Swish and Flick

Chapter 8: Nine and Three Quarters

AN: this is 8.4k words, forgive me if there are typos, my lazy ass doesn't care about errors atm.

Also, I want to remind you guys that just because they're in their third year doesn't mean they're only thirteen years old. In this AU, they're seventeen y/o in their third year. Don't ask me why, I just think it's a cool number lol. I'm not following real life college age, this is fantasy.

Anyway, this is a continuation of ch 7... I'm sure not all of you will like it, you can skip if you don't want to read it.

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Lauren

I still couldn't find Camila.

I have searched everywhere; our favorite spot by the window at the end of the forbidden corridor, in Moaning Myrtle's creepy bathroom, behind the statue of Carmen the Charming Merman where Camila first told me she likes me, up by the Astronomy Tower where she loves to hang out and stare at the moon at nighttime, under the shade of the giant oak tree near the edge of the Forbidden Forest where she magically engraved our initials into the bark of the tree and said that it would never fade away just like her love (in a bestfriend way) for me.

Still, nothing.

With a heavy heart, I go to my classes, half-expecting her to barge in with that self-assured smirk of hers and her sometimes annoying winks and hair flips, but nothing.

By the end of our school day, I'm in such a terrible state, my anxiety is sky-rocketing and I'm in a very irritable mood which probably shocked my friends because I'm not normally unpleasant. Even Lucy doesn't bother me in Potions class -- that's how much I have been emanating negative energy.

I stomp across the hallway, barely noticing the students giving me a wide berth, but that's better because one tiny trigger would probably set me off and I'm so ready to fire spell after spell -- oh how I wish I bump into Taylor just now, I could kill a --

"EEP!" I screech loudly as I feel myself being dragged backwards, then my mouth covered by a sweaty palm as I am pulled into a dark corner behind a suit of armor.

I try to bite the unknown hand, but all I manage to do is accidentally lick the sweaty salty palm.

"Ew, disgusting!" says a familiar voice.

The hand vanishes out of my face and I turn around and I see Camila -- thankfully not a mouse or a ferret -- and I jump happily, hugging her excitedly and already forgetting that she scared the shit out of me.

She chuckles when I tell her how worried I was, her hands rubbing my back as I refuse to let go of her, and as if I wasn't stressed since last night I immediately relax into her arms.

"I'm sorry I made you worry, Lo-Lo, but --"

"Wait, what's that?" I shift, but still not disentangling myself from her -- she smells freshly-showered and I like it. "Your wand is poking me, Camz."

Camila grimaces and quickly steps away, turning slightly away from me.

"What happened to you last night and today? Are you feeling okay? Did you get yourself checked up?"