[OPEN] Sorry I Interrupted Your Studying by STARVING TO DEATH

Margo was giggling at Christian's comment, ever glad to have his friendship. Her attention was then caught by Charlotte, who had settled between herself and the Hufflepuff, and even though Waldorf was quickly distracted by the entrance of the ever-ridiculous Julian Kapur, Margo could not help but feel a little smug. Here she was, being entertained by two classmates, and Molly was up at the front, scribbling away. Who said Margo couldn't survive without her brunette counterpart.

Ace was less pleased with the socialization occurring around, but she didn't have much time to sulk about it because... well...

The bat-bogey hex isn't a particularly flattering hex. Ace felt the sudden urge to sneeze. But instead, a little bat wriggled out of her nose.

She let out a yelp of surprise and covered her nose with her hand, standing up, her chair screeching behind her. "What the hell?!" she yelled, whipping around. "Who did that?!" Another bat escaped and Julian helped nothing by adding a prolonged, "Ewwwww!" to the din of noise. Margo was shaking her head at Charlotte's question, eyes wide as she tried to fight back laughter.

It was upon this scene that Lily Potter entered, a stack of essays in her hands. She stopped short, staring at what looked like utter madness. Ace was yelling at everyone - that much was business as usual - but the class was definitely not studying. She didn't envy Professor Davos, what with the age range problem, and this particular selection of personalities. But she was just here to deliver these essays from their History of Magic class for reference. She had no plans to stay long.

The professor caught Lily's eye and tried to force the panic out of his face. He pointed his wand at Ace and flicked his wand, providing the counter-curse before clearing his throat loudly. "Everyone settle down! Professor Potter."

Lily grimaced, ignoring the gazes that turned her way. She quickly approached the sub, holding out the papers. "Just... sent to give you these."

"Please stay," the professor hissed under his breath but she flashed him a look of conflict. She had some very good reasons for not remaining in this room, but one in particular rose up within. She decided to lie instead. "Sorry, mate. Busy day."

And she swept out, leaving a small bubble of silence behind her.

It was Julian Kapur who popped the bubble, leaning over to Molly as he said, in what should have been a whisper, but was very clearly heard by the entire group. "She and Apollo still boinking?"

Margo gasped, Molly's eyes widened as she wished a thousand deaths upon the Gryffindor, and Ace was choking. The substitute was desperately writing on the chalkboard, hoping the history of goblin wars would provide a sufficient distraction.

Fat chance.

[Seating order, for reference:
Cassie, Apollo
Margo, Charlotte, Christian Z., Ace
Christian T., Clytemnestra
Molly, Julian, Peter (NPC)]


Apollo was reaching for the charm around his neck when Cassie turned to him in the aftermath of the hex on Ace. Christian, a row back, was staring, open-mouthed, at Ace. He was completely useless, of course, though he knew he would never ever forget this. And while Apollo had a guess who had done it, he couldn't help but feel he might have done it as well. Even if he was tempted to give the kid a dirty look as well. But he just shrugged in reply. "Not sure."

Of course, the instant he finished speaking, Lily walked in and he turned his attention back to his essay. Perhaps he shouldn't have sat in the front, even if he knew he would get away with it. Luckily, she left quickly. He didn't have the chance to check the charm before Julian spoke again.

Pure rage rolled off of him at the question, and he sat up slowly until his spine was straight. And then he turned around, leaning to the side so he could see Julian around the students between them.

Christian had seen his brother lay down a few threats before, but this one was actually a bit worrisome.

"That would be an interesting question, dipsh*t, if what you're talking about had actually ever happened. How about you keep your mouth shut?"

Clytemnestra nudged the boy sitting next to her.

"Julia, don't you think if Apollo here had ever got off with anyone, he'd be a little less, ehm, frustrated?" she asked.

The idea of Apollo doing the dirty with Potter wasn't that far fetched, but it was one of those things that Clytemnestra didn't think was her business. Sure, she liked a bit of dirt as much as the next person, especially when the next person was a reporter from Witch Weekly, but she wasn't particularly titilated by other people's sex lives. And Apollo was only a few years younger than Lily anyway. At a stretch, it might come in useful as blackmail material if she didn't do as well as she hoped in potions.

Besides, she was setting a good example today. And clearing any doubts about Apollo's innocence was a good deed. Even if she did get to insult him at the same time.

"I mean the girl may be a total trainwreak, but I can't see even her dating a student for... Well, if you don't know where the Zabini fortune came from, look it up. It's a scream."

Cassiopeia nodded her head.  Well, she wasn't too sure why it was done, the hex.  "Oh, I see," she said. Before she could even say something else, Lily walked in.

She heard Lily speak with the professor for awhile, and then the woman left. When she heard what Julian said, she was shocked, to be honest. She has heard the rumour a few times, too, but she didn’t really believe rumours until they were proven true and she had heard about it directly from people who were part of it.

"Wow," was all Cassie could say. "Well, I don't know Lily really well. So I can't say who she would date or not. But yeah, I can't see her dating her own student. It's insane," she said, sighing. To be honest, she didn't care that much about the topic.

Cass didn't pay any attention to their professor at all. She was sure she could study for this exam herself if she wanted. She had just failed - mostly because she forgot to study for it last time. She was too busy with some other things last time.

Something that should be the quiet and useful group, turn into drama and gossip group. Charlotte shook her head disapproving and once Ace was fine, for Charlotte it was a sign they need to finally start learning. She doesn't have all day to be here and listen does Zabini brother fu*k professor Potter or not. It was disgusting anyway.

"Can we just finally start studying? Some of us want to actually pass the bloody exam and not to listen about the potential affair in the school." She frowned and once again opened her book and started reading that stupid history. She will pass this exam, with or without help of this group.

Molly didn't usually invest in the lives of her peers, tending to prefer to watch them as though behind a curtain, keeping a distance so she wouldn't have to put in the effort of faking empathy. But she had been there the night they saved Lily. She had seen, firsthand, the concern in Apollo's eyes when they found the brunette, a concern deeper than the pity one extended to any victim. She had watched his jaw clench as they pieced together what had happened to Lily, had seen dark emotions flickering behind his eyes, had watched him pretend to keep a distance. She knew, all the way back then, that neither Zabini had gone along with her just to help a classmate.

She had heard the rumors, of course. Everyone their age was talking about, the rumor having started from the purebloods who had attended the Christmas ball where, apparently, the two had put on a very public breakup. But she hadn't dignified the rumors wit even a second thought. As Apollo turned to glare at Julian, she watched his face, a small frown twitching onto her lips.

Julian was smirking at Lux's words, an unlikely ally but certainly a welcome one. "Good point!" he laughed, turning first to Peter, who had a proud smirk on his face, and then to Molly... whose stare could ice out a forest fire. His grin fell.

Margo was leaning forward to speak to Cass, her brow furrowing as she asked, "Who are you even talking to, Cass?" Ace had stuffed her fingers into her ears and was furiously mouthing along to the words the sub was writing on the board, trying to remove herself from the mess - since getting involved had gone so poorly for her. She hated agreeing with Charlotte, but she too wanted to get back to work.

Lux's accusation was met with the screech of a chair. Necks that craned back to see the source of the noise would be met with the sight of Molly Weasley, standing before her table, eyes cold on the Lux girl. She didn't say a word, just pulled her bag onto her shoulder and snatched up her book. Margo was beginning to call out to her, but Molly's eyes darted towards her friend, silencing her, before wandering over to Apollo.

A quirk of her eyebrows was the only invitation he was going to get. She turned, making sure her bag knocked into Julian before she left the study room.

The sub cleared his throat. "Perhaps we could now turn our attention to the notes I've put on the bored..."

It was one thing for someone to rag on Apollo, particularly given what he had been up to and what it had done to Christian over the past couple of years. That, the Hufflepuff could grudgingly understand and keep quiet about - even if his brother clearly could not. And it didn't help, probably, that a fair few students looked shocked by Lux's statements - either positively or negatively.

Apollo looked like he legitimately wanted to growl out his disapproval, but he just sent back what he surely felt was a promising glare. And definitely not the good kind of promise, like what Julian and co. had been hinting at.

It was disappointing, really. Christian had such a tendency to stick up for Julian, and now the git had to go and side with her. And, actually, Christian didn't even dislike Clytemnestra all that often, or even all that much. But her next quip changed that. More quickly than he could actually comprehend it, Christian went from embarrassed for everyone -- to fuming. While he had no idea what Charlotte would think about it, he knew that there was one person who would notice, and he definitely did not want her sympathy or commentary right now.

Most of all, he didn't want her to try and stand up for them. Ace was the type, but he couldn't deal with that in the moment.

So when Molly got up, clearly gesturing for Apollo to leave with her, it wasn't the elder but the younger twin that slammed his book shut, collected his things, and shoved his way out of the row to stalk out the door.

And Apollo couldn't think of a single thing worth saying to an insult like that. It had been against his father's side, and that certainly didn't upset him as much as it did Christian. But it was still a jab at the lot of them. If he left now, even more rumors would spread. About how Lily had just left, so maybe he was just running off to find her. Or that he was too cowardly to take all of the abuse, considering he was inevitably daddy's favorite. As he turned to watch Christian leave, all he could really think about was the fact that neither of them would be writing home any time soon.

Christian felt distinctly uncomfortable the more the older students talked. From the way they'd reacted to his new friend's comments (he didn't even know her name), it seemed like there was something going on between the Slytherin Zabini and Professor Potter.

And that would be totally okay, under normal circumstances. Christian wasn't embarrassed by sex. He didn't think it was gross. And whatever power Lily supposedly got from being Apollo's professor was nothing compared to the power Christian had been born with. Theoretically.

No, the problem was more about how Selwyn was Potter's boss and would have his arse if he didn't tell him everything he'd just heard. And then Christian may as well change his name to Nigel Nofriends and be done with it.

"Some people are so touchy," the patronising voice of the older girl complained.

What was she doing? Did she have a death wish?

"I mean, there's nothing to be ashamed of. I think your grandmother was a very clever woman."

Cassiopeia sighed. She didn't really talk with anyone particular. "Well, I just said my opinion. I didn't talk directly with anyone," she explained.

She wasn't sure what to else to say, so she kept quiet now. Well, she was here to study but same time she could have done it somewhere quieter too.

"Yes, let's go and focus on studying. It's the reason why we are here not to discuss someone love life," she said with a small smile. She hoped they would drop now the subject so they can focus on studying, not just some gossip what might not even be true.

Charlotte closed her book angrily feeling really frustrated. It looks like no one is here to actually study.
Maybe Ace felt the same, but that makes only two of them in the room full of the people.
So, what the hell is Charlotte doing here, then? She could just go to the common room if she wanted to be around people who just keep talking, never shutting up.

"Why I came here?" she hides her face in her palms and shook her head angrily.
But there is no point to leaving now. If she leaves, they would start talking about her. They would probably think she is the girl who becomes angry for everything, frustrated and everything else.

So, she took a deep breath and then opened her notebook.
If she can't study, then maybe she can draw instead. That could be good.
She closed her eyes for a moment thinking about nature, perfect place where she can be alone and peaceful. After couple of seconds, she opened her eyes again and started drawing completely ignoring everyone else around her.