Treacherous | Hermione Granger Book II

|12| Chapter Twelve

T W E L V E 

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"Something is seriously wrong," 

Saffron had regrouped with Hermione after her conversation and together they set off towards the Gryffindor common room. The question of where Harry and Ron were first foremost and secondly, what had happened to them were still at the fore of many peoples minds. When Saffron allowed herself to focus on it too, she too felt as though something was off. With Harry, in particular, it felt like that quite a lot. But those feelings had ultimately translated into an encountered with one of the most notorious wizards of all time, so considering she was feeling it again, Saffron felt like she was justified to feel like something terrible could have happened.

"I'm sure they're fine," replied Saffron, before letting out a squeal when Hermione threw her hand out to stop her from stepping on the vanishing stair. It hit her like a clothesline but Saffron was grateful for it because the sinking feeling one felt when stepping on the stair was awful. "Thanks, anyway, like I said, I'm sure they're fine. Ron's brothers didn't seem too worried about it,"

"Fred and George wouldn't be worried if Ron was locked in the dungeons by himself, they'd probably find it funny,"

"I meant Percy more than the twins," Saffron said with a small smile. She was trying to assure Hermione that it was going to be alright in spite of feeling like it might not be alright. "Whatever happened to them couldn't be as bad as the end of last year, right? So it should be fine then,"

"You saw how Professor McGonagall looked when they left the hall," said Hermione, as they continued their trek up the stairs to Gryffindor tower. Right after the sorting ceremony, a very disconcerted Professor McGonagall left the hall in the company of Professor Dumbledore. That hadn't happened the year previous, and according to the older students, they had never seen it happen before either. "Dumbledore was harder to read, but McGonagall's face told me that something awful had happened,"

"But they came back, though," Saffron reminded Hermione thoughtfully. "If they were dead or something they wouldn't have come back, don't you think?"

"Dying isn't the worst thing that could happen," said Hermione briskly, making Saffron's eyes bulge in a mixture of amusement and shock. "What if they got expelled?"

"Do you hear yourself?" responded Saffron through a laugh. "Dying is better than getting expelled, Merlin,"

"You know what I mean," Hermione said swiftly. "There are other things that might've happened to them, it's unbelievable, the school year hasn't even started and they've already got themselves caught in something! If they think for two seconds they can drag me into it . . . they've got another thing coming,"

"Me too," agreed Saffron. She backed what Hermione said there completely. After the events of last year, there was no way that she was going to involve herself in anything out of the normal in Hogwarts. She had been too close for comfort at the end of the school year. "I don't want another year like last year,"

"Definitely not," nodded Hermione in agreement. Suddenly, she stopped in her tracks, as upon reaching the hallway leading to the portrait hole of the Gryffindor common room, Harry and Ron were stood waiting outside of it. "There are you! Where on earth have you two been? People have been saying the most ridiculous things about the two of you!"