mirrorball

chapter twelve

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

The journey back to Hogwarts was long and quiet. Clara sat next to the golden trio with an open book as the friends chatted away. Every so often she stared longingly out of the carriage window, she was already missing Sirius' house in London. Clara silently wondered if the trio would talk to her at school or if they would pretend this hadn't happened.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the low whistle of the train, which signaled that they had reached their destination. Clara gripped the handle of her bag and waved to the trio as she left them in the carriage.

She set down her bag and quickly unpacked all of her things. She took extra care to not stretch the new sweater from Mrs. Weasley as she strung a hanger through the neck and hung it in her closet. Her suitcase was finally drained, and she took one last look into the square container. One object lay in the middle, and Clara picked it up. She twirled the object between her fingers and observed it closely. It was the bracelet Harry had gotten her, and she had debated whether or not to ever wear it almost every minute since he had gifted it to her.

She slipped the bracelet onto her wrist and admired it. It fit perfectly, and even seemed to go well with Luna's friendship bracelet. Clara smiled, before ripping the bracelet off and tucking it into her desk drawer. There was no way she could wear it in public, what if someone asked her where she got it? Admitting that she liked and wanted to wear something that Harry Potter had given her was something Clara was determined to never do.

Dinner was a bore, and Clara was on edge the whole meal. She desperately wanted to meet up with Luna and tell her about her holiday. After what seemed like days, Dumbledore dismissed the students from the great hall and Clara leapt out of her seat. She quickly walked to the courtyard and looked for her best friend.

Clara ran towards the blonde figure standing in front of her and engulfed her in a tight embrace.

"I missed you so much, Luna!"

"I missed you too! You have to tell me all about your adventures."

Clara nodded and began to recount her holiday. She talked about everything. Not a single detail was left out and Luna listened intently. 

"-so basically it's quite confusing. Sometimes we're friendly and the next I want to rip his lungs out of his chest."

Luna looked to the sky and sighed deeply. She turned her head back to Clara and smiled.

"Perhaps he's confused by your attitude, you are very hard to read. You don't exactly communicate your feelings well." Clara thought about this for a moment. Luna was right, of course, Clara's communication, or lack thereof, was her biggest weakness. However, Clara quickly dismissed the idea. There had to be something else, and she knew it was Harry's fault and not her own.

"Well, it doesn't matter anyway. It's not like I want to be his friend. So tell me about your break."

Luna's break had been, as she had said, wonderful yet quite painful. A gnome had bitten her heel and she still had a nasty scar in the shape of tiny teeth. Clara traced the bite marks with her finger and grimaced when her finger rolled over a particularly deep part.

"You should have Madam Pomfrey look at that, it could be infected."

"A splendid idea!" Luna said, pulling her sock back up. "Gnomes, while charming, can be quite aggressive. Of course, I was only being friendly so I didn't expect it to attack like this, but I'm sure I seemed quite threatening to him."

The girls skipped back to their common rooms and Clara tightly snuggled herself into her bed. The mattress hugged her softly and the slight murmur of Pansy's snoring echoed through the room. The familiar noise brought a smile to Clara's lips and soon sleep overcame her body.