Meet Me in the Undercroft

Chapter V- Dangerous Game

𝒮𝒾𝓁𝓋𝑒𝓇

The day had arrived. The first practice round of crossed wands was tonight. Silver was sitting in her transfiguration class with Garreth dutifully taking her notes. The lecture was long and certainly not as exciting as the days when the practical application of magic was the main portion of the class.

Professor Weasley rambled on and Garreth passed a note to his desk partner. The note read, "I think I want to take up Crossed Wands this year. Lucan invited me, but I was wondering if you would be interested in being my dueling partner?"

Silver flipped the shred of parchment over and wrote, "I'm sorry, I already have a dueling partner. I think you should come out tonight though. I think you'll do quite well."

She watched his face sink as he read the note and scrawled on the bottom corner, "Might I ask who your partner is? I need to know just how unstoppable you'll be."

She ripped a small piece off the parchment she was taking her notes on before responding, "Sebastian Sallow and I are partners."

Garreth's face went from neutral to slightly displeased. The pressure on his quill increased when he wrote, "That's who you got the Slytherin scarf from. I should have figured you two would have paired up."

The students were dismissed from the lecture just as Silver was about to respond. She packed up her belonging and turned to Garreth, "What do you mean you should have figured we'd pair up?"

"Well you know," the redhead said, "you two seem to be inseparable. You came back wearing his scarf, so I figured you two had something going on."

"Oh... wait. No. I simply forgot to return it. You sent me to the coldest part of the castle last night, I'm lucky I didn't freeze."

"So, there isn't something between you two?"

"No, we're just friends." Silver thought over the interactions she had with Sebastian. She assumed it was all just friendly. Sure he was very flirty, but he was like that with everyone right? Silver made herself stop because she knew she would feed into the delusion that she could ever have something with Sebastian. She reminded herself that he was just a friend.

She walked towards the transfiguration courtyard with Garreth to waste away their two-hour break. Homework had not piled up yet as everyone knew it would later in the term.

They sat under a tree and discussed their predictions for who would be good competition in this unsanctioned dueling club. Across the courtyard, Silver spotted her favorite Slytherin and his best friend talking casually on a stone bench.

Garreth leaned over to Silver as she was twirling the grass near her feet. He said, "Come sit with me and Nellie at lunch. We're planning on how we're going to replace the parties we usually have after quidditch matches. I think you'd be a voice of reason between the two of us."

"You certainly need someone to stop the two of you from throwing all-out ragers every Friday night. I think I might have some ideas, I heard of a passage that leads straight to Hogsmeade from under the one-eyed witch statue. One of the seventh years can go through and snag us some fire whiskey."

"That is absolutely brilliant, Silver." Garreth rocked over and wrapped one arm around the girls shoulders and shook her in approval of her idea. She laughed deeply at the goofy red-haired boy beside her.