𝗔𝗖𝗧 𝗜 ━━ 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗙𝗘𝗖𝗧 𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗥𝗧
018. the half-blood prince

          𝗣𝗢𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗦 𝗖𝗟𝗔𝗦𝗦 𝗪𝗔𝗦 𝗢𝗡𝗟𝗬 𝗚𝗘𝗧𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗠𝗢𝗥𝗘 𝗕𝗢𝗥𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗬𝗗𝗔𝗬, as Scarlet believed. Professor Slughorn had asked everybody to work on their own potions with little assistance, which resulted in a lot of explosions and wrong experiments.

Truthfully, the instructions were fuzzy and painfully difficult to get through. Not being able to give up, she nudged Severus Snape—who sat beside her—with her elbow.

"You mind if I use your book? The one you rightfully fixed," she quoted the boy with pleading eyes despite the mocking tone.

Scarlet thanked him quietly as Severus put the book in the middle, the two of them sharing it as they worked on their potions. Suddenly, there were a few snickers coming from the back of the classroom. The blonde girl looked behind, noticing Sirius watching as James was waving his wand out in the air but nothing particular was happening which confused her.

Deciding to ignore their peculiar behaviour, she turned around, swirling her potion with a little rod. All of a sudden, her eyes caught the movement of a small fruit hanging in the air, dropping into Severus' potion with a splash.

Within a moment, a loud sound blasted over and an explosion occurred, causing the potion to spell over his uniform, a neon green and sticky substance. From the impact, he stumbled back and dropped his bowl and the book he was doodling on.

A fit of laughter took over as Professor Slughorn approached the desk. "Mr Snape, what was that? Why have you put mistletoe berries in?" He asked furiously. "Have you not been following instructions?" The laughter increased and Snape's cheeks went pale pink in embarrassment, watching as everybody snickered and giggled except Scarlet and Everest who stood nearby with scowls on their faces.

Scarlet kneeled down to pick up his bowl and the book which flipped to the front page when it fell. The girl furrowed her brows, standing up with it as the page read,

'this book is the property of the Half-Blood Prince'.

Her eyes widened as she looked up to Severus who stared at her and then glanced down at the book, looking ever-so humiliated as he snatched it off of her, making his way out of the classroom.

The girl looked back, following his movement. When he made his way towards the exit, Sirius stood there, bursting into laughter once again when he saw his face. When the blonde at the front squinted her eyes, she saw James shoving a pocket full of berries in his pocket, falling back to his seat and looking rather satisfied with his prank.

"Everybody, get back to work," Slughorn announced. To everyone's unawareness, Scarlet felt furious. She left her station, walking to the back of the class.

"Miss Bridget, where are you off to?" Professor shouted for her. "That will be causing points off Slytherin."

Scarlet shoved Sirius from his place and moved to James, leaning over the table. "What are you— have you lost it, Bridget!" James yelled, watching as Scarlet reached closer to him.

"Sir, that is—it's inappropriate!" Sirius defended.

The blonde shoved her hand into the pocket of James' coat, pulling out the mistletoe berries used to ruin Snape's experiment, and she threw it down on the table, a series of gasps following. "I suppose you will be taking points off of Gryffindor, too, Professor Slughorn." She spoke with gritted teeth, shooting the two boys a stern look as they looked rather unsatisfied by then.

Truthfully, nobody really was surprised when it was revealed that the Marauders were behind the sabotage.

      NOW, THE ENTIRE OF HOGWARTS REALLY wanted to figure out whether the thing between Sirius Black and Scarlet Bridget was serious or not. And the school gave him a maximum of three days timing before he called it off (because that's what he always did previously).

So, the mixture of gossip and whispers and gasps was expected when Sirius and Scarlet entered the Great Hall hand-in-hand for dinner.

"So, it's true then," A Ravenclaw asked her friend.

"Bridget and Black, really?"

"Are we really surprised?" A Hufflepuff scoffed, "He's a Black, after all,"

"Right? He shags the muggle-borns for practice, but settles with the pureblood princess,"

"Bloody ridiculous,"

"I feel like they're all staring," Scarlet whispered, squeezing his hand to get his attention whilst he waved around to his million fans and grinned like an idiot.

"Of course, they are, we're a big deal, Blondie." He charmingly smiled, and Scarlet wanted to slap him. "I can't believe you sold me and James out like that," Sirius leaned into her ear to whisper, a gesture that appeared to hold quite the tension to the rest of the population.

Scarlet's chin remained high. "Lord forbid someone snaps back at the brave, loyal, almighty Gryffindor's Marauders," she scoffed, turning to look him in the eye with a glare. "What did you expect, I warned you about Severus."

Sirius stopped on his track, turning around to stand right in front of the blonde girl as he towered over her frame. Her heels almost allowed her to stand eye-to-eye with the boy.

"I'll get back to you in some way," he shrugged, a grin on his face as he thought about beating her in any way. "Quidditch is this week."

"If you're insinuating you're gonna win—"

"I'm not insinuating anything, love, I will win," he winked at her smoothly.

Scarlet squinted her eyes, accepting the challenge. "Winner gets something amazing."

"You bet." He kissed her cheek and she allowed him to, his lips were soft against her skin. Being stupid for a second, she almost allowed her mask to slip, her eyes relaxing and her chin dropping. She shook herself awake, watching as he smirked her way, and walked over to the Gryffindor table.

Another Gryffindor gossip girl loudly spoke with their friends. "Bridget rejected every guy at Hogwarts, and Black slept with every girl here... a rather odd couple, I presume."

      She rolled her eyes and made her way over to the Slytherin table for dinner. She sat across from Severus who shot her a humiliated look. He must have thought she resents him now, for hiding such a matter. It's a common thing to assume for everybody else, everybody expected her to resent everybody but purebloods.

      With a gentle, reassuring smile, she mouthed, 'it's okay' to him. Scarlet swore it was the first time she saw Severus smile genuinely, as though he had won a lottery. He nodded warmly in her direction, finally finding his spirit back. Well, by spirit, she meant he went back to acting in his usual manner.

She trailed her eyes over to the Quidditch players, "Alright, Slytherin versus Gryffindor this week, and I just made a very serious bet with Sirius Black over there—"

"—your boyfriend, well yeah!" Everest giggled like a child to torment the blonde's life.

"Get it, Bridget!" Someone yelled over the Slytherin table and the girl rubbed the bridge of her nose in defeat.

"Anyways, to maintain my dignity, please, for the love of Salazar, win this thing."

A series of cheers and encouraging words erupted, causing the other tables to shoot them peculiar and confused looks at the motions—not exactly expecting the Slytherin table to be this unusually joyful.

Rosier leaned over the table, eyes glinting mischievously at the Bridget. "You just gave us the biggest reason to win," he smirked.

The students were soon dismissed from their lunchtime and started to make their way out of the hall in groups. Sirius soon found Scarlet, with a permanent intolerable grin on his face as he walked beside her.

"Does your friends know?" Scarlet whispered to him. "About our little secret."

Sirius shook his head. "I haven't told them yet, they seem rather excited about it."

"Really?"

"Yeah, like James was actually squealing today when he saw us kiss."

"But we didn't." She narrowed her eyes.

Sirius looked at her again, "I kissed you on the cheek, and from that angle, it seemed—you know..."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." She mumbled.

Just then, Sirius went on to grab a hold of her hand. However, the mere moment his hand brushed against hers, uncanny darkness covered her vision.

The darkness resembled the ones she had experienced in her sleep, instead, this time, she was awake. She felt herself leaving out a tight gasp, stumbling away from Sirius and the conversations in the hallway faded in her mind.

It was as though his touch had cut through her skin like ice. She felt haunted. Regret, pain, tragedy.

And suddenly, she was back, within a millisecond, the picture of reality was back and she looked around at her surrounding, and nothing had changed visibly.

Like nothing even happened.

"Blondie?" Sirius' sharp voice made her snap her head in his direction. "Is everything alright?"

She nodded, mustering all her strength to keep her face rigid straight. "Of course, I'll see you around." She murmured as she walked away, leaving Sirius to find his friends.

      "WILL YOU, FOR SALAZAR'S SAKE, TURN THE LIGHT OFF so I can sleep?" Everest groaned loudly, turning to face Scarlet who was holding a book, the night lamp on her bed-stand shining dimly."

"How is this bothering you, you're like six feet away," she replied, not taking her eyes off of her book.

"Why are you not going to sleep?" She asked, looking rather perplexed.

"I think you sleep enough for the both of us," Scarlet winked smoothly, smirking at her own joke.

Everest didn't find it funny. "One of these days, you're gonna be so sleep-deprived, you'll not wake up for days."

"Yeah, the day I die." Scarlet rose a brow, and her friend gave her a pleading look—resembling one of a puppy. "Alright, I'll turn it off."

"I love you," Everest's voice perked up, and she slammed her back onto her soft bed quickly, getting under her duvets and falling asleep.

Scarlet allowed herself to drift into sleep, "What's the worst that can happen?" She wondered to herself, murmuring lightly as she closed her eyes.

It hadn't even been one minute before Scarlet opened her eyes again, turning to her side to see her friend in deep sleep already. Seeing it, she threw her blankets off her body and left the dorm room with a bottle of fire whiskey Everest hid under her bed. 

She made her way to her designated spot. The clock struck midnight and she only prayed Rosier did not show up again. However, when she approached the fireplace, he was already there, smoking pot mindlessly. 

"You know, if you keep showing up here, it won't be my spot anymore." 

At her playful tone, Evan whipped her head around and sent her a welcoming grin. He moved a little to the side, gesturing for her to sit. 

"Lovely to see you too, Miss Bridget." He spoke in a thich-posh accent, watching her take a sip of the drink she carried. The glass of the bottle felt cold against her lips—colder than usual. 

There were quite a lot of papers laid out in front of him in a messy manner, plans and strategies written down for their next Quidditch match. If anybody took these games seriously, it was Evan Rosier. He has been the captain for two years now, he had things to prove. 

"Do you... require any help?" She asked hesitantly.

Evan's gaze wrily met hers, he squinted his lingering eyes in a puzzling way. "You're not even on the team."

"But I am team Slytherin," she cringed at her own words and then mentally slapped herself. Evan laughed nonetheless, lightly.

"Barty and Avery want to play dirty," Evan dropped his pen on one of the papers. "Dorcas and Regulus want to win fair and square... I've to find a way to satisfy all of their stupid needs."

      "It feels like shit, having that sort of duty." As soon as he said the word duty in a deflated manner, Scarlet understood the undertone of his words. He was not talking about his duty as the Quidditch captain, he was talking about it as the Rosiers' heir.

"I know a thing or two about duty," she shrugged, turning to face him with a soft smile. "Just do whatever you want."

"Isn't that a little selfish?" It was odd to hear about selfishness from Evan Rosier. He was too arrogant for his own good, and wanted nothing more than to do things in ways he feels is right. "I'm the captain."

"Captain, not a leader," she shrugged. "Plan it however you feel like it."

Evan's lips curled up to an understanding smile. "You're just saying that to make me feel better."

"Is it working?" She whispered the question.

"Whatever you do always works," he stated confidently. "You really are the brightest star in this house, Scars."

Scarlet then passed him her bottle of fire whiskey mindlessly the moment he started to eye it eagerly. He gulped down a large sip and handed it back. Her fingers brushed his as it did, and for a moment, neither of them moved. Their fingers rested on each other for a few seconds before she looked back up, finding him already staring at her.

Her breath hitched when she took firm notice of the closeness between their bodies, her face practically inches from his. He felt her gaze shift into something softer. Warm almost, it looked unnatural on Scarlet. Just that shift had him losing his sense of composure.

She glanced up to his dirty blonde hair, then his icy-blue eyes. He was closer than he was just a second ago, as though pulled in by a magnetic force. She could hear his heartbreak slowing down, as well as his breath.

Within a flicker, his right hand let go of his cigarette and it landed on an empty space on the table. One hand cupping her cheek, one hand in her hair. 

Her hand felt soft on her skin, she found herself running a hand down his jawline. Ever so slowly, her eyes left him and lingered down on his lips.

Her lips would have locked his if it weren't for—

"How are the strategies looking?" A feminine voice from the other end of the room made the pair jolt apart. Scarlet bit the insides of her cheeks as soon as she pulled away, allowing her eyes to squeeze shut at a moment of heat. She could still feel it, his hands in her hair ever so softly, minty exhale on her face.

"Have you seen a ghost?" Barty spoke loudly. "Why do you look like that?" He playfully slapped the back of Evan's head as he pursed his lips together, avoiding the eagerness he felt just a few seconds ago. 

They were holding a few pens and papers and a packet of chocolates, the two popped down on the floor, surrounding the small tea-table.

Silence roamed the pair, Scarlet and Evan avoided eye contact as Dorcas' eyes lingered between the two. Everybody in the room knew of Scarlet's so-called relationship with Sirius Black, and Dorcas practically shoved the idea of infidelity aside and concluded there was no way Scarlet Bridget and Evan Rosier would participate in anything more than platonic acts. 

"I'm sorry," Evan blurted out in a soft whisper whilst Dorcas and Barty were giggling about a foul they planned on the Gryffindors. There was a look of guilt on his face, he regretted putting her in a position like that.

"It's okay, I'm a bit wasted," she softly pointed to the bottle of whiskey. 

"And I am... high," he picked up the packet of cigarettes in his hand, smiling nonchalantly. Barty thought Evan put it up in the air to pass it to him and snatched the packet off his hand which left the Rosier a little confused.

Scarlet gently poked at Evan's shoulder with her index, gathering his attention as he locked eyes with her blue once again. "Let's forget this ever happened."

Then, his lips curled up to a smirk. "Forget what happened?" That earned a light chuckle from the girl.

There were those white little lies that neither would acknowledge—neither of them were high or wasted. Evan Rosier was... soft, at least at the moment. He was the embodiment of a perfect pureblooded Slytherin. Quidditch captain. A prefect. Impeccable manners and not to mention, a Rosier.

      As Scarlet mentioned to Everest before, there was always something in her that required a challenge. Evan Rosier may have been perfect for her, but Sirius Black was inevitable. 

𝑪𝑨𝑹𝑨 𝑺𝑷𝑬𝑨𝑲𝑺

spent my free period writing this.
show some love.

virtual hugs from me bbgs!!
unless someone wants to punch
me for what i made her do with rosier.