Rennervate

chapter 8

It is when we reach the steps of the castle that I realize I am clutching on to June Jordan's arm as I lead us away from the Slytherins' glares and I immediately retract my hand from him as if he was a plague. We stand there for a while, quietly avoiding each other's gazes, until I finally decide to break the silence.

"Thanks," I say, looking up to find him staring at the ground with one hand behind his neck. "But you didn't really have to do that. I can handle myself, you see."

At this, his head snaps up to my direction and I am confused to see anger behind his brown eyes. "Handle yourself, you say?"

"Y-yeah," I suddenly find myself stuttering. "Why are you suddenly being like this? You shouldn't even care what happens t-"

Warm air hits me on the face, cutting me off. Slowly, it embraces my whole body and I notice I don't feel so cold anymore. I squint my eyes to see where the air came from and find out that it was from June Jordan's wand that was pointing at me.

"You see that? You didn't even notice that you were soaking wet since awhile ago!"

"What?" My hands fly up to my hair and surely, it was now dry and fluffy when only awhile ago, it was dripping water.

Bloody- I forgot what Ruby did to me awhile ago...

"I'm used to it," I dismiss his sudden concern and turn away from him. "You could've just given me more time and I-"

"Why are you doing this to yourself?"

"Why am I doing what to myself?" I snap at him. I am starting to get irritated by his nosiness. He shouldn't even bother with me in the first place! "Look, I think it's best if you'll just leave me alone-"

"No."

I glare at him. Why is he always cutting me off??

I am about to tell him off when he suddenly takes steps towards me, making me step back. "Jordan, stop," But he doesn't until finally, I had to be the one to stop because one more step and I'm going to roll down the steps. I didn't even realize I am turning the other way.

But I don't want to be the one who's going to back down. I'll face him even if I have nothing to say.

That's how stubborn I am.

He is only inches away from me now and I can smell powder with a mix of musk and Quidditch- I don't know how- from him.

"June Jordan, what the bloody hell are you doing?" I ask exasparatedly.

"I may just ask the same thing Park," He retorts calmly. I can feel his breath by my ear due to his close proximity. "What are you doing to yourself?"

"W-what do you mean?"

"I only met you recently but here's one thing I'm sure about you," He meets my eyes and I think I just gulped involuntarily. "You sure like to take things upon yourself, and yourself only. Why do you do that? Why are you making yourself suffer-"

"Why you ask?" It's my turn to cut him off. "What difference would it make if I let someone help me with my problems when that someone will just leave me eventually? Or worse, will only use that help as a key to use me for their own good? Huh?"

He falters and I take that opportunity to sidestep and move away from him. "It's better to fight alone than to have someone bound to betray you by your side, Jordan. And people in general do have the tendency to do that."

Worn out by the conversation, I make my move to leave when he takes me by the arm and pulls me back towards him. Within seconds, we were face to face again with our noses almost touching.

"What makes you think we're like that? We just want to be friends. We mean no harm-"

"Your kind. I guess I think it's just in all of you guys. And I'm sick and tired of it," My answer comes out in a whisper and I look down, just realizing how alone I sounded.

But it couldn't be any more realistic. It's true that in this magical world, I really am alone. One of a kind. The only one of my kind.

A scoff from him cuts me off from my thoughts and I look up as he lets go of me, a frown on his face.

"You always jump to conclusions when you didn't even take a moment to observe us first before shutting us out, treating us like people who only want something from you, tsk tsk," He shakes his head and starts to move away from me. "Not all people are the same, Park. You of all people should know that."

You yourself are an oddity in this world, what makes you think we can't be any more different?

Hello I'm back! This chapter isn't really thought out properly since I had to rethink what happened in the first draft I made so I apologize for the lack of quality and for any mistakes I've made. I just rushed this because it's the only thing that keeps me from posting the other chapters just because it got deleted in the first place ugh. So there ya go! How are y'all doing? Hehe