Chapter 2
It had been exactly a week since she’d found out that Benedick was Head Boy and since then, Beatrice had been avoiding him at all costs. At the prefects meeting that the two of them had led, she’d said what she’d needed to say and went upstairs to the girls dormitories so fast that no one else had even turned to leave yet. There couldn’t be anything worse then being forced to work closely with Benedick, she regretted even being Head Girl at all. Perhaps the only upside was the bathroom that she got all to herself (Benedick was supposed to share it as well, but he hardly ever went in there. He preferred to use Balthazar’s prefect status to get into the prefect bathroom).
Just as she was walking to Potions, thinking about how Benedick was the scum of the world, someone even worse approached her and she was suddenly face to face with John Donaldson. “Beatrice –“ he started.
“Leave me alone,” she rolled her eyes and hurried past him but he followed her.
“C’mon Beatrice, aren’t you ever going to forgive me?”
“No. I’m not,” She just remembered that John was going the same way as her – Gryffindors had Potions with the Slytherins.
“Well what about Hero then? Do you think she’s forgiven me? I’m sorry . . . again!” John said.
Beatrice then stopped and glared at John with every ounce of hate in her body. “Don’t you dare speak about Hero! You don’t even deserve to be in the same room with her after what you’ve done,”
“I’ve apologized for that a million times,” said John.
“And I’m over that,” Beatrice admitted. John looked hopeful for a moment. “But we’ve gone our separate ways – we’re on different paths now and sorry to tell you, but Hero and I don’t converse with Death Eaters,”
John stared at her in disbelief, and Beatrice couldn’t figure out why this was so surprising to him. She knew the sort of people he hung around with.
In order to really understand the history behind Beatrice, Hero and John, we need to go back a few years. The three of them had met before they’d started attending Hogwarts and when it came time for Beatrice and John to attend Hogwarts, they were still the best of friends and then Hero came in the next year and the three of them had become practically inseparable – aside from the fact that they were in different houses. But as time went by, John began to change and it felt like he was no longer the quiet boy they once knew. He was hanging around with the wrong kinds of people and it was making Beatrice and Hero uncomfortable. But then there came the day in their fifth year.
Beatrice and Hero had been walking to their next exam when they came across Benedick and his pack of douchebags surrounding John, who was floating in the air. The two of them ran over to see Ben, performing a jinx on him to keep him suspended there.
“Let him go!” Hero cried out.
Benedick turned to see the two of them there and raised his eyebrows, but didn’t say anything. Claudio groaned and said, “Oh, here we go.”
“Come off it, Benedick,” Beatrice approached him fearlessly, tugging her wand out from her robes. “Get off your high horse,”
“How are exams going for you, Beatrice?” Benedick said, ignoring her statement. Hero was now standing beneath John, looking like she was about to cry, while John avoided her eyes.
“Fuck you,” she shook her head. “Four against one, then? Is that really the way you want to do this? I knew you were a bully but this is beyond even you,”
“It’s not bullying!” Claudio insisted loudly. “It’s John!”
Balthazar scratched the back of his head and Hero looked to Pedro, almost desperately. “Pedro, honestly! He’s your brother – can’t you put your differences aside? This is a little much!”
Pedro ignored her.
Benedick was being oddly quiet, like he was thinking something over and Beatrice knew what he was going to say before he even said it. He always got the same look on his face right before his usual confident stare came back. “You know, Beatrice, I’ll tell you what. How would you like it if I never bothered John again? Just left him alone?”
She knew it was a trick question and rolled her eyes.
“I’ll make you a deal. You go out with me, and I’ll let John down right now. Never bother him again,”
Beatrice felt like she was going to vomit all over him. “I wouldn’t go out with you if the fate of humanity depended on it!”
“Ben – please,” said Hero. “Please – just let him go,”
Now Claudio was pleading with his eyes to tell Ben to cut it out. Pedro saw this and groaned loudly, “Just leave it Ben,”
“No! I don’t understand, it’s not as if John’s like the fucking Queen of England! He’s a douchebag –“
“You’re a douchebag, Benedick! You are the biggest prick on this planet! God, even your friends are telling you to quit it and you can’t stop! Just fucking stop, God!”
And then finally, Benedick did. John fell to the ground with a thud. He stood up, his face red, and wiped the dirt off of his robes.
“You're lucky your friends were here,” he mumbled.
“I don’t need help from those mudbloods,”
Beatrice’s heart had literally stopped in that moment. John was her friend and yes, she knew he was in Slytherin and yes, she knew the history of Slytherin house, but she never thought that John, John, would say such a thing to her. And to Hero. Hero, who was so sensitive and so sweet and didn’t deserve to ever have a word like that thrown in her face. “Fuck you,” said Beatrice, with more malice in her voice than there had been when she’d said it to Benedick.
“John,” came Hero, who was trembling and Balthazar took a step closer to her in support.
It was perhaps the most heartbreaking sound Beatrice had ever heard and Benedick must’ve agreed. He didn’t move or raise his voice, he just said almost quietly, “Apologize to them,”
“We don’t need you to defend us!” Beatrice walked over and took Hero’s arm, starting to lead her away.
“Just leave it Ben, let’s go,” said Pedro, who didn’t seem to know what else to say.
He tugged on his arm but Benedick pushed him off of him. “APOLOGIZE TO THEM RIGHT NOW!”
Beatrice and Hero stopped walking and stared at him in shock. John did nothing, just kept standing there, a look mixed with remorse and confusion upon his face. And when he did that, Ben took out his wand and pushed him into a tree. “APOLOGIZE! YOU FOUL PIECE OF SHIT –“
“Alright!” John screamed back in his face. “Sorry,”
“A REAL APOLOGY!”
Beatrice at that moment, pulled Benedick around to face her and off of John. “You’re no better than he is! You’re a bully! You don’t get to act superior!”
“I would never call you –“
“I don’t care!” Beatrice pushed him just like Benedick had done to John moments before. “Stay away from me! Just – stay away!”
And by the time she was gone, John was gone too and Benedick couldn’t do anything.
So yes. Beatrice and John hadn’t spoken since then. She was almost positive Hero hadn’t either but Hero was far more forgiving than she was and had insisted on several occasions that since John had apologized so many times maybe she should give him a break.
Finally, she arrived in the dungeons and had the perfect excuse to ignore John’s belligerent apologies. Potions was Beatrice’s best class – she was Professor Slughorn’s favorite student and she always got to be partners with Meg.
“Ah, Miss Duke! How are you today?” said Slughorn with a big smile when he saw her.
“Oh you know, the usual,” she responded.
She took her usual seat in the middle of the room next to Meg, who was chatting with Robbie. Beatrice gave him a quiet hello, not really wanting to acknowledge him. She’d been meaning to talk to Meg about Robbie but had been putting it off for a while. Thankfully, class began in a few minutes and Robbie walked across the room to take his place next to John.
Their assignment for the class was to create a Growth potion (which led to many innuendos from Benedick and Pedro in the back of the room). Meg read the directions over before looking to Beatrice to ask her for help, who advised her carefully.
Once they’d gotten started, Beatrice took a breath and said, “So you and Robbie are getting serious?”
Meg smiled but didn’t look up. “Yep. He told me I’m like, the hottest girl he's been with – which I know, but still? Isn’t that sweet?”
Beatrice faked a choking noise.
“Taking that as ‘Yes, it’s sweet,’” Meg cut up some slug hearts and tossed them into her cauldron.
“I just . . . can I ask you something?” said Beatrice quietly.
Meg nodded.
“I . . . well . . . you know that Robbie hangs around with John and Cora, right?”
Meg looked over at Beatrice suspiciously. “Yes.”
“I’m just telling you because I love you, but you know what they’re into right?”
“I know what John and Cora are into. It doesn’t necessarily mean that Robbie is into the same things,”
Beatrice raised her eyebrows. “John called me and Hero mudbloods. How can you be friends with someone who says that and not have the same mindset?”
“I don’t – I don’t know, Beatrice! I’m not Robbie! All I know is what he’s told me which is that he’s not into those things. It’s really rude of you to enforce Slytherin stereotypes,”
Meg was beginning to get loud and Beatrice lowered her voice hoping Meg would do the same. “I don’t enforce Slytherin stereotypes. You’re one of my best friends and you’re in Slytherin. It’s just – I have to be cautious of certain people than you do. I’m muggleborn, Hero’s muggleborn. I have to look out for us,”
“First of all, stop condescending to me. I understand your situation perfectly well –“
Meg was interrupted by a loud explosion that came from Benedick and Pedro’s cauldrons. Their faces were covered with smoke and they were punching each other softly, blaming the other for the destruction. As Professor Slughorn and the class were now preoccupied, Beatrice and Meg became distracted.
“What does Benedick even need a Growing potion for? He’s already the biggest dick in the world!” Beatrice huffed.
“A dick that you want,” Meg smirked.
Beatrice shoved her to the side playfully and tried (and failed) not to get that image in her head.
Ben was having a particularly rough day. He’d been forced to sit next to Claudio and Hero in the library, who spent more time making googly eyes at each other than actually talking (or studying for that matter). After that, he’d accidentally run straight into Professor Durham who’d given him a five minute lecture on why “running in the halls was disruptive” and was late to History of Magic, where Professor Binns bored him to sleep. And then of course, he’d had Potions where he and Pedro had blown up their cauldrons because they’d been too preoccupied making dick jokes.
The only good thing that had happened all day was taking a walk around the exterior of the castle with Balthazar, who was good for conversation and good when he needed a level headed person to be around. Ben was trying extra hard to convince himself that this would be the last good thing that happened that day and that he wasn’t looking forward to the Head Boy and Girl meeting with Beatrice that night. So much so in fact, that as he walked to McGonagall’s office he kept muttering to himself Beatrice is a bitch, Beatrice is a bitch, Beatrice is a bitch over and over until he believed it which he never did.
Of course, he got there after she did. She rolled her eyes when she saw him but McGonagall (who always had the same stern look on her face) simply said, “Mr. Hobbes, please take a seat,”
He sat down in a chair next to Beatrice (who fidgeted slightly away from him) but looked at McGonagall kindly, excited to hear about her duties for the year.
“I’m only telling the two of you this. You may inform the prefects, but not tell them why all of this is occurring. As I’m sure you’re aware, things haven’t been safe in our world recently,” she paused and eyed both of them. “So Professor Dumbledore has added some safety precautions this year. There will be aurors patrolling Hogsmeade and the castle at night,”
“Aurors? How come I haven’t seen any?” asked Ben.
“Because they make a point of not being seen by students, Mr. Hobbes. However now that you and Miss Duke - and later the prefects - are aware, they will be available to patrol the halls with you if you feel unsafe,”
“Why would we feel unsafe, Professor?” asked Beatrice. Ben felt an urge to tell her it was a stupid question but he didn’t.
McGonagall folded her hands together and tried to hold back a sigh. “This does not leave this room, is that understood?”
Ben and Beatrice nodded.
“We have received threats from some of You Know Who’s most prominent supporters. Professor Slughorn found the Dark Mark engraved into a wall in the Slytherin common room. We worry that the school may be under attack this year,”
A million thoughts raced through Ben’s head. He knew what was going on in the world but at Hogwarts? Hogwarts was supposed to be the safest place! There was no way anything like that could happen here but . . . the impossible was happening every day now. He thought about his parents at home – were they safe? Yes, of course. They were wealthy pure bloods but then, he remembered, they were also considered blood traitors . . . fuck. He thought about Balthazar and the prejudice against werewolves and where that could get him and Claudio and how he wasn’t the best at magic and Pedro and his connection to the Dark Arts being in his family and Beatrice and Hero and every other muggleborn.
“Please, please do not let this get out. Do not even tell your friends. All you may tell the prefects is that aurors are patrolling the school. Everything else is confidential. Is that understood?”
Ben didn’t think that he could not tell Pedro about this. This was too big of a secret not to tell! McGonagall seemed to be reading his mind and said, “I know it will be difficult. I know that you’ll want to tell those closest to you but you must understand the uproar it will cause if this gets out. Professor Dumbledore chose you two as Head Boy and Girl for a reason – because he trusted you the most with this,”
So that was why he had been picked. Because Dumbledore trusted him. Him, of all people. He’d had no less than sixty-seven detentions in his six years at Hogwarts and Dumbledore trusted him? Beatrice made sense, of course. She was so smart and so loyal and always doing her work and fighting for what she believed in and – forget it. It wasn’t important.
“May I have your word you won’t tell?” asked McGonagall.
Beatrice looked at Ben with a pained expression, like she was looking to see what his answer would be. He tentatively said, “Yes, Professor,”
She then answered the same.
McGonagall nodded. “You are dismissed. Prefects are to meet with you tomorrow in the Great Hall at one o’clock.”
Ben moved out of there as fast as he could. He needed time to think this over, to convince himself that he couldn’t tell Pedro. He told Pedro everything – they were practically brothers! To not tell him would be spitting in the face of their relationship and he didn’t know if he could do that. He sat down on a bench in the hallway outside McGonagall’s office and terrifying images entered his head, all involving his friends being hurt in one way or another.
“You’re not going to tell Pedro, are you?” came Beatrice’s voice.
He looked over to see her standing beside him with her arms crossed over her chest.
“Would it be any of your business if I did?”
“Yes, actually, considering that if I can’t tell Hero you can’t tell Pedro,”
Ben huffed and sat up straighter. “Then why don’t you just tell Hero? I’m not going to tell on you,”
Beatrice made a face at him like she was going to say something snarky but the expression quickly changed into something that looked like confusion. “I don’t want to scare her,” she said and he thought it might be one of the most genuine things she’d ever said to him.
He was so taken aback that he answered in the same manor. “She’s going to be scared either way. There’s a war coming, Beatrice,”
He stood up to get closer to her.
“I know that, dickface. I’m not stupid,”
“There it is!” Ben threw up his hands. “There’s the Beatrice I know. Back after a brief exit,”
Beatrice shook her head at him and began to walk away. Ben felt guilty and afraid but what he was afraid of, he wasn’t sure. He followed her quickly. “Beatrice, wait. I didn’t mean it like that,”
“I’m really not in the mood for this tonight,” she said quietly.
“I just – I’m sorry, alright? I’m sorry,”
“You can take your sorrys and shove them right up your –“
“Beatrice,” Ben stepped in front of her and she stopped, rolling her eyes once more. “Seriously. I’m sorry. I know this is rough for you. I know you want to protect Hero and I know that you’re scared because I am too and I’m not going to tell you that it’s okay to be scared because you know that but . . . whatever. I’m sorry. Alright? I want to take this seriously, I don’t even know why I started into it with you,”
Beatrice stared at him like she’d never looked at him with before. She looked insecure and small and he’d never seen her like that, not even when they were kids. She didn’t say anything which he took as a sign of acceptance.
They quietly walked back to the Gryffindor common room together, neither of them saying anything. All Ben could think about was how nice she smelled and how he might want to hold her hand (if he was into that sort of thing, because of course he wasn’t). And then when they arrived back to the tower, they were left staring at each other awkwardly until Ben finally said, “Goodnight, Beatrice,”
Her lips became so thin that he could’ve sworn she’d given him a smile. “Goodnight, Ben,” and she turned and went up the staircase to the girl’s dorm.
Ben stood there in disbelief, doing his best to try not to appreciate the fact that for the first time in six years, Beatrice had called him Ben.
Benedick took Beatrice’s face into his hands and kissed her delicately. It was unlike anything she’d felt before, butterflies in her stomach and that foggy feeling in her mind. She kissed him back, wanting to be as close to him as possible but he pulled away from her.
He stroked her cheek and she stared into his eyes, wanting more of him. Beatrice pulled his lips to her neck, filling with ecstasy as he sucked and kissed over and over. She suddenly couldn’t remember anything about Benedick other than his name and that he was there with her. It was like all her hatred for him had disappeared and been replaced by this moment – all that mattered was the two of them together.
And then suddenly they were on a bed and they were naked and Ben’s arms were around her and his lips were on her breasts and she was breathing heavily and it was feeling she’d never felt before and then before she knew it, she woke up.
Beatrice sat up straight in her four-poster bed panting, brushing her hair out of her face. She was sweating and her heart was beating straight out of her chest. It took her a few moments to fully comprehend what had happened but once she did, it took all she had not to projectile vomit on the carpet.
There was no possible way this could be happening. It wasn’t like she’d never had a sex dream before because she’d had her fair share but this was impossible. Maybe she was still in a dream. Benedick Hobbes was the worst! He was loud and rude and arrogant and everything she hated! He wasn’t hot!