Briar watched him with curiosity as he shuffled closer. He stumbled when he neared her but managed to steady himself before he fell. He slightly blushed and stuck out his hand with the dandelion in it. He murmured, "For you."
She felt something odd...
Briar wasn't on the best of terms with many of the Slytherins in her year after her fight with Malfoy, but she didn't care, and she refused to explain herself to anyone who asked about what happened. She just stayed snuggled in bed and sketched or studied. The only time she ventured out was to attend class, detentions, mealtimes, or a few tutoring sessions.
The tutoring sessions continued awkwardly at first. Briar and Neville didn't mention what had happened after she stormed out of the greenhouse, although she was certain that he had heard.
Everyone seemed to have found out about it. No one knew why she had done it, but everyone was watching her curiously for days after. She just kept a permanent scowl on her face, which made everyone leave her alone.
Slytherins often glared at her or stared at her with curiosity, depending on the strength of their allegiance to Malfoy.
Briar would catch Ravenclaws staring at her with analytic eyes, trying to understand what had happened from looking at her, but they would snap their eyes down the moment she would look at them. Briar didn't like those types of looks. She didn't want anyone to try to figure her out, so those were particularly unsettling to her.
However, the Hufflepuffs looked at Briar with a mix of awe and fear, seeming even more shy around her. Briar felt pleased each time she caught a Hufflepuff looking at her this way.
Lastly, Gryffindors were purely in awe of her. Many of the Gryffindors in her year had been terrorized by Malfoy during their time at Hogwarts, and she could tell that they all felt a sort of pride to see someone within his own house seek revenge on the cruel boy.
Briar didn't care what anyone else thought though. She just knew it felt good doing it, even if her blinding rage during it was slightly appalling to her now. It had been a long time since she had felt that furious, and she was glad she hadn't done something worse that could have led to an expulsion. Detention and loss of house points were enough trouble.
One thing was becoming painfully clear: she really needed to figure out her rage. She couldn't keep losing control like this. She would be going home for the summer soon, and this anger would put in danger, so it was vital that she figured this out fast.
Each moment in tutoring with Neville seemed to help though. Something about the boy's sweet demeanor and constant clumsiness when she got too close made her heart flutter with happiness.
At random moments, she had even felt somewhat grateful for her failing grades in Herbology because it meant that she got to spend more time with Neville.
He was pure goodness, and she wasn't used to that. It felt relieving and safe to study with him. He never judged her when she got confused, and his patience never seemed to run out when she got frustrated.
Each day, the empathic plants seemed to droop a little less around her, and this always made Neville smile at her happily. He had helped her understand how to care for the plants that weren't empathic, and her grades in the course rapidly climbed for the remainder of the semester.
Things were starting to look up, but because of her fight with Malfoy, she wasn't allowed to attend the last Triwizard Task like everyone else. This was part of her punishment for breaking Malfoy's nose. She didn't mind though. She wouldn't have wanted to go anyway. Even if her roommates were still being cordial with her, she still tried to keep to herself. She knew they were uncomfortable with her, so she just gave them the space to think what they wanted of her.
She wasn't in the mood to care about those opinions though.
On the day of the last Triwizard Task, Briar was just sketching a drawing of Neville with one of the plants they had been working on all semester with the hopes of giving it to him at their tutoring session the next day. That was when her three roommates all stumbled in with gaping mouths and stony looks in their eyes.
Briar immediately sat up and questioned, "What happened? Are you all ok?"
None of them responded. They didn't even seem to have heard what she said. Millicent just lowered herself onto her bed and stared at the ceiling blankly.
Briar stood up and demanded, "Girls. Talk to me. What's wrong?"
Daphne finally looked at Briar as if just seeing her for the first time since they got back. She whispered, "Diggory is dead, and Potter says You-Know-Who was responsible."
Briar felt all the air leave her body. If Voldemort was back, then her father was certainly involved again, and she felt her food rising in her throat at the thought of her father being instrumental in one of her classmate's deaths.
Suddenly, summer felt all too close.
———
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