CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

     SHE HEADED TO THE TRAIN STATION with James and Sirius later that day. After a quick goodbye to her parents while the boys grabbed their things from James' house, she met them on the platform with a cheerful wave.

     There were too many things going on for Winnie to really want to handle. First, she was looking for Louise because she really hadn't heard much from her all holiday and it was quite strange to her. Then, there was the intense look that Sirius kept casting her way and she tried to her best to just be casual. In that moment, she was glad that James was simply James.

     "I'm sure Louise will find us. Remus and Peter, too," James said, nudging her in the direction of the train. She nodded, grateful again that he was just being himself.

     They made their way onto the train and Winnie was already making plans to sit next to James when a voice rang out from behind them.

     "My dear friends!" Louise called out, dragging Remus behind her, unusually enough. Winnie furrowed her eyebrows and looked at her friend expectantly. "Hello, yes, yes, I cannot imagine how much I have been missed."

     "Oh yes, I could not have gone another day," Sirius played along with a grin. Winnie looked between the two of them and rolled her eyes, finding the nearest empty compartment and sitting down next to the window.

     As she made herself comfortable, the rest of them piled in behind her. Luckily, it was James who sat next to her. "You alright?" he asked in a low voice, eyes searching her face curiously.

     "We'll see," she responded, watching as Louise laughed as if nothing at all was wrong. As if she had not ignored her for the entirety of holiday without so much as an explanation.

     James still seemed confused, but she attempted to give him a reassuring smile. "There you guys are," Peter exhaled as he joined them in the compartment while the others were sitting down.

     At least things seemed normal for everyone else. Winnie grabbed a book from her bag and began to scan one of the pages. Her nerves had led her to stare at the same page over and over again.

     Being in a small compartment, she immediately noticed the presence directly in front of her. Glancing up, she made sure to look entirely unimpressed with the boy in front of her.

     Sirius leaned forward, trying to be as quiet as possible so that the others wouldn't hear. "Can I talk to you? Please?"

     "We're talking," she pointed out, directing her attention to the window where the countryside was rapidly flashing by.

     "Privately? Winnie, please," he pushed on, glancing around almost nervously. She very nearly didn't buy it. Sirius Black was not nervous. Or at least, she'd never seen him be anything close to nervous.

     "Okay," she agreed, shoving her book back into her bag and making her way out of the compartment behind him. Everyone stared and that was exactly what she was hoping to avoid.

     The trolley was making its way down the train steadily. There wasn't anyone waiting out in the hallway yet where their compartment was located. Winnie closed the door so the others wouldn't hear anything.

     "Can we talk about last night?" Sirius asked hesitantly, jumping straight to the point and searching her face for a reaction.

     Winnie sighed deeply and crossed her arms. Embarrassment welled up inside of her. "I thought...that I made my feelings perfectly clear."

     Sirius paused and looked around for a second. This was the exact same hesitation from the night before. "You said you wanted to," he mentioned briefly, like he wasn't even sure if that was the truth.

     Her cheeks were now burning red all of the sudden and she truly wished that they weren't. "I also said that I'm not here for you to have fun with for a minute just to drop me once you're done," she snapped, now embarrassed and a little upset now that she said it aloud again.

     Suddenly, the compartment door opened. "Oh, er, hey," James said, looking between the two in confusion. "Don't want to interrupt, uh, anything, but if the trolley comes by, can you let us know? I'm starving."

     "Oh, shove off James!" Sirius let out exasperatedly, shoving James' head back through the door and shutting it once again. "Look, love, this is different."

     She thought back to him purposely trying to get her into detention and spending time with her alone, all intentionally. Then the image of him deciding that she was simply another conquest plagued her mind and she didn't see why it was any different.

     "I don't know why it would be. It's the same game, different girl," she sighed, opening the compartment door again. "I don't want to have this talk right now."

     Winnie entered the compartment again and knew that everyone was probably paying attention to her flushed cheeks and faraway expression.

     Nobody bothered to interrupt her while she sat in silence, staring at her book all the way through the train ride. By the time they had taken the carriages up to the castle, she told everyone that she wasn't in the mood for a meal.

     "Are you sure?" James asked, casting her a concerned gaze as she hadn't eaten on the train.

     "Yeah, I'll be fine. See you guys later," she let out quickly before turning around with the Hufflepuff common room in mind.

     "Winnie, wait!" Louise called out behind her. She turned around and saw that she was alone and the others had made their way to dinner. "What's wrong?"

     "I should be asking you the same question, Louise," Winnie fired back, confused and completely in the dark as to why her best friend had been behaving in such a way for the past few weeks.

     "If you're talking about me not spending the holiday at yours...there's a reason," she finally said, her expression darkening. Winnie glanced at her expectantly. Louise took a breath and caught Winnie off guard when she saw that there were tears in her eyes. "They finally kicked me out, okay?"

     Winnie froze. "No..." she trailed off, never truly thinking that her parents would cut her off so soon before school was over.

     "And I didn't want many people to know because I didn't want any pity and I know you don't pity me and I love you but I just couldn't talk about it," Louise rushed out, stumbling over her words, one after the other. "Remus was there when I got the letter that they were cutting me off. I didn't know what to do, Winn. I didn't know what to do. He told me that he would come with me to help grab the rest of my things, it would be safer and easier that way. He said I could stay at his house for the rest of the break after that, too. So I had somewhere to go."

     She was choking on her words now and Winnie pulled her into a tight hug. Louise hugged her back, shaking her head. "I didn't mean for it to come off like it did," she said through her tears. "I just needed some space."

     "Lou, you're forgiven," Winnie told her immediately, pulling away from the hug. "This problem is way more massive than that, and I'm glad you told me now. I'm going to send an owl to Mum and Dad immediately."

     "You don't have to do that," she muttered, casting her gaze to the ground.

     "As your best friend, yes, I do. And they won't care, Lou, they love you too," Winnie assured her.

     Louise wiped her eyes with her sleeve messily and took a deep breath. "I'm lucky to have you. Thank you," she said, relief evident in her voice. Winnie put an arm around her shoulder and pulled her in tightly.

     "Oh, Lou, you'll always have me. Promise."