Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
——PRETTY PICTURE BUT THE SCENERY IS SO LOUD
"WHAT ON EARTH—" EFFIE WINCED, GRABBING HER HEAD, WHICH WAS BANDAGED UP. "—just happened?"
"You were attacked, from what I heard," She hears her father's voice say. And then his gentle hands were pressing her back down on the bed. "Take it easy, you sustained a cracked skull, and any longer untreated, your spine would've fractured as well."
Effie grimaced, slowly raising her hand to shield her eyes. The lights dimmed, which she later found was a courtesy of Ginny, and beside her stood Pansy. "W—Where's Crouch? Is he—? What about Krum? Crouch attacked him first—"
"He's alright," Ginny interjected, sitting down in the edge of Effie's bed. "He was just stunned. Merlin, how'd you get banged up like that? I swear, if I ever see him, or—or I could just hit my brother Percy since he's standing in Krum's place—"
"I'll be sure to have a word with Dumbledore," Eleazar said firmly. He pressed a kiss to Effie's forehead, straightened his suit then left.
"I'll get us breakfast," Pansy says excitedly. "The only good thing about you right now besides being fine is we get to skip classes with valid excuses."
Effie snorts once the brunette sashayed away, before setting her sights on Ginny. She told her everything that happened that night, which left Ginny confused. "Is it peculiar of me to think that these disappearances may be connected?"
"I know," Effie agreed. "Albania was where Voldemort was last sighted, that's where Bertha Jorkins' trail ended. Crouch disappearing from Hogwarts—well, Hogwarts—"
"—is where all of them came from," Ginny adds.
Effie nods, "And I heard, that there's a recent disappearance of a muggle named Frank Bryce in the town where Voldemort grew up. My dad always told me about the three times charm; one is an incident, two is a coincidence, three is a pattern."
The mood in the castle as they entered June became excited and tense again. Everyone was looking forward to the third task, which would take place a week before the end of term. Pansy and Effie studied about Magical Creatures, while also helping with her breathing, Neville helped Effie about plants, then Effie and Ginny would duel it out.
They kept up the use of the Room of Requirement, Effie reverted to tea and coffee so her use of amphetamines was getting lesser and lesser (Ginny had transferred half of the last bottle to an empty one, leaving about fifteen pills and tasking Pretzel to hide the rest), the nightmares did keep up, but it was easier to ignore.
