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THINGS HAD FELT STRANGE for Winnie now that she had arrived back at school. Things between her and Louise were good again and she was making arrangements to see if her parents would let her live with them. She was almost certain it would be a yes, but the waiting still made her anxious.
It was also strange, because it seemed as though Sirius had given up on trying to talk to her. Which, of course, she knew she had all but rejected him, but she did it because she didn't want to get hurt, not because she didn't want him.
Regardless, his friendship was something noticeably absent in her life that she hadn't particularly thought about much before.
She was studying in the library with Lily and Marlene, catching up after break, when this began to dawn on her.
Lily glanced at her, waving her hand in front of her face wildly. "Earth to Winnie," she said with a laugh. "What's sent you to another planet?"
Winnie shrugged and sighed, staring down at her textbook. None of the words were really reaching her. "Oh, nothing," she said, gesturing to the work in front of her. "Homework is a bummer."
Marlene nodded and hummed in agreement but Lily narrowed her eyes. "It sure is a bummer," she agreed in a tone that did not sound as if she truly agreed at all.
An hour or so went by and they all began to pack up their things. Winnie bade them goodbye and made plans to see them at some point the next week for sure, but when she turned around to leave, Lily went with her. She assured Marlene that she would catch up with her in the common room.
"Uh, what's up, Lily?" Winnie asked, not sure why she needed to speak with her alone.
"I want to know why homework is so much more of a bummer now than any other day," she questioned casually, eyeing her disbelievingly.
"I've just got a lot on my mind, alright?" Winnie deflected back with a shrug, fiddling with the straps of her bag.
"I'm not going to pressure you into talking, I just want you to know that I'm here for you —" Lily began, only for Winnie to take a deep breath and interrupt her swiftly.
"Can I have some very hypothetical advice?" Lily paused and stopped walking. She looked around and pulled Winnie into a nearby empty courtyard and sat on one of the benches, gesturing for her to do the same. Winnie sat down, feeling quite defeated. Not that she was sharing, but because she couldn't find a solution.
"So, very hypothetically, let's say that I have a friend. Let's say that friend has a friend of her own, and she has gotten quite close with that friend," Winnie explained, cringing at how many times she had just uttered the word 'friend'. "Say that one night, these two friends get pretty close and they kiss. Woo. Good for them, right? Except it's not good for them because he likes to hop from girl to girl and she knows all the stories and she just doesn't want to get hurt and —"
