The One

Chapter 6.

Erica.

As I walked back to the castle on my own, I replayed what had happened in my head. I couldn't have let something. That wasn't right. Maybe I was just thinking about him being Fred, right? I thought long and hard about it all the way into the castle, up the stairs, and through the corridors until I came to the Fat Lady, to whom I gave the Gryffindor common room password to. I went straight up to my bedroom, and started looking through Angelina's stuff as I had promised George I would. Sadly I didn't find any love potion, but hey, I found some of socks hidden there that if been searching everywhere for.

Ten minutes later I heard the stairs creak, and quick to shoved everything back into the mess it was underneath Angelina's bed. An unfamiliar new girl walked in and sat down on the bed opposite mine, and began untying her shoe laces.

I didn't say anything, and at first I wasn't even sure wether or not she had even noted my existence. But I'd definitely noticed hers.

She was quite beautiful, with long, wavy, strawberry blond/dirty blondish hair. She had eyes the color of the sky after a storm. A blue-gray. She was actually pretty short too. But then again, so was I at the time. She was wearing a pure silk white nightgown. She was laying on her stomach, reading what seemed to be a comic book. I walked up to her to introduce myself. You should know that I'm not shy at all. At. All.

"Hey. My name's Cathy. What's yours?"

She looked up at me through what might have been designer glasses, with a seemingly piercing look. "Cathy? I like your name. I'm Erica. Erica Shoulding." She spoke with formality, like she was the most important person in the world.

I nodded slowly. "Well it was nice speaking with you. I was thinking about doing a bit of studying for that pop quiz that Professor McGonagall was hinting might be coming up soon. Want to study?"

She stared at me for a few seconds, like she was contemplating wether or not I was safe to be around, until finally she said, "Yes, actually I could do with a bit of studying as well."

We both went down to the common room, plopped down by the warm, toasty fire and began quizzing each other with Transfiguration facts. It turns out that you can learn quite a lot about a person by studying. For example, Erica was Seamus Finnegan's second cousin, she's an only child, her mother is a muggle lawyer, and her father works for the Ministry of Magic.

After about and hour, it was 10 o'clock, so we figured we had better pack up. As we cleaned up, who should walk in but Angelina.

"Hey Cathy!" She said, and waved to me brightly. Something was up because she hadn't talked to me since the Fred incident.

"Is there anything I can help you with...?" I asked her.

"Yes actually. Id like to have a word with you. Alone. Now." Her voice went from calm and welcoming to be venomous in mere seconds.

I followed her out the Gryffindor common room, unsure of where she was taking me. We walked in silence, and only after she stopped at a deserted corridor, out of earshot of anyone, did she begin speaking.

"So. I'm not sure if you've heard the big news or not but... Fred d-d-dumped me!" At this she broke down in tears. Sure, she may have been a stuck up little female-dog to me in the beginning, but now I felt bad for her. And even worse that I'd just gone through her stuff upstairs.

"What happened?" I asked gently. She sat down on a nearby bench, crying into her hands, and I sat down next to her to run her back. Part of me was aching to go up to bed, but the other part of me, the curious side, got the best of me and told me to stay to hear her story.

"W-well... earlier F-fred just walked up to me and said, 'Yeah sorry Angie, but I really don't think we should see each other anymore. I think we're drifting apart and it would be better to have some space. Besides, I like think I someone else.' That's word for word what he said! And I can't think of anything that would've prompted him to say that! We've been fine!"

I'll admit that I was happy about hearing that they'd broken up. And that just made me feel guilty. But I also wanted to know who he was talking about when he said that he liked someone else. "Well did he say a name as far as who he liked...?" I asked cautiously.

"No! Not a word! He just walked away! He didn't even give me a hug or anything!" She stared long and hard at me like I was the reason she was in this pickle. Then, the more she stared at me, the more I realized, she really did think I was the reason Fred had broken up with her! She thought I'd been talking to Fred.

"No. No way. Absolutely not. I haven't spoken to Fred in days, maybe a few weeks. No. I didn't say a word to him. Today or ever."

"Oh. Well... Oh," Was all she managed to say.

"Look, I'm sorry for your breakup, really I am, but I'm also sorry for myself and the fact that I'm not in bed right now. And you should be getting some sleep too." She nodded, went into the bathroom to blow her nose, and then we walked back to the dormitories, with only the sound of an occasion sniffle from Angelina.

When we had reached the common room door, we gave the password, entered and climbed the stairs. Before we went to our separate rooms, she said, "Hey Cathy. I also wanted to say that I'm sorry for how i acted earlier this year. I hope we can be friends?"

"Yes of course." We shook hands and departed, and as I climbed into bed that night, I counted how many different directions I was now being pulled in, and by how many different people that I called my friends.

A/N
This has nothing to do with the plot, but I thought I'd say thanks again to those of you who have really enjoyed this book! I'm only 13, so I'm not that great of a writer. But I'm working on it. If you guys have any suggestions or just comments to help me improve or ideas for the story or any concerns, feel free to message me or leave comments or whatever. And please vote! Again, thank you guys so much! Ily all! 😘❤️