𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐎𝐘 𝐖𝐇𝐎 𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐃 ━━ harry potter

chapter four

The next morning, Ben woke up much earlier than the rest of his housemates. It wasn't only because he was a morning person, which he was, but because he had a mission. Calling it a mission was perhaps a bit too dramatic, but it was something he needed to do to find out how bad his current situation was.

He had decided to go search for Audrey before classes started, and he'd ask her about it. He didn't know exactly what he was going to say yet, but he assumed that, if she was truly angry, he wouldn't need to speak to find out.

So he changed into his Hogwarts robes, took his school stuff and walked out of the Gryffindor tower quietly. He tried to remember the route the Weasley prefect, Percy, had led them through the night before, but he soon realised the stairs moved whenever they wanted to.

And, to put the cherry on top, some of them had steps that vanished in the middle of the staircase, so you had to be extremely careful to avoid them and not end up falling. After getting lost and panicking for a while, he saw a tall, brunette boy walking down a corridor near him, so he ran after him as though his life depended on it.

"Steve!"

Steve stopped on the spot, and turned to face him with a grin. "Hello Ben, what do you need?"

But Ben was too shocked to speak. His eyes were fixed on Steve's robes. On his black and bright yellow robes, to be exact. "You're... a Hufflepuff?"

The boy frowned, and glanced down at his uniform. "Yeah!"

Ben observed his face again, just to check he hadn't confused him for the Steve he and Audrey had been with the day before. But no, it was him. That was his sister's boyfriend. A Hufflepuff.

Now that was odd... Steve Robinson wasn't the Slytherin prefect Audrey had told her family about. He was a Hufflepuff. Wow.

"Is there anything wrong?" asked Steve.

"I'm trying to find Audrey."

"She's probably still in the Slytherin Common Room," said Steve. "I was actually going to go see her, so you can come with me."

"Oh, yes, please."

Steve guided the boy to the dungeons, which was where the Slytherins slept. The atmosphere was excessively humid, due to it being under the Great Lake, and Steve's hair was slightly ruined.

"I'm glad I'm not a Slytherin," mumbled Steve. "I wouldn't be able to stand this humidity."

Ben couldn't agree more. However, he didn't have time to laugh at Steve's comment, because Audrey walked out of the Slytherin common room and stopped when she saw both boys standing a few metres away from the door.

"Good morning love." Steve greeted her with a smile, but Audrey ignored him completely. She angrily stared at Ben.

"What are you doing here?" she snapped, her dark blue eyes piercing into his lighter ones.

"I came to talk to yo-"

"Then leave," she interrupted him, clutching her books tightly. "I don't want to see you."

She began walking away, so Ben hurried after her. Steve didn't follow them.

"Why not?"

"You're such a prick," she murmured angrily.

"So are you!"

Audrey spun around, red in the face. "Oh, I'm the prick?" she shouted. Ben took a step back, surprised by the sudden change of intensity in her voice. "I'm not the one who keeps ruining everything!"