"Oi!"

I march up the corridor, my blood boiling in anger as I approach a guilty looking Ron and Hermione.

"What the hell is your game?" I splutter angrily. "That is next level low, spying on me like that! Next time you want to ask me something then just ask you pathetic cowards! I thought we were friends!"

"I- I don't know what you're talking about!" Ron splutters, stepping behind Hermione like the coward he is.

"Stomachache all gone, has it?"

Shamefaced, Hermione reaches out to touch my arm. "Look, Harri-"

"Oh, so it speaks now does it?!" I snap, snatching my arm away. "Luckily for you both, Draco is as oblivious as they come. But me - not so much!"

I feel so hurt and betrayed by them both, that I can't even look at them anymore.

"We're sorry, Harri." Hermione says, "But we had to be sure that you weren't the Heir of Slytherin."

My mouth falls open. "You are both unbelievable! Do you really honestly think I'm capable of going around and terrorizing Muggle-borns? Do you guys not even know me at all?"

"Well you did threaten Justin." Ron points out.

"BECAUSE HE IS AN UNGRATEFUL TWAT!" I roar in his face. "NOT BECAUSE HE IS A MUGGLE-BORN, YOU DIMWIT!"

I feel so angry, I am literally shaking.

"We're really sorry, Harri," Hermione says, her bottom lip trembling.

"Yeah, well I'm not." I glare at her, satisfied to see tears swimming in her eyes. "And it served you right what Draco said, even if I don't agree."

"Take that back!" Ron growls, removing his wand with a shaking hand.

"Ron, don't!" Hermione gasps. "She's every right to be angry-"

I don't listen to any more. Instead, I whirl around and march away, furtively wiping the tears from my face before anyone can see.

*****

"I don't know why you're letting it bother you," Pansy shrugs when I confide in her about it later. "You don't need them, you've got us. Slytherins and Gryffindors do not mix, it's like a rule or something."

"That's a stupid rule," I say, wrinkling my nose.

"Come on," Pansy says, linking her arm in mine. "Let's go and see the birthday prince and lavish him with gifts he doesn't need."

It is Draco's fourteenth birthday. He is already sat languishing on the sofa when we step out of the dormitory and into the common room, a large pile of wrapped gifts on the coffee table before him.

Seeing us, he eagerly pats the space next to him, beckoning for me to join him. "Harri! Here, you can help me unwrap."

"Open this first," I say, dropping a rectangular package into his lap as I sit down next to him.

He opens it greedily, his eyes lighting up when a pair of green Quidditch gloves are revealed beneath the wrapping.

"Thanks, Harri," he drawls, draping an arm around my shoulders and pressing a kiss to my scar. "You're the best."

I blush.

Everything is ruined though, when Daphne chooses that moment to come rushing in, breathless and hot faced.

"Guess what?!" She gasps, heading straight for us. "It's got Granger! Everyone is saying she's dead!"

I am deafened by Draco's whoop of joy. He lets go of me to jump up, the gloves I have bought him, falling to the floor, forgotten about. "BEST. BIRTHDAY. PRESENT. EVER!"

He doesn't even notice that I've left until I am halfway across the common room.

"Harri?" He calls after me. "Where are you going? We've got presents to open."

"Get Pansy to help you," I spit, refusing to look back in his gleeful face.

I go straight to the hospital wing, praying with everything I have that Daphne has got it wrong and that she isn't dead.

I breathe a sigh of relief as I see her laying on a bed in the far corner, my heart twisting at the sight of Ron sobbing over her.

"Come to gloat?" He mutters as soon as I approach. "You can tell Malfoy that he hasn't quite got his wish, though. She's just Petrified, like the others."

I swallow down a painful lump in my throat as I watch him take her frozen hand in his. "My Hermione," he whispers.

"I'm not gloating at all," I say quietly, as I slowly sit down in the empty chair beside him, my eyes not leaving the frozen look of horror on Hermione's face. "I never wanted this."

Ron's entire body sags, as though he is too defeated to argue.

"It got Colin Creevey too." Ron mumbles, beckoning over towards another bed where a boy holding a camera lays stiff as a plank.

I knew that boy. He had asked Draco to take our photo together at the start of the school year, but then ended up scurrying away in fright after Draco threatened to smash his 'stupid Muggle contraption' to pieces.

"What the hell is going on?" I murmur, shaking my head in bewilderment. "And why is the school still open?"

I mean, I don't want to have to go back to the Dursleys earlier than planned, but I also don't want to be killed by a monster.

"It won't be for much longer," Ron shrugs. "I overheard Madam Pomfrey saying that if it happens again, Fudge is going to personally come over and shut it down himself."

"One more time?" I splutter, unable to believe what I am hearing. "This shouldn't be happening at all!"

"Tell me about it," Ron sniffs dully. "Next time it could be fatal."

He squeezes Hermione's hand and closes his eyes, as though in pain. I think about Draco lying there and my stomach twists unpleasantly.

"We've got to do something Ron," I breathe, for the first time feeling scared about this beast. "Before it's too late."

"Yeah but- what?"

Suddenly, he starts, looking down at Hermione with a puzzled look upon his face. "Wait- what's this?"

He forces her fingers open, and out of her hand flutters a piece of paper with a single word written on.

Pipes.

"Pipes? What on earth?"

Ron and I exchange a baffled look.

In the end we decide to do some of our own investigating, and start by going to ask Hagrid if he can help.

But before our conversation can get anywhere, Lucius and Fudge storm into his hut and arrest him. Luckily, Ron and I are able to hide under my Invisibility Cloak.

"Follow the spiders!" Hagrid shouts as he is dragged away.

"Why spiders?" Ron cries as we find a trail of scuttling arachnids. "Why couldn't it be 'follow the butterflies'?"

I ignore him, marching on ahead into the Forbidden Forest, feeling a thrill at finally being able to go on an adventure.

That thrill soon turns into a feeling of wanting to shit myself when we are nearly eaten by giant spiders.

Luckily, Ron's dad's car saves us. And by the smell it once we arrive safely out of the forest, it seems like Ron really has shit himself. The car, understandably disgusted by this, turfs us both out and speeds back into the safety of the forest.

"WELL THAT WAS A PISSING WASTE OF TIME!" Ron bellows as he walks wide legged all the way back to the castle.

*****

The second I enter the common room, I am rushed at by a body.

"Fuck, Harri," Draco murmurs ardently as he squeezes the life out of me, his voice muffled in my hair. "I've been looking for you everywhere. You missed my birthday cake."

He lets go of me, standing back to give me the once over. "What the hell happened to you?" He says, reaching up to pull a twig out of my hair. "Shit, you're trembling. Harri, what the-?"

"If I tell you that I nearly got eaten by a giant spider, would you believe me?" I ask before promptly fainting.

*****

"Look, she's waking up!"

I open my eyes to the sight of five worried faces looking down at me. Draco, Pansy, Blaise, Crabbe and Goyle.

"No, wait - she's blacking out again."

I squeeze my eyes shut trying to recall what happened.

"Harri? Are you with us?"

I snap open my eyes and attempt to sit up. I am on the sofa in the common room, my peers standing over me.

"You fainted," Draco quickly explains, "so I carried you to the sofa."

"Did you really nearly get eaten by a giant spider?" Pansy asks in awe.

"Ron shit himself," I mutter, my voice hoarse. I feel too drained to offer any further details.

"Speaking of that ginger twat," Blaise drawls lazily, "he's hanging around outside in the corridor. Says his sister's been kidnapped or some shit."

Now I am fully alert. "Ginny?!"

"Hey, where are you going?" Pansy calls after me. "Didn't you just faint?"

Ron and I go grab Lockhart and force him to come along with us. We worked out with the help of Hermione's clue what was going on.

After some brilliant snake speak, a chat with a gorgeous memory, and a battle with a giant snake, I manage to rescue Ginny.

Merlin, I'm brilliant.

******