Chapter 6

"I can't believe we lost." Cedric frowned as he laid back in Sage's lap. "I thought for sure i'd beat him, he's only a first year." Cedric groaned as Sage played with his hair. "Now you know not to underestimate him." Sage advised the boy.

"My father will be disappointed." He sighed. "No he won't, your father's proud you made the team." Sage laughed. "Like Amos could ever be disappointed in you." She rolled her eyes.

"Shall we head for dinner, the others are already there." She asked. "I'm not hungry." Cedric shook his head. "But it's the Halloween feast. We have to go." She gently pushed his head off her lap, pulling him off the couch.

"I can't show my face ever again." Cedric argued, but Sage had already dragged him out of the common room. "Harper's there too, he lost as well. You can mope together."

"Don't make me go, Sage." He pouted, but she pressed on. "Fine." He grumbled, and Sage released his hand, but he took it back. 

She looked down at their intertwined finger in confusion. Cedric never held her hand in front of others, but it all made sense when they reached the hall, and he let go of her hand once again.

"We did our best." Harper shrugged as they took their seats. "Everyone knows the Gryffindor Quidditch team is top of the food chain." He went on as they ate their meals, though Sage almost had to force feed Cedric.

"If you're going to be this annoying every time you lose, Sage is going to be pissed off 24/7." Jill laughed as Olive scolded her for her language, once again. "Sorry mum." Sage heard Jill say to Olive, who blew her top at the snarky comment. 

"TROLL!" Professor Quirrel burst into the hall, interrupting their conversation. "TROLL IN THE DUNGEON!" He cried out, before collapsing to the ground. Every student in the hall fell silent, exchanging fearful looks before there was a sudden outburst of panic.

The sound of knives and forks clattering and food falling to plates echoed throughout the hall, along with the screams of terror from the younger students. Sage felt Cedric grab her hand protectively as Dumbledore called for silence, directing the prefects to escort the students back to their dorms. 

Cedric pulled Sage over to the Hufflepuff line, his grip tight on her hand as they hurried down to the common room. "I hope Athena's okay." Sage searched the hall for her sister. "She'll be fine." Cedric smiled.

----

"Today you'll b-be learning about the C-Centaurs.." Professor Quirrel stared nervously at the class. "They a-a-actually.. Th-they live in the f-forbidden f-forest.." He stuttered, glancing anxiously towards the nearest window, where there was a clear view of the forest.

"Turn to page twelve." The Professor smiled weakly, and everyone obeyed, eager for the lesson to be over. "Pathetic." Graham Montague rolled his eyes from in front of Sage, whispering to his friends of his dislike towards the Professor. "A nervous wreck and he teaches Defence Against the Dark Arts?" He snickered. "He'd be better off in muggle studies."

"Watch this." Graham pulled a sheet of parchment out of his bag, tapping it with his wand as Sage watched curiously. Her eyes widened in surprise as the parchment began to fold itself up into a centaur, holding a paper horn up to it's mouth. 

Graham pointed his wand at it again, muttering 'wingardium leviosa' and the small centaur floated delicately onto Professor Quirrels desk. Suddenly, the centaur blew on the horn as Professor Quirrel screamed and leapt back, laying eyes on the Centaur before collapsing into. rack of potions.

Half the class erupted with laughter as the Professor tried to raise himself from the ground. Sage frowned at the boy, she thought it was a cruel trick to play, so she got up from her seat and dashed to the front where she helped the Professor up off the ground. 

"Hufflepuffs." Graham rolled his eyes. "That was a nasty prank, Montague." Sage scowled at the boy as she cleared the broken bottles off the ground with her wand, Professor Quirrel was still recovering and seemed lost in his own world. 

"Sage." Cedric growled as Sage retook her seat. "You don't have to play the hero every time." he scowled her. "So I should've sat back and laughed with everyone else?" She scoffed. "I don't think so." She shook her head. "Let's just go, we have Potions now."

----

"Olive, where's the carrot?" Rowan searched the ground for a moment, before Olive retrieved the vegetable from her bag. "Can I put it on?" Jill's eyes lit up as Olive agreed, passing her the carrot. 

"Careful." Sage held the head of the snowman as Jill pushed the carrot into it's face, giving it the appearance of a nose. "Such children." Harper scoffed as Jill, Sage, Olive and Rowan collected small stones to act as the mouth and eyes.

"Oh, you're just so mature, Harper." Jill gushed sarcastically, bowing down to him as he rolled his eyes. "We're 14." He told them. "I know that." Jill folded her arms across her chest. "14 year olds can build snowmen, and besides.. Winter's almost over, we have to make the most of it." Olive wrapped her scarf around the snowman neck.

"What should we call him?" Asked Sage. "We can call him 'Harper's a party pooper'." Jill suggested, as the group laughed, all but Harper. "Oh, come on, Harper. You name it." Sage smiled at him.

"Arnold." Harper grinned. "Arnold?" They all chuckled. "It's a funny name, don't you think?" Harper grinned. "Hello, Arnold." Sage smiled at the snowman. "Sagie!" A sad sounding voice called from behind them as Athena ran out of the castle.

"Sage." Athena reached the group, wiping her tear stained cheeks as she tried to speak though her sobbing. "D-D... Draco M-Malfoy." She cried. "He-He keeps calling m-me Ching-chong a-and L-Ling Ling.." She cried. 

"He told me t-to go back to China, and I-I told him I was Vietnamese and h-he doesn't like being wrong." She wailed as Sage hugged her. "What did he do?" She asked, her protective sister mode kicking in.

"He set a serpent on me." She sniffled. "It chased me all around the common room and everyone laughed at me." She pouted. "A-And then he took my scarf and.. He burnt my Slytherin logo right o-off my robes." She pointed at a burn mark on her robes, that was considerably darker than the rest of the material.

"Draco says I don't belong in Slytherin." She wiped her eyes. "That's it." Sage released her sister, storming up to the school. "Jill, you take care of her!" She called back to her friends as they called out for her to stop.

"I'm coming!" Jill ran after her. "What about Athena?" Sage asked. "Olive's more than happy to take care of her." Jill shrugged. "Let's go beat up some first years." She grinned as they made their way into the school.

"Excuse me?" Jill stopped a first year Slytherin who was wandering down the hall. "Do you know where Draco Malfoy might be?" She asked the boy politely. "He's in the library, I was just there." The boy told them, and they headed straight for the library.

"Malfoy!" Sage called as they entered the library, spotting a herd of Slytherins, Draco Malfoy among them. "Oh-oh." one of them pointed at Jill and Sage, who were approaching. "Not you again." Draco screwed up his face in disgust as they reached them.

"Don't touch Dracey!" Pansy Parkinson stepped in front of the boy. "Move you distasteful girl." Jill pulled her wand out of her robes, and Pansy scurried out of the library. "I told you not to speak to my sister again!" Sage yelled at the smaller boy.

"She's not your sister, she's an Asian." Draco scoffed. "She's adopted you daft dimwit." Sage pulled her own wand out. "I'm not one to jinx first years, but you certainly deserve it." She scowled as Draco scanned the library for an escape, but Jill blocked him.

"Levicorpus." She swished her wand, and Draco was hoisted into the air, flipping upside down as if he was being held up by the ankles. "Let's see." Sage raised her eyebrows as the boy shrieked for help. 

"Yes, there it is." Sage reached down and picked up a wand which had fallen from his pocket. "No! Please, not my wand!" Draco cried, fresh tears dripping down his face. "I warned you, Malfoy." She sneered, snapping the wand in two and dropping it to the ground as a small spark sprung out of it, the magic departing from it's wooden confines.

"What's going on here?!" Madam Pince, the librarian, appeared at the end of the library, hurrying over to them. "Next time that'll be you." Sage pointed at the wand on the ground, before she and Jill made a run for the library door, escaping just before Madam Pince could recognise them.

"That was brutal." Jill laughed. "I never thought I'd see you so... Sadistic?" She grinned. "He had it coming." Sage chuckled. "We're dead now, he's going to tell Madam Pince who we are." Jill sighed.

"If he tells her, he'll have to also tell her about how racist he's been. I think we're in the clear." Sage shrugged. "Amazing.. I'm honestly impressed." Jill praised Sage as they found their way back to their friends and Athena.

"I don't think he's going to be bullying you anymore. And if he does, use the spell 'Levicorpus.'" Sage advised Athena. "Yes, it'll certainly shake him up a bit. Bring back traumatic memories, I suppose." Jill grinned at Sage.

"What did you do?" Rowan asked. "Sage snapped his wand in two." Jill snickered. "Wicked." Harper nodded his head approvingly. "Sage, that's awful.." Cedric frowned. "So you don't think he deserved it? Care to tell Athena that?" Sage pointed at her sister. She was hurt that Cedric was so disappointed in her.

"I'm not saying that.." He sighed. "Then what are you saying?" She shook her head, unbelievingly. "At least I did something. You're pretty much Athena's older brother at this point, and all you're doing is sitting here and telling me Draco didn't deserve to be put in his place, come on Jill." Sage grabbed Jill's hand as they stormed back into the school.

"You're right, but don't you think you overreacted just a little bit." Jill laughed. "Maybe, he keeps getting up me about everything recently, though." She pouted. 

"It's like I do something good and he tells me off, and then I do something bad and he tells me off, what does he want from me? To sit idle while the world grows even more fucked up." She groaned. "Don't let Olive hear you say that." Jill giggled. "I didn't know you cursed."

"I don't." She shrugged as they found their way to their dorm, hoping Olive would fill them in on the boys' reaction to their dramatic exit, and she did.

"Rowan didn't say anything, Harper said he though it was cool and Cedric looked upset." Olive informed the two girls. "I feel bad now." Sage frowned. "I was a little bit mean." She got up. "I think I'll go apologise." She told them, but Olive grabbed her wrist.

"Don't apologise." She laughed. "I agree with you. If anyone should apologise it's Cedric." She advised her friend, as Sage sat back down. "I agree." Jill nodded. "Oh, and Athena feels better." Olive added.

"Oh, good."

----

"Sage?" Cedric pushed his way through the crowd of students on their way to Hogsmeade, reaching Sage. "I'm sorry about yesterday.." He looked down. "You were just trying to protect Athena." He apologised. 

"It's okay." Sage smiled. "I'm sorry for storming away." She giggled. "No, no. I deserved it. Want to get butterbeer?" He asked. "Sure, the others will be-"

"Just us..? I feel like recently we haven't really spent a lot of time together." Warmth crept up into Cedric's cheeks as he awaited her response. "Sure." She grinned, taking his arm as they wandered into Hogsmeade's Three broomsticks.

"I'll get the butterbeers." Sage told Cedric when they found a seat, paying at the counter, and waiting for the drinks to be prepared. "Here you are." The barwoman passed Sage the two drinks, and she took them, heading back to her table.

As she approached, she noticed a second year Ravenclaw talking to Cedric from her own table nearby. When she neared, the girl turned away and continued her conversation with her friends. "Who's that?" Sage asked, handing Cedric his drink as she sat down.

"Her names Cho Chang." He told her. "She's on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team, nice girl." He went on. "Hm." Sage smiled, glancing over at the girl, she was quite pretty. 

"You met her through Quidditch?" Sage kept her eyes on the girl, who was laughing delicately, it seemed she had no imperfections at all. "Yes.. Why are you so interested?" Cedric chuckled. "No reason." She tore her eyes away from the girl as they began to talk about their plans for the summer.

"Just two weeks away." Cedric grinned. "And then we have ages until we start our fourth year." He went on. "It's Rowans 14th birthday during the Summer, we should do something." Sage suggested. "Sure." Cedric shrugged. 

"Oh, speaking of." Cedric and Sage looked over to the door, where Rowan and Harper were entering through. "No Jill or Olive?" Sage asked as the boys sat down. "Bookstore, Jill still hasn't found whatever book she's been looking for." Rowan informed them.

"You two on a date or something?" Harper raised his eyebrows. "No." Cedric and Sage frowned, and Rowan seemed to loosen up a little bit, Sage noticed, and eyed him suspiciously. "So you two have made up, then?" Rowan smiled.

"Sage, you were such a badass yesterday." Harper grinned and Sage laughed. "Thanks, Harper. And yes, we're good." She answered Rowan. "Want a butterbeer?" Rowan asked Harper, who nodded, and Rowan left.

"Why's Rowan all weird today?" Sage asked as Cedric and Harper exchanged looks of amusement. "What?" Sage took a sip of her butterbeer. "He likes you." Harper told her.

"Just because he called me pretty in our first year." Sage rolled her eyes. "No, seriously." Harper nodded. "He's got a crush on you." 

"No way." Sage frowned. "How do you know?" She asked. "No the question is how do you not know." Cedric laughed. "What do you mean?" She furrowed her brows. "How he hates when you and Cedric hold hands, or display affection. Whenever you talk, or even look at another guy he gets jealous." Harper went on.

"Oh." Sage stared after Rowan, who was wandering over to their table with two butterbeers. "Do you like Rowan?" Cedric asked before he reached them. "No." Sage shook her head, and Rowan took his seat

Sage watched Rowan curiously for the remainder of the Hogsmeade visit, unsure of how to handle her newly found information on his feelings for her. Of course, Sage didn't like him, but how could she let him know that without hurting his feelings. Troublesome, it is, being a people pleaser.