The Moon and His Night

12

Camille POV

Two days later...

    "Leo–listen–I know your parents are like...wealthy beyond my wildest dreams, but I'm not sure that galleons can get you out of a premeditated murder charge." I sighed, running a hand through my hair. "And based on that wild look in your eye everytime Malcolm is mentioned, something tells me that the murder charge would be both aggravated and in the first degree. That's 30 years to life in Azkaban."

    Leo exhaled heavily, clearly not happy with the fact that his original plan to make Malcolm worm food was not an option.

    We sat in the back corner of the library where no one ever ventured unless they were looking for books about the evolution of Magical Dung Beetles or the history of wigs in the British Magical Parliament. There were a surprising amount of books on both of those topics, believe it or not.

    "I could pay someone else to do it." Leo perked up with a new suggestion.

    "To kill him?" I whispered harshly, looking at him as if he was turning into a Magical Dung Beetle himself.

    "No." Leo whispered back, shaking his head at my wild assumption. "Someone to...you know..." He crossed his arms over his chest and shrugged, leaning back in his chair. "Knock a couple of his teeth out. Break his nose. Maybe...shatter a femur. Something like that."

    "You see–you had me until the femur..." I leaned back in my seat, tossing my quill onto the table and mimicking his cross armed position. "Not opposed to the teeth though." I shrugged.

    "What about the nose?" Leo raised his eyebrows.

    "Eh--still up in the air about that one." I tilted my head side to side in contemplation.

    "What about the jaw instead?" Leo offered, leaning forward again and putting his elbows on the table like he was a businessman pitching me some sort of deal here.

    "God–that sounds brutal." I cringed at the thought.

    "It is. That's the point." Leo said matter-of-factly, his expression falling unamused as he spoke. "The goal is maximum damage without possibly risking 30 to life here, Camille. Keep up. We're supposed to be masterminding here." He motioned between us.

    "Masterminding?" I quirked up an eyebrow with a scoff of a chuckle.

    "Masterminding." Leo repeated, sounding quite sure of himself. "It's a word. You can look it up. I know you want to."

    "And what makes you think that?" I questioned, tilting my head to the side.

    "Because you're you, and any opportunity to poke fun at me for confidently using a made up word is an opportunity that I know you'd want to jump on."

    I squinted my eyes at him, and he followed suit, mirroring my expression. We both eyed each other with pseudo-suspicion for a couple of seconds, like we were calling each other's bluff and waiting to see who would crack first.

    "Well, I don't have a dictionary on me currently, so I'll have to get back to you on that." I bobbled my head around in a taunt as I did exactly what Leo said I would. He was right. If 'masterminding' isn't a real word, he's not going to hear the end of it for a while.

    "That's what I thought." he smirked proudly, balling up a small piece of ripped parchment and throwing it so it hit me right on the tip of my nose.

    My shoulders shook with a soft laugh all on their own as I started flipping to the page in my textbook that I was supposed to be reviewing this entire time. I rested my cheek on my propped up fist, shaking my head and trying to reel in the seemingly uncontrollable smile that sprung up on my face.