Beneath Her Skin

Chapter Eight

"What the bloody hell is a 'High Inquisitor'?" Alastriona asked out loud, throwing the morning paper down.

Draco picked it up, reading quickly. "She's got the power to inspect other teachers." He glanced up at Alastriona, "That won't go down with the Head of Houses, especially--" He'd started reading again and groaned, face falling. "My father's made a comment, of course." He too threw the paper down and tried to relax.

"Want to go for a walk?" Alastriona offered, she'd just seen Darcy walk off from the Gryffindor table and was hoping to follow.

Draco shook his head, pointing out Theo and Blaise, just coming in for breakfast. "You go, I'll catch up later."

Alastriona leaned forward and kissed him before running to catch up with Darcy.
"Darcy!" Alastriona yelled down the hall, Darcy flinched and stopped, she turned and waited for Alastriona with a smile.

"Hey." Darcy said softly. "Were you in the Great Hall that whole time?" She asked.

"Yeah, I was with Draco. Are you all right? You look a little tired." Alastriona fell into step beside her friend.

Darcy hesitated. She knew that Alastriona kept secrets from her but she needed her best friend.
"It's Lee. Things aren't going so well." She said. "I mean, it isn't horrible," she quickly corrected herself, "but it just isn't the same anymore."

Alastriona instantly felt like a horrible friend, how could she not notice Darcy wasn't happy? Was she so caught up in her own thoughts and feelings that she'd forgotten to check in on her closest friend in the world?
"In what way?" Alastriona asked, suppressing her guilt long enough to focus, narrowly avoiding walking into a stone wall.

"We just seem to be drifting apart. I know he's worried about next year, because he'll graduate and I'll still be here and I think he's worried about the distance and not seeing each other every day. It feels like he's just been distancing himself already, maybe without even realising it." Darcy said, twisting her fingers together anxiously.
"And this may seem petty but I feel like we just don't have fun anymore. We don't laugh as much as we used to, we used to have a lot of fun with harmless pranks and inside jokes and now I feel like a lot of that's just gone, faded away."

"Are you," Alastriona flinched at the words on the tip of her tongue, "upset about that?" She hurried to correct herself. "I mean, how do you feel about things possibly ending? Do you want to fix it?"

Darcy was lost for words, blue eyes wide, looking slightly like a caged animal. She breathed out a sigh of relief when she saw Ginny Weasley waving to them from down the hallway.
"Ginny!" She called out with a shaky smile.

Alastriona grinned at the youngest Weasley, always happy to see her.

Darcy and Alastriona stopped in unison, something catching their attention, something different about Ginny.

"You're wearing pants!" Alastriona said loudly.

Ginny blushed madly and was about to snap at her--

"Amazing!" Darcy chimed in, "Why did we never think of that?"

Alastriona scoffed, "Ginny, you're a bloody genius! And you look fantastic too! Where did you get them?"

"Well, they're actually--" Ginny had been about to say they were hand-me-downs from one of her brothers.

"Gladrags!" Darcy said, clapping her hands, "We'll go to Gladrags at the next Hogsmeade trip." She planned aloud.

Alastriona was grinning from ear to ear, "I've got to embroider you something, as a thank you, do you like sunflowers? Oh, actually, what about snitches? I could do little snitches and quaffles. Or what about a lovely dagger?" Alastriona offered, her hands itching to work. "Ah, I'll figure something out." Alastriona patted Ginny on the back. "Fashion genius, Ginny!"