Treacherous | Hermione Granger Book II

|46| Chapter Forty-Six

F O R T Y  S I X 

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Saffron had hoped that the school term starting again would give them more answers. But none came. Not a single answer or stroke of luck could come her way, and it frustrated her to no end.

Her theory about Hagrid being involved in the Chamber of Secrets centred around the off-hand comment Luna had made to her at the Duelling Club. But, when Saffron met Luna in the hospital wing while she visited Olly, Luna merely told her that she felt like Hagrid had opened the Chamber. To Saffron, it didn't seem like the girl was being genuine. Or, at the very least, Luna was keeping her cards close to her chest. Whatever the reason was, it was peculiar. But, as Olly had told her, peculiar and Luna were essentially the same thing. So, she didn't read too much into it and dropped the theory on Hagrid. Maybe she did hold a bit of a grudge towards the man and it was on her to try to get rid of it.

With everyone returning the school, Saffron felt anxious at the prospect of seeing Terry Boot or Lisa Turpin again. The last time the pair had even bothered to look in her direction was when they effectively blamed her for making Olly feel bad enough to go with her and Luna to the duelling club. 

The Ravenclaws decided to ignore her again, which Saffron was perfectly okay as she would rather not hear from them at all than to hear anything negative coming out of their mouths. What made it easier though was Padma. The girl, like Saffron, felt an eerie sense of loss notably in Astronomy, as Olly sat beside the two of them. They voiced their thoughts about every single class that they attended.

"He's going to be so annoyed that he's missed this," Padma was telling Saffron with sadness, as January swiftly turned into February, due to the clock passing midnight on the thirty first. "It's going to annoy him so much that he'll be behind with school work,"

"I would have prefered me to get petrified since I don't care that much," said Saffron truthfully. She wasn't lying. She would have switched places with Olly or Emilia or even Colin. They evidently would have wanted to continue their magical education more than she did. It wasn't that Saffron didn't enjoy it, but she just wasn't a natural hard worker and had little motivation when it came to school work.

"Well, Olly wouldn't like that," Padma told her earnestly, shaking her head. "I suppose he'll be happy to have something interesting to write to Locklan about,"

With that, Saffron's stomach churned. She still couldn't get Olly's letter to his brother out of her mind. It echoed through it in a chilling manner daily. It weighed heavily on Saffron's mind that his poor brother wouldn't be able to comprehend why his older brother had suddenly stopped sending him letters. Of course, the school probably gave Olly's family a reason but since his family were Muggles, they wouldn't understand.

"Have you talked to them at all?" Saffron asked Padma stiffly, adjusting her telescope carefully as she attempted to half-listen to Professor Sinistra. 

"Sometimes we send them letters," Padma told her, the 'we' referred to herself, Terry and Lisa. "His mum doesn't really write anything, Olly's always said that she's never really gotten used to him being magic. She sort of stays away from it as much as possible. But his brother had responded a few times," She paused,  contemplating whether or not she should reveal what she went onto reveal. "We've been thinking about sending him this letter that Olly wrote for him the night it happened, but we didn't want to upset him. I-- It was awful having to read it, I cried about it for a day, and well, I suppose we should let Olly send that letter when he's able to,"

Saffron bit her lip, still feeling guilty for being so invasive. "Yeah, I'd say that's the right thing to do. Hopefully, that'll be sooner rather than later,"