Muggle | 𝐹𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑊𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑙𝑒𝑦

Chapter 48

Fred, George, and I shared uneasy looks as Lee narrowed his eyes down at me. "Just like I said," I started, trying to sound casual. "I was just joking."

      "If you say so..." said Lee, not looking convinced at all.

     But when he shrugged and went back to finishing his pie, I sighed in relief. That was a close one, I thought.

After the delicious feast, Dumbledore stood up to give us his usual first-of-term speech, but was shortly cut off by Umbridge who stood up with a loud 'Hem, hem.'

One look at her was enough for me to think, 'if only murdering was legal...'.

She started to speak and the more she went on, the drowsier everyone started to get. But at last, after what felt like hours, she finished her speech by saying,

"Let us move forward, then, into a new era of openness, effectiveness, and accountability, intent on preserving what ought to be preserved, perfecting what needs to be perfected, and pruning wherever we find practices that ought to be prohibited."

She then sat down and Dumbledore clapped. The staff followed his lead grimly, stopping quickly. A few students joined in as well, but they fell silent again as Dumbledore stood up again.

"Thank you very much, Professor Umbridge, that was most illuminating," he said, bowing to her. "Now — as I was saying, Quidditch tryouts will be held..."

"You know what I just realized?" said George, blinking a few times, as if coming out of a daze. "That I can sleep with my eyes open."

"You just realized that?" I scoffed. "Please, I learned how to do that the first time I sat in Professor Binn's class."

After Dumbledore finally finished talking, we all stood up and made our way to the Gryffindor common room.

     The moment we walked in, before I knew what was happening, Fred grabbed onto my hand and dragged me to a shadowy and lonely corner, giving me a cheeky smile.

     "What?" I grinned back.

     "You made a promise, remember?"

     "When?" I frowned, acting oblivious.

      "Not two hours ago, in the carriage," he said, his smile widening. "What was it that you said? Oh, right! That you promised to make it up to me for laughing at me?"

     "Did I though?" I faked a puzzled expression, rubbing my chin.

     "Come on, love," he ginned, grabbing onto my waist. "It's just a small goodnight kiss that I ask for, that's all. You promised."

     "Yeah... I don't recall saying anything of the sort," I gave him an innocent smile and pulled away, walking away. "Goodnight, Mr. Weasley."

      "You break my heart, Hooper!" he called after me with a pout and I turned for a moment, giving him one last wink before disappearing off to the girl's dormitory.

     I couldn't wipe the smile off my face all the way up, until I opened the same door we had last year, only now it was signed for fifth years.

     Opening it, I found Hermione looking over her summer notes again and Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil were chatting in a corner in hushed voices.

    On the forth bed, there laid a girl with blonde hair and illuminating blue eyes as she leaned against the headboard, writing briskly in her notebook, which I recalled from last year that it was her diary.

     She was Kathrine Volant.

I walked forward to greet her, but I turned around when I heard Lavender say out loud, "How was your summer?"

Thinking that she was talking to me, I turned around, only to see she was facing Hermione.

"Fine, thanks," Hermione nodded politely, organizing her notes and putting them in her bag.

She expected Lavender to leave her alone now, but she went on, "How's Harry been doing this summer?"

Hermione's head shut up at that. "I'm sorry?"

"I mean... after all that it's been said about him... has he come off it yet?"

"Come off what?" Hermione asked sharply, turning fully around to face her and folded her arms.

"You know," Lavender shrugged. "All that stuff he said about you-know-who coming back? Or about how Diggory got killed?"

"He hasn't come off it, because it's the truth," I said feverishly, breaking into their conversation.

"Why would you defend him?" said Parvati, raising a brow. "And how would you know?"

"Because I know a hell lot more about him that you," I said firmly, making her look away.

Kathrine was quiet in the back, watching us all warily. But Lavender didn't choose to remain silent as she turned on me and Hermione again.

"You wouldn't really know if it's true. No one can tell," she said. "How can we really trust someone who's been having... hallucinations in the last few years?"

"You've been reading the Daily Prophet, have you?" Hermione asked calmly, yet her glare at Lavender said otherwise.

"Of course," she nodded wearily. "How else are we supposed to go about and know what's going on around us? By trusting empty words of a parseltounge, you suppose?"

"Oh, I'll tell you how you're supposed to go on about," Hermione started and then snarled, "By keeping your fat mouth shut about my friend, that's how."