Friends Kiss Too | F. Weasley

Chapter 14 - Fireside Chats

Students had begun filling the halls again as classes had started once more. It was much harder to get around the school with two other schools crowding in as well. People were shoving their way through as they hurried along to the rooms they needed to be in. Milena was on her way to her defence against the dark arts class, walking at a bit of a hurried pace as well. She wasn't late for class, she was actually making good time, but she wanted to be sure, her usual seats with her friends would be there for them. Not to mention, she did enjoy the class and how actively she got to practice magic in it.

Entering the room, she found her usual seats were empty and dropped her books down on the desk, sitting in her spot near the back. While she waited for the class to start, she popped open one of her books and skimmed over some of the reading she was assigned over the holidays. Though she managed to scrape up enough time to read everything she was supposed to, she loved reviewing everything she could for this class. There was something about the thrill of learning how to duel and defend herself with magic that she really loved.

As she flipped through the pages of her textbook, she heard the all too familiar voices walking in the door of the classroom. Fred, George and Lee made their way in, laughing as they usually did, and sat themselves with Milena without a thought about it.

"Whatcha reading there?" Fred asked, sticking his face into hers to get a better look at the book.

"Well if you actually did your homework, you would know it's the reading we were assigned over the break," Milena teased, closing the textbook.

"Hey, I did the reading... some of it..."

Milena raised an eyebrow at him.

"I skimmed it..."

"You didn't do the reading."

"No, not at all, but who has time for that anyways, we were on holiday!" Fred defended.

Just as Milena was about to speak, Professor Moody limped in the door and without saying a word, began waving his wand as his desk reorganized itself for the lesson.

"I hope you all did the reading over the holidays, we have a lot to do today," Moody spoke.

Milena gave Fred a knowing grin, him making a little face back at her and poking at her side making her laugh a little.

"Ms. Carter," Moody called. "I assume you did the reading and know everything needed for today's class?"

"I did the reading..." Milena said, sitting herself up straight in her seat.

"Good, then would you please explain to the class what a patronus charm is?"

"It's a charm that conjures a guardian to protect you using your most positive feelings. It's... one of the hardest charms to conjure..." Milena explained.

Moody nodded at Milena and continued on with his lesson.

"Now, I won't be teaching you how to conjure your own patronus, but I do want to talk about it because there is a lot of dark magic in this world. Things you wouldn't be able to imagine..." He explained.

As he continued on, Milena felt a knot grow in her stomach. She had a sense of uneasiness wash over her body as if the entire room had gone cold. Her mind began to wander as she started to think back to that night at the Quidditch World Cup. The screams that came from every direction, people running as fast as they could to escape, and that horrible mark left in the sky for everyone to witness. For a while Milena had put the incident behind her, it wasn't something she wanted to put her mind on, but in that moment, she felt an overwhelming sense of dread being in the classroom.