The dementors did not usually interact with the students, though of course, it was forbidden for them to do so. However, they did like to linger around unnecessarily, in search of their prison escapee, Sirius Black, which made many people understandably uncomfortable. Dumbledore also advised that students do not go outside alone since the dementors were not your typical friendly creature.
So naturally, after leaving James in the study room, instead of going to Quidditch practice, where I was expected to be, I ventured outside the castle grounds. Students were not usually found out there because of the dementors and Sirius Black, so this was the perfect occasion for me to spend some time alone in nature, perhaps by the Black Lake, doing Merlin-knows-what and who-cares-what.
By the Black Lake, there was absolutely no one, which was perfect. I gazed over the darkness of the lake. There was an unknown thing emitting subtle ripples across the lake. The gentle atmosphere of the water was soothing. I was thinking of plopping myself down on the grass and just relaxing, but then I heard leaves shuffling in the forest close-by and voices growing louder. I suddenly found myself hiding behind a large tree by the lake.
I peered over the edge of the tree trunk, gazing right at the forbidden forest, which was lining the edge of the Black Lake. Two figures, one of which was taller than the other, trailed out of the woods, and I quickly withdrew back behind the tree.
"...suppose I shall go back to my wife now," a deep yet clear voice announced.
"Erm, yeah... so, I won't be meeting her, will I?" the other voice sounded like it belonged to a young man. I presumed him to be a student at our school.
"Oh, goodness, no, no..." the other voice laughed kindly.
"But what if I get into some trouble? What if I make a mistake? Can't she guide me?"
"Listen... Romeo, is it?"
I slowly peered over the side of the tree again to see who they were. The two men were half a dozen meters away from me, but I was still cautious. The shorter one of them was very evidently younger. He wore an all-black attire, while the taller mysterious man wore what looked like a weird assemble of muggle clothes.
"I've already told you everything that Amphy told me, so... you have nothing to worry about, alright?"
Romeo — apparently, that was his name — had an olive tan and messy black hair. He was young enough to be a student, but he wasn't wearing the Hogwarts uniform. However, it was Saturday, so no one was wearing it anyway. The man standing next to him looked middle-aged. He had brown unkempt hair and pale skin.
"Right..." Romeo huffed.
"Now, if you'll excuse me..." the tall man patted the boy on the head and gazed over at the Black Lake. Without another word, he walked into the lake and was quickly underwater and out of sight. I stared at the scene with perplexion. I wondered if I had accidentally drunk my Immaculate Illusions prototype potion, but then I remembered I had a potion to brew for the full moon tonight — Veritaserum!
That Romeo boy was just standing there, staring at the Black Lake. There weren't exactly any other trees that I could sneakily and continuously hide behind until I reached the castle. If I started walking away right now, he'd probably notice me. And when he'd see me, I really didn't want him to wonder if I had eavesdropped on his conversation with that strange man even if that was exactly what I was doing. In fact, I would rather he never knew I was here in the first place.
"Blackwood!" A voice roared.
I wanted to melt into the ground and disappear forever. Malfoy and the rest of the Slytherin Quidditch team were marching on the grass and towards the castle. This morning's training session appeared to have ended. They were all dressed in their quidditch gears. Malfoy was holding a broom in one hand and his other hand was still in a cast. This nutcase was still pretending to have a broken arm after all this time.
I was still hidden behind the tree, but I was almost certain that Romeo had heard Malfoy and was looking to see who that Blackwood character must be. Malfoy approached me, but the other Slytherins appeared disinterested as they marched on normally towards the castle.
I shook my head at Malfoy, urging him to leave as I stared at him wide-eyed. I wished, for an absurd second, that I were a cat so that Romeo would think Malfoy was talking to his pet cat. But of course, the git couldn't pick up on my social cues and decided to open his slimy mouth again.
"Why did you miss Quidditch practice?" he sneered. "Intimidated by my superior seeker skills, aren't you?"
Without a word, I shouldered past Malfoy and ran to catch up with the quidditch team, all of whom did not pay attention to me as I rushed by. I didn't dare look behind me in fear that Romeo would see my face and recognize me. All he knew was how I looked like from the back — time to change my hair colour and never wear this set of clothes again.
"Hey!" Malfoy called at me from behind. "Would you stop running away?"
I could not care less about Malfoy, right now. All I wanted was to get away and hide in the girls' bathroom on the second floor, working on the last details of my potion. The truth behind who really did tamper with my cauldron was about to be exposed as soon as I completed my veritaserum.
"I'm speaking to you!" was the last thing I heard Malfoy shout at me before I darted around the corner inside the castle and up the grand staircase.
In Moaning Myrtle's bathroom on the second floor, I sat cross-legged in front of my cauldron. I had just finished with the last few ingredients for the veritaserum. The final step was to have the water boil gently in the rays of a full moon. I wasn't sure how the full moon and the concept of truth related to each other, but regardless, I was nearly done with my veritaserum preparation and was quite keen on utilizing it soon.
It was evening, and the sky was a dark cobalt blue already. The moon bashfully hid behind a few misty clouds, but it was just about time for me to open the window. After drawing the curtains further aside, I pushed the windows outside of themselves. The moonlight illuminated the entirety of the bathroom in such a way that I had never noticed before.
The cool blue of the light hit the ceiling and gave it an even eerier impression as its cracks seemed to carve deeper and darker. The light shone into the softly simmering cauldron of veritaserum-in-progress. I peered into the water and what was previously a light cerulean blue was now gradually turning into a crystal clear solution. The full moon appeared perfectly round, reflecting in the gentle bubbling cauldron.
"Who is that?" Moaning Myrtle interrupted the silence that was previously soothing my ears.
"Huh?" I asked mindlessly as I removed the fire beneath my cauldron.
"That boy outside over there..." she was gazing outside the window curiously.
"Dunno, I guess some other kid is also out of bed past curfew," I shrugged, not bothering to look outside into the school grounds like she was.
"He's heading towards the lake!" Myrtle said in surprise. "What is he doing?"
"Okay, Myrtle, I'm trying to finalize my potion here. I've been working on this for ages, so please don't ruin it for me, yeah?" I said, gazing intently at the still softly simmering solution in my cauldron. Why was it still incessantly boiling? The heat was turned off already...
Darkness suddenly wrapped around us, and the candles within the girls' lavatory lit up. I was startled. I hadn't even noticed the flames were out in the washroom when the light of the moon shone in. It was almost as if Hogwarts knew somehow that there was external lighting—
I didn't dwell on Hogwarts' magic technicalities much longer before I noticed the veritaserum had stopped simmering. I peeked outside. The moon had disappeared back into the clouds.
"He's walking away!" Myrtle said suddenly.
"What?"
"The boy over by the Black Lake. Look over there!"
There was indeed a boy as she claimed, sauntering away from the darkness of the lake and back towards the castle. I could not see his face very well seeing as the only source of light outside, the moon, was almost diffidently concealing itself behind the clouds.
"Oh, my potion!"
I spun around to my cauldron and smiled proudly at my reflection in the liquid.
"I think I did it. I made veritaserum!" I exclaimed. I couldn't suppress a grin from forming on my face. "There's a lot more than I expected. I could fill up three vials with it! Three!"
Moaning Myrtle seemed to be too engrossed by this mysterious boy outside to spare me a mere minute of congratulations.
Without warning, I pulled the windows shut within themselves and then drew the dark curtains closed. Myrtle looked like a baby that had candy taken away from them.
"Aren't you going to say, 'wow, Maeve! You are such a talented and gifted potioneer! You actually managed to pull off this complex potion that will literally give you the answers to all your dying questions about your friends!'"
"Humpf..." Myrtle huffed.
"Okay, sorry for closing the curtains" I pulled them back aside. "There, happy?"
Myrtle cocked her head to the side, but I quickly realized she wasn't directing it at me, rather at that boy outside again. I gazed outside the clear windows, the bright light of the moon shining once again inside this lavatory and as well as across the castle grounds.
Even with the moonlight, I still couldn't see too clearly who that boy was. He was still outside and had returned back in front of the Black Lake, peering into it intently. Now, Myrtle wasn't the only one drawn with curiosity to what in the Hells he was even doing.
Without warning, he confidently walked into the dark waters, the level gradually nearing the top of his head until we couldn't see him anymore. He had gone inside the water.
My mouth hung open with puzzlement as I pondered over this strange new information.
Just earlier, a middle-aged man had ambled into the Black Lake in that same unbothered manner. Was the Black Lake a portkey? Well, maybe not, but what was up with people just directly walking into it like no big deal? I knew witches and wizards could do magic, but there didn't seem to be any wand-waving or spell-casting at all when these two instances occurred. It was so very odd. I could not wrap my head around it. I was stuck, trying to unravel that strange Black Lake mystery.
The next morning at breakfast, I sat with Daphne Greengrass and Tracey Davis at the Slytherin table. The other third-year Slytherins had not arrived yet, so I felt safe from Malfoy for now. I had managed to convince Tracey and Daphne to get up earlier for breakfast today with all intents and purposes of avoiding Malfoy, of course — not that I let them know about my true intentions.
I had the three vials of veritaserum secured in my bag, but I still hadn't figured out how to slip any of them into Daphne and Pansy's drinks. And Pansy hadn't even arrived yet.
"Salazar, it's so early, Maeve," Daphne yawned in her hand as she mindlessly picked at the berries on her plate with her other hand.
"As much as I appreciate the quietness of early morning, I've got to agree — it's ungodly early," Tracey added before taking a sip of her orange juice.
There were scarcely any other students around, and the teachers' table was nearly empty except for my Arithmancy professor, Septima Vector.
"Right, Tracey, did you do your part for the Arithmancy assignment? Hermione said she wants to review everyone's answers before tomorrow's class, just to be sure."
"Er — Well, I think I can finish it before supper if that's good with you two?"
"Yep, yep. All good."
Daphne rested her cheek on the palm of her hand, her green eyes glazing over at us with boredom.
"I'm so tired, Maeve," she finally said. "Please never wake me up so early ever again. Please." Her eyes were slowly fluttering shut.
I sneaked my hand inside my pocket and slipped a Veritaserum vial in my sleeve as Tracey spoke, "Me too. I can't believe I went along with it — Plus, I have to do that Arithmancy thing by tonight when I haven't even had enough eye-shut."
Tracey and Daphne were giving each other a knowing look.
"Honestly..." Daphne seemed to be mulling over an idea in her head. As she looked upwards, seemingly thinking about how to phrase her thoughts. While Tracey looked at her expectantly, I drew open the cork of the veritaserum hidden in my sleeve and let half the contents of the bottle fall into a cup of pumpkin juice.
"Here." I handed over the cup. Daphne looked surprised.
"What is that?"
"Pumpkin juice... for your energy... Since you look so tired."
"Ew, I don't like pumpkin juice."
I pursed my lips, remembering a clear time in my head when Daphne was in fact drinking pumpkin juice with ease.
"Since when?" I blinked.
"I dunno. It just tastes weird — and I've just been eating berries, which would make such an odd combination of flavours with the pumpkin taste added to it, so no thank you."
I nodded with a smile, trying to hide my disappointment. I had just wasted half a vial of truth serum and now I didn't know what to do with this pumpkin juice.
"I'll take it then," Tracey was about to reach over to grab the cup but I quickly pulled it back to myself.
"Oh, er, I was thinking of just drinking it for myself, finally," I said as a pathetic excuse.
Tracey gave me a momentary look of perplexion before shrugging and serving her own cup with pumpkin juice instead.
"Cheers, I guess," she said, raising her cup at me.
My mouth gaped open for a moment. I felt trapped. I dumbfoundedly held the cup of truth-serumed pumpkin juice in the air.
"To never having early breakfasts again," Tracey announced.
We clanged our cups against each other's. Tracey brought the liquid to her lips and drank up. I merely pretended to.
"Pfffff. Drink up for real, Maeve. I don't want to be woken up at five in the morning again," Daphne piped in. My heart dropped.
"What do you mean? I did drink from it," I lied quickly. "And I agree with Tracey's toast for never waking up early again."
"If you did drink it, you barely did," Daphne pointed out. "I mean, look at Trace, she's basically done here."
Tracey had almost chugged all of the contents of her cup.
"Yeah, c'mon, it's not like someone put something in your drink," Tracey added, and I nearly laughed at the irony of that sentence.
"Well I'm not too thirsty, right now... I'll drink it all as soon as I'm thirsty," I said with what I thought was a casual shrug.
Daphne and Tracey looked at me with slight perplexion.
"Anyway, what's up with your hair, today?" Tracey asked gesturing at the mess of a giant braid that I managed to pull my hair into.
"Oh this...?" I touched my messed-up hair. "I tried to braid it, but unfortunately, I'm not that talented at hairdressing."
Yesterday, some boy named Romeo definitely saw the back of my head as I ran off to the castle away from Malfoy. He obviously knew I had been eavesdropping on a conversation he was having with some mysterious Lakeman. So now, to avoid getting recognized from behind, I tied my hair up as such, at the expense of looking strange.
"It looks like a wonky bird's nest," Daphne said, raising an amused eyebrow at me.
"I — I know," I stammered.
"Can I fix it for you?" Tracey asked. I nodded desperately. "Mind if I braid your hair?"
"Please, give me a new haircut," I nearly pleaded.
"Alright, Maeve. So, what kind of braids do you want? I promise you, I am an expert. I always practice on my little cousins."
"Well, my Aunt always nags me to let her braid my hair. She really wants me to have Fulani braids, for some reason."
"Because it will look gorgeous, that's why. Come here. I think I may have time to finish it all before class."
"Good thing I woke you guys up early, huh?" I joked.
"Oh, shush," Daphne rolled her eyes dramatically.
"How are you not tired?!" Daphne sounded like she was suffering. "I missed just one hour of my regular sleep and I feel horrible! And now, it's too late to catch any more sleep."
We were still sat at the Slytherin table, my braids being perfected by Tracey who was using her wand to speed up the process. Other students were filling up the seats around the Great Hall.
"I'm used to having a shit sleeping schedule," I shrugged. "I'm perpetually tired. Welcome to the club."
"I hate you," Daphne whined as she laid her face down on the table.
"I'm sorry," I pressed my lips against each other. "I seriously didn't expect it to affect you so horribly."
"This is not an invitation to force me out of bed at five a.m. again, but I gotta say, I'm having a lot of fun braiding your hair, this morning," Tracey said proudly as she continued pulling my hair into braids. "Granted, my wand is saving us more than just a couple of hours..."
"Can I have those kinds of braids too?" Daphne asked. Her hair was flat, blonde and thin. I had never seen someone with her type of hair wearing Fulani braids before.
"I dunno... I've never braided with your type of hair before," Tracey admitted. "You sure it'll look good on you? I fear it might make you look bald."
"I have no clue."
"Mmm. Maybe I'm wrong. Come to my place, sometime. My mother would probably love to do something nice with your hair."
"Oh, right," I exclaimed suddenly. "You've also never met Tracey's family before!"
"We should do something all three of us together this Winter break," Tracey proposed. "My place, of course."
"Count me in," Daphne said, raising a hand up.
"Me too!" I added.
"Well, look who decided to arrive on time."
I groaned upon noticing Malfoy, his two goons, Blaise and Pansy all sauntering towards us together.
Tracey and Daphne whipped their heads in the same direction as mine to see who was talking.
"So, now you've got worms growing out of your head, Blackwood?" Malfoy taunted, his two cronies laughed haughtily.
"Oh, shut up, Malfoy," Tracey jumped in. "I'm not even done yet and it looks beautiful."
"So, what? Am I supposed to be impressed?" Malfoy pressed on, smirking arrogantly. I had to inhale calmly as to not instantly lose my cool and punch his slimy face.
"Honestly, Malfoy, making fun of someone's hair? Are you a child? Because you literally not only sound like one but you look like one too," I hadn't even finished my thought yet when Professor Snape had arrived on the premises.
Malfoy sniggered when I snapped my mouth shut upon Snape's arrival. I didn't want him to see me and Malfoy in a disagreement again. The last time that happened, I swore I was almost getting expelled. I was lucky Snape liked me for my potion skills — or something like that, I didn't really know why he spared me that day.
"Miss Blackwood," he droned in his usual bored manner. "I expect you are not picking a fight with Mr. Malfoy again?"
"No, sir, of course not," I said with what I thought was an earnest smile.
"I would find it rather unfortunate to hand out detentions to both of you," he merely uttered.
"That won't happen, Sir," Malfoy added suddenly. His smirk had faded as soon as Snape said both. "Maeve and I are just teasing each other, Sir. I rather enjoy her company."
"Very well, then," Snape said apathetically. "Don't be late to class, this morning."
And at that, he trailed off to the staff table at the end of the Great Hall.
Malfoy grumbled something that I couldn't hear before sitting right next to me.
"Why are you sat next to me, Malfoy?" I asked as calmly and serenely as I could, although it probably came out as a grumble.
"Stop moving your head," Tracey said, suddenly tugging hard at my hair.
"Snape reckons we're friends now, doesn't he?" Malfoy was smirking again. "That means we must act the part, now, does it not?"
I was utterly baffled at that flawed logic but decided not to press on. Maybe the best way to deal with Malfoy now was to ignore him.
I mentally shook my head (because if I did so in real life, Tracey would tell me to stop moving again) and decided to return to my breakfast-eating.
"Friends share, don't they?" Malfoy asked, eyeing my plate. He had that expression on his face, the one that suggested he was desperately trying to annoy me.
"Huh? No, get your own food," I said cooly as I scooted my plate away from him.
"Fine then."
Malfoy reached over and grabbed my cup of pumpkin juice. "Looks like you don't care about that?"
"No, it's mine. Malfoy don't—"
The dumb blonde ignored my well-intended warning and drank all of the contents of the cup. He slammed the cup back down and exhaled in satisfaction. He had this air of arrogance around him. I once again had to resist the urge to eviscerate him.
I knew he was just trying to be a prick on purpose because he knew that I wouldn't do anything with Snape watching over us. It was totally unfair.
"That's a little rude, Malfoy," Tracey mindlessly commented, still focused on braiding my hair.
"I don't care about being rude," he said proudly.
"Then, what do you care about, huh?" I asked in my fake polite voice.
"I care about you—" he quickly slapped his hands on his lips, as if his mouth was speaking out of terms. That's when I was reminded that I had slipped some Veritaserum into that pumpkin juice. I had meant for Daphne Greengrass to drink it, but not Draco Malfoy.
Maybe I could use this to my advantage.
"Well, you have a very odd way of showing it," I said casually, trying to ignore the heat rising in my cheeks. The other Slytherins were quietly listening to our conversation, and I did not know if I was comfortable with that.
"So do you!" he retorted.
"Me—?"
"All done!" Tracey interrupted conveniently. I patted the back of my head to feel the countless braids she had made with my hair. "I don't have a mirror to show you, but I promise it looks amazing!"
"Woah," Daphne suddenly looked up at my hair. "It's beautiful!"
"I know, I'm very talented," Tracey looked extremely proud of herself. "Doesn't Maeve look pretty, guys?"
Daphne was nodding enthusiastically, while Pansy and Blaise merely shrugged in approval. Crabbe and Goyle were void of a reaction, which didn't faze me, but Malfoy...
"She always is..."