Agnes folds the map up as quickly as she can without it seeming too suspicious. She opens a bag and stuffs it inside right as Mr. Malfoy starts climbing the stairs to the stands. The girls look at him confused, but he smiles and says, "Interesting to meet you here again."

"Yeah, what a strange coincidence." Maria squints her eyes slightly and stands up, slinging the strap of her bag over her shoulder.

"Pardon me, but I was told to meet someone else here. You wouldn't happen to know of a Professor McLaughlin, would you?" Lucius folds his hands on top of his cane, leaning over the third years. If only he wasn't so tall.

"I do, and he's our Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. That means he can beat you up any day of the week!" Agnes shoves herself between Maria and Mr. Malfoy, sticking her finger right at his nose.

"Okay, it's time for us to go! We promised to meet up with the others, remember Agnes?" Maria grabs her friend's wrist and tugs her away from the man. As they speed walk away from the stands, she looks back and sees Lucius still staring at them with a grin. She shivers and whispers to Agnes, "Stop trying to pick fights with adults, please!"

"Maria, you remember what Chase said about him last year?" When she doesn't get a response, Agnes continues, "He tried to kill Alana, too! If she was alone that day at the Quidditch Field who knows what would have happened!"

"I know you're angry-"

"Angry? I'm furious!"

"-but we need to keep a level head. We have something so secret that not even Professor Dumbledore wanted to see it!" Maria sees that Agnes's face is starting to turn red.

"Why can't I just go back there and rub this map in his face?!" Agnes's volume rises when they get to the doors of the castle.

"Because that's exactly what he wants you to do! As far as we know, Lucius doesn't realize you own the map. Think about how terrible it would be if you were to show it off. He would bombard you with Death Eaters! You need to keep this to yourself. Honor Alana's name!" Maria tries to keep her own voice as quiet as she can, but as she finishes her speech she realizes she might have started yelling at some point.

Agnes rubs her arm over her eyes and stomps her foot on the ground. "I just want some revenge!"

Before Maria can open her mouth to say something comforting, Agnes runs down the hall and out of sight to be somewhere that she can be alone. Sighing, Maria decides it might be best to give her some space. She turns and starts walking down the left corridor, but is instantly knocked on her back by someone ramming straight into her. "Ugh!"

"Oh my Merlin, I am so sorry!" Maria opens her eyes after the pain in her back dies down and sees Mr. Harlowe stretching his hand out to her.

She takes it and is pulled back onto her feet, only wobbling a few times. "I-it's okay."

"I really do apologize, but I'm in a huge hurry!" Mr. Harlowe waves and starts sprinting again. "I'll make sure your next homework assignment isn't that hard!"

Maria notices that the skin on his hand he waved with seems to be bubbling in a painful looking way. She concludes he must have been demonstrating something to a patch of students and is now running to the hospital wing. It doesn't really surprise her that much, given what happened earlier that day.

"Today just keeps getting stranger and stranger..." she mumbles to herself as she reaches the hallway connecting to the kitchens. Finding the room where the Hufflepuff common room entrance is located, she taps the melody on the barrel and enters so she can put away her stuff and collect her thoughts.

Dropping her bag on her bed, she files through her books to make sure she has everything organized for classes on Monday. "Huh? Oh no." Between her Care of Magical Creatures and Potions books is a thick piece of folded parchment, the edges bending because it was quickly shoved inside the bag. It's Alana's map, which means Agnes must have accidentally crammed it into Maria's bag instead of hers when Mr. Malfoy was coming at them.

Making sure no one is in the room with her, Maria takes it out and unfolds it over her lap, taking in once again the many moving components. She instantly recognizes the Hogwarts Express, which she hadn't before when she was analyzing it with Agnes. It moves around in a loopy circle, traveling from London to the school. There are many places circled in the school, two of them seemingly in the girl's bathroom that no one goes in because of the ghost Moaning Myrtle. Well, that's what Maria heard of anyway, and she doesn't really want to take her chances.

Some of the circles are starred while others aren't, and after counting them she realizes half of them are labeled with a star. The one that Agnes tried to get to at Gringotts is blank, which makes her wonder why she was drawn to that one first. The circled area that Maria is drawn to is located in one of the teacher's dormitories. Squinting, Maria can barely make out the words written underneath: The wand of Loyalty combats that of Hazel. Not everything appears as they seem. Humans and objects alike; don't be fooled by the eyes of flame. For the wood is as good as Gold.

"Wow, I know just as much as I did before I read that riddle," Maria says sarcastically. Alright, then, let's think about it. A wand of loyalty? That sounds an awful lot like a Hufflepuff, which intrigues her. Combats that of Hazel, hmm. Could Hazel be a person since it's capitalized? Not everything appears as they seem - probably disguise or something of the sort. Humans and objects alike... and what are the eyes of flame? What does it mean when it says the wood is as good as gold? Surely that can't be saying that wood holds the same value as gold does, that would be pushing it.

She would go and investigate the circled area herself, but the teachers' offices/dorms are not a place she will never willingly go to. "This is so frustrating. Why couldn't Alana just say: Here's the thing I need you to find, go there at this time!? I hate how much this hurts my head."

Putting the map in her drawer, Maria slides off her bed and exits the dorm room, her thoughts replaying the clue left by Alana over in her mind to try and figure out what it means. It isn't until she runs into Stephen when she completely forgets about her problem with the map. "Stephen, what's wrong? You look disturbed."

"Hannah told me to come find you. Trouble, in the courtyard!" That's all she needs to hear before she goes running out of the common room, following Stephen as he leads her through the hallways.

"Well, if it isn't that annoying badger. Coming to settle the score are we?"

"Olivia, I don't have time. Move!" Maria tries to push the Slytherin out of the way so she and Stephen can continue, but Olivia stands her ground and pulls out her wand.

"Don't think I don't know about you getting special treatment from Snape. It's practically what all the Slytherin third years are talking about in the common room! I'm not going to let you get away with-"

"Students are fighting a man in the courtyard!" Stephen yells, gaining Olivia's attention.

"What?" the Slytherin asks, instantly losing her intimidating demeanor. "You're making that up so that I don't beat your friend to bits the way she almost blew me apart in the hall."

"I wish I was joking! Come on!" If Maria told her to join them, Olivia probably wouldn't have put away her wand and started running alongside the two Hufflepuffs to the courtyard.

"Woah, who's that?" Olivia asks, amused and curious.

"Lucius Malfoy. He hates your family so ungodly much," Stephen answers her, not taking his eyes off the trespasser for one moment. "Why would he be here?"

The three try to get closer to the action, but it proves difficult since there is a significant amount of third years and older students watching what's going on. Finally, they manage to push through and get to the front, Maria spotting Julia and Hannah on the other side. She waves, but they don't seem to notice her, their eyes too focused on what's happening.

Professor McLaughlin stands at one end of the crowd, his wand drawn and his stance shaky. He's looking at Lucius who also has his wand out, pointed straight at his chest. What the heck is happening today? Maria thinks to herself worriedly as Lucius flicks his wand, sending out a blue wave of magic. McLaughlin shields himself and takes a step back saying, "This really isn't necessary, Lucius."

"Then maybe you should control your students better than you have been. All I wanted to do was talk, John," he says with an unpleasant smile. Maria sees his eyes flicker to the side and land on Hannah for a moment. What happened while she was gone?

"What's this all about?" she asks Stephen, her voice just above a whisper.

"I was walking to-" the students all gasp when Malfoy sends purple sparks flying at McLaughlin's face. "-Hagrid's because I wanted to talk to him about some things when I passed the courtyard and heard Hannah's voice. When I peered over, he commented something about our heritage and that's when she lost it. McLaughlin stepped in to break it up, but Malfoy hit him with a spell and that's when Hannah told me to find you."

"They're holding back," Olivia mumbles, but Maria still catches it. She observes them closer and can see they both hesitate before casting a spell, taking more time to aim it to not attack a student on accident. They also block instead of dodge, making sure to protect the crowd on both ends.

"No, Leah!" a girl screams through the chaos. Stephen gasps and grabs Maria's hand, his other one covering his mouth as they both watch his younger sister sprint between the two adults. She has her wand out and fires a spell without using the incantation, but Maria knows what it is. Fire spits out of the end of her wand, directing right at Lucius. All Maria can look at are the flames reflecting in her eyes and recounting what was written on the map: Don't be fooled by the eyes of flame.

But those thoughts are again interrupted when a wall of water sprouts from Malfoy's feet, extinguishing the fire, and performs one more quick spell that silences everyone. "Diffindo." A huge slash mark appears across Leah's body as she falls straight back into the grass. Hannah screams through her hands and Julia has to hold her back, the same going for Maria and Stephen. No one can stop Katie and David, however, from running toward their unconscious sister. McLaughlin raises his wand once again and yells, "DEPULSO," sending Lucius across the courtyard and into the wall. He turns to the students and strictly says, "Everyone, to your dorms, and will someone please get another professor in here!"

The entire array of students scatter except for Maria, Julia, Leah's siblings, and one small Gryffindor girl who can't control her sobbing. As Maria stands and stares at Leah on the ground holding onto Stephen even still, she can't help but to flash back to the dark hallway and finding Alana there on the floor.

"She's okay, Ms. Miller, she's okay," Professor McLaughlin says soothingly. "She just hit her head. I'll take her to the hospital wing."

"I'm s-sorry! I told her not to, b-but she ran through my grasp-" the little Gryffindor girl mutters through her crying.

"It's fine, Grace. This isn't your fault." McLaughlin reassures her and levitates Leah behind him. "All of you, stay here and tell the teacher who is coming exactly what happened. I need to make sure Ms. Miller arrives safely at the hospital wing."

Once he leaves, Maria turns to Hannah and the others with the most shocked face she has ever produced. As the sun touches the tip of the horizon, all that can be heard through the courtyard is her voice shaking, "What the bloody hell was that all about?"