"Keep quiet," she whispered to the squirming lump in her pocket as she crept along the walls of Hogwarts.
She kept her ears perked in case anyone was coming in her direction, and eyes strained for any sudden movement from any object.
She was creeping along into the Entrance Hall when a cold voice suddenly issued from the Hall.
"Quirrell, I do hope you will take cautious care of my son," it said, echoes bouncing off the walls.
"I-I will, Mr M-Malfoy," another voice, a timid one, answered.
"Alright then, Draco, you may explore the castle for a while, and come back to me at 9. Off you go, then," said the cold voice.
Thames checked her watch. Seven-twenty. She had promised Severus to meet the Three Broomsticks at ten. She made a mental note to leave at a quarter to nine.
But then she froze. She heard two sets of feet heading away, but she also heard another set, much softer, heading in her direction. Leaving was all she could think of. Straightening herself, she saw the owner of the soft steps was right in front of her. Thames opened her mouth and gaped at him.
"Oh, hello, my name is-" the boy began, but Thames cut him with a shush. "Pretend you haven't seen me," she whispered, slowly backing away. "Wait-" he said, yet once again cut. "I'm not supposed to be here," Thames said, trying to explain quickly. The boy looked puzzled.
"I... I sneaked in here," Thames muttered. Then she turned and ran away. The more she speaks, the more troublesome the whole situation turns out to be. That's all the boy needed to know. She sneaked in here, no one should know about it, and he shouldn't speak of it to anyone.
Out of curiosity, the boy followed her. Thames didn't know if it was because she exercise too little or was it because he ran fast, but he soon caught up with her. He quite apparently didn't know what to do, because he actually stuck his foot out and tripped her. She fell to the floor on her side with a soft thud. What if she landed on the Niffler?
"What do you think you're doing?" Thames asked as she got up, carefully placing a palm on her rib. "Well, I-" he started. "I just want to know your name." It ended in small, soft voice.
Thames weighed her chances. "Thames," she said, outstretching her hand. "Thames... Evans. You're Draco, if I'm not wrong when I overheard you?" Draco nodded. "Draco Malfoy." he said, shaking her hand.
Thames looked thoroughly shocked. "Malfoy?" she asked. "The pure-blood family?" Draco looked unsure, and nodded.
"How is it like?"
"How is what like?"
"Being pure-blood. I'm a half-blood."
"Oh. Um... It's nothing actually. Just like normal lives."
"But I heard you live in a manor? With a house-elf? And he (or she) cooks for you? You know, all written in books about blood heritage."
"Uh... yeah. But isn't one of your parents pure-blood? Didn't you know that?"
"Um... They're dead?" Thames always regarded the word 'dead' as 'boring'. People in death weren't boring for her. She preferred the term "not living".
It took Draco a while to process what he had just heard. "Well, I'm sorry," he shrugged. "It's alright," Thames chuckled at his response. She was very indifferent to her parents' death, because, well, she knew if her parents had the choice of whom to raise her before they died, they would choose Severus. She trusted him. She believed her parents did too.
"How did you get in?" Draco asked.
"A very secret tunnel," Thame said, grinning.
Draco's eyes glinted. "Show it to me!" he said, excited.
Thames smiled sadly, "I think I better not."
"Why not?"
"If more than one person knows, the chances of getting exposed are larger. Then we'd be expelled before we even get to have our first lesson. I'd not take the risk." She paused.
"Please don't think I'm selfish. I just don't think it necessary for you to be punished if we are caight even though you have nothing to do with it," She said hastily after noticing Draco seemed unhappy about it.
"Wait," Draco said. "You're a Legilimens?"
"What?" Thames was amused. "No! Draco, there's a thing called body language! It's something found out by Muggles. They found out people have these specific sets of poses and actions aligning to each emotion they're feeling."
"Well, how am I supposed to know what stuff Muggles are studying?" Draco huffed while Thames laughed her lungs out.
Whether it was because Thames laughed too hysterically or they were talking too loudly, they'd never know. But what they knew was there were footsteps round the corner.
Thames froze and tried to think what to do. How good it would be to have an Invisibility Cloak, if it even existed. It was only written in Beedle's tales, after all.
"Come on, idiot, run!" Draco whisper-shouted, and pulled Thames by the wrist and started running. Really, this boy may seem short, but he has insufferable speed. Especially insufferable when you're dragged behind him.
They stopped at the bottom of another set of staircases. "Who's here?" They heard Filch's voice roar from the other end of the corridor. "Peeves, it better not be you!"
Thames tried to think of something. She needed to think... She needed to think... She needed to... She needed... Her head shot up. Need!
"Come!" she grabbed Draco's sweating palm and pulled him up, all the way up to the seventh floor. As the two of them panted, Thames realised her pocket felt lighter. The Niffler... it better had not gone to Filch. If it had, then they were doomed. "Please be here, please be here." She looked around and, to her relief, she saw the Niffler stumbling onto the last staircase.
The relief didn't last long, though. Seconds after Thames had bent and picked the Niffler up, her eyes met ones with slit-like pupils- Voldemort.
no, just kidding. Something worse than Voldemort.
Mrs Norris. Thames gulped and Mrs Norris let out a soft meow. That could be the worst thing she'd heard after seconds of relief.
"Go go go go go!" she pushed Draco and the two raced down the hallway. However, Thames stopped in front of a wall of nothing, and started to pace around thinking only one thing. I need a place to hide... I need a place to hide... I need a place to hide... I need to hide the Niffler, oh gosh...
"What are you doing? We're getting caught!" Draco hissed as he heard footsteps, and, worst of all, the nastiest voice simpering "They're near, my love... Whoever's here will be tortured so bad..." Draco tugged Thames's sleeve in frantic despair.
Then the door finally materialised in front of them. The two rushed in and slammed the door shut as quietly as they could. They listened as Filch continued to mutter the most horrible torturement through the door, heart beating so hard Thames felt her lungs squeezed between her ribs and heart she couldn't breathe. Then, they finally heard Filch saying "They've gone, my love... We will catch them next time..." and fading footsteps.
Thames sucked in air as if breathing for the first time after an hour underwater. Draco went limp and sat with his back to the door.
"I should try befriending the cat next time," heaved Thames.
That's when she took in a good look of the Room of Requirement they were in. It was full of towering shelves, stuffed with all sorts of stuff, most of which were placed in weird fashion. For example, a painting of a warlock was draped with a shirt that was splattered with something red Thames hoped wasn't blood. The warlock scowled at it, and his eyes were weird, too. One was a normal eye with green iris, but the other, with its sclera black and iris a bright yellow. There was a long scar across the warlock's face. Thames shivered at what could have happened to him.
"Should we leave now?" Draco asked, attempting to stand up shakily.
"No, I don't think so," Thames said absent-mindedly, wandering into the aisles. "There are windows. There may be a Cleansweep or Tinderblast here."
"Tinderblast?" Draco asked.
"Yes, a broomstick manufactured in 1940s." (those are facts people i did my research i'm so proud of myself)
Draco stayed silent. Then he asked incredulously, "You want us to fly out of here? You're nuts."
"That's not a very nice thing to say to someone you just met fifteen minutes ago and that someone also spared you a meeting with Argus Filch, someone that is unquestionably the most hated person in Hogwarts's history of existence."
Draco sighed. "Alright. But all these brooms are broken. Now what?"
"I'm sure we'll find a wand somewhere. Probably an old wand, or a malfunctioning one, or a stolen one. Then we can perform a Summoning spell and take some Comet 260s from the broom shed." Thames wasn't very fond of showing her somewhat weird gift in performing wandless magic in front of someone she just met.
"Let's go in deeper, Draco. I'm sure we'll find something."