Everything was black. No matter how much I tried pushing it black, fighting against the groggy feeling I had in my head.
It was disheartening and exasperating, powerles even. Soon, I began to see multiple images play out before me.
I watched as Tom stood before the entrance of the Chamber of Secrets, sliding in before it closed behind him.
Suspicion began to bubble, and briefly caused me to wonder, what he could possibly be plotting.
I was certain he was, but the question was what he was planning.
I was trying to decipher what it all meant, when I began to hear a weird buzzing noise coming from an unknown direction.
At first, it was just a small insigificant buzzing noise, but then it slowly began to turn into a variation of distorted noises. Until finally, they all turned into a pair of arguing voices:
"This is all your fault, Riddle." Bellatrix growled.
"My fault? What do you mean my fault? It's not like I was the one who asked her to look into the damn glass sphere." He snapped.
'Wonderful they're fighting. Tom better not do anything to Bellatrix because I swear I'll -' I thought before Madam Noelle interrupted my train of thought.
"Hey, knock it off, both of you or you'll have to leave here." Madam Noelle chastised, as she moved around the room.
'Kids these days, they're going to end up killing me one of these days.' She thought rolling her eyes as she walked away.
'You're not that far off, Noelle.' I thought dryly.
'How long is it going to take for her to wake up? Merlin, she needs to wake up before I end up doing something stupid.' Bellatrix thought, impatiently.
"Too late." I replied out loud, cracking an eye open.
"Sophie." She sighed, in relief.
"Bella." I said, grinning at her, before noticing Tom was still in the room.
"Tom, what are you doing here?" I asked, raising myself onto my elbows.
"He's the one who saved you from cracking your head in two, on the floor as you fell like a sack of potatoes to the ground. He also carried you all the way here." Bella said, throwing me a meaningful look before she left.
Probably so I wouldn't glare at her in annoyance.
"Thank you, I guess." I said, laying back down on the cot as I began to feel my head begin to throb once again.
"You know, as effortless as it is to be irritated with you. It's much harder to stay away from you." He said, as he walkd over and sat down in the chair next to the bed.
"Well, try." I replied, closing my eyes in a terrible attmept to get some rest.
"Sophia, I get why you are angry with me, but could you at least talk to me?" He asked, sighing in exasperated.
Talk? Now, he wants to talk?
"What's there to talk about? You clearly made your decision the other night, so what is left to talk about?" I asked, not opening my eyes.
I hear as he sighed again, this time in frustration.
I let my mind push the barrier of his mind, without him noticing.
Silently creeping into his mind, curious to hear what he was thinking. I watched a lot of things play out, I almost wanted to leave his mind until I heard something that made my body go rigid.
'How do I show her how sorry I am? This is so much harder than I thought it would be. I must really feel something towards her if I'm actually willingly to let her put me through all this bollocks.' He grumbled mentally.
'Well, that's really interesting, Tom. Why don't you explain to me what rubbish I've put you through?' I thought back, opening my eyes and looking over to him with an eyebrow raised.
He shook his head at me, rolling his eyes. "What this I hear about Avery asking to escort you to the masquerade ball come Saturday?" He asked, ignoring the question.
"He asked, I declined. Though I did suggest that he ask a Ravenclaw, or was she a Hufflepuff." I wondered, shrugging my shoulders. "Either way, I'm going, but I'd rather go alone than with him." I said honestly.
"Is this another attempt to get under my skin, Sophia?" He asked, unamused.
"Now, why would I do that? I have nothing to gain from that. You know, despite what you may think not everyone does things with an ulterior motive, Thomas." I replied, as he stared at me, unblinking.
"My name is Tom not Thomas." He said, scowling at me.
"Yes, I know that too." I replied, throwing an angelic smile at him.
Madam Noelle let me go to lunch after that.
I walked to the Great Hall, quietly walking towards where the girls sat, before straddling the bench, right next to Bellatrix.
Noting something was wrong as soon as I spotted a scowl on her face.
"What's wrong? You look annoyed." I asked, looking at her, concerned.
Watching as she stabbed the food on her plate, repeatedly.
"Rod's going to the ball with Jenny Smith." Bella grumbled, scowling and stabbing her fork into an innocent piece of roast beef on her plate.
"Oof. Tough break." I said, notice the slighlt tremble on her bottom lip.
"Alright, well, we'll go together. I'll escort you and you escort me." I said, smiling at her.
"I heard Tom is taking Violet Brown to the ball." Cissy commented, innocently.
It took me by surprise to learn he had already asked someone else to the ball, yet got annoyed when he learned someone had asked me.
It bothered me, more than it should, yet I couldn't let anyone know that this bothered me.
Trying to not let anyone see how much this truly bothered me, I nodded attempting to appear uninterested, though inside I felt my heart begin to crack.
"We can go to Hogsmeade later to get our dresses, we all have the last three hours after this are free." Cissy said.
"Good, so we can go after this." Bella said smiling at me.
I nodded, smiling halfheartedly at them, and continued to eat.
We managed to go to the dress shop, on a day that we knew the shops would be practically empty.
We got lucky and ended up finding some nice dresses for each of us.
It took the better half of all the day to find everything, but we did. From the dresses to the accessories, head pieces and shoes.
Dromeda bought a crimson red strapless floor-length dress, with a matching see through cloak. A ruby encrusted medallion and a flowered headband.
Cissy bought a silver and emerald shoulder-less, floor-length dress, matching shoes, a diamond and emerald choker, with a broach.
Bellatrix bought a black, off the shoulder, lace sleeved dress, a pair of chunky black heels, and a choker with a black rose on it.
They were waiting for me to try on the dresses that they decided to pick out for me.
Much to my dismay. They had decided to buy them whether I liked it or not.
The first one was a black knee length one, that had a corset, removable lace sleeves, and a slit that reached the thigh, the skirt having two layers. One layer reached mid-thigh and the second one was made of a transparent sheer lace fabric, off the shoulders.
The second one was a royal blue, was backless, with a scoop neckline and had flowy skirt that reached lower than the knees.
The third one was a deep emerald color, made entirely of lace with a sheer fabric underlay, a sweetheart neckline that was slightly off the shoulders, and fit me like a second skin reaching right above the knee.
"I am not taking all of these. The ball is once a year, we have exactly a year and a half here left. Dromeda you have a few months left. When am I supposed to use all of these dresses?" I asked, as I tried on the dress I picked out.
"Quit being so dramatic, Sophia." Bellatrix said, rolling her eyes at my antics.
"Yeah. Father sent us a letter two days ago, stating that this year we are having two dinner parties. One at the end of the school year, and another at the end of the summer." Andromeda explained.
"Wait, so you're telling me, that the year in which I am supposed to go spend the summer with you three. Your parents decide to have a grand ball-slash-dinner party?" I asked, incredulous.
Were they being serious?
"Yes, and everyone is invited. Well almost everyone." Bellatrix said, bouncing in her seat.
"Everything excites you." I commented dryly as I spun around to get a better look at the dress I picked out and tried on.
A floor length, lace, off the shoulders, metallic gray and silver dress.
"Oh, get that one! It looks amazing on you." Cissy marveled as she stared at me.
"Bella, why do you always pick black?" I asked her, smoothing out a couple of creases that were on the dress.
"Black is casual, elegant and doesn't stick out like a thumb." She said, shrugging her shoulders.
"Right. Well, alright then." I said, lifting my leg to see how the shoes looked with the dress
"Everything you've tried on has either fit you like a glove, or made you look wonderful. Let's go pay for all of this and head back." Andromeda said, making a circular move with her hand before her.
"We're paying, don't worry yourself about it. We all got more than one dress, take it as a gift from the Blacks to you." Narcissa said, winking at me.
"Very well, but I have at least make it up to you. In some way." I said, as they paid for everything and we all grabbed our bags and exited the small dress shop.
As we walked back to school, laughing and joking around as we slowly walked the small trail that lead back to school