Extraordinary (Sign it Series; BOOK 2)

Chapter 40

"Madeline!"

The second she stepped into the Gryffindor Common Room, her name echoed through the air. The room itself was fairly empty, most students at the Great Hall enjoying dinner, but in one corner surrounding a small cauldron was Simon, Allie, and Polly.

Maddy unwrapped the jacket from around her waist, and tossed it on the closest empty chair, and signed, Wait.

She ran up to her room, hearing Simon asking either Polly or Allie to follow her, and someone following her. She flung her dorm door open, and went to her trunk, finding the comfiest pair of fleece pyjamas she owned and tossing them on her bed so she could find some chocolate to eat.

"You alright?"

Allie stood in the doorway, a look of concern on her face as she stepped inside and slammed the door shut behind her. "Simon has some potions for you if you want, I'm not exactly sure what any of them are though."

I don't need any, Maddy signed, I could use some hot chocolate, she added as a second thought.

"Oh, er, okay," Allie stuttered out before stumbling out of the room.

Maddy changed as quickly as she could, before she did her hair again in the two plaits she had earlier that day. She slowly made her way down the stairs, to find only Polly by the cauldron.

The cauldron itself had been emptied, and there was an array of bottles that lined the floor next to it, each with a label that Maddy immediately noticed as Simon's handwriting.

"Simon and Allie went to get hot chocolate," Polly told her as Maddy plopped herself unceremoniously beside her. "Left a minute or two ago, so I couldn't tell you when they'll be back. I reckon it'll take a while."

Maddy nodded her understanding, crossing her legs underneath herself and playing with her hair out of boredom.

They sat in awkward silence waiting for Simon and Allie to return, the silence breaking occasionally as Polly made an offhand comment to Maddy, which was met with a nod or a shake of her head. Nothing Polly said was more than small talk, and nothing seemed to be a catalyst for an actual conversation between the two.

Simon and Allie's entering through the portrait hole, holding four mugs that they both seemed determined not to spill went almost unnoticed by the two girls, so deep in the silence that a war could break out in front of them, and they'd take hours to even notice.

Simon handed a mug to Polly, and took a sip of his own, forcing Maddy to take a mug from Allie. "You gonna explain why you need hot chocolate or not, Madeline," he asked. In the matter of her returning to the Common Room, Simon had called her Madeline twice, and while it was her name, that was the most amount of times he'd ever called her that. Actually, come to think of it, she'd forgotten if there ever was a time he'd called her by her full name.

Maddy took a sip from her mug and balanced it between her legs cautiously. We went outside to collect firewood for her fireplace. She took another sip from her drink, and didn't elaborate any further.

Her mug half-way to her lips, Allie frowned, "So you went outside with just your leather jacket?"

When Maddy nodded, Simon almost dropped his mug, "Good God. Does she want to give you hypothermia? Wait, do you have hypothermia? I think I have a potion for that."

Maddy shook her head, too lazy to put down her hot chocolate in order to answer.

Polly looked into her mug as if she were in a Divination class, and the hot chocolate held the future, "Umbridge oughta be fired for how she treats you, Maddy."