Aymee Parker B2 - The Cursed Mark

Chapter 3 : Disillusionned

Once off to a good start and the parents out of sight, the valet invited Aymee to go find her friends and settle down. Embarrassed, she glanced furtively through the window of the compartments. She surprised some couples of older students kissing to celebrate their reunion and received several looks for her indiscretion. It was only after three wagons that Aymee finally recognized the orange hair tightened in a braid of Rosalie among a group. She opened the compartment with a sharp blow and without ceremony. Émilie jumped so hard her glasses slipped from her nose.

"Girls! It's been so long!" Aymee exclaimed, hugging Rosalie.

"Aymee!" exclaimed the redhead in return.

It was very discreet and Aymee only saw it out of the corner of her eye, but she could have sworn that Émilie had kicked Rosalie, as if getting a secret message across. Rosalie then displayed a completely unconvincing closed fake face. Aymee decided not to pay attention to it, even if she felt a sting of discomfort.

"How are you doing?" Aymee asked while turning.

Silence. If Émilie and Rosalie shared the right seat, Penelope, Astou and Aminata, her Slytherin twin, shared the other. With fleeing eyes and clumsy hands, Émilie took her bag and put it in good evidence between her and Rosalie. Penelope and Aminata glanced at the bookworm with a touch of contempt, as if she was dumb not to be more discreet. Astou's head was immersed in her book and with headphones over her ears. Aymee might have thought that Astou hadn't noticed her it wasn't for her knees, which were jolting, habit she had when stress took over. No need to be a genius to understand that something was wrong. By instinct, Aymee could tell the 'something' was herself. Aymee smiled to calm down, but it didn't really help.

"Megan's not here?"

Aymee had forced herself to change the subject, but, in her head, her neurons mulled to understand what was going wrong. Was it because she arrived later? No, they wouldn't be mad for that. So what? Was it some dumb passing comment she had told them when she left last June that pestered during the summer? Aymee had no idea what she could have done to them or told them make them so mad.

"She left with Arvel," replied Aminata in a detached tone. "She must be hanging with Gryffindors. Perhaps you want to go find her?"

Aymee remained speechless for a moment, watching the girls one by one to seek confirmation. Were they really at the point of chasing her? The situation was completely beyond her. She forced herself to smile despite the gag she felt.

- Oh! Yes, yes, of course... I'll go hang around with her. I'm curious to know what she did this summer. S— bye!"

Aymee turned quickly to prevent the girls from seeing her face. As she closed the door, she heard Penelope whisper :

"Yes, as if. Liar. Pff."

Aymee's eyes opened wide and she felt her breathing stop. She thought she heard a sort of deaf 'boom', as if something heavy and invisible had just fallen. Her shoulders slumped under invisible heaviness, her legs were taken over by terrible tremors. She dared not look behind her in case the girls watched her and forced herself to go further. Her knees threatened to let go, but Aymee barely managed to get to the bathroom at the end of the wagon. She locked herself in there twice and just had time to lean over the toilet before throwing up. The smell made her vomit even more until only bile came out.

Aymee remained clung to the bowl for several minutes, forcing herself to take long breaths and even longer expirations. She was staring at a point in the void to stay awake. She could feel gone and all flogging. The shaking of the train and the fact that she hadn't slept all night made it even worse. Her mind was mist she was trying to catch with her fingers, to no avail. Everything was going too fast, or it was she who was going too slow. She really wasn't doing fine.