This was one of my favorite chapters to write and I seriously can't even stop squealing about it, I don't even know why. I'll see you guys again on Sunday! Enjoy!
readerfaye: The 'can't relate' sent me because same LOL. Fred and Nessa have also been the best to write at the moment.
Bookcozy: Thank you so much! I've always loved writing! I haven't actually decided what Nessa's Patronus will be yet, so that will be as much a surprise to me as it is you guys once that time comes LOL. I always feel a little bad for not including Harry more, but then I think that JKR didn't really have the other Weasleys in a ton, so it's probably fine. It just makes the times I do write Nessa/Harry moments more special!
2103: You're seriously the sweetest! This one has more Cedric for you!
Chapter Ten
Madam Pomfrey had indeed thrown quite the fit about Nessa staying with Harry overnight. Nessa, who hated confrontation and became anxious when she disobeyed authority figures, held her own and refused to leave despite this. Even when Madam Pomfrey had tried to appeal to McGonagall to get her to leave instead. She hadn't moved. Hadn't yelled or pleaded. Just calmly stated over and over that if they wanted her to leave, they'd have to knock her out first. Surprisingly, McGonagall had not been all that opposed to her remaining with Harry and so Madam Pomfrey had had to eventually concede.
Harry had been required to stay in the hospital wing for the rest of the weekend, even though he had no injuries. Nessa had visited him several times on the two days he was in there. This was partially from concern and partially due to an inability for her to accept that he was truly okay. She'd slept fitfully both nights that he was in the hospital wing, remembering vividly what it had felt like to see him falling through the air. Having talked about their parents had not helped in the slightest either, as her recurring nightmare filled with cold, high laughter seemed to take the conversation as an invitation to return.
Ron and Hermione were the only others who were with Harry more often than she was. They were in the hospital wing with him until they were forced to leave at night, talking to him and trying to keep his spirits high. He had refused to let any of them throw away the remains of his Nimbus Two Thousand. Nessa was torn between feeling sorry for him and being confused that he was so attached to an inanimate object that held no real use to him anymore. Of course, it was much easier for her to be rational about those feelings when it wasn't her broom. And that she didn't even like to be on a broom. Whatever the reason, she kept her own comments about his grief to herself.
In the time that she had been in the hospital wing with him, he'd had a number of visitors to help distract him from the realization that he heard their mother when the dementors were near and the grief of losing his first broomstick. Hagrid had stopped by and given him a bunch of earwiggy flowers that looked like yellow cabbages and Ginny, blushing furiously, showed up with a get well card that she had made herself, which sang shrilly unless Harry kept it under his bowl of fruit. Nessa had found the exchange between them both awkward, sweet, and amusing. Her brother, despite not having any feelings for Ginny, was always very sweet with her and she was just so proud of the person he was becoming. It did not, however, stop her from singing the Valentine poem Ginny had written him last year, just because the get well card reminded her of the incident. Ginny would kill her if she found out.
Nessa had disappeared briefly on Sunday morning to hunt down Oliver Wood and hex him within nine inches of his life until he came down to the hospital wing to check on her brother. Fred had had to lift her up off the floor to get her to stop yelling at the Quidditch captain for being so 'unbelievably, incredibly, stupidly asinine' over a Quidditch match and warning him that she was getting very tired of 'pulling your head out of your arse every year.' The ordeal, while very amusing to the twins and Tori, had been overall useless. The entire Quidditch team had visited Harry immediately after her confrontation with Wood, but Wood's only comment during the entire meeting had been to tell Harry (in a hollow, dead sort of voice) that he didn't blame him in the slightest.
Nessa had begun banging her head on the bedside table as he'd talked and Tori was unable to mask her mirth at this reaction.
By the time Harry had been released on Monday, she was back to her normal routine and Harry seemed to be feeling a little bit better, although she was unsure if he were merely faking it. Malfoy had finally gotten his cast taken off (how very convenient, in Nessa's opinion) and spent a great deal of time mocking Harry's performance during Quidditch. He'd been in the middle of an exaggerated reenactment of Harry falling off his broom at the sight of the dementors while she had been passing him in the hall when she'd responded by shoving him directly into a suit of armor. Much to her amusement, it had taken Malfoy's falling into it as an attack and had begun beating him repeatedly upside the head.
Harry had also spoken with Professor Lupin about fighting against the dementors. Harry said he had seemed reluctant, but had agreed to help teach him once they came back after Christmas. He had a lot of catching up to do, according to Harry, but he wasn't too concerned about having to wait. So long as someone taught him eventually. He was also feeling a bit better about his reaction to the dementors when Professor Lupin assured him that his reaction was not at all a sign of weakness.
As it was, Nessa was feeling much better about the last week, knowing that there was a plan moving forward. A part of her wanted to ask Harry to stop playing Quidditch altogether. Or maybe demand that he stop. But that was such a selfish thing to want and she hated how irrational the thought made her. She truly was insane sometimes. Overprotective. Overbearing. Call it whatever you want, but she was it. Maybe she was all three things.
As far as her own social life went, she and George were still bickering with each other now that the strong emotions from the weekend had passed. Today alone they had begun arguing because he'd asked her about if she'd seen Diggory since the hospital wing (she had no idea why he cared), he'd told her she was being ridiculous for refusing to talk to him (he was probably right, but she didn't care), and once because he had been talking when she was trying to work, even though she'd not said anything to Fred for doing the same thing (this one she knew was childish, but every time he looked at her, she wanted to smack him).
It did not help that he was still incredibly supportive of her any time she was upset about something — the situation with Harry over the weekend being proof of that — but this fact only confused her more. He had so easily stopped talking to her for weeks, but now he acted as if he couldn't stand to see her hurting. It was completely asinine, the entire thing.
She didn't know why she was making his life so difficult. He was clearly not interested in cutting her out of his life, even despite the hell Alicia was giving him (they fought more often now than they had at any point in their relationship), but she couldn't let go of the hurt and anger that he had done so even for a short period of time at the beginning of the year. Maybe she was being too harsh. Maybe she was being childish for refusing to work it out with him. She knew she was being childish for arguing with him constantly over every miniscule thing. If she had even half of a backbone, she'd have the difficult conversation with him and be done with it.
Instead, she was huddling in a corner of the library, looking over an advanced Potions textbook in order to avoid the thought or sight of him altogether.
She skimmed over the table of contents in front of her, running a finger down the page as she went. The textbook was still too advanced for her, but she was following a gut feeling she was having. They'd not discussed the potion she was looking for in Potions class yet, but she'd read about it in passing in other texts. Enough to get a general idea of what it looked like. She was sure she wasn't misremembering, but because it was such a serious accusation to make, even in her own head, she wanted to see it in black and white before she made any assumptions.
She found it near the end and flipped through the book to the page, holding her breath as she tried to find the page she needed. Something Harry had said about Professor Lupin had caused something to click into place. It had been only something that he'd mentioned in passing — that Professor Lupin had said he'd chosen a terrible time of the month to fall ill — and it shouldn't have triggered anything for her. If anyone else had said the same thing, she would have simply moved on. But she couldn't ignore the inkling. He was sick often.
And when Harry had said the word 'terrible time of the month to fall ill', it had made her realize that Lupin was often ill at least once a month. It was an odd pattern of sicknesses, one after exactly thirty days. She knew because she always color coded her planner for classes and each day someone had subbed for Lupin, she had colored the day as red. She had already coincided the days with her star chart. The moons matched up with the days. What had seemed like random bouts of fatigue matched the cycle as well.
She knew.
She knew she did. But she still needed to see it for herself. She could come up with a thousand coincidences for why someone would fall ill once a month and maybe the specific moon had nothing to do with it. The potion Harry had mentioned seeing when Snape had come into the office when he'd been speaking with Lupin was the last piece of the puzzle.
She'd known even when he'd described it to her. Known before he'd even asked her for help with the werewolf essay that he'd never even had time to write fully because of his Quidditch accident. It was the blue smoke that had clued her in. It wasn't the only potion to present blue smoke, but it was a particularly difficult potion to brew and was rendered useless by adding sugar. Too much to ignore. She'd ignored the signs once before and Ginny Weasley had almost died because of it.
This hardly felt even half as dire, but she still needed to know. Knowledge was power. It was control. And she liked being in control.
She stared at the page in front of her, the words taking a while to sink into her brain as she read them over and over again. She'd known. And she hadn't been wrong.
Professor Lupin was a werewolf.
She ran a hand over her face, trying to sort through her emotions at this revelation. She closed the book with a snap and leaned back into her chair, staring off into the distance with a thoughtful look.
She wasn't a hypocrite. She'd told Harry that being a werewolf was no big deal in the grand scheme of things. Well, to her anyway, because she was sure that being a werewolf would, in fact, be a very big deal.
But in terms of being near one? No, not a big deal. Not any day other than the full moon anyway. And Dumbledore clearly knew of his condition. Otherwise why would Snape be brewing Wolfsbane Potion every month? It certainly wasn't out of the kindness of his heart because he clearly had a strong distaste for the DADA teacher.
Professor Lupin was taking every precaution he should be taking in order to teach around children. And now the rest of it made much more sense to her. Why he always looked so exhausted at the end of every month, why he disappeared, why he looked so tattered compared to the other teachers. Why that shadow had crossed his face when McLaggen had said that werewolves were his biggest fear.
She felt a pang of sadness at the thought. She liked Professor Lupin. More than she'd liked any teacher before him. He reminded her a little of herself — quiet, kind, academic. She could only imagine what it must be like to hide such a huge part of yourself for the fear of being judged or persecuted. To have to come to terms with the condition and overcome the prejudices that came with it. To not let the opinions of others cloud what he believed about himself because the condition was such a small part of what made him a person, but had the power to impact so much.
She really hoped he was not too hard on himself for the condition. Wizards were so cruel, but he seemed like such a kind soul. It would be a great sadness to see someone like him suffer because of something he couldn't control.
"You're deep in thought, Potter."
She gasped loudly and jumped, nearly falling backwards in her chair as it teetered precariously from the sudden movement. Heart racing, she looked up to see a grinning Cedric Diggory, looking at her with a stack of Potions books in his arms.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," he said, setting his stack of books on the other side of the table and sitting across from her. "I thought you would have heard me coming. I dropped a book on my foot and may have used some unsavory language."
"Oh, uh, I wasn't paying a load of attention, honestly," she admitted, shifting uncomfortably and refusing to make eye contact with him. "Er — are you alright?"
He grinned at her.
"I'm fine," he said and then raised an eyebrow at her. "You never told me how Harry was doing."
She cleared her throat uncomfortably. She had not. Even though she'd seen him several times since he'd come to the hospital wing to check on Harry. He was very attractive up close and his interest in speaking with her directly made her more than a little nervous. And explaining that to him now also made her nervous.
"No, I — Sorry," she said sheepishly. "He's okay though. You know, for the most part. He's been a bit bent out of shape that we lost. And that he fainted because of the dementors. Which, y'know, I don't think he'd really appreciate me telling you so pretend I didn't say that. I don't know why I said that. I'm rambling, I'm sorry."
His eyebrows were clear into his hairline now, but he was smiling at her in amusement and she tried not to notice how flushed her face now felt.
"Don't worry. I think it's cute," he said, smile turning into a grin when she flushed darker and refused to make eye contact with him. "But anyway, I am sorry. About the game, I mean. I wish I had noticed what was happening —"
"It's not your fault," she said softly. "You were doing your job. I'm sure when you're flying, there isn't much else you're able to focus on."
God, what was she saying? Was this conversation as awkward as it felt? She should go. Come up with some excuse to leave and make a run for it. Except she was panicking so much internally that she couldn't think of a valid excuse.
Cedric didn't seem at all aware of her internal panic. Or at least he didn't say anything if he did.
"Do you fly?"
"No," she said, laughing uncomfortably. "I, uh, I can't fly."
"You can't."
She rolled her eyes at his widening grin.
"No, I can't," she said huffily. He looked like he was trying not to laugh. "I'm surprised you haven't heard. Tori loves telling everyone about our first flying lesson."
"It's ringing a bell," he admitted. "She didn't tell me, though. Riley told me, I think. I forgot that it was you." Riley. The Hufflepuff she'd hit with the broom. She should have paid him not to say anything. "Brooms can sense the way you're feeling, you know."
"Please tell me you aren't about to give me a flying lesson, Diggory."
He laughed.
"Cedric," he corrected. "And no. If I were going to give you a flying lesson, we'd be on the pitch. We can save that for another day —"
"Not likely," she said hastily, but he grinned and continued on.
"I'm just saying that it was as much the broom as it was you," he said. "If it knows you're nervous, it tends to be a bit more difficult to handle. You should try again when you're calmer."
"Calmer," she scoffed. "You clearly don't know me very well —"
"We could remedy that, Potter."
She continued talking as if she hadn't heard him because she had no idea what to say to that. He seemed to find her nervousness around him more amusing than disappointing and she wasn't sure if that was relieving or irritating. Partially relieving because she wasn't sure if her awkwardness was coming off as rude and she didn't want him to think he'd done anything wrong. Partially irritating because it meant she had to keep thinking of things to say that wouldn't clue him into her social anxiety.
"And besides, I'm not sure that the words 'flying' and 'calm' really go very well together with me. I'm afraid of heights. Or falling. Or maybe it's the same thing, I don't really know." She sighed at herself because she could feel the urge to ramble again. "Sorry, I — I'm not very good at the whole talking thing. Tori and the twins kind of take care of most of that for me."
He laughed.
"Stop apologizing, it doesn't bother me," he said gently. "Besides, it's kind of nice. Most of the time I can't get a word in edgewise when I talk to a girl."
She tried very hard not to roll her eyes, but based on his widening smile, she assumed the urge showed on her face.
"Yes, that must be very difficult for you," she said, sarcastically.
"I'm surprised you don't agree. I heard you telling Ginny Weasley you wished I'd stop coming to the library so that my 'fan club' wouldn't distract you from studying."
She stared at him in shock for a second before closing her mouth with a snap.
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
He laughed and stood, grabbing his books again.
"Look, I've got to go finish this Potions essay. I don't need Snape threatening to poison me again. But don't be a stranger, alright? I promise not to bring my fan club with me." He grinned as he backed away. "Or maybe you can scare them off for me. Your choice."
She laughed despite herself and felt her stomach lurch when his grin widened so much that his eyes crinkled.
"Goodbye, Cedric."
-o0o-
Nessa was still reeling from her interaction with Cedric Diggory when she entered the fourth-year girls' dormitory later that night. Between finding out one of her professors was a werewolf and trying to decipher if Cedric was flirting with her or just trying to befriend her, she could really use a quiet night with a book. Maybe a bath and a book.
She stopped abruptly as she entered. There was no one else in the dorm except for Tori, who was sitting on her bed with a box full of what appeared to be photographs, silently crying.
"Tori?"
Tori jumped and wiped at her eyes immediately before relaxing when she noticed Nessa in the doorway.
"Merlin, Nessa, I thought you were Katie," she said in relief.
"What are you doing? Are you okay?"
"Yes, I — I'm fine." she said quietly, starting to put the pictures back in the box.
Nessa walked forward to look at what she was looking at. They were photographs — old ones. Of a little girl with curly black hair and gray eyes. She couldn't have been more than two years old and had not grown all of her teeth, but Nessa assumed it was Tori. The eyes were bright in a way she was familiar with.
"Is this you?" she asked her, lifting one of the pictures to look at more closely. Tori paused in putting the pictures away and sighed sadly, relaxing back onto the headboard, pulling a stack of them back toward herself.
"Yeah," she said, smiling sadly at another photo in her hand. "They didn't touch any of the photos when they came for her. Molly and Arthur packed all of the ones they could find."
Nessa swallowed hard because she didn't know what to say to that. They'd only ever talked about her mother in passing. Only enough to explain why she lived with the Weasleys and not much more. She considered maybe leaving her to be by herself to look at something so personal, but Tori just looked so…painfully wistful. The yearning in her face made her hesitate. She was intimately familiar with that look and even if they didn't particularly enjoy talking about their trauma, Tori hadn't expressly asked her to leave her alone either.
Hesitating a moment longer, she walked around to draw the tapestry around Tori's foreposter, just in case one of their dormmates came in and found her crying like she had. She pushed some of the stack to the side and took a seat next to her best friend, leaning back against the headboard to match her position and grabbed a stack of photos to flip through.
Tori's mother was beyond beautiful. She could have been a model in a different world. She had the same roundness to her face as Tori, had the same confident set of her chin as her daughter, the same flirtatious sparkle in her eye. The sort of hourglass figure that most women, including Nessa, would have killed for.
Carla Hastings was a knock-out in the same way her daughter was now. Waist-length bleach-blonde hair that was twig-straight and sea-blue eyes that were framed by the longest, thickest eyelashes Nessa had ever seen. It was almost unfair how gorgeous she was. Almost hurt her eyes to look at her when she smiled and waved into the camera. She had the same smile as her daughter did too. An uninhibited, open sort of joy, especially when she looked at her daughter.
For all of their similarities, Tori could not look any different than her mother in terms of physical characteristics. Black hair, so curly that Carla would have needed a perm to mimic the locks. Heavy lidded, gray eyes that were the color of storm clouds as opposed to the color of the sea. A strong jaw that gave her a sort of arrogant-looking confidence.
"She's stunning, isn't she?" said Tori when Nessa continued staring at the photo in her hand and didn't flip through them. "I showed Fred once and he told me it was a real shame she was too old for him or he'd be 'all over that.'"
Nessa snorted and closed her eyes, shaking her head in amusement.
"Someone should really talk to him about his complete lack of tact."
"It's fine," Tori said with a smirk. "I told him I saw some pictures of Arthur when he was younger and I have some daddy issues, so —"
"I hope you were joking because I'll be sick right now, Victoria."
Tori laughed loudly.
"Of course I was. I've never seen Fred look so green before, so I have no regrets, even if I did give myself nightmares."
"The two of you have serious issues."
Tori was smiling fondly, as she continued flipping through the stack of photos in her hands.
"He was just trying to keep me from crying. He hates it when I cry."
Nessa looked at her best friend for a moment and considered asking a far more personal question about her relationship with Fred. They had such an odd relationship with each other — bickering out of sheer enjoyment in doing so, but he was still somehow the only person who could bring her back down about her mother. Constantly somewhere in between insulting each other and so fond of each other that they were cuddling or whispering to each other as if they were the only two people in the world.
Maybe she just hadn't put much stock in it before because she'd been so wrapped up in her issues with George and worrying about Harry, but ignoring George so much put her in the position of watching the two of them together much more often. George had said that their bickering or wrestling or…whatever it was had gotten worse over the summer, but Nessa wasn't sure she agreed.
When they did bicker or intentionally irritate each other, it was certainly more intense than it had been the year prior— they'd been bickering the other day about how Tori needed to watch her 'big clown feet' when they were at practice because she'd nearly kicked him in the head. Tori had said she was trying to do it on purpose because she wanted to knock his brain cells back into place before he took off her head with a Bludger he shouldn't have hit in her direction. Fred had then — very stupidly in Nessa's opinion — told her that hitting her with a Bludger was the only way he could get her to shut up and that maybe she'd be less of a pain in his ass if she weren't so obnoxious.
It was a harsh word to use. Tori hated when people told her she was obnoxious. Particularly men. She'd always said it made her feel like she had to dim her personality somehow to be of any interest to them. To make herself less than what she was. Nessa was sure Fred had known this when he'd said it because the moment the words had left his mouth, he'd looked like he wanted to hit himself. Tori had thrown everything within reach at his head and stormed off near tears. Nessa had never actually seen Fred look so…devastated.
Aside from the intensity of their arguments, however, Nessa thought that they actually bickered much less. Whether this was because of her and George being on such shaky terms or because they were simply growing out of the habit, Nessa wasn't entirely sure. They could still push each other's buttons easier than any other person in the world, but they were also just so…impassioned with each other? Earnest? Engrossed? Emotionally invested?
She really wasn't sure of the word to use to describe their relationship in a way that made sense. They were just simply so 'all in' with each other. She wasn't entirely sure she'd ever seen the two of them as passionate with anything as they were with each other.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Tori said, eyeing her warily.
Nessa jumped and looked away from her.
"Sorry, nothing," she said abruptly. "I was just lost in thought."
Whatever they were to each other, she'd let the two of them figure it out. Saying something was only likely to freak Tori out.
Tori looked like she was going to press her some more, so Nessa flipped through the photos in front of her for something random to say to distract her.
"You never said you had a dog."
It was a stupid thing to say. She wasn't even sure Tori remembered much of her time with her mother, although she had been nearly six when her mother had been murdered. Surprisingly, though, the change of topic seemed to work.
"What dog?" she said, her brows furrowed in confusion.
Nessa leaned over to show her the photo she was looking at. As of any photo within the Wizarding World, the photo was moving. She had no idea who was taking the picture, but a very small Tori was being licked excessively by a large, black dog. The dog was actually quite massive — maybe even the size of a bear, but that may have been an overreaction. Nessa was not entirely sure that if she saw a dog like that in real life that she wouldn't be a little terrified, except for the fact that it was clearly sweet. He was a large, shaggy thing, but his tail was wagging rapidly and his mouth was split as close to a grin as she'd ever seen a dog get, as the little girl in front of him laughed so hard at the attention that her face turned red. Her mother sat behind her, watching the two of them fondly together.
"Hmm," Tori said, clearly intrigued as she took the photo out of her hands and eyed it closely. She flipped it over. "It only says 1979 on the back. I don't remember a dog, honestly. Maybe it was one of mum's friends' dogs."
Nessa continued flipping through the photos in front of her. Tori and Carla at a park on the swings. Tori toddling after a line of colored bubbles that Carla was controlling with her wand. Tori throwing a tantrum so intense that there was a little storm cloud above her head. Carla feeding Tori what looked to be mushy peas. Nessa watched this one for a while. Carla was pretending the spoon was an airplane, but when the spoon went into baby Tori's mouth, her face scrunched in disgust. Tori hated peas.
"I never knew you had any of these pictures." Nessa said honestly after a moment of flipping through the photos.
Tori sighed and set her own stack down on the bed between them.
"I don't look at them much," she admitted quietly. "Not as often as I probably should, I mean. Molly said my mum would have wanted me to have them. To remember her, I mean. Mostly I just kind of pretend that she didn't exist at all just to avoid the pain of it. Do you think that makes me a horrible person?"
"Of course not," Nessa said without hesitation. She was guilty of doing the same thing herself. "I think it makes you human, Tori. I don't think any of us would really want to be reminded of something like this." Tori didn't look entirely convinced. "Why are you looking at them now?"
She tensed, but sighed heavily, closing her eyes and tilting her head back onto the headboard. There was a long moment of silence and Nessa wondered if she was going to avoid answering entirely.
"The dementors," she said eventually. "I hate hearing her like that. There's just…there's so much screaming. They — they wanted her to tell them where I was. Said they heard from some informant that she and my dad had had a kid and they wanted her to watch as they took everything from her before they killed her too."
Nessa choked on a sob. Such cruelty. She truly did not understand it.
"'That's — God, Tori, I'm so sorry, that's horrible." she said honestly.
Tori cleared her throat and kept talking. Her voice quavered as she continued speaking, but she spoke quickly, as if she couldn't stop talking now that she'd started.
"She was muggle-born. They kept calling her a Mudblood over and over and telling her that she defiled the pureblood line by having me. I assume my dad was a pureblood based on that, though Molly and Arthur won't tell me who he was. They insist they don't know, but Molly and mum were close before she died, so I don't think I believe them." She heaved a sigh again and then cleared her throat once more. "Anyway, she refused to tell them where I was. No matter what they did to her."
"You — you heard the whole thing?" Nessa asked, trying to hold back tears because she wasn't sure if Tori would appreciate them.
Tori shook her head.
"Not all of it," she said softly. "She'd put a Silencing Charm on the room when they were trying to break in. I don't think she wanted me to hear. To be afraid of what was happening. But the screaming — she was — I mean, it was….loud. I guess the sound sort of broke the charm apart. I don't really know how long I was in there before it did. It felt like forever, but I was so young, it could have been only a few minutes."
It was so unfair. All of it. That Tori didn't have a mother. That she'd had to listen to the hatred they'd spewed at her mother and been able to do nothing. That she'd have to live the rest of her life with that sort of memory in the back of her head. She'd have killed Voldemort herself just to prevent her best friend from knowing that kind of pain.
"I hear my parents too," she said suddenly. Because there were truly no words she could say that would give her friend any idea of how horrible the experience must have been. That could have conveyed the level of sorrow the words brought her. That would make anything about the experience at all soothing. "I mean, it's mostly mum. He – he killed dad pretty quickly. Before he even had time to defend himself. But mum begged him for a while to kill her instead of Harry."
Tori was looking at her now with a mixture of compassion and a sort of grim understanding passing between them. She sighed heavily and rested her head on Nessa's shoulder.
"I'd kill him for you, y'know," she said. The words were soft, but there was a conviction behind them that made Nessa smile despite the darkness that still lingered in the room.
"Funny, I was just thinking the same thing about you," she said.
Tori laughed lightly.
"We really are just a match made in heaven, aren't we?"
"Two peas in a pod," Nessa agreed with a grin.
Tori scoffed.
"I hate peas," she said childishly. "I don't want to be a pea." Nessa rolled her eyes at the ridiculousness of the statement. "But I'm still depressed, so tell me something that will cheer me up."
Nessa thought for a moment and then settled on something that she knew would be of great distraction to her best friend. She hesitated despite herself because admitting it out loud would surely cause her a load of problems in the future.
"I think Cedric Diggory was flirting with me earlier," she said quickly before she could convince herself not to.
Tori's head shot up from her shoulder so quickly that she nearly cracked their heads together. Nessa did not like the excitement on her face. Not one bit.
"Are you serious?" she said, bouncing on her bed excitedly. "Please tell me you're being serious."
"Why would a person lie about something like that?" said Nessa with an eye roll.
Tori squealed so loud that Nessa covered her ears and looked at her in alarm. Yes, she definitely should not have said anything.
"Oh my Merlin, I have actually never been so happy in all my life," Tori said excitedly. Nessa wasn't even sure she'd even seen Tori so excited about her own love life. "What happened? You have to tell me everything."
"I don't know if I want to," said Nessa hesitantly. "You're way too excited about this."
Tori rolled her eyes.
"Nessa, you have never had a single boyfriend —"
"Neither have you!"
"That's different," said Tori, waving a hand dismissively. "I don't want a boyfriend. I've had plenty of opportunities but I'm too busy for a boyfriend —"
"More like you have commitment issues," said Nessa with an eye roll. Tori ignored her completely.
"But you haven't even snogged anyone yet. And you could use a good snog, Nessa. You're wound very tight, you know."
Nessa made an indignant noise.
"I am not!"
"Please, Vanessa," said Tori seriously. "The only other person in the world who could use a snog more than you is Hermione. And maybe Percy. Although, he's been getting some already, so maybe he's beyond help at this point."
"That's the second time this year someone has compared me to Percy," she said angrily. "I'm going to develop a complex."
Tori snorted.
"Quit being dramatic and tell me about Diggory."
"There's not much to tell," said Nessa huffily. "He came into the library and started asking about Harry. I started rambling because he's — well he's very attractive, isn't he?"
"I'd climb him like a tree, yes," said Tori seriously.
Nessa burst out laughing.
"Tori!"
"I won't," she assured. "Not when he's clearly so interested in you anyway. Now keep going."
Nessa rolled her eyes.
"I was rambling and then got anxious about rambling and said sorry and he said something about it being cute —" Tori started bouncing again "- and then we were talking about flying and I told him I can't and started rambling again about the heights and the falling or if it was the same thing, y'know, because I'm awkward and I don't know what I'm supposed to be saying to him. So I apologized again for acting like I didn't really want to talk to him and he said — okay and don't freak out here, Victoria — but he said that he didn't mind because he usually can't get a word in edgewise when he talks to other girls." Tori grinned at her like a lunatic, but managed to keep the majority of her excitement to herself. " And then he left because he had to do some Potions essay and told me to come find him later. Or not to be a stranger. Or something like that, I can't really remember completely."
"Are you going to?" Tori asked. "Find him, I mean."
"I don't know," said Nessa, chewing on her lip. "I mean, he's nice and attractive and he doesn't seem all that turned off about me being such a spaz, but if I go and 'find him' or whatever, it sort of feels like I'm agreeing to something."
Tori rolled her eyes.
"You overthink everything, Vanessa," she said seriously. "You aren't agreeing to anything, except a friendly conversation. Maybe some harmless flirting. He didn't ask you on a date."
"He isn't asking me out of a desire to be just friends though, is he?"
"Well, no, but —"
"And I don't know. If I seek him out like he wants me to, wouldn't I be sort of leading him on into believing that I could be interested in whatever he's interested in?"
Tori eyed her for a moment in contemplation.
"Well, are you?"
"I don't — I mean, I don't know," said Nessa in frustration. "I mean, it's flattering, but with everything with George —"
"Okay, no, stop," Tori said firmly. "George has nothing to do with it. You either want to see what happens with Diggory or you don't."
"It's not that simple, Tori. I still fancy George — God knows why because he's such a prat — and I don't want to confuse Diggory by letting him think that he has a chance if he doesn't."
Tori sighed.
"Look, Nessa, I can't convince you to do anything, but I think you should do it. Diggory is a big boy and nothing has to happen between the two of you unless you want it to. You can't keep pining after George when he's clearly too stupid to do anything about it." Tori smirked. "Besides, it will make George jealous and I think that could be fun."
"That's a horrible thing to say, Tori," said Nessa, even though there was a vindictive part of her that enjoyed the thought. "And even worse to do because I'd be leading on one guy just to get back at another. Besides, I don't want to make George jealous."
"Really?" said Tori incredulously. "Is that why you've been pretending to flirt with Fred every time George is around?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
Tori snorted.
"I always thought that they'd end up killing each other with one of their stupid jokes. Imagine explaining to Molly that it was really because of you."
Nessa rolled her eyes and climbed out of the bed to make her way over to her own.
"They aren't going to kill each other," she said drily. "Although it is fun to think about."
Tori threw a pillow at her.
"Don't make me stick my nose in your business, Vanessa. Talk to Diggory."
-o0o-
Tori's past hurts me a little. Or a lot, honestly.
Up next: Fred gets fed up with George, Cedric has a proposal, and George is smug