Unforeseen Consequences ☞︎ A James Potter Fan Fic

{23} That Knight and Shining Arsehole

The first two days after Holly had cut off contact with her previous friends, she had been truly and genuinely miserable. She didn't get out of bed. At all. Well... she did to go to the bathroom. But she didn't leave her dorm. Her friends were kind enough to bring her meals up for her, and her school work up for her.

Holly knew that if her mother saw she was slacking, she would only get another howler or maybe something worse. She had only made the deal with James to stop from getting a howler... She should've just taken the bloody howler...

But Holly couldn't lack on her studies just because she didn't want to see the Marauders. She felt lucky enough to have friends that would bring her work up for her. Holly just couldn't face them. She also wouldn't be able to focus in class. Her mind was too busy.

She wondered how she didn't see it. How she didn't see what bully's they were. She felt betrayed even if they had never denied it. She had thought they were better than that. She was also disappointed and upset in them. All of them! In James and Sirius for actually doing it. They thought it was all fun, but they never thought to think that it wasn't fun for the kids they were bullying. She was disappointed in Peter for laughing and standing there, not doing anything. But worst of all was Remus. He stood there; it was obvious he didn't even want them doing what they were going but he did nothing to stop it. He was suppose to make hogwarts a better place for the students. Not be apart of the problem.

The only time Holly would venture down the common room was to rant to David who was being such a saint and listen to her vent for hours about:

"You were so right! I shouldn't have gone with James that day!"

Or,

"I shouldn't have even become friends with them! I should've listened to all the warnings and all the rumors and just ignored the Marauders!"

And also,

"I wish I had never become friends with them. I wish I didn't give them a chance! What they did really hurt me and those poor boys! They broke my trust. Bloody, Manky, bell end, airy-fairy, mingebags!"

As is shown, Holly was not doing well handling this. Her absence had been noticed so, that a new friend of hers had even come for a visit.

Holly stepped outside the common room to see Derek, his arms wrapped around his torso. He looked up as the barrels moved apart.

"Holly! There you are, are you alright, lass?" He asked worryingly. Holly smiled sheepishly.

"I'm just not feeling well enough to be able to handle classes." She explains. Which was indeed the truth.

"Oh! Well, Herbology isn't the same without you." He says quietly. Holly chuckles.

"Hopefully I'll be back soon enough. But for now, I think Slytherin has Herbology with the Gryffindors next?" She asks suggestively. Dereks cheeks warm. He mutters a 'I hope you feel better.' And runs off. Holly smiles and walks back inside.

That had been a nice interaction. So nice that she thought she might start going to classes again. She did indeed miss the interaction. Holly has decided to go to her Care of Magical Creatures class where they were learning about Fire Crabs. Sadly, this just so happened to be a class Remus and Peter had signed up for. And sadly, they had bothered Holly through the entire class. So even if her mind wasn't a buzzing mess, the boys were no help to her actually trying to understand the lesson.

"Holly, come on. Please just talk to us." Remus begged, looking at Professor Kettleburn as he did so. Holly simply ignored him, her body stiff and tense.