"Can't we just skip dinner too?" Vanessa whined as she trudged alongside Artemis and Alex on their trek to the Great Hall for dinner time. She was trying everything in her power to avoid leaving the common room and seeing other students, but especially the rest of their friends and, even more importantly, Draco. So far, she was fighting a losing fight.

"Vanessa, you know we can't skip every meal," Alex retorted, much to Vanessa's disappointment. "You haven't eaten anything since lunch. I know you don't want to have to see people, but this is a necessary evil."

"Necessary evil, my arse," Vanessa muttered. "I'm fine."

"As much as I know you don't want to risk more conflicts today, I do have to agree with Alex," Artemis added. "Starving yourself will not help in this situation. Your mind needs nourishment to be able to think and process everything appropriately."

"Traitor," Vanessa spat.

Artemis merely shrugged. "Call me what you will. I think having a meal will help you more than you think," he mused. "Besides... you love me."

Vanessa huffed. He was right, but she didn't want to admit it. Some food would help at least a little bit. If nothing else, it would eliminate the queasy, painful feeling in her stomach from not eating in several hours. It would be hard to focus on possibly confronting Draco if her stomach was growling, so she knew this was the right thing to do. She only hoped they could avoid seeing the rest of their friends; Vanessa was not in the mood to deal with their reactions to her breaking up with Draco. As time had gone on, it was only natural that Amber, Kendall, and Emily had heard the "rumors" too. Of course, Vanessa and Artemis both had denied them repeatedly to their faces, so that was another hellstorm that she was wanting to avoid. It was all part of the web of lies that Vanessa- as well as Artemis, and to a lesser degree, Alex- had wove, and it was all going to come crashing down sooner rather than later. Perhaps with any luck they wouldn't be at dinner for some reason, and it could be a catastrophe temporarily avoided.

"Yeah, you need the energy to cuss Malfoy out if he shows his ugly face," Alex chimed back in, breaking Vanessa from her thoughts.

Vanessa sighed. "I don't even know what to say to him." It was true; she really didn't know what she was going to say to him. All she knew was that it was going to be unpleasant.

"Oh, that's easy! 'This has been an absolute disaster, you're a complete prick, never speak to me or my friends ever again, get lost.' How about that?" Alex replied, an evil grin stretched across her face.

"Crude, but I suppose those are all fair points she could incorporate into her argument," Artemis said.

"Whatever. I've heard a lot worse come out of your mouth," Alex brushed him off. "I was just giving her an idea as to what to say to that jerk."

"I appreciate it, guys," Vanessa thanked. "That is a nice summary to use against him. If he even shows up to dinner, of course. If not, it will be tomorrow's problem."

Neither of her friends had a chance to reply before they entered the Great Hall. Vanessa was a bit relieved to see the hall was rather empty- only a few handfuls of students were sitting between the four long tables and a couple of professors were seated at their table at the front of the hall, although she knew it would likely not stay that way. The three of them had arrived relatively early for dinner, so she knew other students and professors were more than likely on their way to fill the room. She only hoped when and if she broke it off officially with Draco that most of the school wouldn't have to witness it.

The three of them sat down at the Ravenclaw table, Vanessa seated in between Alex and Artemis like old times. She decided to focus on the food that was appearing on the table in front of them, hoping that it would distract her from having to deal with her problems. Vanessa piled food onto her plate, despite the fact she knew she would likely have limited time to enjoy her meal.

"For someone who wanted to skip dinner, you sure have a full plate," Alex teased as she filled up her own plate.

"Shut up, Alex," was all Vanessa replied before she started to eat, taking advantage of the likely only momentary lack of drama. She never knew when Draco was going to show up and ruin her day further.

She didn't need to wait long. Perhaps only ten minutes later, he strolled into the Great Hall, flanked by Crabbe and Goyle for the first time in a while. Unsurprisingly, he chose to sit at the Slytherin table, although he sat in such a way he could see the Ravenclaw table. Draco either hadn't noticed her already in the room, or was pretending he didn't see her. She wasn't sure how he couldn't see her; the Slytherin table was next to the Ravenclaw table, so it wasn't like they were on opposite sides of the hall. Regardless, it was all the better, as far as Vanessa was concerned; more time for her to eat and to mentally prepare her official breakup notice.

"What a loser," Alex scoffed between bites of food. "Can't even face you now."

Vanessa shrugged. "Fine by me. If he doesn't come over here by the time we're done eating, I'll go say something myself," she decided. "Either way, at least this part of the problem ends tonight."

Vanessa saw Artemis nod out of the corner of her eye. "We'll still have to contend with the fact that we heavily lied to Amber, Kendall, and Emily," he added.

"Emily will forgive us," Alex said confidently. "She's your cousin, Artemis, and has wanted you two to be a thing since forever. She'll get over it. But Amber and Kendall... hard to say there."

Vanessa shook her head. "I'm not worried about losing friends anymore," she muttered. "I've got you two; I'll be fine. Where have they been as I've dealt with this mess anyway?"

"Well, in all fairness, they don't know anything other than whatever rumors they've heard because you made us swear to secrecy," Alex chimed in.

"Okay, even before that though," Vanessa replied. "Where were they when Draco started the shite that led to me drinking at the Christmas party and getting to this point in the first place? He was horrible before then, and all they could do was sing his praises. Except Emily, I suppose. She tried to stay neutral. But still!"

"It is a valid point," Artemis agreed. "They have some biases."

"So if they can't get over some white lies, they can take a hike along with Draco," Vanessa huffed. "At this point, it is what it is." She glanced up from her food only to see Draco staring at her, looking as if he smelled something foul. Now was as good a time as any, Vanessa supposed as she sat her fork down. Everyone knew the rumors anyway; they might as well hear the demise of their relationship too. "Do you have anything interesting to say, Malfoy? Or are you going to just keep staring at me?"

"I have nothing to say to you, Avery," he spat.

Vanessa nodded. "I thought you'd say that," she mused. "Since I have your attention anyway, I've got something to say to you." Draco said nothing to this other than raising an eyebrow, so despite the number of eyes watching them, Vanessa summoned all of her courage to speak two words that stung no matter how freeing they were. "We're through." She paused for a moment, contemplating her next words carefully. "I know you care about me, but I also know you don't care enough. And I'm not sure which is worse, given how you have treated me the last four months."

Draco huffed. "I already told you earlier we were through, so thanks for catching up." He glanced at his little cronies briefly before looking back at her. "And maybe if you hadn't been shagging Fowl the whole time, maybe I would've been nicer."

"Still believing lies, I see," Vanessa replied, calmer than she felt. Her heart pounded in her chest, her eyes batting back tears. "That's fine. Believe whatever the hell you want. I don't care anymore. Quite frankly, even before you started spewing this shite about me and Artemis, you were treating me horribly and calling me outside my name, so... good riddance. I gave you more than enough chances to change your behavior despite how unworthy you were of them. Your immaturity now speaks volumes."

By this point, they had caught the attention of most of the hall's occupants, students and professors alike. Vanessa immediately caught the dark figure of Professor Snape standing directly behind Draco, but he obviously didn't.

He snorted. "Whatever, half-blood."

Before Vanessa could even react, Snape had smacked the blond boy over the head with a notebook he had been holding. It startled Draco, causing him to jump slightly as he grabbed his head in pain as he looked up at his professor.

"Perhaps we should wash your mouth out with soap, Mr. Malfoy," Snape drawled. "Detention."

Vanessa smirked and put her attention back on her meal as Draco went on to protest his detention their professor had given him. It shocked Vanessa a little bit that Snape had cared enough to intervene in their argument, let alone take her side and dish out a detention for the hate speech Draco had spewed, but she didn't dare question it too much. Her mind briefly flashed back to the professor dragging the boy out of the Christmas party, but she quickly shook it off when something else caught her attention.

Cold fingers entwined with her left hand under the table, and Vanessa knew without a doubt it was Artemis trying his best to offer some comfort without drawing any extra attention to them.

"I'm proud of you," he said quietly. "You stood up for yourself, and now you can begin to heal."

"You did great!" Alex chimed in, much louder than Artemis had been. "Now, if you had punched him, that would've been absolutely perfect."

Vanessa rolled her eyes, but smiled. "Then I would have detention too."

"Maybe so, but it would've been so worth it!" Alex continued.

Vanessa shook her head, feeling admittedly a lot better than she thought she would, everything considered. Relief swept over her, knowing that she was free of having to deal with Draco and his control over her ever again. This was a chance to start again, to be herself once more. To perhaps be with someone who would value her as a person, who would treat her the way she deserved. Happiness was once again within her grasp.

For now, the nightmare was over.

*****

Hi everyone! Sorry once again for the delay. It's been a busy month or so. I'm honestly not 100% sure the exact date I updated this the last time. March? Other than it being a busy month, I somehow managed to break my tablet's keyboard case a few weeks ago, and it made writing a bit more of a chore since I had to switch to my laptop for a bit. But that issue has been resolved, and I am slowly relearning to type on a smaller keyboard again. Anyway! I finished this chapter at about 3AM the other night, but I didn't trust that it was coherent or grammatically correct since often when I write super late at night sometimes things just don't turn out right. Finally sat down tonight and looked it over to make sure it wasn't a mess.

Good news is that I have the next 3-4 chapters mapped out, so in theory it shouldn't take me an eternity to write the next chapter once I finish the next one for Shine Again. Bad news is that we are now in the busy season with work so lord knows I am going to be pretty tired until after summer ends. But we will see.

Hope all is well with you all! As always, thanks for your patience. It means a ton to me. <3

~arty_writes