Sorry for all the cliffhangers!!! Anyway, rum, my exams are over now! And I got my results back already. Passed everything, so that's good I guess. 2 As in English (I swear, ff writing has improved my vocabulary) and Geography, and the rest are Bs. I missed an A by 1 mark in 3 subjects –kills herself-. And overall, I got third place in class! D

Post 67

Sirius and I looked at each other in alarm and dashed towards the source of the sound. Following the scream were snarls and shouts. We burst into the wrought iron door at the end of the chamber just in time to see a sixth year Slytherin boy run up the stone steps towards us. He pushed past us and scampered off.

Just a distance away, facing each other like a pair of wolves ready to attack were Christella and one of the twins, Tina.

Christella had a look of smug innocence of her face while Tina had one of shock, disbelieving, and anger.

I pulled Sirius behind a pillar and we hid there, listening.

"How could you?!" Tina asked in a voice filled with pain.

"What? It's not my fault," replied Christella with an uncaring scoff.

"I thought you were my friend!"

Christella kept quiet.

"I leave him for a moment and he disappears and I find you two making out in the dungeons! Why don't you just make out with your stupid rich brat Todd instead huh?"

"Well I found him to be one of no personality... unlike Randall," she said with a prominent smugness in her voice.

Tina snarled in anger.

"Well think of it this way, Tin," suggested Christella. "I can tell he's going to be unfaithful to you... I just saved you a heartbreak."

I could almost see her flicking her golden tresses behind her back.

Tina had snapped. There was a scream and then more screams. Sirius and I both bolted from our hiding place and saw them. One of Tina's hands tugged at Christella's perfect hair while the other clawed at her face. Christella attempted to kick but with her dress, proved fruitless, she slapped any bit of Tina she could find while struggling out of her gasp.

I dashed forward and caught Tina under her arms and pulled her back. Her frantic hands grasped the air, clawing at Christella but Sirius had looped her easily around the waist and pulled her back too.

"Stop!" I shouted loudly and they both stopped struggling.

Tina breathed heavily, sporting a cut lip, her hair in a tangled mess and her dress had been torn in some places. I let go of her and she continued to glare acidly at Christella.

"Oh Sirius! Sirius!" Gasped Christella. "Thank god you're here! She attacked me, Sirius! She attacked me!"

She clung on like how a defenseless monkey would to its mother. A rift ran through me.

"You scheming little-!" spat Tina throwing herself forward, but I caught her back under her arms.

"Sirius! Make her stop! I've done nothing wrong!" pleaded Christella pitifully.

"Cut the crap, Christella," I said acidly. "We heard your story!"

"No! Sirius, you have to believe me, it didn't go that way, she was lying!"

Fake tears started streaming down her carefully lidded eyes. She buried her face into Sirius, sobbing like an overgrown child. Her hair was also in a tangled mess, her sleeve had ripped off and thin scratches covered her shoulders.

"Okay," I said exasperatedly. "Stop fighting. It won't solve anything... Look at yourselves."

Tina looked down at herself self-consciously and took a shuddering breath. Then she took off down the corridor towards the Slytherin common room.

I could've sword I saw Christella smirk secretly into Sirius' shoulder as she hugged him tightly around his neck, feigning distraught cries. I narrowed my eyes at her, just thinking of how pathetic she looked at this moment.

"How could she attack me like that? She was my friend..." she sobbed.

I grabbed her arm in one swift move and pulled her off roughly. She stumbled on her feet and hit the wall. Dark black smudges dirtied her cheeks as she stared in horror but like a flash of lightning, her forget-me-not blues turned cold as ice.

Tina ran off, her steps angry and quick.

She stared back at me, her cold eyes smudged with black streaming down her cheeks.

"Don't interfere in things that don't concern you Reine," she said icily, with a particular emphasis on my name.

"Come on Sirius," I said stiffly taking his hand and we walked off leaving the fuming blonde behind.

When we reached the trapdoor, Tina was already gone so she probably already went through.

"Well, thanks, it was a great night," I said like I do every time I did when we stood there.

Sirius smiled.

"Be careful when you're going back..." I said, almost pleaded. Who knows what Christella would do. "Take the secret passageways."

Sirius nodded and leaned forward to give a quick kiss goodnight. He turned and I entered the trapdoor.

Down in the Slytherin common room, there was hardly anyone around. Just a handful. A couple was snuggling by the fire, others were just wandering around, two were kissing behind the row of bookshelves and a few cats were prowling around for food.

I headed towards the dormitories and when I entered, I heard soft sobs coming from one of the beds. Undoubtedly, it was Tina. The curtains of her bed were closed and I debated with myself whether or not I should open them and try to console her. She hated me ever since I came here. Would she still hate me now in her state?

I decided. I went up to her bed and slowly, carefully opened one of the curtains. She didn't retaliate. She just kept sobbing with her head in her pillow.

"Tina?"

"Go away..." she cried, her voice muffled by the pillow. It didn't sound mad, it sounded weak.

"Are you okay?"

She raised her head from the pillow and fixed me with bloodshot eyes. "I thought I had a chance with Randall y'know..." She hiccupped.

"Now that filthy has stolen all of it away from me... I've had enough..." she said, her words slightly slurred. "Y'know... almost every relationship I've been in... it- it all went down. I knew it was Christella somehow... I know!"

"What do you think she did?"

"She told him bad things about me. Bad things. And they left me," she glanced up at the green hangings for a second. "All those things were untrue. But people believe her. She has a way. A way to make people believe her. It's all so unfair. But I kept quiet because... well I had no proof." Her voice went very high then as her eyes shimmered with tears once more.

I reached forward and tapped her shoulder comfortingly.

"But this time she stole my date right before my eyes... right in front of me!" She cried. "I'm through with it. It's unfair..."

"Why were you her friend in the first place?"

"She was different in our first year... but she grew. She grew more beautiful and learned to charm those she needed... she never loved any of those boys." she cried, suddenly sounding crazy. "Unlike me.

"I always played along with her... I did whatever she asked... It was my way of being part of a group. People only looked up to me because I was with her. People sided away every time Christella, Ren, Carla and me passed. It felt good to have power... with her, my popularity grew with hers... you understand right?"

"I understand," I nodded with a comforting smile.

"What about you? Why does Christella not like you?" she asked in a slur. "You're rich, you're pretty, you're a pureblood. Just like her. But why does she hate you?"

I shrugged.

"But I can't be her friend now..." she muttered and I was surprised she had dropped that subject so abruptly.

"You don't have to be," I said. "Just be yourself. You don't need Christella to make you popular."

She closed her eyes painfully and the last drops that were in her eyes slid down her cheeks.

"Don't let her make you cry," I said.

She whimpered.

"Why don't you change and go to sleep, you'll feel better tomorrow," I suggested.

The next day, Christella had regained her usual poise. Everything about her was perfect again. Her clothes were perfect. Her make-up was perfect. Her hair was perfect. And she had a look that said if anything should mar her perfection, will die.

Her group of four was now three. There was another argument down in the common room that morning. Tina and her twin sister Ren. Tina had tried to pull her away from the group but Ren had not agreed. Ren still wanted to be one of the populars. Tina became more miserable than she ever was.

When I headed up through the trapdoor to go to breakfast that morning, in my utter surprise, Tina joined me. Trying hard not to show my amazement, I smiled and said hi. Tina offered to carry my potions books... twice... but I refused.

"So what are you doing after school today?" She asked eagerly.

"I don't know... mug I guess."

"Mug?"

"Uh... that means study," I replied.

"Oh! Of course! I would like to mug with you too. We have that Potions test on Wednesday."

"Yeah... okay..." I replied unsurely but I couldn't possibly turn her down. Not when she's so miserable already.

Tina followed me around all day. Except when she went to Advance Herbology and I to Care of Magical Creatures. But she was already waiting for me at the end of the lesson. We went to lunch together too. It was like she had nobody to turn to now...

Which was partly true. Christella had managed to get everyone to be cold towards her. Nobody talked to her unless she spoke to them, which was replied hastily by a one-word answer or an excuse to get away. They were probably scared that Christella will skin them with her laser eyes if they talked to Tina.

"The cold war... it's starting!" She squeaked to me, frightened, as we walked down the corridor to Charms.

Just then, who else should turn the bend strutting like she owned the place.

Christella, still in her perfect self, flanking her was Ren and Carla both wearing satisfied smirks. Christella's nose was highest of all, her pink lips curled into a smug smile as her hair flew behind her as she sashayed down the corridor like she would a catwalk.

As she passed, Christella cast me and Tina a glacial glare that could've chilled the fiercest fires. I expected her to pass but she stopped. Ren and Carla did too. Christella eyed me with a smirk. Then turned to Tina, who quailed.

"With the mudblood lover, are you now?" she cooed. She eyed Tina as though she was something disgusting, scoffed and then turned to me.

"You're lucky," she said coolly. "But of course you already knew that."

Tina cast a confused look. I glared at Christella, not breaking eye contact with those conceited cerulean eyes.

"You've got money, a large house..." she crooned. "But best of all, you've got Sirius Black."

She took a step closer to me still keeping her eyes on mine, her pink lips which I realized seem to glimmer in the light, stretched into a smile.

She traced a delicately manicured finger across her lips. "And he is just the greatest kisser..."