Hierarchy of Need [t.r]

Chapter Six

  Friday arrived much quicker than Delilah had anticipated.

  Two meetings with Dumbledore took place, but to no avail was there any progress on how to get home. Both were clueless as to how she even got to this time in the first place. Dumbledore has asked her to recount her steps the day she went to the Department of Mysteries time and time again.

  So far the only hunch he had was that whatever she'd been sent to retrieve could be a plausible cause. The problem was, Delilah wasn't exactly sure what the package was. It's was confidential and securely covered and was not to be opened until she returned to head quarters.

  Delilah made her way down to breakfast yawning every few seconds. For the past three days she's been having nightmares she can't remember. And to add on top of that, the dormitory was always empty when she woke up.

  Sitting down at the table, Olive was glaring at her and Lolita looked concerned. "What?" She yawned yet again as she filled her plate. "Are you alright?" Lolita asked. Delilah furrowed her brows and was about to reply when someone threw their arm over her shoulder. "Today's the day!" Elio said cheerfully and got met with a seething look from Olive. "What's your issue?" He asked the brunette and she nodded her head towards Delilah. "Ask your girlfriend, because of her I haven't been getting enough sleep."

  Elio turned towards Delilah, who had her cheeks flushed at being called Elio's girlfriend. "Don't look at me, I'm as much confused as you are."

  Lolita narrowed her eyes at Delilah. "You don't recall anything these last few nights?" Delilah shook her head and bit into some toast, feeling oddly warm with Elio practically pressed against her. "No? Should I?" Lolita raised an eyebrow at Olive but the girl was too busy fawning over the newest addition to their table.

  Tom had arrived for breakfast.

  "You've been screaming your bloody lungs out. I cast a silencing charm but it wears out by morning so Olive and I just leave you alone." Delilah blinked at this newfound information. She'd been screaming in her sleep? She knew something was off. Every time she woke up, she felt oddly drained like she hadn't slept at all and her throat had been feeling raw. Delilah just assumed she might've been getting sick.

  A hand waved itself in front of her eyes and she shook her head. "Alright, Miss Pontmercy?" Tom asked as Elio tried to get her to snap out of it. "What? Oh yes, yeah. And again please just call me Delilah." Tom tilted his head to the side as he observed her. She looked awful. Her skin was more sallow and circles seemed to be permanently hung under her eyes. "Are you well enough for watching tryouts?" Elio asked as he stole a piece of bacon off her plate. She glared at him but he simply smiled charmingly at her and she sighed. "Of course, I wouldn't think to miss it."

  "I can escort you to the field. I'll be catching up on some arithmancy homework, perhaps we could work on the essay together?" Tom offered. Delilah eyed him for a moment, he was weirdly helpful. And too nice. It was unnerving but his charm seemed to outweigh that notion. Tom was a different breed of nice. He wasn't like Luna, the good natured aura practically dripped off that girl. But Tom...it felt like he wanted something.

  She didn't know what exactly. Her mind immediately jumped to what most teenage boys want in return for helping a girl, but Delilah dismissed this. For the whole week that she's been here, as well as from what she heard, Tom never spared a glance at girl. And nearly half the school was willing to throw themselves at his feet. Perhaps he didn't have a motive? No, that was ridiculous. Everyone had a motive whether they were conscious of it or not.

  "Sure, that'd be lovely. Thank you." He smiled and nodded once before returning to his breakfast. Delilah's eyes shifted to the side and found Olive looking at her with the most peculiar expression. The girl blinked once before eating her own food quietly, she wasn't even bothering to latch onto Tom as she usually did. How odd, Delilah concluded.