You don't own me, Riddle

Chapter 7 - unfair prejudice

Friday morning Ari awoke early, and as usual before her dorm-mates. After her routine morning shower, she headed out to the common room. Her eyes fell to the arched windows that revealed an exclusive view over the castle grounds, currently bathing in pink and orange light descendent from the early sunrise.

Jack, who was already seated at one of the couches, raised his head tiredly as she entered the room. When he spotted the blond girl, his cheeks gained some color, and he gave her his characteristic dimple-filled grin. "Morning Ari!"

She was relieved that he seemed more cheerful than the previous day.

"Good morning" she greeted him. She walked towards the bookshelves, almost automatically reaching out her hand to touch the covers of all the books stacked there. Her eyes landed on the Rowena Ravenclaw statue, and she hesitated for a moment, before proceeding to pick a book at random. Something about that statue gave her an odd feeling in the pit of her stomach.

She sat down on the couch and opened the book, her eyes lazily roaming over the pages.

After a few moments, she started feeling restless, which was highly unusual for her. She glared at Jack, whom she noticed was writing something on a piece of old parchment. His eyebrow was furrowed in concentration, and his quill moved frantically over the page.

She could not help herself from smiling at the boy, figuring that he probably had forgotten about some last-minute homework. As she was about to ask him about it, a few Ravenclaw boys entered the common room from the boys-dorm and greeted them while laughing and playfully punching each other.

"Coyet!" One of the boys called, causing Jack to break from his trans, and raise his gaze towards the flock of boys.

"Congratulations, you survived your first week at Hogwarts" the boy continued, and Ari tried to remember if they had ever talked before.

"I did" she replied amused. The boys smiled at her, before proceeding to walk out from the common room, as loud as ever. Ari turned her attention back at Jack.

"Want any help with that?" she asked him, and he responded by shaking his head. "I'm fine, but thanks" he added and smiled appreciably. She nodded at him and returned his smile. His eyes lingered on her face for a moment, just long enough for someone to notice.

"Stop flirting in public" they heard a humored voice from behind Ari say, causing her to turn around to face a grinning Elizabeth. Ari only rolled her eyes at the girl and gave Jack, whose face now had turned crimson, a reassuring look.

"Very funny" he mumbled and returned his attention back at his work.

"Wanna take a walk? I'm bored!" Elizabeth questioned as she approached Ari from behind, resting her hands on the couch.

Ari contemplated for a minute before shutting the book and rising "Sure" Ari proceeded to return her book to its alphabetical place on the shelf, and as they headed towards the door, she turned to wave at Jack. He, once again, seemed too consumed by his writing to even notice them leaving. Ari chucked.

As the girls were roaming amongst the hallways, chatting a bit, Ari noticed that a few of the boys who were usually hanging around Tom were standing ahead of them in the hallway.

Elizabeth's voice faded out in her head as she watched them laugh, whisper, and point at each other. Her eyes automatically searched for Tom, who she could not find amongst them.

The past week, she had shared several classes with the boy, much to her disapproval. She realized he was much easier to avoid if she knew where he was, and therefore made it a habit to look for him whenever she entered a room she had reason so suspect that he might be in.