The Hogwarts Five

25

CW: SMALL IMPLICATION OF SELF-HARM, EATING DISORDERS AND PHYSICAL ABUSE

The five arrived back at Hogwarts and Y/N's own separate dorm room had formally been established even though the toad Professor Dolores Umbridge heavily and profusely objected. However, she couldn't argue with Dumbledore who, as absent as he was, insisted upon it.

Draco, Caelum and their goons paraded the cobblestoned halls of the castle, flaunting the badges Dolores Umbridge had awarded them. The group of imbeciles had joined the wizard inquisitorial squad she had formed in attempts to take down the group that Harry and Y/N made.

"What'd you think Adzumi? Jealous?" Draco smirked down at Rigel whose mouth simply formed a straight line as she looked at the tacky badge on his uniform. "You could get one of your own if you pulled your head out of your ass and joined our friend group."

Draco's mouth was saying one thing but his eyes were saying another. They looked like they were pleading to Rigel for something while Caelum's watchful eye stared behind Draco's silhouette.

Rigel raised an eyebrow as her eyes landed on a purple bruise on Draco's sickly pale skin as well as what looked to be slits of scabs on his forearms.

"You have a bruise and... are those cuts? They look fresh." Rigel looked up at her fellow Slytherin who quickly shoved his rolled up sleeve down.

"Filthy half-blood! Stay out of my business. Here I thought you could actually be decent." He spat and walked away with Caelum whispering something in his ear, glaring at Rigel.

Y/N looked at Rigel. Something was different about her. She was cold - distant as well as non-expressive. Rigel normally loved to insert herself in conversation - mostly to annoy Lance who loved explaining things that the group didn't understand. However, she hadn't done so in months. It was her birthday soon.

"Why's he suddenly talking to you?" Daniel sneered, wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her close to his chest. "I'll hex him if I have to Rigel."

"No. Caelum's the issue. He called me a rat."

Rat is a slur that was used back during the two muggle wars. It was what other races addressed Asian people as because they believed that due to their yellow-ish complexion. They called them rats and Caelum knew fine rightly about the history behind the slur and he had called Rigel dirty and an infectious disease as well as a danger to society.

"What?! I'll kill him!" Y/N yelled, snatching their wand out of their robe pocket.

"Leave it. It doesn't matter." Rigel said bluntly with no emotion in her face or expression.

Rigel loathed the colour yellow.

Time went by with the group doing what they needed to do. Y/N did their job as a teacher for the other students well and they had become good friends with the golden trio. This resulted in Y/N hanging out with the trio more to know what had been going on with them and their own personal situation with Umbridge and Harry's connection to Voldemort. Romeo and Lance had no idea how to feel about the situation.

On one hand, they were glad because Y/N wasn't alone in feeling like a freak by being connected to an evil person. They had Harry who was going through the exact same thing. Not to mention that both were ostracised by the wizarding world and they had both lost their parents at young ages. The two were more alike than they thought and got along well. Whenever Harry would snap, Y/N knew how to help their friend because they also had really bad mood swings and would lash out at the boys.

On the other, the two friends were mostly alone with Daniel. As great as Daniel was, he wasn't Y/N. Romeo loved Daniel like a brother and loved spending time with him but he also longed to be by Y/N's side. Instead they were with Harry, Ron and Hermione chatting. It was just Romeo, Daniel and Lance.

The three boys were out at Hogsmeade by themselves as Rigel had refused to come out of her dorm room claiming that she was too exhausted. Daniel popped a lollipop in his mouth when Matthew spun the other around and looked him dead in the eye.

"You boys need to check on Rigel." He said, his tone cold and unfriendly. "She's falling again."

"Falling?" Lance raised an eyebrow before hitting the realisation.

Depression ran in the Rivera bloodline and Analyn had developed it in her early twenties. Rigel had developed a mild depression when she reached nine due to the neglect from her father and the abuse from her other relatives. There would be long periods of time where Rigel couldn't bring herself to take care of the bare necessities like brushing her teeth, brushing her hair or even showering.

Lance had seen her depression at it's lowest when she was twelve and from Matthew's tone, he knew it would get worse. It was understandable why too. Her heart is being yanked in two different directions, her friends are fighting over her best friend and her best friend is suffering because of their grandfather. Life wasn't playing nice with Rigel.

"She's fine." Daniel rolled his eyes and shoved Matthew off him. "She's just feeling under the weather. She'll be back to normal on her birthday."

"Don't be stupid." Matthew scoffed which made Daniel snap his head in his direction immediately and glare. "You're the one who told me to stay away from her and so I did. If you love her so bad, then do your part and take care of her before she resorts to eating one meal a day again. If you ever hurt her Yoon, I swear on my father's grave that I will kill you."

With that, the Gryffindor stormed off in the January cold air, heading back to the castle.

Lance sighed and headed to Three Broomsticks, knowing that that was where Y/N and the golden trio were. He was greeted by the warmth of the building before being waved over by Y/N who smiled at him. That beautiful smile tugged at his heartstrings and made a smile grow on his face.

He sat down next to Y/N who stole his scarf because his mother Evelyn always knitted the best clothes. Lance didn't mind. Y/N could steal his entire wardrobe and he would have no issue with it at all. He admired them as they spoke with Harry, Ron and Hermione.

Hermione noticed and kicked Lance's leg from under the table. He silently groaned and glared at his female counterpart who just smiled knowingly, glancing at Y/N and then back to Lance. He rolled his eyes and looked back at Y/N who was having good banter with Ron while Harry was zoning out.

Lance couldn't ignore the feeling of dread lingering in his stomach. What if if Rigel relapsed again? Or Y/N figured the golden trio were better friends? He felt like the friendship the group had formed over the last five years was fading like the final note of a song.