Ariella suffered in silence; all eyes were on her, even Professor Lupin for educational purposes. She could feel Ron’s dagger like eyes staring at her through her peripherals, Hermione and Neville felt sympathetic towards Ariella because they knew how Ron could be, however, the felt the way she dealt with it could have been handled differently. Harry, on the other hand, didn’t say a word.
As class ended, Ariella kept her mouth shut. She grabbed her books and headed straight out the door to her next class. However, she hesitated as Ron and Harry stood at the entrance, she stood by her desk and opened her textbook as she flipped through the pages as she waited till they left. Harry looked back and caught Ariella looking up; she quickly brought her head down and scanned through the pages. He pulled Ron by the arm and left the class, she waited a minute before she headed out. She left the room in a hurry to get to her next class, Potions.
However, near the Dungeon, Ariella noticed people pressed against the wall, whispering to one another as she walked by. She felt the hairs on her arm and neck rise, her heart was beating fast.
“Just ignore them.” She said to herself as her eyes stared at the stone pavement under her feet.
She wanted to disappear, it didn’t matter who she met, and it wasn’t worth any of this. She wanted to disappear; she wanted to be that invisible girl again.
As she was deep in thought, her train of thought was lost as an incantation was loudly casted from behind her. Before she could turn around, her feet felt like gelatin, a force was pulling them opposite in the direction she was walking.
“Supplanto!” The spell that was casted by one of students pressed up against the wall.
Ariella found herself face to face with the pavement, her hair covering her face and her books pressed against her chest; the corner of the book hitting her rib cage. She could hear laughter surrounding her, she pulled her body up and sat on her knees as she pulled her hair back and saw all eyes on her. She could see Harry and Ron from a distance, Ron quickly turned away but when he noticed Harry was still staring at her, he pulled his arm and whisked him away.
She could feel her eyes stinging as her vision slowly blurred, she didn’t want to cry, she didn’t want to give everyone the satisfaction but she couldn’t help herself. She stood up and brushed off any dirt that lingered on her robe, she bent down to pick up her book but someone beat her to it.
When she looked up, it was Oliver was a face of sorrow and anger.
“Guys, back off. Any more of this and I’ll alert a Professor!” He said as he eyed everyone within his gaze.
It was pure silence but as everyone started to disperse, she could hear the murmur began and already she could form parts of their conversation in her head.
“Are you alright?” He asked once the number of people began to decline.
Ariella didn’t make eye contact; she dropped her head once he asked everyone to leave. She felt a tear drop run down her face; she quickly brushed it off with the back of her hand.
“I’m fine. You’ll just make everything worse if you continue to help me. Thank you and all, I appreciate it but, I think it’s best if you just keep your distance for the time being.” She said.
She heard the tone of surprise in his voice as he tried to find his words. She felt terrible for hurting him but this was for the best, if only she wasn’t the person she was, then things would be different. But, she’s not that type of girl.
As Oliver’s words failed to surface, she left the open ended conversation and walked away heading straight to her class, ignoring any more distractions. As she was a few steps away, Oliver found his voice.
“Ariella, I just want you to know that I care about you,” He said with his voice loud and confident, he turned his body with her back facing him, unafraid to say how he truly feels. “I care because I like you.”
Oliver’s straightforward confession made Ariella feel worst. She felt she was doing him injustice by knowing his feelings and not acting upon them. She slowly turned around and looked him in the eyes, his brown eyes that captivated the sun’s rays.
“I know you do and that’s why it makes it much more complicated than it needs to be.” She said, she looked down and slowly pivoted her body away “I’ll see you this weekend.” She said still holding on to her promise before she scurried off to class.
Potions class was exactly the same as Defense against the Dark Arts except this time, Ariella sat beside Draco Malfoy. She sat there waiting for Professor Snape to give the lesson as her anxiety churned inside of her, awaiting Draco’s sarcastic and idiotic comments towards her situation. By surprise, when Professor Snape was finished, Draco didn’t say a word; instead he sat there chuckling with his head rested in the palm of his head.
“What?” She said scared yet irritated from his glance.
“Is it true? I heard it from Pansy.” He asked as he brought out the cauldron.
“It depends what you heard.”
“That you and the incompetent Gryffindor Quidditch Captain are dating? I didn’t know that he was your type.” Draco said as he made a face when he mentioned Oliver.
She didn’t know why she was upset the way Draco talked about Oliver but she knew that she wouldn’t tolerate it especially from him. She walked away from the table to gather the ingredients, coming back with a completely different attitude.
“It’s sad yet ironic. You’re talking about incompetence. Well, your girlfriend has a mouth yet she doesn’t have a brain to realize that those rumors are false. We’re not dating.” She said proudly and totally out of her character, however, the change didn’t faze her
He pulled back to her words but he wasn’t going to let this conversation end on her side. He started to fix the potion despite the tension between the both of them.
“She’s not my girlfriend.” He began as he averted Ariella’s gaze but brought his head up once he changed the topic “But don’t deny it. I was there. The night we talked, while you were hiding eavesdropping, so was I.” Ariella slowed her actions the more Draco explained how he was right. “He likes you and considering what happened today, you like him.”
Ariella’s mouth hung out aghast yet on the inside, her sudden reaction made him laugh. He continued working on the potion, but she noticed how Draco gave her situation a lot of thought.
“Well, this seems as if it matters to you.” He looked at her through his peripherals. “Could it be that you’re interested in me?” She said teasingly just to get back at him.
He scoffed and sharply turned his head towards her, his face showed disbelief but all she could see was doubt. “Don’t flatter yourself.” He said.
“Well, you have an odd way of talking because it looked as if you were going to kiss me.”
“KISS YOU?!” He yelled out which caught everyone’s attention, Ron gave an odd expression as well as Harry. Both Ariella and Draco looked away from each other; Ariella noticed Pansy giving her a deadly glare that sent a shiver up her spine.
Before Ariella could turn around and rebuttal, Professor Snape walked around inspecting everyone’s progression; Ariella and Draco spent the rest of the time working with tension between the both of them.
As Ariella was getting another ingredient from the shelf, Pansy personally shoved her shoulder against Ariella’s. Ariella stared at her with frustrations; she didn’t want to deal with her.
“You listen, you little slut. I don’t care about you and that stupid Quidditch Captain; you just leave Draco alone. Do you understand?” She sweetly smiled; however, it wasn’t as sweet as it seemed to be.
“No one asked for you to talk, Parkinson.”
Pansy gave a disgusted glance at Ariella before she grabbed what she needed. Before Pansy turned away, she looked over her shoulder.
“I’d like it better when no one knew who you were. Know your place by the end of the year.”
“And if I don’t?”
“Well, you better hope Sirius Black doesn’t get you before the Dementors get a hold of him.”