Meant To Be

Happier

Daniel turned to me. "So how are you planning on doing this whole 'talking it out' thing?"

"I don't know, maybe wait until he's in the Common Room and then talk to him there?" I offered as an idea.

"That's a good idea but do you even know how you're going to confront him? That's your next problem," He pointed out.

I thought about it for a second, my mind coming up blank. "I was just going to say whatever came to mind."

"That could work, you've just got to make sure it gets his attention," Sebastian piped in.

I looked across the tables to see Charles standing up. "Alright, can we go now? He's already leaving."

"I'll get the other two, you guys just go," Daniel shooed us off.

<><><>

The five of us walked into the Common Room where we saw Charles' retreating figure.

"Charles," I called out.

"What do you want Avery?" He turned around with an annoyed look on his face. "Can't you see that I'm not in the mood."

"And you think I am?" I took a deep breath. "Just listen to what I have to say, then afterwards if you never want to talk to me again I'll leave you alone, but first we have to talk."

Charles leaned against the wall then crossed his arms in front of him. "I'm listening."

"Before this year I only had one friend, you on the other hand had more friends than I could ever imagine having in my lifetime," I started, not really knowing what my point was going to be. "This year started out like all of the rest, I'd meet with you for breakfast, you'd go off with your other friends, and I'd wait all day just to talk to you again."

"There were times that I studied with you and spent time with you!" He argued.

"Yes but rarely!" I shouted before pausing and lowering my voice again. "This 'Assign a Friend' thing gave me a chance to make more friends and help someone so I took it, then I met Daniel, Marc, and Sebastian. I finally had more friends and I got excited because it gave me a chance to not feel like I was alone for most of the day, then we had our ups and downs which gave me the chance to meet Penny, and just like that I had four people in my life that made time in their schedule to hang out and help with homework and studying."

"What does any of this have to do with how much you've changed? You're not my Avery, and my Avery would know that," He said.

"She is not your Avery," Sebastian spoke up, sounding very irritated.

"Sebastian don't-" I tried to stop him, fearing that he would start a fight.

"Have you not noticed?" He gestured to me.

Charles had a confused expression plastered on his face. "Noticed what?"

"That she is happier now than she was when she had just one friend that she barely got to hang out with," Sebastian pointed out. "Of course you haven't, because you're too focused on the fact that she's changed, you're not noticing the fact that she is happier than she ever was before."

"Maybe you should stop trying to hate on her for being different and try and patch things up with her, that's what she was going to try and do next after she explained why she seemed different," Penny joined in.

"I thought this was supposed to be a conversation between me and Avery?" Charles glared at all of us.

"You have a problem with Avery," Marc started.

"You have a problem with all of us," Daniel finished.

I never thought that one day I would be on a different side of an argument with Charles but here I am, surrounded by Slytherins and a Ravenclaw arguing against the person that I thought cared about me like I was their sister.

For one split second I thought Charles was going to just forget about the whole situation but then he frowned and shook his head.

"No thanks, I've got enough friends in my life," He stood up off the wall. "Goodbye Avery."

I felt like I had just been hit with every painful spell in the history of magic but I didn't cry, I just grabbed the hand of the closest person and began walking up to my dorm room.

"Avery where are we going?" Sebastian asked.

I looked back to see that I had grabbed his hand and everyone else was just following us.

"I'm able to stay with you guys correct?" I asked, knowing the answer but still wanting to make sure.

"Of course," He answered.

I opened the door to my dorm and walked in. "Good because I'm not staying in a place where people hate me for being me."

<><><>

I was sitting on Sebastian's bed when there was a knock at the door, we all watched as Marc got up to answer it.

"Addaline?" He opened the door wider. "What are you doing here?"

The Slytherin girl walked past him and into the room where her eyes landed on me.

"Oh good you're here," She handed me a small container of baked goods. "I'm sorry for running into you, you seemed to be having a bad day that day and I wanted to apologize for it."

"Thank you, these certainly aren't going to go to waste," I said as I set the container off to the side.

The room fell into an awkward silence until Addaline broke it. "I'm gonna go now, bye."

"Goodbye," I told her as she left the room.

Marc shut the door behind her and sat next to Penny on his bed. "She only does that for her friends, you should feel special."

"Marc, there's a lot of things that already make me feel special," I told him. "I'm just happy that she was nice and didn't yell at me when I ran into her."

"If anyone yells at you when they're mad tell us, Daniel, Marc, and I will try and fix the problem," Sebastian said, laying down in front of me and looking up at my face.

Out of randomness I tilted my head sideways and poked him on the cheek.

He grabbed my finger. "You're so weird, Avery."

I tapped him on the nose with my other hand. "Yes I am, and that's why you guys love me."

"If you say so," He joked, grabbing my other hand to prevent me from poking him again.