MAUVE VIOTTO

Alyssa excitedly pulls me away from the group, talking once we're immediately out of their hearing range. "You guys have so much fucking tension!" She says lowly, a knowing smirk on her face. "Did something happen after he went to the library?"

I shake my head, blood slowly rushing to my cheeks at her suggestion. "No," I whisper back with the same low tone. "I told you everything that happened already."

"You could cut that tension with a knife," she bumps my shoulder. "I've never seen him so—"

"Why are we whispering?"

Both Alyssa and I jump in fright, letting out our own share of yelps at Theo's unexpected intrusion. "If we're whispering, we clearly don't want you lot to hear." I swat Theo's chest as I wear my joking expression.

He rolls his eyes, "what don't I already know?"

"Oh, hunny," Alyssa laughs. We walk through the streets of Hogsmeade, glancing at the shops we visit almost too frequently. "You just got the tip of the iceberg." I laugh, knowing how true that is. Theo might know who I like, but there's still a lot he doesn't know— a lot of which that only Alyssa and I would know.

Theo pouts and Blaise rolls his eyes. "Oh boo hoo, you only know the one thing Draco and I don't." Blaise huffs mockingly, "how sad."

"Don't hate me just because I know and you don't." Theo turns his nose to the air, flashing his middle finger in front of Blaise's annoyed face. He pushes it away with a huff.

"Man, I love our friend group," Finely teases, earning a grunt from Blaise.

"Shut the fuck up, Einar."

Fin pouts and I stifle my laughter. "I lied, I hate it here," he immediately backtracks, changing his mind.

"We all do," Draco perks up from his spot slightly behind me. I roll my eyes and swat his chest, but Theo replies before I can.

"No you don't, don't lie." He smirks, his eyes dancing in amusement. Draco throws a mean glare at his direction, one that warned him to shut up unless he wanted him to throw a hex or two.

Theo's eyes widen as he takes a few steps back to maximize the distance between him and Draco. "Wait, I was kidding!" He throws his hands up in defence, a sheepish smile on his face to feign innocence. "Spare me please, good sir."

We continue walking down the streets, and I tug Alyssa's sleeve as my eye catches Opalina's Jewels. "Come with me to Opalina's, Lyss?" I question as I begin walking towards the shop. She nods, but the rest of the group follow as well.

"I want to come!" Theo skips over, causing the rest of the boys to come along as well. I shake my head, scolding them to behave as the bell above us jingles to signal our entrance. Opalina is a middle-aged woman with silver hair and lots of charisma. She is a loquacious character, and many of her customers find themselves leaving with bags of jewellery and a fallen ear.

"Ah, hello! What can I do you for?" The gregarious woman begins walking towards us.

I smile politely, "hello, I'm just looking around, thank you." I tell her.

She nods understandingly, grabbing a rag from her back pocket. "Well, if you lot need any help, don't hesitate on lettin' me know!" With a wave, she disappeared back into the room behind the register.

I approach the stand of the earrings, hearing my friends disperse near me. "Don't you have enough jewellery?" Alyssa jokes as I observe some of the styles. Silver definitely catches my eyes in terms of jewellery— I've never been a gold person. Alyssa on the other hand, flaunts gold jewellery through all the pieces she wears.

"I lost a pair of earrings this morning," I tell her, brushing a few strands away so she could see my empty ears. "Remember the ones Luke gave me?"

Recognition flashes through her features. "Ohh. Aw you lost those? Those were so cute!" She frowns.

I nod rapidly, "right?" I whine. They were one of my favourite earrings, and were the pair I'd use on a daily basis.

"What'd you lose?" Finley raises a brow, clearly having picked up some of our conversation as they made their way over.

"My diamond earrings," I frown.

Theo snickers, "Kim, there are people dying." He quotes and I stifle a laugh at his muggle reference. Blaise and Draco seem to be the only ones confused.

"Is that a muggle reference?"

Draco rolls his eyes. Whether he's annoyed that it was a muggle reference or that he couldn't understand it, I'll never know. "Of course it is. Theo's in love with muggle shit."

Finley turns to me, a hint of a frown tugging on his lips. "Aw, but those were cute. The diamond ones that Luke gave you?"

I nod, almost laughing at the way both Theo and Draco's heads snap up at the unfamiliar name.

"Woah woah woah," Theo takes a step forward and interrupts Finley and I's conversation. "Back up for a second, I'm confused."

"Who's Luke?" Draco speaks up, asking the question Theo clearly wanted to ask.

Although his question had been directed towards me, Alyssa answers it. "Mauve's ex-boyfriend. He was a cute one." She jokes light-heartedly and I chuckle.

"He was," I agree, earning surprised looks from the boys. "The one that got away type beat." I add in, sharing another laugh with Alyssa.

"What house?" Blaise inquires with a puzzled expression. "I didn't know we had a Luke in Hogwarts." He has a thoughtful look as he tries to recall anyone with the name Luke.

"We don't," Finley interrupts.

Being met with three confused Slytherins, I sigh and explain. "He goes to Drumstrang." Their mouths shape into an 'o', but Draco's eyebrows pinch together.

"How the fuck did you meet someone from Drumstrang?"

"The Triwizard tournament?" Blaise pipes up questioningly, remembering the strange events during fourth year. I shake my head.

"Well, no. Not exactly." I shrug. "I saw him there, but I met him in second year." They look at me expectantly, waiting for me to continue.

"Well, how'd you meet?" Theo huffs impatiently, clearly wanting to know all the details. I turn back towards the display with a pout. Maybe I would come back to these another day. I pull them out of the store so we wouldn't disturb Opalina any longer with our loud voices.

We walk out to a picnic table and take a seat, with me sitting in between Draco and Alyssa. Draco rolls his eyes at Theo's obvious giddiness. "Bitch, I don't want to hear this girly stuff."

Theo glares at him, crossing his arms. "Well I do, so kindly shut the fuck up." He replied in a tone that didn't match anything remotely close to a kind one.

Draco rolls his eyes again, slumping in his seat. He mutters a small 'whatever' under his breath.

"I don't remember much, actually." I start off, trying to remember it all to the best of my ability. "I think I was visiting Russia with my dad, and we bumped into each other at this place— it was like their own Diagon Ally." I explain.

Alyssa hums contently, sighing with her fist holding up her head. "Ugh, I love this story."

Finley nods in agreement from across the table. "Same. It's so—" He earns a whack from the back of his head from a frowning Theo.

"Shut up, don't spoil." He scolds like a kid at the movies.

Draco clicks his tongue in annoyance. "Spoiler alert— they break up." He deadpans, earning chuckles from the group for his oddly strong irritation.

"Anyway," I chuckle under my breath at the blonde. "I had to get a new wand and his dad was the owner of the store. He insisted on helping and tried to find me a wand himself, which turned into an absolute disaster. I accidentally broke almost every shelf in the store because he didn't know what type of wand to give me. But yeah, we started taking after that and then dated." I shrug, a small smile playing on my lips.

Theo aww's. "That's actually really cute!"

"Leave it to Mauve to destroy a whole store for a boy's number." Blaise joked, a teasing grin on his lips. I roll my eyes, bringing my hand up to flip him off.

"Lame," Draco huffs beside me, a bored look dancing in his eyes when we make eye-content. "Why'd you break up?"

I open my mouth to reply when Theo cuts me off. "For someone who didn't want to hear the story, you seem pretty interested." He leans forward with an amused look. "Why's that?" Alyssa stifles a laugh from the other side of me.

"Shut the fuck up," Draco mutters, rolling his eyes and shifting his gaze away from Theo and landing on me.

I roll my eyes too at Theo's attempts. "Don't get me wrong, he's really cute and shit. He treated me well too." I tell them, not wanting them to have a bad impression of Luke. He was a good guy, after all. "I guess I wasn't that into him— or, I wasn't as into him as he was into me."

"Wait, lightbulb!" Theo yells, slamming his hands on the table.

Blaise snorts, "tell me he did not just say 'lightbulb' out-loud." Finley snickers beside him and Alyssa rolls her eyes.

Theo ignores Blaise as per usual and continues to talk. "Isn't he the one you went to the Yule Ball with?"

I nod, faintly remembering the event. "Oh yeah! We weren't dating anymore though, we only went as friends."

"Aw, he was kind of cute from what I remember." Theo and I weren't very close in fourth year, but we were more than strictly classmates. We were something of acquaintances, if you will.

Blaise raises a brow, "I have no idea who you guys are talking about. Anyone got a picture?"

I pull out my phone, nodding. "Yeah, probably." I scroll far up through my camera roll, feeling Draco's gaze either on me or my screen. I pass my phone to Blaise when I find an adequate picture. "This was at the Yule Ball."

"Nice, nice." Blaise hums as he passes the phone to an eager Theo. "Doesn't seem like your type though."

"Yeah, I liked him, but not as much as he liked me."

Finely snickers, "yeah, because of your juicy crush."

I roll my eyes, "yeah, yeah. Say his name while you're at it, won't you, Fin?" I joke.

Theo's head snaps up, his lips curling into a smirk as he gives me back my phone. "Oh? That's true! You told me you started liking him since third year!"

"Okay, what is this? Expose Mauve time?" I huff, crossing my arms. "At that time, I only thought he was cute." I feel my cheeks flush, having revealed this while sitting next to the said person.

"Wait, who are we talking about?" Blaise pipes up in confusion.

Draco grunts, "Mauve's mysterious crush that she liked while dating Lucas." He didn't seem like he wanted to participate on the topic of my ex-boyfriend.

"Luke," I correct him, though he doesn't seem to care much.

"Same shit."