CHAPTER THIRTY TWO: 𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐌𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐄'𝐒 𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐓𝐇 𝐃𝐈𝐋𝐄𝐌𝐌𝐀
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Hours had passed already and I was still wrapped in the comfort of my thick blankets, Hermione didn't dare to visit me, assuming that she understood what I wanted for now.
I wanted solitude, even just for a few hours. This was the first time I just laid there for hours, without contemplating about different things. I allowed myself to rest for once, in which I knew the incapability of myself of doing.
However, that didn't last long. My brain was back to its mindset, almost like an autopilot. Now, thoughts began buzzing back in my head. First, my mom, then Cedric, then Draco.
Draco.
I felt so stupid all of a sudden, this is definitely my fault. Or was it his? I really am trying to stop them from fighting, but I ended up defending Harry.
I just lost a friend.
But, Draco's the one who initiated the argument, so it's practically his fault. But then, I was the one who wanted to be friends with him, and he gave me a chance, in which I just wasted a few hours ago.
Should I apologize? Well, no. I'm not going to act vulnerable just for a boy.
Anyways, I've got other things to worry than this. But, what will Daphne and the others will say about this? What if Daphne avoids me?
My thoughts were interrupted with a knock on my door, it couldn't have been Hermione, because she would've went straight inside.
I frowned before standing up, slowly walking to the door, before turning the doorknob.
My eyes widened at the sight of Daphne, a frown on her face.
"Daphne!" I gaped at her in confusion as I opened the door wider.
"Didn't you know how worried I was? Last minute we were just eating casually, then now you passed out and Draco's suddenly telling us that you're no longer friends? Like what the hell?" Daphne put her hands around her waist as she sighed.
"What do you mean I passed out?" I frowned, I could clearly remember walking back to the common room to sleep.
"You.. didn't know?" Daphne looked at me in concern, clutching my hand.
"No, what happened?" I furrowed my eyebrows.
"You passed out in the corridor, thankfully a Hufflepuff saw you and asked for help, somebody was able to catch you before you fell on the floor. You were brought here and Madame Pomfrey decided to treat you personally instead of taking you to the hospital wing." Daphne mirrored my expression, tucking a hair with my ear.
So, it must've been a Gryffindor who helped me. I should thank them when I get the chance.
"Who helped me?" I raised an eyebrow curiously.
"They didn't say.. you didn't really know why you fainted?" Daphne crossed her arms.
"I really don't remember.. maybe it's just stress." I sighed, pinching my temples.
"Well, that's why I brought you.. this!" Daphne raised her other arm, revealing a basket of fruits. "I won't be giving you this until you tell me everything that happened, complete details!"
"Then I suggest you to come in, I'll tell you everything that happened." I said as she entered our dorms, grimacing around.
"How could you stay calm in here? All of these red colors are irritating my eyes." Daphne groaned, rubbing her eyes.
"Well, I've been here for almost a year now." I shrugged as we sat on my bed.
"So, spill." Daphne put her head under her hand as she leaned on my bed while she sat on the carpeted floor.
"It happened before Care of Magical Creatures, Draco and Harry were arguing, of course, it's Draco who started it. Then, I tried to stop them, but ended up fighting with Draco. Now, he's mad because I defended Harry, and based on what he said to you, we were no longer friends." I scoffed, laying on my bed in frustration.
"Draco's such a drama queen," Daphne rolled her eyes before snapping her fingers in front of me, "Do you have plans to make up with him?"
"What? No! He's the one at fault, I'm not making the first move." I scowled.
"Good, don't. Girls don't make the first moves." Daphne nodded at me before standing up and grabbing my arms to pull me up.
"No, I still want to sleep!" I whined as I tried to make myself heavy.
"You've been here for hours already, it's dinner soon!" Daphne succeeded in making me stand up as she ran her fingers on my hair, before adjusting my robes.
"I hate you." I scoffed.
"I love you too, now you can't be hungry in your time of the month, it'll make you more moody than our Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher." Daphne giggled as we went pass a few Gryffindors who gave us strange looks.
"How'd you know it was my time of the month?" I raised an eyebrow as we locked arms, walking out of the common room.
"It's pretty obvious, you're more cranky as usual." Daphne shrugged as she skipped through the halls, therefore making me also jump a bit.
"And you're more lively as usual-don't make me jump, idiot!" I yelped as I felt the strange feeling on my chamber of secrets.
"Oh, sorry!" Daphne stopped skipping, walking with me decently for once.
We arrived at the Great Hall where the were still a few people around. I was about to turn right, when I remembered I had no more affiliations with the Slytherins except Daphne.
"Daph," I spoke as I removed my arm from her grasp, she looked at me in question, "I'm sitting in the Gryffindor table, you can go now, thanks." I gave her a tight smile.
"No, I'm sitting with you whether you like it, or not." Daphne raised both of her eyebrows at me before leading me to the Gryffindor table as if she was the one who's in the house.
Food were already set on the table, we wouldn't have to wait for Dumbledore, since it was just a school night.
I don't have any sights of the trio, I'll find them later on. I ate silently as Daphne told me all of the things that Draco told them earlier.
"..we were all hanging out in the common room, sharing the sweets that Draco's father gave us, then suddenly, Draco went in looking like he saw his own father twerking," Daphne explained. "Then he passed us, we were a bit confused on why he was acting up so we asked him, did you know what he said?"
I raised an eyebrow at her in response.
"He said, "Ask your mudblood friend," and we were like, "Who?" and he replied, "You know exactly who," then he walked out. Like, the audacity! Theo told me that Blaise and him tried to cheer Draco up, but all Draco said was that he was no longer friends with you. I almost beat the shit out of him if it wasn't for the boys stopping me." Daphne scoffed as she crossed her arms.
"It's fine, those three weeks of our friendship lasted good." I shrugged as I bit a ham on my fork.
"It's not fine, none of these is! You and Draco were basically inseparable in those three weeks and I'm not letting it end just because of a petty fight." Daphne scowled as she rounded up her fists.
"Maybe Gryffindors and Slytherins weren't supposed to be friends after all," I mumbled, but was hit by Daphne on the back of my head, resulting me to yelp.
"I'm sorry, but bitch, do I look like a ghost to you? Hello?" Daphne raised an eyebrow as she raised the collar of her robes, revealing her Slytherin crest.
"You know you're an exception, Daph." I rolled my eyes.
"Why, thank you! It's an honour!" Daphne gasped while holding her chest dramatically, before turning her face into a straight one after. "Seriously, you and Draco need to make up. I can't stand both of you being like this."
"Don't be ridiculous, Daph. It's literally five hours since we ended our "friendship" quoted by him." I scoffed as I drank on my goblet of pumpkin juice.
"Exactly, and I can't get used to both of you not calling each other Hobbs and Jills while being smoochy smoochy." Daphne mocked as I glared at her.
"We weren't being smoochy smoochy!" I lightly punched her on the shoulder as she dodged me.
"Okay, if that's what makes you sleep at night." Daphne shrugged as she stood up when she saw that I was done eating.
I stood up with her as we locked arms like a married couple, thankfully the Gryffindors didn't gave us weird stares, they were probably used to see Daphne hanging around.
We were halfway through the Great Hall when we saw Ron walking inside along with Seamus.
"Ron!" I stopped walking as I grabbed his arm, he frowned when he saw me as he removed his arm from my grasp.
"What the bloody hell do you want?" Ron scowled at me as he took a step away from me.
"What's got your wand in a knot? I wanted to talk to you-" I was cut off by Ron scoffing.
"About Harry, your fraud of a friend? No thank you, Hermione already tried. Don't bother convincing me." Ron shook his head as he scoffed with a glare before proceeding to walk away.
"Why are you even mad at me? I didn't even do anything." I raised an eyebrow at him before he could go out of ear's reach.
"Ask Malfoy, your so called best friend. Hermione's on the hospital wing." Ron said without turning around, but I could sense his stern voice.
"What?" I frowned as Daphne only went quiet. Until it dawned upon me, today was the day Draco made 'Potter Stinks' badges, the same day he and Harry tried to curse each other, only to hit Goyle and Hermione.
"Oh, hell no." I mumbled as I started walked quickly out of the Great Hall.
"Where are you going?" Daphne asked, I stopped in my tracks.
"Hospital wing, do you want to go?" I asked as she nodded before walking out with me.
We passed students who seemed weirded out by our fast walking, almost running.
"Hey, Nicolette!"
Daphne and I slowed down when I searched for the voice who called me, I saw Theo waving at me along with Blaise.
I grinned as I waved back at them, but it instantly faltered when I saw the familiar grey-blue eyes that I last saw were furious.
I grabbed Daphne's arm as I rushed the both of us to escape the scene immediately, as I didn't want any interactions with Drama Queen Draco anymore.
We walked inside the hospital wing, seeing Hermione in the third bed, accompanied by Harry.
"Hermione!" I rushed over to her as I gave her a hug.
"Hi, Nicolette. I'm fine, don't worry." Hermione said, half of her face were covered with what seemed to be bandages.
"Nicolette, can we talk?" Harry spoke up, I nodded in response as I squeezed Daphne's hand who only sat on the chair next to Hermione.
We sat on the small benches outside of the hospital wing as I heard Harry sigh.
"I don't know what to do, Ron's mad at me, almost all of Hogwarts hates me, and I do hope you weren't-"
"I'm not mad at you, and I believe it wasn't you who put your name in the goblet." I cut him off with a small smile.
"Are you sure? It's fine if you are though, I'm just hoping for you to understand me." Harry looked a bit shocked with my response.
"I do understand you, don't worry. I won't avoid you or anything, we're good." I patted his shoulder as I saw him calm down.
"I'm grateful with you, but I really wanted to talk to Ron, he just seemed so distant." Harry frowned.
"Oh, I'm sure he'll come around, maybe in the first task, he'll have the courage to be a decent best friend who'll support you for once. I don't think he'll let you go that easily, you've been together for what, four years?" I pursed my lips as I leaned on the wall.
"Probably, I'm scared for these tasks. Dumbledore said I must compete, I'll probably die in these tasks." Harry shook his head, sighing.
"You'll be fine, just trust your skills and instincts, you weren't a Hogwarts champion for no reason." I said, trying to make him cheer up a bit.
"Thank you, Nicolette. Oh, I'm sorry about Malfoy." Harry turned a bit red, probably from embarassment.
"No, it's fine. We're not friends anymore." I chuckled as I fidgeted with my sleeves.
"What?" Harry shot up as he looked at me with wide eyes, "Did I hear you right? You're not friends anymore?"
"Yeah, it's not a big deal anyway." I shrugged.
"No, it's definitely a big deal. I've seen the two of you bond, I'm not even mad that you abandoned us for him, but you can't possibly end your friendship like that!" Harry crossed his arms, adjusting his glasses on his nose.
"That's surprising," I gaped at him, "I don't think Draco wants to be friends with me again, you know his ego, bigger than Hagrid." I huffed, Harry laughed at me as he wrapped his arms on my shoulders.
"You're still not sure, come on, we've been gone for too long." Harry helped me stand up as we walked inside the hospital wing, arms still around me.
We saw Daphne and Hermione talking, which was a shocking sight, but I wouldn't complain.
"Took you both so long," Hermione huffed.
"Don't worry, it seemed like the both of them had a great talk." Daphne said, before turning to me and gave me a sneaky wink.
"We did, so where's Madame Pomfrey? Hermione needs to be fixed immediately." I said, spotting Madame Pomfrey treating a student on another bed.
"I'm eager to get these huge teeth off, I looked so horrible." Hermione groaned as she only laid on the bed.
Madame Pomfrey came not too shortly, as we watched Hermione get treated in a distance.
I scowled when a Hufflepuff passed us, wearing a "Potter Stinks" badge on his robe, giving us a smug look, especially to Harry.
"Piss off!" I yelled as Harry grabbed my arm to stop me.
"If I were you, I would've let Nicolette beat him." Daphne said, chuckling as she looked at her nails.
"And get a detention? I won't let her take the risks." Harry shook his head.
"Aw, such a sweetheart, Harry." Daphne chuckled even more, making Harry roll his eyes.
After a few more minutes, Hermione rose up from the bed, her beautiful face was back to normal, her long teeth were gone.
"How do I look?" Hermione smiled at us.
"Beautiful." The three of us said together, making Hermione flush.
"Have you eaten dinner yet?" Harry asked Daphne and I as we walked out of the hospital wing.
"We did, if both of you haven't, we'll accompany you." I said, Daphne nodding in agreement.
I looked at Harry, whom I just noticed with his hair looking like it was combed and his robes were straightened, not a folded part in sight.
"Why'd you look so groomed today, Harry?" I asked.
"Our photographs were taken earlier," Harry cleared his throat, "For the Daily Prophet."
"That's amazing, seeing yourself in the front page." Daphne gasped as Harry nodded at her.
"I was also interviewed, by Rita Skeeter." Harry grimaced as Daphne, Hermione and I mirrored his expression.
"I hate that lady," I huffed.
"My mother hates her so much, they've had a few fights, Rita Skeeter once liked to make up stories about my mother to make people hate her." Daphne scoffed, Hermione gasping at what Daphne said.
"If she was in the muggle world, her name would definitely be Karen.. or Mrs. Goodman." I mumbled.
"That's just outrageous!" Hermione frowned.
"She also called me a 12 year old, and how I've got tears in my eyes. I was thankful that Dumbledore saved me from her annoying presence." Harry rolled his eyes.
I knew exactly that Rita Skeeter and I will have some interaction, especially because I was Harry's friend, and I'm thrilled to meet her.