A few weeks have passed after the monumental meeting with professor Snape. He is never seen around campus so nobody really knows where he is. Most school days are hell for students who are muggle-born as for every little wrong they get punished and tortured to unconsciousness. First years are being experimented on during Dark Arts classes and also tortured. Muggle Studies now is more like propaganda against muggles and severe discrimination toward those who dare consider them equal to wizards. No teacher or student is allowed to speak against Carrows' word, heck, even Filch isn't fond of the discipline that has been added into the system by the Death Eaters. As minutes pass, the more I wish for Umbridge to be back in charge instead of Voldemort's goons.

On the other side of the situation, we had purebloods and Slytherins who have successfully remained untouched since the beginning of the school year. For this same reason, Slytherins were most hated amongst students because of how little harsh treatment they got for their actions. There were even multiple rumors going around about a few Slytherins being Death Eaters much like Draco, which honestly was most infuriating. The only people who were worth being under suspicion of being a follower of Voldemort were Crabbe and Goyle, since, you know, their parents are Death Eaters too.

The same goes for me too. After sobbing in front of the whole Slytherin house the previous year, it was quite clear that I and Draco had something together. So, as you'd get, I got as equally shitted on as the others. However, fortunately, as Luna was close friends with some Gryffindors, I and Leila were very welcome to be friends with some of them. Therefore, we were also welcome to a new secret club Neville and a guy named Finnigan organized for defense against any potential danger that could face us. Much like in my fifth year in Hogwarts, we held our meeting in the Room of Requirements where all of us one by one taught each other's new curses and spells that could be useful in combat. I wore pride in being able to teach most since I learned a few spells last year in the Restricted Section of the library. Thanks to me even the second years knew how to perform relatively dangerous spells in fights.

There always was the danger of being caught by someone like Snape since he was one of the teachers who cooperated with Umbridge and knew where to find us, however, since he was never seen on campus we were safe for the rest of the year.

Today was Halloween, the best holiday that could be celebrated in Hogwarts, however, Snape had a change of plans. No fancy feast was organized, so instead, the members of the club planned a small Halloween party in the Room of Requirements. Subtle music was playing in the background of us chatting about strategies and new techniques we could learn sitting around the same table Draco used to organize or romantic night that one time.

"Hermione would be so helpful right now," I sighed heavily throwing my hand up in the air, "She'd definitely know in which book to search for powerful curses."

"Agreed," Neville said, "I wonder where the three of them are right about now."

"Well, we wouldn't know," Luna said, "All of the ministry is looking for them and can't find them. I say we play hide and seek with them like muggles do when all of this is over."

"You have the brightest ideas," Finnigan said, "Well, we could only hope for this to end."

There was a moment of silence. Well, was he wrong though? It wasn't definitive whether this could be over. To be fair, as of the moment, it seemed that the chances of that were very slim.

"Y/N, did you find anything from the Restricted Section?" Leila asked nudging me on the shoulder.

"Well, I did find a guide to essential spells every Auror needs to know, however, those were the ones we put together already," I replied playing with my necklace, "However, there is this one spell I heard Potter say when he fought with Malfoy in the bathroom. It was a pretty good one to put the enemy to sleep right away."

"Harry read about it in the book he was so into last year," Ginny, who I found out was Ron's sister said, "If I'm not mistaken, it's Sectumsempra."

"Yeah, that one," I clicked with my fingers, "We could learn that one too. But then again, I don't feel like using dark magic."

"Well, isn't it fair to say that those are the only ones that could help to annihilate a few dumb Death Eaters?" Leila chimed in.

"Something about using them seems unsettling, but I suppose you are right," I answered with my chin resting on my hand, "I found these few shady-looking books in the back of the Restricted Section, but those are about dark wizards like Grindelwald. They seem relatively new too."

"That guy was mad," Finnigan said with his hand resting on the back of his chair, "However, it wouldn't hurt to learn a few maneuvers he did back in his day."

"Well, there is this part in the book of a few curses he used a lot during duels and such," I remembered, "I could write them down and bring them back to you tomorrow."

"Let's not risk it this time," Neville said, "Heard they added a few more Death Eaters to the bunch to seek order and discipline. Merlin, they are getting annoying already."

"Yeah, but I could simply just use the privilege of being a Slytherin and say some wack along the lines of 'I wanna learn how to be as powerful as you are, sir' and get away with it," I suggested with a proud smirk on my face.

"You Slytherins are quite annoying, wouldn't you agree Neville?" Finnigan chuckled to which all of us responded with a small laugh.

"Well, can't help it," Leila laughed.

"All right guys, let's wrap this up, it's eight past thirty already," Ginny clapped with her hands standing up, "So, Y/N needs to do some research, Leila ask Slughorn for a few new deadly poison recipes for 'scientific purposes' and the rest of us will try and get to Hogsmeade."

"How are you going to do that? Everyone isn't allowed to go except for Slytherins," I asked with a questioning face.

"Exactly why we will kindly ask for your hair to brew some Polyjuice," Luna said and ripped out a strand of hair out of mine and Leila's heads.

That hurt a lot.

"Ow," Leila winced putting her hand over her scalp, "You could simply just ask and I'd cut and give some."

"Well, wouldn't be comical to do that," Luna said, "Now chop-chop, we got some sneaking out to do."

⋇⋆✦⋆⋇

After Ginny's and Luna's visit to Hogsmeade as me and Leila, they got some insight on Death Eaters and where they like to gossip at. Besides that, it seemed that they have heard about a certain wizard who is related to Dumbledore. So with that in mind, we had a plan of me and Leila showing to Hogsmeade in order to collect some info about Death Eater and what was going on in their ranks, plus, try to find the wizard who was related to Dumbledore. Ginny and Luna volunteered to do that instead of us, but we couldn't take any risks. One wrong move and all of us would be as good as dead.

So now, as it was heavily snowing on this fine November Saturday, me and Leila headed straight to Hog's Head. According to Luna, this is where a certain Death Eater who was famous for his strength and bravery hung out with his friends on Saturdays such as this. He was none other than Scabior. Surprisingly enough, I had no idea who this man was and to be fair didn't wish to.

As we approached the entrance of the bar I sighed.

"Don't overreact and don't talk back when they say something," Leila whispered to me.

"Lucky for you, today, I am absolutely not in the mood," I replied yawning and opened the door.

Inside the bar were quite a lot of crusty-looking drunk men talking about some things. Great, now we had to figure out which one the Scabior guy was. Ginny said that he dressed like a pirate and had heavily underlined eyes. Well, he sure was the man of my nightmares.

I approached the counter to order two glasses of water not to seem suspicious, "Hello sir, we'll have water please."

"Hey, I think that nasty-looking guys over there are who we are looking for," Leila whispered into my ear and I slowly turned my head to see someone who could have the name Scabior. Although, all of these men looked Scabior-ish.

"Here you go, miss," I got distracted by the barman handing me a bottle of water and two cups.

"Thank you," I replied and took out my wallet to pay.

After we took our so-called order, we went to sit right across from those guys but a bit far away not to look like we were there for them. I poured myself some water and tried to listen to their conversation but alas, the loud and annoying noise coming from the drunk men muffled their conversation. So, without anything else to do, I quietly reached out to my wand in my coat and took it out.

"Quietus," I whispered and suddenly the bar's noises got muffled. Thank you, professor McGonagall, for making me remember this spell in my third year.

"Good thinking," Leila smiled at me and drank from her cup.

"...you are right Scab, they are not treating us fairly," we heard a man say who had high pitched voice.

"We are dragging ourselves outside like dogs just to find these mud-bloods and what do we get? Nothing," another man complained.

"There, there, gentlemen," a man, who I would guess was 'Scab' as in Scabior, said, "I know that the treatment we are getting is not most favorable. However, could we complain about that nuisance knowing that one of the richest pure-blood families is going down the drain?"

Some of the men laughed devilishly at this. What family were they talking about? This was getting interesting we might get something from this.

"Blacks were just like them, no wonder the Malfoys went down a few ranks, they are all cowards," the man with the high-pitched voice said.

"It's right when they say 'like father, like son'. That Draco boy couldn't get one job done," Scabior said with a chuckle, "Then his git of a father offered their manor as a hideout for the Dark Lord."

This was getting infuriating.

"At least they did one useful thing," another man chimed in, "Did you hear? Potter was seen in Ministry last week? And they couldn't catch him."

"As expected, those fools don't know how to snatch people properly," Scabior said, "They could always give us the responsibility of looking for that bloody git."

"Y/N, stop pressing the cup like that, you might break it," Leila whispered. I didn't even notice I was doing that. Although, I did want to throw something at these bastards. Potter being spotted in Ministry didn't bother me as much as them calling Draco a coward. They didn't even know the last thing about how it felt to be in a position where you were forced to be someone as low as a Death Eater.

"I think we heard enough," I whispered back harshly and stood up. Leila stood up after me and followed me out of the bar. I got goosebumps as the cold hit my face when we got out.

We walked back to the other end of Hogsmeade. It was cold and the snow wouldn't stop which made my eyesight blurry. I didn't know what to think and to be fair I didn't even want to. What concerned me at the moment was how Draco was doing. Was he okay? Was he hurt or was he even alive? I wouldn't know. He was being treated like trash by others which made me lose my temper every time I thought about it. If only I could see him again somehow and know for sure that he was doing okay. I wanted to talk to him one more time and not leave things at an uncertain end.

"Hey Y/N, doesn't that man look awfully a lot like Dumbledore?" Leila whispered looking to the right.

"Aberforth Dumbledore," I whispered to myself, "In all his glory."

⋇⋆✦⋆⋇