Chapter Four

Toujours Pur

"Well," said Septimus looking up at Cedrella, her black hair shining due to the light coming through the window and distracting him from what he was going to say… "Uh."

Cedrella smiled. They had decided to meet up in the library, a place where hopefully people from their respective houses were unlikely to be, and so they were unlikely to see them.

"Yes?" she asked.

"I guess we should, you know. Get revising."

She nodded. "Luckily for you, I already figured that much out. There's a pile of books that I thought might be useful on the library counter, Weasley. You can collect them."

He snorted. "I don't think so. What's wrong with your legs?"

"You're the gentleman!"

"And I believe in equality. You can get up and get the books."

"I don't think so. I picked them out. The least you can do is collect them."

He folded his arms.

She folded hers.

Silence followed for a few minutes before Cedrella sighed.

"I can tell this is going to be fun," she sighed, standing up. And then, "Boys," she muttered as she headed towards the library counter.

Septimus couldn't help following her with his eyes. Her skirt really was tighter than regulation, and the heels were completely against regulation, but it gave a nice effect. Actually, the skirt was also completely against the fashions going around, most girls were into the flowing 'proper' skirts. What was it with her?

"Does nobody bother the Black family with things as trivial as rules?" he asked as she sat back down, dumping a giant pile of books in front of them.

"Excuse me?"

"Your uniform is completely against all the school rules. How do you even get away with it?"

Cedrella snorted. "As if you Gryffindor's have ever believed in following rules anyway. And as if I'd tell you my secrets to rule-breaking."

Septimus rolled his eyes, but she did have a point, it wasn't as if he was an avid follower of school rules himself.

"So, are we going to do some learning… or?" Cedrella asked.

Septimus raised his eyebrows, "Well, we could. But wasn't another part of Professor Merrythought's suggestions that we should get to know each other? We can easily beat George and Lucy and you know it. Even their names are boring for goodness sake, they won't know any interesting information and so they won't know enough to beat us in a quiz."

Cedrella laughed lightly, "That's rubbish logic, but alright then. What exactly does 'getting to know each other' entail?"

He shrugged, "I don't know. Talking?"

"You're a Weasley."

"And you're a Black. But we still have to work together. You can't pretend to hate me."

"I hate your family. Nothing personal, you're blood traitors. All these muggle relations - it's an abomination. And you're as poor as squibs, with about as much pride." She repeated what she'd been told, even if she wasn't sure she believed it anymore.

"What does 'nothing personal' mean then? Because that sounded very personal to me."

She shrugged. "You know I can't have anything to do with you."

He frowned. "You know, I thought you were intelligent enough to see through the prejudices of your family. I'm not asking for marriage, just you know, being civil with each other! It's not as if I love your family. You're all prejudice against anyone who isn't pure blood and then hypocritical in that you're willing to accept half-bloods who pretend to be pure. And quite apart from that you're stuck up, have ridiculously high opinions of yourselves and are slightly deranged."

"I'm not stuck up, nor am I deranged!"

"Muggle relations aren't an abomination and I do not lack pride!"

Cedrella sighed.

Septimus had to bite his lip to stop himself smiling at the way her face was tilted, as if she was trying to decide what to make of him.

Eventually he held out his hand. "Truce?"

She bit her lip and nodded hesitantly, reaching her hand out and shaking his. "Truce."

They released one another's hands and Septimus was marvelling at how soft her skin was when she spoke again.

"Toujours pur," she said, "That's my family motto. Always pure. I'm a Black, pure blood is everything to me if I want to keep my mother, father and sisters. They wouldn't hesitate to disown me if I associated with muggles, you have to understand that. You have to understand that even if I don't agree with them, I still love them - my sisters especially."

He nodded, understanding what she meant.

"Well," he said eventually, "the Weasley's don't have a family motto. But if we did it would probably be something to do with red hair and having no money. Apparently red hair and poorness have been passed down through the generations, guess they're things that'll never change."

She smiled, "Well then, it would appear that we are getting to know each other after all."

He nodded, "Looks like it."

Just then there was a cough from above them and Cedrella and Septimus looked up to see George and Lucy looming over them.

"Hello," said George curtly and Septimus just looked at him in return while the two girls gave each other a once over.

"What do you want?" Cedrella asked eventually.

"I just wanted to let you know that our head of house would like to speak to you." George said to Cedrella before turning around and walking off, leaving Lucy with the two of them.

Cedrella sighed. "Well I suppose I should probably go. Catch you later."

Septimus nodded. "Okay, bye!"

A/N No offence to anyone called Lucy or George. I happen to like those names personally, I don't think they're boring at all! Also, reviews? Please? They might help me write quicker ;)