POISON IVY & SPIDER WEBS
By Clara and Evil
CHAPTER 2
Later that morning, Malum sat at the Gryffindor table with his housemates, enjoying breakfast before having to get in the Dungeons for Potions. While his friends chatted around him, he couldn't help himself but glance at the far end of the Slytherin table.
"Going into snake, are we?" one of his best friends, Albus Potter asked him with a smirk, looking at what Malum was looking.
"What? No...I was just lost in thought, that's all," Malum replied with a faint blush, going back to his toast.
"Mhmmmm...." Albus said with a grin. "I didn't expect you to actually go for the Dark One, Malum...I mean, you can do much better than...that!" he added, gesturing with a hand and a grimace towards Clara.
"Al...it's not...what do you mean?" Malum said, annoyed, and lowered his friend's hand.
"Come on, Mal...the entire school knows you guys spent the night in a cave! You could've shared details to your best bud here when you got back, or tell me that you wanted to prank her!" Albus said faking to be upset and then burst into laughter.
Malum gulped hard and shot a panicked look towards Clara, who was taking a bite from a piece of toast and reading something. She slowly lifted her gaze and looked straight to Malum, her face changing from indifferent to alarmed. She let go to the piece of bread, her chest lifting and descending as her anger rose, making her eyes darken. She glanced at her own table and noticed the Slytherins chuckle and making snide comments, even the one who she thought was more or less a friend, Scorpius Malfoy. She closed her eyes briefly and calmly put the book in her bag and stood, leaving the Great Hall as if nothing happened.
Malum started get up when two hands pushed him back in his seat.
"You'll only make it worse, Mal," the soft voice of a girl said behind him. He turned around and raised an eyebrow at Molly Weasley, his ex girlfriend. He shook her away, picked up his bag and left in a hurry.
"I hope he comes to his senses," Al commented with a sigh and looked at his cousin. "Come on, let's finish breakfast, we have Potions next," he said to her and pulled her next to him.
"Oh, I'll take care of that," Molly replied with a grin to her cousin Al.
After turning around for a few minutes without finding her, Malum sighed heavily, passing a hand through his hair and decided to walk towards the Potions classroom to avoid getting a detention from the Potions Master.
As he walked into the empty classroom he saw her, as always, in the darkest corner of the class. He moved forward to go to her but decided otherwise as the other students rushed in. He bit his lip in annoyance and took his usual sit, towards the middle section of the room, unable to turn his head to look at her without being noticed. He got out his textbook angry and didn't say a word as Molly and Al sat to his sides.
The class seemed to never end and Malum was nervously tapping his foot on the floor while chopping and stirring, attracting the disapproving glance of his Professor more than once. He placed the potion into a vial, glancing back to try and spot Clara as he walked towards the teacher's desk to hand it in. Not once she lifted her eyes, the tip of her tongue slightly to the side as she poured the potion into a vial, totally ignoring him as well as her fellow Slytherins. Malum handed in the Potion, looking away from the Professor as he raised a brow at his shaking hand. But when he glanced back, she was already gone.
"Kendrick..." a threatening voice stopped him on the way out of the Dungeons area.
"Malfoy," Malum replied calmly, turning around to face the blonde.
The Slytherin prefect shot him a smirk and crossed his arms over the chest.
"What is it? Or did you just stop me to admire the view?" Malum asked.
"You wish, Gryffindor...stay away from Clara," Scorpius said in a low voice.
"Or what?" Malum asked, amused.
"She's a friend...I think you've hurt her enough by considering she's just one of the little sluts you usually date," Scorpius replied in a whisper, visibly disgusted at having to talk to a Gryffindor.
Malum smiled bitterly. "And since when you laugh at your friends?" he asked slowly and left the blonde without giving him the chance to reply.
Scorpius felt his stomach huddle, knowing that the Gryffindor was right. He huffed and went to rejoin his mates, a perfect look of disdain on his face.
By the end of the afternoon, Malum's anxiousness was rising. Clara hadn't been at lunch, he didn't have any other classes with the Slytherins that day and Al and Molly were driving him crazy, asking for details. He was grateful for some silence while he walked outside the Charms classroom when his attention was caught by voices on the empty hallway. He slid in a corner, waiting for the students to pass so he could have some time alone. His eyes widened when he spotted the two Slytherins that had found him and Clara in the cave that morning and he decided to have a chat with them.
The two passed Malum without even noticing him.
"We're so going to make it in Malfoy's select circle now, Mike!" one said to the other excitedly.
"I know...I mean, that was the gossip of the semester and Calista promised we'll soon be called for the initiation," Mike replied with a beaming smile.
Malum felt himself shaking in anger and was just about to step forward and hex them when a familiar voice made him freeze.
"So, it seems that wasps don't frighten two perfectly slimy gits like you..." Clara poured as she stepped out of the shadows on the other side of the corridor.
Malum slowly stepped back, gulping as he remembered Clara's words from earlier.
The two boys froze where they were as Clara walked towards them with her wand pointed in their direction and an icy smile on her deep red lips. She had changed her school uniform for leather pants and a snow-white shirt with a high collar, her hair loose on her shoulders. She whispered something in Latin as she slowly moved towards the two boys and huge swarm of wasps came menacingly right to them. They both yelped and screamed, tripping on one another while they tried to run. As they fell on the floor, they held their arms above their heads screaming at her to stop but Clara chuckled darkly and kept moving.
Malum was torn between letting them get what they deserved, his Prefect duties and his shock at seeing Clara changed like that. Thus, he didn't move, his eyes locked on Clara's upper body, now visible through the shirt. He shook his head and licked his dry lips, that gesture attracting Clara's gaze. She smirked at him and twirled her wand. For a second there Malum though she would send the wasps towards him as well, but the swarm flew in circles above the frightened Slytherins as Clara stopped in front of them and her amber eyes moved away from Malum.
"Now, now...let's see how you two darlings hang in the Great Hall, shall we?" she said sweetly.
"No, Noctus, please," Mike whined. "We'll do anything, please...I beg you, we'll do anything!" he cried and the other boy hurried to nod in agreement.
Clara sighed heavily, looking down at them with a smirk the looking up at Malum, licking her lips and smiling dangerously at him. Malum's breathing increased rapidly and he was surprised to sense a tension rising in his lower body even if he thought he was too shocked to actually get turned on by the scene.
"Oh, you will do anything...anything I ask, anything I want, whenever I ask it of you," Clara said just as sweetly, kicking Mike hard in the stomach with the tip of her boot.
"Anything, anything.....we swear!" the other boy said, tears pouring down his cheeks when a wasp decided to sting his neck.
Clara took her time, looking back at Malum. "This is your last chance, bitches!" she said and cast Finite, making the swarm turn into dust that fell on the boys. "Don't get up until I'm out of this place, understood?" she sneered and walked away, passing by Malum and looking at him.
Malum exhaled as silently as he could and hurried to follow Clara, who had entered the Charms classroom.
He was temporarily blinded by the sun rays that passed through the large windows but his eyes adjusted quickly and he looked around in the classroom for Clara. He spotted her in front of the window, half turned to him. He took a moment to look at her, to see how the sun reflects in her black hair, to take a better look at the red, luscious lips and that milk-white skin that he knew smelled like flowers. He frowned. How could a girl that seemed so delicate turn into the strong woman he just saw and then turn back into the lonely, weird student? How could she threaten somebody in such a horrible way, smirk on her lips and darkness in her eyes...those amber eyes that now shed silent tears, big, shinning drops that softly rolled down her cheek?
Malum braced himself and walked to Clara, leaning with his back against the edge of the window and facing her.
"Are you alright?" he asked softly.
Clara looked up at him and slowly whipped off her tears.
"Don't worry, Malum...I will take care of the two. Your reputation will not be too...wrinkled," she replied bitterly, her voice shaking and looked back by the window.
"Clara...I'm sorry...I..." he begun, placing a hand on her shoulder.
"There's nothing to be sorry about," Clara replied sharply, shaking his hand off.
"Look, I don't care about my reputation...I want to know if you're going to be alright!" Malum said and firmly grabbed her shoulders, turning her to him. His eyes met hers, now almost of the colour of honey in the sunlight. "What happened there, Clara? You just...you were amazing..." he added in a whisper, a smile flourishing on his lips.
Clara sighed heavily and looked at him again. "It is of no importance. Forget you ever saw that, forget about last night...forget it all..." she whispered, trying to get away from his grip. "And please let me go!" she added with an angry voice.
But Malum shook his head and pulled her to him, hugging her tight.
"What are you doing?" Clara asked in a shocked voice, unable to move.
"I'm being your friend and giving you a hug when you feel down," Malum said in a low voice.
"I don't recall asking you to be my friend but to release me, Kendrick. I don't need pity..." she hissed.
"Too late, I am your friend now and it's not because I pity you," Malum said with a half chuckle, letting her go.
Clara looked at him, frowning and confused, breathing fast. She opened her mouth to say something but closed it back, blinking fast. She exited the classroom quickly, leaving behind a very amused Gryffindor.
Malum leaned against the edge of the window again, passing a hand through his hair and seriously asking himself what had gotten over him. He sighed and closed his eyes.
"Well, well...She got to you, didn't she, Mal?" a girl's voice interrupted his thoughts.
"What's wrong with wanting to be friends with someone from another house, Molly?" Malum asked his housemate, opening his eyes.
Molly stepped closer and placed her arms around his waist, smirking.
"Why do you seek her friendship when you can have mine...and so much more?" she whispered to him.
Malum smiled and gently removed the girl's arms, holding her hands into his.
"I can still have your friendship, Molly...but not more. We already discussed about it," he replied, looking at her.
"I thought that perhaps, love...we could give it another try considering you're not seeing anyone now, and I'm not seeing anyone either..." the girl trailed, smiling sweetly at him.
Malum sighed. "Perhaps some other time, Molly...I don't think I want to be in a relationship just now..." he said, kissing her forehead and leaving.
Molly waited for him to leave before letting out a growl of frustration. She furiously kicked a bench and got out of the classroom, promising herself to gain Malum back.
~.~