star shopping ✰ d.m.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

May turned to June, meaning that exams were quite literally right around the corner. In their free time, students could be found studying almost all of the time. Of course, this included Arabella, who usually studied with Hermione, but if she wasn't with her, she was with Seamus and Dean.

It was a regular evening as Arabella sat in the Gryffindor common room in between Seamus and Dean, as all three of them worked on homework and studied. She was so concentrated that she didn't hear the constant tapping on a window until Ron exclaimed, "Damn bird. Pig, come on, calm down and give me the letter."

Arabella looked up and saw the the small owl that Sirius had given her and Ron back in third year, Pigwidgeon - affectionately nicknamed Pig - fluttering about with a letter tied to his leg. Immediately, Arabella set down her textbook and walked over, snatching Pig out of the air and removing the letter.

"Hey! What if that's meant for me?" Ron asked.

"Who would be sending you mail?" Arabella retorted.

"I could ask you the same."

"I have a few people in mind."

Arabella removed the letter from the envelope and opened it, seeing that it was very brief.

Meet me in the library. The usual spot. Don't tell anyone.

Without saying a word, Arabella turned on the spot and began to walk out of the common room.

"Where are you going?" Ron called after her, but received no answer as she exited through the portrait hole and let it close over behind her. He looked to Seamus and Dean, who just merely shrugged, before looking to Harry and Hermione. "Where's she going?"

"And how do you suppose we would know that?" Harry responded.

"I don't know. She seems to talk to you both more than she talks to me these days."

"I don't know anything, mate."

Both boys turned to Hermione now. "Hermione?"

Hermione looked up from her essay at them and sighed, knowing that they - specifically Ron - would be upset with her if she did not say anything. "I have my suspicions," she said.

"And what are they?"

"Isn't it obvious?"

"Would I be asking if I already knew the answer?"

"Probably," Harry muttered.

"Nose out, Harry," Ron told him before turning once again to Hermione. "So?"

"You really can't think of anyone who would send her a letter instead of just walking up to her in the corridors to speak to her?" Hermione prompted. "You can't think of anyone that she would want to hide from us? Perhaps someone she's hidden before?"

Finally, the answer came to Ron. "Malfoy. You don't think she's getting back together with him, do you? Not after what happened with Harry?"

"I highly doubt it. From what she told me, he won't so much as consider it until the war is over. No, I think he just wants to talk to her is all. I don't know what about, though, so don't ask. It could not even be him, for all I know. Maybe one of her other friends from a different House wanted to chat and couldn't get someone to pass the message along for them. It could've been a letter from home, too, and she just needed air again. Whatever the case may be, I just hope for her sake she's back before curfew - she doesn't need any more detentions."