Chapter 5

As Halloween got closer and closer, I seemed to see less of Dahlia. Normally, seeing less of Dahlia's jolliness would have me on cloud-nine. But, now that it was happening it felt unnatural.

Dahlia was always the type to talk to me as much as she can. When we were kids, I often wondered if she had friends because she'd never really go anywhere and do anything without me. Since I stayed home all the time reading, she'd stay at home too watching cartoons or playing with her dolls. Outside of school, we were just always together. I mean I told her time and time again to leave me alone and go play with her friends, but she ignored it every time. She'd even spend a lot of time with me whenever she was home from Hogwarts. Whenever we had to go to our grandparent's she'd always sit next to me, and chat with me instead of talking to the other adults (at least until Grandmother started scolding her for it).

So, knowing how Dahlia was, it was weird to be seeing less of her. I understood that she was studying and busy with Head Girl duties, but not seeing her or talking to her in a span of three weeks was concerning. After one week, I was relieved to not be annoyed by her constant "checking up" on me. Two weeks go by, and I began to wonder where exactly she went all the time. I saw both Slytherin prefects and the Head Boy, Terminus Flint, sitting at Slytherin table all the time. But Dahlia was nowhere to be seen.

"Clover!" I suddenly heard, realizing that I had been spaced out staring at Slytherin table. I looked at Lily who was looking at me suspiciously.

"What?" I asked.

"Why were you staring at Slytherin's table? Do you like someone over there or something?"

"Of course not! Why would I be interested in anyone over there?"

"Well what's going on then? Every morning when we come to eat, you say less than usual and stare at the Slytherins. According to Severus, some of them have noticed and haven't been taking to kindly to it," Lily said. I looked at Severus who was silent during the entire conversation.

"It's true. Bellatrix said she would have hexed you if it wasn't for Dahlia," Severus spoke up as he stuffed his face.

"Is Dahlia okay?" I asked, trying to hide my interest.

"Of course she is, why wouldn't she be?" Severus asked.

"It's nothing, don't worry about it," I quickly said.

"Wait! Is that what you're worried about? Dahlia?" Lily interjected with wide eyes.

'Of course she'd pick up on that… Dismissing!'

"No, I'm not worried about anything, and I don't see why asking a simple question would make you think that I'm worried about Dahlia of all people. She's basically an adult, she can take care of herself."

Lily and Severus shared a knowing look.

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks," They said in sync, almost as if they practiced it.

"Hmph. Hamlet references, how original." I replied dryly, before stuffing my mouth full of scrambled eggs.

"You're not going to get out of this conversation with sarcasm, Clover," Lily insisted causing me to roll my eyes at her.

"You can talk to us, it's sort of our jobs as friends," Severus quietly added. They both stared at me expectantly, waiting for me to speak.

'How troublesome…'

"Well… I haven't really seen or talked to Dahlia in a good three weeks now. We just never went this long without talking so I'm just wondering if she's sick or something. I don't care too much about it, just even when she was here and I was at home, we never went more than a couple days without talking. She'd owl me all the time, and I sometimes sent a letter back. So, it's just strange okay? I'm honestly not stressed about it," I mumbled, looking away from the two.

"Sev, did you see Dahlia at all this morning?" Lily asked turning to Severus.

"Um I don't think I usually see her morning," Severus paused, eyes suddenly widening, "Well, at least until now. She's coming in, and is quite late."

I looked up and saw Dahlia, her appearance concerned me. Now understand that ever since she turned 14, she had a very pneumatic figure and certain standards for how she carried herself. She cared about how she looked, she kept her hair in a long side ponytail and never left her room without make up on. When I saw her rush into the Great Hall with her hair undone and bags under her eyes, I knew something was going on. Next, I noticed that she had lost some weight. Not enough to look unhealthy or like she had been starving herself, but it seemed as if she had shrunk a size.

I had started to walk over to her before Lily said something. I turned around, and she pointed at the clock.

"We have Transfiguration in five minutes, we should probably be going to that. You can talk to her during lunch. If she doesn't come here, Severus would probably be able to ask around and find her. Right, Severus?" Lily said.

He nodded, getting up himself. I looked at Dahlia, and back to Lily.

"I hate it when you're right, let's just go," I said. Lily and I waved goodbye to Severus, then quickly walking to class, not wanting to experience Professor McGonagall's disappointment.

I typically enjoy Professor McGonagall's class, in fact, Transfiguration was honestly my favorite subject. It had set rules, limitations, and exact factors that must be taken into account. That was one the things I loved most about it. Professor McGonagall was a very respectable woman who was a strict but fair teacher. Normally her lessons had me as close to excitement as I could get, but I couldn't stop thinking of Dahlia.

She typically had this light in her eyes that couldn't help but calm whoever she was talking to. She was always kind and had this capacity for empathy and emotion that I could never comprehend. But the version I saw of her that morning haunted me. The hollow lifeless look in her green eyes, frizzy ponytail, the blue smudges of bags under her eyes, and the lack of tie around her neck was something I wasn't used to seeing. She always did her best to look her best, whether that meant lots of "beauty sleep," and "healthy eating," or a slight change of appearance to hide a pimple. So seeing her looking so sickly and messy was weird. It honestly made me think:

'Is she always like this and just regularly transforms to make herself look more ideal, or is there something seriously wrong with her?'

And that is a question that stayed replaying in my mind all through the rest of class. I was lucky to not have been called on but I guess always having a cold expression made it much easier to not be noticed thinking of other things.

After class, I rushed off to the places I thought Dahlia could be. I ran through the library, Great Hall, the girl's lavatories, and the Middle Courtyard looking for her. Then, I started down towards the Slytherin Common Room. As I headed that direction I ran into Severus who was walking with Dahlia. Dahlia looked slightly surprised to see me and looked at Severus in confusion.

"I found her in the Common Room," Severus said awkwardly before quickly continuing, "I have to go meet Lily at the Study Area by Classroom 4F, you should come meet us later." He then rushed off, leaving Dahlia and I by ourselves.

"Well, it's been a while hasn't it? Do you want to go get a bite at the kitchens or something?" she asked.

"We need to talk, privately." I frostily relied. She blinked, apparently not expecting that reply. She gave a warm smile.

"Alright, here I'll take you to somewhere super special to me, you'll love it," she affectionately said. She led me to the fifth floor to one of many parts of the castle that I had never gone to before. We happened upon a bathroom door that seemed a bit fancier than the rest of the bathrooms in the castle.

"This is the bathroom, since you wanted to talk privately and I knew no one is going to be up here unless they're a Prefect or Terminus, so yeah. What's going on CloClo?" she asked sitting by the door, patting the floor inviting me to sit with her. I stayed standing and but leaned on the wall next to her.

"So, why are you doing this?" I asked.

"Doing what?"

"You're using your abilities right now. The metamorphic ones."

She said nothing.

"I saw you this morning when you came into the Great Hall. I don't know if you came in late because you thought I wouldn't see you or anything. But I did, I stayed late. And I saw you, maybe you just didn't get a chance to morph this morning. But you looked sick."

She stayed silent, so I continued.

"So what's going on, Dahlia?" I asked, kneeling down and looking her in the eyes. Her eyes went downcast and her face morphed into the sickly version of herself I saw that morning.

"I was hoping you wouldn't see me like this, I'm sorry," she gloomily said, pulling her knees close and laying her head down on them.

"I just have been stressed out a lot, with Head Girl duties, my classes, my House's relationships with one another, my upcoming graduation from school, and even stuff about our family has been stressful. Its just a lot of pressure on me that I just don't know if I'm ready for. There's stuff that I want to do so bad, but I know that I can't."

"Why can't you? It's your life, can you not do what you want with it?" I enquired, finally sitting on the cold floor next to her. She gave a smile that didn't reach her eyes.

"I wish it was that simple, Clover. Sometimes I daydream about just saying 'fuck it' and leaving. Scream to the heavens the truth, and become an Auror like I really want to do," she looked up with a distant look as if she's were imagining it fondly.

"You should, I'll even help you if you need me to. Whoever is telling you what to do honestly isn't needed in your life. I'm sure you can handle a couple housemates not loving you to death, Dahlia. Like once you graduate you can just leave, and you'll never have to see your Housemates again. Just go to America or something, like Mum did. Or just ignore them." I replied. The melancholy in her eyes became more apparent. She faces away from me, last I was able to see, she had a distressed expression.

"It's not that simple, Clover, I have things I need to do. For me, for Grandmother and Grandfather, for Dad, for the world, and for you, " she started before shaking her head.

"That's stupid. You're seventeen, can't they handle whatever their wanting you to do themselves?"

"No I have to."

"Why?"

"Because someone bloody has to!" she finally cried out. I had never heard her raise her voice before, so I sat in shock for a second. As I sat frozen, I noticed that the top of her vest had a large wet spot that was only getting bigger.

"Dahlia, what are they making you do?" I asked.

Her breathing began to stutter, and the crying was becoming more forceful She looked up at me with a blotchy red face, and puffy eyes. She shook her head, wiped her face, then looked away from me.

"Dahlia! What the hell is going on? I can't help you unless you tell me!" I exclaimed.

She shook her head at me again.

"Dahlia!"

"Go to your friends, Clover," Dahlia apathetically stated.

"What? We're in the middle of a convers-"

"Leave me alone, please."

"No! You can't just sit here and basically cry for help, and not expect me to stay and help you. It'd be so much quicker if you'd just tell me what's going on."

"Go the hell away!" she exclaimed with finality, quickly getting up, whispering the password, opening the bathroom door, and shutting me out.

"You know what? Fine! If you're going to be ridiculous like this then, you can just cry alone for all I care! But next time something like this happens, don't even bother wasting my time if you're not even going to let me do something about it," I coldly said from behind the door, stomping away.

'That was stupid. All this is stupid. If she's going to cry and go on about how she's doing something for me and Father and all that stupid stuff, then isn't that just asking for help? I don't understand these stupid feelings! Stupid, all of this! I can't deal with uncompetent idiots!' I irritably thought to myself as I made my way towards the staircase, lost in my aggravated thoughts. Before I started down the stairs, I was stopped by two figures. I looked up to see Lucius Malfoy and Head Boy, Terminus Flint.

'This is the last thing I need right now.'

"What are you doing up here, cousin?" Lucius asked, peering down at me.

"Bugger off, Lucius." I aloofly stated, trying to push past him. He was like a wall, unmoving and tall.

'Shit.'

Lucius' hand raised, I realized he was going to strike me.

"Immobulus!" I heard a familiar voice cast.

Lucius was frozen in place, his hand inches from my cheek. Dahlia walked up, Hazel wand in hand, looking coldly indifferent to everything that was happening.

"Lucius, you know that Prefects are not to strike students, Gryffindor or not, family or not." She stated. She looked at Terminus who I then noticed was smirking at what he had witnessed. She shook her head at him and turned to me.

"You need to go on to your friends. For speaking like that to a Prefect, you're going to have two days of detention, and I'll handle Lucius. So just go." Dahlia angrily said to me.

I narrowed my eyes at her and silently pushed past Lucius and Terminus. I ran down the stairs away from this confrontation. I was drained for the day. I needed to be somewhere I could be alone, it'd be the only way I'd be able to understand my thoughts. So that's what I did.

You made it to some actual plot! And I guess if you're still here, you're probably wondering where the whole romantic subplot is... And some of that will be happening pretty soon. Like right now I'm working on developing friendships and character development so that we can have the romantic subplot that I'm planning. It will be here, just like Marauder Bonding. The next chapter will be a nice Remus chapter, and exploring Clover's thoughts/ways of dealing with emotions. So yeah.

Thank you for reading and sticking with me! Please leave a review if you like'd (and if you didn't like, criticism would be super appreciated) and I hope you have an amazing morning, afternoon, or night! Thanks again!