Broken, Beaten, and Bloody

I woke up the next morning with my bass laying neatly at the foot of my bed. I stretched, letting out a small yawn. I dragged myself out of bed, going to rummage through my trunk for clothing. I picked out the standard Slytherin dress code clothes, but switched the ugly dress shoes with more comfortable black and white Converse.

I waited patiently by the bathroom door until Kayla came out. She was sporting an gray tank top with "Slytherin" on it in the top right corner. She was wearing a green and gray skirt that swayed when she walked, along with black heels, her curled today. "Your turn." She practically sang as she sashayed out, humming to herself. I chuckled as I entered the steamy room (she had just taken a shower) and placed my things on the counter.

Soon I emerged from the shower, dressing in the clothes and doing my makeup. I teased my hair slightly, then put on my black and white fingerless, elbow length gloves. I hadn't cut for the past month, but the scars were still there. They'd always be there.

"Breakfast has been on for five minutes." Kayla told me as I came out. She was sitting on her bed, flipping through a magazine.

"Well then we should go, shouldn't we?" I asked, my voice soft. It'd take a while to start talking like a normal human being. She nodded happily, throwing the magazine aside and hopping up to loop our arms together as she pulled me out of our room. I guess showers and food makes her pretty happy.

We arrived at the Hall about five minutes later, and we went to sit at the first two available seats at the Slytherin table. She was chatting to me about how a guy named Blaize asked her to go out with him on the first Hogsmeade trip. Apparently she had liked him the middle of fourth year, but he would never give her the time of day. I was trying to pay attention, but my eyes kept drifting to the Griffindor table. I finally found the ginger haired boy I was looking for. Fred would say something-then George would finish it as they were talking to a brown haired boy, another ginger haired boy, and a brown curly haired girl.

"So what do you think?" She asked. My attention snapped back to her, as a timid smile came over my face.

"I'm sorry, think of what?" I asked innocently as possible. She sighed dramatically.

"I saaaaaid, what do you think about him asking me out?"

"Oh! Well I think it's kinda sweet, in a weird way." I answered. I've never been good at all this mushy gushy girly stuff. She nodded, then went on about how he was so cute when he asked her. My gaze shifted back to Fred, who was now cracking up at something George had said. I sighed softly, closing my eyes, trying to focus on what Kayla was saying.

Soon everyone left the Great Hall, on their way to first period. Kayla and I both made our way to potions, and sat down in the middle of the classroom, where our assigned seats were. Fred and George just happened to be seated behind us, and we could hear them talk about a new jinx they came up with.

"Quiet down class." Snape commanded, sweeping into the room. The talking died down almost immediately as Snape came to a halt at his desk, picking up some papers from it. He shuffled through them, then used a projector to show us them. "I would like each team, since yo are already split into twos, to make a calming drought. Madame Pomfry thought to use this class to replenish her storage of them." Professor Snape told us, sounding bitter.

He passed out the ingredients, muttering something out Madame Pomfry being a hag. Kayla and I just ignored him, and began to get started on the potion.

Half way through, George let out a bellowing laugh, Fred following soon after. A poor, timid girl jumped, and poured too much of a cloudy liquid into her potion. The potion bubbled up, and started to spill over the sides. She squeaked, stumbling away from it, into another person, who tumbled into their own cauldron. Professor Snape yelled for everyone to stop moving, then commanded a boy to go get paper towel from the nearest bathroom, since someone had used up all of his supply.

Some people were laughing, others were just annoyed at being interrupted from a conversation with someone. Kayla and I turned to look at George and Fred, who both had looks of pure happiness on their faces.

"That was not our intent." Fred said, biting his lip from bursting out laughing.

"But it was bloody brilliant!" George said, then they high fived. They shared another moment of laughter, then turned to face us.

"Hey are either of you going to the Quiddich match tonight?" Fred asked, his gaze set on me. I shook my head apologetically.

"Oh puh-lease, you are so going, Rue. I need to have a buddy there to help me root for Blaize!" She said, clapping her hands together. I bit my lip, unsure.

"Blaize?" George and Fred asked. "Why root for the loosing team? Griffindor is going to win!" George finished.

"So won't you come see us kick your houses teams' butts?" Fred asked. "It'll be worth it." I laughed softly, a thin smile coming across my face.

"I'll come." I answered softly. Not even three days of knowing this boy, and he's already made me smile more times than I have in a year.