Chapter 2
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The story wasn't so different this time around. Gringotts was still broken into. The Gryffindor trio's curiosity was still sparked. Though, this time, for one reason or another—whether that reason was Adhara or not didn't matter—Ron helped Harry get a subscription with The Prophet. The latter now religiously read the newspaper, checking if they found out anything on the thief.

Completely disregarding the food in front of him, Harry browsed through each column, skipping over the gossip section. He didn't know any of the people mentioned anyway.

He couldn't understand why he was so concerned about the robbery himself. It wasn't any of his business, therefore it shouldn't matter to him at all. But Harry felt the familiar ache in his throat when he first read the article. The same was that pushed him to shout at the Dursley's with the need to prove himself.

It made absolutely no sense.

Ron looked at Harry's empty plate, which was in a complete opposite state than his own, and shoved a toast in his friend's mouth.

Harry spat it out, scowling at Ron.

"Put it down, will ya? There's nothing about the vault in that. You checked it already." He took the paper away from him, and put another toast on his plate. "Eat first, research after."

"M'not hungry."

"Funny. I don't remember asking."

Harry glared again but took a bite of his toast anyway.

Hermione, who was sitting across from them, spoke up, "I think we should ask the Gamekeeper. You said he was the one who emptied the vault, no?"

"His name is Hagrid," stressed Harry. It wasn't a hard name to remember.

"Since when were you any part of 'we'?"

Hermione frowned at Ron.

Harry was about to say something to Hermione when the scene behind her caught his attention instead.

Hermione, who noticed Harry's line of vision turned around to see what was happening. Black sat at the Slytherin table, Black was quietly eating her breakfast as someone taunted her from behind. It wasn't Malfoy this time, but a girl from their year, with her hair cut short and a flat round nose she held too high.

Black seemed to pay no mind to them.

Ron spoke first, "Gee, talk about unpopular. Seems like no one in her House likes her."

"Why not?" asked Hermione. "Isn't her family a Noble House or something?" She was still learning about the wizarding community, so she didn't know much of the Pureblood Families yet. Although, she did know enough to know their opinions on blood status with the limited knowledge she had about the war and with the comments she received in the hallways. Hermione may not know a lot about Adhara Black, but she knew her name meant something to the pureblood community.

"Yes, but she's half-blood. Ended a pureblood line, that one. Not many people are happy about it."

"You didn't believe that at first though," added Harry.

"Well, now I'm inclined to believe her, I guess."

Hermione seemed to be mulling over this information in her head before giving one last glance towards the Slytherin table. "You mean, she doesn't have many friends?"

"Doesn't seem like she has any at all."

Hermione scrutinized the two boys in front of her, thinking whether or not she should believe them. Harry and Ron shifted in their seat, uncomfortable under her gaze. Harry watched her as she brought her thumbnail to her mouth, seemingly contemplating over something.

"Okay."

Harry didn't know what conclusion she reached.

━━━━

Adhara was studying in the library one late October afternoon, as she did most days. She never spent her free time in her common room since most of her peers seemed to dislike her. She used to think it was because of her blood status, but now she wondered if the reason may also be her unapproachable nature. She didn't look to be the kindest of witches, with her sharp brows and sunken eyes. Her last name just added to the effect.

So, imagine her surprise when Hermione Granger of all people approached her that day.

"Hi, you must be Adhara Black!"

Adhara glanced up from her parchment with a scowl. When she noticed who was talking to her, she sat up straight in her chair and folded her arms on the table, silently telling the girl to continue.

The Gryffindor did'nt seem to understand. But seeing that Adhara wasn't going to say anything, she confidently added: "I'm Hermione Granger!"

"I'm aware."

"I was wondering if you started the Transfigura- wait....what?"

Adhara didn't say anything.

"You're aware?"

She nodded.

"As in you know who I am?"

Adhara rolled her eyes. Honestly, she was starting to do that way too often around Gryffindors.

"You're on top of most of our classes, Granger. Not to mention you seem to be the only one in that House of yours who knows not to throw a ruckus. Although you aren't any less loud." She checked the girl for any reaction towards the last statement and saw that her face had turned beet red. "We are in a library after all."

"We-well! I'm sorry-" When she realized she was still speaking at the same volume, she glanced around her, embarrassed, and spoke more quietly, "I apologize for bothering you but I was wondering if you wrote the Transfiguration essay yet. There's a bit of it that I didn't seem to understand much."

Adhara stared her down, suspicious. Granger was biting her nails and seemed to not be able to stand still.

A nervous tick. It was obviously a lie.

Deciding that no harm could come out of this, Adhara indulged her. She let out a sigh and gestured to the chair beside her.

Granger beamed and made her way towards the chair.

"I have, but you should know that I don't like the class too much so my response is a bit biased."

"You don't like Transfiguration? Why not? Professor McGonagall's brilliant!"

"Oh, I agree with that, I just don't like what she teaches. No offence to her, but I find it to be pointless. I mean, why are we learning to transfigure an animal to a goblet when we could just accio one from the kitchens?"

━━━━

"What the fuck what that."

Harry wasn't much fazed by the swearing. Uncle Dursley did it often and Aunt Petunia never told Dudley off when he did. Though, it seemed bother Hermione. She looked like she wanted to scold Ron but held her tongue. She settled on glaring at him instead. The three of them frantically stumbled into the common room.

"What do they think they're doing, keeping a thing like that?! Locked up in a school." The redhead made his way to the stairs, climbing them towards the dorm rooms.

Harry was following the two from behind, watching them argue. He learned it was best to stay out of it when Ron and Hermione started to bicker.

Hermione stopped abruptly in the middle of the staircase, surprising Ron who bumped into Harry. He scowled, dusting his shoulders.

"You don't use your eyes, do you? Didn't you see what it was standing on?"

"I wasn't looking at its feet! I was a bit preoccupied with its heads. Or maybe you didn't notice, there were three!"

"It was standing on a trap door, which means it wasn't there by accident." She jabbed an index finger at his chest. "It's guarding something."

"Guarding something?" repeated Harry, poking his head from behind Ron.

Ron swatted her hand away. "Yeah? And what would it be guarding, anyway?"

Hermione crossed her arms, fighting the urge to roll her eyes. "What do you think?"

Ron's eyes went wide. "You don't think?"

"What?" Harry shook his roommate by his robes. "What does she think!?"

Hermione let out an exasperated sigh. "The vault? Whatever was in there is now here, at Hogwarts."

"What?!"

"That's right. Now. If you two don't mind, I'm off to bed!"

"Wait!" Ron grabbed Hermione by her shoulder, stopping her from entering the dorm room.

Hermione arched a brow, questioning.

"Don't go off telling any of this to that friend of yours!"

"Friend?"

"Black, of course! The whole school knows you two are study buddies or something!"

Hermione pushed his arm away. "And why not?"

"Just don't!"

"Whatever," she huffed. "Now, I'm going to bed before either of you come up with another clever idea to get us killed. Or worst, expelled," she said pointedly. Hermione pushed the door of the girl's dorms and left Harry and Ron behind her.

Both boys exchanged a worried look.

"She needs to sort out her priorities."

━━━━

For the next few weeks, Granger and Adhara studied together almost every day. Apparently, she took that one permission to sit beside her as an invitation to study together all the time.

The news about the duo spread around the school like wildfire. They found it odd to see a member of House Black getting along with a muggleborn witch. The library was flooded with students trying to get a peek at the two.

If you asked Adhara, they were the ones who were odd.

Adhara never had any friends before so she didn't know if she was supposed to consider Granger one. The kids back at Aleyne weren't friends. They weren't family either. It was more so a mutual understanding between them. Don't anger Matron and neither of us will have to spend the night in the furnace room.

She didn't dislike Granger, but she didn't particularly like her either. Adhara decided at the end that whatever relationship she had with Granger wasn't important. Even if her righteousness annoyed her sometimes, her overall company wasn't that irritating. So maybe she'll keep her around. You know, for Granger's sake.

━━━━

The night before Halloween, Harry had a nightmare.

It wasn't uncommon for him to have a nightmare. In fact, he got plenty of them back at Privet Drive. When he was younger, it was mostly about his aunt leaving him on his own. Back when he still thought he would win her over one day. That she would love him back. But that never happened. And slowly, the nightmares shifted from abandonment to the cupboard, or about being locked outside in the yard.

Sometimes, he dreamt about Dudley and his fists, or Uncle Vernon and his belt, and he would feel phantom pain on his back. Either way, he knew it meant he wouldn't get any sleep that night.

Getting nightmares at Hogwarts wasn't new either. It's been two months since the start of term, but Harry mastered the silencing spell quite early on. He would cast a simple silencio on himself before bed, hoping he wouldn't wake anyone up with his trashing and turning.

However, he forgot that just because no one could hear him, it didn't mean no one would see him. He forgot to draw his curtains after all.

And after growing up with the twins, which meant he always had to be on his toes, Ron Weasley was a light sleeper.

And from his friend's eating habits to his sleeping habits, not to mention the fact that he couldn't hear him at all even though he was clearly talking in his sleep, Ron was starting to question a few things.

Worry built up in his stomach as he made his way towards Harry's bedside. He gave him a light tug, waking him up.

Harry jolted awake, flinging his arms towards whoever woke him before noticing a tinge of red hair in the dark. He reached for his glasses.

He tried to speak to Ron, but no sound came out.

"Take off the silencing charm. I know you use it."

Harry complied.

"Are you going to tell me what this is about?" he asked, arms crossed. Ron wasn't very sure what he was meant to do. He raked through his own memories, trying to recall how he used to help Ginny when she woke him up in the middle of the night. Back when they were both still small and the only ones left at the Burrow whilst their older brothers were at school.

Harry turned away, avoiding his eyes. He couldn't lie to him at this point. "Nightmares," he replied simply, keeping his voice as steady as he could manage.

"I could see that. Now, move over."

"What?"

"Move over. I'm not exactly small, am I?"

Still confused about the situation, yet weirdly grateful, Harry made some room for his friend who was already crawling into his bed.

Ron laid down underneath the covers, facing away from Harry. "Goodnight."

Harry's brows stayed furrowed. He slowly laid down, pulling the covers over his head.

"Goodnight, Ron."

━━━━

On Halloween day, Adhara showed up at the library after lessons as per usual only to notice that Granger was nowhere to be seen. She decided that perhaps the girl was only late, but as the clock ticked closer to dinner time, Adhara started to get annoyed.

She huffed, gathering her stuff. "Whatever. I only kept her close for Transfiguration anyway," she muttered under her breath.

As she was leaving the library, however, another girl from Gryffindor ran towards her. She kept her long black hair plaited on the side with a butterfly hair tie at the end.

"Black!"

Adhara gave her a dirty look, but the girl didn't budge.

"Please, my mother's a lot scarier than you are," the girl scoffed. "Anyway, you're friends with Hermione right? Well, she's in the first-floor bathroom. Crying. She's been there all afternoon!"

"And why are you telling me this?" she glared at her even more. Adhara repositioned her satchel from one shoulder to another, tightening her grip around the strap.

"Well, you two are friends, no?"

She grumbled under her breath. "She's not my friend," she stated matter-of-factly, yet still made her way towards the bathrooms.

━━━━

Adhara all but ran to the girls' bathroom. She was thankful the library was also on the first floor, or else she wouldn't have even bothered. Or at least that's was she told herself.

"Granger?"

She didn't answer. But Adhara could hear quiet sniffling from one of the stalls.

"Granger? You didn't show to the library today." She got closer to the stall and squatted down next to it."I can hear you crying."

" 'm not crying," she sniffed.

"Your sniffling isn't very discreet." The girl didn't reply. Adhara huffed and stood up. She knocked on the door. "Come on Granger, open up."

Another weep.

"Please," she said more softly.

She heard the sound of an undistinguished click before the door opened only a little. Adhara let herself smile victoriously and walked inside the stall.

Granger was sitting on the toilet with the lid closed, her head on her knees.

Adhara kneeled at her level, waiting to see if she would open up herself, but that didn't happen.

"Granger, I didn't come here to watch you wallow in your own despair. Tell me what happened."

The 12-year-old girl lifted her head up, sniffling one last time before glaring at Adhara. "How did you know I was here?"

"One of the Patil twins told me. I expect our entire year group to know about this by supper."

"Oh!" Granger grabbed a handful of her own hair, shoving her head between her knees once more. She started crying again.

Adhara wasn't too sure what to do. She was used to subduing crying babies at Aleyne, but never someone her own age. The older kids didn't cry. And if they did, they did so behind doors.

Hesitantly, Adhara placed a hand on her head. "There, there. It's alright. No one will remember this by tomorrow." She patted her head awkwardly.

"You-you're sure?"

"No. Not really. But we can hope."

"You know, you're very bad at this."

Adhara shrugged. "I just don't like lying."

She coughed, but the side of her mouth quirked a bit. "I suppose that can sometimes be better."

"Trust me, the truth is always better." Adhara smiled back. "Now, are you going to explain what you're doing here? We're missing the Halloween feast for this, you know?"

Granger scowled. She wiped her hands over her eyes before quietly saying, "Ron."

The smile on her face wiped off in an instant. "What did Weasley do?"

"He only said what everyone else thinks. I am a nightmare! Ron's right! Professor Snape is right also! I am just an insufferable know-it-all."

Adhara thought it over for a moment. Granger had her eyes snapped shut again as she tried not to let any more tears spill. She contemplated between consoling the girl and confronting the redheaded jerk, deciding that perhaps it would be better to take care of the situation in front of her first. Ron Weasley wasn't that important right now.

"I wouldn't say you're insufferable. Loud perhaps, a bit irritating at times-"

Granger shoved her.

"-and definitely a know-it-all. Which isn't exactly a bad thing. There is nothing wrong with liking to read, nor is there anything wrong with being too smart for your own good."

"But Professor Snape said-"

"Professor Snape is a miserable man who is taking out all of his life's frustration on children. He doesn't like any of us."

Granger looked meek. "Ron also said I had no friends."

"Well, I may not know much about friends, but I am certain not everyone just skips the Halloween Feast for anyone."

Granger smiled. And Adhara copied her expression.

"Now, come on, Granger. Let's go eat."

"Oh for God's sake!" Granger groaned out, exasperated, "if we're going to be friends, you have got to stop with all this 'Granger' nonsense first! Honestly! It's Hermione!"

Adhara looked a bit taken aback by her outburst. "Alright then. Hermione. Let's go to the Great Hall." She opened the stall door, letting her new friend step out first.

"And have everyone stare at me for pathetically crying all aftern-"

"Everyone might forget if something more eventful occurs," she glanced at Hermione and saw she was staring at the entrance, mouth wide open.

"What?"

Hermione lifted a shaking finger towards to door. "The-there."

"What in the-"

━━

"Adhara."

"Yes?"

"The stalls?"

"Yes."

Hermione quickly grabbed Adhara's forearm and dragged her inside a stall, locking it behind her. Stricken by panic, it didn't occur to her that wooden doors were pointless in front of a troll. The beast obliterated the stalls in only one swing.

Hermione shrieked, covering her ears and eyes with her arms. Adhara pushed her down. She threw her own arms around her, trying her best to shield her from the debris. As the troll growled ferociously, they heard the muffled sound of fast-approaching footsteps outside the bathroom. And then the door was yanked open.

"Hermione?!"

"Ron?!"

"Potter?!"

"Black?! What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing!"

"I asked you first!"

"Never mind that!" shouted Hermione, "Distract the troll!"

Potter and Weasley exchanged a look before giving each other a determined nod. They started to grab broken pieces of wood and threw them at the troll.

"Not like that! You're wizards, remember?! Use your wands!" Adhara reminded.

The troll made another swing at the girls, who crawled their way towards the sinks. But the monster swung at them again, breaking the basins and the water pipes. Hermione let out another scream.

Potter grabbed his wand and ran at the troll, jumping onto his back.

Adhara felt like smacking him over the head. "Why did you even take your wand out for if you were going to do that?" She was annoyed by the Gryffindor. "How did you think this would be a good idea?"

"It seemed like one at the time!"

"Well, how about now?!"

The troll grabbed Potter by his legs, holding him upside down and started to swing its club at his head.

"Ron!" Potter called out, "Do something!"

"What?!"

"Anything!"

Weasley took out his wand and pointed at the troll.

"Remember! Just swish and flick!"

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

━━━━

Years of being denied proper meals had affected Harry's appetite. It's not that he didn't like eating. Oh no, he was more than ecstatic the first night at Hogwarts, during the Welcoming Feast, when all the food appeared. And the fact that he was allowed to dig into that was even more mind-boggling.

But unlike Ron, who could stuff two full plates into his stomach, Harry felt full after half a plate. Which was more than enough as he rarely got hungry.

Though, it seemed like there was another factor that affected Harry's appetite. If he didn't eat much already, he ate much less the morning of his first quidditch match.

"Come on, Harry," Hermione began, "you need food in your system if you want to fly properly."

But Harry couldn't hear her, overcome by nausea. Everyone was depending on him for the match. He had to catch the snitch, or else his team would lose. They expected a lot from him because he was supposed to be a natural. He was supposed to be the boy-who-lived. The son of quidditch fanatic James bloody Potter.

He didn't want to make a fool of himself. He couldn't.

"Here," Ron handed him a glass of orange juice, "try to drink something, at least."

"I feel like I'll gag out anything I put in my stomach."

Ron pushed the glass away.

This shouldn't be new. Harry always knew his stomach felt funny every time he worried about something. But he shouldn't have needed to wait eleven years to find out stress also affected his appetite.

And yet.

"Look, guys. I promise I'll eat something after the match. Just...not now." He shoved his almost-full bowl of porridge out of the way.

Hermione gave Ron a worried look.

━━━━

Adhara had to learn at a very young age not to show her emotions. Whenever she was called into Matron's office, she would clench her fists, tighten her jaw and keep her gaze straight ahead. Never at Matron directly, but never bowing her head either.

Matron didn't like that. She liked it when her children followed orders. But Adhara was never one to do that. She liked tugging back at people who tugged on her, reminding them she couldn't be controlled. And Matron hated her for it.

It was a game Adhara mastered early on. Although, no matter how good she was at it, it was a game that came with no clear instructions, thus a lot of the learning came from trial and error. But all paid off in the end. She could now stand in front of Matron, without showing the slightest bit of fear. All she has to do was dig her nails into her palm.

Though, she couldn't deny the ball of anxiety that grew in the pit of her stomach whenever she faced the woman. Or whenever someone mentioned the furnace room, no matter how well she wore the mask.

But Matron wasn't here. And the furnace room was far away.

So why was she feeling this way?

It was a perfectly normal transfiguration lesson. It was quiet except for the soft scratches of quill against parchment. Apart from the small tapping of a student's foot against a chair leg. Or the drum of someone's fingernails against wood.

It was a perfectly normal transfiguration lesson. Nothing was out of the ordinary.

Yet, Adhara felt overwhelmed. The smallest of sounds was ticking her off. She couldn't push away the tight ache in her chest.

Her desk mate, some guy from Hufflepuff, worked silently from next to her, paying no attention to her whatsoever.

Good. Normal.

McGonagall the Cat's piercing gaze loomed over the students, making sure no one was misbehaving. Stopping to look at anyone who didn't have their eyes on their parchment.

Okay. Also very normal.

Adhara wasn't working on her homework. She was trying to push away the uncomfortable heat on her skin, the one that made her feel like she was covered in a thick layer of hot oil.

Not normal. Not unusual, however.

She started to pick at the skin of her palm, covered by the silky fabric of her gloves.

"She isn't here. She isn't here. She. Isn't. Here. You're at Hogwarts, Adhara. Far away from Aleyne."

Adhara stopped when she felt something damp underneath her glove. She looked down to see it was stained. Deciding that it was better to just ignore it, she forced herself to grab her quill instead and got to work, ignoring the prickling sensation on her skin.

Without noticing, the Slytherin started to chew the inside of her cheek.

McGonagall eyed her from her seat.

━━━━

One evening, as the trio was working on their homework at the Great Hall, Adhara made her way towards them. She took the spot next to Hermione at the Gryffindor table, setting her bag in front of her.

"What are you doing here?"

She turned towards the voice. "Sitting, obviously."

Weasley groaned. "I mean, what are you doing here, at the Gryffindor table?"

"Talking to Hermione. I don't think there are any rules against it. And even if there were, I wouldn't care."

"Your gloves aren't green today," remarked Potter, suddenly.

She snapped her head towards him, ready to tell him off but then noticed that he meant no harm from the comment. In fact, the hand on his mouth indicated that he didn't mean to say that out loud at all. She sighed.

"I own a few pairs, Potter. I just so happen to own several green ones, but it is not the only colour I have."

Potter's face had turned red. He really hadn't meant to blurt that out.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"It's fine." Adhara decidedly ignored the two boys then and focused on her friend instead. "Have you started the Potions homework? There's something I don't quite get."

"What it is?"

"Why does it matter which direction we stir the mixture? I mean what's the magical property behind it? It can't be anything physical since I know science doesn't exactly explain this, so it has to be magical, right?"

Hermione's forehead creased. "I wonder that as well." She then got ahold of Adhara's forearm and dragged her out of her seat. "Come on, we're going to the library!"

"What? Why?"

"Because I'm assuming you wouldn't want to talk to Professor Snape."

━━━━

Harry was in the courtyard one November morning, where he sat cross-legged on the ground as Ron explained gobstones to him.

It was a warm day outside, which was rare this time of the year, so Ron and he decided to make the most of it and bring their game outside for once. Who knew when the sun will decide to make an appearance again?

Hermione and Black were only a small distance away, as the latter tried explaining how the seats in the Wizengamot worked. Most wizarding kids already knew this, so Hermione thought it to be beneficial for her to know too.

"Okay, so you get 15 gobstones, and I get 15. The point is to knock seven of yours out of the circle before your opponent does."

"Oh, so it's kinda like marbles?"

"What?"

"Muggles variant of this, I guess. Only, we use marbles, not stones."

"Oh! Do the muggles get sprayed with a nasty smell when they lose?"

"Not that I know of."

Ron shoved 15 stones in his hands when Jeremiah Midge, a Hufflepuff from the year above, sat down beside Harry. He played beater for their quidditch team.

Midge flung an arm around Harry's shoulders and jerked his head towards Ron. "What'cha doing here, lads?"

Ron gave him a judging look, reflecting Harry's expression exactly.

"Planning world domination," Harry answered sarcastically. He didn't like him, something about the boy's attitude was off. He squirmed out of the his arm, who looked offended by the act.

Midge switched his attention to Ron instead. "Gobstones? On a day like this! Come on lads, let's have some real fun!"

"What do you suggest?"

"We could go for a friendly game of quidditch? Or better yet, we could go to Hogsmeade!"

Ron scowled. "Umm, mate. Did you forget we're first years or something? And you're a second year. We can't go to Hogsmeade unless we were third years."

Harry moved away from Midge, who just swung an arm around him once more. "So? We've got the boy-who-lived right here with us! See those guys over there," he pointed towards a group Hufflepuffs, joined with some Gryffindors. They were all smiling and waving at him. "Surely, you can use some of your famous points to get us out of this measly old castle, right?"

Harry's glare hardened. "No, thank you." He distantly noticed that Hermione and Black stopped talking.

"Oh, come on! This Weasley of yours must get some kind of special treatment for being your friend. Why can't we?" His smile got more and more bright, to the point that it looked fake.

"You should know not everyone is as much of a glorywhore as you are."

Midge's smile dropped too easily. He retrieved his arm. "Oi."

"What?" Harry challenged. He wasn't going to let this jerk walk over him.

"Oh, so I see. You are more like that godfather of yours than your own parents. Tell me, Potter, when did you go Dark? Should I expect the same level of crazy as the Blacks from you?"

He made a grab for Harry's collar when suddenly his hand shrunk twice its size. Both of them looked towards the source of the spell. Black was still sitting at her spot, but her wand was raised and she spared a glance towards Midge.

"What the fuck?!" Midge yelled.

Black, her expression seemingly still cool, pointed her wand to his mouth, freezing it. Ice covered the Hufflepuff's lips. "If it's Black level crazy you want to see, you can always come to me. I can show you exactly why my family got the reputation it has."

Hermione tried to stop her, and Ron looked at her, reluctantly impressed.

Midge, who was taken aback, still decided to march up to her, but Black only twirled her wand again and the Hufflepuff was knocked back. She turned and faced his friends. A menacing look played her features, making them scamper away.

Harry wasn't sure whether to be pissed or grateful.

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