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"Mm, you smell good," Archie said to Tyler, "what is that?"
"What, my cologne?"
"Yeah, man."
"It's a muggle brand, here," Tyler lifted his Hufflepuff tie, "I always spray it on this spot on my tie..."
Archie took the tie in his hands and lifted it up to smell it, "oh God...that's so nice..."
"Yeah?"
Archie looked up at him, his hand still gripping the Hufflepuff tie, they locked eyes and he felt his voice go for a second before stuttering out an, "I-oh, yeah. It's...nice."
"Get a room," Jane said teasingly as she sat opposite them.
They scooted away from each other instinctively.
"Have you seen Carrie?" She asked.
"Yeah we left her in the library, I'm sure she'll be here soon."
"She has about seven papers to be done by tomorrow," Archie shook his head, "poor girl doesn't have time to breathe."
"Unless it's for tutoring Sirius Black, then all of a sudden she has all the time in the world," said Tyler lightly, a cheeky grin on his face.
Jane snorted, "too true."
"I mean, can you blame her?" Archie asked, raising a sly brow.
Jane looked at Archie, "Didn't you and Black..."
"Didn't we what?"
"You had a...thing...mid fifth year wasn't it?" Jane asked.
"Oh yeah," Archie smirked, "that was fun."
"What..." Tyler cleared his throat, "what happened?"
"Use your imagination, Ty," Archie said, before looking at Jane who rolled her eyes at him.
"Evening all."
They looked up at Caroline who sat beside Jane. She took out her hair, the curls exploding out of the restraints of the hairband and tumbling down her shoulders. She massaged her head, shutting her eyes for a moment.
"Are you okay?" Jane asked softly.
"Just need a moment, my head hurts."
She stared down at the table, not realising how Tyler's attention had suddenly turned sharply to Julian Hughes who had left the Gryffindor table and was heading to the Hufflepuff table where they sitting.
"What's he doing?" Archie asked.
"He better not come over here," Tyler said.
Caroline looked up at this and followed their gaze, swallowing nervously when she saw Julian was heading over to them. She smoothed down her hair absently for a moment before realising what she was doing and pulling her hands away, resting them anxiously in her lap.
"I'll punch him, I will, I'll do it," Jane said through gritted teeth,
"I wonder what he wants," Caroline murmured thoughtfully.
She noticed many people were looking over at him. They, like her, were wondering what on Earth he was doing.
He caught her eye but didn't smile. Of course, why would he? He was walking down the side of the table where she was sitting and soon stopped right next to her. She didn't look at him.
"Caroline."
She said nothing.
"Can I, please, um...can I talk to you?" He asked.
"This fuckin' guy," Archie scoffed, looking at the others before giving Julian a dirty look.
"About what?" She asked, still not looking up at him.
"It's something private...about us."
She looked up at him then.
"It's important," he said.
She sighed, shaking her head. But then, reluctantly, she stood up and looked at him with a raised eyebrow expectantly, her arms crossed.
"Thank you," he said.
He lead her out of the hall, unaware of the hundreds of eyes following them out.
"What the hell is he doing," Sirius muttered to his friends, angrily taking a sip of water, his eyes not leaving the door.
"Going to talk to her?" Remus suggested.
"He has no right to talk to her," Sirius said quietly.
"Alright, serious Sirius," James nudged him, "what's gotten into you all of a sudden?"
"You should have seen her after it happened...he should never be allowed to talk to her again."
"Everyone saw her after it happened, we all live here, remember?" Remus said.
"No, as is in just after it happened," Sirius said.
"You saw her just after it happened?"
"Yeah..."
"Shit, man..."
"What do you want?" Caroline asked him as they stood in an empty corridor, "you said it was important."
"I...my mates told me that they saw you and Black together in the library," Julian started, "the Gryffindor one, that is."
"Right..."
"Is that true?"
"I mean, yes it is," she looked at him strangely, "why?"
"They said it looked like you guys were..."
He trailed off and she raised an eyebrow. Where was this going?
"They said it looked like you were guys were together together," Julian sighed.
"Right," Caroline crossed her arms, "and?"
"What do you mean...I'm asking if you're dating him, Caroline," he said, "God you're so clueless."
"I'm not dating him," she said coldly, her steely gaze fixed upon him in such a silently furious way that he had to look away himself, "is that all you wanted to talk to me about?"
"I just had to make sure you hadn't, you know..."
"Moved on?"
"Well yeah, but it's just Black, you know...he'd never be good for you, Caroline. You must know that."
Caroline couldn't believe what she was hearing. Her heart was pounding so heavily in her chest that she could feel it in her ears, the pure anger she felt that this boy, the boy who cheated on her with her best friend, was saying this.
And that was when she snapped.
We often laugh and joke about what happens when the quiet ones snap. The ones who are always softly-spoken, sensible, hard-workers. The ones who avoid conflict, who keep their head down and always try to do their best. We often wonder what would happen if these people ever were to snap, if things finally got to much and their solid exterior of not standing up for themselves finally was to shatter.
"I..." she took a moment, looked down, exhaled, before looking back up at him and beginning to speak quieter, "I'm not with him, and even I was with him it would be absolutely none of your business-"
"Well-
"I'm not done," she said, a bit louder, "you made sure that it wasn't any of your business the moment you slept with someone else. If you-"
"I never slept with her-"
"Do I look like I'm finished?" She asked, the adrenalin getting to her as she spoke to him in a way that she had never spoken to anyone before, her voice becoming shaky, "If you think for a moment that you have any say in what I do in my life, you are royally mistaken. You were the one who slept with my best friend-"
She prodded him sharply in the chest with the wand that she hadn't even realise she had drawn-
"You were the one that was toxic-"
She prodded him again, making him wince-
"You were the one with the shitty, shitty friends who always made fun of me because they knew you would never say anything about it," she said, her voice cracking with emotion then, "this is all your fault."
"I..."
"I told you to never speak to me again," she said tearfully, lowering her wand, "so for once, in your whole...pathetic existence, do what you're fucking supposed to do. And leave me alone."
"Fine," he said, looking at her with this unreadable mix of emotion, "but you've changed, Caroline. It seems Black's gotten to you already-"
She raised her wand again.
"Colloshoo," she spat.
"What-" he tried to move but his legs were stuck to the floor, "Caroline...whatever you're about to do."
"Calvorio."
His eyes widened, even though he didn't recognise the incantation, because he had felt his head get lighter. He looked down to see clumps of blonde hair were falling down to settle around his feet. Calvorio was the incantation to the hair-loss curse.
"Caroline please, take it back, fix it, please...Caroline," he begged.
"It will wear off in a couple of days," she said, cocking her head and looking at him, before mimicking his words from earlier, "oh, Julian, you've changed."
"Caroline...hey! Come back! Caroline!"
And although she got her first ever detention that day, it was probably the best thing she had ever done. For once she had finally stood up for herself, and it felt like a massive weight had been lifted from her shoulders.
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