I do not own Harry Potter only the awesome J.K. Rowling does.
I Only own some characters and plotlines.
A/N: Thank you very much to:
Susie Q: Yes she does know both his sides, as only his closest followers do. This separates her from 'all the other' girls at Hogwarts who have naive crushes on him, not knowing his dark and rather deadly side. As to why she still likes him, well only time will tell…. )
Ahkenasahmen: Thanks, happy that you like it!
LaNi-GoLDfiSh: )
And last but not least Lauressa, it is a great pleasure writing this for you guys, and I hope you can forgive me for not updating for a while. Christmas and New Year swept me away on holidays, but now I am back with an extra long chappie!
Please Enjoy!
Yours, Vou Hanne
Chapter 6
Boy trouble
The first week went by without another disturbance. All Beth's friends started to understand exactly why the sixth year was known as the one of the hardest years, leading up to their NEWT's end exams in their seventh and final year at Hogwarts.
Especially in Transfiguration and Potions, the homework was already piling up high, when Beth, Eliza, Avery and another friend called Helmut Mulciber made their way towards the great hall for dinner on Friday night.
"I can't believe Slughorn thinks we can do two essays on one weekend," Eliza groaned and sat down. Avery sat next to her and glanced at the Griffindor table where Potter and his friends sat, joking and laughing.
"Well, you can say goodbye to your weekends from now on," Beth grimaced and reached for the potato-mash. "There will be no more haunting the corridors for you Avery!"
She grinned as he glared at her, but his expression softened, when Eliza giggled.
"Yeah Avery," she said, "no more hanging out with the Bloody Baron." Both girls smiled at his frown, and watched him dig into his meat pie.
"You know what? I think Merrythought is going to retire." Mulciber grunted, as their old Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher slowly crossed the hall, leaning heavily on her stick. "A small billow of wind and she would fall over!" He grunted again, and some pie sprayed over the table Eliza wrinkled her nose and edged away, closer to Avery, much to his delight.
Beth furrowed her brow, but Eliza didn't notice her friend's disapproval and leaned her head on Avery's shoulder.
"I am so tired of school already," she mumbled. Avery smirked and bit into a piece of bread. "I wish it were at least warm enough, so we could sit at the lake…" She trailed off in thought, looking at the dark window panes and the rain that pounded against them.
"Well," Beth stood up and grabbed her bag vigorously, knocking over a small first year as she did so. The little girl stood up and ran at the sight of the sixth year Slytherin's gazing at her.
"I will be in the library doing Slughorn's essay on Felix Felicis." She made her way quickly past a group of third year Hufflepuff's and climbed the marble staircase glaring at everyone who passed her by.
It was her personal duty as a Slytherin, to make life as miserable as possible for all younger students, in fact, all students not in her own house. Everybody practically expected you to be nasty, so why not give them the satisfaction of being right?
Beth turned a corner and bumped straight into Tom, who bounced back in surprise as he saw her. He seemed to have been deep in thought, because Tom Riddle didn't normally walk into people, it was just too clumsy a thing to do for such an accomplished wizard.
"Bethany," he said amazed, "what re you doing here?" He seemed to regain his composure fast enough, his eyes narrowed in their usual fashion.
"I was on my way to the library," she answered a bit confused by his suspicions.
"Ah, but of course," he smiled at her and Beth's heart skipped a beat. Any girl in Hogwarts would have paid Galleons to be in her shoes right now.
"Well, then, see you in classes," and he quickly made his way around the next corner, leaving the corridor empty and a confused Bethany in his wake.
"Beth, what are you doing?" A voice whispered from behind a book case a few hours later. Beth turned around to see Cassandra and Eliza hiding from Mrs. Colt, the librarian.
"I am writing an essay, isn't that obvious?" She hissed, not taking her eyes off the pargement in front of her.
"Well, we are having a little get-together, you know where…" Cassy whispered as Eliza giggled and both of them tried not to laugh out loud. They both acted so silly sometimes!
"Have fun then," Beth retorted. "I am not coming."
"Beth, come on, it will be fun! Lestrange got some fire whiskey and butter beer, please!" Eliza sounded genuine enough, but Beth didn't feel like getting drunk, or watching Avery take advantage of Eliza when she had a bit too much alcohol.
"Forget it," Beth insisted. "Get out before she sees you and gives you an even longer ban." She heard Cassy and Eliza sigh, then footsteps and then silence. Mrs. Colt stood up to scrutinize some old books in the Magical Herbs section, sometimes shooting a suspicious glance in the Slytherin's direction.
After about half an hour of this annoying feeling of being watched, Beth packed her bags and slowly made her way to the dungeons.
Maybe I should take a short look at what they are doing, she thought to herself upon arriving at a corridor, where she could either go to the common room, or to the room of Requirement. Just a glance…
She walked into the small room, expecting exactly what she saw. About ten Slytherins, most of them in the sixth and seventh years, sat slouching around on three big sofas which lined the dark walls. The room was quite small, so everyone was close and they all had a bottle of butter beer or a glass of whiskey in their hands.
"Wow, Shielding, what are you doing here?" Avery grumbled, sitting next to Eliza on the sofa with a glass of whiskey at his lips. "I thought you weren't coming..." He looked a bit annoyed, but that might have been the shadows of the sparse candles that where floating in every corner.
"I decided to keep an eye on you guys," she said hastily, sitting down next to Dominic Nott who was lounging on one of the green leather sofas which the room had produced at their request. She looked around the room, all of the Death Eaters where present except Tom Riddle of course. He was probably hidden in some deep corner of the library's forbidden section reading up on forbidden, dark curses and potions. It was a bit bizarre that he kept to himself so much, a lone young man, though he had his faithful friends at his disposal. Beth realized that they did have a weird relationship with their ring leader. It wasn't the same as with Potter and his gang.
Tom was the head and they followed.
Tom was the instructor, and they the execution.
Tom was the boss, and they the faithful servants.
Why was she thinking of Tom so much? It was as if he had imprinted himself into her mind, when he knocked into her earlier. She sighed and took the glass of spirits that Peter Lestrange, a sixth year, handed to her, and then took a big sip.
Maybe she was being too hard on herself. Tom's looks were well known for being the most alluring of the whole school. All the other girls knew Tom only as the tall, handsome, shy, intelligent and helpful person he played in front of the school. He had charisma that flattered even the teachers, especially Professor Slughorn, the potions master, but also the female ones such as the Defence against the Dark Arts teacher Professor Merrythought and the Herbology teacher Professor Beckett.
It wasn't a big surprise that her thoughts lingered on him, his black hair and same coloured eyes. Though his skin was pale it gave him an alluring sense of mystery and secrecy, that every girl yearned to uncover, though no one had ever been able to claim him her own. This was probably one of the reasons why Eliza was so fascinated with Tom, he had never ever been seen alone in the company of a girl, never had he talked to Beth alone, but for today, it had been the first time.
Ha, she thought to herself, there is a first time for everything. She suddenly noticed a hand waving in front of her face and looked up into Nott's eyes.
"What?" she asked, taking another sip out of the glass, for whatever was in there made her feel nice, warm and comfortable in her seat.
"Where have you been? Anyway, we just asked you, if you like the music?" he laughed and drained his glass. Beth looked around and saw everyone gazing at her.
"Cool," she lied. The music was horrible, some dark heavy metal that sounded more like a chain saw than actual music, but Avery liked it and she couldn't insult him whilst his green eyes penetrated hers so severely.
After about another hour of sitting there, listening to the music and occasionally laughing at Avery's crude jokes about Muggleborns, Beth decided it was time to go to bed. She looked at Eliza and saw her friends head rolling on Avery's shoulder. He was looking very pleased with himself and put an arm around her, as she went limp on his side.
Beth frowned as she saw his arm snake around her friends thigh, and stood up immediately pulling out her wand.
"I think it is time for Eliza and me to go back to the common room," she said firmly, walking towards her friend's unconscious body.
"Its okay," Avery said mildly, "I will take her down in just a minute."
The music went silent as Beth shook her head.
"No way," she said firmly, "I am taking her now." Beth's heart began to beat faster. Suddenly she noticed that they were only three girls in the room. One of them unconscious and the other one giggling and very preoccupied in Malfoy's arms.
Cassy did the most stupid things when she was drunk, things she ended up regretting later. As usual it was Beth's call to save them and prevent the worst.
"Cassy, I think it is time to go now," Beth emphasized the word 'now', and performed a hovering charm on Eliza, as she moved towards the door.
Avery for a moment looked as though he were going to pull his own wand out, but refrained looking thunderous. Beth grabbed Cassy's arm and steered her out of the door, Eliza's limp body following them into the dark corridor.
Safely back in the girl's dormitory she put Cassy and Eliza to bed, falling into her own with a sigh. Beth was happy that she had gone to the party after all and shuddered to think what would have happened if she hadn't taken both her friends away from that room.
The alcohol in her own blood, soon made her sleepy and she drifted off, firmly making up her mind that Avery wasn't the man she was prepared to fall for after all.