Coup de Foudre [Fred Weasley] [5]

⚡️ Chapter 39 ⚡️

Their robes billowed and swirled around them as they splashed across the flooded vegetable patch to double Herbology, where they could hardly hear what Professor Sprout was saying over the hammering of raindrops hard as hailstones on the greenhouse roof. Vega wasn't feeling as cold as her peers but that didn't stop Fred from wrapping her up before she left the Great Hall to the freezing cold of the outside world.

On the other hand, the afternoon's Care of Magical Creatures lesson was to be relocated from the storm-swept grounds to a free classroom on the ground floor and, to their intense relief, Angelina sought out her team at lunch to tell them that Quidditch practice was cancelled.

"Right on time," Vega said quietly when Angelina told them. "Because we've found somewhere to have our first Defence meeting. Tonight, eight o'clock, seventh floor opposite that tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy being clubbed by those trolls. Can you tell Katie and Alicia?"

Angelina looked slightly taken aback but promised to tell the others. Vega smiled to herself and returned to where she had been having her lunch which included some delicious roasted chicken. When she looked up to take a drink of her water, she found that Hermione was watching her a bit too apprehensively and that made her uncomfortable.

"What is it?" Vega asked finally, setting down her water. "Do I have something on my face?" She reached to feel her own face for anything wrong.

"Well... it's just that Dobby's plans aren't always that safe," Hermione responded. "Don't you remember when he lost Harry all the bones in his arm?" Harry looked up from his food as well.

"Do you really think I will risk the lives of twenty-nine people, Hermione?" Vega inquired, frowning. "This room doesn't just exist in Dobby's head or imaginations. Dumbledore knows about it, too. He mentioned it during the Yule Ball dinner,"

Hermione's expression cleared as she spoke, "Dumbledore told you both about it?"

"Just in passing," Harry said, shrugging.

"Oh well, that's all right then," Hermione replied briskly and she raised no more objections. Vega just shook her head at the brunette and went back to her food.

Together with Ron they had spent most of the day seeking out those people who had signed their names to the list in the Hog's Head and telling them where to meet that evening. Vega was quite pleasantly surprised to see Harry's expression when Ginny met up with them and told them that she had informed Ravenclaws – including Cho Chang.

It was quite clear to Vega that Harry seemed to have some feelings for the older Ravenclaw still. And it seemed like they had deepened a little, too. But on the other hand, Vega wasn't sure what Cho was feeling about Harry – was it because she liked him or was she trying to find some sort of solace in the person who last saw Cedric Diggory alive?

It can't be the latter –

Cho would've come to me, too, then.

In the end, Vega just didn't know what to say but to feel sorry for Cho. She knew that if she had lost Fred this horrifically... she wouldn't be able to live. He had been a friend since the very beginning of her school career, and they were dating for months now.

By the end of dinner, Vega was quite confident that the news had been passed to every one of the twenty-five people who had turned up in the Hog's Head.

All they needed to do is find the Room of Requirements now, and for that, at half-past seven Vega, Harry, Ron, and Hermione left the Gryffindor common room, Harry clutching a certain piece of aged parchment in his hand – Marauder's Map.