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samwrights · 5 years ago

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Elixir - Punk!AU mini-series

Hi guys! So I wanted to write something a little different. Not necessarily a “choose your own adventure” but something along those lines. This mini series will be a Punk!AU where the reader is in a band where your story depends on the person you choose! While no place is actually mentioned, I’m thinking Chicago (home sweet home) for setting. I’ve been working on this between requests and, while the requests keep coming, I’m trying to get the routes going. For now, I present to you the prologue.

Thank you quarantine, necessary drives to my Starbucks, Halestorm, Neck Deep, Pierce the Veil, and Paramore for inspiring these babies. Hope you enjoy!

Warnings: there will be swearing, smoking of cigarettes and weed, consumption of edibles and alcohol, cheating and possibly be NSFW. I haven’t decided on the last one yet. Everyone will be of legal US age for consumption of nicotine, marijuana, and alcohol in the present day (18+ in some states for tobacco, 21+ in for everything else). However, there are mentions of underage consumption/distribution of alcohol. These are genuinely mature themes! If you are unable to understand that these themes are not encouraged to be re-enacted, specifically cheating and underage consumption/distribution of nicotine, alcohol, or marijuana, please do not read for your own safety.

A complementary playlist can be found » here

Photocredit by @scandeniall

Word Count: 3504

Prologue is below the cut!

You had been trying to ignore the gnawing thrum of discomfort that had worked its way into your intuition the last few weeks, but today the dull throb had transcended into an alarm blaring at the back of your consciousness. Like your body was trying to tell you something that should have been painstakingly obvious, yet when you attempted to pinpoint the cause, you fell short with an answer.

Period? Nah, too early for that.

Food poisoning? That wouldn’t last multiple weeks.

Pulled a muscle at the gym? That was a joke, considering you hadn’t gone to a gym since your senior year of college.

Anxiety? Well that was a given, considering you had a nasty gut feeling about something.

Stress? Stress was nothing new. In fact, stress was a very familiar friend to you.

What the fuck was it?

Even meditating on the thought for the last three hours, an answer had yet to come to you. Without ever finding one, you reluctantly pull the plush covers off of your queen sized bed and push yourself up to sit on the edge before checking your phone’s lock screen for the time. 1:23pm. You still had quite some time before you needed to leave for band practice, but you knew full well that laying in bed any further would encourage your current laziness. Making your way around the clothes that haphazardly littered your disheveled bedroom floor, you entered your bathroom to shower and get ready for the day.

The warmth of the water did little to quell the unsettling feeling that emanated from your gut. You even attempted to center your with old therapy tactics such as identifying all of your surroundings, such as which muscles of your body the shower was raining upon or the different notes in your voice that reverberated off the shower walls as you subconsciously sang. When that had failed, you allowed your mind to wander through the metaphorical meadow that resided in your brain.

At first, your mind focused on whatever lyrics fell from your lips, recognizing the prose as one of your band’s songs. Connecting the words that were committed to memory with people, your mind began to wander to your friends—the three boys you were thankful enough to call your best friends of a decade and members of your band, Elixir—Tetsurō Kuroo, Takahiro Hanamaki, and Yūji Terushima.

Kuroo, or Tetsu as you sometimes called him, was the guitarist of Elixir and the “mastermind” behind the name of your little group. Mastermind being a relatively loose term, as at the time, you all had felt indifferent to the name. But as nobody had come with any better alternatives, you all had stuck to it until it had grown on you. Kuroo was a year younger than you and, outside of the band, was a chemist for a small time company at the ripe age of twenty six. As you thought of him, you let out a soft snort that nobody but you could hear, thinking of his disheveled raven haired locks that framed his face; thinking of his earlobe holes that had been stretched out to nearly half an inch in diameter; thinking of the myriad of tattoos that littered his body from neck to toe. Sometimes, it did seem a little funny that this man had to wear a lab coat on the daily. You were so proud of him and of his accomplishments. He was ambitious and driven, focused on his goal of succeeding in both his field and with his band. Whether that meant recording an album and touring or just continuing to have fun was unknown, since really he would be fine with either or both.

Entertaining your analytical thoughts about Kuroo brought you to the bassist of your band, Takahiro Hanamaki, as you had met them both at your high school jobs in a local cafe. Makki, though he initially seemed profoundly reserved, had a relaxed sense of humor that typically came at the expense of others. At the time, he was a distinct contrast to Kuroo’s loud, antagonistic nature. Now, the two of them began to take bits and pieces of each other’s personalities. While Makki’s cool, composed self remained, he also was not one to avoid baiting someone just to crack a joke or tease them, an attribute he had adopted over the years of exposure to you and the guitarist. However, his laidback attitude was almost never immediately acknowledged by strangers, as his lanky build and harrowing, deep set eyes typically intimidate those who don’t know the light hearted bassist. And while he wasn’t the most “modified” member of the band, many saw the two eyebrow rings that rested above the right brow and, in conjunction with his natural features, immediately assumed the impression that Makki was unapproachable. You always had a soft spot for Makki and his slightly misunderstood ways.

Speaking of misunderstood brought your mind to the youngest member of your quartet—Yūji Terushima, or Teru as you affectionately called him. While he was only a year younger than the boys, two years in comparison to you, he was the life energy of the squad. When he had entered the cafe in which you, Kuroo, and Makki worked at for his first day, it felt that the final missing piece of the puzzle had been found, though you didn’t know it yet. It had been a year later, with you officially accepting the role of supervisor instead of trainer and Kuroo being your replacement. The two hit it off swimmingly and, while Makki didn’t necessarily match his energy, he compensated with humor. Terushima was, and still is, a wild thing. He breathes life into the rest of you by offering up crazy adventures that varied from a simple 2am Walmart trip to breaking into forest preserves at the dead of night to swim in a creek even though you had finals to attend to the following morning. In a sense, Terushima was the very reason Elixir had been born. After all, he was the one who encouraged each you to learn covers of songs until the interest had been sparked enough to learn how to properly play everyone’s respected instruments.

Backtracking your thoughts—finals. Finals meant university, and university was probably the most wild time of your life. As the friendship between the four of you continued to blossom with years passing, you all had made a pact to attend the same university. At one point, it had been tricky, trying to decide on where you were going to go and if you wanted to wait for Teru to catch up due to the age gap or if you, as the eldest, were going to pave the way for your juniors. It came as a surprise to the boys when you announced that you would wait, taking a two year gap in order to save money to lessen the blow of tuition in your bank account. Even more surprisingly, Kuroo and Makki had agreed with each other to do the same—what was the point in you staying behind and waiting for Yūji if they weren’t going to as well?

Waiting for Terushima turned out to be the absolute best idea ever. While you were initially hesitant to be rooming with three boys, friendship be damned, the four of you getting an apartment together for your university years was the best chaotic good moment you had ever been involved in. In a way, you all had gotten to celebrate many firsts together because of it. Did it bother you that you were a slightly older freshman? Sure, a little bit. Did it matter? Not at all, considering you were able to start buying liquor and beer as a sophomore in college and, as soon as your younger peers found out, you had turned it into a business to help pay rent for your shared apartment. Oddly enough, Terushima was the one who handled all of the expenses and calculated what you should be charging for your, ahem, “services”. Go figure, the youngest of you all was a math whiz. There was one unwritten rule for the apartment—no parties. Period. You could use your services to grab whatever supplies needed, whether it be alcohol, weed from a dispensary, or cigarettes, they were for your guys’ personal use only. Home was meant to home, and that was that.

Home; probably the single most important word in the entirety of your personal dictionary. While home was most often defined as a place in which a person or family resides, it meant something entirely different to you. Being home meant being with your best friends, your family. It meant being free to be yourself, unapologetically and unabashedly. And, maybe after rummaging through every single thought and analyzing each one through a metaphorical microscope, maybe that was where the disturbance in your intuition—that nasty gut feeling residing in the pit of your stomach—was coming from. There was something that you could not quite place that was disturbing your freedom, your home. Coming to the realization that your hot water had now gone cold, prompting you to shut it off and seek refuge and warmth in a fluffy towel and robe. Had it gone cold in that moment—the moment you realized why you had been on edge? Or had it been running cold out of irony that you had been in meditation for so long you hadn’t even realized it? You would never know the answer.

2:07pm. You still had plenty of time before band practice, considering both Makki and Tetsu would still be at work for another hour. To give them ample time to unwind from their work day, practice always started at five in the evening. In an attempt to kill time, you opted to make yourself a small lunch before sitting down to do your hair and makeup so as that you felt more comfortable being in public. Not that the boys cared—they lived with you for four years in university, they knew what you looked like at your absolute worst. Perhaps it became a habit to do so when you re-entered the working world as a full fledged adult three years ago.

2:29pm. After having your lunch, even taking the time to do all the dishes before moving into your next task—getting ready. While you didn’t feel the need to go overboard on your appearance, since it was just practice after all, you still had a solid hour and a half before Elixir was supposed to meet. Having plenty of time to kill allowed you to take your time to forego some self-care as well; maybe giving your locks a little extra tender love and care if you felt you needed it; plucking stray eyebrow hairs that had grown just a bit further outside of your desired shape. You checked the time on your phone again after you felt your look was complete, hair, makeup, and all. How the fuck had only an hour gone by? That was way more effort than you normally put in, or so you claim, yet time seemed to be mocking you.

3:36pm. If you could magically waste time picking out an outfit to wear to practice, you were doing so now. One part of you almost wanted to chuck on the leather pants you would potentially be sporting for tomorrow evening so as to give them a slight stretch and make them more comfortable while you performed. Another said to just keep it simple, and stick to leggings and a nice loose tee to keep you at ease. The last option that your mind entertained was wearing shorts and a tank because it always got so hot in Terushima’s basement during practice. You even went so far as to try on multiple shirts and tops that were essentially the same, swapping out different preferred accessories to see if you liked the look, if only to make the minutes tick by. Hell, you even tried multiple pairs of shoes, lacing each foot individually before the clock had passed four in the afternoon. Eventually, you tied on your typical, everyday combat boots despite the wasted minutes trying to do a wardrobe check. Now that there was only an hour left for Elixir to begin arriving the at the drummer’s family home, you decide to give yourself ample time to stop by and grab coffee for everyone.

4:13pm. You send a text message out to your mates, waiting for them to reply with what you knew would be their typical orders. Well, as typical as it could be considering Terushima was always trying out crazy concoctions. One by one they responded and of course, your assumptions were correct when Teru sent in his drink that took up four rows of text. “What in the actual fuck?” You grumbled out, squinting at your phone while simultaneously trying to enter your car. Following your typical routine of turning on whatever guilty pleasure playlist you were feeling in that moment and lighting a cigarette, you glanced at your friends order one more time before ultimately deciding to place the order online. You didn’t want to embarrass yourself ordering Yūji’s stupid drink. After placing the order, you made your way to a Starbucks closest to the aforementioned boy’s family home.

The drive to Terushima’s wasn’t a particularly long, even with the coffee run. Traveling between two suburban towns typically only took about twenty minutes regardless of the direction you were coming from, though you hadn’t taken into account the long line wrapping around the Starbucks Drive-thru. Not that it mattered—you were still on time for practice. Even if it seemed all of your friends were already here. Cautiously exiting your car with the tray of drinks in one hand while you let yourself into the Terushima residence.

His parents greeted you warmly as you always did before you made your way down to the basement. “Ayeeee, there’s momma.” Makki greets, taking the tray from your hands and distributing everyone’s respective drinks. Small talk place between band members, distracting you from the other three people in the basement—your bandmates’ girlfriends. When you did finally acknowledge their presence, you gave them a tight lipped smile, so as not to be rude, though they only gave a blank stare before bringing their attention back to the phones in their hands. You gave a roll of your eyes. It wasn’t that you didn’t like them, per se. It was more along the lines of you were the only female in the band and they automatically assumed that you were out to steal their mans. Not the case, especially considering you all formed the band before any of them were even in the picture, but go off.

Having already finished your beverage from earlier, you began plugging in the microphone into the amplifier and tuning the guitar you used for a small number of songs. Everyone else seemed to be ready to go except for you, who was strapping on the aforementioned guitar to prepare for the insanity of an opening that is Kuroo’s masterpiece. Besitos, he called it. Spanish for little kisses, you often wondered where the romantic title had come from considering the narrative was less than pleasant, even foreshadowing murder in the final verse. When you asked him about the inspiration for the lyrics and the title, Kuroo did nothing but laugh, adding in, “I’ll tell you when you’re older.”

The second song was a project curated by your drummer, Terushima. Brick by Boring Brick was a song that he claimed was inspired by his girlfriend, which was an endearing gesture if that were the truth. But from what you and the rest of Elixir had known of his girlfriend, she didn’t come off as a person plagued with baggage. Not that you could base it solely off of appearance, but with her and Yūji’s short lived relationship, it was a bit unbelievable that he had unlocked her tragic backstory in a matter of three months. Then again, what did you know? You didn’t even remember her name.

The title of the third song, Growing Pains, always made you laugh at the irony considering that Makki’s tall ass wrote the song. While a romantic, upbeat love song from Teru didn’t strike you as a shock, it certainly did coming from the bassist. Emotions that danced in the “love” category didn’t really sway him often. Maybe his girlfriend was just that special to him? You weren’t sure, because once again, you knew none of their names. But you knew for a fact that the song seemed to call for something more stable, endearing growth together and support for each other, which had you questioning how long had you been apart from your friends.

After the third song, you were winded and uncomfortable and no amount of water you chugged was helping you with sweat and dehydration. “I’m gonna die tomorrow.” You joked after setting your water bottle down by your microphone stand.

“We’re only a third of the way through the set, headass.” Terushima joked, pulling down his lower left eyelid and sticking his tongue out to you.

“For real, it’s only been like twenty minutes since we started practice.” Kuroo chided.

“Yeah, but can we smoke instead? I think there were a few things we should tune up before moving onto the next third of the set.” You looked to your guitarist with pleading eyes, holding a cigarette and lighter between your fingers. Makki, without saying anything else, pulled out a small bowl and packed it. He knew that any form of pleading made Kuroo a weak man, which inevitably meant a smoke break was up next rather than continuing on with work.

“Fine.” Despite the mock defeat in his tone, Kuroo is already gliding up the stairs, taking two steps at a time with you in tow. More steps could be heard, but they were lighter than the boys you had come know so well, meaning the three stooges were most likely following suit, despite them not being smokers themselves.

You and Kuroo were currently seated on a stone barricade as you lit your cigarettes, the rest of the crew picking at sporadic seats along the wall. Teru and Makki were next to each other to share their bowl while their girlfriends sat on the outside of them, just to your right. Kuroo’s girlfriend had taken up occupying the space between you and your guitarist and, maybe for a moment, you were wondering they were deliberately arranged this way.

The worst part of the girlfriends accompanying practice, in your eyes, was not their presence, but rather the fact that you felt like you couldn’t even talk to your best friends, your bandmates at band practice, because they were too busy comforting them so that they “didn’t feel out of place”. Regardless, you respected your friends enough to not make the situation more difficult for them—if you needed to say something, you could say it in the basement where spectator talk was not welcome. Out of the corner of your eye while you were internally monologuing, you see the lanky arm of Makki offering you the bowl, a few cinders of his hot still lit. With poor timing, he grabbed your attention while you were exhaling the smoke in your lungs, unintentionally doing so onto his girlfriend. “Shit, I’m sorry.” She rolled her eyes, though you know you didn’t do it on purpose. Whatever, she had her truths. You held up your hand that squeezed the filter of your cigarette between your index and ring finger. “I’ll get it on the next turn,” making Makki shrug and pass the small glass bowl back to the drummer.

A couple more drags of your cigarette soothes your craving for nicotine and when the paper had finally burned all the way to the end of the filter, you tossed the butt into the dead fire pit that acted as the center for your gathering. Terushima stands up real quick to hand you the bowl that had been nearing its end—giving you the last couple hits before it was cashed. When it came to marijuana, you didn’t smoke very often, but today you were grateful for the offering. Maybe the high would take the edge off of your...anxiety? No, that wasn’t it. Irritation seemed to be a better fit.

The seven of you shuffle back into the basement, rearranging yourselves, and knocking back a beer. “Okay, so before we move on, is there any song that you guys think we should work on before moving to the next third of the set?” You asked, your back towards your audience while you looked at your bandmates in earnest. They looked at each other, before locking eyes with you.

“Is there anything you want to work on? You’re the one who’s switching around with instruments and you’re the one who runs around on stage so we’ll leave it up to you.” Kuroo says evenly. You pursed your lips in uncertainty, think back to how each song sounded.

“Ya know what, let’s work on...........”

[ Besitos ] » Kuroo’s Route

[ Brick By Boring Brick ] » Terushima’s Route

[ Growing Pains ] » Makki’s Route.

BONUS: Terushima’s Starbucks order.

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liw-the-melancholic-apple · 4 years ago

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How it may have gone - Humble beginnings

I realise that noone read part one. But i got 15 parts on my computer, so i'll just upload them...

James, Sirius, Remus and Peter are a bunch of things. But mainly they're teenagers. In their 6th year the political climate in the magical community gets colder and conflict is near inevitable. At hogwarts that leads to more animosity between some of the students. But it also bands some together.

Another prefect in the group doesn't seem like a good idea on paper, but it turns out that the soap opera aspects of high school as well as the downsides of wizardry are better faced with Friends. The more the merrier.

Masterlist

Two: Making contact

It had been at the same time a long and a short night. Long because I spent hours and hours discussing my visit to Dumbledore’s office with my best friends Chloe and Milla in the Common Room and started all over again when Chloe’s boyfriend Magnus and his mates Crick and Joe showed up. Short because when I finally went to bed I already heard the birds chirping.

No surprise then, that I was anything but willing to get out of my bed when Milla carefully hit me with her pillow stating that breakfast had already begun. That wasn’t unusual. Since first year Milla, Chloe, Blair, Nica and I went downstairs just in time to have breakfast and had to the first class of the day. I didn’t see any reason to get up early just so I could hang out in the common room an half hour before going to first period. Especially if you could spend that half hour sleeping in your warm and comfortable bed.

“Like it’s started a while ago”, Nica added and I opened my eyes. Unhappy and grumpy I got out of bed already missing it and stumbled into the bathrooms on the other side of the dorm. I took a quick shower that woke me up somewhat and halfheartedly brushed my teeth.

Uniform and ties in place I fished my robes off my chair standing at the group of study desks in the middle of the round dorm, checked for the yellow badge and threw them on. Hair pulled in my signature topbun and dark lipstick applied, I collected all the books and parchment I needed for the day to store them in my torn up but deeply loved grey and black fabric backpack. I had found it at a market in Portugal the summer before my third year and used it for everything ever since.

Chloe and Blair were still in the bathroom getting ready, so I opened a window to check the temperature. It was the first week of November and autumn had really arrived. It wasn’t cold but it wasn’t warm either and a fine mist of rain fell. I quickly closed the window again and went to the big ebony wardrobe beside my ebony bed with mustard yellow velvet curtains.

I found my dad’s old leather coat that I had begged him to let me take to school in September and threaded it through one of the backpack straps. I knew that I was going to spend some time outside throughout the day and didn’t want to risk a cold. Thinking of my time spent out in the grey I checked the little front pocket of my bag and found the silver case and zippo.

We left the common room together with Magnus and two random very stressed first years, breathed in the pancake and freshly baked role air that evaporated from the kitchens and took the short hike up the stairs to the Great Hall.

Just as I was about to land on the ground floor of the castle leaving the stairs someone called my name followed by: “Skip the step!” I instantly scanned my surroundings to figure out whether I was still half asleep and had wandered off to the southern staircase to the third floor, where the trick step is located, when I saw Potter and Pettigrew laughing hysterically leaned against one of the pillars in the foyer.

Right, that happened. It was far too early for that kind of shenanigans. I still wasn’t awake enough to deal with people. “It’s far too early for that kind of shenanigans”, I mumbled as we passed them entering the Great Hall.

“Oh, come one, De Witt”, Potter moaned following me and my friends inside. “I thought we were partners in crime now. You can’t just go back to hating us!” I smelled coffee and walked quickly towards my house table, grabbed the biggest cup I could find and filled it with the wonderful liquid energy. Turning around I took a big sip of it. It was still too early for shenanigans with Potter but I felt better armed with the cup.

“I don’t hate you, Potter”, I said leaning against the table. “Or you”, I added looking at Pettigrew.

“Why are you so grumpy then?”, Pettigrew looked at me with a weirdly suspicious expression.

“I’m not particularly grumpy. I’m just not a morning person”, I explained when a raisin roll was waved in front of my face. “General rule is to only speak when absolutely necessary until about ten”, Milla explained after I had taken the roll. She pulled me onto the bench next to Crick, where I sat still facing the two Gryffindors and not my plate. I swung one of my legs to the other side of the bench when Potter sounded a lot happier in saying: “So, if we tell you to skip the step after first period you’ll find it hilarious again?”

“Well, maybe not hilarious. But I could appreciate it.”

“Deal!” The pair turned around and left the Hall again. I finally sat down the way you’re supposed to sit at a breakfast table and started munching on the delicious raisin roll, some pumpkin juice and yoghurt.

“Partners in crime?”, Crick raised one eyebrow ridiculously high.

“I think he’s exaggerating a bit”, I shrugged.

“But I did admit to being on his side in the whole thing. Even if I didn’t necessarily mean for him to know…”

“So, they are your friends now and are going to hang around a lot?”, Nica asked, eyes trailing off into nothing, a vague smile on her lips.

“Ah! Snap out of it, will you?”, Magnus snapped his fingers in front of her face. “He is head over heels in love with Lily and that won’t change any time soon.”

“Yeah, I know. But a girl can dream, can’t she?”, Nica hit him against the chest.

“Wait, that’s genuine affection?”, Blair got in on the conversation. “I thought he just played a really long con prank on her. Trying to see when she’d snap”, she explained looking a little confused.

“Nah”, Crick laughed to himself. “It has to be genuine. He just isn’t himself around Lily. Not as smooth as he usually is.”

We had to take their word for it. My time with Potter and his band of pranksters was limited to the meals and since we didn’t exactly run in the same circles we usually didn’t speak. Sure, being prefects and all I did regularly see Remus – an Lily Evans for that matter – but we rarely did night shifts or stuff like that interhouse and interyear. So, we didn’t talk all that much.

Crick and Magnus on the other hand were sixth years just like Potter and had a bunch of classes with him. Their expertise was definitely bigger than ours.

“Do you not talk to your sister?”, Magnus continued toward Blair. “She must know.” Blair’s sister was a sixth year Gryffindor and good friends with Lily Evans.

“Well, yeah I do. But neither mine nor Marlene’s lives revolve around Potter. However much he’d like to believe that”, she laughed.

“And I don’t think she and Lily have picked up on him acting differently around them. For all I know they can’t understand why he won’t just let it go.”

“Maybe we should just tell Lily. Stir the pot a bit”, Crick winked at Magnus.

“Potter will kill you.” Crick shrugged and got up.

“Potions it is”

The sixth years left us to our own devices and strolled to the dungeons.

“Aaaanyways, you’re friends with Potter now?” Nica looked at me all excited.

“I don’t think so Nic. We might be allies, though. Who knows. But I’m not really expecting him to invite to his birthday party.” Nica sighed and got back to her pancakes.

Milla glanced at her watch an notched me with her elbow. I downed the rest of my second coffee and got up with her. We waved at the rest of our friends and made our way out of the Great Hall and to the courtyard doors. I put on my dad’s leather coat and Milla wrapped herself in the biggest scarf I had ever seen, then we went outside and ran over to one of the roofed passage ways.

I flicked open my fancy silver cigarette case as Milla struggled with a wet paper package. We both lit up and inhaled the deathbringing smoke with content expressions. If I’m honest, we were a bad influence on one another at times. I had gotten her into smoking when she came on holiday with my family last summer, who had just found out that I had started. On the other hand, when I met her I had been an absolute morning person but her late night talks and antics had changed that over time.

We were comparing our mugglestudies-answers of the test we had the day before for the 100th time when a knowing smirk appeared on Milla’s fine porcelain features as she focused on something somewhere behind me. I turned around and found Remus and Black the elder walking toward us smoking as well. Milla’s smirk widened a bit when both boys examined us with puzzled looks, clearly hung up on the cigarettes.

“Would ya look at that”, Black said finally. “We’re already rubbing off on goodie-two-shoes. It’s not even been twenty-four hours. You’re showing potential, Goodie.”

“Goodie-two-shoes?”, Milla’s fair eyebrows disappeared into her fine fringe.

“That’s what they called me yesterday because I didn’t know about the buzzing triangle”, I explained and she nodded.

“Right, in the waiting room.”

“Have you already disclosed all our secrets?”, Remus asked grinning.

“I wasn’t aware that they were secrets.” We were just about to get into a discussion on the definition of secrets and the unwritten rules regarding them, when Black interrupted us:”Remus, are just gonna ignore the fact the she smokes? After one half evening with us, that she didn’t even spend talking to us?” Milla flew into a fit of laughter at his ego and I couldn’t help but chuckle myself.

“I don’t actually think that that’s our doing, Pads”, Remus answered grinning even wider.

“But she’s a rule-loving know-it-all prefect, for Merlin’s sake! How can she be smoking?”

“I’m sorry if I messed with your world view, Black, but as far as I can tell Remus is a know-it-all and prefect, too, and you’re not complaining about his smoking.”

“Cause he isn’t all that crazy about rules”, he explained, annoyed tone in his voice as if to say that that was obvious.

“Who said Jette is?”, Milla countered extinguishing her cigarette and pulling on my arm to get me to go in. We didn’t wait for an answer and just waved them good-bye in synchrony before we hurried to get to Charms class.

“So much for not going to hang out with them”, Milla snorted when we were back in the foyer.

“That was two conversations before first period. Is that more in one hour than in the last four years?” I thought on that for a moment.

“Not counting the last two months and Remus, yes.”

Milla snorted again and imagined how much Nica would freak out if she told her about that development and the growing chances of her spending time with James Potter. I was still sceptical about that.

Nica wasn’t. She instantly made plans to engage and entrap Potter in a conversation about Quidditch and the upcoming match of Ravenclaw against Gryffindor that was only ten days away. Milla and Blair got into it with her, although they seemed to enjoy Nica’s excitement more than the idea of talking to the Gryffindor Captain.

I let them chatter away and decided to pair up with Chloe for the practical part of Charms class. Semi-focused we conjured vague images of our holidays, as instructed by Professor Flitwick, not really succeeding at creating livelike holograms, while discussing the last and the next Hogsmeade weekend.

The houseteachers had finally given in and made the whole weekend available for trips to the village rather than just the Saturday which meant that Chloe didn’t have to choose between spending the day with us or her oh-so-lovely Magnus. The second weekend of October she had opted to go to the Broomsticks with us on Saturday first, then do some good old shopping-therapy and do some cheesy couple stuff with Mag on Sunday. The next Hogsmeade weekend was this week and coincided with their one year anniversary. It was obvious that she really wanted to just spend every single minute with Mag but she was too polite to say it.

“I mean I could do some last minute giftshopping on Saturday with you and then go for a romantic lunch with him on Sunday, right?”

“You already got all the presents you can possibly give him, Chloe. Just ask him to block the entire weekend for you and wander through the crisp November air snuggling up to his side, when the wind gets too brisk and find a quiet spot to snog 36 hours straight. None of us will blame you for it.”

“You’re impossible!” She screamed waving her wand carelessly, sharpening up her hologram that showed her and Mag at some Cabana barely wearing any clothes and kissing passionately. I immediately stopped caring about her weekendplans and started interrogating her about that image – and all it implicated – as she quickly let the hologram disappear looking to her feet.

“Oh. My God!”, Milla squealed very atypically on our way to lunch, when Chloe confessed her very grown up escapades of the last summer holiday to her, Blair and Nica. Joe had wisely found other people to talk to but kept looking over at our reactions from which he probably deduced exactly what Magnus and Chloe had been up to over the break. And – as we learned now – the past two months in the castle.

“You did not sneak around in broom closets!”, I yelped overdrawn scandalised expression on my face, channelling my grandmother when she heard people had kids without being married.

“Shhhhhh!”, Chloe definitely already regretted telling us but we had the time of our lives thinking out loud where she could have found the perfect spot to sleep with Magnus without being found out by us, Filch or any other students and teachers.

Although she was terrified by the conversation and knew that we’d only stop when she told us, she kept it a secret, earning a lot sighs and outrageous theories. To be honest, I wasn’t all that interested in the place she’s found – I doubted that I would have need for it in the foreseeable future – but I didn’t dare ask her how it actually was. And I guessed that the other three girls felt the same.

We usually talked about everything during Milla’s aforementioned night-time talks, that left me a mess in the mornings. No secrets. And up until now we’ve always been brutally honest with each other. Did it take us a couple of week to admit we liked someone to the others? Yes, of course it did. But we confessed it eventually. The same was true for random snogging, holiday flirts and more serious subjects like where we stood on the whole bloodpurity thing or the passing of grandparents, aunts and uncles. We were really, really honest with each other.

And in none of those really, really honest conversations had any of us mentioned to not being a virgin anymore. I reckoned we all were dying of curiosity but for once found ourselves to embarrassed to admit to it. So, we kept busy torturing Chloe a bit more by getting louder and louder as we theorised about her secret hiding spot until we walked down the staircase to the foyer and the Great Hall and there were too many people to guarantee discretion.

Nica gave Joe the Okay-sign and he nodded but stayed with Irving, his Quidditch teammate. If it hadn’t been for Irving I might have made the team. I had tried out for Beater ever since second year and every year Irving and Milla bested me. Milla was an absolute ace and there was no way anybody would ever get her out of the team. No way in hell. Irving wasn’t that accurate with the bludgers but he had a great eye which meant that even if he didn’t aim precisely or hit his target he usually rattled the opposing team anyway. I was more precise but I lacked that eye for strategic blows. And at this point Milla and Irving had played together for four years, so, there was that against me, too.

We had just gotten to the middle landing of the two-sided marble staircase in the foyer, when someone shouted: ”Skip the step!” In an unnatural volume. God, they were not going to let that go. In an attempt to just satisfy them and not get sucked into a never-ending running gag I leaped into the air legs as close to a mid-air split as I could manage and landed three steps further down, only shortly losing balance.

Applause broke from the foot of the stairs where all four members of my newly founded fanclub cheered for me. I overdid a bow in their direction, let my friends catch up and was planning to just go and have lunch but that was not possible anymore.

I should have known that playing along with their little joke would motivate them to further involve me in their what-ever-they-were-doing and I most definitely should have known that Nica would not pass up this chance to entrap Potter in Quidditch talk. Stupid me, had I not gotten carried away with the silly step I would already be slurping my chili.

“Hey, you were right”, Pettigrew smiled widely at Milla. “She’s more fun after ten.” Milla gave him a warm smile back.

“You said you’d appreciate the joke, you even denied finding it hilarious”, Potter yelled. “And then you come through like that!” He pulled me into an unexpected hug.

“Very Cirque du Soleil”, commented Remus friendly nodding to the rest of my gang acknowledging their existence.

“Ah, I was going for Nutcracker of Swan Lake”, I sighed.

“Just as well”, Remus allowed and we both had to laugh at the confused faces of Potter, Black, Blair and Chloe who had never heard any of those terms.

“Seems we need to hand in a motion to update the mugglestudies curriculum”, Milla commented now grinning.

Nica completely ignored our little discussion of ballet and repeatedly kicked me against the bend of my knee.

“Ouch! Well, guys, do you actually know each other?”, I complied fairly awkwardly gesturing between the Gryffindor boys and Hufflepuff girls.

“I’m Nica!”, Nica extended her hand towards Potter as enthusiastically as humanly possible. I had to work hard not to burst into laughter and met Blacks eyes as I did so. He struggled, too. I raised a finger to my lips and he gave me quick nod, then we both straightened out.

“James”, Potter said, not the least bit surprised by Nica’s excitement and shook her hand elegantly.

“And that’s”, he continued, “Remus, Peter and Sirius.” He pointed at each one respectively. Hearing someone refer to them by their first names was odd. I mean, I knew they had them, but the student body had silently agreed to refer to them by their last names or “Potter and his lot”. I assumed it had to do with the fact that they were called to McGonnagal’s or Dumbledore’s office at least once a week, always by their last names. It just sounded more familiar.

I only started calling Remus Remus, after we met in the prefects’ cart the last September first and he introduced himself as Remus. Had we not seen each other regularly at the prefect meetings though, he would have still stayed Lupin forever.

Nica shook everybody’s hand and looked at me eyes open wide, chin pointing to Blair. I took the hint.

“Ehm, now then, James, Remus, Peter and Sirius meet Chloe, Blair and Milla.” I followed Potter’s example and pointed them out. What followed was a very weird and very formal shaking of hands and mumbled hello’s.

“Oh, wait, wow, your voice sounds so familiar.” Potter kept holding Blair’s hand, much to Nica’s disliking. But other than looking annoyed she remained calm.

“Have we talked before?”, Potter asked looking at her, clearly trying to place her face, but he couldn’t.

“I…no”, Blair wasn’t comfortable with his attention or his holding her hand still.

“But a lot of people say that I sound just like Marlene, so maybe that’s what got you?” She suggested and Potter’s face, as well as the other boys’ lit up again.

“A lot of people are absolutely right! You sound just like her. That is unbelievable. Didn’t think it was possible.” Black rambled sending all of us into heartfelt laughter.

“What?”, he then asked, eyes narrowed, focussing on each one of us.

“The only difference between your voice and Regulus’ is that you sound just a bit hoarse all the time!”, Chloe practically screamed and laughed again.

“That and your attempt to hide the posh accent”, I expanded her answer still giggling but his quite happy face had changed at that last comment to a somewhat brooding state.

“Sorry?”, I tried to get him back to his annoyingly loud natural state. I didn’t succeed exactly but he waved his hand dismissingly. I did not miss the look Remus and Potter exchanged at my comment and his gesture but I knew better than to say something. Clearly, none of my business.

Nica had just opened her mouth, when Blair cut her off:” Have you already been to lunch or are you still going?”, she looked at Pettigrew.

“Still going.”

“What are we waiting for, then? I’m starving!” Chloe grabbed Milla with one hand, Remus with the other and in doing so successfully moved all of us towards the hall.

We sat down at our respective tables without really talking – or entangling – which caused Nica to hit Blair and then Chloe over the head with her Charms workbook.

“What?”, they both said in the exact same tone, causing some other classmates to look over to us.

“Had you not could have waited five more minutes before dragging us here? I didn’t have chance to start my Quidditch plan!” You had to admire her determination and passion.

“Oh, I had completely forgotten that over Chloe…”, Blair blushed a little, shooting an apologetic look at Nica.

“I’m sure you’ll get another chance to set that plan in motion, Nic. If you just hang around Jette. I don’t think they’re gonna let that whole step-thing go any time soon.”

I blew out some air but didn’t say anything.

When I was getting up to maybe go take a nap before the afternoon classes, I noticed some waving at the table right next to ours. Both, Remus and Black tried to get my attention. Once they realised they had it Black pulled out a box of matches and Remus pointed at the door.

Why not? I thought to myself.

“Milla, you done yet?

“Hmhm” She gulped down her pumpkin juice in record time and stuffed the last two potatoes into her mouth, nearly choking in the process, but grabbed her giant scarf and bag nonetheless. I turned back to the still gesturing boys and nodded, rolling my eyes.

We met up with not only Remus and Black, but also Pettigrew and Potter at the head of our table and headed towards the foyer, when Nica grabbed my arm and forced herself between me and Milla. The both of us exchanged a very amused look, both telling the other that we had no idea her crush on Potter was this big.

We rushed to the passage way we had already been in the morning to escape the still misty rain and cold wind. It turned out that the entire Gryffindor gang smoked, something that was entirely new to me, but not at all surprising and absolutely not changing my view of the world. I smiled to my backpack as I put away my case.

Potter offered Nica a smoke and I could see her wrestling herself.

“Nica doesn’t smoke, she just likes the change of scenery to clear her head”, Milla said before I had even thought of something.

“But, thanks, anyway.” Nica smiled up at Potter who couldn’t help but smile back. Her smile always reached her small, almond shaped freakishly yellowish-green eyes, which turned her normally strict seeming face in the most friendly and inviting one you’ve ever seen. It’s infectious. Which is very annoying when you’re trying to be mad at her.

“Any particular reason you’ve nearly broken your arms to get us here?”, I asked, then lit the zippo and consequently Milla’s and my cigarettes.

“Can’t we just enjoy your lovely company?”, Black said, eyes darting to Nica and Potter, then back to me as he wiggled his eyebrows. I rolled my eyes again.

“Of course you can. Just seems unlikely”, I countered.

“Well, there are two particular reasons for us to just enjoy your company right now.” Remus inhaled way to much smoke and calmly blew it out before he went on talking. “First, I’d like to know when your last class of the day is.”

“Why?”, Nica said now wiggling her own eyebrows. Remus blushed ever so slightly.

“Because Jette and I are supposed to report to Madam Pince for detention immediately after class. I was thinking it’d be more fun if we would arrive and work together”, with that last sentence his eyes had found mine again.

“Right, that. More fun. Uhhhhmm. I think I’m done after potions.” Milla confirmed. “So, I’m off at around 15:00.”

“Same. Wanna meet here and mentally prepare before reporting?” I grinned at his choice of words but actually liked the idea of getting one more smoke in before we would organise books for Merlin-knew-how-long.

“And secondly”, Black beamed, “we thought you might like to know what Mulciber and his lot got, after Pince and Hagrid were taken.” His inquisitive eyes on me I nodded: “Of course, I wanna know.”

“They’re headed to the east wing dungeons for a week or”, Black lifted his hands indicating a quote “however long it takes to assist Mr Filch in his endeavour there.”

“There are dungeons in the east wing?”, Nica’s eyes crossed a little while she tried to remember ever having heard about that.

“Yep. It’s mainly storage and stuff like that. I think the archives might be there, too.” All three of us girls made approving noises to Remus’ answer.

“What’s Mr Filch’s endeavour, then?”, Milla wanted to know.

“He’s organising, tidying up, cleaning and throwing away. And Mulciber gets to help him. Without any kind of magic”, Pettigrew seemed to grow a good three inches as he talked. He either hated Mulciber as much as I did or he simply didn’t like tidying. Maybe both.

“How do you even know all that?”, I finally said.

“We ran into Reg this morning when you had your date with Remus and Sirius that no one invited us to”, Potter smirked. “Slytherin has been up in arms about it ever since last night.”

“Nice. At least they got the worst detention. Gotta take what you can get”, I commented, threw away the butt and looked up at the clock tower.

“Well, then, I see you”, I pointed at Remus, “between 15:00 and 15:10 here this afternoon for detention. I’m off.”

I turned on my heel, grabbed my bag from the ground and walked back towards the castle dreaming of my bed and the half hour that I could lay in it to gather all my strength for detention. I was quite certain that it would be bad. Pince didn’t like me.

♠♠♠

Armed with the biggest smile I possibly ever smiled I entered my dormitory at 15:50. Chloe looked up from her homework that she was doing at her desk in the middle of the room and distorted her pretty face while simultaneously running her quill through her hair, getting it stuck in one of her light brown blow-out curls. Instead of saying whatever she wanted to say to me she made a noise somewhere between annoyance and pain and I walked over to help her untangle the feather.

When we head succeeded she was massaging her scalp with a frown, positively inspecting me.

“Are you seriously ditching your detention?”

That biggest ever smile returned to my face. “No”, I beamed, “I’m already done.” Chloe checked her watch, then the clock on the wall, then looked back at me. “It hasn’t even been an hour” Her voice went up at the end of that statement.

“Still not ditching. Remus and I showed up at the library and Pince told us to put the returned books on her desk back into their shelves and sections. We did that. And then she said she didn’t need any other help today as she needed to let us do something tomorrow.” My smile turned to into a grin and finally Chloe got my point. “He is rather fair. And good at keeping up appearances. Reckon Potter, Pettigrew and the Blacks got a little more to do with Hagrid and from what I heard in potions Mulciber got actual detention with Filch.”

“Right, on paper we all got a week of detention but Remus and I will probably be spending it organising books for no longer than an hour a day, his friends might sit in the hut preparing food for some beast or another and Mulciber can die down in the dungeons going over school records from the last eight centuries.”

I threw myself on my bed in absolute bliss. This day had started mediocre at best and got better and better and better. I looked around the room.

“Where the hell is the rest? I didn’t see them in the common room.”

Chloe sighed. “Milla and Nica are at the pitch."

“Again? They were practicing yesterday, weren’t they?” She nodded.

“Our first game is in December. Sian could take it a little easier. Especially, with this weather.”

I looked out the window and realised I was very content not being on the quidditch team. The misty rain of this morning had turned into a steady downpour and the wind had also picked up the pace. It wasn’t storming out, but it was cold and windy and wet. Nobody would like to be out there. And yet at least seven of them were, trying to battle the storm and improve their quidditching.

“I think she just really wants to win the cup as Captain”, Chloe put her quill down and let her homework be homework.

“She was so close last year but got etched out by Gryffindor and next year she won’t be here anymore. The fanatic that she is, she couldn’t stand leaving unsuccessful as Captain.”

“Huh.” She was right. Sian Glassock had been a chaser on the Hufflepuff quidditch team ever since her second year and nobody expected anybody else to take over the title of Captain from Mitch, than her. She was obsessed enough to really motivate the rest but enough of a team player and decent person to not alienate the team.

I was pretty sure she wanted to go into potionmaking after school, being a winning Quidditch Captain in her last season wouldn’t do a whole lot for her in that, but Chloe had a point in saying that Sian probably couldn’t stand leaving her team without having made them proud and getting them to their best performance. She was such a maniac. But a friendly one.

“Blair isn’t watching, is she?”, I asked in horror as I noticed the bed to the far right was also empty and Blair’s jacket was nowhere to be seen. She couldn’t be stupid enough to sit in this weather.

“Nah, Marlene wanted something. I think they’re in the Great Hall. Or maybe upstairs in the prefect’s hallway.”

“Okay, good.” Talking to her sister was better than sitting outside to be cold. And it wouldn’t surprise me at all if the McKinnon girls had chosen the prefect’s hallway to talk in private. We all did that when we needed a space that nobody else would get into.

It seemed to be an unwritten rule among the prefects to just ignore the misuse of our offices or bathrooms. The hallway was just a short corridor with the famous prefect’s bathroom, a storage room, archive, two offices with eight desks each and a fairly cosy conference room.

Every single one of the 16 prefects and all eight head students had access to each of the rooms. So. Theoretically the hallway was nearly as busy as a common room but when someone opened the door and found a group or a pair of people hanging out, they’d just close it again and acted as if nothing happened. Sometimes whoever was in the room would just charm it to either not open without permission or to show a hologram of an empty room, so that one could do exactly what one wanted to do.

We had been hanging out there a lot after Crick had made prefect. I remembered having had long nights on the conference room’s fluffy, soft couches with all of Crick’s and my dorm…

“The prefect’s conference room!”, I yelled. Chloe gave me a disapproving look because of the volume, then a confused one because of what I had said.

“For instance. Why’s that exciting you?”

“Not Blair. You! And Mag! That’s where you snuck off to, right? Crick gave Magnus the keys. How did I not see that!!?” It was hard to tell but I was pretty sure that Chloe blushed. I was right.

“Let’s see what they’re up to in the common room!”, she avoided actually answering and dragged me to the stairs.

We had barely stepped into the round domed room when Felix waved me over. “Mum wrote”, he said when I had fallen onto the golden-yellow lounge chair at his table. I instantly got a bad conscience. I hadn’t written home once in the two months we had been back at school. I loved receiving letters but I was rubbish at writing them. And with the extra prefect-duties I had this year, my time was too valuable to tell my parents that I had little time to write to them.

“She’s going shopping in London with Gran next week and wants to know if we need anything”, Felix went on. “Send her your measurements and a list.” He looked me up and down. “Or give them both to me and I’ll send them.”

I leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek, leaving a dark brown lipstick mark on it. “You’re the best! But I don’t think I need anything.” He rubbed his cheek in disgust but he smiled.

“Course I am. Just think about it. I’ll write back Sunday.”

“Do you have a dress for Slughorn’s Christmas Party?”, Chloe asked.

“He hasn’t even announced it yet”, I laughed back.

“Yeah, but you’re gonna be invited, right? You were last year and now that you’re also a prefect you are basically destined to do great things in life and he needs you to remember him once you’ve done them.” I threw the black cushion from my chair at her.

“There haven’t been any of his dinners yet. Maybe he’s grown tired of that weird club…” Slughorn’s dinners were usually a strange affair. Milla, Blair and I had been invited for the first time last year and found it all very awkward. It was just a group of different students from all houses and years answering questions about their families and plans for life. Granted, the food was excellent and last year’s Christmas party was good fun but those dinners were not for me. I had managed to only go to two out of the four that had happened last year, by pretending Felix was homesick and needed me.

This year I wouldn’t get to use that excuse, he had already told me he didn’t mind it last year but he also didn’t want his friends to think that he was a wuzz. He had turned thirteen last June and started exhibiting teenage-tendencies when it came to other people’s opinions.

“I don’t think that he’ll ever grow tired of that club. Besides, I quite liked the party last year. Hope he invites Mag again this year.” Chloe wasn’t a member of the stupid club but Magnus was. Promising herbology prodigy, according to my potions master. She got the best of both world’s by dating Mag. Didn’t have to go to the dinners but got to enjoy the lavish Christmas festivities he put on.

“True… But if you go with Mag and I invite Nica we could also all beg our parents for the money and use one of the December Hogsmeade weekends for a dress shopping session.” Chloe swayed her head from left to right with a distant smile on her face.

“That would be nice, too.”

We hung out with Felix and his third year friends, mainly gossiping about the teachers until the Quidditch team entered the common room, drenched, sneezing and unhappy. Sian looked pretty happy with herself but her bad conscience was very visible. She ushered her team to their respective dorms and ordered them to take good, long, warm showers. Nobody protested.

“Bet you a galleon that Nica is cursing like a sailor and that Joe will be out cold for three days”, Chloe chuckled, before Magnus came by, kissed her and splattered some water of us before heading to his shower.

“Charming”, Felix commented as he wiped his face dry.

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