Cherry Lips // s. black

-DECEMBER. 3.-

"Two and a half," Charlie grumbled, flopping down next to her.

Ace squished a pepper imp she'd already pulled from her bag between her fingers and glared at it. "I don't wanna go back to school."

"We could run away," Carmilla said, staring at the wall.

"And live where?" Ace scoffed, shaking snowflakes from her hair. Neither girl had brought up the events that had taken place at the Christmas ball Slughorn had held, but there was a sort of steadiness that meant they weren't just ignoring it. Or at least that's what Carmilla sensed.

She shrugged. "Mistress Theeny would kill me if I came back early anyway. It'd be a waste of money."

Her pureblood friends with summer homes and tailored robes had the courtesy to not say anything. She took a pepper imp from Ace and sucked on it.

"We'll be okay," Charlie said. "It's only three months until our next holidays. Plus, there's valentine's day too. That's pretty soon, isn't it? We get a few days off for that..."

"A few? ...Like, a week?" Carmilla asked hopefully.

"Dork," Ace muttered. She tapped her fingers on her knee and looked between Charlie and Carmilla, who raised an eyebrow at her. Ace had that thinking look on her face, which could only mean she was about to do something stupid.

Charlie's eyes glazed over. "And they have the best pink tarts for dessert."

"Let's play truth or dare!"

Carmilla narrowed her eyes meaningfully at Ace, but the pink haired girl showed no sign of understanding and sat forward on her puffy flower-patterned armchair. She was far too eager for this. It was not going to end well. 

"Sure."

"Charlie, truth or dare." Ace said confidently. Carmilla felt like this would be a great time to set one of the Christmas trees alight or maybe just blow up the entire pub while she was at it. She really shouldn't have mentioned her Best Friend or not problem.

Charlie narrowed his eyes. He sensed it to. He spoke slowly. "Dare...?"

"What would you do if your friend turned out to be a vampire?"

Carmilla wondered if a fork counted as a stake, and if she would traumatise her friends beyond saving if she stabbed herself in the heart with one at this very moment. 

Ace watched him expectantly. She looked like Professor McGonagall when she asked a zoned-out student a tricky question. It was surprisingly hard to tell what he was thinking. Usually, he was an open book. Probably a knitting patterns book.

"I'd probably introduce them to Carmilla," Charlie shrugged. Then he looked to her. "Or is that rude? Would it be like, assuming that all vampires are the same, or something?"

Carmilla stared at him.

Her totally ex friend mumbled something and scrambled up to the bar to order drinks and escape before her throat was ripped out.

Carmilla gulped. "What?"

"I mean... I-"

"How do you know?"

Charlie narrowed his brown eyes at her, looking just as confused as she felt. Probably not as throw up right there, scream and cry and tear at the wallpaper like Sass in the middle of the night, scared as she was, though. "What do you mean? About you totally being a vampire? I thought you knew that I knew..."

"You aren't supposed to know!" she shrieked quietly, her stomach rolling as she pulled on the ends of her hair.

If Charlie was scared of her, she'd probably just die right there.

He shuffled closer on the couch, "dude, stop freaking out, you're freaking me out now. It's okay. I'm not gonna like, tell anyone or anything. I'm not an asshole."

She patted her hair down and nodded. "Okay. Okay."

"Okay?"

"Okay," she muttered, and flopped back into the squishy couch. Carmilla was sort of glad she didn't have a beating heart. It would've flown out of her chest and landed on the stained honey-coloured floorboards. Disgusting. She shook her head to rid it of the gross thought. "Please don't tell anyone."

Charlie blinked a few times. The he frowned. "Carmilla. I don't know if you know, but you're my best friend."

She stared at him. "Oh."

He rolled his eyes at her, but he was grinning, and she let her shoulders fall. She also let herself hug him hard enough to pop his head off his shoulders. Into his soggy robes, she mumbled a question. "But... who told you?"

"You're the whitest person I've ever met," Charlie started with a chuckle.

A group of teachers left the pub, their heads bobbing over the Christmas trees that blocked out the rest of the students sitting around with frothing jugs of butterbeer.

"You literally wear red lipstick for fun, and the same black and white outfit every weekend. You fall asleep in the sun every Care of Magical Creatures lesson and I have to do your work. You have tiny fangs. Garlic isn't served on the Ravenclaw table anymore. You're always cold. You never blush. They got rid of everything made of silver in the whole castle. You don't have a shadow. Or a reflection. You-"

"Okay, okay!" Carmilla hissed, cutting him off. She folded her arms and leaned back. "You don't have to be mean about it."

"Good afternoon, Mr Hart."

Carmilla felt her temper spike as they both turned around. She dearly hoped that the cold-eyed teacher hadn't heard their conversation, but he probably knew about her teething problem anyway. Dumbledore seemed to have spread the word to everyone on the staff department. 

Charlie avoided Professor Montgomery's gaze, sinking lower in his seat. "Hi."

He turned to Carmilla. He wore the teachers robes with the collar flipped up. Who wears school robes on holidays? She realised he was probably a psychopath. She didn't understand how the Hufflepuff girls from her potions class talked about him.

"Professor Flitwick is ill," Montgomery said, taking a long package wrapped in brown paper from somewhere in the folds of his robe. He was looking at her weirdly. Not weirdly, just... oddly. "So, he asked me to deliver this to you while he recovers."

"...Thanks." Carmilla said.

"So... are you gonna kill me in my sleep or..." Ace stopped talking, her arms full of butterbeer that sloshed in the large jug. She looked between the teacher putting the parcel on their low coffee table and Carmilla.

"I will see you in class," Montgomery said, and left with a swish of his robes. How dramatic.

Ace scrunched her nose up. "What the fuck did I miss?"

Carmilla finished pretending that the teachers head exploded as he walked away and picked up the parcel. She unwrapped it with a frown, the paper making loud scrunching sounds in the deafening silence at their table.

A Flicker 180 rolled out onto the table.

"Merlins balls!" Ace yelped immediately, and Carmilla was eternally grateful she'd already put their drinks down when she began flapping her arms. "That's the newest model! Astor and that annoying dude who tried out with you and totally has a crush on you got one, but it... wow. Wow."

Charlie spluttered out questions. "Why would he give you that? How? I mean there must be a law or something... or you-"

Carmilla quickly wrapped the torn paper back around it. A note fell from the crinkles.

Ms King,

I have full confidence you will use this well. You deserve it. I am sorry I could not deliver it to you myself, but I have become ill.

Good luck in your next game.

Best wishes,

Professor Flitwick