THIRD PERSON's POV
That night the two stayed in Lorenzo's dormitory, eating pastries and laughing like the carefree teenagers they wished to be, deciding to put whatever troubles they were going through behind them and just have a good night together. Y/n appreciated what Lorenzo did for her more than she could express, but she wouldn't have done it for just anyone, he might have just been the person she wanted to see deep down; maybe he was just that infectious with his joy that she knew it would make her feel better, maybe she was just desperate for company but to stubborn to ask. Either way, Lorenzo's goal was achieved. He had cheered up his friend, even if was just for a little bit, he saw her smile and that's what counted to him.
During their late night conversations, Lorenzo had managed to convince Y/n to be around others for awhile, he reminded her that she couldn't stop showing up to class or she wouldn't graduate into the seventh year and that maybe it was best for her to talk with the professors and try to make a few extensions for her school work to help her get a little time to breathe. Y/n appreciated his thoughtfulness, thanking him and considering his suggestions, even taking his advice the next morning despite looking like a corpse.
Her schedule wasn't packed that day, only having a few classes with Flitwick, Sprout and McGonagall, using her good grades in those classes to hopefully sway the teachers to give her the extensions. She knew it would work with Sprout, but she wasn't sure with the other two, knowing how strict they could be. And of course there was Snape tomorrow, although he was dreading that conversation, there was no way that Professor Snape would let her have an extension on her work. Even thinking about all the potions homework she had neglected made her want to throw up, house points would definitely be taken away, even if she was a Slytherin herself.
In amongst all her worrying, Y/n's body had taken her down the hallways swiftly and quietly before classes had started. Unfortunately, Y/n couldn't bring herself to be in the great hall with everyone else for breakfast so she asked if Lorenzo could bring her back a piece of fruit or something small to just fuel her until she could make it to Hogsmeade through the witches route. Luckily, muscle memory had taken her straight to the corridor towards the Transfiguration classroom, slowly dragging more and more anxiety out from Y/n's body with each step towards the closed doors. But her feet took her to quickly towards the door when a body collided with hers, bumping both girls which luckily, Y/n caught the other before she fell through the classroom doors she just came from. The girl removed her arm with a swipe as she geared up to yell at Y/n for the accident, but as soon as the black haired, green eyed girl looked up, her expression changed.
"Oh Pansy, sorry about that." The girl's face morphed from annoyance and bitterness to concern and surprise as soon as she saw her bestfriends features for the first time in days, Pansy's hands then grasped Y/n's shoulders in a late attempt to help steady the girl, an awkward smile on her face as she saw the darkened bags under Y/n's eyes.
"Y/n? Uh...are you alright?" Y/n smiled warmly at Pansy's hesitance when asking her if she was okay, luckily she had got all her crying out a few hours ago otherwise she would have burst into tears at the question, she just hoped that Pansy hadn't noticed how still puffed the under part of her eyes still were.
"Yes, just asking for a few extensions for the neglected work. I've had time to think and rest, I would love to have some company if you're free-?"
Before Y/n could finish her question, Pansy had tackled her in a tight embrace as she repeated a loud and joyful 'yes' into the girls ear, almost blowing the ear drum inside. The best friend's stayed in the squeezed embrace for about a minute before Pansy pulled away, grinning ear to ear, she began to start spilling whatever gossip she had accumulated from the past few days. Y/n always thought that when Pansy had gossip that she could say immediately at that moment, she looked like a water balloon filled up until it went transparent.
"OF COURSE! I swear let me tell you-"
"I would love for you to tell me Pany, but can I just talk to McGonagall first and then I'm all yours."
Pansy smiled at her friend, telling Y/n that she would be waiting outside when she was done with McGonagall.
"Oh but maybe tread lightly cause I kinda just pissed her off." Pansy grinned wider and giggled.
Y/n patted Pansy on her shoulder with a tired smile, looking at the door just behind her friend and taking a deep breath, then Y/n walked past and pushed open the classroom doors, slipping inside the tense open space and taking in the warm temperature that McGonagall always kept to a point.
"No Ms Parkinson, you cannot negotiate on your missing work-" The irritated Professor turns her head towards the front of the classroom with warning eyes before she notices Y/n standing there with a anxious smile. McGonagall shook her head slightly before straightening up her stance and blinked before she apologised, "My apologies Ms Hyde. Although I have not seen much of your work either." Y/n chuckles nervously at the professor's dig, realising that from the stern and pissed off expression McGonagall had that her explanation might need to be more through.
"I'm sorry Professor for my absence recently and missing deadlines for homework, you deserve a bit of an explanation for that." The Professor pursed her lips and nodded at her, turning her body around to face her nervous student.
"Go on."
"I know it's not an excuse to skip classes and I apologise for that truly, but I have been in very poor health at the moment with my mother, uh, she has a curse that she was born with and it's been affecting my whole family." McGonagall's pursed lips fall into a frown and her hardened eyes softened, her normally poise posture slumped slightly as her mouth opened slightly in sympathy.
"You don't need to elaborate Ms Hyde, that is your business alone and I wish your mother the best of health." She smiled at Y/n with as much warmth as the room allowing Y/n to take a deep breath of relief, she didn't want to say more about her troubles to a teacher no less. Y/n would probably not have lived to see her next year at school if she had, she was just lucky that McGonagall liked her enough to trust her.
"Thank you Professor, is it possible if I could get a small extension for the work so I can catch up on all the work I've missed?"
"Not an issue, you have until the end of next week. Take care Ms Hyde." Y/n nodded in acknowledgement before she turned around to leave the classroom. She was a few steps away from the door before McGonagall called after her, "Oh and Hyde?"
"Yes Professor?"
"If there is anything else you need to talk about, I'll be in my office."
McGonagall gave Y/n one last sympathy before her professor walked out of her classroom and out the large intricately detailed doors, and exited the room. Y/n took a deep breath and slumped her shoulders in full relief, dragging her hands over her face and down her neck while looking up at the pointed ceiling beams; she thought about how successfully that had gone over but wondered if she would be that lucky for all her teachers. She was by no means fully recovered from her mental breakdown, still just as mentally and now physically exhausted as she was; Y/n was even surprised she was still standing. Although, Y/n couldn't just fold into nothing and hibernate in a classroom for the rest of her life, so Y/n lightly slapped her face and pulled on her smile before walking out the doors and greeting Pansy once again.
"McGonagall didn't look that mad when she came out, so it went well?" Pansy clasped her hands together hopefully for her friend, Y/n lightly laughed and nodded her head. "Merlin you have to teach me how to do that, all the teachers hate me."
"I wouldn't say hate, but maybe take some actual notes in Transfiguration instead of casting spells at that Slander."
"Okay but Slander deserves it." Pansy crossed her arms over her chest with passionate eyes, Y/n chuckling at her as she knew how much Pansy liked to torment the boy; famously known as a Tory in the Slytherin common room for his excessive snitching.
"Right."
"Anyway, enough about that, not important. What IS important is that I jumped Theodore! He looked like he would shit himself when I started threating him, awh I wish I could replay that." Y/n looked at Pansy with surprised and pleased eyes, a smirk creeping on her face from under the exhaustion.
"I mean, I'm proud, but why?"
"It was his fault right? It usually is, so I said to him that if he ever talked about you like he did I would torture him for hours on end and gladly go to Azkaban for it, he didn't believe me until I jinxed his mouth closed and started to shiv him with my wand." As soon as Pansy finished her rendition of the scene, Y/n couldn't hold back her laughter, filling the empty corridor with the two chorusing together. The two walked along the corridors talking to each other as if nothing had happened, Y/n thanking Pansy for doing that for her but knowing that it wasn't Theodores fault this time, she couldn't help but feel a little guilty for his traumatic experience for little to no reason.
"Thankyou Pansy."
"It's nothing, that's what we do."
~
The green house was somewhat of a safe place for Y/n as she sat down waiting for Sprout to start the class, seats lining in rows with planting stations separating the desks so each person could have one; which meant that everyone has an unofficial seat that people stuck too. Y/n was in the back corner and the rest of the class scattered around the other seats, a few of the stations vacant towards the front as in most of her classes. Most of the class arrived after a few minutes of waiting, the greenhouse were kind of a pain to get too which meant Sprout gave a few minutes of leeway for those last few. Y/n would often stare at the overgrown branches, littering vines, and listened to the abundance of Venomous Tartaglia that claimed the back storage room making the occasional snap at loose flies. She found it was most easy to pass the time with mindlessly wondering, after her talk with sprout going so well, she was more relaxed than she would be tomorrow.
Although one thing occupied her mind, she was sitting alone; usually a obnoxious and flirtatious boy would be bothering her right about now, but no such boy had entered the green house yet. Y/n had refused to call it an attachment as Pansy had described it earlier, but the friendship between the two as more of a convenience for her as he could be nice to be around some of the time; she didn't need him around.
Sprout was about to call the time and start the lesson before the boy Y/n was thinking about walked through the door with a bored expression, taking a quick scan of the room before his eyes landed on Y/n sitting in the back. He shared eye contact with Y/n for a split second before he glanced at Professor Sprout and sat down in the front row, Y/n titled her head and huffed in annoyance as she remembered that she had ghosted everyone for literal days without saying anything. In that moment Y/n decided to do something she didn't like doing, but thought it would be easier than getting up herself.
Mattheo get your arse down here
His head straightened up and turned around slightly, Y/n's voice ringing in his head as the familiar sting hit his temples. Y/n could see the smile creep onto his lips before he grabbed his stuff and got up. Mattheo walked down the rows of seats and stared at Y/n who presented a satisfied smile at her success, resulting in an infectious smirk from Mattheo as he sat down beside her.
"Welcome back."
"Pleasure."
~
"Okay, Flitwick was the last of them....for today." Y/n breathed out an exasperated sigh, rocking her neck backwards as she slumped down on the emerald green velvet chairs of the dungeon and dumped her satchel beside her. Finally Y/n had the chance to sit down on a proper chair, instead of those hard wooden slabs; sucking in pockets of cool air as the Common room doors opened, allowing a crack of the hallways golden light to seep in. She almost turned her head around to see who it was, but the hushed voices caught her attention. Curiosity got the best of her, sinking further down onto the lounge chair with her ears pricked up. No one was supposed to hear what they were saying, ears dropping was never something you wanted done to you, but it was always of interest when it was others.
'Of all places you decide in a public space, are you deficient?' She strained to hear a familiar males voice hushed and harshly scolded the other person present.
'You can't blame me for that, what am I supposed to do? I'm going mental!' Thankyou Malfoy. Y/n's heart rang in her ears as they worked harder to listen, a gleam in her eyes twinkling from the lit fireplace.
'What the fuck did you expect?' Mattheo's voice came out louder and harsher than the panicking blonde next to him, Y/n tried to fill in the blanks of their conversation with her own ideas, thinking up a minute issue that Malfoy was overreacting too and hoped that that was it. But her hopes would snap as Mattheo continued, material shuffled as Malfoy's high pitched hitched breath echoed off the walls. 'It's either you get your fucking shit together or you'll get us all sent to Azkaban.'
She quickly adjusted herself as the accelerated footsteps of the angered boy hurried across the stone floor, took the closest book to her, opened it to one of the many dog-eared pages and calmed her shaking enough to hold the book steadily. The hurried footsteps successfully made it past her, but the other set stopped right next to where Y/n was sitting, Malfoy felt so close to her that she could feel his shaking breath on her face. After she was noticed, Mattheo also stopped walking away, he turned around to see what Malfoy was stopped at and his eyes touched the subtle light from an concealed candle she was sitting by. Y/n dragged her eyes away from the book in her hands and looked up at the boy beside her, her steady eyes met his petrified ones as she spoke.
"Hello boys."
Y/n didn't look at Mattheo after, she just gazed back down at her book and turned the page. Draco didn't have a chance to harden as his eyes glistened in the little light available, and Mattheo didn't waste time to stare at the girl wondering if she heard them or not and grabbed Draco's arm, dragging him up the stairs until Y/n couldn't see them anymore.
All that was left was Y/n's head racing with possibilities, but the one question she wanted an answer to at that moment was,
What are they hiding?