~Sequentia~ Harry Potter One-Shots [Long]

Friendship Made in Uncertainty [Adrian Pucey]

Adrian Pucey x Reader

[Theme: Student]

Requested by: Lynn

What is it that makes two people 'friends'? At what point do they go from acquaintances to forming a kind of relationship? Is it a mutual respect? What about wanting to voluntarily associate with one another? Could it possibly be a mere desire to have a bond with another human being?

Such a question can't possibly be answered. When one finds friendship in one, the other may only see them as an equal, little more than perhaps a companion they could rely on but kept at an arm's length. It varies from person to person, and it is the awkwardness of humanity that we often lack the strength to ask the daring question, 'Are we friends?'.

What if they say no? Then what? They might show the entire school how daft you are because you've gone and made a huge fool of yourself. If they say yes, what if they begin to doubt you? Accuse you of lacking faith in them? You'd either lose a friend you'd always had or lose a friend that was never there. Either way, there are very few circumstances where such a question would be beneficial.

As it would happen, that was the irritating conundrum I was victim to. Everything was confusing and nothing made sense about this so-called 'friendship'. The sheepish bookworm who spends most of her time by the Great Lake or the library and who worries her head off to the point of not sleeping the day before mock results is friends with the popular Slytherin Quidditch Chaser? That sounds like something that only happens in those silly Muggle romance books.

And yet... in my mind, it seemed to be reality. I wasn't much for having friends in general. The other girls in my house and year never paid too much attention to me except to ask me for answers to tests or to try to bribe me to write their essays. There was a time I was desperate enough to do one or two, and that was when Mr. Slytherin Chaser intervened...

.....

"L/N, pleaseeeee!" A broad-shouldered, rather charming Slytherin girl begged me, her hands firmly clasped together as if she were borderline praying to me.

Like usual, I was minding my own business, taking shelter by the fire in the Slytherin common room instead of by the Great Lake due to the nipping winter frost and the library being closed thanks to Peeves water bombing every aisle, effectively turning the place into a glorified ice rink. It was inconvenient, to say the very least, as I was nowhere near strong enough to carry the 700-page monstrosity known as A Compendium of Common Curses and Their Counter-Actions from the second floor of the library to the Slytherin basement.

I hated when these kinds of girls interrupted my reading time. Being shy and quiet meant that they thought they could take advantage of me... and they were usually right about that. Going along with their ploys meant not having to be the next victim of whoever they decided to be catty about next. My policy of 'shut up and go along with it' served me well for my five years at Hogwarts.

As the girl looked at me with her puppy dog eyes, I held in a depressed sigh, knowing that without Madam Pince here to drive the crows away, there was no hiding. Plus, the book in my lap was starting to make my legs go numb, and falling over in an attempt to get away would make things a thousand times worse.

"You have to, L/N! You heard what Snape said the last time I didn't do it!" Suddenly, she gained the weakness to demonstrate how critically Snape's words had affected her. "If I don't do it, he's going to make me scrub all the gunk out of the bottom of the cauldrons next lesson. And you know what we're going to be brewing, right?"

Of course I knew what we were going to be brewing- I had memorised most of this year's curriculum well in advance so I could get ahead. Now I see why people compare me to that Hermione Granger in third year... Whether this girl knew was an entirely different story.