HARLOW OPENED THE DOOR to her dorm room. pansy and daphne were sitting on their beds, they turned to look at her when they heard the door open.
"look who it is," daphne said.
"hey," she greeted.
"so where were you last night?" pansy asked.
"we got back late and you weren't here." daphne told her.
"whose the boy? anthony?" daphne gasped, "did you and anthony finally do it?"
"what? no gross!" harlow shook her head, "never with anthony."
"so? where were you?" inquired pansy.
"cedric's."
pansy and daphne gasped, "no way!"
"you owe me five galleons." daphne said to pansy.
pansy threw her head back and groaned, pulling out the five galleons from her back pocket and handing it to her.
"so," pansy smirked and held out her hands apart about the size of a soda can. harlow gave her a confused look. "oh my god, it was bigger?" she extended her hands out more.
"what?" harlow realized what she meant and blushed in embarrassment, "no! it wasn't like that."
"than what was it like?" daphne asked.
harlow sighed, "remember that argument we had?" pansy and daphne both nodded in unison, eyes fixated on harlow who was pacing, she came to a stop and looked at them, "i just wanted to apologize."
pansy squinted, "i don't believe it."
"you guys didn't do anything?" asked daphne, "like at all?"
harlow laughed, "no."
pansy turned to daphne, "you owe me my five galleons back."
"fine." daphne sighed and picked up the five galleons, giving it back to pansy.
"you guys are so weird." harlow grinned.
"did you guys at least sleep in the same bed? did he at least try to do something?"
harlow thought back to last night, how she'd accidentally fallen asleep on top of his bare chest. she realized how safe she felt with him, how the rest of the world seemed to fade away when she was with him. she shook her head, "nope and nothing ever will, i told you guys were just friends. we'll always be just friends."
"sure harls, if that's what you think."
harlow scoffed and rolled her eyes, "shut up."
ϟ
the next day, harlow sat down quietly in professor lockhart's class. she tapped her foot, anticipating for him to end class.
professor lockhart was moving up and down the aisles of desks, he stopped when he reached his desk. he turned around and checked his watch.
"ah, it appears we've run out of time." he told the class, "for homework read chapter 12 of my new book, you'll be tested on it tomorrow."
the class let out a groan but began packing up and filing out one by one. she looked over to one of the desks to see harry, hermione, and ron packing up their things. she watched as they walked out, she followed after them, grabbing her stuff.
she walked out, picking up her pace trying to find them, she spotted them out of the corner of the three of them walking towards the gryffindor common room.
"harry!" she called out, harry turned around and looked at her. harlow saw him tell hermione and ron something, she assumed he said something similar to 'go on without me.' she walked up to him, "long time no talk, huh?"
"i suppose." he responded nervously.
"can i ask you something?" harlow asked, he nodded in response. "did you have a weird dream last night?"
"no." he replied shortly, not looking at her.
harlow furrowed her eyes, "what's your deal?"
"i don't know what you mean." harry said.
"you're acting weird, we haven't talked in weeks and here i am reaching out to you and you're acting all strange."
"look, harlow." he paused. "people, they've been talking ever since mrs. norris was petrified."
harlow scoffed, "yeah, i know. thanks for reminding me though."
"harlow can you be honest with me?" he asked.
"yeah, of course." harlow said.
"why'd you do it? open the chamber?"
harlow laughed, "you're not serious, are you?"
harry wasn't laughing, "only the heir of slytherin can open it, who else could it be?"
she shook her head, "those are just rumors, why would you ever think- you're supposed to be the one person in this world who knows me best and you think i did this?"
"harlow, you're not the same person you were when we first came here." harry muttered, looking down.
"you're wrong."
"when hermione began complaining about you hanging out with the slytherin's i didn't see the big deal, but now you're becoming just like them."
"what's wrong with that?" harlow spat, "they're my friends and they're good people."
"good people?" harry scoffed, "you can not be serious."
"i'm dead serious."
"the same people that called hermione a mudblood, the same people that have tried to make me miserable since i stepped foot in hogwarts, and you think they're good people?" harry fumed.
"that was draco, you can't condemn all slytherin's just because you don't like draco. that's simply foolish." she argued.
"'there isn't a witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in slytherin.' that's what ron told me the first night here." he told her.
"so you get to be the chosen one, 'the boy who lived', but i have to be the bad one, huh? that is so unfair."
"if you just came clean, maybe you won't have to be the bad one anymore."
"i'm not guilty." she yelled, all of the windows inside of that hallway shattered with the sound of her raised voice, it sent glass everywhere.
harry looked at her in disbelief, he blinked at her, mouth agape. "did you-"
students and teachers began to gather in the hallway. she didn't even want to look him in the eye. she turned around, still avoiding his gaze and ran away.
ϟ
harlow sat staring at her dorm room ceiling, it was dark out now. pansy and daphne had tried talking to her, which she gave no reply to. she didn't bother going to dinner either. pansy and daphne tried their best to cheer her up, before leaving for the great hall, yet it was no use.
she heard a knock at her door, she didn't feel like getting up. she heard another knock after that, she tried her best to ignore it. there was another knock, it was harder this time.
harlow groaned and got up, she yanked the door open, "what do you want-" she stopped when she realized who it was. "tom?"
"hey, harlow." he smiled.
harlow didn't smile back, "where the hell have you been? you kiss me and then you just leave?"
"well, first off you kissed me."
"whatever!" she groaned.
"my mother, she fell ill. i needed to go home and take care of her." he told her.
"oh," her angry face dropped, "i'm sorry. is she okay?"
he grinned, "yes, she wasn't for awhile but she is now."
"good." she motioned with her hands, "come in."
he walked in, harlow shut the door behind him. he sat down on her bed, harlow sat next to him.
"i'll admit i was worried, i haven't seen you in about a month, and with the chamber being open-" she began.
he took his hand in hers, "i'm fine, don't worry."
harlow shook her head, "you cant just do that."
"do what?" he pushed her hair behind her ear.
she took her hand out of his, "leave without telling me and then come back and act like everything is normal."
tom scoffed, "that's fair, i suppose."
harlow looked away from him and stood up, she walked towards the window, staring out onto the lake.
harlow heard foot steps behind her, tom spoke again, "tell me harlow, was it you that shattered those windows earlier today?"
she spun around, her eyes meeting his, "how did you know about that?"
"because, i can feel your power harlow. i haven't felt power like that in ages." he told her. "sometimes things just happen right? that you can't control?"
she looked down for a moment then met his eyes again and nodded, " i just get so angry sometimes and i'm afraid that one day i might hurt someone."
"i can help you control it, if you let me." tom offered.
"how?" she asked. "if i can't even control it how could you help me?"
"because the things that were learning now, i've been taught when i was a child. i know more about magic then any other person here. so do we have a deal?"
harlow paused and nodded, "we have a deal."