The Girl Who Saw Tomorrow II » Harry Potter

2.29 | Better Than Cure

Detentions with Severus Snape were such a joy that Margaret had landed in them two weeks in a row.

Perhaps it was the absence of Harry, but the tasks Snape had set for her weren't too bad. All she had to do was sort out about a thousand, decades-old, detention slips. As dusty as they were, she would take them over rotten flobberworms any day.

As October started and fall approached the Highlands, the days started getting shorter and the nights stretched out for longer. This made it seem as though time was going by too quickly, too monotonously. Margaret had fallen into a routine of her own:

Get up, get dressed, meet her friends for breakfast, attend classes, have lunch, attend more classes, have dinner, finish homework, go to bed, and repeat.

There were a few exceptions to this schedule. At times, Margaret received an invitation to Slughorn's supper get-togethers. Thankfully, Hermione received them too, and the suppers turned out to be nice. Slughorn occasionally asked Margaret questions; he was very impressed to know that she had visited the Romanian Dragon Sanctuary over the summer.

"Did you visit with a friend?" Slughorn asks.

"Not exactly, but I was visiting a friend," Margaret says. "He works there. I suppose you've heard of Charlie Weasley?"

"Ah yes! Very talented boy! The other professors still highly speak of him. Unfortunately, he was not my student," says Slughorn with a great sigh that made his moustache flutter. "You have some very fascinating friends, Miss Xenakis. Say, could you invite Mister Weasley to one of my upcoming parties as your plus-one?"

"I could try," Margaret chuckles. The lengths this man would go to have another well-known person in his collection...

On the other hand, Harry had been scheduling Quidditch practices every time Slughorn sent the little, violet ribbon-adorned invitations. He wasn't particularly keen about seeing Slughorn, who acted as though Harry was the forthcoming of Merlin himself. Nor did Harry want Ron to be left behind while he, Hermione, Margaret and even Ginny got all these invitations.

Other exceptions to her schedule were the nights Margaret could not sleep. On the ones that she did, she would awaken with nightmares or with a skull-splitting headache. She wasn't sure if her anxiety was causing this or this was leading to her anxiety...

Something that had given Margaret's mind more of a reason to race was the death of Hannah Abbott's mother. She had heard a lot about it in passing but hadn't yet seen Hannah anywhere.

"They killed her because she was a muggleborn? I mean, I thought we'd be past that prejudice now..."

"No, I've heard she said something against He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. But the Ministry hasn't given a reason yet, only condolences."

"Poor Hannah... Her roommates said they could hear her crying every night since she's returned after the funeral. Professor Sprout's asked Professor Dumbledore to give her a couple of days off."

"I can't believe she came back after all of it..."

"Her family must think she'd be safer at Hogwarts with all the protective enchantments, the Aurors and of course, Professor Dumbledore being here."

The whole ordeal had left Margaret with a sense of urgency that she could not put into perspective.

No matter the reason behind Mrs Abbott's death, it was true that all muggleborns would be faced with even worse in less than a year.

How many people were Margaret truly capable of saving?

Was it even her responsibility?

"You all right, mate?" asks Ron.