Times Of Her Blood

Forty Seven | Hagrid's Secret

Lee Jordan was breathing heavily, cheeks bright red as he pushed and shoved through the crowds in the corridors.

"Excuse me," he wheezed, "Sorry, coming through..."

Behind him were two slightly less out of breath red heads, both sporting large grins on their faces.

The entire corridor watched them go by, awaiting the fourth one and then the screams of what would most likely be Filch shortly afterwards.

When nothing happened after the boys, a few people frowned.

For starters, there was no yelling. Not yet, anyway. And there was no Laurel Black, either.

That was what they thought, anyway.

The door to Filch's office remained shut. Odd...

The students peered down the corridor, mumbling with excitement at the build up.

What they didn't expect was for the girl to emerge from the third corridor staircase in her school trousers, white blouse and green tie undone around her neck. Her expression was smug as she kept walking calmly through the corridor, boots clopping on the floor the only noise that could be heard.

"What's going on?" A student murmured, "Where's the big explosion, or the screaming teachers?"

"Wait for it, Thomas," the twins made the second year jump out of his skin.

Chuckling, they fist bumped.

"What's Black doing?" Someone else asked.

Lee flashed them a grin, "Enjoying the moment. She's the distraction, you see."

"From what?"

The three boys held up handfuls of dung bombs, matching grins on their faces.

Laurel looked around and then gave a short nod which was returned.

Still smirking, she turned on her heel and set off into a sprint, leaving everyone else confused until someone noticed a dung bomb roll to a halt beside his feet.

"Incoming!" The twins yelled in unison, before the corridor exploded with colour, smoke and screams.

***

She could feel a definitive light blue gaze on the back of her head as she ate her lunch that afternoon. Piling as much food as she could into her plate and stuffing it in her mouth to hide her amusement at the very... colourful student body in the Great Hall that morning.

Of course, he knew it was her. He always did. Quite irritating, really. But she supposed anybody could figure it out.

No other four students had the ability to leave no trace of their schemes aside from a teacher's assumption and illegal mind reading.

She felt three people sit down near her, one of them radiating magic she knew all too well.

Without looking up she knew it was Ron, Hermione and Harry.

She heard someone else sit a few seats to her left and looked up, smiling at Neville, who half smiled sheepishly back.

"You alright?" She asked quietly.

The boy nodded, "I'm fine."

She raised an eyebrow, "Are you?"

Neville paused, glancing around before leaning forwards, "Okay, no I'm not. I'm a little worried, to be honest. I've just had History of Magic and... well, Professor Binns told us about the Chamber of Secrets."

"You don't have to whisper," Laurel chuckled, "It's a legend, yes? He told you about Salazar and all that?"

Neville nodded, "It's a little..."