Scratches (Fred Weasley)

(138) Loss

Florence grew restless as soon as Kipp came back with the news that Emmy was able to take her letter to her mother. She was going to find Harry and the rest of them, wanting to know if Sirius was just at home or if Harry's vision was accurate. Florence kept convincing herself that it was the latter, but as she turned to a hallway, she overheard a few of Umbridge's Inquisitorial Squad talking about how they had 'escaped'.

Which meant that Sirius was at the Department of Mysteries, and that Harry had gone to save him.

She hoped her mother had acted fast, and hoped that help was on the way.

Seeing that she was already out of bed after curfew, and that she was far from the Ravenclaw tower, she decided to hang back in the kitchen to stay out of more trouble. The last thing she needed was getting caught for something as small as this.

The house elves were kind enough to lend her a spare pillow to sleep on, Florence setting herself down on a hard wooden bench. She tried to get some sleep, as she still had a History of Magic exam to attend to the next day. But with the situation at hand, the exam didn't seem all that daunting. She was worried about Sirius, about Harry, as well as Hermione, Ron, Ginny and Luna who inevitably went with him to London.

Eventually sleep had caught up to her, her heavy lidded eyes finally closing shut as she found a somewhat comfortable position to sleep.

One of the house elves was kind enough to wake her up a few hours before breakfast, which gave her enough time to sneak back up to her dorm room to freshen up.

Nicolai had walked out of the bathroom as soon as Florence came in to the room. She eyed her from head to toe, taking in the fact that she was still in her uniform from the previous day.

"Flo," she began, worry evident in her voice, "Where did you go yesterday? Xander and I looked for you as soon as we finished with out Ancient Runes exam."

"I'm fine, Nic. I just...took care of some stuff." she rubbed at her forehead, before undoing her tie, "Is the bathroom free? I am in need of a shower."

"Hello? Why are you acting so nonchalant about this? You didn't even answer my question. Did you even sleep at all? Where did you sleep?"

"Don't worry about it!" Florence called over her shoulder, grabbing her towel and slipping into the bathroom.

She had been almost wordless the entire duration of breakfast, not reacting at all as Nicolai picked a potato wedge from her plate. Nicolai and Alexander had been communicating wordlessly, trying to make sense of her very different mood. Florence could only stare at the Gryffindor table, where people had began to notice that Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny were missing from breakfast.

Umbridge also didn't seem to be within castle premises, as Filch had been going about loudly, asking if anyone had seen the Headmistress in the past hour. Even her Inquisitorial squad had said that they didn't

Florence picked at her food for the remainder of breakfast, before wordlessly following Xander and Nicolai to the library, the pair suggesting that they studied a bit for their last exam.

It was useless, though, as it had seemed like the information was barely sticking. Florence had realized that she had been reading the same sentence over and over for the past few minutes, but still could not process the information. She came to the conclusion that she would never be able to focus completely unless she heard from Harry about whether or not Sirius was safe.

The seventh year students were called in to the Great Hall for their N.E.W.T.s as soon as the fifth year students had finished with their O.W.L.s. Still no sign of Harry, Hermione and Ron as Florence searched the crowd of students exiting the great hall.