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Hogwarts was full of many things, and Patience was glad of it right now. She and her friends had found a room that no one else seemed to ever use, which meant they could get together without anyone having to invade the wrong House’s rooms or worry about obnoxious roommates invading their gatherings. The last thing Patience needed right now was to see certain people.
Josephine was a welcome sight. Krissy less so, only because her reaction was so much different. Josephine had brought chocolate and tea and hugs. Krissy was doing a victory dance. “She’s gone! She’s gone! No more Know It All! Ding dong the bitch is dead!”
“Krissy.” Krissy cut off mid-sentence as Josephine shot her a glare. “Nobody liked her, except for Patience, but Patience loved her. Show some respect for your friend, will you?”
“Fiiiiiiiiiiiine.” Krissy flopped on the couch beside Patience. “I really am sorry you’re hurting. I hated her, but I should save the celebration for when you’re not around or you’re over it. What happened, anyway?”
Patience shook her head. She wished she knew what had happened. “I don’t know. I woke up this morning, went to class, and when we got out of Charms, Hael said we needed to talk, and then she broke up with me! That was the first I knew we had any problems at all!”
The door opened, and Patience shot it a nervous glance. She’d never brought Hael to the room, respecting that her friends didn’t like her, but what if she’d found it anyway? What if she was coming back for one more shot?
It wasn’t. It was Alex and Kaia, hauling Claire between them. “Patience, I’m sorry, but if she’s in here she’s not losing Slytherin house points for beating the shit out of Hael,” Kaia explained. “Alex told us what happened.”
“Yeah, that was a mistake, sorry,” Alex said. “Thought you could use your friends, but Claire’s not exactly in a mood to be helpful.”
“How did I not see this coming? Why didn’t she give me any warning that things were wrong and a chance to fix them?” Patience leaned against Josephine’s shoulder. “Claire, I appreciate you wanting to hurt her for hurting me, but please don’t. Slytherin’s already blaming me for you going off on Hael last week in Defense Against the Dark Arts and losing house points.”
“Not my fault she couldn’t accept that she was wrong about vampires,” Claire grumbled. “She was seriously upsetting Alex… why the hell are they blaming you?”
“Well, you know, if she were dating me instead of Hael, you and Krissy would have shut her up months ago,” Alex scoffed. “Why your housemates think the Ravenclaw girls are interchangeable, I don’t know.”
“They don’t,” Krissy groaned. “Neither do my housemates, or Patience’s. I promise you, no one thinks that. No one’s ever suggested that Patience should date Josephine instead of Hael…” Alex opened her mouth to start a protest, but Krissy cut her off before anything could come out. “It’s not just because everyone thinks I want to date Josephine, either, so don’t start.”
“So why is it, then?
“Is this really the time to discuss it?” Claire asked, looking pointedly at Patience. “It’s not because they can’t tell the difference between you and Hael, because you know damn well I’d get that explained to them in a hurry.”
Patience looked between them. “I still can’t believe you and Josephine aren’t dating. Why the hell aren’t you?”
“Because I don’t have the time or energy for a romantic relationship, not with all the NEWTs I’m doing, prefect duties, and Quidditch practice.” Josephine stroked Patience’s hair. “Especially when it means choosing between Krissy and Aidan, because I really don’t have the time or energy to make it work with both.”
“No hurry or anything,” Krissy added. “Aidan and I both have another year after this, don’t wanna mess with trying to keep the romance alive with her out of school and us not, so I’m all for enjoying school and being friends and figuring out our futures. Aidan’s talking about going into cursebreaking, did you hear?”
“Yeah, and last month it was becoming an Auror, and the month before he wanted to go pro Quidditch,” Claire said. “I’m just glad Professor Hanscum was able to talk him into taking his NEWTs seriously and not just going for the easy classes.”
“The point is even after school, may not be worth going for a romantic relationship, because we may end up in wildly different places,” Krissy said. “Why make the friendship weird until everyone’s got lives figured out?”
“Because… if you wait until you guys have everything figured out, you’re gonna be old, possibly dead?” Kaia teased. “Josephine’s got a prayer, but you and Aidan are both completely hopeless.”
“Yeah, whatever.” Krissy waved her off, focusing back on Patience. “Aside from answers, there anything you want to help you get over this?”
“Nah, not really,” Patience said. “Revenge is hard when you don’t know what you’re getting revenge for, I’ve got chocolate, only thing that’ll really do me any good at this point is time. Distractions are nice. If one of you wouldn’t mind creating a scene that’ll get the gossip away from me and Hael, that would be nice, but I don’t want any of you getting in trouble.”
“I think we can manage that,” Kaia said, drawing a sharp glance from Claire. “What?”
“You said you didn’t want to go public until…”
“I did say that. Situation’s changed.” Kaia jerked her head at Patience. “If people are talking about the class punk and the class druggie dating, they’re not talking about the class know-it-all dumping the class emo.”
“Wait, what? You two are dating?” Krissy crossed her arms and glared. “I can’t believe you two. You’re awful.”
Alex smirked and held out her hand. “I told you. Sisterly intuition. That’s five sickles, thank you.”
“You know, that know-it-all attitude is why no one likes Hael,” Krissy grumbled. “Maybe there is something to be said about you and her being interchangeable.”
“Krissy. No.” Patience reached out and gave Alex’s hand a squeeze. “Huge difference between being smug when winning a bet and being a know-it-all who can’t ever be wrong.”
“So you think she’s an annoying know-it-all now?” Claire said.
Patience sighed, letting Alex’s hand drop and sitting back against the chair. “I never said she wasn’t. She usually does a good job of backing up her boasting about how smart she is, at least, but it is a character flaw of hers.”
“Still. Seems like you’re doing a little better,” Josephine said. “Good to hear.”