The devil in her

Had he been too subtle? He supposed his good-natured voice and friendly reputation didn't do him any favors in the intimidation department. Which was ironic, considering the fact that his mother and brothers considered him to be a violent thug. He could never be sure if his mother was just vindictive, or if he had just fooled the Hogwarts population into believing he was someone he wasn't.

He didn't even go by his real name.

But back to the matter at hand. There was a damsel that needed rescuing. From... Hitame Mulciber.

It was a weird life he was living.

"Yep," he said, swinging his legs as he walked, preferring a comfortable jaunt. "Just out for a walk. Wanting to get some air. Wanting some peace and quiet. Wanting to make sure you're not going to make trouble for my friend Fiona."

Yeah, all traces of subtlety were gone. If they had ever even been there.

So that's what it was about.

To be completely honest, she was caught by surprise. She hadn't been expecting to have anyone come after her in regards to Fiona. After all, the girl had said that no one in Hogwarts knew about what she was. It wasn't completely unbelievable that she'd lied though. If she'd even meant to. Maybe she didn't.

What did Hit know though?

Obviously not much. At least when it came to Fiona. About vampires.. well she knew quite a bit, actually. That wasn't the problem at hand though. Well, it was but not at the same time. The real problem was dealing with Ducky.

"Oh."

Smooth, Anabelle.

What else was she supposed to say? Hit had stopped in her tracks, turning to face her former housemate, eyes studying his face. They'd narrowed subconsciously, but she had no intention of making any snarky comments, even though her top lip twitched just a bit.

"Glad to know she has friends." Was the sentence she'd settled on saying out loud. "I was worried. But you don't have to be. I have no intentions of saying anything to anyone."

Ducky wasn't sure why he was so defensive.

Hitame didn't have a reputation for being mean-spirited or careless, and she had certainly proved herself to be a good friend. But that. That was it. She had spent some considerable time on her own, and now that she had secured herself a ring of trusted companions, he just didn't know how open she was with them. He didn't want to assume anything against her character, but he knew how secrets were told. One exchange for another, and soon you were sealing your right to be trusted with another's secret.

He and Fiona were close to no longer be friends. He knew that. Part of him knew that once she graduated she would never really have an excuse to see him again, and where was he going to run into her.

So he wanted to make sure this one thing remained a constant. Give her the NEWT year with no more stress than was necessary.

A graduation gift.

"Look," he said, rounding in front of her and stopping, forcing her to halt. "I know you have no intentions. People always think it stops at intentions, but the best intentions don't stop a slip up. If word gets out, I will blame you. Do you understand?"

"And when have I ever done that?" She asked, a challenge in her question.

She messed up, a lot of the time, but never when it came to someone's secrets. Not without a secret like that. Ryo was the prime example of that. She'd never told anyone about what he was, she never spoke about it unless Ryo told her it was okay. Because the other person already knew. But she wasn't sure exactly how many people knew about him.

So far it was her and Maura. Hit only ever mentioned the vampire as a vampire with Maura and only now that she knew the woman knew. Her eyes had fallen to the ground where their feet were and she let out a sigh.

"You should know how I am, we spent six years in the same House. You know I don't go around saying things I shouldn't. But that's fine. Blame me, if you want. It's not like you'd be the first person to."

Hitame thought that the silent, shy act worked in her favor when she finally snapped. He supposed he understood her point, but in theory alone. If someone like Finn were to suddenly adopt venom into her voice, people would pay attention. It'd be striking, and less aggressive language would seem stronger in her gentle voice. So he got the theory of it.

But Hitame was a Gryffindor. And people had seen her in her prime, had seen her stand up and be bold. So he wasn't going to be shaken off just because she seemed passionate (or because she was right). It would take much better reasons to deter him.

"Oh, come on, I'm not blaming you, Mulciber," he said, with a grandiose roll of his eyes. "And I don't care if I knew you for sixteen years, we'd still be having this conversation. It's not personal," and there came the smirk, "as much as you might want it to be."

"Whatever, think what you want." Hit sighed. She didn't want to agree about this with Ducky. She didn't care about what he thought he was doing for Fiona, or whether he was trying to intimidate her or not. None of it mattered to her, because she wasn't going to do anything to put the older girl in danger.

Hit was protective of people like Fiona and Ryo, because they were always misunderstood. She realized that neither of them really needed her to be protective of them, but she didn't care. She also knew she didn't know Fiona well enough to be gen do anything for her, but again, she didn't care. Her job was to be supportive and to help in any way she could.

"Right, so if you're done, I'll be on my way." Hit side stepped to walk past Ducky, determined to not let him get to her.

He had pissed her off, that much was certain. And as keen as he was to make sure his friend's privacy was respected, he also couldn't just leave it at that. After all, he did like Hitame, and he never fancied himself as the hard ass sort of friend. What happened to easy going, careless Ducky?

It seemed he had left around the time Nora had.

Merlin, could there be just one day where he didn't miss the Graham girl?

Hitame side stepped him and continued on her way, and it wasn't until she had walked past that her look of irritation really struck him. "Hey, Hit," he called out, turning and speeding up to catch up to her, falling into step once more. "I don't mean to be a prick. It's just... she really didn't want anyone to know. And she was so close to getting out of here. I know you won't tell, though."

"Hey, I said it was whatever." Hit shrugged.

She was still irritated, and him continuing to talk was not making it better. Hit just kind of wanted to leave so she could cool off. Better that than to accidentally say something she didn't mean. Hit wasn't good at biting her tongue when she was mad.

She continued looking straight ahead, at the horizon where the sky and path seemed to meet, knowing that if she turned her head to look st Ducky.. well, they'd both end up regretting it.

And then he said it.

"... and if you knew that, what was the point of this? Why go through it?" She snapped. Sighing, Hit closed her eyes and took a deep breath. No, no. That's not how I should react. She brought her hands up to her face to hide it momentarily. "You know, I know. I won't tell, that's all that matters."

Hitame sure had some complex. He got it. He had only recently become aware of how long he had lived with the same feelings. It was hard being in school, and with all the pressures of friends and grades it was easy to work right into the frame of mind that everything that happened was a personal insult from life itself. He wanted to tell the Mulciber girl the same thing he wanted to tell every student he interacted with these days.

Honey, not everything is about you.

But, he understood. They'd figure it out, and the ones that didn't... well, that was hardly his problem. He wouldn't begrudge them for falling under the stresses of adolescence.

God, he was thinking like an adult. When did that happen? He hated it.

She tried to backtrack but he thought it was important to explain. "Because the list of things I know that turn out to be wrong is longer the list of days you've had in this life," he said. He paused, trying to prod her into warming back up. "Did it freak you out? It freaked her out. Freaked me out for half a week when I found out."

Did it freak her out? Was that even a question?

Of course.. it didn't.

She couldn't go and say that now, could she? But she couldn't act like she had been shocked about it. Actually.. Maybe she could. It hadn't been a shock to find out she had been in a room with a vampire, definitely not. But it had been surprising to find out that Fiona, of all people, was one.

"I.. guess so?" It was supposed to come out as a statement. A question worked too, though. Not really. She hoped Ducky didn't think anything of it. "I mean, it was surprising. But I didn't get freaked out.." she pondered her reaction for a second.

What exactly had she done when she saw Fiona? She didn't remember. It hadn't been anything bad, she thought. Well, that fact that she didn't really remember her reaction was proof that she hadn't been freaked out, and that it hadn't been bad.

Hit sighed. She stopped again, this time looking at Ducky. "I like vampires, y'know? I spend a lot of time reading about them, wanting to learn about 'em. That's probably why I wasn't freaked out." She figured that was the best way to go about it. At the very least she made sure her voice wasn't too loud in case anyone walked by them.