Unmask My Deception

Ebony refused to look at Harry. It had been several days since the incident on the Quidditch pitch, and though she’d seen him many times since then, she refused to even make eye contact with him.

Now, seated only a couple feet away from him, it took all her willpower to concentrate on writing her essay. She forced her quill to continuously scribble across the paper as her brow furrowed delicately while she read the book in front of her.

The sound of footsteps coming towards her didn’t immediately draw her attention; however, when the bottle of ink on the table suddenly toppled over and engulfed her notes in thick, black liquid, her dark eyes snapped up.

“Oops,” said the girl, smirking at Ebony.

Harry, who had glanced up at the commotion, watched with amusement as Ebony narrowed her eyes. The girl was jerked back by what seemed to be an invisible rope; her book fell from her hand as she was pulled upside down.

She let out a startled shriek as she swung back and forth, helpless against Ebony’s nonverbal spell. Harry sniggered to himself as a small, almost unnoticeable smirk passed across Ebony’s lips.

A shadow fell over Ebony’s shoulder, and she glanced back, somewhat startled to see several of the other Gryffindors beginning to close in on her.

You’ve got to be kidding me, she thought to herself, beginning to stand. Seamus, a brooding boy that had disliked her immensely from the moment they met, shouted,

“Expelliarmus!”

Ebony easily blocked the spell, sending it flying towards the other students gathered behind him. The smile that had been on Harry’s face quickly fell as he realized that Ebony was in serious trouble.

“Incendio!” Seamus cried, and a wave of flames burst from his wand.

“Protego!”

A shield shot forward in front of Ebony, sending the fire shooting back at Seamus, who barely ducked in time to avoid it. As he stood again, he and the rest of the Gryffindors turned to stare incredulously at Harry, who slowly lowered his wand as the shield disappeared.

Ebony’s eyes flicked over to stare at Harry; he felt her dark gaze on him, and he realized that this was his chance to get on better – if not good – terms with her.

“I thought we were Gryffindors, not Slytherins,” he said coolly, staring at all of them. “Are you all really so low it takes the lot of you to fight one person?”

Harry was pleased to see they at least had the decency to look ashamed of themselves.

“Well go ahead then, feel free to fight her. But the next person to shoot a spell at her will have me to deal with.”

For a moment, the group of students held their ground, but not one of them dared shoot another spell. Slowly, they began to disperse, many heading out of Harry’s sights.

“Pathetic,” Seamus spat, stalking away from Harry and Ebony and storming up the stairs. Now that the commotion had died down, Ebony turned back to her notes and quickly siphoned the ink off in one smooth move before tucking them into her bag.

“I’m surprised,” she mused, turning to Harry. “They adore you, and yet you sent them running with their tails between their legs.”

“I tend to have that effect on a lot of people,” he said with a smile.

“I wouldn’t say a lot,” she corrected quietly. “A select few, perhaps.”

Harry’s eyes met hers, and he said softly,

“Apparently it only happens with the ones I care about.”

Ebony’s stomach twisted.

“I don’t believe that’s ever been the case with Leigh, Weasley, or Granger,” she pointed out.

“I don’t believe I was talking about them,” he said, coming just a bit closer to her. “However, you’d be surprised at how well I can make Raleigh run away from me.”

Ebony gave a delicate snort of amusement.

“I wouldn’t doubt it.”

The two of them fell into silence; neither spoke as Harry moved just a bit closer. He was now only a foot or so from Ebony.

“I’d never leave you if you needed help.”

“That’s silly,” Ebony said, her voice quieter than usual. “Why on earth would I need help?”

“You don’t need to face everything by yourself,” he said.

“I’m Draco’s best friend,” she pointed out. “You've always hated me as much as you hated him.”

“You’d be surprised then to find out that I like you just as much as I dislike Draco.”

“Why?” she asked, staring up at Harry.

Harry took a deep breath now, trying to sort out the millions of thoughts rushing through his head. “Because, well, you make it seem like you’re a heartless prat, but you aren't heartless-" Ebony raised an eyebrow as Harry stuttered quickly, “Well, wait, what I meant was, you’re not a prat either, Ebony, you just seem like a royal pain in the ass, and I mean sometimes- no, no, that sounds worse…”

Harry took another deep breath as Ebony continued to stare at him mild amusement on her face. “I’m just trying to say that you may act like a self-absorbed snob, but you're really a good person."

Harry mentally smacked himself once he realized what he said.

“Really? And how do you know that?” Ebony prompted, trying to help Harry say what he wanted to.

Harry sighed and disregarded all hopes of impressing Ebony. He would just say what he needed to say and be done with it.

Ebony’s heart was beating hard in her chest as she waited for him to speak. Though she had a calm façade, she wasn’t nearly as confident as she appeared.

“Because I can see the truth behind your mask, Ebony. You’re not heartless. You hurt just like the rest of us, no matter how much you deny it.”

“Even if that were true,” she said quietly, “I don’t see how that applies.”

Harry slowly raised his hand, cupping her face gently, his eyes burning into hers.

“When you hurt, I hurt. I can’t stand to see you in pain, Natalia,” he said, using her name for the first time. “You mean more to me than you think.”

“I don’t like the name Natalia…” she muttered weakly.

“And,” Harry said, a small smile coming to his face. “I happen to think you’re beautiful.”

“You can call me anything,” she said to him. “But you may not call me Natalia. And you most certainly may not call me beautiful.”

Gently, she lifted her hand and grabbed a hold of his, moving it down from her face. As she did so, she caught sight of the vivid scar on his skin saying I Must Not Tell Lies.

“What’s this about?” she asked him. Immediately Harry attempted to pull his hand from hers, feeling defensive. She held tight, not letting his hand budge. She had surprising strength for her size.

“Whatever else you might be, you’re not a liar,” she said. “What happened?”

“It’s nothing –” Harry began.

“You want me to trust you?” she asked, cutting him off. “Start here.”

Sighing, Harry admitted, “I had a bit of a disagreement with Professor Umbridge.”

Ebony shook her head and let his hand go. “First Snape, and now Umbridge. You do realize there is a time and place to pick your battles, don’t you?”

“I seem to have a knack for picking just the wrong place and time,” he said, giving Ebony a wide, cheeky smile.

Ebony stared up at Harry, sighing as she thought to herself, This kid… As Harry made to move away, she grabbed his hand again and said, “Hold on.”

Reaching into her bag, she pulled out a small vial of liquid and uncorked it, pouring a couple of drops onto his hand. The liquid cooled the sting, and closed it up. It wasn’t healed completely, but it was better.

Harry tightened his hold on Ebony’s hand as she handed him the vial. “You’re brilliant,” he told her, getting a smirk in reply as she pulled her hand free.

“See you around Potter,” she said, grabbing her things and disappearing up the staircase.

Harry stood there for several moments after she disappeared, a wide, goofy smile still plastered on his face.

-x-

Raleigh glowered at Professor Snape as his dull voice gave out the instruction for the next potion. She knew that he had purposely assigned her to Malfoy, and the thought just irritated her more.

“You’ve got one hour to brew your potion,” Snape drawled, coming to the end of his speech. “Begin.”

“I’ll grab the ingredients,” Draco muttered, getting up and sauntering off towards the cabinet.

“Damn right you will,” Raleigh muttered under her breath, lighting the fire as she opened her book. Draco returned quickly, setting the numerous vials down in front of her.

“Here, measure this,” he ordered, shoving essence of bat wing into her hands.

“I’m not measuring bat wings,” she argued, shoving it back.

“Well bloody hell, you’re not good for anything else, so just get on with it!” Malfoy snapped, shoving it towards her again.

“Fine,” she snapped, snatching it up as Draco grabbed the acidic weevil venom, beginning to meticulously pour the liquid into the measuring vial. A smirk crossed Raleigh’s face, and she moved her arm, bumping into Draco’s hand. The venom splashed out of the container, landing on Draco’s notes. The venom began to eat holes through the parchment immediately, and Raleigh laughed.

“You little wench!” he exclaimed, upturning the paper onto her lap. The acid began to eat through her robe.

“Prat!” she hissed, throwing the open vial of bat wings into Draco’s face.

“Enough!” Snape snarled, blocking the powder before it could hit Draco. Raleigh and Draco ceased fire, both glowering at one another. “Detention. Both of you.”

Draco’s jaw dropped, and he exclaimed, “Seye started this!”

“I will see you both here promptly at seven o’clock tonight.”

As Snape turned away from them, Raleigh elbowed Draco roughly in the side. “Now look what you got us in to!”

“This is entirely your fault, don’t you dare blame this on me!”

Draco crumpled up his notes, throwing them to the ground as he began to get to work on the potion once more.

Giving an irritable huff, Raleigh turned away from him and yanked off her damaged robe. She gasped in anger when she saw the burn marks on her arm. Immediatley, she shoved her arm beneath his face.

“Look what you did!”

As Draco saw the burns on her arm, a brief flicker of guilt shot through him. Quickly, he pushed the feeling away.

“You started this, so you deserved what you got.”

As Raleigh opened her mouth to argue with him, Ebony slammed a piece of parchment down on the table.

“Really, you two,” she sighed, shoving the parchment – a copy of her notes – towards Draco.

Before Raleigh could complain, she pulled out another small vial and poured a couple drops onto her burns, which healed up immediately.

Raleigh frowned, put out that she didn’t have another reason to bitch at Draco. Ebony smirked at her sister’s face.

“He’s still a prick,” Raleigh mumbled, reluctantly grabbing up the bat wing to help Draco.

Ebony’s lip twitched in amusement. She gave her sister a pat on the shoulder.

“Suck it up, Leigh.”