Your past has you in a chokehold (Abraxas and Ksenia)

Ksenia entered the pub silently, her expression cold as it always was. She liked to visit that pub in particular. They never asked her any questions about her age when she ordered a bottle of vodka if she payed the right amount of gold for it. Nodding to the bartender who knew her very well, the young witch layed out a few golden coins on the wooded surface without saying anything. The exchange proceeded without words and moments later she proceeded to the back of the pub with a bottle of clear liquor in her hand. She never used a glass in that pub and after her first few visits the bartender stopped giving her one.

Ksenia sat down, leaning against the back wall as she took her first swallow of the drink, enjoying the burning sensation it made as it ran down her throat.

Abraxas came into the pub, looking around for a chair to sit on. Obviously, he had been in the place many times, yet he had never found the perfect spot to sit and talk with the bartender and manage to have a good bottle of firewhiskey at the same time. That had always made him angry. Always. He nodded at the veiled old man who was always in the same parlour three yards away from the door, and walked on.

Abraxas sat next to a young girl and asked the bartender for a shot of firewhiskey. Even though Abraxas had started drinking from a young age, he had done a lot less showing about of it. He only drunk privately with friends or with some girl he picked up during his Durmstrang days. He turned to the girl next to him and raised his eyebrows. "What are you doing here?"

(ooc: i love the thread name! ;])

Ksenia turned to face the man who sat down beside her. She thought he looked vagueosly familiar, but she couldn't remember where she saw him before. She lifted the bottle to her lips once again, taking another gulp before speaking. "What do you think one does at a bar?" she said, her voice as sharp as a blade.

Abe frowned. He knew this voice too well to even forget who he was. He couldn't let this young girl win. He had no idea she would look so different after all these years, but he found her, and he found her now. He couldn't tell her, and all of this joy and euphoria jumping around inside him could kill him if he let it. But he wasn't going to.

"To drink? Or to talk?" he asked icily.

Ksenia rolled her eyes at him, her expression cold and unfriendly. "I should have sat at the back like I usually do," she said to herself not looking at him. "That way I wouldn't have idiotic pricks trying to talk to me."

Abraxas narrowed his eyes. His head immediately thought of the words filthy mudblood but he knew she wasn't a mudblood at all - just the opposite. He only shook his head politely. "I am no idiotic prick, young lady," he replied, smirking. It was so hard not to.

Ksenia continued to look in front of her, not saying anything. He must be an idiot if he did not understand that I don't want to talk to him yet, she thought to herself, swallowing some more vodka. Almost half of the bottle was gone by that stage.

Abraxas's frown turned into a very menacing scowl (or at least, he hoped it was). "You sure you don't want to destroy your liver by the time you're twenty?" he asked. "I drink like a bloody maniac, but not this much as fourteen."

Ksenia turned to him once again, irritated. "I will leave you to baby some other girl," she snapped at him before heading to the back of the pub with her vodka.

Abraxas grabbed the girl's arm. He held on to it tightly. There was no bloody way he was going to let go until this girl and him had a good chat for the first time in Merlin-knows-how-many years. "Don't you remember me, girl?" he snarled, trying to make sure nobody was noticing. "Don't you?"

"Let go of me!" Ksenia snarled back at him, jerking her arm out of her bruising grip. She felt a chill run down her body as her powers resurfaced within her. Part of the reason she started drinking so much alcohol was to kill those powers, but it appeared that it did not have any effect whatsoever. "Leave me alone!" she snarled loudly so that people around them could hear her. She didn't know who the man was exactly.

Abraxas blinked. He felt something tingle his spine, but he didn't know exactly what. Whatever it was, though, it made him feel a lot more powerful than he did a few seconds ago, and Merlin did he like this streak of power. He kept holding on to the girl, his fingers digging into her flesh. He could even feel blood. Merlin did this refresh him. "No," he replied. "Not until you remember me."

Ksenia snarled wordlessly at him. She knew he went to Durmstrang with her, but she could not remember much else. She had pushed so many memories of her past into darkness. It was very hard to remember some things. In a split second decision the young girl jerked her free arm up towards his face. That arm still held the empty bottle of vodka. He did not have any time to react before the liquid splashed in his eyes.

'You truly are an idiot," she snapped at him as she jerked her arm out of his loosened grip before walking out of the pub.

Abraxas shut his eyes before the vodka was splashed into his eyes. He wiped it away with his arm, but it still stung. "Bloody hell," he muttered. He muttered a charm to himself with his wand and put it snugly back into his pocket. Now, it didn't sting as much, but it still hurt. "You're a bloody difficult girl, are you, Volans?" He couldn't hold it back anymore. He had to threaten her with everything he could so she could wake up to the fact that he wanted to hurt her, and to hurt her badly.

Ksenia froze once that word came out of his mouth. None of her muscles moved. Her eyes were wide with terror. Why did he say that word? That word that she feared more then anything else in the world. She felt fear consume her body like it never had before. So many memories flooded her mind. Her parents dying, seeing her sister for the final time. The memories that she kept in the dark for some many years. "No," she said to herself, her voice weak as she shook her head. She could almost feel tears forming in her eyes.

"What's wrong?" he asked in mock empathy, almost feeling sympathy for the girl. Almost. Which meant he didn't. There was a part of him that told him to comfort her and tell her he was just joking, but the more powerful part of him told him not to. Of course not. "Don't cry, little one. Don't you dare fucking cry." He didn't care that the entire bar was looking at him now. He loosened his grip lightly from her arm, but it was still a firm hold.

Ksenia breathed in heavily, trying to control her emotions. She hated crying, she was so embarrassed by it. "Who are you?" she asked weakly, not looking at him.

Abraxas nodded. "Have you been hit with obliviate, my dear one?" he asked quietly. "I'm Abraxas Montague. Have you forgotten me?" He held Kyra's chin so she would look at him and ran his thumb over it, feeling the soft, smooth skin he had so dearly missed. "We were supposed to get married... remember?"

Ksenia met his eyes finally, only because he was holding her in place. Abraxas. Now she remembered. She always disliked that wretched older boy as a child. His touch disgusted her. She turned her face away from him, freeing his hold on her. "No marriage or engagement contract was ever signed, Abraxas. I remember that correctly," she said, her voice low.

Abraxas scoffed. "Well, you know that if the contract was ever signed, I would have." He smirked at the thought. Kyra Montague. Not bad for a name. "How have you been doing, meine Liebe?"

"Stop with your pet names," Ksenia snarled at him. "They do not deliver the correct message when you are leaving a bruise on my arm at the same time," she mocked him.

Abraxas laughed haughtily, his laugh sounding nowhere near friendly. "Oh, a pet name, you call it?" he asked. "I call it a term of endearment." He gently stroked Kyra's cheek. "Do you have any idea of how much I missed you?"

"And I have not missed you enough," Ksenia snapped back at him. She looked down at his finger stroking her cheek. "Remove your hand from my face," she ordered. "Or do you want me to bite your finger through again?" she asked. She did so about five years ago. She couldn't help, but relish in the screams that he omitted at that point.

"Filthy, filthy mudblood," Abraxas muttered, glaring at Nia. He then slapped Kyra hard across the face. "Don't you dare do such a thing like that to me again!" He then let go of her and shoved her hard across the bar, hopefully far enough to reach the hard wooden parlour.

Ksenia gasped as he hit her hard. Tears ran down her eyes at the intense burning sensation. She hit the floor hard, causing a large bruise to appear on her temple. "Yes, I am a mudblood," she agreed as she lay slumped down, tears pouring over her face. "And a pureblood such as yourself wouldn't marry a mudblood," she said as she wiped her ears away. There were not many, she steadied her breathing, controlling her emotions.