Chocolate Toast, Remus Lupin

Apologies

"Avery!" Mary stood and hugged the Ravenclaw as soon as she walked into the Gryffindor dorm. She took Avery's face in her hands and studied it. "Have you been eating enough?"

"Yes, Mary."

Marlene and Dorcas stood next to Mary, "Leave the poor bloke alone, Mary." Marlene said.

Mary let go of Avery's face hesitantly.

"Finally talking to us again?" Marlene asked.

"Marlene." Lily stood next to Avery, her arms crossed.

"Sorry, pent-up anger. We're happy to have you back."

"I'm sorry," Avery said, looking between the three girls. "I'm so sorry that I yelled, and was rude, and I'm sorry I've been staying away. I should have talked to you all instead of running."

Mary took Avery's hand. "It's okay Avery, we don't blame you."

Dorcas took Avery's other hand. "We're just happy you came back."

Avery gave them a teary smile. "I will do everything to make it up to you all, I promise."

"Oh Avery," Mary hugged the girl again, the others following after. "Have you talked to Ali and Piper yet?"

Avery shook her head, "Lily and I came here first."

Marlene smirked, "Good thing you two are prefects."

"What table does not have legs?" The bronze knocker asked.

"The periodic table," Lily answered.

"What is a periodic table?" Avery asked as the door swung open.

"Oh Avery, you'd love this muggle class. It's called Chemistry and it's just like potions. The periodic table shows all of these different elements."

"You'll have to tell me more about it." The girls walked up the steps to the fifth-year girl's dorm. "I'm scared Lily."

"It's okay, Avery." Lily gave the girl an encouraging nudge and Avery opened the door.

"Oscar, if you're here to try and convince us to do karaoke again the answer is yet again, no." Piper said from her bed.

"Umh, no. I know you can't sing so I wouldn't do that."

Piper looked up from her book. "Avery." She stood and ran towards the girl and tackled her.

"Piper, if you don't get off I might suffocate," Avery said from under the brunette.

"Sorry. I just, I wasn't expecting it to be you." Piper moved to sit criss-cross, Avery followed. She looked towards the door for Lily but she wasn't there.

"Where's Ali?"

"Showering, she'll be out in a minute." The girls stared at each other. "I heard about you and Nott."

"Oh," Avery scraped at her fingernails. "I promise that's not why I'm back."

Piper smiled at the girl, "I know."

Ali walked out of the bathroom. "I thought I heard you." She joined the other two on the floor.

"I'm sorry," Avery told the two.

"We know. We've known for a while, we were just waiting for you to come back."

"Don't you hate me? For what I did?"

"Avery, you're our best friend. We could be mad for a while but eventually, we just got sad." Piper said.

"And honestly, you're not the best at expressing emotions. We knew that eventually you'd snap and say some stuff you didn't mean. That's what happens when you bottle up emotions." Ali said with a shrug.

"Being with Nott didn't help you either. I don't want to be mean but he started to isolate you from us. You were always with him except for nights he had astrology or had plans with his friends." Piper added.

"He was using me." Avery said, "I heard him on Easter, talking to his friends. He was trying to get on better grounds with my gran. When I confronted him he said that was true in the beginning but it changed." A tear rolled down her cheek. "I feel so stupid. The first guy I date, the first guy I love, he just turns out to be a fraud."

"Avery, look at me." Avery looked towards Ali. "One bad guy should not make you feel like you're stupid, or not lovable."

"I didn't say that."

"But we all know that's what you meant." Ali took Avery's hand and Piper followed. "Avery, you are worth more than a diamond, you're worth more than a million pieces of art. You're Avery Dessen! You may be bad at expressing emotions, and you may make mistakes, but you are the smartest witch I know, you're the most considerate, and you're the strongest person I've ever met."

Avery let out a wet laugh.

"It's true A, you're amazing, and it's horrible that you can't see it," Piper said.

"I missed you two, and I'm so sorry. I'm sorry I took you all for granted when we were friends." Avery told the two.

"It's okay, because like we said, you came back."