CHAPTER TWENTY NINE
✧
-: sixth year :-
── IN WHICH THEY'RE DIVERTED TO
THE GREAT HALL
. . .
Theo hadn't let go of her hand after none other than their Professor Lupin lead her out of the Gryffindor common room. The area outside had been cleared of people as per Dumbledore's request to have everyone sleep in the Great Hall that night so that they could ensure that Black had left the castle and it was secure once more.
Her best friend had been waiting for her outside, ready to take her off the hands of the Professor who had readily supplied her with chocolate and words of confidence that Dumbledore and the rest of the professors would make sure that Sirius Black was gone and wasn't going to threaten her or any other student again. He, too, had joined them in making their way down to the hall and overseeing the reunions between the rest of the group.
Cynthia had only just let go of her, Theo still holding her hand as Lupin placed a hand on her shoulder. "Professor Snape will be here soon enough if you wish to speak to your head of house, and I believe Professor McGonagall has arranged Madam Pomfrey is on her way too with a potion that may help you sleep if you need it." The Professor smiled. "I can assure you, Erin, that we're going to make sure that Black is nowhere near the castle."
"Thank you." Erin managed a smile back at the man, glad it had been him over her own head of house or even the headmaster himself. There was something about Professor Lupin that was so much more understanding than any of the others - perhaps it was his age or experience, although Professor Snape was the same age and the complete opposite of Lupin. "Do I... do I have to speak to professor Snape? Will he ask me about it?"
"I doubt there is a immediate necessity to." He reassured her. "I'll leave you to it, I think it would be a good idea for you to find a quiet corner to sit-"
"But the other prefects and house captains are helping out." Erin's arms crossed over her stomach as she gestured around at the hall and the people who were making their way around the groups of people sitting down in a mass amount of sleeping bags. "I should help out too, right?"
"I'll leave you and your friends to decide that." Lupin waved a hand before he walked off, and Erin frowned, turning back to look at the crowd behind her and seeing, well, all of her friends looking disapproving - even Daniel, which seemed to make things more serious.
"You can't really expect us to just sit here and let you do this?" Cynthia spoke up, arms crossed over her stomach. "You've been through something awful, I mean it was bloody Sirius Black at the door, not some... some..."
"What Cynthia here is trying too say," Daniel and his usual humour sparked up once more and made Erin feel a little more normal, "is that Black trying to get you to open the door to the Gryffindor common room is probably quite a traumatic incident and it would be best for you to sleep."
"Daniel-"
"Erin." Cleo turned now, dark hair pulled back from her face and frown lines prominent even the half-darkness of the Great Hall late in the evening. "We might like to pretend we are above others and hard as nails and that nothing bothers us - but Sirius Black-"
"Sirius Black is somewhere in this castle and I am not about to be the only Quidditch captain not helping out because I was stupid enough to be in the common room when he wanted to get in." Erin swallowed, unable to stir away the horrible feeling of being utterly useless, and that every single one of her friends seemed to currently be viewing her as some sort of weakling. "Find a quiet corner or something and I might join you later."
"Erin-" A look of something more than initial concern read on Theo's face but she ignored it, reminding herself to thank him for helping her at a later time. Perhaps the next day, or a week later, when they had all stopped treating her as if she were a erumpent horn, she would thank him and apologise for being a bit of a bitch to them. But for now she was too upset, too volatile at the hands of their nonsensical worry.
And instead of listening to Theo and his concern Erin turned away from them and began to make her way over to the small circle in the centre of the mass amount of squishy purple sleeping bags that had formed to create room for the prefects, head girl and boy as well as the house captains, the Tonks girl sitting down on one of the ends of the benches with every intent to look over the students now attempting to sleep.
"Hi, Erin." She looked up to see Cedric Diggory, the newly appointed Hufflepuff captain sitting down besides her. "I heard you had the misfortune of being trapped in the common room.
"That would be me." She nodded. Over Cedric's shoulder she could see Roger Davies attempting to deal with Percy Weasley, whom was taking his role of head boy extremely seriously. "I there anything he's decided to do in particular? Or are we just... watching."
"Well he's in the midst of setting up a schedule for watches and walking around the hall." Cedric replied, quickly understanding that it wasn't particularly something she wanted to talk about. The Hufflepuff captain stood up, digging his hands into his pockets. "I'll let him know that you're here - er - and you might want to talk to Wood when he gets back from his rounds."
Erin frowned, looking up at him. "Why, exactly?" She asked.
"To say that he is insistent on his hatred for you and you two, by far, are much more agressive in your competitiveness compared to me and Davies, he's looking pretty distraught over the whole thing." Cedric said, reaching down and patting her shoulder in somewhat comforting manner before making his way over to Percy.
Leaving Erin to adjust her gaze over the sleeping bags and land on the back of the boy she had been tutoring all afternoon as he sat with some first years she recognised, comforting them.
✧
a/n
erin and cedric talking has
given me the idea for enemies to
lovers slytherin captain x hufflepuff
captain during poa
