Till Forever Falls Apart

Chapter Fifteen: The End of Their First Year

June 19, 1992

Val had never been more grateful for a Friday afternoon.

    Their exams were over, and Val had done remarkably well in every subject (except Potions, which she was not surprised by in the slightest). Her transfiguration practical was a bit on the rocks. The students were instructed to turn a book into two other objects before transfiguring back to a book, but Val's object kept rocking back and forth, not wanting to move under her wandwork. The time was almost up, and Val had finally completed the transformation with seconds left.

    Herbology and Charms were a breeze, and she worked through Astronomy with no issues, humming as she worked on her exam. Defense Against the Dark Arts was a bit tricky, but nothing she couldn't handle. History of Magic was as boring as ever. Everything went well, and Val could not believe that her first year at Hogwarts was finally coming to an end.

    She was sitting in her dorm and beginning to pack her belongings, not wanting to leave everything till the very last minute. They did have two days left, but Val knew that she would not be able to keep calm if she suspected she had lost something at the last possible moment.

    Her quill levitated in the air along with a spare bit of parchment, checking off items on the list when she commanded it to. She packed away the photos she had brought with her and stacked the books to her side she needed to return to the library.

    Hedwig fluttered through the open window, perching herself on the edge, hooting for Val to come. Getting up from her seat, she crossed over to the snowy owl and petted it affectionately, smiling when Hedwig lifted her beak so Val could scratch her neck. She took the note from Hedwig's mouth and opened it, continuing to stroke the owl as she read.

    "Come to the Gryffindor common room now. Need to talk immediately."

    She recognized the handwriting to be Harry's and gave Hedwig a treat, letting the owl fly out of her room once more as Val set her things on her bed and exited the tower, hurrying to where Harry had told her to come.

    Val had never noticed before now that they were on very opposite sides of the castle, which made her journey from one end to the other difficult in her lack of breath. Arriving at the portrait, Val wiped her forehead and said the password.

    "Caput Draconis."

    The door swung open and Val thanked the lady in the portrait, immediately overwhelmed by the scent of burnt paper and spice. The warm red common room had very few people in it, besides her three friends in the corner, talking fervently among themselves.

    "You're simply asking to be expelled at this point, Harry," Hermione said in annoyance.

    "We don't know what will happen even if we were to get past Fluffy," Ron reasoned.

    Val raised an eyebrow. "What are you three planning now?"

    They turned to her, surprised by her presence.

    "Harry heard Hagrid going on about some stone, and it's all he's been talking about for weeks," Ron explained. "We saw this three-headed dog about a month ago-"

    "What?" Val said, not making any sense of what he was saying. "Slow down and tell me the story."

    So they did, each adding their own details here and there. Val felt a sting in her chest but tried to console herself. Of course they were going to do things without her, just like she did with Padma and Anthony sometimes. What she was more hurt about was that Harry hadn't said a word about any of it.