UNKNOWN | D.M (UNRAVEL BOOK 4)

[ 18 ]

"THIS IS MAD! Who'd wanna be taught by... ME?" Harry exclaims to his friends, throwing them all a look of disbelief and Aine shrugs. 

"I'd love to be taught by you, to be honest. You're great at Defense Against the Dark Arts! Have more faith in yourself!" she tells him, hoping he could gain more confidence in his skills.

The Sun had risen down onto Hogsmeade, painting the skies with a subtle rosy peach hue as the Moon was slowly disappearing. The morning had arrived and the weather was chilly but at the same time, when the Sun had kissed Aine's face, she was filled with a soft warmness. The air was crisp and fresh and it seemed like a start to the long day ahead. She was planning to go wander around the Hogwarts grounds today, probably checking by some of the flowers around the meadows nearby and perhaps spend the rest of her day enjoying her freedom. Except what she didn't know was that her friends had far more important matters to perform, which includes her.

For the past week, they have been trying to recruit students to join their little private class; to learn defensive spells to protect them from the Dark Arts since the professor who was supposed to teach them had deemed it unnecessary. Henceforth, no magic was ever cast and used in their Defense Against the Dark Arts class. Anyone who thinks otherwise would be immediately muted of their thoughts by Professor Umbridge and will be given detention for refusing to cooperate in class. Something Aine and Harry were very familiar with, but the girl had soon learnt to endure with it. She stopped caring about Umbridge's perspective of a 'perfect' class and studying environment. Worrying means that you would suffer twice and she already had suffered more than needed ever since her new year at Hogwarts.

Today, they were finally calling a meeting with their schoolmates and close friends who were interested and it was held by none other than a bar in Hogsmeade. Just to clear up suspicions since the school was filled with Umbridge's eyes in every nook and crannies. 

"I'm a nutter, remember?" Harry reminded his friends and Hermione huffs, swinging an arm around his neck as she persuades him once more. He just couldn't imagine anyone wanting him to lead especially with all the speculations of him being nothing but a big-fat-liar. He could, however, picture his schoolmate's faces of mockery instead and it was the last thing he ever wanted. That was for him to receive even more unwanted attention. Harry gave a long heavy sigh, dragging his feet towards the pub.

"Look on the bright side: you can't be any worse than old toad face!" Ron attempts to lighten his spirits but it did little to no effect in making him feel any better. "If all goes wrong, we could let Hermione teach. Hell, maybe even Aine could do it!" he nudges the raven-haired girl who grimaces at the thought. She shook her head and waved her hands in his face, unwilling to take up that offer.

"I'm good, thanks," Aine quickly rejects, showing her disdain. She was literally the second person everyone had loathed in the whole school. The first is none other than Harry James Potter. Just like the boy, she was taunted for spreading 'lies' alongside him and had been called 'crazy' for her bizarre behaviour during the final task in the Triwizard Tournament when she had a vision of Voldemort. Aine was getting the hang of keeping a low profile for herself and didn't need another round of awareness tied to her. 

"I'm grateful... Thanks, Ron," Harry mustered a small smile for his friend, genuinely thankful for such high praise.  

"I'm here for you, mate," the red-head boy ruffled Harry's head and smirks at him. 

They continued their morning walk to the emerging bar before stepping into a dingy little building. They all stared at the tilted rusty shop sign that had an illustration of a pig with the words 'Hog's Head' on it, the colours of the sign were faint and seemed washed over time. Hermione took the honour of entering first and Ron immediately gagged when a pungent earthy smell filled his nose. He turns his head out to breathe in a huge amount of fresh air before entering, Harry chuckling from behind.