NOT PROOFREAD!
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Prologue:
Pt 1:
Even after 3 months of publicly dating Lorenzo Berkshire you are not used to holding his hand while walking through the hallways.
Sometimes it feels like a dream, too good to be true. Why he choose you out of the ocean of girl that are laying to his feet is a mystery to you. After all there's nothing special to you. But then again, you've always had a hard opinion about yourself.
Since you are with Enzo, there are eyes following you everywhere, especially in a situation like now:
You're standing between Enzo's slightly spread legs. He's leaning against a wall, playing with your necklace while waiting for the next lesson to start.
It's a really intimate moment and if it wasn't for your friend calling your name out loud, you probably would have forgotten about the world around you.
Enzo let's go of you. "You have 2 minutes before I'll start missing you like a drug addict. Hurry baby.", he says.
You give him a quick peck on his cheek and walk over to your friend.
She asks you for your potions homework that she forgot about. You hand it to her and when you turn around, you see that Enzo also ready has another girl standing next to him, one of his ex-hookups that wouldn't leave him alone.
You sigh. That's one of the dark sides of dating Enzo. Whenever you turn your back, another chick appears and throws herself to his feet.
But you know Enzo is loyal and would never do anything, so you take your time walking back to him to let him solve the situation on his own.
That's until the girls gets on her toes and wraps her arms around Enzo to pull him closer.
Before he can even comprehend what is happening, the girl already smashed her lips on his. He shoves her off, but she holds onto his neck as if it's about dear life.
You throw away your bag, jealousy taking your rational thoughts. Without hesitation, you grab the girl by her hair and rip her way from your boyfriend. "Who do you think you are, you fucking bitch?", you yell.
Enzo furiously wipes his mouth. "Fucking hell, you psycho!"
The girl falls to the ground and loses a strand of hair since you still have her hair in your fist.
"You stupid slut!", she screams in pain.
You throw her hair at her and grab Enzo by the hand. "Let's go darling."
"Enzo is mine!", the girl yells after you. "He doesn't even love you!"
That cuts Enzo's last thread of patience. He turns around and storms back, you close to his heels just in case the girl tries kissing him again.
"You know nothing about my feelings for y/n!", he shouts and pushes her to the wall. "So shut your filthy mouth!"
Tears rise in her eyes and she sobs. "Why don't you love me?", she croaks.
Enzo takes a step back and starts laughing. "Loving you? How could I? Your character is just as bad as your kissing skills."
Now she loses her temper and starts shoving Enzo. "But you don't love her either! I know about the bet!"
Enzo grabs her by the wrist aggressively. She starts screaming and crying. "Let go! You're hurting me!"
You stand there with wide eyes. You have never seen Enzo getting violent ever. It's scary.
And what's even more important, what bet is the girl talking about? Based on Enzo's reaction, she must have a point; he wouldn't get violent over unfounded accusations.
"Enzo, stop. Calm down.", you say, grabbing his forearm. "Let her go."
He's panting but does what you demand and takes a step back.
"What do you mean, a bet?", you ask the girl, ignoring Enzo's attempts to drag you away.
The girl starts laughing historically. "Enzo isn't the only Slytherin I've shared a bed with. Blaise gets pretty talkative when he was pleasured. He told me about a bet he and his friends made with Enzo. 20 galleons if he manages to make you fall in love with him."
Your mind goes blank; you know she's talking the truth. She might be a psycho, but you believe her. It must be true, that's the only explanation for Enzo's reaction to the mentioning of the word 'bet'.
The pain in your heart is overwhelming. You think it can't get any worse, but then Enzo's hand grabs your shoulder to turn you around. You see nothing but guilt in his eyes and the plant of hope within you dies along with your heart. Tears fill your eyes.
"What the fuck?", you cry, slapping his hand away. "How could you do that to me?"
Enzo starts panicking, tries to reach out for you but you slap him across the face and run away. "Baby that's not the truth, I fell in love with you and didn't take the money!", he yells after you.
Pt 2:
It was in the middle of the night when continuous bangs on your door woke you up.
A look on the time on your phone tells you it's been not even two hours after you went to bed, or to be more specific: not even two hours after your body couldn't cope with the exhaustion of crying and violently throwing up anymore and you passed out on your bed.
The bangs cause your head to throb in pain and you groan. Who would be banging at your door at 3 am?
You sit up and see the tissues surrounding you and everything comes back in a flash.
The bet. The betrayal. Enzo.
This must be him at the door.
A few meters next to you, your roommate groans and sits up too. „What the hell?", she muffles.
„That's Enzo.", you whisper, fighting back tears you didn't know you still had inside of you.
Your roommate sighs and swings her feet out of bed. After looking in your panicking face, she says: "I'll tell him to go away."
With that, she opens the door but before she can say a word, Enzo snakes past her and stands in the middle of the room, panting heavily.
"Get out!", you scream.
He shakes his head. "I can't. I need to talk to you. Please."
His pleading voice makes your stomach twist. On one hand you want to hear what he has to say, on the other hand you want to rip his head of for betraying you the way he did.
Taking a closer look, you can now see his ruffled hair and red eyes and half-dried tear stains on his cheeks. It makes your stomach twist even further, but in the end it changes nothing. He might have cried and he might be in pain, but this does not undo a single thing he did.
Enzo's eyes fall on the used, crinkled tissues all over your bed, nightstand and even floor and then on your puffy eyes. "You cried.", he gulps.
You scoff. "What did you think I would do? Sing a happy song?"
In an attempt to distance yourself, you scoot to the other end of the bed and press the blanket to your chest. "Leave, Enzo.", you whisper, staring at the wall in his back.
Enzo sighs deeply and roams a hand through his hair. He sits down at the foot of your bed. "Could you give us two minutes?", he asks your roommate.
You shake your head, desperately wanting her to stay. She looks at you and Enzo, then nods and leaves.
"Come back!", you yell at her, angry that she would do what Enzo says instead of listening to you. The moment she is out of sight, Enzo starts speaking. "Look baby-"
"Don't baby me!"
He gulps. "Sorry. It's just... I know I made a mistake, and I messed up secretly but I can't just give up on you. Fuck, this whole thing started as a bet but I swear-",
He grabs your hands before you can pull away and falls to his knees, pressing your hands to his forehead.
"I swear I love you, I loved you from the beginning but I was too afraid to tell you about the bet because you would have left and I didn't want the boys to think weirdly of me. Everyone doubts I belong in Slytherin and if I backed out they would've taken that as a proof. I was so stupid, please forgive me, please."
His voice is sore and wobbly and gut wrenching, however his words make you angry. You try to snatch your hands away, but Enzo's grip is determined.
"Lorenzo, how is this supposed to make this any better? You're telling me you kept playing with me to prove a point to other people. Well, congratulations. You proved that you're a heartless, reckless traitor."
Before he has a chance to reply, your roommate comes back, Theo following closely. "Enzo, let's go.", the says. With a strong grip, he pulls Enzo to his feet, shooting you an apologetic look.
"Sorry.", he says awkwardly.
"Leave, the both off you. When Lorenzo has come to his senses, tell him he's making things worse by not letting me process."
Theo drags Enzo away, your roommate closes the door and you break down for the hundredth time in not even 24 hours.
Pt 3:
The past few weeks, you woke up to a bouquet of fresh tulips on your doorstep every single day. Every day, there was a small note attached on them. 'I will pray forever that you'll find it in your heart to forgive me.', today's note said.
You placed it in a wooden box, just like you did with all the other ones. The first ones, you tried to throw away but ended up fishing them out of the garbage bin. Your friends would roll their eyes at you when they saw you going though the collection of notes. Eventually, you started hiding them from everyone, somehow feeling embarrassed that you cling to them. And yeah, it might be unreasonable and would be best to rip them into tiny pieces and let the wind carry them away. But through every word, you could feel the pain that Enzo felt, and that played a string in you you just could not stop from swinging.
When Enzo tried to talk to you in person, you would brush him off though. Something about being confronted with him face to face frightened you. Might seem unreasonable as well, thinking about the wooden box hidden behind your nightstand, but since when is a human going through heartbreak reasonable?
You noticed how he distanced himself from his friends, and wondered why. After all, it was so important to him to prove to them that he was worth of being a part of their group.
You get distracted from your thoughts when your phone bings. It's Pansy, asking if you could bring her a spare skirt. As it seems, hers got ruined during her detention, and you really don't want to know how.
You write a quick reply, pull a skirt out of her dresser and hurry down the stairs. Before you enter the common room, you hear voices and stop in your tracks, hidden by the shadows in your staircase.
"Come on, why are you so dry?", Theodore asks.
You hear a scoff and realize it's Enzo. "I'm not."
A third voice speaks up. "You definitely are. I thought this was about y/n, but it's been almost three months. Get your shit together, dude. There are loads of other chicks here.", Draco laughs.
You hear a loud thud, as if someone threw something across the room. "Fuck you! That's exactly the reason why I stopped hanging out with you dicks! Your stupid two brain cells just can't grasp that y/n is more then a 'chick' for me. Fuck you and your stupid bet and fuck being a stupid Slytherin. I would gladly throw it all away if that means I could get her back!"
Another loud bang and furious footsteps are the last noises before silence fills the room.
After counting to ten, you finally dare to take the last steps. When you enter the common room, you see two books on three floor - Enzo must have thrown them - and Theo, Draco and Blaise sitting in silence. Draco spots you first. "Wow, you really fucked him up.", he scoffs, getting to his feet and leaving as well, closely followed by Blaise.
Theo remains silent for another few seconds. "You heard everything, didn't you?", he asks.
You nod, grasping the skirt tighter.
Theo smiles softly. "Eavesdropping is a bad habit."
"And so is betting over woman's hearts.", you scoff.
He rises from his seat. "Touché."
Another moment of silence. "You know, Enzo is really suffering. He's broken badly, and I think you two need to talk. A proper talk, I mean. Not little apology notes. Yeah, I know about them.", Theo adds when he sees the surprise in your face.
You swallow. You know Enzo isn't doing great, and every time you pushed him away lately, it got harder. It occurs you that you actually want to talk to him and the only reason you refuse to is that you are afraid to let him see through the walks you build around yourself. Enzo is obsessed with being seen as a worthy Slytherin, and yet he would want to exchange that all for a second chance with you.
Maybe it's really time to go and talk to him.
Your phone bings again and only now you remember why you got out of your dorm in the first place.
"I need to go.", you say, barging out of the room without looking back at Theo.
You will definitely talk to Enzo; you both really need it.
Pt 4:
Pansy distracted you for the rest of the evening, and you were great full for that.
But when she was gone, you could not avoid it any longer. You unblocked Enzo and send him a quick text, telling him that you are ready to talk and asking if he would like to talk tomorrow.
Then, you quickly muted your phone, hid it in a drawer of your desk under parchment and quills and climbed under the covers.
Eventually, after forcing yourself not to check your phone, you fell asleep out of exhaustion.
The next day, you checked your phone first thing in the morning.
I'm so glad you texted me and I would literally wish for nothing more than to talk with you. I will be wherever and whenever you want me to be.
Through the texts, you felt the relieve and happiness, even though it seemed as if Enzo tried to restrain it, probably not to scare you off again.
His text and the upcoming talk was all you could think about as you attended one class after the other. You tried to focus on classes, but it was to no use.
You replay everything that had happened after your breakup; how he appeared in your dorm drunk, the flowers, the notes, the conversation you eavesdropped.
When you walk into the potions classroom, and you see Enzo standing in the second row with Theodore, you already made your decision on where to go from here. But still it's necessary to talk about everything, and you are not naive enough to think that it will just be back to normal. It will be a lot of effort to regain the trust that once was granted, and the path will be long, but in your heart you know it's worth it.
You stop at Enzo's desk, his head instantly snapping up from his book as he hears your voice. "You said wherever and whenever I want. How about right after class at the black lake?", you say.
A wide smile and eager nod is the response. "That sounds perfect. Thanks you for hearing me out.", he replies.
You flash him a quick smile and leave for your table at the other end of the classroom, next to Pansy.
"Finally.", is all she says as she glances between you and Enzo, whose eyes are on you. For the first time in months, you allow yourself to look back.
Thirty minutes into the class, something happens that destroys the bubble of hope you were surrounded by.
"I will inspect the potions now.", Professor Snape says, and you lean back. Your potion is perfect, so you let your eyes wander around the room.
Again, Enzo is looking at you, absolutely mesmerized by the fact you smile at him.
With Theo in a conversation with the girl in the row behind him, no one notices that their potion is a disgusting shade of raging red instead of midnight blue, and no one notices how black swirls of smoke lick over the kettles edge.
Until with a loud bang, it explodes.
What happens next, is pure chaos. The potions spills everywhere, and everyone who gets touched by it starts screaming, getting covered in burn blisters, and smoke fills the air in seconds, until everyone within 4 meters of the explosion is completely blind.
Snape demands calmness but no one listens. Most of the students barge out of the room, others are still screaming.
You push past them, eager to make it to Enzo, who is everything you can think about. Snape had lectured you about the toxicity of the potion, and the great danger of getting it on your skin. And Enzo was so close to the kettle...
You get knocked over by a panicked student that tries to leave the classroom and bang your head hard on the edge of a table.
Enzo's well-being is the last thing you think about before you fall unconscious.
Pt 5 (last part):
When you wake up 2 hours later, your head is throbbing with pain and you groan when the harsh light stings in your sensitive eyes. It takes you a moment to put the fractures of your memories together, but slowly, things start to make sense again. That you are in the infirmary is the first thing you realize.
„Are you alright?", a female voice besides you asks. It slightly hurts to turn your head, but you do it anyways. „I'm okay, Pansy. Can you- help me sit up?"
She does instantly, then reaches you a mug. „Drink that. Madame Pomfrey says it helps with the pain."
You shove the mug aside, scanning the room with your eyes. „Where is he?"
„Who? Drink that!"
„Enzo of course. Tell me where he is."
„Drink!" Pansy's voice is stern and leaves no doubt that she will force the liquid down your throat if necessary.
„Fine." You down it in one gulp. It is surprisingly sweet, but ice cold like swallowing a block of ice and you have to cough. „Now fucking speak!", you pant as the pain substitutes.
Pansy only holds out a arm for you and helps you stand up. Slowly, she leads you through the room, past rows of manned beds. Your classmates, you realize. None of them is Enzo. Than you turn around a corner.
There are a few people gathered around two beds - Draco, Blaise, Matteo, Regulus and even Tom. When they hear yours and Pansy's steps coming closer, they turn around and leave without saying a word.
Enzo looks bad. The skin of his face and neck is burned and covered in thick layers of balm that helps him heal.
„What- what is that?", you croak.
Pansy and you both stare at the black lines and swirls under Enzo's skin.
„The poison is in his veins. Madame Pomfrey says it will fade, but it will take a few hours."
Your knees buckle and you almost fall, but can grab the edge of the bed. Pansy gets you a chair to sit on and leaves after making sure that you are okay.
It takes what feels like ages pass until Enzo starts to shift in his bed, groaning and wincing in pain. Madame Pomfrey is there in a matter of seconds, making him sit up halfway and pouring some liquid down his throat- the same one that you drank earlier. Then she carefully lets his head sink back to the pillow. Another half an hour later, he ultimately wakes up.
„Enzo? Enzo, do you hear me?", you mumble and grab his hand, stroking the back of it gently.
„Y/n?", he mumbles after a while.
„Yes, yes Enzo. It's me. Oh god, I'm so glad you are finally awake." You can't help the quiver in your voice and the hot tears of relief rolling down your cheeks.
„Hey, calm down. I'm fine.", he mumbles helplessly. He wants to pull you close so bad, but even raising his arm sends a wave of sharp pain through his whole body.
„I'm sorry, Enzo. It's all my fault.", you sob hysterically.
„What? No! It's not, don't say that!", he cuts you off. „Come here, please.", Enzo says, extending his arms for you.
Very careful not to hurt him, you lay down beside him and rest your head on his chest. The steady raising and falling of his chest and his strong heartbeat in your ear help easing your nerves and eventually, your tears stop.
„I love you so much.", you mumble.
Enzo stiffens under you and you have a weird feeling that you said something wrong.
„What was that?", he asks breathlessly.
„I- um...forget it?"
Enzo shakes his head. „No way. Say that again, please." His voice is thick from desperation and other emotions you can't grasp.
You sit up and look into his eyes that are glistening with tears. „Please say it again.", Enzo rasps.
„I love you, Enzo.", you whisper.
„Oh Merlin. Y/n, I love you too.", he croaks, „but what about the-„
„No.", you interrupt him. „Forget it. It doesn't matter anymore, I don't care. I was so afraid I was going to loose you, Enzo. I just want to be with you again. We'll figure everything out, I know it."
His lips tremble and the tears spill over at your words. „Oh Merlin.", he mumbles over and over again. „Come here."
You lean down and carefully place a kiss on his lips and he hisses. „Sorry.", you chuckle.
Enzo smiles. „Well have to wait a little while with that, don't we?", he pouts.
„Looks like it." You place a kiss on his palm instead, but don't feel bothered at all.
Finally, things will be alright.