POV of Parvati Patil

The weeks passed and Bella now avoided our entire group. It was already early December when we were forced to speak to each other for the first time. McGonagall had decided to seat a Slytherin and a Gryffindor next to each other for the last few weeks before Christmas, so we had to work together. Bella sat as far as possible on the edge of the table to avoid being too close to me. It was really starting to get to me... I had absolutely no idea how to convince her that I posed no danger, as she had simply talked herself into it too much and always blocked me when I wanted to talk to her. Of course, Hermione and Ariana had also tried to change her mind, which is why she no longer spoke to them either.

After she hadn't spoken to me for the entire lesson, the situation really escalated afterwards: In front of the classroom, I almost shouted at her to at least answer me when I spoke to her, whereupon Zane appeared as if out of nowhere next to her and glared at me. 'This won't be settled here, Patil,' he hissed at me. 'How about a little duel? Tonight at midnight in the trophy room. Or are you too scared?' he suggested challengingly. I was far too upset to think rationally and to listen to Hermione and Ariana, who implored me not to go along with it.

'Of course I'll be there,' I replied, glaring at the two of them. I didn't know what all this would lead to, but my relationship with Bella could hardly get any worse. Besides, I liked how horrified she looked at Zane. She would never have suggested such a thing herself.

During Herbology, Hermione tried to convince me what a stupid idea it was to sneak out of the dormitory at night to duel somewhere. 'You don't even know how to do it,' she whispered to me. 'What if it's just a trap? What if he tips off Filch or someone else that students will be showing up in the trophy room at night and he's just waiting for you there?' I just shook my head to finally silence her. I didn't want even more people to get wind of the plan in the end. Especially, I wanted to avoid James overhearing our conversation and wanting to come along. The more of us there were, the more likely we would be caught, and I didn't want him to get into trouble. That would reflect badly on his family.

'It's my business, Hermione... So leave it be, you're not supposed to come along either,' I hissed back, hoping that would settle the matter, but I had underestimated her: 'We certainly won't leave you alone, who knows what will really happen... But you don't even know any curses... I certainly won't let him hex you in the end and you're left to fend for yourself!' She looked at me intently, but luckily Professor Sprout came over to us at that very moment and we had to concentrate on the lesson again.

For the rest of the morning, I tried to avoid having to talk to Hermione so that she wouldn't manage to make me feel guilty in the end. I simply didn't want to give Zane the satisfaction of not showing up. After all, I wasn't going to be intimidated by him so easily.

Luckily, I had the afternoon off as James and I no longer had to attend flying lessons. To be honest, I was very glad about this, as I enjoyed flying but the pace of the lessons was simply too slow for me. Why should we spend our time learning simple basics of flying when we had long since proven in Quidditch that we already mastered quite different manoeuvres!

I used the free periods to look for some books about duelling in the library, as James had decided to go to flying lessons anyway. As I pored over the books, I realised that I had never sat alone in the library before. Actually, I had only ever been there together with James because we had maintained our tactic of dividing up the work for homework. I found only a few spells that would actually be suitable, as they couldn't be malicious ones that left visible traces and, of course, they shouldn't be too challenging for a first-year like me.

In the end, my shortlist included a disarming charm, a Leg-Locker curse and a Full Body Bind curse. These would certainly be useful to me not only tonight. I memorised the spells well and hoped that they really were as easy to use as the books claimed, as I wouldn't be able to practise them. I still didn't think it was a good idea to let James in on my plans for today. After all, Hermione was right: If I got caught, there would be trouble and I didn't want to put him through that. But I doubted that Ariana and Hermione would help me test the spells. For a moment I toyed with the idea of testing the spells on Malfoy or Veatrix, but decided against it, worried that I might inadvertently draw attention to myself.

At dinner, I hurried to avoid giving Hermione a chance to talk me out of my plan. When I set my mind to something, I definitely followed through! However, this also meant that, unusually for me, I retreated to the dormitory early to have some peace and quiet. To be honest, I was incredibly nervous... Of course, there was a possibility that I would be caught by a teacher and that the whole thing was just a trap set by Zane. Moreover, I didn't know if he would come alone or together with Bella, because that would mean I would have to stand up to two Slytherins on my own.

It all seemed so incredibly unreal to me... Although it had been over a month since Bella and I had last spoken normally, I simply didn't want to accept that I had lost a good friend who now almost resembled an enemy. Thinking about all the things she had thrown at me and how she had tried to turn the others against me, I felt an eerie anger towards the girl I would have once called my best friend. She herself had never officially revealed why she knew all this about me, pretending as if she had seen me on the castle grounds at night. Fortunately, each of us immediately noticed that this couldn't be true, as I had never actually left the dormitory at night, and Bella could hardly overlook the grounds from down in the dungeons. I could only speculate that she herself had concealed something from us and that it had something to do with her gloves, which she couldn't find on Halloween.

When I heard Ariana's voice outside on the stairs, I lay down in my bed and pretended to be asleep to avoid having to talk to anyone.