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𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐭
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In the Great Hall, Eden seated herself between George and Lee. Outside of the castle, there had been more dementors stationed at the entrances, and feeling their cold presence for the second time that day was not how she imagined her first time back at Hogwarts would go. She examined the teachers' table, noticing a new addition. The new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher.
"Hey look, that's our new teacher, let's just hope he is better than Lockhart," She said to George.
"I think I would rather have Snape teach us than have another Lockhart, I'm so glad he's gone."
"Really, you'd rather have Snape?"
"You wouldn't? With Snape, we would at least learn something."
"Yeah but Snape is bad enough in Potions, imagine how much homework he would give for Defense Against the Dark Arts. Lockhart was bad but at least it was entertaining watching people drool over him."
"Yeah true, well all we can do is hope that whoever that new teacher is, he is better than the others we've had," George concluded as Dumbledore stood up to address them.
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The feast had finished and all the students were on their way up to their rooms. Eden's mind was racing the entire time, thinking about everything Dumbledore had said. The Dementors were at Hogwarts and were staying to look out for Sirius Black. He had also introduced the new teacher George and herself had been discussing, his name was Professor Remus Lupin. Dumbledore's speech had set a dark atmosphere across the entire hall and the feast this year was a lot quieter than usual.
"I really do hope they catch Black soon, everyone is so worried about it when we are safe. We have the Dementors outside and Dumbledore inside, there is no way Black could hurt any of us," Fred said as they climbed up the stairs with the rest of the Gryffindors.
"Have you forgotten, this is the man who escaped Azkaban? Azkaban! It was believed impossible to escape from there," She replied quickly. They stayed quiet for a couple of minutes until George broke the silence.
"Well, we will just have to distract ourselves from thinking about him by having even more fun this year than we did last year, what do you guys think?"
"We can try I guess."
"Come on, E, be a bit more enthusiastic about it!" To George's comment, she just rolled her eyes.
They had made it to the Fat Lady's portrait now and everyone was climbing inside. The pleasant familiarness of the common room was a welcoming feeling. The summer had lasted two months and Eden had loved the time she had spent at home but she had to admit she missed the common room, where she had spent countless nights laughing with the twins and Lee. She had missed the twins even more because during the summer they had gone to Egypt. Usually, they would meet up as much as they could during the summer, Eden sometimes staying at the Burrow for a week or so during the holidays. She had spent countless nights up late waiting for an owl to arrive with her letters from them and then she had spent countless more reading and rereading the ones from George before crafting the perfect letter to send back. In one of the last letters he sent before he got back from Egypt, he had written something that made her heart flutter. At the bottom of the letter, it read: I miss you. It was silly to get so excited about something so small and she believed George meant it in a friendly manner but the thought of him being away in Egypt having the time of his life and still thinking about her and missing her made her heart race. In that same letter, he had sent something he had seen in a shop somewhere. It was a beautiful, gold locket and inside he had put a little picture of the two of them laughing together. She knew the gold wasn't real but to her it was priceless. He had seen it and thought of her and that was all she cared about. There was something about this locket that had made her realise how she truly felt about George. She no longer liked him. She was in love with him.
God, you sound pathetic. She thought to herself as she took a seat on the sofa in front of the fire. She wore the locket underneath her robes, a constant reminder that although he may not see her as more than a friend, he still cared about her. Everyone else had gone up to their rooms to get some rest except for George, Fred, Lee, and Eden. She was joined on the sofa by Lee and Fred while George sat down on the nearest armchair. Lee threw his arm around Eden and Freds' shoulders and pulled them into a hug.
"I missed you guys, you too George, I guess." To which George copied Eden's action from earlier on the stairs, rolling his eyes.
"If you missed us that much how come you didn't write, huh?" She said as she playfully hit his arm.
"Aww were you disappointed when I didn't write to you? You really did miss me. I know I'm your favourite person in the entire world but I have plenty of fan mail I have to answer. Everybody missed me here." The girl shook her head at him turning to face George, he had a weird expression on his face while glancing between Eden and Lee that she had never seen before and couldn't place. "Anyway, you've got it wrong, I did write to you at the beginning." Lee continued in a less joking manner.
"Yeah, once, and that was to ask if I had accidentally picked up one of your books on different Quidditch teams that you had left on the train. It doesn't matter anyway, I guess, these two wrote to me plenty. In fact, George wrote to me the most so he's my favourite," She said matter-of-factly before standing up and walking over to George, perching herself on the arm of his chair, smiling down at him. He smiled back and met her eyes but didn't look at her long because they were interrupted by Fred's voice.
"Yeah, but that's only because he has a-" He was cut off by a cushion hitting him directly in the face, which George had thrown. Soon cushions were getting thrown, left, right and centre, so Eden didn't get a chance to ponder on what Fred had been meaning to say. Their laughter filled the room as they chased each other around, throwing cushions.
"What are you doing?!" Eden froze, her arm raised, holding a cushion she was just about to throw in Fred's direction. Slowly, she turned to see Percy stood in his pajamas at the bottom of the stairs that led up to the boys' dormitories. None of them said anything.
"People are trying to sleep and you are being so loud! All of you, go to bed. Now!"
"God, Perce, lighten up. We were just having a bit of fun," George said as he and the other two boys dropped their cushions on the sofa, the girl followed placing her's down before turning and heading towards the stairs that led up to the girls' dormitories. She placed her foot on the bottom step but before moving any further she turned as she watched Lee and Fred disappear up the stairs. As George was about to go up he copied her action and turned to face her giving a little shrug and a smile. She couldn't stop a large grin from spreading across her face as she watched him climb up the stairs. She stared after him, not moving for a second, again thinking about the locket before finally pulling herself out of the trance and making her way up to her room.
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