—my lover's strange

TOWARDS HER. the only direction he once thought he’d knew. does he remember about how it felt, being fourteen? no. he remembers how it feels, when mary forgives him and can’t seem to focus on the pain but on the possible pleasure that emmeline’s forgiveness would be. her only letter tastes like it. meet me, it says. come back to me, it whispers, like she’s the shore and he’s the ocean. he would be lying once more if he said he hasn’t wondered about why the blankets. ---- what about food? em always chooses the best flavours. there’s a smile hiding on his features when he crosses the astronomy tower’s door’s arch. even a giggle, when he sees her, freezing, staring at the stars. she seems pissed off, because he’s somehow late. it takes him a lot to put himself in the way, even though it is something he really would love to do. nobody but them to notice how his hands, once he’s murdered the distance between them, gently touch her shoulders with a blanket to cover her. “ --- one is never late, the rest is simply earlier, my grandmother used to say. ” the boy sits next to her and all his confidence runs dry. he suddenly looks so scared that all he’s dreamt of this is a lie he’s written for himself. “ i got your letter. ” a voice inside him is asking him to tell the truth, part of him is telling him to follow its lead and the other part just thought about something that could work: “ food convinced me ” be the boy she thinks you are.

“You... want to hear about my problems?” Looking at him in curiosity, confusion and mild surprise, Charlie studied him for a moment before she shook her head. “It’s nothing, just… just drama.” Turning back to the book, she pushed her hair behind her ear and tried to focus. “Okay, so um.. What is it that you’re having trouble with and I’ll.. I’ll do my best.” It seemed like he was actually trying to be her friends, and that weird. So far past weird. But she couldn’t bring herself to turn him away, or be mean. It wouldn’t help anything or make her feel any better. 

a familiar voice reached her ears, causing her to look over her shoulder. mulciber. it had definitely been a while, hadn’t it? one must try rather hard to avoid someone for so long, though emmeline had managed it without a problem. ‘ it’s- i can do nothing. ’ a confused look on her blood-drained face as she did not know what to worry about at the time; the violently bubbling potion or him. she turned back to the working table to avoid his eyes and started trowing random things in the cauldron, which eventually led to a bigger disaster. ‘ oh, DAMMIT. ’ she swore, colapsing on the closest chair.

“Yeah… I don’t know..” She had just assumed he’d be good at potions as much as he was at Defence against the dark arts, maybe it was because she herself know how deadly poisons were made through potions. Though she didn’t fear him outside of her body’s now natural response to him, and she did pity him, she still knew what he was capable of. Lifting her eyes from her book at the sound of excitement in his voice, Charlie lifted her eyes to him and managed a soft smile before she nodded and slid the container of cookies toward him. Even baking hadn’t made her feel better. “They’re still warm, help yourself.”

“don’t look at me, i did not do that!” emmeline states, her tone defensive. the potion which had been brewing in the cauldron that they shared had started bubbling up violently, leaking it’s contents all over their working table. “just- how does it stop?”

“Oh yeah, that so believable! That’s a perfectly good reason to lie, isn’t it?”

sirius was surprised that mulciber was being somewhat civil with him, considering they were usually at each other’s throats whenever they conversed. “oh, i’m absolutely hilarious.”

“You need my help?” Charlie looked at him in confusion, studying him for a long moment before she finally decided that maybe the distraction would be nice. “I didn’t know you had trouble with potions…” Waving him to join her at the table, she couldn’t help the wariness behind her eyes, though she had little fear of anything happening. He almost seemed meek around her, which was a strange sort of feeling. “I um… I’m a little distracted, I’m sorry..”

Glancing back at Ewan with a puzzled expression, Evan wasn’t entirely sure what the plan was or even if there was a plan. Was it a case of stun and try and gather as much information as possibly, or simply to stare the person. 

“ how much do you plan on admiring my beauty, princess? ” ewan rolled his eyes, violent. “ just fucking move. i’ll deal with this. save your ass. go. ”

“Alright, alright! Hang on…” Evan patted down his pockets until he located his wand. “Lets go then.”

“ move, let’s go. ” mulciber followed him, slowly. he eyed the traitor before walking behind the guy.

“Is he, now?” asked the girl with too much confidence, “Because I don’t see anyone. But even if he was, why do you care?”

Quentin smiled innocently. His hand curled away from the other student. He hadn’t actually touched the other student, though he had gotten very close. “How odd.” His attention turned toward Mulciber, forgetting his previous argument. That didn’t interest him in the least anymore. He cocked his head to observe the Slytherin properly. “I didn’t realize you cared about anything let alone a perfectly tame debate between me and…” The other student had left while his attention was turned. Quentin rolled his eyes. “Whatever.”

“ i don’t, i just don’t want him finding me around trouble again today. he’s about to kick my ass out of here. ” mulciber walked past him, eyeing the other student before quentin. ---- did he? care, i mean. “ ---- whatever.” he imitated.