Toujours Pur | Euphemia Black

Chapter 73 | Acacia

"Happy Valentine's Day indeed," Heather Rosier muttered underneath her breath with malice as she hid her magical camera in the inside pocket of her robes, flicking her blonde hair out of her face as she watched Mia and Charlus make out for a moment longer before slipping away, moving onto the high street of Hogsmeade.

She blended into the crowd quickly, slipping through gangs of boys joshing about near the Honeydukes entrance; girls gossiping whilst they walked arm in arm into Gladrags and couples holding hands as they entered Madam Puddifoots. Sighing, Heather pushed herself free of one last group of girls that were squealing about Merlin knows what and finally she was free...until she slipped.

Heather had never believed in karma but, as her traitorous shoe caught the particular part of black ice on the pavement that would send her flying, she cursed herself for ever taking the picture of Charlus Potter and Euphemia Black, thinking that this was the universe's way of saying that she had committed wrongdoing.

That was until a pair of hands grabbed her by one of her flailing arms in the air and stopped her from falling and making a complete fool of herself which led Heather to breathe a massive sigh of relief as she looked in the face of her saviour, groaning when she saw who it was.

The one and only Alastor Moody. One of the blood traitors that Mia hung about with and one of the notorious playboys that the girls in Heather's year sighed and squealed over, especially ever since Charlus Potter had suspiciously gone off the radar (though Heather now knew why that was).

"That's not usually the reaction I get when I stop people from falling," Alastor said with an awkward chuckle, referring to her groan. Heather rolled her eyes, believing that he was trying to flirt with her and she wasn't in the mood for it whatsoever.

"What do you want me to do? Applaud you to my heart's content?" Heather responded sarcastically and Alastor gave her a strange look before commenting with a snicker, "Yeah, I would appreciate that very much, actually."

Heather was taken aback for a second - she wasn't used to people responding to her sarcasm, they usually blanched or didn't answer her out of fear of being verbally attacked even further.

But Alastor had not even blinked an eyelash and it infuriated her that the boy wasn't even slightly intimidated by her cutting words and her foul expression accompanying it.

"Jokes on you, I don't have a heart," Heather retorted, not willing to lose the verbal battle that easily without realising that a self-deprecating remark slipped out instead of the snide reply that she was aiming for.

Alastor went to smile in amusement but stopped himself, seeing the deadly look on Heather's face and knowing exactly what Mia meant when she had been telling the group just how terrifying Heather Rosier's stony glares could be. "She's like a basilisk - if looks could kill, we'd be all dead," Euphemia had once said and Alastor had to agree with his friend.

"Oh, I know you don't have a heart, Rosier," Alastor said with a sweet smile, "Did you accidentally eat it in the womb?" he asked with a smirk and watched as her mouth dropped in outrage and her eyes narrowed, glaring viciously at him.

"No, there wasn't enough room in the womb for me to be able to work out a way to eat my own heart," Heather replied coldly and Alastor raised an inquisitive eyebrow, as if he was questioning why.

Heather wanted with all of her soul to confess to Alastor the reason why there had been limited room in the womb because it had been a fact that she had never told anyone, not even her best friend, Walburga Black.

However, the girl was a notorious muggle hater and detested all half bloods and blood traitors which meant that Heather shouldn't have even been speaking to Alastor Moody, let alone telling him her life story, especially because she had somewhere to be.