Pragma // s.b.

20

****

When I woke the next morning, my shoulders ached and my entire body was stiff and sore. I turned over, letting out a loud groan. Pulling my pillow over my head, I closed my eyes, willing myself to drift back to sleep. "Look who's finally awake", a muffled voice called, followed by several giggles. I sat up, the pillow falling onto the ground. The grinning faces of the Hufflepuff girls greeted me and I looked around, confused. "Morning", Skye came forward, handing me a steaming cup of coffee. "What time is it?", I said slowly, noticing all of them were already dressed.

    "Lunchtime", Amber snorted, plopping down on my bed next to Poppy. My mouth fell open in a wide yawn. I stretched, my muscles tight. Maggie held a bunch of grapes in her hand and was sitting cross legged on the rug in the middle of the room. Skye had moved and was now standing with next to Oliva, who was leaning up against my bedpost. Olivia. The events of last night suddenly flooded into my head.

    I leaped up, slamming my coffee mug onto the bedside table, startling Amber and causing her to slid off my bed. "Are you all okay? Did any of you get caught?", I said, hoping desperately that none of them had. Amber pushed herself up, blowing a blonde curl out of her face. "None of us got in trouble, don't worry", Maggie said, tossing a grape into her mouth. I let a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness", I moved over to Olivia and Skye, "I don't know what I would have done if you had gotten detention, or worse".

"We all found each other pretty quickly and got the hell out of there", Skye laughed. "We took refuge in the kitchen with Tanner and Lewis", Amber grinned as she moved over to join Maggie on the ground, "It was certainly an adventure". I looked over at Olivia, who had been quiet this whole time. We made eye contact and I raised my eyes slightly as if to say, "Are you okay?". She weakly nodded, her eyes puffy and lips chapped.

"You guys have no idea how glad I am that you got back here safely", I rubbed my temples, sinking onto the edge of my bed. I didn't really care if anyone else got caught, in fact I actually really hope that Quinton and his douche friends got detention for the rest of the year. Poppy rubbed up against my arm and I ran my hand over her soft white fur.

"The real question is", Amber said after a moment, "Where did you go?". I looked over the smirking faces of the girls. "Don't try to deny it, Lewis says he saw you run off with Black", Skye giggled and nudged Liv who tried her best to smile. "I'm not denying anything", I mumbled, avidly avoiding eye contact with all of my roommates. Amber burst into spastic laughter and Maggie wiggled her eyebrows up and down.

"It wasn't like that", I scoffed. This caused more laughter to burst from the girls, and Skye made pointed eye contact with her twin. "Whatever", I let myself fall back onto my bed and I shut my eyes once again, trying to clear my head. I felt the side of my bed sink down and I glanced up. Olivia had moved over and was now perched on my bed, "Guys don't punch random other guys unless they want to impress or protect a girl, and I know for a fact Sirius wasn't doing it for me".

My heart beat fast, and I felt my cheeks start to heat up. I really needed to stop blushing. Liv lay down so her head was next to mine and I reached over and took her hand. "You'll be okay, you know that right?", I whispered. She moved her head so she could look at me, and her dark hair feathered out across my yellow quilt, "I know", the corners of her mouth slightly turned up, the beginnings of a soft smile forming, "I have you".

****

    I eventually dragged myself out of bed and got dressed in my favorite oversized sweater. I quickly braided my hair and threw it behind my back. It was almost 2:45 PM by that point and my stomach was desperate for food. I announced to the girls that I would be going to the Great Hall to see if there was anything left out from Sunday lunch. All the other girls had eaten, but I didn't mind being alone. In fact, I welcomed it after all the excitement of last night.

I gripped a book in my hand and my bag hung off my shoulder as I wandered down the corridor towards the Great Hall. Students walked by, whispering about the crazy bonfire the Gryffindors had apparently thrown last night. I smiled to myself and shook my head, still unable to believe I had let myself be a part of something like that, and enjoyed it as much as I did. The smell of food drifted from the Great Hall and my stomach let out a loud rumble.

"Briony", a very loud, very aggressive voice sounded from behind me in the hall. My head whipped around, and I looked for the source of the voice. A mop of curly golden hair stormed down the corridor and came to a screeching halt in front of me. "Ro, what's going on?", I said, tucking the book in my bag. "Are you actually serious, Briony?", he basically shouted. A few Slytherin boys looked in our direction and scowled.

"Let's go somewhere else", I glanced around, we were attracting lots of stares and I really didn't feel like causing another scene. Ronan let out a huff and grabbed my arm, storming towards a side door and flinging it open. We stood in an empty classroom, leftover writing from an ancient runes class displayed across the large chalkboard at the front of the classroom.

I shoved his hand off my arm, "What is wrong with you?". He folded his arms, his steely gaze trained right on me. "I thought I told you to stay away from them", he said through gritted teeth. "What, who?", then after a moment, my heart sunk, "Oh". My brother's bright green eyes moved up toward the ceiling and he shook his head. "Do you think I'm an idiot? It's one thing for you to be polite to them in class", he said, tapping his fingers on a desk, "But then, you start parading around the castle with Lupin and Black".

I tried to get a word in, but he pushed on. "But you took it too far, Briony. The bonfire? Seriously?", his voice had risen back to a shout and my mouth was hanging open in disbelief. "Ronan, look, I'm sorry", I said, throwing my hands in the air, "But they are actually really nice people. I know the bonfire was a stupid idea, but it was fine! I didn't get in trouble, everything's okay". He began pacing back and forth across the front of the room.

"You are so dumb, Briony!", he cracked his knuckles. I was trying to be patient with him, give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he was just having a bad day, he was just trying to look out for me, but enough was enough. "Okay, what the hell Ronan", I yelled, and he suddenly stopped moving, looking at me. I stormed up to him and poked him in the chest. "Sirius and Remus are really good friends, and really good people. Even James and Peter are growing on me. Sorry I went to the stupid bonfire, but are you actually gonna try to tell me who I can and can't hang out with?".

He stood there frozen in anger. "And you give me this cryptic warning and expect me to just blindly trust you?", I flung myself down into a chair and rubbed my temples, "Mind your own business". A deafening silence that stretched between us. We had only ever had a couple of fights this bad. I looked up. Ronan had moved towards the door. We held eye contact, each daring each other silently to say something.  

He exhaled sharply, then with a sudden recklessness let out, "They tried to killed Severus Snape. He actually almost died, Briony. They were all almost expelled. Sorry if I thought you might not want to know that about your Potions partner and his stupid friends, it's not exactly a happy conversation topic". Usually when I was overcome with emotion, I began to heat up, my cheeks flushing and my insides burning. This time, however, everything went cold. Tears welled up in my eyes, and I tried to say something, but no words came out. Ronan looked at my face and a tear ran down my cheek. "Now you know", he said in a low, emotionless voice, slamming the door behind him on his way out.