AU

5. Harrison

Mentions of possession. This is just not a chapter to get offended about. Feel free to ask questions though. Let's just put a cursing warning in all Harrison chapters.

After lunch, Violet went to Dumbledore's office and I went back to the dormitory. There wasn't really any point in doing anything else. I took a book from the small library in the common room and began studying for herbology, it had always been my weakest subject.
I heard a thumping sound and turned to see a girl come down from the dorms. She was older than me. Her skin was slick with sweat and her hair hung in choppy strands, sticking to her neck. She mouthed something and fell forward, hitting her nose on the floor with a sickening crack.
I stood up fast and went to her. I gently touched her back and she jerked away as if I'd slapped her. She began to shake violently, murmuring under her breath.
"Hey, are you okay?" I asked, though it was a stupid question. The girl stood again, but she didn't stand up. She rose in a sort of backwards fall, as if an invisible string was attached to her back and pulled her. Blood streaked over her lips and fell from her mouth as she smiled. Her eyes were wide and her arms hung limply at her side.
"Yes. I'm fine." She said, but she spoke with a thick Spanish accent that didn't quite match her pale skin and round eyes.
"Why are you Spanish?" I asked hesitantly.
"What is he normally?" She asked, then she jerked to the side violently and hissed angrily.
"Come on now," I said. My heart was racing in my chest, but someone was bound to get here soon. "Let's just cut this out now."
"Why?" She asked, this time with an American accent.
"Your accents are terrible." I tried. She jerked again and hissed, then fell forward limply. I caught her around the middle and managed to sit her on the stairs before collapsing on the floor. The stairs would turn into a slide if I sat on them.
"Oh Merlin." Someone gasped loudly. I turned. One of the older boys stood frozen on the stairs to the boys dormitory.
"Go get a professor, quickly!" I snapped. The girl was bleeding from her nose, the spaces where her front teeth must have been knocked out, and a spot in the middle of her forehead. She slumped against me, still breathing, but likely unconscious.
The door opened again and Snape stood there with Madam Pomfrey. The matron gasped and raced over but Snape fixed me with a look.
"I want to know exactly what happened, Mr. Gold."
Ah, so I was already being called that.
In short words, I explained what had happened. I felt a probing sensation in my mind and, with an elongated sigh, allowed Snape to peek into my recent memories to be sure I hadn't beaten her up or something.
When he left my mind, Snape sighed quietly and his whole body seemed to droop. "Some sort of possession, I think." He told Pomfery who was coaxing a multitude of potions down the girl's throat. She simply nodded and continued.
Eventually, the girl shot up coughing. She immediately made eye-contact with me.
"Thank you." She said. Her voice was deeper than average, but like honey. It was sweet and lively and alluring. I simply nodded once. She was helped up and they began to leave, but the girl broke away to extend her hand to me.
"Lila Greene." She said.
"Harrison Gold." I responded, shaking her hand. Then Lila allowed herself to be escorted away.
Oh shit. I can't get attached to people. I can't make friends. What happens when I have to leave them?
I flopped onto the couch. I couldn't let her be friends with me. I can't afford that. I would hurt her with my anger issues and when I leave.
I closed my eyes. I cared about Violet too, didn't I? And Clara, even though we didn't really know each other. We were in the same situation, that would bring us together.
"Shit!" I hissed, slamming my hand back onto a pillow.
"As much as I understand your situation, I would advise against using that type of language in this school." I heard Snape say. I shot up. He was still here?
Snape sent me a smirk from where he stood by the door.
"Yes sir." I muttered and he left in a flurry of robes. I fell back onto the couch. Maybe it was time for a nap.

I was awakened by someone shaking me. My stomach lurched and I pushed them away, fighting off flashbacks. I had a good handle on my memories of the summers I spent at the Dursley's, I wasn't about to start remembering now.
The boy who I'd pushed away stayed back. "Sorry, I didn't know you'd react like that."
I rolled my eyes. Lucky for him, I wasn't mad. "What do you want?"
"Lila Greene requested that you visit her in the Hospital Wing."
"Damn, people can do that?" I asked him. He laughed a bit and nodded. I stood up and straightened out my robes, which I hadn't bothered taking off.
Without another word to the boy who stood by the couch watching me, I walked out the door and climbed the stairs out of the dungeons. It seemed like if there was something to run into on the way there, I ran into it. Peeves caught me with some jinx that caused a raincloud to follow me around. I missed every single flight of stairs I could miss and somehow took a wrong turn and ended up outside. However, I made it to the Hospital Wing.
Lila was propped up on a bed. Her brown hair was in two dutch braids and she sipped lemonade while reading a large book she had in her lap. Not too quickly, I went and sat in the chair beside her bed. Lila jolted slightly but smiled at me happily.
"Hello, Gold. May I call you Harrison?" She asked.
"If you must." I replied.
"I just wanted to thank you, Harrison." Lila told me. "You may have saved my life."
"What happened, anyway?" I asked her. Lila smiled faintly to herself.
"I was possessed by two different ghosts." She said.
"What?" I had to have heard her wrong. That kind of supernatural bullshit only happened in stories, right?
"My family is very close to the afterlife, some of my ancestors even practised necromancy. It means we're more likely to be possessed." Lila said. I raised my eyebrows.
"Are you joking?" I asked. Lila fixed me with a glare so strong, it would have made Snape flinch. I stared at her impassively.
"Why would I joke about that?" She asked. I sighed and ran a hand over my face.
"Alright, I'm sorry. I didn't realize it was a touchy subject for you." I told her. Lila watched me silently.
"Was there anything else?" I asked her.
"I'd like to be your friend."
I froze and fixed her with a look. The girl stared back at me. Her lips were pressed together firmly and her chest rose and fell at a more rapid pace than was normal. I didn't know girls her age could still be flat. Was that a rude thing to notice?
"I'm not a very easy person to get along with." I said finally.
"When that's happened before," Lila told me. "People would run away or cast spells on me or laugh. You didn't. You helped. I think a person like you is worth being friends with, even if it's difficult." She told me. She smiled a bit.
I swallowed dryly. "Alright then." I said. I extended a hand to shake, and she did so with a bright grin. Her hands were calloused at the fleshy part of her palm. I noticed a jagged scar on her shoulder when her shirt fell slightly.
I drew away.
"Do you have anywhere to be?" Lila asked me.
I shook my head.
"Perhaps when I'm allowed out, if I'm allowed out before everyone returns, we can go do something?" Lila asked me.
I felt my neck heat up a bit. It did sound a lot like she was asking me out.
"What would we even do in a castle?" I asked her.
"Well," she said. "There still a bit of snow outside. The Room of Requirement is somewhere, we could find that. There are kitchens to be ransacked." Lila suggested with a mischievous glint in her eye. I let out a quick breath of air through my nose in a silent laugh. Perhaps friends weren't too bad.

1437 words
4/16/20

Please don't attack me about the way Harrison thinks. He isn't objectifying Lila in any way, he simply notices that she has a flat chest at an age where most girls he knows do not. All will be explained in due time. Sorry it's a bit late, I had to catch up on school and I forgot it was Thursday.