elena, alison and luke enter the room of requirement.
it was quiet, but they were immediately overwhelmed by the amount of random objects stacked as high as the ceiling surrounding them. they couldn't walk ten feet in front of them without having to move out of the way of another pile of trash.
"what is all of this stuff?" luke asks, following the girls as they walk through the labyrinth of a room.
"it looks like we're in some sort of really big storage closet." alison says.
"it's the room of hidden things," elena tells them, looking around. after spending a considerable amount of time in the room with calum, she's learned a thing or two about the forms it can take. "it's one of the ways it presents itself to students. alot of people hide things in here, knowing it won't be found because there's already so much stuff."
"what's calum hiding in there then, hmm?" alison asks no one in particular, following elena as she continues walking around the room's open path, searching in every direction for her boyfriend. finally, after turning a corner, she notices movement in front of her and stops. his back was facing her as he toggled with the latch on a large black cupboard.
"calum?"
the slytherin whips around, his eyes wide. "elena. alison, luke, what are you guys doing here?" he asks, walking up to his girlfriend.
"we followed you." alison says, crossing her arms.
"what are you doing here?" elena asks him, looking around. "and what is all of this stuff?"
"nevermind that," he shakes his head. "you all need to leave. now." calum tells them.
"why?" luke questions.
"i-it's complicated." he groans, quickly turning around to look at the cabinet as if it could erupt any moment. "i just need you to go, okay?" the boy pleads, looking at them in desperation.
"no!" elena stands her ground. "what is going on? why are you being so secretive? why are you spending time in a room filled with trash instead of your girlfriend?" she demands.
calum opens his mouth to speak again, but he doesn't get the chance before the cupboard behind him begins making a rattling noise. the four wizards turn their attention to the doors of the large cabinet as they open and pansy parkinson walks out.
"calum, it— oh." she stops mid sentence after seeing the hufflepuffs. "i see we have company." she says, giving them a dirty look.
elena raises her eyebrows at calum, waiting for an explanation as to what he was doing in a secret room alone with her, but he didn't have one.
"it's not what it looks like i swear." he tells her, however it indeed looked bad.
"you're a cheater!" alison scoffs. "at least sneak around with someone worth it." she says, looking pansy up and down in disgust.
"how could you?" elena asks her boyfriend softly, anguish and distress covering her face. she looks at him, waiting for a reply. he looks to the ground, biting his lip, not knowing what to say.
"come on, elena. he's not worth it." luke says, turning around and heading back the way they came.
tears begin to fill elena's eyes as they were still searching calum's face, waiting for some sort of explanation. she wanted him to tell her she just happened to be in the same room, that it was a huge misunderstanding, but she knew that wasn't the case. calum and pansy came here together.
he looks at her, pain-stricken. "el..."
"i can't believe you would do this to me." she didn't trust her voice to talk at a volume above a whisper as she shakes her head in disappointment.
without another word from either of them, elena turns around and follows alison and luke out of the room of requirement. heartbroken, she walks with her head hung low and alison's arm wrapped around her.
calum sighs, running a hand through his hair and turning around to look at pansy. "great timing, by the way." he sarcastically mentions.
"hey, the cabinet does what it wants. i was trying to tell you it worked. i went to borgin and burke's and came back in one piece." she informs, locking the doors on the cupboard once again .
"it doesn't even matter anymore! the only reason i was helping you fix it was because the death eaters said if i didn't, they would hurt el, but she wants nothing to do with me now that she thinks i was in here doing merlin knows what with you!" calum exclaims, throwing his hands in the air. he couldn't believe while trying to keep his girlfriend from others, he ended up hurting her all by himself.
"no cal, that's a good thing," pansy smiles, approaching the boy and taking his hand in hers. "if she doesn't want to see you anymore, that means she's not in any danger. the death eaters won't even bother if you're not distracted by her anymore. it also means we finally have a chance together."
calum glares at her, harshly pulling his hand out of hers. "don't touch me and don't call me 'cal'. that's a nickname reserved for elena and elena only." he sharply replies, making it clear that he wasn't interested. he quickly walks out of the room of requirement, not knowing where he was headed, but knowing he needed to be alone.
"i'm so sorry, elena." luke frowns, entering the hufflepuff common room with the two girls.
"some guys are just awful." alison tells her, sitting down with her on one of the couches by the fireplace.
"he was supposed to be one of the good ones." elena says, wiping a tear from her cheek.
she felt broken and betrayed by calum's actions. the two were so happily in love, and even though it hadn't been for long, elena thought he might be the one for her. the one she was supposed to spend the rest of her life with. the one who was going to love her, cherish her, protect her and never hurt her.
now, that had changed.
after seeing calum in the room of requirement with pansy, she couldn't help but feel disgusted with him and herself. disgusted that he would disrespect her like he did, and disgusted that she thought he was different.
"no." luke says, sitting down on the other side of elena. "we are not going to cry over pathetic, lying, scumbag men, right ali?"
"no we are not!" alison agrees.
"what we are going to do is have a sleepover right here, make butterbeer, paint our nails and eat candy, right ali?" luke nods.
"yes we are!" she smiles.
"i don't know, guys. i'd rather just lay down and cry." elena admits, sighing in sadness.
"elena, we're your best friends and as your best friends, there's no way we're letting you do that." ali tells her.
although she didn't really feel up to the occasion, elena smiles softly at how thoughtful and loving her friends are, then nods in agreement. "okay." she thought it's better to be sad with your friends than by yourself.
"yay! i'll go get the butterbeer ingredients from the kitchen." luke says, hopping up off of the couch and leaving the common room.
"let's go grab blankets and nail polish." alison says, standing and dragging elena up with her.
they go to their dorm, grabbing the blankets and pillows they wanted to take back downstairs and making a pile of them on the floor. alison grabs her bag of nail polish, holding one bottle of each color. elena finds her stash of honeyduke's sweets she bought when she was in hogsmeade with ashton. she still had treacle fudge, sugar quills and boxes of bertie bott's beans left.
the two friends gather all of their belongings and haul it down the stairs to the common room. luke was already back, setting down the mugs, icecream, cream soda, butterscotch topping and whipped cream on the coffee table.
"let's get this party started!" alison smiles, dropping her blankets and pillows on the couch and sitting down in the floor in front of the table.
luke and elena both take a seat around the table as well and begin making their sugary drinks. they laugh and tell jokes in an effort to cheer their friend up.
and it did. spending time with her best friends and being reminded of how it felt to be loved and appreciated helped to take elena's mind off of the night's events.
she knew that despite what life would throw at her, she would always have alison and luke by her side.
———
calum & pansy whaaaaat 😳