Chapter Twenty Three

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Kelli sat on her bed, cross-legged and reading through Elizabeth's potions notes while she waited for them to wake up. Kelli was, undoubtedly, pissed when she realised the OWLs but she had zero time to behave like it. So she bit down her anger and got stuck into studying.

She hadn't noticed when Lauren had woken up and drifted out of the room until the door closed. Kelli looked up at the door and wondered if Lauren had even seen her. But then moments after she thought it, the door squeaked open and Kelli caught eyes with Lauren.

"Holy Merlin!" she shouted, probably waking most of the fifth year girls dorm.

Kelli raised her eyebrows at Lauren as Elizabeth stirred. "What, Lauren?" Elizabeth asked, barely opening her eyes.

"Kelli-"

"Alive and well," Kelli told them both. "But also studying. I stole your notes," she told them, looking between the pair of them.

Elizabeth looked very much awake in that moment. She leapt out of her bed and Kelli was given the illusion that Elizabeth had floated across the room. There wasn't a moment to think about what was happening until Kelli was on the ground, her head hitting it first and Elizabeth was wrapped around her like a koala to a eucalyptus tree.

"Son of a - ow, that hurt," Kelli groaned, patting Elizabeth's back all the same. "Good to see you missed me. But I'm not kidding, I'm studying."

"I don't care. To you, you saw me like yesterday. To me, it's been months."

Kelli supposed that she was fair to assume that. It was also fair that she could react like this because, while Kelli hadn't seen them for months, she had finally seen her parents for the first time in years, while Kelli's lifeless body was literally in walking distance of the both of them most of the time.

"Sorry," Kelli apologised, sitting up once Elizabeth released her from the pin to the ground. "You're right. So, tell me what did I miss?"

"Well, not much, actually," Lauren said. "You probably noticed we took really good notes. We thought you'd do this when you woke up."

Kelli chuckled and said, "I noticed. They're extremely detailed. Except I imagine your divination notes are how you've always taken them."

Her eyebrows raised. "You read those?"

"You made it seem interesting," Kelli answered simply, moving so that she was on her bed. "You should close the door. I'm sure there's something I could catch up on between the pair of you?"

"Before that, where did you dispose of Riddle?" Elizabeth asked.

Kelli smiled and said, "I knocked over his chair he was asleep in."

"You have an odd relationship with him. You're friends with him and you'd do something like that because you also know him enough to know he probably deserved it."

"I'm just trying to convince myself I actually don't like the asshat," Kelli sighed, falling into a lying position from her seated position dramatically. "Unfortunately, he just looked ho-uh- attractive. Not as attractive as when he was asleep but - this is why I do homework," she muttered, sighing.

"Horrible thing, being a teenager with a crush," Elizabeth said gravely. "Well, when that crush is someone who you think is a sociopathic person. Do you think he did it?"

Kelli looked up at Elizabeth and said, "I'm crazy. He petrified muggleborns - me, one of them. He killed a girl. He actually murdered a person. And I'm all, 'he's so attractive though'. Honestly, I need an Asylum."

"Isn't that a muggle place that muggles put their prisoners in?"

"Kind of, I guess," Kelli answered. "More so crazy, not safe for society or themselves and they never leave again. We do have prisons for criminals."

"I've missed this," Lauren said, having closed the door and sat down on Elizabeth's trunk. "I honestly could listen to you talk all day. I've missed you so much."

Kelli shot Lauren a smile and said, "I'm sorry this happened."

"As if it's your fault."

Kelli shrugged, trying not to be too dismissive. She could have done something because she knew. But she didn't do enough. She almost shook her head, dismissing her own thoughts. This wasn't something she could think about. Kelli had spent almost too much time thinking about how she failed when she was at home. Honestly, she was scared she'd never go back to Hogwarts, go back to this life in a world she absolutely loved. It was horrible, just because she knew that her parents would think she went missing again, that she'd be kidnapped, that Olivia would have felt like a failure in protecting Kelli.

Not to mention, the job prospects here in the wizarding world were far above any of the life that Kelli would leave behind in a heartbeat again. Kelli did feel guilty about her parents and Olivia, there was no doubt about it. She loved her parents and she quite liked Olivia. But the wizarding world was her home now. She had itched to come back, she re-read the series so much, did a ridiculous amount of research into everything, anything she had missed. Watched Fantastic Beasts.

"Hey, are you alright?" Elizabeth asked.

Kelli looked up at her, realising she had stopped listening. "Sorry, I'm . . . thinking."

"About?" Lauren asked.

Kelli felt like it was a very personal thing to say but she trusted them both so much. "If I was offered the chance of seeing my parents again, my family again, yet had to give up the wizarding world, I'd hate myself but I'd choose never seeing them again."

"Why?" they asked, both confused. Of course, they never had to deal with this problem, they had their parents and they had this life. Kelli had one or the other.

Kelli smiled patiently at her friends, ignoring the pang of annoyance that came with their confused reactions. It was unnecessary that she was getting annoyed. "Because I love the wizarding world. I love my parents but this is a life I could never give up. And wouldn't it be better to remember people with fondness than resent them for playing a part in your decision? I'd resent myself and I'd resent them. But no matter," Kelli then added, attempting to dismiss the conversation. "But seriously, I do have almost an entire year worth of homework to do, so I'm gonna do that."

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