Poisoned Veins

Detention was just as bad as it always was, nothing too extraordinary and nothing to quite complain about. Though Cassius wasn’t exactly thrilled to be getting detention in first place, but with what he’d done he had no room to complain. He’d basically gotten off scot-free, which he could quite appreciate. 

The halls were quiet and Mulciber found himself wandering them, leaving the dungeons and climbing the stairs and turning corners. Approaching the clock tower Cassius lit a cigarette, rubbing at one of his eyes as he made it to the top balcony. When he found another person standing there, he felt a pang of anger as if his personal space had been invaded. 

“I’m sure I wouldn’t know what you’re talking about, Helena.” he spoke as he moved from the door into the room to lean against one of the balcony railings, “I haven’t done anything worth mentioning as of late.” 

Maybe, just maybe, someone like Cassius would prove himself to be an actual mastermind rather than an occassional dirtbag with a disastrous nature. She’d been nothing but suspicious of him and her entire body and mind were all set on him being one of the suspects and traitors. But not enough evidence was found and too many voices spoke against his involvement, so Dumbledore chose to let him go, at least this time. It was a small defeat, but a defeat nonetheless. Admitting her failure meant a crack in her wall, which guided her from emotions, and yet she felt obligated to do so. Pure-blood men in particular loved those signs of submission or being right. Even though she’d tried numerous times to stop pleasing every pure-blood man she’d meet in her long life, Helena chose to fall into her own role, to feel the weight on her shoulders again, maybe even to keep her feet on the ground, on the reality.

“Your nightly whereabouts? The days I’ve seen you late at night doing Merlin knows what? They remain unexplained, but I won’t continue asking you about that. They’re far too petty now,” Helena shrugged as she turned around completely, her back no pressed against the cold metal. “In a time of war minor incidents are to be expected, just as casualties are. Maybe we’ll find ourselves fighting for the same fight, after all,” she murmured, remembering her brothers last failure at performing one of the easiest spells and her father telling her about it through a letter, claiming he has too much to learn in not enough time. Spoiled and rotten -- that’s all her brother every was, while Helena learned and blossomed. Maybe she’d be used as a weapon, a queen rather than a pawn. But even the possibility of freedom were all clouded by the fact of becoming a supporter of the dark lord herself, just her father. 

“I’m sure you must be proud of yourself -- playing the lion in a world of lambs.”

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Place: Clock Tower Time: 10 PM

The last chime for today and silence awaited her shortly afterwards. The opportunity to be all by herslf, to enjoy her own personal moment of freedom and tranquility. Her muscles relaxed after some time, adjusted to the unusual situation of being under no pressure whatsoever. With every passing minute Helena relaxed more and more to the point where she could easily heart the animals within the forbidden forest, the steps approaching her ----

She turned around and within split seconds her muscles tensed again. “Are you here to celebrate your success? I must admit I’m impressed, Cassius,” she told him.

“Are we friends?” he asks before he can help himself, one eyebrow arched expectantly, an undisguised sneer to his voice. “Of course, my mistake, I assumed you were only using me to your own ends like the rest of this school. I don’t have friends, Helena.” No one gives a damn about me. “Regulus being the sole exception.”

Ruffled, Severus crosses his arms over his chest defensively. A scowl plays at his lips as he takes a second to evaluate her, dark eyes fixed unblinkingly on her face, carefully watching her expression. Finally he looks away with a little frustrated noise.

He shouldn’t have brought it up, there’s too much that could go wrong with this conversation. He needs a cigarette. “Do you mind if I smoke?” Severus asks, flatly, but doesn’t wait for a response before pulling a pack and a muggle lighter out of the pocket of his robes.

A lit cigarette being worried between his nimble fingers, it’s on the first exhale, smoke coiling up from between his lips, that Severus gives her a real answer. “A boy. I’m involved with a boy. As if being half-blood scum wasn’t already disgusting enough.”

Helena tilted her head and immediately pouted ever so slightly. With her poison already a part of his system and her own strings attached to the most talented boy she knew, Helena couldn’t resist but play her game even further to perfection. Yet, that Slytherin boy did something to her, something magnificent. For some time she felt her heart beat in a curious rhythm, the same rhythm she felt close to Evan, Rabastan and Augustus. “You shouldn’t question my friendship like that. I thought you knew I’d do everything in my power to keep you safe. The whole essence of friendship consists of loyalty, helpfulness and kindness, right?” His defensive attitude and body language really made her snap a little, at least in the inside. On the outside she remained calm and, around Severus, lukewarm rather than cold. 

“No, I don’t mind if you stay, either. Just, stay. You helped me and now it’s my turn to help you the best I can. My father taught me one or two things about the minds of men. They’re rather curious and easily excited by the most expensive and useless objects, but--” she stopped as he finally answered her question even in the slightest. A boy -- a boy?! “In that case,” she started, her body tense already. “Don’t say such a thing, you sound like my father,” not like most of Hogwarts actually sounded like him -- paranoid much?

She slowly approached him, but kept her hands to herself. “Just go for it. If your heart’s telling you to give in to the passion, then by all means go ahead. No one can judge you, especially those who are without love, like me,” she said with a slight smile on her face, both frightened by and proud of the answer.

“Don’t,” Helena protested, her legs already moving her closer towards her target, the one and only Narcissa Black. With new rules and dangers surrounding them, Helena searched for every Slytherin student herself, to guide them towards the (probably) safe common room. “Don’t walk alone. Hogwarts not safe, yet.” Her voice was rather sharp, even sharper than usual considering the danger they’d faced just a day ago. Her actions had to be even more precise, more focused on her own classmates rather than those silly Hufflepuff’s, witty Ravenclaw’s or reckless and mostly foolish Gryffindor’s. “Cassius might be in detention, but he’s one of my least worries. I’ve already prompted Lucius to take care of some others and I thought it might be easier if I would search for you myself.” She stood fairly relaxed near a few doors as she explained herself. “I do hope you had no intentions of visiting the boys’ dorm at that hour, love,” Helena smirked.