Who is Nyxzal Être? (Harry Potter Fan Fiction)

Dueling Club

I woke up on Sunday morning to find the dormitory blazing with winter sunlight. Excited, threw off my covers and accidently threw Muggle halfway across the room. She wasn’t too happy about being woken up…

Muttering apologies, I petted her and ran to the window looking for any signs of snow. There wasn’t any, but the air did seem a little more chillier. I slowly got ready for the day, hoping that maybe I would get to play in the snow a little later.

Hermione, Harry, and Ron were barricading themselves in the bathroom for the day. I had told Hermione that I wasn’t going to be able to make it: Dumbledore had given me some extra homework I wasn’t able to disclose with them. That was true, in its own aspect. Dumbledore HAD given me homework of some sort; I just didn’t know what it was yet. What I was actually going to do was meet Draco and spend some time together. Can anyone say secret date?

The news that Colin Creevey had been attacked and was now laying as though dead in the hospital wing had spread through the entire school by Monday morning. The air was suddenly thick with rumor and suspicion. The first years were now moving around the castle in tight-knit groups, as though scared they would be attacked if they ventured forth alone.

Ginny Weasly, who sat next to Colin Creevey in Charms, was distraught, but both Harry and I felt that Fred and George were going the wrong way about cheering her up. They were taking turns covering themselves with fur or boils and jumping out at her from behind statues. They only stopped when Percy, apoplectic with rage, told them he was going to write to Mrs. Weasly and tell her Ginny was having nightmares.

Meanwhile, hidden from the teachers, a roaring trade in talismans, amulets, and other protective devices was sweeping the school. Neville Longbottom bought a large, evil-smelling green onion, a pointed purple crystal, and a rotting newt tail before the other Gryffindor boys pointed out that he was in no danger; he was a pure-blood, and therefore unlikely to be attacked. “They went for Filch first,” Neville said, his round face fearful. “And everyone knows I’m almost a Squib.”

In the second week of December Professor McGonagall came around as usual, collecting names of those who would be staying at school for Christmas. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I signed her list; they had heard that Draco was staying, which struck them as very suspicious (I knew it was from not wanting to go home to Lucius being a prat, and not wanting to leave me with ‘the heir of Slytherin’. The holidays would be the perfect time to use the Polyjuice Potion and try to ‘worm a confession out of him’. Unfortunately, the potion was only half finished. We still needed the bicorn horn and the boomslang skin, and the only place they were going to get them was from Snape’s private stores. Harry privately confided to me he felt he’d rather face Slytherin’s legendary monster than let Snape catch him robbing his office.

“What we need,” said Hermione briskly as Thursday afternoon’s double Potions lesson loomed nearer, “is a diversion. Then one of us can sneak into Snape’s office and take what we need.” Harry and Ron looked at her nervously while I tried to keep mine void of any emotion.

“I think I’d better do the actual stealing,” Hermione continued in a matter-of-fact tone. “You two will be expelled if you get into any more trouble, Snape just hates Nyx, and I’ve got a clean record. So all you need to do is cause enough mayhem to keep Snape busy for five minutes or so.” “Oh thank god!” I gasped, falling to my knees and taking Hermione’s hand. “Have I ever mentioned how much I love you?”

Deliberately causing mayhem in Snape’s Potions class was about as safe as poking a sleeping dragon in the eye. Potions lessons took place in one of the large dungeons. Thursday afternoon’s lesson proceeded in the usual way. Twenty cauldrons stood steaming between the wooden desks, on which stood brass scales and jars of ingredients. Snape prowled through the fumes, making waspish remarks about the Gryffindors’ work while the Slytherins sniggered appreciatively. Draco, who was Snape’s favorite student, kept flicking puffer-fish eyes at Ron and Harry, who knew that if they retaliated they would get detention faster than you could say “Unfair.”