𝕮𝖀𝕽𝕾𝕰𝕯 {𝐴 𝐶𝑒𝑑𝑟𝑖𝑐 𝐷𝑖𝑔𝑔𝑜𝑟𝑦 𝐹𝑎𝑛𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛}

SEVEN

"I can never miss a DADA lesson this year. We finally have a teacher who knows what he's doing, Lockhart was all talk no action, Quirrell was hiding Voldemort underneath his turban, I don't even want to talk about the other two" Hayden spoke as he and his sister left the classroom "I mean, if third years are learning about boggarts in their third year and we have just learned about it in our fifth year- I pray to Merlin that he actually stays until we graduate" 

"You're not the only one, I overheard a few seventh years talking about how behind they are because of Lockhart. I honestly pity the previous seventh years, I think that the only way they would pass DADA is if they read ahead of the professor" Alex commented as her friends joined them "That was both terrifying and awesome, standing in front of the thing you fear the most" Katrina exclaimed "I didn't go since the whole country knows my fear" Alex spoke "I didn't go because I don't want to face it" Hayden said 

"Now Marissa who had to face a giant cockroach-" "Don't bring it up please" she whined laying her head on his shoulder "I'm sorry" he kissed her on the forehead and the other three started making kissing noises "I'm the only one supposed to be making those noises since I'm the only single one" Katrina complained "He's my brother, she's my best friend, what's your excuse Mel" Alex looked at Amelia "I just wanted to" she answered as Hayden and Marissa separated from them

"I need to go too, professor Snape called me to his office earlier on and I've been avoiding him" Katrina said and bid them farewell "Alex, what happened to your neck, it's red, very red" Amelia asked her lowering her collar "It's a rash" Alex quickly covered it "Don't worry about it, I need to go" she said and left her friend behind and rushing into the nearest bathroom. "Hoodman, nice to see you again" a voice pulled her out of her daze "Myrtle" she snarled as she looked up in the mirror and came face to face with the ghost. 

"That's a pretty bad rash, shouldn't you get that checked out" the ghost commented and Alex pulled down her collar and saw her red skin. "Don't you think that you should just tell someone instead of doing that" "I can't- you wouldn't understand the situation" "Oh, because I'm dead, right. I won't understand because I haven't been alive for fifty years" the ghost spoke in her high-pitched voice "No, that's not what I meant-" "No, I completely understand you. You keep wallowing in your misery because of problems I'll never understand" she floated away and entered one of the toilets.

Alex just slid down the wall and buried her head between her knees. It had been a few weeks since they received the letter, a few weeks of not knowing anything about her father, a few weeks with no word about her mother, a few weeks of insomnia and paranoia. Even though she hadn't seen him yet, she could already see the smile on his face, he was probably feeling proud of the suffering he's causing her even without making physical contact with her. She doesn't want to go back, she'd rather stay at Hogwarts alone instead of going back to the newly refurbished hell he created for her. 

But if she was to stay, her brother would stay with her and that would cause even more problems for the both of them. She tried her best to act normal but every time she did so, she would hear his taunting voice, her scar would start to itch causing her to break character. Theo and Hayden both did their best to calm her nerves, bring back the joy she had a while back but they knew it was going to be an impossible task. Hayden would be lying if he was to say he was just worried about his sister, he was also frightened for himself. Their father was never an easy man and five years of Azkaban would just make things much worse for the both of them. 

He hoped that the punishment would dial back because he wouldn't want to arouse suspicion, but Kenneth has always been one for danger so he wouldn't get his hopes up for that. His mother's status also worried him a lot, was she okay, he wouldn't hurt her right? A lot was happening for the twins and the worst part, they couldn't confide in anyone else but Theodore.