Wolves Without Teeth ── theodore nott ¹ ( UNDER EDITING )

chapter two

     

            𝖂innie Bulstrode has a fine line of what she believes should be followed. She believes in simple morals. She will never surrender and spit venom at a person for their blood, for who they choose to love and who they choose to be. She will never turn up her nose when seeing clothes with patches sewn over holes; while her parents would like to believe she would do such things, she could never give herself away in such a way.

     It would be like tearing a part of her soul apart and letting her words slowly poison the swell of her pumping heart, but even she cannot overlook the act of cheating. To cheat on another is a lack of total respect. It is the act of ruining one's trust and throwing every word, every shared moment back in their face as if it was simply a joke all along.

    While it may have never happened to her, she takes the wound Cordelia Flint now has to bare personally. While Winnie may not trust easily or love as hard as her heart would like, she loves Cordelia fiercely and selflessly in a way siblings would protect each other.

      Winnie protects her own.

       She had spent most of the night beyond the curtains of her bed, and her legs crossed as she dived deep into her charm books. Winnie has thankfully saved a drop of a potion she had snuck from the Weasley twins last year after overhearing whispers of their newest prank. She had been reading a novel, curled up in the corner chair while they whispered secrets to each other.

      That's the thing about falling away, being so quiet that you appear harmless, invisible to the rest of the world. You grow to know more things. You took overheard conversation and tucked the secrets away in her mind for future use. So when they weren't paying attention, lost in the thrill of pranking their best friend Lee Jordan, Winnie swiped a single vial of clear liquid.

     She had felt a sense of victory at accomplishing such a thing for a while; as quiet and wallflower she may appear, she has the heart of a lion raised by snakes. Winnie knows how to use her fangs to sink deep enough to leave a scar, and while she may sit idle and let events unfold, she plans to feel victorious at the end of breakfast that morning.

     Even though she had slept perhaps three hours, Winnie Buldstrode was practically skipping down the Great Hall. She grinned wickedly as she pushed herself into the Hufflepuff table, back leaning against the hard wood of the breakfast table. "Hello Zach, how are you this morning?" Winnie spoke, her voice masking to one clear control, false kindness wrapped in ice. A voice she had seen her mother use so many times when talking to a specific target. She may never do anything to please her mother, but she sure as Merlin could use her mother's tactics.

    "Uhm, hello?" The blond questioned, his eyes flickering to his friends that flanked him. Winnie pushed herself further between Zach and a female she didn't recognize.

     "Oh, you don't want him, sweetie. He's a cheater," she grinned, tapping the girl's shoulder as she giggled. She was watching as the redheaded girl's eyes widened before she narrowed her eyes at Zacharias. Oh, this was just perfect. Winnie turned her attention back to Zacharias, who was still staring at her, his untouched coffee and cereal in front of him. "Now, you didn't answer my question," the girl frowned, tilting her head.

      "I'm sorry?" The boy questioned as Winnie pouted, sighing dramatically as she tsked.

       "Oh dear, you're pretending to be clueless. That's cute," Winnie smiled, her lips tilting but not touching her eyes like they usually would. "I said, how was your morning, Zacharias?" The girl questioned again, batting her eyes, her elbow leaning further on the table, slyly towards his coffee.