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Gwen's grief was undeniably palpable, no matter how hard she tried to shove it down and sit on it so nobody could notice.
People noticed, whether Gwen accepted it or not.
It began on the very first day, back on the Hogwarts Express, with mothers and fathers subtly catching glimpses of the young witch as she had to load her trunk all by her lonesome, with no parent to help her—though she only began to realize the attention a few weeks into school, and only because Regulus Black pointed it out to her so callously.
"If you could move," he'd requested of her, quite harshly, as he glared across the library table and over the haphazard pile of books before him, "so I could even try to get some of this revising done, that would be brilliant."
His tone on the last word brought a sense to Gwen that he didn't think such a thing would be brilliant, just that she needed to get out of his way before he hexed the shit out of her.
Still, she didn't yet understand what she had done wrong—for all she knew, it was nothing, and she would not allow herself to be extricated from a free-reign desk in the library—open to all Hogwarts students, for fuck sake—without knowing the reason why.
"What've I done to you?" she demanded, in growing ferocity. She gestured mildly to the parchment before herself. "'m only wr—"
"Are you blind?" Regulus hissed, leaning in, his slim face glaring at her viciously. "Your bloody fan club has been breathing down my back for an hour now. Either get them out, or yourself—as long as I can get back to my Charms without—"
"Fan club?" Gwen's eyebrows shot up—she glanced behind Regulus's shoulder and found herself catching a gaggle of fifth-year Hufflepuffs pretending conspicuously as though they had not been just staring her down and whispering to each other. Gwen frowned. She looked back to Regulus. "Who is—"
"Oh, my god." He slammed his book shut. "I'm going back to my dorm."
As he stormed off, Gwen's frown deepened, and she twisted her lips to the side. "Fan club," she said, to herself. What on earth had Regulus meant, and why were those Hufflepuffs so nosey that they—
"Oh." Lily rounded the shelf in front of Gwen's desk, the Ancient Architecture of Wizardly Worlds section—Gwen had once, long ago, imagined that such a place would be void of any people, but her theory had been disproven, plain and simple.
Lily offered Gwen a smile. "Hi. Don't mean to... Are you busy?"
Gwen's eyes flickered over the pages before her, and she lifted a shoulder. "Don't think so. Hey, what do you know about those Hufflepuffs?"
Lily raised her eyebrows, glancing behind herself to the pack. She looked back to Gwen, lips turned down in a frown. "Don't quite know anything. Though I imagine they're just curious about you."
