The Minister's Secret | HP Original Story | DISCONTINUED

~ AUDENTES ~

Ada, though without saying so explicitly, avoided Eris until their Herbology class Thursday afternoon. Begrudgingly, she confirmed that Eris would still go to the Forest with her, Cedric and Cho the following evening after supper. Eris tried her best to keep the conversation going, but Ada simply turned away and continued to de-fang her Vampire sprout.

"Miss Fudge!" Professor Sprout cried.

Eris started at the mention of her name, her sudden movement resulting in her close escape from the jaws of her own Vampire plant.

"Remember, Vampiric vegetation must remain under constant supervision!" The Professor called to the rest of the class.

With an annoyed sigh of defeat, Eris took her plant by the stem and pried open its mouth, trying desperately to get her prying tool around one of the fangs. This was evidently the most dangerous lesson she had attended in a class about plants and thought it ridiculously problematic that the Hufflepuffs should be allowed the ease of defanging the younger plants, while the Slytherins wrestled with the much stronger ones. Eris silently chalked it up to Professor Sprout's favor of Hufflepuff students. She wouldn't call her out on it, of course. That would mean she would have to call out Professor Snape on his favor as well, and she wouldn't deny that it was nice to be in the lead of something like the House Cup, even if it was a close call at the moment between Slytherin and Ravenclaw.

"Why don't we just kill the bloody things?" Draco hissed from the opposite side of the long wooden table, keeping his Vampire plant at bay only by firmly gripping its stem right underneath its head. "They're not good for much, are they?"

Despite herself, Eris chuckled. She could have sworn she only looked away at Draco for a second, but that wouldn't dampen the spirits of a partially sentient plant, much to her displeasure.

"AH!" Eris leaped back, cradling her profusely bleeding arm against her body. "Son of a bludger!" A sharp pain not unlike having a hefty paper-cut seared her arm and she gasped. It only barely occurred to her through the pain that her classmates might be staring; it was something she could hardly care to care about in that particular moment.

"Out of the way!" Professor Sprout shoved aside the onlookers, her wand held aloft in her short, stubby hand. She tugged Eris's right arm towards herself, her wand pointed importantly. Eris hissed in pain, wincing as the Professor touched the wand to the large gash running the length of her arm. "Ferula," muttered the Professor. Bandages leapt from the air and twirled up her arm, wrapping it neatly. The Professor stepped back and admired her handiwork for a moment. "I recommend that you avoid any heavy lifting until it has properly healed."

Eris frowned at her bandaged arm, then up at the Professor. "Yes, ma'am."

The Professor called on everyone to return to their tasks, and so they did. Ada watched her a few moments longer, and only when she realized that Eris had caught her looking, quickly returned her attention to her sprout, a blush spreading high over her cheeks.

At supper, Eris sat to the right of Draco. This seemed a smart decision, given that when Draco was in bandages, she herself had punched the covered arm and knew all too well that given the chance, Draco would return the favor. The only difference is that his injury hadn't been real, and the dull throbbing of her own arm was all the proof she needed to know that it wasn't yet healed and, indeed, very much real.

"How does it feel, Fudge?" said Crabbe. He had taken a particular interest in trying to make Eris regret her taunting of Draco during his "injured" state. "Bet it doesn't hurt at all."

"You know something, Crabbe?" said Eris. She finished swallowing her soup before continuing. "Nothing can ruin my good mood."

"You're in a good mood?" said Crabbe with a scoff.