The Secrets of The Sighted (Golden Trio Era) {3}

Rejected

As they came into the castle they spotted Cormac McLaggen entering the Great Hall. It took him two attempts to get through the doors; he ricocheted off the frame on the first attempt. Ron merely guffawed gloatingly and strode off into the Hall after him, Mikayla rushing after him. Harry caught Hermione's arm and held her back. "What?" said Hermione defensively. "If you ask me," Harry began quietly, "McLaggen looks like he was Confunded. And he was standing right in front of where you were sitting." Hermione blushed madly. "Oh, all right then, I did it," she whispered, "but you should have heard the way he was talking about Ron, Mikayla and Ginny! Anyway, he's got a nasty temper, angry about Fred stopping his advances on Mikayla, you saw how he reacted when he didn't get in- you wouldn't have wanted someone like that on the team." Harry agreed that she correct about not wanting McLaggen on the team, "but wasn't that dishonest, Hermione? I mean, you're a prefect, aren't you?" Hermione told him to shut up which made Harry smirk in her direction.

"What are you two doing?" demanded Ron, reappearing in the doorway to the Great Hall and looking suspiciously at the pair, causing Mikayla to roll her eyes, evidently he was a little jealous, "nothing," the pair chimed together, and they hurried after Ron and Mikayla. The smell of roast beef made Harry's stomach ache with hunger, but they had barely taken three steps towards the Gryffindor table when Professor Slughorn appeared in front of them, blocking their path. "Harry, Mikayla, just the pair I was hoping to see!" he boomed genially, twiddling the ends of his walrus moustache and puffing out his enormous belly. "I was hoping to catch you before dinner! What do you say to a spot of supper tonight in my rooms instead? We're having a little party, just a few rising stars. I've got McLaggen coming, and Zabini, the charming Melinda Bobbin- I don't know whether you know her? Her family owns a large chain of apothecaries- and, of course, I hope very much that Miss Granger will favour me by coming, too." Slughorn made Hermione a little bow as he finished speaking. It was as though Ron was not present; Slughorn did not so much as look at him.

"I can't come, Professor," said Harry at once. "I've got a detention with Professor Snape." Slughorn looked at Mikayla expectantly, "I can't tonight Professor, I've got my potions homework to do and I promised to help Hagrid all day tomorrow." Mikayla speaks with an overly, fake, disappointed voice, "Oh dear!" said Slughorn, his face falling comically. "Dear, dear, I was counting on you, two! Well, now, I'll just have to have a word with Severus and explain the situation, I'm sure I'll be able to persuade him to postpone your detention. As for you Mikayla, I can give you an exemption from the potions homework for Monday. Yes, I'll see you both later!" Mikayla's jaw went slack that a teacher willingly gave her a pass on homework, just so she'd go to his supper party. He bustled away out of the Hall. "He's got no chance of persuading Snape," said Harry, the moment Slughorn was out of earshot. "This detention's already been postponed once; Snape did it for Dumbledore, but he won't do it for anyone else." Mikayla had a discouraged look on her face, "what's wrong with you? You just got off homework." Ron asked her grumpily, "I'd rather the homework than go to that stupid supper," Mikayla admits as she took her seat next to Hermione and across from Harry.

After dinner they made their way back to Gryffindor Tower. The common room was very crowded, as most people had finished dinner by now, but they managed to find a free table and sat down; Ron, who had been in a bad mood ever since the encounter with Slughorn, folded his arms and frowned at the ceiling. Hermione reached out for a copy of the Evening Prophet , which somebody had left abandoned on a chair. "Anything new?" Harry asked as he plopped down on the seat next to Mikayla. "Not really..." Hermione had opened the newspaper and was scanning the inside pages. "Oh, look, your dad's in here, Ron- he's all right!" she added quickly, for Ron and Mikayla had looked round in alarm. "It just says he's been to visit the Malfoys' house. 'This second search of the Death Eater's residence does not seem to have yielded any results. Arthur Weasley of the Office for the Detection and Confiscation of Counterfeit Defensive Spells and Protective Objects said that his team had been acting upon a confidential tip-off.' " Mikayla rolled her eyes at their attempt of dragging Mr Weasley down, "yeah, mine! I told him at King's Cross about Malfoy and that thing he was trying to get Borgin to fix! Well, if it's not at their house, he must have brought whatever it is to Hogwarts with him-"

"But how can he have done, Harry?" said Hermione, putting down the newspaper with a surprised look. "We were all searched when we arrived, weren't we?" Mikayla looked at Hermione confused, "were you? We weren't." Harry gestures to Mikayla and himself, "oh no, of course you weren't, I forgot you were late ... well, Filch ran over all of us with Secrecy Sensors when we got into the Entrance Hall. Any Dark object would have been found, I know for a fact Crabbe had a shrunken head confiscated. So you see, Malfoy can't have brought in anything dangerous!" Mikayla then reminded Hermione that Malfoy was also late, since they had seen him walking into the castle as they reached the gate. Momentarily stymied, Harry watched Ginny Weasley playing with Arnold the Pygmy Puff for a while before seeing a way around this objection. "or someone's sent it to him by owl, his mother or someone." Hermione quickly countered that the OWLs are being searched as well, Harry fell silent since there did not seem to be any way Malfoy could have brought a dangerous or Dark object into the school.

Harry went to ask Ron what he thought, but Ron snapped at him, clearly very upset that he wasn't invited to Slughorn's supper, before Ron went to bed. "I'm gonna head to bed too, if Slughorn asks I fell asleep," Mikayla told Hermione, "wait you said we'd talk about what's going on with you now." Mikayla groaned and shook her head no, "I want it to be the four of us, we can wait until tomorrow." Mikayla pulled out her schedule for tomorrow, "um, I'm actually quiet busy tomorrow." Hermione snatched the piece of parchment that read;

Breakfast w/ Friends - 1 hour (9am- 10am)
Visit Grawp- 40 minutes (10:10am- 10:50)
Visit Mosag and Aragog- 15 minutes (10:55am- 11:10am)
Bring Buckbeak flying- 15 minutes (11:10am- 11:25am)
Spend time w/ Fred in Hogsmeade- 4 hours (11:30am- 3:30pm)
Elites - 1 hour (3:30pm- 4:30pm)
Training - 1 hour (4:30pm- 5:30pm)
Dinner w/ Friends- 1.5 hours (5:30pm- 6:30pm)
Spend Time with Avery, Brian and Eva - 1 hour (06:30pm- 07:30pm)
Tutoring Neville- 1 hour and 25 minutes (7:35pm- 09:00pm)

"Woah, you are busy. Since when have you've done so much on Sundays?" Hermione questions as she passed Harry the piece of parchment, "last week, Dumbledore gave me permission to meet up with Fred every second Sunday, under the condition that I focus on learning all my abilities before the end of the year. I met up with Hagrid and offered to help him with some of his duties, and then there's extracurricular activities." The blonde shrugs as she gathered her belongings, "you don't have us scheduled in." Harry points out, "yeah, I haven't exactly felt welcome lately..." She mumbles to herself, "I'm free everyday but Sundays for you guys. That's why I organised Sunday so demanding, so it's only one day a week that I'm too busy for you guys."