Hayloft - ron weasley

2

the next few days were anything but easy.

briar was eating breakfast when two tall figures stood over her, "goodmorning briar. has the wizarding world been treating you well?"

george instantly elbowed fred, giving him wide eyes.

fred instantly remembered her circumstances and mumbled an apology.

"no, no, it's quite alright. i'd rather things get a bit back to normal for me. i don't want everyone to walk on eggshells around me." briar said wearily.

"right... well that we can do for you!" fred's smile quickly grew back to his face and told the people sitting next to her to move down.

they went on talking as if nothing had changed. she deeply appreciated that.

even though she was still so sad, she found herself laughing once or twice by what the twins were saying.

they had taken her under their wing, to say the least. letting her help them play pranks on different people, talk nonsense, and mostly let her forget about the previous events. even if it was only for a minute.

she found herself angry because she felt as though she didn't care about cedric's death, because at times she would be happy and forget he died.

she convinced herself she was a bitch because she wasn't sad for him all the time.

she had already had enough time to grieve over the summer. she would be lying if she said she didn't feel just a little bit better.

but that doesn't mean that the hurt is still there.

it doesn't mean that she doesn't lie awake at night silently sobbing into her pillow or, wake up apologizing to cedric for not protecting him more.

she hadn't talked to ron.

the most speaking they had done this year was when he asked if she had an extra quill he could use, ultimately getting yelled at by mcgonagall for being out of his seat without asking.

he would go to the library with hermione just in attempts to build up the courage to talk to her, but she was never there.

he would wait past curfew in the common room to see if she would sneak down during the night to go to the astronomy tower, the kitchens, the lake, literally anywhere. but she didn't.

he would stare at her longingly in classes, just hoping she would take a glance his way. but of course, she never did.

he even went up to her dorm a couple of times to knock on her door, just to see if she was alright. but he couldn't build up the courage to knock. instead he would just stand there, like a mad person, staring at her door, with his fist slightly raised.

it took all of him just to go up to her and ask for that quill. that's something he can do easy. it was only hard for him because of the person he would ask of it from.

everyone was talking about cedric and harry. people would talk about wether they believed harry or not, briar would tell them to shut up and pay attention to the lesson, and whoever was gossiping about cedric's death shut up immediately, looking over to briar as if they forgot, or didn't know she was there.

briar of course believed harry.

it was in the first DADA class that this was really tested.

the new teacher, umbridge, had told them to put their wands away and take out their textbooks.

which surprised many people.

hermione was the first one to say anything.

soon the class discussion landed on voldemort and cedric's death yet again.

everyone had different responses to hearing voldemort's name. briar sat unfazed, she normally may raise an eyebrow to whoever had enough bravery to say his name. but all she felt towards him was hatred for murdering her closest friend. she had cursed his name all summer, not caring who heard. so at this point, briar was used to hearing his name, but not out of her own mouth.

after hearing the name 'voldemort' and 'cedric' in the same sentence more than once, she couldn't hold herself back any longer.

"shut up." she said, instantly regretting her words, and realizing what she had just done.

"what did you say dear?" umbridge asked sweetly.

anger coursed through her veins at her teacher, "i said shut up!"

"detention!" umbridge squealed, "right after potter's."

briar clenched her jaw shut and sank farther into her seat, ignoring the lingering stares from fellow students.

this was going to be a long year.

i'm sorry i know this chapter is shorter than usual but i have more planned for the next ones and just wanted to add some context for them.