Charmolypi

Chapter 66

The scene changed, showing Thea sitting by the window at the back of the library. She was reading intently as it snowed outside, while Nyx was curled up in the girl's lap. Being so emerged in her book, she didn't notice the group of Hufflepuffs that walked in and sat near her.

"So anyway," one of the boys told his friends, "I told Justin to hide up in our dormitory. I mean to say of Potter's marked him down as his next victim, it's best of he keeps a low profile for a while. Of course, Justin's been waiting for something like this to happen ever since he let it slip to Potter that he was Muggle-born. Justin actually told him he'd be down for Eton. That's not the kind of thing you bandy about with Slytherin's heir on the loose, is it?"

"You definitely think it is Potter, then, Ernie?" said a girl with blonde pigtails anxiously.

"Hannah," said the stout boy solemnly, "he's a Parselmouth. Everyone knows that's the mark of a Dark wizard. Have you ever heard of a decent one who could talk to snakes? They called Slytherin himself Serpent-tongue."

There was some heavy murmuring at this, and Ernie went on, "Remember what was written on the wall? Enemies of the Heir, Beware. Potter had some sort of run-in with Filch. Next thing we know, Filch's cat's attacked. That first year, Creevey, was annoying Potter at the Quidditch match, taking pictures of him while he was lying in the mud. Next thing we know — Creevey's been attacked."

"He always seems so nice, though," said Hannah uncertainly, "and, well, he's the one who made You-Know-Who disappear. He can't be all bad, can he?"

Ernie lowered his voice mysteriously, the Hufflepuffs bent closer. "No one knows how he survived that attack by You-Know-Who. I mean to say, he was only a baby when it happened. He should have been blasted into smithereens. Only a really powerful Dark wizard could have survived a curse like that." He dropped his voice until it was barely more than a whisper, and said, "That's probably why You-Know-Who wanted to kill him in the first place. Didn't want another Dark Lord competing with him. I wonder what other powers Potter's been hiding?"

Murmuring broke in the hall, many of the students and adults agreeing with the statement.

'What other powers did the Potter siblings have?'

Thea slammed her book shut, startling the group of Hufflepuffs, who's eyes widened when they saw that Thea was the one rising from her seat. She reached for her wand, that was holding up her hair in a bun, and twirled it between her fingers as she stepped closer to the group. Nyx, who was woken up from her nap jumped on the table, startling the group even more. The black cat looked intently at every member of the group.

Thea could see that Ernie visibly stiffened at the sight of her, more specifically her wand. When she was close enough to the boy, she put the tip of her wand under his chin and lifted his face up.

"She's terrifying, Potter, I love it!" Marlene said excitedly, as she smiled up at the picture of Thea.

"Talking like that about people without knowing the whole story isn't very nice, Mr Hufflepuff" Thea said softly.

"We were all there, we saw what happened," he said, trying to be brave.

Thea tilted her head, looking mockingly at the boy. "Of course, you know everything that's happening in mine or my brother's lives. Because, after all, who are we to know more about it than you?"

"I saw him speaking Parseltongue and chasing the snake towards Justin!" He said, getting frustrated.

"So you understood him when he talked in Parseltongue? Otherwise, you wouldn't be claiming that he said that," she told him, leaning back slightly. That moment, all eyes shifted to the boy in question.