Slytherin's Heir

Chapter Thirty-Five ~ Demigod Stowaways

"Harry? Harry..."

Harry blinked a couple of times and looked up, ejected from his thoughts by Ron calling his name. "Sorry, what?"

Ron sighed, plopping down on the common room chair beside him. "Honestly, what is it with you and Hermione? You've both been spacing out since the meeting today."

"Didn't you notice something off at that meeting?" Harry inquired.

Ron snorted, "You mean other than Zacharias, and the whole 'my sister has a boyfriend' thing?"

"You only knew about that after the meeting," Hermione quipped, joining the conversation. "But obviously Harry's talking about that interruption. I wonder who they were."

Scowling, Ron said, "Why was Marcus there anyway? I don't get why Percy hangs out with that guy. He's so cold."

"He can't be that bad," said Hermione. "And it's because he and Zaiden are friends with Percy that I invited them."

"They showed up just fine, but where was Percy?" Harry asked. "He promised to show up."

"Maybe he forgot the time?" Ron offered. He received doubtful stares.

Hermione spoke up with an idea. "Here's something. Let's go talk to Marcus. They're roommates, he should be able to tell us something. Percy might even be there."

Harry's eyebrows knitted together. "We can't get into the Hufflepuff dorms though..."

"I'm sure we can chase down one of his roommates," Ron said. "Who else is there?"

"Valador Smith, Calum Oritz, Marcus Ingram, and Zaiden Dockery," Hermione supplied quickly.

"Blimey, Hermione! You keeping tabs on him or something?"

Hermione flushed. "Of course not, Ron. I'd know where he'd gone otherwise, wouldn't I?"

Harry stood up, brushing off his robes. "Right then. Let's go see who we can find."

"Check the library first. We can probably find Calum there," said Hermione. Both boys turned to look at her with obvious surprise. She raised her hands in defence. "What? I'm always at the library, of course I'd know who frequents."

As the Golden Trio left, Ron muttered to Harry, "She'd be a bloody scary stalker."

He promptly received a smack to the back of his head. "I can hear you."

Upon arriving at the library, they quickly discovered she was right. Obscured by the piles of paper around him was the one and only Calum Oritz, scribbling furiously on a scrap of parchment.

"Hi, Calum!" Hermione greeted him. Calum jumped and was quick to cover his writing with another scrap of parchment. "What're you doing?"

"W-writing..." he stuttered out.

"Nice. I have a brief question. Do you know where Marcus is? Or Percy?"

"Uh... I don't know about Percy. I haven't seen him... since... ah, yesterday? B-but Marcus was going to the s-seventh floor. There were ah, a few people with him."

Hermione smiled brightly at him. "Thanks, Calum. Good luck with your writing!" The boy in question flushed and lowered his head, watching as the three left.

"What's up with that stutter?" Ron asked.

"He's got bad anxiety," said Hermione.

Ron turned to her. "Seriously, what don't you know?"

"I've talked to him a couple of times, okay? His writing is actually really good."

Ron rolled his eyes. "Right, right."

"Hey," Harry interrupted. "What's on the seventh floor that Marcus would go there for?"