ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴅʀᴀᴛᴛᴇᴅ ʟɪʟᴀ ʜᴏʟᴍᴇꜱ || ᴅʀᴀᴄᴏ ᴍᴀʟꜰᴏʏ x ᴏᴄ || ʏᴇᴀʀꜱ 1-3

suspicions

Thankfully, the dreams went away for a long while. I continued to play the violin, thinking that perhaps it had helped. I tried yet another visit to Dumbledore, but he was rarely in his office and even then I was rarely free. My homework was piling up and I was still trying to puzzle out whatever Malfoy had been trying to warn me of.

Before I knew it, it was Halloween. Hopefully nobody would let out another troll in the dungeons, or an otherwise equally terrorizing incident.

I spent most of the day finishing homework and playing the violin. I couldn't tell whether or not I was getting better. Hermione said I was, but I thought she might just be trying to make me feel better.

"Just keep working at it," she encouraged me, though Hermione knew by now that I usually gave up on things I wasn't immediately good at. I found myself humming the melody even while I wasn't playing — it haunted me everywhere I went.

"What's that supposed to be?" Malfoy asked that day, as I'd started to hum while waiting for our cauldron to reach the proper temperature.

"Je te laisserai des mots," I replied.

"Sorry?" He raised an eyebrow.

"It's French," I explained.

"No, I know the song," he grimaced at me. "You're so tone deaf it was hardly recognizable."

Despite myself, I felt my cheeks flush with embarrassment. I did not hum a single measure for the rest of class.

When we reached the feast, I sat with Dean, Seamus, and Neville. Hermione, Harry, and Ron were at what Harry described as "some death day party" with the ghosts. How he'd managed to get pulled into that, I had not a clue.

"Hopefully nothing terrible happens today," Neville said, mirroring my sentiments from earlier that day. "Remember the troll?"

"Lila helped take it down, remember?" Dean said, putting his arm around me to squeeze my shoulder. Despite myself, I felt warm all over. "She'll protect us, Neville. Don't worry. She can do anything."

"Except for draw," I piped in, nudging him teasingly with my shoulder. "And grow plants. And hum, apparently."

Seamus scoffed. "You can't be bad at humming."

I shrugged. "Malfoy would say otherwise. Hermione too, if she was any meaner."

The chatter in the Great Hall fell to a hush. I was strangely hyper-aware of Dean's arm returning to his side. We looked up to see that Dumbledore was standing at the podium.

Of course he was here to announce the Halloween feast, but not to answer my questions regarding the fact that each time I fell asleep I woke up fifty years in the past.

"Happy Halloween, everyone!" He exclaimed brightly. "As I'm sure we'd all like to dig in, I will keep this short and sweet. I can assure you that you will not have to worry about any mountain trolls this evening—" he looked to me with a smile, and the Great Hall laughed. "—nor will you have to worry about me prolonging this speech for any more of your time. Let us eat the hearty meal our kitchens have prepared for us today; there's some scrumptious looking roasted chicken on the menu that I am really looking forward to." He paused, then cried, "dig in!"

The empty plates on the table became filled with food — our goblets filled with pumpkin juice. We did a quick toast to the rest of the year, and then the Great Hall proceeded to break into their own myriad of conversations.

"What about you all? How has everyone's day been?" I asked. I was all too aware of how close I sat to Dean (even though with the absence of three second years there was enough room for us to have space).