Chapter Twenty-Seven

The End of the Road

Mia's back felt very stiff when she woke up the next morning and Lily told her she had a huge bruise between her shoulder blades, but apart from that there was no lasting damage. Physically, that was; Mia had come away from the Quidditch match beginning to wonder whether her relationship with Reuben was working out. She hadn't quite realised how much she was not over how Reuben had handled the Javan situation, and had hated the way Reuben had been with JJ last night.

Mia passed Reuben very briefly in the corridors at Break, but otherwise didn't see him until after dinner in the Gryffindor Common Room. When Mia came upstairs, she found him sat in a corner, the little table in front of him covered in books, deeply engrossed in an essay.

"Have you even had dinner?" Mia asked, picking up a book on the chair beside Reuben so she could sit down. Reuben showed no sign of having heard her, not even glancing up from his essay. "Reu?" Mia said, and this time Reuben looked up.

"Sorry, what did you say?" he said.

"I just asked if you'd even been to dinner," Mia said.

"Nope – gotta do this," Reuben said shortly.

"You should probably eat something," Mia told him.

"Yeah, well, I haven't got time," Reuben snapped.

"Alright, no need to bite my head off," Mia said, holding both hands up in mock surrender. The book she'd been holding slid off her lap onto the floor and snapped shut.

"Oh, Mia!" Reuben said. He bent down to pick up the book. "Now you've lost my page."

"Sorry," Mia said. "It was an accident. Why don't you get something to eat – your essay will still be here when you get back."

"No time," Reuben said shortly.

"Everyone else has had to make time to look after themselves," Mia reasoned.

"Yeah, well, we can't all be stupid little fourth years with all the time in the world," Reuben snapped. There was a pause and then Reuben spoke again. "Sorry, Mia, that was rude," he said. "I'm just so snowed under right now – didn't get anything done last night because of Quidditch practice – but that doesn't give me the right to bite your head off like that. I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Mia said. "Come on, let's get you something to eat and then take a walk – you'll be able to focus so much better with a full stomach and a clear head."

Reuben shook his head. "Thanks, Mia, but I just need to get on."

He kissed her – dismissively, Mia thought – and turned back to his essay. Mia got up and joined Matilda and Emma by the fire, a move she quickly regretted as Matilda just wanted to talk endlessly about the Fashion Show. Mia still hadn't sorted her costume for the fast approaching Fashion Show. She thought Mac had had the right idea when he'd offered to present the thing.

As she got dressed the next morning, Mia realised she still hadn't found her HEC badge. She could have just bought a new one from Mac but felt that it went against the premise of an environmental club to buy something new when, for all she knew, the old one was still out there somewhere.

She spent a few minutes searching the dormitory to no avail. When she got down to the Common Room Mia found she was still quite early for breakfast so decided to have a look around Gryffindor Tower for her badge.

"What are you looking for?"

Mia looked up from where she was knelt by the fire, peering under the sofa, and saw Reuben coming down the stairs from the boys' dormitories.

"My HEC badge," Mia said. "I can't find it anywhere. I think I'm going to have to ask Mac to make me a new one."

"This?" Reuben asked. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a familiar looking badge.

"Yes!" Mia said, running across the room and kissing him. "Where did you find it?"

"I can't remember," Reuben shrugged. "Somewhere around here, couple of days ago. I didn't know it was yours – just held onto it in case I found the owner."

"Well, you've found her," Mia grinned, pinning the badge to her robes. "Now Matilda won't kill me tonight."

"You have a HEC meeting tonight?" Reuben asked as the two of them walked down to breakfast together. "I thought they were on Fridays."

"Normally, yeah, but they've moved this one because of Valentine's," Mia explained. "Want to come?"

"No thanks," Reuben said. "I'll support the uniform sale and come down and plant a tree or two, but I think my Thursday evening will be better spent doing my Defence Against the Dark Arts homework than listening to Matilda compare greenhouses to slavery."

"Fair enough," Mia grinned.

Mia and Reuben had breakfast together at the Gryffindor table and were soon joined by Samuel and Kyle. The four of them talked Quidditch over porridge and toast, until a lull in conversation where Samuel said,

"Hey Mia, are you aware your Hippogriff has um... genitalia?"

"What?" Mia said, very confused. Was this some kind of code?

"On your badge," Samuel said, pointing.

Mia unpinned her HEC badge from her robes so she could look at it properly. Sure enough, the Hippogriff which had become the club's logo now had a phallic addition.

"That's not how Mac drew it!" Mia said. "Someone must have... edited it. Was it you, Reu?"

"No," Reuben said defensively. "Why would I waste time on something as stupid as that?"

"Alright, I wasn't accusing you – I was just asking," Mia said quickly. "Well, I'd better not wear that anymore." As Mia put the badge away in her pocket, a nagging voice asked her why Reuben had got so defensive if he hadn't tampered with the badge.


By the time Mia sat down next to Reuben at dinner on Valentine's Day, she knew what she needed to do.

"Hey, Reuben, can we go for a walk?" she asked.

"What, before dinner?" Reuben asked. "I'm starving."

"Please," Mia said.

"Alright," Reuben agreed, getting to his feet.

They walked outside into the darkness. The snow seemed to have finally stopped falling but it still crunched underfoot and lay in drifts.

"So... what did you want to talk about?" Reuben asked after several minutes of walking in silence.

Mia stopped walking, turned to face Reuben and took a deep breath. "I think we should break up," she said.

"What?" Reuben looked genuinely surprised, which threw Mia slightly. In the last few days, she'd become more and more convinced that things weren't working out, and had been sure that Reuben had to feel the same, at least to some extent.

"Can you honestly say you're happy right now, Reuben?" Mia asked. "It seems like all we do lately is argue – that or make up after an argument, or prepare for the next one."

Reuben considered for a moment. Then he began to count the arguments off on his fingers: "Javan, the tickling on Monday, JJ and the Bludger, when you tried to make me eat dinner, yesterday morning with the badge... yeah, I see what you mean."

"So...?" Mia said tentatively.

Reuben sighed. "Maybe you're right. Things have been tense between us for a while. I guess I'm used to arguing all the time because that's what my parents do but I know it's not normal, or healthy. I do really like you, though, Mia."

"I really like you too," Mia said, taking his hands. "But maybe because we care about each other, we have to do the right thing and break up, so we can both be happier."

"You make a lot of good points," Reuben sighed. "Maybe we need to just focus on our studies and Quidditch for a while. I know I'm struggling to keep on top of everything at the moment and that's only going to get worse as my OWLs get closer."

"I know it's a cliché but do you think we can stay friends?" Mia ventured.

"I think so," Reuben said. "We're not breaking up in some massive screaming match, and we'll have to at least be civil to each other because of Quidditch. And... if things were meant to be between us, perhaps the Universe will bring us back together at the right time."

"The Universe?" Mia queried.

Reuben shrugged. "The Universe, magic, G-d, I don't know. So, this is the end of the road, huh? Mia Dursley and Reuben Goldstein are two single people."

"Yeah..."

Reuben gave Mia's hands a final squeeze and then let go. "I'm going to walk for a bit – see you around."

And he turned and walked off into the darkness, in the direction of the lake. Mia walked back up to the castle, trying to work out how she was feeling. She knew it had been the right thing to do, but a part of her still wished she hadn't broken up with Reuben.

Mia didn't feel like going back to the Great Hall which was sure to be full of couples. She hesitated in the Entrance Hall, wondering what to do. She knew from Cassie where the entrance to the kitchens was and how to get in; the Hufflepuff girl had often got food from the house elves to eat in her dormitory as a first year so she could do her homework with a dicta-quill because she couldn't read or write.

Making her mind up, Mia headed down the steps which led to Hufflepuff's basement common room. She walked down the brightly lit corridor, searching for the painting of a bowl of fruit which she knew concealed the entrance to the kitchens. It didn't take Mia long to find the right picture. It seemed a bit weird to be tickling a painting of a pear, but tickle it she did. The pear giggled and then tuned into a handle. Slowly, Mia opened the door. Although Cassie had told her the house elves loved having students visit to be fed, she still felt like she shouldn't really be here.

Stepping into the cavernous room, Mia looked around in awe. The room was easily as large as the Great Hall and full of perhaps a hundred house elves all bustling about. When Mia came in, a few of the ones nearest to her stopped to look at her, but most of them carried on with their work.

"Good evening, miss!" squeaked the nearest house elf. "What can Binky do for miss?"

"Hi, I'm Mia – I'm friends with Cassie," Mia said shyly. She'd never met a house elf before.

It seemed she'd hit on the magic words. The elves' demeanour had been polite and respectful before, but as Mia said Cassie's name that was replaced with warm friendliness.

"Any friend of Miss Cassie's is a friend of ourses," another elf said fervently, and several more elves nodded in agreement.

"Would Miss Mia like the same as Miss Cassie – a romantic picnic basket for two?" Binky suggested.

"Uh, no thanks," Mia said awkwardly. "I've just broken up with my boyfriend, so... I was just after some food so I didn't have to go back to the Great Hall," she explained.

"We knows exactly what you needs," said an elf with a knowing look.

Instantly, the elves sprang into action like a well-oiled machine. Before Mia could say anything else, they were packing food into a basket. Sausages, mashed potato and gravy all went into a bowl ("The bowl is charmed to keep the foods warm until Miss Mia eats them," Binky explained.) and were joined in the basket by a flask of hot chocolate and a bottle of lemonade, as well as the largest slice of chocolate cake Mia had ever seen.

"Does Miss Mia needs anything else?" Binky enquired, handing Mia the basket.

"No thanks – this is great," Mia said. "Thank you so much."

"If you leaves the basket somewhere, we will finds it," said another elf.

"Miss Mia is welcome to come back anytime," Binky said, bowing low.

Mia thanked the elves again and headed back out into the corridor. She met nobody on her way upstairs, although she decided against taking a passage hidden behind a tapestry when she heard giggling coming from it.

"Cupid's arrow," Mia said dully to the Fat Lady as she reached the portrait on the seventh floor.

"You could sound a bit happier about it," the Fat Lady told her.

"Are you going to let me in, or what?" Mia demanded.

The Fat Lady tutted and muttered, "Manners these days!" under her breath but swung forward to admit Mia to Gryffindor Tower. There weren't as many people in the Gryffindor Common Room as usual. Mia knew all the first and third years would be at the Big Sibling – Little Sibling party, whilst most of the others were still at dinner, or else in the Inter-House Common Room, or finding deserted corners to snog in. Mia decided she'd still rather not be around people and so headed up to her dormitory, which was mercifully empty.

Mia sat down on her bed and unpacked both her dinner and school bag. She worked as she ate, managing to make a good start on a History of Magic essay and finish some drawings for Care of Magical Creatures. She went to bed early, but was still wide awake when the others came in, whispering and giggling at about eleven o'clock.

"Mia? Are you awake?" Lily asked in a voice which she seemed to think was a whisper. Mia didn't reply, not really wanting to talk to her friend right now.

"She must be asleep," Frankie whispered. "Lily, where did you and Mac get to? You were out way past curfew – I thought you were going to be busted for sure."

"None of your business," Lily giggled.

There were a few more stifled giggles and whispered conversations as the four of them got ready for bed, and then eventually silence fell. Mia still lay awake for what felt like hours before she finally fell asleep.