Chapter 4
Nyta met Penny Haywood in front of the potions’ classroom, which was very appropriate, considering the girl almost obsession with all things related to potions.
In less than four months, Penny Haywood had quickly gained a following within her classmates for her friendly and positive attitude. Nyta had never talked to her before, but her blond braids were known even by older students, so she was only a bit surprised that Penny had sought her out after she had heard about Nyta’s actions in the Courtyard, because she wanted to tell Nyta that she liked that she had fought Merula for bullying Ben.
Years later, Nyta may have joked that Penny Haywood had built friendships on much less, but would still consider it was in bad taste to admit that she had never been one to reject people who she believed could be useful. It was very lucky, Nyta would admit, that Penny, who at eleven had decided that she should meet and befriend everybody at school, and deemed it a doable feat, was very easy to befriend.
Rowan had thought important to write in their diary that Penny had sat with them that day on Potions’ class and that thanks to Nyta and Penny, Slytherin and Hufflepuff had earned ten points each
But the day really started in Charms, when Nyta was coaching Wilfred on the levitating charm again, which nobody could have predicted would become a routine that would last years. In Flitwick class, Rowan started to pass her notes, because in Potions, under Snape awfully attentive stare, they would have not dared.
Rowan wrote that had heard Merula talking to Ismelda and Barnaby while Nyta was busy meeting Penny. The three first-years Slytherins had discovered that there was a Cursed Vault in the West Towers, in a corridor in the higher levels. Years later, upon explaining this again, Rowan had to defend themselves, denying being interested in gossip, but to Myron’s great mirth, nobody believed them.
The way Rowan told it, it was supposed to be a secret, which of course meant that by lunch time, when the Director announced that the DADA Professor had abandoned his post, everyone already knew that Filch and Mrs. Norris guarded the corridor door of any stray student.
Thus, while the last days of school before the students had to go back to their homes for Christmas dragged with classes that almost seemed useless because the students were too excited to met their families again, people liked to guess what Filch was hiding.
Even at the dormitory, when Nyta was tired, Marina jumped from asking what their families were planning for the holidays to try to guess what was behind the door guarded. Normally, Marina’s exuberance did not affect Nyta much, but she was clearly very proud and excited to go on a vacation to Switzerland, and thought very little of the Parkin’s organizing charities galas under the name Wigtown Wanderers, so Rowan and Nyta had to try to stop their roommates from getting into very loud arguments when they were expected to be sleeping.
Trying to guess what secret laid behind the guarded door did not help, because, apparently, the student body had unanimously agreed that it was one of the vaults Jacob Syn had gone crazy searching and, though Marina had not wanted to say that to Nyta’s face, Skye had no compunctions about it. Marina complained that Skye was too rude and Skye gave back as good as she got. Rowan whined that they could not study in peace, because they thought that would make them stop, but it did not help, and once Skye stepped on Horatio’s tail while she was arguing with Marina, and Nyta had had to spend the night with a cat that didn’t want her to move an inch while he healed an admittedly mild hurt on top of her.
Between classes, rumours, arguments and learning the charm Alohomora and being heavily disappointed with its uses, things got so bad between Marina and Skye that Nyta found that she had trouble relaxing on the dormitory. This lead to Penny, who had heard Nyta telling Rowan she could not sleep, gaving her a Sleeping Draught Professor Snape had agreed she could make to raise her Potion marks. Nyta had accepted the potion, but she did not drink it, because she was still sleeping, even if the dormitory had become uncomfortable to stay in.
And the days continued passing.