𝖮 𝗂𝗌 𝖿𝗈𝗋 𝖮𝖻𝗌𝖾𝗌𝗌𝗂𝗈𝗇 ʰʲᵖ

• ℭ𝔥𝔞𝔭𝔱𝔢𝔯 𝔖𝔦𝔵𝔱𝔢𝔢𝔫 : 𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔉𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱 •

TW: Slight violence.

• Chapter Sixteen : The Fight •

[••• ––– •••]

"Wait, Slughorn cornered you too?" Pansy's voice echoed through the empty chamber of a hallway. "When?"

"A few days ago — weeks probably." (Y/N) replied dryly. "Last Hogsmeade visit."

"That early? Wow." Ginny piped, amused. "Slughorn came up to me and Luna last night. Told us we're welcome to go to his party."

"Must've been easier to say no." said Hermione.

(Y/N) turned to the Gryffindor girl.

"What about you?" she questioned.

"Yeah..." replied Hermione. "He asked me and Ron if we can go and we said yes." She then scoffed. "I could have said no but I realized he must have asked the rest of you. I wasn't surprised."

"Draco and Blaise told me how Slughorn nearly saw them smuggling some things." Pansy began. "They thought they were getting detention. I remembered they said it was better to get the detention than the invitation."

"Did they say yes?" muttered (Y/N), tucking her hair.

"Actually, they declined." said Pansy with a hearty laugh. "They claimed that they have a lot of things to do for N.E.W.T.s — but I guess Slughorn knew them better so he bribed them into accepting the invitation by telling them that all of us are going. Ingenious, isn't it?"

"Hey." Luna chirped, and her focus was straight to (Y/N). "Have you got any idea if Harry got the invitation as well?"

(Y/N) didn't react. She didn't flinch at the name, she didn't gasp, or whatever. She merely frowned at the mention of his name.

"I don't know." she replied coolly. "He must be. Slughorn wouldn't want to ignore the Chosen One."

She gritted her teeth at the sudden hotness of the air around them. She tilted her head and adjusted her Ravenclaw scarf around her neck to distract her from the previous situation. It was successful because the girls had decided to change the topic.

"It's tomorrow night." said Hermione as they got out of the castle. "Have you got any dresses yet?"

"Oh, no." gasped Pansy, stopping in her tracks. "I haven't got a new one!"

"Does it really have to be new?" Ginny questioned, eyebrows furrowed, and they knew why she asked that question in the first place but didn't question further.

"What about exchanging dresses that we have?" Hermione suggested.

"Good idea!" said Pansy. "Let's look for dresses later. What about that?"

The rest agreed.

(Y/N) admitted that the idea was good. That night, when almost everyone was on their bed, the group of girls went all to the Ravenclaw tower with a bunch of folded and hung dresses for options.

"I've got this." Pansy offered, raising a sparkling green dress with no sleeves and a thigh-leveled skirt. "This." She pulled on a light gray top with a short skirt. "And this." Then she showed them a long dark red cocktail dress with a slit on the side of the skirt.

The rest of the girls began rummaging through the dresses and tried them out. For a long time, the five girls laughed and talked inside (Y/N)'s four-poster (being under the Muffliato Spell) while deciding what dress they should use for Slughorn's annual dinner party.