The Tale of Guinevere

Locking Spells

The twins and Lee were off doing a prank to Merlin knows who, so I was just sitting in the Hufflepuff common room with Cedric, Lyra and Odin, all already in our pyjamas. It's been a while since we were all together without any of the other houses with us. It wasn't like we were doing something exciting; we were just studying as our exams were getting closer. We were sitting at one of the bigger tables near the window. Cedric planted right next to me, while Odin and Lyra sat across from me. It was getting late, and the common room was empty except for the four of them. You could hear each page flip or scratch on a parchment.

Suddenly Lyra closed her book with a loud thump, making everyone look up. "I'm off to bed, can't read straight anymore." She said rubbing her eyes. "Are you coming with me?" She asked her boyfriend. Odin just smiled and packed up his stuff, when he stood, he carried her books, and they said their goodnights before they went to the girls' dorms.

"I don't think they're going to sleep." Cedric chuckled next to me. I groaned and let my head fall down on my open book.

"I'll just study for an hour more, they'll be done by then... I hope." I said as I lifted my head back up. "I'm just going to read up on CMC, I need to refresh on thestrals."

"Alright." Cedric said closing his book. "Do you want me to wait up with you?"

"No. You go to bed; you were up early." I patted his hand with a smile.

"Okay." He kissed my cheek before standing up. "Night, Winnie."

"Good night, Cedric." I answered and Cedric disappeared behind the door to the boys' dormitories.

I cleaned up all of my books except the one for care of magical creatures and dived in. After an hour of studying in dead silence, I closed my CMC book and took out the one on dragons that Bash send over to me, as he agreed to let me come over this summer. I haven't told Cedric, George or Lee my summer plans. Cedric knew I spent the first month at home, but George hasn't asked yet for my summer plans, or to meet up with him. I was going to spend the first month of summer break in Romania, maybe even longer and I wanted to prepare as much as I could. So, I started flipping through the book and researched every dragon that could be find in Europe at the moment. When I started to make notes on healing spells for the creatures, I started to doze off. And when my head bobbed up and down from my tiredness, I decided it was enough for tonight. I closed my last book and stuffed it in my bag and headed towards my room. 

When I was at the door, I put my ear against it, when I didn't hear anything, I pulled the handle. But the door didn't budge, I tried again but to no avail. I sighed and leaned against the door. The last time I've put a counter spell on it, the door exploded. I picked up my bag from the floor and tiptoed to the boys' dormitory.

I didn't knock when I arrived and slipped in. I walked over to Cedric's side and kneeled down next to him. "Ced?" I gently pushed his shoulder.

"Hm?" He mumbled in his sleep, before turning his head to me and opened his eyes. "Winnie? Is everything okay?" He shot up and his hand went to my cheek to see if I was hurt.

"I'm fine." I smiled at his fussing. "They've put a lock on the door, and remember what happened last time?"

"Yeah." Cedric chuckled. "Sprout wasn't happy about that."

"Can I sleep in here? I'll crash in Odin's bed."

"No can do. There was another reason Odin went to sleep with Lyra, other than..." He wiggled his eyebrows.

I slapped his chest and chuckled. "Oh, grow up."

Cedric gave me a lopsided grin. "One of the first years was dared to break into our dorm and put bedbugs in my bed. But they got the wrong bed. Sprout put a product on it but takes a night to take effect."