AN

This chapter is kind of short, sorry for that.

AN

"What have you been doing?"

Valerie turned around from her place on the bed and saw Walden staring at the remains of her potion brewing. Luckily, her ingredients had already been hidden again, and there was almost no residue in the cauldron, which was still set up so it could cool down. "I brewed a potion."

Walden nodded and gave Valerie a small smile. "I can see that. What kind of potion?"

"I'd like to keep that a secret."

The man, who was still standing in the doorway, nodded understandingly. "Alright. Do you want to continue our conversation from this morning then?"

It was that moment that Valerie's stomach decided to growl loudly, which got a good laugh out of Walden. "Let me guess, you haven't eaten yet."

Valerie's face now matched her hair in redness, but she still nodded. At that Walden called a house-elf and told it to bring them something to eat. After the house-elf had dissapeared, he came over and sat next to Valerie on the bed. Before saying anything however, he sniffed the air a few times.

He then looked at Valerie with a questioning look. "Peppermint in a potion?"

Valerie nodded, and looked at Walden with a neutral expression. "It's supposed to control any possible negative side-effects."

At that moment, another house-elf popped into the room, handing both of them a plate of food, which they both started on.

"Your behaviour seems a little cold... Did something happen? Or is this an effect of the potion?"

Valerie glanced at her bag, then looked back at the mustached man sitting beside her and sighed. "I guess something did happen, but don't worry about that. It's not really important."

That was the advantage of talking to adults, they knew how to be mature, and like that, Walden dropped the subject. "... So, about the whole Dark Lord thing... Have you thought on it a bit more?"

Valerie shook her head slowly. "I've been busy with the potion, and with other thoughts as well, but I'll try and think about it when I get back to Hogwarts."

Walden nodded. "If you ever want to talk more, you can send a letter, although I'd prefer it if you would keep it to weekends only. I'm a busy man, and you shouldn't miss too many classes, it would affect your grades."

Valerie nodded, and smiled at Walden. "Thank you."

Walden smiled back at her and got up from the bed, putting his plate aside. "Ready to apparate back? I'm assuming you can get back into Hogwarts by yourself."

Valerie nodded and got up as well, grabbing her bag in the process, and reducing her cauldron to fit it into her bag. "I can do that, yes," she said, smirking, and she grabbed Walden's arm. And just like that, after feeling a few twists and turns, they were back in Hogsmeade.

Valerie almost immediately let go of Walden's arm and ran behind one of the houses, while calling out 'See you later!'. Once she was out of sight for any possible person, she took on her Animagus form and crawled toward the Shrieking Shack, from where she would go back to Hogwarts.

Walking through the doors into the Great Hall for dinner, she saw her 'friends'. Halia and Luna were sitting at the Slytherin table, while Amanda was at the Hufflepuff table. Not willing to take a risk however, Valerie went to sit at the Gryffindor table and thought back to what Tom had said about the potion she'd made.

As she put some kind of French dish on her plate and took a first bite, the memory played in her head:

Valerie started wondering about something, and decided to write it out: 'What does this potion do exáctly?'

It took Tom longer to answer than it would have normally taken him. 'It will heal me completely.'

'That, I already know. Now everything else, because I know I'm supposed to drink it as well.'

It took Tom a few minutes to answer, and Valerie was just about to close the diary, thinking no answer was coming, when it did come. 'I'm a piece of someone's soul, which was left in this diary. To keep things short, the book was stabbed by the fang of a Basilisk, which is one of the few ways to kill such a piece of a soul. While your magical energy was able to get me healthy enough to communicate, there's still venom left in this book, and leaving me in here would mean slowly killing me.'

Valerie looked this new information over with a shocked expression, then wrote: 'So, you want to be transported to a cleaner object?'

'Exactly. And that new object would be you.'

"Me?!" 'Is that even possible? Putting someone's soul together with a piece of another person's soul in one body?'

Again, it took a little while for Tom to reply. 'It's happened already, I realized. I think it can work. Besides, our magic has already had the chance to connect because of our constant close proximity.'

… 'Would you affect my thought or actions?'

'As far as I know, that won't happen.'

'Will we still be able to communicate?'

'If you focus on the piece of my soul, I think we could. Still, I don't know how this works exactly. We'll have just try it later.'

"Hey, Valerie! Haven't seen you in a vew days!" When the redhead looked up from her meal, she saw Yavor and Zora sitting down opposite.

She smiled. "It's nice to see you two."

Both Durmstrang students smiled at her, and started loading food onto their plate, when Zora looked up at her. "Vy are you looking so... depressed?"

Valerie smiled at the older girl's concern. "It's nothing, don't worry."

Then, Zora looked around the room, before returning her gaze to Valerie. "Vy aren't you sitting vith your friends then?"

Valerie looked down at her plate, then smiled tiredly at Zora. "We're simply in the middle of a fight. Don't let it bother you."

Zora nodded slowly, then smiled slightly. "You know voth, vy don't you come to our ship this Friday night? Ve are having a sleepover vith the girls from Durmstrang. Everyone can bring one person, vill you come?"

Valerie's now shocked expression slowly changed into a smile and she nodded. "If you're willing to have me there."

Zora then clapped her hands together. "It vill be fun!"

Valerie nodded as she forgot about her worries. "Of course it will!"

"Can't I come too?," Yavor asked while he looked at Zora with puppy eyes. "I vill behave!"

Zora punched the boy on his shoulder, but there was a hint of a smile on her face. "You are not a girl, Yavor. Only girls allowed."

Yavor then looked at Valerie with his begging eyes. "Valerie, please! Vill you tell Zora to let me come too?"

Valerie shook her head in quiet laughter. "I'm not the one making the rules, Yavor."

Yavor then stood up and ran to the Slytherin table, and Zora giggled. "He is veird, isn't he?"

Valerie nodded with a smile. "He is."

Zora then grabbed Valerie's plate from the other side of the table and started loading all kinds of Bulgarian dishes onto it, while Valerie tried to get her plate back. "Give it here!"

Zora shook her head in amusement. "No, you have to try these first!"

Valerie sat back down and tried faking a frown, but when Zora put the plate back in front of her with a smirk, she couldn't help the smile appearing on her face. She then started eating again, as the witch on the opposite side of the table went back to eating as well.

"No one allows me in there!," Yavor whined as he sat back down.

Zora sighed, swallowing before she spoke. "Of course, Yavor. It is only for girls, and you are not a girl."

When Yavor started pouting, Valerie couldn't keep in her laughter. She realized she disturbed her housemates, but she didn't care at this point. She loved laughing like this after the last two days, she might have even needed it. And so, she stayed in the Great Hall for as long as possible after dinner, talking to the two Durmstrang students, before making her way over to her dorms.

These will be an interesting few days.