I slung my bag over my shoulder and ran out of the library after him. Harry’s arms were invisible as he hid the giant scroll.
“Idiot!” I smacked him across the back of the head.
“I saved you!” He raised his invisible hands.
“Date! That’s the best you could come up with?” I smacked his shoulder.
“Heeey! I needed a distraction. Plus, she’s a romantic.”
“She… is?”
“Yep. Hermione spends half her free time in the library, and Pince always has her nose in a romance novel. Especially the Muggle ones.” He chuckled.
Why did he look so cute when he smiled?
No! Not cute. Stupid!
“I suppose being a snoopy snoop has its advantages.” I folded my arms.
“I suppose.” He chuckled nervously and scratched his hair.
“So, hand it here.” I held out my hand.
“I’d rather… hold on to it.”
“Harry.”
“Draconia.”
“Harry, give me the scroll!” I narrowed my eyes.
“No.” He stopped walking.
I reached for my wand and unclipped it from its holder.
“Are we going to fight again? I thought we’d moved beyond that.” I slowly drew my wand.
He eyed my wand, then looked at me.
“Draconia, we’re not kids anymore. We can’t jump straight to using wands to solve our disputes.” He held up both hands.
I heard voices. Two people rounded a corner and stopped when they saw Harry holding his hands up while I pointed my wand at him. He smirked and backed away.
“Confetgo!” I said.
Confetti exploded from my wand.
“See? When you’re celebrating, that’s the spell to use. Got it, Pot-head?” I gave my wand a flourish and stowed it.
“Ah… yeah. I got it. Confetgo.” He lowered his hands and nodded.
The girls eyed him, then me. They whispered to each other before continuing down the corridor.
I watched them go. I opened my mouth to speak, but my stomach growled.
Little traitor!
“Let’s eat.” He nodded towards the dining hall.
“Yes! Scroll first.” I waved a hand.
“How about a deal?”
“How about you give me the freaking scroll?” I growled.
“Whoa…” He held out the scroll.
I snatched it and hugged it to my chest.
“What… what deal do you want?” I asked as we started walking.
“Let’s work on it together?” he suggested.
“No way.”
“Why?”
“I don’t want your Pot-head friends involved in this.”
“It’ll just be me and you.”
“Yeah, right. It’s bad enough you used the ‘D’ word earlier.”
“Dating?” he asked just as some Slytherin students passed us.
I covered my face.
“Yes, idiot! That word!” I growled.
“Alright, I won’t use the ‘D’ word if you let me work on it with you. No Hermione or Ron. Just me and you.” He squeezed my arm.
A student spotted us.
“Get off me!” I slapped his hand away.
We entered the dining hall separately, and I took my seat at the head of the Slytherin table. I glimpsed Harry chatting with his friends. He had an arm wrapped around Hermione and Ron’s shoulders.
Seeing him with his arm around another girl made my chest tighten. I touched my chest and sighed. New chapters come out on g.com first.
“Problem?” a sixth-year girl asked.
“I’m fine,” I snapped.
The following morning, I awoke to shouting. Sundays were for sleeping in, and I usually enjoyed a lazy morning. Not today, apparently.
I tried to ignore the noise, but then a girl started crying. More shouting followed.
Minutes later, I stormed into the common room in my pyjamas, my cloak draped over my shoulders.
A second-year girl knelt on the floor while several other students threw a plush toy around.
“Please, give him back!” the girl screamed.
The others laughed.
“What’s going on?” I snapped, planting my hands on my hips.
Everyone fell silent.
The person who had been about to catch the toy turned to face me. The toy fell to the floor.
I waved, and the students parted to let me through. I knelt to pick up the toy, then did a double take when I realized it resembled Harry Potter, complete with his stupid, messy hair and a red lightning bolt on its forehead.
“Please…” The girl sobbed.
“Astoria Greengrass, am I right?” I asked, eyeing the crying girl.
“Y-yes.” She sniffed and wiped her tears.
“Speak up so we can all hear you,” I snapped.
She flinched.
“Yes, I’m Astoria.” She nodded.
“What’s this?” I asked, holding up the toy.
“She has a crush on him!” Blaise Zabini laughed.
I narrowed my eyes at him. His smile faded.
I knelt until I was at eye level with Astoria. She wiped her tears, unable to look at me.
“I’m going to confiscate this,” I said.
She let out a sob, then nodded.
“She’ll never live this down!” Pansy Parkinson laughed. The others clapped her on the back.
I stood and regarded Pansy.
Everyone fell silent. For a moment, the only sound was Astoria’s sobbing.
“If anyone spreads this, they’ll have to deal with me. We do not turn on our own. We are Slytherin, the purest of the pure. Noble and great. If anyone finds out, we’ll all become a laughingstock. So, SILENCE. Understand?”
I regarded them each in turn.
“Yes, Princess,” they announced as one.
“Do not disturb my sleep.” I narrowed my eyes.
I turned on my heel and strode back to my room. I threw the toy into the cupboard and slammed the door shut.
After breakfast, I walked into the hallway and found Harry chatting with his friends. I caught his eye and nodded towards a side room. He gave a faint nod.
I strode into an empty classroom and spread out the scroll. My jaw tightened as I read the text.
Minutes later, the door handle moved. I hastily tried to stow the scroll in my bag, but I was only halfway through when Harry entered.
“You know, anyone could find you in here.” He glanced around.
“Yeah, but I’ll get them to leave. I’m Slytherin, and we have teeth.” I bit the air, holding my fingers beside my mouth to imitate fangs.
He chuckled.
He looked genuinely cute when he laughed…
Stop looking at him like that, girl!
I looked away.
“Anyway, we need somewhere to study this.” He tapped the scroll.
“We have classes. I mean, we could go somewhere private, but if we get caught, I would totally die. The library’s a no-go. If Madam Pince finds us, we’re dead.” I drew my thumb across my throat.
“Hmm… I have an idea, but you have to swear you won’t tell anyone.”
“I won’t.” I folded my arms.
“Fine, then.” He waved his wand, and the scroll flew into his hand.
“Fine! Fine, I swear. Whatever. Just give me that back!” I reached for it.
He handed me the scroll.
Harry glanced at a scroll of his own. He kept it hidden from me, repeatedly stuffing it into his side bag.
“Today, it’s here.” He tapped his wand against the wall.
The bricks split apart down the middle. The wall unfolded, transforming into a door complete with brass dragons on its surface and handles made of emerald.
He opened it, revealing a hallway that was empty except for a single table surrounded by plush leather seats. Candles floated overhead.
“The Room of Requirement,” he said.
“WHOA.” I marvelled at it.
I looked up at the sky, where the sun shone brightly. Then I stepped outside, only to find that it seemed overcast.
“Quick, before the door closes!” He jumped outside, caught me, and pulled me back in.
The doors slammed shut with a thud.
“The exit moves sometimes. It’s a little inconsistent.” He nodded.
“It’s fine. We can study here, and the place is remote. Better yet, we can leave separately, and no one will see us. Heck, I think it’s peeeerrrfect!” I held out my arms and spun on my heels.
He threw back his head and laughed.
I felt a pang in my chest.
I hate his laugh.
Why does it make me feel like this?
“Are you… alright?” He eyed me.
“Yeah, totally.” I nodded and removed the scroll from my bag.
We sat at the table, and I began to read.
“Born weak, Victor Von Zoltz feared death. The wizard-king travelled the world to find a cure for death, a means to master life beyond the veil.”
I began reading the story aloud.
He leaned against me as he followed along. My cheeks burned, and I tried to ignore how close we were as I continued reading.
“So, in the end, the king didn’t die under the moniker of Victor Von Zoltz. Instead, they called him the Hollow King. Warlocks bound the undying king in the heart of the Veiled Forest. They bound him with the Phantom Sceptre, and one hundred warlocks spent one hundred years crafting guardians to protect his tomb. Forevermore, the Hollow King will remain bound within his tomb, master of death and life no more. Twice cursed is the one foolish enough to unleash him. Heed my words, reader: do not seek him out.”
I sighed at the final words.
“Makes sense,” Harry said, nodding.
“Makes sense?” I asked, regarding him.
“Everything Vol—” He stopped when I flinched. “Everything that guy has been doing is about finding a way around death. The Philosopher’s Stone, that diary, and also the… Cedric thing last year. All so he could come back from death and master it.”
“What? So you think this will make him immortal?” I gasped.
“If the Hollow King is immortal, and if somehow he gets control of him, then we’ll be in BIG trouble.”
“Yeah, they did say a hundred warlocks couldn’t stop him.” I nodded.
A sharp agony lanced through my hand.
I cried out, gripping my ring finger as I felt the ring tighten around it.
“What’s happening?” he asked.
“I think it’s detecting that I don’t want to… agggghhh!” I growled.
I doubled over and clutched my hand.
“Relax. Just think about something else.” He waved a hand.
“Like what?” I howled.
“Puppies, ice cream, laughter. Anything!”
“I…”
I thought about his laughter, the way he smiled.
Almost instantly, the ring stopped hurting. I glimpsed it rotating as it loosened.
Was that blood? Had it dug into my skin?
“You alright?” he asked.
“Y-yeah!” I nodded.
“Okay, so first things first. This Phantom Ball. It takes place here.” He pointed at the map.
“The ancient chamber behind the clock tower?” I asked.
“You know it?” He eyed me.
“We used it as a changing room at last year’s ball.” I nodded.
“So, we know the location, but the problem is getting in. This says the door on the second floor leads to the Phantom Halls, which lead under Hogwarts and out to the shrine in the Forbidden Forest.” He traced a finger across the map.
“Hmm… Let’s work on it separately and meet up here in two days to see what we’ve found.”
“Yeah.” He nodded.