Living Death

- chapter thirty nine

Food was scarce, one of the restrictions of Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration, but a small cauldron repurposed into a bowl of warm soup sat in your lap, fresh from the Hogshead in Hogsmeade. Everyone dug in eagerly and momentarily forgot about the worries of the day, glad to have something beyond board games to distract them from their thoughts.

"So Y/N.. Miss me?" Cormac McLaggen's unmistakable voice rang clear through the room as he approached the area you and the trio occupied, his hands in his pockets, moving to sit beside you on a barrel next to the overturned suitcase you resided on. Harry sat opposite and spat his soup back out into his bowl suddenly as he tried to hold back his amused laughter, practically choking.

"What?" McLaggen raised his eyebrow as he sat and watched Harry wipe his mouth with the back of his sleeve, his tone rather defensive, Harry's amusement only heightened by Cormac's arrogant attitude.

"Nothing." Harry spluttered slightly, hiding the faint smile that tugged at his lips, unable to look back up at you for fear of laughing out loud. He knew McLaggen had a thing for you, it wasn't exactly a surprise but he hadn't anticipated him behaving in such a manner so shortly after he'd found out you were alive, and especially since finding out you were a Deatheater.

"I've been too busy to miss you actually" You shuffled slightly further away from him with indifference, but he seemed to take that as an invitation to sit directly beside you on top of the suitcase.

Harry finally met your gaze after a few moments and quirked his brows up suggestively with an entertained smile spreading across his lips. You narrowed your eyes across at him, he was enjoying this far too much.

"I must say, it's nice to see you alive, I was absolutely beside myself when I thought you were dead" Cormac replied, letting out an exaggerated sigh, a feigned pained look to his features.

Ron and Hermione exchanged judging looks over their soup bowls, recalling how he'd instantly pursued Hermione at the Slug Club party only weeks after they'd all been told about your death.

"Thank you.. I guess?" You smiled sheepishly, not exactly sure how he wanted you to react to such a statement, it wasn't often someone boasted about how much they'd grieved for you.

"Seeing you before the war is somewhat sobering.." He hummed softly and you felt his arm slip over your shoulders from behind as if it was nothing, "Really brings home the sacrifices of war.. I mean, just think of what we could've been.."

You shrugged off his arm and submerged your spoon further into the soup, watching the various herbs swim around it, a silence overcoming you both as you saw Harry visibly try to restrain his laughter again out of the corner of your eye and Hermione lightly hitting his arm to try and force him to control himself.

"So.. Can I get a look at the mark?" Cormac asked rather forwardly and you dropped your spoon back in the bowl, tilting your head to him with a look of contempt on your face.

"Funnily enough, I don't particularly like it enough to show it off" You restrained the urge to roll your eyes and simply stabbed your spoon more firmly into your soup, the sound of the metal bowl against your spoon a little louder than you'd anticipated.

"Neither do I" He let out a rather forced laugh, as though he was trying to find some flirtatious amusement in your response that clearly wasn't there, "But it's rather interesting is it not?"

"Interesting?" You scoffed, tilting your head to look at him.

"Rebellious don't you think?" A slight smirk spread across his lips as he winked at you, shivers running down your spine in all the wrong ways.