Toujours Pur | Euphemia Black

Chapter 68 | The Right Thing

Trigger Warning: this chapter contains extremely distressing scenes that may upset some readers.

"H-hello, Druella," Mia stammered slightly - every sense of confidence that had surged through her body when she had been confronting Walburga in Potions had dissolved into thin air, never to be seen again.

Charlus quietly let go of her hand, no matter how much he wanted to keep holding on. He didn't want to get Euphemia into any more trouble as she already looked terrified, her face was whiter than a sheet and her entire body was shaking uncontrollably.

"Is there something.....you need to....confess?" Druella dragged out her words, flicking her narrowed eyes to the now prominent gap between Charlus and Mia, as the latter had shuffled away from the former as discreetly as she could manage.

"No," Euphemia said immediately, her certainty in that statement causing a shard like pain to shoot through Charlus' chest because he had desperately wanted her to stand up to her cousin and possibly admit that there was something...if only a small something...between the two of them.

"Are you sure?" Druella asked, her lips pursing and Charlus watched as Mia audibly gulped, her fingernails digging into her palms as she attempted to stay calm, the surging anxiety pulsing through her veins like a river that couldn't be tamed.

"Yes," Charlus spoke for the first time since Druella had arrived and the pair of Black cousins turned to face him, Euphemia with a sorrowful expression and widened eyes and Druella with an assessing look and narrowed eyes.

"Nothing was happening, I was just escorting her to the hospital wing under request of Slughorn - she injured herself in lesson," Charlus told Druella, praying that the older girl would fall for their cover story and not see right through his lies.

"I didn't want him to," Mia added which was a statement that Charlus didn't really think was necessary but he just hoped that she was saying that because she wanted to convince Druella and not because she actually meant it. If that was the case, Charlus' heart would break even more.

"Understandable," Druella nodded, fixing Charlus with a hard stare which he held unblinkingly until she looked away, grabbing Euphemia's uninjured arm and pulling her into the doorway.

"I shall look after her from here," Druella told Charlus, giving him a disgusted look that made Charlus feel like he was nothing but dung on the bottom of her shoe.

However, no matter how much Mia had hurt him with her earlier words (fake or not - they still hurt), Charlus wasn't going to let Druella hurt Euphemia and, judging by the terrified look on Mia's face, that was going to happen very soon if Charlus didn't intervene.

"Wait, Mia-" Charlus started, moving forward towards Druella, who was half dragging, half pushing Euphemia into the hospital wing, "Stay with me," he pleaded, not wanting to see her get hurt even more than she already had done.

Mia felt sorrow rack through her body. She really wanted to stay with Charlus, feel his arms around her as he lifted her up again and hear her laughter, which was always frequent when she was around him. But she couldn't.

Oh Merlin, she wanted to yank her arm out of Druella's grasp and run into Charlus' arms and never let go because he always managed to keep her safe. Euphemia longed to slap Druella and kiss Charlus right in front of her cousin...

Wait what? Did she just say she wanted to kiss Charlus? Mia knew that she had a crush on Charlus, she knew that he made butterflies fly through her stomach and caused her heart to have palpitations but she didn't realise that she wanted to kiss him.