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Truthfully, remaining within the premises of Number 12 for the majority of the summer holiday wasn't much of a trial, not for Heri at least. She had spent her formative years being locked away when not at school or doing chores, so being free to even just wander the house was still pretty novel. And now she had Sirius and Remus, a personal attendant in the form of Oleander, and a veritable menagerie of semi-sentient experiments; she required no further stimulation. Her various hobbies were indoorsy anyway, so it wasn't like she was craving the fresh air. If left to her own devices, she would have been perfectly happy, but the thing about having friends was that you had to maintain them as well.
Now, 'maintaining' her friends wouldn't have been such a bother if it wasn't for the fact that they insisted on making a bother of themselves. The open invitation extended to come by whenever they wanted added together with their inborn crowding tendencies resulted in them taking up the majority of her waking hours, taking her away from her personal projects. She enjoyed having friends, but . . .
Damn their need to crowd! Was it so difficult to stop acting like bleating herbivores and just exist independently every once in a while?
This was the first summer that she had spent so much time with her school friends, and, dear gods, it was nearly as grating as dealing with the Dursleys! Granted, none of them were wishing her dead or trying to bully her, but on top of being required to provide interesting conversation and fun in any form, she was expected to keep the peace while not being allowed to fall back on her old standby method of dealing with the Dursleys: intimidation and physical injury. She knew wishing for such a thing likely meant she was damaged in the head, but performing an old fashion beat down was so much easier than using people skills.
Though they tried to hide it, there was a tension surrounding her friends these days, a fidgety atmosphere that had been amping up since the break-out from Azkaban had happened. They had been sniping at each other more than usual, the taunts they exchanged coming with more bite. Sarcastic banter was par on course for Hannah and Zacharias, but even the ever 'too-cool' and passive-aggressive Sally-Anne was getting in her shots. Heri had never spent so much time mediating for their clashing personalities in all the time that she'd known them. When it wasn't Zacharias and Megan having a go at each other, it was Wayne seething from some backhanded compliment Sally-Anne gave ever so idly.
Heri tried to be understanding, but it was difficult enough to not join in their growling without having to empathise with them as well. She had never been one that gained any sort of satisfaction or relief from being beastly to others, but it seemed every one of her usual crowd took some bit of delight of getting one over others, even Ernie, the who usually helped her to keep heads from being bitten off. If the bickering wasn't ridiculous enough already, Ernie had gotten into a silent grudge-match with Hannah when Heri wasn't looking, and now she was alone in reigning in her onerous bunch.
If wasn't one thing, it was another.
Heri had already known that her friends didn't deal well with the uncertainty of a situation that they couldn't do anything about — second- and third-year had proven that — but she hadn't expected them to start taking it out on each other. It had gotten to the point that Heri had developed the habit of crocheting — an activity that required prolonged immediate attention — so she wouldn't start ripping into them from sheer irritation. The habit soon became something of a tick, and she was now averaging three to four completed projects a week.
She was not their mother, Heri told herself as she busied her hands. She was their friend, and it was not her place to scold them as if she had any right to tell them what to do. How could she expect them to respect her rights if she didn't respect theirs? This was what she constantly reminded herself to keep her self in check. She knew full well what her temper was like, and it wouldn't do anyone any favours if she blew up and rained down a hellish fury like she used to do when she was younger.
Now if only her friends would do her the courtesy of doing similarly. Heri knew that friendships could become strained as people grew up — she had observed other students at school enough to know that — but the in-fighting wasn't so much drifting apart as it was self-destructing. She liked to think that this was just a phase brought on by hormones and stress that they would eventually get past, but she couldn't help but be reminded that they had always been more her friends than they were each other's. Either way, she was getting mightily fed up, and sixth-year hadn't even started yet.
It was in this agitated state of mind that Remus called Heri away from the other girls as they were preparing for bed. It wasn't even nine yet, but they wanted to get an early start for tomorrow's outing to beat the before-school rush. Remus came knocking as they were just finishing up their pre-bedtime rituals.
Judging from the pinched, almost resigned look on his face when Heri opened her door, it was going to be another one of their late-night callers. But who could it be that Heri's presence was required? She pulled on a sleeping robe over her nightgown and followed Remus down the stairs.
Walking down to the dining room where Order meetings took place, Heri saw that their late guest was none other than Headmaster Dumbledore. A cup of tea in front of him, he was sat next to Sirius, looking quite a bit more tired than she had ever seen him.
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