Chapter Fourteen:
The Fake Dementors
Saturday, February 5th , 1994,
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry,
Kali Kalakaua Lupin Morrigan Black,
The weather couldn't have been more different from the last Quidditch match, Kali noted as she stepped out from the Forbidden Forest. It was a clear, cool day with a very light breeze; there would be no visibility problems this time, which was going to make watching the match a lot more pleasant.
She gradually slowed her pace until she reached the castle doors where she stopped to stretch. Running through the Forbidden Forest in the early hours of the morning was ill-advised; if a teacher spotted her, she'd likely wind up in detention for the rest of the year, not to mention Remus would probably kill her. But you could only jog around the castle grounds so many times before it became dreadfully boring, so she accepted the risk. The Forest wasn't so bad so long as you were careful, the way you ought to be in every forest, and its inhabitants were only dangerous if you got in their way, but if you left them alone, they would leave you alone. Besides, it was too beautiful a place to steer clear of, with all kinds of treasures to discover and explore, and it wasn't like she went unprepared, she always took her wand with her and Pan was always by her side.
Speaking of, something had caught his attention down by Hagrid's hut, a scent on the breeze, gone before he could really process it. This had been happening a lot since they'd started at Hogwarts; if it wasn't a vanishing scent, it was padded footsteps on stone floors, fallen leafs and branches cracking under the weight of something just out of sight, a flash of something just out the corner of her eye, that prickle at the back of her neck she got when she was being followed... At first she'd shrugged it off as being part of the creepy, haunted castle vibe that Hogwarts had going on, but now she wasn't so sure. In fact, she was starting to think that she had a stalker, not of the human variety – they were easier to catch. Maybe it was just Peeves messing with her, but he had the attention span of a two year old with ADHD, she doubted he'd have managed to keep it up for this long.
"Do you want me to go check it out?" asked Pan. He was about ten times more freaked out about the situation than she was, and she knew that it went against every instinct he had to ignore a possible threat, the real and deadly kind, but whatever this was, it didn't feel dangerous. It didn't feel particularly safe either, though, which was why she didn't want Pan going after it alone, and as she had other things to do today, finding her invisible stalker could wait.
"Not if you want to eat before the game starts."
The tempting smells of breakfast were wafting though the air, and, as always, his stomach won out. He was the first through the door, and he didn't even complain when she took a detour to her dorm for a quick shower. The Great Hall was still practically empty by the time she got there with only the Ravenclaw Quidditch team huddled together, bleary-eyed, and a handful of others.
"What are you doing up so early?" she asked as she sat in front of Theodore Nott.
Theodore was more Draco's friend than he was hers. The two of them had known each other growing up, each being deemed a suitable playmate for the other as they were both heirs to noble pure-blood families. Despite this, Kali wasn't convinced they truly liked each other. They'd sit next to each other in class when their options were limited and they got along well enough, but they never sought out each others' company.
He glanced up at her and bookmarked the page he was at in a well-worn paperback. "I wanted to get an early start on homework, and yourself?"
"I went for a run." She passed Pan a piece of bacon before piling some onto her plate. "We don't have that much homework for next week, do we?"
"Those of us who want to attempt to keep up with you do." He took off his glasses and put them down on the cover of his book. He had very narrow blue eyes that looked surprisingly humorous given that this was the longest conversation they'd ever had together.
"I'm glad I can motivate you to improve your grades."
He smiled, revealing two front teeth that were longer than the rest, giving him a rabbity appearance. "It's been bad enough always coming in third after Granger and Malfoy, now I'm not even in the top three. My father will be disappointed."
The notion didn't seem terribly upsetting to him, but it was always hard to tell with pure-bloods, especially the aristocratic ones.
After arriving at Hogwarts, Kali had done some research into the wizarding community in the United Kingdom, and the deeper she dug, the darker its history became. Muggle hunting as an official sport; complete ownership of women first by their father then by their husband; old tales of cannibalism that claimed that eating the hearts of your enemies would transfer their magical ability to you; numerous accounts of filicide when the child was born deformed or without magic, some of which happened far too recently for comfort. It was the stuff of nightmares and horror movies hidden beneath the façade of gentility, and each pure-blood family had its own long list of sins.
She couldn't claim to know much about Joseph Nott specifically, except that he was quite old, a widower, and that he was suspected of being one of Voldemort's earliest followers; he'd bought his way out of a conviction, though, so no jail time for him. Theodore had two sisters who were fairly older than he was, both had already been married off, one to the Crabbe family, the other to the Selwyn family – good matches, Kali was told. Rumour had it that their mother had died in childbirth – one of the leading causes of death for pure-blood witches – and the child, a stillborn son, was mourned more than she was, three guesses as to why anyone?
"I'm sure you'll manage to make it up to him," she said lightly.
"I was thinking you could tutor me."
Now that was odd, it wasn't common for Slytherins to ask for help. "Unless he wants something else and this is his underhanded way of asking for it," Pan piped up, still munching down on his breakfast.
"You have some very serious trust issues, you know that?"
"You were thinking it too."
He wasn't wrong, but she wasn't about to let paranoia get the better of her. "I could do that," she said aloud.
"Good, are you busy this evening? Say seven o'clock?"
They agreed to meet up at the library after dinner, and the Great Hall started filling up with students who brought with them the excited chatter and over-abundance of House spirit that only popped up on game days. Today's match would decide whether Gryffindor stood a chance in the school leagues, if they lost today they'd be out of the running for the Cup which explained why so many people were decked out in Ravenclaw blue. The Slytherin team, in particular, had gone over the top in its show of support with robes charmed to match the Ravenclaws' House colours and a large bronze eagle painted over their backs.
A commotion by the large double doors drew her attention away from the extravagant display and she spotted Harry, decked out in his Quidditch robes and surrounded by a sort of guard of honour made up of the boys in his dormitory. They stood tall, chins raised high, and bright smiles on their faces, occasionally casting glances at the broom slung over Harry's shoulder. It took her an embarrassingly long second to figure out what the fuss was about, too distracted by the comedic aspect of the scene, but upon further inspection she realised that she recognized that broom, it was a Firebolt, a recently released state-of-the-art racing broom that was the envy of any Quidditch player, and apparently quite a few non Quidditch players too if the swell of excited muttering that overcame the Great Hall was any indication. Kali chanced a glance at the Slytherin team to see their take on this new development; if their thunderstruck expressions were anything to go by, they weren't thrilled.
The reflected glory of the Firebolt was brighter than a sun and warm enough to bask in, and Oliver Wood, the Gryffindor team Captain, made sure that they made the most of it by laying the broom in the middle of the Gryffindor table. People from the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables were soon going over for a closer look and a few reverent caresses of the polished handle.
"Oh for the love of Circe, it's only a broom," Pan scoffed, snatching at another piece of bacon while no one was looking.
"Not just any broom. That is an aerodynamic masterpiece."
"No," he said, turning into a peregrine falcon. "This is an aerodynamic masterpiece, that thing over there is an abomination. Humans weren't meant to fly, it's unnatural."
"You're just jealous that you're not the centre of attention today."
She excused herself from Theodore and started toward the Gryffindor table.
"Where are you going?" Pan asked, flying onto her shoulder.
"Where do you think?"
She stepped into the gathered crowd just as Percy bustled off after his Ravenclaw girlfriend to join her in a piece of toast.
"Nice broom, Harry," Kali said, walking up to him. Pan flew from her shoulder and landed on the table, turning into a small chipmunk and sniffing at the broom in distaste.
"Thanks," Harry beamed. It was nice to see him this happy again. His mood had been a little rocky since the last Quidditch game, but apparently all it took to raise his spirits was a new broom. Good to know.
Fred and George drew her in for a private conversation and she wished the rest of the team good luck as the twins herded her away. She'd started being able to tell them apart without having to rely on sense of smell, it wasn't easy as they were really very similar to one another, but there were slight differences in speech and actions that were barely noticeable most of the time but more reliable for long distance identification, except for when they had their backs turned or were deliberately mucking up their mannerisms just to mess with her.
They wedged themselves into a dark alcove outside the Great Hall where they could see all the comings and goings but where no one would be able to spot them unless they really looked.
"Did you get it?" asked George.
"Of course I got it, who do you take me for?" she said, producing several shrunken cases of butterbeer and other goodies from her jacket pocket.
The twins had been too busy last night with Quidditch practice to do their usual pre-game trip to Hogsmeade, so Kali had gone for them. They'd shown her the secret passageway behind the statue of the hump-backed witch that led to the Honeydukes' cellar a few weeks ago which made sneaking out of the castle a lot easier. She'd gone to the Hog's Head rather than the Three Broomsticks to get the butterbeer and unsurprisingly the bartender, who had oddly familiar blue eyes, hadn't asked any questions. Honeydukes had been practically deserted by the time she'd gotten back and she hadn't wanted to risk buying anything upfront so she'd sneaked back down to the cellar, filled a few crates with sweets, and left the money lying around where the owner would find it without making it look suspicious.
"Your Shrinking Charm is very good," Fred observed as he fiddled with one of the tiny sweet crates."
"I've put a timer on the spell to make sure that it will have worn off by this afternoon, so don't keep them in your pockets."
"That could be interesting," he said with that all too familiar mischievous glint in his eyes. "Maybe we could charm them to go back to their normal size during the game and stuff a few in the Ravenclaw team's pockets."
"That would be called cheating," Kali felt the need to remind him, "and cheating is bad."
George cooed and ruffled her hair. "The little Slytherin on our shoulder."
"Piss off," she said, shoving him away and rolling her eyes, although they probably missed the eye roll in the dark. "How come you're so sure you're going to win the match anyway?"
"We have a Firebolt on our side," said Fred.
"We can't lose," finished George.
"Have you seen the Ravenclaw line-up for this game? Their Keeper may not be brilliant, but their Seeker is."
"Not as brilliant as Harry," said George.
"You haven't seen him play properly yet," said Fred. "That last game doesn't count, but there's a reason he was the youngest player Hogwarts had seen in a century."
"Not everyone seems to think so. I've seen a few people place bets against you." The underground betting ring at Hogwarts was something to behold, it was nearly as old as the school itself and covered everything from Quidditch to test results to Gobstone matches. It was run by Seventh Year Ravenclaws, who, every year, passed on the mantle to their successors. Every teacher in the school knew about it, but either it was too much of an ingrained tradition to put an end to, or they'd tried and failed and somewhere along the line given up.
"Not everyone knows that Harry's been taking extra classes with Professor Lupin to learn how to keep the Dementors away," George pointed out.
That was true. "You ought to go hide these in your dorm before the match," she said, handing them the last of the miniaturised crates.
They both ruffled her hair as they left and she fired a couple of low grade Stinging Jinxes after them, both hit their mark, but the twins merely cackled manically as they ran up the stairs.
"What are the odds one of them ends up in prison?" Pan asked snidely. He had yet to place his seal of approval on this friendship, and he made sure to remind her of that whenever possible.
"They're harmless."
"I beg to differ, my tail hairs are still blackened from that ' harmless' explosion of theirs. Do you know how difficult it is to fly with singed tail feathers?"
She let him rant as she headed for the library, she had some books to return before the match started, and if she was quick she might even have time to peruse the shelves and borrow a few more. She took three different secret passages to get there, the last one wasn't much of a shortcut, but she went down it anyway simply because she could. She'd done well since school began, discovering all kinds of secret passageways and hidden rooms, but as it had turned out, she'd known very little when compared to the mind of information that the twins shared. Now that she knew everything they did, she felt more at home at Hogwarts than she ever had before.
She greeted Madam Pince with a smile and the librarian nodded back rather stiffly. She was a hard one to win over, Madam Pince, but Kali would not let that deter her. She made sure she was out of sight of the librarian before taking the borrowed books out of her pocket and returning them to their normal size. She imagined Madam Pince might throw a fit if she knew that Kali was casting spells on her precious books, even if it was something as harmless as a Shrinking Charm. She delicately placed the books onto the return pile, and silently padded over to the Charms section. This week, her curiosity led her to a shelf of books on healing spells. She leafed through a few before selecting five big tomes that covered everything from boils to back pains to missing limbs.
She still had some time before the game started, so she heaved her pile of books over to her favourite spot: a window seat on the mezzanine, hidden away in a nook of the Muggle literature section. She was working her way through the introductory chapter of one of the easier spell books when a loud snapping sound and a flash of light almost had her falling off of her seat. She caught herself and looked up at the cause of her near heart attack: a very small, mousy-haired boy who held an old-fashioned Muggle camera between both hands. He was staring at her as though transfixed and the moment she looked at him, he went bright red.
"At least now we know that you've finally learned to go for your wand when something dangerous and scary rounds the corner," Pan sniggered. He was still pilfering food from the Gryffindor table, and his sudden screeching laughter startled the little girl next to him who spilled her orange juice all other herself and him.
"Serves you right," she muttered, trying to get her heart rate back under control. She loosened her grip on her wand and pointed it away from the small child. "Who are you?"
"Colin Creevey," he said breathlessly, taking a tentative step forward.
"I didn't hear you coming." Which wasn't a surprise all things considered, he looked like he weighed less than her five new books did.
"I didn't mean to startle you, it's just that you looked really peaceful."
"I was."
"You're Kali Black, right?" he asked very quickly and didn't wait for her to answer. "Your dad's been all over the news, even in the Muggle world. I'm Muggle-born, and I told my dad – he's a milkman – that you started to go to school here and he said to stay away from you, just in case. But I think that if I send him this picture, he won't be so worried anymore. What do you think?"
The kid was talking a mile a minute and Kali actually had a hard time keeping up. Not sure what else to do, she nodded slowly and agreed with him.
His grin split his face in two. "Thanks. Hey, are you not going to watch the match? It's Ravenclaw versus Gryffindor today, and Harry Potter has this really great new broom so Gryffindor's bound to win, even though my friend Jake in Hufflepuff says that they'd have to win by loads if they want a shot at winning the Cup. But I'm not worried, I know Harry can do it. Which team are you going to cheer for? I know that most of the Slytherins are supporting Ravenclaw, but you're friends with Harry and the Weasley twins, right? I'd have thought you'd be on Gryffindor's side today."
"That's right," she said when his excited chatter died down and he looked at her expectantly for an answer.
"Oh good, I'll see you there then." He waved energetically as he left, leaving Kali alone again in her little corner.
She let out a long breath, and kept nervously glancing up at the path that led back to the rest of the library as she stacked her books. She hadn't realised she was so on edge until she'd drawn her wand on a little boy who was barely half her size, but apparently this stalker issue was getting to her more than she'd led herself to believe. She checked out the books with Madam Pince and shrank them down as soon as she was out from under the librarian's watchful eyes. It was quarter to eleven and by the time she made it down to the stadium and up into the bleachers, the teams were walking out onto the field to tumultuous applause. She was dragged down into a seat and spotted Daphne and Blaise on either side of her.
"Where have you been?" Daphne asked still clasping her hand.
"Library," she said, rubbing at a stitch in her side.
"Where else," Blaise drawled.
The teams faced each other on the pitch, red on one side, blue on the other, as the crowd cheered loudly, thrumming with a collective excited energy, only to quieten when Madam Hooch joined the teams, the box of balls levitating behind her.
"Wood, Davies, shake hands," Madam Hooch said briskly, and the team Captains shook hands in the only show of cordiality there would be before the game began. "Mount your brooms… on my whistle… three – two – one -"
All fourteen players kicked off into the air, but all eyes were drawn to the Firebolt which zoomed higher and faster than any other broom.
Lee Jordan, one of Fred and George's friends was providing the commentary. "They're off, and the big excitement this match is the Firebolt that Harry Potter is flying for Gryffindor. According to Which Broomstick, the Firebolt is going to be the broom of choice for the national teams at this year's World Championship -"
"Jordan, would you mind telling us what's going on in the match?" interrupted Professor McGonagall's voice.
"Right you are, Professor – just giving a bit of background information – the Firebolt, incidentally, has a built-in auto-brake and -"
"Jordan!"
"Okay, okay, Gryffindor in possession, Katie Bell of Gryffindor, heading for goal…"
Lee and Professor McGonagall, despite the latter's unwitting participation, made for a brilliant comedic commentary duo, making the game entertaining even for those who weren't a fan of the sport.
Harry streaked past the stands, gazing around for the Snitch, with Cho Chang, the Ravenclaw Seeker, tailing him closely. The twins hadn't been exaggerating, he was an excellent flyer, even with Chang cutting across him, forcing him to change direction. He outmanoeuvred her by putting on a burst of speed as they rounded the Ravenclaw goal posts and she fell behind, just as Katie Bell succeeded in scoring the first goal of the match, and the Gryffindor end of the field went wild. Lee had barely finished announcing the score when Harry dived, Chang tearing after him. The Snitch was close to the ground, flitting near one of the barriers, and Harry was speeding up. He was ten feet away when a Bludger, hit by one of the Ravenclaw Beaters, went pelting towards him out of nowhere. He veered off course, avoiding it by an inch, and in those few, crucial seconds, the Snitch had vanished.
There was a great "Ooooooh" of disappointment from the Gryffindor supporters, but much applause for their Beater from the Ravenclaw end. George vented his feelings by hitting the second Bludger directly at the offending Beater, who was forced to roll right over in midair to avoid it.
"Gryffindor leads by eighty points to zero, and look at that Firebolt go! Potter's really putting it through its paces now, see it turn – Chang's Comet is just no match for it, the Firebolt's precision-balance is really noticeable in these long -"
"JORDAN! ARE YOU BEING PAID TO ADVERTISE FIREBOLTS? GET ON WITH THE COMMENTARY!"
Ravenclaw was pulling back; they had now scored three goals, which put Gryffindor only fifty points ahead. If Ravenclaw scored any more points, it wouldn't matter if Harry caught the Snitch, Gryffindor would sit squarely at the bottom of the leagues. Both teams seemed very much aware of this fact, because the Gryffindors were getting more frantic and the Ravenclaws were upping their game.
Kali caught sight of the Snitch circling the Gryffindor goal post, as did Harry. He accelerated, eyes fixed on the speck of gold ahead – but just then, Cho appeared out of thin air, blocking him.
"HARRY, THIS IS NO TIME TO BE A GENTLEMAN!" Wood roared loud enough for everyone to hear as Harry swerved to avoid a collision. "KNOCK HER OFF HER BROOM IF YOU HAVE TO!"
The Snitch had vanished again and Chang looked very proud of herself. Harry turned his Firebolt upward and was soon twenty feet above the game. Chang followed him up. She'd decided to mark him rather than search for the Snitch herself, not a bad move considering that every time it had appeared Harry had been the first to spot it. He dived again, and Chang followed. Kali couldn't see the Snitch anywhere and she realised why as Harry pulled out of the dive very sharply and Chang continued to hurtle downward. It was a feint, a beautifully executed feint. Harry rose fast as a bullet once more and accelerated toward the Ravenclaw end where the Snitch was glittering way above the field. Chang, who was now many feet below Harry, did her best to race him, but he was winning, gaining on the Snitch with every second – then -
"Oh!" screamed Chang , pointing down at the field.
Every gaze in the stadium looked down. Three tall, black, hooded dementors, were looking up at the players. Kali drew her wand but she needn't have bothered. Harry plunged a hand down the neck of his robes, whipped out his wand and roared, "Expecto patronum!"
Something silver-white and enormous erupted from the end of his wand and shot directly at the dementors, it galloped toward them, antlers lowered, ready to attack, and the dementors fell apart. Literally. They tumbled to the ground, long, black, hooded robes falling away to reveal Draco, Vincent, Gregory, and Marcus. Draco, who had been standing on Gregory's shoulders, fell on top of the other two boys, and the four of them lay in a crumpled, heap on the ground all struggling to remove themselves from the dark robes.
Harry hadn't paused to watch, though, hadn't even seen that his attackers hadn't been dementors at all, he kept going, faster and faster. He stretched out the hand still grasping his wand and just managed to close his fingers over the small, struggling Snitch.
Madam Hooch's whistle sounded, and six scarlet blurs bore down on Harry; next moment, the whole team was hugging and Kali worried for a minute that they might all fall off their brooms.
The roars of the Gryffindors in the crowd were deafening and Kali joined in with them as the team managed to make its way back to the ground. She joined the gaggle of Gryffindor supporters who were sprinting onto the field and who soon engulfed the entire team. She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see Remus.
"He did it," she beamed. "He cast a Patronus."
"That he did," said Remus, looking both shaken and pleased. " Come on, lets go congratulate him."
There were cheers all around them as they made their way to the centre of the crowd.
"Yes!" Ron yelled, yanking Harry's arm into the air. "Yes! Yes!"
"Well done, Harry!" said Percy, looking delighted. "Ten Galleons to me! Must find Penelope, excuse me -"
"Good for you, Harry!" roared Seamus Finnigan.
"Ruddy brilliant!" boomed Hagrid over the heads of the milling Gryffindors.
"That was quite some Patronus," said Remus once they'd reached Harry.
"The dementors didn't affect me at all!" Harry said excitedly. "I didn't feel a thing!"
Remus glanced over at Kali then back at Harry. "That would be because they – er – weren't dementors. Come and see -"
He led Harry out of the crowd until they were able to see the edge of the field.
"You gave Mr. Malfoy quite a fright," said Remus.
The four Slytherin boys still hadn't managed to extract themselves from the long robes, and now, standing over them, with an expression of the utmost fury on her face, was Professor McGonagall.
"An unworthy trick!" she was shouting. "A low and cowardly attempt to sabotage the Gryffindor Seeker! Detention for all of you, and fifty points from Slytherin! I shall be speaking to Professor Dumbledore about this, make no mistake! Ah, here he comes now!"
Harry didn't seem disappointed that it wasn't dementors who had caused the scene, he found the situation hilarious, and when Ron finally fought his way to their side, he doubled up with laughter as they all watched Malfoy fighting to extricate himself from the robe, Goyle's head still stuck inside it. If anything could have set the seal on Gryffindor's victory, it was this.
"Come on, you lot !" said George, fighting his way over. "Party! Gryffindor common room, now!"
He grabbed hold of Kali's hand as he and the rest of the Gryffindor team led the way, still in their scarlet robes, out of the stadium and back up to the castle. She glanced back at Remus, who was pretending very hard not to hear the word 'party' that was being repeated over and over by the retreating crowd, and waved as she was dragged away.
She'd never been in the Gryffindor Common Room before, and she thought is looked nice, in a cosy sort of way, but it was in no way big enough for this many people. Not only were all the Gryffindors crowding in, but quite a few Hufflepuffs and even Ravenclaws were too. Although, she couldn't help but notice that she was the only Slytherin. By the way the Gryffindors were still cheering and dancing, it felt as though they had already won the Quidditch Cup; the party went on all day and despite the food run Kali had made yesterday, Fred and George had to make another, disappearing for a couple of hours and returned with armfuls of bottles of butterbeer, pumpkin fizz, and several bags full of Honeydukes sweets.
George started throwing Peppermint Toads into the crowd and Kali noticed that one person wasn't joining in the festivities. Hermione was sitting in a corner, attempting to read an enormous book entitled Home Life and Social Habits of British Muggles . She was making good headway considering the racket everyone was making around her, Kali certainly wouldn't have been able to read with all this noise. She took an extra bottle of butterbeer with her as she sauntered over to the nearly deserted corner.
"Need a hand with that?" she asked plopping herself down on the arm of Hermione's chair.
"What?" Hermione looked up at her blearily and Kali nodded toward the book. "Oh, no, I'm alright, thank you."
Kali pulled at the crown cork with one of her rings to open the bottle, and handed it to Hermione. Hermione thanked her again and took a small sip.
"I'm heading to the library if you want to come with," said Kali, finishing off her own bottle.
"Oh." Hermione looked out at the crowd and started nibbling on her bottom lip; it was an endearing look on her. "No, I should stay. I don't want it to look like I don't care that we just won."
Kali could have pointed out that that's exactly what her sitting alone in a corner looked like, but she opted not to in case it came out sounding meaner than intended. "If you're sure."
Hermione nodded and Kali felt the other girl's gaze follow her out the room. She headed straight for the library, hurrying along so that she wouldn't be late. She'd skipped dinner, but she figured she could go down to the kitchens after she was done with Theodore and grab an apple or something. It had been a while since she'd last visited the House Elves.
She walked passed the Trophy Room and the sounds of angry muttering stopped her in her tracks. She glanced in and spotted Draco hard at work polishing an old trophy.
"Having fun?" she asked, startling him so bad he fumbled with the trophy and dropped it to the ground.
"What are you doing here?" he spat, bending to pick up the award and checking for dents.
She leaned against the doorway and glanced around at the many awards, trophies, cups, plates, shield, statues, and medals all kept in crystal glass displays. "Just passing by."
"Then pass by faster."
"Someone's in a foul mood," said Pan as he turned into a hummingbird and flew swiftly around the bottles of butterbeer that Fred and George were juggling between themselves.
"I wanted to thank you," said Kali. "It was so nice of you to make a fool of yourself for everyone's amusement."
His pale skin took on a pink tinge and Kali almost though he might hurl the trophy in his hands at her face, he certainly looked like he wanted to, but he merely tightened his grip on it, white-knuckling the delicate handles. He pressed his thin lips together hard, draining what little colour they had, and glared at her.
She grinned at him and turned to leave, but something caught her eye before she did. Prominently displayed on the left wall, beneath a sign that read: Hogwarts Awards for Services to the School , was a collection of small gold shields, each one about the size of her splayed hand, and on one was the inscription, T. M. Riddle. She stalked closer, spotting similar shields with Harry and Ron's names engraved on them; she'd have to ask them what they'd done to earn those, although the Basilisk carcass decaying several hundred feet beneath the castle might have something to do with it. She heard Draco move behind her, giving her a wide berth, until he could see what had caught her attention.
"You'd think that after he started killing people they'd have removed this," she said, eyeing Tom Riddle's well-kept award.
Draco didn't say anything and when she glanced over her shoulder at him, she saw him staring at the little shield with something close to awe.
Kali rolled her eyes and left the Trophy Room, giving Draco some parting advice. "There are better people to look up to."
She was late by the time she made it to the library, but she saved some time by knowing exactly where Theodore would be. The library was huge, with tens of thousands of books, thousands of shelves, hundreds of narrow rows, and just as many places to sit, but humans are creatures of habit and every student at Hogwarts had their own favourite place to study, and while Kali preferred the private window seat up in the Muggle literature section, Theodore could always be trusted to have his things spread out on one of the long tables among the dusty old law books that were rarely read by students. She wasn't wrong. That was definitely his bag leaning against one of the chairs, but Theodore himself was nowhere to be seen. She was about to start looking for him when she heard a distant creak behind her and glanced back to see him heading her way.
"I was starting to think you wouldn't show," he said when he was close enough that he didn't have to raise his voice.
He was taller than she'd realised. She'd been going to class with the guy for the past five months and she'd failed to notice that he was a head taller than she was. She blamed it on the fact that his build was even more slender than hers, she'd just assumed that his height would match.
"Sorry, I got side-tracked," she said when she was done staring.
"Shall we get started?" He waved her toward a seat, long limbs moving awkwardly, and shins banging against the leg of the table as he sat down beside her, suggesting that this growth spurt of his was fairly recent.
"Which subject would you like my help with?" she asked.
"Arithmancy," he said, already pulling his book from his bag as well as sheets of parchment, his quill and several spares.
Kali couldn't even pull out the books she'd borrowed this morning to fill up her side of the table because she'd forgotten her jacket up in the Gryffindor Common Room, she could only sit and watch as he set one item after another onto the table, all neatly organized for a structured study space. Fortunately, he either didn't notice or didn't care that she was woefully unprepared for this tutoring session.
"I don't understand the second exercise of the worksheet that Professor Vector gave us to do for Monday."
Oh, well that was easy enough.
Kali spent the next three quarters of an hour going over numerical formulas with Theodore covering the entire worksheet that was due on Monday and a few of the previous ones too. He was a fast learner and eager to do well, but he struggled with some of Professor Vector's more succinct explanations on when and how to apply each formula. Madam Pince came to kick them out of the library right before curfew, and Theodore packed up his things as efficiently as he'd unpacked them. Every quill and inkwell had its own prearranged spot in his bag; she half expected to see little labels pointing out what went where.
"Thank you for your help, Kali," he said as he slung his satchel over his shoulder and they headed for the door.
"It was no trouble."
He held the door for her and she led the way to a stairwell that would get them to the lower levels.
"Would you mind if we made it a regular thing?" he asked, looking down at his shoes uncomfortably. "Once a week, or once every other week, whatever works for you?"
"I can do once a week." Preferably during a weekday, though, then she might actually think to bring her bag. "How about Wednesdays."
"Can't," he mumbled, "I've got chess club."
"Thursdays then," she said with an indifferent shrug.
He nodded his agreement and they went down the next set of steps in silence. "Do you play? Chess, that is."
"I know how, and playing once in a while is fun, but I don't have the patience to do it regularly."
"Maybe we could play sometime," he said as they reached the Entrance Hall.
"Sure." He headed for the dungeons, but she didn't follow, veering instead toward the Hufflepuff Common Room. "I'm going this way."
"It's past curfew," he said, sparing a quick glance at the large grandfather clock which stood next to the doors to the Great Hall. "You'll get in trouble."
"You're only in trouble if you get caught," she said with a smirk that bordered on a grin as she sauntered off to the kitchens.