HP • Legilimency | 𝐍. 𝐌𝐀𝐋𝐅𝐎𝐘

𝐘𝐮𝐥𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐥𝐥

Are you ready? I want to hear the screams

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The beginning of December brought rain and sleet to Hogwarts. Despite the typical castle drafts during the winter, Astria appreciated the fireplaces and thick walls every time she passed Durmstrang's ship on the lake, defying the strong winds with its black sails against the dark sky. She imagined Beauxbatons' carriage must be quite cold too.

She noticed that Hagrid kept Madame Maxime's horses well supplied with whiskey, their preferred choice. The vapors rising from the trough in one corner of the paddock were enough to make the entire Care of Magical Creatures class dizzy.
In that class, Hagrid was teaching about Blast-Ended Skrewts, creatures that resembled shell-less lobsters and were truly repulsive. But on that day, these creatures went berserk and started attacking everyone.

The Slytherins, of course, fled to Hagrid's cabin and watched as the Gryffindors tried to help him. Dean Thomas got a cut on his face, Lavender had her robes burned, and Seamus was tending to several singed fingers. Harry broke his glasses once again, and Hermione's hair was so scorched that it would be a miracle to recover it.

They tried to contain their laughter when they finally realized there was no more danger.

"Thanks, lions," Draco said, bowing dramatically. "Keep sacrificing your miserable lives for us, dear servants."

Obviously, after that comment, they were forced to run as the Gryffindors, armed with shovels, began hunting down the Slytherins they could find.

Classes became more fun again, and the best one was Divination that afternoon, where the class was still making maps and predictions. The teacher didn't like it much, as they sat together and laughed throughout the lesson.

"You should think," she whispered mystically, not hiding her obvious displeasure, "that some of us" and she looked significantly at Astria and Harry "would be a little less frivolous if they had seen what I saw when I consulted my crystal ball last night. I was sitting, lost in thought, when I was seized by an impulse to consult the ball. I rose, sat before it, and gazed into its crystal depths... and what do you think I saw looking back at me?"

"An old bat with glasses bigger than her face?" Astria asked, not as quietly as she intended, and Harry and Draco laughed so hard they nearly fell out of their chairs. Even Daphne had to hide her face with a pillow.

"Death, my dears," she concluded mystically.
Parvati and Lavender put their hands to their mouths, making horrified faces. "Yes, indeed," said the teacher, shaking her head impressively. "It approaches ever closer, circling in the sky like a vulture, lower and lower... always lower over the castle..."

She looked directly at Astria and then at Harry, who yawned conspicuously and opened his mouth wide.

"It would have been more impressive if she hadn't announced that eight times before," said Harry when they finally got some fresh air on the staircase under Professor Trelawney's room. "But if we passed out every time she says we're going to fall, we'd already be a medical miracle."

"You'd be some sort of super-concentrated ghost," Ron laughed, passing by Nearly Headless Nick going in the opposite direction, a decidedly fixed stare in his huge eyes.

They parted ways on the staircase, and Astria descended with Daphne on one side and Draco on the other, their arms linked as they walked toward the Great Hall for lunch. That's when they saw Fleur passing by with Gabrielle and other Beauxbatons classmates.

"Bonjour, Astri" Fleur said as she passed, blowing a kiss into the air.

"Bonjour, Astri," Daphne mimicked with a childish and mocking tone. "Mhm, Snooty."