Coup de Foudre [Fred Weasley] [5]

⚡️ Chapter 28 ⚡️

Ron's celebration had gone on for far too long the night before, and Vega had just sat and drank away at her bottle of Butterbeer. Harry and Hermione had gone off to their beds and Ron hadn't looked very much impressed when Vega had told him about it. Before he got start getting angsty with her, however, she stood up and left with a 'Goodnight'.

Yet still, Vega was the first to wake up in her dormitory. There was no sunlight yet but Vega went ahead and took a shower anyhow. By the time that she returned, she could see the dust swirling in the small sunlight that was flowing into the room through the windows.

It was finally Saturday.
Detentions were over, homework was easy and she could play Quidditch.

The first week of term seemed to have dragged on forever, like one gigantic History of Magic lesson. Vega promised herself not to get in any trouble anymore as it would only make studying harder and also limit her time spent with Fred and on the Quidditch field.

Day was breaking as the silence persisted all around except for the distant chirping and twittering of birds and the slow, deep breathing of her dormmates. Vega was joined by Crookshanks as she sat and wrote down yet another nightmare into her Dream Diary.

I have to go to the library today again.

Vega left her dormitory in hopes of meeting Fred at Owlery and walked past the still-empty Gryffindor common room where the detritus of crumpled-up bits of parchment, old Gobstones, empty ingredient jars, and candy wrappers that usually covered the room at the end of each day were now all gone, as were all Hermione's elf hats.

It made Vega uncomfortable to think that Hermione was putting out so many hats uncaring of how difficult things would be for the house-elves once they were freed but had no laws to give them payment that the brunette was hoping for. It seemed pointless to free house-elves just to get your own sense of accomplishment. It felt unfair.

It seemed like everyone is using the house-elves in one way or the other.

However, it wasn't that she was only criticising her brunette friend, Vega had been thinking of ways she herself would try and help out house-elves even while being a mere student. If she was heading S.P.E.W, she would have encouraged people to just pay what they found suitable to the house-elves who did their work rather than putting them out of job.

Surely, Hermione doesn't think she can hire as many house-elves
in the future as she has supposedly freed, does she?
So, who would guarantee their survival?

By now, the sunlight had lit up the entire Gryffindor common room and Vega could help but develop a skip to her feet as she smiled widely. It felt like nothing could go wrong today. She was in a good mood and the sun was shining – even with the detention-filled evening and nightmare-fuelled night just the previous day.

The Fat Lady was still snoring away when Vega left through the portrait hole and she was relieved to see that the corridors were still empty. She stuffed her glove-clad hands into the pockets of her Gryffindor track jacket as she stared out the large windows that she passed by.

"I would not go that way if I were you," said Nearly Headless Nick, drifting disconcertingly through a wall just ahead of Vega as she walked down the passage. "Peeves is planning an amusing joke on the first person to pass the bust of Paracelsus halfway down the corridor,"

"First thing in the morning?" Vega asked wearily, and Nearly Headless Nick nodded. "And does it involve dropping Paracelsus's bust falling on top of the person's head?"