Cutting Ties (Nikolai)

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Mariah stared blankly down at her potions textbook. The study section of the library was meant to be quiet and devoid of distractions, but she was beginning to think she might have better luck concentrating with the background noise of her common room. It could hardly be more distracting than her own thoughts, and it would at least be markedly more pleasant. She groaned quietly, thumping her head down softly on the textbook as she restarted the same paragraph for the third time. She mouthed the words as she attempted to focus. The Wiggenweld Potion is a healing potion with the power to cure injuries. It is the antidote to the Sleeping Draught and the Draught of Living Death.

"LET ME GO YOU STUPID, RUG MUNCHING BITCH!"

Mariah gave up, letting her head drop to the desk as she shoved the textbook aside. It was no use trying to study. Her mind would not let her move on without confronting this. She'd managed one whole day of trying to ignore her problems but she couldn't do it.

She hadn't seen the whole fight, or anything leading up to it. She'd heard the stories going around. At one point, she might have denied them all - Nikolai would never do any of that stuff! But now she didn't know what to believe.

The evidence could hardly be more damning. She'd only caught the very end, but what she'd seen...well, it could hardly be misconstrued as anything else, right? There was no way she could deny what she had witnessed. He really had said those words. She'd heard them herself.

It just seemed so unlike him. Was it, though? How well do you really know him anymore? You've barely spoken to him in months. When was your last real conversation? Over the summer? September? Maybe he's changed. Or maybe he'd always been like this and she was just too stupid to see.

She remembered their last fight. This wasn't the first time she had ever questioned his character. But he had apologized after that one, and really, it wasn't so bad. It wasn't this bad. What had happened? Was it his other friends? That group of Slytherin boys he never seemed to like but always hung out with anyway? Had they gotten under his skin?

Was it Mimosa? She'd heard the other girl was involved somehow. Mariah knew very little about her, but she and Nikolai always seemed to be together. That was why Mariah hadn't seen him much lately. Had their relationship changed him? She couldn't say. The more she tried to come up with an explanation, the more she realized she didn't know anything. What explanation could there be other than the obvious?

Maybe Nikolai really was just a jerk.

She didn't want to accept that, but really, what else could she think? Decent people didn't go around shouting homophobic slurs, even after losing a fight. It was hard to reconcile this version of Nikolai with the one who used to be her best friend, but she knew what she heard. Even if he came back and apologized...she didn't think she could look at him the same way again. She didn't know if she felt comfortable around him anymore.

She blinked furiously, fighting back a wave of tears that threatened to emerge. Ugh. Maybe she was too sensitive. She wiped her eyes with her sleeve and stood up, packing up her things to go back to her dorm. She wasn't going to get anything done today.

Subject: Re: Cutting Ties (Nikolai) Sat Jan 04, 2020 5:33 pm

His father had not been pleased with the antics Nikolai had gotten himself caught up in. It was hardly surprising, if Nikolai was honest, Mercy Williams story had been much too convincing for the Headmaster to dismiss, whilst his own had not quite been clever enough. If they'd have been put before another professor, Nikolai was sure he would have gotten out of it. But Mercy had sung like a canary with her side of the story, and thrown him under the bus. They'd both come out with detentions, but Mercy Williams had only been given a week of detentions for duelling on school premises, whereas Nikolai had been given a month.

The Gryffindor had been sent off shortly after finishing her apology. Nikolai had tried to follow, but he'd been told to stop where he was. The boy had resigned himself to the lecture that was coming, not from the Headmaster, but his father, as he turned back towards the older Kessler.

Words like disappointed had been thrown at the boy, followed by the information that his mother would be hearing of this incident. Nikolai had listened to the explanation on how if a girl told you no, you were supposed to listen, but it had gone in one ear and out the other. Mimosa enjoyed their activities, she had only said no because Mercy was interfering, not because she didn't want to. Also, Mimosa was stupid, thinking she wanted to spend the day with Mercy instead of him. His father had eventually grown quiet, as Nikolai's gaze remained firmly on the spot just above his shoulder.

"Your Hogsmeade privileges are revoked for the rest of the school year, too." Andrei Kessler had settled on, leaving Nikolai fuming with his father.

The door to the Headmaster's office had slammed firmly behind Nikolai on his way out, denoting without any room for confusion, just how unhappy he was with all of it. The Slytherin had headed back to the common room -- despite his dad's urges to go to the Hospital Wing and get his face checked over. There, in the common room, was the host of his fellow Slytherins waiting to see him back. Nikolai had shoved past them all, and holed up in his room for the rest of the evening, only managing a 'fuck you' to Charles and Ji Hyun who laughed at the fat lip he was sporting from a girl's punch.

Pointing out that Mercy Williams wasn't a proper girl hadn't helped his case.

The next day found Nikolai sporting a rather purple bruise on his jaw, and lower lip. The swelling had eased only marginally, and Nikolai's mood was not improved. Classes had gone by slowly, before the boy was whisked off to his detention. Tonight's endeavour? Sorting through the books that had been brought back to the library by hand, and putting them back in to place without magic. Nikolai was sure his father had taken some off the shelf on purpose to make it larger, the stacks were all well past his waist. But Nikolai didn't quibble, instead just grabbing the first handful of books and stalking off towards the relevant sections to put them away.

It was perhaps his third or forth stack that it happened.

Reading the blurb of the herbology book as he walked, Nikolai did not notice the appearance of the shorter witch from the study section. His eyes too concentrated, and definitely not looking where he should have been going, the collision had happened before it could have stopped. The stack of books tumbled from Nikolai's arms before he could catch them.

"For Merlin's sake, look where yo-" Nikolai stopped, though, finding Mariah stood before him. "Mariah, hey!" The boy greeted, a smile forming on his lips. "Sorry, was reading the blurb on the book, not looking where I was going." He explained, before dipping down to collect the books he'd dropped. Best not to get caught with fallen books that he may or may not have damaged when he was already in trouble.

"Haven't seen you around much lately, how are you doing?" Nikolai asked, not really aware that anything between them would be wrong.

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She kept her head down as she slung her bag over her shoulder and exited the study section into the library proper. As she glanced back to make sure she hadn't left anything on the table, she collided hard with someone walking by.

"Sorry!" The apology left her lips before she even realized who it was she'd run into. When she did finally turn and register his appearance, she froze. Just the person she hadn't wanted to see.

She winced a little bit at his swollen lip. This was her first time seeing him since the fight. It looked painful.

Maybe he deserved it.

No, she didn't want to think like that. Violence was never the answer. Of course she didn't want him to be hurt.

She would just rather not be talking to him right now.

She simply stood there staring at him for a long moment, unsure what to say. Here he was, acting like nothing had happened. Friendly, sweet. Her Nikolai. But he wasn't, really, was he?

She didn't miss the way he caught himself, the way his demeanor suddenly changed when he realized it was her. Meaning if it had been anyone else, he would have treated them worse. Maybe a little part of her felt special knowing he was only nice to her, but most of her felt disappointed. If he was only nice to a select few people, didn't that mean he wasn't really a nice person? Maybe the real Nikolai wasn't the one she knew after all.

She swallowed nervously and dropped her gaze. Could she just act natural and pretend everything was fine? Would that make her a coward? Did she have the guts to confront him?

"I'm...fine," she mumbled in response to his question. She glanced back up but couldn't meet his eyes. Her gaze landed somewhere near his chin, finally returning to his bruised lip and settling there. "That looks painful," she commented, gesturing vaguely toward his face.

Subject: Re: Cutting Ties (Nikolai) Wed Jan 08, 2020 6:23 pm

Mariah's reply was very soft, almost mumbled, and had Nikolai been looking at the witch rather than crouched collecting his books, he might have noticed the awkward look about her person. As it was, Nikolai didn't notice these things, instead straightening back up, his arms once more full of the books he had to put away. But, what the boy did notice was that Mariah hadn't given him very much to work with with her answer.

Trying not to frown, the boy took in the next comment that came and gave a small smile. "Oh, no, it doesn't really hurt." He replied, not wanting to make a big deal out of the fact he'd been punched by a girl. The consideration to hide it had come, but Nikolai had decided that annoying his father by having a swollen lip that was a couple of different shades of blue and purple would be a good way to go about it.

Besides, it got him a little bit of sympathy from the girls, which he did not mind at all.

"Want to keep me company? I'm technically in detention, but there was nothing in the punishment that said I couldn't talk to you whilst I do it." Nikolai explained, motioning to the books. "I've got to help Professor Hughes catch up with all the books not put back. Truthfully, I think they've just pulled a tonne of books off the shelf to put back so that it's tediously boring, I've never seen Professor Hughes so far behind with his work as they're making out.

"What have you been up to in here?" Nikolai asked conversationally, moving past Mariah to the next aisle before looking along the referencing to try to find the book's home. "Studying, or..?" He guessed, looking back to her curiously. They both enjoyed books, so Nikolai would not be at all surprised if it had just been a bit of personal reading.

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» Ties That Bind (open)
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» Nikolai Kessler
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