Chapter 8. The new beginning

When the school day was over, I returned quickly to the dormitory, just to be sure to not miss Ally. I really made up an effort for her, because she was not seen for about two hours. Probably had Diane or someone told her that I was sitting here and waiting for her, and she decided to not step by until it was really necessary. This was at almost bedtime. Then I had already lain down, halfway fallen asleep with my book that I had read left upon my chest.

My whole body twitched when I woke up and saw her coming in. She totally ignored me, and I took a deep breath, trying to keep calm and wait for her to begin. But nothing came, so I cleared my throat.

"Ally.", I said, trying to hold a stern voice. She continued to ignore me, folding her clothes carefully. I cleared my throat again and she sighed as she turned to face me.

"Why are you mad at me? There's nothing to be jealous about-", I began but twitched once again when she interrupted me with her high pitch voice.

"I'm not jealous, Izzie! When are you going to understand that?"

"Then why are you acting like you are jealous?", I asked, still calm. That must have made her even more upset because tears started to fall down from her eyes.

"Bec-... Because you're such a slut, Izzie! Every time I tell you I like a guy you're always going to try take him and play with him right in front of my face! I mean what's your problem? I thought we were friends!"

I was absolutely stunned by what she had just said to me. I had no words. My mouth was half open and I just looked at her where she stood, angry with tears falling down on her cheeks.

"Like two years ago when I fell in love with Robert Brown, I saw you speak to him more often than I did!", she said and put her hands on her hips.

"That's because we've been friends since first year. I talked to him now and then before you started like him and I still do it sometimes!", I answered and threw out my arms in a gesture.

"Uh, no you didn't", she mumbled sourly before continuing. "But what about this then, I mean last year, when I came to you and said that I liked Adrian, you started talking to him everyday until Valentine's day when it finally hit your head that he liked me too, not you! Remember? He gave me the flowers and asked me out for a date!"

"Do you know why I talked to him so much? Because he wanted me to help him arrange your date and I also helped him chose the right flowers because I knew which ones you were allergic to and not!"

Now it was Ally's turn to be speechless. I sighed and puffed my pillow and put the book on my bedside table before looking at her one final time.

"I thought you were my friend, Ally. But friends don't call each other 'slut'.", I said before I lay down on my pillow and pulled the blanket all the way up to my face and fell asleep again.

The next day I was avoiding Ally. I did not want to have anything to do with her for a long time after what she had said yesterday. But this made me feel very lonely, and at lunch I started to search for some kind of company to hang out with for the rest of the day. When I came into the Great Hall I looked all over the Gryffindor table and found Robert a few feet away, having an intense conversation with his two friends. I walked over to them and stopped behind him. He turned and shined up when he saw who it was.

"Hi, Iz! How are you?", he asked and smiled friendly at me.

"Hello, I'm fine. May I sit with you?"

"Of course!"

Robert made some room for me on his left side and I sat down thankfully and greeted his friends, Brian and Luke. We had a nice time together so I decided that I would hang out with them at the afternoon lessons too. We had History of Magic and DADA.

In both I sat with Robert, and I realized that I did not know him as well as I thought I did. Our relationship was more like a surface and had never done any kind of deep dive at all. It was like we were polite to each other, rather than friends. But during this afternoon we got to know each other a bit more, and I really liked Robert. He was so easy going and made me laugh, and I did not have to think about it twice before doing it. And when I was with Robert, I did not even think of Ally a single time, which really made me happy.

But one person did not let my mind forget him, and that was surprisingly, or not, Sirius. He made everything to disturb us and when he sent a paper bird to ruffle my hair I had reached my limit. I caught the bird and made it into a ball and threw it back at him. Unfortunately he ducked and it hit Remus instead, who slipped with his quill and draw a line of ink over the whole parchment he was writing on. I covered my mouth, feeling terrible for what I had done, and the second later giving Sirius, who laughed hard, a killing glare.

"I'm so sorry, Remus! It's Sirius' fault, he's being a jerk", I said, trying to apologize.

"It's okay, Izzie", he answered and gave me a small smile before he took out his wand from his robe and put a vanishing spell on the line of ink. I turned back to Robert and he looked at me a bit strange.

"What?", I asked him curiously. He chuckled a bit before answering.

"He likes you", he said simply and I almost laughed him straight in the face.

"What makes you think that?"

"Like you said yourself. He's acting like a jerk to you. That's what guys do to someone they like"

"But you're not a jerk"

"I don't like you that way"

"What way?"

"You know what way I mean", Robert said and looked at me strangely again. And then I understood what way he meant.

"Oh, no, no, no, no. No! Robbie! No. Absolutely not.", and put up a hand in front of me to gesture my answer.

"Aha! That much denial must mean that you like him too!", he said and raised his eyebrows at me. My mouth fell open for a second before I stubbornly crossed my arms and raised my chin a bit.

"That is so not true."

"Ha-ha, no?" Robert looked at me with an expression that told me he did not believe me at all. I flipped his head lightly and he laughed.

"So, now when you're acting like a jerk, what you really wanna say to me is that you like me?", I asked him, very proud over myself for turning the conversation completely around.

"I-... You-... Ah, forget it.", he said and waved me off.

"HA!", I said and felt very victorious.

Professor Binns ended the lesson and we walked together to the DADA classroom on the third floor. When I came in through the door I saw Ally sitting at our usual place. But I decided quickly that I did not care and followed Robert to the other side of the classroom were most of the boys had their places. It turned out we had a practical pair assignment today and I looked over to Robert and he nodded back at me. At the time a smile spread over my face, someone poked my shoulder. I turned around, and there was Sirius, smiling mischievously at me.

"You and me, Whitlock?", he asked, and pulled a piece of my hair while saying my last name.

"Ha, ha, very funny. Unfortunately for you, I'm gonna work with be with Robbie. Where's James?", I asked and looked around, and found him at Lily's side. Sirius must have followed my glance, because we found each others eyes on the way back and smiled both knowingly.

"So you'll choose the Brown guy before the Black?", he asked in a final try to change my mind.

"Yeah, today I'll do that. Sorry!", I answered and gave him a small smile, he shrugged and tried to look like he did not care, but I saw how he dropped his shoulders a bit when he walked away. That made me feel guilty, but at the same time, he maybe needed to be rejected sometimes, just to stop his ego from growing too big.

"You can be with him if you want to, you know. I'll be fine", Robert said and I returned my attention to him again for the first time since Sirius had showed up. I honestly considered it for a short second but pulled myself back to reality. Why would I do that? He had been an ass to me for and hour and a half recently, he deserved to be alone for a moment.

"No. It's you and me now, Robbie. You'll not get rid of me that easily!", I answered and he lit up.

We started to practice on today's task, which was the Finger-Removing Jinx and the counter-curse for it. Luckily, both Robert and I were good at this so we got all our fingers back at the right place almost every time. In the middle of everything, I heard a familiar high pitch giggle from the right, and looked up and felt like someone punched me in my stomach when I saw Sirius working with Ally.

"What the hell?"

The words slipped out of my mouth before I could stop them. Why was he working with her?