I won't even begin to apologize for the delay, I know it's unforgivable...Okay, yes I will. PLEASE PLEASE FORGIVE ME!
Whew, I'm done begging now. But I missed you all! And I hope you enjoy chapter 28
"So, what now?" Arra asked Draco as they walked down the stairs to the Owlery, holding hands.
"What about what?" Draco responded.
"What about us? Are we…together?"
He paused, "Do you want to be?"
She looked up at him, "I don't know. I don't think so. I mean, not out in the open I guess. Is
that mean to say?"
Draco scrunched up his face, "Like how do you mean?"
Arra searched for the right words, "I guess, I just don't want people to know we're dating…I'm sorry!" She looked at him with an apologetic face.
His eyes widened, "Oh, no don't be! I don't want anyone to know we're dating either!"
She frowned in surprise and raised an eyebrow, "You don't?"
He laughed, "Arra, don't take it personally! But like you said, it really wouldn't be good for either of us at this point. So we'll just keep it between us."
She bit her lip, "So we're secretly dating each other?" Draco nodded enthusiastically, pleased with the plan. Arra smiled back, but could only think of a certain scar faced Gryffindor.
With things worked out between her and Draco, Arra knew she needed to work things out with Harry. But, she was procrastinating.
It had been two full days since the Yule Ball, and Arra had done an incredibly fabulous job of avoiding Harry. Mostly she went to places he tended to avoid—the girl's dormitories and the library. Today she was relaxing in the dormitories, when a knock at the window got her attention. Walking over to it, she found an owl waiting for her.
Excited, she gave the owl a knut and ripped open the letter:
Arra Love,
What the bloody hell did you do now? Harry and you seemed fine when you told me you were going to the ball! And what perverted little boy did you kiss?
How was that? Did I sound parental? I was giving it a shot. Molly Weasley keeps criticizing my parental skills. She's worried that I let you run around and do whatever you want! And I don't. I usually check if it's going to be entirely life threatening first. I feel our system works fairly well for both of us, don't you agree?
But seriously Love, you've got to stop toying with that kid's emotions! I know sometimes he can be an arse, but all boys are. You must learn this, child. But he is my godson, so I can't hate him. So don't mess it up! Ugh, I'm sorry, I'm not very good at this stern parental punishing thing, am I?
How are things going with the tournament? You didn't mention it in the last letter. Did Harry figure out the egg yet?
Write back soon,
Sirius.
Oops, I mean, Dad.
Arra shook her head and smiled at her father's incompetence as a parent. But she liked it that way. Her relationship with her father was unique, just like them. They could talk about anything without it being incredibly awkward and he never made her feel uncomfortable with certain subjects. She loved the Weasleys and the Grangers both like they were her own families, but it was nice to not have to worry about her father snapping her wand in half if she got in detention. Ron had told her on more than one occasion that he wished he had a relationship like she did with his parents. Arra didn't have to share parents with 7 siblings, and her dad was just awesome. But of course, Sirius felt like he had a lot to make up for what with being in Azkaban the first 12 years of her life and having to send her to her evil Aunt. And Arra felt like she had to make up for the fact that she was sort of evil for a while. She didn't want her father to be ashamed of her. But she highly doubted that was possible.
She folded up the letter, and stuffed in into the drawer of her nightstand so that she could answer it later. She hurriedly walked over to the mirror to take in her appearance, which at the moment, was satisfactory—just the way she wanted to look. She felt that it was best if she looked as normal as possible for what she was about to do.
Bounding down the steps leading to the girl's dormitories, she stopped just before the entryway to the common room. Arra pressed her back to the side of the wall and carefully edged her head around the corner to take in the situation before her.
Seeing as how it was only 10 o'clock, Arra had expected the common room to be busy and bustling with students, but it was practically empty. There were a few fourth years in one corner of the room talking excitedly amongst themselves, and Fred and George were arguing over something in hushed whispers at one of the table, no doubt about a new product they were creating. Other than those few groups, there was only the set of three people she was looking for. Harry and Ron were sitting on the floor next to the fire playing a game of exploding snap, and Hermione lounged on the couch next to them, reading a book. Taking a deep breath, she entered the common room, head held high.
"Hey guys," Arra said, plopping down on the couch next to Hermione, trying to act natural. "Who's winning?" Gesturing to the game of exploding snap, "What are you reading?" She babbled quickly Hermione. Yeah, natural. Right, She thought to herself.
Her feeble attempt at acting nonchalant did not go unnoticed by her friends, who all stared at her with confusion. "Hi," Hermione said hesitantly, "How are you, Arra?"
Arra frowned a bit, "I'm fine. Why would I not be?" A silent understanding seemed to exchange between Ron, Harry, and Hermione as they all glanced at each other.
Arra sighed, "Look, there was a misunderstanding between Harry and I and also between you two," She gestured to Ron and Hermione. "There was yelling and anger and a bit of violence among us all, but we've gotten past that, correct? The four of us are best friends, we've been through more than this, so we just need to forget about it and let things go back to normal. Agreed?"
The remaining three looked at each other, shrugged, and said in unison, "Agreed."
Arra smiled, "Good." She slid onto the floor from her spot on the couch and next to Ron and Harry and the game of exploding snap, "I get to play winner!" She announced.
"Don't even bother Arra, everyone knows you suck at this game," Ron teased. In response, Arra whipped out her wand and tapped the cards, causing them to blow up and a cloud of smoke to emerge.
Coughing and sputtering, Arra and Harry waved the smoke away. "Arra!" Ron shouted with anger and surprise.
"Wha-,' Arra said before catching sight of Ron, whose eyebrows were completely singed off, his face red with anger, making him look much like a tomato. She and Harry then fell into a fit of voracious laughter, unable to form sentences into words because of Ron's ridiculous state.
"What are you both laughing at?" Ron demanded, unaware of his present predicament.
"Your eyebrows are gone," Hermione said unenthusiastically, without looking up from her book.
Ron's eyes widened as his hands flew to the hairless space above his eyes. "Bloody hell!" He moaned as Harry and Arra continued to laugh wildly. "I'm going to get you back for this one, Black! You won't know when, or where, but it is going to happen!"
Arra finally composed herself, "Bring it on, Weasley," She grinned widely, feeling that things might finally be normal again. She was here with her friends, Ron was embarrassed, Hermione was scowling un-approvingly from her book, just like always. And she and Harry were laughing together, just like old times. She ran a hand through her dark hair, but stopped when she felt the chain of a necklace at the base of her neck. Glancing down, she remembered the platinum blond haired boy who had given it to her. And the guilt came rushing back.
Okay, so maybe things weren't just like old times.
After another rousing round of exploding snap, Arra and Hermione decided that they had better get off to bed. Arra plopped down on her bed, smiling brightly and began to pull her hair up into a ponytail. "That was fun, wasn't it?" She asked, untying her shoelaces and pulling her sneakers off of her feet.
Hermione placed her book on her shelf slowly, "Yes, it was."
Arra frowned, "You okay? You seemed sort of quiet down there."
Hermione slowly walked over to her own bed and sat down on it so that she was facing her best friend, "I'm just confused. Three days ago you were fawning over Harry, two days ago you kissed Malfoy, and now you're acting completely normal. What's going on?"
Arra sighed, "I messed up Hermione. With Harry, and Draco and everything. And I'm sorry that I put you in the middle of it by telling you—"
"Don't say that, you know you can always tell me anything, I just want to know what's going on," Hermione cut in.
Arra smiled, "Well I guess right now, Harry and I are friends. And Draco and I are…just ourselves I guess."
"Do you like him?" Hermione asked with disgust.
Arra smiled sheepishly, "Will you vomit if I say yes?"
"That is revolting,"
Arra flopped on her back and swung her legs up onto the bed as well, "Ugh, I know! Trust me, I'm not happy about it either. The whole situation, I mean. I would change it if I could, but I can't control how I feel about him!"
Hermione looked down at her feet, "So are you two a thing now?"
Arra swallowed and looked over at her friend, "Not really I suppose. I mean, I like him and I know he likes me, but we're not in an…open relationship." Technically, Arra wasn't really lying to Hermione by saying this.
"Well," The bushy haired girl said, "You had probably better work on keeping it that way until you've gotten over your feelings for him. But for now, I'll keep it a secret between me and you," She held out her pinky for Arra to grab.
Arra smiled, and linked pinkies with her friend, "Thank you."
Approximately two weeks later, lessons started again, much to everyone's dismay. Except Hermione, that is.
The four friends had been getting along famously, almost as if nothing had gone down between them. None of them ever brought up the events of the ball, so Arra was able to avert the topic of Malfoy, as she was having difficulty trying to tell them of her "relationship". The only thing that was ever brought up about him was that he was an ass—which Arra couldn't argue with. Sometimes he was a huge pain. Most of the time actually.
But then there were the times when he was exceptionally sweet. In fact, last night he had sent his owl to her room with a note to meet him in the room of requirement. When she came there, he had a romantic dinner waiting for both of them, and a dozen roses with her name on them. Afterwards, they had sat on the couch, talking about anything and everything and did quite a bit of snogging. And then more snogging.
Arra could still feel his lips pressed to hers, his hands roaming up and down her sides, memorizing the curves of her body. She remembered sitting in his lap, her fingers entangled in his hair as he kissed her neck while whispering sweet sayings in her ear, making her laugh.
It was this thought that had Arra quite preoccupied on Monday morning before classes started. She sat at her desk, attempting to finish the letter to her father, but instead just staring out the window with a stupid grin plastered to her face.
"Arra," Hermione said, stuffing her books into her bag.
"Mmmm…" Arra barely acknowledged, still reliving the past night's events in her head. That is, until a pillow collided with it. "Ouch! What?" She asked, rubbing her skull where Hermione had hit her with the object.
"Send that letter and grab your bag, we've got to go or we'll be late for Care of Magical Creatures," Hermione said hastily.
"Fiiiiiiine," Arra drawled and quickly scribbled on the note:
Dad,
Come to the second task next week and I'll tell you everything. Or, most of it anyway.
Love,
Arra
She folded up the letter quickly, handed it to her owl, Bob (Sirius named him that, his real name is Apollo, but her father felt the need to call him Bob for some reason), and grabbed her bag to meet her friends at the bottom of the stairs.
"Harry, the second task is next week, you still haven't figured out the egg?" Arra asked incredulously as they walked across the lawn towards Hagrid's hut.
Harry started, "It's difficult! I have no idea where to even start with that thing. Every time I open it, it just starts screaming at me."
"Have you tried screaming back?" Ron offered.
"Oh yes, Ronald, because that will really help," Hermione said sarcastically. "After class today we'll all go figure it out together at the—"
"Library," The three said in unison.
Hermione's eyes narrowed, "Yes, the library, and we won't give up until we've gotten an answer!"
"No amount of time or library research is going to help Potter win this challenge, Granger," A drawling voice came from behind them. Arra's heart skipped a beat as soon as she heard it, and didn't have to turn around to see who it was.
"Shove off, Malfoy. You're just upset because Harry's in the tournament and you're not," Hermione sneered.
"Right, I'm just dying to put myself through useless tasks just to prove how much of an idiot I am to the school," Malfoy feigned dramatically.
"You don't have to be in a tournament to prove yourself an idiot, Malfoy. Everyone in the school already knows," Arra smirked at him.
"The school may say many things about me, Black, but it most certainly has nothing to do with my intelligence," He said, matching her sneer.
"Come on, we'll be late for class," Hermione said, turning away from Malfoy and continuing towards the forest.
Draco continued to stare angrily after Ron, Hermione, and Harry, but his facial expression softened when he glanced back at Arra. She too, smiled at him, pleased that they were able to keep their relationship hidden so easily.
"Don't let him bother you, mate," Ron was saying as Arra turned back around from the beautiful blonde haired boy. "Hermione's right, he's just jealous!"
Harry sighed, "Right. We're just going to need a lot of time in the library tonight."
During class, they were split up into groups of two to study some samples Hagrid gave them, and then decide which magical animal the all belonged to. Harry and Ron had chosen to be partners, and Arra and Hermione worked with each other as well.
"I think this one is unicorn hair," Hermione said as she crouched over a pile of samples, avidly comparing notes and pictures to make sure she was absolutely correct. "What do you think, Arra?"
"Hmm, what?" The dark-haired girl said. Arra was lounging lazily on a rock behind Hermione, switching her gaze between the two objects of her affections: Harry and Draco. Harry was working with Ron, both staring at the samples with looks of absolute confusion, both of them too lost to realize that they were just looking at grass. Draco, however, was yelling at Goyle, his own partner, who had somehow burned himself and had singed the edges of Draco's homework. Arra thought to herself, They are both so stupid. How in the world am I attracted to either one of them?
"Unicorn hair, yes?" Hermione said, shoving the sample up to Arra's face.
"Uhh, yeah, sure," Arra answered, trying to figure out what they were talking about.
Hermione's eyes narrowed, "What were you looking at over here? You have this weird look that you get when you see something you like…" She said, craning her neck around to see Arra's view. "EW! Were you looking at Malfoy?"
Arra scoffed, trying to sound normal, "NO! I was looking at Harry!" She said, pointing about two feet from where Draco and Goyle were working, sat Harry and Ron.
Hermione seemed skeptical, but bought Arra's lie, "Okaaaaay, if you say so. So I assume you don't like Malfoy anymore? I mean, you certainly didn't act like it when we talked to him earlier."
Arra shook her head, "Nah," She lied, "I don't think so. His…hair, is um, too greasy for me. Yep," She nodded enthusiastically.
The bushy haired girl nodded along with her, "Sure. Either way, our main focus right now is making sure that Harry figures out that egg. We can talk about your overflowing love life later."
Arra nodded, "Yes, absolutely," She agreed, they really did need to help Harry figure this thing out. "Where do we even start to even try to solve something like that?"
"Well I'm sure there's a pattern in the message the egg gives out—"
"You mean the screaming?"
"Yes," Hermione nodded. "And if we just come up with a way to figure out what the screaming is saying, or what it means, then we can look up a possible solution."
"Good plan, except nobody can listen to that thing scream for more than 5 seconds before they start to go crazier than Gilderoy Lockhart!"
"Oh! He was such a good writer! It's so sad that he can't even remember who he is anymore!" Hermione said, thinking back nostalgically on their good-looking liar of a teacher from second year.
Arra laughed, "Hermione! He tried to erase Harry and Ron's memories!"
She scoffed, "Well aside from that point, he was just so…" She looked off dreamily.
"Yeah, we got it. He was dreamy!" Arra playfully drew out the last word and draped the back of her hand across her forehead as if she was a damsel in distress.
"Well he's better looking than Malfoy!" Hermione shot back, shutting Arra up at once. A satisfied smirk was placed on Hermione's face the rest of the class.
"What do you mean he told you to take a bath?" Ron asked, a partial look of disgust on his face.
"Maybe he smells," Arra whispered in Ron's ear helpfully.
Harry's eyes widened, "Arra I do not smell! And I don't know! He just told me that he appreciated the help I gave him on the first task, and that I should go to the prefect's bathroom and take a bath with my egg!"
As the four friends were walking back up to the castle after class, Cedric Diggory, the Hufflepuff champion, pulled Harry aside to speak with him in private. Apparently it was to tell him that his personal hygiene was not up to par.
"What would that even accomplish?" Hermione questioned, "Oh! Maybe he's left you the real answer in the prefect's bathroom!"
Harry shook his head, "I have no idea, I—Ron! Stop sniffing me!" He swatted away the redhead, who was attempting to discern if the great Harry Potter did in fact have a nasty case of body odor.
"Nope," Ron said, coming to his conclusion and falling back into step with Arra, "The bloke smells fresh as a daisy."
"Daisies, huh? That's cute, Harry. Maybe that's what Cedric left you in the bathroom—more daisy scented soap!" Arra provided, to which Ron nodded in agreement.
"You two," Hermione gestured to Ron and Arra, "Knock it off! You're not helping the situation."
"Mate, just go do what Cedric says, it's worth a shot. I mean, we don't really have any other bright ideas for figuring this egg out right now, do we?" Ron suggested.
Harry considered this, "But what if it's a trap? What if he only told me to go there so I would get in trouble or something?"
"Then Dumbledore will kick you out of the competition and we won't have to worry about it anymore!" Arra said, "But if it's not, and he really is trying to help, then we'll just be one step closer to winning the whole thing!"
They all exchanged looks, a silent understanding falling over the group, "I think they're right, Harry," Hermione finally said, "We've got nothing to lose at this point." Harry nodded in response.
"Well," Arra said excitedly, clapping her hands together, "It's decided then! Harry will go take a bath with his egg, Hermione will probably go to the library because it's just what Hermiones do, and Ron and I will go down to the kitchens and get some firewhiskey so we can finally celebrate solving this stupid egg tonight!"
Harry laughed, Hermione scowled but hid a smile behind it, and Ron just nodded happily—oh how that ginger kid loved his firewhiskey. "Alright," Harry agreed, "But you all have to be in the common room when I come back so we can talk about it."
"Of course," Arra said, pulling Ron away from the group and towards the kitchens, "Just figure out that egg! And…don't forget the daisy soap!"
Next chapter: THE SECOND TASK!
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Love you all!
-Mav