Chapter Three: When a Nice Girl Helps a Nice Boy
I stared out at the students gathered in the Pitch. Most of them had an idea of where the next part of this story was going as they had been witness to some of the antics…
Wednesday, classes were uneventful. I went to them, some people stared, and some people talked. I ignored it all and just did the work I knew I had to do. Just because there were awful rumors going on about me, didn't mean that I had a right to slack off on my grades.
I was sitting in my last class of the day, Arithmancy, when Hugo approached me. He looked pretty dejected so I took a bit of pity on him and stopped looking at my textbook to talk to him.
"Can we get together after dinner? Prefects' bathroom?" He asked quietly so that no one around us could hear him. I raised an inquisitive eyebrow, but nodded anyway. Hugo walked away just as quietly as he had appeared and I went back to doing the work in my text. Part of me wondered what he would want to talk about, but I squashed the questions to keep my mind focused for the last fifteen minutes of class. If I was lucky, I could finish these exercises and not have to worry about doing them in the common room.
When the bell sounded for the end of class, I quickly gathered up my class stuff and wandered toward Ravenclaw Tower.
"Hey, Desi!" I heard someone shout from behind me. I turned around to notice Scorpius following me at a slightly quickened speed.
"Yes?" I asked him.
He stopped, caught his breath a bit, and asked, "Do you want to go with me to the library? I have to write an essay for Potions and I know that you're much better at that class than I am." I didn't hesitate in nodding and then following him back toward the library. "So, how are you doing?" He questioned as we walked.
I thought about it. I wasn't really doing that great. My best friend had essentially accused me of sleeping with a guy and now the whole school knew about it. "I'm fine," I responded as I tried not to directly look at him. I always felt like Scorpius could tell when I was lying to him even though I really didn't have proof of that.
When we finally arrived at the library we had about two hours before dinner. That would be enough time to help Scorpius get a good chunk of his Potions essay out of the way.
We entered the library and immediately took a table toward the back where fewer kids would bother us. I took a seat facing the entrance to the library and Scorpius started to unpack his Potions materials across from me.
"So my essay has to be about the dangers of love potions," he said to me as he opened his textbook to the pages describing love potions.
I thought about it and then said, "That should be easy enough. We'll just need to get a few books specifically on love potions from that section and you can quote what some of the authors say about the dangers." There were a lot of dangers when it came to love potions and I knew the library would have several books on the subject.
We worked together diligently with very few disruptions. Twice, I noticed some of the other students at other tables pointing and making inappropriate gestures toward me, but I just shook my head and continued to help Scorpius with his work. When the clock informed us it was six-thirty, we packed up our stuff and began to head toward the Great Hall for dinner.
At the doors, we parted with Scorpius saying a quick thank you for the help and went to our own tables. I found a spot next to Ros, ignored the sudden hushed whispers at the table, and began to fill my plate. Hugo Weasley caught my eye from the Gryffindor table to silently make sure we were still going to meet at the Prefects' bathroom and I nodded to him. He looked relieved at my reassurance and went back to eating his own food in silence. I watched as Venus made faces at him from the other side of their table. Intolerance of blood status may have died since the Second War, but intolerance of other things were still very alive in Hogwarts.
"Who are you looking at?" Ros butted into my thoughts as she tried to figure out where I was looking.
"No one, just dazed off there for a minute," I answered as I went back to the roast beef on my plate. I loved Ros, I did, but there were days I just wanted to hit her for being so bloody nosey. That's how I ended up in the middle of some vicious rumor that included Lorcan and shagging.
Dinner ended, and I left my place at Ravenclaw table to meet Hugo at the Prefects' bathroom. It was fortunate that both of us actually were prefects so that we could get in and talk in private.
"Okay, so what did you want to chat about?" I asked him once we had made sure no one else was in the room.
"Well," he began, "I have been thinking a lot about how you started your own rumor. Now all of a sudden the anonymous fifth-year Ravenclaw has everyone her year and up talking about her. I figured maybe you could help me out with my problem. Like if you would go out with me?"
I just stared at him wide-eyed, "Um, Hugo, I know we're friends and all, but you're not really my type. I like blokes that like, well, like girls."
"You're not my type either, but I figured if everyone else thought that I was going out with a girl then at least they'd leave me alone," he said with a hint of gloominess in his voice.
"Hugo, the point is it was just made up, it didn't actually happen. Go make it up," I told him. He shook his head and responded, "No one's going to believe me unless a girl is willing to go along with it and I figured since you're already making headlines…"
I couldn't believe what I was hearing, but I knew he had a point. No one was going to believe that he was snogging a girl unless that girl was willing to come forward. I sighed, "Fine, but we're doing this my way. We have a Hogsmeade trip this weekend. We go to the Hog's Head where the older Slytherin kids are having a party and we make something up in the back room."
Hugo's eyes lit up happily. I had just salvaged his last two and a half years at Hogwarts from peer abuse.
"You owe me for this," was the last thing I said to him before I left the Prefects' bathroom to go back to my own common room.
I needed to pause in the story again. I took the time to look at the kids gathered around listening. There was more to the story, but the rest of it was going to cause me more bullocks than I could ever imagine.