Of Constellations → 𝘥. 𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘧𝘰𝘺

xxv. not friends

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chapter twenty five

not friends

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Though snow still lightly dusted the mountain summits, flowers bloomed and birds sang as we settled into late May. Beyond the Hogwarts grounds, green grasses were freckled with purple patches of heather, fed by steep streams of snowmelt. Days lengthened and air warmed.

Draco was no longer visiting me in the library, Theo was avoiding me, Ginny was spending all her time with Harry, who she started started dating after Gryffindor won the Quidditch Cup, so I spent my weekends outside with Luna.

It was good for me, I think, taking a break from endless studying to sit in the grass and breathe fresh spring air. On one cloudy afternoon, Luna flopped onto her back and began to look for shapes in the clouds. I followed suit. She spotted a Blibbering Humdinger, I spotted a car; she saw a Dabberblimp, I saw a dog.

"See that one?" she asked, pointing to a lonely cloud, oblong with wispy edges. "Looks just like an Umgubular Slashkilter."

I had no idea what an Umgublar Slashkilter was supposed to look like, so I supposed her cloud could have very well looked like one.

"The Minister of Magic always has one while in office. I wonder if Scrimgeour has got his own yet," she said.

"He probably has," I said, scanning the sky for another shape. Finally, I found a thin cloud with a fine, feathery end. "Ooh, how about that one just above the mountain? Looks like a tadpole—...well, now it looks like a Dean Thomas."

Dean's face had appeared above mine, blocking out the sun. I had to squint to see it was him.

"Hmm...," Luna murmured. "I don't see it. Looks more like a Wrackspurt to me."

"May I speak to you alone for a moment, Mars?" Dean asked. I widened my eyes and quickly scrambled to my feet. There was something unsettled about his expression, which unsettled me in turn—he was almost always relaxed.

"Be back, Luna," I said to her, but her eyes told me she had moved beyond the clouds and into space.

I followed Dean as we ambled slowly through the grounds, down the winding path to the Quidditch pitch. Dean spoke first, glancing at me and then glancing away to stare straight ahead. "Ginny's with Harry now. Don't know if she told you."

"Yeah, she did," I said. "Sorry, I'm sure that sucks. I know you two only just broke up a couple weeks ago."

He gave me a feeble smile. "She snogged him right in front of me in the common room after the game. I mean, I sort of always knew they'd end up with each other. But, she could've given it another week or so. Or at least not done it right in front of everyone like that. Bit embarrassing to be the bloke who gets dumped by his girlfriend and has to watch her snog one of his best mates mere weeks after."

"I'm sorry," I said again, trying to hide that I was completely lost. Why was Dean so dead set on unloading his relationship troubles onto me? Sure, it's not like I expected Seamus to be his go-to giver of advice for this sort of thing. But still, I thought it odd.

"Don't be," said Dean. "I knew that relationship was fucked from the start. I mean, she asked me out right after she ended things with that Corner kid. We'd only spoken a little after D. A. meetings before then, so I was surprised but...decided to give it a try. We worked better as a long-distance couple. There's less room to fight when you're writing letters than when you're spending all your time 'round each other."