Chapter 12 – Exams

The holidays always passed far too quickly for my liking but at Hogwarts, much to my dismay, they seemed to go even faster. The white snow melted into grey slush and the magic of Christmas went with it. I always hated January; it was my least favourite month of the year. Christmas was gone and everyone was realising that real life and exams were looming just around the corner and my fears were confirmed as soon as the first day of term started. The professors wasted no time in getting us prepared for our summer tests, constantly reminding us that if we failed, we would not be permitted to return to school the following year. That in itself planted a deep-rooted fear in me and I was not prepared to take any chances.

Once spring did arrive, there was little to no opportunity to enjoy the blossoming flowers on the grounds or to waste away warm afternoons, lazily skipping stones at the edge of the Black Lake. No, we were all trapped inside, either in classrooms or the Great Hall, furiously studying. Matters were temporarily made worse by Draco who had developed a new level of smugness over the holidays and insisted on sharing it with every unwilling participant he could find. It had begun the day he'd returned in January and continued well into March before he seemed to finally realise that everyone apart from Crabbe and Goyle had lost interest in his attitude. Apparently, our lack of interest meant he needed to cause trouble elsewhere and that found the form in Harry Potter, Draco's self-proclaimed 'enemy'. He'd snuck out of bed in the middle of the night to try and get Harry and his friends into trouble and credit to him, he succeeded in ratting out the gamekeeper, Hagrid who had somehow acquired a dragon egg and then proceeded to hatch it on school grounds. Apparently, he was intent on raising it as his own and didn't think anyone would notice.

"I like Hagrid and all, but everyone knows you can't tame Dragons, they're classified as 'known wizard killer/ impossible to train or domesticate.'" Mia said with a mouthful of fried eggs, quickly washed down with orange juice as she flicked over the page of her charms book. She'd already read it cover to cover twice but I couldn't convince her that she'd do fine in the exam. As I washed down my own breakfast with a slightly too sweet cup of tea, I arched an eyebrow at the additional two slices of toast wrapped in a napkin that Mia slipped into her satchel.

"What?" She questioned rhetorically, looking up to see my mildly judgemental face. "You're practically forcing me to spend the whole day in the library with you. I need sustenance. All this revision is terribly exhausting." I couldn't help but smile in agreement, taking some toast of my own as we got up from our seats and headed to the library. Revision really had been a necessary and un-relenting evil recently.

Luckily, we managed to sit in our favourite corner of the library. We had discovered it over the Christmas holidays, a window we could distract ourselves with and a high bookcase behind us so no one else could see us procrastinate. As we dropped our bags, and Mia resumed her now-lukewarm toast, I went in search of the book I would need for my charm's exam. I knew if I sat down, I would be unlikely to get up again. As I made my way between the streams of students, some carrying books almost as big as them, I heard the end of a sentence that caught my attention.

"…that explains the troll on Halloween." I froze in my spot and instantly busied myself pretending to look through the books right in front of me whilst I listened intently to the continuing conversation.

"I told you it wouldn't have got in by itself. Trolls are stupid!" The same voice spoke.

"Look, Fluffy isn't hidden on the third-floor corridor for no reason. He's guarding something, Hagrid said so himself." I had moved around the bookcase to confront the mystery individuals before I could stop myself.

"Fluffy?! That thing that tried to kill me is called Fluffy?! Who on earth would look at that hellhound and think that it needs a name like Fluffy?!" The three Gryffindor's looked at me with surprise, shock and annoyance on each of their faces.

"It's rude to listen to other people's conversations." Hermione said, pouting and crossing her arms. She clearly wasn't going to give me the answers I wanted easily.

"Yes. I was raised with exceptionally high standards of etiquette, thank you. I know what constitutes 'rude'. The reason I dropped my normal standards is because, as I have already mentioned, that hellhound tried to kill me." I retorted. "Maybe if you wanted your conversation to remain private, you should speak a little quieter next time." My quick-witted comeback roused a smirk from Ron before Hermione shot him a disapproving look. He suddenly went on to take a keen interest in his shoes whilst I felt rather proud of myself and took a mental note to reiterate the story to both Mia and Alec, the next time I saw them.

"What do you want?" Hermione finally asked, a sigh of annoyance lacing her words.

"I want to know what you're up to. That thing…Fluffy, tried to kill me. I wanted to know why the third-floor corridor was out of bounds and we just stumbled across it. You said it's here because it's guarding something."

"We?" Hermione questioned. I'd hoped she wouldn't pick up on the accidental slip, but I would never be that lucky.

"Someone else saw Fluffy too?" Harry asked. I stayed silent; I knew that telling them Draco had been with me would be the worst choice possible. They would certainly rat him out to McGonagall and he would know they had found out from me. For all his ego, he was not stupid, and I did not need Draco Malfoy making my life any more difficult than it already was, especially with all these exams filling my schedule.

"I took my cat…she's much attached." I lied slowly. They didn't look like they believed me at all but that was all they were going to get. Hermione sighed, sharing a knowing look with the two boys and gestured for me to look at a book she had open, perched on the window ledge. I took a few steps forward and skim read the page.

"The Philosopher's Stone? I've never heard of it?" Hermione sighed again, as if she was rather annoyed before she went on to explain, with precision like detail, what the Philosophers stone was. By the time she was done, she had to inhale quite deeply. I glanced at the two boys.

"Welcome to our world." Ron stated, causing me to almost smirk.

"Ok." I said, "So, just to clarify as briefly as I can…Fluffy is guarding the Philosopher's Stone, that is hidden in the depths of the castle and you three think Snape is trying to steal it to bring You-Know-Who back to life?" I kept my voice low as the three Gryffindor's nodded in sync with each other.

"That's insane." I stated, not sure in my own mind whether to believe them or not and no matter how hard I tried to not remember, I couldn't help but think back to that evening over Christmas when I'd heard Snape threatening Quirrell.

"It's the truth!" Harry protested. "Snape cut his leg on Halloween; I saw it myself! Filch was helping him bandage it up in the teachers' lounge."

"When?" I questioned, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Before the troll got into the bathroom." Ron said.

"Rubbish. He was giving Mia and me, detention in his office for letting off pranks."

"Wait that was you two? The exploding cauldrons?" Ron questioned, a grin beginning to form on his freckled face. It disturbed me just how much he looked like his older twin brothers and I had to stop myself from grimacing as I so often did around them.

"Amongst other things, yes. That was us."

"Brilliant." He smiled before remembering himself and returning to a neutral expression of apathy.

"Can we please focus?" Hermione questioned impatiently as though we were all wasting her time with our conversation. "What are we going to do now she knows? She's a Slytherin after all. Can we even trust her?"

"You know, you would never have been put in Hufflepuff Granger. They're far too polite. Don't you think it makes you a bit a hypocrite to pull someone up on their manners when you're clearly not in the best control of yours?" Hermione scowled heavily and I arched my eyebrow, half hoping she would have some kind of comeback, but she didn't.

"What would I gain by telling anyone? I mean, I will certainly tell Mia, but she won't tell anyone."

"What about Malfoy?" Harry questioned, causing all three Gryffindor's to look intently at me as though that thought hadn't occurred to them at all.

"What about him?" I asked, for some reason feeling annoyed that Harry had even brought him up.

"Aren't you friends?" I grimaced slightly.

"What? Just because we're in the same house in the same year? Are you three friends with every first year Gryffindor? Longbottom?" I took a breath and was shocked at where my own outburst had come from, apparently not as shocked as Harry, Ron and Hermione, however.

"Look, I suppose it depends how loosely you use the term friends. We have a laugh sometimes, and we're in the same friendship group though thankfully that is a rather large one. But make no mistake, we all took great joy in seeing how scared he was after serving detention in the Forbidden Forest with you guys."

"Yes. Well, we were all scared." Hermione said quietly.

"Why? He never told us what happened. He barely told us anything that happened to be honest."

"I saw Voldemort." Harry said simply. "He's been killing unicorns and drinking their blood." For some reason as soon as Harry said that all I could see was the shock on Mia's face. She loved unicorns, I mean, who didn't? They were pure magic and to kill them was one of the worst things a person could do.

"But he's dead. Voldemort is dead. You killed him eleven years ago." I stated, feeling slightly panicked at the idea that he was not only alive, but so close. Harry shook his head, his unruly black hair falling over his eyes.

"We don't think so. That's what we're saying, with the Philosopher's Stone…he could come back. Completely come back, stronger than ever." I paused for a moment.

"Of course, you'd be safe. With your pureblood and sacred name. But between the three of us, a 'blood-traitor', a muggle born and Harry himself. We'll all be top of the list." Ron exclaimed.

"What?" Harry questioned. I sighed whilst glaring heavily at Ron causing him to avert his gaze. He really was not good at being brave, especially for a Gryffindor.

"Not that it's any of your business. But…my grandfather. He was a death eater during the First Wizarding War. A big supporter of blood supremacy." The three Gryffindor's shuffled, unsure of themselves. Ron obviously already knew everything I was telling them, but it was news to the other two.

"He's dead." I continued. "He died just before I was born. When my Dad got sorted into Ravenclaw instead of Slytherin like the rest of the family, it caused some…tension. Needless, to say we don't speak to them, my grandmother, uncles…none of them. At all. My parents don't support Voldemort in any way and neither do I."

"Ok." Harry stated, as if that was the conclusion to the conversation. I, however, wasn't done yet.

"So, I presume you're not going to leave this whole matter unattended."

"Of course not. We're going down the trapdoor to get the stone ourselves and turn it in to Dumbledore because no one else believes us about Snape so we need to get it before him." Hermione snapped, causing Harry and Ron to stare at her in disbelief. As soon as she had realised what she'd said, her hands shot up to her mouth, as if she could will the words back.

"Marvellous, I think I'll join you." I said without hesitation.

"Um, no." Ron disagreed, tearing his glare away from Hermione and looking back at me. "Why on earth would we agree to let you come with us?"

"Because if you don't…I will tell McGonagall about what you're doing, and Snape that you're trying to incriminate him with absolutely no evidence whatsoever."

"So, what you're actually doing is blackmailing us." Hermione voice but with minimal conviction.

"Persuasion, blackmail…call it what you want." I turned on my heel and began to head back to Mia. My charms book completely gone from my mind.

"I'll see you tonight." It was times like these that I didn't need to question whether I belonged in Slytherin, the evidence spoke for itself.