𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐈𝐑𝐋 𝐖𝐇𝐎 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐏𝐏𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐑

the one with the slytherin study group

“No tree can grow to
heaven unless it's roots
reach down to hell.”

•

THE NEXT DAY, after classes were over, and we were back at our respective Common Room, I sat next to Hermione next to the fireplace, interrupting her homework.

"Why are you staring at me?" she asked, looking up from her ancient runes homework. "Don't you have homework to do?"

"I'm done with them," I said. "I need to talk—"

"How are you done with them?" she asked, positively exasperated. "There's so much!"

"I'm not a prefect, Hermione," I smiled. "I don't play quidditch. I have all the time in the world."

She sighed, very frustrated with her hoarding duties. "Nevermind, then."

"I can help you finish—"

"No," she exclaimed. "How'd I learn then? Not everyone is. . . gifted, like you."

I laughed a little, shaking my head. "Alright then. I'll let you suffer alone."

"Hey," I heard Ron said. Harry was right behind with him, looking a little disheveled and still in his, a little wet from the rain outside. He was banned. Ron wasn't. So he went out to help Ron. We always found loopholes in the rules. "You called us?"

Fred and George too appeared in a flurry of noise and cheers. They are as showy as it can get.

"Yes," I said. "I need to tell you all something." I quickly looked around the thinning population of the common room as I let them sit down around me. I looked at the flickering flames for a second and turned to everyone.

"I'd like to start by apologizing,"I said. "I've been hanging out either alone or with Draco most of the time since we've returned. And it wasn't deliberate."

"Well," Ron made this weird face an shrugged.

"No, I'm serious," I said. "It wasn't deliberate. I was a little lost all this time. With Umbridge and her stupid decrees and all the things happening around, I didn't know what to do. So I kept to myself, and let it eat me from within," I sighed. "I know how much it sucks to be able to help or so anything in times like these," I said to Harry. "I didn't know how to feel or do when I came back here this year. In Little Hangelton," I sucked in a breath as did everyone, probably because I never truly spoke of that event, "I saw Voldemort return. And the fact that he knows I'm still alive and here in Hogwarts, puts a Target on my back as well as everyone's. He probably knows who I am by now. When he," my breathing was uneven. I did a mental tally of all the Potions I was supposed to take and checked them off. "When he tortured me, the only thing I could do then is protect myself and Harry. I realized through that, that even though he wanted to kill Harry, he did not want to kill me."

"Why?" Ron asked, confused.

"Because she's powerful, Ronald," Hermione said. "She's the only known strecromancer. And let alone all the things she knows, all the predictions and all the magic we haven't even be taught yet."

"Yes," I said. "And to keep you all, my friends, from the details of what's to happen, is an insult to not just us, but the whole institution. It's wrong. And bad things are going to happen."

"It's okay, Sky," Fred said, putting a hand across my shoulder. "It's completely alright."

"Yeah," George piped in. "I understand that Malfoy used to be a git before, but none of us can deny he's changed vastly since you came to Hogwarts."