La Vie Comme Un Infirme-Chapter Twenty-Six : The Price is Right
Tuesday afternoon was one of bliss for Hermione. She knew she had received Outstandings on all three of the exams that she had taken thus far (Transfiguration, Herbology, and Potions), so she had every reason to be happy after having studied for ten hours out of every day for the past two weeks. Now all she had to was worry about were Potions, Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Astronomy. But, in fact, "worry" wasn't even the proper word, as she had probably studied ten hours for each of those classes on top of the studying she had done for the exams she had already taken. "Nervous" was a much better way to describe it.
The other Gryffindors, apart from Dean, unfortunately, were not so lucky. Ron had probably spent around thirty minutes on the whole studying (which was in and of itself a long time for him), and Seamus had not even opened a book in the past week, making him the most ill-prepared of all of them.
But, of course, it was not Hermione's fault if any of them failed their exams. She had done all she could do to make them do their best, but now it was all on them. She now had some much needed time to herself.
Well, not really all to herself, as the other first year Gryffindors were walking in a group alongside her. Seamus was even ruining the moment by talking about the exams, which Hermione didn't understand at all. He obviously wasn't going to study, so his constant chatter was just empty words.
"Lupin said we can use notes on our exam, but I don't know what notes to bring," he kept saying.
Hermione rolled her eyes.
"He actually said we can use whatever we can fit on a piece of parchment," Parvati corrected. "We can't just use any notes."
"And it's not like it's going to matter for you," Dean teased. "It's not like you took any notes to begin with. You spend every class doodling in that notebook you have."
"That's true," Seamus nodded in agreement, not sounding the least bit offended, as he knew it was the truth.
The seven of them were walking through the snow around the now-frozen black lake. Hermione wondered how the giant squid was doing underneath all that ice, if it hadn't died from lack of moving space already.
"My toes are freezing," Ron commented roughly, pausing to bend over and examine his shoes.
"If your toes are freezing, Ronald, the last thing you need to do is take off your shoes," Hermione said irritably. Sometimes Ron had no common sense.
"She's right, you know," a voice said from nearby.
Hermione looked up and noticed Sarah Margaret Yarborough, Elleinad Snave, Lee Jordan, and the Weasley twins walking toward them.
Elleinad had been the one to speak, as the accent of the speaker had been distinctly American. Oddly enough, she was wearing a pair of yellow rain boots and carrying a pink and white polka dotted umbrella.
"Really," she said, referring to her last comment. "Your toes can turn black and fall off if they get too cold."
"Thanks," Ron responded, although he sound more annoyed than thankful. "But I wasn't going to take off my shoes. I was going to see if I could get the snow off."
Right, Hermione thought sarcastically. Like he could do that when we're surrounded on all sides by snow.
"Why do you have an umbrella and rain boots?" Lavender asked, almost reading Hermione's mind.
"My other boots get wet in the snow and seep through my socks and I haven't mastered the spell to keep it from happening yet," Elleinad explained. "So for now, I just wear rain boots. And the umbrella's just to keep off the snowflakes…when there are some," she added quickly, "because there aren't any right now."
That actually was a pretty good idea, Hermione had to admit; although, it did look rather strange.
"So, what's everyone up to?" asked George, whose nose was about as red as a cherry. The wind suddenly began to blow hard.
"We're just walking," Hermione answered for the group, pulling her scarf over her own nose.
"The question is: what are you up to?" Ron asked. "Normally, you guys would be putting shampoo all over Snape's desk or something by now."
"Shampoo?" Fred asked, sounding as though his brother was being condescending. "If we wanted to pull a prank on Snape, we would use slime."
"Although, shampoo wouldn't hurt," Lee commented thoughtfully.
"We were trying to help Oliver get back at Flint," George explained. "But, then he decided that our ideas were too 'juvenile'. I don't know what he has planned now."
"I think I do," Neville commented with a squeaky voice. He was pointing across the frozen lake.
Both Oliver Wood and Marcus Flint were absorbed in yet another fistfight, this one much worse than the last. They had literally pinned each other to the ground and appeared to be drawing blood. Everyone around them was screaming in a mixture of fright and protest on both sides, until the unthinkable happened.
In a split second, the two of them had rolled right into the frozen lake, breaking through the ice with a loud crack. Lavender, Elleinad, and Sarah Margaret all screamed in horror as the two boys struggled. Some of the older students were trying spells to get them out, while others tried to pull them out with their own hands. Neither attempts seemed to be working.
The students were forced to watch as the two boys struggled under the freezing water. Hermione only hoped that the giant squid hadn't noticed that the lake's calmness had been disturbed.
Finally, though, after what seemed like an eternity, Professors McGonagall, Snape, and Lupin arrived, panicked, and hurriedly hoisted the two boys from the water.
Hermione heard a thunk behind her as Lavender collapsed onto the snow in shock.
"Well, that should teach them not to fight anymore," Elleinad said matter-of-factly.
Just then, snowflakes began to fall in abundance.
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Dora yawned broadly in the doorway to Sirius' office. It had been an extremely long day of training, and Dora still had problems with the spells. To make it worse, Sirius had just told her that he was going to give her a written assessment on everything that she had learned over the past few months. With all the stress, she just wanted to sleep.
However, the stress wasn't over yet. Dora knew there was more to come as soon as her notorious, pure-blooded obsessed aunt and uncle walked through the doorway and took in the sight of her. Granted, she had only seen them a few times in her life, as her parents had never been close with them, but Dora knew they despised her. No doubt about it.
"I hope they take my offer," she heard Sirius say as he sat down in his desk, his eyes still lined with circles.
The office was littered with papers from more crimes than Dora could count or had even heard of. She wondered how old some of them were and if Sirius had ever solved them since there had to be at least fifty different cases. She had always known how much of a stress being an Auror could be, but she couldn't help but think Sirius was pushing himself too hard.
"From the way Draco was talking, it seems like they will," Dora responded.
Sirius looked up at her and raised his eyebrows. "So you were eaves dropping?"
"Of course," she chuckled. "How could I not?"
She peaked down the hallway to see if her horrid relatives were anywhere near.
"Eaves dropping is what I'm good at," she continued, "although, I really did need my ear potion."
And that couldn't be farther from the truth. Her ear had been killing her that night, and it still was, but to a lesser extent. She rubbed the area around her new earring roughly as she thought about it. But, it would be less of a distraction if her aunt and uncle would just hurry up and show.
Then, suddenly, she heard some intense grumbling of voices from farther down the hallway. She knew instantly that that had to be them. Who else would complain about "Black"? Well, who besides Fudge?
Dora's suspicions were confirmed when she saw her uncle's blond head appear. While he was in conversation with his wife, he wasted no time in casting his niece a grimace and rolling his eyes at her.
It's my hair, she thought. It was curly and violet today, which could be a turnoff for a lot of people, especially the "well to do" like her relatives.
"I hope you're planning on letting us by, Nymphadora," Narcissa commented dryly as the Malfoys approached Sirius's office. Dora could smell an annoyingly large amount of perfume on her aunt's clothes.
She must have forgotten to take a bath this morning, Dora couldn't help but think jokingly, and showed her thoughts with a giggle.
Lucius, not one to play games, forced his way through the doorway and into the mess that was Sirius's office. The look on his face told his niece that he was not pleased with the state of the place.
"What's going on, Black?" he demanded rudely, seeming to want to leave the place as fast as he could. His cold gray eyes were flashing dangerously.
Dora felt horrible for Sirius. Her cousin lifted himself from his chair and stared, pale-faced (it seemed now that "pale" was the only color that his face could produce) and angry, at the Malfoy patriarch.
"As you may know," he began sarcastically, "my godson has undergone some extensive hospital treatment in the past few weeks."
Lucius's expression remained unchanged. Dora was appalled.
"And?" Lucius persisted impatiently.
"And," Sirius continued, "I haven't the money to pay for all the expenses. So," he took a deep breath and glanced around the cluttered room for a moment, "I'm willing to sell you something to pay for them."
Narcissa's eyebrows rose, which, oddly enough, seemed to increase the odor of her perfume, at least in Dora's direction. The teenager let out a cough and moved to the other side of the room, as far away from her aunt as possible.
"What are planning on selling us?" the blonde woman asked suspiciously.
"The entirety of Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place." Sirius let out the sentence as fast and with as much vigor as he could and had, obviously anticipating a great reaction from the Malfoys.
It came faster than Dora had expected. Narcissa's loud and excited comment made her niece jump unprepared.
"The whole house?" she asked, eyes wide. "With everything in it?"
"Yes." Sirius nodded without so much a hint of emotion other than sincerity, which, as far as Dora knew, wasn't even an emotion at all. Or maybe it was. She couldn't be sure. All she knew for certain was that Sirius hated that house more than flobberworms hated salt.
"We'll take it!" Narcissa squealed, looking hurriedly at her husband for confirmation.
Lucius nodded affirmatively. "But not at just any price," he said. "I won't give you more than one hundred thousand galleons."
Before anyone could stop her, Dora let out a disapproving noise. It was just like the Malfoys to be greedy.
"Shut up, girl," Lucius commanded his niece, obviously noticing her disapproval. Dora didn't care about her uncle's opinion, however. On the contrary, it was he who should have considered giving thought to the opinions of others.
"That's fine," Sirius agreed. "That's at least a start. I can come up with the rest of the money I need."
He sat back down in his chair and Dora noticed that his hands were shaking. She knew it was from anger, and she didn't blame him in the slightest.
"I'll give you the money tomorrow," Lucius said roughly, now that the mattered had been settled. He grabbed his wife's hand and strutted quickly out of the office.
Dora didn't think she had ever seen anyone leave in that much of a hurry. And through it all, it seemed as though the Malfoys were nonchalant about Draco. They did not so much as inquire as to whether or not Sirius knew anything of his whereabouts nor did they express their sorrow for him.
Dora was glad that he was out of their hands.
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Jana watched as Harry slept soundly on his bed. He was still rather ill and not in a very good condition to do lessons, so she had decided to let him rest. He had to be the most adorable thing she had ever seen, but it pained her to think about all he had been through in his life. The loss of his parents and now of his sight and mobility. He was a very brave boy to have gone through so much.
And she had to praise Sirius for all the love that he had for Harry. As a single parent, he had to work extra hard and sacrifice more than most.
But hopefully, he wouldn't have to work so hard for long….
Author's Note: Hey guys! I hope you liked this chapter. I thought it was pretty good, especiall Jana's thoughts at the end. Next chapter will be more of Hogwarts, along with a funny look at just how clever Dean Thomas is. And in case you guys are wondering, Elleinad is not a villain and she did not cause Flint and Wood to tumble into the lake. Please review and give me feedback about what you liked about it and some analysis! I love analysis! Anything that you think will happen next in the story.
À bientôt,
Amélie