RISE OF THE FALL | R.B.

LXXVII.

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter World belongs to J.K. Rowling.

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CHAPTER LXXVII.

Ariel would've punched Seamus if she didn't know that she would definitely regret it.

After all, Seamus was a friend. Just because he hated Sirius Black and took a bit of that hatred out on Ariel didn't mean that his anger wouldn't pass. Right?

Either way, Ariel clenched her fists to her side, forcefully shoved the newspaper into her bag and then left the Great Hall, leaving Seamus' remarks behind her.

In her storm of anger, she ran straight into a tall Hufflepuff boy—and when she looked up, she saw that it was her older brother, Caelum.

"Whoa, what are you doing all angry?" Caelum asked, his tone gentle. As always.

He placed one hand on each of Ariel's shoulders to keep her feeling grounded, calm her down and also stop her from running away.

With a quick glance, Ariel noticed that a few steps behind Caelum stood one of his best friends, Ernie Macmillan, who awkwardly backed away to give the siblings some privacy.

"Seamus was talking about Sirius Black," Ariel said angrily, "And couldn't seem to hold in his anger."

"He expressed his hatred of Sirius to you, I'd assume?" Caelum said, raising an eyebrow and gently tugging Ariel to the side of the hallway so that they weren't blocking the path of other students.

"He made a few rude remarks," Ariel confirmed, wiping furiously at her eyes, likely to dry her angry tears, "About Sirius, and then about me."

To be honest, Caelum had been expecting this. He knew his sister was very troubled by the event, and honestly he didn't know how to cheer her up.

It was the truth.

From what they knew, even though Caelum barely believed it himself, their Uncle Sirius was a murderer.

Seamus' hatred of Sirius Black—possibly with a droplet of fear mixed in—was, as far as anyone knew, justified.

However, if he was taking it out on Ariel then that wasn't. But Caelum didn't want to confront Seamus or cause a scene, nor did he want to make matters worse for Ariel when it came time to reconciling.

Sure, when he'd come out of the DADA classroom after the conversation with Remus, he'd extremely frustrated.

So his walk from the classroom with Ernie had been extremely quiet, with Caelum just stuck in his angry thoughts and Ernie unsure of what to do, so both of them had stayed silent.

But the moment he saw his little sister storming out of the Great Hall with her fists clenched and her cheeks red with anger, his own frustration had dissolved and turned into pure concern for Ariel.

"Look, I have an idea," Caelum began after a few seconds of silence and weighing his options, "How about you go to your classes, and then at lunch, I'll meet you at the Hufflepuff Common Room. I'll grab food from the Great Hall and then we can eat in my dorm, away from all the drama. Alright?"

Watching his sister's expression slowly brighten as he spoke was enough to make him feel extremely proud of himself for cheering her up.

"Thank you," Ariel said, a small smile creeping onto her lips, "I finally understand why everyone says you're unbelievable nice."

"Not just nice," Caelum defended jokingly, "Unbelievably loyal, unbelievably intelligent, unbelievably—,"

"—arrogant, it seems," Ernie butt in, smirking, as he took a few steps forward and joined in on their conversation.