Love and Hate: It's a two way street

If there was one thing Evander regretted, it was deciding to take Divination.

For the most part the class was fun, but he didn't think he had the skills necessary to be successful in the class. He'd only decided to take it because he thought it would be a good escape from the rest of his friends. He needed to do some things by himself, the only problem was that it wasn't until the first day of classes that he realized Hit had also been taking the class.

That was just great.

Still, it was helpful to have someone like Hit in the class with him so he didn't completely fail. If she were allowed to be his partner, that was. But it seemed like he was doomed to fail or something because he never got the chance to partner with her. Or more like, everyone else wanted to be her partner. It was kind of strange to see Hit so popular in a class. He was sure she hated it too. Evander sighed, knowing that he might as well get another person to be his partner. But who really? And then it happened.

Charlotte Waldorf.

The girl who seemed to hate everyone. Somehow the two of them got stuck being each other's partner. Evander didn't have anything against Charlotte, in fact he quite liked her, but the attitude she held against the rest of them was really off putting. She'd seemed nicer lately, and he's always tried to be nice to her whenever they passed by each other, but to say they were close or anything of the sort was far-fetched. He still considered her somewhat of a friend, though, like he did with everyone else in Ravenclaw. Maybe that was naive of him, but it could t be helped.

They were supposed to do palm reading and tessomancy, the former of which was not anything to Evander's liking.

Charlotte attended to almost every class at sixth year, but her favorite one was Divination.
It's not like she actually believed that someone could see what will happen in the future, but most of the time the class was funny and she found really difficult to stay serious during some nonsense the professor was speaking.
But this class had a big advantage that was the very first reason why Charklorlotte was here.
She didn0t actually need to learn a lof of stuff like on another subject. And to be honest, this class was like therapy for her, the time when she was able to find peace deep in her mind and enjoy while thinking about great books she read lately and the time she will spend once she goes back to home. She couldn't deny that sometimes she felt nostalgia.

Today they will learn how to read the future from palm and everyone should choose their partner.
Charlotte was really new in all this socializing thing so she decided to just sit on her chair and pick the last one who stayed without the partner. It's not like they would necessary need to become friends, they should just stay together and pretend that they actually see something except the skin.
Charlotte realized once that she would be able to get extra points if she just says something dramatic.
She learned that it wasn't important to try to see future, that was probably impossible but if she say something good enough professor will look at her like she was the God, next great seer which means she would finish this class as one of the best student.
It was really easy as that.

While she was sitting professor decided that her partner will be Evander Yaxley. If she was honest, she must admit that he was actually pretty nice.
They were same year and house so she knew him, of course, and he was one of few people who was actually nice even when she was full of hate toward anyone who dared to stand close to her.
That was why she put smile on her face while she was approaching to him.

"Hi, I guess we are stuck here together. If you try to pretend that you actually see my future, I will punch you. Of course, if you can see that I'll be the best at college, then it is fine" she joked and rolled her eyes when professor warned her to take her seat next to her partner because they were supposed to learn such a delicate way to see future.

A genuine laugh escaped the lips of the Ravenclaw.

It seemed like it was becoming increasingly hard to let one of those out lately. There was so much going on in his life, so much more than anyone could imagine, than anyone knew. He had to force smiles and laughter more often than not now and it was sad that no one seemed to notice at all.

Oh, the tragedy.

"Don't worry, I'll try my best. Scout's honor." He lifted his hand like a Boy Scout would as a tease. She was trying to be nice to him, so the least he could do was return the favor. He wondered if it would be a good idea to vent to Charlotte about some of the things that's been o his mind, but at the same time would she really listen?

Maybe it was best to keep it to himself. He normally did that anyways. Merlin, was he just a puddle of confusion.

"Alright, so what do you want to start with?" Evander asked, determined to not let his problems get in the way of the assignment. "We can do either the hand reading or the tessomancy first, up to you." He said, letting her choose whichever she wanted to do first.

"I hope so" she sat on her chair and opened the book. While she was reading about their task she couldn't help herself but frown.
This was so pointless and to be completely honest, really ridiculous. She should pretend to see something... But she knew that was impossible. She found herself wondering if anyone actually can see the future.

"Whatever you want. Maybe hand reading? Though I know it is pointless, I had never seen anything but skin." She shrugged and reach her hand for him gesturing to him to give her his hand so she can try to see something.

"So, while we are here together, how have you been lately?" Charlotte wasn't sure if in this world conversations start on the same way like with her Muggle friends but she could at least try.
She wanted to talk about something, anything to be honest because she realized that was the only way to survive this class without falling asleep or something like that.

She wondered why is he here. He definitely didn't look like someone who found divination interesting. Maybe he was for the same reason like her, to calm himself a little bit far away from others. If this class wasn't all about lies from the students who pretends to actually see things, the class would actually be pretty interesting but for now, it was just pathetic.

He'd kind of hoped she'd want to do palm reading first so they could get it out of the way, so he was relieved when she said they could do that. The only problem now was the fact he had to let her take a hold of his hand to do the reading.

He nearly groaned at the thought.

Evander had a thing about letting people touch him for extending periods of time. He didn't know why exactly it was a thing, but he definitely hated it. He'd learned to suck it up, most of the time, but that didn't mean he didn't mentally freak out about it every time it happened. That was why he hated palm reading. He looked at Charlotte's extended hand for a few seconds and nodded before swallowing and holding his hand out to her somewhat timidly.

Charlotte probably didn't know that about him.

She asked him how he'd been doing lately and a myriad of thoughts flooded his mind. He had no clue where to start, but he didn't want to make her uncomfortable by venting too much, so he decided on, "Well, I could be better. But I'm hanging in there." If she became interested and wanted to know more, then he'd tell her, but if she just moved on from the topic then he'd know he'd made a good decision in not immediately telling her anything.

It wasn't that he didn't trust Charlotte, oh no, it was that he didn't trust himself.

"How about you?"

Charlotte carefully grabbed his hand and decided to try to she really see something. She frowned while she was trying to concentrate but all she was able to see was skin. Nothing more.

But teacher decided to came to them in that moment and she knew she would fail if she didn't come with something.

"Oh, I see" she started with fake voice trying to sound excited.
"Something very good will happen to you in next three days. Something you wished for a long time will become true, you just need to be patient a little more" professor left their table, without even trying to hide the proud and Charlotte started breathing again.

"You know, I can be really good listener, if you want to share your problems with me, I will listen," she said honestly and reached her hand so he can start reading, or whatever he felt would work.

Judging from her expressions, and the tone of voice, Charlotte had seemingly panicked and came up with something on the fly. He knew that, and yet found himself hopeful in the reading she had just given him. He felt a sharp pang in his chest afterwards, but only winced as the professor walked away from their table.

"Seems like she believed it." He said, watching the professor's figure stop at another table. His expression had gone back to normal, though he still felt weird.

He had started reaching out for her hand when her words clicked in his head. Hand stopping short of hers, Evander glanced up at her. "I don't think you'd want to deal with the problems of a teenage boy." He answered, lowering his gaze. After hesitating for a little more, he took her hand in his and looked st her palm.

He'd never thought of himself as being good at Divination, but he saw something for once.

"It looks like you're.. battling with something. I can't tell what. But it'll be okay, you'll break through and when you do, something you've been waiting for will happen." He blinked, that was it? He let go of her hand.

"Okay, um. Should we move on?"

(I am so so so sorry it took me this long to post. I guess I kinda forgot that I didn't post. Sorry again.)


"I know, right?" Charlotte smiled and shook her head.
She knew professor would believe because all seers seem to want to hear something dramatic. They didn't want the truth, they just want something big.
"She doesn't actually care, you know? She just wants to hear something big and dramatic and she will believe in that. That is like when you can see things" she smiled and looked at Evander.

"You know, I am the teenager as well. Just in case you forgot" she looked at him and smiled.
"It's okay if you don't want to tell me," she said once when he started looking at her palm.
"But I am here if you want someone to listen," she said honestly. It was the really strange thing, she was actually nice toward somebody.
But Evander is nice. He always was. He was nice even when she was known as the hater and in the time when everybody moved away from her and refused to look at her.

"Wait, you just came out with that or you actually saw it?" She looked at him a little bit shocked. How could he know she was struggling with something? She didn't say that to him. She didn't say to anyone.

"Okay, what is next?" she asked still a little bit confused about what just happened.