Coup de Foudre [Fred Weasley] [3]

⚡️ Chapter 13 ⚡️

Vega, Harry, Ron and Hermione were among the first to reach the Great Hall at dinnertime, hoping to see Hagrid, but he wasn't there – and Vega felt her heart drop as she looked around for any sign of him as they sat down on the table, reaching for dinner though none of them were very hungry.

"They wouldn't fire him, would they?" Hermione said anxiously as she turned to look at her three friends, not touching her steak-and-kidney pudding.

"They'd better not," Ron replied with a sigh, who wasn't eating anything either. "Well, you can't say it wasn't an interesting first day back,"

"I had hoped today to go by calmly," Vega said in a low voice as she played around with her food. "Those Slytherins really do have to ruin everything for everyone,"

Glancing over her friends' shoulders, Vega looked at the Slytherin table with distaste. She didn't have anything against Slytherins – but the ones she had interacted so far at Hogwarts had been the burnt end of a pleasant soup pot. She raised her eyes when she saw a large group forming over.

The group huddled together and deep in conversation included Crabbe and Goyle, and most of the Slytherin Quidditch team and almost all of the first-year Slytherins – except for Parkinson who was with Malfoy, and Zabini, who was sitting on his own. Vega wondered what was up with him now.

Maybe she was correct – he must only concern himself with his looks and the appearance of others. As far as Vega was aware, his mother wasn't aligned with Voldemort. She's only in for the money.

Vega looked away when Zabini noticed her and Harry looking, and she looked down at her food.

"Let's just hope that Hagrid doesn't get sacked and Buckbeak isn't hurt," Vega said in a low voice as she stared at her distorted reflection in the pumpkin juice. "Even though we do know Malfoy and..."

Following their empty dinner, Vega, Harry, Ron and Hermione went up to their crowded Gryffindor common room and tried to get started with the homework that Professor McGonagall had assigned them for the first day, but all four of them kept breaking off and glancing out of the tower window.

"There's a light on in Hagrid's window," Harry spoke up suddenly.

Removing her eyes from where she had been watching Fred and George's antics, Vega got up from her armchair and walked over to the window to have a look down at Hagrid's hut down the slope.

There really was a light.

"If we hurried," Ron said quickly as he looked down at his watch. "We could go down and see him. It's still quite early..." Vega looked at the sky to confirm the time.

"I don't know," Hermione said slowly, and Vega turned around just in time to see the brunette cast an uncertain glance toward Harry.

"I'm allowed to walk across the grounds," Harry responded pointedly, having caught the look from Hermione as well. "Sirius Black hasn't got past the Dementors yet, has he?"

"He hasn't even been sighted nearby yet," Vega agreed as looked at them. "And we should be there for Hagrid, no? What if something infelicitous has happened"

In the end, it was decided they all would go down to Hagrid's to have a chat and see where he had been. They put their stuff away and then headed out of the portrait hole, glad to meet nobody on their way to the front doors, as they weren't entirely sure they were supposed to be out or not.

The grass was still wet and looked almost black in the twilight. When they reached Hagrid's hut, they knocked, and a voice growled out, "C'm in," Vega shared a look with her friends and did so.