Murder to Malfoy - D.MALFOY

[30]

"Oh hey Vee," Fin smiled as they haphazardly threw hair bleach into the plastic basket they were holding. Ivy had walked into the shop to get some spot treatment since Blaise had stolen the remaining product for a huge pimple that practically took up his entire chin, according to Fin anyway. Fin and Blaise's relationship had recently taken an odd turn, they had gotten to the point where they acted like siblings that hated each other. Their conversations were full of constant little digs and laughs that had Ivy loving the dynamic entirety. They half blurted while throwing a packet of gloves into the basket, "Fancy helping me dye my hair? I'm thinking light purple or back to red or something. No, split dye!"

Ivy grabbed their shoulder, stopping them from grabbing a box of hair dye. She softened her gaze to concern, asking quietly, "Are you okay?"

"Yes, totally fine. Peachy," Fin brushed all the concern off, letting Ivy's hand slip off their shoulder while they grabbed another box of bleach. "Two boxes enough you think?"

"I think two bleach, one dye just in case with the bleach comes out yellow the first time," she replied absentmindedly as if it was instinct at this point. The concern flooded back into her eyes, "Is this a spontaneous dye job because of certain things happening in life that you cannot handle?"

"Nope, no no not at all," Fin laughed nervously, plucking two different boxes of dye from the shelf. They lifted the boxes to their head and held them side by side for comparison, looking to Ivy as they asked, "Red or purple?"

"You've already been red, I'd go purple," Ivy dismissed once more, actions flooded directly from concern for them. They seemed vacant, sporadic and it was obvious to anyone that they were not thinking any sort of action through completely. Ivy knew that something had happened, it wasn't just suspected, she knew it for definite. So she repeated her previous question, already knowing the answer, "Are you sure this isn't-"

"Are you going to help?" they quickly interrupted, not even catching her eye. She had it dully confirmed then and knew that the dye job was unavoidable. It was better to help, maybe talk to them through it, so they didn't end up with a patchy colour like the last time they had attempted to dye it on their own.

"Oh definitely," she grinned, hoping it would give them some sort of reassurance into their slapdash "You go to the counter, I'll go get snacks from honeydukes and meet you outside?"

"Sounds good to me," they nodded quickly, sporadically moving toward the counter at the very front of the shop Ivy had long forgotten her need to replenish the spot treatment that seemed to work absolute wonders, instead she now found herself springing across Hogsmeade to get back to Fin before they made some sort of other sporadic decision that could end up being catastrophic. After all, it had happened many times before.

-

"You sure about this?" Luna asked, parting their hair as Ivy prepped the bleach in their designated hair dye bowl. They had run into Luna on the walk back home and Fin had inducted them to help, Ivy was extremely glad of having some sort of support in whatever matter this was. Plus Luna just bought s calming aura that was so desperately needed in that bathroom.

Fin, who was sat on Ivy's desk chair in the bathroom with a plastic bag around their shoulders to avoid staining, nodded, "Yes."

Ivy raised a brow, stirring the bleach with one of their mangled brushes, "One hundred percent?"

"Yes! Fry my hair off."

"Okay..." Ivy grimaced at the smell as it flooded her nose, stinging the insides. She painted the bleach onto the hair, making sure it was fully saturated barring the roots, before Luna would wrap the hair clump in a foil, it was just quicker that way.

While Luna and Ivy were preoccupied, Fin listened to music while vacantly watching through the mirror.

"Ced sent me a letter,"

"Oh?"

"Yeah, apparently Dad got into an accident a work. He's not fairing too well," they sighed deeply, looking rather intently into the mirror to distract whatever was going through their mind. Ivy frowned, wondering how awful the situation was overall. She couldn't imagine losing a parent, a brother was hard enough, and since Fin had also lost their mother it could only be ten times worse.

"I'm so sorry," Luna half-whispered, squeezing Fin's shoulder tightly in a way of some type of comfort. They smiled softly, leaning into the comfort discreetly.

Ivy, who had stopped the bleaching process completely, asked softly, "Is he in hospital or anything?"

"He was, now he's home though. They didn't want to worry me about it and distract from my education which is complete bullshit. I went to Dumblewhore and he won't let me leave until three weeks' time but that wouldn't have been the case if I put the request in earlier," they ranted, getting increasingly more vetted as time passed. They sighed deeply to rid it from their body but that only transferred it to Ivy, who was a little easier to aggravate due to her nicotine withdrawals.

She rose a brow, rolling her eyes. "I'll talk to him."

"Ivy..."

She dipped back into the bleach bowl, getting a little too much on her brush. She used her gloved hand to catch any that dripped off while replying, "I'll get you out of here as soon as your hair dries, trust me."

"Thank you," they whispered, looking directly at Ivy through the mirror.

"No need for it Fin, He owes me anyway," she replied with a soft smile, distracting herself with the bleaching process as she planned out exactly what she was going to say to Dumbledore in order to get them out as soon as possible. Luna tilted her head quizzically at the comment but Fin didn't think it peculiar, knowing that they had always had a weird dynamic - especially when Antony still attended the school. "Anyway, at least Amos is well enough to not be in hospital anymore, that's a good thing isn't it?"

They shrugged, clearly not agreeing in the slightest, "I suppose so."

A knock echoed through the bedroom door, three knocks rhythmically to be exact,  "Gods, what is that smell?"

"You, asshole," Fin jokingly grimaced in the mirror, looking directly at Blaise who was caked in all different shades of mud and various leaves from whatever happened during Slyterhin quidditch training. Since the entire incident, Cormac had quit the Gryffindor team and so had his one Slytherin friend for some apparent reason. So Blaise, a reserve since fourth year when he broke his arm, made it back onto the team and he seemed to love every single second of it.

"You do smell earthy," Luna agreed, absentmindedly folding foil while she smiled at him.

"Better than that stuff, you should open a window," Blaise countered, gesturing to the toothpaste-like substance that was currently soaked into their hair. Ivy sighed briefly, flicking her wand in the direction of the window to open it without moving anywhere."You're bleaching your hair again?"

"Obviously, go shower for the love of Jesus," Fin responded, jokingly rolling their eyes at him through the mirror.

He laughed, "Love you too Fin."