A/N: Everything except the stuff you don’t recognize belongs to JK Rowling and her utter genius.
Time Flies
Phaedra and Odile kept true to their promise…for about a month, which was actually quite a record for them. They’d finally decide to talk to the boys, but then they’d see them sitting in the common room with Medea and they’d be renewed with their anger and walk out with their pretty, French noses in the air.
But then the Quidditch season started; practice nearly everyday. Then their silence became a chore, which was something they loathed. The two chasers even found they had to avoid the rest of the team because the rest of the team wanted to be around Patrick and Hyatt. It didn’t help that Medea now made an appearance at every practice, her nose in a book as they flew around above her.
But right before their first match it changed. The two emerged from the locker room to see Medea waiting for them. At first they moved to ignore her, but soon realized that the boys had trapped them. They glared at them first then turned to Medea with the same expression.
“I don’t expect you to say anything,” she began. “But I would appreciate it if you’d listen. I never wanted to come between you and Patrick. I don’t know why you don’t like me, but frankly, I don’t care. Patrick and Hyatt miss you, and I know you miss them. Please just put up with me, because you’ll regret it if you don’t. It’s not worth your friendship and your family. “
They crossed their arms and appraised her in unison. Phaedra was beginning to understand what Patrick saw in the pale intellectual; she had a love of justice. Medea was right, she missed her cousins and it wasn’t worth it, she knew this. Besides, someone who would say something like that, something completely selfless, just couldn’t be bad.
But Odile wasn’t easily swayed. Her whole life she’d heard about the Malfoys. Her father never gave details, but she’d been told that anyone with the name of Malfoy was not to be trusted. Man, woman, or child, it didn’t matter; they were wicked through and through. And to her it didn’t matter what Medea said, she was a Malfoy and there was simply no excuse for that.
“Alright,” Phaedra said. “You’re right, this immature.”
Odile turned on her with wide-eyed anger. “What!” she shrieked. “How can you say that? How can you even think it?” To Odile there was no greater form of treason.
“This is asinine, Dile. I miss them, and if Medea can come to us like this, then she’s obviously not the person you’ve been deluded into thinking she must be,” Phaedra told her matter-of-factly.
“What is that supposed to mean?” she nearly growled in her husky voice.
Shaking her head, Phaedra moved toward the boys. “You can be miserable on your own.”
As tears began to well up in her eyes, Odile ran past them and went strait to her room. When Medea and Phaedra walked in together about an hour later, the curtains around Odile’s bed were drawn.
* * * *
By the next week, Odile was ready to suck in her pride and apologize. She was miserable and she knew that she was the only one causing it; it was silly to keep blaming Medea.
She sighed deeply before she approached the intimidating group. It was truly the scariest thing she’d ever done in her life. The group fell silent when she approached and stared her down. “I, er,” she stammered.
Medea smiled. “Would you like to join us?”
Odile nodded. “Oui.”
“Okay, come, sit.” She motioned for Hyatt and Phaedra to part so Odile could join them.
After that everything seemed completely fine, at school anyway. The only problem was that both teens knew their families wouldn’t take the news so well. Well, in all honesty, Medea had no idea how her parents would take it because she’d never heard them talk about the Weasleys or the Potters, but she had a feeling it wouldn’t go over well.
As the school year progressed, Patrick and Medea grew closer; the whole lot of them grew closer. None of them wanted to be reminded of the fact that it was all coming to a close, and very soon. Here they could all be friends and no one cared. Patrick and Medea could walk through the corridors hand in hand and no one cared. They wanted to forget that there was a world out there that anyone would think twice about it.
But there was a world like that out there, and they were coming closer and closer to rejoining it.
Before they knew it, Patrick was running with the Quidditch Cup over his head. He had kissed Medea in front of the whole school and dedicated it to her with a whisper. Then they were being awarded the House Cup, with a new record of points. Exams were over and the day had finally come for them to leave school for good. None of them were ready.
“Come on, Medea,” Odile yelled. “We’ll miss the train!”
Medea hugged Professor Selene then caught up with Odile as they ran to join the rest on the train. Patrick pulled her down the corridor and into a compartment with Hyatt and Phaedra and Odile soon followed them inside. “I can’t believe we won’t be coming back in September,” Medea said as she snuggled up to Patrick.
They all agreed solemnly. “What are you going to do?” Phaedra finally asked.
Everyone looked at her with lost looks. “About what?”
“We’ve been ignoring it, but now it’s going to be reality. Patrick, you know your parents aren’t going to like this,” she said.
“And if that’s any indication,” Odile added to Medea. “Your parents probably won’t either.”
Medea looked out the window. She knew they were going to have problems from here on out, but now she actually had to face it. “I don’t know how they’ll feel.”
Hyatt, who had been quite, spoke up. “Whatever happens, we’ll support you.” Both girls agreed.
“Thanks guys,” Patrick said.
Then they began to plan. The obvious and best possibility was for them to both move out and away from their parents watchful eyes. The only problem was that this was also the hardest route because they needed jobs and places to live. They did have another option, which involved a great deal of lying, but they’d already decided they would do what ever it took.
“It’ll be easy,” Odile, who’d apparently had some experience with lying to her parents, said. “I’ll write you a letter, under a different name, of course, and invite you somewhere and the three of us will just go anyway. Our parents are pretty lenient when it’s the four of us.”
“Dad’s got a summer home,” Patrick reminded them. “That would be perfect.”
Medea’s nod was only half-hearted. “But that’s only once a month, if that. I don’t want to wait that long. I mean, you guys are my only friends.”
“We haven’t got any other ideas and we’re about to pull into London,” Phaedra warned.
Then tears began to collect in all their eyes. Knowing that their parents would be there to greet them, they all hugged Medea one at a time, leaving Patrick for last. She cried on his shoulder, not wanting to ever let go of him. “I’ll write you everyday, I promise,” he whispered.
The train pulled to a stop as she replied. “I’ll write back everyday.”
They shared a long kiss as everyone else filed through the corridor. “We have to leave eventually.”
She nodded. “Right. Good-bye, Patrick.”
“Bye.”
Medea saw her parents and, even though she was happy to see them, she was mostly pretending smiles as she hugged them and left with one last look at Patrick.
“Are you happy it’s over?” her mother asked as they walked through Muggle London to the Leaky Cauldron.
“No,” she said honestly. “I’m gonna miss it.”
* * * *
Patrick kept good on his promise to write everyday, starting as soon as he was alone in his room. He told her everything he was thinking, which only took three pages. He’d never even written an essay that long in school.
He tied the letter to his owl and gave it the specific instructions Medea had given him on the train. After watching the jet-black owl fly off into the sky, he feel back onto his bed. He felt a growing knot in his stomach, something he’d never felt before. Being able to spend time with Medea everyday had spoiled him, now he didn’t even know when he’d see her the next time.
Suddenly, he had to see her.
He left his room, careful to avoid his parents, and got one of the several family owls. They weren’t as good as his own owl, Alba, but one would get the job done. He ran back to his room, scratched a short note and sent the owl on his way.
Only, in his haste, he forgot to explain the special instructions, and simply told it Malfoy Manor.