Counting Stars || Poppy Snape

CHAPTER 22

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The month of October flew by in a whiz and in no time I was sitting next to Oli surrounded by pumpkins and other spooky decorations. The food at Hogwarts was amazing, but on special occasions it was even better, if that's even possible.

"Do you want to hang out later?" asked Oli inbetween mouthfuls of some pumpkin pie.

"I can't" I said piling more food on my plate "Plans with Ced"

"Oh" was all he replied.

For some reason it was weird to talk to Oli about my relationship with Ced, not that I particularly minded. I always had Lanti and Pen, who were in a stable relationship themselves.

"How long do you think it's gonna last?" asked Oli out of the blue.

"Huh?"

"You and Diggory"

I looked at him quizzically. "Why?"

He shrugged nonchalantly "Just curious"

"I hope it lasts a while. I mean I've never seen myself as the type to be in a relationship, but I don't know. It's different with Ced."

"Oh"

We went back to eating in silence when we were dismissed by Dumbledore as he bid us all goodnight. Oli and I made sure to leave quickly and we made our way back to the Gryffindor tower, ready to sleep after eating half of the banquet, but it wasn't that easy.

Oli was telling me about a pop quiz he had had in Transfiguration when I abruptly stopped. My eyes fixed on the wall infront of us. Well, not the wall itself, but the writing. In blood. And the paralysed cat hanging by its tail.

Quite a show.

What somehow managed to worry me more was that Harry was standing right in front of it all, his friends at either side of him.

Oh Harry.

As his half sister I felt overprotective of him, which is stupid considering we barely talked and he didn't even know we were related. But I was allowed to care for him, right?

Slowly, more students started filing in the hall, everyone stopping to read the writing and murmur to each other. Everything after that was pretty much standard procedure. Everyone went back to their common rooms but Harry and his friends were told to stay.

I told Oli to head on without me and pushed my way through the crowd to try and speak to Harry before he was interrogated by the teachers.

Him and his friends were just around the corner but as I was about to make my presence known I heard his friend, Hermione I think, say something that made me stay quiet.

"You can't deny it's suspicious though,"

"Yes I can," Harry snapped.

"Listen Harry! She suddenly arrives in your first year and she's Snape's daughter. That's definitely suspicious"

"Look mate," chimed in a third voice, the red head, "I'm not one to agree with Mione often but what she's saying makes sense"

"Don't you remember what I told you last week?!" I could tell Harry was losing his temper now.

"Harry, Evans is a common last name. You can't possibly think your mum would have a child with Snape of all people"

So he knew. I would have to talk to him soon then.

I didn't think speaking to Harry in infront of his friends was a good idea so I started making my way back to the common room. I wanted to tell Oli about all of this as soon as possible, he would know what to do.

But before I could leave, something else caught my attention. It was Lanti, she was crying. A lot. I started heading towards the crying Hufflepuff. Oli would have to wait.

"Lanti?" I asked cautiously, "what's wrong?"

The curly haired girl simply looked up at me with puffy red eyes and tear stricken cheeks. "I-It's Pen-" she managed to say between sobs.

Oh no. My first thought was; had she been paralysed too? 

"She- she- broke up- with m-me"

This was definitely worse.