Chapter 8: The perfect plan – Part 2

"Sarah, I love you, I really do! Let's not hide our love. Not anymore." The boy said loudly enough to hold the attention of everyone in there.

Riley froze, her eyes wide. Uh-oh!

"Get off me!" Sarah snapped.

"I can believe it, so you were not only cheating on me with Marcus, but with him too!" Jason howled.

"Of course not, don't be silly!"

"My two best friends, you could have picked anyone, and you chose them!"

"Nothing happened between Magnus and me. I don't know why he's acting like this!" She turned to Magnus. "What's going on with you?"

"I love you Sarah." He said with a dumb expression on his face.

Suddenly, Marcus Flint rose from his chair and went towards his friends. He whispered something to them, but Riley couldn't hear what. Therefore, she just watched them attentively. As soon as Flint stopped speaking, Sarah turned her head towards Riley and scowled.

Riley who didn't really want to face all the Slytherins at once, thought that it would be best to leave the common room. She exited the common room looking for a familiar face, but didn't have much time to do so because she felt someone grabbing her arm.

"Potter!" It was Sarah. "Did you give Magnus a love potion on my behalf?"

"What makes you say that?" Riley asked, making an astonished face.

"Marcus told us that he found some chocolates in their dorm, and I saw you taking something of my robes, it was a strand of my hair, wasn't it?" Riley remained silent. "Aren't you even going to try to deny it?"

"No."

"No?"

"No, you are right. I did make the love potion, but it was for Flint."

"Are you crazy?" Sarah was shouting. "I never asked you to do it! What were you thinking? Are you really that stupid? A love potion, that's for pathetic girls!"

Riley was about to retort but someone behind her cut her off.

"Well, you're pathetic. Riley just wanted to have a laugh." Riley glanced behind her and saw Tonks.

"Excuse me?" Sarah asked, impatiently.

"You heard me. To be fair, the love potion was my idea, but it was Riley who prepared it. That's right, a first year girl prepared by her own a love potion. Are you capable of doing it, Selwyn? She's not scared of you, she has plenty of abilities and skills, or maybe you've forgotten who her family is, who her brother is. I wouldn't mess with her if I were you." Riley was speechless she couldn't believe what she had just heard, but she was not the only one. Sarah had a weird expression on her face, like she didn't know what to do or to say. Riley would have never dared to try something that senseless.

"You know what, it doesn't matter anyhow." Sarah finally said. "You're completely useless to me, Potter!" And she left both girls standing in front of the common room.

"I can't believe it actually worked!" Riley said with a weird grin.

"I can't believe you never used it to your advantage."

"Well, I have no special skills, I'm just good with potions, that's all." Riley shrugged.

"Maybe, but you are still sisters with the boy who defeated one of the most powerful wizards in the world."

"I guess…" Riley was still not convinced, but as long as it worked, she'd go along with it.

"Look, people already think you came from a family of powerful dark wizards… which I know is ridiculous!" She quickly added when Riley frowned. "But well, you have to understand them, and after what you did to that girl in your year."

"I never thought that people feared my family." She said, shocked.

"Well your brother did something really amazing. But what I'm saying is that you can always use it in your favour."

"And make people hate me even more?"

"Well I'm not saying you have to do this to everyone, just to those who are giving you a hard time!" She said, putting her hands on her waist and rolling her eyes. "I have to go now, little girl. Glad it all worked out." Tonks winked before walking away.

"Riley, what happened? Did it work?" Fred had just appeared beside her.

"As a matter of fact, yes." Riley looked at him and smiled softly.

"Oh, that's good." They both stared at each other without saying anything. "So… Are you going to give me any details?"

"Sure, but first can I ask you something?"

"Ask away."

"Are people afraid of me?" She asked, reluctantly.

"What?"

"Are they… You know, because of who I am?" She added cautiously.

"A first year Slytherin?" He chuckled. "Yeah, people are terrified." Riley rolled her eyes.

"A Potter."

"Oh, that." He said, giggling.

"Would you stop laughing! I'm serious!" Riley glowered.

"Ok, seriously?" She nodded "I may have overheard some Gryffindors say that maybe you and your brother were powerful wizards and even dark wizards, you know since you're a Slytherin and everything…"

"Well, my brother's not a Slytherin, neither were my mom and dad! They actually fought against Vol… Against You-Know-Who."

"I know that, I'm not afraid of you. I can't help what other people think!" He said defensively.

"Sorry."

"Look Riley. People don't know you, I'm sure that once they get to know you, they'll see how nice you are."

'Maybe I shouldn't be that nice' Riley thought feeling angry with all those Gryffindors.


A few days had passed, and Riley couldn't believe what being sisters with "the-boy-who-lived" was doing for her. Thanks to Tonks, she had learnt how to use it to her advantage. Therefore, a considerable amount of students were treating her differently - with more respect and admiration - including some Slytherins. It was something she had never experienced before. At first, she felt a little guilty for taking advantage of such tragedy. But then, she convinced herself that it was only for her own protection. Moreover, all the advantages that it brought to her made her reluctance fade away, and to be honest, she was enjoying it too much.

No more worries about the Slytherins being mean to her. She had told Cora about her encounter with Selwyn, she even added that Sarah was dying to make someone pay for what had happened, and that it would be very easy to convince her that Cora was the one who was responsible for it. As a result, Cora was being extremely nice to Riley, it was actually hilarious to watch. Even Montague wasn't mocking her anymore, he would still give her dirty looks, but nothing more than that. Sarah was acting as if Riley was invisible, she would never admit that she was afraid of a first year, but it was good enough. Everything was fine in her life, she had friends she liked, friends she could count on. She had good marks. There was only one thing missing, something she had left aside with all the mess going on with her. Quidditch. But unfortunately for her, she had not been very nice to the person who could make this happen.

Riley entered her common room looking for Marcus Flint, but didn't find him in there. She sighed deeply, knowing that she would have to ask one of her housemates. She saw Adrian making his homework alone. He would be the least worst.

"Hi." She said, a bit more coldly than what she had intended. Adrian looked at her and closed his book, quickly raising from his chair.

"Hi." He smiled at her.

"Do you know where Flint is?"

"I don't know. Have you tried the Quidditch pitch?" The Quidditch pitch, of course.

"I'll try that, thanks." She said, walking away from him.

"Riley, wait!" He called after her. She stopped and turned around. "I just wanted to say that, I thought a lot about what you said to me and my decision is that I want to be your friend. I'm sorry for how I acted. Please!"

Now that Riley wasn't having problems anymore, she realised how unfair she had been to him. Of course, he had screwed up, but everyone deserved a second chance. She had learnt that the hard way.

"Ok." She gave him a gentle smile. "We can be friends again. Although I have to get going, see ya!"

"All right." He smiled back at her. "Do you want me to wait for you for dinner?"

"Sure." She smiled again, before walking away.

When she arrived at the Quidditch pitch, she found it empty, except for Marcus Flint, who was sitting on the stand. He didn't notice her as she approached him, completely lost in his thoughts. He wasn't in his Quidditch robes, but his broom was lying beside him. Riley sat quietly next to him.

"Hey." She said. He turned his head towards her in surprise and then, looked around him, as if he was trying to find an explanation for why she was there.

"What do you want?" He asked, scowling at her.

"I just wanted to make peace. This whole story is absurd, I never meant for any of this to happen." She said hopefully, but Flint gave her a cold laugh in response.

"Make peace…" He repeated her words, shaking his head. "Why would I want to do that? You gave me nothing but a headache since you arrived here."

"Why do you hate me so much?"

"Why?" He asked with his eyes wide. "Are you kidding me?"

"Because I threatened you? I was only protecting myself!"

"Well, you wouldn't have had to protect yourself if you had kept your mouth shut in the first place!"

"I didn't tell anyone! Why don't you believe me?" He stared at her eyes for a moment.

"It doesn't matter anyway." He said, leaning back with his hands on his face.

"I'm sure Fletcher will come around. I mean, eventually. I messed up with one of my friends once too, but now we're friends again." He looked at her, raising an eyebrow.

"What? Did you eat his pop stickle, and then he wasn't speaking to you anymore?" He asked sarcastically. "This is not a child problem."

"You're only 3 years older than me!"

"Have you even kissed a boy yet?"

"No…" She said softly, feeling her cheeks burn. Riley was expecting a nasty retort, but he only sighed.

"Why do you care anyway?" He said staring at her.

"What?"

"I mean, why are you here? We don't have to like each other. We're not fucking Hufflepuffs."

Riley diverted her eyes from his, trying to find something to say. He was right, there was no good explanation for why she was trying to make amends with him. Suddenly, Flint's eyes widened and a mischievous grin appeared on his face.

"You want to play Quidditch. Don't you?" He asked in a cheeky tone.

"No, I…" She searched for another excuse, but nothing crossed her mind.

"I think you do. That's why you want us to be in good terms." He laughed out loud. "Oh, this is so good."

"That's not why! I… I just don't like having enemies, that's all." She added, desperately. Maybe it would work, it was plausible after all. Flint studied her for a short moment.

"All right then. I'm not mad at you anymore." He said through his grin. "I won't take girls on my team, though. But feel free to come to cheer for us, yeah?" He said while picking up his broom and leaving Riley alone in there.


Riley started to walk back to the castle feeling terrible. She didn't know whether he meant it. Then, she remembered what Tonks had told her, about Slytherins not having any girls on their team. She knew that being sisters with Harry wouldn't do much for her in this particular case, not with Flint anyway. She was so angry with him. He was a jerk. A selfish, arrogant, stupid jerk. He deserved everything he got.

She spotted Fred and George from far. They were sitting by the lake, whispering at each other, even if there was no one around them.

"Hello boys, what are you doing?" She sat next to them. Being with the twins, always made her feel better. She needed more than anything to forget about stupid Flint.

"Planning our masterpiece." George said.

"Masterpiece?"

"Yes. See, the school year is almost finished, and George and I think that we ought to leave our signature in here."

"Meaning?"

"Something memorable!" Fred said.

"Unforgettable." George added.

"And what's the big plan?"

"Sorry, can't tell!"

"What? Why not?" Riley asked, frowning.

"So you won't have the chance to "help" us." George said, receiving a glare from his brother. "Just kidding."

"Ah, you don't have to worry. I'm leaving this life behind me."

"Why?" Fred asked, raising an eyebrow. "You'll miss all the fun."

"Well, I think I've had enough fun. Thank you." Riley said, sarcastically.

"Your loss." Fred shrugged.

"Are you serious about this?" George asked her.

"Yes, pretty much. I don't want any more trouble with the Slytherins. I still have to coexist with them for the next six years." She said grumpily.

"Fair enough." Fred said, making a small whirlpool on the lake with his wand. "So Riley, I was wondering, maybe we can see each other during the holidays." Riley noticed that his ears were turning red.

"Oh yes, sure, why not." She smiled gently et him.

"Maybe you could come over to my house. It's a simple house, very modest, but there's a lake nearby, sometimes we go there with my brothers, and there's also a place where we can play Quidditch…" Fred was talking very fast.

"I'll have to ask my godfather, I don't know if he'll let me."

"Oh yeah, of course." He said, turning his face away from hers.

"It's not that I don't want to. It's just that, well, he doesn't know you nor your family."

"I understand." He added quickly. "It was just a thought."

"I'll ask him, I promise."

"Good." He said. "We can also meet in Diagon Alley, we can have some ice-cream or something."

"We'll figure out something." She smiled at him.

"I hope so." He smiled back at her.

"I have to go now, gotta some homework to do." The two boys nodded, Riley smiled at Fred one more time and walked away.

"Please Riley, come to my house, I can show you my gnomes and then we can snug all day." George mocked his brother, making kiss sounds.

"Shut up." Fred scowled at his twin.

"Oh please, just admit already that you fancy her."

"She's fun, I like her as a friend."

"Are you serious? Why wouldn't you tell me?"

"Because there's nothing to tell!"

"All right, all right. So would you mind if I dated her?" George asked, making Fred frown his eyebrows.

"Do you want to date her?"

"I don't know, maybe. If you don't mind of course."

"I don't." Fred snapped.


The library was quieter than usual, with final exams coming up, everyone was concentrating very hard on their books. Riley was sitting alone, Fred and George were with their Gryffindor friends. Fred had asked her to join them, but after receiving a glare from both Angelina and Lee, she made up some lame excuse. She didn't mind though, she studied better alone, with no distractions. She also spotted Adrian sitting with his roommates. It was hard not having any Slytherins friends, not having anyone to talk to in the common room, but she wasn't complaining, it could have been a lot worse. When her stomach started rumbling, she closed her book and headed to the Great Hall. She was walking pass the Slytherin table, looking for an empty seat, away from the other students if possible.

"Hello." A blonde girl, who had a face like an angel, was staring at her, smiling. "Sit with us."

Riley looked around her, as if she couldn't believe that a Slytherin was deliberately talking to her, in a gentle way. She sat down cautiously.

"Hi, my name's Lauren Harley and those are April Milburn and Melinda Rowle." Riley glanced at the other girls. One of them had short black hair and deep blue eyes and the other one was a black girl with short curly hair.

"Hi… I'm Riley Potter."

"We know." Lauren smiled. "Well, usually we don't do this but…" she turned her head to two other girls. "you can sit with us if you want to." Riley looked at her confused. Why was this girl being nice to her?

"Err… Thanks." She forced a smile.

"I know, it's kind of unexpected, we're second years, you're only a first year. But well… We can make an exception for important people."

"Important?" Everything had come clear to Riley.

"Yes. So, what do you think?" Riley wasn't sure what to say. She didn't like that those girls were only talking to her because they thought she was somehow powerful. But well, she already had true friends. Plus, she was in Slytherin, she had to get used to this kind of thing.

"Su… Sure." She stammered.

"Good." The girl deepened her smile. "So, now that we're friends, we can share things with each other. We were just talking about Melinda's crush on Flint."

"Flint?" Riley asked stunned. She couldn't understand why everyone fancied Flint.

"Yeah, it's stupid I know…" Melinda giggled, her cheeks red as cherries. "But his body…"

"I still can't believe he was secretly with Sarah Selwyn." Lauren turned her head towards Riley. "It was very brave of you to tell everyone about them." Riley opened her mouth to deny it, but after a short reflexion she thought it would be better to leave it alone. Instead she turned her head to Melinda.

"Flint's a bastard." She said, making Melinda frown. But Lauren just laughed.

"I like you Riley Potter." She winked at Riley. "So, what about you? Do you fancy someone?"

"No, I'm still young for this kind of stuff."

"I'm not asking you if you want to marry someone." She said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Yeah, I know but… No, I don't fancy anyone." She added quickly, staring at her plate.

"Really? Cause I often see you with that Weasley boy."

"Oh no, there's nothing between us." Riley said, but she could feel her cheeks burn.

"Oh, Good."

"We're friends though." Riley retorted dryly.

"Oh don't get me wrong. It's just that, you need someone who'll be able to buy you stuff. I mean, you don't want to go to a restaurant and pay for it, do you?" This conversation was starting to get Riley uncomfortable. After all, she wasn't wealthy either. She had money in Gringotts, money her parents have left her and Harry. But Remus and Lyall never let her use it, they said she should keep it for later.

"I guess not…"

"Don't worry, now you have us to look after you." Lauren said, lifting the corner of her lip in a smirk.


School was finally over, and everyone was getting ready to go home. Riley had packed her stuff the day before. She was really looking forward to go home. It had been a very long year. She arrived in the Great Hall very early to have breakfast. She still had to go to Snape's office to take enough Sleeping potion to go through the summer. After breakfast she went to his office. She knocked his door.

"Come in." He said. She entered his office.

"I came to take the Sleeping Potion."

"Of course." He gave her a cold smile. "But first, I would like you to sit down." Riley frowned and sat down, she didn't like where this was going.

"You know, some ingredients went missing from my cupboard."

"Really?" Riley asked, trying to sound indifferent.

"Really." He answered in a mocking way.

"Ingredients that are usually used to make a love potion, which is fun because I had to give Mister Hoover an antidote for it."

"That's very strange." Riley said staring at the ground.

"Isn't it?" He got up from his chair, and started to walk around his office. "First I thought that you wouldn't dare to stole from me. But then, strange rumours began to spread." Riley could feel that he was standing just behind her. "The Great Witch Potter! I don't see why you need me, with all your abilities. I hope you enjoy this potion, cause it will be the last one I'll give you."

"But…"

"You think you're so special don't know? Well, sorry to disappoint you, but you're just an arrogant little girl, who thinks she can get anything she wants, just like your father." He snapped. Riley was speechless. She thought that he would just give her detention, and not attack her like he was doing. She was almost believing what Dumbledore had said, that Snape did appreciate her. Guess he was wrong. She took the vial from his hands and ran off his office. Feeling angry and sad.

Riley took her school trunk and went to take one of the school carriages.

"Riley!" A voice came from behind her.

"Hey Fred. How are you doing?"

"Great." He gave her a smile. "Listen, do you want to sit with us?"

"Oh, I don't know." She looked around, and saw the Gryffindor gang, all together. "Your friends don't like me, Fred."

"Nonsense!" Riley raised an eyebrow. "Ok, maybe they don't like you so much." He added, making Riley roll her eyes. "But I can sit with you, without them."

"Just the two of us?"

"Well, if you want to." Riley smiled, he was so nice. "I don't want you to be alone." However, those last words made her face fell. She didn't need any kind of charity.

"You know I have other friends beside you!" She spat.

"Oh, I know you do, I didn't mean it!"

"Look Fred, you go to sit with your Gryffindor Friends. I have people who are waiting for me anyway!"

"Fine…" He said puzzled.

"See you."

Riley saw her newest friends waving at her, and joined them. When she was inside the carriage, she shot a last glance at the castle. She would miss it after all.


So first year is over, and I think that the second year will be a little shorter than the first one.

I'll try to update at least once a week. Thanks so much for reviewing, it motivates me :)