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𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍

𝐀 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐅𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐈𝐎𝐍
"𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑡ℎ 𝑖𝑠 𝑟𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝑝𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑛𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒."
—𝑂𝑠𝑐𝑎𝑟 𝑊𝑖𝑙𝑑𝑒, 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐼𝑚𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝐵𝑒𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐸𝑎𝑟𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑡
𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 𝟑𝟏𝟖𝟐

⋆⋆⋆✧⋆⋆⋆

"𝐋𝐈𝐀𝐍𝐀!" 𝐑𝐈𝐋𝐄𝐘 𝐁𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐃 towards her as she met them on the castle grounds, the rest of the boys following him in a much more calm fashion. "How's your leg?" 

"It's fine now," Liliana reassured him with a tired smile.

She hadn't slept too well the night before; she and the trio had stayed up all night discussing the night's events. And on top of that, it had been bothering her that not only did Peter Pettigrew escape them the previous night; but now no one would ever know of Sirius' innocence.

"Did you hear about Sirius Black?" Riley asked as Cedric came next to her, sliding his arm around her waist. "He was here! And he escaped!"

News about what had happened had spread quickly around the school, and the fact that the Daily Prophet had an article featuring the story that morning didn't help. 

Still, they didn't know the full truth. And it seemed as though no one would ever know unless they somehow caught Pettigrew in the future.

"Mhm." Liliana nodded, her lips forming into a frown.

"Scary. He was here, in the castle," Devon remarked as the group began to walk through the grounds, the sunlight streaming down on them. "He could've murdered us."

"Speaking of people who could've gotten murdered—" Wesley, who had seemed as though he had wanted to say something the whole time, stared at Liana with anger. "What in the bloody hell were you doing near the Whomping Willow? After hours?"

She pursed her lips, trying to come up with a good answer as she shrugged and offered, "Something?"

"No shit, Sherlock," Devon scoffed as he rolled his eyes.

"What kind of something?" Wesley asked impatiently, folding his arms.

"Mmm . . ." She pulled Cedric's hand off of her waist and interlaced her fingers with his as she continued to annoy Wesley. "Something, something."

"That's not—what were you specifically doing?" Wesley ruffled his blond hair, shutting his eyes as he let out a long sigh. "At least tell me that it was worth breaking your leg."

"I mean . . ." Liliana gave him a grin. "The leg was healed, like, ten minutes later, so does it really matter?"

"Yes, it does!" Wesley said immediately. He wheeled around to Cedric, his eyebrows furrowed tightly. "Don't you care? She's your girlfriend!"

"Of course I care." Cedric's grip on her hand tightened, him obviously taking offence at this as he stared at Wesley.

"It doesn't seem that way to me," Wesley countered maliciously, an eyebrow raised. "Seems like I'm the one—in fact, that I'm the only one—who seems to care."

The group had come to a stop, with the other three watching with a mixture of tentativeness and nervousness. Riley and Devon exchanged anxious glances as Liliana bit her lip.

What was happening?

Cedric shook his head, letting out a scoff. "Wes, what are you—"

"She broke the security rules—that were put in place to protect students against a murderer— got her leg broken by the bloody Whomping Willow, and now isn't even telling us the reason why she had done any of stupid nonsense in the first place!" Wesley interrupted furiously, seeming to be directing his anger towards Cedric instead of Liliana. "And I'd think that you, her boyfriend, would be the one most worried about her!"