For the Future

Cora's pov

Professor Lupin told me to keep the book close to my heart so I analyzed a few pages of the book day and night searching for something that gave a clue on why he turned into the mass murderer he is today. But each turn seems to convince me that he was the only one in his family not blinded by the dark side.

I sit by the tree before quidditch practice, reading the love letters and the potion making ideas, especially the potion that turns you into an animagus and some weird pick up lines. I might use them.

There's nothing. Absolutely nothing. Nothing that hints 'I am a mass murderer' only the opposite. I throw the damned book across the grass only a few meters away. As soon as I do that I hear slow rustling by the bushes.

"Who is it!? Why are you spying on me?" I call out to the bushes as I slowly scroll further with my wand out. The thing in the bushes finally reveals itself by slowly popping its head out. A dog?

"Oh it's just a—dog? What are you doing in Hogwarts?" I ask stupidly as I inch forward towards the stray. As I do, the large dog reveals itself more to me, slowly walks towards me and away from the bushes. "You're a dog, you cant talk. Bloody hell." I mutter. It still seems a little defensive to me so I pull out a biscuit. Dogs like that stuff don't they?

"Here." I throw the biscuit at it and almost immediately swallows the whole. "Oh so you're a hungry one aren't you? I promise I won't hurt you..." I reassure it as I come closer and luckily it doesn't back away when I search its fur around its neck for a collar. "No name." I mumble to myself.

I look at it, finding its gaze locked onto something else. When I turn to look, the stray runs towards it, coming back with the same diary I threw, wagging its tail in excitement.

"I should probably give that to professor lupin. Or throw it away." I tell myself grabbing the book from the mutts mouth. "I gotta give it to the old man, he can definitely write love notes," I add tapping the book on the dogs head.
As soon as I do that a voice calls out from afar.

"Cora! Cora! Are you here? Oh there you are!" The familiar voice grows nearer as I finally spot a black haired girl coming my way.

" Cho? What're you doing here?" I question, walking towards her. She seems a bit out of breath.

"Davies— told me— to tell—you—that—" the girl stumbles around her words as she tries to catch her breath.
"Quidditch—late," she finally replies.

"Oh!" I turned to the dog but there was a problem. It wasn't there. Weird but okay. I turn to Cho and walk past to the quidditch court. "Come on then, before Davies kicks me out the team." Cho catches up to me after she finally catches her breath.

"You're the best chaser in the team. I'd doubt that." She chuckles.

I come out of the changing room in my blue quidditch uniform with my hair in a half up half down hairstyle.

"Cora! What took you so long?" Davies asks as soon as I get on the quidditch pitch.

"Probably busy in there doing her makeup," one of the boys shouts out irrelevantly.

"And who asked you to speak? You were the one who told me practice starts at 5:30. Irrelevant little shit." I clapped back which seemed to shut him up. I look back at Davies with his face still in a scowl.

"Alright just don't be late next time. And this goes for all of you!" He shouts looking around to everyone. "Get into your teams and ready your positions.

As he says that we all grab out brooms and fly up in our respected teams and wait for Davies' whistle.

"Miguel!" A different boy calls out. " Go easy on Cho. Go a little harsh and you might just ruin her makeup!" The children around him snicker at the 'joke'. Miguel just shook his head and ignored them. I turn to Cho as she looks less confident then she did before.

"Listen, whatever your name is, if the only jokes you can make are sexist, then you need to touch some bloody grass," I scoff as they look at me surprised I even said a word.

And so the whistle blows and our team sets off as I already have the ball and scoring a goal almost immediately. In matches as a Ravenclaw, I tend to calculate their future moves instead of yknow... just scoring.

The ball lands in my grasp once again but it seems that I have nowhere else to go. In the corner of my eye I see cho and out of nowhere I speed my broom towards her as she realizes what I'm trying to do. I fly past her and the idiots tailing behind me don't realize I don't have the ball anymore. This gave cho the chance to score and leave the boys behind me bewildered.

Before I knew it practice was finished and I was the last left in the changing room. No, I wasn't scared of being alone. I was scared of my sickening thoughts. There was nothing to distract me from them. Humming. I start to hum wasted summers. It seemed to help, I don't know. I stuff the quidditch clothes into my bag dreading the fact that I have to wash them. I'm lucky I don't have to wash them at h- footsteps.

My body freezes instantly trying to recognise the footsteps. Could it be laurie? No...her footsteps were too light for the rough stomps this person was making. Was it even a person? My wand instinctively is out by my side as I gather the courage to turn around. The slow, menacingly steps grow closer around the corner. Please don't be someone trying to kill me. I don't wanna die. Life may be shitty but it's meh.

I regret not bringing the map with me but oh well.

"Cora? Are you here? Cho told me you would be here but I wasn't so sure," a comforting voice called out.
I haven't been more relieved in my whole life.
"Professor lupin? What are you doing here?" I inquire, letting go of the deep breath I've been holding the entire time.

"Its past 7:30. I should be asking you that question child."

"Yeah yeah but you wouldn't come all this way just to tell me that...what is it that you need?" I turn to finish packing waiting for his answer.

"I came to ask about your father," he stops hesitating if he should ask or not. "Have you seen him? Has he tried talking to y-"

"No, no he hasn't. I mean I barely know how he looks. I don't think I'd realise it would be him," I joke. I notice the notebook in my bag before I close it completely.

This year my classes with the twins and Laurie have gone down to 3 and so I had to rely on break lunch and after school. But after school normally would be quidditch practice. Whenever I had quidditch practice Fred would have a free day. Oh and George. But whenever the twins had quidditch practice I would have a free day. So in short it was all hell. Curse Merlin and this stupid timetable.

Ah lunch finally. I look around for Laurie and the twins. I succeeded with finding Laurie but not Fred and George. I stroll towards my best friend, surprising her before she even noticed me.

" Cora!" She screams in surprise as I settle down next to her. "Why does it feel like I haven't seen you in so long?" She chuckles while passing me a plate.

"We barely have classes together. The old man seems to not want us to be friends huh?" I chew on the pasta. She smiles in return. But it's not her 'yeah you're right lol' smile it's her 'I'm smiling so i don't look suspicious' smile.

"Spit it out Laurie. I know you're hiding something." I ask in a soft voice.

"Whaaaaaaaaaat? Hiding something pffffffffffttttt I would never, haha,"

"Hah now you sound even more suspicious," I put my fork down and stare at her until she breaks down. What can I say? It always works. But her gaze fixed on to something else or someone else. Her eyes surprisingly lead to the Gryffindor table. Most specifically Fred. And George.

"Oh. Look there they are," I huff. "I wonder why they didn't come by? They always do." I stand up, ready to walk towards them.

"Y'Know uh Cora I-I Dont think that's such a good idea-" she says as she stands from her seat trying to reach me.

"Oh don't be stupid Laurie they're my best-friends," I twirl back around and bolt to the twins trying my best to get away from Laurie.

I see Fred and George conversing quite happily to the people around him. I could tell Fred was in the middle of a punchline the way he nearly stood up smiling quite happily with that mischievous glint in his eyes and that sm-

"What're you doing here?" Someone calls out beside Fred. Angelina, I wasn't sure by the roughness of the voice but when I take a look I see her. Looking at me like I did something unforgivable. I look at George and see the same face drawn on him.
But what broke my heart most was Fred's.

"What.?" I chuckle awkwardly. " Guys stop playing around-"

"Why would we be joking? You think this is a joke?! Merlin, how daft can you be?" George huffs and takes out a note passing, more like throwing it, to me. My smile drops knowing that they weren't joking but I have done something that I didn't even know I did.

I slowly open up the folded letter, reading it like a madwoman. Oh. Oh no no no no no.

I scoff. "You guys don't actually believe I wrote this did you?" I look around seeing their faces not changing an inch. Not a flicker of humour, not even a flicker of pity. The sound of chatter in the great hall seemed to dim down spontaneously.

I feel the gaze of three 3rd years on me at the end of the table but I don't....I don't look.

"But I'm your best friend, you can't seriously believe this crap!" I plead.

" Were. You were our best friend. The handwriting is yours and...you ignored us these-these past few weeks you ignored us," The first words he spoke to me were the first words that truly broke me. Especially from the first friends I ever truly made.

My shoulders slump but not from giving up. I look at him one last time before I turn to leave the great hall. I was determined to find this person who did this to me after all, I had too much time to spare.

I try to forget that this was the day...I, Coralinen Black cried, because of a boy.

Angelina,

I hope you got what you wanted. After all you're a pathetic slut begging for attention even from my own friends. Fred would obviously want a slut like you. Pulling his pants down every chance he gets. A trait he got from his parents you see.
A person who's family is that desperate would take anything used to save money.

I wouldn't mind if you showed them this letter. I would even encourage it since I don't talk to those pathetic begs anymore. I'm too busy trying to perfect myself to be involved with them as of lately. A pure-blood like me could never involve myself with them anymore. I knew I was better and so I used them. Merlin they are so stupid and big-headed to even realize. Well I'm done goodbye.

Yours sincerely Coralinen Black