Picking Up the Pieces

[Scorpius Knight]

It had been an extremely long third year for Scorpius this year, yet for some reason, all of it seemed like nothing but a blur to him. When looking back at the years events, he couldn't remember much, visions of Quidditch and Taylor's face stuck out in his mind contrasting with the big blank he usually drew when he tried to remember anything else. It had now been quite a while since he and Taylor had broken up so he was finally okay, well, as okay as feeling numb left you. The Ravenclaw had pretty much programmed himself to avoid her at all costs, and except for the Quidditch match against Gryffindor, where he performed terribly due to her presence, he seemed fine without her at least on the outside.

Wearing a checkered shirt and jeans, Scorpius was sitting out on the lawn, his back against a tree as he attempted to catch up on homework. Of course, after about an hour into the attempt, he was finding himself rather bored and was finding it hard to keep his grey eyes focused on his textbooks.

 

[Jennifer Wilkonson]

Jennifer found herself bored with everything in the castle, that no one or nothing could keep her thoughts off of Matthew. It was terribly frustrating to her, she was even tempted to write her mother to ask her why she was feeling like this about the older boy but the reminder that she had to go see her baby sister this winter was enough to keep her away from the Owlrey as a whole. She sighed, wondering if she should get use of the whether while it was warm, or well warm compared to a real winter she had back home in Canada. Not those flimsy zero degree Celsius winters that she was so bored of.

Without realizing what the girl was actually doing she walked out of the castle, her thoughts still playing cruel games on her. Even astronomy was struggling from Jenn being so distracted by Matthew Reed. "Ugh" she groaned as she caught sight of the lake front. Since she had returned to Hogwarts New Zealand she had not once been there, for fear that she would receive bad news as it always seemed to happen there. For one; her dear twin brother's cancer and the second one, Scorpius Knight with that Luna Paramore.

Of course the second one was all water under the bridge between herself and Scorpius, how could it not be? Jennifer and Scorpius had been there for each other since they met before being sorted into Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, they both loved star gazing with a passion and from what she had heard both wanted to be healers. Speak of the devil, she thought before muttering a quick correction to herself, "Think of the devil." She walked to her friend's side, her cerulean blue eyes glinted with joy as she she settled beside Scorpius, not even bothering to ask if she could join.

"Hey Scorpius," Jenn sighed, in desperate need of her friend's company as she looked over her shoulder to see his face with a smile. Her eyes met the grey irises, but her mind was not completely there. No, she was thinking of a pair of blue eyes that belonged to a certain boy who was beginning to get on her last nerve. "How's it going?" she asked, shaking herself into reality with a blink.

 

[Scorpius Knight]

Scorpius was currently running a hand through his midnight black hair, frustrated with how little progress he had made since he began, when he heard a familiar voice greeting him. He didn't have to look up to see who it was, so by the time he did a crooked smile was formed upon his scarred lips as he replied happily, "Jenn!" just as she was taking a seat beside him. In all the effort he went through to avoid Taylor, he had seemed to find comfort and major company in Jenna, whom he'd always been close to from the moment they met.

Scorpius gladly pushed his school work away as he positioned himself better to face her. He looked at her through his questioning grey eyes, noticing that she seemed distant in a way, and he also remembered the sighing tone in which she greeted him. He placed an arm around her and squeezed her tightly in comfort before ruffling her platinum blonde hair playfully. "I'm okay, trying to catch up on homework," he said with clear distaste and boredom. "How about you hmm?" he asked with curiosity.

 

[Jennifer Wilkonson]

Jennifer smiled as Scorpius' arm was wrapped around her shoulder, she hugged him gently back before playfully scowling at him as he ruffled her hair, but she didn't flatten it back down like she normally would have. She felt far too drained to do even do that so she leaned her head on Scorpius' shoulder with a soft smile as she looked down at the book on his lap with slight curiousity. "Nothing, trying to get a certain someone off of my mind," she groaned quietly closing her eyes as she barried her face into her friend's shoulder, trying to get hide herself into her own thoughts.

Of course this would bring up some questions from the Ravenclaw but she was not going to lie to the boy. She hated lying to him or Sam so she just would not unless she needed to.

 

[Scorpius Knight]

Scorpius chuckled when Jenn had scowled at him for messing up her hair, but knew she didn't get upset by it. Scorpius rested his head on top of hers gently as he listened to her confess her thoughts aloud. As soon as the words left her lips however, his head snapped back up as he looked down at her with slightly furrowed brows. "And who might this certain someone be?" he asked with a tone of protectiveness. You didn't have to be a genius to know that 'someone' meant a boy. Since the day he met Jenna, the poor girl seemed to have bad luck with guys, suffering multiple heartbreaks, he winced slightly, hopefully unnoticably, as he recalled that he had once been the cause of such pain and betrayal to her, so now he hoped to make it up to her in comfort and helping her with whomever she was currently crushing on, but most importantly protect her.

[Gah lame, sorry I'll get better!]

 

[Jennifer Wilkonson]

Jennifer looked up at Scorpius as he seemed protective over her and she smiled gently at him, appreciating her best friend right now but honestly not needing protection. "You don't know him. He went to Salem with me," she said, frowning gently as she remembered leaving Hogwarts without one word to her best friends only notes that she regretted and still felt guilt for. "I don't even know why I can't get Matthew out of my mind. It's so annoying!" she groaned, honestly knowing that if she didn't have Scorpius right now she would be more confused then she had ever been. "I err accidently kissed him the last Brightstone weekend," murmured the Hufflepuff.

She honestly hated that guys did this to her, why the heck were they so confusing. For a second she almost thought that life would be easier if she was a lesbian but well Jennifer was not. "Matthew is my best friend's brother and for a long time I'm sure we thought of each other as just good friends, or I did.." she said wondering if Matthew was as confused as she was by all of this, but assumed not he had much more important things to do. "We met up because he had some big news and we hadn't seen each other since summer break. Well turns out the big news was that he and his band were signed on a record label, so I got excited for him, gave him a hug and without thinking, or realizing it, a kiss," Jenn explained, looking down at her hands, fiddling with a thread on her jeans that only now she had noticed and was fixated on to avoid seeing Scorpius' reaction.

After a moment of silence she chuckled fakely, "Stupid huh?" Jenn chewed down on her bottom lip, the next bit made her seem like a jerk and a coward. No wonder she was a Hufflepuff, too afraid to be a Gryffindor, smart but not smart enough to be a Ravenclaw and while she did some mean things it was not her to be a Slytherin.

 

[Scorpius Knight]

Scorpius listened carefully as Jenna told him of this guy whom he unfortunately didn't know. "How can you accidentally kiss him?" Scorpius asked laughing slightly, but Jenna had continued her story and his question soon found its answer. Scorpius stayed silent for a while, going over the series of events Jenna described to him and figuring out what to say to her next. Dating your best friend's boyfriend was obviously something she was not okay with.

Just then he heard her feeble voice say 'Stupid huh?' Immediately Scorpius shook his head vigorously, negating the stupidity she thought. "No," he reassured her. "What did Matthew do after you kissed him?" he asked simply. "Because obviously you must've felt something for your subconscious to make you kiss him out of nowhere," Scorpius said in his Irish accent. "And I find it very hard to believe that this Matthew person could not share mutual feelings," she said with a small nudge to her. The boy would honestly be crazy not to be at least attracted to Jenny.

 

[Jennifer Wilkonson]

Jenna smiled at her friend as he said that she was not stupid. What would she do without him? She had no idea how she would handle things like this without Scorpius. "He stood there. Blankly. Of course I denied everything. Saying that I didn't like him at all and I never did. I feel bad and I'm afraid I might've hurt his pride," she said shyly as she put a hand on her friend's holding it gently just to hold it, nothing more, nothing less.

Jenn's muscles tightened and her stomach clenched when Scorpius said that she had feelings for him subconsciously. Still she denied it, shaking her head in disagreement before she looked at Scorpius when he said that he would be shocked if Matthew didn't feel anything for her in return. Her cheeks began to burn in embarrassment at the complement and she squeezed her best friend's hand gently as a thank you. "Always the charmer Scorpius," she said with a roll of her cerulean blue irises with a smile.

 

[Scorpius Knight]

Scorpius pursed his lips in thought as Jenna proceeded to tell him what had happened between her and Matthew, and told him how he had just stood there blankly after she kissed him. He opened his mouth to say that the poor guy was probably in shock, not expecting Jenny to kiss him, obviously, but not to take it as a negative thing, but she continued, admitting that she had gone as far as to deny her feelings to him. Scorpius actually chuckled lightly at her, thinking it was such a Jenn thing of her to do, and maneuvered his hand that was currently under her smaller one, so that he was able to rub the back of her hand with his thumb in comfort.

He waved off her comment about him being a charmer, and focused on her situation that she was obviously torn about. "Hmm, so his pride is hurt when you denied your feelings for him, but your pride seems to be hurt by the fact that he did nothing when you kissed him," he said aloud, mostly to himself as he evaluated the situation. He sighed and asked, "Why are you denying your feelings for him anyway? I mean, dating your best friend's brother can't be that bad can it?"

 

[Jennifer Wilkonson]

Jenn closed her eyes as Scorpius went through this situation. Why was he so good at this when she barely knew anything about herself? Ravenclaws, she thought with a small sigh. She slowly opened them when Scorpius asked her why she did not want to feel anything for Matthew. "I have bad luck with boys," she said truthfully and she knew that Scorpius knew this to be true, how could he not? "If Matthew and I were to date then break up messily it would be weird. I stay over at their house more than my own. We'd see each other at every meal, our bedrooms are right by each others and I'm sure Jess would feel uncomfortable during mine and Matthew's relationship." Taking a small break to breath as she had spoken really quickly she added with what could only be interpreted as a sad sigh, "It just doesn't seem to be a smart idea."

But this did not excuse that she could not get Matthew out of her mind. Jennifer was torn, completely and utterly torn. It simply was not fair how much guys were so confusing to her. Life would probably tons easier if she was a nun and at the moment she actually considered becoming religious just so any feeling she had for any person of the opposite sex had to be friendship and only friendship. "Anyway, let's not talk about this. I always come to you with my problems. You want to do something fun?" she blurted out, hoping that Scorpius would take the bait and that she would just get over the blue eyed boy her mind was currently fixated on..

 

[Scorpius Knight]

Scorpius listened to her reason as to why she and Matthew couldn't date, nodding his head solemnly. Of course it made perfect sense for her to say no and not try and start a relationship with him, why ruin a friendship with both of them over feelings for someone who just might not have the same in return? (Though Scorpius seriously doubted that). However love wasn't logical and it didn't have to make sense, it was emotional, something you felt with your heart and not with your mind.

Unfortunately for Jenn, if Scorpius wasn't so bitter and heartbroken over his long-ago breakup with Taylor, he would've told her this and encouraged her to take a chance on this Matthew guy that she seemed to really like more than any other guy he'd seen her like before. But even though he wished he could tell her all this, he knew that the words would sound like lies and a bunch of fake words of encouragement for her, when spoken with the bitter taste in his mouth, so he simply sighed and refrained from saying anything to her.

Half of Scorpius was glad that Jenn had decided to change the subject, because he hadn't realized how it made him feel deep inside, but other parts of him knew that Jenn's thoughts of Matthew were not done. He looked at her a bit skeptically at first, contemplating in his mind whether he should encourage her to continue expressing her feelings for Matthew and let them all out, because it would maybe make her feel better, but then the other half of him (the more cynical love-hating half) wanted to stop talking about 'love' and the problems it causes. He decided that distracting them both from the topic would be better, and he'd still be a friend to her by getting her thoughts off of Matthew, if only temporary. "Yes, I would love to," he replied gratefully with a smile. "Did you have something in mind?" he asked her playfully with an eyebrow raised.