𝘪 𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘦.
hermione granger is the one girl i would have never expected to help me when i dropped my books on the way to class. bloody parvati patil tripped me as she walked past with her annoying best friend, lavender brown, their loud snorts could be heard from the outskirts of the forbidden forest. "are you okay?" the tawny brunette girl asked, scowling at her fellow gryffindors as they stood there and laughed, "yes, i'm fine" i wasn't, i wanted to punch their noses in, "are you sure?" i turned away from hermione with my ears becoming red from embarrassment.
"yes, thank you, granger" i went to turn the corner as a clatter of noisy shoes ran up to me, "we have history of magic together, do you mind if i walk with you?" did hermione granger just ask to walk me to class? "not at all" i reply. "perfect, you're name is mavis, correct? mavis nott?" she was making small talk, god i hate small talk. "yea, that's me" i pulled on a smile, "i'm hermione gra-" "i know who you are" i interrupt her with a chuckle.
we walked to class in silence, although my brain was nothing like it, it was wondering why granger was being nice to me and why she would walk me to class. as we entered the old wooden door, both of our friend groups looked towards us with confusion on why we were walking together, "bye" hermione smiled before walking over to ron and harry, "see ya" i murmured. i sat down at the desk next to mattheo and unpacked my books, "oi, nott, what was that?" draco asked, leaning over his stack of books to talk to me, "what do you mean?" i respond, "he means, what were you doing walking with granger?" pansy answered for him.
"oh, uhm, i don't know, she just offered to walk with me" i didn't want to tell them that parvati tripped me, they wouldn't like that, "god they're gross" blaise gagged, making me look in the direction he had faced, ron kissing hermione on the cheek came onto my view, blaise was right, it is gross. i don't get why couples do that, be all lovey dovey in class, me and ariah don't do that, we think it's weird. ariah james, my girlfriend of five months, after the holidays went by, i hadn't seen her as much, she was usually always busy with family matters of her own. speaking of ariah, i noticed she was absent, she never is.
after a few minutes later, ariah and astoria greengrass walked in, together. their hair was messy and their ties were undone, i looked at them with curiousness, why would they be together? and why would ariah be talking to astoria? i chose to believe that they just both ran here because they were late, and not because an unreasonable example of why they could be late.
ariah stepped past my seat, giving me the opportunity to speak to her, "hey ariah" i smile causing her to snap her head towards me, "oh, hi" she sounded uninterested, "how was your summer?" i asked, attempting to make conversation before professor binns showed up, "like it's any of your business" ariah glared, walking over to the seat next to astoria. "what the fuck?" i heard mattheo say in confusion, "i don't know" i mumble, looking down.
i look back upwards as professor binns came into the room through the wall, my eyes follow the ground he hovers over, only glancing up to meet eyes with granger. merlin, her eyes were beautiful, a deep mahogany colour circled with an almost black tint, they reminded me of the forbidden forest during the day, the oak trees seemed to create her eye shade. they were beautiful to looks into. it appeared like i was staring for bit too long, for hermione's douchebag of a boyfriend was glaring at me with daggers, i look back towards binns to see him moping about the creation of a magic quill, although he had already explained it three lessons in a row.
after a minute or two of listening to binns' dull voice, a felt something hit my shoe, a crumpled ball of parchment lay beside it, i reach down to collect it, scanning the room for the person who threw it. my eyes finally land on hermione, her eyes stared into mine once again, screaming at me to open the old piece of parchment. my fingers find the way of how to open it without ripping the paper.
𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚙𝚛𝚎𝚝𝚝𝚢 𝚎𝚢𝚎𝚜
- 𝙷.𝙶
the note had read, i quickly grabbed out my quill and ink, scratching the feather on hermione's parchment, trying to make my handwriting seem calm and neat as my nose started to blush pink.
𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴, 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳, 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘦𝘺𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘺 𝘵𝘰𝘰, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘣𝘪𝘥𝘥𝘦𝘯 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵
- 𝘮.𝘯
i tossed the parchment onto her lap, rethinking the tree statement, glancing over at hermione, expecting to see her face mushed with disgust on why i had described her eyes like they were the prettiest thing in the world, instead, finding a bright smile spread across her face, a faint red tint covering her rounded cheeks. she looks at me with a beaming grin, i couldn't help but smile back. a small tap on my shoulder bought my attention to mattheo, moving my view away from hermione, "i see you're getting friendly with granger. if you two become friends, can you hook me up with freda?" freda smith. a girl with all bark and no bite, mattheo has been obsessing over her since the first year when she punched him in the face for stealing her book, i had heard mcgonagall tell dumbledore that it just like james and lily potter all over again. "no! what the hell?" i respond in a hushed tone, "you're no fun" mattheo mumbled.
after what seemed like years, the bell that announced that the school day was over, had rang. the classroom emptied within seconds, the mix of gryffindors and slytherins filled the crowded hallway. i wove my way through the mob of teenagers, trying to find ariah before she goes off somewhere. "ari!" i exclaim, grasping onto the sleeve of her robe, "what is it!?" she had always yelled, drawing the attention of a couple of hufflepuff first years, "are you okay? you seem mad at something" my eyes squint, not recognizing this sort of behavior from her, "i'm fine" ariah grumbled.
"can we talk? i feel i haven't spoken to you for years" i chuckle, trying to lighten the mood, "whatever" ariah must be annoyed, she never talks to me like this, did i do something wrong? is she mad at me? we walk over to an empty hallway, nothing but the footsteps of hogwarts students could be heard. "are you mad at me?" i blurt out, ariah's eyebrows furrowed in response.
"it's just that.. you seem like you don't like me anymore" i explained slowly, attempting to make my reasoning easy enough to understand. "well, you're right" my heart felt like it had been thrown down the astronomy tower, "pardon?" i must've heard her wrong, it's only been a couple of weeks, "i don't love you anymore! god, is that what you want to hear?" the feeling of a lump in the back of my throat had started to close in on me, "what?" tears clouded my vision as ariah continued with her statement. "you're boring and all you do is whine about how you're life is so bad because you're dad is a death eater" her words seemed to weigh my tears down, making them cascade down my cheeks, it felt like i was drowning, water filling my mouth so i couldn't scream for help.
"you know, astoria was right about you, we're not good together, nott" she hadn't called me that in ages, "astoria?" i whisper, betray lacing my voice, "yes, astoria. what do you think i was doing on the holidays?" it makes sense. all the letters sent with no reply back, being late to class, the rudeness. "i hate you." i don't. i still love you, i think i always will. "at least can agree on something" ariah scolded, turning her back to me. when she had disappeared around the corner, stable stance had gone out the window and i had slid down the wall, onto the ground, tears starting to soak my cream-colour button up.
the echo of someone's shoes flowed throughout the hallway, making me wish i could turn invisible. their hand lifted my chin up without effort, creating eye contact, fucking hell, i wish it wasn't her bright blue eyes. astoria giggled at the stream of water that ariah made, "merlin, rough day, huh? james must've went off at you" i kept quiet, not daring to look away from her, "she was amazing in bed, can't you agree? but.. not as good as you were" astoria's smile widened, making me see red.
she stood up from her crouching position, dusting herself off, "too bad i'm going to have to break her little heart now" i sprung to my feet, grabbing onto her skinny wrist "don't you do shit to her, greengrass" her hand met my lower back, pulling me into her chest. "or what? you're going to use the killing curse on me, like your dad did to your mum?" my face dropped, how could she bring that up? "guess you can cry about that now" astoria pushed me onto the ground as if i was an old rag doll. tears refilled my eyes again.
fuck.