Certain Dark Things || Book Two

xlii. in the heart of the earth

Harriet and Elara stood huddled in the shadow of Verna the Vexing, a rather foreboding statue guarding the corridor to the upper dungeons where the Hufflepuffs dwelt. They waited and watched students arrive in the entrance hall.

"Do you see him?" Elara whispered.

"No," Harriet replied, but she could see very little in the dim lighting, a blizzard rallying itself out beyond the bounds of the lake, making the grounds and the steps leading into the castle darker than usual. Everyone coming inside had their cloaks wrapped tight and their hoods drawn high.

Elara sighed. "We might as well get it over with. We can't hide forever."

Harriet thought she'd love to hide forever and disagreed with Elara, because if she had to spend another minute in the dungeons prepping potions ingredients or cleaning the cupboard or sitting very quietly staring at the wall, she might just pickle herself in a large jar to get away. "You know he's just waiting to swoop in like a—a vampire bat! Ready to suck the life and—and fun out of everything he can."

"You're being dramatic."

"'Course I'm being dramatic, but it doesn't make it any less true."

Elara pulled a face that Harriet chose to ignore, instead swiping her overlong fringe from her eyes as she peered into the higher hall. "I think...that's her."

"Do you see Snape?"

"Isn't that him there, with Professor McGonagall?"

The back of that black cloak had to be Snape, because Professor Slytherin didn't loom quite so much, and the pair of brawling Gryffindors he and McGonagall had cornered looked suitably cowed.

"Wait here."

Elara stepped out from behind Verna the Vexing and darted forward, maneuvering through the cold, tired crowd with relative ease. Harriet saw Hermione jump when Elara's hand suddenly grabbed her by the wrist, but she relented to the other witch's insistent tugging, and they retreated from the entrance hall not a moment too soon. Snape turned from McGonagall and the Gryffindors, his dark eyes sweeping the area. He scowled.

"Harriet!" Hermione exclaimed, and they embraced, Harriet getting a face full of snow-dampened hair, Hermione wincing when she felt Livi's coils hidden under her cloak. "What happened? Did you two finish our, erm, project? Was it successful? What did you learn—?"

"Not here," Elara interjected, her gray eyes flicking from Snape to the other professors and ears who might be listening in. "Come on, let's go to Myrtle's."

"Myrtle's? But what about dinner—."

Harriet let Elara explain why they'd be better off going hungry for the night if it meant avoiding the staff, because not only Snape had been keen on assigning detentions to students over the break. Ron Weasley actually swore at Professor Sprout when he got in trouble for throwing snowballs at her Giddy Gladiolas, and apparently got a letter sent home to his mum. Elara theorized the professors meant to keep them from wandering off and thus close at hand if anything went amiss, and Harriet was inclined to agree with her, especially after what she heard Slytherin say in the staffroom. Still, she wished the holidays hadn't been so dreadfully boring.

They found the loo as it always was; cold, wet, poorly lit and smelling damp and musty. Harriet thought they spent far too much time in there, but finding a private place for conversation at Hogwarts could prove challenging. Using Harriet's trunk had its limitations, what with Pansy always interfering and Elara's hatred for tight, confined spaces. Longbottom was mucking about, sticking his nose in everyone else's business, and that made things even more difficult. So, the trio tromped once more into Myrtle's loo, for what Harriet hoped was the last time.