✰✰✰
The next week was torture. Complete and utter torture. After stumbling half blind back to the common room following Elle bawling her eyes out pathetically, she was fortunate enough to not meet anyone in the common room however she was in no state to convince the girls everything was fine.
They caught on immediately having never seen Elle cry before. She wiped her tears away hastily and pretended that it wasn't as bad as it seemed.
"Just a disagreement, it'll all go back to normal before you know it"
That week proved different.
The first time she'd seen George had been at breakfast the next day. She'd taken one look at him sitting with Fred and Lee on the Gryffindor table, spun on her heel and exited leaving her stomach rumbling all morning.
It didn't get easier after that. She wasn't sure exactly what George had told his brother but the dirty looks she got from Fred suggested that whatever he had said wasn't good.
Elle felt as though she had ruined everything, thrown it all away. She hadn't thought that he becoming friends with Cedric would pose such a problem with her and George as she had never pitched the twin as a jealous type. Nonetheless it seemed she was incorrect.
Her mind thought of nothing else for the following week, as though her brain was a sponge that could only soak up the image of George in her mind.
She continuously thought back to what he had said to her. The mirror. He'd seen her in it. After all he had seemed shifty when he claimed all he saw was him winning the quidditch cup.
Previously Elle had seen a dream life for herself. Her friends surrounding her, herself coming from a magic family. However when she looked back into it all she saw was him. And it broke her.
Transfigurations was the worse. Elle had entered to see George had moved away from their regular seat meaning she didn't have to. What made the situation worse was when Cedric took the opportunity to sit next to her considering they had already been helping each other out in that subject.
As Cedric sat down next to her she greeted him normally not wanting to ruin another friendship because of this disagreement. However as she began talking to him she saw a flash of ginger and turned to see George glaring at her which made her stomach turn.
Despite this being possibly the worst week of Elle's school life, she'd made it to the end and well. Surely it could get worse right? Wrong it most definitely could. It was Friday afternoon and after being ignored by Fred for the entire of herbology, all that Elle wanted was to sit round the fire.
✰✰✰
She got to the common room after Fred as he had longer legs and could therefore stride faster. As she pushed her way up to the common room she saw immediately that all the seats around the fire were taken. All her friends were sitting there as usual but here seat had a rather large bag on it. George's bag.
She stood awkwardly for a moment just staring at them. She was greeted by seven pairs of eyes. Two sympathetic, two clueless to what was going on, one shifting and unsure and two full of anger. She stood there for way too long before panicking, turning embarrassed and running up to her dorm.
Had she now lost her friends? All of them? This couldn't be right after all she had only argued with George not all seven of them. What had the twins been saying about her. Had they lied and said she'd been seeing Cedric? No of course not they could never be that malicious, George was upset and he'd get over it. Everyone would be fine.
That's what Elle told herself over and over again yet she didn't actually believe it. She changed quickly into a pair of baggy jeans and a knit cardigan before deciding that maybe if she could get down to the great hall early she wouldn't have to sit with them. Not that they would let her anyway at this rate.
✰✰✰
Elle placed past the group as confidently as she could without looking at them. None called after her. Her combat boots made a loud noise down the corridors which were now empty as she hurried into the hall. It was almost completely empty except for a few first and second years who were scared of being in the common room with the older kids.
As well as the younger years Elle noticed two familiar faces sitting opposite each other on the Ravenclaw table. Her heart sped up immediately as she realised it was Patrick and Anna. Throughout all the commotion she'd almost forgotten that she had friends in other houses. How stupid of her.
She walked over quickly and sat down next to Anna. They jumped slightly in surprise but didn't seem upset or angered upon seeing her.
"Elle you're at the wrong table" Anna smirked,
"Long story but I'd much rather sit with you"she grinned.
"Finally she sees the Ravenclaw supremacy" Patrick nodded proudly while Anna just bonked him in the head with her open book,
"Do tell the story , Patrick won't shut up about.." she paused before looking at Patrick whose eyes had widened slightly.
Elle hadn't expected them to share their secrets with her, after all she wasn't that close with them. Instead she decided to turn the conversation over to herself. Which sound highly narcissistic however in this case it was not.
"Ok so" she began "a few months ago one of my good friends George Weasley asked me to the Yule ball"
"Which ones he... actually it doesn't matter I can't tell the difference anyway" Patrick shrugged,
"Well anyway I said yes... he asked in a well... complicated way" Elle smirked thinking back to the mess that was George pretending be be Fred "but in the end it worked out because we both liked each other"
"Well that's good then" Anna prompted,
"Anyway we told everyone we were just friends at first because George wanted Fred to be the first person to know but he took ages telling him" she rolled her eyes for effect,
"Hate that" Patrick grunted.
"He told him about a month ago maybe less" Elle smiled "and everything was fine for a bit I was really happy and so was he"
"I'm sensing a but" Anna shivered,
"Yes well the other week I made a new friend... Cedric Diggory"
"Pwar he's a goodin" Patrick beamed before Anna shot him a look,
"Yes" Elle laughed "anyway he helped me with my transfigurations work and I helped him with stress over the tournament, last week I came out of the library with him and he gave me a hug to thank me but then George saw"
"Ohhh" Anna sighed "he got jealous didn't he"
"Well yes in a way, he would admit it at first but then he asked me if anything was going on between me and Cedric"
"He did what?" Patrick interrupted seeming slightly outraged "does he not trust you?"
"Well that was my reaction too, anyway it all got out of hand and we argued quite a lot, now he hates me"
"He hates you?" Anna frowned "are you sure, you always seemed such good friends and Lee said you got on like a house on fire"
"We did yes but now every time he looks at me well... if looks could kill" she sighed "and when I went into the common room before he'd put his bag in my seat and no one argued with him... so it looks like they're all on his side
"Yep that doesn't sound good" Patrick confessed,
"Patrick" Anna hissed in a condescending manner,
"What I was just being honest" he raised his hands in defence.
The Ravenclaw's tried their best as cheering Elle up or making her see a brighter side in the situation. However the only bright side they could think of was that she got to sit with them. Patrick used a few choice words to describe George which although made Elle laugh didn't lighten her spirits as she still loved George a lot, she could never hate him.
✰✰✰
Soon all the students poured into the hall but Elle didn't move seats, no one seemed to argue as many students swapped tables a lot anyway. Table segregation wasn't as big a deal as you might think. Elle turned her head to see her usual group walk in. It hurt her to see them laughing around as usual.
They found a seat at the Gryffindor table and didn't even seem to care that Elle wasn't present. Not even Alicia and Angelina.
"Don't pay them any attention" Patrick muttered bitterly as he spooned roast potatoes onto his plate.
Turns out all Patrick ate that evening was potatoes which although seemed concerning to Elle didn't seem unusual in the slightest for Anna who just rolled her eyes at her. Elle decided at this moment on that she'd hang around with her other friends from now on. She didn't need any of the others.
This wasn't strictly true. Even if she was able to move on from them she still had to share a dorm to sleep. Her plan was that she'd just go to bed late and get up early. However the truth was that she missed them a lot despite it only being a few days since they all started acting weird around her.
She took one more look around at the table to see George staring directly at her. She hadn't realised he'd noticed her sitting at the Ravenclaw table. She felt hope to see his face not flooded with anger but with regret. As soon as he saw her looking however he turned away quickly and laughed at something Fred had said. He didn't look at her again.
✰✰✰