Bound By Blood (Muggle Meets Magic #2)

SEVENTEEN - A Christmas Concoction

The rest of the week passed quickly after that, and Callie and I didn't speak. I made excuses to go to bed early each night, not feeling up to talking, and kept my head down in classes.

On Thursday evening, I had my first meeting with the Potions Club, and it was... about as unpleasant as expected. We met in the cold, dingy dungeons on Thursday evening, where the group were busy brewing an Angel's Trumpet Draught. They kept sneering about how I couldn't even finish the Invisibility Potion and refused to let me help, so I had to watch from the sidelines with the tiny, first year Gryffindor who was trying to put on a brave face. Clearly, she was an enamored by potions as I was, because despite the Slytherin's remarks, she was scribbling notes as fast as she could in a small leather journal while observing them.

Eleanor was there too, but she barely acknowledged me unless it was to snigger along with her peers, and I was starting to think that I'd imagined our whole friendship at the end of last year. I couldn't help but feel a twinge of sadness at her cold demeanor. Why did it feel like I was losing all my friends this year?

As my head hit the pillow that evening, hours later after I'd returned to the Common Room, I couldn't help thinking that for once, I was excited to be going home to my parents. I needed a break from everyone. And besides, my parents knew Callie—much better than Veronica or Will, and I'd have someone to confide in who would understand.

I hadn't realized I was yearning for my parents so much until I finally drifted off to sleep. It felt like only a few minutes had passed, when a peculiar twisting sound jolted me from sleep.

I looked around in the dark, trying to place the source of the noise, but I couldn't see. So I reached for my wand—

"Lumos."

The room brightened, but there was nobody there. I frowned and continued looking, until Veronica grumbled from the bed beside me to put the light out and go to sleep, so I obliged.

I couldn't shake the feeling that I was being watched, and lay there with my eyes open for a long time before darkness finally took over.

The last Friday before Christmas Break finally came, and everyone was in a merry mood as we ventured from class to class. I'd been halfway from History of Magic to Transfiguration when Albus came racing down the corridor towards me.

"Aly!" he called, and people turned their heads curiously, wondering what the famous troublemaking Potter wanted with the famous fake muggle. I stepped out of the crowd and moved into a less crowded alcove to talk to him.

"What is it?" I asked, frowning, and he folded his arms.

"Did you take my invisibility cloak?"

"What? Of course not!" I replied firmly. "Don't tell me it's missing—"

"I can't find it anywhere," he confessed. "And Dad told me he had you sneak out on an errand for him the other day. By the way, I don't know what you and my dad are up to, but I would have thought you'd at least have told me about it—"

"You two!" a Slytherin prefect called, eyeing us gossiping in the alcove and sneering. "Keep moving to class!"

I turned back to Albus hurriedly.

"I swear, I didn't take anything. Are you sure you didn't just... lose it?"

I mean, it was invisible. Surely it was easy to lose.

"I always keep it in the bottom of my bag," he insisted, throwing a sidelong sneer back at the prefect. "This is bad, Aly—if I can't find it—"

"I said move!" the prefect snapped, coming up to stand beside us now and separating us with his hands. He steered us back into the crowd and sent us stumbling in opposite directions. "Ten points from Gryffindor and Ravenclaw for ignoring my orders the first time."