The Slightly Stalking Photographer

⚡️12⚡️- The quack of silence

"What's got your wand in a knot?" Esmeralda asked after a while of her awkwardly avoiding Denise's glare, which seemed almost impossible.

"My wand is perfectly okay," said Denise dryly, fishing her wand out of her robe pocket, showing it for Esmeralda for a mere second.

"It's a way of asking something, Denise," Esmeralda explained.

Denise's mouth crunched to the side of her face and after a while, she said, "Of course I knew that."

Esmeralda muttered a quick, "Sure you did." under her breath and looked up at Denise, trying to figure out what really had gotten her wand in a knot.

"Of course I know what it means, but do you do?" Denise asked after a while

"Yes, every witch and wizard at Hogwarts does," said Esmeralda, starting to suspect that Denise was not quite sure about her statement.

"Yeah, but I'm testing you, what does it mean?"

Esmeralda slightly rolled her light eyes and said, "It's another way of saying, 'What's wrong?'."

"Good that you know the definition of it, Esmeralda," Denise said dryly as she returned to her former state of glaring at Esmeralda.

"What's got your wand in a knot then?" Esmeralda asked again.

Denise's facial expression changed from angry to almost sad, but she still looked annoyed. "You are stealing my friend, Colin."

Esmeralda furrowed her eyebrows in disbelief for a mere second before she said, "Crap, I'm exposed; he's most definitely not in my backpack tied by his hands and knees."

Denise sneered and said, "Trying to be funny, eh? Well, guess what? I'm not joking, I'm being extremely serious, and you are stealing my friend."

"I'm sorry, but I literally have no idea of what you're talking about, I wouldn't dream of stealing him from you, I'm always trying to stay as far away from him as possible," Esmeralda said wondering what Denise meant.

"You're not physically stealing him, you're stealing his mind. You are all he ever thinks about and it' has gotten so bad that he never even ask how I've been." Denise said dryly, looking like she would like nothing more than to slap her across the face.

"Sorry, but I can't do anything about it, well, except for turning him into a duck, but if you wanted that, you should have asked an eternity ago, seriously, I could run a business, I'm sure I'd be richer than The Malfoys in a week or so," Esmeralda said, starting to get a bit off topic the longer she talked.

Denise pursed her lips into a straight line, before opening it again, saying, "I don't wish for a duck as a friend, just let him take that bloody picture of you, it's not like it's going to kill you or anything!"

Esmeralda thought back to her week with showering in dog drool and frog breath because of some disease with a long ass name, sure, she was done with the cure now and she had never felt better, but somehow she found herself sort of liking the 'escape the camera game'.

"I can't," Esmeralda said simply with a blank face, as though all of her emotions had been erased with a gigantic eraser.

"Yes, you can, it's just a click of a button and you're done! Please, Esmeralda, I just want my friend back!" Denise begged, on the verge of getting down on her knees in desperation.

Esmeralda had so far not had the chance to know if the cure had actually worked out or not, but she found herself somewhat feeling sorry for Denise and said, "I can't let him take a photo of me for personal reasons, but I'll come up with something, Denise, you have my word for it."