"Does anyone want to explain why she was here?" Eugenia demanded, staring dead panned at Alastor, who seemed to be avoiding everyone's questioning looks.

Everyone appeared to be confused as to why Mia had been present in the hospital wing and they all were waiting for an answer from Alastor.

"I found her with Charlus, she raised the alarm," Alastor explained briefly, shrugging and Minerva frowned, her eyebrows furrowing as she tried to comprehend the facts.

Florean looked concerned because he had been the only one that knew that Euphemia and Charlus were meeting up to talk it over.

"And do we know who cursed Charlus?" Filius suddenly piped up, a slightly cautious tone lacing his words.

Alastor shrugged, taking a seat next to the sleeping Charlus, "I assume he'll tell us that when he wakes up," the ever logic blonde replied and this seemed to appease everyone else as they all gradually began to sit down around Charlus' bed, a thoughtful silence settling over them all.

Eugenia was staring at Charlus with a rather pining expression on her face whilst Pomona and Lyall appeared to be having a silent conversation with their hands and eyes, their lips barely moving.

Florean was pacing up and down - even though they had all been told by Nurse Marley that Charlus would be fine, he couldn't help but worry and Filius was watching him pace rather pensively, his hands clasped on his lap as his legs swung from up high because his small legs meant his feet couldn't touch the ground.

Minerva wasn't speaking to anyone - she was sat back in her chair with her arms crossed and a frown settling on her face as she was obviously deep in thought though she did keep glancing at Charlus every now and then.

Alastor was the one who was seated right beside Charlus' bed and he was reading a Defence Against The Dark Arts textbook but his eyes kept flitting up every few seconds to check on Charlus' breathing and it was obvious he wasn't actually focusing.

There was a tense silence throughout the entire hospital wing that was building awkwardly minute by minute when the door suddenly burst open and a fifth year Gryffindor, Brutus Scrimegeour, rushed in.

Brutus was a rather striking young boy with handsome features and a carefree air about him - he and Minerva had gone to the Christmas Dance together in third year and he had been a close friend of hers ever since, thus making him an acquaintance of the group as a whole.

He was also on the Gryffindor Quidditch team as a Beater and was known for liking mischief and being a bit of a troublemaker, hence making him a good friend of Charlus' as well.

"Oh Merlin, what happened?" Brutus exclaimed as he hurried into the wing, his Quidditch robes flying out behind him.

He had been waiting for Minerva and Charlus at practice when some girl had informed him (rather tearfully as a matter of fact) that Charlus Potter was in the hospital wing and that Minnie was probably with him too.

"Charlus got cursed but we don't know who did it," Minerva responded abruptly and the rest of the group watched as she stood up and embraced Brutus, obviously more shaken up by the whole situation than she was actually letting on.

Brutus, Charlus and Minnie were all on the team together which meant their friendship was pretty strong, despite Brutus being a year older, and it was obvious that Minerva could be weaker with her emotions around him.

Florean had often wondered why Brutus wasn't in their group but the age did make a huge difference and Brutus had other fifth year friends which he liked to hang out with.

"Will he be okay? We have a game in a fortnight, you know," Brutus worried out loud to Minnie as she pulled away from him slightly, going to sit down again and staring at Charlus with almost a tender, sisterly love and care.

"Is that all you care about?" Pomona snapped, suddenly jumping into the conversation, "Whether he will be able to play Quidditch? Shouldn't you be worried whether he'll be alright in general?" the feisty Hufflepuff pointed out to Brutus with a rather sharp look on her face.

Brutus appeared to become rather ashamed of himself and was evidently about to apologise when Alastor also jumped into the conversation.

"To be fair, Charlus is a very valuable Chaser and it's understandable that Brutus would wonder whether he will be fit enough for the next game," Alastor said with a shrug and Brutus sent him a grateful look as Pomona seemed to deflate back into her Miss-Nice-Girl persona, leaving the subject alone.

"May I sit?" Brutus asked and the group seemed to nod as one, leading him to take a seat.

Everyone was silent again for a moment before Eugenia spoke up for the first time in quite a while, a record for the usually talkative and vivacious blonde.

"Won't you be missed at practice?" she asked, gesturing to the window where they could see a few figures flying around on the pitch, their dark shadows against the evening sky hardly visible.

Brutus shrugged, not seeming too bothered by it. "I daresay they will but, as Pomona over here clearly pointed out," he gestured to Pomona, who flushed and bowed her head slightly, suddenly becoming interested in her skirt, "My friend's welfare is more important than a sport," he concluded and Lyall smiled a little in approval before they were all startled by Charlus' coughing as he awoke.

"Charlus? Charlus!" Eugenia exclaimed and she rushed to his bedside, grabbing his hand whilst everyone else also clamoured around, Minerva proceeding to discreetly pull Eugenia away from Charlus as she was practically sat on top of him she was that close.

Charlus' eyes blinked open rather slowly, like they were too heavy and the bright lights of the extremely white infirmary obviously dazzled his eyesight because he appeared to wince and proceeded to close his eyes again. "Hiya," he mumbled, his voice thick from sleep.

"You scared us for a moment there, buddy," Florean chuckled a little nervously as Charlus hoisted himself up with a groan of pain, Filius aiding him with plumping up the pillows behind him so he could rest his back.

"Well, I'm not dead," Charlus laughed and everyone mock cheered, whooping and pumping their fists up in the air.

However, amongst all the chaos around his bedside, Charlus' eyes were scanning all over, obviously looking for someone.

"Where's Mia?" he suddenly asked, bringing about an extremely awkward silence within the room and uncertain looks to arise.

"You want her here?" Eugenia asked, her voice sounding rather strangled as if she was struggling to comprehend what Charlus had just said.

The others seemed to be sharing the same reactions and emotions as Eugenia - everyone looked confused but also concerned, as if they weren't sure that Charlus was in his right mind.

Why would he want to see Euphemia now after he had hated on her ever since the attack?

"D'you want her here?" Lyall asked as Brutus looked on in complete and utter confusion, trying to catch Minnie's eye to fill him in but she avoided his gaze, biting her lip and looking down.

Charlus' tone and voice went from inquisitive and curious to dark and scoffing in about the matter of a mere thirty seconds.

"Yes, I would quite like to shake her hand as she is the reason I ended up here," Charlus laughed scornfully, all joviality gone from his mood and subsequently from the room as a whole, a solemn shadow settling over them.

"Mia cursed you?" Florean asked incredulously as the others either exchanged 'I told you so' looks or glanced at each other in shock and surprise. "I knew I never should've let her meet up with you..." he muttered dejectedly.

He had thought he had been doing the right thing by passing on the message that Euphemia wanted to talk to Charlus but clearly he had messed up because now his best mate lay in a hospital bed and it was his fault.

"It's not your fault, man," Charlus said gently, as if he could read Florean's mind and guess what he was thinking, noticing the droop in his friend's shoulders whilst everyone else watched on silently.

"No it's not, it's Black's fault. Again. I say we just blank her now," Eugenia added with a rather dark tone as the rest of the group all either sighed or nodded in agreement to what Eugenia said.

Except for Brutus. Brutus stayed eternally confused and bewildered.

~~~

After rushing out of the hospital wing whilst trying not to cry, Mia had found herself on the second floor staircase, casting herself down on it and sobbing her heart out whilst she buried her head in her hands.

Everything had just fallen to pieces and Euphemia still didn't remember what she had been doing before she found Charlus which was incredibly confusing and concerning to the poor girl.

Mia had lost all of her friends forever - they had made that perfectly clear when they had all either not spoken to her whatsoever or talked behind her back spitefully before in the hospital wing.

She didn't know how else she was supposed to make it up to them, she had asked Florean to tell Charlus to meet her before Herbology earlier that day but he obviously hadn't showed because Euphemia had wound up finding him cursed on the floor outside the library.

But who would do that? Who would curse Charlus Potter? It wasn't like the boy had many enemies - he was the school's hottie and playboy, all the girls fell at his feet and he had dated or made out with nearly half of the girl population, deeming him one of the most popular blokes in the school.

No matter how many hearts he broke, girls still loved him so there was no reason that he would be attacked.

Obviously, there were some Slytherins and a few members of Mia's family that would want to hurt him because he was a blood traitor and a 'disgrace to the wizarding world.'

But Euphemia still couldn't put her finger on an exact person that would actually curse the boy and it was driving her crazy.

Sighing, Mia rubbed her eyes and placed her chin in her hands as her elbows rested on her knees in resignation.

Why had she messed everything up again? If she had just fought off Orion, none of this would have ever happened and she would still have all of her friends.

Stupid me, never getting anything right Euphemia thought to herself bitterly as she breathed in and out deeply, trying to stop herself from crying as sobbing only made her feel any worse.

All she could think about was how weak Charlus had looked in that hospital wing and Euphemia's heart lurched into her throat as she wondered what could've happened to him if she hadn't of been there.

But who had cursed him? Mia didn't remember seeing anyone running away and the curse inflicted plus the injuries on Charlus had seemed pretty new to Euphemia so he must have been attacked only a few moments before she got there.

The thing was, Mia didn't remember what she had been doing for the past hour so a tiny little part of her couldn't help but wonder whether she was involved somehow.

If she was, did this make it Euphemia's fault? Had she done something stupid that had caused Charlus to get hurt?

Mia knew she would never be able to forgive herself if Charlus had gotten hurt because of her and yet she truly didn't remember a thing about where she had been or what she had been doing at the time that Charlus was attacked.

Euphemia just wanted her friends back. It was all so simple and yet Mia didn't know how to get them back, she didn't know how she was supposed to persuade them how sorry she was and how what she said wasn't true.

Why couldn't they see that Euphemia hadn't meant what she had said whilst Orion held onto her so tightly that she had felt like she was going to suffocate?

"What's up with you then, Black?" a familiar voice suddenly sounded from above Mia and she removed her hands from her tear stricken face, looking up through bleary eyes to see a fellow Slytherin student from her year, Aaron Simons.

Aaron Simons, rather like Charlus, was a player and a hunk - the type that all the girls fawned over.

He had rather sticky up brown hair that females loved to run their hands through and he had the exact type of bad boy persona that would make any weak hearted girl swoon.

He was well known for his arrogant smirk and mischievous, sparkling green eyes as well as his 'pranking' personality.

Aaron was the very guy that, during a third year Astronomy class, put some sort of toxic goo down the telescopes of the Gryffindors which then spurt up and hit several of them in the eyes, landing loads of Gryffindors in the hospital wing for a few days.

Aaron was also the type of guy that you didn't cross - he was well deserving of his place in Slytherin because he was cunning and sly when he wanted to be but he could also be incredibly empathetic and it was rumoured that he was a good listener.

Despite his whole bad boy personality and the fact that he almost got expelled for taping fireworks to the bottom of the Gryffindor table and nearly blowing up the Great Hall, Aaron was actually a rather nice person.

"It's nothing," Euphemia mumbled, hoping that he would go away but Aaron simply raised an eyebrow, moving so that he was stood on the same step that Mia was sat on, towering over her.

"You don't look like it's nothing," Aaron pointed out, gesturing at her rather pathetic looking figure with her damp face that indicated that she had quite obviously been crying.

"May I sit?" Aaron asked quietly, after not getting any response from Euphemia - he had received simply a look away as Mia had turned her head in order to avoid looking at him.

As far as Euphemia knew, he wasn't a prejudiced git and that was enough for her so she nodded for him to sit down, still looking down in her shame of being caught crying by a boy that could easily make fun of her for it and ruin the rest of her school life. Not that there was much of it left anyway....

"Now...tell me what's wrong," Aaron urged her and Mia nearly laughed out loud at his pure audacity to actually try and understand her situation.

Though she knew Aaron was not all bad and could be a good listener, Euphemia wasn't really ready to just start spilling all of her secrets to some guy that she only really knew because of them being in the same year and house, therefore meaning they had the majority of their classes together.

"You? Seriously?" Mia exclaimed incredulously, raising her eyebrows and sending him an extremely surprised look as she attempted to hide the fact that she had been crying.

"We're not even friends, Simons. Why would I confide everything in you?" she asked him, wondering why on earth he was sat there instead of causing mayhem, smoking cigarettes or snogging girls. Or all three. All at the same time, even.

Aaron blinked at Euphemia for a second before he slowly brought his hand to rest on his chest, just above his heart as he stared at her in utter disbelief and shock, "You wound me right here, Black," he dramatically said.

Mia was about to laugh when she remembered how dramatic Florean could be at times and a wave of missing her best friend hit her.

Aaron watched as her slightly amused expression dropped into one of complete and utter misery so he stopped messing around and shuffled a little closer to her, genuine concern lining his expression now.

"Seriously, what's up?" he asked her, actually wanting to know now. At first, Aaron had to admit, he had just been bored and curious on why Euphemia was crying but now Aaron was genuinely intrigued and slightly worried.

"The sky," Mia responded dully to the question, her lame joke falling flat as Aaron stared at her blankly, not taking any nonsense and she sighed in defeat.

"Fine. My friends all hate me because they think I was spying on them when I actually wasn't. And now they won't talk to me and they won't listen to my side of the story," Euphemia finally told him, nearly gabbling as she did so whilst Aaron recoiled a little in shock, having not actually thought it would be something that deep.

To be honest, Aaron had assumed Mia was upset about some dumb breakup or a petty argument with her friends but this sounded a lot more serious and Aaron didn't actually know what to say.

"Sorry to hear that," he finally mumbled rather pathetically and Euphemia scoffed, starting to stand up. She was so done with this entire situation and with him.

"Wait," Aaron grabbed her hand to stop her from leaving and attempted to yank her back down but Mia stared down at him blankly, her mouth set in a thin line.

"Let go of me, please," she ordered with a commanding tone - there was no way Euphemia was letting another goddamn boy grab her, that was way too reminiscent of the time Orion manipulated her by force to lie to her friends.

Unlike Orion, Aaron immediately let go and even held his hands up in surrender with an apologetic expression which made Mia's own face soften and she seated herself back down gradually.

"That was a bad reaction, sorry," Aaron shrugged and Euphemia rolled her eyes before commenting a sarcastic, "No kidding," which made Aaron chuckle heartedly.

"You're funny, I like that," he smirked but Mia simply raised an eyebrow which soon ended his amusement, much to Euphemia's own inner entertainment and satisfaction.

I just tamed a bad boy she thought to herself and was about to rejoice when Aaron leaned in again, the smell of cigarette smoke and cologne radiating off him as he started to speak.

"Is there anything I can do to help? Because you look really sad and I hate seeing people getting sad. Whatever you want me to do, I'll be there for you because everyone needs a shoulder to lean on sometimes, don't you think?" he asked, getting rather close to her face and Mia discreetly shuffled away, glaring slightly at him for the close contact.

She was about to decline his offer when something inside of her broke and she softened up again, smiling a little, "Yeah, I could do with a friend around about now if you're willing to take me up on that offer. As for the shoulder to lean on, I could do with a shoulder to cry on," Euphemia said with a rather sad chuckle, thinking of how she only had Eileen left now.

With all of her boy best friends currently hating her, Mia really was missing guy company and Aaron seemed like a pretty decent guy, compared to the jerk she thought she had known for the past four years.

Maybe it was all an act, maybe he was only pretending to be nice because he felt sorry for her but Aaron had succeeded in making Euphemia feel a little bit better by proving that not all was lost and that people still cared, even the ones that she wouldn't have even expected.

"I'd be happy to be your friend and your shoulder to cry on, Euphemia Black," Aaron responded with a slight smile, nudging her playfully and Mia quickly embraced him, uttering a quick 'thank you' in his ear before getting up and practically running away, unable to believe she had actually tamed the bad boy and seen the good side of the supposedly tough Aaron Simons.

Even in the darkest of situations, Aaron had shown Euphemia that there could always be hope that would be found, no matter how much one might despair - hope and light will always overtake and overcome the darkness.