Chasing Time (Seamus Finnigan)

twenty-nine

A week later, it was finally time to go back to Hogwarts. I had never felt so lonely before. I only worried about how I was going to keep my Dark Mark hidden. Seamus would know right away there was something going on.

As Draco and I entered the Great Hall, Draco nodded at me before he set off to the Slytherin table, as to wish me good luck, I supposed.

I walked towards the Gryffindor table, searching for my friends. Out of nowhere, my Mark started burning a bit, but I tried not to show I was hurt. I didn't see Seamus anywhere and I felt slightly disappointed. So I sat down next to Dean. 'Hi Dora! How was your holiday?' Ron said, munching.

'Um... fine,' I lied. It had been anything but fine.

'What were you doing with Malfoy, anyway?' Harry asked as looked at me.

'We needed to talk about something,' I said truly.

Harry nodded, but I could tell he didn't fully believe that.

'Where's Seamus?' I asked. Dean almost choked drinking his pumpkin juice as I said that.

He coughed a few times for it to pass. 'I'm sorry. What did you say?'

'Seamus?' I repeated.

'Oh, um...' Dean looked at the others.

'Dean?'

'I'm not sure if I should say this or not, but he's over there,' he said, as he pointed at the end of the Ravenclaw table. There was Seamus indeed, with a super handsome girl with long, chocolate brown hair and dazzling eyes. Jaimee.

My heart dropped as I saw them sitting together, talking and laughing. Did Seamus forget about me that fast?

'It's nothing, Dora, they're just friends,' Hermione said, glaring at the two of them too. 
I didn't like the way she looked at him.

I looked back at my plate as I thought about it. I'd better make clear to Jaimee he was my boyfriend and she'd better not touch him.

So after dinner, I stood up and walked towards the Ravenclaw table. 'Hey, Dora!' Seamus said happily as he saw me. Jaimee didn't seem to be so happy to see me. It seemed like she froze on the spot, and that was kind of unlucky, as she was leaning on the table with one arm and with the other hand, she was twisting a strand of hair around her finger.

'Can I borrow him for a while?' I said with a smile.

Jaimee nodded. 'O-kay?' She un-freezed and leant back, looking at me sceptically.
I knew Jaimee was a nice and clever girl, but I also knew she could be very stubborn sometimes. Today she wasn't, luckily.

'Let's go for a walk,' I suggested as Seamus stood up. I took his hand and we walked out of the Great Hall hand in hand, leaving Jaimee behind, a bit upset.

'So how was your holiday?' Seamus asked. 'Well, fine,' I replied, not wanting to speak the truth. Yea, because I was really going to tell him I was a Death Eater and that would be everything he ever feared for me to do. So. It was better this way.

'Good. And Malfoy? He wasn't too selfish?' he asked me with a chuckle.

'No. I've already told you he's polite to me. He's my cousin. We're friends.'

'Yeah, you did. But I still don't like him, Dora. You know that.'

'I do. But I would like it if you stopped ranting about it.'

He sighed. 'I'm sorry.'

'How was your holiday? Boring I guess.'

He chuckled. 'No, actually it was nice. Jaimee's a cool girl. And Maddie was here. Hung around with Neville a lot too.'

'Maddie was here too?' I said, raising an eyebrow. I already knew Seamus thought Maddie was cool. I had seen them together a lot the last weeks before the holidays.

'Yep. She's fun. I don't know why you never talk to her.'

'She never talks to me either.' He sighed.

'Okay Dora, what is it? Why are you acting like that? Maddie is a nice girl, you might notice when you give her the chance to prove it.'

'You are just talking about her like she's your new girlfriend or something,' I said, not able anymore to control myself after all of this. Why wasn't being back with my friends offering me the warmth I needed after what had happened at Draco's?

Was it me? Had I changed?

Seamus stopped walking and grabbed my arm. And normally I would have been totally fine with that. But, he had grabbed the arm that hurted, my left arm. My face clouded with pain. I pulled my arm out of his grasp directly as a tear dripped down my cheek.

'I'm sorry, I didn't want to hurt you. I just wanted... Dora. I want to be with you. Not with Maddie or Jaimee, but with you. Alright?' He almost sounded desperate to convince me. And I didn't want to lie to him but I had to or Voldemort would want my head.

'I know,' I whispered as I swallowed, trying not to cry. 'Then what's wrong?'

'Nothing. Really,' I said as I smiled at him. 'Sure?'

'Yeah.' My left forearm was burning like mad and I had to do my best really hard not to start crying again.

'I'm sorry, I uhm, do you mind if I go to bed? I'm pretty tired,' I said. 'Oh, okay. We'll catch up tomorrow, then,' Seamus replied, but I noticed his face fell.

'Thanks.' Seamus pulled me closer to him and kissed me. 'See you tomorrow,' he said as we broke apart and he walked away. There was nothing I wanted more than talk with him and just spend time together. I sighed as I entered the Great Hall again, searching for Draco.

I bumped into him, but as I looked up I saw Pansy was with him again. 'Uhm, hi, Draco. Can we talk? It's important. I think. Yeah, it's important,' I said. Pansy frowned as I said this and grabbed his hand. 'Come on, Draco,' she said.

'I'm sorry, Callidora, we'll talk later, okay?' Draco said. Why did he call me Callidora? He hadn't called me that for years. I sighed and nodded. 'Fine.' I turned around and walked through the corridors. When I had finally found a deserted corridor, I sat down in the windowsill.

I stared through the window as I thought about it. Maybe Draco had just acted friendly because it was a task he had gotten from his father. Because they wanted me to join them. How could Draco mislead me like that? Because now we were back at school he didn't even care about me. It was just weird. In the train back to Hogwarts he had comforted me and he had said I could ask him for help if I wanted. But now he was acting so strange. Why did people need to be so complex?

I stood up as I heard footsteps and walked towards the Gryffindor common room. As I reached the portrait, I muttered the password. 'Well you look sad, darling. What's going on?' the Fat Lady asked me in concern.

'I wish I could tell you,' I replied and climbed through the portrait hole. At least there was a painting that cared about my wellbeing.