Sincerely, Harry -h.p

Chapter 12

I walked into the Dining Hall and found Harry sitting with Hermione and Ron. He saw me walking towards him and waved. I just had to hope he wouldn't notice the tears on my face.

I sat down next to him and all three of them stared at me.

"I'm not a statue in a museum, you three. Bloody hell."

They all looked at each other with worried looks on their faces, and Harry put his toast down as he placed his hand on my thigh.

"Jocie, are you alright?" He asked.

"Spectacular. Why do you ask?" I replied sarcastically.

"It's just you have some tears on your cheeks and you're being a- you're acting strange."

"I'm being a bitch? So I can't have feelings now? You know what, I'm not hungry."

I walked out of the dining hall with tears dripping down my face and walked into an empty corridor. I sat down with my knees in my face, silently sobbing.

I wished I wasn't so emotional. There was no reason for me to be. I was just so scared that I was pushing everyone away without even realizing it.

I heard someone coming so I tried wiping my tears as fast as I could, but soon realized it was just Luna.

"Jocie? Is that you? What's wrong?"

She sat down next to me and placed her hand on my cheek, wiping the tears off.

"It's nothing, Luna," I replied with a fake smile.

"If it was nothing, you wouldn't be crying."

I didn't reply and it caused an awkward silence.  There wasn't really any appropriate way to reply to that.

"I cry too, sometimes. Sometimes because of my mom, but a lot of the time, it's because not very nice people like to tease me. I like being different, but they think it's funny, and that really hurts my feelings."

I slowly looked up at her in shock.

"How come you've never told me about this? Who makes fun of you?"

"Oh I don't remember. But I would rather we not talk about me. Why are you sad, Jocie?"

"I- I just don't know what to do about Cedric. I don't know how to feel. He told me he still had feelings for me, but I like Harry. It's just so hard because I know that our relationship is not going to be the same and I don't want to push anyone away."

"Well sometimes change is good. You don't want to stay a caterpillar forever," she smiled.

"What?" I asked, confused.

"A caterpillar has to go through lots of changes to become a butterfly."

"That's um- I've never thought about that. Thanks, Luna."

I smiled at her and she got up and skipped away. Luna was... peculiar, but I loved her.

I got up shortly after and headed back to the dining hall, and found Harry still sitting with Ron and Hermione.

I walked over to him but I didn't sit down. I desperately needed to talk to him, as I was truly scared he was upset with me.

"Can I talk to you, Harry?" I asked nervously.

"Yeah, of course," he replied.

We walked out of the dining hall and I led him into the corridor I was just in.

I explained everything to him and he just stood there and listened. He comforted me and it sort of helped. As much as I liked Harry, he was never the best at comforting, but I didn't mind. He was more of a physical person. He wasn't the best with words.

"You're the best, Harry," I said as I smiled and pulled him into a hug.

"Are you still not hungry?"

"I uh- I think I've changed my mind."

We both laughed as we headed back to the dining hall.

~~~~~~~~~~

Later that day I decided to go into the Library to study but found myself unable to concentrate, due to the sound of quiet sobs. I walked over to where the sound was coming from, and found Neville sitting with his knees in his face.

"Neville? What happened?"

I quickly sat down next to him and put my hand on his shoulder.

"Oh-uh nothing," he stammered as he quickly stood up.

"Neville, talk to me," I insisted.

He looked into my eyes and wrapped his arms around me. I was so shocked that I didn't realize what happened until seconds later.

"Why me? I constantly get bullied, Jocie. It's like everything bad happens to me, and only me," he cried.

I placed my head on his shoulder and rubbed his back. I had always felt bad for Neville, especially after I found out what happened to his parents, but he never opened up to me about it.

"I'm so sorry, Neville. I couldn't even begin to understand what that's like. Is there any way I can help?" I asked, hugging him tighter.

"I don't know. Do you think you could tell the bullies to back off?" He replied.

"Of course."

He let go of me and smiled. I wiped the tears off his face as he looked down at the ground. This wasn't the Neville I knew, but I was happy he finally talked to me. I knew how hard it was to open up to people.

"Thank you for being a such a great friend, Jocie."

"No need to thank me, Neville. It's what friends are for," I smiled.

He gave me one last tight hug and walked away, and I was left standing there, with my brain exploding from too many emotions.

authors note:
i know this chapter didn't have much drama or excitement to it, but I thought it was necessary to show what the other characters go through. don't worry, there will be lots of drama to come :)