Reaper's Heir (Book 2)

Chapter 6

Chapter VI

Harry had been in the hospital wing for almost a week. Malfoy had spent the entire time making the quidditch game sound much more dangerous and fatal to himself than it actually had been and despite the fact that most students had been there to witness it, they still believed him and fawned over him. Pansy in particular fussed and bemoaned the school, wondering aloud how they could let something like this happen to Malfoy. At one point, she'd tried to turn the blame onto Harry until I'd asked her how being trapped by her bedsheets had felt and if that pie had truly been expired. It had been of course and I was incriminating myself by asking, but she'd gotten the message and shut up about anything regarding Harry.

A gryffindor boy named Colin had been attacked and all the teachers were on edge, talking in hushed tones when they thought no one was listening. A few days after the attack, Professor Dumbledore announced at dinner that he was going to allow Lockhart to start a dueling club and Harry was discharged from the hospital wing. I was walking to the great hall for lunch with Daphne and Blaise when Harry came up to us. Blaise gave him a cold look, but Daphne stepped closer to me, watching us uncertainly.

Harry looked away and cleared his throat. "Can I talk to you?"

I gestured for Daphne and Blaise to keep going and waited until they were out of earshot to turn back to Harry. "What did you want to talk about?"

"Hermione got all the ingredients she needed for the polyjuice. She's going to start brewing it tomorrow. And Dobby told me some things that I wanted to tell all three of you, so you'll need to meet us in the girl's lavatory on the second floor."

"Alright," I replied, starting to walk past him, but Harry grabbed my arm. "What?"

"Maeve, I-I'm sorry for getting upset with you about your argument with Hermione. It wasn't any of my business and I shouldn't have been so nosey." Harry let go of my arm and stepped back. "I don't want you to feel like I'm putting my friendships before you. We're family."

I reached out and hugged him, sighing. "Thank you. I'm only upset because I feel like I got dragged into this against my will and I don't want that to happen to anyone else. I'm sorry that I overreacted when talking to Hermione," I pulled away, crossing my arms. "And I suppose I'll have to apologize to her tomorrow." We talked for a few more minutes before I went into the great hall and sat down next to Daphne.

"Maeve, tell Daphne that she's being ridiculous," Blaise said instantly, pointing his fork at the blonde aggressively.

Daphne scoffed. "He's just grouchy because Marcus still won't talk to him about quidditch practice since he's not on the team."

"I am not-"

I placed a calming hand on Blaise's arm, effectively cutting his sentence off. "I just got here. You two need to tell me what it is that you're arguing about."

"It's about dueling club tomorrow," Daphne said after a minute. "Blaise still thinks it will be a disaster."

"Can you really blame me after how his first lesson went?" Blaise asked. "What have we actually learned from him this year?"

"He's not a very good teacher," I said slowly, watching Daphne's face twist into an irritated grimace.

"We've been fine reading those other books you brought when the information isn't in his books."

"The proper information is never in Lockhart's books," Blaise argued. "He's a fool and a disaster of a teacher and this dueling club will be just as ridiculous."

Daphne rolled her eyes before getting up and walking over to where Pansy was talking with Tracy. After a minute of dirty looks, Daphne clearly said something that delighted Pansy because the three of them left the great hall talking in earnest. I blinked, wondering what the hell had just happened. "I think we just got dumped for Pansy."