******************************************************************** "Be right back," Jen told her date, heading toward the girls' room. Once inside, she started furiously scratching the inside of her arm, a rather unladylike reaction to her strawberry allergy. It hadn't seemed polite to not eat chocolate-dipped strawberries when Mack seemed intent on hand-feeding her like an owlet. "Gar," she mumbled, stil scratching as a back passage opened and an old acquaintance slunk in from behind. "Strawberries?" a surprisingly kind, if raspy voice inquired. "What do you want, Flint?" "Aproxa cortizonus," he said, curing the itchy welts with his wand. "Why don't you ever call me by my first name?" "Because I don't like you. Haven't I made that point crystal clear?" "Why don't you?" he asked, sounding unnaturally sad. "Oh, think about it, Matius! Maybe if you'd stopped Lyff or not cursed my friend with a Quarnificatus!" "I did stop Lyff often enough, though, didn't I? It wasn't like I could tell him off in the middle t one, except now she lives in Gryffindor." Flint kissed Jen lightly on the neck. "I need you, Jen. Just an hour?" "Why?" Suddenly his contrite manner evaporated like a liquid disguise. "Because if you don't, I'll let your cousin into Starcatcher's room tonight."
Jen spun around, fire blazing in her eyes. "You bastard." "You will. I knew it." Flint kissed her harshly and she pulled away. "Just relax and er- enjoy the fun." "You bastard," Jen repeated, her voice cracking. Flint opened the back passage and led her away even as she bit back tears. He had left her with no choice. ********************************************************************** Deleted Scene "Right over here," the raspy voice beckoned, gently guiding Jen with a hand at the small of her back. As soon as she was standing where he wanted her, Flint moved around from behind her, making no sound. "I believe you know the procedure." "Fine," she spat coldly, knowing too well how the hour would progress. First the clothes, and then… "Stop there," Matius instructed, lighting a candle at his bedside with his wand. It was the only light in the room. "I'll do the rest. Have the little French one tell you the meaning of al hussarde sometime." "I don't need translation, Flint. I know your appetites full well." "Good," the Slytherin remarked with a cold, frightening laugh. The next thing Jen knew, he was removing the remainder of her clothes by hand, maddeningly slow and almost tenderly. She knew he was doing this to bother her. She had been hoping to just impale herself on him and get it done with, the way she could with some other guys, but Flint was always more interested in reactions. If there was anything she despised, it was bastards like him trying to get her off. She was protecting her friend, not having fun doing him! And she could have done a lot better without the voice. Flint sounded like the Yank scraping her nails down a high and a low guitar string simultaneously; rasping at two different pitch levels. It was forcing her into a state she would have rather avoided. Her face contorted into a scowl as Flint started stroking the bare skin on her side. She knew he knew she was incredibly sensitive there, and rather than give him the satisfaction of watching her writhe and beg for more the way those other sluts would, she tried her best to ignore the maddening caresses. Suddenly he stood up. "Like it?" he asked rhetorically in that scraping voice. Jen shivered as she noticed he was still taller and stronger enough than her to break her leg with a kick. After all, he had done that to Julie once. His beard had started growing in at an alarming rate recently, and he also seemed worlds stronger than he had been in, say, October. Flint bent slowly and drew his hands up the backs of her bare legs, making the shivers worse and more violent until he finally swept her off her feet literally. She gasped at the force and depth of the stabbing made her tremble fiercely in every limb. Still holding her in the closest possible embrace, Flint wrapped her shaking arms around his neck to keep her from falling. With his other hand, he also picked up his wand. After the Slytherin moved to sit on the bed, Jen felt the tip of his wand burn her bare skin on her back directly parallel to her heart. Quarnificatus did that sometimes of one wasn't wearing clothes. In the indefinable madness as he shot her with it again and again, her body outwitted her into riding him and twining her hands around his neck as they shook steadily. Dimly through the haze, she realized two things. First, she had forgotten the third dose of the anti-seizure potion and these twitches were petit mal, and second, Flint was wearing a thin chain around his neck. She had to find out what…so she began using a bit of the knowledge from those damn books Lyff made her read. The hypocrisy and guilt of enjoying this was maddening, but if she could find out that chain's purpose as well as protect Julie, well… He collapsed onto his back a few seconds afterward. Jen bent and kissed him hard and well, hating herself more than ever, and surreptitiously lifted the object on the chain out from beneath his robes. It was a Time-Turner. "Don't even think that I'm done with you," a voice whispered in her ear. It was another Flint, the necklace in question clutched in his hand. "Ready?" *************************************************************