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— (chapter twenty-one.) —
Everybody got up late on Boxing Day. The Gryffindor common room was much quieter than it had been lately, many yawns punctuating the lazy conversations. Aurora struggled to find good reason to pull herself out of bed, not when she was comfortable tucked into her covers, with Avery curled up beside her.
Aurora and Harry seemed to have reached an unspoken agreement not to discuss their argument. Although, this also seemed to include not discussing anything at all. Aurora had taken to the Hufflepuff table that morning at breakfast, seating herself beside Atlas who gently brushed her hair behind her ear sympathetically.
Breakfast was when the house tables were the most in disarray. The teachers never minded this early on a morning, so when Pansy, Theodore and Draco joined the table from the Slytherin one, Circe joined from the Ravenclaw one, and Selene from the Gryffindor one, no one batted an eye.
Theodore had been the first to quietly whisper about what had happened, perhaps he had seen Aurora return to the hall with slightly bloodshot eyes, or maybe perhaps he had seen the ebony haired girl running from the hall after being kissed by Fred Weasley.
"I don't want to talk about it." said Aurora firmly, avoiding the two pairs of eyes burning into her back. Everybody seemed to be feeling rather flat now that Christmas was over — everybody except Aurora, that is, who was starting (once again) to feel like she was pushing all of her friends away intentionally.
"Well, when he turns up in the lake, you lot are my alibis, right?" said Theodore seriously.
There was also the excitement of the approach of the second task that many of the school were eagerly awaiting amongst themselves.
Snow was still thick upon the grounds, and the greenhouse windows were covered in condensation so thick that they couldn't see out of them in Herbology. Nobody was looking forward to Care of Magical Creatures much in this weather, though as Theodore said, the skrewts would probably warm them up nicely, either by chasing them, or blasting off so forcefully that Hagrid's cabin would catch fire.
When they arrived at Hagrid 's cabin, however, they found an elderly witch with closely cropped gray hair and a very prominent chin standing before his front door.
As the approached they heard her telling the class the whereabouts of their usual professor, Hagrid.
"He is indisposed," said Professor Grubbly-Plank shortly.
Soft and unpleasant laughter reached Aurora's ears. Draco Malfoy had evidently found this rather funny, and Aurora knew exactly why. All of them looked gleeful, and none of them looked surprised to see Professor Grubbly-Plank.
