When Arlene entered the Great Hall, she was surprised to see Theo and Blaise sitting with Crabe, Goyle and Pansy, three of the most stereotypical Slytherins Arlene has ever seen.
She threw a quick discrete glance at the Gryffindor table from the corner of her eye and saw Hermione staring at her.
Trying hard not to blush, Arlene ran her fingers through her hair which she decided not to tie up that night, and made her way to were the boys were sitting.
"Arlene!" Pansy exclaimed once she saw her "You weren't there all day! And Madame Pomfrey won't let me in to see Draco, sit down."
Suddenly, the girl, who was surprisingly strong, pulled Arlene down beside her "How is he?"
Arlene bit her lip, remembering the previous conversation with Sage "I don't know, Madame Pomfrey asked me to leave when she was cleaning his wound."
If possible, Pansy looked even more worried "Was he is pain? Oh it's all that man's fault!"
Theo gave her a look "Draco was the one who insulted the Hippogriff."
"So you're saying that our safety codes should be that if a student zones out while a teacher is talking, it's totally their fault if they get hurt?" Pansy said, narrowing her eyes at him.
"He should have been listening." Theo argued.
Pansy glare even harder "Tell me, Theo," She said, her void dripping venom "if Professor Snape assigned us a potion that requires accuracy, and told us to stir it clockwise,
"But a student forgets and stirs it counterclockwise so it explodes in his face, would it be the student's fault for not listening or Professor Snape for assigning us such a dangerous potion?"
"Everything could be dangerous!" Theo argued.
"Then why don't you don't teach yourself the lambada on a greased platform over a pit full of knives? I mean, you could die but hey, everything could be dangerous!" Pansy exclaimed.
"Hippogriffs are XXX-" Theo started.
"Which mean competent wizard or witch should handle, but he's not a competent wizard, he was expelled from Hogwarts!" Pansy snapped.
"For a crime he didn't commit!" Theo snapped back.
"Both of you shut up!" Arlene hissed, already feeling a headache coming "Placing blame is not going to solve anything and Pansy, I'm sure Draco's fine, Madame Pomfrey has healed worse wounds."
"I hope you're right." Theo sighed.
"She better be." Pansy said, resting her head on her palm.
Arlene massaged her temples and moved the potatoes around in her plate "I'm going to the hospital wing," She announced, standing up as she swung her bag over her shoulder.
"Check on Draco while you're there!" Pansy called after her.
As soon as she left the Great Hall, her stomach growled, she hadn't eaten anything since breakfast, her head hurt, she kept worrying about both Malfoy and Hagrid, and worse of all, Hermione wasn't talking to her.
Speaking of the latter.
Arlene jumped up she felt something touch her leg, the orange cat she had seen in the pet shop earlier was purring, as it moved around her leg.
Crookshanks' owner appeared, Hermione's hair was bushier than ever and she was holding something in her hand.
"I'm sorry, he just ran at you," She mumbled, picking up the cat as sh sorry, e handed her the item in hand "you left your robes."
Arlene nodded, not sure what to say "Thank you."
It was silent for a moment "I should go." Hermione muttered as she turned around.
Figuring this was her last chance, Arlene's eyes widened "Hermione, wait!"
The girl opened her mouth to say something, but Arlene beat her to it "I know what you're going to say, Hermione, I promise I won't tell anyone, you can trust me."
Hermione bit her lip and a familiar expression covered her face, the same expression she had whenever she was thinking about something hard, like she was pondering whether to trust Arlene or not.
"Okay," Hermione decided "come on."
And then there they were again, sitting across each other on a random window seat, Hermione let Crookshanks go, he immediately went to Arlene and sate on her lap.
Arlene chuckled as she ran her hand over his bushy fur.
"I wanted to take extra classes," Hermione began to explain "so Professor McGonagall asked the ministry for a time turner, because there wasn't enough time for Arthimancy, Divination, Muggle studies, Care for magical creatures and Ancient runes-"
"You take Ancient Runes?" Arlene interrupted "Me too!"
Hermione frowned "But there are only two electives?"
Arlene shrugged "Yeah, everybody in my house told me Trelawney is a fraud, not a real seer, she was only hired because her ancestor is Cassandra Vablatsky, so I decided to take an extra subject so that if the class is as bad is as they say, I'll drop it and still all have the classes I need for Lexiuris"
Hermione looked interested "Lexiuris? That's a law school, right?"
Arlene nodded "The best there is, it's where my mum learned, hopefully so will I one day."
"Your mother's a lawyer?" Hermione, who wanted to learn more about wizarding judicial system, asked.
"Yeah, I want to be too, I don't think you noticed, but I'm very good at debate."
"I doubt it." She teased.
"I'm a Slytherin, being cunning is literally the only thing we do," Arlene said with a grin "well, that and making fun of Draco." She added as an after thought.
"How?"
Arlene smirked "Like for example, 'Potter!' has become the equivalent of 'thanks Obama' we say it every time something goes wrong."
Hermione burst out laughing "You guys don't like Draco that much, do you?"
"He makes us look bad." Arlene shrugged, turning to look outside the window, moving her hand to scratch the ginger cat behind its ear.
"You hang around him sometimes, though." She continued.
Arlene thought for a moment "He's like an annoying sibling," she decided "yes, you roast them, but they're fun to be around. Kind of like an anti hero."
Hermione was silent for a while
"What will you do if you can't become a lawyer?"
"An unspeakable," Arlene said without hesitation "it was my equivalent of being an astronaut as a child."
The other girl was about to say something when somebody yelled out "Hermione!"
Arlene turned to see the two boys make their way to them "Hermione," Harry said "we're going to see Hagrid, you coming?"
Hermione looked conflicted, she turned to her "I'll talk to you later?"
Arlene nodded, causing Hermione smile and give her a hug.
Caught by surprise, Arlene was thankful she didn't pass out and hugged Hermione back, who once they pulled away, then she noticed Crookshanks and went to hold him.
"No," Ron said "that cat has already almost killed Scabbers once."
Sensing a fight, Arlene interrupted "It's okay, I'll take care of him until you come back."
"Really?" Hermione said "Oh Arlene, thank you!"
She nodded smiled, once the three were out of sight, she turned to Crookshanks "Looks like it's just you me buddy."
Arlene waited, and waited, and waited, but Hermione didn't return for her cat, it must've been hours later when Percy Weasly found her.
"Arlene." He said, causing the girl who was half asleep to jump up.
"I'm awake, I'm awake!"
Percy tried to hide his smile "It after curfew, you fell asleep."
Arlene frowned and looked down to see Crookshanks still curled up and sleeping, Hermione didn't come.
"Go back to the dungeons, if I find you again, I'll give you a detention."
Nodding groggily, Arlene stood up and picked Crookshanks, who cuddled into her arms and purred even harder, but she didn't go to the Slytherin Dorm, she wasn't in the mood to deal with Pansy or to walk all the way down there.
Instead, she went to the Hufflepuff common room.
And almost immediately, she was faced with a problem.
Unlike the rest of the houses, Hufflepuffs didn't have riddles or passwords, to enter their common room, they have to knock to rhythm of Helga Hufflepuff.
Usually, Sage was the one who did the knock, and when she was alone, she'd wait for a Hufflepuff to arrive, but it was the middle of the night, there was no chance of somebody coming to her rescue.
"Damn," Arlene muttered "how high was Helga when she decided to do this?"
Finding barrel two from the bottom, middle of the second row, Arlene bit her lip and hoped she didn't get it wrong.
She held her breath as she approached the barrel slowly, as if walking to her death.
"What are you doing?" A voice called out, Arlene turned to see a boy with a yellow prefect badge.
"Oh thank Merlin," She sighed "I fell asleep in one of the window seats and the headboy woke me up, I usually stay with my friendin the Hufflepuff dorm, but I can't do the knock."
"Your friend?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Sage Sparrow." Arlene told him, trying to stop Crookshanks from biting her hair.
The boy nodded and approached the barrels.
Even though he was probably a pro, Arlene took a step back, having seen the consequences of a wrong knock before.
Fortunately, the lid opened, meaning he had succeeded, smiling gratefully, she crawled into the sloping earthy passage.
She kept going until she arrived at the cozy, round, low-ceilinged room, reminiscent of a badger's sett. The room is decorated in the cheerful, bee-like colours of yellow and black, emphasized by the use of highly polished, honey-colored wood for the tables and the round doors which lead to the boys' and girls' dormitories (furnished with comfortable wooden bedsteads, all covered in patchwork quilts).
A colorful profusion of plants and flowers seem to relish the atmosphere of the Hufflepuff common room, various cacti stand on wooden circular shelves, curved to fit the walls, many of them waving and dancing at passers-by, while copper bottomed plant holders dangling amid the ceiling cause tendrils of ferns and ivies to brush your hair as you pass under them.
She felt Crookshanks trail behind her as she walked to Sage's room, and knocked on it with her elbow.
A familiar blonde opened the door "Oh hey Arlene." Hannah Abbott greeted her.
Arlene entered the room "You guys are still awake?"
"Blame your friend." A redhead said, pouting her thumb at Sage, who was typing away on her typewriter, her reading glasses on.
Arlene chuckled threw herself next to her friend on the bed.
"Who's this little cutie?" Hannah asked, picking up Crookshanks who hissed and tried to bit her.
Hannah jumped back and dropped him, frowning as she examined her hand.
Sage looked up "What's that?"
"Hermione forgot her cat with me, I'm just going to give him to her tomorrow."
Sage raised an eyebrow, then she moved the typewriter to the night stand and moved closer to her friend "Hermione?"
Realizing she hasn't told Sage of the encounter, she blushed "Yeah, I forgot my robes at the paddock and she got them for me."
Sage humed absentmindedly to show she heard her "Look what I found." She said, picking up up a box from beside her bed.
Arlene raised an eyebrow and looked inside it, then frowned "Pictures?"
Sage nodded eagerly "There's more of the ones I showed you, the Hogwarts Weekly Team left all their photographs when they graduated," She said "and that's not even the best part."
Sage digged around in the box and pulled out a paloroid, titled 'Regulus Black, 1979'
Arlene look it and stared at it with wide eyes "Wow."
Sage grinned "Wow is right, I bet we can find more if we dig around."
Arlene smiled gratefully and was about to thank Sage when a loud hiss was heard.
"That cat, is evil!" A brunette with dark skin announced, dropping the catnip she was offering Crookshanks and marching to her bed.
Arlene rolled her eyes "You just have to deal with him tonight, I'm returning him back tomorrow."
"Why did you even take him in the first place?" Hannah, who was brushing her hair in front of her mirror, questioned.
"Because Ron and Hermione was about to fight again, and the last time Hermione was so sad and it made me sad-" Arlene started to explain.
"Oh Merlin, you're in deep." Sage teased, returning the box to the ground.
"Just snog her already." A redhead who sate in the bed opposite to Sage, agreed.
"April!" Hannah scolded the girl.
Sage chuckled as she removed the glasses "I'm surprised Granger didn't notice that you're in love with her yet, I thought she was some sort of super mind."
Arlene's face was now deep red, the mental image of kissing the girl with the fact that Hermione could be aware of her crush was too much.
"She's in denial." A raven haired girl in the far corner of the room said.
"Can we please stop talking about this?" Arlene asked, just to be ignored.
"I agree," April added "That girl is so far down the closet, she's almost in Narnia."
They laughed and Arlene was tempted to stick her head inside the fireplace, but she didn't was to ruin her hair.
"Why do they even call it the closet?" The raven haired girl wondered out loud.
"They should change it to 'keeping a straight face'." Sage added, causing the girl to burst out laughing again.
Arlene rolled her eyes as she picked herself up and looked around for Crookshanks.
She found him sitting in front at the end of the large room, his eyes locked on one of the circular windows.
She sighed and went to pick him up, but stopped in her tracks when she saw something move from the corner of her eye.
It might have been her imagination, but when Arlene looked out the window, she saw a large black dog, its eyes staring right back at her.
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Hi guys! If you're reading this, it means you've made it this far, congratulations on your ability to read crap.
Also, I'm starting school soon and I didn't want to be the loner this year too, so I did something I'm not proud of. I googled how to make friends, and the first thing that came up was the suicide helpline, so now I'm depressed.
Anyways, thank you for reading M&H, you guys are the best :)