Belladonna

The Choice

Belladonna 40

The Choice

26 December 1994

When Ana made it to her room, the curtains around the girls' beds were closed. When she woke the next morning, their beds were empty. Some small part of her had hoped that their anger would dissipate over night, but she wasn't surprised that it hadn't.

The common room was never really warm, even with all the fires blazing, but that morning it was pure icy. The cold glares she got from the few occupants were bone chilling. Most simply stared, but a few of the fourth years jeered as she walked by. Ana did her best to ignore all of it, but ignoring and not hearing are two different things entirely. She left the common room as quickly as she could and missed the one friendly face.

"Ana! Ana, wait up!"

She slowed down just enough to allow Adrian to catch up to her.

"Whoa, hey, are you..."

"I'm fine," she said tersely. "I'm not going to let a couple of thick-headed idiots get to me."

"Good." Adrian nodded. "Good."

There was a pause.

"Can I help you with something, Adrian?"

"No, I... I just wanted to say that what Sadie did last night wasn't cool."

"What do you mean?" How...?" Ana felt a small panic begin to creep in. How many people knew about the choice Sadie issued? And who had told?

"I overheard her telling Flora about your conversation in the loo," Adrian explained quickly. "They shouldn't have done that to you."

"Yeah, it wasn't exactly her shining moment of friendship. I was hoping to talk to them, but they were asleep when I got in and gone when I woke up. Have you seen them?"

"No. Sorry. But I do know that they weren't happy when you returned with Fred."

"Yeah, I guessed as much."

"But, you were...weren't you?"

"Huh?"

"You looked happy last night, really happy."

"Yeah," Ana smiled at the mere memory of her night with Fred. "I was happy...am happy."

"Good. You deserve to be happy, and if he's the one to make you happy, then screw what everyone else thinks. If you're really as good of friends as you seem to be, then the girls will come around...eventually. Don't give up on them."

"Fred said something similar."

"Smart bloke. Hey, and look, about us...we're still good too. You have one friend in Slytherin who won't turn his back on you."

"Thanks, Adrian. That means a lot."

"Sure. I'll see you around."

Ana made the trek up to the Great Hall alone. When she arrived, she scanned the Slytherin tale but saw no sign of the girls. She was distracted from her disappointment by Katie calling out to her. She looked at the table next to her usual one and saw Katie and the girls. Then she saw Fred; he smiled at her, and that disappointment slipped to the back of her mind.