"How''s it going?" I asked, sitting down next to Quincy in our common room, bringing up food from the Great Hall and placing it on the table before us.


    I just sat down when I heard the door open and knew it was Draco wandering in… of course, he was following me all this time. The moment we split up, Quincy remaining here and I leaving, he chose to go after me. The slight panic on his face was still hilarious. In the past few days, we were doing the same thing repeatedly, shaking him off quickly like this. I wish we could have recorded it and shown it to his Father, like when we spent Christmas directly in the Room of Requirements, hiding there for two days straight.


    "I managed to finish one!" She chuckled, presenting me a parchment, ignoring Draco, who was sitting down close by, eavesdropping. "I think the Professor will love it!"


    "I bet! This is why books are awesome~!" I grinned, reading the ancient recipe Quincy was assembling, ready for submission. We were speaking in a way to make sure Draco doesn''t learn anything important, and if he reports that we are planning to butter up to Slughorn…? So be it. "What do you think? Can you make it?" I asked curiously, but Quincy quickly shook her head.


    "No chance. This one is way too advanced; to brew it, you need decades of experience… It takes a year to complete it!"


    "Damn…"


    I would totally forget what step I was at if a potion took a year to make. No wonder it was only something true potion masters would attempt… well, that is an ancient recipe for you! Reading the description, it was a drink that, when consumed, would turn the wizard or witch immune to fire. Not permanently, but depending on the quality of the finished product, they could ignore it for a few minutes, right up to multiple hours! Drinking it would let people swim in lava if the description was correct. I wouldn''t try, but damn…


    "What about you?" She asked, munching on the dinner, leaning back, and placing her legs into my lap while I massaged them.


    "All good!" I nodded happily, "I perfected the new spell! I can cast it now; I just don''t know if it''s effective as… trying it out for real is too dangerous."


    "That it is!"


    We were, of course, talking about the killing curse. I studied it intensely before trying it out on a puppet, not on a living being. The light that came out of my wand, hitting the target, was bright green, illuminating the Room of Requirments, turning everything to jade in color. It was… weird. I already told it to Quincy, but using the spell placed you into a strange state of mind. When I started to utter the curse in my head, I felt my mind calm down and became clear and cold. I knew exactly what was going to happen, and that coldness traveled through my body, coming out from the tip of my wand and rushing forward at lightning speed. In that brief moment, I felt no emotions, and nothing really mattered… everything was empty and pointless. It only lasted for a brief moment, but still… it was weird. Uncomfortable. I felt... frigid.


    When that feeling evaporated, one part of me felt extremely happy, almost gleeful of obtaining such power and wanting to use it on my enemies. The images in my head that were previously about strangling Draco when he angered me were replaced with pointing my wand at him and simply finishing his life with a simple incantation. No pain, no fuss, no resistance. Not even a shield charm would save him. He would have to dodge or fire back a countercurse, hitting my spell mid-air to block it. I finally understood why the killing curse was developed… it was to eliminate a soul, no matter the defenses it puts up. Whatever Herpo did in his time, it made others devise a spell to stop him. The other part of me... was simply disgusted.


    "It is better to know it than not and fall victim to it!" Quincy moaned and yawned simultaneously, feeling tired while enjoying my little massage.


    "I totally agree! Now that you are finished, I can teach it to you!"


    "Um, I intend to learn it, even though school is starting back up soon enough…"


    "And you better get ready." Draco interrupted us, something that he had been waiting for a long time. With a smirk, he slapped the Daily Prophet''s Special Edition on the table with the headline: The Anguine Family Accused!


    Quincy immediately sat up like me, but none of us reached for the newspaper. Draco merely laughed after seeing our faces and, for the first time, left on his own accord. When he was gone, I started to read it in full and gradually opened it up to read more.


    Stolen story; please report.


    What it detailed was simple and straightforward. Lucius Malfoy, along with multiple other people, probably who owed him one, accused my Father and my family of helping the Order of the Phoenix under the table! Not just that, there were accusations about my Father trying to form his own army, his own powers, and planning a coupe, declaring that many wizards and witches who were muggle-born, identified, and handled by him thoroughly disappeared. It was a full, frontal attack against my family, and even if my Father did refute the multiple claims, nowhere in the paper did that show up.


    "Conrad…" Quincy whispered, grabbing my arm, and I could feel her shaking.


    "That bastard…" I spew fire from my nostrils, turning the page and seeing maybe the worst part of it.


    It was Walburga''s claim that she abhors traitors the most, so she immediately breaks up the engagement, and to show her and the Black Family''s stance, she supports the Malfoys wholeheartedly. In response to her, Draco and Quincy were immediately engaged, saying it was the logical thing to do as Draco''s mother herself was from the Black family… and it should have been the first choice to do anyway; they just wanted to wait a little more unlike the Anguine family, who are probably trying to kidnap Quincy to ship her off to her traitor''s Father and brainwash her, too.


    "What an absolute nonsense!" She cried out, standing up, tearing the paper up, and throwing it into the fire.


    "It is." I answered, hugging her from behind, "Relax… by the end of the year, all of this will blow over!"


    "..."


    "..."


    The silence between us was stifling. Even I wasn''t sure if it would go away by then… and if not? What then? I was hoping Father had something up his sleeve to counter it. But… probably, with all that Lucius has thrown at him, our engagement was the last thing on the list of importance.


    "Ouch…!" She hissed suddenly.


    "Sorry…!" I mumbled as I realized my grip tightened around her, and it started hurting.


    "Nah… it shows you are angry..." She chuckled, turning around and pecking my lips. "But keep calm; let me be angry! Don''t let your head go throbbing!"


    She was, of course… right. I, once again, felt the headache creeping up and my murderous intent rising. She gently rubbed her sides, where I tightened my grip too firmly, making me realize I should calm down. The last person I would want to hurt was her.


    …


    ….


    ……


    The first week of school was… interesting, to say the least. I expected many to return to fanning over Draco, but not everyone did. Almost half of our classmates, belonging to Slytherin, came up to us, saying that they didn''t believe it at all. Even older students did it and from other houses too. I just now realized that my Father did have friendships with many other families, and the Malfoys'' plan was not working out as fluently as they expected.


    Of course, there were those who sided with Draco, and on the first day when Lucius held a class, he immediately tried to make Quincy swap chairs with a disgruntled Pansy Parkinson sitting next to Draco. But it didn''t work. Quincy simply refused to move and told Malfoy that he was nothing more but a worthless idiot, a disgrace to the title of Professor. This then escalated to threats and the moment he pulled out his wand to cast the Crucio curse on Quincy, my anger made my body move. I only managed to hold back the last moment, and instead of casting the killing curse, I disarmed Lucius before he could do anything, surprising him and the rest of the students. Primarily because I uttered no incantations. This was something that was doomed to explode into a big trouble and by the end of the class Quincy and I were in the Headmaster''s office with Lucius gloating, ready to expel both of us.


    "Enough!" The Headmaster raised his voice, standing up from behind his desk and looking into Lucius''s eyes. I felt he was telling him this only, even if we were also present.


    "Se-"


    "Shut! Up!" He waved a hand, speaking with utter disgust, "I am fed up with you, and I am reporting everything to HIM every month, just you know! Your disrupting conduct, arrogance, and self-importance are all the things that build roadblocks for raising the future generation of HIS followers… all of this is presented to HIM directly! Yet you act like you are the Headmaster of this school and not ME!"


    Holy… shit… I never heard the Headmaster raise his voice, and I never imagined Lucius could turn that type of white and fail to find anything to say.


    "If you think your ruling is above HIS, then go ahead! Continue! But this school is HIS, and HE appointed ME as the Headmaster! Anyone disrupting the work here is disrupting HIS plans for the future of the Wizarding World! Do you understand this, Lucius? Are you registering this with your brain? As long as Lord Voldemort refuses to give a verdict of any wizarding family, you better act within reason! Or are you trying to break the order of our lines? Which faction would benefit from a civil war within us, hm?"


    "You try to…" He stammered, but Severus Snape simply cut him off with another wave of his hand.


    "I am repeating the thoughts of our Lord!"


    Quincy and I exchanged a subtle gaze, holding back our laughter, already forgetting our fear or anxiety while coming up here… all replaced with the sweet taste of vindication.


    "I don''t and won''t deal with any of this! This stops NOW!" The Headmaster finished, slapping his table. "Go!" He excused Lucius without listening to anything he wanted to say, but we were made to stay. "You two."


    "Yes?" We asked in unison, realizing it wasn''t over yet.


    "Minus fifty points from Slytherin. DON''T!" He interrupted our outburst without it having a chance to turn into intelligible words. "I meant when I said I won''t deal with this! Detention for both of you! Every day, after lessons, report to the head of your house for your tasks! Now go! Get out of my sight!"


    Leaving his office, we couldn''t help but shrug and look at each other.


    "It… could have been worse." Quincy chuckled, making my lips curl into a smile, holding her hand.


    "Yeah… yeah, it could have. Oh well… Detention with Professor Slughorn doesn''t sound that bad!"