The Serpent and The Bird

Only Slytherin boys can handle Gryffindor girls.

You must complete the four trials before gaining access to the repository location.

Those words had followed her for the last two days.

After Sebastian had given her the book he found in the restricted section about a secret chamber where the memory of the keepers would await for her, Everleigh and professor Fig had mapped out Hogwarts castle entirely and discovered the location of the chamber behind a hidden wall in the dungeons.

As soon as Everleigh had gotten closer to the invisible passageway, traces of Ancient Magic led her through the portal, where only she had been able to go, leaving Fig behind.

The chamber contained the map of the trials locations, as well as four different frames for the keepers. Professor Percival Rackham was the only one in his frame on the wall when she walked into the chamber.

After a long talk with the man, Everleigh finally understood what she was expected to do: to keep the magic away from anybody that would try to steal it for evil purposes. Like Ranrok.

The goblin's claim to Ancient Magic rested entirely on the fact that the repository, which held a ferocious amount of magic, was made of Goblin-wrought silver, so their sovereignty belonged to him and not wizard-kind. He was trying to find the repository before her, that was the reason he needed her out of the picture.

So she needed to complete the trials and find out the location before he did.

The place of the first trial had been revealed to her by Professor Rackham, and she needed to complete it as soon as possible. Alone.

That's why she determined she could not tell Ominis and Anne. And she definitely, absolutely, certainly could NOT tell Sebastian.

Professor Weasley was aware of the new circumstances and she was going to talk to the teaching staff about Everleigh's absence from classes. The girl expected to be back in the castle within a couple of days. The location of the trial wasn't that far away.

But she truly didn't know what she was going to face, or how long she was going to be gone, so she was very sincere with professor Weasley about it.

She would be leaving that Sunday morning.

                                   ************

Saturday evening rolled around and the whole castle was emptying out as people were walking to the Quidditch pitch. Gryffindor against Slytherin was the match everyone was expecting the most. The whole school, professors and students, were taking their seats in the podiums, as a soft rain started to damp the Quidditch terrain.

Everleigh took a seat next to Garreth and Natty, wearing her house colors. While she didn't care about the school tournaments, she still wanted Gryffindor to win. Even if that meant Sebastian to lose.

He would do well with a defeat, maybe that ought to humble him a bit. He was going around practically tasting his victory against Gryffindor like it wasn't much of sweat to him. She bit her lower lip, trying to stop the smile on her face while she remembered his snotty attitude the last few days.

After their encounter in the library, he had managed to find her in every dark corridor and hallway she transited to push her against the most poorly lit corner he could find. He barely let her get a word out of her mouth before he was all over her. But compared to what he had done to her at the Slytherin party, Sebastian had been surprisingly... respectful. There had been some below the shirt action, but his hands hadn't even come closer to reach underneath her skirts at all. She wondered if perhaps he was giving her the power to decide when and where she wanted to deepen up their new... relationship.