Chapter Text
“Don’t you see, it was an initiation. A ceremony.” Harry insisted.
“What are you saying?” Ron asked.
Hermione rolled her eyes. “Harry is under the impression that Malfoy is now a Death Eater.”
“Don’t you see, it all makes sense! Hermione saw it with her own eyes!” Harry exclaimed.
“I'm telling you, I'm not sure what I saw!” Hermione said, defensively.
“What would he even want with a tosser like Malfoy?” Ron asked.
Y/N butted in, “I think I’m going to have to agree with Harry on this one. Malfoy is friends with Riddle. It kinda makes sense for him to join if he's a part of that group.”
That silenced them. For the past five years Harry had managed to ignore the presence of the son of his parents’ murderer, Mattheo Riddle. While Malfoy constantly antagonized them, Riddle kept to the Slytherins. He picked fights with others, leaving them alone. Even on the Quidditch pitch he let his teammates occasionally swing a bludger straight at Harry but he stayed more focused on the game.
“I need some air.” Harry said, having just grabbed his invisibility cloak. Ron, Hermione, and Y/N all watched as he snuck out of the compartment, puzzled.
“Where do you think he’s going?” Y/N asked.
“Who knows?”
Conversation soon resumed, the three of them discussing what classes they wanted to take this year. Hermione, naturally, wanted to take them all.
Y/N had a feeling that this year everything was going to change.
She looked out of the train window out into the darkness, the moon was barely visible. In the distance loomed Hogwarts, home. For some reason she had missed it more this summer than any other. Last year had been a shit show with everything that went down with Umbridge and Dumbledore being gone for so long but the worst part was that now the whole wizarding world was in a panic now that it was official. Voldemort was back.
Y/N’s parents had been unsure about letting her return this year. Especially given her friendship with Harry. Being friends with the boy who lived didn’t exactly scream your child will be safely out of harm’s way.
The train started to slow down half an hour later, signaling that they were about to arrive. As they were leaving they all looked for a glimpse of their friend but none of them spotted Harry.
“Where’s Harry?” Y/N asked.
“He must have gone ahead.” Hermione suggested. She seemed unconvinced.
Knowing that they couldn’t wait out there forever they all climbed into the carriage and let the thestrals pull them up to the castle.
Pushing their way through the crowd the three of them soon reached the Great Hall where they all sat together at the Gryffindor table. Scanning the crowd, Y/N saw no trace of Harry. Worry didn’t really start to hit her until Dumbledore started his speech. Once the first years were sorted into their houses and the food appeared, everyone dug in, including Ron.
“Don’t worry, he’ll be here any minute.” Ron promised through a mouthful of food.
Hermione hit him with a newspaper, “How can you possibly eat while your best friend is missing?”
If Y/N wasn’t so worried she would have been amused by Hermione reprimanding Ron for starting to eat when Harry was missing only for him to come strolling into the Great Hall with blood on his face.
“Oi. Turn around ya lunatic!” Ron said.
There he was, strolling in late with blood trickling down from his nose that somehow didn’t look broken.
Ginny asked, more to herself than any of them, “Why is it he’s always got blood on him?”
It was a fair question. In the past five years of friendship he had somehow managed to get in trouble several times, usually resulting in him taking a trip to the hospital wing. He took a seat next to Ginny who used a napkin to help with the bleeding.
“Thanks.”
“Where have you been? What happened?” Hermione questioned in a hushed yet urgent voice, leaning across the table.
“Later.” He said, taking the napkin from Ginny who sat right next to him and held it to his nose.
At the front of the hall, Dumbledore approached his podium. “Very best evening to you all.” The room went silent, turning to face him. “First off, I’d like to start off by welcoming our new Potions Master, Professor Horace Slughorn. Now, not to worry. Professor Snape will be taking over Defense Against the Dark Arts.”
There were scattered claps throughout the room, mostly from the Slytherins. They all exchanged worried looks.
“Now you were all searched upon your arrival and you have the right to know why. Once there was a young man, who, like you walked these very corridors, sat in this very hall, slept under its roof. He seemed like a student like any other. His name, Tom Riddle. Today of course he is known by another name.” There were scattered murmurs. A handful of people glance over at the boy with dark curls who sat with the Slytherins, waiting for his reaction. Y/N glanced over herself, unable to stop herself from doing so. There he sat next to Malfoy and Nott and Parkinson. He remained stony faced, staring into thin air.
“As I look out tonight at all of your facesI am reminded of a sobering fact. That every day, every hour, every waking minute dark forces attempt to penetrate these castle walls. But in the end, their greatest weapon…is you.”
Y/N found herself looking at the other students, wondering just how many had felt the school was unsafe enough to not return this year. She couldn’t exactly blame them.
Snacking into her dinner, she wondered what school was going to be like this year if Snape was going to be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts. He couldn’t be worse than Umbridge was last year, she didn’t even teach them any spells. But then again, he had it out for everyone except his precious Slytherins. Maybe this year she could at least enjoy Potions now that they had a new professor.
After the feast ended most of the older students hurried up to the Gryffindor common room, hoping to get there ahead of the first years. Y/N wasn’t all too surprised by how small the new group of first year, some parents had most likely elected to try to send their children to a different wizarding school, away from Voldemort.
Usually the Gryffindor common room was full of laughter and conversation but now there was something hanging in the air. Murmurs echoed through the once joyous room. The older students had grave expressions on their faces, wondering if a war was on the horizon.
“Hey Y/N, are you still planning on trying out for the quidditch team?” Harry’s question pulled her out of her thoughts.
She nodded, “Yeah.”
“Hopefully we’ll both get on.” Ron chimed in. He had recently mentioned trying out for keeper. Maybe this year all three of them would be on the team.
“Hopefully!” She agreed, smiling. Yawning Y/N said, “I’m off to bed. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight!” They all said.
Y/N went up to her room and plopped down face-first on her bed. As expected her trunks were beside her bed and her clothes were already folded and put away. Her books were on top of her dresser, a photo frame placed next to them. She turned over to look at it. The photo was old, from when she was just a kid. Y/N had just turned nine so for her birthday her parents had taken her to the zoo. That had been and still was her favorite memory form when she was a kid.
She missed those days when she didn’t have to stress out about classes and an impending war. Her only worry had been whether or not she would be able to convince her parents to get her ice cream.
Sighing, she sat up and looked around at the empty room. The rest of the girls in her year, like Hermione, must still be downstairs. For a minute she considered going back downstairs but thought better of it. If she opted to hang out with her friends she would probably stay up until the early hours of the morning. Y/N was determined that she would be well rested for her first day of classes even though her first class of the morning was her least favorite, historically. She dreaded Potions.
Changing into a set of pajamas, she pulled the blankets over herself and closed her eyes, willing sleep to take over. Y/N must have fallen asleep quickly because when she awoke it was still dark out and everyone else was in bed asleep. Despite her best efforts, she could not go back to sleep.
When she finally fell asleep she awoke a minute later to light streaming through the windows of the dorm room. Hermione was already up and dressed.
“Morning, sleepyhead. We need to get to Potions.”
“Huh?” Y/N asked.
“We’re in the same class for Potions. Come on, get up.” Hermione said, impatiently.
“What about breakfast? I need food.” Her stomach grumbled.
“You slept in. I tried to wake you up but you kept on saying that you needed more sleep.”
A few minutes later the two girls were both dressed and ready to go, walking to Professor Slughorn’s classroom. Once inside they walked over to a table together, setting their potions books down at their station.
Professor Slughorn had just started his lesson when Harry and Ron burst into the classroom. Staring at them, bewildered, Y/N wondered why they were here. She thought that they both had a free period.
“Harry my boy, I was beginning to worry!” Slughorn greeted, “And you’ve brought someone with you!”
“Ron Weasley, sir. But I’m awful at potions so I’ll probably just…” He jerked a thumb towards the door.
“Nonsense. We have room for two more. Get your books out.”
“Oh, we don’t have ours.”
“Not to worry, grab one from the cupboard."
While the two of them were grabbing their textbooks from a cabinet, she exchanged a glance with Hermione as if to ask why are they here? only for her to shrug in response.
“Now, can one of you tell me what this one here is?”
Hermione, as usual, raised her hand way before anyone else in the room. She was one of the few who already knew the material.
“Yes…?”
“Granger, sir.”
“Right, Granger. What is it?”
“That one is Veritaserum. It’s a truth-telling serum.”She said, pointing at the first one. “This one’s Polyjuice Potion.” All four of them had used that one back in second year. It had taken weeks for the taste to go away. “It’s terribly difficult to make.”
She approached the third potion, “And this one’s Amortentia. The most powerful love potion in the world. It smells different according to what attracts a person the most. For example, I smell freshly mown grass, parchment, and…”She paused. “Spearmint toothpaste.” Hermione went back to her seat.
Are you okay? Y/N mouths.
She nodded. Unconvincingly.
Slughorn continued with the lesson, “Now Amortentia doesn’t create real love, that would be impossible. It does however create a powerful infatuation or obsession.” All of the girls in the front started to drift closer to it before he put the lid back on. “We will have a more in depth lesson on it later in the year.”
Some girl in the front pointed out, “Sir, you haven’t shown us what’s in that one.”
“Ah, yes. A curious little potion. Named Felix Felicis or more commonly known as…”
“Liquid luck.” Hermione blurted out.
“Yes, Ms. Granger. Liquid luck. Tricky to brew, disastrous should you get it wrong. One sip and you will find that all your endeavors shall succeed at least until the effects wear off. One vial is what I offer to the first person who, in the hour that remains, manages to successfully brew an acceptable Draught of Living Death. You will find the recipe on page 10 in your books. Good luck to you all, let the brewing commence.”
Y/N pulled out her book and turned to page 10, ready to start. She could really use some luck this year.
All throughout the room her classmates started to prepare, cutting up ingredients.
“How did you do that?” Hermione asked accusingly.
Harry shrugged, “Crush it, not cut.”
“No. The instructions specifically say to cut.”
“Trust me.”
Harry continued making his potion. Hermione let out a frustrated sigh. Taking the cue from Harry, Y/N also crushed it instead. After all, she didn’t plan on doing anything with potions later in life anyway. If there was a later in life to look forward to.
A few tables away Seamus’ cauldron exploded in smoke like it always did. Sometimes she swore he did it on purpose.
At the end of the hour Slughorn came around testing everybody’s potions.
“Ah, perfect!” He exclaimed. “So perfect I daresay one drop would kill us all.”
He then handed Harry the small vial of liquid luck.
“Use it well.”
“I will, sir.”
Everyone else watched with envy in their eyes. She looked over at some of her classmates that were standing in the back only to make eye contact with a pair of chocolate brown eyes that seemed to be able to peer into her very soul. Y/N quickly turned around to face the front, straightening her posture. A chill raced down her spine. It was hard enough being friends with the chosen one, she didn’t want to provoke anyone into noticing her outside of that.