"love is real. you just have
to find your person."
"and what if i don't
have a person?"
in which his task brings an unlikely pair together.
lowercase intend...
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_________
"WON-WON?"
aurelia made a face as she watched lavender brown tie another scarf around ron's neck. "she calls him that?"
pansy nodded with a sigh. "she's head over heels of the poor boy. just like tori."
the girls turned their heads to see both cory and astoria walking through a door, hand in hand with bright smiles on their faces.
"well i'm happy for them. it's hard to find love these days."
pansy rolled her eyes at the girl and dragged her outside. "you sound crazy."
"what do you mean?" aurelia asked, genuinely confused as she fiddled with her necklace—the one harry had given her.
"you aren't in love?"
"pansy, what the fresh hell are you talking about?"
"salazar aurelia, you aren't in love with him?" pansy asked, seemingly out of breath.
"this conversation is over." aurelia mumbled, beginning to walk away as pansy chased after her.
"okay, okay, i'll drop it, for now."
"why aren't you on some sort of romantic midday picnic with draco?" aurelia asked, clearly trying to change the subject.
"because we're not blaise and theo. and besides i've missed you." she smiled. "we never hang out together."
"pansy we have two classes together, and lunch, and we sleep across from one another."
"i can see that, ivy." she laughed. "i meant just the two of us."
aurelia nodded, not wanting to say anything further as she passed harry and hermione, though only hermione gave her a look of acknowledgment.
harry barely even turned his neck.
"ivy, have you been listening?"
"i'm sorry, no. what did you say?" pansy groaned and dragged her along until she found theo and sylus.
"what's wrong with you?"
"this one." pansy waved aurelia's arm around dramatically as she sat down next to sylus, blocking the sun with her hand. "she's everywhere but here."
"are you on drugs?" theo asked, a hint of intrigue in his voice.
"no, theo." aurelia deadpanned. "and if i was you'd be the last to know."
"why?" he whined.
"because you can't handle yourself." sylus stated bluntly.
"i can too handle myself." the curly haired boy defended.
they all made eye contact and then looked at theo who had a dumb smile on his face. "theo, the last time you had anything you were trying to cut your ear off to save us from the "swamp monsters", which was really grass."
"it was a dark time of my life."
"it was the only time you've ever taken drugs." pansy reminded.
"i hate you all." he mumbled.
aurelia kissed his cheek and laid her head on his shoulder. "no you don't."
sylus tapped his finger against his leg as the rest of his friends began talking about different things here and there.
he couldn't help but see the subtle differences in aurelia's personality as if she were a "spot the difference" game.
things like her wardrobe were different. he knew by now the girl would be wearing skirts and a simple collared t-shirt with her slytherin tie, but now she was wearing her long sleeved slytherin sweater.
as she had been the entire week. everything that covered the upper half of her body was long sleeved.
next to that he had noticed she'd been zoning out more and covering it up by showing her affection.
it's not like it was normal for her to kiss theo on the cheek, maybe a hug but not a kiss.
he knew something had happened over the holidays, both she and draco seemed haunted by it.
every time they were in the room of requirement together they always seemed closed off, more than usual.
in his head he called them the trauma twins, seeing as they were going through hell together.
he just couldn't figure out what had happened that was so bad neither of them were bothering to talk about it.
"YOU STILL LIKE HER?" cory asked, holding astoria close to his chest.
"i can't help it." she admitted. "i'm sorry."
cory kissed her hair and swayed her back and forth. "i already told you i won't get mad. i'll still love you astoria."
"i love you too."
astoria meant it.
but she didn't mean it the way cory did.
"why do you let me do this to you?"
cory wiped away her tears with his thumb. "because i care about you. and we both knew that one of us would fall out of love before the other. i'll stay for however long you want me to astoria."
the two teens had made an agreement to use one another to their advantage.
at first it had been to impress their parents and get rid of the lingering feelings they had for people who'd never see them as anything more than a friend, but after spending so much time together and learning more about one another they had learned to love each other.
cory had fallen hard and was true to his word when he said he'd stay for however long.
astoria did love him but in a platonic soulmate type of way. she loved being around him and spending time with him, but the person she really wanted was aurelia.
but seeing as that wouldn't happen the way she wanted it to she was determined to get over it, no matter how hard it was and how much it hurt.
but cory was always there to help her through it.
"it's not fair to you." she spoke through her tears.
"maybe, but i've been through this too. it'll get better, trust me."
astoria tightened her grip around cory and tried her best to bury herself in him to relieve herself of her pain.
