As Dora left, I sat up and tried to stop my eyes from watering.
I was in pain.
No. Literally! I was in pain. I had to restrain Nyxie from attacking Dora and her horns had accidentally pierced into my palm!
"Ouch, Ouch, Ouch!"
Throwing a silencing and a few locking spells at the door, I finally let go of Nyxie and began applying pure magic at my wound.
What was Dora thinking? Suddenly kissing me and forgetting about the existence of a territorial little dragon in my room? Of course she'd be attacked!
Anyway, I finally got the kiss I'd sworn to get! (Mission Accomplished. +Respect.)
Oh man! I really wanted to kiss her back, but that'd only overcomplicate the situation and her emotions.
It's good enough that she could kiss me without much thought, thinking that I wouldn't know and it will a long time before we see each other again.
Anyway, I had found out what's wrong with her these days as soon as I had decided to investigate. I just had to read the letter after dismantling all the 13 security charms placed on it, (curse Moody the paranoid bastard), and then put them all back to how they were previously. And, I had decided to let her go instead to trying to stop her from achieving her dreams.
Sighing, I got up from the bed and casted the stealth package on myself. I'm gonna see her off, even if she can't see me.
From a distance, though. Curse that Moody's magical eye.
***
Next morning was the end-of-term feast. After winning the Quidditch Cup, Ravenclaw was in the lead for the house Cup, thus colouring the whole great Hall Blue and Bronze.
All of my house mates were already celebrating their victory, while looked at them in pity, thinking about one extremely biased old man.
Though this time, Griffindore wasn't doing too badly itself, taking into account that Harry, Hermione, and Ron hadn't lost 50 points each this time sending an innocent dragon to slaughter house.
Speaking of Nyxie, she was out, playing around. Though she was still forbidden from entering the forbidden forest, even if there was no longer any bloodsucking wraiths roaming there. She's still too young.
I made my way into the great Hall, surrounded by my friends as they chatted about the results that were recently announced.
"Well, all of us at least got into top 20," said Antony Goldstein, who was the last among us, ranked 19th.
Terry Boots, who had always been mocked by Anthony for studying too much snorted, "You're the only saying that because you barely came under 20." Terry had come 10th, thus coming into top 10.
"Well, I at least didn't have to miss Chris's Legendary trial, cramming history of magic in the library. There's not much meaning to studies if you have to miss THAT for memorizing useless stuff." Anthony shot back touching on Terry's sore spot about missiny my race.
I let them bicker among themselves. What do I care about the rankings? I hadn't even checked the list. I knew that I came first, of course. I had heard that Hermione came second, and Harry? Well, he's not exactly a studious guy. He got good marks in many subjects, but his overall rank is 25, courtesy of Snape for blatantly deducting his marks in Potions. But it was still quite the improvement from the Canon.
"Hey, who got the third place?" I asked out of curiosity.
Padma Patil, ranked fourth, frowned as she said, "It's Daphne Greengrass."
"...."
Oh man, totally forgot about her. I've always kept a distance from Slytherins for their own good, since me being a muggleborn was a known fact. So I haven't exchanged a single word with her over the year.
She's usually quiet in classes, not jumping around like Granger. But she's actually smart enough to beat even the Ravenclaws to the third rank. Well, the practical ability of my friends is quite higher than what should have been in canon, but since my theories are quite different from the norm and the marks depends more on your cramming capacity, it's understandable that someone can beat them.
I looked at the Slytherin table. Many of them still threw threatening glaces at me after I defeated them at Quidditch. I ignored them and found the girl in question sitting like a statue at one corner of the table, along with her friend Tracy Davis.
She happened to glance at me right at that moment and our met. I just smiled and looked away.
"Ice Queen, huh?" I muttered to myself.
Just then, Dumbledore stood up for the end term speech.
"Another year gone!" he said in that grandfatherly tone. "And I must trouble you with an old man's wheezing waffle before we sink our teeth into our delicious feast. What a year it has been! Hopefully your heads are all a little fuller than they were... you have the whole summer ahead to get them nice and empty before next year starts...."
He'd do it again, wouldn't he? Show that blatant favouritism to Griffindore once again.
"Now, as I understand it, the House Cup here needs awarding, and the points stand thus: In fourth place, Hufflepuff, 390 points; Third place, Griffindore, with 436 points; Second place, Slytherin, 447 points, and Ravenclaw, with 528."
My naive housemates started cheering and chapping, a few emotional other years were even banging the table.
Ooooh. This is going to be painful to watch.
"Well done, Ravenclaw," said Dumbledore. "However, recent events must be taken into account."
The hall slowly went silent as Dumbledore spoke again. "I have a few last-minute points to dish out. Let me see. Yes..."
"To Mr. Christopher Maxwell, for the fastest clear of the obstacle course, that Hogwarts has seen in history, I award the Ravenclaw house 50 points."
'Oh Damn... '
Thw Ravenclaw were now very wild, friends from all over the table started coming to pat my head and back. Andrea, who didn't seem to the meaning of boundaries, smaked a kiss on my cheek and I was hugged. Man, being a 12 year old has it's own perks.
But, as I thought, Dumbledore is quite sadistic. He's basically declared Ravenclaw's victory just now, but-
"Ahem. I'm not quite done yet," this made all of the students silent again. "Second — to Miss Hermione Granger... for the use of cool logic in the face of fire, I award Gryffindor House fifty points." The Griffindores were surprised at first, but soon started cheer for Hermione, who quickly hid her face into her hands.
"Third" Finding out there's more the Hall became silent as the other houses became hopeful and Ravenclaws grew a but worried.
"To Mr. Harry Potter ... for pure nerve and outstanding courage, I award Gryffindor House 60 points."
The current celebration of Griffindores made Ravenclaws look quite well mannered people. Even the table banging ones. But Dumbledore wasn't done yet.
Griffindore had climbed to 2nd place, with 546 points while the Ravenclaws had 578 points.
The Ravenclaws were now realizing that something was wrong with the current situation. Some were shaking their heads as if this can't possibly be happening. A few were looking at Dumbledore with blatant incredulity.
But Dumbledore's next words made their suspicions clear as he said,
"A person's true courage is shown by his actions during a dangerous situation. To Mr. Neville Longbottom, for showing true courage in a dangerous situation, I award Griffindore with... 33 points!"
The Griffindores all stood up and as many of them became savages while curses broke out on the Ravenclaw table as many of them realized that this was all just one incredible show of favouritism.
The points which they worked so hard to earn, were being dishes out like cabbages here.
The points were, 578 - Ravenclaw and 579 - Griffindore.
Dumbledore first gave Ravens a taste of victory before mercilessly taking it out from their mouths and slowly give it to the Griffindores.
The other two houses were just enjoying the chaos since, what else could they do? They were being totally ignored. A few of were very hopeful though, thinking of being awarded for some incredible things they had done this year.
"Which means," Dumbledore called over the storm of applause, and curses, "we need a little change of decoration."
The bronze and blue changed to Gold and Scarlett, and I enjoyed the crowds' reaction. I saw Dumbledore looking at me I just smiled wryly as I shrugged my shoulders. I had never cared much about neither point nor house cup. I just came here to enjoy the show. And for the food.
Besides, what else can you expect from Dumbledore? It's not a coincidence that Tom Riddle went dark without him being able to do anything. It's not a coincidence that most of the Slytherins are hated and scorned and chose to become death eaters. If he neglects a selected group of people in favour of one person, things like this tend to happen . I'm only letting this slide because, one: I don't give a f*ck, two: The one winning is none other Harry. Ma bro just woke up from Coma and lost Quidditch. He should at least get to enjoy his last day at school.
****
I exited the Hogwarts Express with all my Ravenclaw friends. All of them then separated to find their parents. I saw Anthony Goldstein being pulled into a crushing hug by a slender lady who could only be his mother. Both had the same blond hair. I only later found out that even though his family is rich and pureblood, he's actually a half-blood.
Padma Patil, along with her sister Parvati rushed up to their parents as they cried in happiness.
Sue Li was chatting in rapid Chinese with her Asian parents.
Susan's aunt seemed to have made time for her as I saw Amilia Bones for the first time besides her photos on daily prophet. She looked sharp and stern, with her red hair cut short and her posture straight, but she smiled when she met with Susan. And I saw Hannah's mother was also standing there with Amelia.
The Dursleys had come for Harry as well. Petunia hugged Harry while Vernon patted his shoulder. Harry and Dudley looked a bit awkward after meeting after a long time. But they soon began chatting happily.
I looked at all of them with a smile before I gradually started making my way for the exit as I tried not to get my hopes up for France.
I was planning to go to France directly from here, since why wait? But... I was surprised to see-
"Ted? Andromeda?? Why are you here?" I asked, Dora had already left. She should have first gone to her home to say goodbye before leaving.
"Why else?" Ted asked.
"We came to pick you up." Both of them said together.
I kept blinking my eyes rapidly as I gave them each a hug.
Well, whatever I find in France, I still have someone here.
****
I need POWERSTONES.