Rennervate

chapter 3

I let silence envelope the two of us as I stare at him, still not comprehending.

He stares back, grinning.

"I'm sorry," I start to say. "But what do you want?"

He blinks, clearly taken aback by my choice of words. I don't mean to be rude but I can't help voicing out my curiosity.

People usually don't just approach me for nothing.

"I, uhmm," One of his hands reaches the back of his neck. "My friends just kicked me out of our compartment," He pauses, pointing to the compartment on our right that is two doors ahead of us. "And I was looking for a place to sit when I saw you getting really comfortable on that chair of yours."

My eyebrows furrow at what he says. "You can see me?"

"Yes?"

"I thought I casted a concealment charm on this," I mutter under my breath, upset that my cover was blown.

"Why would you?"

I look up to see him looking at me weirdly. As if he is genuinely curious as to why I hide myself from people.

Ha!

As if I will tell him when he can easily be one of those I hide myself from.

I shrug and narrow my eyes at him. "What do you want?"

His eyes twitch and I can see him trying his best not to snap at my suddenly rude tone. "Your chair looks really comfy so I was wondering if I can sit with you?"

What?

"Are you serious?" I ask him incredulously.

He wants to sit with me?

The June Jordan wants to sit with me?

He's crazy!

"Why wouldn't I be?" He asks seriously.

I let out a half-laugh and half-scoff before turning all my attention to him. "You do realize you're endangering yourself from your spot in the social ladder by talking to me, right?"

"What?"

I watch as the features of his face contort into something that spells utter confusion and I frown at myself, not understanding his reaction.

"Don't you know who I am?"

He shakes his head and I stagger from where I am standing, momentarily speechless.

"Do I need to?" He asks very innocently that it just proves he doesn't really know I exist.

I shake my head, laughing derisively, making him frown even more. I don't know if I should be relieved by that fact or not.

"No, it's just," I look him in the eyes, searching for any sign of dishonesty only to find nothing. "I thought you knew. I'm just surprised."

"Who are you then?"

I give him a smile as I shake my head again. "It's best not to know," I shoo him off. "You go back to your friends. They'll hate you once they find out what you were just doing."

"Why?"

Rolling my eyes at him, I pulled out my wand from my robes and point it to him, making him step back as his eyes widen. I don't know that he is this inquisitive of a person.

"What-"

"You, sir, sure have a lot of questions," I say in a serious tone. "Unfortunately, I won't be going to answer them so you can now go before I decide to fly you off to your friends."

"I was just looking for a seat," He exclaims, exasperated. "And yours looks so comfortable-"

"It's mine."

"It's good for two people!"

"You can't sit with me!"

He stops trying when he hears me snap and I focus on my breathing as I tell myself the thing I always say whenever I shut people down.

"You won't want to sit with me if you knew who I was," I quietly say, avoiding his gaze. "Trust me."

"Then I won't ask for your name."

My head jerks back to his direction, surprise painting my every feature as what his words imply dawn on me.

His eyes are serious, but the curiosity behind it scares me.

So I shake my head and give him a sad smile, hoping he would get my message. Before he could even say another word, he's already floating towards the compartment he said his friends were awhile ago, silenced through a Silencio I casted without saying anything.

I've always been proud of my skills when it comes to picking up spells. And I've been prouder when I was the first one to master non-verbal spells even if I did need to put up with constant hate for the whole term because of that.

It's easier to protect myself that way. With spells just at the tip of my tongue, waiting to be casted whenever an enemy is just around the corner.

And it's also easier that way, to silently put a distance between people who look like they might care but actually only want something, throwing me away after they already got it.

It's best not to let people get close.

I repeat in my head.

Don't let your guard down. Always be ready to shut them out.

It's not a bad thing.

It's for the best.