Satlynn marches into herbology determined to sit with people other than Griffin and Taman after the disaster that was first period. She cannot believe how clueless and infuriating they're being now that they have beautiful, fourth-year girlfriends. Sure, she's happy for Taman. He's liked Victoria for a long time and he really needs to get out more. However, he doesn't need to bring it up so often, especially when she's still single as fuck and Taman won't stop talking about how amazing it is that he and Griffin are both seeing these fourth-year girls. And then Griffin had the nerve to send her a note, as if she cares about one single thing he has to say.

Satlynn glances around the greenhouse. It appears that the rest of the fifth-year Gryffindors are taking their time getting to class, but Penny has already shown up and is getting out her books. Oh, God. Satlynn really didn't think she would ever sink this low, but she's going to. She's going to sit with her former best friend, Penny Prett.

"Hey, can I sit here?" Satlynn asks, taking the seat next to Penny before she actually has time to respond.

"Um...sure?" Penny says, looking at Satlynn with a bemused expression. "But isn't Taman your lab partner?"

"Ugh," Satlynn groans. "Don't remind me. Taman and Griffin are driving me insane. They had wild success with the stupid spin the bottle game yesterday, and now they have dates with Victoria Edger and Louisa Korsdahl. They won't stop talking about it, and it's just reminding me how alone I am and how no one has ever asked me out in my life."

She stops, realizing that she just ranted uncontrollably.

"Didn't Banks ask you out?" Penny asks skeptically.

"No, our 'romance' was strictly physical. We never once did anything real together," Satlynn snaps, not needing to be reminded how much of an ass Parker is.

"Oh. Sorry," Penny says, sounding surprised to hear that Satlynn has never actually gone out with anyone. "Well, try not to let Griffin and Taman get to you. They're lame as hell, anyhow."

"Are they, though? I mean, Griffin's popular now that he's a quidditch star, and Taman's a prefect now, and I guess he's got a girlfriend, too. And what do I have? I mean, I'm barely even passing charms, and that's an easy class. I feel like I'm way lamer than they are," Satlynn admits. Penny gives her a long look, like she's trying to get a read on her. It makes Satlynn very uncomfortable.

"You're not lame. You just need to do something fun. Here, why don't you come out tonight? We usually go out drinking after practice on Thursdays. I can let Candace Folwell know; she usually comes out with us, and I'm sure she'd be happy to walk with you to the village so she doesn't have to go alone," Penny explains.

Satlynn just stares at Penny for a second. She's very...okay with the concept of going out. Satlynn likes to make more of a production out of it. She needs time to prepare, and this is so spur-of-the-moment.

"Well...is Parker going to be there?" she asks.

"Oh. Well, yeah. Probably. Hey, we could do what we did last year and apparate somewhere cool. Just the girls this time. We could get cocktails and appetizers somewhere fancy, somewhere in the city," Penny suggests.

Satlynn considers. That does sound nice. She could use some girl friends other than Layla Nonette and Ziph. It does sound eerily similar to their not-so-successful (read: disastrous) night out a year ago. That was probably the last time that Satlynn spoke to Candace Folwell, who is very cool and pretty and popular and whom Penny apparently hangs out with like it's no big deal.

"Well...okay," Satlynn agrees.

"Great!" Penny says. "I'll tell Candace to meet you in the entrance hall at 6:00."

"Okay," Satlynn says, a feeling of tentative excitement bubbling in her stomach. It's been a long time since she did anything fun. Penny starts talking about what they could wear and the different glitzy restaurants she knows of, and Satlynn's so caught up in the idea of a glamorous evening that she's not even bothered when Griffin and Taman walk into the room and take their usual seats, looking a little confused to see Satlynn sitting in a different spot. They'll just have to deal with it.

Fourth period is elective period; Griffin has Care of Magical Creatures, Taman has arithmancy, and Satlynn has astronomy. Griffin still hasn't had a chance to talk to Satlynn about what happened, but he's starting to wonder if maybe they're better off that way. She seems upset with him - probably because he kissed her and then promptly made plans to go out with someone else. He supposes that's a justifiable reason to be angry, but part of him wonders if maybe she likes him.

He did catch her looking at him from across the room in Herbology this morning. But then, irritatingly, she caught him looking at her, too. He rolls his eyes in annoyance; now she probably thinks he likes her, which he clearly doesn't.

He doesn't care whether or not Satlynn likes him; it's definitely flattering when someone likes you, but Satlynn is supposed to be his friend - she doesn't need to ruin their friendship with her feelings.

But then again, he doesn't necessarily need to keep her friendship, anyway. He's gotten lucky this year; he's got his quidditch mates and the girls that are always surrounding them. He really doesn't need another friend. Satlynn really doesn't have a purpose in his life, he realizes. He does feel a little sick to his stomach about Satlynn being upset with him; he can't really live like Parker: always hurting girls' feelings and never caring about it.

Ugh, he's conflicted. On one hand, he shouldn't let it bother him that Satlynn is upset with him because his life will seemingly be fine without her. On the other hand, he hates when people are mad at him, and he doesn't want to feel guilty.

Satlynn didn't even sit by him in herbology; they usually always sit together and make fun of the lame Ravenclaws (with whom they share herbology) during class. Satlynn sat with Penny, of all people. Satlynn hates Penny! And all through class, they were whispering together like they were spreading rumors about him. Probably swapping horror stories now that they've both had...interactions with him. Ugh, okay. He needs to talk to Satlynn before this gets out of hand; who knows what she'll tell Penny? And if Penny knows, everyone else will know.

Griffin's probably just paranoid, but he waits anxiously for Care of Magical Creatures to end. When there are a few minutes left of class, he convinces the professor to let him go back early to use the bathroom. (He's good at Magical Creatures and the professor likes him; of course, she lets him go.) Then he sprints up the six flights of stairs to the astronomy tower to wait for Satlynn before lunch. He reminds himself that there's no reason to be nervous. It's just Satlynn. He knows her - he's known her forever. But also, you just made out with her, a voice in his head reminds him. And you liked it. A lot.

Griffin ignores the voice in his head and wipes his moist palms on his robes. At last, he watches as the astronomy classroom door opens and students start filing out. A few of them give him weird looks, and he pretends that he's just being casual; nothing out of the ordinary. He totally always goes to the sixth floor on Thursday afternoons. This is chill. Normal, even.

Finally, Satlynn shuffles out of the room, and Griffin takes her momentary obliviousness to his presence to look at her. He hasn't fully looked at her all day; she looks a little more disheveled than usual. It looks like she sloppily straightened her hair and applied some lip gloss. Maybe it's the same lip gloss that he tasted last night - it was kind of minty, he remembers, and he feels his neck flush at the memory.

"Hey," Griffin says hastily as Satlynn starts to walk past him. She glances over at him, looking temporarily startled to see him, but then she keeps walking as if he didn't say anything. He readjusts his book bag on his shoulder and starts after her, trying to keep up with her now that she's taken off at a breakneck pace.

"Don't you think we should talk?" Griffin asks, starting to get annoyed with her erratic behavior.

"Nothing to discuss," Satlynn says briskly as she scuttles down the stairs. She weaves between clumps of students, clearly trying to shake Griffin off. He huffs, trains his eyes on her bright blonde hair, and sets off after her until he's beside her again.

"Well, I'm sorry if I gave you the wrong idea. I just got caught up in the moment, you know?" Griffin explains. "But that doesn't mean it has to be the end of the world. So, let's just carry on. No need to be hostile."

Satlynn turns to glare at him at that.

"Okay. Whatever you say, Parker Banks," she snaps.

"...What?" Griffin asks.

"Nothing."

"No, seriously. Why would you call me 'Parker'?" he demands.

"You know, I'm not sure," Satlynn says sarcastically. "Why don't you ask Louisa after you make her feel special for being noticed by a cool quidditch player and then proceed to cheat on her every time you drink?"

"What are you talking about? That's not going to happen. I'm - well, you know me! I'm not like that!"

Griffin says indignantly as he follows Satlynn around the corner towards the Great Hall.

"And then you'll convince her to sleep with you by asking her to the Valentine's Day dance, but you'll conveniently forget that you asked her when the night of the dance actually arrives."

"I - what? Did Parker do that to you?!" Griffin asks, so surprised that he stops in his tracks.

Satlynn just sighs.

"I don't want to talk about this."

Griffin is mildly annoyed by this; why bring it up in the first place, then?

"Okay...So what should I do? Are we okay?" Griffin asks.

"No."

"What do you want me to do?!" he demands, but Satlynn is already marching into the Great Hall, and he loses her in the hordes of people filtering through the doors.

He sighs; maybe their friendship isn't worth this fight, anyway, he decides as he walks towards the Gryffindor table and takes a seat with Taman, Victoria, and Louisa. He doesn't see Satlynn for the rest of lunch, and he tries not to let it bother him. She's not worth his trouble, he reminds himself. She's right: he is a cool quidditch player. He's a Gryffindor chaser, for goodness's sake! They're practically unbeatable. He can get any girl he wants.

...But as he laughs along with Taman and the girls, he wonders where Satlynn is and whether or not she's thinking of him.

Satlynn walks quickly through the school halls, feeling a bit awkward about the fact that she's technically sneaking out. She's strangely excited to hang out with cool people, for once; Penny's eager acceptance of her is a bit unexpected, but she's grateful, nonetheless.

She feels self-conscious, suddenly, about how loud her boots are. She bought these black, patent leather boots with pointy heels over the summer, but it seems she highly overestimated what her self-esteem would be like by this point in the fall when it would be appropriate to wear them. She feels like the entire school can hear her clomping through the halls. She's also wearing bright red lipstick - which she thought would make her look like Gwen Stefani - but now she's starting to worry that she looks like a trollop.

She feels like her outfit choice is kind of bold - she's wearing black tights, a tight red skirt, and - her boldest choice of all - a black beret. But how often does a girl get to go to the city?! Not often. She figured she might as well go all out with her style. She's relieved to get out of the stupid common room.

The last thing she wants to do is see Griffin - he's been annoying her all day. How dare he come up to her and say that it 'doesn't have to mean anything'?! She's appalled that it's managed to escape her attention that Griffin has morphed into a grade-A douchebag and a carbon copy of Parker. She can't believe she's let him be her friend for so long. She should have known the moment he became a chaser that he would change.

Satlynn shakes her head at herself; this is her own fault, really. She should have known better than to go behind the fireplace with Griffin. She should never have squeezed his arm like that to reassure him that she wanted it to happen, too.

"Ugh," she mutters audibly as she crosses her arms. She doesn't want to think about Griffin tonight. She's having a girls' night. This is no time to dwell on fuck boys.

"LaRue!" someone calls, and she looks behind her and sees Candace Folwell smiling at her as if they're old friends.

"Hi," she says awkwardly, and Candace opens the door to the entrance hall without hesitation, as if she's sneaked out thousands of times before. Satlynn watches in awe and attempts to be nonchalant as she follows suit.

"Cool outfit," Candace says, nodding towards Satlynn's ensemble. Satlynn is delighted.

"Thanks."

"So, I was thinking we could go to Oriole. I've been there before with Margaret and Treanne. It's pretty trendy, but not too expensive," Candace explains as they set off at a brisk pace, trying to ward off the chill of the crisp November air.

"Oh, yeah. Oriole sounds fine," Satlynn says, as if she has any idea what that is. They chat about the weather and who they think will win the final quidditch match of the season (it's Ravenclaw versus Gryffindor in two weeks' time) while they walk towards the village.

Satlynn's annoyed to learn that Penny is apparently at Three Broomsticks with the rest of the team. She thought this was supposed to be a girls' night. There's not really anything wrong with pregaming a little, but Satlynn thought it seemed like Penny was excited to hang out with her.

"I'll go find her and say hi to James," Candace says. "Do you want to come in?"

Satlynn shakes her head; she signed up for a glitzy, trendy night out. Not a dirty bar that everyone else goes to. Candace just shrugs and disappears into the bar while Satlynn searches for a place to sit down. She supposes she could go into the vestibule and warm up, but she really doesn't want to see anyone on the team, especially two fuckboy chasers who ruin her life every five minutes. She sighs to herself as she takes a seat on a cold, metal bench outside the bar.

"Bro, you need to stay for one more drink! I need you to help me look good in front of this chick, Jessica -"

"It's Janessa."

"Well whoever she is -"

Satlynn tries to shrink her shoulders down so she's less noticeable as the two very fuckboys she's trying to avoid - Parker and Griffin - come barreling out of the bar.

"She was totally into me!" Parker whines as the two of them stand in the doorway - probably thoroughly inconveniencing anyone who wants to come in and out of the establishment.

"Yeah, so what do you need me for, then? I gotta go," Griffin says, hopping down one of the steps on the sidewalk. Satlynn winces; he's moving towards her.

"Where do you have to be on a Thursday night?" Parker demands.

"I've got homework."

"On a Thursday?"

"Why do you care so much? I'm going home," Griffin says, sounding irritated as he starts walking away. Satlynn tries to hide her face under her beret as he gets closer to her.

"Fine then. I'll get Jessica on my own," Parker huffs as he stomps back into the building.

"Janessa," Griffin reminds him. Parker just ignores him and marches away.

"Douche," Griffin mumbles once Parker has left.

Satlynn snorts.

Uh-oh. That was a bad idea; Griffin turns his head to look at her, and his eyes go wide when he recognizes her. She feels her cheeks warming and curses her body for losing its mind; she has no reason to be embarrassed or flustered or anything.

"Satlynn? What are you doing here?" Griffin asks, shoving his hands in the coat pockets as he shuffles over to her.

"Nothing," she says quickly, refusing to look at him as she tugs at her tights to adjust the way they sit on her knee.

"Nothing?" Griffin asks.

Satlynn notes the suspicion in his voice and shoots him a disgusted look; she's not here for him, if that's what he thinks.

"If you must know, I'm supposed to be going out with Penny and Candace, but they're taking forever," Satlynn explains.

"Oh. Do you mind if I…?" Griffin asks, gesturing towards the bench. Satlynn hesitates; she doesn't really want to talk to him - the main reason she agreed to this night out was to escape him. And yet, she doesn't think she would mind the company. Finally, she nods, and Griffin takes a seat next to her.

A gust of wind whips by, and Satlynn watches as a collection of leaves skids across the ground in front of her. She tries to ignore the jolt of nervousness that hits her stomach as they sit in awkward silence on the bench.

"So…yesterday," Griffin says hesitantly, and Satlynn clenches her limbs uncomfortably. She doesn't want to talk about what happened yesterday.

"I never got to ask you a question," Griffin says. Satlynn feels her heart rate pick up and she thinks, for one outrageous moment, that he's about to ask her out. That wouldn't make any sense, though, she reminds herself; he's going out with someone else.

"...What?" Satlynn asks, confused about what he's talking about.

"For truth or dare," Griffin clarifies.

"Oh."

There's a long pause as she waits for him to come up with something to ask her. Maybe she should protest - make up some stupid rule, like 'truth or dare doesn't transfer over to the next day.' After all, he really has no right to ask her a personal question after telling her that he only kissed her because he was 'caught up in the moment.' She shoves her hands deep in the pockets of her jacket and tries to appear nonchalant, as if nothing he could ask her would faze her.

"I was wondering," Griffin says, "what you thought of - well - everything. You know what I mean."

"I actually don't know what you mean," Satlynn says, her voice bitter.

She knows exactly what he means.

"When we - you know," Griffin says, not very eloquently. "My...braiding skills. What did you think of them? On a scale of, like, 1 to 10?"

Satlynn sighs to imply that this conversation is not worth her time. She knows what he means, of course, she just doesn't know why he cares about her opinion of his "skills" when he clearly doesn't give a fuck about her, anyway.

"Four," she says finally.

"Four?" Griffin repeats, sounding horrified.

Well, he asked for it. He knows he's not exactly on her good side right now.

"Yes," Satlynn confirms, feeling like she finally has some power. He made her feel like shit, now she'll do the same to him. Griffin is silent for a while, but he makes an irritated noise and she sees him shuffle his feet out of the corner of her eye.

"Well then," he says finally, "maybe I just need more practice."

Satlynn yanks her head up to glare at him, and he meets her eyes nervously.

"You're going out with Louisa," Satlynn reminds him, aware of the viciousness in her voice and not bothering to tone it down. Griffin just looks at her, a dumbfounded expression on his face.

"Yeah, so?"

"So braid her fucking hair!" Satlynn exclaims, so agitated now that she leaps to her feet. Griffin scrambles to his feet, too, and looks at her like she's from another planet.

"But I want to practice with you!" he exclaims, his eyes searching her face, clearly trying to get a read on her.

"Jesus Christ, Griffin," Satlynn mutters as she turns abruptly away from him and begins walking in the opposite direction.

"What? What did I do?!" he asks, sounding like a whiny child as he tags along behind her.

Satlynn whirls around and gives him a look of complete disgust and a hint of disappointment.

"I thought we were friends! I thought you respected me as a person!" she spits out, her voice shaking.

"I do respe-"

"But you don't! You just see me as a slut who can do things for you while you wait for the girls you really want to put out - that's what you're asking me for!" Satlynn exclaims, feeling her heart race and her throat constrict as she tries to keep her emotions in check.

"I don't know why stuff like this always happens to me - I, for one, think I'm worth a hell of a lot more than this," she adds, almost to herself, before stomping up the stairs towards the bar without another glance back at Griffin.

Notes:

This is the last chapter! Sorry to end on a cliffhanger. I wrote this story several years ago and got bored of it but recently decided to post it just for the hell of it.

If you've read this far, thank you so much for your time! I really appreciate it. Sorry for all the American pop culture references. I really didn't even attempt to make this British or the 1970s.

JK Rowling is a piece of trash, so I probably won't write any more HP fan fiction. Even though it doesn't directly support her, I feel uncomfortable even engaging with something related to her due to her dangerous, violent, and bigoted beliefs.

I will always love the story and the world she created, and maybe writing fan fiction is a way to "reclaim" her world for ourselves. But right now I struggle to involve myself in it without my disgust for her ruining my experience.

Anyway...thanks again, and let me know what you think, if you want! It's a privilege to have people read my work. 3