El emerged from her room the next morning, already dressed and walked straight past James without acknowledging him as he stood by the counter drinking his tea. This had been a common occurrence over the past few weeks, but after the events of the night before, James was shocked at the action.
"Not much of a big talker today, huh?" he muttered, holding his mug close to his face and looking up at her through his eyebrows.
"Have i ever been?"
This was true. She had a tendency to be incredibly blunt, giving the shortest, and often rudest response to people- especially James.
"Ah, always a ray of sunshine, aren't you, Burke?" he chuckled, amused at his own sarcasm.
She gave him a middle finger as a response and left the room. She'd decided she needed to speak to Evan, with the intention of finding out what James had said to him.
Much to her luck, she found him halfway down one of the corridors on her way to the great hall.
"Rosier, y'alright?"
Evan raised his head at the sound of her voice, "Yeh, are you doing anything right now?" he asked, to which she shook her head, allowing him to pull her into a broom cupboard.
With a tight grip on her waist, Evan joined their lips together in a kiss much too passionate for so early in the morning. He'd never been this forward with her before, usually he'd wait for El to give him signs, never really initiating any sexual activity. However his hands continued to roam her body in a rush, pulling down her tights and skirt.
He bent down and kissed her lower thigh, trailing kisses up her leg and stopping when he reached her hip.
"You do have a birthmark on your hip," his voice was quiet, sounding oddly upset.
El looked at him in confusion, wondering what had caused the sudden change in the boys mood, "What's that got to do with anything?"
"You have a birthmark on your hip, and he knew," he began rambling, more talking to himself than anything. He stood up, El putting her tights and skirt back on and following him out the cupboard.
"Rosier, what are you on about?"
He began to fidget, not being able to stand still whilst conversing, "How did he know you had a birthmark on your hip?"
"Who?" El began to get frustrated now, he was rambling and not making sense, causing her confusion to increase.
"Potter!"
"Wha-"
Evan cut her off again with his rambling, "You've had sex with potter?"
"What? Yes, how do you know that?" she rubbed her brow to try nurse the headache that was developing.
"H-he told me you had a birthmark- on your hip- in the shape of an 'L'. A-and you do," he waved his arms about as he spoke, acting rather irrationally.
"Why are you annoyed?" El leant her back against the wall of the corridor, clearly not understanding Evans erratic behaviour.
"Because you shagged Potter!" El raised her eyebrow at him, as if to say so?. "You shagged Potter," his voice seemed deflated now, he'd calmed down and now looked more upset.
"I don't see what the problem is, i'm not your girlfriend, i can shag who i like. Besides, it hasn't happened since... halloween i think was the last time," she didnt even know why she was telling him this, it wasn't his business.
"You kissed me that night!" Evan began to fidget again, failing in trying to mask his hurt.
"I still don't see a problem. I'm not your girlfriend, Evan," she continued to lean against the wall, now picking at the her nail polish.
Noticing her nonchalance, he looked at her, his face pleading her for sympathy, which he did not get. The bell rang and all emotion fell from his face, he walked to his class with his back straight, looking directly forward.
She let out a small laugh, slightly in shock about how badly he'd reacted, and head to her charms class.
When she entered the room, she walked over to James' desk, standing in front of it and putting her hands on the table.
"Why did you tell Rosier i have a birthmark on my hip?" she raised her eyebrows, with an expectant look on her face.
James shuffled in his seat, leaning towards her, "Because you do," he said with a patronising smile. "Why? Is Vanilla Rosier upset?" he pulled a mocking sad face.
She narrowed her eyes and opened her mouth, about to say something, but decided against it, shaking her head and walking back to her seat.
El went to go take her seat, which was unfortunately next to Lily, who looked up at her with a smile, "Good morning!"
The Slytherin looked at her with a confused look, noticing her obvious change of behaviour from the last conversation they'd had. "Someone's a bit cheery," El commented, resting her elbows on the desk and her chin in her hands.
"I'm in a good mood, i finished my book this morning, you should read it! It's called-"
El gave her a sideways glance, "Evans, that's wonderful, but i really don't care,"
An obvious look of hurt flashed across the ginger girls face, "Oh, okay,"
El gave her an awkward tight lipped smile, and turned her attention to the front of the room, waiting for her lesson to start.
***
When El was on her way to her next class, James jogged up behind her to walk beside her, "You don't always need to be so mean to people, you know?"
She looked at him with a straight face, "I'm not mean to people," she argued, to which James let out a humourless laugh.
"In charms? With Evans?" He gestured his hand towards the classroom they'd previously been in.
"Defending our precious Lily-flower, are we?" she scoffed, watching James' face gradually show more frustration.
"No, i'm just saying that you don't need to be a bitch to people all the time!" he raised his voice at her now, the pair of them stopped walking.
She stood on her toes and leant loser to him, "Don't shout at me," she spat lowly, before storming off down the corridor.
***
"You and James are still arguing?" Marlene asked as she flopped down on the sofa, the two having just got back to the heads common room after their last lesson of the day.
"Yes- and it's an actual argument this time," she pointed at her friend as she spoke, sitting down on the loveseat to Marlenes left.
"Speak of the devil," the blonde laughed as James strolled into to the room.
"McKinnon," James nodded to Marlene, then looked at Eleanor, trying to prove a point by not greeting her. "What're you two doing?" he asked as he went to fill the kettle.
El crossed her legs and flicked through the book she'd recently put on her lap, "Just being a bitch, y'know... i've been known to do that,"
Even with his back turned to them, El could tell he was rolling his eyes, "Stop being a drama queen,"
Marlene jumped up off the sofa, knowing what was about to happen, "That's my cue to leave," she pointed at the door before walking out of it.
"So i'm a drama queen as well?" she spoke strangely calmly, closing her book and glaring at the back of James' head.
He turned around the face her, leaning against the counter and crossing his arms over his chest, "I'm not having an argument with you right now,"
"You called me a bitch," her voice was still calm, both of them refusing to break eye contact, trying to over power the other.
"Because you were acting like one," when he ran a hand through his hair, she noticed he'd removed the nail varnish she'd done for him a few weeks ago.
She clenched her jaw, still trying to remain as composed as possible, "Because i didn't want to hear Evans rant on about some book?"
"No its not just then, you're rude to people, me especially,"
El angled her head and narrowed her eyes at the bespectacled boy, "Grow a pair,"
James' face clearly displayed his anger, knuckles white as he gripped onto the counter behind him, trying to hold back his rage. "You're just proving my point,"
The head girl stormed up into her room and shut the door, wiping a stray tear from her cheek, cursing herself for allowing it to fall.
She didn't care. Why would she care what James Potter thought about her? He was an arrogant prick anyways.
A few moments later she heard the door to James' room also slam shut, along with the sound of something being thrown across his room.
She sat on her windowsill, with the window only open a slither to let the smoke from her cigarette out, but trying not to let too much cold air in.
Her hands were still shaking from anger, continuing to clench and unclench her jaw. The action of inhaling smoke managed to only mildly calm her down, she couldn't even go shag Evan now he was annoyed at her (something that was also James' fault). So instead she settled for opening a bottle of muggle wine she'd stolen from Marlene.
The remainder of her evening passed in a blur, a mixture of her drunkenness and nothing worth remembering actually happening, the only evidence of her actions being her pounding headache she had the next day.
She passed Remus when exiting the common room to head to the great hall, grumbling a greeting to him before she plodded down the hall.
James emerged from his room, just as she was leaving, "Was she drinking last night?" Remus questioned, his voice laced with concern as to why she'd been drinking on a Tuesday.
"How would i know?" James snapped, biting his lip after the words came out his mouth, "Sorry," he sent his mate an apologetic smile.
Remus waved a dismissive hand, "Don't worry about it," he sat down on the sofa, the pair had almost an hour before their first lesson.
"What are you doing here so early in the morning?" James asked, eyeing Remus' robes as he was still in his Pyjamas himself.
"There's no kettle in the Gryffindor common room," he stated, prompting James to fill the kettle and set it to boil.
When Remus put his legs on the coffee table, he noticed a small rectangular box fall to the floor, he picked it up, looking at it curiously.
The box was long and thin, and rattled slightly as he moved it. He turned it over and his eyes widened at the writing on the front.
"Prongs what's this?" he turned to his friend who had started making tea.
James looked up from what he was doing to look at the box, "Oh it's some stuff that Burke burns around the common room, it's meant to make it smell nice,"
"Do you mean incense?" Remus asked with a raised eyebrow, "And this belongs to El?"
A smirk formed when James nodded and the scarred boy looked down to reread the red writing on the box.
Sandalwood
***
a/n: word count 1.9k
i wouldve made this longer but i thought this was a good ending to the chapter.
idk if anyone even reads my a/n but i acc am mind blown at the fact the amount of reads on this book has DOUBLED in the last week.
pls remember to vote if u enjoyed this chapter, comment if u have any predictions ab what might happen xxx