A/N: Okay, so this is short, but I'm starting another chapter as soon as this is uploaded, because I'm on a bit of a roll tonight. Hope you like the juiciness.
The first thing Maddiy noticed when she opened the door to her dorm was the type. A metallicy-grey line of duck-tape ran down the center of the dorm, dividing it almost equally in half. What was this? Maddiy shook her head, her brows furrowing in confusion. Did Helena do this? Was she really that upset over the whole Theo thing?
Maddiy dropped her plain black North Face book bag to the ground slowly, slumping into her desk chair. Helena was her best friend and… Helena had an enormous love bite on the side of neck. The door had swung open with an obnoxious bang against the wall mere seconds ago and Helena had strolled in silently. That's when Maddiy had seen it – a masterpiece capable of being on display at the Louvre.
Helena said nothing, breezing through the room silently, ignoring Maddiy's existence as best she could.
"Hello," Maddiy finally said, waving her hands in the air. "I'm here, Helena. And I'm going to be every day. You can stop ignoring me now, and make it easier on the both of us."
Helena only raised an eyebrow.
"Look, if this is about Theo, Hel..," Maddiy began, "He's just a boy. I don't want to let him ruin our friendship." Helena busied herself gathering her books for her next class, before finally speaking.
"He's not just a boy, Maddiy. He's my boyfriend."
"Claire!"
Claire shot up from where she'd been napping, pushing her baby pink sleep-mask over her eyes. Emilie was practically jumping up and down in the doorway, a grin plastered across her face. Her bangs were sticking up at odd angles and her uniform shirt was either buttoned wrong, inside-out or both.
"Yes, Emilie?," Claire asked tiredly. "I was –"
"I had sex with Blaise!," Emilie interrupted, doing an awkward hop in her regulation Mary-Janes. "And Jesus, he was absolutely fantastic! It was so spontaneous. We both had a block off between classes, and something just happened… this connection.. and then, well, you know how it ended."
Emilie blathered on, giving Claire details that she was already fully aware of, from her own experiences with Blaise. Claire wanted nothing more than to leap up from her bed, slap Emilie and then go find Blaise and… and… well, she would probably just end up crying and begging him for an explanation, eventually forgiving him no matter what his reasoning was.
But how could he? He knew Emilie was her best friend. He knew. Didn't that make it a little inexcusable?
Kat felt the other end of the couch sink with the familiar weight of another person, and when she looked up from her copy of Crime and Punishment she almost wished she hadn't. Her breath caught in her throat and her chest tightened in an uncomfortable way that made her gulp nervously.
"My roommate?," Draco asked, bemused, looking at Kat in a way directly opposite of his tone. She wasn't sure she'd ever seen him look so hurt, so real, before. "Wait, let me rephrase that. My best friend?"
Kat gasped for air, breathing again, her mouth opening several times though no words came out. "How did you find out?," she finally managed to ask.
"He felt guilty," Draco said, looking away from Kat. He stared at the wall, grey eyes hardened into a stony glare. Salty tears stung her eyes and Kat thought she might throw up all over her Ugg moccasin slippers. "Seems like he was the only one."
Confrontation. It always made her feel ill. Her skin crawled with the intense need for nicotine, but she swallowed hard, determined not to run away.
"What does it matter to you?," Kat asked quietly, staring at the rug on the floor of the common room. "You have a girlfriend. One that would kill me, literally kill me, if she found out we – we… kissed. It's not like… it's not like there was a future for us," Kat spat out in a hurried whisper. "You've hardly spoken to me since that day. What was I supposed to do?"
Draco snorted mockingly. "Oh, so fucking my best friend was the solution? Oh, you've fixed everything, Kat. You've just fixed everything."
And as he stormed from the room, she dissolved into tears.
"Seamus, I swear, you're the gossip mill of the school," Sara said with a snort as she sat down next to him at the lunch table. He was beaming, typing away at the keys of his Apple laptop on various different messengers, spreading whatever new tidbit of information that he'd just discovered.
"You mean you haven't heard?," he finally replied, turning to face Sara. She helped herself to an apple and shook her head. "You know that girl, Kat? The new girl? Here, read this article."
Seamus angled his laptop towards Sara and she looked at the bright screen curiously. The headline made her eyebrows shoot up and her mouth part in surprise.
Salem Teacher Arrested After Police Alerted of Affair with 16-Year-Old
Aly linked her arm through Andy's, smiling brightly for what felt like the first time in days. "Well, at least they're talking about someone else now," she said jokingly, though Andy could tell how relieved she was. "And I think having sex with your teacher is a bit worse than having sex with your D.A." Andy only shook his head.
"Well, what are you going to do about Lavender? Now that you've gotten over this obstacle, do you think you can get over having her as a roommate?" Andy waited expectantly for her answer and clucked his tongue when he saw her face fall.
"Yeah, maybe after I smack that smug little smirk off her face," Aly said with a grimace. "I just… we were best friends Andy. Or something like it, at least. Girls don't handle betrayal well, you should know that."
"In case you haven't noticed, Aly, I'm not a girl," Andy said dryly.
"No, but you're gay, right?"
"Hi, Audrey," Abby said too brightly, sitting next to the darker-complected girl at the table.
"Abby." Audrey managed a nod with a weak smile. She hadn't gotten much sleep the night before; her breakup with Fred was wreaking havoc on her normal routines.
"How are you? Classes going okay?" Audrey opened her mouth to reply, but Abby continued. "Would you… would you mind terribly if Fred and I went on a date the next Hogsmeade weekend? I know it might seem a bit strange, me asking you, but I know the way gossip is around here – I mean, look at what it's already done to that girl Kat – and I just didn't want you to be surprised…"
Aubrey had tuned Abby out the minute she had used the words 'Fred' and 'date' in the same sentence. This just really wasn't her week, was it? As if being broken up with wasn't torture enough, she know had to hear about the other people in Fred's life. Had Abby been there all along? Was that why Fred had broken up with her? This was torture. Cruel and unusual.
She was too young for this; she needed to find someone new. Someone like… that cute boy with the glasses, sitting next to the girl with the obnoxiously purple hair.
Ginny nudged Colin sharply with her elbow and he spat the water in his mouth all over his plate. He gave Ginny a tired look, but quickly shrunk away at the glare in her eyes. "What did I do now?"
"Who's that girl, the one staring at you?," Ginny asked, nodding in a not-so-subtle way in Audrey's direction.
"I dunno," Colin replied, muffled by a mouthful of turkey and lettuce sandwich. "I think her name's Aubrey or Audrey or something. She's in my maths course. I haven't really talked to her before."
"Oh, haven't you? Look at the way she's looking at you." Ginny huffed in disgust. "I wouldn't be surprised if you've been handing out naked pictures of her as well."
Colin looked at Ginny as if she'd lost her mind before shaking his head, gathering his bag and standing up to leave.
"Hi," Claire said softly from the open doorway of Blaise's dorm room. He looked up from his desk, where he'd been diligently writing a paper. Blaise smirked with realization, stretching his arms above his head, his Hogwarts soccer tee shirt revealing a sliver of tanned skin at his waist.
"Hi, darling. You haven't been around much, lately? Found someone better?," he asked teasingly, pushing his chair away from his desk. Claire tugged nervously at the string of pearls around her neck.
"No, but I suppose you have," she said in a barely audible tone. Blaise looked confused. His features quickly changed, though, and Claire could tell she'd caught him.
"How… how did you found out about Kat?"
"Kat?," Claire sputtered, her cheeks tinged pink as she felt an unfamiliar amount of anger surge through her. "Kat and Emilie? Who else, Blaise? Do you have them all written down? Or should I go check for little notches on your bed post?"
Blaise ran a hand nervously through his hair. "Wow, Claire. I thought, well, I thought you understood. I do have a girlfriend, you know. Daphne Greengrass. We've been together a year now."
He scratched the back of his neck, ashamed. "I thought you just wanted sex, too."
When Maddiy returned to her dorm later in the evening, it was with a love bite that matched Helena's. Theo had a certain technique, that much was certain.
When she left the next morning, she also had a black eye.
Shoulders shaking with silent sobs, Kat curled into the fetal position on her bed, tears rolling steadily down her cheeks. How could Pansy be so cruel? Something that was meant to be kept a secret, now out in the open… it killed her. Now everyone knew, and Kat could only assume that she had a lot of explaining to do.