𝕐 𝔼 𝕃 𝕃 𝕆 𝕎 | 𝐒𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐮𝐬 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤

5. S h h h h

Nora had Lily but never enough of her. They would try their hardest to spend time with each other outside of classes as well but naturally homework and Lily's social life was a big part to juggle. Nora liked Lily's group of friends quite a lot and felt too shy to join in most of the time as tight packed friendship groups were always tricky to jump into. She knew a fair amount about Alice and Marlene but to know the rest would be like playing catch up on the last few years of friendship, gossips and stories.

Lily, however, noticed Nora's loneliness recently, unsure as to wether she was truly happy when she would explain to Lily how much she enjoyed her quiet lunch times or her gardening club, which had Nora as it's only member that year. Lily had been thinking about it alot as the first week of the new school term ended and zoned out in class as a result

"Why the long face Lils?" Marlene raised an eyebrow, momentarily putting down her quill and turned her attention away from the teacher.

"It's Nora... I'm worried about her." Lily rested her cheek on her palm, looking towards the front of Charms class to see Nora flick through her textbook with boredom as the girls who sat either side of her had a conversation between them, leaning over Nora and leaving her out. Nora always wondered if she brought it upon herself but despite being a very chatty and open person, at times she was shy and was never really sure if they liked her for her.

Marlene followed to see what she was looking at and pouted a little too. "Why doesn't she sit with us more? We're her friends! We'd love her company."

"She has a habit of overthinking.... she finds herself not really spending much time with anyone if she's not properly familiar with them... she'll chat to anyone for England but that's as far as it'll go most of the time. I'll talk to her later." She sighed as she watched how uncomfortable her friend was. Lily was always the mothering type so naturally seeing one of her friends being left out or alone left her constantly worried.

Lunch had rolled around and Lily had found Nora by the fountain again, resting her head against one of the pillars, staring off into space. Taking her shoes and socks off too, Lily sat beside her and dunked her feet in the water. Lily shrieked at the temperature, firing small curse words at her for sitting in a freezing fountain. She took her friends hand, which caught her attention and looked down at their feet.

"You and your bloody feet dunking! Please come sit with me today?" Lily started. With a deep frown, Nora swivelled slightly to get a better look at her, trying her best to read the expression Lily was exerting 

"Marlene and Alice gone somewhere?"

"No, I want you to join the three of us..." Lily squeezed her hand; sometimes with Nora you had to talk simple because she had a strong tendency to be oblivious to ALOT of things.

"... I"

"Nora. It's okay to be alone once in a while but when your sticking your feet in a freezing cold fountain just to get a feeling , then you need to wake up and realise that there are people that want to hang out with you."

"Do they? Am I too much of an open book? I don't know why I bother trying to talk to people because if I do they then suddenly show off to other people that they're best buddies with one of the 'Legendary Lysander's' - just this morning after Transfiguration, I heard a 5th year from my house talking to one of her friends about how she'd seen my house and spent the summer with me and my brother... I spoke to her for the first time yesterday when I told her that her shoe laces were untied!" She caught her breath, standing up and began to pace in the fountain

"I'm glad I met you before any of that started because you care about me for me, not all this crap! I'm always getting irrelevant questions about money and constant rumours that come with it. Just once a 'Hi Nora! How's your day going? Great job in class today!' would be great, not stupid things like ' your parents would love me, oh what does your new house look like? Must be hard for your parents to deal with such different kids. They must be exhausted all the time! Must be nice to be the pretty one out of the four of you! I'm sure you're really good at something.' ARE YOU KIDDING ME! It's better to be alone sometimes because at least ..." a tear fell and lump formed in her throat.

"At least you know you're safe..." Lily finished for her, reaching forward to sit her back down and wipe her tears. Nora had never voiced anything of that nature to anyone, especially not her siblings. She was happy for them in that they had great group of friends, enjoyed chatting to people and telling family stories but at times she was frustrated and wondered if perhaps they were experiencing the same things but just hiding it well, like she did. They weren't anything special; they're just 4 kids with two loving parents, just like everyone else. Had they all been in one house, no-one would bat an eyelid, bombard them with stupid questions or make up lies. What hurt her the most was she was just seen as the face of the family. She was kind, funny and would fight for anything but alas that's not what people saw.

"I'm sorry. Merlins beard, how spoilt do I sound!" She groaned, dropping her face into her hands. "Forget it! I'm cool, I'm relaxed - I'm just working myself up for nothing and overreacting." she laughed it off and smiled. She knew how to hide pain away well. Laughter; but it wasn't healthy. She needed that cry.

"Shhh. Nora, it's okay. I understand what you mean. People are harsh and use you for a title or money. It's HORRIBLE the things they've said to you, but my love, you can't go through life in a box. It'll be super lonely! So despite how hard it'll be, you have to try and let some of that worry go and start trusting a little more in those who do care about you because you might find that there are people, other than me who love you very much for you, not Nora Lysander." Lily chuckled, wrapping her arms around her and swayed them, happy to see a smile slowly creeping on her sweet kind friends face. "Besides, Marlene and Alice love you! We were just talking about doing a trip to Hogsmeade on the 5th next month and we need a 4th pair of hands to help get some Halloween decorations for Mar's party she's secretly planning!"

"But I-"

"No buts! Only cute butts! Like your brothers and Garrett Watson from your house." Lily climbed out of the fountain, pulling a disgusted looking Nora with her.

"Never use cute and my brother in the same sentence again." Nora shivered slightly, pulling on her shoes with a grimace. She hated wearing shoes and would avoid it all together if she could.

"I'll do it when you're not around." Lily picked up Nora's bag and dragged her inside and into the great hall. Holding her breath, Nora looked around and tried to put a new perspective in her mind. Unless they are clearly being assholes, try to trust them and don't be so selective.

"Hi ladies!" Alice grinned, putting her sandwich down and nudged Marlene to look up from the newspaper beside her plate. Gasping, she grabbed Nora's hand and pulled her down to sit beside her.

"Nor, do you remember that radical skull disco ball you told me about last Halloween during Charms? I NEED your help finding it! I MUST have it for the party I'm throwing in the Room of Requirements." Marlene begged.

"Ooooo! It was in that party shop down the small alley between the Hogshead and Honeydukes - It might still be there." Her memory sprung into action and the four of them talked animatedly about going on a group shopping trip. Lily wanted to burst with pride as she watched Nora relax and actually enjoy herself for once. She remembered the first time she witnessed Nora's anxiety kick in and it was a challenge but seeing her so calm now, she couldn't be a prouder friend.