Rennervate

chapter 10

"Why are you doing this?" I ask Lalisa Monterey as she once again sits beside me during lunch.

Students are now starting to stare and I itch away from her, only to find my butt hang on midair. Ugh. I forget I am seated at the end of the bench.

"Friends eat together," She nonchalantly replies, picking on a treacle tart.

"Yeah but I'm not your friend."

"Yes you are."

"Since when?"

"Since awhile ago, silly," And then she laughs, as if she said something funny.

Ever since the incident during the wee hours of the morning, their group won't just leave me alone. The three from my house even offered- forced, really- to walk me to the dorms, promising a time to bond before they left me fuming by the door. Fortunately, there was no other soul to witness the miracle that happened it could easily be something that came off Hogwarts: A History.

That is how unbelievable this whole thing is.

Not caring about the glares I'm starting to get from the others, I give the girl beside me a glare of my own. "Why do you even want to be friends all of a sudden?"

"No reason honey," Holden suddenly pipes up as he takes a seat in front of us. Great. Another reason for the others to stare. "We just want to."

"More like Jordan wants to. What's in it for you?" I deadpan.

"If June wants to be friends with you, we want it too," Says Lalisa.

"What a weird friendship," I mutter with raised eyebrows, not really getting their logic. "Okay let's say you really do want to be friends-"

"We do!"

"-but why? I don't understand," I breathe heavily. "It's just weird. After all these years, you guys decide to befriend me now and you don't even care if I don't want to."

"Do you not want it?" Holden asks in the air of someone who thinks he knows the answer.

Well sucks for him because my answer isn't what he thinks it is. "No," I reply, watching his face fall. I don't need friends. I don't want them.

They are silent for a while, only staring at me like I'm someone they can't figure out. And maybe that's it. They're just really interested about my closed-off persona to the point of wanting to get close to me, only to leave me after they realize I'm not that interesting anymore.

"Well sucks for you we won't be leaving you anytime soon," Holden suddenly says with a smirk on his face, leaving me stunned.

*

I have Potions after lunch and even though it's not a subject I love, I am more than relieved to leave the house table and the three people who were constantly annoying me all throughout the meal when the clock struck quarter to one.

Giving them a hasty goodbye and a forced smile, I quickly excuse myself from the table to head to my next class. It isn't until I am near the steps of the dungeons that I realize we are to be sharing the class with the Gryffindors.

I stop in my tracks, earning a chorus of complaints from the students who are behind me.

"Oy muggle! Watch where you're going!"

"Good Azkaban! Why is she such a slowpoke?"

I don't pay attention to what they are saying but instead pace in my spot, thinking about what I will do when I meet the two stubborn donkeys again.

Even when I already expressed my indiferrence towards them, just like the other three, June Jordan and his dear friend won't just take no for an answer when it comes to proving me wrong about them. About them wanting to befriend me because they want something. And maybe they also just want to prove to me how everything in this world will fall back to place, as if nothing problematic happened, when you have friends by your side.

I don't even know what's the reason behind their intentions but all I could say is they're too late.

I don't think they'll be able to pick up the broken pieces of me I left scattered everywhere since second year. I'm far too broken for that. Far too unbelieving that magic could still have the flare I believe they had when I was a kid.

There's just nothing good that comes with it.

I actually think I'm better off without it- without the people involved in it- despite all its perks.

Lost in my thoughts, I don't notice some Hufflepuffs purposely bump into me until I land on my butt at the bottom of the steps, yelping. I hear ugly laughter from the group and I am about to hex them when pain suddenly cuts across the hand I use for my wand. I try to stand but only wince when pain also erupts from my ankle.

"Who do you think you are, sucking up to Holden like that, huh?" One of the girls asks and I look up to glare at her caked face.

"And not to mention Sol," Her pet butts in from beside her. "You have no right to even be in the same house as him!" A series of agreements echo from the others, making me roll my eyes at their pettiness.

Only deep inside, I am fighting hard not to let the tears win because I got to admit, that still hurt even after hearing it a lot of times.

"Yeah you should just leave!"

"You only look like Lalisa's maid so don't even bother-"

"Don't you guys have anything better to do than pick on someone from your own house?"

A familiar voice interrupts, causing the crowd around me to become quiet. Footsteps draw near us and I don't realize how affected I am by their words when I feel hot tears slowly spill from my eyes the moment I see the people I dread meeting at that very moment.