The Boy With Black Eyes

Black Orchids; Purple Wrists

*THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS A BRIEF MOMENT OF PHYSICAL ABUSE BETWEEN REMUS AND NOX, SHE WALKS AWAY WITH A BRUISE. IF YOU ARE TRIGGERED BY SUCH THINGS: THIS IS YOUR WARNING*

She hadn't been scared of him, ever. The big black billowing bundles of cloth were just fabric, the voice, low and snarky and mean was just something put on to intimidate the Gryffindor first-years, as she had learned once she got past OWL level. The older she got, the less the black eyes looked like empty abysses into the void, and the more they looked like her grandfather's; restricted, proud, holding onto a peice of knowledge he refused to give up. 

But Melissa had never been more terrified then when he refused to shout at her. She sat in his study, on the rickety wooden chair, Nox weighing a million kilos in her lap, watching him pace back and forth, muttering to himself. Occassionally, a glance, but not much more, once disappearing into the potion reserves. Stories floated around, especially Gryffindor Tower, of the older man angered, snarling and cruel, taking a sadistic sort of pleasure in watching children scrub cauldrons or write lines. 

Or mark their own essays, she reflected quietly to herself. He'd looked much less grey three years ago. The grey reminded her of her grandfather too, but she did not think he was quite as old. To distract herself, she tried to count backwards in an attempt to figure out how old her professor was, and how old her granddad was. She frowned, and then remembered she didn't even know what year her father was born. Well, shit, if I'm seventeen and he's forty-five...

A great billowing thundercloud settling in the desk chair opposite her broke her out of her basic mathematics. Like he had when the three younger students were in the room, the pair of them locked eyes, and again, the cool hiss of his mind entering hers was felt, like the sensation of an ice cube running down her spine. The untrained and untested stone walls went up again, the same sort of stone walls that surrounded graveyards. Just high enough that scaling them required an ounce of difficulty, but enough to keep the wandering deliquent out. 

To her surprise, he respected the walls, and withdrew again, but fixed her in his gaze, fingers steepled, the tip of his first finger touching his top lip. Melissa lowered her eyes, and carefully brushed an imaginary piece of dust off of Nox's front cover. Yes, she had taken it. Yes, she had read it. He'd caught her red-handed, and there was no way for her to plea innocent. She was as guilty as they came. 

"Why?"

"Huh?"

"Not only is that reply incredibly patronizing, it deviates from the intelligence I know you possess. So, once more, with an answer. Why?"

"...I don't have a good reason..." She didn't. Not at all. His wards had blown her back into the desk, the drawer opened, and curiosity killed the cat. Now she was caught and he was going to report her to Professor McGonagall and she was going to go down in a complete and total blaze of inglory. "I invaded your privacy and I shouldn't have done that." Please don't chop me up for next year's NEWT students. Or torture me. Take away Head Girl before you do either of those things. And Lord, do not punish those three kids for this... Melissa put the book on the large mahogany desk between her and the Potions professor, again brushing imaginary dust off of the cover. 

"Do you have any questions?" He could have been carved out of marble, so little were his movements. Long spider-like fingers still steepled, eyes looking past her, at a space between her and the heavy wooden door. 

"In regards to what, sir?" Of course I've got questions. Why aren't you hexing me into next week? Am I going to be punished? What the fuck is going on?

"To Nox. She was a complicated woman."

"You were young. Women are complicated until at least sixty-five. At least, that's what my father says." Melissa dared to raise her head, and checked behind her, as the professor still seemed to be staring into empty, cold air. "Why did she want to protect people?"