| Inked | (George Weasley)

Chapter One Hundred

Entering the Great Hall for the start of term feast usually brought excitement amongst the students at Hogwarts.

However, as Olive followed the rest of her House, adjusting her tie as she made her way over to the Ravenclaw table, she immediately sensed that something was off. Perhaps there was still uneasiness about the morbid conclusion of the TriWizard Tournament, or maybe students were tense from the turmoil between Dumbledore and the Ministry. Maybe Ollie was misreading the room entirely.

As she sat down across from Cho and Nat, her eyes scanned the teacher's table at the front of the hall. Even through the professors waved and greeted the students as they came in, there was still a tenseness in the way they interacted with each other. Especially towards someone amongst the staff that Olive did not recognize.

She was a short, stout woman, dressed in all pink (which was a stark contrast to the attire of everyone else in the Great Hall). Her face had the squashed resemblance to a toad, with a narrowed stare gazing upon the students with the utmost smugness. She interacted with no professor, made no eye-contact with any student, and sat with her legs crossed at the ankle.

"Who's that?" Olive leaned in, keeping her voice low despite the increasingly loud chatter as students entered the Great Hall.

Nat took one look at the woman and frowned, her nose crinkling at the shockingly pink outfit, "No idea."

Cho fixed her gaze on the mysterious new witch at the teacher's table, "Suppose she's a new professor? We've had a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher every year since we've basically been students here."

Olive nodded, though couldn't help the frown that pulled down the corners of her lips. If this woman was to be their new DADA professor... she didn't look exactly thrilled to be there. However, the Ravenclaw did not want to judge her entirely before she's even formally met or interacted with the woman. Though, given the looks of the professors when their eyes swept that way, they didn't seem too trilled about the pink woman's presence.

"Whoever she is... she doesn't seem to be making a good impression on the other professors." Olive's blue eyes trailed over to Dumbledore, who was most obviously faking a polite smile as he walked past her.

Once all returning students were seated, the first years, let by Professor McGonagall, walked into the Hall. Olive tried to keep a polite smile on her face as they were sorted, and clapped when a few were sorted into Ravenclaw, but her mind could not stop thinking about that miserable looking pink woman and her awaited introduction that had yet to happen.

And no offense to the first years, but it was hard to be extremely excited about the Sorting Ceremony when it was your seventh one... and when there were plenty of other worrisome things boggling your mind.

To try and keep her mind from her anxious thoughts, Olive's eyes trailed over to the Gryffindor table. She noticed Harry, Hermione, and Ron huddled together as they whispered. Harry, who seemed to know who the pink woman was, nodded to her with a sour look on his face. Moving her gaze further up the table, Ollie found George and Fred.

Fred caught her gaze and offered her a wave, making a few faces at her in the process. He then nudged George, who followed his brother's gaze until his eyes were fixed upon Olive. He smiled, raising his brows as if to indicate how bored he was.

Olive bit her lip to conceal her smile. She shrugged.

"I miss you." He mouthed, turning his lips into a pout.

George pressed his hands together as if he were praying, and held them to the side of his face. He looked at her with a pointed look, everything he needed to say in the warm yet mischievous glint in his dark eyes.