The Exchange Student - Harry Potter FanFic -

➣ 𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝟏𝟏"𝙉𝙤 𝙍𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙒𝙞𝙘𝙠𝙚𝙙"

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"I didn't tell you before, but that house-elf visited Harry after the Bludger tried to kill him. Apparently, it had been him who set it off, not someone from the Slytherin team," said Nicolás.

"The same one that stole his mail all summer?" asked Cedric, looking up from the Spiderman comic book he borrowed from Caelum. Nicolás nodded.

The ambiance by the Black Lake was calm. The wind was soft, singing in sweet harmonies to them in such troubled times. Some leaves seemed to dance in the air with the currents, and the grass beneath and around them seemed to shiver.

"Have you found out what family he serves?" asked Dorian, raising his eyes from the book in his hands.

"No, Harry says every time he asks, Dobby starts to hit his head with anything," responded Caelum.

"Wait, what? Did you just say Dobby?" asked Dorian wide-eyed.

"Yes, why?"

"Because Dobby is the Malfoys' house-elf!" said Dorian.

"You reckon the Malfoys sent him to try and get Harry killed?" asked Cedric, gaping at him.

Dorian seemed in thought for a second, before shaking his head. "Nah, they've been complaining about Dobby missing sometimes."

"Do you know how he heard about the 'great Harry Potter'?" asked Nicolás, suddenly remembering the way Harry claimed Dobby used to call him.

Dorian laughed, scratching his cheek. "Well, yes—" he spoke in between chuckles, "Draco had an obsession with him when he was little, you know," but then his laugh died, "that's when his parents thought it wise to poison his head harder."

Okay, that was one mystery less in Nicolás' list of priorities. There was one more at hand, a long retelling. And so, Caelum and Nicolás told them about what had transpired two nights before at Hagrid's hut with Dumbledore, Fudge, and Lucius Malfoy.

"Merlin, when I start to think I can't hate my godfather even more," Dorian groaned.

"Every time you mention that I can't help but feel sorry for you, pal," muttered Caelum, patting Dorian's shoulder.

"Really, Malfoy is a total git," commented Cedric.

"Trust me, most pureblood families are," grunted Dorian.

"Gents, can we leave the topic of how much of an asshole Malfoy is and focus on the matter at hand?" said Nicolás, already exasperated, Dorian sent him a silent thankful glare.

"What could Hagrid have meant by 'follow the spiders'?" asked Dorian.

"Well, the other day we saw how the spiders were acting all weird, right?" Nicolas asked. Cedric and Caelum nodded. "Take a look at this."

He showed them a copy he made of the paragraph about the Basilisk in Most Macabre Monstrosities.

"Spiders flee on his presence, eh? Why is the Basilisk their mortal enemy?" asked Dorian.

"Well, it could be like some sort of instinctive mechanism for survival, right?" Nicolás asked. The other three looked at him as if he had grown a second head.

Sighing, Nicolás explained further. "Basilisks have enough dark power in their gaze to petrify and potentially kill anything in an instant. Acromantulas have eight eyes, while other species of spiders have up to twelve of them. They have an incredibly wide range of view of almost three hundred and sixty degrees! Therefore, more probability of ending up petrified or killed than any other animal or creature. Hence, them, fleeing the Basilisk's presence, is an instinctual drive for survival."