𝙏𝙃𝙍𝙊𝙐𝙂𝙃 𝙏𝙃𝙄𝘾𝙆 𝘼𝙉𝘿 𝙏𝙃𝙄𝙉 | ⁽ᵈʳᵃᶜᵒ ᵐᵃˡᶠᵒʸ ˣ ᶠᵉᵐ!ʰᵃʳʳʸ ᵖᵒᵗᵗᵉʳ⁾

21.1 Headlines and Hogsmeade

     "You do know that you're not being so subtle, Jamie," Hermione told her as they descend down from their common room on the first chilly Monday morning of December. Jamie felt like she did something good when she rose out of her bed. Even with the grey winter skies on the outside, she felt that this day will have something promising for her.

     That's when she knew, that of course, later on, she spoke too soon.

     Jamie frowned at her as they entered the great hall, "What do you mean?"

     Hermione only gave her a knowing look, "Something definitely is up with you when you came back wherever you arrived from on Saturday," She brought up and Jamie, however, still appeared confused, "You know that you can tell me about Cedric Diggory, I won't tell anything to Ginny or to the other girls."

     Jamie reeled back and never has she been so confused until now, "What are you talking about? I did not meet with Cedric," They arrived on the Gryffindor table and sat down beside Neville, who greeted them Good Morning along with the others. She caught Ron's eyes inadvertently who looked away quickly.

     Hermione squinted her eyes right at her, "Really?"

     "Believe me, Hermione," Jamie swore truthfully as she helped herself a scoop of baked beans to her plate and a couple of toasts, "Nothing special happened. Should I list it down for you? I woke up in the afternoon and went down to the kitchens. Dobby even accompanied me as I ate--"

     "-- Dobby is in the kitchens?"

     "-- Well, yeah," Jamie nodded as she munched on her toast and took a sip of her tea, "Didn't I mention that Dobby is working down there?"

     "No," Hermione shook her head interestingly, "Not that I remember of,"

     "Oh," Jamie paused and contemplated. Hermione's right, she had never mentioned anything about Dobby to her before. "Well there you go, and there's a lot of others in there too. A herd of house-elves, actually."

     "What?" Hermione looked beyond appaled.

     "Yeah, apparently they are working for Hogwarts. They are the ones who cook everything and clean everything. The menial tasks," Jamie continued, not even noticing the bothered look pasted in Hermione's face, "Then, after I ate, I took a walk around the lake, and Hermione, when I said that Mal--"

     Jamie barely stopped herself from continuing as her eyes darted across to another table, her spoon hanging mid-air momentarily between her fingers as soon as she saw Malfoy sipping his tea calmly and his silver eyes slowly went up and meet hers.

     He didn't move and continued sipping on his cup, his poise straight and perfect like he was trained to do so. Seconds passed and he is the first one to break apart, only being tugged by his girlfriend, Pansy, on his side and whispered something closely on his ear.

     Jamie felt Hermione bent in closer beside her, "Who?"

     "Hedwig," Jamie lied and forced herself to snap away from the collection of their conversations back in the Astronomy Tower, her mind fluttered past of black, whites and silver as she distractingly chewed on her beans, "I can't believe I just raced with Hedwig to the Astronomy Tower, and he beats me to it. I mean, of course, no doubt he would. His skills came from me, and because he's an owl. Imagine the advantages that he has."

     Hermione does not look convinced with her whole babbling scenario, but Jamie is pretty sure her best friend already knew who she is gonna mention about, and she didn't bother to tell her the truth on who she just talked and spent with the whole afternoon at the Astronomy Tower.