After breakfast, which Jayla had spent trying to dodge Juana's questions, Jayla made her way down to the dungeon for her detention with Snape. She hesitantly knocked on the dark wooden door leading into the Potions classroom.
"Come in," an all too familiar voice answered on the other side.
"Mrs. Rosier, what an honour," Professor Snape said sarcastically as Jayla was pushing herself through the door.
"Good morning, Professor Snape," she mumbled. Unlike other students, Jayla had never had any issues with Snape. She was a Slytherin after all and quite good in Potions. Sometimes, he had even interfered when she had been bullied by some of her classmates. Not directly, but he always made sure they'd be focusing on their cauldrons instead if it happened in class. But the look he gave her now was of pure distain, which made her feel even more uneasy.
Without saying another word, he led her to one of the storage rooms connected to the classroom.
"As you apparently have a lot of spare time at hand despite your exams coming up, I assume giving this a thorough clean fits in your schedule just fine," Snape said.
He turned around, his cloak billowing behind him and sat down on his desk again, where he could have an eye on Jayla. The girl took a wet towel and started dedusting the shelves, careful not to break any of the glass containers with potions ingredients inside.
"I honestly expected more from you than getting tricked into being the new toy of those Gryffindor pranksters," Snape exclaimed casually.
Unable to contain her anger at this simple sentence, Jayla slammed to towel on the floor.
"They're my friends!" she screamed.
Within seconds Snape had stormed over to her, towering threateningly above her.
"You would do well to heed my warning to not trust any Gryffindor. Ever. There's no one more traitorous than them," he said through gritted teeth.
Jayla was taken aback by this. She knew he hated Gryffindor house, but what she saw in his face right now was pure spite and loathing. The girl was opening and closing her mouth like a fish gasping for air, trying to find words to object. But the way Snape had said it had made it sound like a final, unassailable fact he had found in one of his Potions books.
"Now go back to your chores unless you want to sit here all weekend," he added before turning his back to her once more.
The rest of the detention passed in silence, Snape's words replaying in Jayla's head in a loop. What if he was right? Fred and George always seemed to be looking for new challenges, so what if trying to get a Slytherin on their side was just their newest one? Maybe Harry Potter even set them up in order to get information on his enemies?
As much as Jayla hated herself for even thinking like that, she just couldn't ban those thoughts from her head. She constantly had to fight against her tears, the occasional one running down her face every once in a while. Thinking back to her time with the boys made it seem impossible that it had been just a game for them. Especially yesterday.
As soon as Jayla was done cleaning and got Snape's okay to leave, she rushed up the stairs and out the main door. She definitely needed some fresh air to clear her mind.
Tears were again obstructing her view and Jayla tried to keep her head down so no one would see her like that…and promptly ran into a tall figure standing at the bottom of the stairs leading outside.
"Woah, careful." Strong hands gently grabbed her shoulders, pushing her slightly back, so she would regain her balance. Jayla knew it was George before even looking up. She slowly raised her head and saw that Fred and Juana were standing next to him. The three of them had apparently waited for her to come out of detention.
"Thank you," was all Jayla could muster before she couldn't contain her emotions anymore and broke down in tears.
The last few days had been such a rollercoaster of emotions. Stressing about the exams, the little sleep she had had in the last few weeks, then the amazing time with Fred and George, Snape's comments during detention she had started to believe and now the gratitude and guilt she felt seeing her friends, she had just doubted earlier, waiting for her.
"Hey, it's okay," George said, immediately taken her into his arms without even asking what was wrong. As her sobs grew stronger he wrapped both his arms around her back, pulling her in even tighter. Jayla's whole body was shaking now, her breaths only coming out in sobs. George leaned down to her slightly.
"Just try to focus on my hand on breath with me," he whispered, before he started to draw intricate patterns on her back, his fingers leaving traces of warmth and goosebumps on her skin.
With her face still pressed against his chest, Jayla forced herself to focus on his hand on her back, his smell she was taking in and his strong arms wrapped around her. With his head still next to hers, she could feel his calm breath on the side of her neck. Each breath she took with him calming her down a little. Jayla had never felt this safe before as she did now, wrapped in George's arms.
She didn't know how much time had passed until she had managed to calm down, George never once loosening his grip around her. Jayla opened her eyes, slightly wriggling in George's arms, which was apparently the sign he had waited for because he let his arms slip down her arms now, letting his hands rest on her wrists for a moment.
"Better," he asked, looking straight into Jayla's eyes.
"Better," Jayla replied with a raspy voice.
With one more reassuring smile, he released her. As Jayla turned around, she realised Juana and Fred were still there, standing with the back to them, giving Jayla her privacy while at the same time shielding them from the views of other coming down the stairs. They were in the middle of a conversation, which they just casually finished after they had turned back around, which Jayla was really grateful for. She could not have dealt with anyone making a big fuss about what had just happened.
"Okay, now that your strong arms aren't needed anymore," Juana addressed George, "I'd say it's not high time for girls talk." She grabbed Jayla's arm and led her away from the castle towards the lake. "See you at dinner, then," Fred and George shouted after them.
Jayla felt like she needed to say something, to explain what had just happened, but she had no idea herself, so she just let herself be dragged to a fallen tree near the lake.
"I love to sit here and watch the water," Juana explained while sitting down on the trunk. Jayla sat down on the grass instead, leaning her back against the tree. Her whole body was tired from her breakdown and she just needed to relax for a bit.
"Sorry about that," Jayla sighed heavily.
"Hm?" Juana had just been watching some other students nearby and hadn't been focused.
"I usually don't let my emotions show because I'm scared I can't control them once I let them out, and apparently I've just proven that that's definitely the case," Jayla explained, looking down at the floor with, ashamed.
"Oh, that. Nah, don't worry about it at all. I've had like three mental breakdowns last week, just trying to finish my Potions homework," the Hufflepuff assured her.
Jayla smiled. "I can help you with Potions if you ever need anything. I'm actually quite good at it."
Juana's face lit up. "That would be amazing! But if you're a Slytherin and good at Potions, why was Snape such a git to you during detention then?"
"Oh, he wasn't actually. He just made me clean the storage room. Could have been worse," Jayla shrugged.
"Oh, I thought that's why you cried earlier," Juana pried carefully.
"He just said something that made me overthink a lot," the Slytherin replied.
"What was it?" Juana continued asking, but then remembered that pushing Jayla to an answer wasn't really the way to go about it. "I mean, you don't have to tell me if you…"
"He said I'm just a toy for them," Jayla interjected before even thinking about it. She continued: "He told me that I'm just one of their new ways to pass the time here and that they'll basically just throw me away once they've lost interest again."
"Are you talking about Fred and George here?" Juana asked, incredulously and let herself slip down the trunk into the grass next to Jayla. "Because, are you kidding me? Have you seen the look on George's face when he saw you cry? He went from his usual goofy smile to worry written all over his face within a fraction of a second. And you want to convince yourself that they don't care about you? I don't know how your friendship came to be, but let me tell you, it just works! I've never seen the boys that close to anyone on so many levels, not even Lee."
Jayla smiled. Hearing this from someone she trusted made it all seem so much more real. Without saying anything, Jayla just pulled Juana into a long hug.
"Thank you so much. Sometimes I'm just stupid," she whispered while letting go of her friend again.
"That's what friends are here for." A smirk appeared on Juana face. "Alsooooo…the way George held you was just the cutest! I didn't even know he was so…" Juana bit her lip, searching for the right word. "Cuddly?"
Jayla had meant to object at first, telling her again that they were most definitely just friends, but couldn't help but break into laughter, which Juana immediately joined. 'Cuddly' was definitely not a word she thought she'd ever hear someone use to describe George Weasley. But she also couldn't deny that she loved seeing this side of him today.