Terry had been up in his dormitory finishing up homework after a long, stressful day. He had purposely postponed Arithmancy until he could get with Susan again over the weekend. He was not going to try to handle the homework alone again until he was certain everything was second nature again. Instead, he worked on Charms research for class and for the DA. He still had some charms to bring to Ginny and Neville, but they had to be tested first. He also had to plan how to get his time with Padma. But Michael whining about him staying in bed for too long after dinner and it was slowly starting to poke holes in his defensive silence.
He watched a group of girls push past as he went through the small walkway to the main part of the common room. The boy was not in the mood to deal with the smaller children but he spotted someone he did not mind talking to laying on the couch. He walked over slowly and put his arms on the back of the couch and bent over to rest his head on his hand.
“Hey, dear,” Terry responded when the girl turned her head. “Whatcha reading?”