Half Blood

Summer Comes Again I

Despite their startling discovery, the Rogues were beginning to realise that knowledge did not always yield power. In fact, in their case, knowledge only brought frustration. 

The Aurors were just as helpful as they could be—they’d checked all the nooks and crannies of Hogwarts, but if anyone had used a hidden passage it remained hidden. Even Harry Potter found the secret pathways unfamiliar to those he’d once snuck through. The castle had changed, and none knew how to navigate it. To top it all off, there were so many places to look—how could anyone possibly know where to look when no one at all knows where exactly Grethel Sparrow was taken?

The Rogues were left to deal with the overwhelming sensation of being utterly useless—which was entirely to their advantage. The fair Spring weather was waning, and the air about the castle had thickened with talk of final exams. It wasn’t common practice to burn the midnight oil in the Slytherin dungeons, but the first years were breaking from tradition after Professor Sylvia Rowle began teaching Transfiguration at Hogwarts. She seemed to assume that by succeeding the Headmistress, she had much to prove—which she’d assumed correctly. Unfortunately, she’d taken the worst course of action imaginable. She’d somehow come to the conclusion that to properly take Professor McGonagall’s place, she must fail as many possible students as possible—she used another term for it, however.

“I believe she used the word challenge,” Laurie muttered as she sat hunched over her Transfiguration book. 

“I doubt she really meant it,” Gabriel shrugged, trying to shove Laurie’s book shut. “Come on, Laurie, it’s a perfectly fine Friday afternoon to go outdoors. You can study on Sunday.”

“It’d do you good to glance through the book, Nott,” Edmund yawned. “If I recall correctly, you didn’t do so well on Rowle’s last pincushion.”

“Neither did you,” Gabriel huffed, “but I don’t see you cracking the book open.”

“It’s called hustling,” Edmund winked, swinging his feet up on the coffee table and leaning further into the common room’s plush couch. 

“Come on, Seb, not you too!” Gabriel whinged. “Is no one going to take up my Quidditch bet? Not one of you?”

“Sit down, Gabriel,” Laurie tugged at his already crumpled shirt, her brow knitted as she swung her wand at the stationary pincushion. “Stop making a fuss.”

“Don’t mind him, Laurie,” Sebastian said. “He can’t help himself—ouch! Will you stop that, Gab! One day, you’ll toss out my eye with the force of your blows.”

Gabriel sunk down onto the plush couch and began to sulk. Within an hour, however, his boredom got the better of him, and he had joined in the studying—fortunately as well. Final exams week was a blood bath, and perhaps it would be best to skip over the details—it would have been far too cringeworthy to hear of Sebastian’s mistake in charms, or what Gabriel put into his potion brew, or what Edmund had scribbled into his History of Magic paper, or what Laurie had mistaken as a grubby root in Herbology. For the most part, the Rogues were far too pleased with themselves when the exams were over, and their results put them in an even better mood. By the time they were all packed and loaded into the Hogwarts Express, thoughts of anything but the Summer had been left in their dormitories. As far as they were concerned, they deserved a break.

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I apologise for being away for so long, and futhermore for putting up such a short chapter. I've been... preoccupied to say the least, but anyway!  The next chapter is told from Cat's perspective, so I thought I'd wrap up the Rogues for now. 

I'll update shortly.