The vault of visions.

Another day was starting in Hogwarts, a day like any other in the lives of most students, but for one sixth year Slytherin boy it was a turning point in his life.

The slytherin in question wasn't particularily noteworthy, his only claim to fame was that he kept fighting with another slytherin. Sure they were both good students, but they were never known for being particularily talented in anything but dueling eachother.

The slytherin girl was a real thorn in the boy's side, the two were trying to uncover secrets within Hogwarts, both for different reasons. But neither would share with the other. So they fought a lot, verbally and with their wands.

They were both obsessed about the vaults. After they both had found out a clue about the location of the very last one they both scrambled to gain the advantage. But neither wanted to draw the attention of the other, so they both attended classes normally.

Well, not really normally in this case. Neither had thought about how suspicious it was that they weren't confrontational during their potion classes. They both stuck out like a sore thumb and pretty much everyone in the class noticed.

The slytherin boy tried his best to not draw Merula's ire during potion classes. Professor Snape had once again paired them for the potion, because he knew they couldn't stand eachother.  It always struck him as odd, he knew Snape had a reputation of making students lose house points on purpose, but both Merula and he was on Slytherin, Snape's own house.

The boy glanced at the girl quickly, noting that she was concentrating on reading her book, while he was supposed to stirr the cauldron and add ingredients in the order she told him. She was usually ill-tempered and bossy, blaming him for everything, but it seemed like she really wanted the class to go without an incident. This was extremely suspicious to the boy and he realized other students had started muttering about Merula not having started shouting at him for every little thing.  He looked at the girl and stopped to stare at her violet eyes as she was scanning trough the book.

After a while he snapped out of it and realized to his horror that she had given him an order on what to add next, but he had blanked out staring at her. She was going to realize he was hiding something.

"Are you paying attention?" She asked him irritated, but not nearly as angry as she normally would have in this situation.

"I uhh, yeah, I mean, I was just double-checking the amounts, how much did we need and what?" The boy quickly said, sounding extremely suspicious.

"What has gone into you?" The girl asked the boy unusually calm. "Here, let me take care of it and you snap out of your daydreams."

The boy's eyes widened, this was suspicious, extremely suspicious, it was time to throw caution out of the window, the boy had to know what she knew.

"Are you okay, Merula, you're acting strange" He asked her trying to keep his expression as neutral as possible while looking her in the eyes.

Shit, she thought, he noticed. She had been trying all this time not to cause a scene and he just went and realized something was up. The girl looked around and noticed all the other students were also sneaking glances at her and her unwilling potions partner. Were they expecting a scene every single class? She had to salvage the situation.

"What are you staring at me all slack-jawed, you worthless maggot, I am not in the mood for your tired antics right now." She tried to sound angry, but ended up sounding more suspicious.

The two stared at eachother for a while, both trying to maintain a poker-face, but both also knew they had revealed they knew something, neither seemed to care that their potion had solidified into a gray mess that was just sizzling noxious vapours everywhere.

It was after a while Snape walked to the two and picked their cauldron off the fire and was about to scold the two, when he realized they weren't bickering. They were both just dimly staring at eachother with blank expressions. Yet he had to break it off, because the two were causing more of a scene by not causing a scene.

"Ms. Snyde, Mr. Ymous... What exactly are you doing?" He mustered a scowl and a voice filled with disgust.

The two students just jumped back and turned to look at the Professor, who was holding their cauldor with it's ruined contents.

"Nothing... HE ruined the potion on purpose!" Merula snatched the initiative quickly, she would use this opportunity to defuse the situation and clear suspicion. "I was doing my absolute BEST to make sure this potion went without any troubles."

Ah fuck, she actually pinned it on me, thought the boy, who realized that if Snape believed her, he would have to stay behind and clean the cauldron, while she ran off and got a headstart.

"I did not, I specifically asked her the amounts for our next ingredients." He protested, the best he could hope was to get both of them into detention and just ditch the girl when Snape had his back turned. "She started berating me, as she usually does and our potion was ruined, when she refused to repeat her unclear instructions."

He was crafty, but Snape hated him more, Merula knew she could pin it all on him and ditch his stupid ass in the classes while she went on to see if the rumours were true.

"This is all his fault, I gave him clear instructions. And he has the book infront of him aswell, so he really has no excuse."

Ah fuck, she got me, I have to signal Rowan to trail her after the class.

Snape looked at them both, he had noticed that there was a noticeable change in both of their behaviour today. He didn't want to prod them for it, but perhaps they could use a bit of a time out, the both of them.

"I have heard enough, you two have disrupted enough classes. Ten points from Slytherin." He had to reduce points from his own house again for this nonsense, but he had a reputation to keep. "Both of you will stay behind after the class, there is a room in my office that I need cleared of all the items. You will clear the room and then you will clean the room of spider-webs and dust."

Merula and the boy both opened their mouths in protest. "Why would you make us clean dust, when the castle has house elves?" The girl asked angrily.

"Forget the house elves, clearing an entire room takes ages, we'll miss the dinner." The boy said trying to plead.

"Enough, both of you will do as you're told. I have tolerated your behaviour for far too long and it's time you started acting like is fitting of slytherins." He placed the cauldron on the table and turned to walk back to his desk. "I will not listen to your protest over losing a meal, because you can't stop bickering like children. If you do your work quickly, you will have time to go to dinner and if not, I'll have something brought to you. But neither of you will go anywhere before the room is cleared."

Merula and her rival looked at eachother angrily, there was no point in trying to keep a low profile anymore. She punched the boy in the shoulder hard and tried to kill him with her stare. The boy just rubbed his shoulder and stared her eyes without yielding. This infuriated the girl further and she opened her mouth to start shouting, only to be stopped by Snape clearing his throat.



After the class, everyone got up and left while staring at Merula and Ymous, Rowan tried to reach the boy, but was immediately told to piss off by Angry Merula. She wasn't going to let the boy give Rowan any instruction, in case he didn't already know what Ymous did.

Fuck she thought to herself, what if Ymous had told Rowan everything, he could get advantage by sending his pawn out. She kinda wished she had told Ismelda about the clues, but she knew better than to trust Ismelda going off alone. Oh well, atleast Rowan was more incompetent than Ymous, so it wasn't the end of the world.

Snape gestured the two rivals to follow him, and they did so unwillingly, Merula was stomping her boots, while the boy tried to out-scowl Snape, which was impossible, Snape could make a gargoyle statue lose in a match of sour-faces.

"Here is the room." He pointed at a small closet that had nearly empty shelves covered in dust and spider-webs. "You will carefully carry all the ingredients into the table in my office, then remove the shelves and dust them off. I will not have any dust in my office, so If you're too incompetent to clear dust with magic, then I suggest you use the cleaning tools in the corner." He said and pointed out to a small brush and a dustpan. "Otherwise I will have you clean my office aswell."

The boy scanned the room, it was more of a closet, and although it seemed like it would be quick job, neither of them really knew any cleaning magic, they would have to be careful moving the vials. The dust covering them was thick.

"I will leave you two to your work, and if there is even a speck of dust anywhere, I will make sure both of you will suffer the consequences." Snape said and walked out.

"Wait, you're not going to loom over us while we do this?" Merula asked surprised.

"No, I have better things to do than supervise two childish failure students cleaning." He said with an unfriendly tone. "I will enchant my office door with a charm that lets me know if it is opened, so if either of you decides to skip this punishment, I will know of it."

Once snape had left the room, Merula punched the boy again and sat on the table. "Why do you always have to ruin everything?" She asked with a confrontational tone. "We always get into these stupid time wasting detentions, because you can't stop causing incidents."

"Are you kidding me, Merula, you can't possibly be that stupid. I specifically tried NOT to cause an incident." He looked at her angrily. "You're the one who acted strange and drew Snape's attention."

"Are you fucking kidding me." She was shouting. "You acted suspicious, You found a clue about the vault, didn't you?"

"What the hell are you talking about, Merula, you're the one who was suspicious the whole time." The boy snapped back at the girl and went on to clear the shelves. He wanted to be done with the punishment as soon as possible and he didn't expect any help from Merula.

"Tell me what you know!" She demanded. "I will not let you leave before you do, you arrogant idiot." She got up and blocked the boy's path.

"Out of the way, Merula, I want to be done with this before I miss dinner." He tried to shove the girl out of the way.

The girl drew her wand and cast depulso on the boy, who rolled into the room they were trying to clean. "TELL ME WHAT YOU KNOW!" She shouted.

When she walked into the closet the door suddenly closed behind her and the two were left in a dark closet, she didn't let that stop her from questioning the boy. "I will not have you gain unfair advantage over me, You will tell me what you know. Or you will suffer my anger."

"Oh, I am so scared, I've never seen you angry. Every day you act so nicely to me, but this time you're angry and I am scared." The boy started mocking the girl.

"Shup up!" The girl shouted. "I am leaving, even if there is a charm on his door, I'll blame you." She went on to push the closet door open, but it didn't budge.

"You're a fool, Merula, if you leave and I stay behind, how would I get blamed for it?" The boy said to the girl irritated.

"Like you could resist running after me, knowing that I found out about the next vault." She said arrogantly. "Why is this door not opening?" The girl cast lumos and looked at the door.

"AHA, So you found something out, and you were interrogating..." The boy stopped when he realized the girl was trying to yank the door open. "What are you doing?"

The boy got up and pushed the witch aside and tried to open the door, but it wouldn't budge. "Alohomora!" He said and pointed his wand at the door, but nothing happened.

"You idiot, the door isn't locked, it doesn't even have a lock." Merula snapped angrily at the boy. "We're stuck here because of your stubborn stupidity." The girl went to a corner and sat down with her back to a wall. "We have to wait for Snape to come let us out."

"This is curious, did you hear something fall and block the door on the other side?" The boy looked at the door and lit up his wand. "It makes no sense, the door opens this way." The boy walked to Merula "Maybe Snape's office has safety charms that lock the doors when someone casts offensive spells." The boy sat infront of her with his back on the opposite wall.

"Go away, I don't want to look at your stupid face." The girl said, trying to repel him with her gaze.

"Well, I am not angry enough, so I am going to just keep staring at you, until I am livid." The boy said with his infuriating hateful tone.


Time seemed to slow down as the two rivals were sitting in the closet, it felt like they had been in the room for hours, Merula just rested her head on her knees and stared at her boots, while the boy just kept waving his wand infront of him, trying to annoy the girl.

"Will you STOP waving your wand infront of my face?" Merula shouted at him annoyed. "Are you trying to be annoying on purpose?"

The boy didn't stop moving his lit up wand infront of the girl, in fact he moved it closer to her face, causing her to get even angrier.

"Has anyone told you, your eyes change shades as you get angrier?" The boy asked quickly.

"...What?" The girl said confused. "What are you talking about?"

The boy kept waving his wand around and watched the light reflect from the girls violet eyes. "your eyes are really unique, I've never seen anything like this."

"STOP THAT." She shouted and looked away.

The boy stopped waving his wand. "Look at me, Merula."

"No, you're being weird." She said embarassed. "Is this your idea of a joke?"

"What the hell else is there to do in this stupid closet, you shouldn't have lost your temper, I'd be in that vault already if it weren't for you always turning everything into a fight." The boy blamed the girl.

"What would you rather do, have a nice chat, maybe summon a cup of tea while we're at it?" Merula said angrily.

"I do love tea, maybe you should summon me a cup, and offer it with an apology." The boy said sarcastically.

"I would spit in and throw it at your face for good measure."

Anon sighed, and raised his wand to start annoying the girl again. "Your eyes changed shades again, or maybe I am just going insane out of boredom."

"Stop talking about my eyes, you freak." Merula said angrily, but didn't turn away this time. "And stop trying to blind me with your wand."

"You have beautiful eyes, shame that they're wasted on you." The boy said calmly.

This caused Merula to blush. She didn't know what to do when someone complimented her, she thought about just casting flipendo on Ymous for trying his best to make her embarassed. "Shut up, I know you're just trying to get under my skin and make me feel uncomfortable."

There's an idea, she is really getting flustered. "And your hair, I've been wondering for ages, why do you dye your hair that way?"

"It's not dyed, you idiot, the discoloured patch looks like that naturally." The girl said irritated and angry at him prying into her looks.

"Is that so, what happens if you cut it off?" He asked curiously.

"You idiot, you think I would just cut off a large patch of my hair, just to see what happens?" Merula shouted at the boy, she was now convinced he was having a laugh at her expense. She knew what happened if she tried to cut it off, it would just grow back the same way, she had tried it before, and dyeing it doesn't do much either.

"The next vault is outside." The boy said suddenly.

This caused Merula to open her eyes wide in surprise and she stared at the boy in the eys surprised. "Why are you telling me this now?"

"Oh, no reason, I was just looking at your eyes again." He said absentmindedly.

"YOU IDIOT! YOU GOT MY HOPES UP JUST SO YOU COULD PERV ABOUT MY EYES AGAIN!" The girl scrambled to point her wand at the boy.

"The entrance is on a wall, but it's high up and can't be reached. We need to figure out how to get high enough to look at it." The boy continued, and kept waving his wand infront of the girl again.

"Expelliarmus!" The girl shouted.

The boy just lazily looked at his wand roll away. "Merlin's beard your eyes are beautiful when you're angry."

"What are you doing!?" The girl was completely flustered and unbelieveably angry. "Why are you doing this!?"

"no reason really, dueling you gets boring." The boy fixed his eyes on her's. "I thought I'd tease you in other ways."

"You are a dick, everything you do is to make me miserable."

"True, but I don't actually want you to be miserable, things just got this way." He reached and picked up his wand and lifted it infront of the girl again. "want to know what I realized During the classes?"

"I don't know if I care what you realized, you idiot." The girl closed her eyes in anger.

"Open your eyes, Merula, I am trying to be serious here."

"No, you're acting weird."

"Fine, I'll just tell you then, I realized how strange it is for us to not be at eachother's throats all the time. Did you notice that everyone in the class expected us to start fighting." He said lowering his wand.

"So, you just decided to torment me outside classes?"

"Maybe... but what's the point?"

"What do you mean, what's the point? Isn't the point that you want to make me feel bad?" The girl asked went back to looking at her boots.

"Fighting with you has become a habit, feels like a day is wasted unless we've had a scuffle over something, mostly the vaults, but whenever we've exhausted all the clues we just go to argue over something else." The boy said while staring at his wand.

"So, why can't you leave me alone?"

"You motivate me." The boy said quickly. "I don't really know what either of us expect to find in those vaults or why we risk everything to look for them, what with the curses and all. But as long as I am looking for them, I will continue running into you."

"So, why haven't you tried that friendship speech with me? you already gathered everyone around you as pawns. Even Tulip and Barnaby..." The girl asked. "Not that it would work, I wouldn't be seen dead working with someone as weak as you."

"You're dangerous, Merula."

"...W-what?"

"Yes, you frighten me, you're driven... You don't stop at anything to get what you want." The boy went back to staring at her eyes, trying to see her reaction. "If we worked together, you would discard me when you got what you want, there is a certain ruthlessness in you."

The girl was at a loss for words, he wasn't as naive as he seemed, it's probably why he never tried to befriend Ismelda, he can't trust her either. Does this mean he's just using his friends?

"You think I would betray you, if we worked together? You really thing I am that ruthless?"

"You are... Ruthless and powerful." He said with unusually angry tone. "And it's driving me insane!"

"What are you on about?"

"There is tension between us, maybe it's just me... But you drive me crazy, everytime I look you in the eyes I just want to drop everything and pledge my life to you."

The girl was dumbstruck. "What are you trying to say, you idiot, you want to work for me?"

"I can't... But fuck if I didn't want that." The boy said with his voice shaking with frustration. "Like I said, you're too dangerous. I have my own ambitions and I can't possibly ally with you, unless we're equals and you will never ever agree to that."

The girl was contemplating on his words. "So, you hate me, because you can't trust me?"

"I don't hate you. Hating you would make things easier, I think you're the only person that I care about." He said gritting his teeth.

"What if I said I didn't hate you either?" The girl asked quietly.

The boy's expression changed and he blushed. "I would be disappointed, but I would just take this opportunity to..." He was cut short when the door was opened.

Both of the students trapped just stared at the door, and a house elf who was carrying a tray of huge sandwiches. "Greetings, Professor Snape sent flinky to bring you snacks..." The house elf was cut short when the slytherin boy kicked the tray off his hands when he ran out of the room, while the witch started shouting obscenities at him and kicked the house elf out of the way when she ran after the boy.



"Get back here, you asshole!" She shouted as she realized he was running outside, he hadn't lied about the vault being outside. The boy just showed the girl an obscene gesture with his fingers over his shoulder and kept running.

The girl finally caught up to the boy when he exitted the courtyard trough the gate that led to the quidditch pitch, the girl didn't wait to get her wand out, she just jumped at the boy's back and tried to force him to the ground. The two scuffled for a bit while she tried to punch him in the face. The boy just laughed at her as she  got on top of him and flailed inefectually.

"On that wall over there." He pointed at the wall.

The girl punched him a few more times and turned to look at the wall. "Why are you telling me this, you just said I can't be trusted."

"You already knew all this." He smiled at the girl. "Besides, I can't exactly go out to get anyone else to help me out with this, so we have to work together, or else neither of us gets anything."

"I didn't know where the door is, I just know how to open it." The girl said smiling an evil grin at the boy, who made a fatal mistake.

"Uh-oh..." The boy said beating himself up for having revealed all of his cards.

The girl just poked his nose and smiled poisonously. "You're completely at my mercy now, maybe you should just pledge yourself to me and become my minion. I promise you I will treat you nicely..." The girl suddenly jumped off and screamed. "You fucking pervert!" She started kicking the boy's side.

"You were sitting on my lap, I couldn't really help it." The boy said trying to protect his side while laughing. "You just looked me in the eyes and said something like that, what did you expect?"

The girl turned away embarassed, he just kept going on and on about her eyes. The boy took this opportunity to get up and walked up to the girl.

"I... Uhh..." He said with his face red. "I.. Really couldn't do anything about that... You are pretty and... Well..." he coughed.

"Shut up, let's just try to figure out how to open this damn door then..." She said trying to change the subject, she did feel a little happy that Ymous found her... Attractive... But angry that he showed it in such way.

"Right then, let's go take a look." The boy said glad to defuse the tension. He was glad that even if Merula told anyone, no one would believe her, but he still felt bad about it.

The two walked up to a wall and looked up, the wall looked completely normal, except there was an odd, slightly discoloured patch that reflected the moonlight.

The boy pointed at it. "there's a keyhole there, I think, we could try alohomora on it."

"That's not necessary, I have the key right here." she said and pulled out an odd looking piece of bent metal.

"How the hell did you..." The boy started dumbfounded. "Where did you..."

"HA! Wouldn't you want to know, you expect the greatest witch in Hogwarts to just share her secrets so easilly?" The girl declared arrogantly. "I really am better at this than you, you just keep cheating and relying on your stupid friends for help."

"Be that as it may, but we still can't get up there." The boy said looking at the wall.

"What, you're not going to try to call me out or start arguing?" The girl asked slightly annoyed.

"What's the point, I think I already ruined everything, we might aswell just get this done with and move on." The boy dismissed her. "I got bored and made things awkward."

Merula got angry, but decided it wasn't worth it. "Your crazy brother left it in that enchanted storage room that appears on the seventh floor."

This surprised the boy. "What Jacob did? how do you know that?"

"He left a note with it." The girl said and shoved a piece of parchment at the boy.

"...What, how did..." The boy lit up his wand to read the parchment. "It was all pointless, The secrets are there, but I saw what I had to become. signed J.Y."

"Ominous isn't it, your crazy brother probably couldn't handle the secrets." She said trying to get a reaction from the boy.

"We need to get in that vault, have you told anyone about it?" The boy asked suddenly.

"What, didn't you hear what I said?" Merula asked angrily, she was uncomfortable with the change in the boy's behaviour.

The boy just turned and stared her down. "I don't care, I knew Jacob. If you're trying to get me to argue with you again, just wait till we're in the vault trying to fight over the secrets. Now I will ask you one more time, did you tell anyone?"

"No, I don't trust Ismelda with things like this, did you tell your friends?" She asked angrily.

"No, I didn't, I never got the chance and I don't know if I would've anyway."

"So what happens now, you want us to work together and then just fight over who gets the prize?" She asked mockingly.

"I am going to take a risk here, I will go into that vault with you and see what made Jacob give up his quest and run off. but I will not go away empty handed. I will take my chances against you, if you try to run off with it all."

"You really don't trust me... I can't really blame you." The girl said looking at the wall. "We've come too far to back off now, let's just get this over with. I promise I will not stab you in the back."

The slytherin boy wished he could trust her, but he wasn't a fool, but he had to know the truth. "Alright, I'll trust you. Any ideas how to get up there?"

The girl thought about it and shoved the key in the boy's hands. "Take the key, I will cast the levitation charm on you."

"...W-what, that doesn't work on people, haven't you read about Jarleth Hobart?" The boy said nervously.

"Have you?" The girl snapped angrily. "I'll cast the charm on your robes, unless you start undressing up there like the pervert you are, you will be fine."

"I knew I remembered that wrong, oh well, it's worth a shot... But don't you dare drop me." The boy agreed reluctantly and tied his robes around him securely.

"Oh, don't be such a scaredy cat, just be glad I didn't suggest levicorpus." The girl said mischievously as the boy lined himself up with the keyhole.

"Alright, ready, just don't make me regret this." The boy said while bracing himself.

"Don't worry, I am the best at charms in this school... Wingardium Leviosa." She said while swishing and flicking her wand.

The boy was about to retort, but he was being pulled higher up. This was definitely a mistake, how the hell did Jacob do this alone? he thought as he closed in on the keyhole. Once he had reached it, he inserted the strange key and noticed the wall revealed an opening. He reached the ledge with his legs and tried to get a hold of something on the inside. Once he felt confident about not falling he untied his robe and slipped out of them, leaving them floating in the air.

"Alright, I'm in, thanks Merula." He said looking at the room he entered, it was a thin tunnel leading up to another door, there wasn't much in the room, but he noticed there were some fixtures with torches.

"Summon me a rope, you idiot." The girl shouted at him.

It dawned on the boy at that point, that Merula had trusted him enough to go first, and expected him to throw her a rope. He had done nothing but question her trustworthiness, yet she trusted him so easilly, the girl was disappointingly gullible. He looked at the girl, who was stomping up and down in anger.

"Why did you trust me, Merula?" He shouted at the girl. "You never struck me as the gullible sort."

The girl was visibly angry she pulled her wand out and started shouting. "YOU IDIOT, THROW ME A ROPE THIS INSTANT, I TRUSTED YOU!"

The boy turned and looked at the next door, he could easilly just dismiss the girl and take everything for himself, but he remembered what she said in that room. Damn it all, I'm going to regret this, he thought to himself.

"Alright, calm down, Merula, I was just teasing you." He shouted at the girl. "Don't summon Filch here with your shouting, I need to look for a place to fix the rope to."

The girl stopped shouting, but was nervous about having trusted her rival, he even called her gullible. It made her feel terrible, after that moment they had shared. If he really didn't trust her, why did she trust him? Her thoughts were cut short as the boy actually threw down a rope, she quickly ran up to it and climbed up.

"Wow, Merula, I thought you were going to ask me to pull you up next, but you're surprisingly athletic." The boy said surprised. The girl just punched him again and shoved him aside and walked up to the door.

"This door isn't locked, it looks like someone had opened it before and left it open." The said looking around.

"Jacob probably didn't bother with it, getting in here was hard enough."

The two rivals opened the door and walked in the room, to be greeted by an orb sitting on an ornate pedestal, the pedestal was a snake in the claws of a raven that held the orb in it's wings.

"Well, that is really ominous" The boy said pointing at the pedestal.

"Don't back off now, what is this thing?" Merula said and went to take the orb.

"I don't know what it is, but we need to stop for a second." The boy demanded calmly with his wand out.

Merula was surprised and looked at the boy angrily. "Are you seriously going to start this now?"

"I have come too far..." The boy said. "I need to tell you how I really feel."

Merula just looked at the boy. "What do you mean?"

"Merula, I have been thinking about this for a very, very long time. Sooner or later, I have to decide whether the vaults are really worth this... Or if I should pursue something else..."

"What are you getting at?"

"The vaults, or... Well, you." The boy admitted. "I can't have both... One of them I can get for sure, if I could be ruthless, I could easilly overpower you at any moment, even now." He stopped to stare the girl in her eyes again. "...But the other, well, that is beyond my control."

"You're seriously talking about chosing me or the secrets?" Merula asked with her heart beating faster.

"I know what the vaults are... Power... I want that." The boy continued. "I could tame that power and do as I please, but you probably try to fight me. And apart from a few exceptions, you are the only one I take seriously." The boy paused for a while. "Or I could try to convince you that I don't care about the vaults and try to get closer to you, which I absolutely don't have any guarantees if you even care one bit about me."

"...You'd give up the vaults for me?"

"I don't know, I wasn't completely kidding when I said I felt like pledging myself to you, but we're both too proud to serve the other, so as long as we chase this power, we'd never be equals, and if we're not equals we can never be together, even if we both wanted it."

The girl was surprised that Ymous had kept such feelings for her hidden while still continuing to fight her every step of the way. "I need to think about this..."

"We're running out of time, Merula... We're at a crossroad here, whatever either of us does, we'll be forced to live with it for the rest of our lives. If it was anyone else, I would've just killed them for this, but you... I can't do that."

Wait did he just say he'd kill someone for this, the girl looked at the boy scared. "W-what are you saying?"

The boy looked her in the eyes. "I am saying that we don't have many options here, I put myself in this situation, because deep down, I really just want to just forget about the vaults and live a normal life with you, but I don't know how you feel."

"What if we did just turn back now and... Went back to our studies as a couple?" Merula asked.

"You know that isn't going to happen..." The boy said with sad tone. "We've both walked into a situation where we are fated to keep fighting no matter what."

"There is another option..." She said fixing her eyes to his. "We share this power."

"How do either have any gua..." He was stopped when the girl pulled him lower and kissed him clumsily. After a while she pulled back face completely red.

"Merula... I..." He started, he tried to be cold and calculative as he usually was, but he couldn't gather his thoughts.

"I feel the same way about you, although I thought at first you were being too nice and gullible, but you really are evil." Merula smiled. "You had everyone fooled"

"It's true... But, I never thought I'd..." The boy stammered.

"Fall in love?" Merula finished his thought. "Especially with someone like me."

The boy was quiet for a while, gathering his thoughts, he'd made himself vulnerable infront of her.

"I fell in love exactly because it was you, Merula." He observed the girl's eyes. "It tore me apart when I realized where our path led us. But I couldn't just discard my feelings for you, it made me weak."

Merula just smiled poisonously. "I have you at my mercy here, You declared your love for me and now you're powerless."

"I am not powerless, Merula." He said and threw a necklace on the floor. "Want to know what I have learned?"

"I don't care what you learned, I want to tell you how I feel now." She said looking at the necklace.

"Go on." The boy said, lowering his wand.

"You were right when you said I was dangerous, and that neither of us can really trust the other." She said fixing her eyes on his. "But I have also been thinking about this and I wish we had this talk much sooner than this."

"This is the first time we've had a serious talk of any kind, Merula."

"Why did we get into a situation like this... If I hadn't been so proud and arrogant." Merula said looking down.

"Both of us, Merula, not just you... I didn't even consider trying to make friends with you, because I didn't come here to make friends."

"What about Penny and Rowan?"

"A weak harlot and a fool. I don't respect either of them."

Merula was a bit surprised how easilly the boy disowned his friends, she was pleased that he didn't care about Penny, a girl who had made her feel really insecure at every turn.

"What about me then?" She asked.

"You are dangerous, intelligent and..." He paused. "You are powerful, your whole being creates a pressure around you, that makes the hair in the back of my neck stand up. And looking you in the eyes makes me feel like a rabbit in the headlights."

She started smiling, he's not exactly calling her the greatest witch in Hogwarts, but he's saying all the right things.

"You know how to compliment a girl." She said with honey in her voice.

"Glad you think so, but I am not quite finished yet." He continued and started walking closer to the girl. "You are volatile, untamed and... I can't control you, which makes you a threat to me."

"Yet you love me..." She said as he stopped right infront of her, the two were inches away from eachother and staring intently into eachother's eyes.

"Yet, I love you..." He said and pressed his lips on hers and pushed her gently against the wall.

She pushed him away. "And I love you..." and pulled him back in.

Neither of them were very experienced, or at all. But it didn't stop them from practicing together. Neither really knew what to do with their tongues until Merula decided it didn't matter anymore, she knew where this was leading and decided to give in to her passion. She gently pushed her tongue alongside his and took the initiative. She kept pulling him lower, their height difference was slightly bothersome to her. Ymous realized it after a while and gently pulled the girl on the floor on top of himself. After a while she pushed herself off and just stared at the boy.

"You do realize we only have two options left..." She said sadly.

"I don't care anymore..." He said studying her eyes.

"I don't know how to kill you..." She said and lowered her head closer to him and stared deeply in his eyes.

"I should teach you..."

"You would teach your worst rival how to kill..." She purred at him. "You really are foolish..."

"Perhaps... But I would never consider someone who wasn't prepared my equal, I will teach you everything and I will make you my dark lady."

The girl started giggling. "You, make me your dark lady... Me, the greatest witch in Hogwarts." She kissed the boy gently. "No, I will make you my dark lord... And together we will figure out all the darkest secrets of the world." She rested her head on his chest, everything that happened that day had made her slightly tired and she wanted to lie there for a while.

Ymous looked at Merula and decided to just lie there for a while, his survival instinct was still ringing alarm bells about the girl, but he decided that if she wasn't dangerous, she wasn't worth it anyway.

"Where do we go from here? we're still weak." The boy asked finally.

"We will keep studying, like nothing happened, you will go back to your friends and say the vault was a dead end. And we will continue studying whatever dark arts we can together."

"You want to keep this all a secret?"

"Imagine how suspicious it would be, if we suddenly walked around hand in hand and hid behind the statues to kiss, like other young couples?" She said.

"You're probably right, but what if I desire you?" He asked jokingly

"You really are a hopeless pervert, we'll have to figure out something then." She smiled.

"Alright then, we'll fool everyone... Let's go take a look at this orb and head back to Snape's office and listen to him threaten us with expelling."

The two got up and approached the orb while holding hads, the orb was shining brigthly and had an eerie mist inside it.

"Are you fucking kidding me..." The boy started. "It's a fucking crystal ball, we came all this way for a crystal ball?"

The girl was quiet and looked into the orb. "Quiet, look into it."

The boy stifled his disappointment and stared at the orb. "Nothing is happening"

"Concentrate..." The girl said calmly and kept staring.

"It's just a crystal ball, this is a waste of time..." The boy stopped when he realized the room was completely dark, he got slightly worried and went back to staring at the Orb. It had started shining brighter, he knew he had to keep staring at it, it started hurting his eyes but eventually he started seeing something. Visions of things that were to happen, but it wasn't prophetic. Once he realized that information was being shoved into his head, he started screaming, the pain was intense and it felt like his head was going to split. He saw how things would unfold from this point on and to when he finally reached the final vault.

He realized this was what had made Jacob insane, knowing all the different ways things ended was insane, no mortal could decipher this many timelines at once, and he felt like it would kill him, until he noticed something, he realized that if he concentrated enough he could see Merula in the visions, he decided to use this to reduce all the visions he was seeing, but it all came into three different endings, the endings he already knew about.

His heart sunk that this really was their fate, one vision had Merula kill him in the final vault and the vision ended there, while the other had him kill her... The third one however seemed alien, like the whole timeline was unstable, in that vision he saw that he and Merula were together but it lead to a darker path.

In all the other visions that he could care to concentrate on, the two separated, never finding the last vault, but neither would kill the other.

He turned away from the orb and after a while realized he was lying on the floor, next to Merula, who had passed out.

"Merula!" he shouted and looked at the girl, she was still breathing softly, but her makeup was running down her face, she had been crying. What had she seen?

The boy lied down next to the girl and put his hand in her hair, after a while she snapped out of it and started looking around confused, when she turned to face Ymous she just stopped to stare at him. The two stared at eachother for what felt like an eternity.

"You saw it too?" She asked.

"I don't know what I saw, I think this was designed to make you insane, no matter what."

"I saw you, killing me... In the final vault." She said with her voice full of worry.

"And I saw you kill me."

"But there was something else... I couldn't make all of it out, but we were together."

"You know what we must become to be together... Truly together." He said quietly. "Are you prepared for that?"

The girl smiled weakly. "We only have one option left, or else I would have to kill you, because if I don't get you, no one else will."

Ymous just laughed. "So, I pledge myself to  you, after all, to you alone and no one else..."

"And I pledge myself to you, to you alone, and I will kill anyone that tries to take you from me." She said with her voice filled with calm evil.

"We need to go back to Snape's office for real now." She said and got up.

"Yeah, nothing matters if we get expelled now, but what about the orb?" The boy also got up and picked up the necklace.

She looked at the orb, and pulled her wand out. "Flipendo" She aimed her spell at the pedestal, which came crashing down, the orb hit the floor and was shattered.

"You know that prophecies can't be trusted, but I am determined now." She said quickly and climbed down on the rope.

"I knew that..." The boy said and followed the girl.

"Accio, key!" She cast and the key came loose from the keyhole, which caused the wall to close down, cutting the rope.

The boy picked up his robe that was lying on the ground and wrapped it around him, then followed the girl back in the castle. As they were making their way to the slytherin common room they passed Snape's office and knocked on the door.

"Enter." They heard the dry voice inside say.

"Shit, what do we say to him?" The boy asked.

"Let's just tell him that we started fighting and went to take it outside so we wouldn't trash his office." The girl said and smiled mischievously

Snape sat at his table and looked at the two students disappointed and then went back to writing on his parchment.

"Mr.Ymous, Ms.Snyde, you two disappoint me..." He said with his voice full of disdain. "I had high hopes that you would come to see the error in your behaviour, but I see now that you two are doomed to be disappointments... Do you care to explain your actions?"

Both of them started talking at once. "We didn't... I mean, she didn't... We didn't want to trash your office, we already got locked in the closet once." He said quickly.

"He closed the door on us, I just gave him a lesson..." She said sounding angry.

"Enough." Snape said quickly, he glanced at the two quickly. "I will not reduce points from you this time, because that has never been a punishment for either of you. I will have to think of a way to punish you two more severly..." He looked at the two students standing infront of him, he noticed there was a change in how they acted. "Go to your common room, I will call you two out when I figure out a fitting punishment for you."

The two left Snape's office and stopped before the common room door.

"What went into him, he's gone soft..." He said.

"Maybe he's really tired of us fighting all the time." The girl smiled. "Too bad we need to keep it up, once we go in the door, we're going to act like nothing happened. Do you understand me, you will not go soft on me because of this. If you do, I will kill you."

The boy just laughed lightly. "I wouldn't have it any other way, Merula." He stopped and looked the girl in her eyes. "I really do think your eyes are beautiful, Merula..."

"What are you suddenly... Didn't you hear what I said?" She got flustered.

"We didn't go in yet, and I need something to get me trough the coming week." He said and pulled the girl into an embrace and kissed her gently.