The spinning blue flames released Kyra and she fell forwards, sooty and dishevelled, onto the carpet in Professor Brockett's office. Grace arrived, her hair still somehow pin straight, and then Oscar, and together they headed down the staircase.
As they passed the entrance hall, skirting around the chaos of trunks that had been piled up in stacks, they walked Oscar back to his common room, and then came back out into the chaos.
It was late afternoon now, and the windows reflected back the lights of the hall, which was filled with students still arriving from their Christmas holidays. There was a cacophony of joyful yelling and the air was thick with the humidity of snow evaporating off travelling cloaks.
"Is that Professor Gribble with a man?" Grace asked incredulously, craning her neck to see better.
Kyra started dragging her by the back of her robes to the dungeon steps. "She's allowed to have a husband, Grace."
"Or a boy-toy," Grace replied, giving up and allowing herself to be steered out of the hall and down the steps. "I wonder how she met him," Grace continued, jumping down the last few steps. "Maybe she was like, here, let me show you my collection of mandrakes." Grace was morbidly interested in the love lives of over forties.
"That's my future you're looking at," Kyra said, pushing open the portrait hole and pushing her way through the busy common room.
"Well, yes, and you even already have a psycho boy-toy," Grace said reasonably, raising her voice over the hubbub. They reached the stairwell, walking up.
Kyra shook her head. "Too soon, Chen."
Grace gave her an innocent look and pushed their door open with her back.
YOU ARE READING
The Founders
FanfictionKyra Chen is beginning her sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry when a series of unusual events converge- a new student, a theft- to form a dangerous and intricate plot that entangles her and her friends and draws them deep into...
