The Greywitch Trials | Harry Potter AU

Horcrux

Ginny grinned and flicked the wet braid Eloise had slung over her shoulder after her second bath of the day. Her red-haired friend had finally been deemed well enough to travel home by Luna. Although her fair skin was grey and sallow, she looked far better than she had when Eloise and Susan had been allowed to see her for a short time. 

"Let's see it then," Eloise found herself smiling as she poked at her friend, barring her from walking further into the near-empty dining room. At the table, Susan made a scoffing noise, and Hermione looked prim. Ron seemed to be paying more attention to the venison stew in front of him than his sister, who hadn't uttered a word to him. 

Ginny lifted the side of her forest green shirt all the way up to her ribs, revealing an angry red puncture mark a few centimetres above her false ribs. She ran a hand over the wound gingerly and managed a rueful smirk, "Another for the collection." 

Eloise didn't respond other than offer her friend a smile and gently prod at the wound, unable to erase the practices her mother had instilled in her since she was old enough to walk. She could almost hear her mother's voice talking about redness and swelling if she concentrated hard enough. 

"Don't think I'm not going to hound you for details about your little escapade." Ginny batted away her hand and wrapped an arm around her waist to lead the two of them to join their friends at the table. 

Eloise's stomach dropped painfully for a moment, but then she realized that Ginny was definitely talking about the forest with Draco and his injured mates. "I don't think there's much to tell. Malfoy showed up and asked us to help, and we did."

Ron snorted into his bowl. 

"Something to add, Ronald?" Ginny snapped, glaring at her brother, "No? Then shut it."

Susan pressed her lips together tightly, giving Ron an indecipherable look accompanied by a half-shrug. 

Taking the silence as a cue to move on from the uncomfortable topic, Ginny pushed past Eloise and fell into her usual spot with a little huff. She dug in ruefully and did a little exaggerated shudder. "I must say, you and Hermione are much better in the kitchen than Alicia, bless her."

Hermione's response wasn't much more than a grunt; the witch appeared to be in a heated, but silent debate with Ron that included a lot of head tilting and eyebrow-raising. Eloise managed a quiet 'thanks', but she wasn't thinking about the stew that they'd been eating practically every day for weeks. No, her mind was torn between a barrage of worries and the stolen moments she'd been capturing with Charlie like Chocolate Frog Cards. 

Eloise nibbled at her thumbnail as she watched Ginny in what she hoped was a surreptitious fashion. Her red-headed friend was all smiles as she shared a quiet conversation with Susan that was mostly one-sided, but Ginny didn't seem to mind. She prattled on about the three war prisoners that had been saved during the Ministry raid and their quirks. She called Audrey Griffen an 'odd duck', which earned her a smile from Susan. 

They looked as they always did. Eloise was unsure as to why she'd thought things would appear differently after Susan's proclamation about their planned swan song, but she'd expected an edge of desperation, not pleasant and normal. 

The air of discomfort radiating from Ron and Hermione was more what she'd expected from her friends. The couple had ceased their silent argument, and Ron was forcing food down his gullet like there was no tomorrow, while Hermione frowned at nothing, her fingers tapping anxiously against the polished wood of the table. 

Eloise quickly tore her gaze away from the couple and focused on inhaling her dinner, wanting nothing more than to curl up in her room before the fire as she read the millionth dusty archaic manuscript detailing the rise and fall of both Morganna and her cult of followers. Most of the mouldering scrolls were personal accounts of said followers, banned texts that should've been confiscated by the Department of Mysteries centuries ago. But, of course, such rules didn't apply to pure-blood households.