Chapter 128

"I made a mistake, I made a terrible mistake!" Gully groaned as he fell into the seat across from Adria and beside Blair. In a best attempt to give James and Lily some time on their own, Adria lifted the charm on the girl's dormitory for him, and now her knew study partner was the Ravenclaw across from her.

They had been studying for their exams coming up in June, and couldn't help but feel terribly stressed even though it was April, it was still a worrying time, and of course, there is the interruption from none other than Gully who had already met all of Adria's friends, and all of which loved the boys humour, and decided that he was a new member of their friendship group.

But Adria had already decided that before.

"What mistake?" asked Adria, her eyebrow raised and an amused smirk on her lips as she looked at the boy, it was very surprising to see Gully so exasperated, seeing as the boy was a lot more chilled out most days, but it seemed to be whole other story as he sat in the library, blatantly ignoring the glare he has received from the librarian as his head fell into his hands.

"Y'know how last week you told me I should try and talk to more people?" asked Gully, finally lifting his head and resembling an innocent puppy with the look he gave the two girls, who of which nodded, "well I tried to do that, it didn't work out very well."

"Gully, you're gonna have to elaborate on that one," Adria chuckled, setting down her pen and giving the boy her full attention.

"There's this girl, since last year, that I've liked, y'know that way and well, I thought, well go big or go home, right? So I tried to talk to her-" he cut himself off with a groan, as though the realisation of what he had just done had come back to him vividly, "It was so embarrassing!"

"I'm sure it wasn't that bad, Gull," Blair sighed, patting the boy's shoulder reassuringly with a sympathetic smile on her lips.

"Easy for you to say, you have a boyfriend!" Gully exclaimed, knowing full well that Remus wasn't officially her boyfriend, and whilst she knew that, the blush couldn't help but creep its way onto her cheeks as she shook her head.

"Not technically," she mumbled quietly, shrugging her shoulders, she knew that she could ask Remus to be her boyfriend, and nothing was stopping her, but she wanted him to ask her solely so she knew officially that he certainly liked her, and whilst it was obvious that he did, and obvious that she liked him, they both just didn't know what to say.

"Well, it seems like it, anyway," Gully grumbled, his eyes meeting an amused Adria across the table, and soon did his eyes narrow at his - equally sarcastic - friend, her head tilted and her chin resting on her fist.

"I'd like to know what happened," she smirked, tapping her fingers on the wooden table under her as she awaited his words.

"Well, I went up to her, she was with her friends, how stupid could I be?!" he exclaimed, "she's a Slytherin, she has friends in other houses though, particularly Hufflepuff, and well, she laughed at me," he mumbled quietly.

"She what?!" Adria gasped, her eyes wide.

"Now wait a minute," Blair stopped the two, holding her hand up, "maybe she was just shy, y'know, because she was in front of her friends, they were bound to tease her so maybe she was just a little embarrassed, maybe because she likes you, too?!"

"I doubt it, I mean," Gully gestured to himself, "look at me."

"What?!" Adria exclaimed, "you're handsome, Gully, any girl would be lucky to have you!" she huffed, watching Blair nod her head furiously at the boy.

"You two are my friends, though, you have to say that," he grumbled, shrugging his shoulders whilst a blush attacked his cheeks, "you're a little biased."

"Well how odd considering that girl over there has been staring at you since you walked in," Adria smirked, nudging her head towards a girl at the door who suddenly averted her eyes when he turned around.

"Oh merlin," he rolled his eyes, "that's just Tallulah, we used to be friends," he waved Adria off.

"You told me you've never had friends," Adria raised her eyebrow at him.

"No I told you I had no friends," Gully shrugged, watching Adria eye him suspiciously, "we were best friends for years, and now we aren't, simple," the bitterness lacing his voice was very evident as Adria and Blair shared a look.

"What?!" Gully exclaimed, his eyes narrowing at the looks he was getting.

"Spill, now, you miss her, don't you?" Adria asked, watching as he turned his head quickly to stare at the girl for a moment before turning back to Adria, shaking his head furiously.

"C-course not, no I don't!" he huffed, his head falling into the palm of his hand as he avoided Adria's look, and finally getting one from Blair instead.

"Fine," he grumbled, "maybe a little, but we can't be friends!"

"Why not?!"

"Her family," he sighed, "pureblood."

"Sirius' family is a pureblood," Adria frowned, "and we're still friends."

"Yes, I know, they told her that she couldn't be friends with a muggleborn, or there would be consequences," Gully whispered, "she was willing to sneak around, she hates her family, she's nothing like them b-but, well, I told her no, if they found out they'd have killed her, or even just hurt her, and I couldn't put her through that."

"Oh, wow this is so romantic," Blair gasped, her eyes wide as she clasped her hand over her mouth and ignoring the odd look from Gully wondering how this possibly could be romantic. You see, Blair was just as much a hopeless romantic as Adria was, so it wasn't surprising when the two girls couldn't help but sigh, "you let her go because you wanted to keep her safe!"

"Well yes," Gully rolled his eyes, "but it's not like I love her or anything," he scoffed.

"We didn't say you did," Adria smirked, her eyebrow raised as she watched the blush attack his cheeks, "bloody hell, Gulls, you really like Slytherin's, don't ya?"

"Oh, shut up," he snapped, earning quiet laughs from the two girls with him.

"We have to get you two talking again," Blair sighed, her head falling onto Gully's shoulder, "does matchmaker Adria need a sidekick?!"

"Well of course!" Adria exclaimed, hiding her face from the librarian, "this is really cute, her family can go jump off the astronomy tower!"

"Please don't meddle," Gully groaned, "we haven't been friends since third year, she probably hates me!"

"Then we make her unhate you," Blair shrugged, "look at her, all on her own, clearly missing you because she can't seem to take her eyes off you."

"I thought we were talking about the Slytherin I embarrassed myself in front of?" asked Gully, his eyebrow raised as the two girls shared a look.

"She's not important, she laughed at you, she doesn't deserve you," Blair waved him off, "now, Tallulah!"

"You where the one that stuck up for her!" Gully exclaimed, turning to Blair who gave him a sheepish grin.

"Oh hello, my fellow friends," Isaac grinned as he took the seat next to Adria, leaning his head on her shoulder whilst he placed his book on the table, asking, "what are we talking about?"

"Gully's forbidden love," Blair sighed, a pained look on her face whilst Isaac couldn't help but groan.

"Oh merlin," he shook his head still atop of Adria's shoulder, "this is why I don't let you read romance anymore!"

"Yes, exactly, I need to find it in real life!" she huffed, sending her best friend a glare.

"Well you could find it in Remus and leave me alone?" Gully suggested, watching Adria cover her mouth to hold in her laughter.

"Find what in me?" asked Remus as he took the seat at the end of the table close to Blair, pressing a kiss to her cheek as he set his books on the table.

"Nothing," Blair grinned sheepishly, placing her hand on the table which he soon took, absentmindedly lacing their fingers together and tracing small patterns on her knuckle with his thumb, "but we're talking about Gully's forbidden love, it's a tragic love story!"

"Did you give her a romance book?!" Remus turned to Isaac, watching the boy raise his arms in defence, furiously shaking his head no.

"It is terribly sad, I have to admit," Adria sighed, shaking her head, "they used to be friends, and now can't be because of the girl's family."

"Wow, that actually is sad," Isaac agreed, frowning slightly as he eyed Blair very unsubtly moving her seat closer to Remus.

"Right!" Blair nodded, "I want to go talk to her," she sighed, watching as Gully turned to her with wide eyes, furiously shaking his head.

"Don't you dare," he warned her, "she doesn't like me, she hates me, probably!"

"She so clearly does not," Adria chuckled, "we won't talk to her, Gulls, but you definitely should, she looks miserable!"

"That's just her casual face," Gully shrugged, his nose scrunching at the lame excuse because the frown on her face was in fact, not, her casual face.

"What's going on here and why wasn't I invited?" another voice popped into the conversation, taking the seat at the end of the table and revealing herself as Arden, a grin on her lips until she read everyone's thoughts, finally realising the frowns on their lips.

"Oh well that's not good," she shook her head, sending a sympathetic smile in Gully's direction, who had to admit still wasn't used to the whole mind reading thing.

"You weird me out."

"I know."

"I have an idea!" Blair grinned, finally picking herself up from her seat and placing herself in Remus lap seeing as she wished to cuddle him, and he wasn't at all complaining.

"I'm not reading her mind, Blair," Arden chuckled, shaking her head and watching the frown replace the girls grin.

"You just read mine, what's the difference?" she turned to Remus with a pout, her arms around his neck lazily, and watched as the smile on his face widened at the sight of her.

"Apparently, it's frowned upon to read someone's mind," Arden waved her friends off, "invasion of privacy, or something!"

"Shocking, really," Adria tutted sarcastically, "I mean imagine not being able to read someone's private thoughts, it's blasphemous!"

"Right?!" Arden exclaimed, completely oblivious to the amused grins that both Adria and Gully shared.

"Look, Gully, if you think that you and Tallulah aren't friends at all anymore, then we'll leave it alone, but you are so clearly upset and missing her, and we all know that the frown on her lips isn't her casual face, she looks rather sad, and she's still looking at you, it doesn't matter that you haven't been friends for a while because true friends can come back to each other after any length of time, I'd love to meet her, she seems rather familiar," Adria smiled reassuringly at the boy, reaching over and squeezing his hand comfortingly.

"Thanks, Adria," he mumbled, "she's lovely, but it didn't end well, I suppose, we knew we couldn't continue being friends but that doesn't mean it didn't break me, we shut ourselves off, it was so incredibly awkward, and then so incredibly painful, I miss her, I can't deny that, but It was to keep her safe, and I don't regret that, I'd rather keep her safe than anything else."

"Oh merlin, you're going to kill me," Blair sighed exasperatedly, her head falling onto Remus' shoulder as his arm sneaked around her waist, "maybe I'm already dead, I just can't handle it!"

"You are all so weird," Gully muttered, shaking his head, "can't say I don't love it, though."

"Course you do!" Adria grinned, leaning over and high fiving him whilst leaning on Isaac beside her.