|||Birds of a Feather|||chapter three|||

Instructions

CHAPTER THREE The next morning, I woke up early, and went down to the Great Hall to see if I had gotten any owls. By the time I had reached the Slytherin table, I realized how sore my legs and thighs were. As ten or so minutes went by, with people still flooding the hall, more sat down, including some next to me. “Hey, Diggory!” I heard someone shout to, I think, me, sitting a seat next to me. She had to be a Slytherin. Good. Better. Okay. Not very good. Terrible. “Listen, no offense, but—” “You already offended me,” I said in a bored tone. “—but I though all the Diggorys were in Hufflepuff,” she finished. “So what?” “Well, I was just, um… wondering…” she said, not finishing her sentance, but starting a new one. “The name’s Nott. Kimberleigh Nott.” “’Kay, now leave me be.” “Fine.” Yeah, she was annoying, even though she was, I’m guessing, Theodore Nott’s daughter, whose (Aunt Narcissa told me this) father was one of MY father’s big supporters. Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever, she still can’t get anywhere close to me even if she is really pureblood. Well, either way, I wanted to owl Delphi this morning, but as the owls swooped in, Bella landed on the table with a letter clutched in her beak. Looks like Delphi had written to me already. I read it, and it said, “Dear Amy, “How is school? I know I can’t—and couldn’t— go, but I have an order for you. There’s a book that I believe is there, at Hogwarts, and I think it will help us with you-know-what. “Okay, so it’s called something like ‘Secrets of the Darkest Arts,’ and, I need you to find a way to get, or read, it, and tell me about it. I’ll tell you why during the Christmas break. Speaking of Christmas break, during then, I have something fun for us planned. But first I need names, names of a Mudblood in your grade, or year, or whatever they call it there, it’ll be even more entertaining if they have a Muggle or Mudblood sibling, or multiple. Just for fun. “Please reply by return-owl with Bella, the Augury Euphemia has can barely hold itself up straight anymore. “Miss you! “Love, “Delphi” Fun? How could we have “fun” with Euphemia breathing down our necks every second? But either way, Delphi is more intelligent than Euphemia, so maybe… hm… what Mudbloods are there in my year…? I made a happy “hmph,” noise, and thought of the perfect girl. And she had two sisters… Perfect. I took out my quill and quickly scratched my response onto the other side of the piece of parchment. “Delphi, “I’m good, but all the people here are like “why is a Diggory in Slytherin?” and whatnot, so I’ve just resigned to hardly speaking to anyone. “I’ll be trying my hardest to get the book, and maybe I’ll try nicking some Invisibility Cloak Albus Potter’s brother (I don’t really know his name, frankly) has. He has one, I promise, he’s always boasting about it and putting in on in front of people so it’ll be easier. “What’s going to happen during Christmas break? If you’re going to try and get into Hogwarts, you REALLY shouldn’t, they have all sorts of protection stuff. But don’t worry, I have a bunch of names of Mudbloods here, but there’s a certain girl who I know has two sisters, one in the year above me, and one two years younger than me. Her name’s (the one in my year) something like Lavinia Birch. She’s in Ravenclaw, I think. “Give me your response as soon as you can, again with Bella. And is the bird getting old, now? “Hope to see you soon. “Love, “Amy.” I handed the letter to Bella, which she nipped with her beak and took off. Well, I have something to look forward to! Fun with Delphi on Christmas… what could be better? I headed out to the courtyard, as it was pretty deserted because everyone was getting breakfast. Never mind. It’s too hot outside. I went back to my dorm to pretend I was asleep, so the girls from last night wouldn’t bother me, as both Zabini and Harper were both still sleeping. I started plotting how I would obtain James Potter’s Cloak on the way, and then how I would get into the library, get the book, but how could I read it with all of these people here? ‘Oh well’ I thought bitterly. Someone stopped me again. Yes, again, for the second time today. ‘What the heck, am I famous somehow?’ “Hey, who are you?” she asked me. I didn’t answer, as to see if she’d leave me alone, while I stared at her. “I /said/, who are you?” she repeated. I didn’t answer again. She started getting a little angry. “Well, I’m Eliza Lovegood-Scamander, but you can call me Eliza. Who’re you?” Annoyed, I had to reply with my answer. “Amelia Diggory, now leave me alone.” She rolled her eyes at the dark brown ceiling and walked away without another word. Nice. By the time I had gotten to the dorm, Harper was already awake. “Ugh, not you again,” she said to me. “Listen, if you’re upset, then I’m dreadful,” I shot back. “Bye,” she said. “Bad-bye,” I replied, thinking that saying “good-bye,” to her was more than she deserved. And then I thought of ways to help Delphi get that book.