Emily Potter - Book 5 - Order of the Phoenix

Chapter 49 - Not with a Fizzle, but with a Bang

"Are you going to stare at me all night?"

The judging looks Daphne and Blaise gave Emily were starting to unnerve her which made her somewhat irritable. "You said you were on a date... I wasn't aware that a date would imply 30 people in the Room of Requirement, with you and your brother illegally teaching curses and hexes and spells – "

"We were 29."

Blaise snorted, crossing his arms over his chest, "I don't bloody care about technicalities!" He said with a scowl, "Granted... You weren't totally keeping me and Daph in the dark about this. You were teaching us the same thing you were teaching those blokes, right?" Emily nodded, feeling a lightness of being once she realized they weren't completely angry at her. "The exact same thing – I swear it."

Just then, the porthole swung open and very slowly, the footsteps of Draco Malfoy echoed in the nearly empty common room. Daphne and Blaise exchanged glances before thinking of what to say. "Tough night, Draco?" Daphne asked, seeing the dust on the lower parts of his trousers. Emily saw them as well and assumed that the dust was due from the blasting of the Room of Requirement.

"Could you two excuse us?" He said, asking for privacy. In a split moment, Daphne and Blaise retired almost immediately to their dorms – Emily heard Blaise cursing Draco for kicking the two of them out from a common area. "Well, let me have it." She said once they were alone. But surprisingly, Draco kept his cool demeanor. Emily believed he was far too tired to scold her.

"You should be happy to know that only your brother, three Weasleys, Granger, Jordan, and Bates were caught." He said, rolling up the sleeves of his shirt, "The rest of your army... Let's say the Inquisitorial Squad had trouble catching all of them." There was a flicker in his eye, and it was something that made Emily immensely happy to see him. "You sabotaged Umbridge's plan?"

"Unintentionally, of course," He said nonchalantly, "I guess I'm losing my touch."

Emily raised an eyebrow at him, pleased, "Dare I ask what on earth the Inquisitorial Squad is? Or am I right to assume that it's some sort of pretentious league to do-gooder students doing Umbridge's dirty work for her?" Draco tapped his nose with his index finger, "Spot on." She saw the glimmer of a silver badge on his chest, and it was right next to his Prefect badge. "Top grades, a Prefect, and now part of an elite school ministry organization – Draco Malfoy, the most eligible bachelor of the Britain Wizarding World." Emily joked.

Draco laughed, but that would be overdoing it – he merely stifled his amusement as his comment, resulting in him looking down at the green carpet under his feet as a small smile briefly passed his pale face. It made Emily sad to see him hide such as that, it just reminded her of how far apart they've grown. "It was nice talking to you tonight, Draco. Thank you."

He nodded in return, not saying much else until Emily excused herself and retired to her dorm leaving him alone once again.

~

"Mister Potter,"

Harry looked up from his questionnaire and answer sheet, mildly uninterested at what the woman in pink had to say, "Yes?" Umbridge stood close to his desk, whispering in order to not let the other students eavesdrop. "Where is your sister? She's 15 minutes late for her O.W.L.s. I daresay Professor McGonagall won't be too eager to know about this."

"I haven't seen her all day, Professor. May I go back to answering this?" He asked, motioning to his blank answer sheet. Harry didn't lie when he said he hadn't caught a glimpse of Emily, and news of her being late for an exam (especially an OWL) was entirely brand new to him. He looked around the room and sure enough, Emily wasn't there. An empty desk stood amidst Daphne and Blaise who wore the same confused expressions when Harry laid eyes on them.