𝗨𝗡𝗘𝗫𝗣𝗘𝗖𝗧𝗘𝗗 ━ Golden Trio Era

━chapter 13

Adhara's gaze followed her friend as Sprout escorted her out of the Great Hall. Millicent, reluctantly, picked up the shredded pieces of paper she threw, but Adhara instead turned towards Roisin.

"What did she mean by 'not this way'?"

"Who?"

"Sprout."

Roisin shrugged her shoulders. "How would I know?"

"She is your Head of House."

She shrugged once more. "I don't know. We don't really question her. She might be short, but she can be quite the terror when she is angry. Scares me sometimes, honestly."

Almost on reflex, Adhara hand around the girl's arms tightened.

"Not like that!" clarified Roisin when she felt the firm hold. "She's nothing like her, don't worry."

Adhara tried to relax. Roisin attempted to pry off the Slytherin's hand. She twisted it around her arm to slowly loosen the grip, except her blue glove slid down slightly with the movement.

Adhara almost froze. Breath caught in her chest as she noticed the disfigured skin that reached all the way to Roisin's elbow.

Adhara held more tightly then, pulling the glove down more to look at the brown splotches better.

Her mind went blank, the skin all over her body feeling too tight, feeling too hot. She wanted to peel it off slowly, peel off every layer until the heat of the fire would stop suffocating her.

For all of Matron's horrendous punishments, she usually left the children to handle the fire by themselves. Ultimately, burning themselves as a result. Never did she ever burn them herself.

Yet the rows of coal marks on Roisin's skin suggested otherwise.

Slowly, she peeled her eyes away from the scars to look back at Roisin, who was staring at her regretfully, almost with guilt.

Adhara felt like scraping that look off of the girl's face.

"You know — "

At the sound of Millie's voice, Adhara quickly pulled the glove back up. Keeping her face as impassive as she could, she acted as though nothing happened.

Millicent dumped the pile of paper on the table, still not properly looking at "We should find a way to take down those articles —" Millicent paused when she saw Adhara. "What happened?"

"What?"

Millicent took her seat finally. Action slow, she deliberately took her time to glance between the two others. "Nothing. Never mind." But just to be sure. "Is everything okay?"

"Obviously."

Obviously not. But Millie didn't need to know about Roisin's marks.

"Right." As suspicious as she may be, Millicent dropped the subject. "Anyway, as I was saying. I say we do something about this Rita Skeeter. She's starting to genuinely annoy me."