It was a low blow, that much she knew and she felt really bad for taking that blow. She had loved his mother, never seeing that she would so easily leave him like that and she felt her own anger towards the woman during that time. She had witnessed how hurt he had been, but he had bounced back for the most part. Now, she was pouring salt in his wound just to get him to talk to her, in the hopes it would be revealing as to why he became so cold. It might have been selfish and hurtful, but he turned into a prat. She could tell herself all day that she didn’t care about him, but that was a lie. She didn’t care about who he became, but she had cared about him at one point. Those moments were long gone, both moving on with their lives as clearly they just didn’t get along and never would.

The Slytherin could see the pain flash across his features, feeling slightly worried about how he would respond seeing as she hadn’t known him anymore. Isabella took a step back as he approached before deciding she needed to hold her ground. She had never been scared of him before and she certainly wasn’t about to be scared of him now. “She left you, Roman, not me. She’s the bloody disgrace, not you,” she whispered harshly once she got over the shock of what he had said. Her hand reached out to his arm to stop him from leaving, concern and irritation in her eyes before the irritation finally ebbed away. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me, Roman?” she nearly begged, trying to think of what the appropriate response would be. She wanted to ask where his dad was, but she was afraid she already knew the answer. He was with his mother, disgracing her old best friend. Her mind was racing to make sense behind his words, angry that his mum made him feel like he was the bloody disgrace for trying to be honorable. “No, you don’t get to push me away because shit is going on in your life, so just stop, you bloody prat,” she scolded, pulling her old friend into a hug, not knowing what else she could possibly do.

Roman could not believe her. He could not believe this was the same friend he had gone through hell and back with that now was purposefully throwing the fact that he was unwanted in his face. Obviously it had been a wise decision to drop her. If this was the only thing she was going to do she could drop off the face of the bloody earth and he wouldn’t give a shit. Well, he knew that would be a bit of a lie. He wished he could truly hate her… but he knew that was a lost cause as well. There was no way he could be truly as hateful as he had been acting.

He ignored her words about his mother being a disgrace just not wanting to deal with the girl ever again. Roman just wanted her to fuck off and leave him alone. If she was going to use his mother as a way to keep him away from her then she had definitely accomplished that much. He jerked his arm away from her as she tried to stop him from walking away. ”Get off of me, DiTraverso. You’ve proved your fucking point.” He spat though he stopped at her question, not entirely sure how to answer it. Why should she care anyway? He wasn’t the same damn person anymore. He just wanted to be left the fuck alone. ”Look it doesn’t fucking matter. Just fucking drop it.” He hissed trying to move away from her again. There was absolutely no reason that she needed to know any of that information. Just as he was about to yell at her he felt her arms go around him and he tensed. It didn’t take him long to relax slightly and return the hug tightly, feeling a portion of weight lifting from his shoulders.

A part of Isabella was so frustrated that she simply wanted to hex Roman and then go inform Evan that his roommate was being a bloody prat and currently hexed somewhere on the fifth floor, if he bloody cared to assist the bloke. Roman made her so ridiculously mad now since he became this horrid person that she never wanted to be around. It was like his bad attitude was bloody contagious. Then he started yelling nonsense about her proving her point. Did she even have a point? She really had no bloody clue what he was talking about as she didn’t even know that she had a point except that he was being ridiculous. And she really bloody doubted he came to the conclusion that he was being ridiculous. Her family had cared so deeply about him, treating him as if he was family. Hell, she had even gotten along with his parents, who were both apparently going nutty. She had a few bloody things she wanted to say to them for their ridiculousness, even if she was never going to be friends with Roman again. Parents weren’t allowed to CHOOSE to leave their kids. It just was not acceptable.

Isabella wasn’t sure why she decided to hug Roman…falling back into old habits, she supposed. At first, she was certain he would push her aside, but instead she found that he was returning the hug, thank bloody Merlin. Isabella nearly sighed in relief, smiling slightly. She had really missed her best friend, but she wasn’t stupid. A simple hug didn’t fix a year of hurt as he still had his own demons to fight off. A hug wasn’t going to change his opinions of purebloods, most likely. A hug wasn’t magical. Before she could think about that too much, she heard voices down the hall, her eyes widening as she pulled away from the embrace, glancing up towards Roman before looking for a door to a classroom. Seeing a doorknob, she opened it and stepped inside, holding it open to see if Roman was going to join her, unless he fell back into hating her so soon already. It was so late at night and no one should be out and about, so to Isabella, that only meant that the person was up to no good.

Roman had spent so much time trying to keep everyone away that he had forgotten what it felt like to have friends. He had his girlfriend and he knew she tried her best to be everything he needed, but a bloke needed his friends sometimes. He couldn’t dump all of his baggage on Cecilia. He refused to put her in a position to worry when it already seemed like her mind was in a million different places at once. He had needed his best friend more than anything else. She was the one person that could be caring when needed but still not hesitate to put a boot up his arse when he needed a reality check. It felt like things he hadn’t even thought of in months were finally starting to click back into place, though he knew the embrace she gave him would not solve all of their problems but at least they had a starting point.

Part of him wasn’t sure if he’d be able to let go of all his hatred so easily. Maybe her family was okay but that sure as hell didn’t make up for all the scum bags he had come across during his journey through Knockturn Alley to find his parents. It would be hard to erase all of that prejudice. Granted he was sure nothing could change his mind about Death Eaters. He silently prayed that she didn’t have some kind of Death Eater cousin or uncle or something in her family… he would never be able to even attempt to fix this if she did.

It was then that he heard voices coming towards them, simultaneously letting go of Bella as he tried to figure out what the hell was going on. It was late and it could just be a professor doing a patrol, but something in the pit of his stomach didn’t think it would be the case. It seemed as if the Slytherin was on the same page as he looked up in time to see her open a door. He quickly made his way into the room nudging her almost violently to shut the door.

“Ugh,” the Slytherin girl groaned as Roman pushed her aside, making a face at him. “If that bruises, I’m bruising you back, Rudolphi. You know the rules,” she grumbled, reverting back to something she would tell all of her brothers and their friends if they would end up rough housing a bit much. She wasn’t a bloody bloke, after all. Well, this was just bloody great. Now, she was in a room with the bloke that might still possibly hate her while they hoped that whoever was out there wasn’t going to enter this room. Hopefully, they were just passing by…except, it was already past the time that professors and students did their rounds, leaving Isabella’s curiosity to get the better of her.

Isabella supposed it was lucky that they got their yelling out at the beginning of the bump in, or perhaps the people would have discovered them. As it were, it didn’t sound like they had known that there were two students in the hall as Isabella put her ear to the door. She made a face when she really couldn’t hear all that much, though she felt it absolutely necessary. Opening the door even slightly wasn’t an option as all doors remained closed at night, from what she gathered, and that would only cause whoever it was to MAYBE check out the room. Making up her mind, Isabella took a band and threw up her hair before lowering herself onto the ground, lying flat on her stomach while her head neared the bottom part of the door. Luckily, it was a bit easier to hear whatever it was that was being said underneath the door, the talking getting closer as the footsteps lightly made their way towards them, stopping a few times. Looking up at Roman, she motioned for him to get down as well, knowing that the motto always was two ears on different bodies were better than two ears on the same…the things they came up with as children, she thought to herself.

Roman shot her a look as she groaned at him about bruising her. The samn witch had bruised him far more times than he ever did to her. She was just as rough as the rest of the guys, except he played nice with her while her brother’s just didn’t seem to mind being as harsh with her as they were towards each other. He had typically only gotten aggressive when she did and even then she’d almost kicked his arse everytime.

He was pulled from his thoughts when he saw her pull her hair up and lay down on the floor with her ear to the crack of the door. It was often something they did as kids though this time it was actually important to know what the hell was going on. He looked down at her confused though for a split second he caught himself looking at her inappropriately and stopped himself quickly. He was a guy after all, he was sure his girlfriend checked out guys all the time when he wasn’t around. There was nothing wrong with appreciating a nice backside.

Roman shook his head wondering why he was being so bloody weird before he noticed her gesturing for him to get onto the floor. He rolled his eyes before slowly dropping down beside her and scooting himself closer to mimic her position. The foot steps seemed to be getting closer, the whispers growing louder. ”It’s only a matter of time…” One voice began before the footsteps stopped not far from the door. He looked over at Bella curiously before pressing his ear back to the crack of the door to see if the voice would continue.

It was easy to slip into how she talked to him when they had been best friends for quite a few years. That certainly didn’t mean she even wanted to be friends with him at this point, nor was she stating that she didn’t want to be friends with him. Things were just uncertain and he couldn’t have gone an entire year hating her to all of a sudden, not hating her. It just was not a possibility to do. Life did not work in the flash of an eye. Now, they were reverting back to the spying they did as children, children always wanting to know if the parents are saying anything worthwhile. More often than not, it was nothing worth their time. This was different though. In her mind, it seemed important which meant they had to know what was going on.

Her ear was waiting against the door, thankful that the people stayed put, letting them hear more of their thoughts if they wanted..Only a matter of time? For what? She felt her face mirror Roman’s as she concentrated on hearing more. The voice had been unrecognizable and it had stopped briefly before responding. Isabella held her breath as she continued to listen. “His numbers are growing exponentially, and then with the other side taking out their own numbers…” the voice continued, making Isabella furrow her eyebrows slightly in confusion.

Roman wasn’t sure exactly what the hell was going on, but it couldn’t be any good. For a moment it did feel like they were kids again trying to spy on the adults from a guest room on the ground floor. Of course it had been a bit interesting if it had been a Sunday dinner and the adults were a little too liberal with their wine. The only thing that had irked him then was the fact that the bloody family members that always stayed up later seemed to speak in nothing but Italian when they had drink in their system. He was sure this amused Bella and her brothers as he continuously shot them looks when they started laughing but refused to translate whatever it was being said. Unfortunately, he knew that would never happen again. They were gone, they’d never be back and now there would only be two sets of ears to the door instead of several head trying to cram into the tiny space.

He had looked at Bella in hopes that she had some kind of idea what the hell was going on only to see her looking just as confused as him. He quickly turned his attention back to the voices beyond the door, only to find himself becoming even more perplexed by the conversation. ”His numbers were growing? Who the fuck was ‘he’? The other side?” For the love of Merlin he hated bloody riddles. He didn’t even bother to look back over at Bella as a second voice chimed in, this one a female. ”The more panic the better. Kill them off, say it’s someone else, and watch them flock to a place of ‘protection’. We really should send the man a gift basket for all of his help…” The woman said with a gentle laugh that sounded almost eerie in a sense.

A part of her was frustrated that she was stuck in a bloody room with her ex-best friend. They could pretend for a moment that things were back to normal, but they were far from it. The truth of the matter was that her best friend was gone and honestly, she wouldn’t want to be best friends with someone like he was now. He had hurt her so deeply when he left, hardly a notice being given. One day they were best friends and the next, he believed all of these terrible things to be true about her. An embrace would not change his mind about her, even if it had been a temporary fix. For a moment, they went back to who they were before they grew up. Now, it seemed like adulthood sprang on them and everyone had very real problems to deal with. She supposed this is what it meant to grow up, and she supposed he proved to her what she had known all along. Friendships didn’t last, so why waste one’s time in even having them? Time flies when one is living life, she supposed.

She really wished they had extendable ears, or something that would be bloody useful, but this would do for the moment. Now, it was far too late to use their wand to do anything useful as certainly, the people were close enough to hear. She slid herself slightly closer to the door, straining to hear every word that was being spoken, wishing she could put faces to the voices she was hearing. Isabella wasn’t certain if her eyebrows could furrow any further than they already were, but she was trying desperately to make sense of the words. Why couldn’t they say the name of whoever they were bloody speaking about, she thought to herself, slightly irritated. “His people are doing all of the work for us, really. Giving us access to followers we would have never dreamed of capturing, poor innocent lives who have lost all they had. I don’t even think Voldemort had this much help from the other side,” the deeper voice chipped in, a grin being heard on his features. Now Isabella was just getting frustrated, wishing someone would use a name somewhere, except that a little bit could probably be pieced together with the use of the old dark wizard’s name.

Who knew what would happen after this? As much as Roman wanted to believe that things would be fixed he knew better. He had finally come out and told her why he had changed so much over the summer, but deep down he knew that really didn’t excuse his behavior towards her and her family. Though he knew that it would take more convincing for him to even entertain the idea that other pureblood families were just as innocent. Then again how was he sure that she didn’t have some fucked up people in her family that she didn’t know about. He somehow doubted that her family had absolutely no connections to Death Eaters or at least have some floating about the family that she was unaware of. He guessed it didn’t really matter. After this for all he knew nothing would change, and the embrace he received would be the last bit of kindness he would see for a long time.

This really was getting aggravating. What the hell were these bloody people doing hanging about the corridors talking in riddles with Voldemort’s name on their lips as they laughed at other’s misfortune. Suddenly he thought of his best friend, well ex-best friend’s family, and their loss. Could they be talking about killing off purebloods? What would the Dark Lord have to do with that… maybe there were still Death Eaters carrying out his plans even after his death. But then why would purebloods be killed in the process. Roman turned his head his eyes wide. ”Killing purebloods…?” He whispered in her ear hoping she would retain that little quip for further discussion before listening intently once again. ”I wonder just how much the Minister is paying off these pricks… I think we may be in the wrong business.” The woman said sounding as if this death and destruction was amusing only making him angrier almost to the point of wanting to open the door but staying still.