Riptides (Fred Weasley Fan Fiction)

Chapter 21

That day, Lyssie went to all her classes. She wasn't the most active student in the classroom and didn't know the answers to all the questions teachers would ask, but she felt good being able to walk through the castle's long corridors again. After the difficult two weeks, everything was going back to the state before the tragic events.

Everyone started to act normally again. They would go to class, do their homework in the common room, laugh, and talk with each other. It seemed that they trusted Dumbledore when he claimed that Hogwarts was safe. Lyssie was quite suspicious, but she tried to act like usual. She's had enough troubles throughout her first couple of weeks at Hogwarts and definitely didn't want to start any new ones.

Lyssie woke up the next day and, as she was getting up, saw one of the notes she got from Fred. It probably fell from her nightstand because she found it on the floor. She read it one more time.

Fred was right. Her dad wouldn't want her to cry her eyes out in her bed. She had to live her life, wake up every day excited for another day at Hogwarts. Smile and laugh when people told her jokes. Study in class and get best grades. Spend time with her new friends. That was what Anthony would want for her, not to lay in her bed with no power to do anything. She got dressed and walked upstairs to the Great Hall. It was her first time there in the last two weeks ago.

As she walked in, the traumatic memories hit her. She saw Dumbledore coming up to the front again and clearing his throat to get everyone's attention. She saw McGonagall standing up in order to stop the headteacher. Finally, she heard the words he used to announce her father death in her head..

She blinked quickly and looked around the room. Dumbledore wasn't there. Neither was McGonagall. At the teacher's table, she saw only Flitwick and Hagrid, discussing something lively. They looked funny sitting next to each other. The size of Flitwick made Hagrid look even bigger, and the size of Hagrid made Flitwick look even smaller.

Lyssie followed her Slytherin friends to their usual spot and they sat down together. The table was full of breakfast foods of all kinds. Everyone dug into some porridge or scrambled eggs with sausages.

"I can't believe they're not allowing us play Quidditch," Theodor said as he poured himself some sparking water. "It was our chance to win with Gryffindor!"

"Does it worry you as well, Draco?" Pansy asked.

"I'm not in the mood to play sports," he responded quickly with no emotion whatsoever. Pansy looked down and didn't speak for the rest of the breakfast.

In fact, ever since Anthony's death, Draco became even more withdrawn. He didn't want to speak with anyone and disappeared in his dormitory any time they wanted to spend some time in the common room. He also stopped studying and, along with Lyssie, had a lot of homeworks to catch up on. Even the teachers started noticing it, but he refused to talk to any of them.

Now, he was throwing pieces of toast into his mouth and his eyes looked puffy again. Lyssie could only suspect what was going on, but she didn't dare to ask yet.

When they were almost done eating, they heard someone scream that it was snowing outside, and some students got up and run to the commons. Before they realized, Draco disappeared, but other Slytherins decided to go see the snow.

Lyssie didn't remember the last time it was snowing where she lived. The winters were cold, but there wasn't much snow. Now, before they managed to get outside, it was snowing so heavily that there was already a thick layer of the white fluff on the ground. Some of the younger students were trying to create snowmen and snow angels. Everything looked really magical.