"Absolutely not," Pince said, deaf to his protests. "I have been perfectly clear, and surely you can read well enough to understand the signs. Students are not to enter the restricted section."

"I'm sorry!" Harry protested desperately. "Really, I just got lost!"

Pince released her hold on the shoulder of his robes to open the library doors and pin him with a stern look. Past her, he could see Ron and Hermione at their table, exchanging nervous glances. "Don't undersell your intelligence, Mister Potter. You knew exactly what you were doing." She gestured sharply through the open doors. "Well?"

Harry's shoulders slumped, and he stepped through the door. The doors shut. He groaned and reduced himself to pacing, hoping that Ron and Hermione would find something helpful and join him soon.

The door opened and closed again. He whipped around only to find himself almost nose-to-nose with Leonis Malfoy. He jerked back and reached up to rub at his nose. It was biting with cold, and he remembered being outside all day long during winters at the Dursleys just to get away from Dudley despite the fact that he had no gloves and his fingers would get stiff.

"Are you interested in alchemy?" Leo asked, cocking her head at him. She was wearing her hat, but her hair was long enough that her ribbon-laced braid was draped over her shoulder. The end of the ribbon—it was black and stark against her pale hair—looked damaged and chewed. She was looking straight at him, fully focused. She hardly ever blinked.

"What?"

She nodded to the library door, not looking away from him. "Alchemy. Are you interested in it?"

"Um." He looked at the door and found no answers there. He'd learned about a lot of things since being told he was a wizard, but alchemy wasn't one of them. Was that a class he was supposed to be going to? "No," he settled on cautiously.

"Oh." She turned just a bit as if she was going to leave the conversation and him. She paused, tilting her head, and turned back to him. "What's fluffy?"

He stared at her. He was having the horrible realization that Leo had not just been in the library. Leo had also been listening to them. But . . . they'd been whispering and making sure no one could hear them. He hadn't even seen her! How could she have— "I don't know what you're talking about."

She pursed her lips, and they were bluer than they should be. "You can just say you don't want to tell me. I can tell that's what you mean. I'm not dumb." Her gaze flicked away from him, and her jaw dropped a bit in offense. "I'm not. I'm not dumb!"

"I didn't say you were," Harry protested in bewilderment.

"I know you didn't," she said, blinking him slowly. "Do you want to tell me about what's fluffy?"

He stared at her, searching for words. "No," he finally managed.

"Well, you're unhelpful," she muttered. "Your friends are here. Do you think they would tell me?"

"What? No. They wouldn't."

"Alright."

The library doors opened.

"Harry, we— Oh." Hermione faltered, booked clutched to her chest and eyes wide. "Um."

"What are you doing here?" Ron asked.

Leo actually snickered at that. "I go to school at Hogwarts, too," she said pleasantly. And then, not-so-pleasantly, "Shut up. I'm not saying that!"

"Saying what?" Hermione asked in bewilderment.

Leo, who gaze had turned to the library door, snapped her stare to Hermione. "I go to school here."

"Right," Hermione agreed slowly. "You did say that."

Leo hummed and nodded. "Alright. Good luck. I'll see you at dinner." She turned and walked off down the hall.

"What did she want?" Ron muttered.

"I don't know, but I thinks he was spying on us." Harry frowned at where Leo had disappeared around a corner. "Did you guys see her listening in? I didn't."

"She was with Snape on Halloween," Hermione pointed out. "When the troll was loose. And she jinxed Harry's broom at the match."

Ron glanced both ways down the hallway and then huddled closer to them. "She's working with Snape, then," he whispered.

"But why?" Harry asked in bewilderment. "She seemed fine when I met her in Diagon Alley. And on the train."

"Well, maybe Snape talked to her when we got here. You don't know her family, Harry. The Malfoys are just about as pure-blood as anyone can get, and they like it that way. Dad says they only got away scot-free after the war because they've got so many people in their pocket. I'm sure Snape's one of 'em. Figures Leo would be like that too."

"Harry," Hermione asked. "How did you know she was spying?"

"She asked about Fluffy." He frowned. "And alchemy?"

"Alchemy? We weren't researching alchemy." Hermione looked down at her notebook with a frown. "Should we be researching alchemy?" She didn't wait for an answer. "I'll grab an alchemy book to look at."

"We're going to be late," Ron protested.

Hermione was fast, returning quickly with a book Pince had approved her to take. As they walked to the Great Hall for dinner, she started flipping through it. "Alchemy must have something to do with whatever Snape wants that Fluffy is guarding, but I haven't done much reading on the subject."

Ron grabbed both of them as they stepped into the Great Hall. "She's at our table," he whined. "Why's she always at our table?"

Harry turned to look. Sure enough, Leo was sitting at the Gryffindor table instead of the Slytherin table yet again. She was sitting next to Percy, who was stacking food on her plate and nodding as she spoke to him. Whatever they were talking about, she was animated. She wasn't eating any of her food, but both of her hands were moving wildly as she spoke, and she'd put enough space between herself and the Weasley that there didn't seem to be a chance of him getting accidentally touched.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione found spots farther down the table. Ron frowned towards his brother and his increasingly regular meal companion. "Hey, is it just me, or . . . ."

"Or what?" Hermione asked, putting her finger on the page so she wouldn't loose her spot and looking up at him.

"Leo's been looking even worse than usual, right?"

Harry hadn't thought about it until Ron had mentioned it, but he definitely agreed. Ever since he'd met her, Leo had always been too pale and too blue. But now there was purple under her eyes, and there was a shake to her that he didn't remember seeing before. She was looking worse. And that was saying something, because she'd always looks like someone had left her out in the snow too long. Whatever she was wrapped up in—along with Snape and Fluffy and whatever was hidden in the castle—was eating away at her.