Dark November Confrontation

The common room was empty when you emerged early the next morning. Even the most ambitious Slytherins tended to have a bit of a lie-in on Sunday mornings. Slytherin House as a whole was still reeling from the loss to Gryffindor. The Quidditch defeat and Harry Potter’s jinxed broomstick were all anyone had been talking about yesterday. You hadn’t told anyone else what had really happened at the match and you were pleased to see that Daphne had kept quiet about it too.

Marcus Flint seemed to take the unfavorable outcome to the Quidditch match the most personally and had already scheduled a practice for that night. Slytherin wouldn’t actually be playing again until the match against Ravenclaw in February so you suspected that ‘practice’ would mainly be serving as an excuse for Flint to yell at and berate everyone.

The looming practice was the reason you had braved the empty common room and woken up so early. You didn’t know how long Flint intended to keep you but you still had homework that you needed to finish before class on Monday and you wanted to have it done before you left for practice just in case your Quidditch Captain decided to keep you all night. It was bad enough having a frustrated Marcus Flint on your case. You didn’t want to aggravate any of the professors by failing to complete your assignments.

Seeing how quiet and empty the common room was, you were understandably surprised when someone grabbed your arm. You jumped and let out a strangled yelp before you whirled around and found your yearmate Tracey Davis standing behind you.

“What the hell are you doing?” you demanded.

You were further surprised when the blonde half-blood glared back at you. “I’m asking the questions here, Gaunt. What did you do to Daphne?”

This was certainly a major change from the nervous girl who had avoided eye contact with you like the plague for the last week after you’d seen her knickers on Halloween.

You thought over the blonde witch’s question. Daphne Greengrass had seemed perfectly fine that last time you saw her, so you didn’t know where this sudden hostility was coming from. “I didn’t do anything to her.”

“She chased you back to the castle after the Quidditch match yesterday,” Tracey stated. “And now she’s acting funny.”

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about,” you admitted. “Funny, how?”

“She wouldn’t tell me what you told her,” Tracey said.

You blinked. “That’s it? Of course, she didn’t. That was our deal.”

“Daphne tells me everything,” Tracey insisted. “But she couldn’t tell me anything last night.”

“I didn’t do anything to her,” you defended yourself. “She’s simply honoring our agreement. She wanted some dangerous information. I didn’t want it to leak out any further so I made her swear not to tell anyone what she learned.”

“Then she lied to you,” Davis argued. “There’s no way she would’ve actually agreed to that. Daphne tells me everything. She tried to tell me what you had discussed… but when she opened her mouth no words came out. So obviously there’s something preventing her from saying anything.”

You thought of how you’d gotten Daphne to agree to keep what she’d learned yesterday a secret. She’d initially promised not to tell anyone. But you could tell that she was lying - just like Tracey had said, so you used the compulsion from your Serpent's Gaze to **** the issue.

“I’m a Slytherin for a reason,” the half-blood continued, “I tried to work around it. I gave her a piece of parchment and suggested that she write down what she learned. But everything she wrote was unintelligible scribbles. I even tried asking her yes and no questions. But she couldn’t even nod! The only explanation is that there’s some kind of magic involved that’s preventing her from revealing anything.” The tip of her wand glowed as she jabbed it at you. “You **** her to swear some kind of magical oath! And I want you to remove it!”

You decided not to correct her about the oath and took a deep breath to keep yourself calm. “First of all, I’m Marvolo Gaunt - descendant of Salazar Slytherin. No one makes me do anything. Especially not you. And second, swearing Daphne to secrecy was for her own safety. If someone finds out that we know what we know - our lives could be in jeopardy. She wouldn’t let the matter drop so ensuring that she couldn’t spread the information further seemed like the best course of action.”

“...” Tracey only hesitated for a few seconds before she jabbed her wand at you again. “Then you have to tell me too!”

“You’re not listening!” you snapped back in frustration. “This information is dangerous! She wanted to know who was jinxing Harry Potter’s broom at the Quidditch match. This person has already tried to **** one thirteen-year-old. I don’t want to tempt them into trying to kill another one by spreading around what they did.”

“I’m not stupid,” Davis said. “I’m not going to go around gossiping about a **** attempt. But if Daphne already knows then she’s already in danger so either release her from the oath so she can tell me or, if you’re so **** to keep your precious oath active, you can just tell me everything yourself.”

“I’m not doing either,” you refused. “Each new person that I tell about this doubles our chances of getting caught. I’m the last of my family line so I’m not interested in tempting fate.”

“Then you can put me under the oath too,” Tracey offered. “I’ll do the same deal as Daphne.”

“The Hufflepuffs would be proud of your loyalty to your friend,” you remarked. “But you don’t even know what our agreement was.”

“If Daphne did it then I’ll do it too,” she insisted.

You knew how embarrassed Tracey got when you briefly caught her in her white knickers back on Halloween. This was actually the first face-to-face conversation you had with the blonde half-blood in over a week. You felt confident that she’d never agree to Daphne’s deal.

“Are you sure about that?” you retorted. “Remember, this was Daphne’s idea. She decided to play on my reaction to seeing your knickers on Halloween and offered to show me hers too. She took her skirt off and let me look once I told her who was trying to kill Harry Potter.”

Tracey flushed and quickly averted her eyes as she tried to play off her embarrassment. “Th-that’s it? That’s no big deal. I… I can do that. You’ve already seen my knickers.”

“Ah, but you’re forgetting how insatiably curious your best friend can be,” you reminded her. “A simple name wasn’t enough for her. She didn’t believe me when I told her what I saw. But that changed when I mentioned that I recorded what happened on my Omnioculars. So we came to a new agreement.”

“A-and what was that?” Tracey asked. You were able to detect the hint of nervousness in her voice so you knew now that you could get her to back off if you told her about the deal.

“We agreed on a view for a view,” you explained. “I let her watch the scene I recorded on my Omnioculars and she agreed to remove her outer robes and watch it without a skirt on.”

Tracey’s brown eyes grew wide in alarm. “Without a skirt?”

“And that’s not all,” you added. “She’s Daphne so I knew she’d have questions. I agreed to answer them as best as I could so long as she was still in her knickers when she asked. And finally, once it was over, she agreed to give me her knickers as a memento.”

The blonde’s face went beet red as she learned the full extent of your deal. “There’s no way Daphne agreed to all of that!”

“Most of it was her idea,” you replied. “You can ask her if you don’t believe me.”

And like that, Tracey’s embarrassment was gone and replaced with annoyance. “I CAN’T ask her because you made her swear that magical oath not to talk about it! She literally CAN’T say anything about what she learned or how she learned it!”

“Well, then you’ll just have to take my word for it,” you resolved. “Or maybe you can discuss it with her now that you know about the deal. She just won’t be able to tell you what the deal was about but maybe she can mention the terms. After what happened on Halloween, we both know you would never make the same agreement that she did. So if you’ll excuse me, I have homework to do.”

Tracey glared at you. “Shut up, Gaunt. You don’t know me. You and the rest of the purebloods think I can’t do anything because my father was a muggleborn. But you’re wrong!”

“You do realise that your best friend is one of those purebloods,” you pointed out.

“No, she isn’t!” Tracey insisted. “She’s not like the rest of you. Daphne’s never once made an issue of my blood status! And that’s exactly why I’m doing this. Go get your Omnioculars. Whatever your deal was with Daphne… I’m getting in on it too.”

“Are you serious?” you asked.

The blonde grabbed you by the collar and pulled you closer so you were practically nose-to-nose and you were looking directly into her brown eyes which were hard and determined. “Do I look serious to you?”

Yes. Yes, she did. It seemed that, like Daphne, Tracey wasn’t going to let the matter drop until you finally told her. But you still refused to tell her anything unless you could be absolutely sure that she wouldn’t say anything to anyone else.

Well… she was already staring you right in the eyes…

“I’ll only agree on one non-negotiable condition,” you finally relented without relinquishing your direct eye contact with the blonde half-blood. You felt a pulse of magic behind your eyes. “You won’t discuss this information with anyone but Daphne.”

Tracey blinked rapidly when she finally looked away, “Okay. Fine. I won’t discuss it with anyone but Daphne. That was the plan anyway.”

You let out a long sigh. Once again these stubborn girls had somehow talked you into sharing information that could potentially get you killed. “Wait here while I fetch my Omnioculars.” You left Tracey waiting out in the hallway as you slipped back into your room and retrieved your Omnioculars from your trunk. You cast a quick glance at your roommate who was still sound asleep as you made your way to the door.

Tracey hadn’t moved from her spot outside and immediately grabbed your arm the second you emerged then all but dragged you out into the common room. Perhaps she thought you were going to try and make a break for it and escape? The thought had crossed your mind but you decided against it.

“This is happening way too frequently for my liking,” you remarked dryly. This was the third time in two weeks that you were being dragged through the common room to someone’s bedroom. Maybe when you were older you could appreciate this sort of thing more but currently, you were thirteen and found it annoying and undignified.

Tracey paused briefly to open her and Daphne’s bedroom door before she pulled you inside. “Daphne, wake up!”

You heard someone grumble and the curtains that had been drawn around the four-poster bed on the left side of the room were pulled open to reveal a bedraggled Daphne Greengrass. Her dark hair was messy and she was wearing a mint green nightie with thin straps that bared her arms, the majority of her shoulders, her collar, and her neck. It wasn’t low cut or scandalous but it definitely showed a lot more of her pale skin than her school uniform did.

“Whazza matter?” she asked groggily.

“Morning, princess,” you greeted her with a jaunty wave.

Daphne’s icy blue eyes flew open and she was suddenly wide awake. She let out a yelp and shrunk back into the cover of her bed and drew the curtains around her so that only her head was sticking out. “Gaunt! What the bloody hell are you doing in here!?”

“Wow, someone’s not a morning person,” you noted as you casually played with the strap of your school bag. “I’ll have you know that this early morning wake up call was all your roommate’s idea. She was lying in wait outside my room and basically dragged me in here. That seems to happen to me a lot now as far as you two are concerned.”

“Gaunt agreed to tell me what he told you yesterday,” Tracey explained to her best friend. “I'm doing the same deal you did.”

“You mean you…” Daphne trailed off seemingly unwillingly because the intense glare she sent in your direction showed that she wanted to keep talking.

“You see what your stupid oath did to her?” Tracey snapped at you accusingly. She turned back to Daphne. “Try to let me know if this sounds familiar. I agreed to take my skirt off and show him my knickers in exchange for the name of the person who was jinxing Harry Potter’s broom. And then he agreed to show me the scene on his Omnioculars and answer my questions if I stayed in my knickers. And when it’s over, I’ve agreed to give him my knickers and not discuss it with anyone but you. Does that sound about right?”

“...” Daphne didn’t answer. She likely couldn’t answer because of your compulsion. But she gave Tracey a slow, deliberate blink.

“I’m going to take that as a ‘yes’,” Tracey replied. “I thought that if we did it in here with you acting as a witness you could keep him from springing anything extra on me. He is a Slytherin after all. I wouldn’t put it past him.” She made a fair point.

“For the record, I’m still not completely happy about this,” you admitted. “But I doubt that she’ll let it drop if I don’t agree. I’ve got things to do today so I’d rather just get this over with and move on.”

“Was he this unpleasant when you asked him?” Tracey asked her roommate.

“...” Daphne was quiet for a few seconds before she finally answered, “Gaunt is at his most annoying when you’re trying to wring information out of him.” The dark-haired heiress grinned triumphantly. “It looks like I can get away with making general, blanket statements.” She gave you a haughty smirk then spoke again, “Marvolo Gaunt is a pervert with a fondness for girls’ underwear.”

You were actually impressed by her resourcefulness. “Truly, your cunning does Slytherin proud.”

“I guess that’s a confirmation,” Tracey resolved before she turned and tentatively eyed you. “Are you ready to do this?”

“Are you?” you countered knowing how embarrassed this arrangement had made her when you discussed it outside your bedroom.

The blonde’s face flushed and she bit her lip as she looked down at her skirt. “Not exactly. It was bad enough with you seeing them once. I don’t like the fact that I have to show you again.”

“If you don’t want to do it, I can leave,” you offered. “I agreed to do this for your benefit. I’m fine with not telling you anything.”

“You’re not going anywhere!” Tracey insisted. “Just wait a minute while I build up the nerve to do this…” She removed her outer robes and tossed them onto her bed. That left her in the rest of her uniform which consisted of her white button-up blouse, her green and silver Slytherin tie, her skirt, some long white socks, and her simple black shoes. Since her schedule today had thus far consisted of ambushing you outside of your bedroom, Tracey had opted not to wear her Hogwarts jumper over her blouse. The nervous blonde half-blood brought her hands to the waistband of her skirt but then she froze and seemed to be having difficulty pushing it down.

“Are you scared?” you prodded her. “There’s no shame in backing out.”

“I’m not scared,” Tracey assured you.

“Perhaps you’d like some help then?” you suggested.

“I don’t want you pulling my skirt down,” Tracey refused. “That would make it even worse. If I have to do this then I’m doing it on my terms, not yours!”

That hadn’t been what you’d meant by helping. Tracey seemed to have some kind of mental block that was preventing her from going through with this. And in the interest of speeding things along, you had a way for her to get over it. You casually circled around Tracey and moved into a position where you were blocking Daphne’s view of her friend. No need to rouse the pure-blood heiress’ suspicions.

“I don’t buy that,” you said. “I think you’re scared. Look me in the eyes and tell me you’re not.”

Tracey spun to face you and once again stared you right in the eye. “I already told you, I’m not!”

Gotcha. “I admire your loyalty to your friend,” you said as you once again pushed magic through your eyes to trigger the compulsion. “You don’t mind exposing yourself if it’s for Daphne’s benefit.”

“I… yeah, that... that’s right,” Tracey agreed after a series of rapid blinks. “I don’t care what you think. I’m doing this for Daphne.” And just like that she grabbed the sides of her skirt and yanked it down without a hint of hesitation.

“Wait… what just happened?” Daphne asked. She was safely behind you so she hadn’t seen what you’d done. But she’d clearly been surprised by how quickly her best friend’s attitude had changed.

You grinned and stepped aside so you were no longer blocking her view. Tracey was standing there with her skirt pooled around her ankles and her white knickers on display beneath her white blouse. You were mildly disappointed by her plain white knickers and that they weren’t something fancier like Daphne’s mint green ones with the lace trim. But then again, they appeared to be the same kind that she had been wearing on Halloween so they had an extra nostalgia factor. It had been a little over a week since then, for all you knew they could be the same pair.

Tracey then surprised you when she grabbed the bottom of her blouse and brazenly pulled it up to fully reveal the white cotton triangle which matched perfectly with her socks and blouse. “There! Happy?” She dropped her blouse then kicked her discarded skirt towards you. “Now give me the name.”

“Gaunt, did you do something to her?” Daphne accused you. So much for not arousing her suspicions. Before she had been wary but now she seemed to be unnerved by Tracey’s abrupt change in demeanor. Admittedly, you were rather surprised by how drastic a change it had been too. Tracey had gone from not being able to go through with it at all to blatantly showing off.

You attempted to downplay Daphne’s concerns, “I gave her the push she needed by reminding her why she was doing this. Davis, it was Quirrell who was jinxing Harry Potter’s broom.”

“That explains why you’re so scared of him,” Tracey noted. Ah. So you needling her about being scared had gotten to her. Maybe that had contributed to how brazen she was being?

“The man’s dangerous,” you replied. “If you were smart, you’d be scared of him too.” You held out the Omnioculars to her. “Here’s the proof. You can see what happened for yourself. Press the triangle knob to play the scene.”

Tracey took the Omnioculars and raised them to her eyes. This caused her blouse to ride up and expose her white knickers again. You grinned and walked around her to get a view from behind. Sure enough, there was Tracey’s bum clad in white knickers. This was the view that had started the whole knickers as a bartering chip back on Halloween. You certainly appreciated the chance to see it again.

“Enjoying yourself, pervert?” You looked past Tracey to see Daphne glaring at you. She was still shielded behind her bed curtains with only her head sticking out.

“Pervert?” you repeated. “Yesterday this was your idea. And from what I hear, it’s normal for older boys to be interested in girls. I’m just ahead of the curve. Besides, deep down you probably like that I have an interest in something that you can bargain with.”

“DID GRANGER JUST LIGHT PROFESSOR SNAPE ON FIRE!?” Tracey exclaimed. It was easy to tell what part of the scene she was up to. “She could get expelled for that!”

“She thought Professor Snape was the one jinxing Potter’s broom,” you explained. “If she had bothered to look up she would’ve seen that it had stopped bucking when she knocked over Professor Quirrell. Potter just sat there like an idiot for a good thirty seconds. That’s how long it took for Professor Snape to realise that he’d been lit on fire. It wasn’t until he yelped and Granger hurried away that he finally dove for the Snitch.”

Tracey lowered the Omnioculars and her blouse slid back down and covered all but the very bottom of her white knickers. “Either way, I wouldn’t want to be Granger if Snape ever learned who lit him on fire while he was trying to save Harry Potter.”

“You two swore to keep it a secret,” you reminded her. “I’m the only one here who can tell people. And, honestly, I don’t think I need to. Professor Snape is already working against Quirrell and he doesn’t need another reason to hate Granger. And as I’ve mentioned, I don’t want to risk drawing Quirrell’s attention towards me.”

Daphne glared at you and clearly wanted to say something but was unable to. This reminded you that you still needed to remove the compulsion from her before you left. But the fifty galleon question was how were you going to get close enough to maintain direct eye contact for the compulsion if she was still hiding in her bed curtains?.

“Now, I believe I’ve given you two enough to talk about,” you resolved as you went back around Tracey and took the Omnioculars back. You placed them in your school bag with the books and parchment that you had packed for your session in the library. “So I’ll take my leave once our transaction has been completed.”

“You still have to release Daphne from that oath,” Tracey told you.

“Wait, what’s this about an oath?” Daphne repeated. “You said something about it earlier.”

“She keeps assuming that the reason you can’t tell her anything is because of a magical oath that I made you swear,” you answered. “I haven’t bothered to correct her.”

“You mean she isn’t?” Tracey questioned.

“Did I ever say she was?” you countered. “Finish our deal and then I’ll ensure you and Daphne can talk about it ‘til you’re both blue in the face.”

“Fine,” Tracey agreed. She grabbed the waistband of her white cotton knickers and your jaw dropped when she yanked them down without a hint of hesitation. The blonde half-blood was just full of surprises that morning.

“TRACEY!” You were shoved aside as Daphne finally emerged from her bed so she could rush by you and shield her bottomless friend. Tracey flushed but it appeared to be because her best friend’s bum was pressed against her crotch as she used her own body to block your view of the bottomless half-blood who was still standing there with her knickers down around her ankles. “Get a good look, pervert?”

You didn’t answer immediately because Daphne’s emergence from her bed and the fact that she was standing right in front of you meant that you finally got a good look at the thirteen-year-old witch in her mint green nightie. It was notably shorter than the skirt for her Hogwarts uniform and showed off much more of her pale legs. Her arms and feet were also bare and the thin straps on top exposed her shoulders, collar, neck and the very top of her chest. You idly noted that there was a slight swell in that particular area. It was nothing to write home about, especially compared to some of the older girls but it was something you never would have noticed in her school robes. All-in-all, you silently admitted to yourself that she was rather pretty.

“I’ll admit, I’m enjoying what I’m seeing,” you replied. “Is that your favorite color or something, Greengrass?”

Daphne ignored your question and respond with one of her own, “Why didn’t you tell her she could put her skirt back on!?”

“Why didn’t you?” you retorted.

“Because I can’t tell her anything!” Daphne snapped.

“Well, you did make a promise,” you noted with an exaggerated casual shrug, “Maybe there was magic involved and you unknowingly did make an oath. Speaking of which...” The dark-haired pureblood heiress was already glaring at you so it was easy to make eye contact. “You’re free to discuss what you learned yesterday with Tracey.”

“Quirinus Quirrell tried to kill Harry Potter,” Daphne immediately blurted out. “Severus Snape was trying to save Harry Potter. Hermione Granger accidentally saved Harry Potter by knocking over Quirrell and then set Snape on fire. Marvolo Gaunt is a pervert who can be bribed for information using girls' knickers.”

“Wait… what just happened?” Tracey wondered. Obviously, she was surprised by Daphne suddenly blurting everything out.

“It appears as though I’m done here,” you stated. “Davis, if you could kick those knickers over, I’ve got homework to finish before Quidditch practice tonight.”

Daphne remained rooted in place in between you and Tracey while her blonde friend stepped out of her underwear and kicked them over to you. You bent down to pick them up and quickly slipped them into your school bag then headed for the door.

“Have a good day, ladies,” you called back to them. You chanced a glance behind you and saw both Greengrass and Davis staring at you with open suspicion. You didn’t know for sure but you got the sinking feeling that you had just become Daphne’s newest mystery to solve. You hastily left the room before they got any ideas.

The Slytherin common room was still empty as you made your way through. But you stopped short of leaving completely.

“Aw, bugger,” you cursed as you reached up and massaged your temple. Now that the excitement had died down you realized that your head was throbbing. It had happened enough during Quidditch practice for you to know that a serious headache was imminent. You fished into your school bag for some Headache Cure but found none. “Aw, double bugger.”

You used up all your Headache Cure Potions and hadn’t bothered to brew any more since you were supposed to be done with Quidditch until next term. But Flint had sprung tonight’s practice on you and the rest of the team as a result of your loss to Gryffindor. Practice was still hours away but you already had a headache starting. It was likely going to be three times as bad when Flint finally decided to end practice for the night.

The plan for today was to have your homework done before practice. But you knew you needed to have some Headache Cure ready for after practice. You didn’t want to think about how difficult it would be to brew a fresh batch of Headache Cure while you were already suffering from a splitting headache.

You took a detour back to your room and snagged your Potions kit then finally left the common room and headed to one of the Student Potions Labs. They were small rooms in the dungeons that were set aside for students to practice brewing outside of class. Most first years - especially the non-Slytherins - didn’t even know they existed but Gemma Farley had been kind enough to tip you off about them after catching you brewing potions in the common room one too many times. The student potions labs were first come, first serve so it made sense to you to push back doing your homework so you could get your brewing done while the labs were empty and the majority of the castle was still asleep.

The process for brewing a Headache Cure Potion had become second nature to you considering how many times you’d brewed this particular potion in the weeks leading up to yesterday’s Quidditch match. But the ease of the potion brewing process didn’t change the fact that the potion fumes were making your developing headache a lot worse and by the time you were done, it was a full-blown migraine.

You were just ladling your completed potion into a pair of vials when the door was pulled open and a dark shadow limped into the little room.

“Gaunt, what are you doing here so early?” Professor Snape demanded. You suspected that the Potions Master had a monitoring charm in place that alerted him when a student was using one of the student potion labs.

“Good morning, professor,” you greeted him. “I’m out of Headache Cure Potion and Marcus Flint scheduled a Quidditch practice for tonight. After the loss to Gryffindor, I doubt it’s going to be very pleasant so I want to have a vial ready for when I inevitably leave practice with a splitting headache. Speaking of which...” Professor Snape watched as you raised one of the vials to your lips and drank down a dose of your newly created potion. “Aaah, that’s better.”

“Are your headaches happening outside of practice now?” Professor Snape inquired. This confirmed your long suspected theory that Professor Snape had altered your class’s Potions curriculum and ensured that you were covering some vital healing potions in the first term. Your theory also included Gemma Farley as the one who had told your Head of House about your regular Quidditch headaches.

“Not usually,” you answered. “I think this was just a one-off instance. And it didn’t get really bad until I was nearly done - I suspect it was the fumes. Brewing a Headache Cure with a headache is not a fun experience. I can’t imagine how horrible it would’ve been trying to do this tonight after practice while feeling like my head was splitting open from the very start.”

“Hogwarts has a Healer for a reason, Gaunt,” Professor Snape reminded you. “If things were that bad I’d expect you to have the common sense to visit her instead of doing something so colossally stupid as brewing while impaired.”

“Of course, sir,” you agreed. Although you weren’t completely sure if you would have gone to see Madam Pomfrey. The main reason why you kept quiet about your Quidditch headaches was to avoid looking weak in front of Flint who already thought you couldn’t handle a starting position.

“Two points to Slytherin for being prepared,” Professor Snape announced. “I expect this room to be spotless when you leave it.”

“Yes, sir,” you agreed with a small smile as you adjusted your personal tally of House Points. Forty-three in total. The majority of which were from Professor Snape and his blatant favoritism. Not that you were complaining. You liked to think that you’d honestly earned some of them.

Thanks to your Headache Cure, you began to clean up with a much clearer head. You couldn’t help thinking about your interaction with Professor Snape. You were both alone and this would have been the perfect opportunity to tell him what had happened at the Quidditch match. But you hadn’t. It was like you told Daphne and Tracey, he didn’t really need to know. You weren’t a snitch. You were positive that if Professor Snape really, really wanted to find out who had set him on fire then he would. He was your Head of House so he was no doubt very cunning and had extra resources at his disposal that he could use to find things out. Plus, if he got really **** he could use Legilimency.

You finished cleaning and packed your Potions kit and your remaining vial of Headache Cure in your school bag then left the lab and made your way out of the dungeons. You stopped short at the entrance to the Great Hall and decided to stop in and have breakfast. You already made two detours, one more wouldn’t hurt and this way you could work uninterrupted in the library and wouldn’t be starving when lunch rolled around.

Breakfast was a quick, barely fifteen-minute affair. You came, you ate, you left. The Great Hall only had a few people in it. Less than ten and there likely would have been even less if you hadn’t been detained by Tracey or stopped to brew your Headache Cure. You left the Great Hall and finally made it to the library. It was already open and you surprised to see that one of the tables was already occupied.

---

Marvolo Gaunt House Point Ledger

Severus Snape: +2

New Total: +43

Points awarded by: SS, RH, QQ