New Years came and went, and all too soon, the Christmas holidays were over. Jeff, Felix and Raymond came back two days before the term started, and were delighted to see the progress Calysta and Regulus had made on the map. 

Raymond, who hadn't had a very pleasant time at home during the holidays, wasn't feeling himself. His spirits were dampened quite a bit, and he lacked his usual bubbly demeanor. It reminded Calysta very much of how he was at the start of the year, before they befriended him.

It was only when Raymond was drawing Calysta and Regulus' new findings to the map that he was in a slightly better mood. 

Regulus took the opportunity to start the conversation. "Ray, my man, what happened? Are you okay?"

Raymond merely shrugged and shook his head. "I'm fine," he said stiffly. 

"Did something happen over the break?" Felix asked, spraying his bed all over with that smelly tonic of his. 

"Obviously, look at him," sighed Jeff, giving the rest the impression that he was the depressed mother of Raymond. "He's been like this since the train."

The Avery boy was carefully drawing the little details of the astronomy tower, the outside and the inside, and as he ran out of parchment, he took a new scroll and started drawing on that one. Beside him, the pile of rolled parchments grew.

"The only thing he's doing is drawing," sighed Jeff wistfully, wiping an imaginary tear.

"Ray," Calysta spoke, gently placing her arm on his shoulder. "Look at me."

The boy in question looked at the brunette. 

"I don't know what happened over the break, and we won't pretend to understand what you're going through," she hummed. "But we're here for you, and we'll help you."

Raymond sent her a small, grateful smile, before turning back to his drawing. "Sorry guys," he muttered. "Just give me a couple of days."

True to his word, a couple of days later, he was back to normal, furiously apologizing to his friends and informing them how his break had gone. The poor Avery boy had spent most of his time alone in his room, sketching, and during the annual pureblood Christmas get-together, (which he was forced to attend) he was tired of hearing everyone whispering about how he was in Gryffindor, and therefore, a disappointment.

And his friends only stood strong by his side, reassuring him that they would stay by his side, and repeatedly telling him how brave he was for not letting the pressure get to him. A week later, Raymond was happier than ever.

The snow had begun to melt, much to Calysta's disappointment, and signs of spring erupted towards the end of January. She already missed the snow even though it wasn't even completely gone.

Harry and Ron spent most of their time in the library, still on the hunt for Nicolas Flamel. As for Calysta, finding Flamel wasn't as important as finding all the secret passages in the castle.

 Calysta, Jeff, Regulus, Felix and Raymond spent their time analyzing each and every nook and cranny of the castle, testing each suit of armor, broom closet, and tapestry for any sort of indication that a passage was nearby.

February declared its presence by replacing the snow with showers of rain, and after Quidditch practices started again, Calysta practically had a full schedule. 

She had to wake up extra early, since Wood was training the team harder than ever, and he claimed that nobody would be training early in the morning. He was right. All the other houses would be sleeping while the Gryffindors practiced at the crack of dawn.

Calysta usually had Regulus, Jeff, or Raymond accompany her to Quidditch practice, and they would cheer her on while the Gryffindor team trained. The Weasley twins were complaining every morning that Wood would grow up and marry the Quaffle, but Calysta understood. If Gryffindor won their next match against Hufflepuff, they would overtake Slytherin in the House Championship for the first time in seven years. 

Although training was rather trying, Calysta felt that she got better sleep when she practiced Quidditch, since her body was tired and eager to rest. The Professors were additionally piling the first years with homework, since they had mastered the basics. It was getting much easier to pull off harmless pranks on Peeves and Filch with their increasing knowledge.

Felix was competing with Hermione for the top of their year, and with Calysta's natural talent in Transfiguration and Potions, the two were unstoppable.

Of course, their endless pranks also served them with losing house points on a daily basis, and also, their first detention.

On Friday the previous week, after double potions, Calysta had yet again, got into an argument with Malfoy, who'd found it funny to pick on Jeff for his muggle family.

She swore it was definitely time to take their pranks further, and really teach Malfoy a lesson to shut him up for good this time. 

It took two days for the four boys and her to come up with the perfect plan. While Malfoy was in the library, Calysta snuck into the restricted section with her father's invisibility cloak, and took out a reasonable number of thick volumes, with help from the boys. 

While Raymond and Jeff planted dungbombs (courtesy for Fred and George) under his chair as a distraction, Calysta, Felix and Regulus levitated the books to his table, and opened them all, while Malfoy wasn't looking. A couple of books began screaming, and Malfoy had to endure an hour's worth of lectures from Madam Pince, along with a detention of writing lines, 'I must not cause havoc in the library' five hundred times. 

Unfortunately, their plan had the one flaw. Whilst they were too busy laughing at Malfoy soaking up Madam Pince's lectures from a distance, they failed to notice Professor McGonagall clear her throat from behind them.

The five froze, and looked at Professor McGonagall innocently, hoping to pretend they had nothing to do with Malfoy being in trouble, but the Professor would hear none of it. Of course, none of them knew she'd seen this before, nearly exactly the same, many times in her earlier years of teaching. She knew how to deal with it even with her eyes closed.

"Potter, Goldstein, Sanguini, Avery and Evans," she said curtly, with a tight-lipped expression. "My office. Now."

Although the five Gryffindors were in trouble, nothing could wipe the smiles off their faces after watching Malfoy's expression in the library while Madam Pince yelled her head off at him.

Seated in Professor McGonagall's office, all five of them in a row, the Head of Gryffindor house looked at them through her glasses.

"Have a biscuit," she said, handing them a plate of baked biscuits.

The five exchanged glances, all taking one from the plate. 

"You five will serve detention," she stated with a troubled sigh. "And twenty points from Gryffindor. It will take weeks for the smell of dungbombs to leave the library. I want you all in the trophy room at seven today, where Mr. Filch will hand all of you a scrubbing cloth. I want all the trophies polished, and shining. Is that clear?"

"Yes Professor," the five nodded at once.

It was too late for Professor McGonagall to change her mind about having them have separate detentions, because not even five minutes after they started their detention, a terrible racket was heard by Professor Flitwick as he passed the corridor with the trophy room, and when he opened the door, the shelves had somehow fallen down, and all the trophies had clattered down to the floor. 

Nobody could explain exactly what happened, but it was a clear mistake to put Calysta, Regulus, Jeff, Felix and Raymond together in the same detention. They were excused from detention that evening as Professor Flitwick restored order to the trophy room with a mere flick of his wand. Thankfully, none of the trophies were damaged.

After one particularly wet and muddy Quidditch practice, Wood gave the team a bit of bad news. He'd lost it after Fred and George kept dive bombing each other during practice and pretending to fall off their brooms. 

"Will you stop messing around!" he yelled. "That's exactly the sort of thing that'll lose us the match! Snape's refereeing this time, and he'll be looking for any excuse to knock points off Gryffindor!"

George really fell off his broom at that. 

"Snape's refereeing?" he spluttered through a mouthful of mud. "When's he ever refereed a Quidditch match? He's not going to be fair if we might overtake Slytherin." 

"Why's Snape refereeing?" Calysta groaned, clutching her face with her muddy fingers, causing streaks of mud to stain her skin slightly.

The rest of the team landed next to George to complain, too.

"It's not my fault," said Wood. "We've just got to make sure we play a clean game, so Snape hasn't got an excuse to pick on us." 

Which was all very well, thought Calysta, but she had another reason for not wanting Snape near her while she was playing Quidditch..

She recalled all the all too familiar memory of him jinxing her twin's broom during the last match. Perhaps Snape was refereeing so he could once and for all finish Harry off.. Yet there was something clawing inside of her as she recalled how Snape had been so eager to help Felix feel better on Halloween.

The rest of the team hung around to talk after practice, but Calysta told Regulus and Felix (who were watching the practice) that she'd meet them in the common room. Looping her hand through Harry's, she knew he needed the comfort, especially considering how he nearly died during the last match.

Harry stumbled into the common room and headed straight for Ron and Hermione, who were playing Wizarding Chess (Hermione was losing at something for the first time ever).

"What's with the long faces?" Ron asked, looking at the twins. "You two look terrible. Cal, you've got dirt all over your face."

"Snape's refereeing the next quidditch match," Calysta whispered.

"Don't play," Hermione said instantly, her head snapping up to look at Harry.

"Say you're ill," said Ron. "Cal can substitute you as seeker."

"Pretend to break your leg," said Hermione.

"Really break your leg," said Ron.

"I can break your leg for you, Harry," Calysta suggested with a sly smile.

Harry shot her a glare. "Some twin I've got," he muttered sarcastically, causing the other two to laugh. 

"What?" Calysta shrugged innocently. "I could kill you, and save Snape the trouble."

Harry sent her another glare. "Does anyone want her?" he asked, loudly, raising her hand for the whole common room to see. "Free of charge."

Calysta gasped. "Oh, you did not," she feigned pain, her hand at her heart. "My twin wants to sell me," she said dramatically. 

"Who wants a free Calysta?" Harry announced again.

A few of the seventh years rolled their eyes, while the fifth and fourth years looked at the Potter twins with amusement.

"We'll take her," said Fred and George, who'd just entered the common room at that time. They walked over to Calysta, looped their arms in hers and dragged them along to where they were seated, with Lee Jordan.

"Tarantula boy!" Calysta grinned, on seeing the Quidditch commentator.

"Mice girl," Lee laughed. "You've got dirt all over your face."

"I know," Calysta responded. "I need to go take a shower. Bye," she chirped, untangling herself from the Weasley twins' tight grasp. 

After Calysta went to her dormitory, she went into the shower, and was reading a book on her bed, a towel wrapped around her head when Hermione entered the dormitory in a rush, and slammed a large, thick volume onto her bed. 

"Hey," Calysta groaned. "I'm reading!"

"Calysta," Hermione said loudly. "We found him."

"Who?"

"Nicolas Flamel, obviously," Hermione rolled her eyes. The bushy-haired girl flipped through pages until stopping, somewhere in the middle. "Look." She pointed out a text for Calysta to read through.

The ancient study of alchemy is concerned with making the Sorcerer's Stone, a legendary substance with astonishing powers. The Stone will transform any metal into pure gold. It also produces the Elixir of Life, which will make the drinker immortal. There have been many reports of the Sorcerer's Stone over the centuries, but the only Stone currently in existence belongs to Mr. Nicolas Flamel, the noted alchemist and opera lover. Mr. Flamel, who celebrated his six hundred and sixty-fifth birthday last year, enjoys a quiet life in Devon with his wife, Perenelle (six hundred and fifty-eight).

"Oh, no," Calysta whispered to herself. "Is that what the dog's guarding?" she asked, more to herself than Hermione. 

Hermione nodded. "And Snape wants to steal it.."

"Hypothetically speaking," Calysta began. "I'd want to steal that too. Eternal life and gold... Wow."

At breakfast the next day, Calysta filled in her friends about Snape being the referee for the next game, and what Hermione had shown her about Nicolas Flamel.

Jeff was going around trying to follow Snape to see what he was up to, until Snape caught him and threatened him with detention. 

Harry convinced himself that he would play, and Calysta supported his decision, but it was becoming increasingly difficult for Harry to spend even a minute in Snape's presence.

Snape disliked Calysta, but he absolutely loathed Harry. So many times Harry ran into Snape, and even during potions, Snape kept taking points from Gryffindor because of Harry.

The one good thing during potions, however, was how Calysta seemed to improve drastically in her potion making, and a more surprising ordeal was when Jeff earned a praise from Professor Snape.

After Jeff brewed a near perfect cure-for-boils potion, (Calysta's was perfect), Snape disgruntledly admitted to the class that Evans had improved. 

The rest of the day, the smile on Jeff's face was impossible to wipe. Nothing could ruin his mood, not even Felix's really smelly perfume. 

"Aha! He likes me!" Jeff cheered, right after potions class ended. "I told you so, I told you so."

Calysta merely shook her head and laughed.

"You two are the only Gryffindors Snape can stand," Regulus said. 

"How does it feel to be a part of Snape's favorites?" Felix interviewed, fisting his hand like a microphone.

"Wonderful," Jeff sighed with a smile. "He's not that bad, you know."

"Not that bad?" Raymond echoed. "He's friends with my dad and even then, he hates me."

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have officially lost Jeff to the dark side," Regulus said dramatically, causing the others to laugh heartily.

Yet the following morning, during breakfast, when Calysta was informing the others about her concerns for Harry when it came to Snape refereeing, Jeff was continually insisting that perhaps Snape was protecting Harry instead of trying to kill Harry.

"What makes you say that?" asked Calysta, taking a sip of her steaming mug of freshly brewed coffee.

"I feel like Quirrell is the one trying to kill Harry," Jeff voiced his opinions. "I was sitting next to him during the last match. He was muttering something under his breath."

"Quirrell?" repeated Regulus blankly. "S-stuttering, P-P-Professor Q-Quirrell?" he did a perfect impression of their useless Defence Against the Dark Arts Teacher, which made the others laugh.

"I'm serious," Jeff spoke, his face expressionless. "Quirrell seems kind of dodgy."

"If anything, Quirrell seems to be harassed and bullied by Snape," Felix pinpointed. "I heard Snape threatening Quirrell the other day. I would have eavesdropped, but Snape saw me before I could hide.."

"I mean, doesn't it seem strange," Jeff speculated. "How on Halloween, when Quirrell came to warn Dumbledore about the troll, he didn't stutter one bit? I think he's hiding something."

"Yeah, or he was just scared of the troll," Raymond shrugged. "He fainted right after, remember?"

Calysta didn't give the conversation a second thought as she changed into her Quidditch gear, listening to Wood's speech. She was more intent on trying to convince Harry to catch the snitch fast, to make the match as short as possible.

Right before the match, Wood pulled Harry to the side. 

Meanwhile, Fred had peered through the door. "The whole school's out there!" said Fred Weasley, peering out of thedoor. "Even — blimey — Dumbledore's come to watch!"

All the nerves in Calysta's stomach seemed to settle, as she exchanged a grateful smile with Harry. They would be fine. 

As the match against Hufflepuff started, Calysta realized the House of the Badger was playing a defensive game. The players were strikingly good at passing, but they were quite afraid to hurt the Gryffindors.

Calysta took this to her advantage. After scoring Gryffindor's first goal, she snatched the Quaffle from one of the Hufflepuffs, and Snape gave the Hufflepuffs a penalty for no reason at all.

This only further motivated Calysta to shoot yet another goal, keeping the stands furiously cheering for her while Harry flew into a spectacular dive.

And the match was over. 

Gryffindor had never caught a snitch so fast. It was probably one of the shortest games to be ever played, lasting barely five minutes.

Snape was glaring at the Gryffindor Quidditch team, his lips set into a straight line.

He spat on the ground and walked away, most probably to the dungeons.

Gryffindors ran to lift the Potters onto their shoulders, parading them around as they whistled and cheered. 

Fred and George had Calysta on their shoulders, while Regulus, Felix and Raymond surrounded the Weasley twins, shouting at the top of their lungs as they headed back to the Gryffindor common rooms.

It was only after Calysta was in the boys' dormitory, playing Wizarding Chess with Felix that she realized she hadn't seen Jeff after the match.

"Have any of you guys seen Jeff?" she questioned.

"Yeah," responded Regulus. "He said he had to go do something in the dungeons."

"Most probably gone to wipe Snape's shoes," joked Raymond.

"I'm going to go look for him," Calysta announced, before opening the door to the dormitory.

But at that moment, Jeff entered the room, as white as a sheet.

"Guys, you need to hear this," he muttered, shutting the door behind him.

"What happened, did Snape hire you to be his personal assistant?" teased Regulus, draping an arm around the blonde's shoulders.

Jeff shrugged the arm off. "It's not the time for jokes. I was right, there is something fishy about Quirrell."

"What?" Calysta and Felix burst out, at the same moment.

"Yeah, I followed Snape to the forbidden forest, where he met up with Quirrell. They had a conversation, which seemed like Snape was trying to talk Quirrell out of doing something.."

"Doing what?" Calysta asked, intrigued.

"You guys might call me crazy for this, but.." Jeff sighed. "I think you might be wrong about Snape stealing the stone. I think Quirrell wants to steal it, and Snape's trying to stop him. I can feel it in my gut."

"That... doesn't make any sense."

"Rubbish," Regulus shook his head. "Didn't he try to get past the three-headed-dog on Halloween?"

"I'm sure there's a reason for that," Calysta said.

"I can feel it in my gut," Jeff repeated stubbornly. "And my gut feeling never lies. It's almost always one hundred percent true."

"Nobody should trust their gut feeling," Regulus said wisely. "Unless you're hungry, of course."

"Jeff, my mate," Raymond said. "Just because Snape praised you yesterday during potions, that doesn't mean he's not evil."

"You guys are just so headstrong to believe that Snape's a bad guy," Jeff stated finally, a flicker of hurt crossing his features. "Don't any of you believe me?"

The room went silent.

"Some friends I've got," Jeff muttered to himself. "Thank you," he said loudly, before stalking out of the dormitory, the door slamming shut behind him.

Awkward silence filled the room.

{ voila, plot twist. my little group of best friends just had their first fight. i love jeff so much, he's got such a cute little personality. anyway, comment, vote, follow share, yada yada yada. hope you liked this chapter.
also, happy new year to you all, my loves. i know i have like only three readers right now, but i am grateful for you. hopefully i can finish this book by the end of the year. good luck with your twenty-twenty three, wish you all the best. love, jasmine. }