Maleficent growled that sarcastic nature of his always got on her last nerve. "Ohhhhhhhh as much as I'd LOVE to crush you like the bug you are, I cannot risk blowing my cover, and I'm sure YOU can't risk blowing YOUR cover as well!" Maleficent sneered. "Then what do you propose? A temporary truce?" Alex asked. "Precisely, once we're out of this bloody school, it's right back to the way things were!" Maleficent approached him and held out her hand. "Agreed?" Alex thought this over a bit. "………………….fine…" Alex finally replied. They both reluctantly shook hands and Alex left the room. Only to run into Ariel who hugged him tightly. "ALEX!!! YOU OK!!! What happened?!" Ariel asked frantically. "Maleficent and I had a……philosophical discussion and we called a temporary truce... We agreed not to kill each other until we get out of this school…." Alex replied calmly. "But Alex, what if she doesn't keep her word?" Ariel asked. "Hey, I beat her once right? I can do it again!" Alex smiled. "C'mon let's go catch up with Harry and the others…" Maleficent watched from a window as Alex and Ariel ran to go find Harry and the gang. "Well, this will certainly be an interesting year…." Maleficent smirked. CHECHCHCH

Chapter 6: Suspicions and Potions

As the five of them made it outside, a thought occurred to Alex.
"Hey, Ron, what happened to your wand, by the way?"
Ron glowered as he took out his broken wand and glared at it. "What happened to it? THAT happened to it!"
He pointed at a large, thick tree in the center of the field with branches shaped like clubs and twigs as thick as pythons.
"That's the Whomping Willow," Hermione explained. "It hits whatever comes in its reach."
Harry explained how they couldn't get through the barrier that led to the train that took them to Hogwarts and instead took a flying car that Ron's father owned and crashed into the Whomping Willow.
"Well why couldn't you get through?" Ariel asked.
"Don't know," Harry answered. "But before that, a house-elf came to my room telling me not to come back here because of terrible things happening. I say somebody clearly doesn't want me here."
They finally came across a hut outside the creepy forest Alex saw earlier. Alex assumed this was where Hagrid lived. They knocked and Hagrid was happy to let them in. But Jack wasn't inside.
"How're things going, Hagrid?" Harry asked him.
"Frustratin'," Hagrid groaned. "New assistant. Complete dope if I ever saw one."
Alex knew he was referring to Jack. "Where is he?" he asked.
"Oh he's right out in the back," Hagrid replied.
Alex and Ariel went outside to the back of the hut to see a moping Jack with a bandage covering his nose.
"What happened to you?" Ariel asked.
"The big bloke wanted my help with some bloody birds with four legs…"
"Hippogriffs?" Alex asked.
"Aye. Next thing ya know, one of them pecks me sniffer."
Alex narrowed his eyes at Jack.
"Did you, by any chance, insult it?"
"I called it a big, ugly chicken. Why?"
Alex shook his head. "I read that hippogriffs are easily offended."
Ariel giggled as Jack glowered.
"Ya could've told me that sooner. Well enough of me. How're you two doin' here?"
Alex and Ariel sat down and told Jack about what Hermione told them about the Chamber of Secrets.
"That's all we found out about it," Ariel finished.
"So, you have any idea who set loose this terrible beastie?" Jack asked as he took a swig of his rum.
Alex narrowed his eyes as he thought about Malfoy. "I've got a good idea. But there's more…Maleficent's here."
Jack nearly choked on his rum. "What?! But how…?"
"Don't know," Alex replied. "But she's teaching here and might give me a hard time on our search. In fact, I doubt she wouldn't."
"You think," Jack wondered out loud, "that she might've let loose that terrible beastie?"
"I don't think so," Ariel replied. "She came here after the first attack. She might have nothing to do with it."
"But we should keep an eye on her," Alex said.
"Aye," Jack agreed.
"HEY THERE!" they suddenly heard Harry cry out. They turned to see Harry, Ron, and Hermione leaving Hagrids hut. "C'MON! WE NEED TO GET TO OUR NEXT CLASS!"
"COMING!" Alex called back. He looked back at Jack. "See ya."
"Take care, mates."
With that, Ariel and Alex followed Ron, Hermione, and Harry to Potions class.

As they headed to their next class, Alex and the others kept wondering who the Heir of Slytherin could be.
"Well there can't be that many suspects," Ron said in mock puzzlement. "It's someone evil, someone in Slytherin, someone from a family of Slytherins, and someone who thinks Muggleborns are scum."
Obviously Ron was thinking the same thing Alex was thinking.
"Oh please," Hermione scoffed, unconvinced. "Malfoy, the Heir of Slytherin?"
"I don't know," Harry spoke up. "His family has been in Slytherin for centuries."
"And he's definitely a sleazy jerk," Alex said. "I could tell just by the look on his face."
"But if he is the Heir of Slytherin," Ariel interrupted, "how are we going to prove it?"
"We'll have to figure it out somehow," Alex replied as they made it to their next class.
Potions Classes, as it turned out, were held in a dungeon. If that wasn't bad enough, the Slytherins, including Malfoy, also had classes with Alex and his friends. The sneer Malfoy threw at him made Alex want to punch him, if Ron hadn't stopped him.
"Gotta watch what you do around here," Ron said to him. "Snape favors the Slytherins and will take points off of Gryffindor just for smiling."
At that moment, the Potions Master walked in. Just the look of him made Alex uneasy. He had greasy hair, swallow skin, a hooked nose and wore a black cloak.
While taking attendance, he sneered as he came across Alex's name.
"Ah yes," he said with a hint of distaste. "Our special case."
Obviously Dumbledore told the staff about Alex being there. But the fact that this man knew who he was made Alex even less uneasy.
After Snape was done going over attendance, he glared at Alex again with narrow eyes.
"I believe it would be polite if we see how much our guest knows," Snape sneered. "Name and describe one recipe you can find if you looked up Moste Potente Potions?"
Hermione had her hand up but Snape ignored her. Alex, of course, had never even heard of Moste Potente Potions, so, needless to say, he had no idea. Malfoy was snickering in his direction.
"I see," Snape said with a smirk on his face. "So special, yet so dim as well."
"Excuse me, sir," Hermione interrupted, "but one recipe found in Moste Potente Potions is the Polyjuice Potion, which changes the appearance of the drinker to the appearance of a different pers…"
SLAM! She never finished due to Snape slamming his hand on his desk.
"Miss Granger, I don't recall giving you permission to speak. Therefore, I will be taking ten points off of Gryffindor for your inability to control yourself. Now then…"
He pointed his wand at the blackboard and it was like an invisible hand was writing on it.
"Today we will be drafting freezing solutions. The instructions are on the board, the ingredients are beside your cauldron, you have one hour starting now."
Everyone got to it. Alex found it hard due to how small Snape's handwriting was and Snape breathing down his neck every time he passed by. Alex could've sworn that he wanted him to fail, and he began to like him less each minute that passed. He looked to his left and saw that Ariel and Hermione perfected it, which cause Alex to smile and Snape to sneer.
But suddenly, everyone's attention turned to where a loud BANG! occurred. A boy Alex recognized as Neville Longbottom had his potion blown in his face. Snape gave a small smile of satisfaction.
"Why am I not surprised, Mr. Longbottom?" Snap groaned

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Since I've been away for awhile, this chap was guest written by Dan Man… I'll be writing the chaps again soon