Beth met Fred and George by the gates, also, naturally, being met with their greetings and happy grins. Beth simply turned her mouth to the side and joined them at Fred's hip, silent, as she listened to them passively argue back and forth about their Charms.
"What d'you think Beth?" said George. "Who do you think is right, him or me?"
"I think I'm rather fascinated at the idea of you two arguing about something irrelevant to pranks or jokes, or whatever else it is you two are known for doing," Beth said in a plain voice, staring at the ground as she walked and talked.
George scoffed, amused. "We do have a life outside of pranking people, Black."
Fred blinked a couple times before looking at his twin. "We do?"
The trio passed by a couple stores before the twins raced inside Zonko's Joke Shop, their literal home in Hogsmeade Village. Beth didn't know why she felt so...awkward today. More awkward than usual. She let out a small, shaky breath before following them into the shop, where a couple people were already by the counter purchasing a bundle of items and others were looking around.
Beth didn't even scan the items on the shelves, simply stood behind the two redheaded twins leaning over a bottom shelf and poking something. Their butts were sticking out in the air. Beth snorted.
"Well, this is a particularly delightful view, if I say so myself," Beth said teasingly, watching as George jumped around and Fred looked over his shoulder with a smirk.
"Bethy's got jokes," Fred said, grinning, his arms full of...whatever it was he was holding. Beth squinted but couldn't quite figure out what it was but it looked...slimy.
"Don't call me that," Beth said sternly, inhaling.
"Okay, okay," Fred said in a high voice. He gestured towards the items in his arms with his head. "Look. Living slime."
Beth scrunched her face up. "Why on earth would anyone want that? What would you possibly do with it? Who comes up with these ideas?"
"Sooo many questions, little Black," said George. "Well, I would want it because it's something to fidget with."
"What could we do with it? Throw it at people. Leave it by their feet in class or on their desks without them realising and watch them stain their pants," Fred shrugged.
"And," said George, "Zonko did of course."
"So stupid," Beth said, walking towards the counter with the twins at her heels. She waited patiently as they purchased their meaningless living, breathing slime, watched them grin and chuckle as they pocketed some and put some in their bags.
As the trio slipped out of the store, Fred slung an arm smoothly over Beth's shoulder, ignoring the glare as she looked up at him and said, "So, where would you like to go? You've got to have a soft spot for a store close by, and --"
But he was cut off at the icky sound of mud being splattered all over Beth's cheek, and another splat on her robes, and then another on the side of her head. Beth gasped in horror and threw Fred's arm off, unable to brush off the loud laughter nearby as a couple fourth-years high-fived each other and laughed even harder as Beth gave them a nasty look.
The gesture hurt. A lot. Much more than Beth liked to show, so she threw them an even dirtier look.
Fred and George were conversing, but Beth didn't care to listen. Next thing she knew, George's wand was pointed at the group of fourth-years and they began to complain about their feet being stuck to the ground. And then the twins' wands were aimed at the mud, and Beth raised her eyebrows at the enchanted mud flying towards the fourth-years, the twins bursting into laughter at their shrieks and sulking. Fred and George even threw some of their slime.
Fred looked back at Beth and was about to get her to join in, but he noticed the upset look on her face as she scraped the mud off her cheek and tried brushing it off her robes. Beth looked up and caught his eye, not bothering to hide her misery. A mud fight might have been fun if she was literally anybody else and not a Black, who everyone seemed to have a grudge against.
Fred's mouth turned into a reassuring smile which somehow made her feel better. She gave him a weak one in return.
Beth, Fred and George decided to grab a Butterbeer before leaving, which Fred and George constantly reminded her was tradition to do before heading back to Hogwarts. Beth gathered that on her own, seeing so many people leaving with Butterbeer to go and then heading in the direction of Hogwarts.
The Slytherin followed the two Gryffindors to a table when they grabbed their Butterbeer and sat on the cushion part of the couch as the twins sat in chairs beside one another. She was silent and occasionally sipped at her drink, although they didn't even seem to remember she was there most the time, occasionally asking her something or telling her stories about their pranks.
Fred caught onto Beth's dispirited vibes at some point, because he gave his twin a look, and then George departed for a table across the room where Lee was sitting with Angelina and Alicia. The redhead left his chair and sat beside Beth, offering her a smile. He didn't say anything, simply reached up and gently wiped away some dry mud that was left on Beth's cheek and pulled some out of her hair.
"There. Good as new," he smiled. Beth didn't say anything, only blinked slowly and then looked away. Fred scooted closer to her. "We got them back pretty good, didn't we? I'm sure you would have felt better if you'd joined in."
Beth shrugged. "I prefer to use my fist. That would have been nice, and that definitely would have made me feel better."
"Oh, believe me, I would have liked to as well, but at the end of the day, Beth, it was just mud," Fred said to her, and she couldn't believe she was hearing what was coming out of his mouth. "It washes away."
Beth scoffed, slammed her bottle of Butterbeer down, and turned to face the redhead who looked rather clueless. "Excuse me? You don't think I know that? Did you ever think that maybe I'm upset about the fact that they hated me and chose to throw mud at me, completely random person wandering the street. Well, not completely random at all, right? I'm Beth Black. I must know all about Sirius Black and why he's doing what he's doing, so I deserve to have mud thrown at me."
"Well, no, I just--"
"It might be just mud to you, but that hurt me," Beth finished with a huff, her sad eyes changing Fred's face completely.
He sighed. "You're right. I'm sorry. I'm an insensitive prat."
"Yeah, you are."
"Well, at least there's finally something we can agree on, right?" Fred said with a small smile. Beth noticed his eyes looking down at her mouth, and she turned away awkwardly, feeling rather sheepish with a blush on her face. Fred cleared his throat and did the same. When Beth looked back at him, his face was close to hers and he said, rather seriously, "You are okay, though, aren't you?"
Beth smiled weakly and lied with, "I will be."
Later that evening, Beth Black was sitting at a table alone with her notes spread all over the table and library books piled up beside her fast writing hand and pile of quills and inkwells. Her hand was smudged with ink but that didn't bother her. For some reason it made her feel better, motivated her, let her know that she was getting things done.
Her exams were coming up very, very soon, and too quickly for her liking. Beth liked that she was self-motivated and it made her like herself somewhat, considering nobody back at home was motivating her to do...well, anything. Nobody at all. She loved her mother, her beautiful mother, but only some of the time. Just some of the time.
"Hey," said a squeaky, teenaged boy's voice. Beth looked over into Adrian's eyes and almost rolled her own, but simply responded with a 'hey' over her own. "You're alone."
"Yeah," Beth said, nodding. "Just the way I like it."
"Could've fooled me considering the amount of time you've been spending with that Weasley," Adrian said bitterly with a sneer, but she knew it was towards Fred and not her. "Anyway, how are you doing? You look super busy. Cramming everything in one night, are you?"
"No," Beth said politely, ignoring his chuckle. "Just not taking any chances, I suppose. These exams are really important to me and I want to make sure I do them well."
"Yeah, I know they are. But, I know you'll do amazing whether you study this much or not. You know that yourself, right?"
"Sure," Beth mumbled, returning to her parchment.
"I wish you would have went with me to Hogsmeade today, but I guess I was hoping that you would bring it up to me. But you ended up going with the Weasley twins anyway, so, there goes that. Do you maybe wanna do something else with me?"
Beth frowned and looked away from her parchment. "Like what? We sit together in the common room, we sit together when we eat, we sometimes sit together in class. What else is there?"
"Well, I know that of course," Adrian replied with an awkward chuckle. He began to fidget with his fingers and avoided Beth's eye. "But maybe you wanted to do something with me that people who date do? Like...I don't know...we can sit together by a tree or something and...you know..."
Beth began to feel very uncomfortable and felt like something was pulling at her stomach. What was meant to come out of her mouth was a no, but she couldn't bring herself to just say it that way to him. Not like she did with Fred, and it annoyed her. From the corner of her eye she noticed Adrian beginning to lean in with his eyes closed. Beth leaned back immediately and pushed him by the shoulders, narrowing her eyes at him when he opened his.
"What do you think you're doing?" She demanded, watching Adrian shrug.
"Quit holding back," he said with a goofy smile. "You know you want this with me, you just won't admit it. You're too...closed off."
"I'm aware of what I want, Adrian, and believe me this isn't it," Beth said in a strong voice. "If I lead you on I had no intentions of doing so. I--"
"You're still lying to yourself."
"How am I lying to myself?" Beth scoffed. "You're lying to yourself. I don't like you like that, so stop convincing yourself that I do, okay?"
Adrian pinched the bridge of his nose and exhaled before leaning his elbows into his knees. "Okay. I've given you time and I've waited. But I've waited long enough. This happens now or you lose me."
Beth narrowed her eyes again and jerked her head back, her quill slipping from her fingers. "You're kidding. Don't do that, okay? That isn't fair at all."
"No, you know what's not fair? Watching you pine after that poor idiot Weasley while I've been here for ages pining after you," Adrian snapped at her, slamming his fist down onto the table with a loud crack before storming out of the library, leaving Beth to sit there in shock.