UNKNOWN | D.M (UNRAVEL BOOK 4)

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Aine's eyes bore ahead, her mind floating away into a train of thoughts as reality becomes fainter. She couldn't stop herself from thinking about Draco and why he hasn't turned up for the past two lessons, let alone inform her about his absence and she had to hear it from his friends instead. She pondered about the lie he had told her when he lied about helping their potion professor and it only increased the unsettling feeling within her. Was she overthinking things after all? Could there be a rational reason for him to not turn up or was there a problem that he had faced that he couldn't tell her? 

Deep down inside Aine, she couldn't help but feel a little sad. Did Draco not trust her enough to tell her about what he was going through? She heaved a sigh, recalling when she had asked Blaise and Cyrus about his 'duties'. They did seem to be acting strangely when they told her Draco wasn't coming to class, fidgeting awkwardly as if they were hiding something.

At the end of the day, he was a prefect and perhaps he was simply busy with his prefect responsibilities which was probably why he was unable to make it but Aine had a gut feeling that it was something more than that. She knew of his tasks fairly well since Hermione and Ron were prefects too, but she couldn't understand why he wouldn't tell her.

Hermione calls out to her, but she was being too preoccupied in her mind that the girl's voice could not penetrate her bubble of thoughts. She turns to Ron who shrugged, equally puzzled. Harry had finished explaining their exercises today and it was Aine's turn to start the rest of the training they were going to have but the girl simply stood rooted to the ground. Her eyes stared blankly at the floor. 

Harry cleared his throat, hoping that the girl would snap out of her senses but the longer she stares at the ground, the more quizzical looks she was getting from the rest of her friends. The boy stepped closer to her and nudges her shoulders, the sudden touch made her flinch and broke free of her thoughts. "Are you alright?" he whispers to her and she raises a brow at him.

"I'm fine," she replies and he smiles, urging her to go on. 

"Right! Sorry about that!" Aine lightly chuckles, shaking away the uneasy feeling. She went on to explain the exercises they were going to do today. The mass was split into two groups, one practising the use of defensive spells while the other will be going for a short duel before swapping with the opposite. Hermione and Aine took the honour of doing the former while Harry and Ron takes the latter before switching.

The first duelling group to start was Collin, Cho, Ernest, Hannah, Justin, Katie, Lavender, Leanne, Nigel, Neville and Susan along with Harry and Ron.

While the next group was comprised mainly of Angelina, Dean, Ginny, Katie, Lee, Luna, Michael, Seamus and the Weasley twins.

To make sure no one gets hurt during duelling, Aine casted a small protection bubble on one side of the room. Whatever's contained within the sphere couldn't harm anything outside and she made sure that it could be undone with a simple enchantment. That is if you know the enchantment of course. She made sure Harry, Hermione and Ron knew of the spell besides her if things were to go horribly wrong. Though it was highly unlikely that anything will happen, it was just a precaution.

Aine and Hermione's group began to train again, revisiting the spells that they had learnt throughout a couple of weeks. When it was everyone on the first team had finished their little duel thankfully without sustaining any major injuries besides being nudged around, it was the other team's turn.

The group started by finding their partner to battle with, drawing lots until everyone got a pair including Hermione and herself. It started with Hermione and Luna, followed by Angelina and Katie, Dean and Michael, Seamus and Fred, Lee and George, and last but not least, Ginny and Aine.