19 | M I S T A K E

shaking hands with the dark partsof my thoughts.

   "BLOOD ON SATIN ... I should break his nose twice for that", Susan scoffed, shaking her head. "I'll write my mum. She might knows a spell."

   "You don't have to", said Ember, looking at the dress laying on her bed, freckles of dried blood staining the cloth. "It's not like I'll ever get the chance to wear it again."

   "You're right", Susan sighed, flicking her wand and the dress folded itself and floated into Ember's trunk. "If there'll ever be another ball, your boobs will probably have grown out of this beautiful garment. What a shame."

   "Oh my god, Sue!", Hannah yelped, throwing one of her fluffy yellow pillows at her blonde friend.

   "Merlin, Hannah, that's just natural, deal with it", Susan exhorted, giving her bright eyes a roll.

   The upcoming days of Christmas break were overly awkward. Ron and Hermione acted so politely around each other that it was fair to say it was creepy. As Harry later told Ember, Ron and Hermione seemed to have a bad fight on the evening of the Yule Ball, just right before Ron decided to break Malfoy's nose.

   "I am a bit jealous with him", Fred admitted on new year's eve. "I wish it had been my fist in his face."

   "You can line up", Harry snorted, "I wouldn't have minded if I had been there as well."

   "Oh, the little shit is kinda obsessed with dear Emmie, I'm sure we will all get our chances", said George, and Ember rolled her eyes.

   Cedric wasn't all that amused about what had happened at the Yule Ball. Even though he was spending a lot of time with Cho lately, he always seemed to be somewhere near Ember. She met him in the hallways wherever she was going, he was in the library whenever she was, and when she finished dinner and was about to head back to the common room, he insisted to accompany her every single time.

   "Okay, Ced, what's that about?", she finally asked, as she noticed him behind one of the high bookshelves around her in the library. Sheepishly grinning, he stepped out of the shadows and sat down across the table.

   "What are we talking about?", he asked, cocking his eyebrow in what he might thought was an innocent way.

   "We are talking about that you are acting like a creepy stalker lately", Ember scoffed, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "Why are you following me all around the whole castle."

   Cedric's grin slipped from his lips, being replaced by a stern expression. "Isn't it quite obvious, Emmie?", he then sighed, running his fingers through his sandy brown hair.

   "Would I ask if it was?"

   "You picked a quarrel with Malfoy", he plainly retorted, his marble grey eyes full of sorrow. "You don't think he'll let you get away with that just as easy as that?"

   "I didn't —"

   "Did you tell him to sod off?"

   "Why, yes, but —"

   "And did your friend break his nose?"

   "He did, but it wasn't me —"

   "Emmie!", Cedric snapped, causing her to flinch. "He's Draco Malfoy! He'll go for revenge! That's why I try to stick around you, so he won't pull some of his treacherous shit on you!"

   Blinking, Ember shook her head. "That's ridiculous, Ced", she said. "He wouldn't dare to. He's just a frightened little ferret."

   "No, he's an evil little git, and he will definitely get at you", Cedric said, frowning. "I won't let that happen."

   "You should concentrate on the second task, not about me", Ember replied, reaching out for his hand. "A Malfoy isn't a thread at all. A dragon on the other hand ..."

   "There won't be another dragon, Em", he chuckled, his features softening.

   "But maybe something worse", she muttered.

   "How's Harry doing?", he then asked, leaning back into his chair. "Does he have any clue?"

   Ember shook her head. "I don't know. I don't think he's really working on that egg lately, but he doesn't want to talk about it either." She looked at her best friend. "You would tell me, if you'd find out about what it's all about the second task, would you?"

   "Of course", he replied with an encouraging smile. "So what do you think, shall we go back to the common room?"

·

   With new year's eve having passed by, Ember quickly found herself back in the daily bustle of Hogwarts. But only a few days of peace were given to her. When she entered the Great Hall that afternoon after a horrific double lesson of potion, her eyes landed on Harry sitting by the Gryffindor table, immediately knowing that something was utterly wrong. So she told Susan and Hannah to already start lunch without her, before she headed straight over to the Gryffindor table.

   "What's wrong?", she asked, sitting down next to her brother, who just silently handed her the Daily Prophet.

   "Dumbledore's Giant Mistake", Ember read, looking up questioning. "What's that supposed to mean?"

   "Just read", Harry growled.

   Albus Dumbledore, eccentric Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, has never been afraid to make controversial staff appointments, writes Rita Skeeter, Special Correspondent. In September of this year, he hired Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody, the notoriously jinx-happy ex-Auror, to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts, a decision that caused many raised eyebrows at the Ministry of Magic, given Moody's well-known habit of attacking anybody who makes a sudden movement in his presence. Mad-Eye Moody, however, looks responsible and kindly when set beside the part-humanDumbledore employs to teach Care of Magical Creatures. Rubeus Hagrid —

   "Oh no, she hasn't ...", Ember muttered under her breath, eyes flying over the lines of the article, and with every sentence her eyes narrowed more. When she finished, they were squinched to slits, nevertheless she threw a quick look at the staff table.

   "He's locked himself up in his hut", Hermione whispered, "and refuses to talk to anyone. This disgusting creature of a woman ..."

   But Ember didn't listen; her gaze had wandered through the great hall, and as she'd found what she was looking for, she found a pair of disingenuous blue eyes staring back at her. She was on her feet before she knew.

   "Emmie!?"

   Ignoring Harry's confused call, she crossed the Great Hall in large steps, the newspaper crumbled in her fist. She passed the Hufflepuff table, also not reacting when she heard Cedric's voice, not giving a damn about Susan and Hannah's startled looks. No, Ember didn't stop, not before she'd reached her aim.

   "What the hell is this about?", she yelled, letting the newspaper smack across Malfoy's head. "What is this bullshit? Being bitten by a flubberworm?! Are you fucking kidding me? We all hate Hagrid?! You pathetic little shit!"

   "Pathetic, yeah?", Malfoy echoed, getting to his feet. He was exceeding Ember about eight inches, but she didn't even blink. "Pathetic is your giant, hairy friend, who's locking his ugly head in his so called house to bawl his eyes out, don't you think?"

   "One more word about Hagrid and you'll regret it", she hissed, stepping closer.

   And so did he, not leaving more than a tiny gap between them. "I will tell you something about your friend, Potter. He's a shame of a teacher, he's a worthless creature, and if he'd just a spark of decency he'd drown himself in the black lake!"

   Her brain running on nothing but wrath, Ember hadn't even noticed she'd held her breath. She didn't care about anything in this moment; she didn't care about being a witch and owning a wand; she didn't care about the whole hall watching. She wanted to see him bleed, to make him suffer. And her hand raised. 

—