“If you’re a Gryffindor, you must try sneaking out at night at least once!”
Alice’s face darkened as her eyes darted around the traditional room Filch “prepared” for them. The trophy display cabinet was covered in a thick layer of dust, just flicking your fingers over it could color your fingertips in gray. Every corner showed at least a spiderweb, even the cups were seen with some. There was almost no free space on the ground, anything from documents and notebooks, pens, rulers, wizard and muggle daily supplies,... was spread out on the floor, messy and piled up. It felt like a small poke could collapse every pile in the room.
Harry was used to this, he was already familiar with Filch who always tormented the students in detention. On the other hand, Alice - a good student in the professors’ eyes, had never been in detention before, she felt like her future was collapsing before her very own eyes.
“What do you think about handling Cadwallader in a game of Quidditch? I can control the bludger to attack him without suspecting anyone.”
He didn’t need to see her face to know how pissed she was.
“To be honest with you, I had just thought of that.”
Harry and Alice shared a look. Though Quidditch wasn’t held in their fourth year, they still had three more years and Cadwallader was only one year older than them. Their plan to end Voldemort wasn’t even halfway completed yet their plan to teach Cadwallader was already done.
They were asked to not use magic to clean in their detention, so they had to clean all the dust and webs in the old fashioned way like muggles. The cabinet already took them two hours, Filch didn’t allow them to even use floating charms to move the cups, the higher ones required one of them to stand on a chair to reach.
Their detention ended when McGonagall came to announce curfew was right around the corner so they returned to their dorms with an empty stomach. The professor kindly asked if they were hungry and did they need her to call the elves for food but they turned down the offer.
Harry was sure his friends sneaked food into their dorm for him. Though he and Ron were angry at each other the redhead still cared for Harry. Ron would push the mission of sneaking dinner out to Neville, Dean or Seamus since he didn’t want to admit he was worried for his friend. He had been friends with Ron since they were first years to when their kids were going to the same school, he knew the lion well.
Alice didn’t like eating in The Great Hall, it was weird for her when she, a lion, sat and ate among snakes. Except breakfast when she would take food to her room and eat when no one noticed, Alice never went to The Great Hall. That method caused her troubles sometimes, so she thought of going to the kitchens and asking the elves to bring her food, but anything that happened in Hogwarts was known by Dumbledore and she didn’t want to alert the headmaster while she was a student from Beauxbatons.
“Slytherin and Gryffindor are having three classes together tomorrow!” Alice sighed, “Transfiguration, Charms and Herbology! Why do these two houses which hate each other to their bones have so many classes together!”
Alice liked Gryffindor, she used to be one after all. But only thinking about the lions glaring at her because she dared to be around the Golden Boy of Gryffindor gave her headaches.
“Back then I asked myself the same question whenever I had classes with Malfoy.” Harry shook his head, speaking in an unknowing tone, “At least we could meet up in those classes, though I think it’d be better to find a private spot to talk than using silencing charms.”
“I prefer that too, but my schedule is full already, I almost have no free time.”
Luckily she didn’t have to use the Time Turner like third year Hermione, she found Trelawney’s Divination useless so she didn’t sign up. If Care for Magical Creatures and History of Magic weren’t required, she would have left them out as well.
“If you’re a Gryffindor, you must try sneaking out at night at least once!” Harry suddenly exclaimed, “What about Room of Requirement, Alice?”
“Harry…” the girl’s eye twitched, turned her head to look at her father, “Have you forgotten that I don’t have the Invisibility Cloak anymore? Or do you want Slytherin to lose points so much that you’ve decided to ask a Slytherin in the dungeon to walk around the seventh floor at night?”
Since she helped Harry handle Cadwallader, the snakes had shown signs of ignoring her. Alice was sure it was Malfoy’s doing, that obnoxious guy was nothing like Malfoy in her time. Even when she was at Gryffindor, she wasn’t anything close to extroverted, she never talked to anyone except the Weasleys and Malfoys - who she knew thanks to previous connections with her “dad” and whenever she was free she was with her cauldron. Alice Lily Potter hated troubles, she only wanted to have a date with her sweet cauldron in the corner, uncaring of her father who was having a headache about whether he or the old bat was her actual parent. If she made Slytherin lose points now, she was sure Malfoy would love to give her a taste of a third year prefect and the Malfoy family's power over the Slytherin, and that meant no more peace for the rest of her years in Hogwarts.
“There’s something called an invisibility charm, Alice. You always got O in Charms, I believe you will master it in no time.”
Harry - just needed two tries to successfully use the invisibility charm - Potter nodded, complimenting himself for thinking of such a brilliant idea. The girl, with one third of his magic, excellent grades in Charms and having the Greatest Auror as a mentor, couldn’t be as bad as he was with Occlumency in fifth year.
They still had many things to discuss, the little time during the classes they shared wasn’t enough, so meeting in the Room of Requirements was necessary if they wanted to be fully prepared for snake face’s revival. Practicing Fiendfyre needed a suitable space too. Mastering the invisibility charm quickly became their number one priority.
“I don’t want to interrupt you two, but you guys can’t go to each other’s dorms even if you’re attached to the hips.”
Cedric Diggory’s voice echoed from behind them. They startled and turned around to see the Hufflepuff prefect smiling gently at them, then realized they were in the hallway leading to the Gryffindor dormitory. By habit, Alice subconsciously walked to the lions’ dorm while talking to Harry.
“Oh Merlin, Malfoy will definitely absolutely kill me if he hears about this!”
Alice hissed, due to the time being at night already, so the noises she made weren’t very different from Parseltongue.
“Alright, lady Evans, walking around alone at night is dangerous, I think you should return as soon as possible.”
Cedric knew they just finished their detention at Filch’s, so he didn’t bother to write their names down even if it was past curfew. Alice thanked him then sprinted to the dungeon, not bothering to bid Harry goodbye. She feared that if the Gryffindor prefect returned now and saw a Slytherin standing in front of his dorm, he’d misunderstand. She didn’t want the snakes to annoy her because of her close relationship with Boy Who Lived.
“That was fast.” In a blink of an eye, she was out of sight, making Cedric exclaim, “With this speed, she’d have an advantage in Quidditch.”
“Oh, trust me senior, she’s only loyal to her cauldron.” Harry thought about the time he tried to convince her to join the Quidditch team, not only that he failed miserably, he also earned a few Stupefy for bothering her while she was brewing some potion, then laughed, “I’m sure if the cauldron became a human, she wouldn’t hesitate to marry it.”
“You seem to know a lot about her. Lovers, hm?”
Hufflepuffs, in the end, loved a little gossiping, even if the charming prince of Hufflepuff couldn’t escape it.
“No, no, it’s just that Alice helped me a lot. We met in the library, and she helped me recite many important charms that were quite useful for the first task even though we knew nothing about it. Her grades in Charms were never low, after all.”
This excuse was agreed upon between Harry and Alice a while ago, after all, during this time, Harry’s closest friends didn’t follow him everywhere, and Alice had just transferred to Hogwarts so she had to walk around and act like a new student observing her new school. That way, wherever they met wasn’t suspicious, it wasn’t like someone was monitoring every move they made.
“I heard she shone in Snape’s Potions this morning, I didn’t know she was good at Charms too.”
“Started from me. I forgot Slytherin and Gryffindor's relationship and made her popular after one meal, so she was determined to use her remarkable grades to outshine the popularity raised by Boy Who Lived.”
Harry mischievously winked, while Cedric laughed after him. Sometimes Gryffindor acted before thinking twice, leading to more troubles.
“Oh right, you haven’t eaten dinner, yes? I didn’t see you at the Great Hall.”
“Yeah, but maybe my friends already sneaked food in for me.”
“They must be cold by now, not as good as new. Hufflepuff’s dorm is near the kitchen, do you want to go there?”
Cedric’s offer was good, after all he was an adventurous Gryffindor yet he hadn’t stepped inside Hufflepuff’s dorm, it attracted him like fire to a moth. But…
“I lost Gryffindor twenty points today already, if I lose more I’m not sure if I’m getting out of this alive.”
“Alright.” Cedric didn’t push any further, “Then I’ll tell the elves to bring you a meal. Don’t decline, it’s their happiness to do so.”
Seeing his kindness, Harry couldn’t object and continuing to decline would seem disrespectful, so he nodded:
“Can I ask for an additional meal for Alice? She hasn’t done her homework yet, I’m afraid she might forget to eat.”
“No problem.” Cedric’s gaze was a bit unsettling for Harry, “You care for new students a lot.”
“We’re friends after all, thanks to Alice I got five points from Snape, worth an award don’t you think?”
Harry laughed.