Capítulo 273: Adrian Rivers

"Professor, can I tell my friends about it?" asked Chris before leaving Dumbledore's office.

"Miss Weasley, Miss Lovegood and Mr Creevy?" inquired Dumbledore.

"Yeah, and Hermione, Ron and Harry too."

Dumbledore considered her for a moment, then said, "Do you think they can keep this in absolute secret, Christina? No matter what?"

Chris thought back about her, Ginny, Luna and Colin's Animagus secret then all the adventures Hermione and Ron went with Harry.

"I think yes," said Chris.

"Then you can, but no one else should know, I repeat, no one."

"Yes, sir," Chris nodded and reached for the door.

"Ah, Christina?" Dumbledore called.

Chris turned around.

"Do you know Nicholas Flamel?" asked Dumbledore stroking Fawkes.

"Nicholas Flamel? The creator of the Philosopher's Stone?" said Chris surprised.

"Yes," Dumbledore nodded then looked at Chris. "Christina, if you have time, I would like you to know about my friend, Nicolas Flamel, before our next meeting. . . Well, good night."

"Okay Professor," said Chris confused. "Good night."

For the rest of the week, Chris continued to impress Slughorn in class. When the first weekend arrived Chris was sure Slughorn was very charmed by her. On the other hand, Harry had his first lesson with Dumbledore and he decided to tell them everything, in the Room of Requirement, where they were doing their secret talks, nowadays, as it was the safest place to avoid eavesdropping.

"So Riddle had a witch for a mother and a Muggle father, Merope and Tom Riddle senior," recited Colin after Harry finished. "And Merope was from the Gaunts family, descendant from Slytherin and she gave Riddle's father love potion, married him, then had Riddle and died."

"More or less, yeah, that's that," said Harry.

"And Merope had an abusive father and brother," sighed Chris. "A non-loving husband and a dark, bad wizard for a son. Poor Merope."

"But she shouldn't have given Tom Riddle senior the love potion in the first place," said Hermione.

"Her actions are debatable but her fate is really sad," said Chris.

"Anyway, what confuses me the most is," said Harry getting the attention back. "How knowing Voldemort's past will help me survive?"

There were a few moments of silence.

"I think, knowing your enemy helps you to understand him, his weaknesses and his strengths," said Chris looking absently at the high ceiling of the room. "I will give anything to know more about Mangino. So I guess that's a reason why you should know about Riddle's past and the other one is —"

Chris stopped and looked back at her friends. Everyone was staring at her.

"The other one is —?" Ginny narrowed her eyes.

"The other one is — the Horcruxes, I think they are connected to Riddle's past," said Chris.

"Horcruxes, the thing He asked Slughorn, right? So do we know what is it, now?" said Ron.

"Yep," nodded Chris then looked at Hermione. "Hermione?"

"Well, Horcruxes are a very very very dark part of the magic. It's horrible, really," Hermione shivered. "It's a way of dividing a part of your soul and trap it inside an object, so you can live forever."

Ginny and Luna gasped. Colin, Ron and Harry looked sickened and disgusted.

"But we are still not sure Riddle did make Horcruxes, you know," Hermione said quickly. "Not till Chris collects the memory from Professor Slughorn."

"Yeah," sighed Chris.

"Can we talk about something else?" said Ron after a moment.

"Yes, we should," Luna nodded.

"How about Quidditch?" said Ginny. "When are the tryouts, Harry?"

"I am thinking next week," said Harry. "Honestly, I don't think I need to do Chasers trial. I hardly think anyone will be as good as you, Chris and Katie."

Chris looked away from Harry's smiling face. She was thinking of quitting Quidditch this year. First, she wasn't sure but after Dumbledore gave her the job with Slughorn, she was convinced about not trying for the team.

"Hey, do you know Hagrid wasn't very cheerful in our last Care of Magical Creatures class," said Colin. "He seems down lately, anyone knows why?"

Chris, thankful to Colin's change of topic, turned back and saw Harry, Ron and Hermione exchanging dark looks.

"It is you three, isn't it?" Chris asked.

"Well," Hermione looked guilty. "No one in our class took Care of Magical Creatures for N.E.W.T.s. But we will go and explain to him that we were just not interested in studying beasts for our higher education."

"Explain what?" said Ron surprised. "How are we going to tell him we hated his stupid subject?"

"We didn't hate it!" said Hermione.

"Speak for yourself," said Ron darkly. "I'm telling you now, we've had a narrow escape. You didn't hear him going on about his gormless brother — we'd have been teaching Grawp how to tie his shoelaces if we'd stayed."

"Hey! Gwarp is nice, okay?" Chris said looking annoyed. "And so is Hagrid's classes. It's your fault you didn't like it."

Ron opened his mouth to reply but then didn't say anything, Ginny and Colin chuckled.

"Anyway, back to Quidditch," said Harry hastily. "I was looking at the list for the students, who had applied for tryouts, and it's like half of the Gryffindor had applied. I dunno why the team's this popular all of a sudden."

"Oh, come on, Harry," said Hermione, suddenly impatient. "It's not Quidditch that's popular, it's you! You've never been more interesting, and frankly, you've never been more fanciable."

"Fanciable?" Ginny chuckled.

Hermione ignored her and continued, "Everyone knows you've been telling the truth now, don't they? The whole Wizarding world has had to admit that you were right about Voldemort being back and that you really have fought him twice in the last two years and escaped both times. And now they're calling you 'the Chosen One'— well, come on, can't you see why people are fascinated by you?"

Harry suddenly looked red and averted eye contact with anyone of them.

"Well, can you blame them?" said Ginny giggling. "People are staring at Chris too, especially the boys. You haven't seen how the half Great Hall looks smitten every time Chris walks in."

"Yes, even a few Slytherin boys," said Colin. "Even I have noticed."

"Well that's all great but I think they need to remember both Harry and I are already dating different people," said Chris hotly.

Ginny stopped smiling and looked surprised.

"I will see you later," Chris said getting up before anyone could say anything and walked out.

Chris wondered around the castle, pondering over her weird behaviour. It was Sunday afternoon and people were still out watching the sunset and was messing around. Ginny was right, many boys were watching mesmerized as Chris was passing. Glaring at a few, Chris went outside.

"Miss Norton!" said a delightful voice.

Chris looked at her left and saw a handsome boy with beautiful messy brown hair sprawling on the grass holding his broom servicing kit and his broom Nimbus 2000.

"Good evening," he gave a slight bow and his messy hair fell on his amber eyes.

Chris knew him, he was Adrian Rivers. He had played seeker for Ravenclaw last year.

Chris rolled her eyes and without saying anything tried to walk away.

"I guess you are irritated because of the stares?" he called.

Chris stopped looked back at him and saw him pointing at the other boys, who were walking by them and indeed staring at Chris.

"Well, wouldn't be you?" asked Chris.

"I guess, I will, unless my admirer is as gorgeous as you," he said grinning.

Chris suddenly felt her cheek burning. Stares were different than flattering talk from a handsome boy. Chris quickly cleared her throat and tried to look annoyed.

"Very funny," she said angrily.

"Sorry Miss Norton, didn't mean to offend you," He got up and extended his hand. "Adrian Rivers. I don't know if you remember or not but I played against you last year at Quidditch finals."

"I remember," said Chris shaking his hand without smiling and noticing that he was a lot taller than her. "Bye then."

And this time she really walked away.

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To be continued. . .