The weather only seemed to get worse as the week led on. Our robes billowed and swirled around us as we splashed across the flooded vegetable patch to double Herbology where we could hardly hear what Professor Sprout was saying over the hammering of raindrops hard as hailstones on the greenhouse roof. 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.
The Slytherin vs Gryffindor game was coming up quickly. I was starting to get worried we would have to play in this weather.
"You would've thought the weather would've let up by now." Harper said as we head to the common room.
"Yeah, the moment the sun comes out the rain just reappears." Astoria says as we make our decent into the dungeons.
"Raelyn!" A voice said behind me. We all turn our heads and see Hermione Granger running to us.
"You guys go ahead I'll catch up with you later." I say as she comes closer. They give me a skeptical look but leave anyway.
"Raelyn, we've found a place to practice." Hermione says excitedly as she tells me where to meet her. Once she's finished telling me where to meet she see's Ron and Harry approaching. She bids me farewell and turns to join them.
"Hermione, wait." I say grabbing her arm keeping her from leaving. She gives me a confused look.
"I just wanted to say sorry." I say quickly, I had been planning on doing this for a while I had just never found the right time. "I know we haven't always been friends, and probably won't ever be good friends. I know I've bullied you along with Draco and I just want to say I'm sorry. I shouldn't have gone along with it and I hope one day you can forgive me." Her eyes search my face trying to find a detection of lying.
"Well, thank you for that. But right now let's focus on getting rid of the old bat Umbridge." She says smiling, before joining Harry and Ron on their quest to tell people where to meet.
The evening of our first meeting soon arrived. I made my way out of the common room and down the corridor as I was instructed. As I turned down the familiar corridor I noticed a giant door that had not been there before. A highly polished door had appeared in the wall. The open door led the way into a spacious room lit with flickering torches like those that illuminated the dungeons eight floors below.
The walls were lined with wooden bookcases and instead of chairs the re were large silk cushions on the floor. A set of shelves at the far end of the room carried a range of instruments such as Sneakoscopes, Secrecy Sensors and a large, cracked Foe-Glass that I was sure had hung, the previous year, in the fake Moody's office.
"These will be good when we're practicing Stunning," I heard Ron say enthusiastically, prodding one of the cushions with his foot.
"And just look at these books!" said Hermione excitedly, running a finger along the spines of the large leather-bound tomes. "A Compendium of Common Curses and their Counter-Actions ... The Dark Arts Outsmarted ... Self-Defensive Spellwork ... wow ..." She looked around at Harry, her face glowing. "Harry, this is wonderful, there's everything we need here!"
And without further ado she slid Jinxes for the Jinxed from its shelf, sank on to the nearest cushion and began to read. There was a gentle knock on the door. I looked round. Ginny, Neville, Lavender, Parvati and Dean had arrived. '
"Whoa," said Dean, staring around, impressed. "What is this place?"
"I mean I had heard there were magical rooms like this, but I never believed they existed." I say awed as I looked around.
Harry began to explain, but before he had finished more people had arrived and he had to start all over again. By the time eight o'clock arrived, every cushion was occupied. Harry moved across to the door and turned the key protruding from the lock; it clicked in a satisfyingly loud way and everybody fell silent, looking at him. Hermione carefully marked her page of Jinxes for the Jinxed and set the book aside.
