Guess what? That's right, chapter 12 is up! Yeah, so it took me two months or so but hey, this is still sooner than I expected lol.

So, here you go, my lovely readers!

I hope you'll enjoy this one more than I enjoyed writing it though, because I actually took one month to write this and the next month and more trying to edit to to my satisfaction. (I still feel like there's something missing but I can't figure it out, so let me know if you think you can help).

Pairings: Potential Hadria (FemHarry) x Tom Riddle, but more platonic than romantic, other pairings undecided. See A/N at the end of the chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter

(My dear Beta Happyfish appears to have gone on a vacation, so wish them all the best in whatever they are doing).

Edit(s): I keep spotting grammar mistakes only after I have posted the chapter. Why?

Chapter Twelve: Trick-or-Treat (or Hadria Potter and the Unfortunate Combination between Weasley Twins and Halloween)

" Flamma fumo est proximaa." Flame follows smoke. — Plautus

Hadria knew what was going to happen the moment she saw the notice about the Thursday Flying class. Or rather, she knew how it would've gone in her original timeline and world.

But the Sorting had changed, and that made all the difference, what with Hadria in Slytherin and Neville in Hufflepuff. So there wouldn't be any Remembralls for Draco to pick up that day, and Hadria wouldn't have any need to be a good girl and get it back for Neville.

(Later, on Thursday, Hadria would find out that Neville had indeed dropped his Remembrall—again?—when he fell off his broom during the Hufflepuff-Ravenclaw class. Hermione had been the one who picked it up and helped him keep it until Madam Pomfrey had seen to it that his wrist was fixed up. Fate had a sense of humour, as Hadria had come to realise).

It was a fine but chilly day, when Hadria, Draco and Pansy walked out of the castle, with Blaise, Crabbe and Goyle in tow.

The group was twice the size of the Golden Trio that Hadria was used to, but Pansy had begun getting comfortable around Hadria ever since she realised having the girl around was actually a lot more helpful than not. And she still had that crush on Draco which probably wouldn't disappear for years to come. Meanwhile, Blaise was only hanging out with them for the entertainment. As for Crabbe and Goyle? Hadria wasn't sure if they were capable of doing anything but follow Draco… yet.

At the moment, the group had just found out that the flying lesson would be the Hadria's first time on a broom… In this life, at least.

"You've never been on a broom before?" Draco demanded, like it was a crime. It probably was, in his opinion.

"Eh… Flying on a broomstick never came up," Hadria replied sheepishly. And it really hadn't.

They've taken the plane a few times before (Hadria didn't like those trips—planes had a funny smell and the food was nearly always awful and she wasn't allowed to use a single bit of magic lest the plane crash or something due to the interference) and thus Hadria had a German passport.

But Gellert would mostly ride on Nacht, because, for some reason, he seemed to think that it'd be dangerous for Hadria to ride on something she supposedly couldn't see. And Hadria would get to ride on Geist… As if riding a Boggart that could change shape mid-flight wasn't more dangerous.

However, the raven-haired girl was still trying to train Noh to glide higher than a few metres off the ground, even though Gellert had told her more than once that a Lethifold was not a flying carpet. For now, she had to make do with Noh as a hover-carpet.

"Never came up?" Even Pansy sounded incredulous, despite the fact that by now, Hadria knew that the girl didn't care for any physical activity.

"I've ridden on a Boggart before, if that helps?"

This was met with silence and all-round befuddlement. Draco looked like he was seriously regretting ever getting to know Hadria, Pansy seemed like she was contemplating how best to pretend she never heard the statement, while Blaise was the only one who looked amused. (It didn't need to be said that the two minions didn't really understand enough of what was going on to give an appropriate reaction).

"Wait… You're serious?" Draco managed at last, when Hadria continued to look at them expectantly with such sincerity.

"Well, technically, it's my godfather who is—"

Hadria was still nursing a bruise when they met the Gryffindors at a large lawn, one of the few flat ones amongst the other grassy slopes. There were only a couple of Gryffindors there when they arrived, and the instructor had yet to make an appearance either.

"Even my old broom is in better condition than the best of these," Draco was saying when the rest of their classmates finally arrived, waving a hand to gesture at the school brooms. Hadria had to agree that as stuck-up as Draco sounded, he had a point.

The brooms looked like they had been in used since her grandfather's era.

Then the instructor arrived: Madam Hooch, a witch who was older than Professor McGonagall and looked like she might just burst into feathers and fly away. She had a youthful face despite the crow's feet and short spiky gray hair, her eyes sharp and golden like a bird of prey.

Hawkeye, Hadria sniggered to herself, not caring that Pansy was giving her a weird look.

After Madam Hooch finished giving her instructions, Hadria eyed the school broom and for a moment, wondered if someone had thrown it at the Whomping Willow. Then she shrugged, and with a confident grin, said, "Up!"

The broom shot up straight into her hands with the enthusiasm of a puppy finally allowed for a walk. Then she looked around to see how her friends—Was Pansy a friend? Was Blaise?—were doing.

Pansy's broom quivered a little before it reluctantly flew into her waiting hand. Draco's was as eager to fly as hers, but the same couldn't be said about many of her other House-mates. Blaise seemed like he couldn't care less if his broom wasn't cooperating, while Crabbe and Goyle had actually resorted to picking up the brooms from the floor themselves.

The Gryffindors weren't fairing much better. Ron's broom obeyed him, and so did Dean's and Fay's, but Padma's broom seemed to like the ground better, while Lavender's broom simply rolled away from her.

But after Madam Hooch corrected the way the others commanded their brooms as well as how to hold onto one properly—Hadria stuck out her tongue at Draco when it was revealed that she, supposed first-timer, had a correct grip whereas Draco had been holding his broom wrongly for years—they were finally allowed to have a go at hovering a feet off the ground… Which was as boring as it sounded.

It was, however, a proper flying lesson.

That meant learning how to steer one's broom in the air, and how to pick up speed or slow down… In other words, things that Hadria already knew how to do so instinctively.

She thought she could hear her soul sing when she soared through the air and Draco ended up hollering something like, "And you've 'never been on a broom before'?" but the wind was loud and Hadria barely heard him.

When the practice session was over, Madam Hooch tested them by asking them to fly through several enchanted rings in the correct order with a time-limit.

Some people were just hopeless. Crabbe and Goyle went off-course after the first few rings, though Hadria knew that with a lot of practice, they could be terrifying Beaters. Meanwhile, Lavender fainted from motion sickness before the test even started.

Only Draco, Hadria and Ron passed the test with literal flying colours.

"Probably the only thing he's doing well in," Draco sneered, when the lesson was over. (The Weasley in question was thankfully not paying enough attention to hear him). Pansy giggled, while Hadria just whacked the back of his white-blonde head with her broom.

When he turned to glare at her, she grinned innocently. "Oh dear, it seems like this old school broom is acting up again." And proceeded to 'accidentally' hit his side with the broom handle.

"Hadria dear," Pansy sighed dramatically before Draco could get snarky. "That was just shameful. We really need to teach you how to behave like a lady."

"Perhaps she could become a Beater next year," Blaise suggested.

Draco scowled. "Don't encourage her! And besides, look at her size… She isn't Beater-material—Ouch! Curse you, Potter! I swear to Merlin, I'm telling my father!"

Hadria and Pansy exchanged a glance, but Hadria shook her head with a grin. Pansy pursed her lips and said nothing.

The both of them had breakfast together that morning, seeing as the boys tended to wake up later, and the latter had seen the former receive a letter and some chocolates from Narcissa Malfoy herself.

And… Draco didn't need to know that.

They fell into a routine. Every Monday, the Weasley Twins will prank the school, and it would be Hadria's turn the next Wednesday.

The pranks ranged from temporary vandalism, like turning a classroom into an aquarium (the threshold was charmed to keep the water in even when the door was opened), to flashy stunts, like making everyone grow a beard while their clothes are turned pink (the only one who wasn't affected was Dumbledore, because there had really been no point in that). The pranks weren't always large-scaled or terribly complicated, but they were always satisfying to see in action.

Then, Hadria and Pansy (who had joined in only when she thought it might impress Draco) decided it would be fun to conjure large mirrors all over the walls of the corridors, such that older students got confused when walking through, while several first-years actually got lost.

It had been a Tuesday, one day early, and a few of her friends were quite miffed about it.

The Slytherins didn't mind—they shared classes together, and Hadria's new group of friends realised that following her around the castle would ensure that mirrors or not, they'd make it to class on time. But several other students were upset because her prank was early, which meant that they hadn't been expecting it, which was really the whole point.

Hermione, on the other hand, was annoyed, as usual, because she didn't approve of pranking at all. The smart girl ended up making things easier—and more boring—by putting up signs that indicated the correct directions to the various parts of the castle. The signs were taken down after the mirrors were removed, however, because Hadria managed to convince Hermione that it would do the next batch of first-years well to memorise directions to their classes themselves.

"The experience would be good for them", she had said.

After that, the routine was broken, and pranks would erupt at random at any time of day and week. Sometimes, the pranks lasted more than a day.

It took some time before Hermione was convinced that all of these pranks helped the students learn better though.

"Constant vigilance!" Hadria said, quoting Mad-Eye. Actually, she yelled it. Quite frequently, much to the Professors' exasperation, particularly those who had experienced it from the Auror himself. Well, Dumbledore was always amused, blue eyes twinkling in rare moments like this, which was an interesting change from the usual mildly-concerned looks he had been giving her since the start of the term.

The fact that more and more students were visiting the library, taking the initiative to learn more than was required, might have helped with the persuasion. The teachers had also begun to ignore the pranks, letting the students deal with them instead.

Thus, many students were forced to learn assorted spells in advance (hence the growing population of library-visitors), as well as to think twice before walking through any door, because thresholds were the easiest methods of marking the spatial boundaries of a prank.

It was almost funny to see the Gryffindors, daring one another to be the first to enter or exit any room, just in case there was a prank laid in store for them. Though if there were any Ravenclaws around, they'd usually step forward and cast spells to reveal and undo whatever enchantments had been placed.

Marcus Belby, a second-year Ravenclaw, became rather well-known for killing or dissolving whatever plant or animal was conjured in a prank, by pouring the appropriate potion on the organism. It was mostly trial-and-error, but it usually worked on the second or third attempt. (There was a plant that liked to trip people, courtesy of Neville, who had secretly asked Professor Sprout for help, that grew ten times its size after Belby watered it with the wrong potion).

Meanwhile, the Slytherins would, of course, go last at all times—unless they were with Hadria, who liked to trigger the traps first thing, for the fun of it—in a wise move of wait-and-observe approach.

As for the Hufflepuffs? Hadria thought they were smarter than any Ravenclaw, for they had, instead of burying themselves in books, diligently taken a month to figure out who, aside from the Weasley twins, the other pranksters were.

Then, they figured out within the next week, how to escape the prank early. Most of them were good-natured enough to take the pranks with merriment, but after an hour or two, they'd seek out Hadria and her friends.

Give a tip to Neville about how to take care of a certain plant, help Hermione find a certain book, compliment Draco on his hair or outfit or new items, offer Hadria a piece of chocolate or two… There even a Hufflepuff named Tamsin Applebee who gave Pansy a bag of tea leaves (that when brewed properly, could be used as a mild sleeping draught).

It was almost Slytherin, the way they went about doing it… Even Pansy was reluctantly impressed.

And no one else was any wiser. No one seemed to notice that an hour or so after a Hufflepuff interacted with Hadria or her friends, said Hufflepuff would no longer have atrocious green hair, or tap dance along the hallways, or sound like they'd inhaled helium whenever they talked.

Still, it took three Slytherins, a Ravenclaw and a Hufflepuff to work together (inter-House-unity!) and stun and restrain their mutual friend one day, when they realised that it was a very high possibility that she might just free the Cerberus from the third floor classroom where it was kept. Then, as a precaution, they got the Weasley Twins to keep jinxing students to sing or whistle for a week.

But Halloween came and a Truce was made.

When the Slytherins entered their common room that morning, they found a strange black thing standing there. If not for the creepy white mask it wore, with black pupil-less eyes and a blood-red mimicry of an innocent smile, they would have thought some deity had cut out the very fabric of the world in the outline of a cloaked human, because that was what it looked like—a dark negative space in the middle of the softly-lit sea-green-tinted common room.

Before anyone could gasp or ask what-on-earth-is-that, the Japanese-masked thing turned, and they saw haunting green eyes and a wide toothy grin in the shadow of a hood.

"Bloody hell, Potter, what are you wearing?"

The thing that was really Hadria Potter fished out a carved-pumpkin-basket from the depths of her cloak, and held it out, smiling oh-so-sweetly. "Trick-or-treat?"

Blaise was the first one to chuckle and walk up to her, dropping a chocolate frog into her basket as he did so.

"What happens if we don't give you a treat?" Draco asked, glaring at the cheeky girl. He wouldn't admit it—well, he did admit (read: complain about it) to his parents, though that didn't count—but Hadria was starting to get a little too strange for his liking.

"Do you really want to find out, Malfoy?" Higgs laughed, walking in from the corridor leading to the boys' dormitories.

It was common knowledge by then that Draco had a terribly troublesome Jarvey that wasn't his. It was also becoming common knowledge that his mother, Narcissa Malfoy, liked Hadria.

Sometime later, Hadria managed to persuade—Yes, it's a Muggle thing, but there are traditional Wizarding communities doing it, come on, it could be a treat, and of course, I've checked! It isn't against the school rules as long as you're still wearing your school robes no matter the state of it—some of the other Slytherins to join in. The use of cloaks (that everyone wondered where she got them all from), masks, blood-red paint, make-up, Disillusionment charms, Colour-changing charms were all liberally used.

When the group of Slytherins walked to the Great Hall, they found the Weasley twins were standing outside.

Or rather, they were probably the Weasley twins, because what everyone really saw were two black hooded cloaks floating in mid-air and two pairs of white gloves holding a basket each.

"Trick-or-treat," their disembodied voices chorused. Hadria took some of her own candies and dropped it into their baskets. Then she turned round to grin at the wary Slytherins.

"Better treat them—it's the Weasley twins."

If the school staff minded the dressed-up students, or trick-or-treating they didn't mention it. Not during breakfast at the Great Hall, or during lessons. Professor Flitwick even gave some students points for good charm-work, while other students claimed they heard Dumbledore giving Gryffindor points for excellently-brewed Polyjuice, because there was a Weasley twin walking around… Except that this Weasley twin wasn't dressed-up for Halloween at all, unless one counted the very appearance of a Weasley twin as a terrifying thing. Meanwhile, Lee Jordan was missing, so it didn't take very long for anyone to figure out who the extra Weasley really was.

Gradually, certain students began to realise what would happen if they didn't give a dressed-up student a treat.

Doors would lock themselves (and Alohomora wouldn't work), all manner of creepy crawlies would swarm out of nowhere, fungi would sprout out from their belongings… Hadria heard that there was a student or two who met Peeves while they were doing business in the toilet, and she still wasn't sure how the Weasley twins got the poltergeist to cooperate. There were a couple of Gryffindors who freaked out because their hair were turned into live snakes. Common harmless grass snakes, but they ran screaming to the Hospital Wing anyway.

When none of the Professors turned up for lunch in the Great Hall, Hadria suspected they might have held a staff meeting to decide whether they were going to do anything about the chaos in the school, because it was usually a single school-wide prank for a day.

Usually, once a solution was found, everyone who knew the solution could feel relieved, because it meant they didn't need to worry about the prank for the rest of the day. But this time, it was several different kinds of tricks occurring at the same time, one after another, some of which were somewhat worrying...

Such as the Boggart that was apparently moving homes throughout the day, or the alleged sightings of the Grim—Professor Trelawney was quite spooked by that one, though there were rumours that it was really Hadria in disguise, because the Grim had green eyes instead of the yellow ones it was supposed to have… That rumour quickly dispelled after some students caught Hadria, the Grim and the Boggart, all in the same room, much to the horror of many.

But after lunch, the House-point Hourglasses were still filling up with gems, and no one was reprimanded by the staff (excluding Filch.. and Professor Sprout, who had to put her foot down, "I know you're very passionate about Herbology… No, I don't have a problem with you learning next year's materials! And yes, progress can be achieved through risks and experimentation, but for all our sakes, you may not cross-breed a Walking Plant and a Mandrake for next year's Halloween!")

By evening, half the Hospital Wing was filled, while the remaining students all looked like they had all walked out of a haunted carnival.

Then Hermione and Neville sat down on either side of Draco, who was dressed as an rich vampire, pale face painted white and silver eyes charmed black. He raised an ivory-coloured eyebrow.

"This is the Slytherin table," he pointed out slowly, as if talking to a pair of toddlers. "And you do not belong here."

Hermione merely sniffed. "I checked—there is no rule forbidding a student from sitting at another House's table."

When Pansy looked like she might make a rude remark about blood purity, Neville quickly cut in, "Um, actually, we're looking for the girl who should be sitting at this table? Where's Hadria?"

The first-year Slytherins exchanged glances that ranged from curious to concerned to annoyed. They knew the Longbottom to be a shy Hufflepuff, yet none of them were particularly keen on telling him to mind his own business, particularly the older students who recognised the potted plant he was holding as a mandrake, and the others weren't dumb either—they were beginning to suspect that he was behind most of the plant-based catastrophes that had occurred since the second week of school.

And there was the fact that Neville had raised a pretty good and worrying point: Where was their resident prankster?

"Last I saw, she was comparing the amount of treats she got with the Weasley twins," Nott spoke up.

Everyone shuddered. It was a no secret that the Slytherin girl and the Gryffindor twins had formed an unholy alliance the night before, specially for Halloween's day—it was the only explanation for the day's events.

And that was the reason why the students were barely surprised when a pale and terrified Professor Quirrell burst through the doors of the Great Hall, yelling, "Troll in the dungeons!" After all, many students were too tired to feel much shock, while the rest thought that they should be safe, for they had given treats to those who asked for them.

Then the Slytherins-plus-Hermione-and-Neville looked across the Hall, realised that the Weasley twins were sitting at the Gryffindor table, and that Hadria was not with them.

"I hate to ask, but… How could Hadria possibly let a troll loose in the dungeons?" Hermione said warily.

"It's probably just the Boggart again," Draco replied dismissively, even though that was a question in itself, because none of them knew where the Boggart had come from, nor how Hadria managed to get it to change homes throughout the day.

"Strange that his Boggart is a troll though… I expected it to be a vampire, what with his obsession with garlic."

The troll was not a Boggart, this much became clear when the Professors instructed the prefects to bring the students back to their dormitories, while they themselves went to investigate the matter.

"Hadria's still missing," was a common observation, followed by, "Are you sure she isn't in the Gryffindor tower with the Weasley twins?"

"She's going to get into so much trouble," was another.

The main one, however, was, "She couldn't have found a troll and actually led it into the school, right?"

There would be one or two who would suggest, in response to that, "What if the troll got in on its own, and Potter's missing because it's Halloween and you know…"

That would then be followed by uncomfortable silence.

But the most common conclusion was, "Hadria's the only logical explanation for a troll being in the school." Because apparently out of all the different possible ways the troll could have somehow wandered into the supposed safest place in Wizarding Britain, the force called 'Hadria' was the most plausible.

Meanwhile, the force called 'Hadria' was indeed hard at work, now that she had no one to stop her. The troll had ensured that.

First was the three-headed dog, which Hagrid had named 'Fluffy', but Hadria knew them as 'Chnoúdi'. It really meant more or less the same thing—'Fluff'—but the Greek version was what Hadria had heard Adrasteia call the puppy back when it was, well, a puppy, in Greece.

It was probably a good thing the gigantic canine recognised her as a friend, because her plan wouldn't be successful otherwise.

Hadria could not speak Dog-tongue or whatever it would be called if it existed, but luckily for her, the Cerberus could understand some simple human instructions, such as, "Sit." or, "Come here."

Or, letting the three heads sniff at a scrap of black cloth saturated with the fumes of assorted potions—Snag had been useful in acquiring that—and saying, "Friend." Followed by giving the three heads a snakeskin-bag of rotting garlic to sniff, and saying, "Enemy."

Then she slipped through the trapdoor, dropped down into the darkness before conjuring flames to drive away the Devil's Snare. It wasn't a particularly good trap, Hadria thought. So she took out several pods from Noh's maw, and planted them in the burnt remains of the Devil's Snare. Fire Seed magically cross-bred with a Self-Fertilising Shrub, which would result in a burning bush that ate people when fully grown.

She had started breeding them the year before, but her fingers weren't as green as she would have liked them to be. She had many failed attempts until Neville explained how magical hybridization of plants worked, something Gellert chose not to teach her for fear she would breed a monster. He was right, of course.

The third obstacle was the room of keys. Hadria caught the correct key, and kept it with her—Why on earth should she leave the correct key there for someone else to find? Surely anyone authorised to come through here could simply ask for Professor Flitwick's help if they really needed it?—after she entered the next chamber, the one with the giant chess set.

Hadria could not play chess to save her life. Oh, she was better at it than Pansy, or Neville, but she was no good against Draco. She remembered how well Ron could play too, and how good Professor McGonagall had to be to make this particular chess game so challenging.

But Hadria had, not an invisibility cloak—that one was still with Dumbledore—but a Lethifold, which she could wrap all around herself until she was just a bundle as dark as darkness itself, and sneak across the chessboard.

The chess pieces couldn't harm her, even when they realised that there was a patch of darkness slithering across their black-and-white battleground, because she was protected by a creature that was amortal. While she wore it over herself, she could never be pierced by any blade or affected by any spell unless it were the Patronus Charm.

It was, Hadria mused, almost as good as her Invisibility Cloak. Almost.

The room beyond was missing a troll, which Hadria was grateful for. Then, because Hadria didn't know how to add enchantments to a chessboard that had already been enchanted by another, she decided to add more protection to this room in it's stead… By taking a leaf out of Gringotts' book and applying the Flagrante curse all over the floor. It would burn anyone who tried to walk across the floor, but the troll's especially thick hide should protect it for the most part, so anyone who wanted to get across would need a broom, or a flying carpet—in Hadria's case, she used a Lethifold—or another creature to ride on, like the troll, or, if one were feeling particularly Dark and suicidal, a Dementor horse might work too.

Then she realised that Professor Quirrell had to return here later to add a troll to this room… And Professor Dumbledore himself would also eventually return to place the Mirror of Erised and the Philosopher's Stone in the last chamber.

So Hadria sighed, because she had actually forgotten that it was still too early in the year, so instead of heading on to the second last chamber (Snape's chamber), she made her way back through the earlier rooms instead.

She decided to add a three month's worth of time-delay to the Flagrante curse, then returned the key to the room of keys, because it really was too early to steal it. When she got to the exit, Hadria pulled out a rickety old school broom she had borrowed—again, it was from Noh's maw—and rode it up to where her plants were still growing slowly. She would have to plant more Devil's Snare to replace the ones she burnt and to cover her new still-growing plants, so as not to raise any suspicion.

(There was no question of competition for nutrients and growth, however, not when it comes to a fiery carnivorous plant).

But Hadria didn't bother to correct Fluffy about the designation of Quirrell as the enemy. No one would suspect a thing if the Cerberus were to attack the teacher who showed the most fear and weakness. Nor if the Cerberus could somehow sniff out his duplicity and attack him for that.

Feeling satisfied with the work she had done, the raven-haired girl returned to the Slytherin Dungeons. It was near midnight, so she fully expected some loss of House points for being evidently not in the dungeons after curfew. She also expected a nice and peaceful common room awaiting her, with lake-water swirling outside the windows and a warm fire in the hearth, the only golden colour in the green-tinted room.

As it turned out, almost the entire Slytherin first-year batch were gathered there.

Hadria, for the first time in a long while, actually gaped. Perhaps… she should have expected this? Then she blinked. Could this be expected?

"Did… Did we just catch Potter unaware?" Tracey Davis whispered none too softly in a tone akin to awe.

"Yes, Davis, I believe we did," Draco drawled, expression smug. "About time too!"

"You didn't seriously expect us to just quietly go to bed when we're all wondering what you're doing out there with a troll, did you?" This was Pansy, amused.

Hadria took a step back uncertainly, a sheepish deer-caught-in-headlights expression on her face because why hadn't she seen this coming?

Oh, right, it was because her old House hadn't been as nosy as these Slytherins. Back then, she could get away with all sorts of messes and troubles unless it was right in front of the whole school or revealed in front of the whole school via dramatic changes in house points.

"We're waiting," Blaise prompted and Hadria sighed.

"I had nothing to do with the troll. It wasn't me who brought it in," she tried. But the other Slytherins didn't seem to believe her. "Really."

"If you say so," said Draco slowly, evidently unconvinced. "Then how did the troll get in?"

An unnerving grin began to stretch upon the young witch's face, her bewilderment from earlier clearly gone. The Slytherins exchanged wary glances.

"Why, the same way the Cerberus got into the school, I expect," Hadria said with a flash of brilliant inspiration. And watched as they all paled, astonishment, disbelief and a healthy dose of fear lurking in their eyes.

"You're kidding, right?" Theodore ventured. And much to their horror, Draco and Pansy gulped.

"It's true. We've seen it, on the third-floor corridor," said Draco, and no one bothered to point out that the third-floor corridor was forbidden.

"Which means that someone's bringing dangerous creatures into Hogwarts for Hogwarts," Pansy concluded. "Something's going on. Something dangerous. Why else would Hogwarts hold such dangerous creatures? For battle? Protection?"

"Or, they could be adopting dangerous creatures who have lost their old homes?" Blaise commented in jest.

Pansy sent a stinging hex that he dodged. "Don't give Hadria ideas! It's bad enough with a three-headed dog, trolls and Boggarts and possibly a Grim! At this rate, the next thing you'll know, that half-blood is going to bring in dragons and basilisks!"

And Hadria promptly dissolved into a laughing-coughing fit that sounded like she might just sprain her lungs.

Well, she thought to herself. At least no one's asking where I've been anymore.

Extras (this, like Ingluvies, isn't exactly canon, btw):

Blood dripped from the walls, staining a dark crimson message upon grey stone.

"I hope you weren't the one who wrote that," Draco commented to Hadria with a wrinkled nose. "It's kind of… crude, you know."

Hadria merely stared at the message in mild horror. Then she exploded back into life, arms flailing comically.

"She's in trouble!"

"Who?" Draco demanded, still feeling mildly bewildered even after more than two years of Hadria-exposure. "Granger?"

"No! The Princess!"

"What Princess?"

"The Princess in the Chamber of Secrets! I can't believe I forgot about her!"

"There's a Princess in the—Wait, what the hell?! Potter!"

"No time to talk! Her Highness the Basilisk is probably being controlled by a diary and she needs me!"

Draco gaped at the disappearing raven-head. Then he spun around to glare the equally stunned Pansy and Blaise.

"Remember the troll incident in first year? This. Is. All. Your. Fault."

That's all for now! PM, review, you know the works. (Edit: Double check your reviews after you post them cuz it seems like non-guest reviews aren't sticking for some reason).

Also, if there's anything you want to see in the next few chapters, let me know and I'll see if I can fit it in.

I'm already planning on writing an Extra containing a letter from Severus to Gellert, as per the request of one of my faithful reviewers, so if any of you want to see other letters too, speak up and I'll write them together and hopefully post them up with the next chapter.

Keep a lookout for updates on my profile.

On that note, Fluffy is now also known as Chnoúdi, the Cerberus of Adrasteia's pet shop, because ChizomenoHime pointed out (wayyyy back in a review in 2015) that the timeframe would match and I thought it was brilliant. And I should probably point out that yes, Scath was indeed invited to Hogwarts for Halloween, so no, the Grim with green eyes wasn't Hadria, and the Boggart mentioned was another random Boggart that Hadria found i.e. not Geist, who is still with Gellert.

Oh, and one more thing: For those of you who are more comfortable with AO3, I'm currently in the process of slowly uploading this fic there. You'll be able to find the link on my profile.

Cheers,

Avis

ABOUT GELLERT-PAIRINGS: (Based on reviewers' input)

Current popular choices: (female) Amelia Bones, (male) Sirius Black

Popular but pending: Lady Zabini (there will be flirting between the two, definitely, but whether they actually get serious is debatable, because of Zabini's... black-widow-ness... Could be interesting though...)

Other suggestions:

(female) Tonks (?), Rosmerta, Ollivander's daughter/apprentice

(male) Severus Snape (current runner-up to Sirius), Remus Lupin (?), Mad-Eye Moody

Newest suggestion: Eternal Bachelor i.e let's not complicate things with Gellert and romance

No longer considering: Bellatrix (because of Neville), Luna (she's younger than Hadria)

Did I miss out anyone? Well, do continue to provide your ideas and comments on this topic, and these results may change!