Half an hour later Tanwen and the others descended into the common room. Jon was sitting anxiously in a chair facing the door to the girls dorms, sporting a particularly impressive black eye. She gave him a tentative smile as she came into the room, his face lit up and he beamed back at her.
"So you're not mad at me?"
"No, you silly goose," Tanwen replied, sitting down opposite him, "I'm not."
He gave an audible sigh of relief and she giggled.
"How's your face?" he asked, his eyes flickering over her face for any sign of injury.
"A little tender, but Cassie and the others got down the swelling," she replied.
"And I don't even think they'll be any bruising," Cassie added proudly.
***
The next morning began with Potions. As soon as Snape told them to get into pairs Blair made straight for her. She was surprised but readily accepted and they set up their cauldron in the corner. She ignored the curious looks her friends gave her and missed the warning look Clem gave him.
Blair glared at Clem and turned to begin chopping up the mandrake roots. They worked together companionably until Blair leant towards her in a low voice and asked,
"Are you alright? This morning at breakfast people were saying that Contay hit you."
She sighed, "trust people to only hear half a story. I tried to break up a fight between Jon and Cedric and just got in the way of one of Jon's punches," she explained.
"Ahh, that explains why Diggory also has a black eye this morning, though not anywhere near as fine as Contay's," Blair replied with a grin.
She tried to smile back. "Any idea what they were fighting about?"
"You don't know?"
"Why should I?"
He was silent.
She covered her eyes with a hand and sighed again.
"What's wrong?" he asked her, placing a hand on her arm. Jon scowled at him from over the top of his cauldron, set up on the opposite side of the room.
"It's complicated, and a very long story," she replied, oblivious to Jon's reaction.
"No talking. Get back to making your potion, Miss Gray," Snape snapped at her as he came past on his round.
Blair looked thoughtful as Tanwen carefully ladled six and a half teaspoons of Crup drool into the simmering mixture, "I think you should speak to Clem," he said at last, "It's none of my business really, so that's all I'm going to say."
She looked oddly at him and turned to look at Clem. She was a few rows back, working with Alicia as usual. Catching Tanwen looking at her she smiled, her eyes sliding over to look at Blair questioningly. He gave her a disdainful stare and turned his attention back to the potion.
As they left the class for Care of Magical Creatures, Tanwen pondered on Blair's odd advice. What had he meant by that? She was continually returning to think about it for the rest of the day, and several times had meant to go and speak to Clem but she seemed to be avoiding her during lessons.
Their lessons had ended for the day and Tanwen wandered along in a daze back to the common room, a few steps behind the main group of people who were laughing about the disaster Dave had made of transfiguring his log. Jon kept casting worried looks back at her as they walked but made no move to speak to her. Cassie on the other hand dropped back,
"Is something wrong?" she asked, "you've been so quiet all day."
"I've just been thinking a lot that's all," Tanwen replied, she lowered her voice, "did Jon tell you what he and Cedric were fighting about?"
She shook her head, "No, he won't say. He might have told Mark thought, those two are pretty thick."
Tanwen grinned.
"In both senses of the word," Cassie said, catching on.
As they reached the Fat Lady, Tanwen reached out and caught hold of Mark's arm. He turned to her questioningly.
"Can I have a word with you?" she asked.
"Sure," he replied, a puzzled look on his face.
The others walked into the common room and Tanwen and Mark moved a short distance away.
"What's up?" he asked
"I was just wondering if Jon had told you what he and Cedric were fighting about?"
He looked curiously at her, "You don't know?"
"Why does everyone keep assuming I know?" she demanded crossly. "I arrived after it had started!"
Mark looked at her as though she were mad.
"What?"
"Errr, are you sure about that?" he asked.
"What do you mean am I-" she started to say, but then she paused and turned pale.
"Look, I think this is something you should be speaking to Jon about," Mark said.
"Maybe you're right," she replied in a quiet voice, "I'll do that."
They walked back towards the portrait hole, Tanwen's face unreadable. Mark looked rather bemused and concerned as he cast a look at her face. The moment they entered the common room she walked straight over to Jon, who was perched on the window sill talking to Dom.
"Dom, come here a moment," Mark said, grabbing his arm and taking him away in a very non discreet way.
Jon grinned at her and took her hand, pulling her towards him.
She raised an eyebrow at him questioningly. He leant down and kissed her gently on the lips. She was too surprised to stop it but she took a step back immediately after.
"What are you doing??" Tanwen asked him.
"What do you mean, what am I doing?! Tanwen is this some kind of a joke?" he frowned, "I thought, you know." he grinned.
"No I don't know," she replied confused.
"Tanwen, it's not as if I've never kissed you before!" he whispered so the others wouldn't hear.
"What?!" she yelled.
"Shh," he hushed her as the other looked up.
"Are you sure?! When?! Where?...How?" she demanded, she had a very bad feeling about all this.
"Am I sure?" he repeated amused, "I don't think I would forget, or make it up."
"That's what I'm afraid of," she murmured.
"What?"
"Oh nothing," she dismissed with a wave of her hand
"And as for how..." he grinned and leant towards her again.
She stopped him, "please, be serious for a second Jon. When did we kiss?" she repeated.
"Well the first time was two days ago and then again yesterday," he began a grin spreading over his face, "I can't imagine you've forgotten."
Tanwen turned white, "what time? About sixish both days?"
"About that I think-what's going on?" he looked confused.
"And were we...you know...just before you and Cedric started to fight?"
"You know we were, you were there too! Tanwen-"
"And were you fighting about me?" she suddenly had a vision of Clem's face as she darted towards Jon and Cedric to part them.
"Sort of. Tanwen, will you please just tell me what on earth is going on!" he demanded.
"Oh crap," she covered her face with her hands. "Oh crapity crap crap crap."
"What?"
"That wasn't me," she told him, taking her hands away, her face angry.
"What do you mean it wasn't you?!"
Clem.
Tanwen was suddenly livid, "where's Clem?" she demanded turning to the others.
"Haven't seen her," Mark replied.
"She'd better wish she doesn't see me," Tanwen muttered darkly.
"What do you mean?" Cassie asked nervously.
"I'm going to kill her." Tanwen stormed out the common room.
"Jon?" the others turned on him immediately.
Tanwen marched down the corridor fuming. How dare Clem misuse her trust like that! Of all the things she could have done, this was pretty much one of the worst she could envisage. The longer she marched down the corridor the more angry she became, unconsciously fuelling her rage with all the negative emotions she had gathered over the past few weeks.
Will and a bunch of his friends came round the corner; he frowned as he recognised Tanwen. He hated being caught in the middle and generally didn't take sides, and before what Cedric had told him had happened between her and Contay over the past few days he had wanted to remain neutral, but now.
But Tanwen didn't even seem to notice them and stormed on past, her face as black as thunder.
Will stared open mouthed, he had never ever seen Tanwen in a bad mood.
Up ahead Tanwen spotted Clem descending the marble staircase and her eyes narrowed as she broke into a run. Clem laughed maliciously as Kilk told her Cedric's reaction to the whole thing, stepping off the bottom step.
"You!"
She span round to face Tanwen.
"You evil betraying banshee!" spat Tanwen, her expression murderous. She shook from head to foot with sheer rage and any shred of control that had remained snapped when Clem sneered at her.
"What's the matter? I was just helping you move on," she replied with a nasty smirk.
"How dare you. presume to know how I feel," Tanwen retorted furiously; barely able to speak for the raging anger inside.
Quite a crowd had gathered behind them now, it was almost time for dinner and all houses converged here when it was time to eat. Among them were Will and Tanwen's friends who had followed her from the tower. Tanwen pointed accusingly at Clem as Cedric stepped out and walked over to join Will.
"What's going on?" he whispered as Tanwen shouted at Clem.
"Ten Galleons on a fight," Blake whispered.
"What the hell did you think gave you the right to mess up my life!" Tanwen glared at Clem, her fists clenched tightly by her sides. "As if it wasn't messed up enough already!"
"Oh please," Clem snapped back, "Does Little Miss Perfect not know how to deal with a little competition."
"Competition?! Is that what all this is about? You are unbelievable! What on earth gave you the impression that if you wanted to go after Jon I would be competition?! And besides, how can you class what you did as making yourself competition anyway?" Tanwen questioned, a little thrown by Clem's words.
"You only got what was coming to you," Clem shot back, ignoring Tanwen's question, "you deserved a lot worse, you French whore!"
Tanwen gave a scream of frustration and anger and threw herself at Clem. They fell to the floor heavily, Tanwen throwing proper punches, not the expected hair pulling and slaps. Clem screamed and scratched out with her long nails kicking and writhing to get away as Tanwen pummelled her. Suddenly Clem's foot connected with Tanwen's stomach and sent her flying backwards. Her head hit the wooden banister with a sickening crack and she slumped onto the floor her head spinning. The crowd around winced, some of the younger ones screamed. Jon, Mark, Cassie and Marcia came pelting down the stairs from where they had been watching in a mesmerized kind of horror.
Clem wiped the smear of blood from her mouth, wincing as she drew her wand.
"Don't you dare touch her!" Cedric stepped in front of the dazed Tanwen, who lay motionless on the floor, his own wand levelled at her.
Clem scowled and snapped at Rak to come help her up. The boy helped her to her feet and she shot Tanwen a dirty look, spitting at her feet as the pair hobbled off to the Hospital Wing.
"Tanwen?" Cassie was almost frantic as she knelt by her friend's side, "Tanwen?"
Tanwen rolled over onto her back. Her forehead was bleeding heavily and her eyes were closed. Her head felt like she was spinning and felt like someone had just hit her with a sledge hammer, her hearing was fuzzy and she had no idea what was going on around her.
"What's going on here?" Professor MacGonagall's voice cut through the blur like a knife.
Tanwen grasped hold of the banister and pulled herself into a sitting position, forcing her eyes open. She couldn't focus at all, the effect was utterly dizzying.
"My goodness, Miss Gray, what happened?" she gasped spotting Tanwen.
"I fell," Tanwen slurred heavily.
"You fell?" MacGonagall repeated sceptically.
Tanwen clutched her pounding head and felt the blood. 'Oh good, I'm bleeding,' she thought deliriously. 'I think I'll lie back down.' She closed her eyes and sank back down onto the floor.
"Ah Hagrid, you're just in time to take Miss Gray to the Hospital Wing, it seems she has had an unfortunate fall," she raised an eyebrow at the last part of her sentence as she directed her words to the large figure who had just come through the front doors.
"My, my yeh weren' wrong," Hagrid replied, picking up Tanwen as easily as if she had weighed nothing and carried her off to see Madam Pomfrey.
MacGonagall turned to the white faces looking questioningly at her, "Go on with you," she said, "Miss Gray will be absolutely fine."
"I feel faint," Marcia said, clutching hold of Mark's robes, her face white.
"Oh dear, I forgot she's really squeamish," Cassie said as Mark helped her over to sit on the steps. Jon followed quietly, his eyes briefly meeting Cedric's, who looked quite shaken. Will came and put an arm round Cedric's shoulder, steering him into the Great Hall, quietly telling him something.
Back in the Hospital Wing Tanwen opened her eyes blearily; her head still pounding and her vision fuzzy. Madam Pomfrey was bent over her, healing the gash in her forehead.
"Don't move," she heard a voice telling her, and obeyed, it wasn't as if she felt much like moving anyway.
Madam Pomfrey made her drink a potion through a straw so she didn't have to move her head, and a few minutes after her eyesight began to clear. Tanwen blinked to clear her vision and cautiously turned her head.
"How are you feeling?" Madam Pomfrey asked.
"Umm, ok," Tanwen replied, carefully sitting up. Her head still throbbed a bit but she could see and hear properly.
"You know Miss Gray, I'm thinking of setting up a permanent bed for you here," Madam Pomfrey said, with a hint of amusement in her voice.
Tanwen grimaced, "I guess I have been rather accident prone recently."
"I'll be right back," the nurse replied, bustling off behind to the other end of the room to someone hid behind a screen.
Tanwen put a hand to her head and felt the dried blood in her hair, "gross!" She made a face.
From behind the screen she could hear Madam Pomfrey saying, "there's nothing I can do about those bruises, just keep the ice over it until I say so, that'll help to reduce the swelling. My goodness Miss Drew, you certainly did take a bad fall. You and Miss Gray certainly need to take more care."
Tanwen clenched her teeth; if Clem was in here then she wanted to go. She felt well enough and could lie down just as well in her dorm. So when Madam Pomfrey came back over minutes later she asked, "Can I go back to my dorm please? I promise I'll lie down as soon as I get there. I just really want to wash my hair and." she couldn't think of another excuse.
"Very well Miss Gray, but if you feel any worse you're to come back here immediately," Madam Pomfrey conceded.
Tanwen nodded and stood up slowly and walked as steadily as she could to the door. Taking the shortest possible route back to the common room she walked through the empty common room and up to her dorm, going strait into the bathroom to shower. Once she was done she sat on her bed, resting for a moment. Her head still hurt and her legs felt slightly shaky. But she was still angry. She took deep breaths in and out, trying to calm herself down. But the more she thought about what Clem had done the angrier she became and she had to keep starting over.
Just as she began to feel a little calmer the dorm room swung open and Clem came in. She had a huge black eye and a split lip, she scowled when she saw Tanwen. Clenching her jaw Tanwen stood up and walked past without looking at her. She wasn't going to give Clem the satisfaction of seeing how much she had hurt her.
When she reached the common room she kept walking back out into the corridor, forgetting her promise to Madam Pomfrey. Halfway down the corridor she met Harry and Ron.
"Are you ok?" Harry asked, "We saw what happened."
"Yeah, I'm fine," Tanwen replied with a humourless smile, "you should see Clem."
"What was it about anyway?" Ron asked curiously. Harry nudged him trying to tell him not to be so nosy, but Tanwen answered him anyway.
"She tricked me into swapping bodies with her and then went and kissed Jon," she replied, briefly summarising the main details. She was fed up of having secrets and didn't care who knew her business anymore.
"Contay?"
She nodded.
"Why?" Harry asked.
"Just to get at me I think," Tanwen shrugged.
"So that's what the fight between Diggory and Contay was about," Ron said, "I've been wondering about that."
Tanwen paled, "well sort of."
"So I guess that makes you a smaller scale Helen of Troy," Harry said unhelpfully.
"Who?" Ron asked.
"I'll see you later," Tanwen muttered and walked on taking a different corridor so as not to run into more people coming back from dinner.
Cedric .what must he think of her? After she had denied all the insinuations about her and Jon for him to see her with him like that! Twice! She shook her head, 'he must think I'm such a liar.' She stopped and leant against the wall, slowly sinking to the ground. 'No wonder when Jon hit me by accident he just let me go...he just looked at me and walked away. I've never felt so crushed...'
She didn't feel angry now just sad. Everything was such a mess. She leant her head on her arms, her knees pressed up against her chest and gave a dry sob. But she was determined not to cry, she'd done enough crying recently.
It was half an hour before anyone found her, Alex and Lizzie were walking along the corridor hand in hand when they came upon her, she hadn't moved.
"Tanwen? Is that you?" Lizzie asked, dropping to her knees.
Tanwen raise her head, her face pale and her eyes over bright.
Alex came and sat on her other side.
"What on earth happened between you and Clem?" he asked.
Taking a deep breath she told them everything. About how she had tried to be different and made friends with Clem but she had misused her trust and used it against her. About how Cedric had seen Clem kissing Jon when she was in Tanwen's body, the fight that had taken place because of it, everything.
"I've been such a fool," Tanwen said sadly, "I thought that I could be someone else, that I could change, but everything just backfired on me and has made things ten times worse then they were in the first place."
"Why did you want to change in the first place?" Lizzie asked.
"I don't know if Cedric's told you about our fight, but one of the things we argued about was the way I acted towards other guys, especially Jon. Basically he wanted me to stop being friends with Jon and to change the way I acted towards guys. But I was angry with him and I said that I wouldn't change to please him, that there was nothing going on between Jon and me and if he didn't like the way I was then maybe he should be with somebody else." She paused and sighed, "The thing is that afterwards I thought about what he had said and thought that maybe there was some truth in what he said you know? I mean, I wouldn't have given up my friendship with Jon, he's one of my best friends and I love him, but I didn't want people to think I was a. you know."
Lizzie put an arm round her, "I loved you just the way you were Tanwen, you didn't do anything wrong, Cedric was just being possessive. You can't spend your life trying to be someone else, you can't be anything other than you are."
"I know," Tanwen replied, "and I've always believed that, but I guess I just hate the thought of Cedric thinking badly of me. Even if he did hurt me and was possessive I still care about what he thinks of me. Even if he doesn't care about me anymore. Even if he hates me."
"That's one of the bad things about Hufflepuffs," Alex added honestly, "we're as loyal as it comes generally, but that means that sometimes we can be possessive about the people we care about. Cedric had no right to tell you that you couldn't see Jon, but he only did it because he cared about you-"
"Yeah, that's just it," Tanwen replied, cutting off the rest of his words, "cared," emphasising the last syllable.
"You still like him." Lizzie stated, picking up on Tanwen's feelings.
Tanwen nodded, "I don't care that people tell me he had no right to demand of me what he did, and I'll be the first person to agree that he was out of line, but he wasn't the only one to blame. I should have been more sensitive to his feelings and not flirted with Jon so much, it's just that I never mean anything by it, it's just for fun. It's not fair that when guys do it no one bats an eyelid but if a girl does it they're looked down on!"
"Maybe we're not the ones you should be speaking to," Alex said gently.
"I can't speak to Cedric, not after what happened today."
"But once you explain it wasn't you then maybe he'll realise that he was wrong about you and Jon. That you never liked him that way, even if Jon liked you. And Cedric doesn't hate you, you know," Alex suggested.
Lizzie was silent. Alex picked up on it immediately, "What?"
"Well," she began slowly, with a sideways glance and Tanwen, "I don't know about that. He and Jon have never got on, a personality clash mainly, but there's something else you two don't know."
"What?" Tanwen asked.
"That night after you two had that big fight, he was going to come and apologise but when he got to your house umm," Lizzie didn't know how to break it to her.
"What?" Tanwen repeated, she had a bad feeling about the way this was going.
"You were asleep in Jon's arms," Lizzie finished, "and he thought you know."
Tanwen covered her face with her hands, "Oh no! But he was just watching a film with me, I was really upset and he was just staying with me for a while. I fell asleep watching the movie. That was all there was to it." Her voice was muffled by her hands.
The other two sat in awkward silence before Alex tentatively asked, "How does Jon feel about this?"
"Jon?" Tanwen kept her hands over her face as she shook her head, "I don't really know, but I could have killed Clem for messing him up like that. I mean before I thought Cedric was just making it up about how he treated me different from other girls, but now I'm not sure.but I just want him as a friend, he's such a great guy and I don't want to lose him as well." There was a short pause before she whispered, "I always lose everyone I love." Getting up she walked away from Lizzie and Alex.
"Where are you going?" Lizzie asked anxiously.
"I just want to be by myself for a while," Tanwen said, without turning back.
Alex turned to Lizzie, putting an arm round her shoulder, "just as well we didn't tell her Cedric's going out with Sarah."
"But she'll find out sooner or later, I know they're both keeping it quiet but I can't imagine it'll be long before word gets round that they're dating," Lizzie sighed, "do you think she'll be angry we didn't mention it?"
"I hope not," Alex replied, resting his chin on her head. "Are you going to tell Cedric what she said?"
"Maybe," Lizzie replied, "not everything, but I think he deserves to know the truth about things. Certainly about what that backstabbing cow did, everyone deserves to know about that!"
"The way things are at Hogwarts, I expect most people will before the week's out," Alex replied with a small smile.
It was a long walk back to the common room, Tanwen didn't know what she was going to do when she got there. She hurt so much but she wouldn't break down, she wouldn't cry. If this was the way life was always going to be then she would learn how to deal with it. Patiently waiting until things began to look up again. The rain couldn't always fall, and things couldn't stay bleak forever.
************
A/N: Ah more fighting, it was very satisfying to have Tanwen hit Clem *grin*. Don't you think Tanwen has a spectacular talent for making things complicated? ;) It's interesting to see who you ppl think she'd be good with, I just feel so sorry for Jon! Poor baby. Hehe, I love him. *angel face*
Anyways... I had no idea David Bailey was a photographer, that's funny. And whoever asked what Clem is sort for it's Clementine.
Next chapter Tanwen tries to untangle the mess, an oddly titled chapter, 'Muggle Studies Practicals''