Later that night, Diana sat in the Slytherin common room with Layla, doing their homework which had been given to them that very same day. They'd decided not to leave their homework for the weekends anymore, because they would all pile up and take them two whole days to finish.

     Diana had placed a little stone in front of her with her wand in hand, practicing the Vanishing Spell that Professor McGonagall had taught them that day. Meanwhile, Layla was busy writing her Charms essay on Entrancing Enchantments.

     "Evanesco!" Diana said with her wand pointed at the stone, but nothing happened. She then checked Layla's notes on the subject to make sure she was doing the wand movement correctly.

     "All right, I'm done," said Layla, putting down her quill at last.

      "How is that even possible? It took me three hours to write! It took you less than one!" Diana frowned as she looked down at Layla's neatly-written essay.

   "Quickening Charm," Layla explained with a proud grin. "I put it on my quill to be able to write faster."

     "Smart. But that Charm's really advanced. Even more than N.E.W.T level," Diana said with fascination, observing her friend's quill.

     "I know." Layla shrugged, still grinning. "I'm starting to get really good at performing spells this year."

     "I'm better off writing and reading theoretical stuff," Diana said, glaring down at the stone which remained visible on the table. "Meh. I better stick with Ancient Runes and History of Magic and other subjects like that."

     "Here. Let me show you the wand movement for the Vanishing Spell," Layla started, taking out her own wand.

     Just then, three seventh year boys walked down into the common room, dropping themselves down on the black leather couches in front of the green fireplace. Diana groaned to herself as she saw that among them was Evan Rosier.

      "...still thinking about it, of course," Evan continued speaking as they sat down. "But I'm pretty certain it's gonna happen this summer, after I graduate Hogwarts."

     "You sure?" one of the other boys asked. "I mean, it's one thing to support the idea of Pureblood supermacy, but to join the Dark Lord —"

     "Keep your voice down!" the third boy cut him off, looking around anxiously.

     Diana and Layla glanced at each other sideways before looking down at their books, pretending to be reading while they listened to their conversation.

     "Joining the Dark Lord would be an honor," said Evan, smirking as he leaned back on the couch. "There is no place for Mudbloods in this school, nor in the Wizarding world. We'll make sure of that."

***

It was as though Layla and Diana had come to a silent agreement not to talk about what they had heard Evan Rosier say that night. But the next morning, as they were sitting in the Great Hall for breakfast, Layla couldn't hold herself back anymore.

"You don't really think Rosier is actually considering joining You-Know-Who, do you?" Layla asked in a low whisper, her appetite not as good as usual.

"I'm surprised he hasn't joined already. I knew he would join sooner or later." Diana shrugged. "The Dark Lord is getting stronger everyday, and the number of his followers and supporters are growing by each passing hour."

"It's one thing to believe in Pureblood supremacy, but to become a Death Eater..." Layla shivered at the thought. "Rosier had never seemed as the type. How were you so sure about his future intentions?"

"Unfortunately my family is in contact with the Rosiers, so I know what they're like. I've heard that Evan's older uncle — Rosier senior — was actually in the same year as the Dark Lord in their time at Hogwarts. He was one of his first followers, along with Avery, Lestrange, and Malfoy."

"Oh..." Layla sighed, pursing her lips together as she glanced up at Diana. "And you?"

Diana sent her a look. "What about me?"

"Do you think you'll ever wanna join?"

"Never in a million years." Diana scoffed, shaking her head before taking the last bite of her food. "What made you think that I would?"

"Dunno... You always talked about how horrible Muggles are."

"And I have every reason to! You had to hear the scary bedtime stories my mother told me about them when I was a kid," said Diana bitterly. "I've also read every single one of the history books in my father's library. Do you know what Muggles did to witches?"

"Kill them?"

"Worse." Diana shook her head grimly. "They burned the witches alive. The Muggles would tie them around woods and set them on fire as they watched them scream. And they only hunted witches, not wizards. Because apparently Muggles used to think that men were saints and incapable of doing wrong, meanwhile they believed that women were wicked and full of sin. Can you believe that?"

"But in our third year's History of Magic book, it said that Muggles couldn't even recognize a real witch, and instead they would catch women that they thought were odd. Besides, when they catch a real witch on the rare occasion —"

"I know, I know," Diana cut her off, rolling her eyes, "the witches would usually perform a basic Flame-Freezing Charm and pretend to shriek with pain while enjoying a gentle, tickling sensation. I've read that article. But that doesn't excuse Muggles for wanting us dead."

"How do you memorize everything that you read?" Layla chuckled. "You have a gift for these stuff, you know."

"Maybe," Diana grinned, "but instead I suck at wand-work."

"I have no difficulty on that area," Layla said with a wink, and so the two girls snorted in laughter.

"BULLOCKS!" Diana suddenly cursed out loudly as her eyes fell on her watch, causing the people who were sitting nearby them to stare at her.

"What?" Layla frowned.

"Crap! I forgot we had Ancient Runes today! If I wanted to get to the class on time, I should've left ten minutes ago," Diana said quickly, already getting up to her feet and grabbing her bag. "See you later."

"Bye." Layla waved, and so Diana hurried toward the entrance doors of the Great Hall.

Although on her way out, she couldn't help but notice that Remus Lupin was still sitting at the Gryffindor table with his friends, as if in no rush to get to class.

Diana ran her way toward the West Tower, but when she finally reached the classroom out of breath, she had to swallow up the urge to curse loudly when she saw that Lupin was already sitting behind his desk.

She glared at the back of his head. What the fu—

But her thoughts were cut short when Professor Kumar said, "Hello, Miss Greengrass."

Diana hadn't even noticed that she was already in class. She flushed in embarrassment, knowing that the Professor had probably caught her staring at Lupin again.

"Please, take a seat," Professor Kumar said kindly, instead of taking points off her like the other teachers did when someone came late to class.

But with a rush of horror, Diana realized that Professor Kumar was gesturing at the empty seat beside Lupin.

"Sorry I'm late, Professor," Diana muttered, and then pretending that she hadn't noticed where the Professor was pointing at, she went and took her usual seat at the back of the class.

As Professor Kumar went on teaching about the runes belonging to Ancient Egypt, Diana found herself wondering how on earth the Gryffindor boy had managed to beat her into getting to class. Twice.

She thought that maybe there was a secret way to the West Tower, but she couldn't figure how on earth Lupin could have found such passageway.

Diana only came back to her senses and snapped back to reality when at the end of class the other students all closed their books and placed their equipment in their bags.

"Now, before you leave," said the young Professor, silencing everyone, "This year, I decided to set an assignment for extra credits. Only one person will be able to participate. Do we have any volunteers?"

Her competitive side resurfacing, Diana's hand was first to shoot up, without actually knowing what the subject was going to be about. As her favorite subject, she really wanted to go for some extra credits on Ancient Runes, even though she was positive she was going to get a good score anyway.

Five more people volunteered as well, raising their hands, and among them was Remus Lupin.

But just then, Diana's heart sank when she saw a smile brewing on Professor Kumar's lips as her deep brown eyes traveled between her and the Gryffindor boy who was sitting in the front of the class.

Realizing what the Professor had in mind, Diana quickly put her hand down. But as it seemed, she was too late to do so.

"On second thoughts," Professor Kumar started, her smile growing, "seeing as there are more volunteers than I expected, how about we have two of you working on this project?"