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'RUMOURS'
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♡
It seemed oddly quiet in the halls for a Saturday, even as Mina snuck through the lesser-known nooks and passageways in the castle to avoid being seen in smudged make up and the same clothes from last night. Miraculously, as she reached the barrel entrance to the Hufflepuff common room, she hadn't run into a single person. Although strange, she brushed it off as a lucky coincidence.
Expecting every Hufflepuff head to turn to her, Mina bit her tongue, preparing for the embarrassing entrance. She quickly mapped out the quick route she'd take to her dorm, and figured if it was busy enough inside, she could slip past at least some people unnoticed.
She sucked in a breath and knocked on the barrel two from the bottom, middle of the second row in the rhythm of Helga Hufflepuff. But as Mina made her way through the sloping, earthy passage she knew like the back of her hand, there wasn't any of the busy ambience she'd expected—instead just the crackling fireplaces and some snoring portraits.
If managing to avoid every student, professor, and elf in the castle on her lengthy trek from the Gryffindor Tower to here was luck, then this was something else entirely. The common room was deserted.
Mina stepped in cautiously, keeping her steps light on the warm carpet. She glanced around, but the arm chairs, the desks, the cushions on the floor were completely empty of any Hufflepuffs. This was unheard of on a Saturday. Even if everyone had gone to Hogsmeade, at least some of the first and second years would have been around.
Her cloudy, whiskey-Gryffindor punch-whatever Cormac slipped into her drink-mind carried her up the stairs to her dorm. Kicked her boots off. Started rummaging around for comfy clothes, when she stopped dead in her tracks at the neatly folded uniform laid out on top of her dresser. The made beds around her. The lack of an Ella in her four-poster, who'd never be out of bed before noon on the weekend if she didn't have to.
But that would mean...
No. No no no no no no no no--
Mina wrenched the planner she treated as the Bible out of her bag and flicked the pages to the bookmarked week. She ran her finger down the days, sorting it out in her foggy head. Sunday...that was the Gryffindor party; the first one. Sunday night, when Harry saw me on the Astronomy Tower. Monday...Charlie's sketches, the amortentia. Tuesday, the first Quidditch game of the season. Tuesday night, the glitter party...Wednesday...
