Chapter 3
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It was late one night, a few days before winter break when Harry and Hermione sat in front of the fireplace. Library books surrounded them as they tried to find more information about a man named Nicholas Flamel. Ron was sound asleep on the couch behind the duo. The flickering light of the fireplace created shadows on his face that Harry felt like tracing them with his fingers. He didn't though. Because Ron was a light sleeper. And he didn't want to wake him up. Though, that didn't stop him from speaking loudly.

Harry flung his book close, throwing it across the room. "This is pointless. We're never going to find anything in these books."

Hermione sighed at his behaviour, but she knew he was right. She closed her book also.

Harry leaned against an upholstered chair, resting his head on the seat and closing his eyes. They've been searching for this Nicholas Flamel for weeks without any lead. And yet his name sounded awfully familiar. Only Harry couldn't put his finger on why it sounded so familiar, which made everything more frustrating.

He peeked at Hermione through one open eye. She was absentmindedly biting her thumbnail, obviously lost in thought so he elbowed her slightly, rousing her from her reverie.

"We should ask Adhara for help."

Harry pursed his lips. He admitted he had thought of the idea before, but he didn't like it very much.

"No."

"Why not? Four heads are better than three."

"I don't trust her."

"Well, I do. She's great! She even defended you that day in the courtyard! Against Midge!"

"She hexed him, that's what she did."

"Technically none of the spells she used were hexes. Only charms."

Harry shot up. "Really?"

"Yes," Hermione rolled her eyes. "And Fred and George hex people all the time. You don't have any problem with them."

"They're different."

"Why? Because they aren't Slytherin?"

"Exactly."

"And what's so wrong with Slytherins?"

Harry glared at his feet. He didn't know if he wanted to share the whole truth yet. He opted to tell her another truth instead. "Hagrid said that there isn't a wizard gone bad who wasn't in Slytherin."

"Well, that's just stupid. Midge is a jerk and he is a Hufflepuff. Not to mention none of his friends wore green."

He noticed this too, he just didn't want to admit it yet. Harry picked a random book from the pile and started flipping through it, not really reading.

"What's this really about, Harry? Don't tell me Ron actually convinced you of all that house rivalry nonsense."

"No, that's not..."

"Then what is it?"

He slammed the book shut. "That day!" He winced at the volume of his own voice and took a breath to calm himself down. "That day, at the courtyard-" he tried again, but couldn't bring himself to continue. He drew his head back again, looking at the ceiling. Someone once taught him to count whenever he felt angry and that's exactly what he was doing. Counting the little emblems of lions around the common room. There were a lot of lions.

Hermione urged him to continue.

Harry room a another deep breath. "I didn't need her help. I'm not helpless. I can't defend myself."

"She didn't say you were."

"Then why did she help me?"

"If I was the one who helped you instead, would you still be mad?"

"Yes!"

Hermione frowned. "Why?"

"Because, as I said, I don't need anyone's help. I didn't ask for it!"

"You don't need to ask for help! We're your friends, we want to help you because we care about you, not because we think you're helpless!"

Harry looked shocked at her outburst and, fortunately for him, kept his mouth shut.

"And before you say anything else about Adhara, let me just remind you that she was the first person who was nice to me and befriended me whilst you and Ron went about speaking behind my back. She's a good person! So you better shut it with all that about Slytherins being bad because it's all rubbish!"

Harry watched her as she tried to calm herself down.

"Better?"

Hermione glared.

"I-I didn't know she was your first friend here."

"First friend ever."

"Sorry."

Hermione didn't reply to the apology. Instead, she said, "Adhara's more trustworthy than she looks. And judging her based on her House doesn't make you any better than the sorts like Midge."

Harry frowned. He knew Hermione was right. It was Hermione, after all. She was always right.

━━━━

A few days after Christmas, Adhara found herself a quiet nook under the quidditch stands. She sat in the corner of the Hufflepuff area, reading one of her father's letters.

"Hey."

Adhara recognized the voice. She didn't bother to look up from the letter.

"Potter,"  Adhara acknowledged.

The said boy nodded in response before striding up to her and taking a seat next to her. He fumbled around with the edge of his muffler, clearly debating whether or not he should be here.

Adhara decided to save him from his thoughts. "Why are you here?"

Potter shrugged.

"Where is Weasley?"

Potter shook his head, cheeks puffed out.

"Had a fight, now did we?"

Potter shook his head again. "No, it's just..."

Adhara waited for him to continue.

"I found a mirror."

"A mirror?"

"Yes. A magic mirror. And Ron says we shouldn't get too close to it."

"Why not?" she questioned, intrigued. She put away her letter.

"It shows me my parents. But not to Ron."

Adhara found this unsettling.

"Show me."

━

"See, stand there. Right in the middle. Tell me what you see."

Adhara did as she was told and looked inside the mirror. "What do you see, Potter?"

"I see my mum and my dad."

"I do too."

"Right?! Ron wasn't-"

"No, Harry. I see my mum and my dad. Not yours. Well, at least that's who I think they are. I never met them."

"Me neither."

A few minutes passed by without any of them speaking. They sat in front of the mirror and continued to stare.

Harry spoke first. "Adhara, why do you always wear gloves?"

"Why do none of your clothes ever fit you?"

Neither of them answered each other's questions, but they both understood.

"I miss my parents."

"So do I."

━━

The day after the mirror incident, Potter, with a reluctant Weasley stomping behind him, approached her at lunch. At the Slytherin table.

"Can we join you?"

She lifted a suspicious brow at them. Adhara looked around the table and saw that the few other Slytherins who stayed back for the Holidays were also casting them a wary look.

She searched their faces for any lies and found none. Turning her attention back at her dinner, she stated: "I don't own the place."

Potter's whole face lit up.

Later, both Weasley twins also joined when they noticed their brother at the table.

━━━━

On the rare occasions that Adhara did study at the common room, she made sure that the place was fairly empty, which it mostly was considering it was winter break.

Her housemates usually left her alone. It was January and the whole "a half-blood Black" fiasco had died down. Now, they mostly just glared at her from afar instead of actually directly bothering her. Well, all except for Draco Malfoy.

Apart from him, no one else really talked to her. The reduction of attention was greatly appreciated since it was now safe to spend a bit more time in the common room without worrying about others.

Except, today, that was not the case.

Someone decided to join Adhara at her table. She lifted her eyes from her parchment to see Millicent Bulstrode sitting across from her.

Bulstrode was one of three students she shared a room with. She was one of the quieter ones. The other two, Parkinson and Greengrass, seem to always be in their own corner, talking away. They tried to taunt Adhara at the beginning of the term, but the girl just ignored them and the duo eventually gave up. They then tried to pick at their next victim, her third roommate. But Bulstrode showed them her fist once and they instantly shut up.

Adhara didn't comment on Bulstrode's seating choice. After all, the common room didn't belong to her, her roommate had every right to sit wherever she wanted. It just surprised her that she chose to sit there specifically when the rest of the room was completely empty.

"You seem to be good friends with Potter and those Weasleys."

Adhara furrowed her brows. Potter wasn't her friend. And the Weasleys certainly weren't, but she didn't bother to correct her.

"I don't see how that's any of your concern."

Bulstrode smiled. "I'm Millicent."

━━━━

Ron was taking too long in the bathroom that evening. The boy fell into the ice-cold Black Lake earlier and instead of going to see Madam Pomfrey, he decided a hot shower was enough. But apparently, that meant he would spend an hour in the shower.

Harry, being the perfect student that he was, decided to complete the homework he didn't do over the break.

He sat on Ron's bed, not knowing what to write as droplets of ink stained the surface of his parchment.

Seamus Finnigan walked into their room, looking suspicious. He didn't notice Harry until he spoke, startling Seamus in the process.

"Harry!"

"Hey. Why do you look like you're up to something?"

Seamus looked sheepish. He brought a hand to the back of his neck. "Well, umm. Me and Dean wanted to prank Snape."

Harry thought for a second. And then, "I'm always down to prank Snape, I don't even need a reason. So what's the plan?"

"My dad mailed me food colouring. Told him I needed it for potions. He's muggle, you see?"

"Yeah, you've mentioned."

"Well," continued Seamus, smile widening, "I thought maybe we could put a few drops in Snape's goblet. He'll have green teeth then."

Harry smirked. "Use red instead. Make him show his Gryffindor pride."

Seamus' smile turned into a full on grin then. He grabbed the red colour instead. "I like how you think, Potter! Wanna help?"

"As long as you don't blow anything up."

━━━━

Adhara and Hermione studied at their usual spot in the library when Millicent walked up to them. She surveyed a look over the duo, before shrugging and taking the spot in front of Hermione.

Hermione waited for her for a second to see if she would say something but Bulstrode only took out her parchment and started working. She turned towards her friend, expecting some sort of explanation but noticed that Adhara hadn't looked up from her book even once.

She nudged her with her foot. Adhara only hummed.

"Are you two friends?" she whispered, gaining the blonde's attention as well.

"No," said Adhara at the same time as Millicent replied with a "yes."

Adhara glanced towards Millicent, considering it. "Oh. I guess we are. We're roommates and she lets me call her by her first name."

"And that signifies you both are now friends?"

Both Slytherins gave her a nod.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Purebloods."

"We're both half-blood, actually."

"Alright, then. Wizards."

"Tell me about it." Millicent agreed, shaking her head. "Millicent Bulstrode, by the way."

Hermione smiled. She put down her quill and leaned towards the girl. "Say. Can I call you Millie?"

"No."

"I'm calling you that anyway."

━━━━

It was a Hogsmeade weekend when Hermione decided to be true to her House and do something daring. She dragged Harry to the Slytherin table with her.

Ron had detention, so he only had Hermione, but she wanted to spend the day with Black, so he had to comply.

Harry's stomach made a grumbling noise. He ate at the Slytherin table one evening before, during the holidays. But there weren't that many people then, and he was accompanied by the Weasley's, a family of purebloods, instead.

Blood traitor or not, they were more welcomed by blood purists than muggleborns. Harry loved Hermione, and he couldn't care less about what others thought. She should be allowed to eat at the table if she wanted to. However, he couldn't help but wonder what a muggleborn sitting at the Slytherin table would entail.

She pushed him beside a girl with blonde hair whose name he didn't know and sat herself down next to Black. In the end, Harry decided not to think about it too much and grabbed a sandwich. He did admit that he hadn't wanted to sit at the Gryffindor table that day. Midge and his group were there and he didn't fancy receiving the stink-eye all lunchtime as he did on most Hogsmeade weekends.

"Oi!"

The girl next to him, Hermione and he turned their attention towards the voice. Black continued to separate her sandwich into smaller bite-size pieces, seemingly ignoring Malfoy.

"What is she doing here?"

"Eating, obviously," said Harry, mocking Black's usual response.

The said girl scoffed.

"Mudblood aren't welcome here, Potter! And neither are you!"

"Aren't I also mudblood?" started the girl beside him, "and Adhara too? And what about all the other actual mudbloods who wear a green tie?"

"There aren't any-"

"Yes, there are. We just never talk about them." Adhara put a piece of her sandwich into her mouth, still wearing her gloves.

Harry thought that couldn't be very sanitary, but made no comment.

"Do try to mind your own business, sometimes," she continued. "I understand you're trying to build an image here, but you should know that you're only embarrassing yourself. And as your cousin, I feel it to be my duty to stop you from humiliating the family's name."

Malfoy's face turned red. His jaw clenched, eyes darting between the four before he said: "I'll have you know that I'm more of a 'Black' than you'll ever be, half-blood. I'm the heir to both the Malfoy and the Black line, unlike you, who's blood's-"

Harry didn't let him finish. He wanted to kick him but restrained himself from doing so.

"And yet, she's the one who carries the name," he pointed out instead.

Adhara finally looked up from her plate, eyes on Harry.

Malfoy slammed his fist onto the table. "I am a pureblood!"

"You're an inbred, that's what you are. Now, go eat your food."

Still fuming, yet utterly stumped, Malfoy stalked away.

Hermione still looked dumbstruck at Harry's comment, but the girl beside him looked secretly pleased.

Adhara was smirking. Harry mirrored her expression.

━━━━

"That looks absolutely wicked."

They were standing at the stalls, watching Potter play in yet another quidditch match. It was the first one Adhara attended all year. She snuck away from the other Slytherins a while ago, Millicent at her feet as she made her way towards Hermione.

They weren't standing with the rest of the Gryffindors either, deciding on a place close to the Ravenclaws, which was somewhat of a middle ground.

It was Hufflepuff vs Gryffindor that day, so Adhara felt less guilty for siding with Potter. Note, she was siding with him. She was not cheering for him. Those were very different concepts.

She never saw a quidditch game before, only heard what it was like from some of the older kids at Aleyne. Adhara was surprised to find out that she was completely mesmerized by it.

Millicent and Hermione both gave her a look, confused but at the same time amused at Adhara's rare display of emotion. Adhara kept her eyes on the match.

"Wicked?" Hermione questioned.

"I mean. That looks fun."

Adhara eyes followed the Hufflepuff chaser as he did a double barrel, escaping one of the Gryffindors beater (either Fred or George, but who could tell?) before he smashed the quaffle towards Wood.

She clapped along when Hufflepuff scored.

"Fun?" That was Millicent.

"Yes. Fun. I feel like I might enjoy that. Maybe even do better."

"Which position, exactly?"

"Chaser, obviously."

━━

Gryffindor won. Unsurprisingly.

Ron was still relishing the win and celebrating with the rest of the Gryffindor quidditch fanatics to actually go see Harry. Therefore, Hermione dragged Adhara by her arm towards the red tent where she knew Harry would be with the rest of his team. Millicent trailed behind them.

"Shouldn't you wait for Weasley to join you? I don't think they'd appreciate two Slytherins showing up."

"Nonsense! It's Harry. We've eaten together at your table!"

"I'm talking about the rest of the team, Hermione."

Millicent joined the conversation. "I don't know Adhara. I always thought that Flint and Wood had something going on. It seems a bit too intense for it to only be a rivalry."

Adhara turned around to show her a disgusted expression. She didn't like romance talk at all.

Millicent laughed.

━━

"Nice game. I guess."

"Thanks. I think."

Hermione's eyes darted between three two. She still hoped both her friend groups would somehow unite, but this was just awkward.

Millicent came to the rescue. "Don't listen to her, Potter. She was too busy paying attention to the chasers to actually watch you play."

Adhara wasn't affected by the comment. It was the truth. The chaser position seemed more fun. Why would anyone want to stay still for most of the game and only be on the lookout for a small golden bug?

"The position seems more enjoyable. Besides, I'm assuming you were good since the game only lasted a mere five minutes."

Harry's cheeks flushed, yet he crossed his arms, standing up more straight. He was obviously confident in his abilities no matter how embarrassed he got about compliments.

"Although," continued Adhara, "if the game had lasted longer, I highly doubt Hufflepuff would've lost. Their chasers are much better than yours."

She hoped the comment would offend the boy, but instead Harry's eyes lit up. He took a step toward her and started rambling about techniques and positions. "I know right! Angelina's amazing but I think we should incorporate some of the Puff's training techniques for the chasers. I was gonna talk about it with Wood!"

Adhara took a step back, slightly taken aback, but she tried not to show it much. Harry's eyes were practically sparkling. Was quidditch really that important to this kid?

"Ye-yeah, umm. That sounds like a good idea."

Harry grinned.

━━━━

On one afternoon, during the weekend, Hermione approached Adhara in the library. This was far from being unusual, but normally, there weren't two Gryffindor boys trailing behind her.

"Adhara, we need your help."

The girl in question looked at her friend, confusion written all over her face. "All three of you?"

The trio nodded, albeit Weasley a bit reluctantly.

"We're looking for something-"

"-someone!" Potter interjected.

"Yes. Alright. Someone. But we only have his name and know nothing about him."

"Who?"

"Nicholas Flamel."

Adhara thought for a second, raking her brain for the familiar name until the light bulb lit up.

"Do you mean the alchemist?"

Hermione's eyes brightened.

Adhara continued, "the one who discovered the twelve uses of dragon's blood. Hermione, we read about him sometime in October or something."

"Of course! How could I have been so stupid?" she said, making her way towards to bookshelves.

Potter turned his attention on Adhara. "What uses does a dragon's blood have?"

"I don't know," she gave him a shrug, "I stopped paying attention soon after. But Hermione should know. Why the sudden interest in Flamel anyway?"

"He has some-"

"Here we go!" Hermione hauled up a heavy book on the table between them and sat down on a chair next to Adhara. "We checked this out weeks ago for bit of a light reading." She started flicking through the pages.

Weasley nudged the book. "Light? This is light?"

Hermione paused, glaring at Weasley before getting back to work. "Here it is! Nicholas Flamel is the only known maker of the Philosopher's stone."

"What?" Both Potter and Weasley blurted out.

"Honestly. Don't you two read?"

Adhara snorted, amused at her friend. Potter and Weasley looked insulted.

"The Philosopher's stone is the legendary substance with astonishing powers," Hermione read on, "it can transform any metal into pure gold and produces the elixir of life, which would make the drinker immortal."

"Immortal?"

"It means you will never die," Adhara explained.

"I know what it means!"

Potter shushed him.

"The only Stone currently in existence belongs to Mister Nicholas Flamel, the noted alchemist who, last year, celebrated his 660th birthday."

"That's what Fluffy's guarding under the trap door on the third floor!"

The mention of 'the third floor' caught Adhara's attention. She snapped her head at the two boys. "What do you mean the 'the third floor'? You don't mean the forbidden one, do you? And who's Fluffy?"

The trio exchanged a look.

━

"And you think Snape is after this stone."

They were back at the secluded corridor that Adhara once showed Potter and Weasley. The two boys, along with Hermione, were cramped onto the windowsill, watching Adhara as she paced back and forth.

She abruptly stopped, surprising the trio, and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Why did the Headmaster think it would be a good idea to put a priceless and dangerous artifact in a school full of children? Not to mention the cerberus!"

"I've always said he was an old bat," Weasley added. "I don't really trust him."

"Neither do I. There's something about that glint in his eye."

"I just think he's mental."

"At least, there's something we both agree on."

Weasley nodded.

Hermione coughed, bringing attention to herself. "It was supposed to protect the stone." She was talking about the three-headed dog.

"Yes, but why here?"

"Hogwarts meant to be the safest place on earth. Suppose he thought it would be safe here. And he was right, wasn't he? Gringotts was robbed!"

"Yes, so safe that three ittle first years were able to figure out where the stone was located and who exactly was after it!"

Hermione opened her mouth to argue further but Potter beat her to it.

"That doesn't matter right now, does it? We know that the stone is here and that Snape is after it! We need to stop him!"

"And how do you suggest we do that? Potter, we are talking about a full-fledged adult wizard here!"

"But, Adha-"

"No, Harry," she said, stressing his name. "You are only an eleven year old kid. You can't possibly think of standing up to Snape on your own."

"Then what?! We just cower away whilst he steals the stone?!"

He was on his feet now. Standing right in front of Adhara, only a centimetre shorter than her, with a fierce look in his eye.

Adhara, on the other hand, looked as calm as ever, yet she had her fists clenched, nails digging into her palm.

The two others were still. They stayed at their original spots, too caught up in the fight to actually say something.

"No," Adhara started softly, "you barely know anything about the stone, not to mention you have no proof that Snape wants anything to do with it."

Potter's jaw clenched. "Then what do you suggest?"

"Gather information and evidence against Snape. And then go see your head of house. She seems trustworthy. You have mentioned that gamekeeper of yours was particularly loose-lipped, have you not?"

Potter nodded, rigidly.

"Go and ask him questions."

He gritted his teeth before letting out a deep breath. He still felt angry, breathing in and out was not helping dissipate the tension at his shoulders but he knew deep down that Adhara had a point.

"Alright. We will," he said, and then added, "Black."

"Potter."

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