“Okay,” Elizabeth replied softly, smiling when Amalia said she didn’t want to pretend either. She felt butterflies fill her stomach as the other girl took her hand, though it wasn’t unpleasant. In fact it was very far from unpleasant and she felt her smile grow a little because of it. “Well I’m glad we’re not,” she said, “Because I don’t think I could pretend it didn’t happen either.” She certainly wouldn’t have been able to forget about it, even if Amalia had wanted to act like it never happened.
“Good,” she said with a nod at her improved mood, smiling still. Her smile however, quickly dropped with Amalia’s next words. Instead she groaned, blushing furiously. She put her free hand to her face, letting her hair cover the rest of it. “Nooo, stop,” she said, chancing a glance up at Amalia. “You know perfectly well what’s on my neck,” she added, looking over at her, now moving her hand to her neck instead of her face.
Though in all her embarrassment she never let go of Amalia’s hand. And part of her – a very small part because the rest of her was too busy being embarrassed – was quite happy with the mark on her neck. Elizabeth was fully aware that this was for one reason and one reason only: Amalia had been the one to put it there. “I can’t leave this room, I can’t risk seeing Ted,” she said, completely serious.
In her time at Hogwarts, Amalia had been certain that there was no one who would have caught her attention the same way Giselle had done so. It had been that certainty that made it easy for her to not look for comfort in others while letters had been her only communication with Giselle. Interest hadn’t sparked the moment she had met Elizabeth nor had it even appeared when she shared her secret with the other but snuck in at a time when she hadn’t been paying attention; holding Elizabeth’s hand would have been completely normal and something she would have done with any other friend, but interest made sure to wake the dormant butterflies in her stomach and it was then that Amalia knew alcohol had only made her aware of what she had already been feeling. “Good.” Simple in every way and yet accompanied with a smile, Amalia assumed Elizabeth would understand that she was more relieved than anything to her not wanting to pretend.
Elizabeth had been right: Amalia knew very well what it was that was on her neck. “Well, it’s not very big so we can hide it with make-up. Is anyone else in this dorm the same shade as you? I don’t think they’ll mind if we just use a little bit of their make-up.” As she spoke, Amalia sat on her knees and she moved Elizabeth’s hand away from her neck to get a better look at the mark. “It’s really rather cute, if you ask me but I might be bias on that front.” She muttered before sitting back down on the bed. “Or we could use a scarf, it’s a bit chilly in the morning... do you think you could handle the scarf later on?”
Ted Tonks wasn’t someone Amalia would have thought of as being an issue until he was. In fact, up until that moment she had no actual feeling for the older Hufflepuff that exceeded indifference but as she looked at the mark once more, worry came with his name. “I don’t think he’ll notice. Besides, Prefects are super busy during the day and if you see him later on in the evening he may be too tired to get a really good look.” She was being hopeful though she was aware that the possibility of her situation was incredibly slim.
