The Unknown: A Harry Potter Story

Chapter 16: New Friends

As mid-December arrived and Christmas drew nearer, the atmosphere of the castle started to change. By the time the roaring fires were started in the Gryffindor common room and the Great hall most of the students couldn't wait for Christmas break to start. Most rooms in Hogwarts were kept nice and toasty to keep the students warm, but that also made leaving a room harder, as the corridors became icy. The worst place of all was Professor Snape's potions class in the dungeons, where the freezing temperatures in the room were only rivaled by the coldness of Snape's glare at anyone who complained about the temperature.

Just breathing in the room let out a mist, as the students huddled close to their warm cauldrons. During class, Jason didn't seem to notice the cold, nor the constant rambling from his current partner Edgar Allen, as he sat lost in thought. Ever since the incident with the troll, he still hadn't managed to talk with Silas or Frederick, and now on top of his worries about them, he now had to deal with the mystery of what was hidden in the third-floor corridor.

Jason had gotten some glimpses of Silas here and there, but Silas would go the other way whenever they saw each other. Even as they were currently in potions class together, Silas purposely kept his back to Jason and would run out the door as soon as class was over. Jason wasn't sure if things had changed between them after they saved each other's lives on Halloween, but Silas was definitely different since then. He still hung out with Malfoy and his crew, but he didn't join them in bullying students anymore. Also, Malfoy's crew had stopped treating Frederick as badly, they still bullied him, but it didn't devolve into beatings anymore and they only made fun of him a little more than they did the average first-year student now.

This development had changed Fredericks' time at Hogwarts for the better. He still didn't seem to have many friends, but he did find a close friend in a first-year Hufflepuff student named Harper Jüunge. Jason knew Harper from Herbology and a few other classes, Harper is an extremely smart boy, but very lazy so not many people realize it. He's more likely to be found napping or goofing off than taking notes in class, but that hasn't stopped him from receiving almost perfect scores on all the assessments they took.

Harper and Frederick seemed to have become friends out of nowhere, as one day he just appeared at the Ravenclaw table during dinner, and from that day on Frederick and him always ate together. Jason had meant to approach them a few times to talk with Frederick but always felt like he would be intruding and decided against it. In addition to Harper, Frederick also seemed to talk with his fellow Ravenclaw's more, as they began to notice that Malfoy had backed off on bullying him.

Jason was still lost in thought when he heard Malfoy's distinctive laugh. Malfoy was laughing at his own joke as he made fun of the students who wouldn't be going home for Christmas, but Jason was glad for Malfoy's laugh as it stopped him from nearly adding too much-powdered spine of lionfish to his potion. Malfoy went on making fun of the students that wouldn't be returning home for Christmas as if it was the worst thing in the world, but Jason was actually quite excited about spending Christmas at Hogwarts this year. Christmas at the Fortescue household tended to just be Grandpa Richard and Jason, as his parents normally would take his sister Jessy on a trip and leave Jason at home. This year, Grandpa Richard wouldn't even have been there, so the idea of spending Christmas at Hogwarts was appealing. Jason wouldn't be alone, Harry was staying because he had no desire to go back to his Aunt and Uncles for Christmas, and the Weasley's were staying because their parents were going away to visit one of his older brothers.

As soon as potions was over Jason moved to talk to Silas, but he was out of the door before Jason could reach him. With a sigh, Jason went over to leave class with Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Leaving the dungeons they found themselves trapped by a large fir tree with enormous feet sticking out at the bottom.