Closed Weak Excuse

[Eric Holland]

Eric had been settling in at Hogwarts alright, as much as he could at least. He hadn't received a prefects badge, but he had never expected to get one either. The whole idea was laughable. So far, his fifth year was just normal, with the exception of the strange encounter on the train ride over. He still couldn't quite believe Nicole had asked him out, but it made him feel a bit more confident. He kind of wished he could somehow let Minnie know he had a girl interested in him, but it wasn't like she would actually care. She was with Noel, and that just pissed him off. But it didn't make him want to see Minnie any less.

So when she walked past him, he was alert and noticed where she was going, even though he pretended not to. She looked kind of upset and headed towards the owlery, which was where they had talked last. Eric hesitated, then grabbed a random piece of parchment out of his bag and followed her. The parchment was just an excuse, in case she asked why he was heading to the owlery himself. Minnie wasn't his friend, not really. At least, he figured that was out of the question as long as she was dating Noel. He could at least pretend it was a letter to someone. He hastily rolled up the scrap parchment as he headed into the owlery. Under not too much scrutiny it would probably pass for a letter. He hesitated for a moment, then stepped inside the owlery. It wasn't a very pleasant room, full of owls and owl droppings, but at least it was usually pretty quiet. It was just Minnie here, and Eric realized she really did look upset. He paused in the doorway, suddenly unsure what to do. "Uh, hello." He said after a moment.

 

[Professor Minnie Calida]

Breaking up with Noel had been vital for all of this to get started, she couldn’t let him continue to distract her from what she needed to work towards, but it hadn’t made it easy. He hadn’t made it easy, which really he was more than entitled to do, he’d been upset too, which had made her feel all the worse, but she couldn’t keep dating him when her parents clearly in part blamed her being with him as part of why she hadn’t managed to make prefect. She had to do whatever she could to be better and that meant breaking up with Noel. But, as she had, it had made her already awful mood plummet further. She had to go study, but she couldn’t face the books yet, there would be nothing more embarrassing than breaking down behind a book or two in the library. She’d never been a loud crier, but she didn’t want everyone to see that. She didn’t want to have to face people. It was a good thing therefore that she had a letter to send. She had told her parents in this letter all of the things she had done, all of the promises she was making to be better and hopefully that would smooth things over. Her mum would be appeased with all the work that Minnie was doing. ​

​

She was powering through the school, just determined to not get seen by anyone in the school, not wanting to speak to anyone, but it wasn’t like she had that many friends to begin. Noel had been one of her only friends at the school. She had never had many friends, she’d been too busy for them in the past and now everyone had friendship groups and she didn’t have time for any of it. Minnie pushed her way into the owlery and cast hominem Revelio, to make sure she was the only one in it, before casting a quick scourgify on one of the spots in the room where she could sit and sat down. Her hands were shaking and tears pooled in her eyes. She could feel she was barely keeping it all together. And the door opened. The spell had shown someone nearby but she hadn’t imagined they’d be coming inside. She felt like she might snap at them but upon glancing, her resolve softened and instead she felt the tears worsen for a moment. She was quick to wipe at her eyes. ”Hey,” she replied. She was holding a letter in her lightly shaking hand and hoped an owl would just appear beside her, so she wouldn’t have to get up on shaking legs. ”Sending a letter?” she said, knowing her voice wasn’t particularly strong and she attempted to smile but it probably seemed fairly forced. ​

 

[Eric Holland]

Eric wondered if he had made the right call, following Minnie here. But with how she looked, he felt like she shouldn't be alone. Eric stepped into the room, wondering if he should be polite and pretend he didn't see she was crying. But he had never been very good at being polite. "Minnie, what's wrong?" He asked her, ignoring her question about the letter. "Did someone mess with you?" He asked, frowning. "I could beat them up." He said, glancing at the door. "Or is it Noel? Did he hurt you somehow? I can definitely beat him up." He said, turning back to Minnie. But then he glanced at the letter in her hand, and his expression softened a bit. "Or... your parents?" She had confided in him a bit before, and Eric didn't have a very high opinion of Minnie's parents as a result. He wished he could beat them up as he would if someone had bullied her or if Noel had somehow broken her heart. But it wasn't as easy to solve this, even if they did deserve it.

 

[Professor Minnie Calida]

Minnie would’ve really rather Eric just ignored how upset she was, but in the same vain, she knew she wouldn’t be able to ignore him if he were upset and their friendship was just the side of odd that she could understand why he didn’t just let it go. The ravenclaw shook her head at him, ”We broke up,” she was quick to say, she had never mentioned to Eric that she’d been seeing Noel. It had happened before they’d gotten over their fight and she just hadn’t known how to bring it up, given that she knew that Eric had problems with the other gryffindor boys. She felt her eyes well with more tears and just shook her head, ”I’m just upset because Noel and I broke up, I’m just telling my parents about it,” she said quickly, not much of it was a lie. She was upset with the break but she had asked for it. She had needed to break up with him to appease her parents. She was hurt too by her parents and all that had happened but this wasn’t really the core reason for why she was upset that day. It just was because of her not getting prefect that her parents were upset and that was then partly why she’d broken up with Noel and was now upset about it. ”Don’t beat him up though, I broke up with him,” ​

 

[Eric Holland]

Eric's eyes widened at Minnie's confession, they broke up? He felt a surge of joy, but he forced himself not to show it. He knew Minnie wouldn't like that, and he didn't really get why he was happy anyway. He supposed he just didn't want anything good for Noel, as he was awful. "What?" He asked, frowning. "What did he do? Where is he?" He clenched his hands into fists. While he was happy to hear that the two had broken up, Minnie was clearly upset about it. That meant he had to take revenge on Noel, and he would gladly do so. But then Minnie said she had broken up with him, and Eric was just confused. "What?" He said again, blinking. "Then... why are you so sad?"

 

[Professor Minnie Calida]

Minnie had known that his reaction would be like that. But it wasn’t Noel’s fault, it wasn’t him doing anything that had broken them up, it was her, she had broken them up and it wasn’t because she didn’t want the relationship but more that she had to. She gave a little shrug at his last question, she knew exactly why. She knew what exactly had caused it. ”It’s just complicated, I didn’t entirely want to break up, but I had to. He’s a distraction,” she told Eric, she was trying and mostly failing to keep her voice steady. She should just say to Eric what had happened, he was one of her closest friends, despite everything. ”I didn’t get prefect….so my parents were well…..you know.” She said, her voice unsteady as she said it. But, she was pleased that it just shook no less than it was already. ”I need to focus on my education, I can’t let myself get distracted by boys and stuff,” she told him. ​

 

[Eric Holland]

The slight happiness Eric had felt when Minnie said she had broken up with Noel was extuinguished when she said she didn't entirely want to break up. He sighed, realizing what was happening here. "Let me guess, your parents made you?" He asked her quietly. When she admitted it was because she didn't make prefect, Eric frowned. "What? You didn't?" He hadn't really paid attention to all that, but he'd assumed Minnie was the prime candidate. "Professor Josephs must be an idiot." He said with a snort. "But being a prefect is dumb anyway. Do you really want that? All you do is spend your own time doing the job professor's should be doing themselves. And you're supposed to act like it's an honor." He said, rolling his eyes. He sighed. "I don't think you can focus on your education more than you already do. Without like, turning into a book or whatever." He said, approaching her and sitting next to her. "Were your parents so perfect while in school? I bet they weren't. No one works as hard as you."

 

[Professor Minnie Calida]

Minnie gave a half shrug, she didn’t particularly want to go into the details of who had said what which had led to the break up with Noel. She hadn’t wanted to break up with him and her parents hadn’t told her in so many words, she just thought that if it seemed that she concentrated on her studies, ditched the boy, maybe that would soften everything. She knew that it wouldn’t stop it being a little too late but she could try really anything else to try and fix what she had ruined. Minnie felt fresh tears well as she told him about not being prefect, his reaction wasn’t much of a surprise to her, but she shrugged at the first question. In all of his words she couldn’t help but smile a little, it was such an Eric way of putting it, but it had been what she perhaps needed to hear. A professor’s job. She leaned a little against his as he sat down next to her, ”My parents are so disappointed in me Eric, they had this whole path for my life mapped out and it seems that it was non-negotiable that I get prefect as part of it,” she spoke softly unable to stop herself from telling him. She leaned her head lightly against his shoulder, as her breath came out in shakily, ”They’re so disappointed and I don’t know how to fix it,”​

 

[Eric Holland]

Eric tensed up as he felt Minnie lean against him a little. Nervously, he glanced at her, but she hardly seemed to notice. "If your parent's map for your life hinged on you being a prefect its a dumb map." He said with a scowl. "Like anyone outside of this stupid school cares about that, Minnie!" He added, gesturing with his hands. "Your parents are just putting all this pressure on you for... for nothing. I bet if you were a prefect they'd give you crap for putting too much time into your patrols or whatever." He said, scowling. "Besides, do you really think that after Hogwarts anyone is going to care if you had a stupid prefect's badge or not?" He asked her. He felt his face flush as her head leaned on his shoulder a little, and almost didn't dare to move in case he made her realize what she was doing. He cleared his throat. "Listen, one day when you're like... Minister of Magic you won't even remember all this sadness about a stupid badge." He told her after a moment of hesitation. "And the girls who now got a badge instead of you will be working for you." He paused, shooting her a slight grin. "And because I'm now nice to you, you'll pardon me in my inevitable wizengamot trial." He told her with a slight nudge. He hoped to make her smile, even at the cost of making her realize how close they were. He at least hoped she couldn't hear his heart hammering in his chest, for some reason.

 

[Professor Minnie Calida]

Minnie had to agree in part with what he was saying, she hadn’t realised how much of her family’s life hinged on her getting prefect and she had to think that after it no one would care, after all, her mother had been a prefect and that wasn’t something they listed about her. It wasn’t something that came up at all. And she knew that if she had managed to get prefect they would’ve had an issue elsewhere, but at least then they’d be speaking to her. ”They’d be giving me so much grief for patrols,” she agreed, but it didn’t make it any easier. She had been thinking over recent weeks that there could or would be no way for Minnie to make them happy with her, there would always be something she wasn’t doing right, and in all of that she couldn’t help but wonder, did they even love her...She knew her parents cared more when she was following their path and doing well, so could she only gain their love if she was doing what they wanted, and without prefect how was she supposed to get it back. Would the head girl position bring it back to her….would it worth it..Her head still upon Eric’s shoulder it was easier, he wouldn’t be seeing the stray tears she was brushing away and his words brought a small smile, real smile to her face. She didn’t think she wanted to be minister, if she was able to get back on her parents path that wasn’t for her, but if she didn’t, she would be free to pick what she wanted. ”You aren’t a bad person Eric, not nearly as much as you think you are,” Minnie told him. ​

 

[Eric Holland]

Eric nodded as Minnie said her parents would be giving her grief for patrols. At least she seemed to realize how unfair they were to her. It seemed like no matter what she did, it was never good enough. Never enough in general. Eric really wished he could give them a piece of his mind sometime, but he knew that was a weird thing to hope for. He glanced at Minnie sideways, still nervous about how she was leaning on his shoulders. But he couldn't really see her face. He had hoped that his comment about the ministry would cheer her up a bit, but he couldn't be usre without seeing her expression. Her words, though, were clear to him. He felt surprisingly touched at those simple words, and turned his own face away so she wouldn't see it if she looked up. "Right." He said, his voice slightly strained. "You know, everyone else would disagree with you on that." He muttered. Though it made him feel warm inside, knowing that Minnie didn't think he was bad even after everything.

 

[Professor Minnie Calida]

Minnie wasn’t too surprised with what he said in reply, she knew that this side of Eric wasn’t what most people saw, she didn’t know what had happened for this to be the person she knew comparatively with everyone else, but she was quite pleased for it. Just because he was a friend and one of her only real friends. Everyone else she knew she was likely a little false with, maybe not when she’d been with Noel, but the rest. With Eric though, with him she knew despite their problems it was easy to be herself around him. She smiled a little at his words but just smiled a little, despite how she was really feeling. ”They don’t know you like I do,” was all she said. Minnie knew that Eric had some anger issues, that he wasn’t the friendliest person but she knew she wasn’t either, she was harsh and driven in ways that didn’t make it easy to make friends. She wasn’t always the easiest to get along with. ​

 

[Eric Holland]

Eric was feeling strange, both happy and nervous. As Minnie smiled at ihm and said they didn't know him like she did, the feeling turned into full-on panic. He had no idea what to do with this situation. He didn't want to hurt Minnie, not after she was already upset, but he also knew he couldn't stay here. The conversation was veering into dangerous territory. He nodded quickly and ran a hand through his hair. "I... I'm sorry, Minnie. I should go." He said softly, making sure to keep his voice gentle. He really didn't want her to think she had done something wrong. She hadn't. But he needed to get out of here. "But... don't let your parents get you down. Remember what I said, okay? They never seem happy with you, they don't seem to realize how lucky they are with a kid like you." He said, then felt his cheeks heat up. He really needed to go before he said something worse. Something more sappy. Eric got to his feet, dusting himself off a bit before heading to the door. "I'll... see you around." He said hesitantly.

 

[Professor Minnie Calida]

Minnie meant what she said, wanted him to know that she did care about him and didn’t think of him in the same way she knew others did. He was a good person, he was someone she had come to rely on no matter how rocky things were. She raised her head off his shoulder as he spoke, saying he had to go and she just nodded. She needed to get back to studying too really, but it was a little odd how quickly he had jumped to that after what she’d said. She just shouldn’t think too much into it. Eric would’ve made it known if he was annoyed about something or didn’t agree. She gave a little smile at him, she wanted to believe his words, but knew she’d struggle to. ”I’ll see you later Eric,” she said to him, ”Thanks for making me feel better,” Minnie meant that honestly and she just watched him walk out the door. ​