Halloween was fast approaching, and Praeris was already rubbing her hands together, looking forward to the holiday feast. But before that, they still had classes. Professor Flitwick had the class practice the Levitation Charm in pairs during Charms, and Praeris had mastered this spell long ago.
Which meant whoever ended up as her partner was getting an absolute steal. Likewise, for Praeris, it made no difference who her partner was.
The other party clearly did not see it that way. Draco Malfoy glared at her, face dark.
Praeris propped her head on one hand and smiled. "You don't know how?"
Predictably, Malfoy cracked. He raised his wand sharply and shouted, "Wingardium Leviosa!"
The feather didn't move.
"Wingardium Leviosa!"
The feather lay there, indifferent and still, as if mocking him.
At first Malfoy had only been irritated by Praeris's remark. Now he was purely at war with the feather itself, stubbornly casting the spell over and over with every variation of tone, pitch, and speed he could manage.
Praeris slowly yawned.
One sentence, and she'd gotten her partner to practice entirely on his own. Fully automated.
Before long, the feather wobbled into the air. Malfoy gave Praeris a pointed "Hmph."
Praeris clapped lightly, expression theatrically wide. "Wow. Truly worthy of you — you learn so fast!"
Malfoy felt like he'd been praised. But also like he hadn't. This Praeris Prince was just as annoying as Harry Potter!
When class ended, Millicent hugged her books and cut through the crowd to reach Praeris. She poked her in the arm. "You provoked him again? You're absolutely doing this on purpose."
"Hmm, that obvious?" Praeris gave a perfunctory murmur, then winked at Millicent. "Don't you think he's hilarious when he's all worked up?"
"If you directed that attitude at the Gryffindors," Millicent said, in a tone of deep, patient suffering on behalf of all Slytherins, "everyone would be very grateful."
Praeris did, in truth, have this kind of extreme personality. The convent had simply suppressed her true nature.
In the beginning, Praeris really had behaved herself and never picked on Fiona. But after the plate incident, Fiona became convinced that Praeris was deliberately tormenting her and constantly set traps for her. Praeris was not the type to take things lying down. She retaliated in private.
That was how the conflict between Praeris and Fiona deepened.
There was no such conflict between Praeris and Malfoy. But he kept strutting right in front of her, and she couldn't resist poking holes in him every time.
In the process of doing so, Praeris gradually discovered the joy of teasing this little blond rooster.
Hogwarts had truly set her free.
When night fell, Hogwarts celebrated Halloween according to tradition. Pumpkin lanterns floated everywhere, and the scent of pumpkin drifted through the air.
Hogwarts kitchens.
"Could I get a serving of roasted pumpkin?" Praeris asked the elf. "I want the kind that's soft and floury on the inside."
The house-elf shrieked with delight. "Of course! Miss Prince! Barney will roast one right now! Miss Prince is always so friendly! Barney likes Miss Prince!"
"I like you too!" Praeris said cheerfully. "Happy Halloween, Barney!"
She wandered through the kitchens, watching the elves produce pumpkin shortbread, pumpkin-lantern-shaped biscuits, toffee apples, and Halloween pizza.
The pizza looked genuinely sinister. A thick layer of black chocolate syrup went down over the dough first, and then the toppings went on top of that.
Ugh. Chocolate-flavored pizza. Praeris shook her head.
The other standout was the eyeball chocolate. It looked exactly like a real, bloodshot eye. In reality the exterior was just edible coating, and beneath that: a thin shell of hard chocolate, then a layer of biscuit, then a center of chocolate syrup. The taste was surprisingly good. One bite and it burst. Perfect with black tea.
Praeris also spotted witch finger biscuits, vampire coffin biscuits, owl chocolates, bat chocolates, and more.
Barney reminded her that the pumpkin was ready. Praeris made her way out of the kitchens.
At the convent, Father Dorian would never have allowed them to go out and celebrate the holiday with the public. He considered this a highly forward-thinking position, just look at those Londoners. On Halloween they reenacted historical execution scenes. Some people even went to cheerfully "experience" being beheaded.
The convent observed October 31st by going together to the church to hold an all-night vigil with the faithful, followed by Mass on November 1st, All Saints' Day.
The vigil was more or less like an ordinary service. It simply lasted the entire night.
So. This was Praeris's first October 31st evening where she could walk freely.
The kitchens weren't far from the Great Hall. You could take a shortcut through the back entrance...
Hm?
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
When Praeris pushed open the back door of the Great Hall, she stopped cold.
Inside the Great Hall, not a single person.
The empty hall held only floating pumpkin lanterns and half-eaten food spread across the tables.
Praeris shook off all those Celtic Halloween ghost stories Father Dorian used to tell and examined the scene carefully.
Most of the chairs were not upright. They were askew. So it wasn't some absurd case of students vanishing from their seats, they had left on their own. A large-scale departure like this, with everything on the tables intact and nothing knocked to the floor, meant students hadn't organized it themselves. Teachers had ordered it.
Something had happened.
If she were a teacher, and an incident had occurred, what would she do to protect the students? The obvious answer: have the prefects organize everyone back to their respective common rooms and do a headcount.
Praeris pulled the back door shut and headed for the dungeons.
She passed the Potions classroom and continued down toward the Slytherin common room. Then she nearly walked straight into a wall.
"Ah!" Marcus startled. "It's you! Prince! Where did you go? Draco said you hadn't come back to the common room, so I came out to look for you."
Malfoy noticed she wasn't there? Was that sentence even in English?
Marcus led her back while explaining what had happened.
Not long after dinner had started, Professor Quirrell had burst into the Great Hall in a panic, saying a troll had been found in the underground classrooms.
"What? A troll?!" Praeris said. "You said a troll?"
She'd asked more questions tonight than she normally asked in an entire week.
A troll. A creature of minimal intelligence, native to Scandinavia, divided into mountain trolls, forest trolls, and river trolls.
Hogwarts was in the Scottish Highlands, with the Forbidden Forest nearby, but this was absolutely not troll habitat. More to the point: a troll had somehow entered Hogwarts castle, made its way down to the underground classrooms, the ones near the Potions classroom, and not a single person except Professor Quirrell had seen it.
Marcus didn't understand it either. He kept explaining as they walked.
Professor McGonagall had ordered them to organize all students back to their dormitories. But Marcus felt this decision was not quite right. Slytherin lived in the Hogwarts dungeons, right next to the underground classrooms.
"This is practically delivering us on a platter — is it just because we're Slytherin?!" Marcus said, indignant. "But Professor Snape agreed and escorted us back himself, so there was nothing more to say about it."
Aside from Hufflepuff, Slytherin was closest to the Great Hall, and they had retreated exceptionally fast.
Once back in the common room, Marcus was busy keeping order and counting heads when Malfoy suddenly raised his voice. "Bulstrode! You're that tall and your brain is just decoration?! Hey — Marcus! Prince isn't here!"
Marcus jolted. "Has anyone seen Praeris Prince?"
The Slytherins looked at each other. Clearly, no one had.
Millicent was crying. "I don't know — I thought she came back ahead of us. She never tells anyone where she's going. If she didn't see us leave, she'd definitely come back to look for us. But what if she runs into the troll!"
Marcus's head immediately began to ache. "Is there anyone else who hasn't seen their roommate or companion?!"
Everyone shook their heads.
Marcus clapped Malfoy on the shoulder. "For now, everyone listens to Draco. I'm going to find Professor Snape and have him locate Prince."
He didn't even make it to the Great Hall before he ran straight into Prince.
"I wasn't in the Great Hall during dinner," Praeris said, a little sheepish. "Here we are, the common room. Ambition!"
Inside the Slytherin common room, only Malfoy and Millicent remained. Malfoy had sent everyone else back already.
Malfoy had his hands over his ears and rolled his eyes. "What use is crying? If tears solved anything, every coward would be rich! You should have told Marcus the moment you noticed she wasn't with the group. What's the point of blubbering now? Weeping at her grave?"
"Stop scaring her," Praeris said.
"Praer!" Millicent shot to her feet and ran over. "Are you alright?!"
"I'm fine. I got to the Great Hall and found none of you there, so I turned back. I ran into Marcus on the way." Praeris hugged her. "Sorry for worrying you."
Marcus yawned. "I'll head back, then."
"Sorry for the trouble. Good night," Praeris said.
Marcus left. Now it was just the three of them.
Praeris looked at Malfoy. The words came without any difficulty at all. "Thank you."
Malfoy froze for a beat. Then his eyes drifted sideways. He swayed backward, shifting his weight. "What are you thanking me for? You're a Slytherin too, that's all."
He turned and left. Walking faster than most people ran.
After that, Millicent stuck to her side without any particular explanation. Library, anywhere else, Millicent had to come along.
"I don't think the library is the kind of place a troll would turn up," Praeris said, helpless.
Millicent was deep in Geoffrey the Gallant, thoroughly absorbed. "Is a troll in the underground classrooms a common thing, then?"
And so Millicent discovered the "den" in the glass greenhouse, Madam Sprout's tool shed, which had cleared a corner for Praeris to store her gloves, denim overalls, boots, and the like.
The weather was turning cold. Inside the glass greenhouse it was pleasantly warm.
"Look." Praeris showed Millicent her jeans. "Madam Sprout sewed a flower patch on for me."
It was simply a flower drawn onto a scrap of cloth, cut out, and stitched on along the edges.
"I really didn't expect that," Millicent said, genuinely surprised. "It's completely different from the usual you."
"What am I usually like?" Praeris asked, mildly curious.
Millicent crossed her arms and considered. "Very smart, even Professor Snape thinks so. Very knowledgeable, very hardworking. I often feel like I'm invisible standing next to you."
"You're not afraid?" Praeris thought of Sister Mayne, who had flown into a fury out of wounded pride.
Millicent shook her head. "If anything, it means I can relax more around you. Whatever kind of person I am, you already know. There's nothing left to perform."
Ah. Millicent was right. Praeris had known from the very beginning why Millicent had approached her.
When Granger had asked her about the toad, Millicent had been passing through the corridor and overheard them. In the small room afterward, Millicent's eyes had clearly shown she recognized her, which was why she had asked Praeris whether she knew something.
Her thinking was the same as Daphne's. Praeris was clever. Praeris was capable. That was why both of them had tried to get on her good side. Millicent had simply gotten there first.
Praeris didn't see anything wrong with that. People used each other, that was simply how it worked. She also needed someone like Millicent nearby: well-connected, physically sturdy, able to compensate for her own laziness in social matters and her shortcomings in physical strength.
Malfoy probably thought the same way, which was why he'd found himself two bodyguards.
"And everyone thinks you're very cold and arrogant, with a very sharp tongue, hahaha," Millicent continued. "A very typical Slytherin."
Praeris frowned slightly. "I'm arrogant?"
"There's nothing wrong with it, aren't we all? It's just that you're like Professor Snape. You look down on everyone equally. No matter who it is, they're all the same in front of you. Well." Millicent paused. "Except for Malfoy, before." She shrugged. "What do you call that? Like repelling like?"
"Ha? Who's the same as Malfoy?!" Praeris found this incomprehensible. Being mentioned in the same breath as Malfoy, that was an insult.
Hmm. Wait. She had sworn to herself last time that she wouldn't pick on him anymore.
Millicent laughed. "See? Told you — arrogant!"
Praeris ran her tongue over her teeth, turned around, pulled a pot of grass off the shelf, and shoved it into her hands. "Cat grass. For hairballs. Now shut it."
Millicent took the cat grass with a grin. From across the greenhouse, Madam Sprout paused her watering, watched the two of them bicker and shove each other, and smiled.
Not everything was cheerful, of course. Professor Snape seemed to have injured his leg and had been in a foul mood ever since, which had made all the Slytherins considerably better-behaved. No one wanted to set him off.
Madam Sprout had also asked Praeris to deliver herbs to him a few times, saying they were for brewing potions. But Praeris had noticed a large bundle of dittany among them.
Since Madam Sprout hadn't said anything about it, Praeris didn't press. She wasn't endlessly curious. She respected other people's privacy, just as she noticed many things and, most of the time, kept them to herself.
➤ Next: The Quidditch Match