𝑆𝐴𝑉𝐼𝑁𝐺 𝐷𝑅𝐴𝐶𝑂 𝑀𝐴𝐿𝐹𝑂𝑌

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟏 - 𝐦𝐫 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐭

His embrace was strained - he was in front of Ginny after all, and I knew that he double-checked every move but secretly wished she could be jealous.

"Harry..." I breathed out.

"We were worried," he said calmly. Disappointing Harry was something hard to do and easy to regret.

"I'm sorry..."

"You only sent two letters. All summer!" he said, his eyebrows curling. "What happened?"

"Let's talk about it some other time, Harry," I whispered. I could have made an excuse. I would have said an oh-so-typical 'I was really busy'. However, I felt bad enough that I'd been absent during a very difficult time for Harry and I didn't want to top that off with a lie. "Where is Hermione?" I continued.

"She is waiting at the Leaky Cauldron. We should go meet her."

With the corner of my eye, I caught Mum hopping out of the kitchen with a wet towel in her hands and a flowered apron around her waist.

"I was sure I heard someone!" she said and tried to collect her wild hair. She always held her hair in a bun while working but some baby hair was always sticking out - we had that in common. She greeted each friend with a wide smile.

"You will be okay, right?" whispered Mum. I think deep inside she must have felt I was utterly uncomfortable being with my friends after all this time. Through my eyes, she could see I was getting emotional and probably wondered what the best way to support me would be.

"Mum..." I said, slightly embarrassed.

"Okay, okay... Have fun then!" she said and returned to her cooking.

The four of us walked out of the shop and onto the pavement that led to the heart of Leadenhall Market. A few doors away from our café was the infamous Leaky Cauldron, a mouldy, old inn and the closest passage we had to Diagon Alley. As we got closer, I began to recognize the frizzy, curly hair.

"What took you so long?" said Hermione and frowned, primarily and inexplicably only to Ron. "Ophelia!" she shouted at once when I stepped forward. "Has anyone told you that quills and owls have a use?" She embraced me softy and lightened my mood with a laugh. I was beginning to suspect I would get more of these comments as the day progressed. I never expected reappearing after a summer of absence without attracting some attention of sorts.

"Well, yes, I was really busy. You know how many essays Snape assigned. I was studying all summer!" I said.

Although this was a poor excuse, it ought to set Hermione's school-oriented mind in action, and so began half an hour of discussing our essays for the summer, new classes, books that we had read over the summer and so on. As we were buying our new books, Hermione and I acknowledged a progressively growing anxiety over our N.E.W.T. exams and made an annual plan of waking up every morning at 6 o'clock and studying for at least two hours before breakfast.

Over the summer, many businesses had closed down. Ollivanders' windows had been shattered, a small ice-cream shop that was previously owned by a muggle-born wizard, had now been destroyed. The people around us seemed scared to go from one shop to the other. Ever since the Death Eaters had started their public and loud abductions, some people were afraid of even leaving their houses. In the now almost abandoned street, there was only one shop that sprang some joy to the passer-by.

Weasley's Wizard Wheezes was the new shop everyone was talking about. It attracted every witch and wizard like a magnet. During my years in Hogwarts, Fred and George had been the two pranksters that brought joy and questionably safe tricks in the Hogwarts halls, but I had never imagined that the school legends would turn their pranks into their career. Every honest Slytherin would admire this.