Circi | 2

NINE

"Quidditch"

The staff and students at Hogwarts had been on edge for a few days now.

Circi had been avoiding Isabell since the first day of lessons but she received her fair share of gossip from Leslie, the girls in her dorm and Mica in Herbology class. That night, when Draco had to collect her from the Transfigurations classroom and the two excused themselves from lessons to talk and play Snapdragon in the common room all afternoon, the Gryffindor house had to sleep in the Great Hall. The portrait of the Fat Lady, which guarded the entrance to their common room, had been ripped to shreds and- much to the horror of the staff, students and ghosts alike- word spread that the notorious mass murderer Sirius Black had infiltrated Hogwarts.

"So much for the Dementors being here," one of the girls in her dorm, Niamh Spear, a brunette portuguese girl with a distinct irish accent and a tendency to announce her opinion at any given moment, announced that night. They were passing around a box of bertie bott's every flavour beans, discussing the day's events. "I mean, they're scary. And they're meant to protect us. But they can't stop one wizard from getting into Hogwarts? What is the point?" The other girls mumbled agreements and shrugged their shoulders before falling back into finding the nastiest beans.

A week or two later, the memory still instilled terror in the students but a new event was overtaking the terror and replacing it with anticipation and excitement. It was quidditch season and Slytherin were due to face Gryffindor.

In the common room that morning, long before Breakfast was ready, the quidditch team were hyping themselves up. The noise soon woke up the rest of the house and soon enough there were a hundred or so Slytherins running around the common room in their pyjamas chanting 'Slytherin! Slytherin! Slytherin!'.

Circi was one of the last to wake up, the girls she shared a dorm with had shaken her awake but she still spent five minutes taming her hair. Entering the common room, she stood at the top of the staircase adjusting to the news.

"They are astonishingly loud." Circi looked up to find Carmen approaching her in a pair of white slippers, a slip of a nightdress and a slytherin pride scarf covering her cleavage. Circi wasn't sure what to say, awestruck as usual in her presence, and simply nodded before looking back over the common room. She noticed Draco among the crowd dressed in his seeker uniform and chanting equally as loud as the rest of his team. "Circini." Carmen grabbed her attention once more. "I've been meaning to talk to you about Draco."

Although there was nothing wrong with the statement, and Circi had yet to do anything regarding her brother to require such a statement, her heart still picked up. She nodded, mistrusting of her ability to speak.

"Draco and I have been on a few dates and I wanted to check with you to see if that was alright?" Circi's heart stopped beating so fast and she narrowed her eyebrows.

Carmen and Draco? She couldn't see the appeal. Carmen is intelligent, confident and two years older than him. What could a short-tempered, jealous boy like Draco have that she would enjoy?

"Are you sure?" Carmen purses her lips and nods. Circi shakes her head again.

"Draco?" A beat passed between them as Circi thought about it for a moment. She shrugged and mumbled to herself, "everybody makes mistakes." Then, she looks up at Carmen again- the prettiest girl at Hogwarts in her opinion- and nods. "Good luck."

The students in the common space, lit dimly by the fireplace, and even the Bloody Baron (the house ghost who had been crying for silence) fell silent as they finally acknowledge an irritated presence in the room. By the entrance stood Professor Snape in his usual dark robes and greasy hair with a scowl etched onto his face.