The Serpent and The Bird

"Having you like this is worse than not having you at all"

- Mister Sallow, put Miss Grayson down at once. This is not The Three Broomsticks.

Professor Sharp hissed as he limped past the Slytherin table, heading towards the Great Hall door.

- Yes, professor.

Sebastian answered with his best toady tone, but his hands didn't let Everleigh go from his lap. She had blushed bright pink, trying to move away from him but his fingers dug into her stomach, keeping her back pressed to his chest. She glanced at him over her shoulder, her lips becoming thin lines.

- Stop it, Sebastian. Just let me sit back at the Gryffindor table. Enough people have seen us already.

- It's fine, Sharp left. See? Keep eating your eggs.

- I can't, you pressing on my stomach like that is going to make me throw up.

Sebastian chuckled agains her shoulder but he softened his grip on her skin. Ominis, seating at the other side of the Slytherin table, cleared his throat.

- Sebastian, could you let the poor girl eat her breakfast in peace?

- Yes, Sebastian. Let your girlfriend eat her breakfast in peace.

Anne added over the Potions book she was reading that morning, a hint of a smile threatening to come out. Sebastian ignored his sister tone and stuffed a piece of bacon in his mouth.

It had been a couple of days since they had been pretending to date, and Hogwarts had been buzzing with the news. Not that he particularly cared, but Everleigh looked like she wanted to crawl into a hole on the ground.

At least the boys at school had stopped asking her to the ball, which was a blessing for him. He had been a mere step away from transfiguring students into ferrets.

Which reminded him...

- You should wear green to the Yule Ball.

He whispered against her shoulder, just to her, trying to keep Ominis and Anne out of the conversation. Everleigh swallowed a potato and shifted on his lap, adjusting herself. That simple move almost sent him spiraling and he tried to think of the least sexual things he could imagine to keep down the erection.

- Why green?

Everleigh asked, innocently. She had to be pulling his leg with that question.

- Because I'm Slytherin, and you are coming with me.

- Oh. - Her voice turned dry a second later. - Well, I'm a Gryffindor and you are coming with me, so maybe you should wear red.

- Not a chance. I'll be the object of ridicule of this school.

- So you are asking me to do it, instead?

- It's different for girls.

- What is this, the 1950's?

Fantastic. Now, she was upset. With a frown on her face, Everleigh raised to her feet, unhooking from his hand around her, and she grabbed her handbag from the seat next to them. She stared down at him, her tone honed as a knife.