Serena Black || 𝑨𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒂

Diversionary manoeuvres and a glorious farewell

"Are you sure about this, Harry?" she asked quietly. "What if Umbridge was just waiting for us to lead her to the secret hideout?"

He let out a short sigh, but the excitement was written all over his face. Determination definitely looked different and for a moment Serena hoped that he would let it go after all. "It's just..." he began slowly. "I'm sorry I blew you off like that yesterday, but I've learnt things about my father that I just need to talk about."

The Gryffindor remained silent, actually she had assumed that he actually had an important reason. An emergency, like with Arthur Weasley, but surely a conversation like that could wait a few months? Or could it? She wanted to say something in reply, to dissuade him from his idea, but Harry had already started talking about what he had apparently seen in Snape's memory. "They just left him hanging in the air for no reason, who does that?" Harry finally finished his story.

Serena felt her cheeks getting hot and cold at the same time as she thought back to the thing with Hall in the library, "Er... Yeah... who does that..."

"I always thought my father was something of a hero when he saved Snape's life back then. But it was his and Sirius's fault that he wanted to go to the Shrieking Shack in the first place," he said dejectedly, looking down at the floor.

She began to pat his shoulder awkwardly. "I'm sure they didn't expect his rotten brain to actually be so stupid and crawl in there," she tried to cheer him up, but the opposite seemed to be the case.

"They bullied him, Serena!" Harry snapped at her angrily, his green eyes flashing at her from behind his round glasses, "You weren't there, you didn't see..."

The first loud explosions sounded at the other end of the castle, interrupting his diatribe. Curious students began to crowd the corridors and some looked as if they had bathed in stink juice. Which they probably had.

Harry, meanwhile, had grabbed a still-doubting Serena by the cloak and dragged her to Umbridge's office, which was deserted as promised by the two troublemakers. He pulled his cloak out of his pocket, threw it on hastily and before he disappeared into the office, she could still hear him muttering, "Sirius always says, what's life without a little risk?"

Serena rolled her eyes and pulled the wooden door shut behind her friend. Standing still, she waited nervously for him to finally reappear, but what seemed like an eternity passed. She could still clearly hear the explosions, which probably wouldn't stop any time soon. It was a sickening feeling to know that they could be caught at any moment and that they wouldn't be the only ones in trouble. But she didn't even want to think about that.

Her heart threatened to jump out of her chest when she heard footsteps approaching. She desperately tried to come up with a plausible excuse, but she had never been good at thinking under pressure. Silently she muttered prayers, but the ominous sound of shoe on stone grew louder with every step.

From a distance, light-coloured hair almost jumped out at her and she could see the stupid grin on Edmund Hall's face. Good, she would be able to deal with him, as it had turned out.

"Fancy losing more points, Black?" he called out to her from the other end of the corridor. His voice echoed off the stone walls and mingled with the sound of his loud footsteps.

"What, is it forbidden to stand around now too?" Serena remarked, crossing both arms provocatively in front of her chest as the Slytherin stood in front of her, looking suspicious, his eyes darting to the door behind her. "What are you doing here?"