The Death Eater [HARRY POTTER]

4

Calla was sitting in the library one night, reading up on an intriguing but dark piece of magic called a horcrux, when she happened to notice a bushy haired second year sitting not too far away. Hermione Granger, one third of the golden trio and someone one very rarely saw apart from her friends. Especially after Harry had seemingly gone off the deep end and set a snake on a Hufflepuff muggleborn. Her presence in the library, notably missing her two shadows, was enough to pique Calla's curiosity. The Slytherin girl got up and wandered over to the girl, setting down beside her and laying her books out as they had been before.

Hermione only glanced up for a moment before she went back to her reading, seemingly disinterested at the older girl's presence. Which, admittedly, amused Calla to some extent. With the shadow of her father's intense looks shadowing her otherwise pretty face, Calla was quite used to being looked at fearfully by younger students. Especially Gryffindors, whom her father was especially horrid to. The very fact that this Gryffindor in particular didn't even bat an eye at Calla's sudden appearance, made Calla undeniably curious.

"What are you researching so intensely, little Gryffindor," there was laughter in Calla's voice, which Hermione didn't seem to mind at all. "I could smell hair burning clear on the other side of the library."

Hermione seemed intent to finish her page before she acknowledged the older girl again, and that only interested Calla further.

"If you must know," Hermione said smartly, making Calla smile more, "I was researching what Slytherin's monster might be. It was released fifty years ago, you know. And it killed a girl back then. And now Hagrid's been taken to Azkaban because Lucius Malfoy and the rest of the wizards on the school board decided that he had to be behind it."

The gumption of the child was almost precious, and for a moment Calla found her interest in immortality waning and her interest in this adorable, intelligent little second year to be growing.

"Oh really now?" One of Calla's midnight black eyebrows rose, and Hermione frowned as she imagined the Slytherin girl was getting ready to belittle her, much like Calla's father would have. "That seems much more fun than studying dark magic. Why don't the two of us put our heads together, little muggleborn, and maybe we'll have the mystery solved before dinner time."

Hermione eyed calla for another moment, distrust clear on her face, before she grudgingly decided that Calla couldn't really do any bad helping. And having a sixth year's knowledge would only help.

"Harry and Ron went into the forbidden forest a while back and talked to a spider named Aragog. He said that there was only one thing that spiders feared. Also, Hagrid's roosters were ending up dead before he was taken away. So We're looking for something that would scare an incredibly large spider, and that might go after roosters."

And with that, the two of them set to work.

*******

"What about this?" Hermione said, the two of them having been sitting in the library long past when dinner ended. Calla had plans of stopping by the kitchens before she went to bed, so she wasn't too worried about it. The bushy haired girl slid a book over to Calla, and the Slytherin sixth year was able to read the title of the page, before she remembered studying the creature a few years before.

"Of course!" Calla groaned, throwing her hands over her face in exasperation. She could hardly believe that she hadn't thought of it before, remembering what Hermione had told her when she first sat down and offered her assistance. "The basalisk! A giant snake, and the perfect pet for a creepy, prejudiced bloke like Slytherin!"

Hermione seemed to raise one of her eyebrows at the girls blatant lack of respect for Calla's house founder, but the older girl waved her off.

"I had to learn about this beast years ago in Defense Against the Dark Arts. It's bloody gaze is lethal, and I'd bet my fuzziest socks that no one's died yet because they've all seen the thing through a reflection. Filch's hideous cat saw it through the water on the floor, Creevy saw it through his camera, and that Justin kid saw it through Nearly Headless Nick. And whoever's pulling the reigns must have killed the roosters, because the rooster's call is lethal to it!"