The Years of Blue [2]

Chapter 56: The Merge of Friends

Out of habit, I had to tell my friends the moment I next saw them about the ordeal with Fleur. I greatly enjoyed Mila's reaction, who was so envious of Fleur that she had turned mean on the topic.

"She probably just wanted another girl to fawn over her. She's still dumb as a stack of bricks."

"Or maybe," Marie said, coming to my aid, "she's actually nicer than you think and did a kind thing by helping Ava." She turned to me expectantly. "So what's your plan now? Going to become friends with the popular girl in school? Hijack us?"

"I would never!" I responded in disgust, only to hear Jacqueline laugh from behind me at her approach. Gisele was next to her, with a newspaper rolled up in the crock of her arm, her hand clutching a mirror with her red lipstick held in the other, trying to freshen up her lips while Jacqueline dragged her along.

"I heard something about Fleur helping the American, but I didn't know if it was true."

"How could you have possibly heard that?" I asked in disbelief. "I'm not that popular. Nor is Fleur."

"Yes but Fleur's friends are gossips and that fool Dominique sat right behind us talking about it during transfiguration," Jacqueline explained.

"Dominique is one of Fleur's friends," Gisele clarified, as she popped her lipstick back into her bag with her compact mirror.

"You sure Fleur is smart?" Mila asked, turning to Marie who was looking back at her, pensively. "Because I doubt a smart person would have a friend as dumb as a door post like Dominique."

"Can't we move this conversation to the Great Hall, please? I'm starving." Rosalie pleaded, pushing us to argue on the level of brain power Fleur possessed on our trek back to the castle. Once we actually sat down to eat, the bitterness of said conversation was gone, and our usual routine returned. I welcomed it happily.

Thanks to my run in with Malfoy, I missed the opportunity to give Sam a heads up about meeting my friends. So, we pushed it back until the weekend, when the lot of us would have more free time, avoiding studying for example.

Marie was quick to suggest how to orchestrate what could have been a very simple get together had she not spooked me into remembering that Sam found the group of us to be intimidating.

"We need to spread ourselves out and show up at different times so she doesn't feel like she's entering a lion's den."

"By all means, let her be intimidated. It'll be fun," Ana said happily from her perch on the table. We were in a corner of the library, where bookshelves leaned on desks and lamps gave off a golden glow to the otherwise winter backdrop of Friday night.

"I don't think that's helping," Mila said, turning to her friend beside her. An open book lay on her lap but she was only idly flipping through the pages out of habit.

"How do you suppose we split up?" Rosalie asked from her seat. She was trying to get work down with Gisele tutoring her but was having little success.

"I'll come with Ava to meet her by the Slytherin common room and we can be introduced there so she can get used to me," Marie began. "Then we will meet Rosalie next, as you speak English perfectly and might be a relief to her thoughts on us all being stuck up French-"

"I'd just like to say that that is a hurtful stereotype made out by the rest of Europe who are just jealous of us," Jacqueline said indignatiously from the aisle with her shoes off, happily avoiding all work. Gisele shook her head comically while Rosalie leaned back to smile openly at her. Jacqueline gave her cherry-haired friend a pat on the head while Marie gave her a demanding look.