RED | h.p

ten

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I HAD TO RUN to catch up to Harry who didn't bother to hide the fact that he's running away from me. I had to pull his arm before he finally stop in his tracks and face me.

"Are you serious?" I ask heatedly and his face remains hardened. "I told you not to go after Black!"

His cold eyes met mine. "I didn't promise you anything." I tightened my grip on his elbow.

"What's the point Harry?" I ask breathlessly. It's not like killing Black will give him back his parents. Why can't he bloody see that?

"The point is Black's a dead man." He shrugged my hand off and began to walk away.

I watched his figure disappear before stomping my foot loudly, groaning at the same time. "If you can just stop acting like an arsehole for one minute—"

"Quite a mouth you got there, Evans." I turn sharply to see Malfoy smugly leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. Is it always his intention to make an entrance whenever I'm mad?

"Sod off, Malloy." I rolled my eyes at him.

"Had a fight with your boyfriend?" He asks coolly and I scoff in offense.

"Harry is far from being my boyfriend. He won't even let me be a good friend." I muttered but whispered the last part to myself.

"Then why are you spouting profanities, Evens?" Our main banters consist of us saying our names wrong. Well, our surnames.

"Why do you need to know, Milloy?" I began to walk away and he didn't call for me so I continued making my way to the library where I'll hopefully get some peace of mind.

I pulled out a piece of parchment and quill to start writing a letter to my parents. Mum and Dad has been keeping me posted, their letters more detailed than usual.

Mummy dearest,

       I casted a successful Patronus not long ago and it was a Doe! I still have no idea what that means, what it makes me but they are sweet creatures. I guess that means I'm harmless and sweet? I've still got that part to figure out but don't worry. Sirius Black is nowhere near Hogwarts.

Daddy dearest,

          MY PATRONUS IS A DOE. Can you believe it? I actually did it in one try. I just wanted to tell you that I was able to do that because of you and mum. I was thinking about you and her, how much you both love me and I did it! I hope to see you soon at Christmas!

Satisfied, I rolled up the parchment and stored it in my bag. Reminding myself I need to take a trip to the owlery. Just as I made a step to stand up I heard Hermione call me. I turned with a smile and spy her clinging a big book closer to her chest.

"Something wrong?" I noticed her sad eyes and she glumly nodded.

"Buckbeak's in trial. Malfoy's doing." I clicked my tongue in understanding before wrapping my arms around her, it was a bit awkward with a big book in between us. I pulled away shortly. "Buckbeak is innocent!"

I'm not good at comforting people when they are crying or breaking down. I tried comforting an angry Harry and that did nothing. So I can only offer my ears and arms. "Wanna talk about it? In the many times I've gotten lost, I found a few rooms that seem to be abandoned." She nodded slowly and I lead her out of the library with a soft smile.

We reached one of the said rooms and I sat her down a chair. On cue she started to break into sobs and I awkwardly pat her back, she drops the book on the table with a loud thud while I wince. "Is Buckbeak being on trial all, 'Mione?" 

I mean, I'm a big fan of magical creatures but Hermione seems to be getting all the angst from somewhere else. She met my eyes and I got my answer right away, I raised both brows as a gesture for her to speak up and she let out a deep breath.

"No. Just encountering my Boggart, I'm trying to decipher it." I scrunch up my nose in confusion. Hers was failing all her classes and getting kicked out of Hogwarts, that's what I thought mine was gonna be. "It's so predictable, there must be more to it than my failing classes."

I pulled a chair and sat down across her, my knees touching hers and leaned a bit to meet her eyes from under her bangs. "You're right." She lifts her eyes to mine and it displayed confusion. "There is more to it."

She anticipated my every word and her hand found mine, she held it tightly between both of hers waiting for my thoughts to be spilled. "I'm a muggleborn, same as you. . .and I think the best thing to ever happen to me aside having amazing parents, is discovering magic," I breathed. "Knowing I am different, in a good way and I get to go to this magic school with kids like me. So I studied hard and tried to always stay on top."

Recognition flashed in her eyes. My words are reflecting on her, like I knew they would. "I was so scared that if I fail, this amazing world introduced to me will be taken away," I muttered with a shaky breath. "That if I don't do my best I will be thrown back into the old life I came to know, one without magic, without the understanding of who I really am. Before Hogwarts, I always knew something was wrong and I was different. How? I didn't know until my eleventh birthday when Professor McGonagall showed up in our doorstep with an outfit that had me unable to control my giggles." The last part made Hermione crack a smile aside the waterfall-like tears streaming down her reddened cheeks.

"I understood that I felt like the odd one out from my friends and classmates because I was. I'm a bloody witch and how cool is that?" She let out a small giggle at my words before nodding animatedly. 

"It is pretty cool." She hummed in response.

"And that's your Boggart," Her smile slowly dropped only for it to return shortly. "Your deepest, darkest fear is having magic stripped away from you." I looked around the dusty, old room that is in the far side of the really big yet old castle that is Hogwarts in awe.

"Hogwarts is your home." It wasn't a question because I know it for a fact. We may have real homes where our parents are but I did treat my old school as my home and nothing can take away the feeling of belonging in a place like this.

"I hope it will be yours too." She's asking me to stay, I honestly don't know if that's possible with my parents being writers and travelling all the time. But so far, Hogwarts felt better my last school, because I've got friends. A home.

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