The Year I Did Not Sign Up For! (Edited)

Lunch Subjects

A couple days later, Harriet and her friends had decided to meet up for lunch. Like any good friendship meeting, it took a long time to clear everyone's schedules and convince their parents you weren't going to summon a demon or commit a murder. Not that that would be a problem, but it was a rather large group that had gathered and murder was more of a two person thing. Perhaps three if you could perform two memory charms in a row or you were certain you could pay them off for years to come.

The subject of the Quidditch world cup came up. Always dangerous, especially since someone had invited half the Gryffindor team.

Marcus Flint had been dragged into this as well. Apparently, Draco deemed him trustworthy - to an extent!

"Ireland vs Bulgaria! This'll be the match of the century!" Lee Jordan was saying. He had been the twins plus one.

"My money is on Ireland." Jiyu said casually.

"I'll take that action." Oliver Wood threw in, "Have you seen Bulgarias team this year?! They have Viktor Krum!"

Flint rolled his eyes.

"It's on!" George backed his girlfriend up, "What are you two doing here anyway? I thought you both had very busy lives?"

"It's our day off," Marcus Flint explained shrugging, "We thought we'd spend some time together."

"You two are so cute together!" Hermione gushed. Harriet facepalmed. Hermione did this all the time.

"On a darker subject," Harriet began, not really liking the mushy, feely direction this conversation was now headed. "I think Dumbledore might be planning something."

Immediately, everyones attention was on her.

"I heard that he was searching for a specific artifact that allows him to control peoples minds. You know, like one would with the imperius curse except that it's legal." she told them. She didn't mention that she also suspected Tom of similar goals.

"Seriously?" Blaise asked, his eybrows shooting up. He looked annoyed. "One quiet year. All I want, is one - ONE - quiet year. He can't even give us that?!"

He sighed and chugged his glass of pumpkin juice, signalling a waiter for another. Harriet echoed the sentiment.

"Apparently not." Draco deadpanned, looking weary and a little annoyed. Harriet suddenly saw the resemblance between him and his father. Particularly in the moment Draco had been gushing about racing brooms.

"What's the plan then?" Hermione asked, pulling out a notebook and a pen.

"Simple, we get the artifact - whatever it is - before he does and destroy it." Harriet downed her glass.

"Or we get it and use it for our own personal gain." Pansy suggested.

"We need to know what it is and how to get to it first." Harriet said.

Quite honestly, she was scared. The wedding hadn't been the only reason she had been waking up lately. Nightmares had been more frequent too. She had been on edge more than she usually was. Frankly, it was bordering on Paranoia and somewhat ridiculous. She did her best to shake off her negative thoughts (at least temporarily). It was the summer holidays, she was meant to be relaxing!

Her therapist certainly thought so.

Sighing, she leaned forward, resting her arms on the table.

"This situation is difficult. We don't know wether he is actually after the artifact or not, we don't have a clue what it is and even if we did, we can't leave Hogwarts during the school year. Not unless we are going to Hogsmeade. That would make it impossble for us to bring up enough time to actually go get it!" she stated.

"We'll figure something out." Draco said, resting a hand on her shoulder.

"Ok, but we need to think of something fast." Pansy said, "I don't think we have that much time on our hands. I mean, It's Dumbledore!"

They spent the next hour brainstorming wildly and came up with absolutely nothing - much to everyones dismay.

Internally, Harriet was starting to panic. Stupid, useless, empty brain! She was supposed to be the smart one for crying out loud! Why was her brain suddenly made of pudding? She'd come up with something. She had to come up with something. She had to!

"You okay?" Draco asked her quietly.

She nodded, schooling her features quickly. She was not about to become a mess.

That evening, Harriet sat in her room sorting through some things while trying to come up with something. It wasn't unusual for her to be so quiet so Sirius and Remus suspected nothing.

She took a deep breath and opened a random book. Perhaps, she needed to take her mind off of things for a little bit. She could get back to plotting later.