Defend

Wake Up And Smell... Brothers, Perfume, Quidditch Pitches, and Cologne?

A/N:  this is one of my favorite chapters, buckle up buttercups

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I walk down to the Slytherin common room, which is pretty much empty. I tug my knotted hair into a ponytail and glance at the clock above the fireplace.

I missed breakfast and I only have ten minutes to get to class. I'm so hungry and tired, I really don't want to go to class. I need to go talk to Ginny. I know she always runs back to the common room before class and after breakfast. I grab my things and run to the Gryffindor common room. I almost bump into Draco on the way, making my mood worse if possible.

The fat lady comments about my tangled hair as I sit next to her, and I sulk until Ron comes out.

I stand up. "I need to talk to Ginny."

"Ginny! Eliza needs you!" he calls.

Ginny comes in and yanks me into the common room.

"Ginny, we have three minutes to get to class, we should just go."

"No. You obviously came here for a reason."

She pulls out a brush and undoes my ponytail, beginning to comb the knots out of my hair. "I'm not leaving until you tell me what's wrong."

"Nothings wrong, it's just..." I pull my hair back into a ponytail, my hair now smooth.

"I kind of miss him, you know?" I hang my head. I already told her everything that happened in the courtyard.

"Eliza, it's okay to miss him, and I won't judge you if you do... But do you want him back? Because based on what you told me, you could get him back if you really wanted."

"I know, but..." I start crying again, which I hate. I feel like I'm being weak.

"Ginny," I gasp through sobs, "Ginny, I promise, I never cry."

My mum even told me when I was a baby, I rarely cried. Dad swears it's true. I can only remember four other times I cried. When Cedric pushed me down the stairs, when he died, in Ginny's room, and when Ginny was in the Chamber.

"Eliza, it's okay to cry! I promise it doesn't make me see you as weak, especially not when you've been through so much."

"Thank— thank you."

"I miss him, and I want him back, just when I'm ready to forgive him. That and school— the O.W.L.S are stressing me out and we haven't even been in school a month..."

I rant for a good five minutes and Ginny simply listens.

When I'm done I give Ginny a huge hug.

"You are so brilliant," I sniff my final tear.

"No, actually you, the fact you've been through all that and are still in one piece! Maybe we can find you a pick me up, if you know what I mean."

I laugh at her lame joke and we walk to class.

It's the first new potions class. Ginny and I split up, because she doesn't have potions right now. I'm a little nervous. The potions class itself I've always relatively enjoyed, Snape just always made me so tense, even though I was a Slytherin which gave me slight cover.

I walk into class and take a seat near Harry, on the other side of class from Draco.

"Ah, Miss Diggory, you're late. Ten points from—" Professor Slughorn begins but cuts himself off upon seeing my tearstained face. I couldn't clean it in time.