Stay - Mattheo Riddle

Chapter 127

he dropped his cutlery and went to stand up and run after her to make sure that she was okay but stopped when he saw the red haired twins run out after her. He sat back down, he knew that she would be in better hands when she was with them rather than him...

Kirra was walking down the halls when suddenly two people walked either side of her; Fred Weasley stood on her left. "Moody!" he said. "How cool is he?"

"Beyond cool," said George, standing on the right hand side of the Hufflepuff. "Supercool,"

"We had him this afternoon," Fred told Kirra.

"What was it like?" said kirra eagerly.

Fred, and George exchanged looks full of meaning. "Never had a lesson like it," said Fred. 

"He knows, badger" said George.

"Knows what?" said Kirra, continuing to walk forward.

"Knows what it's like to be out there doing it," said George impressively.

"Fighting the Dark Arts," said Fred.

"He's seen it all," said George." 

"I haven't got him till Thursday!" Kirra said in a disappointed voice as they made it to the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room, "I'll see you guys tomorrow"

Fred and George exchanged confused looks, wondering why she was going to be so early. "A-alright then, see you, tomorrow love," Fred told her with a small smile as he pulled her in for a hug, noticing that she had lost a considerate amount of weight. 

He gave George a look, but neither of them said anything. Fred let go of her and George hugged her, also noticing the difference as he wrapped his arms around her, "see you tomorrow stripes."

Kirra froze at the nickname, she hadn't been called that by anyone beside the marauders. She felt her heart drop and she gave the twins one last goodbye before rushing to her dorms where she spent the night crying silently to herself.

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The next two days passed without great incident, unless you counted Neville melting his sixth cauldron in Potions. Professor Snape, who seemed to have attained new levels of vindictiveness over the summer, gave Neville detention, and Neville returned from it in a state of nervous collapse, having been made to disembowel a barrel full of horned toads.

"You know why Snape's in such a foul mood, don't you?" said Jasper to Kirra as Kirra was standing next to Neville and helping him with a Scouring Charm to remove the frog guts from under his fingernails.

"Yeah," said Kirra, not looking away from Neville as she helped him. "Moody."

It was common knowledge that Snape really wanted the Dark Arts job, and he had now failed to get it for the fourth year running. Snape had disliked all of their previous Dark Arts teachers, and shown it — but he seemed strangely wary of displaying overt animosity to Mad-Eye Moody.

Indeed, whenever kirra saw the two of them together — at mealtimes, or when they passed in the corridors — she had the distinct impression that Snape was avoiding Moody's eye, whether magical or normal.

"I reckon Snape's a bit scared of him, you know," Jasper said thoughtfully. "Imagine if Moody turned Snape into a horned toad," said Jasper, his eyes misting over, "and bounced him all around his dungeon. . . ."

"Well that would be a sight to behold," Kirra said, showing her hatred of Snape.

The fourth years were looking forward to Moody's first lesson so much that they arrived early on Thursday lunchtime and queued up outside his classroom before the bell had even rung. The only person missing was Hermione, who turned up just in time for the lesson.