Experience Tumblr Like Never Before
A little slow on the uptake, Serra needed some time to process what was actually going on, stuck in the deluded fantasy that this couldn't possibly be happening right now. It couldn't be some bad joke as no one had that terrible of a sense of humor, but that left one option: Malcolm actually cheating on her. Why he would ever do that made no sense to her, she knew he liked her, showing her off proudly and showering her with attention. "It's complicated? It's complicated?!" Her voice grew louder, anger and frustration obvious. He didn't deny it. He called Charity crazy, yes, but he didn't call her a liar. That distinction was important to her. Her world turned upside down again, stuck in a nightmare version of the present. Her boyfriend cheated on her and then submitted her to public humiliation. "You were gonna tell me? When? After you slept with me too?" Tears built up in her eyes again. This was truly the worst day of her whole fifteen years of life. "We're done. I'm breaking up with you." Turning to Charity she didn't bother hiding the hatred in her eyes rolling her eyes when she talked about them deserving each other. She deserved better than this and she wasn't going to let him keep playing her for a fool. "Yeah I don't want him anymore. Have fun with my leftovers. I know that's why you wanted him in the first place. Can't be like me so you try taking what's mine. Well you got him. Congratulations."
Malcolm was drowning in a self-made hell. He focused on Serra, her nose clearly destroyed, while desperately trying to extricate himself from the chaos he'd ignited. Charity, a ghost from his disastrous final year, stood opposite. The engagement contract, a desperate, callus-forming grasp at a solution, had trapped him. He needed Serra to leave him, to buy time to dismantle that contract—time and resources he didn't have within these cursed castle walls. His solution, a twisted logic, had been to engineer a breakup, something more dramatic than a simple "it's over." He'd known Serra wouldn't accept the truth. So, he'd manipulated, leading him to a hidden alcove with Charity. He hadn't intended to sleep with her, that intimacy reserved for Serra. But things spiraled, and now, here he was.
He struggled to rein in his panic, to find some semblance of sense, but a blinding pain erupted in his jaw. "You're fucking crazy,-" he said, too distracted now by his own pain that his hand clutched at that he didn't even hear her at first. Shit. Malcolm was glaring over Serra at Charity, and the raw ache in Serra's tone softened his own anger. "It's-it's complicated-I was going to tell you-"
She hid her face in his chest, embarrassment taking over. How could he find her attractive once he saw her like this? This was a disaster! Her life was supposed to be perfect and this was an absolute mess. "She's crazy stalker obsessed with you! She said you two hooked up...but you wouldn't cheat on me..." Serra was still half crying and hiding her face between her hands so he couldn't see the bloody nose, trying to rack her mind for a spell to get rid off blood but she'd never had to use that before so she came up empty. "Wait it's like you're crazy stalker obsessed with me! Did you do this to get back at me?" Serra let out a yelp of pain when Charity threw her on the floor. Gasping in shock when Charity hit Malcolm, not his face! It was his best feature! They had that in common, that was why they photographed so well together. The more time passed the less like a lie it seemed. Could it be true? Could he actually have cheated on her? With Charity of all people? She stood up, her head a little dizzy from the quick motion and she caught her stumble. "Shut up charity case!" Turning back to Malcolm, once again hiding the lower half of her face so he wouldn't look at her bloody nose, she continued. "Just tell me this is all a bad joke. That this-" she pointed between him and Charity. -didn't happen."
Malcolm was walking back from class with friends when a commotion erupted down the corridor. A surge of students rushed forward, forming a tight circle. He overheard someone shout, "Girls fighting!" and quickened his pace. This wasn't a common occurrence, and he wasn't about to miss it.
The sight of Charity and Serra locked in a fight was the last thing Malcolm expected. He shoved through the crowd, muttering curses as they shouldered against him. This moment was torn from a nightmare. He'd justified his cheating, but never imagined this—a public confrontation. He'd planned to tell Serra on his own terms, when he was ready. That moment, that control, had been stolen from him. Then Serra was in his arms, and instinct took over. His eyes scanned her face, searching for injury. He spotted the smear of blood and his gaze snapped to Charity, a cold tension settling in. "What the fuck is happening?" he demanded, pulling Serra close. A sliver of denial flickered; maybe this wasn't about him at all. Now he didn't feel as excited about girls fighting when they were his girls-no, just Serra. Malcolm's chin raised to glare at the other onlookers. "Well, get fucking lost-nothing to see-"
She stayed until she saw the expression of horror on Charity's face. That made it oh so worth it. With satisfaction she thought that the blonde got what she deserved. Her high didn't last long as Charity followed her into the hallway, a crowd forming due to their argument. People couldn't help but be nosey. "You are trying to take what's mine! You're the used goods." She scoffed, shaking her head. "I am not desperate! He likes me! Not you!" The retourt came automatically, fully believing her own words. Never having been in a physical fight before she hadn't expected Charity to punch her, much less in the face. A scream of pain left her lips as her eyes started to well up with tears. "Salazar! What is wrong with you? You're crazy! You ruined my face!" Serra started to panic, barely seeing where she was walking due to the tears, trying to make her way to the hospital wing when she ran into a chest, the smell familiar. Malcolm. What was he doing here? He couldn't see her like this! Her voice whiny and barely comprehensible to due to the crying. "Don't look at me!"
She was very much used to being called names, insults didn't hit that hard these days for she'd learned that biting back was immensely more fun. Serra was the kind of person who believed herself to be above others, as though they were better just for the sake of it, and the witch had called her ugly many times, so when the new insults flowed from her lips, it did Charity no harm. It wasn't so until she looked up and saw her hair in the mirror, the last straw as she'd take no more mistreating on her part, not when she held the upper hand this time. The witch followed the other into the hallway, her voice loud for everyone to hear. "Wow, cheap, easy, desperate. Darling, are you sure you're not referring to yourself? Easy to get flustered, cheap enough to want used goods and desperate to go back to someone who's clearly not into you." She took a step further, grabbing Serra by the arm and forcing her to turn around and face her. "You're thinking he went for the ugly one, right? Let me help you then, become the ugly one instead." She mused, a smile flashing on her lips right in time as her fist came in touch with her nose, a nice strong blow.
"Yes." She grimaced, her tone petulant and angry and not nearly as blasé as she wanted to be. Normally no one got to her, she believed herself to sit pretty on her throne, a pedestal from where she looked down on others and now it seemed like her whole kingdom was crumbling. "I'm not as cheap and desperate and easy as you are." The insults kept flowing easily out of her lips but that didn't make her feel any better. Wandless magic was something she was quite good at when it came to beauty spells, needing to know she could do her hair in any situation. It wasn't even planned, her emotions getting the better of her as she turned Charity's hair into a hideously short bob with uneven bangs. A laugh left her lips as she started at the other, feeling like she won she made her way into the hallway. She needed to find Malcolm so he'd tell her this was all a bad joke.
She stared in bewilderment, surprised to see the toll her boyfriend's shenanigan had taken on her. It was hilarious to see the tormentor become the tormented one, all too annoyed to feel someone she saw as lesser get a small triumph. "Plenty, huh?" She repeated the witch's words, simply to spite her, a sly grin pulling at the corners of her lips. "The way he had fun with me, though, makes me think you two didn't have any." Charity stated, turning to washing her hands, pretending not to care for this conversation at all. She did, though, more so for the pure satistfaction of getting to pull one over someone as awful as Serra. "You don't have to, what do I care if you believe it or not?" She said with a shrug of her shoulders. "All I care is that I'm most certain I'll ride him again."
Serra knew appearances mattered and that her reputation was at stake right now, but for someone who normally put so much care into that fact she could not for the life of her stay calm and unbothered like she knew she should. At fifteen she felt like this was a catastrophe of epic proportions. Charity seemed calm, too calm. Did it mean that it was true? Or that she was lying? She claimed not to be a liar, but that itself could be a falsehood. "He has plenty of fun with me!" None of the sexual kind however. He'd told her he was fine with waiting, but she didn't think that meant he'd go cheat on her! Especially with someone that wasn't as pretty as her nor looked like her at all. Not even a brunette? It just didn't make sense to her, it felt like her world was thrown upside down. She was literally drop dead gorgeous, everyone could see that. To throw all this away for that? "I don't believe you."
Her eyes settled on the other as she was seemingly throwing a fit over the words she'd just shared, a calmness taking over Charity as she simply stared at the other. A part of her didn't understand the emotionality behind her act, how terribly affected she seemed by the truth, but another part of her simply felt a peculiar kind of delight at seeing the one who'd treated her so badly in previous encounters simply losing it. "Merlin, did you get flustered." The witch simply commented, as if remarking on something utterly obvious. "Well, if you didn't break up, he definitely cheated on you." She stated unfazed, though she was definitely bothered by Serra saying they were still together, annoyed that Malcolm had lied to her instead. Her brows raised slightly at the insult, not the first time she'd heard it, chuckling inevitably. "Weird as I may look, at least he had a good time. Funny thing he'd go looking elsewhere, unless he wasn't having any with you."
"You're obviously lying." Serra's eyes blazed with anger, furious at the insinuation of what Charity's words could mean. Malcom cheating on her? Definitely not. He wouldn't do that to her. There was no way. Things were good, she was this close to letting him take her virginity. There was no reason for their relationship to be on the rocks. They didn't even get into a fight! "We didn't break up. We're together! I saw him this morning!" She stomped, like a child throwing a tantrum. How did Charity know about their spot? "He'd never go for a loser like you. Your eyes are way too far apart, you look weird." It was the first thing she could come up with short notice.
Charity turned around to face the witch when she was interrupted mid-sentence, brows raising in disinterest. “I wouldn’t lie if I could.” She was quick to say, which was true of course as she never understood the motivation to lie, the truth always flowing smoothly from her lips. “And what is it you, anyways, since you’re all broken up?” The witch wondered, a smug smile growing on her lips for she was enjoying seeing the other all rattled, especially after the years of bullying she’d endure from her part. “He moved on, right on to me. Want to hear all the details? He took me to this secret spot in the dungeons, Nearly-Headless Nick’s spot once when he was alive.” She was telling it as though it was the juiciest of gossips, lying heavy on the excited girly tone. “And if you must know, he really is a good fuck.”
Serra had been minding her business until she heard her boyfriends name from the other side of the bathroom, storming over in a flash of anger. Scoffing when she noticed that it was Charity Burbage. Even though she was older, Serra believed herself to be the better person, certainly the better looking one. There was no way Malcolm would even look in her direction. He was her boyfriend. And she was talking about their meet up spot. There was no way this was true. "Stop lying, Charity. This is embarrassing."
where: girl's bathroom, hogwarts - flashback who: @serraborgin & @themalcolmparkinson
Charity was in a better mood than usual, not as annoyed with people approaching her as she most generally did, so when the Hufflepuff girl joined her in the bathroom and asked about her day, she didn't exactly tell her off. The conversation flowed easily and just for this one time, the witch allowed herself to engage in this sort of girl's talk, bringing up boys and what not. Perhaps because she did have something to share, having had quite a fun night with Malcolm not long ago. "Me? I'm not going to say I'm innocent, I did meet with up with Parkinson this week." She offered with a shrug of her shoulders when the other witch asked if she'd been seeing any wizards. "He took me to a secret party hall in the dungeons and Merlin, he had to cover my mouth so my moans wouldn't get us caught." Oversharing maybe, but Charity wasn'tone to hold back her tongue in any case.