It was now the twenty-fifth of November, exactly twenty days since the last full moon. Hera could not remember what it felt like to not have the bitter mandrake leaf in her mouth. She missed eating foods that weren't ruined by the bitterness the leaf had caused, but all her efforts weren't for nought.
She only had a few more days to go before she could finally extract the mandrake leaf from her mouth and be freed from the foul taste. Uncle Lucius had already prepared the next steps for the process, and he'd send it over with an owl.
Although the weather was dreary and the clouds were grey, Hera welcomed the cold. The rainy days had stopped but still with the presence of the dementors, she hadn't seen the sun since she had returned to Hogwarts in the first term.
She decided to take a walk to the Quidditch stands, taking her time away from both Elena and Draco. She wanted to enjoy the weather outside before winter came.
Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff were due to play each other in a few days. After the incident with Harry and the dementors during the last quidditch match between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, a lot of the students were skeptical about playing.
It was Professor Dumbledore who reassured them to not panic as he had them under control. Hera knew not to trust that.
Ever since she entered Hogwarts as a first year, there was not a single year that did not have multiple strange events. Time and time again, it was told to the rest of the student body that it will be under control but it kept on happening. It was hard getting used to it every year.
Was the situation truly under control?
She could hear the Ravenclaw team shouting on the pitch while she walked up to the Slytherin stands. Luckily, no one else occupied it, everyone else spectating the team, sat on the the Ravenclaw stands.
The sat slack on the bleachers, not caring about her posture because there was no one there to see her. She watched the Ravenclaws zipping around on their brooms, passing around the quaffle.
She was envious of them, because they looked so carefree. Enjoying the air that rushed around them as they flew in the sky.
The sound of a bird distracted her thought process, along with the flapping of wings. A familiar bird perched itself on the railing as it cocked its head to stare at Hera.
"Oh my, it's been a while since I last saw you." The Augery didn't make a move as it kept staring at her. With a sigh, she took out the biscuit she had kept in her pocket. Immediately, Crumbs hopped over. "You really do stay true to your name, don't you?"
Hera smoothed out its feathers on its head, petting as it pecked at the biscuit. "The weather must have truly terrible for you be gone for so long."
Crumbs was not one of the prettiest birds, nor did it sound the most the beautiful. The Irish Augery birds were known to be physically unpleasant on the eyes and its crowing signaled the death or misfortune of an individual...yet despite all of this, Hera found beauty within the bird.
She sighed with a heavy heart. It was ridiculous for her to be jealous of a bird, of all things.
It rubbed its head against the palm of her hand, its green feathers tickled her, when she noticed a note attached to one of Crumb's legs. That was strange because she thought of it as a free bird, belonging to no one.
Curious, she detached the small roll of paper.
Why are you letting them dictate your life?
♧
Cassiopeia-Hera made her way back to the castle in a hurry. The message she found on Crumbs was held tightly in her hand. A feeling of uneasiness filled her, someone knew what she was up to, and she didn't know how. The message couldn't have been from anyone at the Malfoy Manor because no one knew of Crumbs.
She needed to get back to the dormitory. She couldn't stay alone anymore, someone was watching her. That, or she was being fooled. Either way, it was better safe than sorry.
She could feel people staring at her, which made her feel more unsettled. She entered the Slytherin Common room, she failed to notice anything else around her due to her frenzied state.
That was why, when Elena popped up in front of her, she almost screamed.
"Merlin, Hera. What's got you so wound up?" Elena questioned with one of her thick eyebrows raised.
Hera stopped to catch her breath, making Elena even more concerned. The shorter girl patted her friend's back in an effort to calm her down. "What's going on?"
She shook her head. "Nothing, you just frightened me."
Elena did not believe that, but Hera couldn't care to tell her. She couldn't tell her.
"Right, well...come with me." She dragged her friend to a quiet corner in the common room, away from the prying ears of their fellow housemates. "You will not believe who I just saw walking hand-in-hand in the Divination corridor!"
"Did you actually see it or did you just hear it from the latest gossip?" Hera leaned back into the loveseat she sat on whilst Elena paced infeont of her.
"I'm offended, do you really think I gossip?" There was silence before she gave in. "Okay, fine. I do. But I truly did see this with my own eyes, Hera!"
Hera crossed her arms. "What did you see that's worth your shock?"
Elena's head turned to the side to scan the common room before she joined her friend on the loveseat. She started to talk softer, "Do you remember how Daphne keeps on disappearing and how she always comes late into the room?"
A heavy lump lodged itself in Hera's throat. She knew where this was going, and she wasn't sure whether or not she wanted to play dumb. It wasn't common knowledge, and she may have been the only one to know what Daphne was truly up to. It only happened by chance that she saw it all transpire.
Now that Elena knew, she didn't know what was going to happen next. So all she did was nod.
The shorter friend continued, oblivious to her friend's uneasiness about the topic. "I saw her, holding hands with none other than Blaise Zabini, as if they were taking a romantic stroll. My word, Hera! If only you were there to see it! I didn't believe my eyes so I followed them and-"
She stopped in her rant, noticing how her friend was keeping quiet. "You knew?"
Hera nodded slowly. "I only knew because I stumbled across them once. And I didn't tell you anything because it really wasn't my place to say."
Elena groaned into her palms as she covered her face with her hands in frustration. It took her a few moments to register the new information she was given. "So, this has been going on for a while? Everyone would've found out by now."
"When I came across them, it was honestly an accident. It looked like they didn't want me to see at all so I just pretended it never happened." She could remember the look on Blaise's face when she met them in the corridor near the greenhouses. It was as if he had been found out doing something he wasn't supposed to in the first place, and Hera felt guilty for even being a witness to what she had seen.
She felt like she was intruding.
"It just doesn't make sense, why would they want to keep it a secret?" Elena huffed.
"They probably have their own reasons, you know."
The shorter girl lay limp on her side of the loveseat, it was obvious that what Hera had just said made her think of all the possible reasons why they would keep it a secret. Was it because they didn't want Troy to know, due to the fact he didn't really like Blaise? Was it because they were only thirteen years old? She didn't know and she just needed to find out.
She sat straight and fixed her uniform, "I should probably ask Daphne myself."
"I really don't think that's a good idea..." Elena was already walking away, Hera's statement wasn't enough to satiate her curiosity.
"It's always better to find out from the source!" Elena exclaimed, but Hera just shook her head.
She didn't have time to ponder about the trivial matters going on between Daphne and Blaise or to stop Elena from interrogating the couple.
What she needed to do, was to find out who was watching her and why.
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an:
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