Eventually, Celia detached herself from Cormac who seemed reluctant to let her go now that he had his epiphany.

"You're not going to see Goyle are you?" He asked as she stood up.

"No, I'm not, Cormac," She replied softly, "Just Katie... I need to talk to her."

"Don't you know... get hurt... not that it's your fault," He floundered his words but Celia smiled, she could see he was trying to understand and make up for his earlier words. 

"Thanks, Cormac," She smiled slightly, walking away from him and skipping up the stairs. Katie turned to face her, an apologetic smile on her face.

"Hey." Celia said, smiling slightly at Katie who returned the same smile.

"Hey."

"It's been a few days since we talked," Celia said and Katie nodded.

"I saw you talking to Cormac - " Cormac turned around as Katie said his name and both girls giggled slight, "He has bat hearing, he must do."

"Yeah..." Celia said with a smile, turning around at Cormac who quickly looked away, grabbing a book from the table, "Can we talk? I'm in a sort of talking mood now."

"Will there be tears?"

Celia shrugged, "Quite possibly. Is that a problem?"

"Not at all," Katie said, "That's what best friends are for... right?"

She looked at Celia hopefully who didn't respond with words, instead stepping and forward and hugging her friend. Both girls stayed in the same positions for a good few minutes, an unspoken agreement that both of them had messed up but all was forgiven.

"Shall we walk around the grounds or something?" Celia asked, "I'm sort of feeling restless right now and I want to walk... most importantly I want to walk with you."

"Gladly," Katie said, linking her friends arm like they were pre-schoolers and walking out of the dorm.

Although they had a lot to discuss regarding the slap and Goyle, they stayed in a comfortable silence until they'd left the grounds for fear of being overheard. The Common room and corridors were far too echoey and they needed somewhere private if they were actually going to be honest. They walked around a bit but Celia had made the mistake of wearing shoes with heels on (although to be fair, she had no idea they were going to walk) and the two girls walked over to the lake, sitting down by the side.

"Celia, I'm sorry," Katie said, "I've been an idiot, a complete muppet and I am so, so sorry."

"Katie, I'm sorry too - "

"You don't need to be, you didn't do anything to me," Katie interrupted, "Sorry for cutting in, you go on."

"No, that was basically it," Celia said with a laugh.

"I just couldn't quite figure it out, if that makes sense. You were the victim before it was so... simple but then you slapped Cormac and it felt like it had changed but I shouldn't have blanked you." Katie said, "I felt terrible doing it but I had to figure it out and I freaked out and then I thought if I said something, I'd just be rude so I thought I'd say nothing... did you understand a word of that?"

Celia laughed, "Yeah, I did, you were speaking exceptionally fast though."

"That's because I had a lot to say and time is a finite," Katie said jokingly before her tone became solemn, "Celia, are you okay? With Goyle? I've been such a bad friend, I should have been there."

"I've been more sad over us not talking - "

"Oh God," Katie buried her face in her hands.

"No, Katie! I didn't mean it like that, I don't blame you, I'm not mad!" She said, putting her arms around her friends, "It almost... slipped my mind as weird as that sounds. I cried with Cormac about it though but I feel less affected than the first one in all honesty."

"Is Cormac still being a dick?" Katie asked, "I spoke to him the other day and he seemed sad about it."

"Was that when you were 'collecting my book' for me?" Celia asked, raising her eyebrow at her friend.

"Saw through that, huh?"

"Yes, obviously!" Celia said, laughing. Her laughter was contagious and soon both the girls were laughing for no particular reason, purely because they wanted to.

"God, I'm not as subtle as I think I am," Katie said, "He's an idiot, very inconsiderate and very, very, VERY vain. Honestly, it was like talking to Gilderoy Lockhart at points but I do think he cares about you in his own way. Like he wanted to still be friends and I think he genuinely didn't know why you'd slapped him."

"He is an idiot," Celia said with a fond smile, "I think a severe change in dynamic was in order. I'm still going to be a bit wary but I think he'll listen more now and I'll hopefully feel better about talking to him. Hopefully it will be a better friendship than it was before."

"That's good," Katie said, her eyes glancing over to the lake. She suddenly stood up much to Celia's surprise and darted over to the edge.

"Katie, what are you doing?" Celia asked, scrambling to her feet and dashing after her friend who was now kneeling on the ground, scrabbling for something on the ground, "Katie, you look mad, what on earth are you doing?"

"I'm looking for a flat rock."

"Why?..."

"I suddenly felt like skimming stones," Katie said, triumphantly holding a rock aloft, "Aha, found one! It's very nice when you've got stuff on your mind, you just throw the rock and watch it sort of skip along the surface, try it!"

"Oh, go on then," Celia said, laughing at the weirdness of it all. Katie was clearly an expert whilst Celia's landed on the surface with a large splash and sunk under, "I can't do it."

"It takes time and a lot of practice," Katie replied as she expertly skimmed another one. Celia watched the rock skip along the surface, following it until it finally gave up and sank below the surface.

"God, wouldn't it be satisfying to just lob it at Goyle," Celia said, holding a large rock in her hand that she'd scooped up moments earlier.

"Right in the face," Katie added.

"What happened to eye for an eye makes the world blind?" Celia asked, raising an eyebrow at her friend.

"I think it was more because Cormac didn't deserve it but with Goyle it would be sexual assault for a rock in the face," Katie replied, "I don't know, it feels morally better... actually I'd still feel guilty."

"There she is!"

"A rock in the face would be painful...perhaps a rock through the Slytherin dorms window?" Katie suggested.

Celia shook her head, "As much as that would be satisfying, it would be unfair to all the other Slytherins. I mean, what if it hit one of them on the head?"

"That would be bad," Katie agreed, "I think I'd feel guilty about that too, to be honest."

Celia glanced down at the rock in her hand, gently brushing the surface on her hand, "Katie..."

"Yeah?" She turned around, her eyes darting to the rock in Celia's hand, "Celia, I thought we agreed not to throw the rock..."

"No, I'm not throwing it at anyone," Celia said, "How easy do you reckon it is to write on this or like... carve a message."

Katie walked over to her, examining the rock, "Not too hard, I have my wand in my pocket so we can use that, why?"

"I have an idea..."

Eventually after a surprising amount of effort, the girls managed to carve their message into the rock. Katie bent down, looking closely at the rock, her brow furrowed as she read out their message, "Goyle, the Dragon is coming... it's poetic but I don't really get it."

"It's something Alicia said - "

"Sounds like something she would say."

"She said that I needed to be a dragon and take on Goyle so I figured that I need to do it. Be the Dragon and show him it's not okay." Celia smiled happily at her strange plan, "We can leave it outside the dorms, he probably won't get it but he'll be curious and then boom, the big reveal... I'm the Dragon!"

"What exactly is 'the Dragon"...?" Katie asked, sceptically.

"Okay, that I don't know yet which is why I need you guys to help me," She looked up defiantly, "This time it won't be me, you guys are coming too."

Katie rolled her eyes, "Finally! It's all we've been hinting at the whole damn time! Come on, let's drop off this rock so we can figure out what the Dragon is... we're not burning Goyle are we?"

"No, definitely not... although I feel like Angelina will probably suggest that knowing her."