Delirium

Chapter 67. Virtuous

~*~

"I'm a virgin."

Jolie blinked, those three words echoing over and over in her mind.

She suddenly found the wizard standing across from her unrecognisable. Cassius Warrington, the wizard whose confidence and self-assurance often rivalled even Jolie's. The wizard that had very nearly been inside of her.

The wizard that could most definitely not be a virgin.

"What?" she finally asked.

Cassius cleared his throat, his eyes darting awkwardly from her face to the floor.

"I'm a—virgin," he repeated.

She blinked again. And again. "You... What?"

"Please don't make me repeat it," he muttered, scrubbing a hand through his hair.

She stared at him.

Stared at Cassius fucking Warrington—the most notorious man slag of Slytherin House. Aside from Theo, anyway.

"That's—but you've... You've never...?" she sputtered. "How?"

He shrugged. "I just haven't."

"But you... What about the supply closet? With Lorelai McMillan? Everyone knows that you took her virg—"

Cassius shook his head sharply. "We were only snogging. It was a stupid rumour—she just never denied it."

Jolie's expression of shock remained. "But—Sommers Meakin? Marilyn Gibbard?"

"I never even kissed Sommers," he told her. "And Marilyn grew sick of not going past first base. I've always thought that's why she cheated on me with Ross Spiers."

"What?" Jolie breathed.

Cassius made a face. "I said that's why she cheated on me with—"

"No, no," she stopped him, waving a hand. "I'm just—"

Jolie cut herself off, not knowing what to actually say.

He said nothing, still standing before her and shifting back and forth on his feet.

A thought suddenly occurred to her. She swallowed.

"But, last year, you asked me if I was a virgin," Jolie pointed out. "And when you knew I wasn't, you asked me if the sex felt different. Why would you ask that if you'd never...?"

His face had flushed a bright red as she spoke.

"I didn't mean it like... 'Is the sex different from what I've felt' because... well, I've never done it before. I only asked that because—when I'd read that bit in the history text about the, erm... Veela mating process—"

Jolie scoffed at the mention of it.

He held up his hands. "I know, I know! It was stupid. But I'd just... I meant what I said back then—I was curious about it because it just seemed special. And that's the only reason I've been waiting."

"So you can shag a Veela for your first time?"

"No," he said quickly, shaking his head. "No, I mean—I've been waiting for something special."

"Like, for marriage?"

"Not exactly. Just—I need it to be with someone that means a lot to me. Someone that's special to me," As he spoke, he didn't look at her. "If there aren't any real feelings for the person I'm with, I can't..."