Phases (editing)

five

4th October 1995

Waxing Crescent

In the few days since the quidditch match, I felt the eyes of my Gryffindor peers burning into me. They held a lamp in my face with one hand and a magnifying glass in the other. It was quite apparent that Draco Malfoy looked to me when he claimed his victory in the match against Gryffindor, but no one could keep a consistent story.

The other day in Hogsmeade, I overheard Lavender Brown saying Malfoy ran to me in the stands and I launched myself in his arms as he passionately kissed me. Then during breakfast yesterday Seamus Finnagin asked if it was true that Malfoy caught the snitch as a contingency to take me on a date.

This caused suspicion between my friends to question what Malfoy and I had concocted when they weren't looking. It's easy to guess they're assuming the worst. It was also quite apparent that if I were to cross the bridge to converse about the moment, their hourglass of trust would soon run out of sand.

It was a gloomy Tuesday, and the rain was pebbling against the windows of the dorm room.

"Rise and shine!" Hermione said as she plopped onto the edge of the bed near my feet.

A groan escaped my lips as I rolled to hide my face in the covers. "Too early, Hermione."

"You used to be a morning person, you know?" She said tugging at the quilt gripped in my hands.

I sat up to level with her, pulling my hair away from my face to tie it up. "Thank you, Mione. People grow and change." My hands flopped to the mattress behind me.

Hermione's hand rose to pinch my chin with her firm fingers. She gave my head a little shake as she spoke, "I know, and that makes life beautiful. Now, get ready, so we can go to breakfast."

Another groan escaped my breath as I flopped my back into the bed.

I managed to pull myself away from my comfort and dragged my feet to the bathroom. The moment my eyes meet my own in the mirror, I'm brought to the awareness of how little of my past 'morning person' remained. My skin appeared flushed, the darkened puff under my sage-tinted eyes, and now realised my mistake of throwing my hair up because a tangled mess of onyx hair filled my sight.

As I turned the handle in the shower to warm, my mind fixated on Hermione's words.

That makes life beautiful.

My hair became damp under the stream from the showerhead, and my eyes wandered along the grout between the tiles. If Hermione considered that to be true, is there a line of grout barricading the extent she believes it? My mind pondered this thought as I mindlessly lathered my hair and body in various soaps that smelled of bergamot.

I stepped out of the shower murmuring repeatedly, That makes life beautiful, Just loud enough for only my ears to hear.

I slip on my school robes and knotted my tie. Then after the use of some charms, I was back to my typical state. I brush my hair back into a ponytail and give myself a pep talk in the mirror. After prepping to face my friend again, I exited the bathroom to be met with Hermione who is sitting on the bed to the right of me.

"To the Great Hall, I suppose?" The pressure of her analytical gaze sent a shiver of awkward anxiety throughout my body. She eagerly confirmed with a nod and hopped to a standing position. Our arms looped together as she pulled us to get food.

☽ ⋆ ☾

Snape's potions class was one of those classes that left room for thought. The expansion of lectures on different herbs and ingredients and what their properties manifested blended in with the white noise of the room. It would be more bearable to endure if his tone wasn't so flat.