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═ ∘◦SIX: What Happened?◦∘ ═
∘◦There You Are ‖ ZAYN◦∘
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Neville Longbottom was one of the only people who Adelaide Greenwood had always felt completely comfortable around. The boy had never passed judgment or wrote her off for her bubbly personality like most people, including her friends, had done. The boy liked Addy for the exact reasons others didn't, he needed someone like her in his life, as he oftentimes got lost in his own thoughts.
The boy admired Adelaide's personality and her ability to let insults roll off her shoulder like they were nothing. He knew her well enough, and they were quite close, but they both had their secrets and knew it. Neither one had ever pushed the other to share, something that they both appreciated greatly.
Besides their emotional connection and common understanding for each other, they had their love for Herbology. While Neville was extremely talented in the subject, Adelaide simply enjoyed Professor Sprout and the teaching style. She was by no means bad at the subject, but she wasn't as good as Neville. Although to be fair, no one was as talented at Herbology as Neville was.
When the two of them got paired together as partners in class, they had no complaints like other students had with their partners. They enjoyed each other's company along with the fact that they did truly work well together. They were seated next to each other in their current double Herbology lesson. Kat and Mindy were behind them, as they had been paired together.
"Hey, Nev?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you think these Fanged Geraniums can hear us?"
Neville looked down at his friend, a bit amused. She was looking intensely at their shared plant, curiosity written across her features.
"Be careful, Addy, they bite." Neville placed a hand on her shoulder guiding her back, so she wasn't so close to the plant.
"Oh. I didn't know that." She looked up at him and smiled brightly, "If they could speak what'd you reckon they'd say?"
Neville laughed loudly shaking his head, "I don't know, probably something about keeping tiny brunettes out of their pedals."
It was Addy's turn to laugh, earning Professor Sprout to shoot the pair a look because of their loud laughing. But she hadn't scolded them as she had with other students. She was happy that Adelaide had been beginning to move past her loss and didn't want to scold her for fear that it might push progress back a few steps.
It had almost been an understanding between all the teachers that Adelaide would be getting a bit more slack this year. They knew it wasn't exactly the fairest way to act, but they all had feared the girl's reaction to Cedric Diggory's death and didn't want something they could've prevented to happen; again.
All the Professors were almost sure that even Snape had also silently agreed to their unspoken decision as the staff at Hogwarts. He had yet to yell at the Hufflepuff for being "insufferable" or laughing loudly at something her friends had said.
The keyword in that sentence was yet.
Addy turned to the parchment in front of her and started writing the answers Neville had been spewing out at her. They both decided it would be best if he did the practical part of their assignment and left Addy to do the writing.
Neville had looked over her shoulder to see if she was writing the correct information, but caught a glimpse of her bandaged hand, "Addy, what happened to your hand?"
Addy shot around and looked up at him and blinked, "Oh, nothing really. When I was feeding Fangs this morning I cut it, no biggie."
Neville eyed her suspiciously but let it go, as her reasoning did make sense. The pair continued to work together and were ahead of everyone else. Addy looked around the classroom and started to feel dizzy.
Neville immediately took notice and helped her to sit down in her seat, grabbing the attention of both Kat and Mindy from behind them. The pair shared worried looks and leaned over their table to insert themselves into the situation.
"Are you alright, Addy?" Neville asked as he grabbed her water from her bag handing it to her.
She nodded and took a sip from the water, "Yeah...yeah. Just a bit lightheaded, that's all."
She waved a dismissive hand at her three friends who all looked at her with worried expressions. She started to stand up again, but failed, grabbing onto the desk trying to stabilize herself as she fell to the ground. Her ears had started to feel clogged as if she couldn't hear anything and her vision blurred.
She looked up to see Neville squatting down beside her trying to speak to her, but she couldn't make out his words. Mindy and Kat appeared over his shoulder, along with Professor Sprout. She started to shake her head, closing her eyes as an overwhelming sense of nausea came over her.
She fell back from her sitting position, her head almost hitting the ground on her way down if it wasn't for Ron, who quickly caught her head in his hands after he came over with Harry and Hermione to see what the commotion had been for. He softly placed her head against her robes that were laying on the floor with her bag and spilled water.
When she opened her eyes, she couldn't make out anyone's faces. She had seen many brunette heads, along with a strawberry blonde and ginger. She knew who they were but couldn't quite bring herself to think on it too hard, as she had been extremely nauseous and lightheaded.
Addy opened her mouth to speak but couldn't get words to form. Her eyes had been fluttering shut and she was coming in and out of consciousness. She could tell that people had been talking to her, she just didn't know what they had been saying and she finally slipped into complete darkness.
Adelaide looked around, taking in her surroundings. She recognized the place as a pub in Hogsmeade. She looked around seeing a group of students around her, all of them talking. Hermione and Harry were stood at the front of the pub by the fireplace.
She sipped her butterbeer and smiled encouragingly at her friends. Hermione had started to speak, but she couldn't exactly tell what she had been saying. Then other students had started murmuring to each other, being sat at the front near Ron she wasn't paying much attention to the words and was busy looking at his freckled face.
Why she all of a sudden had this urge to look at his blue eyes and light-colored eyelashes was beside her. Although she didn't dwell on the thought too hard, as she felt like she enjoyed doing it, especially at that moment.
An argument had broken out around her, Ron had snapped a comment at a Hufflepuff that was sat behind her, she recognized him as Zacharias Smith, he was in her year. Addy smiled at Ron, obviously finding the comment funny.
Part of Addy knew that she should feel concerned about the fact that she truly had no idea what was happening. Like she didn't actually belong there, at that moment. But she didn't dwell on it, she felt comfortable, safe almost.
Her ears were a bit foggy and her eyesight didn't go far into her peripherals, but it truly didn't bother her as much as it should have. She enjoyed being in the moment, not feeling overwhelmed.
"Well if you told us more about what happened the night Diggory was killed-"
"If you've come here to hear what it looks like when somebody gets killed by Voldemort, I can't exactly help you. So you best clear out."
Adelaide now had begun to feel overwhelmed. She looked up from her butterbeer and locked eyes with Ron. He had said something, but it wasn't directed at her, she knew that, although he didn't break eye contact with her as he spoke.
Some odd reason she felt connected to him at that moment but knew that she should, that this wasn't odd for them to feel a bit connected like this. She blinked a few times composing her breath and finally looked away from Ron.
People around her had begun talking about her, the words were unclear to her, but she knew it was about her. She turned to look at Harry who had been arguing along with Kat, Mindy, and her brother.
When did they get here?
She turned back around and looked at Ron who noticed the look in her eyes, he had spoken directly to her and she nodded her head. Finally, she stood up and spoke, whatever she said she couldn't quite grasp onto and she was sure that she more than likely was going to regret the fact that she had snapped at a pub full of people. But, she didn't quite care, it felt quite freeing to finally snap at someone.
She turned back around and sat in her seat with a huff and began to calm her breathing. A few moments later people had begun to line up and sign a piece of paper at the front of the room.
After almost everyone had left she walked up and signed her name right under her brothers and smiled proudly at him. Sensing someone looking at her she turned from her interaction with her brother and was met with Ron, mid-conversation with Fred and George, looking directly at her nodding his head towards the door.
She had nodded her own head in understanding and went to follow him out the door after bidding goodbye to her brother. Once she stepped outside she found Ron standing by a bench and stood in front of him. He had asked her a question and she nodded, although her eyes glossed over again.
He pulled her into a tight hug and she had spoken a few words her tone very stern. Ron had chuckled, Addy felt the vibrations of his chest on her cheek and she smiled at the movement. Her heart has started beating fast and she pulled away from him. Ron had offered her arm and she hooked hers through and they started to walk along the road with their friends back towards the castle.
She had looked around at everyone and began to panic, although no one noticed. Her head turned quickly and she felt like she couldn't breathe. Her heart began to pound in her chest and her ears had a horrible high-pitched ringing sound, causing her to cover them trying to block out the horrible noise. Blinking rapidly she began to feel the world around her go fuzzy and begin to fade away.
Adelaide jumped up from the hospital bed and covered her ears, letting out a terrified scream. A few people jumped up and pulled her hands away from her ears guiding her back so she would be lying down. After she had calmed down she opened her eyes and looked around, taking in her surroundings. Sebastion was sitting in the chair next to her, Madam Pomfrey was stood on her other side, and Dumbledore was standing at the foot of her bed.
She blinked slowly a few times, an unreadable expression on her face before she decided to speak, "What happened?"
Her voice was extremely horse from her previous screaming.
Dumbledore had a look in his eyes that Adelaide didn't exactly enjoy seeing, "Well, you seemed to have passed out during your Herbology class-"
"I already know that." Addy had cut Dumbledore off and spoke quite bluntly, taking both Bash and Madam Pomfrey by suprise.
The old man chuckled softly and looked back at her, "We aren't sure what happened to you. Although, you seemed to be in quite the fright. Do you wish to tell me anything... unusual?"
Adelaide held eye contact with her headmaster. She didn't exactly know what happened either, so what exactly was there to tell him. She shook her head slowly and Dumbledore nodded his head but added a wink to the end. She knew that he knew that she wasn't being truthful, but he obviously didn't press, as he knew she would come to him when the time was right.
He hummed, "Very well. Sebastion, you may take her to Gryffindor tower for tonight, only to keep an eye on her. We don't want any repeats."
With that, he turned on his foot and walked out of the doors infirmary doors. Adelaide thanked Madam Pomfrey and Bash helped her stand up, and walk out of the doors. Once they were in the hallway Adelaide stopped, pulling her brother into a hug. He was taken back at first, but eventually snapped out of it and hugged her back with just as much force.
"Do you want to tell me what actually happened?"
She pulled away from the hug and looked up at him, "I honestly don't know, Bash. One minute I was writing down what Neville had told me to, the next I was in some random place. It was so weird and scary."
Bash's eyebrows creased, but he didn't question it further and placed his arm around her shoulder, guiding her back to his common room.
"I can go back to my own room you know, Kat won't let anything happen to me."
"I know, I just want to keep an eye on you, just for tonight. You gave us all quite the scare. Mimbulus Mimbletonia."
Adelaide rolled her eyes but followed her brother into his common room anyways. She wasn't in the mood to put up a fight. She sat on the couch while Bash ran upstairs to get her pajamas so she didn't have to sleep in her robes. After the pajamas were acquired she walked up to Mindy and Hermione's room to change and use the toilet.
Walking back down the stairs she sat on the couch once again and decided to pull out her homework, not wanting to fall behind. Bash, Lee, and the twins were in the corner of the room talking in whispers and letting out loud laughs every few minutes. Addy could only assume that they were planning some sort of prank, so she didn't pay much mind to them and tried to focus on her potions homework.
Awhile later the portrait door swung open and Mindy, along with the Golden Trio, walked in. Addy looked up but didn't have much time before she had been swarmed with questions from Mindy and Hermione.
Bash stood up and walked over to the commotion and put his hand on Mindy's shoulder, "Calm down a moment will you, spitfire."
Mindy pushed his hand off her shoulder in disgust, "Stop calling me that!"
Bash only laughed, "I'll stop when it no longer true. Now, if you all could please be calm and not bombard my little sister with questions and stress her out after she has just gotten back from the infirmary, it would be greatly appreciated. Goodnight children."
Addy rolled her eyes and watched her brother and his friends walk up the stairs to their dorm. When she turned back around everyone had been looking at her. Ron was awkwardly standing and she realized the only spot left was next to her, so she moves her feet and muttered an apology.
"Are you going to tell us what happened or what?" Mindy spoke up.
Addy rolled her eyes, "Or what."
Mindy shot her a look and she sighed, "Nothing happened. I passed out, that's all."
The two best friends locked eyes for a moment, and that's all Mindy needed to know that she would tell her later and that she didn't want to speak about it around all these people, even if they were friends. Hermione also picked up on the look the two shared, but decided not to comment on it, as it wasn't her place. But she wouldn't lie, she had found it suspicious.
After an awkward pause, the group had begun to talk about random things, but Addy hadn't been paying attention. She was trying to finish up her potions homework without falling asleep. Although she had failed at that and had fallen asleep only a few moments later, more than likely from the exhaustion of her day.
Mindy and Hermione both bid goodbyes to the boys walking upstairs to go to bed. Harry and Ron both stayed in the common room talking about quidditch. Although their conversation hadn't lasted long before Harry had begun yawning.
"I think Addy has got the right idea," Harry said with a light laugh.
Ron looked next to him and saw that Addy had fallen asleep, her homework still on her lap and her quill running ink all over her hand. She looked unbelievably adorable at that moment. Ron pulled a face at his own thoughts, completely surprised at the fact that he had even thought that.
"Let's head up," Harry stood up and walked over to the staircase.
Ron also stood up but looked back and Addy, "Yeah, I'll be up in a second."
Harry looked back and saw Ron looking directly at Addy. He began to take her homework out of her lap, placing it on the table next to her. He closed her inkpot and pulled the quill out of her hand, placing it in her bag. All while trying to be as quiet as possible, not wanting to wake the Hufflepuff up.
Then Ron took the blanket over the top of the couch and placed it over her small frame. Harry held back a smile and waited for Ron to notice that he was still standing there, watching him. When Ron finally stopped looking at the girl he turned back to walk up the stairs but froze seeing Harry. He was leaning against the wall, with a smug look on his face.
"What, it's good manners. She could've spilled ink on the couch." Ron defended
Harry nodded a smirk coming to his face, "Yeah, the poor couch. Although the blanket...?"
Ron knew Harry was just trying to get under his skin, but it was still working.
"Yeah well, she was shivering. Hadn't you noticed?"
Harry let out a laugh as they walked up the stairs, "No, but you did."
Ron shoved him and walked into their dorm, Harry in a fit of laughter followed behind and shut the door. The rest of the boys in their dorm looked at them puzzled, as they were making quite the ruckus.
"What's got your knickers in a twist, Ron." Dean Thomas laughed at the irritated look on his dormmate's face.
"He's angry that he has feelings," Harry laughed pulling off his shirt, beginning to get changed.
Ron, in turn, grabbed his pillow and threw it at Harry, hitting him square in the face.
"Feelings? What kind of feelings?" Neville questioned, now sitting up in his bed.
Harry pulled on his shirt and wiggled his eyebrows, "Romantic feelings,"
Harry then turned and threw the pillow back at Ron and began to get into his bed. Laughing at the baffled noises coming from Ron.
"I do not have 'romantic' feelings for her!"
"Sure you don't mate."
"Who are we talking about?" Neville asked, also laughing at the way Ron was reacting.
"Adelaide Greenwood." Harry laughed out.
"Adelaide Greenwood?" Seamus finally decided to join the conversation.
The boys looked between him and Harry. The tension between the two of them was high, but Harry had tried to not let it diminish his mood.
"Yep,"
"Ron, mate, good luck with that." Seamus laughed out pulling his eyes away from Harry.
"Wha- What's that meant to mean?" Ron said defensively.
"That was pretty defensive for someone who doesn't have feelings for her." Dean commented.
"Oh shove off, all of you." With that final comment, Ron drew his curtains and rolled over.