The Farland Files

Exhibit D: The Only One Taken Into The Chamber

A/N: TOM! MY FAVE! (and voldy, but he's kinda not fully my fave... yet?)

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The castle was almost barren for the holidays, only a handful of kids staying behind, though there were more Slytherins than before. Daphne, Theo, Blaise, and Draco all stayed behind, saying things about not wanting to go home- but she guessed they were staying for her.

Which, honestly, was sweet (even if she'd never say that out loud).

(Though the two lugs that followed around Draco were a little less welcome.)

Sitting by the fire- as no one was honestly stupid enough to try to steal her chair even without her being Queen- she ate slowly from the plate that Blaise and Theo had brought back for her. "I wonder when Snape changed his rules for meals."

"Hmmm..." Theo hummed sarcastically. "Probably around the time when you stopped coming to them."

"Ah." She nodded. "That would make sense."

Theo shook his head. "I think it's ridiculous. First, you stop coming to class, then meals..." None of them looked up at the others coming in, the boy narrowing his eyes at Lena. "What next? Avoiding the house and sneaking out to ice skate in the middle of the night?"

She laughed dryly. "So you noticed then?"

"Of course we did Lena." Blaise frowned. "You could have fallen in or- or something like that! Gotten hurt! What would Janus say?"

"I think he probably wouldn't say anything. No, Janus would most likely just kidnap me so he could make sure I was completely and utterly unharmed." She rolled her eyes. "I don't understand him sometimes."

Draco snorted as he sat down, Crabbe and Goyle lingering at the edge of the couches with Daphne. "That's because you're you."

"Offensive, Malfoy. I would much rather be me than you." Tilting her head when he scowled at her, she looked to where Daphne was standing with Crabbe and Goyle awkwardly. "Hey, Daph. Get lost again?"

"Uh- yeah, sorry about that."

Blinking, as Daphne never said sorry for anything because it was something ingrained in her from her mother and the girl hated that, Lena nodded and waved her hand. "Well come on the three of you. Sit down. We were just talking about how I broke Janus' arm."

Blaise gave her a strange look, Theo and Draco looking at each other.

Daphne, however, gave a strangely high-pitched laugh. "Oh, yeah, I remember that."

"Right." She looked to where the other three had caught on, looking at her for instruction. Shaking her head at Malfoy, she gave the boy a look of slight disdain and leaned back in her chair hauntingly. "Well? Got anything to stay about the gossip recently?"

As the boy leaned back in his own chair, he seemed to catch on to what she was playing at. "I wonder why there hasn't been an article in the Daily Prophet about the attacks... Probably Dumbledore covering it up."

"My mother always said that Dumbledore was the worst thing that happened to this school." Blaise sneered.

And by that, Madame Zabini meant she wished the man had gone into the ministry to clean it of idiots.

"You're wrong!" Crabbe burst out.

Lena stood, eyes cold and smile suddenly venomous. "Oh? And you think there's someone worse than Dumbledore in the castle?" Sharing panicked glances between the three she knew were imposters, she then paused and smiled slowly. "Oh- oh, you meant me, didn't you?" Her laugh was light and airy, using her hand to throw some of her hair over her shoulder with a fake smile she'd seen the girls at the orphanage do too many times. "You flatter me... But I don't think flattery will work when you're impersonating my friends." Clenching her fist, she pulled tight the web of magic she'd woven around them.