Ink and Parchment ~ blood and bone

41

“Well you’re officially out of the running Theo – how does it feel to be a loser?” Daphne’s voiced reached Eliza’s ears as she approached the compartment her court were sitting in.

“I don’t know Daph’ How does it feel?”

Eliza snorted as she dragged her trunk behind her.

“Besides, I would have won if someone hadn’t interrupted them at the ball”

“Don’t be such a sore loser” Draco drawled and that was when Eliza finally flung open the door to the compartment with a smug grin.

“Actually – you’ve all lost” she announced brightly.

“You know about this?” Blaise yelped as Eliza easily levitated her trunk into the overhead compartment.

“Of course”

“Of course” he echoed looking quite faint.

“Wait, wait, wait” Daphne interrupted, pointing at Eliza with an accusatory finger “What do you mean we’ve all lost?”

Eliza said nothing and simply continued to smile her stupid smug smile.

“Get out” Daphne said as realisation dawned her.

“No way” said Draco and Eliza threw herself onto the seat next to Blaise, kicking her legs over his.

“When?” Blaise demanded, shuffling so he could get comfy beneath her.

“New Year’s Eve” Eliza replied with a smirk as her court all let out some mumbled curses. Blaise was just in the middle of his ‘of fucking course’ tirade when Daphne leaned forward with a mischievous smile.

“Okay but you have to answer this; how was it?”

“No” Theo said vehemently “We are not going there; I don’t want to know-

“Oh, come on Theo” Blaise whined “don’t be such a prude”

“I’m with Theo on this one” Draco chimed in with a grimace “The dark lord isn’t knocking on your manor door; you stay out of it”

Eliza leaned back with a smile as her court burst into their usual arguments about her.

She bought them all chocolate frogs as a consolation prize.

By the time they were back at Hogwarts a sense of trepidation had settled over them. They had been sure they would have been returning to an Umbridge free castle after Yule and Eliza’s disappointment was echoed in all of them. Even the rest of Hogwarts seemed sombre as they all entered the great hall for the start of term feast.

Umbridge sat looking ridiculously smug at the teachers table and Eliza glared at her mulishly from her spot at the Slytherin table.

“You know if your planning to kill her-”

“You should stop shooting daggers at her”

“It makes you look pretty suspicious” both the Weasley twins chimed in unison and Eliza stared at them in confusion as they leaned over Blaise at the table.

“What are you two doing over here?” she found herself asking, lips twitching into a small smile when Blaise slumped against the table to avoid knocking his head against Fred’s.

“We heard from a little birdy-

“That your Hogwarts coup was halted-

“We were wondering if you wanted to go through with some more of our plans?”

The grins they were sending her were positively evil. She glanced up again at Umbridge who was adjusting the large pompous bow in her hair.

“Friday, the abandoned classroom. Meet you there at the usual time?”