101 Ways to ditch the Date | SIRIUS BLACK

No. 54

Strangely when Ora returned to the common room, the crowd had dispersed leaving it eerily empty as if the people had just vanished into thin air. A small vain part of her had hoped they would still be there, begging her for information like eager journalists, to which she would shut them down with short snappy words. Coming back to nothing felt very anti-climatic indeed.

Instead of moping, she decided to get dressed, pulling her long hair into a ponytail as it always helped her keep a clear head.

"Hey, Ora," Cassandra's voice came from the doorway and Ora looked around to see the girl standing there, her arms folded as she leant against the doorway, "Are Sirius and Dexter okay?"

Although Cassandra's presence inherently annoyed her, it was nice to not be alone and turning away, she replied, "Yeah, they're all okay. They weren't fighting over me by the way, they were arguing - "

"Over you?"

She shot her a look, "No, they were just arguing over something irrelevant. Hufflepuff James was wrong, there was no judo flipping involved."

"Well, he is a liar so that makes sense. I was starting to hear conflicting stories from the Slytherins that Dexter had broken Sirius's neck and left him for dead so I took it with a pinch of salt anyway."

It suddenly occurred to her that Cassandra knew (almost) everything that was happening socially and figured she might know the whereabouts of her best friend, "Have you seen Emmeline by the way?"

Cassandra shook her head, "No, not since this morning. Between you and me, she seemed really jumpy, like more so than usual."

"She's just been a bit stressed with exams and stuff I reckon," Ora replied quickly, "So you haven't seen her?"

"What part of 'No' didn't you understand?"

Ora didn't have time for Cassandra's snark so early in the morning and left to go and locate Emmeline herself. It turned out to be harder than expected; she wasn't in any of her usual spots leading Ora to fret slightly that something massive had been weighing down on her friend and Emmeline hadn't felt safe to tell her. After a good amount of time searching, she rounded the corner, almost bumping into her other dorm mate, Amy and instantly sprang a question on her:

"Hey Amy, have you seen Em?"

Amy's mouth opened like a Goldfish, "Er ... let me think - "

The two girls were cut off by a loud scream from just around the corner. Instantly, Ora realised the voice that followed was that of her best friend and darted around the corner to see Emmeline covered in a strange green substance. Opposite her, a fourth-year boy stood, his mouth agape and his hands filled with several empty vials. It didn't take a genius to figure out what had happened.

Usually, Emmeline would be more lenient on something like that, brushing it off with a cold glare but today, she looked horrified before her features twisted into a snarl, "You Idiot, this was my favourite dress - "

"I'm sorry," The boy interjected, "I didn't see you, you came racing around the bend like a madman - "

"You've ruined my dress! I mean I never wear it but I did today and now it's my favourite!" Emmeline said, her voice cracking slightly, "Now it's ... it's ruined."

Slowly, Ora made her presence known with a simple, "Em?"

Her friend's head snapped towards her, their eyes locked for a few seconds before Emmeline turned away. For a few moments, they stood in silence, the only sound being the boy hastily picking up a few vials that had fallen to the floor and scurrying off.