Thank you for 12K reads! I never even dreamed of Toujours Pur getting this far and I am so glad that it has. Thank you for all your support! <3

Being in a relationship for Florean was quite a good way to keep his mind off the whole Euphemia situation - he was able to sneak around school with David, the two of them making out and having fun wherever and whenever possible, as long as they kept it completely secret.

If they were to reveal their relationship to anyone, not only would they get discriminated against for being together but they would also be terribly misunderstood as everyone would assume that they were 'gay.'

Besides, Florean hadn't even told his parents yet and neither had David, as the pair of them had both been so conflicted and confused about their feelings towards both genders that it would've been hard to explain to their parents.

Florean knew that Mr and Mrs Fortescue would be fine with it, it was just the explanation that he wasn't just gay and that he liked girls as well which would be the issue.

No one had ever heard of it before and David was the first person that Florean had ever met that was also going through the same problem.

The stress that had filled Florean's life ever since the entire group had fallen out with Mia had started to disappear as he distracted himself with David and he slowly found himself discovering happiness again.

Of course, there was always a melancholy and betrayed feeling that settled in the pit of his stomach whenever he passed Euphemia in the corridor or saw her in one of his classes but that couldn't be helped.

David had suggested for them to talk to her or else it wouldn't get any better but Florean was pretty sure that all of his friends were completely against Mia and believed her to be the spy that Orion claimed that she was.

Besides, all the emotional wounds were still rather raw and, even if some of his friends were unsure on whether to hate Euphemia or not, it was still rather a touchy subject and awkward silences always had to be endured whenever her name was accidentally brought up in conversation.

Charlus seemed to be taking it the hardest and the harshest because he had even taken to glaring darkly at Mia in the corridors and in classes, reminding Florean of the time that Euphemia and Charlus hated each other.

He really thought it was a shame because they had been getting on so well together as of late and the majority of the group had actually thought that they were going to get together at some point. Apparently not.

However, whenever he thought about Mia, Florean couldn't help but feel betrayed as all of the points did add up - if she had been a spy then it did make sense why she had always been flitting between the two groups and why she had chosen to hang out with other Slytherins at times instead of them.

At the times that Mia had chosen her family and other Slytherins etc over them, Florean had simply assumed that it was to ensure her safety and for Euphemia make sure she wasn't seen around with them for her own sake. But what if it had been something more?

Florean shook his head with a sigh as he walked through the grounds, his hands deep in his robes pockets as he made his way to his Herbology lesson.

He had planned to walk down with Pomona but she had had to run back to the dormitories to fetch her textbook at the last minute - her mind was all over the place, as was the same case with the rest of them.

So that meant he was alone and Florean couldn't help but take his time to get to the greenhouses as he knew that the Slytherins, who the Hufflepuffs shared the class with, would be lingering outside and the boy didn't really fancy standing there whilst they called him every name under the sun. Plus, Mia would be amongst them and Florean wasn't sure he could handle the pain.

However, Euphemia wasn't actually there and she was in fact behind the loitering Florean, watching him sadly.

She wasn't sure how Florean felt about it all because he hadn't really expressed his feelings to her vocally, only moving away from her in Herbology which was the one thing that gave Mia the indication that he didn't want anything to do with her.

Even so, she had to try. Euphemia walked swiftly down to him, glancing nervously around to see if anyone was watching. Once Mia was satisfied that there were no eye witnesses or eavesdroppers, she tapped him on the shoulder.

Startled out of his thoughts, Florean span around and came face to face with his previous best friend. A shard of pain shot through his heart as he saw her but there was also the uncertainty that Florean felt about the entire situation building in his stomach.

"Hi," she mumbled, her confidence diminishing as soon as she saw how tired and stressed Florean looked. It was basically how Euphemia was feeling herself - she was just better at hiding her pain after fourteen years of it. Mia was practically a professional in hiding her real emotions by now.

Florean considered not answering and just blanking her but that would be petty and Florean Fortescue certainly was not petty whatsoever. Besides, even if they couldn't sort it between them, Florean still wanted to be civil with Mia. "Hey," he answered, also looking down before he glanced at her expectantly, as if questioning what she wanted.

"I feel like I owe you an explanation," Euphemia told him, her fingernails digging into her palms to try and calm herself down so that she didn't have a full blown panic attack in front of him.

"Go on then," Florean replied, crossing his arms and trying to frown at her. She took a deep breath, about to start but then she sighted Druella and Orion heading down to the edge of the Forbidden Forest for their Care of Magical Creatures lesson. Mia's eyes widened and she knew she couldn't risk it.

"Tell Charlus to meet me outside the library at 7 o'clock tonight. I would like to explain to you all but I feel like I owe Charlus the truth first," Euphemia suddenly gabbled, her eyes full of fear as they darted towards the approaching Druella and Orion.

Florean looked confused and was about to respond when Mia ran off, her dark hair flowing out behind her and contrasting with her green lined robes. Florean was about to walk after her towards his lesson in the greenhouses when a manicured hand suddenly grabbed his arm, pulling him back.

For the second time in the same ten minutes, Florean found himself face to face with a girl from the Noble House of Black. Despite Druella Rosier having a different surname, she was still a cousin of the family and Florean wasn't exactly pleased to see her.

"Was Euphemia just speaking to you, scum?" Druella snarled and Florean wasn't exactly flattered by the new name but he restricted himself from retorting as Orion was also stood behind Druella, cracking his knuckles threateningly.

"She was..." Florean said hesitantly, unsure of what that would mean for Mia. "What was she saying to you?" Orion demanded, leaning forward a little more.

Florean paused, he was about to tell them that Euphemia had requested for him to tell Charlus to meet her but then he remembered the fear in her eyes when she had seen Druella and Orion approaching.

It had been the same fear that Florean had seen in Mia's grey - blue irises the time that she had gotten upset in his bedroom in the summer between the two's third and fourth year.

It was moments like those that Florean remembered about Euphemia and it convinced him even more that she had not been spying, one simply couldn't act as scared as Mia had been that day in the summer, in the few weeks after she had lost her memory.

"Well?" Druella's harsh voice cut Florean out of his thoughts and he jumped a little, having completely forgotten that they were there.

"She was insulting me, as a matter of fact," Florean lied, feeling rather nauseated when he saw the smug smiles on their faces.

"Oh, she's learning so much," Orion said in a rather proud manner and Druella shot a glare at Florean, "Yes, she's finally realising what filth she was hanging around with," Druella spat at Florean.

Anger boiling in his body, Florean turned away and stalked off. Why he had lied for Euphemia and defended her, he didn't know but something wasn't right about it all. He knew Mia and he had an inkling that everything that was rumoured around their group was not really true.

Florean thought about Euphemia's pleading gaze and he decided he would pass on the message for Charlus to meet her.

They needed to talk it out and come to the conclusion of what the truth really was. Florean just had to hope that Charlus would agree to talk reasonably to Mia and that he wouldn't refuse.

Because Florean truly believed Euphemia deserved one more chance.

~~~

Charlus Potter paced up and down in the corridor outside of the library, where he was supposed to meet Mia. His hands were running through his already mussed up hair out of nerves and he seriously couldn't believe that he was actually doing what he was doing.

Florean had managed to convince him to give Euphemia one more chance to explain herself and to explain her actions and speech in Hogsmeade on that fateful day of the attack.

It was obvious that Florean wasn't sure whether Mia was to be trusted but his best mate also didn't think that Euphemia had been spying, as was the same for the majority of the group.

They were blanking her and being mad with her because they didn't know what else they were supposed to do until everything was cleared up. How on earth were they supposed to trust Mia after what she had claimed to have been doing?

None of them were sure but that just made them hostile and they all closed ranks around the heartbroken Charlus, who had spent the days after his failed date with Euphemia just wallowing in self pity before he went and flirted with other girls again, going back to his player ways.

Sighing, Charlus glanced at his watch and frowned when he saw that Mia was nearly half an hour late - he had been pacing up and down for nearly thirty whole minutes.

Still, his feelings for Euphemia didn't just go away overnight and, no matter how mad he was at her and no matter how betrayed he felt with her, Charlus had to stay and he wanted to wait.

A couple of pretty sixth years walked out of the library at that moment, eyeing up Charlus rather interestedly, as he did look rather handsome leaning against the wall with his leather jacket on instead of his robes, something he had started to do quite recently, much to the irritation of the professors.

"Hello, Charlus," one of them smiled flirtatiously, placing a hand on his arm. Charlus noted that one of them was in Ravenclaw and the other one was in Slytherin. The Slytherin girl had flaming red locks while the other donned a blonde mob of hair.

The red haired one was flirting with him and he smirked a little, a feat that made the blonde girl practically faint. "Can I help you?" Charlus asked and the red head tightened her grip on the playboy.

"I'm Adelaide Yaxley and this is Isabelle Murphy," she introduced them, flicking her hair a little but Charlus had lost interest by now, his eyes on the approaching figure at the other end of the corridor.

"We'll finish this conversation later, ladies," he winked and they both swooned before Charlus excused himself out of Adelaide's grip and walked towards Euphemia, who was staring at him nervously.

"Hello," he said rather coolly and she mumbled a greeting back, not actually looking him in the eye. "Florean said you needed to speak to me," Charlus reminded her when Mia didn't actually say anything, simply scuffing her foot back and forth out of nerves.

His hardened expression slipped a little and Charlus was about to try and ease her shyness but then he remembered how mad he was at her. So he waited.

"I'm sorry," Euphemia muttered, "You got the wrong idea - Orion was holding onto me pretty tight and I'm scared of him, I can't help it," she shrugged and was about to carry on when Charlus cut her off. "You mean what you said wasn't true?" he asked, a little bubble of hope starting to raise in his chest.

Meanwhile, whilst Charlus and Mia were trying to work out their differences and figure out what had actually happened during their failed date and establish whether Euphemia had been spying or not, Druella Rosier was heading to the library.

The sixth year Slytherin had some work to sort out and she also wanted to check out a Dark Arts book from the Restricted Section, under the pretence that she needed it for an essay.

Druella had managed to manipulate Slughorn into signing her a form and she held this between her sharp, manicured nails as she stalked down the corridor leading towards the library, watching in amusement as everyone scurried out of her way and even went to the extreme of pressing themselves against walls to avoid being in her path.

She was one scary girl, that was for sure. Though Druella was, in fact, nearly a woman because her seventeenth birthday was approaching in the upcoming April. Then she would be a scary woman.

Her narrowed eyes soon found the figure of her cousin, Euphemia, who had brought more trouble to the Black family than all of the disowned cousins combined. Mia was talking to that dratted Potter idiot and Druella scowled upon seeing the interaction - she thought Euphemia had finally cut off all contact with her filthy friends.

That had been the whole idea of the attack, after all: to separate Mia and her friends once and for all. And also strike fear in everyone's hearts and make a point of causing terror amongst Hogwartians and Hogsmeade inhabitants alike. And now here Euphemia was, still talking to Charlus as if the Knights of Walpurgis' effort in the attack was all for nothing. Something had to be done.

Druella slunk further down the corridor, placing a Disillusionment Charm on herself to conceal her appearance from Charlus and Mia near to the library.

She watched through narrowed eyes as Charlus seemed to relax, leaning against the wall even more and nearly smiling at Euphemia - she was speaking rather eagerly and quickly, a desperate glint in her eye as she practically begged him to understand.

"Imperio," Druella whispered underneath her breath, pointing her wand in the direction of Mia and watching in satisfaction as the spell took it's toll on Euphemia.

To test that it was working, Druella jerked her wand upwards and commanded Mia to stand upright which she did pretty quickly, making Druella smirk evilly.

Euphemia didn't feel right. One minute, she had been completely fine and she had been talking to Charlus - he had actually been listening to her as she explained all about how Orion had threatened her and made her say yes about the spying. But now she felt all weak and lightheaded.

Mia had actually had some hope raising inside of her but she soon started feeling rather weak and had the urge to suddenly stand up as straight as she could possibly do so.

"Euphemia? You okay?" Charlus asked hesitantly, still annoyed at her and unsure about the entire situation - he didn't know whether he could trust her or not yet. Charlus couldn't help but notice that Mia's usually bright grey - blue eyes had gone strangely blank.

Say that you're fine a voice said in Euphemia's head and she opened her mouth, "I'm fine," she mumbled and Charlus simply nodded before looking back at her expectantly, waiting for her to carry on explaining. Mia had just got up to the point where Orion had whispered threateningly in her ear when she had froze and her stance had changed.

Don't speak. Take out your wand and point it at him a voice hissed in her head again and Euphemia shook her head, not wanting to listen but she couldn't fight it, her hand was withdrawing her wand and Charlus was soon backing away in alarm.

"Euphemia! What the hell are you doing?" Charlus exclaimed, completely and utterly taken aback to see Mia pointing her wand at him threateningly, the same cold and distant look in her eyes as before.

Druella, underneath her Disillusionment Charm, smirked and ordered Euphemia to curse him which she did so, jabbing her wand in his chest and uttering the dark spell that Druella commanded her to use.

Charlus fell like a puppet that had it's strings cut, his body hitting the floor with a thump as his lungs felt like they were on fire, shrivelling up and causing him to cough madly as he curled up on the floor.

Euphemia was still under the influence of the Imperious Curse and stared at him blankly as he teetered on the edge of unconsciousness, Charlus staring up at her in disbelief and shock.

Druella was finally satisfied that she had caused enough trouble to serve Mia a lifetime of suffering so she ordered Euphemia to walk away before she unveiled herself, stalking up to Charlus' unconscious body and kicking him.

Mia still had no idea what was going on or what had happened, she was still under the influence of the Imperious Curse and was still walking away.

Her mind suddenly cleared from the curse, courtesy of a smirking and satisfied Druella, and she stopped short in the corridor, confused as to how she ended up near the library but simply shrugged, deciding to walk down to the Slytherin common room and so turned back.

Euphemia started to walk back towards to the unconscious Charlus, though she had no idea that he was there. All memories of her conversation with Charlus had been wiped from her memory and she didn't remember anything of what she did whilst underneath the curse. The last thing that she remembered was walking up to the library, though she didn't know why she had been doing so.

Mia didn't see Charlus at first - she simply decided to head into the library to do some studying but when she saw a discarded shoe sticking out from around the corner, she swung backwards to peer at whatever it was.

Charlus was lying on the floor, sprawled out in the position that he had fallen in and his breathing was very uneven - the curse that the imperiused Euphemia had hit him with had been a dark one that obviously came from the recesses of Druella's disturbing mind and it made the victim's lungs clam up and shrivel so that they found it hard to breathe.

Luckily, when Druella had removed the Imperius Curse from Mia, the curse on Charlus had also been lifted but he had still suffered under it enough to become unconscious. Of course, Euphemia didn't know any of this and simply gaped in horror and shock at Charlus' form on the floor before she rushed to his side, checking for a pulse.

Crap. What the hell happened? Mia thought frantically before screaming out for help, clutching Charlus and trying to shake him back to consciousness. "Help!" she yelled again, fumbling around for her wand so that she could try and revive him but she couldn't find it, her hands busy holding Charlus.

One of the girls that had been flirting with Charlus before suddenly appeared at Euphemia's cry for help, pulling Alastor behind her. The two had obviously been making out - their flushed cheeks and slightly rumpled clothes told Euphemia exactly what they had been doing. However, as soon as Alastor saw Mia clutching Charlus' unconscious body in her arms, he rushed over frantically.

"Mia, what happened?" he asked her urgently, assessing the situation with his blue eyes and forgetting how mad and confused he was at Euphemia in that moment. His best mate wasn't breathing and this was no time for grudges or arguments - Alastor helped Mia lift up Charlus and the two of them started to carry him.

"How about you levitate him?" the girl, Adelaide Yaxley, suggested as she bit one of her manicured nails out of nerves. Alastor and Euphemia both looked up at her in surprise, having forgotten that she was actually there and also surprised that she was actually smart enough to come up with something like that.

"Good point," Mia approved as Alastor took out his wand and pointed it at Charlus, levitating his body and starting to walk towards the hospital wing with a heightened sense of urgency. Now that she wasn't needed, Euphemia hung back sheepishly as she was pretty sure that Alastor wouldn't want her there.

"You coming?" Alastor asked, raising an eyebrow and looking over his shoulder at her, watching as her face lit up before she became disheartened again, the smile slipping from her face. "You wouldn't want me there," Mia muttered dejectedly and Alastor bit his lip, conflicted.

He didn't really want to bring her along as he and the rest of the group were still pretty mad at her as well as betrayed and confused by what she had done. Alastor personally didn't think that Euphemia was capable of spying on them but it didn't stop it all from being awkward and hurtful.

However, Mia had found Charlus and rose the alarm, when she could've just easily left him there because of everything that had happened between the two of them. "Come on," he urged before walking briskly to the hospital wing, hearing her footsteps behind him.

Euphemia was slightly relieved that Alastor didn't seem to hold anything against her but she was also incredibly concerned for Charlus, wondering who the hell could've hurt him like that. How come I don't remember what I was doing for the past hour? What if I was the one who hurt Charlus? she thought, biting her lip as she scurried after Alastor.

When they reached the hospital wing, the rather old and bumbling  Nurse Marley approached them quickly, helping them to aid Charlus onto the nearby bed. Mia stood next to Alastor awkwardly, fiddling with her fingers as the nurse thankfully managed to revive Charlus by shoving some potions down his throat. However, before Charlus could even blink himself to consciousness again, Nurse Marley gave him a Sleeping Draught which caused him to fall asleep swiftly.

"It's better if he sleeps through the pain," Nurse Marley explained to them when Alastor and Euphemia looked at her in shock at why she wasn't letting him to be conscious.

Mia was about to ask whether he would be alright when there was a sudden flurry of action from the entrance to the hospital wing and all of her old friends hurried into the ward with a sense of urgency and in a blur of chatter and footsteps. Obviously, Adelaide had informed them of the situation. Great.

Euphemia and Alastor both froze, staring at everyone. Minerva was at the front of the group, looking at Mia sternly with her arms crossed as her narrowed eyes flicked from the stricken looking Euphemia and the pale, sleeping Charlus in the bed.

As for the others, well - Eugenia had raised her eyebrows in surprise; Filius was avoiding Mia's eyes, preferring to look down at the floor; Pomona looked incredibly upset upon seeing Euphemia and appeared to be near to tears; Lyall coughed awkwardly and also didn't look at her and Florean stared at her sadly but all of them seemed to share the same feeling of confusion as to why she was there.

"I'll go now," Mia muttered awkwardly, feeling all of their gazes on her and she glanced briefly in the direction of Charlus with a flicker of melancholy flashing in her expression that only Pomona noticed.

Everyone else had gotten over their initial reactions of shock, confusion and upset and were all either glaring at her or narrowing their eyes with the exception of Florean.

Euphemia bit her lip to stop herself from crying as she strode away from the now surrounded bed, tears brimming in her eyes but not spilling as she blinked furiously to prevent them from escaping her eyelids.

Just as she was about to walk out of the hospital wing, she overheard Eugenia snap at Alastor, saying, "What was she even doing here anyway? Did you forget that she betrayed us all and spied on us?"

It looked like Mia wasn't going to get one more chance with her friends, after all.