star shopping ✰ d.m.

CHAPTER TEN

Harry, Ron, and Hermione had told Arabella about Buckbeak being sentenced to death. Arabella was extremely conflicted. On one hand, Hagrid had warned them that hippogriffs were easily offended and Draco still insulted it. On the other, Buckbeak had injured Draco and rendered him unable to use his arm for months. Either way, Arabella felt terrible for Hagrid, knowing how attached he could get to creatures others considered to be dangerous. She had asked the trio for the execution date and was determined to be there for Hagrid when it happened.

Hermione insisted on keeping all of her classes, despite it clearly being too much for her. Arabella helped her with the classes they shared but there was only so much she could do with everything else going on. Olivia Wood, having already taken most of the subjects Hermione was currently taking, could be found trying to help Hermione as well during the evenings in the common room.

On the day that Professor Trelawney had introduced her third-year Divination class to crystal balls, Arabella entered the classroom alone. She had been sure that Hermione had been right behind her, but once inside the classroom, Hermione was nowhere to be found. And so Arabella sat alone at the table she usually shared with the girl. Arabella, taking Divination much more seriously than her friends, was the only one really trying to see anything in her crystal ball. Seamus and Dean were just staring into it, but their eyes were glossy as their minds were elsewhere. Harry and Ron had fallen asleep.

Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil, the girls that Hermione and Arabella shared their dormitory with, kept making excited noises as they looked into their crystal ball. Arabella knew they must be imagining it, there was no way anyone was actually seeing anything in those things.

Harry and Ron jolted away when Professor Trelawney came to their table to see how things were going. Arabella, having no luck with hers, turned her attention to them.

"Oh, let me guess," Hermione said. Arabella jumped. Hermione seemed to have appeared out of thin air; she had not even been in the room a second ago, much less sitting in her chair. "The Grim again?"

Professor Trelawney suddenly looked serious. "My dear," she said, "from the first moment you stepped foot in my class, I sensed that you did not possess the proper spirit for the noble art of Divination." She grabbed Hermione's hand and began to look at her palm, and Arabella could tell that Hermione was becoming angry. "No, you see, there. You may be young in years, but the heart that beats beneath your bosom is as shriveled as an old maid's, your soul as dry as the pages of the books to which you so desperately cleave."

Hermione pulled her hand away, and stood up, gathering her textbook and her bag. She shoved the crystal ball off of the table and walked out of the classroom angrily.

"Have I said something?"

Arabella glared at Professor Trelawney before huffing and hurriedly following Hermione. She had let her be alone once when she was upset and nearly lost her, she wasn't about to do it again. However, she had no intention of dropping the class and would come back next lesson and apologize for walking out, making up some excuse like a stomachache.

"Hermione, wait up!" Arabella called after her.

"I'm fine, Bella, go back to class," said Hermione.

"The last time I left you alone when you were upset, you were nearly killed by a troll, so forgive me if I'm not exactly eager to do it again."

And so the girls walked in silence back to the common room. Hermione sat down on the nearest couch and Arabella followed suit.

"I can't believe I just did that! What have I done?" Hermione exclaimed.

"The best thing for you," Arabella reassured her. "You have enough classes and Divination wasn't benefitting you. Maybe now you'll start to feel a bit better."

"But what about you?"

"Don't worry about me. I'll figure something out. Right now, this is about you. And I don't want you to think on what Professor Trelawney said. I can't believe I'm saying it, but she was wrong. Your heart isn't shriveled and your soul isn't dry, Mione. Otherwise, you wouldn't have been able to be there for me when I was upset the other night, and you and Ron wouldn't be as close as you are."

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't be thick. You both are so obvious, it hurts."

"I still don't understand what you're saying."

"Oh, I'll drop it, then. But for future reference, I told you so."

[word count: 795]
[written: 4/27/20]
[published: 5/28/20]