Stars in Her Eyes {Wolfstar's Daughter}

Chapter 34: Whispers

"Nell! Harry!" Hermione shot up from her place by the fire the moment the two stepped through the portrait hole. But it seemed she wasn't the only one who noticed their presence.

Nell felt the entire atmosphere of the common room change the moment they stepped foot inside. All conversations immediately dropped down to hushed whispers, heads turned to get, not so subtle, looks at the two and by the time they had made their way over to Hermione, basically the entire room was sending them one collective glare.

"What happened? Are you okay?" Hermione asked concernedly, pulling Harry, who was the closest of the two, into a suffocating hug. Nell looked past the girl to see Ron, still sat firmly on his place on the sofa, staring into the fire.

"We have to compete." Harry said quietly, making the girl pull him back out to arms length, her face warping with outrage.

"What?! But you didn't even put your names in!" She exclaimed, making anyone that had returned to their conversations, spin back around to face the group.

Realising her mistake, Hermione led the three of them down to two sofas where Ron sat. The moment Harry and Nell sat down, anyone who occupied the seats around them immediately got up and moved across the room - making no effort to be subtle about it either. Trying to ignore how vulnerable she felt, Nell turned her focus to Hermione with wide eyes as she processed what the girl said.

"Wait, you don't think we did it?" She said in a soft voice, her breath shaking as she awaited her friend's answer.

"Of course not. My friends aren't idiots." Hermione said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, showing both Harry and Nell that she had never doubted them in the first place. The moment the words left her mouth, Nell found herself throwing herself into the girls arms, who happily returned the gesture.

"Godric, I love you Mione." Nell mumbled into the girl's hair making her laugh lightly. Pulling out of the hug, Nell turned to see Ron, who was sat on the sofa beside them, no longer fixated on the fire and now glaring at the pair.

"Ron?" Nell said hesitantly. She felt her heart drop as the boy completely ignored her, grabbed his bag, and disappeared up towards the boys dorms. Not even bothering to meet her eyes.

"He wasn't so.... understanding." Hermione said half regretfully and half irritated as they watched the boy slunk up the staircase and heard the dormitory door slam shut.

"Oh" Nell said sadly. It was bad enough that the entire school was against them, but their best friend too?

"I'll go talk to him, he has to realise we would never do this." Harry said whilst getting up and going to follow him into their dorm, but not before shooting the girls a forced reassuring smile.

"Don't worry Nells, he'll come around." Hermione said, rubbing the girls back as she saw her fallen face.

"And everyone else?" Nell said, gesturing to the rest of the common room, which was once again, glaring daggers at the girl whilst very obviously whispering about her.

"Come on, let's go upstairs." Hermione said, gently pulling the girl up and towards their staircase whilst shooting equally as venomous looks back at anyone who dared stare at her friend.

⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅

The energy of the common room was nothing compared to that of the great hall the next morning. It was almost as bad as walking into the champions room had been the previous evening. Students from every house, and every school, couldn't seem to drag their eyes away from the two young champions as they made their way through the hall towards the gryffindor table for breakfast.