Toujours Pur | Euphemia Black

Chapter 29 | Cup Of Tea?

Albus Dumbledore's office was spectacular to say the least - the Transfiguration Professor had transformed the once boring Transfiguration office into a large and beautiful room, full of funny little noises.

A number of curious silver instruments stood on spindle-legged tables, whirring and emitting little puffs of smoke that made Euphemia cough a little as she accidentally inhaled them.

There was an enormous, claw-footed desk in the middle of the room and, sitting on a shelf behind it was an array of teacups that had obviously previously been mice, quite possibly from a series of first year classes over the years.

Letter writing sets and different coloured feathered quills (there must've been one for every colour of the rainbow, surely) were set out on the left hand side of the desk and a selected green one sat in the middle of Dumbledore's desk.

"Green is for Mondays, it is a colour I do not particularly like and Mondays are days that I do not enjoy either. Therefore, you can see why they match up," Dumbledore's voice came from behind Mia as he walked into his office after her, having let the girl enter first.

She smiled politely at his statement and absorbed the goings on of the room, noticing a smiling girl who was waving from a portrait in the centre of his wall, encased in a very expensive looking golden photo frame.

"My sister, Ariana," Professor Dumbledore informed Euphemia, having followed her gaze and Mia could tell by the misty look in his blue eyes that she was not a good subject to talk about.

She nodded and fumbled with her hands awkwardly as her mother's words repeated over and over in her head like a broken record, like they always did whenever Cassiopeia saw fit to insult her.

They always came back to haunt her thoughts, plague her mind and control her emotions as if Cassiopeia was forever there messing with Euphemia's head.

She honestly couldn't focus as her Transfiguration Professor pointed out quaint things around the room to try and distract her from her thoughts but the man's efforts failed to break the ice that had set over the deep ocean of thoughts that Mia was drowning in.

Tears began at her eyelids once more and she found herself digging her fingernails into her palm so that she did not cry in front of her teacher, forcing herself to push the tears back as she had in the Great Hall when everyone had stared at her whilst her mother shouted a manner of all things at the poor girl.

A handkerchief spotted with strawberries suddenly appeared in Euphemia's palm, a slightly wrinkled hand having pressed it there and she smiled weakly up at Albus Dumbledore as she dabbed the cloth near her blue-grey eyes in a delicate fashion only a lady of the Black family household could possess.

"Do sit down," Dumbledore gestured to a hard backed chair that was placed in front of his claw-footed desk, the very chair that Gryffindor students often sat in when having career option talks which was opposite his very own seat that he had placed himself in.

Mia immediately obeyed, scrambling to the chair and sliding herself onto it, allowing her legs to cross over one another as she straightened up, facing the Deputy Headmaster with as much composure that she could gather.

It was very hard not to break down into tears when she saw the caring and sympathetic look on Dumbledore's face as he peered at her from over his clasped hands.

"Now, Ms Black. Would you like to tell me what's been going on between you and your mother?"

The honest answer was no, I don't want to tell you but Euphemia felt like she couldn't say such a thing to her teacher, especially as he had just rescued her from an extremely awkward and terrible situation.