Sorry for Ruining Your Birthday PV W. Anderson 𝙲𝚕𝚘𝚜𝚎𝚍

☁ Interacting ☁
@Jack Burnett
☁ Backdated ☁
6 April, 2022

Willow didn't fair well whenever her schedule was disrupted by separating herself from Flash to process whatever shenanigans had occurred. It was a rare occassion, but one nonetheless. She would sometimes eat at the Slytherin table with Flash but this week, at least since the ball, she had gone back to frequenting her own house's table. Her shoulders were tensed, eyebrows furrowed together, Flash's letter delivered to her after classes that day next to her food as she poured over the words. She was never as good with words as he was, but she wanted to make sure she did her due diligence in this correspondence trying to reconcile... whatever had happened. She was still piecing it together.

The draft she was writing in her head was interrupted by Jack greeting her. "Oh- Hi Jack." She quickly pulled the letter off the table, folding it and tucking it into her robes. They didn't... talk. Ever. They had a rocky relationship at best, but there was no doubt that he was here to talk to her about the ball. What she wasn't expecting was an apology for ruining her birthday? The expression in her eyes only grew more confused. She thought maybe he would ask her what she knew about Victor and Marion. If Flash and her had been talking about it, about what happened. "It's uh- It's fine really. It wasn't a stellar birthday before you came anyway, so it didn't exactly turn the tides one way or another."

Willow and birthdays hadn't really gotten along since she started attending Hogwarts but it became less and less of a big deal as the years went on. "I appreciate you doing it. I hadn't realized Flash was hiding so much, but I should've caught on." She gave a half-hearted shrug of defeat. "It's my fault for not asking more questions. Speaking of questions, what did- um, I don't know how or what to ask really. I guess- how did you know Marion and Victor? And what happened to him? You actually don't have to answer, if you don't want to. But I feel pretty in the dark about this whole..." She gesticulated with her fork, waving it in a circle, "Whatever happened."

When he arrived, Jack noticed Willow hide something away into the pocket of her robes and he wondered if he might have interrupted something. Still, he was here now and there was little point in going back until he had made his apology clear. Willow didn't seem to mind much, however, suggesting that her birthday had been less than ideal even before his involvement.

"You say it didn't turn the tides, but you certainly weren't avoiding Flash before I came along," he commented. "I saw Marion talking to Flash before you tried to cast a spell on her. Do you know if she said anything to him in particular? Not that it was her who messed things up between you two."

Jack's brows rose in surprise when Willow said she appreciated him doing it - presumably exposing Flash - and he realized that maybe she might have preferred having learned the truth and gotten upset over it rather than having remained blissfully unaware. He knew he would have been the same.

"It's not your fault. You couldn't have 'caught on'," he insisted. "There was nothing to catch on to. Flash just kept everything to himself like usual. The only reason I found out was because Marion told me and I'm betting the only reason she knew was because of her creepy hag magic." He sighed. "I'm sorry. I thought if anyone would have known about it already, it would have been you. That was part of the reason I confronted him about it even though you were right there."

He poked at his dinner with a fork, mulling over Willow's questions. "Marion and Victor are and were both Slytherins. Since the Severus Snape Dorms are non-binary now, Marion was able to show up in our room one day. Flash was out at the time, so he didn't know, but Marion told me what Flash had done and suggested I ask him about it when I told her I didn't believe her. I didn't want to at first, but I...I'm just so sick of Flash carrying so much on his own." The boy rested his cheek against his knuckles and leaned his elbow on the table. "As for what exactly Flash did and what happened to Victor...it's probably best if you learn those things from Flash himself. He'd be able to give you a better account of it than I could anyway since I just heard about it secondhand from a hag."

@Willow Anderson