Alex's POV
I heard voiced in a clearing up ahead and ran in that direction. If it wasn't Oliver, then maybe someone there had seen him.
As I entered the clearing, I saw Pyper storming off and was about to go after her when I spotted Oliver and Fred fighting at the far end of the clearing.
"Oliver!" I said, running over to them, but he didn't pay any attention. "Oliver, love! Where did you go? You almost gave me a heart attack!"
"Why should I have stayed?" He asked, hardly even glancing at me.
"Something is wrong with you. Did Fred do this?!"
Fred finally wormed his way out of Oliver's grip and ran after Pyper.
Oliver straightened up and looked down at me, with anger in his eyes. "Why are you following me? Don't you know how much I hate you?!"
Tears welled up in my eyes at those words. Something had to be wrong with him! He'd never say he hated me…would he?
"No, that's not true…" I said weakly, my voice cracking.
Pyper's POV
I turned away from Fred, who'd caught up with me and entangled me in his arms. As soon as I'd wrenched myself away, and prepared to run the other direction, I caught sight of Oliver, who'd apparently been held up by Alex. They seemed to be conferring on something. Hell, it couldn't have been that hard for them to meet with Fred and plan this whole damn disaster.
"So." I said, walking toward her dangerously. "You're in on this as well."
Oliver turned his attention to me again, and ran at me. It didn't take long for he and Fred to start fighting again, so I devoted all my attention to Alex.
"You traitor! Have you planned this with them?! Doesn't it matter to you at all that I'm supposed to be your best friend?! All the time we've spent together, everything we've told each other, didn't it mean anything to you?!"
Alex looked shocked, as if she had nothing to say about this horrible trick she was playing on me…
"And are you really willing to throw all our friendship away just to have a little fun with these two gits?! Friends don't do that! No one does that! Everyone would be mad at you for it, but I'm the only one that's really deeply hurt!"
Alex mouthed soundlessly for a moment, then "I have no idea what you're talking about!"
I advanced on her again. "Oh, yes you do! And if you were any kind of decent friend with manners beyond that of a pit, you would never do this to anyone, much less me!"
I backed up, wiping a stray tear from my cheek and glaring at her.
"But find, just stay away from me. I guess it's my fault as well, but I'm leaving, so it doesn't matter anymore."
With that, I turned to go.
Alex's POV
I stared at Pyper for a moment longer. A trick? Why would I want to play a trick on her when the only thing I wanted was to escape from my father with Oliver?
Fred an Oliver had realized that Pyper was trying to get away again.
"Pyper, I love you!" Oliver said as he caught her wrist. "By my life, I do!"
"Oh, brilliant!" Pyper said, trying to get her head back, when Fred grabbed her other arm.
"I love you more than he ever could!" Fred said.
"Oliver, you've got to be joking!" I yelled desperately.
"Yes, and so do you!" Pyper called venomously at me. She finally jerked her arms free and stumbled back a few feet, then fell to the ground.
Fred followed her and kneeled down beside her quickly, but I stepped in front of Oliver to block Pyper from his view.
"I'm Alex. Remember? Why do you all of a sudden not love me?!"
Oliver pushed me as if I hadn't said anything and I followed him as he walked away again. He turned and looked down at me harshly again. "I never want to see you again!" He took a dangerous step toward me and I stepped back without thinking. "This is the truth, Alex, no joking I. Hate. You. I love Pyper."
My mouth moved soundlessly again. "Bloody hell." I squeaked. Tears started to freely run down my cheeks and I started shaking a bit. I pushed past Oliver. This wasn't his fault, how could it be? This had to be all Pyper's doing! She'd always been jealous that Oliver and I had such a happy relationship and that damn Fred was obsessed with me too.
"You!" I yelled, advancing on her. Fred, by now, had gotten her to her feet and was trying to check to see if she'd hurt herself. I hoped she had. After all that talk of 'friendship' Pyper had gone and done something like this! "You thief of love! After all that talk of friendship, you come here and steal Oliver's love from me?!"
"Okay. Whatever!" Pyper said, rolling her eyes. "Have you no shame? What?! Are you going to tear answers from my mouth?! You puppet!"
"Puppet? Oh, so we're going back to Shakespearean insult! Well, they only love you because you're tall. Because I'm so short and low! How low am I, you painted maypole?!" I glared at her, drew my wand, and held it at the ready. "Say something! How low am I?!" She backed away from Fred, from all of us, fear in her eyes. She knew that I knew more hexes and jinxes than half of Hogwarts put together.
Pyper's POV
Before I'd even had time to draw my wand, much less yell a spell, Alex had shouted "Reducto!" and I was flying backward, the trees speeding by me in a blurry mass. I slammed into a snow bank, the wet, cold powder landing everywhere on and around me.
I resurfaced, coughing and spluttering, to see Alex stomping toward me for another go. Oliver and Fred were stumbling along behind her, still fighting each other.
Unfortunately, my bottom half was still avalanched beneath snow, and there was no way I was going to be able to get at my wand. I started trying to burrow our frantically as Alex approached a bit terrified.
I yelled out to Oliver and Fred.
"I don't care if you two are joking or not, don't let her do anything to me! Just because I'm taller doesn't mean I can fight her like this!" I put emphasis on the word 'taller.'
"What did you say?!" Alex yelled. "Taller?!" She raised her wand again. "Say it again!"
"Alex, please!" I yelled. "Don't! Just let me go back to school! I don't want to be here anymore, I'll leave you alone!"
Alex paused a moment, thinking, then slowly lowered her wand arm. "Fine, then. Just go. No one's stopping you."
I had gotten my left leg out of the snow now. "Only my heart, which I plan on leaving here…"
"What? With my Oliver?!" She raised her wand again, and I threw my arms up over my head.
"With Fred!"
At that second, Oliver, who'd made it there first, tackles Alex from behind, throwing her to the ground.
"I won't let her hurt you, Pyper!"
Fred, in passing, pushed Alex, who was on the verge of getting back up, back into the snow, and helped me the rest of the way out of the bank. "No. She won't touch you." He said as he led me past her.
"She was a vixen years ago, before you ever met her." I said venomously. "And even though she's little…"
"Little?!" Alex yelled from underneath Oliver.
"…she's hex-happy and good at it!"
Alex's POV
"Little?!" I said, trying to fight my way out from under Oliver. I was still shocked that he'd tackled me, but my anger with Pyper seemed to eclipse that. "Little again! Is little all that I am now?!" I tried to move so I was looking Oliver in the eye, but he only tightened his hold on me, almost to the point of hurting me, and now the snow was starting to melt through my coat! "Why the hell are you protecting her?! Just let me out form under you!"
"So you can hurt Pyper?! No, she's right. You're little and hex happy!" Oliver said harshly. He stood, but when I tried to follow, he pushed me back down into the snow. He then turned to Pyper, looking quite proud of himself and said, "Now, she doesn't hold me. Fred, now it's time to see who'll hold Pyper." Oliver drew his wand slowly, as if it were a sword.
My eyes welled up with tears again, what had happened to my Oliver? He'd never showed anything more than friendship to Pyper and here he was ready to fight Fred, who'd also claimed to have been in "love" with me only half an hour ago, for her!
"What?!" Fred said, pulling Pyper protectively behind him and drawing his own wand. "No, I won't let you touch her!"
Oliver yelled some curse that I didn't hear and Fred dodged it, and then ran out of the clearing with Oliver close behind. They were out of my sight quickly, but I could see the flashes of light that were their spells in the darkness of the forest.
I glared up at Pyper, who looked a bit more than scared by the fact that she was alone with me now.
"You may be quicker when it comes to curses." She said, looking down at me. "But my legs are longer so I can run away!" With that, Pyper took off out of the clearing, true to her words, she was out of my sight before I had a chance to take good aim at her with my wand.
So there I sat, in the snow. Cold, alone, crying, and heart-broken.