January, 1945
𝐆𝐀𝐁𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐋𝐀 𝐃𝐈𝐃 𝐍𝐎𝐓 remember the traditional long sleeve under the school uniform having such a plunging neckline. She did not remember it hugging every possible curve of a girl's upper body. And she certainly did not notice how the dull grey caused the red hair to have a mesmerising vibrancy to it.
".....right?"
Gabriela snapped back to attention, raising her eyes to Cora's face. The Ravenclaw was looking at her brightly, having just asked her a question. The Spanish witch prayed it hadn't been obvious where her eyes had been glued.
She's never had this problem before! This had never happened with Anika or Daisy. Well, actually, Anika never wore anything that could reveal any part of her, and Daisy was, for lack of nicer wording, was lacking in that certain chest compartment.
"Sorry, what?" Gabriela asked dumbly, forcing herself to concentrate.
Perhaps she was just going in heat right now. Yes, yes, her cat back home had gone through heat and basically threw it's furry little body at anything remotely alive. Therefore, Gabriela was feeling sexually excited towards anyone. Right?
"I said, do you want to go to Hogsmeade with me next weekend. The town looks so pretty covered in snow, right?" Cora laughed a little at Gabriela's obviously dazed expression.
"Oh, er, yes I would like that," Gabriela replied a little too quickly.
"It's a date," Cora joked.
"What?" Gabriela almost choked. "It's a what?"
"A date..." the redhead answered. "It's just a saying Gab, relax. If I wanted to date you, I'd be a bit more obvious."
Gabriela stared at her, spluttering for a witty reply but her mind was blank. What the hell was wrong with her? She always held the power in any social interaction, but she was acting like a bloody mouse.
"I'm joking!" Cora snickered. "What's the matter with you today? You have a boy on your mind or something?"
"YES, A BOY!" Gabriela shouted, then quieted immediately in embarrassment. "Yes, I think about boys very frequently. Not girls, keep in mind, but boys!"
"Okay..." Cora looked at her a little strangely. "Who?"
"Ummm," Gabriela struggled for an answer. "Tom Riddle! Cliche, I know."
"I really don't understand the hype about him," Cora shrugged. "He looks like he needs seriously intense therapy."
"You're probably right about that," the brunette snorted in reply. "What about you? You have your eye on anyone?"
"Not really," Cora pondered. "Actually, yes, but not who you'd think. In fact, some may think my choice of infatuation is quite... queer."
"Who is it?" Gabriela leaned forward curiously, feeling a great need to discover the answer so that she could calm down. "C'mon, I told you mine."
"Maybe another time. When you're ready," Cora decided, a knowing glint in her eyes.
Gabriela didn't understand what she meant, but moved on, not wanting to seem overly obsessed. The girls continued chatting, all the while the Slytherin convinced herself that everything was the same.
˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗
Daisy groaned and banged her head on her desk for the 4th time during the Potions class. Tom, who was sitting next to her looked at her sharply.
"Can you cease doing that?" he asked irritably. "Not only is it annoying, but you look quite unintelligent."
"Always the charmer," she mumbled under her breath, but did not slap her forehead down a 5th time.
"Can you please focus!" he snapped after more seconds had gone by. "I would like not to be the last pair to finish brewing this."
"I'm sorry, I just have a really bad headache," she explained, closing her eyes in hopes of blocking the pain.
A water bottle was roughly placed in front of her immediately, Tom giving it to her begrudgingly. She looked at him in surprise and took the bottle from him. She tried to ignore how he re-adjusted his hand lightning fast so that there would be no contact between them.
"Aren't you being weirdly nice," she commented, after she had let the water fall past her lips waterfall-style.
"Isn't that what friends do?" Tom hummed calmly.
"Friends, huh?"
"If I recall correctly Ms. Kennedy, you are the one who practically begged me to become your friend again. I'm only adhering in your wishes," Tom said snidely.
"Please. We all know it's you who wants this more," Daisy scoffed, easily falling back into their old banter. "I practically have two eyeholes in the back of my dress from you staring at me the whole dance."
"I wasn't staring at you," Tom snapped, annoyed that she had been aware of it. "And if I was, it was only because you worse an eyesore of a dress. Honestly, red at a winter ball?"
"If I recall correctly," she mimicked him. "You told me once that red was your favourite colour. Along with black of course."
"Oh, so you dressed for me?" he smirked at her, surveying as a faint blush appeared on her cheeks.
"You wish."
They fell into a comfortable silence, brewing the potion together with perfect co-ordination. By the end of the class, they had once again received a vigorous applause from Professor Slughorn, him commenting it was the best work he's ever seen!
Daisy trudged out of the classroom, her eyelids drooping with the pressure in her head. She had been feeling quite dreadful these past few days and didn't know why. She stepped out of the stream of students and leaned against on one of the corridor walls, touching her head back on the cold stone.
Seconds later she felt a hand on her elbow, her startled eyes snapping open. Two onyx-coloured eyes gazed right back at her. Her eyes flicked down further, to the fine nose and the strong jaw, and then to the full lips. They swam in front of her vision in a dizzying manner, and a groan escaped her lips.
"Are you alright?" his velvety voice asked, his neck bent down to be at her eye-level. "Shall I escort you to the hospital wing?"
"Wow, you're really taking this friend thing seriously," she croaked, flashing him a weak smile.
"Slughorn said that I can't pass the project without my partner. It won't be academically beneficial to me if you are absent from class, no matter how much happier I'd be," he drawled, but even he knew it wasn't convincing.
"I'm fine," she assured, pressing a hand behind her to push herself forward. "I'll feel better after lunch. And by the way, if we are friends, I'd prefer it if you called me by my first name."
He rolled his eyes and stepped away, but said anyway, "Feel better soon, Daisy."
˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗
"You okay?" Anika's concerned voice floated through her ears. "You usually love the chocolate dessert, and you've barely touched your food!"
"I'm okay, Anika," Daisy whispered, massaging her temples. "I think maybe I'm getting a little sick, I don't know."
Her friends continued speaking to each other, letting Daisy have some silence in order to relax. She looked around the Great Hall, trying to look for a certain peculiar girl. She had completely forgotten about her meeting with Lili from Hogsmeade. Surely she must be here somewhere in the great hall.
She hadn't even told her friends about the strange witch yet, not until she figured out whether Lili was worth mentioning.
"Guys, I have to tell you something," she spoke up, wanting to get their opinion on her strange encounter.
"Wait, first I have to tell you guys something," Gabriela interrupted. "Sorry to cut in, but I must say it now otherwise I won't have the courage later."
"Go on," Anika encouraged kindly.
"I've been having...er...feelings," Gabriela began, her face beginning to blossom a lovely shade of red. "Feelings that may or may not be... sinful."
"Oh Gab," Daisy let out a small laugh. "Please don't tell me you've fallen in love with another member of Tom Riddle's gang. You're always so dramatic about them."
"Please don't say it's Sebastian," Anika gagged. "Even I think he's down-right rotten, and I believe that everyone has good in them."
"It's not any one of them!" Gabriela snapped impatiently. "And you'd never guess who it is."
"You haven't fallen in love with an animal or something?" Daisy grinned, finding effort to remain humorous due to how she felt. "That's called zoophilia, you know."
"Ew!" Gabriela screeched. "NO! You know what? I'm not going to tell you guys anymore!"
"Gosh, I'm sorry Gab. I was only teasing you," Daisy held up her hands in mock surrender. "Okay, I'm ready now."
"I don't think I am," the brunette decided. "What was it you wanted to say, Daisy?"
The blonde was about to reply, but went blank. She racked her brain for what she wanted to tell them. She could have sworn it was something important, but every time she thought she remembered what it was, it slipped between her fingers like sand.
"Can't remember," she eventually shrugged. "It'll come to me eventually."
Another pounding slash of pain rang through her head, and she furiously gulped another class of water down.
˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗
Anika was on her way to the Greenhouses, her secret spot to meet Julian in their shared free periods. They had been meeting here for the past month, and the giddy feeling in the Indian witch's stomach had still not subsided as she pounded down the cold steps.
Some over-eager and obsessed Herbology students were the only ones who ever came into the Greenhouses, and the couple had been lucky not to run into any of them.
Mostly, Anika and Julian would share stories about their assignments, teachers, and other random situations they had experienced that day. Since they only had 2 classes together, they had much to tell each other.
And every single time Anika was scared that talking would lead to something else. Something she wasn't exactly prepared for yet. Every time she thought about kissing Julian Lestrange, her mother's face popped in her brain, warning her about red flags in boys.
Was Julian a walking red flag? She certainly hoped not. In fact, now that she had spent several weeks with this boy, she was almost 80% sure that he was not.
She opened the foggy door to the Greenhouse, letting out a sigh of pleasure at the muggy warmness of the small building. She stepped inside, happy to see Julian leaning against one of the gigantic pots and smiling at her.
"Hey you," he greeted. "Don't you look absolutely adorable in that scarf."
She blushed, playing with the vibrant scarf around her neck, which she was told glowed marvellously against her skin. She had worn it just for him, and hoped he would notice.
She settled herself next to him, conscious of how close she should sit, opting for a few centimetres between their shoulders. She turned her head to look at him, her eyes widening a fraction when she found he was already looking at her.
"Um," Anika cleared her throat, her voice failing to dislodge itself from her throat. "Anything nice happen today?"
"No," Julian muttered lowly, his brilliant emerald eyes flickering briefly to her lips. "But if you let me, something nice can happen right now."
At first she didn't understand, for her brain always moved slower in his presence. But then she saw him slowly lean closer, his eyes continuously snapping to meet hers to see if she didn't want this. Nervousness raced through her stomach as she remained frozen to the spot, waiting for him to touch her.
Their lips barely grazed one another when the Slytherin boy suddenly hissed in pain, jumping away from her. She gasped at the sudden movement and saw him clutching his forearm tightly, his face scrunched up in discomfort.
"What happened?" she squawked in confusion.
"I..er...need to go," he managed to get out, standing rapidly to his feet. "I just cut myself on one of these bloody plants. I'll see you later."
He didn't even wait for her to respond, simply running past her through the doorway. In his rush he left it open, icy air rushing into the room and causing Anika to shiver violently.
She looked at the spot he had been sitting in, but found nothing remotely sharp that he could have injured himself on.
Did he run because of her? Did he have second thoughts about their almost-kiss? Anika didn't know, but it certainly did not make her feel confident at all.
˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗
Daisy honestly did not know what she was doing in this particular hallway.
It started when she could have sworn she saw a girl with coal-black hair racing out of a classroom, her height similar enough to the girl from the bathrooms that Daisy just ran after her. After a while, she had lost the girl, and had wound up in a corridor she didn't recognise.
Sighing in defeat, she started to turn around, deciding to go find Fleamont. He had been rather distant lately. In fact, they had barely spoken since Winter Break.
She had just taken a few steps back from where she came from, when she heard an anguished scream. Her heart skipped a beat, the hairs on the back of her neck rising eerily. And then, being the dumb girl she was, she decided to follow the noise.
Please keep in mind that she was not placed in Ravenclaw.
She continued walking, not understanding where the noise was coming from because there were no classrooms or any rooms at all in this strange hallway. In fact, it sounded as if the noises, which had now reduced to talking, were coming from the walls.
Daisy identified the part in the wall where the sounds were the most concentrated, and pressed her ear against it. She frowned when she realised that she could barely decipher the words being spoken from the male voices. By the volume and tone, it seemed like they were angry and in the middle of a heavy discussion.
"I just wish I could hear them," she whispered to herself in frustration.
Then, almost as if it were magic, she felt the wall on her ear expand. Immediately she stepped back to see a section of the wall had risen in the shape of a door. She placed her hand on the doorknob which had also appeared, and quiet as a mouse, turned it to open the door.
It was a dark room, so dark it took several seconds for her eyes to adjust. Luckily, there were curtains in front of her, so she was out of sight. She went to the far left of the curtains, and peeked through the opening, crouching down so that it decreased the chances of her being spotted.
What she saw confused her at first. She recognised the 6 Slytherin boys immediately, especially the boy who was so evidently leading this discussion.
"I swear I haven't told her anything, my lord," Julian protested, looking frightened for his life.
My lord? What kind of weird thing had she stumbled upon?
"Why are you with that Mudblood anyway?" Abraxas scoffed. "It's not benefiting any of us, so why put yourself through it?"
"Don't call her that!" Julian yelled, looking angry.
"Both of you, shut up," Tom spoke. "We do not have time for your childish antics. We must choose our next Horcrux."
What the hell was a Horcrux?
"We only have 2 so far. We are not working fast enough," the raven-haired wizard said. "The ring from when I killed my father, and the diary from when I killed Myrtle Warren."
Daisy covered her mouth quickly, to stop the harsh gasp from escaping her mouth. They had been told that Myrtle had committed suicide in the bathrooms, and no one had ever suspected foul play. And how could Tom kill his own father.
There is a student who I am worried is going down a very dark and dangerous path indeed.
Professor Dumbledore's words echoed again in Daisy ears, and a rushing sound filled her senses, panic overtaking her body. She had never ever gone as far as to believe that Tom was truly dangerous. But this was proof enough.
Her feet moved backwards of her own accord, desperate to get away from this place and collect her thoughts. She fumbled for the door and practically sprang outside, her heart pounding with fear.
But right before she was able to make a dash for it, a large hand wrapped itself around her upper arm, and she was swung around to face the livid expression of Tom Riddle.
˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗
A/N: DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNNN.
I have a question for you guys. Is it boring for you when I set scenes up only centred around Anika or Gabriela? Would you prefer that it only be centred around Daisy?
Hope you guys are having a wonderful day so far <3