His Mark
[Knowledge is Power]

14th September 2016
Wednesday

Cordelia

When you're panicked, all rational thoughts just fly out of the window just like that. You just do the first thing that comes to mind.

This could be great if you're being chased by a raging hippo griff and you decide to jump into a lake so the hippogriff doesn't find you,but for me my panic fueled decision was extremely stupid and highly mortifying.

The damn flies (and there were two) were squirming on my back, running their hairy, bacterial infested legs on my back and sending me into blank mind frenzy. And then one thought popped traitorously in my head,sending any sane reasoning off a cliff.

What if they get in my bra?

That did it.

I clawed at the hem of my black tee shirt and pulled it off, not noticing or caring at the time that there was a male in the room who was staring at me.

"I saw nothing! Not a thing!" I heard a deeply flustered sounding Aileen shout, with his wand still pointed in my direction he quickly slapped his hand over his eyes, his face turning a deep shade of red.

I threw myself on the cold, stone floor and curled up in a ball underneath a table with my eyes tightly shut,waiting with dread the horrible tickling of thousands of germy flies rubbing their puke on me to eat me...

But instead I felt a soft fabric being dropped over me and the sound of flies suddenly stopped.
"I immobilised them..." I heard Aileen mumble from above me.
"I hope that the ones I catched will be enough."
"They're gone?" My voice sounded like a child- vulnerable and asking for protection.
"They flew after your top...I used the petrification spell on them."
"And that was my favourite top" I grumbled,trying to make light of the situation. I opened my eyes and wrapped the hoodie around me.

Mint and guy smell. Did Aileen give me his hoodie?

I pulled it on before peeking out from under the table.

"Thanks...I didn't mean to strip. Oh God." I buried my head in my arms as the full brunt of what I've done hit me.

"I didn't see anything! I swear..." He mumbled still not looking me in the eyes.
"Really? What colour was my bra?" I narrowed my eyes at him, realising that jars of flies don't fall on their own.
"I don't know, I didn't see anything!" He denied profusely.
"I'm sorry- I kind of tapped on the jar too many times, the flies got pretty agitated..." He mumbled and looked over at the broken jar on the floor.
"A few flew out when I opened it and I panicked, and- well you know the rest..." He finished, his face still a deep shade of red.
"Right." I pulled myself up,realising that I was still trembling like a leaf in the wind.

I never knew I was that petrified of flies...Merlin I feel absolutely filthy...

"I'm sorry, I'm going to take a shower right now. Are you fine with the flies?" I asked, preparing to leave even if he protests.

"Sure...I mean they're petrified anyway... Oh do you want me to ask the elves to clean your clothes for you?" He asked whilst looking over at my top and jacket.

"That'll be great...though I doubt I'll ever wear them again" I mumble the last part under my breath while collecting my papers.
"Good night, and I hope the flies don't try to kill you."
"Wait, I almost forgot," I hear him call after me, my hand almost touching the door handle.
"You'll get in trouble if Filch catches you wandering the corridors at this time, your pass is only valid if you're with me- and I get some extra time to get into the Ravenclaw tower."
"Is it nine already? Crud...and we didn't even stew the bloody flies," I muttered and waited for Aileen to collect his things.

Aileen

I saw it- I saw her light purple bra... What girl in her right state of mind takes her shirt off while there's a perfect stranger just across the room? I sigh and look at Cordelia from the corner of my eye.

"I didn't notice that so much time had past..." I murmured as we left the dreary Potions classroom behind us.
"Cor-de-lia, why did we stop walking?"
I whispered into her ear.
Her face was pale and she was still shaking like a leave in the autumn wind.

"J-Julius," she said barely audible.
I followed her field of view and saw a very angry looking Slytherin prefect headed in our direction.
"Cordelia Celeste Yaxley," he spoke in a soft, careful voice,like a calm before a storm. If it was possible Cordelia turned even whiter than before.

"What are you doing after hours, alone with this..boy?" He glanced at me, his movements stiff with barely repressed anger.
He did a double take on Cordelia's attire and hissed a venomous curse under his breath.
"What are you wearing?"
"It's not what it seems!" Cordelia stepped behind me so I was now the target of the prefect's rage.

"We were doing an advanced potions assignment together," I answered with the most innocent voice I could muster.
"We were assigned to brew the Polyjuice Potion, and well...," I paused, wincing slightly at Cordelia's tight grip on my arm.
This isn't helping the situation at all..., I thought to myself, whilst silently praying that Julius didn't see what she was doing.
"There was a small incident with some Lace Flies going amoc- well I'm sure that you know how your sister feels about flies..." I trailed off, growing slightly uncomfortable with Cordelia grabbing onto me like that, and Julius looking at me with mistrust.

"And I suppose you offered your hoodie rather willingly to her?"
"Well should I have let her walk around in her bra instead? That wouldn't have been very gentlemanly of me..." I trailed off as I noticed that Julius' eye had started to twitch dangerously.
"Besides, how do you even know that the hoodie is mine? I'm a Ravenclaw, and that's obviously a Slytherin jacket..." I said with- what I hope, sounded like an innocent voice.
"Do you take me for an idiot, Aileen Gaunt? You just as good as told me that you gave her your hoodie. Now listen you arrogant-"
"Julius, enough!" Cordelia let go of my arm and stepped forward,glaring at her brother, though I could see her hands tremble slightly.
"I was careless, ok? I spilt the flies on me, and I...panicked. Aileen gave me his hoodie for me to wear, because my shirt was absolutely disgusting. He went into the storage cupboard while I changed, he didn't have any...other...weird...motives." Her cheeks coloured slightly as she spoke.
"You know Julius," I addressed the Slytherin prefect.
"I was actually going to ask Cordelia to get you, so that I could thank you for carrying me all the way to the Hospital Wing..."

I could see Julius's face twitch angrily as he fought an internal battle, as he looked from Cordelia's pleading face from my stoic expression.

"That...is fine," he replied stiffly,"Thank you for looking after Cordelia. Cordelia, let's go," he stared her down as she nodded before mouthing an apology and a thanks to me.
She avoided her brother's glare as she disappeared through the door, ducking under his arm as he held the door open for her.

"Oh,and Aileen?" Julius's frigid voice stopped me in my tracks.
"If you ever dare lay a finger on Cordelia, if you hurt her again, I swear that it will be the last thing you will ever do. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal clear," I answered without turning around.
"By the way, Professor Nova seems to be of the impression that we should use the Polyjuice Potion to turn into each other- I tried talking her off of it but she wouldn't listen...maybe you could," I stopped briefly to look at him.
He was positively fuming.
"Talk some sense into her?" I said over my shoulder.
With that last sentence, I walked off, and left the raging Slytherin prefect behind me.
****
'Where are we going now?' Momo's voice suddenly appeared in my head whilst I was walking up the stairs.
'Seventh floor, left corridor.'
'The Room of Requirements...what are we doing there?' Asked Momo as he joined me on the fifth floor.
'Can't be bothered with the lacewing flies, they have to be stewed for twenty-one days prior to making the potion, so I'll get the room to give me some that have already been stewing for five hours. I can just tell Cordelia that I went back and finished it.' I said whilst walking three times past a certain wall on the seventh floor.

'I also need to find out what this diary turned into,' I said whilst grasping the door handle with my right hand, and Tom Riddles diary in my left.
'The blood that I saw inside the supply room in the Potion classroom wasn't only on the floor,' I said whilst opening the door to reveal Potion brewing materials and ingredients on the left side of the room, and a library with every dark magic book- be it spells, dark potions or simply dark magic artifacts, known to man on the right side of the room.
'There was also blood inside father's diary.' I confided to Momo and closed the door behind us.