Emma's Sixth Year at Hogwarts has begun!
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Emma held her breath as she peeked around the corner of the corridor. The hall was empty, so she padded across the cool tiles, her bare feet whispering on the stone. She couldn't help but remember the last time she'd been sneaking through the halls after midnight, when she and Ruby had gotten lost while looking for the kitchens. They had run into Killian with his invisibility cloak and he'd taken her to the same place she was headed now.
The Hufflepuff dormitory.
It was a stupid idea. She was a prefect, and this type of behavior should be beneath her. She should have just asked August or something, but she just had to find out if she was right…
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On the first of September, Emma arrived early at King's Cross station. She hoped to catch Killian Jones and try again to get some answers from him. He'd never given her his address, so she couldn't even send an owl, and no one else (even David) knew where he was staying since he'd come of age.
At King's Cross, Emma loitered on the Muggle side for a while, watching people and waiting for familiar faces. She'd finally gone through to the Hogwarts platform and was still disappointed to find she was one of the first students there. Emma stayed near the entrance, looking up every time a trolley came through. She greeted house-mates and classmates, chatted easily with them, but she kept one eye fixed on the way through from the Muggle station.
But Killian Jones never appeared. Even when the whistle howled and the engines roared to life, he was still nowhere to be seen. Emma was the last person to get on the train. She waited until the last moment before the train doors closed to leap through. She'd seen a couple of late students scramble to enter before the last whistle, but not the one she was looking for. With mixed emotions, she trudged down the narrow corridor to the compartment she typically shared with her roommates.
"Emma, what's wrong?" Mary Margaret immediately said, sitting up straighter from where she'd been lounging against David's chest. David and Ruby also straightened up and gave her concerned looks.
"Nothing," Emma said quickly, flopping down on the seat next to Ruby.
"Couldn't find Jones?" David said.
Emma felt her cheeks go pink.
"I'm sure he'll turn up," David went on. "S'not the first time he's missed the train."
"Oh?" Emma said, perking up a little. She imagined a bleary-eyed, tousle-headed Killian stumbling onto the platform mere moments after the train pulled out of the station. It was almost funny. But how would he get to school?
"Ooh, the sweets trolley!" Ruby exclaimed, half-climbing over Emma to get to the compartment door.
Emma hadn't heard anything, but it was the day after the full moon. She imagined Ruby was still in her freaky hyper-aware state.
Ruby threw open the door as the woman pushing the trolley rolled up. Ruby bought quite the selection of treats, her arms overflowing with candies and pop before she whipped her head around to look at the other people in the car.
"Are any of you buying anything?" Ruby asked, making Emma's mouth fall open in shock.
Mary Margaret just laughed.
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Hours later, the compartment was littered with wrappers and bottles, and Ruby was contentedly curled up on one end of the bench. Emma had scooted to the other end to accommodate her sleeping roommate. Across the aisle, David and Mary Margaret were quiet and dreamy. Their cute couple vibe made Emma a little twitchy. It made her think of Jones, which made Emma even more uncomfortable.
Emma breathed a sigh of relief when the train came to a stop. She gently shook Ruby's shoulder and grabbed her rucksack. Disembarking, Emma hopped down from the train onto the packed earth of the path leading up to the castle. She stretched her shoulders and neck before movement in her periphery made her glance at the horseless carriages.
Or what she had always thought were horseless carriages.
"Oh, god," Emma whispered, feeling the blood drain out of her face as she took in the sight of the shadowy equine creatures harnessed to the carriages. She knew their skin would be leathery and pulled tight over their bones, but the sight was still disconcerting.
One of the nearby thestrals was slightly smaller than its fellows. It shook its shaggy mane and whinnied, fixing it's glassy white eye on Emma. It stomped its foot as if impatient, and Emma felt herself moving forward. She held out her right hand, as she had months before when the creature was younger, and it dipped its head to nuzzle and nip her fingers.
"Hello," Emma murmured, feeling a twinge of pain and longing shoot through her. She stroked the thestral's bony neck, and it let out a soft, ghostly neigh.
Emma heard a gasp behind her and turned to find Ruby staring at the thestrals in horror. As Emma watched, Victor Whale, the Ravenclaw boy that Ruby was kinda dating came up beside Ruby and put his arm around her.
"I'm sorry," he said, clearly understanding why Ruby was upset.
Victor could clearly see the thestrals, and Emma couldn't help but wonder who he had lost.
Ruby turned and pressed her face to Victor's chest, letting him envelop her in his arms. He nodded grimly at Emma over the top of Ruby's head. Emma returned the gesture and went back to stroking the young thestral's neck. Emma heard Robin explain to David and Mary Margaret about who could and couldn't see thestrals before he excused himself to go speak to Regina. The relationship between those two was even more complicated that Ruby's or Emma's relationships.
"Maybe we'll come visit you," Emma whispered to the winged lizard-horse. She added to herself: If Killian ever shows up.
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He wasn't in the great hall.
All through the sorting and dinner, Emma's eyes kept darting to the Hufflepuff table, but there was no unruly head of carefully-tousled raven hair or pair of sea-colored eyes or knowing smirk.
Killian Jones was just gone.
Emma knew that a seventh year at Hogwarts wasn't required, but Killian' hadn't mentioned not coming back when he'd shown up at her orphanage during the summer.
He hadn't mentioned coming back, either, her subconscious reminded her.
At first, it cut her heart like Neal's disappearance had. No owl, no word, no explanation. Except Killian had come to say goodbye. Thinking back to his bizarre behaviour on their outing (she still couldn't quite bring herself to call it a "date") and his mysterious disappearance after giving her a sweet kiss goodbye, Emma started to worry.
What could have happened to him?
And how could she even begin to find out?
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After the welcome dinner, Emma wasn't able to question any of the Hufflepuffs. They spent the night making merry and welcoming their new arrivals, including a smiling red-haired girl called Anna Arendelle who kept glancing over at her elder sister sitting at the Ravenclaw table. Emma noticed that the scruffy new Gryffindor boy, Kristoff Trollkin, kept staring at the pretty Hufflepuff girl throughout dinner.
As one of the house prefects, it was Emma's duty to help the new crop of first years navigate the halls and find the dormitory. With a last glance toward the Hufflepuffs, she helped David (who was now Head Boy) and the other prefects gather up the sleepy crop of new Gryffindors and herd them up to the dorms. After the new girls had been settled, Emma made her way to her own room, where Mary Margaret and Ruby were already unpacked and tucked into bed. Still feeling a little wound up, Emma grabbed her pajamas and headed to the prefect's bathroom for a late-night soak. The hot water helped to relieve some of Emma's tension, and when she finally slipped back into her bed in her dorm room, she was able to drift off to sleep.
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The next week flew by in a blur. Between wrangling the new crop of first years and advanced classes, Emma didn't have time to think of anything beyond when she would finish her next homework assignment. But slowly, things started to settle, and Emma was able to ponder Killian's absence from Hogwarts.
Where was he?
Had something happened to him?
Looking up from her caldron to wipe the sweat from her brow in Potions class, Emma saw someone standing in the hallway. The black-haired figure startled when she lifted her head and quickly disappeared. Blinking, Emma shook her head, wondering if the fumes from the potion she was brewing were making her see things.
But then it happened again.
Walking across the green to herbology, Ruby's head snapped up and she sniffed the air. She and Emma both stopped walking, and Emma looked around. She saw a flash of movement and saw the back of a masculine form dash into the castle. When Emma asked Ruby about it later, Ruby insisted that it was nothing. She admitted that she'd smelled Killian's cologne, but that some other boy could wear it, too.
At Quidditch tryouts, Emma was playing Keeper while David oversaw the new recruits and put them through their paces. Stretching her neck and glancing into the stands, she would have sworn she saw Killian. But when she turned again, he was gone.
It didn't make sense.
Why would Killian be sneaking around Hogwarts? And if he was, why would he risk being discovered? The boy had a cloak of invisibility, for crying out loud! There was no reason for him to be standing in hallways or sitting in the stadium fully visible.
Unless…
Unless he wanted her to see him.
It was that thought that had woken Emma up at two-thirty one crisp October morning. And slipping out of her bed, she quickly began sneaking through the halls, being careful not to wake any of the paintings. She skulked down stairwells and padded her way across various corridors.
Eventually, Emma found herself in the basement near the kitchens, facing a rack of barrels, thinking back to the night in May when she'd first entered the Hufflepuff dormitory. She knew which barrel to knock on, she even remembered the sequence. She looked around one more time before raising her hand. She rapped the pattern of five knocks, and the barrel swung open. She took a deep breath and crawled through.
In May, Killian had thrown his invisibility cloak over her before they'd entered, in case there were other students about. Emma didn't have that luxury, so she just chewed her lip and hoped no one was awake.
It was dark in the common room, but Emma's feet easily guided her to the unmarked archway that lead to the boy's dorm rooms. She hesitated for only a moment, knowing that she'd already come that far. It would be silly to turn back, and she wasn't a coward. So she tiptoed down the hallway, careful to mind the uneven floor. She counted doors as she went, silently thinking back to the night she'd first come. She'd felt uncertain then that she'd ever be able to find it again. The door to what she hoped was Killian's room looked like the ones on either side of it, and a tiny voice in Emma's mind asked if she was sure she had the right door. Emma shoved the doubt aside and tried the latch.
It was unlocked.
Emma slowly opened the door and slipped inside.
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