Young Friendships

[Rohan Kearsley]

Rohan checked his watch, tapping the desk he was sitting on with his fingers and sighing inwardly. He highly doubted his friend was going to show up. The plan had been to pull a prank on a Professor, but deep down, Rohan knew his friend didn't have the guts. Such a goody two-shoes. He could have left, then. There was no point staying, except to waste some more of his time. Mind you, when he started to day dream, he could sit pointlessly for hours and suddenly realize he should get going. He was just beginning to stare into space when he heard the door open. Smiling eagerly, he turned to the door. Unfortunately, it wasn't his friend. In fact, he didn't know the student who entered. She looked vaguely familiar, but only from passing her in the corridors a few times. Rohan kept his smile up anyway, in case she was going to come in. Most likely she'd got the wrong room. The castle sure was big enough to get lost in.

 

[Lynette Ferguson]

After wandering around the castle for a while with nothing to do and nobody to hang around with, Lynette had finally given up. It was obvious that nobody cared. She could have been crying in the corner and nobody would have noticed, let alone helped her. That was exactly what she felt like doing, but evidently she wasn't going to do it in a corridor full of people. She opened the door of an old classroom, which seemed to be disused. She was only assuming this, as she had nothing to go by except the fact she'd never been in it and there was no sign on the door. She closed the door behind her and shut her eyes, letting the tears flow from her cheeks as she sank to the ground and buried her head in her knees. She was completely unaware that there was somebody in the classroom with her. She just hadn't been paying attention. It had been a long day, and you could hardly blame her. Sobbing, she let her hair hand over her knees as she pressed her forehead down hard, making her head hurt. She'd just found out she had claustrophobia, which she didn't realize was in fact not an illness at all. Inside her warped mind, she'd turned it into a freakish nightmare in which she couldn't wake up. She felt like there was something so terribly wrong with her, that she was no longer counted as a normal human being. That she was going to be rejected from everybody just for this. Little did she know, she was absolutely wrong. Over her first year, things had got tougher and she'd lost the ability to distinguish what was dangerous and what wasn't. Everything seemed to be out to get her, and nobody noticed that she was dying inside. All she wanted to do was go home. Only a few more days, she thought as she wept, though they were going to be extremely long ones.

The problem was, even when Lynette went home, she would be filled with dread the entire time because of certain reasons. Those reasons being that she would firstly have to tell her Mother about this difficulty she was having at school. If she didn't, she would surely just pry in anyway. She always knew when something was wrong with her Daughter, and it was often frustrating when she didn't want anybody to know. Secondly, she would be counting the days off in her head until she had to come back to Hogwarts. Why couldn't she just hide away, and never return to the place which was causing her to wake up pale and sweating, and give her anxiety which loomed over her frail body every damn day? The thoughts made her tears fall faster, soaking her face and knees. She hardly cared anymore. Now wasn't the time to be worried about what state she looked like. Maybe, if she looked dreadful enough, somebody might notice her. It still seemed unlikely. For once, she was hating being invisible to everybody else. At first, it had been a blessing. A gift. She could blend into crowds unnoticed, not have to get involved in awkward things. But now, it was just another tortureous curse she was suffering. Only one of the school's nurses seemed to understand how she was feeling. One person. It wasn't enough.

 

[Rohan Kearsley]

Rohan had never really dealt with upset people before. That was just not his area of knowledge. He hadn't cried for over a year now, and the point of it seemed silly to him. This was why he was extremely surprised when the girl, not even realizing he was there, broke down into sobs and slid down the wall onto the floor. For several minutes, he beared the sniffling and crying, but it was reminding him too much of his Mother when his Father died. The months, if not years she spent crying herself to sleep - loudly - were coming back to him all at once. It was this that caused him to well up suddenly, though he composed himself when he thought about the little girl on the floor and the fact she needed some support. That or she wanted to be left alone, but right now, Rohan had several options, and he was going to opt for the easiest. He had trouble comforting people in most situations, but it felt natural on this occasion that he should help her. It surprised him, the strange feelings he was having. He certainly did not know this girl, who appeared to be a Ravenclaw. She looked like a first or second year; she was not big enough to be any older. That was when he noticed how small she was. Not short, but her frame was petite and delicate, as though you could snap her in half. That was no way for anybody to be, and Rohan frowned carefully. She still didn't seem to have noticed him, so he cleared his throat quietly and waited a few moments before he spoke. "I'm not great at reading emotions, but you look pretty upset," he said, making light of the situation which was obviously bothering the girl. He stood up from the desk, but didn't move towards the girl at all. He didn't want to appear threatening. She looked like the kind of girl who immediately would back away from a Slytherin, even though they weren't all that bad underneath.

Rohan wasn't bad at all, in fact. He was only placed in Slytherin for his ambitiousness, and possibly the fact he was rather font of getting into trouble as often as he could. He smiled just thinking about it, even though it wasn't really appropriate given that the girl in front of him was crying. How had she not noticed him? He'd been sitting just a few desks away from her. She must have been pretty wrapped up in her own thoughts to not have even bothered to look. Anything could have been going on in there. She'd got away pretty lightly, considering. Tilting his head, he scanned what he could see of the girl's face. She was alarmingly pretty. Not just good looking, but stunning. He'd never really noticed that in a girl before, and he was being shocked by more and more things as he stood there. Beautiful eyes, he thought, smiling mischieviously but smothering his emotions before the girl thought he was smirking at her. The last thing he wanted to do was to come across rude. Rohan was anything but.

 

[Lynette Ferguson]

Lynette literally jumped into the air when she heard a voice. How had they got in? Was there another door to the classroom? No, Lynette was being stupid. It took her several seconds to work out that the young Slytherin had already been in the room when she'd entered. Great, Lynette sighed inwardly. She didn't think things could get much worse. Looking up at the face of whom had spoken with wide eyes, she slowly got to her feet. She didn't take her eyes off him for a second, in case he tried anything smart with her. Luckily, he only seemed to be her age, and wouldn't know many harmful spells which Lynette couldn't block should he attempt to cast something at her. Lynette shuddered. What was she thinking? This boy wasn't trying to harm her, or surely by now he would have made that clear. Her eyes narrowed as she sussed out what he meant by his comment. Was he trying to be unkind, or did he actually care? Lynette had no way of telling, so she just hoped it was the latter. Shrugging, she continued to look at him, unblinking. Tears were still falling from her eyes, like tiny avalanches on the cliffs of her own face. Suddenly, she had a witty reply. "How could you tell?" she asked, keeping her face clean of all emotions. Yes, she couldn't hide her tear stained face, but she could keep her face completely still and blank. It was the only way she was going to get through the next awkward few minutes with the boy she'd just met.