TRAINING WHEELS—
PREFECTS.

041

"Amora?"

The dark-haired girl contemplated ignoring the voice calling her like she had been doing all summer. From where she laid by the edge of the sea, the salty waves crashing against her feet and ankles in a steady beat, Amora could always pretend that she didn't hear her mother or father calling her name. She could close her eyes and listen to the familiar crashing of the sea, and she could pretend whoever she wanted was beside her. Sometimes it was Draco, sometimes it was Cedric.

Her skin was bronzed from two months of doing this. Sometimes with a book, often without. The book Hermione gave her about grief had told Amora that meditation was great for the mind and to help with the healing process. After the anger had gone, and then some more sadness, it was what Amora resulted to for her 'acceptance' stage. Some days she wasn't sure she was there yet, but she was really working on it.

"Amora?" The voice was weaker than her mother's, and a lot deeper too.

The brunette sat up, turning to see her Uncle Amos was standing at the front door of her home beside her mother. Amora took a deep breath. She hadn't seen him all summer. He and her aunt were not taking Cedric's death lightly. They were more distraught than she was, especially Uncle Amos after seeing his son's body.

His distant figure sent her a wave, and Amora waved unsurely back. When he moved to enter the cottage with Professor Buckley, Amora turned and grabbed the book that had been discarded by her side, tucking it underneath her arm whilst she shuffled her flip flops back onto her feet to walk across the rocks and stones.

The front door was open, welcoming in both Amora and the late August weather, and the old floorboards creaked beneath her as she pushed open the door to the kitchen, finding her mother and father sat with her uncle. She offered him a small, shaky smile.

Uncle Amos stood up and wrapped his arms around her, holding her close as if she was afraid he would disappear. Amora hugged him back just as hard. He smelled of his home, the same home that Cedric had lived in. It brought her more comfort than pain today.

"I'm sorry I am a week late," Uncle Amos apologised as he pulled away, wiping some stray tears as if it was normal to cry all the time.

He grabbed a small box out of the pocket of the coat he wore, despite the fact that it was relatively warm out.

"You didn't have to get me anything, Uncle Amos," Amora murmured, but sent him a grateful smile nevertheless.

"I think you'll like this one."

When Amora undid the bow on the box and pulled the lid off to reveal a slightly discoloured yellow prefect badge, her heart dropped and her eyes began to water. Her fingers shook as she moved forward to delicately take it out, feeling the cool metal on her skin.

"It was Cedric's badge," Uncle Amos explained, throat thick with emotion. "I- Well, your aunt and I decided that it would be nice if you wore it. I understand if you'd rather wear the nice, new one that the school have given you, but it would mean a lot to us. I think it would mean a lot to Cedric, too."

Amora blinked back tears before they could fall. She had done enough crying over the summer. She clutched Cedric's badge and nodded quickly at her uncle.

"Of course, Uncle Amos," She whispered quickly. "Thank you."

That night, as Amora finished packing her trunk for the train the next day, an owl she had become familiar with flew through her open window, dropping a letter down onto her bed. It moved to sit on her messy desk, its orange eyes staring straight at her. Amora dropped the shirt she had been folding and opened the letter.

Amora,

Good news. My letter finally arrived today and I have been granted prefect also. Father is furious how late it came. No worries, though. I've known since first year I would get prefect. I can't wait to see the look on Nott's face. Or yours tomorrow when I finally get to see you again.

Yours,
D.M.

Amora chuckled, shaking her head in amusement at Draco's words. The owl on her desk moved around a bit, shuffling as if to get her to hurry up. Huffing at its impatience, which no doubt came from having an equally impatient owner, Amora grabbed a piece of parchment and wrote back to him, telling him how excited she was to see him tomorrow.

"There you go." Amora handed the letter to the owl which caught it in its beak. "Take this back to Draco, please."

The Eurasian Eagle-owl picked up its wings and flew out the window once more, heading back over the house and north, towards Malfoy Manor.

Amora returned back to packing her belongings, reaching her robe and shrugging it on her shoulders, over her pyjamas. She grabbed Cedric's badge from her bedside table and fiddled with the back, popping out the pin part. It took a little bit of faffing around to get it straight, but soon Amora was staring at herself in the mirror wearing something that had belonged to Cedric.

She pursed her lips, smoothing her thumb over the glossy metal. She recalled how happy he had been to get prefect in his fifth year, using the Floo Network in the middle of the night to come and tell Amora all about it. Amora was happy to wear his badge. It felt like she had a small part of him with her.

Delicately, she pulled off her robe and folded it, placing it in the trunk. A knock came from her bedroom door and Professor Buckley opened it, smiling at her daughter. Amora smiled back wearily.

"Yes?"

"I assume you're all ready for tomorrow?" Professor Buckley asked softly, earning a nod in return. "Good. Are you looking forward to your fifth year?"

"I'm not looking forward to my O.W.L.s," Amora admitted, dread settling in her stomach at the reminder. "But other than that, I suppose I am. There's only so much you can stare at the sea before every wave starts to look the same."

Professor Buckley raised her brows and patted Amora's shoulder. "Well, get a good rest. We need to be up early to get to London in the morning."

She left the bedroom, leaving Amora by herself. This would be her first year without Cedric. She would have to make it work.

D.M + A.B

Hogwarts Express was bustling with life as soon as Amora stepped onto it. Unlike usual, Amora wasn't walking beside Leon trying to find an empty carriage, but she did have something to do. All prefects had to go to the prefect carriage and have a brief meeting with the Head Boy and Girl.

As soon as she found the correct carriage, specialised for the chosen fifth-year prefects, Amora wasn't surprised at all to find that the second Hufflepuff prefect inside was Ernie Macmillan. He beamed at her as soon as she stepped through, standing to give her a short hug.

"Congrats on getting prefect, Amora."

The brunette opened her mouth to respond, however, her eyes met two pools of silver and she stood there gaping like a fish for a couple of seconds. Draco glared holes into the back of Ernie who didn't even notice, an innocent smile still on his face.

"Thank you, Ernie. You too," she replied quickly before settling into the seat beside him.

To Draco's left was Pansy, who smirked at Amora as soon as their eyes met. Amora smiled back faintly, but all she wanted to do was dart her eyes a few centimetres left and stare at Draco. He was wearing all black like normal, and despite the fact that he was sitting down, he still looked like he'd grown a little over the summer.

Sat on the other side of Draco were Padma Patil and Anthony Goldstein, the two fifth-year prefects for Ravenclaw. Amora had a good idea who would be coming through the doors next for Gryffindor.

When Ron entered the carriage after Hermione, Amora's brows raised in surprise. He looked like he didn't want to be there at all, a scowl crossing his face when his eyes landed on Draco and Pansy.

"Oh, great," Draco huffed, "It looks like they're giving prefect away to anybody this year."

Pansy rolled her eyes. "You know how Dumbledore likes his charity work, Malfoy."

Amora frowned at the pair and could see just how red Ron's face had grown at their remarks. His lip curled and he looked as though he had about to say something when Hermione grabbed his wrist and shot him a warning look. The tension was thick as they awaited the Head Boy and Head Girl.

"Hi, Amora," Hermione whispered as Padma and Anthony started to converse with Ernie. "Did you read all the books I recommended to you?"

"Most of them," Amora hummed, "I had a busy summer."

That was a lie unless 'busy' was another word for moping around all day and being too unmotivated to even do things that made her happy, like reading. She'd been getting better towards the end of the summer though, realising that life really was continuing and she just had to adapt to it.

She felt Draco's eyes burning into her. Pansy smacked his wrist and he averted his attention to the Head Boy and Head Girl entering the carriages with false, bright smiles.

They went over everything with them. The privileges they had, like using the Prefects' Bathroom on the fifth floor, how they could take away house points and also dish out detentions, and their duties, such as patrolling the corridors to make sure students weren't breaking curfew.

Amora tried to keep her attention on them the whole time, yet the brunette kept zoning in and out-- even more than usual. She'd been doing it a lot since Cedric's death. Not necessarily thinking of him in particular, but almost as though her brain was trying to protect her from things that she didn't want to hear.

By the end of the hour-long meeting, Amora and Ernie had already been given a time they had to go up and down the train, just like everybody else. They had their duties straight away.

"This is weird," she muttered to Ernie as they walked past a number of carriages filled with excited students.

"Very," he agreed, "But we'll get used to it, I suppose."

"Hopefully."

Walking up and down the train was pretty uneventful. Amora helped a first-year find a compartment to sit in from where they stood in the corridor crying, and Ernie managed to get a few third years to stop performing jinxes on each other in one of the very last compartments.

"The power we have." Ernie gave a breathy chuckle as they walked away. "I might just take all of the points away from the other houses. Then Hufflepuff might actually stand a chance this year."

Amora hummed in amusement, her smile fading from her lips when her eyes locked on Leon sat in one of the carriages. He was laughing at something that Justin was saying across from him, Kathy curled up into his side as always. Hannah, Zena, Susan, and even Zacharias were all in there too.

"You coming?" Ernie asked casually, noticing she had paused. "I think we can stop patrolling now. It's Ravenclaw's turn."

Amora forced her face to move into a gentle smile. "I think I'm going to go and meet up with a couple of other friends first."

Ernie nodded. "Alright, see you later."

Amora walked past as he peeled open the doors to her friends' carriage, and she heard an uproar of Ernie's name, followed by plenty of congratulations for his new role. Her fingers found themselves wrapped around Cedric's prefect badge, toying with it as she tried to get as far away from her housemates as possible.

Familiar laughter came from another carriage, making Amora pause. Inside sat Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny, and a girl with hair as blonde as Draco's. Amora had seen her a few times before and knew she was in Ginny's year group. Carefully, she pushed open the door, hoping she wasn't interrupting them.

"Amora," came a gentle chorus of her name.

Hermione jumped from her seat to hug her tightly and then pulled her hand to sit between her and Harry. Harry sent her a weak smile.

Amora had rarely been keeping an eye on the Daily Prophet over the summer, but she'd heard her mother and father whispering enough to know that they were making fun of Harry and calling him an attention-seeking liar. The Ministry had done everything in its power to make sure nobody reported anything that made Harry Potter seem like he was telling the truth about Voldemort's return.

She'd also heard that he'd nearly been expelled for using magic outside of Hogwarts. Something about dementors. Amora had shut off after a while of her parents talking, her mind travelling elsewhere.

"How was your summer, Amora?" Neville beamed before his face fell. "Oh. No, I didn't-- I forgot--"

"It was okay, thank you, Neville," Amora cut him off before he could work himself into a panic. "Lots of sunbathing."

"I can tell." Ginny forced a smile. "Your skin looks so gorgeously tanned. I wish I could tan like you. I just burn. Thanks to family genetics, you know."

"You get the beautiful hair to compensate," Amora replied smoothly, and Ginny smiled for real this time.

She hadn't spoken to Ginny in just over a year since the Quidditch World Cup. She wouldn't say they were friends, but Amora did like her. She thought Ginny had liked her too until she heard Ginny's conversation in the library with her friend last year.

Amora understood that she was just jealous that Harry had a crush on her instead, and hoped maybe Ginny would be able to look past that. Besides, it wasn't exactly Amora's fault. She'd signalled to Harry multiple times that she wasn't interested like that.

"You're Amora Buckley, Cedric Diggory's cousin," the blonde girl finally spoke in a dream-like tone, and everybody flinched at her words.

Hermione glared at the girl and looked as though she was about to jump on Amora and shield her from the words that had already been said. Amora felt a painful stab at her heart, but she nodded.

"Yeah, I am," Amora murmured, extending her hand to shake the girl's one. "I'm sorry, I don't recognise you?"

"That's Loony Love--" Hermione cut herself off with wide eyes. "Luna Lovegood."

Luna didn't seem to notice, smiling as she held an upside-down version of The Quibbler in her hands. Amora studied her for a second longer, recalling her name being spread around a few times before, but never for good reasons. She seemed quite sweet, and very pretty, too.

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Luna," Amora said softly.

Harry asked Luna to borrow her copy of The Quibbler and seemed quite entranced reading an article inside it. Once he'd closed it, Ron spoke up.

"Anything interesting in there?"

"Of course not!" Hermione scoffed, "The Quibbler's rubbish, everybody knows that."

"Excuse me." The dreamy voice Luna had been using before vanished. "My father's the editor."

Hermione's face grew hot with embarrassment. "I-Oh, well... it's got some interesting... I mean, it's quite..."

"I'll have it back, thank you." Luna tugged it out of Harry's hands and flipped it back upside down, nestling behind it as Hermione sank into her seat, feeling pretty awful.

The compartment door slid open and Amora's eyes widened when she saw Draco standing there, accompanied by Blaise. She swallowed as they made eye contact and a smirk crossed his features.

Whilst Leon had clearly worked out Draco's riddle the night of Cedric's death, they hadn't discussed letting everybody else know. Especially not Harry, Ron, and Hermione. She hoped he wasn't here to talk to her. When his gaze flickered to Harry, she knew that she was safe, but Harry certainly wasn't.

"What?" Harry snapped before Draco could say anything.

"Manners, Potter, or I'll have to give you a detention," Draco drawled, "You see, I, unlike you, have been made a prefect, which means, I, unlike you, have the power to hand out punishments."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Yeah, but you, unlike me, are a git, so get out of here and leave us alone."

Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Neville all laughed, making Draco's lip curl like it always did when he was annoyed or disgusted.

"Tell me, how does it feel to be second-best to Weasley, Potter?" Draco continued.

Hermione cut in. "Shut up, Malfoy."

"I seem to have touched a nerve," Draco smirked, "Well, just watch yourself, Potter, because I'll be dogging your footsteps if you step out of line."

"Get out!" Hermione stood up this time.

Draco sniggered and backed away, shooting Blaise a look as they slid the compartment door shut behind them. Amora stared at the place that they had been whilst Ron turned to his Chocolate Frog, seemingly not phased by Draco's snide comments today.

"I should go see Hannah and that lot," Amora spoke after a few minutes.

Nobody took the opportunity to ask about Leon and Amora slipped away. She left the compartment, barely making it a few feet ahead before a hand grasped hers.

Amora gasped when she was tugged into the bathroom and pressed against the wall. Draco's hands were on her waist in an instant, his lips attaching to her neck. He towered over her even taller this year, clearly having grown a couple of inches over the summer. He was probably about six foot now.

"Hey," Amora scolded him, pushing him off of her slightly before he could kiss her neck properly and catching his boyish grin. "What was that about?"

"Oh, come on." Draco's hand smoothed up the back of her neck and moved to cup the back of her head. "It's not a proper train ride if I don't take the mickey out of Potter a bit. Besides, I'd been waiting far too long for you to come and find me. Needed to get your attention somehow."

Amora rolled her eyes but ended up unable to hide her smile. She leaned on her toes and their lips pressed together for the first time in two months. In both of their opinions, it had been far too long without the other. Her hand played with the uniform he must have just changed into.

Draco grabbed her tie as they pulled away, his fingers running down the gold and black material and finding the golden badger attached to it. He grinned, teeth and all, and looked back up at her.

"You like it?"

"I love it," Amora corrected him, "Thank you so much. Again."

There was a bang on the door and Amora jumped. "Oi," Blaise hissed from the other end. "You two better hurry up. I need a piss."

Amora giggled, her head dropping against Draco's shoulder. He opened the bathroom door and shot Blaise a glare, sneaking the two of them out upon noticing that nobody else was around. Amora silently wondered how much longer they could keep up the secret-relationship act or if this would be a permanent thing until the secrecy became too much and one of them ended it.

She tried to shake away the negative thoughts plaguing her brain, feeling Draco's fingers glide across to hold her upper arm. Amora peered up at him, sending him a pursed-lipped smile.

"I'll see you later," he whispered, pecking her lips.

"See you, Draco."

...

first chapter of ootp!! im sooo excited to write this part. i finished rereading it yesterday and i have so many plans for amora.

might let draco and amora be cute for a bit before hbp

just out of curiosity, what houses are you guys in??

thanks so much for reading! <33

dyiansobrien.