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Alaric had found himself rather exasperated by the flying fiasco he had witnessed earlier today and after making a point of telling Daphne and Tracey where he was going, he sneaked out of the Slytherin common room alone with the library in mind as a final destination.

The library may have been his final destination, but it was not his first. He had other things to do first, namely returning a fascinating magical artefact back to its original owner that he was reluctant to part with and planting the seeds of a friendship that would hopefully bloom before the end of his year.

As he entered the Hospital Wing, a place that was almost comically white in colour— Alaric caught sight of a middle-aged woman whom he assumed to be the matron and walked towards her when he saw her look up from her desk at the sound of the door opening and then return back to whatever she was reading when she noticed that he was not injured.

"Excuse me," he asked, tone perfectly polite as walked over and prompted her to finally close her book. She turned towards him with wrinkled eyes, and he resisted the urge to step back as she scanned him over once again with that piercing gaze of hers. He cleared his throat, "Can I see Neville Longbottom? It won't take long, I promise. He lost something during his fall, and I just want to make sure he gets it back."

Alaric smiled his most charming smile up at the elderly woman whom he could just tell was as stern as they came, she was powerful to boot and almost reminded him of his grandmother if nothing else by the way her eyes practically softened at his smile. He had quickly learned that aside from magic, there really was not a whole lot that separated wizards and witches from muggles. This was one of them— both the magical and the mundane world, an innocent smile on a youthful face as disarming as the one that Alaric had mastered was a fantastic way of disarming adults and getting what he wanted.

"Oh, of course, dear. He won't be here much longer anyway, so there's no harm." Madam Pomfrey as he had been told her name stood up and quietly led Alaric to a bed with drawn curtains without much questions. She only told him to be quiet to not disturb other patients and that Neville was inside before walking away in the other direction.

Alaric watched her go for a moment before he finally turned towards the shut curtains and breathed— keeping his face blank but making sure his hands were empty and clearly displayed, the raven-haired boy pushed aside the curtain and entered the makeshift compartment. "Good afternoon, Neville."

The boy in question, who was reading what appeared to be a book of some sort on magical plants jerked badly upon hearing his voice and Alaric suspected that had he been standing and able to jump, he may very well have put his head through the ceiling. He only paled further when his hazel eyes swept nervously over his green robes, and his voice came out in a hurried stammer when he spoke. "P-Peverell?"

Alaric smiled that same disarming smile and watched as Neville's nerves visibly settled at the unexpectedly friendly gesture if only a little bit. "Calm down, Neville. I have no devious plans that involve you and it would be a shame if I was implicated in your sudden death via panic-induced stroke."

Alaric saw the corners of Neville's lips twitch for a moment at his quip but the poor boy seemed too nervous to smile properly. His hazel eyes remained quick and guarded despite his demure demeanour, and it showed in his nervous smile as he asked, "W-why did you come here then?"

In response, Alaric reached into the pocket of his robes and withdrew the small, glass Remembrall he had managed to summon to himself during the Flying Class. "I have never had a Remembrall to myself before, but I heard that this one is a rare family heirloom of yours and thought it only right that it was returned to you."

Neville looked almost shell-shocked at his words for a moment as he slowly reached out, seeming to believe it was some sort of trap until the last second when his hand closed protectively around the Remembrall and brought it back into his chest.

"Thank you," Neville breathed out in little more than a whisper, seeming to be as surprised as he was relieved.

Alaric shrugged almost casually, glancing at the enchanted ball with keen interest as the sight of the rather rare artefact once again reminded him of his inexperience with the elusive Mind Arts— that would certainly have to change soon, "No need to thank me, I'm sure that some of your friends would have brought it to you if I hadn't."

The chubby boy almost deflated at his words as all surprise drained from his face at the reminder, Alaric just glanced at him and spoke nothing— he knew all too well what effect his words could have on the young boy. It was a rather painful seed to plant in the head of someone so young but in the end, he was a Slytherin through and through.

"I'm sure they would have," Neville just shook his head miserably a moment later, and Alaric allowed his face to promptly shift to an expression of moderate scepticism "But if I had real friends instead of people who just said they were my friends, I doubt it would be a Slytherin bringing this back to me."

Briefly, the Peverell Scion wondered whether Rose and the other Gryffindors had genuinely considered Neville a friend when they stood up to the Slytherins on his behalf or whether they just wanted to stick it to Malfoy where it hurt. He did not ponder this for long, as he shoved the thought away from his mind and glanced at the Gryffindor sympathetically.

"Well," Alaric said softly, stepping closer and laying what he hoped was a comforting hand on the boy's shoulder before turning around with a wave as he started heading back towards the School Library, "You just have to know where to look if you want any,"

The Peverell knew that his purpose here had been completed when he saw the hospitalized boy nervously smile at his retreating back from the corner of his eye and he sped up when the curtains magically closed behind him, expressing his gratitude to Madam Pomfrey with as much charm as he could on his way out. He hoped to spend a couple of hours in the rather impressive School Library reading up on a variety of charms and transfigurations that he thought would be useful and doable at his current level.

But his hopes were dashed once again when he closed the door to the Hospital Wing behind him, and he could not help but stare when he noticed Daphne and Tracey waiting for him right outside when neither of them should have had any idea regarding his whereabouts.

Alaric calmly stepped outside without a single pause and as he peered from Daphne to Tracey, he found it hard to resist the urge to sigh out loud when he noticed the eager gleam in both their eyes. In the case of Daphne and Tracey, the fact that they had actually followed him all the way here and were looking at him with such earnest interest meant that they either had some unexpected news to share or some rather devious plans to devise.

"Is somebody going to explain to me why the two of you are here?" Alaric raised his brows when Daphne avoided his gaze and turned towards Tracy with his amethyst eyes who looked rather unphased by his deadpan. His suspicions were proven to be true a moment later when she simply stepped closer, eyes gleaming with curiosity as she glanced at the door behind him and smoothly ignored his question without even a single shred of hesitation.

"Why were you visiting Longbottom when you've never talked to him before?" She asked instead.

"I was just returning his Remembrall, I had picked it up yesterday when nobody was looking," Alaric simply answered and was somewhat surprised when Daphne simply nodded at his response, almost as if she had expected him to answer that way. It seemed that he had not been subtle enough at the Flying Grounds and the astoundingly clever blond had caught him out almost at once. "Never had one of my own, but I wonder how they are enchanted,"

"A what?"

"I sometimes forget you don't know these things, Tracy," Daphne sighed, sending a knowing look in Tracy's direction as she frowned in confusion. It seemed that the other girl had not heard of the artefacts before and Alaric could not really blame her for it considering how rare they could be. That might have only been a casual remark to most, Alaric instinctively knew that there was more to that exchange than he had thought. "A Remembrall helps you remember things you've forgotten. Longbottom's was glowing light red because he had forgotten something."

"It has another purpose, too," Alaric added with a challenging grin directed at Daphne.

"I was getting to that," Daphne rolled her eyes and turned back to Tracy. "If you've had your memories blocked or removed then a Remembrall would let you know, it can even bring them back, depending on how they were blocked. Some powerful families have them lying around just in case. They're not perfect, but they're dead useful a lot of the time."

The concept made a morbid degree of sense, but he nonetheless shuddered at the idea of having his memories taken from him. It did not sound at all pleasant and the idea of anyone playing with his mind was one that greatly disturbed him. He pressed his hands to his temples and pulled a face in order to distract himself from his racing thoughts, "Are any of you going to tell me what has happened that you both followed me all the way here?"

Tracey blushed and looked down whereas Daphne just looked back at him with blank cerulean eyes though he could tell she was having an internal monologue of sorts. She began a moment later, "Well, I have it on rather good authority that Potter's fate has been decided."

"Ah, so it's about Rose then," Alaric hummed, nodding along as he tried to ponder all the ways this was relevant to him before asking conversationally, "She's been suspended for some time then or is it detention?"

Daphne exchanged a knowing look with Tracy whose eyes widened at his words before the blond smirked in spite of herself as she leaned forward to answer. "No, actually, she's been made the Gryffindor seeker."

Alaric's pondering stopped in that instant as his mind simply blanked and for the first time in public since his arrival at Hogwarts, his mask cracked as his eyes widened for several long seconds. He took several long seconds to process this before he pressed his hands hard into his temples for reasons that had nothing to do with a headache.

"So you mean to tell me, that this was how Rose was punished?" He began, speaking to them in a mockingly incredulous voice as if this were something completely unexpected. "That the famed Girl-Who-Lived who broke I don't even know how many school rules, defied direct orders from a teacher, and got caught in the act was rewarded by being given the one thing she probably wanted above anything else?"

The three girls nodded and Alaric cursed the administration under his breath even though he had long accepted incompetence as an inevitable part of wizarding society. He smoothly ignored Daphne's soft reprimand which was made half for his decorum, half for his health. "And let me guess? Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle have detention while the defenceless Gryffindors only lost points?"

"Close. I think Crabbe and Goyle lost ten points each, same as the rest of the Lions. They all have detention with McGonagall this Saturday" Tracy admitted, before a wide grin broke across her face "But that's not the most interesting thing. Do you know that Daphne here overheard Malfoy challenging Potter and Weasley to a duel tonight in the Trophy Rooms?"

Alaric glanced at the devious grin that had spread across Tracy's face and he could practically hear the gears turning inside Daphne's head when they both turned towards him with a gleam in their eyes almost at once. Suddenly not in the mood for books anymore, Alaric turned around with more flair than necessary and made to leave the hallway. He was swiftly followed closely by Daphne and Tracey, who were both probably thinking of how to best take advantage of the situation that had presented itself before the two of them.

"To both Professor McGonagall and Professor Snake, right?" He turned back and asked, grinning despite himself when he saw both the girls nod together in agreement. For a group that had formed just at the beginning of this semester, they were already starting to think in the same direction.

Thanks for reading.