In The Shadows² ★ Draco Malfoy

*Leave me alone

Briar's first goal when returning to Hogwarts had been to speak to Draco about the letter he sent her on her birthday, but she quickly found herself overwhelmed by her workload. She was taking DADA, Herbology, Transfiguration, Charms, Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, History of Magic, and Care of Magical creatures at O.W.L level and Potions at N.E.W.T level, so the amount of homework she received was immense

There was only a dozen others in her potions class, and unfortunately Briar had been seated next to Blaise by Slughorn. The pair didn't really know each other, so they avoided speaking and kept well to separate sides of the desk.

What surprised everyone though was Harry's sudden knack for potions, and it may have been because they had a better teacher, but Briar suspected something else was going on. She was proud that Harry was making progress, but part of her was also slightly jealous since she was used to being the top of the class

And when she and Ginny had headed to dinner on the night of their first day, Ginny was also surprised to hear this, and when they saw Harry they decided to talk to him

"He only followed different instructions to ours," Ron was saying "Could've been a catastrophe, couldn't it? But he took a riskand it paid off." He heaved a sigh. "Slughorn could've handedme that book, but no, I get the one no one's ever written on.Puked on, by the look of page fifty-two, but -" 

"Hang on," Ginny said suddenly and they all turned to the two arrivals "Did I hear right? You've been takingorders from something someone wrote in a book, Harry?" She looked alarmed and angry. 

"It's nothing," Harry said reassuringly, lowering his voice. "It'snot like, you know, Riddle's diary. It's just an old textbooksomeone's scribbled on." 

"But you're doing what it says?" 

"I just tried a few of the tips written in the margins,honestly, Ginny, there's nothing funny -" 

"Ginny's got a point," said Hermione "We ought to check that there's nothing odd about it. Imean, all these funny instructions, who knows?" 

"Hey!" said Harry as she pulled his copy ofAdvanced Potion-Making out of his bag and raised her wand. 

"Specialis Revelio!" she said, rapping it smartly on the frontcover.Nothing whatsoever happened. The book simply lay there,looking old and dirty and dog-eared. 

"Finished?" said Harry irritably. "Or d'you want to wait andsee if it does a few backflips?" 

"It seems all right," said Hermione, still staring at the booksuspiciously. "I mean, it really does seem to be...just atextbook." 

"Good. Then I'll have it back," said Harry, snatching it offthe table

Briar was of course relieved that there was nothing harmful about this book since Harry was already in enough danger, but she was more relieved that Harry wasn't actually better than her at potions so technically Briar was still the best in the class

On top of her school work Briar had upcoming Gryffindor quidditch team tryouts to worry about, and her Hogsmeade dates with Cormac to be at

Gryffindor quidditch team tryouts were busier than ever and Briar knew it was because Harry was captain, and all the girls trying out obviously fancied him. Tryouts took up most of the morning, but by lunchtime Harry had made his new team comprised of himself as seeker, three chasers: Katie, Briar, and Ginny, and two beaters: Jimmy Peakes and Ritchie Coote. Last up was the Gryffindor keeper and after a tense show-down between Ron and Cormac, Harry gave Ron the spot

Briar was thrilled for her friend, but it did mean that the whole way up the castle she had to listen to Cormac's anger

"Of course, Potter would choose his friend over me. But he'll see what he's done wrong when we lose the quidditch cup this year thanks to Weasley, I'm sure of it. My fifth save was poor, I know, but my first four were brilliant..."