The Year I Did Not Sign Up For! (Edited)

Secrets Unveiled

The new year rolled in like a boulder. The Parkinson family had hosted the party of the century, according to them at least, with the guest of honour - Hermione Granger. Pansy's parents had been more than accepting of their daughters choice of partner. The Malfoys turned their nose up slightly, but didn't say anything. Draco had sent a sad look at his parents and kept his mouth shut. He had looked glum for quite a while afterwards. Harriet had even given him her second piece of cake.

"Eating your feelings?" She asked him as he wolfed it down. "I do that."

He shrugged but didn't answer. The awkward pat on the back seemed appreciated but still useless.

The fireworks had been spectacular and Harriet had eaten enough for the next three days, much to her stomachs chagrin.

Now, she was standing on platform 9 and 3/4 with with her friends and a trunk of substantial weight. She could have taken a few things out but that would have meant leaving the book she had gotten from Charlie about dragons behind and that was not an option.

Seamus Finnigan had joined them almost permanently now with Neville Longbottom and Ginny Weasley. Theo had trickled back into the group.

Ginny was nice enough. She was straightforward and had a temper as fiery as her hair. They had discovered this when Weasel had made a snide comment in their direction. Harriet was pretty sure he was now crying in a corner somewhere.

Seamus was still Seamus. Fun to be around and the life of any party. His family stories were always a blast and his good nature made everyone around him feel at ease.

Neville loved to talk about herbology and hadn't even asked questions when Harriet had asked him to research all magical plants that could destroy magic objects.

Pansy and Hermione were the power couple they had been from the start. Confident and beautiful as ever, Hermione's smarts kept impressing and Pansy's smiles kept lighting up the area around them. Boy, did they know it. They were the Queen's of Hogwarts since the hour they had gone public.

Draco and Blaise kept the conversation going and Crabbe and Goyle scared away outsiders. Someone even threw money at Crabbe when he asked for directions.

Theo kept things cool and threw the occasional sarcastic comment or horrendous pun into the conversation. Cassie stood next to him making the occasional remark but otherwise bringing the social IQ of the group up by several points. Pansy was only able to do so much with Harriet and Draco present.

Harriet remained in her quiet observant state and plotted her next moves very carefully.

"Well, you're going to have to go searching for something at the bottom of the lake, that's for sure," Hermione stated matter of factly, looking over the mermaid poem.

"And you only have one hour to find something valuable to you." Pansy added.

"The last part makes it sound as if it'll die if you don't find it." Ginny pushed her hair back behind her ear.

"So we think it's alive?" Draco asked.

"I'll bet it's alive," Theo said.

"The main two problems I still have with this," -Harriet rubbed her temples- "are how I am supposed to find a mermaid lair and how the bloody hell I am supposed to hold my breath underwater for one hour. I could try a bubblehead charm but everyone knows that's the subject I'm the worst at!"

Everyone put on their thinking faces.

"Gillyweed." Neville gasped suddenly. Everyone turned to stare at him.

"It's magical properties give you the abilities to breath underwater for an extended period of time!" he explained excitedly.

"Okay, well, we'll see if we can get our hands on Gillyweed, but if that doesn't work: operation aquanaut is the way to go." Draco finalised.

"I'm sorry, we?" Harriet questioned.

"After the Dragon thing?" Seamus raised an eyebrow at her," No way you're doing all this by yourself!"

"Yeah," Pansy said, "I'll put the charm on you if I have to."

Two weeks later, the Champions were sitting in a dark corner of the library. They had clued in Diggory on the condition that he tell no-one. Not even Cho.

There may have been a charm involved that made sure you couldn't talk. No one liked snitches.

"So, the Iris Pendant gives you the ability to control people's souls?" Diggory whispered, eyes wide.

"I don't get it. Why is this a big deal?" Harriet asked quietly. "We already knew about the control part. I don't see how mind control and soul control are any different."

"Eet ees because ze soul ees ze essence of ze being. Without eet you are nothing. With ze ability to control ze soul you can change ze essence of ze being. You can 'urt a person or you can make zem 'urt others." Fleur explained, "If you have control over ze soul you can destroy a person completely. Ze thing is, wis ze pendant you can control 'undreds of people at a time. You could change ze theenking of ze entire ministry for example."

"Okay," Harriet said lamely, "that's bad."

"We need to get this thing before Dumbledore!" Krum said earnestly.

"Yeah, I already have my friends working for me and we have the plan," Harriet shrugged, "We just need to pull it off."

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Remember when I chickened out of killing Pansy in the second book? Gosh, I was so cute back then.

XOXO, Drachma