TWO WEEKS. HARLOW THOUGHT two weeks since she and draco had fought. she had spent the last two weeks helping around hogwarts because of her momentary lapse of judgement. the teachers had told her that they needed time to decide further punishment.
harlow sat in dumbledore's office, tapping her foot impatiently. "so is it decided?"
"yes, miss potter's it's decided." dumbledore replied dryly, pacing around the room.
she crossed her arms, "so? what's the verdict? am i expelled or not?"
"no, you are not expelled." he said, harlow smiled widely before he began speaking again, "but we have arranged for you to talk to someone, a counselor."
her smile dropped automatically, "it took you two weeks to decide to send me to a shrink?"
a voice came from behind her, "taken the seriousness of your actions, i think this is more than generous."
she turned around to see snape in the back corner of the room, "it's not my fault." she stated, "draco provoked me."
"that is no accuse, miss potter." dumbledore spoke
harlow turned back to him, "i suppose." she paused, "are we done? i have a dance to get ready for."
ϟ
harlow rushed into her dorm room closing the door behind her. she looked over at pansy, standing looking in a mirror. her short brown hair had curlers in and she was doing her makeup. on the other side of the room daphne was at her vanity, a curling iron in her hand, her hair was almost all curled.
pansy stopped doing her mascara and turned to her, "what took you so long?"
"doesn't matter, daph are you still doing my hair?" she asked.
daphne nodded and took her curling iron out of her newly curled hair, she stood up and pointed to her vanity seat, "sit."
harlow walked over to her vanity and sat down, as daphne began curling her hair pansy began to speak, "did dumbledore tell you if you're expelled or not?"
"yeah, i'm not expelled, but i have to go to a shrink." harlow explained.
daphne laughed, "as if you'll ever do something a therapist tells you, you're too stubborn."
harlow furrowed her eyebrows, "not true."
pansy smiled, "so true."
"whatever," she laughed, "pans, did draco ever end up asking you?"
pansy groaned, "no, but i told theo my date canceled, so he should be here in an hour-ish."
harlow turned her head to talk to pansy, "don't move." daphne scolded.
harlow faced forward again, "right, sorry. i'm sure you'll have fun with theo, plus he's cuter."
pansy shrugged, "i'm not sure about that."
after what felt like forever, daphne finished harlow's hair. it was curled, the front two pieces were pulled back, half-up-half-down. she finished the last of her make up then got up to get her dress.she pulled it out of the closet and unzipped the dry cleaning bag it was in.
harlow looked to pansy who was finishing her updo, then to daphne who was putting on her dress. she then heard a knock on the door, "are you both ready?"
daphne nodded, "yeah, we'll wait for you though."
"no, it's fine." she smiled at them.
daphne and pansy nodded, daphne opened the door to see theo and ernie standing eagerly. daphne gave ernie a hug while pansy just gave theo an awkward smile.
before leaving pansy turned to harlow, "are you sure you don't want us to wait?"
"it's really fine." she told them.
daphne nodded once more before disappearing through the door with ernie, pansy and theo were left standing in the doorway.
"you look, uh, beautiful." he spoke up.
"yeah, thanks." she said offering him another awkward smile, "we should, um, get going."
he nodded, they walked out of the dorm, shutting the door behind her.
harlow put her dress on, it was short, red, and slightly bunched at the sides. she looked at the back of the dress, it was for the most part exposed except for the crossed straps. she put on her black louboutin's that she borrowed from pansy. she put in her earrings, they were dangling with small white stones hanging from them.
she looked at herself in the mirror one last time before opening the door to head to the dance. as she was rounding the corner of the hallway she banged into someone.
"sorry," she said finally looking at them, "tom?"
he was dressed in his usual school uniform, he looked no different from the last time she had seen him about a month earlier.
"we've got to stop meeting like this." he joked.
harlow laughed, "i suppose."
"i was actually on my way to find you." he told her.
"why?" she asked.
"i wanted to give you something." he said, from his pocket he pulled out a necklace, it had a white stone pendent that looked similar to her earrings.
harlow laughed, "you brought me a necklace?"
"no," tom replied, "my family and yours, we used to do business together, back sometime in the early 1900's your great-grandparents traded it to my family, i wanted to return it back to its rightful owner."
harlow stared at him wide-eyed. the only real family she had was harry, besides that they were completely and utterly alone. she used to catch herself dreaming about her parents when she was younger, what they were like, if they loved her at all. recently, she thought about them all the time. she clung desperately to what was left of her family she could've had. she found herself wondering for a minute what it would have been like if her parents were still alive, if she would be happy, more content.
when she snapped out of her thoughts, she gave him a sad sort of look, "that was my family's?"
he nodded and stepped behind her, moving her hair out of the way. he clasped the necklace together around her neck, "and now it's yours."
harlow turned to face him, "why are you giving this to me now?"
"i thought it'd look beautiful on you," he smiled, "looks like i thought right."
harlow thought back to the night she kissed him, how giddy she was in excitement, the way his presence made her feel butterflies, then she thought about how it was like when he disappeared with no explanation. though she didn't know him that well when he left to take care of his mother she still felt his absents. she hated when people left, she knew she wouldn't be able to give tom a second chance and risk him leaving again.
"tom-" she began.
"i know," he smiled, "you should probably go."
ϟ
the great hall appeared different then it had the day before, the usual four long tables that covered the room were gone. instead they were replaced by eight cuticular tables on each side of the great hall, leaving a bare space in the middle of the room, which was now covered with dancing students. the ceiling was covered in thousands of white roses. where dumbledore's chair once stood was a white twelve foot tall christmas tree.
cedric stood near the entrance of the great hall. his usual messy hair was combed back with a piece sticking out. he ran his fingers through it. he was wearing a black suit with dress shoes.
cedric saw anthony make his way through the crowd. anthony's hair was the same as it always was, the only thing out of the ordinary was his black suit with a red tie.
"hey," anthony called out, walking up to him.
"hey, what's up?" cedric asked.
"have you seen harlow?" anthony inquired.
as almost on cue, anthony and cedric turned to see harlow walking in the door looking around, presumably. cedric looked over at her, to him she looked beautiful. cedric felt like the air was knocked out of his lungs. everything about her was gorgeous, the way her red dress hugged her body, the way not a hair was out of place.
she looked back at him, at least he thought she was. she smiled at him. then cedric realized harlow wasn't looking at him, she was looking behind him. he turned to see where she was looking. anthony.
she walked up to anthony and hugged him. cedric stared at them. anthony looked at cedric and smirked giving him a thumbs up behind harlow's back. cedric shot him a fake smile back as harlow pulled away from anthony and looked at cedric, she offered him a small smile. a hand grabbed cedric's arm, it was stella's hand. cedric saw harlow's smile falter as she stood next to anthony.
"there you are." stella said.
stella's long blonde hair was straightened, she was wearing a one sleeved neon pink dress, with white shoes to go with it. in her manicured hands she held two clear plastic cups with red liquid in them.
cedric turned to her, "yeah, i thought i told you where i was going?"
cedric turned back to see harlow, but she was gone. he spotted her dancing with anthony in the center of the room.
"anyways, i got us punch, but if you ask me it's more alcohol then punch." she said while taking a slip.
"yeah." he responded dully.
harlow grabbed anthony's hand and took him further out into the crowd of people. she stopped abruptly and pulled him in close to her, their faces were only inches apart and he placed his hands firmly on her hips, swaying them to the beat of the music.
after a few songs the two of them made their way over to get a drink. anthony grabbed two cups and poured their drinks. he handed one to harlow before taking a sip of his own.
harlow took a sip then cringed, "did someone slip vodka into this?"
anthony's face contoured into a smile, "probably, usually happens every year."
"well, that's annoying." she said.
"why's that?" anthony asked.
harlow brought her face closer to his, "not everyone wants to be wasted all the time like you." she whispered. she pulled away from him, putting her drink down she grabbed his hand and yanked him, making him drop his cup. she dragged him out into the middle of everyone once more.
"i was drinking that." he yelled over the noise.
"too bad." she smiled.
the two of them began dancing once again. once the song had ended, the next one was a slow song. harlow gave him a smile and then put his hand in his, she put her other hand on his shoulder, while he put his on her lower back.
the two danced together, he moved his hand lower on her back, "how about we go drink some more, maybe have a little fun." he whispered to her, playing with the strap of her dress.
"no." she whispered back, sternly.
"come on please, we can get you out of this dress." he smirked.
her happy expression was gone, "we've had this conversation so many times, why would you think this time would be different?"
he didn't answer her question, instead he just scoffed, "why do you always got to be like this, harls? we always have fun before you reject me."
"don't ruin tonight, anthony." she said, "any night but tonight."
"then come on we can get out of here, i can make your night." he whispered.
by now the slow song had changed to an up-beat song. the people around them began to dense as they were arguing.
harlow flinched away from him, "are you hard of hearing or something? no."
"whatever then i'll go find someone else." he spat and began walking away.
"what? no, anthony-" harlow grabbed his arm.
he spun around to face her, "harlow, i'm not your fucking boyfriend. why don't you get that you were never more than just a hookup to me, i mean i thought i made it perfectly clear. god, and i thought i was dumb."
"anthony-" she began.
"harlow." he cut off, "you're so fucking stupid. why would i ever want something more out of you then that? why would you ever think i would want you for more than your body?"
there was a loud snap noise, it took anthony a minute to realize what had happened. she slapped him. he felt his face begin to turn red. she turned around and walked away.
"bitch!" he called out. the people around him turned to stare at him, "what?" he snapped at them.
ϟ
harlow walked out of the great hall, she felt burning behind her eyes. she stopped and took her heels off, beginning to walk barefoot throughout the halls. she came to a stop a few feet away from the boys bathroom. she heard the distant music from the great hall as she leaned against the wall, slowly sliding down it and eventually sitting down, taking a deep breath to stop herself from crying.
she heard the boys bathroom door open and two boys walked out. it was hard for her to make them out at first, she only saw the outlines of them, tall and skinny. as they came closer she recognized them by their ginger hair. fred and george. fred and george seemed to realize her too, they came closer and sat next to her.
"hello, harlow," fred greeted.
"what are you doing on the floor?" asked george.
harlow looked at the bathroom that they just came from and saw smoke coming out of it, "nevermind that, did you guys just hot box the bathroom?"
"maybe." said george.
"perhaps." answered fred.
harlow laughed in response to them, she placed her heels next to her.
"so are you going to tell us?" asked george.
"what you're doing on the floor he means." said fred.
"i'm not telling you plus, you smell like weed." she smiled at them.
"astute observation, woman." george remarked.
"she's a smart one isnt she george?" fred said.
harlow laughed, "just needed a break from the dance."
"very well then," george said.
"can i asked you guys a question?" asked harlow.
"sure." replied fred and george.
"what did the two of you do the get the dance suspended for two years?" inquiered harlow.
"well." began fred.
"you see last year, there were these brownies they were handing out." explained george.
"and we decided to replace them with other brownies." fred finished.
harlow laughed, "no, you didn't."
"we did." they both said in unison.
harlow laughed again and got up, fixing her dress and putting on her shoes, "well, it's been fun, but i'm gonna go get some fresh air."
"bye, potter." fred and george said in unison.
"bye, weasley's."
harlow walked around, making her way through the empty dark hallways until finding the main exit of the school. she opened up the doors and took a deep breath in, breathing in the cold air. she stepped outside, she was shivering, looking at the new fallen snow on the ground. she looked up, it had begun to snow again, she smiled, deciding the cold was too much and she grabbed the door knob.
she felt something press against her spine and then a voice whispered in her ear, "scream and i'll kill you."
then everything went black.