WHO: Alecto and Vinny
WHERE: Random hallway
WHEN: Monday night, one week after potions
WHAT: They both need to talk but keep avoiding eachother
RATING: PG-13 for language and incestual refrences



Vinny couldn't wrap his mind around the idea of not wanting to see Alecto. The past few weeks, all that he'd been thinking about was the girl, and now he didn't, couldn't make himself spend more than a second wondering about her.

All he saw was her and Amycus…and when he recalled those memories, other things began to bubble, and it felt like the most outlandish ideas actually had some sort of foundation…

He sighed, realizing he'd walked down the wrong hallway, and leaned against the wall. He didn't need to eat, he wasn't very hungry. Vinny slid down to the ground; maybe he could just sit there for a while, maybe it would grow him some nerve

Alecto was decidedly tipsy as she wandered down the hallway sometime near ten. She was depressed - nothing was going right. So as per the family tradition she had sought alcohol to drown her problems only she hadn't really had enough to make her drunk enough to be happy. The bottle and a half of firewiskey might have been strong after extra fermentation but she doubted if anything could make her drunk enough to be happy. Being sober and unhappy sucked. Being tipsy and unhappy sucked even more.

She flopped down suddenly in the middle of the hallway without warning. Why was life turning out this way? She stretched her legs out in front of her and closed her eyes, laying in the shadow created under the window sill. Maybe if she just fell asleep here the world would forget she existed...

However no such luck because just as she was getting comfortable, someone sat on her. "Ugh," Alecto sat up, giving whomever had dared to come near her a mighty shove. "Get off my foot you fucking ogre." She didn't bother to look at who it was. It didn't matter anymore.

"A-Alecto!" Vinny exclaimed, jolting back up to his feet. How had he not seen her---"What are you doing down there?" he asked incredulously, running a hand through his hair. Why did his luck have to be so rotten?

"What does it look like I'm doing down here?" Alecto asked, looking up at Vinny. Oh, it was Vinny. Perfect. Perfectly perfectly perfect. Breaking those mirrors in the girl's bathroom earlier apparently had not been the way to go.

"I'm wallowing in my self pity," she replied a moment or two later, her chin set stubbornly. "Unless you have any alcohol or something useful to say I suggest you leave." She brought her legs close to her body and turned to face the wall opposite her.

She was nuts. His girlfriend was absolutely insane; Vinny shook his head and crossed the corridor so he could sit on the ground against the way. He stared at her curled up form for a few moments before he sighed, stretching his legs out in front of him. "Why are you wallowing in self pity?" he asked, shoulders slumping.

Alecto looked over at Vinny, her eyes dark with circles and a hundred unanswered questions. "Why do people wallow in self pity, Vinny. Such a good, insightful question. I'll be sure to ask Slughorn when I get the chance." She stared at him, her eyes hard and hurt.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" she slapped his arm, trying to shove him away. But she didn't really want him away. She wanted him to hold her and tell her everything was going to be alright. She wanted him to kiss her and make her forget about the whole stupid potion to begin with. But none of that was going to happen.

She couldn't make him kiss her. He couldn't make her forget.

Vinny dropped his head, letting her hit him because he didn't feel like fighting anymore. This was hard, so very hard. Ignoring her and trying not to care was so painful but Vinny knew, he just knew… "Alecto…tell me everything, please? I can't…I can't figure anything out."

When he really had an excellent idea, but was forcing himself not to think about it. Merlin, did he not want to think about it. His hand went to his head.

Alecto removed her arm from him and scooted away from him so they weren't touching. She seriously considered just getting up and leaving. But in a weak voice she began. "We were partnered together for some moronic reason. Slughorn must take sick pleasure in torturing me - he knew the two of us haven't been on speaking terms since you and I started dating. Amycus doesn't like you. He doesn't think I should be with you - he doesn't think you're good enough for me. He doesn't think anyone is good enough for me." Alecto took a deep breath and continued.

"We started making the potion and he knew I didn't want to work with him. We talked about nothing of interest, nothing of substance other than how he was determined to break the two of us up. He said he would do it too. And then the cauldrons exploded but thankfully ours and a few others didn't. I went to put the vial I was holding down on the table and I slipped in some of our potion. The cauldron dumped all over the two of us. I was soaking wet and very unhappy. He helped me up and I cleaned off a little bit." Alecto's voice broke slightly as she continued. She knew she needed to look at Vinny when she said the following part but she couldn't bring herself to raise her head from against her knees. She swore she wouldn't cry though - if nothing else, she would not let him see her cry again.

"He was looking at me and making me very uncomfortable and then he just sort of grabbed me. I don't know what came over me - the world was foggy and the room was hot and stuffy and stunk and I needed some air. I told him I needed some air and so we went out into the hall. And then his hands were on me and my lips were on his and that's all. Afterwards we both just stood there and I couldn't stand to be out there any longer so I just left. I haven't talked to him about it since then." Alecto's voice was as stoic when she finished as when she had begun save for her voice cracking. Yet still, however, she couldn't bring herself to meet the stare he must have been giving her.

He watched her intently the entire time, taking in her words carefully and analyzing them over in his head as if they might hold some secret, something that could make this horrid feeling go away. Vinny wanted to hold her because she was on the brink of tears, but couldn't bring himself to it. He believed her, he believed every word she said, but that didn't get rid of the fact that he was remembering things, remembering things she's said and done. Remembering things Amycus had told him and it was all spinning so wildly in his head that he put his face in his hands to try and slow his mind down.

"I believe you," he gave her that, because he did believe her and she should know that. "There's…I've felt…Alecto, you can't blame me for…" Vinny hung his head, unsure of how he could possibly bring this up. The way those two looked at each other sometimes… "Has it happened before?" he barely said, hands still covering his face.

Alecto looked at Vinny, her face mocking. "Oh yes, Vinny. I dump love potions all over myself and my brother and we fuck like rabbits on a regular occasion." She couldn't tell him the truth. She couldn't do it. What was the truth - could she even admit it to herself? What was really going on with her and her brother?

"Not that," he snapped, growing red at her mocking tone. He'd been nothing but civil to her and she still continued to be rude; Vinny hated alcohol, and he hated that Alecto's sadness had driven her to it. He shouldn't feel guilty, but he did. "You and-and Amycus. Has it happened before?" His voice was stronger now, and he sat up just a bit straighter.

Alecto look a long time before answering Vinny, her gaze locked ahead of her, not looking at him or focusing on the wall either. "Vinny, I love my brother. When my father ruined our family all we had left was each other." She turned to look at him, but her eyes looked through him rather than at him as she spoke. "He's my best friend. I would do anything for him and he would do anything for me. Vinny, I love him. I look at him and I see all the worlds possibilities because he can be anything he wants to be. I hate my father for stealing that from us - I hate him for making my life about my brother's life. But I can't hate Amycus for that. He's all I have." And that was all she could say. That was as close to the truth as her mind would allow her to come at this point. She just stared at Vinny as he slowly came into focus. She could feel the alcohol waning just a little - it had been over an hour now.

A lump formed in his throat but Vinny kept her gaze. He knew what it was to love your siblings, he even had an adopted brother, to share that kind of love. He couldn't blame her for caring so much about her brother; you could never and should never have to break that bond with a sibling. But oh God her words were being jumbled and twisted in his sick mind and now and he felt horrible.

"I'm sorry," he muttered, looking away and down at his hands. "For---for all of that, I'm sorry." He wanted to touch her, and he dared putting a hand on her knee.

Alecto saw how Vinny was looking at her and it was wrong - it was just all wrong. He had nothing to be sorry about. Her heart broke and something inside her just snapped. She leaned over and kissed him very softly. "I kissed him," she said simply. "I kissed him and I liked it. He touched me and I liked it and I didn't care." Her voice was entirely flat and emotionless and she couldn't figure out why. "I love him and I'm sorry." She paused and considered her statement. "I'm not sorry that I love him. I'm sorry that I hurt you." And then she could no longer stand to look at his face so she turned to face away from Vinny again. What had she done?

For one, wonderful, sweet, moment, Vinny thought they were okay, that they could move on and deal and she tasted so good and then it all fell to hell. He watched her lips move and he heard the words come out but they didn't sink in right away; no, they floated around in his ears before settling in some remote place in his brain before they finally settled.

"Oh God," Vinny let out, and he pulled away from her, shaking his head slightly. "It was him, wasn't it---the bite; that's why you couldn't tell me!" He got to his feet before she could respond, shaking his head more furiously because all the things he'd thought up, all the little tiny, 'maybe they mean nothing' things were now shooting back in front of his eyes. Vinny looked down at her, more shocked and hurt than angry, fists clenched. "It was, wasn't it---and then….and then that time, in the library, you said his name; you were thinking of him and I thought---

"I smelled ink, Alecto!" he let out without much sense, incredibly angry at himself for falling so fucking hard for her.

Alecto could hear Vinny yelling but none of it was really registering. They were going to hell. She had lust for her brother and now she was going to go to hell. Ink? He was yelling about ink? Wait, he had said something else too, hadn't he? Alecto stood as well, a little shaky on her feet but still able to stand. "Ink? What the hell are you prattling on about ink for, Vinny? I've had ink all over me for weeks. I keep finding it and smelling it everywhere! INK?!" She threw her hands up in the air, exasperated.

"In the fucking POTION!" Vinny yelled back, turning away from her because he couldn't look at her, there was no way he could look at her now that he knew all of his feelings had been right. Oh, Merlin, he'd never wished he was so wrong before and his hands shook because damn it this was so wrong and horrible but he still wanted her, "I smelled ink in the Amortentia and I never---" he never wanted to again, but he couldn't say it.

He wanted to yell at her for telling her she loved him, which was now so obviously a lie. Alecto couldn't love him and admit to those things with her brother. She just said it to get him off her case, and he was gullible enough to believe her. "You're a God damn liar."

Alecto's pulse shot up as he finished. No one ever called her a liar. She grabbed his shoulder and spun him around, her features sharp. She was very close to loosing her temper. She was not a liar. "No one calls me a liar, Gudgeon." Her breathing slowed just a little as she tried to calm herself down. Getting pissed when you're still under the influence was not a good idea. She pulled his face down so it was level with hers. "I never lied to you."

"Keeping this a secret is a pretty damn big lie," Vinny said back, lips trembling because he was furious but had no way to let it out. He wanted to pound his fists into the stone walls and make them bleed but that would be infantile and barbaric. Vinny held himself better than that, or so he liked to believe.

He pulled away from her, shutting his eyes tightly because it was too disturbing and too wrong to look at her. "It's sick, you and your brother, you're sick." Somewhere in his gut he felt a pang of guilt, but it was quickly washed away.

"I never told you anything but the truth, Vinny. Withholding information isn't lying. You never asked me, I never offered it, but I never lied to you." Alecto gritted her teeth. She slapped him in the arm. "Look at me when I'm talking to you!"

He said she was sick. Regulus has said she was sick. "Am I really sick?" she asked softly but without waiting for a reply she continued. "Vinny I meant what I said. I-I-" she stumbled over the beginning of the words. "I love you and none of this changes that."

"That doesn't make it better!" he exclaimed, turning to her. "You can't just say that and think it's going to make things all nice and happy because it's not and it's not fair that you keep saying it because----because argh!" Words completely escaped him and Vinny found that there was nothing he wanted to say; he just wanted to get away from her.

"I can't. This is---no, I can't, this is wrong, it's wrong, it's wrong, it's wrong." If he repeated it enough the aching feeling to hold her would go away. Vinny backpedaled away from her, shaking his head and putting his hands out as if to defend himself. "Stay away from me!"

Alecto took two steps towards him. "I'm not saying it to make things better! I'm saying it because it's the fucking truth, Vinny!" She just stood there defeated and deflated for the first time in her life as he moved away from her, her thoughts swirling and muddling themselves up.

"Are you breaking up with me, Galvin Gudgeon?"

Why did she have to make this harder than it was, why did she have to confirm things and why did she have to look so utterly miserable? Vinny nodded quickly, because yes, he was breaking up with her because that's what you do when terrible things like this happened. He couldn't stay with her-there was no possible way for Vinny to stay with Alecto.

"Yes, and---yes, I am."

Alecto's face became emotionless as soon as Vinny nodded. So this was the way it had to be then - she always had to be the one to choose. Amycus said choose and he walked away. Vinny saw the choice and he walked away. Not anymore. "No, Gudgeon, you aren't breaking up with me," she said flatly. "Don't bother to waste your breath."

She walked up to him and looked him straight in the eyes, her fury burning like two hot coals in hers. "I wouldn't waste another minute of my time on you even if you paid me to." She spit on the floor next to him. "I'll see you in hell, Gudgeon."

With that she walked away. She somehow made it all the way down to her common room, through her dorm and into her bed without even shedding a tear. Actually, she made it most of the night without being upset until she got up to finish her Transfiguration essay. As she opened the ink bottle, she couldn't stand it any longer. Alecto threw the bottle of ink against the wall, waking up all the other girls in her dorm, put her head in her hands, and cried.

Vinny wasn't sure how long he stayed in that hallway, standing there, wondering how long his legs would be able to hold him up. Professor Slughorn came by and talked to him for a bit, but Vinny didn't hear a word and just nodded numbly and agreed with everything the man said. After bidding him good night, Vinny's feet somehow managed to drag him to his room, where he dropped his head on the door for a good minute or so before he finally entered.

There was homework needed to be done, but if he tried to complete it now it would be total garbage. Instead, he shuffled to his bed and fell back onto it, staring up at the canopy and wondering what the hell had just happened.