"Test already, Amelia?" asked Piper as she felt a tap on her shoulder.

"Nope," came the voice of Pansy. "Just a late night snack raid."

Piper stuck her wand in her book to mark the page and rolled off her stomach so that she was sitting up. "Food?" she asked.

"Not yet," was the reply. "Draco 'n I were going to stop by the Defense room during patrol tonight."

"Yeah, sure, I'll go with," said Piper. She slid on a pair of Slytherin crest-emblazoned sandals and followed Pansy out of the common room.

"You reckon Snape'll catch us, though?" Piper whispered as the three began the routine walk down the corridors.

"If he does, we'll just say you left something there," muttered Draco. "But I hope he doesn't. I really feel like a pudding cup."

Luckily, they made it up to the Defense Against the Dark Arts room without trouble or encounter with any teachers. The door was locked, which wasn't an issue.

"Honestly, I don't know why anyone even bothers with locks anymore," whispered Pansy. "I mean really, imagine someone really wants to break in somewhere so they plan for months but then, oh no, the door's locked."

They crept to the back of the classroom, where Snape's skull-engraved mahogany cupboard stood in the shadows.

"Lumos," whispered Draco. In the sudden light of the wand, they swung open the door with little creaking to reveal the snack stash Snape secretly stored for the Slytherins, stocked and ready as always. They quickly filled their pockets with pumpkin pudding cups, small boxes of corn flakes, and ice cream enchanted to withstand being stored in a cupboard.

"Alright," whispered Piper as she tucked a gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, sugar-free cauldron cake under her robes for Blaise. "We gotta leave some for later."

"I'll go back with you," said Pansy. They locked the Defense room and parted, Draco to continue patrolling and Piper and Pansy to store the snacks in their dormitories.

Halfway to the dungeons, Piper put her hand out and shushed Pansy, even though they weren't making a sound. They leapt behind a tapestry (well known to the students at Hogwarts to have a hidden hole behind it but teachers evidently still unaware). If anyone saw them walking around with arms full of food, who knows how much food they'd ask for? Luckily, it was only Harry passing by.

They crept out of the stifling hole and continued off.

"Wonder where Potter's off to tonight," said Pansy. "You reckon he ran out of tampons?"

Piper shrugged. "Who knows?"

Pansy sighed. "Wish Slughorn'd give us more opportunities to win Felix Felicis. Imagine having a whole day guaranteed to be perfect."

"If it was legal to use during games, I'd try it during the Quidditch cup."

"Or N.E.W.T.s testing."

"If you took it during Christmas, would you get all the presents you wanted?"

"Maybe you'd just feel extra thankful, then you'd feel lucky."

"But it'll wear off, won't it? So the next day you'll be unthankful?"

"What if you took it during Valentine's day? Could you get your crush to ask you out?"

"Thinking of someone?" teased Piper.

"Ha, ha," said Pansy, turning red. "What about you and your Gryffindor boyfriend?"

"Hm," said Piper with a smile. "A Felix Felicis enhanced date would be awesome."

Pansy snickered then shook her head. "It's still absurd to me. A Gryffindor and a Slytherin."

Piper shrugged. "Yeah, well, we're all human, aren't we? I mean, really, imagine if there weren't any houses."

"It would be chaos," said Pansy. "No House cup, no Quidditch, imagine the housing system."

"Yeah, but chaotic good."

"Piper, you're weird."

"Thank you, I try."

>>>•Nico•<<<

Nico watched as Fawkes chased Bianca the now medium sized black cat around the fragile instruments. Bianca let out a loud meow and jumped onto Dumbledore's desk, nearly falling in the Pensieve.

"Bianca!" scolded Nico, sweeping up the cat before she could fall in.

"Oh, it's quite alright," said Dumbledore. "She'll just have a peek of Bob Ogden."

Fawkes landed on his perch and eyed Bianca suspiciously.

"Now," said Dumbledore, businesslike as he faced Nico. "I'm sure you know Harry was just in here."

"Was he?" said Nico. "He didn't say anything to us, he just left the common room."

Dumbledore's bright blue eyes suddenly grew somber. "I see. Well, that is not what I have called you alone here for today."

He pointed his wand at a table across the room and a whiz of gold and black flew past Nico's ear. "I want you to look at this ring."

The ring hovered in front of him ominously. He flinched. Somehow, the ring radiated hostility, death, life, bitterness, and regret. Nico could feel his energy being sapped just by looking at it.

"What is that?" he asked. "Why... what... gods, that thing hates me."

"This," said Dumbledore, twisting his wand and making the ring rotate, "was one of Lord Voldemort's rings."

"Did it do that to you?" asked Nico, his eyes falling to Dumbledore's withered hand.

"Yes," said Dumbledore. Nico leaned back instinctively as Dumbledore leaned forward.

"Tell me, Nico, can you sense anything unusual about this ring?"

"Besides its unusually strong opinions for being an inanimate object?"

"Yes. Tell me everything, including, as you put it, 'it's unusually strong opinions for being an inanimate object.'"

"Can I touch it?"

"It was heavily cursed with Dark Magic, but I believe I transferred the curse to myself. However, I'd advise you to be careful."

Nico gingerly plucked it from the air. It was freezing cold and suddenly Nico's whole arm felt numb. The ring hissed. If it were alive, it surely would've recoiled. There was so much information Nico could've read— except he couldn't.

"It's like its speaking in a different language," he finally said apologetically. "Like... it's swearing at me in Cantonese."

"I often find," said Dumbledore sagely, "that words are the worst forms of expression. People don't say what they really mean, they say what they wish to hear."

Nico ran a nail over the crack in the dark stone and felt like he was dragging a knife through reality.

"Something died in this," he said. "It's really faint and everything else is distorted."

He set the ring on the desk in front of Dumbledore. "I'm sorry, that's all I can get."

"That's quite alright," said Dumbledore kindly. "If anything, I have a new peace of mind. Now, I think it's time I stopped dragging you away from your friends. I'm sure you're quite tired."

Nico reached the common room still mildly confused about what exactly the ring was supposed to be. But anyway, he decided, pausing for Bianca to thoroughly sniff a suit of armor, if Dumbledore thought it important, he would've told him.