The Young Padfoot *Book One*

Betting on Friendship

As quick as it came, Spring began to bloom into Summer, skies blue and every inch of the grassy grounds covered in an assortment of flowers, pink, blue, white, every colour imaginable. But no matter how beautiful it all was, it just wasn't the same. Firstly, cause Hermione wasn't here forcing us to start revising for our exams and also because Hagrid's beaming face was nowhere to be seen. Rumours had spread around about where Hagrid had disappeared to, some people believing he had been attacked, but no one apart from Harry, Ron and myself knew where he was. Of course Dumbledore also knew but he was also gone from the castle. But as time went on, the rumour started to spread that Hagrid had in fact been arrested; I put it down to a certain Lockhart that that had gotten out.

And to add to the gloom of the summer, Madam Pomfrey was no longer allowing visitors to come and visit the patients due to the fear that the attacker would come back and finish them all off. So that meant we wouldn't be able to see Hermione until the attacker was caught. If anything boosted our desperation to find the culprit, it was that. No matter what we said to Madam Pomfrey, she was adamant in her decision.

"No, I'm sorry, Miss Black, you cannot come in. I understand she's your friend, I really do but it's for her own protection."

"But you know me, Madam Pomfrey. I would never hurt her. None of us would."

"Like I said, I'm sorry. Now off you go. You don't want to be late for class."

"It's a Saturday!" The door slammed right in our faces.

Laughter was scarce around the castle and any that could be heard was forced and unnatural. This was because of one main thing... Dumbledore being gone. If not even Dumbledore could stop these attacks, who could? It was impossible!

Even with Hagrid's last minute tip to us about following the spiders, things were still going south. It seemed that every spider in the castle had decided to go into hiding. We had looked everywhere, Ron following reluctantly behind us after I had promised to protect him from the ferocious spiders. On countless occasions we tried to sneak away to find some spiders but with the new procedures of not being able to move around by ourselves, it was easier said than done.

There still seemed to be only one person who was truly cheerful at the moment. I'll give you three guesses who. You got it. Draco damn Malfoy. Strutting around the castle like he owned the place, Draco was telling anyone who would listen exactly how it was cause of his father that we were finally 'free' from Dumbledore. Arrogant fool. And then in our Potions letter about two weeks later, we found out exactly what had got him in an even better mood.

"I always thought father might be the one who got rid of Dumbledore," Draco said smugly. "I told you he thinks Dumbledore's the worst Headmaster the school's ever had. Maybe we'll get a decent Headmaster now. Someone who won't want the Chamber of Secrets closed. McGonagall won't last long; she's only filling in..."

My hand tightened on the handle of the knife I was using to cut the ingredients for the potion and it took everything in me to not throw the knife at Malfoy's face. Noticing this, Neville, who was my potions partner for the lesson, carefully eased the knife from my hand and gave me a small smile.

"Don't listen to him, Emery. It's like you told me, he isn't worth it," Neville said, making me give him a small nod and smile before looking back over at the potions book.

"Sir. Why don't you apply for the headmaster's job?" Malfoy asked Snape and it took everything in me to not scoff at the idea of Snape as Headmaster. I think I'd top myself off the Astronomy tower if that ever happened.

"Now, now, Malfoy. Professor Dumbledore has only been suspended by the governors. I dare say he'll be back with us soon enough," Snape said though he hadn't suppressed the tiny smirk playing at the edge of his lips.