the girl with all of the choices

f i f t y - n i n e

4116 words

october thirteenth- defending one's reputation

~ Addison ~

I hadn't seen Draco since Snape kicked me out yesterday afternoon. He didn't come down to the Great Hall for dinner, or if he did, it wasn't when I was down there. 

We had spent most of our afternoon and evening in the common room, playing cards like old times. We actually ended up falling asleep down there, much like we had when Cedric was involved with the tournament. It was strange, but a refreshing parallel. It was nice to know that we were still surrounded by friends in the midst of a war. 

We were down at breakfast now, all of us, for once.

Our configuration had changed a bit. Ernie had repositioned himself so that he was on Fawn's right. I was still on her left, but Justin had moved so he was where Ernie used to be, next to Ainsley who was next to Matt. 

I liked it better his way. Fawn and Ernie got to sit next to each other and be all cute and shy around each other and Justin got to be further away from me. 

I was really frustrated with him. He hated the fact that Draco and I were still together, and everything that Fawn had told me about him over the summer had started to make sense. He was very obviously jealous, which was frustrating to a level I didn't know a thing could be. Justin and I were friends. That's it. That's what we've always been. It wasn't my fault that he fancied me. 

I hadn't confronted him about anything since we got back from the holiday. I just ignored him, not wanting to get into another fight. Justin and I used to be good friends. We always had prefect duties together, and we grew close because of that. He was a really good friend.

Until he wasn't.

Why couldn't he see that I was happy? Our other friends could. Plus, if he really fancied me to the point where he cared about me, he would want me to be happy, even if that didn't necessarily include him. 

Our meal was rather uneventful at the start, the silence only being broken by Ernie's jokes and Fawn's incessant giggles. She was falling for him, hard. I knew my best friend, and I had sensed the tension between them for a while now, but I didn't want to make her uncomfortable, so I never mentioned it. But now, they were starting to explore whatever they were, and it made me happy to see her so content.

Justin should really take a lesson from me when it comes to friends and their significant others.

Ernie was now telling us about his vast collection of satirical drawings of our various professors. 

"There was one time in fourth year when I was drawing one of Snape in Potions," he exclaimed, his eyes bright and his smile large, "and the bastard came over and was inspecting our work, which I didn't know-"

"Because you're an idiot-" Fawn teased.

"You're one to talk-"

"Continue with the story please," Ainsley begged.

"Okay, so he was standing behind me and I had no idea, so I continued to draw him," Ernie continued.

"Was it big nose this time?" Justin queried.

"Big nose, long forehead, but the goblin version. So I kept drawing him, you know, shading nicely so it looked-"

"Professional," Matt added, the first time he had really spoken at a meal since Hannah left.

"Matthew, you know me too well. It's so nice that you're back, even if it is just for interrupting me. Anyways, yes, professional was exactly what I was going for. I wasn't going to slave away for an hour and a half on a drawing of the greaseball only for it to look like a kid drew it! So he sees it, he grabs it from my hand, which, might I add, made my ink run all over the parchment so it was ruined, and then, he uses Incendio and it goes up in flames! The audacity of this man, to ruin my completely wonderful and accurate depiction of his form!"