Frozen Lily

Chapter 8 - The Feast

I pushed the heavy wooden doors open and peeped in. The Great Hall was bright with its usual floating candles lighting up every crevice, but there were moving areas of shadow that flickered with the movements of hundreds of bats that flew overhead. I noticed that they (luckily) didn't fly any lower than the lowest candle, so they were probably just conjured up by one of the teachers. There were gigantic pumpkins in the corners of the room, glowing subtly from the what must be whole fires crackling within, and smaller pumpkins placed along the house tables. Contrary to the cold Entrance Hall, the Great Hall was warm and cosy, considering its size.
The students were all eating and laughing at their house tables, the food having already been sent up from the kitchens. I noticed Mia, Chloe and Jess sitting at our usual places at the Gryffindor table and grinned.

I slipped through the doors and carefully closed them, trying not to make any noise while doing so. The effect was ruined, however, by the loud knock of metal against wood as the round door handles knocked lightly against the wood. I ignored everyone's turning heads and hurried down the Gryffindor table.
Mia turned and let out a huge squeal. "Lily!"
Chloe and Jess cried.
I broke into a run and ran at them, giving Mia a huge hug before turning and hugging Chloe and Jess. I sat at the empty plate next to Mia and got squished in a bigger, bone-crushing hug by Chloe, Mia and Jess. They all started talking at once.
"We didn't know you'd get out today!"
"I missed you so much!"
"Yaaaas, Lily is back,"

I put up a finger to shush them and piled the nearest foods onto my plate, savouring the delicious smell and sight before me. Once I'd finished dropping a few Yorkshire puddings onto the remaining space on my plate, I looked up to the group's expectant (and glad) expressions.
"So, what's up? What'd I miss?" I asked while spearing a piece of potato with my fork.

"Well, Meredith was being all Meredith-y as usual, acting all sly and snobby etcetera -"
"Yeah, yeah, but any important stuff?" I cut across her. Mia began again.
"Meredith was being sly and whenever a teacher was around she'd ask if you were okay, in some patronising ass voice which made it clear she hoped you'd stay there, and it is important because I bet she was the one who hexed you, so we need to keep an eye out,"
I rolled my eyes. If it was her, she'd probably get suspended or something. Besides, Miss Fletching said that the spell wasn't one she'd heard of before, so it probably wasn't a student anyway. The giggling, though, made it sound like some immature student. I pushed the thought to the back of my mind.
"Anyway, anything special happen - not about Meredith?" I added, seeing Mia's determined face.
"Oh yeah, Mia, tell her what happened!" Chloe's face lit up at whatever they were talking about. Mia immediately blushed and looked down.
"What? What happened?" I asked, suddenly curious to what had made Mia so shy all of a sudden. Mia never gets shy, so this must've been big.
"Well... When I was in Hogsmeade, Will kinda asked me out-" I let out a squeal and squeezed Mia's shoulders. "- it's only to go with him to Hogsmeade... so nothing really," Mia continued with a smile on her face that clearly showed that she thought it was anything but 'nothing really'.
"Anyway, don't tell anyone, we want to keep it quiet... You know what Vera would be like if she found out." I nodded and pulled a plate of lemon drizzle cake towards me, the main foods having been replaced by the desserts.

"This is so exciting! When are you two going out?" I asked expectantly.
"The Hogsmeade weekend just before we leave for Christmas - the 17th... Ooh, should we go to the Hufflepuff party on Christmas Eve?"
I briefly considered it. The Hufflepuff parties were well known by the older years for their amazing planning; they were all organised by the same group of Hufflepuff sixth years, with a few Ravenclaws. Nobody forgot their parties in a hurry.
"Sure, but I've got to ask my mum if I can stay at Hogwarts for Christmas, I'm sure she'll be fine with it though."

Soon the plates were all cleared of food and quiet swept over the hall as everyone turned to the Teachers' table. Professor Moody, a surprisingly young headmaster in his 30s with a well groomed beard and longish dark brown hair, had stood up and waited for complete silence. He had bright, happy electric blue eyes that scanned over the room before coming to rest on the Ravenclaw table.
"I hope you have all found the Halloween feast delicious, as the teachers and I have. It is my great pleasure to be able to announce that Eric Newman - if you would stand - has recently received Flamel's Wizarding Award for exceedingly good magical performance in the early NEWT Charms exam he took in August..." A slim Ravenclaw boy - a sixth year - with dark blue eyes and tousled black hair stood up embarrassedly and quickly sat down again.
"But he's a sixth year!"
"Yeah - I didn't know you could take exams early!" Mia whispered animatedly. I shrugged and nodded; it looked like the Headmaster was going to speak again. The muttering that had carried across the hall at his announcement faded away.
"...Professor Birchwell will be proud, as head of Ravenclaw house..."
A thin witch with shiny grey hair tied in a loose bun nodded approvingly from behind Professor Moody.
"And now I must ask you to leave quietly and quickly to your common rooms. Prefects, if you will...?"
The 5th year Gryffindor prefects stood up and began leading the younger years away. We all got up and filed out into the entrance hall before climbing the stairs to our common room.

"Oh, watch out for the - stairs." I pulled Mia back as the staircase suddenly began moving. We held on to the banister and watched the stairs grind to a halt at their new location: near the Ravenclaw tower. We turned and took another staircase towards the Gryffindor tower, when we bumped into some Ravenclaws.
"Hey Lana!" I greeted her politely. "Hey Eric!"
They smiled and said 'hey' back. They were standing quite close to each other and something clicked in my brain. They would be such a cute couple! I glanced at Mia and she just seemed tired. It was around 10pm, to be fair. We passed by and I waved bye at them, while Mia muttered an unenthusiastic "See you."

We stepped through the portrait hole and saw Chloe and Jess already on the stairs to the dormitories. Mia trudged up the stairs after them. I made to follow her, before I noticed the poster of the Hufflepuff Christmas Party already up on the notice board. It's only just November; either they're really organised or they don't care that there's more than a month to go before Christmas. It was only for 6th years and above, and invite only for 5th years. I turned to go follow Mia up to our dorms when someone grabbed my arm. I quickly spun around. It was Aaron. And I'd been doing so well in avoiding him!
I tried to twist my arm out of his grasp but he just held on, pulling me back away from the stairs. The common room was pretty much empty now, seeing as it was almost quarter to eleven. A few solitary seventh years remained, keeping to themselves and not caring about what was happening on the stairs.

"Just hear me out! It's not -"
"No."
"But it's not -"
"No."
"I never -"
"No."

I fought to keep my face expressionless as I pulled away from him. He held me at arm's length and stared at me. Darn me and my aversion to exercise. Otherwise I would be strong enough to just yank out of his grip. I rolled my eyes.
"It wasn't- no, listen! It wasn't me!" He finished. I stared blankly at him. Who would put a love potion in my drink for someone else? It had to be him!
"Who else would even-"
"I don't know! But it wasn't me!" He stated, pleading now. He wouldn't even know where to get a love potion anyway, so how could it have been him? I contemplated forgiving him; in the year and a bit that I'd known him he didn't strike me as the kind of person to do that, as well as the fact that he was only twelve. But I still wanted to believe that it was him. He looked all smug beforehand, and he has had a petty crush on me for a while, and he was near our table; the Exploding Snap cards had exploded while we were away from the table.

"Fine. I accept that it wasn't you."
I was lying, of course. But he really wanted me to believe him, so it would make him happy if I said I believed him, even if I didn't.
He broke into a grin and then paused before running back to his friends. "I'm sorry about what happened, by the way." Obviously not sorry that it did happen though.

If it wasn't Aaron, like he claimed, (I still think it was him), then it'd have to be a Gryffindor; no one else knows the password. I continued to let my suspicions take over my thoughts up until I climbed into my bed, ready to sleep.

"Hey, what did Aaron want?" A voice interrupted. My eyes opened unwillingly and I looked over at Mia.
"To claim it wasn't him and to say sorry about it anyway." I replied.
"And do you believe him?" She pressed.
I stayed silent for a few minutes.
"Not really..."