𝐀𝐈𝐌 𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐘𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐘┊ᴴᵃʳʳʸ ᴾᵒᵗᵗᵉʳ

11 ★ The Forbidden Forest

࿔₊°༺★༻࿔₊°

THE NEXT DAY, at first, Gryffindors passing the giant hourglasses that recorded the house points thought there'd been a mistake. How could they suddenly have a two hundred points fewer than yesterday?

And then the story started to spread: the famous Crystal Calisto and Harry Potter, had lost them all those points, them and a couple of other stupid first years.

Even Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs turned on them (not that it mattered to Crystal at all as she wasn't the friendliest type too), because everyone had been longing to see Slytherin lose the house cup.

Everywhere Harry and Crystal went, people pointed and didn't trouble to lower their voices as they insulted them which didn't affect Crystal as she was used to it and it was nothing new.

Only Ron stood by them.

"They'll all forget this in a few weeks. Fred and George have lost loads of points in all the time they've been here, and people still like them."

"They've never lost two hundred points in one go, though, have they?" said Harry miserably.

"Well -- no," Ron admitted.

"Come on, who cares about the childish point game?" said Crystal, stifling a yawn. "And it's good this way. No one is coming up to me to try to talk now. I've finally got a bit of privacy."

Harry, Hermione and Ron looked at her then shook their heads looking at each other. They were now used to Crystal's aloof nature.

It was a bit late to repair the damage, but Harry swore to himself not to meddle in things that weren't his business from now on. He'd had it with sneaking around and spying. Crystal was right since earlier not to mind other people business.

He felt so ashamed of himself that he went to Wood and offered to resign from the Quidditch team.

"Resign?" Wood thundered. "What good'll that do? How are we going to get any points back if we can't win at Quidditch?"

But even Quidditch had lost its fun. The rest of the team wouldn't speak to Harry during practice, and if they had to speak about him, they called him "the Seeker."

Hermione and Neville were suffering, too. They didn't have as bad a time as Harry, because they weren't as well-known, but nobody would speak to them, either.

Only Crystal seemed to be enjoying this seclusion and was unaffected even though she was receiving the same temperament from others as Harry was receiving.

Crystal was almost glad that the exams weren't far away but thinking that she had to go back to Hudsons' over the vacations always made her mood foul more foul than people insults.

Crystal, Harry, Ron, and Hermione kept to themselves, working late into the night, trying to remember the ingredients in complicated potions, learn charms and spells by heart, memorize the dates of magical discoveries and goblin rebellions....

Then, about a week before the exams were due to start while walking back from the library one afternoon, Crystal and Harry heard somebody whimpering from a classroom up ahead. As they drew closer, they heard Quirrell's voice.

"No -- no -- not again, please --"

It sounded as though someone was threatening him. They moved closer.

"All right -- all right --" they heard Quirrell sob.

Next second, Quirrell came hurrying out of the classroom straightening his turban. He was pale and looked as though he was about to cry. He strode out of sight; Harry and Crystal didn't think Quirrell had even noticed them.