Chapter 3
It all started in December.
Nyta had already accepted that the weird vision that she had seen in the Artefact Room was nothing more than that, a weird vision. Snow had indeed arrived at Hogwarts, a white rug slowly covering over the scenery. White snowflakes entered the castle from the windows and skylights and every nook they could find. It left the building cold and humid and the students had taken to gather under the biggest torches they could find, hoping they would get some warmth from the flames that only served as light sources.
It was a cold rainy Tuesday and they had been learning the levitation spell in charms. Nyta had gotten the knack of it quickly enough, although not as quickly as Ben, who always understood how to make a spell work faster than anyone. He had helped Rowan, noticing that they were moving wrong their wand and Nyta noticed that the kid that always sat behind them, a blond Gryffindor who introduced himself as Wilfred, could not manage to move his feather from the desk:
''I think you are pronouncing it wrong,'' she had whispered to him, trying to help. She had repeated the charm on her own feather, hoping that he would copy and perform it. He did not manage to levitate his feather until the very end of the class, with Nyta silently clapping her hands, cheering him. Wilfred had smiled and thanked her, and Nyta was still feeling good about that when she heard the commotion going on in the courtyard and her good mood was smashed to the floor faster than she could say wingardium leviosa.
It was unsurprising to discover that Merula Snyde stood proud at the center of the group. It was even less surprising that she was insulting someone. Ben was in front of her, eyes downcast and writhing his hands with his robes. Nyta did not have time to think about it before she had made her way to Ben’s side in an attempt to distract Merula.
‘’Syn!’’ exclaimed Merula, forever obsessed with calling everybody by their surnames. ‘’Here to continue your family tradition to shame Slytherin by being friends with a mudblood?’’
‘’Not much of a tradition…’’
Ben took a step back and Merula one forward. Nyta put herself between them and tried to reason with the girl, but Merula was never an easy person to reason with and, soon, Merula had her wand out and was demanding a duel.
‘’Take your wand out!’’ she shouted. ‘’Let’s see how much of a loser you are!’’
‘’No.’’ Refused Nyta and turned to leave.
‘’Flipendo!’’ shouted Merula.
Nyta fell to her knees and saw Ben making a movement to approach her. She did not have time to get up before Merula cast the jinx again and Nyta had to dodge it by jerking herself on the floor. Still on the floor, she quickly took her wand into her hand and pointed at Merula:
‘’Rictusempra!’’
Merula started to laugh wildly, which made some of the crowd laugh at her. Nyta stood, noticing that her knees were scrapped under her now ripped stocking and that her hands were also slightly bleeding.
Merula started to calm her laughing and was looking at Nyta with eyes full of rage, gripping her wand so hard her fingers were turning red. The girl would never be able to bear shame gracefully. She pointed it at Nyta again, but Nyta was faster and knocked Merula’s wand with an expelliarmus before she had the opportunity to cast anything else.
‘’Ahem.’’ Came a deep voice from the side, surprising them. Professors Snape and Flitwick had made their way into the crowd and looked expectantly at the two girls.
‘’Professors,’’ Nyta greeted, then hid her wand inside her sleeve again, already calm by her professors presence. It did not last much when Snape took 40 points from Slytherin, 20 for each girl, and directed them to the West Towers.
Nyta was already unhappy that she had to attend her first detention when she had never wanted to fight, and worried about what image it would give that she was getting detentions and what her Prefect would have to say about it, she knew that Felix would be disappointed.
Her mood did not get better when Filch appeared before they arrived to the towers and said something to Snape that made him let the girls free from their detention for the day. She heard Filch say something about some vaults and she immediately knew it was about the vaults her brother had been interested in.
The adults quickly left and Nyta was surprised when she saw Merula smirk.
‘’Did you hear what they said?’’ She looked too excited for Nyta’s taste. ‘’They were talking about the Cursed Vaults.’’
‘’I know, Merula.’’
‘’They professors know something! And I’ll find out what it is!’’
Nyta did not understand why she wanted to know about the vaults when she was always claiming that Jacob was crazy for trying to find them.
‘’Professor Snape told us to go back to the common room, we should go…’’
Merula smirked again, turning a pointed disgusted look at her. ‘’You go, Syn.’’ She immediately started to run in the direction the adults had left and Nyta wondered if she was expecting to successfully spy on two adults wizards or if she planned to simply ask them about it.
Nya went back to the common room, where Rowan was waiting for her with Felix. Felix did not waste a minute when he saw her entering and directed his gaze to her and moved his head side to side in a disapproving manner, which told her more than any word from him could.
Rowan explained that they were the one to call the teachers to stop the fight. Pleased, Nyta thought that Rowan had been cleverer than herself, who had thoughtlessly put herself in front of Merula without knowing how to stop her. Felix pointedly agreed.
Nyta learned that Ben had already gone to his dormitory and, still uninterested in finding the vaults herself, commented on what she had heard about the vaults from the adults, which admittedly was not much, just that it was possible that they knew where they were.