𝑵𝑶 𝑯𝑨𝑳𝑶 .

          “ barely, ” she jokes, basking in the rush of appreciation she feels at the other girl’s praise. “ that, and a combination of very good time management skills and having only one friend to share my time with. ”

         milli has a love hate relationship with the surge of excitement she feels at alecto’s obvious disdain for her. on one hand, she isn’t the carrow sister’s biggest fan either. on the other, millicent doesn’t deal well with being disliked in general. “ for a moment, i thought you were referencing me, “ she notes, ” but then, i really hope that even alecto carrow couldn’t be so disgustingly cliché. ”

          being generally kind and charming was a pillar of millicent’s personality. she had the occasional slip, as anybody who was a human being was wont to have —- but her distaste for alecto carrow superseded her default setting when the redhead was around. “ here to terrorize the village people like a witch in a 17th century muggle’s nightmare? ” she prods at the other girl’s temper at the first glimpse of red hair and slytherin colours, conducting business as usual. millicent didn’t trust her as far as she could throw her —- and she couldn’t throw anything very far at all. 

          if she wasn’t chatting up a storm in any available corner of the castle, millicent was studying. if she could patent and sell the perfect balance between a social life and academics, she’d have ten gringotts vaults full of galleons. as it was, she was alone in her scheduled perfection —- and it just so happened that she was mid-break when none other than her former flame rita skeeter entered the room. “ you avoiding me or something, rita? haven’t seen you around in a bit. ” her tone is saccharine sweet, but the words are tinged with the bitterness only someone who’d been dumped could achieve. 

          locking her ankles together behind him, millicent loops her arms around his neck loosely —- all the while smiling at him like a proud parent. she doesn’t pay any attention to quidditch unless her friends are on the pitch, and even when they are —- she’s too busy screaming to actually follow the game. but millicent bagnold is nothing if not known for scraping together a good last-minute victory celebration, which was in turn her favourite part of the quidditch season. “ it’s the most wonderful time of the year, em. quidditch party season. ” her eyes widened as she remembered the scouts, inhaling slightly. “ hey —- did you get any offers? just as a testament to your well-roundedness. i know you’re not going pro. you’re going to the ministry with yours truly. ”

          “ you can’t. ” millicent quips in a matter-of-fact tone, leaning up against the corridor wall opposite him. her least favourite time for prefect rounds was night —- it turned out that at hogwarts, crime did sleep. normally, she’d find a bench and break out her divination homework, but stumbling upon a pondering vincent goyle was a million times more fun. 

          pretending that she hasn’t just been scanning the crowd for emmett’s face throughout the duration of the party so far has proven harder than millicent had initially thought, the difficulty level only increasing as she accepts shot after shot as they're passed to her. they’re celebrating a huge win, after all. “ emmett! ” she shoots up from her seat at first sight of his head above the crowd, making her way towards him through her fellow students with elbows pointed outwards. all but launching herself at him per a spider monkey, she grasps onto his biceps with a death grip. “ big win. ” she notes quickly, beaming up at him with a grin of gargantuan proportions. 

          as of late, running into madeline had become less and less dreadful to milli. catching her in the crowd after the quidditch match was a happy coincidence, not the opportunity for discord that she would have seen it as weeks ago. “ i’m throwing a party, ” she starts, “ in the ravenclaw common room. everybody’s welcome, despite all that —- ” she gestures back at the pitch loosely, waving her fingers in the air —- referring to the loss slytherin had just suffered to her own house. 

          millicent cuts her way through the throngs of students making their way out of the great hall post-feast with an air of determination, hoping to catch narcissa sans any slytherin cohorts. plopping herself down beside the blonde with a quiet huff, she smiles in earnest. “ we need to have a chat. ”

resting her chin in the palm of her hand, millicent keeps the digits of her other hand wrapped around her mug of tea. the heat seeps through the ceramic and into her skin, almost too hot –– but not quite. “ i figure it’s good to know the bad words. that way you know when somebody’s trying to secretly slander you to your face. ” she chuckles once, joining madeline in laughter if only for a second. “ she’s patient with me, and that’s more than i can ask from any one person. ” she shrugs, smile still touching her lips. taking another sip of her gifted brew, she nods slightly. “ it’s different. i don’t think i’ve ever had a tea so ––– dessert-y. ”

milli bagnold was a notorious flirt. she flirted with girls, she flirted with boys –– she flirted with professors if someone wasn’t around to tell her she was doing it. she hardly noticed when her eyes began to bat, when her words went from average fare to candied and full of expectation. flirting on command would be no feat for her, not at all. “ i mean, i should hope he has more tact than that. i like a little bit of conversation, at least. otherwise there’s no way to gauge compatibility. ” 

millicent’s embarrassment over mispronunciations and grammatical fumbles had long faded since she began attempts to learn her mother tongue. ellie was a patient tutor, slowing her speech so that milli’s brain has the time to buffer, switching the words over. she half-heartedly cursed her parents for moving from paris to london while she wasn’t yet speaking, imagining how much simpler it would’ve been to be bilingual if she’d been had the opportunity to learn while she was young. “ lose, and our housemates’ll be analyzing your every mistake for weeks, ” she quips, “ unless you want your strategic mind and your athletic prowess questioned, i’d recommend kicking their arses. ” there was a time when she’d hardly understood enough to reply to ellie’s français en englais, but things seemed to get smoother the more the two girls practiced. “ thanks to you. ” she nods, grinning at ellie in her trademark millicent way. 

milli felt as if she was sitting across from a deer, as if one of her normally over-exaggerated movements or massive smiles would send madeline sprinting in the opposite direction. it’s warranted, the other girl’s hesitation –– but it’s a feeling that sends millicent’s stomach sinking like a rock. “ sometimes i think she only drank it because she knew i’d ask for some. and i’ve always needed a bit of calming down. ” there’s no way the reference to her loud mouth and unrelenting ambition would go over madeline’s head, considering she’d witnessed it first hand the last time they’d spoke. “ i’m rusty, but i’m learning a lot from ellie allaire. ” wrapping both of her hands around the mug, she brings it up to her mouth, blowing on it slightly before she takes a sip. 

an uncharacteristically reasonably sized smile slips onto millicent’s lips at madeline’s offer, controlled and far less manic than her usual fare. she’s relieved that madeline could find it within herself to accept her apology, especially when she considered that she herself might not have been able to do the same had roles been reversed. “ my mum drinks chamomile tea, ” she sinks onto the seat across from madeline slowly. “ she’ll only drink one brand, though. she brings tons back from paris after she visits my grandmère. ” tracing a scratch in the tabletop with the tip of her finger, she nods ever so slightly. “ but that smells great, so. i’d love to have some. ”

" i was checking to see if you were still alive. ” millicent plops herself down in the seat across from him, leaning over on her elbows to inspect his collection of parchment and books. millicent’s schedule was an intricate balance of assignments, prefect duties, and an overactive social life –– she walked a thin line, but somehow it worked for her. the phenomenon was inexplicable, but she was grateful for her legendary time management skills either way.  “ drowning in professor binns’s steep academic expectations? ” she raises an eyebrow at him in questioning, one corner of her mouth quirking upwards. 

it was odd, feeling so at ease with someone like bellatrix black. millicent was solid in her beliefs, and she’d heard that bellatrix was solid in hers ––– though they were opposite to millicent’s values. even so, she gets up to follow after her, the easy smile on bellatrix’s face inviting. “ this is exciting. ” she quips, grin wide on her face. did she particularly care about the outcome of their escapade? not really. but the act is thrilling in itself.