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Chapter Six
BREAKING RULES
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The next few weeks passed slowly as we went from class to class. We learned spells and some transfigurations. I found I was rather bad at potions.

I sit in professor Sharp's class next to Garreth since I woke up late for the first time and was almost last for class. Anne was usually my partner, but as I walked in, she sat next to Imelda. Sebastian and Ominis were seated together and the only empty seat was next to the Gryffindor boy.

I had seen him around a few times last year but I've never actually talked to him. I know that his aunt is a professor here and that he is usually getting in trouble. But it was good at potions... usually.

I've heard that he likes to try to create his own and they usually end badly. But he is one of the top students in the potions class.

"Hey," I greet him awkwardly. "Can I sit here?"

His green eyes look up to mine, "Yeah," he says just as awkwardly. He grabs his books and some potion ingredients from my side of the table and moves his bag from the seat.

"I'm Lila, by the way," I say as I take a seat beside him.

He looks over at me, "Yeah, I know. My aunt says that your mother was excellent at potions."

I smile at him, "That might be true, but that gene didn't pass down to me." I tell him. "I suck at potions."

He pushes his hair back and gives me a cocky smile, "Well, good thing I'm your partner then."

I laugh at him, "Well, word around the castle is, the last time you brewed potions you blew up half of your dormitory."

"Maybe that's what I was going for."

After class, I walk out and see Sebastian waiting for me outside the classroom. "Of all people, you had to sit with Weasley?" he asks when he sees me.

"Well, you didn't save a seat for me." I teased him.

"What was I supposed to do? Throw the blind guy out of his seat?" Sebastian asks lowering his voice as we neared Ominis who sat on a bench.

"I heard that, Sebastian."

I laugh at them, "It's fine. It turns out Garreth isn't that bad." I look around, "Where's Anne?"

I see Sebastian look around as if just now realizing that his sister wasn't with us. "She went to the library," Ominis speaks.

"What, why?" Sebastian asks, "Nevermind, I already know. She wants to get ahead on her studies." He then turns to me, "Would you like to go to the library?"

I look at him confused, "Sebastian, you never study and we can't. I have a defense against the dark arts in a few minutes." I tell him.

"Well, I didn't mean now," he says.

Ominis lets out a groan, "Are you two going to sneak out tonight?" he asks.

I look up at Sebastian waiting for his answer. He nods his head, "Yes, to the restricted section."

"And what will we be looking for?" I ask, already making up my mind that I would be accompanying him on his journey to the library.

"Restricted knowledge," he answers.

Ominis lets out a huff, "So you're just going for the fun of it." he comments.

"I take it you two will be joining me?"

I shrug my shoulders, "Count me in." I say with a hint of excitement in my voice and Sebastian smiles down at me.

I hear a sigh come from Ominis and I turn to look at him. "I'll join you, only to keep you out of trouble." I hear him mumbling something about sleeping but I couldn't hear.

"Great," Sebastian says with a huge smile on his face. "We'll meet up in the common room at curfew."

"What about Anne?" I ask him.

"She won't sneak out, especially not tonight." Sebastian says, "She meeting up with our uncle tomorrow. He's coming to Hogwarts to speak with my parents."

We start to make our way to the defense against the dark arts tower, "Are you not going to meet with him?" Ominis asks.

Sebastian nods but then seems to realize that his friend can't see. "Yeah, but that isn't going to stop me from breaking a few school rules."

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After a full day of classes, I was exhausted. Nearly all of them gave us some type of homework. But still the thought of sleep did not over shadow the thrill of sneaking into the restricted section.

I lay in my bed in the dark patiently waiting for everyone else to fall asleep. Anne's bed is beside mine, I had asked her when I saw her if she wanted to join us but she declined. She said that she didn't want to get in trouble.

A few minutes later I throw back the covers and climb out of bed. I grab my wand from the bedside table and quickly put on my boots.

Silently open the door and descend the stairs. Since the boy's dormitory is on the opposite side, I don't see them until we meet where the stairs collide to go down to the common room.

"Oh, good." Sebastian says when he sees me. "I feared that Anne would talk you out of it."

I shake my head, "Nope, nothing could talk me out of it. I'm always up for adventure."

"Our only adventure will be in detention when we got caught out of bed." Ominis says.

I laugh, "I'm glad you have so much confidence in us."

"Honestly, it's like you don't even know me." Sebastian smiles, "I never get caught."

"Sebastian, please, you got caught just the other day for going into the forbidden forest." Ominis says walking down the rest of the stairs. "But, yes please lead the way, I'm sure this time will be different."

He holds his wand in his hand, it glows red as we reach the spiral staircase that leads out of the common room and into the castle. "You know you don't have to come with us." Sebastian says.

"And let you guys explore the restricted section yourselves? No way am I missing out on this." He says.

He leads the way out of the common room. Considering none of us knew a spell that would make it better at hiding, we stuck to the shadows. Ominis let Sebastian take the lead, hoping that he would spot the prefects before the three of us got caught.

As we rounded the corner Sebastian quickly turned back around pushing Ominis and I against the stone wall. He hold his finger up to his lips. I could hear the sound of someone walking down the hall towards us.

We were going to get caught. And before we could even make it to the restricted section.

"I got this." Ominis says before he throws his wand down the hall. "Let me know what you find."

He walks blindly down the hall, in clear view of the Hufflepuff prefect. "What are you doing out this late." She says walking over to him.

Ominis turns in her direction, "I dropped my wand, and I can't find my way back to my common room without it." He says.

I have to admit that he is good at coming up with lies so quickly. The girl casts lumos and looks around on the floor. Sebastian and I sneak quietly in the shadows away from them.

"It's right here." She say bending over to pick up the wand and heading it to the blind boy.

Ominis let's put a relieved sigh. "Thank you, I was beginning to think I would have to spend all night out here looking for it."

"Get back to your common room and be more careful next time." She says.

We don't hear what Ominis says as we round another corner and make it to the stairs that overlook the library doors. We waited there for a few moment to try to calm our hearts from the thrill of getting caught. My eyes scanned our surroundings making sure that there wasn't anymore prefects.

When I didn't see any, I descended the stairway with Sebastian following right behind me. I reached my hand out for the door handle to the library when I heard something behind us.

I turn to Sebastian with a worried glance and then my eyes look behind him. There was nothing there.

"Perhaps it was a ghost." Sebastian says also looking over his shoulder. I could tell by the tone of his voice that he didn't believe it either.

"Let's just get into the library." I say as I turn back to the door and open it quietly.

The two of us quickly slip inside and look around. The lights in the library were off causing us both to let out relieved sighs. The librarian was in here.

"I think the keys to the restricted section are at her desk." Sebastian whispers and I nod my head. I figured as much. At least she's not in here.

I still stick to the shadows as if she were in here as I make my way to the desk. I spot the keys laying on top of a stack of papers and grab them. We head over to the doors of the restricted section and I hand the keys to Sebastian.

"Since it was your idea, you get to open it." I say.

He smiles at me and takes the keys from our outstretched hand. He quickly unlocks to doors and we head inside. We descend the stairs that lead to the lower part of the library.

Again we head a sound behind us but there is nothing there. We stop when we come to bookshelves and tables. I run my fingers along the spines of the books and pull one off of the shelf.

I flip it open and my eyes land on a useful spell. The disillusionment spell. I pull out my wand and trace the movements with it.

"Hey, Sebastian," I call out to him.

He looks up from a book that he was reading, "Yes?"

I don't answer him, instead as I do the spell. "Am I invisible?" I ask him.

I hear him take in an excited breath, "Not entirely. I wouldn't have seen you if I didn't know you were there though."

I undo the spell and hand the book to him. "I wonder why that spell is down here."

He studies the spell, "That's easy. They don't want us sneaking about the castle at night."

We spend the next few minutes looking over the books that sit on the shelves. I find one on creatures. The thestral. I guess they put it down here because a lot of people consider them a bad omen. You can only see them if you have seen someone die, so unfortunately I can't see them but there is a picture of them drawn on the book.

"What are you two doing down here?" Asks a familiar voice from behind us.

Sebastian and I jump at the sound and slam our books shut. I spin around and see Garreth undo the spell from the disillusionment.

"Garreth?" I whisper. I place a hand over my heart trying to calm my breath. "You almost gave us a heart attack." I say and then give him a shove.

"That was you making that noise behind us." Sebastian says and I realize that we did hear something and nothing was there. "You've been following is."

He nods his head, "Yeah, I mean I was already headed down here and then I heard Ominis getting caught and I saw you guys not being so sneaky. I decided it would be fun to follow."

"In our defense, we didn't know the disillusionment spell until just now." I say.

"So, are you going to turn us in Weasley?" Sebastian saying sounding a little annoyed.

"That wouldn't even make sense if I did, because I would get in trouble for being out too and we'd both lose house points." He says and then shrugs, "and Gryffindor is in the lead right now." He says smugly.

Sebastian let's put a scoff, "Schools only be back for a month."

"Alright, boys let's not fight." I say stepping between the two. "Or do, just leave me out of it. I got reading to do." I pick up a random book off of a podium and take a seat at the table.

Garreth sees the book I picked up, "I don't think you wanna read that one though." He says taking a seat across from me.

I glance at him and then look down at the book I have. The Secrets of the Darkest Arts. "Maybe I do want to read this book." I challenge him.

Sebastian looks over at us and sees the book, "There could be some interesting things in there." He says going along with me.

Garreth glances between the two of us, "Are you guys being serious?" He asks sounding a bit nervous.

Sebastian and I both laugh, "No of course not." I say as I stand up and put the book back where I found it. Although a part of me wanted to come back down here and take a peak inside when I was alone.

Garreth leaves soon after, I think we scared him. Sebastian and I spend the next few hours reading through books and learning so many things. Sebastian found a spell, Confingo, we both learned it rather quickly. I learned that there is records of every dark witch or wizard in these books. I've barely heard of any of them.

"Were you serious about wanting to read that book?" Sebastian asks looking up from his book.

I hesitate for a moment, "Yeah, I mean just for curiosity. I wouldn't actually use any of the stuff that's in there."

"Well, according to Ominis, nothing good comes from the dark arts." Sebastian says mimicking our friend.

"He did grow up with dark art. I think he would know better than we do." I say and then I remember what he told me last year. "Have you noticed if he hasn't been sleeping much?"

"He's almost never in the dorms." He says confirming my fears.

"I think something happened to him over the summer." I whisper.

Sebastian nods his head, "Yeah, I think so too. He seems different."

I close my book and place it back on the shelf, "I guess we should head back, Ominis is probably waiting up on us."

He nods his head and return his book and we both cast the disillusionment spell and sneak out of the library and back to our common room unnoticed. The halls were vacant, all the prefects had finished their patrols for the night but we still wanted an excuse to use the spell.

Sure enough when we stepped into the common room and walked down the stairs Ominis was there sitting on the couch waiting for us. We fill him in on everything that we learned. We teach him the spells that we found and then I head off to my dorm and go to bed.