*sheepish grin* I'm so very sorry! It's been a month - which is ridiculous! I'm so sorry, RL ran away with me, I lost my muse, and I've been dealing with stuff recently so I've literally not been able to write.

Excuses, excuses, I know - I apologise! I hope you're all still here and reading. I'll try my best to be better at this updating thing, I swear!

I hope you enjoy this one: it's dedicated to love without expectation because they've been so lovely to me on here ever since I started publishing fics, and also because they married their best friend, so it's rather fitting to this story. (Yes, that's the sound of the rest of us being jealous).

This was a mixture of prompts from hiimawkward and JAZtheSPAZZrocks:

A friend will tell you that you look pretty to cheer you up,

A best friend will say, "Man, you're a mess. Get yourself together."

"If anybody so much as breathes pity in my direction," I grumbled warningly through the pillow to my dorm mates as they tried to coax me out of my bed. "I will skin them alive. Okay?"

Dom and Mary exchanged an alarmed glance, but Lily just rolled her eyes at me and huffed.

Eventually, the four of them (with Roxanne) managed to haul me into a sitting position in the middle of my double mattress.

I refused to budge any further.

I just wanted to cry and eat chocolate.

Was that too much to ask for?

"Look, Rosie," Roxanne sighed as she took a tentative seat beside me. "You haven't moved for eight hours straight. Ordinarily, we'd give a girl at least 72 hours before we badgered her, but, let's face it, this is you, and you haven't ever not done anything with your time. Wallowing in self pity just isn't you."

I just looked at her with a blank expression, waiting for the point of her sentences, or for her to go away. Whichever really, I didn't mind. I just wanted to be left alone.

When I didn't answer, Roxanne gave Dom a pleading look, and Dom took her place on my right, effectively trapping me between the two of them. With the head of my bed and a wall behind me, and Lily and Mary at the foot of the bed, I realised pretty quickly that I wasn't going anywhere.

There was silence for a few seconds, no doubt they were wondering how to continue the conversation. I saved them the effort, giving them all a long, scrutinising stare, before asking rhetorically, "Are you trying to stage some sort of intervention?"

"Listen, Rosie-" Lily tried.

"If anybody calls me Rosie one more time I am going to kick you all out of here," I snapped. I couldn't help it. "I'm not delicate and devastated and emotional. I'm fine, okay? Just because… I'm not going to spiral down into a state of depression over one stupid, arrogant, selfish little boy, okay?"

Okay, so it was all talk, but… whatever.

Dom and Roxanne glanced at each other warily, Mary gulped, Lily nodded once, trying to stop her eyes from filling with tears.

She'd always been sensitive, and emotional, and cried easily.

I blinked, and fully took in my surroundings and their presence.

I realised that I was being rude, and ungrateful. They were only trying to help.

"Oh, Lils," I mumbled softly. "I'm sorry. I just…"

"It's okay," Lily nodded vigorously, blinking away the tears. "There's no reason for me to be upset. You're the one in crisis."

I gave her a weak smile for her choice of words. "I'm not… I am sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you - any of you. I just… I get defensive when I feel vulnerable, and when I get defensive, I take my anger out on other people."

"It's okay, Rose," Dom stroked one hand through my hair, currently a complete bundle of frizzy, ginger chaos. "We just want to help."

"I know you do…" I could feel myself about to start to tear up again. "But… you can't - I guess I'm just not good enough for him."

There was a loud protestation of 'no!'s' from them all, but I ignored it.

"I'm just not cool enough, or interesting enough, or… or…" My voiced hitched as a wave of tears, which I'd been trying to suppress for the past hour, over came me.

"Shhh," Roxanne pulled me towards her in a sideways hug.

"He's the one that's not good enough," Mary spoke up. "You're too good for him - that's what it is, Rose. He's stupid for letting you go."

"I'm… not pretty enough for him," I mumbled, trying not to cry again. I was in an old Quidditch jersey and leggings, hair a frizzy mess, mascara all down my face, eyes puffy and red.

I had to give them some credit for actually trying to disagree.

"Of course you are!"

"You're so pretty!"

"You're smoking hot," Dom grinned, trying to make me laugh. It worked a little. "Come this years Christmas Ball and he'll be kicking himself."

"You guys are… lying to… make me feel better-"

"We're not!"

"You're totally out of his league."

"I…" I tried to wipe some of the mascara and tears off my face, but it didn't work considering I was still in the process of crying. "I… don't know what to do without him. He's the only guy that would remotely look at me like… I was interesting. And now… I'm not even attractive to him. I'm… going to end up an old maid, I just know it!"

Before any of my faithful friends could protest, the door banged open rudely and my best friend Scorpius Malfoy swaggered in, strode determinedly past Mary and Lily and flopped down on my bed in front of me, Dom and Roxanne, laying across it width-ways.

He barely gave me a glance, instead stared up at the ceiling, placing his hands casually behind his head.

"Nott is the most ridiculous idiot I've ever known," He declared, handing me a tissue from his pocket.

I took it graciously, and blew my nose. "He- He is?" I asked meekly.

"Of course he is!" Scorpius exclaimed so vehemently that he thrust his arms upwards before letting them flop back down onto the mattress with a thump. The other girls were a little confused by his dramatic entrance, and the way he wasn't tiptoeing around me. "He actually dumped you?"

I nodded, unsure why he was questioning it.

"Like… in front of everybody?" Scorpius persisted, not noticing that I was about to fall into another round of sobs if he insisted on making me relive the memory. "Just… like that? Just a quick 'We're over, it got boring' and that was it? No apology?"

I burst into tears again, and he blinked, tilted his head to glance at me in surprise. Lily, Mary, Dom and Roxanne all slapped him at the same time - and with quite a bit of force.

"Ouch!" He complained, sitting up finally. "What are you crying about, Rose?" He asked it like I was being ridiculous.

"Y-you… are being horrible, Scor…" I managed between sobs. "Let me… be upset…"

He rolled his eyes. Actually rolled his eyes! My tears and anger at Nott was beginning to fester into anger at him.

"No, I'm not!" He looked to the other girls for support. Surprise, surprise, they didn't give it to him.

They glared.

"You are such an ignorant, pig-headed man!" Roxanne complained. "Can't you see she's upset?"

"Of course I can," Scorpius sighed impatiently. "I just don't understand why."

"Because he… he… humiliated me!" I managed to squeak out.

"I know that," Scorpius sighed, "Why do you think I beat him up?"

That caught us all off guard.

"You…?" I froze and stared at him.

Scorpius shrugged nonchalantly. "Anyway, back to the whole crying thing…" He waved a hand in the general direction of my face. "What's up with that?"

"I-"

"Rose is obviously feeling completely upset and questioning herself right now, Scorpius," Mary told him gently, not condescendingly. "She thinks he dumped her because she's not good enough, and because she's not pretty enough."

Scorpius gave me one long piercing look and asked, "Is that true?"

I nodded. "Yes."

He paused. Then shook his head in indignation. "Well right now you're not exactly the pick of the bunch-"

"Sc-"

"-But," He gave Dom a look which silenced her indefinitely. "That's just because you're grovelling in self pity. You're being ridiculous, Rose. He's a tool, and you're fretting over what the problem with you is? You should be asking yourself what on earth possessed you to get with him in the first place. I mean, why worry over him?"

"I'm not… worrying," I tried to protest.

"Man, you're a mess," He gave me a pointed look and his voice rose intensely. "And he's not worth it. You're so much better than him. Get yourself together. Man up."

There was a long silence.

The others shuffled awkwardly, partly in shock at his blunt, harsh approach.

The clock by the door ticked quietly in the background.

"Right…" I mumbled finally, a little taken aback but grateful for the approach nonetheless, breaking the silence. He was completely right, of course. "Erm… I guess… I'll go get cleaned up?"

He nodded, "'Atta girl."

I stood up with Dom and Roxanne, and they followed me to the bathroom door to help sort out the mess that was my face.

As we reached the threshold, I suddenly stopped and turned to face my best friend, feeling better already. "And Scorpius?"

He'd made himself comfy again, laying back across the bed. "Hmm?"

"Address me like a Labrador again and I'll hex you into next week, got it?"

He grinned.

"A threat!" He was positively ecstatic. "That's more like you."

I rolled my eyes, but I had to admit - he'd made me feel much better.

Screw Nott.

I had the best friend ever.

Who cared about what Nott thought?

Thank you all so much for reading! I'd love a review, of course - it completely makes my day, and I could do with some of that right now. Much love. x