#Magnus chase and the obligatory hogwarts au

[imwastingmylifeinhere]

Magnus Chase and the Obligatory Hogwarts Au Ch25

We're finally here, folks! The last chapter! I'm going to keep all the emotional stuff for the end notes,  but I wanted to say my sister has almost finished drawing the gang the first time they went to Hogsmeade together, so I'll post it when she finishes. Anyway, enjoy!

“He did it! Magnus Chase has won the Triwizard Tournament!”

Magnus could hardly believe what was happening. He felt like the air had been knocked out of him, which it had when Alex tackled him to the ground. His green-haired girlfriend had her arms wrapped around his neck as she kissed Magnus senseless. The crowd around them was cheering them on and whistling, but Alex didn’t really seem deterred by it. When she finally let him breathe properly, she didn’t get off him immediately.

“Good job, Maggie,” she said softly. Magnus smiled up at her, the fear of being beaten by bludgers, mauled by the Giant Squid and eaten by the Acromantulas forgotten.

“Hey, Alex,” Halfborn cut in, “you can snog Magnus later, we want to congratulate him too!”

Alex huffed but got off Magnus and offered him a hand to get up too. “I’ll hold you to that,” she told Halfborn with her characteristic shit’s-gonna-go-down smirk. Halfborn seemed to reconsider his words.

The moment Magnus stood up he was embraced by Annabeth, who was hugging him so tightly Magnus felt the pressure in his ribs. He hugged his cousin back as well as he could with the Cup still hanging from his hand.

“Congratulations, cousin,” she said when she finally pulled away from him. Percy was standing behind her wearing a Hogwarts t-shirt and his megaphone under his armpit, giving Magnus double thumbs up.

“Thanks,” Magnus told Annabeth. He yelped in surprised when Halfborn put his arm around his shoulders and squeezed him close to his side. Mallory jumped in as well, hugging Magnus from the other side.

“Congratulations, blondie!” They said in unison. Magnus would have been upset about the nickname if he wasn’t too busy smiling at his friends. Sam hugged him next, followed by Amir, who promised him a free extra large order of falafel next time he came by the shop. Guess almost being eaten by spiders has its benefits.

“Okay, people, like we practiced!” T.J yelled suddenly. The Hogwarts students gathered around Magnus surged forward quickly and Magnus found himself being hosted up on people’s hands and shoulders.

“Wh-what- oh!” Magnus cried out. The mass of people underneath him moved forward towards the exit of the Quidditch field, cheering loudly like a carnival parade. Some students threw confetti in the air, others fireworks and some used their wands to create bright sparks and multicolored bubbles.

“Magnus! Magnus! Magnus!” They kept chanting his name as they moved through the school grounds, loud and joyous. The air was buzzing with laughter and cheers as the Hogwarts students took Magnus on a victory round around the Big Lake.

The Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students were close behind, each with their own Champion on their backs. They cheered just as piercingly, like they were competing about who could celebrate the hardest.

They didn’t let Magnus get down until they had reached Hogwart’s large main door, and even then they had to open the double doors dramatically open-sesame style and carry him through them before they allowed him to stand on his own two feet again.

“Did you seriously practice that?” Magnus asked T.J as he watched the younger students rush inside the Hall of the Slain to party.

“Yep!” T.J replied with a smile. “We used Alex as your substitute since you’re about the same size.”

“It’s pretty comfortable way to move once you get used to it,” Alex commented. “So, what are we doing now? We need to celebrate!”

“Oh, the teachers said seventh year students are allowed to go to Hogsmeade,” Sam said. “Maybe we could go to Valhalla?”

“Sounds like a plan!” Mallory cheered. “Let’s go!”

“Oh, wait, I need to do something first!” Magnus said and left, leaving the Triwizard Cup in Alex’s arms.

Finding his way through the crowd was a nightmare with so many people packed in the Hogwarts entrance. Even worse, people wouldn’t let him through without congratulating him for winning the Tournament, which, yes, was very kind of them, but it didn’t really help when he was trying to find someone quickly.

Finally, he found Raphael close to the wall with Louis. They were talking with some adults Magnus hadn’t seen before, but he could easily tell they were Raphael’s and Louis’s parents.

The couple on the right had the same beautiful dark skin as Raphael, the father standing with the same confidence as his son and the mother with the same kind eyes. A young girl – about twelve, probably –was gushing about something to Raphael and good Merlin, it was like looking at a miniature of Raphael.

The couple on the left was talking to Louis about something – Magnus couldn’t hear what. Louis’s father had his son’s green eyes and his mother his blonde curls and chubby cheeks. As Magnus came closer he could hear them talking in rapid French and he noticed a plastic bag hanging by the arm of Louis’s mother, the name of their bakery in an elegant font (which he couldn’t read because the only French he knew was crepe, croissant and Eiffel).

Magnus stood to the side for a bit, not wanting to interrupt family time, but Raphael spotted him and called him over.

“Oh, Magnus, hi! Congratulations on winning the Cup!” Raphael turned to his parents and introduced Magnus. “Maman, Papa, this is Magnus Chase. These are my parents and the little peste is Alya.”

“Salut!” Alya exclaimed. Her accent was thicker than Raphael’s “Raphy said your amoureuse has green hair! That’s so cool! I want colored hair too!”

Raphael’s mother smiled at Alya. “Maybe when you’re older.” That didn’t seem to satisfy the young girl because she crossed her arms and pouted. Magnus was barely able to cover up his smile; Raphael’s little sister was adorable.

Raphael’s father took both Magnus’s hands in his own and the blonde looked at nervously. Raphael looked more embarrassed than worried. “Thank you very much for helping our son in the First Task,” Raphael’s father said. There was such genuine gratitude in his eyes Magnus felt like he was the one who should be saying thanks.

“N-no, it’s alright,” Magnus stammered out. He smiled at Raphael’s parents before turning back to his two friends. “Um, anyway, me and the others are going to Valhalla and I wanted to see if you wanted to come along.”

“Sure,” Raphael said. “You owe me and Helga a Butterbeer, if I’m not mistaken.”

Magnus chuckled and nodded. “I guess I do. The others must be close to the door, I’ll go find Helga and meet you there.”

Magnus left to find Helga and Louis with Raphael told their parents goodbye, Louis kissing his parents cheeks. Most students had left the entrance hall by now, so it was much easier to look for the Durmstrang Champion. He found Helga talking to Agatha and what must be Agatha’s parents, a lanky man with Agatha’s dirty blonde hair and another man with black hair in a small ponytail.

“Helga!” He called out. The four of them turned around to look at Magnus. He greeted Agatha’s parents before turning back to the two girls. “We’re going to Valhalla with the others and I wanted to see if you wanted to come along.”

Helga smiled brightly and nodded. She seemed so happy to be invited that Magnus wondered if people generally asked her to go out with them before.

Magnus waited off to the side for Helga and Agatha to say goodbye before the three of them headed off to find the rest of the group. They weren’t by the Hogwarts entrance so Magnus assumed they already went to Valhalla. The walk there would have been quiet if it wasn’t for the huge amount of students and spectators that were milling around Hogsmeade, making the air buzz with hundreds of different voices.

“Oh, congratulations on winning, Magnus,” Helga said at one point. “That was a clever trick you thought of at the end. Wish I had thought of that.”

“Oh, thank you. What place did you get?” He felt a bit awkward for asking, like he was shoving it into Helga’s face that she hadn’t won, but he honestly wasn’t able to hear who finished second and who third with all the commotion that was going on.

“I got third since I was the farthest from the Cup when you touched it,” Helga answered; she didn’t seem at all annoyed by Magnus’s question. “It’s kind of nice, to be honest. I took part in the Triwizard Tournament, I gave it my best and I had fun. I lost and no one is going to chew me out for it.” Magnus didn’t have to ask to know that ‘no one’ was her parents. “I’m allowed to lose.”

Agatha squeezed Helga’s hand and smiled at her warmly. Helga returned the smile with the softest expression Magnus had ever seen. Helga was looking at Agatha like there were a million things she wanted to thank her for and didn’t know where to start. The whole exchange, as sort as it was, felt awfully intimate and Magnus looked away to give them privacy.

Magnus thought that the streets of Hogsmeade were noisy, but that was nothing compared to when they opened the door to Valhalla and stepped inside the shop. Everything was ten times louder, like putting on headphones and forgetting you had left the sound at full volume. There were people everywhere, from students to adults and even some reporters too busy drinking to actually report anything. The place was so crowded Magnus was afraid they would find a place to sit. They were thirteen people after all.

“Maggie! Over here!” How Magnus was able to hear Alex in all this commotion he didn’t know, but finding her in the crowd wasn’t hard. Mostly because her hair was green, she was dressed in green and pink and she was standing on top of a table with a Butterbeer at hand. Not exactly someone you can miss.

“Grab a seat!” Alex said once he got near to their table, patting the place next to her. Her cheeks were flushed red and Magnus would bet the Cup that wasn’t just Butterbeer in her cup.

“How did you manage to get a table?” Helga asked. Magnus’s friends were sitting at a large round table at the back of the shop. “This place is packed full!”

“I said I’m Magnus’s cousin and that we were here to celebrate,” Annabeth explained. “The owner was beyond happy to give a table to all three Champions.”

“He gave us free chips too!” T.J added, holding up a half-empty plate of chips. Magnus would bet he hadn’t had just Butterbeer either.

The waitress soon came by to give Magnus, Helga and Agatha a glass of Butterbeer and was gone in a flash, already running to the other side of the shop to serve a different table.  Despite how full the place was, the cacophony soon became white noise to Magnus.

“Eh hem.” Halfborn cleared his throat as he stood up, raising his cup in a toast. “We are here today because our dear loser Magnus managed to not only survive the Triwizard Tournament but also win first place!”

Everyone at the table clapped their hands and cheered. After the round of applause (and Alex’s long wolf whistle) was over, Halfborn kept going.

“I honestly wouldn’t have expected him to win.” Magnus frowned mockingly at him, knowing full well he didn’t mean what he was saying – his shit-eating grin gave him away. “Kidding, kidding. But,” pause for dramatic effect, “we are also here to celebrate the three brave, if stupid, Champions who represented our schools in the Tournament and stayed courageous even when they had to face their worst fears. Literally, too. Thank you for suffering for our entertainment.”

Halfborn thrust his glass out to the middle of the table and they all copied him. Thirteen glasses crashed against each other loudly, the liquid inside them sloshing around and even dripping down on the table. They brought the cups to their lips and took deep gulps of the sweet drink, the thick liquid trickling down their throats and leaving behind a nice warm feeling. Yep, definitely not just Butterbeer.

“Honestly though, the part at the Acromantulas’ nest was horrifying,” Annabeth said after she lowered her cup, visibly shuddering. Magnus remembered when they were young, maybe around five, and Annabeth would be mortified every time she so much as thought she had seen a spider. Magnus didn’t know why she disliked them so much, but it seemed like the feeling was mutual. “I would hate to have to deal with a spider that large, let alone a whole nest of them.”

Helga chuckled, the kind of chuckle that said I’ve been through hell and back and I’m gonna laugh about it because our existence is futile anyway. “Yeah, that was horrible. It was like being in the alien’s den in a sci-fi anime, only you don’t have the main character’s plot armor.”

“Magnus laughed, along with the rest of their table. “I didn’t know you liked anime,” he said.

Helga immediately flushed and Agatha giggled at her girlfriend’s cute expression. “She does, but she doesn’t tell anyone about it,” the blonde girl explained with a smile. “You should see her when she starts ranting about a specific episode or something like that. She’s non-stop!”

“Agatha!” Helga hissed, her face even redder than before.

“What? You’re cute when you’re ranting.” If possible, that made Helga blush even harder and she whimpered as she hid her face on Agatha’s shoulder. Magnus giggled because come on, they were cute.

“She’s right about the spiders, though I kind of disliked the one at the lake more,” Raphael said. “I’m not good with water, and those tentacles…” Raphael shuddered. “Ew.”

They all laughed at Raphael’s exaggerated sound of disgust, until a very loud, very over the top gasp drew their attention to Percy. “Wait, you don’t like water?” He sounded offended, like you had just offended his family, and he sprang into a detailed explanation of everything good about water and the sea in general. Honestly, it sounded like he had practiced this.

The rest of the evening went on like that, friendly banter, jokes, teasing and lots, lots of Butterbeer. Turns out Mallory holds her liquor much better than Halfborn. The night hadn’t ended yet and Magnus already knew a lot of new, random things about his friends.

Like how the first gift Amir bought for Sam with his own money back when they were younger was a teddy bear that she still had on her bed, despite its leg having fallen off at least three times. Or how T.J would always carry a water-gun around with him when he was five because he thought a character he saw in a movie was cool and he wanted to be a soldier and protect him mum from bad guys. Or that Halfborn used to have a pet rock named Shirley or that Mallory almost choked because she staffed 29 grapes in her mouth when she was seven on a dare and was since terrified of them.  He learned that Percy would sing “Under the Sea” non-stop when he in elementary school and that Alex’s favorite Disney movie was “The Emperor’s new Groove” (which he should have expected, honestly.) That Agatha could play five different instruments and that she wanted to learn cello because it was like a giant violin, which she thought was cool when she was little and that Helga’s favorite anime trope was friends to lovers and that, if you got her started, she wouldn’t stop talking about Hunter x Hunter (2011) unless you forced her to stop. That Alya had become best friends with Louis when Raphael first brought him home and that, after he came out and started transitioning, she became his self-appointed bodyguard that would fight anyone who so much as thought about misgendering her future brother-in-law. He also learnt that Raphael pistachio ice-cream, but not actual pistachios and that he once got extra points on a test because he drew the teacher a funny meme on the bottom of the page.

Couple of rounds in and they were all at least tipsy, whether it was because of the Butterbeer or the amount of sugar in the various sweets they ate. Halfborn was telling some random story from university, about what Magnus was exactly sure, and he started wondering whether he got into the school he wanted or not. The reply letter should be arriving any day now, after all.

“Say,” Raphael said to Helga and Agatha from where he was draped over Louis’s shoulder, “what do you two want to study?”

“I wanna study music,” Agatha said, with the kind of ease you had when you said something for the thousandth time.

“I don’ know what I wanna do,” Helga said. She had moved around in the booth so that she was sitting right next to Agatha with one arm around her waist. “I always assumed I would take on the family business, but that’s not happening, so I dunno… Maybe I’ll take a gap year. I can do whatever I want now.”

“Damn right, you can!” Alex cheered, slapping the table for emphasis. “To hell with stupid parents!”

Helga laughed and raised her glass along with Alex. “To hell with stupid parents!”

“Mmm, I’ll miss you, guys!” Mallory whimpered. “We won’t see each other as much once the next school year starts!”

Halfborn patted his sad girlfriend’s back, but T.J shook his head in disagreement. “Nah ah! We’ll see each other as much as we want! You ain’t getting rid of me that easy!”

Sam nodded from her seat next to Amir. “Yeah, things are ending because we’re finishing Hogwarts! It’s a new start!”

Any other time they would have teased her for sounding like a motivational speaker or a parent’s pep talk, but they couldn’t care less right now. “Yes!” Magnus agreed, raising his cup high (and dropping half its contents by accident in the process). “It’s a new start!”

Glasses were lifted up for a toast and the sound of them clanking together resonated in their little corner of Valhalla as they laughed and enjoyed the night.

/////

The closing ceremony the next day doubled as both the end of the school year and the end of the Triwizard Tournament. The ceremony would take place in the school grounds next to the Big Lake to take advantage of the summer weather and a large stage was set up in front of rows and rows of chairs.

The graduation ceremony took place first. Everybody, students and parents, were in their best clothes for the occasion. The three Headmasters took turns calling up their seventh year students and giving them their diploma (which was charmed to look like a diploma from a random highschool in case a muggle saw it). By the time the ceremony ended the stage was packed full of students and the audience was packed full of crying proud parents.

As the rest of the students left the stage, Magnus, Raphael and Helga waited on the stage like they had been told. They sat at the very back and waited silently until everybody was seated again. Once that finally happened, Headmaster Odin stepped to the front and cleared his throat before starting his speech.

Magnus would have loved to tell you what that speech was, but unfortunately he tuned it out after two minutes. What he could tell you was that it started with a pretty conceited and lightly history lesson about the origin of the Triwizard Tournament. He was sure that was an interesting story, but he didn’t really care to listen to it now.

His eyes scanned the crowd until he found Alex and his friends. They were seated somewhere in the middle, between the parents in the back and the important ministry and reporter folk in the front. They took up nearly an entire row on their own and when Alex noticed that he was looking at them, he waved happily. Magnus smiled, making the corners of his eyes crease as he waved back at him.

“Without further ado, it is time to award the three Champions,” Headmaster Odin said, finally getting to the point. “At third place, we have Helga Leifsson!”

Helga got up and walked to the front to get her medal, shoulders back and head held high, every bit as confident as when she arrived at Hogwarts and ten times happier. Headmistress Sonia put the bronze medal around her neck and Helga stood proudly as the reporters’ cameras flashed. Magnus couldn’t see her expression from the back, but Helga’s eyes fell on Agatha, who was beaming at her and giving her double thumbs up, and she smiled softly to herself.

“At second place we have Raphael Beaumont!”

Raphael made his way to the front. He kept his chin up and his gait was so confident you’d think he was the undisputed winner. He bowed his head and Headmaster Gilbert put the silver medal around his neck. The crowd went wild for him and, near the back, Alya was clapping for him while standing up on her chair, wolf-whistling and yelling supportive things in French.

“And finally, at first place we have the winner of the Triwizard Tournament, Magnus Chase!”

The crowd didn’t clap for him; no, they freaking roared. Applause and whistles and cheers filled the air, the cacophony they created louder than a thunderstorm. It was crazy to imagine so many people were clapping for him, that so many people were happy he won. He walked to the front of the stage in a daze, the applause seemingly getting louder with each step. His eyes drifted over the audience as Headmaster Odin gave him his medal. There were so many people – Hogwarts students, their families, reporters and guests, but they weren’t the only ones cheering. Durmstrang and Beauxbatons were clapping just as loudly, even if a lot of people were miffed that their Champion hadn’t won.

Raphael and Helga smiled at him as the Hogwarts Headmaster gave him the Cup and Magnus smiled back at them. He pulled them closer and hugged them as best as he could while holding the Cup with one arm. He had risked his life (and his mental health) alongside these people and he felt impossibly close to them, even if things didn’t start well with one of them.

At last, as the three Champions held up the Cup together, Headmaster Odin made the final declaration of the Tournament.

“The Triwizard Tournament is over!”

As the crowd gets up for a standing ovation, its uproar becoming even more thunderous, big multicolored bubbles floated over the audience. They shined like gems under the summer sun, casting bright colors on the people beneath them. They soon started bursting, spreading a glittering, fine powder over spectators. They air glimmered with every color of the rainbow, the sound of laughter and cheering as loud as church bells.

News reporters and paparazzi had already formed a thick wall around the steps that lead off the stage, each one of them eager to get an exclusive interview with one of the Champions, preferably Magnus or Helga. The Triwizard Tournament was quite popular for a competition between schools, but with the kind of tasks the competitors went through it was expected. Magnus cast a nervous glance at his fellow Champions, the ‘how in the name of Merlin’s garter belt are we supposed to get through that?’ clear in his eyes.

“Look confident,” Helga whispered. “They can smell fear.” Needless to say, that didn’t really reassure him.

Still, he tried to mimic Helga’s stance as they walked down the steps – shoulders squared, chest out, chin up and looking at every one like you’re a lion and they’re a tasty gazelle. Magnus probably looked more like a five year old after they first watched The Lion King, but he tried.

Reporters fired questions at them as soon as they set foot on the steps and Magnus would be lying if he said he was able to make out anything they said. It was simply indistinguishable yells, cameras and voice recorders being shoved into his face as the flashes blinded him. Raphael looked just as dazed by it all as him, but Helga managed to keep her cool and politely asked the reporters to let them leave. They didn’t seem to have heard her or, if they did, they didn’t care. Helga tried to pull Magnus and Raphael out by force, but they were clearly outnumbered.

“Hey, hey, get out of the way, come on!” Alex’s green mop of hair cut through the crowd of reporters, the rest of their friends right behind him. She popped through the tight ring of reporters under some lady’s armpit and stood in front of Magnus like a mama bear protecting her cubs. The rest of the gang formed a circle around the Champions, glaring openly at the reporters and being as frightening as they could, which – for most of them – wasn’t hard at all. (Halfborn was the size of an ox for crying out loud and there was just something very scary about Annabeth’s eyes when she glared at people.)

“They don’t wanna speak right now, so scram,” Alex said plain and simple. Unfortunately, that seemed to have the opposite effect.

“Are you Alexander Fierro by any chance?” A woman near the front asked, pushing the other reporters away and getting way too far into Alex’s personal space. “Would you like to tell us something about-“

“I don’t want to tell you anything,” Alex cut in, voice sharper than the woman’s eyeliner. ��Now let us pass.”

If the news reporters didn’t back away on their own, Halfborn and the rest of the Champion Protection Squad™ (also known as CH.P.S) (yes, they needed a better abbreviation) did a good enough job of simply pushing them out of the way by force.

“Thanks for that, guys,” Magnus said after they managed to get out of the reporters’ vice grip. Goodness, he was having flashbacks to being surrounded by man-eating spiders because of that. It probably wasn’t a flattering comparison for the reporters.

“No problem,” Louis said. Then, to Raphael, “Did I look scary?”

Raphael leaned in and pecked him on the cheek. “Fierce.”

Louis giggled, a light airy sound, and leaned in to kiss Raphael on the lips. Their kiss was sweet and slow and Magnus turned to Alex to give them privacy. “Je suis si fier de toi,” he heard Louis whisper in French and he would hazard a guess that Louis had said “I’m so proud of you”.

“So,” Alex started as they moved towards the larger buffet table where T.J was once again shoving food into his face, “how does it feel to win the Triwizard Tournament and be accepted into Healing School?”

“Pretty good- wait. Did you say I was accepted into Healing School?”

Alex broke into a wide grin and, to Magnus’s amazement, pulled out an envelope from the pocket of his jean (from Blitzen’s Best, enchanted so they had Mary Poppins-esque pockets). “This came in yesterday, but I wanted to surprise you after the award ceremony,” he said as he held the envelope out to Magnus.

Magnus took it carefully from Alex’s hands, as if the paper would dissolve into thin air if he wasn’t careful. The envelope was already open, but the letter was put back inside and Magnus pulled it out gingerly. He was met with the ornate insignia of the Wizarding University of London on the top of the page, beautiful golden vines wrapping around a piece parchment and a wand. His eyes skimmed over the letter, compliments about his N.E.W.T.s and his performance in the Tournament, until he found the words he was looking for.

You have been accepted into the Healing department of the Wizarding University of London.

Magnus’s eyes widened at seeing the actual words and a smiled spread across his face. He got in!

“I got in! I got in!” He said excitedly, gripping onto the letter tightly. Alex’s smile got even bigger as he watched Magnus freak out over being accepted into one of the best universities in the UK.

“I told you could do it,” he said and kissed Magnus’s cheek.

“Did you get in too?” Magnus asked.

“Yep! We’ll get to go to the same university!”

Suddenly, before even Magnus himself thought about what he was doing, he was cupping Alex’s face and kissing him on deeply on the lips. He only realized what he was doing when he felt Alex’s lips move against his own, but Alex didn’t pull away, only pull him closer and deepen the kiss.

“Sorry,” Magnus said breathlessly when they pulled apart. Their foreheads were still touching but Magnus didn’t feel like moving away and neither did Alex. “I just…” He never said ‘I’m happy’, but he didn’t need to.

“It’s okay,” Alex said. “I’m happy, too.”                

They stayed close like that for a little longer, neither of them wanting to be the first to pull away. They did so eventually, especially when they noticed one of the photographers taking pictures of them. They wandered off together, their fingers intertwined between them. They were munching on Hogwarts-shaped chocolates by the Lake when Magnus spoke up again.

“So, um,” he started, unsure of how to go on about this. He was absentmindedly tracing circles on the back of Alex’s hand with his thumb and Alex let himself enjoy the small gesture. “Annabeth told me that her dad wanted to see me, and I was kinda thinking about going over during summer.”

“Oh, nice,” Alex said as he took a sip from his cup.

“Yeah, and I was wondering… I mean, if you want… do you wanna come too?”

Alex didn’t spit his drink. No, that would be ridiculous. He choked on it.

“You want me to come with you to America?” He asked, coughing.

“Yeah, I mean…” Magnus sighed and rubbed at his neck with his free hand. “I asked Annabeth and she said it’s okay and it’ll be fun, so…?”

Alex beamed at him and kissed him on the lips. “Of course.”

Magnus smiled back and kissed Alex again. “This is going to be the best summer.”

“Hm, aren’t you excited to introduce me to your family?” Alex teased.

“Oh, you’ll probably burn a table or break a wall,” Magnus said, kissing Alex’s mocking pout. “You’ll fit right in.”

Alex chuckled, his breath warm against Magnus’s lips, and squeezed the blonde’s hand in his. It would be the best summer, he was sure, because it had been the best year.

Then, suddenly, the relative silence of conversation was interrupted by Raphael’s loud yell of, “Here comes the cake!”

Magnus turned around and, sure enough, there was Raphael and Louis pushing a large cart with the biggest cake Magnus had ever seen on top of it. It was even bigger than those triple layered wedding cakes! It was covered in white fondant, multicolored garlands and balloons decorating its edges. They all looked so delicate, down to the last detail. On the sides of each tier were the Three Tasks, each and every one made out of fondant. Magnus didn’t want to know how long it took to make, but it looked spectacular.

“Tada!” Louis said as he jumped out from behind the cart. “I made a cake to celebrate!”

“How… when did you even make this? How long did it even take?” Helga stammered out, staring at the cake’s decoration like a painting in a museum.

“Ah, you know, a bit,” Louis said, his cheeks coloring bashfully. “But I wanted to do something for the end of the Tournament, so I made my best cake. Dig in!”

House elves gave everybody forks and plates and the Headmasters cut the cake, giving the first three pieces to the Champions. Magnus’s last year at Hogwarts ended by eating chocolate cake with his friends, all of them sitting around a table and laughing together.

All was well. And it would get even better.

(Yes, I had to do the 'all was well' thing, come one, you know me)  (Also, I've been thinking that I really like the idea of trans!Louis since, like, the Yule Ball but I kept getting caught up in writing something else and forgot that I wanted to write it in until I had already posted the chapter, so sorry for only saying it in the last chapter)

And that's it! I can't tell you how proud I feel right now. I mean, I've been writing this since January and it's finally over. I wonder if that's what it feels likes when your child graduates... So yeah, I feel like a proud mama right now, but part of me knows I'm going to miss the constant stress and anxiety that comes with finding enough time to write and keep an update schedule (it's not bad during summer, but boy, was it something during the school year). I know that sounds bad, but I'm a masochistic shit and I kinda like it anyway.

I'm rambling. Anyway, what I wanted to say is THANK YOU SO MUCH to all of you for staying with me for this ride, through writer's block and gratuitous references and really slow slow burn. I can't tell you how much I've loved all your sweet comments, even when you were yelling at me for the slow burn being slower than a snail or how you hated Helga when she first showed up. Honestly, you've spoiled. How am I supposed to go without reading your comments? People have been telling me I seem more confident (my confidence is horrible, btw) or happier and I always think about how fun it was writing Bound X and this and you were all a big part of what made it so fun. So thank you :)

[magnus-the-maqnificent]

Hello! Do you have any good Malec fics that are either a high AU, enemies to lovers, or a fantasy AU? Also, do you have any Malec docs in general that are over 30 K words in length?

Heyo! 🙋‍♀️ Sorry this took a while 😅

I do have some of all three in my bookmarks and some of them are over 30k words.

High School AUs-

The Great Original Brilliant Successful Plan, cured by Aline Penhallow (one shot, they’re all disaster gays. By @littleturtle95)

Let’s Make Love Together (this one’s about 111k words sksksk. By @khaleesiofalicante )

Nail Polish and Sandalwood (this one’s over 30k too. malec are both actors in a school play)

Anonymity (this one’s smol but very cute. kind of like a social media au where they talk but they don’t know each other irl)

School Daze (by @my-archerboy. It’s not complete yet but I adore this fic. Look for trigger warnings in the tags before you read)

Expectations vs Reality (by me 🙈. It’s about 60k and it involves a lot of shenanigans and malec being the oblivious but lovable dumbasses that they are)

Enemies to Lovers -

Masters of War (one shot, this is more rivals to lovers than enemies to lovers)

Between the Lines (Good old cop-and-thief-cat-and-mouse-chase trope ft. a tragic backstory. 240k words)

(there aren’t many etl stories in my bookmarks??? its a tragedy smh)

Fantasy AUs-

Promises are Shapers of Fate (Prince!Alec x Warlock!Magnus. 27k words)

Catch and Release (Mermaid!Alec AU. 70k words)

Make The Last Year Count (Obligatory Hogwarts AU. Not sure if this counts as fantasy but imma include it here anyway. 75k words)

Shards of Winter (Soulmate AU. Based loosely around ‘The Snow Queen’. One shot.)

I hope that’s enough for now 🙈 Have fun reading!!

[ao3feed-fierrochase]

Magnus Chase and the Obligatory Hogwarts AU

read it on the AO3 at http://ift.tt/2kVLjgN

by Imwastingmylifeinhere

Do you really need a summary? The title says it all.

Words: 5353, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard - Rick Riordan

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/M, M/M

Characters: Magnus Chase, Alex Fierro, Samirah al-Abbas, Halfborn Gunderson, Thomas Jefferson Jr. (Magnus Chase), Mallory Keen, Blitzen (Magnus Chase), Hearthstone (Magnus Chase), Sif (Magnus Chase)

Relationships: Magnus Chase/Alex Fierro, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added

Additional Tags: Hogwarts AU, Fluff, With a side of angst, just a bunch of kids going through school

read it on the AO3 at http://ift.tt/2kVLjgN

[imwastingmylifeinhere]

Magnus Chase and the Obligatory Hogwarts Au Ch22

Hello, folks! I have an important announcement to make! My sister (remember her?) read this story because she was bored and liked it so she wanted to make some fanart! She has only finished one of the pieces as of now, but once she finishes all of them I'll post them on my tumblr. Tbh, I'm announcing this now so she won't lazy out on me ;) Anyway, enjoy some angst and fluff!

“And the Second Task is over, ladies and gentlemen! Magnus Chase is the victor of this task, with Raphael Beaumont in second place and Helga Leifsson in third!”

The Hall of the Slain was filled with clapping and cheering. Magnus had only stopped kissing Alex when Thor had made a comment about “young love” but he was still hugging her. He helped her get off the table despite her protests – he was afraid that she would feel dizzy or unsteady on her feet because of the poison and he didn’t want her to fall down and get hurt. She wasn’t happy about being treated so softly – “I’m not made from glass, Magnus, I can stand up without help” – but Magnus was prepared to put up with her complaining if it meant she would be ok. She swayed a bit when she stood up and she would have stumbled and fallen down if it wasn’t for Magnus’s arm under her armpit and around her back. He raised an eyebrow at her, smile tugging at his lips and she elbowed him in the ribs. He laughed and pecked her on the cheek.

Louis had woken up by now and he was sitting up on his table, Raphael next to him. The Beauxbatons Champion was hugging him close and Magnus saw his lips moving as he whispered things to him in French. Louis was hugging him back with a content smile on his lips, whispering back to his boyfriend and running his fingers through his curls to soothe him. When Raphael finally pulled himself away from Louis it was to pepper kisses all over the blonde’s face. There were tears in his eyes and it was clear to anyone watching that he was beyond happy that Louis was alright.

Agatha was awake too. She was the last to be given the antidote, just bare minutes before the time limit, but she was awake and well. The moment she woke up and sat up on the table, looking like nothing had happened and she had never been poisoned, Helga had collapsed in her arms and started sobbing. The blonde girl had been surprised, of course, but she quickly hugged her best friend back and started tracing circles on her back to cal her down. It only seemed to make her cry harder.

As the three Champions were reuniting with their loved ones, the audience was let out of the stands. Most didn’t bother going near the Champions to congratulate them; it was clear they had eyes for no one else but their ‘treasure’ right now. The ones who did were each Champion’s closest friends.

The whole group – Sam, Amir, T.J, Mallory and Halfborn – went straight to Magnus and Alex. The smiles on their faces were wide and the enveloped Magnus and Alex in a hug the moment they were close to them. Sam, like the mum friend she was, hugged them like they had just come back from saving the world. T.J, Mallory and Amir were hugging them as well and they were all held inside Halfborn’s big arms. All in all, Magnus and Alex felt like they were being killed by hugs.

“You did it!” Mallory said, maybe a bit too loudly in his ears. There were congratulations coming from every side and he wasn’t able to figure out who said what, but he didn’t care. After everything he went through in the Second Task, especially the boggart, he really needed the hugs.

When they finally let go – and it took a few good minutes for that – Magnus could see in the worry in their eyes and he realized it must be because of what they saw happen in the Divination classroom. Still, they didn’t bring it up and Magnus was glad about that.

Before he was able to say anything, Professor Blitzen came up from behind him and hugged him along with Professor Hearthstone. It took Magnus by surprise and his hand slipped from inside Alex’s. He was frozen inside his guardians’ embrace, rendered speechless by the sheer parental love that seemed to be oozing from them. Their hug was steady, strong, as if it was telling him “We’re here.”

When they finally pulled away they smiled at him. “We’re proud of you, buddy,” Blitzen said and Hearthstone nodded next to him.

If you ever need to talk about anything, Hearth signed, come to us. You know we love you.

“I will. Thank you,” Magnus replied, signing the words as he spoke.

Blitzen and Hearthstone smiled again at him before walking away to Professor Sif, who was calling them. Magnus was holding Alex’s hand again and he was about to say they should go see how Raphael and Louis are doing when a loud yell made everybody in the hall freeze.

“No!” A girl’s voice yelled, deafening and furious. Magnus glanced at Alex for a moment before he run through the crowd that let him pass easily.

Helga was standing there, in the middle of the ring the students had formed, her parents opposite her. There was fear but also a strange confidence in Helga’s gaze and the way she held her hand up made Magnus think that she had just yanked it away from them. She stood in front of Agatha protectively, like she wanted to shield the shorter girl from her parents’ gaze. “I’m not coming with you!”

Her parents obviously weren’t happy with that little show of defiance. Both their faces were red, shock and anger twisting their features. It probably wouldn’t take long for smoke to start coming out of Helga’s father’s ears and make his bad wig fly off his head.

“Nu, lystna härtill unga dam-” Helga’s father was saying something in Swedish and while Magnus didn’t have a clue what he was saying, it didn’t sound too good. He found himself feeling bad for Helga – it was clear from what he had heard between her and her family when he was hiding behind the tapestry that their relationship was bad at best.

“No!” Helga interrupted her father again. The sound of English coming out of her mouth seemed to make him angrier. He said something again in Swedish, probably to stop talking in English, but Helga was having none of it. “No, if you have something to say, then say it in English! A Leifsson doesn’t have something to hide, right?” Magnus would have to be stupid not to catch the bitter sarcasm in her voice at the end.

“Fine, if that’s how you want to do it,” Her father scoffed, his voice sharp and cold, his eyes even colder. Magnus couldn’t understand how he could glare at his own daughter like that, with such anger and disappointment. “I wanted to spare you the humiliation of having this talk in public, but it seems like you don’t care if your reputation suffers because of this. But then again,” he laughed, and Magnus hated the sound of it – bitter and harsh, as if he was laughing at someone so much below him, “you and your brother have already marred the Leifsson name, so what was I expecting?”

Helga’s eyes narrowed even further and her fists clenched at her sides. Her face was red with fury.  “Don’t you dare talk about Ron like that!” she growled at her father, taking a step forward. She was glaring at them with such intensity it was a wonder they hadn’t dropped dead already. Helga’s mother took a step back and her father, despite trying to hide it, was obviously shaken by her words. Magnus’s couldn’t blame them – right now, Helga was terrifying.

“Oh, please, that boy was trouble from the very begging!” Her father yelled back. Shaken or not, it seemed like he wasn’t going to let his daughter get the best of him. “No wonder he turned out the way he did!”

“Turned out what way?” Helga demanded, taking one more step forward threatenigly. Her chest was heaving and her voice deafeningly loud. She was finally letting out everything she’d bottled up and she couldn’t hold it back any longer. “Happy? Brave enough to be who he wanted despite the bullshit way you raised both of us?”

Helga’s mother gasped. “Language, young lady!”

“Oh, please,” Helga said as she rolled her eyes. The rage in her voice, in her eyes, in her whole body had made everyone in the room freeze. Agatha was still standing behind her, concern clear in her eyes, but also something else – a knowledge this had to happen. “What, are you afraid that your perfect little girl cursing will get you a bad reputation? That those stupid ‘friends’ of yours will talk about you behind your back? Newsflash, they already do!”

“We’re your parents!” her mother shot back pathetically, her voice too high-pitched. “You can’t talk about us like that!”

Helga froze for a second, mouth slightly ajar, like she couldn’t believe her mother had actually used that card. Everything was still for a single moment and then Helga erupted. “I can when you always treated Ron and me as little more than robots!” she bellowed, stepping even closer to her parents, who were looking at their daughter speechless. “We were never your children, we were just the heirs to your stupid fortune! Just another object to prove to the world and your judgmental rich friends that you had a successful life!”

There were tears running down her face now but they didn’t stop her from saying everything she’s waited so long to say. “Did you ever even care about us?” She stepped forward again. “Did you care that Ron had panic attacks because of how much you pressured him to have good grades? That he had to calm me down after I started crying every time you yelled at me for not being the perfect little princess you wanted me to be?” Her voice hitched at the end as she sobbed and she took another step. “That I had to force him to sleep or eat when he was studying because he would rather starve than face your wrath for disappointing you? That I was always ‘the Leifsson girl’ to everyone and not just myself?” Another step. “That the only reason why I managed to deal living with you after you made him leave was because Agatha and her family was there to do what you never did? That Ron was too paranoid to hold Henry’s hand because he was afraid you would somehow find out and kick him out and then I’d have to deal with you alone?”

Helga was crying hard now and her hand was buried into her hair, pulling at the strands as she laughed brokenly. “And- and that when you finally found out he was gay and you threw him out, he was happier away from you?” She pointed an accusatory finger and her parents and moved even closer to them. They didn’t move. “That he has a great career and a boyfriend that loves him that he wants to propose to even though you told him he would never amount to anything when you kicked him out? Did you care? No you didn’t, you fucking didn’t!” Her voice rose at the end and Magnus saw that her parents flinched away.

“So I don’t know why I cared!” She kept yelling, somehow getting the words out despite all her tears. “I don’t know why I cared so much about your opinion!” Another step. “Do you know how many things I did just so you would be proud of me? But did you ever say ‘good job’?” One more step. “Did you ever just pat me on the back for trying? With you it was always awards and being the best! In school,” step, “in sports,” step, “in looks,” step, “in behavior,” step, “always the best according to what you thought of as best, even if your best meant I couldn’t be who I wanted to do what I wanted.”

“Helga…” It wasn’t her father who spoke, or her mother. They weren’t apologizing for all the accusations Helga was hurling at them. No, the one who spoke was Agatha, a tentative hand on Helga’s shoulder. It seemed to calm her down because she wasn’t crying anymore and when she spoke her voice was even.

“You saw what happened with the boggart.” She spoke calmly, no longer screaming, but there was a passion in her voice. She was standing a step away from her parents, her back held straight and her eyes blazing with the bravery she needed to be facing two

The screens up on the walls were showing what had happened when Helga was facing the third guardian – she was trembling on her knees in front of an older version of herself that looked and acted just like her parents. On-screen Helga was watched in horror as her older self talked horribly to Agatha and made her cry. “I won’t be like that. I won’t be like you.”

“Fine,” her father said, his voice steely cold. “You won’t be like us then. You won’t have our name either, not unless you apologize for how you just spoke to your parents. I’m giving you one last chance, young lady”

A loud collective gasp went through the crowd of students, but Helga didn’t seem surprised. She just looked at her parents with an icy confidence. “I know I have to apologize to people. You’re not part of them.”

“Very well.” Her parents said nothing else. They turned around and left the Hall of the Slain without spare a single look for their daughter. Helga watched them go until the door slammed shut behind them.

The murmuring in the crowd got even louder when Helga’s parents left. Magnus felt awkward, like he wanted to do something but didn’t know what or how. A glance at Alex told him she felt the same way.

Helga and Agatha still stood in the middle of the circle of students that were slowly dispersing. Agatha’s face was the dictionary definition of worry but her movements when she took Helga’s hand weren’t slow or hesitant but sure. I’m here, she seemed to say. She knew Helga needed this and didn’t give her actions a second though.

Helga didn’t hesitate either; she wrapped her arms around Agatha’s back and hid her face in the crook of her neck. She started trembling as Agatha petted her hair and muffled crying laughter came out of her lips.

“Are you alright?” she asked in Swedish and while Magnus couldn’t understand the words he could understand the affection in her voice.

“I’m not,” Helga replied. “But I will be. I had to do that.”

“I know,” Agatha said back softly. She tucked a strand of Helga’s hair behind her ear and kissed her forehead. “I’m proud of you.”

A few seconds passed as they stood there. The moment felt awfully intimate and Magnus had to look away.

“There’s something else I have to do,” Helga said quietly before pulling herself out of Agatha’s arms. Much to Magnus’s surprise, she turned to them and started walking towards them. Her eyes might have still been red from tears but she had back the same confidence as always. This was the first time Magnus noticed how frail that confidence was.

Helga finally stood a few steps from Alex, looking her straight in the eye. Magnus’s friends and Agatha all looked at the two girls with curiosity, but Agatha seemed to realize what was happening because she smiled approvingly.

Despite everything that had just happened there was still hostility in Alex’s eyes; just because she could relate with Helga for shit parents didn’t mean she would forget what she did or forgive her for it so easily.

“I’m sorry,” Helga said simply. Alex just looked at her; that wasn’t enough. Helga took a deep breath and kept going. “I’m sorry,” she said again. “I know that’s not enough and I don’t expect it to be enough. I was a bitch.” The corners of Alex’s lips lifted up in the barest smiled and she nodded. “I was too much of a coward to act different than my parents. I don’t expect you to forgive me; to be honest, I wouldn’t forgive me if I were in your place. But I needed to say this.”

There was silence for a moment as Alex and Helga simply looked at each other. Magnus had to admit he admired Helga a bit for facing her fuck-ups head on like this, but he wasn’t sure he had forgiven her completely just yet.

“I won’t forgive you,” Alex finally said. “Not yet. Maybe someday, but not now. Maggie would probably forgive you more quickly but I’m not that good a person.”

Magnus let out a sound of protest at the nickname but Helga smiled. She had been expecting that. “Then I guess I should become a person worth forgiving by then, huh?”

Alex nodded. “Yep. Good luck.”

“Sooo,” Agatha said in a sing-song tone to cheer up Helga and break the tension in the air. “Since your parents aren’t in the picture anymore, does that mean I can hold your hand now?”

Helga chuckled a bit, tension successfully broken, and took Agatha’s hand. “Yeah, I guess.” She smiled at the other girl and Agatha smiled back.

“Excuse moi,” Raphael said suddenly. He was standing amongst Magnus’s friends, his left hand clasping Louis’s right tightly. “I’m sorry if I’m wrong, but are you two together?”

Helga and Agatha immediately flushed red.

“Yes?” Agatha asked with a smile, squeezing Helga’s hand a bit.

Helga smiled back and nodded. “Yes.” She liked the word on her tongue. She hadn’t thought she’d ever be able to call Agatha her girlfriend without feeling scared.

Magnus could help smiling a bit at the cute scene in front of him before he realized something. “Okay, wait, so if you’re gay,” he pointed at Raphael, “and you’re…” he trailed off, pointing at Helga.

“Lesbian,” she said smiling. Saying it loudly felt nice.

Magnus nodded. “Okay, so if Raphael is gay and you’re gay and I’m pan that means that none of this year’s Champions are straight.”

“Huh, you’re right. I hadn’t thought of that,” Raphael said with a chuckle. “Anyway, Louis and I should be going. After that whole thing I desperately need a nap.” Raphael and Louis left the Hall of the Slain together, hands intertwined between them. They probably wouldn’t let go of each other for quite some time.

“We should go to the infirmary to get your arm checked,” Agatha said to Helga, eyeing her arm with worry. Whatever spell Helga cast on her arm might have stopped the bleeding but a hippogriff’s talons left deep wounds and it was bad enough it was left like that for that long.

Helga agreed with her new girlfriend and the two of them had started to leave when Helga turned around. “Goodbye,” she told Alex. Her whole posture seemed awkward but her voice was polite. A week ago she wouldn’t have even bothered to say the word to Alex, let alone be polite about it. It was a clumsy attempt, but it was a start for change. As the two girls left the dining hall, Magnus saw Agatha smiling and Helga.

“Should we be going too?” Alex asked, tugging at his hand a bit. “I want to hear what happened in the second task. I can’t believe I was asleep during the whole thing. I wanted to see you kick ass.”

Magnus chuckled at the pout on his girlfriend’s face and felt so grateful she was here next to him and no longer on the cold table. “Alright. It’s not an epic story though.”

“Nah, I’m sure it’s epic,” Alex said. “At the very least you got your ass epically handed to you, right?”

“Ha ha. Very funny.” Magnus tried to frown as he talked but the effect was ruined by how happy he was that Alex was well enough to be teasing him like always. Alex chuckled at him and kissed him on the cheek. Magnus may have been smiling like an idiot.

“Ugh, Mallory, they’re being lovey-dovey again,” Halfborn groaned in protest, making the others snort at him.

“Oh, shut up. You wanted them to get together just as much as the rest of us,” Mallory said.

“Yeah, but I didn’t know they’d be this grossly in love!”

“Oh, that’s nothing,” Alex cut in before Mallory had the chance to say something to her boyfriend. “This is grossly in love.”

Much to Halfborn’s disdain, Alex leaned in and covered Magnus’s lips with her own, a smirk on her lips. The kiss in itself was sweet and simple and Magnus loved it. They moved their lips together for a bit, their movements perfectly synchronized from so much practice. Alex’s palms were cupping his cheeks, her thumbs running circles on his cheekbones, and Magnus’s hands rested just above her hips. Magnus smiled against her lips and kissed her more.

When they pulled away for air Magnus heard Halfborn sigh relieved. “Oh, thank Merlin, they stopped.” But they had only stopped for a second before their lips were joined again. “Oh, come on!”

Magnus didn’t care for Halfborn’s protests, not when Alex was kissing him like this, her lips so soft and warm. He trailed his arms up her sides until they were wrapped around her neck and he pulled her closer. He leaned his head to deepen the kiss and Alex reacted enthusiastically, pressing her lips against his harder. She ran her tongue against his lower lip and he opened his mouth happily. His whole body felt as hot as a light bulb and he would be surprised if his whole body was glowing.

They pulled apart with a content sigh leaving Magnus’s lips. Were they to look at anything else but each other they would have seen that Sam and Amir were looking the other way to give them privacy, T.J was filming the whole thing so he could play it at their wedding and Mallory was laughing at the suffering on Halfborn’s face. As it were, they were about to lean in to kiss again when Halfborn interrupted them with a loud, “Get a room, goddamn it!”

“Fine!” Alex said back just as loud. “We will!” She took Magnus’s hand again and they left the Hall of the Slain together.

“Two galleons Magnus will be limping tomorrow!” Magnus heard T.J say as they left the room. His face flushed at the implication. Damn teenage hormones.

“You know they’ll be teasing us for this for the next week at the least, right?” he asked Alex as they walked down the halls.

“Yeah, but you have to admit that was a great exit.”

Magnus snorted. “True. So, what do you want to do now?”

“Mm… How about you go get us some food from the kitchens and we go hang out at the Room of Requirement while you tell me what happened in the second task?”

“Will there be kissing?” Magnus asked with a grin. After everything that happened today he wanted to lie down and kiss Alex until dinner.

“Hmm…” Alex tapped her chin with her free hand as she made a show of thinking over his offer, even though they both knew she liked kissing just as much as he did. “Alright,” she said finally. “But I want one of those pink and green cupcakes.”

Magnus kissed her cheek before letting go of her hand and doing a deep, exaggerated bow. “Your wish is my command, milady.”

Alex giggled at him and Magnus though that his smile was wide enough to split his face in two. “Did you just call me ‘milady’?”

“And what if I did?”

Alex laughed at the mischievous twinkle in Magnus’s eyes and Magnus felt his heart flutter at the sound of her laughter like every time. “You’re a dork.”

“Ah,” he said with a cheeky smile, wiggling a finger in her face, “but I’m a dork that’s getting a cupcake and cookies.”

Alex kissed him in the cheek with a snort. “Yeah, that’s the only reason I’m keeping you around.”

Magnus feigned a surprised gasp. “I knew you were only using me!”

“That’s right,” Alex said with her best cartoon villain imitation, hands held out at either side of her like she was holding two very large oranges. “I was only using you for your sweets and your body!”

Magnus’s laughed at Alex’s antics, feeling the warm feeling of happiness spread through his entire body. He leaned in and kissed Alex on the lips, trying to make her understand all the joy he felt at having her by his side safe and sound through a single kiss. He wasn’t sure if she understood, maybe she did, but if she didn’t then he’d just have to kiss her until she did

“I love you,” he said when he pulled away. It took a few moments before his stupidly in love brain realized what he had just said and his face went red. Alex was looking at him with dish-wide eyes and an open mouth, surprise evident on her face. Magnus was about to open his mouth to apologize for springing that on her but he didn’t get the chance. Alex practically pounced on him and kissed him with everything she had. Magnus was so surprised that he stumbled backwards and he would have fallen down if it wasn’t for the wall behind him. As it was, Alex had him pined to the wall, her hands holding his face as she kissed him hard enough to forget his own name.

When she pulled apart her face was beautifully flushed, a bright smile on her lips and her two-colored eyes shining. Magnus was panting and his intelligent respond was a breathless, “Woah.”

Alex laughed, the sound music to Magnus’s ears, and she leaned in to kiss him again, this time gentler, softer. Magnus closed his eyes and got lost in the kiss, burying his finger in her soft hair.

When Alex pulled away she beamed at him like she was living a dream she never thought would come true. “I love you too, Maggie.”

“You had to ruin the moment, didn’t you?” Magnus frowned at her but not all the frowns in the word could hide how happy he felt right now.

“Aw, come on, don’t be like that,” Alex said as she nuzzled her nose against Magnus’s. “You wuv me.”

Magnus leaned in to press his lips to Alex’s. “That I do. Can’t understand why, though.”

Alex laughed again and Magnus laughed with her. There, against a Hogwarts wall, his forehead pressed against Alex’s, simply breathing in each other’s sent, Magnus felt happy.

I honestly think my blood sugar rose just by writing that last bit.

My sister wants me to kill Helga's parents, btw. Tell me if you agree.

Nu, lystna härtill unga dam – Now, listen here young lady

[imwastingmylifeinhere]

Magnus Chase and the Obligatory Hogwarts Au Ch23

Here's a new chapter! Tbh, I'm not sure what to think about this chapter, it's honestly a filler chapter. However, I have something to show you! Here is the first piece of fanart my sister made! I thought I'd post the link now since she might still lazy out on me.

The rest few months until the Third Task went by quietly. And ‘quietly’ meant that Magnus didn’t fight against deadly beasts or finally get together with the girl-sometimes-boy of his dreams. What had every fifth and seventh year student in over their heads was something much different and much worse.

Exams.

The N.E.W.T.s and O.W.L.s were moved to an earlier time in the year since they normally would have happened at the week of the Third Task. Their new date had the students that would be sitting them in a frenzy; seventh year students in particular were rarely seen without a textbook in their hands or notes in their pockets. Many of them sported black circles under their eyes and the corridor leading to the kitchens smelt perpetually of coffee.

Magnus and his friends weren’t any better off. The earlier date of the exams meant that the weeks before the exams that were devoted in reviewing the material of each class were significantly cut down and most of their time now was spent cramming as much knowledge into their heads as possible. Bless Magnus and his house elves connections because they would have died of exhaustion long ago if he hadn’t been providing them with coffee and chocolate.

T.J was aiming for either Auror training or a position in the Ministry of Justice. He hadn’t been able to choose one, even though he had been thinking about it ever since his O.W.L.s, so he had decided to apply to both and see what happened later. A fine strategy, if only for the fact it meant he needed the N.E.W.T.s both jobs required. He might be good at studying, but it was getting a bit much even for a Ravenclaw.

Mallory was quite honestly lost about what she wanted to do after school ended. She decided to apply for Auror for no other reason other than that it seemed cool and she wouldn’t mind beating up people for a job. She didn’t have any problems with DADA but Potions were killing her. Last Wednesday she fell asleep on top of her Potions textbook. She had the instruction for a poison printed on her cheek when she woke up. Her other alternative was applying for an internship in Blitzen’s Best.

Sam, after some coaxing and support from her friends, had decided to risk it and try out for Quidditch teams. She had been approached by some scouts on occasion who told her that if she wanted to pursue it he should try out for their teams. She was nervous she wouldn’t succeed as a professional but her friends, especially Alex, had quickly called bullshit on that. She was studying hard for her N.E.W.T.s nevertheless because she was Sam and it was a matter of pride.

Alex wanted to get into art school so most of her time was spent going through her art to decide which she should put in her portfolio and studying so she wouldn’t flunk her N.E.W.T.s.  She had paint and clay on her nails all the time and Magnus would laugh every time she had come to breakfast with paint on her face from painting late at night.

Magnus was slaving over Potions and Healing textbooks. He wanted to become a Healer after Hogwarts finished and while he was good at healing he was nervous he wouldn’t go as well as he needed to at the other lessons.

Long story short, they were all missing sleep and suffering in the Hogwarts library. Halfborn would laugh at them in all the letters he sent them, most of them boiling down to “Ha ha, now it’s your time to suffer, I already went through this hell.”

The students of the other two schools had it just as bad with their respective exams and all of them bonded over a simple truth of life: exams suck.

And then, finally, the day of reckoning had arrived. Fifth and seventh year students of all schools were crowded outside the larger rooms of the castle, dreading the moment the large doors would open once the previous exam was over and they’d have to go inside or waiting anxiously for a friend who was already  inside every student’s hell on earth.

Alex was in the latter group. This particular classroom was one of the smallest exam rooms and the N.E.W.T.s of subjects less people took were held there. He had just come out of his Muggle Studies exam – a subject Magnus had chosen not to sit – and he was waiting for Magnus to finish his Healing exam. He knew Magnus would do well, heck, if there was a higher mark than “Outstanding” he would take it; he was talented at healing, probably the best in the class, even though the idiot wouldn’t admit it. He couldn’t help worrying a little bit, though – mostly about whether his boyfriend would write well without making stupid mistakes because he was going through the test too fast.

Finally, the door opened and the head of every student outside it turned to its direction. The Healing students came out, looking anywhere from tired to ‘I want to crawl inside a hole and die’. Alex caught sight of Magnus’s blonde head near the back of the group and he stepped to the side so he could ambush his boyfriend more efficiently.

“Maggie!” he yelled a bit too loudly, throwing his arms around his boyfriend and hugging him from behind. Magnus was just a couple centimeters shorter than him, which meant he was perfect for hugging (and stealing clothes from). “How did the exam go?”

“Pretty well. I might have made a mistake at the one exercise, but I think I did well,” he said, sounding fairly confident about himself and Alex kissed his cheek. At the start of their relationship Alex hugging him out of nowhere like he had now would have sent him toppling over and kissing his cheek in front of people would have made him flush and splutter. Now he hardly stumbled and okay, he blushed, but he didn’t splutter.

“I told you you’d do great. Do you want that congratulatory kiss now?” Before Magnus sat his Potions N.E.W.T – which Alex also took – he joked about getting a kiss for good luck. Alex, who was doing some last-minute cramming, told him he’d get a kiss as long as neither of them died during the exam. It had become a sort of joke between them and now they always asked the other for a kiss after they came out of an exam.

“I do, but maybe we should go somewhere else and not start making out in front of the exam room.”

Alex nodded begrudgingly and stopped hugging them to lace their finger together. They had been scolded a couple of times from teachers for their PDA, and while they hadn’t got in trouble for it, the general rule was that anything beyond a kiss on the cheek was only for more secluded places.

They made their way to the library hand in hand while Magnus told Alex about his exam, even though Alex only knew the basics when it came to healing. Still, he listened and made sarcastic comments here and then, making Magnus snort and laugh.

“And then there was this really basic question, like ‘What do you do if someone is unconscious and you don’t know why-‘“

“You slap them till they wake up so you can ask them!” Alex had cut in at one point and Magnus had laughed so loud at the enthusiasm in his eyes and voice that he snorted. The sound had made Alex laugh too and the portraits on the walls had been looking at them with anything from ‘Aw, young love’ to ‘Stupid children���.

“You know, if you keep calling me Maggie, I need to find a nickname for you too,” Magnus said with a grin after they had stopped laughing like idiots. “What about Ferraris?”

“What?” Alex snorted. Magnus calling him Ferraris made him imagine himself as a car from that Pixar movie and wow, was that a weird mental image.

“What about Figaro?” Magnus went on. He wouldn’t stop until he found a nickname that annoyed Alex just as much as ‘Maggie’ annoyed him.

Alex chuckled. “No.”

“Ferrero Roche?”

“What the-“ Alex started and Magnus made a mental note to use that one, or at least get her some of those chocolates at one point. He’d probably get punched for it but it’d be worth it.

Turning down a corner, Magnus noticed a group of students huddled over the Daily Prophet. An crying Helga screamed to the world from the first page. The fight after the Second Task had quickly made it to the headlines – the heir to one of the richest wizarding families revealing such things about her home life was like a chest of treasure for reporters. Someone had recorded nearly the whole argument and it had been sod for quite a price to the highest bidding newspaper.

Helga’s parents had been having a hell of a time trying to save their image but it was no use. Magnus had read some of the interviews they did in hopes of appearing good again but nothing they said could fix what had happened. On the other side, Helga was receiving letters from newspapers who wanted to interview her every day. She had been adamant that she had no wish to have an interview but the letters hadn’t stopped coming until a furies Agatha sent Howlers to each and every newspaper.  

Once at the library, Magnus noticed Louis and Raphael sitting at one of the tables in front of the windows. Raphael was bend over a book with his head in his hands, looking like he was about to either start crying or bang his head on the table in hopes it would get him to pass out. Louis looked much better on the other hand, a book and a notebook open in front of him and a pencil in his hand. A plate of half-eaten cookies lay between them and Louis swatted Raphael’s hand away when the other tried to take one. They heard Louis say something in French as they walked closer and Alex translated for him.

“He said ’I told you, you can only have one after you’re done with that chapter’.”

Raphael was in the middle of protesting when Magnus and Alex reached them.

“Hey, Raphael,” Magnus said in greeting. “Mind if we sit here?”

“Please sit,” Raphael replied, still frowning because he got no cookie. “I need witness of the horrors he puts me through for court.”

“Oh, stop being dramatic,” Louis said exaggeratedly. “You know as well as I do that you have to study this.”

Raphael was still pouting. “But doesn’t mean I like it.” Louis sighed and rolled his eyes.

“What are you studying?” Magnus asked curiously. He was pulling out his Healing book to check over the answers he gave in the exam while Alex was getting her sketchbook ad art supplies out of her bag.

“History of Magic,” Raphael all but groaned as he let his head fall on the textbook’s open pages.

Magnus flinched at the mention of that subject and Alex groaned. “I hate that subject.”

“I hate the way it’s taught,” Raphael said as he raised his head up from his book. “It could be so interesting if done correctly but our teacher just drones on and on. How are we supposed not to fall asleep?” Raphael’s voice rose higher and higher and the librarian shushed them angrily.

“Anyway,” the French champion continued in a whisper, “now I have to learn all of this shit for tomorrow, even all the useless details not even our teacher remembers.”

Magnus nodded solemnly; he had suffered horribly to learn what he needed to for the History of Magic exam.

The four of them went back to studying in companionable silence. Louis was taking notes from his text book, Raphael was groaning every five minutes, Alex was sketching something and Magnus the questions from the exam. At one point Alex leaned forward and took a cookie from the plate. When Louis didn’t protest Raphael pouted at him and called him a traitor. Louis grinned but otherwise ignored his boyfriend; he just wanted an excuse to procrastinate.

The blonde’s eyes instead fell on Alex’s sketchbook. On the page was an almost finished sketch of Magnus smiling as he read his book, the light from the window making his eyes shine.

“That’s really good,” Louis said with a smirk. “You want to get into Art School?”

“Yeah.” Alex turned the sketchbook away so Magnus wouldn’t be able to see what it was he had been drawing. He’s drawn him a lot without his boyfriend finding out and he’s not going let Magnus find out and start teasing him about it. “I’ve done better than this, though. It’s just a sketch.”

Louis grinned even wider and Alex glared at him with burning cheeks. He made a gesture like he was zipping his lips shut and the blonde Frenchman nodded.

“What do you want to do?” Louis asked Magnus, taking the subject away from Alex’s sketches of his boyfriend.

“I want to be a healer,” Magnus answered simply. He didn’t have a clue that Alex had been drawing him or that he had a sketchbook worth’s of such drawings. “You?”

“I want to open a pastry shop,” Louis said. His eyes were twinkling, like he could already picture everything about his future shop. “Wizards have so many unique sweets but they completely ignore Muggle ones. I want my shop to sell both as well as the ones I make on my own. I’ve been working on some ideas.”

“If the cake you gave me is anything to go by your shop will be a hit,” Magnus said with a smile. He was kind of bummed the shop didn’t already exist because he would love to eat everything inside it.

“Oh, it’s definitely going to be a hit,” Raphael said, smiling proudly. He wrapped his arms around Louis’s shoulders and nuzzled his face into the other boy’s neck. “My boyfriend’s awesome.”

Louis blushed but he turned his to the side and kissed Raphael’s head. “My boyfriend is more awesome.”

“Are we that cheesy too?” Alex whispered to Magnus’s ear. Magnus shrugged.

“What do you want to do, Raphael?” Alex asked, hoping it would stop the other couple from making out in front of them.

Raphael instantly perked up and he started explaining to Magnus and Alex what it was he wanted to do with the excitement of a small child. Louis watched him ramble with a fond smile on his face.

“I want to study magic in different countries,” he started, his eyes glittering. “My grandparents’ immigrated to France and they use some spells I’ve never even heard of. I want to study how magic differs from place to place.” His face fell a bit and he sighed heavily. “But I need to get really good CR.E.P.E.s to make sure I’ll be able to apply for the different courses around the world. That’s why I’m dying over these textbooks.”

Alex raised a brow in question. “Crepes?”

Louis snorted. “Yes. It’s the equivalent of N.E.W.T.s in France.” He sounded like he had memorized the words. They probably had to explain it to a lot of different people recently. “It stands for Cripplingly Exhausting Proficiency Exam.”

Magnus and Alex laughed at the name. They probably didn’t have the right to talk when wizarding exams at the UK were called W.O.M.B.A.T, O.W.L and N.E.W.T but it still seemed funny to them.

“Do you have an exam called croissant too?” Magnus asked, still chuckling a bit.

“Yeah,” Raphael said, deadly serious. “Though I always forget what that stands for.”

Leaving pastry named exams aside, the four of them went back to their business. Time passed by relatively easily, the silence of the library punctuated only by coughs and the pained groans of studying students. Once they decided that enough was enough and that Raphael would sustain lasting damage if he read one more page about the goblin rebellion they left the library together.

“Did you hear about what happened with the lawsuit?” Magnus asked at one point. After the second task, the parents of Louis and Agatha as well as several other angry parents had sued the schools for putting the three students in danger. The Headmasters were drowning in angry letters.

“I think they got away, but they’ll have to pay compensation to the Champions and the people they poisoned,” Raphael said. His shoulders were slumped and Magnus was pretty sure he would pass out if they didn’t put some caffeine in him soon.

“How did they even get away with that?” Alex asked incredulously.

“I heard it’s because the poison wouldn’t have killed us but just give us bad fever,” Louis said. He thought that was stupid and he didn’t try to stop it from showing in his voice.

“That doesn’t make it okay,” Magnus huffed.

“The second task was fucked up in general,” Alex grumbled. “I mean, what messed up psycho thought it be a good idea to force you to face the embodiment of your worse fears?”

Magnus squeezed Alex’s hand. After he had explained to Alex what happened during the second task, especially what happened at the Divination classroom, and needless to say the Slytherin didn’t like it. He spent the next ten minutes pacing up and down the Room of Requirement and shouting obscenities about whoever came up with that part of the task.

“Alex,” he had said, trying to get her to calm down. Alex didn’t pay attention to him.

“Who do they think they are? What if one of you had a panic attack or-“

“Alex!” He had spoken louder that time and it managed to get Alex to stop talking. “It’s alright,” he had continued, taking Alex’s hand and making her sit down next to him on the couch. “I’m alright. Nothing happened to me. I’m fine.”

“But you shouldn’t have to go through that,” Alex had protested. “You shouldn’t have to relive your mother’s death or see any of us die or…” Alex’s voice had broken and she took a deep, shaky breath. “I remember how broken you were in fourth year when your mum died. You shouldn’t have to go through that again. I don’t want to see you like that again.”

“Alex, I’m alright,” he had pressed on but Alex wouldn’t look at him. He had brought his hand up to her cheek and turned her face so she was facing him. “I’m alright,” he had repeated. “I know my mum’s dead and I can’t do anything to change that. I know you and everybody else are alright and I can do something to keep it that way. It’s alright.”

Alex had sighed and she wrapped her arms around Magnus, holding him tight to her chest. Magnus’s head had been buried the crook of her neck. She had started tracing circles on his back and Magnus had gotten lost in her warmth.

“You know we’re here, right?” She had said quietly after a moment. “You won’t lose us.”

Magnus had tightened his arms around her waist and nuzzled closer to her neck. “I know,” he had said. “Since when are you so affectionate?”

Alex had chuckled and the heavy tension between them had broken. “Since now,” she had said with a laugh before leaning in and kissing him softly.

“Magnus? Magnus?”  Alex’s voice snapped him out of his memories and he turned to him.

“Are you alright? You spaced out for a bit,” Alex went on.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine, I was just thinking.” Alex didn’t seem to be buying it but he let the subject drop.

“Anyway, I agree with Alex about the second task,” Louis said, continuing from where they had left off. “I mean, they didn’t know what your worse fear was, what if it made one of you faint or have a panic attack?” Louis’s face had gone red and his voice had risen an octave near the end. The though alone obviously made him nervous and his hands were twitching by his sides. Raphael reached out and took Louis’s hand in his own. The contact seemed to calm Louis down and he sighed heavily, running a hand through his hair.

“Sorry, Raph. It’s just…” he sighed. “You get anxious enough about exams as it is; I don’t want this to make it worse. I’m just worried.”

Raphael smiled and leaned in to peck Louis on the cheek. “(I’m alright, mon cher,)” he said. He was trying to be reassuring but it didn’t seem he was too sure about it himself.

“Was your worse fear exams?” Alex asked curiously. Magnus tugged at his hand and shot him a look. He shouldn’t have asked about that; Raphael might not want to talk about it.

“It wasn’t,” Raphael said, seemingly unfazed by the question. Louis was looking at him concerned. “It was my grave,” he went on. Magnus paled and from the look on Alex’s face he regretted bringing it up. “I was dead and everyone at my funeral were talking about how there were so many things I hadn’t done and would never be able to now.”

There was a moment of tense silence and Magnus refused to look at Raphael in the eye. He didn’t know how to react to something like that and it made him uncomfortable. If someone trusted you enough to tell you something like that you should say something, right?

“Shit,” Alex said tensely, finally breaking the silence. “That must have sucked.”

“Yeah,” Raph chuckled at the uncomfortable way Alex spoke. “It was. I spent at least ten minutes trying to get my family to realize I was alright and that I wasn’t dead. That was probably the worst part of it all;” Raphael went on, his thumb tracing circles on Louis hands as he looked at the other boy, “everyone I knew – my friends, my family, Louis – they were all crying over me. It was horrible to watch.”

“I’m sorry I asked,” Alex muttered.

Raphael snorted. “It’s alright. Maybe I’ll forget about it easier if I talk about it.”

Louis squeezed Raphael’s hand and smiled at him, an unsaid I’m here passing between them. Magnus and Alex remained quiet and after a while changed the topic to something lighter to cheer Raphael up. Unfortunately for Magnus, this new topic happened to be embarrassing stories about him. He would have frowned at Alex for bringing up all those stories if Raphael wasn’t laughing at them, everything that happened with the boggart forgotten for now.

They split up when they made it to the Hall of the Slain and went to have lunch with their others friends as they complained over exams. Magnus was tackled halfway to their table by little Cheyenne who came to hug him. She had made a habit of that since the Second task, probably as a way to remind him she was safe just like everybody else from Perthro. Like every day, he smiled at her and ruffled her hair as her little head was buried in his chest.

Cheyenne wasn’t the only one who would try to make sure he was alright after everything that happened in the Divination classroom. T.J would be more touchy than he already was, Mallory would tease him more, Sam would somehow ask him how he was multiple times a day and even Halfborn would sent more letters than before. He appreciated a lot, but to be honest, as cheesy as it sounded, they didn’t need to do any of those things. Eating together like always, laughing and teasing each other and complaining about school was more than enough to make him forget the boggart’s vision.

//////////////////

The day of the final task was finally here, as was the summer heat. With exams done and the students having sent in their applications, the castle of Hogwarts and everyone inside it were preparing for the big finale of the Triwizard Tournament. The audience for this task was expected to be at least twice as big as it had been for the last two tasks combined and it probably would be even more than that. Every inn and every available room in Hogsmeade was booked by people who wanted to be at Hogwarts for the Third Task and the celebration afterwards.

Shops from Hogsmeade, like Valhalla and the Candy Store, would be selling their fare at the stands, street vendors were trying to make a few extra cash by selling flags, caps and t-shirts supporting the three schools and students were making banners to support their respective Champions. And of course, the betting was stronger than ever. With all three Champions at a draw, the Third Task would be the one to decide who would win – whoever won in the Third Task would win the Tournament. Everyone was excited about what would go down at the final task and the Champions were trying not to let their nerves get to them.

The day before the Third Task, Magnus was planning to relax in his dorm and then go to sleep so he wouldn’t be tired the next day. Instead, his friends dragged him to the school grounds the moment dinner was over. With summer finally here, the days were longer and it wasn’t too dark after dinner to go outside. In fact, a lot of students were wandering around, enjoying the evening before they would have to go back inside. Looking out to the Quidditch field, Magnus noticed that the stands were much bigger now, so big you’d thing they were hosting the World Cup. He wasn’t able to think about that for long because Alex finally let go of the hand she was dragging him by and turned around to face him. They were at the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

“Okay, can someone finally tell me what’s going on? Why did you drag me here?” He didn’t get an answer, just his friends grinning at each other. Before he managed to ask again, a blonde head peaked out from behind the trees and before he could react Annabeth was hugging him close.

“Surprise!” his cousin said when she let go of him. Percy was standing behind her, he was probably hiding behind the trees too. “Did you forget we were going to come visit?”

He did. With everything that happened this year he had completely forgotten Annabeth and Percy had said they would come see the Third Task with them.

“Oops?”

Annabeth chuckled. “It’s okay, I expected it. I can’t believe you’re Champion!”

“Yeah, I can’t either.”

“We were watching the Tournament with our friends from Ilvermorny,” Percy said. “They were disappointed they couldn’t come too, but they told us to tell you good luck for them. Leo also said to tell you that apparently being badass runs in the family.”

Magnus wasn’t sure how to react to being called badass, but Annabeth rolled her eyes with a smile, like it was expected for Leo to say something like that.

“Anyway, were staying at a room in Hogsmeade,” Annabeth continued. “We’ll be here for the celebration after the Tournament is over too.”

“We’re going to be the loudest people in the stands!” Percy said excitedly. He leaned in closer to Magnus and put a hand in front of his face like he was going to say something secret but he barely lowered his voice at all. “I brought a megaphone with me.”

Magnus couldn’t help laughing. The mental image of his friends taking turns to shout encouragements though a megaphone was hilarious.

They spent about an hour wandering around the school grounds and catching up. Magnus told Annabeth about his N.E.W.T.s, Annabeth told him about life at college, about how life was going in America.

“Dad’s been watching the Tournament. He’s really proud of you,” Annabeth said. “He said he’d love it if you were able to come visit during the summer. He’d come here but it’s not easy with his job.”

“My mom wanted to meet you too,” Percy said. “Though I warn you, she’ll probably adopt you the moment she sees you. That’s what she did you most of our friends.”

“His mom is an angel,” Annabeth said with the simplicity of someone stating the fundamental truths of the universe.

“I’d love to visit, though I’ll have to see how my N.E.W.T.s went first,” Magnus said. He knew his mum wasn’t on good terms with her brothers – you had to be to move an ocean away from them – but he wanted to meet the rest of his family again.

“I thought so. And hey,” Annabeth elbowed him playfully in the side, “dad said you can bring along a friend if you want.” The way she gestured at Alex with her eyes wasn’t subtle at all. Magnus blushed but a smile tugged at his lips nonetheless.

“Anyway,” Annabeth went on casually, like she hadn’t noticed Magnus’s pink cheeks, “we should get going. Your curfew must be about now and you need your sleep for tomorrow.”

Before Magnus could react she closed the distance between them and hugged him. “Good luck,” she whispered. She pulled away with a smile that made Magnus’s worries about tomorrow almost die down completely.

“Kick their asses, cuz!” Percy yelled dramatically, pumping his fist in the air as they headed back to Hogsmeade.

Magnus waved goodbye before heading back to the castle with his friends.

This was it. Tomorrow, after a whole year, the Triwizard Tournament was finally coming to an end.

So, the final amount of chapters for this fic is now 25... unless something changes. That said, next chapter might take a bit longer because you all know by now that the chapters with the tasks are ridiculously long. On another note, the lighting thief musical is AWESOME!

[imwastingmylifeinhere]

My sister made some fanart for Magnus Chase and the Obligatory Hogwarts Au, so here’s Slytherin’s best Seeker!

[imwastingmylifeinhere]

Magnus Chase and the Obligatoty Hogwarts Au Ch24

Here it is folks! The Triwizard Tournament is coming to an end! Now, before we go on, some thing I've been meaning to say and kept forgetting: My sister came up with a shipname for Louis and Raphael (Rouis) and I feel strangely flattered. I just wanted to say that. I am sorry in advance for the jokes I made in this chapter. I had to make them, okay?

The morning of the Third Task found Magnus, Raphael and Helga in the empty Quidditch locker rooms. They had eaten a quick breakfast in the kitchens as per the Headmasters’ orders – apparently so they wouldn’t be stressed more by the other students – but none of them were able to eat a lot. Other students or not there was no way for them to be calm. A mixture of stress and excitement churned in Magnus’s stomach and he couldn’t keep his body still. A look at Raphael and Helga sitting at the bench opposite him told him they felt the same.

“So,” he said, breaking the tense silence between them, “this is it, huh? Time to figure out who’s the best.”

“Yeah, and it’s not going to be you,” Helga snarled. The smirk fell off her face the moment she stopped talking as she realized how mean her voice sounded. “Ugh, force of habit, I’m sorry.”

Magnus and Raphael chuckled at her. The embarrassed flush across her face and her awkwardly sorry expression were funny and they really needed something to cheer them up right now.

“It’s okay,” Magnus said. “We need a bit of competitiveness to pump us up anyway.” Helga relaxed at his words but she still muttered a quiet sorry. She had been trying really hard to turn a new leif (get it?) and she’d constantly ask if what she was doing was okay or if she had accidently said something bad. Magnus had to give her points for trying.

“I can’t believe we’re already here,” Raphael sighed wistfully. “It feels like I arrived at Hogwarts only yesterday and now we’re about to compete for the Cup.”

“Yeah, it’s been a crazy year,” Magnus agreed, letting his head fall back on the tiled wall. If he paid enough attention he could hear the thundering footsteps and loud voices of the audience filling the stands. It was baffling to think that all these people – not just those in the stands but everybody watching from their homes – were about to watch them compete for first place.

The door to the locker room opened and Headmistress Sonia looked inside. “Get ready. We’re going to start in five minutes,” she said a before going back out again.

The three Champions stood up and started checking if everything was in order. Their outfits fit perfectly, their laces were double-tied and their wands were in their place. Helga redid her ponytail, pulling the hair so tight that it pulled at her face. Raphael stretched his arms and legs Magnus joined him.

“This is it, gentlemen,” Helga said, offering her outstretched hand to her two competitors. “May the best Champion win.”

Magnus took Helga’s hand and Raphael put his hand in as well. “May the best Champion win,” they repeated. Gripping each other’s for a moment, they let go, smiling at each other with fire in their eyes. Somebody would hold the Triwizard Cup by the end of the day but they wouldn’t win it easily.

“And hey,” Raphael said with a smirk, “whoever wins has to treat the rest of us to a Butterbeer.”

Helga smiled. “I like that idea.”

“Me too,” Magnus agreed. “I don’t mind having to treat you to a drink.”

“Oh, you’re going to be the one to treat us?” Raphael asked with a raised brow and a competitive glint in his eye.

“Like that’s gonna happen.” Helga was smirking, but it was playful, nothing the mean ones she wore when she came to Hogwarts.

Magnus smiled at his two competitors in this weird tournament and shrugged. “Just wait and see.”

The door to the locker room opened, letting in the deafening sounds of the audience in the stands cheering for their Champions to come out.

“It’s time to start,” Headmaster Odin said, Headmaster Gilbert and Headmistress Sonia by his sides. His voice sounded like he was telling them it was time for them to be killed, but maybe that was just Magnus’s nerves talking.

The three Champions followed them out to the middle of the Quidditch field. Three brooms were waiting by a wooden bow. The audience went wild when they saw them coming out. They were so loud it was making it hard for Magnus to hear his own thoughts - which was good because his thoughts weren’t nice at the moment. It was almost too much to think that so many people were here – the entire population of Hogsmeade times ten must have been sitting at the stands.

Magnus stood in the middle of the field, Raphael and Helga by his side, and looked at the crowd. He squared back his shoulders and tried to seem more confident that he actually was. His eyes scanned over the crowd, searching for his friends. He found them by the bright green of Alex’s hair and Sam’s hijab. And yes, the almost obnoxious banner T.J and Halfborn were holding up.

Headmaster Odin cast a quick spell to make his voice carry to the stands and cleared his throat. “Students of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Beauxbatons Academy and Durmstrang Institute, dear guests, we welcome you to the last and final task of the Triwizard Tournament!”

Cheers and applause and whistling erupted from the stands. Hundreds of voices melted together in an ear splitting cacophony that was louder than anything Magnus had ever heard in his life.

“Today’s task is easy,” Headmaster Gilbert continued. “All the Champions have to do to win is be the first to get to the Cup.”

Magnus gulped as dread started settling in his stomach. If one of the Headmasters said the Task was going to be easy then it was going to be the farthest thing from that possible. Oh, boy.

“But,” Headmistress Sonia cut in, “they won’t be told where the Cup is.”

Sounds of confusion rolled off the audience. Magnus, Raphael and Helga looked at each other worried. This wasn’t going to be good.

“Instead, they’ll have to complete the map that will lead them there,” the Durmstrang Headmistress continued.

“The map is made up of three pieces,” Headmaster Gilbert said. “The Champions will have to go through a challenge to get each piece and once they have all three-“

“They need to run to the Cup,” Headmaster Odin finished. “The first to touch the Cup is the winner!”

More earth-shaking clapping from the stands. Alex was yelling something at him, her hands cupped around her mouth, but he couldn’t hear her over the crowd. He saw her take a megaphone from Percy’s hands – so he had really brought one – and once the audience had calmed down somewhat she yelled,

“Kick their butts, babe!”

Raphael and Helga turned to Magnus and smirked at him. Magnus’s face was flushing and he refused to look at the other two Champions. Or think about the fact Alex had just called him babe (and he kind of liked it).

“However,” Headmistress Sonia cut in, “Apparating to the Cup once you know where it is or flying there by broomstick is strictly forbidden.”

Headmaster Gilbert took the wooden box in his hands and opened it carefully, taking something from inside it and holding it up for the audience to see. One of the floating cameras was projecting the image onto the screens. The Beauxbatons Headmaster was holding a crystal-clear Snitch-like ball object the side of a tennis ball. Its see-through wings were beating rapidly as it tried to get away but Headmaster Gilbert didn’t let it. Inside the object was a triangular little thing the color of old parchment.

“For the first challenge,” the Frenchman started explaining, “three of these will be released in the Quidditch field. The Champions simply need to catch it and it will show them where to go look for the next piece of the map.”

“Champions, on your brooms please.” Headmistress Sonia gestured to the three identical brooms waiting for them. With one last look at each other, the three Champions stepped forward.

Broom in hand, they waited for the signal to start.

“Set.”

Magnus threw his leg over the broomstick and got the right position.

“Ready.”

Merlin, he really wishes he had more experience flying. He wasn’t bad, but he was no Quidditch player.

“Go!”

Magnus kicked the ground and shot to the air. The wind hit his face as he got higher and higher. He could see why Sam loved this so much. Still, he hadn’t flied much recently and it took him a moment to get his bearings. Helga was hovering to his left with much more ease than him and he felt his stomach twist into knots when he remembered a little thing about the girl.

She was on the Durmstrang Quidditch team. She was their best player.

Shit.

“We will release the balls on the count of three,” Headmaster Odin said. “One. Two. Three!”

The balls were released. All the balls. The three crystal Snitches as well as every ball in Hogwarts and the surrounding area in a five kilometers radius shot up towards the sky. The air around Magnus was suddenly filled with basketballs and footballs, beach-balls, volleyballs, baseballs and tennis balls and – dear Merlin, was that a Bludger? Oh, shit.

“Oh ho, it seems like there was more to this challenge than the Champions thought!” Professor Thor said loudly, doing his usual job as announcer. He wouldn’t sound so cheery about this if he was the one competing. “How are they going to find the Snitches among so many balls? And without being knocked out of the air by one of those nasty bludgers?”

This is way out of my pay grade, Magnus though bitterly. Which is saying a lot, cause I don’t get paid.

“Champions, begin!”

And with Headmaster Odin’s final words, the game was on. Magnus looked around him frantically, trying to catch a glimpse of one of the crystal Snitches. It might not be that bad, he reasoned with himself. There’s three Snitches, so as long as he’s fast he has more chances of finding one. Of course, that goes against him if only one is left.

Still, even with more than one Snitches, it was hard to see it. All those hundreds of balls made the air cluttered and there were obstacles every way you looked. Magnus flew in circles, remembering it was something Sam did when playing as Seeker. He was flying higher than he was when the balls were released and his eyes were trained to the air underneath him. The floating balls moved, but not by much. Still, all that movement was distracting and he almost missed the bright glint at the corner of his left eye.

“Oh, seems like Magnus Chase has spotted one of the Snitches!”

He dived after it immediately. His heart beat loudly as he nosedived to the ground and every sane part of him was yelling to stop before he flew straight into the ground. He didn’t listen and chased after the glint, taking a sharp turn to the right when it changed its route. Some of the balls floating around bumped against him of hit him as he cut his way through it but he kept his eyes on that bright glint that was just a bit too far away.

“He’s getting closer, folks! Will the Hogwarts Champion be the first to advance to the next challenge?”

He picked up his speed. The wind blew his hair out of his eyes as he flew with one arm extended in front of him to catch the Snitch. When the Snitch switched trajectories again he was able to turn in time and fly in front of it, successfully trapping it with his chest.

Only… it wasn’t one of the Snitches. It was a baseball.

“Oh, looks like it was a false call!” Magnus heard Professor Thor say, adding to his annoyance.

He had only let the baseball go and was about to fly higher again when something collided with his back harshly. He let out a surprised as his body was pushed forward, his right hand losing its grip on the broom because of his surprise. For one long, horrible moment he thought he was going to fall off.

His arms shot out in instinct and grasped the broomstick. He managed to right himself up and he didn’t fall off his broom, though he had ended up even closer to the ground than he was previously.

“Magnus Chase is still on his broomstick! That was a close call!”

You’re telling me.

Magnus was flying higher again so he would have a better view of the entire field when he was attacked by one more bludger. It hit him in his right thigh and the force made him fly left. Then, before he could get his bearings, it hit him again, this time at his right side. Magnus cried out in pain as the collision made his ribs throb I pain. Seconds letter another ball collided with his left arm. The surprise of the hit loosened his grip on the broomstick but he didn’t let go.

Before another bludger had the chance to hit him again, Magnus started flying as far as he could to shake those bloody balls off his trail. He zipped past Raphael and dared to look behind him. Nope, they were still following him. Great.

“Oh oh, looks like Magnus Chase is balls deep in trouble!” Professor Thor joked and Magnus cursed him under his breath because he had it bad enough without his horrible puns.

(He also cursed his brain for remembering all the times Alex had said that her middle name was Trouble because that was not an image that should be coming to his mind when he has a hard piece of wood between his legs.

… Bad phrasing.)

He flew out of the maze of balls and started flying over it at speeds he honestly didn’t know he could fly at. When he looked over his shoulder, the bludgers were still behind him and gaining ground. Now that he thinks about it, maybe removing what little objects there were between him and the balls wasn’t a good idea.

Magnus looked over his shoulder again and was alarmed to find the bludgers even closer. At this rate they’re going to strike me down, Magnus though in a panic. He couldn’t keep running away from them, he would never be able to catch one of the Snitches that way.

An idea suddenly came to his mind as he remember what he had done during the first task. He turned around to face the speeding bludgers and took his wand out of his pocket.

“Petrificus totallus!” He yelled as he aimed at the closer bludger. The ball froze in midair and went crashing to the ground. Magnus smiled in relief when his plan actually worked and he cast the spell again and again, striking each and every ball chasing him out of the sky.

“Helga Leifsson has managed to catch the first Snitch!” Professor Thor announced as the crowd, especially the Durmstrang supporters, went crazy. “Meanwhile, Magnus Chase has gotten away from the bludger that had been chasing him!”

Shit, Magnus thought as flew in circles over the field. Helga had been the first to catch a Snitch, which meant there were another two flying around the field at this moment.

As he scanned the field, he saw a bludger heading straight for Raphael’s back. Without thinking about it much, he aimed at the ball and yelled, “Petrificus totallus!”

At the sound of his voice, Raphael turned to see Magnus pointing his wand at his general direction and a bludger frozen in the air for a moment before it fell to the ground unceremoniously.

“Merci, Magnus,” Raphael said with a smile.

“No problem-“ Magnus had started saying when his eyes caught it. There, flying over Raphael’s shoulder, was a crystal Snitch.

Raphael pursed his lips in confusion when Magnus stopped talking so abruptly. He turned to look behind him at what surprised Magnus enough to make him stop speaking and he saw the Snitch.

“Raphael Beaumont and Magnus Chase have caught sight of the Snitch!”

Without so much as a glance at the other’s direction, the two boys chased after the Snitch. The flying ball run away from them like a startled rabbit and the two remaining Champions went after it. It flew in a straight line across the field and Magnus followed it at breakneck speeds. He could see Raphael flying just a little bit ahead of him from the corner of his eye but he didn’t dare look away from the Snitch in fear of losing it.

He leaned farther forward to go faster with his arm stretched out in front of him. They were getting closer and closer to the goal hoops nearest to the locker rooms and the Snitch kept flying just out of their reach. Magnus willed his broom to go faster; he had to catch the Snitch, he had to. He had finally flown ahead of Raphael when the Snitch suddenly disappeared.

Magnus stopped so suddenly he almost lost his balance and fell off his broom. Raphael was equally surprised, looking around him in confusion. It was when he looked up that the Beauxbatons Champion’s eyes widened and he took off again, flying straight to the sky.

“The Snitch has changed course, ladies and gentlemen, and it’s rocketing upwards!”

Magnus’s head snapped upwards and, sure enough, Raphael was chasing after the Snitch that was zipping straight up. Magnus cursed for losing the small lead he had managed to get on the other boy and gave chase.

If nose-diving to the ground was scary flying to the sky was just as scary. Gravity pulled at him, beckoning him to let go and fall to the ground in a splat. He clung on his broom with everything in him and tried to catch up to Raphael.

Just when he felt his fingers slip the Snitch took a shark turn and dived to the ground. Magnus was in the front now since he was closer to the ground than Raphael and as such closer to the Snitch. Ten meters from the ground, the Snitch started flying straight again. Magnus was getting seriously annoyed with all these turns.

Can’t it just fly straight and make this easier for me? He wondered mentally, even though he knew this was a competition so it had to be hard.

“The Snitch is making the Champions go in circles! Look at these turns, people!”

True to Thor’s announcement, the Snitch kept taking sharp turns, only flying in the same direction for a few moments before switching. All those turns were making Magnus get nauseous, but it wasn’t like he could ask for a time-out. He was thinking of little else than keeping up with the small crystal ball and not vomiting his breakfast on the grass of the field.

They were flying after the Snitch right after it had taken another sudden turn when Raphael left and flied towards to the goalpost. Magnus didn’t pay any attention to it. Maybe he decided to look for the second Snitch instead of chasing after this one.

Only the Snitch turned again.  And it flew straight towards Raphael.

Magnus realized what had happened a second too late. Raphael got ready on his broom, moved a bit to the right, extended his arm. The Snitch was flying forward and Raphael was closing in on it. He reached out and the crystal ball flew into his palm.

“Raphael Beaumont caught the second Snitch! The Beauxbatons Champion figured out the Snitch’s pattern!”

Magnus cursed under his breath as Raphael flew to the ground and opened the Snitch to get the map. Great, they had both gotten their maps. He had to catch the last Snitch fast, or else he’d be too far behind. They probably wouldn’t just give it to him if he was too late, right?

Magnus started flying in circles again. When all this ended he had to say congrats to Sam because he couldn’t understand how she loved to chase after that little ball. It was so frustrating when you thought you were going to catch it but it got away at the last moment.

Magnus saw a glint to his left, but when he turned to look it wasn’t there anymore. Then again, this time above him, but it still wasn’t there when he looked. To the right – no, left – no, at the ground – the sky- ugh!

This was ridiculous! With all these balls flying around him and obscuring his view finding one small crystal ball was almost impossible, especially when it wouldn’t stop moving around.

Think, Magnus, think. We all know you suck at sports, you need to catch that shit some other way…

Maybe if he stroke all balls down like he had done with the bludgers? No, that would take too much time, time he didn’t have. Maybe if he put a sticking charm on the goalposts and made it fly into them? But no, he can’t make it go where he wants it to…

Make it go where he wants it to? Can he… can he do that? The Headmasters never mentioned a rule like that, so maybe…

Magnus raised his wand and hoped with everything in his heart this would work. “Accio snitch!”

“What is Magnus Chase doing-?” Professor Thor started saying but the words died in his throat when the Snitch zipped passed all the balls towards Magnus. Its crystal wings beat rapidly to fly in the other direction, but it was no use. The spell was too powerful and soon Magnus held it in his palm.

Why didn’t I think of that earlier?

“He- he did it! Magnus Chase found a loophole in the rules and caught the Snitch!”

Magnus floated down to the ground, his fingers gripping the Snitch so hard they had turned white. He was too scared that it would fly off if he let it go, but he had no reason to worry; the Snitch’s wings had stopped beating the moment Magnus caught it.

Once his feet touched the ground he let go of his broom. He didn’t want to ride one of those things again for months. His fingers uncurled from around the Snitch and before he had the time to even wonder how he was supposed to open it to get the map a seam formed in the middle of the ball. The thin line glowed and wrapped around the ball. When the two sides of the line met the ball split in two.

Magnus took the map and let the two halves of the Snitch fall to the ground. The small triangle flushed the moment he touched it, like he had just turned on a light-bulb. The brightness of the light quickly dimed, leaving behind an image of the Hogwarts grounds. Then, like a camera zooming in, it focused on the Big Lake. One more zoom and now the camera was past the water, inside the lake. It stayed still in front a dark cave and then something moved. A long tentacle giving way to-

Oh, no. The giant Squid.

Magnus pushed the map inside his pocket and started running. He ignored the dread settling in his stomach like cement in favor of coming up with all the spells that would help him to breath underwater. It was a pretty short list, which didn’t help him ignore his anxiousness well.

It also didn’t help that the run from the Quidditch field to the Big Lake was fairly quick. Before Magnus had enough time to prepare himself for facing a fucking Giant Squid, he had arrived. He didn’t see Raphael by the lake so he must have dived in already. Magnus put a sticking charm to his hand so he wouldn’t lose his wand in the water and cast a Bubble-Head Charm on himself to breath underwater.

Here goes nothing, he thought before quickly jumping inside the lake. The water was cold in contrast to the warm air outside, but it was comfortable once his body got used to it. He started kicking his legs as he swam towards the part of the lake were the Giant Squid was. The students of Hogwarts could swim in the lake if they wanted when the weather was okay – and, if they were in fourth year and below, had a teacher supervisor – so they all knew which were the places in the lake they couldn’t go near or else they would be trespassing in the Squid’s territory. (The merpeople were pretty chill unless you peed in the lake.)

The water around him clear and Magnus could see all the small fish swimming around, passing moss-covered rocks and going through bushes of kelp. He would have loved to stay and look around some more, but he didn’t have time for underwater sightseeing.

It wasn’t hard to find the Squid’s cave. First of all, it was huge, easily big enough to fit a three story building. Secondly, there was a giant Squid guarding the entrance. Not really something you missed easily. Especially when-

Oh, fuck.

Magnus swam even faster. One of the Squid’s tentacles was wrapped in a vise grip around Helga’s body, tightening more and more if the pain on her face was anything to go by. Magnus aimed at the Squid and cast a Stinging Hex at it. It seemed to surprise the Squid enough to make its tentacle unwrap around Helga and the girl swam away as fast as she could.

The bad thing was that now it had noticed both of them. And boy, was it angry. It’s tentacles thrust out to catch the two intruders. Magnus kicked his legs frantically, but outrunning a water creature inside water was impossible, even if you were Michael Phelps, who Magnus clearly wasn’t. The long appendage caught him and Magnus shuddered at how weird the texture felt against his skin. The Squid tightened its grip around his body and Magnus gasped.

I don’t want to die in a tentacle hentai, Magnus thought as he thrust around, trying to slip out of the creature’s grip. He had no such luck, and neither did Helga. He tried a Stinging Hex again but to no avail; the creature’s hold on him relaxed for only a split second and Magnus wasn’t able to get away. The Squid’s tentacle squeezed him harder and Magnus fought not to gasp and lose more air.

There was a bright flash of light to the left and all of a sudden the Squid’s tentacles let go of him. Magnus didn’t waste a moment and cast Ventus. The strong gust of wind that came out of his wand propelled him away from the deadly creature and close to a thick bunch of kelp (it also created a trail of bubbles behind him, which was kinda cool).

Safely hidden behind the kelp, Magnus looked to the direction the flash of light had come from. The Squid still seemed very confused about what had just happened, but Magnus saw a pair of dark legs swimming behind a large boulder. Thanks, Raphael.

With the Squid distracted, Magnus got the chance to have a better look at the inside of the cave, or what little of it he could see from his hiding place. There wasn’t much, just lots of mossy rocks and seashells, as well as long tendrils of kelp that swayed with the current-

Wait.

Magnus’s eyes widened as he got an idea. He stood still for a few more moments, his eyes trained on the kelp inside the cave, how it bowed to the left like a branch in the wind. Feeling certain he was onto something, he glanced at the Squid. It was still distracted by the flash of light Raphael created and was paying attention to the other side. It’s now or never.

Magnus exited his hiding place and swam to the right side of the cave. The cave looked like a big bowl protruding from the walls of the lake, its top offering a sort of roof to the Squid. From higher up in the water you couldn’t even see the opening of the cave thanks to all the rocks piled on its roof. It was a weird cave shape, not that Magnus had seen many underwater caves, so maybe it was normal for them to look like that.

The side of the cave was, well, rocky. Magnus swam closer, his eyes scanning for what he was looking for. He heard sounds of conflict in the distance, but it must have been close since water muffled the noise. It was probably Helga or Raphael trying to get pass the Squid. If Magnus idea was correct he’d show it to them.

He smiled when he saw a tiny bunch of kelp on the rocks swaying closer to the wall. He pulled with his arms and got closer and –yes! There was an opening! It wasn’t huge – simply big enough to let the current inside and make the kelp Magnus had seen move. Still, he could probably fit. Thank Merlin he wasn’t as large as Halfborn.

He swam closer and felt around the opening with his fingers. A few rocks were loose and he pulled them aside to make the hole bigger. Thankfully the hole didn’t come crushing down on his hand. That would have been horrible.

He ducked down so his head was aligned with the opening and swam inside, his arms stuck to his sides. The space was awfully claustrophobic and despite never having a problem with small spaces Magnus couldn’t wait to get out of it. Still, he had never been more thankful for being so scrawny. It was a tight fit around his shoulder but not so bad that he would be stuck there. Thank Merlin he didn’t have big hips like Sam or else he would have been doomed.

He had never been so glad for having two centimeters of space around him as he was when he slipped out of the hole and into the Squid’s cave. The light inside was horrible but Magnus didn’t dare to cast a Lumos in fear that the Squid would see the light and attack him. What little light came through cave’s mouth was just enough for him to make out his surroundings. The bush of kelp that had helped Magnus find the backdoor of the cave was much bigger up close, big enough to hide himself and another person inside.

He kicked his legs and went closer to the moss-covered rocks he had seen from the outside. They were more like boulders than rocks and Magnus grabbed them to push himself further into the cave. He felt vulnerable being inside the nest of such a large and dangerous creature so he made himself swim faster. The quicker he got the map the quicker he would be out of here without turning into Squid Snacks.

As he swam, the light hit again a part of the back wall of the cavern, making something there twinkle for just a moment. Magnus kicked at the rock behind him and propelled himself closer to the source of the sparkling. At the farthest end of the cavern, nestled between the rocks, were three large clams. They were too big, too shiny to belong to the cave.

He took the one at the top in his hands and the clam opened instantly. Instead of whatever was inside clams, a crystal ball big enough to fit in his palm sat inside the seashell like a pearl in an oyster. Inside the ball was the second part of the map.

Magnus took the ball and put it in his pocket, letting the clam fall to the sandy floor of the cave. He was about to turn back to the opening to leave when one of the Squid’s tentacles wrapped around him again. Magnus gasped as the air was squeezed out of his lungs. The Squid him hauled him out of the cave, hitting him against the wall in the process. Magnus winced at the pain in his head, the hit making him feel dizzy.

When the dizziness gave away and Magnus opened his eyes he found himself face to face with the Squid’s large eyes. (So, it was more like face to eyes, but whatever.) Horrified, he realized that being hit against the wall had dispelled the Bubble-Head Charm and he now had no way to breathe.

The creature didn’t seem to recognize what he was and it was examining him closely. Magnus didn’t need to be a genius to know the Squid would decide he looked like food in the end and eat him. He needed to get away now.

Unfortunately for him, his wand arm was pressed against his side and his wand only barely peaked out of the Squid’s tentacle. He wouldn’t be able to aim very well like this but he couldn’t do nothing. As a plan formulated in his mind, Magnus employed the defense mechanism all small children knew was perfect to escape a bigger opponent (like your mum that was making you eat broccoli). Magnus opened his mouth wide and bit down at the Squid’s tentacle.

The bite must have hurt because the Squid let him go immediately. Magnus lost no time and cast Ventus again to put him out of the creature’s reach. He managed to put some distance between them but the Squid was obviously furious. And Magnus, like an idiot, made it even more furious. He aimed at its nearest eye and fired a Stinging Hex. He might not know a lot about Squid anatomy, but he was pretty sure the eyes were a weak spot for most animals.

The Giant Squid screeched, closing its eyes tightly to protect them from any more harm. With it unable to see anymore, Magnus aimed and used his best Petrificus totallus on it. He knew the spell wouldn’t hold it for long but it would give him enough time to get out of the water. He wouldn’t need a lot of time either anyway – his lungs were already burning from  the lack of air.

The Squid was frozen in place by the spell, but the spell of just a single wizard wouldn’t be able to keep it like that for long. It was already struggling against it and it wouldn’t take long for it to be able to move again. Magnus saw Raphael and Helga by the mouth of the cave, swimming inside. He saw Helga cast the spell again, winning a bit more time for them.

Confident that they would be alright (and that he needed to breathe now), Magnus used Ventus to get away from the cave quicker. The spell propelled him a good ways across the lake (scaring a few poor fish for life in the process) and he had made it to the shore before too long. He pulled himself out and plopped down on the wet soil, taking a long, nice moment to enjoy breathing. He never would have thought he’d enjoy converting oxygen into carbon dioxide so much.

A couple of second later, Magnus stood up. He couldn’t stay lying on the mud forever (even if it was kind of comfy). He cast a spell to dry himself off and pulled the crystal ball out of his pocket and held it in front of his face. Like with the first one, a thin line of bright line wrapped around the ball, cutting it in two neat halves that fell on the ground. Magnus thought something would happen when he touched the map like with the first piece, but it didn’t. It didn’t glow and it didn’t show him anything; it simply remained a piece of old parchment.

Something stirred in his pocket and Magnus realized that the other piece of the map was getting warmer. He quickly pulled it out and brought it close to the second half. The two pieces snapped together like they were magnets. They fit together perfectly, like puzzle pieces, which they technically were.

The new map glowed as the two parts became one. Once the glowing subsided, Magnus was able to make out a dark part of the woods. The image zoomed in, past the trees and bushes, past a fallen log, until it finally stopped in front of a dark pocket of the forest where large spiders sat on a dome-like web.

Magnus felt cold sweat run down the back of his neck and his stomach twisted in knots. The Acromantula nest. To find the next part of the map he had to go into the nest of giant, flesh-eating motherfucking spiders. Merlin’s thong, who in their right mind came up with these tasks?

Still, he had no choice but to go there. Maybe he would be lucky and find a giant glass along the way. (Would that even work?)

Magnus put the map back in his pocket and started running to the Forbidden Forest. For a place called ‘forbidden’ he sure had to go in it a lot for the tournament, huh? He was nervous at first that he wouldn’t be able to find his way to the Acromantula nest – since he wasn’t stupid enough to have tried going there before – but it seemed he didn’t have to worry because small glowing orbs hovered along the path to the nest. Apparently they didn’t want the three Champions to die before coming face to face with the human-eating insects.

The further he run into the forest, the darker it got. The trees above his head grew odder and older, their trunks thicker, their foliage denser and the light that made it through their leaves became less and less. It was so dark he would have thought it was late afternoon instead of morning if he didn’t know any better.

He knew he was getting closer to the nest when he started hearing less animal sounds. Anything that lived in the forest would know not to come close to the nest of such a strong predator. He could imagine squirrels looking on from the trees and thinking he was crazy for running straight into the home turf of something that could eat him whole easily.

He was passing over the fallen log the map had showed when he first noticed the webs. Fine strings of snow-white spider-web stretched between the trees, woven together in domed shapes above his head. Magnus’s most basic instincts screamed at him to flee, but he forced himself to ignore them as he kept running. The web became denser the deeper he got into the Acromantulas’ territory, so closely woven together that it was like standing below a circus’s tent.

In all, being in the Acromantulas nest was eerie. What little light made it through the leaves bounced off the white webs, giving this corner of the forest a ghostly lighting.  The hairs at the back of Magnus’s neck stood on end as he walked farther inside the nest. He felt hundreds of hungry eyes on him and willed himself to walks with his back straight. He couldn’t show fear to the spiders or he was done for.

“What do you seek here, child?” A voice said behind Magnus. The Hogwarts Champion jumped in surprise and bit his lip to hold a yelp from exciting his lips. Behind him, climbed up on the web that wrapped around the trunk of a tree, was an Acromantula. It was as large as a horse-cart, its legs easily bigger than Magnus’s height. Thick hair covered its body and its eight eyes stared Magnus down like he was nothing more than a pest to this large creature.

Magnus realized that several seconds had passed since the spider had spoken and he still hadn’t replied. He pushed his shoulders back stood as straight as he could to appear taller. “I’m here for the third part of the map,” he said and thank Merlin he didn’t stutter.

The spider in front of him made a low sound at the back of its throat that sounded suspiciously like laughing. “Stupid child, you’re here to be food.”

The spider approached him fast, faster than he thought something so large could move. Magnus whipped around, ready to gun it out of here, but he staggered backwards when he came face to face with several Acromantulas gathered around him. The spiders’ jaws clicked together maliciously as they eyed him down. Magnus backed away, feeling like a mouse inside a room full of cats.

Magnus aimed his wand at the Acromantula in front of him. His arm was shaking. “Confringo!” The spell hit the spider and sent it flying backwards, but the rest were still advancing towards him. He attacked the spiders again and again, but every time he managed to get rid of one, two seemed to pop up in its place.

Magnus was soon overwhelmed by the spiders. His wand was knocked out of his hand and two spiders dragged him away towards the web. Magnus thrust around and kicked, trying to get himself free, but it was no use against the two large creatures and the entire colony.

Magnus was thrown against a wide piece of web that draped down a tree to the ground. Before he had any time to try escaping, the spiders were upon him again, spinning their web around him and trapping him inside a white cocoon. Magnus yelled and screamed, but the spiders didn’t react at all.

“Maybe we should cover his head too,” one of the spiders said to another one. The second spider was much bigger than its peers, at least twice as big, its fur much darker, and when it talked its voice sounded weirdly female.

“No,” the larger spider said. “Leave its head free. I want to see its expression when we catch the other two.”

The leader – Magnus was certain that this huge Acromantula was the Alpha female of the colony – came closer. There was something very unsettling about the way the spiders moved on their long legs. The Alpha climbed up the web Magnus was trapped on until she was face to face with Magnus.

“Tell me, do you know why we agreed to this weird tournament of yours, human?” she asked. Liquid dripped down her large jaws and Magnus’s heart beat lauder when he realized that her body was producing more venom in order to eat him.

“No,” Magnus said. He fought to make his voice sound stable and to look the leader in the eyes, but it was kind of hard when she had eight.

“It’s because it’s almost time for our young to hatch,” she said. She moved slightly to the side, making enough room for Magnus to see the dip in the ground where several dozen beach-ball sized eggs lay. They twitched around, like something was moving inside, and they looked terrible frail.

“They’re going to come out any time now and when they do…” The Alpha used one of her legs to angle Magnus head up and get better access to his neck. Magnus could feel her warm, musky breath against his skin and his breath hitched.

“They will want to eat,” she finished, letting Magnus head fall down again. Magnus let down the breath he was holding and tried to even his breathing. He felt vulnerable trapped her in the Acromantulas’ nest, a weak prey among dozens of predators.

“Sent out scouts,” the Alpha ordered. “Find the other two and bring them back.”

Five spiders hissed something back and scurried off into the woods. Magnus glared at the back of the queen, knowing very well that she didn’t have to give that order in English. She only did it make it clearer to Magnus that she had the power here, not him.

And as much as Magnus hated to admit it, she was right. He was completely trapped, with nothing to cut the web around him and with his wand lying useless on the ground-

Wait, what?

The wand wasn’t there anymore. Magnus’s pulse picked up. Did it get kicked by accident by one of the other spiders? Where was it? If he somehow managed to get out of the web that was holding him down he wouldn’t stand a chance without his wand.

“Pss,” something said in Magnus’s ear. He almost yelped in surprise before a hand pressed against his mouth. But… there wasn’t a hand there.

“It’s okay,” the voice said again and Magnus realized it was Helga. “It’s me. I put a Disillusionment Charm on myself. Raphael is near that tree.” Helga angled his head slightly so that Magnus was looking at a big tree with a bush near its roots, but no Raphael. He must be invisible too. “I have your wand. I will cut the web around you but you mustn’t move so they don’t realize you can escape.”

Magnus nodded as discretely as he could and remained silent. He could feel the edge of something sharp against his sides and his bonds started feeling less tight. Magnus flex his fingers and Helga pushed his wand into his palm.

“We have to work together,” Magnus whispered back, his eyes stuck on the Acromantulas in front of him. Thankfully, none of them seemed to have heard him.

“I know,” Helga whispered back. Each one of them on their own had no hopes of getting the map and making out of the forest, but maybe they could do it if they worked together. “The maps are in the pit with the eggs.” Magnus looked toward the pit and, sure enough, on the top of the pile were three crystal balls. “I’ll try to get them and Raphael will come here to help you escape. You run when you hear a whistle.”

“Are you sure you can do this?” Magnus asked, eyes still stuck on the eggs. There were so many spiders around the pit, getting there and running away with all three balls seemed impossible.

“I am,” Helga said. “I’m the fastest one out of us. Plus, somebody has to do it.” There was a moment of silence before she continued, voice somehow even quieter. “I hurt you on purpose in the First Task, so I have to help you now.”

Magnus wanted to stop her and tell her she didn’t need to put her life in danger to be forgiven, but he didn’t get the chance. Before he was able to open his mouth to talk he felt her weight disappear from next to him.

He clenched his fingers around his wand and waited. His eyes were trained on the egg pit, waiting for some kind of movement that would let him know Helga had made it. The Queen was climbed on an extravagant hammock-like structure woven together from web, her eight eyes looking over the other spiders.

He felt a warm hand on his leg and realized Raphael must be standing close to him. The other boy didn’t say anything and neither did Magnus. He couldn’t see the Beauxbatons Champion, but he was no doubt looking at the eggs as well.

The mountain of eggs moved a bit, but Magnus didn’t notice at first since they twitched around on their own quite a bit. He saw the movement again and his heart leapt when one of the crystal balls flew in the air for a few seconds before it disappeared. Heart pounding in his ears, he glanced around nervously to see if any of the spiders had noticed. Thankfully none of them seemed to be paying attention to the crystal balls.

None except one. An Acromantula close to the egg pit had seen the movement of the eggs from the corner of its eyes and had turned around just as Helga was putting the second ball in her pocket. The spider’s eight eyes widened and it whipped around to face its leader.

“Queen!” It yelled. “One of the humans is stilling the crystal balls!”

Fuck.

Helga’s invisible hand snatched up the last crystal ball, but now the eyes of the entire colony were on her. The spiders started surrounded her, their jaws clicking even more as they tried to smell where she was. Magnus’s heart beat like a drum as the spiders all closed in on a specific spot. They couldn’t possible know exactly where she was by smell alone, but they had a general direction, and it wasn’t hard to figure out her position when the ring they had formed around her became smaller and smaller.

Damn it, damn it, damn it, Magnus kept thinking, his hands clenched into fists below the webs that were supposed to be trapping him. He had to help somehow, but if he revealed that he had gotten free they would be in even more trouble. Damn it, damn it.

The swarm of Acromantulas kept getting closer to Helga, their long legs forming a cloud of dust as they moved frantically along the ground-

Wait. That’s it!

“Duck!” Magnus screamed as loud as he could. The spiders didn’t pay attention to him, too busy hunting down their new pray to bother with a stupid human. Raphael was looking at Magnus confused, not really understanding where a duck fit in all of this.

Magnus held his breath as he waited, his eyes darting from the spiders closing in on an invisible target to the ground below their large bodies. The spiders where closer now – if Helga hadn’t listened to him they would catch he any minute now.

But no. The spiders reached the middle of the circle and bumped against each other. Whatever they were trying to catch had disappeared. Magnus let out his breath as he scanned the ground for anything out of the ordinary-

There! The dust below the large belly of one of the Acromantulas was moving strangely and some of it clung onto a human form. Thank Merlin, she had heard him! With their long legs, there was enough space under the Acromantulas for Helga to crawl out of trouble.

The spiders hissed and growled at each other confused, scuttling about as they tried to figure out where their new meal had gone to. It would almost be funny if Magnus wasn’t currently in their nest and they outnumbered them 30 to 1.

“Come on, let’s go,” Helga said once she reached Magnus and Raphael. They cast a quick Disillusionment Charm on him and helped him get off the web as quickly as possible. Magnus had to admit, trying to get off a giant spider’s web while being invisible was pretty hard.

The three Champions held hands as they run from the Acromantulas’ nest so they wouldn’t lose each other. They had only managed a few meters when one of the spiders yelled, “The human got out!”

Without a moment of hesitation, they started running. The spiders all hurried to the web Magnus had been trapped on and the Queen yelled again and again, “Find them! Find them!” Chaos ensued in the nest as dozens of spiders scrambled around to find the missing humans.

A spider was walking straight towards Magnus and the blonde had to let go of Raphael’s hand to dodge the insect. With no way to find the other two Champions without giving away his position to the spiders, Magnus run among the hundreds of Acromantulas to get away. He could make a sound and he could let them touch him in any way or else they might realize he was there. He almost fell when he took a sharp turn to avoid an incoming spider and run straight into a try when avoiding another one. It was like trying to run through a large crowd during half-off sales, except the crowd wanted to kill you and eat your insides… so yeah, exactly like sales.

Magnus didn’t stop running even when he was out of the nest.  He looked back over his shoulder to see the nest a good way behind him and canceled the spell on him. He would have kept running if he hadn’t run into… nothing.

“Ow,” Magnus said after landing on his ass on the hard ground. He looked at the air in front of him confused, but it wasn’t long before his fellow Champions canceled the charms on the and appeared in front of him.

“We lost you back there,” Raphael said as he offered Magnus a hand to get up. Magnus took it.

“Yeah, a spider almost run me over,” Magnus explained as he dusted off his pants. “I never thought I’d say that.”

Helga chuckled. “Yeah, I never thought I’d be in danger of becoming baby food for spiders either.”

Helga dug into her pockets and held out one of the crystal balls for Magnus. “Let’s open it together,” she said.

Magnus and Raphael nodded. They held the balls in front of them and watched as all three of them cracked it half. The three Champions glanced at each other and shared a quick nod before counting down together.

“One,” Raphael said.

“Two,” Helga continued.

“Three!” Magnus finished.

They put the last piece of the map with the rest and watched as they glowed and became one. Once the light died down, they watched as images formed on the map. A cluster of houses, no bigger than a village, train tracks running through it. The image zoomed in and they saw the familiar streets of Hogsmeade zipping by. They map went past the train station, past the post office and the various shops. It focused in on the village’s church, the image climbing up the church’s steeple and zooming in through the window.

There, in the middle of the small room at the top if the tower, bellow the large bell, was the Triwizard Tournament Cup. It was beautiful, its ornate silver handles and base connecting to a large glass cup that seemed to be every color of the rainbow at once.

They three Champions started running. Magnus’s map was hastily shoved into his pocket as he dashed through the forest. Helga might be faster than him on flat terrain, but moving through the Forbidden Forest wasn’t a top-speed sprint – you had to avoid trees, fallen logs, rocks and short plants. Magnus was grateful for all the times he had run off and made his mum chase him through forests when they were camping. He was moving through the woods a lot more nimbly than his opponents and was a few meters ahead of them.

He heard a cry behind him and when he looked over his shoulder he saw Helga on the ground – she had tripped on a large rock jutting out of the ground. Magnus didn’t turn around to help her – she was already getting up on her own.

Slowly, Raphael was catching up to Magnus. The trees around them weren’t as closely packed as before and the ground was smothered since more feet had walked on it. They were approaching the end of the forest and Magnus knew his problems would start here.

As they left the trees of the forest behind them, Magnus started losing his head start. The ground was significantly flatter now and the uneven terrain that had given him an advantage in the forest was now gone. Both Raphael and Helga were catching up to him. Magnus pushed himself to run faster, but not by much. They still had a ways to go for the church and he couldn’t tire himself out when they were still so far away.

As they run through the castle grounds to Hogsmeade, Magnus tried his best to at least keep up with the other two Champions. Raphael and Helga were tied at the front, neck to neck for the first place, while Magnus followed a couples meters behind. His legs burned with the effort it took to keep up his speed for such a long distance but he didn’t allow himself to slow down.

They were in Hogsmeade now and Magnus was trying to come up with any shortcuts he knew for the church, but none of them were any good. He was still in last place and unless he found a way to outrun his opponents he wasn’t going to win. He tried to run faster, but it only seemed to be doing the opposite as Raphael and Helga picked up their speed as they saw the church in the end of the street.

Come one, come on, think of something! Magnus was panting as he thought of a way to outrun Helga and Raphael and come out ahead. He couldn’t apparate to the cup and he could accio a broom to get there either-

Wait. Would… would that even work?

Magnus didn’t have long to think about it. He was less than a block away from the church now and Helga with Raphael were already closer to the door.

Here goes nothing, I guess.

“Depulso!” Magnus yelled as he pointed his wand at himself. His feet left the ground and Magnus was met with the weird feeling of flying without a broomstick, but he fought to keep himself focused. He swished his wand and sent himself flying towards the top of the steeple.

The Headmasters said they couldn’t fly to the cup by broomstick but they never said anything about another form of flying. Magnus knew Depulso – the opposite of Accio – could work on a human (courtesy of Alex using it on Halfborn as prank) but moving himself through the air by magic was straining and there was no way he would be able to keep this up for much longer.

He stared at the window at the top of the steeple as hard as he could as he tried to move himself there. The window was coming closer and closer, but he was already panting and he felt his magic waver the longer he held on. The spell wasn’t meant to be used for long, or for such a large distance, but Magnus couldn’t let himself fall down now.

Five meters away and he was wondering if he would even make it. Three meters and he was barely holding onto the spell. Two meters and the windowsill was just out of his reach. One meter… one meter…

Magnus’s spell fell apart just as he touched the windowsill. His weight came crushing down on his hands as his body now longer floated. He was hanging from the steeple’s windowsill, his body against the stone wall. He was over ten meters up in the air, he knew it very well, and he didn’t let himself look down.

He put all the strength he had in his arms and pushed himself up. Thankfully the church was made of uneven rocks and his feet were able to find small grooves to push his body up despite the church being exposed to the elements for so many years. Still, the task was grueling and he almost slipped on the smooth rocks multiple times.

Finally, he managed to drag his upper body of the windowsill and proceeded to topple onto the floor. This might have been the dusty floor of church’s steeple, but Magnus could really take a nap right now.

Still, he could hear footsteps approaching and realized Helga and Raphael must be climbing up the stairs. He pushed himself up quickly just as Raphael’s head emerged from the doorway and ducked under the bell. The Cup stood on a pedestal in the middle of the bell and Magnus reached out, his hands just a centimeter away, and then he was holding the Cup in his hands, the multicolored glass shinning brighter than ever.

Suddenly, Magnus felt like he was being hit by strong winds as his body was dragged forward, like there was a rope tied around his waist pulling him somewhere. The Cup is a portkey, Magnus realized as his feet hit solid ground again and he found himself in the middle of Quidditch field.

He looked around baffled as he took everything in. Helga and Raphael were a few meters away from Magnus, looking just as confused as he felt. Confetti fell from the sky and every single person in the stands was standing up, clapping and yelling and cheering. The uproar was absolutely deafening and it was almost hard to imagine that all this noise was made by humans.

“He did it!” Professor Thor yelled from the speakers as Alex with the rest of their friends in tow run towards Magnus and tackled him to the ground. “Magnus Chase has won the Triwizard Tournament!”

I hoped you liked the last task! Next week is the final chapter and good god, I can't believe this is actually coming to an end. I'll probably get emotional next week too,  but I can't tell you how grateful I am to all of you for sticking with me through this whole journey! I would hug you, but there's a screen in the way... so just hug your screen and feel my ghost arms around you? Anyway, until next time!

[imwastingmylifeinhere]

Magnus Chase and the Obligatory Hogwarts Au Ch20

The Yule Ball! Wooo! You don't know how excited I was for this chapter! Anyway, without further ado, enjoy!

After the Christmas Feast, students rushed out of the Hall of the Slain to get ready for the Yule Ball and the teachers started decorating the Hall for the dance. Magnus could feel his nervousness rise as he tried to tie his fucking bowtie. Who the fuck thought this thing was a good idea? Like, really, who? Because Magnus had a few choice words to say to them.

He let out an exasperated sigh and run his hand through his hair out of habit before remembering he had slicked his hair back and he had just now ruined. His hair, that he had fought to tame, was now sticking up in odd angles. Magnus had half a thought that he looked like some bad Sonic the Hedgehog OC before he tried wrestling with his hair once more.

Once his hair was slicked back with so much gel it looked as hard as rock and his bowtie was on (even if it was hanging a bit too much on the left) Magnus made his way to the Hall of the Slain. Students were waiting by the big heavy doors for their date or their friends to arrive, all dressed in their best clothes. You didn’t get the chance to attend a Yule Ball often – in fact, since the Tournament was every five years, you might never get to.

Magnus’s friends were waiting by the door as well. T.J was the first to spot him and waved him over. His suit looked like Magnus’s but it was black instead of white and his shirt underneath his jacket was a deep blue. Despite his dislike for the color, Magnus had to admit his friend looked nice.

“Hey, guys,” Magnus greeted them as he came closer. Sam and Amir were standing by T.J, close enough to be touching but not quite, their hands a breath away. Sam’s dress was deep emerald, so dark it was almost black. Her hijab was the same color and Magnus could see little details in lace on the hem. Amir’s suit was the exact same color, which made Magnus think they had agreed to wear matching clothes and he had to suppress his urge to coo at them because aww.

“Hi, Amir.”

“Hi, Magnus,” the other boy responded with a smile. Magnus hadn’t been able to see him since the first Task. “You did great at the first Task. I’ve given some falafel for you to the –what did you call them, house elves?” Sam nodded. “I gave your falafel to the house elves, they said they’ll give it to you later.”

Magnus pumped his fist into the air. “Hell yeah!”

Amir smiled at his enthusiasm as he and T.J went back to their conversation about the magical world – apparently Amir still had many questions and T.J was glad to answer all of them. Sam went into full mum mode when she saw that Magnus’s bowtie wasn’t straight and was about to go and fix it for him when Mallory and Halfborn appeared.

“Magnus, buddy! How are you?” Halfborn roared as he gave Magnus the biggest bear hug of his life.

“Halfborn, I can’t breathe,” Magnus wheezed as his sides got crushed between his friends hands.

“Oops, sorry,” Halfborn let him go, clearly not sorry. “Man, you were amazing at the first Task. You got my Howler, right?”

“Yeah, I did. Miss Eir kicked them out of the infirmary after I opened it.”

Halfborn laughed a loud, hearty laugh and Magnus smiled, glad to see his friend again. Mallory rolled her eyes at her boyfriend, amusement clear in her eyes. Her fiery hair spilled over her shoulders like liquid fire, its color even more bright against her navy dress. It ruffled above the ground like waves, the color becoming deeper and deeper the closest it got to the hem. Next to Halfborn in his sharp black suit they looked so good Magnus could imagine them walking on a red carpet or something like that easily.

They kept making small talk until Halfborn elbowed Magnus with a smug grin. “Seems like your date is here.”

Magnus turned around with a questioning look and he gasped at the sight beyond him, his heart faltering in its beat for a moment before it picked up again, faster than ever.

Alex looked amazing, to say the least. It seemed as if the student body was splitting to letting her pass, like the sea dividing before Moses. Or maybe no one moved at all and Magnus was just too focused on her. He suddenly knew what it felt like to be a moth or a fly in front of a bright light, attracted so powerfully to something that would probably kill you.

Alex’s dress was dark like shadows, spilling to the floor in numerous ruffles that made her look like an upside-down rose. White lace adorned her neckline, her waist and the hem of her skirt like snow in the night sky. Her green locks seemed curlier than before, pulled out of her face by a delicate white flower crown. Light make-up made her eyes look bigger and shinier, her cheeks redder, her lips plusher, though Magnus knew he’d die to kiss her with or without the lip-gloss.

“Fuck me,” Magnus mumbled without realizing it.

“I think she’d like that,” T.J said with a grin. For the ace of the group he made the most innuendos out of all of them.

“Hey, guys,” Alex greeted them when she got closer. She smelt good. Did she always smell that good? Probably. Why didn’t Magnus notice before?

“H-hi,” Magnus managed to get out. His heart beat so loud he was sure everybody in a hundred meters radius could hear it. It made him feel like his words had to go through quicksand to get out of his throat.

“Hi, Magnus,” Alex smiled at him and did she know what her smile did to him? He felt like he was having a heart attack every time she so much as grinned in his general directions. He was too young to die of a heart attack, dammit!

Mallory was saying something to Alex, probably about how good she looked or something along those lines and Magnus was left staring there speechless. What Alex and her roommates were saying didn’t register in his brain, but every small way Alex moved did. He felt as if he was looking at a spinning top, completely hypnotized by its movements.

Magnus was awoken from his hypnotization when Halfborn put an arm around his shoulders. “Seems like you finally managed to ask Alex out, huh? It was about time, too. I’m happy for you mate, even if I owe Mallory two galleons now.”

“W-what?” Magnus stuttered out, face flushing. Did they bet on my non-existent love-life? “No, I didn’t ask Alex out, I-I mean I did, but we’re here as friends. And did you honestly bet on that?”

The smile on Halfborn’s face turned into a frown. “Yeah, we did, and we bet a lot of money too. T.J bet the most.”

T.J shrugged. “That’s true.” Magnus glared at him, though he was wondering exactly how much money T.J had bet on them.

“And what do you mean you’re here as friends?” Halfborn went on incredulous. “How did you ask Alex to the Yule Ball as friends? Pretty much everybody here has come with a date!”

“Well, I came with Alex as friends,” Magnus protested, his face redder than Mallory’s hair. “We’re just friends.” It sounded unconvincing even to his own ears.

Halfborn looked at him with an “are you shitting me look” before he turned to T.J. “Please tell me I wasn’t that bad.”

“You weren’t, actually. Magnus is worse.” Magnus glared at his friend. T.J ignored him. “Magnus, remember when we talked about this in the library last year?” Magnus nodded. “I know you said you would do things at your own time, and I respect that, but if you want my opinion, you should really talk to Alex for real about it. You two have a connection, you work together. I can’t tell you if Alex feels the same way, but this is our last year here. Who knows what will happen in our lives afterwards?”

Magnus nodded along absentmindedly, their conversation about the future from the Hogwarts Express coming back to him. The fact that after this year was over he wouldn’t see his friends every single day still hadn’t full sank in.

“Last year you said you didn’t think it was a good idea to ask Alex out so soon after she had broke up with Conall,” T.J went on, his voice stern, like he was scolding a child. With how laid-back his friends could be he forgot how serious he can get sometimes. “You probably used the fact they were together as an excuse to avoid your feeling before that. What’s holding you back now?”

Magnus didn’t answer, didn’t know how to. What was holding him back?

“What are we doing here?” he heard Mallory say suddenly. “Let’s go party!”  Mallory took her boyfriend by the arm and run inside the Hall of the Slain faster than it should have been possible for someone in a dress and (presumably) heels. (Though Mallory could have killed a man in heels and looked fabulous while doing it.) (She would probably kill him with the heels.)

Amir and Sam headed inside the Hall as well, with T.J running straight for the buffet table (as any sane person would). Magnus was about to get inside too when Alex stopped him by his shoulder. He gave her a quizzical look but she just gestured him closer and said, “Come here.”

Magnus did, unsure of what Alex wanted to do. She came closer to him, standing just a step apart and reached her arms up to his neck. For a moment Magnus could imagine her wrapping them around his neck and pulling him closer, his body pressed flush against her as she kissed him.

But that didn’t happen. Instead she untied his bowtie and tied it again with graceful fingers. “We can’t have the Hogwarts champion show up with a crooked bowtie,” she said with a smirk and Merlin did Magnus love her smirk. She started explaining how you’re supposed to tie a bowtie, saying it was weird but you learnt after some time, and Magnus knew he should have been paying attention but he couldn’t. He was too busy paying attention to her.

She was beautiful. He knew she was a metamorphmagus, he knew she could look anyway she wanted, and he had no doubt he would think she was beautiful however she chose to change her appearance. She was gorgeous, inside and out, and his conversation with Halfborn and T.J made him even more aware of just how much he liked her, of all the small things she did that made her who she was.

She could draw amazingly well and she’d make a lot of pots at summer when they had more free time. She even knew how to tie a bowtie! Who knows how to do that in this day and age? She could probably kill him with that bowtie too if she wanted and Magnus found that strangely hot.

Then he thought of why she knew how to do those things, why she knew how to dance waltz and he remembered all the absentminded comments she’d made about her parents and how badly they treated her, even when they thought she was their son, their precious heir. He couldn’t help being mad at people who had hurt such a wonderful person.

“What are you thinking about?” Alex asked him, amusement clear in her voice – she said that he had a funny expression on his face when he was thinking hard about something and she’d compare it to his brain frying because he worked it harder than he should. She had finished tying his bowtie but her hands still rested at either side of his neck. She was a good inch or two taller than him and it would be so easy to pull her down and kiss her.

What’s holding you back now? T.J’s words rang in his ears and Magnus found himself saying something he would have dared to say before without wanting to crawl into a hole afterwards.

“Just how great you are,” he said simply, like it was the truest thing he’s ever said.

Alex’s eyes widened. She obviously wasn’t expecting him to say something like that, though he didn’t expect to say it either. Her cheeks grew pinker and Magnus got a strange sense of satisfaction at being able to make her blush. The corners of her lips turned up in a teasing smile and she hooked their arms together.

“Now,” she said, her cheeks still red, “don’t start flirting when we’re not even at the Ball yet, lover-boy.”

Magnus smiled back despite the warmth climbing his neck towards his cheeks. “Does that mean I can flirt if we’re inside the Hall of the Slain?” he asked in a joking tone.

“Sure,” Alex shrugged as they walked inside the Hall of the Slain. “As long as it’s with me. You wouldn’t want to make your date jealous, right?” She was smiling widely, her eyes alight by their joking around.

“Of course not. Plus, my date’s the prettiest person here so why would I flirt with someone else?” As much as Magnus was enjoying their fooling around, there was still a part of him that was getting very embarrassed by it.

And he probably wasn’t the only one because Alex’s cheeks darkened again. “Well, aren’t you smooth,” she said with a small smile. Her eyes fell on the buffet table - where T.J was currently stuffing breatsticks inside his pocket and hoping no one would notice - and she smiled wider. “Care for a snack, handsome?”

“Sure, beautiful,” Magnus shot back, cheeks aflame.

They stood by the buffet table, eating some of the snacks that had been put there as the rest of the students spilled inside the large room. The longer the stood there the more overdramatically they flirted and it was after Alex winked at him and called him cute that Magnus had a heart attack realized his random comment had led to them aggressively flirting with each other as a competition.

It was when Magnus was about to say that Alex looked marvelous in her dress (because the more over-the-top the better) that he heard a loud, French-accented voice call out to him.

“Magnus, mon ami, how are you?” Raphael asked as he came closer, dragging Louis behind him by the arm. The blonde boy had the face of someone who really regretted his actions while Raphael looked like he would start bouncing off the walls any minute now.

“Oh, I’m fine,” Magnus responded. He didn’t know whether he should be relieved or not that he wouldn’t joke-flirt with Alex anymore. “How are you?”

“About to go crazy because I told you not to eat those éclairs and you did anyway,” Louis cut in before Raphael could say anything. “He gets really hyperactive when he eats a lot of sugar,” he explained to Magnus and Alex.

“Which is why you’ve been trying to come up with tasty sugar-free recipes like the great boyfriend you are,” Raphael said as he kissed Louis cheeks, trying to make his boyfriend stop being angry at him. “Besides, you can’t blame me for eating them. Your éclairs are tres incroyable!”

Louis blushed a little by the compliment but he still glared at the other boy. The two of them had come to the Yule Ball in matching suits in their school’s colors.

“Why were you making éclairs anyway?” Alex asked confused though very amused (and kinda hungry for éclairs).

“I bake when I’m bored,” Louis answered simply.

“And when he’s stressed and when he can’t sleep and when he’s really happy…” Raphael counted on his fingers.

“I bake a lot.”

They made small talk for a little bit before Magnus remembered something. “Oh, the cake you gave me was really good by the way.”

“Thanks,” Louis said at the same time Alex asked, “What cake?”

Magnus’s face paled as he remembered that he had never told Alex, or any of his friends, about the cake. “Oh, Louis gave me a cake as thank you for the first task and, um…”

“You didn’t give any to us?” Alex sounded offended and Magnus took a cautious step to the side without realizing it.

“I was going to!” he tried to excuse himself, making wide gestures with his hands. “But then I took a slice and it was good and… I ate all of it on my own.” He knew he should have kept a bit for his friends, he would have kept some of them since he could eat a whole cake on his own, but… it was just really good!

“I am breaking up with you,” Alex said simply. Louis and Raphael watched the whole scene unfold amused.

“Magnus,” Raphael started to stop the (albeit joke) fight between the two British, “won’t you introduce us to ta bien-aimee?”

Alex’s dramatic frown immediately left her face as she blushed redder than a tomato. Magnus was confused as to why she reacted like that before she remembered Alex knew both Spanish and French so she understood what Raphael had just called her. Magnus would have reacted in the same way (if not way worse) if he had understood too, but he had limited (to non-existent) knowledge in French so he thought that Raph had simply called Alex his best friend.

“Oh, um, this is Alex,” Magnus introduced his crush awkwardly.

“So you are the Alex he’s told us about,” Louis said, looking Alex in the eye. Magnus flushed and just barely kept himself from groaning. The way he phrased it made it sound as if he had been fawning to them about her! “I’m Luis Dupain.”

Alex smiled at the blonde French boy. “Alex Fierro.”

“And I suppose you know my name already from the Goblet, but I’m Raphael Beaumont,” the Beauxbatons Champion piped in, smile wider than that of a five-year-old. Magnus could see what sugar had done to him. “Nice to finally meet Magnus’s girlfriend.”

Magnus’s face went red faster than the speed of light. Alex wasn’t far behind.

“I- I am not-“she spluttered.

“S-she’s not-“ he tried.

Raphael and Louis sent each other a nervous glance as the two teens in front of them were nearly having an aneurism.

“I’m sorry for assuming then,” Raphael said, hoping it would stop Magnus and Alex from fainting on the spot. Then, because he couldn’t hold himself back and he honestly didn’t see what would be the problem since they were just friends, he said, “Though you’d make a really cute couple.”

Magnus choked on air again and Alex glared a Raphael (something that would have been much more threatening if she wasn’t blushing redder than the Gryffindor banner).

“So, um, how’s the clue coming along?” Magnus changed the subject. He didn’t think his heart could take any more comments about his relationship with Alex. “Have you solved it yet?”

For some reason that simple question made both boys’ faces to flush bright red.

“Yeah, we have,” Raphael muttered.

“‘We?’” Alex asked, one eyebrow perfectly raised.

“Yeah, we were at the kitchens and I was trying to make a Quiche Lorraine-“ Louis started explaining.

“-and I was messing around with some potions because I was bored and he wouldn’t let me lick the spoon-“ Raphael cut in.

“-it’s unhygienic!-“

“-so I tried to have some fun-“

“-you started kissing me while I was mixing the ingredients-“

“-and we kind of dropped the potion I was working on onto the parchment.” Raphael was obviously flustered, fidgeting with the fabric of his suit. Then he seemed to remember something and his blush was instantly replaced by a scared look. “Oh shit, tell me you had solved it too.”

Magnus nodded. “Yeah, I have, it’s alright.”

Raphael was probably about to ask him how he had solved it when Professor Sif gestured them over. It was time for the Champion’s Waltz.  

The students cleared the dancing floor quickly, eager to see the Champion’s Waltz. The three Champions and their dates took their places like they had been told. Helga, Magnus and Raphael stood on one side of the dance floor while their dates stood opposite them. Helga was dressed in a blood red dress, since it was the school’s color, and her date, Agatha, wore a matching dress as well.

The music started playing and all three couples took slow steps towards each other. Once close, Magnus bowed and offered a hand to Alex, as per the choreography. Alex took it and they started circling around each other with their joint hands acting like the axis of their circle.

Around them, the other two couples were doing the same thing. Magnus paid close attention to the music and when he heard their cue he pulled Alex closer, bringing his hand to her waist.

“Careful not to step on my toes,” Alex whispered to him and Magnus smiled at her.

They circled around the dance floor the way their Headmasters had showed them, dresses and suit jackets swaying in time with the music. From above they would have looked like leafs being moved along by the wind and the students watched their performance enrapt. They knew the dance was choreographed but there was still something amazingly intimate in the way the three couples held and looked at each other, like they were each other’s treasure.

Magnus led Alex across the dance floor, his partner’s dress flaring out in a wide circle. He had to fight everything in him not to start staring at his feet but he knew it’d look bad if he did the entire dance with his hand bowed down. That didn’t stop him from glancing down at his feet, even if he couldn’t see them sometimes under Alex’s dress.

He was doing just that when Alex squeezed a bit too hard on his shoulder. He looked up and it was a wonder his step didn’t falter because wow. He hadn’t realized exactly how close they were, especially since he had made it a habit to stare at a place over Alex’s shoulder when they danced so as to avoid death at his young age.  

“Look at me,” his beautiful partner whispered and he heard even over the music still playing around them.

Magnus complied, half-thinking that someone would have to force him to force him to ever stop looking at Alex. The lights around the room had lowered when their dance started and a spotlight fell on each of them as they walked closer. When their hands had met and the couples started dancing together the colors had shifted into each school’s colors. Magnus and Alex danced under red, green, blue and yellow lights that made Alex look like something supernatural, a beautiful creature out of a fairy tale. With those captivating eyes and green hair it wouldn’t be hard to believe.

As the dance went on Magnus felt magnetized by Alex, his thoughts and worries slipping away as they performed the rest of the dance. The music would sound like trickling water and Magnus would spin Alex under his arm, then it would swell and they’d hold hands as Alex twirled outwards, dress blowing out like a flower in bloom.

They danced in circles again, bodies close, and Magnus noticed the slight shift in tempo as the song drew close to its end. Alex noticed it too and smiled at him, eager for the big finale of their number.

The three couples danced closer and closer until they were dancing in a small, tight circle in the middle of the dance floor. A red skirt – Magnus didn’t know if it belonged to Helga or Agatha – swept by his legs and he could see Louis and Raphael over Alex’s shoulder looking at each other like a couple on their wedding day. Then, as the violin in the song became more prominent, they danced outwards in wide, open arcs.

Once they reached their place at the very edge of the dance floor Magnus took Alex by the hand for the final spin. Alex’s body twirled outwards elegantly, face almost glowing with a wide, happy smile and Magnus wanted to make sure that smile would always be there. Heart thumping in his chest, Magnus pulled Alex back in, smiling just as brightly as his partner. Magnus positioned his hands in the right places and as the last notes of the song played he dipped Alex down.

The music ended and the clapping from the students started, loud and excited. It was louder than a thunderstorm, some students cat-whistling, others shouting compliments in English, French, Spanish, Russian and a handful of other languages Magnus didn’t recognize. His eyes, however, didn’t lift up to the crowd of applauding students, nor to his friends that were being the loudest of them all.

No, his eyes stayed at Alex, panting in his arms, cheeks flushed, with a smile that could put the sun, the stars and the fucking moon at shame. His heart seemed to sync up with the loud clapping of the student body and more than ever – more than the day at the Room of Requirement, more than when they hovered together in the air, more than all the dozens of times he wanted to do it – he wanted to lean down and kiss Alex.

What’s holding you back now?

But before he could do it, before he could close the distance between their lips, Alex was standing up. The other two couples had broken their stances as well, Magnus saw, and the students of Hogwarts, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang were spilling into the dance floor.

“Come on,” Alex said and tugged on his arm. Magnus didn’t get to look at his partner’s eyes for long before he was being dragged to the side of the room but he could have sworn he could see a disappointed gleam in them, like Alex wouldn’t have minded at all if Magnus listened to T.J’s advice and finally acted on his feelings.

They were back at the buffet table and Alex was pouring both of them glasses of water. She held one out to Magnus- no, wait –

“Have your pronouns changed?” Magnus asked as he took the glass.

Alex raised an eyebrow. “Yeah. He and him. How did you know?”

Magnus shrugged. He really wasn’t sure what possessed him to ask. “I don’t know. Lucky guess?”

Alex smiled at him and drank his water. Magnus was drinking his too when he noticed Alex’s shoulder being a bit too tense, his arms hanging by his sides a bit too unnaturally, fumbling with his skirt a bit too weirdly.

“Do you… feel weird in that dress?” he asked carefully.

Alex sighed. “A bit? I don’t know why, I’m funny with the school skirt even on male days. Maybe it’s too long?”

“Do you want to get changed?”

Alex shrugged. “Yes, but I don’t have anything else that’s formal and I don’t want to have to go all the way to the Slytherin dorms and miss the party.”

Magnus grabbed his hand, already having an idea. “Come with me.”

Alex didn’t say anything else as Magnus took her to where Professor Blitzen was talking with Professor Hearthstone, the two of them standing a little bit too close. Magnus filed it away as evidence for the Blitzstone rumor that has being going around among the students since last year.

They took a step away from each other and Magnus noted that too, but he wasn’t here to speculate about his teachers’ love lives so he got straight to the point. “Professor Blitzen, do you happen to have a spare suit? Alex doesn’t feel comfortable and he wants to change.”

The short teacher realized what was happening quickly and told the two students to follow him. About ten minutes later Alex was walking out of a stall in the boys’ bathroom in a suit that matched Magnus’s. Why Professor Blitzen had one just lying around he didn’t know but he didn’t question it.

Back at the Ball, the party was going on strong. The music had switched from the instrumental that played during the Champions�� dance to a more upbeat modern wizarding song which lyrics Magnus’s didn’t bother paying attention to. He and his friends spent the night raiding the buffet and doing the most ridiculous dance moves in a circle at the dance floor. Apparently Alex had picked up some break-dancing moves while on the streets and damn where those moves impressive. T.J could do a really good wave too, he said Percy had showed him how, and Magnus danced like he was having a seizure now that nobody was telling him how to move his limbs. Raphael and Luis did a way over-the-to tango that made it obvious neither of them knew what they were doing, but at least they were passionate about it.

The party ended a bit after the obligatory conga line and the students started heading back to their rooms, though Magnus was pretty sure some of the couples were going somewhere else.

“Magnus,” Alex said as he took his hand. There was a lot of hand-holding tonight, not that Magnus was complaining. “Wanna go to the Astronomy tower?”

“Yes,” he said, because he couldn’t say no, he could never say not to Alex.

So they went to the Astronomy tower, hand in hand, even when they didn’t need to hold hands so as not to lose each other in the crowd of students anymore. They went through corridors Magnus had walked hundreds of times before and through halls he didn’t even know existed. Alex was in the lead, Magnus’s hand held tightly in his own as they hid behind a large suit of armor to avoid the teacher that was coming down the hall.

When they finally made it to the tower they were immediately met with the strong, cold breeze of the winter night. Magnus was about to say that maybe they should go somewhere else because they would probably freeze to death on top of one of Hogwarts’ tallest towers in the middle of December but Alex took his wand from under his pant and cast a warming spell on them.

They dragged one of the benches left there from the Astronomy lessons closer to the edge and sat down. The night was beautiful, if not cold, though he couldn’t feel it that much now thanks to Alex’s spell. The sky was full with stars and you could see them much easier here than anywhere in London.

Their wands lay between them, the Lumos they had both cast before letting them down being the only light in the top of the tower besides the stars and the moon. Alex was still holding his hand but he said nothing. He’d love it if he never had to let go of his hand. (Plus, his hand was warm and it was really nice.)

“The stars are beautiful tonight,” he finally said, laughing a bit on the inside because, you know, memes.

“You know what else is beautiful?” Alex responded.

Without thinking, Magnus said, “You?”

If Alex blushed, he couldn’t tell. “You know it!” he said with a cheeky smile.

There was a moment of comfortable silence, the only sound around them the wind and the occasional louder sounds from the Forbidden Forest. Magnus looked at the trees of the forest, the thick foliage looking almost black in the light of the moon. He couldn’t help but think back to the first task – the pixies hitting him from every angle, zipping across the tightwire while clinging onto the rope, having to balance on the swings while firing spells at the Thestrals and facing a goddamn chimera. He didn’t think he could ever see the forest again and not be reminded of the task.

When he was in second year he remembered being jealous of the older students for going to Beauxbatons to see the Tournament, and while he wanted to watch it, he definitely never thought he’d have to take part in it. He could understand now, better than an observer could, why people said the tournament was dangerous. He couldn’t blame his friends, couldn’t blame Alex for being worrying about him.

What’s holding you back?

He heard T.J’s words in his head again and seriously, did his friend learn how to get in people’s minds? Still, even if T.J knew Legilimency and Magnus didn’t know, the question still remained. What was holding him back? He’s taking part in the Triwizard Tournament, he fought with a fucking chimera, what was scaring him so much that he couldn’t talk to Alex and tell him he wanted to be more than just friends?

“You know you’re still holding my hand, right?” Alex asked. Ironic considering he had been tracing circles with his thumb over Magnus’s knuckles for the last few minutes.

“Yeah.” Magnus nodded. He didn’t let go. “Do you want me to let go?”

“No, I don’t.” Alex smiled at him before turning his eyes back at the sky. He gave Magnus’s hand a squeeze. “I just wanted to see if you had noticed.”

Do it, something in him told him. Just do it. This is your last year - your last shot. Take it.

And, unlike every other time his mind had pushed him to do this, Magnus didn’t shoot back with half-backed excuses. Unconsciously, he squeezed Alex’s hand before he spoke. His voice sounded soft among the wind that was whipping against the tower.

“Alex?”

“Mm?”

“At the infirmary, after the first task…” Come on, you can do it. Just ask. Yet as much as he tried to calm himself down his heart still beat ridiculously loud, louder than the chimera’s roar.  “Why did you kiss me on the cheek?”

Alex didn’t respond. For one slow, excruciating the only sound around them was the howling of the wind and the sloshing of the waves at the Big Lake below them. Magnus’s hand was sweating inside Alex’s and he was sure he had noticed. Every bit of confidence that had possessed him to speak was leaving him by the second and he would have taken what he said back if Alex hadn’t spoken, voice carefree and nervous at the same time.

“I was glad you were alright and I wanted to kiss you on the cheek so I did.”

Maybe it was how anxious he had gotten over asking something so simple but Magnus couldn’t help but burst out laughing. “Yeah, that seems like you. Has there ever been something you wanted to do that you didn’t do?”

Alex smiled at him, the kind of ‘if only you knew’ smile his mother would give him whenever he asked her if she loved him. “Some things. You?”

Come on, this is it. Do it!

The moon made Alex’s hair look silvery green, his eyes twinkled under the light of their wands and Magnus was drowning in them. His suit jacket was laying somewhere behind them on the floor and his tie hand loosely around his neck. He looked beautiful. Magnus wanted to kiss him.

“I’ve wanted to kiss you but I haven’t done it yet.”

Alex’s smile was wide, brighter than the moon and the stars. His hand on Magnus’s was warm as he traced designs on his skin. “I’ve wanted to do that too. Do you still want to?”

“Always.”

They leaned in slowly, as if pulled by a magnet. Their lips met in the middle over their joint hands, slow and hesitant. Alex moved his lips against Magnus’s and they were soft yet chapped from the cold, tasting like the food they ate at the buffet table and strawberry. Magnus tried to follow his movements, the part of him that feared he would mess this up being drowned out by then part of him that wanted to kiss Alex till he didn’t know how to do anything else.

Alex reached a hand up and put it behind his neck, pulling him closer. Magnus brought his own hand up to Alex’s shoulder, his other hand still holding Alex’s tightly. He felt more at ease now and he kissed Alex easier, with more confidence. Alex smiled against him lips and pushed back, not about to be outdone by Magnus. His teeth grazed Magnus’s bottom lip lightly before sucking on it a bit. Magnus’s hand tightened around the fabric of Alex’s shirt, feeling lightheaded and deliriously happy.

They pulled apart slowly but didn’t go back to their original places. They stayed close, their faces centimeters apart, their panting breath mingling. Magnus was smiling like an idiot and so was Alex.              

“Merlin, I’ve wanted to do that for a long time,” Alex said as he smiled, sighing deeply as he tried to catch his breath.

“How long?” Magnus asked quietly. He felt like he would break whatever spell was over them if he spoke louder.

Alex traced circles over Magnus’s knuckles and Magnus saw a bit of a blush on his face thanks to the light from their wands. “Since before Christmas last year. At least that’s when I realized it. You?”

Magnus was blushing as he answered but he didn’t care. “Since the start of sixth year, I think. Probably since before that, too.”

The smile from Alex’s face was replaced with a stunned expression for a moment before he burst out laughing. “Wow. So we’ve liked each other all this time-“

“- but we said nothing,” Magnus continued, smiling over their own stupidity.

“We’re idiots,” Alex said.

“Yeah, we are,” Magnus chuckled.

Alex scooted closer to him and wiggled his eyebrows at him. “Want to make up for lost time?”

“Definitely.”

Eh? Eh? You didn't think this would finally happen, did ya?

[imwastingmylifeinhere]

Magnus Chase and the Obligatory Hogwarts AU Ch16

Yes, we're here! I've been waiting forward to this part since I started this story. So, with no further ado, I present to you the Triwizard Tournament!

The rest of their sixth year had gone by relatively well. Halfborn managed to get the N.E.W.T.S he needed to get into the Wizarding University he needed, as did Percy and Annabeth. They threw a big party to celebrate it before the two Americans had to fly back and let’s just say Halfborn took full advantage of the fact he could legally drink.

Sam had been doing research on how she could get permission to bring Amir to the Triwizard Tournament for the best part of the second semester. She hadn’t yet told Amir since she didn’t want to get his hopes up for nothing but Alex promised her that they could just sneak him in if they didn’t get permission. Apparently the plan included fake mustaches and a bad accent.

And speaking of Alex, her relationship with Magnus had been… weird. They were still friends, sure, and you wouldn’t notice something was wrong even if you knew both of them well. They hang out and joked together and spent entire nights awake binge-watching something from Netflix, but there were always those moments when they remembered of the crush they had – still had - on the other and had to remind themselves nothing would come of it and they should just move on already.

At times, they would get their hopes up for a moment. Holding eye-contact for a moment too long, hands brushing a bit too much, a joking ‘I love you’ and then squashing that hope down again. Friends do those things too, it doesn’t mean anything, they thought to themselves.

Summer went by in a flash, or maybe it just seemed like that to them. They met in front of King’s Cross and sat together in a compartment, telling each other what they did during summer. Being back on the Hogwarts Express felt different this time. Maybe it was because the last time they were in one of its compartments they were squeezed tightly next to each other in order to fit eight people inside whereas now they were only five. Or maybe it was because they knew this was going to be the last time they got to ride the Hogwarts Express at the start of the school year.  They were seventh years now- by next autumn they will have graduated.

“It feels weird to think this is the last time, huh?” T.J said at one point. “By next year we’ll be officially adults.”

“Now you made me feel old,” Alex said sheepishly, but no one missed the melancholy tone in her voice. None of them other than Magnus knew all the details, but it didn’t take much to understand Alex’s time at Hogwarts were the happiest years of her life so far. Hogwarts had been her home for four years and the first place where she ever felt like she was accepted. It honestly scared her to think she would never come back after this year. I suppose this is what normal kids feel like when they have to move out of their parents’ house for the first time.

“I don’t feel like an adult,” Magnus said. “I can hardly grow a beard or drive and I have no clue what I’m supposed to do with my life.”

Everybody but Sam – who knew for years she wanted to be a pilot- nodded in an ‘I feel you’ kind of way.  

“You tell me,” Mallory sighed. “Halfborn had been talking to me about different universities and courses and whatnot he was interested in for years and I was just like ‘I guess I want to finish school?’”

“Yeah, for all our jokes about how he’s an actual Viking, Halfborn has his life together better than any of us, save for Sam,” T.J said.

“I don’t have my life together that well,” Sam said, more because of embarrassment for being left out of the conversation than anything else. And it was true! Like, yesterday she had stayed up later than she was supposed to and she didn’t know a thing about cooking (ironic considering Amir’s family owned a restaurant).

Sam was met with ‘are you shitting me’ looks by every one of their friends. “Sam,” Alex said slowly, “you are already engaged with a boy you’ve been in love with for years and you’ve already applied for a bunch of piloting schools. You’ll probably be accepted by all of them, to be honest.”

Sam said nothing because Alex was right (although she doubted they would all accept her. At least one would turn her down due to her religion despite her great qualifications.)

“Okay, enough with worrying about our future, guys!” Mallory said, standing up from her seat. “This is our last year! Let’s make sure we enjoy it! We’ll go out with a bang!”

The redhead threw her arms in the air and her friends were quick to follow. Alex run out of the compartment quickly and came back with arms filled with chocolate frogs and a bunch of other sweets. The group hollered and hooted and soon candy wrappers littered the floor as they sang horrible Top 40s songs (and musicals because Percy and Alex had bonded over their shared love for Hamilton and other musicals, which meant that Alex was singing ‘Big Fun’ from ‘Heathers’ at the top of her lungs).

They arrived at Hogwarts after T.J and Alex (with some helps from the others) had managed to sing though the entire first act of “In the Heights” (and wow, Magnus never knew he found Alex speaking Spanish hot, but damn).

The opening feast went on like always for the most part. And ‘for the most part’ because Headmaster Odin announced that the Triwizard tournament would take place in their school this year. The student went crazy over the announcement, obviously, especially those over 17 who could try out their luck and see if they would be chosen as Champion.

And so that was the standart topic of conversation for the first weeks of school. ‘Which house will the Champion be from?’, ‘Who do you think will be Champion?’ and ‘Who will you take to the Yule Ball?’ were the most common questions between students and eve some teachers asked them (read: Professor Jack).

And so the time passed by and October finally arrived. The 30th came and the students were unable to think of anything but the arrival of the two schools that evening. It became almost unbearable for the teachers, the constant murmur in the back of their classes. Some completely gave up on teaching and just talked with their students (again, Professor Jack, who told them about the beautiful French woman he dated once and the handsome Bulgarian man he charmed with his talents).

The moment the afternoon classes were over the students sprinted down to the Big Lake to watch the two other schools arrive. The students’ excited talking created a cacophony that sounded like constant buzzing. The younger students were the ones more excited, or more obviously excited. The seventh years might not be bouncing up and down and squealing, but they wanted to.

“Hey, look!” a tiny first year yelled, pointing up at the sky. Everybody turned to look where she was pointing to see a pastel blue carriage being dragged across the sky. As the carriage got closer and closer it got bigger and bigger and what at first looked like a typical carriage ended up being as a two-deck bus on steroids. The students quickly moved aside to make room for the vehicle to land.

As the carriage landed and the winged horses that pulled it along came to a halt, Alex turned to Magnus. “It must be really hard to find parking space for that thing.” The joke was so random it made Magnus crack up, despite effectively ruing the otherwise magical moment.

As the doors of the blue carriage opened, a tall, elegant man walked out with robes as blue as sapphires and gray streaks of hair at his temples. He was followed by a rather big group of students, all dressed in blue. The boys looked like they could all easily get the role of the pretty boy in a bad high school chick flick, wearing a sky blue blazer with details in darker blue and perfectly ironed blue pants. The girls could have easily passed as Veelas, moving gracefully in a way that made you wonder whether they actually had Veela blood. They wore the same blazers as the boys with a blue skirt that reached their knees and fluttered with their every step.

The students were arranged by year, the first years at the back and the seventh years at the front. A boy walked near the front, shoulders pushed back and head held high proudly. The light color of his uniform made his dark skin stand out and black curls peaked out from under his hat.

“There’s so much blue I think I’ll throw up,” Magnus whispered at Alex. He honestly felt a bit nauseous at seeing so much of the color, no matter how attractive the students were.

“I’m more concerned about those ridiculous hats,” Alex whispered back. “Who thought those things were a good idea?”

“The same guy who thought we should have big black pointy hats,” T.J piped in.

The tall man, the headmaster of the school apparently, walked up to Odin and the two men shook hands.

“Gilbert, it’s good to see you,” the Hogwarts headmaster said with a smile, pronouncing Gilbert like Jill-bare.

“Likewise, mon ami.” The man- Gilbert- spoke in a soft, mellow tone that made Alex think he’d be great at telling kids bedtime stories. “Has Durmstrang arrived yet?” Gilbert’s accent was almost unnoticeable, except for when a word had an ‘r’ in it.

“They should show up any minute-“ The Headmaster was cut off by an explosion of water from the Big Lake. A large ship burst out of the water, spraying the watching students with water. The ship looked like what you would imagine a pirate ship like, made entirely of wood, with large masts and billowing sails that looked completely dry despite being just underwater. The figurehead at the prow of the large vessel was a sculptured dragon, its large wings plastered over the sides of the ship’s hull and its eyes two gleaming red rubies.

The ship pulled closer to the shore and a wooden bridge was lowered. The first to exit was a tall woman with broad shoulders and almost white blonde hair pulled back in a tight bun. Her eyes were gray and sharp like a blade and there were deep lines around them. The students of Hogwarts were instantly met with the realization that she was one of those teachers that you don’t want to piss off or you’ll be damned to hell.

Alex stared at the woman with large, shocked eyes. Of course she would be here! He scolded himself for not figuring this out sooner and his blood run cold in his veins as he realized something else. Oh, please don’t let her be here, please don’t let her be here.

“Alex?” Magnus asked, concern lacing his voice. His hand hovered in the air next to him, hesitant if he should touch Alex’s shoulder or not. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, yeah I’m-“

The ‘I’m fine’ Alex would have said got cut in his throat as his eyes fell on a tall girl with auburn hair. She held her chin up high and as the students of Durmstrang got off the boat she looked at everyone with an expression as if she was above all of them. Her blood red robes made her white skin seem almost translucent. Her legs, strong from Quidditch, where clad the isothermal leggings that were part of the Durmstrang girl uniform. The fur coat hanging off her shoulder looked like the skin of a bear and Alex had no doubt in his mind she could easily kill a bear.

“Alex?” Magnus followed Alex’s eyes to the Durmstrang girl. He didn’t understand why confident Alex was left looking at the girl with frightened eyes until he remembered what Alex hat told him back in the Room of Requirement last year. “Is she…?”

Alex clearly understood what Magnus was asking because he nodded. “Y-Yeah.”

Anger flared up in the Hufflepuff and he got some very un-Hufflepuff like thoughts regarding that girl.

“Alex, are you alright?” Mallory asked concerned, laying a hand on her roommate’s shoulder.

“Who’s that girl?” Sam asked, having noticed the way with which Alex was staring at the girl.

“She’s a cow that hurt Alex,” Magnus said simply, voice as cold as the weather back at Durmstrang.

The rest of their group didn’t seem to need any more information because they were instantly glaring daggers at the back of the Durmstrang girl.

The Durmstrang students walked behind their Headmistress as she came to meet Odin.

“Odin, Gilbert, it’s a pleasure to see you again,” she said as they shook hands, her accent heavy when she spoke.

“Same here, dear Sonia,” Gilbert said as he kissed her cheeks in greeting.

The auburn haired girl was scanning the crowds of Hogwarts and Beauxbatons students with eyes like a hawk. She gave off the impression she was sure she would get picked for Champion and was searching the crowd of students for her competition. As her eyes flew over the students she suddenly froze when she saw a certain green haired Slytherin. For a moment, she looked just as surprised Alex, then her astonishment was wiped away by a wicked smile that spread across her face.

“Hello,” she mouthed at Alex and waved at him, her fingers wiggling.

A soft gasp was heard from Alex and Sam was quick to step in front of her brother and glare at the girl along with T.J. Mallory flicked a peace sign at the girl, which didn’t mean something as innocent as that for the Irish. Magnus flashed her a similar rude expression with absolutely no regret.

“Let’s kill her,” T.J said. The others nodded and kept glaring at the girl’s back.

“I know where we can hide the body,” Mallory said.

A nice, warm ball of feelings rose in Alex’s chest when he saw his friends try and defend him like that. Maybe he should be more concerned his friends were prepared to commit murder and kill a girl then didn’t even know the name of, but after seeing Helga again so suddenly it made him feel safe.

The three schools were lead inside the Hall of the Slain for dinner. The small tables that littered the room where students from all different houses could sit were now removed. In their place were the long House tables from the entrance feast along with two extra tables, one for each of the visiting schools. The group of friends had to split up despite how much they didn’t want to.

“If she tries anything, give me a signal and I’ll shower her in gravy and chicken bones,” T.J told Alex right before he went to sit at the Ravenclaw table. The unusual response managed to put a small smile on Alex’s face.

Magnus felt bad leaving Alex alone after that girl that had hurt him so much arrived and obviously recognized Alex, even though a part of him knew Alex could easily give her hell. Still, he couldn’t help but worry, though Sam and Mallory standing by Alex’s sides like his own personal body guards helped him calm down.

Once everyone was seated in their tables and the chatter in the Hall had calmed down, Headmaster Odin stood up.

“I believe I’m talking for all students in Hogwarts when I say we are all very happy to have the students and Headmasters of Beauxbatons Academy of Magic and Durmstrang Institute here with us tonight.”

We could do with one less student, Magnus couldn’t help at thinking, eyeing the Durmstrang girl with undisguised dislike.

“As you all know very well, our fellow magical schools that are grassing us with their presence today,” Magnus huffed and rolled his eyes, glaring at the girl again, “are here because of the Triwizard Tournament, which our school will host this year.”

“Now, I’m sure you’re all very curious as to who will be the Champions that will represent each school,” Headmaster Odin continued. “Those wishing to bring honor to their school and represent it as a Champion must be seventeen or older. Anyone younger will not be permited to enter their name.”

Headmaster Gilbert stood up and continued from where Headmaster Odin had left off. “Those of age wishing to enter as Champion must write their name and their school clearly on a piece of parchment.”

Headmistress Sonia stood up and picked up from where her fellow wizard left off. “The potential Champions will have from the end of tonight’s dinner until the start of tomorrow’s feast to enter their name in the Goblet of Fire.”

As if on cue, a large chest that had been placed in front of the teacher’s table burst open. Blue flames erupted from inside, making every students in the Hall gasp in surprise. Once the flames calmed down, a beautifully sculptured goblet was seen hovering of the chest. Covered in gold, only the students sitting the closest to the teacher’s table were able to make out the scenes depicted on it. The valuable stones set about an inch under it lid gleamed in the lights of the Hall. Flames burned inside it, the bright fire dancing dazzlingly.

The entire Hall applauded loudly, amazed by the sight they just witnessed. Dinner was served once the students finally calmed down. Food from each different country served. Throughout the entire dinner students were asking each other if they would enter their names in the Goblet of Fire or who they thought would be picked.

///////////////

Magnus, Alex, T.J, Mallory and Sam were huddled together near the entrance of the Hall of the Slain. They had arranged to meet there before breakfast to enter their names.

“So who will go first?” Mallory asked, holding her own piece of parchment between her fingers.

“Can I?” T.J asked enthusiastically. Given his love for Quidditch, he had been hyped about the Triwizard tournament since the get go. He was a hundred percent ready to support whoever the Hogwarts Champion was, even if it wasn’t him.

“Go ahead.”

T.J walked to the Goblet of Fire confidently and let his parchment fall in the fire. The fire spiked up, turning momentarily blue before changing back to its warm orange.

One by one, they all put their names in the Goblet. Magnus felt self-conscious as he put in his. He knew very well there was no chance he’d be chosen and being seen entering his name by all these people made him feel awkward, even though he knew everyone over seventeen would be entering as well and only three of them would be chosen from all schools.

All of his friends seemed like better options than him, though if he had to bet on whom, his money would either go to Sam or Alex. Those siblings could kick some serious ass.

The flames were blue again as Alex was entering her name when that girl showed up. She was no longer wearing her fur coat but her heavy boots clicked against the stone hallway.

“Well, if it isn’t Alexander. How nice seeing you here, how are you?” The girl’s accent wasn’t nearly as thick as the one of her Headmistress but it was still very obviously there. Despite her words being kind, there was a very obvious tone in her voice that let anyone within earshot understand she meant them in the least kind way possible. She might as well have said “How are you? I hope you’re dying”.

Alex went pale when she saw the girl standing behind her, hips cocked to the side and a smug expression of her face. “Go away, Helga,” Alex said sharply and tried to leave. She had absolutely no interest in talking to Helga again – she’d left her behind when she left Durmstrang and her parents’ house and had made a happier life for herself at Hogwarts. Helga had no right coming back in her life and messing things up.

“My, is that how you speak to your old best friend?” Helga spoke in a mock hurt voice, pouting at Alex like she hadn’t made her last months in Durmstrang hell on earth. She dropped the innocent tone when she went on talking. “Now I can see why you never had any friends at school. It surprises me you have any here. Well,” she laughed, a sound that should have sounded nice but instead sounded like nails scratching a chalkboard, “it surprises me that you are even here. I was expecting to see you in some freakshow, not Hogwarts of all places.”

Alex felt herself get angrier and angrier. Her fingers and her joints were tingling with energy and she wanted nothing else but to punch Helga in the face and break her pretty little nose. She took a deep breath through her nose and willed herself to calm down. Helga wanted her to react and she wouldn’t give her the joy of knowing she got under her skin. “I told you to go away. I don’t want to talk to you.”

“Aw, don’t be like that. I just wanted to enter as Champion and see the competition.” Alex clenched her fists, trying not to do something she would regret. That stupid cow has the nerve to act like she’s the victim here. “But,” Helga kept going, “if all Hogwarts has to offer is people like you and terrorists, I’m pretty sure it’ll be an easy win for me.”

Gasps were heard and Sam went pale. If Alex was mad before she was furious now. How dare she talk like that about Sam? Sam, who had treated her like family and made her realize the word could mean something other than pain, Sam who was brave and selfless and ambitious and an absolute queen. Helga wasn’t good enough to clean the mud off Sam’s shoes. Your problem’s with me bitch, leave Sam out of it.

“What makes you think you’ll even be Champion?” Alex snapped at Helga, her voice as sharp as a knife.

Helga laughed. “You and I both know I’m one of the best students in Durmstrang and the Quidditch team’s best player. Who do you think would be Champion?”

“Hopefully not Bitch MacBitchson,” Magnus snarled under his breath. Or it was supposed to be under his breath but he said it loudly and everybody heard him. Including the bitch in question, who stared at him with the most offended expression Magnus had ever seen.

She quickly composed herself before speaking, her attention now a hundred percent on Magnus. “And who are you?”

“I’m Magnus Chase,” he said confidently. He was so angry at this girl for what she had done to Alex and how she was talking to her and his friends right now that he didn’t pay any attention to the fact there were students gathered around them watching what was happening. “I’m Alex’s friend and if you’re really that confident you’ll be Champion then just put your bloody name in the Goblet and leave because I think seeing a Troll in person is scaring some of the younger students.”

As per teenage fashion, the crowd of students broke out into a loud chorus of “Ohhhhh!” Helga was red in the face, obviously furious. Magnus felt so proud of himself as he watched her walk up to the Goblet with her nose held high, ignoring the cacophony the students were creating. She dropped her name in the fire and turned around, walking straight into Alex and knocking her off her feet as she made her way to the Hall of the Slain.

“I’ll see you and your little friends later, Alexander,” she said to Alex over her shoulder, a smirk on her lips.

A hand was offered to Alex. “Are you okay?” the person asked in a distinctively French accent and Alex recognized him as the tall boy from Beauxbatons with the crazy curls (he wasn’t wearing the stupid hat any more, thank goodness).

“Yeah, yeah. I’m fine.” But even as she said that, Alex was glaring daggers, knives, swords and every other sharp object at Helga’s back. “Thank you.”

“It’s okay. I didn’t see everything, but that was really rude of her. If she wants to be a Champion she shouldn’t act like that.” The boy seemed to realize how angry he sounded and he quickly apologized. “Sorry for that.”

“Raphael!” A boy with dirty blonde hair stood by the entrance to the Hall of the Slain and waved at Raphael. “Come on!”

“J’arrive, Louis!” Raphael called out to the other boy. “I hope I’ll see you around,” he told Alex before putting his name in the Goblet and running to the other boy. They intertwined their fingers and walked into the Hall of the Slain.

“You know what I said about killing her?” T.J said. “I take it back. Let’s torture her, it’ll make the suffering last longer.”

The groups of friends chose to ignore T.J’s violent suggestion and simply nodded. They were already making lists of potential punishments.

////////////////

The day went by as slow as a snail for every student at Hogwarts, but finally the time had arrived when they would learn who would be Champions. The students poured into the great Hall, for once immediately sitting at their tables. The food of the Halloween feast was served and students eat in between talking among themselves lively. The air was filled with chattering as the last friendly dares were made about who would represent each school.

As dinner was finishing, Headmaster Odin stood up from his seat. He hit his Goblet with his spoon and a loud, crisp sound was made, amplified by magic. Everybody stopped talking at once and turned to look at him.

“My dear students,” he began, “I am sure you are all excited to learn who will be the three brave fellows to represent each of our schools in the Triwizard Tournament.” The Hall burst into applause as everybody showed the Headmaster their agreement. Odin smiled before continuing. “I assume you would prefer get to the point, as you youngsters say, so let’s see who have been chosen by the Goblet of Fire. I’m curious to find out myself.”

Applause filled the Hall once more, accompanied by howls and even cat-whistles. The chest with the Goblet of Fire was levitated on top of the small stage set in front of the teacher’s table. Headmaster Gilbert stepped forward. He took the Goblet in his hands and held it steadily.

“Beauxbatons Academy of Magic!” He bellowed in a clear voice. The Goblet’s small orange flames burst to the ceiling, turning into a vibrant, almost blinding blue. A single piece of parchment floated inside the fire, not one corner of it scorched by the heat.  

As the fire quelled, the paper floated gently onto Headmaster Gilbert’s hand. The entire Hall was watching him with bated breath as he unfolded the paper and read the name it had written on it plain and clear.

“Raphael Beaumont!”

The clapping inside the Hall of the Slain sounded like a thunderstorm as Raphael, the tall boy with the dark eyes that helped up Alex yesterday stood up. The applause only increased the closer he got to the stage, his school being by far the loudest. He made his way to the stage with his shoulders pushed back and eyes looking straight ahead, but he was obviously overthinking it – he walked like a person who put too much thought into every step and he clearly felt the eyes of everyone in the room on his back.

Raphael stood next to his Headmaster as Headmistress Sonia stepped forward. She took the Goblet in her strong hands and with the boldness and certainty of a commander howled, “Durmstrang Institute!”

Flames exploded out of the Goblet once more, tall and mesmerizing. The only thing that was heard in the dining hall as the piece of parchment floated down to her hands were quiet whispers. Unfolding the parchment with steady hands, she read in a booming voice.

“Helga Leifsson!”

Applause filled the Hall once more, but Alex and his friends refused to take any part in it. Helga stood up and walked to the stage with the air of certainty and elegance of a model, not once faltering in her step or looking scared, nose held high.

“Whoever is chosen from Hogwarts better kick her ass,” Alex grumbled, stabbing his meat with his spoon and imagining he was digging the piece of cutlery into Helga’s flesh.

Last but not least, Headmaster Odin stepped forward and cupped the Goblet in his hands, old and wrinkled head steady with years’ worth of experience. In a voice so loud you would have never thought he was capable of making, he shouted, “Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy!”

The flames raged high and powerful, showering the students in their dazzling light. The piece of parchment floated inside the flames like one of the paper boats Magnus and his mum would make and put in a lake. The parchment drifted down to Odin’s hands and he unfolded it carefully. He read loud and clear, leaving no one in the room a doubt about the name he uttered.

“Magnus Chase!”

Magnus suddenly felt like he was underwater. He knew there was sound, he knew the other students were clapping for him to get up and go join the Champions on the stage, but it all felt like it was happening too far away. It wasn’t really him, the Goblet couldn’t have picked out his name out of all these talented people. Yet even as he thought all that, as much as he couldn’t believe, people from his table were already pushing him to get up.

He somehow found himself on his feet, moving in a daze towards the stage. He wished he was walking as confidently as Raphael or at least as elegantly as that cow Helga, but he knew he must have looked pathetic next to them.

As the metaphorical water from his ear cleaned, the sound of applause didn’t seem to come from miles away. He realized it was his four friends who were cheering and clapping the loudest, edging him on by chanting his name like Mallory (“Magnus! Magnus! Magnus!”) or saying kind of inappropriate things like T.J (Kick their asses, Magnus! @#$% them!).

His eyes drifted to Alex, who might have been the single loudest person in the entire room. He had one leg up on the table, trying to climb on it but being held back by Sam, who was shouting for him just as loudly. One of Alex’s hands was cupped around his mouth as a megaphone and his other fist was pumping in the air as he yelled combinations of Mallory’s and T.J’s encouragements.

“Go get ‘em, Magnus! Woo hoo!” He yelled passionately, scaring a few of the other Slytherins.

Magnus smiled to himself as he made the last few steps to the stage, now walking with his head held high in pride.

Each Headmaster took their Champion by the hand and raised their joined hands in the air as Odin made the final announcement of the night.

“My dear students, I present to you the Triwizard Tournament Champions!”

�Y��K

Have I told you I love writing shit-talking? Because I do. Get ready, because I have quite a few things prepared  for you >:3

[imwastingmylifeinhere]

Magnus Chase and the Obligatory Hogwarts Au Ch21

(My parents were asleep and the keys were in their room, I had to climb out of the door's window to go post this on the stairs. The things I do for you) The second task is here! Just so you know, when I told my sister what this task was going to be she looked me dead in the eye and told “Wow, Dumbledore must be jealous he didn’t think of that” and “Oh, shit. Please tell me they have cursed at you for what you write”. So, yeah. Also, if you think the chapter with the first task was big you haven’t seen anything. This thing is almost 10.7k words. Yes, it’s big, but I assume you don’t mind that. Anyway, time for the pain. Enjoy!

Dating Alex Fierro was great. Actually, great was an understatement. It was bloody fucking amazing. And no, he wasn’t overreacting. (Okay, maybe a little bit, but cut him some slack.)

Since they got together right before Christmas and everybody left for the holidays, they had all the time in the world to go on as many dates as they wanted and boy, did they take advantage of that. They were out of the house pretty much every day, sometimes doing little more than just walking around holding hands, but Magnus loved it nonetheless.

They’d walk around London hand in hand, bundled up in warm clothes and just enjoy the city and the festive atmosphere. They’d visit some park – whichever they stumbled upon – and play in the snow. They’d make a competition out of building things from snow and Alex always won but then Magnus would through snow at her and they’d start a snowball fight. One time, a little kid asked if he could play too and soon enough every child in the park was divided between the two of them and they were having the most epic snowball war in history.

They’d eat lunch outside and they wouldn’t go back at Perthro until it was time for diner, after which they’d cuddle up on Magnus’s bed and watch a movie (or multiple movies). Making Alex leave his room when it was time to go to sleep was probably the most difficult thing because Alex would just cling on him more, make puppy eyes at him and kiss him to distract him (she was a cuddler and Magnus was like her own personal heater, don’t judge her). It worked and she would win one extra hour before Magnus made her leave. They didn’t need another awkward talk from Blitzen and Hearthstone.

Their teachers and guardians picked up on the fact that they were together fast, probably because Alex would tease Magnus all the time to make him blush and once she succeeded she’d call him cute and kiss him on the cheek.

…Yeah, they weren’t subtle.

And that lack of subtlety lead to them being sat down by Blitzen and Hearthstone so they could be given the Talk. The whole thing ended with Magnus and Alex blushing like mad and knowing where the, um, “safe products” were kept. Needless to say they weren’t eager for a repeat of that conversation.

The same routine went on for the entirety of the holidays and Magnus couldn’t be happier. The message on the parchment and the Task he would have to compete in next were completely forgotten until he stepped foot on the Hogwarts Express.

They were walking to their compartment at the train, hands clasped between them as Magnus talked about that to Alex, letting his boyfriend today know about his worries concerning the Second Task.

“Hey,” Alex said as he squeezed Magnus’s hand to make him look at him. The familiar feeling of Alex’s hand in his helped to calm him down, but he could still feel the worry creeping up his spine like a snake.

“It’s going to be alright,” Alex said. “You’re gonna go out there and mop the floor with Helga’s face and you’re going to be awesome while doing it, I’m sure of it.” Alex leaned forward to kiss Magnus on the lips and Magnus smiled into the kiss.

It was then that the door of the compartment opened and T.J walked out. “I’m going to go find-“ he stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Magnus and Alex kissing in front of the compartment and he turned back to their friends. “Found them!”

Magnus was flushing brighter than a light bulb as they walked into their compartment, their friends all looking at them and their joint hands with big smiles on their faces.

“Well, we were gonna have to tell them somehow,” Alex amended, not sounding guilty at all. Magnus would have glared at him if he wasn’t too busy glaring at Mallory who was wiggling her eyebrows at them. “Guys, Magnus and I are dating. This dork is mine!”

“It’s about time!” Mallory yelled.

“If you took any longer we would have tried to set you up,” T.J, who was plopped down next to Mallory, said. “Honestly, we were expecting you to get together by the Yule Ball at the latest.”

“That’s when we got together, actually,” Alex said as he and Magnus sat down next to Sam, who smiled at them and gave them thumbs up. “I call dibs on best woman at the wedding,” she whispered into Magnus’s ear, making the blonde go red and glare at her before he got an idea and whispered to her, “Only if I’m best man at your wedding with Amir.” Sam blushed redder than a tomato and Magnus felt satisfied.

“I knew it!” T.J yelled as he jumped to his feet, fists up in the air in victory. “In knew that’s when you’d get together! Mallory, Sam, pay up!”

“You betted on us?” Magnus asked incredulous.

As Mallory and Sam were digging in their pockets for their money, T.J looked at Magnus over his shoulder with the most confused expression in the world, like Magnus had just asked him if fish can swim. “Well, duh.”

Magnus couldn’t help himself; he burst out laughing. It was there, laughing with his friends in a compartment in the Hogwarts Express like they always did, that Magnus was able to put his worries about the second task aside for now. It was going to be fine, like Alex said. How much worse than the First Task could it be?

///

Magnus could only wish that he was feeling that confident a few weeks later, at the morning of the Second Task. He was already wearing his uniform for the Task, and so was Raphael, who was having breakfast at the Beauxbatons table. Strangely enough, Louis wasn’t by his side today and it surprised Magnus to say the least – those two were practically joined at the hip. He didn’t ponder on it for long, though; Louis could simply have slept in late, or maybe he was in the kitchens stress-baking. Besides, he had his own troubles to worry about – like the fact he kept postponing figuring out the riddle in favor of spending time with Alex.

He just – he forgot about it. He told himself he would work on it during the holidays, but then he and Alex got together and it flew out of his mind. He’d then tell himself it didn’t matter and that he still had time to solve it when school started again but then they got back at Hogwarts and Magnus would put it aside in favor of dates and cuddling and even studying together.  So yeah – he forgot. Damn Alex and her nice kisses!

Speaking of Alex, the green-haired troublemaker was nowhere to be seen. Magnus hadn’t seen her since yesterday, when they had spent the afternoon together at the Room of Requirement, just hanging out and working on homework (and kissing) to get Magnus to relax before the Second Task.

“Are you sure you haven’t seen Alex around?” Magnus asked as he played around with the food on his plate.

“I had gone to sleep before she came back to our dorm, but her bed was made this morning so she must have left before we woke up,” Mallory said casually. It wasn’t weird for Alex to come back to their dorm late – she did that a lot when she was working on a drawing and needed to get a change of scenery.

Still, that didn’t reassure Magnus a lot. He heard Sam and Mallory complain about Alex never making her bed hundreds of times – something in him doubted that if she suddenly wanted to draw in the morning she’d take the time make her bed. He wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t even put clothes on because she was too busy drawing!

He didn’t get to ask his friends any more questions because the bell soon sounded and the students run out of the Hall of the Slain excitedly, eager to see what the Second Task had to offer.

“Good luck, Magnus!” Sam called out to him as he was making his way to the back door of the dining hall, like Headmaster Odin had instructed him.

“Kick their asses, Magnus!” Mallory yelled, her cupped hands making a cone in front of her mouth to make sure everyone in a ten kilometers radius will hear her.

“Go show them who’s boss!” T.J cheered, fist pumping in the air. Magnus smiled at them and gave them a thumbs up before walking through the door.

The three Headmasters were waiting for them in the back room. Raphael and Helga were already there and Raphael waved at him with a smile. Magnus returned the silent greeting as they all sat down on a bench so the Headmasters could explain to them what the task would be about.

Or, that’s what Magnus thought they’d do, but instead their explanation was just as cryptic as the riddle from bottle. Apparently the task relied heavily on them not knowing much about what they were going to face. The pre-task speech was more about the importance of fair play than anything else and Magnus soon found himself tuning it out – and from what he could see, Raphael and Helga were doing the same thing.

He started repeating the riddle in his head, trying to see what he could come up with.

In dusty corridors you will find us. That’s the location of the Task, but it told him little more than the fact they would compete in a closed space.

And know our guards will not let us go without a fuss. That, along with the line after the next, what they guard you need to save that for which you care unconditionally, made it clear to Magnus that they would have to take something that someone was guarding, but he wasn’t sure what that something was or what they would need to save with it.

As for the guards themselves, they only had three characteristics to go off of and Magnus really regretted not taking his time to research that part to see what they might be referring to.

The last two lines were the time limit, but what send chills down Magnus’s spine was the last line. Too late – we’re sorry, your treasure is gone. It brought back memories of the night four years ago, the scorching heat of the flames as the home he had spent his whole life in burned down around him, his mother trapped under the remains of their ceiling.

“Alright, let’s get going,” Headmaster Sonia said as she gestured at the door leading back to the dining hall. The three Champions got up from their bench and stood behind the Headmasters, their expressions deadly serious. They all knew what they were about to take part in wasn’t going to be a walk through the park.

The moment the door opened and Magnus stepped back into the Hall of the Slain he was greeted by the cacophony of voices from the stands. The hall had been cleared from tables, looking like it did when Magnus and the other Hufflepuffs decorated it for the Halloween party. The stands were the audience was sitting were mounted on the walls, like balconies in a theater. Magnus noticed his friends on one of the balconies, their eyes locked on him. His stomach dropped when he saw that Alex wasn’t there and he realized why when he looked at the middle of the hall.

There, in the middle of the room were three long tables arranged in a triangle, each with its own cauldron and items needed to brew a potion. In front of the tables was what made Magnus’s blood run cold in his veins – Alex’s body was lying motionless like a corpse on a table, her eyes closed and her cheeks devoid of color. She looked like a dead body waiting to be dressed before a funeral and Magnus hated thinking of her like that.

“A-Alex!” Magnus found himself crying out as he ran forward to where Alex was lying. He grabbed her hand immediately and he gasped at how cold her skin was. His fingers fumbled as her tried to take her pulse and he almost dropped her hand once in his hurry. His eyes burned with unshed tears and he felt his heart stop beating when he wasn’t able to feel a pulse.

“No no no no no…” He kept chanting his mantra without realizing as he moved his hands,  hoping with everything he had that he had made a mistake, that Alex wasn’t – that she wasn’t-

She’s not dead. She’s not dead. She can’t be dead. Merlin almighty, please let her not be dead.

But he felt nothing, nothing but cold waxy skin –

Thump thump thump.

Magnus let out the breath his was holding when he felt Alex’s pulse underneath his fingertips. He smiled relieved, but the smile soon fell from his face when he realized how slow and faint it was.

“Louis! Louis! Mon cher, s’il te plait, reveille toi!” Raphael was by Louis’s side, holding the blonde’s face in his hands and whispering French at him. Yet as much as he talked and cried out, Louis remained unmoving.

“Agatha!” Helga was standing by Agatha’s body, her knees trembling visibly, her palms covering her mouth as if they would stop her crying from coming out. Her knees seemed to give out and she rushed forward, taking Agatha into her arms. She held her friend in her arms as she mumbled rapidly in Swedish – “Fan, snälla vakna, jag ber dig, vakna”. She cupped Agatha’s face gently before moving her hand downwards to her slender neck and feeling for her pulse.

“Champions!” Headmaster Gilbert called out. “Please step aside from your friends!”

“What’s going on?” Raphael was looking at the Headmasters but he didn’t stop cradling Louis’s head in his hands. Agatha was still in Helga’s arms and Magnus was holding Alex’s hand in both of his own.

“We will explain shortly, but please step aside for now.” As much as they didn’t want to, the three Champions stepped away from their significant others and friend like they were told to, if only just barely.

“Students of Hogwarts, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, my dear guests, it’s time for the Second Task of the Triwizard Tournament!” Headmaster Odin’s cheery tone felt very out of place as Magnus held onto Alex’s cold hand. “As you know, each Champion got a bottle with a piece of parchment inside at the end of the last task. On that parchment was a clue about today’s task.”

Headmaster Sonia went on to recite the poem from the parchment as Magnus let his eyes wander back down to Alex’s body. She looked so calm. One could have assumed she was just sleeping if it wasn’t for her being a bit to still, her breathing a bit too slow, her skin a bit too cold. It was so easy for his mind to replace their surroundings with crumbling walls and scorching flames.

“On each table is parchment,” Headmaster Gilbert went on. “On the parchment is a lead to the first of three special ingredients necessary to heal their friends. Each one of them has been given a slow-acting poison. It will take two more hours for it to take full effect. In that time they must get all three ingredients and brew the antidote according to the instructions they will find on their table. The-“

“You what?” A loud, furious voice interrupted the Beauxbatons’s Headmaster. Helga had put Agatha back down on the table carefully and was now walking to the Headmasters like a soldier on a mission. Her shoulders were held back, her brows were furrowed and her eyes seemed to have fire burning inside them – she looked like she was willing to bring down a building to get what she wanted.

“You mean to tell me you poisoned three students, you poisoned Agatha, all for your stupid Tournament?” Venom dripped from her every word and she was glaring at the Headmasters so hard it was a wonder they hadn’t dropped dead on the spot. For the first time since he met her, Magnus found himself agreeing with Helga.

“Miss Leifsson, please calm down,” Headmaster Odin said as he put a hand on Helga’s shoulder. She whipped around to him and threw his hand off her like she wanted to break it.

“Don’t you dare tell me to calm down! I knew this Tournament was dangerous and I was prepared for that when I put my name in the Goblet, but you have no right to put Agatha in danger like this!”

“Miss Leifsson.” The stern voice of Headmaster Sonia made Helga turn around. “I suggest you leave your complains about the Tournament for later.” Helga opened her mouth to talk but her Headmaster cut her off. “If we have this discussion now it will cause your friend valuable time.”

That seemed to finally calm Helga down, or at least enough so that she looked like she was only thinking about murdering the teachers in front of her instead of being on the brink of doing it. “Alright,” she said with a tight voice and moved back to her table.

“I believe we are now ready to start,” Headmaster Odin said. “Like last time, the floating cameras will be showing the Champions’ progress to the audience. Champions, please take the parchment in your hands.”

Magnus didn’t want to let go of Alex’s hand. He knew what happened to his mother when he let her go that night in the fire; he didn’t want the same to happen again.

It won’t, he told himself with all the confidence he could master. You’ll save her. You’ll get those goddamn ingredients and make the antidote. You can do something this time.

He took the parchment in his hands.

“Get ready.”

He closed his eyes and took a shaky breath. He could swear the air around him was getting warmer, like he was standing inside an over. He could hear the crackling of flame in his ears.

“Set.”

Focus. You have this. You can do it. Alex won’t burn.

“Go!”

Magnus untied the thin string that was holding the parchment together and opened it. One of the floating cameras was flying over his shoulder, showing the message of the parchment on the screen.

“My guardian’s bite is worse than its growl you’ll find me in the room of souls. They have tales to tell but they have no voice; they have scenes to show but they have no sight.”

Magnus’s first thought was that the ‘room of souls’ referred to ghosts, but then the last two lines made no sense – Magnus knew plenty of ghosts in Hogwarts and not one of them was close to having no voice. He couldn’t think of any ghosts that were blind either, so that ruled ghosts out.

Paintings were ruled out in much the same way. He raked his brain to figure out what it was the riddle was referring to. The ‘room of souls’ wasn’t much help, so he focused on the last lines. Stories told with no voice, scenes shown with no sight… No sound, no pictures…

Magnus’s eyes widened as he realized were he needed to go. He scrunched the parchment in his hand, not bothering to fold it, and run out of the Hall of the Slain as fast as he could with the bag he found on the table hanging from his shoulder.

“Magnus Chase is leaving the dining hall, ladies and gentlemen! It seems like he has figured out the riddle!” Professor Thor was the announcer once more and hearing his cheery voice made Magnus’s pulse pick up with rage. You’re commenting on a competition with people’s lives in the line! You shouldn’t sound happy!

Magnus was running down the corridor, his steps almost as loud as the beating of his heart. There was a bad, sour taste in his mouth at the thought of what would happen if he took one wrong step, if he was a minute late, but he pushed it down. Don’t think about it. Focus on the task.

He saw the floating cameras flying by his side but he paid it no mind, letting his legs follow the path he had taken so many times in his seven years at Hogwarts. Yet the familiar halls felt strange and cold now without the students milling about. The knowledge that Alex’s life was in the line made the once well known castle feel unwelcome.

He turned the corner and run into the Hogwarts library. The bookcases were pushed to the side, making a wide corridor was created down the middle to the windows. Magnus realized what the room of souls must have meant; this was a room full of books, works that their authors had poured blood, sweat and tears into. He had heard people saying that a book held a little bit of the author’s soul in it (the librarian in his old neighborhood would say that), but that was still a very dramatic way to describe a library.

Magnus recognized the window where his favorite table was, the place he had studied at so many times and exchanged gifts with his friends at Christmas.

Sitting in front of that very window was a large beast. Its body was that of a lion, its golden fur glistening in the light coming in from the windows. But instead of a lion’s head it had a human one, its long hair looking like a mane. It’s face looked human enough, but the closer Magnus got the more details he was able to make out. Its eyes were yellow and its pupils silted, its nose resembled a snout and sharp teeth picked out from its lips.

Magnus knew what it was very well. A Sphinx.

Behind it, inside a glass box, was a vial of purple liquid.

“Ah, so you are the first Champion that has come to try and solve my riddles.” The beast’s voice was low and it reminded Magnus of a lion’s growl. He recalled the line in the riddle and his stomach dropped when he remembered what a Sphinx does to anyone who can’t answer its riddles.  

“I have to admit, you’re shorter than I expected,” the Sphinx went on. “But then again, a man’s intelligence is not measured by his physical might. I should know, I’ve eaten many a strongmen with not a drop of knowledge in their heads.” The Sphinx shrugged, Magnus never though he would have seen a lion (or someone with a lion’s body) shrug. “They were tasty snacks.”

“What’s your riddle?” Magnus asked as confidently as he could. Yet as much as he tried to make his voice sound even he knew it trembled a bit at the end, that his hands were sweating way too much where they were clenched by his sides.

The Sphinx frowned at Magnus before sighing deeply. “Now, don’t be so serious. Let’s have some fun, shall we?”

Magnus would have protested that he has no time to have fun with a beast that could easily kill him when his girlfriend’s life was in danger but the words stuck in his throat when the Sphinx started getting up. It stood up on its hind legs, easily two heads taller than the bookcases. Magnus pictured really clearly how easy it would be for the beast to pick him up by his head and eat him like a piece of falafel.

The Sphinx gave a sharp jab at the wall with its elbow. The curtains by the windows fell closed, plunging the room in shadow. Then, as Magnus was looking around alarmed, a spotlight fell on the Sphinx, making its hair glow under the light. It pulled a bowtie and a top hat from somewhere inside its mane and looked at Magnus with a smirk on its lips.

“It’s time for everyone’s favorite game, ‘Riddles and Disembowelment’!”

Magnus was left speechless as a two shining blue podiums rolled in, not unlike those in game-shows. The one that stopped in front of the Sphinx had a shining name plate on it that read “Alfred the Sphinx”. The one that must be for Magnus had a name plate reading “Fool #1”.

“Please, take your place!” The Sphinx – Alfred – said, gesturing to Magnus’s podium with a paw. Magnus went there quietly, still very confused about what he was seeing. Did someone slip something into his food this morning?

“The rules of the game are simple,” Alfred started, wearing that stupid game-show host smile on his lips. “I tell you three riddles and you have as much time as you want to answer them. If you answer at least two correctly, you can get your reward.” He gestured at the glass case. “If you don’t get at least two correct, well, that’s better for me, I suppose!” Magnus saw Alfred’s paw press down slightly and a recorded laugh track rang out in the library. Magnus wondered if the laugh track would play while Alfred ate him, but he decided not to think too much about that.

“So, should we start?” Alfred asked with a wide smile that showed all of his sharp teeth. Well, that just helps my confidence.

Despite the fear coursing through him at the sight of those teeth, Magnus nodded. “Yes.”

Alfred seemed delighted by his answer and he smiled even wider. “Alright! First riddle!” The Sphinx took of his top hat and made a big show of searching inside it, moving his paw inside it a lot and making faces, as if he was consecrating very hard on this. Finally, he pulled his paw out with a loud “Aha!” It was a bizarre enough sight as it was but what made it weirder was the dramatic music playing in the background.

“How do you build a house whose every wall faces the south?” Alfred said the question the same way every game-show host did; in a stern, deadly serious voice, with pauses between words for extra dramatic effect.

Magnus repeated the riddle in his head, trying to figure it out. It was weird how he felt confident he’ll be able to solve the riddles easily a moment ago yet the second it was asked his mind went blank.

He tried to see if it would be possible for a house like that to be build in any normal neighborhood, but that was quickly scrapped. Even if two walls faced the south at an angle, the other two would face the north. Then he thought of building it in the South Pole and he almost opened his mouth to answer. Alfred raised an eyebrow at him but Magnus shut his mouth as he realized that if the house was in the most southern point in the earth all its walls would face north.

So, then…

“You build it in the north pole,” he said. “This way, everything else will be south from it.”

Magnus couldn’t deny that his heart was beating louder in anticipation as Alfred’s remained serious, giving him no clue as to whether he was correct or not. The dramatic music rose steadily in tempo and after a good minute of looking straight into the contestant’s eyes, like any good game-show host should, Alfred spoke.

“And that was…” A wide grin spread across the Sphinx’s face. “Correct!”

A recorded applause started playing when Alfred slapped the podium in excitement over Magnus’s correct answer.

“Let’s move on to the next riddle then! You have a room with a single light-bulb inside and three switches outside the room. The door of the room is closed, you can only open it and go inside once and you can’t leave it open. How do you figure out which is the correct switch?”

Magnus scrunched his eyebrows and ducked down his head, drawing designs in the slick surface of the podium so he wouldn’t get confused. His first thought was that you just open and close the switches with the door open, but the Alfred said he couldn’t leave it open.

How do you know if the light is on in a room with a closed door?

Memories came back to Magnus suddenly, his young self clutching his goat plushy as he looked up and down the hall for his mother after a nightmare. He’d see the light spilling out from the crack under his mother’s bedroom and he’d run to her, tears almost falling from his eyes.

“You turn on and off each switch and look under the crack in the door to see if any light is coming through.”

Once more, Magnus didn’t know immediately if what he said was correct because of that goddamn dramatic music. Who made that music, anyway? Because it was getting annoying. There was even a part that sounded like someone had told a five year old to count to five and then press the same stupid piano note.

“That was….” More of that blasted drum roll. “Wrong! Oh, too bad!”

Booing sounded out in the library and Magnus was considering taking whatever sound box this Sphinx had and making him eat it. I don’t have time for this! I need to get to Alex!

“The correct answer is this,” the Sphinx started. “You turn on the first switch and leave it on for a few minutes. After you turn it off, you turn on the second one and open the door. If the light is one the correct switch is the second. If the light is off and the light-bulb is hot it’s the first switch and if it’s cold it’s the third one.”

Magnus felt like hitting his head on something for not thinking of that. (Or maybe he could hit Alfred’s head on something.)

“Aww, don’t be like that! You still have one last riddle!” Alfred’s over-exaggerated sympathy wasn’t really helping him much – Magnus was still annoyed at him. Why are all show hosts like this?

“Of course,” the Sphinx continued, “it’ll be the most difficult one, but people love an underdog, right?” More of that blasted applause track.

“If I don’t answer it correctly you’ll eat me, right?” Magnus wasn’t sure why he asked. Maybe he wanted to make sure that if he died today at least Alfred would make his corpse into a healthy meal.

“Eat you?” Alfred started laughing, his laughter just as exaggerated as everything else he did. “Oh, please, do you know how unhealthy humans are? If I ate you not only would I be in trouble with the Ministry and have to pay a heavy fine but I’d get indigestion for two weeks! Nah, I’ll just have a limb. Probably from the knee below too, to be honest. I prefer females. They have juicier meat.”

Magnus took that in quietly. There was something very bizarre about a giant cat with a human face speaking about you like meat at the butcher’s.

“Anyway, enough with my dietary habits, time for the last riddle!” The music’s tempo picked as did Magnus’s heartbeat. He had to get this one right. If he didn’t get this one right Alex would be a goner and he’d be a limb shorter.

“You have ten sacks of gold coins. Each sack was a hundred coins at the most. Each coin weights 10 grams but one sack has fake coins that weight 9 grams. You can weigh the coins, but only once and you’re not allowed to take or add anything to what you weigh. How do you know which sack has the fake coins?”

Magnus’s eyes widened as he heard the riddle and he gulped. Oh great, he’s back at math class. “Can I have a piece of paper and a pencil?” he asked.

“Oh, of course.” The Sphinx handed him what he asked for and he got to work.

First, he tried to calculate how much each sack would weigh. But the riddle never specified how many coins were in each sack; it just said it they had a hundred coins max. So then what about calculating how much ten coins from each bag would weight? That’s 100 coins that weigh 1000 grams. If one sack has face coins then ten of those coins would weigh 90 grams and the total weigh would be 990 grams instead of 1000. But then that doesn’t tell you which sack has the fakes. So then…

Magnus did a few quick calculations before allowing himself to grin. Yes, this must be it!

“Do you have the answer?” Alfred asked. The music was low and ominous.

“Yes.” Magnus’s heart was beating louder than the music and something in him told him to stop and reconsider, but he had two more ingredients to find and he couldn’t afford staying here any longer. “You weigh one coin from sack number one, two from the second, three from the third and so on. That should give you a total weight of 550 grams for 55 coins if all coins were real, but one sack has fakes, so it’ll be less than that. You know what sack has the fakes because of how many grams are missing. If the final weight is, for example, 547 grams you’re missing three grams, so the one with the fakes is the third sack.”

Magnus let out a breath when he finished his answer. The music had become white noise and he no longer paid attention to it. Alfred’s expression was truly surprised, his silted eyes wide and his mouth hanging wide.

“I… wow. That’s the one most people get wrong,” he said quietly and Magnus was so surprised by the fact his reaction wasn’t over-the-top that it almost didn’t register in him. “Well, guess I’m not having you as a snack today! You won!”

“Magnus Chase has done it! The Hogwarts Champion has managed to get the first ingredient!” Magnus could hear Professor Thor making announcements from somewhere as ‘We are the Champions’ started playing in the library.

Confetti burst out from somewhere behind the bookcases and Alfred handed Magnus the glass box and the key that opened it. Magnus snatched the key out of the Sphinx’s paw faster than he thought he could and opened the box, putting the vial inside his back. Under the vial was a slip of parchment.

He run out of the library with a hasty bye (he knew creatures like Sphinxes valued manners) and read the message on the parchment.

“Come find me quick ‘cause I’m afraid of heights. To my guardian, manners hold lots of weight. My guardian wants to take to the sky but he’s stuck underground. At least there’s a lot of space around.”

Magnus didn’t think much about and immediately started running for the dungeons. The guardian is stuck underground, so that’s obviously in the dungeons. Afraid of heights and a lot of space around… Magnus was finally glad for all the time he had spent wandering around the castle with Alex and Annabeth and Percy. He knew just were the second ingredient must be.

His steps sounded louder and louder the deeper he went into the dungeons, the sound echoing of the walls. The air was much more humid here, he could practically taste the moistness in the air. He run past the classrooms, past the corridor he knew lead to the Slytherin common room, past the locked storage rooms.

Finally, he found the room he was searching for. Magnus and Alex had found it back in fourth year, when he was showing Alex around the castle and she wanted to explore the dungeons. They found this room, circular and tall, taller than the dining hall, and they nicknamed it “Echo Room” because it their voices echoed really loudly there. They spent a little more than half an hour here, yelling stupid things at the top of their voices. Magnus really wished he was there again to hear Alex yell “I WANT A DIVORCE” and “MOTHERFUCKING GOLD SHITTING DUCKS” instead of trying to get ingredients for the antidote to the poison she was given.

The room was used for storage, like most unused rooms in the dungeons, and it was one of those rooms that was completely forgotten. Everything inside it – old broken desks, filling cabinets, chairs, bookcases of yellow-paged books – were covered by a thick blanket of dust. Alex had joked that sneezing inside here would create a dust-storm.

And in the middle of the room, inside an object-free clearing, stood a Hippogriff. The feathers on its head were snow-white and they changed to brown at its neck. Its horse hind legs matched the color of its brown feathers perfectly. Its black tail and its wings twitched irritably, its large talons scratched at the ground. Magnus knew it really didn’t want to be down here, trapped under the weight of the whole castle, and its annoyance meant trouble for Magnus.

One wrong step and I’ll get my eyes clawed out.

He took slow steps around the room, making sure to stick to the unused objects lining the walls. He knew the winged beast wouldn’t attack him if he kept his distance and that’s what he did as he looked around for where the next potion ingredient was. Yet as much as he looked, opening cabinets and searching the top of bookcases, he couldn’t find it. He had circled the whole room and found nothing.

Afraid of heights, afraid of heights…

An idea came to him like a flash and he looked upwards. There, stuck to the ceiling, was a glass box with a bunch of some sort of weeds inside that Magnus couldn’t recognize from the ground.

Magnus gulped as he realized what he had to do and he steadied himself before taking the first step. He waited until the Hippogriff had turned to him and he locked eyes with the large beast. He remembered what he had learned at Care of Magical Creatures and he didn’t break eye contact with the winged beast.

Fortunately, the Hippogriff didn’t lunge at him. It recognized Magnus etiquette, that the human in front of it respected it and showed back the appropriate politeness. Magnus walked forward excruciatingly slow, careful not to make any sudden movements. When he was bet a few steps away from the Hippogriff, he bowed.

He stayed there – bowed over, the dusty floor the only thing he could see – for what seemed like a century. Every second felt like an hour, every beat of his heart like a week. All he could think was Alex on that table, cold and motionless, getting closer and closer to what he hated to think about with every moment he spent here. He wanted to get this over with, he wanted the Hippogriff to just bow back already so he could get the ingredient and save Alex.

Finally, after what felt like a lifetime, the Hippogriff bowed down and Magnus saw its feathered head touch the ground. He waited until it stood up again and followed suit. He gently placed his hands at the side of the beast’s head and looked into its orange eyes. He knew attempting to ride a Hippogriff the first time he met it could be trouble but it was the only idea he had that didn’t result in him having one less eye.

“Please, may I ride on your back?” He asked slowly. He looked into the Hippogriffs eyes, trying to convey all the things he needed to tell it and couldn’t find the words for. “Please, it’s urgent. Alex… she…”

Thankfully, the Hippogriff seemed to understand the desperation in his eyes and made a crooning sound in the back of its throat. It bowed down its head again along with its legs, his body now low enough for Magnus to climb on.

Once on the beast’s back, Magnus wrapped his arms around the Hippogriff’s neck. “Up there,” he said, pointing to the ceiling. The Hippogriff seemed to understand because it made a high-pitched noise before jumping up in the air, its wings unfolding at each side of its body.

Magnus screamed despite himself; the sudden take off startling him and making him almost slipping off the Hippogriff. He managed to hold on, his hands clutching at the beast’s feathers. The Hippogriff flew in circles around the room, relishing in the feeling of finally using its wings. It didn’t indulge in it for too long though – it knew that the little human ridding on its back needed its help and it could cost such a polite human his mate.

Finally, the Hippogriff reached the highest point it could each inside the enclosed space. Magnus carefully stood up on the beast’s back, feeling the Hippogriff’s muscles move under his feet as it beat its wings. He reach up and screamed when he felt himself wobble, but he quickly spread his arms out to steady himself.

He tried again, his fingers brushing the cool glass. He found that this box didn’t have a lock and key like Alfred’s, but getting to the box was more challenge than finding a key. Opening the glass box, he reached his hand inside and took the small bunch off weeds along with the small parchment under it.

“Alright, I got it,” he said as he petted the back of the Hippogriff’s head. The Hippogriff responded with a happy cry and flew to the ground.

“And Magnus Chase has taken the second ingredient! He only needs one more before he can make the potion and save his treasure! The time that remains is an hour and five minutes!”

One more ingredient. One more and I can save Alex.

He turned back to the Hippogriff and bowed. “Thank you,” he said and then left the room. His feet carried him through the familiar halls without him thinking much about it. He unfolded the parchment as he turned a corner and he read the message written on it with dark ink.

“Come find me where the present, past and future are seen but know my guardian will show you things you won’t want to see. Be prepared, Champion, be brave; Fears cannot be easily tamed.”

Magnus cursed inwardly. The Divination classroom was at the other side of the castle – walking, it would take him twenty to twenty five minutes to get there from the dungeons. Taking that long was out of the question so he started running.

His feet hitting the stone floor sounded like the ticking of a clock, each step bringing him closer to the two-hour time limit. He run through the halls as fast as he could, his legs and lungs soon burning but he didn’t slow down. He would have enough time to collapse on the ground and pant after he saved Alex; right now he had not time to spare.

He pasted the empty classrooms, pasted the vacant corridors, the portraits on the walls looking at him with curiosity as he run by. His blood run through his veins so hard he could hear it in his ears and his heartbeat seemed to drown out all other sounds. He crossed paths with Raphael at one point, but they didn’t acknowledge each other past a quick glance – they both had something much more important to do now.

He reached the stairs that lead up the tower to the Divination classroom and climbed them two at a time. His legs were yelling at him to stop but he didn’t, not until he reached the top of the stairs. He let himself take a deep breath before sprinting to classroom. He had never taken this class, but Mallory and T.J had and he often came with them up here when he didn’t have a class and wanted to walk around. Even despite all the times he had come up here, he had never been inside the class.

The room was more like an attic than anything else; you had to open a trapdoor and pull down a folding ladder to get to it. Inside, the roof made a tall cone above his head. Tapestries decorated the walls and drapes were hung across the ceiling, making the room feel like the inside of a dark circus tent. The desks – meaning the low tables and cushions the students sat on – were pushed to the walls, leaving space in the middle of the room. Opposite Magnus, next to wooden chest, was a small table with the only source of light in the room on it, one lit candle on either side of the glass box. Inside it was a much smaller wooden box with a metal clasp at the front.

Magnus took a moment to look around, baffled by the absence of a guard. This was the last and final ingredient, he expected this to be the most difficult part and yet no one was around. Something in him didn’t like this, it seemed too easy, felt too much like a trap. Still, he found himself stepping forward, his hand reaching out for the box in front of him. Whatever this trap might be, he would face it and win. For Alex.

He had hardly taken two steps towards the glass box when a gust of wind blew out the candles. At the same there was a loud bang and the trapdoor behind him shut closed. What little light there was in the room disappeared and Magnus blinked to try and get used to the sudden darkness. He looked around him frantically, searching for the source of the wind and this ingredient’s guardian, but he could see nothing in the dark. He run to the trapdoor and pulled on the handle. Locked. Of course.

“Lumos,” he said, but nothing happened. What? “Lumos,” he tried again and again nothing. Fear spread through him and he felt his blood run cold as he realized what was happening.

Magic nullification. They’ve made it so no magic can be cast inside the room.

Cold sweat run down his skin as he darted to the walls. Being without his magic, something that was a part of him for so long, made him feel vulnerable, naked. He pulled the tapestry covering the stone wall away roughly, the thick fabric falling to the ground. Hidden behind it was a rune Magnus knew was used to bind magic. Similar runes were no doubt behind every tapestry in the room. Magnus wouldn’t be able to cast magic without exiting the room and there was no way to do that with the locked trapdoor behind him.

Then, in the blink of an eye, the darkness disappeared, replaced by a bright, scorching heat. Magnus shut his eyes tight to shield them from the sudden light and brought his arms up to his face. He blinked until his eyes got used to the new light and looked around him.

The Divination classroom had disappeared, replaced on all sides by flames. They licked the walls that seemed to crumble under their heat, stained black by soot. The ceiling was in the same state, the now flat plaster cracking from the high temperature and falling to the ground. The flames seemed to be drawn to him, the fire forming shapes like wolves that pounced at him and tried to bite at his legs.

But worse of all, there, in front of the chest and the little table, under a broken bean and a large part of the ceiling, was his mother. It was like not a single day had passed since that night and he was back at his living room as it burned down around him. His mother was trying to get out from under the broken ceiling, but the plaster wouldn’t budge no matter how much she struggled. There were tears in her eyes and down her cheeks, her face the definition of panic.

“Magnus!” She cried out. Magnus felt tears sting his eyes at the sound of his mother’s voice, the fright, the helplessness in it. “Magnus! Help!”

Magnus was frozen on the spot. He’d seen this scene play out again and again in his nightmares after the fire - he still did sometimes - but to be back here, back at his burning house, to see his childhood go down in flames around him, realer than any dream, was almost too much. Something in him screamed at him to rush forward, to save his mother now that he had a second chance, but he held himself back, as horrible as it was.

This wasn’t his mother. She wasn’t here, in this burning room in Hogwarts. She was buried in a London cemetery with wild geraniums on her grave.

Still, despite knowing this wasn’t real, it hurt. It hurt watching his mother die all over again in front of him. Tears welled up in his eyes and run down his face as the flames licked at her trapped body and she wailed in pain.

Then the fire flickered and suddenly his mother wasn’t there anymore. Alex was in her place, the tears in her two-colored eyes shining in the light of the flames. Her hair smoked at the ends and soot covered her face. “Magnus!” She cried out, her voice breaking at the end as she started coughing hard from the smoke. She reached out for him desperately, the tears rolling down her face in fat drops that were burned away by the heat. “Where are you?”

Magnus darted forward to get to her, his arm already outstretched to pull her out from under the rumble. “Alex!” He called out, his voice sounding like it was ripped out from his throat.

He had only taken a step when Alex disappeared, consumed by the flames. Sam was in her place now, coughing frantically as smoke filled her lungs. Her hijab was charred by the fire, flames burning away the fabric whose color couldn’t be made out anymore. She pushed her body up, trying to get the heavy bean and debris off of her. She was doing good but then she coughed again and slumped down on the floor, crying out from the weight that fell on her. “Help!”

Magnus’s step faltered for only a second and then he was running to the other side of the room. With every step the person under the rumble changed, but the fear in their eyes and their cries for help didn’t.

Sam was replaced by T.J, his dark skin glowing with sweat under the light of the flames, his face transformed by fear.

“Magnus!”

Then Halfborn, his hair singed, coughing hard and struggling to pull himself out from under the debris and failing.

“Please!”

Mallory took his place, her face burned red at the side, tears in her eyes as she fought to get out.

“Help!”

Annabeth, her strong arms covered with burns and blistering skin as she struggled to free herself but couldn’t seem to get her legs from under the debris.

“Magnus!”

Blitzen and Hearthstone, trapped together under the broken bean and ceiling, crying for help with tears in their eyes and soot on their faces.  

“Magnus!”

All the other kids from Perthro, boys and girls and everything in between, all of Magnus’s new family, trapped and crying and begging for him to help them.

“Help!”

With each step the cries grew louder, the flames rose higher and hotter. Magnus’s eyes were blurry with tears and he seemed to be moving slower, as if time had froze and he’d have to stay here, watching his friends, his family, the person he loves burn to death because he couldn’t help them.

They switched again, Alex, Blitzen and Hearthstone, Annabeth, Mallory, Sam, the kids from Perthro, Halfborn, T.J, Alex, Annabeth… They screamed and cried, wailed as they fought to get out and called for help, their frightened broken voices clawing at his ears, making the tears come out harder.

“Magnus!”

“Help!”

“Please!”

He fell on his knees in front of now Mallory and tried to push the beam off her as she turned into Sam. Yet as much strength as he put into it he couldn’t make the burnt wood budge. Sam was grasping his shirt his soot-covered hands, crying with broken sobs.

“N-No! L-leave, Magnus!”

Alex took her sister’s place, taking his face into his hands and looking into his eyes with frightened, tear-filled eyes.

“Leave me behind! Go!”

Then his friends from Perthro were under the rumble, Sarah and Helen, little Cheyenne and Tommy.

“N-n-no! P-please don’t leave! Help!” Cheyenne cried, her body shaking like a leaf by her sobs.

The people changed, teary eyes and frightened screams, they clawed at his clothes begging for help. Magnus was crying so hard he almost couldn’t see them anymore because of the tears in his eyes. His heart was beating like a drum and his breathing was fast and shallow. He felt his hands shake and the air seemed to catch in his throat, stopping him from breathing properly.

You can’t, save them, they’ll die. They’ll die and it’s your fault. You couldn’t help them and they’ll die like you feared.

Magnus’s body was shaking now, the sobs reaped out from his throat. Mallory was reaching out to him with her burnt hands and Magnus wanted to lie down and let the flames eat him along with the whole room but something about that last thought shook him like cold water in the face.

Feared. “Fears cannot be easily tamed,” the parchment said. This guarding was supposed to show him “things you won’t want to see” and there was a chest on the wall next to the glass box.

A boggart, he realized with a start. The final guardian is a boggart. You need to get through your worse fears to get the last ingredient.

The realization helped ground him and his shaking stop. He knew how to take on a boggart and that knowledge helped, even if he wouldn’t be able to cast the spell with the magic-binding runes on the walls.

Slowly, with trembling legs, he stood up. T.J’s fingers were tugging at his leg desperately, but he moved on. He stepped towards the glass bow, tried to shut out the shrill voices of his friends under the debris.

“Magnus! No! P-Please!”

He wasn’t able to figure out who was screaming anymore. All the voices had blended together into an ear-splitting cacophony. His fingers touched the glass lid and opened it as the nightmarish chorus shrieked, “Your fault your fault you let us die your fault.”

Magnus took the small wooden box and the key that lay behind it and turned for the door. The boggart’s appearance was changing so rapidly now that he couldn’t make out each person, only characteristics – the grey eyes he shared with Annabeth, Mallory’s red mane, T.J’s dark skin, Sam’s shinning eyes and Alex’s green hair. The shrill screaming kept coming out of the creature’s mouth was yelling accusations at him – your fault your fault you left us  your fault – and the tears didn’t stop pouring from his eyes.

Still, he kept going, reminding himself with each painful step that these weren’t his friends, his family, his Alex. They weren’t dying, they weren’t in danger. And even if they ever were, if they ever got in danger, he wouldn’t let them get hurt.

He pushed the key into the keyhole and unlocked the trapdoor, falling through onto a heap on the floor. The trapdoor closed behind him, keeping the boggart inside.

Magnus lay there on the floor for a second, panting heavily. Then he pushed himself up despite how much he wanted to stay on the floor, wiped the tears out of his eyes and run to the Hall of the Slain.

“And Magnus Chase has taken the last ingredient! He’s making his way back to the dining Hall!”

Magnus tripped as he was climbing down the stairs, half-paying attention to Professor Thor’s words. He picked himself up and kept running down the necks at breakneck speed. He jumped over the last three steps and sprinted down the halls to the Hall of the Slain, pushing his body as much as he could and then some.

“The Hogwarts Champion is almost there!” Magnus heard Professor Thor say as he run. “Raphael Beaumont is close behind him and Helga Leifsson…” Thor’s voice faltered there and when she spoke again his voice sounded more distant, like he had turned away from the mike and was talking to someone else. “Are you sure she’s fine? She doesn’t look too good.”

Magnus finally reached the doors of the dining hall, which were thankfully open because he would have probably run straight into them at his speed. He rushed to his table and emptied the contents of the bag on it, scrambling to find the parchment with the instructions for the potion.

“Magnus Chase has set to work! He has thirty minutes to make the antidote!”

The room around him was a mess of screams and cheers but they were white noise to him as he put his cauldron on the fire and started heating water. He was cutting up the weird glass he got from the Hippogriff when Raphael came running into the room and started making his own antidote.

Magnus was moving his spoon in circles inside the murky contents of the cauldrons, hating the five minutes he had to repeat the action according to the recipe. His eyes were trained on Alex’s body the whole time, the shallow rice and fall of her chest. Once he was done stirring he dumped inside the ingredients from the wooden box, a fine ashen dust.

Twenty minutes remained in the clock when Helga arrived looking like a complete mess. Tear tracks run down her cheeks, her whole face was red from crying and her hair looked like she had been pulling at it. Blood had seeped through her sleeve and she must have cast a spell to stop the bleeding. Thor made an announcement about her arrival but Magnus wasn’t paying attention to him, only to the liquid that bubbled inside his cauldron, changing from brown to a deep green. The recipe said it had a sky blue color when it was ready.

Ten minutes to go and Magnus was measuring the amount of the purple liquid he had to add to the mix. His hands were shaking as he tracked each drop falling from the bottle.

Just then, a loud clanging sound sounded, startling Magnus and making everything he held in his hands fall to the ground. If he had looked up from the spilled liquid on the floor he would have seen that the source of the noise was Raphael pulling all the measuring cups out of their place under the table.

Gasping was heard from the stands. “Oh no, Magnus Chase just spilt one of his ingredients!”

Magnus was understandably freaking out. He was almost done with the antidote too. What was he supposed to do now? What would happen to Alex?

“H-here,” he heard a voice saying. He looked up and was surprised to see Helga holding out her bottle of purple liquid to him. He hadn’t recognized her voice at first, not with how broken it was. “I-I only n-need half of it.”

Magnus couldn’t believe what he was seeing but he took the bottle from her hand. “Why?’ he asked.

Helga didn’t answer, just stared at a spot in the stands and when Magnus followed her gaze he found her parents looking at them with angry eyes.

Magnus measured the liquid he would need and gave the bottle back to Helga with enough inside to use for her own antidote. He stirred the antidote in his cauldron and raised the temperature in the fire. The liquid’s color was changing from green to blue and Magnus felt his pulse pick up and a smile break out on his face the closest he got to completing the potion.

Once the liquid had a light blue color her scooped it up and put it in a small bowl. His eyes were stuck to it as he walked as fast as he could to Alex. Every time it sloshed inside the bowl and got too close to the lid his heart dropped but he managed to reach his girlfriend’s unconscious body without dropping it.

He cradled Alex’s head in his hands and touched the bowl gently to her lips, opening her mouth to make her drink it. He was thankful for his Healing classes showing him how to do this. The blue liquid trickled past her lips and into her mouth, a drop trailing past her chin.

Once the contents of the bowl were drained, he waited. With every passing second he felt his fears grow – what if he had made a mistake, what if it didn’t work, what if it was too late and she never woke up?

Then Alex’s eyes opened and she shot upwards. She started coughing violently, like she was trying to force a rock out of her throat. Magnus let out the breath he had been holding and broke out into a wild smile, tears welling up in his eyes, happy tears. He couldn’t help the joyful little laugh that left his mouth as he surged forward and hugged Alex close to his chest.

Alex had stopped coughing and she wrapped her arms around Magnus, looking at confusion at the laughing and weeping boy in her arms. The world around her came into focus and she looked up to see the students of the three schools looking down at her and Magnus. To her right, Raphael was pressing a bowl to Louis’s lips, who was lying on a table. Helga, face red and tears in her eyes, was rushing to finish a potion of some sort while Agatha lay on a table in front of her. Magnus was still holding her like he thought he’d never see her again and his tears were seeping into her shirt.

“Um, not that I’m complaining for the hug, but what’s going on?”

Magnus looked up at her, a smile brighter than the sun on his face and tears in his eyes. Alex cupped his cheek, wanting to kiss the tears from his face. Magnus leaned into her touch and the love she saw in his eyes left her breathless.

“Remember the treasure I was supposed to save for the second task?” He asked softly. Alex nodded.

“Well, I saved it.” He leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers, kissing her gently and softly, like he wanted to take his time and do this for the rest of the day. Alex relished in the feeling of his lips and put her arms around his neck, pulling him closer and drowning in him.

They pulled apart, but just barely, staying close enough that it was like the rest of the dining hall didn’t exist and they were the only ones there.

“You’re a sap,” she told him quietly, affectionately, making it clear that she loved that about him even if she teased him.

“But I’m your sap,” Magnus replied with a smile. Alex wiped a tear from the corner of his eye and pulled him in for another kiss as the crowd clapped around them.

Goodness, that was huge. In case you’re curious, I got the first two riddles from my dad and the last from my grandpa’s crossword magazine. You can thank my sister for the name Alfred for the Sphinx (I asked her what I should name the Sphinx and she told me to name him after Batman’s butler) (I hope I remembered the name correctly). The top hat and bowtie are also thanks to her because I wasn’t sure if I should include that but she said I should. If you’re wondering, Helga got injured when she insulted the Hippogriff. Mon cher, s’il te plait, reveille toi! – My dear, please, wake up! Fan, snälla vakna, jag ber dig, vakna - basically "Shit, please wake up, I beg you, wake up" Until next time, see ya!

[imwastingmylifeinhere]

Magnus Chase and the Obligatory Hogwarts Au Ch19

On ao3

Most times I have something to say before a chapter, but now I don't. So yeah,  enjoy.

It took a few moments for Magnus to realize where he was when he came to. He was lying somewhere nice and soft, the blankets pulled up to his shoulders. He blinked his eyes open lazily and saw a white ceiling. He squinted, the light too much for his eyes at the moment. The clean, sterile smell of a hospital hit his nose and he realized he was in the infirmary. He sat up slowly, resting all his weight on his elbows to push himself up. Pain shot through his chest suddenly and he winced, but it wasn’t as bad as it was during the first Task.

“Magnus!” He heard someone say his name and when he turned around he saw Alex sitting by the side of his bed, a book in hand. There were bags under his eyes and his hair was messy (more so than usual) but he looked ecstatic to see Magnus awake. “Miss Eir, he’s awake!”

Miss Eir rushed to his side and quickly shooed Alex away. Magnus was pretty sure his friend would protest, but he didn’t. As the nurse told him to lift his shirt so she could hear his heartbeat he saw Alex running out of the infirmary to go get the others.

A few tests and much probing later, Miss Eir was jotting down something on her clipboard. “The effects of the spell seem to have worn off, though the wound on your chest will need a couple more days until it’s fully healed. The spell was meant for a powerful beast, not a human, it’s a miracle you weren’t injured farther.”

Alex was standing with the rest of their group at the doorway, his eyes suddenly dark and clouded, his eyebrows furrowed in the way they always were when he got upset over something. Mallory, Sam and T.J looked equally upset when they heard what Miss Eir said, though Sam was able to calm her voice and talk without sounding like she wanted to murder someone (which Magnus knew was what Alex would sound like if he attempted to talk).

“Miss Eir, is it alright if we talked to Magnus?” Sam asked the nurse. To anyone who didn’t know her for years it would seem as though everything was perfectly normal, but Magnus could hear the subtle edge of anger in her voice.

“Yes, of course. He should be fine to go back to his dorm tonight, though I’d like to keep you here for one more day just in case. Just try not to upset him, alright?”

“Yes, ma’am,” they chorused together and Miss Eir left the room to give them time to talk.

Alex took his place at the chair by Magnus’s bed and moved it closer to him. He could probably lay his head on Alex’s lap if he leaned enough. Sam took another chair and sat at Magnus’s other side, while T.J and Mallory plopped down at the foot of his bed besides his legs.

“How are you feeling?” Mallory asked him.

“Fine. My chest hurts a little but otherwise I’m fine.”

That little bit about his chest made Alex’s face scrunch up more in anger and turn red. “I can’t believe she did that!” Alex snapped angrily, his voice loud. “‘An accident’ my ass! She clearly did that on purpose! And that spell! There’s no way they were taught that at school! She must have known that you would have to face a chimera to learn a spell that could specifically subdue a chimera!”

“You know how the Tournament works,” Sam told her brother calmly. “Champions can cheat as much as they want as long as they’re not caught.”

“But it was obvious!” Alex protested, throwing his hands in the air.

“Apparently not to the judges.”

Alex huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. Magnus was a bit worried he would try to kill Helga if they let him out of their sight.

“Anyway,” T.J said, changing the subject, “what you did on the bridge was amazing! I can’t believe you actually beat a chimera!”

“Yeah, he’s right,” Mallory said, eyes shining. “I was scared it was going to bite you to death or something, but you actually made it! And you did it twice too!”

“Raphael helped,” Magnus said, though he’d be lying if he said the compliments from his friends didn’t make his cheeks burn.

“Yeah, but he would have been in trouble if you hadn’t helped him,” Alex said and there was a soft tone to his voice that made Magnus feel warm inside, like he had just eaten warm soup.

“Oh, and now that I remembered.” Before Magnus realized what happened, Alex punched him hard on the arm.

“Ow! What was that for?” he asked, rubbing at the place Alex hit him.

“For making me worry for your stupid ass,” Alex said matter-of-factly. If Magnus hadn’t been too busy pouting at the green-haired boy he might have noticed T.J leaning towards Mallory and whispering “I ship it” to her.

“Oh, now that I remembered,” Mallory said and fished out a small, red envelope from her bag. A Howler. “Halfborn left before you woke up so he would make it back to his university in time so he asked me to give you this.”

Magnus took the envelope in his hands cautiously, as if it could do something more to him than scream very loudly. He glanced at his friends nervously, hoping one of them would tell him what this was about, but none of them did and just gestured at the red envelope. With a deep breath, Magnus opened the Howler.

“MY MAN, MAGNUS, CONGRATULATIONS! THAT WAS FUCKING AWESOME! I KNEW YOU COULD KICK THEIR BUTTS! IT DOESN’T MATTER YOU GOT THE LEAST POINTS, YOU STILL HAVE TWO TASKS TO SHOW THEM WHO’S BOSS! MAKE SURE TO MOP THE FLOOR WITH THEIR FACES!”

Once the yelling stopped Magnus looked baffled, as if Halfborn had yelled all that at his face in person. He smiled wildly at his friend for taking the time to send him a Howler and couldn’t help the pang of nostalgia that hit him. Of course Halfborn would send a Howler to congratulate him instead of an actual letter. He missed the big sucker and he couldn’t wait to see him at the Yule Ball; he knew Mallory had arranged it so Halfborn could come with her and Sam could bring Amir.

Unfortunately, the yelling from the Howler made Miss Eir come and kick the group of friends out before Magnus could ask Sam if Amir liked the first task.

Alex was the last one to leave and when Miss Eir wasn’t looking he rushed forward and hugged Magnus tight. Where the hug in the hall the night before the task begged him to stay safe and unharmed, this one was practically screaming Alex’s happiness and relief to be able to hold Magnus like this.

Magnus hugged him back, even if the strength with which Alex held him made the wound on his chest ache. He buried his nose at the place where Alex’s shoulder met his neck and breathed in his scent, clear and strong and Alex in a way Magnus couldn’t quite describe. He let himself enjoy this, the feeling of Alex in his arms, and for the few moments they held each other he let himself imagine there was something more behind the hug, that Alex hugged him like this because he returned Magnus’s feelings and he loved him back.

Miss Eir was preparing Magnus’s medication and her back was turned to them, but the both knew they couldn’t stay like this for much longer. Alex let go of him and there was something in the way he did it that made Magnus think that he really, really didn’t want to. Alex looked at him with his beautiful mismatched eyes, somehow trying to convey everything he wanted to tell him without speaking the words because Miss Eir was still here.

Then, when Magnus thought Alex would juts wave at him and leave, he leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. Magnus would have liked to go in detail about what Alex’s lips felt like against his cheek but it all happened so quickly all he could think of to describe them was warm and soft. One moment they were there and the next they weren’t, leaving Magnus’s cheek feeling cold in their absence.

When Miss Eir came back to check up on him and give him his medicine for his wound he was still staring vacantly at door Alex had run out off.

“Oh my, your face is so red. I hope you’re not getting a fever.”

//////////////////

Magnus didn’t have dinner with his friends that night but they all came to visit him in the infirmary and they sneaked in some food for him because they knew how plain the meals in the infirmary could be. They sat around his bed and told him about everything that happened that day in class that he had missed while he ate the food they brought him. Along with the food they also brought flowers and little sweets from Hogwarts students who wanted to congratulate him for how he did in the first task. It made him feel guilty because he hadn’t even finished in second place, the touch-activated charm on the bottles had made sure the first to touch them was registered as the victor.

“Oh, come on, you practically won anyway,” Alex told him when he voiced his concerns. She was a girl today and she hadn’t brought up the kiss from yesterday at all. She acted so nonchalant about something that had Magnus stay awake in his bed late at night, wondering if this was really life or some weird fever dream.

“Yeah, but I’m still in last place when it comes to points.”

“Some people are annoyed about that, actually,” T.J piped up and Mallory elbowed him hard in the side while Sam and Alex glared at him; he obviously wasn’t meant to say that to him. “They say that you could have won if you hadn’t gone back to help Raphael and they say you’re stupid for doing that,” T.J continued, despite Alex mouthing ‘I’ll kill you’ at him. “Of course they’re only a minority, so it’s fine.”

“And you still have two tasks, so you can still beat Helga,” Alex added with a smile. “Man, I need to get a camera to take a picture of her face when you wipe the floor with her face.”

“You’ll tape it to your wall, won’t you?” Magnus said, barely holding back a smirk from his lips.  

“You know it,” Alex said with a wink and Magnus died a little inside. Who gave you the right to do that, I have a weak heart?

“They’re practically married, good God,” Mallory whispered under her breath. Magnus and Alex were too busy looking at each other to notice what she had said but everybody else heard and nodded in agreement.

Miss Eir had come to usher them out soon after that and Magnus went to sleep earlier that night, dreaming of him and Alex cuddling in a couch and sharing soft kisses and content sighs.

Miss Eir left him the infirmary the next morning, giving him a small vase of ointment he would have to put on his wound for the next week. He was heading to the Hall of the Slain to catch his friends while they were still eating breakfast when he turned a corner and stumbled upon Raphael and Louis.

“Magnus!” Raphael exclaimed when he saw him, the French accent in his voice making his name sound a bit weird.

“Hi, Raphael,” Magnus greeted him with a smile. “Is your arm any better?”

“Oui, it’s great! You’re nurse is truly amazing, there’s hardly a scar left!” Raphael patted his used-to-be injured arm to prove himself and he didn’t flinch at all. “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about, actually. Louis and I were coming to see you in the infirmary. I wanted to thank you for helping me during the first task.”

There was such sincere gratitude in Raphael’s voice that it made Magnus’s cheeks heat. “It’s fine, you don’t need to thank me.”

“No, it’s not!” Raphael said loudly. What Magnus said was enough to make his voice rise in volume and he looked as if the way Magnus’s brushed it off so casually offended him in some way. “I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t helped, I panicked when the chimera attacked me. I need to work on that, honestly, I can’t freeze like that in the next task. Maybe…”

Raphael started rambling, slipping into rapid French and Magnus didn’t understand anything, except the occasional ‘merci’. Raphael made wide, animated gestures as he talked, racking his hands though his hair multiple times, making it stand at odd angles. Magnus looked at him, half confused and half amused until Louis put a hand on his boyfriend’s arm. The taller boy instantly calmed down and gave Louis a sheepish grin.

“What this idiot was trying to say,” Louis said, sending a glare at Raphael but there was no real malice behind it, “is that we were coming to say thank you. So thank you for helping Raph and not letting him become cat food.”

Magnus smiled at the other blonde and nodded his head. “You’re welcome,” he said, now knowing that saying something along the lines of ‘it’s nothing’ or ‘it’s alright’ wouldn’t sit with the two French boys.

Raphael poked Louis on the side. “Give him what you made, mon cher.”

Louis’s cheeks flushed immediately and Magnus wasn’t sure if it was because of the pet name or whatever he wanted to give him.

“I’m kind of rubbish at trying to explain what I want to say, so… here,” Louis muttered before shoving a crudely wrapped package at Magnus.

“It’s a Raspberry Charlotte,” Raphael explained before Magnus had enough time to ask what was in the package. “It’s Louis’s specialty. Louis is great when it comes to pastries.” Raphael topped the compliment by kissing his boyfriend on the cheek.

“My mom still does it better,” the blonde muttered, clearly embarrassed by Raphael being so affectionate in front of someone. Magnus had to fight really hard not to coo at them.

“Oh, please, you’re a great cook and you know. I bet you’re going to be the best chef in all of Paris someday – non, all of France.”

Magnus let out a small chuckle when Louis rolled his eyes at Raphael, even though his face was as red as the Gryffindor common room.

“Thank you a lot for the cake,” Magnus said with a smile. “I’m sure it’ll be great.”

He was about to leave when Louis stopped him by grabbing his wrist.

“If you don’t mind me asking,” he started, “why did you do it? If you hadn’t you would have won the first task.”

With the package in his hands Magnus could fidget, no matter how much he wanted to. “I, um, happened to hear your conversation before the task when I came to find Raphael,” Louis’s cheeks reddened when he realized someone had overheard them, “and a friend of mine said something similar to me too before the task. I guess I thought that if I was in Raphael’s pace she would worry for me and I didn’t want that for her or for you so I helped? I’m really not sure, to be honest, I didn’t think much before I acted.”

“Well,” Louis said with a soft smile, “no matter why you did it, thank you.”

Magnus told them goodbye and went on his way. He was passing by a big old tapestry when he suddenly heard loud voices talking in English and a language he didn’t understand. He didn’t recognize any of them, save for one that hit him like a brick. Helga.

Sure that she would harass him for lousing, Magnus dived behind the tapestry. There was a hollow spot behind it big enough to fit two people and Magnus didn’t want to think about what some students might be getting up to in there.

The footsteps got louder and louder and Helga and whoever she was talking with came closer. There was a small hole in the tapestry Magnus hadn’t noticed before and he peaked out of it to see when she had left. Helga was had stopped walking in front of the tapestry, back held straight and proud like always, but there was something about her shoulders that seemed too tense.

“You did wonderful in the first task, älskling,” a woman’s voice said. Magnus turned in his hiding place to see her through the hole and he instantly knew she was Helga’s mother. They had the same hair, the same nose and face shape. She looked like the stereotypical image of a rich woman, right down to the large pearls around her neck and the gravity defying hairdo. Even though her last word was undoubtedly a pet name it was spoke without the warmth you’d expect – it sounded more like a general talking to her soldiers.

“Thank you, mor,” Helga said formally, like she was addressing the Minister of magic instead of her own mother. Magnus felt a pang of sympathy for her despite everything she had done to Alex – there was nothing in the way she spoke that showed Magnus she was close to her mother he couldn’t help feeling sad for her.

It was then that Magnus noticed the girl with the blonde pageboy haircut from the Halloween part standing next to Helga. They were standing close enough to be holding hands but far enough that they didn’t and even thought she was trying to hide it, Magnus noticed the concern with which she looked at Helga, as if she was afraid the other girl could crack and break.

“We expected nothing else from our daughter,” a man’s voice said and Magnus looked at who must be Helga’s father. They had the same rough eyes, the same thin lips, the same air of superiority in the way they held themselves. There was something in the way he spoke that sentence that made it sound less like he was confident in his daughter’s ability and more like Helga had succeeded in something they told her to do.

“Then again, with competition like that you would have to be completely useless to finish in any other place than first,” he father continued and Magnus had the sudden urge to throw something at him. He saw Helga bit the inside of her cheek, a motion he caught only because Sam did that when she was nervous or uncomfortable too. “Our daughter isn’t useless, right älskling?” Maybe the comment was meant to sound affectionate, but to Magnus it sounded more like a threat. You don’t want to know what will happen if you prove me wrong, unspoken and yet loud enough to make Magnus’s ears ring.

Apparently Helga though so too because she bit her cheek even harder and her hand twitched where it hang close to her friend’s hand, like she wanted nothing more than to take it and squeeze it for support but she couldn’t.

“No, far,” Helga said, doing a great job at hiding the tremor in her voice.

“That’s our girl.” Helga’s father smiled and there was nothing in his smile that spoke of fatherly pride. “Remember, now that… he isn’t here, you’re the heir to the Leifsson family.” Magnus remembered how Alex had told him Helga’s older brother was gay and that Helga loved him a lot. Her parents certainly didn’t seem to feel the same way. “You have a long and proud legacy to live up to. What does a Leifsson do?”

“A Leifsson is always the best,” Helga said with a monotone voice. What should have been a self-righteous family motto sounded more like a shackle and chains the way she said it. Maybe that’s what it was for her.

“That’s right,” Helga’s mother said. She smiled in a way that made Magnus’s wonder if the last time she smiled was a decade ago – maybe more. “Now, run along and go have breakfast. Your father and I will make sure to come see you in the second task.”

“Goodbye, mor, far.” As Helga’s parents left she and the blonde girl stayed there, Helga glaring at a spot in the floor like she wanted to punch it – or like she was holding back tears.

“Helga?” the blonde girl asked in a worried voice, finally taking Helga’s hand in hers. “Are you alright?”

“No,” Helga choked out. “Agatha, they spoke like he’s dead. I’ve spoken to him; he’s so much happier now without them around.”

“You will be happy too,” Agatha said. The way she spoke was so different that the way Helga’s parents talked; it was like she was trying to make up for all the affection her parents didn’t give her when they spoke.

“Will I?” Magnus needed a moment to realize Helga had spoken – that voice was too quiet, too broken for the girl he had fought with.

“Yes,” Agatha said without missing a beat. “You will. I’ll make sure you will.”

Helga smiled at the other girl softly. Magnus didn’t even know Helga could make a face like that. “Thanks, Agatha.”

Agatha giggled and nuzzled her face into Helga’s neck. “No problem, silly. Now let’s go have breakfast, I’m starving.”

Magnus didn’t leave his place behind the tapestry until he could no longer hear Helga and Agatha’s footsteps.

////////////////////////

Magnus wasn’t stressed. What made you think that he was stressed? It wasn’t like the Yule Ball was in a week and he was supposed to open the dance even though he couldn’t dance for shit or that he still didn’t have a date or that he had absolutely no idea what the clue for the second task inside the bottle was.

Nope, not stressed at all.

He still had time to figure what the clue was, his friends would tell him. The second task was in February after all; he had time. But it wasn’t like the clue was a riddle he had to solve – he would have solved it already if that was the case. No, there was no clue whatsoever; the parchment inside the bottle he had faced so many obstacles for was completely blank. He had taken to carrying the parchment with him everywhere in hopes that something would magically appear on it.

As for the date, he knew anybody in Hogwarts would agree to go with him if he asked them, but that wasn’t the problem. He knew who he wanted to come with him to the Yule Ball. He knew from the start of the year. Even though he had been able to face a chimera asking Alex a simple question made him feel week in the knees. Maybe he could have asked her to come with him as friends before but now, after that kiss in the infirmary, he couldn’t bring himself to.

Friends can kiss each other on the cheek, he’d tell himself and a part of him believed it but a part of him wanted it to be a lie. A part of him wanted there to be something more behind Alex’s lips on his cheek than just friendship and a part of him told him that there’s no way there was.

“Ow! Come on Magnus, focus. I only have so many toes.”

And there was the dancing part of the Ball. When he had shared that particular worry with his friends none of them had been able to help him. None of them knew how to waltz and why would they anyway? They didn’t need to know. But Magnus couldn’t skip the opening waltz no matter how much he wanted it.

Then Alex had offered to teach him.

“My parents made me learn when I still lived with them,” she had said. “Might as well make something good out of it.”

So Alex started teaching Magnus how to waltz. They would meet in the Room of Requirement after classes ended and they would dance to pieces of music that all seemed identical to Magnus but Alex insisted were different. Alex was the one to lead in the first lessons until Magnus got the hang of it but now he had to be the one with his hand at Alex’s waist as they danced.

“Sorry, sorry. I got lost in thought.”

Alex huffed but Magnus didn’t miss the way the corner of her lips tugged upwards. The Room had turned in the same cozy living room it had created when Alex had talked to him about Conall last year and they had almost kissed. The thought made Magnus’s cheeks flush and his stomach churn so he tried not to think about it. Their bags lay near the couch, their homework sprawled out on the coffee table. Somewhere along the line their dancing lessons had turned into their unofficial study sessions and hangout time (and make-out time according to Mallory and T.J).

“Okay, let’s start from the top,” Alex said and started the song from the beginning.

Magnus did as she had showed him. He stepped towards her and bowed, offering his hand to her. When she took it he stepped closer, bringing their joined at the same height as their heads and he rested his other hand just above her hip. They started moving slowly and Magnus kept his eyes at his feet so he wouldn’t step on her again. It had been much easier to follow Alex instead of being the one leading the dance.

“Magnus, you have to look at your partner, not your feet,” Alex told him, the slightest hint of exasperation seeping into her voice. This wasn’t the first time she had told him.

“I don’t want to step on you.” And I don’t know if I can stop myself from kissing you if I look at you.

“You won’t step on me. Come on, give it a try.”

So Magnus did. He raised his head and his breath was immediately stolen by the sight of Alex’s two-colored eyes. No matter how many times he looked at them he was always captivated by them. They were pools of honey and chocolate, alight with mischief and bravery, love and pain and hundreds of other emotions and Magnus wanted to know about all of them. He was afraid he’d be so mesmerized by her eyes he would notice if he stepped on her feet. He certainly wouldn’t be able to speak a comprehensive sentence, that’s for sure.

“See? Not that hard,” Alex said, breathless, as if she was as enthralled by the sight of him as he was of her. Yeah, right.

Magnus smirked at her, hoping it would mask the fact all he wanted to do was kiss her senseless. They kept dancing, their bodies just a breath away, the same way they would dance if Magnus actually got the courage to ask her to go with him.

What do you have to lose? His brain asked him.

Her friendship, he answered.

She won’t stop being your friend because you asked her to a dance. You don’t have someone to go with and you won’t ask anyone because you want to go with her, so ask her. You saw what almost happened to Raphael in the first task, do you really want to be mauled by a magical beast and regret not asking Alex to a stupid dance? Just do it.

Before Magnus was able to retort to what his brain said (why was he arguing with his brain?) Alex spoke up.

“So, have you found someone to go to the Yule Ball with?”

“No,” he said and he felt his hand sweat where it rested on Alex’s hip. “Have you?”

“Not really,” she said and Magnus got the feeling she wanted to say something more. In the end, what she said was, “A girl asked me but I didn’t really wanna go with her.”

Just ask her. Come on, do it. It’s just six words, where’s the difficulty? If you can face a chimera without peeing your pants then you can ask your crush to go to a stupid dance.

JUST DO IT!

Magnus couldn’t believe he was being peer-pressured into doing this by his own brain.

“Do-“ he started and somehow choked on air. He tried again. “Do you want to go with me?”

Alex looked at him with a mixture of surprise and relief, pink dusting her cheeks, though Magnus didn’t get why she was relieved. Despite the fact her reaction to his question wasn’t bad, Magnus somehow panicked anyway, those few seconds before she answered feeling like centuries to him.

“I-I mean, we already know how to dance together, s-so we could go as friends?” He blurted out. “S-Since you don’t have someone to go with a-and I don’t have someone to go with?”

For a moment, Magnus though he saw the corner of Alex’s mouth dip down, but he blinked and the beginning of a frown on her face had disappeared. “Alright. Someone has to make sure you don’t embarrass yourself on the opening waltz.”

Then, before Magnus realized what was coming, she let go of his hand and shoulder and attacked his sides with her skillful fingers. Magnus burst out laughing immediately.

“Bwua ha ha ha ha! A-Alex! W-why? Aha ha ha!”

“I got bored!” She said gleefully and attacked him even more ferociously. She was enjoying this, damn her. As Magnus doubled over in laughter and tried to get away from her, he had half a thought that they should have had a tickling obstacle in the first task.

“Aha ha ha ha! S-Stop! A-Alex, I can’t breathe!”

“I don’t care!”

Alex had her chest to his back so Magnus wouldn’t be able to punch her away. In away other instance, Magnus would have loved having Alex hug him from behind but not now. He thrashed around, trying to get out of her hold. In a moment of pure survival instincts (though he probably couldn’t die from tickling, but you never know) he stepped down hard on Alex foot.

“Ow!”

Magnus run away from her as she yelled in pain, feeling proud of himself. However, he was too busy looking back at her jumping up and down on one leg, nursing her hurt toes, to see that he was running straight into the coffee table.

He crushed into the table with his back, making their pencils and quills scatter around. Even worse, the bottle with Alex potion for class toppled over since it had no quirk it spilled all its contents on the parchment with the clue that Magnus had left on the table.

“Fuck. Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck,” Magnus kept muttering as he looked at the drenched parchment.

“M-maybe we can dry it,” Alex suggested nervously. Dread was settling in both their bellies at the thought of having just destroyed Magnus’s only clue about the second task.

Magnus was holding the parchment between trembling fingers as he shook it back and forth in hopes it would get most of the water out. It was while he was shaking it that a deep, black stain spread over the parchment from where the potion had fell on it like spilled ink.

Magnus sent Alex a “what the fuck is happening” look. Alex shrugged at him, just as confused as her was.

The ink stain covered the entire parchment before it started sinking back to a single point in the middle. It left smaller, blurry stains behind it, like fogy spots of warm breath on cold windows. Those too grew smaller and smaller, coming into focus like a camera zooming in on something. What they left behind them was a riddle written in pitch black ink.

“In dusty corridors you will find us and know our guards will not let us go without a fuss. They are quick of wit, prideful, unpredictable what they guard you need to save that for which you care unconditionally. Two hours - that’s it, not a moment beyond. Too late - we’re sorry, your treasure is gone.”

If you're wondering why Louis's surname is Dupain and he's from a family of bakers - I couldn't control myself! The second task is coming after the Yule Ball, so you have two weeks to try and figure out the clue! Have fun!

[imwastingmylifeinhere]

Magnus Chase and the Obligatory Hogwarts AU Ch15

On ao3

Once more I'm way too impatient to wait until Monday to update, but I'm sure you don't have a problem with that ;) FINALLY, Alex breaks up with Conall!  *throws confetti* I'm sure you've been waiting for this moment as long as I have. Please bear in mind I've never written a break-up scene before so if I fucked it up, I'm sorry. I tried.

Alex was sitting at the edge of the Astronomy tower, his legs dangling over the side. It was a pretty big fall to the ground, but he wasn’t scared. The Astronomy tower had a charm cast on it that prevented students from hitting the ground if they fell. From what Alex had heard, it was like falling on jelly.

Students were milling about the school grounds despite the chill. With Christmas coming closer and closer with each passing day the weather was getting colder and colder. A cool breeze blew and Alex’s green hair whipped around his face. In his warm coat and handmade scarf he wasn’t that cold, and even if he was he wouldn’t have minded. He found the cool made him feel more alert and he could certainly use that right now.

The old heavy door that lead to the roof opened with a loud creak. Turning around, Alex saw Conall’s head peaking from behind the door. His eyes scanned the roof before landing on the young Slytherin and stepping out of the shielding the door provided him.

“Alex?” he said hesitantly. “Um, hi. Sam said you wanted to talk to me about something?” What had probably been a statement came out as more of a question as the freckled Ravenclaw fiddled with the fabric of his robes awkwardly.

Alex nodded. “Yes. I…” Alex trailed of and he cursed himself. Dammit, he had no reason to feel nervous or hesitate! He had thought about what he wanted to do and how he was going to say it. With a deep breath he fixed a steely stare on Conall and spoke confidently. “You’ve been acting weird lately.”

There was a flash of… something in Conall’s eyes. Fear? Confusion? Whatever it was it was gone just as quickly as it came. “Weird?” Conall asked with furrowed eyebrows. I spoke too vaguely, Alex realized.

“Yeah. You’ve been acting different around me whenever I’m a boy.” They were standing about two meters apart and the air between them felt cold, and not just because of the weather. Conall seemed to shrink under Alex’s gaze and he shifted uncomfortably from one leg to the other without saying anything.

Alex moved his weight from one hip to the other and crossed his arms over his chest. “Well?” He asked, voice sharp and hard. He had expected Conall to deny the accusation or confirm or hell, even act like he didn’t understand what Alex was talking about! He had expected everything but this silence and it somehow got him angrier than Conall denying what he did would have.

“I’m sorry,” the boy finally said in a quiet voice, eyes staring at the floor instead of Alex.

“Is that all you have to say?” Alex snapped at him, the pain and confusion and desperation he felt the last few days seeping into his voice and turning in a burning anger that he couldn’t hold back. “Seriously, do you know what it’s like knowing someone you’re close to doesn’t accept all of you? It’s horrible, that’s what it is!” Conall would still not look at him and his shoulders were hunched up as if he was trying to hide behind them

“You have a nagging voice at the back of your head constantly telling you that they like you, just not that specific part! It,” Alex’s voice broke and the rest of what he had to say came out in a voice that was barely audible over the blowing wind. “… it makes you question whether the rest of your friends feel the same way.”

It was hard not to let the doubt Conall’s behavior created seep into other things. It would rear its ugly head like the monster in Alex’s closet and corrupt anything he was sure about. Did Sam really accept him, despite her religion?  Did Mallory, T.J and Halfborn actually hate him secretly? Would Magnus – or anyone for that matter- like him regardless of gender?

Every time a thought like that entered his mind he felt like hitting his head on a wall just to remind himself that he was wrong and that his friends cared for him. They liked him like he was, confusing gender and everything, and he knew that. Still, it was hard for his brain not to instinctively pull up all the instances of someone who didn’t feel like that, their harsh words and accusing stares. Those people were why he refused to take shit from people for his gender, yet it felt different when it was someone you knew and cared about rather than a faceless, nameless git. The thought hurt more.

Pushing the thoughts put of his brain, Alex blinked his eyes to push back the moisture that had gathered there. No way was he going to cry now.

“I’m sorry, I… don’t really have an excuse for acting the way I did and I’m sorry for hurting you, that was never my intention.” It honestly looked like Conall was trying to make himself look as tiny as possible in hopes that maybe then he would disappear. His voice was heavy with shame, same as his face. It made a part of Alex feel good and he didn’t feel that guilty about it. Conall’s shame felt like payback for everything he had gone through recently.

“I know it wasn’t, but you did.” Alex’s voice sounded confident and hard, no sign of sympathy for his soon-to-be ex-boyfriend. “I think we should stop this. The dating thing.”

Once more, Conall’s reaction wasn’t what he expected. No surprise at Alex for wanting to break up with him – although if he really thought they would still be together after this he was stupid – no trying to change Alex’s mind, no fighting back of any sorts. He simply nodded and accepted it and Alex was glad he was at least mature about this. He didn’t have the enrgy to put with any drama right now, at least not in a civil way.

“Alright. I actually wanted to talk to you about that since I realized how I was acting. Can we still be friends?”

The suggestion sent a pang of disgust through Alex’s entire body, the same as smelling something terrible would. No, being friends again with him didn’t feel right, not now.

Alex shook his head. “No. I’m not sure how I feel about being around you anymore.”

Conall’s expression fell only slightly. Apparently he was expecting that answer. “I understand. Acquaintances, maybe?”

Alex shrugged. “I guess that’s fine.” A ‘good morning’ here and there didn’t sound that bad. Just typical, dry communication with no real feeling behind it.

“Say,” Alex started saying when he remembered what Conall had said before asking if they could stay friends, “if you had wanted to break it off since you realized you didn’t act the same around me on my male days, why didn’t you say anything?”

It would have saved both of us a lot of trouble, he thought but he didn’t say it. It was already pretty clear without either of them voicing it.

Conall’s face blanched and when he opened his mouth he was rambling. “Okay, it’s completely stupid and I’m an idiot, but I was afraid of the confrontation. I don’t like hurting people, well, I guess no one does, but I was basically afraid of hurting you.” What he just said seemed to register in his brain and he smacked his forehead so hard someone in the Slytherin common room must have heard. “And by not saying anything, I hurt you more. As I said, I’m an idiot, wow. I kind of surprised you haven’t slapped me yet.”

Alex shrugged, a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. “Can’t be bothered. And yes, you’re an idiot. If you wanted to break up but you wouldn’t bring it up, how would that ever happen?”

He was almost laughing by now at how stupid that was and how stupid they were for staying in a relationship they both wanted to get out of.

Conall must have been thinking the same thing because he was rubbing the back of his neck in a flustered way. “I don’t know. I sort of wished you would dump me because you liked Magnus.”

Alex would have laughed because this is probably the only time someone wanted their significant other to leave them for someone else. He would have laughed if the name Conall said hadn’t stopped him dead in his tracks.

“Wh-what?” He could feel his face burning as hot as a heater in the chilly weather and he was looking at Conall with eyes as big as dishes, wishing he would say it was just a joke.

Ales, Conall just looked at Alex confused. “You don’t? I’m sorry, I guess I just assumed. You always seemed very close, I was actually afraid you were dating before I asked you out.” Conall laughed nervously, completely oblivious to how much Alex was freaking out right now. Was he really that obvious about his crush on Magnus? Had people noticed before even he had noticed? Did Magnus notice and did he feel weird about it?

“And you would act odd around him sometimes,” Conall went on, “like, you would stare too for too long, so I kind of hoped you would break it off with me to be with him.”

Alex didn’t speak. He didn’t joke about how crazy or unlikely it was for him to like Magnus like that, he didn’t laugh about it, he did nothing. He simply stood there, face redder than the Gryffindor banner, refusing to look Conall in the eye.

After a moment of silence, Conall was the one to speak up.

“Do you like him?”

Silence. Then, despite his heart beating like a drum, Alex nodded.

“‘I think you should tell him,’” Conall says after a few seconds. “’Who knows, maybe he likes you back. And if he doesn’t, just be mature about it and things won’t be awkward.’” Conall had the same tone of voice he had whenever he would quote something from the text book during lessons. “That’s what Magnus said when I asked him for advice on asking you out. Well, he used different pronouns, but you get the point. Maybe you should give it a shot.”

Alex shook his head. “He doesn’t like me like that.” Merlin, who breaks up with their boyfriend just to have him give them romantic advice about someone else they liked?

“I don’t think that’s the case, but you know, what you do is your choice. I don’t think I have a right to tell you what to do about that. Anyway, I should get going, I’ve been meaning to go to the library.”

Alex heard Conall’s footsteps as he left the rooftop. He was sitting back on the edge of the rooftop again, looking down on the school grounds but not actually seeing them. He was too lost in his thoughts. A cold wind blew by and he didn’t bother pulling his coat closer.

Conall’s words rang in his ears. I think you should tell him. Who knows, maybe he likes you back.

… Should he go for it?

///////////////////

A few weeks passed since Alex broke up with Conall. The Ravenclaw no longer sat at their table and the group of friends wouldn’t see him unless they happened to have a lesson with him. Even then, they never went beyond a simple “Good morning” or “Hello”. The most any of them had heard of him was when he asked Percy and Annabeth how Ilvermorny was because he was thinking of signing up for the student exchange program next year.

“So what do you think you’ll do after school?” Annabeth asked Halfborn. It might be hardly Christmas but Halfborn, Annabeth and Percy – the three members of their group that were graduating this year- could already feel the anxiousness that came with their final exams.

“I’m not quite sure just yet, there’s a lot of things I want to study.” Halfborn cut up a piece of his omelet and stared at it as he talked. He was lost in thought, they all knew that, but it kinda looked like he was asking a piece of egg for the answers he wanted. “I’m really interested in variations of spells from country to country. I’m kind of thinking being a DADA teacher wouldn’t be half bad.”

“I want to be a magic researcher,” Annabeth said. “People have been stuck in the same old spells and charms for so many years, even when magic keeps evolving. I want to test how far we can go.”

“Guess we know who’s going to be the successful cousin,” Magnus joked. Everyone at their table laughed and Sam started talking to Annabeth about what she wanted to research. T.J asked Percy what he wanted to do, to which Percy just shrugged and said “I dunno. Auror?”

“Oh, I forgot to tell you!” Annabeth suddenly said mid-sentence as she remembered something important. “Since the Triwizard tournament is next year, we managed to pull some strings so we’ll be able to come and visit during the last task.”

Another excited discussion started among the students as they started talking about the Triwizard tournament, something that – weirdly enough - they had forgotten about.

“We should all sign up next year!” T.J said. “Who knows, maybe one of us will be Champion!”

“The tournament is very dangerous, we could get seriously injured,” Sam started, always the voice of reason, but upon seeing her friends’ faces she relented. “Oh, why not? The chances of being picked are low anyway.”

“Aw, don’t be like that, sis!” Alex said, throwing an arm over his sister’s shoulders in a weird side hug. “It will be fun! And maybe you can convince the teachers to let Amir come visit during the tournament.”

The conversation continued like that for a while, the group of friends arguing about which one of them was more likely to be picked as Champion. The conversation was sadly cut short when the bell rang and they had to get to class.

Alex, Mallory, Sam and Halfborn had History of Magic and they headed to the classroom like sheep to the slaughter. Halfborn had chocolates hidden in his pockets and he shared them with the other Slytherins in order to keep themselves (at least partially) awake during the boring lesson.

The four of them had devised a plan since the start of the year. They would take turns and every time they had a lesson one of them would pay attention and keep notes while the others napped on their desks. Today it was Halfborn’s turn, which is why he was eating his weight in sugar.

Alex didn’t really mind History (at least when he didn’t have to pay attention to their boring Professor). He could sit at the back, relax and sketch in his notebook until the lesson finished. He was sitting next to Sam right now, who had pulled out a book to read and hid it behind her textbook. Alex was sketching lines and curves on the paper, not really thinking too much about what he was drawing.  

Halfway through the lesson Sam tapped his shoulder. He turned to her and made a “what?” gesture with his hand (he had been getting better at sign language lately, although he was still not as good as Magnus). Sam pointed to his notebook and mouthed ‘nice’. Confused, Alex glanced down to see Magnus looking at him from the paper.

Stupid fucking romantic clichés – did he seriously just draw Magnus without even realizing it?

Much to Sam’s confusion, Alex let his head fall on the desk with a light thud. Sam was even more confused when Alex started muttering under his breath. The only things she caught were “fucking feeling”, “like to make me suffer” and  “I’m gonna beat up whoever thought this is funny”. Sam decided it was best he gave his brother some space.

Conall’s words danced around Alex’s mind as he was beating himself up over being reduced to a lovestruck schoolgirl by a boy with fluffy blonde hair and pretty eyes and an endearingly bad fashion sense and a nice laugh and- Oh, for Merlin’s sake!

Who in their right mind thought feelings were a good thing?

I think you should tell him. Who knows, maybe he likes you back. Alex heard Conall’s advice once more, though this time “Kiss the girl” played in the background with Halfborn at the vocals, for some strange reason (even his own mind didn’t make sense anymore). Should he try out his luck and ask Magnus out? He could always reject him, but Alex hoped they would still be able to be friends afterwards. The small possibility that he would say yes made Alex feel like his heart had completely forgot how it was supposed to beat. The green-haired boy groaned into his notebook. Ugh, feelings suck.

Finally sitting up, Alex tore a page from his notebook and started writing. So a friend from Hufflepuff has wanted to ask this boy he likes out for some time now, but he’s not sure whether he should because they’re friends and he doesn’t want things to get awkward. What should I tell him to do?

Alex nodded to himself before passing the note to Mallory. He knew how stupid the whole ‘I have a friend who’ thing was, but he hoped saying which house his friend was in would convince Mallory he wasn’t just lying.

The redhead read the note carefully, sending Alex a questioning stare before quickly scribbling down an answer. She glanced quickly to see if the Professor was looking and gave the note back to Alex.

I think he should tell him if he has wanted to do it for so long. He should make it clear that he wants things to go on as always if he’s rejected.

Alex nodded to himself. Yeah, that sounded logical. His eyes moved down the page to Mallory’s little P.S.

P.S. Try not to be so obvious when you want dating advice, Alex.

Alex’s cheeks burned red and he hit his head on the desk again. He heard quiet snickering form Mallory’s desk and he felt her hand pat him quickly on the back. Alex continued to lay there, contemplating where he had gone wrong in life, until he felt a tap on his shoulder. Raising his head, he saw another slip of paper on his desk. He unfolded it to see a short message from Halfborn.

Go get him, love boy! <3 <3 <3

-Halfborn

Alex sent a glare to Halfborn, slowly tracing a line across his neck in the universal “I’ll kill you” motion. Halfborn only smirked and blew him a kiss. Alex slammed his head back on the desk.

Someone please put me out of my misery.

///////////////////

Alex was running down the schools corridors as fast as he could. He had just finished Quidditch practice and he had hardly enough time to get his hair out of its messy ponytail. He was still high on adrenaline from practice and throwing balls at people to get them to fall of their brooms (Merlin, he loved this sport) and he decided that if he was going to do this he might as well do it now.

He was doing. He was going to ask out Magnus.

He run past the students milling around the castle, all of them surprised to see a sweaty Slytherin running like his life depended on it. Some tried to get out of his way but even if they didn’t move at all Alex maneuvered between them easily without hitting anyone. (Okay, almost. He might have bumped into a random Ravenclaw that had her nose buried in a book and knocked her down, but he apologized and helped her up.)

If he remembered correctly, Magnus tended to be in the library at this time. Since he and T.J weren’t in either one of their Quidditch teams they didn’t have practice at this hour and would use the time to hang out in the library, doing (or trying to do) their homework.

Alex turned another corner and tried to will his hearts to slow down. This was going to be fine. He would find where Magnus was sitting, ask to talk to him in private if he was with T.J and then ask him on a date. He would try to play it cool if everything went well and Magnus said yes. If he said no he would be mature and say it’s alright, that he just needed to get out of his chest and ask that they keep being friends. It would be alright. Everything would be fine.

It would be easier to believe that if my bloody heart could stop beating like this, Alex thought bitterly, but pushed those thoughts down. Part of him was scared that for all his confidence and give-zero-shits attitude he would lose it in front of Magnus and make a full of himself. Then the logical part of his brain told him that he’s already made a full of himself in front of Magnus several times. Magnus had seen him attempt (and failing) to do the opening dance from Lucky Star, for crying out loud! There was nothing left for him to be ashamed of.

Well, things could still go badly and you could lose one of your best friends, but no pressure!

You’re not helping, brain!

Finally, the doors of the library came into view and Alex picked up his pace. He accidently run into a student again but he managed to dodge in the last second (the other student wasn’t that happy about that). He finally slowed down next to the doors to catch his breath and cast a quick cleaning spell on him, enough that he didn’t smell of sweat. No way was he going to ask out Magnus while panting and smelling like a locker-room.

When he could finally breathe normally, he patted down his hair to make sure it wasn’t a rat’s nest and walked into the library. He knew there was a table Magnus liked to sit at near the windows so he headed over there. As he got closer, he started hearing bits and pieces of their conversation.

“Say, Magnus, can I ask something?” Alex heard T.J ask. The Slytherin was standing behind a bookcase and if he pushed some books aside he could see the two boys sitting in a table by the window. Alex didn’t make a move to walk up to them. He could just wait here until they finished their conversation. (Was he trying to procrastinate? Yes.)

“Sure, go ahead.” Magnus was bent over a roll of parchment, scribbling manically as he tried to think of enough meaningless crap to write so he could reach the word limit of the essay. (Alex remembered showing him how to bullshit his way through an assignment like a Politian after the blonde had complained to him about having to write a very long essay.)

“Do you like Alex?” T.J spoke casually, but casual was nowhere near what Alex’s reaction was. His heart fell like it had burst like a balloon inside his chest and his fingers were gripping at the bookshelf so hard his knuckles had turned white. He could hear his heart beat like a drum at the prospect of finding out if Magnus liked him. He tried to breathe through his nose to calm down but it had little effect.

He concentrated as hard as he could and tried to hear what his friends were saying.

“Yeah, of course I like Alex,” Magnus said, uttering the words like it was something as easy as breathing. It didn’t seem possible but Alex’s heart started beating even faster. A blush started spreading across his cheeks and he tried his best not to smile wide like an idiot. Magnus liked him back, yes!

But Magnus hadn’t finished. “We’re friends after all,” he continued. Alex heart dropped instantly and the smile he had failed pushing back disappeared from his face.

No, it’s okay, he said to himself. He sounds a bit weird, maybe he’s just embarrassed to say it out loud. You’d feel awkward too in his place. Alex wouldn’t have answered that question without being forced to. Magnus could just be denying it, though his face was turned away from him so Alex couldn’t see his expression to be sure.

Alex could see T.J rolling his eyes from the little gap between the books. “No, I mean, like like. Like how Halfborn likes Mallory or Annabeth likes Percy.” The Ravenclaw spoke slowly, like he was speaking to a baby or someone completely stupid (which was a pretty good description of the Ravenclaw house now that Alex thinks about it).

Magnus didn’t speak and Alex saw him writing his essay, ignoring T.J that was glaring at him with a frown.

“Do you have a crush on Alex?” He asked slowly and bluntly, holding Magnus by his shoulders so he couldn’t look away.

“No, I don’t,” Magnus said and Alex felt the rejection hit him hard in the chest. “I’ve never stopped to think about it, to be honest. Can you imagine me and Alex as a couple?” The blonde laughed lightly and Alex clenched at the bookshelf so heard he might break it.

He turned around and run out of the library, frantically wiping away the angry tears in his eyes, determined not to cry. Of course Magnus didn’t like him, what was he thinking? Why would someone like him romantically, anyway? Why would anyone want him? Who would want him with his weird hair and inconvenient gender and his lame jokes? Nobody, that’ who. Merlin, he was a mess.

Alex run to the closest bathroom – he didn’t bother to look whether in was for girls or boys- and he stayed there until he stopped punching the wall with every stray tear that made it out of his eyes.

Back in the library, T.J was not convinced of what Magnus was telling him. Alex hadn’t seen the blush on the boy’s cheeks when he first denied the accusations and he did not hear the light tremble and the hesitance in his voice the second time. Alex hadn’t noticed how awkward and unnatural his laugh sounded or over-the-top his voice was as he tried to sell his lie.

“Magnus, how long have we known each other?” T.J asked with deadly seriousness. Without waiting for Magnus to answer, he continued. “Since first year. I know you, Magnus. I’ve seen you do both brilliant and utterly idiotic things. Do you really believe you can fool me with that?”

Magnus’s shoulders slumped and he sighed deeply. “No. Worth a try though, right?”

T.J ignored the boy’s sheepish smile. “If you like Alex, why won’t you do something? I’ve seen the way you look at him and you’re worse than Halfborn was, my friend.”

“Look, I…” Magnus trailed off, unsure how to continue. How was he supposed to explain how small of a chance he had of being with someone as amazingly brilliant as Alex or how scared he was to try for something more that could fail and cost him one of the best friends he ever had?

“Alex just broke up with Conall and I just don’t think it would be a good idea to ask him out immediately. He probably needs some time to himself, right?” Magnus said, applying the same logic Alex had taught him about essays to what he was saying. “And just being attracted to someone doesn’t mean you want a relationship, so I might not even want to ask him out. Even if I wanted to, I’d… do it at my own time. There’s no reason to rush.”

T.J sighed and picked up his quill again. “Whatever you say, buddy. You might be better than Halfborn and ask him out without our help.”

I don’t think that’s going to happen. Alex wasn’t interested in him and that much was clear. He never brought up their almost kiss in the Room of Requirement so he obviously wanted to pretend like it had never happened. If that’s what Alex wanted, he could respect it.

Losing him as a friend wasn’t worth it.

*hides under the bed again* Don't kill me! I know this doesn't make things any better, but I could have made Magnus get a girlfriend to try and get over Alex, so... yeah, this was the better option for all of you. (Also I was too lazy to do the whole girlfriend thing and hey, I might like torturing you but even I have limits).

On better news, yes, next chapter is officially their seventh year and the Triwizard Tournament! *throws confetti again* Please send me any suggestions you have for the tasks in the comments because I need inspiration even if I have a general idea of what I want the tasks to be like.

[imwastingmylifeinhere]

Magnus Chase and the Obligatory Hogwarts AU Ch13

On ao3 

Remember back in chapter 10 when I said that their sixth year is basically Magnus singing Treat you better? I couldn't control myself, sooo... yeah. Enjoy!

For someone who had spent the night having an existential crisis, Magnus looked relatively normal when he walked into the Hall of the Slain. Sure, he yawned a bit too much and his eyes were bloodshot and tired but it was nothing that couldn’t be explained by staying up late to do homework.

So despite what he told his friends, he hadn’t stayed up late doing that Potions assignment he allegedly had forgot to start. (He had finished that already, thank you very much.) What he had been doing was lying in bed while the rest of his roommates snored away and trying to pinpoint exactly when his feelings for Alex had switched from merely platonic to something more.

He couldn’t say it was when they first met. First off, that was horribly cliché. In hindsight though, he had to admit that he had found Alex pretty when they met on the Hogwarts express. That still didn’t mean anything, because he had thought most of his friends were pretty or cute or something along those lines at some point. (He had attractive friends, okay?)

Everything else he could come up with, any other instance that might have been the moment when he fell for Alex, didn’t seem to be right either. Even with something like their dance at last year’s Halloween party didn’t seem to cut it. Alex had freaking French-dipped him and he couldn’t think of that moment and go yes, this is when I fell for him.

There wasn’t just one moment, he realized as one of his roommates snored, rolled over and fell out of bed. He couldn’t find the exact instance because there hadn’t been one. It just happened progressively, naturally, his feelings just developed into something different.

And the thing was that he couldn’t stop noticing it. It was like when you think you heard something when you were on your own in the house and suddenly every little creak sounds deafening. Now that Magnus had acknowledged his feelings, he couldn’t seem to be able to ignore them.

He’d think about Alex’s mischievous grin before he was about to pull a prank or the way he snorted a bit if he laughed too hard or how all the stupid shit he did could be very amusing and he’d feel like he was dying. His stomach did acrobatics, his heart felt like it had exploded inside his chest, his face heated up. Why did people like being in love when it made them feel like they had a bloody fatal disease?

And what was the best thing? Alex had a boyfriend. He was in a relationship and even if Magnus had the guts to tell him that he liked him and ask him out, he couldn’t do it.

When did my life turn into a YA novel?

He couldn’t say anything, he decided. No matter how grossed out he might be with Alex and Conall’s lovey-dovey behavior, they seemed happy and Magnus wouldn’t do something as petty as sabotage his friend’s joy because he had fallen for him. He had no right to do something like that.

And besides, he had thought hopefully, it’s probably a simple crush. It will go away soon.

That sounded like lying even to himself but he had no choice than believe it.

So this is where his late-night thoughts had led him to; sitting with his friends at breakfast and sleepily poking at his eggs. He busied himself with the little wobble the orange part of his fried egg did when he hit it instead of how nice Alex looked today.

He didn’t even look different! He was normal, just normal Alex with soft-looking green hair that was ruffled in an endearing kind of way and captivating eyes and strong-looking arms and—This is what Magnus meant by not being able to ignore his feelings.

Despite how good Magnus would say Alex looked today, the Slytherin boy didn’t feel like that. His mind was stuck on Conall not kissing him yesterday after they came back from Hogsmeade. It seemed trivial when he put it like that and he felt a bit stupid for paying it that much attention. But the thing was that Conall seemed to have no qualms to kiss him earlier that day and that he had done something like that several other times as well. Most times, Conall was very sweet and affectionate, he took every opportunity to kiss Alex at least on the cheek. Yet some other times Alex could be flirting with him so hard and get nothing more than a hug out of him.

Maybe he was just in a bad mood? That wouldn’t explain yesterday though. He had been with Conall the whole day and nothing bad had happened. No matter what kind of excuse Alex came up with to explain his boyfriend’s behavior, nothing made sense. Nothing fit quite right and everything felt like exactly what they were- excuses.

What was more was that when he was going over everything that had happened yesterday, one of those things was that he switched to male and his mind would just not move on from that. Could it really be that Conall wasn’t as affectionate just because he was male at the time?

He pushed the thought out of his mind and tried to focus on his breakfast. He shouldn’t worry this much, Conall was a good kid, he shouldn’t get this worked up just because he didn’t get a simple kiss. It must have been a coincidence.

Alex’s eyes landed on Magnus opposite him who looked tired. He said he had stayed up late doing an assignment for Potions and it showed. He was poking at his eggs like his mind was a thousand meters away and his hair was messier than usual- not that it wasn’t messy on good days. Merlin knows that boy’s hair does not behave and always looks just a little bit puffy. It was kind of endearing, honestly, and Alex always thought it was cute.

I wonder if Magnus would have acted like Conall if we were dating, he found himself thinking absentmindedly and immediately scolded himself. What are you doing? Why are you thinking that? You have a boyfriend and it’s not Magnus.

Still, Alex’s eyes somehow found their way to Magnus’s lips. They look soft…

“Anyway, since Halfborn’s birthday is coming up, I thought we’d throw him a party!” Mallory said excitedly, snapping Alex out of his thoughts (thank Merlin for that). She was smiling widely, waving her hands around for emphasis even though she was holding a fork with food on it in one.

Halfborn, after he took a moment to admire his girlfriend, spoke. “You really don’t have to do that, guys.” Yes, the idea of a pasty sounded amazing, and normally he would be all over it, but he didn’t want his friends to get in trouble for throwing him a party. (Where would they even throw it?)

“Bullshit,” Mallory said simply. “This is your final year at Hogwarts, you deserve a birthday party and as your girlfriend I’ll throw you one whether you want it or not.” Mallory was waving the piece of sausage on her fork in front of his face and Halfborn gave into the fiery look his girlfriend was giving him.

“Alright, we can throw a party. But where will we do it? And when?”

“On your birthday, at eight, at…” Mallory trailed off, trying to come up with a place where they could have a party without anyone finding out.

“Oh, I know just the place!” T.J said. “It’s in the left corridor of the seventh floor, opposite that tapestry of someone trying to teach trolls ballet.”

“There’s nothing there,” Halfborn said. He passed by that tapestry (who would try to teach trolls ballet?) often and he didn’t remember there being a door opposite it.

“There is if you know how to look for it,” T.J said with a cheeky smile. “Mallory and I can go early to set things up. You just need to come and walk in front of the wall three times thinking ‘I want to go to Halfborn’s party’.”

The Ravenclaw didn’t stop getting questioning looks from his friends but it didn’t seem to deter his happy mood. They decided to trust in what he said- after all, they lived in a magical castle with ghosts and talking portraits. Nothing was that far off the realm of possibility.

And it wasn’t. The room was really there, just like T.J had said. On the third time Magnus walked past the spot on the wall T.J had specified a door appeared, simply fazing into existence like it had always been there.

“Okay, that’s awesome,” Percy said from behind him. Annabeth and him had offered to help Magnus carry snacks from the kitchens (the room couldn’t make food, as T.J had told them). The green-eyed boy looked at the door in wonder and Magnus couldn’t blame him; it was pretty cool.

Next to him, Annabeth was studying the door with a calculating eye. Ever the Ravenclaw, her curiosity about how the room worked was evident in her grey eyes. “I wonder if there’s something like this in Ilvermorny,” she muttered, more to herself than to either of them.

Inside, the room was a spacious living room with two L shaped couches forming a square around a coffee table. Balloons flew close to the ceiling and garlands adorned the walls. There was a small pile of presents at one corner and the rest of their group was already there.

“Put the food there and get ready, Halfborn is coming any minute now!” Mallory told them as she pointed at the coffee table. She was practically bouncing from her excitement and the moment they had put down all the food on the table she turned off the lights.

Halfborn found the room quickly enough. The door appeared on the wall again – or at least its outline, Magnus couldn’t see clearly in the dark- and he opened it. The moment it was closed behind him the lights were back on and confetti cannons went off. Everyone was yelling “Surprise! Happy birthday!”

Even if technically it wasn’t a surprise since he knew about the party but hey, the thought is what counts.  

“The birthday boy is here!” Mallory announced loudly and run over to Halfborn to put a magical party hat on his head that said ‘birthday boy’.

“Do I have to wear this?” he asked with a smile as he touched the hat experimentally.

“No hat, no kisses,” Mallory said in deathly seriousness. “Now, let’s get this part started!”

The room was filled with loud woops and yes’s as Mallory put on some music from her magically modified phone.

“Happy birthday, big guy,” Alex said as he punched Halfborn in the arm. “How does it feel being a year closer to being an old man?”

“Better than being a little shit,” the giant of a boy shot back with a laugh. He got Alex under a headlock and ruffled his hair as the Slytherin tried to escape. Halfborn was having none of that kept Alex securely trapped under his armpit. “Smell the wrath, smell the wrath!”

Mallory and Conall laughed affectionately at their significant others along with the rest of the group. Once Halfborn decided he had had enough and let Alex – who now had a rat’s nest as hair- go the rest came forward to wish him happy birthday. Their wishes ranged from polite, like Sam’s and Annabeth’s, to something a dudebro from a highschool flick would do, like T.J’s and Magnus’s.

And what better to start their party than icebreaker games? (Which they technically didn’t need to do since they were already friends, but it was fun, so who cared?) They gathered around the coffee table and munched on all the junk food Magnus had managed to get from the kitchen (a task that wasn’t so difficult given how much the house elves loved to help out). The first game they decided to play was two truths and one lie, which was… interesting to say the least. By the time they got bored of the game they were all high with sugar and had learned things about each other that they would rather not know (like, seriously, who likes eating blue food, Percy?)

A currently drunk on soda Mallory jumped up from her seat on Halfborn’s lap and announced that they should dance. She didn’t leave Halfborn much thought about it, dragging him up with her by the wrist.

“Woohoo!” she yelled as she threw her arms around Halfborn’s neck (it’s harder than it sounds with how tall he is). Magnus made a mental note to himself not to let Mallory near sugar again as he moved to the empty space of the room that they were using as a dance-floor.

Except he couldn’t dance. Like, at all. That lead to him just awkwardly swaying to the music off to the side, neither confident enough in his abilities nor high enough on sugar to go and dance likes a proper human being.

“Oh, come on, cousin!” Annabeth said as she dragged him with her to dance. “Dance!”

“You can’t dance either,” Magnus said because… he had eyes, Annabeth couldn’t dance that well either.

“Doesn’t matter. We can still be the awkward nerds at a party together!” To prove her point she took both his wrists in her hands (wow, who knew his wrists were so small?) and started randomly moving around, not seeming to care at all about the beat. Magnus felt like a child pretending to waltz after watching a Disney movie (he may be guilty of doing that) but he had to admit it was fun.

Soon enough he was taking his own liberties with their dance, twirling his cousin around and somehow working in a dab in there just to be ironic. Percy joined their little circle too and he seemed to enjoy their goofy, over-the-top dancing as much as Magnus.

“Let’s do a wave!”  he said excitedly and that’s just what they did. All of them ended up holding hands and trying to mimic a wave with varying degrees of success. Conall sucked at it, Magnus wasn’t half bad and Percy freaking owned it. Like, seriously, did he have no bones, how did he move his arms like that?

Their wave then somehow morphed into a conga line and they moved around the room like a little train, dancing the conga to ‘Shape of you’. It would have been a lot of fun if Alex didn’t happen to be walking right behind him. His hands were on Magnus’s shoulders and he would bump into his back every time someone in the front of the line would stumble. Each time Alex would let out a small ‘oof’ and an airy laugh and Magnus would feel his heart dance the conga with them.

Stop crushing on Alex, stop crushing on Alex, he kept repeating to himself. He has a boyfriend, it doesn’t matter how nice his hands feel or how good his laugh sounds or how pretty his messy hair is.

Unknown to Magnus, Alex was having a similar reaction to him. Every time he bumped into the blonde his heart would beat just a little bit too loud and it left him baffled as to why. Come on heart, why are you acting like that? And why does Magnus smell so nice?

A smaller detail Alex would only notice when thinking back to the party but he never had quite the same reaction when Conall bumped into his back.

One song later they were back to dancing separately. Mallory and Halfborn were having fun trying to shove as many couple-y dance moves into their dance as possible and bursting out laughing with everyone. Sam was, surprisingly enough, beat-boxing to T.J who was trying, and failing, to pull of some break dance move. Magnus kept dancing with Annabeth and Percy and when Percy decided to twirl him out he saw Conall and Alex dancing.

It was more like they were dancing at each other rather than with each other. They stood close but they didn’t really touch and there was a sense of awkwardness between them so thick you could cut it with a knife. Even so, Magnus and his dumb mind couldn’t help but think back to last year’s Halloween party and the dance he and Alex had shared. He felt a smile tug at his lips at the memory. They had acted so over-the-top it was ridiculous but so, so much fun. Alex had even French-dipped him at one point and Magnus could remember marveling at how he was strong enough to hold him up.

If getting lost in the memories wasn’t enough, Magnus was stupid enough to imagine the same dance in a world in which they dated. Alex lead him during their dance, giving him small smiles, and when he French-dipped him he leaned in closer and Magnus could feel his breath on his lips and then he—

Nope, nope, stop. Stop thinking about it Magnus, it’s not gonna happen. Alex was in a relationship and even if they broke up, Magnus felt bad wanting it to happen. It’s just a crush, just get over it.

“You like him, don’t you?” Perry asked, bringing Magnus crashing back to the present. The taller boy had linked all their arms together and they were doing a weird shuffle-dance.

“What? No, no, why would you think that?” Magnus instantly denied the accusation and, to his defense, it would have sounded much more convincing if Magnus wasn’t blushing redder than the Gryffindor banner and if his voice was an octave higher.

“Well, Annabeth told me,” Percy started and twirled Annabeth around. “Plus, you’re even more obvious than Nico and he completely ignored Will for a week because he couldn’t get a word out around him.”

“Who’s Nico?”

“Percy’s younger cousin,” Annabeth explained when she twirled back and took Magnus’s hand again.

“Okay, but even if I,” Magnus dropped his voice so no one would hear what he was about to say (not that they had a chance to over the music), “like him, he has a boyfriend. I can’t do something even if I was brave enough to make a move. So please don’t bring it up again.”

The couple frowned (huh, even their expressions were similar), probably with pity at Magnus’s situation. Thankfully, they dropped the topic and started a random discussion about how Percy’s younger cousin managed to get in a fight with a student in Ilvermorny, end up in the infirmary and get a crush on a student who was helping out there because he wanted to be a healer. According to Percy “Nico’s idea of flirting was to get into as many fights as possible so he could talk to Will in the infirmary”.

After they danced for a bit more until their legs felt way too sore, they sat back down on the two couches. It didn’t take long before whatever conversation they were having was disrupted by T.J loudly asking “Who wants to play truth or dare?”

So, naturally, they ended up playing truth or dare. Eight teenagers on a sugar-rush and truth or dare shouldn’t mix. Halfborn dared Percy to sing an ‘I want’ Disney song believing that the other boy would be too embarrassed or mess up a lot. The joke was on Halfborn because Percy sang a beautiful ‘How far I’ll go’ from Moana.

“And it seems like it’s calling after me so come fiiiiiind me! And let me knoooow, what’s beyond that line, will I cross that line?” Percy had decided to jump onto the coffee table and pretend it was his boat as he held a bottle of soda instead of an oar. “The line where the sky meets the sea, it caaaaaaals me! And no one knoooows how far it goooes! If the wind in my sail on the sea stays behiiiiind me, someday I’ll knooow how far I’ll goooooooo!”

T.J was dared to chug down a full bottle of Coca Cola and quickly made the loudest burp Magnus had ever heard in his life. Mallory was made to sit on Halfborn’s lap for three rounds by a smug T.J and the group learned that Conall slept with a nightlight until fifth grade. Sam was to put a pillow under her shirt and pretend to be Quasimodo (she slipped in some Disney songs too). Halfborn had to sit still as Mallory made him French-braid his hair.

“Magnus,” Halfborn turned to him with an evil glint in his eye. “Truth or dare?”

“Dare.”

A smug smile spread across Halfborn’s face. “I dare you to sing ‘Treat you better’.”

Magnus’s first thought about that was that it was way too easy for a dare that came from Halfborn. Normally the seventh-year would have him eat owl droppings or run around the school butt-naked – singing a song seemed pretty anticlimactic.

That thought was tossed out of the window when Magnus realized what the song was about and cursed internally. Of course Halfborn would tease him about having a crush.

Knowing that there was no way to get out of it, Magnus got up with a heavy sigh and climbed up on the coffee table, which had apparently become their singing stage.

“I won't lie to you. I know he's just not right for you,” Magnus starts singing, looking very much like a lifeless scarecrow than an actual person singing.

“Boo!” Halfborn yells from the couch. “If you’re going to sing do it properly! With passion!”

Magnus sighed once more and picked up a bottle from the table to use as a microphone. He rubbed the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath to prepare himself for the singing he was about to do.

“I won’t lie to you. I know he’s just not right for you.” This time Magnus sang like he was alone in the shower; loud, overly dramatic and far off key. It didn’t seem to deter his audience that started cheering him on.

“And you can tell me if I’m off, but I see it on your face when you say that he’s the one that you want.”

Alex was more than ready to hear Magnus sing some weepy (if nice) pop song but it was when Magnus sang that particular line that it hit a bit too close to him. Conall came to his mind immediately along with all the doubts about his boyfriend that he had tried to shove down and forget.

He… liked Conall. He was fun to hang around with even if he could be a bit nervous at times. He liked kissing him too, it was nice, although there were much less fireworks than YA authors would have you believe, which made sense. Kissing Conall wasn’t the end of the world but it wasn’t bad either. It was…okay.

But there had obviously been an awkward air with their relationship lately and Alex wasn’t sure if it just meant that had gotten out of the honeymoon stage or if there was something actually wrong with their relationship.

The kiss Alex had been expecting but never got came back to him along with every other time Conall had left him hanging, the overwhelming majority of them when Alex was a ‘he’. Could Conall feel differently about him as a boy? Was he even attracted to boys?

Alex was brought out of his train of thought by Magnus’s loud singing as he reached the chorus. By this point, they had all joined in with the blonde, singing the parts of the song that they all knew.

“I know I can treat you better. BETER THAN HE CAN!” As their whole group sang that line, heads thrown back to be more dramatic and huge dumb smiles on their faces, Alex’s eyes fell on Mallory still sitting on Halfborn’s lap. In a moment of inspiration, Alex moved to sit on Conall’s lap as well. The boy halted in his singing in surprise but continued quickly, though much calmer.

It should have calmed Alex worries that Conall didn’t seem awkward about his sitting on his lap, except it was wrong. Alex had sat on Conall’s lap plenty of times, he knew Conall’s response by heart. Conall would put his arms around his waist and give him a kiss, whether it was on the lips, the cheek or the neck didn’t matter. Conall would do the same thing time and again without fail. He had done the same thing when they had breakfast before heading to Hogsmeade!

Yet now he didn’t. Now his arms stayed by his side, he didn’t pull him closer, he did nothing. He felt stiff underneath Alex, and not in the way you’d expect a young boy whose significant other was sitting on them to be stiff. He felt nervous, weird. Alex knew that even if he had sat on someone who was purely a friend, like Mallory or T.J or even Annabeth, they wouldn’t have been this uncomfortable.

Unwilling to admit to himself that something was wrong, Alex allowed himself hope and leaned in to kiss Conall. He could taste the snacks they had eaten on his lips and smell the shampoo he used.

Alex’s heart sank to his stomach. Conall had barely kissed back, even when Alex kissed more eagerly.

On top of the table, Magnus felt a sharp pain in his heart when he saw Alex kiss Conall, sitting comfortable in his lap. “Tell me why are we wasting time on all your wasted crying when you should be with me instead. I know I can treat you better, better than he can.”

Always the stubborn one, Alex had kept on pretending nothing was wrong. Conall’s cold demeanor hadn’t changed and he still seemed stiff around her. Coincidently, Alex had a lot of male days lately and she couldn’t stop herself from making the connection between the two things.

It had been a few days since Halfborn’s party and Alex was female today. She arrived at the Hall of the Slain and found most of her friends already there. Her pink skirt (that probably went against school regulations) shifted against her legs as she walked to their table and sat down.

“Morning, guys. She/ her today,” she greeted them. Maybe the skirt would had been enough to tell her gender but she had worn a skirt plenty of times when she was male too (some days you just couldn’t wear pants).

Things went by normally, just friendly banter and T.J’s story about a dream he had where a goldfish with a beard, an eye-patch and a captain’s hat drove a steampunk submarine that flew. Conall didn’t take long to come and he sat down with a happy greeting.

“Good morning! She and her?” he asked as he smiled at her.

“Yep!” Alex answered, praying she sounded natural. What happened next would prove or disprove her suspicions.

Then Conall leaned in and did what Alex had wanted him to do these past few days. He leaned closer and kissed Alex on the lips and it was natural and sweet and like every other time Conall had kissed her, if a bit stiff.

Alex kissed back and did her best to act like everything was normal, like her heart hadn’t sank to the depths of her stomach when Conall kissed her like he always did.

Or, well, like he always did whenever Alex wasn’t a boy.

She went through the rest of the day laughing and joking with her friends and holding hands with Conall. She ruffled Magnus’s hair and whispered with Mallory at History of Magic and threw food at Halfborn at lunch.

Yet, needless to say, she felt horrible. The knowledge that Conall acted different around her when she was a ‘he’ made her feel like she worms in her stomach that constantly moved around and made her sick. She wanted to throw up and curl up in a ball under her blankets and never come out again.

Every time Conall kissed her, every time he did what she had wanted him to do these past days, she was reminded that he wouldn’t do the same thing if Alex was a boy that day. The thought that he didn’t like a part of her brought back memories of how Alex had felt when she was still living at with her parents and a part of her was something to be ashamed of.

This whole situation made her feel like a fourteen-year-old child again, kicked out of home because she wanted to be a girl sometimes. Vulnerable, alone, helpless. She shouldn’t have been scared to comfort Conall about this, she should have been straightforward and blunt, but…

So this is how she ended up here, waiting outside a Transfiguration classroom. The lesson ended soon enough (thank Merlin or else she might have just left) and Magnus’s blonde head walked out of the classroom. Alex swiftly dove into the sea of students and tugged at Magnus’s sleeve. The Hufflepuff turned to her in surprise, jumping up a little in a kind of adorable fashion because he was startled. Alex pulled him with her as she walked down the corridor and took a left turn.

When they were finally in a quiet place that not a lot of people came by, Alex let him go. It must have been pretty obvious in her face how distraught she felt because Magnus went straight to the point.

“Alex? Are you okay? Is something wrong?”

Alex nodded and sighed deeply. Her arms were wrapped around her front as if she was hugging herself and the effect was rather jarring for Magnus. It made the otherwise brave and energetic girl look small and scared, uncertain. “Yes. I…need to talk to you about something important. A… about Conall.”

Oh, BOI, the next chapter is going to be good! I'm going to give you a clue about what;s going to happen because I like torturing you *starts singing and dancing Kiss Kiss Fall in Love* Okay, wow, I'm not good at being subtle.

[imwastingmylifeinhere]

Magnus Chase and the Obligatory Hogwarts AU Ch17

Hey! So this chapter was supposed to have the first task as well but I split it because it became way too big.... by that I mean over 13 thousand words, so yeah. Still, I hope you enjoy this chapter and the fact that this fic will probably bigger than 20 chapters.

The reveal of the three Champions concluded the dinner and students of both Hogwarts and the visiting schools made their way to their rooms as quickly as possible to get changed into their costumes for the Hufflepuff Horror Party. Magnus as well as the other two Champions left the Hall of the slain through the back door so they would get swarmed by the students.

Helga had left as soon as they were in the hallway, but Raphael stayed behind to speak to Magnus.

“I’m Raphael,” the boy introduced himself, offering a hand to Magnus. He seemed to realize that he didn’t really need to say his name since everybody in the Hall of the Slain had already heard and he blushed. “Ah, but I guess you heard my name already when they called me up.”

Magnus took Raphael’s hand and smiled at the other boy. “Yeah, I did. I’m Magnus, but I guess you already know that.”

The French boy laughed. “It’s an honor to compete in the Tournament with you, mon ami.” He seemed to realize something he said too late again and became all flustered again. For someone who looked so confident he surely acted awkward. “Ah, can I call you that? Friend?”

Magnus nodded. “Sure.” They turned around a corner and kept walking together since the Beauxbatons students stayed in the same general direction the Hufflepuff common room was in. “I guess I’m happy to compete with you too, though I’m still in shock.”

The Beauxbatons Champion laughed again. “Yeah, I know what you mean. I’m excited and – how you say?- scared out of my brain at the same time.”

“Mind,” Magnus corrected. “And yeah, me too. I’m not even sure why I got picked!” Magnus sighed, running a hand through his hair. “But I guess I can’t really claim there was an error in the Goblet, huh?”

“Afraid not, mon ami. You seem like a good person, though? Maybe that’s why?” Raphael might have been trying to help but he didn’t sound very convinced himself.

“You can’t think of something better, huh?” Magnus deadpanned.

“No, I don’t know you enough yet,” the boy admitted. They neared a corner in the hallway and Raphael stopped walking. “I should go get dressed. See you at the party!”

Magnus was one of the last people to come back to the Hufflepuff common room and he was immediately swarmed by other students, all of the excited to congratulate the member of their house that had been picked as Champion. After a heck of a lot of “Congrats, mate!” and pats on the back – some people even asked him if he wanted to go to the Yule Ball with them- Magnus managed to get into his room and get into his costume.

Needless to say, it took him quite some time to get that thing on.

It looks so much simpler on the show, Magnus couldn’t help thinking as he managed to pull one of the leg pieces on. He let himself glance at the mirror for a moment and he cursed the friends he had. Like, yeah, he really wanted to dress up as the Paladins of Voltron, but did they have to give him the blue suit?

When he arrived at the Hall of the Slain his friends were waiting outside for him in all their primary-color glory.

“Magnus! Congratulations!” T.J yelled as he threw himself at Magnus and hugged him.”I can’t believe you were chosen as Champion!”

“Yeah, I can’t either,” Magnus managed to choke out from T.J’s tight hug. “T.J, you’re crushing my ribcage.”

T.J let go at once. “Oops, sorry.” He was the green Paladin and the color suited him well.

Just as the pressure from T.J’s hug of doom disappeared, Mallory punched him in the shoulder (which was perfectly in character for her and really out of character for someone dressed as the kind yellow Paladin.)

“Ow, what was that for?”

“Halfborn told me to do it. He asked me to contact him immediately after dinner to tell him who’s Champion and he almost didn’t believe me when I told him. He also said, and I quote,” Mallory cleared her throat and spoke in a ridiculously deep voice, “‘Alright! My boy’s gonna kick some ass!’”

“Or have my ass kicked, Magnus muttered.

“Hey, don’t be like that!” Alex said. “You’re totally going to kick Helga’s ass. It’ll be easy.” Alex smirked and Magnus tried to phantom how he looked this good in red (or any other color for that matter).

And speaking about color, Magnus was this close to hitting his head against a table when they were discussing which one of them should get which color and he ended up with blue and Alex with red. Blue and red. They were pretty much cosplaying Klance! Magnus regretted all the fanfiction he had read at that moment.

“I’ll have to agree with my brother,” Sam said, looking great in her black Paladin suit. “You’ll wipe the floor with that girl, I’m sure you can do it.”

After how she had treated Alex and how he talked about Sam, Magnus really wanted to beat her to the ground, and he’d try, but whether he succeeded was a different thing.

“Anyway, enough talking, let’s go party!” T.J dragged his friends inside the Hall of the Slain and they immediately felt special. This year’s theme was space and they fit right in with their Defenders-of-the-Universe costumes.

The sky was clear tonight and the enchantment on the ceiling of the Hall was expanded to the rest of the walls so it looked as if you were in the middle of space. The dance floor was enchanted so it had zero gravity and who ever stepped inside would flow around (considering they stayed inside the dance floor. They would just fall down if they floated too far out.) Little planets flew above the students heads and a lot of people were trying to catch one of them.

The buffet table was decorated similarly, with lots of edible glitter, a milky-way looking punch and cupcakes made to look like planets (a kid dressed as a monster was having way too much fun biting into one that looked like the earth). Magnus saw Raphael and the boy with the dirty blonde hair from yesterday that must have been Raphael’s boyfriend at the buffet table. He probably was his boyfriend considering they were dressed like Ladybug and Chat Noir and Raphael, who was dressed as Ladybug, was trying to get the other boy – Louis – to eat one of the star-shaped cookies.

“Non, I’m not eating that,” Magnus heard Louis say. “It has too much glitter.”

“S’il vou plait, mon cher. I promise it’s good.” Raphael’s puppy eyes must be really good because Luis blushed and gave in.

“I hate you sometimes,” the blonde grumbled around the cookie.

“I know,” Raphael smirked and kissed him on the cheek.

Magnus smiled a little as he saw the scene in front of him. He was stuck in between being glad for the two Beauxbatons students for being happy together and feeling jealous he couldn’t have the same with Alex.

Well, maybe you would if you gave it a try and asked him out, one half of his brain said.

But he’ll probably reject you and then you won’t be friends like before, the other half of his brain said.

Weren’t you the one who told Conall that it wouldn’t happen like that if he was mature about it? Follow your own advise, you little piece of-

Magnus was snapped out of his weird mental fight by Alex. The Red Paladin grabbed him by the arm and dragged him to the dance floor.

“Come on, I want to try out the zero gravity!” Alex said, a big smile on his face and Magnus felt those damned butterflies in his stomach. Should he go and see a doctor for that? Maybe he could get them removed.

“Alex, I’ll get dizzy, you know that. Why aren’t you dragging T.J with you?” Magnus wouldn’t get dizzy (hopefully), that was a blatant lie, but his face was heating up so rapidly it would soon rival Alex’s suit in color.

“Because you’re my space ranger partner,” he said with a cheeky grin. Magnus’s face turned even redder, if that was possible, and he cursed himself once more for all that fanfiction.

He scowled at Alex. “I hate you.”

Alex smiled. Damn butterflies. “I know.”

The two of them drifted into the air the moment they set foot on the dance floor. Magnus had flew on a broom before, but simply floating on your own, with no clue how to move properly and with no feeling of control was something else entirely. Students bounced around him as if they were in one of those bouncing castles for children’s parties. Alex was still holding Magnus’s hand and he didn’t tell him to let go.

They moved their arms around hopelessly, trying to figure out how they were supposed to move. After some fidgeting about and bumping into other people who were equally as lost as them, they figured out that they simply needed to shift their weight around to move.

“Hey, Magnus!” Alex said as he (unfortunately) let go of Magnus’s hand. “Look at this!” He rocked back and forth a bit before doing a somersault in the air.

“Oh, nice! Okay, check this out.” Magnus shifted his weight around a bit until he was falling to the ground as if he was in a pool and diving to the bottom. He bent his legs and kicked as hard as he could, sending himself flying to the ceiling.

Alex was about to do another trick when a student bumped into his back, sending him crushing into the person in front of him. And who was that person?

Magnus. Because his luck is rotten and apparently someone enjoys seeing him suffer.

Alex was pressed flush against Magnus’s chest. Magnus had put his hands in front of him in the few seconds before Alex hit him and he ended up holding onto the other. Their faces mere centimeters apart and they could feel each other’s breaths on their lips when they breathed. Maybe it was just Magnus’s imagination but he could swear Alex’s cheeks were red.

Magnus wasn’t sure if he was breathing anymore. He wasn’t sure if anything was happening anymore. Was he still alive, was his heart still beating, was there still people around him? The world could have ended by a radioactive explosion at that moment and he honestly wouldn’t have noticed.

There was something mesmerizing about Alex eyes- hell, about his whole being! He could entrance Magnus by doing absolutely nothing. And now, with him so close, Magnus could think about anything else, he could see or hear anything else and he didn’t really care about that either. All he could see, smell and feel was Alex and he would gladly drown in that feeling.

The momentum of the student that bumped into Alex caused them to start moving backwards and neither of them noticed when they had drifted too close to the dance floor’s edge. The moment their bodies floated outside of the zero gravity zone they came crushing to the ground.

“OW!”

Alex landed on top of Magnus and wow, if he thought just being so close to him was overwhelming actually feeling his weight on him was something else entirely.

He absentmindedly realized that people were staring at them. Even when you’re a wizard you don’t see two people dressed as your OTP on top of each other in a public space like in a bad romcom. Magnus would admit he had thought of Alex on top of him like this before (he’s a teenage boy, okay, cut him some slack), but so many people watching them was never involved in his fantasies.

As wonderful as it was to let everything else disappear and pay attention only to Alex, the moment had to end. Alex got off him quickly, moving almost like an acrobat. “Sorry,” he muttered, that weird red hue still on his cheeks as he offered Magnus a hand to get up. Magnus took it, feeling that weird spark of electricity run through his spine, both exhilarating and frightening at the same time.

“It’s okay, it was an accident,” Magnus replied. He realized a moment too late he hadn’t let go of Alex hand and he swiftly pulled back his hand, resting it on his bayard at his hip.

“Ah, how adorable,” Magnus heard a voice say behind him and he knew exactly who it was before turning around. The look of unadulterated loathing on Alex’s face and that heavy accent were enough clues.

“What do you want?” Alex asked as Magnus turned around. The Durmstrang Champion was dressed as the Red Queen and Magnus could imagine her very easily commanding her soldiers to cut off someone’s head. The top of her dress had a sweetheart neckline (the only sweet thing about that girl) and her black, white and red skirt swept the floor. There was a crown on her head and Magnus wanted to make her eat it.

“Now, why are you being so tense with me, Alexander?” Magnus saw Alex flinch next to him when his full name was mentioned, but he kept looking at Helga with the same steely glare. “I thought we had a history together.”

“That’s exactly why, bitch.” Alex was practically growling at her at this point and Magnus was glad that the bayard at his hip couldn’t turn into an actual sword. He would probably skewer Helga without hesitation and Magnus would let him do it.

“Tch, thc, didn’t your parents teach you shouldn’t talk like that? How are you going to get yourself a girlfriend if you talk to them so badly.” Helga shot a glance to Magnus and took him in from head to toe. Having her eyes on him made his spine tingle, but not in the same way Alex’s did. He didn’t feel warm and nauseous in a good way but more like he had been dumped in a pool of ice cold water and he was definitely nauseous not in a good way. “But maybe you have your sights set on something else.”

Alex’s eyes darkened. His voice was cold when he spoke. “If you don’t have something to say, leave now.”

“I just wanted to meet my competition, is that so bad?” Helga had that stupid innocent look on her face and Magnus wanted to slap it off. “But well, I guess I was right when I said this is going to be an easy win. If the most capable to be Hogwarts Champion is a Hufflepuff I can imagine how useless everyone else must be.”

“And what’s that supposed to mean, your royal ugliness?” Magnus snapped at her. If there was one thing he hated were those stupid house stereotypes. Gryffindors are knights in shining armor, Slytherins are evil, Ravenclaws are nerds, Hufflepuffs were pushovers.

“Hufflepuff is the weakest house,” Helga said matter-of-factly. “It’s common knowledge.”

Magnus crossed his arms over his chest and looked her up and down. “And I assume you’re the best Durmstrang has to offer, huh? Not very impressive.” Helga glared at him, obviously angry and it made Magnus feel satisfied. “I suppose I might come in second place after the Beauxbatons Champion, he seemed like good competition. However, I have no doubt I can beat your sorry ass to the ground.”

A group of students had gathered around them again to watch the drama and they ohhhed after what Magnus said. Helga didn’t seem to like people being on the side of her opponent, but she kept her confident demeanor despite the deepening wrinkle between her brows showing that she was getting angrier and angrier.

“My my, is that how a Hogwarts student speaks to a lady?” She asked as she crossed her arms over her chest. “And here I thought the British were meant to be gentlemen.”

Magnus nodded his head and spoke in the most polite voice he had, the kind you use on grandmothers and school principals. “Oh, we are, I’m just not seeing any ladies to be polite to. I didn’t know trashcans had a gender.”

The students around them ohhhed again and egged the two Champions on because they were enjoying the show. Helga’s face turned red with anger as the students laughed at the insult Magnus hurled at her. Every instinct Magnus had was telling him to flee when he saw the glare Helga was sending him. I will crush you, her eyes seemed to say.

She closed the distance between them and got all up in his face. Magnus could see every fleck of her make-up and smell her sickly sweet perfume.

“I could show you how much better I am than you right now, but to be honest, it’s not worth the hassle,” she snarled at him, her voice sounding almost like the hiss of a snake. “I’ll just save my strength so I can mop the floor with your face in the first task even harder.”

Magnus smiled at her. “You can try, but the only thing they’ll clean off the floor will be your blood.”

Helga walked away, throwing her head over her shoulder. A much shorter girl with a blonde pageboy haircut dressed like Alice followed her, saying something in Swedish that Magnus didn’t understand.

Magnus was still looking at Helga leaving and he was cut by surprise when T.J threw himself at him, almost falling over (he had to tell him not to do that anymore). T.J had an arm around his shoulder and was squeezing him hard, possible-break-his-bones hard. Magnus’s heart was still beating like a drum after the conformation, adrenaline making his whole body buzz.

“You tell her! Man, I didn’t know you had it in you to speak like that!” T.J as he hugged him.

Magnus smiled at his friends. “I’ve spent so much time around you guys you’ve probably rubbed off on me.”

Alex pumped a fist in the air. “Yes! I knew I was a good influence.” They all laughed together, loud and happy.

“Just wait till the first task before you kill her,” Mallory said with a murderous glint in her eyes. She could be very competitive. “Make sure to kick her butt, Magnus!”

//////////////

The school was abuzz with preparations for the first task in the coming weeks. Hunding, the Keeper of the school grounds, could be seen constantly running up and down the school, trying to get everything ready on time. Rumors about what the task might be were spreading through the student body like a virus. A day didn’t pass by without someone claiming they had caught a glimpse of what the task might be. Magnus paid attention to those rumors at first but it quickly turned out they were little more than scenarios the students would make up.

At diner the day before the first task the Headmasters of the three schools gave speeches about the oncoming competition and how important fair play was (even if cheating was practically a tradition of the tournament). Magnus knew he should probably pay attention to what they were saying, but he couldn’t. He kept thinking of the Triwizard Tournament back at second year, all the dangerous, exciting tasks the Champions went through and how cool they all looked to his twelve-year-old eyes.

Now he could stop thinking that he was supposed to do those things tomorrow, that his friends, his entire school, hell, everyone who watched the Tournament from their homes and supported Hogwarts, they all wanted him to win. Sure, his magic was far from bad and he was could think on his feet, but he was by far the least athletic of the three Champions. He would probably topple over if they asked them to run and would make a fool of himself in front of everyone who watched the Tournament and disappoint his friends and the entire school and oh my god, what had he gotten himself into?

His heart thumped like a drum from anxiousness and he didn’t hear his friends talking to him.

“Magnus? Magnus, are you alright?” Sam asked from across their round table.

“What? Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.” Everything Magnus was thinking was somehow obvious in his voice and none of his friends missed it.

“Yeah, right,” Alex rolled her eyes. “Magnus, what’s wrong?”

“I’m just-“ Magnus groans, running his hands through his hair and making it 110% more messy. “I’m nervous about tomorrow. Actually no, not nervous, I’m scared shitless.”

There was a second of uncomfortable silence as the rest of the group wondered what to do to cheer up Magnus, who looked like he was at the verge of pulling his hair out. They kept sending each other panicked glances like “do something!”.

Mallory was the one who finally spoke up. “Hey, it’s all going to be alright, Magnus. It’s school competition, even if half the wizarding world watches it, I’m sure nothing bad will happen to you.”

“Actually , people have died at the Triwizard Tournament before,” T.J piped in. Mallory and Sam immediately glared at him and Alex elbowed him in the side. “Not helping,” she mouthed at him.

“BUT that was a long time ago, so there’s no way it’ll happen now!” T.J blurted out in attempts to correct his mistake. It didn’t seem to do much since Magnus still looked anxious. Unbeknown to his friends, it wasn’t just T.J’s comment about death that had Magnus almost hitting his head on the table, but also that little tidbit about half the wizarding world watching the Tournament. Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.

“Magnus,” Sam said calmly, snapping Magnus out of his thoughts with her soothing voice. “Everything is going to be alright. I’m sure you’ll do great.”

Before Magnus was able to say anything, tell them that it was exactly those expectations that were making him jittery, the bell rang signaling the end of dinner. All the students got up and headed to their respective common rooms and dormitories for the night. Magnus was following the flow of students through the halls when a hand grabbed him by the wrist.

Surprised, his eyes went up from the hand holding him to see Alex looking at him with an unreadable expression.

“Can I talk to you for a bit?” she asked him. Magnus nodded and she pulled him aside, away from the buzzing crowd of students.

Alex finally let go of his hand when they turned a corner and found themselves in a quiet hallway. Magnus could see his History classroom down the hall.

“What is it?” he asked Alex, curious about what it was she wanted to tell him.

Alex took a slow breath before talking. She seemed unsure, for some reason, but she still spoke with the same confidence in her voice that was so characteristically Alex. “It’s just,” she started, making wide gestures with her hands, her face as expressive as ever. She had that little furrow between her brows like every time she had something to say but couldn’t find the right words. “I know this will sound bad, and it probably won’t help any, but try to calm down about tomorrow.”

“Yeah, because why wouldn’t you be calm when you’re about to take place in a dangerous competition hundreds of people want you to win but you know you will definitely lose and disappoint them all?” Magnus snapped at Alex, voice cold and his tone so similar to when he talked with Helga. He immediately regretted how he talked the moment he spoke the last word and quickly apologized.

“I’m sorry.”

Alex gave him a small smile and took a step closer, letting her hand rest on Magnus’s shoulder in what she hoped was a comforting gesture. “No, I get it, you’re nervous. But it will be fine. Just try your best and give it your all and whatever happens happens.” Alex and Sam might not look alike but they had some things in common and how soothing or persuasive they could be was definitely one of them.

“If you don’t like the idea of people watching everything you do, just try and ignore them or think of one of us, we’ll all be cheering you on. Just,” her voice broke Magnus felt her hand on his shoulder squeezing him. Felling her presence there reassured him. For Alex, the feeling of Magnus’s body under her hand helped quell all the worries and fears that were buzzing around her head all day. “Try not to get hurt, alright?”

“Aw, you’re worried about me?” Magnus said in a jokingly in an attempt to lighten the mood. The thought that Alex was worried about him both made him feel a bit guilty and sent a warm feeling cursing through his body.

“Well, duh, of course I am!” Alex said matter-of-factly. She spent so much time lately as the first task drew nearer trying to calm down her worries for Magnus that his question sounded stupid to her. I’ve stayed up late worrying about you, you doofus! “Someone will have to take care of your sorry ass if you get hurt and I’m in no mood to feed you every meal or help you get dressed.”

As humorous as he tone was, it was obvious to both parties just how worried she was. It wasn’t so much that she wasn’t in the mood to care for an injured Magnus but that she would much rather she had no reason to do that in the first place.

“I’ll not to get hurt and inconvenience you then,” Magnus said, barely holding back his chuckles.

“You better,” Alex answered in a similar way, smile big on her face.

There was a moment of silence, Alex’s hand hovered over Magnus’s shoulder and her expression seemed conflicted, as if she couldn’t decided whether she should do something or not.

“In case I don’t see you before the task tomorrow,” she said quietly, so quietly Magnus wouldn’t have heard her if they weren’t alone in a quiet hallway.

Then, before he was able to process what was happening, Alex had thrown her arms around his lean frame. She hugged him close, so close their whole bodies were pressed together without an inch of space left between them. She hugged him like they were in a romantic drama and he was about to get on a plane for another country and she would never see him again. He could feel the heat radiating from her body, warm and comforting. Her arms around his body somehow managed to feel both strong and gentle and Magnus had never felt so at home and safe in someone’s arms since the last time his mother hugged him.

“Be careful and good luck,” she whispered in his ear, her voice soft, something for only the two of them to hear and no one else. Magnus wrapped his arms around her back and buried his face at the crook of her neck.

“I will,” he whispered back. The words were spoken like a promise and Magnus couldn’t think of something he had ever meant more.

Alex finally let go of him and pulled back, if only just barely. Their faces were so closed they could feel each other’s breaths on their lips. If either of them leaned in just a little bit their lips would touch and they’d be kissing. They both wanted to lean in and they both wished the other one would close the distance, but in the end neither one did.

“Goodnight,” Alex said in the same quiet voice before turning around and running back to the Slytherin common room, letting Magnus head to his dormitory and get ready for tomorrow’s task.

Yes, I love making couples dress up as my other ships. On that note, wHERE IS SEASON TWO OF MIRACULOUS? IT'S BEEN TWELVE YEARS (in Azgaban)! Anyway, next chapter is the First Task and BOI is shit going to go down >:3

[imwastingmylifeinhere]

Magnus Chase and the Obligatory Hogwarts AU Ch14

On ao3

Here it is, folks! Now, I assume you all understood what I was hinting at last chapter (I wasn't that subtle). Without further ado, let's go!

P.S. I'm sorry in advance.

“A…about Conall.”

“Conall?” Magnus didn’t quite understand what was happening, but simply seeing Alex like this had him worried. The way she was hugging herself, the way she stood, bloody hell, just the air she had about her right now reminded Magnus of himself two years ago. Frightened and miserable and without a clue of what he was supposed to do. The thought of Alex feeling like that didn’t bode well with him.

Alex nodded, tightening her arms around herself. “Yes. It’s…” Alex stopped talking immediately as a group of students turned the corner and walked by them. She followed them anxiously with her eyes as they passed by. Whatever she wanted to talk to him about, Magnus realized, she didn’t want other people to hear.

“Come on, let’s go somewhere quite,” he said and tugged at her sleeve to get her to follow him. Under normal circumstances he would have taken by the hand but Alex looked like she would break apart if he wasn’t careful.

He led Alex through the corridors and up the stairs until they were outside the Room of Requirement. He walked in front of the wall three times asking the room to give him a place where he could talk to Alex. Once the door appeared he opened it and walked inside. The room was simple with an old looking couch in front of a fireplace with a coffee table between them. It looked like part of the living room from Perthro.

“Come, sit down.” Alex sat next to Magnus on the couch without a word. She played with the flayed edges of a blanket that was lying on the couch and Magnus waited. He really wanted to ask her what was wrong and have her explain but part of him was afraid of what he’d hear so he waited for her to speak first.

“Conall had been acting weird lately,” Alex started. She wasn’t looking at Magnus, focusing instead at the blanket she was still playing with. Magnus’s mind immediately jumped to the worst possible scenarios. Conall and Alex had fought, Conall yelled at her, he said something that hurt her.

“He’d be really affectionate most days but other times he’d hardly hold my hand and…” Alex sighed in frustration and threw the edge of the blanket she had been playing with aside as if it would get rid of her problems. “I don’t know, I felt stupid about paying it this much attention at first. It might have been a coincidence, right?” It seemed as if the irritation with which she had spoken the last two sentences disappeared when she made that question. The “right?” came out sounding like a little kid that had just learnt Santa Claus wasn’t real and was desperately trying to convince themselves that he was even though they knew it was a lie.

“But the other day, when we went to Hogsmeade… things were fine at first, but after we got back and I asked him to kiss me he didn’t do it.” Magnus nodded and made a little ‘mm’ sound to show Alex he was paying attention. He remembered what Alex was talking about and he also remembered the pang of jealousy he had felt.

“It was weird and what he said then, about having to do homework he forgot, sounded like a bad excuse. Maybe I’m just overreacting, I thought, but…” Another deep sigh. Alex did that a lot as she spoke and every time she would run hand through her hair. It had turned into a mess, locks of green hair sticking up at odd angles. “He acted like that for the next few days too. It was like he was avoiding me. And I tried to figure out of something had happened for him to act like that, but…” Alex’s voice dropped. If it wasn’t for the silence in the room Magnus wouldn’t have heard what she said next. “All I could come up with was that I was male at the time.”

Magnus had to do a double take, not only to make sure he had heard in general but also to make sure he had heard right. “You think Conall acts different around you when you’re a boy?” He asks, knowing he sounds redundant and internally cringing at his own words. “He doesn’t seem like the type to do that.”

He really didn’t. Even with Magnus’s jealousy towards the other boy for dating Alex he had to admit he wasn’t a bad guy (then again Magnus was fine with everyone as long as they weren’t gits). He didn’t treat Alex different as a boy before they started dating, not as far as Magnus could remember.

“I know!” Alex snapped at him. It was the first time since they walked into the room that she had looked him in the eye. “I have experience with people who do what you didn’t think they would!”

She lowered her eyes again and focused on the fabric of her school trousers. “I just… I was waiting for him to do something these past few days, prove me wrong. I was waiting for him to kiss me like he normally does and he didn’t. He only did this morning,” Alex’s voice broke, “after I was a girl again.”

Once more, Magnus internally slapped himself for stating the obvious. “Have you talked to him about it?” It wasn’t like he had any real experience with relationships but everyone always said that communication is key.

Alex threw her head back in exasperation. “Ugh! No! That’s the problem! I know I should talk to him and I don’t think he’s doing this intentionally, not really, but…” Alex trailed off. She raised her legs onto the couch and hugged them close to her chest. Magnus had the sudden urge to wrap her in a blanket and bring her hot chocolate to make her feel better.

“I’m scared,” she said in a small voice. “This… it reminds me too much of how things were like before I came to Hogwarts.”

“…What were things like before?” Magnus asked hesitantly. He regretted his words immediately as Alex hugged her legs tighter. He spoke quickly, waving his hands frantically as he tried to take his words back. “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to! It’s okay!”

Alex shook her head. “No, it’s… it’s fine. It was like… I wasn’t me. I mean, I was, but I couldn’t act like that. Not around others. I didn’t really have friends at Durmstrang, more like people I knew that didn’t mind being around me. They were “friends” with me,” Alex made huge air quotes with her fingers, “but not actually me. Who they knew was “Alexander Fierro”,” air quotes once again, “heir to the Fierro fortune. I knew they wouldn’t act the same if they knew I wasn’t always a boy. I heard the things they said.”

Magnus didn’t need Alex to elaborate on that. He knew people could say really horrible things either because they didn’t understand or because they didn’t know any better. After he started questioning whether he didn’t liked only girls, every time someone would make a mean comment about homosexual or bisexual people it felt like a jab for him. The ignorant insults felt personal and they hurt.

“There was a girl at Durmstrang I was close to,” Alex went on. “We talked more and she didn’t seem to care about my family. I knew that she had a gay brother so I hoped she’d be more open than the others…”

X, she didn’t even want to think her name anymore, had told Alex about her brother and while she had said her parents weren’t so happy, it was obvious she loved her brother dearly. They wrote letters to each other frequently and she would always bring him up in conversation. It made Alex feel a lot more comfortable, the fact that she knew for sure there was someone more accepting.

“She wasn’t. I told her everything, I confided in her. I felt like a weight had been taken of my shoulders.” Alex let out a small, bitter laugh and Magnus only understood she was crying when her voice broke. “She took that weight and hit me on the head with it. She spoke with the teachers, contacted my parents, made me a complete joke at Durmstrang.”

Those last few months had been hell on earth for Alex. Every student would now refer to her as a girl and turn the word and the pronouns into sneers. They would give her ‘girly’ things like accessories, make up and skirts and throw slurs at her. They’d make sure she knew how little they liked her. Even the teachers would emphasize her full name whenever they talked to her and make sure they used boy even when they didn’t need to.

Honestly, spending the summer at the streets had almost been a relief after that.

“The moment the school year ended my parents told me that they don’t want me coming back to their house.” A sob shook Alex’s body and she wiped away the tears from her eyes furiously. “I mean, I was kind of expecting it, to be honest. I have no illusion that my parents ever cared about me. They would have thrown me out the moment Loki left me at their door if it wouldn’t have destroyed their image.”

Magnus scooted closer to Alex without a second thought and put an arm around her shoulders. He pulled her close and held her to his chest. He didn’t know what he should do to help Alex but his instincts screamed at him to hug her, as if it would shield her from the pain. If only.

Another thing his instincts told him to do was find the girl Alex told him about and have her and Alex’s parents endure horrible punishments. As tempting as the thought was, it would have to wait.

“So, yeah,” Alex said as she buried her face in Magnus’s sweater. “I’m scared. Mean words from strangers are one thing, but a person I’m friends with? Even worse, in a relationship with?” She shook her head and Magnus felt her hair rub against his clothes.

“I don’t want to lose the people I trust,” she said quietly.

Magnus tightened his arms around her. “You won’t. You’ll always have Sam, Mallory, T.J and Halfborn and me. You’re not getting rid of us this easily.”

Alex laughed weakly. She stopped hugging her knees in favor of hugging him back. “Damn it.”

Magnus chuckled. “I still think you should talk to Conall. If it’s just a misunderstanding then it’s better to get it out of the way as soon as possible. You don’t want a misunderstanding to ruin your relationship, you,” God, this hurt to say, “you two look good together.”

Even though I keep wishing it was me you kissed instead of him, Magnus thought but kept it to himself.

“And if you are right about Conall… well, same thing, you want to get it out of the way as soon as possible.”

Alex nodded. “Thank you,” she mumbled.

They fell into silence. Somehow Magnus had ended up propped against the arm of the couch with Alex hugging him and practically lying on top of him. Their breathing had seemed to synchronize and Magnus found himself playing with Alex’s hair. The silence was only broken by the crackling of the fire in the fireplace.

“Hey, Alex? Can I ask something?” He asked after a few moments.

“Hm?” Alex shifted so that she was supporting her weight by her elbows and she was looking straight at Magnus.

“Why did you ask me for advice? I’ve never been in a relationship myself, wouldn’t it be more logical to ask Mallory or even Sam?”

Alex didn’t speak for a moment as she herself seemed to be wondering why she did go to Magnus for help. She hadn’t thought about it much, honestly.

“I trust you,” she finally said. “You make me feel at peace.”

Alex was looking at him it the eye and Magnus could not look away. He never could with Alex’s eyes. They were just so captivating. It was as if an actual physical force wouldn’t let him look anywhere that wasn’t Alex Fierro’s eyes or face.

Her skin was darker than his. Not as dark as Sam’s, but definitely dark. It looked smooth and Magnus knew she probably had clay or paint stuck in her nails. Her hair was a mop of green locks that looked so fluffy and felt as good to the touch as you’d expect. Her eyes were pulls off molten gold and chocolate respectively and this close to her he could see the individual specks of color in them. Her mouth was slightly open, he lips full and pink and probably so smooth. Magnus knew exactly how they moved when she talked or when she laughed.

Alex was in a similar state. She hadn’t realized how right her statement was until she spoke the words and she couldn’t say they weren’t a hundred percent true. Magnus, with his dirty blonde hair and atrocious haircut, his geeky outbursts and eyes like the sky on a cloudy day had a calming effect on Alex she hadn’t noticed until now.

Weird, because her heart felt anything but calm now, beating a mile a minute as her eyes were somehow fixated on Magnus’s lips. They were a pink worthy of make-up companies yet a bit chapped from him biting on them all the time and they were moving closer and closer as they both leaned in almost instinctively.

I wonder what it’ll be like to kiss Magnus.

I wonder what it’ll be like to kiss Alex.

That was the last thought they both had before their minds just shut down. Nothing else mattered, not now. They were alone in the Room of Requirement, they were lying on a couch by a fireplace with an old frayed blanket covering their feet and they felt calm. They were in their own little personal bubble where time, or the lessons they were late to didn’t exist.

They didn’t matter. All that mattered at that moment, all they wanted to pay attention to was each other’s warmth, each other’s eyes and each one’s breath that ghosted over their lips as they moved closer.

They were a breath apart when the moment was shattered and their bubble popped by an especially loud crack in the fire as a log broke in half. Magnus and Alex jerked at their seats and snapped out of their dazes. Suddenly what they almost did dawned on them and all the things that didn’t exist in their bubble came crushing back,

“I, uh, um… sh-should we go to class?” Magnus stammered out as he sat up straight hurriedly. He moved so hastily that he accidently knocked foreheads with Alex. The Slytherin girl moved back with an “Ow!” and pressed her palm against her head. She tried to get off the couch as quickly as possible but her legs -  and Magnus’s for that matter- were tangled up in the old blanket and she lost her balance as she tried to stand up.

“Ugh.” She groaned as she fell off the couch on her knees.

“Are- are you alright?” Magnus asked. His hands dangled awkwardly in the middle between them, wanting to help her out but also feeling like he wanted to bolt out of here as soon as possible after that.

“Y-yeah, I’m fine.” Alex took Magnus’s hand and got to her feet. A second passed before they both realized they were still holding hands and when they did they jumped almost a meter away from each other.

“I,uh, should be going,” Magnus mumbled and pointed behind his back at the door. The poor boy looked like a fish out of water.

“Yeah, me- me too. Thank you for—for talking.”

They both made for the door. The room that had felt so comfortably warm just a moment ago was like an inferno right now. Or maybe it was just their burning cheeks. They were blushing so hard that their skin was redder than the Gryffindor common (and that said something).

They reached for the doorknob simultaneously and their hands met, sending a small lightning bolt down each of their spines. They pulled them back as fast as they could, holding them to their chests like they had just been burnt.

“Uh, um, after you,” Magnus said and gestured at the door.

“Th- thank you.” They both stepped out of the room and the door disappeared from the wall the moment it closed behind them. “I, uh… b-bye. See you around, I-I guess?”

“Y-yeah, b-bye.”

They stood where they were uncomfortable for a moment, looking everywhere but at each other. Alex was the first one to leave, soon followed by Magnus, and they both tried as hard as they could not to start running as fast as they could to their dorms.

At least not until they had turned the corner. One simple thought went through both their minds as they run to their respective lessons:

What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck

What the fuck did I just do?

//////////////

Alex hadn’t been able to pay attention to any of her classes for the rest of the day. Everything went by in a blur, whatever the teachers said went in through one ear and straight out the other. How was she supposed to pay attention to anything after that?

She had went to Magnus for advice, talked about her past with him and he helped her like the fucking ball of sunshine he was. The more she thought about it the more she realized she had meant what she had said. Magnus made her feel at peace, as cheesy as that may sound. They lay on the couch in silence and Alex had felt calm and comfortable.

And then she had to be an idiot and ruin everything! She had almost kissed him! Not only was Alex dating someone already, Magnus most probably didn’t even like her like that!

…Did she like him like that?

He certainly wasn’t hard on the eyes, that was for sure. Then again, she thought that for all her friends. She brought up Magnus’s face in her mind, his fluffy blonde hair and his clear eyes and that little dimple on his left cheek whenever he smiled and her heart decided to do a backflip. She felt her cheeks heat and she bowed her head, pretending that she was taking notes.

W-well, just thinking he’s pretty doesn’t mean I like him like that, Alex though in obvious denial. Images of the two of them popped into her mind. They held hands as they walked and laughed together, they cuddled on Alex’s bed in Perthro while watching movies and Magnus played with her hair, he kissed her sweetly on the lips at breakfast as goodmorning. With every new imaginary scenario her heart picked up the tempo and beat even louder.

The realization hit Alex like the Hogwarts Express and it took her a moment too long to realize that the lesson was over and she could leave for lunch. When she did, she quickly packed her stuff and run out the door to the closest bathroom. Thankfully, it was empty.

Alex splashed some water on her face and tried to calm her heart. She liked Magnus. She liked liked Magnus. She wanted to hold his hand and kiss him and cuddle and – oh, Merlin. Her heart skipped a beat every time she thought of that like she was in some stupid fanfic.

It dawned on her then that she had never reacted like that about Conall. She liked him, she didn’t hate the guy, but she had never felt like the main character of a crappy YA novel. Hell, looking back at it, what she had thought when Conall asked her out was ‘Sure, why not?’

She splashed water on her face again. Okay, let’s review: she realized she might have never liked her boyfriend romantically to begin with, said boyfriend had been treating her differently whenever she was male so she had to talk to him about that and she almost kissed one of her best friends who she does like romantically but who probably doesn’t feel the same way.

“Merlin’s underpants,” Alex muttered as she let her face fall in her hands. This sucks, why did people bother with feelings? She felt envious of T.J for being aro/ace and not having to deal with this shit.

Alex didn’t realize how long she stayed in the bathroom muttering curses under her breath. She only left when a first year student walked into the bathroom to see her repeatedly hitting her head against the wall. The little girl looked at her very confused but Alex just walked out of the bathroom and headed to the Hall of the Slain to bury her feelings in food.

Elsewhere in the castle, Magnus was having a similar breakdown. His Professor was drowning on and on about something but Magnus wasn’t paying attention to what- hell, he wasn’t even sure what class he was in right now.

I almost kissed Alex I almost kissed Alex I almost kissed Alex. His mind was like a broken record player, repeating that phrase over and over until it felt like it had been tattooed on his brain.

He had fucked up, he had fucked up so badly. Alex didn’t like him like that. They were friends, that’s why she had come to him for help. He liked being her friend and yet he might have completely destroyed everything with what he just pulled. Alex had come to him for advice and what does his brilliant brain tell him to do? Try and kiss her! Marlin, he’s an idiot.

Alex has a boyfriend, he reminded himself, even if they’re having problems right now, they might work things out. And even if they didn’t, even if they ended up breaking up, there was no way Alex liked him like that, not with how she had run as far away from him as soon as possible.

Magnus let his head fall on the desk behind his open book. Fortunately, he was sitting at the back of the room so the Professor wouldn’t notice that he wasn’t paying attention. He could feel the questioning stare from his fellow Hufflepuff dig into his back as he wondered what was wrong with Magnus and why he was lying on his desk like his life was over.

It might as well be.

Alex could hardly touch him after his little stunt. She fell on the ground trying to get off the couch and away from him for crying out loud! She snatched her arm back the moment they so much as touched! She probably found the idea of them dating repulsive.

Magnus groaned into his desk quietly. Nobody heard him, save for the boy that sat next to him and was still very confused as to what was happening with him.

“Mate, are you alright?” he asked in a hushed voice. The teacher didn’t notice, too busy explaining something or the other.

“Just leave me here to die,” Magnus mumbled back.

Even if he couldn’t see the other kid’s face he could feel the awkwardness roll of him in waves. There was a stiff little pat on Magnus’s shoulder, like a silent ‘hang in there’, and he didn’t disturb him for the rest of the lesson.

Magnus didn’t say or do anything until the bell rang and he could leave for lunch, he spent the rest of the class period to wallow in his own self pity. He walked to the Hall of the Slain as is a haze and all he wanted was to stuff his face with food until he was too full to think of anything else.

What he or Alex hadn’t realized was that they ate lunch together and so they would have to face each other. Magnus preferred to go through the Imperius curse.

When Alex walked into the Hall of the Slain and walked over to table 19 to see Magnus’s blonde head she wanted to turn around and run to the dungeons. Maybe she could talk some house-elf into giving her food so she wouldn’t have to face Magnus so soon after the realization. Her heart was doing a drum solo just at the sight of his blonde head and she wondered if she could beat up her heart until it stopped doing that.

Conall waved at her. “Hey, Alex!”

Great, now they had all noticed she was here. She couldn’t turn around to leave now. She made her way to their table and sat at the last free seat, which was, oh would you look at that, between Conall and Magnus. Honestly, was there some higher force or something that liked laughing at her pain and misery?

Saying that was the most awkward luch of their lives would be an understatement. With nine people sitting at the table they were already pretty crammed. Normally it wasn’t so bad, but when Magnus and Alex felt like lighting had gone through them every time their elbows hit accidently it was. They tried their best not to look at each other, especially not in the eye, and by the end of it they felt like it would have been less exhausting to write an exam.

The only good thing was that they had both come to a decision on how to deal with their troublesome feelings by the time they had to leave for afternoon classes.

It’s probably just a stupid crush, it’ll go away in like a week, Alex tried to convince herself as she made her way to the greenhouse for Herbology, refusing to accept how much like a lie that sounded even to her.

I should just try to forget about it, Magnus told himself as headed to Charms. I probably don’t stand a chance anyway.

If any of their friends knew the whole situation from both sides and were listening to their thoughts right now they would have face-palmed. Those idiots.

*hides under the bed* PLEASE DON"T KILL ME! Actually, you would be right to kill me, I would do the same in your place, but still!

[imwastingmylifeinhere]

Magnus Chase and the Obligatoty Hogwarts Au Ch18

On ao3

You know how I said last time that this is a big chapter> It's almost 9k. I hope you're happy, people. Anyways, please tell me what you thought of this because it took a lot longer than most chapters and I don't have that much experience with action scenes.

When breakfast ended the next day the three Champions were escorted out of the Hall of the Slain to get ready for the task as the rest of the students, teachers and people who had come to see the Tournament headed for the stands. They were almost at the door of a room Magnus hadn’t seen before when they noticed Raphael wasn’t with them.

“He must have stayed behind,” Headmaster Gilbert said with a sigh. “Could you go find him, monsieur Chase?”

“Yes, sir,” Manus nodded. He turned around and rushed back to the dining Hall, part of him glad that he got to postpone what he was about to take place in even if it was only a few minutes.

When he turned the corner to the Hall of the Slain he only saw Raphael and Louis there. The problem was that they weren’t simply talking, no, they were kissing. And pretty passionately too from what little Magnus managed to see before hiding behind the corner. Louis’s arms were wrapped around the other boy’s neck, buried in his hair. Raphael held the blonde by the waist and didn’t seem to want to let go.

“Just be careful, alright?” Magnus heard Louis say from where he was hidden. Or at least that’s what he assumed he said with his limited knowledge of French.

“Oui, oui. Don’t worry for me, mon cher, I’ll be alright,” Raphael said back in a lighthearted tone. There was something in how they spoke to each other that was enough for Magnus to know just how in love they were. The feeling seemed to seep into every word.

“You better be. I don’t want to take care of your injured ass.”

“Too bad, I’m sure you’d look great as a nurse.”

Magnus heard Louis splutter embarrassed and Raphael laugh, possible at his boyfriend’s blushing face. Magnus really wanted to sneak a peek to see if Louis was blushing like he thought, but this felt like a private moment and he didn’t want to intrude.

“You’re an idiot,” he heard Louis grumble.

“Oui, but you love me.”

There was a moment of silence and Magnus was pretty sure they were kissing again but he didn’t turn to look. He already felt weird enough listening in to their conversation.

“Raph,” Luis said quietly and Magnus had to strain his ears to hear. “There have been people who died at the Tournament. I know that was a long time ago, but Champions still get injured a lot. The last Beauxbatons Champion broke both her legs. I don’t want something to happen to you.”

“I know, mon cher. But I promise you to do my best to come back unscratched. Then we can go somewhere together to have a date, what do you say?”

Magnus heard what must have been Louis kissing Raphael on the lips before the blonde spoke again. “Alright. But I’ll make you carry me to the top of the astronomy tower as payback for all the worrying you’ve put me through. I swear I’ve lost five years of my life because of you.”

Raphael laughed. “Alright, I’ll give you a piggyback ride.” The sound of kissing again. “I should get going, the others must be waiting for me.”

Magnus quickly run to the end of the corridor, wanting to pretend he saw (well, heard) none of what just happened. It seemed to work, though he still felt uncomfortable for having eavesdropped on a private moment.

After Magnus arrived with Raphael, the three contestants were each given a uniform for the Task in the colors of their respective school and the school’s emblem over their heart. The pants reached Magnus’s knees and the sleeves his elbows. Where Raphael’s uniform was blue and Helga’s red, his was black, with lines in each house’s color running down the sides of his legs and arms. It fitted each Champion snugly and it was so light it felt like you weren’t wearing something. It was certainly made for running and moving a lot and the realization made Magnus’s heart speed up, anxious about what was to come.

Once they came out of the changing rooms wearing their uniforms the three Headmasters went on to explain to them what the task was and what they needed to do to win. The more they explained the harder Magnus’s heart beat. His hands got clammy with sweat and he wiped it off on his pants. How Raphael and Helga managed to look so calm he didn’t know. Freaking Helga looked so confident, like she knew she could win the Task without breaking a sweat.

After they were done explaining everything to them, Headmaster Gilbert and Headmistress Sonia took Raphael and Helga respectively and headed for each Champion’s starting point. Magnus followed Headmaster Odin to the edge of the Forbidden Forest, were a tall tree had small metal handles nailed onto it at odd places, like a weird ladder.

A small object flew close to the Headmaster. It resembled a Snitch, but it was at least three times bigger and made of a translucent material that looked like glass. Magnus recognized it as the wizarding world’s version of video cameras; he had seen a lot of reporters that had come to Hogwarts to cover the Tournament have one of those little things hovering over their shoulder.

The flying camera switched from crystal clear to red and Headmaster Odin turned to it and started talking.

“Students of Hogwarts, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, my dear guests, it is finally time for the first Task of the Triwizard tournament!” Magnus head applause from inside the forest, were he assumed the stands were. “The Task is simple: each Champion will start at a different spot at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, each an equal distance from the center of the forest. The obstacle race that they must compete will not be a normal one, for it will take place near the peaks of the trees.”

As Headmaster Odin spoke about the obstacle course, Magnus noticed that the camera switched colors and he remembered how they explained to them how the audience would be able to see what they were doing. The stands were positioned along the obstacle course and magical screens would float in front of them so they could see everything that was happening out of their field of vision. Apparently the floating sphere-resembling cameras had become part of the Tournament some years ago so that the audience could watch even if the task took place somewhere they couldn’t see, like inside a lake or a maze. Magnus guessed the changing color meant that pictures of the obstacles were being projected on the screen for the audience to see what was waiting their Champions.

“At the center of the forest is a platform with three bottles on it. Inside each bottle is a scroll containing information on the next task. Each Champion must get one of those bottles. The first to do so will be awarded the most points and the last one the least points. To clear any potential problems, the first to touch a bottle will be registered as the victor of this challenge.”

Magnus’s stomach twisted into knots when he heard that. He already knew that the fastest one would win but hearing it again made him lose what little confidence he had managed to gather.

Well, it involves climbing, right? You’re good at that, you can do it.

“However, to get to the platform they must pass the magical creature guarding. And don’t think for a second that the obstacle course will be their only hindrance as they race to the finishing line. The Forbidden Forest is home to many creatures, and some might not take kindly to our Champions invading their territory.”

Magnus felt little reassurance knowing that the Centaurs wouldn’t be an issue. They had agreed to the first Task being in their forest after an agreement was made ensuring that their territory would not be harmed but expanded, as the Headmasters had explained to them. Seeing idiotic humans making fools out of themselves was an added bonus in the Centaurs’ eyes.

Still, even without the Centaurs being a threat, there were still many dangerous things lurking in the Forbidden Forest and Magnus would much rather he didn’t have to deal with any of them.

“The Champions are free to use magic to assist them in completing the obstacle course as quickly as they can. However, they must not stray outside of the obstacle course and completely let go of the obstacles, so flying over them is strictly prohibited, as is sabotaging another Champion. Doing either of those things will lead to a deduction of points from the Champion in question.”

The bitter, cynical part of Magnus corrected what Headmaster Odin had said in his head. Being caught doing any of those things will lead to a loss of points. Cheating was not uncommon in the Tournament by far, in fact it was almost considered standard practice. It was only bad if they caught you in the act, otherwise it was all well and done.

“But,” said Headmaster Odin, stressing the word, “I’m sure you’d all rather see the Task than just hear me describe it, so without further ado, let’s start!”

Magnus knew that was his cue to get ready, so he stood in front of the tree he needed to climb to get to the obstacle course and held onto one of the metal handles closest to the ground. He let his eyes wander up the tree, noting where each handle was nailed and what spots looked like good footholds and handholds.

“Champions, get ready!” Headmaster Odin, voice loud and booming.

Magnus took a deep breath and held it in, closing his eyes.. Calm down. This will be fine, you can do this.

“Set!”

Magnus exhaled slowly, opening his eyes and readjusting his grip on the metal handle. He licked his lips nervously as he felt his heart drum loudly, like dramatic music in a moving. It drowned every other sound out, leaving behind only it’s steady beat. Magnus took another deep breath and prepared himself for the final signal and-

“GO!”

With a strong kick, Magnus pulled himself off the ground and onto the tree’s trunk. He made his way up the tree steadily, though much faster than normally thanks to the metal handles. Even with them, this would probably still be difficult for someone who doesn’t know how to climb a tree. Magnus was thankful for all the hours he spent climbing trees in the park and on the camping expeditions he and his mother went on, even if she was always so scared he was going to fall down and get hurt if he went too high.

Now he wasn’t afraid he’d fall. He moved up the tree swiftly, only once losing hold of his grip and almost slipping off. He was distantly aware of cheering from somewhere in the woods where the stands were and he was sure his friends were among the loudest. But as loud as that cheering might have been, Magnus paid it no mind and kept climbing, completely focused on the feeling of the tree bark under his shoes and his naked hands.

The tree was much taller than what Magnus had ever climbed before, but he made it to the top, where a wooden platform was waiting for him. He pulled himself on it and took a few deep breaths as he stood up. His hands were throbbing, already reddening from the strain, but he ignored it, feeling much more sure of himself after the climb. I made it all the way up and didn’t fall, mum.

“And it looks like Magnus Chase is the first to climb up the tree!” Magnus heard Professor Thor say, his voice amplified by magic. Apparently he was the announcer for the Triwizard Tournament.

The next tree Magnus needed to get to was about fifteen meters away. Stretching the distance between the two trees was a rope net, held up horizontally by two wires the same way a climbing rock would have been.

I have to cross that, Magnus realized and prepared himself for what was to come. It would probably be easier to cross that a climbing rock since he could take hold of it much easier. Too easily, in fact, and that realization mad his stomach turn. There was no way this would be that simple.

He took hold of the rope in front of him and put his feet in two of the holes. The net immediately dipped under his weight as gravity tried to pull him down and probably break his bones with the fall. He didn’t let that stop him as he moved forward, inching along the net sideways like a crab. He pushed his weight forward in an attempt to gain more balance and made his way across the net as swiftly as he could.

He was hardly more than five meters away from where he started when something collided with him back. He cried out in surprise and flipped his head around to see what that was. His eyes scanned his surroundings frantically as he gripped at the net for dear life. Something hit him again at the left while he was looking towards the right. Then he was hit again at his right leg, the small of his back, straight to his belly. He did his best to move forward despite whatever those things that were hitting him from all directions.

It was only when one of them hit him in the shoulder that he was able to see what it was – a Pixie, its blue skin glistening and its wide eyes mischievous. Magnus felt dread fill his stomach; Pixies were known for picking up people and leaving the at the top of the trees and while he was already high up in the air he had no doubt the Pixies would very gladly pick him up and drop him down.

“And the Pixies are attacking, folks!” Professor Thor said, way too enthusiastic about Magnus being attacked by Pixies. “These mischievous little creatures will be given as much food as they can eat if they manage to knock one of our Champions down so they’re giving it their all!”

Oh, great. So they get food and I get broken bones. Weee!

Magnus started moving faster, eager to get to the other platform as quickly as possible. The Headmasters had explained to them before the Task that a charm had been cast so that the magical creatures attacking them wouldn’t be able to follow them once they finished the obstacle. Magnus could probably hold back the Pixies if he was able to reach his wand in the pocket of his pants, but the pocket had a zipper and he didn’t want to risk hanging from the net with one hand when manic Pixies were attacking him from all angles.

He was about to grab hold of the net again as he moved forward, only a couple of meters from the platform, when the Pixies attacked again. One hit his arm that wasn’t holding the net, knocking it back, and another took advantage of his surprised yelp to hit his other hand. His grip on the net had loosened by shock when the first Pixie hit him and the second one caused him to lose his grasp on the net completely.

He fell backwards, completely weight less for one horrible moment. His heart seemed to have stopped beating, like when you missed a step on the stairs and had a miniature heart attack. Except now he would probably break all his bones with the fall.

“Oh no! It seems like the Hogwarts Champion has been knocked off!”

In a rush of I-don’t-want-to-die energy, Magnus grasped at the net closer to his hands as he fell. His fall stopped abruptly and Magnus let out a cry of pain as his shoulder almost popped out of its place due to his momentum. The happy shrilling noises of the Pixies stopped when they realized he hadn’t fallen off and despite the pain in his shoulder, Magnus moved quickly, taking hold of the net with his other hand.

“But no! He managed to hold on!” Magnus heard applause somewhere in the distance but he was too busy trying to hang onto the net as the Pixies attacked him ferociously.

One hit him in the neck and he choked as he tried to breathe. Another one tried to hit him in the groin but (thankfully) missed when moved forward. He was hanging of the net like Tarzan and his arms were already burning from the strain of holding all his weight. He paid it no mind and moved forward as quickly as he could. He had to make it to the other side before he lost his grip on the net and fell and before the Pixies managed to knock him off again.

The closest he got to the platform the angrier the Pixies became, more desperate to make him fall. They concentrated their attacks on his arms and a few caught him by the shirt and started pulling him down. Magnus hands felt like they were being ripped off and it was a miracle he was still hanging there.

The platform was now only two meters away.  The Pixies had resorted to biting him and Magnus bit his lip as he moved forward to stop himself from yelling. One hand in front of the other and the platform was now one meter away. The pixies were pulling him by the foot. Magnus throws one arm on the platform and uses everything in him to hold on. The Pixies manage to pull off his left shoe but Magnus puts all his strength in his arms and manages to hurl his torso on the platform.

He pulls himself up straight, taking a deep breath. The Pixies are trying to get to him but it’s like they’re hitting against a glass window.

“And Magnus Chase has made it, ladies and gentleman! Helga Leifsson is only slightly ahead and Raphael Beaumont has only a few meters to go till he reaches the end of the first obstacle!”

As much as Magnus lungs and muscles heart from hanging off the net like an ape, he pushed on and turned to see what the next obstacle was. There was no way he was gonna lose to Helga.

In front of him, some twenty meters away, was the next platform Magnus needed to get to. It wasn’t perfectly straight ahead, though considering the route was made based on the already existing trees, it made sense it wouldn’t be.  Stretching between the two platforms was a wire, pulled taut between the two trees. Another wire run parallel to the first two meters above it. From it fell a thick rope hanging from a metal circle, probably so it would move easier on the wire.

He gets his wand out of his pocket and with his left hand casts a Sticking Charm on his left hand. He holds his wand with his left hand and shakes it to see if his idea worked. The wand didn’t fall or budge but stayed stuck to his palm.

Confidents that he won’t lose his wand, he takes the rope into his hands and carefully set a foot onto the rope.  He hugged it tightly as he put one foot in front of the other. His body swayed from side to side and he couldn’t find his balance easily. The available surface under his legs had suddenly gone from a wide platform to a thin wire and Magnus didn’t know the first thing about walking a tightwire. He recalled how acrobats would extend their arms at either side of their body to keep the balance, but he felt too scared to let go of the rope.  

Slowly at first, but then more steadily, he took a few steps on the wire. He tried to go faster after a couple of steps but he leaned dangerously far to the side. The rope, as helpful as it might be to hold on, would drag behind his body and it did little to help him move forward.

“ATTACK!”

Of-fucking-course. A rain of missiles came hurling towards Magnus. An arrow came zipping right by his cheek and it barely missed him. Another object him in the shin and bounced off. Magnus looked down (very bad decision when you’re twenty meters up in the air) and saw a heard of Centaurs looking up at him, bows and small catapults out.

Are you kidding me?

“Oh, we might have forgot to mention this, but the Centaurs were generous enough to agree to help us in the first Task!”

“Oh, come on!” Magnus yells as another missile (a small rock?) comes flying towards him. He manages to dodge it but he almost slips off in the process. You get Centaurs to fire arrows and rocks at us and forget to tell us until now?

As much as Magnus wanted to yell at whoever thought of these tasks, he had more urgent matters to deal with. He does his best to move faster, but it’s no use. Moving in the wire is much harder than moving on the net and Centaurs were much more precise with their aim than Pixies. They even started throwing rocks at the wires instead of at him to make them shake so he would lose his balance and fall.

Magnus glanced anxiously at the platform in front of him. It was still way too far away, he had hardly crossed one fourth of the distance. Maybe winging it and “running” worked with the Pixies but there was no way it was going to work with something as intelligent and skilled as the Centaurs, even with a Shielding Charm. He would have to think of something else.

He couldn’t fly off the course or he’d get penalized and even if he could he didn’t know any spells to do that. He couldn’t let go of the wire beneath his feet or the rope in his hands-

Wait.

An idea formed in Magnus’s mind and he quickly took the rope under his armpit. Having his hands mostly free now, he made a loop at the end of it and used a Permanent Sticking Charm to hold it like that since it was way too thick for him to make knot with it.

“Oh, what is Magnus Chase up to, folks? Maybe now isn’t the best time to do Art and Crafts.”

Magnus ignored Thor’s comment and gripped the rope as hard as he could. He put one foot through the loop and then the other. The rope bent under his weight where he was holding onto it and he found himself hanging off it with his back to the ground. He tried his best to hold himself up straighter and fixed his eyes on the tree he had come from.

“What the hel-“ Professor Thor was cut off, probably for using ‘inappropriate’ language. “Excuse me, what in Merlin is the Hogwarts Champion doing?”

Magnus pointed his wand at the tree and did his best to aim at it. The Centaurs, knowing he was about to do something, threw even more viciously at him. His Shielding Charm managed to deflect most of them, but it wouldn’t hold on for much longer. He took a deep breath before casting a jinx with everything in him.

“Ventus!”

A blast of spiraling wind rushed out of his wand, fast and powerful. The force of the wind sent him flying backwards much faster than he had anticipated. He zipped past the air faster than Firebold, his hair blowing into his face. Past the screaming wind, he head applause and yells and cheers.

His back hit the bark of the tree and he screamed from the pain the collision caused him. He tried to get off the rope and ended up flopping down on the platform.

“Magnus Chase has completed the second obstacle and he’s currently on the lead!”

Still surprised his idea actually worked, Magnus turned around to the next obstacle. The distance between the two trees was about the same as the first obstacle, but instead of a net, swings were hanging from the wires, their seats long enough for Magnus to lie down on.

Maybe it was being on the lead that gave Magnus confidence, but that didn’t seem so hard. Eager to stay in the lead, Magnus stepped onto the first swing.

Instantly, the wind started blowing. It came so suddenly it knocked Magnus off his feet and he fell on the swing on his knees. The wind blew so fast Magnus couldn’t hear what Professor Thor was saying. The wind sounded like screaming in his ears, fast and furious, it felt as if it was clawing at his skin.

He held his head up despite the wind making him wanna close his eyes and he saw the swings shaking back and forth manically in the wind. There was no way he would be able to jump from one to the other when they were moving so fast. Standing up as carefully he could, he held onto the ropes of the swings with both hands. His own swing was moving just as fast as the other ones and he was quickly getting nauseous.

I need to get to the next swing. Knowing that simply trying to jump to the next one would lead to him falling to the ground, Magnus pointed his wand at the swing.

“Accio swing!”

The swing stopped midway and swung back towards Magnus. When it came as close to Magnus as possible he took hold of one of its rope and jumped on. For that one horrible moment until his feet hit the swing he felt weightless, like when he almost fell off the net because of the Pixies.

Then his feet made contact with the swing and he gripped at the rope desperately, despite how much his hands hurt from everything had to done up to now. The swing moved violently, like it was enchanted to throw him off and he wouldn’t be surprised if it was.

He followed the same strategy for the next swing and the one after that and it worked, even if he felt like he was going to throw up everything he had eaten. He was halfway through the obstacle when the wind somehow changed. It still blew like he was in the middle of a tornado, but there was something else there too, like air was being generated by another, new source.

Magnus heard it before he saw it. A shrill, high-pitched shriek like a bird on steroids. Then a black blur entered his field of vision. It flew past him and the blast or air from its large, bat-like wings almost knocked him of his feet.

Magnus held onto the rope tighter and looked up at the creature in front him. No, not creature, creatures. Two, three, seven large Thestrals flew around Magnus and the swings. The flapping of their wings along with the still powerful wind meant of the swings at an even more erratic, unpredictable way.

Then they dived in and started flying in between the swings. One flew right in front of him and Magnus fell on his stomach, his feet hanging of the side. He pulled on the rope and tried to pull himself onto the swing, but another Thestral flew behind him and the only thing that kept him from falling off the other side was the death grip he had on the rope.

“What is happening now, ladies and gentlemen? Magnus Chase was knocked off his feet and he’s looking around like he was just attacked by something!”

Of course, Magnus thought. They can’t see the Thestrals.

He pulled his legs back on the swing with difficulty and never let go of the rope. The Thestrals kept bombarding him and he hardly had enough time to duck down when he saw a Thestral flying straight for him.

I can’t cross like this.

“Confringo!” He yelled, firing a Blasting Curse at the Thestrals. He wasn’t as good in offensive spells as T.J or even Alex, so his blasting curse looked more like fireworks erupting in front of the flying beasts. He took their moment of shock to Accio the next swing and jump onto it.

On top of his spell being weak, it did little more than annoy them. They flew at him with even more ferocity. One flew straight into his swing and Magnus might have yelled like a five-year-old who saw a monster in his closet but he didn’t fall off.

Okay, I can’t keep blasting them or they’ll knock me down and then use my corpse as a chewing toy. (Do Thestrals like chewing toys?)

He had to find a way to stop them from attacking him, then he would be able to deal with the roaring wind like he did before. But how is he supposed to stop them-?

That’s it!

Steadying himself, Magnus pointed at the first Thestral in front of him.

“Petrificus Totatlus!” The Full-Body Bind hit the bat-like creature and its limbs and wings immediately froze. Unable to use its wings to fly anymore, it fell to the ground.

Yes! It worked!

“And now the Hogwarts Champion is firing spells at the air! Maybe the height got to his head?”

Magnus, once again, ignored Thor’s attempt at a joke (since he probably knew about the Thestrals if he was the announcer). He fired the same spell at every Thestral he could see, narrowing the number of winged attackers down to two.

Two which seemed to be the most furious ones. Magnus used Accio and jumped onto the next swing right as Thestral Number 1 slammed onto the swing he just jumped out off. He cast the spell on the swing again and jumped on without caring to look where the Thestrals were. A grave mistake because Thestral Number 2 slammed into Magnus’s new swing before he was able to find his balance.

He shrieked as he fell forward. The swing in front of him came towards him, pushed by the wind and crushed into his gut. Magnus’s mouth flew open in a silent cry, but his hands managed to grip at the edge of the swing.

Hanging off the swing was much harder than hanging off the net. His hand couldn’t wrap fully around it and it was glossy and sleek instead of rough. He put all his strength in his hands pushed down. Trying to pull himself up was painful and his left hand bucked out under his weight. He screamed when he almost fell but managed to hold on.  

He managed to get hold of the other side of swing in his second try and he hurled himself up. He looked up as soon as he was fully onto the wooden surface; he was not going to let another Thestral catch him by surprise. It was good he did, because one of the winged beasts was coming fast towards him.

“Petrificus Totalus!”The spell hit the beast between its front legs and it fell to the ground. Magnus stood up quickly and searched the woods around him for the last Thestral. He saw it near the ground, flying straight up at him.

“Petrificus Totalus!” He cast the spell again and managed to hit the creature right before it collided with the underside of his swing. It fell down to the ground with a loud noise.

With no other Thestrals coming at him, Magnus made his way across the rest of the swings relatively easily. Once he reached the platform the sudden lack of screaming winds was jarring to him and he held onto the tree’s bark so he wouldn’t fall down.

“Magnus Chase has made it to the end of the third obstacle! Whatever the three Champions had to face, the Hogwarts Champion beat it first!”

Magnus looked up from where he was panting for breath surprised. He was still in the lead? Normally he was going to question that, but he knew both his opponents must be good wizards if they were picked as Champions so he couldn’t afford to stay where he was. He readied himself for the next obstacle, which was to be the last and most difficult of all.

In front of him was a bridge. It wasn’t a rope bridge or even a magic bridge made from floating rocks or something. It was a simple, completely normal wooden bridge that stretched between the two trees. At its end was the platform with the bottle Magnus needed to get to.

This was the first time Magnus had been able to see the stands. They were big, hovering at the same height as the obstacle course. Magnus could see a separated area of the stands were the news outlets must be seated. He didn’t think long about the fact that everything he was doing was being broadcasted to all over the UK, mostly because he spotted a head of green hair at the very front of the stands.

“Magnus!” Alex yelled at him. “Good luck! Kick their asses!”

Next to Alex were the rest of his friends, all as excited as Alex. Sam was cheering loudly along with her sister and T.J and Mallory were holding up a large banner with his name on it. Amir and Halfborn were going all out, dressed exclusively in Hogwarts colors and Amir had even brought a megaphone with him – though how it could work normally among all this magic he didn’t know. Magnus waved at them before turning his attention back to the obstacle.

On the opposite side of the platform he could see another bridge, and there was a similar one coming to the central platform form his right. Despite the trees having been between them before, Magnus could see the route one of his opponents had used. He looked back out of curiosity and he saw Raphael’s tall form on one of the last swings.

Spurred on by the sight of the Beauxbatons boy, Magus walked onto the bridge. He had only took one step when he heard the growling. Oh, fuck.

Like stepping out of an invisible portal, a beast walked onto the bridge. Its body was covered with black fur and its hooves clicked against the wood. A long, scaly green tail sprouted from its rear, curling in the air behind it. Its mane was a light, almost golden color, and its ferocious eyes glared at Magnus.

A shudder ran through Magnus spine. A chimera.

The Headmasters had told them that for the last obstacle they had to face an unknown magical creature. He knew he would have to fight something, but he hadn’t expected he would have to fight a fucking chimera.

The animal walked towards him with the slow, calculating pacing of a lion despite its goat body. Its snake tale had an actual snake head at the tip and it hissed at Magnus. Its lion head snarled at him and Magnus stepped back without realizing.

No, he had to do this somehow. He had to find a way to get past the beast, at least long enough to get one of the bottles. He wasn’t stupid enough to just rush at it and try to dodge it, there was a reason why this thing had the same classification as a dragon or a basilisk. It was fucking dangerous.

Another little detail popped into Magnus’s head and he blanched. Please let it not breathe fire, please let it not breath fire.

The chimera opened its powerful jaws and Magnus expected it to roar at him, but instead a stream of fire flew straight at him.

It can breathe fire! Magnus immediately fell to his stomach and held his breath as the fire soared over his head. They brought a fire –breathing beast to a task inside a forest. Oh, Merlin, who came up with this shit?

Once the fire stopped coming, Magnus got to his feet and cast a water spell behind him where the fire had hit the tree. He turned his attention back to the chimera and fired a Stinging hex at it. Like he expected, it did nothing. A chimera’s skin was resistant to most offensive spells. He knew it was weak to a specific kind of grass, but Magnus didn’t have it and he didn’t know how to transfigurate something into it. He would need to come up with something else.

He could fly over the monster, obviously, and even if he did it would still follow him and turn him into Magnus flambé. He had to get it out of the way somehow.

He was scanning his surroundings when he saw the railing at the edge of the bridge. He run to it and looked down. Yes, it was a long fall to the ground.

A plan forming in his brain, Magnus aimed at a pot in the railing in front of the chimera and fired.

“Confringo!”

The spell hit and blasted an opening into the railing it wasn’t huge, but it would work.

The chimera fired at him before he was able to cast his next spell. Magnus jumped out of the way, but the tips of his hair got caught in the fire. He extinguished it quickly and got to the task at hand.

The chimera’s fire had burned the wood of the bridge in front of the monster to a crisp, leaving a gap between the monster and Magnus. What little hope Magnus had that the beast wouldn’t be able to leap over the wide gap was crushed when it easily jumped over it.

It’s clever, Magnus thought. It has me trapped now.

Still, that wouldn’t matter since he had a plan. He would forever be grateful to Blitzen and Hearthstone for teaching him how to mop a floor with magic. He cast the spell and the surface of the bridge in front of the opening was covered with water. The chimera kept walking towards him.

Great, Magnus thought, probably the only time in his life when he would be glad a deadly beast was stalking towards him.

Once the chimera stepped onto the slippery surface, Magnus run to the opposite side of the opening. The chimera was a meter away from him and its heavy, stinky breath hit him in the face. His heart was beating, his palms were sweaty and every shell in his body was yelling at him to run before he became that thing’s snack. He could think of a million ways to die that would be better than this - hell, even falling off a bridge with a sword imbedded in his gut would be better!

“What in Merlin’s name is the Hogwarts Champion doing?”

“Magnus, get the hell out of there!” Alex yelled at him, worry clear in her voice. Magnus didn’t listen to her, as much as he wanted to, and looked the chimera dead in the eye. Then, with all he had in him, he aimed his wand at it and cast his spell.

“Ventus!”

The blast of air that had helped Magnus cross the tightwire burst from his wand’s tip and hit the chimera head on. The strong wind pushed the monster backwards and the slippery floor beneath its legs helped it slip towards the opening. It fought to stand its ground but its hoofed legs would hold onto the wood.

“Ventus! Ventus!” He cast the spell again for good measure and the beast fell of the side of the bridge, its hooves unable to hold it on against the powerful wind.

There was a moment of silence as Magnus and the audience took in what just happened. Then the stands erupted into a roaring applause.

“H-He did it!” Professor Thor yelled. “He did it! The Hogwarts Champion just defeated the Chimera!”

His friends were going absolutely insane at the front of the stands. Sam was jumping up and down, yelling “Yes! Yes! You did it!” again and again. T.J was spinning the banner in the air as he cheered, using a plethora of colorful words that wouldn’t be suitable for children and Halfborn somehow managed to be even worse. Mallory looked dumbfounded before she started yelling along with the others. Amir looked like his mind had just been blown and he yelled something about Magnus having won free falafel for what he just did (which Magnus really wished he meant).

Alex was leaning over the front of the stands, so far out Magnus was afraid she’d fall off, and she was cheering at the top of her lungs. “Magnus, you wonderful asshole, yes!”

Magnus couldn’t help smiling widely. His body was buzzing with the near-death adrenaline rush and he still couldn’t believe his idea had actually worked. He was this close to jumping up and down and celebrating like a little girl who just got a pony, but he stopped himself.

It was then, as Magnus was about to turn around and find a way to cross the gap in the bridge so he could get one of the bottles, that a scream tore through the air. Magnus, like everybody in the stands, turned to where the noise was coming from.

Raphael lay on the ground, clutching at his arm, his face twisted with pain. Blood run from under his fingers where his upper arm had been cut, and from how much there was, Magnus knew it wasn’t a shallow cut. The chimera stalked towards the French boy, like a lion going after its prey, and Raphael’s blood glistened on its jaws.

“RAPH!” Louis had rushed to the front of the stands the moment he saw what was happening to his boyfriend, eyes gleaming with unshed tears, and he was leaning so far out over the railing it was a wonder he didn’t fall off.

Raphael stumbled backwards, his knees shaking and his wand lying far out of his reach near the beast’s hooves. Professor Thor was speechless for once, unable to say anything as the deadly beast got nearer and nearer the Beauxbatons Champion, ready the tear up the helpless boy to shreds.

Louis cried out again and Magnus could hear the conversation he had overhead between the two boys in his head, Louis’s anxious voice from that morning in the corridor merging with his cries now. He remembered Alex’s worried words from last night.

Try not to get hurt, alright?

Magnus whirled his head around, scanning his surroundings. He saw Helga on the other side of the platform facing against her own chimera. If he went now he could probably reach the bottles before her – but the chimera would reach Raphael too. The platform he got to after he crossed the swings was relatively close to Raphael’s route. Maybe if he…

“W-What is the Hogwarts Champion doing?”

Magnus run back to the swings and called one to him. He held onto it tightly and swiftly cut the ropes with a spell. The wooden seat of the swing was heavier than he imagined, but he carried it anyway. He lied it down at the part of his platform that was closest to Raphael’s and stuck it there with a Charm. It was quick work and sloppy but it would have to do.

The other side of the swing’s seat touched Raphael’s platform and Magnus run across it quickly. It buckled under his weight and the moment Magnus had crossed it the Sticking Charm broke and it fell to the ground.

Okay, I’m not going back the same way.

Magnus rushed to Raphael’s side and pointed his wand at the chimera. His knees were shaking and he hardly had a plan, but he couldn’t let the beast kill the other boy in front of him like that. He couldn’t.

“M-Magnus?” Raphael stuttered, hissing from the pain of his arm. “W-what are you doing here? You should go get the bottle.”

“I can do that later,” Magnus said without turning to look at Raphael. He couldn’t take his eyes off the chimera or it could end badly for both of them.

Raphael’s wand still lay on the ground near the beast. “Accio wand!” The wand flew towards Magnus, zipping past the chimera’s head in the process. The beast glared at him annoyed and Magnus handed the wand back to Raphael. “Here, try to stop bleeding.”

Magnus pointed his wand at the railing of the bridge and cast a Blasting Curse at it but the chimera jumped in front of his line of fire. The railing was still intact and the chimera didn’t have a scratch thanks to its protective skin. Magnus tried again but the beast blocked his spell again. Cold sweat trickled down Magnus’s neck.

It saw what happened to the other chimera and knows what to do to stop me, Magnus realized with horror.

“M-Magnus?” Raphael stood on shaky knees beside him. His arm had stopped bleeding but the shirt was torn and covered in his drying blood.

“We need to distract it,” Magnus said. “Most offensive spells don’t work on it, we need to think of something else.”

“Can we drop it off, like you did?”

Magnus shook his head. “It learned from what happened to the other one. We have to find a different way.”

The chimera stepped towards them, its low growling vibrating out of its chest. Its snake tail hissed behind it and its hooves clacked as it walked, the sound almost deafening. Its amber eyes were focused on them, sending chills down both boys’ spines. No doubt to it they looked like two tasty snacks that were way too troublesome to catch. Magnus didn’t want to become that thing’s lunch.

“Raphael,” he said to the other boy, voice hushed as if the chimera would hear their plans and eat them before they could do something. “Are you good at making things float?”

“Yeah, but-“

Magnus cut him off. “On my signal, make the chimera fly off the bridge.”

The confused expression on Raphael’s face disappeared, replaced by one of understanding and he nodded. “Okay.”

Magnus focused, bringing in mind the rocks the Centaurs fired at him and surely at the other two Champions. With a deep breath, he raised his wand in the air. “Accio rocks!”

For a second he heard nothing. It didn’t work, he thought terrified. We’ll be eaten alive. The chimera had stopped in its tracks, confused by Magnus yelling, but when nothing happened it kept coming towards them. It bend its front legs, snake tail swishing in the air, ready to pounce at them and-

First there was a wooshing sound and then Magnus saw it – dozens of rocks, big and small, flying towards them. He directed the onslaught of rocks at the chimera. The large beast started jumping frantically from place to place to avoid the rocks and started batting the few that came close to it away (Magnus wasn’t going to kill it, chimeras are rare). Its sudden movements and nervous batting motions made it look like a frightened goat or a very angry, very large kitten (both of which it technically was).

“Now!” He yelled at Raphael.

“Wingardium Leviosa!”

Raphael’s spell hit the beast head on and the chimera floated into the air. It wasn’t flying far above the ground and it wobbled around since the creature was far heavier than anything Raphael had even used that spell on, but it worked. The chimera roared, thrashing around confused – it probably wasn’t used to being lifted into the air so suddenly.

“Wingardium Leviosa!” Magnus cast the same spell and helped Raphael hold it up. Together they moved the chimera over the bridge’s railing and lowered it to the ground. The chimera looked at its surroundings bemusedly, looking very much like a cat that had been picked up and put down at an unfamiliar setting.

“They – They did it! The Hogwarts and Beauxbatons Champions just worked together to defeat the chimera!”

Roaring applause erupted from the stands as the students of the two schools went crazy. Magnus’s group of friends were by far the loudest, jumping and hugging and yelling threats to kick his ass at him for the fright he gave them. Louis, tear tracks running down his face, was probably yelling the same kind of things at Raphael in French, though Magnus did catch a ‘je t’ aime’ somewhere in there.

Magnus shot a smile at Raphael, feeling proud of himself, and the other boy returned it despite the pain from his arm. They glanced at the central platform at the same time and exchanged a look before they started running towards it. Raphael run pretty fast despite his injured arm thanks to his long legs and all the strain of the day had finally caught up with Magnus, making his limbs fell like lead.

“This is the final race, ladies and gentlemen! Helga has almost defeated her chimera and Magnus and Raphael, bruised and tired, are running to the finish line! Who will make it there first?”

Raphael had gained ground on him and Magnus was struggling to keep on. Maybe if he pushed himself a little more he would be able to catch up to him-

Suddenly, something hit Magnus square in the chest and made him fly backwards. His back hit the hard wood of the bridge where it connected with the platform Raphael had come from after he crossed the swings. He felt something warm and sticky seep into the front of his shirt where he’d been hit. He touched the spot with shaking fingers and saw blood on them.

“Oh no! Helga’s stray spell seems to have hit Magnus Chase head on! The Durmstrang Champion is making her way to the bottles!”

“Magnus!” Raphael had stopped running and looked back at Magnus with worry in his eyes. He started making his way back to him but Magnus stopped him.

“No! Go get your bottle, I’m fine. You need to have someone see your injury!” Magnus tried to get to his feet and he stumbled, but he managed to stay standing. He started running back to the platform but a wave of nausea washed over him and he slowed down. Standing up made him feel dizzy but he could do it – he already made it this far.

Suddenly Raphael was at his side, hooking his unharmed arm under Magnus’s armpit to keep him standing.

“You need as much help as me, mon ami. I can’t leave you here after you saved my ass.”

Magnus opened his mouth to protest but he hissed in pain instead when the wound in his chest moved suddenly. Raphael muttered a sorry to him and tried to move slower.

“And the Durmstrang Champion is the first to reach the finish line!” Thor announced and a wave of nausea that had nothing to do with his injury hit Magnus. She had beaten him. Bloody hell.

Magnus and Raphael wobbled towards the platform, Raphael doing most of the walking as Magnus was close to passing out on his shoulder. The woods around him seemed to be spinning and he saw bursts of colors dancing in the air. Heh heh… pretty colors.

They made it to the platform and everybody in the stands watched him with baited breath.

“Come on, come on, Magnus. We’re here. It’s almost over, come on.” Raphael kept talking, probably to motivate Magnus to make the last couple of steps, but Magnus felt too lightheaded to care.

“Come on get the bottle, Magnus,” Raphael told him and Magnus span his head around, liking the way the foliage of the trees looked when he did that. It looks like Alex’s hair… is Alex’s hair soft? I wanna touch it.

Raphael tried to get Magnus hand and make him get one of the bottles but Magnus didn’t comply. He looked like a noodle, floppy and unable to stay standing. Helga’s spell must have been a tranquilizing one.

Finally, in his frustration, Raphael took one of the bottles and tried to make Magnus hold it. His grip on it was loose, but it was something.

Magnus felt the cool glass against his hand but didn’t register much else. The world was blurring at its edges, like a picture being erased by black paint. He felt tired, he wanted to sleep. Raphael’s shoulder wasn’t the comfiest, but it would do, Magnus decided.

“Raphael Beaumont has taken the bottle and finished second and Magnus Chase has finished last!” Magnus heard Thor announce before he drifted off and everything turned black.

Hope you liked it! Fun fact: I've actually done an obstacle course like this one (minus the magic) and it was fun, even if I almost fainted on one of the obstacles because it was too high for me. But I guess it was worth it cause I got inspiration for this thing, so it's fine!