Chapter 11 – A Quiet Christmas

It was the most beautiful, calm, and peaceful Christmas morning that Nick had not known for a long time. He was alone in his dormitory when he awoke at four o'clock in the morning. The majority of the Ravenclaws had gone home for the Christmas holidays, but Nick and the D.A. stayed behind. The plan was to rise early on Christmas morning to deliver the presents under the large Christmas tree that Mary, Daniel, and Nick, through combined efforts had managed to Conjure.

Quickly Nick dressed, reveling in the excitement of the day to come. He quickly grabbed the large parcel, which was chalk-full of Honeydukes sweets for the younger Muggle-borns. He descended the spiral staircase to meet Zoe, in the common room, and they would then proceed to the Room of Requirement.

Zoe was in fact, already waiting for him, with her enormous fluffy white cat purring contentedly on her lap. She was dozing off, apparently, but then darted to her feet when Nick arrived, obviously forgetting that her cat was sleeping on her lap. It hissed angrily and ran up the spiral staircase and into the dormitory.

"G'morning," she said sleepily, "Shall we go, then? I picked out some presents so far—look!" She picked up a small brown box that was laying innocently at her feet. Inside it were what appeared to be several white furballs with Christmas ribbon tied around their necks.

"My cat, Rowena, had kittens," she explained, "aren't they so cute?" She patted one affectionately, "I've already picked out who they're for…you'll see!"

Beaming at her white, fluffy kittens, Zoe lead Nick out of the common room and into the dark, deserted corridor.

"Oh—Happy Christmas, by the way," she said, and without waiting for Nick to reply, she continued, "oh, it's just way to early for this."

"I doubt we'll get caught—look," explained Nick. He pointed down the dark hall to a small wooden chair in which Professor Sinistra was snoring in, fast asleep, "it looks like it was her turn to patrol the hallways—er—well, if you call sleeping patrolling, anyway."

Zoe chuckled, "I guess we're fine, then."

For the most part, she was right. They reached the sixth floor with no difficulties, save for barley missing discovery by Peeves, who was zooming throughout the corridors singing Christmas songs (with rather rude replacement lyrics) at the top of his lungs.

Finally, they reached the grand oak doors to the Room of Requirement, which had just appeared out of thin air for them to enter. The Room was very quiet. Apparently none of the Muggle-borns had awoken yet. Instead, Mary and Daniel were busily Conjuring up baubles and ornaments out of their wands and Sarah Wardell was making them zoom lazily up onto the Christmas tree with her wand. Christina had arrived with many magical creatures for the décor as well, as she had a great love for them. She released an entire box of live fairies onto the tree, making it appear to be lit up.

"Ooh, they're so cute!" Lavender Brown exclaimed, reaching out to grasp one.

"Wait!" Christina warned, but it was too late. Lavender yelped out in alarm as the fairy clenched its teeth onto her finger.

"They bite," said Christina shortly, "you'd best steer clear of them. But they make good ornaments, though."

Lavender did not look very reassured as she massaged her bleeding finger, backing stealthily away from the fairies, who were swarming throughout the Christmas tree happily.

"I also brought some more magical creatures to give as Christmas gifts," Christina explained. She motioned towards a huge box that was jerking back and forth violently. Nick privately hoped that Christina did not have one for him. She beamed admiringly at the moving box.

More people had entered the Room of Requirement by now. Parvati Patil, and her twin sister, Padma, had arrived carrying large boxes of tinsel, a bloodied, tortured-looking Seamus and an equally wounded Dan had arrived to general applause for their beating on Malfoy. Lavender placed her arm around Seamus admiringly and asked him to retell the story of the Carrows' detention.

Although the Carrows had probably been horrible to them, Nick highly doubted that they had unleashed an army of flesh-hungry chimeras on Seamus, who single-handedly killed all of them and saved a helpless Dan, who was already being eaten by one. But as Lavender tightened her grip around him, the stories became more and more elaborate, and even still more daring as Parvati and Padma followed Lavender's lead.

At five o'clock, Sarah Doucette, Nikki, and Irene had entered, along with Erin Gilbert, a Gryffindor sixth year with short, curly black hair and tan skin, who was just becoming rather sympathetic to the D.A., after she was invited by Sarah Doucette. Neville, too had just come out of the boys' dormitory.

"Good morning, everybody," he said, beaming at them, "why don't we put our presents out underneath the tree, and we can make them trail across the room, it'll be a great surprise for them…"

Obediently, everyone pulled out their gifts, and placed them underneath the giant Christmas tree. Suddenly, the bleak Room of Requirement was transformed into a Christmas wintery wonderland, with seemingly hundreds of brightly wrapped, shining gifts laying about. Christina's fairies, which danced merrily around, were taking on

the effect of being millions of little fireflies.

Even Seamus had stopped telling his detention tales (the most recent one being about a three headed Cyclops) and looked in awe across the Room.

"It's amazing!" declared Christina in awe, "they're going to love it!"

Just then Kim Spencer came in, clutching an enormous clump of letters. She looked very gleeful. "I've written to almost all their parents!" she explained, "and they sent back some small letters, but I've been switching owls a lot and moving my position so the Carrows wouldn't get suspicious."

Just then, a small cry of delight came from the girls' dormitory entrance. It was little Katrina, her eyes as wide as bowling balls. She gasped in utter delight and looked from face to face of Nick and the other D.A. members who looked at her, beaming, in spite of themselves. Yes, it would truly be a great Christmas for the Muggle-borns. Katrina, apparently did not know what to do. After about five whole minutes of standing there with her jaw dropped, brown eyes wide, in her purple nightgown and untidy hair and rosy cheeks, she gave a sort of yelp and ran back into her dormitory, screaming:

"Rosalie! ROSALIE! TIFFANY! WAKE UP! IT'S FATHER CHRISTMAS! HE CAME!"

Christina laughed loudly as Katrina reappeared, pulling the hands of two bewildered first year girls. One of them had red puffy eyes and blonde hair, and was fighting to free herself from Katrina's eager grasp. The other had dark brown hair and was struggling to pull on her glasses to see. They too, however, became bewildered upon seeing the piles and piles of presents waiting for them

"Are—are—these for us?!" Katrina's blonde-haired friend gasped, dumbfounded.

Before any of the D.A. could respond, however, Katrina spoke.

"Of course they are, Rosalie! And ha! You didn't believe in Father Christmas anyway! Ooh, I hope you don't get coal!" she said dramatically.

The blonde girl, called Rosalie looked mortified.

"Well," declared Katrina's other friend, "we did tell you he existed, Rosalie…"

"What's going on!" a voice said sharply from the girls' dormitory, "Katrina? Rosalie? Tiffany? I thought I told you to be quiet, we're trying to get some—"

Laura had arrived on the scene, as she clutched her heart as her words failed her. She looked around admiringly at the members of the D.A., who were sitting and standing around.

Finally, she managed to say, "Did you do all this?"

Katrina looked up at Laura and said testily, "You're just like Rosalie, how many times to I have to tell you that Father Christmas—"

Katrina continued on, but Laura caught Nick's eye and smiled understandingly.

"Of course he did, Katrina," she said, patting the young girl on the shoulder, "But wait! We've got to wake up the others, c'mon!"

Without another word, Laura had gone off into the dormitory screaming with glee, just as Katrina had moments ago. Finally, when the girls were slowly emerging from the dormitory, pulling on robes and cloaks, the boys started to appear to, and were thoroughly excited. Soon, all of the Muggle-borns were sitting excitedly around the Christmas tree, warming up with the heat coming from the grand fireplace, which was cackling merrily with flames, which Seamus had just ignited with his wand.

"Well, should we start now?" Ian asked impatiently, gazing eagerly at a rather large gift, which sat in front of him and had his name on it.

"I s'pose," Christina answered vaguely, while levitating mistletoe up to hang from the ceiling.

Suddenly, the Room of Requirement was full of the sounds of crackling and crinkling of wrapping paper. Remarks of delight could also be heard from around the Room. Nick chose to sit down in front of the grand fireplace with Laura and Ian.

"Hmm," Laura remarked, "it's great that everyone's here. It's going to be a lot of fun, and then we've got the snowball fight… but hey, where's Demelza?"

"Er—well," Nick started nervously, "I—er—invited her to come, but she—"

"Probably refused because she starting to find out we're not as thick as she it, and don't trust her?" Ian supplied sarcastically.

"Well—er—no," Nick said, rather angrily, "but, Laura, she's been hanging with the Slytherins a lot, and yesterday…"

So Nick explained to Ian and Laura the eventful Potions class that they had had a few afternoons ago. Ian muttered, "Traitorous scum!" when Nick explained how she stood up for Malfoy while he was insulting Neville's parents.

"Honestly," Laura interjected, "doesn't she know that hanging around the Slytherins are just going to make us more apt to think she's the traitor?"

"She said she was just doing it to be rebellious, you know, make us a bit jealous even, maybe," explained Nick.

"Jealous?!" Ian said loudly, "well I know how I feel about that backstabbing little Slytherin, but it's certainly not jealousy!"

"Well, yeah, we know," Nick said hotly, "but what can we do?"

He stopped the conversation because several of Katrina's first year friends had opened their candy they had bought for them at Honeydukes.

"Ooh, it's shiny!" said Rosalie in awe, "I've never had Bertie Botte's Every Flavor Beans before?"

"You'd better be careful," warned Jordan, who was sitting next to Katrina and her friends, "they mean every flavor, if you aren't careful—"

It was too late. Rosalie had just bitten into a repulsive looking grayish orange bean and coughed, yelping.

"Ugh! It tastes like vomit!" she cried.

Ian sniggered. Over where the Hufflepuffs were sitting, the pudgy first year boy, Brock Bubar, was chasing a Chocolate Frog around the room and had toppled over onto Lavender Brown, who was talking to Parvati by the Christmas tree.

The first years had a grand time discovering the Wizarding candy, but the older students probably had the most fun watching them. Several times, unsuspecting first years had risen to the ceiling with enormous, hot air balloon sized bubbles coming out of their mouths. Nick suspected that someone had indeed bought the New Best Drooble's Blowing Gum. Some Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes candy had made it into the gifts as well, and the results were quite amusing. The most memorable, however, was when Laura innocently offered a cookie to Ian, while unbeknownst to him, she had expertly concealed a Canary Cream in its center. It took Ian ten whole minutes to shed all of his feathers and join in the laughter.

The present opening party lasted for several hours. Thankfully, however, it was very early in the morning and the Carrows would not take attendance until Christmas tea, which was later in the afternoon.

Nick had received many presents so far, including some new spellbooks, a new copy of his favorite book, A History of Magic by his favorite historian and friend, whom he had met once before, Bathilda Bagshot. He cringed a little when Christina came hurrying up to him, struggling to lift what appeared to be a very large and heavy wrapped package, labeled: To: Nick, From: Christina

Nervously, Nick said, "Er—thanks, Christina." He watched as she beamed at him. He anxiously opened the box, as Laura and Ian quickly inched away from him on either side. It appeared to be a small tank. It was filled with water to the brim. Inside it, two hideous brown fish-like creatures with round pudgy bodies, not unlike balloons, and two long legs with webbed feet, which stuck out from underneath them. They were—

"Freshwater Plimpies!" Christina exclaimed excitedly, "I bred mine! Aren't they so adorable!"

She tapped at the glass affectionately. Cute really wasn't the word Nick would use to describe them. In fact, there was nothing remotely cute about them. They simply looked like fat miniature balloons with feet that were staring at him, sitting at the bottom of the tank.

"Wow—er—thanks, Christina," was all Nick could think of for a reply, "they're really neat…"

"I knew you would love them!" she said happily, and then she added, "well, I best be off, I have to give my new chimera cub to Sarah, oh, I can't wait to see the look on her face!"

Nick couldn't wait to see the deranged look of horror that would momentarily be on Sarah's face, either, but as he turned around to watch, Zoe grabbed him from behind. He reeled around.

"Hi!" she said joyfully, "here's your present. One of Rowena's kittens!"

She reached down into her box and pulled out one of the fluffy white furballs. It was actually very cute. It's tiny pug-like face yawned as it looked up at Nick and started to purr affectionately. It had a green lacey ribbon around its neck. Zoe then handed one to everyone that was sitting by Nick (Ian had somehow been missed).

"Ooh, they're so cute," Laura gasped, twittering her fingers underneath her kitten's chin. I'm going to name her Noelle, I think, since it's Christmas and all…"

"Nice," Nick said, "I'll name mine—" he glanced down suddenly at A History of Magic, "Bathilda, I think."

Ian snorted. Laura beamed at him, "That's great!"

When the last of the presents were opened, it was nearly midday. The sun had fully risen and was reflecting beautifully over the snow-covered grounds. In the distance, Hagrid's cabin took on the appearance of a quaint little gingerbread house, with smoke bellowing from the chimney.

Before it was time for the D.A. members to return to the castle for Christmas tea for attendance, however, Neville announced that they would be having their indoor snowball fight, within the Room of Requirement. It was met with mixed response. Several of the younger students cheered enthusiastically but a few of the older girls muttered something about homework and moved toward the door, but Neville stopped them.

Sarah Wardell, who had been one of those who cautiously inched towards the door asked wildly, "But Neville, how in the WORLD are we going to get snow in here?!"

"Laura and Nick have got it all planned out," he said triumphantly.

Sarah looked over at Laura and Nick, who were standing by the fire with Ian and gave them a frown.

"Well, let's do it, then," Neville looked expectantly at Laura and Nick.

"Er—well," Nick said, "Torrent Charm, I s'pose…but shouldn't we have them put all their Christmas gifts in the dorms? It's about to get very wet."

Obediently, the students rushed around, gathering up books, candy, and pets and running to their dormitories. Ian agreed to take Nick's things and Bathilda to his dormitories. Within moments, an eager audience was standing in front of them once more.

"Okay, then," Nick continued, "The Torrent Charm, okay, Laura? Cheimarros!"

Laura followed suit and within moments, people were running frantically away from the raging currents of water, which gradually filled the room. Laura then declared:

"Switching Spells, right, Nick?"

"Right," Nick agreed. He sufficiently concentrated his mind on what he desired—snow, and said firmly, "Tranformiglio!"

After his and Laura's combined efforts, the water instantly changed into a thin layer of powdery snow. Neville looked at it rather disappointed.

"Oh well," he said, "that's not nearly enough…I guess it takes a lot of water to make snow accumulate…but it's not like we can submerge the Room in water…"

"We don't have to," Laura said smartly, pulling out a little green bottle from her robes, "I brewed this the other night. If it works properly, with each drop, the snow should multiply in size…and also give the right texture for snowballs."

Neville looked at her in admiration, "Wow. He said softly, you think of everything, don't you?"

Laura blushed furiously, "Well, there's not much else to do around here," she said finally and then she looked at Nick and whispered, "unless you're going around snogging people all the time…" To Nick's surprise, she pointed over at Ian, who was holding hands with Jordan.

"What? You mean Ian—?"

"Uh-huh," she said matter-of-factly, keeping her voice down, "it's ALL he's been doing lately ever since he started going out with Jordan the other day."

"Well," said Nick darkly, "at least they have scheming against their friends in common…"

Laura gave him an I-know-what-you-mean look and then held out her little green bottle out, looking at it fondly and dropping three drops onto the snow. Instantly, it tripled before their eyes. Laura beamed at her green bottle.

"And one more drop ought to do it…" Another drop of the potion fell on the snow its entire mass doubled in size. Nick was now standing in three feet of wet, clumpy snow.

"Amazing," Neville declared, looking at Laura. She blushed again, and Neville declared in a loud, booming voice: "Okay! Let's have some fun! FIGHT!"

It was complete and utter pandemonium. Stray snowballs zoomed to and fro, smashing a bookcase in the corner and caused the books to fall off of it, soggy and damp. The younger students, who had bent over to make snowballs, were immediately pummeled to the ground by the older students, who had already crafted their own snowballs using magic. In the corner, Nick could see Katrina taking refuge on the other side of a snow bank with Tiffany, as her friend Rosalie had been pummeled to the ground fiercely by Ian's icy attack. Nick reeled around quickly to scoop up more snow with his wand, but Christina had sent an enormous chunk of wet snow his way, and before he could deflect it, it crashed into him and he was smashed to the ground, snow seeping into his robes, making him freeze.

Obviously fearing the violent collisions, out of the corner of his eye, Nick saw Sarah nervously piling up the armchairs and desks on top of each other, to form a sort of protective fort. She beamed at her creation and darted inside, quickly followed by Laura, who was shepherding several first year Ravenclaw girls, Katrina included, behind it. They screamed happily. Nick got slowly to his feet and headed for Sarah's fort before he saw Jordan (with Ian's assistance) levitate a gigantic snowball, the size of two of Hagrid, up into the air and sent it smashing at full speed onto Sarah's fort.

Several screams came from inside as Jordan's snowball made impact and imploded upon all those who sought refuge inside. Covered in snow from head to foot and cursing loudly, Sarah emerged from her destroyed work of art and pelted snowballs angrily at Jordan and Ian, who were seeking shelter from behind a squashy armchair.

Nick carefully beamed a snowball in Ian's direction, and it struck him head on from behind the armchair, but no one's snowballs were more destructive than Sarah Wardell's. She had launched a snow ball right above Mary's head which struck the bookcase and sent a particularly thick book falling until it landed with a satisfying thunk on Mary's skull, which made her a little dazed, and when Ian was able to finally revive her, she got up and squawked, while moving her arms around, clucking like a chicken around the Room. Everyone roared with laughter, even Sarah, though she looked faintly scared at what she had done.

"WATCH OUT!" declared Seamus quickly, as Neville, Parvati, Padma, and Lavender had launched a full out attack on the rest of them, sending snowballs whizzing around them. But this time, Nick was ready for them. He pointed his wand at them and muttered a few choice words, thus making the snowballs burst into harmless bits of ice and snow, which then fell clumsily to the ground.

After what seemed like hours, the snowball fight finally drew to a close. Christmas tea was approaching, and the Carrows would have to take attendance of all those who had stayed behind, and it might look very suspicious if they were all missing. Slightly disappointed that he would have to leave the fight early, he slowly trudged through the snow, following the other half-bloods and purebloods out of the Room of Requirement.

After they had left, Nick performed a tricky little spell to dry everyone off and leave their clothes feeling like they had been warming in front of a fire for hours. They walked in silence quite unhappily down to the Hall.

Though the Great Hall was heavily decorated for Christmas, it certainly did not seem as welcoming as the Room of Requirement had been.

Perhaps, it was the company. The four House tables were gone and instead, one large table was placed in the center of the Hall. Up at the staff table, Professor McGonagall was conversing rather gravely with Professor Slughorn. Perhaps he was telling her of his eventful Potions class the other day. Professor Flitwick was digging into his Wizard Crackers, laughing merrily. Professor Sinistra was trying to settle a fight that had broken out between Firenze and a distraught and bewildered looking Professor Trelawney, who smelled strongly of sherry. Professor Vector was talking to Professor Sprout, meanwhile Professor Binns, the ghost who taught History of Magic, was gazing mournfully at his food, as he could not eat it. The Carrows were sitting on either side of Snape, looking quite smug.

Nick glanced around at the students' table to see that most of the D.A. had arrived, and a few Slytherins had as well, Demelza included. She looked quite sad, on the contrary, but stiffened her gaze as she saw the D.A. had already assembled, and many of them were shooting angry glances at her.

Snape did not even wish them a Happy Christmas as Dumbledore used to, in fact he said nothing at all, simply staring down at his tea apprehensively. He looked very stressed, with dark circles under his eyes. The slimeball, maybe he had been punished by Voldemort for inadequately searching for the Muggle-borns. In any case, Nick was hopeful that he would be replaced soon, despite Demelza's attempts to find some good in him.

After all the students had assembled, Alecto rose with a clipboard in her arms, holding a large black quill. She began to take attendance. Typically, she started with the Slytherins.

"George, Rebecca?"

"Here."

"Higgleworth, Aaron?"

"Yup."

"Ramirez, Demelza?"

Nick heard Demelza give a dull, "here", and then he opened his new A History of Magic book and began to read the new introduction written by historian Arma Alden.

About The Author: Miss Bathilda Bagshot, ninety-three, currently resides in peaceful retirement inside her home at Godric's Hollow. Her latest work is the collaboration with Daily Prophet reporter Rita Skeeter, on her bestselling book, The Life & Lies of Albus Dumbledore. One of the many Wizarding gems who reside(d) in Godrics's Hollow, along with Albus Dumbledore himself and The Boy Who Lived (Harry Potter), Miss Bagshot has already left a lifelong mark on the Wizarding world.

So Harry had lived in Godric's Hollow. It made sense, seeing as it was one of the most Wizard-populated towns in all of Britain. Before Nick could read on, however, Alecto had already progressed to the Ravenclaws.

"Schider, Zoe?"

"Here."

"Southwick, Nicholas?"

"Here," Nick replied, he hastily put his book away as Alecto finished attendance and turned to his tea. He drank it quickly, scalding his throat, eager to return to the Room of Requirement to spend more time with Ian and Laura. Quickly, clutching A History of Magic, Nick made his way back upstairs, and reentered the Room of Requirement.

When the giant oak doors appeared for him and he rushed through them, the snow was disappearing before his eyes. Neville, apparently, had worked his magic, and the Room was already clearing it up for them. Nick walked over steadily to the first clump of armchairs he found, and to his delight, Laura was already sitting there. She was stroking her new kitten, Noelle, fondly. She looked up at Nick immediately.

"Hi," she said, "how was Christmas tea?"

"Horrible," came Nick's reply, "you can't talk freely down there, with the Carrows swooping down on you…"

Laura nodded in agreement. Nick had been expecting Ian to be sitting beside Laura, but the rest of the armchairs were empty.

"Hey—where's Ian?"

Laura simply pointed across the room, where Ian and Jordan were kissing under some of Christina's mistletoe.

"It was scary," Laura said, "right after you left Sarah's new chimera cub went crazy and spitted flames at everyone… I don't know how Christina got it, to tell you the truth…chimeras are part of Magical Creature Safety Degree number fifty-five and it says that they're untradeable and…"

As Laura restated the entire Magical Creature Safety Constitution, Nick couldn't help but wonder whether Demelza would turn up any time soon. He had invited her, after all…

"But anyway," Laura said quickly, obviously seeing that her reciting the Magical Creature Safety Constitution was losing her friend's concentration, "we needed something to contain it, so the Room gave us that thing over there—"

She pointed to a large see-through tank across the Room, in which a furious ugly brown little creature was sitting inside.

"It's burn-proof," Laura said shortly, "Sarah's going to see if Hagrid will take it. Which reminds me—are you seriously thinking about going to his 'Potter Party' or whatever it's called, 'cause Nick, I really don't think you should, it's not worth it—"

"'Course not," Nick said quickly. Truthfully, he had not decided whether he should attend it or not.

"Oh, good," Laura said, "and did you hear? Ginny sent Neville an owl this morning—she's not coming back to school after the holidays."

"Wha—why?"

"She didn't say, but it's easy enough to figure out, though," Laura said, as though Nick should have already known why.

"Er—why then?"

Laura looked very happy. She absolutely delighted in knowing things that Nick didn't.

"Well, I think that her brother, Ron's been discovered to be working with Harry, probably," she said matter-of-factly, "because Ginny's older brothers and father have left work and they're in hiding. The Death Eaters would have gone after them to get to Ron, and ultimately, Harry."

"Oh," Nick replied, "well that makes since, I s'pose…I sure hope Harry would hurry up with his mission, though. You're bound to be found out by the Carrows any day now if the traitor tells them anything else."

"But Nick," Laura gasped, "it could take years! It's probably got to do with a lot of complex magic…and, oh! I wish we could've helped them…"

She was right, it did seem strange that Harry had denied their help when they had offered it last year. Nine or ten people would definitely stand more of a chance then only three. Still, they had to trust his judgment.

"Hullo," said Ian suddenly, as he dropped into the vacant chair next to them, looking quite dazed, "Nick, how was tea?"

"Not very good," was Nick's reply, "So, you've been seeing a lot of Jordan lately, I hear…"

"Uh-huh," Ian said, still looking over at her, "Yeah, it's been great. We met and talked to each other for the first time when we were talking about Ramirez…"

Behind Ian's back, Laura smirked. Neither she, nor Nick had a reply to this. Thankfully, Ian kept talking.

"So, you've got N.E.W.T.s soon, eh, Nick?" he said, "Well, enjoy them. I'd rather be stuck up in here rather than doing the tests, so I s'pose it's all for the better."

"Ian!" Laura gasped, "but what about our careers? Our futures? We have to pass our N.E.W.T.s to—"

"Oh, come on Laura, d'you think it'll matter how many N.E.W.T.s we've got while were fighting You-Know-Who?"

"Well, you'll need to know Defense Against the Dark Arts," Laura snapped back at him.

"Well yeah, but we've only got the Dark Arts now, remember?"

Nick held up his hand to silence Laura, who was about to retort.

"I'm sure you'll be able to take your N.E.W.T.s after this mess is over," he said firmly, "but for now, I think you should focus on staying alive."

"Meaning we've got to catch the traitor sooner or later," Ian said, "which is why Jordan and I just Seamus and Dan to go Imperiuse Ramirez—"

"You WHAT!?" yelled Nick in alarm.

Ian looked at him suspiciously, "What d'you mean? We have to do something, it's just like you said, we've got to focus on staying alive, and it won't hurt her, just force her not to say anything else about us, and if she breaks through the curse though and turns us in, Seamus says he'll do the Cruciatus Curse or lock her up—"

"IAN!" Laura gasped, "but that's illegal…"

Nick rose quickly on his feet, knocking over his armchair in his haste. He turned to leave.

"But Nick! The feast…won't you stay?" Laura called after him.

"I've got to find Demelza and warn her—"

"I KNEW IT!" Ian screamed, launching himself after Nick, who was already sprinting out of the Room, "YOU'VE BEEN WORKING WITH HER, YOU—"

"YOU'VE KNOWN HER FOR SIX YEARS, IAN! SHE DIDN'T DO THIS! NOW, STOP BEING SO THICK AND GET—OFF—ME!"

In triumph, Nick shoved Ian off and quickly left the Room. Standing there, appalled and looking as though Nick might have grown three extra heads, Ian froze. He couldn't dare leave the Room.

"Coward," Nick hissed at him. He turned quickly and headed down to the entrance hall. He had a general idea of where the Slytherin common room was, but he couldn't be sure that that was where Demelza could be… He had to find her before Seamus and Dan did, and before they did something they would regret for the rest of their lives…