"I was very impressed with your essay." Slughorn's words shocked Harmony. His voice bounced off the dungeon walls of the potions classroom as he spoke.
"Really?" Harmony looked at her aging potions professor with shock. With all the shit going on recently she did not expect a praise on any of her schoolwork. The final bell had just rung and Harmony was stopped midway through packing up her bag by Professor Slughorn.
"I can see how much effort you put into it and I thought I ought to give you credit. I really am amazed at how well you have done in this class." Slughorn continued, taking a seat in his large chair behind the mahogany desk.
"Thank you very much, sir. I appreciate it." Harmony couldn't help but smile - finally, something was going her way.
"I expect great things from you next year." Slughorn reminded.
"Of course." Harmony nodded. "I hope not to disappoint." she adjusted her heavy bag on her shoulder and gestured to outside of the classroom. "I should get going…"
He nodded. "Don't let me keep you, but I just wanted to personally wish you luck on the Potions exam in a couple of weeks."
"Thank you sir. Truly." Harmony smiled again, then waved at Slughorn, before making her exit. That was so nice of him.
"Congrats, you brainiac!" Sirius screeched when she stepped out of the door. He, of course, had been listening in to the entire conversation. "You have now reached nerd-status."
Harmony slapped him on the arm lightly. "Excuse you, but you have the same mark as me. If only you and James didn't use this class to raise hell then he'd be pulling you aside, too."
Before they could say anything else, Liven bounded up to them. "Harms. I won't be back until later tonight because Jack and I are sneaking out to Hogsmeade, okay?"
Harmony nodded, but said, "On a school night?"
"It's been a stressful week." Liven defended, then she wiggled her eyebrows. "Catch you later." She bounded off to go meet a grinning Jack, her dark hair shining in the afternoon light.
"It's hard to imagine they officially got together not even two weeks ago. It feels ancient already." Harmony commented to Sirius. His soft hand slipped into hers as they continued down the hall.
"I know, right? I hardly even see the two of them anymore."
"I'm not complaining, to be honest. I don't like PDA unless I'm involved."
Sirius snorted. "Want to go get some tea from the kitchens before dinner?"
"Sure." Harmony replied, as they changed their course of direction in the busy hallway. Students were shouting out to each other and elbows were being shoved into Harmony left and right. She hated crowds.
"Hey, so this summer." Sirius started, as they slipped into a far less busy corridor. "Want to come stay with James and I for a couple days?"
"That would be amazing, Sirius." Harmony smiled.
Sirius grinned, walking faster down the hall. Their combined footsteps echoed off the stone walls. "I've already asked the Potters and they'd love for you to come."
"I'm sure my mum wouldn't mind, as long as she knows James' parents will be there." Harmony replied. She dropped Sirius' hand and stopped so she could pull her hair into a ponytail. June was fabulous and warm - but for someone with long hair the neck sweat can become unbearable.
Sirius watched her scoop her curly locks up and into a ponytail. "Hey remember that one time when I stayed at yours and you came out of the kitchen yelling 'I'm still a virgin?'" Sirius' face broke into a wide grin as Harmony shook her head, her cheeks heating up.
"Don't remind me. My mother has her moments. She was about to lecture me on her sex life as a teenager and I wasn't, nor will I ever be, prepared for that." Harmony patted her head to make sure there wasn't any lumps in her hair. When she was satisfied, she grabbed Sirius's hand again and tugged him along.
Sirius laughed loudly and ran a hand through his own hair. "Oh! Okay, wait. I was going to tell you something but I forgot. Shit." he started dancing around.
When Harmony was sure her arm was going to pop out of its socket, she shouted, "Okay! You're going to dislocate something in my body, Sirius."
"Sorry, sorry." he stopped jumping around, and instead took his bottom lip between his thumb and forefinger in thought. Suddenly, he jumped, his eyes lighting up. "Right! Okay, so I know you, James and I usually wait until Fridays to have our little gossip competition but I'm going to bend the rules and tell you today because this one was too good to pass up - and I'm pretty sure it's true actually."
Harmony grinned. Ever since the beginning of the year, James, Sirius and her have had a game about who could obtain the most ridiculous piece of gossip throughout the week. Whoever had the most far-fetched or hilarious bit of information got a prize of some sort; whether it be a butterbeer or foot massage courtesy of the loser. "Okay, shoot."
Sirius stopped in front of the portrait of fruit that was the secret entrance to the kitchens. He tickled the pair and when the painting swung forward, they were greeted with the mouth-watering smell of a feast being prepared by hundreds of house elves. "I'll tell you after we get some tea-"
A house elf bounded up to the two and greeted them with much enthusiasm. Pretty soon, Harmony had a steaming mug of coffee in her hands while Sirius a cup of tea in his own as they wandered through the halls aimlessly. "Okay, so I was listening in on some fifth year's conversation while we were in the Great Hall eating lunch and they were talking about how this girl, her name is Claire or something and she's a fifth year Hufflepuff…have you heard of her?"
"Yeah, I used to see her around Ryan a couple times." Harmony told Sirius.
"Well anyway, she was giving a blowjob to this kid named Michael or something in the corridor up by the potions classroom and then that guy who kept hitting on you at the ball - the seventh year? - he just happened to walk by and this is where it gets nasty. Are you ready?" Sirius was grinning.
Harmony laughed. "Okay, okay, go."
"She busted him right after, while this other guy was still standing there. And then the best part - they both paid her a galleon afterwards because she threatened to like tell everyone about it or something. They paid her! And now people keep going up to her and throwing coins at her at lunch and stuff."
Harmony started laughing and she almost spilled coffee all down her front. "That's so bad! Oh my gosh! I always pegged her as the quiet type!"
"I know!" Sirius was guffawing, too. "And I was wondering why her uniform looked so new lately!"
Harmony threw back her head and burst out in laughter. "That's hilarious!"
"It's not far-fetched or anything but man, this was good." Sirius said, turing a corner.
They both recovered from laughing some minutes later. "So what do you wanna do this evening?" Harmony asked. "I need to do my DADA assignment but I can do that after."
"The lads and I were going to have an exploding snap tournament. Want to join?"
"Sure." Harmony said. "I'm not very good at the game, but I can ref."
"Yeah you can ref because you're a little bias towards me." Sirius said, kissing her on the cheek.
"Well, now that you've said that maybe I'll be bias towards Peter instead. Hey! What ever happened with that girl he went to the ball with?"
"He's been making several trips to 'study in the library' and 'go get a book from a professor', lately. Moony and I followed him yesterday and he was actually meeting up with her to snog in a broom cupboard." Sirius told her, taking a sip of his warm tea. He dropped Harmony's hand so he could steady the cup while they walked.
"That's so cute!" Harmony gushed. "Did you confront him?"
"Nope." Sirius said. "The little lad needs to experience the thrill of his secret."
Harmony laughed, adjusting the stud earring in her ear then taking another sip of coffee. "I don't think we've ever had to do that."
"Well before we were together there was that time in the corridor-"
"And on New Year's when we ran off behind a tree…but that wasn't very discreet."
"I don't think we've ever snuck around, though."
Harmony thought for a moment, then laughed. "Once, when I was like thirteen, this was my first kiss, mind you, my neighbour's friend - who I didn't even fancy - pulled me behind a tree and kissed me but I was so shocked that I didn't push him away for a good ten seconds. It was disgusting, actually. Loads of saliva." Harmony wrinkled her face while Sirius laughed.
"I'm not even sure if I remember my first kiss-"
"How can you not?"
"Oh, wait! Yes I do. I fancied that girl, Darcy Simon, who's in our year and I just sort of grabbed her and planted one on her in second year while a big group of us were sitting out on the lawns."
"Such a charmer." Harmony commented, snorting. "Wow." she laughed.
Just then, they arrived back at the Fat Lady's portrait. They told her the password and it swung forwards to emit them into the large common room that held many students hanging about. Liven was with Jack - who Harmony assumed she'd snuck into Gryffindor Tower - on the couch by the window overlooking the grounds.
"Hey, you two." Harmony greeted. Liven turned her head away from Jack as she paused their conversation to say hi back.
"Hey!" Liven smiled brightly. "We were just talking about this summer. Want to double date with us?"
Harmony almost choked. Sirius and her could barely do single dates seriously. They always ended up throwing food at each other or starting bonfires with tablecloths and stupid shit like that. Last time they had a date-ish like dinner they had a competition on who could shove the most strawberries into their mouths and it was only stopped because Sirius gagged so loudly that Harmony fell off her chair laughing. There were strawberries everywhere so they ran off back to the dorms so they didn't have to clean anything up.
Sirius was thinking the same thing, his face twitching in an effort not to laugh. Harmony started to talk, "Well, you see, we aren't exactly fit to-"
"We'd love to!" Sirius yelled, cutting Harmony off. "Wouldn't that be absolutely lovely, Harms?"
She looked at him with her eyebrows raised for a solid three seconds before smiling and saying, "Of course!"
Liven clapped, satisfied, and turned back to Jack, words streaming out of her mouth again.
Sirius plopped down in the armchair and patted his lap. Harmony sat down on him sideways, legs hanging over the armrest. "How the fuck are we supposed to seriously double date, Sirius?"
He grinned adorably, showing off his set of white, perfect teeth. "That's the fun of it - we can't."
Harmony leaned back and set her cup down on the little side table. Sirius hovered over her for a moment as he did the same, then he sat back again. "Well, this is going to be fun." Harmony commented.
Sirius grinned, then said, "So you know that book we were reading? Can we keep doing that? We left off at the part where he was about to kill that girl-"
Harmony sat up in excitement. "Oh my gosh yes! And everyone thought that it was her brother who killed the other victims but it was actually him? And she figured that out!" Harmony shouted gleefully.
"And so he was going to kill her but then you fell asleep."
"I'm sorry!" she laughed, eyes lighting up. "Okay I'm going to go get it." she toppled off his lap. Sirius watched her retreating back as she bounced up the stairs to her room.
When Harmony got to the dorm, it was empty. She looked around for the novel for a couple moments before spotting it on her beside table. Just as she was about the leave and rejoin Sirius, though, the door unexpectedly swung open.
Harmony turned and was thoroughly shocked to see Tianna standing there confidently, her jaw set.
"Er-" Harmony started, almost dropping the book in surprise. What the fuck was she doing here?
"I need a word." Tianna told her, flipping this week's hair colour of black around her shoulder. Although she was two years younger than Harmony, she was a lot bigger in build and maybe just an inch taller.
"Um, sure." Harmony was stunned as Tianna strode into the middle of the room, eyes scanning the walls and nosily taking in every last detail of Harmony's personal dorm space.
"Can I sit?" Tianna asked. Although it came out more like a demand to sit, a harsh declaration of action. She was gesturing to Harmony's own bed.
"I'd rather you didn't, actually." Harmony told her, regaining her composure and crossing her arms.
"Fine." Tianna said icily, then she closed her eyes for a moment, seemingly thinking about something.
"What do you need?" Harmony asked coldly. This whole situation was weird.
"I want to be friends." Tianna said, and if Harmony was shocked before she sure as hell was even more so now.
"You want to be friends?" Harmony asked in utter disbelief.
"Yeah. Hating you gets tiring."
There was something seriously off about all of this. "What? Why do you want to be friends? You've been nothing but downright nasty to me all year, Tianna."
"Well, sorry."
"You really think I'm going to believe that? Why are you really here? So you can have a quick look around my personal space? Taunt me? Convince me that you snogged Sirius or something?"
"No." Tianna's eyes flashed. "I want us to be mates."
"You're a fucking fourth year. Do you even know about the birds and the bees?" Harmony snapped. Harmony was becoming more and more uncomfortable with every passing second this girl was in her room, looking around. She was observing everything from the picture of Sirius giving Harmony a kiss on the common room couch to Liven's impressive collection of bras hanging on display in the open wardrobe.
"Now you're being the rude one. Here I am, coming to be friends with you, and you're being nasty to me."
Harmony threw her hands up. "Yes, of course I am! You have done nothing but try and seduce Sirius, call me names, and throw around ridiculous rumours all year. How do you expect me to react, Tianna?"
"You know what? I don't want to be friends with you."
"Good! Now leave!" Harmony laughed, completely dumbfounded as to why she came here in the first place. "Don't talk to me, don't talk to my mates, and especially don't talk to Sirius anymore. Got it?"
After an entire year of this shit from Tianna, Harmony was done with it. It was approaching the summer holidays and now that Sirius and her had had their first actual fight, it made Harmony realize that she needed to take control of useless matters like this. She was done with the immature feud between her and this girl that was two years younger than her. Harmony just wanted her to get out of her life for good.
"Listen here, you little bitch." Tianna took several steps towards Harmony, suddenly furious.
"Don't refer to me as that." Harmony snapped, uncrossing her arms and placing them on her hips. Why couldn't this girl just get the hint and leave?
"I can refer to you as what ever I want. I came here, thinking that it would be a nice time to tie up some loose ends and clear up this little issue we have between us. Clearly, I'm the mature one here as you can't even get over yourself enough to realize that you should be apologizing to me, mudblood. I don't even know how you have friends, let alone Sirius. He's a pureblooded boy who's future is bright and here you are dragging him down with every ounce of muggle blood in your body. You need to wake up and figure out that you're nothing compared to me and him. You're the rags. Salzar Slytherin is right - people of your kind don't belong at this school." Tianna hissed.
Harmony stood there, stunned for a few moments. "What the fuck?" She stared at Tianna for a few more seconds before saying, "So this is why you came up here. You want me to leave Sirius because my parents are muggles. Pathetic. Just leave, please."
"You don't deserve him, mudblood."
Harmony was trying awfully hard not to rip her head right off her neck. She was so furious at this girl for strutting in there like she owned the place just because of who her parents were. Harmony felt the book clutched in her hands start to heat up. She forced herself not to show the bubbling fury, though. It would only egg on Tianna. "My blood type does not determine whether or not I deserve someone, Tianna. Maybe you haven't got to that stage in your mental maturity yet, but there are more important things in life."
"Like what?" Tianna said. She was so close to Harmony that her breath was all over Harmony's face.
"Anything is more important than that." Harmony told her. "Now, I need you to leave. Don't talk to me again, Tianna, seriously. I don't need you or all the shit you seem to bring with you in my life. Honestly."
Tianna laughed loudly and cruelly. "You think you're so damn high and mighty! I can't wait until Sirius realizes how worthless you are, Sea. I'll be here waiting for him."
"You need to get over this infatuation with him, Tianna!" Harmony burst. "This is ridiculous! Just please," Harmony begged, lowering her voice so she wasn't yelling anymore. "leave us alone. Leave me alone. Leave Sirius alone. Leave my friends alone. Leave us all alone. Goodbye." Harmony tried to walk past Tianna but Tianna blocked her path.
"I'm not infatuated!" Tianna yelled. Harmony knew she hit a nerve.
"Yes, you are! That's all you care about! This sounds horrible of me to say but he's not interested in you, Tianna. He doesn't want you." Harmony sighed, feeling twelve. She couldn't believe she was actually having this conversation.
Out of no where, one of Tianna's hands flew up and came in contact with Harmony's face, a loud crack ensuing. Just as Tianna's hand dropped to her side again, Liven stepped through the door. "I did not just fucking see that."
Tianna whipped around and started mumbling, "I-I, I didn't-"
"You need to fucking leave. Right now. Or I swear I'm going to rip your ugly face off of your head and bury you alive." Liven looked terrifying, Harmony idly thought as she was still trying to process the fact that Tianna just hit her across the face. Her cheek was flaming underneath her unsteady hand.
Upon closer inspection, Liven's entire body was shaking with fury while Tianna's in fear. Tianna took one last glance at Harmony, who was still standing there with her mouth open in shock, one hand on her cheek, before turning and stumbling towards the door. Before she could make it all the way out, however, Liven slammed her hand across the doorframe, preventing Tianna's exit.
"Look at me, you little bitch." Liven was much taller than Tianna, and the combination of her beauty, confidence and sharp tongue would make anyone quiver in fear. "If I see you even look at any of us again, I will personally ensure that you will no longer be able to walk the halls. So, you're going to take that whore arse of yours and slowly retreat back into your little boring life. Stop trying to get involved in ours. All you are is a little fourth-year slut who can't keep her mouth or legs closed for two minutes. Leave us all alone from now on, Tianna, or I swear I will make you wish you were never born. Do you understand?" Liven said this so quickly and quietly, every word dripping with venom. Liven's bad side was definitely a bad side.
Tianna was staring at her with wide eyes and the second Liven removed her arm she was gone so quickly Harmony had trouble processing she was even there.
Liven ran over to Harmony. "Are you okay? What happened?"
Harmony laughed, despite her eyes filling with tears. "Wow. Okay. I didn't actually think the little bitch would ever slap me." She actually got slapped across the face by a fourth year. How pathetic.
Liven sat her down on her bed and was staring at her with wide eyes as she tried to move her hand away. Harmony was refusing to do so. "Move your hand, Harmony! I need to see your cheek."
"Can you please get Sirius?" Harmony asked, her voice cracking. This is exactly the type of muggle-film drama she swore to avoid at all costs. Who even smacked people in real life? It was all spells and punches. Was slapping someone even a thing anymore?
"Of course." Liven said, and she was off running down the stairs. Harmony just sat there in shock, staring at her reflection, hand over her burning cheek. Even though she told Tianna she was done with her and she wanted her to get out of Harmony's life, Harmony wasn't about to let this slide. Oh, she was going to pay dearly. Harmony was so mad that her palms started to burn.
A couple moments later, Sirius flew into the dorm and stumbled off his broom ungracefully. He was out of breath. Liven came crashing into the room again. "You got slapped?" Sirius yelled in disbelief.
Before Harmony could reply, he was kneeling in front of her, prying her hand away from her face. Harmony felt embarrassed, all of the sudden. She was pretty ashamed of the fact that she got hit by Tianna. No doubt the girl was going to boast to everyone.
"I'm fine. Just mad." Harmony choked out. "Wow." Harmony stood up and walked over to the mirror, inspecting her bright red cheek that was rapidly starting to swell up. "The bitch can hit."
Sirius was behind her again and she could tell he was trying not to ask too many questions yet. Shock was written all over his face.
"Sirius? Do you need my help or should I give you guys a minute?" Liven asked. She was still trembling in anger slightly. Harmony suspected she needed a minute to herself, more. It takes a lot of mental energy to go from a zero to nine on the angry scale in less than four seconds and throw quick, flawless insults at someone like that.
"Yeah, sure…" Sirius said idly, reaching up and tilting Harmony's chin. He wasn't even looking at Liven as he replied. "Yeah, we need a minute."
Liven threw one last glance at Harmony before leaving the room wordlessly.
"Oh god. What happened?" Sirius asked her, both his hands cupping her cheeks gently as they stood there.
"She just sort of came in here while I was getting the book, and started talking about us being friends and when I said absolutely not, she went off about me being muggleborn and how I didn't deserve you, or anyone for that matter, and I told her to get over you and she just sort of-" Harmony was trying not to cry.
"She hit you because of me?"
Harmony sniffed, then smiled. "No, Sirius. No. Don't make this your fault."
"Why did she hit you?" Sirius was still in complete disbelief, his large, silver eyes wide.
"It doesn't matter. She was just being nasty, okay? It was only a slap, though. I'm fine." Harmony tried to pull his hands off of her. He didn't even register how hot her hands were getting. She was seventeen and still couldn't control her magic when she got angry? Good god.
"No, you're not." Sirius told her, tilting her head to the side so he could look at her cheek some more. He ran his fingers along the redness for a minute before pulling away. "Want me to heal it?"
"No, it's okay. It'll be gone in a few hours anyway. I'm just more pissed than anything." Harmony told him, closing her eyes to regain her composure. She opened them and smiled at Sirius to prove that she was fine although she kinda still wasn't. He knew that, of course.
Sirius looked at her uncertainly for a minute, before wrapping his arms around her shoulders, pulling her to him. She hugged him back around the middle, her fingers resting in the dip in his back where his spine was.
"Let's go back down to the common room." Harmony suggested, pulling away. She was still too fired up to hug anyone.
"You want to go back down?" Sirius' dark eyebrows were raised.
"Look, I'm not going to hide from her. Actually, I think she's going to be hiding from us after what Liven said." Harmony said truthfully, turning back to the mirror and pulling her hair out of her ponytail so it hung long and tame down her back. That covered up the redness more. Her hands were still slightly unsteady. Truthfully, Harmony was already planning one hundred and one ways to torture Tianna without notifying half the school.
Maybe she should just settle on a good prank. That's a better mindset, Harmony thought to herself, maybe you shouldn't plot murder at the age of seventeen. Could have some damaging effects on your mentality in the future.
"What did she say?"
"Oh, it was a speech." Harmony replied. "Lots of threats and insults. Very true to Liven's character. Have I ever said how much I love Liven? Just don't ever, ever, ever make her angry at you."
Sirius laughed and wrapped an arm around Harmony's waist from behind, his palm resting against her t-shirt clad stomach. "You sure you're okay?"
"I'm good." Harmony dropped her hands back to her sides. "I just might need some help on how to get revenge."
"Maybe you should leave it alone?" Sirius suggested quietly. "You don't want to fuel her. Let me deal with her."
"Sirius." Harmony gave him her sassiest, nastiest look that was usually only reserved for her time of month. "Stop stealing my thunder."
He threw his hands up in surrender. "Well then!" he raised his eyebrows. "I just figured I should have a chat with her, that's all."
"No!" Harmony said. "Are you kidding? She'd rip her clothes off before you opened your mouth."
"Look, Harms. I think I should deal with her." Sirius said, then as Harmony was preparing to murder him with her eyes again, he added, "Let's talk about this after you've calmed down a bit more. Maybe when you're not about to burn down a house."
Harmony muttered something like, "No houses in range" before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. "I'm so mad, Sirius! I can't even comprehend anything right now and if you weren't here there's a ninety-eight percent chance I would have ran after her by now."
"Hey." Sirius said, and Harmony opened her eyes and looked at him. She could tell that he was trying to keep his cool for her sake. But he was calmer than she expected, which wasn't necessarily a good thing. "I'll deal with it." he said. She didn't feel like repeating the previous conversation, so Harmony just took his hand and dragged him towards the door.
They left the room together, Sirius on his broom and Harmony on the stairs. Sirius hopped off of the broom at the bottom and he leaned it against the armchair as he sat down again. Harmony crawled into his lap, hiding her red cheek by resting it in the crook of his neck.
"Are you okay?" Liven asked Harmony, as she stood up from her place on the couch and leaned over her best friend.
"I'm fine. I'm good, Liv." Harmony told her.
"Are you sure?" Liven asked again, trying to peer at Harmony's cheek.
"Really." Harmony replied, then she turned her whole head and hid her face in Sirius' warm, cologne-scented neck. She didn't need anyone analyzing her face at the moment.
She heard Liven sit back down on the couch across from her and casually strike up another conversation with Jack. Only her voice was lacking the interest that her words craved as her mind was still on Harmony.
After a couple more minutes, Sirius suggested, "Why don't we go back up to your dorm? Liven keeps looking over here."
"Alright." Harmony agreed, and she stood up with Sirius, avoiding everyone's eyes. His arm was wrapped around her waist until he had to let go to hop on the broom. He zoomed up in the air ahead of her.
Harmony met him at the top and they both were quiet as they crashed onto Harmony's bed. "Let me see it." Sirius whispered, insistent. They had both calmed down and Harmony was actually starting to process that Tianna had slapped her.
Harmony complied, sitting up. Her cheek was just red, now, and maybe a little bit puffier compared to her other. Sirius propped his head up with one arm while he lifted the other up to her cheek. He slowly ran a finger across it while she just stared at him. "It's not that bad."
"No, it isn't." Sirius agreed. "I'm just shocked that she actually did it."
"Believe me, same here." Harmony muttered, leaning back against the wooden bed post. "I want a tattoo." Harmony told him, out of the blue.
"You do?" he asked. "What of?"
"I'm not sure yet. But I'm determined to get one some day."
"I've always wanted one, too. I've just never actually thought about doing it."
Harmony thought for a minute. "I want one here." she pointed to the inside of her wrist. Sirius grabbed her hand and traced her veins.
"I like the idea of getting one on my inner forearm, too." Sirius told her, smiling a little. He reached over and grabbed the book that Harmony had dropped earlier on the end of her bed and riffled through the pages until he came across the bookmark. Harmony collapsed against him and they read together wordlessly.
After about an hour, loud, quick footsteps were heard coming up the stairs and Harmony forced herself to tear her eyes away from the captivating words on the page.
Becca slammed the door open and looked around wildly for a couple minutes before her eyes found the pair of Gryffindors resting on Harmony's bed. "Let me see what that bitch did to you." she growled, and Harmony noticed how a huge chunk of her hair wasn't in her braid anymore and it sort of stuck up on one side.
Harmony laughed. Was this supposed to happen? Shock to anger to being completely drained to finding the whole situation hilarious? "I got slapped, Becca!"
"Wholy shit!" Becca exclaimed, as she leaned in close to inspect the red patch on Harmony's cheek with her own eyes.
Harmony peered across the room in the mirror and saw that her cheek was still quite red. "Sirius. Heal it. I changed my mind and I don't want to wait until it heals by itself."
Sirius stood up and complied with Harmony's request. Becca sat back and watched open-mouthed as Sirius used his wand to slowly eliminate the aftermath of the slap. "I would've come earlier but I had to help Jack talk Liven out of murder for ten whole minutes after she recalled the story."
Harmony snorted. "I wouldn't mind if she killed the little shit, to be honest."
Sirius shushed her. "I think you should not think about how you're going to handle the situation until the initial shock has worn off."
Becca cut in, "Well, we're all going down to the Great Hall for dinner. Are you coming? Everyone's downstairs waiting."
"Oh this is humiliating." Harmony commented.
Sirius laughed. "It won't be once we're finished with Tianna."
Harmony idly grinned to herself and followed the Becca down the girls' staircase as Sirius zoomed ahead of them.
When they got to the bottom, there was a lot of whispering: "Did you clock her one back?" (James), "Are you feeling alright?" (Alice), "I'm going to fucking beat the living fucking daylights out of that fucking girl, I fucking swear to you, Harmony." (Liven).
Harmony was so sick of talking about the whole thing that by the time she got to the Great Hall, she had successfully managed to block out all of their conversations resulting in Sirius having to shout her name six times before she tuned back in. "Want me to tell them to shut up?"
He knew her well, he did.
"Please." Harmony said. They all got the hint and stopped discussing it, thankfully.
When they all entered the Great Hall, Harmony immediately scanned it for any signs of Tianna. She was there, alright. Perched on the bench, she was eagerly recalling the previous events of the day to her group of friends without any realization that Harmony had strolled up and stood behind her. Before Harmony could say anything, Sirius pushed through and leaned down so he could speak at the level of Tianna's head. She realized he was there just after four pairs of eyes shifted from being trained on her to being trained on the head above her shoulder. She jumped and her face turned red.
Instead of shouting profanities, like Harmony figured he would, he calmly stated, "You're going to regret slapping my girlfriend, kid."
Harmony had to physically turn her body away from Tianna and her mates so not only could she could conceal her massive grin but she could also try to hide the fact that one, simple phrase out of that boy's mouth could make her face heat up so much it burned at the touch. Sirius stood back up and guided Harmony over to where their mates had taken seats, a little farther down on the bench. They didn't even notice what had happened in the last thirty seconds and Harmony was appreciative of that. There were perks about having mates like she did; like the fact that eight sets of eyes could glare at a single person while they ate and pretended to have normal conversations. But there were also drawbacks, too - once something was out there, it was game for eight mouths to discuss and talk about constantly when Harmony would rather everyone forget it completely so she could plan silent revenge with Sirius.
Harmony was generally above the idea of revenge, but sometimes anger just took complete priority and the fact that Tianna still had the nerve to glance in Sirius' direction every couple of minutes made Harmony so inexplicably angry that she could barely process anything else. Sirius tried all throughout dinner to calm her down, bring her back to her senses. He was completely right - Tianna wasn't worth getting all fired up for. Yet, that slap was.