And thus we get into the plot for year two, which is going to stray rather far from the original - even if several plot points and ideas are reused. No worries though, there's a good reason for everything and stuff... I think. Sorry for the delay - I'd been having some RL issues. Update frequency will be increasing during August, once vacations start.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, JK Rowling does. If I did, Quidditch wouldn't have been the number one wizarding sport.
...
"Hey Val, fancy meeting you here today!"
If there was even a trace of embarassment or uncertainty in Tracey's greeting, Valeria couldn't find it. The brunette Slytherin gave her usual knowing smirk then elbowed her taller, blonder companion. Daphne shot her a reproachful look, tried to say something to Valeria but obviously the words wouldn't come. Mouth closing to form a firm expression for a moment, only to twist in disgust - almost certainly at herself.
"Let's move to the stands." Valeria suggested. "We can talk without being overheard there - we're the only ones here. Besides..." she smiled at the other two girls "...Harry and his team have to show up, eventually."
"Don't you mean Draco?" Tracey asked her as they climbed to a higher vantage point. "Half our House has been whispering about his making the team all week long. Today's his first practice so we thought we'd have some fun at his expense."
"An admirable goal." Valeria mock complimented and the two of them giggled. "Though I have it on good authority it's the Gryffindors' first practice, not ours. I actually came to see Harry fly."
"Weird..." Tracey scanned the still-empty Quidditch field. "Marcus Flint said something about testing new brooms for the team today so how could it be the Gryffindors' practice?"
"Enough!" Daphne interrupted, speaking for the first time. "Must you make inane smalltalk to avoid the obvious issue? Yes, our families don't want the two of us making waves just now. Yes, being seen to support the House's Quidditch team will win us some approval." The taller blonde's hands shot in the air in exasperation.
"Why Daphne..." Tracey started sweetly "If I knew some Quidditch talk would force you out of a whole week's indecision on how to approach our friend, I'd have done it ages ago."
"Look..." Daphne seemed to deflate. "You know my family are blood purists. They may not be fanatics but they don't know what to do about their daughter being friends with a halfblood and a muggleborn either. The only reason they'd been prepared to accept you was talent. But then, the three of us stumble into one of the Dark Lord's own plots and help foil it. The same Dark Lord my family had once supported and thought was dead." The three of them sobered up immediately at that. "With a new war only a matter of time even if most people don't realize it, my parents are doing everything to protect me and the rest of the family. We have few allies in Dumbledore's side, if any. And the Dark Lord would never forget even an accidental foiling of his plans. Keeping our head down is..."
"...not going to happen." Valeria finished, if not exactly in the way Daphne intended. "It won't work, Daphne. Not for you, whose family stayed in the sidelines during the last war, not for Tracey, who's a halfblood set to inherit Headship of an ancient house, not for me for obvious reasons." The future had troubled Valeria all Summer long but, with some good ideas from her family and a not-so-friendly diary, hoped she'd come up with a workable plan. Now, if only the other two would be convinced to follow it. "Keeping our head down, not supporting either side, won't win us allies. If, on the other hand, we become useful..."
"You're mental!" came Daphne's eloquent retort. "We're twelve, Campbell. What use are we to either side?"
"Dumbledore did set up a group of eleven-year-olds to save the Philosopher's Stone last year." Valeria quickly went through the questionable points of their adventure her brother had pointed out to her, painting the whole event in a new light. "...so it's possible our esteemed Headmaster is already using people our age as his agents. I don't see the Dark Lord having a problem with doing the same."
"That old goat!" Daphne cursed with feeling. "What is he doing, putting students at risk?"
"Daphne? I think his brother is the one with a thing about goats." Tracey interjected in her own inimitable manner. "And Val, we didn't save the Stone. Dumbledore destroyed it, remember?"
"Eh, we might as well have." Valeria said as nonchalantly as she could. "On an encounter that might have killed many an adult wizard, we avoided dying horribly and proved our worth along the Boy-Who-Lived. Prove ourselves a few more times and our problems might just go away... at least in the short run."
Down in the field, the Gryffindor Quidditch team had made an appearrance. Led out by an excited Oliver Wood, they were going through a few warm-up exercises before doing anything serious. Strangely enough, Harry did not seem very enthusiastic despite his incomprehensible love of flying on a broom and the opportunity to play as Seeker for his own House. Valeria wondered whether the rumors about Wood being a merciless slavedriver where Quidditch training was concerned were true. This training would be in an unusually normal hour for him unless... Did he insist on an equally exhausting theory and tactics session - one that started several hours earlier?
"Hah, I think Potter's asleep on his broom." Tracey said, echoing Valeria's thoughts. "He flew a lot better against Flitwick's keys last year."
"Boys and their little games." Daphne made a disgusted expression. "No Slytherin in sight, either. Getting up so early turned out to be a total waste."
"Hold your hippogriffs, princess." Tracey pointed towards the quidditch field's southern entrance where about a dozen forms in Slytherin green could be seen approaching on foot. "It's not over till the Fat Lady sings. Or Oliver Wood, as the case may be - this ought to be good." The Gryffindor team, followed by Ron Weasley and a redheaded firstie girl that must be his sister, furiously marched up to Marcus Flint and his people. Oliver Wood advanced at the head of the red-and-gold group, already shouting at his opposite number about booking the field and the Slytherins having no right to show up.
"Here's an idea..." Valeria mused, searching for any drawbacks of her sudden inspiration and finding none.
"Oh, Merlin." Daphne groaned. "What is it this time? Dueling a dozen people at once? Going on an Acromantula hunt through the Forbidden Forest? Playing amateur hour Auror and hunting dark wizards in the dungeons?" Valeria and Tracey rolled their eyes, grabbed one of their friend's hands each, and frog-marched her down the stands. By the time the three girls had arrived at the scene, the two teams were only a couple of insults away from open warfare.
"At least no Gryffindor had to bribe their way into the team!" The redheaded firstie was saying. "They all got there with talent alone."
"Nobody asked you, Weasel pint!" Draco snarled back oh so cleverly. "Filthy blood-traitors and their..."
"You know Draco, her point is a good one." Valeria said, drawing murderous stares from the entire Slytherin team and incredulous glances from everyone else. "Or it would be..." She smirked. "...if the Gryffindor team hadn't been cheating for years, now."
"WHAT?!"
"What are you talking about, Campbell?" Marcus Flint demanded in a far more reasonable tone than the one Oliver Wood had used.
"Fairness, of course." She forced a serious frown on her face then turned to face Wood and the others in red and gold. "Most years only get six free evenings per week, plus two free mornings in the weekend; that makes eight. And yet, Mr. Wood here has been booking the field four times a week for as long as he's been Captain. This leaves only one, maybe two, training sessions per week for every other house." She said that last in an obviously affronted tone, then looked down at the Weasley girl. "Of course your House team would seem more talented. They have been getting nearly four times as much training as any other team. How would you like it if others didn't let you train, develop your own talent?"
Her words had a profound effect on everyone present. Marcus, Draco and the rest of the Slytherin team were obviously angry. Surprisingly, so was the youngest Weasley. Her brother was staring daggers at her, of course, but both Harry and Wood looked gobsmacked. Now, to go for the kill. "Good job doing it all legally too, Wood." She smiled winningly at the older Gryffindor. "How very Slytherin of you. Then again, the Deputy Headmistress is your Head of House. She even got a Gryffindor to be the commentator for all matches which is not biased. No sir, Lions are all brave and good and would never sabotage every other team like that."
"Shut up, you snake!" Shouted Ron Weasley, waving his Spellotape-patched wand around. "I can't believe I trusted you!"
"Weasley, don't point that broken wand like that!" Daphne warned, trying to pull Valeria out of the line of fire. "Do you know how dangerous it is?"
"As if I'd believe anything a filthy snake would say!" The furious boy shouted again and before anyone could react was already throwing a curse.
"Slugulus Eructo!"
A loud bang echoed around the stadium and a jet of green light shot out of the wrong end of Ron's wand, hitting him in the stomach and sending him reeling backwards on to the grass... Ron opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. Instead he gave an almightly belch and several slugs dribbled out of his mouth on to his lap.
"Slug-vomiting Charm." Daphne commented with a shake of her head, her experience in Duelling allowing her to easily recognize it. "Very hard to cast, not easily countered. It also happens to be Dark." Her eyes narrowed at the group of Gryffindors. "House rivalries are not my problem but people trying to curse me definitely are. If you don't want to see whether the Board of Governors would expell a previous violator of the Statute of Secrecy for trying to attack the daughter of one of their members without provocation, you will leave. Now. And Weasley?"
Ron's answer was another wave of slugs. Disgust evident on her face, the tall Slytherin blonde kicked the broken wand back into its owner's lap. "This thing is a danger to you and others. I'll be talking to some teachers, Professor Snape among them. If you don't want detention every time you mess a spell up, you will get a new wand."
...
"Very nice, you three." Marcus Flint grudgingly admitted after the Gryffindors had cowardly retreated. "It's been years since I last saw the whole Gryffindor team wordless, especially the Twins. Didn't know you cared about Quidditch."
"We don't. But we're all about fairness and House unity and stuff." Tracey said cheerfully while Draco snorted.
"After that humongous bungle, your opinion doesn't count Malfoy." Marcus didn't like the too-proud second year but he had to admit; she did have style.
"What are you blabbering about now, mudblood?"
"Are you in Slytherin or not?" Valeria asked. "Best brooms in the market for the whole team and announcing it to the Gryffindors is the first thing you do?"
"It's not as if we could have kept them a secret." Marcus interjected, not wanting to see two valuable assets at each other's throats. His new Seeker had gotten the whole team new brooms and, with Terrence Higgs opting to focus on his NEWTs this year, Malfoy was the only other decent Seeker in the House. Campbell might be annoying and a mudblood but after that stunt back there he could kiss her. Halving the Gryffindors' practice time and messing with the Lions' reputation in the process? A meeting with the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff Captains was in order - right after a little talk with Professor Snape.
"Marcus, you may be an awesome Quidditch player but you're pants in Charms." Campbell said and he couldn't disagree, not with probably having to repeat his Charms NEWT next year. "You could have gotten someone to put a concealment charm on the brooms, made them look like older models. Hootch rarely attends practice sessions and it isn't illegal anyway. You could have revealed them in the game with Gryffindor, giving them no chance to prepare. Spell-resistant varnish or not, I bet our Head of House would have managed it... and given you points for the subterfuge, too."
The three girls went towards the castle after that, while the team made for the Slytherin locker room. Marcus Flint had much to think about... and maybe a couple old friends whose opinions he'd try to change.
...
"Think we won a few points with our Housemates?" Valeria said as the three of them reached the front gate.
"Not nearly enough." The constant pessimist of the trio countered. "Far too many see you as a mudblood first and anything else never. Barring a miracle I don't know if anything we do will change that."
"Cheer up Daphne." Tracey elbowed her best friend as she bounced up the stairs. "Always waiting for the worst..."
"...only means I'm pleasantly surprised when it fails to happen." The tall blonde said drily.
"Riiight." The brunette huffed and tossed her hair. "Speaking of the worst, why the sudden interest in Weasley? Most people might have only seen the scary pureblood princess making proclamations from her throne but I did notice you were giving good advice to the bloody idiot."
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Daphne denied and the other two girls dissolved into giggles. Their fun was abruptly interrupted though by a terrible, unearthly scream coming from inside.
"Wands out!" Daphne snapped. Valeria rolled her eyes - if there was anything last year had taught her it was to always have her wand at hand and a Shield Charm raised. The three of them cautiously got into the Entrance Hall, the strongest curse they knew on their lips.
The large, cavernous chamber was all but empty - unsurprising, given the day and early hour. What was unusual was the very small boy lying lifeless in the middle of the room, a broken camera next to his prone body. Valeria knew the first-year Gryffindor; they'd met on the train only a few days ago. Gone now was his usual cheer, boundless energy and annoying but cute intrusiveness; Colin Creevey simply lay there, skin cold and pallid, no life in his limbs or eyes. He looked, as far as the three of them could tell, well and truly dead.
Despite her experiences the previous year, despite her frequent brushes with mortal peril or even her encounters with the Dark Lord, Valeria still found the body of a little boy profoundly upsetting. Her hands were shaking with the efford of controlling herself, refraining from unleashing torrents of flame at every target within reach. It would not help. No action she could take would help Colin ever again.
"Bloody hell." Tracey cursed, drawing hers and Daphne's attention. "Look at the wall!" They did. Finger-wide, inch-deep furrows have been dug into the stone of the castle, no evidene of tools or claws in their magic. They formed letters, the letters giving a simple yet ominous message.
THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED.
ENEMIES OF THE HEIR BEWARE.