Black Blood

013 - Tiring Lies

She felt tired beyond measure, which was a bizarre feeling, especially considering the amount of time she'd recently spent within the isolated confines of her drawn bed.

The days had passed ever so slowly, and whilst they had reminded her eerily of the last time she'd directly confronted Granger, that being a year prior when the girl had unjustly struck the pureblood, there existed an incalculable difference between those days and the last few she'd experienced.

As embarrassing as it had been to hear the muggleborn's hateful words so long ago, and as awful as they'd made her feel for months afterwards, there was simply no comparison between that meeting and the one she'd faced thanks to the boggart's humiliating hand. None whatsoever.

Her cousin had tried to speak to her many a late night when she'd found the necessary courage to race through the Slytherin common room on her way to her bed, but as many a time as he'd tried, she'd denied him equally as often. She didn't want to hear what he had to say on the matter. She didn't want to know what he thought.

She was a coward in all but name at this point, yet she didn't care. The humiliation she'd suffered had sealed her embarrassment forevermore, and a coward she would always be known as no matter what she did, so, at the very least, she'd decided on being an ignorant one.

Cassiopeia rubbed at her fatigued eyes, thankful for the classroom she sat within, as it stood as the only one where no other Slytherin dared set foot. She could handle the demeaning stares from halfbloods and muggleborns, and even other purebloods alike, but not if their robes ran silver and green.

The desk next to her suddenly lost vacancy, and she froze where she sat, hoping against hope it was taken by anyone other than who she thought it to be.

"Good...morning, Black," the vile voice whispered, and Cassiopeia gave her nary a glance, polite or otherwise, instead finding focus upon a random doohickey atop a shelf to her right. "Black?"

"I have no wish to speak with you, Granger," she softly replied, the venom she'd thought would line her voice entirely absent for some strange reason. "Please leave me to my business."

"I'm sorry," the muggleborn quietly replied, and for the briefest of moments, Cassiopeia wondered what the girl was so apologetic about, but then she continued. "I'm sorry I...you saw...the boggart, I mean."

"You need not apologize, Granger. It was no fault of your own," the pureblood whispered, and whilst she wasn't concerned for the muggleborn's feelings in the least, she knew not to allow the girl to claim the blame, lest she gain satisfaction alongside it.

"Black..." the girl softly began, and Cassiopeia felt her ire rise at the muggleborn's curious, pitying tone. "Why?"

"That, Granger, is truly none of your business," the pureblooded girl replied, studying another gadget to her right with focused intent.

"I think...it kind of is," the girl whispered, which caused Cassiopeia to whip around on her with an enraged sneer upon her fine face.

"I owe you nothing, muggleborn!" she quietly spat, daring the alarmed-looking girl to refute her angry claim.

"I...guess not," she softly said, lowering her brown eyes in hurt. "But...I'd still like to know."

Cassiopeia's sneer disappeared, and her rage left her light-blue orbs, only to instead be replaced by cool indifference.

"Why did you uncharacteristically do what you did the other day?" she softly asked, raising an immaculate, fine eyebrow as she did.

"Why...did I do what?" she quietly returned, furrowing her brow in confusion as she glanced back up.

"You were going to answer Professor Burbage's query involving muggle light bulbs. Why did you instead switch the focus to me, Granger?" she just-as-quietly asked, frowning ever so slightly as the girl's eyes widened at being called out for her malicious antics. "Did you intend to embarrass me? Did you plot my humiliation before you ever sat down?"

"Embarrass...hu...miliation?!" the girl loudly choked out, sounding quite baffled, and whilst Cassiopeia despised the awful charade she was attempting to employ, she would humor it with a charade of her very own.

"Oh, don't tell me, you, the ever so smart Gryffindor Granger, allowed another student, a Slytherin of all things, to answer in your place out of the goodness of your wholesome heart?" she quietly queried, putting faux surprise into her tone.

"Wha...no!" Granger practically shouted, only to glance about the classroom.

"No?" Cassiopeia drawled, her voice a mere whisper, her other eyebrow raising to join its kin, making her seem as though she were truly surprised.

"Black, that's not...how could even think...I-" she sputtered out with wild, unsure eyes.

"Then tell me, Granger, why did you do it?" Cassiopeia quietly asked, never dropping her act, yet, deep down, she found herself wondering if there was not some truth to the muggleborn's words, strange as the idea seemed to her. "Why, precisely, did you choose to single me out that day? What ever was your agenda, hm?"

"That's-" the muggleborn quietly began, only to immediately seal her lips, and for the hurt within each brown orb to increase ever so slightly. "I just...I wanted us...you to...I wanted us to...start-"

Cassiopeia held her gaze, watching in disbelief and disgust as the girl's eyes began to water in an obvious attempt to manipulate her. She didn't blame the muggleborn for the vile attempt, as manipulation was a tool like any other, but she didn't appreciate it; not in the least; not from Granger.

"Oh, how silly of me!" she quietly chirped, adopting the sweet smile she'd shown the girl a year prior. "To think that was your reason, and to think I completely overlooked it! Truly, how silly of me!"

"Black..." the muggleborn moaned, her cheeks turning scarlet to better sell her false act.

"Do you truly wish to know the reason for my boggart's appearance, Granger?" Cassiopeia quietly asked, sweetening her smile a little bit more. "I think it should be poignantly obvious, especially to one so perceptive and clever as you, but since that does not appear to be the case, I shall make it, for you, my dear muggleborn, quite blatantly clear."

"Black..." she softly repeated, her face becoming as ugly as the creature she hid within, and despite the fact that Cassiopeia knew the girl was attempting nothing more than an act of mean-spirited manipulation, she felt the slightest urge to cease her words then and there, and to even comfort the 'crying' muggleborn.

'Truly, Granger, I despise your very existence,' the girl thought to herself, watching soft tear after soft tear roll down the muggleborn's tainted, red cheeks.

"Ever since the first occasion we spoke, you have wrought nothing but calamity upon my heart and mind," she quietly hissed, pulling her lips back the slightest bit, transforming her sweet smile into something far more menacing. "Yes, I'll admit it, Granger, the boggart did, indeed, show me my most frightening fear."

Cassiopeia narrowed her eyes as the muggleborn looked away, refusing to accept what had been unjustly forced upon the pureblooded girl.

"Which happens to be you!" she spat, her voice loud enough to silence the rest of the class.

She paid them no mind, however, as she awaited the muggleborn's response, hoping in her heart that the girl would finally admit to her dirty deeds, but she didn't. The muggleborn didn't say a thing, and without a glance towards Cassiopeia, she picked up her things and stood, leaving the pureblood to her own.

It wasn't a victory, but neither was it a defeat. She didn't know what it was, not specifically, but Cassiopeia didn't like it; not a single bit. She didn't like that everything involving the muggleborn seemed entirely unresolved despite their confrontation that had been long in the making. She didn't like that their reckoning had ended without answer. No, indeed, Cassiopeia didn't like it one little bit.

But she was much too tired to give chase, to end what should've been over, to rid herself of a dark cloud that never seemed to allow light beyond its endless, gray plain. No, indeed, she was simply much too tired.