No. Why did he keep talking? Hadley had told him to go back to class, she’d started to back up a few steps, and she’d been about to turn her back on Joel and then this whole nightmare would be over and they’d never have to talk about it again. That had been her plan, but he refused to follow along and when he started after her, her blue eyes rounded out with alarm.

“What’s stupid about it?”

Hadley almost was able to hold back the distressed squeak of alarm when she turned around. She didn’t offer him another answer, because frankly she’d been done talking and now had no more words left to explain how idiotic she’d been for even explaining this him. So she started to walk a little faster, just a touch, and at least when she didn’t have to look at him, she could start to pretend that the Watkins boy wasn’t just behind her.

“So your friends did the maths and say we’re meant to be. Meant to be what? Maybe we’re meant to do maths together forever. That would be a tragedy, yeah? You might see me cry if we end up like that, drowning in eternal numerology.”

The fourth year did not want to hear this anymore. Her cheeks were already flaming to life again with embarrassment, and the little know-it-all in her wanted to tell him that wasn’t how these things went. Sure, they had friendship numbers, but they had love and future numbers too. Joel couldn’t know that what was predicted was so much more than eternal numerology.

“That’s not how it works.” Oh, Merlin. The words left her mouth before she could stop them. Why?! Why did she correct him?! Hadley could never close her mouth when she needed it to be, and since she couldn’t she did the next best thing, which was of course to break into another run. She wasn’t far from the girl’s loo; she could make it there, maybe, before he could catch up with her. And that was her fervent hope as the stones started to wiz by her as fast as the student’s had in her Charms class and she held her fingers over her lips. The only time she took her hands away from her mouth was when she had to push the door open to rush inside, jogging down the row of stalls until she came to the end and could push it's door closed to lock it.