The fireworks and trouble Fred and George had struck up for Umbridge was the most exciting thing Emma had experienced all term, and it seemed that way for the rest of the students as well as all the teachers who hadn't even bothered to stop Fred and George. And the distant echo of Fred's words were stuck in the back of Emma's had, but that was not what she was the thinking of at the moment. Nor was she thinking of the exciting fireworks. Nor was she thinking of the way Peeves had saluted Fred as he and his twin flew out of the school on their broomsticks. Nor was she thinking back to the amount of times Fred glanced over his shoulder to spot her in the middle of the crowd.
No, she was feeling absolutely bewildered about something that had happened before Fred and George had even set off their fireworks...
She'd been in the Great Hall, trying to start up at conversation with Sabrina who was, surprisingly, in a much better mood than usual. She was talking back conversationally, looking Emma in the eye, and her lips had twitched into a small smile here and there. And it relieved Emma to have noticed that Sabrina's normal skin colour was back. Perhaps she was finally overcoming the fear of her parents escape and she was finally accepting it...or finally figured out a plan of some sort...or thought of what she'd do when the term came to an end...
"No, no, I'm not worried about failing," said Sabrina in a very quiet voice, as she stirred her lunch around her plate. "Even though I've missed quite a lot of lessons, I've still managed to study in the dormitory. Daphne would come in all exhausted and just start blabbering about how horrible her day was, and out would come what she was taught in her lessons. I summoned a couple books and did my reading. I'm confident that I'll pass. You don't need to worry about me. What about you, though? You haven't even talked about you or how you're coping with all the lessons and the crammed homework."
"I will in a moment," Emma breathed - she couldn't help but blurt out questions and keep Sabrina talking in fear that she'd suddenly stop and crawl back into a hole. "How haven't any of the teachers been on your arse?"
Sabrina frowned, then shrugged. "Dunno. Just told them I was feeling ill. I was - of course. I've been feeling ill for the last couple of weeks but Madam Pomfrey couldn't figure out what was wrong with me. But," she grinned, "not to worry; I'm all better now."
The grin had certainly assured Emma that Sabrina was, indeed, OK again, and she could finally see the happiness shining in Sabrina's eyes again. She was glad her friend had finally come around; she'd really missed talking with her this much. She'd barely had anyone to talk to other than Draco, who was annoying, and Daphne, who had only just come round to forgiving her. But, deep down, and though Emma would never truly admit it and quite possible not to herself, she'd choose Sabrina as a friend over Daphne any day.
"Well, I'm glad," Emma smiled, quite aware that her food was going cold but all she could focus on was the major difference in Sabrina, who was swallowing her food happily. "Because it's been absolutely boring without you."
"So...uh...you and Potter, huh?" said Sabrina awkwardly. "I can't even believe I couldn't recognise the resemblance...but then again, you two barely look alike. It's only the hair and eyes that are the same."
Emma forced a smile, though her stomach had really lurched at being reminded, and she knew she'd probably never get over the sinking in the bottom of her stomach that would suddenly burst at the reminder of being related to Harry Potter rather than the people who had raised her for the last fourteen years.
"I'd...er...rather not...talk about that," said Emma truthfully. "At least not out in the open. At least not with our voices. On paper, maybe. But voices, no."
Sabrina nodded quickly. "Noted."
Emma smiled.
"See what I did there, though?" said Sabrina, her eyes looked deep in thought. "Paper...noted."
"I get it," laughed Emma.
There was a loud commotion outside the Great Hall, and many students who were eating their lunch rushed out quickly to go and see what was going on, but Sabrina remained and so did Emma. Fred and George had both warned her that they were leaving for good, but not before giving Umbridge a little treat. She wanted so badly to go and see what they had done, but her feet were glued to the floor and she stuck by Sabrina, whom she hadn't conversed with in what felt like a million years.
"You want to go and check it out?" Emma said eagerly, staring hard at Sabrina who barely even looked up from her food while she happily stirred it.
"I don't really want to know," Sabrina said airily, half shrugging her left shoulder. "Nor do I care much."
Emma had already witnessed Fred and George's fireworks, which had truthfully been the most amazing fireworks she had ever seen in her fifteen years of existing, but she wanted to see what they'd do when Umbridge had caught up with them...she'd just have to ask Harry to fill her in with as much detail as possible.
All the students had cleared out which meant it was deadly quiet, and the sound of footsteps echoed louder than usual, and they walked quite fast and eagerly toward Emma. She looked up.
"I figured it out," breathed Draco, panting a little. He didn't bother sitting down beside Emma, only stood beside her seated self. "I heard...Snape...saying to Professor McGonagall - "
Draco paused to catch his breath.
Emma frowned and twisted herself a little, eager to figure out what it was Draco was going to say. She knew he'd heard Snape saying something worth hearing.
"What is it?" she said loudly. "How did you even manage to -?"
"Snape was with Potter in Remedial Potions, then McGonagall cornered him and starting questioning him about you," he explained, colour finally filling his unusually pale cheeks again. Emma nodded for him to go on. "He reckons you're this close to getting an 'O' in the examinations," Draco said, barring half an inch of his fingers beside each other. "Well, he thinks with the way you're going, the examiners will grade you an 'O', 'cause McGonagall wanted to know how well you were going since in Transfig-"
But Emma's loud squeals of excitement had cut him off and she - totally out of control of herself - jumped up onto the bench and bounced happily, yelling incoherent words of delight.
"YES! YES!" she shouted brightly, before planting her feet firmly on the ground with a big smile on her face.
"I thought that you'd react this - "
Emma, out of pure excitement, rounded on Draco, grabbed his cheeks and pulled his face toward hers and shoved her mouth forcefully onto his - it was as simple as excitedly planting her face into a pillow and screaming her excitement - only this time, Draco's mouth was stopping her. As soon as it had happened, all the excitement was drained out of her and when she'd noticed what she was doing, she pulled away, a look of horror on her face, and took a big step backwards. Draco looked the same - more confused than happy, and he looked as though he didn't know what was going on, like he was trying to figure out if what had happened actually happened, or if he was dreaming.
Draco appeared to be thinking the way he looked. "I...I'm awake, aren't I?" he said, his voice shaky.
Sabrina, who had not uttered a word or said a thing, but watched the two with a rather surprised look, simply said, "Yes."
Emma could not form words. She didn't mean to...it just happened...she didn't mean to kiss him. She could not look Draco in the eyes, or at him. She could only stare distantly at the sleeves of his robes.
"Wow, Freckles," he whispered, the happy shock was evident in his voice. "Maybe I should tutor you more."
Emma could not wrap her head around what she'd done. What would Draco think now? He'd believe that she had a crush on him at last. Perhaps she had elevated his hopes...
Though Emma should have been worrying about not being able to speak with Dumbledore or missing out on Fred and George's finale, she was really worrying about how much she liked kissing Draco...
And she watched Fred and George flying off into the distance until she could see them no more.