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'The trouble is,
You think you have time.'
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"I haven't been at this school very long," Addie started, teary eyes bearing into Harry's. "But I think it's general courtesy to tell your best friend that they're dying."
"Addie, I couldn't—"
"No, Harry," She shushed him, her voice coarse, sitting up straighter beneath the covers of the Hospital Wing bed. Hermione, Ron and Ginny watched with wide eyes. "You were the one that saved me from the lake, you were the first person I trusted, you were the closest person to me; you know me better than anyone else. But what kind of person keeps these things from their best friend? Or do I mean nothing to you, is that it? I'm just a girl you're stuck with because you were unlucky enough to be the one who found me."
"Don't say that. I'm not stuck with you, Dumbledore told me to befriend you, and—"
"...What?"
"What?"
"Dumbledore told you to befriend me?" Addie asked, a lump developing in her throat.
"Wait—" Harry fumbles, "No, you didn't let me finish! I meant that—"
"No, no. What you mean is that you never wanted to be near me, but Dumbledore set you up anyway. How could I be so stupid? Why else would a boy come to my side and teach me to make a paper plane? Why else would a boy bring me back to bed during a storm? Out of his own will? quit the act, Harry. Were you even the one that saved me? Was that you, or did Dumbledore tell you to tell me that's what happened so I'd feel close to you? And just before—Ron said that you said you love me, so—"
"You heard that?" Harry asked, his face burning.
"Was that a lie, too? What else are you lying about, huh? Have you just been using me this whole time? What about Dumbledore—what was the point of making you befriend me!" Adeline's voice began to rise, a tear fumbling down her cheek before she could stop it. She wiped it away as soon as it came.
"We're just gonna go—" Ron whispered, the arguing two not noticing as the other three quietly left the hospital wing. They were alone.
"I'm—Addie, please. I did save you. Dumbledore pulled me from potions class a week after to tell me you'd woken up. He wanted me to find out why you were in the lake in the first place; to keep an eye out for you. He never made me befriend you, sure he told me to, but the rest was me. He never told me to teach you something cute. He never told me to comfort you in a storm. He's always told me what to do...never how. Just—just think about it, Addie, please. What about Sirius? That was real; you know that."
"What about Christine?"
"What—What about her?"
"Did you just make up your backstory with her to represent that you 'trust too easily' as an excuse for how close we became so early into knowing each other?"
