𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦 ; 𝑜.𝑜.𝓅

twenty-eight

"Expelliarmus!"

Neville's wand flew out of his hand and students lined up behind him all had to duck to avoid being hit. 

Dumbledore's Army were all gathered in the Room of Requirement training, using a moving statue that had a sword in it's hand. 

"I'm hopeless." Neville said. 

"You're-you're just flourishing your wand too much." Harry replied as he raised his wand, "Try it like this. Expelliarmus!"

The sword flew out of the statue's hand with ease. Zoya, Luca, and Estella all did the charm with ease. Augustus struggled lightly due to the fact that he was barely getting through Hogwarts with his grades. 

Fred tried to pull the charm on Zoya, but she blocked it before he could even say the word. 

"You should know who you're testing, Freddie."

"I was just keeping you on your toes, love."

"Hm, sure you were." Zoya replied with a small smile. 

Hogwarts became more bearable now that everyone was meeting in the Room of Requirement when they could. Zoya would often see Neville practicing the wand movement for expelliarmus, and he got better and better with each meeting. 

Now, Harry was teaching Stupefy, one of Zoya's personal favorites. 

"Stunning is one of the most useful spells in your arsenal. It's sort of a wizards bread and butter, really. So, um, come on then, Nigel. Give me your best shot." He kindly said. 

Everyone turned to a young Gryffindor boy with strawberry blonde hair. He shyly walked up and faced Harry from across the room.

"Stupefy!"

Both Harry and Nigel were flown backwards onto the ground. Harry weakly sat up a few seconds after, "Good. Not bad at all, Nigel..." He said with a groan. 

Ron and Hermione dulled next, Fred and George already had a bet going.

Naturally, Ron lost brutally to Hermione, as did Fred to George. 

Augustus dueled Luca next, and lost. Luca instantly ran over to Augustus and helped him up, apologizing profusely while Augustus told him it didn't matter. 

 Gwenna battled Cho Chang, and she won. 

"Hey, Estella!" Zoya called to her from the other side of the room, "Let's have a go."

A smile crept up on her face, "Are you sure you want to do that, Kien?" 

Zoya nodded and walked to the middle of the room. Estella stood at the other end, and the two stared at one another for what felt likes hours. 

It was completely silent in the room, and even Fred wasn't sure who would win. 

"Stupefy!"

"Stupefy!"

Their spells met in the middle, causing the two to fly back and even a wave of force through the students. They weakly stood up and Estella smiled, "Nice."

As the days past and they trained more, Filch and Umbridge were onto them. A new proclamation was hammered into the stone wall next to the other few,

All students will submit to questioning about suspected illicit activities. 

To Umbridge's distain, everyone in Dumbledore's Army said nothing. Sayaka was suspicious of the group, but she also stayed silent. 

Filch began to camp outside of where they were training, but luckily for the group, they had another way out. Because of Filch, Fred and George decided to put their talents to good use. 

They left a box of chocolates where he usually sat. When Filch ate them, he developed large, pus-filled boils on his face.

"Fever Fudge? That's brilliant." Zoya said with a laugh. 

Umbridge put together an Inquisitorial Squad for extra credit. It was a small group with Slytherin-only members, and they mostly spied on Dumbledore's Army. 

When Umbridge went to Sayaka in the library to join the squad, she ignored the professor and bumped her shoulder when she walked passed her out of the library. 

Ginny did a rather powerful Reducto curse, taking everybody by surprise. 

On the last day before break, Harry spoke to everyone, "Now, we're not going to be meeting again until after the holidays. So just keep practicing on your own as best you can. And... well done, everyone. Great, great work."

Everyone applauded for Harry and for themselves before leaving the room one by one. 

Just 15 minutes after Zoya left, she realized she had forgotten her bag. She rushed back to the room, and when she walked in, she found Estella looking at a mirror where photos and articles were taped to it. 

"What are you still doing in here?" She called out. 

Estella didn't bother to turn around, "Just thinking."

Zoya slowly approached the older Gryffindor, "About?"

When she was standing next to Estella, her eyes landed on a photo of Cedric Diggory. 

"We grew up together." Estella started, "He was my first boyfriend, first kiss, first love." She said sadly, "We broke up during our fifth year. We were so young and most adults say that young kids don't understand what it's like to really be in love, but I understood it with him."

"Why did you two break up?"

"We grew up together." She repeated, "Grew up, and grew apart. When I saw how happy he looked with Lorelei Malfoy, that was a pain I had never felt before. But I'm happy that he found someone. I know he loved me, but he never looked at me the way he did at her." She said, "This isn't an excuse, but more of a reason, I went after you because..." She trailed off as she looked over to Zoya, "You look so free with him, that's the kind of love many people never find. I don't know what I thought I was doing or why I did it. These days I'm operating off of my grief and insecurity."

"I would give you some words of encouragement, but that's not my department and I still don't exactly like you."

Estella hummed with a small smile, "Hold onto him."

"I do." Zoya said, walking out of the room.

When she was walking back to the common room, girls from Dumbledore's Army walked up to her and began to walk with her, "You and Fred are so cute." One of them giggled, leading her to a lounge room. 

"Yeah..."

Everyone sat down, "I wanna fall in love." One of them said with a sigh, "What's it like?"

"Brilliant." One girl said.

Zoya's eyes were wide as the girls went on about their relationships and crushes. How did she even get here?

"So, Zoya, who know more than we do." One of the girls said. 

They were all looking at her excitedly while Zoya looked confused, "I don't really know a lot, I'm just good at pretending."

"Oh, come on, spill the details about Weasley." A girl said with a wicked grin, "We've all been dying to know."

"My boyfriend and I... did it... it was so awkward!" A girl whispered while looking at Zoya, "What's it like for you guys?"

Zoya's mouth fell open as she looked at them both embarrassed and dumbfounded. The girl began to giggle, "Wait, you two haven't done it! That's surprising, honestly."

"Better do it soon, he won't wait forever." 

Zoya awkwardly stood up from her seat, "I'm going now." She said, rushing out of the room. 

She felt the need for a shower after what just happened. What really did happen?