Inferno | Draco Malfoy

009 | Silenced

Gwen drops this week's Witch Weekly on my lap, blanky looking at my breakfast. I give her a blackberry before she softly chirps and sets off with her brown, white patterned wings in the mid-January season.

"Oh, Neville!" Patil's voice is heard from the Gryffindor table. "Who's it from?"

Not being able to see anything, I push Malfoy's colossal head out of the way making him almost face-plant into his plate of food. What a waste of space, all that head for a miniature pea brain.

He scowls as he tries to push my head, I slap his hand out of the way before he can do anything that will piss me off.

"It's from Gran." Longbottom gulps and runs out of the Great Hall.

He's holding a scarlet envelope which can only mean one thing. It's a Howler. The worst letter you can ever receive in front of a thousand students as it spits in your face and tells you off and no, you can't ignore it because it will explode. Howlers are magically enchanted to project a written message.

Bloody hell, that is loud!

"NEVILLE LONGBOTTOM! HOW COULD YOU MISPLACE THOSE PASSWORDS?"

Funny, I got the whole story from Ron Weasley. A week ago, he had several girls asking him if he was okay and I got curious. Apparently, Sirius Black had gotten into one of the Gryffindor boys' dormitories, the one that Weasley was in. According to the ginger, Black had stood over his bed with a machete and when he screamed in fright, the criminal fled the scene. How did he get into the dormitory? That's the best part, Longbottom had written down all the passwords to the tower and lost it only for Black to find them. The even better part is that Sir Cadogan (the Gryffindor portrait as the Fat Lady was too traumatised to work again) "calmly" let the killer in as he had all the passwords.

"... YOU BRING SHAME TO THE ENTIRE FAMILY!"

The other houses genuinely seem to hold concern, some of them questioning and lowly laughing. The Slytherins look like they have never seen anything more hilarious, I can't blame them. I start to hit Daphne trying to contain myself from dying of laughter as Longbottom's grandmother can be heard all around the castle even if he's standing at the entrance, her voice is magnified to be one hundred times louder.

As me and Daphne head to Transfiguration, our first lesson, Longbottom is nowhere to be seen. Which is a good thing, maybe he's doing some self-reflecting. Weasley's life could've been taken away. Though, he probably was exaggerating. I highly doubt that Black would have a long knife with him considering that he's meant to be undercover and hiding.

One day, I will go up to Professor McGonagall and ask her if she's in the right mental state. Why, just why, out of everyone in this damn class did she sit me next to...

"Malfoy if you laugh at me one more time I'm going to Evanesco your pale arse!"

"Language Harlow!" McGonagall looks down at me from her desk.

Transfiguration is even worse than arithmancy and I've never even sat a class, judging by Camden's notes, it does not look very pleasant. Isn't it animal cruelty to transform and cast spells at animals? Where are the morals? Why not use Malfoy?

I flip through the pages on vanishing. Nothing makes sense. God, can I just say I'm illiterate? Maybe I could randomly start spitting Mandarin and pretend I don't know any English.

Don't judge, my Mandarin is pretty good. I can understand, talk and write characters. I've done lessons since I learnt how to talk because Mum doesn't want me or Camden to lose connection with our culture. I would rate my Mandarin skills a ten out of ten because I'm fluent and can use complex sentences. I can also understand the mail my relatives send me from China. So, I'm doing good.