Read My Mind

Keep Your Heads Down

"I don't think it's a good idea." Ria said to Sirius.

"You are too cautious." Sirius said.

"Well, that happened to be my middle name."

"Wait, really?"

Ria could be very convincing when she tries, her lying face is impeccable.

"Yeah, Gloria Cautia Lectus, after our family motto." Then she burst out laughing, "No, I'm joking. I'm not telling you my middle name." Her training from her Japanese Sensei made her extra careful with information such as her name, birth date and birth hour.

"Okay fine. But I'm still going."

Ria knew one can not convince Sirius Black. That's a man who was willing to hide in caves and feed on rats just for his godson, and Ria admired that. She can be a Legilimens all she wants and read people's mind, but she doesn't choose to try to change anyone's way of thinking. Afterall, it's quite impossible anyway.

Sirius turned into a gigantic black dog and escorted Harry to King Station.

"Malfoy is looking at you." Ria whispered. "They are looking at me as well."

"Mr. Malfoy," She walked up to them and started chatting, but Lucius Malfoy was not easily distracted.

"Miss Lectus, I see you have some, intriguing company." He commented, giving her a cold glare.

"Oh, we just ran into each other. My father always taught me to be friendly as much as I can, even to those we might not necessarily...want to." She said.

"Well, perhaps. Celatus was certainly known for being very--polite." He stretched his voice again.

Reading Lucius Malfoy's mind was like walking into a room with thousands of mirrors, each decorated with diamonds and reflecting his platinum peacock tail. Ria actually wondered how long did it take him everyday to groom his hair to make it so shining and healthy, with no split ends whatsoever. Is there some sort of special potion?

Their train ride was rather peaceful. Ria chugged down a bottle of Custodia and fell asleep, missing everyone's secret judgements behind Harry's back. However, they were not particularly discreet, and by the time they have arrived at the castle, all of them already knew how the Daily Prophecy had succeeded in portraying Harry Potter as an utterly idioitic attention-seeker.

The sorting ceremony was just as usual, and then everyone gasped in their head when that Umbridge woman decided to interrupt Dumbledore and presented her long, purposefully confusing, and perfectly bureaucratic speech.

"It means, the Magic Ministry is trying to infiltrate Hogwarts." Hermione said, later that night when they all gathered together.

"Worse." Ria said, "She thought, she and Fudge believed that Dumbledore wanted to take over, and he would be using students in Hogwarts as his personal force."

"Well how ridiculous is that?" Ron groaned.

"Well, people believe in all kinds of things, don't they? I would really suggest we keep our heads down for a little bit." Ria suggested, expecting to see Harry's confusing face.

"Keep our heads down? Say nothing? Then who's going to warn them that Voldemort is back? How are we supposed to be prepared?"

"Well, you did, didn't you. It's just nobody believed you."

"Are you siding with them now?" Harry accused.

"No, I'm sorry, Harry, you know I trusted you. It's just, people are weird creatures, they believe what they choose to believe, and what they want to believe.Telling them that they are wrong is not necessarily the most effective way to change that." Ria said.

"Well, then what better things do you suggest we do?"

"I don't know." Ria felt that she had done something wrong. The worst thing one could tell a Gryffindor is to not do anything.

But she was right.

"I did not come to tell you 'I told you so'." She had heard Harry's thought and was slightly offended.

"Here," she dropped a small bottle on the table, making a noise that caused Madam Pince to look at them. Hermione quickly turned around to enchant their surroundings.

"Special ointment." She suggested Harry rubbed it on his wound. But he looked at her, upset. He didn't tell anyone about what happened in Umbridge's office, and now Ria made everyone know.

"What happened to your integrity of a Legilimens huh? Since when did you start meddling?" Harry felt a guilty sense of relief lashing out venoms.

Ria didn't say anything. She felt frustrated. She could tell that Umbridge came here with a mission of torturing Harry, destroying him, whether his reputation of him as a person, so that no one would find his words plausible. And Harry on the other hand, is as stubborn as a mule, if not more, which is nothing to be blamed for--that's where he had gotten his strength, courage, and determination.

"I just wanted to help." She left, leaving those words.

Harry couldn't tell whether Ria had been avoiding them recently, or was it just because everyone got busier. She stopped coming to the library with them, instead she would just rush back to the Slytherin commons. Perhaps it's for the best, Harry thought, otherwise she would be telling him not to write to Sirius so that he could stay safely hidden, or to write to Sirius like Hermione had said.

"Maybe we should go ask Ria, she always knows what's going on with the tests." Ron suggested, as they were struggling with their homework.

"No." Harry fastly refused, and both Ron and Hermione turned to look at her.

"I mean, Harry, I don't think she still minds. Plus, it would be helpful if she could give us a few tips on how to practice." Hermione always likes a person who shares her intellectual curiosity and is into studying.

Later that night, when Sirius appeared in the Gryffindor common's fireplace, a third person had suggested he talk to Ria in one night.

"Have you been talking to Ria?" Sirius asked.

"No." Harry's voice sounded dry.

"You should probably go talk to her. She would know why Umbridge is here."

"Well it's not like she's going to tell us anything, is she? She's different, she's a Slytherin."

Sirius was silent for a moment, Harry thought he might be mad in hearing him saying something like this about his friend.

"Be careful Harry, it is one thing to have disagreement with your friends. It is a completely different thing to be questioning their nature. I'm not saying you shouldn't be careful and selective in choosing your friends," Sirius paused, and they both thought of Harry's parents. "Just, be careful, will you?"

Harry wasn't quite sure whether Siriut meant to be careful about his own situation, or be careful about his friends, or be careful about the way he was treating his friend.