SOFIA | ❨ NEVILLE LONGBOTTOM ❩ UNDER MAJOR EDITING!

Chapter Thirty Eight.

The next morning Sofia had awoke to crying. When her eyes adjusted, she looked over at Lily. The dirty blonde was sitting up in her bed, with a sketch of Dean gripped in her hands. Sofia knew how hard Lily had worked on the sketch, and how Lily had planned to give it to Dean one day.

"Lily..." Sofia started, and Lily looked over at her.

She was an absolute mess.

"Don't look at me... I look so gross..."

Lily wiped her tears, but only more left her eyes as she did so.

Sofia sighed and got out of her bed, and sat down on Lily's.

"Did you sleep at all?"

Lily just shook her head, "Maybe an hour."

Sofia frowned and looked at the sketch of Dean. There was silence for a moment,

"That's a really beautiful sketch, Lily."

Lily scoffed and looked down at it herself,

"Doesn't matter, he'll never want it anyways. It was just a waste of my time..." Lily threw the sketch over on her bed side table, and Sofia sighed as she did so.

"Well... I really liked the sketch you left for me."

Lily looked over at Sofia, and she saw a small smile on her face.

"I'm glad you liked it." Lily responded blankly, not really caring for her art at the moment.

Silence.

"What happened, Lily?" Sofia finally asked, wanting to know how the breakup even occurred.

Lily sighed, and opened her mouth.

"We've been arguing, you know? And last night we got into this argument, and he just ended it. Everything that has been going on with—you... has just sorta made the arguments worse."

A struck of guilt hit Sofia's gut instantly. She knew it was her fault.

"Don't take that as me blaming it on you, Sof. It's just... I guess Dean never really got over everything that happened last year. And, I understand why. I deserve it..."

Sofia nodded, still feeling guilt pumping through her veins.

"I'm such an awful person, Sofia... I've hurt so many people... I think I understand why everyone hates me so much."

Lily then started to cry again, her lips quivering as she did so.

"I've changed a bit. I mean, I'm not the same as I was last year. I knew something had to change when I lost Hermione... but—I don't know if I'm cut out to be a good person..." Lily stated in between sobs.

"Lily... no one is necessarily a "good person". We're human. We all tend to be—selfish. Greedy. Deep down, we're all terrible people. It's how humans are made to be. And, no amount of magic can change that..."

Lily chuckled while she continued to cry,

"Thanks, Sof. That helped me feel a whole lot better..." Lily said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

"It's true, Lily. It's really just the choices we make. We either choose between ourselves, or not hurting the ones we care about the most..."

"Yeah? And, I always end up choosing the thing that benefits myself the most and ends up hurting others."

Sofia didn't really know how to respond to that one.

"Like you, you're so—nice. I hid a huge secret from you and you're still... here. Why? I don't get it."

Sofia then grabbed Lily's hand,

"Because... I love you. And, I care about you. And... you fight for the people you love, no matter how much they've hurt you or you hurt them."

Sofia found the statement baffling considering it came from her mouth. But, it was something she learned from Neville.

Lily smiled a little at her friend,

"Really?"

Sofia laughed and nodded, "Of course. You're my girl."

Sofia had cheered Lily up a little bit by talking to her about all of the things that had been on her mind. Lily even confided in Sofia that she had gotten jealous over Ginny and Neville.

When Sofia finally decided to get ready for the day, she got ready while Lily stayed in her bed.

"Do you want to go down to breakfast with me? It'll probably be just Neville and I."

Lily chuckled, "No. I think I'll just stay here. I'm not really ready to face my problems."

Sofia nodded at the girl's response. She knew how it felt. She wasn't going to push Lily to get out of bed. She knew it wouldn't do Lily any good to see Dean so soon.

Sofia had quickly made her way to the Great Hall, her and Lily's conversation eating at her brain. She had felt so bad for Lily. She knew that Lily was trying to be good, she just really didn't know how.

As Sofia looked around the Great Hall, she spotted Deans sitting with their friends. Neville and Ginny included, of course. She then saw Fred and George, waving at her to come and sit with them.

Sofia decided that it was time to sit in her old seat once again, next to her close friends. She felt like she was on good terms with them, no matter how awkward this particular day probably would be.

"Scoot, Longbottom." She suddenly appeared behind him, and he looked up at her. He smiled, shifted in the other direction so she could sit down.

"Well, well, look who it is finally deciding to sit with us again!" Ron announced, making Ginny laugh.

Dean looked over at Sofia, and a sad smiled formed on his face.

"Look who it is eating all of the breakfast food at this time of morning!" Sofia joked back, making Neville laugh.

They all started to talk to one another, Dean excluding himself and just picking at his food in silence.

"Ravenclaw is having another party tonight if you guys are interested in going." Ginny announced, obviously trying to pass the message down.

Everyone started to turn down the offer,

"Yeah, I don't think I want to wake up with a hangover tomorrow. Plus, I have to stay with Li—"

Neville nudged the girl's arm, and she stopped herself. He pointed at Dean, and Sofia nodded.

"I'm not going."

Sofia awkwardly coughed as Dean stared at her, knowing what she was going to say before Neville stopped her.

As they sat in an awkward silence, Bransen made his way over towards them.

"Well, looky here! Sofia is back! How happy are we?" Bransen smirked looking at everyone. They all remained silent.

Bransen then looked over at Dean, who had already locked his eyes onto Bransen as soon as he walked through the corridor.

"I heard about you and Jacobson. Shit sucks, mate."

It looked as if Dean was about to jump over the table and hurt Bransen.

"Just go, Bransen. Your presence isn't exactly wanted at the moment..." Sofia hissed at the smug boy, making him laugh.

"Alright, fine. As you wish, just tell Lily I said hello for me."

Sofia attempted to get up, but Neville only stopped her. Bransen laughed and shook his head at Sofia's attempt to be threatening.

"What a ravenous cunt..." Sofia uttered to herself, unclenching her fists.

The group continued to sit in silence. There was nothing to talk about, and if there was it didn't want to be talked about.