Emma sat in the library a few days after the trip to Hogsmeade revising her notes for History of Magic. She was making a timeline of events in the life of Uric the Oddball when Harry, Ron, and Hermione sat down at her table. She put down her quill and allowed the parchment to roll back up.
"So have you any luck finding a place to hold meetings yet?" Emma asked Harry in a hushed tone.
"Nothing, I've been searching the Marauder's Map for days trying to find a secret passageway or room that would work, but nothing," Harry said with a sigh.
"And I haven't found anything in Hogwarts: A History that would be remotely helpful," Hermione said in a defeated tone.
"I'm sure we will be able to come up with something," Emma said hopefully.
Hermione looked at Emma and noticed the hair comb keeping her hair out of her face, "Oh Emma that hair comb is beautiful. Where did you get it?"
Emma touched the comb absent-mindedly, "Oh it was an early birthday present," she said smiling.
Just then George and Fred walked up to them and sat down. They look aggravated.
"What's going on?" Harry asked.
"Umbridge just disbanded all student groups. Including Quidditch!" Fred said angrily.
"You have to get special permission from her in order to continue running. Angelina has gone to her now to get permission for Gryffindor to keep practicing, but it's the principle of the thing," George continued.
"She must have found out about the DADA club," Ron said bitterly.
"Impossible," Hermione said quickly. "I jinxed the parchment. We would know if anyone who signed their name on that parchment spilled."
"Well, whether she found out or not, she's making our lives much more difficult," Emma said coolly.
"Well, I'm not going to let this stop us. Come on Harry, Let's go see if we can manage to find a meeting space. Ron, Emma, you in?" Hermione asked as she stood up.
"Yea, anything to avoid our History of Magic homework," Ron said standing up as well.
"I think I'm going to finish up my revisions. I'll meet you guys at dinner," Emma said.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione said their goodbyes then exited the library.
"George, want to go get some payback on Umbridge?" Fred asked.
"Nah, I should probably get some work done," George said.
"You know, Emma, you're turning him into a productive member of society. It's kinda disgusting actually," Fred said jokingly. "Alright, well I'll catch you later, then."
George scooted into the seat across from Emma then pulled a book out of his bag, opened it, and pretended to study. Emma smiled at him then unrolled the parchment to continue to working on her revisions. After a few minutes, George looked up at Emma, who was so focused on her work, she didn't notice him looking at her. He saw the comb in her hair, keeping it out of her face, and smiled. She absentmindedly bit her lip as she stared at the parchment, suddenly she looked up and saw George smiling at her.
"What?" she said giggling.
"Nothing, you're just cute when you're focused on something," George said getting up and moving around the table to sit next to her. She rolled her parchment up and shut her book. "Come on, put the homework away, let's get a little pre-dinner snog in," he whispered in her ear then slowly kissed her neck causing the hairs to bristle.
"George!" she whispered taken aback.
He smiled flirtatiously and she giggled in response, "What, no one ever comes around this back corner of the library," he whispered, kissing her again lightly on the cheek.
That weekend, since both Gryffindor and Slytherin had gotten special permission from Umbridge, the first Quidditch match of the season was to go on as scheduled. The morning of the match Ron, who was about to play his first game as the keeper, was an absolute wreck.
"You're going to do just fine, Ron," Hermione said comfortingly as she, Emma, Harry, and Ron walked down the Quidditch pitch.
"Yea," Emma agreed, "I've seen you at practice and you're going to be brilliant," she said deciding a little bit of fudging the truth wouldn't hurt.
Ron grumbled in response as they had just reached the Quidditch pitch.
"Good luck, boys," Emma said, giving both Harry and Ron a quick hug and kiss on the cheek, which seemed to cheer Ron up a bit, before she and Hermione went to meet Ginny in the stands.
As always, Madam Hooch blew her whistle and the match began, but not to a good start. The Slytherin's were holding signs that said 'Weasley is our king' and singing a song to the same effect; Ron was so nervous that he let a few goals in within the first few minutes of the match. Emma dug her binoculars out of her bag so she could see better and saw Harry high above the field searching for the snitch. She also saw a small figure that she deemed to be Malfoy hovering near him, no doubt mocking Harry terribly. All of a sudden a bludger sped towards Malfoy. She looked to see where it had come from and saw George hovering with his beaters club in hand having just hit the bludger. She smiled. George looked over to see her in the stands and winked mischievously. All of a sudden an eruption of applause came from the Gryffindor stands. Emma looked around and saw Harry holding the golden snitch; he had won the match.
Emma, Hermione, and Ginny ran onto the field to congratulate the team. Emma threw her arms around Harry and then Ron. "You both were brilliant! Well done," she exclaimed before hugging Fred and George. "And you," she said to George, "Nice aim with that bludger. Draco needs to be knocked down a few pegs." George beamed.
"Yes, yes, celebrate now," Malfoy drawled from behind Emma.
She whipped around quickly, "Oh buzz off Draco. No one is in the mood," she said with hostility.
Malfoy ignored her. "Thanks, King Weasley for almost letting us win the game there. Did you like our signs?" he said.
Ron didn't respond.
"I'm not surprised you weren't able to save any of those goals based on the state of your broom. I expect that's the best your blood traitor family could afford, though. Not entirely your fault, though. Maybe Saint Potter can lend you-"
"Draco, that's enough," Emma said sharply stepping forward as she grabbed Harry's forearm to prevent him from leaping at Malfoy.
"Oh and what exactly are you going to do MacKenzie?" Malfoy said pompously.
"Oh, I'm sure I could think of SOMETHING to write your father about. I'm sure Lucius would love to hear about how you're using your Prefect status to skip classes," she said crossing her arms looking satisfied.
Malfoy blanched slightly, but recovered quickly, "Like he would believe anything coming from one of Potter's sluts-" Malfoy was cut off by George, who had just leaped at him fists at the ready. Harry joined in as Ron stood back, not wanting to intervene and possibly get demoted from being Prefect. Fred, after receiving a pleading look from Emma, pulled both Harry and George off of Malfoy, but it was too late; Professor McGonagall had already seen the fight and was dragging the two boys off to her office.
"I hope you're happy," Emma spat at Malfoy through clenched teeth.
"They're the ones who attacked me," he replied as he pinched the bridge of his nose in an attempt to stop the bleeding.
"I'm still writing your father," she said, no longer caring if anyone figured out about their father's longtime friendship. She turned quickly on her heels and stormed towards the castle in a rage, Fred, Ron, Hermione and Ginny following behind her. They all figured she was heading back to the Gryffindor common room, but after the first set of stairs, she turned to go down the transfiguration corridor.
"Wait, Emma, where are you going? Common room is this way," Ron said with confusion.
Emma whipped around, "I know where the common room is, Ronald," she said sharply. She wasn't really sure who she was madder at, Malfoy or Harry and George. Ron looked back at her, his jaw slack with shock. She hadn't meant to yell at him, but she was just steaming mad. "Sorry, Ron. I'll catch up with you guys later," she said, trying to even her tone, before turning back around to head towards McGonagall's office.
Ron and Hermione both continued up the stairs to the common room to join in on the celebration, but Fred followed Emma down the transfiguration hallway, having to almost jog to keep up with her angry walk. "Maybe you should calm down a bit, I'm sure McGonagall is going to read them the riot act already so you don't have to-" he said before Emma cut him off.
"I am calm," Emma said in a tone that said the opposite.