Chapter 16:

It was the day before the holidays would officially start, most of the Slytherin students were already planning to go to their families to stay for the holidays, the few that stayed compromised of mostly NEWT students. The first year Slytherins were currently in the great hall; having their breakfast, with it been a weekend they all had the day free. Daphne was sat next to Tracey waiting for the rest of them to arrive.

Blaise let out a yawn as he made his way across the great hall, he spotted the two Slytherins waiting for them before changed directions, he was half-dragging a haggard looking Rodrick. When Blaise had found him in the morning, he was a little surprised to see Rodrick in such bad shape and yet when he questioned him, the boy had no answers. Their head of house had taken Rodrick aside when he'd seen him too avail; he gave them both a curt nod before he urged them to the great hall.

When Tracey saw the two Slytherins she called them over; Daphne was currently focusing on a letter she had just received from the owl post. It went to show how late they were; even the owls came before them. Tracey's concern, however, rose when she saw the state Rodrick was in, his school robes looked battered, Did he even bother to change them? She thought, her attention quickly went to his face. There was something different about it; she couldn't quite place it. When Rodrick noticed the attention, the feeling disappeared. Strange she thought. The boy wasn't something she expected, while she was half-blood herself, her parents had made sure to bring her up as a pureblood. They were well off, and their friendship with the Greengrass family made the upbringing all the more prominent.

The boy in front of her was supposed to be an orphan and yet aside from the state of his clothes; she could've sworn he was Pureblood. He carried himself like one, ate like one, his magical prowess... There was no doubt about it, if he hadn't told them himself of his status no one would've believed it. It wasn't a simple manner of just copying what the other students did; it was almost like he was brought up as one. His knowledge in class was substantial, try as he might hide it, it was clearly there. It had initially irritated both girls, but they'd grown used to it over the few months. Not to mention the fact he'd saved Daphne's life.

Looking at him now though, it was almost as if it was an entirely different person; his hair was unkempt, he usually kept it in check, allowing it to fall freely, this time it was a mess. Strands of hair looked like they were flying in every direction. His eyes looked sunken; an almost silvery light replaced the natural yellow glow. She couldn't quite believe it was the same boy. She elbowed Daphne to get her attention away from the letter, she had a small grin on her face and nodded towards the students who sat in front of them. Daphne's eyes almost bulged at sight. Her smile had quickly disappeared.

"What happened to you?" Daphne questioned shocked.

Rodrick raised an eyebrow in return before he shrugged and filled his plate, he had been like this ever since waking up. He had no energy what so ever, he didn't even try to make himself look presentable. Something was making him feel completely off about the day.

Daphne's eyes narrowed at the dismissal shown as the boy ignored everything around him before she could say anything else, Blaise opened his mouth.

"Just ignore him, he's been like that all morning, it took a prefect to get him out of bed."

"Whats wrong with you?" She ignored Blaise and asked again. Blaise's eyes twitched at the reaction.

Tracey would've laughed at the look on his face had it not been for the tension surrounding them.

There was still no response; the boy barely touched his food. Daphne harrumphed at him before she threw her letter into his hand. That grabbed his attention quickly. Blaise raised an eyebrow before starting to fill up his plate, 'no need to make this any more awkward,' he thought.

Rodrick stared at the letter in hand; he quickly skimmed through the contents before a small smile plastered onto his lips, Daphne's parents had responded to her giving her the okay in letting him stay with them for Christmas, a small part of it showed them thanking him as well for helping their daughter. The smile disappeared for a split second, his stomach was churning once again, but he couldn't understand why. The feeling didn't last very long. He raised his head across to see a frowning Daphne. He sighed quickly before he apologized for his actions, starting Blaise.

"Your apology is accepted," the dark skinned boy said with an almost smug look.

Rodrick turned towards him and told him he was referring to Daphne. Blaise scowled at him, but his eyes showed off relief. The two girls in front of him had a bemused look on their face.

"Of course if you even try to show up looking like that, you'll be left at the station," added Daphne with a pointed look his direction. Rodrick lowered his head in acceptance.

He waved his hand and fixed his appearance, straightening his hair and robe. The spell had been one of the first spells his grandfather had shown him; he could cast it non-verbally at this point with all the practice he's had. However this seemed to catch the attention of nearby students who were openly staring at him, the teachers thankfully didn't seem to notice. His friends looked at each other before shrugging, they'd seen him do something similar enough times to think it normal, but it still always managed to catch them by surprise. The nearby students who'd noticed him said nothing.

Rodrick turned his attention back to the letter before he slowly handed it back to Daphne and made his way up from the table. The others raised an eyebrow at him before he explained a need for fresh air. He turned towards Blaise expecting him to get up, but the boy shook his head.

"I've had enough fun with you for a morning," he said with a passive face, his lips looked like they were about to twitch upwards.

Rodrick nodded his head at the answer before he turned towards the girls and said his goodbyes, however to his surprise, he saw Daphne get up from the table, Tracey didn't budge. She had made plans to study in the library with fellow students; she looked a little upset that Daphne was leaving but cheered up slightly when Blaise offered to go with her instead.

He didn't blame him, he'd had a lot of trouble in the last History test and had complained nonstop to Rodrick about it. This was mostly due to Rodrick doing better, he'd accused Rodrick of cheating but only seemed upset that Rodrick didn't show him how. Rodrick taught him the art of preparing for a test through studying with mild amusement; it looked as if he was finally taking the help properly. Blaise scowled internally when he saw the smirk on Rodrick's face.

'I think I preferred him earlier,' thought Blaise.

Rodrick turned his attention ahead of him to see Daphne was ready, they both made their way down the table and out of the hall in silence. Daphne made her way to his left.

"You don't have to keep me company you know," Rodrick remarked

"I could use the fresh air myself," replied Daphne, "Besides you promised to teach me how to play chess," she added on with a small grin. she pushed small strands of hair behind her ear with a hand.

"Teaching someone how to play a game is hardly a way to relax," Rodrick pinched the bridge of his nose in mock annoyance.

Daphne giggled at his antics before remarking "That's a shame, If only there were a solution" she laughed before moving herself closer.

Rodrick looked slightly towards his left and found Daphne inches away from him before he made a retort when he realised something.

"I never promised anything!" he said almost exasperated

Daphne had laughed at his reaction before she looped her hands through his arm with a large smile plastered on her face. Rodrick momentarily stiffened at the action. When she realized what she'd done she let go and had a flustered look on face. "Ah so-" stuttered the girl, before she could finish Rodrick shook his head.

"Fine I'll teach you if you want to learn that badly," he added to reduce the tension. There was a twinkle in his eye as he spoke. The girl stared at him incredulously.

"What?"

Rodrick grinned.

"Seriously, what?"

...

Blaise strolled out of the library, having spent more than an hour there already, he had been stomped trying to find something about the history of one goblin or the other. He planned to search for Rodrick later to have him explain the whole thing. Well, the fact that some of Tracey's less noble friends had shown up added to it. He had no problems with befriending Half-blood's, but Muggle-borns were another matter. Blaise stopped in his tracks. Since when had he stopped calling them mud-bloods?

He shrugged it off and blamed it on his friend's influence, how the two managed to stay on good terms still surprised him, but something about the guy just made him easy to approach.

After leaving the library he'd accidentally ran into the headmaster of all people, the old man had smiled when he'd seen him before he asked him to fetch Rodrick for him and if possible Daphne as well, he gave him some keyword before he quickly left towards his office presumably.

Honestly, he shouldn't have been too surprised that the headmaster had known him to be a friend but it begged the question of how much he truly knew and of course whether it had been simply because he was a Slytherin and so warranted a closer look. That thought both angered and un-eased him, if it was true he could hardly blame the school. He made his way out of the castle in search of his friends to pass off his message; the search didn't take as long as he suspected it would. He found Daphne and Rodrick sitting cross-legged beneath a tree near the black lake; they were opposite each other with a board between them. Are they playing chess? He thought bemused.

Rodrick was the first to notice him before he raised his hand and waved him over, Daphne turned towards him when she saw him.

He made his way over faster, Rodrick had pointed off towards a spot near the tree urging him to sit, he scowled a little at the thought of dirtying his clothes but quickly hid it when he realized Daphne clearly had no issue with it. He shook his head at the gesture, earning a curious look from both of them.

"The headmaster," he began, "He's looking for you Rodrick," he added on. There was a confused look on Rodrick's face when he'd heard him, he quickly lowered his head and put his hand to his chin possibly thinking through any reasons. Blaise raised an eyebrow at him.

"Did he mention anything at all?" Rodrick asked when he couldn't come up with an answer.

Blaise was about to shake his head. He turned towards Daphne and told her that the headmaster wanted to see her as well. Rodrick's brow furrowed even more . The silence dragged on, and Blaise was wondering whether the two would actually listen or not. It was a yelp from Daphne that broke the silence, Rodrick and Blaise's head snapped to her directly at the sound, she had a hand over her mouth.

"You don't think it's about the troll do you?"

The sentence brought about a sense of dread on both the boys, if it was then Rodrick was in a lot of trouble.

Rodrick abruptly got up from the floor in a panic; he wasn't sure what to do. He quickly put his emotions in check before chiding himself, if it was about the unforgivable curse, then the headmaster surely would've come to him himself. He turned towards Daphne who had got up herself by now. She still had a panicked look on her face.

"Calm down, if it really was that, he would've come himself," his words seemed to settle her down somewhat.

"What do you think it's about then?" she questioned.

He shook his head not knowing. He waved his hand over the chess board and watched them all go back into a box before making their way inside his bag. The two other students saw this but made no comment, enthralled in figuring out what the headmaster wanted. Rodrick moved forward and lightly pushed along Daphne towards the castle, he said his goodbyes to Blaise before speeding up. He heard Blaise call out his name and promptly turned his head.

"Sugarquills!" Blaise added on.

Blaise contemplated following them before he remembered having left his bag back in the library, silently berating himself he made his way back, albeit slower.