killing all my insides

Augustus had been studying, pouring over his books and notes as he prepared for his Defense Against the Dark Arts exam when one especially angry George Belby confronted him. The Belby boy was angry that Augustus had allegedy slept with his girlfriend (which Augustus would neither confirm nor deny) and before Augustus could lift either his wand or a hand, Belby had popped him across the face. Augustus had been left reeling and Belby had quickly disappeared (perhaps the first intelligent thing he had done all day). 

“Fuck,” Augustus mumbled, fumbling with a borrowed dittany that he had gotten from Slughorn just a few minutes earlier. 

He heard her voice before he actually saw her and he rolled his eyes as she approached. Beatrice Ollivander. Of course. Usually, Augustus would have been more than pleased to see her, but now? When she grasped his face, he turned his head quickly, but he didn’t pull away. Not yet. “Or maybe things just got a little kinkier than usual,” he retorted.

“bullshit,” beatrice stated with finality. augustus was her...friend (?) but she knew his moral failings. he’d done something and someone retaliated. and rightfully so, if she were to guess. she stared up at him, a moment too long, her eyes tracing the marks that littered his handsome face. slowly, her fingers slid down his cheeks as her grip relaxed and her arm dropped to her side. she was silent for a long moment, seemingly assessing the damage before snatching the bottle of dittany from his grip and walked straight past him.

“come along, rookwood,” she ordered in an uncharacteristically velvety tone as she led him to the slytherin common room. 

The sound of Beatrice’s heels was deafening in the now silent aftermath of her meltdown. “Pardon me, Ollivander, but I certainly don’t need your judgement right now.” Alina turned around again, combing her hands through her hair in an attempt to calm herself down, but probably making it look worse.

“oh, honestly,” beatrice huffed and turned on her heel to double back and close the door behind her, “you can be so sensitive sometimes.” she pointed out, as if the wrecked classroom weren’t evidence enough. “no one is judging anybody, my dear. i’m simply trying to prevent you from gaining any more onlookers. i doubt having other students coming and investigating what all the noise is would help whatever is bothering you, now would it?”

“augustus rookwood, with a black eye!” the prospect of the man finally getting what was coming filled beatrice with delight. reaching up, she took his face in her hand and squeezed until his lips jutted out like some silly fish. “and some scratches, it would seem! the talons of a scorned lover, perhaps?”

“phineas,” her voice snapped like a whip as her claws sunk into his shoulder, approaching like a storm from behind. “i hardly heard from you at all over break! where the hell have you been?!” irritation, thinly veiling the fact that she had clearly missed her friend.

{ @finestra-starters​ }

After the terse dinner with her parents over the holidays, and the constant reprimands that she wasn’t doing anything to help her cause in being betrothed, Alina was happy to be back at Hogwarts. Then she got the letter. The letter from her mother detailing everything she thought her daughter was doing wrong and everything about her that was wrong–things she couldn’t fix. Writing in her journal wouldn’t help this time, she knew. Once she was proven right, she wandered the halls, eventually finding an abandoned class room. As soon as she was alone, she let her anger lose, using magic to break chairs and send papers flying as she released everything that she’d been pushing down for weeks. She spun, searching for something else to break when she saw that the door was wide open, a figure back-lit by the lanterns in the hallway. “What,” she snapped, too deep in her anger to worry about propriety.

beatrice took a step deeper into the room, heels clicking against the cold stone floor, echoing off the walls. the room suddenly seemed all too quiet in the absence of the ruckus alina was causing. crossing her arms, beatrice kept a safe distance, never comfortable putting herself in harm’s way - even if harm was a misplaced hair. “alina, darling, i could hear you in the next corridor. you really are causing quite a stir.”

@finestra-starters​

tilden was sitting outside of the three broomsticks, sipping on a hot chocolate he had bought. school was about to start back and he was trying to enjoy the last few days before going back. “that sounds like an amazing idea. please tell me more.” he said, looking up at the person who had been speaking to him. 

“i was saying,” beatrice continued, “it’s outrageous that hogwarts has extended the way it has. i say we should have been out in the real world after eighth year and whatever happens, happens. i’m wasting away in the castle,” beatrice all but muttered, a light pout on her face. truth be told, all she wanted was to be at the ministry, fulfilling her duty in furthering the death eater and purist agenda. hogwarts was a prison.

“Why is it so necessary to pick someone to kiss at midnight?” Otto asked with a small frown as he picked up a glass of champagne. “Can’t everyone just stand around awkwardly as the earth finishes orbiting the sun? It’s so much more fun that way.” He added, sarcasm seeping through his words. @finestra-starters​

“spoken like a truly lonely sod, really,” beatrice stated, turning to look the boy up and down, briefly. she had seen him around hogwarts often enough but she assumed he must have been in a different year as she couldn’t particularly recall speaking with him. however, apparently, there were plenty of people she had, in fact, spoken with that she simply never bothered committing to memory. “it’s tradition. some traditions are best adhered to...if one is capable, that is.”

He wondered if he should go back to Hogwarts for now, he wasn’t supposed to meet Narcissa for another hour or so after all, and as much as it seemed like the village was fun at this time of the year, Stefan wasn’t up for it, not really. He had too many thoughts plaguing his mind and it didn’t seem like anything could distract him – except perhaps alcohol but he didn’t want to get drunk. Well, not just yet. Just as he considered walking back to the castle, a voice broke through his thoughts and brought him back to reality – he turned to her, his eyebrows raising at her question. “It depends. What kind of services are you offering exactly?” he said teasingly, a smirk playing on his lips. 

“oh,” she almost hummed as she stood to her feet, a little smile tugging at her lips, “i have so much to offer you. but we’ll save that for later, shall we?” a cheeky little wink punctuated her sentence and she hoped she’d have an easy job ahead of her. “in the meantime, stefan, you can keep me company in this dreadful place. clearly, you’ve nothing better to do.”

Gideon was in a world of his own as he wandered Hogsmeade, looking for Charlie or Ted. How he’d misplaced both of his friends, he would never know. Believing he’d seen on of them, he paused in his tracks - not realising he was blocking someone’s sun. Hearing a bitter tone, Gideon quirked one brow as he turned towards the other. “No, but if I’m irritating you by standing here I might stand here just a little longer since you used such a pleasant tone to speak to me.”

beatrice glared upwards and seemed to contemplate for a moment before standing gracefully from the bench, smoothing her emerald green, wool coat out as she did so - her appearance was always pristine. though the man towered over her, beatrice stood with her shoulders squared, chin upwards, the picture of self-assuredness. 

“i have always been told i have the dulcet tones of a siren, how’d you know, gideon?” not quite. her father had told her on several occasions she’d be any man’s nightmare, though. similar enough, right? she’d grown up in school with gideon but she could count the times they’d interacted on their own on one hand. a family belonging to the sacred twenty-eight but one would never guess based on how their carried themselves.

Eden had no logical way of telling her friend that no, there wouldn’t be enough stimulants in her system. But she was beginning to feel quite mellow, a not entirely unwelcome feeling for someone like Eden. So with a sigh, she allowed herself to be led by Beatrice. “What brought you out all this way, anyway, Bea? Shouldn’t you be at home being a dutiful daughter?”

it was a fair point. beatrice didn’t often dare to slum it in hogsmeade, but she was making a special exception to her rule. “merlin, have you been talking to my father? dutiful daughter...since when?” she laughed. “something told me you would be here with all the rabble. all the noise and excitement, of course you’d be here. and i wanted to see you.”

Augustus chuckled, looking down at where the crowds became thicker– mostly to be sure that Josie wasn’t coming over at that moment. Something told him that a meeting between Beatrice and Josie would not be good for him. “I never took you for a liar, Ollivander. Surely if you really didn’t want to be seen, you wouldn’t have come all this way.”

“rather be a liar then an incorrigible womanizer, rookwood,” she quipped, glancing down to smooth out her coat. biting words, delivered with a pleasant smile, ever the aspiring politician. her blue eyes followed his gaze for a moment before turning her focus to his face. augustus’ face always had a funny way of irritating beatrice, almost angering her. why, she couldn’t quite put her finger on. “looking for josie? it would be wise of you to go converse with her instead. but you never were that smart, were you, augustus?”