true loves poison • james potter

6

Lorelei had been to three parties throughout her time at Hogwarts.

The first was her third year, in the Gryffindor common room right before Christmas. Liz had dragged her all the way there, took a sip of spiked eggnog, and dragged her all the way back.

The second and third were both in her fifth year. She'd gone with her boyfriend at the time, and together they had a wonderful time at first.

Lorelei had found him snogging another girl at the second.

The rest of her fifth year was spent watching him leave her and go for his new catch. All the while people were gossiping about why he cheated or whether or not she deserved it.

Lorelei spent more time crying than she did anything else, and it was only because of her friends that she still got high marks in all her classes.

Since then, Lorelei has deemed the gossiping mill at Hogwarts all different curses under the sun.

She thought she'd gotten over fifth year.

But her blue eyes shining back at her in her mirror told her otherwise.

Liz had thrown her in a dress. And while earlier Lorelei was confident about going, now that they were about to leave all she wanted to do was crawl under her covers.

If she stayed here, she couldn't be hurt again.

"This is ridiculous." She whispered to herself.

"I'll say."

Lori turned to look at Liz, who was leaning against the doorframe. "You know, Melissa and I were both worried about you over the summer. We thought you'd just hide in your bed and not leave until school started."

"But then, you write us letters about how you're completely and totally over him." Liz walked over and leaned against the vanity, "But have you really gotten over everything else that happened?"

Lori broke eye contact, "Most of the time I feel like I have. But sometimes I just want to cry all over again." She sighed, "It isn't even about him anymore. I am over him, but sometimes I just want to hide myself away so nothing like that ever happens again."

Liz hesitated, "Isn't that exactly what you're doing right now?"

"What do you mean?"

Smiling, Liz gestured at her, "This new project. It just seems like one big distraction. The person you are, and the person you're presenting as, are very different. Just because you aren't physically hiding doesn't mean you aren't hiding yourself."

"When did you get so philosophical?" Lori chuckled before standing.

"Just promise me you won't go too far with your project. I don't want you to get hurt again."

Melissa walked in, "Are you coming?"

The girls laughed and followed behind, making their way down to the common room with the rest of the party hopefuls.