All You Wish For and All You Need

“He confuses me Anne,” Arabella whispered as they sat alone in the common room. “Honestly, I’ve never understood why you like him so much. Sure, he’s good-looking, but come on. You can do so much better.”

Anne sighed and brushed tears away from her eyes, “He confuses me too Bells. Sometimes I think I know what he is thinking about, but there are other times when I don’t know if he hates me or not.”

“I think you can be pretty damn sure that he doesn’t hate you Anne. You obviously don’t see the way that he looks at you.” She scrunched up her nose in thought. “But there are times that I don’t like the way that he looks at you. It’s almost obsessive at times.” She paused again as she thought. “And possessive. Like he thinks you belong to him and no-one else can have you.”

Anne closed her eyes and thought of him. She pictured him the way he was a few days before the end of last term. He had looked so fragile and insecure. The image blurred and morphed into when he had protected her from Matthew. Tears started to spill down her cheeks again as she remembered how he looked at her when they were dancing together at the ball. A sob caught in her throat as she remembered the first time he had kissed her. She remembered the way he had looked so disgusted with himself.

“Bells,” Anne sobbed, her voice thick, “I hate being away from him. I hate the thought of never seeing him again,”

“Anne, look, I know you really like him, but please, it wouldn’t be the end of the world if he left you. Or if you left him.” Arabella wrapped her arms tightly around Anne’s shoulders. “I honestly don’t think that he is a good person at all.” She bit her lip before continuing, “He kind of freaks me out at times. Like there is something very dark about him,”

Anne shook her head, knowing that Arabella was speaking the perfect truth. “You don’t know him like I do Bells.” she raised her head and wiped the tears away from her eyes. “Yes, there is something more to him that you don’t know. But I know, and I don’t mind. I don’t care if it is true or not.”

Arabella frowned and chewed her lip, “What?” she pulled away slightly from Anne to be able to look her in the eyes. “What are you talking about?”

Anne pulled away and walked over to the fireplace, “I’m not going to tell you Arabella. You wouldn’t understand anyway. But it isn’t a bad thing. Well, not to me at any rate. And if it doesn’t matter to me then why should it matter to you?” Anne finished angrily. She glared at Arabella before storming out of the common room and almost running down the stairs towards the Entrance Hall.

Talking with Arabella had made Anne forget her annoyance with Marcus as it was now transferred to Arabella. She planned to wait outside the Slytherin common room until he walked out. But when she reached the Entrance Hall, Anne paused. Both Arabella and Marcus were doing the exact same thing. Demanding to be told what didn’t concern them. She sighed angrily and walked outside.