Toujours Pur | Euphemia Black

Chapter 41 | If I Could Tell Her

It was Charlus bloody Potter. Of course.

"Charlus, what on earth are you doing here?" Euphemia asked in utter disbelief, allowing her mouth to finally close as she saw him emerge from behind a pillar. "How much did you hear?" she added, feeling quite weary and exasperated as well as rather bad for Lyall - the last thing he would've wanted was for Charlus to hear him being rejected.

"Enough," he said rather shortly before he sighed, almost in relief and Mia sent him a curious look, as if asking him to explain himself and he just shrugged. "Look, I just came up here to help you look for your ink pot...didn't you say you lost it?" Charlus protested, holding his hands up in mock surrender as Euphemia raised a sceptical eyebrow at him.

"And you just thought you'd come and eavesdrop on mine and Lyall's conversation?" Mia asked him and she saw a flash of panic in Charlus's hazel eyes before he hid it, sending her a nervous grin.

"I didn't mean to..." he muttered sheepishly, internally kicking himself because he didn't want to make Euphemia mad - they had been making so much progress and it had been a long time since she had been upset with him or angry at him. He didn't want it to happen again.

Mia simply sighed, sitting down on one of the steps that formed the staircase leading up to the Astronomy tower. "I'm sorry..." Charlus whined, quickly running to her side and sitting himself down next to her, "Don't be mad at me," he pleaded, his eyes going wide and puppy like, rather like how he made them when he wanted something from his Mum.

"How dare you sit down without my permission!" Euphemia exclaimed in the sort of regal tone that her mother would use when speaking to those that she considered 'lower' than herself. Charlus jumped up as if he had been struck by lightning and, though he looked a little shocked, he was also still staring at her pleadingly whilst she tried to conceal her smile.

"Sorry," he said quickly and Mia suddenly lost it - she burst into laughter and relief crossed his face as he sighed, a weight lifting from his chest. "I'm just kidding, you can sit down," she giggled and Charlus gladly seated himself down next to her but he still continued to give her the puppy eyed stare, sticking his bottom lip out as she stared sternly back at him, resembling Minerva in a rather scary fashion.

"Do you forgive me for eavesdropping on you and Lyall?" Charlus asked with the aura of a child trying to weasel forgiveness out of a strict parent. Euphemia stared at him straight back, her face stoic from all emotion and not releasing any of the previous laughter that she had allowed to escape her. "No," Mia said blankly with a stern frown but her eyes were dancing with amusement and mischief.

Shocked and a little bit hurt, Charlus opened his mouth to protest, only to find that Euphemia's finger was soon pressed to his lips to prevent him from speaking and he glared mockingly at her as she tried to contain her amusement. "I'm just kidding, jeez. You are so easy to wind up," Mia finally giggled and Charlus couldn't help but realise how magical hearing her laughter was - it was definitely better than the few times he had seen her break down crying from the suffering life had dealt her.

"You're mean," he pouted but Euphemia simply wrinkled her nose at him, sticking her tongue out at him whilst Charlus crossed his arms and glared at her though he was smirking now. "You're gullible," she retorted with a sassy smile that made Charlus' heart skip a few beats.

Charlus clutched at his heart, emitting a dramatic gasp that was very similar to the type that Florean pulled when he was being over dramatic. "I am not gullible!" he exclaimed and Mia laughed heartily, "You so are." Charlus mimicked the childish act that Euphemia had performed earlier and he stuck out his tongue at her, upon which she just rolled her eyes.