- valerie
Valerie intentionally slowed her pace to the common room, the last thing she needed were he friends pestering her about her summer.
They had all sent her tons of letters asking why they hadn't seen her all summer and she didn't feel like making up excuses right now.
We were thinking about getting together in London. You in?
Danielle said you never wrote back, are you okay?
Are you dead or something write us back.
If you don't write me back I will pen the Ministry.
Valerie Valerie Valerie Valerie Valerie
She had managed to dodge all the questions so far but she knew what was coming.
She could see her friends at the end of the hall standing by the common room door, probably waiting for her. She turned around the opposite way, she didn't want to lie to them so she planned on pushing it back as far as she could.
Running away turned out to be the worse option of the two because she ran straight into Cyrene.
Valerie didn't trust her one bit. She didn't know them too well, but she knew enough. Especially because of this summer.
"Tavender." Cyrene said walking in pace next to her.
"Black."
A part of her felt bad for her, according to what she had heard their father died when they was very young. Their grandmother took them in, and then she died when they were 6. After that they moved in with the Malfoy's.
Valerie couldn't really blame them for how they turned out.
"You know, I don't think your parents would be too happy to know you have so many mudblood friends."
Then they would turn around and say something like that, reminding Valerie why she didn't like them.
"Are you going to tell them."
"Not unless I need to." They sneered
"Then I don't get why you're talking to me right now."
"I'd be a bit nicer to me if I were you."
"Shove off."
"I'm the only person you can trust right now Tavender, don't you get it." Cyrene said. "Those friends of yours aren't going to like you much longer when they figure out who you are."
The Ravenclaw common room really didn't sound too to Valerie bad right now.
"You don't know my friends."
"So you're telling me if you told your friends anything about this summer they'd be okay with it?"
Valerie stayed silent.
Yeah, she couldn't think a thing that her friends would slightly approve from the last few months.
"I'm not the bad guy here, okay?" Cyrene huffed "I'm being honest with you, it's just the way it goes."
"Thanks but next time keep your honesty to yourself." Valerie sneered as she walked away.
"Mandrake Leaves." Cyrene said making Valerie stop.
"What."
"For when the mark burns." They said quietly. "It helps."
"I don't have the mark. How do y-"
Valerie hadn't heard of any of the people her age getting a mark especially so early. Her father didn't even get it.
"Consider yourself lucky." Cyrene said walking away from her.
And there Cyrene goes making Valerie feel bad for her.
Valerie would be lying if she said she had never thought about what Cyrene said. How couldn't she.
She hadn't been the best of friend lately, the first thing she said to them after ghosting them for months was "I think you all got shorter."
They had reasons to not like her, good ones at that.
"VALERIE."
Valerie spun around to face her friends.
"Are you seriously avoiding us right now." Danielle said with a frown.
"I was just going for a walk."
"We saw you turn around when you saw us." Maya huffed.
"What is going on with you." Fatima said. "Seriously, you disappear all summer and come back without saying a thing."
This was exactly the confrontation she wanted to avoid, she loved her friends really but they could be intense.
"I had a busy summer."
Technically she wasn't lying, she was busy.
"So busy you could never write us back?" Danielle said.
"There was a lot going on with my family."
Again, not really a lie.
Their face softened in pity. Usually she would've hated it but it's a lot better than what she would've gotten if she told them everything.
"I'm sorry Valerie." Fatima said
"Yeah you should've just told us."
"It's fine really, I just want to forget about it."
"We can do that." Danielle said.
"Yeah let's just go back to the common room, Terry is telling everyone about his summer fling."
"Yeah half of us are sure he is lying."
"I bet he is, I mean it's Boot we're talking about." Valerie said.
It was strange how quickly they fell into new patterns even after months of not speaking, but that's what she needed.
