Ravenclaw's Shadow

Chapter 44

"You, darling George, you," I laugh. He kisses me on the lips.

"Wish me luck."

"Good luck!"

I sit with Georgiana, and we're joined by Hermione. Part way through the game we realise that the Slytherin's have concocted a rather awful song about Ron. The game seems hopeless, with Ron letting in practically all the shots by the Slytherins. When Harry catches the snitch, sealing a Gryffindor victory I breathe a sigh of relief.

We get tangled up in the crowd and by the time we reach the pitch George is gone.

"Should we go up to the common room to wait?" Georgiana asks.

"Yeah, let's go."

We reach the common room and find Angelina, Alicia, Fred, Katie and Hermione sitting by the fire, looking tense.

"What's happened?" we ask, joining them.

"George and Harry got in a fight with that Malfoy kid," Alicia says glumly, "they're with McGonagall."

We sit in silence, waiting for them to come back back. Finally the portrait hole swings open and Harry and George climb through. I stand up, telling by their faces that it's bad.

"Banned," George says, "for life. Fred too."

He slumps into the seat I'd been sitting in and I sink down onto the floor next to him, taking one of his hands. Angelina makes a noise of devastation and runs upstairs.

"I'm going to bed," Fred mutters, standing up.

"Yeah, me too," George says, pulling away from me. Alicia excuses herself too, leaving us with Hermione, Katie and Harry.

"Well, this sucks," Katie says, "how're we supposed to replace all three of you?"

No one answers and after a moment she heads upstairs too. I look over at Georgiana who nods towards the portrait hole. We excuse ourselves quietly and head up to Ravenclaw tower.

"Poor things," I say softly, "this is really awful. I wish there was something we could do."

"You could kill Umbridge," Georgiana suggest, "drain her blood, fly her somewhere far away and bury her."

"Tempting," I admit. We walk up to our dormitory and sit on our beds, facing each other.

"Maybe we could seal her in her office," Georgiana says dreamily, "turn it into a tomb."

"You're really morbid," I laugh, "which one of us is the vampire?"

"Mm, I think we should swap places," she says, "I'll drink the blood, you can walk around watching your ex flirt with one of your friends."

"I thought you were over Fred?"

"I am," she says, "sort of. I dunno, I'm always thinking of what might have been."

"We're young, we have years to find someone," I say.

"Don't you think George is The One?"

"Oh my gosh, I don't know," I laugh, "I'm sixteen, I barely have the answers to test questions let alone life questions!"

I lie back on my bed and stare at the canopy.

"Do you really think You-Know-Who is back?" I ask.

"Yeah, I think so," Georgiana replies, "my parents have always supported Dumbledore, they say he knows what he's about."

"I don't know if I don't believe it or if I just don't want to believe it," I confess, "back when he was in power last time, he tried to get the vampires on side. He considered us 'dark creatures'. Those who joined him, a lot of them got starved into blood madness. Once a vampire crosses a certain point, they can't come back from it. They'll eat anyone. They'll even kill themselves feeding from animals."

"That wouldn't happen to you, Aurelia," Georgiana says.

"How do you know?" I ask, "some of the vampires he took, they didn't want to join him. But you keep us from human blood long enough and we lose ourselves. I mean, look at what happened to me last year."

"You have friends, we'd protect you!"

"You don't think they had friends too?" I exclaim, sitting up, "my mother's cousins were taken. Their family tried to help them but they were either killed or taken. I don't want to end up like that!"

Georgiana moves to sit next to me and hugs me tightly.

"You won't!" she says, "I know how scary it is, thinking about him being back, but that's why we have the DA. So we're ready to fight when the time comes."

"I just don't want to believe it," I sigh. Georgiana squeezes me tightly.

"Neither do I."