Atropos → george weasley

xxiii. the apex of madness

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twenty three

the apex of madness

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Ottilie wondered if she had found herself in an anti-Harry Potter cult.

She had been silently listening to the Hufflepuffs trade their conspiracy theories about Harry for at least an hour by then, and she was about ready to slam her head into the table. The baseless conjecture, the pole vaults in logic, the creative writing exercises about Harry's evilness. If she didn't like these people, she'd have called them braindead several dozen times by then.

And she'd skipped Transfiguration for this. Clown club over one of her favorite classes.

"...and he could have very well set that snake on Ottilie. She and Justin really need to watch out," Ernie was saying.

Hannah Abbott and Susan Bones were leaning toward him, invested in the story.

"I wouldn't be surprised if he actually wanted the snake after you, Ottilie, but happened to get to Justin first. Everyone knows Harry hates Slytherins," Hannah said, gazing at Ottilie with wide eyes.

Now how does that make sense—the Heir of Slytherin hating Slytherins? She physically had to bite the inside of her cheeks to stop herself from saying anything. Instead, she crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair to look out the library window.

It'd been a blizzard two days in a row—even worse on this day. Hufflepuffs had their Herbology class canceled that morning and encouraged Ottilie to skive off Transfiguration. What a mistake that had been, agreeing to it.

"So anyway, I told Justin to hide up in our dormitory. I mean to say, if Potter's marked him down as his next victim, it's best if he keeps a low profile for a while. Of course, Justin's been waiting for something like this to happen ever since he let slip to Potter he was Muggle-born. Justin actually told him he'd been down for Eton. That's not the kind of thing you bandy about with Slytherin's heir on the loose, is it?"

"I mean, I can't say I wouldn't enjoy setting a snake on people from Eton myself," Ottilie said with a grin. 

"Ottilie, how could you make jokes? You were with him when he was caught with Mrs. Norris. That puts a target on your back!" Ernie exclaimed, shaking his head. "It's frankly shocking he went after Justin first instead of you!"

"What was it like? Being Lockhart's office with him?" asked Hannah softly. "Did he seem guilty? Did he seem a bit...off?

Ottilie barely stopped herself from rolling her eyes.

"Yeah, he seemed pretty deranged. He was giving Dumbledore the Kubrick stare the entire time he was being questioned. Even Snape was freaked out." Ottilie demonstrated the stare. 

"Sounds terrifying," said Susan, almost looking impressed that Ottilie had survived the encounter.

"You definitely think it is Potter, then, Ernie?" Hannah asked.

Ernie looked at her like he was pitying a naive child. "Hannah, he's a Parselmouth. Everyone knows that's the mark of a Dark wizard."

Those words were an activation for Ottilie's focus to go fuzzy. She stopped paying attention to Ernie's speech, thinking instead about the latest book Binns had lent her.

Someone clearing their throat loudly brought her back into focus. It startled the three Hufflepuffs, and Ottilie jumped in her seat.

There stood Harry Potter, looking angry and hurt. She wondered how much he'd heard.