Unforeseen Consequences ☞︎ A James Potter Fan Fic

{5} Disturbing Encounters With The Woodland Creatues

It was the day after and Holly had continued to be in a fowl mood. She thought about doing a number of things. One, she could tell the headmaster it was her, herself. She quickly shook her head at that. She would surely get into loads of trouble. Two, she could simply tell Lily what James had asked of her and tried to work something out with Lily. No, no. Lily would be furious. Plus, James would just go ahead and tell the headmaster what she had done!

Holly couldn't think of a single thing that would help get her out of this. She was stuck. The only option in her mind seemed to be doing whatever James Potter asked of her. She was conflicted. She didn't want any of these things to happen.

Like usual, Holly had terrible timing for when to let her mind trial off. Because during these troubling thoughts, she just so happened to be nearing the clock tower courtyard with David walking alongside her. David wore a wide and excited smile on his face as he simply couldn't keep still. Even as they walked, Holly noticed how he was jumping around. It all made sense when she tuned back in to realize he was explaining how the Quidditch practice she had missed went.

Holly had attended all of Hufflepuffs tryouts, and through the years had attended all their practices. But much to her chagrin, her mind had been off in space during class and she really needed to study. David was happy enough to catch her up on all that happened.

Hollys mind had once again started to drift. She was trying her hardest to focus. She really was! Quidditch was one of the most important things in her life and she didn't want to miss a moment of it! But her life had suddenly become a lot more dizzying over the past couple of days than it had her entire time at hogwarts.

Sure, she got in trouble a lot. Usually for accidentally ruining school equipment, but trouble none the less. She had done her fair share of harmless pranks and believed that to be enough for her. She couldn't even begin to comprehend what her setting fire to the pitch would result to. And that terrified her.

Holly was suddenly knocked back into her (one-sided) conversation with David when the next thing that came out of his mouth shook her to the bone.

"Hey, did you hear what happened to the quidditch pitch? It's been getting around that someone from one of the other three houses set fire to Gryffindors locker room." David explained stressfully. Hollys eyes went wide as she jerked her head to look over at David.

"What?! Who would do such a thing?!" Holly shouted, trying her best to sound distraught about something having to do with her favorite sport. But like previously expressed, she wasn't the best liar. David looked at her weirdly before he chuckled.

"I'm not certain, but I guess the professors didn't want anyone to know about it. They went here! They should've known that information like that never gets kept secret." David said with a shake of his head and a laugh on his lips. Holly fiddled with her hands as she looked up at him.

"Well did they manage to fix the pitch? You know the Ravenclaw vs. Slytherin scrimmage is coming up." I mention. David nods.

"Yeah. It didn't take much to fix, but the professors are taking a serious look into this. It had to be a student, right? They are right though that arson is taking house rivalry a little too far." David expressed, shaking his head in disappointment. He obviously didn't know it, but it hit Holly deep. But then of course he didn't know that it was a complete accident. Holly glanced around them before turning to him.

"Who are they suspecting did it?" She asked lowly. At this, David rolled his eyes.

"You know Dumbledore. He went right to Professor Slughorn and asked if all his students were accounted for," David explained with a huff. As bad as Holly felt for doing so, she almost let out a giant sigh of relief. Relief they didn't suspect her or anyone near her when David suddenly let out a loud scoff. "But then of course some of the Slytherin kids- you know- Snape, Nott, Malfoy. They tried to pin it on us Hufflepuffs!" David exclaimed in anger. The color began to drain from Hollys face. "They pointed out that the fire happened just after the game. While, ok, yes, that is true, we could never do something like that!" David shouted, going a little overboard with it.