Toujours Pur | Euphemia Black

Chapter 84 | For Your Own Safety

Euphemia Black was definitely not well known for making the right decision when she was put under pressure, especially when she was terrified out of her mind.

One only had to look at her past of decision making and they would be able to see that the girl often made the wrong choices for herself, just to please others. Mia had always put others before herself and thought selflessly but, despite her cousin Charis' inspiring advice on New Years Eve of 1952, she never really did what she wanted. Only ever what everyone else wanted or what she felt was best for everyone else.

Orion reminded her every day - either by slipping her a terrifying note at breakfast or whispering threats in her ears upon the rare opportunity that Euphemia found herself sat in the Slytherin common room with Eileen - that her time was running out and, one particular Tuesday morning near the end of May, early June, he kindly pointed out that he had started researching the most painful ways to kill someone, namely Charlus Potter.

It was exactly the type of stress that Mia didn't want to deal with during her O.W.L.S exam season and the thought of losing Charlus was constantly on her mind, so much that she wrote 'A girl without her soulmate is a girl without a soul' in her Defence Against the Dark Arts O.W.L. on the question about Dementors before she quickly scribbled it out, causing a rather damp ink blot to spread across her parchment.

Euphemia somehow managed to keep her mind focused on the exams though - all of her friends were stressing out constantly and whenever she visited the tapestry room to chill out in, every fifth year and seventh year student in the S.S.E.A.W. were obsessively reciting information and incantations underneath their breath; burying their noses in textbooks and then smacking said textbook against their forehead with a shriek (Florean, obviously); furiously scribbling away at practice essays or sitting there and saying, "I'm going to fail. Kill me now."

Two full year groups were gripped by the fear of exams at this point but Mia was also gripped by a different type of fear...one that clutched at her heart and twisted painfully in her chest, especially whenever she was alone with Charlus. He could see right through her - he could see her fear and her stress and he just wanted to hug it all better but he knew, from their previous argument, that he couldn't just do that. Charlus had to figure out some sort of plan to save his girlfriend from marrying her goddamn cousin whilst also trying to pass his O.W.L.S at the same time.

"Will you test me on this topic?" Euphemia asked Charlus during the moment of quiet when the tapestry room was actually empty - Minerva, Lyall and Alastor were in an Arithmancy Theory exam and Filius, Pomona, Eugenia and Florean were in a Divination Practical exam whilst everyone else was either in class or revising like crazy in the library or respective common rooms.

The couple were seated on a sofa, on either ends of the sofa but with their feet propped up against each other in the middle, both of them leaning against the sofa arms lazily, textbooks in their hands. "Sure," Charlus smiled, placing his own Potions textbook down and taking Mia's Herbology one from her hand, opening it to the page that she had been studying. "What is the Mimbulus Mimbletonia's defense mechanism?" he asked, having formed the question from the information shown.

"Stinksap," Euphemia answered immediately, sighing heavily before Charlus could say the next question, causing him to pause and place a hand over hers gently, "Hey, you'll do fine. Herbology is your strongest subject, right?" he tried to encourage her and Mia sent him a modest smile, "Pomona is better at Herbology than me. I prefer Ancient Runes," she shrugged and Charlus grinned, his hazel eyes sparkling.

"Is that perhaps because you sit next to a wonderful guy in that lesson? Isn't he young, tall and dashingly handsome?" he teased her and Euphemia shot him a mockingly thoughtful gaze, stroking her chin, "The person next to me? Oh no, you must have the wrong person...he's a bit of an ugly sod actually, to tell you the truth," Mia joked, feeling happier and lighter than she had in weeks.