"Here, try this beef! It's excellent!" Julia passed a fresh piece of it into Emily's plate, and Rebecca helped poured pumpkin juice into her bronze goblet.
Emily knew they were all trying to make her feel better. She smiled at all of them, grateful that they had all stuck with her when she was in a crying mess.
"Cheers!" Connor smashed his drink with hers and drops of orange liquid spilled onto the table.
"Oh, I found another cup next to you! I think one of the slytherins left it there accidentally - you can have it!" Rebecca passed the goblet and Emily gulped it down.
She was feeling much better. They were hanging around in the middle of April, and Emily was such in a good mood because just this morning, she helped Professor Dumbledore with loads of stuff and earned twenty points for hufflepuff.
"Ugh.. Potions after this, honestly, that particular class had ruined our day!" Chloe wailed and ate a chunk of meat greedily.
"Agreed," Julia drank another cup, swallowing the orange contents. Emily played with the metal spoon, flipping it over on the head and got lost into her own thoughts.
After that valentine's incident, she had practically gave up, but that didn't meant she hated or disliked Tom. Emily missed him a lot, but hadn't made any attempt to go back to him for she knew it wouldn't end good.
"Emily!" Chloe shouted in her ears so loudly that she flinched back, "I've been calling you for the fifth time! What are you thinking about?"
"Huh? You called me?"
"Yes! What's wrong?" she asked, worried.
"Nothing.. I just didn't heard you. Honestly, I didn't."
"That's a bit weird.. But do you want another cup?" she handed her another goblet.
The water churned in her stomach. "No thanks," Emily waved it off and continue to wonder. What had happened? She was sure that no one had called her..
They packed their things up and head down to the dungeons all together. The lights down there was extremely pretty that she stopped and ran her fingers through it, even if she knew that she couldn't possibly catch light.
"I might as well puke in my own cauldron.." Chloe grumbled, stomping loudly to create the loud noises. They were all obviously late, because they had spent time cheering their goblets together.
Connor helped pushed open the door and the five of them face the class, feeling awkward.
Professor Slughorn frowned at all of them, displeased, "What in Merlin's name have you all been doing?"
Emily felt Julia nudging by the arm and she looked at her in a questioning way. "What?" she whispered.
"You're the best at excuses.. Go on, say something."
"I'm sorry.. We were caught in trouble for hexing the frogs near the gardens," Emily nodded her head in his direction.
Slughorn shook his head in dismay and went back to teach the class. Connor sat beside her and quickly jotted down all the notes, getting bits of it from some ravenclaws who were willing to share what they had missed for the couple of minutes that they were gone.
Emily scribbled the words down and muttered to herself, "Roots.. A bezour.. What was the last thing again? Ah yes, a few leaves -"
"Emily!" Connor shook her arm gently and she straightened her back up, looking startled.
"What? What happened?"
Everyone laughed at her stupid reaction. Slughorn frowned, tapped his wand on his chin, "And what did I said just now again?"
"The ingredients for -"
"No, not that. Something else-" and his voice was gone. She watched his lips moved, but she couldn't hear him. Why was the class dead silent? Everyone's moving their mouth but - why can't she hear anything?
"Why - what's going on?" she shouted loudly, trying to hear her own voice but it was muted too.
The professor said something again, looking crossed, but Emily didn't pay attention. She was busy trying to figure everything out. She pressed her ears, then let out screams, trying desperately to reach her own voice.
The class's attention immediately went to her.
"I-I can't h-hear a-anything.. I can't h-hear a-anyone.. Someone help..." Emily muttered and sobbed. This wasn't the best moment to hear her own crying, but that would do if it meant hearing everything again.
Before she knew it, Slughorn had ordered Connor to bring her to go to Dumbledore. He took her trembling hands and guided her out of the classroom as if she was blind and not deaf.
"C-Connor.. Please..help me.."
"You'll be alright. Dumbledore will help you - he's a great wizard! You'll be all right.." he helped her way up the stairs and knocked on the Transfiguration class.
"I - I don't want to go in!" she screamed loudly, and Emily was afraid that she might never hear anything again.
Connor muttered something to her and opened the doors. Emily saw the slytherins and gryffindors together, giving each other glares and broke contact when she came stumbling in.
Connor went up to Dumbledore, who was a bit confused at the crying girl and whispered to him.
The class watched anxiously at the three of them. Tom seemed surprised at her arrival, and was straining his ears to hear the conversation going on.
"Emily. Can you hear me?" Dumbledore spoke calmly.
"Professor! She can't hear anything anymore - it's like -" he dropped his voice into a low whisper when he realised that he spoke too loud.
"Is there a cure?" he finally asked.
"The potion should be an old recipe.. I'm sure there's a cure.. But maybe more than six days and she'll be deaf forever..." Dumbledore told him grimly.
Emily couldn't stand waiting their like an idiot, she rushed forward and grabbed hold of the older wizard robes," Please, tell me! Tell me it's going to be okay.. Professor! Write it down for me - "
Connor quickly wrote the exact words down while Dumbledore called Professor Dippet to be the subsitue teacher for the next hour.
He took her hands gently, "Everything's going to be fine. I promise," Connor gave her a smile and helped escort Emily to the infirmary.
********
Tom kicked the bed frame with his foot and his other two roommates flinched a little, watching him carefully.
Now she's deaf! Emily won't hear a thing again if the cure isn't there. Who did it? The potion wouldn't have been there for her to drink it so stupidly.. It should be in her daily food or drink.. When a thought flashed through his mind.
"Alphard Black,"he spoke the name so dangerously that the slytherin looked up in fear.
"Y-yes?"
"Did you happened to left a particular goblet on the hufflepuff table?"
"W-what? Yes I did, but -"
"It was you," Tom turned around, balling his fists. He slashed out his wand and pointed it straight at his face, "Find me the cure this instant or I shall blast your face off and make sure you get expelled from Hogwarts."
The young slytherin bowed his head and muttered, "Yes, Tom."
Alphard came back early in the morning, carrying all sorts of ingredients from the Potions classroom. "There's everything you need here to cure her..."
"Well? Get out from here," he snarled and the other two scrambled to the common room, drowsy from their sleep.
His hands were as quick as lightning, mixing and adding came in naturally when he boiled potions at class. It was simple at first, when there came a part where it turned out confusing.
Tom started sweating. The puffy smoke came out from the cauldron instantly after he tried putting a piece of unicorn's horn. It was ready.
"And now let's hope that foolish girl will drink this," he muttered.
*******
I think Tom Riddle did this to you, because you kind of expose him being an orphan? It should be him.
Rebecca wrote it all down and showed Emily the parchment. Her eyes widened and drops of tears streamed down her face," No, he wouldn't! Tom won't go this far.."
Yes he would.
Rebecca gave her a glare and sighed. "Let's just hope that Dumbledore has a plan!"
Chloe helped took her arm, "I'll bring you to the infirmary now.. See? I told you he's a bad person..."
"Do you mind if I go to the bathroom?" Emily asked and got a nod from Chloe as she couldn't hear whatever that she's going to say.
Emily washed her hands and dried them with a white towel, when she saw the person she least wanted to see at the end of the hallway.
She tried to walk pass him but he blocked her way. Emily tried to give her best death stare as she could, because for the first time she'd actually believed that he would go as far as kill someone to get what he wanted.
"Go away! You stupid, insane, idiot -" she curled her fists and hit him, which Tom just found it annoying.
He grabbed hold of her hands tightly to stop her and took a parchment out from his robes :
Do you want to be cured or not?
"I don't need your help! Dumbledore can -"
Tom sighed loudly and pulled her along. Emily had to struggle to break free when they reached the Potions classroom, but he caught hold of her and made her go inside.
There was a square, glass bottle on the desk and he nudged her to drink it.
"I'm not drinking that! How do I know -"
"Emily. I promise," he mouthed to her and for a moment she had almost heard his voice, but it's probably just her imagination.
She gulped and took small steps towards it. Her trembling hands took hold of the potion, uncapped it, and chugged it down. It tasted of stale vegetables and left a bittery taste on her tongue.
Then slowly, the sound of the water churning outside and the potions boiling came to her ears. Emily had never felt so relieved before in her life to hear her surroundings.
She looked down in embarrassment, "Thank you, and I'm sorry. I shouldn't have know about your background -"
"What's done it's done."
"Sorry," Emily shuffled her feet.
Tom smiled a bit. "Stupid. Apolagising would be the death of you."
"What?" she said in astonishment.
"Come now," he took her wrist, "We've got explaining to do. Don't want the adults to make a fuss about it now, isn't that right?" he stroked her hair and pulled her with him.
Emily laughed quietly, "Of course."