𝕄𝕚𝕟𝕥 | 𝐎𝐜 [Harry Potter] ² ✔️

The Headless Hunt

October was a cold, chilly month, at Hogwarts, and many students were sick. Ginny seemed to be worse than the others, I noticed that she had gotten quite pale and feeble. I had tried to ask her about it, but she brushed me off rather rudely. Honestly, Ginny hasn't been talking to me at all this school year. It is almost like she is ignoring me.

I was walking towards the Gryffindor common room after having a quiet tea with Dumbledore when I ran into Harry. "Harry."

He stopped as he turned towards me, "Hey, Ella."

I took in his muddy Quidditch robes, "Coming from quidditch practice?"

"Yeah," he seemed to be troubled by something.

"Everything went okay?"

He shook his head, "Slytherin's new brooms are amazing. Fred and George said they are just green blurs in the sky and if I —"

I shake my head as we turn to the next hall, "Slytherin may be faster, but we have more talent."

Harry morosely nods, "You're right."

I rubbed his back before stopping once I noticed who was in front of us muttering under his breath, ". . . don't fulfill their requirements . . . half an inch, if that . . ."

"Hey."

"Hello, Nick," said Harry.

"Hello, hello," Nearly Headless Nick tried to feign a smile.

"You look troubled, young Potter," said Nick, folding a transparent letter into his doublet.

"So do you," I add, eyeing the letter.

"Ah," Nearly Headless Nick waved his hand, "a matter of no importance. . . . It's not as though I really wanted to join. . . . Thought I'd apply, but apparently I 'don't fulfill requirements' —"

I could hear the bitterness in his airy tone "But you would think, wouldn't you," he erupted, pulling the letter out, "that getting hit forty-five times in the neck with a blunt axe would qualify you to join the Headless Hunt?" I wince at the thought.

"Oh — yes," Harry assures him since he seemed a bit fragile. I nod along.

"I mean, nobody wishes more than I do that it had all been quick and clean, and my head had come off properly, I mean, it would have saved me a great deal of pain and ridicule. However —" Nearly Headless Nick shook his letter open and read furiously:

"'We can only accept huntsmen whose heads have parted company with their bodies. You will appreciate that it would be impossible otherwise for members to participate in hunt activities such as Horseback Head-Juggling and Head Polo. It is with the greatest regret, therefore, that I must inform you that you do not fulfill our requirements. With very best wishes, Sir Patrick Delaney-Podmore.' "