Continuing! Thanks for reviewing, enrique (and yes, many people will be in the DA (although I'm still trying to decide if Helga will be allowed to join or not).
The rest of the houses soon knew about the break-in to Gryffindor Tower and Ron's scare. Still no one could work out why Black had gone for Ron and not Harry, and why both were still alive and well.
"Like I said, he's a total Gryffindork." Rhonda said to her friends. "Probably just confused the Weasel for Potter. Wouldn't surprise me if twelve years in Azkaban killed his brain cells."
"We don't know if he's after Harry, do we?" Phoebe asked innocently. "Maybe it's got nothing to do with him."
Helga disagreed with her. "Potter's the Boy Who Lived, but Weasley's nothing special."
In the days leading up to the Quidditch final, things continued to happen. Everyone heard about how, after a Care of Magical Creatures third-year class, Hermione had slapped Draco across the face. Helga burst out laughing when she saw the red handprint that hadn't yet faded and when she passed Hermione in the halls, she muttered "By the way, nice slap, Granger."
Hermione misinterpreted Helga's tone, and glared at her, flushing pink.
Helga shrugged. "I mean it. Besides, I've wanted to slap him for months. What was he doing this time?"
Hermione sighed and said "Ever since the incident with Buckbeak, Malfoy's been trying to get Hagrid fired. He hasn't been, but Buckbeak's been sentenced to death and I couldn't stand Malfoy just laughing at it the whole time."
Helga remembered Buckbeak as the Hippogriff that attacked Draco, and gave a genuine smile. "Doesn't he get an appeal?"
"We're reading up on it." Hermione answered impatiently. "Don't you have somewhere to be, Pataki?"
"I was just asking because I don't want him executed, either." Helga shot back. "And I'm going to class, as if you couldn't tell. Out of my way!" She shoved the older girl aside.
On the same day, the third-years were buzzing about how Hermione had walked straight out of Divination.
Easter holidays also went by, everyone studying hard for exams. The second-years also had to choose new subjects for the next year. All the students had to choose two or more. Helga chose the bare minimum, picking Care of Magical Creatures and Muggle Studies, thinking that would be an easy pass. Even if it wasn't, she guessed she could ask Olga as a last resort.
Phoebe asked Hermione for advice, and as a result, ended up choosing to do Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, and Muggle Studies (she was muggleborn, but Hermione liked the subject well enough and she was muggleborn).
Nearly everyone was taking CoMC. Phoebe wasn't, of course, and Rhonda said she wasn't going to hang around learning about "a bunch of vicious creatures. My taking care of those will probably ruin my robes anyway", but she couldn't stop Nadine signing up for it. Sheena also decided against it.
Rhonda chose Arithmancy and Divination, while Sheena chose Divination and Muggle Studies. Most of the other students picked only one subject besides CoMC. Curly, Sid and Eugene all chose Divination. Arnold and Gerald decided to both do Ancient Runes – well, Arnold convinced Gerald, pretty much. Brainy chose Muggle Studies, probably so he could stalk his favourite Slytherin. Lila decided to do Muggle Studies too, as well as Arithmancy.
After that, the Gryffindor-Slytherin match continued to loom.
"I hope Gryffindor wins." Helga muttered to Phoebe. "Blondie'll be at his most smug if they don't."
"But that means you would've won the Quidditch Cup!" Phoebe protested.
Helga shrugged. "Big deal. Slytherin's won a billion times. I'd rather not be ostracized by everyone outside our house group because they're so annoyed that we've won for the last several years."
As it happened, the match was very close. Helga spotted the Snitch quite early into the game, just as Gryffindor scored, now leading sixty-ten, and watched the two Seekers closely. By the time the score was eighty-twenty, it looked like Draco was going to get it.
"GET IT, POTTER!" Helga yelled out, pulling a ferocious scowl at her glaring housemates when she yelled for Harry. Most of the school had heard the call from the blonde Slytherin, and stared at her. Even over at the Hufflepuff part of the bleachers, Arnold was looking over. He'd know that voice anywhere. Why was she rooting for the Gryffindors when they were playing against her own house?
And as luck would have it, Harry pulled a few daring moves in mid-air and suddenly, he was clutching the Snitch. Gryffindor had won the Cup, and the team looked thrilled. Up in the bleachers, Lila squealed and hugged Ginny in joy, jumping up and down. Gerald high-fived most of the boys in his year.
But the happiness in Gryffindor couldn't last. Exams were coming, and everyone was studying. Most of the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws had worked steadily throughout the year, and revising was more easy for them. But half of the school had slacked at times, and was now having a hard time revising stuff they hadn't bothered learning.
Meanwhile, Buckbeak's appeal and execution date was looming, and Draco had started sneering about how it would happen on the sixth of June, the last day of exams. Not that anyone seemed to care. Helga only took any notice because she was sick of him showing off, but the only person that actually took any notice because it was Buckbeak, was, surprisingly, Nadine. Her only passion in life had been insects, beetles, spiders and similar creatures in grade school, but in the last three years, starting from sixth grade, she'd taken an interest in other animals and become a full-on animal lover. What's more, Draco's remarks were annoying her too, and although she didn't say anything (Rhonda wouldn't like her best friend yelling at her crush), she took enough of an interest to approach the Gryffindor Trio and ask them about it, since she knew that they were quite friendly with Hagrid. But they were all pretty cold with her, half because she was a Slytherin, and half because the exams were stressing them out.
It didn't faze the Slytherin, though. Maybe she had more Hufflepuff in her, really, because what put her in Slytherin was the loyalty to her best friend. But she still had enough bravery not to be fazed by coldness, and just said "Well, can you at least let me know what happens with the appeal? If he survives, I'd like to meet him."
The trio sighed and told Nadine they would. As they walked away, Ron exclaimed "Why is it that all the Slytherin girls in the year below us won't leave us alone? First, Pataki insists on helping us find the Chamber of Secrets-"
"And she also wanted to know why I slapped Malfoy." added Hermione. "No doubt she'll want to know about what happens to Buckbeak – she seems to hate Malfoy too, strangely."
"And now Lowenthal's asking us about it too," added Ron (Lowenthal was Nadine's surname), pointing backwards in the tanned blonde's direction, "Claiming she wants to know because she likes animals and wants to 'meet' Buckbeak. How do we know she's not got an ulterior motive? She's friendly with that brunette that's always hanging all over Malfoy."
Harry shrugged. "It's not like she can do anything. There's no harm in her knowing. Shut up, all this and the studying is doing my head in."
Exams will be next. And for those of you who are asking, I wasn't planning on having Nadine in the next few chapters, but I like her, so she should have a little bit of time. Please review, and tell me...should Helga join the trio on this next adventure?