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ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴛʜɪʀᴛʏ ғᴏᴜʀ

"You definitely think it is Potter, then, Ernie?" A girl was talking nearby in the library.
"Hannah." A boy said her name. "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."
"Hey." Harry slumped down next to me, seeing as I was at the table furthest from his gossipers.
"Hey." I smiled up at him and closed my book. "It's just gossip, Harry. Don't let it get you down."
"But what if it's all true? What if I am... You know."
"...Can you read this?" I changed the subject, and wanted to test the books secrets out on him.
"A titleless book? Obviously not."
"Titleless?"
"Yeah. Got no title."
"...It has a title." I pouted and looked at the front of the book, re-reading the title over and over again.
"No, no it doesn't."
"Whatcha reading?" B/n sat down beside me. Seeing as his class was cancelled, too. Herbology with Hufflepuff and Gryffindor. "Woah..."
"You can see the title?" I asked him.
"Lord-"
"Shh!" I kicked his foot under the table and looked at Harry, who, luckily, wasn't paying attention to us. He was staring over at the table of Hufflepuffs. "...Harry, ignore them."
"What are they saying?" Harry asked me. "Tell me what they're saying."
I listened closely.
"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. 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?"
"Well?" Harry continued once the boys mouth stopped moving. "What was he saying?"
"Nothing about yo-"
"That only a really powerful Dark Wizard could have survived the curse You-Know-Who tried to kill you with." B/n talked over me. "And that's probably why he wanted to kill you in the first place, because he didn't want another dark lord competing with him." B/n looked at my annoyed glare and Harry's sad face. "W-Which is obviously bogus, of course. You're a good guy."
"Right." Harry shook his head and stood up.
"What are you doing?" I asked him, concerned by how his expression changed from sad, to irritated, almost instantly. And he walked towards the Hufflepuff table.

"Hello." Harry spoke calmly. "I'm looking for Justin Finch-Fletchley."
"Oh my word." I sighed and looked down at the table.
"W-What do you want with him?" The hufflepuff who said everything so confidently, now had fear in his voice.
"I wanted to tell him what really happened with that snake at the duelling club." Harry told him, causing me to look back over to them.
"We were all there."
"Who is that?" I asked B/n."
"Ernie. Bit of a twit, he is."
"We saw what happened." Ernie added after a second of hesitating.
"Then you noticed that after I spoke to it, the snake backed off?" Harry shot back.
"All I saw-" Ernie's voice quivered. "Was you speaking Parseltongue and chasing the snake toward Justin."
"I didn't chase him!" Harry got angrier as the conversation continued. "It didn't even touch him!"
"It was a very near miss." Said Ernie. "And in case you're getting any ideas, I might tell you that you can trace my family back through nine generations of witches and warlocks, and my blood's as pure as anyone's, so-"
"I don't care what sort of blood you've got!" Harry yelled. "Why would I want to attack Muggle-borns?"
"I've heard you hate those Muggles you live with."
"It's not possible to live with the Dursley's and not hate them." Harry said to him. "I'd like to see you try it." And as he finished, he turned on his heel and stormed out of the library.
"...So..." I turned to B/n. "You need to read something. In this book."
"Next period is starting soon." He glanced up at the clock. Five minutes until we had to leave.
"Okay." I sighed and gave him a brief summary. As I finished, he looked bewildered. "...You okay?"
"S-So Volder-... Him." He caught himself. "He is the one who killed our mother?"
'KILL!' The whispery voice spoke. I ignored it.
"I don't know." I shook my head. "If it was him, wouldn't the whole world know? Like Harry?"
"I guess." He shrugged. "But, we were sent to the hidden part of France, remember? Maybe that was why..."
'MUST FEED!'
"Yeah, a year later." I continued ignoring the voice. I knew it only spoke when someone was getting attacked, but... I hadn't heard it when Colin was, so...
"True." He mumbled. "So you think he did it?"
"Dad." I nodded. As did he. "We should read more. There's a few more pages left. Maybe it-"
The bell rang. The whispering stopped.
"Shoot."
"We'll meet back here after next period." B/n told me.
"Yeah." I nodded and stood up. And we were about to part as we left the library when we heard Peeves the poltergeist shouting.