Hermione growing immediately and intensely alarmed at the sight of the bruising welt forming along her boyfriend's jawline, bolted up from the couch and ran across to stop straight in front of his path.
"Wait, Lucifer, wait!" She called out her small hands pushing against Lucifer's stomach to stop so he wouldn't rush past her out into the hall "What is going on between you two?!"
"Nothing," he dismissed shortly, pointing his face away to avoid her searching eyes as he tried to walk forward past her shoulders. "Don't worry about---"
"Stop that dramatic routine... don't you dare shut me out," She scolded fiercely, her brows furrowing as she reached up, fingers firmly grabbing both sides of his face to force him to look straight down into chocolate eyes, "Tell me what's going on up there."
Lucifer looked into her, and immediately, the freezing, cold exterior of his wrath melted away into nothingness. He slowly unclenched his tight jaw, a sad, weary smile breaking across his lips as he whispered, "It's okay, pet... I just really want to be alone right now."
Hermione's brow furrowed in a deep frown. "Lucifer..."
"Oi! Mate, wait up!" Harry called out loudly, barreling down the wooden steps from the dormitory in a panic.
At the sudden sound of Harry's chasing voice, Lucifer let out a heavy sigh, gently disengaged from Hermione's grip, and pushed past her shoulder, clambering rapidly out of the portrait hole into the corridor without another word.
Attempting to run after him, Harry was caught on the arm by Hermione's reaching fingers, and she looked up into his face, demanding immediate answers.
"Don't worry, Hermione," Harry said quickly, prying her grip free as he took a step through the portal, "I'll explain the whole fight to you later... right now I've got to go after him before he does something stupid out."
Lucifer wasn't sure what specific direction his boots were taking him. All he knew was that his self conscious drive was steering him as far away from Ron Weasley's presence as humanly possible. At the same time, however, thoughts inside his head were desperately trying to convince him to turn back around, march into the tower, and unleash his full celestial power; he wouldn't give in to the temptation, of course, but were deeply embedded in his mind.
Harry Potter followed rapidly in his friend's wake, mimicking every step Lucifer took as they exited the castle doors and marched out onto the snow blanketed grounds.
"Oi, wait up, will you?" Harry called out loudly behind his back, his winter boots crunching over the fresh white snowdrifts. "Where are you going at this pace, mate?"
Lucifer halted his stride near the frosty edge of the lawn, voice carrying freezing breath, "Away from Weasley before I splatter the flagstones of that common room with his blood."
The boy with glasses let out a visible sigh into cold morning air, increasing his quick pace to settle firmly alongside his friend as they walked through grounds, the bright winter sun shining down upon their cloaks.
Harry watched Lucifer intently out of the corner of his eye, noticing the rigid tension in his features; his jaw remained tightly clenched, fingers were balled up into tight fists, and his pupils had become a dangerous red as the exact shade of freshly drawn blood.
"Listen to me for a second," he said softly, reaching out to pull firmly back on his friend's arm, stop his forward momentum by the trees. "Ron was being a prat in the room, okay? I know that very well, believe me, but it honestly isn't worth getting so cross over. The bloke is simply not in the state of mind right now."
Lucifer let out a sharp, derisive scoff, his head snapping around as he looked straight into Harry's green eyes with his own glowing red ones. "I don't give a damn whether he is in his right biological state of mind or not, Potter! That pathetic excuse does nothing to justify him launching a physical strike and punching me directly in the jaw! If I truly wanted to use my power, I could have broken his body into a million microscopic pieces and spread his remains over every layer of the Multiverse!"
"I know you can do that," Harry sighed heavily, a brief shrug of his shoulders as his boots shifted in the snow. "And I am not taking his side in this fight by any means, Lucifer. But try and look at the situation from his perspective, will you? The girl he has been secretly in love with for years---"
"The girl he is in love with?" Lucifer repeated sharply, his red eyes narrowing in mocking disbelief, "You mean 'my' girl, Potter?! I mean, for fuck's sake, why on earth couldn't the simpleton have fancied anyone else inside this castle?!"
"Well, I suppose Ron is currently thinking the same thing about you," Harry shrugged, an uneasy, small smile breaking across his features in a desperate attempt to lighten the thick tension. "Look, the news was a shock for him, finding out details like that after Ginny's accident, but he'll come 'round eventually, I am certain of it."
"I don't think he ever will," Lucifer said coldly. He reached into his robes and pulled out a small white paper cylinder from his pouch, a Muggle cigarette, shaking his head slightly in sheer disbelief as fingers ignited the tip with a spark of wandless heat. A few tiny drops of blood were still slowly welling out from split skin along his jaw where Ron had landed the punch.
"Well... I reckon Hermione Granger is going to be a remarkably hard girl to get over for anyone," Harry said gently, his voice a calm melody against the wind, "And no doubt, it'll take the bloke some considerable time to clear his head, but you don't have to worry about that at all, mate. She chose 'you,' didn't she? And she undoubtedly loves you... anyone in school with working eyes can see that clearly. Seems to me like you've got nothing to worry about when it comes to her loyalty."
Lucifer let out a long sigh, the smoke from his lips swirling into winter air as he looked toward the horizon. "What's going to happen to the group now, Harry?" he asked softly, a trace of worry breaking through his shell, "What does this fight mean for Weasley and me going forward?"
"Look, you two became really good mates over this past term," Harry smiled warmly, reaching out to clap his friend firmly on the back of his robes, "I know about Cleansweep as well, and it would be a damn shame if you let a girl come between your standings after everything we've built."
Lucifer ran his fingers through his dark hair, a bitter smirk on his lips, "She's not just any common girl though, Harry."
"Doesn't matter, because at the end of the day," Harry began, his voice sounding genuinely hopeful as they turned back toward the path, "We've all been friends for far too long to let something this stupid come between."
"Damn, I need a hot shower right now," Lucifer muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose to fight off the headache.
"It'll all figure itself out, mate," Harry laughed softly, turning his boots to continue walking forward down the slope. "But it's not worth getting cross over; this whole scenario is beyond our control anyway. No one can choose who they fall for."
Lucifer gave a slow nod of his head, the heavy pressure around his chest finally fading into a calm neutrality. He followed Harry's lead down toward Hagrid's log cabin, as both boys had subconsciously agreed that staying away from the castle corridors for an hour was the best course of action.
They knocked twice on the heavy wooden cabin door, but there was no answer from inside. Naturally, one would only assume that the half-giant must be off tending to his hidden herd deep inside the Forbidden Forest.
And so, Lucifer and Harry turned their boots, strode straight into the dark treeline in search of their friendly professor. After roaming the winding, snowless paths for another twenty minutes, they finally made their way back up castle grounds, walking through deserted corridors toward the Gryffindor Tower.
Lucifer had significantly calmed his temper since the bedroom altercation, thanks to Harry's grounded advice, and he felt ready to face the expected pestering questions of his worried girlfriend.
To his surprise, however, when he and Harry stepped through the portrait hole a few minutes later, Hermione seemed far too preoccupied with her own loud, furious shouts of accusations at the center table to notice their entry into the room at all.
xxxxxxx
"IF YOU EVER LAY ANOTHER HAND ON MY BOYFRIEND, RONALD WEASLEY," Hermione roared in a dangerously low, threatening tone that rattled the nearby windowpanes, "I WILL PERSONALLY JINX YOU INTO THE NEXT OBLIVION!"
Before Ron could even attempt to utter a syllable of a rebuttal in his own self-defense, a sudden, loud, and resounding slapping sound echoed through the stone room, sharp enough to be heard for miles. The impact was immediately followed by a sharp pitched shriek of surprise from another person present in the space.
"Stop it, Hermione!" Ron's thoroughly terrified, cracking voice begged from the center of floorboards, "Merlin's beard, calm down! You don't even know what actually happened up there!"
"I DON'T CARE WHAT HAPPENED! I AM WARNIN' YOU, RONALD!" Hermione screamed back, her chest heaving with adrenaline.
At the edge of the portrait hole, Lucifer and Harry shared an alarmed, rapid glance before stepping through the gap.
"I SWEAR TO MERLI—GINNY, LET ME GO THIS INSTANT!"
Her voice bellowed again.
"No way, this is ridiculous," Ginny Weasley's voice shot back, though her words were heavily muffled through fit of breathless laughter as she added, "But it is so damn funny to watch!"
Turning the stone corner into the main living space, both Lucifer and Harry's jaws practically fell straight to the carpet. Standing before their eyes, in a dramatic scene that radiated an intense chaotic energy, were Hermione, Ron, and Ginny.
The ginger-haired boy was currently standing upon the wooden coffee table in the middle of the room, desperately caressing the bruised side of his own face while trying best to shield his head from a rapid barrage of flying textbooks that were being thrown by Hermione.
Across the rug, Ginny had her arms wrapped tightly around the bushy-haired girl's waist, anchoring her frame with all her strength to prevent her from physically lunging forward to tear Ron apart. The brilliant Gryffindor girl's eyes were lit with a scorching, burning rage.
In what felt like slow motion to his senses, Lucifer watched as Hermione suddenly used a burst of adrenaline to break free of Ginny's tiring grasp. She fluidly lifted her body up and over the back of the plush velvet couch, immediately activating attack mode as she prepared to lunge forward at the cowering, shielding ginger standing defenselessly atop the table.
Thinking with protective speed, Lucifer bolted across the rug, running forward to scoop Hermione cleanly up into his strong arms right before her fists could make physical contact with Ron's face.
Hermione violently kicked her legs and screamed in frustration, failing to realize in her blind rage who had physically stopped her momentum from engaging in the fight; all that truly mattered to her girlfriend instincts was breaking free of the restraint to draw blood.
"LET ME GO!" She yelled at the top of her lungs, her deadly, narrowed eyes still locked onto her target's shaking frame. "HE DESERVES WHAT I AM ABOUT TO DO TO HIM! YOU COMPLETE, UTTER ARSE, RONALD WEASLEY! LIKE TO HIT PEOPLE IN THE FACE, DO YOU?! LET'S SEE HOW YOU LIKE IT WHEN IT'S THE OTHER WAY AROU—"
"Pet, calm your breathing down," Lucifer cooed softly directly into her ear, his voice carrying the warmth. Almost immediately, rigid tension in Hermione's limbs came to a dead halt, he let out a soft, low chuckle against her hair, arms cradling her secure weight. "As endearing as I find this whole display to be, you know, you defending my honor and all---I would honestly much rather not be an accomplice or a witness to a literal murder today."
The fury consuming Hermione's flushed face quickly and beautifully softened when his voice registered in her mind. She fell silent, her rage evaporating into a wave of relief as she buried her messy head deep into the crook of his neck, thoroughly relieved that her angel had returned to her side unscratched.
From across the hearth, Ginny's wild howls of hysterical laughter could still be heard echoing loudly in the background, alongside Ron's pathetic, low whimpers of fear, but Hermione didn't seem to care about their presence anymore.
In fact, the moment Lucifer went to set her boots back down on the rug, Hermione fluidly jumped right into her boyfriend's lap instead, wrapping arms securely around his neck as she smiled contently.
Lucifer let out a rich laugh upon witnessing his girlfriend's incredibly quick, dramatic change in mood. "That's my girl."
Keeping a firm protective arm wrapped around his girlfriend's waist, Lucifer turned his body to face the rest of the silent group. Ginny and Harry were currently sharing highly amused, quiet glances with one another, while Ron slowly and awkwardly hopped down off the top of the coffee table, looking incredibly ashamed of his past behavior.
Nervously scratching the back of his red neck, the ginger boy took a tentative step forward across the rug, his eyes pointedly avoiding any direct eye contact with the couple. "Listen... I—I n-never truly meant t-to—" Ron stuttered, his voice trailing off.
"It was a misunderstanding," Lucifer dismissed smoothly with a careless wave of his hand, shrugging his shoulders to clear the air. "We had a private disagreement regarding our duties, things got a bit heated in the room, and that is all there is to the matter."
"A 'misunderstanding," Hermione muttered in disgust, a low spike of anger returning to her tone as she glared up at Ron's face from the safety of Lucifer's embrace. "And what specific kind of argument, may I ask, provoked such foul, toxic, and idiotic behavior between housemates? What on earth was the fight about?"
The sharp demand made Ginny's ears perk up from across the room; both Gryffindor girls were now glancing curiously between the three boys' faces, awaiting a logical answer.
Harry immediately reached up, fixing the frames of his glasses once again in a desperate, silent attempt to avoid being the one to answer the dangerous question.
Lucifer glanced over at Ron's features, seeing the boy gulp in terror under the intense female interrogation.
"W—well, it w--was about..." Ron trailed off, his long fingers beginning to shake from the overwhelming fear of having Hermione Granger ever find out real truth regarding his secret declaration of love.
"The Prefect selection thing," Lucifer interjected with a level tone, stepping in to save Ron from his misery, "Weasley was pointing out under old logs, he was technically Dumbledore's first choice for the prefect badge before McGonagall altered it."
"R—right!" Ron stuttered rapidly, his blue eyes growing wide with a profound relief as he seized the lifeline, "That was it!"
Lucifer simply gave a slow nod of his head in response, gesturing for him to stay quiet and go along with the cover story. Hermione, however, didn't seem to believe a word of the manufactured story. She looked between the two boys with a sharply raised brow, her eyes searching their faces with an accusing, intelligent look that suggested she knew they were withholding.
In an attempt to permanently diffuse the situation before she could dig deeper, Lucifer untangled his arms from his girlfriend's wrap and took a step forward, sticking his right hand out directly towards Ron's position.
"We're good, Weasley?" Lucifer asked, his voice a formal, business-like tone. "The tension won't be happening again inside our dorm, will it?"
For a long moment, Ron stood completely still on the rug, staring blankly at Lucifer's outstretched palm in disbelief. Only when his brain sensed Harry and Ginny looked in intense anticipation did the ginger finally take a slow step forward.
He linked his hand with Lucifer's fingers, shaking the palm firmly. The unnerving part of the reconciliation, however, was that Ron said nothing aloud, offering zero vocal indication of a true truce besides that tight handshake.
In fact, when their hands released, Ron simply turned his back, walked straight up the stone stairs to the boys' dormitory, and closed the door without further interaction.
"Foul, intolerable, and dramatic 'tosser," Hermione said angrily under her breath, her eyes watching the space where the ginger had vanished up the stairs. Shaking her wild hair, she turned her body around and tightly linked her fingers through Lucifer's hand, pulling directly toward the portrait hole. "Come on then. Let's go straight down to kitchens and get some clean ice for that bruise."
Giving her a slow nod of agreement, Lucifer allowed Hermione to pull his weight through the portal once again. They were just about to step out onto the corridor when the faint sound of Ginny's exasperated sigh drifted out from the depths of common room behind their backs.
"Boys are so damn confusing," She muttered to Harry, sniggering softly as a rustle of cushions suggested she had collapsed flat onto the couch to recover her breath.
xxxxxxx
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