Chapter 13
In the next few weeks Delilah had been assigned by Harry, Ron, and Hermione to keep an eye on Quirrell. Harry had told Delilah that he was being threatened by Snape to help said professor find the sorcerer's stone. Despite Quirell’s trembling nature he must have been braver than she had previously thought because over the span of time she had been watching him he had only become a bit paler and thinner and it was as though he hadn’t even cracked yet.
Class work had increased because of exams. Delilah just in the past week has had five essays for potions, 3 for transfiguration, and at least a few others for charms and history of magic. She could tell that the work was much worse for the other years. She had barely been able to talk to Florence for the past two or so weeks.
“Ok so we are going to take this,” Delilah said after getting back from classes as she grabbed Florence’s book and parchment, “And put this back down here.”
“Delilah, I need to study. Exams are in-”
“Ten weeks.. I know. a long time away.” Said Delilah, “Listen we have been roommates this whole year and besides Sebastian you are the only Ravenclaw I get along with and we barely know anything about each other. And… if I am correct, which I usually am, as Sebastian said in his many movie ramblings, which I have had the unfortunate privilege of listening to in History of magic, we have not had a makeover scene or a fun montage also known by Sebastian as a ‘fun-tage’. “
“I guess…” replied Florence, “But only for tonight-”
“And no emotional stuff!” Interrupted Delilah, “I hate emotional stuff.”
About a half an hour later Delilah was braiding Florence’s hair into some sort of fishtail braid.
“So Delilah, where did you learn to braid like this? It’s extraordinarily intricate.” Florence said, “Did your mom or sister teach you?”
“I kind of taught myself. I mean I am an only child and my mother… isn’t here anymore neither is my father and the Harringtons are some of the worst muggles and never around most of the time luckily, but actually,” Delilah said with a sentimental smile , “My godfather used to braid my hair all the time when I was young. It might actually be one of the best memories of my childhood.”
“Delilah-”
“No! No emotional stuff remember,” She swiftly interrupted, “I hate emotional stuff. Here I’m done. Now we can switch.”
Florence then grabbed Delilah’s hair in her hand and started to braid it in a simple braid.
“Earlier right after class, you know Hagrid the keeper of the keys?” Delilah nodded, “Well I went down to his hut right after class to ask about something I saw earlier this year about him with Korban but when I got down there I looked inside and Hagrid was there with your god-brother, that brunette Gryffindor, and his red-headed friend with a baby dragon.”
“What!”
“Yeah. Sebastian said it was a Norwegian ridgeback.” Florence said, “I talked to one of the Weasley twins' friends who had heard about the dragon and she said that her older cousin's friend worked with dragons and was going to take care of it.”
“I can already tell that Harry is going to keep our lives interesting.”
“I can’t argue with you on that.”
A few hours later they were both lying on Florence’s bed. All the other girls were out in the common room studying. They had talked about almost everything two pre-teen girls could talk about and Delilah hadn’t had this much fun since she was a kid and with her dad and god-father. She felt free. Truly.
“So how many cats do you have?” Delilah asked with a laugh dying on her lips.
“Six.” Florence said with a bit of miniscule laughing, “They’re from my dad. He gets me one for my birthday every year.” They lay in silence for a while until Florence speaks.
“I know you don’t like emotional stuff.” she said, “but… I’ve been thinking about how you don’t really have a proper family and I just wanted you to know that even though my mom and dad are both around my mom can be a terrible human sometimes. So I was thinking that maybe we could be each other's family.” Delilah pondered her words. Family was like an unknown word to her. Family was your blood relatives but she had none that she got along with or that were around.
“So we’re family.”
“Yeah we’re family.”