Harry Potter 50 Shades of Gray

Cyrna took her place, walking forward till the plant twitched. Then—there it was. She was uncertain if it was a sixth sense honed from her frequent spars, but the air seemed to shiver before she was attacked. It never helped against Perenelle who whipped spells at her until it took all her focus just to keep upright, much less register any extraneous senses. But against a plant? Sensing the hum of anticipation, Cyrna shifted her weight to the balls of her feet. She tilted her body, the spike shooting past with inches to spare, then calmly said, "Incendio."

Instantly, the plant burst into flames, and within a second, there was nothing left but ashes.

Cyrna looked back to see Professor Sprout watching her with brows lifted up to her hairline. "Excellent job, Ms. Raine," Professor Sprout said scribbling something down on her clipboard, "that's all I have for you today—unless you have any questions?"

She pondered if she should ask Sprout to teach her how to extract the emulsion from the spike. It was notably used in Wound-cleaning potions. While she had learnt of the extraction process, it was only theory. Nicolas hadn't brewed anything that required that emulsion.

But would a mediocre student ask this sort of question?

Her dilemma was placed on hold when Draco and Theodore came over to submit their spikes. The professor turned to them and gave them the same instructions that she had given her.

Deciding that she would head over to her flying classes with Theodore, Cyrna chose to wait. She watched as Theodore and Draco went through the same song and dance, ending with—"incendio"—

Flames flickered into existence, creeping lazily on the branches of the bush. The fire spread so slowly that Professor Sprout had enough time to douse the plant with the water-making spell to save it. Was... that how incendio was supposed to look?

But Cyrna hadn't been using Perenelle's modified wandwork that would allow for hotter flames—so why had her spell been so much more potent?

Cyrna carefully concealed her confusion when Theodore strode up to her.

"Flying," he said with a put-upon sigh.

"Better that than History or Astronomy," she muttered, eyeing Draco who had apparently decided to tag along with them.

Today was a lovely day with clear blue skies and a chilly breeze. But the sun was at its zenith, so it wasn't terribly cold. In other words, it was the perfect day for her first attempt at flying.

"Too bad Daphne couldn't make it," said Cyrna absentmindedly.

Though they sat together quite often because Daphne was their common friend, Cyrna didn't know Theodore very well. So when he didn't respond, she didn't think anything of it. Or, at least she wouldn't have, if it wasn't for Malfoy who suddenly appeared incredibly invested.

"Nothing to say, Theodore?" Malfoy turned to her with a grin that spoke of no good intent. "Why don't I tell you something interesting. Do you want to know what we called Daphne? The hidden princess of the Sacred-Twenty-Eight."

Cyrna blinked, her brows slowly drawing together. What a strange name for someone not hidden at all.

"Hey!"

She blinked again as she watched Theodore round on Malfoy, his usual uncaring expression replaced with something much darker. Draco stumbled back, hands held up in surrender. But he still had that smirk on his face. "No need to look so upset, Theodore. Raine would've found out eventually with how often she hangs around the both of you."

"It was not your place," said Theodore sharply.

Cyrna looked away, washing her hands from the whole matter as she pretended to be deaf. That was drama she'd save for another school year.

The two boys glared at each other tensely before they seemed to come to a silent agreement. They behaved as if nothing had happened for the rest of their little journey to the broom shack.

"You've at least flown before, right, half-blood?" Malfoy asked with a sneer when he handed her a broom.

She made her suspicions about the broom clear on her face.

Malfoy rolled his eyes. "I didn't do anything to it. As much as I'd like to watch you flail around in the sky, Snape gave me a lecture that it was my responsibility as a leader—" he puffed up proudly at that "—to maintain the image of unity for Slytherin and all that." He scowled and kicked the dirt. "Even got my father to write a letter to me about that too."

"I see," she said, pleasantly surprised by Snape. "Why are you telling me this?"

There was a sigh of irritation. "I'm saying that I'm going to be a bit more civil to you, Cyrna," he bit out, "and you are going to do the same to me when we're in public."

Cyrna arched a brow. "When have I ever been uncivil, Draco?" Then she sweetened her voice. "Thank you for the broom."

Draco looked repulsed when she said his name, but he quickly reigned it in. "Right... and I've told the other Slytherins to play along," he said unhappily as he slinked to the flying pitch.

....

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