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t h i r d y e a r
Ryland sits with her at the Slytherin table at lunch. The others had already started to headed off to their next class. The hall is not nearly as full as it could be, yet some still linger so they don't have to head off to their next period so soon, others have study periods.
Ryland should be leaving soon, if he doesn't want to be late. He asks the odd question about what had transpired between Draco and Dean during class, still waiting for the latter to return from the nurse. Adeline tells him that she isn't sure, that she was late to class.
He believes her easily, which doesn't make her feel any better.
There's an odd sense of dread within Adeline, mixed with grief and regret. She can't seem to place why, just as she is unsure why she wasn't with the rest of the class when the fight broke out.
She can recount standing beside Dean before it all happened but she couldn't possibly place how she'd gotten so far away from everyone.
A letter needs to be written to Arthur, although Adeline knows he's busy with finding Sirius Black.
Further down the table, there's a laugh that Adeline is beginning to know all too well. She's starting to think she'll never have a moments pause away from Pansy's presence.
She's smothering Draco with attention, his busted lip telling fables of the fight. It's no wonder he was punched, he's becoming too much like his father.
Ryland stands to leave, beginning to part with a kind smile. Briefly Adeline ponders asking him to stay. She has a free period and doesn't feel too enticed by the idea of being left alone with those surrounding her.
Yet if she were to do that, Adeline knew an explanation would be warranted. She isn't sure if her friends have forgotten who Draco is to her. She's sure she mentioned it during First year, surely during the start of Second too. Lately though, her and Draco haven't exactly been talking - in public or private.
If she asks Ryland to stay behind, she'll have to explain who they are to each other and Adeline isn't even sure she knows the answer herself.
"See you at dinner." Ryland says as she watches him leave the hall behind.
There's a lull of silence within Adeline, a quiet moment of clarity when she notices the wisps of darkness once more. When she sees it at the edge of her vision, the forgotten moment in the field comes back to her.
She'd been gone because she'd been reliving someone else's memory. That was not a moment Adeline had shared with her brother, but another who had found him in the field that day.
Adeline thinks she may have relived the day Alexandre died.
She struggles to take hold of the thought, it dances on the cusps of her mind; taunting her with its instability.
