"Reckon we wake her up now?"
"Are you mental? Or did you forget what happened last time?"
Both Slytherin boys sat on the floor watching Finley curled in the common room couch wrapped in a blanket, it was six in the evening and they were going for dinner. Theo came in the common room running with a large basket of goods, Blaise was in the dorm. None of them knew where Finley was until they went to the couches where she slept.
"What is she doing here anyway? Wasn't she suppose to be in her room doing her Runes?" Blaise asked watching Finley sleep ever do peacefully.
"She must've fallen asleep once she got back," Theo commented as he got a glimpse of her crumpled robes. Her bag was beside the couch, assuming that someone had a blanket and covered her with it.
"What happened after DADA today?" Blaise found himself asking, he certainly didn't see her after classes.
"I didn't see her after classes, I went for Divination right after," Theo says. He looks towards Blaise who was deep in thought, a shit eating grin grew on his lips.
"I bet you were out snogging that Ravenclaw did you?" He teases.
"Shut up," Blaise retorts, but he wasn't wrong.
"We should wake her," Theo begins.
"She'll punch you," Blaise warns once more, not that Theo actually listens to him at all regarding Finley sleeping. And the next moment Theo found himself clutching his nose.
"Morning sunshine," Blaise grins enjoying his friend's pain after the gruesome punch he taken. Finley glares at him too, she was too tired to be bother with the two of them.
"Not morning, its almost dinner time. Get dressed we're going down any minute now," Theo says trying to not wince as he made the attempt to fix his pained nose.
"I don't feel like eating," Finley says curling in a ball again closing her eyes. Clutching the blanket closer to even more, after that humiliating scene with Harry in the broom closet she didn't want him to see her again.
"You can't go and miss dinner like that Finney Bear, tell us what's wrong," Blaise urges getting fed up at how dismissing his best friend was.
"I don't want to talk about it," Finley mutters, burying her face in the blanket. Theo sits next to her, Blaise follows suit by setting on her other side. Times like this Finley would think about what she might have done in her past life to have these boys as her friends.
"Well if you don't want to talk, we're still forcing you to eat with us so," In a swift second both boys had their hands under her arms and her thighs, carrying her to her dorm.
"Get dressed sweetie, I have a package with our names on it and mum wants us to open them together," Theo tuts as he closes the door to Finley's dorm after placing her on a chair.
Shaking her head, there was no way around it anyways so there wasn't any use to avoid it further. That was why she took off her uniform and put on a pair of pyjama pants and a shirt that hopefully Theo does not recognise. Her hair tied in a high ponytail, her red puffed eyes were thankfully left un noticed by her two friends.
Cassian purred beside her leg that she snapped from her blank gazing at the mirror in her bathroom, she crouched down and sighed.
"I miss them Cass, and it's so unfair," she sighs picking up the heavy cat that might as well be in the size of a large dog.
"I want to send them a sorry note, anything but I can't."
"I want to say sorry to Hermione for not defending her, to Ron for ignoring him, and to Harry who I flipped off on for so many times I—"
A knock went at her door, guessing that it was the boys she sighed again.
"I miss them," she whispers again, placing Cassian on the bed. The cat meow'ed in protest not liking how his human looked so sad and distraught. If anything, this cat loved her too much to leave her this sad for so long.
"I'll be back love," she says giving the large cat a kiss on the head whilst scratching the back of his neck. As she did, she got a glimpse of the ring she got for Christmas in first year, the origins were left unknown.
"Finney Bear, let's go!"
The dinner didn't feel so special to Finley at the moment, her friends piled her plate with all her favourites and slipped in some tarts in between. Even so, she didn't feel like eating all of it, she merely nibbled on some of the food. Only able to eat a eighth of the food laid out for her. Theo and Blaise knew something was wrong of course, Finley enjoyed tarts as much as Weasley enjoyed chicken. It frustrated them both that Finley was bottling a problem, they feared that she would do something drastic again have herself in a life threatening situation.
"Finley, What's wrong?" Blaise finally asks and this time the look on his eye says that she can't escape him. Should she tell them? This has been weighing on their shoulders for almost a month now, it was causing her to lose sleep with the dementor nightmares piling on her list of horrific night terrors.
"You usually hang out with the Gryffindors whenever you can, did they do something?" Theo adds. Her friends proving that they were as keen as ever, a wonder to her on how long these questions were weighing on their head now.
"I'll explain later," she only muttered. And by the time they arrived back in the dungeons, the three did not waste their time and went straight to the couches.
"Now tell us, what's been going on with you?" Theo urges. Curling up on the couch once again, her head rested on Blaise's shoulder, her legs on Theo's lap, she explained what was going on. Starting from second year's Chamber of Secrets incident, to the agreement with Snape, and finally the encounter with Harry minus the locking themselves in the broom closet. Only Salazar knows what these two boys would think if she told them that bit of information.
"What does Snape have against Potter anyway? I get that he's the boy who lived, but really," she grumbled crossing her arms in front of her chest. Blaise had his arms securely around her.
Both of her friends at some point agreed with the Professor, for two years of being friends with the Gryffindor trio she always manages to get hurt. Just in their first year when they found out that she was a in the hospital wing, it took everything of them to not get ahead and blame the lions. But second year was great of a loss to them, they could've lost her for good with a basilisk on the loose. They wanted her to stay away from the lions too, but to the extent of sending her away was too much. If anything, they didn't like how this was affecting Finley so much. She wasn't Finley without her Gryffindors like how they weren't the Slytherin trio without her.
"Say something will you?" Finley begged her friends who looked solemn.
"Snape isn't completely wrong Finley," Theo began looking down on her sock clad feet.
"You almost got yourself killed twice for them, he has the right to ban you of ever seeing them."
"But then what about me? My best friend thinks that I call her that horrible name behind her back!" Her heart heavy, they thought that they would understand her pain of not being able to talk to her friends in Gryffindor. Both boys knew how much her lions meant to her, but the point was made, she wasn't safe with them.
"Think about it Finn, if it wasn't for them then you wouldn't have been petrified last year—"
"I would've been petrified either way!—"
"Look at it this way Finley, if it were one of us that got petrified last year, do you think our parents would still let us hang out with you?" This shut Finley up. She looked down on her hands, she bit her lip. If it was either Theo or Blaise, their parents would never forgive her and ask her to leave them alone. It didn't matter if Theo was stubborn and had older siblings, it didn't matter if Blaise was an only child. A life in danger was sentenced to have a not so forgiving outcome, and that was what Snape thought.
"Snape was just looking out for you Finley, and you shouldn't blame him for keeping you away from harms way," Blaise says embracing her. Finley couldn't help but let a few tears slip out, she would be a wreck if she didn't have these two boys with her.
They fell silent for a few moments, Slytherins around them minded their own business and not bothered the three friends on the emerald couch. Until Theo snapped his fingers, dropping Finley's feet on the couch startling her.
"Hey!" But that fell on deaf ears as Finley and Blaise watched their friend enter the boys dorms. Finley glanced at Blaise who looked as confused as she was, "What's up with him?" Blaise shrugged.
Few minutes later, Theo came out holding the package he was holding before dinner. He had a large shit eating grin on his face as he placed it on the carpeted floor.
"Nott, what is that?" Blaise asked, taking the card that was attached on the package.
"Theodore Quincy—" Finley bursted out laughing. Theo slapped her leg along with a glare, he didn't particularly like the name given to him. And he also knew that he didn't have the name Quincy in his actual name, he solely blames his mother for calling him a name that never existed.
"Your middle name is Quincy?" Finley wheezed.
"My mother calls me anything she likes, I don't have a middle name of Sages!" It was his turn to smirk, Finley hated being called her first name, it was unfitting and weird.
"Now both of you stop—"
The slytherin entrance flew open revealing the head of house and their prefects, "All Slytherins, proceed to the great hall, bring your blankets and pillows."
"Why Professor?" One student asked.
"No questions, follow as I say," The Professor's eyes fell on Finley who looked as confused as everyone else. "And please stay in a group, no mingling with other houses."
This message was directly towards Finley, she resisted rolling her eyes as him. "We'll open your package in the morning, we need to follow the professor, merlin knows what he might do if we didn't listen."
"Page 394," Theo found himself sniggering, the class in DADA with Snape went as an annoying session leaving the classroom with an essay. Blaise wasn't amused with the homework, and Finley was even less enamoured with the fact that they skipped five chapters. The night before as they slept in the great hall wasn't the best at all for the three, they were used to the high quality mattresses in the dorms.
"He said it like he was seducing us."
"Only you would think that Theo," Finley retorted. The three Slytherins laughed at the occurred lesson from their head of house, now leaving to their own designated classes. Finley was the only one who had free period, and thankfully she didn't have a scheduled tutoring session.
"I'll see you at dinner!" She waves goodbye at her two friends who were off to Divination.
Finley didn't have a place to go at the moment, she wanted to go to the library and maybe read? No, she wasn't really in a reading mood. She might want to go to the room of requirement, but she didn't want to go there alone.
"Finley!" She turned around at someone calling her name. She saw a boy maybe two years older running towards her,
"Yes?"
He looked like a charming boy, blond, blue eyes, like a ray of sunshine that was absolutely blinding. He smiled at her giving off an even bigger impression of Cedric Diggory, but he couldn't beat the original charming smile. "Hi, I'm Henry Bennet a Ravenclaw."
He held out his hand, Finley shook it with hesitation, he looked too eager to shake it that it startled her. "Yes, um— nice to meet you?" She wasn't sure if it was nice or not, she wasn't comfortable with the boy in front of her.
"I'm sure it's better than nice," he says winking at her. Behind his back he pulled out a bouquet of pink roses.
"Beautiful roses for the most beautiful girl," he says. Finley's head was too slow at the moment, everything went fast with this boy, she doesn't even know how old he was.
"Ow—" she gasped accidentally letting go of the bouquet, it fell to the floor with her blowing her pricked palm. Henry gasped and repeated saying sorries and what not, he proceeded to take off the thorns.
"It's alright Henry—"
"Here got them all out," he grinned sheepishly, showing her the roses again, this time very close to her face. Her eyes widened, watered, and suddenly. "Achoo!" A sneeze.
"Are you alright?"
"Yes I — Achoo!— am," she sniffed, pushing the roses away. The boy must nit have realised that she was allergic that he kept shoving the bouquet towards her.
"Here, I hope you like them."
"They're lovely but—"
"I know they are."
"No! I'm—"
The bloke was not listening to her, she was growing red and was sneezing left and right. To her misfortune she was in the least visited hall in the castle, no one could help her at this rate. But did Henry Bennet of Ravenclaw noticed? Of course not as he proceeded to continue a speech that sadly Finley didn't bother to listen to as she was busy sneezing her brains out.
"You looked really pretty, and it's the first Hogsmaede trip for you after the game I—"
"Listen Henry I—"
"I'm not done talking."
She wanted to hex the boy to next year, she was itching and sneezing, this was not how she wanted her free period to proceed. She couldn't exactly leave the boy alone, but who was she kidding! She needed medical help! And the bloke was no helping, some Ravenclaw he was shoving the roses towards her repeatedly not realising that she was allergic.
"Oi, you!" A familiar snobby voice called in.
Finley hated to admit it but she was glad to see Draco.
Taking the roses from Finley's hands and shoving it back to Henry the Ravenclaw, he glared at him. "Can't you hear her sneezing? I could practically hear her sneeze from the other side of the castle."
Henry grew red, he didn't expect someone to come by this corridor, it didn't matter really as he was only trying to score with Finley.
"Come on Evans, let's get you to the hospital wing," Draco said shoving Henry away from the path and lead Finley away from the boy.
"Wait! I'm not done talking to her."
Finley had enough of the blond Ravenclaw and his lack of common sense and all that, what she thought of him being charming was far from it now. He was like the Gilderoy Lockhart with all his babbling, she faced him.
"Well I'm done conversing, and if you'll excuse me, I would like to visit Madam Pomfrey to get me fixed from those roses," she says walking away with a thought of her sneezing stopped but no, she sneezed right after telling the bloke off.
"You alright there Evans?" Draco asked fully concerned. Instead of snapping at the boy, she leaned in on his side and sighed. "You have no idea of how glad I am to see you," she said as they neared the hospital wing.