Mine

[30]

I made my way down the stairs and into the common room, not even being surprised to find that it wasn't empty.  People didn't have anywhere else to go these days anyway.  The first thing I noticed when I entered the common room was Pansy Parkinson, snickering in my direction.

"Do you have something you'd like to say?" I shot at her.

"Doesn't everybody?" Pansy snorted, looking to Crabbe and Goyle for a laugh, though neither of them gave in this time.

"What do you want from me, Pansy?" I asked, my voice steadily raising.  "I can't tell if you just stoop that low any chance you get or if you're really that thirsty for attention.  Either way, it's pathetic."

"Pathetic?" Pansy asked, raising up from her seat on the couch as she narrowed her eyes at me.  "If you need to see pathetic, dear cuz, look in the mirror."

While this wasn't any different from other insults she'd thrown my way over the years, it struck a different chord on this day.  "Me? Pathetic?  Maybe I would be in your eyes, but at least I know my worth.  You're so ready to throw yourself at any guy who even looks in your direction.  So, I'll ask you again.  What the fuck do you want?  Do you want my boyfriend?  Take him.  Do you want a reaction out of me?  You already got it."

Pansy seemed to be momentarily surprised by my sneering, so I took that to my advantage and kept going.  "You continue to be a groveling, jealous bitch, but I could care less.  What are you going to do?  Go crying to daddy? Like he can do shit.  My father would crush yours if it came to that.  Cry to Grammy and Grandpy that I'm a vile excuse of a Parkinson so that they take me out of the will?  As if I fucking care.  To think there was a time that I missed your companionship and wished that we could go back to old times where we were close.  You disgust me."

Despite her best efforts, Pansy seemed to shrink in on herself ever so slightly.  I guess I'd struck a nerve, finally.  We may have grown apart, and quickly at that, but I knew what mattered most to her.  It had been the same our entire lives.  She wanted to make her parents proud, as I did with mine, but her parents operated in a different way than mine.  And she wanted our grandparents to love her so that they'd leave some of their legacy and money to her.  I'd given up caring on that long ago when I'd learned the difference between the beliefs of my dad's parents versus my mum's.

I took another step into the common room, my gaze focused so intently on glaring down my cousin that I'd nearly missed Draco stepping in front of my path.  "Move." I snarled when I finally noticed him. Despite the look that passed his features, Draco stood his ground.  "Did I stutter?" I spat at him.

Draco eyed me cautiously, but he stood his ground.  "Gemma, just listen to me for a moment." He said, trying to reason with me.

"I thought I told you I couldn't even look at you." I said quietly, seeing red once again.  I could feel any grasp of control in my reach slipping away as Draco stood in his place, and I wanted to avoid doing something I may regret.  I was still so insanely angry at him for earlier today when he'd slipped veritaserum in my drink.  In that moment, a thought flicked in my forebrain that I never thought would emerge.  I wanted to tell him we were finished.  Maybe I still had a sliver of myself locked somewhere deep inside because instead of saying so, I kept my lips pursed as I stared him down.

"Get out of my way, Draco." I said lowly, my tone seeping with anger as I tried to warn him.  Whether the warning reached him properly or not was not of my concern at this time.  I just needed him to move before I did something detrimental to our relationship.  Draco finally moved aside, and I stormed past him, hearing Blaise from behind saying, "Let her go."

I made my way through the castle until I was outside.  I just wanted to be alone with fresh air to surround me.  There was no rhyme or reason to my thought process, I just knew that I needed to be outside where the air wasn't thick with the tension of the people who wanted to see me fail.  I plopped down onto the grass, staring into the darkness without a worry in sight as to what the consequences could be.  As I heard footsteps behind me, I tensed up.  I didn't look behind to see who was approaching, genuinely not wanting to know.  Then I sensed a body ease itself down to the ground beside me.