.

"Erm…let's go celebrate!" Blaise said quickly.

"I asked Dobby to set something up for us out in the courtyard." Draco offered.

Cameron nodded numbly as he tried to force images of a raging Dawson out of his head.

A large green blanket was laid out in front of the fountain in the courtyard. Sweets and food covered most of its surface and a large CONGRATULATIONS CAMERON banner was stuck on the side of the school. Cameron grinned and shook his head.

"You didn't have to do all this." he said, clearly embarrassed.

"Sure we did. We needed a reason to eat ridiculously large amounts of junk food." Braxton said with a shrug as he plopped down on the blanket and pulled a plate of chocolate cake towards him. His friends laughed and quickly helped themselves.

The next several minutes were spent laughing and talking. Kit picked up an odd looking ball that appeared to be something covered in powdered sugar. She lifted it to her nose to sniff it and soon had the entire thing covering her face.

"Ah!" Kit cried indigently.

The others burst into laughing but none harder then Cameron who had hit her hand to force the ball into his sister's face.

Kit grinned and scrapped the sugary frosting out of her eyes before diving on her brother and smearing it across his face. Cameron quickly over powered her and dumped his cup of pumpkin juice on her head but when Kit shook her head in surprise the orange substance sprayed over Ashton who was sitting beside her. Ashton screamed in shock, causing the others to dissolve into another peal of laughter.

Blaise was laughing so hard the arm holding him up collapsed and he fell face first into his bowl of chocolate pudding. Sensing trouble Nia picked up a plate and held it in front of her like a shield but was unprepared for the rear attack from Draco who threw a piece of frosted cake at the back of her head. The blonde laughed wildly and dove towards the center of the blanket to get more reinforcements. Cameron sat on his blonde friend and forced Draco's face into some more pudding.

"Eat pudding!" Cameron cried.

Draco did a push-up to knock his friend off his back and quickly grabbed a handful of cake which he shoved into Cameron's face.

"Eat cake!"

Minutes later the entire courtyard bore signs of the struggle and the food covered teens were laughing hysterically on the destroyed blanket.

"That was fun!" Kit said.

Everyone agreed. Draco sat up and ruffled Nia's hair.

"I can't tell where parts of your hair start and that green goo ends." He said with a chuckle.

Nia groaned and shook her head, effectively hitting the blonde boy with a few globs of the green goo.

"We should probably clean up before we go in." Ashton said.

Her friends agreed and they slowly stood, not enjoying the squishy feeling that coated their robes.

"Well that's nasty." Braxton stated as pudding dripped into his ear.

Cameron laughed and walked towards the fountain. He turned his back to it and grinned at his friends before dropping into the cool water backwards. The clear water immediately turned an unsettling shade of brown as the food slowly detached itself from Cameron's clothes. Before the teen had fully gotten situated his friends were jumping in around him, laughing loudly as they did so. A water fight soon ensured and by the time they were done there was little, to no water left in the fountain.

"Oops." Blaise said as he climbed out.

"We should probably fix that." Kit suggested.

Her friends agreed and pulled out their wands.

"Agumenti." They said together. Water poured from the tips of their wands and in no time the fountain was refilled with fresh water.

"Merlin, we know how to destroy a place, don't we?" Ashton said as she looked around the courtyard. Food spattered the bushes, castle wall, grass, and statues. It took a few spells from everyone before the area was good as new.

Cameron sighed contently.

"That was the best party we've had in a while." He said with a grin.

His friends laughed in agreement before they all made their way inside.

"Where is everyone?" Nia asked nervously as they walked through the corridors which were completely empty. There wasn't even a sign of one of the school ghosts floating around.

No one answered.

"I think we better get back to our houses." Draco said.

"I bet this is about the Hufflepuffs." Cameron explained. His friends looked at him curiously so he explained everything he and Kit had witnessed. The group began walking towards the Ravenclaw house to drop off Kit since none of them liked the thought of her walking the castle alone at this eerie moment.

"First the Gryffs now the Puffs." Blaise said, shaking his head.

"It's weird that whatever is going on is happening by house this time." Ashton said thoughtfully.

"What do you mean this time?" Nia asked.

Her friends took turns explaining the situation with the basilisk in their second year.

"But this is different." Ashton said. "It's almost more organized."

"Like this is happening on purpose?" Blaise asked.

His friends all looked at him like he'd just asked if water was wet.

"Of course it's on purpose Blaise." Braxton said. "The house elves have never made a mistake that ends with food poising and if they have why would it only hit the Gryffs?"

"And people don't just spontaneously break out in red burn marks." Kit reasoned.

Blaise nodded.

"Okay, then who would do that? I know pretty much all of us hate the other houses but this is a little…."
"Extreme?" Cameron offered before nodding. "I agree."

The group stopped in front of the eagle perched on a tree branch. Kit bid the group goodbye before slipping into her house.

"Do you suppose Snape's talking to everyone by years again?" Nia asked.

Cameron sighed heavily.

"I doubt it." He said. "He's probably going to come down on the entire house. I'd be a bit surprised if Dumbledore's not with him."

"Why?" Blaise asked.

"Well it's only Slytherin and Ravenclaw left on the list of who could be doing this isn't it?" Draco said, catching on to his friend's thoughts.

"Well damn." Nia said under her breath.

The group finally arrived at the space of wall that was the entrance to their house. They all hesitated slightly before giving the password and walking in.

All members of Slytherin were packed into the common room and faced the wall with the entrance. Cameron felt nervous under the collective gaze of his entire house. As they moved in farther they spotted Snape and Dumbledore standing against the wall.

"Where were you?" Snape demanded.

"Outside, sir." Cameron answered quickly. "In the courtyard."

"Sit." Snape growled.

All the seats were occupied as well as most of the floor space so the Cameron and his friends were forced to separate to find places to stand along the walls.

Dumbledore waited for them to get situated before continuing with whatever he'd been saying.

"Students are no longer allowed to enter the kitchens. As a precaution the entrance has been moved and the house elves have been expressly asked to report any student who manages to find their way in." Dumbledore studied the entire house over his half moon spectacles. "Madame Pomfrey is working to help the injured Hufflepuffs but the curse used against them is one of advanced dark magic which means that whoever cast this curse will be immediately expelled from the school. No exceptions."

Dumbledore turned to Snape who had also been studying his students but with a dark glare instead of the curious gaze that Dumbledore had.

"No sir." He said through tight lips.

Dumbledore nodded once and turned to leave without another glance at the students. Snape waited a beat before following the man out. As soon as the professors left, the students scattered. Cameron headed into his room, hoping his friends would see him and know to follow. Luckily they did and soon the six of them were sitting on Cameron's bed.

"It's a good thing we got our celebrating out when we did I guess." Nia said with a nervous giggle. Having only ever seen the nice side of the headmaster, Nia was more than a little frightened by his obvious anger.

"Ravenclaw's got to be next." Braxton pointed out almost reluctantly. Cameron's entire body stiffened and his eyes darkened noticeably.

"If anything happens to Kit…" he said, letting the threat hang in the air.

Draco nodded.

"You know, I just had a thought." He said. His friends all looked at him but he stared at the green bedspread below him with his brow furrowed in concentration. "I'll bet I'm not the only one who's found out that my father chose me to take his place as a Death Eater."

Realization flashed over all his friend's faces.

"You're right! That would explain why the ministry can't seem to make a dent in Death Eater numbers. The Daily Prophet was right; every time one Death Eater gets caught or killed another seems to take their place!" Nia said excitedly.

Everyone nodded.

"Maybe these attacks are some sort of…I don't know…tests for the new members." Blaise offered.

"That's just sadistic enough to be true." Draco said darkly.

"But there has to be kids from other houses with parents as Death Eaters." Cameron pointed out.

"Maybe but…"

The door burst open with a loud bang as it slammed against the wall behind it. Dawson, Thomas, and four of their friends stormed into the room. Cameron and his friends waited for him to scream at them to get out but instead Dawson simply sat on his bed which was at the opposite end of the room and stared directly at Cameron.

Cameron stared back but something fierce flashed behind Dawson's dark eyes forcing Cameron to look away.

"Come on guys." He said softly.

Draco and the others followed their friend out of the dorm, each casting Dawson and his group dark glares before leaving.

Cameron took a deep breath once he was out in the common room. He plopped onto the couch and waited as his friends sat in the chairs around him.

"I think I might be sleeping on the couch tonight." He said with a dry chuckle.

His friends didn't try to convince him otherwise.

Blaise turned to Braxton who'd been about to say something when Dawson burst in.

"What were you saying?" Blaise asked.

Ashton shook her head.

"Not here. If what we were saying is right, we don't know who to trust anymore. I doubt the junior Death Eaters want anyone knowing who they are…at least this early in the game." She said quietly.

Cameron nodded in agreement.

"Ashton's right. We'll have to keep this quiet."

All eyes turned on Nia who nodded.

"I can do this. I swear to God and on every item I hold dear to my heart I will keep this secret." She said crossing her heart.