Emma finally raced down the hill from the castle, ten minutes late to Care of Magical Creatures. She'd stayed late to clarify something is Professor Sprout which had taken longer than she'd expected.
She stopped at the edge of the group of Ravenclaws and Gryffindors, all of whom were gawking at something. She searched the crowd for Gabriel, ignoring what they were staring at.
"What a pleasure to see you, Miss. Beech." Grubbly-Plank's eroded voice called from the front. "I hope tardies will not decorate your attendance again this year." she sniffed. Emma nodded nervously.
As soon as the old teacher's attention was distracted again by whatever creature they were studying, a hand grabbed hers and pulled her through the crowd.
"Look!" Gabriel smiled widely. "Isn't it... it's amazing!" she gasped, pointing towards the creature. It was a hippogriff. Emma nodded again.
"Yeah, it's great." she said nervously. She got the feeling Gabriel had never seen a hippogriff before. "It's a hippogriff." she said.
"Yes, I know." Gabriel said, her eyes not leaving the creature. "But I've never seen one so beautiful!" She let go of Emma's hand. Grubbly-Plank was rambling about manners in front of the hippogiff.
"Can I have a volunteer?" she asked simply, snapping. Hands raised immediately, everyone, except for Emma, was enthusiastic. Gabriel's hand was up high in the air and she was waving it. Grubbly-Plank smiled, a look which did not suit her.
"Miss Diniz." she croaked. "Let's have our new student give it go." Gabriel put down her hand and stepped forward. Grubbly-Plank led her towards the creature, saying something to her. Emma glanced over, seeing Chase through the sea of red and blue cloaked heads. He was watching the pen carefully, looking fairly pensive about something. Emma looked down.
Suddenly she heard Grubbly-Plank yelling.
"Eye-contact, Miss Diniz! Keep eye-contact!" she screeched. The hippogriff was up on it's hind legs, poised above Gabriel who was backing away in her bow very quickly. It didn't matter what happened next, if she kept eye-contact or not. She tripped, fell, and one of the hippogriffs mightily talon's caught her across the ankle. She let out a scream, and without even knowing it, Emma had launched across the grass towards her.
Grubbly-Plank was restraining the hippogriff with an intricate whip with a cage-like structure at the end. She threw it a dead rabbit and rushed over to the fallen Gryffindor.
Gabriel's socks were red -redder- with blood and she was whimpering.
"Miss Beech." Grubbly-Plank said. "The headmaster, please." Emma nodded and got up. "The rest of you, class dismissed! Back to the castle until lunch!" she barked at the remaining students.
Emma was already running back to the castle. She heard someone faintly call her name, but she was gone.
---
Emma pushed open the huge castle doors and rushed up the carpeted stairs. She'd been to the headmaster's office only twice before, for particularly bad detention-causing acts.
It might have been because she was hurried, or it might have been the sense of sickening guilt that Gabriel may no longer have an ankle, but somewhere on the second floor, she got lost.
The mess of corridors was a blur. Where was she? Suddenly, she heard laughing and two people talking. She followed the sounds until, at the end of a passage, was the ugly gargoyle figure, hunched over like it was angry at them. She stepped up to it very carefully, still hearing the girlie laughter, and then there was a boy's voice, or a young man's.
"Would you two shut up?" it was angry, annoyed, but if it had been calm, she had the feeling it would have been soft and dark.
"Be quiet, Liam." said another voice, deeper, a boy's. The girl laughed again.
"Turn up your music." she said. She sounded familiar. "We've got nothing better to do until he opens up to let us in." she smiled. The first voice made a sigh. Emma felt very meek. She stepped forward into the opening of the headmaster's office, and she saw the three speakers.
The first, Liam, had been a older boy, probably seventh year with very pale, messy, blonde hair. His eyes were bright green and rimmed in dark black eyeliner which made him almost frightful to look at. His eyebrow was pierced, as were his ears, several times. He was beginning to put on a pair of headphones, but he stopped when he saw her.
The second speaker and the girl were standing on the opposite side of the passage from him. The boy was the same age as the first with brown, spiky hair and eyes of the same color. His eyebrow was also punctured with a silver ring and he had his arms around Aerienne, the girl from the lake. All of them were wearing green and silver ties, as if Emma couldn't already guess their house.
They all froze when they saw her.
"Um... is the headmaster in there?" she asked them, nervous. The first boy, Liam, smiled and put his headphones down.
"I don't know. You're the smart one here, why don't you tell us?" he laughed.
"We don't know the password." Aerienne said, a little softer. Emma looked at her. She could have sworn the girl would have been in Gryffindor, but she was obviously wrong. Very wrong. The guy had his arms around her waist and was looking very surprised.
"Why do you need to see Dumbledore?" he asked her. He let go of Aerienne, and instead went over to Emma.
"Why do you?" she asked, still pondering how best to answer the question herself.
Liam and the boy before her both laughed.
"They set off a fang powder bomb under McGonnagal's desk." Aerienne said.
"God, Rea! You're not supposed to tell her that." Liam said. He was standing next to the other boy now. They reminded Emma of two demons she'd read about in a book some time in the past. One could only speak lies, and one only truths. The trick was to ask the question that would reveal which was which.
"I need to get to Dumbledore." she said. "I know the password, if you want to get in faster."
"Fine." said the boy with brown hair. He moved aside and Emma went up to the gargoyle.
"Pepper Imps." she said clearly. The gargoyle leapt aside and the staircase appeared. Aerienne was smiling.
"Don't question with Ravenclaws, Hunter." she was saying, laughing. "Especially not ones who always get their way." Emma gave her a glare.
"What is that supposed to mean?" she asked. Every second she was wasting Gabriel was in more pain. She didn't wait for an answer, she just went up the stairs and into Dumbledore's office and the gargoyle leapt back into place, leaving the three Slytherin's outside.