Certain Dark Things || Book Four

xxx. sportsmanship

"You did what?!"

Hermione's shrill voice broke the stillness within their dormitory and earned several miffed complaints from the other witches sharing the space. Harriet winced.

"What's your issue now, Granger?" Pansy asked from her carrel, which had been covered in little jars and sachets and vials instead of books. She had a thick beige cream spread over half her face and looked up from her glowing mirror to glare at Hermione. "Can you stop your annoying shrieking?"

"Why? Do you require total silence to apply that nonsense to your skin?" Hermione retorted, blissfully ignoring Harriet's previous comment about trailing a stranger into the forest and stumbling upon four livid dragons. "Does noise distract your idiot brain from that insipid beauty regime?"

Pansy frowned, taken aback by Hermione's sudden vehemence. "Where do you get off talking to me like that, you frizzy-haired bint?"

"We live in this dormitory too, and you can't dictate when and where we get to make noise!"

"The rest of us deserve peace and quiet in the evening, not a rendition of your buck-toothed cackling!"

Tempers were high tonight, though Harriet wasn't sure what had crawled up Pansy's nose. Daphne went to Parkinson and muttered in her ear, while Tracy and Millicent had done the clever thing and retreated to their beds, shutting the curtains. Elara had a hand fisted in the back of Hermione's dressing gown to keep her in place, while Runcorn was halfway through painting gaudy blue lacquer on her nails, watching the spectacle with interest.

Harriet sighed. Livi poked his nose out from under her bed's skirt, the excitement in the room gaining his interest, and Harriet knew they needed to quiet down before her serpent got too interested. Sheer luck had spared her dormmates from discovering him despite sharing quarters for nearly four years.

"All right," she groused, pulling out her wand. Harriet was the only one still dressed in her uniform, having just sprinted through half the castle to reach the dorms and escape whichever staff member had almost caught her out. "Go back to smearing muck on your face and we'll quiet down."

Pansy eyed the wand, then glared at Harriet's face. "You wouldn't dare."

Harriet raised a brow and gave her wand an idle twirl. It was a bluff; she didn't need the trouble that would come along with riling Pansy and getting a prefect involved, but Pansy finally huffed and turned around. Daphne rolled her eyes and went back to the lavatory.

Harriet tossed her wand onto her bed. "Keep your voice down, Hermione, blimey. If one of those lot finds out I was out after curfew, they'll tell Snape in an instant."

"And what were you doing out so late?" Hermione demanded in a whisper. "You know it's dangerous with the Minister making any excuse he can to pop by the school!"

"Let's be honest. It's dangerous even without that berk going around."

From her spot sitting on the edge of Hermione's bed, Elara said, "Take this seriously, Harriet," and Harriet stuck out her tongue. Hermione gathered her familiar up into her arms and stroked his fur with agitated motions, Crookshanks purring like mad.

"Did you miss the bit where I told you about dragons being on the grounds? That's much more interesting than breaking curfew."

"Dragons," Hermione said with a downward twist of her lips, as if she'd tasted something gross. "What are they thinking, using dragons? I thought the Ministry was intent on keeping the Tournament as safe as possible—and as safe as possible does not include dragons."

"There was always going to be some danger involved," Harriet said as she plopped onto her own bed, fishing Kevin out from where he attempted to hide in her pillowcase. The golem wriggled in her cupped palm, tongue flicking wildly, maybe smelling her previous proximity to the dragons in question. "But what d'you suppose the champions are meant to do? Surely they're not going to have to kill them?"