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COKEWORTH. ┕━━━━━━━★━━━━━━━┙
BRIAR SAT DOWN in the Great Hall the next morning beside Gemma Prince, who was reading the day's edition of the Daily Prophet. She smiled at Briar when she saw her, and put the paper aside.
"Morning. Woke up rather late today, didn't you?"
Briar shrugged. She'd been waking up late more often, something that worried her. She'd always been an early riser, but sleep seemed to elude her these days. She spent most of the night lying awake in bed, only to have to wake up in the morning as soon as she fell asleep. "I suppose. Anything interesting in the news?"
Gemma shrugged, passing Briar the paper casually. "One of the Chasers of the Chudley Cannons has decided to retire... oh, but you're not a Quidditch fan, are you? Never mind."
Briar looked down at the paper, scanning the front page which contained a large interview with the Chaser about his decision to retire. Rolling her eyes, Briar scanned the rest of the headlines for anything that caught her eye.
"Up to 10 Muggles murdered in Cokeworth," a small column read, and Briar frowned. The article was minute, containing only some vague information about a large family of ten Muggles that were found dead in their home. There was nothing about any investigation, or even how they'd died. Briar felt disturbed. She'd heard of Cokeworth. Something about it seemed very familiar...
"Looking at the Muggle deaths, are you?" Gemma asked, buttering her toast while leaning over to see what had caught Briar's attention. "I wouldn't worry too much about that one. No proof that it was done by wizards."
Briar resisted the urge to roll her eyes. When was there ever proof that a murder had been committed by wizards? Most of them were clever enough to not leave evidence, but Briar wasn't stupid. If a large group of Muggle were murdered, you could be almost certain that Death Eaters were behind it.
Briar reached over to grab a piece of toast herself, before she noticed who was sitting a few seats further down from them at the Slytherin table. Freya Hazelwood was laughing loudly, with Rabastan Lestrange's arm around her. The couple seemed to be having a little too much fun, and their smiles made Briar want to puke.
"Noticed them, have you?" Gemma asked Briar, shooting Freya a dirty look. "That one's a conniving little brat. She wouldn't be with him if it didn't benefit her, and anyway, she's a halfblood. There's no way Rabastan's serious about her. This wouldn't have happened if you'd just listened to me and gone for him when he was single."
"It doesn't bother me," Briar replied simply, reaching for the butter. "I can think of bigger problems in my life than Rabastan Lestrange's latest girlfriend. Though I'm sorry if you had any hopes set on him."
