The Fools Who Dream

Chapter 14

"Holy crap." whispered Alice once Cynthia had told her the whole story.

She hadn't left out a single thing. She told Alice about how her parents hated her for no reason that she remembered, how her brother tormented her whenever he could, how her mother sometimes acted nice but then turned angry, even when she did nothing, how she had basically been raised by the house elves, how the only family member that didn't seem to hate her was her grandmother, that for some reason, Sirius decided to hate and torment her as well and all the others just went along with it, all the times she had run away and been brought straight back, and finally, her parents' reactions on the day she had left for Hogwarts.

"I'll get it if you don't want to be friends with me anymore." muttered Cynthia, avoiding Alice's eyes.

"I'm sorry – what?" Alice couldn't help a laugh. "Why wouldn't I want to be your friend?"

"I'm – I'm damaged." stammered Cynthia, almost taken aback. "I'll just get into more trouble and I'll get you in trouble too if you stay my friend."

"You're an idiot." said Alice, rolling her eyes. "If anything, this just makes me want to stay your friend even more. Like we said, we're best friends, and no one hurts my best friend and gets away with it."

"Please don't try anything." said Cynthia nervously. "You'll only get hurt. And – and if they know I've told anyone – well, I haven't got any proof, and it'll only make things worse."

"Okay." said Alice. "I promise I won't."

"Thanks." said Cynthia, smiling hesitantly at her friend. She really was lucky to have such an amazing best friend, someone to be there for her. At that point, she trusted no one more than Alice.

"How do you escape from it?" asked Alice quietly.

"What do you mean?"

"You must have somewhere to go when you aren't running away to just get a break from it all." said Alice matter-of-factly.

"My room." said Cynthia, smiling and pushing her glasses back up her nose. "Our house is – well, it's pretty big. There's three floors. On the bottom is the kitchen and the dining room and the living room and the library and all that. The second floor is James' bedroom, Mum and Dad's bedroom, loads of guest bedrooms and a large sunroom, and then there's a spiral staircase on the opposite side of the house going up to the third floor, which has one guest room and my room. James and Dad never come up to my room and Mum only comes up to give me clean laundry or wake me up in the morning."

"So you've got like your own tower room." said Alice. "That's pretty cool."

"I've got a view of the garden." Cynthia continued. "And a window seat, and books, and a brick wall behind my bed, and my own bathroom and... well, sometimes I feel like I might never have to leave."

"Your dad invented some famous potion, didn't he?"

"Yeah." said Cynthia. "Sleakeazy Hair Potion. That's why we have a big house. The good thing about it though is that it can put loads of distance between me and the others."

"Hang on, did you say you have a library?" Alice's eyes had lit up. "I wish I could see it. What's it like?"

"It's amazing." said Cynthia, grinning. "That and food are pretty much the only reasons I ever leave my room. It's right at the back of the house and only has a couple of windows, but two chandeliers and hundreds of books, and a piano, and plants, and a fireplace, and some comfy chairs, and it's the most spectacular place in the world. Even better than the library here."

"Do you play piano?" asked Alice curiously.

"My grandma used to teach me, when I was a lot younger." said Cynthia, and she leaned back against the wall of the window seat and sighed happily. "She's the only person in my family who doesn't hate me, so Merlin knows what I did to make James and Mum and Dad hate me. But she never liked James, called him a rowdy and uncontrollable brat, although not to his face. She used to bring me sweets in secret, and would read with me in the library, and started teaching me piano when I was about four."

"She sounds amazing." said Alice. "I wish I could meet her. And see your library."

"I'll bring some pictures in at some point." said Cynthia, chuckling. She glanced down at her watch. "Oh, crap! We've only got eight minutes to curfew and – wait, what floor are we on?"

"Uh, fourth, I think." said Alice, pulling the curtains back and jumping to her feet. "If we run, we might just make it without detention."

She grabbed Cynthia's hand and pulled her to her feet. Cynthia couldn't help a laugh as Alice dragged her down the hallway, and the two of them sprinted as fast as they could to the stairway, jumped down the stairs two at a time until they reached the ground floor. Cynthia checked her watch again – three minutes to get to the common room.

"Come on." said Alice.

They ran over to the door to the dungeons and Alice pulled it open. Once again, down the stairs two at a time, their footsteps echoing, until they finally reached the bottom.

One minute to go.

They didn't even bother to close the door behind them as they sprinted down the hallway, past the broom cupboard where Cynthia had been trapped, around a corner, down a sloping slant in the floor, and finally reached the brick wall with twenty four seconds to go according to Cynthia's watch.

"Salazar." said Alice, panting for breath.

The bricks pulled themselves apart and they took a moment to collect their breath and make it seem like they hadn't just run down five floors, and then walked in.

"Eight seconds before curfew." said Cynthia, and the two of them high fived. "Nice work."

"You're actually a minute late."

Alice hadn't even noticed Regulus, the boy who had helped them find Cynthia, working at one of the sofas. Other than him, the common room was empty.

"Not according to my watch." said Cynthia.

"Well, it is according to my watch." he retorted.

"Who are you?" asked Cynthia, folding her arms across her chest. He was rather annoying.

"Cynthia, this is Regulus." said Alice, rolling her eyes. "He helped us find you in the broom closet."

Regulus took a sarcastic bow.

"You're welcome." he said, smirking. "Glad you're alive Potter."

"Uh, thanks?" said Cynthia. He was still annoying. She grabbed Alice's hand and pulled her towards the girls' stairway.

"Well, goodnight Potter, Blondie." said Regulus.

"I never said you could call me that." Alice shot over her shoulder.

A/N

I got train tracks and now have an appointment and I have to go put elastic on a mask because my mum forgot so no time for funny hilarious amazing a/n byeee!