His Mark
[Knowledge is Power]

5th October 2016
Wednesday

Aileen

I looked after Cordelia's, and Juliet's retreating figures as the two walked out of the room- the door closing shut behind them.
Rosaline lingered around just long enough to give me an; 'You've done it again,' look- as Potter continued to mumble a string of apologies, and quickly left.

Maybe I should go after her..., I thought silently, as I recalled what had happened the last time that Cordelia had seen me with Lily.

"What a waste..." Aberforth's resigned voice shook me out of my swirling thoughts, and back into the present.
"I told you that those would get you in trouble." Said Daniel, who was helping a- half asleep Simon up on his feet.
"You shouldn't have brought those in the first-" Daniel's sentence was pushed into the background by a light pull on my arm.

I looked down at my right arm, my eyes landing upon a pale hand gripping onto the blue sweater I was wearing.
My gaze slowly made its way upwards, following the outline of the- in Gryffindor red clad arm, strands of auburn hair- that reminded me of times long gone, cascading over it as I finally met the questioning look in the hazel eyes of Lily Luna Potter.

"It isn't your fault," I started, the questioning look in her eyes, making me realise, that she must have heard the little talk between Rosaline, and myself, after she walked through the Fat Lady's portrait the other day.
"They were probably just tired..." I tried to appease her.
If I had a clearer mind, I could just make her forget what she had heard that day, but my banging headache- and her strong personality, wouldn't make this an easy trip...
****
It took us exactly one hour to clear the room.
One hour of having to endure Lily talking about her father's good deeds as the head of the Auror department, one excruciating hour of having to pretend that I admired Harry freaking Potter.
Fifteen minutes to sneak to the Gryffindor entrance, where she had the audacity to hug me, and tell me that I could count on her, If I ever needed a friend.
Ten seconds for me to decide if I should hex her into the next century or not, and another fifteen minutes to get back to the Ravenclaw tower without being caught by Filch.
****
"I can't believe that she just left like that after promising that she wouldn't leave..." I muttered to an half asleep Momo, as I pushed the door open to the dorm.
'You're giving her too much importance- she's getting into your head...' Momo replied and stifled a yawn, as he jumped off my arms and onto Aberfords bed.

"I can't believe that those two are still asleep!" Daniel exclaimed exasperated from the other side of the room, and proceeded to throw a pillow at James head- which in turn made the plump boy shoot out of bed in panic, earning him an ear deafening laugh from Aberforth.

James remained sitting on the ground for a few seconds- seemingly unable to process what just happened, before standing up and throwing the pillow back at Daniel.

I averted my eyes from the scene, tuning out the sounds of their playful banter as I rummaged through my trunk in search for my copy of The Standard Book of Spells Grade 5 by Craig Grobler.

After minutes of frantic searching, and having scattered most of my belongings on the bed and floor around me- I felt a hesitant tap at my shoulder, followed by a pillow being thrown at me from the other side of the room.

I looked back at the- slightly uncomfortable face of James, as he held out two letters at me.
"These came a while ago...Gregory and me damn near got our fingers nipped off by the stupid owl."

I quickly took the letters off of him, deciding to open the one with the Gringotts seal first.

'Mr. Gaunt

Dear Mr Gaunt, it has been brought to our attention, that you still have a distant relative amongst the living, and we are therefore unable to grant you with the emancipation that you requested.
We have however, made your Grandmother's brother (from your mother's side), Mr. Garrick Ollivander aware of your existence, and he would be more than h-'

There goes my independence.
I thought to myself, and crumpled the piece of parchment into a misshapen ball.

If I had wanted to get in contact with my dear granduncle, I would have done so in my own time!

"Stupid Goblins." I muttered darkly through clenched teeth, as I threw the crumpled ball of parchment on to the bed, and proceed to throw all my belongings back into my- magically enlarged, trunk and placing the other letter on my bedside table.

Cordelia

Throughout the day, I decided to pretend that yesterday didn't happen.

That included my brother's lecture, for the want of a less crude word, who was constantly sending me reminders that even a deaf and blind person could work out- Avoid Aileen or you'll regret it, through a howler just after I woke up,  followed up by a letter in the morning post and the constant glares filled with enough power to burn me into a crisp. All this I treated with as much indifference as one would treat a moth.

"Wow..." Juliet finally said after I drowned the remains of Julius's letter into my oatmeal under his rageful eyes.
"What did Aileen do to piss him off that much?"
"My brother is acting like a child," I grumbled just loud enough for his ear range.
"Maybe he has his reasons to protect you," Rosaline said serenely.
"If he could Julius would lock me up in a high tower away from civilisation." I retorted.
The younger me believed in Julius's words about how people treated him since he was the son of a Death Eater and convinced Mother to have me home schooled instead of going to a muggle school or a wizarding group.
But now...having met Juliet and Rosaline, and seeing Aileen's private side made me realise that maybe people weren't as terrible as I thought they would be.

After class I walked to orchestra practise from the common room alone, suddenly realising that the chances of meeting Aileen were high.
He was bound to ask me about last nights shenanigans, which I was not looking forward to.

Well, if Aileen does ask about it, I'll just say that I was exhausted and really needed my sleep.
Which wasn't entirely false,seeing as I looked and felt like an animated corpse throughout breakfast and Transfiguration.

"You broke it."
I didn't even have to turn around to identify the owner of the haunting voice.
However, it was a mystery to me how he had managed to sneak up to me without making a sound.

"Wha-what did I break?" I asked, trying to calm down my heart beat.
"Your promise, you broke it." Aileen answered in a rather cold manner, his way of speaking sending me back to the day that we first met.

"Promise?" I replied,confused.
The only promise I made was in that night in the Room of Requirement, but what did he mean that I left him? Did he think I was going to stop being his friend because of Julius?

"This is why I don't get close to people...they make promises that they can't keep." He stated matter of factly, completely ignoring my question.
"What did I do? I never break promises,what are you on about?" I said,bewildered and starting to get slightly angry at his accusation.

"I already answered your question, it isn't my duty to remind you of the things that you forget." Aileen's voice was getting cooler and more detached with every word that he threw at me.

For a minute or so, I remained speechless,unable to comprehend. Why was he suddenly treating me like this?
Then something clicked,and the anger, a dark, furious monster inside grew larger and larger in my chest,until it compassed me so it and I were one.

"Ok. Fine! If you didn't want to be friends with me you could've just said so instead of accusing me of something and then not telling me exactly what I've done," I started to walk away from him, words, feelings, but mostly fury bubbling up, pushing each other to my vocal cords,demanding  to be heard.

"People keep trying to teach me the values of friendship, friends stand by each other no matter what happens- that's what Aberforth keeps telling me." Aileen's voice had taken on a tone that he had never used towards me before, it almost seemed like disgust.
"And yet- and yet, you keep doubting me, while all I have been trying to do was stand up to your expectations of friendship. I carried your fever drunken body through the entire school! Do you even know about all the rumours that I had to make disappear just so that you didn't get in trouble with your brother? Have you ever wondered why he never found out about it?!"
He finished his little speech in an- resigned, almost sad tone.

The hoard of anger was revoluting  to be heard now. I wanted to yell the things I had done for him,deeds I've forgiven for his sake, my brother,who've I've disobeyed for him, the many times I've complied to his wishes, and he's acting like I've committed the most unforgivable sin on earth.
"Well, sorry for the inconvenience. "
I started, my voice heavy with disdain.
"You know, my brother found out about us? And because I decided to stay as your friend, I might as well be dead to him," I spat out, fury running through my veins.
"I don't even know what I've done, you're refusing to tell me and you're obviously annoyed about something I don't even know! Fine! If you don't value our friendship enough to tell me what I've done then don't ever talk to me again," I spun on my heels and strided off, breathing heavily with diffused anger.
"If it didn't then I wouldn't have bothered with this..." Aileen's half whispered words echoed through the deserted corridors, as he spun around and walked back to where he came from.

I don't care, I angrily told myself as tears prickled at the corners of my eyes.
I'm better off without him anyway.