✓ | PLAY WITH FIRE ⎯⎯ harry potter

thirty-six

"-Harry, m'boy!"

"Hello, Professor." Harry said in a low tone and wrapped his scarf around his neck before turning to Marina. "Hi, darling."

Slughorn opened his big mouth to talk again before she could even process Harry's words. But she looked at him silently, and he was smiling like an idiot.

"How perfect to have you both here - I have been meaning to talk to both of you! You see, I am holding a little get-together next weekend, and I would surely love it if you both could join me. Just a dinner, that's all it is..."

"Excellent, Professor, we'll be there," said Harry before Marina could even react. "Your office, as always, right?"

"Wonderful!" cried Slughorn and threw his arms up in the air so his crystallized pineapples nearly fell out of his bag. "Well, then, excuse me..."

He patted them both on their shoulders before he pulled the door to the Three Broomsticks open again, and disappeared into the warmth. Marina turned and began marching back to Hogwarts to help Draco with fixing the Vanishing Cabinet.

"Wait!" Harry shouted. "Come back!"

She did not listen to him; he did a desperate attempt at catching her speed.

"What do you want, Potter?"

She stopped in her tracks - Harry took a grip of her arm, before intertwining their hands. Chills went down her spine.

"I want you to be my date for the dinner."

Marina let go of his hand, a smirk forming on her face.

"What if I told you that I was going with Zabini?"

"Then, I'd need to win you over."

"Well," Marina said carefully, "good luck with that."

Harry had no chance to answer; the door to the Three Broomsticks shot up, and out came two girls, arguing loudly about something that the shortest one was holding in her hand.

"It's nothing to do with you, Leanne!" she roared, Marina recognizing her to be Katie Bell, a Gryffindor Blaise had had a flirt with some years back.

"Let me see it!" answered Leanne, and reached for the thing Katie was holding - it fell to the ground. At once, Katie rose into the air, gracefully, her arms outstretched as though she was about to fly. Her hair was whipped around her by the fierce wind, but her eyes were closed and her face was quite empty of expression.

Blaise came sprinting out of the Three Broomsticks along with ten other curious students. He looked at Katie for a second, before inhaling deeply and looking Marina's way. He had given the necklace away, but he had cursed the wrong person.

As Katie let out a terrible scream, and her eyes flew open, Harry ran to help her. Marina turned, and quickly marched away from the scene, up to the castle again, in complete silence.

She could not feel any remorse or worry at this moment, nor sadness or anger. She was numb. And somehow, it was much worse.

"I can make things move without touching them. I can make animals do what I want them to do, without training them. I can make bad things happen to people who are mean to me. I can make them hurt if I want to."