It had been snowing almost every day since they had returned from their holidays and the Slytherins had to fight their way through, leaving the warm and humid Herbology building behind them.
Ambrosia and Maggie were relieved when they entered the Entrance Hall, their noses red and fingers frozen from the cold. They had just finished the last lesson of the day and had the whole afternoon of. Maggie was still shaking snow of her coat when she realised that her friend had already begun to walk away.
"Hey wait, where are you going? The dungeons are the other way!" She found herself running to catch up with Ambrosia, standing in front of her, hand on her hips, giving her a 'I-demand-you-tell-me-everything' look.
"I'm going to the Library. I need to work on my charms homework." Ambrosia tried to dodge around her friend, but Maggie refused to let her pass. 'Damn she's good' she thought, huffing in annoyance when her third attempt to pass her friend failed.
"Right… You mean the charms essay that you finished yesterday?" Ambrosia refused to look at Maggie, embarrassed at having been caught lying by her friend.
"What are you really doing Brosia? You've been acting weird, even during Christmas. Don't think I haven't noticed. You're still not worrying about that book are you? It's been weeks and you still haven't found anything. Maybe it's time to give up. Besides, we still need to work on our star chart for Astronomy, its due next Tuesday you know!"
Ambrosia sighed. Her friend was right. For the past weeks, she had been trying to find out more about the book Sirius Black had tried to hide from her, but only succeeded in increasing her need to know what he was hiding. Maybe it was time to give up. There were better thing to worry about than what Black and his friends were up to.
"I guess you're right Maggie. It's stupid I know. It's just, I don't trust them."
"I don't trust them either, but they are not worth your time! I'm gonna cheer you up no matter what. In fact, I have the perfect thing in mind, come on!" And with that, she took Ambrosia by the arm and dragged her of in the direction of the Dungeons, where Ambrosia was sure Maggie was going to show of her new Broom, again!
Ambrosia hated flying. She couldn't understand why everyone loved it so much. For one, it was uncomfortable. She was still rubbing her rear, even though it had been half an hour since Maggie forced her to fly that stick.
For another, it was dangerous! Flying that high off the ground (not that she'd ever gone higher than two meters in the air), with nothing to support you other than a thin branch with bristles at one end, she could only imagine what would happen if she'd loose her grip and fall.
If there was a spell on the damn thing to stop you from falling off she might be more inclined to try to like flying on a broom.
As it was, she was grumbling all the way from where her and Maggie had their little flying session to Professor McGonagall's office. She needed to ask her teacher some questions about the essay they were given.
She'd begged Maggie to come with her (she found the Professor intimidating at the best of times and didn't want to face her on her own), but they had missed dinner and Maggie, addicted to food that she was, ran off for the Hogwarts kitchens instead. How she found out their location was still a mystery to Ambrosia.
She was just about to go down the staircase and make her way back to the Slytherin common room when she heard something metallic hit the floor down the corridor behind her. Debating with herself whether or not she should bother to investigate or head back to the dungeons and hope Maggie saved her some food (unlikely), she was just about to step onto the second step (got to watch out for that first step) when she heard a soft damn. Her curiosity piqued, she turned around and as silently as she could, made her way down the corridor, away from the stair case.
Peeking around the corner, she could see five dark shapes shuffling along the next corridor, keeping to the shadows and swearing and grunting every now and then. They seemed to be moving slowly and rather awkwardly. Ambrosia was just about to head over to them and demand what was going on when a hand landed on her shoulder, startling her so much she jumped and turned around, nearly running into Professor McGonagall.
"I think you'll find that the Slytherin Common room is the other way, Miss DeLane!" Professor McGonagall was looking down at Ambrosia with a stern look, arms crossed and waiting.
"But, there were some students here making a ruckus. I was just going to investigate". She started squirming when the Professor continued to look down at her, her expression not changing.
"I didn't hear anything. Even so, it is almost curfew. Students should not be wandering the halls of this school so late, especially to investigate phantom noises. Now, off to bed with you. It may be the weekend tomorrow, but I know for certain that you still have a few essays to complete. Best use your time wisely, Miss DeLane!"
She stood there waiting for Ambrosia to make her way to the stairs leading down to the Hall, and kept watching until she was sure the Slytherin had heading in the direction of the Dungeons.
Taking a quick look at the now empty corridor (not that she thought there was anything there to begin with), and tutting, she made her way back to her office.
They had just finished a double lesson of potions. Normally, Ambrosia would have enjoyed Potions (even if they had to share the classroom with the Gryffindors), sitting with Maggie and gossiping about the latest news. But today she couldn't wait to finish as soon as possible.
Their teacher, Professor Slughorn, had decided that he didn't want the students always sitting with the same people and paired them off randomly. And of course, with Ambrosia's dismal luck, she was paired with none other than Sirius Black! She took some solace that at least she hadn't been paired with Scabbardus Blipe, a pale and creepy Slytherin that had an awful skin condition. That honour went to mouse boy. She had grinned at first, when the Professor had paired those two up. But that grin soon disappeared when he partnered her with Black.
So instead of getting any proper work done, they had spent the whole time shoving each other, making nasty comments and trying to sabotage each other's potions. How they had managed to end up with anything resembling a swelling potion was beyond her.
As soon as Slughorn had dismissed the class, she had shoved all her things into her bag, grabbed Maggies arm and ran from the room as fast as possible. Of course, in her rush to leave the potions classroom, she had managed to leave her book behind. Without it she would not be able to finish her assignment.
Begrudgingly, she made her way back to Potions, hoping Professor Slughorn was by some miracle still there. She didn't want to have to go to the Staffroom to get her book as well.
She had just turned the corner when she saw the back of Professor Slughorn. Relief swept through her, as she made to approach him. It was then she noticed that there was someone else with the Professor.
Potter was standing there, a handsome smile on his face, blocking the door to the Potions classroom.
He appeared to be in the middle of praising Slughorn on his teaching ability, explaining in great detail how impressed he was with their teachers knowledge in potion brewing and how he could only hope to have but a fraction of the Professors talents.
Ambrosia had to roll her eyes. She should have figured that Potter was a suck up. He already had the other teachers wrapped up in his charm, despite his average grades.
Not wanting to get pulled into their discussion, she squeezed her way past Potter, giving Slughorn a quick nod of acknowledgment. Rushing over to her desk, she saw her book sitting neatly on top, waiting patiently for her to come back and get it.
Stuffing it into her bag, she turned around quickly, intent to leave as soon as possible, when she bumped into someone, dropping her bag as she did. Giving a sigh of frustration, she bent to pick up her bag, and, noticing another item on the floor, she picked that up as well. No doubt the other student had dropped it when she bumped into them.
"Here, I think you dropped this. Sorry about bumping into you before!" She apologised, looking up at the person in front of her, holding out what appeared to be a small satchel filled with dried plant materials. There, standing in front of her, fidgeting and shifting from one foot to the other was another one of Blacks friends, Remus Lupin. She should have figured that he'd be here with Potter. Gryffindors had a habit of doing everything in groups. The more the merrier.
Lupin grabbed the satchel from her, stuffing it in his pocket before rushing to the door. He quickly thanked the Professor before grabbing Potters arm and dragging him off somewhere.
Ambrosia, totally startled by the Gryffindors behaviour, shook her head before making her own retreat. She had a lot of homework she had to finish before classes started again on Monday.
