Things don't get better in the next few days. Two more unfortunate students have been found rock hard after Sanderson. One by one, day after day, they randomly discovered petrified wizards around the castle either at sunset or at dawn, like a daily appointment of a tasteless comedy. But it isn't even the worse of it, not at all. Because while some poor guys get caught by the mysterious phenomenon, the rest of the living world has turned into a massive turmoil.

People have started to speak. To think. To speculate and then, to act.

And act, they have decided to do so against the only suspect of their misbeliefs: Eileen Floquet.

That is why the latter is currently stomping towards the Great Hall with a nasty bruise on the cheek.

She is the last to arrive to the dinner Hall. Her sudden appearance summons an instant hush that covers the entire room like a veil of death. She ignores the hundred of pairs of eyes, the hundred of accusing murmurs and goes straight to the Slytherins table, gathering her best efforts not to flip her middle finger to some of them.

"Hello, heiress!" Orion chants like the bastard he is, earning some hisses from other tables.

Why, they were not the ones supposed to be snake-ish.

Sending the Black heir one of her most murderous glare, she decides not to sit with them as she usually do, but rather takes place at the very bottom of the Slytherins' hierarchy, located at the very far end of the long table near the entrance where first years are supposed to be. And the seat she takes possession of is luckily in front of...

"Hey, Harvey," she greets like she doesn't care about the heated scrutiny sent her way.

Harvey looks like he just saw a ghost. He doesnt know what to do, what to say. She can read his mind right now just by the expressions he's reflecting, unsure of how he is supposed to react. Snob her? Go with the flow? Hiss or spit?

"What are you doing?" he ends up asking, still gaping.

"Eating? What else I'm supposed to do?"

"Eldwins is throwing knives with her eyes! I don't wanna die with you!"

"Wow, how generous of you Harvey. Thanks for the support by the way."

"I-I'm serious, Floquet-"

"Call me Eileen."

"-don't put me in trouble with them. T-They're too scary to deal with!"

She picks a piece of meat with her fork, put it in her mouth and chews slowly, damning the world into a long pause around them. "You will be fine. I will be the one getting hurt at the end," she shrugs and continues to chew on the food nonchalantely.

Talk about a masochistic tendency. It's not like she doesn't care of being hurt, mind you. It is really unpleasant and leaves useless sensation on the body that can take weeks to fade. No normal person likes getting hurt, okay. But what could Eileen do to scale Riddle's influence down at this moment? Absolutely nothing alright. So, now Eileen has chosen to let the pricky sociopath heir do whatever he wants and let the school get shut down because every one could fuck off and die with their head chomped off by the fucking basilisk.

"You're weird," Harvey whispers but still, he seems to accept Eileen's presence a little more.

"You are too kind," she says flatly.

"Saving me not once but twice, fighting off older years, hanging out with Riddle's friends..."

"I don't hang out with them. I'm their slave, remember? Eldwins's slave to be more precise."

"Still. You somehow have a place among the crème de la crème... it's... amazing, even for you, when you never seem to belong anywhere in Hogwarts."

Her mouth stops to work for a fraction of seconds. The way the boy has put those words kind of rings weirdly for the witch. You don't belong. How many times has she thought exactly the same? It was hard sometimes. To be questionning her own existence without any goal in mind. It was hard for Eileen to find her place in this peculiar world. Sometimes, she thinks about ending it. About saying fuck to Fate and end it once and for all. It's pretty dark there, in this part of her mind when she is feeling down. But sometimes it's just too hard to be alone. To be misunderstood. To be put aside by everything and everyone because she was so different. And so done about everything.

It had been hard in her previous life too. Sick as she was, she couldn't go out with her friends and make plenty of memories. She was as alone as she is now. It's as though everything will be the same everywhere she would wake up.

It's hard.

For a simple boy like Not-Harvey to be this observant and sting Eileen with these words when she is still trying to cope with the new life, she can do nothing but stare at him silently.

"Who knows," she whispers, gazing at the plate still full, "Maybe I wasn't made to come in Hogwarts."

Or to come here at all.

He frowns, "What are you saying? Hogwarts is heaven. The students inside might not be angels, but this castle is definitely my precious second home. Where would you be, if not here?"

"At home, studying art and being left alone instead of watching my back every once in a minute. Well, my mother can't stand the sight of me though. I could try to travel in America. I heard Ilvermory was very selective but once you're in there, they don't let you leave until you become the top of the top."

"Wow, that's... very ambitious of you."

She smirks. "Why. I am a Slytherin for a reason."

Avoiding Riddle's group proves to be more difficult than she thought. Orion is having too much fun, following her in every corner to ask who is going to be next. Sadell doesn't talk to her anymore, but Eileen finds that the absence of Eldwins' shadow is a real comfort. No more orders, no more insults. No more Atheis and her haunting attitude just because she is accepted into Sadell's circle. It is perfectly fine by her. She couldn't dream of more!

Only, things were degrading as days go by. The case of petrified doesn't stop, but still no traces of the culprit. Or rather, nothing that can prove Eileen's innocence even though she persists that she isn't behind this sordide crime.

"If not you, then who?"

Each time she is asked, she can't help but glare at Riddle who return it back to her with the slightest hint of a frown. Does he know that she knows? It's hard to tell. Even if he is suspicious there is nothing he can do when he purposefully used Eileen to turn everyone's attention on the girl while he could try and tame his fucking basilisk.

"Fuck them all," she mutters loudy while trying to concentrate to magically stitch the skin of her cut open tibia together. Another gift from an idiot Gryffindor that had always dreamed of being a hero. At sixteen. Hilarious.

Harry had practically been one at birth.

"D-Don't curse!"

In the cabin adjacent to hers, Myrtle's sobbing voice echoes in the totally empty toilets saving for the two girls. Eileen's eyes roll for the tenth time since she has set foot in there while she stays dead focused on the disgusting wound slowly healing itself.

"I-It's really bad to be so vulgar. Mom always tells me to stay polite..."

"Good for you."

"Why- Why are you here? I don't hear you pee, so what brings you in the bathroom if not to mock me?"

"Everything doesn't orbite around you Warren. I have my own reason to be here, one that concerns you not in any way but as you seem really curious about this, I am recovering from a fucking hex."

Eileen hears a gasp, either at the word she used or at the fact that it sounds terribly bad.

"Uh- Are you... okay?"

"I've known better days— Aoutch! Son of a bi–"

"Hey!"

"Oh, fuck off Warren! I'm agonizing here! Damn brats trying to prove absolutely nothing but the stupidity of their stupid bullying... They're lucky I have my hands full with million of things to do or they would be sorry right now—"

There is not a single day without her body being free of scratches since the punishment from Sadell. Everyone has an eye on Eileen nowadays. She can't take a break and the more the days go through, the more exhausted she is. Sleeping in the same dorm as the three most evil witches of Hogwarts also doesn't help, because keeping an eye open is everything but revigoring for a normal human being.

"Are you... Are you maybe bullied, like- like me? Are they making your life miserable? Did you come here to cry too?"

"My life is not that drastic."

"I know what it feels like. To be rejected, alone. To have people think how unsignificant you are... We- We are the same, you and I."

Is she really trying to comfort her right now...? Eileen refrains from banging her head into the cabin's door while Myrtle is having another fit of tears.

"I'm so tired of Hornby! I want to be left alone once and for all! I don't deserve all of this, so why... why! What have I done to them? I don't know what to do... I want to disappear...!"

She sniffed loudly and sobs even more.

"Maybe they're right... M-Maybe I deserve to leave Hogwarts and remain a useless waste of a witch at home... I wanna die so badly.."

"Shut the fuck up."

"What...?"

"You want to die? Then go fucking die. You think it's easier to just give up and hide for the rest of your life, but that's just an excuse to deny the fear and cowardliness inked into your veins. I've enough of your antics every time I come to check if you're still breathing–"

"W-Wha—?!"

"—But just know this: no one will care about your death, Myrtle. Absolutely no one cared when you were alive so why would they for a meaningless corpse on their hands anyway? They will not feel any guilt. These people are scary little devils who will do anything to grab the spotlight with their lies and acts, as bad as they can be. Maybe they will grieve for a minute, because they would lose their favorite crybaby prey, but after a day or two you will just end up forgotten, haunting the smelly bathrooms of the second floor for all eternity just because you were too afraid to retaliate."

Eileen doesn't know why she couldn't stop talking rather than ignore Myrtle's umpteenth sobbing complains like she is used to. Something in the ravenclaw's words triggered the sudden anger she couldn't shake off. The mention of dying, certainly. Eileen is pretty sensitive when it comes to death, and she didn't know it before agressively lecturing Warren for her spinelessness against idiot brats like Hornby. Seriously, this kind of bully is to be taken care of with the same level of cruelty they possess.

Her wound is almost healed up now.

"Dying is worse than facing Hornby and her little croonies, believe me. You can't even ve certain if you're going to be at peace after death. I know what I'm talking about."

"But..."

Myrtle has stopped crying now, and seems to have calm herself down. It is a relief, and Eileen takes this for a victory before going on again, this time softer than before.

"If you don't know how to fight, learn. If you need help to learn, ask someone. If you start belittle yourself out of fear, slap yourself until it hurts to engrave determination into your mind. And for fuck's sake Myrtle, if someone makes fun of you, don't cry. Stand your ground, raise your chin and set them on fire for what I care."

The gasp she hears is quite comical.

"It's too much..!"

Oh, for the love of—

"Then stomp on their toes, jinx them, hex them, do something."

There! The skin is all patched up neat and clean. The smeared blood over her palms and clothes is the last part of the problems she has to deal with today. She lets out a content sigh, putting the wand out of sight.

"... Thank you."

Eileen freezes a little. She hasn't seen that coming at all. She has just shouted at Myrtle with violence and curses, and now this girl is thanking her?

"For what? I haven't done anything."

"Weren't you cheering me up just now..?"

"No! It was only... I was just— Uh. Was that it...?"

"I don't know anymore!" Myrtle cries out, more acute than her usual vocal ability.

Eileen sighs. Bumping her head against the wall while remaining sit on the closed toilet bowl, she lets out a long breath that could have filled the entire bathrooms. She feels better now. Not because of the damn wound all healed on her knee, but because of the venting of everything she had off her chest. God, was it that simple? To shout and curse in order to feel good again?

"Thank you," the echo of Myrtle's soft words hits Eileen harder.

She doesn't know why she is feeling guilty all of sudden, but mixed with this guiltiness comes satisfaction. She can't remove the slightest smile off her lips when she replies:

"Anytime."

Damn, she is growing too soft.

"I was wondering..."

When Myrtle cuts herself off, Eileen starts to frown.

"What?"

"Can you help me get revenge on Hornby?"

Something has changed. She can feel it. Something in the atmosphere is not the same anymore, same for herself. She was used to be ignored. She was used to not feel a thing and only wait for the day to be finished. She was like the invisible slytherins' little dog, able to make herself disappear at wish and tolerate the pain of hexes or vicious mockery thrown to break her.

But now...

Now she is the centre of attention, in the wrong way. Well, either ways would be wrong for Eileen, so let's say for the worst way.

No matter where she hides, they would notice her and start murmuring as if she couldn't hear a thing when in fact, she could hear absolutely every crap they were speculating. There is also the strange case of Orion Black that continuously pops up everywhere she goes around the dark corners of Hogwarts. She was hiding in the far back of the library and then Orion has appeared behind the aisle and asked for the Heiress' blessing. One moment Eileen went to the kitchen in order to have the first meal in peace since a while, only to have the door slammed open with the boy pretending to have missed dinner to grab some fruits in the basket, courtesy of the too helpful elves.

Now she is sitting at the quidditch pitch in hope to get some peaceful hours outside of the wild jungle inside the castle, but the short moment of comfortable lull is ruined by the heavy bump next to her, where Orion has just taken place on. It is more than enough to break the tiny thread of patience she had until now. But still, Eileen keeps quiet and tries her best to ignore the annoying presence less than a meter from her.

"How are you doing, O great Heiress of Slytherin?"

"..."

The wind is the one answering the little shit.

"Don't wanna bless me with the sound of your almighty voice today? Fine by me."

But not by her.

"I heard Jonas Deepkin almost killed you with a personalized petrifying hex? You were lucky Professor Slughorn showed up in time or you would have been done for."

Eileen only streches further in her seat and covers her neck a little more with the slytherin colored scarf. The wind was brutally cold these days, she has to be more careful before falling seriously sick like the original Eileen Floquet of this world.

"What happened with Sadell?"

Again, a subject that tends to be quite irritable.

"I thought despite having a master-servant relationship, you two were friends. All she does is glaring at you now, while you try your best to merge with the slightest shadow as soon as you enter the common room."

Oookay, the fact he just admitted he's been stalking her from afar is not creepy at all. Not at all. "I know what you're trying to do," Orion pursues with a smile.

Eileen snorts.

"And let me tell you that acting like you do now is not going to arrange anything. Listen to this advice if you want everything to come to an end, Floquet. Make yourself small again. Don't answer back, don't murder with your eyes, keep quiet, act stupid. Like you used to before. It was more efficient."

Eileen feels herself tense as Orion mentions her not-so-oblivious false front as though he is not talking about an entire year of pretense. This is becoming more and more disturbing. She can do nothing but stare at the darkness of Orion's own gaze covering her whole.

"Is that a message from your Lord?"

She isn't supposed to give any sign of aknowledgment but this is getting damn too out of control. It is like having her secret exposed like it was nothing by the spawn of the Devil, and the way Orion just spoke has given Eileen terrifying chills. Even the mistake of calling Riddle their "Lord" isn't enough to shake the feeling of dread off.

He doesn't seem to mind though. And the smile he puts on after the short pause of silence between them is not the reaction she was expecting from the Black heir.

"Actually," he starts, "This is my own warning. I don't know everything about your story or what happened before your return at Hogwarts, but I do know you are not the same as you were two years ago. I'm a bit curious about it, even if I am aware you won't tell a thing to satiate this hungry inquiery."

As Eileen isn't saying anything anymore, he shrugs.

"Well, I've said all I had to say." He stands up to leave the seat, not a bit interested by the Quidditch practice in the air. His back is turned, ready to depart from the pale face Eileen has right at this moment.

"Oh," he says, "By the way, I am not the only one watching you. So be careful, Floquet."

Then he leaves.

All Eileen has to do not to freak out right now is to watch the students fly above her head chasing the golden snitch far too fast for her eyes to follow. It lasts half an hour before she picks her stuff up and go hide in her dormitory, looking over her shoulders every minute just in case she wasn't alone.