his snowfall

~ eight ~

-

It had been way over two weeks since the incident at the party. Still no word from my parents. Complete radio silence. Worrying to say the least as I know for a fact the school would've had to inform my parents about the weeks of detention I gained from my outburst, almost suspension for threatening another student.

Detention wasn't all that bad. I got to spend it with Hagrid in the forest the majority of the time, but had the occasional unlucky one with Filch. My time with Fred was increasing again. How I missed that red headed idiot one can never explain.

-

It was early on a Saturday morning. From getting hardly any sleep the night before, I decided to go down early with Harry, Ron and Hermione, bumping into Achilles on the way, inviting him to sit with us. Surprisingly the hall was rather packed for 9:45 on a Saturday morning with students scattered between tables and professors watching everyone from above.

We made our way over to an empty section of a table with Achilles to my right and Harry to my left, Ron and Hermione filling up the bench opposite. Grabbing an apple from the centre of the table and taking a bite, Ron began to fill his plate up with all that was around, even getting up and walking further down for more of a selection. We all sat there in awe watching him guzzle down everything on his plate going back for seconds before I could even get to the core of my apple.

"Right, so whose going with who to the Yule Ball. We have three weeks and I wish to know who is everyone acquaintances so I can go with whoever is alone, like me." Achilles spoke in a low hushed tone, so no one else around would here. "I do have to say I am pretty miffed off no one has asked me yet." I giggled at most things Achilles came out with. Due to his posh accent, somethings just sounded peculiar.

"Well, I'm taking Parvati Patil. We have to make some sort of entrance, because, well I'm a contestant." Harry gloated a little.

"Yeah, alright mate we get it. You have the spotlight, again." Ron scoffed, chucking another sausage in his mouth. Although Ron knew by now that Harry was not the one to put his name in the tournament, he was still pissed about something. I tried to keep my hardest out of it though, not involving myself in more drama.

"Well," Hermione perked up in her seat. "I'm attending with Viktor Krum." She was trying her hardest not to smile, I could tell. Most girls had taken a likening to him since his school came to Hogwarts to be a part of the tournament. I felt like I was the only one who couldn't see the attraction until Ginny and Nova finally said something. Of course, we'd never say anything to Hermione's face but it just weirded us out. A lot.

A gush of wind passed through the halls as a few owls piled into the hall, dropping post to the relevant people.

"Bit early for post, isn't it?" Harry questioned. We all just looked around, until my eyes followed the one owl left, landing above me, dropping the letter on my empty plate. This was one of the things I dreaded most ...

"A howler." I groaned as I buried my head in my hands, refusing to even touch it. Even Ron stopped eating his toast and worried faces were shared.

-

I was still sitting there with the dreaded howler sitting there, ready to burst for about 10 minutes. The hall had since filled up with many more people making the next few moments even more embarrassing.

"Listen Victoria, whatever it may be, I'm sure it will be nothing bad." Hermione looked up at me and grabbed my shaking hand that was rested on the table. She smiled at me nodding her head ever so slightly. Although I could tell it was a fake smile, at least someone was trying to make the situation a little lighter.