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3. Bubble Gum [Fred]

[ for (quotev user) ;; @ Hermione150 ]

Gentle rays of sunlight streamed into the Gryffindor girl's room, partially obscured by the red-and-gold decorative curtains that hung on either side of the large, arching windows, illuminating the embroidered lions that patterned the top and bottom in neat, narrow rows, casting shadows of the majestic creatures onto the tile flooring beneath it. A gorgeous blue sky sat just outside, silently beckoning the room's inhabitants outside. Most were. It was, after all, a Saturday - and, by your fifth year, if your parents still hadn't signed your Hogsmeade approval letters, you were in for a rather unfortunate time.

Most of the girls were already visible through the glass panes. They stood with their friends, laughing, or pointing up at different buildings, no doubt amidst the gossip about everything that had occurred so far during their return to Hogwarts. It was a scene that buzzed with life from corner to corner.

As I tore my gaze away from the outdoor festivities, my eyes fell on an equally buzzing realm, albeit indoors - and, quite frankly, alive in a completely different way. Raised voices could be heard from the bathrooms, where those last few stragglers were getting ready, but the tones were far less than happy.

"How can you agree with that nonsense?"

"It's not nonsense, it's the truth!"

I flopped back down on my bed, ignoring the flutter of papers that occurred as a result of my abrupt force against the mattress. Of course. I'd gone to bed last night believing, truly believing, or at the very least dearly, direly desiring, that when I was awoken on the next day, the issues of yesterday would be resolved. Maybe 'resolved' was too strong a word. I'd hoped that the issues would be dropped and left where they belonged - in the world of yesterday.

And yet, there I was, the morning after it all, hearing every word again and again. The room was a broken record and I was nothing more than its sad, unwilling player, forced into listening to it over and over until I thought my ears would bleed, until my mind went completely insane. I gritted my teeth against one another. My ears may not have been tinged with hemoglobin, but my mind was just about at its breaking point.

Hogwarts was like a second home to me. Yes, it's had its fair share of awful twists and turns, but it was where I could learn, and where I could relax, and just forget about the world around me, replacing it instead with a world of magic and spells. But recently, everything seemed to be taking a turn for the worse.

If I was told to put a finger on it, I would have had to say that I'd only really first noticed the issues near the beginning of last year, what with all the Triwizard Tournament business. The whole ordeal had completely disrupted my schedule. Instead of classes, we'd had balls, and instead of time to study, we'd been forced to go and sit at the site of the next arena, watching the poor contestants risk their lives, all for some stupid trophy. And then...well, it had really worsened at the end of the year.

How were you supposed to react when one of your classmates died?

I wasn't ever the closest person to Cedric, but he'd seemed nice enough, and from the few classes that we did used to have together, I'd grown a liking to his upbeat personality. I had genuinely hoped I'd get to know him better. But then he was one of the chosen four, and all his time was spent with the other contestants, or in preparation for the next competition.

And then, he was no more.

This was why, when upon first hearing word of it last night, I'd immediately agreed with Harry Potter's words: Voldemort was back.