Incendio

Chapter 8: Fyre In The Hallways

The intense feelings left behind after the Yule ball hung over Samantha like a darkened cloud. She was hurt both by her brother's actions, and by the actions of those who didn't tell her. Both Ginny and Colin insisted they had no clue. Samantha tried to believe them, but she had a hard time believing it. She decided it was best to assume everyone had known. Especially when she heard the whispers as she walked through the hallways. She'd never been the object of negative conversation before. 

The whispers would echo in the common room and down the halls. 

"Just think, no one was willing to fight a hex from her brother to date her."

"I wouldn't have taken her, hex or no hex, she's too annoying."

"She must have no friends if no one told her."

If everyone wasn't talking about her brother's threat, they certainly were talking about her rejection of Nicolas' kiss.

"I bet she rejected him because she thinks she's all high and mighty because she writes for a paper no one reads."

"She's lucky someone wanted to snog her at all, have you seen her hair?"

"It's no surprise she's a prude."

She even found herself avoiding eye contact with everyone on the Gazette when they met to discuss the Yule Ball edition. She spoke about business and avoided the smug look on Genevieve's face. It was the first time in the Gazette's short history that Samantha left a meeting as soon as it ended and didn't doddle to answer questions.

She avoided the library like the plague, she instead begged Hermione to get all of the books she needed. She didn't think she could face Nicolas so she was avoiding anywhere he could run into her. Hermione conceded that she in fact, knew about Jack's threat, but had figured it wouldn't have mattered since she had a date.

She spent a week trying to figure out how to confront her brother. Her mother had offered to send him a howler, but Samantha wrote back that it would be more embarrassment on her part and not on Jack's. She also insisted that she needed to confront her brother because he already accused her of being a tattle.

It wasn't until the new semester started up, that she even saw her brother again. She wasn't attempting to avoid him, but it wasn't anything she was ungrateful for. She was partially in belief that he was avoiding her as well. 

It was when she was on her way to Defense Against The Dark Arts, the first week back, that she saw her brother walking with his friends to class. Upon sight of him,  all of the anger in her spilled out. She quickly blurted out at him, "How could you?"

"What are you talking about?" Her brother feigned.

"You know what I mean!" She insisted strongly, but she chose to keep her voice steady. "You told every bloke in school that you'd hex them if they asked me to the ball."

One of the Slytherin's in her brother's year was laughing, "It's not like she'd really have been fighting them off though. Threat or no threat the only person who would have asked her was probably still that little oaf Longbottom."

"Shut up, Warrington." Her brother looked at the Slytherin dead on.

Warrington crossed his arms and stopped laughing.

Her brother rolled his eyes and looked back to her. "I was doing you a favor."

She crossed her arms. "I felt rejected and humiliated."

"You don't understand how men's brains work!" He pointed to his head aggressively and people had begun to gather around them. "I do."

"You have no right to decide who I date." Samantha quietly insisted back.