Defying Gravity

III: Wynn

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8 September 2011
Highlands of Scotland
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy

"So you got detention then?" Victorie asked as she, Teddy, and I walked towards the great hall.

"Yeah, I'm not surprised though," Teddy replied to the petite blonde walking at his side. "Wynn here shot that Slytherin icicle across the room with one of his spells before thoroughly dousing her in water. She retaliated with a pretty nasty spell too, but Professor Longbottom countered it before it hit this idiot. I'm actually surprised they only have a week of detentions, although it is Longbottom, and he's normally pretty lenient."

"Can we not talk about it," I grumbled, glaring at the two. "I'd rather not start thinking about the hell I have to suffer through tonight until right before hand."

As we walked towards the Hufflepuff table, Victorie joining us even though she was Gryffindor, I saw MacKendrick glaring at me from the corner of my eye, and Rosier studiously ignoring both his presence and my own. Teddy cringed as her dark haired friend waved flirtatiously at him, batting her eyelashes dramatically.

"I wish she would stop that," Victorie said as we sat down, her distaste for Liera Goyle evident in her tone.

"Why, does it upset you, Vic?" I asked teasingly, knowing she would blush and deny it.

"Of course it bothers me!" She exclaimed, making Teddy's jaw drop while I felt my own eyes bug in shock. She was finally admitting to liking Teddy?! "Not that way, you idiots," she said, her cheeks turning a light pink. "I meant that obviously Teddy is bothered by her overly forward advances, and as Teddy's friend, I find her blatant disregard of his disinterest very off putting."

"Oh, I thought you were finally going to admit that you really just wanted to snog Teddy," I said with a overly dramatic sigh, causing both of my friends to blush before simultaneously slapping my shoulders. "Ow! Be careful you guys, you could have hit Ryuu!" An irritated hiss echoed from inside my robes as Ryuu slunk deeper into his carrying pocket to avoid my friends' flailing limbs.

After finishing an enjoyable dinner full of laughs and friendly banter, the last thing I wanted to do was head to Professor Longbottom's room to sort herbs for detention. With reluctant steps, I made my way from the Great Hall to the herbology greenhouse, muttering about my woeful existence to Ryuu the whole way.

When I stepped in the room, Rosier and Professor Longbottom were already inside, chatting cordially, but I could see from Circe's tense stance that she was not as happy as she was pretending to be. "Ahh, Wynn, just in time," the professor said. "Now, if you two would leave your wands on my desk and follow me please." We reluctantly placed our wands down before following him to the massive storage pantry, it's overflowing shelves messy and disorganized. "I'd like you to go through one shelf at a time, dusting the shelf and alphabetizing the contents. Now, I don't know what problems the two of you are having and I'm not expecting you to talk it out. However, I will not tolerate another fight. If you don't want to talk, work on separate shelves. Now, you have two hours of work ahead of you, so hop to it." With that being said, he exited the pantry, shutting the door behind him.

"I'll start here," I said, gesturing to the closest shelf. I may still be mad at her for blowing me off yesterday, but I also still want to get to know her. She seemed so shut off from other people, and it was tragic.

"Alright," she said crisply before walking to the far end of the room to start pulling bottles and seed packets off of shelves. I sighed, staring after her in irritation before starting on my own shelf.

We worked in silence for a while before I decided to break it. "So, Rosier, why do you hate half-bloods?" I asked, not trying very hard to conceal the venom in my tone.

A tired sigh echoed from the other end of the room before she replied. "I don't hate half-bloods. I just have no need to befriend them."

"Why not? I mean, you seemed perfectly happy hanging out with Teddy and I two days ago! Were you honestly having more fun with the MacKendrick guy than you did with us?!"

"Life isn't about having fun!" She snapped, turning to fix her stormy glare on me. "At least not my life."

"We're teenagers. We're supposed to enjoy life and live it up before we have to act like adults. You need to loosen up!"

"That may be how your life is, but that's never how mine was or ever will be," she growled.

"Well what's stopping you!"

"My family!" She said angrily before her expression grew regretful, almost as if she were wishing she could take back her words. "Never mind, you wouldn't understand," she said, turning back to her work.

"Then make me understand," I said, walking over to her and gently grabbing her wrist, causing her wide, grey eyes to snap towards me in shock. "Help me understand you Circe. I want to be your friend and I don't know why you keep pushing me away."

"You're a Hufflepuff and a Half-Blood. I'm a Pureblood Slytherin. Do you see the problem now?"

"Those are just labels, they don't mean anything," I insisted.

"Maybe they don't in your world, but where I grew up, labels are everything," she said softly, before gently tugging her arm from my grip. "My family would be furious if they knew I was friends with a wizard who would never really benefit my family. So yes, I did enjoy spending time with you and Lupin, but it can't happen again, alright?"

We went back to work in silence as my mind continued to race. Her attitude finally made sense, but how was I supposed to help her if she couldn't be around me?

"If I left you alone outside of class, could we try to be friends then."

"Wynn, it won't work!" She protested in an exasperated tone.

"Circe, just hear me out. Can't we just sit next to each other in class? You seriously need a dose of fun in your life. You shouldn't have to be afraid of what your family thinks, but if that's the way it is, then we'll have to work around it. I'm not gonna give up on you, Circe Rosier, so we can do this the easy and inconspicuous way, or we can do it the hard way. It's your choice."

I stayed silent as I waited for her to respond. Ten minutes passed as we silently sorted, labeled, and cleaned.

"Alright," She finally said softly.

"Really?" I asked, surprise and excitement obvious in my tone.

"I'm not doing this to make you happy," she said seriously, pointing her finger at me. "I'm doing this so that you will eventually realize that it's not worth your time to try and befriend me, because obviously you'll never figure it out on your own. Just don't speak to me outside of class, alright?"

"Sure thing," I replied with a slanted grin on my face. "You're not gonna regret this, Circe!"

"I'd better not. Now come on, we should finish at least three more shelves before our detention is done." 

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