Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Chapter 9
"Okay, so where are we going to sit?" I asked everyone.
Hermione and Ron looked at one another with a guilty look on their faces and began to shift around uncomfortably.
"We have to go to the prefects carriage, remember?" Hermione said. "But we'll come by as soon as we can."
"Oh, right," Harry said awkwardly. "I forgot about that...have fun, I guess."
They both looked back at us sympathetically, but they slowly began to make their way through the aisle towards their designated spot. Harry started to say something else, but when he noticed Ginny walking away from us with Dean, he seemed to have lost his words and went red in the face.
"You can't be mad with her Harry," I said as I put my hand on his shoulder. "She was mad about you for years and she just couldn't wait around until yourself the same."
"Where do you want to sit?" he asked without taking his eyes off of Ginny and Dean as they walked into a compartment.
"Maybe we could sit with Luna and Neville like we did last year," I suggested.
He shrugged his shoulders saying that he wouldn't mind that and we began to pull our luggage behind us as we looked around for where they would be sitting. We nearly got to the back and, just when I thought we missed them, I found them both sitting in a compartment in silence.
"Mind if we sit here?" I asked Neville after I tapped on the door.
"Do you really need to ask that?" Neville asked with a grin.
We stepped into the compartment and Neville helped me get my things into the luggage rack before Harry and I settled on opposite sides of one another - him sitting next to Luna while I sat with Neville - and it wasn't until then that Luna decided to look up from the article in the Quibbler she was reading.
"Hello," she said looking a bit dazed.
"Hey," I smiled. "How was your summer?"
"Lovely," Luna said looking out of the window. "Father has been very busy with the Quibbler - it's gotten really popular, you know?"
As Harry responded to Luna, I found myself looking at our door where three giggling girls were standing with pink faces and big smiles. I raised an eyebrow and looked around in my compartment for a moment hoping that they would go away.
"Excuse me," one of the girls said. "My name is Romilda Vane."
"Er…hello," I said.
Romilda's smile faded away when she looked at me and she narrowed her eyes. For a moment, she paused with this dull face expression on my behalf before smiling back at my brother.
"So Harry, I heard about what you did in the paper," she said cheerfully. "And I was wondering if you could come to my compartment and maybe we could get to know each other a little better. After all, this compartment seems to be a bit crowded."
Luna seemed to have lost interest at this point and returned to her Quibbler, but Neville and I looked at one another in disbelief at this girl. Not only was she making a point to exclude everyone except Harry from the conversation, but she was trying to get him to leave with her. And, I guess this was beside the point, but there was plenty of room left in our compartment.
"Actually I think I'll be fine sitting here with my friends," Harry said awkwardly. "But thanks for the offer."
Her smile immediately turned to a look of complete disbelief as she looked around at all of us in disgust.
"Fine," she said. "But come by whenever you like - we wouldn't mind the extra company."
She gave Harry a wink and then walked out of our compartment with her two friends who never walked over to introduce themselves. I had never met this Ramilda girl before, but I already didn't like her.
"What was that about?" I asked. "Have you ever spoken to her before Harry?"
"No, I've never even seen her," he admitted.
"Well, I'm sure it won't be the first girl that comes your way after what they've gone and put in the papers," I rolled my eyes. "But did you see the way that she looked at us - it was like we were garbage!"
"She probably expects you to be sitting with more popular people," Luna said from behind her magazine.
"Who cares who is popular," Harry said. "You are my friends - and you all were there with me at the Ministry, so you should be getting the same attention."
"Thanks for that, Harry," Neville said. "But no one really cares about us. We weren't the ones that fought You-Know-Who."
"We really didn't fight him that much," I said. "It was mostly Dumbledore."
"Doesn't matter," Neville shrugged. "You're the Potters - people care more about you anyway. You should hear what Gran says about you two. She practically worships the ground you walk on."
"I'm sure that's not true," I said. "She must be proud of you for going to the Ministry with us."
"She doesn't act like it," Neville said. "She won't be happy with anything I do..."
He let out a sigh and looked out of the window. I looked over at Harry and he looked at our friend with sympathy. I felt so helpless not being able to make his situation any better, but it was hard for me to see him like that. He just never felt appreciated.
"Your gran has a lot to be proud of," I said. "You were brilliant in the Ministry this past year."
He shrugged and continued to look out of the window without even looking in my direction. I suddenly began to feel guilty - almost like I had stolen something from Neville just for being who I was. It's a horrible feeling really, and I did mean what I said to him. Neville really was a good guy and his gran should be happy. All in all, I felt like she was, but maybe she just had an odd way of showing it.
"I saw his shop, you know?" Luna said suddenly.
I nearly jumped in my seat because I had forgotten that she was even there with us because of how quiet she was.
"W-what?" I stammered in surprise.
"George's shop," Luna clarified. "It's lovely - father thinks so as well."
"Oh, I just saw it not that long ago," I said. "They're really proud of it."
"My father wrote an article about it in the Quibbler," Luna said. "I think that's why it's getting so much attention.
"Er...thanks," I said with an awkward smile.
Although I'm sure that many people read about Fred and George's shop in the Quibbler, I knew that it wasn't the only reason people were going there. The entirety of their final year in Hogwarts was spent advertising what they were going to be starting and it really made their creation popular.
"Oh there you are - I should have known that it was you all talking about the shop."
I looked out in the aisle to see Ron and Hermione stepping into our compartment. Harry scooted over so Ron could squeeze in and I did the same so Hermione could fit in.
"I really liked what they did with the place," Harry continued with our conversation.
"They should be more careful though - did you see the sign in the front of their shop?" Hermione added.
"I thought it was funny," Ron said with a smile.
"It's too dangerous," Hermione said with concern. "They shouldn't joke about Voldemort - he could come after them."
"I seriously doubt that You-Know-Who is worried about what Fred and George write about him in their joke shop," Ron snorted.
"It's in Diagon Alley," Hermione went on. "Voldemort is definitely going to notice something like that eventually."
Ron and Hermione bickered between each other for another couple minutes before we all lost interest in the conversation. Luna went back to reading the Quibbler while the rest of us yawned and looked around without focus. Finally, I decided that it was best to choose a new topic.
"So what's going on in the prefects compartment?" I interjected.
"Nothing really," Hermione shrugged. "Just going over the usual procedure."
"Malfoy wasn't there though," Ron said. "We saw him just a minute ago in his compartment - I guess he's given up."
"Really - which compartment?" Harry asked.
"Oh, come off it Harry," I sighed.
"I don't know what it is anyway," Ron shrugged. "Didn't really pay that much attention..."
Just as Harry opened his mouth to ask something else, a girl showed up at our door. I didn't know her name, but I recognized her as a second year with a particularly red face.
"Hello," I welcomed her. "Can we help you?"
"You're Emil-" she started and then stopped speaking at once.
All of us looked at each other in confusion before the girl just thrusted three envelopes in front of us. They were addressed to Harry, Neville, and me. When we took them, I immediately opened it up to see what it was.
Emily,
I would be delighted if you would join me for a bite of lunch in compartment C.
Sincerely,
-Professor H.E.F. Slughorn
"What's he invited us for?" I asked the girl.
"I-I don't know," she stammered. "I just had to d-deliver the message."
Her face went redder and she quickly walked away without another word. It was like first year all over again with the way people looked at us and I didn't like it any more now than I did then. It was just plain awkward.
"Well, I suppose we should go," Harry shrugged.
We waved to Ron, Hermione, and Luna before taking off in the aisle towards Slughorn's carriage. I didn't understand what exactly it was, but I had a funny feeling that it was going to be awful.
"Didn't you say that this guy was really strange?" Neville asked me.
"Slughorn?" I asked. "Yeah, he seems like he's lost all his marbles if you ask me."
"So what do you reckon he wants with me?" he asked. "I thought you said he only takes an interest in people who were famous."
"I don't know what he wants with any of us Neville - Harry, what are you doing?" I said.
Harry, who was walking slowly behind us, had been jerking his head around continuously as we walked down the aisle as if he was searching for something. What was his deal - was he looking for Ginny again?
"I'm seeing if I can find Malfoy," he said quietly. "Maybe get an idea of what he's up to."
"Well knock it off," I scolded. "You look like a nutter."
"Fine," he sighed. "I guess I wouldn't really get much information at this point anyway."
We walked for a couple more seconds before we found the designated compartment that Slughorn invited us to. As soon as we stepped in, I noticed that we were not the only three people that were invited to this - the compartment was filled with some other people I recognized along with Slughorn who took up a significant amount of the room that was left over.
"Ah - the Potters!" Slughorn said excitably. "It's been too long!"
He shook Harry's hand with great enthusiasm and then pulled me into a rib-crushing hug that made it look like we were the best of friends. This all seemed so confusing given that the last time we saw this man he was so twitchy and irritable with us for having to take the job at Hogwarts.
"And there's Mr. Longbottom!" Slughorn said happily. "How are you doing, son?"
"Er - fine," Neville said awkwardly as he shook the man's hand.
"Have you two met?" I asked him as we looked for a seat.
"Never seen the guy," Neville said as he took a seat with Harry and me.
After a long moment of awkward silence where Slughorn looked around at everyone with a big smile on his face, he finally started to speak up. As soon as he did, I knew that I would have rather stayed with the Dursleys than spend this time with our newest professor.
"Welcome all - I'm sure we all know each other well," Slughorn nodded enthusiastically.
"Sure..." we all murmured as we looked around at each other.
To be honest, I hardly recognized half the people there, but I knew that they all recognized my brother and me when all of their eyes suddenly stuck to us. I shifted around uncomfortably and Ginny, who I just noticed a few seats to my left, gave us an uncomfortable look.
"I assume that we all had a wonderful summer?" Slughorn added. "Mister and Miss Potter - we've all heard so much about yours, what's it like being called the Chosen Ones and whatnot?"
Harry's eyes flickered over to mine and I felt like I wanted to crawl into a hold and never come back out. If I knew that this was what Slughorn was planning I would have stayed back in my own compartment.
As Slughorn began to introduce everyone, I began to recognize the others from some classes I had taken. Other than the three of us that had just walked in, there was Blaise Zabini, Cormac McLaggen, Marcus Belby, and Ginny Weasley sitting around the table.
"I'm sure all of you know the Potter twins," Slughorn said with a big smile as he came around to us. "Although you may recognize them more as the ones that are being called the Chosen Pair."
I felt my face go red as everyone's eyes rested on us once more. Other than Zabini, who looked completely disgusted by our presence, everyone seemed to look either curious or confused by us.
"Er...I suppose so..." Harry murmured.
"That's only what the media is calling them," Ginny spoke up. "It's rubbish if you ask me - they have no reason to call them that anyway."
"Well, from what I hear it's very possible that they are the Chosen Pair," Slughorn said. "I'm sure you all heard what happened at the Ministry earlier this year - an incredible triumph if you ask me."
"We hardly did anything," I said. "And we weren't the only ones there - Neville and Ginny went too -"
"Really?" Slughorn said looking impressed. "I did not realize this - did you see You-Know-Who as well?"
Neville and Ginny looked at each other skeptically before looking back at the professor that had invited us all there. Neither of them looked like they wanted to answer him, but I was only thinking about how good it was to not have the spotlight on us for once.
"Sort of..." Neville muttered. "It was only for a moment really..."
"Not many can say they saw him and got away, Mr. Longbottom," Slughorn responded. "I'm sure you of all people understand this."
Neville's face flushed and I suddenly grew angry with this man. How did he have any right to just tell everyone Neville's business - or anyone else business for that matter. As we all finished up our lunch and Slughorn spoke to each individual, I suddenly realized why we were all there. Dumbledore had told us before that Slughorn liked to be in the company of people that were important and each one of these people either knew someone important or were important themselves. So we were only being drug into this situation because Slughorn wanted to make himself feel important - isn't that just great?
When we were released from the room, I let out a sigh of relief. However, that was soon lost when Harry began to pull out a familiar looking cloak from the bag he was carrying.
"What are you doing?" I asked him suspiciously.
"I'm going to see what Malfoy is up to," he said. "I'll see you at the castle."
"Harry - stop," I demanded. "Even if there is something going on with him it isn't worth going through all this trouble to figure out what it is."
"I have to know Emily," he insisted as he threw the cloak around himself and disappeared from sight. "Just go back to the compartment."
"Fine, but if you get caught, don't come crying back to me," I muttered. "Come on Neville."
When we reached the compartment, Ron and Hermione seemed to be making a sad attempt to keep a conversation going with Luna. As usual, it didn't seem to be going in the direction that they hoped for.
"Luna - I've told you that their existence hasn't been proven," Hermione insisted irritably.
"It hasn't been disproven either," Luna said. "If you only believe in what we have learned, then you have much to learn yourself."
"Hello," I said loudly as we stepped into the compartment.
Hermione looked at us and relief seemed to have spread across her face. Ron looked slightly amused at the conversation, but I could imagine that he was happy that he wouldn't have to put up with their bickering now that we returned from our meeting with Slughorn.
"Where's Harry?" Ron asked when he didn't see him following us.
"He went looking for Draco," I said quietly with an eye roll. "I told him not to, but he insisted."
"I don't understand his obsession with finding out if he's a Death Eater," Hermione said.
"So what did Slughorn want?" Ron asked in attempt to change the subject.
"It was just some idiotic meeting," I rolled my eyes. "You should be glad that he didn't have you all come - it was really horrible."
"He kept going on and on about the famous people that we might know," Neville commented. "I just don't understand it."
"Well, Dumbledore said that he liked to surround himself with people of importance," I explained. "It makes him feel better about himself."
"I guess that explains why we weren't invited," Ron grumbled.
Everyone in the compartment went silent and I could practically feel the awkward in the area. Why did he have to go and say that - he knew that wasn't what I meant by that.
"Ron - I," I started.
"Don't worry about it," Ron shrugged. "I don't want to be around that git anyway."
For the rest of the ride, we talked about nothing in particular. Ron seemed to keep bringing up the subject of the different food that they might have at the feast which earned a roll of the eye from both Hermione and me.
When we finally reached Hogwarts, after we changed into our uniforms, I began to question where Harry had gone. I shrugged it off after a moment when I decided that he was probably just going to meet us in the castle so he wouldn't have to push through the crowd to find us.
"First years - first years over hear!" was the first thing that I heard as I stepped off the train.
A smile went across all of our faces when Hagrid caught our eye, but we only lingered in his gaze for a moment before we went off to get a carriage. All the way there, I searched the area to see if I could find Harry, but he was nowhere in sight. Maybe he got there earlier than I did...oh well, I was worrying too much.
The carriage ride went faster than I remembered and we quickly hustled out of them when we caught sight of the castle. It was just as I remembered and I felt a great sense of happiness as soon as my eyes found it. Even after all of these years, I still viewed this school as my home and I found it hard to believe that my time here was so limited now that I was entering my sixth year. I could hardly imagine ever leaving Hogwarts...
On the way in there, I found a smile go across my face when I saw Mr. Filch yelling at Peeves for throwing forks and spoons at the student's heads. I couldn't forget that Fred and George told Peeves to cause as much trouble as he could now that they were finished with their schooling and he seemed to be getting an early start on that this year.
When I stepped into the Great Hall, my eyes immediately flew around trying to figure out where Harry had run off to. When I caught sight of Draco in the back of the crowd, I suddenly got a sickening feeling that we wouldn't be seeing Harry for a while. Without even bothering to tell the others what I was doing, I made a b-line for Draco who was now making his way to the Slytherin table.
"Draco!" I called as I pushed through a crowd of second-years.
His head turned to look at me, but he continued to walk toward his table with a scowl on his face. I blinked once in confusion before I pushed through a few more people to get to him.
"Hey - I'm talking to you!" I said to Draco as I caught up with him.
"What do you want?" he asked irritably.
"Have you seen Harry?" I asked.
"Why would you think I would know where he is?" he scoffed. "I don't associate with filth like him."
"What's wrong with you?" I asked.
He practically rolled his eyes as he stepped passed me to sit down with the rest of the Slytherin class and I just let out a sigh and went to go find Ron, Hermione, and Neville who had already found their spot at the table.
"What were you talking to Malfoy for?" Ron asked.
"I wanted to know if he had seen Harry," I answered.
"You think that he caught Harry spying on him?" Hermione inquired.
"Well, it's a possibility," I shrugged. "It would explain why we haven't seen him yet."
I glanced around the room again to see if I could find him, but there was no sign of him anywhere and everyone had already found their seats. When the room went quiet and the first years began to march in behind Professor McGonagall, I seriously began to worry.
With each name called out and each person sorted, I became even more anxious and wondered if I should go looking for my brother myself. I looked over at Ron and Hermione and they seemed to be thinking the same thing, but there was nothing that we could do until the sorting was finished.
"Maybe he just got caught up with something," Neville suggested.
"With what?" I asked sounding desperate. "Everyone is in here and he didn't even mention anything before!"
"Just try to stay calm," Neville breathed. "Maybe you could talk to Dumbledore about it afterwards - I'm sure if anything came up he would know."
"Thinking about teachers - where is Snape?" Ron asked quietly. "I haven't seen him since we walked in here."
My eyes suddenly began searching for him at the head table, but he was nowhere to be seen. To be honest, I was surprised I hadn't noticed his absence before - he was usually the first person I noticed in the Great Hall on the first day back to Hogwarts.
"That's strange," Hermione said. "He's usually here..."
"Maybe he quit," Ron laughed quietly. "I would too if I knew that Slughorn was the one that was taking my job..."
"I seriously doubt that he quit," I scowled at Ron. "He's gone through years of this and it's never discouraged him - he'll probably turn up sooner or later."
Once the Sorting was over, Dumbledore stood up to give his usual speech to start off the feast. Once he was finished, he waved his wand and food appeared at our fingertips. Without a moments hesitation, Ron grabbed everything that was in arms reach.
"You're a pig, Ronald," Ginny rolled her eyes.
"Don't judge me," Ron muttered under his breath.
We all shook our heads, but I immediately found my attention elsewhere when I saw Harry walking into the room followed by an irritable man that I had been looking for only moments ago. Although Snape's appearance gave me some relief, it only lasted for a moment when I saw the blood that was going down Harry's face.
Without even a moment to comprehend what was going on, I found myself walking quickly over to my brother to see what was going on.
"Harry - are you okay?" I asked quickly. "Where have you been - I've been worried sick! You're bleeding - what happened - ?"
"Whoa Emily - one question at a time!" Harry said while trying to cover his bloodied face. "You're starting to sound like Mrs. Weasley."
"What do you expect - you're covered in blood," I said as I pulled out my wand from the pocket of my robes.
"What did you expect?" Snape scoffed. "It's practically his duty to make a grand entrance."
"Oh really?" I said as I narrowed my eyes at him. "And is it your duty to go looking for him?"
The smug look on his face dropped and he seemed unable to come up with an answer for once in his life. This was fairly surprising considering it wasn't even a decent retort. What was it about that comment that rendered him speechless? I didn't have a chance to say anything else to him because he was already making his way to the front of the room to meet with the rest of the staff.
"Look at me Harry - Tergeo!" I said.
At once, all the blood that was on his face disappeared. Harry blinked in surprise and began to feel around his nose to see if it was all gone. I held onto his other hand and pulled him toward the empty spot next to me so he cold join the rest of them.
"Where were you?" Ron asked Harry.
"In the train - Malfoy knew I was spying on him," Harry explained quietly. "Tonks found me, but Snape stopped us on our way into the castle."
"So he broke your nose?" I asked.
"Yes, but it's fixed now," Harry shrugged. "I'll explain later - Dumbledore's about to start his speech."
Just then I noticed our headmaster standing up at the front of the room with a smile on his face. He looked around at all of his students waiting patiently for them all to become silent. It only took a moment before everyone listened in.
"Welcome to you all..." Dumbledore started.
He continued on with his usual announcements at the start of the year, but my attention to them all was taken when I noticed something different about the old man. Hermione seemed to have noticed too when I heard her gasp behind me.
"His hand is blackened - what's happened to it?" she asked quietly.
"No idea, but it looks horrible," I grimaced. "Can't things like that normally be cured?"
"I would think so," Hermione said. "It must be really bad if nothing has been done about it."
There was a quiet murmur in the crowd, but Dumbledore spoke over them all and it came to a hush again.
"Finally, I would like to introduce our newest member of the Hogwarts staff," Dumbledore continued. "Horace Slughorn is going to be taking on the position as Potions Master while Severus Snape will gladly take the position for Defense Against the Dark Arts professor - "
"What?" I exclaimed.
Although my comment seemed to have been the loudest, I was not the only one that seemed to be shocked by this. Everyone in the school knew that Snape wanted that position for years, but no one - especially me - had expected him to actually achieve this.
"I believe that you heard me, Miss Potter," Dumbledore smiled at me. "I'm sure that you will find Professor Slughorn is very educated in potion making - you won't be disappointed."
My jaw was still hanging when Snape's smug look caught my eyes. I couldn't believe it - this was not what I wanted at all. Potions was my favorite subject and Snape was the only person that I ever thought would be teaching me. If this wasn't the biggest shock that I had gotten all day, then I didn't know what was.
"Okay, that is all for today," Dumbledore said over the crowd. "I am sure that you all are tired - off to bed!"
It took a moment for us all to digest what we had just heard before we all began to walk toward the door. Well, all except for me. Instead of walking with everyone else, I found myself walking directly toward my newest Defense Against the Dark Arts professor - it was almost difficult for me to think of Snape with that title.
"Can I help you, Miss Potter?" Snape asked me with a cocky smile.
"Defense Against the Dark Arts?" I said in disbelief.
"That's right," Snape nodded.
"But why?" I asked hardly able to form those two words.
"It's what I wanted," Snape answered.
"But the position is cursed," I sputtered. "You can't - what if you-"
"That is no concern of yours, Miss Potter," Snape said bluntly. "Now off to your dormitory."
"Every person that's been in that spot hasn't made it out without something horrible happening to them," I said.
"And your point is?" Snape asked.
"My point is that you're putting yourself in danger by taking on this job," I said.
"It's kind of you to consider this," Snape muttered. "But this is my decision - not yours. Besides, you were under the assumption that Professor Slughorn was taking this position and you had no problem with that, did you?"
I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out. He had a point. When we went to retrieve Slughorn, I hardly even considered the man's safety when he took on this teaching position. But it was somehow different now - I didn't want to see Snape, the man I had known for so many years, get hurt.
"That's what I thought," Snape said. "Now I have things I need to do before we start class tomorrow, so go to bed."
"Fine," I said in defeat. "Good night."
He nodded and then joined the crowd as they exited the room. I was still not happy about the situation, but there wasn't anything that I could do to change it.
...
It wasn't long before we all found ourselves sitting around the fire in the Gryffindor common room. At this point, most people were already in their beds asleep, but I just couldn't go to bed with so many things going on in my head.
Even though I felt very conflicted about everything, everyone else seemed to have mellowed out since the sun had gone down. Hermione looked like she was tossing some things around in her head, but I had a funny feeling that it wasn't the same thing as what I was thinking.
"Well, I'm going to go to bed," Harry yawned. "Goodnight everyone..."
"I'm going too," Ron added. "Goodnight Emily - goodnight Hermione."
We both smiled as they passed by us, but I had a feeling that I didn't want to be left alone with Hermione. She had a look in her eye every time she looked at me that made me feel that I was about to be attacked.
As soon as everyone got up the stairs, Hermione immediately gave me a stern look as she flipped the page of the book that she was pretending to read.
"What's wrong with you?" I asked with a small laugh.
"Nothing's wrong with me," Hermione said as she closed her book. "What about you though - anything new?"
Although the phrase seemed casual, the tone was the furthest thing from it. She was accusing me of something and she definitely wasn't happy about something. But what was it?
"Not particularly," I said hesitantly. "Other than what happened in the Great Hall today..."
"I'm not talking about that," Hermione said. "I want to know what happened between George and you - and don't even try to deny that something is up."
My face suddenly drained as I realized what she was talking about. I guess that George and I weren't as subtle as I was hoping we were.
"It's not really your business Hermione," I said.
"You had sex - didn't you?" she asked quietly.
I went silent and couldn't find the words to even try to deny the action. Not that there would have been any point because she would have known I was lying as soon as I spoke.
"This is a big deal, you know that?" Hermione said.
"People do it every day, Hermione," I said. "And it wasn't like we weren't being smart - we used protection."
"But you're only sixteen," she sighed.
"I know," I said while not meeting her eyes. "But why is that such a bad thing - it isn't like I committed a crime."
"I know," Hermione said. "I just thought you would have talked to me about it before you did it..."
"It isn't like we planned it," I said. "It just sort of happened."
"Fine, I'm just trying to say that you need to be careful..." Hermione murmured.
"I know," I said.
There was a moment of silence where Hermione put her book down on the table next to her before she looked back at me with a curious look in her eye.
"So...how was it?" she asked hesitantly.
My face immediately became hot and I felt like I wanted to run away.
"It was...nice," I said slowly. "Hermione, I really don't feel comfortable talking about it right now."
"No, no, that's fine," she said quickly. "I was just wondering, that's all."
She awkwardly picked at her nails and I suddenly found interest in every object in the room that was not around her. Anything to avoid eye contact really.
"Well, I'm tired," Hermione said suddenly as she stood up.
"Me too," I lied and put on a fake yawn.
We both walked quickly up the steps as I tried to put that conversation in the darkest part of my mind. It wasn't that I didn't trust Hermione enough to talk to her about such a private part of my life, but I just wasn't sure if I could talk about it with anyone yet - it was just a difficult thing to wrap my head around. To be honest, even though it was something that I had on my mind for the majority of the day, I could hardly get over the idea that I did it myself.
There were just too many things happening at once.
Thanks for reading! Sorry that I posted this so late, but I lost power for a couple of days and then I just got over the flu. Regardless, I am going to try to have the next chapter posted within the next week.
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