Atropos → george weasley

xv. sharing middle names

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fifteen

sharing middle names

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Ottilie didn't want to risk anyone seeing her with her stolen library book, so the first thing she did when Slytherins returned to their common room was head up straight to her room and hide it in her locked dresser while her roommates were still downstairs talking.

When the girls returned, she was in an excellent mood and pretended to be too tired to answer any of their questions about where she'd been. Still full of adrenaline, she waited until they fell asleep and got out her latest book from Binns until her eyes grew heavy.

The next morning, she walked into the Great Hall for breakfast with a smile on her face, barely able to contain her excitement. After lessons that day, she would find a place where no one would walk in on her, and she would read that book. In no time, she anticipated, she would become an Animagus and be able to resume her late-night explorations of the castle.

Despite only a few people being there that day, the whispering was unusually loud. The sound of brewing conspiracy theories, Ottilie reasoned. She had other, more pressing concerns and decided against eavesdropping that day.

She sat down at her usual spot and served herself some scrambled eggs and fruit when she absentmindedly lifted her eyes. Her hand stilled on the water jug when she saw Ernie and Justin staring at her. They looked away first, and Ottilie swallowed before filling her goblet with water. Suddenly, she didn't feel all that hungry anymore.

The same aching feeling persisted in her stomach and, convincing herself she was annoyed at the Hufflepuff boys for ruining her good mood, she side-stepped them in the corridors when they made a movement like they wanted to talk to her.

She didn't need them. She didn't need anyone who made her feel guilty like they did. She didn't need anyone who could make her miss them.

To distract herself from the looks the Hufflepuff boys sent at her, she daydreamed about the moment she would finally be able to turn into a cat. To hell with those overbearing adults. They'd driven her to this, trying to keep information from her. To hide things from her. If she'd just been given information from the beginning, perhaps she wouldn't have felt the need to undertake this dangerous transformation as a first year.

(Well, who was she kidding—she would have probably done this anyway.)

After a quick lunch, she went up to the library to study before afternoon lessons. However, she was so distracted she couldn't make progress even on her history essay.

When she saw Ernie and Justin walk into the library, she pretended she didn't notice them. She kept her head down even when they were standing right before her at her table. It was only when Justin cleared his throat that she looked up.

"We were worried when you went missing last night," said Ernie. "We couldn't see you when the Slytherins came down to the basement, so we told Professor Sprout to make sure someone was looking for you."

Ottilie gazed coldly into Ernie's wide eyes.

"Cheers," she said.

"You're lucky someone is looking out for you. No one else would have noticed. The Slytherin prefects were busy taking bets on which teacher would defeat the troll," said Justin, matching Ottilie's sharp demeanor.

"I don't remember saying I wanted anyone looking out for me."

"What happened anyway? Where did you go?" asked Ernie, pulling out the chair across from Ottilie. She watched silently as he sat down and slipped his book bag off of his shoulder. Behind him, Justin was still glaring at her.