Chapter Six

'But James hates me!' I protest.

'Oh don't be so melodramatic,' snaps Anna, 'you've just not been speaking for a while that's all.'

'Are you sure it was definitely James?' I quiz Fred.

He rolls his eyes with impatience, 'Yes, I'm sure. Now go and find him and sort out this mess because you've both been driving me and Anna crazy.'

I grin despite myself and hurry out of the portrait hole towards McGonagall's office. I see him wandering out of her door just as I reach it.

'James!'

He looks up the corridor, sees me and grins and, in the style of the corniest movie scene, we run to each other and hug. Now I know that everything will be alright.

I break away at look up at him. My God he has nice eyes.

'Did you really knock out Connor?'

'Well you should have heard what he said about you.'

'I know,' I growl, 'Molly told me. Ugh he's such a prat.'

'Why the hell did you go to Hogsmede with him then?'

I narrow my eyes at him, 'Emma Thornberry's hardly the perfect choice either.'

He has the grace to blush slightly, 'we're not together anymore, never properly were anyway.'

'Oh?' My stomach flips.

'Yeah she sort of pounced on me that time when I went back to the Quidditch pitch and it was just easier to go along with it. I'm sorry, by the way.'

'Me too.'

We walk slowly back to the Common room together and as soon as we enter through the portrait hole are jumped on by Fred and Anna.

'Finally!' bellows Fred, 'you've both stopped being idiots!'

We all laugh non-stop after that, especially when McLaggen walks in a few minutes later, sporting a black eye and looking mutinous. He ignores everyone and stalks up to his dormitory alone.

I go to bed that night thrilled that everything is alright between me and my friends again but also slightly nervous. Anna and Fred both know about my feelings for James, what if someone says something? I don't want to wreck our friendship again. But this worry is minor compared to the relief I feel so I drift off quickly into a dreamless sleep.

The following morning, I'm sitting at breakfast with James, Anna and Fred when an owl lands in front of me, spilling my orange juice and greatly surprising me. I never write to my parents and the only person I get letters from is Teddy Lupin, a distant cousin and the only family member I can tolerate apart from Scorpius. But he wrote two days ago.

I untie the letter and read it curiously,

Miss Malfoy

Please visit me in my office this evening at eight o clock to urgently discuss your Transfiguration mark in last lesson's exam.

Professor M. McGonagall.

'Who's it from?' ask James curiously.

'McGonagall. Oh no, I knew I'd done really badly in that test.'

'You might have got full marks' shrugs Fred. He won't understand what I'm stressed about; he breezes through lessons not really caring what happens with his grades.

'Yeah right' I complain.

I toss the letter in a waste paper bin on the way to Potions. Anna looks scandalised.

'You are going, aren't you?' she demands.

'Of course! I just don't need reminding about it all day when I look in my bag.'

That evening I dash down to McGonagall's office, hoping to get it over with as quickly as possible. I'm a couple of corridors away when a figure steps out of the shadows of a suit of armour, a wand pointed directly at me.

'Rictusempra!' the figure shouts like a maniac.

I block the spell fairly easily and look up at my attacker. Emma Thornberry. Who else?

She looks wilder than usual; her eyes have an almost mad glint in them.

'James was mine!' she shouts, 'You stole him from me!'

Has she gone completely mad? This is like something out of the films which Anna always watches.

'Aren't you going to attack me?' she demands, sounding annoyed that I've not cursed her.

No, I'm not, I think, you're not worth getting into trouble over.

'Fine' she mutters.

Then without warning she throws herself onto the hard stone floor and lets out a blood curdling scream.

What the hell?

I hear doors opening and McGonagall appears in the corridor, looking bewildered and confused.

'What is going on, girls?' she shouts.

Emma raises herself onto her knees and looks at the teacher. She's a superb actor.

'Malfoy attacked me, professor. She was waiting for me in the corridor and cursed me as I walked past.'

This is it. Goodbye Hogwarts.