"According to ancient texts, a hellgate can be a wonderful resource used for siphoning magic to complete very powerful rituals that would normally require several human sacrifices. It is very dangerous business though. Most civilizations that practiced this form of ritualistic dark magic no longer exist. And for good reason."

-Albus Dumbledore

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Chapter 43: Something Only I Can Do

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This wasn't fair. This wasn't fair. This wasn't fair. No one else's Gurus ate with them so why did mine have to? I glanced to my left as Sara lazily flipped through the pages of her library book. 'Edwin The Exterminator: There Are Fae In My Tea Garden!' It looked like a picture book and out of place in her red claws.

She stopped turning a page long enough to glance back at me, then my plate. "Spend less time staring at me and more time eating your lunch."

I almost yelled at her. I swallowed the noise so late I almost choked on it. Instead, a weird yipping burp came out which just made her sneer at me and slightly cover her nose. My breath doesn't even stink! I should have just said it. This is a lunch? What lunch?! There isn't even any bread! She won't let me eat anything other than fish and vegetables today after she caught me sneaking brish-…breee-OOoshhh…brioche out of the hall. According to her it was I either eat this and I get to keep it, or I eat whatever I want and she shows me how to be a word I already don't remember. It involves me throwing up my food.

Dean was at a club meeting that meets every other Wednesday. I don't know what a Student Union is exactly but it seems like only the Black students are in it. Daphne sat with us briefly but after talking to Sara for ten minutes, she suddenly had other things to do. It was like watching two kittens slap box.

It was time for the owls to deliver the lunch rush mail. I looked up from picking at my tilapia, carrots, and broccoli in time to see a very large bird I did not recognize hovering nearby. It squawked once, its wingspan creating a brief breeze before it settled on the bench. It managed to unsnap its own scroll and rolled it my way. The paper glittered in gold. The seal looked like translucent honey and smelled like it too! Formed in the middle was a goat head. I quickly wiped my hands on my skirt, earning a teeth sucking noise from my older housemate, and carefully lifted the scroll from the table. It looked so valuable and delicate, but it was actually a little heavy.

Upon touching it, I could hear drums, maracas?, chanting and singing and clapping and stomping. It was almost like falling into a trance. I could distinctly tell that the music was only in my head. My bracelet glowed lightly with the contact. Before I could even make the attempt to carefully peal back the little goat, a thin hand swooped in and snatched the scroll from my grasp.

Professor Trelawny smiled down at me nervously while shaking her head in disapproval. "No no no dear. I don't know what they were thinking but you're much too young to attend something like this. Maybe when you're older." She then scampered off in a flurry of poofy robes and scarves mumbling something about having a word with Dumbledore.

I don't know why I only just noticed, but Professor Trelawny always smells really nice.

Sara stared after her for a wile as well, equally confused. "What the hell was that?" When she looked at me, I shrugged. "Do you know who sent you that? What was it?" I shrugged again. She almost didn't look like she believed me- SHE ALWAYS THINKS I'M LYING ABOUT SOMETHING- but that didn't matter. Cedric slid into the bench across from us interrupting any further questions if there were any. Instead, she took one look at Cedric and started applying lip balm. I wish she would offer him some.

"Sara."

"Unibrow."

He rolled his eyes. "I have something I need to discuss with Mary." There was a brief pause before he continued. "Alone."

There was a long sigh from her though she didn't seem as put out as she was putting on. "Fiiiine. But you're making sure she only eats what's on that plate and only what's on that plate." After another pointed look at me, she walked off to catch up with two older girls.

The tension drained from my shoulders as I finally was able to reach for a slice of lemon pound cake sitting in the center of the table. Cedric immediately and sharply slapped my hand faster than I could react. "Hey!"

"Don't even think about it. Sara's a little extreme but she isn't wrong. You eat like a garbage disposal. I've seen you go back for seconds when the food isn't even good."

I rubbed my red hand. "I don't know what yer used ta eating but the food here is great. And who cares how much I eat. Y'all run me like a dog through the mud."

He smiled that patronizing smile at me. "Do you think Sara is stupid, Mary? The reason you are on such a strict diet is because she's accounting for all the times she knows you cheat. She knows about the croissants, the chocolate frogs, the different breads that come flying in from various bakeries in Bulgaria." Cedric seemed annoyed at that one. "And those potato chips you keep under your bed in the dorms." My face felt so hot I was sure it was completely red. I looked around the hall expecting to see Sara staring at me from some corner in the room like an evil Santa. "When you start sticking to your diet, she'll add options for you to enjoy the foods you like in moderation."

I sucked my teeth at stupid chapped lipped Cedric. They were treating me like the blueberry in Willy Wonka! I stabbed my fish and shoved a piece in my mouth. It was delicious but that wasn't the point. I'm tired of getting beat up and told what to do all the time. I'm tired of my friends giving me side looks when they think I don't notice or asking me about how I bruised this or that. I know I'm clumsy but there's only so many times they're going to believe I tripped down the darn stairs or ran into an opening door. "Shouldn't you be somewhere training Susan Bones?"

Cedric grinned for a moment before it dropped. "Is this what having an annoying little sister is like?" Cedric leaned forward over the table, indicating for me to do the same. "I was tapped earlier today by a messenger of our Divine Mother-"

"Helga Hufflepuff," I gasped. I felt dread in the pit of my stomach at the image of that golden woman flashed across my mind for a brief moment. The one finger shushing me from far away. clackclackClackClackClackCLACKCLICKCLACKCLACK "What does she want with you?"

"Not me. You." He looked around the hall again. "We received word that there's going to be an attempt made on the Philosopher's Stone. When that happens-"

I was confused. "What stone?"

"That's not important. The problem is without the stone, we will no longer have the pretext to keep the Cerberus here."

I gulped. Was evil Santa just Helga? How did she know we had been researching the Cerberus on the 3rd floor? "What does she want me to do about that?"

"Something only you can do. You're going to close a Hellgate."