Aderic [DISCONTINUED]

Ch 25- South?

"You look pretty," he blurted before he could stop himself.

Adelaide looked up from her bag.

"Erm- your hair! Your hair. It looks pretty cool," he said hurriedly, turning pink.

"Oh," Adelaide said brightly with an adorable smile on her face, blushing. She had braided her hair today, instead of her usual ponytail.

"Parvati and Lavender were making hairstyles in the morning with magic," she explained. "So I thought I would give it a try. It came out better than I expected,"

"Yeah," Cedric nodded, still flustered.

"I've never really bothered with magic for my hair," Adelaide mused. "Maybe I should. It does save time. . ."

As they trudged down the corridors of the castle, they came across a huddle of Hufflepuff girls. They were whispering hurriedly and sounded distressed. Then one of them noticed Adelaide and Cedric waking together, and tried to usher the crowd away, but her plan failed when the others noticed it too.

One blonde girl burst into tears and ran away, the others followed her after giving them reproachful looks.

Adelaide and Cedric stood there for a few seconds, confused.

"What just happened?" Adelaide asked

"Dunno," answered Cedric, shrugging

"Did I do something wrong? Because I felt like they were glaring at me...Am I thinking too much?" Adelaide said

"Maybe," Cedric shrugged again.

                                               ☆                ♥              ☆

As they made their way to the Gryffindor common room (once again, Adelaide was going to her common room, and Cedric was being polite and following her); they caught many students usually in groups of more than three, staring at them and whispering.

Adelaide's first thought was that Skeeter had published yet another stupid article. Gosh, she hated that woman! In her most hated characters, Skeeter had a silver seat, right after Umbridge, and mind you she didn't hate many characters.

"So it is true. Who would have thought?" A Ravenclaw sixth-year had mumbled as she passed by them with her friend, who kept looking back.

Adelaide was frowning. What could Skeeter have written?

"Cedric, did you happen to read today's Daily Prophet?" Adelaide asked

"Yeah. Why?" Cedric said

"Did Skeeter write something...um...weird in there or something?"

"No, I dont think so" Cedric answered. "Why?"

"No, it was just that everyone was staring and I thought that Skeeter must have something to do with it," Adelaide said, still frowning.

"You should stop frowning so much," Cedric joked, trying to lighten the mood. Adelaide smiled weakly, still racking her brain trying to find out what could possibly be the reason for the sudden spotlight.

On the seventh floor corridor, they ran across Parvati Patil, who blinked at them and then started to walk away muttering something along the lines of "I didn't even know..."

"Know what?" Adelaide asked.

"Huh?"

"Know what, Parvati?"

"I know we aren't that close, but I thought I would have heard something at least, you know sharing a dormitory for four years and all" Parvati ranted.

"What are you on about?" Adelaide asked.