Amanda's POV
I had been alone when the owl had come for me. I had been in the common room, late at night. For some reason my mind had kept me awoke by reminding me of all the bad things in my mind. A small peck on the window had gotten me out of my thoughts and made me get up to se what was going on. The owl had been unknown and it had taken me only a few seconds to realize where the owl must have come from. The messenger.
Kitty!
I am incredibly happy to find out that you have not told Potter Jr. about the previous note. That means that I have a new plaything for me to use whenever I need something. Although, I am not entirely certain of your obedience yet. I want proof. Therefor your first assignment will be to find a bottle in your dear professor Slughorn's office. The bottle will hold a few black hairs. I want you to take the bottle and then send it to me with my owl who will await you in the owlery. Please note that I am not a patient person and I will not wait for more than a week. If I do not receive the bottle I will know that you are not obedient, and therefor you will have to be punished. Tick, tock!
M
After reading the note I was once more filled with dreadful thoughts. Even though I tried to push away all of my feelings and keep repeating that I would just do what he said, I couldn't. The fright of me getting caught, or not being able to send the bottle in time worried me. That was why I decided that it would be best not to wait with doing the assignment. As I went to bed that night I had already decided that I would find the bottle the next day. The sooner I got it over with, the sooner the worry would disappear.
•••
James must've noticed how much I wanted the potions lesson to end, but he didn't mention it. I knew that it wouldn't be easy to slip past Slughorn and get into his office. It was not impossible though. I knew that he liked to leave the classroom after the lesson. The door leading to the office was in the classroom. Therefor I knew exactly when to go looking for the bottle. To be honest, the hardest part would probably be getting past James' eyes. I was quite sure how to do so though. It wasn't as if I was a bad liar.
When James and I finally finished our potion I was almost ecstatic that other people also seemed to be finishing up. It meant that the class was almost finished, and everyone would leave. The only thing I was not happy about was the fact that I still had no idea to how I would be able to get past James. I hadn't come up with a single lie that I could tell him. I was running out of time.
"Hi there, Amanda", a voice suddenly broke me out of my thoughts. I was standing by one of the shelves, putting back ingredients. I had frozen in front of the shelf, a jar of frog slime in my hand. Peter Finnigan had noticed my absent mind and was smirking at me.
"What?", I asked with a confused frown on my face. I had no idea if he wanted anything, or if he had asked anything before I had come out of my mind.
"I wonder where your thoughts where", he said suggestively. I rolled my eyes at him and put away the jar in my hand.
"Just don't." I was about to leave him standing there when a sudden thought crossed my mind. I might have had the perfect solution to my problems right in front of me. A smile started to shine on my lips as I crossed my arms over my chest.
"Hey, could you do me a favor?", I asked hopefully while seeing how Peter tilted on his head, still smirking from ear to ear.
"This sounds very interesting. Do tell, what do you want me to do? Although, I can't promise that I will do anything for free", Peter told me. I quickly looked towards James and saw that he was writing something down on a piece of parchment. I turned back to Peter and hoped that he wouldn't overanalyze my words.
"Could you just distract James after class. I need to talk to someone without James knowing. I'm preparing a surprise, which is kind of hard if James is there." My lie was pretty good. No one would wonder what I was doing after class, especially not Peter. I would have a reason to be gone if someone noticed that the bottle was gone.
"I don't know if I'll do it for free but sure, I could do it", Peter kind of agreed. I knew that it was enough though. All I needed to do was convince him to a reasonable price.
"What do you want?", I asked him hurriedly. We couldn't really spend much more time there. James would probably start to wonder why it took so much time to just put back one jar. As I glanced back towards the table, he was still writing.
"I want you to fix me up with your friend", he told me and his face was suddenly a bit more serious. I found it a bit interesting that he didn't say what friend, nor did he tell me any other specifics. I was feeling too stressed to ask any of those questions.
"Sure!", I simply agreed and turned around to walk back to my table. As I sat down James looked up and quickly put away the parchment he had been writing on. I looked at him questioningly but he pretended that he couldn't see it and acted as if everything was normal.
"And that wasn't weird at all", I commented as I gave him a slight glare. He just shrugged is shoulders and turned towards something behind me. I turned my head to see what it was. Peter.
"You ready to leave, Potter? I need to talk to you about something", he told James with his hands casually crossed over his chest. I smiled at him, James not being able to see it. I would figure out what James was hiding later. Peter was doing his part in our agreement and I was grateful.
People had started to leave the classroom and James did the same. I followed suit, even though I had no plans of leaving. James turned towards me and pecked me on the cheek as a goodbye. I picked up my things and saw that Slughorn had already left the classroom. Actually, there were not many people left. Everyone was on their way out. I picked up my bag and saw how the last student left the room. Without hesitation I headed towards the door that led to Slughorn's office. I pulled down the door handle as I wanted to open the door. It was locked.
"Shit", I silently cursed as I turned around. Slughorn actually had a desk in the classroom, the first place where I could imagine him having a key to the office. I went to it immediately and searched through the desk. The key was there. Under a inch of parchment and at the back of one of the drawers. Without wasting any time I took the key and went back to the office door.
I hadn't really understood the challenge of finding the bottle, at least not until I came inside his office. The walls were covered in shelves with bottles everywhere. I pulled a hand through my hair and sighed.
"Seriously?", I voiced my annoyance. Still, I headed towards one of the shelves to start my search. I couldn't waste any time, Slughorn could come back at any time. Luckily for me, the shelves weren't too high. I could see the bottles at the top without any problems.
I searched through the shelves. Bottle after bottle. Some of the bottles were marked, others weren't. I saw a few bottles were I simply didn't want to know what was in them, others were I just felt sick seeing the things.
It was at the end of one of the shelves that I found what I was looking for. At the bottom of the shelf, in the back corner there was a small bottle with black hair in it. I didn't waste time thinking as I grabbed it and put it in my bag. Then I ran out the office, locked the door and left the key where I had found it. As soon as I was done with that I ran to the classroom door and left. In the corridor I walked, although I kept a faster pace than usual.
My heart was beating in my chest and I was feeling a bit paranoid as I hurried towards the Slytherin common room. I almost expected someone to jump out and bust me. No one did. I met Allison and Christina in the common room and joined them as we later on walked towards the Great Hall. By then I had left my bag in our room. I pretended that nothing had happened, the way I was supposed to. On the inside I was a bit of a mess though. This didn't get any better at dinner when McGonagall announced that something had been stolen from one of the teachers. The only positive thought in my head was that I was at least protecting people by my actions.