"How was your walk?" Was the first thing Hermione said to Rachel when they finally sat down in the Great Hall to eat their final meal of the day.
Rachel had just finished loading her plate of the usual glorious roast dinners the school elves made. It was pork that particular evening, with lots of roasted vegetables to offer as well. But of course the elves cooked much more than that.
Like usual, there were plates filled with extraordinary food. Some from the countries of France and Bulgaria so the transferred students had something fairly similar whilst they stayed the year in an unfamiliar country.
"It was good." Rachel said looking down at her food with a smile.
Hermione cocked her head in thought, it clearly wasn't the food making Rachel so happy. She was just about to ask what had been so good about it until the answer was practically thrusted at her face. Cedric Diggory walked past Rachel with his friends, accidentally knocking into her. As he turned to apologise and see who it was they both - Cedric and Rachel - smiled stupidly at one another.
"No one is ever that happy to be knocked into." Hermione said, Rachel looked back towards her.
"Cedric asked me to the Yule Ball." Rachel said, acting as though it weren't a big thing.
"You said yes?" Harry interrupted, leaning closer to his sister.
"Oh I'm sorry." Rachel set her cutlery down. "I did not realise I had invited you into mine and Hermione's conversation."
"Sorry." Harry scoffed moving away from her once more.
Rachel took a bite of a roast potato and then a swig of her drink before putting down her goblet and looking at Harry from the corner of her eye.
"But yeah, I said I'd go with him."
Harry smirked at his sister and they both laughed. But in all sudden seriousness, Rachel looked up at Hermione who had began quarrelling with Ron. They were like children, you could not leave them be for five minutes without them arguing. Noticing her stare, Hermione looked across at Rachel.
"We need to go dress shopping."
A smile broke out on Hermione's face and she nodded excitedly. The two girls quickly put their heads together and began discussing what dresses they wanted, what colours looked best and would they need a bag as an accessory. Ron and Harry looked at each other in slight horror.
"We will never hear the end of this." Harry concluded.
"Definitely." Ron nodded, looking at the girls and then to Harry.
Rachel shot the boys a playful glare but within seconds was back turned to Hermione and engaged in their discussion.
Whilst they were talking excitedly, George had noticed how distracted Fred was. He wasn't listening to Lee or Angelina who constantly repeated themselves to be heard by the particular redhead.
Fred was staring at Rachel but perhaps not in the nicest way he could have been. It was a sort of anger/regret. His eyes scanned her face and felt ashamed of himself that it wasn't because of him that she was so happy.
Yet he didn't even though who or what made Rachel happy at this moment in time.
"Fred!" George elbowed him in the side. "Seriously that's the fifth time you've looked at her within ten minutes!"
"I'm not looking at anyone." Fred huffed and turned his attention back to his friends that began to get irritated from his blank responses.
George looked back at Rachel, wondering why Fred was staring. She seemed normal to him, like she had always been: happy, lively, witty and sarcastic. Glancing back to his little group, Fred was looking at his hands and briefly engaging in the conversations.
Whilst this happened, Rachel, oblivious to the behaviour of the redhead just a little further down to her, had finally decided what kind dress she would be wearing to the Ball. She sniggered to herself, why had she thought going would be so bad?
*
Her finger tracing the notice board in the common room, Rachel landed on the date she was looking for. Grinning, she snatched the paper of dates off the wall; the corners and middle crumpling at her firm grasp.
She spun on her heels and bounded back over to Hermione, who perched on the edge of a wooden chair at one of the many desks.
"It's this weekend." Rachel said with a smile, throwing herself into a chair and poking the date several times with her index finger.
"Hogsmede." Hermione breathed. "My grandmother sent me a lovely amount of money, it's my early Christmas present."
Rachel looked at Hermione and smiled, she dropped the paper and instead pulled parchment out to write upon. She scribbled Remus' name at the top and quickly wrote out a brief letter.
Remus,
Sorry I haven't written, I've been so busy with homework, studying and with the Triwizard Tournament!
We have a Yule Ball on Christmas Eve which should be nice, I'm going with Cedric. Arthur Diggory's boy, I'm sure you'd approve!
Hope you're okay, love you lots Reemy.
Rachel P xx
Folding up the letter several times, she sealed it with her wand and writing his name once more on the outside.
"Are you going to the owlery?" Hermione asked, noticing the newly written letter enclosed in Rachel's hands.
She nodded.
"I'll join you then!" Hermione said. "I also have a letter to send too."
"No, no it's fine." Rachel said standing up. "I'll take them both, I kind of want to go for a walk and clear my head a little."
Hermione frowned unconvinced but darted off to find her letter also. When she retuned, Rachel had put on her scarf and was wrapped up tightly; ready to embrace the chilly December air before curfew. Carefully, Rachel took the two letters and gave a final smile to Hermione before darting off out the common room.
In all honesty, Rachel didn't need to clear her head. She was still a little fuzzy from earlier, the excitement just pushing her along. But she felt as though she wanted time alone. It was very important to Rachel that she could have her solitude, sometimes the best company for her was silence.
The clocks quickly ticked as Rachel noticed she was taking far too long, she'd bound to be caught on her way back at this rate. She rolled her eyes and continued at her steady pace, feeling like she couldn't care less about the curfew. What would a few minutes hurt?
She came out of the courtyard and padded across the path to the owlery. The sky was dark and clear, the stars were twinkling and bright, the air was cold and sharp.
"There'll be a frost tonight." Rachel said under her breath, a small puff escaping her lips and disappearing quickly.
Tucking her head into her chest, she battled the cold and hurried onto the stairs up where the owls all lived. During this time, Rachel realised she had not actually wrote to Remus in some time. In fact, this was her second letter to him this year. She pulled a guilty face and quietly vowed she would write at least once a month. Remus deserved to know how many detentions she had received that month.
The owlery was freezing, and to Rachel's surprise and wonder she found the owls quite happy, even if the temperature was dropping quickly. The air was so cold, even for Rachel who relished in the winter, that it was a mystery anything was living like the owls after facing the cold everyday. As she walked past some perches, containing owls of all sorts, Hedwig fluttered down onto her shoulder.
"Oh, Hedwig!" Rachel gasped at the shock.
She cooed softly and flew onto the perch just in front of Rachel.
"I'd use you to send this." Rachel signalled to the letter. "But Harry says I can't... not really sure why though."
"Talking to birds are you?" A scoff arose, Rachel spun around and glared at the voice. Draco.
She felt a heat rise to her face as she quickly moved to two school barn owls to use, behind her Draco moved to the other side where his large eagle owl proudly sat.
He attached a letter to it's claws before turning to look at Rachel; the eagle owl soaring off into the night like a large beast. She set the barn owls off and, ignoring Draco, began to pet Hedwig.
"Are you that barmy?" Draco said, raising his sharp eyebrow, not moving from where he was stood.
"If stroking my brothers pet bird is odd, then yes." She replied, looking up briefly before turning back to Hedwig.
With a final pat, Rachel headed for the exit; determined to get a head start away from Malfoy. She wasn't really up for walking with him. The stairs fell beneath her as she jumped the last two and scurried away down the path once more. Despite the lead she believed she had, she noticing in the corner of her eye Draco fall into place next to her.
Every step he took, she took double that. Her small legs not able to walk as quick as Draco's could.
An awkward silence fell on the two, they both wanted to say something. Just anything. Rachel kept thinking back to their previous year, she would have loved to have the opportunity alone with Draco so they could be 'friends' once more. Yet that idea had been abolished and she could not find the words to say anything towards that small little past they had.
But it went for Draco too. He remembered all their conversations, he remembered the time she was upset and he comforted her. Only to then break down himself and they both ended up realising how similar, in a way, they were. Draco daren't say he missed it, he could not admit to anyone, not even himself, he missed hanging around with the Gryffindor princess.
(It was a stupid nickname that someone had made up last year, following up Draco's Slytherin Prince title.)
The school approached and Rachel breathed a sigh of relief. At least it wasn't much further to her common room she thought.
"Am I that awful to be around?" Draco said noticing her sigh, his sarcasm shining brightly - even though Rachel thought she could sense some sort of hurt amongst his cockiness.
"Do you really want me to answer that?" Rachel smirked.
Draco laughed a little and smirked to himself, he glanced down at her and shook his head. Maybe he could admit to himself he missed their random talks that made him happier.
"Never fails to surprise me you're not a Slytherin." Draco said to himself even though Rachel heard.
"I'm not a pure blood for starters remember? I'm only half." Rachel said with furrowed eyebrows. "Plus, the Sorting Hat said I need to go into Gryffindor... kind of."
"Half-blood is better than Mudblood." Draco scuffed his shoe. "And what do you mean 'kind of'? That hat doesn't make mistakes."
Rachel stayed silent and furrowed her eyebrows again and bit the inside of her lip. "I'm not saying it made a mistake. I just didn't choose to go into Gryffindor if I am honest..."
"You didn't?" Draco said, his eyes widening as they approached the stairs in which they'd part their separate ways.
"It's a story for another time Draco." Rachel pulled a stupid face and patted him on the cheek, teasing him.
He rolled his eyes and pushed her hand away, but to his slight horror he didn't release it straight away. Flustered he dropped it and scurried off. However, Rachel stood in the same spot frowning as he darted off down the corner.
Was Draco blushing? She hadn't even noticed that he had held her hand a little too long. Not that she would have minded so much in her true, honest opinion.
The castle got darker with each step Rachel took further up into the walls of Hogwarts. In slight apprehension, she pulled out her wand and quietly whispered the spell for light. The corridors in front of her were lit up slightly, but to keep the peace Rachel had to keep her wand pointed to the floor. She had learnt the hard way what would happen if one of the paintings would wake up at night because of your magic.
She stumbled a bit on her own feet as she continued to move on through with the very little light she had. It was extremely tempting for Rachel to raise her wand and make her spell brighter, but she couldn't. Not worth the risk of bumping into a teacher.
Despite this, she did manage to get back just fine. The Fat Lady being a bit disgruntled she had to be woken up, but that was the only small blip as she groaned loudly on 'students having no consideration for the paintings'. Rachel rolled her eyes and passed through the common room, her eyes brushing over who ever remained in the presence of the dying fire.
No one of real interest to Rachel was there, no one she'd start a conversation with really. So, assuming Hermione was in the dorms, Rachel clambered up the stairs to her room. A small buzz of chatter could be heard as she passed the other dorms, the more older ones.
Happily, Rachel quickly dressed in her old Puddlemere United hoodie and star printed pyjama bottoms before slipping into her covers, a quick wave to Hermione to acknowledge she was back before falling asleep.
She was awake quicker than she realised, it didn't feel as though she had slept for a good few hours. Groggily opening her eyes and looking around the common room to see that all the girls were in the same state; slowly dragging themselves away from their warm beds to prepare for the final school day of the week.
Rachel pulled the sleeves of her hoodie even further over her hands and climbed reluctantly out of bed, greeted by a cheery 'morning' from each dorm member, Lavender being the only exception.
The uniform that was folded onto her trunk seemed to find their way onto Rachel's body, her pyjamas discarded beneath the covers and only the sleeve of her hoodie hanging out exposed. Yawning, she stretched and prepared her hair by pulling it up into a pretty bun at the back of her head, leaving the odd messy strand to fall out to a new position.
Hermione was doing the same, carefully pinning pieces into her bun so it would stay put before grabbing her school bag and adjusting it on her shoulder. As she turned to see if Rachel was ready, she found her in a frenzy looking through her drawers and trunk.
"Are you alright?" Hermione said pulling a face.
"Eh... I've lost my History of Magic textbook." Rachel mumbled. "I swear it was in my bag or here in my drawers."
Hermione rolled her eyes before setting her bag down and reaching upon the dresser table everyone shared and picked up Rachel's book before smacking her on the head with it. Rachel scowled all the way down to breakfast clutching her head.
Breakfast was dull, everyone was exhausted but there was a small amount of excitement in the air. The students were itching to start the day soon so it could end quicker and then they could go to bed ready for Saturday, the Hogsmede trip.
But there were some third years who looked miserable, probably because they had not bought their acknowledgement letter or lost it. It reminded Rachel of Harry, who hadn't even got one last year. But Sirius being the saviour of the day wrote Harry one, he was allowed to attend this year.
"At least I don't have to worry about making sure I have my invisibility cloak tomorrow!" He said smugly.
Ron looked at Rachel and they both rose their eyebrows before turning away, letting Harry's little bubble slowly deflate. It was not long until the bell rang and everyone jumped up from their seats to head to their first lesson. For Rachel and her friends, it was History of Medicine. Not what anyone wanted.
As they roamed the school to go to their classroom, Rachel pondered to herself before saying it aloud.
"Does it matter if I fail this subject? I don't really care about it."
"Of course it does! You should at least try, you're very smart when you put your mind to things." Hermione quickly scolded, Rachel should have known better than say she was purposely putting no effort to her grade.
So, reluctantly, Rachel entered the class with a 'cheery' smile and a ready-to-learn attitude on for show but as soon as she sat down and Binns began to talk, she ignored him. Why listen to a boring old ghost talk about a pointless topic on giants when she could sneak off to the library and read a book she had secretly fallen in love with?
It was an astronomy book, something Rachel was surprisingly really interested in. Saying the book was big was an understatement, it was very big. It stood at least 6 inches thick with its pull out posters and enchanted pages that glowed when you opened it up. It had tables of stars and where to find them, constellations upon constellations and nebulas upon nebulas.
No doubt it was her favourite non-fiction book she had ever laid eyes on. She wasn't one for indulging in books full of information but rather fantasy books and adventure, yet if she could find that one book she would be hooked. The one where you feel so connected to it, you'd feel devastated if it were taken from you. The one where you could read it front to back then back to front without batting an eyelid just because you loved it that much.
That was Rachel's one book.
She had discovered it when she had been in the library with Hermione, meaning to be doing homework but Rachel had gotten so distracted by the swirls inside the pages that she left the homework. Of course, she said the detention was worth it for that discovery.
Harry, Ron and most other people laughed at this book and said she was turning into Hermione. But Rachel tossed their comments aside and often came up with a good little prank to pull on them for their teasing.
She had been so wrapped up in this idea of sneaking away for her book, or anywhere without Binns, that she hadn't noticed everyone packing their things away seeing as it were the end of lesson. Frantically Rachel shoved her things in her brown bag and headed out the classroom with Harry and the others.
"Well that was boring as usual." Ron muttered throwing a look over his shoulder.
"It's history." Hermione said. "Now Rachel did you work at all? You know try and achieve your grades?"
Rachel coughed guilty and gave Hermione a little smirk, immediately Hermione rolled her eyes.
"I daydreamed and I didn't realise the bell had gone. Sorry about that." Rachel laughed with Ron and Harry. "I didn't do any work either."
Hermione stopped in her tracks feeling a sense of helplessness come over her when she realised she couldn't help Rachel. Rachel would only help herself. If she wanted to learn she would do so but if she didn't, well there was no way of getting her to do work. She was just too stubborn, probably for her own good. But it probably would help her in some way Hermione thought. After all, if you can't take no as an answer surely that makes you just that little bit stronger than the others.
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