After the harrowing exit from the common room the previous evening, Jordyn tried to internalize Xavier’s words: there had been too much going on at that party for anyone to notice.  No one had seen them, really, and she doubted anyone cared.  Sure, Neely had a ton of questions – which Jordyn told her she would answer later.  The breakfast table was not the place to discuss such things. 

Their break was almost over, after all, and they had more important things to talk about: how they would spend the final months leading up to exams.  Jordyn assured the friends around her that she would be devoting all of her time to studying and making sure that she passed her NEWTs and would be in a prime position to enter the healer-in-training program at St. Mungo’s. 

Though she did not say it out loud, she assured herself that she was not going to be spending all of her time thinking about the feeling of Xavier Tawse’s mouth on hers, or his hands on her, or the weight of the necklace he made for her on her chest.  She hid the present underneath her blouse, but reached up discreetly to rub at it – the sharp metal pressing into her skin with the pressure. 

The slight sting of it made her smile and she dropped her hand back to her plate, delicately lifting the croissant to her mouth as she listened to one of their housemates regale them further with stories from the evening, taking attention off of Jordyn and placing it firmly on Eli’s glowing nipples (she shuddered at the thought) and Bevans and Wentworth locking lips all evening. 

Better talking about them than her, really.  Though, as she nibbled on the buttery pastry, she couldn’t help but smile a little bit.  It could have passed for amusement, but remembering a warm, fantastic kiss was enough to tick the corners of Jordyn’s mouth upward, especially when it was her secret. 

There were a number of ways she could go about this, and Lydie had chosen public humiliation. Jai had no idea she was doing this and for the first time she didn’t know how to share a juicy secret. Anything scandalous streamed out of Lydie’s mouth, a waterfall of gossip. This was Jai that was the loser here.

She had to deal with it somehow, so first thing in the morning she confidently marched into the dining hall and sat at the Slytherin table, directly across from one Jordyn Dimbleby. She plucked a croissant from the buffet in front of her and broke it in half and brought it up to her mouth, but paused before eating it.

“So, Jordyn,” Lydie started loudly, “How was your spring break?” She took a bite and chewed knowingly.

All of her secret smiling and memories of the night before were interrupted, quite suddenly by the presence of Lydie Patil.  She sat down right across from her, jostling some older slytherins out of the way in the process and just grabbed at the food in front of her – like she belonged at their table.  Now, while it wasn’t unthinkable to mix at breakfast, this was no ordinary mixing.  She and Lydie hadn’t spoke in weeks.  Not since before she’d even stopped talking to Jai. 

This was different.  This was bad.  Swallowing the bite in her mouth, Jordyn tried not to look panicked even though her mind was racing.  There were a million things that could be going on and she hadn’t even the slightest clue. 

 Until she started talking. So loudly. Interrupting her housemate, no less!  Jordyn cringed and placed her croissant back down, trying to be as quiet about the whole thing as possible.  If Lydie saw her sweat, she’d keep going.  She had to remain calm, despite all of her nerves and the racing in her head.  It was unlikely Lydie talked to a second year, she couldn’t possibly know… could she? 

Jordyn lifted her cup of cocoa to her mouth and took a long sip, planning her response carefully.  Her tone needed to be casual, it needed to sound like she had nothing to hide.  “Same as everyone else’s, I imagine,” even at her best, her voice cracked and she cleared her throat , taking another drink.  “Do you need something?” 

Dimbleby looked like she had swallowed a fly. Lydie resisted smiling with all of her being and instead raised her eyebrows as she took another bite of the croissant. She didn’t say anything and patiently waited for a reply, but she did start brainstorming ways to cause Dimbleby the most pain while getting the least amount of points taken away. Her favorite option was to cast the Slapping Hex¹, but first she wanted some answers.

”Same as anyone else’s, I imagine… Do you need something?”

Lydie couldn’t stop her reaction to this. The girl had to be delusional. “Did you forget that you have a boyfriend?” Lydie said loudly. “I thought it was Jai who had the amnesia.” She threw the croissant on the table and crossed her arms.


_{1 Slapping Hex:  repetitive slapping to the area where the spell is cast.}

Jordyn’s face turned an outstanding shade of red as Lydie practically shouted over the Slytherin table.  It felt like every single pair of eyes were on them as she tossed the croissant down.  Instead of looking at her ex’s little sister, she watched the pastry bounce to a halt and rest in the middle of the table.

All of the other breakfast commotion seemed to come to a halt at the same time and it was as though at the Slytherin table (and any of the adjacent spaces to the table) you could hear a billywig wing flutter.  “Lydie,” Jordyn’s voice was cautious, quiet – it was like talking to an angry erumpet.  You didn’t want to startle it, lest it jab you with its horn. 

She glanced from side to side, seeing her classmates practically salivating at what they might hear next.  This was absolutely no good.  “Lydie,” she repeated, “I don’t think this is the best place for this conversation.” 

Lydie paid no attention to the people who were starting to watch; it was like they weren't even there. Jordyn suggested they walk away and although Lydie was enjoying the public humiliation, she made an exaggerated show of annoyance. She rolled her eyes and asked, "Well, where would you like to discuss your little spring break rendezvous?" Her tone implied that the rendezvous wasn't exactly a business meeting.

She glared at a student who was gawking at them as they walked past, her eyes knit together in a way that their mother always said made her look like Jai. Which always produced an immediate groan of horror from Lydie and a loud whine that she was not a boy. The younger student stopped watching and scurried away. Deep down Lydie was happy to have witnesses.

What was wrong with Lydie Patil?  That was the question of the morning!  She was acting like some kind of personal slight had been taken against her and she probably didn’t even know anything about it!  She couldn’t have! Only seventh years were at the party and anything she knew had to be gossip.  People always talked… “Outside of the great hall,” she instructed the younger Gryffindor and sucked in a shallow breath. 

She looked to Neely for any confirmation, but it appeared everyone was looking at her for the answers anyway.  Jordyn Dimbleby was the center of attention and in a way that made her want to shrivel up and die.  But, Jordyn did her best to not let anyone see her sweat and pushed her hands against the tabletop and stepped over the bench. 

She walked down the aisle of the table, head up and lips pursed, avoiding eye contact with anyone who tried to look at her.  Her heels clicked in the way that signaled she wasn’t going to get out of your way, so you better move – and several younger years did scurry out of her way.   Jordyn strode through the main doors and into the hallway, not satisfied with the distance from eyes that were obviously following them. 

Taking a sharp turn down the corridor, she finally felt far way enough to turn on her heel and glare, “What are you going on about?”

All of the eyes at the Slytherin table followed them out of the room, but Lydie barely noticed them. They weren’t involved with the issue at hand, but she felt smug about letting them in on the gossip too. Lydie assumed that they had all played victim to Jordyn’s bitchiness at one point or another, having spent seven years sharing a house with her.

“What are you going on about?”

“Why don’t you tell me?” Lydie demanded. She crossed her arms and her chin jutted out, her expression clear that she was expecting answers. Lydie wasn’t known for her discretion but rather her nosiness. Jai was the one who saved Jordyn from further humiliation; she knew that even though Jordyn treated him like a toy she got bored with, Jai still had strong feelings for her and wanted her happy. “Talk to Jai lately?”

It felt like as soon as they left the great hall, a torrent of voices followed.  It was like everyone was talking about her.  Well, not like.  Everyone was absolutely talking about her – and Lydie, she was sure, being absolutely insane. 

Go figure she would get involved in something that was completely not her business.  Whatever she thoughts he was interfering in was Jordyn’s business – and Jai’s business, she supposed, but they were broken up!  Did he not tell his sister?  He had to not tell his sister… Reaching up, Jordyn rubbed her temple with the smooth leather of her glove and sighed. 

Lydie had no idea what she was doing and she was being her genuinely loud self.  At one point, it had served Jordyn well, but apparently now it was backfiring spectacularly.  “I don’t know what you think you know,” she kept her voice low, still trying not to draw further attention or a crowd, “but Jai and I are broken up.” 

“I don’t know what you think you know… but Jai and I are broken up.”

Lydie started to laugh. This girl was nuts. How had Lydie missed it? Being a few years younger, Lydie wasn’t as tuned in to the upperclassmen drama. The party she had witnessed in the forest was her first real exposure to the seventh-year social life.

Lydie let her jaw hang slack for a moment, her face expressing a sort of amused shock. There were so many things Lydie wanted to say but instead she blinked at Jordyn and then let her eyes look side to side. “Have you told him that?” Lydie demanded.

Jordyn’s eyes widened.  Why was Lydie laughing?  She couldn’t possibly think it was funny to humiliate Jordyn in front of everyone after she and her brother were already broken up.  That was ludicrous.  This whole situation was ludicrous.  Why was it even her business again?  Why was Jordyn tolerating this?!

She could just march right back into the Great Hall and announce that Lydie Patil had been hit by the confudus charm and go about her day.  Though, she’d probably follow her back and be as ridiculous as she was being now and Jordyn could not handle that.  Not with whatever else was going around in the Great Hall as it was.  Xavier had been so certain there were other things to talk about, and she was sure there were, but not when Lydie Patil was following you around and opening her big mouth. 

“I should think so,” Jordyn snapped at her, clearly irritated.  Why would she say that if it weren’t the truth?  She wasn’t that type of girl!  She’d written the letter herself – she had told him to stop writing!  Hadn’t she?  . . . Of course she did.  She totally did.  “I would know more than you, Lydie,” Jordyn pointed out, “so I don’t know what your problem is!”  Double down, Dimbleby, it was the only way. 

Lydie stood and listened to Jordyn’s reasoning, keeping her face perfectly calm. She knew for a fact that Jai had no clue - not really, anyway. A few friends had been chipping away at the brick wall that was Jai’s love for Jordyn, trying to convince him that yes, it was over, and that he deserved better.

“So you’re saying you did break up with him,” Lydie said, squinting her eyes. “As in, you had a conversation where it was explicitly decided? Or did you just give up and leave him like a toy you’re bored of?” Lydie raised an eyebrow. Her poor brother had written to her about Jordyn’s well-being. He was so concerned about this girl who apparently couldn’t care less about him. Lydie did her best to cool her boiling blood.

It was just like her to not let sleeping dogs lie.  Someday, it would serve her well when she wrote for Witch Weekly or something, but right now it was annoying.  “It was in a letter, Lydie, you know very well I’ve been here – at school.”  Was she mental?  Oh right, she was.  She was totally mental and was acting like this was all Jordyn. 

“I don’t have to explain myself to you,” she added, trying to summon all of the authority in her voice that she could.  Jordyn might have been a short girl, but she never considered herself small.  She had a big personality and tried to command attention and respect in any way she could.  Her tone being one of them.  “And I’d really appreciate if this,” she motioned between them, “doesn’t happen again because whatever you think is very unfair to me and not really your business either."

"It was in a letter, Lydie, you know very well I've been here - at school."

"Dude," Lydie burst. "You call that a breakup?" Lydie, who had seen all of the letters, rarely filtered her thoughts, usually speaking as fast as she spoke. Honesty was her most important virtue, to a fault. She was straightforward with people and felt all truth should be public forum. Without lying, you didn't have to remember anything. More room for more important things, like common decency and respect.

"I don’t have to explain myself to you... and I'd really appreciate if this doesn’t happen again because whatever you think is very unfair to me and not really your business either."

Mentally Lydie was trying to keep notes, but Jordyn's point about fairness finally brought Lydie to her boiling point. Her clenched fist burst into an overdramatic gesture of confusion, Lydie having thrown her hands up in the air, at a loss for words.

"Fair?" Lydie said emphatically. "You want to know what's fair? The fact that Jai remembered you and none of us when he all but cracked his head open in the bombings." A lump formed in Lydie's throat at the memory. "Now you don't even give him a second thought, you don't have enough decency to at least give him closure." Lydie hissed at the Slytherin, who was clearly making an effort to pull rank.

"What are you gonna do, take house points?" Lydie pfft-ed and glared at the older student. "Whatever you think is fair," she snipped in a nasal sarcasm.

Jordyn didn’t know what she wanted from her.  She really didn’t.  It was the best that she could do – she had written him, she had told him!  Jordyn thought she had been straightforward.  Sure, she avoided things, but she had been so overwhelmed and getting the pressure of a long distance relationship off of her back had felt like the necessary weight to relieve.

And sure, maybe looking back, it was selfish.  She was selfish.  But, she was also trying so hard.  Jordyn put so much effort into everything and Jai needed so much more than she could give him.  It wasn’t fair – putting all of that on a person who couldn’t even be around, unless she dropped out.  And that wasn’t an option!  Jordyn had dreams – dreams she couldn’t sacrifice for a boy, no matter what he had gone through.

Lydie tried to guilt her – tried to bring up the explosions and how Jai had remembered here and for a second, it definitely worked.  She felt her cheeks light up and her fists clenched at her sides.  That wasn’t her fault, that he remembered her.  It wasn’t her fault that he’d been at the explosions, Jordyn couldn’t absorb that responsibility forever.  She was her own person!  Gritting her teeth, she wanted to scream that at Lydie, but it would only make it worse.  It would only make her lash out more and she was already making it all about how terrible Jordyn was. 

So, she tempered herself.  She squashed the rage she felt in her chest and channeled it into how hard she was clenching her fist.  She would resist the urge to send her detention for insubordination and she would just… deal with it.  “I’m sorry that you and Jai feel that way,” it was sort of a cop out, “and I’m sorry if how I handled it brought it to that place, but I don’t appreciate how you’re acting and what you’re trying to say about me and in front of my friends.”