American Beauty

Chapter 25: Reunion

It was pouring.

Maybe that's an understatement. It was raining so hard you couldn't see three feet in front of you. It was raining so hard that it hurt.

I sighed as I watched the lightning cut across the bleak, gray sky. I reopened my book and continued to read.

I was reading The Secret Garden for the millionth time. It was my favorite classic story.

I heard a knock on the window and my very soggy owl Mona flew in with the paper. "Thank you Mona," I said. I flipped open the paper and found the top headline. 

"Mass breakout from Azkaban," I read to myself. I sighed. More things to go wrong this year.

"Laila!" yelled Logan, "there's someone downstairs for you!" I dashed downstairs and ran smack into Draco. I smiled wide and attacked him in a hug.

"Good to see you too," he said.

"Did you hear about the breakout?" I asked lowly.

"Yeah," he said. "Pretty scary stuff."

"Honestly, it's just another thing to go wrong this year."

"Harry Potter's got his work cut out for him." I laughed at that.

"Anyway," he continued, "you're a half-blood."

"About that," I said. "I didn't know about it until the end of last year when your father brought it up. Thinking back on Dumbledore's story of my past, I probably should have picked that up. The one thing I don't understand is how my brother is a muggle."

"I'm not," said Logan, stepping into the room. "I attend Durmstrang which has a school year that starts after yours."

"How come you didn't tell me this?" I exclaimed. 

"I just never thought about telling you," he answered. 

"Whatever," I said. I started to walk back up the stairs to my room in the Leaky Cauldron and Draco followed. At the top of the stairs, I looked back out across the pub and saw a flash of red hair. 

"Oh great," muttered Draco. "It's the Weasley's." I rolled my eyes. Of course they had to be staying at the same inn as we were. 

"Let's just go," I said. "Don't want to barge in on their little family reunion."