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My stomach twisted into knots as I walked slowly down to the dungeons. After Ronan had left me sitting alone, stunned and shaken in the empty classroom, I had returned to the dormitory, my appetite gone. I smiled at the girls, pretending everything was okay and that a million thoughts weren't flying around my head. A pounding headache had formed shortly afterwards, and I spent hours wandering the grounds alone, trying to collect my thoughts.

Had they actually tried to kill Snape? End his life? I thought about James' messy hair, Peter's chubby cheeks, and Remus' crooked smile. With a deep pang, I remembered the gold flecks in Sirius' eyes and his loud laugh and how it felt to sit so close to him on the counter. I didn't want to believe my brother, but why would he lie? He had no reason to, no motive to accuse anyone of something that serious without being sure that it was true.

The entire night had been sleepless, and I spent it tossing and turning and trying to shut out the thoughts flooding my brain. I had stayed quiet at breakfast and still hadn't spoken a word as we approached the classroom. What was I supposed to say to them when I saw them in class? How could I sit next to Sirius and look at him and pretend everything was fine? It wasn't like I could go up to him and say, "Hello! How are you today? Did you and your mates try to kill Severus Snape?".

Maggie walked on my right, telling me about how her sister's birthday was coming up but she had no idea what to get her. I nodded when she paused and laughed when she did, but my mind was far from the conversation. We turned a corner and the group of Gryffindor's standing outside the Potions classroom came into view. The four boys stood with a larger group, Sirius leaning against the stone wall. A few girls giggled around him, and he had his signature smirk plastered across his face.

When the group of Hufflepuffs I was walking with filed in, I watched his eyes scan the crowd until they met mine. His smirk was replaced with a wide smile and he lifted his hand in a wave. My eyes moved to the ground and I bit my lip. I couldn't do it. I couldn't sit next to him, someone I considered to be a friend and trusted, and pretend like my head wasn't spinning. Someone who Ro thought without a shadow of a doubt had tried to seriously hurt someone.

Professor Terence flung open the door and welcomed us into the cool classroom. I was starting to make my way reluctantly to my seat when a perfectly manicured hand grabbed my arm. "You can fool everyone else, but not me. You're telling me what's going on after class", Olivia whispered into my ear, firmly but with a hint of worry under her words. I looked at her, willing myself to hold it together. I nodded slightly, my eyebrows moving closer together as I took a shaky inhale.

When I reached the desk, Sirius was already seated. His legs were propped up and he tapped his wand on the smooth wooden surface of the desk. I slid into my seat and reached down to dig through my bag to pull out my textbook. Even after I found it, I stayed bent over, unsure if I could handle looking at Sirius.

After what I knew was an uncomfortable amount of time, I sucked in my cheeks and sat up. Sirius look at me quizzically. "You doing okay this morning, sunshine?". I let out what I hoped sounded like a nonchalant laugh and looked down at the mossy colored cover of my book, "Just tired". I knew he was staring at me, waiting for me to look back up at him. But I didn't, I couldn't.

Luckily for me, today was a lecture day. I took more detailed notes than I had in my whole life, but if you asked me, I couldn't tell you one thing Professor Terence had said. I could feel Sirius' presence next to me, painfully aware of the fact that he kept looking over at me. My brain ran at a million miles a minute. Yes, Black and the rest of the Marauders were stupid and liked pulling pranks but would they go as far as to actually try to seriously hurt someone? To the point where they could die?

Class ended and I flung my bag over my shoulder quickly, needing to escape the classroom that seemed to feel much smaller and stuffier than usual. I didn't even give Sirius a chance to say anything, and was almost to the door when, "Do you wanna go to the library?", I heard Remus call out from behind me, and my heart sank even further. Remus was so kind to me, the purest of their friends. He seemed to care so much about doing right. I began to turn, but the furious look on my brother's face flashed in my mind and I stopped. "Um, I have to talk to Liv. Maybe some other time", and in a flash of strawberry blonde hair, I was gone.

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"How can you know it's true?", Olivia said quietly. We sat next to each other on the large sofa in the middle of the empty Hufflepuff common room. I closed my eyes and brought my fingers up to massage my pounding forehead. "I don't know", I let out, "But Ro doesn't lie. I don't know how he knows about it, but he wouldn't go around accusing people of attempted murder if he didn't have a reason".

There was a pause. I opened my eyes, Olivia was chewing on her lip and nervously running her fingers through her hair. "You need to talk to them", she shifted, pulling her legs up next to her. I shook my head and my prickling hot tears burned behind my eyes. "I can't", I bit the inside of my cheeks, "Because if I ask them and they say it's true, I...", I couldn't finish the thought. I would what? Never be able to trust anyone again? Never be able to trust my own judgement again? I had let my guard down against my own better judgement. I hadn't trusted them from the moment I had laid my eyes on them 1st year. But somehow, I let myself become friends with them. And now they might have done something unbelievably horrible, inhumane.

"You have to talk to them, Bri", Olivia breathed. A first year boy scurried past and my eyes followed him until the light wooden door leading out of the common room swung shut. "I don't want to believe it, I can't", I tucked my hair behind my ears in an attempt to cool down. The overwhelmed feeling coursing through my body was threatening to overcome me. "I can't do this", my heart was beating fast and my breathing was becoming short and choppy. I had let down Ro, I had let down myself, and I was about to let down Olivia. Tears spilled down my cheeks and I grit my teeth, trying to force them back.

"Briony", Liv's voice said sharply, "Look at me". Surprised, I looked up. She had a determined expression, as if she knew she needed to be strong for both of us. "It sucks. You thought you knew them. You let yourself not look tough for once.They could have done something really, really bad and that's scary", she continued, her voice clear and strong, "But you will not rest until you talk to them. Find out the truth, as painful as it may be". She pulled me over so my head leaned on her shoulder. I felt tired, emotionally drained, and scared beyond anything else, but I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, "Okay, I'll talk to them".

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