„Dear Diary,
The housepoints are a crucial part in the school system society here in Hogwarts. It's a competition between all four houses and sometimes even divides us more than we want. However, lately we all- apart from Syltherin- agreed that if either of the other houses wins they will be celebrated.
Gryffindor was in the lead and Slytherin didn't have a real chance to get after them. What I realized is that the other houses were very delighted at that sight, everyone expect the Slytherins of course.
You remember how I told you how they behaved when they won last time? Nothing against them as people, I met a few very cool mates throughout my school years and then we have Louis, but they are a pain in the arse when they win. And it would do Louis good to lose for once.
Realized I had the emphasis on was in the lead? Well yeah, because today when we got down to breakfast we had a big surprise waiting for us when we passed the pointglasses.
"I'm way too tired to function today. Why can't we have a veto for bed days, where we can decide whether or not we need a longer sleep break. I find it unfair how we have to stand up every day," I whine.
"Then I don't want to inform you about working," Gemma speaks up, getting a groan from me.
There are a few people gathered around the pointglasses. Gemma and I throw us a questioning look and move closer.
"Did something happen?," I ask the person next to me.
"Yes," the Gryffindor seems grumpy: "We mysteriously lost over 350 house points."
"Que?," I ask in disbelief.
Gemma next to me fidgets nervously on her feet, looking from the boy to the housepoints. The girl stands on tippy toes to see over the crowd in order to get a good look. The boy next to me looks at me confused.
"What?," I correct myself quickly: "How did that even happen? Did the system break?"
I tend to forget that not everyone is like my friends and now able to understand some phrases when I laps.
"No clue. Something happened and if I find out who, they hear a whole lot from me," the boy goes away and the moody clatter from the others around us is enough to realize no one is really happy about that outcome.
"Did the twins do something again?," Gemma pulls on my sleeve as we walk away into the Great Hall.
"Not even them could come up with a prank that would cost them that greatly," I mumble.
The Great Hall is loud and everyone is a bit moody today. The clatter and the sound feds Gemma up and she still takes ahold of my sleeve. I grab her hand sympathetically and stroke it gently, in hope that calms her down a bit. On some days her nerves get the better of her.
I look around the room and find the twins chatting away with some girl in their year.
"Let's go to the twins, they can hopefully tell us what is going on," I say to Gemma: "Don't worry, you'll feel better when we sit beside them."
"Jade, I don't know any on the Gryffindor table," she says hastily.
"You know Lee and the twins. You met Ron before and you know who those girls are," I try to reason with her, but she just shakes her head.
"I know who they are yes, but I don't really know know them. The twins tend to be so loud as well and Lee will try to prank me again. Please Jade, can we not go there."
I look at her and nod slowly: "Alright, then to our usual place or do you want to sit with Sean today? I feel like he can calm you down better than me anyway."
"Please to Sean," she looks down on the floor: "Sorry."
"You don't need to be sorry. I can talk to the twins later, your well-being is more important," I give her hand a squeeze and look out for her brother.
"Bad news though, Sean isn't here yet. Should we wait outside for him? Or do you want to sit with Louis instead? Or is it better if we go outside completely? Away from all these noise with some fresh air?," I'm trying my best in helping.
I have no idea how she is feeling right now and what exactly she needs. I never had to experience something like this before. All I can do is be there. I can feel her breath getting quicker with each passing second and the look on her face is the one she has when she gets overwhelmed. I decide it's better if I take action before this gets worse. I drag her along outside the hall and push open the entrance door.
A wave of cold crisp air hits our face and I instantly start to shiver. Though Gemma is priority number one right now. I keep adding some pressure onto her hand.
"It's fine Gemma. You can let it out now, nobody can see you apart from me. Need a hug?"
She shakes her head. She simply closes her eyes and breaths in and out a few calculated times. After a while she calmed down again and leans against the wall, letting go of my hand. I cross my arms in front of my chest with the hope I feel warmer then.
"I hate it," Gemma suddenly says: "I hate the fact that something as simple as some noise can do that to me."
"It wasn't just the noise Gemma, it was also crowded and warm in there," warmth that would be much needed now.
"But it's always crowded in there, why does that suddenly affect me that way? Look at you, you don't have a stupid problem with that. You can talk with whoever you like and don't get instant panic when someone talks to you you hardly know. No, you have fun when people approach you. You love to meet new people. Why can't I be like that?," she kicks a stone away.
"Well I'm a people person. Yes, I love to meet new people and hang out with them, to simply talk and have some fun. But that doesn't mean you can't do that as well Gemma. You just need a bit more time in opening up and there is nothing wrong with that. From the beginning till now you achieved a lot. At first you didn't even talk with me and we sat together. The only person you went to was your brother and now you even gained a Slytherin as a good friend to you, you love to hang out with alone. Or all those friends of your brother you now can talk to without a doubt, even though you aren't really friends?"
"Gemma, you did grow as well and there is nothing to be ashamed of if loud crowds sometimes overwhelm you. Some days you can deal with that perfectly fine and at some point you will be ready to get to know more of these Gryffindors."
"But you don't get overwhelmed at all. For you this is natural and I hate to see you interact so easily while I struggle to even open my mouth."
"I might not get overwhelmed in that matter, but I get overwhelmed when it comes to studying. I am nowhere near as organized as you are and you handle your schedule way better than me. I am the one still scribbling my essay in my bed because I forgot about it. Everyone has their little perks others don't have. You don't need to be ashamed of yours," I jump from one foot to the other.
Gemma nods and is silent. She still takes deep breaths and finally opens her eyes.
"I don't want to ruin the mood, but can we please go back inside. I'm freezing," my teeth already clapper.
"Alright," Gemma stands up.
"If Sean isn't there yet, would Louis be an option for you?"
"I think I can deal with that. The Slytherin table usually isn't loud."
With that she's right. The Slytherins like to keep to themselves in the morning and need their tea and coffee to wake up.
I sit down to Louis and his friends, there I realize Gemma isn't even near me. I turn around confused, she disappeared. I sigh.
Whatever.
"Is Gemma still asleep?," Jackson one of Louis friends asks.
"No, actually she was just behind me. Maybe she saw Sean or something," I shrug and take myself some toast.
"I don't see her," Jackson looks around for her.
"If you are so worried go look for her Jackson," Dinah wiggles her eyebrows at him.
"Shut up," he mumbles but refuses to look away from the door.
"Did I miss something?," I look confused towards Louis.
He has a smug grin plastered on his face and points at Jackson, then he makes puppy eyes and blinks a few times with his eyelashes before breaking into a laugh. Dinah next to Louis laughs as well and makes a heart gesture. I bite my lip to keep from laughing. Does Jackson has an interest in Gemma?
"Could it be that you have a thing for Gemma?," I turn to him with a smug expression settled on my face.
"HU?," he looks bewildered at me: "What? No."
Though the tip of his ears went a bit red and restrain myself from teasing him.
"I mean I can go and look for her if you want to see her?," I offer trying to sound nonchalantly.
"I can go too if you are to cowardly to go yourself lover boy," Louis says with a mouthful of eggs.
"I don't like her. Geez. I just need to ask her something for Potions," he defends angrily.
"Is it Amortentia?," Dinah suggests.
"You annoy the hell out of me, do you realize that sometimes?," he turns to Dinah.
"I love you too dickhead. By the way, there she is," Dinah points at the door where Gemma comes in with her brother.
I wave both of them over, giving Gemma an accusing look for bailing on me. If she saw it, she did a great job in ignoring it.
"Does someone have a clue, why on earth the Gryffindors lost so many points in one night?," that is Sean's greeting.
"I don't bloody care. We win this year, this is all that matters," Dinah retards, refilling her juice cup.
"I heard from Draco Malfoy that Harry Potter and some of his friends got into big trouble. He claims that they wanted to smuggle out a dragon. Straightly believed their lie and got into trouble himself. He's some kind of idiot if you'd ask me," Louis sighs and looks over to where Malfoy is sitting.
"Does he still think he owns this place because of his father?," Sean looks at Louis.
"Hasn't changed a single bit. How much I start to loathe him."
"Not only you, he goes onto my nerves if he dares to walk around the common room as if it was his," Dinah rolls her eyes.
"Also the way he sees himself entitled to fucking everything," Jackson exhales loudly: "Oh Gemma, can I have your potions notes? Yours are better organized than mines and Snape isn't that excited about my lack of commitment and wants to have a look at my notes later."
"Uhm, sure I guess. Should I get them now?," she stutters out.
"Nah, I'll later join you on your way back to your common room. You can give me it then."
"Why do you even write down what she wrote? Just use the copy spell and then you have perfectly organized and dotted down notes," Louis says.
"Because then he wouldn't learn anything. That wouldn't be right to use my sister for his advantage," Sean speaks up sternly.
Gemma gets a bit smaller beside him.
"Don't you dare use your work smart not hard on me," Sean says sternly.
"Wow geez. Don't worry," Louis takes another mouthful of eggs: "How is it possible that you even look more handsome when you are angry."
Sean chokes on his drink and for a moment we all say nothing.
"He is right though," Dinah starts: "You really do look handsome. Ever thought about a career as model? You'd pull that off."
"I'd love to see you on cooking books rather than Lockhart. My mother is crazy for that guy and I don't get it," Jackson says.
"He has this charming smile," I say grinning.
"And this hair, takes a lot of time to maintain that," Louis points out.
"I actually don't find him that attractive," Gemma speaks up, all eyes dart to her making her uncomfortable.
"Hola muchachos," the twins approach our table.
"Don't you mean amigos?," I raise an eyebrow at them.
"What if I just wanted to greet the boys? You two I am seeing more often, that isn't as exciting," Fred says.
"Besides, we could have continued with Hola chicas," George says.
"Doesn't matter, what happened with your points?," Dinah grins nastily.
Both their expression turned a bit sour: "Harry, Hermione as well as this Neville kid got caught outside the common room past midnight."
"Wouldn't be the bad thing, but McGi found out that they even tricked Malfoy and got him and Neville into trouble."
"Poor bloke always forgets the password"
"Malfoy is just a little git"
"Anyways each of them lost 150 points."
"The Gryffindor house is mad."
"They hardly dare to speak up."
"Where was Ron? He usually walks around with them all the time?," I ask.
"He laid in the hospital wing because he got bitten."
"Bitten?," Sean asks.
"Apparently a dog or something."
"A dog?," Gemma's eyebrows furrow like every time she does intense thinking.
"Anyways, Gemma we need your notes from Potion. We want to copy them for Snape," Fred says.
"You have to wait for them, I already asked first," Jackson speaks up.
"Oh and why do you think you are entitled to her notes in first place? We are her friends, we get them first before even you get to lay a finger on them," Fred crossed his arms in front of his chest.
"I am entitled because I asked her nicely first and she said yes," Jackson stands up and faces Fred.
God that could be hot.
"None of you will get her notes," Sean stands up as well moving between them two: "Neither of you is entitled to her notes at all. It is her choice if she gives them to you or not. Clearly none of you is sophisticated enough to deal with their notes, so work on that your own. Gemma you will not give either of them your notes."
Sean looks a bit pissed, even more than usually. Fred's face is still irritated and stern, which is still a great sight given. Suddenly Louis stands up and excuses himself. We look after him confused and Sean settles down again.
"Gemma say something, now is not the time to be quiet," George whines.
"I- no," she grabs herself some tea and stands up: "I have to go."
With that she leaves us all behind. That's somehow the first time she stood up for herself, my heart actually swells with pride. I turn to Jackson.
"Why don't you have a crush on Gemma, she's awesome?"
"HU?"
Yours,
Jade."