The Last Riddle

9. Fly by

The rest of the Christmas holiday I choose to spend alone in the Slytherin common room. I would have preferred to spend time in the library however I noticed that Harry and Ron were spending an alarming amount of time in there which was very out of character for them both. They had taken my safe place and were ripping it apart book by book. They were clearly searching for something and I'm sure I could have helped them if they had bothered to ask. I know that library better than anyone. Even the restricted section wasn't out of bounds to me. Nothing was. Not if you knew the right spells anyway.

Instead I spent my time alone in the common room reading and studying, trying to get ahead of my year by an even larger gap. One Saturday mid break I was sat alone in a hallway on one of the benches my head in a book about powerful witches in history when I noticed a shadow standing over me. Looking up I could see the unmistakable hooked nose of Professor Snape. "Professor" I cleared my throat and sat up straight "is everything okay?" It was never a good sign if Snape was seeking you out.

My head of year looked down at me without emotion "you seem to spend a lot of time alone Miss Potter."

I furrow my brows "I'm sorry?"

Snape tuts at me "I'm not making a complaint girl. Merely an observation. I had thought you'd be spending time with your brother."

I roll my eyes and place my book down beside me "no I'm not. Not since Christmas Day when he lied to me about receiving a gift that was our fathers from Dumbledore."

Snape looks at me "and was you honest with your brother about the gift you received that was your mother's?"

I gasp and look at the man standing in front of me "how do you know about that?"

Snape shifts and sighs "who on earth else did you think S.S was you idiotic child? You don't have many family members nor friends surely you could have worked that one out alone?"

Now that he says it, that does make a lot of sense. What doesn't make sense though is why on earth Snape has anything of my mother's to begin with.
"Why did you have it?"

Snape stares off into the distance and frowns "your mother and I knew each other at school. We stayed in touch after we finished and even though you could say the company we kept wasn't the best I had promised to stick by your mother's side and that I did."

Without another word Snape turns on the spot and walks away from me. I was left sitting in his words. Confusion doesn't even sum up how I feel right now. Snape drops an emotional bomb like that and then just walks off? He is a very, very, very strange man.

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Christmas break ends and the months fly by without anything too interesting happening. We continue to train for Quidditch and we play against both Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. We beat them both thanks to me catching the snitch, Ravenclaw was a fun game and nobody played too dirty, Hufflepuff was an easy game with all the players playing very sportsmanly. Cedric was the Hufflepuff seeker and it was fun playing against him, he would tease me midair and it was the most fun I had playing the sport in a long time. Soon the end of year was approaching and I spent my time preparing for my end of year exams. Poppy, Blaise and I would take turns quizzing each other and soon we became a close group of friends.

Of course Blaise still likes to occasionally pretend as if he believes himself to be better than Poppy but I can see that he has a big soft spot for my female best friend and is just masking it.

A week before the final year exams I am sat in the common room with Blaise my legs thrown over his lap and my back laying on the hard leather sofa. I have a book resting over my face and I'm trying to get a small nap in. Soon I hear yells and people all start talking at once. I sit up curious and look at Blaise for an explanation but the boy seems to be just as confused as I am. Draco comes over to me and stand before me with his arms crossed.