Chapter 7: Crushes

I make it through another month of boring school. It is finally almost Halloween. I write home at least once every week. Sometimes more depending on what happens. I'm sitting in the common room with Draco working on homework.

"Hey Draco," I say.

"Yeah?" He replies, looking up from his potions essay.

"Remember how I told you that I like girls, not boys?"

"Yeah! Why?" He says.

"I umm- I think that I like a girl in my dorm." I say sheepishly.

"Who?" He asks me, shocked.

"Umm, Audrey." He looks shocked.

"Um- w-wow!" He says nervously. "I honestly didn't think that you would like her with how rude she was to you yesterday and the day before."

"I know right!" I laugh. "It's really funny." I go back to my homework for another hour. I say goodnight to Draco, grab the girls, and we run up to the dorm to gossip about the week. We always gossip on Friday nights because curfew moves to 9:30 instead of 8:35.

"Okay. Time for weekly gossip night!" Mikayla says with enthusiasm. We pull out the snacks that we smuggled from the Great Hall, and put them on the floor in the middle of our circle.

"Who wants to choose the starting topic this week?" Audrey asks. Ever since she talked to me about what's going on with her, she's been a lot more friendly to us. No one answers her question. "I personally, wanna talk about… wait for it… CRUSHES!!!!" She finally squeals out. I get uncomfortable as soon as she says that. I don't want to accidentally out myself.

"Yess!!!!" Paiyton squeals back at Audrey. "Okay, Okay, I'll start!" She says pointing at herself. "My crush isss…" A moment passes. "A gryffindor. His name is Dean Thomas! He is sooo cute!" She says while falling backwards onto her back, her arms spread out.

"Girl. Really?! A Gryffindor? You know that we are basically the devil according to the Gryffindors right?" Ainsley rambles.

"Yeah… but that doesn't mean that the boys aren't cute!" Paiyton says in defense of herself. "Okay, Mikayla, you're next!"

"Ughhhh fiiiiiine." Mikayla groans back. "I like…" She sits there for a minute. "Actually… I don't think that I've liked anyone here yet. I liked a boy named Sammy at my primary school back home."

"Wait!!!" Paiyton says. "You haven't liked anyone here?!! That's actually crazy. Not even an older boy??"

"Nope. Nobody. Nada. Nothing." Mikayla says back.

"Dang. That's kinda depressing." Paiyton laughs. "Mikayla, you pick someone to go now."

"Hmmmmmm… I want… Ainsley to go next."

"I like…" Ainsley starts.

"I LIKE GIRLS!!!" I blurt out loudly. Everyone's heads whip to look at me. "I've always liked girls. Never boys. I know that it's not technically 'socially acceptable' but I like them. I can't help it!" I ramble on. "I know that you guys might not be comfortable with me in here now but I promise that I won't try anything okay?!" I start to cry right there. Everyone sits in silence for a few minutes, shocked. Even I am shocked. I can't believe that I just came out to four people.

"Damn." Audrey says. "That's kinda sick!" She's grinning at me.

"It's called being a lesbian. But only girls who like girls are lesbians. If a boy likes a boy, they are just called 'gays'." I say awkwardly.

"Cool!." Ainsley says.

"Yeah!" I reply. I glance up at the other girls and Paiyton has gone quiet. "Oh No." I think. "She thinks that I'm gross and weird and will never talk to me again." I cry in my head. Paiyton gets up quickly, seemingly zooms to her bed and closes her curtains.

"What's her problem?" Mikayla asks, looking at Paiyton's bed.

"I dunno." I shrug. I look at the clock in the dorm. It's 9:10.

Audrey follows my eyes and says, "We should probably get ready for bed now." I nod my head in agreement and walk over to my trunk to get my pajamas.

I wake up to Paiyton's alarm once again. It's 6:00. I roll over in bed and try to go to sleep. Ultimately I don't. At 6:30 I get out of bed and shower for the day. I walk down to the common room to chill for a bit before breakfast. I check the date, and it's October 26th. "How have I been here for almost two months already?" I think.

I hear a door open and look up. It's Paiyton coming down from the dorm. She glances over at me but quickly looks away. "Hey, what was up with you last night?" I ask her.

"Nothing!" She snaps at me. I wince slightly.

"Damn you didn't need to be so rude about it." says Audrey from the dorms door. Paiyton glares at her and walks away. "What's her problem?" She says walking over to me.

"I honestly don't know." I say back. I scoot over on the couch allowing her to sit next to me. She leans back and lets her dark brown hair fall over the back of the couch. She's so pretty.

The door to the boy's dorms then opens. J and Quinn come out of it. "Hey! It's Potter!" J says.

"Hi J." I laugh, forgetting about Paiyton. "What mischief did you guys cause last night?" I ask jokingly.

"Oh you know… the usual clanging of pans and making Peeves get in trouble with Filch." Quinn answers. "Who is this?" He asks, looking at Audrey.

"I'm Audrey Everglade. First year." She replies, sitting up. "Who the fuck are you?"

"I'm J Arbutus."

"And I'm Quinn Barrows." The two of them say.

"How do you know Amilee?" J asks.

"We're roommates. What's it to you?"

Quinn laughs and elbows J. "Whatcha gonna say to that?"

We then hear tons of footsteps from either side of the common room, indicating that people have finally woken up and are coming down. "Oh shit. This place is about to get fucking crowded." J says, annoyed. I squeeze over into the corner of the couch and Audrey moves over with me. Somebody finally ignites the fire in here and the room lights up brightly. Tons of people have poured into the room. I check the clock again and see that it is now 7:45. I've been sitting here for over an hour. J and Quinn disappear into the crowd a few moments later. Audrey and I sit here for another few minutes until we hear the bell ring. We curl up on the couch and wait until the rush is over. We then get up and head back to the dorm to see if anyone else is up. Paiyton is dead asleep on her bed, while Mikayla is just now coming out of the bathroom, drying her dark hair with a towel.

"Where is Ainsley?" I ask. "Her bed is empty and we didn't see her downstairs." Mikayla shrugs her shoulders at me. After Mikayla finishes getting ready we head down to the great hall to eat some breakfast, before walking all around the grounds. Around noon, we go and meet up with Draco and some of his friends Blaise Zabini, Theodore Nott, and Pansy Parkinson.

I don't like Pansy Parkinson. She is rude to people in other houses for absolutely no reason. That isn't a good representation of us Slytherins. Not a lot of us are actually mean. But, because of the whole "all evil wizards came from slytherin" thing, we are now stereotyped to be super rude. I pull Draco to the side of the group.

"Why are you friends with Pansy?" I ask him.

"She came up to me during lunch one day and she asked me to be friends. She doesn't have any other friends except for Blaise, Theodore, and me." He tells me.

"You do know how rude she is to people, right? She literally acts like she is a fucking prefect." I say, feeling myself getting angry. My scar is starting to hurt.

"Amilee, I know! I wouldn't be friends with her if she had other friends! Her home life isn't great either. I felt bad for her when she asked to be friends. Blaise and Theo seem to like her though."

"Ugh fine. I guess I'll deal with her. For now." We go back to the group and enjoy walking through the castle for the rest of the day.