The Snake Pit

18; Deal With the Devil

The air outside this Friday morning was chillier than it has been all week. Luna and I are furiously walking to potions, well I am, Luna is skipping along telling me to slow down and not to rush. In the almost three months I have spent hanging out with her I've noticed she never walks faster than one pace and she is late to a lot of classes. "Luna, we're gonna be late, you know that right?" I asked cursing to myself as I sped up because I don't have a watch.

    "That's okay," she stopped and answered me, smiling.

    I sighed and grabbed her arm gently to pull her with me, "We have that project and I really don't want to have to do it after class."

    When we reached the potions classroom we were already late and the whole class was staring at our loud entrance. "Nice of you ladies to join us, please take your seats," Professor Slughorn said and motioned to our table. I walked over with Luna behind me trying not to notice how Draco, Blaise, and Theo stared at me like usual.

    Ever since Micheal had his outburst when I rejected him our table has been almost completely silent every class. It's been awkward and even though Luna keeps telling me it wouldn't be awkward if I went out with him, I am not going to go on a date with him.

    Today was another day spent where only Luna and I were whispering to each other about our potion we were making. Across the table, Micheal was working with Katie rotating between angrily stirring the cauldron and mumbling to himself while he cut ingredients.

    "Do you think he's still mad?" Luna whispered.

    "I don't know," We both looked up from where we were whispering behind our cauldron and saw him shooting me a murderous glare. "Well if looks could kill I would be six feet under," I joked. Luna laughed her breathy laugh and we got back to working on our project. I couldn't help stealing a glance at the table where Draco was seated with Blaise and Theo. Normally they look like they've forgotten I exist, but today I made eye contact with Draco for a couple of seconds before he quickly looked away.

    Luckily the class was dismissed so Luna and I wandered to the courtyard for our free period. "I know I shouldn't care anymore, it's been months and they haven't bothered to say anything to me, but I do care. They've been my best friends since I was little and I need to know what's going on with them. I mean, I've tried but they just ignore me or walk away when I ask. What do you think I should do?" I asked Luna as we sat under the tree that Draco and I used to sit under last year.

    "Give up," she answered.

    I furrowed my brows at her. "What? Why?"

    She shrugged and said, "Because you said you haven't gotten any answer out of them and it's been a while. You asked me what you should do so I think you should give up."

    "If you were in my shoes would you give up?"

    "No." She made a face like she just remembered something and moved to get up, "Will you help me go look for Neville?"

    I laughed a little and got up to follow her. "Sure, Luna."

I followed her to the greenhouse where Neville usually spends his free time. I always felt bad for Neville because my housemates bullied him for being clumsy. He's older now so he's not as clumsy as he once was, but it doesn't matter because the Slytherins still make fun of him. Because of this, he's always been wary of me being around even though I've never tried to make fun of him. I'm not sure if he realizes that I'm different from the other people in my house.

When we found him he helped Luna and me with our herbology homework and then I made a dumb excuse about being tired so I could go sulk in my dorm before the next class. I opened the door to my dorm and flopped onto my bed and accidentally drifted off to sleep.