Fists Clenched, Fighter's Eyes (open)

[Shendeth Potter]

Instead of backing away when she advanced on him he stood his ground, narrowing his eyes and sneering right back into her face. Her angry words failed to wipe it away though he glared back with equal cold fire. It was more the suggestion that he was truly a Potter than the insults at his mother, even though things with her had always seemed fine on the outside. Shendeth knew his family was messed up and didn't need her to remind him of that. It just made him all the more proud to be in Slytherin, to be different.

He was there and doing much better than her in spite of it. Scarlett was looking at him with disgust but she was the disgusting one, having to fall back and insult based on that. There was nothing else she could say because he was right. Of course she didn't fit in. "That's obvious. You don't have any real friends because nobody wants to be friends with you."

He sneered back up at her. Shendeth could look beneath the surface just fine. If she wasn't lonely she wouldn't be angry, and she was just making up excuses because she couldn't get anyone to like her. He certainly did not. "I'm not demanding you to be anyone, just pointing it out. Go ahead and be a bitter bitch who nobody will ever like." See if I care.

[Scarlett Rosen]

His words hurt. She didn't deny it to herself. There was no point. Scarlett had given in denying things, because in the end it just came back and slapped her in the face. She had tried to pretend her Grandmother's death had not effected her, now she was plagued with nightmares. She had tried to convince herself that she could be whoever she wanted, and now even that was being thrown back into her face.
But she wasn't going to allow him to win, because as much as something might hurt Scarlett didn't let it show and she didn't let it take her over. Because if she did then she lost everything and she became one of the useless fools who allowed their pain to control them.

Instead she laughed, a bitter laugh, but one that was as full of spite as his words had been.
"Have I hit a nerve? Is it all getting a bit to deep for you?
Really, I never expected a Slytherin such as yourself to sink to such petty, and frankly awful insults."
Then she began to change. She didn't care for the boy, but his words really sank in. They malice behind them, the lack of care. Internally she smiled, the boy really was a Slytherin, lacking in compassion for those who irritated him.
"May I congratulate you on your heartlessness, your words were spoken like a true Slytherin, and I am glad to see 4 years in your house has paid off."

[Shendeth Potter]

Maybe she had hit a nerve and maybe she hadn't, but that wasn't the point. Unlike her, he didn't change or really allow it to get to him as much. "Pff, like yours are any better." Watching her change, he smirked at her words. He'd take that as a cynical compliment. "Well, thank you then." he replied, not needing any bitterness of his own but still a bit sarcastic and malice-laced. A true Slytherin, and she didn't know all of it. "That wasn't supposed to make me feel bad, right? Cause it didn't." There was no way she was going to make him guilty, even if she broke down and showed her hurt, though it looked like she was just making an observation. Heartless, but having a heart was having a weakness. Some might say he did but he was showing truer colors now.

[Scarlett Rosen]

She frowned, not at all surprised by his comment, but also curious about the way he had chosen to word it. If that had been said to her, she would not have questioned it, rather accepted it with grace and shot back a sharp, bitchy reply.
She shook her head slightly, acknowledging that the boy continued to surprise and to some extent, confuse her.
She didn't let the confusion show and instead turned to face him, smiling a genuinely happy smile.
"Are you normally this bad at taking compliments?
If I had wanted to make you feel bad I would have slit my wrists and let myself bleed to death right here."
Despite the smile her words were laced with a darker emotion as she was bitterly reminded of her Grandmother's death and for a second she saw the bloodied body lying across the once cream sheets.
She breathed out sharply and focused on the boy again. From her point of view, everything seemed so simple for him, his friends, being the perfect slytherin. It was everything that did not come naturally to her. When she was younger she had wondered if the sorting hat had been wrong all along. Now?
Now she saw her ambition and her cunning, just no one else did.

[Shendeth Potter]

Yeah, she definitely had issues. Not just her reaction to hearing herself talk about suicide, but the way she had changed before they really got to shout it out. He would never suddenly compliment an opponent like that unless there was something to be gained by it. The natural instinct he had now of looking beneath the surface and trusting nothing anyone said was probably what made him react the way he did. It was a bit hard to believe she wasn't trying to play any mind games, but he didn't let any of this show.

Shendeth could take compliments well if it was from someone who mattered. Arrogance wasn't a trait he ever displayed outright but there was pride and willingness to manipulate. The problem was she wasn't someone who mattered and in this instance he wasn't so quick to change faces. "And I would have walked away and laughed." he smiled cynically, not doubting the heartless truth of that. "That would depend on who they're from." he answered the question, hostility more masked but still solidly there, dislike not hard to see for anyone who could look.

[Scarlett Rosen]

She watched him, watched the way he answered, watched the smile on his face as he spoke. There was no trace of it on his face, but she was no fool. She knew he was no cold hearted bastard, not to the extent that he would let somebody die on his hands, if only to save himself the trouble of clearing up the mess. There were few people who would let someone die like that, and she knew he was not one of them.
So she looked straight at him, straight into his eyes and spoke, her voice clear and blank of emotion.
"No you wouldn't. You can pretend all you like, but you wouldn't let anyone die...that's a step too far for you."
She looked away for a moment, staring at the blank wall.
Her heart was beating it's steady rhythm, bit it did not matter to her, because some days it just felt like nothing was going right for her. Like she couldn't do anything to keep the people off her back, she was fighting a battle and it never seemed to end.
"But sometimes I wish you would..."
She said it quietly, but he would be able to hear her. Not that she meant him to, she had not even been aware she was saying it aloud.
When she realized she had, she gritted her teeth in shock and pulled up her mask. Suddenly she was back to the cold-hearted monster that her house-mates wanted her to be.
"I thought you didn't like me. Surely you should have left by now. Haven't you got some Gryffindors you can bully?" She mocked scathingly.

[Shendeth Potter]

And who was she to measure the depth of the darkness of his heart? They barely knew each other at all. But his conscious couldn't help and ask itself the question, if he really would let someone die that way. First instinct said actually yes, what were people he didn't know to him but nothing, so why should he care? Maybe he would but feel guilty after. Or maybe, as was more likely, she was right. It was said that things like that were much easier said than done. He wouldn't know. He'd never watched anyone die.

But that didn't mean he had to acknowledge it aloud. "You don't know me. You don't know what I'd do." he hissed. Shendeth had the potential to snap and become that sort of monster, even if he wasn't quite there yet.

He heard her whisper to herself clearly, but didn't immediately jump on it. She had a weakness behind her mask; he took it to mean she really did sometimes want to die. Wanting to just be left alone to die.. he could deny it all he liked but he could understand her there. It was a natural instinct to want pain to end; so many lucky people never felt it. And although there were those who had it worse he wouldn't claim to be one of those lucky ones. True he had never slit his wrists and was still alive and glad to be so.

His thoughts had definitely wandered there in the past, if not to the definition of extreme. Their lives were nothing alike. That wasn't his weakness. Not quite. He was proud and had some degree of life to him. The only question was, how much really? It would be so much of a lie to say he didn't have any idea how she felt at that one moment.

But what was one lie among the layers and layers, countless numbers of them on every level? Nothing at all, and so he gave no reaction to having heard her. No slip in his own mask, whatever that might be. There was no one thing he was hiding, it wasn't that simple. Nothing was as simple as it appeared on the surface. For as long as he could remember he kept it all in, introverted problems. And all of that tied up to his previous statement.

It wouldn't be himself he killed when he lost it.

Shendeth had almost forgotten the reason he came up here in the first place until she spoke it, defending herself with renewed fire. It didn't seem quite as important anymore. He returned her mocking sneer. "Right. Of course even a Gryffindor is preferable to you." And that was saying something.

[Scarlett Rosen]

She laughed at him. A rich laugh that was without the normal sneering, mocking tone that she laced into it. No, today it was from pure amusement.
"Oh, I have no doubt you will grow up to be a great little killer. But for now...Aww, your a bit young to be having a death on your conscience."
She meant it, every word. The boy might well grow up and be a marvelous Death Eater, he might be a hired assassin etc etc. She was not going to deny he had the potential to kill, because everybody did, whether it was themselves or some other poor bugger. The darkness of human emotion meant she was sure he wouldn't find it to hard to hurt someone should he need to.
She grinned though as he insulted her back. She liked fighting, liked the arguments and the bitchiness of it all.
"And even my own company, which as you have pointed out, it bitchy and horrible, is far better than listening to your pathetic insults. Skip along if you want to, Gryffindors are rather stupid, your insults will seem like the height of intelligence to them."

[Shendeth Potter]

So what if she was right. He wasn't going to admit it in a thousand years, but since argument seemed pointless he didn't continue that thought. But she was also right in that he didn't want to be around her. He'd had enough of this. Unlike her he had better things to do. Shendeth continued to sneer a little at her continued insults. He was no more offended now than she was trying to act but didn't want to stick around. Prolonging it would just make it even more petty than it had been so far.

"Fine, I'll leave you to your loneliness then." He spun around and walked away. When he reached the end of the corridor he paused with a hand lightly touching a stone pillar. "If you do die it'd be doing the world a favor. You're really fucked up, you know." He threw those parting words over his shoulder, some scornful malice still left in his dark eyes. Understanding was not sympathizing. But then he continued on, disappearing round the corner before she could shoot either a curse or return hateful words back at him.