𝗨𝗡𝗘𝗫𝗣𝗘𝗖𝗧𝗘𝗗 ━ Golden Trio Era

━chapter 22

Chapter 22
━━━━━━━━ ✥ ━━━━━━━━

"WHY IS ROSIER GIVING YOU THE STINK EYE?"

Adhara smirked into her glass of milk. Usually, when Tonks sat at the Slytherin table to spend time with — aka annoy — her, Adhara briskly stood and left for her classes. Only, that made the woman follow her and yap behind her even with Adhara ignoring her the entire time.

Then, the next day, she would switch to Harry. But Harry wasn't capable of being as mean as Adhara, so the lad would engage. Though, he didn't look annoyed at Tonks' presence, probably because the auror was growing on him.

Adhara didn't really understand why the woman was so interested in forming a bond with her and Harry. It felt quite impulsive. Perhaps, it was because no one else on her mother's side of the family really cared about her — though Adhara was pretty sure Andromeda Tonks kept contact with Narcissa Malfoy — or because she still felt guilty for her initial reaction to Adhara. Either way, Adhara did not appreciate it at the beginning. And now...

Well, now Adhara supposed that she tolerated her presence. It wasn't as though she had much of a choice in the matter. Nymphadora Tonks was not leaving her alone.

Adhara set down her glass, handing Tonks her copy of the Quibbler.

Adhara focused on her breakfast as the auror scanned through the paper. She was also ignoring the glares that were being thrown her way from the teachers' table that morning. An easy thing to do when she simply couldn't care less.

Rosier wasn't popular amongst Adhara's peers, so the Quibbler could be found in almost every students' hands. The number of subscriptions had already gone up since Adhara started writing — apparently quite a few people liked the unfiltered criticism Adhara threw at the Ministry — so she wasn't surprised, by the number of sales. Rosier wasn't happy, and neither was the little gang of followers he had acquired, consisting mostly of purebloods and boys — Malfoy being one of them.

Idiots, the lot of them.

Millie wasn't at breakfast that morning, something to do with her apprenticeship with Pomfrey. And as much as Adhara would rather be with her other friends at the moment, Rosier was being weird about Inner-House unity. He was forcing everyone to solely sit at their House table. It was idiotic. Roisin and her friends were not happy.

Adhara heard Tonks snort.

"You've got a flair for dramatics, I'd give that to you."

"I'm not dramatic."

Tonks looked unimpressed. She pointed at a specific line in the article. "Apparently, our Minister favours backward-minded individuals. First an abusive tyrant, then a misogynist with a soft-spot for purebloods. Is Minister Fudge turning to the dark side? Is that why he denies You-Know-Who's return?"

"And?"

Tonks rolled her eyes. "You're proper brave, though, speaking up against the Ministry like that. And you got Harry to do an interview."

And it was a good idea, too. No matter how badly the Prophet wanted to slander Harry, the words of the Boy-Who-Lived still remained relevant.

"It was his idea, not mine. Harry's the brave one, not me."

"You can both be brave, you know?"

"I don't care about bravery."

"Yeah? Then what do you care about?"

It didn't sound mocking to Adhara's ears. Tonks sounds genuinely curious about Adhara's opinion.

"Survival. My own, and of those I care about."