Homonculous |Marauders Era

Chapter Thirty-Eight

"Yeah, I get it," she said before turning on her heel as they continued walking. "But still...it's like with James claiming he loves Lily and then he does things to royally piss her off. How can you love someone and continuously do things knowing it upsets them?"

"People do stupid things, El," Frank said, " there is no way around it sometimes. People do loads of stupid things and sometimes they do a lot of stupid things for a long time. Eventually, some people grow out of it and some people don't."

Suddenly, she came to another stop, turning abruptly which almost caused Frank to crash into her. "So what do I do?"

"Wh-what do you mean?" Frank questioned as she looked up at him. This was her request for advice but he wasn't sure what she was referring to at that point.

"I mean, do I actually talk to them again or am I right to cut them out of my life completely?"

With more ice cream just constantly melting all over him, Frank threw the rest of his cone away before grabbing his wand to clean himself off. Once he was almost brand new, he grabbed Elspeth by the wrist and gently led her over to sit down.

"That is completely your decision to make," he informed her. "You're obviously still upset with them, so your first thought is to say to hell with them and that's understandable. Most people feel that way when the wounds are fresh, so allow yourself time to heal or think the situation over before you make a final one. To me, it sounds like you want someone to tell you that it will be okay to forgive them eventually. And yes, it will be okay if you choose to forgive them and it will be okay if you choose not to forgive them."

She seemed to ponder what he said for a few minutes before she shook her head. "If I don't, I'm going to find myself all alone again. First Penelope, then Lily, and-"

"What happened between you and Penelope?" 

Suddenly, Elspeth dropped her face into her hands and before Frank could retract his question and tell her to never mind, he heard the girl start to cry. People walking past became alarmed and some of them looked concerned. Even a couple of them gave Frank a look as if he were the cause of her sobbing. Quickly, the man placed a hand on Elspeth's shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. 

"El, I didn't mean-"

"That's what is, isn't it? It's not other people, it's me," Elspeth said in between a couple of breaths. "I keep pushing people away over and over. I make a friend and then the first time something goes wrong, it's just over. It's like I don't allow people to make mistakes, but I expect them to let me make mistakes and not be condemned for it. I mean, I was angry that Penelope called me a slag-"

"She called you what?!"

"And Lily, I know she was just trying to stick up for a childhood friend, but I could have been nicer about it, even if I hate Severus too. I shouldn't have called her a hypocrite to her face in front of others-"

"You-"

"And Severus is a git and I know he probably did something to the boys that caused them to go after them, but...ugh!"

Her ice cream suddenly fell to the floor and within seconds, she started crying again and Frank wasn't sure if it was over the loss of her friendships or over the loss of the ice cream. Probably a mixture of both if he knew Elspeth as well as he thought he did. She went on to call herself a bad person and that's when he finally had to stop her because he wasn't going to let the girl keep condemning herself, especially when it sounded like she wasn't really in the wrong. 

"Alright, listen up, El, that's enough," Frank interrupted her, bringing her to instantly stop her crying and look up at him. "I'm not going to sit here and let you talk bad about yourself and blame yourself for the mistakes of others. Penelope had no right to call you a slag under any circumstances, especially if she was your friend. Regardless of what you do with your body, that is your business, she either supports it or she keeps her mouth shut unless you ask her for her opinion. I'm not too familiar with what happened between you and Lily but it sounds like you honestly wanted to protect her from facing what actually did happen. That doesn't make you a bad person, that makes you a caring one."