PP17

"People have a lot to say about you, Rigel Black." She was sure Flint’s laughter would follow her to her grave. "Too bad they don’t know the half of it."
She left the classroom without replying. As Pansy would say, it never does to dignify a bad joke with a response—it only encourages where honesty would be kinder.

## Summary

In the Hogwarts Express, Rigel tries to empty her mind as the book about Occlumency says, but she fails. Theo asks her for some help on his Potion assignment, but Draco says she'd already done it months ago. Greengrass berates Rigel about it and her explosive magic, and is thrown out of their compartment for it. Everyone decides then to never admit her in their compartment again.

Rigel goes to Snape's office to ask him if she can have a lab in one of the empty rooms in the dungeon. Before the door, Rigel feels unworthy because of her deception, as Snape didn't lie for the same ambitions. Snape accepts her request under certain conditions.

On the third Thursday after the break, Flint gets Rigel in an empty room to warn her about their arrangement. Snape knows that Flint doesn't do his assignments and that someone else does it for him. In the same time, he explains that Occlumency is a much deeper field than she thought, and can protect the mind against those who can read it, like Snape (who doesn't do it on children because he has standards). Flint warns her to be prudent with his work and to not ask help for upperclassmate.

Rigel is copying a Potion recipe in the common room when Rosier and Rookwood come greet her. Rosier talks about her break and the fact that she is hiding something, and then warns her about some political movement that is happening. A legislation by the S.O.W Party is being made for the summer, concerning halfbloods and purebloods, in which halfbloods would only marry purebloods.

On a Friday in mid-January, Rigel goes to the kitchens, where Binny tries to explain to her how magic works, saying her magic is confused. George comes in and comforts her about her wand, asking her if it has ever let her down in a pinch.

The last Saturday of January, Rigel goes to see Percy for help with Transfiguration. He notes that it's odd because it's the same thing they are currently studying in class. He asks her if she does it on purpose, and she says yes, that she wants to study advanced magic so she copied the syllabus of a fifth year Slytherin, but don't want to seem presumptuous. Rigel then says that Percy would make a great teacher, but he denies, saying that nobody would listen to him, like his brothers. So Rigel tells him to try to be a lawyer, everyone would have to listen to him. Percy takes on the idea immediately.

Late Sunday afternoon, Rigel fails multiple times an Allergy-Relief Potion. Distraught, she seeks answers to Professor Snape who informs her that she can't unconsciously imbue magic into advanced potions, making them incomplete. She has to learn to do it consciously, adding that it will be to her benefit in the long run. He gives her some Medi-mini, different shaped balls that Medi-wizards in training use to learn how to emit a precise amount of magic. They are interrupted by Pomfrey who informs Snape that Jones' case has worsened. The Professor leaves her to go to the Hospital Wing. Rigel wonders about the strange situation.

February comes and Dumbledore puts a quarantine on the Hospital Wing. Multiple Hufflepuff fall sick. Davis and Greengrass mocks Pansy, saying that her mother, a Hufflepuff, will be touched by the "malediction" as well. Rigel and Draco comfort her. Greengrass and Davis are pranked, losing their hair, and blame Pansy, before Rigel manages to shoo them away. But it was Bulstrode who did it to get back at them for spreading rumors about her friend, Jones.

That night, the first Ravenclaw falls sick.

## Characters (by order of appearance)

* Rigel Black
* Theodore Nott
* Draco Malfoy
* Blaise Zabini
* Daphne Greengrass
* Pansy Parkinson
* Severus Snape
* Marcus Flint
* Aldon Rosier
* Edmund Rookwood
* Binny
* George Weasley
* Percy Weasley
* Ron Weasley
* Neville Longbottom
* Tracey Davis
* Millicent Bulstrode

## Settings

* Hogwarts Express
* Professor Snape's office
* Empty classroom on the third floor
* Slytherin common room
* Hogwarts Kitchens
* Gryffindor common room
* Rigel's lab
* Dorms

## Potions

* Veritaserum
* Stink-sap remover
* Allergy-Relief Potion
* Felix Felicis
* Amortentia
* Hair-Removal Potion

## Trivia

The ingredient "limbus grass" mentioned by Theo is a reference to Neil Gaiman's "Stardust", in which Limbus grass is used to make someone say only the truth.

## See also

* The Marriage Law
* The Sleeping Sickness