6003 words!! please vote and comment. shoutout to malfoysxstyles for guessing the closest
and!! as a warning, there might be some triggering elements in this (self-harm). i listed in this in the beginning of the book so i'm assuming if ur here right now, you can handle it, but if not, skip to the next time skip thing when he is staring at his ceiling
—
Please don't yell at me, please don't yell at me.
I gaze up at Celeste with a slight twist of my brows, my head still tilted down to the book in my lap while she reads the one in hers in an unbothered fashion.
Those aren't the thoughts currently running through her head, of course. I haven't dipped into her mind since she came back to Hogsmeade panicking about Katie Bell touching the necklace, panicking about my reaction. She wasn't making any sense, her eyes were frantic and unfocused, and I was sure she'd completely and even physically fall apart if I didn't force her to sit down. Even then, even when she was sitting and speaking, she was still mildly hysterical. I couldn't help it—I needed to know what she was trying to say, but when I used my Legilimency to get into her head, it was just—
Please don't yell at me.
So she's scared of me, then.
"I was thinking—"
I quickly duck my head back down before she can pick hers up, eyes finding where I left off about ten minutes ago while I slouch down—my back pressed against a heavy box—and hand flipping the page even though I realize I haven't even started it.
"—you know," she continues, "about how you had detention that day when I went to Hogsmeade."
I glance up with lifted eyebrows, seeing her watching me intently, her knees slowly folding up and trapping the book she reads between her lab and her torso.
"What about it?"
"Well," Celeste sighs softly, eyes glancing away to look at some odd object or other—the Come-And-Go Room, or Room of Requirements as the file we read says, is filled to the brim with arcane, likely cursed objects—and hand reaching up to scratch the back of her neck, "you got detention for missing homework, didn't you?"
