CHAPTER SIX - Hiding Secrets

Attuoria thought that it would be difficult finding her way to the classrooms in such a big castle. But oddly, Hermione already seemed to know everything.

Harry and Ron, on the other hand, were late for just about every lesson. Attuoria suggested for the two boys to join her and Hermione, but Ron insisted that he and Harry would be fine on their own. Attuoria could tell that Ron wanted to avoid Hermione at all costs. Harry wasn't too fond of Hermione, either.

The classes intrigued her more than she expected. Coming into the mortal realm, she was curious about human reactions and emotions. She marvelled at the feeling of being annoyed, being confused, and being frustrated. But looking back on those now, they seemed so trivial.

Of course she hadn't yet discovered all she wanted about human emotions yet, but there was something else about humans. Attuoria realised that there was a reason humans were so powerful in the mortal realm: they had brains. They had knowledge and the ability to learn, to discover and create new things.

Especially magic. While it was difficult to explain why things were happening (the most straightforward explanation is just: magic), a certain skill level was still required to achieve these magical spells. For most people.

Take Transfiguration for example. Professor McGonagall, although strict, was very clever and knew exactly what she was doing. After a long session of note-taking, she gave each student a match and told them to turn it into a needle.

By the end of the lesson, no one had got it except Hermione and Attuoria. Hermione's match had turned silver and pointy, which was quite a good accomplishment for a first try.

Attuoria, on the other hand, managed to turn the match fully into a needle. Thin, sharp, and pointy, with full metal qualities. Professor McGonagall stared at the needle on Attuoria's desk for a good minute. When she finally looked at Attuoria, her eyes were wide.

"Impressive," Professor McGonagall mused, picking it up and spinning it in between her fingers. "I can't remember the last time a first-year transfigured something perfectly in their first lesson. Impressive."

Hermione stared at the needle with just as much shock as Professor McGonagall, while Harry smiled happily at Attuoria.

Attuoria saw Ron nudge Harry and heard him whisper, "She's giving Hermione a run for her money, eh? Thank god someone's stopping her. Otherwise she'd be an even bigger nightmare."

Attuoria knew Ron was talking about Hermione when he mentioned "nightmare", but she couldn't help but notice the irony. She was the Nightmare demon, and yet he was calling Hermione a nightmare.

Their first Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson was quite memorable for Attuoria. Professor Quirrell's classroom smelled strongly of garlic, and everyone said it was to ward off a vampire he'd met in Romania.

Seamus Finnigan, a boy in Gryffindor who'd heard about Attuoria from Ron and Harry, raised his hand in the middle of class and said, "Professor! Is it true you met a vampire in Romania?"

Professor Quirrell nodded shakily, whilst writing on the board. "Y-Yes, t-the v-vampires from R-Romania... quite p-powerful creatures."

"Well did you know Attuoria here is from Romania? Perhaps she knows a few of your vampire friends." said Seamus.

Quirrell visibly jumped and gasped, dropping the chalk he was using to write. He turned around and made eye contact with Attuoria briefly. That short moment was enough to allow her to enter his mind.

"Someone should give me an award for acting," she heard Quirrell think to himself whilst he was acting all jittery in front of the blackboard. "Trying to keep up with this is absolutely painful. P-Poor stuttering P-Professor Q-Quirrell, what a joke. I've never met a vampire. Although sometimes I wish I have. And then this garlic smell-"

All of a sudden she was cut off from his thoughts, and she observed Quirrell intently for any signs of irregularity. She realised that the moment his thoughts were cut off from her, he stopped jittering and his hands stopped shaking. For a split second, he froze, expressionless.

But as quickly as it happened, he returned back to normal, adjusting his turbine before going back to shakily writing notes on the board. His stutter came back as if it never left.

It wasn't Seamus' remark that made the lesson memorable for Attuoria. It was Quirrell's odd behaviour. There was something off about him, she could tell he was hiding something.

Maybe, Attuoria thought to herself, this man could be hiding even more secrets about his identity than me.

Friday morning came, and Attuoria was sitting down at the Great Hall, eating breakfast with Harry and Ron. Hermione went straight to the library after eating two bites of toast, saying she needed to prepare herself for the double block of Potions. Attuoria didn't mind. Hermione not being there meant she could sit with her two other friends.

"Finally shook off that know-it-all?" Ron asked the moment he sat down across from her.

Attuoria shrugged. "She went to the library."

"Ah, of course."

"What have we got today?" Harry asked, pouring sugar on his porridge.

"Double Potions with the Slytherins," said Ron. "Snape's Head of Slytherin house. They say he always favours them - we'll be able to see if it's true."

"Wish McGonagall favoured us," said Harry, thinking about all the homework she had set after the lesson on Thursday.

"Well she loves Attuoria," Ron said, beckoning towards Attuoria using his head. Attuoria shrugged, again.

"I doubt she was that impressed. I'd have to prove myself a few more times if I really want her to like me." Attuoria said. She knew this because she studied Professor McGonagall quite carefully during class. After she transfigured her match into a needle, (which didn't take too long. She just followed the instructions and did it.) she had spent the rest of the lesson observing McGonagall.

A few times they made eye contact, so she was able to listen in to a few of her thoughts. McGonagall wasn't an easy woman to impress. Attuoria transfiguring the match perfectly only surprised her. It was going to take more than just that for her to be truly impressed.

Just then, a flurry of owls streamed into the Great Hall. There were about a hundred of them, all here to deliver the post. This happened every morning, but Attuoria was never really much bothered by it. Eylense hadn't shown up for the past three days, so she figured he was just having fun on his own in a random forest. After all, she'd told the eagle of her location, so it wasn't like he couldn't find her.

But this morning, she noticed something different as the owls flew in. Attuoria heard people around her gasp and saw them point up. Naturally, Attuoria moved her attention from her breakfast to the owls above their heads. And there he was: Eylense, his two metres long wingspan casting a long shadow over the tables in the Great Hall.

As the great eagle began descending, people yelled out and jumped away from the table. Attuoria suddenly realised that her bird was trying to land on the table. The tall, heavy eagle was about to land straight into their food.

"Eylense! On the floor!" She yelled at the bird, catching his attention a second too late - the large avian barrelled straight into a large basket of bread rolls, sticking his talon into a small dish of marmalade and accidentally flinging the dish into the air.

Attuoria quickly stood up and caught the dish before it could hit another student at the table. The marmalade, however, flew everywhere, a bit of it landing on Hedwig's head.

The whole hall was quiet for a brief second before people began snickering at the situation. Attuoria stared at her eagle as it hopped back up and dropped a note into a bowl of baked beans.

"You've got to be kidding," Attuoria muttered under her breath, snatching the note away from the red sauce. Eylense stood on the table innocently, staring at his owner.

She made quick eye contact with him, allowing her to listen in to his thoughts.

"I was going to land gracefully until you called me and distracted me. So if anything, that was all your fault. My talon is all sticky now, thanks to you."

Attuoria gently whacked Eylense's head with the note in her hand.

"Why couldn't you just land on the floor? You're three times the size of every other owl in here." Attuoria scolded quietly, sitting back down and ignoring the curious looks from other students. "Get off the table. I doubt these people want to eat your feathers."

"You want me to get off the table? Oh yes, watch this."

Attuoria's eyes widened and before she could tell him to stop, Eylense had already spread out his two metre long wings, knocked over three goblets, hit Ron's fork out of his hand, and smacked Harry's glasses off his face. After a few flaps of his large wings, he fluttered off the table and landed on the floor behind Attuoria.

Attuoria instinctively smacked her own forehead out of frustration, but then started laughing. Harry and Ron, if not a little shaken up, glared at her with both anger and confusion.

"That wasn't funny," Ron said angrily, picking his fork back up.

Attuoria ignored him, laughing and replaying the scene over and over in her head. Harry had looked so startled when Eylense's wings hit him in the face. His expression was priceless. Attuoria laughed so hard she began coughing.

"You know, I think that's the first time I ever heard you laugh." Harry pointed out while wiping his glasses.

Attuoria suddenly stopped laughing. Laugh. Laughter is an expression that humans make if they're happy or amused. Was she happy? Amused?

If I stay here long enough, will I start to become human? She thought to herself.

"What's wrong with your bloody bird, anyways?" Ron said, interrupting her thoughts.

"He's a big boy," she responded, flashing Eylense a quick glance before finally looking down at the note in her hands.

Dear Atoria,

Sorry if I spelled your name wrong. I know you and Harry get your afternoons off, so would you like to come and have a cup of tea with me around three? Your eagle came to visit me yesterday. Lovely bird, he is. Send me an answer back if you'd like to come. Your bird knows where my hut is.

Hagrid

"Hey, did Hagrid -"

"Yeah," Attuoria interrupted Harry midway through his sentence. "Meet at three, right?"

Harry nodded, grabbing Ron's quill and quickly scribbling back a note telling Hagrid that they'd both be there. He sent Hedwig off with the note.

Attuoria turned back to face her bird, who was still standing there obediently. "You can go now, if you want. I'll be at the giant's hut at three if you want to see me there."

Eylense gave her a curt nod and took off, successfully avoiding the heads of the other students but still smacking another owl on his way out.

After breakfast, the trio went off to potions. Potions was the class that intrigued her the most by far. But it wasn't the art of making potions that interested her. It was Professor Snape.

Potions took place down in one of the dungeons. The classroom was dark and cold, it's walls filled with jars of weird substances.

Professor Snape dramatically walked into the classroom at exactly nine o'clock, sweeping his cloak behind him as the door slammed loudly, the sound echoing across the dungeon. He stood at the front of the room and took the attendance, before finally looking up and gazing at the students in the class.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making," he began. His voice was incredibly quiet, but they heard every word. He had a certain coldness in his tone, and everything about him screamed authority. The class was absolutely silent. He gave a short speech about the class before suddenly, he called on Harry.

"Potter! What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Ron and Attuoria's gaze snapped towards Harry, who had a look of confusion on his face. To Attuoria's right, Hermione's hand shot into the air.

"I don't know, sir," said Harry.

"Tut, tut - fame clearly isn't everything. Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"

Attuoria knew the answer to this question after reading her textbooks thoroughly. She looked at Harry, hoping he would be able to answer. She heard Malfoy and his gang laughing behind them. That's odd, she didn't think this situation was funny.

"I don't know, sir."

"Thought you wouldn't open a book before coming, eh, Potter? What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?"

Attuoria jumped slightly as Hermione literally stood up, her hand stretching towards the ceiling.

"I don't know," said Harry quickly. "I think Hermione does though, why don't you try her?"

The class laughed, which confused Attuoria even more. There was nothing funny about what Harry said. He was just speaking the truth.

Snape's eyes flickered past Attuoria and landed on Hermione.

"Sit down," he snapped. Hermione obeyed.

But then, Snape's gaze landed on Attuoria. His eyes were black, just like hers. They were cold and empty, like a bottomless hole of nothingness. Attuoria wondered if her dark eyes looked the same.

She realised that with this eye contact, she could now listen into his thoughts. She heard a brief "What an obnoxious girl. And then there's Potter, who's just as daft as his father," before he spoke.

"Ms Knight. Attuoria Knight. From Romania, aren't you?" He said, a sly gleam in his eyes. Attuoria nodded, already not enjoying where this was about to go. "Then you must be familiar with the Graphorn."

Attuoria hesitated, racking her memory for any mention of a Graphorn.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them! That's right. The Graphorn. It's that creature with two golden horns. The golden horns are ground into powder and sold as a very expensive potion ingredient. It's used to make that potion... which one again... from Magical Drafts and Potions... Antidote to Uncommon Poisons, that's the name.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Snape's voice. "Well?"

She snapped out of her thoughts and looked at him. Snape was staring at her expectantly. "What?"

"'What' is not an answer, Ms Knight. Perhaps you should listen next time." He turned away.

Attuoria heard his thoughts say: "Pity. She seemed smart. How could a native Romanian not know the potion that a graphorn horn produces? Maybe she was lying about being from Romania."

"Antidote to Uncommon Poisons." Attuoria blurted out, eager to change his mind. She couldn't have someone doubting her identity. It was already unstable enough.

Snape whipped around, his dark eyes narrowed. "A bit late, Ms Knight, don't you think?" He hissed, wrapping his black cloak around his body.

Attuoria kept her mouth shut.

"Seeing you managed to answer that one, could you give an example of a certain venom that this potion can cure?"

Snape was trying to test if she knew her Romanian knowledge. Luckily, the answers were all in the textbooks she had read previously.

"A Doxy bite," said Attuoria, "sir." she quickly added.

Snape pursed his lips. "You're lucky, Ms Knight, for the answers to those can all be found in your textbooks."

Then he turned to Harry. "As for you, Potter, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite. Well? Why aren't you all copying that down?"

The class immediately took out their quills and began scribbling notes onto their parchment.

"A point will be taken from Gryffindor house for your cheek, Potter." Snape paused, for a moment, gazing at Attuoria. Finally, he said, "And a point to Gryffindor for Knight, as she clearly memorised every first-year textbook by heart."

She heard a few snickers from the Slytherin boys behind her, but wasn't sure what they were laughing at. She took Snape's remark as a compliment. After all, the contents of the textbook were all stored in her mind, which is why she could bring out any of that information at any given time.

"Thank you, professor." said Attuoria, catching Snape off guard. The boys behind her laughed even louder. Snape gave her a quick glare before returning to teaching.

The rest of the class was more than chaotic. As the students paired up to mix up the Cure for Boils, Snape criticized everyone except Malfoy, who he seemed to like.

Attuoria was with Hermione, who despite being extremely bossy, was a good partner. Hermione basically did everything whilst Attuoria observed the class (especially Snape).

There was something odd about Professor Snape. His brain was full of negative thoughts. Absolutely nothing positive ever crossed his mind. She knew this because she spent a good half of the class reading his mind, making sure not to make eye contact with anyone else to keep the connection. Snape had spent the entire class cursing all the students in his mind.

She and Hermione were already done with their potion when Neville accidentally melted Seamus' cauldron, the potion flowing all over the floor while Neville moaned in pain at the boils springing up over his arms and legs.

"Idiot boy!" Snape snarled, clearing the spilled potion away with one wave of his wand. Attuoria watched as Snape immediately brought the blame onto Harry and Ron, deducting another point from Gryffindor. Harry was more than angry but Ron shut him up, stopping him from causing anymore trouble.

"Snape really hates Harry." Attuoria whispered to herself under her breath, but Hermione heard her.

"Yeah, that was quite unfair, wasn't it?" replied Hermione, sitting at the table with her face in her hands. "I don't like him."

"Who?"

"Snape."

"Oh." Attuoria sat back down next to Hermione, keeping her eyes on the fuming Snape.

"Having Potter in the class is bad on it's own, and now there's an idiot Longbottom in the class. Potter is absolutely insufferable, just like his father." Snape's thoughts echoed as he slammed the dungeon door shut.

Attuoria noticed that Snape constantly compared Harry to his father. He clearly disliked whoever Harry's father was, so that was probably a reason he was so mean and unfair to the young boy.

Should I tell Harry? The thought crossed her mind but she quickly decided against it. It wasn't her business snooping around in a Professor's thoughts, much less telling other people about it.

Later that day, Attuoria met up with Ron and Harry and made their way towards Hagrid's hut, which was located outside the castle near the Forbidden Forest. It was quite a shabby old hut.

Attuoria immediately noticed Eylense sitting on the roof of the hut as they approached. Eylense, upon noticing his owner, fluttered down and landed on the steps up the front of the hut.

Ron visibly flinched at the sight of the bird's large wings, and Harry gingerly stepped around it as he went up the stairs to knock on the door. After this morning's encounter, the two boys weren't too fond of Attuoria's bird.

The door opened slightly, Hagrid's hairy face appearing in the crack.

"Is your bird here?" He asked Attuoria.

Attuoria nodded.

"Ah. Hang on," he said. "Back, Fang. And leave the bird alone."

He let them in, struggling to hold onto the collar of an enormous black dog. Eylense tip-toed in behind Attuoria, eying the dog cautiously.

To say Hagrid's house was crowded was an understatement. His hut was filled with a large array of items. There was a huge leg of ham, dead birds, a kettle boiling over a fireplace, a massive bed and many patchwork quilts.

"Make yerselves at home," said Hagrid, letting go of Fang and causing Eylense to leap into the air in fright, knocking himself on the leg of ham before falling onto the bed. It tried to get up and fly over to Attuoria, but all it did was get stuck in between a hanging potted plant and a few dead pheasants hanging from the ceiling.

"Just sit down!" Attuoria yelled at her stupid bird, who glared at her before landing down onto Hagrid's bed.

Hagrid chuckled at the clumsy eagle whilst pouring tea for the kids. He placed a few rock cakes on a plate, which Attuoria decided not to try after Ron looked like he was in pain when attempting to take a bite.

Hagrid asked them about school and how they were adjusting. Harry spoke about his problems with Professor Snape while Attuoria stayed quiet.

"How's yer brother Charlie?" Hagrid asked Ron. "I liked him a lot - great with animals."

"Charlie's doing fine, he's working with dragons in Romania. Hey, did you know Attuoria is from Romania?" Ron said, beckoning towards Attuoria.

Hagrid looked surprised. "You are? My, my, then yeh must've grown up seein' dragons every day of yer life!"

"Uh, no." Attuoria responded, remembering the section on Dragons in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. "They were all kept in the sanctuary. I lived quite far from it."

"Oh. But yeh knew about them didn't yeh?" Hagrid's dark eyes were gleaming with curiosity. Attuoria looked at him and delved into his thoughts: "I really hope she knows about dragons. I've been wanting one my whole life."

Attuoria gave him a sheepish smile. "No, not really. Sorry."

"Oh no that's perfectly fine. I just wanted to know if yeh had a favourite breed or anything." Hagrid said, trying to hide his disappointment.

Attuoria felt bad that she had disappointed him. After all, he was the one who first took care of her when she arrived in the mortal realm. She owed it to him. So she tried to answer his question by selecting one of the dragon breeds she'd read about in her textbook.

"I quite like the Hungarian Horntail. I've heard people talk about it."

Hagrid's eyes lit up. "Hungarian Horntail eh? Real aggressive and nasty, that one. Yeh don't like the Romanian Longhorn?"

"They're okay. The horns are pretty nice. I know people hunt them for that." Attuoria said, remembering that the Romanian Longhorn had golden horns, just like the Graphorn.

Hagrid nodded, looking pleased.

Just then, Harry yelled, "Hagrid! That Gringotts break-in happened on my birthday! It might've been happening while we were there!"

Attuoria kept her eyes on Hagrid, and he gave her a quick glance before looking away, grunting a response. But that glance was enough.

"The kid's gettin' suspicious. Can't let 'em know about the stone. It would be too dangerous fer him if he were to go lookin' fer it. Thank goodness I took the stone outta the vault that day, though, otherwise we'd be in fer some trouble."

Attuoria bit her own lip to stop herself from asking Hagrid what was going on. His thoughts were not only questionable, but he was clearly hiding something.

Soon, they bid Hagrid goodbye (Hagrid forced Ron and Harry to take the rock cakes because he thought they liked it. Attuoria, who hadn't taken a single bite, gladly walked out empty-handed.) and made their way back towards the school for dinner.

Attuoria caught Harry's gaze as they walked, and heard that his thoughts were quite the same as hers. Harry was just as suspicious of Hagrid's behaviour and that small package he had retrieved from the vault the day they went to Diagon Alley.

Attuoria could feel that this was the beginning of something very interesting.