You don't own me, Riddle

Chapter 19- valued friendship

The next morning, per usual, Ari got up early and sat down on a couch in the common room, where she went over the homework for the week. Soon she was joined by Jack, who greeted her politely but acted a bit distant. She figured he wanted some space from her which she would not deny him. 

Elizabeth, Stella, and Helen emerged from their dorm room a bit later than usual and headed for the door.  Instead of Elizabeth's usual greeting and invitation for breakfast, Ari had to hurry to pack her books away in order to follow them. Stella turned back and gave Ari a worried look, waiting for her to catch up.  Ari threw one last look at Jack and saw that even he was surprised by the encounter. 

They walked in silence for a bit before Ari grabbed Elizabeth's arm and forced her to a halt. "Liza, what's wrong?" Ari asked, somewhat frustrated. 

"What makes you think something is wrong" Elizabeth answered monotonously and pulled her arm from Ari's grip. 

"Did something happen? Are you okay? Do you feel sick or something?" Ari continued feeling uneasy. She looked up at Helen, who looked as expressionless as always, not meeting Ari's eyes, and later at Stella, who had her eyebrows knitted in concern. 

"No, I'm perfectly fine" Elizabeth said and started to walk away again. Ari took a few fast steps to place herself in front of Elizabeth, blocking her path. "Come on, talk to me. Maybe I can help?" Ari tried, and Elizabeth huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. "So now you want to talk?" She said, and Ari felt something uneasy settle in the pit of her stomach. 

"What are you talking about?" She asked her friend and tried to make eye contact with her. "You don't think I noticed? You are sneeking around, teching the other girls communication spells, levaing to Rowena knows where in the middle of the night? Do you have any Idea how worried we were?" Elizabeth half shouted at her. " I though we were friends." she continued in a softer voice, averting eye contact.  Ari's eyes met with Stellas, who slightly shoke her head, as to say she never broke her promice of keeping Ari's secrets.

Ari quickly glared around the hallway, and noticed that some other pupils were looking at them. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to worry you." She said.  After hestiating for a while she continued. "I didn't think you would understand."

"What? That you were seeing Tom?" Elizabeth said and Ari lifted her head in surprise. "How did you?.." She started, but Elizabeth interupted her. 

"You really don't think highly of us, do you?" Elizabeth said 

"Of cource I do! Why would you say that?!" Ari immediatly contuered, and noticed that Helen was finaly looking at her.

"You think that we don't notice that you two have been 'sneeking around'? You're flirting in the corridors, and sitting next to each other in several classes!" Elizabeth said, gritting her teeth. Ari's eyes moved back and forth between Elizabeth, Stella, and Helen. She felt speechless, and frankly ashamed. 

"Do you rellay think that I would judge you based on whom your dating? That I'm not only stipid but also judgemental?" Elizabeth said, making Ari blink a few times. 

"I don't think your stupid at all!" She awnsered, and tried to justify her actions in her mind.  "But, I know you don't like Tom, so " "So what? You were just gonna date him in seecret?" "We're not dating." Ari told them, earning a groan from Elizabeth. 

"Oh give it a rest" Elizabeth said. "Even if I don't like him, of cource I'm gonna support you! Because thats what friends do, support eachother even when they don't agree" Ari felt her heart squeze a bit at her words. "I'm sorry" She just managed. 

Elizabeth noticed her reaction, and softened her expression a bit, closing her eyes for a moment to gather her thoughts. 

"Me to" She said, and stepped closer to Ari. "Ari I know that I'm over reacting, it just made me so frustrated, and sad, to think that you don't trust me enough to even talk to me about whom you're dating, to the point that you sneek out after you think we're asleep, and stopped telling me other important stuff like why you lie awake half of the night" Elizabeth said, grabbed Aris hand and gave it a squeez. 

Ari decided not to correct her again about seeing Tom, breefly meeting Stellas eyes meeningly. "I have a lot of baggage" Ari told her and watched how Elizabeth was finaly smiling, altough weekly. 

"It'll be easier to carry if you share the weight with your friends." She awnsered. Ari smiled at the cheesy metaphore. "Thank you" she managed, and swithed to look meaningly at Helen who gave her a nod in reply. 

"What is all this ruckus this early in the morning"  They heard a voice say, and noticed Frank, Petra, Victor and Jack observing them from further up the coridor. Ari immidiatly wondered how much they heard, not noticing when they approached. 

"Nothing really" Elizabeth immidiatly awnsered, trying to look innocent. Ari watched Jack, noticing that he avoided to meet her eyes. "Move along then" Frank contiued, and Ari saw Petra rolling her eyes. 

Petra walked towards Ari and linked arms with her "Let's sit together" she said, dragging Ari along withouth waiting for a responce. 

"Sure?" Ari said, feeling like this morning was already hetic enough. 

Breakfast passed pretty undramatically. Ari looked around over to the Slytherin table, noticing Tom's usual abstence. She decided to ask him about it later. She caught eyes with Alvin, whom smiled at her. 

Looking around her own table, she left very content. Her friends eating, lauching and getting along. Elizabeth seemed to have gotten everything of her chest, and was now listening to Victor telling them about yet another potions adventure, laughing a bit to hard at his jokes. Ari immidiatly decided to rooth for them, if something ever heppened beyween them. 

She looked over to the Hufflepuff table, only to se Kat waving at them. From the look of her expression, she had been waiting for one of them to look over. Ari also noticed that Georgia's eyes were glued on the Gryffindor table, but she could not really determine whom among the pupils she was looking at. 

"Are you guys watching the game today?" Petra said, to which Ari responded with a "Hmm?" "The quidditch game of cource." Petra contriued, looking around the table.

"Of cource!" Katherine immidiatly replied, surprising Ari. "Yes" Stella also answered. "I guess" Ari said, thinking that is had been a long time since she last watched a game. She also wondered if she would be able to see Tom at the game. 

"Who is playing again?" She asked, not recalling hearing about it in the first place. "Gryffindor and Hufflepuff" Victor said her, and she responded by nodding and humming. 

A game of quidditch might be a nice distraction from everything else that was going on with Tom and his friends, Ari thought, and decided that this would be a good day that she would spend with her friends. 

-----------------------------------------------

A/N:

Hiya, how is everyone doing? How do you feel about an entire chapter withouth Tom? Miss him?

I just watched Chamber of secrets with my friends (My favorite movie for obvious reasons), and it was not even my idea to watch it! It got me thinking of this story and I just had to update.

Have a good day!

-Naomi