"Alastor Moody, you will give me that camera back right now if you know what's good for you," Heather growled, lunging for the camera again but Alastor leaped aside, nearly dropping the camera in the process but narrowly gripping onto it with his calloused fingertips.

"No, I want some answers first," Alastor said and suddenly, it wasn't the sympathetic and caring boy that had listened to her story about Acacia with a grim expression that was in front of her...Alastor was truly intimidating now and Heather gulped.

She was so thankful to him that he had listened without judging or interrupting her, Heather had actually thought that perhaps Alastor Moody wasn't as bad of a blood traitor as she had always assumed and Heather had actually forgotten that she was technically 'fraternising with the enemy' whilst she had been confiding in him....but now her mood had changed.

"You know," Alastor dragged out his words slowly, "I have to congratulate you on finding out what we never did," he told her, tilting his blonde head to one side and Heather frowned in confusion, not understanding but, before she could open her mouth to question him, he continued talking and pressed the index finger of his free hand to her lips, shushing her.

"I never knew that two of my best mates were dating and I have to thank you for informing me in this....interesting....way," Alastor said, his voice lowering so that Heather had to lean in further in order to hear what he was saying.

Alastor had, in fact, been pleasantly shocked when he had discovered the photograph on Heather's camera, which she had dropped when she bumped into him and forgotten about until she finished her story about her twin. He had originally been planning to hand it back to her straightaway but his blue eyes had seen the incriminating photograph of Charlus and Mia kissing and a shock wave had radiated through his body.

As he had encouraged her to confide in him, Alastor had discreetly tried to delete the photograph on the camera with his hand behind his back but it only popped out of the slot at the top and stayed there, meaning that he would attract attention to himself if he tore it from the camera. Therefore, the quick-thinking boy now decided that he would simply negotiate with Heather instead of trying to sneakily dispose of the photograph.

Heather didn't reply to him, her glare still fixed on her face and Alastor reached forward and stroked her cheek softly, sending a strange feeling through Heather at his touch, "You know, if you keep glaring like this, the wind will change one day and your face will be stuck in an angry glare forever," he told her in a conversational tone, as if he were merely discussing the weather. Which he was, in a way.

"Shut up and give me my camera back, Moody," Heather growled at him, slapping his palm away from her cheek with a ferocious energy. Alastor glanced at the camera in mocking thought as if he was actually considering returning it back to her possession but shook his head, "Nah, I'd rather keep it for a little longer."

Before she could speak again, he cut her off, "So, tell me. What were you going to do with this photograph? Blackmail Mia?" Alastor asked and, when Heather didn't reply verbally but simply rolled her eyes and nodded, he added sarcastically, "That's so original, Rosier. The real question is..why?"

"She's a blood traitor," Heather managed to hiss out through her gritted teeth as her eyes continued to stare him down, not that Alastor was intimidated in the slightest. "So am I, but you're not snapping pictures of me when I'm snogging ladies," he shrugged.

Heather sighed - she had been planning to meet up with Walburga to show her best friend the photograph and then Walburga would decide how to craft their revenge. Walburga had found out about Euphemia and Charlus going on a date by talking to Eileen, who had confirmed that she was pretty sure that they were dating.

But she wasn't going to tell Alastor Moody that fact. So she turned her head away from him, refusing to even look in his direction. "Tell me why, Rosier, otherwise we're going to be here all day and I don't fancy spending my Hogsmeade visit with the likes of you," Alastor was suddenly in front of her, having moved around in order to ensure that he was looking into her face at all times.

Heather groaned in frustration, "She doesn't deserve to be happy, not after what she's done to Walburga in the past," she mumbled sourly, reluctance lining her expression because she hadn't wanted to give into his incessant questioning, knowing that she didn't want to spend all day with him either.

Alastor had had enough - the rage and frustration at the situation had built up inside of him and, although he was usually a rather calm and collected person, he found himself snapping at her, "What Mia has done to Walburga? Are you bloody kidding me? Walburga and yourself plus the majority of Mia's family has made her life a living hell for the past few years, just because she believes in something different to you! Don't you dare try to claim that Mia has done anything to Walburga when she has been the victim throughout all of this!"

Heather scowled, "She's betrayed her family and her expectations. She deserves to be punished!" she insisted to Alastor, who was breathing heavily with fury and became even more incensed upon what the girl was saying, his blue eyes narrowing dangerously and his jaw clenching. Heather swore she could hear his teeth gritting together and - she couldn't help herself - she gulped.

It would be the first and last time that Alastor Moody ever raised his hand to a woman but he slapped Heather Rosier right across the face then, "Say another word about my friend deserving unhappiness and I'll give you much more than a slap," he growled, internally surprised at himself for being so violent. There was just something about Heather that really irked him....

He couldn't believe that he had ever felt sorry for her in his life and, as he stared at her now slightly red face, from where her cheek had made contact with his palm, all he saw was hate and bitterness woven into the shape of a fifteen year old girl. It was horrendous and, even though he knew the reason behind Heather's cruelty, Alastor could not find an ounce of empathy for the girl in his entire body.

"You, along with many others, are the reason why Mia has been so miserable in her life. But no, as soon as she finds some happiness, you have to rip it away. Well, I'm not going to let you," Alastor told her firmly, dropping the camera onto the icy floor and stamping on it with his foot, crushing the object completely.

Heather's mouth dropped open and she let out a sound that was halfway between a yell of outrage and a screech of shock, leaping at Alastor but he simply whipped out his wand and blasted her backwards with a quick flick of his wand, sending her flying into the air and skidding on her behind, the ice beneath her providing the slippery slide to her fall.

Her camera crushed on the floor and her pride in tatters from being knocked back by Alastor, Heather took a deep breath and hissed at the boy, "You're going to regret that so much, Moody. How could you?"
"It was the only way to make sure that you wouldn't leak the photograph," Alastor shrugged, not looking the least bit sorry as he peered down at her, towering over her petite figure.

"I was going to get you to promise not to send it anywhere but, after the horrible things you said about Mia deserving unhappiness, I knew that I couldn't trust you with such a responsibility. You brought this on yourself, Rosier," Alastor continued before he offered a hand to her to help her up, seeing as he wasn't totally impolite.

Heather glared at his proffered hand and slapped it away, grabbing the nearby lamppost to help herself up, the ice on the post cutting into her fingers but it was preferable over accepting Alastor's help. "Suit yourself," he shrugged.

"I trusted you with my childhood secrets - how could you not trust me?" Heather asked him, actually realising in shock that she was hurt a little by the fact that Alastor didn't trust her and had probably been faking his sympathy all along. Typical boy...playing with my feelings and then taking advantage of the situation to interrogate me and ruin my plans Heather thought to herself, scowling.

"Have you heard yourself?" Alastor exclaimed in exasperation, furrowing his eyebrows, "You're a cruel, dark, cynical and bitter girl, Rosier. I hope you get some help before it's too late," he shook his head at her before tightening his scarf around his neck and walking off, leaving Heather and her destroyed camera alone in the February ice.

"Oh, and by the way," Alastor turned around and Heather glanced up, "I think that Acacia would be very disappointed in how you've turned out to be, Heather," he said rather coolly and the words felt like wounds to Heather, as if Alastor had gotten a knife and stabbed her in the heart.

Acacia would be very disappointed....his words repeated in Heather's head long after Alastor had left and she sunk to the bench that they had been sat on, dropping her head into her hands in despair, "I'm sorry, Casey," she mumbled to the icy ground, "But you left me. This is how I cope."

It was then that she noticed something. As Heather buried her head in her hands, she saw through the gaps of her fingers that ice wasn't the only thing on the ground underneath the bench. In fact, there was a little piece of paper fluttering in the wind, jammed underneath one of the wooden bench's legs.

It was a torn photograph - the very one that had flown out of Heather's camera when Alastor had crushed it. Evidently, the photograph had gotten stuck and now Heather grabbed it, seeing the little grainy image of Euphemia and Charlus kissing and she squealed in malicious happiness, clutching it to her chest and rushing off towards the Hogs Head.

She soon reached the grimy pub, that was decorated with cobwebs and had a funny odour lingering around the grime-filled doorway that reminded Heather suspiciously of goats. Nevertheless, she entered and immediately spotted Walburga, who was one of the only punters in the place.

Placing her interaction with Alastor to the back of her mind, for it didn't matter now that she had managed to retrieve the photograph, Heather walked swiftly over to her friend, sitting down opposite Walburga and pulling a face as the dusty chair creaked loudly.

"Where have you been? What did you find out?" Walburga Black asked her friend eagerly, leaning across the table at the Hogs Head, where they had planned to meet once Heather had finished spying on Euphemia and Charlus (which had taken much longer than it was supposed to because of Alastor distracting and delaying Heather).

"Quite a lot," Heather answered vaguely, glancing around furtively before shifting on her chair, pulling another face at the state of the pub. "Why didn't we agree to meet in the Three Broomsticks? This place is disgusting," she muttered to Walburga, who rolled her eyes.

"The Three Broomsticks is packed full of people - there would be loads of eavesdroppers," Walburga told the blonde with a no-nonsense, rather irritable tone lacing her words. She was annoyed anyway because her best friend had showed up late and she had gotten many strange looks from the bartender when she had just sat there at a table by herself, tapping her foot impatiently.

"Yes, but then we wouldn't be heard because of all the noise," Heather argued back, her stubborn nature channelling her words as she also rolled her eyes, mirroring Walburga's earlier movement. She was also in a bad mood, probably brought on by her encounter with Alastor but she wasn't going to let it affect her too much.

"Whatever. I'm in charge and so I say we stay here," Walburga said rather loftily, sticking her nose up in the air and Heather scowled in response, "If you carry on being a bitch to me, I'm not going to show you what I found out, Wally."

"Don't call me that," Walburga hissed, clenching her jaw in frustration before she leaned forward over the grubby table, lowering her voice even more as the Hogs Head was eerily quiet and Walburga was starting to realise that Heather was probably right about them being able to blend into the crowd at the Three Broomsticks. Not that she would ever tell the girl that.

The Hogs Head was pretty much deserted, with the exception of a hooded figure in the corner who was hunched over a tall glass that was smoking suspiciously and the bartender himself, who was stood behind the bar, cleaning a glass with an extremely dirty rag which didn't seem to be making any difference to the already grimy glass.

The bar in the Hogs Head was small and extraordinarily dirty and strewn with sawdust and Heather gave it a rather disgusted look, shifting on her chair which creaked loudly again, leading Walburga to jump in surprise at the sudden sound in the quiet pub.

The windows were nearly opaque, meaning that no one could see in (a good factor that Walburga pointed out smugly to Heather) and the floor was all but invisible beneath the dirt which goaded Heather into lifting her polished shoes off the floor with disdain written all over her face.

"I don't like this place at all," Heather muttered distastefully to Walburga but her friend simply sighed, "Can you just tell me what you found out already?" she asked in exasperation, growing bored with Heather and how she was acting.

"Even better, I can show you," Heather replied gleefully, carefully pulling out the photograph from the inside pocket of her robes with a malicious smile and handing it over to Walburga. "It's a little ruined - I dropped my camera on the way over here," Heather lied slightly but Walburga seemed unconcerned, not even inquiring whether the camera had survived the fall.

Handling it carefully, Walburga took the torn and weather beaten photograph from Heather and peered at the grainy, grey picture which detailed the slightly jerky movements (for moving photographs were quite a new invention) of Charlus Potter pushing Mia Black up against a wall and kissing her whilst she responded enthusiastically.

"How disgusting," Walburga said but with the air of someone who was very pleased with herself and she exchanged a smirk with Heather, who was also quite smug about the fact that she had managed to capture the exact moment that could ruin Euphemia's life and reputation, no matter what Alastor had said about Mia not deserving any of it.

"She's engaged, as well," Heather pointed out to her friend with her smug expression still fixed on her face as Walburga's smirk dropped for a moment, her grey eyes turning colder and flashing with an unfamiliar emotion that Heather couldn't name.

"I'm quite aware of that," Walburga replied coolly before she muttered underneath her breath, "She doesn't deserve Orion...she's nothing but a nasty little whore, canoodling about with a blood traitor. Aunt Cassiopeia will be so mad!" she became gleeful again at the last part.

A throat suddenly cleared above of them and the two Slytherin girls looked up to see that the bartender, a rather middle aged man with a shaggy beard, was standing beside their table expectantly.

"Are you two girls going to order a drink or are you going to continue using my pub as a place to socialise?" Aberforth Dumbledore asked with a raised eyebrow as Walburga attempted to hide the incriminating photograph in her hand, concealing it in her lap.

"Just socialising, thanks," Heather answered rudely and Aberforth appeared enraged for a second before Walburga quickly cut in and asked for two Butterbeers, which the bartender went off to get, rather grudgingly.

"Why did you do that?" Heather hissed across the table and Walburga sighed, "Because I don't want to get kicked out, thank you very much," she told Heather with an annoyed expression on her face. "I wouldn't mind being kicked out...it's horrible in here."

"You're horrible too but I'm not complaining," Walburga responded with the slight air of a joke lining her words but she hardly glanced up from the photograph, a smug gleam still in her grey eyes. Heather scoffed and would've taken offence if it hadn't have been for the bartender arriving at that very moment with their drinks.

Eyeing the slightly dusty bottle with disdain, both girls took their Butterbeers and paid six sickles to Aberforth, who accepted it with a grunt and ambled off back to the bar, placing the silver coins in an ancient wooden till behind the bar that served as a cash register.

"So, what are we going to do with this evidence?" Heather asked Walburga, taking a sip of her Butterbeer. "Oh, I have the most brilliant plan, Heather," Walburga replied with a slightly evil grin, leaning in to inform her best friend of her ingenious idea.

~~~

"Thank you for a lovely day," Mia sighed in contentment, leaning her head on Charlus' shoulder as her arm hooked through his whilst they were walking down an alleyway behind the Hogsmeade shops, trying to stay out of sight of other students and finding all of the best snogging spots, laughing all the while.

"Well, you know what they say - it's only a lovely day if you have lovely company," Charlus grinned at her charmingly and Euphemia rolled her eyes fondly, patting his arm, "You're such a sap," she told him with a giggle, her cheeks flushing slightly.

"I am not!' Charlus protested childishly, pulling away from her with a mock outraged expression, amusement dancing in his hazel eyes. "Yes, you are," Mia retorted back playfully, a teasing lilt to her voice as she linked arms with her boyfriend again, who was still recovering from being called a sap.

"It's not necessarily a bad thing, Fleamont," Euphemia added, using his full name just to get a reaction out of him and she got just that - he groaned dramatically, lolling his head back as she giggled, "Please don't call me that, only my parents call me that and that's only when I'm in trouble," Charlus rolled his eyes, staring at her sternly before creasing into laughter.

"What can I call you then?" Mia pondered, glancing up at her boyfriend, who was watching her with a considerable amount of amusement, "Maybe my name? Charlus?" he teased, his eyes twinkling and Euphemia whacked him on the arm, "No, that's mundane and boring," she declared.

"Are you calling me mundane and boring?!" Charlus cried out, his voice rising a little and Mia didn't hesitate to reply quickly with a very affirmative, "Yes," which goaded Charlus into turning his head away from her stubbornly, pretending to be upset but she knew he was only messing around.

"Aw, don't be like that, Flea," Euphemia nudged him playfully before her eyes widened, her face dawning with realisation, "Flea! That's what I'll call you!" she decided, pointing at her boyfriend happily as his face displayed complete and utter defeat, causing her to smirk triumphantly.

"Flea? Are you trying to say I'm like a flea?" Charlus exclaimed, his mouth dropping open and Mia blinked up at him, a serious expression on her face, "You're certainly as annoying as one," she commented before chuckling, "Please may I call you Flea? Please? Please?" she clasped her hands together and Charlus shook his head at her before relenting at her innocently begging expression, paired with her puppy eyes.

"Fine," he grumbled because Euphemia was just too adorable to refuse and he grabbed her hand and squeezed it, "But only you - I don't want anyone else calling me Flea. Florean would have a field day with taking the mickey out of me and I can't be having that," he chuckled slightly.

Mia was about to reply with a teasing remark about how she would now purposefully go out of her way to make sure that everyone called him 'Flea' when another voice cut her off, a voice that chilled her to the bone, a voice that she really want to hear at that moment, when she was flirting with her boyfriend, who nobody knew about.

"Well, well, well.....if it isn't the happy couple! What a coincidence, seeing you two here..."

And suddenly, a beam of light shot out from someone's wand, hitting Charlus in the chest and causing him to crumple to the ground, unconscious, before he could even react to Walburga Black and Heather Rosier standing there with smirks plastered across their faces.

Euphemia paled. This couldn't be good.

Hehhehehe! It's my birthday today so I thought I'd give you another update and be evil at the same time. Another year older and yet I'm still rather fond of cliffhangers..will I ever grow out of it? Probably not :)

Thank you so much for all your support, I love you all!