The Art of An Ending

Chapter Seventeen: Slughorn's Christmas Party

Snow was swirling against the icy windows once more; Christmas was approaching fast. Hagrid had already single-handedly delivered the usual twelve Christmas trees for the Great Hall; garlands of holly and tinsel had been twisted around the banisters of the stairs; everlasting candles glowed from inside the helmets of suits of armour and great bundles of mistletoe had been hung at intervals along the corridors. Large groups of people tended to converge underneath the mistletoe bunches whenever Erica went past, and she wondered whether somebody had put them up to it, as it caused blockages in the corridors; fortunately, however, Erica's frequent night-time wanderings had given her an unusually good knowledge of the castle's secret passageways, so that she was able, without too much difficulty, to navigate mistletoe-free routes between classes.

Draco and Pansy thought this new turnabout to be quite amusing, as did Millicent, who had been spending an increasing amount of time with them, which Erica thought was solely to do with Pansy, judging from the looks that passed between them often. She found that this sudden addition to their group was actually quite useful, though it often led to the wonderings of Pansy about what it all might mean.

"I mean, we've been friends since forever- and yes, I'm still not telling you that story, Draco, shut up- but we've always kept private and school lives rather separate before," she told Erica.

Erica did not answer, but pretended to be absorbed in the book they were supposed to have read for Charms the following morning (Quintessence: A Quest) despite the fact that she had already read it. As much as she loved Pansy and liked Millicent, she had heard this several times before, and was not looking forward to hearing more thoughts on the nature of their relationship.

"I just don't understand what it all means? Is she trying to tell me something? Does she want our friendship to change, or does she want to be closer? Is she jealous of how I am with you two? It's... all a little... odd..."

Erica turned a page of Quintessence, aware that Pansy was watching her. Her voice tailed away in murmurs, barely audible over the crackling of the fire, though Erica thought she caught the words 'Millicent' and 'odd' again.

Erica's timetable was so full that she found it difficult to talk to them aside from in the evenings, and even then they didn't get much time to speak as they were too engrossed in their work. It seemed like they were getting nowhere in the search for the remaining objects and what they were, so they decided to put it on hold until the start of Christmas break when they would have more time to focus on it, instead ploughing through their homework and extra reading whenever they had the chance. It was because of this that their time spent together was frequently spent in the library, where all conversations were held in whispers.

"You should be careful," Draco told Erica, while the librarian, Madam Prince, prowled the shelves behind them. "I've overheard talk about people trying to decide how to slip you a love potion. They're all hoping they're going to get you to take them to Slughorn's party and they all seen to have bought Fred and George's love potions, which actually probably work-"

"So my old beau is going to get me a new one?" Erica raised an eyebrow before breaking down into quiet, half-hysterical giggles. "I don't see why anyone wants to go with me at any rate."

"You're very good-looking," Millicent stated blandly, staring at her nails, which earned her a scandalised look from Pansy, flushed cheeks from Erica and a smirk from Draco. "Well, I'm not going to pretend that she isn't."

"I'm a walking, talking, breathing, female version of my father at his age but with curly hair," Erica stated, "so essentially you're also calling the Dark Lord good-looking."

Millicent looked up at her for a few seconds seriously, as though she was actually considering her appearance, eyes roving around her face and hair and then down her body in a way that caused her flush to spread across her cheeks and down her neck, blotchy and pink.