24. Misplaced Trust

                                    

                                          
ahhh thank you so much for 5k reads, i'm over the moon🌙
                          
GOOD NEWS! In this chapter you will learn what happened between Draco and Anya during the Battle (don't worry, you'll know more about it in the upcoming chapters) so I'm excited!!
                          
Your votes and comments mean the world!! Take one second to leave a vote and make a girl happy!!
                          
*
                          
Since the attack on Andromeda and Teddy had been the first one since the end of the war, the following day every newspaper's headlines were occupied by the horrid success. Their names, however, weren't mentioned even once, and Anya guessed that was the Order's doing. 
                          
Even though the attack hadn't left any casualties, the moment Anya stepped into the Great Hall for breakfast she sensed something different in the air. Every head was bent over a newspaper and there was an eerie silence that was only interrupted by the cautious whispers between students. No one was sitting alone and poorly concealed glares were thrown in every direction, the Slytherin table being the one where most eyes darted towards. Ari himself had abandoned his regular spot in his house's table and was sitting in the Ravenclaw table next to Luna and Ky. Ginny was yet to return from The Burrow and even though no one talked about it, Anya could feel her friends' anxiousness as they awaited her arrival. 
                          
Even the professors were uneasy, uncomfortably shifting in their seats as they read the papers. McGonagall was the only absent one and Anya's eyes scanned the table in search for her blonde-haired professor; she didn't have the strength to deny it to herself anymore. She was concerned and wanted to see him just to make sure he was still in one piece and hadn't done anything he shouldn't have. She was relieved to find him there, looking more dishevelled than she had ever seen him but uninjured; the piece of paper on which he was scribbling had his undivided attention, so Anya could look at him without being noticed. 
                          
"When do you think she's coming back? You were there with her," Luna asked, making the other Ravenclaw look away embarrassingly. 
                          
"McGonagall said she'd arrange for her to come back before our first class, so I guess any minute now," she answered, buttering her toast.
                          
She looked back up and saw Luna staring at the doors, her cup of tea untouched and no longer releasing smoke. Two dark rings framed the bottom lid of her eyes and her fingers were restless atop her lap. Ari's eyes were fixed on her, worryingly, and the brunette could tell he wanted to say something, anything, but he couldn't think of the right words; Ky's thumb was gently drawing circles on his hand, which melted into his dark robes under the table. Anya didn't think any of them could say anything that would appease her blonde friend, so he just grabbed her hand and squeezed it between hers. Luna looked at her, gratefully, and placed her head atop her friend's shoulder. Nobody spoke of it, but they all knew they had already lived similar situations and none of them were eager to relive them after the Battle: defeated sighs, watery eyes, the whispers from around the Hall and the moving in pairs at all times; those weren't new things to them. Anya hadn't had time to digest it because so many feelings had come in the way, but the moment McGonagall asked Ginny and her to step out of the class without giving an explanation, every horrid thought had appeared in her head. During Voldemort's reign of terror, it was quite usual for professors to do that exact same thing and every student's worst fear was being called outside one of their classes; it almost always meant bad news. 
                          
They had been taught how to disarm an enemy before they were asked what they wanted to do when they grew up; they'd had to endure the grief and loss none of them should've at such a young age. They had lost friends, family and they had been robbed of their youth. Nothing about wars was ever fair and they knew that all too well.