#she even tried a bit of Ukrainian at the end to thank him

[the-jam-to-the-unicorn]

I watched the uncut / full version and will post the link as soon as it is online (they had briefly uploaded it with German dubbing because deleted it again; probably because or some problem or maybe an mistake).

The interview is a 11/10.

It is so, so, so, so, so good. A ton of good Ze answers, really awesome questions. Laughing, smiling, joking. The vibe was ❤️🙌.

He talked a bit about himself (he doesn't celebrate his birthday because he thinks he has no right at the moment and he thinks the time and place for celebrations are after the war; he doesn't know if he'll get a cake but he tries to take care of his body and weight, joking that the time where he could eat sweets with no problem are no longer; he tries to find time for himself with doing sports - 40-60 min each day, he has training equipment at all kind of places so he can always train, no matter where he is and he tries to do it before the morning shower or in the evening / night after he's "done" with work; he will not talk about his personal moments of sadness, grief, crying and "weakness" but of course he has them, he's also a human, he can't separate between him as a private person and the President because both is so connected, so his personal moments are the President's and the other way around) and briefly about his family (Miosga asked about Kyrylo and his birthday and Oleksandra and how they look at the future of Ukraine - positive and they understand everything, he doesn't have to explain anything to Sasha because she's an adult and understands things and Kyrylo is old enough to understand the basic things like what the EU or NATO is, they love Ukraine and believe in victory and want to have a future there; he hasn't asked them if they're proud of him but he wants to believe they are).

Interview with Caren Miosga for German television

[sincerely-astra]

Can i ask for Yandere Misha with Ocean? or Yandere Osha (Misha x Ocean ship) x reader? I need osha content, please save me osha... (Between is from ride the cyclone, and thanks!!)

☁️Yandere Mischa Bachinski x Ocean O'Connell Rosenberg🌧️

Sorry for how late this is, I’ve been sick for a couple days. :’(

⚠️WARNING: General yandere content!⚠️

They first met at Mischa's first rehearsal, where he is promptly introduced to Ocean... and the chaotic behavior that comes with her.

Mischa would be lying if he said he wasn't very annoyed with her when they first met, especially since she kept correcting his pronunciation and she was generally a little bit of a nuisance...

He mostly just avoided her and ignored any of her attempts to correct him, of course irritating Ocean, but she eventually just gave up with it.

This all changed though when Ocean came into choir practice obviously sick...

Ocean rarely, if ever, gets sick, the last time she could remember getting so much as the flu was in elementary school. It was by far the worst few days of her life..., making her take a silent pledge to never sick again!

Alas, that didn't work obviously.

She really tried to conceal her sickness, just going about choir practice as normal and correcting everyone for the zillionth time. But to everyone else in the room, it became immediately obvious. She was nowhere near as vocal as usual since anytime she spoke a cough would escape her, she was constantly shivering the whole time, and she honestly just looked awful...

Even if her illness was obvious to everyone, most of the others didn't care to do anything about it or tried and got told off by Ocean.

It was so weird for Mischa to see the girl who so often got his eyes to roll be in such a state... like, her personality had been dialed back by 10. It would be an understatement to say this wasn't at least somewhat worrying.

So, despite his brain yelling at him to just leave her alone, he confronted her about it after practice.

"What is wrong with you?"

"Wha- What are you talking about? I'm fine."

"No, you've been... quiet and coughing the whole time. It's weird."

"I told you, I'm fine! Why do you care anyway? My performance hasn't been impacted at all-"

"Oh my god, just shut up and tell me where you live."

"...Excuse me?!-"

Yeah, okay, he maybe could've handled it better, but he had good intentions!

After prying her address out of her, he promptly carried her home, much to the confusion of everyone, including Ocean who was baffled by his audacity.

A big reason for this sudden change in his behavior was that Mischa honestly hates seeing people sick, especially since it reminds him so much of his mother. And even if he 'hated' Ocean, he felt a weird sense of obligation to take care of her (mainly since he knows Ocean wouldn't do it herself.)

At first, he was just gonna drop her off at her house and let her parents deal with her from there, but it took only a knock on the door, a sigh from Ocean, and no one to greet the two of them for him to realize that wasn't gonna be the case...

That's what led Mischa Bachinski to spend an entire weekend with a sick Ocean O'Connell Rosenberg.

And despite all odds, Mischa had found himself growing more tolerant of her by the minute. He even made a Ukrainian food that his mother taught him for her to try.

Even for how headstrong Ocean can be, she really did appreciate him looking after her. She usually hates being sick, mainly because it's the only time her parents really try to talk to her only for it to be about some kind of herbal medicine, but Mischa made it bearable.

She liked having him over and talking to him, learning more about the boy she once never gave a second glance at.

But, the weekend had to end sometime, and with Ocean recovered back to full health, Mischa thought that would be the last time they would hang out together. After all, who would want to hang out with him? The 'angriest boy in town' as so many of his classmates deemed him.

And yet, the next Monday as he walked through the front doors of the school, preparing for another day of barely paying attention to lessons and texting Talia, he was greeted by a smiling Ocean and a nervous Constance.

He didn't even have a chance to start voicing his confusion as Ocean started going off on a tangent on how her bus was later than usual, Constance adding a few comments here and there, while Mischa just stood there and listened...

The situation was comical in his eyes and yet he listened to every word... He was fully engaged in her rambles that filled the air, her body language, and the little quirks she had when speaking. Like, he couldn't help but be mesmerized by her.

It was so strange, but he didn't complain about that and she wouldn't either.

Mischa and Ocean would talk to one another more and more often, and Mischa started craving her presence more and more.

The yearning wasn't one-sided either, Ocean so often found herself wondering what Mischa was doing at that moment and she found herself actively seeking him out. She didn't even care about what they talked about, she just liked being near him.

Eventually, Mischa also asked if Ocean could tutor him, surprising and delighting Ocean. To her, it was simply Mischa wanting to be better in school, to Mischa though, it was simply a way to keep her to himself for a while longer...

He would frequently act as if he didn't understand a certain problem or equation just so their tutoring sessions went on longer, even though he was actually a lot smarter than most give him credit for.

Their relationship definitely started off rocky, but with those problems resolved and Ocean and Mischa pretty much spending every day together..., Mischa started to gain a small crush on the ginger-haired girl.

It really was small at first, he just started noticing how pretty she looked when she got passionate about something (which is pretty much everything-) or how he liked the way she styled her hair on certain days, every time she was near him it was like they were the only two people in the room...

He wasn't that oblivious, he could tell he was growing feelings for the girl. It was just like how he once felt with Talia, yet..., it was also so different. It was much more intense like, his heart would ignite on fire just by thinking of her, his palms would grow sweaty, his breathing would shallow.

The love he had for Talia, he isn't even sure if he could call it that anymore, was nothing like the love he had for Ocean.

Mischa didn't even hesitate when blocking Talia's number and deleting their messages, after all, she would just become an obstacle later on, so why bother?

He wouldn't, no, couldn't let anything get in the way of their relationship. He loved her like he loved no other, surely she saw it too? Surely, she felt the same way about him as he does with her.

He isn't sure if he can take no as an answer anyway.

Mischa just loved Ocean so much, he felt as if every time he saw her his love was amplified by 10. Hell, he couldn't get her off of his mind if he tried, she always running through his head with those pretty eyes and cocky smile...

All the while, Ocean never picked up on Mischa's more obsessive tendencies. She did notice how his eyes would follow her figure as she was talking to others or when she was walking through the hallways. Not that she minded it, the attention made her feel giddy as could feel herself falling for him too.

It was so easy to see when his teasing comments made her smile so much that it hurt, or when she ached for any semblance of his touch, or even when would try to find any excuse to hang out with him. For the first time in her life, she was in love...

Ocean's feelings never truly measured up to Mischa's though, after all, there were a lot of things he would do for her that even in his most obsessive state he could see were objectively wrong (He could care less about that though.)

Mischa will without a doubt protect Ocean from any insult that comes her way, even if it comes from their fellow choir members.

He has had the urge to physically fight Noel on more than one occasion.

He lowkey feeds into her delusions a little..., making her feel like she's better than everyone else so he can isolate her. She can't be caught hanging out with people lower than her, can she? He really does it out of fear that someone will take her away from him, kind of like his mom.

He has written so many songs about her, that it really isn't a laughing matter... Under his bed and in some boxes are just pages and pages of raps, songs, and any other kind of note under the sun, all of which end up becoming just obsessive ramblings.

There is no way in hell that he will ever release those songs, mainly cause he doesn't want her to get the wrong idea but also because he thinks they are good enough for her.

Now, when Mischa confesses have no doubt that it will be in the most romantic and traditional way he can muster up. Even if he's tempted to make a rap song as a confession, he just wants to be perfect for her.

Ocean could swear her heart was beating a million miles a minute as the tall Ukrainian confessed to her, his words being cut off before he could finish with an enthusiastic, "YES!"

They are literally such a power couple..., in the sense that everyone and their mom are scared of them- If you don't have Mischa beat you up physically, Ocean with beat you up verbally.

Ocean gets so excited when she gets to go to his house for the first time since she wants to make the best possible impression on his adoptive parents that she can. Mischa doesn't have the heart to tell her they don't really get along..., leaving Ocean to stand at the door introducing herself to his parents while he stands off to the side awkwardly.

His adoptive parents cannot fathom how he landed a girl like her..., and even if they seemed supportive to Ocean and Mischa's faces, they could only wonder how long would it last. Those kinds of thoughts didn't slip past Mischa and he wasn't shy about making Ocean avoid his parents as much as possible.

When Ocean finds out how his parents treated him for pretty much the entire time he's lived with them, Mischa has to physically restrain her to stop her from marching over to them and berating them for how poorly they treated him. That moment only solidified how much Mischa loved Ocean.

If you thought Ocean couldn't crave Mischa's touch possibly anymore, then you are sorely mistaken. Even if she is still too prideful to say it, she will always try to initiate some sort of contact between them so Mischa knows she wants some physical attention.

He finds her need for his touch super cute. :)

His personal favorite thing though is when Ocean is wearing literally anything of his, be it a shirt, sweatshirt, his cologne, whatever it is, he absolutely adores it. And if she ever gives him something of hers to wear, he will cherish it like his life depends on it.

It's a win-win situation, Mischa likes her to wear his stuff and Ocean finds his clothes comfortable. She especially likes wearing it at her house when she for whatever reason can't come over.

He really hates when her responsibilities get in the way of their dates and whatnot, but he does understand how important those kinds of things are to her. (If he starts feeling really lonely though, he will find some way to cancel whatever plans she may have so that she'll spend more time with him.)

If for some reason, Ocean starts to notice his yandere behavior and how much of a problem it is, she'll undoubtedly start to feel really uncomfortable with their relationship... No matter how in love with him she is, Ocean has always been a more facts-over-feeling person, and she knows this isn't normal.

So, as any person would, she tries to break it off.

...Ocean couldn't tell if it was her approach or how she worded it, but he did not take that well in the slightest. Mischa isn't afraid to gaslight her in these kinds of situations, reminding her that all of her previous friends weren't there for her anymore and that he is the only person who has stuck by her side.

The fear she had of being alone quickly made her do a 180, practically pleading for him to stay with her...

After all, he will always be there for her.

A/N: Hopefully I didn't mischaracterize them too bad or anything- Also, I did not realize how much I wrote until it was too late... Guess I got too busy becoming an osha enjoyer lol.

[doloresdisparue]

Hi! Just preemptively, because I'm sure running this blog can be exhausting: this ask is about whether a half-baked idea I had for cover art of Lolita as a teenager has ever been used on a real book cover-- nothing heavier than that.

So! The Kubrick movie was so bad that as an adult I turned it off 10 minutes in, but I watched the whole thing when I was 17. I don't remember exactly what Dolores' "Midsummer Night's Dream" costume looked like, but it must have had a bunch of leaves/forest debris glued onto the shoulder, because I was very taken with the idea of creating an image where she's in the costume and HH looks normal/is gripping her shoulder, but when you take a closer look instead of a hand he has a talon digging into her shoulder, slightly camouflaged by all the woodland stuff on the costume but readily apparent if you look at Dolores for more than half a second. when I tried watching it as an adult I turned it off after about 10 minutes, but as a teen, I thought a great way to depict the threat of HH lurking in plain sight/barely obscured would be to have him clutching Dolores' shoulder while she's still in the costume for "A Midsummer Night's Dream"-- only instead of a hand, he has a talon digging into her shoulder, slightly camouflaged by the woodland debris on Dolores' costume but easily spotted if you look with even the slightest bit of attention.

Nowadays, I don't support that imagery for the story-- HH's real hand on a real child is far more horrifying, I agree with Nobokov abt how images of Dolores shouldn't be on covers, etc-- but I was wondering if you've found any similar imagery over the course of your research?

(Literally just curious though, so no worries about answering if for whatever reason you don't feel like it. Thanks for sharing such great analysis on here, and best wishes on your thesis!)

Hi! Thank you for the lovely message and the concern - though honestly this blog is helping as a sort of vent space for what I have to work through for my thesis anyway.

I have not seen any cover resembling your old idea! I have actually barely seen any cover that leans into the fairytale aesthetic despite that being a strong recurring motif even outside of the "Enchanted Hunter" play/hotel. There MIGHT be some out there that combine the popular butterfly motif with the little girl and end up making her look like a bit of a fairy but I can't find any right now.

This might come closest to what you described in spirit, though it is not a cover but a flyleaf from a Russian edition that I can't actually find the cover of.

More vaguely interesting editions under the cut

Theres this 2009 Russian edition but Humbert doesn't appear on it and there is no subversion of the romantic imagery

This 1987 German cover for the Enchanter (not technically Lolita) has that aspect of Humbert as a (decidedly human though) monster but it's missing the fairytale aspect:

This Russian edition goes full literal nymph but, again, we are not subverting anything and this is definitely not a costumed little girl but an actual magic creature

Russia again, 2000, (interesting pattern) but this is a costumed little girl, though without Humbert and not her movie costume. Might also be a child bride, not a reference to the play.

Ukrainian. Humbert's "talons" prominently featured. Might have had some impact if Dolly's dress wasn't transparent for some godforsaken reason.

These are the ones with the closest vibes that I've come across. And while you're right in that it's not ideal wrt making Humbert a literal monster that obscures how human he is and featuring a little girl prominently I do think cover artists could do something by leaning into the fairy tale thing in some way. If we allow ourselves the leeway of featuring body parts there might also be something with just showing Dolly's shoulder and Humbert's hand resting on it, fatherly at first glance but digging into her skin and holding her tightly when you look closer. God knows, I'm no illustrator but there are so many options I'd love to see more. Also Stanley Kubrick rot in hell <3

[iricathel]

can you tell us more about yourself admin?

OH WOW ANON I-- YOU JUST DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE DONE

Anyways--

Prepare to read a self-indulgent biography of myself bc I'm my biggest simp AHAHAHAHA

I'm kinda have such a big ass pride in my origins, so I will tell a little too much about it.

All the basic information I have about myself I have already published here in this small summary sheet, but I can go into more detail.

I think I've already made it quite clear many times that I'm Russian. I was born in Russia, I grew up there for a few years and my relatives are of the same origin, but in my family tree there are many more mixtures of nationalities (although I only have more knowledge on my mother's side). I basically have Polish, Ukrainian, French, Swedish (dad's side) and strong Spanish (Principality of Asturias and Castilla-León) ancestry (from which thanks to my great-grandmother, I inherited Spanish nationality despite not having been born there) + my origins are Cossacks, typical of my hometown Rostov-on-Don, which is located in the southwest of Russia, considering this city as the gates of the Caucasus.

My origins are also very poor since my ancestors were always victims of something and went through famine (My great-great grandmother was abandoned by her husband while she was pregnant and being an orphan and having no one else went to Spain to live on a farm; my great-grandfather was one of the soldiers who participated in the first squad of the war between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany; another of my great-grandparents was caught by the Nazis and taken just 2 of his brothers to concentration camps [the older brother tried to escape with his wife but was caught and shot]; my great-grandmother, when she was 9 years old, was sent to Russia to live in an orphanage since the war in Spain was getting serious, since being from a republican-communist family they were persecuted by the dictator Francisco Franco) not to mention the brutal family dramas like my grandmother being chased by her mother-in-law with an ax because she suffered from dementia and hated her, or my grandfather being cursed by his own sister envying him (she put graveyard dirt on his shoulder for a funeral and the following year he died of a heart disease that still had no cure at that time).

With all of that being said, I think it's becoming a bit obvious where I took inspiration from to create the Owl clan.

Focusing on myself now, yeah, I was born into an Orthodox-Catholic family with strong beliefs and a very closed mind (which is why I'm not so open about my sexuality since they are able to send me to a psychiatric hospital). I am the product of a VERY toxic courtship that should have the honor of being the inspiration for a Lana del Rey song.

I grew up from the age of 5 in the south of Spain and 3 years ago I moved to the capital to live a much better life 💅

Even though I had a lot of problems with my father due to the abandonment wound he caused me, I was always the daddy's girl because despite his neglect, he spoiled me in a way that actually built a personality that doesn't settle for little. Tbh from a very young age I was only obsessed with boys to have something interesting in this life and then as soon as I got bored I would forget about them, however I have had serious relationships with a girl for 2 years and then with a boy for almost 4 years.

I have Adhd and a few other problems that I would prefer not to detail too much 🤸🏼‍♀️

I studied Fashion Design for almost 3 years, but I ended up leaving because I learned that for me it is more of a hobby than a job. Currently I'm still thinking about what to study, but honestly I don't dream of working.

Hhhhhh more things that I don't said before?

I was born with copper hair, but in a few days I began to have very curly blonde hair and eyes as gray as iron resembling goldilocks, in addition to my skin tanning to a golden hue. From the age of 6 my eyes changed and now they are hazel color with a predominant green, at 12 years old due to the fact that I suffered a strong anemia that lasted for even more years, my skin stopped taking color and remained quite white plus my hair darkened to a chocolate-copper color, also, I am still treating my hair so that it is completely healthy again and I can have my curls back.

My color preferences in clothing always varied a lot, but since I was little I was very fashionable and adored luxuries, so it is normal that today I love to look good, groom myself and take care of myself to look resplendent. Nowadays my outfits are quite dark ngl

I can speak russian, spanish, english, a liiiittle bit of school's french 🤏🏻 and I wanna try german and japanese someday

Fun fact: When I speak Russian I pronounce the л in a different way (like Latin L, similar sounds but in Russian the tip of the tongue is placed just below the front teeth almost as if you were going to bite it) so my grandmother says that I seem to have a bit of a Polish accent.

[official-weasley]

The Extraordinary Dragon (Part 1/6)

After about a century of me being gone and not writing a new story, I am back with a mini-series! 💙

I didn't have a good idea for a new OC so I decided to write a cute and fluffy story about Charlie training a dragon with a sad and mysterious past.

I would like to thank @am-i-space @madelineorionswan & @the-al-chemist for giving me ideas for the names of the dragons mentioned in the story. You are the best 💙 Since some of the dragons are mentioned in the later chapters I will make sure to include which dragons you named in the Masterlist for the story 💙

If you'd like to be tagged in every part the dragon with your name is mentioned please tell me and I will gladly do so 🤗

Warnings: Charlie being excited and obsessed with dragons.

Word count: 2,869

A dragon's roar awakened me. It might sound terrifying to some, but it is a pure melody for my ears. I have been working in the Romanian Dragon Sanctuary for almost 10 years now. Come to think of it tomorrow's the anniversary.

My co-workers constantly tease me, telling me that I'm a workaholic. I always disagree with them. I just love dragons and working with them. Am I a bit obsessed with the creatures? Maybe. But who wouldn't be so excited about having their dream job?

There is something so soothing working with a beast that can swallow you whole, yet if you have the right energy and you treat them right they can be more obedient than a Crup.

When I first got the job I worked with a team of researchers. Since I have never seen a dragon in real life before starting working, my boss Matthew wanted me to learn about their behavior and study them to be better prepared to do other things.

They all thought I will be bored out of my mind – because I applied for the care of dragons position and not researching – but I loved every second of it. All I had to do was wake up every morning and go to the assigned habitat and observe the dragon there and take notes. It's like reading a book about the creatures – something I did almost every day of my 7 years at Hogwarts – but you get to be around them every single day.

My mother thinks I am insane for wanting to be around such dangerous creatures and I had to promise her before I left for Romania that I will write home every day otherwise she is coming to get me at once. I guess she needs to know daily that I wasn't eaten by a dragon. The thing is that being hurt by a dragon is less likely than falling off a broom, so I don't know what she is so worried about.

The only one of my family members that knows about all my injuries and all my scars is my big brother Bill. He understands that I don't mind getting hurt and he doesn't get a heart attack every time I end up in the infirmary. It's nice to talk to someone about these things outside my workspace. Even though being a Curse Breaker isn't the safest job in the world, Bill's number of scars can't even compare to mine.

We do have protective gear and gloves but sometimes the dragon's fire and teeth are just too strong. We are lucky that we have wonderful healers that take care of us and we have remedies that heal burns within minutes so it's mostly just an annoyance.

The year after my training I worked only with Common Welsh Greens. The year after that I tamed two Antipodean Opaleyes and it was the best feeling to see them get excited and welcome me with a friendly roar every morning. Even though they were both adults it felt like dealing with two kids and it was so much fun. The latter are such sweethearts and I even taught one how to roll over. They are like dogs but bigger, way bigger.

After that, I tried to convince my boss to let me work with a more dangerous breed. It's not that I didn't like what I did but I like a challenge. I needed 2 months to convince him to let me work with 2 Chinese Fireballs and by the smirk on his face I knew I was in for a treat. They were brought to our reserve so they could breed but no matter how much others tried nobody succeeded at mating them.

When Matthew finally gave in – not seeing any harm in letting me try before they send them back – I remember I danced around my hut for a solid half an hour being so excited to work with them the next day.

I was surprised that nobody thought of the strategy I choose. It was true that they brought the dragons to us together but they didn't know each other and since nobody thought of trying to acquaint them first, I gave it a go.

After 3 days they were best mates and I gave them 4 more days to fully feel comfortable with each other before taking them to the mating habitat. I am more than proud to say that since then they have been parents 2 times. I did some great things since I started working in the Sanctuary but you never forget your first big achievement.

Due to Matthew being absolutely in awe of me succeeding after a week he allowed me to work with a bunch of Swedish Short-Snouts even though usually only a dragonologist with 5+ years of experience can work with them alone.

I was amused when I saw the faces of some of my older co-workers when they found out – thinking they were going to get the job. I love working with them even though they are the ones responsible for most of my scars. Just after the first day, one burned my entire forearm and everyone thought I was going to back off because of it but it only made me want to work with them more.

Now, after almost 10 years I have worked with every single breed of dragon except my favorite – the Hebridean Black. They are one of the most dangerous and stubborn kind and only a dragonologist with a lot of experience gets to work with them.

I got the glimpse of one when I was working with the research team but no matter how sneaky I tried to be, Matthew wouldn't let me get anywhere close to them. I even got a chance to work with a team that took care of a sick Norwegian Ridgeback even though they are considered to be the most dangerous.

A year ago I got a chance to be part of an exchange program at the Swedish Dragon Reserve and I worked with a Peruvian Vipertooth and a Ukrainian Ironbelly. My boss wasn't happy about the latter one as he reckoned I was too inexperienced to be around and try to tame the largest breed of dragons but as you can probably tell from what I told you so far, I was over the roof about it!

The Ironbelly might be the largest but they are among the least vicious ones – none of my co-workers would agree with me as most of them are terrified of them but I think they are adorable thinking since they are the biggest they are also the scariest. It's the same as with dogs – sometimes the smaller ones are more dangerous.

I got out of bed with a grin on my face. Even though I don't like to admit it I like reminiscing on my biggest achievements.

I made myself some breakfast – eggs and bacon as usual – while blasting music on my wireless. Nothing like singing while cooking and reading the letters my family sent me.

Mum and dad were going to visit George and Ron for the weekend. Bill and Fleur decided to repaint their living room. Ginny invited me to one of her games next week and Percy got another promotion.

I walked to the wall where I had a calendar hanging to mark the date of Ginny's game. It was the perfect event to meet with most of my family members and I love supporting her. I am proud of all my siblings' achievements but Ginny being the only girl among 6 boys made us all have a soft spot for her - even Percy, even though he would probably deny it if someone asked him about it.

Since I was working with three different dragons at the moment – Peruvian Vipertooth named Hel and two Romanian Longhorns Lasair and Rocker – I double-checked my schedule to see which one I am supposed to visit today. As I thought, it was Lasair. I know my schedule by heart but always check it twice– I don't want any dragon to be jealous thinking one is getting more attention from me.

My routine with the dragons was simple. First, they get their breakfast which is usually a piece of their favorite meat, except if it's our Common Welsh Green Crystal – she is the only dragon I have ever met that is a vegetarian and she mostly doesn't want to eat anything else than apples. It took us the longest time to figure out why she doesn't want to eat – vomiting out all the meat we gave her – until we moved her to an habitant with a pumpkin patch and them mysteriously disappearing overnight.

After the feeding, I like to play with them. That usually includes large balls or levitating rocks after which they can jump and run. Then it's my favorite part of the day – the flying lessons. We transport them to the part of the reserve that is built like a large stadium in the middle of the forest surrounded by mountains and it has 10 obstacles that the dragons have to learn to overcome so they are cleared for free-flying sessions.

After flying it's time for a brief pause to get the dragon back to its habitat and calm it down before giving it dinner and tucking it in.

Flying is the most fun thing we can do at our job. When Matthew told me that I am finally allowed to fly with them, I had to excuse myself and go to the bathroom because I felt like crying my eyes out. I wanted to fly on a dragon ever since I was a kid and even though I heard rumors about training them in that way, I always thought it was too good to be true.

The first time I flew on a dragon was with a dragonologist named Jim. He showed me how to properly prepare the dragon to be in the mood to have a person on its back and how to lift off and then safely land. Vulcan the Opaleye was just the loveliest when I trained with him to trust me to the point that he would allow me to fly. Even though my dream is to one day fly on a Hebridean Black, I wouldn't change my first flight for anything in the world.

Vulcan was more than obedient and so careful to make me feel comfortable and constantly made sure I was still on his back. He flew in a straight line and at an even pace making me feel so safe that I let go of his shiny scales and lifted my hands in the air. I wanted to shout from all the adrenaline and excitement that ran through me but I didn't want to startle the dragon.

It's safe to say that I didn't sleep at all that night. The second I laid in my bed I felt as if I was still in the air with Vulcan and I couldn't help but wish to do that every day.

"Good morning, Lasair. What do you want to eat this morning? Boar, deer, moose perhaps?"Lasair lifted her head sleepily at me. I teased her with the options, knowing full well that moose was her favorite. If she could speak she would ask me if I can't remember her favorite meal.

"Don't worry, you'll get what you want." I winked at her and put on my gloves before taking out my wand and levitating the big chunk of meat to her.

Lasair was one of the rare dragons that ate her food slowly, so I loved to sit down next to her and watched her chew. If Matthew saw me, he would probably murder me for sitting so close to a dragon but he doesn't know that Lasair and I have an agreement of her keeping me alive and I give her some extra meat for dinner in return.

"So, Lassy, I have some bad news." I cleared my throat as the dragon stopped chewing and tilted her head toward me. "We have to sharpen your claws today."

Lasair groaned and went back to her breakfast.

"I know, I know. Not your favorite thing to do. Trust me if it was up to me, we would rather do something more fun like play with your favorite tire or play fetch with your ball. But the boss said it was time."

Lasair didn't react to my words but laid on the ground once she finished her meal and wrapped her tail around me.

"You know that cuddling and being cute won't work on me." I chuckled. "Not this time, at least."

The dragon's nostrils started to smoke and I knew she was trying to negotiate.

"Between you and me," I whispered, "I'll throw in another piece of meat if you'll be a good girl like last time. How about some boar for dessert, huh?"

Lasair let out a gentle roar, giving me a sign that she agrees with my terms.

"That's my girl. I knew we'll find a common ground." I grinned at her and got up so we could start our day.

"Okay, Lassy. I will need you to step on this mat and do the burying motion. As if you were burying the bones of a deer." I explained when Lasair looked at the mat in confusion.

I mimicked the gesture and she copied it and walked to the mat with grace as if she was a princess.

"There you go! I am so proud of you, Lasair. You really want that extra piece of meat, huh?" I laughed to myself.

"So that is how you get all dragons to behave as if they're Crups?" I turned toward the voice and saw Matthew's amused face, observing my work with the Romanian Longhorn.

"You were never meant to find out," I said in a dramatic voice.

"Oh, it's fine." Matthew swung his hand. "You'll need all the skills."

"What do you mean?" I furrowed my brows at him as I stepped to Lasair to show her to step a bit forward so she could sharpen the claws on her back paws as well.

"Do you know what tomorrow is?" Matthew asked, observing my every move.

"No." I lied. I knew that tomorrow will be 10 years since I work in the reserve but I didn't want to boast about it.

"Come on, Charles. I know that you out of everyone here you’re the one who counts how long you are working here for." He smirked at me.

I couldn't believe it. He remembered that it's my 10th anniversary? I couldn't help but grin.

"What about it?" I tried acting casually.

"Well, the team was thinking about what to get you as a present..."

"Matt, you don't have to get me anything. You know I am just happy being surrounded by dragons." I smiled appreciatively.

"Well, how about you get surrounded by a new dragon?" He winked at me.

"What are you on about?" I narrowed my eyes at him. I was getting impatient, the excitement in me growing.

"We are getting a one-year-old Hebridean Black in a week from the MacFusty’s." Matthew started to explain. "And since you are so good at taming and being best mates with the three you’re taming now, I was thinking of assigning it to you."

"Did...did you just say a Hebridean Black?" I said in a voice that was barely a whisper. I couldn't believe what just came out of his mouth. He was going to let me work with my favorite breed?

"You heard correctly, Charles." Matthew's smirk was growing larger.

"But...but I don't have enough experience, you said so yourself. You...you should give the job to someone worthy, to someone who will know how to handle the breed." I knew that I should've just shut up and thank him for the opportunity. Working with a Hebridean Black has been my goal ever since I can remember, but I have to keep my head clear and think of what's best for the dragon.

"Thinking like this is exactly why I am giving the job to you even though I told you the last time you begged me that you need at least 7 more years before you can work with them." Something in his eyes shifted. He had the exact expression on his face as he did when he assigned me to breed those two Fireballs.

"You are up to something. What's wrong with the dragon?" I pursed my lips at him.

"Oh, the dragon is just fine. Lovely, actually. I bet you two will have a lot of fun." The sarcastic tone in his voice told me that he was hiding something from me but I didn't dare to ask him about it.

He deemed me ready to work with a Hebridean Black. To work with my favorite breed. I am not about to jeopardize that if he thinks I am the one for the job. In a week my biggest dream will come true and there was nothing in the world that could ruin that.

[snowe-zolynn-rogers]

Pairings: Pre-ChuuRanPoe (Ranpo caught feelings), Pre-Kousano (Yosano likes Kouyou)

Word Count: 1,156 Words

Summary: Recovery, day four.

Warnings: Food Mention, Nausea Mention, Vomit Mention, Age Regression, Drunk Mention (Mention Only), Fighting Mention (Mention Only), let me know if I should tag anything else.

Translations: Yizha?: Food? [Ukrainian]

How Poe Stumped Ranpo: Chapter 21

"Good morning, Poe." Lovecraft interrupted the quiet room. Poe was moving a bit, groaning and rubbing his eyes.

"Ed! Food!" Fyodor happily cheered as he handed Poe the food and drink he and Twain had gotten for him.

"Thank you." Poe tiredly acknowledged.

"Yizha?" Nikolai mumbled.

"Kolya! Found cotton candy!" Nikolai perked up at Fyodor's voice, looking as he felt Fyodor putting both of the sandwiches, an energy drink, and the bag of cotton candy he'd found at the store.

"You got me cotton candy?" Nikolai asked.

"Love you!" Fyodor exclaimed, making Nikolai smile even more.

"Love you too." Nikolai dragged himself to sit up. Lovecraft watched Fyodor do their job taking care of his friends once they woke up, eventually ending with Yosano coming in while Fyodor was handing Akutagawa food and drink.

"Morning, Mama!" Fyodor greeted her.

"Morning, Fyodor." Yosano confusedly greeted.

"Mister Twain took me to the store and we got sandwiches and drinks and candy!" Fyodor happily announced.

"Candy, huh?" She asked, voice tense and glaring at Twain.

"No trouble! He's nice!" Fyodor whined.

"No trouble, honey." She assured him.

"Cute privilege." Tachihara muttered.

"I think I feel sick." Tecchou quietly admitted.

"Sick? Fever or nausea?" Yosano asked.

"Nausea." Tecchou took a few deep breaths.

"You haven't eaten yet. Maybe you're so hungry that you're nauseous?" Jouno reminded him.

"No, I feel sick." He forced his way up from the bed and Yosano grabbed him, taking him to the bathrooms and letting him throw up in the toilet. "I'm sorry, I tried not to be difficult."

"You tried...You've felt sick? For how long?"

"Since I got the reversal shot. Carroll said I'm allergic to the Stoker drug."

"You should've told me." He wouldn't respond to her, she supposed he was embarrassed being weak, she knew he'd been much stronger before this ordeal, being a Hunting Dog and all.

"Well, at least let me monitor you, make sure you're getting better. The drug works on you still, but just take it easy for a little bit, don't go pushing yourself." She assured him.

"I know."

"Alright, let's get back so you can eat something, maybe take a nap?" She suggested.

"Yeah." Yosano helped him back and Tachihara pulled him right back into the cuddle pile that was Tachihara and Jouno's beds. He didn't move to get up so he just ate laying down.

"Nikolai, we probably can't go back there. He was the one with the address, we can't exactly go back. We don't even have our phones." Sigma quietly told the albino.

"But I need it!" Yosano was a bit thrown off how Nikolai was actually in tears. She'd only seen him break down once and that was when he'd been affirmed that he truly was free.

"Need what?" Yosano asked.

"Nikolai has this old teddy bear he loves and he left it at a safehouse before everything happened and me and him can't get there ourselves because we weren't the ones with the address. I'd have called one of our old allies but the numbers were on phones that are also there." Sigma pointedly glanced at Fyodor, who was completely oblivious still going on his workbook with Twain's help.

"Well, lucky for you, we have a group of people right across the hall who might be able to find it. We happen to have a genius who can probably just tell us where it is." Yosano told them.

"You can find the safehouse?" Nikolai asked. Nikolai hid himself against Sigma, hiding in his hair.

"With the amount of people we could ask for help right now with the three-party ceasefire between the Agency, the Mafia, and the Guild, yes. I'm sure we can find it." Yosano assured him.

"Kolya, thank Miss Yosano." Sigma urged him.

"Thank you." Nikolai hid still, peeking out from his position hiding within Sigma's hair.

"Is he okay?" Yosano asked.

"He's fine. He's just stressed, so he regressed. That's why he wanted his bear."

"Still want Arkady." Nikolai whispered.

"We'll find him, Nikolai. Ranpo should be in soon and we can ask him if he can find it." Yosano assured him. A half hour later, an unsure knock came at the infirmary door and Yosano opened to door.

"I was told by three different Guild members to bring these so I grabbed as many as I could hold." Fitzgerald stood confused and holding several teddy bears in bags.

"You three, really? You called Fitzgerald to buy them?" Yosano asked.

"He was sad!" Twain admitted.

"So can I finally get an answer about who these are for?" Fitzgerald asked.

"For Nikolai. Well, I guess he can pick one now." Nikolai was cuddled up to Sigma, taking a nap.

"He's sleeping, how is he supposed to pick?" Sigma asked.

"Then keep them here, I'm taking these three idiots, and we need to go get Nathaniel, he's drunk and wanting a fight again and we need to go get him." Fitzgerald sat the bags on the spare desk and taking his three teammates and dragging them out. After a bit, Nikolai woke back up and he whined at Sigma about his lack of Arkady.

"Well, Mister Ranpo isn't here yet." Sigma reminded him. "But, Mister Fitzgerald from the Guild brought a bunch of bears you can pick from in the meantime."

"Pick?" Nikolai asked softly.

"Yep, see?" Sigma pointed him toward the bears in bags in the corner.

"Here, pick one." Yosano brought the bags over so he could pick one, sitting on the bed awaiting his answer. Nikolai hid behind Sigma and whimpered.

"Kolya, it's just Miss Yosano. She's nice, remember? Say hi to her." Sigma urged him.

"Hi." Nikolai quietly whispered as he poked his head out a bit.

"Hey, Nikolai. How old are you?" Yosano asked softly, quiet so she wouldn't startle him.

"I'm two." Sigma smiled and pet Nikolai's hair gently, letting him know he was proud.

"You're little, huh? Would you like to pick a friend to hug?" Yosano asked gently. Yellow eyes looked over her and then up to Sigma.

"Friend, please?" Sigma let Nikolai slowly maneuver around him and he looked at the bears, still holding onto Sigma's hand for assurance he wasn't leaving. "Friend?" Nikolai asked, showing a particularly cute white bear with a purple bowtie to Sigma.

"You like them?" Sigma asked. Nikolai nodded, hiding against him again.

"Thank you, Miss Yosano." He quietly thanked her.

"No problem." She smiled at him.

"Do they have a name, Kolya?" Sigma asked.

"Dmitri." Nikolai showed Sigma proudly as he cuddled her close.

"He's so pretty, Kolya." Sigma praised him, letting Nikolai happily hide in his arms again, Sigma smiling at the hiding albino. "He's asleep again." Sigma let Yosano know quietly.

Yosano quietly placed a black bear into Fyodor's arms while he took a nap as well, dispersing the other bears amongst her patients so they had something to cuddle besides each other.

[boreothegoldfinch]

chapter 5 paragraph x

Of my classes, English was the only one I looked forward to, yet I was disturbed by how many of my classmates disliked Thoreau, railed against him even, as if he (who claimed never to have learned anything of value from an old person) was an enemy and not a friend. His scorn of commerce—invigorating to me —nettled a lot of the more vocal kids in Honors English. “Yeah, right,” shouted an obnoxious boy whose hair was gelled and combed stiff like a Dragon Ball Z character—“some kind of world it would be if everybody just dropped out and moped around in the woods—” “Me, me, me,” whined a voice in the back. “It’s antisocial,” a loudmouth girl interjected eagerly over the laughter that followed this—shifting in her seat, turning back to the teacher (a limp, long-boned woman named Mrs. Spear, who always wore brown sandals and earthtone colors, and looked as if she was suffering from major depression). “Thoreau is always just sitting around on his can telling us how good he has it —” “—Because,” said the Dragon Ball Z boy—his voice rising gleefully, “if everybody dropped out, like he’s saying to do? What kind of community would we have, if it was just people like him? We wouldn’t have hospitals and stuff. We wouldn’t have roads.” “Twat,” mumbled a welcome voice���just loud enough for everybody around to hear. I turned to see who had said this: the burnout-looking boy across the aisle, slouched and drumming his desk with his fingers. When he saw me looking at him, he raised a surprisingly lively eyebrow, as if to say: can you believe these fucking idiots? “Did someone have something to say back there?” said Mrs. Spear. “Like Thoreau gave a toss about roads,” said the burnout boy. His accent took me by surprise: foreign, I couldn’t place it. “Thoreau was the first environmentalist,” said Mrs. Spear. “He was also the first vegetarian,” said a girl in back. “Figures,” said someone else. “Mr. Crunchy-chewy.” “You’re all totally missing my point,” the Dragon Ball Z boy said excitedly. “Somebody has to build roads and not just sit in the woods looking at ants and mosquitoes all day. It’s called civilization.” My neighbor let out a sharp, contemptuous bark of a laugh. He was pale and thin, not very clean, with lank dark hair falling in his eyes and the unwholesome wanness of a runaway, callused hands and black-circled nails chewed to the nub—not like the shiny-haired, ski-tanned skate rats from my school on the Upper West Side, punks whose dads were CEOs and Park Avenue surgeons, but a kid who might conceivably be sitting on a sidewalk somewhere with a stray dog on a rope. “Well, to address some of these questions? I’d like for everybody to turn back to page fifteen,” Mrs. Spear said. “Where Thoreau is talking about his experiment in living.” “Experiment how?” said Dragon Ball Z. “Why is living in the woods like he does any different from a caveman?” The dark-haired boy scowled and sank deeper in his seat. He reminded me of the homeless-looking kids who stood around passing cigarettes back and forth on St. Mark’s Place, comparing scars, begging for change—same torn-up clothes and scrawny white arms; same black leather bracelets tangled at the wrists. Their multi-layered complexity was a sign I couldn’t read, though the general import was clear enough: different tribe, forget about it, I’m way too cool for you, don’t even try to talk to me. Such was my mistaken first impression of the only friend I made when I was in Vegas, and—as it turned out—one of the great friends of my life. His name was Boris. Somehow we found ourselves standing together in the crowd that was waiting for the bus after school that day.

“Hah. Harry Potter,” he said, as he looked me over. “Fuck you,” I said listlessly. It was not the first time, in Vegas, I’d heard the Harry Potter comment. My New York clothes—khakis, white oxford shirts, the tortoiseshell glasses which I unfortunately needed to see—made me look like a freak at a school where most people dressed in tank tops and flip flops. “Where’s your broomstick?” “Left it at Hogwarts,” I said. “What about you? Where's your board?” “Eh?” he said, leaning in to me and cupping his hand behind his ear with an old-mannish, deaf-looking gesture. He was half a head taller than me; along with jungle boots and bizarre old fatigues with the knees busted out, he was wearing a ratted-up black T-shirt with a snowboarding logo, Never Summer in white gothic letters. “Your shirt,” I said, with a curt nod. “Not much boarding in the desert.” “Nyah,” said Boris, pushing the stringy dark hair out of his eyes. “I don’t know how to snowboard. I just hate the sun.” We ended up together on the bus, in the seat closest to the door—clearly an unpopular place to sit, judging from the urgent way other kids muscled and pushed to the rear, but I hadn’t grown up riding a school bus and apparently neither had he, as he too seemed to think it only natural to fling himself down in the first empty seat up front. For a while we didn’t say much, but it was a long ride and eventually we got talking. It turned out that he lived in Canyon Shadows too—but farther out, the end that was getting reclaimed by the desert, where a lot of the houses weren’t finished and sand stood in the streets. “How long have you been here?” I asked him. It was the question all the kids asked each other at my new school, like we were doing jail time. “Dunno. Two months maybe?” Though he spoke English fluently enough, with a strong Australian accent, there was also a dark, slurry undercurrent of something else: a whiff of Count Dracula, or maybe it was KGB agent. “Where are you from?” “New York,” I said—and was gratified at his silent double-take, his lowered eyebrows that said: very cool. “What about you?” He pulled a face. “Well, let’s see,” he said, slumping back in his seat and counting off the countries on his fingers. “I’ve lived in Russia, Scotland which was maybe cool but I don’t remember it, Australia, Poland, New Zealand, Texas for two months, Alaska, New Guinea, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Ukraine—” “Jesus Christ.” He shrugged. “Mostly Australia, Russia, and Ukraine, though. Those three places.” “Do you speak Russian?” He made a gesture that I took to mean more or less. “Ukrainian too, and Polish. Though I’ve forgotten a lot. The other day, I tried to remember what was the word for ‘dragonfly’ and couldn’t.” “Say something.” He obliged, something spitty and guttural. “What does that mean?” He chortled. “It means ‘Fuck you up the ass.’ ” “Yeah? In Russian?” He laughed, exposing grayish and very un-American teeth. “Ukrainian.” “I thought they spoke Russian in the Ukraine.” “Well, yes. Depends what part of Ukraine. They’re not so different languages, the two. Well—” click of the tongue, eye roll—“not so very much. Numbers are different, days of the week, some vocabulary. My name is spelled different in Ukrainian but in North America it’s easier to use Russian spelling and be Boris, not B-o-r-y-s. In the West everybody knows Boris Yeltsin…” he ticked his head to one side—“Boris Becker—” “Boris Badenov—” “Eh?” he said sharply, turning as if I’d insulted him. “Bullwinkle? Boris and Natasha?” “Oh, yes. Prince Boris! War and Peace. I’m named like him. Although the surname of Prince Boris is Drubetskóy, not what you said.”

“So what’s your first language? Ukrainian?” He shrugged. “Polish maybe,” he said, falling back in his seat, slinging his dark hair to one side with a flip of his head. His eyes were hard and humorous, very black. “My mother was Polish, from Rzeszów near the Ukrainian border. Russian, Ukrainian—Ukraine as you know was satellite of USSR, so I speak both. Maybe not Russian quite so much—it’s best for swearing and cursing. With Slavic languages—Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, even Czech—if you know one, you sort of get drift in all. But for me, English is easiest now. Used to be the other way around.” “What do you think about America?” “Everyone always smiles so big! Well—most people. Maybe not so much you. I think it looks stupid.” He was, like me, an only child. His father (born in Siberia, a Ukrainian national from Novoagansk) was in mining and exploration. “Big important job—he travels the world.” Boris’s mother—his father’s second wife—was dead. “Mine too,” I said. He shrugged. “She’s been dead for donkey’s years,” he said. “She was an alkie. She was drunk one night and she fell out a window and died.” “Wow,” I said, a bit stunned by how lightly he’d tossed this off. “Yah, it sucks,” he said carelessly, looking out the window. “So what nationality are you?” I said, after a brief silence. “Eh—?” “Well, if your mother’s Polish, and your dad’s Ukrainian, and you were born in Australia, that would make you—” “Indonesian,” he said, with a sinister smile. He had dark, devilish, very expressive eyebrows that moved around a lot when he spoke. “How’s that?” “Well, my passport says Ukraine. And I have part citizenship in Poland too. But Indonesia is the place I want to get back to,” said Boris, tossing the hair out of his eyes. “Well—PNG.” “What?” “Papua, New Guinea. It’s my favorite place I’ve lived.” “New Guinea? I thought they had headhunters. “Not any more. Or not so many. This bracelet is from there,” he said, pointing to one of the many black leather strands on his wrist. “My friend Bami made it for me. He was our cook.” “What’s it like?” “Not so bad,” he said, glancing at me sideways in his brooding, self-amused way. “I had a parrot. And a pet goose. And, was learning to surf. But then, six months ago, my dad hauled me with him to this shaddy town in Alaska. Seward Peninsula, just below Arctic Circle? And then, middle of May —we flew to Fairbanks on a prop plane, and then we came here.” “Wow,” I said. “Dead boring up there,” said Boris. “Heaps of dead fish, and bad Internet connection. I should have run away—I wish I had,” he said bitterly. “And done what?” “Stayed in New Guinea. Lived on the beach. Thank God anyway we weren’t there all winter. Few years ago, we were up north in Canada, in Alberta, this one-street town off the Pouce Coupe River? Dark the whole time, October to March, and fuck-all to do except read and listen to CBC radio. Had to drive fifty klicks to do our washing. Still—” he laughed —“loads better than Ukraine. Miami Beach, compared.” “What does your dad do again?” “Drink, mainly,” said Boris sourly. “He should meet my dad, then.” Again the sudden, explosive laugh—almost like he was spitting over you. “Yes. Brilliant. And whores?” “Wouldn’t be surprised,” I said, after a small, startled pause. Though not too much my dad did shocked me, I had never quite envisioned him hanging out in the Live Girls and Gentlemen’s Club joints we sometimes passed on the highway. The bus was emptying out; we were only a few streets from my house. “Hey, this is my stop up here,” I said. “Want to come home with me and watch television?” said Boris. “Well—” “Oh, come on. No one’s there. And I’ve got S.O.S. Iceberg on DVD.”

[fasterthanmydemons]

I want to ask a smart, interesting question that makes the mun think but I can't think of any so... *is thirsty for Pietro in 30 different languages*

WHAT’S THAT?! YOU WANT ME TO WRITE ABOUT PIETRO AND LANGUAGES?! OKAY!

I’m running with your smart, interesting question... You see what I did there... XDDD Actually Imma expand this to just Maximoff twins and languages, because it’s interesting to compare the two...

Both twins excel in learning languages, but in completely different ways. This has resulted in them having some common languages that are not native to them, but different levels of understanding of them, as well as languages that the other does not know.

Growing up, Wanda and Pietro learned Romani and Transian pretty much at the same time, although they consider Romani to be their native tongue. By “Romani,” I don’t mean Romanian, but rather a dialect of Romani (there are many) which is spoken by Roma clans. The Roma people are an ethno-religious group of people, spanning many different countries, so there are many different dialects, religious nuances, and genetic origins that contribute to the Roma people. A large number of them are dark-skinned, Jewish, and of Indian or Indo-European ancestry, but they aren’t limited to that. The way I get around using the MCU FCs for Wanda and Pietro (who are decidedly light-skinned) is by borrowing from their comic backgrounds to say that they are adopted. Their birth parents were light-skinned but of European and Jewish descent, while their adoptive parents were dark-skinned and of Roma descent. Thus, despite looking “White,” the twins identify as Romani and consider the Romani dialect their adoptive parents spoke as their native language. Not that they ever knew they were adopted, though... But anyway, it’s a language they would be far better at speaking than writing, since it would be a largely conversational and colloquial language with a lot of informal slang and adapted phrases, rather than a formal language derived from a written one.

Transian was the language of a fictional country in the Marvel universe as the country the twins lived in before being forced to move after Wanda was attacked as a young child for being a witch. They would probably also largely speak this one instead of writing it, as they used it most often before the age of six. Once they left Transia, the family spoke Romani rather than Transian during the nomadic period where they traveled in their vardo rather than having a permanent residence. 

Once the family settled in Sokovia, the twins began to learn it from hearing it around the city they lived in as well as reading it on television and in newspapers, although their understanding of the language was incomplete for the first couple years they lived there. By the time they were orphaned at ten, they were fluent speakers, but when alone together, they exclusively spoke Romani. However, since the twins continued to live in Sokovia and were bounced around to different foster homes, their mastery of the language continued. By the time they were teenagers living on the streets, Pietro had excelled a lot more at learning conversational Sokovian rather than formal written Sokovian than Wanda had by virture of the fact that he was more outgoing and spoke to a lot of the city folk. Wanda was introverted and shy and often relied on Pietro to communicate for her, resulting in her having less conversational proficiency as far as local slang with Sokovian than Pietro.

During this time, Pietro picked up on a lot of other languages that Wanda did not, although his understanding of them was incomplete and he might not even know himself what language certain phrases or words were from. This is because travel through Sokovia to get to other Eastern European countries was very common, so Pietro heard a lot of immigrants and vacationers speaking their own language. And because he was outgoing and liked to help local people, he also found himself translating at times - or at least attempting to - in order to facilitate people getting along with each other. So he was picking up parts of Bulgarian, Greek, Turkish, even Serbian, Romanian, and Ukrainian.

Pietro is very intelligent, but he has a hard time concentrating on things like reading, studying, and learning languages from sheer vocabulary and grammar lessons alone. However, put him in a room of people that don’t all speak the same language, and eventually he will start picking things up. He’s very good with it, actually... a lot better than Wanda is. Wanda learns better from formal lessons and books and reading on her own, partially because she doesn’t have her brother’s concentration issues, but also because crowds and people she doesn’t know make her nervous, so she’s often not comfortable enough to be receptive to learning languages in casual conversation.

Once the twins ended up in the Hydra lab, they were forced to learn certain things that the organization thought would eventually make them more efficient and versatile spies. Languages was one of the things they really tried to drill into the twins. Wanda excelled at her lessons, but Pietro did not. So the English, French, German, etc. that they wanted the twins to learn was learned well by Wanda but not so much by Pietro. He had his usual trouble concentrating that the confined quarters, punishments, deprivations, and threat of Wanda being hurt only exacerbated. Wanda would try to help him learn so that he wouldn’t be punished, but he really had a hard time.

This is the reason why Pietro can sometimes sound very stilted in those languages, not at all natural, and can even have trouble thinking of certain words or phrases he wants to say. Those languages do not come naturally to him, so he has to really think about what he’s saying. It’s also the reason why Pietro’s accent when speaking English is much more pronounced and his speak more broken than Wanda’s is in that language. The more tired, frustrated, angry, upset, or distracted Pietro is, the more pronounced his accent will become and the worse his grammar and use of words will become as well. The same is true of Wanda, but not to the same degree.

The end result is that Pietro often uses more informal, slang, colloquial ways of speaking because that’s what he’s comfortable with. That’s what he’s learned through experience by talking with native speakers of the languages, so it’s settled in his brain more naturally and become second nature. Wanda’s speech is more formal, more streamlined, more grammatically correct, and more nuanced as far as word choice because she has studied vocabulary and grammar more extensively and retained more of that information.

Of course that is only true for non-native languages. When speaking their native Romani, they chatter on at light speed fluently and naturally using as much slang - and sometimes profanity - as they want, haha. That is the language they will break into when shocked, surprised, or suddenly upset or angry. Whenever they “forget English” for some reason, it is Romani they will default to, although sometimes they will substitute a word from another language here and there into English because they don’t realize it isn’t English. They learned so many languages in a short number of years that the words are sometimes a bit jumbled and crossed over.

Pietro often feels like his more fragmented English is a sign of low intelligence, when in fact, in many other languages it is Wanda who will sound more foreign, have a heavier accent, or will speak in an unnaturally formal way. Pietro will sound more natural in some cases because the languages he’s retained are largely what people would speak in their everyday lives. Wanda would sound either aristocratic, eccentric, arrogant, or just plain silted in some language because she is using the 100% formal, proper, grammatically correct forms of verbs and articles an things. With regard to English, Wanda begins to learn a lot more casual ways of speaking once she comes to live with the Avengers. Although, after Pietro dies, whenever she is alone and talking to him, she still speaks to him in Romani. And that just hit me in the feels. XD

Alright, that’s all I’ve got on that subject, but if you have any further questions about this topic, feel free to send them along. Thank you for sending this in! =)

[caffeinated-mendes]

bel amour - a shawn mendes story (chapter 2)

masterlist

chapter one

word count: 1.7 k

a/n:  the second part to this little novella. i hope you all enjoy and have an amazing day/night! (intentionally written in lowercase)

warnings: swearing 

*if you prefer, you can read this on my wattpad or ao3

"the name mila means sweet one, or dear one. it's of slavic origin, which means you could be from belarus, the czech republic, you could be bulgarian, croatian, macedonian, montenegrin, polish, russian, serbian, slovakian, slovenian, or ukrainian." shawn strutted through the door of the music shop, hands in his pockets. it was the next day, and he was back as promised.

"you memorized all of that, in alphabetical order? i thought you said you couldn't read." mila grinned as he leaned against the counter, "why are you here?"

shawn grinned, "one; i memorized that because i never said i wasn't good at memorizing things. two, i'm here because i needed to tell you that."

mila shook her head, looking up from her book, "you're here because you had to tell me that."

"yes." he looked insistent.

"well, if you're staying here, you might as well sit back here and keep me company. grab a guitar and play anything you want, i guess." shawn shrugged and chose a dark stained guitar, with little shine on it. mila pulled out a foldable chair that leaned against the wall, and so shawn sat down with the guitar. she could now see the rest of his bottom half. he wore black boots with scuffs on the edges of the soles. when he began plucking the strings, she saw his tattoo on the back of his hand. it was a bird, a small bird that was in motion. it looked biblical to her, for some reason.

mila took her book from the table, and shawn looked at the front cover, "i thought you were reading lord of the flies," he continued to play the guitar.

"yeah, i finished it last night. my tv show got boring. now it's frankenstein." mila looked down at the book placed on her thighs and couldn't help but look at them and not at the words on the page. every time she looked down she couldn't help but feel the taste of hatred in her mouth. she focused her attention back to the page. shawn continued the song on his guitar. she got lost in the music and set her book down, knowing she wouldn't read it anyway. "how long have you been playing guitar?"

"five years," shawn replied, taking his hands off the strings, "do you play anything?"

"yeah, violin. i haven't focused on it much since high school, though. i considered majoring in violin performance but i chose a different major. you're really good for five years, though." she looked back down at the guitar, "something isn't right though. did you tune it?"

"yes, a little bit." he looked at her with a look of confusion on his face.

"hand it here," she held her hands out and he gave her the guitar. she plucked the e string. "your e string is flat just a bit." she plucked the rest and stopped on the b string, "and your b string is also a bit flat."

shawn shook his head, "don't tell me you have perfect pitch."

"i have relative pitch. almost perfect pitch. my violin teacher would test me sometimes." she tuned them back up and quickly checked with a tuner. they were perfect. "here, keep playing mendes."

shawn didn't start, just looked at her, "grab a violin. i'll play a chord progression, and you do some improv." mila shrugged, got up and went to a back closet, grabbing a violin, tuning it, and rosining the bow. they played together and mila was happy, she was happy in the abandoned shop and for once she wasn't bored out of her mind. they stopped after a while, and shawn said in exasperation, "you're so good!"

"well, i have been playing for thirteen years," mila laughed, flaunting in an ironic tone. "look, my shift ends soon, and i have to go to a lecture. this was really fun though."

shawn sat up from his chair, "wait, give me your number. we can do this again." mila agreed and so she left twenty minutes later with his contact in her phone, meeting lea at their usual spot before a lecture.

"where have you been, mila?" they started walking back to campus through the busy city of toronto.

mila smiled, "i found out who he was. why he was so familiar."

lea tilted her head, "the customer? was he actually famous?"

mila nodded, "it was shawn mendes. i'm so stupid for not realizing. everyone is obsessed with him, but he acts like a normal person."

"dude, my little sister is like obsessed with him. don't forget about me when you're famous." lea bounced in her step as they turned another corner.

"what's that supposed to mean? we're friends, i wouldn't get famous. i'm not here to exploit him." mila gripped her backpack.

lea grinned, "oh, so you're friends?"

"shut up, lea." they sat through another lecture, though mila found this one rather entertaining considering that the professor kept getting mad at the janitorial staff, who ran huge vacuums down the hall. lea pointed out through the lecture that their professor also had a hickey poking from her collar, which made mila snort.

she turned around from her board, "have i said something humorous, ms. hall?"

mila shook her head, "no, i'm sorry professor, i have allergies. it wasn't a laugh, but i do find our topic today quite interesting, thank you for teaching this." the professor said nothing but smirked and turned back around.

"ass-kisser," lea muttered. mila grinned ear to ear, glad she was annoying her friend. when they had gotten home, lea plopped onto the couch and mila moved to the fridge, making herself another coffee (she had already had one not even two hours before). she connected her phone to her speaker, and started playing shawn's newest album. "so you listen to him too? i thought you didn't like pop music, it was too basic for you."

"are you trying to bash me for trying to expand my horizons of my musical choice? plus, this isn't your basic pop trash. the instrumentals in the back are amazing, and they perfectly are in time with the tempo-"

"okay, okay, okay, lets just start studying."

"i thought you didn't like studying," mila replied, mocking her, bringing her coffee to their dining table. lea grinned, opening her binder on the table and getting their notes out. she hadn't let mila out of the house and they only stopped for food and drink breaks. she had also tried to get mila to eat a bit more, but she insisted she was full. when lea was finally passed out her bed, she pulled on her oversized hoodie and made her way back on the familiar streets, feeling a little on edge from walking by herself at 11 pm.

she unlocked the music store and walked to the back, turning on the lights and going in the recording studio. playing the instrumentals in the background to one her favorite songs by shawn, she began to sing. her voice was deep but with one switch of styles she could be a peppy broadway singer.

don't cry or do

whatever makes you comfortable

i'm tired, too

there's nothing left to say

let's call a truce, cause i don't really wanna go to bed like this, yeah

mila didn't see that a figure walked through the entryway. it had been shawn, and seeing the lights on, he thought it was still open. he knocked on the closed recording room door, and mila turned to see him in shock. mila took off her headphones. "shit, i forgot to lock the door." the hourglass figure opened the door with a smile. "hey, shawn, what are you doing here?"

"i wanted to see if you're here. i forgot to text." mila let him in the studio, and he sat in the chair. "this is a nice recording place. were you singing?"

"yeah, i only really do it by myself. it was actually one of your songs. like to be you." shawn grinned.

"well, i'm flattered. lets hear it, i want to know if you're even more talented than i already know."

mila shrugged, "i don't know, i'm not that good."

"please? i'll get a guitar and we can sing it together if it makes you feel more comfortable." mila agreed, a little scared. shawn began singing the first verse after he sat back down, and then mila joined for the chorus. his eyes widened and a huge grin broke on his face. mila nervously put a piece of hair behind her ear, singing her verse by herself.

can I kiss you or not?

cause I'm not really sure right now of what you want

are you still mad at me? i'm hopin not

cause maybe we could go to the movies

i know that always cheers us up, hey

they finished the song, and shawn laughed in astonishment, "that was incredible, mila, incredible. have you taken singing lessons?" mila shook her head, "damn. you need to record an album or some shit because the world needs to hear this." shawn took her hand and it startled her a bit, but his hand felt reassuring

"thank you, i've always liked singing. i used to belt songs in the car while my dad drove me to my violin lessons." she giggled, and her hand was still connected to shawn's, her other one playing with the rip in her jeans.

"where are you from?" he asked.

she looked into his eyes, studying his face. his pupils dilated like before. "uh, i'm from the us. i used to live in california, southern california. 'moved out here for college. i visit my family every break."

shawn nodded. "hey, do you want to get dinner tomorrow? we can drive out somewhere and eat it in the trunk. nothing fancy."

mila smiled. "i'd like that. how about six?"

shawn agreed, "do you want to sing some more?" the answer was obvious, and the two of them spent hours in the shop until morning nearly broke. mila's test scores would be paying for this, but she didn't give any fucks whatsoever. mila was happy. nothing was on her mind but shawn and the music. she felt like she was floating on a sea of clouds, and nothing else existed.

[batgirl-87]

Summary:  Pillow Fight! Goblin Rebellions! Mistletoe! Brotherly Bonding!

A shocking realization changes everything for Charlie. A study session for exams before the winter holiday break doesn’t help when he and Keira end up falling asleep and wake up in a somewhat compromising position – with an audience!

Word Count: ~14k

Genre: Fluff

Warnings: Mention of Bill graduating and leaving *sobs*; Bill as a “sexual being” – attempts having “the talk” with his little brother – Brotherly burns =p; Bill also bringing some harsh reality; Mention of Percy’s stupid rat -_-

Note: Honestly, it was originally supposed to be a fluff piece; however, I think it may have become more about the brotherly love between the Weasleys – at least those are my favorite parts of this fic. So come for the fluff but stay for the love between the Weasley siblings and Bill as a self-proclaimed ladies’ man! (I’m sorry for you if you don’t at least chuckle at the moments between the Weasleys or the Dickens reference. Or appreciate my other references =p)

Takes place during December, Year Five. Referenced in Under the Stars and Nightmare Solace ; References to Not Today– the beginning is literally copied and pasted from Under the Stars so if you’ve already read it you can skip over it =p (it’s italicized).

Soundtrack Suggestion: Can’t Fight This Feeling Anymore – REO Speedwagon; Friends – Ed Sheeran; Falling in Love (With My Best Friend) – Matt White; I Think I Love You – The Partridge Family

Preview: She had managed to lure him into a false sense of security and got him to drop his defenses. Any sense of ease quickly vanished and morphed into hot jitters spreading throughout his body. His whole body tensed up in alertness. His eyes widened as once again he felt heat rushing to his face. In one swift move she caught him off-guard and halted all functioning. What was he saying? What were words? He couldn’t even think coherently. 

It had hit him harder than any bludger had but practically knocked the wind out of him all the same. The weird thing was there was nothing particularly special about that day or how it happened. The gang was studying in the library, well in the Study Area to avoid Pince, or avoid an intense standoff between Tonks and Pince, like they normally did, and also as they normally did, they distracted themselves with idle chit-chat and random discussions to avoid actually doing their homework. And because Charlie was there, of course the conversation somehow got turned onto dragons.

“A Hungarian Horntail can breathe fire to fifty feet. Their breath alone can reach extremely high temperatures,” Charlie argue.

“But a Ukrainian Ironbelly’s scales are hard as steel and they’re huge,” Barnaby retorted. “One could probably just sit on a Hungarian Horntail and squash it.”

“Not to sound like Pince but could you two keep it down? You’re distracting me.” Tulip interrupted their dragon debate while hunched over a piece of parchment she was scribbling on vigorously, however it did not look like any homework they had but more like some sort of blue prints, probably for her next grand prank.

The two boys mumbled their apologies. “Do you think I could turn into a dragon,” Tonks asked from next to Tulip. “Never tried it before.”

“Which dragon would you turn into,” Barnaby asked curiously, and a bit excitedly. How cool would it be if she did?

“I don’t know, whichever,” Tonks responded with a shrug.

“Not everyone has a favorite dragon like you two,” Tulip informed the two magical creature obsessed boys sitting across the table from them. That was a harsh reality Charlie had learned at a young age. He used to assume everyone had a favorite dragon, asking everyone he came across what theirs was. He soon learned the sad truth that not everyone had one or even knew that much about dragons, cared as much about them as he did. Still, he couldn’t stop himself from asking people because some people did have a favorite and he felt that said a lot about them. Of course most seemed to say the Hungarian Horntail, possibly because it was the most infamous of the breeds. He actually got kind of annoyed that being most people’s answer. Maybe that’s why he liked discussing it so much with Barnaby because he didn’t share the same favorite breed of dragon.

“Well that’s dumb, they should,” Barnaby said with frown. Charlie chuckled and had to agree before turning his attention to the Slytherin sitting across from him who had been quiet this entire time, focused on reading their Alchemy book.

“What about you, Ady? What’s your favorite dragon,” Charlie asked, for some reason unable to recall if he’s asked her that before. He must have since that was normally his go-to ice breaker but conversation always seemed to flow so easily with her and typically the conversation revolved around the Cursed-Vaults if not school and Quidditch. Maybe he never got the chance to ask her? Or he did but… how could he forget her answer? He did ask everyone he came across practically. Maybe that’s why he couldn’t remember her answer? They all got jumbled together. But how could he forget her answer?

“A Hebridean Black, right,” Barnaby answered with a proud grin before Keira got the chance. The dark haired girl glanced up at him from her book giving him a smirk and a wink to indicate he was correct causing Barnaby to grin more and sit up straighter, proudly, in his chair. Charlie looked between the two Slytherins, well aware of how close they were but part of him couldn’t help be a little envious. But more prominent than that was the fact that she had in fact told them her favorite dragon – and she actually had one that was not a Hungarian Horntail! – and he had forgotten! How could he have forgotten?!

But yet even more impactful was the fact that after Keira agreed to help him buy an alleged dragon egg, which of course turned out to be scam, putting herself in danger for it, for him – something he was clearly still dealing with – they were gifted a dragon scale. A Hebridean Black dragon scale. Which Keira told him, urged him, to keep.

“Why would you give me the scale if it’s your favorite dragon,” Charlie asked, watching her closely. In case he didn’t feel selfish enough making her go on that wild and dangerous goose chase to get himself a dragon egg now he took the one good thing that came out of it from her.

“Because you love dragons,” Keira replied with a shrug, as if it was obvious, before looking up at him from her book with a small smile. It was a simple statement that everyone knew, even those who didn’t even know him, but for some reason when she said it just then it stirred something inside of him. She was selfless, thoughtful; she put him first.

When her eyes, which he liked to describe as the color of the ocean after a storm – that’s when Bill claimed he knew Charlie was completely smitten – met his they pierced right through him shattering the naïve and oblivious bubble he had subconsciously placed himself in and realization washed over him like an ice-cold tidal wave.

He loved dragons, but he also –

“I got to go.” And with that Charlie quickly gathered up his books, swung his bag over his shoulder, and hurried out of the library. He raced straight back to the Gryffindor Dorm and to his older brother and best friend where he then proceeded to pace back and forth in Bill’s room rambling on and on for about an hour about everything he had realized, had been thinking and feeling, trying to make better sense of it all. He was thankful his brother was so patient and understanding during it all.

“Bill!” Charlie flung open the door to his older brother’s dorm room and barged in – not very typical behavior of the second eldest Wealsey which caused Bill and his roommates to suspect that there was some sort of emergency.

“What’s going on, Charlie? Everything okay,” Bill asked from his desk chair. Despite his calm demeanor his body language became instantly alert when his little brother suddenly entered in a dramatic fashion.

“She gave me the scale even though it’s her favorite,” Charlie cried out through his labored breathing after running up all those stairs from the library, his adrenaline pumping with his newfound realization. “I made her go through so much… bullocks! And then the one good thing we get out of it I just selfishly take after she selflessly urged me to because she’s an amazing, thoughtful, brilliant person…Ugh, she must think I’m such a tosser!” Charlie, once again uncharacteristically, flopped down on his older brother’s bed in a fit of despair.

Bill and the couple of his roommates who were present watched the Fifth Year curiously, and with some amusement as it seemed to dawn on all of them what was happening. “Guys, do you mind if I have a moment with my brother? Thanks.” At Bill’s request his roommates gathered up some of their textbooks, probably studying for their own N.E.W.T.s, and left the room to give Bill and Charlie some privacy, closing the door behind them.

“Well you are right about one thing. You are a complete git,” Bill informed his brother with a smirk.

“Hey!” Charlie’s head popped up to give his older brother a glare.

“Well you are,” Bill laughed. “How long have I been telling you you fancy her?”

“How do you know that’s what it is?” Charlie’s question, rather than being a snide remark to his brother’s teasing, was a genuine, sincere question. How did he know what these feelings were and what they meant?

Bill blinked at his brother who was now sitting cross-legged on his bed and staring at him expectantly. He wasn’t prepared for that question! He was expecting more along the lines of what should he do now, not ‘what are these feelings I’m having?’

“Uh well…. You know, when a man fancies someone they can start to have these feelings and urges –“ A pillow smacked directly into his face as Bill began to gesture to his lap during his joking “birds-and-the-bees” speech.

“I don’t need that type of talk,” Charlie informed him. He was sixteen, he was pretty sure he was well aware of all that!

Bill chuckled as he fixed his hair. “Alright, sorry. You just threw me off with that question,” he admitted. “Why don’t you walk me through what happened to bring this all on,” he suggested, motioning to Charlie and his bedroom door as a reference to him rudely barging in just moments before.

Charlie huffed slightly before he began recounting the events that just occurred in the library to his brother.

“Well she’s right, everyone knows you love dragons,” Bill said with a shrug. Charlie groaned and appeared rather frustrated at his brother’s nonchalant attitude about all of this!

“No, you’re missing the point!”

“Then what is the point,” Bill asked, resisting the urge to smirk as he watched his little brother get all worked up over something non-dragon or quidditch related.

“She put me first, she – I should have – she deserves – I –“ Charlie stuttered unintelligently unable to put his feelings into words. He always struggled with expressing himself verbally, he was much better with actions. He groaned loudly and buried his face in his hands as he took a moment to try and gather his thoughts.

“I just want to make her as happy as she made me when she gave that scale.” Charlie spoke quietly after a moment. “A scale of her favorite dragon, after going through so much effort to get it, all for me – that’s what I want to do for her.”

Bill watched his little brother closely. “…Well you are helping her with the Cursed-Vaults and to find her brother.”

“We all are. And I could do more, I should do more.” Charlie let out a defeated groan as he laid back down on Bill’s bed. “You’re right, I am a git.”

Bill chuckled and shook his head. “No, you’re not.”

“But isn’t that what friends do for each other,” Charlie suddenly asked as if he hadn’t heard his brother’s words. “They help each other out, want each other to be happy? How do you know when it goes from friendship to fancying someone?”

“Well, like I started to tell you before, there will be certain urges –“ Bill began again earning himself another whack from a pillow off his bed.

“Bill, come on, I’m serious,” Charlie pleaded, although he couldn’t help chuckling slightly at Bill’s apparent desire to give him a sex talk. Bill laughed himself as he once again had to fix his hair.

“I don’t know how to explain it. You want to be around them and talk to them all the time and when you’re not they’re all you can think about. When you see them you light up and feel kind of nauseas, but it’s like a good kind of sick… And any time anything happens they’re the first person you think of to tell. And like I said, there are urges –“

“What is with you and these urges?!”

“I don’t know, guess I’m a very sexual being,” Bill replied with a shrug and a smirk.

“That’s disgusting, I don’t want to think about my brother that way,” Charlie informed him.

Bill laughed and held up a hand – fair enough! “But it’s true. You want to hold their hand and kiss them and when your skin touches theirs there’s a spark –“

“I feel like this is going to turn into a story about one of your sexual escapades and I don’t want to hear it right now,” Charlie interrupted yet again.

“Especially while you’re sitting on my bed,” Bill retorted with a smirk. Charlie’s eyes widened before he sprung up and off of Bill’s bed.

“Bloody hell, why would you do that to me,” Charlie cried out as Bill laughed to himself. “Ugh, that’s disgusting!” Bill attempted to apologize to his little brother but he was laughing so hard at his reaction as Charlie attempted to brush off the gross-ness off his clothes.

“I’m going to have to burn these now,” Charlie informed his brother. “Mum is not going to like that!”

“I was kidding,” Bill assured.

“Well I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself,” Charlie remarked as he noted his brother’s amused smirk. “But none of this is helping me you know!”

“Well why don’t you tell me how you feel then around Keira,” Bill challenged him, leaning back in his chair as he folded his arms.

“Okay…” Charlie said, trying to sound confident as he accepted his brother’s challenge although he couldn’t hide the uncertainty in his voice. He began to pace back and forth around Bill’s room as he thought for a moment, trying to figure out how to put his feelings into words.

“I guess… it’s sort of like you said,” Charlie admitted as he continued his pacing. “I love talking to her and hanging out with her, and when we’re not I want to be… Some of our friends say I stare at her in class and I guess I do… She’s just… brilliant! She’s a very powerful, skilled witch; she’s smart, and funny, and strong – so strong! I mean she’s going through so much turmoil with the disappearance of her brother… She doesn’t know if he’s okay, what happened to him, in what state she’ll find him in. And she’s facing the challenge of these Cursed-Vaults head on fearlessly, with such determination, and she would do it all on her own if the rest of us didn’t offer to help her.

“Despite everything she’s going through, all that stress, she still finds the time to help everyone else around her, all her friends, Hagrid, Madam Rosmerta, even some Professors! She’s kind and caring and… fiercely protective of those she cares about which I completely understand. Some may find her fiery passion intimidating – which I guess it kind of is – or unappealing but I love that she’s willing to do anything to protect those she cares about. I mean we’d do that too, right,” Charlie asked suddenly, looking at Bill for an answer.

“Uh, yeah, right,” Bill replied, not expecting a Q&A portion of this speech. Honestly, he was so focused on watching Charlie pacing back and forth as he worked out his feelings in complete fascination and awe he didn’t think Charlie remembered he was even there.

His little brother wasn’t one for speeches or a man of many words, normally a quiet observer, but every now and then he surprised them with a moment of deep introspection and clarity – a little peak into the inner workings of Charlie Weasley; his mind wasn’t always on dragons 24/7!

“Right, of course we would!  She has never gotten annoyed with me talking about dragons all the time or relating them to every other subject. She even asks me about them on the rare occasion I’m not talking about them. And she’s very knowledgeable about Quidditch and we’re able to talk about it without fighting like she and Andre do… But isn’t that what friends do? They help each other, and protect each other, and listen to each other ramble on about their interests even if it’s not a shared one because you care about them and their happiness?”

“You know, some say that love is like friendship caught on fire,” Bill informed him.

Charlie paused as he let Bill’s words sink in. He had to admit he liked that saying. “But how do you know when it’s on fire? When you want to be around them all the time and catch yourself thinking about them all the time? When everything you do you wish they were there so they could share that moment with you? When you find any little excuse to talk to them, be near them? When your hands brush against each other there’s a jolt of electricity? And when she looks at you with her beautiful, mesmerizing eyes it’s like they’re piercing your soul and you find yourself drowning in them, your breath gets caught in your throat, but it’s not really drowning, sort of like floating…And everyone around you seems to disappear and all you see is her?

“When you feel this protectiveness over them when others start to get too close to them? Or when you see they’re hurt and upset? When you just want to make them happy, no matter what you have to do or sacrifice? And when they laugh you feel warm inside and – oh… warm… fire…”

Bill smirked rather smugly as he watched deeper realization dawn on his little brother. “So I guess it was like you said,” Charlie said after a moment. “The thinking about them all the time, the spark, lighting up when you see them –“

“The butterflies in the stomach?”

“I call them dragons but sure,” Charlie replied with a small chuckle but he was clearly still trying to process this new experience for himself. Bill chuckled slightly himself. Of course he called them dragons.

“So… now what are you going to do,” Bill asked curiously.

“I don’t know. This is all… a lot to process. This is all new territory,” Charlie admitted, actually looking rather nervous as he ran a hand through his hair.

“Hey, it’s okay. You’re not the first bloke to feel this way and you won’t be the last,” Bill assured him, standing up from his desk chair and walking over to his brother to drape a supportive and comforting arm over his shoulders. “It’ll be okay. You have time to figure out your feelings. I don’t think anyone knows how to perfectly navigate relationships and love though.”

“Thanks, Bill.” Charlie smiled up at his brother, appreciative of his brotherly support.

“I think what you should do for tonight is sit with these feelings and get some sleep,” Bill advised.

“Yeah, I think that’s a good idea,” Charlie agreed with a nod of his head.

“And if anything does transpire from this, which I believe it will, I think we should have that talk about shagging –“ Bill started.

“I know about safe sex and how babies are made, Bill, thanks,” Charlie informed him, rolling his eyes.

“I’m not talking about the super awkward talk we got from mum and dad. I’m talking about more important and fun stuff,” Bill informed him with a devilish smirk.

“I don’t think I want to hear this right now,” Charlie said as he started to move away from his brother and towards the door.

“But there’s so much we have to go over! There’s positions and dirty talk and – have you had your first kiss yet? Oh, bollocks, we’re going to have to start at the basics of snogging.”

“Nope. No thank you. Not happening.” Charlie attempted to shrug off his brother’s arm as he headed for the door but Bill kept a firm hold on him as he continued to taunt his poor little brother. “Sod off!” Charlie shoved his brother off of him as he finally reached the door, much to Bill’s amusement. Playing quidditch really helped him deal with his brothers.

“Hey, I’m trying to teach you how to please a woman,” Bill informed him.

“The only woman who’s pleased with anything you do is mum,” Charlie retorted.

Charlie went to bed that night unable to sleep. He just kept staring at the dragon scale on his nightstand, thinking about her and everything he had been feeling that had just been made aware to him.

The next day, besides going down to the Great Hall for breakfast, Charlie kept to himself in his room. He was still processing this new revelation and to properly do so he couldn’t be around a bunch of people, even his friends – they were all too distracting. They were supposed to continue their studies for their exams before the Winter Holiday Break started but they could manage just fine without him for one study session.

Both Ben and Bill checked on him throughout the day, his roommate more than his brother since Bill was busy studying for his N.E.W.T.s. Plus, Ben had the excuse of sharing a room with Charlie to see how he was doing.

Ben had no idea what was going on with Charlie, unlike Bill, but he could tell something was up with his roommate. He had been laying on his bed staring up at the ceiling for most of the day. There were a couple open textbooks abandoned on the bed around him. He tried to do some studying but he couldn’t manage to focus. Charlie was not acting like his normal, friendly, adventurous self. Sure, he would respond in a friendly manner if Ben or one of his other roommates talked to him but it was clear he did not want to engage in any conversation. And sure, it was winter, but Charlie wasn’t outside or even out in the Common Room looking out the window. He wasn’t even looking out the window in their room! He was being very quiet and introspective. Whatever was on his mind clearly required a lot of deep thought and concentration. He was only ever this intensely focused on something when he was reading about dragons!

Despite his unawareness of what was going on in his roommate’s head, Ben wanted to make sure he was there for Charlie if needed and let Charlie know that. From the very first day at Hogwarts Charlie had helped Ben out immensely. He was always available to talk to, even in the middle of the night! He was reassuring, which helped calm Ben down, and he was encouraging to help Ben face his fears. Charlie, as he did with all his roommates and brother, assured him he was fine. Just had a lot on his mind. But he appreciated their concern.

The Gryffindor dorm room began to grow darker as the sun started to set outside. The day seemed to just fly by – well, it was the winter, which meant shorter days, longer nights… Charlie was still lost in his thoughts, laying on his bed as he stared up at the ceiling, hands behind his head. If he really did feel this way about her – if he really did; he was still trying to convince himself to stay in denial despite the awakening of his feelings from yesterday. Now that he knew he felt this way, what did this mean for his relationship with her?

Bill’s advice was to be honest and tell her. He was convinced she felt the same way and this would be the beginning of a beautiful relationship for them. Charlie, however, wasn’t convinced. How did Bill know she felt the same way? Did she talk to him about her feelings? No? Well then how did he know!? He didn’t! It was all pure speculation!

Did he hope she felt the same way? Of course! And he would try to look for some sort of sign that she did but he had no idea what to look for unless she blatantly just told him! Bill tried to give him advice on this subject as well, apparently an expert on not only how to please a woman and how to know if you fancy someone but also on how to know if someone fancies you! He appreciated the help but Charlie honestly felt his advice was rubbish.

‘She’ll find excuses to touch you’ – Ady didn’t really like touching people in general. Any physical contact was kind of a big deal and she had just started hugging her friends last year.

‘She’ll banter with you, tease you’ – That was how she showed affection to all her friends! Even Merula lately!

‘She’ll always laugh at your jokes, even if their rubbish’ – Well his jokes were funny, unlike Bill’s, so that didn’t help.

‘She’ll do the same things you do. Seek you out, want to be near you, find excuses to hang out with you’ – Well finding him to help with the Forest Vault wasn’t really about her feelings for him, it was about finding her brother and who knew the Forbidden Forest best, besides him? Besides that… They did hang out a lot, ate together in the Great Hall, took trips to Hogsmeade, studied together… But she did all that with her other friends too, sometimes with him in a group. And when they did hang out alone together it was normally because he sought her out and made an excuse to spend time with her.

‘You guys have a close connection. You trusted her to try and get you an illegal dragon egg, she is comfortable enough to open up to you and be vulnerable’ – Okay, Bill had a good point with that one. Besides Bill, she was the one person he trusted most. For illegal dragon egg smuggling or anything else! And although Bill did not know the details, when he asked Charlie about what happened between them a few weeks back when Ady bestowed to Charlie a belated birthday/early Christmas/but also thank you gift of a dragon statuette (and Draconifors spell lessons) in the Gryffindor Common Room while Bill, himself, was having a bit of a breakdown over his N.E.W.T.s, Charlie admitted to his older brother that during Ady’s very bad day she had where she stormed out of the library, he had found her later and spent most of the night comforting her since she was really struggling that day, clearly, and it finally was taking its toll on her.

Bill didn’t ask for details, nor did he need them. He was proud of his brother for doing such a noble and chivalrous thing. He was even more impressed that Keira felt comfortable enough having someone see her struggle, admit to them she was struggling, and accept their help. She always tried to appear strong and valued her independency – she could handle her situation and everything else thrown at her. So for her to have that moment with Charlie meant something. It at least definitely evolved their relationship to a much closer one.

That level of closeness and trust had to mean something right? Bill was absolutely convinced they had feelings for one another. They just needed to get out of their heads, get over themselves, and admit it. And snog already. And listen to his snogging and sex tips!

While Bill may have pointed out a couple good points, Charlie didn’t want to risk ruining their friendship and losing the great relationship they had now. Telling her could definitely make things awkward. He was just going to have to keep acting normal around her, like nothing had changed. And keep his eye out for a sign or a moment that now – now was the time to tell her how he felt.

“Charlie?”

Charlie turned his head when he heard his name called. He had been so lost in his thoughts he didn’t even notice how dark his bedroom had gotten. With the sun setting earlier these days and with his roommates being gone, no lamps or candles were lit. The only light shone in from the open door. The backlighting cast a particularly hazy, almost dreamlike feel against the figure in the doorway, causing Charlie to stare at it as if he wasn’t sure if they were really there.

“Charlie? Are you okay?” The concern in her voice caused a warm, weightless feeling to spread throughout him as he felt the dragons in his stomach begin to take flight. Bollocks, he hated when Bill was right.

“Uh, y-yeah, I’m fine.” Charlie suddenly sat upright on his bed, realizing that it must look like he was on his deathbed. Besides, he was supposed to be acting like nothing had changed and laying there in the dark staring at her was not normal behavior!

Keira frowned as she watched the Gryffindor stand up off his bed, light his bedside lamp so there was some light, and run a hand through his hair as he tried to fix it, assuming it got a little messed up from laying on it for – wait, what time was it?

“When you missed dinner I started to worry,” she explained as she hesitantly entered his bedroom. She wasn’t invited in technically but he was acting a little off.

“I missed dinner?” How long had he been laying there?

“Yeah…” She paused in front of him as she studied him closely. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just…” Charlie frowned slightly and glanced around briefly before spying one of his textbooks on his bed. “I was just doing some studying.”

“In the dark?”

Bloody hell, she got him there!

“Uh…” Crikey, what excuse could he give that would be plausible? “Well I was studying, but then I…got tired so I was going to take a nap…”

Keira’s hand suddenly flew up and Charlie froze for a moment with wide eyes in shock as the back of her hand rested on his forehead. “Um… What uh… What are you doing,” he gulped as he felt his face begin to heat up.

“I’m checking to see if you have a fever,” Keira replied like it was obvious. “Hm… you do feel a little warm.” Her hand slid down to rest along the side of his face as she continued to test his temperature. “Yeah. Maybe we should go to Madam Pomfrey to make sure –“

“No. Really, I’m fine,” Charlie assured. “You don’t need to worry.”

Keira frowned as she dropped her hand from his face. “Are you sure? You’ve been holed up in your room all day.”

“I’ve just been studying –“

“You could have studied with us,” she pointed out.

“I just needed to be alone, to focus without any distractions,” he admitted. His honesty, finally, seemed to ease her concern a bit.

“Okay… Does that mean our plans are cancelled?” Charlie blinked at her quizzically. “…Our plans… to study History of Magic together,” she reminded him.

“Oh! Oh right,” Charlie chuckled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. How could he forget? “And here I thought you came up here because you missed me,” he half joked, half admitted out loud.

“I was worried about you,” she corrected, and admitted herself.

Great, was this going to happen every time he was around her? Heart thumping against his chest, heat rushing to his face, dragon wings fluttering in his stomach?

Oh, Merlin, he wasn’t sure if he could act like nothing had changed. Because it had changed.

“I completely understand if you don’t want to study together tonight and you’d rather study alone – no distractions,” she continued.

“No!” He didn’t mean to shout and sound so desperate, and the look on her face clearly said the same thing for her. “No,” he said again, softer and calmer this time. “I need you.”

Keira’s eyes widened more at his declaration and a small smirk played on her lips. Oh really? Oh the teasing she could do right now… Especially when she saw the look of horrified realization on Charlie’s face when he recognized what he said and how it sounded.

“I-I mean I need you to help me study. For History,” he clarified. “You’re good at it. You have a knack for remembering events and recounting them so we understand them and stay interested to listen.”

“Well I’m nowhere near as good as Rowan but I do like History,” Keira admitted with a small smile, flattered at his compliment. She did like history in general and learned most of it by reading on her own time or when Rowan taught in class. Rowan had a true talent for teaching. Keira… not so much. She lacked the talent to explain things well, at least in her opinion. But history wasn’t really explaining, it was just retelling a story which she could do, enjoyed doing even. Her knowledge and interest in history is why she and Charlie decided to study together for the exam. That and to give Rowan a break. She had to study for her own exams! And once she got teaching she wouldn’t stop!

“I doubt I’ll be able to do well on the exam without you,” Charlie admitted with a warm smile. He and Barnaby, and probably most of their group of friends, tended to borrow her notes for the class or else they would have no idea what was going on. Rowan obviously wasn’t the Professor consistently and her notes were a mess, making them incredibly difficult to follow or even read. Even Rowan herself found difficulty understanding her own notes!

“Okay,” Keira conceded. “But if at any time you feel like I’m being a distraction and hindering your studying you let me know,” she joked, slightly. “So grab your books and let’s go,” she told him, turning to head out of his bedroom. “I brought some study snacks with me, especially since I figured you’d be hungry having missed dinner. They’re down in the Common Room. Bill’s guarding them but I don’t know how well he can fend off hungry students all on his own.”

Charlie smiled to himself as he listened to her. Aw, she brought him food because he missed dinner. He couldn’t believe he missed dinner! “Yeah, I’ll be right down,” he assured, giving her one more smile before she disappeared out of his room.

Okay, he just had to focus on studying for History of Magic. Arguably, the most boring subject at Hogwarts. Primarily because of the Professor but compared to classes like Defense Against the Dark Arts or Care of Magical Creatures it was rather boring. He, and most others, besides probably Rowan and Keira, couldn’t wait until this year was over so they wouldn’t have to take the course anymore.

So studying for an exam in a boring subject should be boring and uneventful which meant he shouldn’t make a fool of himself any more than he already had.

“You know, the Giant Wars are actually interesting when Professor Binns isn’t droning about them,” Charlie admitted.

The couple sat on the comfy couches in front of the fire in the Gryffindor Common Room. An assortment of snacks from Honeydukes and the kitchens laid out across the table along with their notes, although Keira’s were the only ones used since Charlie’s all had doodles of dragons on them. Bill managed to keep their study snacks safe until they came down, using his Prefect and Head Boy authority to scare away scavenging Gryffindor students. He may have also given Charlie a suggestive smirk when he came down to join Keira for their study session, causing his little brother to roll his eyes. They were just studying for an exam, sod off!

“Do you think we need to go over the Goblin Rebellions,” Keira asked as her eyes remained fixed on the textbook in her lap, curled up in one corner of the couch.

“Yeah, probably should just to be safe,” Charlie replied as he reached over to grab a piece of fudge from their snack table. He was very appreciative for all the food she brought. He was a lot hungrier than he thought! Of course he missed dinner, but he didn’t even realize he had since he didn’t even feel hungry. But as soon as he got down to the Common Room and saw all the study snacks she brought for them his stomach started grumbling so loud he was afraid everyone in the Gryffindor Tower could hear it.

“I don’t think I’m ever going to remember all the names of the Goblin rebels,” Keira admitted as she flipped through her textbook to get to the proper chapter.

“Well if you can’t then there’s no hope for me,” Charlie joked, grabbing another piece of fudge. He was starving!

“That’s not true,” Keira replied. “You need to give yourself more credit. You’re not just an unlimited source of dragon knowledge,” she joked, throwing him a quick smirk before resuming her focus on her text. “You’re smart. And a very gifted wizard.”

Charlie paused from shoveling food in his mouth to look over at her as her words hit him. She joked around a lot and enjoyed teasing her friends but every now and then she would suddenly blindside them with a thoughtful, sincere compliment. It always left him a little winded.  

Keira appeared oblivious to the Gryffindor’s staring, snacking on a bag of Glacial Snow Flakes that shared her lap with her textbook. As she continued to study, Charlie couldn’t help but admire the way the glow of the flames danced across her face, highlighting her features. He suddenly became aware how late it had gotten and how they were now the only two left in the Common Room.

“Okay, I’m tired of reading,” Keira declared, sitting up to place her bag of Glacial Snow Flakes on the table and shove the book at Charlie indicating it was his turn to read out loud as she had just done with the Giant Wars, promptly knocking Charlie out of his daze.

Charlie fumbled a bit with the textbook as she thrusted it upon him, earning a chuckle from the Slytherin. “Wow, some great Seeker skills there,” she teased as she readjusted her position to sit next to him and lean across to the snack table he was hogging their entire study session.

“My skills are on holiday,” Charlie informed her, chuckling himself at her ribbing. He couldn’t remember enjoying studying this much ever before in his life. It didn’t even feel like studying! It just felt like two people laughing and enjoying spending time with each other. With good food. And the relaxing – some might say romantic – ambiance of the crackling fire. He smiled to himself as he watched her study the snack table. They should really do this more often…

“I see,” Keira replied before popping a piece of toffee in her mouth and motioning for him to read.

Charlie glanced down at the textbook and made a slightly sulking expression. Ugh, mood killer. “…Maybe we should take a break,” he suggested, hoping he could somehow get out of having to read about the most boring class in all of the Wizarding World!

“Oh no! No, no, no, no. You don’t get to just sit here while I do all the work – all the reading, all the quizzing, all the note taking and highlighting – and stuff your face full of food.”

“But I missed dinner,” Charlie reminded her as pitifully as he could.

Keira narrowed her eyes at the red head as she did her best to fight off a smile. No, she could not show she was amused by this behavior! “Do not Oliver Twist me.”

Charlie couldn’t help laughing at her reference, unable to maintain his sad, pitiful act. “Alright, alright. I’ll read.”

“Thank you.” Now that she was appeased, Keira resumed her turn at snacking while Charlie began to read about the Goblin Rebellions.

“In 1612, one rebellion took place in Hogsmeade Village. The Three Broomsticks served as the wizard headquart-“ Charlie paused in his reading as Keira held up the empty plate which once held several pieces of fudge with quite the displeased and incredulous look. Really?!

Charlie smiled sheepishly at her before holding the textbook up to cover his face, and therefore his view of the empty plate. “Headquarters,” he continued reading, now at a higher volume. “The cause for this particu-“

“Charles,” Keira scolded in an attempt to get his attention.

“Ady, please, I’m studying for our History exam,” Charlie replied before continuing, again speaking louder in an attempt to drown her out. “The cause for this particular rebellion was –“

“Charles!”

“MOST LIKELY DUE TO THE LACK –“

“YOU ATE ALL THE FUDGE!”

“THE LACK OF GOBLIN REPRESENTATION –“

“I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME!”

The two continued to raise their voices in an attempt to be heard over the other before a brief wrestling match over the textbook occurred as Keira reached over to yank the book away from his face. She could hear the smirk in his voice as he read from the book and continued to talk over her. He was being such a pain!

“You said you wanted me to read,” Charlies reminded her as he held on tightly to the textbook.

“I never said eat all the fudge,” Keira retorted as she continued to try and pry the book away from his face. She was trying to have a conversation with him – well, she was trying to scold him and he needed to hear it!

“How do you know I ate all the fudge?” Charlie attempted to defend himself, smirking more as he continued to playfully argue and fight with her.

“Who else ate all the fudge? Because I know I didn’t get any,” Keira informed him.

Charlie paused a moment before a huge smirk spread across his freckled face. “Percy’s rat.” Yep, he was pretty proud of himself for that answer.

Keira stared at him, clearly unamused. “Percy’s rat,” she repeated, causing Charlie to nod his head to confirm. “I may not like Percy’s rat, but you cannot blame all the fudge being gone on it when you ate it all!” Keira sneakily grabbed a pillow from behind her on the couch and suddenly began to hit Charlie with it for emphasis as she finished her proclamation.

This action caused Charlie to relinquish the book so he could protect himself from her vicious attack, holding up his arms to block her angry strikes. Keira continued to beat him with a pillow, clearly getting out some pent of frustration – He had no idea she wanted some fudge so badly! Charlie fell sideways onto the couch and it almost looked like he was trying to curl up into a ball. “Okay, okay, you win!”

Keira ended her brutal pummeling and Charlie sat back up, both now in fits of laughter over the antics that ensued. “Merlin, you truly are a fierce Beater,” Charlie informed her as he rubbed his arm that took most of the beating.

“I can’t believe you ate all the fudge,” Keira declared again, hitting him once more with the pillow.

“Hey! I said you win! And I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to eat all the fudge. I’ll… I’ll get you some of my mum’s fudge,” Charlie offered.

Keira thought over his offer briefly before nodding her head. “That should be acceptable. Your mom’s fudge is probably better anyway.” Charlie had to agree with that statement. His mum made the best fudge. “Okay, you may resume reading,” she informed him, passing the book back to him she managed to wrangle out of his hands with the aid of her trusty pillow.

Charlie chuckled as he took the book back from her. “As you wish.” Keira smirked at him and grabbed a few more snacks from the table, which were clearly not fudge, before settling herself in comfortably on the couch next to him. Charlie smiled to himself as he glanced down at the girl securely nestled next to him before he found his place and resumed reading, this time in a much more appropriate volume. “In 1752, another Goblin Rebellion occurred in Great Britain, causing two Ministers of Magic to resign. Albert Boot resigned because…” Since he had taken over the reading responsibility he also took over the quizzing responsibility. He trailed off and looked over at the snacking Slytherin for an answer.

“Because he doesn’t know how to manage a rebellion where I feel I would exceed,” Keira replied with a smirk.

Charlie chuckled and shook his head. “I don’t doubt that. And his replacement, Basil Flack only lasted…”

“Three months?”

“Close! Two months. Resigning when the Goblins allied themselves with…”

“The werewolves!”

“Wand legislation contributed to the Goblin Rebellions of the 18th century,” Charlie continued to read with a yawn, his tone growing more tired the longer he read and the later it got. “Even when I read about history I end up droning on about it after some time,” he joked, glancing over at his study partner, surprised to see she had fallen asleep.

Keira was sleeping peacefully against the Gryffindor, her head using his shoulder as a pillow. How he had not noticed before was a complete mystery. He never expected to become so focused on reading about the Goblin Rebellions he wouldn’t notice the sleeping Slytherin using him as a pillow. Hopefully that meant some of what he read would stick in his brain and help him pass this exam.

Now he had a dilemma.

Did he wake her up so she could go back to her Dorm? But she looked so peaceful. He couldn’t disturb her.

Suppose he could just gently lay her down on the couch and let her sleep there… But it would probably be awkward for her to wake up in the Gryffindor Common Room with a bunch of people staring at her.

Maybe he should just bring her up to his room and – Charlie’s face instantly heated up at that option. Maybe not…

Maybe he could carry her down to her Dorm? But that was a long ways and once he got there he wouldn’t be able to get in anyway and would have to wake her up for the password so…

There was the possibility that she was just dozing and would wake up on her own. Charlie decided to continue reading to at least finish the current chapter. It should provide him a better chance at passing the exam and maybe hearing him as he continued to read out loud would cause her to wake up. Although, it’s also likely he put her to sleep like Professor Binns did to most of his students so maybe it would have the adverse effect and cause her to fall into a deeper sleep…

Still, it was a risk he was willing to take! Plus it gave him more time to figure out what to do about the sleeping girl next to him.

Charlie carefully reached behind them with his free arm, the one not currently being used as a pillow, and grabbed the blanket that was draped across the back of the couch to cover the sleeping Slytherin. As he carefully tucked her in, an intoxicating scent swirled around him, enveloping him in a warm comforting yet sweetly seductive aroma. He wasn’t sure if it was her shampoo or perfume or just her natural scent but it was absolutely alluring. Charlie closed his eyes as he took in her dark sweet scent, perfectly her, allowing it to consume him for a moment before shaking his head and forcing himself to refocus on the history text. Ugh, he could hear Bill talking about urges again…

He cleared his throat, trying to clear his head from whatever spell she unknowingly put him under, before he resumed his reading. “Uh… Urg the Unclean – what is with these names – was a Goblin activist who led the 18th Century Goblin Rebellions, one of the bloodiest in history.” At this rate he was going to put himself to sleep.

As he predicted, Charlie was unable to finish the chapter, putting himself to sleep much like Professor Binns did in class. Not much longer after finding his study partner asleep, Charlie dozed off, the textbook sliding off his lap and onto the floor. The fireplace embers dimmed, leaving the couple to sleep soundly in the still, quiet darkness.

Bill had gotten used to waking up early, having to wake up earlier and earlier the more children his parents had to be able to get enough time in the bathroom. His hair required a lot of care and attention! Plus he wanted to help his mum with breakfast and getting the rest of his siblings up and ready. Being an early riser also helped him with his Prefect and Head Boy responsibilities, he felt at least. He was one of the first in the Gryffindor House to rise which allowed him to ensure everything went smoothly for the students from when they woke up to when they went to bed, rarely missing a thing.

Through his many years at Hogwarts, and as his few years as Prefect, Bill had witnessed a lot of things at the school and in his own House. He had found couples snogging, students attempting to pull off pranks, attempting to sneak out or back in after curfew, dueling, physically fighting, attempting to transfigure themselves, cheating on their homework….Sometimes he came into the Common Room to find some students still up from studying the night before, pulling an all-nighter for exams, or some who had fallen asleep from failing an all-nighter. And sure, he had caught his own brother committing some felonies, primarily sneaking out and back in after curfew for his Forbidden Forest explorations, some of which Bill accompanied him on, but never did he ever expect to catch his little brother in a compromising position such as this.

Bill hummed to himself as he entered the Common Room. It was still relatively early in the morning so there were only a handful of students actually up at this hour. As a few headed out to go down to breakfast, their whispers and giggles piqued Bill’s curiosity. That’s when his eyes landed on the sleeping couple on the couch.

Aw, weren’t they cute. It was much better than discovering a couple snogging or worse.

As Bill stepped closer to gently wake them up he realized one member of the sleeping couple was none other than his own brother! He blinked a few times as if his eyes were playing tricks on him. Nope, that was definitely Charlie. Never did he ever expect to find Charlie with a girl…ever.

After the initial shock wore off a devilish smirk spread across the eldest Weasley’s face. Oh. This was perfect blackmail.

Bill suddenly turned and bounded back up the stairs to his Dorm Room. As he rummaged through his things to find a camera – did Charlie or Percy have it last? He didn’t have time to find Penny for hers - more students woke up and got ready to head down for breakfast. Which meant more students discovered the sleeping couple on the couch and snickered to themselves as they left the Common Room to head down to the Great Hall. Word always travelled fast in this school.

Bill managed to locate the camera and hurried back to the Common Room to snap a picture of the sleeping couple. Oh yes, this was perfect. He could definitely use this as blackmail. ‘How do you think mum would react if I sent this to her?’ Hey, he was an older brother first, Prefect and Head Boy second!

The sleeping couple had shifted a bit throughout the night. Keira’s head was now resting on the Gryffindor’s chest, with Charlie’s arms snuggly, almost protectively, wrapped around her to hold her securely to him. The two looked quite content and peaceful with their synced steady breathing, blissfully unaware to the world around them.

However, Charlie, being one of seven with some mischievous siblings, felt a disturbance in the force causing him to stir. He slowly opened his eyes and shifted slightly, surprised to feel a weight on top of him. When he looked down and found the Slytherin using him as her own personal pillow, the events of last began to return to him. They must have fallen asleep while studying. Which was why he was on a couch and not in his own bed. Despite that little blunder, he hoped they were still able to pass the exam. Well, she would be fine, so he hoped he studied enough to pass the exam.

Although… When he looked down and saw the serene Slytherin sleeping (on top of him but that didn’t add to this picture, did it?) looking content and, frankly, quite lovely he suddenly didn’t care if he passed his exam or not. He absentmindedly began rubbing her back soothingly as he enjoyed this little moment between them, continuing to watch her sleep and tempted to go back to sleep himself; however he wouldn’t want to leave them unsupervised in the Common Room. Especially her who was a member of their rival House. It would be different if they had some privacy.

Possibly from feeling him stir beneath her, or from sensing someone’s eyes on her, Keira began to stir herself and slowly opened her eyes, wincing slightly at the light streaming in through the windows of the Gryffindor Tower. It was much brighter in here than the dimly lit Slytherin Dorm which some might even call “mood lighting.” Regardless, her light sensitive self preferred the darker Dungeons.

Her frown turned more quizzical the more she woke up and became more aware that she was laying on someone; someone who was warm and giving her a nice relaxing backrub so she couldn’t really complain about the bright light when she got to wake up like this. The familiar sweet, almost fruity, earthy scent that always provided her with such comfort and bliss told her exactly who it was.

Keira shifted to look up at the sleepy red head with a smile. “Hi,” she greeted softly.

Charlie returned her smile with a lazy one of his own. “Hi,” he replied back, his husky, sleep filled voice quite attractive.

“These are going to be brilliant.”

The smug statement caused the two to realize they were not alone and look over at the Gryffindor Head Boy who was not acting very much like his role. Instead he was smirking down at the camera in held in his hand.

“Bill!” At first Charlie was mortified to see his brother there, finding him and Ady sleeping, cuddled together on the couch. Especially after his admission to his older brother about his true feelings for the Slytherin. And then, when his eyes landed on the camera in his brother’s hand, his embarrassment grew and some anger stirred inside of him.

“Will!” Keira’s tone was a much more joking scolding towards the freakishly tall Gryffindor. She clearly had a better sense of humor about this than Charlie, possibly because it wasn’t her brother who would absolutely use those pictures for blackmail, or because she didn’t just confide her deep, repressed feelings to him.

Bill casually glanced up and smirked at the couple. “Well good morning you two. I was wondering how long it would take for you to notice me.”

“We must have fallen asleep while studying,” Keira said as she sat up, untangling herself from Charlie before reaching down to pick up the discarded textbook. She ran a hand through her hair, although it was unnecessary since her hair looked just fine. She could just roll out of bed and go to class without doing any grooming!

“Yeah,” Charlie agreed quietly, frowning to himself as she moved away from him, the naturally warm Weasley suddenly feeling cold from her absence. Way to go Bill, ruin a nice moment between them! Made it all awkward. Or… maybe it would be awkward regardless of Bill’s presence. Maybe she was embarrassed falling asleep and waking up like that... Maybe he got too carried away with his own feelings of waking up with her that he made things awkward between them! How could he have let them fall asleep like that! He should have woken her up last night or something instead of allowing this to happen! Now Bill had evidence… She was never going to speak to him again!

“Oh no!” The sudden cry caused the three to look back towards the stairs to the Dorm Rooms where the third oldest Weasley stood. “You’re the ones everyone is talking about? Of course. The couple sleeping in the Common Room has to be my brother,” Percy grumbled as he approached them.

“Jealous, Perce,” Bill teased, earning himself a scowl from his little brother.

“I’m surprised it’s Charlie and not you,” Percy retorted.

“Nah, I’d bring a lady back to my room. More private,” Bill informed him with a wink.

Percy looked horrified and a little ill at his older brother’s statement. He did not want to think about his brother doing that! “Regardless of which one of you it was, why do you insist on embarrassing me?”

“It’s an older sibling’s job to embarrass their younger siblings,” Bill informed him. “Speaking of which,” he said with a sinister smirk, turning his attention back to his other younger brother. “What do you think mum will say when she sees these,” he asked, holding up the camera.

Charlie’s eyes widened in horror as he stared at the camera in his brother’s hand. “You wouldn’t dare!”

“Oh, wouldn’t I?”

“Bill,” Charlie started as he kept his eyes locked on his brother, slowly standing up from the couch, keeping his voice calm but stern as if he was dealing with some magical creature. “Give me the camera.”

“’Fraid I can’t do that, Charlie. I need these pictures. Not sure for what yet but I know they’ll come in handy,” Bill replied, chill as ever. This was the most chill they had seen him all year practically with the N.E.W.T.s looming over him. Leave it to his family and messing with his brothers to bring back the old Bill Weasley.

“William,” Charlie continued as he began to slowly approach his brother, continuing to treat him as if he was a wild animal. “I need to have that camera.”

“Oh, you need it,” Bill repeated with a smirk as he began to casually walk back towards the stairs leading to the Gryffindor Boy’s Dormitory, making sure to keep an eye on his little brother. “I didn’t realize you needed it.”

“Oh, brother,” Percy groaned, rolling his eyes at his brother’s antics. It was like he never left home. Which was sort of a comfort… At least the Twins weren’t there to make it more chaotic. Not yet anyways…

“Well if you need it so badly,” Bill continued, his tone clearly mocking Charlie, “Guess you’d better take it from me,” he challenged. “Which is going to be difficult for you considering I’m way up here and you’re way down there.” His insult to Charlie’s height caused the Gryffindor Seeker to pause, mouth opened in a silent gasp. How very dare he! Bill smirked more as he continued. “Of course, that’s assuming you somehow manage to catch me. May be fast on a broom but I clearly cover much more ground than you and your stubby little legs.”

“My legs are not stubby! I’m perfectly proportionate,” Charlie passionately defended. Perhaps Bill touched a nerve? As classic siblings did.

“Aw, is that what mum told you,” Bill teased. That was sweet.

“Bill! Give me that camera!” Charlie suddenly lunged at his older brother. Bill smirked more to himself as he evaded his little brother’s grasp and took off towards what everyone assumed was his bedroom with a sprint, Charlie following quickly after, shouting at him.

“You two are Prefect and Head Boy,” Percy called at them, trying to remind them of their roles since they certainly were not acting accordingly for their positions! “I’m never acting like that when I become Prefect and Head Boy,” he muttered to himself.

Keira had been packing up her things as the brothers disputed, rather amused by it actually. It reminded her of her and Jacob… A good reason why she was so close to Bill and clung to him almost instantly. The whole exchange just reminded her of what she missed but also why she loved the Weasleys so much. She honestly found their playful bickering quite entertaining and couldn’t help but laugh to herself as they continued; however, she had to admit Bill making fun of his shorter brother was a low blow… Which she’d have to tell Bill later clearly because that was a funny pun he should enjoy. Of course she enjoyed a good pun. Had to, or else her friendship with Rowan would be much more strained.

“So… Guess I’ll see you down for breakfast,” she shouted after the two oldest Weasleys as they sprinted off towards the Boy’s Dormitories. Okay then…

Keira slung her bag over her shoulder and smiled at Percy, patting him on the shoulder. “See you later, Perce. And don’t worry, someone else will do something embarrassing and the whole school will be talking about it with this incident completely forgotten about. I promise you, by lunch today, they’ll all be talking about something else,” she reassured. She always found it easier to be nicer to Percy when he didn’t have that creepy rat around…

“Yeah? Thanks.” Percy begrudgingly accepted her reassurance, although he wasn’t so sure he believed it.

“Though, I really think you shouldn’t worry so much about whatever everyone else thinks. And, hey, they’re right. It’s an older sibling’s right to embarrass their younger siblings. So just think how you can embarrass the Twins and Ron when they come to school.” Percy thought it over briefly before shrugging. Alright, she may have a point… Although, to be honest, the Twins usually ended up embarrassing him more with all their pranks.

“Are you heading down to breakfast?” Keira was taken aback by Percy’s offer to head down to the Great Hall together since they weren’t that close and normally clashed over her dislike of his pet rat and his resentment for her rule breaking regarding the Vaults that she also roped his brothers into. But every now and then they had a brief nice little moment like this one. They could talk about Quidditch or she managed to get the Twin’s attention off of harassing him which he greatly appreciated.

“Thanks, Perce. Some other time though. I got to hurry down to my Dorm and let Rowan know I’m okay. She’ll panic if I’m nowhere to be found.” Keira said goodbye to Percy one more time before heading out of the Gryffindor Common Room and returning to her beloved Slytherin Dorm where she was attacked with a hug by Rowan and then promptly scolded for scaring her like that!

“So, you told her.”

“Told her what?”

After their bickering, chase scene, and wrestling session, the two eldest Weasleys casually walked down to the Great Hall together for breakfast as if none of that even happened. Unfortunately, Bill was still keeper of the camera. Although he didn’t have a use for the pictures yet, and Charlie hoped he forgot about them before he found a use for them. He still planned on trying to sneak the camera back somehow.

“You told her how you feel,” Bill replied like it was obvious.

“No, I didn’t,” Charlie told him, confused as to why he would think he did.

“What? So the cuddling on the couch was just –“

“That was an accident,” Charlie insisted, his face reddening slightly. “It… it didn’t mean anything. It just happened.”

Bill studied his brother before smirking. “You love her,” he teased.

“Shut up, I do not!” He just realized he was interested in her as more than a friend, how did it go from fancy to love overnight?

“She likes you too,” Bill informed him.

“How do you know that,” Charlie asked, cynically, however also secretly curious…

“Girls don’t just sleep with every guy,” Bill pointed out before holding up a hand to stop Charlie from interrupting him. “She feels comfortable and safe with you.”

“Don’t friends feel comfortable and safe with each other too,” Charlie asked.

“Friendship on fire,” Bill reminded him.

The two continued down the long, ever changing stairwell towards the Great Hall as Charlie thought over Bill’s words.

“So… why haven’t you told her yet,” Bill asked curiously.

“What? What do you mean why? So I don’t put her in another awkward, embarrassing situation like this one. She’s probably never going to want to speak to me again after that. Or after you and your pictures,” Charlie added with a glare.

“Hey, the pictures are to blackmail you, not embarrass her,” Bill assured.

“Still, I’m pretty sure we’re both humiliated and she’s not going to want anything to do with me. Especially with people talking about it. She’s not going to want be around me, be seen with me.” Charlie almost looked heartbroken as he stared down at the stone stairs beneath him.

“You’re being a little dramatic,” Bill informed him. “Keira is used to people talking about her all the time in the school – about her family and the Vaults. This is just one more thing. Honestly, not even that big of a thing compared to the other topics. So relax.” Bill reached over to give his younger brother a reassuring shoulder squeeze.

Charlie managed a small smile at his brother. He appreciated the reassurance. “Well… still… I’m still sort of processing my own feelings. And despite what you might say, I’m not so sure she feels the same way about me and I don’t want to risk losing our great friendship.”

“That makes sense,” Bill agreed with a nod of his head, although the expression on his face grew grimmer as he thought about how to put his next point. “I understand needing time to process your feelings and being afraid to lose her as a friend but… These Cursed-Vaults are getting more dangerous. The Vaults themselves and the dangers surrounding them like that other group who has already attacked her three times, and you once,” he pointed out, his protective older brother side showing for a moment. “The closer she gets to finding her brother, the more danger she’s putting herself in.”

Charlie’s jaw tightened as he listened closely to his brother. “What are you trying to say?”

“What I’m trying to say is,” Bill started, pausing a moment once again to think about how to phrase it. “Taking the risk of possibly losing her as a friend isn’t as bad as losing her altogether without ever letting her know how you feel.”

Charlie stopped dead in his tracks as the horrible thought of something grave and fatal happening to her on her search for her brother. Bill had a very good point. He, and their group as a whole, tended to forget about the gravity of her situation and everything she was going through, everything she was carrying. Bill, however, always seemed to remember and remind everyone else. Maybe it was because he was the eldest brother who looked out for his little siblings, or because he and Keira both shared that Curse-Breaking adventurous spirit and passion which clearly has risks to it they had to be aware of in that profession.

He hated to admit it, but Bill was right. He didn’t want to lose her as a friend. But he could not lose her forever. And the closer she got to finding, her brother the more danger she was placing herself in as was evident with her multiple death threats and attacks. The possibility of something horrific happening during her quest was very likely. And they all needed to keep that in mind.

What if something did happen to her? And she didn’t know how he felt? He would just have to live with it eating him up inside for the rest of his life. He wouldn’t know if his feelings were reciprocated or not and she wouldn’t know that someone cared about her as much as he did. And she deserved to know that someone felt that way about her before… in case…. Merlin forbid…

Charlie licked his lips and swallowed, his mouth suddenly becoming very dry. “Yeah… you’re right,” he admitted.

Bill paused a couple steps ahead of his brother who suddenly halted at the blindsiding and heart wrenching realization and looked back at him, watching him process this information. “Hey,” he called to his brother softly to get his attention. “It’s going to be fine. She’s strong. She beat me in a duel in Second Year! Besides, she has you, and Rowan, and Penny, and everyone else to help her,” he tried to reassure.

“Yeah,” Charlie replied, although he didn’t sound or look so sure.

“I wasn’t trying to bring you down I just want to make sure you keep in mind how serious and dangerous this situation is. It seems like a fun adventure but it can have some grave consequences. And without me here to guide you all,” he joked slightly, “I hope you can make sure to remind everyone of the severity of the situation so you all remember to keep each other safe.”

Charlie nodded his head as he listened to his brother. He made some more good points. This was a dangerous venture and they had to keep that in mind so they could protect each other.

“And, while I’m fully confident in your and her abilities, something could still go wrong… So, don’t be afraid to seize the moment, or day, or whatever that saying is. You never what’s going to happen.”

Charlie’s jaw tightened again as he thought over Bill’s words. “I guess…”

“Besides, who doesn’t want to hear that someone fancies them? It’s quite the compliment, very flattering,” Bill teasing slightly, managing to get a small smirk from his little brother as he playfully glared at him. “Even if she doesn’t feel the same, which I go on the record that she does, at least it’s a compliment, an ego boost. And I think it’s important to let people know they’re cared about. Especially her with everything she’s going through.”

“Yeah, she does,” Charlie agreed with a small, fond smile.

Bill grinned more as he watched his brother before slinging an arm around his shoulders and dragging him down the hall towards the Great Hall. Charlie couldn’t help but grin and chuckle a bit as he allowed his brother to lead him down the hall. He may have delivered a somewhat rough but necessary dose of truth to ground him, which he needed, but he also always managed to lift him up in the same fell swoop.

“You know, you could have changed before breakfast,” Bill told him as they neared the Great Hall.

“There wasn’t enough time after trying to get the camera from you,” Charlie told him. And since he was still dressed from yesterday, there really wasn’t a need to change.

“Sure there was,” Bill replied before smirking down at his brother. “You didn’t want to change into different clothes because those ones smell like her.”

Charlie’s face instantly heated up as he avoided all eye contact with his brother. “W-what? N-no… th-that’s absurd. You’re… You’re daft! Mad! Completely off your trolley!”

Bill chuckled at Charlie’s frantic refuting. “You’re looking a little flush there,” he teased, only causing Charlie to blush more.

“Sod off,” Charlie replied, giving his brother a light hearted shove causing Bill to dramatically stagger a bit but maintain his arm securely around his little brother’s shoulders.

“I said I was sorry!”

“Oh there he is! Charles Weasley!” The two red headed Gryffindors looked up as a trio of Slytherins ascended from the Dungeons, one clearly quite upset with the dragon obsessed one. Rowan stormed over to Charlie with such a fiery rage in her eyes Bill removed his arm from around his brother and took a couple steps back. Sorry, little bro, you were on your own.

“H-hey, morning Ro-“ Charlie stammered, clearly made nervous by the overprotective friend of Keira’s.

“Don’t you ‘hey, morning Rowan’ me! How dare you keep Keira away all night without informing me or anyone else! I woke up this morning and found her bed empty! The Common Room – empty! The bathroom –“

“Empty,” Charlie finished for her with a small smirk but it quickly disappeared when Rowan clearly did not find it as amusing as he did.

“I woke up and she was gone and I had no idea where she was! If she was okay! And it’s your fault,” Rowan scolded, poking him in the chest surprisingly hard.

“I’m sorry,” Charlie apologized, reaching up to rub where she poked him. “I didn’t mean to –“

“I told you, we both fell asleep studying for the History exam. It’s not a big deal,” Keira tried to assist.

“We have a History exam,” Barnaby exclaimed from next to his fellow Beater. Well bollocks…

“You’re on thin ice,” Rowan warned Charlie with a very intimidating pointed look before marching into the Great Hall for breakfast. Barnaby quickly followed after her, pleading to her to help him cram before this apparent History exam he just learned about!

Keira look at Charlie apologetically as she walked over to him. “I’m sorry about that.”

“It’s okay.” Charlie attempted to act as suave and cool as he could, rubbing the back of his neck as he tried to seem like enduring Rowan’s wrath hadn’t shaken him up.

Bill stepped back up next to his brother, now that the threat of Rowan was gone, and smirked down at the Slytherin. “Keira.”

Keira looked up at the towering Gryffindor and smirked back at him, sharing in some sort of unspoken conversation. “Willard.” Maybe it was that Curse-Breaking connection, but Keira and Bill often would share a look or these unspoken moments as if they knew exactly what the other was thinking and sometimes it really bothered Charlie.

According to Keira, it was another thing she shared with Jacob, a special connection where they could just share a look and seem to have a whole conversation, know exactly what the other was thinking; why she really loved having that again with another older brother figure like Bill. She honestly would not be able to survive with him and hoped he knew what an important person in her life he was.

Bill laughed slightly before patting the top of her head as he passed by her to head into the Great Hall. “Don’t take too long or you’ll miss breakfast,” he called back to them as he left them to their privacy.

Keira frowned and cringed away as he pat her head, something she hated, which he knew – hence why he did it like any older brother! Just reminding everyone how freakishly tall he was! At least that was something Keira enjoyed saying and teasing him about. Once he had disappeared into the bustling Great Hall she reached up to fix her hair he probably messed up, glaring after him.

“So, uh… I’m sorry,” Charlie awkwardly started, stealing Keira’s attention away from glaring daggers at Bill’s back.

“For what,” she asked quizzically. “Oh, for running off like that instead of saying a proper goodbye? Because your mum didn’t raise you like that,” she teased slightly. “It’s okay. I understand why you had to go after Bill. It was actually quite entertaining.”

“No for uh…” Charlie paused as his hand dropped from nervously rubbing the back of his neck to be shoved into the pocket of his oversized hand-me-down jeans to match its partner. “Huh. Yeah, guess that was rather rude of me,” he thought out loud as it suddenly dawned on him how they left things. “Guess I need to apologize for two things then,” he chuckled awkwardly.

“What’s the second thing,” Keira asked curiously.

Charlie was amazed at her attitude towards this situation. He wasn’t sure if she was just acting like everything was fine to avoid any awkwardness and making him feel worse than he already did or if she truly did not mind and was not affected by what happened at all. He wasn’t sure which he would prefer.

“For… you know… falling asleep like that.” Charlie’s gaze shifted down as he nervously shuffled his feet, a hint of blush playing on his cheeks.

“You don’t have to apologize for that. We both fell asleep,” Keira assured. He was so sweet.

“Yeah but… Now everyone’s talking about it.”

“When is everyone not talking about me,” Keira replied dryly causing Charlie to tense slightly as he looked up at her.

“That’s what I mean. Everyone’s always talking about you and your brother, spreading rumors. It has to bother you. Even if you act like it doesn’t.” Now it was the Slytherin’s turn to avoid eye contact and shift uncomfortably at the protective and firm tone and sudden shift in demeanor from the Gryffindor.

Because he was right.

No matter how apathetic she acted or how many jokes she made, some of the things they said did bother her. And for once she wished the school would find something else to talk about that wasn’t about her, or her brother, and the Cursed-Vaults.

But what really got her was how he somehow always managed to see through her. See through her strong and sarcastic façade of witty comebacks and nonchalant shrugs at the deep seeded pain and loneliness underneath. She wasn’t used to anyone making her feel so transparent. And she hated feeling so exposed. What was worse was how much she surprisingly liked it. It brought her a sense of relief; like she could finally breathe and let her defenses down. And then he somehow managed to blindside her yet again by always knowing exactly what to say or do to make her feel better.

Charlie’s intense gaze softened as he watched her stare into the crowded Great Hall and at the brief crack in her walls that exposed her vulnerability and anxiety. “I understand if you want to keep some distance from me until things die down.” Keira’s head whipped back to look at him. “I’m not taking it personal,” he quickly assured before she had a chance to speak. “I just don’t want to make it worse.”

The expression on her face was unreadable, not that Charlie had a long enough time to study it before she shook her head. “No. I don’t want that,” she said firmly, catching him off-guard. “It’s not going to matter anyway. But even if it did… I appreciate the sentiment,” she added, her tone softening. “And, honestly, everyone talking about us falling asleep studying in your Common Room is ten times better than everyone talking about the Cursed-Vaults.”

Charlie smiled slightly at her, feeling a little guilty having her reassure him when he was supposed to be the reassuring one. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah. This is hardly anything compared to when you, Bill, and I went into the Forbidden Forest anyways,” she assured him with a smirk.

Charlie chuckled and nodded his head before pausing. “Yeah… Wait, people were talking about that? What were they saying?” The Slytherin just laughed and turned to head into the Great Hall for breakfast with the confused Gryffindor following after her. “What were people saying?”

“Don’t worry about it,” she laughed, pausing in the doorway to the large dining hall as what felt like every pair of eyes fell on them. It unexpectedly made the Slytherin falter for a moment. Wow, guess word did travel fast…

The sound of someone clearing their throat caught the couple’s attention, causing both to look over at the Ravenclaw table and their fellow Quidditch aficionado. Once he had their attention, Andre motioned for them to look up with a mischievous smirk. The couple looked at him quizzically before tilting their heads back to look up as instructed. Well, it was almost Christmas.

As soon as his eyes focused on the mistletoe hanging above them he could feel the heat begin to spread to his face and the dragons awaken in his stomach. He could sense Bill’s smug look, Percy’s exasperated eye roll, and Andre’s snickering. Not to mention the variety of eager eyes glued on them from around the room, from their friends and other peers and maybe even some nosy spirits. This would not be so bad if he didn’t have that bloody stupid realization of his bloody stupid feelings that had gone and buggered everything up! Now it was his turn to falter.

“Hey.” Her voice brought him back, quite literally as he tore his attention away from the hanging plant taunting him from the rafters and met her gaze. “I’m going to go help Barnaby study for the History exam he just learned about.”

Charlie stared at her quizzically. Did she not notice the hanging Erumpent above them? Or… Perhaps she sensed his nervousness and was trying to ease his nerves by downplaying yet another awkward situation they were in. He let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding in and began to visibly relax. She had no idea how much he appreciated her right now. Or at any other time. She was always there for him to rely on. Bloody hell, he really did fancy her.

“You can join us if you want. I mean, you should be an expert now after studying all night,” she teased. “But I also understand if you need a break. And if that’s the case, I’ll see you in class,” she added with a grin that distracted Charlie from the mischievous glint in her eyes.

“Yeah, I’ll –“

She had managed to lure him into a false sense of security and got him to drop his defenses. Any sense of ease quickly vanished and morphed into hot jitters spreading throughout his body. His whole body tensed up in alertness. His eyes widened as once again he felt heat rushing to his face. In one swift move she caught him off-guard and halted all functioning. What was he saying? What were words? He couldn’t even think coherently.

The feeling of her lips on his cheek lingered as she moved away. It was only a quick peck, and only on the cheek, but it was all it took to cause his world, and his breath, to come to a screeching halt. The next bit didn’t help. At. All.

“If they’re going to talk, might as well give them something to talk about.” He could hear the smirk in her voice as her warm breath tickled his ear, causing a jolt of electricity to shoot down his spine. He had to resist shivering. Did she have to say it like that though? In such a sultry whisper? He swallowed hard as she pulled away and smiled innocently at him. He was sure his face was as red as his hair at this point.

“See you around, dragon boy.” She gave him one more quick smirk before turning and sauntering over to her Slytherin table. He watched her go, frozen and speechless.

Through all the noise in the Great Hall he could hear distinctly the groan of his younger brother Percy followed by a light thud as the more uptight Weasley’s head made contact with the Gryffindor table. That was accompanied by the encouraging whistling of his older brother, which did not help Percy’s humiliation, followed by Bill’s voice calling throughout the dining hall in a classic embarrassing older brother fashion.

“Hey, if anyone happened to get a photo of that I’m going to need it to send home to mum!”

Could this day get any more embarrassing?

A/N: “disturbance in the force” Get it?! Because Domhnall Gleeson plays Bill and is in Star Wars! Get it!? =p (I’m a dork!)

I sort of headcanon that the Weasley’s have the one camera that they all share which eventually will be passed down to the Twins (and Ron and Ginny but the Twins are the ones who seem to actually use it as shown in the picture from their Egypt trip)

Keira totally told Bill the only reason Fleur was interested in him was because he was tall.

I know it’s not the best thing I’ve ever written, probably because my inspiration has been focused on Year 6 (and even 7) stories I’ve started, but I want to finish Year 5 stories before posting Year 6 and try to post them in order or at least more orderly.

Thanks for reading! =)

Tag List: @bexeris @cinnamoncam @sly-vixen-up2nogood @sungoddessra@tatlikar @urban-eagle / @scribbleries 

(Think that’s all. Let me know if you’d like to be removed from or added to the taglist!)

[smallnico]

Does Sofiya like a specific kind of tea aside from just sugary? What's her family like? Why does Dom (presumably) like tropical print shirts? What are Lani's top five countries she would be banned from if she got to choose which ones? What's Chris's favourite sport if any and why? What got Candace into baking? Is she competitive at the bake sale? What are Erol's opinions on sci-fi as a genre? Would Leandro star in a musical and if so what kind? What does he think about musicals in general?

:D

sofiya’s favourite kind of tea is milk tea, but when she drinks other kinds, she adds a lot of sugar and milk. she doesn’t really have a preference aside from preferring less caffeine, as she has a low bitter tolerance and is paranoid about setting off psychotic symptoms. i, personally, know that you need a lot more caffeine than anyone should reasonably digest in order to cause said symptoms, but sofiya does not, or at the very least, she’s so worried about it she refuses to even chance it. 

how her family is depends on which family you’re asking about! her current family consists of the theatre dads -- her biological father miko and her not-yet-legal-unmarried-stepfather theo -- and her two honorary siblings -- theo’s estranged-but-reconnected daughter grace, and beau, a former student of his who he got legal custody of a few years back due to Circumstances. they’re a weird family, the members of which adopted one another into their lives at some point and just ran with it. they have a surprisingly natural and healthy family dynamic, all things considered, with the exception of grace, who is newer and less on board with the whole situation (she really only considers their house a temporary place to stay, though she warms up quickly to beau and miko). sofiya really likes grace and frequently tries to engage her and persuade her to be less mean and intimidating. it doesn’t really work. sofi’s one of a few characters in the group who wasn’t born in canada! she and her dad are russian-ukrainian, with her dad having lived and worked in russia most of his life, and having moved to ukraine after sofiya was born in order to live with her and her mother. sofiya’s dad and mom were in a tumultuous relationship from the start, and it only got worse after sofiya was born, since she was kind of an accident. she remembers her mom being cold, bitter, and deeply unhappy, when she wasn’t having spells of paranoia and intense emotional outbursts. miko and sofiya’s mom split on good terms when she was ten, then he took custody of sofiya and they moved to canada. 

dom does like horrible loud shirts, yes. there are a few reasons for this, but none of them are very compelling: he’s gay, he likes thrifting, he likes that vibrant energy, and they make him feel better about himself. he has about a half dozen equally questionable fashion choices in his wardrobe, and a handful of quieter clothes he wears when he really needs to do laundry. 

honestly, the only reason lani hasn’t made this list is because she’s allergic to planning ahead. her chaos is the sort that comes from impulse rather than conscious thought and self-awareness. i think it takes a lot to be banned from a whole country, but i also believe lani’s the kind of presence to somehow manage to do it by a colossal series of spontaneous mistakes. she has been suspended from school before, and she has been kicked off the bus on at least three separate occasions. if she had to choose a country to be banned from it’d be australia, because she’d think it’d be hilarious to be banned from a country that used to be where the british shipped criminals.

chris used to play rugby in high school. she initially got into it on a whim, but really committed to it after it became the thing to finally persuade her dad to say no to her -- see, she really wants to rebel and used to act out a lot more than she does now that she’s a bit more mature, but it’s hard to rebel against your parents when they spoil you unconditionally. her main sport is now kickboxing, for purposes of self-defense and good cardio, but she’s still a fan of rugby and women’s soccer in particular. she refuses to watch men’s soccer because she vocally thinks it’s overrated.

baking is candace’s go-to de-stressing activity. she’s a fundamentally high-strung person, so this means she got really, really good at it. for a long time baking was the Thing She Did For Herself, though it eventually got folded into the miasma of taking care of her younger siblings while her mom worked full time and late into the night. she’s kind of a duty elemental, though she hates being passively obligated to take care of people more than she hates anything in the world, except when people bring premade store-bought goods to bake sales. (”it’s lazy, it’s lying, and it’s disgusting”, she says. “some of us got up at five in the morning to make sure their homemade cinnamon bread rose and got into the oven in time to be warm for this, you animals.”) she loves her siblings, but literally the second they got old enough to take care of themselves, she left for university and resolved to never have kids of her own. she now truly bakes for herself, though she usually ends up bringing stuff in to the theatre and to parties, because baking a tray of delicious hazelnut chocolate cookies is absolutely no good if you can’t share them with the people you really want to be friends with. she does stay hyper-vigilant of everyone’s dietary needs out of habit.

erol really enjoys it, but only a certain kind of it. they see science fiction as a genre that should be fundamentally humanist, it should say something about human nature, rather than just being fantasy in space or “hey look at this cool robot”. they’ll get snitty and correct you if you say star wars is science fiction (”it’s space opera, it’s a whole and fundamentally different genre!”) but they’ll accept that star wars exists. erol’s more of a star trek kind of person for sure, but their real love of the genre is classic science fiction, your isaac asimovs and your phillip k dicks and your ursula leguins. overall their taste in literature skews toward either “shit you’ve never heard of” (which if i’m being honest, when i write erol, i just make up on the spot) or “classics that you’re allowed to be a snob about”. they haven’t read a piece of genuine young adult literature since they were 13 and read twilight. they refused to admit they enjoyed it for years, and now they’ll defend its place in the literary canon, past the point where any reasonable person would cave to the popular insistence that it’s just a book for teens that blew up and that’s Fine.

leandro fucking loves musicals and would kill to star in a big one. he’s actually a good singer and performer, too, so it’s not a far-fetched dream for him, though round river doesn’t put muscials on very often. they’re more expensive than non-musical stage shows to make good quality, and not all of the cast members can actually sing, so whenever they put on a musical, they have to bring in... the choir.(horror chord) leandro and erol are on opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to the sorts of shows they prefer, with erol preferring thinky highbrow stuff, and leandro being completely swept up in spectacle and drama and performance. he’d make a great phantom, according to himself. in the two musicals round river’s put on while he’s been around, he was billy flynn in chicago, and kenickie in grease. when i did my little heathers fancast (which is outdated, sofiya can’t sing and neither can lani), i set leandro to play jd.

thanks for asking! :>

[fluidityandgiggles]

Comeback of the Israeli Sides AU!!

Also known as, my addition to the Nationalities AU by @ierindoodles , @really-sleep-deprived-nerd and @anxious-mom

(...I think...)

Now I know that @broadwaytheanimatedseries already did Israeli Remy, but... smol smol country with big big differences lead to different upbringings, and so I present,

Israeli/Russian (well, it’s complicated) Emile.

His dad was in the Air Force for over twenty-five years by the time he retired when Emile was twenty, so they used to move around a fair bit. Not as much as others would’ve, but enough that Emile doesn’t know what it’s like to live somewhere steady.

He’s Russian/Ukrainian on both sides and his parents are surprisingly accepting. They changed his name to Emile immediately when he asked when he was a child and only truly refused him HRT in high school out of concern for his age...?

Started going to IGY meetings the second he could. To anyone who wants to know, IGY stands for Israeli gay youth, and it’s an overall great organization with some fundemental issues (as you do). He’s been out as trans since he was fifteen thanks to his IGY group, and he’s still in contact with some of them.

Was not raised in Tel Aviv and did not know jack about that city other than there’s the theater and Azrieli until he started high school. He was raised in air force bases and at his grandma’s. His grandma lived in Beer Sheva.

When he was young his parents used to drill into him that he needs to get into a good school and be a doctor, and he was so eager to do just that, but when he got older and found out about Thelma Yellin (the only performing arts high school in Israel - no kidding) and later Nissan Nativ (a fantastic acting college in Tel Aviv) he started begging them to go to Thelma so he could study theater.

He had to promise them it’s a very good school for things other than drama and showed them the school curriculum and all that before they let him. And he did spectacularly.

(For the record, Thelma is in a hellhole. Aka Givatayim. It’s literally the asscheek of Tel Aviv.)

His drama final was The Twelfth Night. He played Sebastian. He didn’t mind playing Viola really, but he wanted to be director.

Didn’t join the IDF, instead he did voluntary service at a school as well as in IGY, and right after that he went and spent all his salary from his service on studying in Nissan Nativ.

Moved to the US to get a second acting BA from AMDA, as well as a psychology degree from NYU and finally transition. Boi is busy as fuck, lemme tell ya.

Wasn’t such a big fan of the festigal growing up...? His parents didn’t really let him see those. But he is a big fan of several of them, that his friends let him watch at their homes, and he does know some of the songs by heart.

Is a big fan of compote (a sweet fruit soup thingy that’s not so surprisingly popular with Russian folk) and will make everyone he ever meets try the disgusting sweet brown liquid at least once. He swears it’s good.

Same goes to pickled watermelon. I don’t... I don’t even know, he just loves this shit. We don’t question the Russians. We just don’t.

His first time at Dizengoff wasn’t even at the center. He went to this one bookstore at the end of the street where they have all the plays at the top floor. He needed them for drama class.

He’s never been to the center but he has been going to pride since he was sixteen years old and has had a binder since he started his service to pass more as male.

His bosses still called him by his dead name (Evgenia) and misgendered him constantly, but then he legally changed his name when he was done with this bullshit, so he’s alright now.

Cusses in Russian more than he does in either Hebrew or English and has a mild Russian accent even though he was born in Israel. He was raised speaking Russian. Don’t worry, he is Jewish.

Or at least... his grandma on his mom’s side wasn’t born Jewish, okay, don’t judge him, it doesn’t make him a Christian or anything, she converted and all that crap, okay?! You happy?!

At one point in his life, his grandparents moved in to live with him and his parents. So it was six people in a two-bedroom apartment. Emile and his sister Vera slept on mattresses in the living room for a long time after that.

His favorite word is suka. There’s a reason why, y’all.

Used to be terrified of TV commercials when he was younger for this one very specific commercial that isn’t even scary. Please don’t ask why.

Is very tired of all the BDS/anti-Israel-pro-Palestine crap. He may hate Israel too, but at least it’s for reasons other than militant propaganda made by Hamas.

And more on his list of questionable food preferences, he actually likes gefilte and might try to terrorize Remy into eating it on Rosh HaShana and Passover. I say try because he’s not that kind of person. His grandparents were nobility and doctors and all that in Russia, blyat, he has more manners than that!

Thinks Tel Aviv is overrated and tries too hard to imitate NYC. And he’s probably right.

NEVER ask him why he didn’t go to Beit Zvi. Just don’t try to. He will go on a rant about how the school died alongside Gary Bilu in 2011 and how much better Nissan Nativ is.

(Though to be fair, that’s not any sort of school rivalry, it’s the truth. I’ve had teachers who studied in Beit Zvi who said the exact same thing. Emile isn’t exaggerating, he’s being realistic.)

I... might update this if I think of more shit, so... keep an eye out methinks!

[alice-beaumont-ravenclaw]

Fantasy at the Proms

Summary: Alice, Charlie, Andre, and Penny go see one of the BBC Proms concerts.

Words:~3200 words 

A/N: So, this story takes place during a concert that actually took place, the August 1st, 1988 Prom. If you want to listen to the music while reading the story or after (or even before), click here (it’s a Youtube playlist).

"Put on your tie!"

"Mum! Andre told me it was casual!"

"Charlie! You are going to London to see a classical performance with your friends! Do you want to look like a tramp?" Molly Weasley replied as her son tried to loosen the tie his mother had put around his neck.

"It's just gonna be me, Penny, Andre, and..." Charlie started saying.

"And Alice," Bill added, a smirk playing on his lips, as he read a book in the living room.

"Exactly! You're all meeting at her place, and your father told me that her father was a French diplomat at the Ministry. What if he's there and he sees you looking like a vagrant? What will he think of us?" their mother said as she flicked her wand to tighten her son's tie once more, to Bill's amusement.

"Come on, mum..." Charlie whimpered.

"It's the tie, or I cut off your ponytail," Mrs. Weasley replied, looking sternly at her son who quickly stopped fiddling with his tie. "That's what I thought. Now, do you remember what to say when you throw the Floo powder?"

"'Phillipe Beaumont's Residence'" Charlie answered.

"Good! Now go. I don't want you to be late," his mother said as she pushed him toward the chimney, in which he got in, throwing the dark powder his mother had handed him while clearly stating his destination. He disappeared in a flash of green smoke. "I hope everything goes well," Molly Weasley whispered to herself as she returned to the kitchen.

A moment later, Charlie Weasley tumbled into an entry hall. If it hadn't been for Andre sitting on a plush bench in that same entry hall, he wouldn't have been sure he had landed in the right home. The hall was decorated with old paintings, and a bust had been placed in front of the only window. The wall was covered in a matte blue wallpaper which had shimmery damask details of the same colour. The wooden floor was covered by a red and blue with beige details Persian rug. A large mirror with a golden frame was above the fireplace. A long rug with a similar design as the one in the entry hall ran up the stairs. As he looked up, he saw that there were at least four floors above him. This was not the house he had imagined Alice living in. Alice was so down to earth, well, for a Ravenclaw, and this place was so imposing.

"Charlie, if I were you, I would stop gawping. If Alice sees you looking like this at her home..." he heard Andre say.

"Oh, sorry. I just wasn't expecting this," Charlie said, trying to remain composed.

"Me neither," Andre admitted. "Not to mention she has a huge closet full of nice clothes!"

"Huh? How do you know that?" Charlie replied, puzzled by Andre sudden change of subject.

"Oh, I arrived early to help her choose an outfit. I wanted to make sure she wouldn't wear that horrendous dark purplish grey tartan skirt she wears at school. I thought we would have to do some shopping to get her a decent outfit, but turns out she has a closet full of amazing clothes! I had everything I needed to make her look stunning!" Andre said, his eyes gleaming with excitement.

"Ok? But Alice looks great no matter what she wears," Charlie replied.

"Oh, but Andre did a great job," Penny said as she walked down the stairs. "Speaking of Alice, she'll be down in a second. She's saying goodbye to her father in the library."

"Library? Father?!" Charlie said, eyes widening as his nervousness increased.

"Don't worry. Alice told me he's busy with something for work," Penny replied with a smirk.

At that moment, Charlie heard steps coming down the stairs. Slowly, he saw Alice appear. She was wearing a pink lace A-line short-sleeve dress, golden flats with a bow-tied lace, a gold necklace with a small heart pendant, and a golden bag with 3D flower details worn cross-body. Her hair was styled in a french braid. He stared at her, his mouth slightly ajar, while she came down the last few steps, looking inside her bag. Andre nudged him lightly just as Alice looked up toward her friends with a bright smile.

"Oh! Hey Charlie!" Alice said right after he had quickly closed his mouth.

"Hey, Alice... You look... great!" Charlie said, trying to act as natural as he possibly could.

"Hum, thanks," Alice said, rubbing the back of her neck as she looked sideways.

"I really did a great job, didn't I?" Andre said, beaming.

"Andre..." Alice muttered, glaring in his direction. "Anyway, we should get going if we don't want to be late," she added and they all started to walk toward the door.

Suddenly, Alice stopped dead in her track and turned toward Charlie. As he saw her hand reach for him, he froze, unsure of what she was doing. She quickly undid his tie and the top button of his shirt. She took a step back, looked at him from top to bottom, and nodded in satisfaction to herself, before walking back toward the door again, stuffing his tie in her bag.

"Oh! Am I rubbing off on you?" Andre asked as they left the house.

"I have read some of the magazines you've thrown my way and I did notice you weren't wearing a tie, so... I just thought he'd look better that way," Alice mumbled.

"You are not a lost cause, then!" Andre exclaimed as they climbed in the cab that was waiting for them.

Charlie was the last to enter the cab, as he was looking at all the tall terraced house in Alice's neighbourhood. As the taxi drove off, he kept looking out the window in awe at the elegant urban architecture, while Alice was explaining to Penny how Andre tried to get her interested in fashion by literally throwing fashion magazines at her any time she wore something he didn't approve off, one September issue landing on her head once. When they finally arrived at the Royal Albert Hall, Andre was already telling Alice how he would help her pack her trunk so that she would bring nice clothes to Hogwarts, and not that horrendous skirt. They got out of the cab, and, after Alice had paid the driver, they made their way inside the concert hall.

They sat at their respective seats, which were at a certain distance from the orchestra as the area closest to it was for the standing audience, known as Prommers. While the others were looking at their programs and talking about various things, Charlie kept looking around, impressed by the high ceilings, at how big the hall was as a dragon could probably fit in it, albeit maybe not a Ukrainian Ironbelly, but still. The lights were so bright, so different from the candles and oil lamps he was used to. They started to dim and, slowly, the murmur of the crowd stopped. Alice whispered to Charlie that it was about to begin, pointing toward the orchestra which was still illuminated by the spotlights.

The orchestra gently started playing. He looked down at his program to see the name of the piece, but as it was dark, he couldn't see the title properly, so he turned to Alice.

"Alice, what's the name of this piece?" he whispered, leaning close to her ear.

"L'Apprenti sorcier. I think the English title is 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice,'" Alice replied, her eyes on the orchestra.

Charlie quickly thanked her and returned his attention to the orchestra. The music had a mysterious air to it at the beginning. But the pace quickened briefly as if the apprentice had appeared in the story the music was telling. The more mysterious parts were probably the sorcerer himself, Charlie thought. Then, the music quickened and lightened up for good, as if the sorcerer had left and only the apprentice was now in the room. Charlie could feel through the music that the character was probably doing magic as there was a certain rhythm in the music that reminded him of Charms class with Flitwick. As he looked toward Alice, he noticed how she lightly tapped her index finger on her thigh to the rhythm of the music, which got louder, as if the apprentice was doing more and more magic. It was hard for Charlie to believe how a Muggle could so convincingly transfer the emotion of doing magic through music. Suddenly, the music slowed down, becoming a bit more gloomy, and was played at a lower pitch, which reminded Charlie of Professor Snape, briefly returning to something more light, but it felt like the apprentice was losing control of his magic, the music becoming more intense the more he lost control. Suddenly, he recognized what felt like the sorcerer returning and stopping the mess the apprentice was making. The music became sadder as if showing how bad the apprentice felt, Charlie mumbling how the apprentice was in a lot of trouble, making Alice giggle lightly. The piece ended with a few loud notes as though the sorcerer was kicking the apprentice out, really reminding Charlie of Snape. At the end of the piece, everyone clapped, especially Charlie, who thought this was way better than the music of Celestina Warbeck his mother loved so much.

"Is the concert already over?" Charlie whispered to Alice.

"No, not yet. Still two more pieces. The next one is Edward Elgar's Falstaff, which portrays a character in Shakespeare's Henry IV so it won't be as magical as the one we just heard," Alice explained.

Charlie nodded as both of them returned their attention to the stage as the clapping stopped, the orchestra ready to play the next piece. Unlike the other piece of music, this one started loudly and pompous, as if some self-important character entered the scene, which was then followed by a more jovial theme, indicating the appearance of a more cheerful character. The two themes seemed to mix afterward as if the individuals were now talking to one another, or at least in each other's company. Compared to the other musical composition, which was all in subtlety, this one felt more grand and pompous and was louder. Charlie didn't really feel a connection to it like he did with "The Sorcerer's Apprentice". He had a harder time to understand the story the music was trying to tell, as there were moments when there were so many things going on that he simply felt overwhelmed, while there were other times where it felt like he was merely following the jovial character walking around town, with some events happening between those moments. Some battles or fights seemed to happen every once in a while.

He glanced toward his friends to see their reactions to the music. Alice's facial expression seemed to indicate that just like him, she was trying to understand the story while still enjoying it when the music got more fiery, while Penny was intensely looking at the orchestra and Andre was nodding off, slightly opening his eyes anytime the music got louder. The second half of the piece didn't seem to have any slower milder parts, everything happening in that part appearing impressive, maybe a great battle of some sort. It slowed down momentarily as if something gloomy yet pompous was going on. It was only around the end that it really slowed down for good, in such a way that one knew something sad was happening to the main character. The piece ended with that pompous theme from the beginning, as if the self-important character had won.

"Well, that was interesting," Charlie said, clapping politely.

"Had a hard time following what was going on. Understood the end was sad for Falstaff and that the Prince triumphed, but that's about it," Alice concurred.

"Hope the next piece will be better," Charlie said as he slowly stopped clapping.

"Should be. It's Stravinsky's The Firebird," Alice replied, smiling.

"Oh! That already sounds more interesting," Charlie whispered as the orchestra started to play once again.

The beginning was very soft, barely audible, but it progressively became a bit louder, as if something mysterious was going to happen. That reminded Charlie of the first piece, the music being smoother, and the emotions progressing at a slower pace. He felt like he was entering another world. The music suddenly had a certain sense of dread to it, as if following the main antagonist, which was then followed by a more wonderous theme, as though discovering something magical. Once again, Charlie was amazed by how magic was clearly illustrated in the music. While The Sorcerer's Apprentice reminded him of Charms, this piece reminded him more of Care of Magical Creature, the magic the music was alluding to feeling more alive than just a simple spell. As the music played, he could imagine all the various creatures they had studied so far in class, trying to escape to the forest, which made him grin from ear to ear. The music became sadder, Charlie thinking that maybe the magical creature, most probably the Firebird from the title, had been captured. The music matched perfectly the feeling in his heart as he imagined the poor captured Firebird, a creature he imagined couldn't be anything less than majestic. The music changed in a way that indicated the arrival of new characters that were without a doubt graceful and beautiful, yet mysterious and distant.

The more graceful themes reminded Charlie of Alice, and he couldn't help but furtively glance in her direction. She was enthralled by the music, her breathing matching its rhythm. The music was now showing how the hero was falling in love, captivated by one of the graceful characters. Charlie didn't notice as he just kept observing Alice, how her eyes shone from the enjoyment the music brought to her, how her expression changed with the music, how the music seemed to make her lose herself in a daydream. He couldn't help but think of all the time he had spent with her, as well as all the time he had observed her from afar. She was in a league of her own...

The sudden trumpets took Charlie out of his own daydream, and he started to pay attention once more to the magical music. He felt like a confrontation between the hero and the antagonist was going on. He couldn't help but smile thinking how Ben would have probably ran out of the concert hall by now, as the music was growing in intensity. It seemed the graceful character was making an appearance, perhaps to defend the hero, but the menacing tone indicated that it was in vain, until he felt like the fluttering of the music was indicative of the Firebirds arrival to rescue the hero. The music became darker and intense, and while Charlie thought it was representing the fight between the Firebird and the antagonist, he couldn't help but imagine a dragon breaking loose and wreaking havoc, making him smile. The music became louder and louder until, suddenly, it became softer, as if the main battle was over, but the air of uncertainty that floated in the music showed the war had not yet been won. The music slowly became eerier before becoming sinister and menacing, showing the antagonist's last attempts at winning until he was finally defeated and died. The music took a lighter tone after that just as if the death of the antagonist was slowly bringing life back to the land he had been ruling until now. As the music became more and more joyful and grand, Charlie couldn't help but remember him and his friend after they had defeated the third vault, him and Alice becoming prefects, all while imagining the majestic Firebird flying freely in the sky. The music gave him a sense of victory, like everything was possible. At the end of the piece, the crowd rose in a standing ovation, clearly feeling a similar emotion as Charlie did at the end. The conductor and the orchestra bowed, and, after, the audience slowly started to leave the hall.

The group of friend followed the people outside the concert hall, Alice holding Charlie's hand to not lose him in the dense crowd, both of them too busy keeping up with the others to realize the situation. They exited onto a sidewalk facing a large street across which was a park. As Andre and Penny turned to their friends, Penny couldn't help but smirk as she saw Alice holding Charlie's hand, both unaware of it. Alice followed Penny's gaze, and after realizing she was holding someone's hand, quickly let go of Charlie's, making him realize that Alice had been holding it all this time, resulting in him blushing all the way up to his ears.

"Ah! Some fresh air! It can get so stuffy in there," Alice said as she took a deep breath.

"Yeah, made me feel sleepy the entire time," Andre agreed.

"So, Charlie, how did you enjoy your first Muggle concert," Penny asked, looking at the blushing boy.

"It was fascinating. How Muggles could illustrate magic so well through music is beyond me! There were times that the music reminded me of our classes and professors at Hogwarts. Except for the second piece. That one was just a bit too much," Charlie said.

"Mmm, I guess one must be familiar with 'Henri IV' to truly appreciate that music composition," Penny mused.

"Anyway, thanks again Penny for the tickets! I had a great time! Always wanted to go to the Proms!" Alice beamed.

"Well, it was the least I could do after the truth or dare fiasco. I owed you and Charlie big time," Penny said looking down.

"It's all forgiven, right Charlie?" Alice exclaimed, to which Charlie nodded in agreement.

"I think we should head back home," Andre said as he looked at his watch.

And so, they took a cab back to Alice's house so that Charlie and Andre could use the Floo Network to go back to their respective homes. Penny was spending the night at Alice's. After they arrived back at the house, Andre used the Floo powder first, giving Charlie a small wink when Alice wasn't looking, after which Penny went up the stair to supposedly change into her pyjamas, though it was more likely an excuse to leave Charlie and Alice alone.

"So... Did you enjoy your evening?" Alice asked looking around as she felt slightly shy and uncomfortable, though she couldn't explain why.

"Yeah, it was great. Well... Goodnight, Alice," Charlie said, also looking away as he stepped into the fireplace.

"Wait!" Alice exclaimed, remembering something.

Charlie looked at her, and he saw her take his tie from her handbag. She slowly approached him and tied it back around his neck before taking a step back.

"There," she said, looking at him. "That way your mother won't get on your case for not wearing the tie."

"How did you..." Charlie wondered.

"Know? Well, you don't strike me as the type of guy who'd wear a tie willingly," Alice replied, smirking.

"Guess you're right... Anyway, see you in September," Charlie said, smiling, before disappearing in a puff of green smoke.

Alice stood in front of the fireplace for a while, wondering why being left alone with Charlie made her feel uncomfortable.

----------------------------------------------

A/N: This is my submission for Prompt 3 (Going to a concert) of @hphm-fictober ‘s Fictober. Also, if you want to have a better idea of what Alice was wearing, click here. If you are wondering what truth or dare fiasco Penny is referring to, read my story “Hidden Truth”. Hope you enjoyed my story!

[athyrabunlord]

LLSHP AU (S) - First Task

Main Story: [LLSHP AU - Yoshiko Tsushima and the Fallen Angel]

[Brief note about School Term] [other LLSHP AU stuff] [YohaMaRuby concept arts] [ChikaYouRiko concept arts] [KanaDiaMari concept arts] [Hogwarts Staff]

[FFN link] [Pixiv Link] [Translated to Chinese by plin2290]

Sequel blips: TriWizard Tournament series- [First Task] [Yule Ball]

A/N: As per twitter vote from a while ago, I’m starting with a blip in the SequelTimeline (hence the (S) behind the usual tag of LLSHP AU). This is part of the TriWizard Tournament series. I’ll try to keep them as consequential as possible, but the blips’ might be all over the place depending on my muse. We’ll see XD;

Note: This blip takes place a year after ch21 of the MainStory, meaning chikayouriko are FifthYears and yoshimaruby are ThirdYears.

“The Beauxbaton champion has drawn the Ukrainian Ironbelly.”

Ruby Kurosawa could barely hear the noise outside the tent. Everything is muffled except for the pounding of her terrified heart. The Hogwarts uniform has never felt so heavy, so suffocating on her body, and she has to loosen her scarf a bit just to breathe a little better.

Shizuku Osaka gives them a graceful courtesy and holds up the miniature Dragon for the officials’ view one more time. Before it could breathe fire like its real-life counterpart, a swift but powerful Freezing Charm tames the replica, which she then affixes onto her brooch like an ornament.

Composed and elegant, the black-haired Beauxbaton champion is just as what her school is known for.

“Please proceed.”

Leah Kazuno calmly takes a step forward and reaches into the bag to draw her opponent. The petite but imposing Durmstrang champion remains unfazed even as she reveals the miniature creature in her palm for the officials to see. The leopard-like beast has a body full of spikes akin to a cactus, and it is growling warily with its intelligent eyes glancing at its surroundings.

“The Durmstrang champion has drawn the Nundu.”

Ruby swallows hard. That’s another dangerous level-5 magical creature, one that requires teams of highly qualified wizards and witches to subdue! Just how insane is this TriWizard Tournament?!

While she is on the verge of hyperventilating, Leah taps the replica with her wand, stilling its movement through a non-verbal petrificus totalus. Scoffing, she coolly gives it back to one of the officials before smoothly healing her prickled hand.

Fearless and professional, the sharp-eyed Durmstrang champion is every inch the representative of her school.

“Please proceed.”

Ruby tries not to flinch as she places her hand on the hilt of the Kurosawa heirloom, desperate to rein in her composure. After one deep breath, she approaches the official and shakily reaches into the bag. A sharp sting almost makes her drop the miniature beast but she perseveres and holds it up high.

She blanches at the growling replica in her palm.

A human-like head, a lion’s body and a scorpion’s tail. It’s unmistakable what she has to face in the First Task of the TriWizard Tournament.

“The Hogwarts champion has drawn the Manticore.”

Her heart plummets and with it, strangely, so does her fear. A peculiar sense of numbness washes over her, a resigned sort of acceptance that this is her fate and she must overcome it. She glances down at her hand, where the miniature Manticore’s stinger had pierced her palm. The sight of blood, no matter how little, still makes her stomach churn, though it also boosts her confidence.

She had bled way more before, and she lived. She can and will do this. As if sensing her grim resolve, the replica grins up at her before hopping back into the bag.

The Minister of Magic clears his throat, garnering everyone’s attention, though she has difficulty concentrating on his speech. Out of the corner of her eyes, she could see Professor Koizumi gazing at her with concern, and so she stands up a little straighter and holds up her chin high. She will do her Head of the House proud.

“... that said, we understand these three creatures are highly dangerous and could not be subdued even by teams of trained Hit-wizards under normal circumstances. Therefore, these beasts were specially selected by our Board and collaborators. A warrior from the Goblin Nation, Arkus, has graciously offered his help should it be necessary to stop the Ukrainian Ironbelly.”

At this, a scarred and bearded Goblin bows brusquely, his stance just as regal and intimidating as the massive battle axe he is holding. Perhaps it is ingrained in her upbringing through the Patriarch’s lectures, for Ruby innately feels respect as well as wariness towards the small humanoid.

“And Mr. Scamander will also be on the standby to tame his Nundu, which he has kindly provided for this Tournament.”

Ruby nods at the amiable wizard, whom she has met a few times at the Estate as the Patriarch’s valued guest. Kanan and Mari have talked about him as well, having traveled around the world with the famous Magizoologist a few times last year.

“Last but not least, Professor Toujou of Hogwarts has already negotiated with the chosen Manticore, and the beast has agreed to act only within the rules of this Tournament.”

The ever-enigmatic Head of Ravenclaw gives Ruby an encouraging wink then, prompting her to smile back in relief. Everything seems to be well under control. While the Tournament is known to have caused deaths in the past, surely this one would be all okay with the way the Board arranged for various scenarios.

The officials then exit the tent with the Beauxbaton champion to debrief her, and the remaining adults follow suit to prepare the arena as well. Ruby suddenly finds herself alone with the scowling Durmstrang champion.

“How fortunate you are, Kurosawa heiress. I bet your Professor has already made a special deal for you to win.”

Leah’s expression is blank, her eyes carefully guarded, but her voice is as vicious as poison. Ruby turns to face her peer and she is vaguely aware that her legs are no longer shaking.

“No. She trusts me, and I trust her. Hogwarts will never resort to cheating.”

“Then what was that look of relief on your face?”

“Knowing that there wouldn’t be any casualties among the bystanders.”

Leah’s expression darkens. “Is that all? Aren’t you scared? I saw you shivering like a pathetic rabbit since the moment you entered the tent. You don’t belong here. You should forfeit, for your own good.”

“I’m scared, very scared.” Ruby couldn’t help but smile at the tremor in her voice. She really hasn’t changed much over the years, but she is also proud to acknowledge that she has become stronger too. “But I will not run away. The Goblet of Fire chose me for a reason. Thanks for being worried about me though.”

“You wish. I just don’t want you to ruin the prestige of this Tournament.” Leah snarls, her stance rigid and proud. “Think of the mess if there’s already death in the First Task.”

“Of course, I don’t want to die either,” Ruby’s grip tightens on the hilt of the sabre. “I… I’m scared of pain, I can’t handle it, but I know I can face death if things were to reach that point.”

“Oh?” Leah’s demeanor loosens slightly, as if she hasn’t expected such response.

“I’ve already faced it before.” The faint pink scars from sectumsempra are visible reminders of what she had experienced on that terrible night, but compared to what her precious friends and family have endured back then, this Tournament should be within her ability to handle.

She, Ruby Kurosawa, is Hogwarts’ champion after all.

========================

Judging from all the gasps, cheers and applause outside the tent, Ruby is certain that Leah has succeeded in her Task just as Shizuku had. Both champions did not take more than ten minutes to achieve their objective, which is to retrieve a wooden box that their respective opponent is guarding. Each of them is only allowed to cast five spells, whether it be a Charm, Curse, Hex and so on, and the box can only be moved through actual contact, not by magic. It is meant to test the champion’s resourcefulness, wit and raw magical power, as well as their physical abilities.

Ruby has no plan whatsoever.

Her knowledge of the Manticore is limited to what she has studied in her family library. All those articles talk of how extremely dangerous the violent magical beast is, of how its magically resilient skin render wizards’ spells useless and thus there have only been one or two recorded triumphs against such creature. How is she, a mere Third-Year, supposed to get past the Manticore’s guard?

She stares hard at her wand, hoping to draw strength and guidance from the Holly and dragon heartstring core. She wishes for her friends and her sister to be with her right now, instead of being in this tent alone with her paranoid mind. To be fair for each school, no one is permitted to make contact with the champion, not even their respective Headmaster. Earlier, Chika and You have already tried to sneaked in but were quickly dragged away by their House Head before the officials noticed.

Ruby would have welcomed the Gryffindor duo’s presence. Her bravado earlier has faded enough for the small critter part to emerge, causing her thoughts to sink deeper to the pessimistic end as the clock ticks by. It’s not because she doesn’t believe in her own strength but more because of the countless scenarios against such a terrifying opponent.  She does enjoy the thrill of challenges to an extent, perhaps due to the duo’s influence over the years, so she tries to focus on that positive thought.

“Hogwarts’ champion, please enter the arena.”

Whimpering, Ruby wipes at her damp eyes one last time before standing up. With every step she takes, the fear is gradually left behind and that sense of numbness has returned once more. There is no running away now.

A thunderous cheer greets her as soon as she enters the Pit, which has been modified to accommodate the spectators and the Task. A quick glance reassures Ruby that various officials are stationed around the arena, especially for the guest section to ensure safety. Whatever happens between her and the Manticore will not affect the innocents.

When she walks past the student bleachers, she waves bashfully at the applauding Ravenclaws and searches the crowd for her future sister-in-law. She soon finds Riko and relaxes under her encouraging smile. The House of Hufflepuff is deafening in their cheers with, surprisingly, Professor Koizumi and Hanamaru being the loudest. Ruby could feel her ears burning, half embarrassed but half elated as well at such display of support from her best friend and Head of House.

As if not wanting to lose, Chika and You lead the Gryffindor section in the cheers with their flamboyant banners and Charmed fireworks. It’s over the top, really, but also so very like them. Ruby couldn’t but wave back just as energetically at the Head Girl and the Quidditch star. Passing shadows overhead prompt her to look up and smile at Pana and Lucifer. The two familiars are gliding and circling to keep with her pace, as if to act as her escorts. Fiery words of encouragement soar through the sky after them, providing entertainment for the onlookers. Ruby doesn’t have to glance at the Slytherin section to know that it is Yoshiko’s work, though her peers must have pitched in to help her control this Charm in order for it to work on such grand scale.

By the time Ruby reaches the Professors’ bleachers, she is smiling not just to reassure her friends but also out of genuine joy and love for them and her school. The Hogwarts staff are also clapping politely, some more exuberantly than the others. Dia looks tense but she is smiling as well, with a familiar golden cat draped on her shoulder and a large wolf head peering over the seat beside her. Kanan and Mari must have pretended to be Dia’s pets to sneak into this guest section. At Ruby’s hesitant wave, Kanan howls loudly and Mari swishes her tail like a flag, prompting Dia to frown and tug at her friends’ ears. Undeterred, the married couple continue to make a lot of noise and motions, making Dia sigh in exasperation.

The familiar comical interaction loosens Ruby enough for her to remember to bow in front of the Kurosawa Patriarch and her parents. The old austere wizard is not smiling and only gives her a brusque nod, but those who know him well can see the fierce pride in his eyes.

Shizuku seems amused at the lively display at her entrance, while Leah is wearing the darkest scowl ever. Both champions look disheveled, with Shizuku’s hair ribbon somewhat singed and Leah’s cloak having claw-shaped rips, but at least they appear mostly unharmed.

Ruby allows a quiet sigh of relief to slip past her lips. Her fellow champions made it through and there are no injured spectators. She nods at the panel of referees and the official standing just at the edge of the arena.

“Are you ready?”

With one brisk turn, she takes out her wand and takes one step inside the field of boulders and rocks. A cool brush of magic indicates that a powerful protective shroud must have been activated, keeping both combatants trapped within the arena as well as to shield the audience. At this point, all Ruby could hear are her quickened heartbeats and the sinister rumbling from the enormous beast at the other end of the modified Pit.

The Manticore is grisly to look at, like a creative project gone horribly wrong. Whereas the Sphinx appears majestic despite having a human head and the body of a lion, the Manticore is like a mutated and bloodthirsty version due to its wild mane and rows of sharp fangs. Its scorpion stinger tail is poised high in warning as it paces back and forth in front of the wooden box, her objective. Its powerful paws make heavy sounds on the gravel, its predatory eyes trained on her the moment she entered.

“So this is what I’m up against, a little rabbit,” the sentient creature’s voice sounds disturbingly human without any hint of a growl. “Ladies first then, so the show won’t be over too quickly.”

The insult almost makes Ruby smile in bittersweet nostalgia. Everyone tend to underestimate her and for the longest time, she had believed their evaluation to be true.

Not anymore. I’m not strong, but I’m not weak either. She could feel magic flowing steadily between her hand and her wand.

“I’m ready.” She tells the official without glancing at him. A hush falls over the arena but she could barely feel the eyes watching for. The Manticore is grinning at her, slowly licking its lips. A vague plan forms in her mind and she exhales deeply.

As soon as the wizard signals the start of her first Task, she raises her wand and shouts. “Expecto patronum!”

The amused beast barely moves even as the silver black jaguar snarls at it, an empty threat due to its intangible form. In spite of the confused murmurs in the background, Ruby finds herself smiling as the sight of her Patronus boosts her confidence. She is no longer alone in facing this terrifying monster.

“Wingardium leviosa!”

The huge boulders tremble from the Levitation Charm but only the medium-sized rocks actually float towards the center. The Manticore remains unfazed, even yawning tauntingly at the gradually increasing number of rocks gathering in the middle. Ruby keeps her arm steady in spite of the strain of such area spell and pours forth even more magic.

“Accio!”

Her third chosen spell summons the Kurosawa heirloom from outside the arena and she directs it towards the growing rock pile. The Manticore tenses at last, growling in anticipation and pawing at the ground. Just as the creature begins to run, Ruby yelps a string of incantations, moving her wand in sharp jabs.

The fourth and fifth spell is a combination of an advanced Transfiguration and a Charm, developed by You and herself under Professor Minami’s supervision. Ruby almost buckles from the strain of magical output but perseveres, willing and shaping the rocks into the image in her mind while the sabre acts as a focal point.

Rocks gather and morph around the the sabre, forming a long tail that eventually connects to a massive body with four limbs and an armored head.

Gasps and shouts could be heard from the audience and the Manticore stops abruptly, wary of the animated shape blocking its path. The grotesque replica raises its rocky tail, the sabre’s blade glinting under the sunlight, and lunges at its living counterpart.

Its movements are awkward and jerky but there is undeniable power behind each of its pounding footsteps. The real Manticore laughs haughtily when it tries to swerve around the slower clone and almost got slashed by its surprisingly fast tail. The two creatures crash into each other soon after, tearing and biting and gouging with the scorpion tail. The Manticore is undeterred by its opponent’s body of rocks, clawing and digging through the cracks, breaking the Transfigured creature from raw strength alone. For such a gigantic beast, it is nimble and agile, cleverly dodging the Kurosawa sabre instead of parrying it, knowing the blade would injure it whereas no magic could.

Ruby shivers instinctively from all that noise of the savage fight, though she manages to force her legs to move. She runs towards the boulders, ducking for cover when she hears a snarl rather close by. Worse comes to worst, she still has her wand to protect herself even though it meant being disqualified for using more than five spells. She could vaguely feel the tug of her magic animating the replica and, with a pained grunt, she increases the output towards her creation and wills it to endure the assault longer.

As soon as the boosted Transfigured beast collides against the Manticore, she dashes towards the end of the field. Many times she is tempted to look over the shoulder, to see if the monstrous creature is chasing her, to check if her creation is still standing, but flight mode is commanding her action and all she could to do is keep going.

Almost there.

Her lungs burn from the exertion and her throat aches from the screams she keeps fighting down.

Right there, on that patch of grass.

She almost stumbles at the abrupt cut of magic, indicating that her stone creation is no more.

She dives for the wooden box, tucking and rolling, just in time to dodge the Manticore’s tail slash. Panting, she glares up in defiance at the grinning beast. Its mane is wilder than before, covered in rubble that is doubtlessly from when it obliterated the replica, and its magically immune skin is unmarred by any of the replica’s attacks.

Ruby rolls to the side just as its massive paw comes down on her, sprinkling dust and causing the ground to quake under the force. Before it could pounce upon her though, a silver silhouette leaps in front of her protectively.

Startled, the Manticore could only stare at the proud black jaguar Patronus, which shimmers brightly under its caster’s fearless gaze. The stalemate lasts for a while but neither side relents. Ruby barely dares to breathe, her wand not raised but gripped tightly and ready for action.

“… it cannot attack me. I can just jump through it and rip your throat out,” the Manticore’s fanged grin widens when Ruby glares back even as her legs begin to tremble. “Yet, I find myself unable to move in awe of its power.”

From the corner of her vision, she notices the officials and Professor Toujou already on the standby. Ruby’s friends are all at the edge of the arena as well, blocked by the shield but their wands already poised for action.

The announcer takes a step forward and speaks firmly. “The champion has already acquired the wooden box.”

”Silence, human. You don’t look tasty, but you’ll do.” The Manticore sits down on its haunches and growls menacingly at the wizard who dares to point his wand at it. Professor Toujou clears her throat, prompting the Manticore to relax slightly and roll its eyes. “I know I know, don’t harangue me, Nozomi.”

Ruby blinks when the beast suddenly grins at her. “I concede, Kurosawa heiress.”

A deafening roar from the audience follows the Manticore’s words, drowning out even the official announcement of her victory. Tears well up in Ruby’s eyes but she barely feels them as she finds herself buried under her friend’s tackling hugs.

Miraculously, she has overcome the First Task.

============================

Ruby finds her mind drifting away to blissful peace as she licks at her lollipop. It’s one of her favorite snacks but it’s been a while since she’s indulged herself in the treat. As a Third-Year and a Prefect, she’s decided to cut down on her sweets intake in order to present a reliable, mature senpai image and so far it’s worked. She does miss being in the background though.

Ah, this tastes heavenly!

Smiling, she notices her steps are bouncier than usual as she walks down the empty hallway back to her Prefect dorm. Most of her Housemates are in the Great Hall, decorating the place for dinnertime, while her friends are preparing for the celebratory party later the night in Chika’s Head Girl dorm.

The Gryffindor duo had successfully rescued her from her peers, allowing her to take a little break in her dorm before having to socialize for the rest of the night. Indeed, Ruby isn’t fond of being under the spotlight even though her responsibilities nowadays require her to be. Thankfully, her friends are all very understanding of her, knowing that she needs a little breather. Chika and You claim that they’re going to raid the kitchen anyway, while Kanan and Mari must be catching up with Dia and most likely teasing her and Riko’s recent not-so-secret engagement.

As for Yoshiko and Hanamaru, well, hopefully they’re on speaking terms again. Ruby frowns at the thought of her best friends, wondering what the problem it is this time. They do argue from time to time, but those have all been harmless bickering, something Mari reassures her to be a form of flirting.

However, it feels like Yoshiko and Hanamaru have been keeping their distance, either avoiding each other or always sticking to Ruby so that they’re never alone by themselves. Just what had happened? Ruby would rather that they have heated arguments so at least she could play peacemaker, but this is something else entirely.  

Sighing, Ruby ponders for the umpteenth time about romantic relationships. She does get envious of that special closeness she’s witnessed in her friends, of how happy her sister is with Riko and so on, but she also finds it stressful. There are so many things to think about, and she is doing fine being the supportive role within their group of nine without being attached to anyone.

What’s more to ask for, if she already has her friends and family?

Suddenly, she couldn’t move her legs anymore and, with her feet stuck to the ground, the momentum makes her bend over awkwardly. Flailing her arms for balance, the lollipop falls to the ground and is kicked away by a dragon skin boot.

Ruby peers up to find Leah glaring at her.

“You didn’t even sense me coming.”

Though slightly irked by the loss of her snack, Ruby is more unsettled by how angry her fellow champion looks. “W-Why have you used partial petrificus on me?”

“To test you - just when I thought you to be a worthy opponent! But look at you, your guard is pathetic,” Leah snarls as she paces around Ruby. Since there is no wand in sight, it must have been a wandless, non-verbal petrificus, implying the witch’s skill and power. “Beside, what was with all that earlier?”

“What do you mean?”

“That circus out there! All that cheering, even that dumb Manticore, being all buddy-buddy with one of your Professors! I knew it, there must’ve been a deal going on.”

Ruby says calmly. “I did not cheat, if that’s what you’re suggesting.”

Leah then aggressively enters her personal space, their faces now barely an inch apart. “The TriWizard Tournament is not a game.”

Even though the flight alarm is going off in her head, Ruby is able to keep her voice steady. “I know.”

“Then why do I feel like you’re holding back?”

“I’m not.”

Leah growls in frustration, this time taking out her wand and points it threateningly under Ruby’s chin. “My instincts have never proven me wrong, Kurosawa.”

Ruby winces at the derisive way the Durmstrang champion utters her surname but she maintains eye contact. The silent stalemate continues for a while, neither relenting. Ruby notices for the first time that Leah is actually shorter than her, despite the latter having such an intimidating aura that made her presence so much larger.

Leah suddenly whirls around to deflect a Jinx and easily parries another Hex. Without thinking, Ruby breaks free of the Body-Bind Curse and grips Leah’s wrist before the latter fires off an offensive spell.

“I’m okay, Hanamaru-chan, Yoshiko-chan, please put away your wands.”

Hanamaru looks wary while Yoshiko’s expression is dark, but both lower their wands as they briskly approach them.

“What did you think you were doing, to my friend?” Yoshiko’s husky and menacing tone jostles an unpleasant memory in the back of Ruby’s mind but she forces it away.

Leah ignores the newcomers and continues to glare at Ruby. “So, you can move. You dispelled my Curse non-verbally as well.”

Ruby neither admits nor refutes that statement. After that night at the Estate, they’ve all worked so hard on wandlessly countering Body-Binding Curses. She hasn’t encountered any situation she had to utilize this skill until now.

“Oi, I’m talking to you.” Yoshiko stomps forward and uses her superior height to glare down at Leah. A familiar Ashwinder slithers out from her sleeve and drapes around her neck like a scarf. Leah looks disgusted at the hissing snake and raises her wand the same time Yoshiko raises hers.

“Expelliarmus.”

Hanamaru now holds both of their wands, her expression shadowed by her glasses. “No fighting in the hallway, right, Ruby-chan?”

Ruby swallows hard. Her best friend is rarely upset but it is obvious that this is one such time. “R-Right. Guest or not, y-you’d have to follow the rules here, Kazuno-san. Yoshiko-chan, really, I’m okay.”

Yoshiko huffs and folds her arms, while Leah nods curtly, seemingly taken aback by the turn of events. If Ruby isn’t mistaken, she even looks somewhat impressed as Hanamaru returns her wand back to her.

“You got lucky, Kurosawa.” Leah yanks her hand out of Ruby’s grip, reminding the latter that she’s been holding it this whole time. “Heed my words - I will be the victor in the end.”

Ruby exhales tiredly, watching her fellow champion storming down the hallway with the fur cloak billowing behind her. Durmstrang seems like a stressful environment to study in, or is there more to Leah’s drive in winning the Cup?

“Are you okay, Ruby-chan?”

“Yeah, just surprised and exhausted,” she smiles weakly at Hanamaru, noting the deliberate space between her and Yoshiko. Her two friends aren’t looking at each other and the tension is thick. She also notices that Lucifer is nestled in Hanamaru’s hood instead of Yoshiko’s like usual. Seraph the Ashwinder flicks its tongue at Ruby’s questioning gaze and nods imperceptibly before hiding under its master’s sleeve once more.

Ruby sighs again. This is only the First Task, and there appears to be more to come, Tournament or otherwise.

[shamelessly4shameless-blog]

130lb of Ukrainian Courage (pt.17)

Mandy pauses on the stairs, she can hear soft piano music coming from the little second hand radio Ian likes to have on in the kitchen when he is making coffee. She’s been with them for nearly two weeks and Ian has been back at work for most of that time. He’s just got home from his first of three night shifts and Mickey is just getting ready to go out to work. The lines ‘ships that pass in the night, and speak each other in passing’ come to Mandy unbidden as she listens to the soft murmur of their voices but she can’t place them, maybe a song she heard or something? She shrugs it off and treads lightly down, peering round the banister to glance at the two men.

Ian is sat on the counter top and Mickey is sat on a kitchen chair in front of him, one of Ian’s bare feet cradled in his hands, his thumbs working up and down the sole. Ian’s other foot is resting lightly on Mickey’s thigh. They each have a cigarette dangling from their lips, although Mickey’s is unlit.

“Is it here?”

“Up a little … yeah … oh yeah! Right there! Mmmmm!”

Ian laughs softly and tips his head back in bliss as Mickey’s right thumb finds the exact spot he needed. Ian is rakishly perfect under the dim glow of the kitchen light, his hair a little messy, flopping over to one side in a sweep of orange and red, like a birthday candle caught on the breath of a wish; but it is Mickey who Mandy’s eyes are drawn to.

He is looking up at Ian with the gentlest smile on his face that Mandy has ever seen. It is a little wonky because of the cigarette but it reaches all the way to his eyes and Mandy wonders how she never noticed this shadow of softness that lurks around his hard edges before.

“Keep makin’ noises like that I’m gonna be late for work.”

“Keep pressing your thumb like that and I’m going to rob a bank so you never have to work again.”

Ian counters happily. Mickey snorts softly and runs the heel of his hand up and down Ian’s foot a few times before glancing up at the clock and regretfully patting his ankle.

“I’m sorry but I gotta go. Does that feel a little looser though?”

“Like new.”

Ian assures him, hopping off of the counter and straddling Mickey’s lap, bumping his ass down with a deliberate roll of his hips. He leans in close and whispers something that Mandy can’t hear and she feels that is probably for the best, given the wolfish grin that suffuses her brother’s face.

“I’ll hold you to that, Firecrotch. Now come on, move your ass.”

Mickey pats Ian’s leg and they both stand up. Mandy knows she should move or make her presence known but she’s just completely transfixed by them.

“I want you to try and get some sleep, okay? Don’t be stayin’ up readin’ or any shit like that.”

“Okay Dad.”

Ian teases and receives a middle finger in response.

“You need anything, you call me. Tommy don’t give a shit about me takin’ off early as long as I buy him a couple beers to make up for it so don’t worry about gettin’ me in trouble. Just call.”

Ian’s face softens and he nods

“I’ll be fine. I’m gonna get a few hours sleep and then hang out with Mandy.”

“Cool. Alright, I’ll see you later. I love you.”

“Love you too. Keep safe and don’t murder Alan.”

“Be doin’ the world a fuckin’ favour if I did, man.”

Mickey grins as the back door closes behind him. A few moments later the sound of his car starts up and headlights swing across the kitchen and then the sound fades as he drives down the street.

Mandy shakes herself and stands up, making a show of clearing her throat and clomping down the last few stairs.

“Hey!”

She smiles, rubbing her eyes for effect. Ian doesn’t seem any the wiser, he’s still got that dopey smile on his face from Mickey as he waves a hand in greeting

“Mornin’. How you feeling?”

“Sick.”

Mandy admits, helping herself to juice from the fridge

Ian makes a low humming noise at the back of his throat and nibbles his lip in excitement. This is the first time Mandy has made any comment that can even loosely be linked to her pregnancy since first telling him of it. Mickey has firmly forbidden him from bringing it up with her until she is ready to talk, but Ian has never been great at leaving things alone and unlike her brother, Mandy does often want to talk things through – she just needs a bit of a nudge.

“You mean, like morning sickness?”

Mandy hesitates and then nods.

“Yeah I think it must be. Kinda freaky huh?”

Ian shakes his head and pulls up the chair Mickey vacated, gesturing for her to sit.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Mandy sighs. She needs to make a decision but it feels too huge, too heavy. The father is long gone and thank God. She is safer for it and her child, if she dares to think of it as her child, is safer for it too.

She needs to try and find work but who will hire her? Most likely no one Mandy wants to work for.

Mickey and Ian have said nothing about rent or bills and both told her, in very different ways, not to worry about it when she has brought it up.

Maybe she does want to talk about it all, maybe she’s ready to.

“Aren’t you tired?”

Mandy asks taking in the slightly tired lines around his eyes.

“Not really.”

He shrugs. It’s true, he really isn’t tired and he has lodged that as the potential signifier of a manic episode on the brink but for now it’s actually useful so he just smiles and pours the rest of Mickey’s morning coffee between two mugs and hands one to his friend.

“Well … I guess the big question is whether or not I’m gonna keep it.”

Ian nods and sips his drink, desperately hoping his face looks neutral. Mickey has made it very clear, in that slightly formidable way he has when something is very important to him, that as far as Mandy is concerned, neither of them have any opinion on that issue one way or the other.

“The guy is a prick but most men are so I guess if I ever want to be a Mom, I just have to get over that.”

Mandy continues, absently winding a long strand of dark hair around her finger.

“Do you? Want to be a Mom?”

Ian asks, leaning back against the counter.

“I guess so. I mean, I like the idea of it. Not sure I’d be any good but I mean … well, shit! If even Mickey can manage a kid …”

“Hey!”

“Well you know what I mean! Would you have ever picked Mick for being a good dad?”

“Of course!”

Ian frowns at her but Mandy shrugs, unperturbed.

“Really?”

Mandy gives Ian a sceptical glance and Ian nods, folding his arms defensively

“Yeah. He’s always had a good heart and he’s loyal and takes care of the people he loves. He’s brilliant with Yevgeny.”

“Oh! Yeah, no, he is and I didn’t mean … It’s just I could never have seen him being like that.”

“Well I could. Just like I can see you being an awesome mom. You’re smart and kind and you’re crazy protective – you’d be brilliant.”

Mandy ducks her head, blushing at the compliment.

“This baby wouldn’t have a dad though. Just me.”

“But he or she will have two uncles who are basically dad’s. We’ll be there Mandy. Every step of the way. If you’re worried that you’d be alone, don’t be.”

“I don’t want to be a burden on you guys.”

“You won’t be. We’ll get a bigger place and you can stay with us while you save up for your own home.”

“You think Mickey would move just to help me out?”

“It was his idea actually.”

Mandy is quiet for a minute taking that information in and then she sighs and smiles gently at her friend.

“You want me to have it, huh?”

Ian draws a sharp breath, well and truly caught between the wills of two Milkovich’s. It is a little like being caught between a hungry tiger and a hungry lion and knowing that whichever way you turn, you’re lunch meat.

Might as well be honest lunch meat.

“Yeah, I do.”

“Me to.”

Mandy smiles and just like that the decision is made.

*

Mandy is frying hamburger in their huge old skillet when Mickey gets home. He sniffs appreciatively as he tugs his work boots off and rolls his shoulders. He’s been a labourer for a few months but his body is still adjusting to it and he is always stiff as Hell at the end of the day. He doesn’t mind the work and Tommy mostly leaves him alone to get on with it, but it has taken a while for him to adjust to having a legitimate job and not just coming and going as he pleases. Still, with Yev getting older and Ian working steadily, it was time to make the effort to go completely legit. Mickey has too much to lose now if a scam, heist, or deal were to go wrong.

Mandy glances over her shoulder at Mickey and watches him roll the kinks out of his neck. She is ridiculously glad he is home. Ian has only been gone a couple of hours but her head is too full of thoughts and helter-skelter emotions and Mandy really wants the company.

“Burgers will be ready in ten minutes, okay?”

“Thanks.”

“Beer?”

“Yeah.”

“Good day?”

“Yeah…. I mean Alan’s a prick and Jim’s a fuckin’ liability, the guy don’t even seem to know which end of a drill to hold, but I was down the other end of the yard so they mostly stayed out of my way. Anyway, how was your day? You see Ian before he left for work?”

“I told Ian I want to keep the baby.”

Her hand flies to her mouth as if trying to push the words back in but it’s too late and Mandy promptly bursts into tears. Mickey freezes, a cigarette half-way to his lips, unprepared for the sudden emotional shit-storm. For a wild moment he considers grabbing his boots and running away but that is always his first thought whenever Ian or Yev get upset too and just like with his boys, the moment passes and he stands up and places a hand on her arm, with a sympathetic noise.

“Hey, come on, sit down.”

“I’m sorry, shit, I’m really sorry.”

Mandy pats her face with the sleeve of her shirt and tries not to smudge what is left of her eye liner as Mickey awkwardly pats her back and gestures at the stove

“Go sit  down, I can do this.”

Mickey goes to take the flipper out of her hand but Mandy shakes her head irritably, holding it out of his reach

“No, you’re filthy. Take a shower and I’ll finish up.”

Mickey gives her a concerned glance but does as she asks and heads to the bathroom, grabbing his cell on the way out. While the shower heats up Mickey fires a quick text to his boyfriend.

Mandys crying. Keeping baby. Thanks 4 the fuckin heads-up.

Oh shit! Is she upset cause I told her I think she should? She seemed ok before.

You did what??? WTF Ian?

Shit. She pissed at me? Really sorry Mick. Talk 2morow?

Damn right we will.

Ok. Sorry again. Love you.

LY2

Mickey scowls at the phone and purses his lips. He doesn’t want Mandy pressured into anything and he certainly doesn’t want Ian painting some happy picture of what being a parent is. It is hard fucking work and Mandy doesn’t have a job or a partner or any savings as far as Mickey can tell. A kid is going to complicate her life more than it already is and if that is what she wants … well fine. But no one is going to push her into it. Not even Ian.

He washes the dirt of the day from his body and hair and makes his way downstairs dressed in mostly clean jeans a passable long sleeved tee, the sleeves pushed up to his elbows.

“Hey.”

“Hey!”

Mandy smiles brightly at him but her eyes are red rimmed and Mickey frowns at her.

“You need to talk or somethin’?”

“It’s okay, Mickey. Besides your burger is getting cold.”

“Yeah well cold burger never killed anyone. Come on.”

He jerks his head toward the living room and walks off, leaving Mandy little choice but to follow.

Mickey sits on the edge of the sofa, legs spread wide taking up more physical space than he really needs and settling into it as if he is preparing for a fight.

“Ian’s got a big fuckin’ mouth.”

He snaps as Mandy settles beside him

“Don’t be mad at him…”

“I’ll be mad at whoever the fuck I want to be mad at. Havin’ a kid is hard fuckin’ work Mandy”

“You don’t think I can do it?”

The hurt in her voice is painfully obvious and Mickey runs a hand tersely through his hair.

“Course you can do it. And you’d be fine. But … you got options, alright?”

“Do you want me to have the baby?”

Mickey’s nostrils flare and he arches both brows at her in obvious irritation.

“What kind of dumb question is that?”

“Well … Ian said you guys would help out so you have to have some say in it, right?”

Mandy grimaces at how feeble that sounds as Mickey makes an exasperated gesture

“No, we don’t get any fuckin’ say in it. This is your life, your kid, you do whatever you gotta do. No one should be pushed into havin’ a kid they don’t want. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it don’t but it’s besides the point. You got a choice Mandy and no one is takin’ that away from you.”

“I do want this baby. I’m just scared, Mick. I’m really scared.”

Mandy reaches out on impulse and grips her brother’s hand. It’s something she would never have done before but times are very different now and he squeezes her fingers tightly in his own, his expression earnest and intense a way that makes Mandy smile despite her fluttering nerves.

“You don’t need to be scared. You got Ian, you got me,”

Mickey takes a breath and then lets it out quickly

“and we both want to take care of you, Mandy.”

Mandy gives a small shaky laugh and blinks rapidly, lifting her eyes to the ceiling fan

“What did Ian do to you?”

Mickey snorts and twitches his nose, slouching back into the sofa

“Fucked if I know.”

The siblings look across at each other and then away again, grinning.

“Poor Ian. He’s got two Milkovich’s already and now he’s gonna have four of us.”

Mickey chuckles and shakes his head

“Nah, he’ll just have four people fuckin’ swooning after him instead of two. He’ll be in his element.”

*

Ian edges the door open and closes it quietly behind him. His second night shift has wiped him out, he’s tired and irritable and worried about the scolding he is pretty damn certain is coming his way. He considers ignoring the scent of coffee already wafting from the kitchen and ignoring Mickey altogether until he’s had a chance to sleep, but that feels shitty so he braces his shoulders, drops his back by the sofa and wanders through.

Mickey looks up when Ian enters the room and his face softens from it’s usual morning scowl.

“Hey man.”

“Hey.”

Ian kisses the top of his head and sits down beside him, accepting the toast and pill box that Mickey slides across to him.

“How mad are you?”

Ian asks, munching his toast and popping his pills casually. Mickey smiles slightly to himself.

“Like a two out of ten.”

“Huh. You’re usually a three at this time in the morning.”

Ian quips back but gives Mickey a small knowing smirk which is returned and the matter of who said what is dropped.

Ian strokes Mickey’s morning hair back from his face

“I guess we have to start planning a move and sorting out all the paper work for that...”

“Hey, yeah about that. I … ah … I wanted to ask you somethin’ and I wanted to wait a bit but with a new house to buy and other shit to do … and like you say, we’re gonna have paperwork and  ...”

Mickey presses his lips together to stop himself rambling and locks eyes with Ian, who is gazing at him with fond amusement.

Mickey reaches into his shirt pocket and pulls out a small leather box and Ian’s eyes widen in shock.

Mickey sits up straighter and taps the box lid with one finger. He had thought to propose in July, but if anything, the last month has taught Mickey that life gets away from you pretty damn quickly and it can throw curve balls that can knock even the strongest rhythm into flux. If you have something you want to do, or something you need to say, you have to do it sooner because later is not fucking guaranteed. He nearly lost Ian, nearly lost his family and now there is a brand new life forming right under this very roof! Everything changes so fast … everything except how he feels about Ian. That has been a constant for a decade and Ian deserves to be shown how certain Mickey really is about him.

“I don’t know how to do this properly, but … uh ... Ian, will you marry me?”

It isn’t poetic, but it is a bold and brave and more than Ian had ever really dared to hope to hear.

Mickey opens the box and reveals a wide silver band with a minute diamond set in the centre.

“I will. Jesus, Mick! Of course I will!”

Ian beams at him and the quiet beauty of the moment last for a few seconds more before he explodes out of the chair and throws himself into Mickey’s arms. The little chair tips back alarmingly but by some miracle doesn’t collapse beneath their combined weight. Ian cups Mickey’s face in his hands, staring at him as if he is some new and marvellous thing that Ian is seeing for the very first time.

“Holy shit, Mickey. We’re getting married!”

“Hell yes, we are! Gimmee your hand.”

The ring slips easily over Ian’s knuckle and settles perfectly beside the letter ‘U’ on Mickey’s own finger as they link their left hands together on the table top.

[deepseawritings]

>:D here I am... with writing prompts!! 8 for Shovel and 32 for Evgenii.

Thanks for the ask mate! And, as impossible as it may sound, I actually have both pieces written. 

But there’s one teensy problem: you gave me prompt 32 for Evgenii (“This is, by far, the dumbest thing you’ve ever done.”) which had the potential to be something fun and light-hearted. And I took it and went the angsty and spoilery route. Ooops. So since that short piece has spoilers about what will happen on Shovel’s next adventure, I’m undecided whether I should post it now or wait and first finish and post the next installement of Shovel’s story. Halp guys.

Meanwhile, here’s Shovel’s prompt: “Were you ever going to tell me?”

This hunt wasn’t going according to the plan. So far all of Wolf’s jobshad been fairly easy: go kill some mutants and come back for the pay. Andperhaps Shovel freaked out a bit the first time she saw a horde of fleshes-because she knew what pigs looked like and those things were certainly nopigs, no matter what everyone said- but killing the rowdy mutated pigs was still easier than killing apseudo-dog.

Coming to the railroad bridge was always risky, since the military weretrying to regain its control, and Shovel’s latest mission drove her too closeto it for her liking. To her great relief, it was empty today. No soldiers, nostalkers and, best of all, no bandits. So she went towards the spot marked inher map, close to the old mill. Everything was calm and silent. Too silent forShovel to feel comfortable. But the marker on her map urged to go forward,towards the far end of the railways, away from the bridge.

A strange static sound could be heard the closer she got to her mark,and Shovel turned around, half-expecting to see that strange floating ball ofelectricity that once chased her through the forest and into the Zone. Butthere was nothing. In fact the sound seemed to come from beneath the ground,more or less?  It was coming from atunnel, as she soon saw. The entry looked dark and foreboding from herposition, curtained by burnt fuzz. No way Shovel was going in there, shepreferred to find another way to cross the railways if needed.

The growl was loud in the otherwise silent area. And it was coming frombehind her. She’d heard this kind of grunts before, when she killed that odddog with a shovel while they tried to bury their fallen companion in DarkValley. Frankly, that wasn’t the worst that happened during that firstescapade, but she remembered well enough the pseudo-dog to know they werescarily resistant and agile and aggressive. So she ran, even if that meantgetting into the tunnel. The static sound grew louder and she went into thedarkness of the tunnel. Seeing a huge dark shape amidst the shadows, she jumpedon it. A second later an electric discharged bathed the tunnel in a bluishflash, and she heard the pained yip of the dog.

“You’re a lucky son of a bitch, huh? If you stumbled you’d be dead forsure.”

There was someone else on top of that moored truck, hidden by theshadows that consumed the tunnel. She squinted her eyes and glimpsed an indistincthuman shape, so Shovel took out her torchlight and pointed it at the unknownperson.

“Fuck’s sake, turn it off!” The guy protected his eyes with one of hishands.

Shovel quickly powered down the torchlight, whispering a “Sorry” to him. That brief moment oflight served her to see her mysterious companion was no stalker. He wasmilitary. Oh blin, she was screwed!Stalking was a crime under Ukrainian law, and the rookie village was closeenough to the military checkpoint to know how military dealt with stalkers –with a hail of bullets usually.

“Not a very talkative gal?” The soldier had finally caught on that shewasn’t a man, probably when she said sorry. “A shame, I wouldn’t mind a bit ofconversation.”

“For a soldier you are friendly,” It was a stupid observation, andShovel wished she‘d kept her mouth shut. But from all she’d heard she halfexpected the soldier to point his rifle at her immediately after seeing her.

The soldier laughed heartily, much to Shovel’s confusion. The laughterquickly died when the pseudo-dog barked angrily at them from the other side ofthe tunnel’s entrance, its yellowish eyes glinting in a decidedly unfriendlyway.

“Fucking beast has had me trapped here for at least six hours,” thesoldier growled. “You’re the first person I’ve seen since I left the outpostthis morning.”

“Wait, you’ve been trapped here all day long?” Shovel eyed his rifle,which was just a lump in the dark, but she remembered it looked much better anddeadly than her hunting rifle. “Why didn’t you shoot it?”

The soldier grunted again and shuffled closer to her. “Ran out ofbullets. And I dropped my bag when I jumped up here, that electric thing stingsreally hard if it catches you.”

Shovel felt a little bad for him. He was clearly new to the Zone, justlike her. And the Zone was kicking their asses. They sat on top of the rustedtruck in silence for a while, contemplating their situation. The soldiereventually broke the silence once more.

“What about you stalker, do you know how to shoot?”

“Of course I do!” She was a bit insulted he’d questioned herproficiency. Why carry a weapon you didn’t know how t use? That was stupid! Wasit because she was a woman or because she was rookie? Well, she’d show him!

She crawled to the far end of the truck, closer to the pseudo-dog, angertaking over her earlier fear. It took quite a fair bit of bullets to make itlimp, but soon it would be dead. However her optimism was quickly snuffed whenshe ran out of bullets and the pseudo-dog was still alive.

“Well, you’re not a bad shot, but that thing is still kicking around,”the soldier pointed out. Yeah, thanks, like she couldn’t see it with her owneyes. But getting snippy wouldn’t solve anything.

“I’m out of ammo too.” She admitted over the buzzing sound of theever-present electro.

The soldier took out something from his belt, and when he crept closershe saw it was a huge knife. Shovel took a step back.

“You lure it to us and I’ll finish it while it’s distracted.”

No. Absolutely not. “I’m not playing bait!”

A tense silence fell over them, only broken by the growls of the stillprowling pseudo-dog. Shovel was silently panicking, mentally going over heroptions if he decided to lunge at her with the knife or tried to push her down.Her odds were… not good.

In the end it was the soldier who broke their stalemate, offering herthe knife. “Fine. I’ll play bait and you kill it. I just want to get out ofhere.”

He dragged himself forward, and it was then Shovel noticed his ankledidn’t look right. Oh, had the pseudo-dog got him before? Walking like thatmust hurt him like hell. She was considering offering him a change of placesafter all when the pseudo-dog jumped at the soldier. He’d been perched at theedge of the truck, searching for a landing spot that wasn’t covered by tendrilsof static, when the dog dragged him down. Man and beast fell into the electricanomaly, which then exploded in another discharge. Shovel crept closer to theedge as well, to see what happened. The electro reformed and exploded again,starling her enough to make her slip as well.

Shovel rolled down the side of the truck and on top of the two bodies onthe ground. She tried to get away from the anomaly before it shocked her. Andshe made it. But then she noticed the soldier was trying to move from beneaththe dead pseudo-dog. Not thinking about it, Shovel went back to help him. Trueto the soldier’s earlier comment, the anomaly’s shock stung harder than shecould have imagined. Her scream echoed in the darkness of the tunnel.

Moving faster than ever before in her life, she dragged the soldier outof the tunnel, and just in time to avoid another electric discharge. The man onthe ground twitched and gasped like he couldn’t breathe properly, and Shovelhoped he didn’t require immediate medical attention, because she barely knewhow to bandage a wound.

“Th-th-thank you,” he finally managed, extending a hand towards her. Shoveldidn’t take it, out of fear it would hurt him more than do him any good. Therewas a map of red lines criss-crossing the skin, like an artsy tattoo gone wrong.

“Are- are you okay?” Probably a stupid question, but she asked anyway.

The soldier wheezed, slowly getting up. “Been better. But I’m alive.”

Shovel nodded. It made sense. At least he was able to stand on his own.He took a couple of hesitant steps towards the truck, and Shovel feared he wouldfall into the electro. She hadn’t saved him from the anomaly just for him tofall into it again. It would be a waste of her effort. However he did not fall.Instead he retrieved a bag that was stuck underneath the vehicle. He rummagedaround and then thrust a pair of small packages out to her.

“Not much, but I have nothing else besides my ammo.” He waved his handimpatiently when she didn’t grab them. “C’mon, what are you waiting for? Yousaved my life, I won’t let you go empty handed.”

His thanks and a promise to not kill her when she turned her back wouldhave sufficed, yet he seemed intent on giving her those parcels of food–presumably it was food, but she wasn’t sure.

“Okay, yeah.” She took his offering.

The situation felt awkward to Shovel. How do you accept someone’sgratitude when you just saved them? Saying “Noproblem” or “It was no trouble”would be either lacking or big filthy lies.

“Normally I’d try to arrest you, but not today. I hope you survive yourstay here stalker,” he told her before he left, limping and hobbling but steadyon his feet.

Shovel stood there, watching him leave while she clutched the food onher hands. They turned out to be some sort of chocolate flavoured energy bars.Oh goodness, it seemed like the last time she tasted chocolate was a lifetimeago.

She went back to the rookie village, happily munching a chocolate barand with an odd feeling of satisfaction blooming in her chest.

#

Their planned trip to Garbage had a rocky start. And a rocky middle. Orperhaps this wasn’t even the middle and it would be simply their end. Therailroad bridge was supposedly under stalker control, but it was the militarythey found waiting for them. Unfortunately, neither she nor Evgenii noticed ituntil it was too late to go back unseen.

One of the soldiers was aiming their rifle at them, and another gesturedthem to come forward, closer to his armed comrade.

“Want to cross the bridge stalkers?” One of the soldiers hollered.“Don’t be rude, come have a chat!”

Following the armed soldiers’ orders, they went towards the bridge, likesheep to the slaughter. Evgenii looked as worried as she felt. This wasn’tgood, they didn’t have anything to bribe them. But what else could they do?Run? When they were closer, Shovel saw there was a third soldier sitting in oneof the vehicles parked –or was it abandoned?–  by the side. The soldier also saw her.

“Fuck off Sergei, they get through for free.”

“But corporal…” The one who called them forward wasn’t happy with thechange of plans.

“No buts, lower the damn weapons!”

It was the soldier she met in the tunnel with the electro. He lookedwell, better than she remembered, but then again more than a week had passedsince that day. The soldier, corporal, whatever he was, approached her.

“With this the debt is settled, yes?” he looked serious, his voice hard.Shovel was confused by his actions. She was under the impression he’d already ‘paid’ her for that, or that was whatshe had told her.

“Why this? I’m not ungrateful, but you already gave me the chocolates.”

The other two soldiers howled with laughter at this. She couldn’tunderstand why her confusion was so freaking funny to them. At least they letthem through, without uttering another complaint, while their Corporal led herand Evgenii to the other side of the bridge and thanked her again “for being how she was,” whatever thatmeant. The echoes of the soldier’s mirth followed them past the bridge. Andduring all that time Evgenii was silent like a tomb.

“Were you ever going to tell me?” he eventually asked her, when theywere close to the old farm.

That simple sentence made Shovel flinch.

The door opened and Polina’s hand was gone from her,leaving a ghostly cold in its absence.

“Yulia!” Her sister Irina stood on the door, lookingangrily at her friend and her. “Were you ever going to tell me?”

She took a deep breath and focused on the now. This was completelydifferent from that time, she wasn’t hiding anythinganymore. And in the end everything worked out between her sister and her.Besides, Evgenii didn’t sound angry or hurt. His voice was full of surprise andawe.

“Tell you what?”

“You befriended a soldier! And he gave you chocolate! How? And when?”

Leaveit to Evgenii to be impressed by something she accomplished by accident. Likegetting that stupid nickname (that she’d started to grow fond of, but don’ttell anyone that). She launched to tell him the story while they walked alongthe empty road, marching to an adventure of their own.