Chasing Time (Seamus Finnigan)

thirthy

'You are a fool of a man, Yaxley. After tonight only one Yaxley will live...'

'No!'

'Avada Kedavra.'

I woke up, all sweaty and shaking, my Dark Mark was hurting again and I closed my eyes, trying to go back to sleep, but all I saw in front of my eyes was my dad. Dead. And I was responsible for this. Me. His own daughter. How could I ever forget that?

'Dora, you okay?' A voice whispered. I opened the curtains of my four-poster, and almost jumped as I saw Hermione standing next to my bed.

'Yeah. Fine.'

'A bad dream?' she whispered. I could see she was frowning, in the moonlight.

'Yes. A bad dream. It was just a dream. Go back to sleep, you'll need it.'

'Sure you're okay?' Hermione said disbelieving.

'Yeah.'

'Okay. Goodnight Dora.'

'Goodnight.'

The next morning Chantry and I went down the stairs to the common room together, as she had offered to walk to breakfast together.

As I entered the common room, I saw Ron, Harry and Hermione were waiting for me and I walked towards them. 'Good morning,' I said as I sat down in the couch next to Ron who yawned.

'First day of term again,' Harry said with a sigh. Hermione seemed to be the only one who was fully awake. 'Yes. That means we can't be late for class. Let's get some breakfast.' She stood up and looked at Harry, Ron and me, all three of us lying in the couch as if we were never getting up.

'Come on!' she repeated. Harry jumped and stood up immediately. Ron sighed as he got up and pulled me up too. 'Duty,' he muttered as we climbed through the portrait hole, making me laugh.

In the Great Hall we took our usual spots and I grabbed a sandwich. Ron took two and began eating right away. I chuckled. 'What? I'm hungry,' he said, still munching.

I felt a warm arm around my shoulders as I heard the familiar voice. 'Can I join you?' Seamus sat down next to me, his arm still wrapped around my shoulders.

'As long as you don't snog her,' Ron said. Seamus laughed and took some cereals. Hermione sighed as she was watching the teacher's table. 'What is it?' Harry said as he followed her gaze. 'Umbridge. I don't like her.'

'What took you so long to figure out?' Ron growled.

'Nothing. But now she's just... It's madness.'

'Why?' Harry said. 'I think she-' Hermione got cut off by Cho, who approached us. 'Hi, Harry.'

Harry turned around with a smile. 'Cho. Why are you uhm... here?'

'I wondered if you maybe wanted to meet after lunch?' she asked, a bit nervous. Why was she so nervous? They were dating, right?

'Yeah, sure,' Harry replied. Cho smiled at him and then walked over to her friends, blushing, as Harry turned to us again. 'Lovely,' I commented with a nod.

'Sick,' Ron brought up. I laughed. 'What's wrong with you, Ron?' Seamus asked. 'Don't have succes yourself?'

Ron muttered something and then stood up. 'I'm going to get my stuff,' he said, but instead of walking out of the Great Hall, I saw him walking towards the Hufflepuff table. I couldn't see what he was going to do there, but as far as I knew, only I had noticed. That was something I had to ask him about. 

'So what classes do we have again?' Seamus asked. 'Dora and I got Study of Ancient Runes and then Herbology,' Hermione replied, still frowning. I thought she was still thinking about Umbridge.

'That makes Divination for us,' Harry said. 'We'd better get our stuff too.' Harry stood up. Seamus did so too. 'See you at Herbology,' Seamus said. He placed a kiss on my cheeck and then set off with Harry, leaving Hermione and me behind.

I moved so I was sitting across from Hermione. 'What was Ron mad about?' she asked as she took another sandwich. I shrugged. 'He's a bit tensed.'

'Yea. He sure is. I would like to know what's going on too,' I said. I glared to the Hufflepuff table, looking for Ron. Hermione frowned and turned around to see what I was looking at. I finally caught sight of the red-headed boy: he was sitting next to a Hufflepuff girl with long, ginger hair. I saw him laugh.

Quickly I turned my gaze back at Hermione. 'He's making friends with Hufflepuffs. House unity I suppose,' I said and I finished my last sandwich as she turned around again. 'Come on, or we'll be late for class,' I said. I stood up, but Hermione was still glaring at the Hufflepuff table.

'Hermione?'

'Huh? Oh yeah. Let's um... go,' Hermione said in fast speed and stood up. 

Study of Ancient Runes was not as interesting as usual, but Hermione who was sitting next to me, was paying attention and scribbling notes on her parchment like always. It was actually the first time I didn't understand it. I sighed as I crumpled my parchment for the second time and started again.

'Granger?' A voice whispered behind us. Hermione didn't react, but keeped her eyes fixed on her parchment, so I turned around. 'I'm sorry, she's translating,' I explained. The boy looked at me in surprise. 'I've never talked to you before. What's your name?' I asked.

'Oh, I'm Charlie. Charlie Willson,' he introduced himself. Charlie was a Slytherin, as he was wearing a green with silver sweater underneath his robes. He had brown hair and blue eyes and he looked really shy.

'I'm Dora Yaxley.'

He smiled at me slightly. 'What were you going to ask her?' I said with a nod in Hermione's direction. 'Oh, I just don't understand this part,' he said as he traced a sentence in his book with his pointer finger.

'Really? That's like the only thing I do understand,' I said with a chuckle. It seemed like he was too shy to ask me for help, so I got up and sat down in the empty chair next to Charlie.

Shy people sometimes needed to be encouraged a bit . 'I'll help you.'

'Thank you. You are really kind.'

'Do you truly think so? Wait until you get to know me,' I replied with a grin as I pulled his book closer towards me. 'So. This word means "at the moment". And then you take the verb, over here,' I started to explain the sentence to Charlie.

'Miss Yaxley and mister Willson, could you please give your fellow classmates the chance to make their translation too, or is whatever you two are discussing more important?' professor Babbling said at once.

'Oh, I was just helping Charlie with this part, I'm sorry, professor,' I said as I looked up. 'Mister Willson will not learn anything this lesson if you will keep telling him how to do it, miss Yaxley.'

Charlie didn't say a word; he just sat there, with a worried look in his eyes. 'You can sit here, miss, alone,' she said, pointing to an empty table in the front of the classroom.

I sighed, picked my book and parchment up and walked towards the empty table. Hermione stared at me during the action, frowning. Well, I guessed, it looked like Charlie had to do some studying this afternoon.

After Study of Old Runes, I walked back to Hermione's table to pick up my bag. 'Hey, Dora. May I ask you something?' I looked up. It was Charlie. 'Yea, sure, Charlie,' I said, putting my books in my bag.

'I just wondered if you've got a bit of time after class? To do the homework, for this class,' he said, biting his lip and staring to the ground constantly. 'Um, sure. Yea. That would be nice. In the library?' Charlie nodded and a small smile appeared on his face. 'Keep smiling, Charlie, it suits you,' I said as I picked up my bag and threw it over my shoulder.

'Okay. I'll work on it. See you after dinner then?'

'Yep. Bye Charlie,' I replied as Hermione walked towards me and we left the classroom and went outside the castle, making our way to the greenhouse for Herbology.