"Guys, this could be it!" Sungkyu swirled around. The others all collected around a book Sungyeol was holding. Sungkyu took the way around the other side of the shelve to avoid being seen by other students. "Here:"

Of the many fearsome beasts and monsters that roam our land, there is none more curious or more deadly than the Basilisk, known also as the King of Serpents. This snake, which may reach gigantic size, and live many hundreds of years, is born from a chicken's egg, hatched beneath a toad. Its methods of killing are most wondrous, for aside from its deadly and venomous fangs, the Basilisk has a murderous stare, and all who are fixed with the beam of its eye shall suffer instant death. Spiders flee before the Basilisk, for it is their mortal enemy, and the Basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster, which is fatal to it.

"It says 'beam', not eye-contact..." Sungkyu gnawed on his lips. "Didn't Colin have a camera?" The others nodded. „Then he probably saw the basilisk through it – it's a beam, so if it's deadly at direct contact, what happens at indirect one? Couldn't it be weakened because of the camera?"

Sungyeol gasped. "The water! When we found Mrs Norris, the floor was full of water – remember we talked about the skating rink there!" They exchanged apprehensive looks. Was this the solution? If it was so easy, why had nobody thought of it before?

Sungjong came around the corner, eyes fixed on something behind him. "Do you know since when Harry Potter is interested in potions?"

Woohyun snorted. "He can't go through one lesson without messing it up!"

Sungjong scrunched up his face in thought. "Hm, weird... Well anyways, did you find anything?" They shoved the book under his nose and Myungsoo explained what they had found out. Sungjong pointed at the last sentence. "'the Basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster, which is fatal to it' - that reminds me: Hagrid's chickens were killed. You think the heir murdered them to make sure they wouldn't harm the Basilisk?"

Proof for their theory was piling up.

"Anyways, I made a list of muggle born students at Hogwarts... but I don't know if it's complete. It's more than I expected and just now I found out that Justin Finch-Fletchley was also one. He told Harry in Herbology."

"Yeah, I was there," said Woohyun slowly. "but how did you hear that so fast? You weren't even there!" Sungjong smiled innocently and said he had his 'sources'. Woohyun growled but the youngest calmly unrolled the parchment that showed a list of nearly a hundred students.

Silence.

Sungyeol snatched the list from the youngest's hands as if to check whether his eyes were deceiving him. "We can't protect all of them!"

Sungkyu took the list from him to have a proper look at it himself. He hadn't expected this many non-wizards at Hogwarts either. It was weird for him to see names there that he'd never known about. Good students, clever kids, talented witches and wizards.

He remembered the countless sayings of his parents about mudbloods infesting the wizarding world, how they stole the magic, how they destroyed it's purity, it's power.

But all of these, they were just kids. On top of that, many were much better at school than the majority of purebloods. How could his parents claim something like that when Hogwarts was such an obvious proof against it?

His parents... He suddenly remembered that howler again. Were they still angry? Christmas grew closer every day and only now did Sungkyu wonder about what would happen when he got home over the holidays.

And all of this – would he be able to hide his involvement from his parents?

"Sungkyu, hey Sungkyu!" Woohyun snapped before his face and he ripped his head up. "Ah, you're back. What were you thinking about?" Sungkyu looked at the list again and felt a headache coming up.

"Nothing," he said and gave the list back. "It's just... unexpected." The mood fell as they all became aware of what exactly they were trying here...

"Oh right, I nearly forgot," exclaimed Sungjong. "one of the teachers opened a duelling club apparently and the first meeting is on thursday!"

⋘ ──── ∗ ⋅◈⋅ ∗ ──── ⋙

Sungkyu wasn't sure if attending the duelling club was such a good idea. Of course it could be helpful, especially when someone like Flitwick or Snape (as rumored) were to teach it. But he wasn't the big fighter really. He had learnt many spells from his parents but he preferred other options over duelling.

On top of that he knew that half the school would come and he wasn't too fond of the thought of meeting Warrington there again. Somehow however, he found himself in the Great Hall on thurday evening after Hoya had tricked him into coming.

Damn that boy!

They entered the Great Hall to find all the tables vanished. Many students already flocked about the cleared centre and more streamed in after them. Sungkyu stretched his neck and found Sungjong and Myungsoo right at the front of the crowd.

„Sungkyu, you're here as well?" From the right, Dongwoo closed in on them. "I just heard the best thing in this world" He waved them closer. "Lockhart's doing this club~"

Hoya broke into bellowing laughter and Sungkyu had to pat his back when he nearly choked on his spit. "He what?"

"Did you just tell them about Lockhart?" Sungkyu turned to find Woohyun and Sungyeol approach them. Sungkyu stepped off a bit in case anyone was looking at them. Woohyun saw his hesitance and set a dark look on his face that looked so real that Sungkyu doubted the boy for a second until he received a short smile.

The others started joking about how they'd 'accidentally' hex their Defence teacher when the chance came. They would never do it on purpose of course. „But if he wants to