CURSED [D.M]

-(9) a dove pendant

ZILLIAH 's next weeks at Hogwarts are filled up with stress and work. Professors become ruthless in giving homework and assignments and it's all she has time for. Umbridge has also been appointed as Hogwarts High Inquisitor and it just made everything ten times worse.

After what feels like an eternity, she finishes her History of Magic homework and closes her books, shoves them into the bag, and gets up to leave the library. She walks to the dormitories with a scorching headache she couldn't seem to escape for weeks now. It seems as if a hundred knives sharpened to perfection for the sole purpose of an agonizing murder were plunged deep into her head.

She presses her hand to her forehead on the way, willing the inside of it to just calm the fuck down. But as she reaches her dorm, something else grabs hold of her attention- a quiet sobbing. She carefully opens the door to find Pansy crying into her pillow.

"Pansy.. are you crying?" What a stupid question, you dumbass!

Pansy jerks her head up, rubbing her nose and sniffling loudly. "No. I'm just.. allergic."

Zilliah raises an eyebrow at her. "To what exactly?"

"Life."

"Oh love." She drops her bag and walks upto her. Pansy sits up in her bed leaving space for Zilliah. She takes the place and sits cross-legged facing her mess of a friend. "What happened?"

"I broke up with Jones. I found him cheating on me", she chokes out.

"Oh no. That's-"

"And do you know what the worst part is?" Her voice is suddenly laced with utter disgust. "That motherfucker didn't even deserve me. Hell, he couldn't even make me finish once. No one I've ever been with could make me."

"No one?!", she asks in surprise, even though it shouldn't be an element of much of surprise to her.

"None! What is wrong with me?!", Pansy cries into her shoulders as she wraps an arm around her.

She knows what exactly is wrong with Pansy though it is not at all a wrong. She has been watching her for a long time now- tracing her glances and noticing her expressions. Anyone could see it. Even Pansy herself could if she wasn't so hellbent on hiding from it. Zilliah wants to shout the truth at her face but knowing that it'll only make her angrier, she settles to hold Pansy as she weeps and complains.

There was a Hogsmeade weekend coming and the idea of a small getaway is all that aids Zilliah from losing her sanity over the next week.

The day comes and she dresses up fit to go out into the cold- a chunky grey sweater and skinny black jeans with black coat, black gloves and black boots. Maybe, a little too much black but black was her favorite color- so don't judge.

At first, she hangs out with her group of friends but when it gets too loud for her to bear, she quietly sneaks away.

She has always preferred the quiet anyway.

She breathes, calmly. This is the only peace she has managed to get in weeks. The pain in her head slowly ebbs away with each passing moment. She loves this. Silent and cold, alone.

If she could move afar into a distant cottage by the sea and have sufficient amount of books to read for a lifetime, she feels like her life would atlast be meaningful and complete. No one else but the moon and the stars to talk to- none but the sun to blaze through all that cold and to envy all that she owned.

Surely, humans need company- or that's atleast what people say. But she's sure that to her- the stars, the moon, the sea, the books- it would be more than enough. Not another soul in her vicinity-