Frozen Lily

Chapter 3 - Mystery about Meredith

I step into the great hall with Mia and we take our usual seats on the Gryffindor table. The tables are still empty of food, so I turn to the front of the hall and wait for the first years to hurry up and get sorted, so we could start the feast.

Eventually they all troop in, one after the other and stop by the chair on which the ancient sorting hat is sitting. I look over the new first years; they can't be getting smaller...

..."Wong, Leslie!"
"RAVENCLAW!
"Zeller, Emily!"
"SLYTHERIN!"

I watch the tiny Emily Zeller scurry to the Slytherin table and take a seat next to Meredith, who was clapping neatly. Meredith tossed her straight platinum hair over her shoulder and I could just make out Alec sitting opposite her.
Alec Lupin was also a Slytherin, I know, I shouldn't like him, but I found it hard to tear my eyes from his messy blonde hair, light grey eyes and perfect half smile as he clapped at the first years. He had a fan club of girls (and some guys, according to the rumours) in various years and yet he was still single.

"Hello? Lily? Hogwarts to Lily, it's time for the feast..." Mia waved her hand in my face.
"Oh yeah... Pass me the chish and fips...  - I mean the fish and chips"

Mia gave me an odd look and handed the food over anyway.
"You know Meredith? Why isn't she eating anything? I'da thought she'd section off part of the table to herself..."

"Dunno... Maybe she's not hungry?" I say absently, staring into space.

Mia flicked me. "Lily Hoosburg Monroe! Stop daydreaming! This could be serious..."

"My middle name isn't Hoosburg,"

"Who cares - but look! Smelledith is on the move!"

Mia pointed out Meredith as she stood up and ever so carefully edged towards the door. Now that I think about it, that is weird... Nobody leaves the feast until after the speeches...
"She's up to something, Mia." I mutter in her ear, trying not to alert anyone sitting around us. Chloe and Jess were too busy gossiping and giggling to notice, though. "We can expand on it in the dorm, don't worry about it now, eat." I tell her.

I finish my plate of ice cream and brownies and look at the teachers. Headmaster Moody had got up to his feet and with a bang from his staff, the food on the tables was cleared. He was in his 30s - surprisingly young for a headmaster - with light brown hair and a neatly groomed beard. His electric blue eyes swept the hall and paused momentarily on the Slytherin table.
"To new students- Welcome! To old students- Welcome back! We have many new...."

"I was going to eat that!" Mia grumbled and I offer her the rest of the Bertie Botts every flavour beans that we had had on the train. She squeezed my hand gratefully and I turned back to the headmaster.

"...and good luck to all the Quidditch teams this year! Professor Marsh has become quite accustomed to the House Cup in her office I hear..." There was scattered applause and cheers around the Hufflepuff table.
"May I remind you that there is to be no magic in the corridors. Prefects, if you would lead out..." He prompted, waving us up commandingly.

The 5th year prefects had already begun to lead out. I pulled Mia to her feet and we followed the crowd of Gryffindors to our tower. I glimpsed Alec and his friends get up and look around for Meredith but they shrugged and strode out of the door, taking the opposite staircase down.

Eventually the Fat Lady swung open, beaming at the new Gryffindors, and Mia and I went straight up to the 6th year girls dormitories.

"Okay, lemme get a piece of parchment to write this on..." Mia dove into her chest and extracted a crinkled piece of parchment and a quill, which she dipped in a pot of ink before putting it to the paper. She leant back on her bed and began to write. "Suspect: Meredith Voillure... How do you spell Voillure?" She sucked the end of her quill.

"You're making this seem incredibly official, Mia" I say, stretched out on my bed.
"But-what-if-something-does-happen-and-it's-because-of her-and-we-didn't-know-it-was-her-because-we-didn't-make-a-note-of-any-suspicious-activity?!" Mia asked, still writing on the parchment.
I shrug. "Meh. But don't go posting this anywhere, you'd only be telling her we know something."

Mia finishes writing and puts the parchment in the middle of the floor. I sit up and watch her take out her wand, pointing it at the parchment. Suddenly black wisps emerge from her wand and float into the parchment, removing any trace of ink on it.
"Well now you've got a blank piece of parchment, congratulations." I say in my most nasal voice. I sound like Aaron, eugh.

"Well, I've actually charmed the parchment so you just have to tap your wand on it here - here and here and then say 'Meredith stinks' - I'm joking, joking - and voila." The ink from before bloomed on the page once more from her last wand tap.
"Great, but how do you get it off? What if someone finds it? Unless..." A new thought came to mind, of an ancient map of Hogwarts...
"You got it; I charmed this marauders-style." Mia grinned at the mention of our age-old heroes and tapped the parchment once more with her wand. The mind map of suspects vanished, leaving a blank, wrinkled piece of parchment in its place.

We hurriedly got changed, the absence of our dormmates more pronounced, and I was just about to look for Chloe and Jess when they burst in, out of breath and absolutely screaming with laughter. "H-her face! She was just like 'oh no, of course I wasn't trying to sneak in'... Fat chance!" and they doubled over again.
"What happened?"
"Vera! But she was alone outside the portrait hole trying to get in... And Jess got her with a sneezing hex from behind..." I shot a significant look at Mia - Vera was a Slytherin, part of Meredith's clique. I glanced back at the two, who were laughing too hard to notice anything.
"And it wasn't those baby squeaks she normally sneezes with, but proper knee tremblers..."
I slid under the covers of my four poster bed and saw Mia do the same. Chloe and Jess had calmed down enough to get changed into their pyjamas and then they too got into their beds and closed their hangings. I turned to Mia but found her hangings shut, the sounds of peaceful breathing emanating from within.

Eventually, ignoring the haunted bed in the corner, (it used to be used, hundreds of years ago, but then a girl who slept there died in a bathroom and it's rumoured that the bed is cursed) I turned and stared at the scarlet and gold canopy of my bed. My eyelids drooped before I could overthink anything and sleep washed over me.