Could've Been Saved ⇢ 𝒕𝒎𝒓 & 𝒉𝒋𝒑

1

Dear Riddle—probably, or,
little did I know that you've been behind
this all along. You must be; Snakes, again?
You seriously should have pondered a little longer
wether that unoriginality of yours wouldn't bite you
in the bum! Like that little viper did to mine the other day...but anyway,

Harry Potter was indeed not schizophrenic. But after the occurrence of a certain diary he couldn't help but mistrust anything in the same format. Parchment rolls were fine, he didn't expect his handwriting to fade from it and be replaced with a more curvier and classier in the next beat. But notebooks, especially one bound in black leather?

That was just nearly asking for it.

It was just after midnight and Harry wasn't able to ignore the calling of the notebook which had recently become the only thing open for his rants. Maybe it was the snakes that did it. They surely gave him a reason to rant anyway.

He was lying on his chest against the mattress, the heavy blanket drawn over his head like a tent, a torch in one hand and a quill in the other, dripping on the spot where he had left the last comma on the page.

It was getting thicker and thicker the longer he thought of what to write next, or if he even should, because he was actually getting a little heavy-lidded and tired after all.

'Harry...?'

Suddenly came a sleepy voice behind the blanket, causing the light in Harry's hands to flicker as he startled in place.

It was Hermione. Harry didn't need to throw the blankets back to know it, but he needed some air anyway so he lifted them up slightly and in the next moment her face came up next to the ray of light.

'Why are you still up?' She whispered curiously, glancing at the notebook but then she must've thought better because she looked away just as quick to frown at Harry.

'Probably the same reason as you,' Harry rasped back, sighed and slapped the notebook shut over the quill.

'Those snakes...' He went on. 'I don't trust them. And nobody else seems to be bothered about it—do you want to get under the blanket? Your knees will get sore.'

She smiled momentarily, but then she stopped. 'It's okay, I actually wanted to show you something.'

'What is it?'

The expression on her face which was haunting over the former smile was pretty telling in itself. And when Harry crawled out from underneath the blankets and followed her down to the dormitory he looked almost the same, pale and horrified.

Someone had left an ancient-looking jar on the table, and through the glass the amberish liquid was clearly visible. Harry took a hesitating step towards it, then felt Hermiones hand on his arm, holding him back.

'Not that,' She said. 'It's the other thing,'

While her other hand pointed towards the thing at the foot of the table, Harry felt the wave of relief being chased down by confusion.

'Did something happen to your ziplock bag with those vipers in it?'

It happened after a Quidditch match when everyone separated to go back into their dorms, and then the two genders separated for the bedrooms, that they found a ziplock back each on their beds, carrying two seemingly dead vipers in it.

See, because they were dead, nobody felt alarmed enough to tell the authorities. Though Harry immediately smelt something fishy going on there, for him it just didn't make sense why they'd get a delivery of snakes out of the random.