Gladys Gudgeon

“Verdammt. Scheiße. I need to get laid.” she sighed, rubbing her hands across her face. She sat up, stretching out her back as she cracked her fingers, hissing just slightly as the fresh cuts across her knuckles split once more. Her stress levels were not good and she had found herself punching the wall the night before to de-stress. She only had a month left, but with the ultimatum hanging over her head from her father, she wished she had longer to brush up on her lessons. 

Gladys hadn’t meant to be eavesdropping, but it was what it was at this point. “Don’t look at me for that sort of stress relief,” she teased lightly before turning a shade of pink, “Sorry. That was a terrible response. I was trying to make a joke, but you’re clearly under actual stress and me making horribly rude jokes is not helping.”

“What, you don’t trust me?” she said as she climbed up onto the tree branch. After swinging her legs over it, knees bent to hold her there, she let go with her hands, now hanging from the branch and swinging back and forth. Looking towards her ‘nay-sayer’, face nearly to their eye level, Dorcas was proud to say, “told you! I’m a brilliant tree-climber!”

“It’s not that I don’t believe you!” Gladys gasped, reaching out her hands as if she would be able to keep Dorcas from falling should that become the situation. A slight whining noise emitted from the back of her throat, but calmed as it seemed that Dorcas was secure. “As long as you don’t fall and break your skull,” she sighed, “There are wounds that skelegro cannot fix.”

“If you look at that book any harder, you’re going to burn holes through the pages. Look, I’ve brought you coffee and cauldron cakes. You should eat.” he said, taking a seat beside them and pushing over the treats. 

“I’m not hungry,” Gladys grumbled without looking up at all. She was so focused on her OWLs that she was hardly breathing. The pile of books beside her put her behind an impenetrable fortress of parchment and binding.

It was reassuring to hear it. To have someone not look down on him for not being ‘brave’ or ‘masculine’. He detested violence, it made him physically sick and confrontational situations were the type of things that made Caradoc genuinely unwell. “All it does is lower you to their level. It never solves anything and only leads to more pain. Why intentionally put yourself in that situation?” he asked, letting out an exasperated sigh. He cast a look down at the piece of paper once more. “Okay, you pick a question.” he said, wanting to move forward. 

She smiled softly at his continued explanation, feeling more and more confident about her brother’s choice to befriend Caradoc. At the end of the day, she looked up to him. When he brought back up the paper, she seemed to snap back into reality, fumbling to get words out before she focused singly on the paper - using it as an excuse not to look up at him. “Oh, um, yeah, um, if, um, if you never had to sleep what - er sleep again - what would you do with all that time?” she stumbled through, as if she couldn’t break herself from the fog she had been in before.

Bella wrinkled her nose. She felt that regardless of the point, she didn’t like being told what do to. She tried to focus on moving on with her conversation. “Well once you get through your NEWTs, your OWLs will be long forgotten.” Bellatrix sighed. “You should really do more with your life than study.” Although Bella herself made her life a duality by studying on the sly and socializing when she wanted. “I mean isn’t there more substance to you?”

Gladys nodded gravely, understanding how it could definitely get way worse come seventh year. With her desire to be a curse breaker, she knew her marks were highly important. Sometimes they were so important, it came at a detriment to her health and sanity. The question hit her hard. Was there? “I, um, spend a lot of time with my family,” she started to say, tying to defend herself, “And friends. It’s just...with exams right around the corner...”

He shrugged, letting out a chuckle. “I’m never one to beat around the bush….” he commented, before shutting himself up to listen to her answer. Although he couldn’t help but be a little disappointed at her somewhat square cut reply. He thought it was something to get to know people better, not just generalisation. “Okay- Rowena would be turning in her grave at such a boring answer.” he said, grinning. “For my answer….the one thing people misunderstand about me….they misunderstand the way I was raised. People look at me and just see some hippie, some lost little boy who would rather play with flowers than join in with the usual things such as partying and sport. It’s true I was raised in a hippie commune, that is correct. But we don’t just sit and talk to the plants or get high. It’s about reconnecting with nature and what God blessed us with. It’s about doing our part to take care of the world which people take for granted. It’s about fighting for a cause, to make a change to a world before it’s too late. People don’t realise the beauty that surrounds them, how lucky they are to have such a thing at their feet. People think I’m thick because I never went to school before this- but I learnt a lot more about life and was able to find and understand myself long before others. I’m not stupid or naive. I’m sensitive, yes, but I know the world and I know what’s in it and all I want to do is do my part. It doesn’t mean I’m weak either that I refrain from violence. I just prefer to fight for a cause peacefully without resorting to such evilness. Violence solves nothing.” he said, not realising just how strong his voice had gotten defending himself. “Sorry- that went on longer than I planned, sorry.”

Gladys smiled at him endearingly, liking that about him. In her eyes, he didn’t posture. Caradoc was exactly who he was with no reason to apologize for it. Her cheeks flushed once more at his teasing about her answer. It was a complete cop out and she knew it, but she was more embarrassed to be judged for her real answer - to the answer she didn’t voice to anyone. As he went on his lengthy explanation, Gladys could only let her face turn to one of sympathy and understanding. Even though she was supposed to be writing this down, she was too enthralled with his response to actually take quill to parchment. It sounded beautiful and so comfortable. “I don’t think you’re weak for refraining from violence. Anyone can lash out. It takes character to restrain yourself,” she assured him, her hand twitching to reach out and touch him, but sitting in her lap instead.

He took the piece of paper, looking down at the questions with a furrowed brow. After a few seconds of deliberation he pointed to one. “Here. Number four- What is the one thing people misunderstand about you? And I’m going to let you answer first because it’s only fair ladies go first.” he said, cheekily, somewhat reminiscent of his usual charm. 

Gladys immediately blushed at the question and from the way his voice changed when he asked it - like he had a little secret. Immediately, she wondered if he knew something - some way he would expect her to answer. “Just diving straight in,” she laughed nervously, swallowing to buy herself some time, “I... oh, golly.” She dropped her jaw in a bit of a surprised, but amused way, letting out air instead of an answer. “I suppose it would be comparing me to Galvin and Davey. I’m not exactly the athletic and outgoing prankster they have reputations for being,” she admitted, going for a bit of a cop-out response instead of letting out too much at once.

“Well if you’re sure….I won’t press it. How about you just take it as the compliment it is. Someone in this school likes you, ,maybe someone you don’t know or maybe someone right underneath your nose. Thank you for keeping me loyal to my programme. I’ve already had too many second chances, McGonagall is looking for any excuse to shut me down for good.” she said, letting out a laugh.

“Of course. I will,” she lied, purposefully keeping her response short so the lie wouldn’t be as easy to spot. The longer she talked, the more chances she had to show her true thoughts. Gladys laughed in agreement, working to keep her nerves down. “I could imagine Professor McGonagall doing so, especially how she is with tomfoolery. Probably labels it as uneducational, even though the arts are very important. Plus, it’s a way to bring us together and they’re always pushing unity, right?” she insisted. 

“Well, this conversation is a waste, at least if I walk away with a purpose I won’t be so annoyed.” That was a lie. Bella was going to be annoyed regardless. She’d just wanted to go back to her dorm and ignore the other witches around her. “Snacking and studying?” Bellatrix rolled her eyes. “What a thrilling evening.”

“If you needed a purpose, you could point me in the direction of Bathsehda, but someone tells me a woman like you gets up every morning with a clear purpose in mind. You don’t need someone to give you one,” she complimented sincerely, but also a little thicker than needed in the hopes that Bellatrix wouldn’t squash her into the floor. “I would have to agree with you on that one, but passing OWLs will make it worth it...”

Glenda didn’t believe it for a second. She was used to seeing past bullshit, to knowing when someone was bare faced lying. But she didn’t know why Glady’s would feel the need to lie. But instead sour the conversation, she contributed her own forced chuckle. “Ah, yes it would be definitely up your brothers aisle to play a prank on you- however, I think even siblings have a line to cross or not cross somewhen. Listen, I honestly think it was genuine and if you want, I’ll see if I can do some digging for you?” 

“I think they’d be more likely to send something embarrassing - related back to a childhood memory,” she agreed, keeping the conversation light and airy, “It’s not that big of a deal. I mean, after all, part of the show is the anonymity. It would be wrong of me to try to break that. People might quit sending in and I would never want to be the murderer of great music.”

“Why on earth would you think it a joke?” she asked, confused. She couldn’t understand why she’d think that way, why she couldn’t see how attractive she was to people. If she was older and if Glenda didn’t treat her like a younger sister, she was certain she’d admire with no issue. 

There it was. The acknowledgement and questioning of Gladys’s self-confidence. The fact was, all that she pretended to have was faked and she desperately needed everyone to believe it was real. Therefore, she had to backtrack and fast. “Oh, you know. I have lots of people who would do something silly like that,” she waved off, throwing in a nonchalant laugh, “My brothers. Their friends. My friends. You know. Just pulling my leg.”

He still felt he had gone over the line, he could only imagine what Galvin would do if he figured out just how deep his feelings ran for his best friends sister. He let out another nervous chuckle, rubbing the back of his head as they fell into step and headed further down the corridor. “Well we don’t have to rush it, I’m certain Dumbledore will know if we cut corners. Do you have a copy of them? I left mine somewhere.” 

She gave a soft smile in response, a little twitchy about the whole situation. It was unfair that they were paired together, given their current awkward predicament. The scene was playing out like a bad movie where the audience knew far more than the people on the screen. “Oh, um, yeah,” she snapped back into reality, grabbing into her bag and presenting him with the paper, “Which question do you want to start with? Any easy answers pop out?”

Ah. She should’ve of seen that one coming. She;d walked herself right into it. She held out a hand, lightly placing it on Glady’s arm before linking them together. “You know I can’t tell you that…..it wasn’t bad was it? The Beatles are amazing and the message was really sweet. Besides, even if I could tell you- that one was left literally anonymous. There was nothing hinting who it was from so I guess we’ll never know. Whoever they were though, they clearly like you. You should feel good about that.” she advised. 

She sighed. Of course she wouldn’t be getting any answers. It was so wrong o her to even put Glenda in that position. “Of course, of course,” she quickly agreed, feeling guilty for going there in the fist place, “No, I just... I was more wondering if it was a joke or something. Not trying to find some sot of nonexistent secret admirer.” 

A lot more than you probably think’ he thought to himself. He let out a somewhat nervous chuckle. “There is nothing wrong with knowing that you have a dark blue duvet ingrained with silver patterns- except in winter it’s a swirly grey and black pattern.” he commented as casually as he could. So maybe that was a bit too much? He couldn’t help it though, being back around her was making him lose his head once more. “So uh, yeah questions. Let’s go find somewhere more comfortable. Sooner it’s over, sooner we can get back to our lives.” he said, trying to divert the subject

She flushed. He knew way too much about her. There was absolutely no mystery, it felt like. No wonder he was so turned off by her. She was boring. “Don’t make me sound too predictable,” she laughed lightly, trying to take it all at face value. Gladys began nodding over eagerly, stepping forward to fall in line with him. “Right. Back to our lives. I promise to keep my answers brief,” she replied with a bit of bitterness in her tone she was trying desperately to hide.

The last thing she expected was the mention of her show. Everyone knew that she ran it, but she rarely got asked about it. It was either someone complaining about a song or asking her to give their news a shout out. So when Glady’s asked that question specifically, she furrowed her brow as they walked. “Well of course, the majority of them are signed and if they put the request to remain anonymous I keep true to that. But yeah, I know who dedicates what in most aspects. Why? Was there one that bothered you?” she asked, slightly concerned. 

Gladys let out a nervous laugh, playing with a curl in her hair. It took her three times of wrapping it around her finger and unwrapping it before she was willing to speak again. “So, you know who sent the one about me?” she finally asked, cutting her eyes up at Glenda for only a split second before turning her eyes back downward.

“Oh yeah- I kind of had that slip from my mind. Trust Dumbledore to come up with something so harmonious. I swear he lies, he was a Hufflepuff really.” he commented, rolling his eyes somewhat playfully. He had also made himself forget ever since he had learned just who he had been paired with. Was Dumbledore doing it just for laughs? After all, people swore Dumbledore knew everything that was going on in the castle. “I suppose we should get to it, although I feel like I’ve know much about you already.”

He had forgotten. Of course he had. The whole thing was so stupid and why would he possibly want to ask her any of these questions? Her grin turned sheepish as she let out a laugh. “Probably too much about me,” she agreed, her face heating up, “But, um, I’m sure these answers are supposed to look a little more professional than you knowing the color of my duvet cover.”