"Stop staring," the one with black hair commanded.

"I'm not staring," the other one replied nonchalantly, his chin resting in his palm as he studied the boy. He was a creature of habit (habits including staring and admiring his beautiful best friend)

"You're being weird about it."

"I'm not being weird about it."

The one with black hair (known to most as Cass Hangsworth) had done something incredibly stupid over the summer and he had the black eyes to prove it. Pale eyes and pale skin were marred by yellow and green and purple and blue. There was a nebula of violence around his eyes and it was intriguing, to say the least.

The other one (known to few as Milo Courtney and to most as who?) had been analysing the damage to the other boy's face for the better part of an hour. The way that Milo was wired meant that he stared at things that he liked and things that confused him, and Cass just happened to be both.

"Tell me how it happened, again?"

"Broomstick trouble."

"Earlier you said it was a bar fight, and before that you said it was a freak thestral accident."

Cass grinned, cheeks creasing under his eyes and folding the bruises. "I had the foresight to tell you several different stories, and you'll never know which one's true. It's just a bit of fun, Miles."

Milo rolled his eyes and turned to the girl beside him on the armchair. "What do you think?"

"I think it makes him look cool," Renée Röeder answered. She tucked a loose coil of hair behind her ear and smiled at their friend. "You look cool, Cass. Like nobody should try to muck you around."

Renée Röeder was a creature of peace and pleasure, an animalistic being that would have benefitted from being set free in the African savannah. She was a giraffe, tall and graceful and elegant. She was a lion, fierce and protective and hungry for challenge. Her hair was a thundercloud; her eyes were lightning strikes; her skin was dark and rich and royal.

"See!" Cass gleamed. "That's the look I've been going for for years! Listen to your girlfriend, Courtney."

"For once," Renée teased, jabbing a finger into Milo's ribs. He responded by seizing her around the middle and pulling her onto his lap, pressing pecked kisses to her bare, summer-dark shoulders. Cass rolled his eyes and folded one leg up to his chest to rest his chin on while he read. This corner of the library was their haven, after they realised that Milo's tormentors would never venture this far back between the piles of books.

"Come on, lunch is almost over," Cass said finally, quite sick of seeing Milo and Renée blissfully in love after his own girlfriend had broken up with him (for reasons that were definitely, completely not his fault). "We've got potions, Röeder."

"Have fun," Milo waved as the pair departed, leaving him alone with his thoughts and his studies and the pack of tarot cards he'd been shuffling between his fingers. Before he could start on either of those things, however, he was interrupted by somebody he definitely Did Not want to see.

"Courtney, I'd get out of here if I were you," Remus Lupin said, his tone soft but harsh. "Sirius has had a particularly rough morning and some bad news came in the post at breakfast. He's looking for someone to take it out on."

Years ago, Milo would have come out with something like, "Why should I move? He's the one with an attitude problem and several connections missing in his brain."

But now, Milo simply gathered his things and shoved them into his bag to make a quick escape.

Years of light-hearted torture will do that to a boy.

Lupin's warning wasn't quick enough, however, but Milo hadn't expected anything less. The older boy was probably just trying to set him up for an ambush, something the Marauders had done before to great avail. Potter cast a sharp jinx, and Milo clattered to the floor, cards scattering around him like he was about to perform a muggle magic trick.

They laughed.

"Hi, Courtney," Black greeted with a smile that was all teeth and no kindness. "How are things?"

"Can I just leave?" Milo asked tiredly, avoiding the boys' gazes to stare at the drops of blood burrowing their way to the surface of his grazed palm.

"No, Courtney, you can't," Potter replied with a cold grin. He crouched to Milo's level and offered a sympathetic smile. "It's just a bit of fun, isn't it? Come on, Courtney. Laugh. It's just a bit of fun."

Milo bit down on his bottom lip, because no matter how many times it happened and no matter how much he hardened his heart, the words still got to him. And he ended up shedding tears every time.

The thing is, he knew it was because he gave a reaction that they continued to harass him. It was the spilt tears and the trembling lips and the shaking hands that gave them the buzz they came searching for. Potter and Pettigrew and Black laughed when he cried, grinned when he frowned, cast spells when his wand rolled away. They were vampires; they craved his blood and his pain and his tears.

He looked up at Potter, finally, and said no words. The bespectacled boy sighed and smoothed his trousers as he stood. "Seeing as we can't get you to take a joke, Courtney, we'll have to put a smile on that face some other way."

Milo spent the night sobbing, cheeks on fire from the hexed smile they'd given him. His jaw ached and his throat burned, but he couldn't complain.

It was just a bit of fun.

a/n: okay so the marauders are dicks. this is their sixth year. they were bullies and dicks but they aren't for the rest of the story. oh and the main story takes place in the marauders seventh year, which would be milo, cass and renée's sixth year. make sense? hope so. over and out.