CHAPTER THIRTY
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-: sixth year :-
── IN WHICH ERIN DROPS A BOMB
. . .
Erin wasn't scared. There was no way she could go to sleep that night, it would be entirely stupid. She wasn't scared of Sirius Black, not at all, even though she had almost been attacked by the man who she had heard stories from her mother as she recounted her childhood - and when asked who this cousin was, she would only shake her head and turn away. She was not scared of him, of the man who she knew to have fallen in the lake of her mother's childhood home, or was chased by a crup when he was eight and his inital magic showing and he ended up on the top-most branch of an oak tree. She was not scared of him, but something trembled inside her even as she grit her teeth and tried to focus on the low murmur of chatter around the hall instead of the horrendous memeory of the Fat Lady's canvas ripping.
She wasn't scared and she wasn't weak, so she certainly wasn't going to take a sleeping potion and be the sole Quidditch captain to not be on watch all night just because she had experienced Sirius Black in the flesh.
And in her resolve she had left her friends behind in hopes of talking to Oliver or Cedric again to find out what the plan was for the rest of the night, she had turned away from corner they had decide to pull a number of the plush lavender sleeping bags into and began to carefully step around the small circles of friends of various friends that wished to take the chance of the night outside of their respective houses as some kind of sleepover.
It took a while to adjust to the dim lighting of the hall; after Dumbledore revealed his aim was for them all to get a good night of sleep despite the happenings, the floating candles had been extinguished and now the only light came from the swell of a moon outside and the magical sky across the roof that was sprinkled with stars.
She felt a world more comfortable in there, and took her time making her way to the others, approaching where Oliver Wood was crouched beside a pair of first years as he reassured them that it was entirely safe to sleep in the Great Hall, as there were many on lookout that would make sure that nothing bad happened in there and that the many staff members were searching every inch of the castle to ensure Black had left or perhaps capture him if found.
Erin came to a stop, wobbling on her own profound instance of hate just as Diggory had informed her he was doing, and waited until he straightened up, turning to her with a start. "Erin!" He hissed, taking care even in that because he didn't want to disrupt. "I... I mean Tonks."
"Yes, that is my first and last name." Erin replied after a beat. "Let's walk." She proposed, and stepped back out onto the formed aisle. "Diggory told me you were upset." She said.
"He did, did he?" Oliver look confused when she glanced back at him. "In what way?"
"'Distraught', was the way he captioned it. From what I heard in the common room, it wasn't hard to figure out it was true. Even if Theo was truly comical with his inability to stop swearing."
"Ah yes... I'm the dickhead." Oliver nodded. They came to a stop by the doors into the Great Hall, that had been locked appropriately by the Headmaster after he left Percy in charge. "And I admit, I did hold a little concern to find out that you were in the common room when Black attacked."
Erin leant against the hunks of engraved wood. "Why?" She asked.
Oliver opened his mouth to reply, but stood in the middle of the Hall with Roger Davies looking particularly distressted from their potential trainwreck of a conversation, Percy Weasley cleared his throat. "The lights are going out now!" Percy shouted. "I want everyone in their sleeping bags and no more talking!"
"Way too much power has gone to his head with this." Erin hummed and, in a tone that differed from the usual stilted conversation she hosted, she turned to look at Oliver. "Is it true he polishes his badge? The twins told me he polishes it."
"Why in the hells would I know that?" Oliver didn't want to question why Fred and George had deemed it necessary to tell the Slytherin Captain (of whom it was pretty obvious the pair were attracted to, the way they flirted with her) this.
"You're his friend, aren't you?" She asked, in a whispered tone to adhere to the Head Boy's rules; apparently even she didn't want to upset him. "And you've shared a dorm with him for what, six years? I can even imagine it was he who deemed it unnecessary for you to be friends with a Slytherin."
"I..." The way she had slipped such a confrontation in her speech had taken Oliver aback. "He... did not." Oliver seemed to have too much hesitation in his words for her to believe him and her eyebrows raised. "He didn't tell me that. And... he does polish his badge. But this isn't about him, this is about how you were locked in the common room because I'm stupid enough to be failing Defense Against the Dark Arts and-"
"Oh, so you're blaming yourself for this." Erin turned on him with a eagle-eye sharpness that made something within him tremble in uncertainty - had he said something wrong? "Is that why you think I'm here? To tell you that it is entirely unnecessary to blame yourself and not feel bad? It is not at all possible that I am the one to blame because I am taking bribes to tutor you and decided that I dislike you so much that I couldn't find you after the feast to give you your schedule yourself?"
"That's why you were in the common room?" Oliver's voice was a little too-raised for Percy's liking, as a shush was sent across the room. "Because you wanted to give me a schedule for my tutoring?" He ignored Percy's warnings, and the people in sleeping bags closest to them looked up. "That is so stupid. Why would you do that?"
"Why wouldn't I? I spent an entire day with you and to be honest, the little dial that dictates my level of sociablity was dangerous close to a very low level before we even got to lunch." Erin scoffed, and even in the dark he could see her hair adjusted colours to match the tone of her words, settling on a shade of red. "Careful, Wood, it makes it sound like you care."
"I do care - this is so, ridiculously stupid, Erin." Oliver's eyebrows raised. "Merlin, this is so stupid. You didn't even have to say anything to me, just give me the schedule and crawled back down to the stupid dungeons."
"I don't need you to care." Erin replied. "I chose to do that, thus it is my mistake to have made. I do not need to deal with you feeling guilty over this."
"I don't feel guilty, I'm just upset because you were threatened by a mass-murderer because of me. Sorry if that warrants a little care on my behalf." He replied. "Also, red hair looks stupidly good on you."
"I'm angry with you, wanker." Erin scoffed. "Don't you dare try to compliment your way out of this."
"I'm not, I'm simply stating facts." Oliver replied.
"Well, then I'm sure you'll appreciate this fact." Erin stood up straighter. "I've decided, after my dear cousin's injury, that he will be pulled from the match. What more, I've decided that we simply cannot play without our Seeker as I don't have one in reserve-"
"That's a complete lie, I know you do." Oliver interrupted.
"I do not have a reserve Seeker." Erin reiterated. "And thus, you will be playing Hufflepuff on Saturday. I've already spoken to Diggory about it, he's given the go ahead and informed his team. Best you start preparing tomorrow night, Wood. I've heard that with the new captain and all, they're getting pretty good."
And with that, she stalked away to where Percy Weasley was stood, no doubt to make fun of him for polishing his prefect badge.
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