Whatever happened to the Slytherin Sprite to cause her to go depressed was known throughout the whole castle, the usual smiling, snappy, and sarcastic Slytherin was missing in the cold dungeons. Whenever a Slytherin would pass by students who gossiped about their little Sprite light was automatically hexed especially from her two best friends Theodore Nott and Blaise Zabini. Both of which tried to pull her out of the hospital wing for three days and always fail, fingers crossed that sending in Malfoy, that son of a bitch to persuade her to at least eat was a call of desperate measures.
But whatever happened that afternoon when they sent Malfoy was a mystery to the two friends as they saw their best friend a day later, hooking her arm around Malfoy's arm and laughing.
"What kind of sorcery is this?"
"Dark arts perhaps?"
"Bullshit," both boys chorused as they watched their best friend running towards them with a rather large smile on her face.
Of course they wouldn't say it to Finley's face, they knew she was hiding something, and to hell with it, its not Draco Malfoy she was hiding. She was no where near any of her Gryffindor friends, that morning, nor had she stuck around long enough to walk to their classes. Yet the only time both of them heard her say anything to them was "Do you boys have any plans? I need you in the library."
And that was the third time she asked them.
Of course Blaise had detention today as well so that left Theo to accompany her to the library.
"Honestly Blaisie darling, you picked today of all days to get yourself in detention?" Theo teased. It was the period where they had to walk to astronomy class together, it so happened to be on the worst classroom to go in.
"I heard that you hexed people, I can't believe you let yourself get caught," Finley mused as she was back to her usual self, to others at least. No one knew her better than her best friends, and they knew enough that digging into the Hogwarts history books ever so often makes up for the suspicion that she was up to something.
"Well I didn't think anyone was near the bathroom—"
"The lady's bathroom you mean?" Finley raised her brow accusingly at Blaise who chuckled.
"Bathrooms are bathrooms when they have toilets," Blaise waved off as they reached the astronomy classroom.
"Mother Zabini is indeed disappointed that you got yourself caught," Finley laughs as the Astronomy classroom was full of lolly gagging Gryffindors. The two Slytherin boys looked around and have not seen two specific Gryffindor boys, and they were curious that Finley wasn't the least bit worried for them. They sat down up front, Finley now taking out her emerald green journal.
"Okay! Spill it Evans, what are you up to?" Theo narrowed his eyes at his puzzled friend.
"What are you talking about?"
"I call bullshit, you're up to something. And it will automatically get you hurt," Blaise said causally as possible.
Finley looked at her best friends as if they were crazy, she wasn't expecting them to be like this at all really. She wasn't hiding anything, nothing was wrong except for the part where her best friend Hermione was in the hospital wing and that Harry and Ron were looking for answers.
"Come one Finley, don't take us as idiots. We know you're looking for the answers," Theo said.
"But I am, why do you think I asked you to the library," puzzled even more with her response they met each other's gazes. The girl rolled her eyes at how slow her friends were, she expected them to be more cunning than she was.
"I'm looking for cures on petrified students," she said.
"Don't they need Mandrake root?"
Finley shrugged. She knew that, but that was only the tip of the ice berg to why she was looking for answers. She was dead set on who the heir was and Harry and Ron weren't actually giving her answers, just the part where they found a diary in Mourning Myrtle's bathroom—
Finley's eyes widened, she slammed her hands on the desk startling the whole class all together.
"I'll meet you two in the library!" She told her friends as she started to pack her bag again as she rushed off the astronomy class room.
"Finley!" Was the last thing she heard from both her friends as she disappeared from the classroom.
She doesn't know how long she ran and how she ran at least four flights of moving stairs, but she did as she finally stood in front of Myrtle's bathroom. She opened the door cautiously and heard Myrtle's usual sobs and cries, she was not in the absolute mood to comfort the ghost. She searched around the sinks, the wet floors, the faucets, anything until she found one odd thing in the bathroom. She found a faucet with snake engravings.
"Holy—" she closed her mouth with her hand in shock, she didn't expect her theory to he right. After reading into the Hogwarts a History for over four days since Hermione's petrification, she regretted not reading it in her first year. She searched the sink with the snake faucet thoroughly, to see if there was a switch or lever.
She used her wand to use the Alohamora charm, but it didn't work. She searched over and under even almost resorted to using a blasting curse but she doubts that Filch would appreciate that.
"Fuck it I can't speak Parsletongue!" She gritted kicking the pipes from under the sink until it rattled. The rattle almost made it look like she broke the damn thing, but it didn't because the next thing she knew was that she was looking at yellow glowing eyes from a mirror.
"Mr Nott, Mr Zabini."
Both boys looked up from the books that they were reading and saw their head of house looming over them. His demeanour was extra cold as if you could get frostbite by just speaking to him. Gulping both boys thought about what they might've done to receive the Professor's graced visit.
"Yes Professor?"
"Come with me," the head of house only said as he turned around walking out the library with the two Slytherin boys in tow. They were worried if they were caught sabotaging Longbottom in potions again, not that they did, they were also worried for that pyrotechnics stunt back at DADA to get back at Lockhart for putting them in charge of his book signing last detention. But most importantly they were worried for Finley, because she did ask them to meet her in the library.
"I highly advise you to not do anything rash, at least not in front of superiors," Snape said as they stood in front of the hospital wing's doors that were completely closed. Which was odd, it always had at least one door open for anyone who needs to enter it quickly. And Snape's words weren't helping at all when they stood in front of it.
"Is something wrong professor?" Theo had asked completely puzzled.
"Come," Snape said as he opened the double doors. If it were possible the number of petrified students doubled over the span of four days, they expected to see Finley because where else would she be if she wasn't with them in her classes.
"Professor what are we—"
They found her, but not the way they wished to see her.
She was petrified as well, she took the bed next to Granger and the look on her face was no better than the horrified ones on the other victims had. She genuinely looked like she was in pain, her green eyes were permanently in horror, her hands were clenched. The usual smile on her face froze in a horrified screaming motion, both boys were speechless as they saw their best friend in this state.
"She's the most recent victim, and hopefully the last," Snape had said.
Whilst looking around for answers with Ron, Harry was on edge trying to pin point where he heard the voices. He promised Finley that he would find who the heir was and he was willing to hold on to that promise.
"Harry are you sure we're going in the right direction?" Ron said as he was wary in the halls, it was about close to night time and he was not up for extra adventures unlike the previous night with spiders.
"Don't you remember what Argog said Ron? Something else is lurking in the castle," Harry said touched the walls incase something happened.
"You know well enough to not trust spiders—"
"I know you're scared Ron, but doesn't mean that they're wrong. We're doing this for Hermione and possibly all the other petrified muggle borns," Harry scolded his friend. It was until they heard footsteps from in front of them that both boys took out their wands, though Ron's was taped and useless they were ready to put up a fight to whoever that was.
And to Harry surprise the footsteps were from Nott and Zabini, both straight faced and cold. The emotion in their eyes were livid, they were true snakes onward to kill, and in Harry and Ron's eyes, they were the preys.
"What are doing here?" Harry asked. But not a moment later Theo's wand was thrusted upwards, "Stupefy!"
"What the bloody hell is wrong with you!" Ron exclaims as he helped his best mate up from where he was blown.
"You're bloody git you know that Potter? If anything bad happens to her it's on you!" Theo said shaking. He was furious as Blaise was livid. Both boys were angry as to what had happened to their best friend and they blame it on the wonder boy Potter.
"What are you talking about Nott?" Ron snapped.
"It's always you three that gets her upset, hurt, and worried, you never think about what she's feeling. It's because of you three she's in the hospital wing petrified!"
Both Gryffindor boys froze, they didn't know. Of course they wouldn't, after Hermione got petrified they never approached her after wards and assumed that she would let them handle it. Most guilty was Harry, he should've known better, at least he should've been a hundred percent honest.
And yet it was too late, here stood two Slytherin boys who were absolutely loyal to their Slytherin friend who did nothing but to try and help them.
For some reason Harry waited for Zabini to speak up, he looked like he could use a blasting curse at Harry at any moment but chose not to.
"You have until the end of the month, fix your mess Potter. Or else it's not just us that are coming for you, but the whole house of Slytherin," the cold tone in Zabini's voice was able to freeze both Harry and Ron.
And they needed to find answers fast.