Motivation ⌁ Tom Riddle ✔

28

WARNING: This chapter contains gruesome content.

Petrified, I wandered back toward the Great Hall solemnly, a bickering Colette and Olly behind me. Two hours of walking around the school with Colette and Olly was a nightmare. Their shouts sprung a lot of attention when we stepped into the Great Hall for lunch, and people began to whisper and glare daggers at them. Wide-eyed, I ran towards the Ravenclaw table and dropped myself next to Alison, relieved to have finally been free of the twins.

"It was that bad, huh?" Alison simply questioned, her spoon dangling from her mouth as she watched the twins head for the Slytherin table.

"Worse," I shuddered, leaning my head against the wooden table. "Oh, the shouting."

I had never been in the presence of Colette and Olly for such a large amount of time, and, during those two hours of being around them, I had never held as much hatred for anyone as much as I did for the Headmaster.

"What are they arguing about, anyway?"

Olly angrily dropped himself next to Avery at one end of the Slytherin table, and Colette dumped herself next to Brianna, making her jump.

"Olly likes it here and he wants to remain here for the next few months. Colette wants to leave," I explained, not even bothering to eat any thing. "They've never argued before. At least not like that."

"Bonjour," I heard Brianna say in a polite voice to Colette, smiling kindly.

Colette scowled and slowly turned her head around, eyeing Brianna down furiously, and shouted, "just because I came from Beauxbatons it does not mean that I am French, you stupid idiot! Everything about this place is just so pathetic!"

Brianna flinched the moment Colette spoke and then buried her face beneath her curtain of red hair, eyes watering.

"She's mental!" Alison said humorously.

"That she is," I nodded, staring at the scene. Billy would not stop glaring at Colette.

"See, this is why the teachers need to eat with us all the time, not just for supper," Alison snorted and rolled her eyes.

"I know exactly how Brianna feels right now." Sympathy filled my tone and I sighed. "Whenever I tried calming them down Colette would lash out at me. I honestly thought she was going to rip my head off at one point."

"What did you say her brothers name was again?" Alison asked dreamily.

I gave Alison a puzzled look. "You're with Chris, Alison," I reminded her. "Besides, you don't want to go there. The both of them are just as bad as each other."

"But he looks so sad," Alison commented in a squeaky voice, her eyes full of pity. "He doesn't look like a bully at all."

I almost laughed.

But then I looked at Olly, and he really did look depressed; his cheek was pressed against his fist and his eyes were set downcast - dull and empty. They weren't the brilliant blue they once were. He ignored all the boys around him that tried speaking with him and he ignored all the girls who were gawking at him. Olly looked as though he were about to break into a fit of sobs. He just looked so...blank. Arguing with his sister must have been something that tore him apart. I'd never seen Olly look so down before.

»»»

Muggle Studies and Defence blew through quickly, and it turned out that Colette and Olly weren't in Muggle Studies and they weren't in my specific Defence class. I was cheery for two hours straight, and then Transfiguration rolled around, and Colette and Olly were there. They didn't even sit by each other.