𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐎𝐘 𝐖𝐇𝐎 𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐃 ━━ harry potter

chapter twenty-two

They had already completely turned into themselves when they arrived at the corridor outside of the Slytherin common room. But they had been sort of in time, since Malfoy didn't seem to notice their appearance was changing.

They ran as fast as they could through the hallways, without speaking in case somebody heard them. Percy Weasley had probably gone back to the Gryffindor Tower, because they didn't see him.

A strange sound was heard, and they stopped. Harry turned to Ron and Ben, "Did you hear that?"

"It sounds like somebody's crying," whispered Ben, receiving nods from the others.

He rushed to the end of the corridor, which was where the sniffing sound was coming from. There was a not very large- but enough for someone to go through it- window ajar and, sitting on top of what seemed to be part of the roof, was a girl with wavy dark hair.

Ben took a step back, and looked at his friends. "It's Audrey."

Harry's eyebrows raised, while Ron's furrowed. "What are you gonna do?" asked the redhead.

"You two go to the bathroom, tell Hermione what we know," he told them in a hushed voice. "I'll see you in the common room later."

They nodded, and left without saying a word. Ben turned back to the window, and opened it a bit more. "Hi!"

Audrey gasped in surprise as she saw her brother's head peeking out the window, and wiped the tears from her eyes before Ben would see them. "Are you mental? What are you doing here?"

"What are you doing here?" he repeated, pushing himself through the gap and standing next to his sister. "I thought you had gone home for Christmas."

"Are those Slytherin robes?" she frowned, staring at what he was wearing.

"No," he said.

"Yes, they are, there's literally a sna-"

Ben interrupted her, knowing she was trying to avoid his question by directing the conversation to him. "Why are you here? Are you alright?"

"That's none of your business," she scoffed, and looked up to the jet black sky, lit up by beautiful sparkling stars.

"Are you crying?"

"I don't cry."

"Then why are your eyes sweating?"

Ben expected Audrey to insult him in the most gruesome and mean way but, to his surprise, she let out a giggle instead. "You're stupidly weird."

"In a bad or in a good way?"

"Depends on the day."

Ben nodded in understanding. "Why aren't you at home, Audrey?"

She didn't reply at once. "They found out."

"What did they-" he began, but realisation hit him before he could finish the question. "Oh... How? What happened?"

"This year Mother and Father didn't want to hold a big family dinner, because of what happened last year," she said. Ben flinched at the memory. "But they wanted to do something special. So they told me they would invite Steve and his family over."

"Oh, that's nice."

"Yeah, but it was way too risky. Mother began sending letters to Steve's mother, Freya, and somehow they really liked each other," she continued. "Until Freya mentioned her husband being a muggle, and Steve being a Hufflepuff prefect, and everything was ruined. Mother made a hell of a mess, and she was mad at me for lying to her, and she forbade me to continue going out with Steve."