She whispered

by Lucas Chesterton

  Slytherin has won the house cup, two years in a row and she can only recall losing to Gryffindor once during her second year. She doesn’t plan on losing to them this year despite the unfortunate start her house has had to the season.

  The Gryffindor House team practice has attracted a number of spectators. Most are other house team members, hoping to get an idea of where the team stands in preparation for the upcoming match. There are several other students watching, a pack of third year girls who whisper and giggle each time one of the upperclassmen flies by.

  Nearby she can see Valerie, attempting to look as though Thea’s presence doesn’t bother her, but Thea has noticed her look over a total of twelve times since she sat down with Preston Corner. A few rows down, Scorpius watches intently through a pair of binoculars. His expression is stoic but she knows her brother well enough to tell when he’s anxious. He desperately wants to win. She can’t blame him.

  Thea tries not to glance at the bottom bleacher where Albus sits with Lysander but it’s impossible to ignore them. Despite brushing off the topic with Scorpius, the lack of Albus has taken it’s toll on her. She feels distracted without her usual outlet. She could spend hours talking to Albus. Without him she has very little interaction with anyone of interest.

  But he looks so happy, she realizes when she wants to feel sorry for herself. Albus smiles so infrequently with anyone other than her, that it throws her off. The way they look at each other. The way Lysander’s fingers graze Albus’ back.

  She can feel the jealousy eating away at her. She wants to hate Lysander, but she’s too busy loving him for the look he’s put in Albus’ eyes.

  Something she can’t give him.

  ‘Do you think the two of you will make up soon?’ the small voice asks from beside her and Thea’s eyes immediately glance back down at her parchment, pretending they haven’t been caught staring.

  ‘Sorry, what’s that?’ she asks, and Lucy gives her a knowing look.

  ‘It’s just,’ she starts. ‘It seems like you don’t have many friends. Other that Albus, that is.’

  Thea smiles as she says, ‘You’re about it these days, kid.’

  Lucy straightens slightly.

  ‘You,’ she pauses, grabbing hold of the auburn braid over her shoulder. Attached is a scarlet ribbon that matched her scarf. ‘You consider me a friend?’ Thea’s brow furrows.

  ‘Well why not? I don’t mind you so much.’

  ‘You don’t, mind me?’ she asks, confused and Thea sighs.

  Part of why she has so few friends is conversations like this.

  ‘Don’t take it personally, Weasley. I mean it as a compliment,’ she says and Lucy bites at the corners of her cheeks as she goes back to studying. Only when she thinks Thea isn’t looking does she allow a small smile to appear.

  As the clouds thicken overhead there is a drop in temperature The wind whips around them and Lucy shivers until she can no longer stand it. She leaves with a small goodbye and Thea is alone once more, the weight of it hitting her like a hex to the chest.

  She glances again to Albus, who is now concentrating on Roxy as she hunts the snitch around the pitch, and his fingers are laced in Lysander’s. Her heart sinks deeper inside her chest. She should just say something, she knows it, but for the first time in her life Thea has no idea what to say to her best friend. Nothing seems good enough to quell the tension between them.

  The stands creak slightly on her right and when she looks up, Valerie Thomas is standing over her, arms hugging herself as she too shivers from the icy breeze. It’s a different look than the one she was met with the store room, this time she isn’t containing a fit of rage. Now she looks anxious.

  ‘I’m not really in the mood,’ says Thea, turning the page of her textbook. Valerie looks over her shoulder to where Preston stands chatting with one of the other Gryffindors.

  ‘I’m not here to fight,’ she says and Thea lets her quill fall mid-sentence. ‘What you saw. In the store room.’

  ‘With you and Potter,’ Thea fills in and Valerie looks over her shoulder again. Thea realizes where this is going. ‘You think I’m going to tell your boyfriend?’

  ‘I considered many possible outcomes. That one seems the most likely,’ Valerie says and Thea shakes her head. ‘I wouldn’t exactly blame you.’

  ‘I can’t tell if you want me to out you or not,’ Thea says, her forehead creased.

  ‘Not, would be preferable,’ Valerie says quickly.

  ‘Not that I was eavesdropping, but I do recall you saying something about only dating Corner to make Potter jealous.’

  ‘I know what I said,’ she mutters. ‘But please. If you have a heart���’

  ‘Great start…’ Thea adds and Valerie sighs.

  ‘Please, Thea. Don’t say anything.’

  Valerie’s eyes are begging her as desperately as her words and Thea is eager to disappoint the girl in response for the split lip and the week’s detention she received. But something stops her. Her mind is suspended in a heavy fog and she can’t even muster up a clever response that might put the girl on edge a few days while she considers it.

  Thea shakes her head, picking up her quill as she scribbles a few symbols in the margins of her paper, hoping Val will think she looks busy or uninterested. But then she nods, a curt up and down of the head, and looks up from under her dark hair up at the girl whose lip quivers anxiously.

  ‘Don’t worry about it,’ Thea says finally. She tries her hand at looking genuine. ‘Despite what you may think, I have very little interest in your business or Potter’s.’

  The girl doesn’t say thank you but she returns Thea’s words with a nod of her own. It’s the best she can do. It’s the best they can both do.

  In the distance, the sun dips low beyond the mountains. Evening is quickly approaching and soon it will be curfew. She waits as the others disperse, small groups at a time until Thea is left alone in the stands. The players on the pitch are dismounting their brooms, gathering quaffles and bludgers to stow away. Roxy has the snitch, handing it over to James who places the final piece into the trunk and locks it safely inside.

  Thea doesn’t say anything when a tall figure sits down beside her. She knows he’s concerned and he’s doing his best to be a good brother but it’s clear it pains him, the insistence, the pushing. And yet together they sit in silence, both weighed down by the words they leave unspoken.

  She’s surprised when she feels his gloved hand over hers. It’s not cautious like she’d expect from him. Instead it’s deliberate. He curls his fingers around her own and through both of their gloves she can feel the warmth radiating off of them. She doesn’t look down at them, or at his eyes that stare ahead towards the fading sunlight in the distance.

  And for once the silence says exactly what she wants to hear.

  She doesn’t squeeze back but she leans her head down and it rests on his shoulder. The last time they sat like this, she held her brother as he cried. For hours he wept for their mother and Thea sat there, unable to shed a tear. She feels like that girl again, uncertain and broken, as if there is something wrong with her.

  But Scorpius’ hand reminds her that, despite the weight of the solitude she feels bearing down on her, she isn’t alone.

  Not entirely.

  ‘Do you think you could use your fancy Head Boy powers to…’ she says quietly.

  ‘Don’t ruin it.’

  ALBUS

  The storm lasted for days, the rumbling never ending and the rain falling in icy drops from the darkened sky. Surely it would snow soon, he thought, as he walked through the courtyard, holding his wand so the umbrella covered him and he groaned as he stepped in a deceivingly deep puddle.

  Mud cakes his shoes but he doesn’t stop to fix it, only carries on, feeling his socks soaked all the way past his ankles. He shivers slightly, the dampness in the air sticking to him as his breath appears in front of him while he breathes. He is too lost in thought that he nearly runs into Dom as
she steps in front of him, her own spelled umbrella above her.

  ‘Albus,’ she says, her smile wide and lips stained with pink lipstick. Bev, her girlfriend, stands nearby, trying not to eavesdrop.

  ‘Dom,’ he says, his brow furrowing inwards.

  ‘I heard a rumour going around,’ she says, toying with the edge of her scarf. ‘About you and Lysander.’

  ‘Oh?’ he asks, fixing the strap of his bag and he glances away.

  ‘It’s nothing to be embarrassed about,’ she says. ‘I’m happy for you, that’s all.’

  ‘Well it wasn’t exactly advertised,’ he says, he mutters because he doesn’t particularly care for all the rumours going around. She scoffs.

  ‘Albus, you’re family. We should talk about these things.’

  ‘Why?’ he asks. ‘I don’t see why it’s anyone else’s business. If I wanted people to know about it���’ he stops when he notices her smile fading into a frown. She’s hurt by his words and now Albus feels even more flustered than before. ‘I just mean, I don’t like to talk about stuff like this.’

  ‘I noticed,’ she says, her voice low and she sighs. ‘But we’re happy for you, all of us. I know your parents will be too.’

  ‘I haven’t told them,’ he admits and she places a hand on his shoulder. He stares at it for a long moment and she pulls it away slowly.

  ‘Well when you do, I know they’ll be thrilled. Lysander is a great guy. And when they see how much happier you’ve been lately now that you have him instead���’

  Albus feels his jaw clench slightly at the words. They ring in his heads.

  ‘Instead of what?’ he asks and this time she is the one looking away and she brushes the bottom of her lip with her thumb. Her lipstick smudges slightly.

  ‘Well you know,’ she replies and he isn’t sure why it takes him so long to get the hint. She means instead of Thea.

  ‘Dom,’ he warns. She holds her hands up.

  ‘Come on, the difference is night and day. I know it was hard to adjust here at Hogwarts but look how great things are right now! I’ve never seen you so happy.’

  ‘Funny,’ he says, his tone laced with anger. ‘Because I’ve never felt so unlike myselff.’

  ‘I am sorry, about what happened between her and I. But you have to understand…’

  ‘What did happen, exactly?’ he asks and it’s not his business but he’s tired of being polite.

  ‘It’s not important anymore,’ Dom says and Albus can see the familiar look of shame in her eyes. ‘But I hate what I did even though I knew it was for the best.’

  ‘She cared for you,’ he says and her eyes meet his once more.

  ‘She told you that?’

  ‘She didn’t have to.’

  ‘Are you going to be mad at me forever?’ she asks, her arms crossing over her shoulders and he doesn’t like that she looks ready to cry. ‘I’m your family.’

  ‘So is she.’

  It sounds corny and cliche but he says it anyways as he pushes past her, gently nudging her shoulder as he does, and he finds his pace quickening into a jog as he rushes through the courtyard, down the long tilted bridge, until he realizes he’s now running.

  He doesn’t bother with the umbrella, gasping slightly as the cold rain strikes the skin of his cheeks and it burns until it goes numb. His dark hair sticks to his forehead and his lips quiver and though he’s running, he’s not entirely sure where he’s going until he sees the lake in the distance and he knows that’s where he’ll find her.

  He stops, catching his breath as he searches the shore and he can see a small figure sitting atop a large boulder, throwing pebbles into the lake. The water is rough from the rain which thickens as the minutes pass. She doesn’t have an umbrella. Even from here he can see she looks soaked through.

  He finds a steady pace as he walks over, his shoes making squishing sounds in the mud, small rocks crunching under each foot in movements that slow the closer he gets. In contrast, he feels his heart racing, pounding so hard he feels as though he might leap out of his chest and if he knew what the hell he was planning to say he might have rehearsed the words before he found himself standing before her.

  She looks down at him, her knees pulled to her chest, her brunette curls flattened against the milky white flesh of her face. Albus feels his heart sink when he sees the dark circles creased under her eyes, her lips nearly blue and unmoving and he wonders how long she’s been out here.

  He shifts, his mouth opening and closing several times and she watches him intently for several minutes as he does. If he didn’t know any better, he’d think the raindrops sliding down her cheeks were tears. He’s right next to the rock in only a few long strides and when he reaches his arms up to her he sees her lips quiver, but not from the cold.

  She doesn’t reach back.

  ‘Thea,’ he says, his breath visible between them. ‘I’m���’

  ‘No,’ she says quickly, her voice low. ‘Don’t say it.’

  ‘Why not?’ he asks, swallowing hard and he feels his chest ache as he reaches his hands higher. She shakes her head and his arms fall to his sides.

  ‘Because I don’t deserve it.’ she tells him. ‘You fell in love with a boy and instead of being there for you, I was a total cow and made it all about me,’ she tells him and the lump in his throat grows. ‘I should have noticed. Merlin, I might be the only one who didn’t.’

  ‘I would prefer to go back to when no one did,’ he admits. He reaches up to her again, this time, his eyes meet hers. ‘Please T,’ he whispers. ‘Can we be done with all this?’

  This time she reaches out to him. He has no problem catching her. When he does her arms wrap around his neck and she buries her face into his shoulder. He closes his eyes as he pulls her to his chest and the weight of everything is replaced by the pressure of her body in his arms and everything feels like home.

  ‘I’m so sorry, love,’ she whispers softly.

  ‘Hey,’ he says, pulling her gently away from him and places his hands on either side of her cheeks.

  There is relief in her hazel eyes and he can’t help but smile when he places his lips briefly against hers. It’s a small moment but it’s enough that when he pulls back her lip no longer shakes and she lets her head rest against his forehead. She closes her eyes and he can see her long sigh in the air.

  ‘Don’t tell Lysander I did that,’ he teases and she chuckles lightly. ‘Apparently boyfriends don’t like it when you kiss other people. Even if it’s just your best friend.’

  ‘I missed you,’ she says.

  ‘I missed you too,’ he tells her, laughing. ‘Ignoring you is far too exhausting.’

  ‘Agreed,’ she tells him. ‘Can we promise never to do it again?’

  ‘Deal,’ he says, without skipping a beat. He pulls back to look at her and he fumbles for his wand as he conjures his umbrella to stop the rain from consuming them. ‘Come on, let’s go inside. You’re freezing.’

  ‘I hadn’t noticed,’ she says, but she isn’t teasing as she wipes rain from her face.

  She, too, pulls out her wand and whispers a drying spell over Albus and repeats one for herself until the water rings out of the ends of her hair and she’s left with wavy unkempt locks that fall down her back. Grateful for the warmth, he grins down at her and places his hand over hers. Their fingers intertwine effortlessly.

  ‘Hey,’ he says, nudging her. ‘Want to skip supper and go straight to the kitchens, see if they’ll make us that dessert you like?’

  She smiles for a moment before it fades and she shakes her head.

  ‘Can’t,’ she tells him. ‘Detention.’

  ‘Again?’ he asks her. ‘I thought you’d finished?’

  ‘I had a run in the other day in potions lab. Valerie Thomas slapped me across the face after I’d walked in on her and your brother in some sort of argument.’

  ‘I guess I should be surprised, and yet���’

  ‘And yet, this time it wasn’t my f
ault,’ she pleaded. ‘Not entirely anyway. I did try taking the high road.’

  ‘But then you decided, what fun would that be?’

  ‘She kept pushing. It’s not my fault she couldn’t take as good as she gives,’ she says and he snickers.

  ‘There’s a joke in there somewhere,’ he teases and he’s rewarded with a smile.

  ‘She did say something about using me to make James jealous,’ she recalls. ‘If she wasn’t so insufferable, I might have participated in her plot.’

  ‘You know, he has been a little strange lately,’ Albus adds. ‘Ever since he quit the Prefects.’

  ‘Quit?’ she asks.

  ‘That’s what my mum wrote in her last letter,’ he tells her. ‘She and dad have been worried about him lately. It’s been a nice change of pace.’

  ‘No doubt they think I’m to blame.’

  ‘They did ask,’ he says honestly and she lets out a quiet scoff.

  ‘He’s been weird since the forest,’ she admits. ‘He told me he was the one who found me the night I went for a sleepwalk.’

  Albus remembers now, the way James had rushed into his dorms, dripping wet, to tell him he’d found her outside on the grounds. Albus had been only half awake when he was dragged out of bed and James never entered the hospital wing where he’d left Thea in the care of the mediwitches. He tries to remember if that’s when he noticed a change as well.

  ‘I was going to tell you,’ he says and she nods.

  ‘I know,’ she tells him. ‘If I hadn’t been so self-absorbed that day���’

  ‘Then you wouldn’t be my best friend,’ he interrupts and they both laugh.

  He squeezes her hand. She squeezes back.

  ‘It’s good we did this,’ she says when they reach the bridge. ‘It would have made for an awkward All Hallows Eve.’

  ‘You’re really going through with that then?’ he asks and she nods. ‘If you get caught…’

  ‘No Slytherin has ever been caught. I’m not going to start this year.’ She doesn’t appreciate Albus’ look of skepticism. ‘I’m even turning over a new leaf,’ she tells him and he raises an eyebrow.