there are mentions of some homophobic/gaslighting behavior at the end of the chapter <3
The rest of the summer passed with a surprising amount of rhythm. Hermione seemed to have decided that since neither of them was in relationships anymore, it would be perfectly alright for them to be friends. So when Hermione wasn't dealing with Harry's temper tantrums (which were the most explosive and frequent that Kendra had ever seen- though she stayed out of it, she knew he was grieving for Cedric and all he felt right now was anger), her and Kendra would go through the collection of books in Grimmauld Place. The time Kendra didn't spend with Hermione, she spent with Ginny or Sirius, both of whom had come to be her good friends.
But eventually, summer ended, and September came. It was the first time that Kendra was sad to be leaving for Hogwarts. She had found something new in the ancient townhouse, something she couldn't have gotten at Number 4 Privet Drive. But she wasn't upset as she boarded the train and waved goodbye to "Snuffles" and the rest of their accompanying crew. She was excited to see the friends she hadn't seen since before the world had changed. She was excited to be learning again, though she had already read through the defense against the dark arts book and she didn't have high hopes. She was excited to be study buddies with Hermione again. And though she wouldn't say it to his face, she was excited to be out of the house with Harry and put some distance between them.
He was still grieving, and Kendra couldn't fault him for it. But she did not deal well with anger; it made her feel like a small child in trouble with her father. There was a deep psychological connection between yelling and the feeling of her father's belt against her bare skin that she couldn't get rid of. She would have felt guilty to tell Harry to stop because she was perfectly aware that was how he dealt with things, that was how he had always known things to be dealt with, and it was only now in his life that he felt safe enough to release his anger at the world. It was better to remove herself from the situation and let Ron and Hermione deal with it. Hermione had said she didn't like the yelling either, but she understood it enough to not let it bother her.
She was grinning as she found Lisa on the train. The brunette lept up, grinning wildly. "Kendra!" Lisa squealed unabashedly. The two embraced and Kendra knew at that moment just how much she had missed Lisa. She had felt as though a part of her had been missing until they were reunited.
"Hey, Lis," Kendra said, smiling still as she sat down in the carriage. That was when she noticed that Emelia Thimbleton, who would normally sit with the other Slytherins, was curled up in the corner of the compartment, smirking at the reunion. "Oh, hi, Emelia, how was your summer?"
Emelia scoffed. "Don't ask, you don't wanna know. I should be asking you that. You became quite the subject of gossip when you collapsed at the third task and no one saw you for the rest of the term." Kendra shifted uncomfortably at the mention of the third task. She forced a smile on her face.
"Well, if there was so much gossip, wouldn't you know?" Kendra asked. Emelia smiled dryly and waved her hand about.
"Oh, you know how it is at Hogwarts, Dursley, don't pretend. If it's a secret, the whole school knows. If everyone's talking about it, then no one knows, but everyone thinks they do. Just because I know all the gossip doesn't mean I don't know if it's true or not," Emelia stared at Kendra expectingly.
"I told everyone you got poisoned," Lisa said cheerily, opening a pack of Drooble's and popping the gum in her mouth. Emelia held out her hand, her expecting eyes not glancing away from Kendra.
"Thank you," Kendra said, smiling at Lisa. Her smiled flickered as she turned back to Emelia. "It's not a very fun story. I had a heart attack, and they had to put me to sleep for a month to save my life. I had to get a few surgeries too."
"Can I see the scar?" Lisa asked grinning. Kendra rolled her eyes and moved her shirt to show off the scar, which was still fresh enough that it was not a pretty sight.
"What did we just walk in on?" Mabel asked from the doorway, covering her eyes. Kendra rolled her eyes again and fixed her shirt.
"I was showing Lisa my scar, Mabel, no funny business, promise," Kendra said, smiling at her friend who bent down to hug Kendra. It was no trouble. Mabel, despite her best efforts to change this fact, was forever stuck under five foot. Damon appeared in the doorway just after Mabel sat down. Though Mabel hadn't changed at all, Damon was someone completely different. He had grown about a foot from the last time Kendra had seen him when he had already towered over her. He had started putting product in his hair, and his normally loose and messy curls were slicked down and back, making him look a bit like a banker. The most important change was in his eyes. Though he smiled at Kendra in the same teasingly crooked way he always had, it didn't reach his eyes anymore. Kendra shot him a look that very clearly said we'll talk later.
"Where's Luna?" Mabel asked, already taking Euphenia into her arms like she did every train ride. "We're about to leave, aren't we?"
"I saw her in Potter's compartment," Emelia said, smiling slightly.
"How do you know that? Harry and I got here at the same time and you were in here before me," Kendra narrowed her eyes at the smirking Slytherin. "You know what? I don't wanna know, I'm just going to go check on her and make sure Hermione's being nice."
She loved Hermione, she really loved Hermione, but Hermione was blunt and very set in her opinions. Kendra knew Luna and Kenda knew Hermione. It wasn't a good combination, not after a first meeting. She could see them becoming good friends, but it would be a very trepidacious journey there. Kendra smiled at her friends and stood before making her way to the back of the train to go check on Luna.
On the way there, she passed the Slytherin's compartment, where she saw Theo, who grinned at her and very subtly made a suggestive motion with his fingers. Kendra rolled her eyes, it was good to see his spirit hadn't been crushed during the summer months. Draco Malfoy also stared at her, though it was very obvious that his spirit had. He didn't glare at her with the same sort of look that he normally did, instead, he looked at her as though he was quite sorry for her. He looked as though he didn't quite know who he was anymore. She quickly moved away from the stare off to find Harry and his friends covered in Stinksap.
"I can see I have excellent timing," Kendra said dryly, smiling at Luna, who had managed to use her copy of the Quibbler to defend her front from becoming Stinksaped.
"Oh, hi, Kendra," Harry said, wiping some sap from his face.
"It's not poisonous, don't worry," Neville Longbottom said, holding the culprit of the mess, a grey, cactus-like plant that seemed as though it were made of rubber.
"Here," Ginny said, exasperated. "Tergeo."
"Thanks," Harry said, free of sap now. Kendra rolled her eyes.
"You are very lucky to have Hermione around, Mister Potter," Kendra shook her head, though it was evident that the girl was still in her prefect meeting along with Ron. "I honestly don't know how you do your tie in the morning without her help."
"You taught me how to do my tie," Harry narrowed his eyes accusationally. Kendra squirmed internally but kept her cool and just shrugged.
"Anyways, I just wanted to say hi to Luna," Kendra said smiling at the girl in question. "You're welcome to come back to our compartment, you know."
Luna just smiled. "Your cousin is funny." Kendra knew Luna well enough to know that meant "see you at dinner". She grinned at her eccentric friend.
"Hope they have pudding," she said, waving at the compartment before she turned and left, making her way back to her own seat. She sat down in the almost empty compartment. Damon and she were alone. "Where is everyone?"
"Lisa went to find her boyfriend, Mabel lost Euphenia and went to go find her, Emelia..." Damon paused, not knowing where Emelia had gone off to.
"She's with Theodore, I just saw her in the compartment," Kendra, stared deeply into Damon's eyes, asking her unspoken question. He sighed.
"I guess you wanna know about my summer, huh?" Damon sat back, scowling slightly.
"Yes, I do," Kendra replied, leaning forward. "I won't tell anyone if you want me to."
"Keep this between us, then," Damon said darkly. "If my father found out..."
"Yeah," Kendra nodded, understanding. "Lips are sealed."
"So I went home last Christmas and my dad was there, all teary-eyed, saying he wanted to reconnect and that he'd made a mistake by leaving us, that he was coming back for good," Damon paused as Kendra snorted sarcastically, seeing the problem.
"Yeah, okay," Kendra rolled her eyes. "And I'm a purple platypus."
"Yeah, that's what I thought too, but my mom wanted to give him a chance. So he stayed, and he brought everyone really extravagant gifts from Spain, and everything seemed okay. He wasn't drinking, he wasn't yelling, he was being a good dad. And then... You-Know-Who came back, and I realized why he had left Spain in the first place. There were rumors that he was coming back, especially amongst the kind of crowd that my dad hung around. So he came back, to see if they were true, and they were true enough that he stayed, I guess. As soon as You-Know-Who was back, my dad went and found him and joined him. And now he wants me to join as well- he's trying to use my sexuality against me, that he'll out me if I don't join. And that there's a certain standard that his family should be held to and that I need to fit into that." Damon finished with another sigh, leaning into his hands.
"Aw, Damon, I'm so sorry," Kendra, patted his arm. "Does your mom know, does Mabel know?"
He shook his head. "No, neither of them know, but Mabel suspects something. She's never liked him and I know she's just waiting to find something terrible about him. Mamma... she's wrapped up in her nostalgia. She's remembering why she fell in love with him in the first place, why she ran away to England with him, why she had two kids with him. She's not thinking about why she left him at all. And he's doing his best to make sure she doesn't think about that."
"Is there any way that you could try and convince her?" Kendra asked. Damon shook his head.
"She doesn't listen to me," Damon said. "Not that I can tell her anything, or that I would want her to. Besides, they're engaged now, and he makes her happy. I know it has a bad ending, but it's so nice to see her happy again, I don't want to ruin it for her. For us. Is that selfish of me?"
"Maybe," Kendra shrugged. "Ignorance is bliss though, and if you can keep her safe without telling her, that's probably the best option. She worries enough about you as it is."
Damon sighed, and just then Mabel marched back in, Euphenia secured tightly between her arms. She cooed slightly at the cat as she sat back down. "Woah, what kind of a party did I interrupt here?" she asked, her tone sarcastic as she fed Euphenia a treat.
Kendra smiled at her, hoping it was convincing enough to cover up her lie. She was, unfortunately, very good at lying because she had quite a bit of practice. "Don't worry, Mabel, it was nothing important. Just talking about the O.W.L.s." Mabel made a face.
"Yuck. Next time, spare my ears from that horrid word and don't tell me at all," Mabel shook her head as if tossing off a thought. Kendra smiled at the fourth year, though her eyes were almost blaring into Damon's, making a silent promise that she would help and protect him, no matter what.
a/n: yay another chapter! this one took me a while cause it's quite long, wattpad was being stupid, and i spent the last hour of writing it on the phone with my "friend" ;) if you get what i mean. not trying to flex on y'all cause he is still a man, who are in fact not shit (sorry to the men reading this, ik y'all are here too). but that's irrelevant- OOtP is in full swing now! there are still some very important decisions to be made about this book (cough cough sirius) but for the most part, i know where this book's going and i like it. also new cover, idk how I'm feeling abt it, what do y'all think?
ok now for what you all read my book for 🙄 meme time