SS4

Pansy pretended to think, "He was probably flipping through his copy of Witch Weekly and thought, well, there's a handsome fellow. With a smile like that he's sure to inspire the students! Let's give him a call."
"Really?" Crabbe gazed a Pansy in a blank sort of way.
"No, Vince, not really," Pansy said with a sigh
  — The second year Slytherins discussing Lockhart

## Summary

The third Friday of September occurs the annual Head of House meeting, and Severus is forced to attend. During it, Marcus Flint's cheating is brought up. McGonagall brings up the connection between Percy and Flint, and the teachers say they will look out for discrepancies. Severus argues that there is no harm in someone else doing the work. Finally, Rigel is brought up, especially his unique abilities and magic, and they wonder if he will be Lord-level. Severus feels that there is a connection he is missing between Flint, Weasley, Black, magic, power, and knowledge.

In the Alleys, Leo spies on some two middle-aged women in Miss Betsy's Beauty Boutique, and Leo learns about a green-eyed kid who goes by Harry and lives by himself in an apartment. Eleni Hurst finds him eaves-dropping, and forces him to get a haircut. Leo then checks out the apartment, only to find it completely vacant, void of all furniture. He suspects his Harry and plans to keep an eye on her school in America.

Back in Hogwarts, Rigel finds the first few weeks of classes easy, especially when the professors are focusing on review to help the students who missed much of the school year to the Sleeping Sickness. The only class Rigel is learning any "new" information in is Lockhart's class. Her year mates discuss how incompetent Lockhart is, the reasons Dumbledore has such a hard time with finding a defense teacher, the curse on the position, and then they discuss magical affinities. Rigel concludes that all of her Slytherin year mates have Dark affinities except for Pansy (Light) and Blaise (too difficult to get a read on), and she is not sure how her own magic leans, but says she is Neutral.

That afternoon are the Quidditch tryouts, and Rigel lets Draco believe he manages to get her to try for the team. When they arrive, Marcus Flint has set up a death trap for an obstacle course. Rigel is shocked that Marcus set up the entire course himself after the fifth participant fails. Adrian Pucey is the first flyer to get through the maze, and he has the fastest time at 6:16. Draco finishes at just under 7 minutes and calls Rigel "Rye" for the first time. As for Rigel, she flies through the course and finishes with a time of 8 minutes and 9 seconds.

The keepers and chasers compete against each other for the tryout. Draco scares off some of the competition by embellishing upon the brutality of their practices. When they're done, the beaters and seekers tryout at the same time. In this truly unnerving test, Flint has the seekers strap a hoop to the bottom of their brooms and tells the beater/seeker teams that their goal is to get the bludger through the hoop the most number of times. Rigel is able to get it through Draco's hoop because she has good aim, but more importantly, he trusts her, even when it looks like it will hit him. Rigel is amazed and crushed. They get two more bludgers in through the hoop before Harry notices that Flint and Bole are too quiet, and Rigel intercepts a bludger meant for Draco. They meet up with Pansy, and she congratulates them for making it on the team.

Before dinner, they meet with Rookwood and Rosier, who refer to the three of them as the Silver Three, and ask for Rigel's help on behalf of Pucey and his snake. With some reluctance, Rigel reveals that she is a Parselmouth, but she informs them that she will lie again in the future.

The next afternoon, Rigel finishes up an Arithmancy essay for Flint, and then heads to Gryffindor tower to seek Percy out for help with linked transfigurations, after taking out her library disguise. Neville stops her outside the Gryffindor common room and says Percy and Ron are both in the Hospital Wing. Their sister, Ginny, collapsed in the Charm's corridor before lunch, and they've been with her since.

Upon Rigel's arrival in the Hospital Wing, she notices an entire bandstand and every Weasley brother playing an instrument except Percy. Rigel asks where Madam Pomphrey is, and Fred and George admit to sending her running after a fictitious injured child. When asked if the bandstand has better success than Madam Pomphrey, the twins admit no, before vanishing the whole band with one spell. Rigel is amazed at this display of linked transfigurations and asks the twins for their help. She tries to divert Ron's attention about it being sixth year material, but is put on the spot by Percy, so Rigel reminds herself to not lie if she can in front of multiple Weasleys.

Rigel points that Ginny seems to be in meditation. Ron explains that if Draco wasn't Rigel's friend, he would accuse him of being behind Ginny's fainting. Part of his reasoning is that his dad and Lucius Malfoy got into a fight and Arthur bloodied Lucius' nose. Rigel asks them to fetch her if Ginny is not awake by that night. Fred and George steal Rigel and lay out a prank to do for the following day for their sister. They get the house elves on board and plan it out over diner.

They go back to the Hospital Wing to find a displeased Pomphrey with the twins, and Snape attempting to perform Legilimancy. After his failed attempts, Rigel offers her services and the adults agree. Rigel dives to her own core, lets Snape know, so he establishes a connection to her core, and she finds Ginny's magic and projects her consciousness there.

Harry travels through Ginny's core to find just empty blue sky. She floats away from the core and calls out to Ginny. Harry feels like someone is watching, so she stops and says she knows they're there. Ginny first answers while invisible, but then appears. She says that she has been meditating and that her brothers are over-reacting. There are some weird things to Ginny's meditation: she was unaware of how time passes differently, but was able to create fully formed shields, she has a complex illusion to make it feel like Harry was moving far when she actually hadn't changed positions, while allowing Ginny to see without being seen. Ginny agrees to wake herself up. When Harry starts to go through Ginny's core, Ginny becomes angry and talks about a "he" who doesn't like that, and Harry is ejected bodily from the core.

Rigel wakes before Ginny, but before she can answer the barrage of questions, Ginny stirs. She says that she's been worried about the Sleeping Sickness since last year, and chastises her brothers for avoiding her all semester. The twins promise to make it up to her the next day.

## Characters (by order of appearance)

* Severus Snape
* Albus Dumbledore
* Minerva McGonagall
* Pomona Sprout
* Filius Flitwick
* Leo Hurst
* Gale
* Patricia
* Betsy
* Eleni Hurst
* Rigel Black & Harry Potter
* Draco Malfoy
* Gilderoy Lockhart
* Pansy Parkinson
* Vincent Crabbe
* Theodore Nott
* Tracey Davis
* Millicent Bulstrode
* Blaise Zabini
* Gregory Goyle
* Marcus Flint
* Adrian Pucey
* Caviet
* Lucian Bole
* Tuiggins
* Edmund Rookwood
* Aldon Rosier
* Neville Longbottom
* Fred Weasley
* George Weasley
* Ron Weasley
* Percy Weasley
* Ginny Weasley
* Binny
* Madam Pomphrey

## Settings

### Hogwarts

* Staff room
* Great Hall
* Quidditch Pitch
* Slytherin common room
* Hospital Wing

### The Alleys

* Miss Betsy's Beauty Boutique
* Number 8 Dogwood Lane

### Mental planes

* Harry's mind
* Ginny's mind

## Other POV (by order of appearance)

* Severus Snape
* Leo Hurst

## See also

* Magical core