Moon Dust | Mattheo Riddle

Chapter 14: Accident

The page in Nova's fingertips threatened to blow away as she gripped it tighter to keep it together. She was on the Quidditch grounds, reading in the stands whilst Cedric and Magnolia were practicing down below. The Hufflepuff's training hour was almost over, given the Gryffindor students that had wandered onto the pitch.

The seat beside the brunette was suddenly filled, and she glanced up with a sweet smile to greet Hermione, who'd just sat down.

Hermione smiled back, then peered around with furrowed eyebrows. There weren't many people in the stands, seeing as it was quite early, but the students that were there were scattered out, pretty far away from the Hufflepuff. "Why'd you sit so far away from everyone else?" The younger girl whispered, pulling her tongue to the side as she studied the students around them.

Every so often, a couple of people would turn in their direction before looking away quickly.

Nova kept her eyes down on her book, fiddling with the pages as she answered her friend. "I was the first one here, it was empty when I sat down."

A small sigh fell from the curly haired witch and she glanced around with a little malice in her eyes, staring intensely at everyone that had purposely isolated Nova.

Nova delicately placed her book onto her lap, then looked up at the other girl, tugging her lips into a gentle smile. "It's okay," she whispered.

The younger girl shook her head furiously and tutted under her breath. "No, it's not," she sighed. "You haven't done anything to deserve this, everyone's just being stupid," Hermione spat.

Nova pulled her lips up to the side, softening her features. "They just don't understand, they're scared, I think... it's okay, if they want to keep their distance, I'll respect that."

The curly-haired girl frowned, moving to open her mouth again, but Nova placed a hand onto her shoulder. "Really, I'm okay. Can we go down to the pitch? I wanna see the boys before we all split off for classes," she asked and Hermione nodded reluctantly, clearly having more to say on the matter but choosing to keep it to herself for now.

Nova jumped up and grabbed the girl's palm, moving off toward the staircase and ignoring the hushed whispers around them.

As they got onto the pitch, the two Gryffindor boys were nowhere to be seen. They shared a look of bemusement before a scuffle of laughter filtered through the air, coming from the broom closest.
The girls strolled toward it and pulled the doors back to see Harry, laughing uncontrollably as Ron rubbed at a red mark on his forehead.

Nova scrunched up her face with a mixture of concern and amusement while Hermione scoffed from beside her.

"What have you done this time?" She spat, ignoring the pout he gave her as she pulled out a bandage from her book bag. He tried to back away, but she just shoved his hands down and wrapped it around his wound.

Nova covered her mouth a little to hold back a snicker and caught eyes with her cousin, who was finally calming down from his own laughing fit.

"He wasn't looking where he was going, stepped right onto his broom," the boy chuckled, moving toward her. She smiled at him and shook her head fondly. "Of course he did," Nova giggled. "Are you okay Ron? Do we need to go see Madam Pomfrey?" She asked.

Ron moved away from Hermione's hold, letting out a small grunt as she pulled him back and wrestled him to fix the bandage. "No, I'm okay."

Hermione scoffed beside him and grabbed onto his arm. "You are certainly not okay, you might have a concussion," she huffed, pulling him toward the door.

Nova laughed under her breath, turning to face Harry, who smirked at her with a knowing look.

"I do not have a concussion," the red-head sighed, but it was a useless breath, she'd already half pulled him out of the door.