Coup de Foudre [Fred Weasley] [6]

⚡️ Chapter 14 ⚡️

The first day of school dawned over Hogwarts the following morning, and Vega was one of the first Gryffindors awake. She took her time to shower and change into her school uniform before she went out of her way to send a letter back home to inform her family that they had all gotten there safely and that she would do really well in her studies. She sent the letter home with Aquila, who was eager to fly and she used her ring to greet Fred morning.

Vega smiled as she felt her ring turn warn in response and she looked up, walking down the Seventh-Floor corridor. She was missing Fred a lot, for this was the exact place where they had so many of their morning walks – it was hard to imagine that he would not come bounding out from some hiding place and tease her by messing her hair up.

Harry, Ron and Hermione were down and ready by the time Vega reached the Gryffindor common room, and she picked up her heavy, bottomless school bag to join them as they all headed downstairs to have breakfast before classes.

Now that they were on their own, and possibly hoping for some support for his theory, Harry lost no time in telling Hermione what he had overheard Malfoy saying on the Hogwarts Express.

It wasn't that Vega didn't believe in Harry – she was sure that Malfoy was definitely up to, but she felt like that they did not have a way to prove it... and besides, if there were any case that Malfoy was now a Death Eater then Snape would've told Dumbledore.

"But he was obviously showing off for Parkinson, wasn't he?" Ron interrupted quickly, before Hermione could say anything. "Must've gotten upset Vega was getting the attention,"

"Well," Hermione spoke up uncertainly. "I don't know... it would be like Malfoy to make himself seem more important than he is... but that's a big lie to tell..."

"Exactly," Harry said.

"But the problem is," Vega interjected, giving Harry a look. "You went ahead and tried to play spy – which is perfectly fine until you realise that Malfoy now knows about our suspicion. He would throw red-herrings or be more careful because of this,"

Before Harry could argue back, Vega put a stop to it by nodding in front of her to show him that there were countless people around them who were trying to listen in to their conversation, not to mention staring at Vega and Harry and whispering behind their hands.

"It's rude to point," Ron snapped at a particularly minuscule first-year boy as they joined the queue to climb out of the portrait hole.

The boy, who had been muttering something about Vega and Harry behind his hand to his friend, promptly turned scarlet and toppled out of the hole in alarm, causing Ron to snigger while Vega rushed ahead to help the blushing kid onto his feet.

"I love being a sixth year," Ron commented. "And we're going to be getting free time this year – whole periods when we can just sit up here and relax,"

"We're going to need that time for studying, Ron!" Hermione said, as they set off down the corridor and Vega sighed at the oncoming argument.

"Yeah, but not today," Ron said. "Today's going to be a real doss, I reckon,"

"Hold it!" Hermione said, throwing out an arm and halting a passing fourth year, who was attempting to push past her with a lime-green disk clutched tightly in his hand. "Fanged Frisbees are banned, hand it over,"

The scowling boy handed over the snarling Frisbee, ducked under her arm, and took off after his friends, sending a fleeting look toward Vega and Harry. Ron waited for him to vanish, then tugged the Frisbee from Hermione's grip.

"Excellent, I've always wanted one of these," Ron said.

Hermione's remonstration was drowned by a loud giggle; Lavender Brown had apparently found Ron's remark highly amusing. She continued to laugh as she passed them, glancing back at Ron over her shoulder. Ron looked rather pleased with himself.