Author's Notes:
Well, here is the 11th chapter. I'm sorry that I haven't updated sooner.
I'm very grateful to you for reading my story, putting it on alert and adding it to your favourites!
Read and review, please! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and I make no profit from this work of art. However, I do own the plot and some OCs. The image belongs to charmontez.
Chapter 11. Of unfortunate fellows and events
After two weeks of holidays, in which the birthdays of the Scamander twins (2 January) and Astoria Malfoy (3 January) had been celebrated, the Hogwarts students were finally returning to their beloved castle. Unfortunately for James, this meant spending his 13th birthday on the Hogwarts Express.
That morning, the Potter family had had cake for breakfast and the boy received lots and lots of gifts from his very large family and numerous friends. The next hour had been spent on sorting out which of the acquired goods he'd take with him to school. For some reason, James' mischievous grin was almost tattooed on his face; his uncle George had sent him some rather interesting trinkets and he couldn't wait to try them all. Ginny would have supervised this 'sorting', but she had been far too busy with the preparations for her sons' departure.
For some unfortunate first year Hufflepuffs, James took everything the WWW owner gave him. Naughty Noodles, Pixie Powder, Flying Fists and Nosy Maggots were dropped in the said puff's compartment and, as they say, the rest was history. Another not so lucky person was a sixth year Ravenclaw, Persephone Drivin, to whom those first years had run asking for help. Since she was a Prefect she had no other choice but aid them. She had spent precious 45 minutes chasing after the good-for-nothing trio in order to make them stop the mayhem they had caused and, of course, inform them that they would serve detention as soon as the second term started.
'I could've spent this time with my boyfriend, not running after some stupid troublemakers!' thought the pissed off girl. She would have loved to be in Diego Teori's arms and snog each other senseless.
The Ravenclaw beater had the same wishes, but since his girlfriend took care of whatever she was doing, he merely chatted with his best friend and fellow housemate, Frank Stretton. The Ravenclaw versus Hufflepuff match was quickly approaching, thus the two Quidditch players were coming up with different game strategies. Once they had some good ideas they went looking for the team's captain and chaser, the beautiful Idelle Davies.
Another compartment, some 40 metres down the corridor, was occupied by Albus Potter and his Slytherin and Ravenclaw friends. They were all chatting, retelling their slumber party to Sierra, laughing and generally having a good time.
The second term had started on Monday and once again the students were being overwhelmed with homework, projects and coursework. The poor fifth and seventh year were the most anxious, for in about five months they would have to take their OWLs or NEWTs. Victoire Camille Weasley was perhaps one of the most busy and tired person among all her peers. Not even a week had passed from her last date with Teddy and she was already missing him. And being a Head Girl and trying to maintain her excellent grades at the same time wasn't helping her spirits at all.
'I should stop thinking about Teddy and focus on this damned essay,' Tory chided herself. 'I wonder whether he has eaten after his Auror training. He'd better have!'
She sighed. It seemed that not thinking about her boyfriend was impossible. Victoire closed the book 'Quintessence: A Quest' that was supposed to help her write the piece for Charms and left her private quarters. 'I'd better make a tour through the castle and hopefully I will be able to clear my head a bit.'
Somewhere in the dungeons, in a room, which once had served as a laboratory, two people were thoroughly kissing each other. The beautiful red-headed girl was completely naked, resting in a large bed – originally the teacher's desk, which was transfigured by Dominique, her excelling at that subject. Karsten was almost religiously devoting all his attention to her body, caressing and kissing every inch. About a month before her 16th birthday, they were taking the 'big' step – making love.
Victoire had already caught some lovey-dovey students from the seventh to the first floor. They hadn't even had the decency to hide better their not-so-innocent behaviour, snogging in plain view. This irked her to no end, not to mention that she was a bit jealous of them, since they could be with their better half and she couldn't. The Head Girl tried not to be too biased when deducting house points. Near the Great Hall she had encountered the Head Boy.
"Let me guess, you can't sleep and decided to make a tour?" asked Thaddeus smirking.
"As if! I have to finish that Charms essay, but my thoughts are miles away…"
"Miles away in London, I suppose," the boy tried to maintain his smirk; although he was happy she had a person who loved her very much, he couldn't deny that her pining after another man hurt him.
"Is it that obvious?" the girl smiled. "Why aren't you sleeping?"
"Well, tonight was Raphaela's shift, but she was so stressed that I volunteered to replace her."
"Aw, aren't you the perfect boyfriend?" cooed Victoire teasingly. "I see she has completely steered you away from your Casanova tendencies."
"Funny you mention that, Randolph told me the same thing when I left our common room," Thaddeus said rubbing his chin, as if he was pondering something of great importance. "I guess she is more important that the other girls I've been with. You know I've never actually dwelled much on our relationship."
"Well, I'm happy you found someone with whom it's easy to be together," the blonde touched his arm for a second in a friendly manner, "but I have to go farther to be done with this tour. What areas have you checked?"
"I have been through most of the dungeons' corridors, but not all of them, mostly on the west side. If I were you, I'd go to sleep or back to finishing the essay. I'll take all the towers and the greenhouses."
"Thank you, but my head is still full of random thoughts, so I'll check the east part of the dungeons and then I'll go to my room to finish my essay."
"You know better. Take care!" Thaddeus bid farewell and left.
Dom had tears of both pain and joy when they finally joined their bodies together. Karsten was very considerate and let his girlfriend take her time adjusting to their position. Once they started moving back and forth, he found that controlling his body, specifically the lower part of it, was a bit of a challenge. Some minutes later, when his Dominique finally found release, his own was a blessing. He couldn't believe that he could experience such powerful emotions with another person and he felt incredibly lucky to be with the gorgeous red-head.
However, Karsten hadn't felt lucky at all when the door to the room, previously magically locked, had been opened with a *bang*. He felt even more unlucky when the person who had opened the door proved to be his lover's sister.
"Oh, sweet Merlin," whispered Dom underneath him.
Sweet Merlin, indeed.
The days passed by turning into weeks. Dom and Karsten were still looking a bit ashamed whenever they met Tory's gaze and the red-head would always blush remembering her sister's questioning. "I hope you have used contraceptive charms. We wouldn't want dad imprisoned for murdering the father of your child," yes, it was something along those lines. Fortunately, the blonde Ravenclaw hadn't approached the subject ever again, but she did give the couple some suggesting looks, as if saying 'I know what you're doing at night,' and that made the fifth years even more uncomfortable. However, it didn't deter them from exploring their new found intimacy. They were just taking more precautions than they had before.
On 18 January, the Zabini celebrated their birthday, but the party had to be quite short as it was Wednesday and they had Astronomy at night and various lessons the next day. As the merry bunch was slowly leaving the Astronomy Tower, they were discussing Transfigurations, one of the lessons that Slytherins didn't attend together with Ravenclaws, but with Gryffindors.
"I really like Professor Dorothy Switch, no matter what you say," stated Rose for what seemed the 100th time that evening.
"Yes, but she makes us work twice as much as the other teachers do!" interjected Scorpius.
"Oh, Scorp, does a bit of additional work scare you so much?" teased Amor.
"No, it doesn't, but I'd better spend my time on my broom than studying in the library."
"I like studying in the library," replied the red-headed girl.
"Rosie, everybody knows that you'd sleep in the library, if it were possible," Al smirked. He was always quick to come to his best friend's defence.
"You really resemble Ambrose more and more with each passing day," his cousin shook her pretty head, showing her 'fake' disappointment in a mocking way.
"What is that supposed to mean?" asked the mentioned boy. "What exactly are you implying, Rose?"
"She's implying that you're a bad influence to those around you," answered Amor instead of her friend. "What is the world coming to? The 'Am-like zombies' invasion is coming and it is going to change the reality as we know it!"
"Oh, no! Another drama-queen," muttered Tristan. "Am, mate, why do we have such ostentatious sisters?"
"Melodramas, thy name are Amor and Lizzy!" exclaimed Ambrose.
"Hey!" the sisters cried together.
"How… Shakespearian," was Rosie's dry comment.
"I like Shakespeare," said Thea, her faraway look turning towards her classmates. "My favourite is 'King Lear', which one is yours?"
A collective sigh was heard, the previous banter forgotten. The only one who actually answered was Sierra. "Mine as well!"
"Trust Sierra to be on the same length as Thea," Am said. "Never mind that, we should go to sleep."
They bid 'good night' to each other and the Ravenclaws went for their tower, as the Slytherins left for the dungeons. Unfortunately for the latter group, Peeves greeted them near the entrance to their common room with Dungbombs.
"There goes our sleeping," grumbled Albus. "Do we take care of him or search for either a Prefect or the Bloody Baron?"
"You stay here, I'll look for some help," said Lizzy and took off.
"Salazar's biddy eyes, why today couldn't be normal?" was Am's rhetorical question.
"I find Peeves with Dungbombs quite a normal occurrence," commented Thea, a dreamy expression on her cute face.
"Thea…" the other two Slytherins sighed.
Astoria Malfoy was walking through a beautiful park in Central London after shopping, when she felt it – a numbing pain in her belly, which was followed by dizziness and, to her horror, some thick liquid trickling down her thighs underneath her robes. She was trying to keep herself calm and not give into panic, and it was rather hard, nearly impossible. 'I have to get to St. Mungo's, fast! It's just my 14th week, so I should be able to apparate without consequences.' She took in some deep breaths in order to collect herself, found a place where she could hide from prying eyes - behind some rather large bushes, cast a disillusionment charm on herself and apparated in front of what seemed like a condemned department store.
The beautiful blonde quickly went inside the red-bricked building and went straight for the admission point. Once she had reached the reception on the ground floor, she made herself visible and asked the lady working there whether Healer Tracey Boot was available.
"Yes, madam, she is. But if you want an appointment, you have to- Hey! Where are you going? You have to register first!" but the woman was talking to thin air, for Astoria Malfoy had long since left the ground floor.
Although the second floor was designated for contagious maladies, the left wing of it also addressed problematic pregnancies and deteriorating health of new-borns. The healers working on that level had to deal with both magical diseases and care for pregnant women. One such healer was Tracey Boot nee Davis. She had been writing some reports on the condition of some patients, when the door to her office was opened with a *bang*.
"What is the meaning of-" Tracey started saying, but turned silent when she noticed how pale her friend was. "Astoria, sweet Circe, what happened?"
Lady Malfoy hurried to walk inside, magically closed the door and without any warning shed all her clothing. As she expected the liquid trickling down her legs was blood, her blood.
"Oh, my…" Mrs Boot was left speechless. However, not even five seconds later, she had composed herself and guided Astoria to the available bed in her office, which was usually used by the healers who had night shifts. She changed a bit the bed's features, adding two stands for legs, like those used by muggle gynaecologists.
"Spread your legs and put them there. Good. Now, when did this start and what exactly did you feel? " asked Tracey. She had cleaned the woman's thighs and was now performing different charms in order to assess what caused the bleeding as well as check on the baby.
"It has started about seven minutes ago. And I felt pain beneath my stomach, unbearable pain and I was quite dizzy. I came here as soon as possible. Tracey, please, tell me the baby is ok!" Astoria's voice was shaking and it was obvious that she was trying to keep her tears at bay.
The healer said nothing at first; she knew that her friend's baby hadn't survived. "I'm sorry," she began saying, but stopped when her patient's face crumpled and she started crying, her body was shaking, her sorrow completely enveloping her.
"No, no! My child!"
"I'm very sorry, but unfortunately, there's nothing I can do. Please spread your legs properly, I have to take it out."
"No, no!"
"Astoria! If I don't remove the foetus, it might bear consequences, dire ones, and you don't want that," the healer chided the whipping woman in a gentle manner. "Astoria, this is not your first miscarriage, you knew this might happen."
"Everything went so well and I don't understand…" Astoria trailed off; a new wave of tears went down her cheeks. "My child!"
Tracey was panicking on the inside. It was the first time she saw her friend cry like this, she had no idea how to calm her. "Should I send word to Draco?"
Hearing this, Mrs Malfoy quickly composed herself; her husband could not know of this miscarriage. 'This is exactly why I hadn't told him anything. If he were to find out that I lost a baby and my health was threatened as well, he would never consent to try for another child,' her thoughts ran through her head a mile per second.
"No, there's no need," she finally replied, her voice much more tranquil. "I just… Please do whatever you have to and let me go home, I will tell Draco myself."
Tracey sighed, but said nothing else. Instead she started on removing the dead foetus from Astoria's womb. In the meantime, Lady Malfoy turned her head towards the large window and watched as snowflakes were falling down. It was late January and she felt just as cold on the inside as it was outside. 'I should not lose hope! I had had two miscarriages before Scorpius was born. I will try again!'
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Which of the following is your favourite activity?
A) Reading books/comics/manga/fanfiction
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D) Other. Let me know!
My own answer to the previous poll: My favourite colour is green.
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