"I Think So Too. If Anyone Deserves A Party In Their Honor, It's Me. I Am Practically Perfect." A Statement

"I'm not sure." She sighed, shrugging her shoulders. It was complicated. She couldn't openly be rude, as it was a public setting. Serra had no idea just what her parents had in store for them. "Yeah and i want the presents, so i'll suck it up."

"Are you going to go through with it?" Willa asked, curious. Willa wasn't quite sure of how she would navigate that situation. Faced with an ex at your own birthday party, at the request of your parents? Even the thought made Willa sigh and lean back in her chair.

"I mean obviously, you want the birthday party..."

Serra couldn't believe the words she was hearing right now. He had the nerve to ask her what she was talking about. How dare he? When he looked at her did he think her a fool? That she will still the same fifteen year old girl hopelessly in love with him? She sighed, letting him lead her outside before she continued to talk. "I understand some marriages are accepting of infidelity, but I do not plan on ours being one of them." "And in such a public way. It is degrading. You could have picked someone beautiful, so that it is at least understandable how you could be swayed. But her? Again? It makes me look like a fool." What did Charity have that she didn't? Loose morals? "Evan told me. I do not see any reason for him to lie. He is my cousin's best friend and he is your business partner, is he not?"

Malcolm glanced around as she did one of her best fake smiles. They were in public and Malcolm didn't wish to be a spectacle with whatever Serra was considering saying. He was desperately trying to follow along with her, only becoming more confused when she dismissed Nick. "What are we talking about then?" he said, his eyes gazing down at her, also trying to mold his features to something that didn't resemble stress. There were people who were unemployed here and only lived off generational wealth, the same people who loved events like this so they had something to talk about until the next one. Malcolm didn't wish to be a topic of conversation or cause a scene. "Charity?" he echoed, keeping his voice as close to a whisper as he could. "Serra, that's not-you know? You know what? I'm not-I'm not with Charity. It wasn't-Who told you that?" Malcolm gave a look around the room, finding that there wasn't anyone watching them still. "Should we talk about this outside?"

A little slow on the uptake, Serra needed some time to process what was actually going on, stuck in the deluded fantasy that this couldn't possibly be happening right now. It couldn't be some bad joke as no one had that terrible of a sense of humor, but that left one option: Malcolm actually cheating on her. Why he would ever do that made no sense to her, she knew he liked her, showing her off proudly and showering her with attention. "It's complicated? It's complicated?!" Her voice grew louder, anger and frustration obvious. He didn't deny it. He called Charity crazy, yes, but he didn't call her a liar. That distinction was important to her. Her world turned upside down again, stuck in a nightmare version of the present. Her boyfriend cheated on her and then submitted her to public humiliation. "You were gonna tell me? When? After you slept with me too?" Tears built up in her eyes again. This was truly the worst day of her whole fifteen years of life. "We're done. I'm breaking up with you." Turning to Charity she didn't bother hiding the hatred in her eyes rolling her eyes when she talked about them deserving each other. She deserved better than this and she wasn't going to let him keep playing her for a fool. "Yeah I don't want him anymore. Have fun with my leftovers. I know that's why you wanted him in the first place. Can't be like me so you try taking what's mine. Well you got him. Congratulations."

Malcolm was drowning in a self-made hell. He focused on Serra, her nose clearly destroyed, while desperately trying to extricate himself from the chaos he'd ignited. Charity, a ghost from his disastrous final year, stood opposite. The engagement contract, a desperate, callus-forming grasp at a solution, had trapped him. He needed Serra to leave him, to buy time to dismantle that contract—time and resources he didn't have within these cursed castle walls. His solution, a twisted logic, had been to engineer a breakup, something more dramatic than a simple "it's over." He'd known Serra wouldn't accept the truth. So, he'd manipulated, leading him to a hidden alcove with Charity. He hadn't intended to sleep with her, that intimacy reserved for Serra. But things spiraled, and now, here he was.

He struggled to rein in his panic, to find some semblance of sense, but a blinding pain erupted in his jaw. "You're fucking crazy,-" he said, too distracted now by his own pain that his hand clutched at that he didn't even hear her at first. Shit. Malcolm was glaring over Serra at Charity, and the raw ache in Serra's tone softened his own anger. "It's-it's complicated-I was going to tell you-"

While they were still surrounded by people she did her best to stay quiet and calm, smiling when people clapped in congratulations. Stealing one last look at her parents she noticed them both beaming with pride. She couldn't remember them ever looking this happy. They were both more on the reserved side, but clearly they were happy about this. Would they have done the same thing if they had a son instead of her? One capable or even willing to take over the shop? She let out a huff of frustration. This whole party had not been to celebrate her it seemed, but a ruse to gather as many of their peers as possible and announce an engagement she herself was clueless about. Clearly she was the only one surprised. Engaged. Merlin, what a birthday present. She was engaged. Engaged to the one guy she had fallen for, the one that broke her heart all those years ago. It was a cruel idea of a joke. Although, Malcolm's eyes didn't mirror the shock and surprise hers held- even if only for a second. Without the prying eyes of others she had no reason to school her features into a mask of indifference. It took her a few moments to process, for things to settle in. For his words to register. "You knew about this?" He knew and yet he didn't deem it important enough to inform her? "Were you expecting me to just go along with this?" Her eyes were blazing with anger, when she got stuck on his last word. "Again? What do you mean again?"

Much to his expectations, Malcolm didn't have time to reach Serra or her parents once he got through the party. There were so many people and he caught her eye a few times, but it seemed she was putting as much effort into avoiding him as he was trying to find her. But all he got were stolen conversations with people he didn't want to be stuck talking to; they were all boring small talk, some shop talk, and Malcolm couldn't think about anything else other than talking to Serra. It was one of the few times he panicked and could feel every stroke of a clock in tandem with his heart. Like everyone else, he gathered along with the crowd when someone was about to give a toast. And like everyone else, his eyes followed Serra's parents to the makeshift stage. Fuck, his mind seemed to say like a broken record. He officially ran out of time, but he could catch them after the toast. Malcolm clapped with everyone else, holding his champagne flute and his arm went slack when he heard his name. His heart instantly took a cold plunge to his stomach. In that moment, the walls felt like they were caving around him. Malcolm shrugged off the congratulations around him and the eyes that swiveled towards him. This was the worst way to find out and he needed to talk to Serra. "Serra-" he said, breaking through the crowd to reach her once she started to make an exit. There had been a speech planned in his head and it would've gone so much better than now. "Serra-" he called again once he was closer, not even realizing they were outside as he reached for her arm. Malcolm's face softened when he turned to face him. For once in his life, he wished that Serra could look at him like he didn't betray her trust every single time. A million things were hanging from his lips, but nothing came out. Malcolm's shoulders relaxed away from his ears and he sighed out. "It's true, I found out a few days ago. Listen, I tried, okay-I contacted lawyers…i-it cannot be annulled. Again."

"I would love to." Serra liked public events and dancing with handsome men, who wouldn't? So when he asked her to dance saying yes to him was a no brainer. She thrived off of attention, so when she felt like she captured his she felt proud. "I'm a Libra sun with a cancer moon. I used to dance Ballet for many years but now I only do it when I find the time for it. I am involved with several charities and I'm very pretty. Although you'd be blind not to notice the last one."

He didn't understand the voice in his head that suggested he mingle with the witches. Trying to keep himself distracted and away from another he had already make a mistake with earlier this evening. A smile played on his face, holding out a hand for her. "Then shall we?" The blonde led her onto the dance floor, an arm around her waist and the other holding the hand offered, gliding around effortlessly, dance lessons something his mother started at a young age. "Tell me something about yourself." Thorfinn was curious about her.

@alaraselwyn

"You're obviously lying." Serra's eyes blazed with anger, furious at the insinuation of what Charity's words could mean. Malcom cheating on her? Definitely not. He wouldn't do that to her. There was no way. Things were good, she was this close to letting him take her virginity. There was no reason for their relationship to be on the rocks. They didn't even get into a fight! "We didn't break up. We're together! I saw him this morning!" She stomped, like a child throwing a tantrum. How did Charity know about their spot? "He'd never go for a loser like you. Your eyes are way too far apart, you look weird." It was the first thing she could come up with short notice.

Charity turned around to face the witch when she was interrupted mid-sentence, brows raising in disinterest. “I wouldn’t lie if I could.” She was quick to say, which was true of course as she never understood the motivation to lie, the truth always flowing smoothly from her lips. “And what is it you, anyways, since you’re all broken up?” The witch wondered, a smug smile growing on her lips for she was enjoying seeing the other all rattled, especially after the years of bullying she’d endure from her part. “He moved on, right on to me. Want to hear all the details? He took me to this secret spot in the dungeons, Nearly-Headless Nick’s spot once when he was alive.” She was telling it as though it was the juiciest of gossips, lying heavy on the excited girly tone. “And if you must know, he really is a good fuck.”

She crossed her arms when he rambled on, raising her eyebrows, her expression showing her impatience. She didn't know what he was trying to get at and she was sick of waiting. "We were what?" A frown came onto her face, clearly confused. What was he talking about? Surely she'd know if she had been engaged? "This is not the time to make jokes Malcolm." They were engaged. Past tense. They are engaged? Present tense. Merlin, her head was starting to hurt. "Options? What options? Are you going to 'fix things' without my knowledge or input again? I really don't understand what you're aiming for. Why send me all these gifts? To ease your guilt?"

"No, no, I mean—I've been trying to—" he began poorly, then stopped when she asked him to draw out the question. A question he had spent years practicing for, if this conversation ever happened. And no matter how many times he'd rehearsed it in his mind, nothing compared to this. There was no undoing what he'd said, the slip already out. Malcolm could try to obliviate her, but even the thought darkened his face. He dropped his gaze as if the ground held the answer. "Yes, we were engaged once," he said, his tone devoid of warmth. "But I was able to fix it." Malcolm knew he'd been a stupid kid then, not thinking clearly, overwhelmed by choices and deciding for them, for their future. At the time, it felt best, but he wondered if avoiding the circumstances then had cost them a better present. "This isn't how I wanted to tell you. Any of this…But please," he said, reaching for her hand. "We can look at options."

"I think it's a requirement for every Slytherin to like green, but I do prefer certain shades more than others. I like a sage or an emerald green best." She explained while looking through the various racks of clothes, only needing a few seconds to decide if she liked something or not. "There's a few robes here that would look nice for the upcoming fall season." She took out four she liked, different cuts but all elegant, one shorter length and one ankle length for colder days and two more every day robes. "I do. Well my favorite holiday is my birthday, of course. I enjoy being celebrated. After that Christmas because I like getting presents and as an only child I didn't have to share with anyone. What about you?"

"Green, I will remember that, but yes you could pull anything off I'm sure, perhaps I'll know better by the end of it." He looked around at the various robes and outfits. "Does anything catch your eye?" Small accents made sense, understated but eye catching. He filed it away for future use. Even when skulking about something eye catching could make it hard for people to think of details later besides what had been put in front of them. He doubted it was how Sera might use the information, but something learned from her none the less. "Do you enjoy the holidays? Which is your favorite?"

"Thank you. London certainly has seen better days now that I have returned." While the Nott name was one familiar to her, she did not spend much time with the other witch so Serra concluded her to hold no significant importance to herself. "Clearly you were the wrong person to talk to. My apologies."

Pandora was grabbing a few items needed for the shop that when she heard a voice talking, she turned to make sure it was her being talked to. "Welcome back?" She knew of Serra Borgin, younger than her, but not by too much. The witch had also heard about what happened with Alara Selwyn, but chose to stay out of it. It was not her business. "I don't know how you want me to answer that."