The Carnival ⌁ Draco Malfoy [1/4] ✔

33

It was at dinner the next evening that Sabrina chose to rejoin them again. She'd finally showed up for Charms earlier on that day, and kept to her now usual quiet self, and hid in the back of the classroom to do her own thing. Daphne, Pansy and Millicent were what looked like her body guards now, snapping at anyone who approached or tried speaking to Sabrina about anything. Pansy had even gone as far as yelling at Theodore just for looking at Sabrina. But Emma had just given up on trying to get a word out of Sabrina; she clearly wasn't going to budge, and Emma just decided to accept that Sabrina was upset about her parents and most likely terrified about the upcoming exams.

Harry wasn't with Ron and Hermione when Emma looked over and scanned the Gryffindor table, and instantly assumed he was with Snape for his Occlumency lesson. She wished she could take Occlumency lessons...but would occasionally have an inside laugh at the fact that Harry had his with Snape.

Blaise reached out to grab Emma's bread roll from her plate, but she stopped him by threatening to stab him in the hand with one of the forks that was lying beside her plate.

"No one," Emma started in a dangerous tone, eyeing Blaise down, "and I mean - no one - touches my food and gets away with it."

"It's just a piece of bread," said Blaise airily, reaching out to take it again but Emma swatted him away.

"If it's just a piece of bread, then take one of those ones!" Emma said loudly and dramatically, and pointed to the basket of bread in front of Blaise.

But while pointing she let her guard down, having expected Blaise to grab one from the basket but instead he sneaked his hand under her arm and stole her bread roll. Emma reddened and growled, grabbing one of the bread rolls from the basket and hitting Blaise across the head with it.

"Do you have to be annoying?" she demanded, scooting a little away from him.

"Do you have to be a baby?" Blaise mocked.

Suddenly, a woman cried out loudly, and the words were sucked back into the depths of Emma's throat as she whirled around in her seat to stare out of the giant oak doors that lead into the Entrance Hall. As the woman screamed and shrieked, everyone stood instantly to flood their way out of the Great Hall. Emma spotted Professor Trelawney and Professor Umbridge facing each other, and, for quite an obvious reason, there were trunks by Trelawney's feet.

"No!" She shrieked in an unusual tone - Emma was used to her sounding obscure. "NO! This cannot be happening...it cannot...I refuse to accept it!"

Emma turned instantly to the left and opened her mouth, while expecting to see Blaise but instead Draco was standing there, staring at the scene before him in utter amusement.

"She's sacked, right?" said Emma.

"I hope so," he replied brightly.

"You didn't realise this was coming?" said Umbridge in a high-pitched, amused voice. "Incapable you are of predicting even tomorrow's weather," Emma stifled a giggle, it was hard not to side with Umbridge on this one even if she felt a little sympathy for Trelawney, "you must surely have realised that your pitiful performance during my inspections, and lack of any improvement, would make it inevitable that you would be sacked?"

"You c-can't!" cried Trelawney. "You can't sack me! I've been here sixteen years! Hogwarts is my home!"

"It was your home," Umbridge corrected her, and Emma looked away from her toad-like face to see Harry by the dungeon stoned steps. He was staring at Umbridge with clear dislike. "Now kindly remove yourself from this hall. You are embarrassing us."

Draco sniggered.

Trelawney dropped herself onto one of her trunks and wailed, her eyes staring out into nothing as though she were in a shocked trance. McGonagall broke free of the spectators and marched over to Trelawney to comfort her while also giving Umbridge a few words of her mind. When Dumbledore burst out of nowhere, ordering McGonagall to escort Trelawney back up to her tower, he proceeded to argue with her about her limit of authority. And he, surprisingly enough, already had a new Divination teacher. It almost seemed like he knew Trelawney was being sacked.

"This is Firenze," he announced, and Emma looked over to the large front oak doors, the students by the doors separated and in came a man with two front legs and two hind legs.

"What is that?" Emma said loudly in awe, eyes bulging as she watched him move past Umbridge who was staring in shock and disgust. A lot of murmur broke through the crowd of spectators.

"That, I believe, would be a centaur," answered Draco who was also staring in awe, but also annoyance. He suddenly scoffed as though to wash away his state of awe. "Saw one of them in my first-year, you know? Actually, I saw a whole herd of them out in the forbidden forest."

Emma blinked. "You did, did you?"

"Yep," Draco said loudly, his voice raised to clearly indicate that he was proud Emma had finally found some sort of interest in him, but really she found it quite hard to believe. "After seeing a dragon, I saw a whole herd of centaurs."

"You're bluffing."

"Am not!" Draco cried defensively. "Even ask your precious Potter; he was there too," he added almost reluctantly, a slight leer appeared.

Emma ignored his accusatory comment; it was hard not being able to let him know that she and Harry didn't have anything going on strictly because they were related. Most the time Draco unintentionally made her feel as though, to her, it was always Harry, and telling Draco that she felt nothing for Harry was, as Draco took it, quite unconvincing. And being accused of being in love with her own brother was as sickening as someone marrying their own cousin.

The crowd parted and half left for their common rooms while the rest went back to finishing off their dinner. Emma decided to set off for the Slytherin common room, and, casting one last look into the Great Hall, she spotted Sabrina sitting alone, stirring her soup with a distant look on her face.

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A/N: Is anyone else excited for the 8th Harry Potter book coming in July?!?! Oh, wait...dumb question...I'm sure you all are <3