five

"HOLY SHIT." Arabella mumbled under her breath, walking forward with her eyes focused ahead. The drink Malfoy made for her earlier was a lot stronger than she thought, as she stumbled slightly.

She'd heard rumors of the glass, ceiling to floor window in the Slytherin common room. But this wasn't what she'd imagined. The green lights that flooded the ceilings, bled out into the water, illuminating the sight in front of her. Arabella gasped softly, as a flick of a large tail caught her eye. Light glistened off of the shimmery tail, before it quickly disappeared behind a large boulder.

"Mermaids. They get testy at night." Mattheo warned her, standing beside her as he looked up at the lake. "The water is foggy now because of the rain, but when it's clear, you can see the moonlight." He said.

The moonlight still shone in fragments through the water, and Arabella put a hand on the glass. The wonder and admiration sobered her up quickly, and the glass was cold to the touch. "I can't believe you get to look at this everyday." She whispered, looking to her right at Mattheo, who was already looking at her.

"Yeah, we're pretty lucky." He admitted. "You know, in my first-year, I couldn't fall asleep at night because Crabbe was one of my bunkmates. He snored like crazy, so I slept out here a lot." He said. "And one year, a seventh-year got dared to do the Bubble-Head charm, and swim all the way down to this window. They say he got swiped halfway down by a mermaid and was never seen again."

Arabella stepped back, now suddenly a little less attracted to the window. Mattheo chuckled, before outstretching his hand. "I wanna show you something else."

•

"I hate to break it to you, Riddle. But I've been in the Astronomy Tower before." Arabella said, running her hand along the brilliant gold of the large telescopes that lined each of the windows. Tracing the tiny details engraved into the precious metal, she glanced over at Mattheo, who had a cigarette dangling haphazardly from his lips.

It was unlit, and his eyebrows were furrowed in deep concentration as he fidgeted with a few levers on the wall of the tower. His eyes glistened with mischief when he found the right one. Pulling it, every single window in the tower began to roll down, clicking rhythmically as they disappeared into the structure of the tower.

The cool October air immediately flooded inside, instantly cooling down Arabella, who was warm from the alcohol in her system as well as ascending the stairs that led to the top of the tower. She really needed to start exercising.

"Oh my god." She exhaled breathily, as Mattheo offered her his hand. Gripping it nervously, she let him gently pull her towards the now uncovered opening of the tower. The moon shone brightly above them, and for some reason, it looked closer than ever before.

Peering over the edge, Arabella marveled at the sight below her. From here, she got a birds eye's view of Hagrid's cottage, the Black Lake, the Forbidden Forest, and anything else that was worth seeing at Hogwarts.

"I can see the Whomping Willow. It's leaves are just about ready to fall." She whispered, watching the gargantuan tree sway back in forth in the night wind, it's orange leaves rustling loudly as it did.

Mattheo had a firm grip on her hand, and she couldn't help but to notice how warm the seemingly cold Slytherin was.

"You know, you're the only Gryffindor student I've ever had a conversation with." He said, making Arabella's eyes widen.

"Ever? How is that possible? It's your sixth year here." She said, moving back from the window, suddenly finding this to be much more interesting.

She wasn't warm anymore, now slightly shivering from the cool air. But she didn't want the windows back. Being this high up, breathing in the fresh air, and feeling the wind in her hair. It was more than magical.

Mattheo noticed the goosebumps on her arm, silently slipping off his house sweater and handing it to her wordlessly.

She accepted it gratefully, before tugging it on and fully messing up her carefully styled hair. It didn't matter anyway, she had a feeling she wouldn't be returning to the party today. Inhaling the smell of laundry detergent and citrusy cologne, she watched as Mattheo took a step back, before sitting down and letting his legs hang off the ledge of where the window would've been.

"So what, you just hate Gryffindors or something? Did one of us pee in your pumpkin juice?" She continued to press, sitting down beside Mattheo on the cold, stone floor. Crossing her legs as she carefully observed the boy beside her, she didn't miss the way his eyes glistened momentarily before turning cold again.

"It's not that. They just won't talk to me. They hate me, Brooks." He murmured. His fingers picked at the cuticles of his thumb. "I even heard one of them call me a 'dirty Riddle'. Said I was scum just like my father." He chuckled humorlessly, letting his hands drop into his lap.

Arabella's heart plummeted. She felt tears well up in her eyes, feeling for the sad boy next to her. "Mattheo," She started. His gaze was focused on the floor.

"You know none of that is true, right?" She asked softly, ducking her head to try and meet his gaze. He purposefully avoided her eyes, choosing to look up at the moon instead. "Don't listen to them." She insisted, placing a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to comfort him.

"Why wouldn't I? You barely know me, Brooks. How are you to say that none of it is true?" He asked, and Arabella screwed her eyes shut, feeling a new wave of emotions.

"And Ron Weasley. He said I should off myself, before I ended up like my parents." He finished lowly. Arabella's heart actually stopped beating at that sentence. And her sadness was quickly replaced with anger, as she stood up abruptly. So quickly in fact, Mattheo had grabbed for her in fear she'd fall right out the window.

Wordlessly, she undid the strap of her heels, before stepping out of them and clutching them in her hand.

She was going to punch Ron in the face.

•

The walk, or storm would be more accurate, to the seventh floor gave her time to think. Mattheo had called after her, but she'd ignored him, leaving him behind in the tower. She was worried what Ginny would think, obviously she'd have some kind of reaction to her best friend punching her brother in the face.

But she decided she didn't care. How could Ron say such a disgusting thing? How dare he even think it?

Her rage must've been palpable, because even without Blaise to guide her in, the Room of Requirement revealed itself to her, and she shoved open the door, dropping her shoes to the floor of the entryway.

It didn't take her long to spot the broad redhead, who was guzzling down another pint of beer, sitting in between Harry and Hermione on a maroon couch, his arm slung lazily around their shoulders.

Hermione bolted up, her face filled with worry as she gave a once over to Arabella's bare feet and frizzy hair.

"Where have you been? And who's sweater is-" Before Hermione could finish her sentence, Arabella reeled back her fist, before sending it as hard as she could to the center of Ron's face.

The reaction was immediate. Hermione let out a small scream, her hand flying to cover her mouth. Ron was keeled over, groaning in pain as blood from his nose slowly dripped onto the carpet. Harry had bolted up, drunk but still coherent enough to hold back Arabella, who was still seething.

"Brooks, what in the hell?" Ron moaned in pain, his voice muffled by his hand, which he was using to try and stop the bleeding.

"Don't ever speak to me again, Weasley. Or I'll punch you in the balls next time."

•

Luckily, Ginny thought it was well-deserved.

Ron's nose wasn't broken, but Hermione said it'd be severely bruised for a week or so. Arabella couldn't help but to smile at that fact.

Her conversation with Mattheo that night in the Astronomy Tower finally helped everything click into place. Of course, Ron hated Lorenzo: he was one of Mattheo's closest friends.

Arabella moaned out in pain as Neville carefully bandaged her hand. She'd split her knuckles punching Ron in the face. The Longbottom boy had brought down some kind of healing herb to the Gryffindor common room, before pounding it into a salve and spreading it over her knuckles. It stung like a bitch, but he said they would heal overnight, and it'd be worth it.

The party quickly died off after Arabella hit Ron, and unfortunately, it seemed like Harry and Hermione weren't talking to her at the moment. Ginny too, had told Arabella she was fine, but was upstairs with Hermione. Ron, for reasons that were more than obvious, was also not on speaking terms with her.

"You want to keep that bandage on there all night. It'll burn real bad for the first couple hours then settle down. In the morning you'll be as good as new." Neville said, packing up his supplies and cleaning off the common room coffee table, where he'd been patching Arabella up.

"Thanks, Neville." Arabella sighed, standing up and dusting herself off. She gave the lanky boy a quick hug, and after the two said "good night", she trudged upstairs.

She didn't know what she was going to do. Ginny, Hermione, and the Patel twins were her dorm mates. But she what she did know was that she didn't regret a thing. And she'd do it again if she needed to.

Arabella opened the door, and the chatter from behind the door immediately ceased as she walked in. The girls were all on their respective bunks, dressed in their pajamas. Arabella didn't miss the stink eye Padma was shooting at her.

"I'm gonna have a bath." She quickly muttered, grabbing her shower caddy and towel, before slipping back out of the bedroom in a matter of seconds. She exhaled, shutting the door behind her, feeling a migraine come on as she leaned against the wall. The chatter almost immediately resumed.

During Arabella's fourth-year, a sixth-year Ravenclaw prefect who had a bit of a crush on her, told her the password to the Prefect's bathroom. As long as she never got caught, she could use the bathroom until she graduated, thanks to the never-changing password.

She only ever used it late at night, when she had something on her mind. Prefects were too busy patrolling the halls at night anyway, but according to Hermione, didn't do a very good job. Most of them slept through their patrol, and some of them hooked up with each other in the Restricted section of the library.

"Password?" The portrait guarding the prefect bathroom asked in a posh voice. The painted lady inside, who wore a jasper-colored, floor length gown and a floral parasol resting on her shoulder, gave Arabella a snooty look.

"Alohomora." Arabella said. The original prefects thought they were clever with that one.

The portrait swung open, and Arabella walked in, turning on the taps immediately. The bathroom was amazing, and much cleaner than the others, but the tub took more than an eternity to fill.

She took off her dress, quickly replacing it with a white, two-piece bikini instead. She'd learned from the first time she'd taken a bath here. Penelope Clearwater had walked in on her while she was completely naked, and the two had a screaming match. Penelope ran out with her hand covering her eyes and ended up slipping on some soap suds.

Luckily, the same Ravenclaw prefect that had given the password to Arabella was able to coax Penelope into keeping silent. The quarter Veela in Arabella worked wonders sometimes.

The tub filled quicker than usual, and as Arabella sank into the hot water, it soothed her muscles, releasing the tension in her shoulders. She clamped her eyes shut, leaning her head back on the tile wall of the tub.

Hopefully by the time she returned from her bath, the girls would all be asleep, and she could wouldn't have to watch them pretend like they weren't gossiping about her seconds before.

Tomorrow was a new day.

Arabella repeated that to herself until the water ran cold.