CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
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-: sixth year :-
── IN WHICH ERIN RETRIEVES
THE PASSWORD
. . .
The ending of the first tutor session of many provided both participants with a great sensee of relief. Another half hour and perhaps Erin would have poked her eyes out with her quill and Oliver would have ended up with the pumpkin eclair stuffed down his throat with no chance of survival. Another half hour and Oliver, who was a little less violent off the Quidditch pitch that the Tonks girl, maybe would have denied her help again and just thrown himself off the deep end without care for his Defense Against the Dark Arts grade.
She had packed up her bag quickly, finished her tea and eclairs without a second thought and left, managing to find her friends within a few minutes. And by the time the hour was over, every student was sat in the Great Hall, a spread of insane Halloween food in front of them.
Erin couldn't help but stare in wonder every time she entered it on an holiday like that day. The house-elves (at least, she was pretty sure it was the house-elves) always did such a good job at decorating. She knew that Flitwick helped with the tree at Christmas because that appeared to be a little more complex than what they did at Halloween or Easter.
On that particular All Hallow's Eve, the Hall was covered in pumpkins and orange banners hanging from wooden pillar to pillar. The sky above was a stormy pitch black, marred by not candles, but glowing carved pumpkins and fluttering clouds of live bats. Just below them, many flaming orange streamers swum lazily across like watersnakes.
"It's actually laughable." Erin shook her head, a forkful of flavorful rice from her stuffed pumpkin raised to her mouth. In her left hand - which happened to not be her dominant hand - she held a quill, and was writing out the timetable she had promised Oliver.
She was planning on going up to the Gryffindor common room straight after the feast so that she could deliver the file of notes she had picked up and was storing beneath her bench so that she could then return without a care for the Halloween party the older years had planned for that night.
"What, that you agreed to tutor him or he's that stupid?" Cynthia raised an eyebrow, peering over her shoulder. "Or that you're actually being serious about it. Merlin, Erin - this is a lot."
"Nah, it's nothing." She waved it off, finishing the last of her rice just as dessert appeared. "Besides, I get a shit load of benefits for helping him, and a moral high ground for agreeing to it. Imagine how he feels about me tutoring him. This is great."
"You do sound thrilled." Cynthia watched as she cleaned the end of her quill on a napkin, pushing the cork back into the ink pot. "Hey - where are you going? You'll miss the ghosts doing their little dance scene - I know the Bloody Baron doesn't do much except wail and make a strange tune with his chains, but Nearly Headless Nick does a re-enactment of his beheading and it's pretty good. Nothing compared to the Friar's mime act, but you know? It's Halloween."
"Exactly, meaning there is a party that I have to get ready for and I need all the time to do it. How am I going to get that time?" Erin was already sliding off her seat, reaching for the file below her seat. "By skipping dessert and thus skipping the Gryffindor crowds. I'll see you in twenty minutes, Cynth."
She kept her body low, so as to not draw attention to herself from the teachers sat at the front of the hall. Darting from the end of the Slytherin table to the Ravenclaw, Erin noticed Theo sat besides Cleo a short way down and crept her way there, coming to a stop beside him.
"Holy shit, Erin. And I was thinking it was Daniel who usually pulled off all the jumpscares on this wonderful day of the year." The sarcasm was heavy in Theo's tone, and it was evident that he didn't approve of the holiday.
"Do you know the password to the Gryffindor common Room?" Erin didn't bother to waste her own time and his by dishing out some sarcastic remark and outright asked him, watching as he shook his head. "You're no use at all - Cleo, Cleo!"
The Head Girl turned towards her, frowning. "You're not supposed to leave your seat, Erin. What can I help you with?"
"Gryffindor common room password?"
"No."
"Why?"
"Why do you want it?"
"So I can deliver Oliver Wood his timetable and notes so that he won't fail his end of years?" Erin offered, holding out the freshly written piece of parchment as proof. "And so I'm not late to the party I invited you both to?"
Cleo took it, her attention taken away from the bowl of orange-dyed ice cream in front of her. She scanned the page, before sighing and leaning forward, cupping her hand around her friend's ear and whispering the answer to her.
Cleo - I love you." Erin grinned, pressing a kiss to her best friend's cheek and sneaking back towards the doors, slipping through the heavy oak doors without them so much as creaking.
"Wow." Theo stared after her. "She really has a gift... Zabini, you're blushing!"
"I just didn't know it meant that much to her." Cleo muttered. "You know.. when a pretty girl kisses you on the cheek you kinda..."
Theo suddenly blushed. He rubbed the back of his neck.
"Yeah, I do know."
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