━ 4 | Talons and Tea Leaves

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❝Aren't they just absolutely beautiful, Harry?❞
❝Yeah, very much so.❞

WHEN NOVA, HARRY, RON, AND HERMIONE entered the Great Hall for breakfast the following day, they first saw Draco Malfoy, who seemed to be entertaining a large group of Slytherins with an amusing story

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WHEN NOVA, HARRY, RON, AND HERMIONE entered the Great Hall for breakfast the following day, they first saw Draco Malfoy, who seemed to be entertaining a large group of Slytherins with an amusing story. Draco gave a ridiculous impression of a swooning fit as they passed, and there was a howl of laughter.

"Ignore him, 'Arry. . ." Nova said as she stepped up next to him, giving him a reassuring smile as she linked her right pinkie with his left. "He's not worth your time."

Just as Harry turned to give her a nod, Pansy Parkinson shrieked from her spot beside Draco, "Hey, Potter! Potter! The dementors are coming, Potter! Woooooooo!"

It was Nova's turn to grow irritated as she snapped her head in the Slytherin girl's direction, her pale blue eyes glaring into Pansy's fern-green ones. Pansy sent her a wicked smile with a taunting head tilt as parts of her black hair got caught on the corner of her lips.

Harry tugged Nova out of her glare as he squeezed her pinkie. She softened her gaze and turned her attention to him as he dropped into a seat beside George at the Gryffindor table. He pulled her down next to him, keeping himself grounded by placing their intertwined pinkies on his knee as he occasionally rubbed his thumb against the tip of her pinkie.

"New third-year timetables," George said as he passed them over to the pair. "What's up with you, Harry? Nova?"

Ron sat across from them with Hermione, glaring over at the Slytherin as he grumbled under his breath, "Malfoy."

George looked up in time to see Draco pretending to faint with terror again. Brianna scoffed from her spot beside him as she rolled her eyes at the boy's theatrics, pulling a piece of sausage off her fork with her teeth.

"That little git," He said calmly despite the slight growl in his voice. "He wasn't so cocky last night when the dementors were down at our end of the train. Came running into our compartment, didn't he, Fred?"

Fred nodded contemptuously at the Slytherin table, "Nearly wet himself."

"Oh my Merlin, it was bloody grand!" Brianna beamed in her faint Irish accent before her grin dropped as she recalled the cloaked figures. "Those dementors sure seem to suck the life outta you, though."

George glanced at her sadly as he nodded, "Yeah, I wasn't too happy myself. They're horrible things, those dementors. . ."

"Sort of freeze your insides, don't they?" Fred asked from his spot next to Ron, across from his twin and their best friend.

Harry muttered in a low voice, "You didn't pass out, though, did you?"

"Forget it, Harry," George said bracingly as Nova nudged the raven-haired boy's knee with hers. "Dad had to go out to Azkaban one time, remember, Fred? And he said it was the worst place he'd ever been, he came back all weak and shaking. . . They suck the happiness out of the place, dementors. Most of the prisoners go mad in there."

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