ADHARA, the second
brightest star in the
Canis Major constellation,
right after sirius. It
was as if her father had
named her after a murderer
A few neighbourhoods away from Number 4, Privet Drive, there was a tall...
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PERCEPTIVE AS SHE MAY BE, HERMIONE COULDN'T READ PEOPLE'S THOUGHTS. She sometimes wondered what went on inside Adhara's head.
The matron came back, looking at Adhara with stern eyes before promptly drawing the curtain around her bed close to examine her injuries.
"How are you feeling, Adhi?" Hermione was on Harry's bed, next to her friend's one. She spoke to her through the curtain.
"I'm fine."
Now behind closed curtains, Hermione really couldn't make out the girl's thoughts.
But she supposed it didn't make that much of a difference, anyway. Adhara's expression never betrayed her thoughts before, and neither did her tone nor the words she spoke. A drawn curtain was not more of a mask than the one she wore every day.
Hermione swung her legs over the edge of the bed.
Mr. Black's interrogation finished. They allowed him to see Harry one more time before he had to be taken back in custody until his trial. He took Harry out in the corridor. Hermione couldn't make out their conversation, but Harry's soft laughs echoed inside the Wing whenever his godfather made a joke.
Harry was one of the few people could tell what Adhara was thinking. Hermione and Millicent could too, but only when Adhara's mask cracked against her will. Harry didn't require those slight fissures to know what was behind it. She thought it was because Harry and Adhara spent their summers together, or maybe it was simply because they understood each other that well.
"Doesn't it hurt anymore?"
"It never did."
Hermione heard the nurse sigh.
But maybe Hermione didn't need to be able to read Adhara's mind. Hermione was clever. She could deduce what might be bothering her friend. On top of that, she was quite perceptive. So she knew something was bothering her, even if she didn't know what.
"Harry's outside, with Mr. Black."
"I know."
"Do you think Harry will go live with him?"
"Obviously."
"But what about the Dursleys?"
Adhara didn't respond right away. Hermione heard someone shuffling behind the curtain before it was yanked open. Madam Pomfrey gave one last look towards Hermione before leaving them both. Ron was in his bed, asleep. And Millicent was nowhere to be seen.
Adhara readjusted her shirt, buttoning it up completely. "I rather he didn't return there."
Hermione didn't say anything, only surveying the placid look Adhara was wearing, which Hermione's perceptive side knew to be fake. Her clever side was trying to figure out what it was hiding.
