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𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐍
"𝑈𝑠𝑢𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦, 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑎 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑒 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑑 ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑝."
—𝑇𝑎ℎ𝑖𝑟 𝑆ℎ𝑎ℎ, 𝐼𝑛 𝑆𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑐ℎ 𝑜𝑓 𝐾𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑆𝑜𝑙𝑜𝑚𝑜𝑛'𝑠 𝑀𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠
𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 𝟑𝟗𝟏𝟔

⋆⋆⋆✧⋆⋆⋆

𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 𝐇𝐀𝐃 𝐆𝐎𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐍 back to normal pretty quickly after they arrived home, with the Ministry of Magic reassuring everyone that the invasion had been done as some sort of night of fun for the Death Eaters. Luckily, no one had gotten severely hurt, although not all the Death Eaters had been arrested.

Liliana had decided to distract herself from the terrifying event by reading and being with Cedric—two things that did just that quite easily. The only time she ever thought about her fear of You-Know-Who returning was at night, and she usually always tried to fall asleep the quickest she could.

With this working out pretty well for her, she used it the method for the next few days, just until she arrived back at school.

They were now on the train to Hogwarts. It seemed as though they were nearly there, with the sky being about ten times darker than when they had left, and the long moans of hunger from Riley becoming longer and louder with each one.

"By the way, Dev, I forgot to ask," Liliana suddenly giggled, remembering something as she leaned into Cedric's side. "How did your mum take the news of your Ancient Runes mark?"

Devon groaned at the thought, rubbing his wavy, black hair so that it suddenly became a bit poofy at the top. "She abused me! Seriously! I'm surprised I even made it out alive!"

Wesley folded his arms as he leaned back into the cushiony seat. "I have a hard time believing that. Your mum abused you? The one who made us all cookies and pie when we came over, and didn't get mad when we were yelling at each other at four in the morning? Yeah, right."

"Okay, she gave me a fifteen-minute scolding," Devon admitted as he raised his hands in defence, a sheepish smile on his face. "But those fifteen minutes were hell!"

"Were you even listening to what she was saying?" Cedric questioned amusedly as he raised his eyebrows.

Devon shrugged. "No. She could've been saying 'Cheese pizza has gone extinct due to polar bears destroying them with nuclear bombs while riding unicycles' for all I know."

"First of all, I don't think she'd say that," Wesley pointed out as he raised a finger. He raised a second finger. "And if you weren't listening, then how was it that bad?"

Devon pouted. "She's scary."

"Yeah, okay. Speaking of scary" —Wesley turned to look at Cedric, Liliana, and Riley, who were all sitting in the seat in front of him, respectively— "weren't you guys at the Quidditch World Cup?"

"Why would that be scary?" Devon questioned with a wrinkled nose. "Did they get scared by a passing Bludger or something?"

Wesley rolled his eyes as he elbowed Devon in the ribs. "I'd say more by the Death Eaters." 

Devon groaned in pain as he clutched the area. "Right."

"Yeah, we were there," Cedric confirmed with a curt nod as he wrapped an arm around Liliana's waist.