Seventeen

                                    

                                          
The next few weeks were surprisingly calm, Reggie and Eleanor managed to go on another date amidst the stress of all the exams coming up and Cynthia and George had begun to get creative at hiding places to avoid the wrath of Umbridge since they didn't share a common room in which to make out.
"I'm just saying, it is very hard to get anywhere with someone not in your house. I don't know how you and Reggie are coping because I might just explode if I have to hide in a cramped corner to avoid the teachers. Not even Umbridge, all of them in general would have a fit if they caught George and I." Cynthia says one day in April at the DA meeting.
"Reggie and I don't have a problem because we don't do anything that we need to hide. At all, he's soooo," Eleanor pauses for a moment thinking of a word, "gentlemanly? Averse to PDA?"
"I don't know how you're okay with that," Cynthia smiles wickedly, a sudden wisp of silver bursting from her wand and briefly forming the shape of a hummingbird.
"Cute. And I'm okay with that because believe it or not there's a thing called going slow."
"But why though, isn't it boring?"
At this moment Susan turns around to face Cynthia. "Some people like to let the relationship really form before they begin sucking faces with one another."
"Excuse me, but since Valentine's you have gone out with someone new every week." Cynthia shoots back.
"I said some people, and I'm dating okay? Unlike you and Eleanor I have no interest in tying myself down to the first person I see."
"Not me. I don't think I can ever see George and I breaking up, and Eleanor and Reggie are great together, if a little slow, but it's cute," She adds when she sees the look on Eleanor's face.
She didn't say anything but Eleanor couldn't help but reflect a little on what Susan had said, was she really tying herself down?And what about Cynthia? She's so certain that her relationship with George will last, yet no matter how hard she tries, she just couldn't have that same certainty with Reggie.
But he's so nice, smart and handsome. Why can't we be together forever?
Her thoughts are swept away when the door to the Room of Requirement opens and Dobby walks in, his whole body shaking. He walks up to Harry and tugs at his robes and everyone in the room quietens down - most of them unused to seeing House Elves in the castle.
"Harry Potter Sir. Dobby has come to warn you." Before the elf says anything else though he runs headfirst at the wall, Harry tries to grab him but Dobby merely bounces off the wall anyway, cushioned by all of Hermione's hats that he is continuing to wear.
"She-she."
"Who's she, Dobby?" Harry asks, everyone in the room hardly daring to make a noise lest they startle the elf.
"Umbridge. Is it Umbridge? She hasn't found out about this, has she Dobby?"
The elf merely sinks to his knees and Harry only has to read the expression on his face to know he's right.
He says something else to the elf that Eleanor and Cynthia cannot hear but a moment later he faces the room and bellows so loudly it echoes across the walls.
"What are you waiting for? Run!"
With those words the room becomes alive with activity, students pushing their way out of the doorway and as fast as they can back to the common rooms.
Within seconds Eleanor had lost sight of Cynthia and Susan and was just doing her best to get through the crowd. When she finally did break free she heard voices coming from the corridor she had just left.
"Excellent work Malfoy. 50 points to Slytherin, now go round up as many of the others as you can."
Crap. Eleanor thinks to herself, searching for a way out of the hallway she had run into. All of the doors she tried were locked and she could hear steps drawing closer.
Reaching desperately for the last door it gives and she pulls it open immediately, closing the door behind her with as little noise as possible.
But in her eagerness to get away she hadn't taken in where she was actually going and now she found herself trapped in a dark cupboard with no exit but for the one that led into the hall where she could now hear someone walking through, trying every door like she had been.
Maybe I can stun whoever it is and make a run for the common room? She reaches for her wand but grabs nothing. Her wand is gone, fallen from her pocket where she had hastily stashed it as she ran from the Room of Requirement.
The person, Eleanor was sure it was only one, was getting closer and sooner or later they were going to try this door and find her and drag her off to Umbridge who would, at best expel her, worst, who knew?
As quietly as possible she shrinks back into the darkness of the cupboard, hoping if she makes herself small enough maybe whoever opened the door would just look right past her. She hears their footsteps directly outside the cupboard now and watches, frozen and transfixed with horror as the handle begins to turn.
Oh I hope Cyn and Susan get back to the Common Room okay.
The door swings open and Eleanor frowns in the sudden light that pours in, making it impossible to even think of hiding. Looking up she locks eyes with none other than Malfoy. She knows better than to plead for leniency, this is his way out of all her jabs and having to get lessons with her, and surely if she were expelled the teacher's would still let Malfoy in the class next year.
Handing Eleanor in to Umbridge was in every way the best thing for Malfoy to do. And yet he just continued to stand there in the doorway, grey eyes locked with Eleanor's. And as she waited for him to act she couldn't help but find they looked lonely, it was like getting a glimpse through a window at the little boy inside who only sought the approval of his family.
Still he stood there and did nothing until someone else could be heard from the other corridor, Pansy Parkinson most likely.
"What are you going to do?" She says, her voice barely a whisper.
Her words seem to wake him up and Eleanor watches, amazed as Draco closes the cupboard door, turning to call out to Pansy.
"This way's clear, let's go help the others check the library."
A breath of air escapes from Eleanor and she waits in the cupboard until she is sure she can't hear anyone, slipping out into darkness she knows she has no chance of finding her wand now, instead turning on her heel and taking the fastest route back to the common room and wondering to herself just how many people had been caught and taken to Umbridge. And why on earth she hadn't been.