Together (A Harry Potter love story) 3

42

MILLIES POV

Everywhere I went in the Castle over the next couple of weeks I saw signs of tighter security; Professor Flitwick could be seen teaching the front doors to recognise a large picture of Sirius Black; Filch was suddenly bustling up and down the corridors, boarding up everything from tiny cracks in the walls to mouse holes. Sir Cadogan had been sacked. His portrait had been taken back to its lonely landing on the seventh floor, and the Fat Lady was back. She had been expertly restored, but was extremely nervous, and had only agreed to return to her job on condition that she was given extra protection. A bunch of surly security trolls had been hired to guard her. They paced the corridor in a menacing group, talking in grunts and comparing the size of their clubs.

I had been spending most of my spare time with either Lyra, Elwood and Austin, or Fred, George and Lee. They were all being equally kind, and were including me as though we had been best friends for life.

Ron seemed to be desparately avoiding me because everytime I even came close to him in the corridor, he would let out a wierd shriek sound and hurry away. I didn't blame him; I was still waiting for the perfect oppurtunity to march up to the boy and strangle him. Having his twin brothers on my side made it even better, and they had even claimed that Ron was number one on their prank list - a bit like how he was number one on my hit list.

Hermione, on the other hand, looked completely lost, and despite my current anger towards the girl, I couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for her. Taking every single class meant that the pair of us had almost three times the amount of work to do than everyone else - well, not really me, because I barely ever did the homework, which resulted in many detentions, but it was better than working 24/7. Hermione, however, seemed to be trying to complete every last word we were set, and I half expected her brain to blow up with the amount of knowledge she was taking in. This also meant that she could always be seen in a corner of the common room working, seemingly leaving her no time to dwell on me.

Harry was a completely different story. The boy had taken it upon himself to try and talk to me every time we crossed paths, whether it was walking up to me in front of everyone at meal times in the Great Hall, or even using the excuse of asking me if he could borrow a quill in class. I wasn't sure if this was because I'd told him my Dad was pissed at him - obviously this wasn't true, I hadn't even mentioned Harry around him - or if it was because he genuinely felt bad. Whatever the reason, it was giving me horrible flashbacks of first and second year, when he would flirt with me non-stop. But even I had to admit, it was extremely amusing. Me being me, I didn't, and still haven't, given in once, and I was going to keep it that way. I still felt angry and hurt that he hadn't trusted me, and whenever I felt myself goggling at him or slipping back into my love-dazed state, his glare from the night we found the letter would pop into my mind, and I'd return to my stone-cold bitch personality.

But I couldn't deny it - I was in love with him.

Annoyingly.

Another thing that wasn't helping my temper, was the fact that Ron had become the schools new celebrity. For the first time in his life, people were paying more attention to him than Harry, and it was clear that Ron was enjoying the experience. Though 'severely shaken' by the events, he seemed happy enough to tell anyone who asked, what had happened, with wealth of detail, and would make sure to raise his voice every time I was in ears volume.

But I couldn't help but notice how he had yet to tell anyone about the letter - in front of me anyway - and for that, I was grateful.

Neville was in total disgrace. Professor McGonagall was so furious with him that she had banned him from all future Hogsmeade visits, gave him a detention (which I thought was actually quite kind of her to just give one, and became very tempted to go to Snape and tell him that a student falling over was not a good excuse to give them ninety-one detentions) and forbade anyone to give him the password into the Tower. Obviously I didn't follow this rule though and secretly told him every single one of them, so that last punishment didn't really work. It was replaced, however, by the very worst thing a Hogwarts student could ever receive over breakfast - a Howler.