Hydra Lestrange Finch-Fletchley

Mrs Longbottom has made it clear that we should share with the entire Order when we believe someone is in danger, so that's what I'm doing.

Harry, Hermione - Teddy hasn't decided to stop interfering with the both you. If anything I think he's got worse. You might have noticed he's been trying to follow me around ever since Justin and I yesterday. He sat next to me at supper last night and offered to "take my mind off" things. And then he sat next to me again, tonight, because I was late and couldn't get in next to Remy or Pansy. I tried to be very busy with my woolten pie, but he just doesn't care about interrupting a person. And it's not that he doesn't know he's interrupting, he just doesn't think to care.

Well, he started talking about "Harry's mudblood" and said that he's thinking of changing his strategy. It was then that I started actually listening to him. Because it was about you, Hermione, and this is Teddy we're talking about after all. You see, he thought that Hermione was awfully unconcerned when he threatened to expose her secret, so now he's sure that Hermione's secret must have been a lie. He also thought she was way too certain that Harry wouldn't allow her to do anything she didn't want to do.

I had to start talking to him then, to find out more. And it meant I had to say terrible things. But I just pretended I was Mummy, and it wasn't really so hard, even though I couldn't finish my food because of it.

So I asked if he thought Hermione's secret was very awful, and he said it was awful enough, but then he said "I think that mudblood bitch had the stones to lie to me. To a pureblood! One of her betters! And I want to know why."

I said: "They probably all lie." (because everyone does, honestly)

He said Harry was far too trusting and that it was important we find out why Hermione thinks she can get away with lying, and make sure she knows she can't. Only then I asked him if that wasn't Harry's job, not ours, and he said that Harry's been tricked, and it's our job to look out for him and drop the scales off his eyes.

And I knew then that what Teddy wanted me to do was legilimise Hermione, find out what her real secrets are, and share them with him.

He kept calling me Hides and touching my hair. I thought I'd be sick.

I suppose I paused a little too long, because then he said that I must have "gone soft." (What does that mean? When have I ever not been soft? That's what Mummy's called me my whole life... only I think Teddy believes I'm like her, or he thinks I'm like him, which is a frightening thought. He kept going on about how "we" were both too clever to be fooled by a mudblood, even Harry's mudblood.)

I told him I found his obvious goading a bore, and he didn't like that. Said he'd just find out by himself if I wouldn't help him. So I told him, very low and clear, "I'm not helping YOU. I'm going to find out myself, for myself. How are you going to get it out of her? You don't have the means. I do. If you want me to share with you what I find out then we do it my way."

A really horrible smile crossed his face and he said "Oh, I have means, but yours are less likely to get my arse kicked again."

I tried to get what he was thinking just then, because it sounded so awful. But Teddy isn't easy to listen to. It doesn't seem as if he's afraid of anything, and his mind fires in all sorts of directions at once. All I saw was that he thought his black eye made him look dashing. I told him that it didn't. He must've been flattered that I legilimised him because he only said "you know you think it's sexy."

He's really so repulsive and foul. But he's not stupid at all. I only wish that he were.

So I finally told him that I would legilimise Hermione and find out what she was hiding, but that I would only tell him what I discovered if I was in the mood. He was smug and ever so confident that I would tell him everything, but at least it finally made him leave.

We'll have to think of what to do. Some false secret I can pretend to have legilimised out of Hermione. Or, I don't know, maybe we ought to have Vince and Greg kill him.

I'm sorry. That's a horrible suggestion, I realise. But his head is dark and awful and I know, I know that he's capable of anything.

I went to Draco's French speaking club today and I don't think I've learnt very much yet, except for Oui, s'il vous plaît and Non, merci. But Draco says you don't have to speak all that much to make a good impression. I hope that's right. I also found out that almost everyone at Durmstrang speaks German, even if they're not from Germany, so Remy sent away for a book on that and we've been looking over it together a little bit. So far I've memorised Hallo, Guten morgen, and Guten tag.

For some reason Deutsch seems much more familiar than French.

And I was curious because Teddy Nott was reading a book on parseltongue when he was in the commonroom. He let me look at it. It was extremely confusing, though, because it doesn't have words or even an alphabet, it's really just noises more than anything. The person who wrote the book said that for a long time it was thought that the parseltongue was hereditary and couldn't be learned, only imitated. But he also said that it's an intuitive language and if someone can properly visualise themselves as a serpent, they can penetrate the mysteries of the tongue. Then he listed different exercises for visualising yourself as a serpent, such as moving along on your belly, and sleeping in dark corners while coiled in on yourself, and eating dead mice.

So, I don't think I will be trying out parseltongue. Not now, anyway.