"Why do you keep on laughing!?" Percy huffed out in frustration as Fred and George snickered a few seats away from him during the Christmas feast.

Fred had bewitched Percy's prefect badge to say 'Pinhead'. Obviously, Percy was unaware of what his brother had done.

Gaia shook her head with a grin on her face as she continued helping herself to the food in front of her. You'd think that with only a few people left at Hogwarts, they wouldn't prepare too big of a feast. Well, that was most definitely not the case. There might be just as much food here as the Great Feast!

Glancing over to her right, she spotted Harry, Ron, and Hermione huddled together. Harry and Ron were hurriedly finishing their food while Hermione whispered something to them.

"Hey, what's the rush?" Gaia asked.

The four snapped their head towards Gaia, each looking like a deer in headlights. Harry immediately looked away and Ron started sputtering an answer.

"I wanted to show them something. But it's only around for a while. Muggle thing," Hermione answered.

"What kind of muggle thing?" Lele asked curiously from beside Gaia.

Hermione's eyes snapped to Lele, trying to say something that Gaia couldn't quite read. Hermione sighed when there was no visible reaction from Lele.

"It's-" Hermione cleared her throat, "It's hard to explain. That's why I wanted to show them."

"Oh, can I come?" Lele asked.

Once again, Gaia could see Hermione staring at Lele as if trying to get a point across. Though judging by the look of frustration on Hermione's face, Lele wasn't getting it.

"No!" Ron suddenly shouted as he recovered from his earlier attempt to answer.

Gaia gaped at Ron as Lele flinched back. She narrowed her eyes as she started rising from the table.

"Easy, easy!" Fred said as he reached around the table and placed his hands on Gaia's shoulders to pull her back down to her seat.

"What Ronald meant," Hermione glared at Ron who was shrinking back from the angry Ravenclaw, "-is that the thing is something that I can only show a few people at a time."

Lele mumbled something, looking down with a frown. Hermione sighed, glaring once more at Ron before leaning down to whisper something to Lele, who perked up almost immediately.

"Oh! That thing! Show me next time, alright?" Lele said with a grin, "Oh and, good luck."

"Of course! We've got to go now!" Hermione smiled before pulling Harry and Ron from their seats and dragging them out of the Great Hall.

"What is up with that boy? You okay, Lele?" Gaia asked, watching the trio leave the Great Hall.

"I'm fine! I was just surprised. I'm sure Ron didn't mean it," Lele answered with a shrug.

"Why'd you tell them good luck, by the way?" George asked, curious as to what his brother and his friends were up to.

Before Lele could answer, a voice interrupted them.

"Uhm, Lele?" Ginny Weasley called.

"Oh, right! You were going to show me something tonight, right?" Lele said.

"Yeah. I was hoping we could go now?" Ginny said as she stood up.

"Sure! Goodnight, Gaia!" Lele said before standing up as well.

"Goodnight, sis," Gaia answered as the two walked out of the Great Hall.

✧✧✧

"Your trio seem to have a knack for getting in trouble. Honestly, it's only your second year!" Gaia said, exasperated, as she stood beside Hermione's cot with Harry on the other side.

The said girl currently had cat ears and a tail in their respective places, with fur covering parts of her body. Gaia hadn't seen Hermione for about a week since they left the Christmas banquet. When she kept on asking Harry where the young witch was, he finally told admitted that she was in the hospital wing because of a Transfiguration spell gone wrong, which resulted her into turning half-cat. Although, Gaia was told that she looked worse when she first turned.

"You're one to talk! Fred, George, and you get in trouble all the time!" Harry argued.

"First of all, I don't get in nearly as much trouble as they do, but that's exactly my point! And yet, you lot are nearly catching up to our record. And we're in our fourth year!" Gaia reasoned out with a pointed glare directed at both Gryffindors.

"It was just a Transfiguration accide-" Harry explained once again.

"Oh please, Harry" Gaia snapped, "Do you really think I believe that? What were you doing with Polyjuice potion?" she hissed quietly, her eyes darting around to make sure no one else heard.

Yes, Gaia was quite familiar with Polyjuice potion – especially its effects when done wrong.

"Polyjuice potion?" Harry gulped, his eyes darting nervously towards her Hermione who was looking at the Ravenclaw with wide eyes.

"W-who said anything about a Polyjuice potion? Certainly not us! We don't even know what it is! Or how to make such a thing," Hermione babbled.

"Like Harry said, the twins get into trouble a lot and I get in trouble myself, sometimes. I know Polyjuice when I see it. Besides," Gaia turned her head to the side before dropping to a mumble, "I got turned into a half-dog once at home."

"Wait, seriously?" Harry snickered.

"Not the point!" Gaia hurriedly said.

"You're a metamorphmagus! Why would you use Polyjuice to turn into a dog?" Hermione asked, though she was giggling beside Harry.

"I can't turn into a dog, or I don't think I can. Anyway, enough of that. Why were you playing around with Polyjuice potion?" Gaia asked again.

The two looked at each other before looking back to her.

"We wanted to spy on Malfoy" Harry answered.

"Malfoy? What could you possibly want from him?" Gaia questioned.

"We just wanted to know what he knew, so people wouldn't look at Harry so bad anymore," Hermione explained.

As they retold her what happened, Gaia remained silent as she processed everything. So that's what it's about, she had thought. Although, she was curious as to exactly how Lele got the hair from Crabbe and Goyle – and how she managed to mix up Millicent Bulstrode's hair with cat hair.

"You still shouldn't have played around with Polyjuice. You know how many ways it could go wrong, especially for students who aren't even supposed to know how to brew it," Gaia scolded, more directed at Hermione.

Then, Ron entered the hospital wing, a stack of books balanced in his arms. He stumbled for a bit before finally reaching where they were.

"Hey Gaia," Ron greeted, trying to set down the stack of books on Hermione's bedside. He then snapped his head back to her in surprise when his mind registered who she was, dropping a few books, "Gaia? What're you doin' here?"

"I know about the Polyjuice, Ron," Gaia told him as she bent down to pick up the books that had fallen.

"Polyjuice?" Ron laughed nervously, "What's that?"

"Huh. You know, if I talked to you first, I might've actually believed that you three didn't use Polyjuice," Gaia muttered, loud enough for the three of them to hear.

"She knows, Ron" Harry admitted.

Ron gaped at his two friends for a moment before shrugging.

"Well, if you two think it's alright that she knows," Ron said as he placed down the smaller stack of books on the bedside table, "Bloody hell, Hermione. If I'd sprouted whiskers, I'd take a break from work," Ron commented while Gaia set down the books that she had picked up.

"Don't be silly Ron, I've got to keep up," Hermione answered.

"Well, I've got to go. I have Astronomy later and I want to get a bit of sleep in before going to class" Gaia said, "Next time, ask for help. I wouldn't rat you three out," she continued as she circled around the bed to get to Harry and wrap him up in a hug.

"Yeah, thanks," Harry said as he returned the hug.

Gaia turned around and walked to the doors of the hospital wing, stopping for a moment when she passed Aisha's bed, Ryker fast asleep beside her as he laid his head on the bedside table. Ever since term started, Ryker had been in the hospital wing almost every chance he could get. It wasn't really too peculiar seeing as he had known Aisha since they were kids, and Ryker's the type who'd really do anything for his friends. Gaia and Malia didn't visit as much as Ryker, but they still visited when they had the chance.

Deciding not to wake him, Gaia continued walking to the exit.

✧✧✧

The next morning, Gaia was stopped by Harry and Ron in the middle of the corridor while she was on her way to Muggle Studies with Malia.

"A diary? In Myrtle's bathroom?" Gaia repeated, confused.

"What exactly were you two doing in a girls' bathroom?" Malia asked as she crinkled her nose, "Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, of all places."

The two boys flushed at the Slytherin's question as they stammered out a reply.

"Well- We- Uh, Hermione asked us to get something from there," Ron answered.

Must be the Polyjuice potion then, Gaia thought.

"Right" Malia dragged out as she continued to stare at the two with a judgmental gaze.

A very select few number of Gryffindors had actually warmed up to Malia once they saw that the twins tolerated her; well, at least Fred did. A few Gryffindors, aside from Fred, that actually considered her a friend were Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ryker, and Cole. Lee was steadily warming up to her whenever he'd approach Gaia while she was with Malia. The other Gryffindors really couldn't care less about Malia but at least they weren't sneering at her whenever she passed them in the hallways.

"Why are you telling me this?" Gaia asked curiously.

"I-" Harry said before furrowing his eyebrows, "I don't know, actually. I guess I was hoping you'd know what to do?"

"Do you have it with you right now? Could I see it?" Malia asked.

"Yeah, why?" Harry said as he pulled out a diary from his bag.

"Might be cursed. A diary found in a ghost's bathroom is a bit suspicious, don't you think?" Malia answered as she grabbed the diary from Harry and opened it to the first page.

"T.M. Riddle." Gaia read out.

"Riddle..." Malia trailed off as she looked deep in thought.

Gaia plucked the diary out of her hands when it seemed like Malia would be deep in thought for a while. She skimmed through the pages, her face slowly morphing into confusion.

"Nothing's written in it," Gaia commented, going back and forth through the pages.

"Yeah, we know," Ron said.

"Well, if you really wanted, you could try writing in it. But I think it'd be best if you didn't play around with this. Malia's right. It could possibly be cursed," Gaia said as she handed it back.

"Right," Harry muttered as he slid it back into his bag.

"We've got to get to class now. I'll see you two later," Gaia said, waving goodbye to the two and grabbing Malia's arm, which snapped her out of her little trance.

"Huh?" Malia mumbled.

"We have to get to class. You alright? You seemed really deep in thought," Gaia asked.

"Yeah. I just-" Malia started before her eyebrows furrowed in concentration, "Riddle just sounded familiar. Like, really familiar."

"I don't recall there being a pureblood family named Riddle," Gaia hummed as she mentally listed down all the pureblooded families that she knew of.

"No, it's definitely not a pureblood family. I'd know immediately" Malia answered. She stared ahead for a while before shrugging, "Maybe I just read it in a story somewhere. A muggle one perhaps?"

✧✧✧

Edited 09/06/2020