Thanks Gracie. I'm glad you like.

Chapter 6

“They are so mean to girls in this book.” Loanna chuckled a few hours later.

We had both been engrossed with our own book for the last couple of hours. All of our fruit had been devoured as the sun began to set outside. It had been a joyful day, not many people had come into the library today, so it was peaceful. Only time there was a slight disturbance in the noise level, was when Loanna or I would share something from our book. I had read her a few poems and she quoted from her book. I craved for moments like this. They were so tranquil and made me truly happy. So when Loanna asked for my attention away from a particular good poem, of course I turned to look at her curiously.

She smiled gently at me, before reciting from her book. “Boys are trying enough to human patience, goodness knows, but girls are infinitely more so.”

I laughed out loud at this. “It is true though. Girls are very trying to the human patience.” I teased her lightly.

“We are not! I actually thought they were going to finally speak ill of boys, then I read the rest of the sentence.”

I couldn’t hold in my laughter and let the humorous quote wash over me. Loanna rolled her eyes next to me, but a trace of a smile was on her lips. When I heard somebody clear their throat above us, I immediately stopped laughing and looked up. Relief overcame me, as I saw it was only Madam Nolan.

“It’s dinner time. Why don’t you kids get some food in those bellies?” She smiled joyfully at us.

My heart sank and I quickly looked at Loanna. She had a small smile on her face, and gave me a fleeting glance, before saying, “That’s a good idea. Sorry for disturbing the quiet Madam.”

Madam Nolan chuckled lightly and began walking away, muttering something about “good kids.” Sighing, I stood up and offered Loanna my hand. She took it, giving me an apologetic look.

If it were up to me, I would stay in the library forever, but I knew if we stayed in the library during dinnertime, Madam Nolan would start to ask questions. Questions were something neither, Loanna or I wanted to answer. So instead, we acted like nothing was wrong with eating dinner in the Great Hall, or how nobody was bothering us when no professors were in sight. It was a habit to act like nothing was happening out of the ordinary. By all means, Loanna and I were not masochists; we just don’t see the bullying stopping if we were to tell. If anything, they will target us even more for “tattling” on them.

“Hungry?” Loanna whispered toward me, as we exited the library.

“Only if you are.” I replied. She nodded at me, and put her hand out for my book. I handed it to her and she stuffed it into her bag along with her own book.

“Maybe just some mashed potatoes?” she asked, her eyes reflecting the sadness of requesting to eat dinner. It upset me that she grew cheerless ever time she wanted to eat dinner. She shouldn’t have to feel guilty about being hungry.

“Mashed potatoes sound good.” I agreed with her. She was hungry, and she hadn’t ate last night, so it would be very selfish on my part if I were to deny her small request of food.

“Are you sure?” she bit her lip nervously.

“Yes.” I replied without hesitation.

We walked toward the Great Hall in silence, anticipating whatever what was to come. The sound of people talking, laughing and flirting reached my ears and I felt a chill go up my spine. I tired to hide this fact from Loanna, but she has always been able to read me easily.

“We’ll eat quick then go.” She encouraged me, as we walked through the wide doors. I nodded at her and tried to be positive. Maybe today people would leave us alone.
We took our usual seat on the edge of the Slytherin table and I pulled the bowl of mashed potatoes toward us. Passing it to her first, I waited until she put two scoops onto her plate, before placing three onto my own. Vigilantly, I took a quick glance around the Great Hall, making sure not to make eye contact with anybody. Everybody was too involved with their own conversation to notice us. Excellent.

“Eat some watermelon too.” I told her.

She looked at me skeptically, before pulling a slice of watermelon toward her. “What about you?”

“I’m fine. You haven’t eaten much at all today.” I said, taking a bite of my mashed potatoes.

“You haven’t either.” She pointed out. She always had a comeback.

“Eat.” I told her, a smile escaping off my lips.

I took a roll from one of the bowls as Loanna finished up her watermelon. She looked grateful for being able to eat and I was glad. Finally she gets somewhat a meal. Yeah, we were still too scared to eat an actual full course meal, but it was something.

When she was done, she wiped her hands and face on a napkin, before looking to me. Time to go. I stood up from the bench and made my way out of the Great Hall. We were almost home free when Aleksander walked through the door, just as we were about to walk out.

So close.