Chasing Time (Seamus Finnigan)

six

When I'd said that, Ron had left the pub without saying anything.

He didn't speak to me anymore and I made me feel very lonely and bad about myself, because he made me feel like it was a shame I dared to talk to anyone.

In the meanwhile, Harry had to prepare for the first task of the Triwizard Tournament. Hermione tried to talk to him about it, but Harry didn't want to hear anything about the subject.

Most of the time, Harry and Hermione were in the library, Ron was talking with his friends Seamus and Dean, and I sat in my usual armchair in a corner of the common room, reading.

I didn't have much social contacts, and I felt a bit hopeless.

Hermione had once said to me in our dirmitory that she didn't blame me for anything, but I felt she helt a bit back from me.

So I just sat there every evening, reading and reading. I felt like I could just drown in my books so I didn't have to care about anything else.

At dinner I sat alone, eating as fast as possible, so I could leave the room and escape from everybody who was staring at me. I didn't care about them, they could think what they wanted.

I just wanted my friends to act like friends and take the courage to talk to me about the subject.

I didn't join them, whenever they entered the common room and looked in my direction. If they wanted to talk to me, they could.

Classes were a bit boring. Most of the time, I sat alone, doodling in my books.

Until November 1.

I entered the Charms classroom, looking around for a place to sit, and walked to a table in the back. I was just waiting for professor Flitwick to open the lesson, when a girl with short, dark blond hair came to my table.

'Hey! Um... can I sit here?' she asked, pointing at the empty chair next to me. 'Sure!' She smiled and sat down and got her books out of her bag. Then she turned to face me and reached out her hand.

'I'm Chantry, by the way. Chantry Day.'

'Callidora Yaxley. Dora for short,' I said. I shook her hand and she smiled. 'Nice to meet you. I haven't seen you around,' she said with a curious voice.

'I haven't seen you before either,' I stated. She nodded. 'Yeah. I'm a transfer, from Beauxbatons,' she confessed.

'I'm a transfer too! I attended Durmstrang before Hogwarts,' I said.

She miled . She had a very bright smile. She looked at my tie and smiled again. 'You're a Gryffindor too! We should hang out together!' she said cheerful. I smiled too, a bit surprised by how social she was.

'Yeah. Definitely,' I responded. 'Nice.' She lent back and sighed. 'I'm so tired of school already,' she said to me. I nodded. 'Yeah... that's not that nice,' I muttered. She looked at me again.

'It's just... I don't know anything about Hogwarts, and walking through these corridors alone, I just get lost very fast, and there's no one that wants to help me with that, because no one has that same problem, you know? It's just so... different.'

I nodded understanding. 'Are you always so... straight to the point?' I asked. 'Yeah,' she said nodding. 'I think everyone should. No misunderstandings.'

'Yeah. Amazing. A bit enerving, but amazing.'

'So what's the thing about you?' she whispered, as she lent closer. 'Um... thing?' I asked, frowning my eyebrows.

'You know, I heard your name a lot lately,' she stated. 'Oh, that. Guess you know it then,' I said with a nod. Chantry smiled.

'I actually do, but I thought I should ask you, as it would be a bit rude not to,' she said. 'And I'm under the impression that it's all rubbish they're talking about,' she added.