Someday, I will own something of great value. This will not be Harry Potter, as J K Rowling already owns it.
Hogsmeade and Halloween
Ryua had to admit, there were some very nice things about being a Malfoy. First, she and her brother had a private carriage to Hogsmeade, as all they had to do was glare at whoever tried to get on board, and they'd suddenly remember they had something else to do. And once they got there, they could go just about anywhere. The sweetshop, Zonko's, the shrieking shack, and the post office had huge amounts of students crammed into them, of course, but Dervish and Banges was different. Although it was packed in the front of the shop, Ryua was allowed in back, thanks to a special note from Professor Snape. He'd been running low on Dragon's Blood, full-moon Rowan bark, and a few other potion ingredients difficult to find in public shops, so he'd sent his favorite student to pick them up from the black market. Normally, this wouldn't be normal operating procedure, but he was a Death Eater, she was the daughter of one, and they were both well known for it. No one would glance twice at a Malfoy buying almost-illegal things in an almost-illegal shop.
And then, there was the Hogshead. It was a lot darker than the Three Broomsticks, but they were the only students in there. Definitely a nice place to take a break from school life. Not to mention, you could get just about anything to drink there, especially with a family reputation like theirs. "Look at this menu, Ryua. I've never even heard of half this stuff."
"That's because about half of it's illegal, especially for students." Ryua's hobby of reading illegal potions books was coming in handy. "See, the Flames of Hades? That's got dragon blood in it. You could actually use it for a bloodboiling potion if you added cayenne to it. And the Spring of Life? That silvery one over there? The silver comes from unicorn blood. Don't drink it, you'll regret it. Actually," Ryua said thoughtfully, "don't drink anything too alcoholic. I doubt I could perform a sobering charm, and Filch would have your head when you got back to the castle."
"Fine then. We'll just have to learn that charm before we come back again, eh?"
"I suppose... Ugh!" Ryua flicked out her wand and cindered a cockroach nearly three inches long off of Draco's leg. "You'd think they could get rid of some of those, wouldn't you?"
Her brother looked down, rather disgusted. "That would be nice. Hey, when did you get so accurate? There's not even a scorch mark."
"Well, actually," Ryua said with a slightly evil grin, "I missed."
A few hours and two bottles of well aged butterbeer later, and with bags full of assorted items from various shops (another good thing about being a Malfoy was unlimited stores of money) Draco and Ryua were running to the spot they were supposed to meet the Hogwarts coaches. They'd seen a sign saying dementors would be patrolling the streets after sundown, and by unspoken agreement, decided to leave before then. Unfortunately, Draco had been taking his time at Zonko's, and the coaches were due to leave in less than five minutes. "Looks like all the coaches are taken. Brilliant work, wonder boy."
Draco didn't even reply, only split off to find himself an empty seat. Ryua just shook her head, and ran off towards the other end. "Ryua! Over here," a voice called from a coach at the end of the line.
"Ron, Hermionie, good to see you. Mind if I join you?" Ryua climbed into the carriage seat, setting hers and Snape's bags on the floor. "Hey, where's Harry?"
"Couldn't come. His aunt and uncle, they're muggles, and about the nastiest ones you can imagine..."
"Well, Ron, it wasn't really his fault, he did blow up his aunt..."
"He blew up his aunt? And he didn't get expelled or anything?" Actually, this was the first about Harry's home life Ryua had heard. Now that she thought about it, he seemed no happier to go on summer vacation than she did.
"Naw, Fudge wouldn't expel Harry Potter. Bad press. And, he was just glad that Harry was alive when they found him. Apparently, Black's looking for him," Ron said.
"Black, looking for Harry? Hmm, well, I suppose, it could make sense, if you believe the Ministry's version about what happened."
"Yeah, we've been trying to figure it out since term started. Hey, I don't suppose you have any insight?"
Hermionie seemed to have only just noticed that Ryua would know about Death Eater movements. "Yeah, what do the um, you know, your side, what do they think?"
"You know, Granger, they're not necessarily 'my side'. I was just born into the family. But," Ryua said, as Hermionie shrunk back a little at Ryua's tone, "It's not actually something I know much about. If Father knows, he hasn't told us. Something doesn't feel right about it though, I can say that much. It just doesn't fit. I think Black must have been either a very low-rank Death Eater, or very high up, higher than Father. I mean, no one seems to know much about him."
"Er, not that we really mind, or anything, but won't you get in trouble for talking about this sort of thing?" Hermionie obviously wanted to know all the information possible, but was good-hearted (or squeamish) enough to not want to get herself or anyone else in trouble over it.
"Only if the people I tell blab it all over the school." Ron and Hermionie inched away from her again. "Oh, honestly, I'm not going to curse you, you're my friends. I do mean it though, about it getting out that we're talking a lot, especially about this sort of thing. I might not curse you, but my Father would." curse me she thought silently.
"Don't worry, we won't tell anyone!" Hermionie assured her.
"Well, except for Harry, of course," Ron continued. Cute, how they talked off of each other's sentences like that.
"Yes, of course. But don't do it anywhere someone might hear you, okay? So, did you bring anything back for him?"
"Of course, we promised him treats. Bet he's still depressed, though."
"Yeah, those relatives of his are real losers," Ron agreed, "But at least he gets to go to the Halloween Feast, eh?"
Which was quite fabulous, as it turned out. Professor Flitwick had charmed flaming streamers to wriggle around the room, which delighted Parsyl to no end as she chased them through first-years' legs. Hagrid's gigantic pumpkins were carved up into incredible shapes, and bats fluttered around, stealing bits of food off of unsuspecting forks. The feast matched the decorations in style and extravagance, with huge platters of buns, pastries, vegetables, chicken, pork chops, sausages, bowls of rice, pasta, four kinds of salad, glittering jugs of juices and punches up and down the tables, and when everyone was completely too full to move, the desserts appeared. Pumpkin, apple, rhubarb, bumbleberry, saskatoon, lemon, banana, cherry, raisin, and pecan pies, at least a dozen different cookies, three kinds of chocolate, vanilla, maple, pound, and bunt cakes, plum, apricot, mixed berry, and pear flans, some candied concoction Ryua couldn't identify, but tasted really good, and of course, twenty two flavors of ice cream. Even the Slytherins were in good spirits by the time several hundred platters of food had disappeared at each table. The ghosts put on some sort of ghastly reenactment of Sir Nicholas' beheading, earning enthusiastic applause from everyone present.
Everyone filed out still chatting and laughing, with a few fistfuls of cookies stuffed into pockets and book bags. Parsyl glided up to Ryua, asking to be picked up before Goyle stepped on her, all proud, even though she had a singed nose. "Oh, did you finally catch one? Well done. Your nose doesn't hurt too badly, does it?" Ryua was always more worried about her snake's pains than her own.
She never got to hear Parsyl's response, however, as Professor Snape appeared and barked out an order to get back into the Great Hall. Turning around, Ryua saw he looked actually worried, always a sign to do exactly what he told you. If Professor Snape was worried, something had to be really wrong. Going back into the Hall, Ryua could see other houses being confusedly herded back too. She sidled over towards the Gryffindor end, and caught Harry, Ron, and Hermionie on their way down from their tower. "What's going on, do you know?" she asked, idly feeding Parsyl a chocolate-orange-almond cookie.
"Sirius Black's in the castle," Hermionie said, a worried expression on her face.
Ron continued, "He ripped up the Fat Lady guarding our common room, the teachers are seriously freaked."
Ryua grinned. "Harry, do they always do that?"
"What? Oh, that whole talking thing, yeah, when they aren't fighting. Actually, it's even funnier when they do it while they're fighting..."
"What are you two going on about? Didn't you hear me? Black's just been up to the Gryffindor common room!" Hermionie didn't appear to have much of a sense of humor about the whole thing.
"Yes, I heard." Ryua frowned, thinking. "Odd, that he'd be able to go through the whole school, and not notice it's Halloween.
"Lights out in ten minutes!" Percy Weasley's voice cut above the chatter.
"Have to go, doubt they'll let me sleep with you lot. Lucky thing you were all at the feast instead of studying, eh?" Ryua walked resignedly off to where the rest of the Slytherin House was settling down into purple sleeping bags. Ah, well, at least the Great Hall was a lot warmer than the dorms.
Author's Note: Now I'm hungry. Why, oh why, do I write about food? I want a chocolate-orange-almond cookie, we made them once, they were so good...
