ROMEO [2] ⚡ harry potter

1

IT BEGINS
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Charlotte's father had always told her, "find a couple of good friends and keep them for life". She'd followed her father's advice, but what she soon realised was that, in actual fact, three is a crowd. A couple was too many.

So, she settled for one. Zara Afasy.

Of course, Charlotte Cardleman had the potential to collect many friends. She was certainly outgoing, and liked to be around people. An extrovert through and through. But not many gained the title of friend.

And when the one girl who had disappeared with her twin, without so much as a word, and no explanation when Charlotte questioned Zara's parents, her heart broke a little.

And then when said parents were found dead in their home, clearly murdered but no proof of such a death, leaving police baffled, Charlotte concluded her friend would never return, no matter how many times she called (although she did anyway).

So, she had made another friend, Flynn O'Riley. He was more of a classmate before Zara disappeared, loud, hilarious and slightly obnoxious yet always alone. Charlotte figured he wasn't too bad.

For Charlotte it was simple. One parent. One friend. One lover. One day.

"Hey, Zara," she said, holding her mobile to her ear as she leaned her head on her hand, sitting on a canteen table surrounded by people but frankly feeling quite alone. Her friend hadn't answered her phone. Again.

"Just checking in. To be honest, it's quite embarrassing that I do this. I mean, why do I leave these stupid fucking messages? I don't even know if you've listened to them or not. But I guess I'll talk anyway," Charlotte sighed, with a sad smile. "You're probably just mourning. I wish I could say something more than I'm sorry for your loss but in these situations that's all you can say. So... I'm sorry for your loss. Your parents did tell me that you were fine before they died. That you were in school."

Charlotte looked around the canteen, around her group of classmates and sighed once more. "But you're not though are you? I was wondering whether you might have gone to visit your grandparents but you wouldn't go back to your home country without saying anything, right? Either way, everything's alright here. Nothing much to do besides revise for our GCSE's and stuff."

"Charlotte," a voice said, and Charlotte looked up to find Flynn shaking his head at her with raised eyebrows as he dumped his tray and sat down in front of her.

"Flynn's about to tell me off," Charlotte said quickly. "Oh yeah, I'm still keeping him around. To everybody's surprise. I'll keep you posted."

"Charlotte, you're going to get that thing confiscated you know," Flynn stated as she hung up the phone and stuffed it in her pocket.

"The only people here are kids and lunch staff," Charlotte laughed, rolling her eyes. "Nobody's going to say anything!"

"Whatever," he shrugged. "But I won't wait for you outside of detention next time you get one."

"Oh, you will," Charlotte laughed, taking a mouthful of the spaghetti before instantly spitting it out. "This is gross."

"I'll take your word for it," Flynn grinned, tipping the contents of his plate onto Jarrod Preston's plate (a sleazy idiot who was only sitting next to them because there was nowhere else).

Jarrod didn't look up from his conversation with a pretty brunette, picking up one of Flynn's meatballs and eating it. Charlotte laughed loudly, and when Jarrod's table turned to look at her, she quickly silenced.