𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 [𝐏𝐉𝐎 𝐗 𝐇𝐏]

xi: ariana has a therapy session

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chapter xi

(prisoner of azkaban)

ariana has a therapy session

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ARIANA HAD NO IDEA HOW SHE MANAGED to get back into the Honeydukes cellar, through the tunnel, and into the castle once more. All she knew was that the return trip seemed to take no time at all, and that she hardly noticed what she was doing, because her ears were still ringing with the conversation she had just had.

Was that why they were acting weird? Was this why Seamus, Lavender and Parvati had completely shut her out? Did they really believe that Ariana could befriend her father who had abandoned her?

It hurt. She wasn't going to lie. She had trusted these people, started opening up just a little bit, and where did it get her? Alone and distrusted. The only person who seemed to treat her like a person and not something about to turn into a monster was Dean. And even he had someone else he put over her.

She wandered around the castle for a while, not really wanting to go back to Gryffindor tower. She ended up in a deserted corridor somewhere on the fourth floor. She slid to the ground and pulled her knees up to her chest and put her head down. She didn't know how long she sat there before she heard a voice.

"Hey, are you ok?"

She looked up to see Cedric Diggory looking down at her in concern. She shrugged.

"All my friends think I'm going to go insane and kill them so..." she said, hoping he ignored the small crack in her voice.

He smirked at her. "Well, you seem pretty ok to me. And I know the perfect thing to cheer you up." He held out his hand. She thought for a second, before grabbing it.

He dragged her down to a picture of a giant fruit bowl, stretched out his forefinger, and tickled the huge green pear. It began to squirm, chuckling, and suddenly turned into a large green door handle. Cedric seized it, pulled the door open, and pulled Ariana through.

She had one brief glimpse of an enormous, high-ceilinged room, large as the Great Hall above it, with mounds of glittering brass pots and pans heaped around the stone walls, and a great brick fireplace at the other end, before she was swarmed by little creatures between two to three feet tall, with spindly arms and legs and oversized heads and eyes. They had pointed, bat-like ears and high, squeaky voices. They were all wearing the same uniform: a tea towel stamped with the Hogwarts crest, and tied like a toga.

Ariana looked over at Cedric who was greeting and smiling at all these little creatures. She felt a tugging on her hand and looked down to see one smiling up at her.