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booksmarts and broomsticks
act ii , take a breath
chapter twenty-two , merlin help us all

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➖ TESS ROBBINS ➖
november 1992

        DRIA WAS IN HER element in the hours she spent in the Hospital Wing, following the morning's Quidditch match. It was long past six o'clock when she finally left for the Common Room with Savannah, leaving behind a very grateful Madam Pomfrey and over a dozen completed medical charts piled high on the administration desk.

        The atmosphere that they were met with in their Common Room upon their return, only added to the elation the blonde felt. In seconds she brushed off the slight fatigue that hung upon her and bid goodbye to Savannah, grabbed herself a cup of Butterbeer and moved over to her friends, who were huddled in a corner laughing with Amir and Hettie.

         The festivities lasted well into the night, and eventually had to be put to rest by Professor McGonagall who watched the students begrudgingly wander up to bed with dizzy smiles on their lips with light giggles leaving them as they went. Tess had told Dria - whose arm was sling over her shoulder cosily, as they walked up to their dorm - that she thought she had seen the Transfiguration looking quite amused by their teenage antics. Dria thought on it and decided her friend was probably not wrong, after all it was no secret that Professor McGonagall loved to Gryffindor victories in their Quidditch exploits just as much - if not more - than the celebrating Gryffindors.

        Even after the festivities in the Common Room has ceased, Dria found herself participating in a lengthy chat with the other three girls in her dormitory, as they spoke into the darkness of their room from where they lay, snuggled up in their respective beds.

        That night, Dria went to bed with a hopeful smile on her lips, with her heart full and mind replaying the entertaining events of day. Dria went to bed happy, and lulled off rather quickly with a ghost of grimace residing on her lips as the sound of Tess' snoring filled her ears. Although, while she grimaced, she couldn't find it within herself to actually mean it and the slightest twist of humour wriggled its way onto her lips, as she pulled a pillow over her head and fell into a dreamless sleep.

***

        HOWEVER, THE following morning, Dria found her high-spirits plummeting rapidly back to earth upon hearing the news that the heir of Slytherin had claimed another victim.

        Every shift she volunteered from then on in the Hospital Wing, she would find herself desperately trying to look away from the small figure that had been laid out upon one of the bed. He was frozen; petrified, just as Mrs Norris has been. His eyes squeezed shut in fear, and his hands suspended in the air above him from where they had held the same camera that caused Dria to jump every single time the flash shone out.

        During the days following the news of the attack, Dria would find herself trying to fathom how she could have ever felt so happy just days before. While she had been joking with her friends over a cup of Butterbeer, the small Colin Creevey had been mercilessly attacked just a few corridors away. The thought made her sick, and her friends had hardly seen a smile out of her since.

        Even as three of the four friends made their way down to the Great Hall - Penny was missing in action again, although the habit was becoming almost expected of her - Dria found it hard to muster even the slightest of smirks as Tess and Jackie did their best to cheer the blonde from her gloom.

        While, of course, the news of the second attack had also shocked her friends, it wasn't in their nature to let the news affect them as much as it had their friend. Dria supposed they were just a bit more resilient than she was - and it didn't help that she had to face the reminder every time she set foot in the Hospital Wing for her volunteering hours.

         "Did they say who was teaching it?" Tess asked, her arm looped through Dria's as she called to Jackie who was walking a few paces ahead of the two Gryffindors.

         "I heard it could be Flitwick, apparently he was quite the duelling stud back in the day." The Hufflepuff shrugged as she delivered her suggestion to the dark-haired Gryffindor, and they began milling into the Great Hall.

       The large dining hall had been utterly transformed to the extent that Dria did a double take upon entering. The four house tables had been pushed to the sides of the room, and another new table acted as a divider, splitting the room into two as it ran the length of it.

        The three girls waded their way through the crowd of students of all ages, and settled in place behind where Maisie and Michael were huddled with their respective friends, chatting idly as they awaited for a teacher to appear.

        It was an unusual thing for the entire school to be summoned in one place other than at dinner times, but so far nothing about their sixth year had been normal.

        The teachers, upon the insistence of Professor Dumbledore, had asked all of the students to attend what they were calling; Duelling Club. In light of the recent events, they thought that an extra bit of defence teaching wouldn't go amiss should students need to defend themselves against an attacker.

         From the atmosphere around her, Dria quickly gathered that most students were excitedly anticipated what they were all about witness. However - no matter how hard she tried to will herself to feel the same way - she couldn't. The very reason why they were being taught this extra defence scared her senseless; it wasn't for a test, it was for saving themselves from a threat lingering in their walls that no-one could trace.

        And while that fear seemed to drown out all her other emotions, it didn't manage to drown out the aversion that washed over her upon seeing a certain professor climb up onto the table in the centre of the room, with his million dollar smile spread across his lips and periwinkle blue cloak slung over his shoulder.

        "Jackie, I don't think it's Flitwick. Sorry to disappoint." The blonde muttered amidst a groan, as she caught the Hufflepuff's attention and nodded to Lockhart.

        "Oh, Dria, I am not disappointed."

        "I figured as much."

        Jackie spared her friend a wink in the hope of cheering her up and the blonde mustered the slightest of smiles in response, although anyone could see how it didn't quite reach her eyes.

        Her eyes that usually gleamed an ocean blue had dulled with her mood, and beheld a less vibrant shade as they fixated themselves upon the figure of her brother who stood not far from her.

        A feeling of uncertainty washed over her, and her eyebrows furrowed as she looked on Michael. The boy was stood with his two friends Dean and Seamus - Maisie was not far from them, but she was too wrapt up in giggles from something one of her friends had said to pay any attention to Michael. He seemed absent, his eyes almost glazed over as he looked around the room absentmindedly. Dria could have sworn that the circles under his eyes had only grown since she'd first treated him, and she could him cracking his knuckles where he stood as he blinked slowly.

        In a moment of concern, Dria reached forward, bustling through a couple of other students in order to reach him, and shook her brother's shoulder in attempt to bring him out of his daze.

        "You feeling alright?" She asked, her lips pressed into a tight line of worry as her eyes met his; both of them holding the same dulled and tired blue.

        "Yeah, I'm fine." He dismissed her quickly, shaking off her hand and immediately looking around him to see if anyone was playing witness to their encounter.

        "You look exhausted." Dria shook her head, her eyebrows still furrowed in worry as she reached out to him again, only for her hand to be swatted away in contempt.

        "I said I'm fine, Dria." Her brother told her harshly, his nostrils flaring in agitation and voice raising a little unnecessarily, as his gaze hardened. "Stop smothering me."

        And with that, he turned on his heel and edged closer to his friends with a tired sigh and taking a hand through his hair, stepping out of his sister's reach. Dria's eyes had widened slightly at his irritated reaction, and took a few steps back herself to where she had been stood before, muttering mild apologies to those she had leaned over in order to reach the boy.

        Irritability was one of the unfavourable traits that had been passed down to all of the Lockaby children. Dria buried hers, Maisie was more practical and worked through it, and Michael had always been the least tolerant; but that wasn't news to Dria. She had known he had the shortest fuse out of the three of them based upon the several occasions in which she had to stop him from saying something he would regret to their mother, teachers - you name it.

       But the encounter shook her, still. While the Lockaby children were easily irritated, the trait seemed to fizzle into nothing when it came to each other. There was annoyance but with the assurance that every jest was made in good humour. Something about his manner didn't sit right with the blonde, as her eyes kept themselves upon him, trying to ignore the squirming discomfort in her stomach at the notion.

        "Are you alright?"

        Dria felt her shoulder shake and soon realised that her friends had done the same thing to her as she had done to her brother - both in attempt to bring them back to reality. Perhaps getting lost in thought was also a shared trait of the Lockaby children.

        The blonde plastered a tight-lipped smile and nodded in response to Jackie's question, although she nodded perhaps a little too quickly for her answer to hold any credence.

       "I'm fine."

        Jackie quirked an eyebrow, disbelieving, as she folded her arm across her front in a challenging manner.

        "I am."

        The Hufflepuff would have retorted with the insistence to get a more explanatory answer from her Gryffindor friend, however the words forming in her mouth were lost in an "Oof!". Tess had yanked the girl's arm forward, immediately grasping her attention, and had ducked behind the Irish girl in a frenzy Dria could only compare to ones that came over her when she used to see-

        "Oh, shit!"

        Dria's former discomfort from her encounter with brother was long forgotten as her blue eyes widened upon the sight evolving before her.

       "For the love of Merlin, Tess, what are you playing at?"

        The dark-haired Gryffindor has sunk to the floor in a crouching position, her brown eyes wide in alarm as she pulled Jackie in front of her, blocking her from the view of anyone entering the Great Hall.

        "Nothing, nothing." Tess assured her friends, who was sharing thoroughly amused glances at her sudden action. "Just- Dria hide me!"

        "Tess, what-oof!"

         Much like her Hufflepuff friend before her - and before she could so much as vaguely understand the reason for Tess' actions - Dria's arm was tugged harshly and she was pulled to stand shoulder to shoulder with Jackie, in order to help block her fellow Gryffindor from view, as a group of seventh years passed them.

         The blonde let out a sharp hiss as she rubbed the wrist at which Tess had tugged, with surprising strength, and she caught a glimpse of the students bustling past them. It suddenly became that bit clearer as to who Tess was hiding from - but as for why, Dria was puzzled.

        "Alright, Dria?" Savannah asked, with a sympathetic smile in the blonde's direction, as she passed.

         "Hi Sav." Dria mustered a small smile in response, and gave her a polite nod.

         The seventh year had slowed a little as she passed her younger friend, in order to look her over and check she was alright. Savannah, too, was rather startled by the latest attack and the reminder that remained in the Hospital Wing during each of them volunteering sessions, and her attitude towards it had become a little more serious than what it had been when only Mrs Norris was attacked. But, she found herself more concerned with how her fellow volunteer was taking it; and she knew it was not well. 

         "Sav, come on!"

         At the sound of her name, Savannah shook herself out of her reverie and looked off in the direction of the call, with Dria's gaze following that of her.

         Two of Savannah's friends were looking back for her, after noticing her absence. One was a tall Ravenclaw girl, with curly red-hair and neatly pressed uniformed; Dria recognised her as the Head Girl of that year, Una Callahan. While the other was a slightly shorter boy also dressed in Ravenclaw robes, and freckles littered all over his face, who Dria knew to be Simon Fenwick.

        "Coming!"

         Shooting the blonde a final sympathetic smile, Savannah bunched up the end of her robes in her hand and began bustling through the crowd to her two friends.

        Dria lifted her hand up in a small wave, just as a large exhale sounded from behind her. Jackie shot the blonde Gryffindor a knowing look, and the two of them spun around to look down on their friend who was rising back up from the floor, with a relieved smile on her lips.

        "Are you hiding from Savannah?" Dria asked her, lips pursed and arms folded, as she and Jackie bombarded the girl with questions.

        "Tess, you broke up ages ago."

        "And she's really not the type to be cold about it-" Dria added in response to the fact Jackie had mentioned, while Tess pressed her lips together as she looked around, hoping that no one was playing witness to her interrogation. "In fact, I'm pretty sure she was flirting with Cecelia Kennedy the other day-"

        "Yeah, Phoebe Rowle wasn't all too impressed with that, was she?" Jackie interjected with a light chuckle.

        "No, it's not Savannah!"

        Tess' cry stopped the words spilling out of Dria and Jackie's mouths almost instantaneously, and left them to curve into confused frowns, as their eyebrows arched in perplexity.

        "Then, who-?"

        "Gather 'round, gather 'round!"

        Dria's question wasn't even fully formed when it was interrupted by the jovial tone of their Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, who was striding along the length of the table in the middle of the room, demanding all attention.

        "Can everybody see me? Can you all hear me?" He remarked, as everyone - including the three girls - began gathering closer to the table. "Excellent!"

        However, while the professor had demanded this attention, Dria's mind was still preoccupied with the events that had just occurred - and it was safe to say, she would never allow her attention to be demanded by him, anyway.

        "Tess?" She whispered to the girl on her left, but she was only met with a shaking head.

        "Never mind it, he's speaking now."

        Her lips still pursed, Dria merely sighed at the response and tried to shake off the feeling of dejection sweeping over him, as she focused on the professor atop the table.

        "In light of the dark events of recent weeks," Lockhart began, addressing the room with a smug smile still resident on his lips. "Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little Duelling Club to train you all up in case you ever need to defend yourselves, as I myself have done on countless occasions," - he swiftly pulled his cloak from where it rested on his shoulder - "for full details, see my published works."

         In another quick motion, he seized the cloak in his hands and tossed it into the crowd which erupted in excitement as it passed over their hands and, of course, landed in the arms of a grinning Hufflepuff.

        "Oh, for the love of Merlin."

        Tess' eyes widened as she moved a little closer to Jackie in order to touch the periwinkle cloak that rested in her arms.

        "You think we get to keep it?" The Hufflepuff asked, her grin even wider than when she first caught the piece of clothing.

        "If you so much as try, I'll use it to strangle the both of you."

        Tess only chuckled in response to the unamused comment of her blonde friend, whose arms were wrapped around herself and nostrils flared in disgust as she looked on the two of them.

        "Then, I'll have to stow it away in the dorm." The dark-haired girl shrugged, with a smirk as she deliberately attempted to irritate Dria.

        "Then, I'll take it in the night and use it as kindling for the fireplace!"

         "Hey, am I late?"

        Before their light-hearted argument could continue any further, they noticed another presence by them and turned around to see that Penny had emerged from the crowd around them, looking more unkempt than usual.

        While Tess smiled in response to the girl's query and offered her a response ("No, you're just in time.") that allowed the Ravenclaw's shoulder to drop in relief, Jackie and Dria were rather taken aback by her sudden appearance, and looked on her suspiciously.

        "Where have you been?" Jackie asked, her eyebrows furrowed and still stroking the cloak in her arms, as Penny shuffled into the space on Dria's right.

        "Your collar's all skewiff." Dria muttered, before the Ravenclaw could so much as answer the Hufflepuff's question, as the blonde noticed the off-angle at which her tie rested and the way her collar was crumpled.

         "I was in a rush, alright?" Penny dismissed her worry, her fumbling hands shooting to her collar when she began smoothing it out.

        "From what?" Dria asked, before she cut herself off, and continued with an arched brow. "Oh, let me guess."

        "Prefect duties." The three girls said in unison much to the underwhelming of the Ravenclaw who was looking at them with a bored expression as she fixed her tie.

        "And just how long have you been practising that, then?" She asked, arching her own brow with incredulity in response.

        "Maybe the last hour."

        "It was Jackie's idea."

        Penny only huffed as her question was answered, and let her hands drop to her sides, having fixed her collar and turned her attention to the table in the centre of the room, where events had unfolded rather quickly since the other three girls had last looked.

        "Expelliarmus!"

        A bright flash, as well as the words that accompanied it, succeeded in bringing Jackie, Tess and Dria out of their distracted state and transfixing their attention back onto the table, where they could now see Professor Lockhart flying through air as the result of spell fired by another. Dria looked to the other end of the table and was surprised to see Professor Snape with his wand outstretched before him, and the ghost of a satisfied smile on his curled lips - Dria wondered when on earth he'd got there.

        "Oh my God!"

        Tess let out an alarmed cry as Lockhart landed roughly upon the tabletop and let out a mild groan, while the majority of students let out stifled laughs at the man.

        "Professor Snape is rapidly becoming my favourite teacher." Dria chuckled, sparing a glance at the Potions Master who was patiently waiting for his opponent to regain his composure and face him once more.

        "Do you think he's all right?" Tess persisted, after slapping Dria on the wrist - Jackie was too lost in her snorting laughter to pay any mind to defending the man. 

        "Who cares?" The blonde retorted, the edges of her lips still curved into a smile. Who'd have thought seeing Lockhart getting his arse kicked in a duel would have been all it took to cheer her up?

        "I know I don't." The Ravenclaw on her right agreed, pressing her lips together in attempt to suppress her own smile, at which Tess simply let out a huff.

        It took a minute or so for Professor Lockhart to get back up to his feet and - after brushing himself down, and checking his hair was in perfect shape - he made his way back down the table as though he hadn't just been thrown on his arse in front of the whole school. Dria thought that if she could applaud anything about him it would be his unwavering confidence.

        "An excellent idea to show them that, Professor Snape!" The professor commended his colleague, as he approached him. "But, if you don't mind me saying, it was pretty obvious what you were about to do. And if I had wanted to stop you, it would have been only too easy."

        At his words, Dria shook all thoughts of previous commendations out of her mind, and couldn't help but roll her eyes, it seemed almost second nature by this point.

        "On second thoughts, Tess, maybe if you kept the cape maybe we could use it to strangle him-ouch!"

        Rubbing her wrist again in order to numb the pain from Tess' rather brutal slap, Dria turned her attention back to the two men conversing upon the tabletop, grumbling as she did.

        "Perhaps it would be prudent to first teach the students to block unfriendly spells, Professor." The Potions Master advised with a look of thoroughly boredom; he looked as though he'd rather be anywhere else, and Dria couldn't not blame him.

        "An excellent suggestion, Professor Snape!" Lockhart continued in his forced jovial tone, his gaze now scouting the crowd. "Ah... Let's have a volunteer pair! Um, Potter, Weasley, how about you?"

        The crowd shuffled slightly as students from all around craned their neck so they could see the two boys Lockhart had volunteered. While Harry was edged along the table in order to climb up, Ron was stopped in his tracks by the drawling tones of the Potions Master.

        "Weasley's wand causes devastation with the simplest spells." Professor Snape told his colleague, and had to grant that he had a point. "We'll be sending Potter to the hospital wing in a matchbox."

        "I'd find it funny."

        "And I'd love to treat that."

        "Shh!" Penny and Tess silenced Jackie and Dria's humoured commentary as the Potions Master continued his reasoning.

        "Might I suggest someone from my own house?" Snape suggested, with a small shrug, narrowing his eyes in suggestion. "Malfoy, perhaps?"

        When Lockhart made no noise other than a rather non-committal sigh, Snape turned sharply on his heel and pointed for Malfoy to get himself up onto the table. 

        "Now, this should be good." Dria heard Jackie mutter excitedly, a wide grin on her lips and still gripping onto the cloak.

        Lockhart followed Snape's lead and walked to the other end of the table, leaving the two boys duel in the centre. They stood opposite each other for a moment; still and staring at each other challengingly. 

        "Wands at the ready." Lockhart announced, instructing the boys as they adopted the correct stances - no doubt, their minds running with the plethora of spells they could cause the other utmost embarrassment. "On the count of three, cast your charms to disarm your opponent- only to disarm. We don't want any accidents here. One, two-"

        "Everte statum!"

        Before the third and final number had even begun to have been said, Malfoy had cast a spell that had hit his opponent square in the chest and caused him to fly backwards, before landing on his back with a groan.

        "That's a foul!" Jackie almost screamed amid the shouts of disdain from the other houses, and the booming laughter from some Slytherins - she'd even thrown the cloak in the floor in objection.

        "Jackie, it's not Quidditch!" Dria retorted, reaching across Tess in order to grab Jackie's arm and keep her in place.

        She, too, was furious with Malfoy's plain cheating and was not so subtly watching Harry to see if any harm had to come to bones she had help re-grow for him, especially after they'd just healed. However, she was more concerned with the fact that Jackie would get caught in the crossfire, knowing her antics.

        "Blow his head off, Potter!"

        Harry was back on his feet when Jackie's cry echoed around the Hall, and Dria wasn't too sure as to whether he'd actually heard her but his next actions of retaliation suggested that maybe he had.

        "Rictusempra!"

        Another blinding flash of light illuminated the Great Hall and, when it finally faded, Dria was happy to see Malfoy had been knocked off his feet and thrown to the far end of the table, much like Harry had been. The smirk that had resided on his face moments before wiped off, as his cheeks flushed in embarrassment at the crowd's applauding Harry's actions.

         "Oh, I love this." Jackie chuckled, once she'd offered up a wolf-whistle in congratulations while the other clapped lightly.

         "You would." Penny retorted in a light mutter, as the clapping subsided and Malfoy got back to his feet.

         The boy was positively seething as Professor Snape pushed him forward and he prepared to retaliate.

        "I said disarm only!" Lockhart tried to remind the boys of the boundaries in which they were fighting, but his warnings fell on deaf ears.

        "Serpensortia!"

         The light that emitted from his wand was dimmer than the flashes that had preceded it, but it soon became apparent as to why. Dria craned her head so she could get a better look at the table top where, with a dull thud, a black serpent landed, having been conjured by Malfoy.

        "Oh, hell no!"

         Tess had taken one look at the serpent and abruptly decided that she was done with the duel, and grabbed Dria roughly by the shoulders so she could move behind her - or, as Dria saw it, simply offered her up snake bait.

        "I forgot about your snake fear." Dria said in a hushed voice, although she was rather humoured by Tess' actions, she had no desire to provoke the serpent sliding along the tabletop.

        "Why did you think I hate Slytherins?" Tess muttered into her friend's ear from where she stood, her eyes still wide as they followed the snake.

       "They're not actually snakes, Tess."

       "I beg to differ."

       Everyone in the Great Hall remained as still as possible, every pair of eyes following the snake as it very happy proceeding towards Harry.

         "Don't move, Potter." Snape announced, pushing Malfoy behind him and beginning to stalk forward to dispose of the snake. "I'll get rid of it for you."

         "Allow me, Professor Snape."

        "Oh, Merlin help us all." Dria didn't even trying to stop the words from escaping her lips, as she hopelessly watched Lockhart strut forward and point his wand at the black serpent.

        "Alarte ascendare!"

        The serpent shot up in the air several feet before unceremoniously landing back upon the tabletop in a heap, and while Lockhart looked rather pleased with his efforts, he failed to comprehend that his magic had done nothing more than simply aggravate the snake further.

         Hissing loudly, it rose up with a menacing gleam in its black eyes, and seemed to focus itself on a young Hufflepuff boy stood at the table's edge. His eyes were wide in fear as he shuffled on the spot, the snake sliding closer and closer to him.

        "Fuck no, not happening." Tess muttered, grabbing Dria's wrist alarmingly tightly and pulling her back, further away from the snake. "No, no, no, no, no!"

        "Tess, you're cutting off my circulation."

        At the blonde's murmured complaint, Tess let Dria's hand go as they both spoke in hushed murmurs, their eyes still firmly focused on the serpent.

        "So, maybe you were right when you said that Lockhart was an idiot." Tess muttered from behind the blonde - Dria swore she could hear the girl's pride screaming in objection as she spoke. 

       "It seriously took this for you to realise that?!" She retorted in a whisper-shout, as the entire crowd began to edge further back, proceeding to single out the Hufflepuff boy.

        However, before Tess could muster a response or even slack Dria's wrist again, a louder hissing sound entered their midst. The voice was almost ghost-like and spoke with extreme aggression, as it echoed around the Hall.

        Dria could feel her eyebrows furrow in confusion as she tried to work out the source of the voice. But that expression of curiosity faltered into one of alarmed shock as her blue eyes, now wide in disbelief, landed on Harry who was slowly edging toward the snake with a harsh look in his eyes and the strange voice spilling from his lips.

        It wasn't long before the rest of the Hall had soon noticed the boy's actions, with even Snape and Lockhart looking on in bewilderment.

        The Hall had fallen into a silence, with not even Jackie having some snarky remark to say. Dria pursed her lips in thought; the voice stemming from the boy didn't even sound like him, it was as though something possessed him to say it.

        The snake didn't at first respond to the hissing sound targeting at it, its focus was still stubbornly in the Hufflepuff boy. Based on its actions, it was unclear as to what Harry might have been saying. It was subsiding from its task, was he simply egging the snake on?

        However, he did manage to seize its focus for a small moment. Dria watched tentatively as the boy and the snake shared a look, yet she would never know what that look conveyed; maybe some sort of understanding.

        Nonetheless, this moment of distraction was used to the benefit of the poor Hufflepuff boy as Professor Snape, his eyes never blinking, pointed his wand at the serpent.

        "Vipera evanesca."

        With an objectionable hiss, the snake began to writhe as its body burned before disintegrating in a small pile of ash upon the tabletop, leaving the hall in the most oppressive silence that Dria had ever heard.

       Harry blinked hard and shook his head a little as though trying to wake himself from a daze, his eyes widened in confusion upon seeing all of the alarmed gazes fixed upon him.

        "What are you playing at?"

        The silence was only disrupted by the Hufflepuff boy that had been snake bait until Snape eliminated the threat. His eyes were narrowed in objection, as a sea of whispers suddenly consumed the Hall. All the while, the Potter boy looked around for some kind of explanation but was only met with wary gazes.

        "What just happened?"

        Penny's question was tentative from where she stood on Dria's right, looking at her three friends who all wore identical expression of shock.

        "Potter spoke Parseltongue." Dria explained after clearing her throat, her hand slowly reaching up to her shoulder and placing it atop of Tess'.

        "What? Snake language?" Penny asked to which all three girls nodded, their gazes not quite meeting hers. "And? Why did you all look so shocked?"

        A wary look was shared between Jackie, Tess and Dria before the latter gave a shaky sigh, deciding to be the one to enlighten their Muggle-born friend.

        "Because Salazar Slytherin was a Parselmouth too."

       The previous expression of confusion upon the Ravenclaw's face slowly morphed into the more worried countenance that had settled upon her friends' faces.

        "Oh."

       "Yeah, oh."

𝖙𝖗𝖎𝖓𝖆 𝖘𝖕𝖊𝖆𝖐𝖘!
oh damn, son.

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