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iii. CHAPTER THREE
EVAN ROSIER
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"I JUST WISH THEY WOULD STOP DOING IT!" Lily huffed as she and Briar supervised a few first years sorting through the file cabinets in Professor Flitwick's office, they'd been caught trying to duel each other in an empty classroom and were now paying the price.
As surprising as it may be Briar and Lily were actually talking to eachother, why you may ask? Well, they both came to the settlement that them supervising detentions wasn't going to work if they kept ignoring eachother (which they spent the first few days doing). So they both came to the very unwanted assumption that the smart thing to do if they were going to be stuck together for the remainder of this year was that they could try at least to be civil.
They'd spent the first week in silence (the most awkward silence you could imagine) but as of the present week Lily was proving to be really good company (not that Briar would admit that, of course), and Briar in return was trying the best she could at being cordial, she'd even managed to bring Lily some pumpkin juice for many of the times they'd supervised together.
"Exactly! I just don't understand why they feel the need to torture Severus! I mean he's a slimy git but I swear Gryffindors just seem to think they run the place... Sorry."
Lily held back a grimace. "It's all right."
"I didn't mean you, yeah, we don't get along-"
"Honestly, it's fine... Oi! You there! You're supposed to be doing the sorting manually; put your wand away!"
The first year dropped his wand, startled and gave Lily a guilty expression.
"You're scaring them, Lily," Briar pointed out.
"I know, I'm sorry; just ticked off at Potter. Why can't he be the bigger man, for once? I'm tired of cleaning up after his messes, honestly!"
Briar listened distractedly as Lily droned on, although she was rather interesting to converse with, when she got started about Potter it was best to simply stay silent and listen. The ginger had enjoyed complaining about him for as long as they'd known each other, Briar observed that the complaints had gotten longer and more often as of late. It seemed that Lily Evans thought about James Potter a lot more than she let on.
"Lily," Briar interrupted her suddenly, a little tired of hearing about James Potter. "What did you smell in the Amortentia last week? Just out of curiosity."
"Oh," Lily seemed a little surprised at the interruption but thought for a few seconds. "Um, homemade chocolate chip cookies, and a rose-scented soap that I used to make when I was younger. And this other musky scent that I couldn't quite place. It was so familiar, but... I don't know."
Briar nodded absently, as the clock chimed, indicating that it was 7 o'clock. The first-years glanced at the two prefects eagerly, hoping to be dismissed.
"All right, you lot can leave," The platinum blonde told them, and they all quickly scrambled to their feet. "I hope you've learned your lesson!"
The first years left the room quickly, and the girls gathered their things and followed them out. "Are you going to dinner, Briar?" Lily asked.
Briar smiled through her lie. "Um... no. I think I'll stop by my dorm, first."
Lily waved. "All right. I'll see you around."
The two girls parted ways, Briar feeling somewhat guilty, she had intended to go straight to dinner but she couldn't turn up at the Great Hall with Lily. Lucius, or some of the other Slytherins might notice and she didn't want to cause unnecessary problems. If any of her housemates saw her talking to a Muggle-born, the news would reach her parents, and they'd be disappointed. Despite knowing it wasn't the right thing to do, it was the easiest and better for everyone in the long run (plus Briar wasn't sure that she could consider Lily a friend that was worth all that trouble in the first place).
Taking the longer route to the Great Hall, she stopped when she heard someone calling her name. Turning around, she came face to face with a tall, handsome curly-haired boy who was trying to catch up with her.
"Briar! There you are! Got a minute?"
Briar froze, horrified. There, standing right in front of her, was Evan Rosier, he was dressed in Slytherin Quidditch robes and looked a little messy, having just returned from practice. He smiled widely at her.
"Erm, of course, Evan. Did you need something?" she managed to say composedly. Evan nodded, running his hands nervously through his strawberry blond hair.
"Yes, well, erm... there's this Hogsmeade trip this weekend... if you don't already have plans, I was wondering whether you'd like to go together? I thought it might be fun, yeah?" Evan replied, confirming Briar's fears. She took a deep breath do it for your parents she told herself before smiling up at him, nodding.
"That sounds nice. I'd love to,"
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"Would you bloody hurry up?" Sirius demanded, as James continued to ruffle his hair in the mirror. He slicked it back one last time, before turning to face his friends.
"All right, I'm done. Let's go."
The four friends quickly rushed out of the Gryffindor common room, and began their walk to Hogsmeade. It had been a long and tiring week at school, and they were ready for a break. Happily slipping into the warm Three Broomsticks, they ordered Butterbeer and found themselves a table.
"Look who else is here," Peter muttered, glancing at the other end of the room. "Slytherins."
Sirius turned around, looking at the table that Peter was glaring at. To his surprise, Briar D'Alessio was seated there, with Evan Rosier that he recognized from the Slytherin Quidditch team. The boy was describing something animatedly, while Briar listened quietly, smiling.
"Hm. Never seen D'Alessio with a boy before. Always thought she was a bit of a prude," James commented harshly. "Though I suppose she's perfect for Rosier, bloke's got his head stuck up his arse."
"Don't, James," Remus insisted, shaking his head. "Briar's not that bad. She is a Prefect, and Lily considers her a friend now, surely you can respect that."
"Still a Slytherin," James muttered, but he fell silent shortly after that and changed the topic.
Sirius, however, couldn't manage to distract himself from the pair, what James has said was right- he'd never seen D'Alessio with a boy before. Never seen her hanging out with many Slytherins, to be honest, except for Malfoy and even now, the smile on her face was a little too strained to be true.
Maybe she just needs a little help...
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If there was one thing that Briar managed to learn quickly about Evan, it was that he loved the sound of his own voice. Not that she was complaining, in one way, it was convenient. He didn't expect much of a response from her, and an occasional nod and murmer of agreement was enough to satisfy him, it was quite adorable actually.
"You know, I wanted to talk to you before," he admitted, taking a sip of his Butterbeer. "But I wasn't sure if it was appropriate. Rumor was that you were betrothed to that Black boy, the older one, yeah? But after recent events, I suppose that's out of the question."
"I was never officially betrothed to him," Briar put in. "It was just speculations but no, that's no longer possible."
"Hm. Of course. Either way, I talked to Lucius first, just to make sure I wasn't overstepping any boundaries. Thought it would be better to get his permission."
Briar frowned "You don't need Lucius's permission for anything, Evan. He's not my father."
"Oh, of course! I didn't mean to offend you! I suppose you're all for women's liberty and feminism, are you? It's all the rage nowadays, I completely understand!"
Briar nodded, drifting off once more as Evan began ranting about women's liberty and what a wonderful idea it was. She sipped her Butterbeer pleasantly, gazing out of the window just in time to notice four Gryffindor boys walk into the pub. Frowning slightly to herself as they took their seats, Briar forced her attention back to Evan.
"So, Evan," Briar said, interrupting his ranting. "What do you plan to do after Hogwarts? Have you any idea?"
Evan smiled, completely unfazed by her interruption. "Well, I'm not quite certain yet. I'd rather like to join the Ministry, but I think my father wants me to take up the family business. He controls the trade of potions ingredients between Britain and the USA, you know, quite a critical business for our potions industry. Did you know that half the ingredients we use here can be found for much cheaper in America?"
He'd started again, Briar played with the handle of her Butterbeer mug, thinking longingly of the fire in the Slytherin common room, and the ending of the novel she'd been reading for the past week. Unwillingly, her hand lifted up the half-full glass of butterbeer, and held it up at face level.
Evan, who'd been halfway through explaining the availability of moonstone in France, paused for a second and gave her an odd look. "Are you all right, Briar? Did you want a refill?"
Briar shook her head frantically, a feeling of terror washing over her. She couldn't move her hand! Although it was right in front of her, clutching the mug of butterbeer, she suddenly had no control over it. Panicked, she managed to flex her other hand, but the one clutching the Butterbeer was paralyzed. "I... I can't move it! I don't know what's wrong!"
Evan, concerned, leaned over the table slightly, his arm reaching out to touch her hand. Just as he was a few inches away, however, Briar's arm suddenly jerked of its own accord.
And emptied the entire contents of the mug onto Evan Rosier's face.
"Shit!" Briar cursed loudly, jumping out of her seat in horror. "Merlin, Evan, I'm so sorry, I don't know what happened, I didn't mean to-"
Evan, whose face was covered in the honey-colored liquid, simply held up a hand, motioning for her to be quiet. Briar stopped, her hands covering her own mouth in shock. "I'm so sor-"
"Don't, just don't."
Grabbing a few of the tissues that were lying on the table, he wiped them across his face before marching straight out of the pub. The platinum blonde was left standing alone, almost in tears, when she heard a few snickers from the other side of the room.
To say utter rage shot through her would be an understatement.
"It was you!" she hissed, marching straight over to a smirking Sirius Black. She glared around at all his friends, her blue eyes almost murderous. Remus looked disappointed (almost as if apologising) but the other three's expressions could only be described as gleeful.
"What is wrong with you? Is it the aim of your pitiful existence to make my life miserable?"
Sirius ran his fingers through his dark black hair, grinning at her cheekily. "I don't know, I think 'miserable' better described your expression when you were sitting with him, I just did you a favor, D'Alessio. I believe thanks is in order."
"THANKS?I'm supposed to thank you for that display? I didn't want to be here! In fact, the only reason I had to come to Hogsmeade with Rosier was because you couldn't bloody put up with your own family!" Briar was now screaming, her face turning pink with the effort. "And now, you had to ruin the one chance I actually had with someone decent!"
Sirius narrowed his eyes at her. "Someone decent? Rosier's an arrogant little berk who can't keep his mouth shut for two minutes straight! I'm sure little miss perfect like you could do better!"
Briar took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down. When she spoke again, her voice was cold and callous. "I think it's time for you to grow up, Black and understand that your actions have consequences for other people. Otherwise you'll wake up one morning, and realize that the only people who will put up with you, are..." She sneered at his friends, giving each of them a disgusted look. "them, and you'll be in a rather lonely place."
Sirius stood up abruptly, knocking his chair backward, all traces of humor were gone from his face. "Don't you dare say a word about my friends, at least they're not queuing up to be Death Eaters like your family. Planning to rid the world of Muggles, are you, D'Alessio? You and your precious father?"
There was a shocked silence. The entire pub was staring at them, eyes wide. In one fluid movement, Briar whipped out her wand, and placed it at the base of Sirius Black's throat, a jolt of fear shot through his eyes. "If I wanted to rid the world of something, Black, it would be filthy blood traitors like you who don't give a rat's arse about the families who love and provide for them. At least my father can look me in the eyes without feeling ashamed of his own child, which is more than I can say for you."
"Fathers like ours aren't worth being proud of, Briar." Sirius muttered quietly, feeling her wand still at his throat. "hopefully you'll realize that yourself, someday."
Briar stared at Sirius, a tortured expression on her face. There was something in those grey eyes of his that made her think he was trying to help her...
No.
She jerked her wand back and left the Three Broomsticks as quickly as she could, without turning to look back.
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"You threw a Butterbeer in his face!"
Lucius Malfoy was sitting opposite Briar in the Slytherin Common Room, trying to look stern and disapproving. While his eyes managed to look serious, however, Briar could see the corners of his mouth turning up in an effort to restrain his amusement.
"Well... not intentionally ... but yes, that's pretty much what happened."
Lucius couldn't resist any longer and he shook his head, a chuckle escaping his lips. "Merlin, I'd have liked to see that; you'll be the death of me, Briar."
"Lucius, you can't tell Mother and Father. Please, I'm begging you!" Briar insisted, though his chuckles had begun to turn into full-out laughter. A few people were giving them odd looks.
"Lucius! Stop laughing!"
"I'm sorry," he apologized, quietening down. "I suppose he was asking for it... little git always thinks he can order me around on the Quidditch pitch. All right, I won't tell your parents, just this once."
A breath of relief left Briar's lips. "Thank you."
"But you realize this doesn't look good," Lucius insisted, his tone turning serious once again. "Briar, if you're going to be throwing food at every boy that comes within an arm's reach of you-"
"It wasn't me! I told you, I was jinxed by Black!"
"All right, all right! I'll have to see what I can do to cover up this mess. It's going to reflect badly on your reputation, though and for Merlin's sake, what did you say to Black in the Three Broomsticks?' Lucius demanded. "Crabbe was there, and he says that you looked just about ready to murder the little traitor."
"He was being an arse."
"Well, control your temper next time. It's not good for women to create public displays like that, honestly, Briar; things were easier when you kept yourself invisible."
Briar smiled sheepishly at her cousin.
"Sorry."
"It's all right," Lucius replied, getting up to leave. Briar stopped him and he gave her a curious look.
"What now?"
"I... I wanted to ask you something."
"What?"
"It's just... hypothetically," Briar began, looking up at her cousin nervously. "What if you knew that someone you loved was doing something wrong? And that they might expect you to do it as well, one day? What would you do?"
Lucius gave her a startled look. "I... I don't know. Try to stop them, I suppose."
"What if stopping them wasn't in your power? What if their beliefs were so firmly rooted that you couldn't change them? Should you try to save yourself?"
Lucius's eyes narrowed, and they looked down at Briar suspiciously. "What is this nonsense? You've been reading too many books, Briar. Go to bed."
And he left her sitting alone, more confused than ever.
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Heyy, I'm so unsatisfied with this chapter ughhh, Aimee knows how indecisive about it I've been, so anyway important detail I forgot is that Briar doesn't know that her family are death eaters, but she has only heard them talk about the dark arts, so if anyone is confused to why she was actin so oblivious that's why,.
sel