"Kiss And Make Up" by Redcandle17
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters and elements from the Harry Potter series belong to J.K. Rowling. No copyright infringement intended.
Whore.
The word rang in the air, hanging there, suffocating her.
"What did you call me?" Alicia asked quietly.
"You heard me," Cassius said. "What else am I supposed to think of you, knowing you fucked three of my friends. Merlin, Alicia, why don't you fuck Bole and Derrick, too, and be done with it? If you ask nicely, Angelina and Katie may even let you borrow their husbands, and you'll have the entire damn team!"
It was unreasonable, but Alicia blamed Angelina and Katie for joking about "half the Slytherin Quidditch team" where Cassius could – and had – overhear them. Miles, Terrence, and Adrian had been gentlemanly enough to keep quiet about the liaisons in question. Cassius hadn't ever needed to know.
But he asked her about the joke, and she was drunk and feeling playful so she told him the truth. Alicia thought her disastrous one night stand with Miles was a pretty funny story. She failed to notice Cassius's reaction to it, and went on to tell him about the one whole week she and Terrence dated after sleeping together at an office Christmas party. He asked if there was more and she admitted to seeing Adrian for a couple of months.
And then he said it. He looked right at her and said, "Why didn't anyone tell me you were a whore before I married you?"
"It was years ago," Alicia whispered. "Long before we started dating."
"I'm right in the middle of the list, aren't I? Number four," he mused. "I suppose by then Katie had gotten Marcus and you were stuck with me, unable to move on to the next one on the list."
"Cassius, there was no list. You don't care about George or Michael or anyone else I was with before you, so why is this different? Miles and Adrian and Terrence just happen to be men I dated and it didn't work out. Nothing more. There was no agenda."
He didn't seem to have heard her. "I'm curious. Did Bell and Johnson hold auditions, too, or just you?"
"I didn't do anything wrong," Alicia said. She was pleading and she didn't even know why, but she was willing to do it if only he would stop looking at her like that.
"Three of my friends fucked my wife before I did. Do you have any idea how that feels? How am I ever going to look at them again? Fucking bastards. They could have warned me."
They had been married for almost a year and they had at least two fights a week in that time. They yelled at each other frequently, but it was a holdover from their Hogwarts days and they enjoyed it. They always made up immediately.
This was different. Cassius wasn't yelling and he was staring at her with disgust. There was no adrenalin rush from this. Alicia wanted to curl up and cry.
"They're irrelevant," she said. "You're the one I was stayed with. I love you."
"Alicia, please, I can't even look at you at the moment." He strode over to the fireplace and grabbed a handful of floo powder. "I'll be back later."
Alicia cried herself to sleep in the bathtub then awoke long enough to get into bed. In the morning, Cassius was asleep beside her. Alicia wondered whether it was out of habit or whether he'd forgotten that there were more bedrooms in the house. His arm was around her waist as usual, and she bitterly reflected that he claimed not to want to look at her but certainly didn't mind touching her. Alicia angrily shoved him away and climbed out of bed.
She didn't have anything to regret. Miles, Adrian, and Terrence were part of her history whether Cassius liked it or not. There was nothing either of them could do about it. And even if she could, she wouldn't erase bits of her life to suit him. What she'd done and the people she'd interacted with made her the person she was today. Cassius supposedly loved that person yesterday morning, and nothing about her had really changed since then. If he was that immature, she was better off without him anyway.
They didn't speak to each other at breakfast. They usually visited muggle tourist attractions all over Britain on Sundays, but today both of them stormed off after they finished eating.
Alicia visited Oliver, who was still single – mostly likely because everyone he dated ran away after receiving one lecture too many on the intricacies of Quidditch. To his credit Oliver did attempt to find out the reason for Alicia's bad mood before giving up and recounting the details of his last match against the Chudley Cannons.
She murmured "umm-hmm" and "uh-huh" every time Oliver's excited monologue paused and thought about her husband. They'd never had a serious dispute before, and Alicia wasn't sure how to handle it. She decided to do nothing. The problem was invented by Cassius. She simply was not going to speak to him again until he apologized.
After lunch, Alicia convinced Oliver to go shopping in Diagon Alley with her. Buying herself things always made Alicia feel better, and watching Oliver tell his fans more than they wanted to know about his training regimen was highly entertaining. Time sped by and night seemed to arrive all too soon.
"I'm having dinner with Katie and Flint," Oliver said. "I guess they won't mind if you come along."
Alicia debated what was worse: going home or explaining to Katie why she was there without Cassius. As depressing as ignoring and being ignored by Cassius seemed, being grilled by Katie sounded worse. Alicia bid Oliver goodbye and apparated home.
She was half way through her dinner when Cassius asked, "You swear you haven't done anything with any of them in years?"
Alicia glared him and took another bite of her steak without answering. How dare he?
She had nearly finished her chocolate pudding when he said, "I'm sorry."
"Sorry isn't an eraser. Besides, do you even know exactly what you're apologizing for?"
"I'm sorry I called you that name and I'm sorry I suspected you of adultery. What more do you want?"
"I want to know what the hell you were thinking."
"Alicia, put yourself in my place. How would you feel if I'd slept with Katie and Angelina?"
She had to admit to herself that had that been the case, she'd be forever paranoid around her friends. But, "Think of it this way, Cassius: the three of them weren't good enough to keep, but you were."
He smiled slightly. "That's an interesting perspective."
"It's the truth."
"Do you forgive me?"
"Only if you promise you won't ever call me a whore or anything similar again and you won't suspect me of having affairs with your friends."
"I promise."
He leaned across the table to kiss her and Alicia turned her face away. "I'm okay with the making up part, but I'm not ready to kiss yet."
They went to bed in silence and stayed on their own sides of the bed until they fell asleep. But when Alicia awoke to find Cassius's arm around her, she snuggled closer rather than push him away.
End