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chapter ten

"WITH A HEAVY HEART"

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     Emilia knew she was two lefts away from her common room, past the stone archway leading onto the grass outside, and a little further down the final corridor than the kitchens. Her heart pumping and her hands hurting, Emilia made the final left-turn, where, of course, there was an obstacle. She wasn't surprised. Her whole day had turned into dealing with different problems.

     It was the same prat that got her nervous and made her worry that Ripper would die of fear. Prince. She thought. She didn't really care.

     Prince began, "Hey, Salvatore." She didn't reply. "So are you going to this party? That's great, it really is, maybe we could—"

     "You know what?" she said. She felt pissed off, and it was escalating into the sort of anger that caused her siblings to fear their godfather. Their godfather. The potential murderer. "From what I've heard about you, you're a piece of shit, you need to re-evaluate your life because, you don't bully the younger years into believing that some idiotic snake is preaching the truth—"

     "But—!"

     "No!" she snapped. She was fuming. She felt like her palms were burning. "No reasoning! Leave me alone! I don't like you, and I never had!"

     She moved to leave. He tried to grab onto her wrist, to make her stay and reason. She wasn't having this. She was fucking fed up of this happening, of people thinking that they could reason with her because she wanted things to be fair. She was tired of being looked down on because of her house. She was exhausted of this.

     Emilia span around and punched him.

     Prince doubled over. He looked in actual pain. Emilia frowned. She didn't punch him that hard. Sure, it was enough force that he'd be a little surprised and he'd let go of her wrist, but it wasn't enough that he'd be acting like boiling water had been thrown at his face.

     She left him there. He was overreacting, she reassured herself. She didn't use a spell, she didn't use any form of magic to make it worse for him. It was just a fist slamming into a cheek. Nothing extraordinary.

     And, anyway, if he didn't grab onto her, she wouldn't have done it. If he hadn't tried to make her stay and listen when she had clearly told him to leave her alone, she wouldn't have done it. She felt bad still, but another part of her brain (the one influenced by Dinah) was saying, no, you should've done it, you shouldn't feel guilty.

     The Hufflepuff common room was filled to the brim. Emilia recognised the faces, but none were the ones she wanted to see. She had to push her way through the different groups of teenagers dancing and celebrating to get anywhere, and even with that, she couldn't see anyone. Too many people were there. Her main concern, when in that room, changed from I need to find Sirius to I need to find my footing or else I'll fall over and get trampled on and die.

     So, when Emilia saw the corridor to her room, she decided to bolt for a couple minutes. Her mind was on a car, racing a million miles an hour, and Emilia was only on foot. She couldn't keep up. She needed to calm down a little, maybe. And then, with a clearer mind, she'd be able to go back out and navigate through the busy room.

     But she couldn't calm down. She needed to go and speak to someone that understood shitty pureblood families and to do that she'd have to go back into that room that was so busy and crowded that there was no space for her brain to breathe and to think. To do one she needed the other, but they contradicted. They couldn't work together.

     Emilia began pacing. Ripper was nestled safely in his hutch. She heard him scurry to the water in his little home. She ran her fingers through her hair. The blue curls got in her face, and for a split second, she was tempted to cut the whole damned stuff off.

     Her palms still hurt. She looked at them, and patches had started to turn red. Like she had grabbed poison ivy with them. Which made no sense. But it was the same thing with Prince — why was he in so much pain? She only punched him! She's seen Dinah punch a lot of people over the years, and they've never doubled over and held onto the skin that had collided with her fist. And she knew she didn't punch him that hard.

     But, did she?

     This wasn't working. The pacing, the staying in an empty room. It wasn't helping. In fact, now that there was the space to think, she was thinking too much. But she didn't want to go back into that common room — in there, she couldn't think straight enough and she panicked and she struggled to walk through.

     The door opened. Emilia span around. Mia, Lottie, Zoe, and Claudia were staring at her. Black eyes sat on Zoe, Lottie, and Claudia's faces. Mia was missing a large chunk of hair to the right of her parting. All looked pissed off. Emilia was very aware that she was outnumbered. Fuck.

     "You know, we were fine when you ditched us for those girls," said Claudia. Zoe was seething behind her. Oh shit oh shit oh shit. "But, when those girls turn around and come after us? Because we were telling you something? Why, we—"

     "I didn't ask them to," said Emilia. "And you know what? You constantly tease me because of Rupert! You've made fun of my hair, you've criticised everything wrong with me — but you know what you haven't seemed to notice? Every single time you mention those things, every time you hand out your opinion when it isn't needed, the person on the receiving end gets a little more fed up. And slowly, they'll get so fed up that—"

     "Oh, this is tiring," said Mia. She moved forwards. Emilia wanted to step backwards, but she didn't. She was standing her ground, goddammit. She was a Scorpio, she was brave. Sometimes. Like now! She was brave. She was standing up for herself. She was doing this. "You know what I'm sick of? Brats like you walking around and thinking that you're better than the rest of us because you're from a good family."

     "When have I ever—?" Emilia narrowed her eyes. She tilted her head. What was going on? "Okay, I have no idea what you're on about. When have I—?"

     "Oh, I can't believe that my uncle won't tell me what's going on in our super-secret family because my grandad helped out Grindelwald! Oh, boo hoo! My siblings hate me so much, and I have no idea why because I'm just perfect, I'm nothing but a perfect little bitch—!"

     "I never said I was perfect."

     "Oh, I'm such a rebel now! I've got blue hair and a tattoo! Oh, wow, I'm so cool, I'm so much better than the rest of you, but now that I look cool and different I'm so much better than you!"

     "I've never said that!"

     "But, now, I don't care at all what people think! Now I'm even better than you four losers because I just don't care about what you think! I'm so perfect, I've got perfect friends, it's almost a surprise that my parents left me—!"

     Emilia didn't expect it. It had been one of the things she had let slip when she was their friend. It hadn't been mentioned since their first year, and she was convinced they had forgotten. But, evidently, they hadn't.

     And Emilia couldn't help it. The mention of her parents threw her off. Her brain had been going through a slight lull, in regards to the worrying about anything and everything. She didn't know what was going on.

     One minute, Mia was shouting at her, and making fun of her. And, the next, flames ignited on the carpet, creating a line between Emilia and Ripper, and the four girls.

     The four were freaking out. Mia had jumped backwards. Emilia's palms felt burning hot, but it didn't hurt. It was like when she got her ears pierced — it was a weird feeling, but it didn't hurt.

     Lottie let out, "Who's doing that?"

     "I think it's—"

     Emilia put her hands down. The fire stopped.

     "You—" Zoe began. She didn't finish. She had looked down at the carpet, where the flames had just been. The carpet hadn't been burned, or anything. If you hadn't been there, you wouldn't have known it had happened.

     Emilia darted to get past them, before they started against. She got past them, thankfully, but she halted. "Oh, and, um," she said. "Don't touch Ripper."

     Mia nodded. Emilia didn't like it. She didn't like them looking at her in fear. She didn't know what the fuck happened, she was just as clueless as they were! What even happened? Is that what Rupert meant? And Capulet, earlier? Why her? Why her, why her, why her?

     The second she arrived in the common room, she was hit with hot air. One of the boys on the Hufflepuff team was standing on a coffee table, announcing that their house was best. Emilia would've rolled her eyes if her circumstances were different.

     Emilia planned to discard finding Sirius. She was going to go straight to the Slytherin dungeons and find her friends. They'd know what to do. With whatever the fuck happened a minute ago, she didn't know how comfortable she felt sticking around here. At least, not for now. She needed to leave, she need to talk to her friends.

     "Fuck, Salvatore!"

     She turned around. Sirius seemed to have pushed through a group of fifth years. Emilia remembered the comment about Animagi earlier that day, and almost questioned it, but her mind switched tracks. A couple Hufflepuff boys in their year walked past, moving Emilia away from the edge of the room.

     Emilia held onto Sirius' hand. The more she stood in the room, the easier it became for people to move around and consequently get her further away from the walls. So, she held onto his hand, and stepped closer so he could hear (someone had conquered the gramophone and was now blasting Suffragette City.)

    "Oh, don't lean on me man, 'cause you can't afford the ticket—"

     "Where have you been?" said Sirius. "I couldn't see you earlier at the match."

     "It's a long story," said Emilia. There was about an inch between them now. She felt her palms burn, but she gathered that she was the only one that could tell this, considering Sirius was still holding onto her hands.

    "I'm back from suffragette city, oh don't lean on me, man—"

     Sirius looked down at her. He was smiling at her, and in any other situation, she would've really enjoyed this. He moved a piece of her hair out of her face. There was a sudden change, though, in his actions. He went from smiling to frowning, a full one-eighty. "Um, Em," he said. "You look like you're about to cry."

     "I need to speak to you," she said. "Not here. Somewhere quieter."

     Emilia didn't hear his response. She already turned around, holding onto his hand. Did she want to cry? She wasn't too sure about that one. Did she? She thought she was fine. Well. OK. Maybe not fine, but she didn't think she was close to tears.

     "'Cause you ain't got time to check it, you know my suffragette city, is outta sight she's all right—"

     They reached the other side of Hufflepuff's entrance door. The chatter and the David Bowie music quietened considerably once the door closed behind them. Emilia, knowing this part of the school well enough to know which parts were less frequented.

     So, she walked a little further down the corridor, until she reached one area. It had one of the stone alcoves, and although it was barely touched, it had been weathered over the years. The moonlight shone in through one of the archways. Emilia's hair looked even bluer because of it.

     "I think my uncle killed my grandad."

     "You what?"

     "I think he killed him, and I don't know what's wrong with me but something is, and I'm so tired of my family not telling me anything, but I want to be involved, they're still my family, I still can't leave them completely alone, and—and—"

     Emilia cut off, and it happened. Tears were streaming down her face. She stumbled slightly. Sirius wrapped his arms around her, and held her. She didn't feel completely upset, or sad, or broken, but shit, she needed a quick second to check the cards being dealt for her.

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okay so this is shorter than usual (around 2050 words) but quite a lot happened?? em's punched someone (and also in regards to the fire thing it makes sense i'm going to develop it but this was the "ooooooh what's that" part) (hopefully it feels like that???? who knows i don't i tried though)

i hope you enjoyed, and let me know what you thought! :)

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