Chapter 694 - Halloween Arrangements (2/2)
”About what?” Rowan asked after gulping and wiping her mouth clean of crumbs.
”About the Fiery Maidens?” Tiffany cheekily asked.
Rowan's face twitches for a moment, before gracefully going blank. ”That is exactly, why I am eating right now, I am replenishing and gathering strength for later. No doubt, we Prefects will be docking points by the droves and assigning detentions to the entranced male population of Hogwarts.”
Tiffany bursts out into loud laughter causing Terry to lose his count as all her friends turn to gaze at her. Tiffany sheepishly blinks at them as Rowan quietly says with a soft, rare smile. ”I think that's the first real laugh I have heard from you since the start of the school year, Tiffany.”
”Is it?” Tiffany asked as she scrunched up her face at them in an adorable fashion.
”Yes,” Bethanie and Sylvia chimed together, while Terry and Severus nodded their heads at Tiffany.
”I had not realized,” Tiffany truthfully answered as she touched her hand to her face. ”I-, I guess I had forgotten how to for a bit.”
Seeing their concerned expressions, Tiffany flashes them a genuine rueful smile. ”It won't happen again, I promise.”
”Mm, and I will hold you to your word,” Rowan muttered causing the rest of their friends including Severus to hum in agreement.
Immediately after, Bethanie and Sylvia switch their attentions back to Tiffany, while Terry shrugs and gives up counting his family, before returning to his cooling brunch. He would never be able to eat if he counted up his entire family because truthfully there were almost too many of them to count.
”Can you believe it?!” Terry suddenly shrieked with vicious glee causing them all to wince as he triumphantly held up the early morning edition from the Daily Prophet before them. ”Behold,” he said as he set down the newspaper onto the table and causing a spoon to splatter them with oatmeal.
They all glared at him as they begin to clean themselves off as Terry eagerly begins to read the newspaper titles. ”Who can be trusted?!” ”Are their dark wizards among us?!” ”Corpse of Damian Mulciber found at the site of the raid! DEAD!”
”Huh,” Rowan mumbled with a gleam of pleasure before grabbing a forkful of food. The bastard was dead, and in turn, destroyed the deadly portion of the curse for the Defense Against the Dark Arts post. However, the curse would not entirely be destroyed away Riddle died and all his fragments, but still the severity of its effects should have lessened. Nor did not mean that it would permit the D.A. Professor to stay for more than one year of teaching.
Terry practically danced with joy as he murmured eagerly out loud, ”I shall write to my sisters for details, but knowing his father, Mr. Mulciber will deny all allegation by the Daily Prophet, and scatter Damian's ashes to the wind rather than permit him to be buried in the family crypt. I wonder how he managed to keep it silent all this time. Mm, he must have been paid quite the galleons to keep it so tightly under wraps!”
”Fascinating,” Severus drily said as he stuffed another forkful into his mouth.
Noticing a lack of audience, Terry begins to pout and mumbles that he is underappreciated under his breath. They all proceed to ignore him as they return to their meals after having wiped themselves clean. Being ignored by his friends and courting partner, Terry proceeds to eagerly read the words of Rita Skeeter and enjoys the gossip-filled article that sprouted all sorts of theories without any proof. Ironically, those theories would prove to be not so wild in the future. But that is a tale for another day.