Lost in spells and shadows

Chapter 50: The True Nature

"Do you need any help? Can i help you?" Adelaide asked softly. The door was opened and she saw a first year Slytherin girl crying as she sat on the closed toilet. She had shoulder-length brown hair and hazel eyes. Her face was red and her eyes puffy from the amount of tears that she had shed.

"I d-don't know..." the girl responded.

"What's your name?" Adelaide asked as she stood in front on her.

"Clarissa." The girl replied.

"Well, Clarissa, that is a very beautiful name. You're a first year, are you not?" She nodded.

"Did someone hurt you?" She asked softly, the girl reminded her of Helena and she tried to use her way of comforting her with Clarissa.

"No, well, not physically. They bullied me." The girl replied. "I should have done something about it, stood up to them, but all i did was to grovel and cry pathetically while they picked on me."

"No, it's ok. Really, we always think we should have done another thing in that situation, but we forget that if we had another choice, a better one that was possible in those circumstances, we would have done it then. We always choose the best available choice. Sometimes, people would freeze and wouldn't be able to do anything." She replied. "Don't mourn what you could have done."

"But it was pathetic! If i had at least frozen up, they wouldn't have had picked on me for that long. They had fun making fun of my tears and my begging." Clarissa countered.

"What did they do?"

"They just randomly chose me, as if they had been waiting for some first-year to bully and i was the fortunate one. They grabbed my bag, or rather just floated it towards them. Then they started tossing it at each other, while i cried. I was going to be late for transfiguration and i told them that professor Mcgonagall hates tardiness, but they only laughed at me and rummaged through my bag and took my homework. They burned my transfiguration, potions and astronomy homework and i just only... c-cried. Then they just tossed the bag at me and i didn't go to class. It had just finished now and i have just started here, in this bathroom stall, crying. My, i had just sacrificed my education for my tears." Fresh tears spilled from her eyes.

"I am so sorry. Those pathetic people- i don't really know what to say." Adelaide replied as she felt a great anger at those bullies.

"I mean, i should be the one to be angry at. I let them do it. They thought me weak and i have just proved their point. There was no one to see what happened as everyone were at their classes. So I should not have waited for someone to come and save me."

"Those idiots, in order to boost their own tiny egos, had chosen a first-year to bully. It truly shows their fragile nature and how they need to validate themselves by bringing someone else down. If it was not you, then another first-year. They think that by wounding someone else, they can heal themselves, which of course is not true."

"But-"
"Yes, you could have stood up to them, it was ideal, but don't be to hard on yourself, it's hard finding your voice  for some time, but i promise you that when you find it, you won't be silenced. Then you can stand up to someone."

"And all my hard work-"

"I will help you, today, if you wish, we can study in the library and i can help you with your homework. I have nothing else to do and would have been bored, what's better than to help someone else?" Adelaide smiled when she saw the bright laugh of the girl.

"Really? You would help me? A first year Slytherin?" The girl responded. Adelaide was confused when she uttered her house, as if it mattered or someone pointed it out to her, that by being a Slytherin she was a pariah.