𝐵𝑒𝓆𝓊𝑒𝒶𝓉𝒽𝓂𝑒𝓃𝓉 | 𝒟.𝑀.

6 | ﴾ It's a Pureblood Thing ﴿

Saturday morning I woke up early again to my displeasure, unable to get back to sleep. I wandered down through the woods near Hagrid's cabin, sticking closely to the edge trying not to go more than five trees deep. I had been warned by several people that this forest was dangerous but on the contrary had also heard that first year students were sent into it as punishment. It couldn't possibly be that bad if eleven year old's were sent out there at night.

I wanted to find more plants, but they would likely have to go down in the common room. This, I thought, would be an improvement on the lack of living things there. Besides. Hilda had unfortunately started to object to the sheer volume of leafy green beings filling up the space on the window sill we shared and along the feet of our beds. Two days ago she had gotten out of bed and immediately yelped when a long vine had wrapped itself possessively around her dainty ankle.

It was drizzling again, October was around the corner and already introducing it's personality. The leaves were lazily beginning to drift from trees creating colorful freckles on the landscape around the castle, except of course for the whomping willow which had been producing fewer and fewer leaves every year. McGonagall had vaguely suggested it's time was likely short during a transfiguration lesson.

After unearthing a few interesting looking plants I made my way back up the slopes with my muddy field bag over my shoulder. There was dirt under my fingernails and on my forehead from wiping at the water dripping off of my hood. I passed by the crooked stone shack that belonged to the large, hairy man named Hagrid. I had not met him in person, but Blaise told me that was unlikely now that he was not teaching anymore. Apparently there had been an incident with Malfoy in third year that had completely thrown him off of it. Smoke meandered from the thin chimney, filling the air with an acrid, familiar smell of fall.

He stood in his nearby garden with a shovel in his thick hands. He resembled more of a bear than a man. He didn't acknowledge me passing, but I watched him intently until I was forced to turn my head, as if when I looked away he would chase me down.

When I returned to the common room people were awake and roaming around in their weekend clothing. I was dripping wet and my hair was messy from being left down in the rain, my long periwinkle dress had mud along the hem. I walked to the back ignoring a few stares and carefully started conjuring shiny glass planters, transplanting my newfound plants, shrugging off my soaked robes on a nearby chair.

As I worked I became aware of some familiar voices. I glanced slowly over to the fireplace where Goyle, Crabbe, Montague and Malfoy sat watching the sleepy green flame dance. They were all wearing expensive looking sweaters, appropriately all a variety of green, and Malfoy and Montague had on dark black joggers. It was always entertaining to see how people chose to define themselves on their days off at Hogwarts.

Of course, most of my personal clothing still reflected my previous academy and was not green. It wouldn't be the first time I received unnerved stares or heard people uttering, "Ravenclaw..." under their breaths.

There was a small girl to Malfoy's right sitting on the couch with them whom I didn't recognize. She was dainty with dark brown hair almost as long as mine. Her eyes were blue, somewhat like Malfoy's and her expression had an equal air of aristocratic authority.  She was wearing a black simple dress and staring up at him while he was speaking to Goyle. She was absolutely fixated on him and I felt a knot form in my stomach.

I finished potting my plants and set them up in various locations in the room, while trying hard not to stare at the intruder. Eventually I had nothing better to do than clean up for breakfast so I headed upstairs feeling uneasy and showered in the girls bathroom.

When I was combing through my damp hair she came into the bathroom and nearly startled me out of my new clean blue dress. It was one of my favorites, with long lacy arms and a large bow that tied it tightly around my waist. Comfortable, flowing, but classy. I had added gold serpent earrings to at least give some credit to my house.