ROSIER

15

Astronomy
...

Gwen had never seen herself as a holder of tradition, but when she came to find herself seated away from Dorcas for the first time in five years, she began to understand. The food on her plate tasted bland. The jokes told around her weren't funny. And time seemed to move at a painfully slow pace now that it wasn't shared with her best friend.

"Will you stop playing with your food?" Evan complained after watching the misery of his sister for three long days. "It's not the end of the world. It's just Dorcas." The blonde glared at him. "What? Am I wrong? You girls make everything so unnecessarily dramatic. Just get over it. If she doesn't want anything to do with you anymore, then that is her problem. Get yourself together."

"I was not expecting you to understand how I'm feeling." She snarled. "You don't like your friends. If one of them dared to leave you, you'd just find someone else to take their place."

"And what is wrong with that? I mean, look at the state of you." He pointed his fork at her and then toward Issa Yaxley and Helena Greengrass. "Just befriend them like you were supposed to and get over that Halfblood."

Gwen looked at her two roommates, who sat a few seats away from them. The two were daughters of old Pureblooded families as well. Although, unlike the Rosiers, not nearly as ancient or influential. Gwen didn't particularly mind either of the two, but she knew from the moment they set foot on the Hogwarts Express five years ago, that their parents had taught them to befriend her in the way Avery and Mulciber befriended Evan. It was expected, but it surely wasn't real.

"Sure, that's what I call true friendship. They only like me because of my name. If I were anyone else, they wouldn't give two cents about me."

"But you are yourself," Evan shrugged. He called Avery over. "Give me your dessert." The boy said bluntly to his friend, and without much of a second thought, he was given the plate with Avery's favourite cake. Evan looked at his sister as if it proved a point. "We are Rosiers. Of course, I know they wouldn't do this for anyone else. But what's so bad about it? I mean, it's a transaction if you will. We get what we want, and they get a sprinkle of our influence to better their future. It's fair."

"You sound like father,"

"And you sound like a fool,"

"Remind me to sit alone next time," Gwen watched Evan push Avery's dessert away instead of eating it. He hated apple pie, and Gwen wondered if her brother had always been so nonchalant. Her eyes drifted to the other end of the table where Dorcas sat with her braids tied together using the same loose hair tie as always. The blonde sighed, even the striking orange of the hair tie seemed washed out now that they didn't talk.

Her satchel felt heavier as she stumbled toward the Potions classroom, not only in a metaphorical sense. In fact, her satchel was filled with all books found on number combinations, mostly those she was presented with during Arithmancy.

Her bet with Remus was still on a high, although neither of them seemed to come any closer to solving the code.

The Gryffindor boy was already inside the classroom when she walked through the door. He was playing around with the voice changer he had bought in Hogsmeade, currently imitating Severus Snape, much to his friends' amusement.
The lessons shared between the two houses were a risky undertaking, did neither like the other very much. But Gwen was happy to see Remus without having to find excuses for their several times spent together. Besides Dorcas, quite a few Slytherins had made suggestive comments. One of them, a rumour she hoped not to reach the Ravenclaws.

Gwen smiled when Remus greeted her with a small wave before sitting down at her table at the very front. It was the one directly in front of Slughorn's sight even without the glasses she knew he needed. That way, she could always hear his knowledgeable comments about their practices as well as make sure he would always be close enough to see her perfected Potions. Normally, this seat was shared with Dorcas as one other person at the table, but like she had done in every other class, the brunette sat as far away as possible from her.