Rose slowly walked towards Katniss. "Um…hi." She managed to get out. Katniss seemed to snap out of a trance. She blinked a few times and stood a little straighter. She peered over Rose's shoulder and gripped it tightly.
"Where are they taking Prim?" she questioned, rather angrily.
"J-Just to t-the Hufflepuff c-common room." Rose squeaked. Katniss stared at the doors for a while and then released her hold on Rose's shoulder. She stepped back and looked at Rose. Katniss opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted by Haymitch and McGonagall.
"Run along, now." McGonagall urged. "Wouldn't want to be late for classes tomorrow. You too, Miss Everdeen. I expect you would like to sleep now?"
Katniss nodded, grabbed Rose's wrist and pulled her along with her to the large doors of the Great Hall. Since all the students left already, the hallways were empty. Katniss pulled all the way to the Gryffindor dormitory.
"How do you know where it is?"
"We got maps," she replied, focusing on the portrait hole. "I expect you know how to get through, then." Rose tentatively spoke the password the Gryffindors were told by the prefects and it swung open.
Inside, the common room was relatively empty, as almost everyone went to bed after a tiring day. Rose sat down on the sofa, and Katniss sat next to her somewhat stiffly. After a moment of silence, Katniss turned towards Rose.
"What are you playing at?" Katniss questioned. After seeing Rose's confused expression, she rephrased her question. "Aren't you going to question me, about everything? About that day, why I'm here?" Rose opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out. She closed her mouth and tried again.
"I…I want to know what happened. But not now. Later." Rose managed. Now it was Katniss' time to be confused. "It's too much to take in on one day. Or maybe I never want to know…"
Rose stood up and went inside to her room at the same time as Haymitch and McGonagall stepped in. Immediately, the rest of the common room cleared out, probably because of Haymitch's stench. (AN: POV change to Katniss)
Katniss looked up at Haymitch and McGonagall. "I believe you wanted to speak to Ms. Everdeen, Mr. Abernathy? Well, here you are." McGonagall stated. She swiftly strolled out of the common room.
Only Haymitch and Katniss were left in the room. "So?" Katniss said.
"Checking if you're still alive, sweetheart."
"There's more." Katniss guessed. Haymitch replied with a nod.
"Be careful. These people can be more dangerous than the Capitol if they want to." His tone turned more serious, more sober. Something changed in the tone, something that made Katniss know that he wasn't just joking around. She knew that these people must be dealt with as carefully as possible.
While thinking about this, and grimacing as Haymitch sat down next to her, she remembered something she vowed to always do: take care of Prim. "How is she?" Haymitch took a while to process the question.
"Good, I guess. Getting along well with everyone." Katniss sighed in relief. What could I be thinking?she told herself. This is Prim we're dealing with. Of course she's alright.
As if he could read her mind, Haymitch said, "Relieved? Good. Couldn't stand that look on your face when you get worried." Katniss wanted to argue, but she decided against it. Better to save her energy for tomorrow, when she really needed it.
She slumped against the couch, deep in thought. Worrying, mostly, but also just wondering. She wondered why Haymitch insisted she come, why Gale was in such a foul mood on the way, and most of all, why she agreed to let Prim tag along. She didn't trust Haymitch to look after her, that was her job. Even now, she doubted that he even bothered to check. If anything happened to Prim, Katniss would find no one to blame but herself. It would haunt her for the rest of her life. But she couldn't think about that now, she had more important things to do.
Haymitch got up, patted her on the back, and stumbled through the portrait hole. A shadow of a smile flickered on Katniss' face as she watched Haymitch lose balance and nearly fall through the exit. He reminded her of home, a home that was so far away, so distant, and so different from here.
She curled up into a ball and rested her head on the backrest of the sofa. As she closed her eyes, she thought about Haymitch's warning, about how these people could be dangerous. She fell asleep wondering if that was true.
The next morning, Katniss woke up to the sound screeching owls and crumpling parchment. As her eyes fluttered open, she saw Rose sitting next to her shaking her shoulders. (AN: POV changed back to Rose)
Rose had been trying to wake up Katniss for the past 5 minutes. She was a pretty deep sleeper. When she saw that Katniss woke up, Rose said, "Finally. Come on, we're going to be late for History of Magic. Oh yeah, and you're attending all the classes of first years today." Katniss nodded, and then got up. She said that she would be back in a few minutes, and went into the girls dormitory to got ready. Rose waited patiently, reading her new textbooks.
She flipped through most of them, and made sure she had enough parchment, quills, and ink for the day's classes. Katniss came up behind her, and said, "All my things are in my room. Just had to check."
Rose nodded and motioned for her to come along. Since she was a first year, she still needed some help navigating the school. Katniss and Rose ran into Albus on the way to their first class, and he helped them find the way, as James showed him earlier. "Come on, this way," he said as he led them to the class.
They sat down, Rose in the middle of both of them, in the only available seats left: the last row. Rose and Albus pulled out their parchment, quills, and ink as Katniss looked around the class.
Their teacher, a ghost named Professor Binns, floated to the front of the class. "Welcome to History of Magic! I am Professor Binns, your teacher for this subject. Today, we shall start with the goblin revolution in 1847. You should know that the goblins are a dodgy species…" Professor Binns' voice droned on. Rose found it boring, but she knew it was important she pay attention for her exams. She wrote everything down, and despite Albus' uninterested expression, tried to listen and understand. A loud crash broke Professor Binns' monotonous speech.
Katniss whipped her head around to see what was there. Rose turned too, but wondered why Katniss was so scared. Before Rose saw what was there, a shrill scream escaped Katniss' throat.