Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or its related works.

Author's Note: I would like to thank you all for your patience. It might interest you to know that so far the time I've spent studying instead of writing/updating has paid off and my first exam went quite well. I'm ahead of schedule for the second one, so I'm taking a moment to post this chapter. I'm afraid I cannot say when I will update next. And now without further ado: Chapter 38!

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Thursday, November 24th 2022

Sixth Year Girls' Dorm, Ravenclaw Tower, Hogwarts, Scotland

Grace sighs and stares at her essay, the same way she's been doing for the past hour. She had been trying to prove herself that she could avoid the common room on Thursdays with no problem after last week's late night. The only thing she's proving, though, is that she can't. She huffs and throws her essay onto the bed. Then, she leaves for the common room. The couch is empty. Of course it's empty, she thinks angrily as she sits down and grabs one of the pillows to hug as she tries not to cry. She does her best not to pay attention to the door every time it opens, because it won't do to get her hopes up again.

That's why she doesn't notice Eva until her friend is sitting next to her and pulling her into a hug. Neither of them says anything for a while as Grace lets herself relax in Eva's arms and hugs her instead of the pillow.

"I think I've watched this quite long enough, Gracie," Eva tells her finally. "Do I need to go hit my brother over the head?"

Grace laughs a little. "No," she says softly.

"Really? I think he deserves it," Eva assures her. "Starting up that thing with Zoe… how do you feel about the fact that Lorcan kissed you, by the way? You two have been avoiding each other like crazy."

Grace blinks at her slowly. "Why would… Evie, who are you… who deserves it?"

"Lysander, of course," Eva says matter-of-factly.

Grace frowns at her. "Can you explain to me why everyone thinks I dated Lysander or have a crush on him?"

"Don't you?" Eva asks, looking confused.

"No," Grace shakes her head. "Not at all."

"Gracie, you two have been hanging out here," she motions around the room, "almost every Thursday since April. And rumor has it you seem quite comfortable. I mean, I never expected Ly to be your type, but… that's obviously not my decision."

For a moment all Grace can do is gape at her. Then she starts laughing helplessly. Eva pats her shoulder lightly, looking incredibly confused again. When Grace finally gets a hold of herself, she looks at her best friend. "That…" she starts, trying to figure out how to say this best, "It was…" she pauses for a moment, "I considered this our couch shaped bubble," she picks up one of the pillows smiling faintly. "But it wasn't mine and Lysander's. It was very much mine and Lorcan's though. Until our bubble kind of burst, I guess."

It's Eva's turn to gape now, Grace thinks, as she waits for her friend to regain her composure. "So let me get this straight… you were seeing Lorcan the entire time and everyone always mistook him for Lysander?"

"I don't know about the Lysander part, but… seeing him sounds like dating… which it wasn't," she looks at her hands, "But it was definitely… something. Do you remember our talk in Paris? I… was talking about him." Grace chews on her lip for a moment before she continues. "I was so happy when he kissed me," she tells her softly. "But then…" she raises her hands a little helplessly. "I don't know. Now I just want things to be the way they were. Being his friend is better than this. He won't even look at me, Evie."

"Can we backtrack here for a second?" Eva looks at her. "You mean to tell me that I was worrying about how to deal with Lorcan's broken heart for no reason?" She lets out a short laugh. "Hang on, what about at the party? The one last summer, when we were done with OWLs, Lysander complimented you and you blushed like crazy!"

"I… he was staring at me. Lorcan was staring at me. It had nothing to do with Lysander," Grace admits softly.

Eva shakes her head. "How did I not know this? Why didn't you tell me?"

"He's your brother, Evie," Grace says quietly. "I didn't want to make a big deal out of nothing, I wanted to be sure. I didn't want this to get messy, which… it did anyways, but you know…" She looks at her best friend. "And I did tell you some of it in Paris. I just… neglected to mention that I was talking about Lorcan."

"And I used to think I was well informed when it came to both of your love lives…" Eva shakes her head disbelievingly. "Right, I am so giving him an earful because all this is doing is making both of you upset."

"No," Grace takes her hand. "Please… if you talk to him he'll feel like he has to come here and I don't want that." She makes Eva look at her. "You can't tell, it doesn't matter now anyways, and I'd rather he doesn't have to deal with all the gossip and people pointing fingers."

"Who has been pointing fingers?" Eva looks around them angrily. "It's none of their business! If I managed not to stick my nose in until now, then they should too!"

"No one has been pointing fingers," Grace tries to reassure her. "I swear."

Eva leans back into the couch again and doesn't say anything for a while. "So you and Lorcan, huh?"

Grace shrugs, "I don't know. We've barely spoken for a month, Evie." She tries to hide the fact that saying that out loud makes her heart feel like it's being trampled on (again), but really, she needn't have bothered. It's Eva. She knows her inside and out.

"Come here, Gracie," she says softly and Grace gladly lets herself fall into Eva's arms.