"You're staring again," Mari tells me. The second year girl and I are friends, even though I'm in my 5th year. Right now, we are sitting at the Gryffindor table facing towards the rest of the Great Hall. Marisol and I have known each other since we were little. You could say we were cousins, but Mari was adopted, so aren't actually related.
I feel my cheeks going red. I hadn't even really noticed that I was staring. I hadn't meant to stare. And the one person who had to see me was Marisol Bailey.
"Was not," I say, even though it's not true.
"Gryffindors aren't supposed to even get along with Slytherins you know," she says, choosing not to argue that I was. We both know I was lying.
"What are you two talking about?" Ashli says as she sat down. Mari and I stop talking. Mari loves Ashli, although they couldn't be more different people, but she knows that I would never trust her with my secrets. In my opinion, Ashli is a gossip, and tattletale. If I were Mari, there would be no way I would be friends with her.
But I'm not Mari, so it doesn't really matter.
"Why don't you just go talk to her? You two were so close first and second year! You shouldn't have to ignore each other just because people tease you about it," she says when Ashli turns to talk to someone else.
I glare at her. She was one of the tons of people that had gradually driven us apart, when she should have been by our sides. Okay, so she never was at the heart of the teasing or the fighting, but I still feel like she holds some of the blame.
And now the Gryffindor/Slytherin rivalry is at its worst in years, thanks to it all. Although that might be because of that new pureblood kid - the Malfoy. The nerve of him. Many of the students still get nervous approaching Harry Potter, and Malfoy just has the nerve to try and bully him.
If only I had been able to defend myself like Potter does. Maybe things wouldn't have turned out so badly.