• Serena Black •

"Some people remain as a mystery,
that's just the way it is."

The week after the party had begun and, after Serena had already caught a few wry looks in the Great Hall, a light green scarf with daisies on it now adorned her neck. It probably wasn't the most fashionable choice, but she hadn't been able to find anything better and at least it had the desired effect. She was still being looked at strangely, but no one seemed to be taking a second look so the rumour mill would be once again boiling over.

It was Tuesday and the Gryffindor was beginning to question her apparent luck. So far, no one had mentioned her supposed night with the Slytherins and the scarf remained in place. She had also managed to successfully avoid Harry and Edmund without being particularly noticed. However, there was the deceptive appearance that this luckiness was about to end and this appearance was called Snape.

Not suspecting anything bad yet, Serena settled down in her usual seat next to Hermione and took out the utensils she needed so that the Potions teacher would have the honour of reprimanding her at the beginning of the lesson. But Snape wouldn't be Snape if he didn't find something to criticise, "Miss Black, take off that silly scarf."

"I-I can't," she stammered, knowing at the same moment that it would do her little good to talk her way out of it. Still, it was probably worth a try. "I'm ill."

Her teacher raised an eyebrow as he fixed her with his dark eyes and a mocking expression crept onto his waxy face. "Ill?"

Serena hastily averted her eyes, because she had not forgotten how he had read her mind in the previous school year. She was aware that he didn't believe a word she said, but she certainly wasn't going to back down and so an uncertain expression left her lips. "Yes."

"Then you should go to the hospital wing after class and now take this thing off," he replied coldly. She bit her lips and had known the battle was lost before she had even opened her mouth. Hesitantly, she fiddled with the knot, slowly slipping the silky material from her skin as she tried to drape her hair over the affected area like a curtain.

But in vain, on Snape's face his lips had long since curled into a thin line, "Perhaps you should concentrate more on your lessons and try less to follow in your father's footsteps."

Serena watched with a scowl as he finally let go of her and began the lesson. Hermione, however, like quite a few students, still hadn't turned away from her and was staring at the mark on her neck, which had now turned an even darker colour. "Um... Serena, you have there..."

"I know," she replied quickly, trying to pretend that she was following the lesson, which for once her friend didn't seem to be doing at that moment. The thing on her neck must looked really interesting when even Hermione seemed distracted by it. "Who...?"

"Erm... George," Serena stammered without thinking, realising at the same moment how or what that sounded like.

Hermione looked irritated. "Oh, I didn't realise you were... But he's not even..."

"No, no," she interjected quickly and tried to explain what she had meant with a bright red head, "I was testing one of their products that is supposed to cause bruising and something must have gone wrong."

"I see," Hermione muttered. She still didn't seem entirely convinced, but she finally turned to the lesson and hurriedly took notes.

Serena breathed a sigh of relief. Even though she had a pretty bad feeling about the lie, she was glad that Hermione didn't ask any more questions, as she definitely would have with the truth. She could almost imagine the reproachful look on her roommate's face, and it would probably haunt her for the rest of her time at school.

In the afternoon, Serena had holed herself up in the library with Hailey and Nate, as the end of the school year was steadily approaching and with it the exams. After Hermione had been poring over her textbooks for weeks, Serena had decided to start cramming for the upcoming exams as well, even though she would much rather enjoy the ever-improving weather.

She almost envied Nate for just having to sit at his homework and write some essay. She herself had to repeat the entire five years of her school career in order to gain enough degrees. Hailey also glanced at the Ravenclaw's parchment from time to time. "We had the same topic last year in History of Magic... boring as hell... Do you think something like that will be on the exam, Serena?"

She shrugged her shoulders, she had no idea what his homework was about, but one thing every teacher had been repeating since the beginning of the school year was that they had to be prepared for anything. "Probably."

The Hufflepuff groaned and Serena would have loved to join in, it seemed almost impossible to study five times as many subjects as usual without her head bursting. Lost in thought, she fiddled with the scarf she had put back on after the potions lesson and seemed to be able to concentrate on everything except what she had written on her study notes over the last few years, which at that moment was nothing but alphabet soup to her.

"Serena?"

The voice of her best friend brought her out of her confused thoughts for a moment. "Huh?"

"Don't look conspicuous now, but your one-night stand has just come in with Zabini and Tim. It's best to just ignore him."

Nate had now turned round as well, unfortunately not quite as inconspicuously as he'd wanted, while Serena stared holes in one of the sheets of parchment in front of her and acted unimpressed. "Ignore him?" he then asked incredulously. "We're not in kindergarten here."

"It's also called cold turkey," Serena explained expertly and could almost feel the confused look on her best friend's face as Hailey began to explain: "She's trying to prove to herself that she's not into him. Or rather, she wants to undo the fact that she does."

"You fancy him?"

"No, I don't," She hissed, still not taking her eyes off the surface of the table, "I don't fancy someone just because I nearly ended up in bed with them, let alone that if-I-could-just-get-myself-laid-guy."

"Who says that's why?" Hailey interjected with a grin, to which Nate let out a short laugh and they both gave each other a meaningful look. In any case, it seemed to be meaningful to both of them, because Serena couldn't read anything from their faces for the life of her.

"Oh yeah, and what about you, Casanova?" Serena asked with amusement, finally looking up at the Ravenclaw. "From the little I've seen of you over the last few months, you seem to have been pretty busy."

In fact, she seemed to have hit the bull's eye. Nate turned bright red and stammered something along the lines of what Casanova was supposed to mean. "Are you going to tell me which girl you've turned your head on or should I guess?" she grinned.

"Such nonsense," he replied simply and, to her surprise, stood up. His cheeks still flushed, he began to tidy up his things, but his features were as rigid as a mask. "Can you please put my book away later? I have to go now."

Serena stared after him open-mouthed and was still too perplexed to call him back. Only when her best friend had disappeared from her field of vision did she find her voice again: "Did I say something wrong?"

"Nah. I think he's probably embarrassed about who he fancies. It's probably crazy Loony Lovegood." Hailey stretched and yawned heartily before casting a disgruntled glance down at her wildly piled up notes. "I think that's enough for me for today."

"Great," she groaned, because she was far from finished and the thought of sitting alone in the library with the aforementioned Slytherins did little to cheer her up. But the Hufflepuff had already packed up her things and said goodbye to her with her bag shouldered.

Frustrated, Serena lowered her head to the tabletop and still couldn't seem to get herself to focus on her study notes. Her thoughts were going round in circles, just like the quill she was absentmindedly twirling between her fingers.

"Is this a new way to learn faster?" she was finally startled by the voice whose owner she had been trying to avoid. She should have left while she still had the chance and now she was stuck with him. Without waiting for an invitation from her, Edmund sat down in the chair opposite her and looked at her briefly, "Are you avoiding me?"

Serena slowly straightened up and tried to put on a calm face. But her rapidly beating heart stopped her in her tracks due to the premature and sudden confrontation. "N-no, I-I-I..."

"I-I-I..." he mimicked her and narrowed his eyes. "What's wrong with you?"

"Just go," she replied so quietly that he couldn't possibly have heard. Her thoughts, her feelings and, apparently, her body temperature were going completely crazy, and she needed nothing more than peace and quiet to get an overview of this chaos and sort it out.

"Nice scarf, by the way," Edmund suddenly said mockingly and began to grin as he changed chairs and now sat right next to her. Serena unconsciously held her breath as he got closer and closer to her. Far too close. Closer than she needed at that moment. With a fleeting movement of his hand, he undid the knot of her scarf and slipped it off. "Are you hiding my pretty work of art?"

"N-no."

"No? Good." The corners of his mouth twitched as he finally averted his gaze and turned the thin scarf in his hands. "But I'd prefer it if you spoke to me in full sentences, Black."

Serena really would have liked to bang her head hard against the tabletop so that she could finally utter a sensible sentence and put an end to the excited whirling of her thoughts. She glanced down at her book and pretended to copy something while she hoped he'd leave on his own. "I'm busy. Can I have my scarf back now?"

"Nope." A self-satisfied smile now graced his lips and she didn't have to puzzle over the fact that it was probably revenge for the night in the library. "If you don't want to hide anything, then you don't need it, do you?"

The Slytherin finally stood up and took one last look at the chaos on the table. Serena didn't have to lift her head to realise that he hadn't just stolen her scarf. She had only noticed it because she had been watching him out of the corner of her eye, but her mind was not so clouded that she would ignore it. Nevertheless, she wouldn't rub his nose in the fact that she had seen what he had just secretly put in his pocket. She wanted to find out for herself why she shouldn't read Nate's book.

____________

As this book is also coming to an end, a few quick questions:

-How did you like this part so far?

-What did you like and what can I improve in the next one?

-What else would you like to see in this book?

-Why do you think Edmund stole the book?