LIFELINE | 𝙋𝙚𝙧𝙘𝙮 𝙒𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙡𝙚𝙮

▪︎ 46.

The news of Draco Malfoy being nearly killed by a Hippogriff spread like wildfire. Almost everyone in the school knew it as the Slytherins made it their personal agenda to keep shrieking about it unceremoniously.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione were fuming because they knew his true intentions behind it.

"Git," Ron said. "He's going to get Hagrid fired."

Meanwhile, Professor Lupin was easily the best teacher they had. Percy's wishes came true, and he was more than up to the standard. He had a certain way of grabbing the student's attention.

"The Nogtails are usually found in the more rural areas. They grow in size when they're left unattended, you see," Professor Lupin explained as a huge diagram of the demon was hovering in front of the blackboard.

"But how to identify?" Lupin questioned with an air of interest. "They resemble a piglet for the most part, but the difference between them is that the Nogtails have narrow eyes, long legs, and stubby tails. You can usually differentiate it. If you live on a farm, that is," He said, and the class chuckled.

Everyone, and literally everyone, was copying down everything. The only problem people faced in his class was the constant dipping of quill in the ink.

"Copy these down..." He instructed, "And your homework is..."

Ten minutes later, the bell rang, and people rushed out for lunch hour.

"Now, that was a class." Percy said, rolling up his parchment as he walked out with Eliza.

Once he carefully placed his parchment in his well arranged bag, Eliza held his hand.

"Yeah," She said, "That was a great class."

Percy looked down at their intertwined hands with a slight put-out expression.

"You know," He said importantly, pushing up his glasses with his free hand, "Public display of affection is against the rules."

Eliza turned to him, smirking, "Oh? Really?" She squeezed his hand and let it go, "Alright then," She said, holding her hands behind her and striding away.

Percy stared at her, flushed. He did not mean for her to leave his hand. He didn't have to run to catch up to her. He already had long legs, and Eliza had much shorter one, not taking her much further than a few steps.

"Alexandera," He called out, falling in step with her.

"What?" She replied, hiding her sly grin.

"I-I didn't mean for y-you to... you know..." He said, embarrassed. His embarrassment was pretty clear since his usually serious face was starting to blush.

"No, Percy," She said teasingly, "I don't know."

Percy looked at her, flustered. "I-I didn't mean that you should s-stop holding my hand..." He stuttered.

"Yeah?" Eliza said, grinning and holding his hand again. They walked in the hallway towards the Great Hall hand-in-hand. They didn't talk much, but comfortable silence fell over them. Percy was slowly getting used to this hand holding.

"You know what actually is public display of affection?" Eliza asked, a brainwave passing through, breaking the silence.

Percy shook his head, still bright from the hand holding. She grinned.

"This." Eliza said and pulled his hand, kissing him, in the middle of the hallway.

In the moment of shock, Percy blinked as he felt his lips against Eliza's. He blushed hard.

He didn't know what to do. On one side, he wanted to kiss her back, and on the other, he was Head-Boy and should be following rules.

He wanted to kiss her back badly, but he was Head-Boy...

So, he shut his eyes. He shut his eyes and kissed his girlfriend back, shutting out the other students, forcefully shutting out his pride as well, screaming to pull away.

"Well, well," A cold voice drawled out. "What do we have here?"

Both of the students pulled away at the voice.

Professor Snape stood in front of them, his lip curling and a nasty expression on his face. His eyes were narrowed in clear dislike.

"Aren't you Head-Boy, Mr. Weasley?" Snape questioned, his voice venomous. "Aren't you supposed to know the rules? Or just because you're Head-Boy, you think rules are beneath you? You wouldn't be the first..."

"I-It's not l-like th—"

"Silence!" Snape snapped. "Detention, Mr. Weasley and Ms. Calderon! What an irresponsible head we've appointed this year..."

With one last intense look of loathing, he stalked off.

From behind, a wolf-whistle was heard. Two people ran up to Eliza and Percy, grinning and snickering like crazy.

Fred threw an arm around Percy, who stood there, too stunned to speak.

"Glad to see your girlfriend is setting you right, Perce." Fred said and winked. "Detention, I say, welcome to the club." He patted Percy's back.

George threw a hand around Eliza's shoulder.

"Off, Georgie. Off." Eliza said sternly, causing him to take his hand off instantly.

"You're finally setting our dear brother right, Calderon. Something me and George have been trying to do since he was born." Fred said dramatically.

Eliza scoffed. "There's nothing wrong with your brother to set right." He said, holding Percy's sleeve. "C'mon, let's go," She said, dragging him into the Great Hall.

As they reached the Gryffindor table and sat down, Eliza was fuming about her detention. But she didn't voice it over. Her gut was saying something happened other than them falling into trouble.

They started their lunch in silence, though a small awkward talk bloomed between them. Percy ate his lunch hastily. He wished Eliza hadn't noticed it, but she did.

"Don't eat so fa—" Eliza was cut off.

"I forgot something in Professor Lupin's class. See you later." He said abruptly, getting up and leaving.

Eliza stared at him as he walked away.

What just happened?

***

Dun dun dun.

What's going to happen next?

Off note, I've become such a huge jjk simp (can you blame me?)

This is what I've been doing.

Wait for the next few chapters ;)