Telling her friends about the unicorns got them off Alex's back for a while. Hermione was obsessed with more information on the chamber of secrets. Something about clearing Harry's name. Honestly, Alex was glad to keep Hermione busy. It gave her more time to keep to her thoughts. She still spent all of her time with Kichiro in the woods. Luna sometimes came by, and other times seemed to simply vanish. Alex didn't really mind, Kichiro was still healthy. There was really no need for Luna to have to watch over him.
She still had other obligations that took some time away from being with Kichiro and Venus. On Fridays, she helped the fourth years with arithmancy. She had to admit, the older Slytherins were a lot easier to get along with than those in her year. She hardly spent more than two hours with them, and often went to go to Kichiro straight after dinner. Saturdays she'd spend a few hours, continuing her Japanese lessons with Hermione, before spending the rest of the day with her Hufflepuff friends. And on Mondays, she took up flying with Cedric again.
She was still bound to one meal a day in the great hall. She'd promised Snape, and he hadn't gone straight to Dumbledore about Kichiro, either. She didn't think he told Dumbledore about her needing a potion either. She didn't really need it. It was more of a reason to get Hermione to give her some breathing room. It was stupid of her to think she could take a potion and all of her problems would disappear. There was only one way to deal with the beast inside, and that was to weaken it. She'd have to just make sure she didn't alert anyone to her solutions. They wouldn't understand. Her sleeping patterns was easy to fake. She'd been doing it forever. In fact, the only times she'd actually slept through the night were during her overnight stays in the hospital wing, and when Venus knocked her out. That one puzzled her though. She felt a lot more tired than at least twenty hours of sleep should have left her. And with Mrs Norris being petrified and the heir of Slytherin making a statement designed to frighten muggleborns, she wasn't convinced it was a coincidence. After all, as far as she knew she was the only real heir of Slytherin currently at Hogwarts. And her spell verified that Voldemort wasn't in Hogwarts.
"I don't know, Kichiro. I'm pretty sure I'm losing my mind." She said, petting his soft coat. "I mean, 'heir of Slytherin'. That's what Voldemort called us. He was so proud of it. And I don't remember anything that happened that day. I remember falling asleep here, and that's it. I didn't feel like I slept." She sighed. "You would tell me if I somehow disappeared for a bit on Halloween, wouldn't you?" Kichiro laid down, tired. "I know, I sound daft. But, what am I supposed to think? Oh, all right. Get some sleep. I should probably get going if I want to make it to transfiguration."
After having had to transfigure a milk bottle from nothing but a stick in the woods, Alex was finding transfiguration a lot easier. What might have taken her a few tries before, barely took a single wave of her wand.
"Well done, Miss Weasley. That is an impressive goblet. Five points to Hufflepuff."
"Thanks, Professor." She said.
"Please read the rest of chapter six silently for the remainder of the class." Alex nodded and opened her book. She'd only gotten through about a page before Susan's attempts beside her distracted her.
"You have to visualise the goblet you want. Try to imagine the ones we use during meals. You know what it looks like, what it feels like. Then imagine it turning into the goblet and try again." Susan nodded and closed her eyes briefly before looking at the guinea pig with determination.
"Vera verto." She tapped the rodent thrice and watched it transform into one of the Hogwarts meal goblets. Susan clapped in excitement. "Yes!"
"Congratulations, Miss Bones." McGonagall said walking past their table again. "Silently read the remainder of chapter six, please."
"Yes, Professor." She said and grabbed her book. "Thanks." She whispered to Alex.
"For what? You're the one who pulled it off." Alex shrugged it off.
"Silently means without noise, Miss Bones, Miss Weasley."
"Yes Professor." They mumbled, shutting up and turning to their books.
"Transfiguration's stupid." Charlie groaned as they made their way to charms.
"You loved it last year."
"That was last year. It's stupid and hard this year."
"Don't give up on it. You loved transfiguration. And just because something's challenging doesn't mean you should give up on it."
"Yeah, we didn't give up on Alex." Megan teased.
"Oh, like you didn't." Alex stuck out her tongue. "You've given up on me no less than a billion times since the beginning of last year."
"Well, to be fair, you're extremely challenging."
"What Alex and Megan are trying to say, however inappropriately, is don't give up on your favourite subject. You love transfiguration. Give it a chance and don't let any obstacles stand in your way."
"Yeah, I suppose. Well, at least we've got charms next." It was Alex's turn to groan.
"Oh great. How am I supposed to stop myself from hexing Malfoy when I have to work with him?"
"We won't tell Hermione if you don't." Megan shrugged.
"She'll figure it out. She always does."
