Hiraeth

23

"I told him that I was studying in my dorm room, with you, and we put face masks on and we cramped a lot of work in..." I said looking at pansy as she sighed and pulled me in a hug.

"You should've told him the truth, Rosey," she said, running a hand up and down my shoulder, comforting me. "I know Pansy, and I tried. I wrote like 20 letters but I just didn't know how to explain it to him that, I  stood him up and went on a date with his brother and I enjoyed it and completely forgot about the date I had with him."

"Merlin B, you messed up."

"i knowww, but i'll tell him. just not now" i said as i straightened up. "now back to homework because I really do have a lot to finish." I said pushing Pansy off my bed and picking up my books from hers. "yes yes, okay but don't forget it's game night okay?" pansy said taking out her homework as well.

"yes i remember, are we doing it in our dorm or..?" I asked pansy. " We're doing it in Theo and Mattheos dorm, next one is ours" she explained.

"Okay, did you remember to pick up the snacks?"

"Yes I did, did you get those muggle snacks?"

"yup! stocked them up when I last went to Diagon alley" i said as pansy looked over at me. "oh yeah your secret little trips to Diagon Alley and secrets dates with charlie"

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you pansy. I'll bring you next time if you want." I offered to make up for it. "Okay sure, but if we go to Diagon Alley we also go to muggle london." she said pointing her pen in my direction. "Okay okay, we can go to Muggle london."

——————-

"Hey guys" Lorenzo said as me and pansy entered the dorm room. "you're finally here," he continued as Pansy sat down next to Draco and I kept the bag of snacks down. "yes, sorry for being late i had to send a quick letter to Molly"
I said sitting down next to Theo. "Molly? you mean Molly weasley?" Lorenzo asked.

"Yes, Molly weasley. and before any of you say anything about her, I would like you to know that Molly is a great person and she really helped me during the summer and if you guys could not say shit about her, that would be nice." I said as Draco put his hands up in defence.

"Okay okay we won't say anything about her, but only because she was nice to you."

"thank you guys. Now what games are we playing?"

"Well, we have cards, chess, and.." Theo trailed off as I pulled out board games from the bag I brought with me. "And I have Uno, Scrabble and Ludo. So which one first?" I asked as Pansy immediately grabbed Ludo.

"Ludo! Merlin, I love ludo, it's so fun" she said, opening the box and taking out the board and dice. "Okay well how do we play?" Blaise asked, sitting down in between me and matheo.

"Okay so you shake the dice and whatever number it lands on, that's the number one of your four pieces will move. If someone else's piece is on a block and you also land on it, it goes back to home. For example, if Draco's piece is over here but mine also lands here, Draco's piece has to go back home." Pansy explained, using a few pieces to get her point made. "Also since there are four homes we're gonna have to team up." She ended. "umm.. Draco and pansy, me and theo, lorenzo and matheo.. and blaise you can play single?" I said, looking at Blaise for confirmation as he nodded.

We started playing and Theo and I were winning till now, with Draco and pansy second, Blaise third and Mattheo and Lorenzo last, their excuse being that they've never played it before.

"Oh come on, that's cheating!" Lorenzo screamed as I put one of their pieces back in their home. "How is that cheating? you saw the numbers!" I screamed back. " No you did some magic or something! there's no way you've been getting such perfect numbers!"

"I did not cheat! this game is about luck Enzo!" I replied to him, handing blaise the dice, who was lying on the ground laughing. Pansy and Draco both were Laughing, leaning on each other for support as Matheo had his head in his hands also laughing. Theo was also laughing. "You guys are laughing?! She's cheating and you're laughing! She did this with me. Next she's gonna do it with you!" lorenzo gasped, pointing at all of them as they laughed even more. "Theo, your team mate is cheating! how can you stand this?!" he asked, leaning over the board towards Theo.

"I'm sorry man, but she's not cheating. I'm sitting right here and I haven't seen her cheat" Theo said as Lorenzo gasped again. "you guys are in this together right. oh i should've known."

"Matheo! Even you're laughing? She cheated and caused our piece to go back to home! how could you laugh!" he turned towards him, placing one of his hands on his chest in mock exaggeration.

As I watched the drama unfold between Lorenzo and Mattheo, who was apologising while holding in laughter, I felt a weight on my shoulder. Theo had his head in between my shoulder and neck, laughing along.

As his hot breath tickled my skin, I felt goosebumps on my body. I took a deep breath trying to distract myself as I could feel his breath. Sitting there, like that, while everyone else was laughing and joking, being able to feel his laughter, as it vibrated through his body, hearing my own heart, beat loudly, and echo through my ears, my breathing fastened. I felt my lungs close up as I stopped breathing properly, trying to take deep breaths and still laugh so as to not alarm anyone.

I tried to breathe, to match my breathing to his breathing but I couldn't focus. I grabbed the side of the table, clutching it hard. Theo noticed, and he turned towards me. "are you okay?" he whispered in my ear as alarms went off in my body screaming at me to leave. So that is what I did.

I quickly stood up, almost knocking the board over which caught everyone's attention. "what- Briar?" Pansy said as I looked around frantically searching for an escape. "i'm fine- uh sorry i'm fine" i said quickly, spotting a door and walking towards it without a second thought. "briar!" Matheo screamed behind me but I just ignored it and closed the door,and locked it.

I slid down the door, my head in my hands as I tried to calm myself down. I didn't even know what happened? Why did I suddenly feel like this? I looked around the room, trying to find something that could help me, when I realised this wasMattheos study room. Draco and Mattheo both had different study rooms inside their dorm, courtesy of Draco's father. I stood up and walked around, letting my hands wander through things. I knew i shouldnt do this, but I needed to know if I could trust him.

As I walked over to his study table I saw a bunch of books spread everywhere. His potions essay was lying there and I could already spot a few mistakes. I moved a few books and saw a letter. I picked it up and saw a weird seal on it. it had a snake coming out of a skull.

I opened it and read through the letter, hoping it was nothing bad, but I was wrong. reading through it my jaw dropped as my hand flew to my mouth in shock.

"Briar, that's my study room! Come out!" I heard Mattheo call out from outside of the room. I took in a deep breath and pocketed the letter in my sweatpants and walked over to the door opening it. "Sorry Mattheo, I just needed to take a quick breath alone," I said, trying not to be suspicious. "It's okay, I understand. Are you okay now?" he asked as we walked back to the rest of the group.

"yea i'm fine, sorry for scaring you all" i said apologising as pansy spoke up. "hey it's okay, just tell me if you wanna leave okay?"

"Yeah okay, but I'm fine right now. let's get back to the game" I replied to her as blaise did his turn.

Eventually, it went back to normal, and everyone focused on the game. I saw Theo give me a few quick glances but he did nothing else and kept his distance.

i have so much drama planned for the next few chapters, but ya.