𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐦 𝐬𝐲𝐧𝐝𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐞 [𝐝𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐟𝐨𝐲]

c h a p t e r f i v e

"Really Vent, where were you!" Malfoy was shouting at me.

"I don't see how that's a concern to you Malfoy!"

"Oh, maybe I'm fed up with Canyon and Modesty"

"Merlin's beard Malfoy! What do they have to do with this!?"

He was moving closer towards me, and I was stepping back, I didn't need this negativity right now. He had got back from dinner a few minutes ago and has been screaming at me ever since.

"They have been asking me where you went, all afternoon. They seem to think I had something to do with your sudden disappearance"

"Well that's not my fucking problem is it!?"

"You see the thing is, where the fuck do you disappear to Vent? The castles only so big!" we were shouting louder and louder by the minute.

"Well its big enough to stay away from you. That's all that matters!"

Hearing a cough Malfoy and I span on our heels, looking at the source I sighed.

"He started it, not me!" I explained to them.

"You're still arguing with him!" Canyon shouted.

"You just can't keep a single promise can you?" Modesty asked, slightly calmer than Canyon.

"If it means matter of life and death then yes, I will" Canyon mocked, quoting my words from yesterday.

"I never said I'd get along with Draco every day!" we were talking about him as if he wasn't stood 6 feet behind me.

"I am so done with today. I'll see you tomorrow"

"Woah is that Evia Vent going to sleep before midnight? Not studying tonight Vent?"

"Shut it Malfoy"

It made me so mad how bipolar he was with me, one minute he is fighting off boggarts for me. Then I'm his partner in crime. Next he is shouting at me. Then making jokes. It is so confusing and tiring.

It was nice to have a boiling shower, but I still felt like I needed to be on the roof, the crisp wind biting at my skin. Maybe, after this shower, and once the girls where asleep I could slip away again. Into the night they might say.

***

The owlery was cold at this time of night, most of the owls where still asleep but the bright light from my wand had disturbed a few of them. Eerily they looked back at me, their eyes like ghosts in the dark.

"Knight?" I whispered, there was a shuffling of wings and a few more eyes opened. Knight had been my owl since the Christmas of the first year, he had been a present form my mother just months before she disappeared. Knight constantly reminds me of her and our timely obsession with chess.

He fluttered down from one of the perches, feathers ruffled and small eyes. "Sorry Knight it's an emergency" I smiled at the bird which was now pecking at my fingers as I attached the small parchment to his leg.

My original plan had been to come up here in the morning when I wasn't breaking two school rules. But I couldn't sleep so I made use of my time. "Take this to father" I told the owl. He nipped at my hand as I outstretched a small bit of bread I had stolen from the dinner hall yesterday. Chewing on it, Knight happily outstretched his dark wings and flew out of the moon lighted window.

I watched him fly into the star covered sky. There was a few odd benches in the owlery tower, ones that for years I had overlooked, to busy running to a class or too busy studying in the common room that I would get Blaise to take my letters up to the owlery for me. Now would be a good time to take my time to sit on them and respect their location.

It was not as easy as I had imagined, climbing over and around sleeping birds and dodging at least 5 bird poos falling from the never-ending ceiling. The bench is clean of feathers and mess. Magic is truly wonderful.

The bench had a view of all the corners of the room, and I imagined when this place was full of people during the day, it would be a lovely thing to watch.

I imagined a first year, cheeks red from the wind, struggling to attach a small crumpled piece of parchment to the leg of a bird no bigger than his head. The letter would contain a small account of his week, something his parents had insisted he did before leaving on the train, It won't be long until he forgets to send his letter, too caught up in school work and getting back to your dorms before 9.30.

A second year, coming to receive a parcel of sweets their mother had sent them, still angry that they couldn't yet visit Hogsmeade for another year, not bothering to return a thank you as they tear open the layers of wrapping just to get to their chocolate frog.

A third year, absolutely stoked after their first trip to Hogsmeade, telling their family about throwing snowballs towards the shrieking shack, waiting for a scream.

A fourth year, stressed over their end of year exams, asking their father how to transfigure an animal into a goblet. He was too scared to ask Professor McGonagall, he hadn't been listening in year three.

And the other years, hardly bothering to send anything home.

The walk back to the dorms was cold and the walls echoed my every step. This was the constant temperature of Hogwarts after 10 at night, winter or summer, I often think its to keep students out of the halls and in bed. I speed walk through the corridors, not just to get away from the cold but also so I won't be caught by filch or miss Norris.

The doors were wide open, and I could see stacks of rubbish behind them. Someone had obviously been down here and forgot to shut the doors to the room of requirement. Should I shut the doors? There didn't seem to be any noise coming from inside, so I decided on shutting them, whoever left them open was obviously trying desperately to hide something, or to find something that they had lost.

I had never required the room of requirement before. People tell stories of how it appeared for them. A toilet. A swimming pool. A dance studio. All at the thought.

If there was one thing that I had learnt in my many years at Hogwarts, you couldn't walk from your dorm to the owlery and back without at least one person seeing you.