Dursley's Daughter (A Harry Potter Next Generation Fan Fic)

21. Magic the Gathering

It felt good to have Sawyer sit beside me at breakfast again.

We got a couple confused looks from Hufflepuffs who were clearly wondering what had occurred to repair our friendship, but after a few minutes either the novelty of the situation had worn off or the other students decided that it was just nice that Sawyer and I were friends again. I was certainly thinking the latter.

Sawyer was eating his toast methodically, the way he always did it; He ate the crusts first, going around the edge of the toast, and then ate the middle. I ate my toast much more haphazardly.

"Thanks for last night, Esther," he said.

I shrugged. "It was no big deal."

"Yes it was. It was really cool of you guys to band together like that for me."

"Well, we're your friends. Of course we would do something like that for you. Especially after how those jerks treated you. And it's probably Scorpius that you should be thanking the most. He organized the whole thing."

Sawyer took a swig of his juice. "Scorpius wasn't my friend, though. I mean, I think we're friends now, but he wasn't until last night."

I peered over the head of Midha, who was sat across from us, to the Slytherin table. Scorpius was sat at the end of the table, as he usually did, a book propped up in front of his plate. I assumed it was some last minute studying going on.

"I think he probably felt bad for coming between us."

"It wasn't his fault."

"Yeah," I said, "but for a long time we didn't know that. We thought you were angry at me for becoming friends with him because you didn't like him specifically. That would've been mostly my fault, but I think he still felt bad for whatever part he played in it."

"Fair enough," said Sawyer. "That was mostly true. I figured he was like his friends, though that was unfair of me. He's a cool guy, Esther."

"I'm not dating him."

Sawyer took a long swig from his juice, his eyebrows raised suggestively. "I never suggested that you were." He set his cup down. "Anyway, no matter what Scorpius's motives were, I'm really grateful that he made last night happen."

"You better be," I said. "Scorpius, Albus, and I got detention after you and Holly left."'

"Really?"

"Yup. McGonagall herself caught us out of bed after hours. We need to report to her later today. Don't feel guilty about it or anything; The three of us agreed that it was well worth it to see you punch Sullivan."

At that moment, Holly stuck her head of curls between us. "Make some room, will you? And what was worth seeing Sawyer punch Sullivan? I'm sure anything would be worth the viewing pleasure of that awesome showdown, but do tell, Essie."

"She, Albus, and Scorpius got detention from McGonagall," Sawyer said, saving me from answering with a mouthful of eggs.

"Sucks to be you," said Holly. "Isn't it Quidditch night?"

Sawyer's face fell. "I hadn't realized that."

I waved away his concern. "Don't worry about it. I'm going to give Mona the training plan, and we can sneak in another couple practices before the big game. It's only us and Gryffindor that are still using the pitch, after all."

Holly frowned. "Yeah. Now that Ravenclaw came dead last."

"You need to divert all that intense energy for learning into Quidditch," I said, "and away from whatever else you guys are interested in."