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that she was, to some extent, following through on her promise to Maya, that she would tell her everything. In no way shape or form was she actually telling her everything, for instance, the voice that Harry heard on Halloween night that led them to the petrified Mrs Norris was something she kept to herself. But when it came to the new plan that Hermione devised and that Harry and Ron both readily agreed to, she felt like she had no choice but to confide in Maya. 

Brewing a highly complex potion such as Polyjuice potion as a second year wasn't something she felt comfortable doing or confident about. Initially, Saffron was excited at the idea. The possibility of integrating Draco Malfoy in order to try and gain information on who the heir of Slytherin was piqued her interest. But after consideration, she wasn't on board with the plan.

In her opinion, Hermione was putting too much pressure on her abilities. She wasn't denying that Hermione was an extremely talented witch, but that talent couldn't be relied on by itself to brew something that adults apparently struggled to brew. 

"Saffron, you're not doing that," Maya said to her younger sister sternly. "What are you all thinking? First of all, you can't seriously believe that Draco Malfoy is the heir of Slytherin,"

"I mean, it's possible," said Saffron, somewhat defensively. "Why do you think it can't be him? His family are all about the dark arts and Slytherin,"

"Draco is Cygnus' little brother," started Maya, making Saffron remember that Draco's older brother was in Maya's year. "And he's as thick as two bricks, honestly, if Draco's anything like him, he's not the Heir of Slytherin,"

"Then who is?" shot back Saffron, curious as to her sister's opinion.

Maya just rolled her eyes. "There is no Heir of Slytherin, Saff, what happened to you not believing any of this?"

"I don't know," mumbled Saffron. "It just feels weird,"

"It is weird," agreed Maya with a nod, as the two sisters reached the entrance to the Great Hall. It was the morning of the most hotly awaited Quidditch match of the year: Gryffindor versus Slytherin, so naturally, the hall was buzzing with students most of whom were waiting excitedly to leave for the match. "But only because someone wants to scare us all, they probably hated Filch so they used him to do it," Maya paused. "Anyway, how do you even plan on making Polyjuice potion? It's a highly advanced potion,"

"Hermione's making it," Saffron informed her. "Or planning on making it," she corrected herself.

"And she realises she's in second year?" Maya asked rhetorically, in disbelief at how farfetched the plan seemed to her. "Saff, if one thing goes wrong with that potion, something awful could happen to you all. Not to mention she'd be breaking numerous school rules. I thought she was scared of getting in trouble?"

"She usually is," said Saffron in response. "But she thinks this is more important than any trouble she could get in, they really think that Draco has something to do with this and honestly I have a feeling that he does too,"

"I understand where she's coming from," said Maya fairly with a frown. "She's Muggle-born, and the word is that this heir is coming after Muggleborns first, so she must be even more frightened then all the other fools who think this is true," Her eyes widened upon saying that. "On that note, don't tell the twins about this, they'll worry more than they already are,"

"I thought Amanda made them feel better about it," said Saffron. Their last weekly meeting with Amanda had centred around Amanda, Maya and Saffron assuring the twins that there wasn't a monster lurking in the hallways of the school that could kill them or their muggleborn friends specifically. The general vibe Saffron received from that meeting was that Rachel and Rowan had been calmed, but apparently, that wasn't the case.

"I think they were," Maya told Saffron. "But all their friends keep going on about it, and, well, they see their friends more than they see us or Amanda. I had words with them about it yesterday. Rachel's friend Elena is convinced Harry was possessed by You Know Who at birth and is out to get them, and don't get me started on Luna Lovegood, she's a first year in our house, she's been trying to give everyone these necklaces made out of asphodel. She says it'll protect them from the monster, I mean honestly,"

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Saffron headed down to the Quidditch pitch with Hermione, Lavender and Parvati. The conversation solely revolved around how excited they were to get to watch Oliver Wood play again, as according to Lavender, his good looks were mostly confined to the Quidditch pitch due to how 'hot and bothered' he got on it.

It seemed that he was the only incentive that she and Parvati had for going to the match. They had soured on Cygnus Malfoy as an attractive person because of how they had loathed Draco even more before due to his vulgar personal attack against Hermione a month previously and because of his comment upon seeing Mrs Norris. But that sole incentive in the form of Oliver kept them going. 

If Saffron was honest, that was one of her reasonings too but the core one was to support Harry. He always got very nervous before a match and constantly seemed to be on the verge of snapping under the sheer amount of pressure he was under.

That pressure, however, didn't seem to have anything to do with the troubles the boy faced when the match began. Barely any time had passed since the opening whistle had blown when a bludger seemed to persist in the direction of Harry. In spite of any effort made by Fred or George Weasley to bat them in the opposite direction, the bludger just went back towards Harry. As a result of this, he spent the entirety of his time trying to avoid getting pummelled by a rapid bludger rather than spending it searching for the golden snitch. 

"If Harry doesn't manage to get himself killed, he'll at least kill the team's chances at the cup," Seamus Finnigan remarked harshly, peering through a small pair of binoculars at the sight that was the flailing Harry.

"Why don't you replace him and do it the proper way, Seamus?" Lavender suggested, clearly being sarcastic, though Seamus didn't seem to cop this. He was too focused on the match to hear her tone of voice.

"If Wood had trials instead of picking his friends then I would be," replied Seamus earnestly.

Lavender rolled her eyes making Saffron and Parvati laugh. Saffron felt guilty for doing so as Harry was clearly in a true spot of trouble.

"Okay, don't attack my man, that's like attacking me," chided Lavender harshly, winking at Saffron. "We're a big fan of Olivers, Ollys, either or,"

Saffron just shook her head. She couldn't even be agitated that Lavender was bringing her friend Olly Jowett back up. It was so predictable at this point that she wasn't annoyed by it. It just felt like a worn out running gag.

Hermione letting out a roar of terror let Saffron know that something had gone terribly wrong with Harry. As Harry had raced towards the snitch, the bludger didn't miss the opportunity to ram itself into Harry's figure. With the snitch in his hand, Harry slipped off his broom and went crashing into the ground. Luckily, he seemed to slow down as he neared the ground, but the slowing didn't prevent the awkward position that he landed on the surface in.

"Oh, Merlin," Saffron gasped when she saw Harry lying on the ground by himself. He was very clearly wounded. She let out a sigh of relief when she saw that his teammates, Madam Hooch and other Professors from the stands were making their way towards him. She didn't wate any time in following Ron over the stands in pursuit of their friend. The rest of the Gryffindors followed him (excluding Neville who struggled to get over the barrier) and made their way over to Harry, who, to Saffron's horror, had his eyes shut.

It only took a minute for them to open again, but that didn't stop the nervous exchanges amongst the crowd of onlookers. These were elevated when none other than Professor Lockhart took it upon himself to solve the problem.

Harry himself commented on it. For as soon as he saw Lockhart kneeling in front of him, he uttered: "Oh, no, not you,"