the moon is no door ↠ Tom Riddle

24

If she was honest with herself, Saffron didn't even know who Soren's friends were before she went to sit with them at the library. She knew he had them, just not exactly who they were—aside from Lionel. Even though Soren seemed to always keep tabs on Saffron from afar, he may as well have been an estranged family member to her.

He was sitting with two other Ravenclaws and, almost shockingly, a Slytherin (who was not Walburga). They were in the middle of studying for Defense Against the Dark Arts and, as soon as Saffron approached their table, they all fell completely silent and stared at her, waiting for her to speak first.

Saffron never ever felt nervous going to speak to people, but this made her stomach drop. What was she even doing here? They were studying sixth-year material, she was studying for her O.W.L.s. They'd taken those last year. This was just going to be awkward.

But, she was so not used to not having any friends and she was going crazy being by herself so often. After she met up with Lionel after Herbology a couple of weeks back, after Tom had come to comfort her, they'd set up a schedule where they'd meet twice a week in the library. With nothing else to do, she'd gone early that day.

Once Soren and his friends entered the library, the feeling of isolation, now a permanent resident in her stomach, swelled to an intensity that was intolerable. Her body had moved without her permission as she got up from her table, grabbed her materials, and walked across the room to their table.

"Can I sit with you?" she asked, looking mostly at Soren. She hated how weak her voice sounded.

"Sure. Are you okay?" Soren replied. He knew what was going on, surely. Saffron's standing within Hogwarts had gone from the upper echelon of popularity to the very bottom. It was mostly Pippa's doing—no one liked a traitor, and she made sure that everyone knew Saffron had backstabbed Rory.

Now, everyone was avoiding her. Saffron wasn't sure what to do about it, especially because everything circulating about her was pretty much true.

"Yes," Saffron replied, shortly. Though she would have rather sat right next to Soren, he was sitting on the other side of one of the Ravenclaws, whose name was Eli.

Saffron's skin was burning with embarrassment as they glanced around at each other, unsure whether to talk to her or go back to their previous conversation.

For the first twenty minutes, things were tense. The sixth-years continued to study and Saffron went back to her O.W.L.s. They were pretty much ignoring her, though she could tell that Soren was conflicted, wondering whether or not he should engage her. She knew he was worried about her, he'd already come to ask her if she wanted to talk twice that week.

When someone finally did speak to her, it wasn't Soren.

"Hey, Saffron, are you studying for your O.W.L.s right now?"

Saffron, startled, looked up to see who'd spoken. Lilith, another Ravenclaw, was smiling at her. The Slytherin sitting next to her, Alfred, looked up a moment later from his notes to glance at Saffron's and started smiling, too.

"Yeah, I'm studying for Charms."

"Wow, good luck. That was the worst June of my life," said Alfred, shaking his head solemnly. Lilith and Eli muttered unclear groans, clearly agreeing with him.

Soren leaned forward. "You are studying? Something must be really wrong with you," he said, the small smile on his face clearly communicating his teasing was good-natured.

"Be quiet, Soren," said Saffron, pretending she was going to throw her book at him.

"Ugh, that brings back bad memories," Lilith said and shook her hands out. "Do you three remember when those Gryffindors tried to convince us all to pretend to pass out during the Potions exam in hopes that we'd get it postponed?"