By the way, friends, I'm on tumblr now. If you want to see my fanfic postings and very related stuff, it's under MyStoryToTell. If you want to see my super nerdy, LOTS of fandoms side, check out chipofftheoldsoul. Feel free to message or follow me or whatever. Anywhoozal, back to reading, my dears.
I got dragged down to the Quidditch game the following morning. The only reason I agreed was because it was us against Gryffindor and I wanted to see if the twins could hit targets moving faster than they were used to. If not, it could make for some fun payback, someday. I had nothing against Quidditch per se, but it was just so dull. Now that Terence wasn't playing Seeker, I only had to go to the Gryffindors' games to keep an eye on the twins. Though if anyone heard me say such a traitorous thing I would be thrown in the Black Lake for sure.
My admiration of our team's speed wore off quickly and I turned away from the green blurs to the red players; they weren't moving too fast to see who was doing what. But after a while that wasn't holding my interest either and my fingers were itching for a book. I had begun A Full and Complete Guide to the Mysteries of Legilimency the previous evening and had read until my fingers couldn't hold the book steady and my eyes couldn't stay properly open. I had woken up that morning being smothered by "Chapter Three: The Separation Between Mind and Brain". Stuck watching a Quidditch game, I was trying to remember back exactly to what Dahl said about where 'brain' ended and 'mind' began. The psychology he used was heavy and required focus. I couldn't remember what he had said. Something about thoughts 'above', but also including survival was mind, but then what exactly did brain cover if—
Noise rose through the crowd and I looked up again, focusing back on the game. Had we won already?
No, something was wrong. I watched a Bludger headed straight for Flint veer off course to head toward Harry, George sprinting up to whack it away just seconds before it would have pulverized the second year. Even I, with my utter disinterest in Quidditch, knew that wasn't how Bludgers were supposed to act. They usually just followed a straight trajectory until being hit off a Beater's bat or hitting another obstacle, either player or pitch. But this Bludger just wanted to decapitate Harry who was doing all he could to keep his head. The volume in the stands rose.
Fred and George, in a valiant effort so keep Harry safe, joined him, one on each side of him and both continuously batting the persistent Bludger away. Their flight was crooked and I doubted any of the three were focusing on where they were flying as long as they weren't getting hit by the blasted Bludger. I didn't realize I was standing along with the rest of the crowd until I was screaming. "Get away from him, you idiots! You're going to get yourselves killed!" My voice couldn't possibly carry over the rest of the crowd, through the drizzle and all the way to the twins on the other side of the pitch, but Justin noticed and sent me a reassuring smile.
"I'm sure they'll be fine," he yelled over those cheering around us as Slytherins scored yet another goal. "They're the best Beaters in the school!" I didn't bother interrupting my stream of swearing to remind him that they were Gryffindors and Beaters' bats aside, if they thought the best way to protect Harry was to launch themselves from their brooms and at the Bludger itself, they might just do it. George was gesturing wildly at someone and after a moment, Madam Hooch's whistle squealed. I breathed in relief as the two redheads, still on either side of the brunet pelted towards the ground. They had to call the game for faulty equipment. But after only a few minutes and an obviously heated argument between the Gryffindor players, the whistle blew again and all fourteen players rose into the air once more.
"What the hell are you doing?" I yelled angrily though the audience around me seemed quite pleased. With the distraction of a rouge Bludger and two Gryffindor Beaters mostly out of the way, we were flattening them, seventy to zero. The Bludger returned to chase Harry and while I was worried about his safety—I'd have to be an absolute monster not to be—I was relieved to see that the twins weren't guarding him. They let him lead the Killer Bludger high above the stands until he was little more than a reddish speck through the rain that was growing harder and harder. I threw a shield spell over the five of us to keep the rain out of my eyes. Fred and George guarded the rest of their teammates from the regular Bludger and kept our Beaters from shooting it up to Harry. Even from here, I could see them both watching Harry worriedly and I knew that as soon as the Bludger got him and he fell off his broomstick, they would be there to catch him. With any luck the Bludger would be satisfied and not come after Harry when he was limp over the back of one of their brooms.
"What's Potter doing?" Terence shouted and my attention was once again yanked from the main game up to Harry who was frozen in midair. It was only for a second or two, but it cost him dearly and his Bludger got him in the side. He buckled, only just managing to stay on his broom and then oddly, but understandably enough, lunged at Malfoy. I had had similar urges over the past week through his never-ending supply of insults, but this really wasn't the time or place, not with all the professors watching. Malfoy dove out of the way and all of a sudden, Harry was diving towards the ground, a gold glint tight in his hand. He splashed into the mud and rolled off his broom as if unable to stand. Several red-robed people flocked around him and teachers ran forward, but my focus was still up in the air. The Bludger was still shooting towards Harry, flat on the ground though he may be.
Before it could reach him, George intercepted it with a wince that made me certain he was going to bruise badly. Fred reached over to guide his brother's broom to the ground while George fought to keep the fighting Bludger in place. I ignored the moaning Slytherins around me, calling to Justin that I would meet them in the common room later, and ran onto the pitch. I reached the twins where Fred was holding the equipment box open while George fought to get the Bludger locked in place next to its more benign brother.
"Immobulus," I shouted, pointing my wand at the Bludger. It went still and George heaved a sigh of relief, locking it in place before Fred slammed and locked the chest shut just as the Bludger began fighting again. "What the hell was that?" They raised their eyebrows at me.
"You swore," Fred commented dryly.
"That bloody Bludger almost killed you!" I reminded them. Did they not realize what blunt force trauma did to a human skull?
"Twice," George said. "We're fine, Skylar," he said. The wince he gave as he pushed himself off the ground said otherwise and I narrowed my eyes at him.
"You just took a Bludger to the chest," I reminded him.
"It's nothing," he said.
"Oh really?" I asked. I poked his ribs sharply and he hissed in obvious pain.
"It's nothing Madam Pomfrey can't solve in a jiffy," he waved off my worry and I glared at him harder. "Who cares?" he said, "we won!"
"You won," I tried to duck out from under the arm he had thrown over my shoulders, but Fred's arm joined his brother's and they held me in place. "You didn't even have top-of-the-line brooms," I complained.
"Nope," Fred grinned. "We have top-of-the-line players. Much more important."
"Speaking of," George said as we approached the clotted group surrounding Harry Potter just in time to see Lockhart poke his wand at the boy's broken arm and turn it into jelly. I felt nauseous and didn't blame the boy for passing out. I would too if my arm suddenly went boneless.
"Ugh, I think I'm going to go down to my common room," I said, pulling away. Fred was looking at Harry's arm with a mixture of disgust and scheming, but George grabbed my wrist.
"No, you've got to help us make a run to Hogsmeade," he said with a charming grin. Lee finally came down from the commentator's box and stood by Fred, watching Harry's arm flop around while Madam Hooch levitated him onto a stretcher and began pushing him away. "Flopping limbs," Fred mused before diving for the bag hung over my arm and digging through it until he found my notebook.
"We were just down there," I said, "last week. And we haven't had time to test the potion Flume gave us yet."
"So?" Lee asked. "We're not going to Honeydukes, we're going to Zonko's."
"Why?"
"Zonko sent us a note yesterday morning asking for our assistance with something," Fred shrugged before tucking my notebook back in my back. "You wouldn't want to let down such a kind sponsor of our work, would you? I scowled at him. I really did like Mr. Zonko and the products he had given me one week earlier were quite good. The prank-nail polish I had slipped into Tatiana's bag had left her inky finger prints on everything she touched, completely ruining her homework, hair and several sets of robes before she thought enough to remove the nail polish. Everyone stayed out of arm reach of her for ages, even after the polish had been removed, just in case. She had been glaring at me daggers all week, but she deserved it for giggling like she had Halloween night. And besides, she couldn't blame me at all; she had been the one to put the nail polish on. That product had worked well enough that I supposed I could justify a trip into Hogsmeade to thank its creator. I opened my mouth to agree, but before I could, Oliver Wood had rushed over.
"Come on," he said to the twins. "We've got to go see Harry. That was some really spectacular flying he did! Avoiding the Bludger like that and still getting the Snitch! We've got to celebrate—get him treats and cakes and whatever the hell else! That boy deserves a party." Wood didn't wait for the boys' approval, he hurried off to gather the girls and the twins gave me a sheepish expression.
"We'll go to Hogsmeade in a couple hours," I said. "Go congratulate Harry before Madam Pomfrey locks the doors on you all."
"Great!" Lee grinned.
"You're the best, love," Fred and George said together before adding, "Meet us in the library!" The library. I could do that.
The library was quiet, but busy, full of students locked inside thanks to the rain and making use of the mandatory imprisonment to study. Seeing no one I knew and wanting to avoid general conversation, I delved into the now familiar maze of bookshelves. I had once gotten so hopelessly lost in here that it had taken me the better part of an hour to get out. Now, I could walk most of the maze in my sleep. I found my seat back in a rarely visited corner, curled up into my armchair and pulled out A Full and Complete Guide to Legilimency. Maybe I would understand what Dahl was saying this time.
"Hello." The voice interrupted my reading and I looked up with irritation. This was one of my favorite corners because no one visited me here, ever. Only the boys knew to find me back here and they also knew that if I was back here, they had best proceed with caution because I didn't want to be interrupted. Before I thought about it, I raised my wand, pointing it towards the unfamiliar voice. "Well," she said dryly. "I was going to ask if you were feeling alright, but I suppose that answers that question." The girl stood with her hands up in surrender and a wry smile twitching. She had long, wavy hair quite a bit lighter than my own and light colored eyes. I recognized her, but it took me a moment to drag her name to the front of my mind.
"Twila Love," I greeted.
"Hello, Skylar French." She continued to approach me, heedless of my wand which was still pointed at her, and took a seat on the floor across from my armchair. She looked up at me expectantly and I felt like I was supposed to know why she was here, but I must have missed the memo. She had the same confidence about her she had had when I first met her months before when the little Hufflepuff had strutted in while the twins were botching an ill-planned prank in Snape's office. She had helped save us that day, but I refused to admit out loud. Her expression of self-confidence rubbed me wrong, like she had an ace up her sleeve at all times. I didn't like those people unless I knew they were playing for me.
"What do you want, Love?" I demanded. I had lowered my wand when she had taken a seat on the floor, but I kept it out, resting on the arm of my chair and still pointed in her direction. She didn't appear to care that I could hex her at a moment's notice. Dumb Hufflepuffs were too trusting. However, her expression did turn to one of concern, not for her own safety, but I guessed from her look of pity, for mine.
"I was worried about you," she said and I had to force my expression not to show my surprise or irritation. She and I were not friends. We had not spoken since that day in the hospital wing after the explosion. Why on earth would she care about me enough to worry? What right did she have?
"You don't need to worry about me," I informed her. "I don't want to be your charity case." Her eyebrows rose at my rudeness, but I refused to take the words back.
"I think you need a friend," she said. Damn Hufflepuff.
"I have friends." My clinical tone was gone and I was snapping now. She was the second person in the last two months to assume I was friendless. I might not have been the warmest person in the world, but I had plenty of friends to rely on, both in my own house and outside.
"Where are they now then?"
"They're my friends, not my bodyguards," I snapped. "They don't need to watch me study." Her eyes flicked down to the book in my hands, but if she caught the title or thought it strange, she didn't comment. "How did you find me anyways?"
"Intuition."
"Yeah, right." I wondered if she had something like the Marauders Map. We had never come across a second one, but I it was unlikely that there was only one in the whole world.
"Do you know who the Heir of Slytherin is?" she asked suddenly. I stared at her with numb shock.
"Excuse me?" I stammered. She repeated the question, enunciating each syllable with precision.
"Do you know who the Heir of Slytherin is?"
"There isn't one," I said automatically. "It was just some idiot pulling a prank." She stared at me with her shockingly wide eyes for a long moment before responding. It was like she was trying to be creepy, sitting in the shadows and staring at me like that. If only I could figure this Legilimency out already, I could get this irritating girl out of my business.
"Do you really think so?" she asked, bringing me back to the original subject. "Because something tells me things are going to get worse before they get better. You really should let them watch out for you. It's getting dangerous for Muggleborns around here." Then, Twila Love stood and left without another word from either of us. As soon as she was gone, I shoved her from my thoughts and turned back to my book. Maybe if I could figure out Legilimency, life would get less confusing.
We were sneaking up through our usual passageway that lead from a deserted building in Hogsmeade to a mirror on the fourth floor, all of us laden with a fair amount of Zonko's products, some bought full price, some discounted, some samples, but plenty of products that would last us a good long while. Zonko had been pleased with our feedback and promised to let us know as soon as the products were released to the general public before sending us off. It wasn't quite curfew yet so we stopped in at the Three Broomsticks for a quick butterbeer, Rosmerta giving us a wink before pretending that we weren't there. Only after enjoying our drinks did we finally head back to the castle. By the time, we snuck out from behind the fourth floor mirror, it was well past curfew and we would have to be very careful getting back to our respective common rooms.
"Skylar, why don't you take the Map," George offered. "You've got further to go." Fred and Lee both nodded their agreement and Fred passed the blank parchment over.
"Thanks," I said. "Be careful getting back." They grinned innocently.
"When aren't we careful?" Lee asked and I snorted.
"You really don't want me to answer that," I told them before adding, "I'll see you in the morning," I said turning on my heel. I opened up the Map as I walked, grateful to see that there were no professors or patrolling prefects in the area. The nearest one was Percy one floor down, but he was on the other side of the castle and would be easy enough to avoid. I scanned the rest of the castle quickly. The boys were nearly back to their common room already having taken another secret passage, but my eyes were snagged over to the second floor by another Weasley name.
The dot labeled Ginny Weasley was moving evenly through the every corridor in an odd pattern. I thought about going to find her, but then I saw Peeve's dot coming quickly my way. The only way to avoid the nuisance's attention was to quickly backtrack then duck down a rarely used staircase that went all the way down to the dungeons. Every thirteenth step yelled when you stepped on it and it was all I could do not to fall as I hopped over each one. By the time I was safely back in my dormitory, I had forgotten about Ginny's late night wanderings.
I let myself sleep in the next morning. I shouldn't have. By the time, I was up, the castle was buzzing again, worse that it had been one week previously, even the suits of armor were shifting uneasily. "What's wrong with everyone?" I whispered to Isaac when I joined the four of them at breakfast the following morning. I was getting even more uneasy looks than I had just after Halloween, and many wouldn't meet my eyes.
"You don't go anywhere without one of us," Isaac said harshly and I looked at him in confusion, flinching back.
"What's wrong with you?" I demanded.
"He's right," Joshua said solemnly. "The castle has officially become a very unsafe place for Muggleborns." I was instantly reminded of Twila's words and I looked towards the Hufflepuff table only to find her already looking at me.
"What's happened?" I asked.
"Collin Creevey was petrified last night. The Heir of Slytherin is real." Justin said. His teeth were worrying his lip and we all looked down the table at the rest of the Slytherins, most of whom were looking right back at us, well, at me.
Isaac, Joshua, Justin and Terence were true to their word. They never left my side unless I was in my dormitory, in class or with the Gryffindors. Even when I was with my other friends though, they were reluctant to leave me. I once caught Isaac, Joshua and the twins having a very heated argument while Terence and Justin tried to distract me.
"You are trying to control her!" Fred was growling.
"We're trying to protect her!" Isaac hissed back. "You should try it sometime rather than taking her on your mad schemes that are only going to get her into trouble. And one of these days it's not just going to be detention."
"We would never let her get hurt," George said and both Isaac and Joshua snorted derisively.
"I must have imagined all those visits to the Hospital Wing then," Joshua said dryly. Both twins lunged at the Slytherins and it was only because I had so much practice with it that I was able to throw a shield up and stop the brawl before it began. Why did those boys always have to jump into trouble?
"All of you stop it," I said. I was already tired of it. I was stressed with all of Slytherin House watching me, the twins always watching me—I knew they were with that blasted Map—the professors always watching me, and Twila Love always bloody watching me. I needed some peace and quiet, but it was obvious that I wasn't going to get it anytime soon. "Isaac, Joshua, I promise I'll be careful, alright?" They looked ready to disagree, so I strode past them quickly, dragging Fred and George away with me and not releasing them until we were around the corner.
"Sorry, Skylar," Fred said, "but you should have heard those Slytherins, talking like you couldn't do anything without their say-so."
"We know you know how to take care of yourself," George added, "but they seem to have forgotten at some point." I nodded. I had noticed the same behavior of course and I wasn't yet sure whether to be flattered or annoyed by it.
"Things are different in Slytherin," I reminded them. "It's not just that the Heir is probably down in the dungeons with me, it's that most of the house would feed me to that creature without a second thought. Some of them would do it to get rid of the Mudblood—"
"Don't call yourself that!" I ignored them and kept talking.
"—and some of them would do it to make sure the creature didn't turn on them instead. Down there, I really can't have enough people watching my back for me. It's just when I'm outside of the dungeons that it starts to get on my nerves again." Maybe it was the light in the dungeons, green from the lake outside the impervious windows, but everyone seemed more threatening in the common room than up in the main part of the castle.
"If they're ever too much—"
"—you'd tell us right?"
"Of course, I would." Probably. After I hexed the Slytherins myself. "Come on," I changed the subject. "Let's go start the potion."
"Right-o!" I laughed at Fred's enthusiastic response. It never ceased to amaze me how they could go from serious to grinning so fast. Before we got that far though, we ran across Ginny. "Hello, sister dear," Fred sang while George went mysteriously absent. Ginny threw her older brother a look of concern.
"What are you—"
"Blehgregagi!" George jumped out from behind a stone column. Well, a weird, fur-covered George jumped out from behind the stone column, screaming and making both Ginny and me shriek, though my shriek was admittedly much louder. I pulled out my wand to hex George, but Ginny beat me to it, though her hex was little more than a zapping light.
"Will you stop it?" she demanded, but the twins just laughed.
"We're just preparing you," Fred smiled winningly.
"Yeah, you can never be too ready," George agreed. Ginny raised her wand to fire again, but before she could, Percy strode up.
"Ginevra, no fighting in the hallways! Five points from Gryffindor." Ginny scowled at him, but said nothing, taking several subtle steps away from him until she stood on my other side.
"Excuse me," she muttered before hastily heading away, back the direction she had come from only minutes before.
"She can't still be mad about the Pepper Up potion, can she?" I asked, looking after the retreating girl. She was avoiding Percy like the plague lately.
"Ginny is very good at holding grudges," George shrugged. "Hey, Fred, a little help?" he added. Fred raised his wand and said the incantation, effectively removing all the fur from his brother's body.
"You two have to stop doing that!" Percy scowled. "You're giving her night terrors!"
"We're just showing her that there's really nothing to worry about. Besides, we're purebloods so it's not like the Heir, whoever he is, will come after us." George nodded his agreement with his twin's statement.
"Our whole family is full of blood-traitors so we hardly count as purebloods anymore," Percy reminded him. "And more importantly, no matter ourbloodstatus, Skylar is still a Muggleborn." Fred and George looked at me as if having forgotten I was there.
"Ginny doesn't need to worry," George said, for once sounding serious. "We won't let anyone hurt Skylar."
"Enter." Snape's voice was as cold as ever and I clutched the books to my chest before pushing the door open. "Sit," he commanded, once again pointing me to the chair in front of his desk. I sat with the books on my lap. This time, he kept his attention on me. "So," he sneered. "How much did you read?"
"All of it," I said. I had finished The Delicacies of Unraveling a Memory only fifteen minutes before, leaving me only enough time to through my robes on over my clothes and button the front up. Snape was more unforgiving for my non-wizard wardrobe that Professor McGonagall was.
"Really?" Snape regarded me closely and I wondered if he was using Legilimency to read my thoughts. I doubted it though. At least from what I read, it was not usually a subtle feeling when someone infiltrated your mind. Only the best could enter undetected and while Snape obviously knew a bit, I really didn't know how skilled he was. "Tell me, what is Dahl's theory on the mind?"
"That it exists outside the biological brain and is instead a part of the soul."
"What is the distinction between a memory and a thought?"
"A memory is a record of a past event from the seer's point of view while a thought is their opinion, made up of the effects of past memories."
"What is the most vital step in successfully preforming Legilimency?"
"Removing your own emotions so that you can clearly see the mind of your subjects" Each question was flung at me like a hex and I imagined a shield around me, taking the sharp challenges and molding them into the necessary answers before throwing them back at the dark professor staring at me. He did not praise me for answering all his questions correctly, but I didn't expect him to. He rarely gave praise except, occasionally, to his personal favorites. Teachers really shouldn't have favorites. I waited for him to speak.
"Miss French, from now on, your weekly detentions with me will be lessons on Legilimency and Occlumency. You will tell no one of your lessons. You will not use Legilimency other than when I have instructed you to, you will not snoop through the minds of your classmates or teachers and you will not share private information you may learn with anyone outside this room. You do not want to know what your punishment will be if you break these rules. Do you understand?" My heart was pumping fast and I had to be careful to control my facial expression, keeping it from one of triumph. I had hoped this was what he was planning when he had given me all these books, but I worried that he would change his mind.
"Yes, sir." I kept my voice calm, though I wanted to bounce and jump around with excitement. I was getting to learn Legilimency for real! No more stumbling through the hazy, black cloud of someone's mind, I would know what I was doing and it would work every time. Oh, there was so much I could do with a skill like this.
"Good. The headmaster is the only person outside you and I that will know of these lesson. He may discuss them with him and you may share what you have learned with him," his tone implied a drawn out 'obviously'. I nodded quickly, my calm façade not as strong as I would have liked. I didn't care who knew about these lessons as long as we can get on with them. "I gather you are ready to begin learning Legilimency?" His brows arched.
"Yes, sir!"
"Too bad. You will be beginning with Occlumency. What do you know about Occlumency?" I didn't let myself deflate over this announcement, though I was far more interested in Legilimency than I was in Occlumency.
"Legilimency allows you to see into another's mind while Occlumency is its counter, and allows the user to shield his thoughts from his attacker."
"Yes," he said, rising from his desk and once again going to the top shelf of his bookshelf. He pulled out a book and placed it in front of me: Occlumency, The Mind's Shield by A.J. Bennit. "You will read through chapter six by next week's lesson," he said and I nodded. "For tonight, we will see if you have any natural ability with this spell as well."
Several weeks passed and as the castle turned icy, I still was having no luck with Occlumency, an issue that frustrated me to no end. Yes, it had taken me months to have any success with Legilimency, but I assumed that since I already knew how to preform that to some degree that Occlumency would come faster. It didn't.
"Clear your mind!" Snape ordered again, his wand raised at me. I screwed up my face in concentration as his spell hit me and I tried desperately not to let him see my memories, but they came swarming to the surface anyways, like piranhas to red meat.
My dad was deciding that I couldn't live with them anymore.
I was sitting alone on an orphanage cot.
I was falling off my broomstick for the umpteenth time while Charlie tried to hold in a frustrated sigh.
Quickly, I threw up a shield charm and felt Snape's mind leave mine. "You cannot keep falling back on that shield charm," he reminded me, none too gently. "If you cannot clear you mind, teaching you Legilimency will be a waste of my time. You cannot afford others to have the opportunity to infiltrate your thoughts if you hold precious information inside your mind." I wondered when I would ever get the kind of information in my head that needed such fervent protecting, but I didn't ask. He had already told me that I would one day see. The sentence sounded ominous.
"I don't get it!" I said in frustration. "I keep trying to put a shield around my mind, how do you keep breaking through."
"It is not about having a shield to protect your thoughts," he said again. He had said the phrase so many times that I had lost count at least two lessons ago and I could quote his next words along with him, "It is about having to thoughts to protect."
"I'd have to empty my entire life into the Pensieve for that to work!" I complained. I was a thinker, Terence said I thought too much for my own good, so I was used to always having random ideas and scraps of memories breezing through my mind. How was I supposed to function if all that wasn't there? It didn't make sense. Snape sighed in irritation and looked at the clock which had already struck nine.
"Retrieve your memories and go," he said, nodding me towards the bowl on his desk. I had realized quite quickly when we began that there were several memories that I would rather him not see, including, but not limited to many memories involving the twins and their pranks that could get all of us into some real trouble. When I had brought the issue up, he had just smirked and said that it was added incentive for me to learn quickly, but after a long debate, he had agreed that I could stash some memories into the Pensieve, a memory storage device that belonged to Dumbledore, during our lessons.
Any pranks he happened to find out about in my thoughts could still be counted against us, but seeing as he couldn't let anyone know how he knew about the pranks, it just meant that Gryffindor started rapidly losing points for no real reason. The only good thing was that he couldn't penalize us for what we were only planning to do, though he did try his best to thwart the twins who had no idea how Snape had suddenly gotten so good at guessing their plans.
"Honestly, Skylar," Fred moaned one night while we were brewing the potion for the candy, "it's like became a Diviner over night!"
"Really?" I blamed the heat rising in my cheeks on the heat of the cauldron we were hiding in their room.
"How else could the slimy git know that we were planning on blowing up Vaisely's growth potion in class today?" The Slimy Git in question had seen the memory of twins telling me of the plot.
"What's the next step?" I asked to change the subject.
"Let it stew for twenty seven hours," Lee said, checking my notes. "Then add the Puffapod Pus. I wrinkled my nose, glad it would be well past curfew and therefore impossible for me to be there for that step.
"We'll take care of that one," George said, thoughts in line with mine.
"Though I'm not looking forward to it," Fred added and I had to agree. Puffapod Pus was nasty stuff.
"In that case, I'm going back to my own dormitory. I've got some homework to finish." I let my feet guide me and my mind wander and soon found myself passing the Wall. Somehow, I never could avoid it. The Heir's message was still there, red as ever though Filch had tried to scrub the wall clean several times. The last word continued to jump out at me. Beware, it said.
Beware, beware, beware beware bewarebewareBewareBEWARE.
I was still looking at the wall, when I heard a clatter of footsteps and three hushed voices arguing and I turned around the see Ron, Harry and Hermione stop in their tracks and look at me guiltily. "Where did you lot come from?" I asked surprised. I hadn't heard them come up the stairs.
"Nowhere," Ron said, though he glanced backwards. There was nothing behind him though except for the Out-of-Order toilet where Moaning Myrtle spent most of her time, dreary little ghost that she was. I filed the memory away for later, but outwardly let it go.
"Alright, well, goodnight," I said and started down the stairs to my own common room, trying to ignore the feeling of those crimson letters behind me. "Oh, wait, Ron?" I turned back. "Percy said you weren't coming home for Christmas. How come?"
"Er, just didn't feel like it, I guess. Too much trouble." How could going home for the holidays be too much trouble? I just nodded though and all three of them scurried away towards their common room. They were up to something, that much was obvious, but they were always up to something so I wasn't worried, yet.
One floor down, I ran into a far more unwelcome face than those of my foster brother and his friends. "Stop following me, Love," I scowled at the blond girl. I seemed to see her around every corner these days and she was always watching me with violet eyes that looked full to the brim with secrets. I didn't like others having secrets unless I knew them too and I wished, yet again, that we would get on with Legilimency so no one could keep secrets from me anymore.
"You shouldn't be walking alone this late," she said. "Let me walk you to your common room."
"No, thanks," I said irritably. "Besides, not that it's any of your business when I walk alone, but it's not even past curfew yet."
"It's late enough," she said airily.
"If you walk me to my common room, they'll be no one to walk you to yours," I reminded her. Sound logic that would hopefully keep her away for the night at least.
"I'm not a Muggleborn so I'm sure I'll be fine." I gritted my teeth.
"Leave me alone, Love," I hissed and stomped away.
When I was already several steps away, I thought I heard her say, "But then what kind of friend would I be." Refusing to dwell on that comment, I left her standing in the corridor.