Better Be Slytherin!

anyone's stares.

Draco took the stall next to his, and after both of them had water turned on, said, 'So, I heard you have to help with tryouts today.'

'Yeah, Marcus . . . er, Prefect Flint wanted me there to help challenge anyone trying out for Chaser or Beater.' He smiled thinly, suddenly understanding where Draco's new buddy-buddy behavior was coming from. 'You going to try for it?'

'Sure. I mean, my father says I could go either as Seeker or Chaser, so I figured why not? Wouldn't it be great if there were two first years on the team?'

'Uh huh.' Did Malfoy think he was being subtle? Harry sighed and finished up in the shower, then dressed quickly and settled in the Common Room with his neglected homework. He'd woken early and gotten most of his Transfiguration essay done, but he was still behind in History of Magic. With one thing and another, he felt like he was never going to catch up.

Teddy joined him a little later, with his Potions book, and they read together silently until it was nearly time to march up to breakfast. The Common Room was pretty full by that time, and the noise level had reached the point where it was all but impossible to read.

As he went by to get everyone readied in line, Marcus Flint said, 'All right there, Potter?'

Harry glanced up at him and smiled at the older boy's scowl. 'Yeah, Prefect Flint. I'm good.'

'It's Captain Flint to you, Potter.' He squinted at Teddy. 'But just you, mind.'

Harry held in a chuckle. 'Yeah, okay. Thanks.'

'All right!' Flint called out. 'Let's line up and get out of here!'

Breakfast was relatively quiet – at the Slytherin table at least. Harry nibbled on some toast, not feeling particularly hungry, and watched warily as the Bloody Baron coasted nearby, although the ghost did not stop to talk.

'Have you seen him lately?' Teddy asked in a low voice.

'Hm?'

'The Baron. He's showed up again and started putting Peeves in his place. Have you asked him if he knows about who attacked you?'

'Yeah . . .' Harry paused, thinking quickly. He wasn't supposed to tell anyone about what happened. But Teddy – and Millie – both already knew quite a bit about it. 'But he didn't know much more than me, really,' he said at last, which was the truth. Sort of. 'Professor Snape said to keep my eye out for who might be trying to get me.'

'Duh.'

Harry snickered. But thinking of the attack made him remember something else. 'Hey, Teddy, you didn't send me chocolate frogs, did you? When I was laid up?'

'No.' Teddy frowned at him. 'I told you, I don't give candy to whiners.'

'Yeah, I know. It's just that someone left me another box of 'em, and didn't leave a note, so . . .'

'You're thinking they might be tampered with?'

'I was thinking maybe.'

'Did you bring them back to the dorm?'

Harry nodded. 'But I haven't touched them otherwise.'

'Okay, that's good. We can do some diagnostic spells on them. Check for curses and such. I have a couple things we can try, but I'll have to double check in the library. Now, you have Quidditch tryouts this afternoon, so if we want to get this done soon . . .'

'Free period?'

'Mm-hm. Meet me in the library and you can help look stuff up.'

Harry nodded again, but inside he was bemoaning the loss of yet more study time.

Looking up diagnostic spells in the library was almost as fun as it sounded. Teddy seemed to be really good at doing research, though, and he pulled book after book off shelves, making a neat pile on the table they were using. Harry had retrieved the box of Frogs from their dorm room, and they started with small spells that Teddy already knew, like Revelio and Finite Incantatem, and worked up to more specific kinds of diagnostics, like looking for poisons (Ostendo Virum) and particular curses (Quiest Vomica).

But none of them revealed anything untoward about the Chocolate Frogs.

'Face it, Harry,' Teddy said as they returned the books to their shelves over an hour later, 'someone gave you a perfectly normal box of chocolate. Probably a secret admirer or something.'

'Yeah.' Harry laughed. 'Sure.' He tucked the box into his book bag and they headed for Herbology. He was just as glad the sweets weren't poisoned or anything, but who had given the box to him? He went over the possibilities in his head for a while, and then gave it up. If it was a secret admirer, he hoped they'd give him more clues to their identity. Or maybe there was a spell to find that out, too. He said the last aloud, and Teddy nodded, considering. Harry added, 'You know a lot of spells already. Did your parents teach you?'

Teddy gave him a sidelong look. 'My father, mostly.'

Harry nodded, realizing there was something Teddy wasn't telling him, but they were almost to the greenhouses, and the class was interesting enough to keep his mind occupied with that for a while.

After lunch and History of Magic, Harry headed out to the changing rooms on the Quidditch pitch. Marcus