◤ ❝What will it be, Miss Erebus? A sacrifice for the ones you love or your self-preservation at the cost of their lives?❞ ―Severus Snape ◢

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CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR:   OPHION

January 7, 1997

            The worst thing about Draco and Andromeda: they were both stubborn. Incredibly, unequivocally stubborn. So, naturally, the events that happened in Flitwick's classroom (and the common room) were not let go of easily, and the pair had spent the last twenty-four hours shooting foul looks and snipping at one another any moment they got. However, considering they were complete opposites in how they handled their emotions, that meant Draco was often the one sending the backhanded comments and Mia was the one resorting to quieter measures to show her irritation―which, admittedly, was how Draco ended up soaked the day before.

Being a new day, that meant that Mia and Draco were forced to bear the other's presence for their favorite class of the week. Potions. They had barely gotten as far as the second step down to the dungeons after breakfast before their bickering started up again, leaving the pair to argue as Theodore and Blaise walked in displeasure behind them. Their bad tempers toward one another were wearing everyone down, even Parkinson who exhausted any jealousy toward Mia after the kiss and instead only grew aggravated at Draco and Mia's fighting. Tracey nearly took of Mia's head when she sent Draco's eggs flying that morning, landing directly on her Herbology homework.

"If you would have hurried to class instead of staying around to snog your boyfriend, maybe you wouldn't have been drowned by the bad witch―" 

"Oh, shut up, Draco." 

Draco's eyes burned hotly on the side of her face as they continued their brisk walk to class. "Maybe I will once you apologize for purposefully dropping an entire lake on my head in the middle of class, Andromeda." 

"I told you it was an accident." 

"Right, of course, and I'm the Queen of England! You could do that spell in your sleep. No one believed a word you said about it 'needing a little more practice.' Not even Goyle, and he has the intellect of a rock."

From behind them, Blaise's hands raised up in exasperation. He pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to get rid of the growing migraine the longer he stayed listening to them. "I wish I had the intellect of a rock so that I would not have to hear this conversation any longer." 

"I did need more practice," Mia said dismissively, rolling her eyes as she continued walking ahead of Draco. She purposefully moved her wand so that some of the loose rocks would end up in front of his feet, causing him to stumble over them. "It just so happened that my practice directed itself toward you instead of the goblet in front of me. An honest mistake." 

Draco scoffed at her lies, dodging another rock. "'An honest mistake'―that is what you're calling it?"

"Considering I see things for what they are, not with a delusional mindset like you do, yes."

"Oh, I'm the delusional one―damn it, Romy, stop tripping me!" 

"Would the two of you shut up already?" 

The loud sound of Theodore's exclamation echoed off the dungeon walls, reverberating into the ears of the bickering duo and making them stop in their place. Both Mia and Draco turned around in surprise, and that was when they finally noticed just how annoyed their other counterparts were. Her eyes immediately darted to her cousin, seeing the frustration crease along his forehead and shine in the darkly-lit corridor. Blaise did not look much better, his Potions book repeatedly slamming into his head in hopes to relieve himself of his suffering via brain damage. 

Theodore's hands were outstretched in front of him, gesturing wildly with annoyance at the thin air that surrounded them. "Are the two of you done yet? You've been at each other's throats since yesterday, and I think all of us would rather you take our throats out just to end the suffering―get over yourselves and move on, bloody hell. You act like the world is ending because you got a little wet, and you look plenty dry to me now. Need I remind you, my hair is currently blue, and I'm not complaining." 

He pointed toward his dyed hair in emphasis, only just beginning to part with the color that Andrew spelled on it yesterday. Mia and Draco kept quiet, their eyes lingering on his hair before they pursed their lips tightly together in resignation. Their silence was partly due to Theo's reaction, neither one of them expecting him to have such a blatant outburst when he was normally the quiet one among their group of friends. That meant it was really bad, and Mia's shoulders fell in defeat at her cousin's words.

"You hear that, Nott?" Blaise asked, muffled by his book until he dropped it from his face. He peered over at his classmate with raised brows. "Some peace and quiet. I've forgotten what that sounds like."

Blaise pushed ahead of the group, giving Mia a pointed look on his way past her before grabbing hold of Draco's shoulders and pushing him along towards class. She heard the sounds of Draco threatening his friend about touching him, and she couldn't help but roll her eyes at his dramatics. The action didn't last long, seeing as she was faced with an annoyed Theo and a now-vacant dungeon. He stared at her expectantly, features raised high, and she knew immediately where he was going with the expression. 

She raised her index out in front of her in defense, ready to stop whatever was going to come out of his mouth next. "Don't say it, Theodore." 

"You're pitiful." 

She glowered. "I am not." 

"No, you are," he said absentmindedly, moving on his heel so that they could continue on their way to class. "You're a pitifully blind idiot. Andrew and I both think so―"

That sparked her attention, and she turned to him with upturned brows. "Oh, so you're talking to Andrew again? When did this happen? You've clearly been avoiding him since yesterday. Don't think I didn't notice you taking the seat next to Daphne instead of him at dinner last night."

"I'm surprised you noticed anything but Draco, if I'm honest." 

"Well, clearly you were noticing everything but Andrew. Is this about yesterday? What happened to you thinking that he was good for me?" she asked, stopping and only making her cousin more exasperated to have paused again on their way to class. Thankfully, they were early today. "What, did all of that change after..." 

She trailed off. Her face fell, and the small movement of her left arm gave away exactly what she was getting ready to mention. Without thinking, her hand reached to the spot and began rubbing absentmindedly against her Mark. Theodore blinked at her, his jaw set and features hard to show he did not like the direction the conversation was heading it. Nowadays, any mention of her allegiance to the Dark Lord or Andrew were unsafe topics, but melding them together was a recipe for disaster.

"You know that isn't the reason, Mia," he dismissed sharply, shaking his head. "He was good for you...but you pushed him away on your own accord because of those reasons. I just... I don't want either of you getting hurt trying to keep up appearances when there are other ways, even if there are still feelings between you two―" 

Mia shook her head, holding her hand up to stop him. "Theo, whatever feelings existed between him and I are through. That kiss between us? It ended everyone's suspicion over Draco and me, regardless of what plans he had to prove. It helped...and you're right. I did push him away. Maybe I should have said no, but he knows that there can never be anything between us. He deserves someone who is good for him, and neither one of us can deny that the person is not me. It never has been. That is why I stopped anything with him before break."  

Theodore's lips were pulled tightly, and his eyes were unusually blank in the dim lighting between them. Mia kept quiet as she inspected him, concern starting to claw at her brain. She knew something was troubling her cousin―that it most definitely had something to do with Andrew―and it had been for a while now, but it seemed like that trouble only intensified with every conversation the two of them got into nowadays. Like earlier, his jaw clenched in anxiety and he gripped the book in his hand tighter to find any hold on reality. Mia knew because she did it too, knowing his antics and ticks all too well.

"Theodore..." she began softly, taking a step closer to her cousin. "You can tell me anything, you know? Whatever has been upsetting you, I can see it in your face...you talk about how well you know me, but you forget that I see things just as clearly about you. Whatever this is about, you can tell me." 

Theodore dropped his stare away from her, craning his neck so that he was looking over her head distantly. When his fingers tightened on the book, turning frighteningly white, any other concerns in the world were dropped. "I honestly thought you would have figured it out by now.  I hoped, at least, but I know your mind has been elsewhere with your miss―" 

"...so even Dumbledore thinks that nothing suspicious is going on with them? Harry, if he literally said they weren't of great importance, maybe he's right―"

The two separate conversations going on merged together in the corridor as two Gryffindors rounded around the corner, interrupting whatever Theodore was about to say to Andromeda. Everyone stopped talking immediately, and Mia blinked in surprise when Theo quickly turned around to stand in front of her. He effectively knocked down her arm as he did so, making her hand fall from her Mark to her side. She completely forgot it was still there. With her cousin blocking her view and towering over her, she could only see the red hair of Weasley and the smallest glimpse of Potter's circular spectacles. She should have known that where one appeared the other was not far behind. 

Not enjoying the barrier, she moved slightly to the side so that she could peer past Theodore's wide frame. Potter's eyes found her dark ones instantly, and she swallowed the bitter taste in her mouth at the sight of him. No matter how much she tried to shove down her hatred for him, it still resurfaced at every interaction. The only positivity was the way that he and Weasley glanced at one another in hesitation, stopping a distance away from the cousins and looking shaken up. 

"Who isn't of great importance?" Theodore asked coldly, his tone so clipped that even Mia had to look up in shock. 

Potter and Weasley both stopped moving all together, caught off guard as well. Potter was the one to speak aloud his confusion, trying to gather his bearings. "...what?"  

"You said Dumbledore thinks someone isn't of great importance," he reiterated blandly. "Who are you so suspicious of that you embarrassed yourself in front of the Headmaster, Potter?" 

Theodore's abrasive change of personality had been enough to stun Potter and Weasley into silence, having gone six years without a single conversation with him only to be confronted so suddenly. Mia, on the other hand, recovered much sooner. She could see that her cousin's emotions were heightened from their conversation. His protection for her after knowing the truth about her Dark Mark changed things, as well. He was no longer protecting her from simple things, but life or death situations. Her hand slowly curled around his arm, squeezing gently to calm him down before he got carried away. 

"I'd wager my bets on Draco and me," she assumed bluntly, her eyes waiting in question on him. She could feel Theo's arm flex in warning at her, but she ignored it. When Potter's body stiffened, she nodded at the confirmation. "Guess I would be winning then, wouldn't I? Living so deeply in the delusion that he and I are Death Eaters that you've brought along your gaggle of Gryffindors and the Headmaster now?" 

Weasley's eyes widened, and he turned his best friend. "She knows?"

"Of course I know. He's been trying to frame us with his lies since the year started, but I suppose we all cope with guilt in different ways." 

Potter blanched, and she saw the way his face twisted in aggravation as he started to compile a list of things he thought to say to her in retaliation. None ever came. Mia knew that they wouldn't. Something had been festering in his mind about her since her father's death, and with every small interaction they had, she could see his indecision growing about her. Battling with suspicion and guilt, Potter simply did not have the guts to confront her because he knew that there were still unanswered questions about the deaths and lives of Alastiare and Sirius. Questions both wondered and believed they would never have answered. 

The two had stemmed so much of their attention on each other and their festering hatred that they did not realize just how connected they were. Mia did not mean for it to happen, but when it did, the sensation of another's conscious cornered her every sense. She was concentrated too heavily on Potter, piercing deeply to see into the emotions he was experiencing as he felt them, and he did not divert his eyes away from her. The bitter taste of iron on her tongue was the first indication, and the tugging sensation as thoughts started to ring in her ears came only a second after. 

Dumbledore stood before her, and the very sight of him was enough to make her wince, even through another's perspective. She would have to kill the man soon. The memory was new by the sight of his decaying hand, and just vulnerable enough for Mia to recognize that she was using Legilimency on Harry Potter of all people. How was that possible, when she and Draco both assumed he would have learned the first defense against it years ago?

The oddest thing, however, was that she noticed she was not alone with Dumbledore in Potter's thoughts. Within his mind, he had entered another memory. The sight was warped, reverberating and leading her to believe they were using a Pensieve. They stood before a younger Slughorn, by the looks of it, and a teenage boy whose back was turned from their sight. A memory within a memory.

"Sir, I wondered what you know about...about Horcruxes?" 

Tom Riddle. If the sight of his face finally showing did not give him away, that question would. Mia felt a kick in her gut at the mention of the word, something evil twisting in the back of her conscience as she thought back to her own mission. However, it was Potter's confusion that littered through her mind as she felt his questions arise. A gust of dark fog moved through the older memory, and Mia's brain pulsed in pain of the resistance of the image before she saw glimpses of the conversation through the dense cover. 

"I don't know anything about Horcruxes and I wouldn't tell you if I did!" Slughorn's face was obstructed by the glimmer, moving like the reflection of a lake. "Now get out of here at once and don't let me catch you mentioning them again!" 

The fog vanished without another word spoken, evaporating into thin air as she was left alone in the room with Dumbledore. They were back in his office, she recognized, but the thumping of her chest showed Potter's concern about what he had just seen through the Pensieve. He struggled to pull apart his thoughts, and Mia struggled even more putting them together. 

"As you might have noticed, that memory as been tamp―" 

The memory stopped, growing fuzzy and bringing a sharp pain to the corner of her head before it disappeared all together. She flinched away from it like scalding fire, and just before the stinging sensation pushed through the entirety of her mind, she caught the hum of conversations blurring together. Voices she could barely recognize, sentences fragmented, and the growing corners of Potter's mind struggling to push her out.

"It's about Malfoy, Andromeda, and Snape―" 

"Friends! That man never cared about S―"

"So you definitely still trust th―" 

"A Legilimens and an Occlumens, complete opposites rivaling the mind―" 

The last sentence was the final piece she picked up on before she could not take the pain any longer. Her eyes instinctively closed as she turned her head to free herself of the throbbing. However, she was not the only person to have done so. When she finally opened them again, she noticed that Potter had his attention trained painfully to floor. It was then that she took in her surroundings, realizing that Theodore was still glaring at Weasley and Potter like only seconds had passed in between them. Apparently, only seconds had, and her accidental use of Legilimency had not been picked up on by anyone. 

Except Potter. He knew that she was a Legilimens. He had known before she even used her Legilimency on him what she was. She remembered the last sliver of conversation well, and she definitely remembered it being said behind closed doors between herself, Draco, and Snape. Panic and anger intermingled at the thought of him listening in on their talk, and she tried to keep in her sudden bout of rage when she realized that Potter had been spying on them. He heard their argument the night of Slughorn's party. How much, she didn't know, but her mind immediately raced back to recall every little thing that was said.

Your master, Snape said. The Unbreakable Vow. Her and Draco's blind protection in one another. Her Legilimency. Draco's Occlumency. Katie Bell. Her heart jumped, speeding up as she realized so much of what had been said in that conversation could be a dead give-away of their mission and involvement with the Dark Lord...but then she remembered everything else that she had seen and the words she heard just before they interrupted her and Theodore. Dumbledore didn't believe him. No one did.

She swallowed hard, her eyes staying on Potter's tense frame before turning to Theodore. "Come on. Let's go to class before Potter starts involving you in his insane theories, as well. Guilt settles better in one's own thoughts anyway." 

Her subtle hint that she had, indeed, caught him was not missed by the boy. Theodore paused, hesitating in letting up from his glare on them. Then, he glanced down to see the look on her face and nodded slowly. His reluctance was pulled away by her hand, which tugged him in the direction of the class. Just before they turned completely from Potter and Weasley, the former lifted his head and she could see the troubled storm brewing in his blue irises. They did not bring any comfort to her like her cousin's color, but instead made her feel like she was drowning in a sea she could never escape. 

"And what about you?" 

Mia stopped on the way of turning around, jaw tightening. "I beg your pardon?" 

"How is your guilt settling?" Potter bravely asked, his brows raising. Her hand flexed instinctively, consciously aware that she was digging her nails deeply into Theodore's palm. "By the looks of you lately, not very well." 

"That's funny, Potter. You assume I have anything to feel guilty about. You forget the biggest difference between us..." she paused, her lips twisting into a smirk as she all but blindly spat the next words into his face "...you actually care." 

Andromeda twisted on her heel before Potter could get another word in, her vision blinding red as she tried to chase away the heinous thoughts. She did not notice until she rounded around another section of the dungeon, far enough away from Potter, that her hand was still clawing deeply into her cousin's skin. Theodore never said anything, and she realized when she stopped to look up at him that it was because he was fuming, too. Something sickly stuck in her throat, barely recognizing the trait of anger on her cousin's face. He was the rational one, the person who chased down her fury from its high. Instead, they were both bottled up rage threatening to spill. 

His eyes narrowed down on her, hand tightening in hers. "How often?" 

"More than I'd like. Less than you need to worry about," she said coldly, knowing what he was asking without having to directly say so―how often have you ran into Potter? Her jaw clenched again to relieve some of her body's tension. Her migraine was growing. "I've told you already that I can handle Potter and his arrogant tongue. Rest assured, I'll gladly take the chance to rip it out one day, but we need to go to class." 

Theodore paused, a crease growing between his brows as his anger slowly diffused. He replaced it with confusion. "Mia, did you..." 

"Not intentionally. Now, come on before we run into them again. My self control can only handle so much with this growing migraine."

Mia and Theodore did not talk the rest of the way to Potions, both trying unsuccessfully to rid themselves of their spiked emotions. By the time they finally arrived to the classroom, most of the students were already seated and waiting on Slughorn to arrive. Within a matter of seconds upon entering, Draco knew something was seriously wrong. Blaise had been talking his ear off when he saw her face, and instantly, he could tell. She watched his back straighten from across the room, his smirk falling completely off his lips and leaving behind a heavyset frown. The last days' ill events and feelings vanished just like that. 

The cousins found their seats quietly, slipping onto the stools and finally releasing each other's hands. Theodore glanced down at his palm to see that there were crescent indents in his skin, blood rising to the surface but not breaking through to spill. Mia directed all of her focus on gripping the table with one hand and staring darkly at the entrance of the room, trying to ignore the ache pulsing in her head. Potter and Weasley appeared soon after them, taking a cautious glance over at the Slytherin table before moving to their table across the room.

Dumbledore had recruited Potter to uncover information about the Horcruxes. The thought burned as it settled in her mind, nagging her to do something about the predicament that put her in immediately―like killing Potter in Potions class right then and there. She would take the consequences. If he was meddling in the same business as her, asking similar questions to the same person, that complicated her mission tenfold. That complicated her life sentence, and the ones of those she loved most. He was getting closer to the truth. And they were no closer to their success.

"Mia, fix your face before you end up in Azkaban for attempted murder," Blaise commented boredly, moving to pull out his Potions book like it was an everyday thing what he said. 

She scowled, darting her stare away from the Gryffindor table to her housemate. "If I'm going to Azkaban, it surely would not be for attempted murder. I'd at least finish what I started."

"Oh, my bad," he replied sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "I forgot mercy wasn't a commonality for you."

A foot nudging into her bare calf had her looking from Blaise to Draco, knowing immediately that it was him trying to get her attention. His grey eyes were steeled over with emotion, riddled in concern and question. When one of his brows quirked, hitting her leg gently again, she caught onto what he was asking from her. Even though she had done it so many times before, after what happened in the hallway, the last thing she wanted to do was use her Legilimency on anyone. The dim lights above were already starting to dig deep into her skull, and she only barely managed to shake her head once at him before there was the sound of the door swinging open. 

"Settle down, settle down, please!" Slughorn announced his presence to the room, making Mia wince at the volume of him. Potter's memory echoed and sliced through her mind at the familiarity of his voice to what she saw before. "Quickly, now, lots of work to get through this afternoon! Golpalott's Third Law...who can tell me―but Miss Granger can, of course!" 

If it were possible, Mia's mood darkened even more to see that Slughorn had not expected her to know the Law. She did know it, of course, but being able to recite it as Granger started to was not as likely. "...Golpalott's-Third-Law-states-that-the-antidote-for-a-blended-poison-will-be-equal-to-more-than- the-sum-of-the-antidotes-for-each-of-the-separate-components."

"Precisely!" Slughorn cheered overhead, making all four Slytherins cringe. "Ten points for Gryffindor! Now if we accept Golpalott's Law as true..."

"Was that English?" Blaise muttered, narrowing his eyes on the back of Granger's head. "Do mudbloods have a different language?" 

Theodore shot him a look. "If you consider common sense a language, then yes." 

"Oh, beautiful. Now you're in a foul mood, too." 

Andromeda bit down on her tongue, sharing a brief glance with her cousin before she moved to place her head down on the cool surface of the tabletop. Slughorn's voice dulled in the background as she tried to soothe her migraine. "...which means, of course, that assuming we have achieved correct identification of the potion's ingredients by Scarpin's Revel-a-spell, our primary aim is not the relatively simple one of selecting antidotes to those ingredients in and of themselves, but to find that added component that will, by an almost alchemical process, transform these disparate elements―" 

Another nudge to her leg, and she resisted the urge to bark out a rude comment to whoever was annoying her. Something was being pushed between her forearm and her head, and when she raised up halfway, she saw that it was a piece of ripped parchment. She paused, her eyes going instantly to the boy across from her, to see that annoyance was peaking on his face. Knowing he would have a conniption fit if she didn't relieve his stress in some way, she unfolded the paper to see what he had written down. 

Two question marks were the only thing she saw, and she would have snorted in amusement if her body accepted humor at that moment. She moved to grab his quill from across the table, pulling away his fingers to take hold of it, before drawing something quickly on the paper. Once she had pushed it back to him, she waited until he was moving to open it. The look on his face when he saw the butchered drawing of a lightning bolt, similar to Potter's scar, nearly took away the migraine, the fear, the panic, and the frustration all together. He glowered at her.

"...and so," finished Slughorn to a class that was barely listening, "I want each of you to come and take one of these phials from my desk. You are to create an antidote for the poison within it before the end of the lesson. Good luck, and don't forget your protective gloves!"

Mia sighed, lifting herself up and rubbing her hands along her face to prepare herself for the day's wretched lesson. Then, she shared a sideways glance at her cousin. Both of them had the same vile thought in their mind, thinking about all of the various ways they could somehow get Potter to ingest one of the phials of poisons. Her cousin's brow twitched in thought, and he shrugged before getting up. Everyone settled into motion after regaining their bearings, Mia falling behind her housemates so that she could wait for Draco to travel across the table and meet with her.

His hand was on her arm instantly, falling in the chaos of the small crowd of students. "Are you hurt? What did he do? Romy―"

"Nothing," she dismissed quietly, moving closer into his side as the Hufflepuff Ernie crossed them to get back to his table with the Gryffindors. When she caught Draco's eye, she noticed the scowl on his face at her lack of revelation. "We can't talk right now. You'll cause a scene, and I know I wouldn't be able to stop you. Later." 

"Romy."

"Later," she repeated, and when he stopped them in place, she sighed. "I promise. I'm fine, Draco. I only have a migraine."

His brows furrowed as they moved again, nearing the front. "But you only get those―"

Draco stopped talking when he made the connection, his hold on her arm tightening instantly. Mia knew that he wasn't an idiot. They spent enough time practicing with one another for him to know that she only got migraines when her Legilimency went awry, specifically in the instances with himself and Snape trying to repel her out. Just as he went to ask another question, they arrived at the front and both quickly grabbed a phial of poison from Slughorn's table without sparing a glance at him. She payed no mind to her professor's eyes when he caught the lingering hand Draco had on her. It was the least of her worries.

"Romy, what happened?" he hissed under his breath. "If something's gone on, you need to let me know. Even Nott looks―" 

She gave him a sharper look now, wishing he would drop it as she could feel the beginning of Potter's eyes on them from across the room. "Go fix your poison, Draco. Please. Later." 

Draco must have seen the desperation in her eyes because with one last look, his hold on her arm dropped. He begrudgingly went back to his side of the table, shooting her another expression that showed his displeasure at her withholding information from him. In that moment, he had never wanted her to use her Legilimency more. Mia sat down next to Theo again, noticing that he was already starting the beginnings of his antidote while Blaise watched, perplexed, from across the table. He had only just dropped his poison into his cauldron, waiting for his fire to light. 

Quickly, Mia and Draco both set to work on their antidotes after opening their Advanced Potion-Making books. The faint smell of coal stung her nostrils as she spun around the ingredients within the cauldron, her mind trying to process a million different things while collectively trying  to remain on Slughorn's good list―Horcruxes. The word bounced off every sane wall in her mind, ringing desperately to be heard. Beyond everything that she had seen in Potter's mind, it was that single word that dug deep into her fears. What business did he have knowing about Horcruxes, and more important, why was Dumbledore showing him?

She worked with an ounce of boredom as she tried to think on what she had learned, adding a few more ingredients into her mix when she read over the section on Golpalott's Law again. The law itself made perfect sense, but it was a matter of figuring out how much of each ingredients was in the potion, and that was timely. Her lack of motivation was evident, and it showed in how slowly she moved to fix the poison and make its antidote. Theodore looked to be having more trouble than her understanding the Law, his aggravation only growing with time, while Blaise seemed no better off on the other end of the table. Draco was the only one focused on his cauldron with ease, and Mia often forgot just how talented he was in the subject when he actually tried.

"Specialis Revelio," she muttered, her wand going to the poison to try and see if she would be hexing herself trying to fix it.

There was a pause, and then she heard Blaise across from Theo. "When did you start using regular incantations again? You haven't done that since last year." 

Her hands paused their movements all together, and when she looked up from the cauldron, she noticed that Draco and Theodore had stopped what they were doing, too. Mia hadn't even realized what she did, her wand stuck awkwardly in her hand as she glanced from it to Blaise. Without thinking, her eyes darted briefly to her unoccupied left hand to see the dense scar left behind from the Dark Lord. Then, she glanced up at Draco to see that his lips were pursed in thought, looking at the hand where the scar laid too. Clearly, neither he nor her cousin had noticed the small detail about her magic either.

"Force of habit." 

She excused the action before Blaise became more curious, shrugging as she returned quickly to her antidote. She missed the exchanged looks between Draco and Theo, both of their worries spiking at the thought of her not performing nonverbal magic. If Mia thought on it, she hadn't used any nonverbal spells since the meeting with the Dark Lord over a week ago. All of them quietly returned to their antidotes after that, and she thankfully found herself finding the necessary shortcuts to measure the separate ingredients of her potion. The distraction was now necessary, and her hands worked faster to excuse Blaise's question from before. Then, without warning, there was a loud popping sound.

"Oi! What the―" the exclamation came loudly from Draco, and when she looked up in alarm, she saw that his antidote had exploded all over his portion of the table and himself. He glowered at the cauldron before his eyes flashed immediately up to her, warningly. "Not a word out of you." 

She raised her hands in defense, going back to her cauldron with a small smile pulling on her lips at the sight of his disheveled state. The ego check for Draco was always a nice reminder, even in the face of doom. Slughorn made his rounds throughout the classroom as the lesson progressed and increased everyone's anxiety over their potions. His eyes dropped on her cauldron with interest before it dimmed only slightly to see that she was not as far ahead as he would have expected, but they were not displeased by the results. Only after he passed by Draco, his lip turning up at the mess made all over his robes, did he call out "Two minutes left, everyone!" and instantly set half of the class into panic.

"Times...UP! Well, let's see how you've done," Slughorn said loudly, still hovering over their table with interest. "Blaise...what have you got for me?" 

He made quick work of going around their table, nodding and complimenting how Blaise was beginning to understand what Golpalott meant with his law. The favoritism he showed for Blaise ended when he came to Draco next. As he inspected his cauldron, she shared a brief look with him and knew instantly that he was growing increasing aggravated by their professor. When Slughorn turned away from his antidote without another word and headed in the direction of hers, she could practically feel the waves of Draco's anger rolling off of him from where she stood.

Slughorn approached hers with a new skip in his step, eyes peering down at her cauldron and beaming at the progress. "Oh, Andromeda...I see you understood the implications of the Golpalott's Law very well! You have made steady progress, of course, with a little bit more time, you would have perfected the antidote...yes, you know your mother was the one to perfect this lesson her first time 'round!" 

Mia stretched her lips into a false smile, trying to feign enthusiasm. "Thank you, professor. I know I could never live up to my mother's talents. She was an outstanding witch herself." 

"But you have your own, dear! An outstanding witch, you are, as well. Everyone has their own talents, and Potions is only one of yours." 

Slughorn did not stay around after inspecting hers, moving quickly through Theodore's with a hum of acknowledgement and nothing more. Then, he moved onto the Ravenclaw's unfinished antidotes. As he made his way around, it was beginning to look like Mia had had the most success so far in understand the Law and finding the right antidote for her poison. However, he had not yet looked at Granger's, and she watched with distaste as he glided enthusiastically toward the Gryffindor table. 

Draco scoffed, watching with irritation. "Think he'll give Granger points out of pity? She looks like she's just been put through the ringer with a Ridgeback and lost...well, that could just be her usual appearance―" 

"'Looks more like Mia did when she walked in," Blaise interrupted, his own tantalizing eye watching with annoyance as Slughorn inspected their potions. "Didn't think Potter could ever do wrong in the eyes of his Golden Trio." 

"She's just mad Potter is getting the attention she wants," Theo said lowly. "Slughorn would lick the ground Potter stands on all because he's suddenly gained the brains to make a potion properly." 

Mia snorted, rolling her eyes. She didn't bother to glance over her shoulder at the boys as she watched the Gryffindor table. "Brains? Potter? Absolutely not. He's found some way to cheat, and uptight Granger has her knickers in a twist because of it. There's no way someone becomes that grea―what is that?"

The band of Slytherins stopped their quiet discussion with one another when they saw what was being held up by Slughorn. The pride that exuded out of her professor sent a spasm of rage through her body, making her hands shake violently. "You've got the nerve, boy! You're like your mother! Well...I can't fault you...a bezoar would certainly act as an antidote to all of these potions!"

From where she was, she could hear a clearly-enraged Hermione struggle to control her own frustration at the praise Potter was getting for his half-assed solution. "And you thought of a bezoar all by yourself, did you, Harry?" 

"Of course he didn't," Mia seethed under her breath, glaring at the bezoar. Theodore glanced over at her and frowned. "He is the one with the intellect of a rock, and that is a blind man's solution to a problem―" 

"That's the individual spirit a real potions-maker needs! Just like his mother, she had the same intuitive grasp of potion-making, it's undoubtedly from Lily he gets it..." Slughorn was beaming, unaware of the sneers and snarls beginning to collect around the room over Potter's congratulations. Mia felt her hand dig deeper into fists. "...yes, Harry, yes, if you've got a bezoar to hand, of course that would do the trick. Although as they don't work on everything, and are pretty rare, it's still worth knowing how to mix antidotes..." 

Before Mia could express her growing wrath, the bell sounded overhead and half of the class rushed to pick up their things. She kept her eyes on Potter, narrowing them to slits when he glanced away from Slughorn to glance nervously in her direction. The contact lasted no longer than a second before he was shifting away his gaze, letting it fall behind her where she knew Draco stood. 

"Time to pack up!" Slughorn said, turning around to gesture for the already-leaving class to move. His eye twinkled, turning to her momentarily before glancing down at the bezoar again. "Ten points to Slytherin for Miss Erebus' near-perfected antidote, and ten to Gryffindor for sheer cheek! Top of the class today, you two! Well done!" 

There had to be something bitter in the irony that Mia and Potter ended up being the top of the class for the lesson. She barely acknowledged Slughorn as he waddled his way back to his desk at the front, her hands still curled dangerously at her sides as she watched Potter. Only when she felt a hand take hold of her wrist and start pulling her fingers out of their fist did she look away, her brown eyes blazing when they met grey.

"Funny thing isn't it, favoritism?" he asked casually, his bag already strapped to his shoulder. 

Draco was obviously not much happier with how Potter got top of the class, and his irritation was slithering its way into his features. She stared blankly at him before her eyes went back to Potter in interest. He was moving too slowly, almost like he was trying to buy time until everyone left. Before she could keep watching him, her left hand was placed in front of her face and obstructing her view. She looked at it, unsurprised to see that there were small indents of crescent-shaped cuts forming a semi-circle around her long scar. 

"Let it go, Romy," Draco said softly, and she turned to him with a scowl. "We need to go. Nearly everyone's left already." 

At that, she took her time to quickly glance around to see that most of the class had left. Blaise was no longer in sight, all of the Ravenclaws had disappeared, and it was only her, Draco, and Theodore left. Her cousin was trying to act inconspicuous, slowing down the process of packing up for her now that he had finished his own. She just barely caught the end of Draco and Theo sharing a look before Theodore grabbed her bag, throwing it casually over his shoulder before nodding at Draco. 

Draco's hand fell into hers, careful not to grasp her palm and only the sides. Instantly, she knew what the two were planning, and she scowled as she felt herself being pulled out of the room. The action was so casual that even Slughorn barely noticed, his eyes reading over the Evening Prophet for the day. They crossed by Potter's table, and his blue eyes caught her again just in time for her to see the spark die out in them. Then, they dropped down lower and noticed Draco holding her hand, and the similar expression of confusion flittered through his features. That was the last thing she saw before she was pulled completely out of the classroom and into the silence of the dungeon corridors. 

"Now...which one of you would like to explain? Because it seems like the three of us have a lot we need to discuss."

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Author's Note: 

Book chapter for the win! 7.5K! This scene takes place in Chapter Eighteen of Half-Blood Prince, which was why it took longer to get this chapter out than usual (because I was following the lines and the description in the book). Not an extremely chaotic chapter but still one of the funner ones to write, especially since I love the dynamic between the Potions quartet. 

Draco and Romy bickering is my favorite thing ever. I wanted to explicitly show the way that their dynamics can change very easily from bickering teenagers to loyal partners, because that is something I wanted to make sure was created given their circumstances. It's the little things between them that make their partnership/relationship/etc. so special, so writing those moments is always fun. 

Mia and Theodore! My favorite cousins! As most of you have already pointed out (or wondered), Mia still hasn't figured out what's going on with her cousin and Andrew. There is a reason for this, I promise! It's not just for the slow burn. I want to remind everyone that Mia is very great at dismissing emotions (as we know) and recognizing them in those she cares about is not her strong suit like it is with strangers. Plus, she's got a lot on her plate and Theo understands that, as we saw in this chapter...but...it won't be long now...

Thoughts on her and Potter's interactions? There's a lot of them in this!!

 We finally get the reveal that Mia's mission has something to do with Horcruxes! What could it be, what could it beeee? Been planning this since chapter one, and I'm so happy it's finally unraveling!

Let me know what you thought about the chapter! Thank you for reading and all of the support on this story so far! It means the world to me!

OPHION: RULED THE WORLD WITH GODDESS EURYNOME BEFORE BEING CAST DOWN BY CRONUS. TOOK THE FORM OF A SERPENT.