His Mark
[Knowledge is Power]

14th September 2016
Wednesday

Aileen

I can't believe that it all went so smoothly..., I thought whilst making my way to the library.
I just got the opportunity to brew a sixth year potion- with Cordelia nonetheless which should be quite amusing, and I got a free pass to wander around in almost every nick and cranny that is Hogwarts!

Well except the restricted section... I thought bitterly.

But still, I can go almost anywhere at any time, even without Cordelia.
I got the Professor to allow that with the excuse of needing extra time to learn for my one true calling Potions. Her utterly delighted expression was priceless.

I didn't want to ruin this little victory by invading Professor Novas mind, I'm sure that there will be other opportunities to ask her to give me that permission slip for the restricted section.

'Talking about books," Momo's voice suddenly popped into my mind.
'Did you forget about the now completely unharmed diary that belonged to your dearest father?'

I stopped dead in my tracks.

I had completely forgotten about it!
'Well I'm sure that it can wait until after I'm done with this advanced potion assignment,' shared through the mind link.
'After all, it can't really do any harm without a soul.' I added whilst opening the door to the library and letting Momo sashay in.

'Did you forget what it did to your bed? What makes you think that-'
'Hush Momo,' I thought back at him with an annoyed mental voice.
'I will have a look at it later on this week if it makes you feel better.'

And with that I started to look for some advanced Potion books.
****
I glanced at the clock,feeling slightly irritated at Cordelia's lack of punctuality. The blasted girl was five minutes late- surely it didn't take a tiny shrimp this long to eat.

"You do know how dodgy it is? You know, a boy and a girl together alone in a room at night?"
An obnoxious voice drifted from the corridor.
"Juliet, we're just brewing a potion together. That's all. Besides, how old do you think we are?" Cordelia replied in resigned voice.
"You guys head off to the common room, I don't think he's comfortable with you two."
The dungeon door opened revealing Cordelia wearing jeans and a thick puffer jacket.

"Sorry I'm late, I got held up by these two," she jerked a thumb at the direction of the door, which cued a series of immature giggles.

"It's alright, don't-" I started to say but was interrupted by yet another fit of girlish giggles.
"By Merlin, excuse me for a second," she stormed up to the door, wrenched it open and started a heated hissing argument with her friends.

A blonde pushed Cordelia's protesting form out of the way and gave me an over the top grin.
"Hey Aileena-" she stopped at the murderous glare from Cordelia,"er Aileen! Mess with Cordelia, and I swear-"
"By Merlin's hairy ass! Juliet just get out!" Cordelia bursted out before pushing her friend out from the door frame and bolting the door which made me stifle a laugh.
She gave a weary sigh before shooting me an abashed smile.
"Sorry about that, Juliet's a little..." She twirled her finger in a cuckoo sign.
"She seems,'' I started, slightly unsure how to continue. "err- entertaining." I finished with a small smile.

"By entertaining you mean crazy in a comedic way, right?" She replied with a wiry smile.
"Well, I was thought not to judge a book by its cover, so I'll just stick to the entertaining part." I answered, quietly motioning for her to sit down.

"I've read the whole book of Juliet Jackson and trust me,she can be higher than a drunkard on an overdose of Felix Felicis," Cordelia sat down, holding her cauldron with a few rolls of parchment and herbs.
She fished one out, and placed it on the table next to the assortment of books that I had found.
I had brought all the books that mentioned any of the ingredients for the potion and how to acquire them.

"These books will come in handy for the essay part." I said as I notice her eyes wander and widen at the quantity.
"I've made two sets of notes of anything that we might need," I continued whilst handing her a stack of parchment.
"This way we won't have to worry if one of the older students takes any of the books that we need." I finished with a small smile, quietly looking at her surprised face whilst she skimmed over the thirty plus pages.

"Merlin's beard, no wonder I couldn't find any books in the library," she muttered to herself.
"I've looked at the lunar calendar and the next new moon is in two days time. So we can use our passes to pick the fluxweed at midnight."
She poured over the parchment,murmuring inaudibly to herself.
"I'm afraid that I'll have to stop you there," I said calmly before she started talking again.
"Our passes only allow us to wander around inside and the surrounding areas of Hogwarts, we'll have to get a teacher to accompany us to collect the fluxweed..."
"Ok, I don't really fancy going to the greenhouses at night." Cordelia exhaled in relief before speaking again.
"I think we should start stewing the lacewings tonight, since it takes twenty-one days. So that'll be done...on the fifth of October."
"We'll have to check with Professor Neville to see if he has fluxweed in stock...'' I sighed.

"Otherwise there should be some growing around the weeping willow, but trying to pick those would be insane..." I mumbled to myself.
"What do you think?" I asked looking at her questioningly.
"It would be common sense to ask Professor Longbottom for the fluxweed, and if he doesn't then we'll ask if he could pick them from the greenhouses. So, should we start stewing the lacewings?" She asked while heading over to the tap.
"Sure," I said smiling and walked over to the supply room.

Once inside, I got momentarily overwhelmed by the variety of murky looking flasks and actual live animals.
"Spider eyes, Snake tail-" I murmured to myself as I got suddenly interrupted by a hissing voice seemingly crying for help, making me walk deeper into the supply room.
"Well this isn't creepy at all..." I said as I found dear father's diary on top of a box full of snakes, Slytherins' symbol meticulously carved into the wall before me, a red puddle of dry blood right under it.
"I thought that I had left you in my trunk...," I murmured, completely ignoring the blood right in front of me, as a soft voice shook me out of my thoughts.

Cordelia

The water was boiling in the cauldron,indicating that at least five minutes had past, and Aileen still hadn't returned from the storeroom.

I swear, if he faints again..., I thought mutinously to myself as I shrugged off my jacket.
"Aileen! Have you found the lacewings yet?" I yelled to the open storeroom door,
"Yes, yes I've found them!" He yelled back, his voice sounded as if he was behind some sort of door.
"Say, is the Slytherin crest supposed to be carved into the wall with this massive red stain on the floor right under it?"
"Red stain? What red stain?" My voice starts to get high pitched as alarm bells started to ring in my head. I eyed the door,ready to run for my life if needed.
"Well I'm not touching it." He said, his footsteps getting louder.
"Maybe something died in there," He continued as he got out of the supply room gently pushing me aside and closing the door.
"The snakes in there seemed quite agitated..." Aileen mumbled to himself as he peered into my now pale face.
"Look, Lace Flies!" He said with a wide grin as he suddenly shoved the jar of very much alive Lace Flies into my face.
"Gah!" I yelled as I dropped the knife I was hiding behind my back in fright.
I swiftly kicked the clattering object away,praying that Aileen didn't see the movement.

There was an awkward pause.

Don't blush,please Merlin, don't let me blush...

"Your face is bright red...are you aware of that?" Said Aileen, suddenly standing really close to me.
I gulped and leant back a bit.
"Cordelia," He said whilst his gaze wandered to where the knife must have landed.
"Why were you holding a knife?"

By Merlin's hairy ass!

"I-er, was...going to chop up some...the wood over there! Just to make sure it was sharp enough to cut the wings. Why else would I carry a knife? It's not like there's a, I dunno, a serial killer here."

Shut up Cordelia! I scolded myself while feeling more blood rush to my cheeks.

"A serial killer?" Asked Aileen whilst tilting his head slightly to the side.
"I don't know about you," he continued whilst walking past me and picking up the knife.
"But I've only ever killed spiders," he said and handed the knife over to me.
I could have sworn that I heard him mumble something along the lines of: "I like to watch them drown." While he walked back to our table, leaving me to stand there frozen to the spot with a knife in my hand. I gripped it more tightly, not feeling reassured at all.

"So...do you have your own knife? To cut the wings off I mean," I asked,not willing to hand over a weapon to him.
"I do," he answered whilst rummaging through a seemingly bottomless school bag.
"Aha! Here it is," he called out in triumph and placed a knife with the initials A.M.G and the Slytherin crest engraved in gold on the handle.

For a Ravenclaw, he sure has a lot of Slytherin stuff.., I thought, eying his green and silver hoodie.
Then again, he is the heir of Slytherin.

"Great. I'll look after the fire while you cut the wings off." I decided that my repulse for flies was greater than my theory that Aileen was a serial killer.
"I think that Professor Nova meant for both of us to share this particular task." He said whilst looking at me with an amused expression.
"Look, I can do anything but deal with living,crawling, disgusting little bugs that carry Merlin knows how many germs on their filthy hairy legs. No,nuh-uh.nope.I'm not doing it"
"First of all, they don't crawl, they fl-"
"That's not the point though! They puke on you! They carry germs that could kill you! Flies are the absolute terrors of the world-have you seen the way they rub their tiny devious little hands like they want to destroy your soul!They. Are. Evil." Ok,maybe I was being a little dramatic, but there is no way I'm holding down a squirming little fly to hack off it's wings.
"So...what you're saying is that you don't care if I die if they puke on me?" He asked with a hint of sadness in his voice.
"Well...I'm not saying that at all! Don't twist my words!"
"Fine," he said meekly whilst reaching for the jar in the middle of the table.
"If I die make sure to attend my funeral...you'll probably be to only one there anyway-"

Crud, crud, crud. He kills spiders, surely he could handle flies?

"You know,you could wear gloves? So you don't die of fly puke?" I suggested meekly.
"What if they spit in my eyes? What if they sting me through the gloves? The possibilities are endless..." He said with a resigned look and placed the jar in front of him.

"Are you serious? You kill spiders! You walk around the school at night without getting lost! Surely you could deal with a fly?!" I almost howled.
"Every hero has his kryptonite- mine just happens to be flies..." He said whilst putting his gloves on.
"What's kryp-to-nite?" I asked, sounding out the strange expression carefully.
"You don't know wha-" He started, looking at me in disbelief.
"Oh, right that's a Muggle thing..."
He mumbled.
"Kryptonite is like the only thing that can destroy a person, I'll make sure to introduce you to the world of Comic Books- if I survive this, that is..." he said and looked at down the jar of buzzing flies.
"Oh. Well, if I was a princess,then flies are the dragon. Doesn't the knight overcomes his fears to save the princess?" Maybe if I poked at his manliness ...
"Let's hope that I'm not allergic to the flies in the magical world," I heard him mumble under his breath as he reached for the cover of the jar.

I huffed and turned my back, waving my wand at the fire to cool it down.
"Eww, there's this slimy substance on the lid," I heard him complaining from behind me.
"It looks like some were squashed when this was closed..." He mumbled on sounding deep in thought.
"Just cut the wings, Gaunt. Cut the wings!" I chanted through gritted teeth while batting away the disturbing images.
"How am I supposed to get the flies out of here, without them flying all over the place?" I heard him muttering while tapping at the jar.
"Are you serious? Who's the smart Ravenclaw cookie here? Aren't you Ravenclaw's suppose to be problem solvers?"
"We'll I did think of stupefying them, but we're not allowed to use spells out of class..." He muttered still drumming his fingers on the lid, making the flies inside the jar go into a wild frenzy.
"Then drown them like you did with the spiders!" I think I'm going to scream with frustration soon.
"But we have to cut the wings off whilst their alive." He stated matter of factly.
"Oh my God. Surely there's some gas that knocks things out..." I stormed to the table, flipping through books to find the potion.
I suddenly heard a gasp and the sound of glass shattering to the floor, followed by a loud insect like humming.
"C-Cordelia! The flies!" I heard Aileen's frantic voice as he slowly stepped away from the table.

Like a nightmarish storm, the green lace flies flew in a pack and started to buzz towards me.

Aileen

I was trying really hard not to laugh as I made the flies go after Cordelia.
This is priceless! I thought to myself as I watched her run about the room, trying to swat the flies away.
If she ever finds out that I can do this she'll murder me... I thought as I avoided some stray flies that headed my way and catched them with the jar.
"Cordelia! I caught some!" I Shouted at a very panicked Cordelia.
This is so much fun.
"Are you serious?! Is that all you're worried about! Get them off!" She began to weave and duck while doing an entertaining dance.

"Holy shit," her panicked expression was quickly replaced by absolute horror.
"It's gone down my bloody shirt!"

She started to curse a long string of creative swear words that was highly out of character for her.
"What am I supposed to do about it?!" I asked in a fake panicked voice.
Well this escalated quickly...
"I don't give a damn what the teachers said! Use a freezing charm on them!" she screeched as she slapped her torso while pulling a face similar to those who shower in dragon dung.

Before I could do anything else,she gave a shriek and started to pull off her tee shirt.