The Adventures of a Death Eater

Chapter 9: A Night in the Forest

Finally was able to get some work done on this when I got home from up north. Took a little longer than expected, but alas, here it is. Hope you enjoy it.

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Audrey

The Great Hall was fairly crowded with students, teachers, and ghosts. It was a normal thing. It was something I got used to after all the years. I smiled slightly to myself. Despite the small conflict with Nikkie (which we sort of sorted through this morning) and Harry's strange vision, I was in a positively good mood, which was highly unusual.

I made my way to the Gryffindor table where I found the Weasleys, Neville, and the Gryffindor Quidditch team gathered around Nikkie and Hermione. This was something that never occurred. They were a group of people who typically didn't hang out every day.

"What's going on?" I asked Neville.

"Nikkie swears she knows a spell to make Hermione's cat talk," he replied.

"Oh jeez," I took a seat next to Nikkie. "What did I tell you about experimenting on animals?"

Nikkie looked over at me and faked a pout. "Harry let me try it on Hedwig," she insisted, smiling a little too sweetly.

I glanced at Hermione's cat, Crookshanks, who mewed an irritated meow. "Go ahead then," I said. I honestly didn't care about the results; it wasn't my cat after all.

Nikkie flicked a strand of hair behind her ear. She cleared her throat. She announced a spell I had never heard, drawing a strange shape with the tip of her wand then flicking at the orange cat.

"... This hairball needs to comes out," the cat muttered with a shiver. The table burst into laughter; the accent the cat had was French.

I shook my head and walked away, going back to the Slytherin table. After I hurriedly ate my lunch, I went back to where Nikkie sat alone reading a book. Ron and Hermione must have left somewhere. I sat across from her, waiting for her to notice me.

"Yes, sir?" Nikkie asked, sitting her book down.

"Um..." I thought for a moment. "About earlier's conversation..."

Nikkie narrowed her eyes. "What about it?" she asked.

"Has Harry seen anything else?" I wondered.

She nodded. "More to do with Artemis." She crossed her arms.

"It's not like he's in deep..." I muttered, but she heard me.

"Audrey," she said sternly, "I don't think you understand the seriousness of this."

"So explain it so I do, Nikkie."

She uncrossed her arms, leaned closer to me. I found myself leaning closer to hear her "serious explanation." There was no way Artemis could be this deep into something so dangerous. Could he? It wasn't like him.

"Audrey, Harry had a vision about Artemis murdering Dumbledore," she said so quietly I could hardly hear. "And as you know, Harry is never wrong about this."

He's in deeper than he's telling me, I thought. But I couldn't be angry with him for lying because I had never asked how "bad" he was. What was I going to do about this? It took me a moment to realize Nikkie was calling me.

"Huh?" I asked.

"Just be careful, okay? I don't want you to become my enemy over something stupid like this," she went on.

I offered a smile. "Don't worry, that isn't going to happen."

Just then, Artemis caught my eye. He was coming up from the dungeons with Malfoy. Then I saw Nikkie break into a smile. I glanced behind me to see Harry coming in from the tower. Both of us stood and went to greet our significant other, but something told me something wasn't good.