Chapter 19.
Magnolia was sat at the Slytherin table in the Great Hall, between Daphne and Malfoy with Pansy and Tracey sat opposite them next to Theo and Blaise. They had just finished eating, Magnolia had felt Malfoy's eyes on her as she ate. Professor Dumbledore was giving the school the usual start of term announcements.
"It is also my painful duty to inform you that the inter-house Quidditch Cup will not take place this year."
"What!?"
"No!"
"You can't do that!"
The table around Magnolia had erupted at the announcement, Magnolia could see the appalled faces of the Slytherin team members that were near her.
"This is due to an event that will be starting in October, and continuing through the school year, taking up much of the teachers time and energy. I am sure you will enjoy it immensely. I have the great pleasure in announcing that this year at Hogwarts-"
The Headmaster was interrupted by a clap of thunder and lightning that shot across the ceiling of the Great Hall making Magnolia jump. The door to the Great Hall banged open at the same time and Magnolia looked over to see a man holding a large cane and wearing a cloak.
Lightning flashed across the ceiling again as the man began to walk through the Great Hall towards the teachers table. Magnolia shivered as the man looked towards her, and felt an arm wrap protectively around her waist pulling her close to the warm body next to her.
The man made Magnolia feel uncomfortable, his face was scarred and one of his eyes was bright blue and moved around independently of the other. That eye seemed to rest on Magnolia, and she recoiled from its gaze as Malfoy's arm tightened around her waist. She glanced at Malfoy who was glaring at the strange man.
"May I introduce our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Moody."
Magnolia gawked at her new Professor. This was the man that Mr Weasley and Mr Diggory were talking about that morning. No wonder people called him Mad-Eye. She watched as he stepped behind the teachers table and sat next to Snape, his bright blue eye seemed to linger on Magnolia.
"As I was saying," Professor Dumbledore continued, "we have the honour of hosting a very exciting event over the coming months, an event which has not been held for over a century. It is my great pleasure to inform you that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year."
"You're joking!"
Fred's overexcited voice broke through the Great Hall, diminishing the tense atmosphere that had hung over the students since Moody's arrival. Magnolia and Malfoy glanced at each other, shifting apart and Malfoy retracted his arm quickly.
Professor Dumbledore continued, telling the school about the Triwizard Tournament and how it will be run at Hogwarts. Magnolia remembered girls at the Quidditch World Cup talking about Beauxbatons, one of the schools that would be joining Hogwarts along with Durmstrang.
Magnolia was glad when the students were excused, and she was back in her Dorm room with Kaida and her friends. Moody's appearance had shaken Magnolia, and she was sure that a lot of others were feeing the same; Pansy had been quiet since Moody had arrived.
"What do you girls think of Moody?" Magnolia asked.
"Cree-py." Daphne sang.
"Defence is definitely not going to be my favourite class this year." Tracey agreed.
Magnolia nodded and looked over to Pansy who was sat on her bed, reading a book, and scowling.
"Pans, are you ok?"
"Fine."
"Are you sure? You've been quiet."
"I said I'm fine." Pansy snapped back.
With a flick of her wand Pansy drew the curtains around her bed, ending the conversation with Magnolia. She turned to Daphne and Tracey who both shrugged and carried on getting ready for bed. Magnolia frowned, wondering what was going on with Pansy; usually she'd still be hurling questions at Magnolia about how the Muggles had treated her over summer break.
Magnolia crawled into her bed, Kaida was already curled up in the bottom of the sheets and swiped at Magnolia's toes when they came to close to her. Magnolia laughed and pulled the curtains around her bed closed.
The following morning, Magnolia woke up panting; she had been dreaming of flashes of green light and terrorised screaming. She crept out of her bed and into the bathroom attached to her Dorm, quickly showering and washing her hair. She was trying to think of anything except the dream.
When she came back out, wrapped in her towel, the other girls were getting up themselves. Pansy pushed past Magnolia as soon as she had walked out of the bathroom and slammed the door behind her. Magnolia looked at Daphne and Tracey, who were both frowning with confusion too.
Magnolia quickly put her school uniform on and waved her wand over her hair, drying it instantly. She grabbed her bag before Pansy had even come out of the bathroom and left the Dorm with Tracey to go to breakfast. On the way to the Great Hall, Magnolia wondered why Pansy was acting so strange.
Magnolia sat next to Adrian Pucey when they got to the Slytherin table and helped herself to a large cup of sugary tea before tucking into the food. When the Owls arrived, she looked up searching for Hedwig. The twins still hadn't had a reply from Sirius and Magnolia was becoming worried.
Later that morning on the way to Care of Magical Creatures, Magnolia ran to catch up with Harry. He smiled as she wrapped her arm around his.
"Have you heard anything?"
Harry shook his head, "Nothing. I'm starting to wonder if he's even received the letter."
Magnolia waved at Hagrid as they approached the class, scratching Fang behind the ears as she focused on the crates they were stood next to. They were wiggling and Magnolia could hear small explosions from them every now and then.
She looked closer into the crates and recoiled slightly. They were ugly things. They each had legs sticking out in random places, and Magnolia couldn't see that any of them had an actual head which made sense when they would bump into each other and the sides of the crate like they couldn't see.
"Hagrid, what are these things?"
"Blast-Ended Skrewts!" Hagrid exclaimed, "On'y jus' hatched so yeh'll be able ter raise 'em yerselves!"
"Why would we want to raise them?" Malfoy's cold voice came from beside Magnolia, peering inside the crates too, "I mean, what do they do? What is the point of them?"
Magnolia glanced at Hagrid, who seemed to be having difficulty thinking of a response. Magnolia elbowed Malfoy in the ribs and sent him a glare before Hagrid spoke.
"Tha's next lesson, Malfoy. Yer jus' feedin' 'em today."
The rest of the lesson went by in a similar fashion; Malfoy complained, Magnolia glared at him whenever he was rude to Hagrid, and most of the class had some sort of burn on them. Magnolia was secretly glad when the class ended and quickly left with Daphne and Tracey.
She had hoped that the day would get better, but when Ron was rude to Lavender Brown in Divination Professor Trelawney gave the entire class extra homework. Magnolia scowled at him alongside the other Slytherins and hit him around the head when they were leaving the class.
"You need to get some food in you, you get so grouchy when your hungry." Ron replied, rubbing his head.
"I think she's grouchy because you just gave us a weekend full of homework." Harry replied, laughing.
As the three students were walking towards the Great Hall Hermione caught up to them and told them about her lesson. The four of them were laughing when Malfoy walked towards them, flanked by Crabbe and Goyle. Magnolia rolled her eyes, this was not going to be good, Malfoy had his mean face on.
"Your dad's in the paper, Weasley!"
Malfoy was holding the Daily Prophet and smirking. Magnolia glowered at him as he loudly read the article for everyone near them to hear, sniggering when he read Mr Weasley's name had been printed wrong. Magnolia watched Ron from the corner of her eye, he was shaking with fury.
"Get stuffed, Malfoy." Harry said, pulling Ron away.
"Oh yeah, you were staying with them this summer, weren't you Potter?" Malfoy mocked, "So, is his mother really that porky, or is it just the picture?"
Magnolia grabbed Ron's arm as he moved to step towards Malfoy.
"You know your mother, Malfoy?" Harry replied, "That expression she's got, like she's got dung under her nose? Has she always looked like that, or was it just because you were with her?"
"Don't you dare insult my mother, Potter."
Magnolia grabbed Harry's arm too, trying to pull him and Ron away. Hermione was on Ron's other side, helping her.
"Keep your fat mouth shut, then." Harry replied as Magnolia pulled him away.
As Magnolia turned, she saw Malfoy pull his wand out of his pocket and cast a spell at Harry. She grabbed her wand as quickly as she could and cast a protective spell between Malfoy and Harry.
Before she could send a curse back, she felt a hand rest on top of hers and push her wand back down. She looked up and saw Moody standing next to her holding his own wand. He flicked it at Malfoy and grinned.
"Don't want you getting in trouble now, do we Miss?" he murmured.
Magnolia looked away from him and towards Malfoy, but gasped wide eyed when instead she saw a white ferret. As the ferret tried to scamper away, Moody sent another spell his way and it flew ten foot into the air with a squeak. Magnolia's stomach turned as Moody bounced the ferret up and down, and she could feel his magical eye watching her.
"Stop it!" Magnolia exclaimed.
"Professor Moody!" Professor McGonagall's shocked voice rang across the hall.
Magnolia sighed in relief as Professor McGonagall stalked towards the group. She pulled out her wand and turned Malfoy back into himself, giving Moody a stern look. Magnolia watched as Professor McGonagall chastised Moody before he took Malfoy to see Professor Snape and Magnolia followed her brother into the Great Hall for dinner.
Beside them, Ron was grinning widely from what had happened, but Magnolia wasn't feeling as jubilant as he and her brother were. She ate her meal quietly, thinking about what had happened. If Moody hadn't stopped her, she would have cursed Malfoy herself, but that didn't mean she enjoyed watching him be tortured like that.
"Moody!" Fred Weasley said as he sat in Hermione's now vacant seat, "How cool is he?"
"Beyond cool." George continued, sitting next to Magnolia and opposite his twin.
"Supercool. We had him this afternoon." The twin's friend, Lee Jordan finished.
"What was it like?" Harry asked.
George, Fred and Lee gushed about their lesson with Moody, telling Harry and Ron everything that happened. Magnolia wasn't really paying that much attention, she found him strange and she wasn't sure she would like the lessons she had with him. Absentmindedly, she stroked her fingertips across her stomach, tracing the scars she knew lay underneath; she wanted Professor Lupin back teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts.
"Nola."
George's voice shocked Magnolia out of her daze and she looked over at him. He was looking at her expectantly, and she had no idea what he had been saying. George laughed at her vacant expression.
"I asked if you wanted to take your dessert to go?" George smiled, "We could go down to the lake, have dessert there."
Magnolia glanced at her brother, he was still in conversation with Fred, Lee and Ron about Moody, but she swore his eyes flickered to her and George as he fought a smile. Magnolia focussed back on George and smiled shyly.
"That'll be nice, got to make the most of the nice weather whilst we have it, right?"
Together, Magnolia and George picked up an assortment of desserts and said goodbye to the others. When they got to the Lake, George conjured a blanket for them to sit on and the pair got comfortable, looking out at the Great Lake with the desserts in between them.
"You seemed a bit withdrawn back there, what were you thinking?"
Magnolia kept her gaze on the Lake, "I wish Lupin was still here."
"You'll love Professor Moody, his experience in the field makes the lessons really interesting."
"Maybe." Magnolia sighed, knowing that she wouldn't be able to get him to understand her weird feelings about Moody.
"You know it isn't your fault Lupin left, right?"
Magnolia gawked at George, who was watching her with concern. She could see his eyes flickering to her stomach and she instinctively laid her arms over it. No one had seen those scars except her and Madam Pomfrey. Magnolia wanted it to stay that way. They still looked they had been done recently, and the closer they got to a Full Moon, the redder and more jagged they became.
"That's not entirely true."
"He made the decision."
"Because he scratched me. Because I put myself in his way."
Magnolia looked back out over the water of the Great Lake. Nobody blamed her. Even Lupin hadn't blamed her, and he had lost his job because of it. It almost made her feel worse. Nobody blamed her because she was 'Harry Potter's sister'.
Harry got away with everything he did in this world because he's Harry Potter, because he lived. No one knew what had happened in their nursery that day, for all they knew it was Magnolia who had stopped Voldemort. She did after all seem to have more of a connection with him. But she was a Slytherin. Harry was a Gryffindor; part of the Golden Trio.
"It was an accident, Nola. It was no one's fault."
Magnolia sent a small smile to George and let him change the conversation. Truthfully, she hadn't wanted to talk about any of it. It was difficult telling people her thoughts, her feelings, but George was trying so hard to be nice to her and had noticed that something was wrong. She felt like she had to give him something.
Eventually the evening drew in and the air turned colder. Magnolia had had a nice time; she always found being by the Great Lake soothing, and George was easy company. He made her laugh, and he seemed to care about her.
As they walked in, they chatted about Hagrid's Blast-Ended Skrewts and George laughed as Magnolia told him how she had been burnt. When they got into the Castle, Magnolia paused by the staircase.
"I can walk myself back."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, it'll probably be for the best." Magnolia laughed.
"Ok, well… can we do that again?" George asked, looking down at his shoes.
"Erm… yeah, sure."
George quickly picked up Magnolia's hand with his, placing a small kiss on her knuckles before she said goodbye and walked down the corridor to the Slytherin Dungeons. She hastily made it into her Common Room and was assaulted as soon as she walked through the door.
"Was that a date!? Tell me that was a date! I mean, of course it was date! Eating dessert by the Lake, that's definitely a date!"
Magnolia couldn't help but laugh at Pansy's enthusiasm and worry slightly that she was running out of breath. She was talking at a mile a minute and not taking breaths in between.
"You're in a better mood." Magnolia smiled.
Pansy shrugged, "So… was it a date?"
Pansy had pulled Magnolia to the sofa's now, sitting them on one next to Tracey. Daphne was sat on the opposite one with Blaise.
"I'm not really sure." Magnolia mumbled.
"Did you hold hands?" Tracey asked.
Pansy laughed, "Forget holding hands; did you kiss?"
Magnolia spent the rest of her evening giving Pansy a play by play of exactly what had happened whilst she was with George. She didn't mind, she was just happy that her best friend was out of the funk she had been in since the night before.
Pansy was practically giddy with excitement. Daphne was sat on the floor leaning against the sofa they were on now; she had moved off the sofa with Blaise when Magnolia had started explaining what had happened. All the girls had squealed when Magnolia had accidentally told them about the bet that she and George had made at the World Cup.
"Will that be your next date?" Pansy asked quickly, "Oh, can we help get you ready for it? I have a dress that will look amazing on you!"
"Why are you dressing Potter up?" Malfoy drawled as he flung himself onto the sofa opposite the girls.
"For her big Hogsmeade date." Pansy replied, grinning from ear to ear.
"Potter's got a date?" Malfoy hissed, "With who?"
"Oh! Unless they'll be another clandestine after dinner date?" Pansy hadn't even listened to Malfoy before she spoken again, "Can I get you ready for that? Something that will keep you warm enough to not freeze, but cool enough for George to have cuddle you."
Magnolia laughed with the girls as Pansy wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. The atmosphere on the other side of the Common Room didn't seem quite the same, Magnolia noticed. Malfoy had balled his hands into fists so tight his knuckles had gone white. He must have still been annoyed by what happened earlier that day, Magnolia thought.