No Body No Crime □■ Hermione Granger

Chapter 30

The anticipation for the Ravenclaw vs Gryffindor was high for many reasons, for one, whoever wins will face Slytherin for the Quidditch cup.

The second reason was the fact that everyone was excited to see the Firebolt in action as Professor McGongall had returned it a few days ago.

You'd think that with the broom back, Ron and Harry would forgive Hermione, but no, Ron seemed to believe that Crookshanks had eaten Scabbers due to the solid damning evidence: three ginger hairs.

It enraged her how they, particularly Ron, treated Hermione, it was obvious that she had no other friends and watching her enter the Great Hall every day, look at them and see that they didn't save her a seat, then leave without eating, made everybody feel so sorry for her that not even Draco mentioned it.

One of the many other things on her mind was her conversation with Theo. The things he said haunted her as many things tend to do.

You don't know what happened that night....

.......People believe what they want to believe......

.....Do you honestly trust that man?

Still, she was feeling so much better that day, it felt like she had been breathing fumes for the past few weeks and just had her first breath of fresh air.

She freed up some of her time to help Sage with the newspaper again, which turned out to be a lot more fun now that the entire work load wasn't divided between two people.

Luna, once you got past the necklace made out of butterbear bottle caps, was actually very good company, the two would draw pictures for the Newspaper together, Arlene stretching on the window sketching while Luna sat in front of her on a stool painting.

Neville was a hidden gem as well, turns out that's he's a fellow Agatha Christie enthusiast, hated Snape, and had many other things in common with Arlene. She also discovered that the root of all his problems was the fact that he used his father's old wand, which she guessed wasn't okay with taking orders from someone who wasn't its owner. Yet, Neville was appalled when she suggested that he buy a new one, she knew that some people wore their deceased loved one's glasses even if they had perfect vision to feel closer to them, maybe that was what Neville was doing.

If she didn't feel the need to punch Snape for terrorizing him before, she definitely did now.

Lee was.... Lee. There was really no way to describe it, he made jokes, he got them snacks from the kitchen, but he also flirted with Sage nonstop, which Arlene guessed was the reason he decided to help in the first place.

That day in particular, it was just the two of them in the room, Sage wearing her reading glasses as she walked around reading the chicken footprints that she calls notes out loud while the typewriter typed in her words by itself.

"So," Arlene started, she had been redecorating a corner of the room to include the newest edition to the Newspaper, the Politics Page, in which they wrote 'impartial articles about the Wizarding Government' which sound easy when said, but Arlene soon discovered that it was hard reporting about politicians without calling them pigs or dogs, or both "What's up with Lee?"

"We have another date on the next Hogsmead trip." Sage said dismissively, only pausing for a mere second before continuing what she was doing.

Arlene frowned and stepped down from the chair she had been standing on "What about all that nonsense about not having chemistry?"

Sage paused, finally putting her notebook down and taking off her glasses.

"I'm asexual." She finally said.