ACHILLES HEEL » d. malfoy

THREE

"'The ministry has always considered the education of young witches and wizards to be of vital importance, blah blah blah,'" Aurora had been mimicking her posh accent, animating her hand motions as she spoke. Anthony was snickering at this impression. "I mean, if that's true, then why don't you, uh— oh, I don't know— educate me?!"

"It's outrageous," He said, shaking her head. "The ministry finds more ways to crack down on Dumbledore more and more every year!"

"I know!" Aurora exclaimed, and stopped in her tracks for a moment as she looked around her unfamiliar surroundings. "Just kidding, wrong way. We have to go to the fourth level," She smiled sheepishly at the kids behind her who groaned. She turned through another corridor before continuing her rant. "Fudge is a bloke, that's what he is. A corrupt politician! That man only cares about himself."

Another Ravenclaw, Edward Stuyvesant, pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose with a scowl. "It's all bullocks— it's just because of the whole thing with he-who-must-not-be-named. They want to downplay it and make it look like they have everything under control when what we should be doing, is accepting that shit is about to hit the fan and preparing ourselves for when that happens."

Aurora huffed. "You can say that again. Shit is truly about the hit the fan," She spoke, annoyed, and as she glanced off to the side, saw Draco taunting a small Slytherin first year who looked ready to cry further down an intersecting corridor. When they made eye contact, he appeared as if he were a deer caught in headlights and placed his hands behind his back before continuing on. Aurora sighed at this, shaking her head to herself.

Eventually, they made their way to the tower, Aurora giving some pointers about Hogwarts on the way like the best pathway to get to potions on time, how to stay out of Filch's hair, and how to steer clear of her boyfriend and other hot-headed Slytherins. By the time she reached the end of the staircase and approached the eagle door-knocker, shining like silver before them, she let out a loud yawn and daydreamed about the bed waiting for her inside her dorm.

"Good evening," The eagle crowed. "Do you wish to enter my quarters?"

"Yes, indeed, Iago," Aurora answered. During her first year, some of the Ravenclaws were extremely tired and couldn't figure out the answer to a riddle for the life of them when all they wanted was to go to bed. They ended up staying up all night outside the dormitories, and in a fit of exhaustion and quite possibly, delusion, one of the muggle-borns decided to name the door-knocker Iago after the bird in Aladdin simply because they had 'felt bad that he didn't have a name'. Somehow, it just stuck with all the Ravenclaws.

"You must answer a riddle first," He said and Aurora sighed deeply.

"Go on, then," She pressed her lips together, tapping her foot impatiently on the floor.

"I'll go easy, seeing as you have first years with you," He said and then began his riddle. "I can travel around the world while staying in a corner. What am—"

"A stamp!" Aurora cut him off and the door clicked open while the door-knocker grumbled. "Thanks again, Iago!"

She pushed it open for everyone and let them file in before her, Anthony leading them to get them to their dorms. After the last of them, she was about to follow in suit with a loud yawn, but as she took one step, she was pulled backwards in one swoop, the heels of her shoes dragging against the ground.