Chapter 7

Seamus Finnigan was star gazing. This was pretty unusual. There were a lot of things that Seamus was famed for, being able to consume large amounts of firewhisky, dancing irish jigs while completely drunk, fascinating the ladies (or so he liked to think) but star gazing was a first for him. He glanced sidewards at his best friend Shanara.

He knew he wasn't exactly the model best friend. He had never been very dependable, hadn't even gone to her when he heard about her horrific break up but for some reason, she was always there for him and he had never even seen her cry…not even once. And it made him feel guilty as hell.

"Shanara?"

"Yes?"

"Why do you still give a shit about me?"

Shanara turned to face him, surprised, "what!"

"I mean, I'm not exactly the best friend every girl dreams about, I wasn't even there for you when…"

Shanara interrupted him saying " Listen, Seamus, I care about you a lot but I didn't expect you to take sides…to choose between your housemate and me…I'm in Slytherin…I know all about mixed up loyalties"

"But…"

"Just forget it…please"

So Seamus fell silent. And instead of watching the stars, he found himself watching Shanara with her sad, beautiful face and wishing he could be the person she thought he was.

Shanara walked back to her dormitory, as she passed the room that she had shared with Draco, she heard Blaise's , Pansy's and Theo's voices as well as Draco's and Potter's. She wasn't surprised. They had all grown up together. She knew they would forgive him eventually. Especially when they saw that Shanara didn't seem to really hate him. And she didn't. It was near impossible to hate Draco. He always looked happy, was always cracking jokes and he didn't really get in her way.

Walking into her dormitory, she lay on her bed staring up at her ceiling, blankly. It hurt a little that Potter had walked in and stolen her place among her friends so easily. But she didn't blame any of them, infact, had circumstances been different she was sure she'd have liked Potter just as well as any of them.

"Shanara?"

"Yes, Blaise?"

Blaise and Theo had just walked into her room and seated themselves at the foot of her bed.

"You want to go to the kitchens with us?" asked Theo, awkwardly.

"Us?" she said, valiantly trying to smile.

"Um…yeah….us…Pans, Ha- Potter, Draco, Blaise and I?"

She knew it was hard for them but she also knew that her going would just make things harder. She felt a little pang of emotion, a little bit of happiness, when she realized that they hadn't completely forgotten or replaced her.

"thank you but no…you know that it would just be difficult for all of us" she said, smiling at both of them and ruffling Blaise's hair.

Theo nodded and left the room, looking visibly relieved.

"I hate seeing you like this" said Blaise in a low voice.

"Like what?" asked Shanara, trying to be lighthearted, picking up one of Millicent's fashion magazines and flipping through it.

"You know what I mean" said Blaise, "You can't hide from it forever".

Suddenly angry, Shanara snapped back " I'll do what I please. Don't presume to tell me what I can and cannot do"

Blaise looked at her pleadingly and said "We love you, we want you to be happy, even Draco…though he's been such a jerk… he cares about you".

Shanara laughed, "He does, doesn't he? I mean…he showed that when he wrote to his father breaking off our engagement without telling me, sending me straight to my own father to be punished for his mistakes…for letting me find about the whole thing via howler…yes, Blaise, he REALLY cares about me".

Blaise fell silent and belatedly Shanara realized that the door to her dorm had been left open and that she could hear Theo, Pansy, Draco and Potter whispering in the corridor, obviously having heard the whole argument.

Shanara had never felt so miserable in her life. Even Blaise had turned on her. There they were, her friends of 17 years and they were all standing outside her door eavesdropping. She felt sudden tears surge to her eyes and said in a voice as steady as she could make it "Get out, Blaise"

Blaise looked bewildered, "What?"

"GET OUT" she screamed, shoving him off her bed, "Go to your bloody accomplices outside and tell them what Ive told you, fill in the blanks since they were so obviously eavesdropping outside my door and you were helping them!"

She shoved Blaise outside and shut the door and slid down to the floor, her back facing the door and gave vent to her tears.

The corridor was silent.

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