O, CURSED CHILD. ﹙ harry potter ﹚

LX ; would you be so kind

            "get your ass out here," said elara begrudgingly. "hermione's here, and if your done acting like an edgy, misunderstood, misfit teenager, she'd like to talk to you."

            hermione sent her a sharp look. elara shrugged.

            "what are you doing here?" harry asked hermione, pulling open the door, as buckbeak resumed his scratching at the straw-strewn floor for any fragments of rat he might have dropped. "i thought you were skiing with your mum and dad."

            "well, to tell the truth, skiing's not really my thing," said hermione. "so i've come for christmas. there was snow in her hair and her face was pink with cold. "but don't tell ron that, i told him it's really good because he kept laughing so much. anyway, mum and dad are a bit disappointed, but i've told them that everyone who's serious about the exams is staying at hogwarts to study. they want me to do well, they'll understand. anyway," she said briskly, "let's go to your bedroom, ron's mum's lit a fire in there and she's sent up sandwiches."

            elara led the way back to the second floor. ron and ginny were already waiting for them, sitting on ron's bed. elara took a seat next to ginny, leaving hermione to sit next to harry.

            "i came on the knight bus," said hermione airily, pulling off her jacket before harry had time to speak. "dumbledore told me what had happened first thing this morning, but i had to wait for term to end officially before setting off. umbridge is already livid that you lot disappeared right under her nose, even though dumbledore told her mr. weasley was in st. mungo's, and he'd given you all permission to visit. so . . ."

            hermione sat down next to harry.

            "how're you feeling?" asked hermione.

            "fine," said harry stiffly.

            "oh, don't lie, harry," she said impatiently. "lara, ron, and ginny say you've been hiding from everyone since you got back from st. mungo's."

            "they do, do they?" said harry, glaring at elara, ron, and ginny. 

            ron looked down at his feet but ginny and elara were quite unabashed.

            "well, you have! you don't see me shutting everybody out!" said elara. 

            "and you won't look at any of us!" said ginny.

            "it's you lot who won't look at me!" said harry angrily.

            "maybe you're taking it in turns to look and keep missing each other," suggested hermione, the corners of her mouth twitching. 

            "very funny," snapped harry, turning away.

            "oh, stop feeling all misunderstood," said elara sharply. "it's getting really annoying."

            "look, the others have told me what you overheard last night on the extendable ears —"

            "yeah?" growled harry, interrupting hermione. "all been talking about me, have you? well, i'm getting used to it. . . ."

            elara glared at him.

            "because we're concerned about you, you idiot — "

            "we wanted to talk to you, harry," said ginny, "but as you've been hiding ever since we got back —"

            "i didn't want anyone to talk to me," said harry.