++Paint It Black - The Rolling Stones, 1966

I look inside myself and see my heart is black
I see my red door and must have it painted black
Maybe then I'll fade away and not have to face the facts
It's not easy facing up when your whole world is black

No more will my green sea go turn a deeper blue
I could not foresee this thing happening to you

Molly had not gone far, slumping against the wall facing the study room door, pulling bag in front of her to shove her book into its abyss. She found, interestingly enough, that she was mildly upset with all that had happened. It wasn't the usual sense of irritation or exasperation, mingled with the subtle desire to remain in their minds as a mystery, that had spurred her into action, had etched the slight frown onto her lips, betraying the thing that no one suspected Molly Weasley to be capable of: a sense of giving a shit.

But as her hands fumbled through her bag, she found a desire for a cigarette that reached a bit beyond the hold of her nicotine habit. Her hands weren't quite shaking, but the ghosts of tremors found her looking through her bag for the pack of nicotine gum that Margo had impulsively nicked on their last Hogsmeade trip. She had just insulted a substitute, and as much as she truly didn't give a f*ck, she suspected getting caught smoking in the corridor would only make her day go even worse than it was now.

She would have just left. Would have gone down to the lake, smoked and studied in peace, left the world behind. But she had a suspicion someone else needed to escape the world. And she wasn't often someone who liked to buddy up, but she had a thing or two that might have needed saying.

So imagine her surprise when it wasn't the twin sporting green but the one with traces of yellow who stormed out of the classroom. Still, she supposed the greeting would be the same.

"Zabini," she said, tilting her head as she pushed off from the wall, popping the gum into her mouth. "Wanna take a walk?"

Storming out of the room, Christian knew that if Ace walked out behind him, he would probably explode. He had forgotten for a second about Molly leaving before him. In fact, he forgot entirely until she greeted him, making him jump more than he would later admit to. But he lifted his eyes to the ceiling for a moment to calm himself before turning to look at her once his feet stopped.

"I-" He stopped, clearing his throat. "I know that was mostly directed at Apollo. But he doesn't--"

Waving a hand dismissively, he cast off the rest of what he was going to say. While Christian and Apollo were rather close to Molly and Margo as far as other students went, that had changed since Ace had butted in. Not that he was complaining about it or anything, but he had been kind of distant from them since the summer.

Now, he wasn't sure what he could and couldn't say. Besides, Molly was being weirdly casual for what they had both just done. That poor substitute professor. Christian would apologize later. Still, she'd extended an invitation sort of thing, so he couldn't bring himself to just ignore that or walk away. Not when he had been so noticeably - or he imagined he had been, anyway - absent.

"I was thinking about going to the library, actually." His hand came up to the back of his neck. "I didn't do too well on the last essay. If you want -- I mean, I need to get the studying in either way."

She refused to register any of the surprise he so openly expressed, both confronted unexpectedly by someone they weren't counting on. It was only for this reason that she managed to maintain her cool demeanor, even as he struggled through what sounded like an explanation. As if he needed to explain himself. That was why Christian would always be a better person than the people that filled this self-centered, self-righteous castle. Someone like Lux could go on a verbal rampage, slandering his entire family, and he'd still feel compelled to explain his offense.

He was a better guy than he realized.

Which perhaps made their camaraderie a bit odd, but when had Molly ever cared what someone else might think.

He fumbled for a plan and she nodded her head in easy agreement, shouldering her book bag. "Let's go." She turned on her heel and pointed herself towards the staircases to get to the third floor, falling into a comfortable silence.

But she had questions. And, she fancied, some answers. But she couldn't just supply them.

She cleared her throat, hoping it'd prepare him a bit. "I thought you were the one who fancied Lily." There wasn't a trace of judgement in her voice, and there was something remarkably private in her tone, a quality born out of years of willing herself invisible. She finally flicked her eyes towards him, before tilting her head to actually look at him. "I noticed. Over the summer." She always noticed. But she hardly ever said anything about it.

The curious thing about Molly, he decided, was that she could be so easy-going and yet also incredibly helpful all in one. So he shook off his frustration and unrest before falling into step beside her. They only had one floor to go down on the way to the Library, but Molly seemed too curious to keep quiet. Or maybe she thought he would get more worked up if she didn't say something.

That might have worked better if she didn't continue along on the same topic.

To be fair, when he spoke he did not feel particularly upset anymore. "Yeah, I was," he conceded, looking over at her as well. That didn't last long, though, as they came upon the staircase and he looked down to keep from tripping. "I guess I didn't know her very well."

Christian fully intended to leave his reply at that. But apparently his mouth was going to run of its own accord, no matter what he wanted from it.

"But," he went on, dropping his voice when they walked past a fellow Hufflepuff and he gave them a vague nod and wave. Once they passed, he tried again. "But, I wasn't going to waste my time caring like that about someone who loves my brother instead. We aren't as similar as we look. If she loves him, my chances are incredibly slim. And besides," he shrugged in a quietly disgruntled manner, "Apollo so rarely cares about anything that I wouldn't fight him on it."

Her statements, as open and unapologetic as they were, could have earned her some significant attitude, but that'd hardly be Christian's style. He could sense good intentions from a mile away, and while Molly hesitated to ever ascribe herself with any sort of adjectives related to 'good', she supposed they weren't bad. She certainly meant well for the twins, at the least, which was more than she could say for her other peers.

There was a frankness to their conversation that, upon scrutiny, might have been strange. For the Boy Trying To Help The World and The Girl Apart From It, there seemed to be little ground for them to reach an understanding. He had secrets he needed to keep, secrets that could affect the Hogwarts population at large. And no one had any proof that Molly wasn't out for herself. But they had both been there for Lily. They had seen what Roxanne had done. People didn't come back from those sort of things without a sense of understanding.

Her lips pursed through his explanation, not pushing him and allowing him all the time it took to explain. As he finished, they were approaching the library and she knew they would lose most of their opportunities to remain as open as they were. So she got to the point.

"Probably wise."

They reached the library door and she reached out before he had a chance, opening the door for him but locking eyes with him briefly. "Just don't kill yourself trying to be the good guy all the time."

And she slipped into the library.

Christian couldn't tell which part of his response brought out Molly's claim that he was wise. Sometimes he felt like he couldn't be more of a mug, really. Then again, between himself and Apollo, at least Christian anticipated the bad things while Apollo acted on often-misled instinct.

The thing is, you can't have a story without conflict. And conflict usually arises when there's a man involved. At least, according to Ace, anyway. And Christian was starting to think she had a point. Apollo was making life difficult, he was getting all frustrated, himself. He didn't like how realistic her complaints had started to seem.

She caught the door handle before he could do it himself, and Christian almost shot her a surprised look. Not fully, of course, but it started to appear before he could help it. He rolled his eyes, though, at her quip. Fair enough.

Within the library, he tried to lead them towards the history section, but there was an empty table towards the more open study space near the librarian's desk. So he glanced at Molly before dropping his things in one chair and on the table.

Nearby, a brunette girl with a flower for a name was studying, and she glanced up when the sixth years approached. She gave Christian a warm smile and he waved a bit in response, but sat down at their table anyway, sighing as he flipped open his book.

Molly wasn't sure she took her seriously enough to understand that she truly meant his comments. He was wise, for more reasons that one, to move on from Lily. She hoped, someday in the future, he'd be able to see why that just wouldn't have worked out. Molly liked to think she knew her cousin and, even though her relationship with Christian was still relatively knew, she fancied herself observant enough with those she cared about to wager she knew a thing or two about Christian Zabini.

It wouldn't have worked.

She followed him to a spot and took her seat rather unceremoniously, and pulled out her books. Without the structure of the sturdy group, she was free to work on anything she wanted, and she ended up deciding to finish her sketch for Care of Magical Creatures. The two sixth years lapsed into a comfortable silence, the model of what two studying students should be, and it was only interrupted when a question struck Molly. Christian couldn't help, and the section on dragons was clear on the other side. She glanced up and spotted Violet Archeron. She leaned forward.

"Violet. You're taking Creatures, right? Can you remember if it's the male or female Peruvian Vipertooth that has the flatter skull?"

Although he hadn't really settled into the whole studying thing yet, he looked up sharply when Molly addressed Violet. Call it paranoia or whatever you like, but Christian genuinely felt that Molly often knew more than she let on, and that her bank of information might extend to him and the things he didn't wait to air out or discuss. Even with someone as quiet and private as Molly.

He trusted her, really, but this was more private than most things.

Still, Violet seemed calm and almost blasé about the whole thing, which made a lot of sense as far as Christian was concerned. The girl had a temper, but seemed able to calm it for certain people, and hide it when there was a change that she would inadvertently hurt others.

Then again, the Hufflepuff was biased, wasn't he? So he only saw what he wanted to.

Violet looked a bit surprised, then confused, but some sort of decision must have been made on her part, because she gathered her things and came over to sit between Christian and Molly. Then she leaned towards her housemate to point out a passage that might be helpful.

Leaving her book where Molly could see it, Violet looked over at Christian, inquiring gently, "How're things going?"

With a little hesitation, he glanced at Molly and then down at his own book before answering. "It's been an interesting day." He lifted his chin again. "The usual, though. Some of our classmates are rubbish."

Molly slid her chair away slightly so that Violet could have room at their table. It was a bit odd - the question had probably been simple enough that Violet could have probably answered her in a word or two. But Molly didn't mind Violet. When she lacked a real opinion on a person's character, their aesthetic was enough to make up for it. Molly wasn't sure Violet had quite enough depth to warrant a picture. But she was certainly good looking enough for one.

Violet's question had more to it than she might ever realize, and she lifted her gaze to meet Christian's. His answer was certainly vague enough, and her eyes flicked towards Violet, trying to gauge how much the other girl bought it without pushing.

"Someone thought it was a good idea to have a sub lead a study group," she explained.

"...And that's a bad thing?" Violet asked, confusing drawing her eyebrows together. She even tilted her head to the side, the bun atop her head leaning precariously.

Christian had to actively draw his attention away from it. Unexpectedly, it brought him back to an evening over a year and a half back, when both were too young to behave rationally despite his better attempts to be the mature brother.

"Um," he attempted, shaking his head. "Well, it isn't a bad thing unless you count the other students deciding they don't have to behave."

"Ah," Violet nodded slowly, though she looked a bit uncertain whether that was, in fact, a bad thing. Still, after she relaxed the confused on her face, she managed a little smile for him before looking back down at her book.

As he looked at her, it struck him that they could have been decent friends, if not for-. But that didn't matter. He kind of had Molly, and there was Margo. And, most importantly, there was Ace. But he had just left without warning her. Christian let out a heavy sigh, not looking forward to dealing with whatever chiding or punishment she had for him in return. His cheek fell into his palm as he too returned to his work.