C#10
"Well?" said Vivienne on entering the common room and finding Abigail sitting on her bed. Abigail did nothing to acknowledge Vivienne's presence. It was only when Vivienne moved closer to her that she saw the tears glistening on Abigail's face. Vivienne looked at her for a moment before sitting beside her and pulling her into a hug.
Abigail rested her head on Vivienne's shoulder and began to cry in earnest, gasping for air.
"I love him." she sobbed. Vivienne gently patted her head.
"I know." she said, hugging her tighter.
"I love him, Vivienne." Abigail repeated, with sharp intakes of breath. She was shaking uncontrollably.
"Shh. Shh. Abby… It'll be okay." said Vivienne, not knowing what else she was supposed to say. How could this have happened? She was so sure that Fred and Abigail would get together.
And suddenly, Vivienne felt responsible for this whole mess.
Had it not been for her pushing Abigail into confessing, none of this would have happened. Abigail wouldn't be crying right now. Things would get awkward tomorrow and Vivienne felt that it was solely her fault. She wouldn't be able to bear watching Abigail and Fred not talk to each other. That couldn't happen.
It wouldn't happen. She would not let it happen.
Calm down, Viv, she thought to herself while patting Abigail's head. Things will get alright. Besides, how bad can it get?
"Morning." said James the next day as Vivienne and Abigail sat down opposite him at the Gryffindor table for breakfast.
"Morning." said Vivienne and Abigail nodded. There were bags under her eyes from not having slept the previous night, but otherwise, there was no change. She had gone back to her self by morning, acting like nothing had ever happened.
'Where's Fred?' Vivienne mouthed to James.
'Coming. She OK?' he mouthed back, jerking his head in Abigail's direction. Vivienne shook her head.
In a matter of minutes, Fred entered the Great Hall. Spotting the three of them, he hesitantly made his way towards where they were sitting and sat down beside James without saying anything.
Abigail looked up at him for a split second before going back to her marmalade and toast.
For the first time possibly, the four ate their breakfast in silence. Abigail and Vivienne finished their breakfast earlier and left with Vivienne waving James goodbye. James sat with Fred till he finished his breakfast.
"Are you planning on talking to her at all?" asked James. Fred pushed his empty plate away and buried his head in his hands.
"What am I supposed to talk to her about?" he said, his voice muffled. "Did you look at her face, James?"
"Clearly, you did." James replied.
"Like I wouldn't. She looked like she had cried." Fred said, miserably.
"Well, duh." said James, though he felt bad for Fred. And for Abigail. He never thought that there would ever be a time where it would be awkward between them. "You really don't like her, mate?"
"I- I'd never thought about her like that before she told me, but… now… argh!" Fred groaned, grabbing his hair.
"But now…?" said James, waiting for Fred to continue but Fred just shook his head. James was about to say something when Rose walked up to them.
"What's with him?" Rose asked James, looking at Fred, whose head was in his hands.
"I have a stomach ache." Fred replied quickly before James could tell Rose anything, though he doubted James would do that.
"Ah, I see." said Rose, smiling sardonically. James grinned. You just couldn't lie to Rose. You could actually, but she'd find out.
"Anyway, I came here to ask if you'd asked Viv and Ab about the dresses." she said, looking over at James.
"Yeah, Abigail's getting hers done from her mum, but Vivienne will join you lot." he said.
"Where is she anyway?" said Rose. "Out with Antonio?"
James scowled. "Why should she be with him?" he said, somewhat irritably.
"Um, well, only because they're kind of going out?" said Rose, raising her eyebrows. James rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, well. She's with Abigail. I think they've gone back to the common room." he said.
Rose smiled. Why was James so thick?
"What are you smiling at?" James asked but his cousin just shook her head.
"You're so dense." she sighed, gave his head a quick pat and left to sit with her friend Sofia.
"What was that about?" said James, before looking back at a lost Fred and realizing that there were bigger problems to deal with right now.
Over the next week, things had become pathetically awkward between Abigail and Fred. Let alone talk, the two hadn't made eye contact in the past seven days. It was another story that they didn't go to classes together; Abigail went with Vivienne and Fred with James. So it was rare for James and Vivienne to meet too.
"I'm sorry." Abigail muttered one night before bed.
"About what?" said Vivienne, looking at her while untying her long hair. The dormitory was empty since Marissa had gone to take a bath and Valerie was on prefect duty. Abigail lay down on her bed.
"About screwing everything up." she said, pulling up her quilt to cover her face.
"You didn't screw everything up. Don't say that." said Vivienne, sitting beside her and pulling off the covers from her face.
"I did. You don't have to be nice to me or anything. James and you hardly see each other because of Fred and me. Because of me, actually." said Abigail, turning her face away.
"Abigail I want you to listen to me. Bad things happen, okay? But that doesn't mean that everything from then on is going to be bad. You're not trying to be happy. You have to want to be happy. I know you like Fred, and I'm sorry about the way things are right now, but I promise everything will turn out fine in the end. That's the way it works. And who said life was a bed of roses?" Vivienne said while squeezing Abigail's hand with her own.
She knew how easy it was for her to just sit there and give Abigail nothing but words of wisdom. She knew also, that she couldn't tell Abigail that she understood how her friend was feeling right now, because she honestly didn't. It would be lying. And that was not okay.
"Yeah. Goodnight, Viv." Abigail muttered, taking her hand out of Vivienne's grasp and turning over so that Vivienne was facing her back.
Vivienne looked at her for a couple of moments, debating whether she ought to say something more, but thought better than to do it.
"Goodnight, Ab." she said, softly, giving her friend a hug before getting up and going to her own bed.
"Ready for bed?" said Marissa, entering the dormitory, her hair wet, a towel around her shoulders.
"Yeah." said Vivienne, sliding into her warm blankets. The weather really was getting very cold.
"Night, then." said Marissa, putting out the lights before going to her own bed.
"Night, Rissa." said Vivienne, turning on her side and closing her eyes, but not before she heard a faint sob coming from where Abigail's bed was.
"Vivienne!" Rose called out, half walking- half jogging up to Vivienne.
"Rose, hey." greeted Vivienne, turning around.
"I've been looking for you since yesterday." said Rose, stopping just outside the Great Hall.
Vivienne looked a bit surprised. "Me? What for?" she said, raising her eyebrows.
"It's about the dresses- for the Traditional Ball." said Rose.
"Oh, look, Rose, are you completely sure that it's okay for me to be-"
"I know what you're going to say, so shut up. See, Vivienne, you're practically family to us. To James, and so to us." Rose said, taking Vivienne's hands in hers. "So don't worry about this kind of thing. Aunt Ginny said that we should do your dress too, because you're aunt's busy a lot, right? And we want to do this. So, once again- shut up."
Vivienne's face broke into a smile, which Rose returned. "Rose, thanks, really. But what did you want to talk about?"
"Ah, that. You'll be coming to James's place for Christmas, right?"
"I suppose so." replied Vivienne. She celebrated Christmas with the Potters' every year because her aunt was hardly ever home, more so during the holidays. So why would this year be any different?
"Great, so we'll take your measurements and everything then." smiled Rose.
"Oh, um alright then." said Vivienne. "You haven't seen Abigail by any chance, have you?"
Rose looked toward the Great Hall. "No. She wasn't at breakfast." Then, after a pause, she looked at Vivienne and said, "Is everything okay…?"
Vivienne shook her head. "Not really, no. But I'll tell you some other time." she winked, waving Rose goodbye and went to sit at the Gryffindor table. Where was Abigail? If she was going somewhere without her, she would have told Vivienne. Maybe she needed some time alone. Yes, that would be it. Still, it was rather lonely, eating breakfast by herself.
"Hey, you."
Vivienne turned around.
"Tony!" she smiled and Antonio smiled back, sitting beside her.
"I feel like it's been ages since I've looked at you." he sighed. Vivienne noticed that he looked rather run down.
"Look at me now, then." Vivienne grinned, helping herself to some eggs and bacon. Antonio chuckled.
"Where's Abigail?" he asked, looking around as though he had only just realized that she wasn't there.
"No idea." Vivienne answered. Antonio looked slightly surprised.
"Did you have a fight with her?" he asked cautiously.
"What? No, no!" Vivienne answered quickly, shaking her head. "It's… It's just that… Fred and she are, well they're not really comfortable around each other at the moment, so I think she must have gone to have alone-time, y'know, to clear her head off."
Antonio nodded slowly to show that he understood. After a couple of moments of silence, he said, "About the Traditional Ball… we're going together, right?"
"I'd have thought that it was obvious." said Vivienne. It was obvious, wasn't it?
"No, I just… nothing." Antonio said, smiling dismissively.
"What? Tell me." said Vivienne. Antonio wasn't usually like this.
"It's nothing." he repeated. "Really." he stressed when she didn't look convinced. Vivienne gave him a quick searching look before going back to her breakfast.
"Have you eaten?" she asked, her mouth full. Antonio shook his head.
"Why not?"
"Not hungry."
Vivienne turned to look at him for a second time. Then, she took a plate from the table, filled it with eggs, sausages, bacon and a little fruit on the side and handed it to Antonio.
"Eat." she said, simply. Antonio looked at her quietly, taking the plate from her hands. Vivienne, once again, went back to her meal. She could feel Antonio's eyes still on her, but she didn't look up. Something was weird about him today. Should she ask him about it again? Maybe he just didn't want to talk about it. Boys were like that. James was, at least. When he said he didn't want to talk about something, he meant it. So Vivienne decided against asking Antonio again. The two were silent for some time, then-
"I think I'm falling in love with you, Vivienne."
It was a couple of moments before Vivienne felt the atmosphere go cold. She could have sworn she felt her heart stop. Her hands had become numb; it had become hard to breathe. For a couple of moments, Vivienne didn't move. She just sat there, looking at her half-eaten eggs, not being able to feel the fork in her hand. Her eyes must have been wide with shock, her cheeks must have been red because they were feeling rather warm, but Vivienne didn't know.
It was as if, all of a sudden, the air in the room had decreased to a bare minimum.
Vivienne slowly turned to look at him, but he was looking down at his plate, playing with his food.
"What's with that expression?" he laughed, even though he still hadn't looked at her. Vivienne swallowed.
"Look, this is what I felt. And I needed to tell you. I never said you had to feel the same way, so don't make that expression, please." he said softly, finally looking up at her.
Vivienne looked back down. She really couldn't breathe. She needed to get out of here.
"Excuse me, I-" she said, pushing her plate away and getting up but Antonio held her back firmly by the arm.
"Don't run away." he said.
"I need some time to think." she murmured, pulling her hand out of his grasp and quickly walking out of the Great hall.
Once out, she darted towards the Quidditch pitch. It was the only place she could think of that would be empty. She reached the pitch, terribly out of breath, collapsing on the soft grass. Everything that had happened over the past three minutes was a blur inside her mind. Her head hurt.
I'm falling in love with you she heard Antonio's voice say inside her head. Her hands immediately went up to her ears, covering them as though to block out the sound that was coming from within.
"What happened?" said a voice. Vivienne's eyes flew open and she stood up immediately to face James, a broomstick in his hand.
"Vivienne? What happened? You look like a ghost." he said. But Vivienne wasn't listening to what he was saying. She had thrown herself on him, holding onto him tightly around the middle. James staggered backwards but maintained his balance, taken aback.
"What happened?" he asked more urgently, looking down at her but Vivienne vigorously shook her head that was buried in his chest.
"Don't ask me anything. Please." she said, breathing heavily. James looked at her for a moment before encircling his free arm around her waist and hugging her tightly, resting his head on hers.
A/N: Again, I'm terribly sorry for a late update. I was terribly uninspired and didn't think I'd write well, given the frame of mind I was in earlier.
Anyway, thanks for reading! Please review! :)