Alexandra Weasley

46

Hermione managed to convince Alexandra that they should feed Snuffles the next day. Alexandra tried to protest but eventually went ahead alone. Hogwarts may have provided its students with wonderful feasts, but not even the teachers seemed to be brave enough to feed the baby Cerberus. She snuck into the Hogwarts kitchen and asked for some steak- the biggest pieces they had. It was something she liked about the house elves. They never asked questions. She hurried up to the corridor, sneaking in and locking the door behind her.
"Hey, boy." She slowly walked closer to him. She'd learnt the hard way that moving too quickly startled him. "I got you some food. You want?" His middle head bowed low, panting in excitement. She laughed and threw him a piece. "I know Hermione's supposed to be here, but she can't make it today. Don't worry, I'll make her come tomorrow. But you have to behave and be friendly. We don't want to scare her off now, do we?"

The next morning, Alexandra was back to normal. She had to admit, as annoying as her housemates can be, they were also friendly, and kind and funny and decent. All the things she wanted to avoid getting to know about them. She took extra care to avoid them, not seeing them all morning. It wasn't until Herbology class that she caught sight of them. Even then she sat at the end of a table next to a Slytherin. During lunch, she rushed off to the astronomy tower. The usual routes she'd use to the room of requirement, or to Snuffles were crowded with students making their way to the great hall from class. She sat down on the parapet, looking out across the school grounds. She could see students out on the quidditch fields and third years jokingly pretend to push one another into the lake pulling back at the last second. She pulled a small book out of her pocket- the journal she wrote a lot in. It was usually bits and pieces of information. The words Ziegla had imprinted onto her brain throbbed regularly. She found it helped to write some of the information down, to sort out her thoughts. There were dangerous topics, though, that not even she dared to risk ever falling into another's hand. Topics that made her weary of visiting the forbidden forest. Sometimes she wrote about her nightmare. She was so lost in writing down her thoughts, she didn't notice Cedric flying towards the tower on his broom. She flinched as he flew in, jumping off beside her.

"Alex?"

"Yeah, it's me."

"Are you okay? Why are you here?"

"I needed space." She shrugged.

"Oh." She stood, closing her journal.

"Sorry, I'll go." She said.

"Why do you always do that?" He asked.

"Do what?"

"Get afraid of human contact. I've never seen anyone try so hard at alienating everyone they meet."

"I'm not afraid."

"You only interact with someone when you have no choice. Like the rest of our house yesterday."

"I just don't like people."

"You're a Hufflepuff."

"Guess I just didn't fit into any other house."

"I thought the hat almost put you in Slytherin."

"But it didn't. Not Slytherin enough."

"You'd fit into Ravenclaw. The hat put you in Hufflepuff for a reason."

"Why are you so interested?"

"Call it curiosity. Or house friendliness. Whichever."

"Shouldn't you be at lunch?"

"Shouldn't you?"

"Not hungry."

"Me either."

"Okay." She said and walked out. She didn't understand Cedric. One moment he was spying for her brothers, the next he was acting nice and friendly without a clear motive. She headed to the dungeons to see if Snape was there or if he was at lunch with the rest of the school.

She peered through the door and saw he was in fact there, but he wasn't alone. Malfoy was also in the classroom. She knocked on the door anyway.
"Miss Weasley." Snape greeted.

"Is now an okay time?"

"Come in." He said and she did, ignoring Malfoy look up at her curiously.

"I brought my cauldron and my wand, as requested." He nodded.

"Set up your workstation." He told her, disappearing into his cupboard. He came back out with a tray of ingredient, bottles bigger than she was used to using in class. "You'll be making large batches of-"

"Pepperup potion." She looked through the ingredients.

"Yes. Exam season is nearing and you'd be surprised how many students seem to fall ill in this period."

"Oh." She nodded.

"Madam Pomfrey always likes to have enough to give to the entire school twice over."

"You're letting a first year make potions for the hospital wing?" Malfoy asked.

"Miss Weasley has proved an affinity for potions. Would you like to help?" He looked between Snape and Alexandra before nodding.

"Fine." He turned to Alexandra. "But you don't tell anyone about this." She shrugged.

"Why would I? I don't care what you do."

"Good." He said.

"Come up here, Mr Malfoy. Observe how I do my potion. There'll be spare cauldron for you to try on your own once you've got the hang of it."