Chapter 14: the break down

Cherie was thoroughly depressed. She really liked Blaise but somehow felt that she wasn't ready for the kind of commitment she had gotten herself into. They hadn't even been dating a week and she already wanted to break up with him. What kind of person does that? Cherie was beginning to think she was a horrible person. Letting out a pent up breath Cherie swung her feet over the edge of her bed and decided to go and look in the library for something good to read.

Sneaking out of her dorm, careful not to let anyone who might tell Blaise see her. She was supposed to be taking a nap in her room trying to get rid of a headache. She had lied to him, it wasn't a headache form lack of sleep, it was from all the smothering. Cherie had only been in one real relationship in her entire life and that had been a long distance one. Going to school with her boyfriend was a lot different, he was always there, holding her hand, kissing her or just plain BEING! 'So much for keeping it quite,' Blaise had done almost everything to announce them dating short of shouting it off of the roof tops. Cherie had decided that she couldn't stand him and it wasn't because of anything that he had done. It wasn't like he had any actually irritating habits but for some reason which she couldn't pin point she couldn't stand him anymore.

All in all she felt awful.

On a brighter note Hermione and Draco were making waves with their new relationship. Half the school body was too incredulous to believe it, while the other half swore they knew it all along.

Sneaking up past the portraits in to an unused wing of the castle Cherie climbed the stair cases, not really caring when they began to move with her on them. Going up staircase after staircase she eventually found herself in one of the lower towers of the castle. It was a little off to the side in one of the more ancient wings of the castle, since then with the redevelopment of other portions of the building and changing times it and been left unused and forgotten, however if the professors were to be appraised of how similarly unspectacular the view from this tower was they might just feel induced to schedule some of the more boring courses in this tower. On all but one sides of the round room the windows faced the stony walls of the newer Hogwarts towers. The only window not facing a near by sonny wall was given a clear view of exactly one half of the furthest lawn. This might have been made interesting had anyone been out, however (not that Cherie cared very much) due to the chilly October weather all of the population of Hogwarts felt it necessary to keep within doors.

Turning to face the second window to view stone Cherie sat rather unceremoniously on the floor. And there she stayed for about twenty minutes just looking out the window at the wall and trying not to think. Not thinking had always been a problem for Cherie, you know how people always tell you that if you want to think about nothing you should try thinking about a blank wall? Well that's what Cherie was doing but some how she could never think of a wall that was quiet blank enough to not induce thought. The artist in her demanded to know the exact hue of the wall and how its tone changed due to the lighting, and for that fact there was no such thing as a perfectly smooth and blank wall so there had to be some points of interest. And that's where her mind went, no the thinking never really stopped for Cherie. And what is worst of all is that no matter where her thoughts began they always ended up back to where she did not want to be thinking.

Her thoughts came back to Blaise, but surprisingly that's not where they stopped, she momentarily dwelt upon her own retched feelings and then moved deeper closer to the true source of these feelings. One name and a face came into her minds eye. Deep, warm brown eyes with hints of green; luscious full lips and a set of impossibly white straight teeth.

Tyler.

The name brought it all back. Cherie had known then just like she new now that she had to break up with him, but unlike now then it was harder, she loved him. Tyler and her had been friends for 2 years before getting together, and he had been her best friend for at least 6 months. They had dated for 8 months, right after her 16th birthday and straight through his 18th. She had went to his high school graduation. He was her first love. They had broken up that summer. All of Cherie's' friends thought that they had broken up because she was moving to England, that wasn't true. She had decided to move to England because she knew she couldn't continue to be around him, not when she still loved him.

It hadn't taken him all that long to find a new girlfriend, Rhonda. She was 16, Tyler was almost 19, Cherie was 17. Despite knowing the break up was her idea and that it was for the best she couldn't help but feel something of what all women do when they lose their love to a younger woman. Cherie wasn't ready to move on yet.

While it might give her a perverse sense of pleasure to tell all of her friends; especially Tyler; about having a new British hottie, it didn't feel right. Cherie couldn't be in a relationship just to spite her ex-boyfriend for moving on. He was doing the right thing by dating Rhonda.

The sudden tapping on glass brought Cherie out of her logical revelry and back into the illogical real world. A small grey owl hovered just outside of the window to her right. Getting up, Cherie turned the knob to let the owl in along with a cold blast of air. The owl fluttered down to land right in front of her feet dropping the letter it had been carrying on her toes. Tilting its' head quizzically it stared at her waiting for a response. Quietly, almost too loud compared to the silence that it followed, Cherie asked the bird to wait for a moment while she looked at what it had brought her. Lifting the envelope she opened it and scanned the words on the page. Tears sprang up and Cherie's confusion doubled.

Quickly tearing a section off of the envelope she imprinted it with a few words and sent the owl off to deliver the message to Leif.