#can’t wait for Saturday I’ve never written her truly losing her shit and it’s going to be so much fun. just gotta pick who she’s gonna go

[ongreenergrasses]

annie cresta week has me Scrambling

[twoidiotwriters1]

Written In The Stars CXXXII (Harry Potter xF!Oc)

A/N: Only six chapters to go!! -Danny

Words: 5,233

Series’ Masterlist

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Listen to: ‘How To Be Yours’ -by Chris Renzema

Chapter Thirty: O.W.L.'s

It was chaos after Fred and George's departure. 

Mel didn't even have to lift a finger to make sure the school was having a good amount of incidents, everywhere she went something was always happening, people were eager to copy the twins' doings, and the teachers had no intention to stop them.

The Inquisitorial Squad was in hell, which was what Mel had been dreaming for months. Something not so great was Erick as the main target of people that didn't know he was helping. Despite this, the D.A. knew about his friendship with Mel and they were very careful to keep him safe from any major harm. 

"When Mum's next letter finally gets through Umbridge's screening process I'm going to be in deep trouble. I wouldn't be surprised if she's sent a Howler again."

"But —"

"It'll be my fault Fred and George left, you wait," said Ron. "She'll say I should've stopped them leaving, I should've grabbed the ends of their brooms and hung on or something... Yeah, it'll be all my fault..."

"Well, if she does say that it'll be very unfair, you couldn't have done anything! But I'm sure she won't, I mean, if it's really true they've got premises in Diagon Alley now, they must have been planning this for ages..." Hermione said.

"Yeah, but that's another thing, how did they get premises? It's a bit dodgy, isn't it? They'll need loads of Galleons to afford the rent on a place in Diagon Alley, she'll want to know what they've been up to, to get their hands on that sort of gold..."

"Well, yes, that occurred to me too, I've been wondering whether Mundungus has persuaded them to sell stolen goods or something awful..."

"He hasn't," said Harry.

"How do you know?" asked Ron and Hermione.

"Because —" Harry glanced at Mel. "Because they got the gold from me. I gave them my Triwizard winnings last June."

"Oh, Harry, you didn't!" Hermione gasped.

"Yes, I did. And I don't regret it either — I didn't need the gold, and they'll be great at a joke shop..."

"But this is excellent! It's all your fault, Harry — Mum can't blame me at all! Can I tell her?"

"You really are Harry's best friend, aren't you?" Mel snorted.

"Yeah, I suppose you'd better," said Harry. "'Specially if she thinks they're receiving stolen cauldrons or something..."

Once on the school grounds, she heard Harry and Hermione still arguing about it.

"It's no good nagging me, it's done! Fred and George have got the gold — spent a good bit of it too, by the sounds of it — and I can't get it back from them and I don't want to. So save your breath, Hermione."

"I wasn't going to say anything about Fred and George!" 

Ron snorted.

"No, I wasn't!" She insisted. "As a matter of fact, I was going to ask Harry if he's going to go back to Snape and ask for Occlumency lessons again! You can't tell me you've stopped having funny dreams, because Ron told me last night you were muttering in your sleep again."

"You were only muttering a bit," Ron blushed. "Something about 'just a bit farther.' " 

"I dreamed I was watching you lot play Quidditch," Harry lied. "I was trying to get you to stretch out a bit farther to grab the Quaffle." 

"Wow, that was brutal," Mel grimaced. "If I were you, Ron, I'd sneak some farting bubbles in his pumpkin juice..."

Ron's ears turned red from embarrassment and annoyance, Hermione pinched Mel's arm and she complained, but Harry looked very pleased about his own behaviour.

"You are trying to block your mind, aren't you?" Hermione pushed.

"Of course I am," said Harry, his eyes darting away from his friend's face. "Mel's been helping me lots, haven't you, Mel?"

"Sure thing," Mel lied. "He's making progress. Honestly, I think I'm a better teacher than Snape."

Truth be told they hadn't practised at all after Fred and George left school. Mel was busy with her homework and Quidditch practice, and not once Harry had asked her to help him with Occlumency. Probably because he didn't want her to look into some private memories again.

"You know," said Ron, "if Montague doesn't recover before Slytherin play Hufflepuff, we might be in with a chance of winning the Cup."

"Yeah, I s'pose so," said Harry, eager to change the subject.

"I mean, we've won one, lost one — if Slytherin lose to Hufflepuff next Saturday —"

"Yeah, that's right," Harry's eyes followed Cho's figure as she crossed the courtyard without looking at him once. 

"You know," Mel said quietly. "You shouldn't force it... When things are meant to be, they just happen."

The morning of their game against Ravenclaw Mel was a nervous wreck. She was stuffing herself with all the food she could reach.

"You'll throw up if you keep eating like that!" Hermione took the bowl of fruit from her hands.

"I need that!"

"You don't."

"I mean, I can't get any worse, can I?" Ron said anxiously. "Nothing to lose now, is there?"

"If you keep saying that I'll kill you," Mel groaned. "I'm going to pass out, I just know it..."

As she and Ron were leaving the Hall, Harry tried to catch up with them, but Mel was so entranced in her own thoughts that she didn't hear him yell until he tried another name.

"Dumbledore girl!"

Mel turned back, her eyes landed on Harry and her frown vanished.

"Oh," She blinked. "What's up?"

"It's your first game as Seeker," He shook her hand, squeezing a little. "Best of luck... Can I ask you a favour?"

"Okay?"

"Give hell to Cho," He smirked. "Only during the game, though."

She chuckled. 

"I'll do my best, Glasses."

Both of them froze.

"I'm sorry," She stammered. "I wasn't thinking, I—"

"It's okay," Harry replied softly, his eyes shining at the nickname.

A little voice whispered in her ear: 'Not again.' 

"I have to go," She said, turning hot on her heel and leaving a startled Harry behind.

"And here they come! The Weasleys! Johnson! Bell! Spinnet! Sloper! and Dumbledore! This is Mel's first game as a seeker — Cheers, Mel!"

"I'm so full of shit..." Mel whispered tensely.

"And they're off! And Davies takes the Quaffle immediately, Ravenclaw Captain Davies with the Quaffle, he dodges Johnson, he dodges Bell, he dodges Spinnet as well... He's going straight for goal! He's going to shoot — and — and — Shit! And he's scored."

As predicted, the tune of  'Weasley is our king' started around the stands. Mel took a deep breath coming to terms with the fact that this was beyond her control, all she could do now was focus on catching the snitch. As Bradley plummeted towards Ron, the boy threw himself to the right and he... stopped the Quaffle.

A brief moment of stunned silence surrounded them, then, just as quickly, the Gryffindor crowd erupted into cheers. Mel shared a look of genuine shock with Ginny, then she looked back at her friend, who was frozen in disbelief.

"You got this, Ron!" She shouted.

Mel could only describe what happened next as pure magic. Ron stopped every single attempt to score from the Ravenclaws one after the other. He did all this with truly impressive manoeuvres as well. Angelina was beaming with pride, Katie and Alicia were at the top of their game too; even Jack was doing a decent job.

Ginny was having a blast, throwing the bludgers around to the opposite team. Mel and Cho would circle the game above everyone, and with every passing minute Cho started to look more and more anxious. Mel tried to keep a neutral attitude towards her, but apparently, Cho had witnessed the moment when Harry chased after her to wish her good luck personally. It wasn't Mel's fault, his loyalty was towards Gryffindor, not her! 

An hour after it had started what it was by far the best game of the season, Mel caught a glimpse of something golden at the end of Ravenclaw's side of the field. She flew fast towards it, but Cho was right behind her. She took a sharp turn when a chaser flew right in front of her, causing her (and Cho) to lose sight of the snitch.

The girls went back up with grumpy expressions, but then she looked down to see how the game was going and spotted the snitch two feet away from the tail of  Cho's broom. Mel swore loudly and gave another abrupt turn, circling Chang's broom. The tail barely grazed her shoulder as she chased after the tiny thing. Mel stretched out her hand and in one sudden movement, she seized it.

The game was officially over, and Gryffindor had won.

Mel stared down at the object on her palm as she landed, she was tackled into a hug by the whole team, Ron was in the middle of it, being the star of the match. Only then she realized the lyrics of the song had changed. 

Weasley is our King,

Weasley is our King,

He didn't let the Quaffle in,

Weasley is our King...

Weasley can save anything,

He never leaves a single ring

That's why Gryffindors all sing:

Weasley is our King.

Angelina was a crying mess as well as Alicia, this being their last game probably felt like a miracle sent from heaven. Katie and Ginny were euphoric, Jack couldn't believe their luck. Every girl in the team kissed Ron on the cheek and Jack patted his shoulder roughly. Mel got her own round of hugs and kisses, and they were both suddenly lifted in the air, guided to the stands so they could receive the Quidditch cup from none other than Umbridge herself.

Sure, instant gratification was all right, but nothing was quite as pleasant as the absolute outrage in Umbridge's face when the cup reached Mel and Ron's hands, both of them lifting the cup proudly for everyone to see. 

As the crowd guided them back to the castle, Ron shouted.

"HARRY! HERMIONE! WE DID IT! WE WON!" 

She looked to where he was yelling and found their friends beaming at them. Mel's eyes fixed on Harry's expression, he hadn't looked that happy since last June. She was delighted to be part of the reason why he was smiling like that.

"Hagrid's keeping a what in the forest?" 

Hermione hushed her, they were in their room long after the party had ended, the girl had sneaked into her bed to talk about what they'd done during the Quidditch match. Turns out that neither she nor Harry had seen it, Hagrid appeared and asked them to follow him into the forbidden forest. There he introduced them to his half brother, which happened to be:

"A young giant?" Her voice came out muffled since Hermione was covering her mouth. "He spends his afternoons being his brother's punching bag?"

"He reckons he's helping him become... er... civilized," Hermione said. "It's awful, really. Grawp looks like he'd much rather spend his time chasing down centaurs than learning how to spell 'tree'."

"And he made you promise we would look after him? No. Absolutely not."

"We don't have a choice —"

"We don't even know if he'll get fired!"

"Do you really think Umbridge will let him stay? I mean, Harry and I were the ones who promised anyway, so you're not obliged —"

"Don't be silly," Mel rolled her eyes. "I wouldn't leave you alone — And let's be honest, I'm stronger than you when it comes to magical defense, I'm probably the one who's got a bigger chance to control a small giant."

"You're probably right..." Hermione sighed. "I couldn't bring myself to tell Ron — Neither could Harry! We couldn't..."

"I guess we can't do much besides sit and worry, can we?"

"Yeah, reckon so."

"I always said there was no use in sitting and worrying," She pouted. "But usually that's the only thing I'm able to do..."

"Well, I mean, I'd already let in that one of Davies's, so I wasn't feeling that confident, but I dunno, when Bradley came toward me, just out of nowhere, I thought — you can do this!" Ron was describing his first saved for the third time. "And I had about a second to decide which way to fly, you know, because he looked like he was aiming for the right goal hoop — my right, obviously, his left — but I had a funny feeling that he was feinting, and so I took the chance and flew left — his right, I mean — and — well — you saw what happened."

The boy pushed his hair back and made it messier. They were sitting outside, trying to enjoy the fresh air of the afternoon, the sight reminded her of a scene that though she wasn't originally there to witness, now was part of her memories.

"And then, when Chambers came at me about five minutes later — what?" Ron stared at her and Harry. "Why are you two grinning?"

"I'm not," Harry glimpsed at Mel and knew they were thinking about the same thing. "I'm just glad we won, that's all."

"Yeah... we won," Ron agreed wistfully. "Did you see the look on Chang's face when Mel got the Snitch right out from under her nose?"

"I suppose she cried, did she?" 

"Wow, you definitely didn't sound bitter at all," Mel snorted. 

"Well, yeah — more out of temper than anything, though..." Ron was right, but Mel didn't feel particularly proud of this, it wasn't like she wanted Cho to throw a tantrum, she just wanted to win. "But you saw her chuck her broom away when she got back to the ground, didn't you?"

"Er..." 

"Well, actually... no, Ron," Hermione closed her book. "As a matter of fact, the only bit of the match Harry and I saw was Davies's first goal."

"You didn't watch?" Ron visibly deflated. "You didn't see me make any of those saves?" 

"Well — no. But Ron, we didn't want to leave — we had to!"

"Yeah?" The boy started to get annoyed. "How come?"

"It was Hagrid," Harry explained. "He decided to tell us why he's been covered in injuries ever since he got back from the giants. He wanted us to go into the forest with him, we had no choice, you know how he gets... Anyway..."

By the end, Ron had forgotten he was even mad.

"He brought one back and hid it in the forest?" He whispered.

"Yep," said Harry simply.

"No... no, he can't have..."

"Well, he has," Hermione stated. "Grawp's about sixteen feet tall, enjoys ripping up twenty-foot pine trees, and knows me," the girl snorted, "as Hermy."

Ron laughed nervously, Mel chortled.

"You didn't tell me about your nickname last night!"

"Because I knew you would tease me endlessly," The girl rolled her eyes.

"And Hagrid wants us to..?"

"Teach him English, yeah," Harry replied with a crooked smile.

"He's lost his mind," Ron concluded.

"Yes," Hermione responded. "Yes, I'm starting to think he has. But unfortunately, he made Harry and me promise."

"Well, you're just going to have to break your promise, that's all. I mean, come on... We've got exams and we're about that far," he made a gesture with his fingers, a millimetre of space keeping them from touching, "from being chucked out as it is. And anyway... remember Norbert? Remember Aragog? Have we ever come off better for mixing with any of Hagrid's monster mates?"

"I know, it's just that — we promised..." Hermione pouted. 

"Well... Hagrid hasn't been sacked yet, has he? He's hung on this long, maybe he'll hang on till the end of term and we won't have to go near Grawp at all."

Panic rose over the fifth-years as June welcomed them into the busiest start of summer of their lives. Mel was sick of studying, so she spent her afternoons helping some classmates review their subjects. In exchange, Neville helped her with Herbology, he was a marvellous tutor.

Erick had seen her one time after the Quidditch final, the boy was preoccupied with studying for his own exams. Next year would be Erick's seventh and last, and he was determined to become the Headboy. Mel asked him if it hadn't lost its charm now that Umbridge was headmistress, but Erick merely shrugged and assured her there was no way that woman would be there next year.

"You know what?" Mel yawned. "I wouldn't mind chucking down my throat some doxy droppings to see if they can pull me out of my misery. I hate feeling like I'm not good enough, I don't know how my dad did this for seven years..."

"Cheer up," Ron tried to pat her shoulder, touching the wall instead. "You're only saying that because you have no patience. You're the smartest witch in our year right after 'Mione — You got this. Now shut up and let me worry in peace."

"Remember our vow?" She smirked, nudging his arm. "The one about us being awful together?"

Ron looked at her. "Well, if Miss Popular's done ignoring her old friends, then yeah, I remember."

"I admit I was a bit of a prat this year," Mel made a face. "But I would never change you for a stranger! You're my best friend!"

"You say that all the time," The boy rolled his eyes, but put his arm around her shoulders anyway. "Keep saying it, it's nice to hear." 

Mel snorted, elbowing his side playfully.

She did splendidly on her examination, she was the first out of the four to be called in for her practical exam. Professor Marchbanks was delighted to have her.

"Dumbledore, aren't you?" She asked eagerly. "Yes, yes... Oh well dear, what are you waiting for? Do your best..." 

It was the first time in a while that her routine was exactly like everyone else's. Their classmates were buzzing with anxiety and none of them looked exactly happy, some older students would try to sell them fake brain stimula but Hermione was quick to put an end to it. Mel was strangely thrilled about being part of it all. She was, at last, just another student trying to pass the year.

All in all, even if she was just another student, there was no denying that she had way more advanced knowledge in some areas. Mel outdid her D.A.D.A exam and the only time she hesitated when answering a theoretical test was during Herbology, which if anything, turned out to be humbling. She didn't want to have all her success inflating her head again, she wasn't planning on becoming the next James Potter, no matter how close she'd been to be one that year.

They had a whole weekend ahead before they had to take the rest of their O.W.L.S, Harry, Ron, and Mel sat in the common room and played chess to release some tension. Mel was watching them, but she was too sleepy to pay attention and ended up taking a nap on Ron's shoulder.

Hermione entered the common room in such an agitated way that Mel gave a start, bumping heads with Ron.

"How were the runes?" Ron mumbled as he rubbed the side of his face.

"I mistranslated 'ehwaz'! It means 'partnership,' not 'defense,' I mixed it up with 'eihwaz.'"

"Ah well," The boy yawned, "that's only one mistake, isn't it, you'll still get —"

"Oh shut up. It could be the one mistake that makes the difference between a pass and a fail. And what's more, someone's put another niffler in Umbridge's office, I don't know how they got it through that new door, but I just walked past there and Umbridge is shrieking her head off — by the sound of it, it tried to take a chunk out of her leg —"

"Good," said the three.

"It is not good! She thinks it's Hagrid doing it, remember? And we do not want Hagrid chucked out!"

"He's teaching at the moment, she can't blame him," said Harry, pointing over at the window. 

"Oh, you're so naive sometimes, Harry, you really think Umbridge will wait for proof?" Hermione scoffed, leaving them there to storm off to her room.

"Such a lovely, sweet-tempered girl," Ron murmured.

Since Hermione didn't abandon her constant state of anger and anxiety, Mel's friends designated her as the study guide so she supervised everyone. 

Potions passed rather easily, she was getting quite good at it, though she was far from being the best. Care of Magical Creatures was a different story, she'd always been good with animals. On Wednesday she had her Astronomy O.W.L, and that's when things got ugly, though not in the way she was expecting.

Even if her love for the night sky had been damaged thanks to Divination, she was still fond of the stars, not that they could tell her anything about her current situation, but they were a peaceful and bright constant. It was comforting, even if the world was about to end, little would change outside their planet, and eventually, things would move on.

As she looked down to rearrange her parchment, her eyes landed on several figures moving towards Hagrid's cabin, one of them with a particularly stiff way of walking. Umbridge knocked on the cabin's front door and Hagrid opened it. Hermione was right after all, the woman was ready to chop one more head before the end of the term.

Harry was watching as well. Professor Marchbanks walked behind him and he quickly returned his eyes to the map he was making, Mel stayed still, looking directly to the cabin instead of the sky.

Someone yelled. Several students turned their attention to the school grounds and Professor Tofty cleared his throat.

"Try and concentrate, now, boys and girls — twenty minutes to go." 

Mel looked down and skimmed through her map, she had finished, she only needed to—

BANG!

The girl pushed her telescope aside and walked up to the railing, too worried to care about the points the Professors could take from her.

Hagrid's door had burst open and by the light flooding out of the cabin they saw him quite clearly, a massive figure roaring and brandishing his fists, surrounded by six people, all of whom, judging by the tiny threads of red light they were casting in his direction, seemed to be attempting to Stun him.

"No!"

"My dear!" said Professor Tofty. "This is an examination!"

"They're attacking him!" Mel responded.

"Be reasonable, Hagrid!" 

"Reasonable be damned, yeh won' take me like this, Dawlish!"

Why was an Auror there if Hagrid was only being fired? Why bring law enforcement to something as silly as a sacking?

Mel blessed Hagrid's half-giant origins because they kept him from getting injured, the spells would bounce off of him when thrown in disorder, but the Aurors were trained people, they started to attack him at the same time. Hagrid grabbed one of the men and threw him in the air, leaving him limp on the ground.

"Look!" Parvati gasped.

"Now, really! Only sixteen minutes left, you know!" Professor Tofty insisted.

Mel turned to leave the tower, Ron grabbed a hold of her arm and stopped her.

"He needs help!"

"Look!" Ron pointed out.

"How dare you! How dare you!" 

"It's McGonagall!" Hermione gasped.

"Leave him alone! Alone, I say! On what grounds are you attacking him? He has done nothing, nothing to warrant such —"

The girls around her screamed, McGonagall received a total of four stunning spells that threw her back, she didn't stand up again.

"Galloping gargoyles! Not so much as a warning! Outrageous behaviour!" Professor Tofty exclaimed.

"COWARDS! RUDDY COWARDS! HAVE SOME O' THAT — AN' THAT —" 

"Oh my —" 

Hagrid took two massive swipes at his closest attackers; judging by their immediate collapse, they had been knocked cold. 

Harry saw him double over and thought for a moment that he had finally been overcome by a spell, but on the contrary, next moment Hagrid was standing again with what appeared to be a sack on his back — then Harry realized that Fang's limp body was draped around his shoulders.

"Get him, get him!" 

"Ron, let me go!"

"If you go there you'll get expelled! What can you do against trained Aurors?"

"More than you can imagine!" She growled. "I said, let me go!"

Ron jumped back and held his hand with wide eyes. He had blisters on his palm as if he'd burnt himself on a stove. Mel froze, unable to know how on earth she'd managed to do that.

"He's gone!" Harry said out loud. "Hagrid's leaving!"

"That evil woman!" Hermione exclaimed. "Trying to sneak up on Hagrid in the dead of night!" 

"She clearly wanted to avoid another scene like Trelawney's," Ernie Macmillan responded.

"That cow," Mel was pale from both, fury and shock. Ron was doing his best to stand as far from her as possible. 

"Hagrid did well, didn't he?" He asked, careful to hide his hand from the others. "How come all the spells bounced off him?"

"It'll be his giant blood," Hermione frowned. "It's very hard to Stun a giant, they're like trolls, really tough... But poor Professor McGonagall... Four Stunners straight in the chest, and she's not exactly young, is she?"

"Stop," Mel felt an all too familiar coldness on the tips of her fingers. "She will get better, she's a tough woman..."

"Dreadful, dreadful," said Ernie, reminding her a bit to Lockhart. "Well, I'm off to bed.. 'Night, all."

"At least they didn't get to take Hagrid off to Azkaban," Ron continued. "I 'spect he's gone to join Dumbledore, hasn't he?"

"I suppose so... oh, this is awful, I really thought Dumbledore would be back before long, but now we've lost Hagrid too..."

"I... I have to... bathroom..." Mel looked around desperately, squeezing the fabric of her robes between her hands to dry them. "This is not — sorry —"

She ran, already gawking by the time she managed to open the door to one of the stalls. Everything inside her felt unsteady, she wanted to help Hagrid but she couldn't, and now they didn't have him, nor Dumbledore, and who knew if McGonagall was going to recover... 

She'd hurt Ron without meaning to — just like Ariana Dumbledore, she'd felt a bit of herself slipping away in her frustration and anger, she understood why it had been so easy for that girl to lose control... But she wasn't crazy! This had been an accident, and she was going to fix it... But what if things escalated before she could find a way to stop? 

Someone walked in and followed the noises she was making, she hadn't even tried to close the door to her toilet. Mel closed her eyes tightly, taking a shaky breath.

"I'm okay!" She said, but it was quite obvious in her voice that she was sobbing. "Please go!"

"How many times do I have to tell you —" She jumped at the sound of his exasperated tone, "not to run when you have an attack? It makes it harder to breathe!"

Mel scowled at him without getting up from the floor. It was disgusting, she was unable to calm her breathing, she couldn't reply properly. Harry crouched down next to her and she tensed, but the boy raised both hands to ease her, supporting one on the wall to not lose his balance.

"I won't touch you if you don't want me to," He said, "tell me what you need — Don't ask me to leave you, though — can't be on your own..."

Mel shook her head, swallowing harshly. 

"I can't — I can't breathe —"

"Yeah, well, you ran all the way to the bathrooms," He stated. "But it's okay —"

"I wanted to help... but Ron —" Her voice broke. "I hurt him..."

"He showed me," Harry said, then quickly added. "He's not angry."

"I'm going crazy — I can't control it —"

"You're not crazy," Harry moved slightly so he could face her. "Look at me — Don't think about it, just look at me..."

She didn't want to, didn't want him as the witness of her frailty, but it was the only person around. Mel looked up and focused solely on him.

"You're not crazy," He repeated, his eyes fixed on hers. "Going to the school grounds would've gotten you expelled."

Mel shook her head in a sort of childish manner, her breathing was reaching a reasonable rhythm. She closed her eyes tightly and pressed her lips together to stop crying, but it didn't work.

"What's your cat's name?" He asked in a clear voice.

"What?"

"Your cat," He said. "What's his name?"

"Grey..?" Mel picked up on what he was doing and continued. "One... One, two, three, four letters... G— R— E— Y... and he's black... B— L— A— C— K..."

"That's right," He smiled a little. "Good job..."

The counting and spelling was a game her mother used to distract Mel whenever she was feeling anxious. Harry knew it since they were kids. 

"Did you know..." She said weakly, "you're the only idiot who always sees me cry like this?"

Harry snorted, sitting down with his back against the wall.

"That can't be true."

"It is."

"What about Hermione?"

"No," She pushed herself away from the toilet and sat on the floor fully.

"Fred?" Harry looked at her with scepticism. "Erick?"

 "Maybe teared up a bit, but... I only cry like this when... do you really think I'm not crazy?"

"It's me who everyone's calling mental."

"Yes, but that's a lie."

"Same with you."

"Dumbledore said —"

"Dumbledore can't know it all, can he? Or he would've warned Hagrid about Umbridge before leaving."

"...maybe," She cleaned her face with the back of her sleeve. "I didn't mean to hurt Ron."

"He doesn't blame you," Harry stood up. "He said it was a foolish thing to do... he should've known better than to try and stop you."

"Don't say it like that," Mel frowned. "Like it's not a problem — I shouldn't... I should have better control —"

"You do," He said, helping her to her feet. "But you have to make mistakes sometimes, genius and all."

"I'm not a genius," She scoffed. "I'm a twat."

"Who said you can't be both?" Harry taunted. "This is the boy's bathroom, by the way."

"Oh blimey," said Lee Jordan, covering his mouth. "It's me's been putting the nifflers in her office, Fred and George left me a couple, I've been levitating them in through her window..."

"She'd have sacked him anyway," Dean shook his head. "He was too close to Dumbledore."

"That's true," Harry fell back on his chair tiredly.

"I just hope Professor McGonagall's all right," said Lavender.

"They carried her back up to the castle, we watched through the dormitory window," Colin Creevey informed them. "She didn't look very well..."

"Madam Pomfrey will sort her out," said Alicia. "She's never failed yet." 

"I doubt she would let herself die in such a way," Mel added calmly. "She won't leave this earth without making sure Umbridge gets fired... and neither will I."

Next Chapter —>

Taglist.

@dee123ksha @vampiregirl1797 @siriuslysirius1107 @stardusthigh @mikariell95 @vernon-dursley @thesuitelifeofafangirl @tomshollandz @kylosleftbuttcheek @reverse-hxlland @bloodorangemoonlight @omiwashere @t-rexs-world @just-here-to-escape-from-reality @21bruhs @i-am-scared-and-useless-bisexual @dielgonacoffee​

[klarolinedrabbles]

What are some of the tvd to fandoms greatest hits so to speak... I was only in it for a short time and then jumped out because I couldn't stand to

Oh, well allow me to be your guide. This will be under a read more because I already know, I’m gonna write a whole essay. Shout out to my ride or die @hellsbellschime.

I don’t think any overtly crazy happened during the good!TVD years. No wait, I’m lying.

The year the spin-off got announced, I believe it was tvguide, that posted an article with like info tidbits for currently airing shows. And one of them, was that Hayley was pregnant with Klaus’ kid. I remember this shit so clearly, man. Everyone was so confused. And then they were like SURPRISE, APRIL FOOLS. Because it was in fact April 1st. So ha-ha we all had a laugh, great. Fastforward to what, late April? Episode 4x20 airs, and it’s exactly what happened???

That whole day btw, the day the backdoor pilot for TO aired was just insanity. I’ll say that about a lot of days in this answer, but that day was really just something else. Like we were delirious, that’s the only way I can explain what happened on here. It was a nightmare but also one of the funniest night’s I’ve ever spent on here. I gotta go back for old time’s sake and reblog some of the shit from that night because we all snapped. And not in the good way. 

The TVD 100th. Now, we knew Joseph was coming back for that episode so they hype was real. Because up until that point, we’d gotten a huge load of nothing in regards to Klaroline. They released a trailer, a short one, that’s still in my favorites folder on youtube to this day. I rewatch it all the time because it’s iconic. And there was literally .002 seconds of Klaroline. It’s Caroline standing and then Klaus says “hello, caroline” and everyone lost their shit so much when it dropped that ‘hello caroline’ trended ww on twitter. 

THE DAY THE NETWORK THAT AIRED TVD IN AUSTRALIA AIRED A PROMO WITH THE KLAROLINE KISS IN 5X11. ICONIC. I literally woke up, logged on at around 11 AM my time, and my dashboard was on fire. It was the BEST. We didn’t know wtf to do, it was amazing. 

Paleyfest. Ohhhh buddy, lemme tell ya. So TVD/TO got chosen to have the CW panel’s at Paleyfest that year. Everyone was on a bit of edge because TO to that point was what, almost done with S1 and Klaroline had been given the mega cold-shoulder despite being the very thing other than the Mikaelson’s that got used to lure people in? After the pregnancy plot from hell, everyone was ready to peace tf out, but we got halted because it was a ‘ohh of course it’s gonna continue’ then they tried to nip Klaroline in the bud with 5x11 and no one was having it. So Paleyfest was where we were gonna get some ANSWERS, DAMMIT. I live on the east coast and the festival was held in the west coast so I wasn’t awake when it was happening. I remember making a post about how ‘going to sleep, and hoping when I woke up the answers were good.’. So I went to sleep, woke up a few hours later like 2-3 AM my time, and checked my blog and the first message I had was ‘don’t wake up stephanie, everything is a mess, stay asleep where everything’s fine’ I—

The gist of that was, they basically set JoMo up to be the bad-cop in shutting down Klaroline. He gave this long answer that made absolutely zero sense. The girl who asked the question about Klaroline, who was like 13 at the time, got called a bully for even asking a question at an event she paid to be at. A mess. And JP was like NO CROSSOVERS, ORGANIC, BLAH BLAH. And Paul was sitting next to her going “why can’t the show’s just intersect”, he was right and he said it. 

I can’t remember if this was S1 or S2, but somebody tweeted something and Carina replied ‘when you’re found dead in your basement with klaroline written on you this is why’ or something like that, that was a ~fun~ night. And then like half an hour later she was like “I’m sorry, I’ll never tweet about Klaroline again just leave me alone” if you’ve ever seen this fandom refer to ourselves as basement dwellers, this night is why. 

NARDUCCI. Can’t forget him. Talk about a man who just didn’t get it. And I don’t mean Klaroline, he just didn’t get anything, nothing in his head has ever clicked, I’m convinced. He used to pick fights on twitter repeatedly. Admitted once that he missed his flight because he was on twitter…arguing with a fan. AND ONE DAY, he decided to just—snap. Went on this hours long tirade against the Klaroline fandom, essentially calling everyone stupid because no one was appreciating the ‘art’ of the show. So when I say it lasted hours, I mean that. Now, you’d think, that he would be done, right? WELL, apparently that wasn’t enough, so the next day, he continued. I remember because I was in this gc on whatsapp, and I remember Erika sending a message to the gc going “omg, Narducci vs KCers round 2″ when I tell you I screamed. The man went on a two-day rampage against this fandom and it was insane. 

S6/S2 of TVD/TO was not a fun time. I can genuinely say it was borderline a chore to come on here during that time. It wasn’t fun, every day someone was in argument with someone from production on twitter. Truly the worst year of the fandom, imo. So S7/S3 rolls around and that’s where shit went nuclear. 

Hillary and I, are minding our own damn business, when someone come’s to us with information regarding the new seasons. This was post-SDCC, so it’s like the lull of September, waiting for the seasons to start in October. And we get approached with information, talkin bout how Caroline’s gonna be pregnant with Alaric’s twins in S7. When I tell you we didn’t know wtf to do. And we had to like wait on confirmation about it but then we found out it was legit and we were pissed. Literally ask us if we wanted to be in the spoiler game, the answer is no tf we did not. And she and I basically spent two days complaining. LIKE UGHHHH WE DON’T WANNA DO THIS, BUT ALSO THIS IS DISGUSTING, WE CAN’T JUST LET THEM SPRING THIS ON EVERYONE, BUT AGHH WHY US. So we chose collectively, as a duo, because das my other half yo, to blab. 

That went over as best as anyone could hope for it to go. Now, flashforward yet again, this time to around late Novemeber/December. I had been sent word that something was going down. TVD/TO lost their Thursday slots and got bumped to Friday’s, so a plan was going on, and they made one. We’d heard that they were rearranging something mid-season because they were gonna make a crossover work, publicly we found out it would be Paul and JoMo that crossover back-to-back. THEN ONE NIGHT—I call it black friday bc  that day was a fucking mess—, a friend of mine was friends with an SCer, I wanna say, and she was hearing word that the crossover did have Klaus and Caroline interact via phone call, but that it was very definitively an ending. Because they spoke about Camille and Stefan, etc, etc. Like a closing of the book type thing. So okay, we were like devastated, everyone on twitter was losing their shit. Everyone was pissed, and @-ing the writers all these crazy, sad things, we were a wreck. Ask Hillary about this night because she, I remember, describes it as ‘logging on and reading what everyone else had and not understanding why tf everyone was mad about it’. It was the first and last time that our roles were reversed, and bless her for it. 

SO WE’RE SITTING THERE, it’s Saturday, and we kept getting more information and we were like…something isn’t right here. So we did a bit of digging, spoke to a few people and waited it out. LO AND BEHOLD, everything we’d heard about the phone call was false. There was a phone call but the CKers and SCers were so mad about what was actually said in it, that a few of em, ring leaders of the feeble minded, made up a version and passed it around their fandoms as legit till it eventually worked it’s way over to us. So we all jumped the gun on fake information, lmfskdnknsks. Rumor has it, you can still hear Hillary yelling ‘I told you so’ at me through our group chat. 

So all was well, I couldn’t tell everyone why not to panic, just that they didn’t need to. Until, this account popped up called tvdspoiler or something on twitter, also saying false information about the phone call. Sending everyone into a panic yet again. I remember this because I was at  kmart with my mom, and the kmart by my house was in a basement so I had no cell service. I was able to send like a couple of messages, and was basically like ‘tell everyone to chill, I’ll clear it up when I get home’ did that in like a couple of hours cause then I had to leave to the midnight showing of the force awakens with my friends. So that day was chaotic, but fun. It was the first time I reached 99+ messages on my inbox, lmao. 

So that all happened like a good while before we actually saw the episode. But cut to a few weeks later. I woke up at 1 AM my time to drink water, was on tumblr trying to go back to sleep. I checked my inbox and there was this bizarre message talking about ‘got some scoop’ and they were like ‘Finn dies in 3x17, Aurora gets put into some weird sleeping spell in 3x18, Camille and Davina die in 3x19, Lucien dies in 3x20′ and I quite literally laughed??? Literally who wouldn’t. Like who tf would ever believe TO had the balls to do all of that when they never killed anyone off. AND, WHO WOULD BELIEVE THAT SOMEONE WOULD JUST STOP BY, SHARE IT AND LEAVE. So I sent a screenshot to Hillary and was like ‘yo did you get this because wtf’. We often got duplicate messages. And we often got messages of people who were pissed about the two previous times we, from the klaroline fandom of all places, had legit info that wound up being true, that they were just waiting for us to fuck up. So we used to get messages of people pretending they were sharing info, and it was just antis trying to make us look stupid. 

SO, Hillary says ‘just answer it because it’s obviously fake’ top ten moments before disaster. I answer it and am like oh haha, and where did that info come from. And they came back like a minute later, saying ‘I have a source’ THEN THEY ELABORATED. They mentioned that Lucien drags Freya and Vincent to Mystic Falls to do this spell with some bullet and etc. So at that point we were like fUCK because that same day we’d found out was in 3x16, which ended with Lucien and this white-oak bullet, having kidnapped Freya. And that’s when we knew, that someone showed up in the middle of the night, spoiled the whole back-half of TO S3—and then left.

The back-half of S3 was so fun??? Every week the info just kept coming true. On the wikia everyone hated me, probably the most anti messages I ever had was during that time, honestly it was great, 10/10 would recommend. 

THEN, at some point in our blog history, Hillary had been getting quite a few messages about PT. And she had this fucking line in one of the messages about Phoebe’s pronunciation with her accent for the show, or lack thereof. And she said “weeches and woves will always have a place in my heart” SO THEM PHOEBE TWEETED IT. THAT EXACT LINE, and we were like was she...? So we shrugged off okay. A few days later, she tweeted “hellsbellschime enough, there’s plenty of other things to watch on tv, I hear mad men’s great.” And I—

THIS WAS ON SOME RANDOM ASS SUNDAY. Like I was lounging around, waiting for the new episode of game of thrones and then WHAM, chaos. AND AS IF THAT WASNT ENOUGH, Leah joined in too. Putting a target on my friends back...about her blog that no one was making them read. You can’t make that shit up. And Jenn actually replied to Phoebe’s tweet and got a reply back, and she was all “you’re right, I’m sorry” and then deleted the original tweet, which I still have a screenshot of btw. And then Leah showed up in Hillary’s inbox with this ridiculous three part ask about how she shouldn’t criticize women in the acting industry because of how hard it is for women in that industry which is true, but it doesn’t make you exempt from criticism??? So not sure where she meant to go with that one.

SO THERE WE HAVE IT, our fandom’s greatest hits. I’m sure I can elaborate and insert more, but I’ve been typing for a good 40 minutes. 

Told ya, I wrote a whole dissertation, lmaooo.

[chaoswillcalmusdown]

Title: runnin’ on my mind, boy Pairing: Sana/Yousef Summary: Sana gets a part time job in a café, has to face Yousef Acar once again and then ends up as his date to a wedding. Rating: T

 Written for the lovely @stressedoutteenager as my @yousanaexchange gift. I hope you like it!

THURSDAY 23 NOVEMBER: ISAK AND EVEN'S APARTMENT

It really starts in November when Sana sits down with all the Russ budget calculations - because even though their bus is small, it's still a Russebuss - and her list of things she needs to do and buy in the next few months. She and her family only do a small christmas celebration, which started when Sana and her siblings were little and jealous that everyone else got presents but they didn't and has since just become a nice winter tradition, and she usually ends up taking part in a few parties that have a secret santa concept, which also means that she'll want something new to wear, maybe a cute christmassy sweater. Sana had expected to be able to save up money from the summer, but she doesn't have nearly as much saved as she'd like. While Sana is sure her parents would be willing to help her out, she really doesn't want to have to ask her parents for anything. Instead, she applies to every job she can find that she could possibly do. A few weeks down the line, she's gotten zero replies. She complains to Isak about it, about how she really doesn't want to ask her parents for more money. Isak is really unsympathetic because he's not going to be part of any Russebuss so he doesn't understand the stress. They're sacked out on his sofa, trying to revise for chemistry. Or, Isak has begged Sana to help explain something that he missed so he doesn't fail. Still, Sana counts it as revision.

Isak pauses, strangely thoughtful, then calls out, "Hey, babe, didn't you need extra staff at KB?"

Even leans out of the kitchen, soapy gloves and all, "Yeah, we kind of always do," he sighs, "why, what's up?"

"I've been applying for part time jobs, but I'm not getting anywhere," Sana sighs.

Even's face lights up. "Sanasol, come work with me! It'll be amazing!"

Isak looks purposely over at Sana, "You're welcome."

SATURDAY 2 DECEMBER: KAFFEBRENNERIET

Even ends up getting both Sana and Chris interviews, and the boss seems to trust Even's judgement, or they just really make a great impression because they both get hired.The introduction at KB is pretty basic, but the coffee machine looks intimidating. Even assures them that it looks scarier than it really is, and that he has every faith in them.

"But, it's easier if you really get to practice with it so I think we nominate one of you to get the hang of it first."

Christ immediately backs into the back, saying "I'll go wash some more cups," while Sana glares at the door swinging shut behind her.

Even pats her on the head. "You're gonna be a surgeon, Sanasol. Don't let the espresso maker beat you."

Even is a surprisingly good teacher, though he claims that Sana is just a brilliant student, and she picks it up pretty quickly. She doesn't burn herself nearly as much as Chris, and she's pretty good at handling pressure and multitasking, so she prefers making drinks while Chris takes the orders. And Chris, being the social butterfly that she is, also prefers it that way. She chats up literally every customer, and flirts cheerfully all day long. But it keeps the customers from getting grumpy when Sana takes too long or has to redo something, so it's all good.

Of course, once their friends and Elias find out about their new jobs, they suddenly get a lot of customers that they know. Elias tries to get family discounts, which Chris finds hilarious, while Sana just wishes she could escape through the wooden floor. But then Mutta steps up to order, which shockingly stuns Chris into silence for a hot second, before she turns the flirting up a whole lot, leaning over the counter and fluttering her eyelashes. Sana can't help but snort and look over at Elias, only to lock eyes with Yousef friggin Acar. He's smiling like he can't really help it but he's also flicking his eyes between Sana and the Chris-and-Mutta thing like he can't look away, even though he wants to. Thankfully, Mutta doesn't look intimated at all, instead he's leaning into it, heart eyes focused on Chris with a giant smile and just the slightest blush visible high on his cheeks. When it's Yousef's turn, they're still flirting so Sana sidles up to the register to take his order before she makes both drinks.

After Sana has greeted him normally, Yousef smirks, tilting his head, "So, I guess everyone doesn't get that special treatment in here, huh?" He gestures to the side.

Sana laughs, feeling her cheeks flush slightly, "Flirting is more Chris' job, to be fair. Or Even's." Chris finally snaps out of her flirting enough to at least take Adam's order, though he's laughing too hard to really be bothered about the wait.

"That's a shame," Yousef says, still smiling wide. Sana's brain goes into a panic mode and she turns away and grabs two mugs in auto mode, stumped as to how to even respond to that comment without embarrassing herself completely. She hasn't seen much of her brother's friends since she started her last year of high school. To be fair, she hasn't seen much of Yousef since he came back from Turkey and their flirting fizzled out. Seeing him up close like this brings back all the nice memories and the realization that she is no longer desensitized to Yousef Acar and his ridiculously lovely smile.

She finishes his and Adam's coffees, and once she hands them over, she makes eye contact and tries really hard to not react to his warm hands or that smile. "I know you're busy with university applications and all that," he says, "but it's really nice to see you," and Sana thinks she's gonna explode. After all the time she spent convincing herself that they wouldn't work, and that Yousef wasn't the right guy for her, she's still putty in is palm. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she remembers her mother's advice about marrying a non-muslim, and even without that, it's been over a year and there's no way Yousef could actually still like her in that way if he ever had. It's just been too long, and surely he's moved on at this point.  She sighs, moving back to the espresso machine to start the next order. When the boys have all sat down in the corner, Sana turns her back to the cafe and blows out a loud breath, planning to get Chris to take over so she can escape to the bathroom for a while. When she looks up, Chris is grinning like the cheshire cat.

"What?!" Sana snaps, defensive as always when people see her showing emotion or weakness.

Chris' face softens. "It's just nice to see you smile at someone who isn't the girls. Or your brother. You're cute when you prove that you're actually a human and not just the 'perfect hijabi robot'."

It's sweet and at the same time way too perceptive for comfort, but they're in public so Sana rolls her eyes, but bumps Chris' shoulder and then there's another customer approaching and Sana forgot all about her desperate need to escape Yousef's perfect face.

SATURDAY AFTERNOON 09 DECEMBER: YOUSEF'S HOUSE

Yousef has always regularly frequented this specific KB, though not really until he and Even made up, but he'd be a liar if he said he didn't go in more often to see Sana. One Saturday afternoon, a few weeks before Christmas, Yousef's chatting to his cousin Metin, who is the same age and is about to get married, while he tries to figure out a plan for his exam revision. He's stressed and tired and when Metin starts asking about Sana - because Metin was one of the few people Yousef could tell about his feelings for Sana - and how Yousef needs to get a move on with the relationship before she loses interest and the teasing just ramps up until Yousef accidentally says that he's fine on the relationship front, thank you very much. He's never been able to keep his cool when he and Metin end up competing over something, but this is definitely the dumbest thing he has ever said. Even worse is the fact that his aunt overhears him - he may have yelled a little - and comes over to gush at him, then runs out to call her mom probably, which means that everyone in the entire family will know. His grandparents, all his aunts and uncles, just everyone. And they'll all be expecting him to bring someone to Metin's wedding - because that's what his family does to everyone over the age of 15 at weddings - but specifically they're going to be expecting to meet his long time girlfriend. In less than a month's time. Shit. Yousef's left blinking at the screen while Metin laughs at his expression for a long while, and then Yousef just hangs up.

SUNDAY 10 DECEMBER: KAFFEBRENNERIET

As the most reasonable out of the boys - and because Even is busy - Yousef tracks down Elias at KB and recruits him to listen to the entire shitty situation - though he leaves out all the details about him still pining over Sana because Elias is her big brother after all. He rants at Elias for at least half an hour, while Elias sips at his frappe, laptops and textbooks pushed aside. When he's done Elias looks at him for a while, eyebrows furrowed.

"Why the hell did you tell him you were dating someone?" is what Elias has to say. Yousef sighs, dropping his head onto the table. "No, seriously. This situation was so unavoidable."

"Yes, thank you, Elias, I realize that. I didn't mean to do that. Can you help me fix it? Literally my entire family knows. My mom asked me about my girlfriend this morning and why I didn't tell her already, and was that the girl I brought soup that one time, and will she meet her before the wedding and blah blah blah."

Elias looks at him like he's dumb. "I truly don't understand how you could accidentally say you've got a serious girlfriend when you so clearly do not." Then shrugs. "The only real solution is telling everyone you lied, but that makes you look kinda crazy. And showing up to the wedding alone after would make them all pity you so hard. So, I think you should bring a fake girlfriend."

Because Yousef's life is a soap opera, Sana appears at the end of the table to clear some empty plates, and asks, with that slightly condescending, but still playful smirk she has, "what's this about a fake girlfriend?"

If Yousef hadn't mashed his face against the table, he'd have seen the way Sana's smirk faltered a little like she actually cared.

Elias sighed, "Yousef accidentally told his family that he's seeing someone, and doesn't want to tell them the truth because that would expose how truly embarrassing his life is and then everyone would spend his cousins wedding pitying him. So I said he should bring a fake girlfriend to the wedding."

"Wow, Elias, thanks for that." He chances a look at Sana, sighing and running his fingers anxiously through his hair before he looks back at Elias. "I don't know any girls, and I can't ask some stranger to go to a wedding with my entire crazy family. I'm just gonna have to admit that I lied and I'm pathetic."

When he looks back up at Sana, she's looking at him with a slightly tilted head, then inexplicably says, "I'll do it."

Yousef just gapes at her. "Really?"

She shrugs, smiling. "Wouldn't want your whole family to know you're a mess."

He profusely thanks her and promises to make it up to her. Sana rolls her eyes but she's smiling. "Oh, you'll owe me."

Yousef has never been more in love. She turns and walks away, literally taking his breath with her.

"You're welcome," says Elias, smug as anything.

Yousef chokes on his latte. "What? That's crazy, Elias, I can't fake date Sana!"

Surprisingly, Elias laughs. "Okay, so we're pretending you guys haven't been flirting with each other for years? Do you remember that time you threw grass in her face? Or all the times you go to 'get a drink' when Sana happens to be in the kitchen and then you don't come back until we drag you back."

"Oh my god," Yousef buries his face in his hands. "I can't believe you knew."

"Yousef, buddy, pal, friend," Elias huffs, "I can't believe you thought you were subtle."

Yousef's still convinced that Elias doesn't realize that he and Sana might have been going somewhere serious with their relationship, and he doesn't really think that it would be a good idea to tell him.

MONDAY 11 DECEMBER: KOLLEKTIVET

Sana and the girls are making gingerbread after school, Vilde and Chris had prepared the dough over the weekend and they'd all brought in some cute cookie cutters. When Sana gets there Noora is fiddling with the christmas playlist while Vilde wipes the kitchen counter and Chris is stood to the side, sneaking little bits of dough into her mouth. Sana catches her eye and Chris winks while Sana gives her a disgusted look. She's about to say something when her phone chimes and she pulls it up to see that Yousef has been dragged into wedding preparations and he's sent her a frowny selfie of him surrounded by ribbons and dry flowers and other random wedding things. Sana can't help but send a selfie back, followed by a line of crying laughing emojis, and then brag about her free afternoon. Yousef replies with a crying Jordan meme which makes Sana laugh out loud.

"Well, well, well," Noora says, making Sana look up. The girls are all watching her, smirking.

"Who's got you so smiley this afternoon?"

Sana clears her throat, trying to appear unfazed, "It's nothing," she says, shaking her head.

Chris, the traitor, goes "Are you texting Yossi?" causing Noora and Vilde to gasp loudly. Noora had bugged Sana for a while about Yousef, and what had happened.

"You have to tell us everything," Vilde demands, crossing her arms.

Sana sighs, and almost refuses on principle. But she knows that she needs to share more things. So she takes a deep breath and bargains, "I'll tell you while we start baking." Vilde purses her lips as she thinks it over but then agrees and hands Chris a rolling pin, grumbling at her to stop eating their beautiful creations. While Chris is rolling out the dough, Sana gets handed a mug of tea by a winking Noora and she decides it's better to get this over with. So she starts talking about how Yousef's come into the shop a few times and then ends up telling the girls the whole story.

"Wait," Noora interrupts after a while. "You're going to a wedding with him?"

Sana nods.

"But it's not a date?" Vilde asks. "Like, you're his date to this wedding but it's not a date date."

"Right."

"What?! Why would he ask you to go to a wedding if it's not a real date? You don't take a friend to a wedding. Weddings are super romantic."

Sana's phone chimed again and Noora laughed. "Yousef again?"

Sana looked down. "Yeah, he has to get fitted for a lilac suit because he's in the wedding party, and he's not happy about it." When she looks up, the girls are all smiling at her and she realizes she has a dopey smile on her face. She coughs, trying to change the subject.

"I really hope he's not leading you on, Sana," Vilde says. "That's not okay."

--

Yousef agonizes for a while, and then decides he has to try and come clean with someone. He goes to tell his mom that his girlfriend is actually fake because he feels guilty about how she keeps smiling at him and ruffling his hair. It goes like this:

Yousef walks into the kitchen while she's putting away clean dishes and clears his throat gently. "Hey, mom, I just wanted to say something, you know about um my girlfriend-"

"Oh, honey, you know I'm just so happy for you. I wasn't going to tell you but I think you've been different lately, less stressed maybe and I'm just so happy that you've found someone who you feel so comfortable with that you're bringing her to a family event." She looks over at him with slightly teary eyes and Yousef just opens and closes his mouth a few times, before giving up. "Sorry, sweetie, what did you want to say?"

Resigned, he says "Um. Just, that I'm excited to introduce everyone properly." Then he walks back into his room and drops, face down into his pillow.

WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON 13 DECEMBER: KAFFEBRENNERIET

Somehow Yousef gets Sana to agree to help Yousef shop for a new dress shirt, and he needs to go to the wedding suit place to check that his lilac suit fits properly. The fact that they're making plans to hang out on an afternoon feels like a date, even though Yousef knows in his heart that it really isn't. He waits for Sana at KB, having a sandwich and chatting with Even who is wearing a Lucia crown in honour of the day. Even gives him a lot of strange looks, and wiggles his eyebrows a lot during their conversation, but Yousef doesn't understand why, or what it's supposed to mean. He buys himself and Sana some drinks, and when Sana shows up they head out into the snow.

They start with his fitting, and then head toward a fancy-ish department store. Yousef gives Sana control over his shirt and tie choices, and she seems to immediately know what she wants and picks out both items within 15 minutes. It's all very impressive. Sana then drifts over to the jewellry section while Yousef pays, and he can't help but notice which necklaces and bracelets she lingers over. Once they've picked up everything they'll need they go for dinner and then Yousef walks Sana home. All without ever touching on the elephant in the room. Or any hint of awkwardness because of said elephant. A part of Yousef wants to ask why Sana was so quick to agree to pretend to be his girlfriend when she seemed to give up on them as a couple a few months earlier. Maybe her mom really didn't approve of him. Or maybe his struggle with his religion was just too much for her. But he doesn't know if he wants to hear the answer.

FRIDAY 15 DECEMBER: SANA'S PLACE

When Sana gets home from school, texting her mom for help with a hijab style she thinks she wants to try out for the wedding, Even appears and demands details. When she looks at him questioningly, he whispers "Details, from your date with Yousef. I need all the deets, Sanasol."

Sana blinks at him for a while, and can't help but sigh. "There are no details, Even. It wasn't a date."

Even frowns, "But.."

Sana shrugged.

"What the hell," Even exclaims.

Sana's mom calls for her from the kitchen, and Even pats her on the head before going back into the living room.

Sana heads into her room and pulls out her prayer mat. She's starting to feel nervous about spending a whole evening pretending to be his girlfriend so she prays, revelling in the habit and the normalcy, and hopes that she'll gain clarity. She's nervous both because it might be really awkward, but also because they've gone back to kind of flirting with each other so easily that it might not be awkward at all. She doesn't really know which would be worse or what each possibility might mean.

Her mom comes in as she's securing the hijab, fiddling with the back, even though she can't see it, and sits on her bed, looking at her with a thoughtful expression. "So, you and Yousef are going to a wedding.." she starts, and Sana sighs. She'd had to explain the whole thing, but her mom hadn't believed that it wasn't a real date. "Sana, you remember the conversation we had-"

For some reason, even though she doesn't think that she and Yousef are ever going to be together like that, Sana decides that she needs to just ask her mom to trust her in this. She doesn't want to hear a repeat of that conversation they'd had. "I remember, mom, you don't want me to be lonely in a relationship so you think that it would be harder if I marry someone who doesn't have the same kind of faith as me. And I've thought a lot about that, really a lot, and I don't think that's true for me. Whenever Yousef and I have talked about Islam, I don't feel like I'm having to explain myself like how I feel with the girls sometimes. I know he understands me, even if he believes differently or expresses his faith differently. He gets me. You know, what is important to me is marrying someone who has the same values as me, who respects Isak and Even and who respects me, and not just someone who says he believes." Sana stops for a moment and realizes how she'd just blurted out what she wanted to say to her mom those months ago when she should have. Now, there's nothing going on with her and Yousef at all. Trying to backpedal, she says, "I mean. It doesn't matter, nothing is going to happen-"

While she's talking, or ranting really, she realizes that maybe she needs to muster up the courage to actually tell Yousef how she felt and still, apparently, feels. To see if he feels the same, officially. So she can properly move on if he doesn't feel anything. Even though her stomach turns at the thought, she knows she can't just keep flirting with him and pulling back, and then flirt more, and pull back again.

"Sana, sweetheart, I was going to say that I think I was too rash in my advice. I think that your faith is so strong, and you are so strong in yourself, that whoever you deem worthy will be the right person. I would never have married someone I liked at 18 but I know you are mature and I shouldn't dismiss your feelings."

Sana goes into the kitchen for some air, and of course there is Yousef, making tea. He makes her a cup, smiling sweetly at her. Adam comes in to help, and Sana realizes when he keeps looking between her and Yousef that they're completely silent. For once they're kind of awkward around each other, and she doesn't know what that means. She mumbled out a thanks for the tea and then runs back to her room and hangs up the hijab, pulling on a big hoodie.

After the boys have left, Elias begins to worry that something's wrong. Sana's fidgeting on the other side of the sofa, something she never does. Then, suddenly Sana starts talking, more like ranting, and Elias' stomach drops.

"That was really weird, Elias. Was that not weird? It's like. He flirts with me on and off, he sent me all these cute memes on facebook. And then he lied about the vodka to protect me. And -" she doesn't really want to go into further detail. "And now I'm going as his fake date to a wedding. What does he want? What am I doing?"

Elias just looks at her for a moment. "You really like him, don't you? Like, you genuinely like him."

Sana looks away. "I don't know. I guess. I- I shouldn't. There's no point, anyway. He doesn't like me like that. Not after all this time. And we're too different, that's-"

Elias sighs. "I thought he was more into you than you were into him. I didn't realize, or I would've stopped this whole thing."

Elias is woken up at 7 the next morning by text messages from Yousef in increasing levels of panic, which end with "she's literally my soulmate and I just asked her to pretend to be my girlfriend and i messed up our friendship but she's my soulmate. your little sister. what is life. what do i do now? how do i fix us??? how do i ever impress a girl who was my pretend girlfriend bc i'm a mess and a coward??" Elias sighs and texts back a supportive "just tell her the truth, idiot. just ask her out for real" text before he turns over and pulls the sheets over his head. He's not awake enough for this yet.

SUNDAY 17 DECEMBER: METIN AND AMELIA'S WEDDING

Before the ceremony, Sana is introduced to a bunch of Yousef's relatives and she chats with his mom for a while, because she hasn't seen her in awhile. During the ceremony she sits behind Yousef's family, while Yousef stands next to Metin.

When Yousef walks up to her after the ceremony, Sana brings up how lovely the wedding was and Yousef agrees which makes her wonder how he sees his future wedding. So she asks.

"I'd definitely want something like this," Yousef says, shrugging. "As long as the person I'm marrying wouldn't think it was blasphemy, you know. I might not feel totally comfortable saying I believe, like I did when I was 13, but I'm realizing that's partly me being too much in my head you know? Even helped me a lot with that, we've talked a lot about religion and stuff since we started talking again. And I've started going to the mosque, I don't know if Elias told you? I realized that I can question some things within my religion without fully rejecting it. After all, I grew up muslim and it's felt strange to just completely back away. I don't know, maybe it doesn't make sense to you."

Sana's looking off at the other end of the room where the bride and groom are talking to their parents. "No, I get that. Maybe you wouldn't expect it from me, but I do question things, too."

"So how do you fully accept that?"

Sana sighed, looking over at Yousef. "You're asking me like I have all the answers."

Yousef shrugs. "Sometimes I think you do."

Sana laughs. "Wow, Yousef. I really don't have any answers. But the way I know islam is as a religion that thinks every single person is worth the same. So, therefore it doesn't matter if you're gay or if you're a man or a woman. It just matters that you're a good person. That you try to be good to others."

Yousef nods, smiling. He doesn't say anything, just looks into Sana's eyes for a long moment, which both unnerves Sana and gives her massive butterflies. Sana slips away to the bathroom, and once in there she stares at herself in the mirror for a while. She had expected some awkwardness, or for her or Yousef to slip up and say something that showed they weren't actually dating, but the whole night had gone by without any awkwardness. They've laughed with his relatives and danced and laughed. When Yousef's aunt asked how they got together, Sana smirked at Yousef and told the story of how he flirted by criticising her carrot peeling skills and the whole table laughed as he blushed. In the end, it's awful because it's not awful at all. It feels normal to be at this wedding with Yousef, and everyone seems to believe that they're actually dating. Sana even feels like she did in the spring, when she genuinely felt like she could go on to marry Yousef. But now she really doesn't know what to do. She rejected him for what she felt were the right reasons, but she's realizing that she was probably just scared to fully commit.

THURSDAY 21 DECEMBER: KOLLEKTIVET

Because Sana's turning 18, and this is going to mean a giant family affair, the girls plan a nice, chill party for her a few nights earlier, gathering the balloon squad, Jamilla, and Jonas and the boys in the Kollektiv for some food and celebrations. They tell Sana to come over for dinner, and maybe neglect to mention the fact that it's going to be a party. The look of joy on Sana's face when she comes in and sees Jamilla and Elias joking with Eskild and Isak, and Mutta flirting with Chris in a corner, is totally worth the secrecy. They've put on a vegetarian feast with only non-alcoholic drink options and a dessert table, with a Tupac cake as the main attraction, but they hide it in the fridge until they sing happy birthday.

As the party is winding down, Yousef walks over to Sana who is talking to Chris and Mutta, and asks to talk to her for a second. Sana hasn't really talked to Yousef since the wedding, apart from a few texts. They head outside, because there's nowhere else to get away from their curious friends. So, they're standing in the snow, and Yousef steels himself before he reaches into his jacket and pulls out a little box.

"Happy birthday," he says, looking nervous.

Sana opens the box and inside is the rose necklace she'd seen when they went shopping the other day. She looks up at him, brows furrowed. "Yousef, this is way too much."

He rolls his eyes. "It's really not. I wanted to get it for you. And I wanted to apologize for the whole wedding date thing.I- Honestly, I just jumped at the chance to spend more time with you. Because I think you're amazing, and extremely out of my league and I think you know by now that I can't flirt like a normal person when I'm around you. Still, I shouldn't have asked you to be my fake girlfriend when I want you to be my real girlfriend. That's not cool"

He looks over at Sana who's gaping at him, with slightly watery eyes which seems like a terrible sign. Sana swallows. "You shouldn't apologize. I- I think, even before, if you had asked me to be your girlfriend I would've said yes. I've been scared of our differences and what that means but my feelings haven't changed, Yousef. I do like you. Too much, probably."

Yousef kind of feels like crying himself but he looks away for a second instead, thinking and gathering his courage. "I never said anything, because it felt like a lot but. You really make me feel like I'm a strong, capable person. I never thought for a second that we would fight about our differences because we had deep conversations about islam from the beginning and I never felt judged."

Sana hums and takes a sip of her coffee. "I think I kind of got that, but maybe we just weren't ready. We're older and more mature now. At least I am." She smirks at him, then looks away. Yousef bursts out laughing, mostly because the relief he's feeling has him floating.

"But it's. Elias once asked me if it's better to have a guy who says he's muslim and believes in Allah or if it's better to have one that acts like a muslim, and I think the answer is pretty obvious."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

Yousef can't help but grin and Sana grins back, the two of them stood on a street in the middle of Oslo in the freezing cold, snow swirling around them, just smiling at each other like idiots.