When Stars Collide

Making Up is Hard to Do

I was not avoiding James but I sure wasn't going out of my way to be Sherlock to his Watson either. It was not just that he had hurt and embarrassed me, although he had. It was that we had been friends for a long time and instead of talking to me he ran off with that slag.

As if Pansy and her bitch crew weren't enough! Gah! Pansy would have been better, at least she was someone we knew. James had thrown me over for some awful girl who had no reason to be bitchy to us. At least with Pansy we all had given as good as we got over the years. None of us were exactly victims at this point.

I stopped being a victim the moment I made her eyebrow crawl up her bum. A fine bit of magic if I said so myself.

And Pansy had got revenge by replacing all of the ink in my inkpots with air vanishing ink(*) so I had to redo all of my homework. So again, no victims.

But Camille was just awful and the point of him being with her was because she was awful. He did it to be hurtful.

James gave me these sad puppy dog eyes whenever we saw each other in class or at meals or in the common room. The Vipers were not speaking to him, even though I told them they should. He is still our friend.

I mean, I am totally pissed at him and I WILL be getting nasty items from my brother to humiliate him, but damned it, he is still my Watson.

Plus, if he had not messed around with Camille, I would not be with Draco now. And I am really happy being with Draco.

Don't get me wrong, he is still an annoying prat with seriously questionable taste in friends, and that crap he gets Pria to whip up for his hair could probably be used to protect buildings in high winds. And he has this ridiculous idea that I am a fragile little flower that needs to be protected no matter how many times I kick his arse in a duel.

But he is also sweet and walks me to class even when I know sometimes he would rather walk with his friends. And he thinks that the mere act of his buying me chocolate means that it suddenly has no calories and I can eat as much as I want.

The point is that it is really hard to hate someone who brought me together with the most amazing guy I know. I mean we were already together as best friends, but maybe it would have only every been that if it weren't for the Yule Ball.

Really hard, to hate him, but whenever I see him and Camille as potion partners I soldier through it.

Except the really weird thing was Camille was being... weird. She kept acting like she wanted to talk to me but then she would look away. I was not planning to worry about her though.

As though I had time to worry about her anyway. My parents had made it perfectly clear no matter how many galleons I had in a bank my school was a priority. My grades were not going to slip upon pain of permanent punishment.

I had hoped that now that everything was out in the open that my family would accept my money and be willing to allow me to buy things for them.

That looked as likely to happen as having the Malfoys over to tea.

I don't know what good money was if I couldn't take care of my family. Draco just shrugged when I mentioned it to him and told me to set my bank vault on fire for all he cared he had plenty enough for both of us. Why he thought I would take his money if I wouldn't take his father's was beyond me.

I did know that until I forgave James The Vipers would remain fractured. Frank would eventually break off because, brothers, and I always suspected Esme has a crush on Frank, so instead of our solid six we would be a broken three. And it didn't matter whose fault it was. Fault is completely irrelevant.