ELIXIR: A Harry Potter Fan Fiction

Fourteen. Friends Without Benefits.

 Sean woke up the next morning feeling sick to his stomach. He had not been able to find Evelyn anywhere the previous night, and finally, a run-in with Peeves and the realization that it was almost an hour past curfew forced him to turn around and go back to the common room, unsuccessful.

Sean could only assume that she had returned at some point while he was searching, so he had crawled into his four poster expecting to lie awake wondering what to do. But he was so exhausted from the events of the day and from sleeping so poorly all week that, though he hated himself for it, he fell asleep almost instantly and did not wake until late morning on Sunday.

The first task seemed like years ago, now. Faced with the choice of Evelyn not speaking to him or another triwizard task, he knew he would choose the task any day.

After pulling himself out of bed, Sean took up a post in the common room, a chair right in the middle of the room where both the entrance to the girl's dormitories and the door to the common room were in plain sight. Each time he heard the sound of the brass knocker thumping outside, he looked up hopefully, always disappointed when it was not Evelyn's voice that answered the question, or her red hair, blue eyes, and faintly freckled nose coming through the door. He was disappointed, too, when the feet clomping down the stairs to his left were not hers.

Marlowe came and sat with him for a while after lunch. Sean, of course had not eaten a thing all day. He had never left for the great hall, in the fear that he would miss her if he vacated his post. He was determined to wait here in the one place she could not avoid forever for as long as it took.

Marlowe tried to talk to him about the task - as did the many other people who approached him throughout the day, all disappointed to find he was more disinterested in the topic than almost anyone else in the school.

"Marlowe," said Sean. "I just can't talk about that right now."

Marlowe opened his mouth like he was going to say something, but thought better of it and shut it again.

"Sorry," mumbled Sean.

Marlowe gave a jerky shake of his head. "Don't worry about it," he said.

"How am I supposed to talk to her if she's never here?" Sean asked.

"Where does she go when she wants to be alone?" Marlowe asked.

"I have no idea. She's never avoided me before."

"Well, Caiti..." he trailed off, like perhaps he shouldn't say. "I don't know, she likes to be alone when she's upset," he said vaguely. "Maybe Evelyn does too. Maybe it's a girl thing."

Sean frowned. "Caiti never wanted talk about anything, though. Even as a kid, she'd put herself in time-out before she let anyone have a talk with her. Always locking herself in her room. I don't think Evelyn's like that."

"Caiti talks to me," said Marlowe before he could stop himself.

But Sean was not concerned with Caiti right now. He was concerned with Evelyn.

"Maybe she just doesn't want to talk to me," said Sean. "Because I've never been the one she was mad at before. Actually that's a lie. She gets mad at me all the time. But never like this. Maybe she's just talking to someone else."

"Caiti," said Marlowe.

"No," said Sean, annoyed. "Evelyn."

"No, maybe she's talking to Caiti, you idiot. I haven't seen her all day."

"Yeah!" said Sean, sitting up with excitement, but he slunk back down again quickly. "Which probably means I'm doomed because Caiti made it perfectly clear she thinks I'm despicable."