CHAPTER TWELVE

172K 8.7K 6.6K
                                    


If Eleanor was being one hundred percent honest with herself, she had an extremely hard time reading the intentions behind Fred Weasley's behaviour

Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.

If Eleanor was being one hundred percent honest with herself, she had an extremely hard time reading the intentions behind Fred Weasley's behaviour. He often made the effort to tease her in passing and then sometimes, he would just come by to sit with her, such as he did that one morning in the Great Hall. She knew very well that he was attempting to find the secret behind her successful dodges of their pranks, but even Eleanor did not have the slightest clue as to how she was doing it. She was only considering herself to be quite fortunate under the circumstances because the longer he didn't know, the more time he would spend in her company.

One early evening, she found herself sitting in front of the fireplace in the Hufflepuff Common Room. Cedric and Marnie were behind her, discussing the upcoming Quidditch match that would be taking place the next day. Originally, the match had been set as Gryffindor vs Slytherin, however, with Draco Malfoy milking his hippogriff injury to the fullest extent, the match was adjusted to Gryffindor vs Hufflepuff. Of course, Cedric seemed to be in good spirits about the entire thing, looking forward to going head-to-head with Oliver Wood as the last time the two teams had played, Gryffindor had claimed victory. But Cedric was positive that Hufflepuff was going to win, while Marnie doubted there would even be a match due to the poor weather conditions.

For days, the wind blew violently, and the rain fell heavier than ever before, and yet, there had been no mention of the match being postponed, let alone cancelled. Marnie claimed she didn't want to be out there during such conditions, while Cedric told her she had magical abilities for a reason and to put them to use. When they turned to Eleanor to settle the argument, it was clear that Eleanor had not been listening to either one of them as she answered "yes" and continued to stare into the fire.

Before either one of them could ask if she was feeling alright, Eleanor stood up abruptly and decided to leave the Common Room. She could hear her two friends calling her name, but she ignored it, already set out on her mission.

Her mission took her to Professor Lupin's office, hoping she would be able to ask him a few questions, at least to make sense of the thoughts that were running through her mind. She hoped he would be there as the last couple of days, the students had to suffer through having Professor Snape as a substitute. They were told that Professor Lupin was feeling ill and Professor Snape was just taking the opportunity to bad mouth Lupin's teaching methods. When she reached the office, Eleanor saw the room was lit and as she peeked inside, saw Professor Lupin settled at his desk.

His head rested in his hands as his elbows were propped up on his desk. She wasn't even sure if he was awake, but the steam coming off the little teacup beside him, made it seem like it had been recently made. Thinking that he did not want to be disturbed, she turned to leave, only to have her shoe make a squeaking noise as it scuffed against the castle floor.

"Miss Ross?"

Eleanor turned around, wearing an apologetic expression. "Sorry to disturb you, Professor. I can come back-"

Tightly Knit ⟶ Fred WeasleyWhere stories live. Discover now