Obsidian (Harry Potter Fan Fiction, Sequel to the Lazuli Trilogy)

Six - Tobias

After what seemed like a lifetime, the bell rung, filling the History of Magic classroom with it's shrill ring, and alerting everyone that the final lesson of the day was over.

Beside me, Rion, who had previously been asleep on the desk (not that Professor Binns noticed), leapt up, suddenly wide awake as he grabbed his quill and parchment, stuffing it into his rucksack and rushing out of the classroom before I could even say a word. He's probably off to see some girl, I thought to myself as I too stood up and began to pack away my things.

Professor Binns returned to muttering about the Giant Wars to himself, as if he hadn't even noticed the bell ring and his students pack up and leave, but I didn't say a word to him as I slung my rucksack over my shoulder and started to follow the stream of my classmates leaving the room.

The corridors were packed already, as students from different years and houses returned to their various common rooms to start their homework, catch up with friends and find ways to fill the two hours until dinner. Personally, there would be nothing I would have liked better than to go out on my broom for the two hours and clear my head, but Professor Toil had set us an essay on Ogre multiplication due for tomorrow, and I didn't want to get on her bad side.

I shuffled my way through the corridors and trying not to hit the tiny first years in the face with my elbows as they ran past. As I walked, I tried to decide where would be better to actually get this work finished - the Ravenclaw tower or the library. In the end, I decided upon the library, since Madam Pince's strict silence rules kept most of my friends at bay, and would prevent them from asking me for the hundredth time about Dad's secret event.

It had been two weeks since we'd returned to school, and on the evening following our first day back Cece, Tom and I had gone home for dinner. Scor had come home for the evening too, and it was then that my father had told us all about the Triwizard Tournament.

Since then, I'd done some research into the history of the event, reading through the large, leather-bound book chronicling the events of the past 188 Triwizard Tournaments. As I'd promised Dad, I'd kept it a secret from everyone, although with immense effort. Rion seemed to have guessed I knew the moment we'd sat down for breakfast the next morning, and since then had ceaselessly concentrated much of his attention on trying to drag the answer out of me. First there'd been the flattery, then the blackmail, and then the bribery. How I'd managed to resist Rion I wasn't sure - he was eerily persuasive when he wanted to be - but thus far I'd managed to keep the secret to myself, and since the school seemed blissfully unaware, he presumed Cece and Tom had kept it secret too. Still, Dad was planning to tell everybody at the feast tonight, and so if I could avoid Rion for a couple more hours, I'd be free from his incessant whining.

Eventually I managed to reach the library, and as I slipped inside and shut the door I breathed a sigh of relief. The quiet calm of the library was immensely relaxing after the pandemonium of the corridors. I quickly passed Madam Pince's desk, smiling politely at her as I did. "Good afternoon, Mr Malfoy," she greeted me with a small hint of a smile. Madam Pince had been a Ravenclaw too when she was at Hogwarts, and so she always treated the Ravenclaws who were for the most part studious and respected her library with more warmth than she did the other students. 

I continued to head through the tall bookshelves of the library that towered above me despite me being over 6ft tall myself. Here and there, students of all ages and houses were dotted, reading, doing homework or passing notes to their friends. I ignored them all as I made my way to the small cranny of the restricted section, where nobody lower than a sixth year could enter without a teacher's express permission.

I took a seat at a desk in the empty part of the library, and sighed deeply as I began to pull my parchment, quill and text book out of my bag. Professor Toil had informed us that we'd be beginning a long project on dark creatures to be presented to the class after Christmas, in which time we needed to produce a written report into all aspects of our given dark creature, a presentation for the rest of the class to learn from, and to learn and master the various defensive spells and forms of protection against them. I'd drawn dementors from the floating hat which Professor Toil had sent around the room, and although thankfully we were expected to do the project in pairs, I had no idea who had drawn the other slip of paper with Dementors written upon it.