Engraved Love | J. POTTER

17 | cat fights and betrayls

J A M E S P O T T E R

He stared at the girl, afraid that if he looked away or even blinked she would disappear. Then something registered. "Sorry," he shook his head slightly, "You said you were upset about what I wrote on the table?" Ophelia nodded and James grew more confused, "I didn't write anything on the table."

"Uh, yeah you did," she countered. "I saw it. It said, 'I'm sorry but I can't do this anymore."

He frowned, "It may have said that but I didn't write it."

Ophelia's expression mirrored her own, "Then who did?" James took her hand in his before he led her through the hallway. "Wait, where are we going?"

"The library," he answered simply.

A moment later they arrived at the library and he opened the door before leading them to the table they had both grown fond of. They stopped and stared down at the words.

"That's not my handwriting."

O P H E L I A L O V E G O O D

The longer she stared at the sentence, the more she realized that it definitely wasn't his handwriting. Her face contorted in confusion as she looked at it. How had she not noticed before?

And that's when it hit her. Because while the handwriting wasn't James's, she did recognize it. "Huh," she scoffed, earning a confused glance from James.

"What is it?" he asked as he looked between the girl and the handwriting.

"That's Coralena's handwriting," she informed him and he was taken aback by this.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm positive," she nodded and James frowned. He opened his mouth to say something but someone interrupted him.

"What are you two doing out past curfew?" Reggie demanded and Ophelia jumped. His gaze flickered down to the pairs conjoined hands and he grinned, "Oh, I see. I'll leave you two lovebirds to it."

"Hang on," Ophelia spoke quickly. She waved him over and he obeyed, albeit, in confusion. She pointed at the table, "Who's handwriting is that?"

"Coralena's," he answered almost immediately. "That or Professor Binns. Those two always had matching handwriting. It's odd, really." Ophelia shot James a look and Reggie looked between the two, "I take it this is a bad thing?"

Ophelia nibbled on the inside of her bottom lip as she stared at the words on the table. Why would she do this?

R E G G I E M C L A G G E N

Reggie had taken a liking to wandering the halls at night. It was odd how quiet the school was when pretty much everyone was in bed but he enjoyed it. It was peaceful.

As he passed by the library, he halted upon hearing a sniffling noise from inside. He floated through the walls and searched the room until he found a girl in the back, sitting on the floor in tears.

He hesitated. Did he talk to her or pretend he saw nothing?

"Hey," he greeted as he took a seat next to her. That had been difficult to learn to do but after much time, he could finally sit on the floor. "What's got you so down?"

The girl looked up at him and he frowned upon seeing how red her eyes were. She sniffled and wiped at her nose with her sleeve. She had to have been crying for hours.

Her gaze flickered to his neck, "You're the Ravenclaw boy who was attacked in Hogsmeade, aren't you?"

He grimaced before nodding, "I'm not going to live that down, am I?"