Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of it's characters, they all belong to J. K. Rowling and I wouldn't have it any other way.
I woke up the next morning feeling more refreshed than I had in awhile, which of course was unusual for me. I opened up the curtains around my bed, only to realize that, as usual, it was still early in the morning. I decided to get up and get ready, getting dressed in the clothes I had set aside the night before. I then made my way into the bathroom, turned on my curling iron, and proceeded to do my hair. I hadn't realized that I had a bruised handprint on the back of my neck until I attempted to put my hair up in a ponytail. I decided to leave my hair down, but pull my bangs and front hair back into a small ponytail that sat on top of the hair I had left down. I then curled the hair that I had left down.
I left the bathroom feeling ready for my day, and I grabbed my book bag, making sure I had all of the books and parchment that I needed for the day. I made my way down to the common room and I sat in my favorite armchair next to the fireplace. I took out my pieces of parchment that contained my homework that was due for the day, double-checking my work, and then I took out my journal. I began to write about everything that was going on, and how I felt about it all. I was starting to feel loved again. I wrote about Rose, and tried to think about ways to help her not become like me. I knew I needed to help her, she was too good to let go.
It was a nice feeling, but then I started to think about my brother and Scorpius. It all confused me too much and made me start to feel claustrophobic. I heard my breathing start to quicken, and I closed my eyes, curling up and attempting to slow my breathing down. Then I felt a pair of arms wrap around me, they slowly pulled my knees down and moved me closer. I then felt a hand soothingly moving up and down my back, smoothly and slowly.
"You're okay Isabella," I heard them say softly.
I nodded, holding tightly onto them, trying to place whose voice it was.
"C'mon, open your eyes, you're okay," they said, "Harry can't hurt you here."
I realized just before I opened my eyes that it was James, and I blushed a bit as I realized I had been hugging him for awhile. I let go of him, drawing back into the chair.
"Thank you, James," I said softly, closing my journal and setting it on my book bag.
"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked, sitting cross legged in front of the chair, facing me, holding onto my hand.
"I don't know," I let out a soft whisper, looking away from him.
"Hey, Iz, look at me," James squeezed my hand softly, waiting to speak until I looked at him, "It's okay to not be okay."
"What happened to the friend you were talking about the other day?" I asked, looking at him curiously.
"Liam? Well um…." James began, "He was going through some different things than you, but they ended in the same result with him blaming himself and hurting himself."
"And then?"
"You don't need to hear the and then," he stated firmly.
"Please… James I need to know…. What happened?"
"He stopped showing up, he disappeared off the face of the planet, right before the start of the year."
"What happened to him?" I asked a look of shock appearing on my face.
"Turns out everything he was going through became too much…. He didn't want to try anymore," James whispered, tears welling into his eyes as he looked at me, "I don't want you to disappear on us Isabella, not on Rose, not on Al, not on… me."
I didn't realize I was crying until I felt the tears roll down my cheeks. I squeezed his hand tightly, shaking my head at him, and whispered, "I won't."
We stayed like that for awhile. Just looking at each other, making a silent promise to look after each other. James decided to break the silence after a couple minutes, "Will you show me?"
"Show you?" I trailed off, realizing he was looking at my wrist. I took a deep breath and rolled up my sleeve slowly, "Just don't get mad okay?"
"I could never be mad at you," he replied, looking at them as he took my left hand into his. I watched as his expression turned from one of pain to sorrow to compassion. He reached down and kissed the scars softly, barely brushing his lips against them.
I felt myself begin to blush again, but luckily it wasn't very brightly, "I need to go see if Rose is awake, thank you for taking care of me. All of you, not just you… I mean…" I took my hand back and slid my sleeve down as I grabbed my bag, and hopped off the chair over him, "Um, yeah, nevermind… See you at breakfast?"
I backed up, tripping on a couple of things as I made my way to the stairway. I saw James smirk a bit, before I turned and ran up the stairs to our dormitory. I made my way through the door, I nearly ran into Rose, who was just getting up to get ready.
"Whoa, slow down there," Rose insisted, as she nudged me to the side a bit so we wouldn't run into each other, "What's got you all flustered?"
"Nothing, I'm fine," I told her unconvincingly, walking over to sit on her bed while I waited for her to finish getting ready.
"Mmhmm, yeah okay. How are you ready to go already?" She asked shocked
"I couldn't sleep," I replied with a shrug, "I took my time getting ready and journaling."
"Is that why you're fine?"
"Yes, that's why I'm fine," I chuckled, realizing how she had emphasized fine.
I sat there while she got ready, and then we walked down to breakfast together. We got there faster than we had the previous day. I wasn't feeling as sore as I had after Victoire had first healed me, but I was still a bit sore. As we walked I kept my eye out for Harry, but there was no sign of him before we got to breakfast, or even when we got to breakfast. I noticed James, and he grinned at me, waving Rose and I over to where he was sitting at the table.
"And how are you two young ladies doing this fine morning?" he asked, reaching for a couple of pancakes, giving himself a stack.
"Starving," Rose groaned out, grabbing whatever was closest to her and setting it on her plate.
"I'm alright," I said, grabbing a few eggs and a bagel, and eating them slowly.
I turned as the doors to the Great Hall flew open, and noticed Al running towards us as fast as he could. He skidded to a halt in front of me as he took the place next to James, ducking his head down before he could meet eyes with any unhappy professors. He grinned over at us triumphantly as he began to stuff his face.
"You have an appetite like my dad, I have no clue where either of you keep it all," Rose laughed.
"I think we all know where Uncle Ron keeps it now," James chuckled along, reminding everyone of the belly that had appeared over the years.
"I guess we all know who better watch out then in the future, don't we?" I added, smirking at Al.
"Knock it off you lot," Al said punching James in the arm.
As James and Al proceeded to get caught up in a small shoving match, I watched the owls fly in with the days mail. The family owls for the Potter and Weasley families each dropped off letters and one stopped by with the Daily Prophet, nipping at Albus's finger until he put a few knuts in the pouch on its ankle.
"Fine, fine here you little git," Albus said frustratedly, placing the coins in the pouch. He then passed a letter to James, who began to open it while finishing a large bite of waffles.
"Well Iz, if it helps, mum is excited to see you during the holidays. She wants to help you practice for the house team tryouts. Oh and she wishes us all luck on our exams," he said, reading the rest of the letter rather silently.
"And my mum said you're welcome at the house anytime," Rose stated, "And that while you're there you'll be treated as one of the family, just like we talked about over break."
"Thanks for the invite, although I highly doubt I can stay with you or at the Burrow all of break," I sighed out, "My parents will want to see me at some point."
"Well we could all visit you," Al said, "Even if we can't stay over."
"Or even better, I could stay with you until you can go to my house!" Rose exclaimed, "It would fix everything!"
"I'll go ahead and write to my mum tonight, then you can see some more aspects of Muggle life as well," I said smiling at her.
"Someone taking after Grandad?" James teased, causing Rose to look hurt.
"No James, she just wants to get perfect marks in all of her classes and having information on Muggles before taking Muggle Studies can be extremely helpful," I said trying to cover for her, mouthing a sorry in her direction.
"I was only kidding Iz, but I see your point," he said, masking any hurt that may have crossed his face.
"Thanks," Rose giggled out, quietly.
"I'm so excited that this school year is going to be over soon," I said, with a light laugh, "I could use a break, even if it means less safety."
"What I don't understand is that I still have lower marks than you in our classes and you've been going through so much," Albus groaned.
"Don't worry little bro," James said, nudging him playfully, "We can start a study group, and Rose and Iz will help you while I struggle all on my own."
"Well a study group sounds like a good idea to me, and we can still help you study," I stated to James.
"I also believe after we study I need a rematch, because I have never had someone beat me a Wizard's Chess quite like that," James said glaring playfully at me, "For Merlin's sake I practice every break against Uncle Ron, and no one else can beat me as regularly as he does."
"Well I will try my best to make you lose both at school and home then," I replied, laughing.
"We better get start making our way down to the dungeons, that way we don't have to run to class like we did yesterday," Rose said, getting up from her place.
"I wholeheartedly agree," I said, getting up and nodding to the boys, "See you in the common room James, and Al try not to eat yourself into a food coma."
"Don't worry I'll stop him before he gets that far," James replied laughing, beginning to slide Al's plate away from him.
Rose and I began our walk, taking our time and talking to each other about break, and about the things we were looking forward to.
"We can go visit the bookstore when you come to visit me! It'll be so much fun, and I can show you more movies and maybe even a tv show or two!" I began, excitedly, "It'll be so much fun and we wouldn't have to worry about my brother as much cause you'd be there, and my parents would be there. They wouldn't leave if other kids were coming over, and we would just have an all around blast."
"Well you have to write them first and get my family to agree to not having me at home for the first time ever outside of spending time at a different family member's house."
"We can just stress to your mom how important it is to get you some time away from the family and the spotlight, I know she'll agree."
As we got closer to the dungeons I tried to keep a look out for my brother or Scor, but I didn't see either of them which made me relax. I was more prepared for classes than I had been in awhile, and by the sounds of it my brother was going to be in detention until he pulled his grades up. That would keep him busy for a little while if his grades were how they had been when we were in primary school.
I opened the door for Rose, and realized that we had taken a fair amount of time to get there, with most of the seats being full, with us choosing to sit near the back corner, reserving a seat for Albus. Just as Professor Slughorn was getting ready to close the door we could hear the pounding of feet running down the hall, noticing Albus slide in at the last possible second. I waved him over, giving him a smirk as he hurried over to take his seat next to me.
"Cutting it a little close aren't we?" I whispered to him.
"Shut it," He whispered, smirking back.
We reviewed over cures for common potions, since we were getting closer to our exams. Rose and I took ample notes, taking the time to acknowledge that we would compare later, while Al just tried to keep up with the lecture. I took note that over break I would have to teach him about shorthand, and some better note taking procedures, that might help him do better in his studies.
After our classes, we made our way to the common room, and it felt like a different type of day all together. I hadn't seen my brother all day, which was weird. I don't want to say I was worried, because why would I worry about someone who hurt me every time I saw him, but I mean, he is my brother so I was curious about what was going on at least. As we finished climbing the stairs I noticed a figure standing by the fat lady, which wasn't unusual, aside from the fact that they had green on their robes.
"Scor?" I asked, watching the figure turn around, "What are you doing up here?"
"I need to talk to you," he said, looking at me with saddened eyes.
"Where's Harry," Rose asked, Al getting closer to me.
"That's the thing, he's fine, but he didn't tell me where he was going. I saw him heading down to the east wing though which is either Transfiguration or Herbology."
"What does that have to do with anything other than classes or detention or what not?" Albus growled out.
"I don't fully know, but I told you to watch out, and now he's out to get back at you somehow," Scorpius shrugged.
"You said the East Wing right?" Rose said thinking for a moment.
I looked at her confused and then it hit me. I let out a soft whisper, "McGonagall and Longbottom."
Rose and I shared the same look.
"Thanks for coming to tell me Scor," I said, reaching out and hugging him in gratitude, realizing only after what I was doing, "Sorry."
"It's okay," he shrugged, even though he looked slightly uncomfortable.
"Wanna fill me in?" Al asked looking worried.
"Well if it's what I think it is he's talking to McGonagall or Longbottom and trying to get me, or you guys, or someone in trouble," I said, looking away, "But we'll just have to wait until something happens until we know for sure."
"Well, whatever happens we'll back you up," Rose said, giving me a hug.
"Thanks, and thanks Scor for coming to warn me," I said, looking at him gratefully, "And sorry about that homework heads up."
"It's alright," He chuckled, "And by the way Rose, I was doing all my own work, I actually have copies saved of the homework Isabella did for me. Most of it anyway. There were days I had to use hers instead of mine. You know how Harry is," Scorpius said, heading for the stairs, "I'll try to keep him busy, or at least get him to tell me what he's doing fully. You guys take care of her."
He walked off, leaving us in front of the Fat Lady.
"See Rose, there's always another side to things," I said quietly, smirking a bit at her shocked face from his confession, "Hungry Horntail."
We walked behind the painting, and into the Gryffindor common room, I made my way over to the corner near the fir where I felt we could study efficiently enough.
"I'm hungry," Al said as we sat down, trying to distract from what had just happened.
"Really Al?!" Rose replied, raising her voice, "All you can think about at this time is your stomach? You ate loads at lunch."
"Sit down Rose," I said softly, "It's gonna be okay, why don't we talk through it. Al, why don't you go to the kitchens and see if you can find us some study snacks, you know some of the house elves, right?"
He looked at me as if I were crazy, and I just gave him a look that said "leave us alone for a few."
"Sure, Iz," Al said, giving in, and heading down towards the kitchens.
"Rose, talk to me," I said, sitting on the floor in front of her so I could look at her while we talked.
"I don't know, I just have that guilty feeling again," she said, quietly.
"What do you have to feel guilty about?"
"My life, my family are all so good, but then you, you're having to deal with a git of a brother and you've had so much happen." she started, "Here I am feeling upset about how I can't just be normal and having you take care of me. I'm judging people without really knowing them, and I don't feel like myself. I just want to be normal and you to be okay, but there's nothing that I can do to fix it… So… I'm feeling guilty."
Tears started to appear in her eyes as she finally made eye contact with me. I looked at her, and hugged her tightly to me.
"It's going to be okay Rose," I said, firmly, "Everything is going to be alright, and I'm going to be sure you are treated like a normal kid, no matter how many times I have to drag you to the Muggle village."
"Thanks," she said, laughing a bit, "I do want to be normal."
"Then normal you shall be."
A/N: Well I'm writing again, and if you are reading this, then thanks for waiting for this chapter. I hope you all enjoy it and please review and enjoy. I should have the next chapter up soon. I'm finally getting enough time to get back into the swing of things. Thanks for reading! ~ Pipes