Aria Black and the Battle for Hogwarts

The Twins and Lee

"Firewhiskey please, Rosmerta." I say, throwing a sickle on the table of the bar.

Her eyes widen and she whispers, "Aren't you supposed to be at Hogwarts?"

I shake my head. "It's Sunday."

She nods in understanding and pushes my sickle back towards me. Lowering her voice to almost an inaudible volume, she whispers, "I'm sure you're doing things for those kids none of us could dream of doing."

Rosmerta hands me my alcohol.

Even though I have class tomorrow, and I know that I shouldn't, I take a satisfying slurp. And another. And so many more...

FRED'S POV

"Lee, have you seen the poptarts?" George asks. That's his new thing now, poptarts. We stumbled upon them in a Muggle house and he fell in love.

Today we reside in a house of a Muggle athlete. He has a lot of a drink called Gatorade in his fridge.

"You ate them all, mate." Lee tells him, laughing.

"Isn't it midnight?" I ask groggily.

"Yep!" George chirps. Yikes... he must've eaten goldfish crackers again...

Just then, a noise sounds outside. Someone curses, but I won't repeat it.

George, Lee, and I exchange a look. Who is at our secret hideout?

I raise my wand, and my friends do the same. Lee throws open the door to find...

Aria. In all of her drunken beauty.

I pull her into a hug. "Ari!"

"Hey Mr. Weasel." She says, giggling.

Lee looks at me and mouths, 'drunk...'

I pick up my girlfriend and bring her to my bedroom. George manages to catch my eye and wink at me. I am so going to kill him later.

Aria jumps onto my bed and begins singing a Celestina Warbeck song in a shrilly voice. That is her impression of Celestina? Well... I guess she IS drunk.

"Ari," I say. "I'm going to let you sleep here, okay?"

She looks up at me, smirking. "Sleep where?"

I grimace. This is going to be hard. My drunk girlfriend, one of the most attractive women I've ever met, is asking me to sleep with her. She won't remember anything tomorrow morning....

I shake my head. "You'd kill me tomorrow morning."

She shrugs. "At least you'd have fun before you die."

I push the door closed before I can make a bad decision with a, "Night Ari."

DAPHNE GREENGRASS'S POV

Aria isn't here! We are her first class of the morning, which is good. What are we going to do?

"Do you think she's okay?" Pavarti asks quietly.

"If the Death Eaters had gotten her, they'd have a replacement." Anthony Goldstein says logically.

Padma turns to me and asks somewhat accusingly, "Do YOU know anything?"

I shake my head. "Nobody said anything at breakfast."

"Well SOMEONE'S got to know!" Fay says, throwing her hands up exasperatedly.

I'm worried. What if the Death Eaters got her?

"We need to cover this up." I say. "If the Death Eaters aren't responsible for her disappearance, then they can't know. Too many disappearances are surrounding Hogwarts for her to just leave on her own accord. If they knew, they'd get us a new teacher."

"We can tell the students she asked us to teach the class." Michael Corner says.

***

"Where's Professor Black?" Melody Collins asks.

"This is our final exam." I lie. "We have to teach class today."

A little boy named Michael raises his hand. "Where is she? How is she grading you?"

Ugh, this is going to be harder than I thought.

"She's performed an Invisibility Charm on herself so she can't psych us out." Corner lies smoothly.

They don't seem convinced, but we begin to tell them about Saturn's Rings and they seem to forget about what's happening.

When they leave, we all high-five. "We should become teachers!" Fay exclaims.

"I have dibs on the Astronomy job!" Terry Boot cries.

"No, you can't!" I cry, getting choked up. "Aria's still here! Alive unless proven dead! Aria-"

"Aria what?" A voice from the doorway asks. Aria!

I hug her. "Where the bloody Merlin's Beard were you?"

Aria smirks. "Long story..."