Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
°˖✧✿✧˖°
A WEEK HAD passed since Hermione's joke in the common room. Ron and Harry had had Quidditch practice and Ron wasn't shouted at during the last two. All four had managed to vanish their mice in Transfiguration, Hermione progressing to kittens and Rory to adult cats. Once Gaia was back in her arms, however, the black cat wasn't too happy. They were in the library Thursday evening, looking up potion ingredients for Professor Snape, when suddenly Hermione blurted out, "I was wondering whether you'd thought any more about Defense Against the Dark Arts, Harry, Rory."
"'Course we have," Harry grumbled. "Can't forget it, can we, with that hag teaching us —"
"I meant the idea Ron and I had," Ron shot Hermione an alarmed, almost threatening type of look, and she frowned, "Oh, all right, the idea I had, then — about you two teaching us."
Harry didn't answer, but Rory did look up from her page in Asiatic Anti-Venoms, "Well, I've definitely thought about it, but it's the least important thing on my mind. But I mean, it would be just you and Ron, yeah?"
"Well," Hermione trailed off, looking anxious. "Don't fly off the handle again, Harry, Rory, please, but I really think you ought to teach anyone who wants to learn. I mean, we're talking about defending ourselves against V-Voldemort — oh, don't be pathetic, Ron — it doesn't seem fair if we don't offer the chance to other people."
Harry considered this for a moment, then said, "Yeah, but I doubt anyone except you two would want to be taught by me. I'm a nutter, remember? Rory, she's another story."
Said girl just scoffed, "Funny, hilarious, even. You're the only three people in school that I talk to, so nobody really knows me, or trusts me. They still think of me as Elio Kennedy's Gryffindor sister. It's a fitting title, really."
°˖✧✿✧˖°
Come the weekend, the four were heading to Hogsmeade. As this was Rory's first year at Hogwarts, this was her first visit to the village also. They approached an old pub with a battered, wooden sign hanging from rusty bracket over the door. Engraved into the sign was the image of a wild boar's severed head leaking blood onto the white cloth around it. The sign creaked in the wind and the four of them hesitated outside the door. Hermione looked around at everyone, "Well, come on."
Harry led the way inside, revealing one small, dingy, and dirty room that smelled strongly of something that had been goats. Rory scrunched her nose whilst wrapping her red coat tighter around her body, having noticed the lingering eyes of old and drunk wizards. The bay windows were encrusted with grime, allowing little sunlight to come streaming through. Instead of actual windows or lamps, there were stubs of candles sitting on rough wooden tables. And what Rory thought to be an earthy floor, happened to be stone that had accumulated centuries of filth.
