✔️ 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐆𝐎 → ℎ. 𝑝𝑜𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑡𝑤𝑖𝑛 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦

10 | T R U S T

 are you ready to explode
                    like a tiger in a circus?
this cage is all I've ever known,              
but now you've given me a purpose!

  RUMOURS WERE A thing that spread Hogwarts within days, gossip on the other hand, never needed more than a couple of hours to reach everyone's ears. Especially when the gossip's core was so painfully true.

   Whoever had witnessed the latest spectacle in the library, he or she wasn't hesitant to bring the news amongst the people, and curious eyes and whispers were following Ember wherever she was going.

   The unfortunate part was that it was almost impossible to find out the source of such stories going viral, and as much as Ember wished to slap whomever had told, she couldn't do anything.

   "I still can't believe it", Susan said, and with a quiet groan, Ember rolled her eyes. Susan was delighted. In a absolutely manic and ridiculous way of course, but she definitely was. "You got your first kiss! And it was Draco Malfoy!"

   Ember was all but happy about this; and with all, she meant all. Her emotions ran from the purest disgust all the way to a disturbing excitement, but whatever she felt, the shadow of regret was a constant companion. It was Draco Malfoy! That was definitely nothing she had wished for, and also nothing she would have ever expected.

   "It meant nothing", Ember muttered, staring into the fire, finding comfort in the flickering red and orange light.

   "Like it meant nothing that he's sitting next to you in Umbridge's class?", Hannah asked in an for her unusual dry voice. "Why don't you just admit that you like him?"

   "She has a point", Susan sneered. "If every evening you told us you rather would study alone has been spent with Malfoy, I also totally get why Harry again isn't that talkative lately."

   "That's different reasons."

   "Oh Ember, c'mon, we don't judge you", Hannah now said with the softness in her tone that Ember was used to. "Nobody can choose who to fall for."

   "And though it really isn't your best choice", Susan added, grinning, "we have your back, and I for sure will punch anyone who's trying to make fun of you."

   "But I'm not fallen for Malfoy!" Ember ran her fingers through her messy black hair. "It was him kissing me, and I don't even think he's got a thing for me, he's just mocking!"

   "So why would you spend that much time with him?", Susan asked, an eyebrow raised up high. "Last year you were about to punch his pale ferret face in front of the whole school, and now you're hanging out with him and let him kiss you, while you know he's just doing it to get on your nerves? Sorry, Em, we're just two stupid little Hufflepuffs, but I'm sure that not even the brightest Ravenclaw would see a sense in that."

   "I have to, okay?", Ember snapped, sparing out the part where a tiny little piece of her actually liked being with Malfoy, despite the circumstances that made them spending time with each other. But another part of her, still feeling warm and soft lips on her, just huffed and cursed, feeling an indescribable sensation in the pit of her stomach, like a tingling knot that sent shivers through her whole body whenever a special memory intensified in her mind and she imagined flaming red hair and freckles and what it would have been like if it had been him instead ...

   "What do you mean you have to?", Susan sharply asked, tilting her head. Then her face darkened, her eyebrows furrowed and she got that look of a mother who was absolutely burning mad with her daughter for coming home late with a hickey on her neck. Ember's cheeks turned crimson, feeling caught, even though this did not make sense at all. But Susan was a master when it cam to spread guilt in her friend's conscience, and even though Ember knew that this was just what the redhead wanted, she considered to tell her and Hannah. Not because of that glare; Ember sheer needed someone to trust. Harry wasn't an option any longer, and same was counting for anyone close to the Order. She could never trust Malfoy. Never. And Cedric was gone.

   But here they stood, Ember's two closest friends since first year, and they had proved way enough that they deserved all her trust, never once in four years failing Ember, never once doubting her, Ember's, words. And maybe it was time to repay this trust. No, not maybe. It was! Ember needed someone to trust, and here they stood, one pair of friendly and caring light blue eyes, one pair of fierce and determined in the color of midnight blue, both fixing Ember, leaving not the tiniest reason to mistrust them.

   "Not here", Ember finally sighed.

   "What?"

   "Not here, Sue!" Ember threw a look at all the housemates in the room, and not few of them were looking back at her, obviously still discussing the latest highlight of library action. "I will tell you, but not here in front of this nosy folks."

   "Uh, it's a big fish then?", Hannah asked, eyes round, and Susan smirked, not taking her gaze away from Ember, saying, "Oh Hannie, it is a shark I bet!"

   Ember couldn't surpress a snort. "Meet me tonight, Astronomy Tower, I'll tell you everything."

   "Astronomy Tower?", Susan echoed, her eyebrows shut up, but she smirked mischievously. "I take it back, Hannie, it's a whale!"

   "A whale isn't a fish", Hannah said in a plain voice.

   "Oh, shut up, wisenheimer!"

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