6.1
Rumors-
I get up immediately and start to recover myself in my uniform. The Hufflepuff seventh-year lays watching me on the desk. She waits until I have my pants on to speak. She asked if we would get back together again, and I gave her a vague reply. Looking at her as I buttoned my shirt, I asked again if she would stay quiet about what we had just done together. There are already too many rumors about me fucking Adelaide on Monday night going around. The last thing I need at the moment is more rumors about my whoring about.
"I swear." Is what she responds with. I fix my tie as I watch her start to dress herself slowly. I wait for her to finish before opening the door and letting her go before me. The corridor is entirely empty as we part ways. I listen to her quickly walk away in the opposite direction, talking under her breath about how she can't even brag about bagging me to her friends since she "Always honors her promises." That makes one of us, I think to myself.
Walking to the third floor, the sun casts golden rays upon the school. There are few students in the school halls at this hour. Most are in the library or their common rooms doing their homework from the day. As I approach the painting, I reach out my hand and place it on Aphrodite's. I only shake her hand after listening for any movement in the hall and the neighboring halls. After listening for a moment, I opened the hidden door of The Room. There is music playing as I enter. The two girls are on the couch. One is reading, and one is on her laptop, most likely editing the photos we took the day before. Neither looked up as the door opened, knowing it was only me. I plop onto the couch beside Jo and place my bag on the ground before me. I kick my feet onto the coffee table before summoning my current read. We sit in mostly silence for about an hour before Elle starts the conversation. She passes her laptop to Jo, who passes it to me without looking up from her book's pages. I shift through the slides of pictures. All of either me, the sky, or the castle. Over the years, I have learned that while she loves to take my photos for my Instagram, she loves taking pictures of the world around us more.
Before returning the laptop, I tell the girl which pictures I approve. She approves of my opinions before going onto my Instagram and posting the images herself. Both girls have complete access to my social media, and I have access to theirs.
"Have you talked to Black?" This is the first thing that Jo says after closing the book in her hands and placing it on her lap. I hum in reply, allowing her to continue with questions. "You two talk about the book list you gave each other last year?" Her tone is sarcastic, and looking up, I can see that her brows are raised and her arms are crossed. It goes without saying that Jo doesn't understand my friendship with Regulus. As I have never told the girls just what we talk about. There, I hide only a single secret from my girls, exactly what I say to Regulus.
"We did," I stop before continuing. "He had me read a few Muggle books I had never heard of. I had to get William to smuggle them to me." This gets a laugh from Elle on the other side of the couch and a roll of the eyes from Jo.
"How'd your library date with Lupin go?" Elle speaks from Jo's other side. Jo laughs, and I sigh. They have been talking like this about me and Remus for years. It only got worse when they saw the two of us sitting in the library with our thighs touching as we planned out a group project we had together. You would think they would let up after a year or two, but they never did. In fact, I would say that they've gotten worse.
"It went well." I bring out my phone as the song changes. We told each other about our summers until we had to leave for dinner." Opening my messages, I saw a text from Adelaide asking me if I was free on Friday. I replied with a yes and asked why she was asking. The reply is immediate. She writes back that she thinks we should be seen together more. I close out the messages after sending a comment agreeing with her.
"He doesn't even fight back anymore." Elle's voice is full of humor, and Jo replies in kind. I roll my eyes again before rising and rounding the couch to get a drink. I make myself a glass of apple juice charmed to be never-ending. Jo really went all out when setting up the snack bar in here. She was fixated on making The Room perfect soon after we started meeting up here. She is the one who furnished The Room and got all of the extra things. Other than the records and the record player, that was all Elle.
We end the night huddling up to each other as we binge-watch a few horror movies that were so bad that they were great. I don't understand some details, which I continue asking the girls about after each movie ends. They find my cluelessness hilarious, which doesn't help my lack of knowledge. After they finished joking about it, they explained each thing that I had a question about. These movie days are the most significant way I have learned more about Muggle's life, even though they may be fictional stories in film. It's damn near two AM when the three of us fall asleep together during a particularly dull yet gorey movie.
-1,000 Words-