What if?

IX

April hadn't slept that night. not one bit, she had zoned out and tried to theorise about what those bloody words meant. literally bloody. that had found that the blood was that of filch's cat and he was furious about the whole ordeal. McGonagall had tried to assure him that whoever had done such a thing would be severally punished but he was adamant that it was Harry i'm not sure what my brother had done to encourage such hatred but then again he wasn't much of an a star brother at the moment. when morning came and the sun slowly crept its way up her bed April was still wide awake, Jasper nuzzled into her chest on top of her duvet. the other girls in the dorm slowly started to rise, but with no alarm? it dumfounded April but she couldn't very well ask they had made it very clear how they felt about April and Mia, Mia was still not awake a half hour later so April pulled herself out of bed and walked over to nudge Mia's shoulders. to her surprise Mia's eyes were also wide open.

"are you okay?" her tone was soft, careful.

"yeah.." Mia looked up at April and smiled forcefully she then sat up and begin making her bed. "we should hurry if we are going to meet Corvid for breakfast"

"are we going to sit with the Hufflepuff's today?" April quizzed as she laid out some fresh food for jasper and slipped into her school robes, Mia following suit.

"yeah i think that would be best for today" something was wrong, that much she knew, but Mia was still a new friend and April didn't want to pry and push her away. the two finished getting ready grabbed their parchment and quills, and headed to the great hall. the castle seemed almost still, the portraits whispered with hushed and careful tones as students past even more so when Slytherin students passed them by. a heavy blanket has set itself on April's chest and it suddenly became hard to breath she had no idea where the bout of anxiety had come from and that scared her even more, it wasn't until Mia had lead her to where Corvid was seated, chatting away with several other Hufflepuffs. despite their previous welcoming now seemed wary of the approaching students, Alex was already sat next to Corvid clearly he had gotten up early and being from a Hufflepuff family the surrounding students seemed more at ease with his presence.

"good morning, guys!" April beamed at her friends the second she sat down with Mia at her side a third year almost leaped to get out of the way as to not be too close to her. she would have normally rolled her eyes but for some reason this stung, she couldn't place why it upset her so much but it did.

"how did you guys sleep?" Corvid asked trying to distract their friends from the pressure surrounding them.

breakfast past like a dream fast and almost forgettable. the school was abuzz with chatter to do with the bloody words on the wall, filches dead, sorry petrified cat and more importantly that everyone believed that somehow this was all Harry's fault now he was an idiot but he would never do such as thing. she knew that their friends knew that but a school full of random people did not and that was were the problem lied. she would do her best to support her brother no matter what but anytime she saw him in the hallway... he would refuse to make eye contact and ignore her completely. she couldn't believe it she didn't want to believe it he was her brother yet here he was, being a horrible excuse for family let alone an older brother. Throughout the day rumours rolled way out of control and April couldn't help but laugh at the stupidity people were actually believing that Harry was an heir of Slytherin something to do with the founders of the school. At the simple mention of these words she could watch all the blood drain from Mia's face, enough was enough April wanted to respect her new friends privacy and all but she knew something. So on their way out of potions on their way to charms she pulled Mia into a dark corridor.

"Talk" she states simply using as much authority as her voice would allow

"wha- April we're going to be late for class"

"you know something, about all of this chaos."

"I have no idea what your talking about" she refused to make eye contact with April which just made the whole thing worse to her.

"the chamber of secrets!" April pushed her shoulder slightly. And she saw it again that pale ghost like expression on her face. "see you look like someone died!"

"BECAUSE THEY DID" Mia almost bellowed and it startled April

"I'm sor-"

"It's not the right time or place to talk about this April has some patience for marlins sake or allow one of the professors to explain. That dammed place has ruined my family enough as it is"

Mia's comments did nothing to quell April's curiosity but she now knew that whatever the chamber was it was dangerous and somehow her idiot brother was connected to all of this which was just perfect. What was she supposed to do? Write to her mother? She needed to figure out what exactly what was going on and she needed answers now. All she could think to was to go the library, she would find answers herself.

(this is a small one I know, school has been so hectic I'm getting ready to leave for uni in September whilst getting all my current work done! I'm working on the next chapter now and it will be a lot longer than this i promise! I hope that you are all well and enjoying yourselves this weekend)