a harmless misunderstanding {{dey&vivi}}

[ada]

it's like forgetting
THE WORDS TO YOUR FAVORITE SONG
you can't believe it
YOU WERE ALWAYS SINGING ALONG

When Kitty had dropped a piece of mail on her plate this morning, Ada hadn’t really been eager to open it up. She usually loved letters from her family or friends back in the US, but lately Drew had been sending her letters every day. Every day. And she loved her little brother, she really did, but his daily ‘letters’ (which were more like long, semi-detailed descriptions of his day and his six-year-old philosophies on life) were getting a little tedious. Mostly because Drew required that she write daily replies. And he got upset if they weren’t as long as his were, or of it sounded like she hadn’t read about his thoughts on his new Chemistry set or how he was convinced that he did magic the other day. It was a drain on her already jam-packed schedule, and as much as she loved Drew and thought his letters were sort of adorable, there was a limit as to how much she could read and write in a single week. And Ada’s mother was probably feeling the same way, since she was the one that had to write down what Drew dictated, seeing as his handwriting was horrible and his spelling was worse. She figured that one day with no reply wouldn’t kill him—she couldn’t keep this up forever, after all.
So when Kitty had dropped a manila folder right on top of her buttered toast that morning, not only had Ada mentally cursed at her owl’s aim, but she’d taken one look at the return address (a Muggle habit that her family couldn’t seem to break), noticed the ‘Williams’ written there, and shoved it deep into her book bag, aka the point of no return. Ada never found anything in there. At least, she never found anything when she needed it. And the letter remained in her bag of tricks for the whole morning, until she was desperately searching for her Potions notes for her class after lunch and happened to come across the envelope again. And this time she looked closer at the return address. It wasn’t in her mother’s fancy cursive handwriting, and the return address just said, “Williams, where the party is.”

Curious, Ada had given up on her Potions notes for the time being and ripped open the manila folder, leaning against the railing of the stairway she happened to stop on. Some people jostled her on their way by, but Ada either shot them a glare or ignored them. Inside the larger manila envelope, there were two folded pieces of paper. The first one was covered in neat, half-print half-connected writing—Mel’s handwriting! Ada tore through the letter—it was so rare to hear anything from her sisters, both because of the distance and the face that they were busy girls, what with college and jobs and life in NYC. Mel had her usual tone in the letter—the amused, caring, yet rushed-I’m-late-for-something tone. And Suze’s letter was written in a leaky ballpoint pen, with scrawled handwriting and “My Aussie” scratched as the opener and the familiar all-too-realistic tone. God, she missed them. Their letters didn’t come often enough, which was a shame because they were both hilarious and interesting. It was little moments like these that Ada remembered exactly why she was spying—so her family could live their lives well. Even if Suze kept on calling her Aussie and Mel kept insisting that being Ada should be involved in more stuff.

Ada decided that she would find her Potions notes in a few minutes, and she was in no hurry to get down to lunch—what she needed was a quill. She needed to write a reply to her sisters now, so that Kitty could take it away and hopefully get a response that much quicker. That, and she’d just seen Seb on his way to the library—he probably wouldn’t be at lunch for a while, which was one more reason to stall going down to the Great Hall. Oh yeah, that was a great reason to stall. It made heaps of sense.

Ada brushed that reason off. She was not stalling lunch just so she could run into Seb. She was stalling lunch because she just wanted to write back to her sisters. And for that she needed a quill. Ada tentatively peeked into her book bag…and winced. Yeah, searching for a quill in there would be like looking for a twig in a forest. She wasn’t really up for foraging through her bag. So back up to the Common Room it was. Ada internally sighed. Lovely. Another leg workout.

She dutifully turned around and headed back up the staircase, turning into a corridor on the next level that offered a straighter shot towards the Gryffindor Tower. She was mentally calculating where she’d left her extra quill when a lone figure in an empty classroom caught her eye. There was something familiar about the posture, the silhouette, that caught her attention and made her slow down and peek cautiously into the doorway, her blue eyes squinting into the dim light.

Then her face lit up. ”Damien,” she exclaimed, walking into the dimly lit room and letting her eyes adjust to the exposure, until she could see his face. ”I feel like I only ever see you after curfew these days,” she half-joked with a grin. She took a few more steps towards him, setting her bag down on a nearby table with a thunk. Then she faced her dark-haired friend again. ”So what’re you doing here alone in the dark? Not going emo on me, I hope?”

[damien]

It was the days when Vivi stopped by his breakfast table, blushing faintly and allowing a note to slip through her fingers onto his plate, that Damien knew the day would at least have one good moment in it. No matter how bad of a day was in store for him, as he sat at the table and looked down at the note, nonchalantly glancing at Vivi as she moved away from him, he knew that the moment he got to the secret spot she had found and saw her, things would get better. Days with the promise of a secret meeting with his girlfriend were the days that reminded him why he was dating Vivianne—why he was risking his spying job, and getting beat to a pulp by a bunch of Slytherins. Even a few precious minutes with her hidden away behind a tapestry before class-- whether they were fighting, hugging, or snogging--were enough to leave him optimistic the rest of the day.

So Dey had finished his breakfast in high spirits, and had hurried to his first class of the day so that he could tear open the note, since lately opening the things at lunch had been drawing attention from some of his housemates that were smarter than their own good. While he was still quite happy that he had a chance to meet up with Vivi, he had been a bit disappointed to see that they wouldn't be meeting until right before lunch, and even then she mentioned that she might not make it until lunch had started. Not that he minded skipping a meal to hang out with her--he had done it numerous times before now, that wasn't a big deal. He had just hoped he could see her sooner. Now, his free period would have to be spent trying to focus on homework, while every few seconds he would be reminded that soon he would be with Vivi, and her lips would be on his...

Painfully slow, the morning classes he had moved by, in which Damien was constantly checking the clocks and waiting for the bell to ring again and again. Thankfully the day was going smoothly, although at one point he did accidentally run into a Slytherin while moving through the halls and had been forced to apologize for the bump to prevent a giant fight of throwing insults and possibly hexes. Not that he was afraid of the dimwit he had upset, but he didn't want to end up hurt or in trouble, thus ruining all chances of seeing Vivi. So he had given the boy a sarcastic smile (which flew right over his head, no wonder since he seemed to be part troll), had apologized for the inconvenience, and had hurried away from him before he could let anger at the insults that had been thrown around take over. There was no reason to get angry over something stupid like that when he was on his way to the library, only an hour away from seeing Vivianne.

So he had continued on to the library, and once he got himself settled down with a large ancient runes book, the time had flown by a lot faster. Grant it, Damien still checked the clock every five minutes, wishing it was time for him to meet up with Vivi and wondering whether or not some stupid Slytherin had decided to charm the clocks to go slow again (the Ravenclaws had not been happy about that one). Finally, after what seemed like forever, he had been able to put the heavy book away back where he had found it, grab his bag, and head out of the library, his brisk stride taking him towards the classroom that the note had mentioned. He wanted to hurry, just in case some classes started to let out--the last thing he wanted was to get caught in the tide of kids smaller than him, let alone have somebody spot him going into the classroom and wondering what he was up to. If there was one thing that he had always hated, and which he hated even more now that he was a spy, it was having people being curious of what he was doing--people that Damien didn't care for, that is.

Thankfully, he made it into the classroom just as everybody else was let out, and after dropping his bag and getting out his wand, he did a few charms to blend the doorway into the stone wall, plunging the room into darkness and drawing back to the window just in case somebody saw through. Damien waited like this until he was sure most of the kids in Hogwarts were at lunch, before he lifted the charms and tried to wait patiently for Vivi to show up. After only a few minutes he was shifting restlessly, running a hand through his dark hair. Finally, Dey resorted to shoving his hands into his pockets and staring out of the window, and remained like that, until a sudden voice behind him made him turn quickly, brown eyes widening in surprise.

"Oh, Ada," he said, reaching up and pressing down on his hair, fixing it back into place, aware that it must look like a mess. His eyes, adjusted to the dark already, watched in slight amusement as she moved towards him, practically squinting. At her mention of never seeing him, and the question of him turning 'emo' on her, he let out a soft laugh. Reaching into his pocket he waved around his wand, lighting the few lamps in the room so that they had a little bit more light. He smiled, placing his wand backing into his pocket.

"I've been...erm...busy," he said a bit lamely, glancing down at the ground for a moment, feeling a sudden stab of nervousness. His smile faltered just a tad--Ada didn't know about Vivianne, or that she knew about the spying. Glancing back up at her, he shrugged one shoulder and cleared his throat. "I'm, er, meeting somebody here, actually. A new friend--which is sort of why I haven't seen you, I've been hanging out with her a lot." Damien's muscles locked a bit and he mentally cursed at his use of the word 'her'. Was it obvious now that this was more than just a friendly meeting? Would Ada be curious as to how he had met a new 'friend' and gotten close to said friend, enough not to see her barely at all now? He let out a slight breath, wondering how he always managed to get himself stuck between a rock and a hard place.

(I fully apologize for the lateness and failure. Please don't hate it too much. Had a bit going on so...bleh. Yeah.)

[ada]

It was much easier to see when the candles were lit. Go figure. Light made it easier to see? What was the point of that mental observation besides pointing out the obvious? Oh, well. Moving on. Dey had been fixing his hair when she walked in, and although this wasn’t exactly a rare occurrence for someone as prissy about their hair as he was, the fact that it had been messy beforehand meant something was up. Something that made him nervous and fussy enough to mess up his hair. And she hadn’t seen him around lately, which meant that something could’ve happened to him and she would know close to nothing about it. The thought made her nervous, obviously.

She regarded him with suspicious eyes, focusing on his face, trying to extract the information about whether or not there was trouble lurking around and following him. Which was kind of a useless thing to do, because usually Damien was such a good actor it was damned near impossible to tell when he was hiding something or not. But Ada gave it an honest shot, and it was surprisingly easy to tell that Dey had something on his mind. Busy, was he? Yeah. She was totally going to buy that one. Maybe he was busy, but he was always busy. It was part of his lifestyle. And it wasn’t just a full calendar that was making him look at the ground and fail to keep up a smile—it was something more.

Ada arched an eyebrow at his explanation. She was far from the most observant person in the world, but even she could tell that Damien was hiding something. Which meant that it had to be a big something. Because otherwise he wouldn’t be so nervous and jumpy. ”What, you’ve found a replacement for your best friend?” Ada half-joked, keeping a pained, displeased expression on her face. ”I’m insulted. Ditching me to hang out with this new girl. I bet she doesn’t even have a better sense of humor.” Her poker face was getting harder to keep up, but Ada still made a valiant effort. She stared at Damien for a few more seconds, her mouth turned into a frown and her eyebrows disapprovingly arched. And she was enjoying her own accomplishment when one corner of her mouth twitched upwards. Damn. Illusion ruined. She needed to work on her ability to keep a straight face. Maybe even perfect it someday.

And after that one faltering of her lips, Ada’s whole expression dissolved into a mischievous grin. It was sort of like unraveling a seam—the first part was the toughest, and after that the whole thing came out with one tug. She just stood and grinned lopsidedly at Damien for a moment, then she turned and pulled herself up onto the desk next to him, wiggling backwards until her knees hit the edge of the desk and her feet hung a little ways off the ground, swinging vaguely in their patent leather flat-like glory. Ada was no fan of the school uniform. Sure, they’d had uniforms back in America, but the dress code wasn’t strictly enforced. As long as you were carrying your blazer around with you, not much else mattered. Here, things were much more strict. So Ada wore the uniform like a good little girl (it wouldn’t much help the whole ‘spy’ situation if she needed disciplinary action) but she played with how much the rules would allow her. Such as switching out her uniform shoes for a pair of (much cuter) flats. And wearing tights. Or a belt. Or something of the like.

Ada only spared her shoes a moment’s glance before turning back to Dey, her eyebrows raised expectantly. ”So who is this girl that’s captured your attention? Would I know her?”

[damien]

It was making him slightly nervous, the way Ada was regarding him; it was as if she could see straight through his lies, see the truth written all over his face as he could barely glance at her. After a moment, Damien realized that he was standing stiffly, and with a silent curse inside of his own head, he knew that his expression probably was giving him away like an open book. He had prided himself over the years with the fact that he could keep up a mask so well, sometimes he almost fooled himself. He could make himself laugh when he felt like crying, he could seem calm when he was angry, and he could keep a blank face for days. Usually, this meant that he could hide anything and lie through his teeth with ease.

Now, though, as Dey stood in front of Ada, beating around the bush of the fact that his 'friend' was a girl who knew everything, he knew that keeping a mask would be impossible. He felt too...guilty, and he had grown closer to Ada. How was it that the closer he got to these people, the harder it was to hide away what he was really feeling? It almost made him not want to be close to anybody again--almost. Blinking hard to bring his thoughts back to the present, he looked up when Ada spoke, noticing the less than pleased look on her face with a slight twist in his gut. His hand jumped to his dark hair again, and he pushed a stray piece of hair into place nervously, eyes roving over his best friend's face.

He knew she was just kidding. If she was really insulted, she wouldn't be speaking calmly; there would be yelling or cold shouldering, an iced tone and something practically scary in her whole body language. However, he still felt guilt eat at him that, even though Ada was his best friend, and had been with him for the whole year in the same boat that he was, he had managed to barely see her lately to see Vivi as much as possible. He had been neglecting his best friend, and in a way he figured she really should be insulted and ill with him. What kind of friend was he, if he could just blow her off for somebody else? Grant it, he and Vivi weren't just friends, but that didn't mean he should just dump Ada to the curb. Luckily, she didn't seem to be really upset, because as his brown eyes met her blue ones he saw her mouth twitch, and then she was suddenly smiling at him in that way he had quite gotten use to, coming from the Gryffindor.

Her grin only made him feel guiltier, and as she moved over to a desk to sit down and face him again, Damien found himself evaluating what kind of friend he had truly been. Yes, Ada knew that he was spying for muggles, but how many things was he currently keeping from her? He had a girlfriend now, who knew all about the muggles. Not only that, but Ada didn't even know about his father, and his dysfunctional house hold, or anything of that sort. Before he had met Vivi, nobody but Denny knew that horrible secret at the school, but suddenly he meets one girl who tugs at his heart, and he wants to confide in anybody close to him? Yes, hadn't Ada been a good friend to him? Of course she had, and she deserved to know the truth.

Again, Damien was jerked back to the present by Ada's voice, and he turned his eyes to her again, shifting nervously. He moved over to perch on the edge of the desk next to her, rubbing his hands over his legs slowly. "Well...she's in my year," he said quietly. No, that wasn't good enough. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he made a decision. Ada was his friend, and be damned if he was going to keep up this lying charade much longer. He wanted to know her, he wanted her to know him, just like Vivi now knew him. He wanted friends--what was so wrong with that? "...Vivianne Flint, actually....Slytherin."

Dey lifted his gaze back to Ada, swallowing, reaching up to straighten his tie nervously, wondering what her take would be on this. Wondering how far he was going with this. All he knew was, he was sick of all of these lies towards a person he actually trusted and was close to. Ada didn't deserve to be lied to, about Vivianne, or even his father. It was time to come clean--now if only the idea of it didn't scare him so bloody much. "Although I would sort of appreciate it if that...didn't get around? You see it's...a bit of a hidden thing."

[ada]

Damien, apparently, had sweaty palms. He was rubbing his hands against his legs, and unless he had something like melted chocolate smudged on them from lunch that he’d forgotten to wipe off—which was highly unlikely in so many different ways—then it was a sign of sweaty palms. Which, in turn, was a sign of nervousness or anxiety. And when Damien was nervous enough to let it show on the outside, something big was happening. He didn’t freak out over every little thing. So in a roundabout way, his sweaty palms were making her more anxious.

She was chewing on the inside of her cheek, trying to be discreet about it as she watched him, because she knew that her nervous habit of biting on her lip was painfully obvious. And Ada might speak her mind, but there was something too invasive about being such an open book because of her body-language. Ada liked being able to pick and choose what she gave away and what she didn’t give away, and her stupid little nervous ticks made that virtually impossible. So she was working on it. Exchanging the inside of her cheek for her lip, forcing herself to stay away from the hem of her skirt so she wouldn’t rip it…et cetera. She liked to think that it was working a little bit.

Still, she supposed Damien couldn’t be too freaked out. After all, he seemed to have the intention of talking to her. And he didn’t look devastated, so she could assume that no one had died. Oddly enough, that actually gave her a little relief. Ada gave her head a miniscule shake as Dey began talking, trying to clear her head of the whirlwind of thoughts that was doing her more harm than good. As she moved her head, a piece of pale yellow hair slipped over her shoulder and into her face, hanging straight and shiny and simply in her way—it was partially blocking her view of her friend’s face as he spoke. She nodded vaguely as he said she was a Seventh Year, not really surprised, and reached to brush the hair behind her ear again.

But she froze with her hand halfway to her hair, giving Dey an incredulous look—one eyebrow raised higher than the other, although both were half-furrowed, lips parted slightly, not turned down at the edges, but hinting at that outcome. She stared at him for a second, and then she recovered, her hand continuing on its journey to the renegade strand and tugging it firmly behind her ear—it was too slippery, silky, whatever-you-wanted-to-call-it to be gentle with it. She half-smirked. ”Slytherin? I wouldn’t have guessed that for you. But Vivianne’s a pretty name.”

If he expected her to react to the last name, she really didn’t have a clue what that name insinuated. She’d probably heard it around somewhere in the news at some point in time, but it was sadly a moot point, because Ada’s mind was still acclimated to American news, American names—British names were still mostly a mystery to her. All the name ‘Flint’ did now was call up vague memories of a group of Slytherin girls who roamed the corridors occasionally. She found herself trying to remember their faces, wondering which one Dey had befriended—there was a tall blonde one and a mid-sized girl with brown hair, and one with pale highlights, and a tiny dark-haired one…None of them really struck her as the Damien-type, but you never really knew, did you? People surprised you.

She refocused on the here and now as Damien readjusted his tie, another sign of being nervous. Although this time she wasn’t quite sure as to why—the girl was a Slytherin, yeah, but Ada didn’t really buy into that ridiculous House rivalry that England seemed to have going on; you couldn’t classify someone as a good or bad person just because some hat told you which table to sit at.

And then he told her to keep it on the down-low, so to speak, and she narrowed her eyes at him slightly. ”No, Damien, I’m going to go giggle about this with my gal pals. You know I like to rehash every detail of my day with them—we’re all so close and open with each other.” She rolled her eyes and shoved his shoulder playfully. ”Consider this new friendship as good as locked in the vault, allright?” She ran her fingers over the air above her lips like she was zipping them, then letting a loose grin settle over her mouth.

”So, if you don’t mind my asking, why is this thing a secret? You ashamed to be friends with her or something?”

[damien]

Sometimes, somehow, Damien found himself forgetting that his best friend wasn't, in fact, from England. Quite a few times, Dey would be confused as to why Ada didn't understand something about Hogwarts that was very common knowledge to any other sixth year, and then he would remember that this was her first year, and that she was from back in the States. Sure, when she spoke it was obvious that she wasn't from Britain, but she was beginning to catch on to certain phrases, and occasionally have a tilt to her speech, and besides, he was used to her accent now. It was why Ada still occasionally surprised him with the ability to get lost in the castle.

Her being from somewhere else also meant she was a bit oblivious to the House prejudices and the certain pureblood names that most of the other students here had grown up knowing, and even distrusting; unless of course they were those purebloods. In a way, Dey thought that was a good thing and a bad thing all at once. On the one hand, Ada didn't have the problem of judging students just by their House, which meant that she made friends and talked to people basked on their actual personality, the way it probably should have been. On the other hand, because she wasn't aware of some of the purebloods that most muggle-friendly people knew to avoid, it was possible for her to be a bit naive when it came to talking about different Slytherins.

Of course, as Damien finally revieled who it was that he had been spending more and more time with, he wasn't thinking about the fact that Ada wasn't from Britain. He didn't remember that the last name 'Flint' would probably have little affect on her at all, if any. His wild imagination and his brain's tendency to come up with the worst case scenerio thought of Ada's horrorfied face when she found out that he was...er, befriending somebody who had Death Eaters in the bloodline, and of her insistance that he wise up and quit seeing her as soon as possible. Thankfully, her actual reaction to the name was barely there; it was the House that she reacted to most, which wasn't nearly as hard for him to deal with. It wasn't exactly easy, either.

After he told her, Dey's hand went straight to his tie, messing with it as he usually did when he was nervous, and watched as her hand froze on a path to her hair. Swallowing again, he watched her expression as their eyes met, her eyebrows raising, her mouth almost turned down into a frown. Slytherin had thrown her off, of that much he was positive. However, she caught herself rather quickly and finished tucking away a piece of her hair, smirking at him. Her words confirmed what he had thought; the thought of him, Ravenclaw, who didn't get along with anybody, especially the snakes who made fun of him, was hanging out with a Slytherin? Well, he couldn't blame her for being a little shocked at the idea.

"Very pretty name," Dey agreed with a small nod, forcing his hand to drop back down to his knee. For a moment he considered asking why Slytherin wasn't what 'she would have guessed' for him, but he figured the answer was obvious. Half of his mind was still worried that she was secretly disapproving just because of the House, but she didn't seem to be. There was the fact that she wasn't as into the rivalries of the Houses, and as she spoke again, her sarcasm shinning through just as much as usual, Damien felt his shoulders relax a bit and a smile break out on his face. Not only did he now know that Ada wasn't going to tell anybody that he and Vivi were talking (although she was right, who would she tell?), but by her tone and playful shove, he also figured she wasn't dwelling on the fact that Vivianne was a Slytherin. "Thank you, miss gossip queen."

Moving with the shove, Damien continued to grin, feeling quite relieved now to have this off his chest and not having to deal with Ada's disapproval and disgust. Of course, it wasn't all off his chest, as her next question reminded him. Sobering up, Dey looked down at his knees and reached up his hands to smooth down his dark hair, taking a deep breath as he thought of how to answer her question. The second part was obvious; he had no hesitation in telling her that he didn't feel the least bit ashamed of Vivi. The problem in telling her was that she wasn't just a 'friend', and hiding this wasn't as much for him as it was for her. Merlin, this was more difficult than he had first thought.

"Er, well," he said, looking back up at her and resting his hands on his knees, gripping them tightly. A deep breath in, letting it out slowly, "it's definitely not because I'm ashamed or anything. It's..." He trailed off, not sure what to say or how to say it. Maybe...maybe he should just be blunt. Blunt worked, right? Damien sucked in another deep breath, and then said in a rush, "It needs to be kept a secret because we're a bit more than friends, Ada. Actually, we're a lot more than just friends, and she's from a really pureblood family and I'm just a halfblood, so her House mates and her parents and her sister would pretty much kill her, or me, if they knew about this."

Silence seemed very loud after that confession, and Damien realized that he was actually breathing a bit harder. Merlin, had it really been that much of a weight on his mind? Shifting a bit, feeling uncomfortable, Damien looked up and attempted a weak smile Ada's way, wondering if it was best just to get it all out now. "Did I mention that she knows that I'm a spy?" he added, and couldn't help but cringe a bit.

[ada]

Ada just waited patiently (as patiently as she could, anyways) as Dey deliberated about telling her why this needed to be a secret. He started out by stalling for more time, it sounded like, which soon turned into a denial of the thing that she had suggested. And then he dropped the bomb, and Ada’s mouth popped open. She just stared at him for a moment, mind not completely wrapping around the concept, eyes wide and unbelieving and slightly horrified.

There was nothing wrong with Dey dating someone. Ada had no problem with it, contrary to the popular belief that she and the tall Ravenclaw were dating. He was her best friend, she wanted good things for him. And no matter how many gossipy fifth years thought so, she did not harbor any secret desires to throw herself at him and snog him. It just…wasn’t there with them. They made good friends. They’d make a disastrous couple. So Ada’s slight horror had nothing to do with jealousy or anything like that. It had to do with several other things. One, that she had gotten absolutely no clue or hint or information about this relationship until this very moment. It had popped up out of freaking nowhere. ”Oh, hey Ada, nice to see you, it’s been a while. I’ve been hanging out with some Slytherin girl. Who I’ve also been dating for a while. Oh, and her family doesn’t like me so this is all a big secret. We’re still cool, right?”

And two, because Dey was too good a guy for someone to hide away and be ashamed of. Especially for something as retarded as his fucking blood purity. And this Slytherin girl was making Dey keep even more secrets. Making him hide himself away and be ashamed of himself and be afraid that her family would kill him or something.

Ada eventually got her mouth closed and her expression under control again, and became the master of her own tongue again. It took a moment or two, but it finally happened. She swallowed, swiveled her head forward, and spoke slowly so that she wouldn’t let her shock and anger creep into her words. She would stay composed. She would. There was no need to overreact about this, and even though she knew this Ada was on the verge of overreacting anyways. Lovely. ”So it’s staying a secret from everyone because she’s ashamed of you? That’s awesome.”

She might’ve continued on in that vein for a while longer if Dey hadn’t spoken again.

Ada whipped her head around to face him again, in an expression torn between shock, disapproval, and some kind of understanding. Unfortunately, the shock won over her mouth, and before she could process anything she was saying, ”She knows what? Dey, if her family’s pureblooded enough to want to kill you, then I doubt that she’s the type to approve of Muggle spies in this school!” Ada swallowed hard, pushing off of the desk and clenching her hands in her skirt as she worried her lip between her teeth. She was goddamn overreacting. And a small part of her knew it, but was unable to flip the ‘logic’ switch on so that this little tidbit of reasoning could get to the rest of her brain. ”God, Dey, this could ruin everything. Everything. What if her family finds out? One slip up on her part over Christmas break, and everything would be freaking over.”

Ada bit down hard on her cheek. Dey already knew all this, she would bet. And she needed to stop letting fear take over her brain and her mouth and just shut up. She took in a deep breath, pinched the bridge if her nose, and turned around to face Damien again, trying to smooth over her expression and calm the hell down.

[damien]

He had expected her to be angry with him, to be honest. He had expected her to freak out, maybe get a bit over-dramatic, but hadn't thought she would for this reason. Damien thought that Ada might be a bit ill with him that he had kept it a secret from her. He thought she might punch his arm and tell him that he was a prat for keeping a relationship from his best friend, and he would have understood and apologized for being said prat.

When her mouth dropped and her eyes widened and she generally looked shocked, Dey outwardly cringed a little, waiting for the disbelief to wear off so that she would actually say something. He didn't like Ada's expression one bit, and it made him nervous; a few seconds later, when she got herself under control and was facing forward, he figured out why. It was his turn for his mouth to drop, and he didn't even know what to say. Vivi, ashamed of him? No, Ada had this all wrong--that was the exact opposite, Vivi had assured him of that numerous of times. Somewhere, they had some wires crossed.

However, what Ada said was calm and collected compared to what next. Suddenly, Damien had his best friend staring him in the face, her expressions showing him a couple different emotions, most of which just made him bloody nervous. He had just a few seconds to swallow and look startled before she was blurting out more, and she seemed to be on the verge of a panic attack. Not that he could exactly blame her; she was off base about Vivi (well no, she didn't approve, but she wasn't going to go blabbing), but Ada had never met his girlfriend, so could he fault her for that?

When he thought she was done he opened his mouth to reassure her, but Ada pushed off the desk and moved away, speaking more, still sounding freaked out. Damien blinked a few times as she finally halted herself and turned to face him, still looking on the verge of a panic attack. All he could do was stare, mind racing, heart pumping a bit faster; her freaking out was making him freak out, and he didn't like it one bit. Closing his eyes, Damien forced himself to drag in a deep breath and let it out slowly, before opening them again and continuing to stare at Ada.

Where was he to start with her? He had to assure her that everything was fine, that Vivi wasn't going to be spilling the word to her family. He had to explain that Vivi wasn't ashamed, and that this was a mutual agreement to stay secret...for the most part. However, he couldn't get the words out right now. All Damien could do was stare at Ada and wonder about something--the fact that she was completely freaked out about the spying thing being over.

Yes, it spelled bad news for them. They had known that from the start. Hell, he had already cast a small memory modification on a small Ravenclaw boy (something that still made him shudder) because they had been getting too suspicious, and the perfect time had arouse to fix it. Ada and himself knew that getting found out probably meant getting expelled, not to mention questioned by the Ministry--but somehow, they had never gotten onto the subject of why either of them was in this giant mess.

What, exactly, did Ada have at stake? He had heard her opinions and witnessed her feelings on the matter enough to not have a daft idea that she liked doing this bloody job. Once, she hinted at her family when talking about spying, but had quickly switched topics. Did that mean that something with her family was her reason to spy? Was she being bribed, blackmailed, or forced? All three? And what did Ada ever expect about him? He never even hinted about why he was doing this.

"First off, Ada, Vivi isn't ashamed of me," Damien said slowly, sliding off the desk and taking a cautious step towards her. "She worries about what her family will do to me if they found out about us. She doesn't want this to cause trouble for us." Damien paused and frowned, not sure how he was supposed to explain this all so that Ada would stop freaking out.

"Look, Ada, she's not ashamed of me, but that's not the point. She's not going to let this slip, and she's definitely not going to tell on purpose," Dey continued, moving to her and placing his hands on her shoulders. He looked at her seriously, dark eyes narrowed slightly. "She actually likes me, crazy as that may seem, and she doesn't want to get me into trouble. She found out on her own about the agency and spying because I'm...well, pretty horrible at this spying shit. And she won't let anything slip. I promise you. We're completely safe with her knowing."

Taking another deep breath, Damien let it out in one whoosh and looked down, letting his hands drop. "Just trust me, please? You're....you're not the only one who seems to have a whole lot riding on this staying secret." And with that, Damien cringed again, knowing that he was setting this up to be more indepth than he would ever be comfortable with. Setting himself up to tell Ada about his screwed up life. "And Vivi knows...Vivianne knows why I'm doing this. And Vivianne understands. So we're safe." Merlin, what was he getting himself in to?