The Dark Lord's Bride (Draco X OC)

The Plot Twist

Ariana's POV

"Beautiful day," Hermione remarks, gazing at the sky. Ron, ever the pessimist, quips, "Gorgeous unless you've been ripped to pieces!"

"Ripped to pieces? What are you talking about?" Harry questions, and I burst into laughter. "Ronald has lost his rat apparently," I gleefully announced.

"I haven't lost anything. Her cat killed him!" Ron defensively counters. He points accusingly at Hermione, who looks unapologetically at the feline culprit.

"Rubbish," Hermione retorted. "Harry, you've seen the way that bloodthirsty beast of hers is always lurking about, and now Scabbers is gone," Ron huffed.

"Well, maybe you should take better care of your pets." Hermione fired back. "Your cat killed him." Ron accused. Hermione staunchly denied, "Did not."

"Did." Ron persisted
"Didn't." Hermione shot back. Amidst the bickering, we decided to seek solace with Hagrid in his hut.

"How did it go, Hagrid, the hearing?" I asked.

"Well, first off, the committee members took turns talking about why we were there. I got up and did my piece, said how Buckbeak was a good hippogriff, always cleaned his feathers."

Hagrid sighed.

"Then Lucius Malfoy got up - well, you can imagine. He said Buckbeak was a deadly and dangerous creature who would kill you as soon as look at you. And then he asked for the worst, did old Lucius."

Hagrid's voice quivered as he shared the devastating news. "They're not sacking you!" Ron, in disbelief, exclaimed, Hagrid shook his head,

"No, I'm not sacked. Buckbeak's been sentenced to death!" The weight of the sentence crushed Hagrid, and tears flowed freely.

"Oh, don't worry. We'll find something out of this."

After such a heavy revelation, I found myself enjoying a peaceful sleep for the first time in a while. However, my serenity was interrupted by my snake companion, Karls.

He licked me to wake me up, having abandoned his biting antics. "What is it?" Groggily, I questioned, He explained, "~Harry told me to wake up and tell you to go to his room.~"

"You woke me up in the middle of the night, because Harry told you?" I asked annoyed. "~Yessss~," he affirmed, his snake-assistance wake-up calls and all.

"Are you my pet or his?" I questioned Karls. ~Hissss, I'm all yoursssss,~ He reassured and I sighed. "Then you should listen to me, not him," I declared.

~He toldss me it was importantsss,~ Karls explained. "If he tells you to jump off a cliff because it's important, will you jump?" Unconvinced, I countered,

~I'm sorryyyssss,~ He apologized, rolling onto me with his nearly three-foot-long self.

Deciding to go anyway, I left my bed and headed to Harry's room. There, I found him wide awake, munching on chips and engrossed in the Marauder's Map.

Flopping onto his bed, I questioned, "What's so important that you had Karls wake me up?" He remained silent, prompting a threat from me.

"If you tell me you just called me because you couldn't sleep, then I'll strangle you to death!" I warned. "Hehehe....." He nervously laughed, rubbing his neck, and earned a solid slap from me.

"Ow... I'm sorry, I needed company," Harry admitted. "I feel like I'm spoiling you a bit too much," I retorted, sitting up straight.

We both observed the map, spotting Dumbledore and Filch in their respective locations.