Emily Potter-Book 3-Prisoner of Azkaban

Chapter 5

What the bloody hell happened last night?

The first words that etched Emily's mind as she woke up with a massive hangover, she rubbed her eyes clear from sleep and awoken herself by the smell of blood. Emily looked down at her right hand and felt her eyes widen in shock to see purple bruises painted over her fist. She swung her legs over her bed and grunted at the soreness that punctured her body, I couldn't have danced that much.

The bedsprings creaked and with that signalled her roommates Pansy Parkinson and Millicent Bulstrode to unfasten the curtains from their four-poster beds and assess their friend's troubled awakening. Emily looked up at them while she stretched out her back, "Why are you two looking at me like I'm a bomb waiting to be detonated? Has something happened?"

Pansy broke into a delirious laugh, her mouth perking up in an excitable smirk. "I see you've slept away the memory of last night. Smart choice." Millicent agreeably said, settling herself down at the edge of Emily's bed, "You broke Astoria's nose last night. Do you actually not remember?"

Oh. Emily looked down at her right hand and figured that what Millicent recounted fit perfectly with the state of her battered fist. This is her blood? Oh, Merlin – "Is Daphne... Is she cross with me? She must be. I decked her little sister's face in – where is she?"

"On the contrary, she doesn't seem to care or even be angry at you," Pansy nonchalantly disclosed, nodding to the empty glass on Emily's nightstand. "After she had Astoria's friends escort her to the hospital wing, she stayed the night in the dorms and took care of you. Make sure you drank enough water and all that, but enough of that news, what Millicent and I want to know is how cleanly you broke her nose, where on earth did you learn how to fight?"

Flattered as she was that her friends were curious about the display of violence, Emily found that it was the least to be concerned with at the moment. Her tawny owl, Hayley, flew in and perched itself on her owner's knee, her little leg sticking out to show a note wrapped around her limb. Emily undid the piece of twine that secured it and read it aloud, "Emily, please proceed to my office immediately. Professor McGonagall."

"Right." Millicent cut in, patting her shoulder to show comfort, "Good luck, mate."

"I second that, we'll see you later," Pansy added. With that, the two had left to let Emily stew in her thoughts while she got ready to meet Aunt Minerva.

Once she had washed her face, brushed her teeth, and got into a fresh set of clothes, Emily was still not able to wrap her mind around the events that unfolded last night. In fact, she was even more unaware of how quickly she was able to exit Slytherin house and made it all the way to Aunt Minerva's office without having a clue of how she got there.

The door was open and inside she found Draco and Harry sitting a few feet apart in front of the teacher's desk. "Close the door on your way in, dear." A voice prompted. Emily looked up and saw her Aunt Minerva exit her private office and enter the classroom, she dutifully nodded and locked the door before proceeding to sit in between her brother and best friend, both of whom she had trouble looking directly in the eye.

She focused on the thick file Professor McGonagall had in her hand. Emily's blood ran cold at the sight of it, her knuckles, though bruised purple, shone pale when she clutched her hands to form fists. It happened.

"You keep those with you?" Emily asked, distracting herself from the inevitable. Professor McGonagall nodded and opened the file, taking out two documents, presumably to hand over to Draco and Harry. "Shortly after your adoption, we made a promise to each other, dear. You made me promise that I show these papers to the closest people in your life if you so much as stray because you knew you couldn't tell them yourself what happened to you. And in return, I made you swear to me that you diligently take your medicine to avoid that from happening."