Chapter Ten
Conversations
"Aye, here he comes," said an anxious David Wilkins.
"Well?" Adam Wilson exclaimed. "Scoot down so he can have a place to sit!"
"And where the hell do you expect me to sit?" Wilkins retorted with a heavy brogue and a slight lisp.
"He said, scoot down," Radcliffe intervened, "not change seats. Now, get a flamin' move on, he's coming."
After a few harsh execrations, Daniel managed to make three other people, who were seated next to him, move down.
The boys at the Gryffindor table were in a bit of a strop during lunch as they attempted to get the 'new kid' to come and sit with them. Nicolas' little row with Stephen French earlier in Potions had earned him the respect of the Gryffindor boys. Surely anyone who could make French look like a brainless tosser in front of the entire Slytherin/Gryffindor seventh years was worthy enough to sit with them. The incident, though insignificant, had spread quickly throughout the school. The professors had also heard an offshoot version of what happened.
Nicolas walked into a rather boisterous Great Hall during lunch. He was slightly late due to his quick stop at the library. The students turned to look at him as he passed. The girls would giggle and whisper amongst themselves if he happened to look their way. Nicolas figured the incident between him and French might have had something to do with the staring and the whispering, despite the fact that he was also the new student. The abrupt halt in conversation as he walked into the Great Hall was nothing new to him. It was hard to believe that the large crowd could be so easily entertained by such a minor occurrence. He noticed a familiar face from the middle of the Gryffindor table trying desperately to wave him down. He remembered the Gryffindor as Adam Wilson.
"Okay, he saw us," said Wilkins. "I'm sure he'll come and sit with us." The look of glee on the boys' face changed quickly to disappointment when Thierry did not make it all the way down to their side of the table. Nicolas had instead stopped at the center of the hall, just behind-
"Mae!" Adam exclaimed. "What the hell could he want with her?"
"Shut up, you wanker, or he'll hear you!" his best friend, Daniel scolded.
"Well, what's he doing? Didn't he see us waving him down?"
"Probably not; get up and do it again!"
Nicolas stood silently behind Ehlaana Mae and watched her prick the purple lettuces off her salad and into her bowl of soup. He found it strangely amusing, if not odd. The noise in the hall changed into murmurs almost as soon as he had stopped behind her seat. Every student at their table noticed them; everyone, that is, except for Ehlaana.
Nicolas startled Ehlaana when he tapped her lightly on the shoulders. She turned slightly, saw his face, and turned back to her plate. She was sure the foreign student had mistaken her for someone else. She ignored him and resumed poking at her lettuces, only with slightly more force than before.
"Miss Mae," Nicolas whispered when she ignored his presence.
Ehlaana looked up again only glimpsing at him quickly while she looked around for someone to call out to him and explain that he had made a mistake and was talking to the wrong person. But the fact that he whispered "Miss Mae" and not someone else registered quickly in her head.
"Can I sit next to you?" Nicolas asked after a long moment of silence. He pointed to both empty seats next to her as he waited for a reply. He decided to take a seat anyways when he figured that she was not going to respond.
Ehlaana looked utterly dumfounded. She was unsure of his reasons for coming up to her, let alone wanting to sit next to her. She stared at him in disbelief-her dropped jaw being a proof of that.
"What are you eating?" he asked coolly.
Ehlaana remained silent.
Nicolas took her bowl of soup and picked out the leaves of purple lettuce that were floating in it and placed them on another plate. "I see you don't like lettuce. You shouldn't waste your soup, though. Here!" He pushed her plate of salad aside and placed the bowl of soup in front of her with a spoon in her hand.
Ehlaana couldn't decide what was more unbelievable: the foreign student practically feeding her her soup or the looks of disbelief on her classmates' faces when he placed it in front of her. If she could have counted the number of jaws that dropped on the table at that moment, it would have probably made her a damn happy woman. For the moment, nothing but hot air escaped Ehlaana's mouth, which was so far apart, one could run a train through it. She stared wide-eyed and open-mouthed at Nicolas whilst he spoke about soups. She was too busy contemplating on his reasons for talking to her to pay heed to anything he was saying.
"You know, I make great Bouillon," said Nicolas softly as he reached for another bowl of soup. "If you are uncomfortable with my sitting here with you, I will change seats." Nicolas could have gone on talking to himself but he felt slightly inclined to make sure that Ehlaana did not oppose to his sitting next to her; it would have been rather embarrassing if she did.
"A-ah--"
"I wanted to know you a little better. I thought I would sit with you if you didn't mind. It's a good thing these seats were empty today."
"They're empty everyday." Ehlaana made her first contribution to the conversation without much enthusiasm.
"I'm sorry?"
"The seats," said Ehlaana timidly. "They're always empty."
"Well, with your permission, I would like to make them unempty from now on," he said civilly with a mischievous smile. This elicited the first smile Nicolas had seen on his new friend's face.
"What do you want?" she inquired. The question slipped out sometime between when she averted her eyes from his deep, grey ones to when she resumed staring holes into her meal.
Nicolas did not respond, hoping she would turn to look at him, but to his displeasure, she seemed to find more interest on the designs of her soup bowl than in him.
"I want to be your friend," he replied decorously. He heard a sort of grunt from her that he figured should have been a laugh. "Is that too absurd?"
"I think that that would be an understatement."
"Well, I don't. We could sit together during meals and as often as we can during class. I can help you with Potions and you can tell me more about your school and even show me around."
"I don't mind showing you around, but you don't have to sit with me anywhere in return. Besides, I think the Quidditch team wants you to come and sit with them." Nicolas and Ehlaana both glanced down at the head of the table to see the entire Gryffindor Quidditch team staring at them in disbelief.
"Are you worried that people will talk about you?"
"Worried? I've been here for six years. There's nothing they can say now that they haven't said in the previous years. They've all run out of nasty comments to torment me. Well, all except Snape," she said fearfully. "I always hoped every year that he would run out of harsh criticisms to throw in my face, but every year they just get worse and worse. Sometimes I wonder if he secretly spends all his time in his quarters coming up with spiteful remarks just to make my life miserable."
Ehlaana's comment caused Nicolas to laugh hysterically. "You are probably the oddest if not the most paranoid person I have ever had the pleasure of meeting."
"I'm not paranoid. Ask anyone here; just mention Snape's name and it will immediately draw their attention or elicit a shudder. The man's horrible."
"He seems singular enough, but if you want I could protect you from him."
"What do you mean?" Ehlaana asked. She looked frightened but Nicolas noticed a bit of hope in her voice.
"Well, I could hex him right now if you'd like me to," he said with mock solemnity. Ehlaana rolled her eyes immediately whilst she turned her head to smile. "Look," Nicolas said softly, "our Potions Mistress has given us permission to use her dungeons tonight. I'll help you then in both Potions and Defense against the Dark Arts. What do you say?"
Ehlaana took a moment to stare at the foreign student and try to figure out if he had any other hidden motives for befriending her. All she could make from his face was that it was a beautiful one. His smile was very distracting and his eyes were too deep to look at too long. She was afraid he'd be able to read her thoughts if she were to stare into his eyes. Ehlaana quickly dismissed the absurd thoughts forming in her head and agreed to their meeting in the Potions dungeons that night.
"All right."
"Great. Now let's eat our soup before we're due back in class. I seem to have missed nearly half of lunch," Nicolas stated as he tasted a bit of his cold soup.
"Where did you go?"
"Hmm? Oh, nowhere. I just made a quick stop at the library." Ehlaana left it at that and resumed eating the bowl of soup Nicolas had placed before her. She felt her face flush when she felt the numerous pairs of eyes staring at her from all around. She wasn't used to this kind of attention. She didn't like it either and found it very uncomfortable. She started to feel anxious and very nervous until Nicolas glanced at her from the side and smiled. It was very reassuring and she found more comfort in his smile than in anything else that she had. She had a feeling that things were finally going to look up for her. Even the thought of Snape did not scare her so much.
_________
"What are you smiling about?" Remus asked Hermione as they walked back to their classes after lunch. Remus took her hand and detained it in his large ones. The smile on her face touched the inner regions of his heart. He couldn't remember the last time he saw a genuine smile on her face. This caused him to kiss her arm as they walked. Hermione blushed slightly before yanking her hand from his.
"Oh, stop it, Remus!" Remus only smiled as he attempted to clutch her hand in his again which only caused Hermione to smile more. He did not care that the students walking by were watching them, but the fact that he was acting like a love-sick puppy did not scare the students as much as the sight of their Potions Mistress smiling.
"So, tell me! What's with you? You've been smiling since you left the Great Hall."
"Is it a crime for me to smile, Remus?" Hermione inquired matter-of-factly.
"Only, my dear woman, if you don't tell me the reason."
"Well, for all your prying, it's really nothing. I'm just really happy for Ehlaana, that's all."
"Miss Mae? Why?"
"Why? Didn't you see her and Mr. Thierry talking during lunch? He sat with her and made her laugh. He even volunteered to help her out tonight with a few Potions lessons. I think he fancies her." Remus laughed and expressed amusement at what he realized had managed to put a smile on Hermione's face.
"Is that what's got you smiling the sun into a fervor?"
"I had always hoped things would turn up for her. She's such a sweet girl, Remus. She deserves all the friends she could get."
"It's a pity she doesn't have much."
"Well, she has one now, and frankly, I would rather have one friend like Mr. Thierry then a hundred friends like--
"-Who?" Remus inquired hastily.
"-Like you," she mocked. Remus stopped her when they arrived at the meeting point. He put on the most serious look he could mask and made sure that he got her full attention.
"You're lucky if you ever found a friend like me," he said with mock arrogance.
The smile on Hermione's face quickly disappeared as it was replaced by the harsh lines that usually bracketed her mouth. "I'm very grateful for you, Remus," she said seriously. "I know I've been really awful to you and to everyone else, but I was going through some things at the time and, well - you know I appreciate you, don't you?"
"Hey, you're starting to look solemn again. Where's that smile I saw just a moment ago?"
"Remus, I'm trying to apologize for being so horrible to you."
"Well, there's no need to. I know what you were going through," he whispered. "Now, let me see that smile that I might have imagined." Hermione's face hardened. She wondered if she heard correctly. Did Remus just say that he knew what she was going through? She was unsure of what he meant by that exactly.
"What do you mean, you knew--"
"You need to get back to class. I'll talk to you later." Remus kissed Hermione gently on the hand and smiled mischievously before heading the opposite way.
He could only imagine the look on her face as she watched him walk away.
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A/N: Thank you, Sarah, from the bottom of my heart for beta-reading my nasty work. I really appreciate your help and advice. Thank you, also to everyone following this fic; it gives me such a boost to see your comments and critiques :P They shape and inspire me to write, despite my dawdling and slow updates!
