TRAINING WHEELS | draco malfoy ✔️

32. romeo and juliet of hogwarts

TRAINING WHEELS—
ROMEO AND JULIET OF HOGWARTS.

032

A couple of weeks passed and April had brought sunshine to Hogwarts, much to Amora's relief. Even though her friends were swamped with trying to get Hermione's name out of Rita Skeeter's mouth, Amora, in herself, was feeling brighter than she had before. She'd stopped taking the Dreamless Sleep Potions last week and so far she'd had nothing but dreams with their usual amount of bizarreness.

"Hermione, don't listen to them," Amora sighed, grabbing the brunette and pulling her away from some older Slytherin girls who'd taunted her in the corridors. "Everybody who's important knows you aren't dating Harry."

"I'm not worried about that!" Hermione huffed as Kathy furrowed her brows from the other side of her. "It's annoying, but I'm more focused on the fact that Rita Skeeter seems to know all of these secrets even though she's been banned from the school grounds."

"Harry and Ron said nobody else had been around when Hagrid told Madam Maxime he was a half-giant," Kathy recalled.

"Exactly," Hermione said, "Just like nobody had been around when Viktor asked me to visit him over the summer— which had somehow ended up in her stupid article too."

Amora frowned softly. "It must be some sort of magic we don't know about."

"Or they're bugging the school," Kathy suggested.

"Bugging?" Amora repeated. This was not a Muggle-term her mother had taught her.

It sounded pretty cool.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "For goodness sake, Kathy! You're just as bad as Harry and Ron. Hogwarts: A History clearly states that any sort of Muggle technology does not work on school grounds!"

"Well, I forgot," Kathy grumbled bashfully.

"She's listening somehow," Hermione said, "and I'll get to the bottom of this. One way or another."

Hermione's words stuck with Amora for the next few days. She stressed that perhaps Hermione was actually right and that somehow Rita Skeeter was listening to people inside the walls of Hogwarts, attempting to find the juiciest scoops and ruin lives. Just like she'd tried to do with Hagrid and now Hermione— an innocent teenage girl.

Hermione told her that she'd received numerous pieces of hate mail and some had been sent as Howlers to the Gryffindor table, embarrassing the poor Granger girl in front of everybody during mealtimes.

No doubt if Rita Skeeter caught a whiff of Draco and Amora would she exploit it. Normally, people wouldn't care about a silly teenage relationship, only Draco was a Malfoy, and he Amora was the daughter of a Muggle Studies teacher— and their relationship was a secret from everybody.

The thought sent shivers down her spine. Amora flicked through her book from where she sat in her Herbology lesson, trying to find the page that Professor Sprout had instructed them to open to. She was surprised when a paper crane swiftly flew through the air and gently landed on top of her pages, unfolding itself delicately.

ASTRONOMY TOWER. 11.
yours, DM.

He'd even gone to the effort of sketching out the tower, drawing some stars around the top. Amora found herself smiling as she folded it and secretly tucked it away into the pocket of her robe, making sure Neville didn't see from next to her. Luckily the boy was too entranced in his own work.

Amora waited until eleven that night. She was particularly frustrated when Susan seemed to be adamant on finishing some homework, her freckled nose stuck in her Charms work from that morning. Kathy was also awake still, silently reading for leisure under the dim light.