The Romance Floating in the Air - Part 1/2
Daphne Greengrass had learned several important things during her years of being friends with Harry, the playboy; Draco, the guy who acted like the cool, cold boy but was just as much of an idiot as Harry; and Hermione, the obsessive one with the crazy hair.
Yes, she couldn't say she didn't have flaws. Obviously not many, at least that's what she believed.
But there was one thing she knew for certain: whenever any of her three friends became obsessed with something, they could become really annoying, chaotic, and destructive to the mental sanity of everyone around them.
And when Hermione became obsessed with something, she didn't stop until she got what she wanted. Because of that, Daphne chose the best possible measure to use against her.
And that was... running away.
Daphne checked that no one was following her as she quickly made her way through one of the castle corridors, something that looked completely suspicious to anyone who happened to cross paths with her.
But luckily, there was no one around, only a few portraits curiously following her hurried path.
Even so, Daphne narrowed her eyes suspiciously. There was something about all of this that didn't quite add up.
For the past few days, Hermione had stopped trying to push her together with Viktor every time an opportunity appeared. Yes, Daphne had realized Hermione's plan from the very beginning. Although she tried to steer the conversations elsewhere or act as if she didn't understand what Hermione was getting at, Hermione became more and more obvious, until she reached the point where she didn't even seem to be hiding her intentions anymore.
That was when she cornered Daphne with nowhere to escape, and Daphne had to bite her to break free and run away.
In fact, what Daphne found even more suspicious was that Hermione lately seemed more interested in hovering around Draco, as if she were trying to figure something out.
Normally, that should have reassured Daphne.
But no, obviously it didn't. Not at all.
She knew Hermione far too well to believe she'd simply given up on trying to play Cupid and was now focusing on something else. She was definitely planning something.
Daphne let out an annoyed huff. She wasn't stupid enough to fall into an obvious trap set by her friend. Knowing her, maybe she was even using her authority as a prefect to set one up.
Daphne turned another corner and found a group of Ravenclaw students practically blocking the entire corridor while talking among themselves, seemingly looking for something.
The moment she saw them, Daphne stopped as if that confirmed all her suspicions.
They were looking for her.
She checked the way she'd come from. Then she looked at the students.
And finally, her eyes landed on one of the huge open windows to her right.
"..."
"Hey, are you sure it came this way? We'd better find it before that Inspector Umbridge tries to do something to the little guy again. Although I'd love to see Red give her what she deserves, it's better if the animals don't get into trouble," one of the students said as he tried to find some trace of the creature.
"Knowing the little hippogriffs, it should be wherever there's the most chaos," another student said after thinking about it, earning nods from the group as they picked up their pace.
Meanwhile, Daphne, sitting on the outer ledge of the castle, hadn't heard a single word of their conversation. The wind around her had taken care of that. But she let out a sigh as if she'd just escaped from something that might have been more imaginary than she thought.
She leaned her head over the edge and quickly calculated the distance to the ground.
She was on the second floor.
"Hmm..." she thought while holding her chin, wondering if the students were still there looking for her.
So she came up with a better idea.
She just had to drop down to the ledge on the floor below, use a small spell to catch herself before reaching it, and enter through another window.
Perfectly reasonable.
She smiled, nodding at her own intelligence, before pulling out her wand and peeking over the edge of the ledge.
And without hesitating much, she simply jumped without a single hint of fear and, while in midair, gently waved her wand.
But before she could cast the spell, she spotted someone walking directly below her.
Without even having time to warn him, Daphne tried to cast a spell to move him out of the way. However, the person raised his head at that exact moment and saw her falling straight toward him.
Before she could cast her spell, the person, reacting quickly, pulled out his own wand and called:
"Resto Momentum."
The spell struck Daphne and slowed her fall almost as if she'd turned into a light feather. Though it didn't stop her completely.
The person below her stretched out both arms and gently caught her before she reached the ground.
Then Daphne recognized the face of the person who had just caught her.
Viktor Krum.
Of all the people who could have been walking beneath that window... it had to be him.
Viktor looked just as confused as he was worried at seeing her literally fall out of the sky.
Their eyes met for a moment, staring directly at each other.
Just then, the spell ended, causing Daphne's full weight to fall onto Viktor, who tried to hold onto her, but the two of them ended up falling to the ground with Daphne crashing against the Bulgarian's chest.
"Ouch," she complained after hitting his chest.
But Daphne's eyes quickly widened when she realized where she was lying.
She shot to her feet and dusted off her clothes, trying to look calm, although the nervous movements of her hands were rather noticeable.
"Ahem... You... what are you doing around here?" Daphne asked, trying to keep her composure.
Viktor, who was still lying on the ground, took a second to process that question.
"Are you seriously asking me that?" he said as he got up from the ground and brushed the dust off his robes. "What the hell were you trying to do? You could've gotten hurt!"
Viktor looked genuinely angry, something that made Daphne's confidence begin to waver.
"I... had everything under control. If you hadn't shown up, it's not like I haven't done it before," Daphne defended herself, although her confidence slowly disappeared the longer she spoke.
That answer only made Viktor frown even more.
"I mean, it's not like I could've gotten hurt. It's only the second floor," she said, pointing toward the window above them.
Viktor raised his head toward the second-floor window and silently judged the distance before looking back at Daphne.
He didn't need to say absolutely anything.
She opened her mouth.
Closed it.
Maybe continuing to defend her brilliant plan wasn't the best idea.