The Little Pureblood [1]

Chapter 29: Morale Booster

Hermione did not leave the hospital wing at all in January, due to the numerous whiskers she still had among other things, so naturally, the entire school started to gossip about it, even going as far as to find people lingering in the hall outside the hospital wing in search of Hermione whenever possible.

Thankfully, Madam Pomphrey was a sight to behold when it came to scaring off students not to mention Hermione's curtain came in handy to hide her from onlookers. But of course, this did not stop the rumors that were everywhere, discussing whether Hermione was petrified over the break.

To no one's surprise, Diana was one of the main conspirers about how Hermione was most definitely petrified and most likely dead.

"You weren't even here for the holidays. How would you know about it, Diana?" Harper snapped back her way one day after classes.

"Because they have a curtain around her. Why would they have a curtain around her if she wasn't petrified?"

Cue the instant eye rolls from everyone in Slytherin common room.

Sam kept her mouth quiet and her ears open about the heir, while I kept up my curious investigation into Slytherin for Hermione, reporting in every chance I had about how literally nothing was going on.

And while Hermione and the boys were grim about the lack of leads, Hermione had little to be upset about because at the start of February, she was released from the hospital wing, quieting everyone's rumors about her.

Naturally, Diana was in a dreadful mood for the next few days following since students from Slytherin started to give her a hard time for her stupid rumors. Sam was among them and I couldn't help but chuckle along after her.

The first weak rays of sun graced the castle as February took affect and the talk among the students started to become happier as no more students were getting petrified.

While this made my job at the hospital wing once a week a little less exciting, I kept at it, in shear hope of hearing something about the Heir.

But, even in classes, teachers were starting to show signs of relief, as if what had occurred with Justin and Colin where all in the past and would be rectified quickly. Professor Lockhart even had the idea to tell us one morning in class that it was him who had scared the monster away.

"Yes, you see children, just my presence has scared the beast long enough to second guess itself," Lockhart gloated happily. "I highly doubt we will be having any more accidents around the school, now that I monitor the halls."

"It's a good thing he's pretty", I muttered to Sam who was watching him with silent heart eyes. I received a jab of her elbow to my side making me cough and duck my head away from onlookers in class.

Lockhart did not seem to notice my ill rational coughing since he continued on, saying, "You know what this school needs now is a morale-booster! Wash away the memories from last term! Oh, but I shouldn't say anything more. You all will just have to wait and see!" He said the last part with a tap on his nose and wink to us, making some of the girls' giggle. Thankfully, Sam hadn't fallen so low as to giggle along with them.

But she did talk about it after classes were finished for the day, trying to be discrete about it.

"You know, all of this homework has me wanting some form of "morale-booster", don't you think Dom?" She asked, turning curiously to Dominic's bent form who was busy writing out a charm's example from the textbook.

"Oh, here we go. Talking about Lockhart's strange plans, now are we?" I asked Sam, cutting Dominic off before he could begin. Sam coughed unnaturally and started to flutter around with her own charm's assignment.