Dirty Mouth, Dirty Blood [h.g]

nineteen

19

Then

Carina let her soft voice float over her room, much to the annoyance of Pansy, Daphne, and Millicent, her roommates.

Carina's singing voice was quite pleasant in a non-threatening way.

Pansy hated it.

Carina hated Pansy.

Pansy was constantly hanging off Draco, calling him monstrosities of nicknames like 'Drakey-poo'. It made Carina want to vomit.

And besides, though Draco had had countless girlfriends and one-night stands, Carina held out hope that he would end up with Theo. (He never did, but she still hoped.)

Daphne and Millicent didn't mind Carina's singing very much, but something about it just rubbed Pansy the wrong way. And when Pansy was mad, they all suffered, making Carina's singing a poor experience.

But Pansy knew better than to pick a fight with Carina, as one word to her brother and Pansy would be out of his good books.

So, when Carina sang, Pansy had to either leave the room or stay and grit her teeth. It was amusing to the other three in a sick, convoluted way.

Carina sang constantly.

Now

After a pleasant winter holiday spent at the Burrow, Carina found that she happened to like the Weasleys. Not much, and certainly not all of them, but when she heard that the Weasleys were at Hogwarts, Carina was thrilled.

She was even more thrilled when she learned that it was because Ron had been poisoned.

"Slughorn was going to give the mead that poisoned Ron to Dumbledore, right?" Ginny asked, pacing back and forth. "So, isn't it a safe assumption to say that the poison was meant for Dumbledore?"

The Weasleys' response was cut off when a shrill, high-pitched voice was heard.

"Where is he? Where is my Won –Won?" Lavender brown screeched, stumbling obnoxiously towards Ron's bedside.

"Has he been asking for me?" Lavender asked quickly.

"Seeing as he is currently unconscious, I would say no." Carina mocked; she really did hate that girl.

"What's she doing here?" Lavender demanded, glaring at Hermione.

How our lives would be easier if we just came out already, Carina thought. Hermione was sitting diligently at Ron's bedside, and to an outsider, it would look as though she cared quite a bit about the ginger. And while she did, it wasn't in the way people thought.

"I might ask you the same question!" Hermione shot back, meeting her fellow Gryffindor's eyes.

"I happen to be his girlfriend," Lavender said proudly, as if roping in the Weasel was an accomplishment. He would snog anything that moved.

"I happen to be his friend," Hermione said firmly.

"With benefits," Carina couldn't help but pipe in.

Hermione shot her a death glare, but Carina only smirked, turning away from the two girls before it got too heated.

"A little birdie told me you guys were learning to apparate." George, in an attempt to make conversation, said.

"Ah, yes," Carina mused, "Ron's owl Pig is quite small, isn't he? Yes, we've been learning to apparate."

"Any good at it?" Fred questioned, ruffling her hair.

"Decent," Carina commented, "I got it first try."

The twins' eyes bulged. "That's better than decent!" George cried.

"Eh," Carina blew him off, "I was supposed to learn how to this summer, special wards would be paced to hide my trace, but I kind of bailed. Something about a guy with no nose watching your every move makes learning magic slightly unappealing."

The conversation ended awkwardly, as no one was quite sure what to say.

A moment later, however, Fred pulled something out of his bag. "Hair dying capsule," he explained, "we figured our prank went so well we could make it fun-sized!"

"Basically," George continued, "you break the capsule on something a person will wear within the next 24 hours, and when they do, their hair changes color!"

Carina nodded thoughtfully. "Have any in red?"

"They aren't perfect yet," Fred admitted sheepishly, "right now for it to change someone's hair color it has to touch something they're touching at that very moment."

"Still," Carina countered, "it may come in handy for me to not look like a Malfoy."

"Alright," George said, scribbling a note on his hand, "we'll send them to you when we have them."

"Thanks," Carina said, attention waning. "Now if you'll excuse me, I've had about as much of Ron's face as I can handle right now."

Carina left with bravado, sparing a final glance at a room full of people who weren't sure if it was okay to laugh.