-Death With Dignity-
-and I long to be near you-
-but every road leads to an end-
A paper crane flew into the air, flying over the student's heads. Crabbe had used his slingshot to hit it, but the crane flew higher to avoid getting hit.
The classroom was filled with conversations and smiles, and for a moment, the Gryffindors and Slytherins weren't at each others throats. It was a nice change.
Vena sat next to Draco, while Blaise and Theo sat at the desk to the right of them. Crabbe and Goyle were behind the twins, and Pansy and Millicent Bulstrode sat in front.
"Why do you care, Draco? I thought you and Pansy were still together," Vena said, making an x in the corner of their tic-tac-toe game.
"I just don't understand why she hates me," Draco complained, making an o in the center.
"A lot of people hate you. I don't know why Stella is the one your most bothered about."
"It doesn't bother me! I'm just confused. She won't even talk to me," Draco whined, making an o on the upper right corner, stopping Vena from getting three in a row.
"Maybe if you were a nicer person she would actually want to talk to you," Vena said, rolling her eyes.
"I am nice to her!"
"You not insulting her is human decency, not being nice."
"That's the same thing."
"And this is why she won't talk to you."
"I don't like her."
"I never said you did."
"I mean, I could never like her. She's a Half-blood."
"Yeah, but, both of her parents are of Wizarding families. It's not like she's affiliated with Muggles," Vena reasoned.
"Play me back," Draco snapped, unable to support his argument.
Vena placed an x on the middle left, and sighed. She knew why Stella wouldn't talk to Draco, but she certainly wasn't going to tell him that it was because Stella had the biggest crush on him.
Stella McKinnon was in Ravenclaw, much like the rest of her family. All of the McKinnons were sorted into Ravenclaw, with the exception of Stella's Aunt, Marlene McKinnon.
Stella never actually met Marlene, as she died when Stella was only a baby, but Stella's father, Matthew, was Marlene's brother, and the two were extremely close.
Stella's father ended up moving to the United States when the first wizarding war had started, not wanting to join the fight. Stella's mother, ended up dying in childbirth, so her father had honored is late wife and gave their child her name. He also honored his sister, who was fighting in the war along with the Order of the Phoenix. Thus, her name was Stella Marlene McKinnon.
When the Dark Lord had killed his whole family, Matthew decided to come back to the UK.
The two didn't have much in common. Stella was nice to everybody, and arguably the most popular girl in her year. She was friendly and sweet, while Vena was quiet and reserved. Vena didn't feel the need to talk to anyone unless she felt like it, while Stella wanted to be friends with everyone.
The two became friends first year, when they sat next to each other in Charms. They continued to sit next to each other every year, without fail.
From first through third year, Stella didn't talk to Draco. She told Vena how he was a bully, and she didn't want to give him the time of day.
Imagine Vena's surprise when she told Stella that Draco would be taking Pansy to the Yule Ball, something that had made Stella incredibly jealous. When Vena confronted her friend, Stella simply blushed and told her to drop it.
Vena kept her word, and hasn't talked about it since. Mostly because she couldn't imagine why Stella, the nicest girl in school, would have a crush on her brother, a complete jackass.
The smell of paper burning brought Vena back to her senses. The paper crane, which was still flying until a few moments ago, burnt up to a crisp on Parvati and Lavender's table.
The class turned around to the source of the spell, and saw Umbridge, who was smiling sweetly back at them. Or, it was supposed to come off as sweet, but Vena found it more condescending than anything.
"Ordinary Wizarding Level examinations," she said in a sickening high pitched voice. "O, W, L, more commonly known as, OWLS," she turned turned around to face the class, who were sharing small snickers with each other. "Study hard, and you will be rewarded. Fail to do so, and the consequences may be, severe."
With a wave of her wand, textbooks were distributed to every student. "Your previous instruction in the subject has been disturbingly uneven. But you'll be pleased to know from now on you'll be following a carefully structured, Ministry approved course of defensive magic. Yes?"
Vena looked at the textbook in front of her, which stated that it was Defensive Magic for Beginners. Vena looked up, and saw that Hermione had been the one to raise her hand.
"There's nothing here about using defensive spells," Hermione said.
"Here we go," Draco complained, ripping a piece of parchment, and setting up the lies for another tic-tac-toe game.
"Using spells?" Umbridge repeated, laughing as if Hermione told a joke. "I can't imagine why you would need to use spells in my classroom."
Vena made an x in the bottom left corner.
"We're not going to use magic?" Weasley asked.
"You'll be learning about defensive spells in a secure, risk free way."
"What use is that?" Potter interjected. "If we're gonna be attacked it won't be in a risk free."
"Students will raise their hand when they speak in my class," Umbridge snapped.
Draco made an o in the middle left.
"It is the view of the ministry, that a theoretical knowledge would be sufficient to get you through examinations, which after all, is what school is all about."
"And how's theory supposed to prepare us for what's out there?" Potter interrupted.
"There is nothing out there, dear. Who do you imagine would attack children like yourself?"
"Oh, I don't know, maybe Lord Voldemort," Potter said sarcastically.
The twins flinched at the mention of the Dark Lord. Vena's right hand started shaking slightly, remembering the past summer. Draco grabbed his sister's hand in an effort to get her hand to stop.
It didn't stop.
Umbridge looked around the silent room. "Now let me make this quite plain. You have been told that a certain dark wizard is at large once again. This is a lie."
"It's not a lie! I saw him I fought him!"
"Detention Mr. Potter!"
"So according to you Cedric Diggory dropped dead of his own accord!"
Vena sucked in a breath harshly. She could feel Theo's eyes on her, which she did not meet, and instead focused on the tic-tac-toe game. There wasn't much to focus on anyway, as there was only one spot left.
Cedric Diggory was the reason Vena and Theo had broken up. Vena was friends with Cedric, and she was the reason why he had gone with Cho at the Yule Ball.
The two had become friends the year before, when he caught her crying in an abandoned corridor, after the lesson with Boggarts. Her boggart had given her quite a scare, and resulted her needing to collect her emotions in peace.
Last term, Vena had grown closer with Cho, as the girl was friends with Stella. Cedric had spotted the two girls talking by the Great Hall one day, and had many questions about Cho. Vena knew the light blush on his cheeks wasn't because of the cold, and had brought the two together.
When Potter had come back with Cedric's body, Vena knew why. At the end of the year feast, when Dumbledore had told the students how Cedric dies, Vena believed him wholeheartedly. She knew her father was there.
Theo, also being the son of a Death Eater, refused to believe it.
He didn't want to source of his family's problems coming to light. He had said that Potter was a liar, and that Cedric died because of something in the maze, not because of the Dark Lord.
Vena refused to listen to another word come out of his mouth, resulting in their break up.
"Enough!" Umbridge screamed.
Vena buried the thoughts of Cedric and Theo underneath the dirt, not wanting to think about them for the remainder of the day.
"See me later, Mr. Potter. My office."
___________
Vena made her way down to the Owlery, on one early morning. Her mother insists on her and Draco sending a letter every two weeks to be up to date with everything.
Every now and then, the twins manage to escape having to send one using excuses such as homework and Quidditch practice.
However, with Umbridge under everyone's noses and the Dark Lord residing at the Manor, her mother has only grown increasingly paranoid.
She opened the Owlery door and saw Potter leap up in shock, clearly surprised at someone being awake this early in the morning.
"Hi," said Potter automatically.
"Oh... hi," she said breathlessly, "I didn't think anyone would be up here this early... I was just sending a letter to my mum."
"Right," Potter said awkwardly, clearly not knowing how to respond to that, as he hates her parents. He turned back to his snowy white owl, attaching the letter to the owl's leg.
"Oh, she's beautiful. What's her name?" Vena said, walking over to the owl.
"Hedwig, I named her myself," Harry said proudly, watching Vena start to pet the owl, who hooted nicely, happy with receiving the attention.
"Hedwig... isn't that from a History of Magic?"
"Yes I believe so. It's been so long I almost forgot where I got her name."
Vena walked back to where Aphrodite was.
She heard Potter whisper, most likely the name of whoever he wanted to send the letter to. Why he felt the need to whisper, she didn't know.
Hedwig flew off, and Vena attached the letter to Aphrodite before walking over to where Potter stood.
She quickly sent Aphrodite away, as she could tell the owl was upset that Vena was petting Hedwig earlier.
The two watched the black owl fly away, standing so closely together that if Vena were to lean a little more to the left, her and Potter would be touching arms.
But she didn't.
Instead, she whispered, "I'm sorry Umbridge put you in detention. You were just telling the truth."
Before Potter could even respond, Filch came wheezing into the room. Mrs. Norris came trotting at his heels, gazing at the owls overhead and mewing hungrily.
"Aha!" said Filch, taking a step towards Potter. "I've had a tip-off that you are intending to place a massive order for Dungbombs!"
Potter folded his arms and stared at the caretaker. "Who told you I was ordering Dungbombs?"
"I have my sources," Filch hissed, "now hand over whatever it is you're sending."
Potter, arms still folded, said, "I can't, it's gone."
"Gone?" said Filch, face contorted in rage.
"Gone."
Filch opened his mouth furiously, mouthed for a few seconds, then raked his eyes over Potter's black sweatshirt, which fit him quite nicely in Vena's opinion.
Wait. Since when did she think he looked good? No, Vena could not think about Potter in that way. It was fine when they were twelve and she had a crush on him, but it's not okay anymore.
Not like that's important, though.
"How do I know you haven't got it in your pocket?" Filch asked.
"Because I saw him send it," Vena said, finally including herself in the conversation.
"You saw him-"
"That's what I just said," Vena snapped, trying to seem intimidating like her father when he doesn't get his way.
There was another moment where Filch and Vena stared each other down. Then he shuffled back to the door, Mrs. Norris following his trail. And as quick as he stormed in, he was out.
Potter and Vena looked at each other before the two started laughing.
They began to walk back to the Gryffindor Tower, in a comfortable silence. It wasn't until they reached the common room did the two engage in conversation.
"Thanks," Potter said gratefully.
"No problem. You weren't ordering Dungbombs though, were you?" Vena questioned.
"No."
Vena frowned. "I wonder why he thought you were then?"
Harry shrugged, lost in his own thoughts.
"Well, I suppose I should finish that potions essay. Nice running into you, Potter," Vena said, sensing that the conversation was over.
She started walking over to the stairs leading up to the girl's dormitory, but only making a few steps before Potter cried out, "Wait!"
Mystified, she turned back around to see Potter standing still, shocked that he even said anything.
Raising an eyebrow, she questioned, "what?"
Potter licked his lips, before mumbling, "nothing, never mind. It was nice running into you too."
Vena frowned again, before walking up the staircase again, wondering what Potter was going to say to her.
_____________
AN:
okay so I kept republishing the chapters the past couple of days because I wanted to change the look of it so sorry if that was annoying for some of you. But as a reward for your patience to not curse me out for all of my republishing, here's another chapter! Plus some Harry and Vena content! Get excited! I also created a whole new chapter later on, so that's exciting. I think I'm going to post a chapter a day, at least until I get into the swing of things
-M