Chapter 26: Studying and Detention
A short game later - which concluded with Meissa and Ron facing off, the red head losing - and a relieved Ron revealed that the spell wasn't as strong as the spell casted by Daphne. So they had Harry practice a bit more while Ron cast his own spell onto his journal. Meissa was not going to test the journal for him and she wasn't about to let Hermione or Daphne test it so that left poor Harry to play shock victim.
It took Harry at least three tries to get the spell right but by that point Ron's hair was smoking and Meissa would have sworn she was seeing sparks dancing along the red head's hair. Once everyone had finished up with their spells Meissa cast the spell onto her journal.
When all five of the journals were bound to their respective owners, all was left was to connect the journals to each other. The spell they had been given was a mirroring kind. It should ideally allow the books mirror each other.
If someone was to write in one journal it should - ideally - show up in the other books as well.
"How are we supposed to do this mirroring spell?" Harry asked, curious. "How does it work?"
"Cogita scriptura should cause the journals to mirror the writings," Meissa explains, demonstrating the wand movements for the spell. "After that we need to set triggers to the journal," she mutters, looking at the list.
"And the triggers are for?" Ron asked.
"There's one for alerting the owner," Daphne read from over Meissa's shoulder.
"There's one for allowing private conversations?" Hermione comments.
"I don't know what's the purpose of at least two of these," Meissa comments, waving the parchment.
"Are you sure we should use the spells?" Hermione asked while Daphne looked questioningly at Meissa.
"Mm, well, nothing so far seem to suggest that we shouldn't use the spells." The Gryffindors nod slightly, thinking.
Meissa studied the list and the information about the spells before she came to a conclusion. "From the look of it it's not necessary for everyone to cast the spells."
"What do you mean?"
"Binding the journals required us using the Revincio spell but after that the spells on this list can be cast by a single person."
"Oh…" Harry looked at his two friends before looking at the two Slytherins. He knew that Ron wasn't the best at learning how to cast spells and he himself have issues sometimes - okay, a lot of times.
But Hermione, Daphne and Meissa - they had the skills needed to cast the spells. "Hermione, will you cast the spells?"
"I don't know Harry… some of these look really complicated. Maybe with some practice I might be able to but I think it's better if Meissa or Daphne cast them."
"There's no way I'd let a Slytherin cast a spell on our things!" Ron protested immediately.
The girls rolled their eyes - they should have expected that.
"I think there's a cauldron unlit in there," Daphne muttered softly to her friend who had to stifle a laugh. They had been thinking the same.
"Weasley - I'd like to get a move on," Meissa drawls. "It's almost supper."
"Ron, I trust Meissa and Daphne. They wouldn't do anything to hurt us."
"They're snakes! They shouldn't be trusted!"
"You're like a broken record, Weasley," Daphne comments while Meissa pointed her wand at the journals and cast the five spells they needed for the whole thing to work.
The red head never looked so scandalized.
~MJB~
Meissa was in the common room, reviewing her notes with Daphne's occasional inputs. Daphne - as it was discovered early on in the semester - was much better at doing transfiguration. But struggled a bit with Charms. The blonde was decent in Potions but to their knowledge her current marks in the subject were Acceptable so she had gone to Meissa for tutoring. So in exchange for additional tutoring in Charms - which was Meissa's forte - the blonde had agreed to tutor her in Transfiguration.
However, both were fully aware that History of Magic was going to be a struggle - both found it hard to stay awake during his lectures and reviewing the text often lead to Meissa distracting herself with spells and Daphne doodling on the pages of her textbook. Draco has occasionally joined them - his insight on HoM helpful since neither girls could stay awake for that particular class. Or rather - Meissa couldn't stay awake and Daphne usually ends up going into a dazed trance. Draco wasn't actually any better at staying awake during the class but if there was one thing he loved it was history. Granted, the history they were learning in Hogwarts seemed to be stuck on the Goblin Rebellions - which were essentially ancient history - and doesn't seem to cover any time afterwards.
This came as a surprise to Daphne since she never expected him to show so much interest in history - he knew a lot about certain eras in history. Meissa was not so surprised since she remembers her cousin being interested in the history of Magical Britain.
Either way, both expected to get O's in defense against the dark arts since they were well versed in the theory of Dark Arts. Meissa specifically was aware of more than most type of magic considered Dark due to her mother's affinity for such spells. Daphne was not as experienced as Meissa in regards to spells but she considers herself to be aware of many magical creatures that are considered Dark.
Regardless, both of their families' history with Dark Magic gave them, in their opinion, an advantage in which Light families would not have.
Meissa's family was, more often than not, associated with the Mental Arts of Magic. Which typically meant they had the strongest Occlumency walls ever seen in Magical Britain. It also went hand in hand with them being able to penetrate everyone else's minds - usually without being detected by their victims. She vaguely remembered reading an account where an ancestor went into the mind of a wizard and planted an idea into his subconscious. She couldn't remember what happened to the wizard in question but there had been a rather illegible text that indicated that the plant can either be rejected - which could lead to suicide - or accepted.
It's also speculated that as a result of her family's skills in Legilimency and Occlumency, their mental states are fragile. Meissa remembered what her great-grandfather had told her so in her opinion there were actually two different theories for the infamous Black insanity - not that they actually advertise it to the other families.
While the Black family history was somewhat well known to Meissa, the Greengrass' history with the Dark Arts were not something she was well versed in. Of course that doesn't mean that she was going to actively seek out Daphne's family history. As curious as she is she was familiar with the usual etiquette regarding one's family history/specialization.
"Meissa."
The raven haired girl looks up from her notes, having failed to realize that she had fallen silent during their study session. "Yes?"
"You're distracted," the blonde comments with a teasing smile. "Are you done studying for tonight?"
"Mm…" She looks towards the clock and found that it was only thirty minutes after eleven o'clock. "I wonder how Draco's detention is proceeding."
"I don't mean any offense to your cousin but I imagine that he has gotten himself into some sort of trouble," Daphne comments lightly, She knew that Meissa could become immensely protective of her cousin if someone said the wrong thing. She was less likely to blow up on someone if the person was someone she trusted but she was still a family orientated person.
"I imagine you're right," Meissa comments light heartedly. "Do you reckon he's serving detention with Harry, Hermione, and Neville?"
"Well, Hermione did write that she had to leave for detention." The blonde gestured to the journal laying open between them. They had been writing with Hermione - updating each other in regards to the stone and when that was all dried up they exchanged information regarding notes.
Hermione was perhaps the one who would receive top scores in all the classes - that was the impression Daphne gotten from her when she asked the other girl about where something would be in their Herbology notes.
Meissa was familiar with some magical aspects of plants - due to her familiarity with Potions - but like she had mentioned before, caring for plants was different from actually dicing and cutting them for Potions. Daphne, despite her last name being 'Greengrass', did not know much about plants in general. Several times someone had made a joke about how she should know what plants are due to her name being a reference to plants. Each time, Meissa had hexed them in some shape or form.
It took about six different hexes to get people to realize that picking on Daphne Greengrass would result in retaliation. But the effort was worth it for the Black heiress.
"I'd like to think that they're not serving the same detention together," Meissa mutters, "But I get this impression that Dumbledore would assign them to the same instructor to serve out their detentions together."
"You think so negatively," Daphne teased.
"Considering what he did, I feel like I'm justified to think negatively."
Daphne arched an eyebrow at the raven haired girl. "You're going to have premature grey hair before you're thirty!"
"If I do, I do. Can't change that."
The blonde rolls her eyes at her. "You're being ridiculous now," she comments. "There's more to life than being paranoid and reading too much into things."
"Maybe, but you cannot deny that strange things are happening around Potter."
"Meissa, his life has been odd since he was a baby. I mean, if you read those books - not that I'm saying I have - you'd see that his entire life is supposedly some grand adventure."
"Do you believe those adventures?"
"Mm… Those books painted him as an arrogant boy," the blonde comments, "Facing of many different magical creatures and wreaking havoc - getting away with each misadventure."
"Yet he is very much opposite of what those books say."
"What are you thinking?" Daphne questions, recognizing that thoughtful tone.
"I'm just wondering… Do you remember how small he was when he first arrived?"
"Well… sort of? It's been months since our Sorting."
"Right, but think about it, do you remember that he seemed a bit skinny?"
Daphne frowns as she tried to recall this. "You're right," she starts slowly, "I mean, he was small and skinny but…"
"It seems a bit much."
"Right." She looks at Meissa who seemed to be in a very deep thought.
She watched as Meissa reached out and grabbed a scrap of parchment and started scribbling - writing in a shorthand Daphne was still learning the code for. Looking over her shoulder she could only make out parts of what the raven haired girl was writing.
There was something about research, suspect, and law. Other than that she couldn't make out a single thing.
"What are you planning?" Daphne asked warily.
"Nothing."
"Nothing is ever nothing with you Meissa," Daphne points out. "I just want to help."
"I'm only working on an idea."
"Two heads are better than one," the blonde observes idly, hoping that the raven haired girl would actually agree to letting her help.
This actually succeeds in prompting the other girl to look at her seriously. "I'm a bit curious about what our laws - and the muggle laws, now that I think about it - has to say about child abuse." Daphne blinks at her, startled by this. "Or maybe child neglect - that would be a good place to start, all things considered."
"What in Merlin's name brought this on?"
The Black heiress gave her a serious look, "Oh come on, we were just talking about it."
"Just cause he's skinny doesn't mean he is being abused! Or neglected!" she hastened to add when she notices that the other girl looks prepared to rebut.
"It doesn't hurt to look into this," the raven haired girl grumbles.
"Perhaps, but I get the feeling that this, this is likely to turn into a huge problem."
Meissa frowns at the blonde before she stubbornly went back to her scribbling.
Sighing in defeat Daphne considers that there could be no harm in helping her out in this moment. "What do you need me to do?"
"Mm… do you know any good books on magical laws?"
~MJB~
It was late when the girls finally went to sleep that night, satisfied with what they had came up with regarding magical laws. Meissa was still curious about muggle laws so she made a resolution to discuss it with Hermione before the year's end - or at least during the summer.
But when they woke up Meissa discovered that somehow her cousin had gotten the fright of his life during his detention. While Meissa would have not pay much attention to this it was when she heard 'Forbidden Forest' in the same sentence as 'detention' she looked at her cousin in shock.
"You served your detention in the forest?!" she whispered harshly, her eyes narrowed. If he hadn't known better Draco would have assumed that he was in deep trouble with his cousin.
"Yeah. We had to go find an injured Unicorn. Except, the unicorn wasn't exactly injured when Harry and I found the bloody thing," the blonde boy explained. "There was this thing - it was drinking from the unicorn!" he whisper shouted, looking anxiously around.
"Describe it," the raven haired girl demanded flatly.
"What? No!"
"Draco, don't argue with me," she frowns at him. Her tone a clear indication that she was going to get this from him one way or another.
"Why do you even want to know?" the blonde shudders while Daphne looks on, occasionally looking about to make sure no one was in hearing range.
"Cause, Dray, drinking unicorn is an act of desperation. And since this took place in the Forbidden Forest - a stone throw away from the castle… Well, it tells me that we could all be in danger." She was looking quite serious for an eleven year old, her thoughts speeding through ideas and implications of a creature or person desperate enough to drink unicorn blood despite the curse of a miserable half-life.
He did not look reassured by this - if anything the thought frightened him more than anything else. It was a miracle he didn't just book it down the corridor - though it may have something to do with the stern look she was shooting at him.
"Alright," he muttered, relenting. "There was a slithering sound, just before we saw it… It was hooded but it was clearly not." He paused, unsure how to phrase whatever was on his mind. "It didn't look like some beast. I mean… I don't know how to explain it but it didn't look like any magical creature."
"What else can you say about it."
"Nothing really."
Meissa studied her cousin's face for a long moment before she noticed something. "Did it do anything? Other than drink the blood?"
"Well… it was crawling."
"Crawling?"
"It looked like it was crawling. I mean, it had these dark robes - with a hood - but it was crawling. Or stalking really."
Daphne looked confusingly at the other blonde while Meissa was thinking.
"What happened next?"
"I don't know. I ran," the Malfoy heir mutters shamefully.
"There's no shame in running," Meissa remarks, "It means that you live to fight another day."
Draco looked at Meissa, looking surprised at her comment before realizing that as a Slytherin self interest basically wins out in any cases - and for Meissa she cared a lot about family, as much as she cares about herself if not more.
Meissa was distracted with her thoughts because otherwise she would have shot Draco a look for staring for so long. As it was, Draco felt a bit comforted by the presence of his cousin. Despite the fact that she has a hairline trigger to her temper, he knew that she would do anything to protect her family. Something he felt he needed to return more often.
"I'm curious, what happened after you ran off?" Daphne inquired. "Cause it didn't seem like you mentioned Harry afterwards."
"I ran back to Hagrid and it was then I noticed that Harry wasn't with me. He got bloody mad - said that I shouldn't have left Harry alone," Draco grumbled the last bit to himself. Meissa rolled her eyes, a bit torn between two thoughts on this matter. Harry should've ran when something apparently dangerous was stalking towards him and Draco should've grabbed Harry as he bolted. But it's been done - time cannot be undone to fix what has happened.
Snapping out of her thoughts she looked at her pale cousin, noting that he was paler than usual, and clasps him on the shoulders. "Cousin of mine, live and fight another day," she told him before she turns him around and pushed him towards the Hall, silently telling him to go on ahead.
Once they were alone and it was clear to them that there was no other students around, the two friends exchanged looks.
"Do you have the journal on you?" Meissa asked, curious.
Daphne took a moment to look into her bag, snagging the journal almost immediately. "Want me to write them?"
"Mm, ask Hermione if Harry is okay and for an update on what happened after Draco and Harry got separated," Meissa suggested, holding a quill out for Daphne. It was one of the quills she has that has a charm that would supply ink for the quill.
While Daphne wrote out the question for Hermione, the spells on the journal preventing anyone except those who were connected to the journals from reading what was written, Meissa kept a look out around them. Glaring at those who peered at them for too long. "Here's her response," Daphne muttered softly when the journal started to show Hermione's writing. With each word she finished it appeared in theirs - each letter making its appearance as the word was written. In some cases it became scratched out when the Gryffindor girl decides to rephrase it. "She says that Harry thinks it was…" she pauses, prompting Meissa to look over at her, "Voldemort," the blonde whispered quickly. The raven haired girl was one part amused and one part concerned for the blonde since it nearly looks like she was going to have a panic attack over using the name. "Apparently the unicorn blood was to last him until he took the stone."
Meissa went over to her and read over her shoulder. "Ron is still vocal about Professor Snape," she remarked, reading Hermione's mentioning of it. She then caught notice of something near the end of the passage. "Harry got back a family heirloom - handwriting suggested that it was the same person who gave it to him for Christmas…"
"What could he have gotten?"
"I don't know…" Meissa frowns slightly before she searched her bag for her journal. When she came up empty she looked at Daphne. "Can you ask her?" The blonde rolls her eyes at her playfully before she wrote it down.
Instead of Hermione answering it was Ron: NONE OF YOUR BLOODY BUSINESS!
Harry's writing quickly came after that, apologizing for Ron's words and stated, in simple terms, that it was cloak.
"A cloak for Christmas? That's dull," Daphne comments.
"Unless it wasn't just a regular cloak," Meissa mutters, thinking. "Ask if they have any theories as to who gave the cloak to Harry."
Daphne wrote this out easily and thankfully Hermione wrote something down.
"Handwriting suggested Headmaster. Both times."
Meissa frowned then at that point. "Let's go to the Hall," she mutters, thinking seriously as she considered the implications of Dumbledore giving Harry a cloak - likely something that could serve Harry well. A regular cloak wouldn't do much - that she could reason out - and Dumbledore, to her, was increasingly becoming more like a manipulative man. It would stand to reason that whatever he gave to Harry it was something he could use to get into and out of mischief. That was her personal opinion about it all.
"Let's keep an ear out for trouble," Meissa whispers to her friend. Thinking that Harry was likely to get into some kind of mischief before the year's over.
With less than a week left before the exams due to start she thought that Voldemort may attempt something while the whole school is busy with exams or reviewing.
~MJB~
Meissa was out by the edge of the lake, enjoying the summer day while reviewing her Transfiguration notes, silently moving her wand in the correct motions. It was a decent day to be out and about and she had a feeling that once the exams started up things wouldn't be so peaceful anymore.
The Gryffindors have joined Daphne and her in studying a few times - when Ron could manage to hold his tongue. The studying session was much better than their first attempt - the boys had often prompted Meissa to practice her silencing charms on them. Even if the spell was a smidge too advance for their year. Now it was really more like a frantic effort to cram as much into their heads. She actually tried and help Harry retain some knowledge for potion - she thought it might improve his standing in her godfather's eyes if he could refrain from blowing up a cauldron or messing up the potion to the point of being unsalvageable.
However, it didn't escape her notice that Harry has had a drawn pinched look on his face since the Forbidden Forest detention - something she was familiar with as a result of her frequent migraines. She thought it was interesting that his scar had ached in the supposed presence of Voldemort and was curious as to why this would happen.
Harry had no idea what was causing his scar to pain him so much. Hermione was just as curious as Meissa but was so stressed out about her exams that Meissa decided that she would handle any research into the Killing Curse and Cursed scars. At least for the time being.
"There you are," she hears Daphne's voice before she spotted the blonde approaching her. "Still studying," the blonde observed. "I think a well-deserved break is in order," she remarks.
"Perhaps," Meissa agreed, setting down her notes and wand. "What do you propose we do?"
"Mm…" Daphne made a show of thinking. "I heard that you like to play Wizard's Chess."
The raven haired girl arched an eyebrow at her friend. "Draco told you that?"
"Yes. I get the impression that he exaggerated a great deal about beating you with just a rook." The Black heiress snickers in amusement. "I thought so," the blonde smiled at her bemused friend. "Well, I have an opponent for you to play against."
"Oh?" Meissa picks herself up, using her wand to send her things into her bag before swinging it onto a shoulder. "Who?"
"Weasley."
"Which one, there's four of them here."
"Right," Daphne shook her head at the other girl. "I meant Ron."
"Oh… why am I going to play against him?"
"I overheard him bragging that he's undefeatable."
"Oh that'll be fun to take down," she comments with a mischievous grin on her face, walking back to the castle with her best friend. "Is Harry and Hermione going to be there?"
"That's the impression I got when I challenged Weasley to prove it."
"I wonder if we can play for keeps after a few rounds."
"Like what?"
"Mm… Harry and him already owe me a favor so maybe we can play for Chocolate Frogs."
"So long it's not the Every Flavor," Daphne comments with a shudder. Meissa made a face, agreeing with her on that aspect. She remembered finding something that tasted like rotten eggs - that turned her from the candy. Draco was even more unlucky - he got something like vomit once. He was gagging for more than an hour before he convinced one of the house elves to make him something to wash out the favor.
"Whatever we come up with," Meissa decided to declare, "It'll be interesting. That much I'll say."
Daphne could only shake her head at her friend - amused by the other girl's confidence in this.