Celia hadn't told her friends about the incident at the Quidditch match. She didn't want to worry them nor did she want to fuel the Cormac hate, which seemed to growing with each encounter. Cormac had definitely changed for the worse since puberty hit him and made him conventionally attractive but she still held some loyalties to him.

As she walked down the corridor, alone, her head bent down to avoid attention she felt her shoulder roughly collide with someone causing her to drop her books on the floor. As she knelt down to pick them up, she became aware of a tall, sturdy girl standing above her with thin ashy blonde hair, falling around her shoulders.

"You're Celia, right?" The girl asked.

The girl clearly knew who she was, the question was nothing but a formality. Despite the fact that Celia knew this, she still felt butterflies in her stomach and decided to lie - despite the fact she was the world's worst liar, especially around strangers. She could lie to her friends sometimes, she knew how she acted around them and it was easier to act normal. Strangers, especially those who probably already knew stuff about her, were another matter.

"No, I'm..." In the spur of the moment, she said the first name that came into her head, "... Cormac."

"No, you're not."

"You're right, I'm not." She conceded quickly, "It was a joke because I'm friends with him..."

"It wasn't funny," The girl replied, "Sorry about making you drop your books, I didn't mean to hit you so hard, I was just getting your attention."

Celia gave a slight snort of contempt which she quickly regretted when she realised the girl stood a few inches taller than her and had arms that resembled tree trunks. As Celia, stood up, she felt a horrible sense of recognition as she looked at the girls' face. She'd seen her face before, in a few games when Goyle or Crabbe had been off sick - the reserve Beater, Vicky. She had a vague memory of Angelina discussing her: Vicky was the girl who had managed to rise her way up through the patriarchy that was the Slytherin team, only to be replaced by Crabbe at the last second. From the way Angelina spoke of her, she was quite a remarkable woman, if only she'd met her under different circumstances.

"I didn't mean to snort, I have a cold." Celia said quickly. Vicky rolled her eyes, her mouth curved down in irritation.

"No you don't," She snapped, "But I really don't have time to fight with you right now, I'm only here to speak my mind. So it's a sort of verbal fight, you know what I mean?"

"I don't." Celia replied quietly, "Speak your mind on what... Quidditch? Because I think you should definitely be on the Quidditch team if that's what you mean."

"Yes, I know that," She replied her tone becoming more annoyed by the second, "I have something different to discuss. You, Celia, are a bitch."

"What?" Celia was both taken aback and terrified. The incident with Goyle had put her more on edge than usual but this would have been scary regardless of anything else. Vicky was easily the same height as Goyle and have both a physical and psychological advantage (mainly because Vicky wasn't terrified of Celia), "I don't know what you're talking about... did I do something to you?"

"Not to ME, to Goyle?"

"What?" Celia's panic was slowly being replaced with a sense of confusion and mild irritation, "What did I do to Goyle? Isn't it more a case of what he did to me?"

"Oh for God's sake, please don't play innocent here, I actually can't stand it," She rolled her eyes and Celia couldn't help feel a pang of jealousy for Vicky's amazing eyeliner skills, "What sort of girl kisses a guy and then straight up blanks him? I don't know where you're from but where I'm from, we don't lead guys on like that - "

"He kissed me though."

"So? You kissed back and then ran away," Vicky replied, "He's a nice guy, I told him not to go after a half-blood like you and yet he did and now he's hurt."

Celia blinked a few times, unsure of what she was hearing. Was Vicky seriously deluded? How had she hurt Goyle other than by rejecting him, something that was perfectly within her right to do. Even if that had upset Goyle, it was nothing compared to the fact that he'd both physically and mentally hurt her. She had the bruises on her wrist to prove the physical injury, the mental one was a little harder to prove on demand.

"Vicky... I'm hurt too by what he did."

"I don't buy it," Vickey replied coolly, "He said you did this whole playing hard to get thing and then when he kissed you, you just froze on him. Wouldn't even meet his eye."

"I didn't play hard to get," Celia said articulating each word carefully in the hopes that it would sink in.

"You did." Was Vicky's response, clear and simple. There was no doubt in Vicky's mind about it, to her it was clear cut.

"I said no. It was a rejection not playing hard to get," A few minutes ago, Celia wouldn't have dared say any of this to the terrifying figure of Vicky but she had a knew found courage in her. Maybe it was the Gryffindor inside of her or maybe she just hated hearing the story twisted.

"Goyle said you were sort of teasing though," Vicky continued, "That's playing hard to get."

"I wasn't teasing, I just said no. It's as simple as that, I said no and I tried to be polite, being rude isn't in my nature particularly."

"No, Goyle said you were teasing him and that's why he kissed you," Vicky persisted, her eyebrows knitting slightly, "He wouldn't have kissed you without good reason, he's a nice guy."

"Not to me," Celia replied quietly, pulling up her sleeve to reveal the marks on her wrist, "He did this to me when he kissed me. He hurt my back too - "

"You could have got that anywhere," Vicky replied quickly, "I get bruises from Quidditch all the time."

"What? In the shape of fingers?" Celia asked with a small smile as she held her wrist gently.

"They could be anything..." Vicky continued, "Goyle said you led him on though, stop making things up. He's a nice guy, Celia, why did you blank him? You could have got those anywhere but you definitely hurt him..."

Vicky's voice trailed off, her mouth opening and closing like a Goldfish. Without another word, she turned around and strode down the corridor. Celia stood completely still as she watched Vicky leave, a small smile creeping onto her face. That was probably nothing to most people but it felt like a mini battle to Celia. A mini battle that Celia had won.