I See You

My life was boring without Scorpius, it couldn’t be denied. I hadn’t realised how much our banter, our chance-meetings in the corridors, even our arguments had brightened my dull existence, but it did. I realised that after just a few days apart.

But he’d done the inexcusable, the impossible: he’d actually hurt me. In a way that I’d never let happen before. I’d given him the chance, and he’d taken it without hesitating. It made me wonder: how much of this was my fault? For letting my guard down in the first place? I wasn’t eager to think about that one too hard.

Apart from betraying me, he’d also done something else: he’d made me. . . popular. Granted, nobody wanted my autograph, but now all the Slytherins knew who I was. Again. It was a bit like 1st Year, but with a few key differences. Girls envied or hated me, guys appraised and wondered about me, and I found random people nodding to me in corridors. And I hated it. Sort of.

The popularity thing actually manifested itself a mere three days after our little tiff. In the most unexpected way possible.

I slouched back to my dorm at well after curfew (late enough to get myself in trouble over it), and collapsed onto my emerald green bedspread, staring up at my silver-speckled canopy. The lights were still on in the room, and my roommates were still up, but I was exhausted and I doubted I’d stay conscious much longer, despite the chatter; it had been days since I’d slept properly. Immediately, mercifully, my eyelids slid shut, heavy as lead, and I began to drift off.

“Mona?” I jerked back awake, trying to focus on the person who was speaking to me. Victoria Palmer. Probably a nice girl, but I’d never spoken more than three words to her in the whole time we'd shared a dorm.

“Yes?” I asked tentatively; she smiled, and sat down on the edge of my bed. I realised that she was wearing full makeup and that her blonde hair had been elaborately curled. She wore a shimmering black dress that matched the clips in her hair. Victoria cleared her throat once, suddenly looking uncertain.

“Uh, well I was just wondering – and you don’t have to if you don’t want to. . . but, I heard you had an argument with Scorpius and we’re all going as a group to the Ball. . . we were wondering if you wanted to come?” I blinked, confused.

“The Ball’s not tonight, is it?” She laughed.

“No, we’re trying the stuff on tonight. The Ball’s on Friday.” Friday. A mere two days away. I hadn’t planned on going.

“Uh, well, I was just going to stay here and. . .” I trailed off as Victoria gaped, looking scandalised.

“But you have to! It’s the Halloween Ball!” I sighed, realising I wouldn’t get out of this as easily as I’d thought. I pasted on a smile and tried to make nice.

“Thanks Victoria. I’ll think about it.” She looked only slightly mollified at that, but wisely didn’t push it.

“Well, let me know. It would be really nice to get to know you. We’ve been roommates for two years, and I don’t know the first thing about you!” She was right, of course. And I couldn't even blame it on her because I knew it was my fault. Abruptly, I decided it was time to change that.

“I’ll think about it,” I repeated, with more sincerity this time. She nodded and stood up, drawing my curtains around my bed for me in an unexpectedly kind gesture.

“Good. Sleep well.”

I lay there in the darkness and stared at my canopy once more, thinking hard. I wondered if this was another mean trick, but I didn’t think so – she’d seemed really genuine, oddly enough. Maybe I’d find myself a friend in her. The thought was a strange one, but I found myself liking the idea more and more.

Friends. Yes, I liked the sound of that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I was surprised to find that classes had been cancelled for the 5th to 7th Years in preparation of the Ball. Pleased, but surprised. I'd never known it was such a big deal.

As I was donning my uniform, Victoria pulled aside a curtain around her bed; enough to peer out at me. She looked especially sweet first thing in the morning – I stared at the tufts of hair sticking up at the back of her head and her twisted pyjamas, and found myself stifling a smile.

“School’s out. Shopping today.” I paused in the act of putting my tie on.

“No class?”

“No class. And I’m taking you shopping. Wear something nice.” With that said, she let the curtain fall closed and I was left staring at a green patch of fabric where her face had been. I had a choice: I could shrug off the offer, offending her in the process, or I could see where this was going. She really did seem like a nice girl.

I decided to take a chance.

I didn’t really know what 'something nice' entailed, but I tried. I ripped the tags off a daring red duffel coat with black toggles on the front, and real fur on the hood (I’d forgotten I’d even owned it), and decided black would be the colour of the day. Most of the clothes I owned were black anyway.

I found a pair of tight black trousers I hardly ever wore, and a form-fitting black roll-neck. I dug out my leather ankle boots from under my bed, along with my small box of scarves and other accessories. I went for my drapy white scarf with black tassels, and black dragonskin gloves, knowing I’d regret it if I left without them.

My long gold necklace with an elaborately tooled eye as the pendant went on next. I stuck my gold hoop earrings in, piled my hair up off my neck and applied just enough eyeliner to make my eyes look mysterious. I sat myself down on my bed and began to read.

An hour later, Victoria whipped her curtain aside and practically fell out of bed, kneading her eye with an absent-minded knuckle. I’d never seen her first thing in the morning, and this creature was so far from the polished Victoria I usually saw that I had to grin. She had chronic lateness issues, and I thought I might know why.

She saw me sprawled on the bed, nodded, and went straight for the showers. I rolled my eyes and got back to my book. When she finally emerged, she seemed a lot more awake than she had, and focused on me more clearly this time.

“You look good,” She stated, seeming surprised. I raised my eyebrows and she laughed. “No, seriously. I hardly ever see you out of uniform. Black suits you.” Her smile was infectious; I was glad I hadn’t dismissed her offer.

She stumbled around the room, snatching clothes from here and there, and in under ten minutes she was dressed, almost in direct contrast to what I was wearing. Pastel blue coat, white top and tight blue jeans with brown leather boots and gloves. She didn’t bother with any jewellery, like I had, save for two small pearl studs.

She did her makeup in record time and was ready to go in the next five minutes. She snatched up her brown bag while I slung my black one over my chest, and we headed out the dorm.

“Breakfast?” She asked, as we left the common room into the freezing dungeons. I hesitated, thinking of all the people that would be there and how not in the mood I was. I could go, of course, but it would probably make me grumpy for the rest of the day. “That’s OK.” She amended hastily. “We can get something in Hogsmeade.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Victoria, I quickly realised, was a very easy person to get along with. She mostly talked, and I mostly listened, but I preferred it that way. She didn’t need to hear my sob story.

In the half-hour walk to Hogsmeade we covered a lot of subjects: parents (hers), school, what we wanted to do after Hogswarts. . . and boys. Victoria, unsurprisingly, had dated a lot of boys.

“What?” She asked, laughing as I smirked. “It’s fun!”

“You heartbreaker, you.” She laughed again, and I grinned, betting it was close to the truth. We walked in comfortable silence for a couple more minutes while I eyed the skies, wondering if we were going to get caught in a rainstorm later. I didn’t need to be a Seer to figure that the chance was high; the breeze was crisp and refreshing with the smell of impending rain, and white and dark clouds churned in the sky miles above. I glanced over to Victoria to find a strange look on her face. A mixture of worry, sly cunning and speculation.

“You’ve never dated anyone before Scorpius, have you?” I groaned, exasperated. We were just passing the first shops on the outskirts of Hogsmeade by then and my stomach was beginning to growl in earnest. Residents and students milled about the streets, and I smelled food everywhere, catching the individual scents of toast, pumpkin pasties and hot chocolate.

“I never dated him in the first place. He made it up.” I wrenched my gaze from Honeydukes to see the uncomprehending frown above the speculative eyes. “You know, to make my life miserable.” She kept staring for a couple moments – I could feel it though I wasn’t looking at her - and then chuckled quietly.

“Yeah, that must be why. To make you unhappy,” She stated sarcastically. “I’ve seen you two together – everybody has -”

“What? When?” She seemed surprised.

“Everywhere. The dinner table, in class, in the common room. . . even when you’re not speaking, there’s serious tension. The good kind.” She winked. I blushed and looked away, mulling the idea over.

I was distracted from my brooding as we entered a cafe near The Three Broomsticks, and took our seats at a small round table. I fiddled with the pink sugar packets, deep in thought. She leaned forward, smiling gently.

“Honestly Mona. It was dumb what he did, but it sounds to me like he did you a favour. Before now, all people had ever heard about you was the weird stuff -”

“Oiy!”

“Sorry! Sorry,” She laughed, unabashed. “But now, you’re the girl who’s going out – or was going out with – Scorpius Malfoy. It’s made you popular,” she stated, echoing my own thoughts. I snorted and looked up.

“Great thing to be known for. Everybody thinks we slept together.” I whispered the last part as the waitress passed near the table, obviously wondering if we wanted to order. Victoria waved her hand airily, sweeping away my fears.

“Only the stupid people. One look at you is enough to know you’ve never been kissed, let anything else.” I knew I should probably be offended by that, but I was beginning to like her more and more. Her frank attitude was very refreshing. She flagged down the waitress. “Eat up,” She ordered, smirking. “We have a long day ahead of us.”