meant to be (1)

44

At first, Gryffindors passing the giant hourglasses that recorded the house points next day thought there'd been a mistake. How could they suddenly have a hundred and fifty points fewer than yesterday? And then the story had started to spread:

Harry Potter, the famous Harry Potter, their hero of two Quidditch matches and Julie Clarke, the daughter of John Clarke, one of the most beloved and most successful aurors of all time,  had lost them all those points.

From being one of the most popular and admired people at the school, we suddenly were the most hated. Even Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs turned on us, because everyone had been longing to see Slytherin lose the House Cup. Everywhere we went, people pointed and didn't trouble to lower their voices as they insulted us.

The worst thing for me wasn't the insulting or whispering. All those people had started turning against Mason as well, just because he was my brother. This caused him to be annoyed at me, which I hated so much.

Slytherins, on the other hand, clapped as we walked past them, whistling and cheering: "Thanks Gorgeous, we owe you one!"

Only Ron and Hermione stood by us.

"They'll all forget this in a few weeks. Fred and George have lost loads of points in all the time they've been here, and people still like them."

"They've never lost a hundred and fifty points in one go, though, have they?" Harry said miserably while I nodded in agreement.

"Well - no" Ron admitted.

It was a big late to repair the damage, but Harry and I agreed on not meddling in things that weren't our business from now on. We'd had it with sneaking and spying.

Even Quidditch had lost its fun. The rest of the team wouldn't speak to us during practice, and if they had to, they called us "the Seeker" and "the Chaser".

Neville was suffering, too. He didn't have as bad as a time as Harry and I, because he wasn't as well known, but nobody would speak to him either.

I was almost glad when the exams weren't far away. All the revision I did, kept my mind of my misery. Harry, Ron, Hermione and I kept to ourselves, working late into the night, trying to remember the ingredients in complicated potions, learn charm and spells off by heart, memorise the dates of magical discoveries and goblin rebellions.

Then about a week before the exams were due to start, Harry and I's resolution not to interfere in anything that didn't concern us was put to an unexpected test.

Walking back from the library one afternoon, we heard somebody whimpering from a classroom up ahead. As we drew closer, we heard Quirrell's voice.

"No - no - not again, please-"

It sounded as though someone was threatening him.

"All right - all right -" we heard Quirrell sob.

Next second, he came hurrying out of the classroom, straightening his turban. He was pale and looked as though he was about to cry. He strode out of sight; I didn't think Quirrell had even noticed us.

We waited until his footsteps had disappeared, then peered into the classroom. It was empty, but the door stood ajar at the other end. We were halfway towards it before we remembered what we'd promised to each other.

But there was no denying, that Quirrell seemed to have given in at last.

Harry and I went back to the library to tell Ron and Hermione about what we'd just heard.

"Snape's done it then!" said Ron. "If Quirrell's told him now how to break his Anti-Dark Force-"

"There's still Fluffy, though" Hermione addressed.

"Maybe Snape's found out how to get past him without asking Hagrid" Ron suggested. "I bet there's a book somewhere in here, telling you how to get past a giant three-headed dog. So what do we do now?"

The light of adventure was kindling again in Ron's eyes.

"Go to Dumbledore" answered Hermione. "That's what we should've done ages ago. If we try anything ourselves we'll be thrown out for sure."

"But we've got no proof!" Harry exclaimed. "Quirrell's too scared to back us up. Snape's only got to say he doesn't know how the troll got in at Halloween and that he was nowhere near the third floor - who do you think they'll believe, him or us?"

"Yes" I agreed. "It's not exactly a secret we hate Snape, Dumbledore'll think we made it up to get him sacked. Filch wouldn't help us if his life depended on it, he's too friendly with Snape, and the more students get thrown out, the better he'll think. And don't forget, we're not supposed to know about the Stone or Fluffy. That'll take a lot of explaining."

Hermione looked convinced, but Ron didn't.

"If we just do a bit of poking around-"

"No!" I immediately said.

"We've done enough of poking around" Harry supported me.