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↯ chapter fourteen
➾ watch your back
ROSALYN DARTED HER gaze to the two Quidditch captains and their teams, she and Hermione were outside in courtyard accompanied by Ron when Oliver Wood noticed his opponent.
"Where do you think you're going, Flint?" Oliver approached the courtyard, Rosalyn cocked her head. "Quidditch practice." Flint answered like it was obvious.
"I booked the pitch for Gryffindor today." Oliver exclaimed, coming up with face-to-face with the Slytherin captain.
"Easy, Wood." Flint spoke, raising his hand with a roll parchment letter, passing it to Oliver. "I've got a note."
"Uh-oh, I smelled trouble." Ron said worried, closing his book. They stood up from the bench and made their way towards the teams.
"I, professor Severus Snape, do hereby give the Slytherin team permission to practice today, owing to the need to train their new seeker." Oliver read the note, Rosalyn frowned at the last sentence. "You've got a new seeker? Who?" Oliver asked Flint.
Flint stepped aside to reveal Draco Malfoy, Harry stepped forward. "Malfoy?"
"That's right." Draco gleamed. "And that's not all that's new this year." Rosalyn glanced down at the broomsticks seeing the number attached to the bottom. "Those are Nimbus 2001s? How did you get those?"
"A gift from Draco's father." Flint tells them, Rosalyn scoffed beneath her breath, it was Draco's father's money being put into use, along with getting a spot on the team.
"You see, Weasley unlike some, my father can afford the best." Draco declared, glaring at the redhead. Rosalyn glared right back at him.
"At least no one on the Gryffindor team had to buy their way in." Hermione snarled, defending her House. "They got in on pure-talent."
Draco seethe in his own skin, marching towards the Gryffindor. "No one asked your opinion. You filthy little mudblood." Rosalyn gaped at his sudden words, everyone around seemed very shocked by his words, even some Slytherin's.
"You'll pay for that one. Malfoy." Ron spoke, bringing out his wand. "Eat slugs!" The spell was meant to work, only that his wand was broke and it reflected off Draco onto the one who cast it.
Ron flew back, the Gryffindor's ran over to the fallen boy. Rosalyn scrunched at his face, he looked to be sick. "You okay, Ron?" Hermione asked, kneeling down by his side. The boy turned, puffed cheeks shallowed and he hurled up a slug. "Ooh!" They groaned at the sight.
A camera snapped a photo. Rosalyn turned to see the same child from before. "What's this for exactly?" She asked the young first year. Colin looked up at her, raising the camera to snap a photo of her face. "Were you seriously—" Rosalyn began when Oliver reached out, putting the camera down.
"Get out of the way." Harry said with Hermione helping him pick Ron off the ground. "Let's take him to Hagrid's." Hermione nodded and Ron threw up again. "He'll know what to do."
Rosalyn ran over to the bench, collecting Hermione's and Ron's belongings before following her friends, slowly making her way out the courtyard when she turned around to the new Seeker.
"Draco." Rosalyn called out, and both teams turned, curious of what she would say. "This isn't over, watch your back." Rosalyn dark brown eyes burned into his, she turned away, immediately following after her friends.
Draco visibly gulped, hating the chills that ran up his arm from his cousin's warning. "If anyone could mess him up, it's her." Fred Weasley commented walking down the courtyard with the Gryffindor team.
Oliver chuckled. "I don't doubt that."
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"This calls for a specialist's equipment." Hagrid walked inside his hut with a large empty bucket, passing it to Ron before he sat down across from them. "Nothing to do but wait till it stops, I'm afraid." Ron hunched forward, hurling up a slug.
"Better out than in." Hagrid comments. "Who was Ron trying to curse, anyway?"
"Malfoy." Harry answered, glancing at Hermione for a moment. "He called Hermione... Well, i don't know exactly what it means."
Hermione rose from the seat, crossed arms over her chest. Rosalyn kept her hands down on her lap, watching the girl closely. "He called me a mudblood."
Hagrid gasped in shocked. "He did not?"
"What's a mudblood?" Harry asked, looking between them. Hermione spun right around, tears burning her vision. "It means dirty blood, mudblood's a really foul name for someone who is muggle-born. Someone with non-magic parents, someone like me. It's not a term one usually hears in civilized conversations."
"See, the thing is, Harry, there's some wizards like the Malfoy family, who think they're better than everyone else because they're what people call pure-blood." Hagrid explained gently.
"That's horrible." Harry exclaimed, glancing at Hermione, now understanding why she was so upset. Ron tossed another another slug, Rosalyn looked at him, feeling some-what bad.
"It's disgusting." Ron says, shivering.
"And it's codswallop to boot, dirty blood." Hagrid scoffed. "Why, there isn't a wizard alive today that's not half-blood or less. More to the point, they've yet to think of a spell that our Hermione can't do."
Rosalyn glanced at the tear-eye girl, nodding her head at his words. Hagrid looked at the girl, stretching out his hand. "Come here." Hermione slides her hand between his hands. "Don't you think on it, Hermione. Don't you think on it for one minute."
Her gaze shifted down then up. "Hey?" Hagrid slowly smiled. Hermione met his gaze and smiled right back.
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Rosalyn made a quick stop to the library right after her classes, what Draco said about Hermione honestly made her angry, she for one would never speak to someone like that basic of their parents.
After she left, she had spotted Harry down the hallway, touching the walls with his ear pressed against it. "Harry, are you okay?"
Harry snapped from his daze and turned to face the girl. "Yo—you don't hear that voice?"
Rosalyn shook her head. "Voice?"
Hermione and Ron walked together, towards Rosalyn and Harry at the end of the hallway. "Hear what?" Ron asked upon hearing his words, glancing around the castle.
"That voice." Harry declared.
"Voice? What voice?" Hermione questioned, furrowed eyebrows, looking between them.
"I heard it first in Lockhart's office and then again just—" Harry trailed off, listening closely to the voice echoing through his head like a message going though a tunnel. "It's moving. I think it's going to kill."
Ron's eyes widen. "Kill?" Harry took off running and quickly they ran behind him, following through every turn he took until Harry came to a halt, feeling the wet floor beneath his shoes. Rosalyn stared at the large windows and a trail of spider's crawling up the glass.
"Strange. I've never seen spiders act like that." Harry confesses.
"I don't like spiders." Ron mentions, Rosalyn side-glanced the redhead, darting her gaze to the wet floor, seeing the reflection of red words, finding it completely odd. "What's that?"
They glanced up at the blood-covered wall in horror. "The chamber of secrets has been opened enemies of the hair beware." Rosalyn read off the wall. "It's written in blood."
Rosalyn reread the words once more, then noticed a familiar looking animal hanging from the edge. Harry walked slowly forward, Rosalyn could feel Hermiones hands dragging her back.
"It's Flich's cat. It's Mrs. Norris." Harry confirmed. Rosalyn glanced back at the sudden sound of whispers and wet feet. At the other end appeared the Slytherin's. "Enemies of the heir, beware." Draco read, glancing at Hermione. "You'll be next, mudbloods."
"Quiet." Rosalyn snapped at him, Draco was taken back by surprise. "What's going on here?" Professor Flich pushed through Gryffindor's. "Go on, make way, make way."
Rosalyn looked at the man. "Potter. What are you..." And his gaze slowly turned up to the animal. "Mrs. Norris? You— murdered my cat."
Harry's eyes widen and shook his head. "No, no."
"I'll kill you." Flich says, glaring down at the boy, grabbing a fistful of Harry's robes. "I'll kill you!"
"Argus!" Dumbledore spoke through the threat, walking through the crowd, followed by Professor McGonagall, Professor Snape and Professor Lockhart and Professor Sprout. "Argus, I..." The beard man looked up at the words. "Everyone, will proceed to their dormitories immediately."
Rosalyn turned around when the voice of Dumbledore brought them to stop. "Everyone except— you four." Rosalyn exhaled deeply, glancing at Hermione, she was also worried.
"She's not dead, Argus." Dumbledore says, reassuring the man's worries about his cat. "She has been petrified."
"Ah! Thought so. So, unlucky I wasn't there." Lockhart said smiling at the headmaster. "I know exactly the counter-curse that could've spared her."
Dumbledore tilted his head. "But how she's been petrified I cannot say."
"Ask him." Flich pointed down to Harry. "It's him, that's done it. You saw what he wrote on the wall." Harry turned to Dumbledore, shaking his head. "It's not true, sir. I swear. I never touched Mrs. Norris."
"Rubbish!"
"If I might, headmaster?" Professor Snape spoke up gently. "Perhaps Potter and his friends were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time." The four children glanced at one another, confused by the sudden change.
"However—" Professor Snape slowly made his way to them. "The circumstances are suspicious. I, for one don't recall seeing Potter at dinner."
"I'm afraid that's my doing, Severus." Lockhart interrupted. "You see, Harry was helping me answer my fan mail."
"That's why Ron and I went looking for him, professor." Hermione explained, peering up. "We'd just found him when he said—" the girl paused glancing at Harry.
"Yes. Miss Granger?" Professor Snape waited for her answer. Rosalyn mouth part. "When he said he wasn't hungry," Snape turned to her. "We were just heading back to the common room when we found Mrs. Norris."
Rosalyn didn't bat an eye when Snape raised his brow at her, she had been really good at lying, especially after her family's cat went missing, though Tonks saw right through her and didn't say a word to her parents.
"Innocent until proven guilty, Severus." Dumbledore said to the man.
"My cat has been petrified." Flich exclaimed. "I want to see some punishment!"
"We will be able to cure her, Argus." Dumbledore declared softly. "As I understand it, madame Sprout has a very healthy growth of Mandrake. When matured, a potion will be made, which will revive Mrs. Norris. And in the meantime... I strongly recommend caution, to all."
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