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averagesmw · 4 years

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Penny Haywood x MC- Come with me (1/4)

Game: Harry Potter Hogwarts Mystery

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The time for the holidays was approaching Hogwarts. The colorful lights and gentle snowfall made paved the way for the most peaceful time of the year

A time when there was no such thing as an enemy and tensions were indeed at an all-time low

This would be an ideal time to celebrate and surround yourself with loved ones, but after a brutal sixth year, festive wouldn't be a way to describe how Y/N was feeling

It was so hard to believe that it was over, that after... everything, they were free. However, it didn't feel like a victory

In fact, it didn't feel like anything. Even Beatrice wasn't as gloom

This behavior did not go unnoticed, however. Across the Great Hall, while the Curse-Breaker was staring at their giant sandwich, their friends were plotting

Well, at least the ones who hadn't left for Christmas yet

Tulip, Liz, Tonks, and Penny were waiting on Chiara, who was holding a plate with barely eaten food

"They didn't even eat. They just took a bite to not make me feel bad..."

The silver-haired girl sighed, earning sympathy from the girls, except for Penny, who was looking back at them

Not many students were left, but Y/N was so lost in thought that they didn't notice the girls

"This isn't good. Y/N has been as lonely as Talbot"

"...Who?" Tonks asked

"The point is, there has to be something we can do to help them"

"I tried cheering them up with Puffskeins, but Y/N just ended up falling asleep..." Liz sighed in defeat

"Have you tried taking them to Hogsmeade?" Tulip suggested to Penny

"Yes, but they didn't want to go. Said there were too many memories"

There was silence after that, at least until more ideas brewed

Y/N went through unimaginable lengths to protect their friends and even ensure their happiness. After everything that happened with Rakepick and the Vaults, it was only fair that they got some of that as well

The girls were devastated to know that wasn't the case, and they made it their mission to correct it immediately

Unfortunately, every attempt at improving their friend's mood had failed, and with Christmas approaching, time was running out

Unless...

"Wait, you said Hogsmeade brought Y/N bad memories?"

Penny nodded at the question, curious to see what Tonks had come up with

"Why not take Y/N somewhere else? Maybe a change of scenery would help them"

"Brilliant idea, Tonks! It could do wonders for their health if the environment is right"

Chiara's comment earned a proud smile from the methamorphmagus, at least until Liz came in with another question

"But where would it be ideal for that?"

With her hand on her chin, looking around for an answer. Her blue eyes eventually landed on the Christmas tree that was decorating the place

That's when she got a fragment of what could be an idea. She just needed a bit more intimation

"Where are you going on Christmas?"

The girls seemed to pick up on this idea, but their reactions didn't help much

"Y/N L/N is one of my best friends, I wouldn't let them anywhere near my parents"

With Tulip's parents working for the Ministry and Y/N being...well, Y/N, it only made sense

" I'm staying to help Hagrid look after the creatures"

Liz's statement made Chiara look at her with surprise

"And I will learn from Madam Pomfrey. Maybe we can get together for lunch!"

The silver-haired girl smiled at the idea as soon as she heard it

"I'd love that!"

The girls' excitement only made Penny worry, seeing as her options were running out. But that's when she thought about what she'd be doing in the holidays

Visiting the countryside, away from conflict and just near family and friends from a nearby village

"Then I'll ask Y/N to come with me for the holidays!" She thought out loud, gaining the attention of her friends

"You sure your parents would let you?"

"I'll send them an owl to ask them. Hopefully, they'll say yes"

Shortly after that, her gaze shifted to the student at the table

"But first, the guest of honor"

Without further due she approached Y/N and sat in front of them, her presence making then snap out of it

"Oh. Hey, Penny"

She returned the greeting with a smile

"Hi, Y/N. How are you today?"

"I'm holding up. I thought you'd be going with your family for Christmas"

This provided Penny the opportunity she was looking for, and she wouldn't waste it

"Actually, that's what I came here to talk about"

The suspense that accompanied that statement made Y/N look at her with concerned eyes

"Is everything alright?"

The Hufflepuff picked up on this and gently smiled at them

"Oh yes, don't worry about it. See, I was thinking..."

A sigh left her soft lips before she finally allowed herself to be as honest as she could with Y/N, or at least enough to proceed

"You've done far too much for us, especially this year, and while it has been difficult, it's been even worse for you"

"That's...a way to describe it, yes"

"But you deserve to enjoy this breath of fresh air, Y/N, and I was wondering if you..."

If she had their attention, now she also counted with their curiosity

"Yes?"

Her blue eyes met their e/c eyes as she finally asked what she came there to know

"If you'd like to come to the countryside with me for the holidays"

Penny waited for Y/N to politely decline the invitation as they would probably do given their mood

However, something that the young lady didn't account for was that talking to her would always help to cheer them up, even now

So rather than declining such an offer, Y/N showed surprise

"Really? You want me to go with you?"

Their reaction was as if they had forgotten just how much they meant to Penny, but seeing this change in behavior gave her the boost she needed to continue

"Of course! There's nobody else I'd rather spend them with"

She could tell that the curse-breaker was moved by her words, but also that they were seriously considering her offer. It was only a minute, but it felt like an eternity to the blonde witch

"Well, I could use the scenery change"

There she was, the confirmation she needed to get started. Penny got up and flashed one of the brightest smiles Y/N had ever seen

Not literally of course, but he had to be dead for it not to be heartwarming

"Brilliant! I'll send an owl to my parents to tell them about it. I'll tell you when we're leaving and...Y/N?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you for giving me this opportunity"

Without further due, she left the Great Hall and headed straight to her Common Room so she could write a letter asking her parents if Y/N could indeed tag along

Penny would explain that they were responsible for saving Hogwarts on multiple occasions, including the Haywood sisters themselves and also the fact that they didn't quite deserve to spend such a gloomy Christmas by themselves

The owl left as soon as she delivered the letter. Fortunately, the weather was calm enough for it to fly normally and there weren't as many letters going around

It took a day for Penny to receive an answer, and what she saw made her squeal with overwhelming joy. Y/N would spend the holidays with them

For Y/N it might be just a change of scenery, but for her? It was all she wanted

To spend the best time of her year surrounded by the people she loved the most, no exceptions

And so, she went to find Y/N and tell them that the time to leave was near...after eating breakfast, of course

They all ate together and wished Y/N a pleasant trip. One could tell that more than saddened by their departure, they were glad they were taking their time

Except for Alanza, she wouldn't let go, literally. Even if she wouldn't admit it, that made Penny a bit jealous

Regardless, the Haywood sisters and Y/N found themselves walking into the Hogsmeade train station, with their baggage included

The plan was to take the train, get to a specific location where they'd meet Penny's parents, and from there continue with the holidays

Nothing Penny hadn't done many times before, so it wasn't all that complicated to follow

"I'm so glad you agreed to come with us, Y/N!"

"I think you'll find the countryside rather charming. Even I still enjoy it" Beatrice added

"Then I guess I really have to see it for myself"

"You'll love nature in there, it's so relaxing. There, let's find a seat!"

Penny grabbed Y/N's hand out of instinct as she guided them through the station, with Beatrice not far behind, chuckling at the sight of it

Plenty of things had taken place during their sixth year at Hogwarts, most of them dreadful, but one exception was Beatrice's relationship with both Penny and Y/N themselves

While still adjusting to her new self, she found comfort in the curse-breaker's company and help. Now she was ready to move on

And it showed, while they were all waiting for the train, the chatter was not gloomy or resentful, but rather charming instead

It even brought some semblance of normality

Something that seemed like such a rare commodity nowadays

Fortunately, they didn't have to wait long for the train to arrive. They had timed their arrival perfectly, which was a relief considering that the station's clock cannot be relied on

It didn't take long for them to find a place to sit while the journey began, Penny and Beatrice sat on one side and Y/N on the other. Regardless, the window provided a breathtaking view of the landscape

As if the mountains and fields weren't beautiful enough, the snow gave them a refreshing new look. That was perhaps the best thing about winter, it made everything look brand new, even if it was older than you

An hour and a half went by with nothing to report. A hint of orange had taken over the scene, reminiscing the colors of the past season in a gentle way

Beatrice fell asleep in no time, practically leaning on her sister, who was reviewing potion materials when she noticed this

"Hey Y/N? Do you mind if I sit with you?"

The curse-breaker, on the other hand, was reading a book that Madam Villanelle recommended for the long trip. They lowered the book to look at the blonde and immediately understood what she meant

And so, Y/N moved so that there was enough space for Penny. She wanted to give her sister more space to get some rest...and it was also the perfect excuse to scoot a bit closer

"Thanks!"

In a swift motion, the blonde gently laid her sister to rest and got up, switching seats so that she was now beside her other companion

Said companion found themselves unable to return to their book, as the light that made it through the window highlighted Penny's delicate features

From the way her braids were done, to the softness and color of her lips, and more importantly, her joyful attitude

Y/N found themselves lucky just to be witness to this, but it also came to them that so far, they hadn't said anything to the girl, they had just tagged along

Perhaps now would be the right time to correct that

"Penny?"

The delicate way her name left Y/N's lips got her attention in seconds, and when she saw them put away their book, Penny was genuinely intrigued

"Yes?"

They scratched the back of their neck as words failed to come out at first, but after a sigh, that was no longer a problem

"Thank you for taking me with you. I mean it"

She gave them a sympathetic smile, she knew why she was doing this and didn't feel like she was owed anything

"There's no need to thank me, I didn't want you to stay alone in the castle"

"I'm not precisely alone, but I get what you mean"

"You didn't have to do it"

This time, both of them shook off the nervousness

"But I wanted to. You saved Hogwarts, Y/N, but you also saved my word. I want to share it with you"

The curse-breaker didn't know how to answer that. Although their surprised expression and later smile said everything

Penny spared them of the silence and chose to continue, with a softer approach this time, and one closer to the truth as well

Her truth, of course

"Besides, I like spending time with you outside the school. Like that time we went to the dragon reserve"

Y/N chuckled at the memory of that "field trip", choosing to focus on the less lethal parts of it, but also going with the flow of the conversation

"That time when we roasted marshmallows together and slept in an oversized tent?"

"Exactly! But...less dangerous"

They laughed at this comment, taking the opportunity to go over the events of the last year together

Not only the dragon reserve but also getting to welcome Alanza to the school, the times they had snuck out together to investigate or just talk in the Courtyard

It wasn't a Celestial Ball or a tournament, but there was no denying those small moments

Of course, it had been a dark year, but it wasn't one without its lighter moments, and even if Y/N couldn't find enough of them, Penny would provide light, for both of them

This chatter lasted for at least another hour, soon, both of them returned to their respective books, smiling tiredly after making the journey much sweeter

But then, after a few minutes of reading, the Hufflepuff felt a gentle weight on her shoulder. Glancing over, she discovered the familiar h/c hair so close to her

Did...did Y/N just fall asleep on her shoulder?

Yes, yes they did

And they looked so peaceful as well

Penny found herself smiling fondly at this

" I could use a little rest..." She thought

Penny didn't think it twice before she closed her book, putting it to the side

Then, she got comfortable and snuggled closer to Y/N, allowing herself to cuddle up and just...close her eyes too

#penny haywood x mc #penny haywood x jacob's sibling #hogwarts mystery jacob's sibling

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adenei · 4 years

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Remembrance

Now that my Round 1 story has been posted to FFN, here is the story I wrote for The House Cup Competition!

My Prompts were:

[Character] Minerva McGonagall

[Event] A commemorative ball honoring those lost in the war

Here’s the link to the story on FFN if you’d like to leave a review!

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Remembrance

Minerva looked around the Great Hall, inspecting the decorations and making sure they were not too frilly. This was not a ball meant for frivolity and merriment. No, this was to be a solemn event. The look was clean and inviting. White linens adorned the tables, and the silver cutlery stood out as it gleamed in the soft glow of the candlelight. Four brilliant House banners hung proudly behind the head table, flanking either side of the Ministry of Magic banner that hung in the center. The night sky that shone from the enchanted ceiling was clear, with the stars twinkling down.

She nodded curtly to herself, satisfied that everything met her expectations. Today marked one year since the Battle of Hogwarts, and was proving to be a very emotional day. When the Minister of Magic approached her some three months ago, the Headmistress was insistent that the commemorative Anniversary Ball take place at Hogwarts. She remembered the conversation vividly.

“With all due respect, Minerva, I’m not so sure that’s a good idea,” Kingsley said to her.

“I can’t imagine why not!” she contested. “What better way to honor those who lost their lives than hosting such an event on the grounds where the battle took place?”

“The Ministry is more than capable of hosting the event. I did not come here to contest the location of the ball,” the Minister said sternly.

“And I am merely suggesting that Hogwarts would be a better place to host the event. Or did you forget so quickly how many students and professors here aided in the battle? If this is to be a ball to acknowledge the anniversary of the end of the war, and honor those who gave their lives for the magical world, then it should be here,” Minerva pressed.

“You make a convincing argument, however—”

“Do you really think it’s prudent otherwise?” she asked, cutting him off. “You came here to ask my permission to invite those who were involved in the Battle of Hogwarts to attend the Anniversary Ball, did you not?”

“I did.”

“So, you’d rather the castle be left unguarded as you invite the vast majority of our staff? And what about those students who participated? Under normal circumstances they are not to leave the castle, save for Hogsmeade weekends. Do you truly expect Miss Granger, Miss Weasley, Miss Lovegood and countless others to simply stay here?” Minerva paused briefly to allow her words to sink in, as any veteran teacher would do. “And what about those students who lost family members in the war? Should they be forced to decline their invitation because they are in school?”

Kingsley held up a hand. “You have made a strong case for your argument. I’m listening.”

“Surely the Ministry would be able to provide security if we were to host the ball here. Any students who do not receive an invitation will be expected to remain in their common rooms and dorms for the evening. I will ensure the proper punishments are given to any students who attempt to break the rules.”

Kingsley nodded slowly. “That would simplify matters of transportation, but what of those attending from outside Hogwarts?”

“We are fully capable of allowing guests in the castle for one evening, including the Creevey family and any other families of our lost Muggleborn students. They may apparate into Hogsmeade, and Hagrid will arrange for the carriages to bring guests up to the castle. I assume they’ll need to present their invitation for entry?”

“Naturally.” Kingsley still looked pensive. “You don’t think it will be too difficult for those who fought to return?”

“Of course it will be difficult,” McGonagall said, her eyes misting ever so slightly as she held her head high, “but necessary, I think. It will be a statement. We will show the whole of Britain that we cannot be broken. That we persevered and rebuilt these walls so that Hogwarts could remain a safe and reputable school for Witchcraft and Wizardry.”

“Then it’s settled. The Anniversary Ball will be held at Hogwarts.”

Minerva heard someone clear their throat in the distance, bringing her back to the present. “Headmistress, I’m sorry to interrupt, but the guests are beginning to arrive,” one of the guards called to her from the large oak doors.

Minerva’s eyes swept past the large room once more. The round tables were set immaculately for the arriving guests and the Head table set for the Minister, herself, and the rest of the staff. It was Kingsley’s original intention to have Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley and Ms. Granger also at the forefront. Minerva chuckled to herself at the recollection of how that went over. She could have told the Minister that Mr. Potter would want nothing to do with that arrangement, and naturally, she was correct. Some things would truly never change, she thought, as the tiniest of smiles crossed her thin lips.

Turning on her heel, Minerva made her way over to Kingsley by the Entrance Hall as the guests began filing in. She made sure to position herself so she could keep an eye on the students who would no doubt be entering soon from within the castle. The Heads of Houses were tasked with ensuring only those with an invitation were permitted to enter the Great Hall, but she could never be too sure.

Pleasantries were exchanged as she welcomed so many familiar faces. Minerva remained stoic even as her heart ached for the Creevey family, and Andromeda Tonks, who carried little Teddy in her arms. Infants were not typically invited to such an event, yet Kingsley had deemed it important for Tonks and Lupin’s son to be there.

Had the event’s mood not been determined by the nature of honor and remembrance, it would have felt more like a reunion of friends. She watched as the Patil twins walked by, followed shortly after by Neville Longbottom and his grandmother. Minerva nodded to the group of recent Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw graduates, who had no doubt chosen to stick together.

The official start of the Anniversary Ball was inching nearer and nearer, but there were several faces she’d not yet seen. It was a relief when, no sooner had she thought of the red headed clan, they disembarked out of two carriages at the end of the lane, with one dark haired young man in tow.

“Ah, there they are,” Kingsley said quietly beside her.

“Did you truly think they wouldn’t show?” Minerva asked him.

“Not at all, Minerva. Though, I will not feign ignorance over Harry’s apprehension of the whole ordeal.”

“He never was one for attention,” she agreed.

Her mind flitted back to memories of Harry’s time at Hogwarts. In retrospect, she understood that all of Harry’s adventures and knack for troublemaking were never entirely his fault. It always came back to Voldemort, and she knew now that Harry was the only one who could have done what he did. Mr. Weasley and Ms. Granger always had a choice, and they were loyal to him to a fault.

Minerva looked on as Kingsley shook hands with each Weasley, and she greeted them with a brief nod and pleasantries. Everyone had gone through an enormous amount over the past year, but this family had overcome so much. Even with the loss of Fred, they’d managed to put their family back together, and had each other to lean on as all the emotional and physical scars healed.

As the final group made their way into the Entrance Hall, she noticed Harry linger behind with Ron at his side. “Minister, may I have a word?” she heard him ask.

“Of course, Harry. What is it?” Kingsley asked him.

“I know I said I didn’t want to speak tonight, but after thinking about it, there is something I’d like to say,” Harry told him.

Kingsley looked surprised at Harry’s change of opinion. “I’m sure we can work that into the schedule of events, can’t we, Minerva?”

“Yes, of course,” she agreed. Minerva looked over at the young man, ensuring it was something he truly wanted to do.

“I was thinking I could go just before the dancing starts,” Harry suggested. He’d clearly thought about this. When neither she nor Kingsley answered right away, Harry continued awkwardly, “Er, there will be dancing, I assume? This is a ball, right?”

Minerva couldn’t help the small chuckle that escaped her lips at his bluntness while Kingsley beamed. “Yes, Mr. Potter, there will be dancing. I will work in a moment for you to address tonight’s guests as dinner concludes.”

“Thank you, Prof—er, Headmistress.”

“Professor McGonagall is just fine, Mr. Potter. Now, I believe there are two young ladies waiting inside for the two of you,” she said as she smiled knowingly.

She glanced back at Miss Weasley and Ms. Granger, who were standing just across the hall, as the boys took off to collect their dates. Turning to Kingsley, Minerva asked, “Shall we get started, then?” Kingsley nodded and gestured for her to begin making her way into the Great Hall.

Everyone seemed to have settled at the various tables that had been laid out for the evening. She noticed many quiet conversations as the string quartet played quietly in the background. Minerva’s dress robes swished regally across the floor as she made her way to the head table, closely followed by Kingsley. Anyone who had not previously sat down now made their way to their seats.

Minerva approached the podium in the center of the raised platform to give the opening remarks. The hush of voices immediately quieted as she looked up. She smiled inwardly, pleased with how well she could command attention of a room.

“Good evening, everyone,” she began. “Thank you for joining us on the anniversary of such an important day in our history. It is hard to believe that only one year ago we prevailed in the fight for wizardkind. We would not be here today without the efforts from so many of you, and from the sacrifices those close to us have made.

“I understand how difficult it may be to sit here in this hall, the very same where we subsequently counted our fallen and witnessed Voldemort’s demise. It was my hope to help you find peace in returning here when I appealed to the Minister to host the Anniversary Ball at Hogwarts. To show those who still defy our world that we are strong, and that we will not fall to their evil beliefs. It is because of each and every one of you in this room, and even those who are with us in spirit, that we find ourselves in a time of peace for the first time in many years.”

Minerva took a deep breath before continuing. “We are here tonight for many reasons. To reminisce, to celebrate, and most of all, to remember those we lost because of one man’s dreadful hate. While we cannot bring those that we lost back, we can certainly honor them and tell their stories. With that said, I am pleased to announce an endeavor I have been working on for the better part of the year.”

Taking her wand out of her robes, Minerva waved it around and portraits of the fallen appeared on the walls of the Great Hall. She listened as everyone in attendance had gasped in awe. Many had broken out in what she knew to be appreciative tears as the smiling faces of those they’d lost a year ago were looking down on them.

After the crowd quieted down, the Headmistress continued. “I’d like to thank all of those involved in making these portraits a reality. It is the least we could do here at Hogwarts to honor their memory. Following the Anniversary Ball, the portraits will be moved to the corridor on the third floor, where they will reside for present and future Hogwarts students to see and interact with.”

Applause broke out at her words, and Minerva smiled graciously at the gesture. When she deemed the applause enough, she held up her hands in a similar fashion as her predecessor. Satisfied that everyone was listening again, she finished her speech.

“As I’ve mentioned before, I hope you are all able to find enjoyment and peace this evening. The feast will begin momentarily, and we will have a few more speakers after we eat. We will end the evening with dancing. Thank you.” Minerva turned to take her seat as applause erupted once more and meals magically appeared on everyone’s plates.

Minerva tucked into her own meal as she quietly began conversing with Kingsley and the other staff members around her. Kingsley expressed his shock and gratitude for the portraits to her, as the other staff members commented on how the reveal was perfectly executed. Her eyes drifted around the room, ensuring that everyone was satisfied and able to enjoy their time. She felt an immense amount of relief when Kingsley congratulated her on a job well done with the planning efforts for the event. Everything seemed to go off without a hitch.

When the plates were cleared after pudding had been served, Kingsley made his way up to the podium and addressed the crowd. His words were the perfect mixture of formal and uplifting. Like Minerva, he thanked everyone for agreeing to attend despite knowing how challenging it may have been.

“At this time, I would like to welcome one more speaker up to the podium. Without this young man, we would not be here this evening.” Minerva watched as Kingsley nodded to Harry who stood and made his way to the front of the room.

Minerva gave Harry her rapt attention as he spoke. “Er, hi everyone,” he began. “I—” she watched as Harry paused and scratched his head before continuing. “ I wasn’t planning on speaking this evening, but I did think of a couple things I wanted to say.”

Minerva shook her head. Remind me to speak with the other staff members about incorporating more public speaking into our curriculum, she thought to herself. After making her mental note, she refocused on Harry’s words.

“I know how hard it is to be here. I, er, almost didn’t want to attend myself. I’m glad I did, though. Thank you, Professor McGonagall, for making the portraits happen. It’s really great to see all of their faces again, and I know many future students will appreciate being able to see their loved ones.” Minerva knew Harry was speaking particularly of little Teddy.

“Anyways, er, what I wanted to say is, I know we’re here to remember and honor those we lost. And though it seems like that would make this more of a depressing event, I think about the ones I was close to, and what they would think. Fred, Remus, Tonks, Colin, Lavender, even Professor Snape…” Harry paused between each name, allowing them to sink in.

“They wouldn’t want us wallowing over their deaths anymore. So, I guess what I’m trying to say is, let’s enjoy the evening by having fun and celebrating a magical world no longer living in fear. It’s what they would have wanted. Well, except maybe Professor Snape, he never was one for fun.” His audience was quiet, save for a few chuckles, when someone broke the silence.

“Hear, hear!” came a shout from Fred’s portrait.

The attendees were silent for a moment before breaking out in applause and laughter. As Harry’s speech concluded, Minerva didn’t bother to hide the tears that had gathered in her eyes. That young man standing in front of her had risked so much, and lost much more for wizardkind. Her heart swelled with pride, and she thanked Merlin for this moment right here, where so many former and current students were gathered, all who fought bravely in the war.

She raised her wand and cast Sonorous on her throat in order to be heard above the applause. “Let the celebration commence!” she said happily before casting the counter spell. Right on cue, the music began with an upbeat melody as guests made their way to the dance floor.

All in all, Minerva couldn’t be happier with how the event turned out. The mood had shifted from mournful to hopeful as the night carried on. The Anniversary Ball had truly become a special event that was able to offer another form of closure to families. Minerva was honored to be part of planning such an event that would set the precedent of anniversaries for years to come.

#hp post war #minerva mcgonagall #the fallen fifty #harry potter post war #implied romione and hinny #because I just can't help myself

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piesandswords · 4 years

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Raising Werewolf Cubs Under His Bed

Posted on Archive of Our Own here.

Riddle laughed his high laugh again.

“It was my word against Hagrid’s, Harry. Well, you can imagine how it looked to old Armando Dippet. On the one hand, Tom Riddle, poor but brilliant, parentless but so brave, school prefect, model student… on the other hand, big, blundering Hagrid, in trouble every other week, trying to raise werewolf cubs under his bed, sneaking off to the Forbidden Forest to wrestle trolls… but I admit, even I was surprised how well the plan worked.”

Um… hey. Hey, Tom? Mr. Riddle? Dramatic ass “I am Lord Voldemort” person-sir? Do you mean human children???!!! Hey Joanne, do you mean human children cause werewolf cubs? Werewolf cubs have gotta be human children.

There are four explanations for this line that I can think of. One Doylist (explained out of text), three Watsonian (explained within canon).

The first explanation: JK Rowling did not come up with werewolf lore until after she had written the third book. That explains why she keeps writing about people being afraid of werewolves in the Forbidden Forest even when it wasn’t a full moon and shit like this. She just hadn’t come up with the facts yet.

This explanation, while probably correct, is boring as hell and we will be disregarding it.

Explanation number two barely warrants an entry. Riddle was trying to think of a magical creature and just said werewolves without considering what that would mean. This is somehow more boring than explanation one.

The third explanation is more fun. Wizards are, to put it kindly, mildly, and with some of the love in my heart, dumb as shit.

The Hogwarts education system is shaky at best. Thinking of how little math wizards know makes me want to cry. I would say something like “The class of History of Magic is so poorly taught that I doubt any of the students even know that ___” but like. The class of History of Magic is so poorly taught that I can’t come up with an obvious example of Wizarding history.

Due to the shaky Hogwarts education system, I can partially excuse Ron for being stupid in the area of “what are werewolves” when he talks about werewolves in the Forbidden Forest in book two, as of his two Defence teachers the more competent was Quirinus Quirrell.

(Lockhart’s teachings on lycanthropy involve him curing someone of it by sticking a wand down their throat and saying a spell, which… If it were that easy then Remus Lupin would have had a much better life. If he could fix his furry little problem by eating a wand, the man would have had unicorn hair and cypress soup every night for the rest of his life.)

(That being said, Ron should know more about werewolves. Molly or Arthur should have taught their kids things like that.)

Tom Riddle, in contrast to Ron, went to Hogwarts before the position was cursed. Given that he was the one who cursed it, this makes sense. Riddle had a stable education that, theoretically, involved a competent professor. He should know better.

But also, wizards are dumb as shit.

They seem to have no standardization to their education except for aiming for the OWLs and NEWTs. What educational standards has the Ministry released for teachers to follow? Probably none, that would be too competent. (Ignoring book five, ew.) Just because werewolves were covered in DADA during Harry’s time at Hogwarts doesn’t mean they were in Riddle’s. Maybe they were covered in Care of Magical Creatures, which Riddle would almost certainly not take. Or maybe they weren’t covered at all.

So maybe Tom Riddle hasn’t learned about werewolves in school. He knows about them when he’s older though, so what gives?

Here’s the thing. This Tom Riddle hasn’t had his dark magic field trip yet, the one he goes on after he graduates. What if he doesn’t know about werewolves, but he thinks he kinda gets the gist, and, being Voldemort, assumed he was correct.

Hagrid could have been raising puppies under his bed and Riddle could have been like. “Ah, yes. These are werewolf babies. I am correct on this and will not be corrected by anyone ever because I am the pinnacle of all things knowledge.”

Diary!Tom Riddle is #ForeverSixteen. He is a teenager who insists on being called “Flight of Death” (or, incidentally, Flight from Death, which, yeah). He wears eyeliner, he listens to fascist!MCR, he wants to commit genocide, you know, just regular teenage boy things. Yikes.

(Can you imagine 72-year-old Voldemort having to interact with his 16-year-old self? This insolent boy who doesn’t even know what werewolves are? Harry wouldn’t have had to destroy the Horcrux, Voldemort would do it himself to get the kid to stop talking.

Tom Riddle, age 16: “Lord Voldemort is my past, present, and future.”

Tom Riddle, age 70ish: “You’re about to be past due if you don’t shut up.”)

Anyway, that’s our third explanation. Tom Riddle is dumb as shit. This is backed up by the fact that 1) he is sixteen, 2) wizarding education is a hot garbage fire, 3) grown Voldemort is dumb as shit. He refuses to do research into things he thinks he understands in his seventies, why would he be any smarter at age sixteen?

This explanation is less boring. This is the one that I consider to be the closest to canon one. This makes sense, and it involves making fun of Voldemort’s dramatic bullshit and narcissism, which I approve of.

I like this explanation.

But explanation number three? It doesn’t hold a candle to explanation four.

See, here’s the thing. I believe that Voldemort is dumb as shit and that his education could have been pretty spotty.

But I also think that the boy that has rediscovered Horcruxes by doing too much research would not be completely ignorant of what werewolves are and how they work. They’re considered to be Dark Creatures™ so he would have come across them at some point when learning of the Dark™ Mysterious® Arts©.

So what if.

What if he wasn’t talking out of his ass?

What if Hagrid WAS raising werewolf cubs under his bed? Or, not cubs. Cubs implies non-people.

What if Hagrid was keeping werewolf children under his bed while he was attending Hogwarts?

Picture this: 11-year-old Rubeus Hagrid gets his letter for Hogwarts. He’s overjoyed. His father is a bit surprised that Hagrid, a half-giant, received his letter, but he is also overjoyed.

(The fact that Hagrid got into Hogwarts at all with wizarding prejudices as they are is honestly remarkable. We know that the Wizarding World is awful about treating those who aren’t pure-blooded wizards like people and Hagrid being a half-giant isn’t exactly subtle.)

So Hagrid goes to Hogwarts. He learns. He makes friends. He probably gets in quite a bit of trouble with teachers because he’s never been someone with a ton of common sense or tendency to follow rules. Being in trouble doesn’t bother him too much, he’s young and usually, he doesn’t think about consequences for his actions. Besides, often the reward is worth the risk.

So Hagrid finishes his first year having loved the experience. And he goes home for the summer.

Let’s say that Hagrid and his dad live on the outskirts of a relatively small Muggle town. They’re not quite in the wilderness, but they’re not quite in the town proper either.

A new family, the Canids, has moved next door since Hagrid has gone off to Hogwarts. They have two children roughly Hagrid’s age, a daughter named Freki, age 12, and a son named Geri, age 10. Given Hagrid’s friendly nature and the general boredom that comes with a long summer, the three of them quickly make friends and begin to spend quite a bit of time together.

(Forgive my mixing of Norse and Latin etymology here, I refuse to spend more than three minutes googling names that mean “wolf wolf” or “moon moon” that haven’t already been used in canon.)

Then, one day when they’re hanging out, something weird happens. What exactly it is, I’m not sure. Maybe a branch breaks while they are climbing a tree and no one gets hurt, despite how high up they are. Maybe Hagrid says something unthinkingly cruel on accident, and Geri’s feelings get hurt, and Hagrid’s hair gets turned pink. Maybe Freki finds a magical creature that Muggles aren’t supposed to be able to see. Maybe their father is off fighting in World War II (it is 1941, after all), and there is some unsetting news from the front, and one of the kids causes a sunny day to become a rainstorm.

However it happens, Hagrid figures out that he’s got two underage wizards on his hands. And he knows Freki (age 12) hasn’t received her Hogwarts letter.

Hagrid has never been one to keep his mouth shut. The man at the age of 62 let slip to a group of eleven-year-olds that 1) he had a three-headed dog, 2) the name of the dog was Fluffy, 3) Fluffy was guarding something that was owned or created by Nicholas Flamel, and 4) you can put Fluffy to sleep by playing any kind of music ever. He is not one for subtlety, or for secrets. Honestly, he might have told these kids about magic on accident even if they hadn’t shown signs of being wizards.

So he confronts the kids about the strange things that have been happening. Freki goes dead pale the second he opens his mouth. She begs him not to tell anyone in the village that there is something unnatural about them, Rubeus, please, you don’t know what people will do if they find out.

Hagrid’s confused. If they find out what exactly? Having magic is wonderful, you get to go to school and learn and make friends and discover all sorts of interesting facts and creatures and-

There are two ways this could go.

Either Freki and Geri don’t know about magic and they are delighted to hear about this wonderful place where they could be themselves, and also maybe they could get some help for this weird thing that has been happening to them since they were little kids and there was a wolf attack. Hagrid has to figure out very quickly how to deal with the fact that 1) he has to explain magic to his two friends, 2) his two friends are werewolves, 3) his two friends will not be accepted into wizard society, and 4) he also has to explain that.

Or Geri and Freki already know about magic. They didn’t know that Hagrid knew (they are in a Muggle town, after all), but they knew about magic. Maybe their mom was a witch and dad a Muggle. Maybe the other way around. Maybe both parents are wizards. Maybe they are the descendants of Squibs. Whatever their parental background, they have heard about Hogwarts. And they know the reason that neither of them had gotten Hogwarts letters, know the reason neither of them would ever get Hogwarts letters. And gently, sadly, they explain to Hagrid their situation.

And as Hagrid finds out that they’re werewolves and starts to process what that means for them and their future, Hagrid becomes indignant. And I mean Hermione-founding-misguided-but-well-meaning-organization-SPEW level indignant. I’m talking “thou shalt not insult Albus Dumbledore in front of me” level indignant. Indignant might not be the right word. He gets angry.

Remus Lupin will be the first werewolf to legally receive schooling at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. But if Hagrid has something to say about it? Freki and Geri will beat the record illegally by about thirty years.

(This is a man who has been alienated his whole life for his half-giant status. He knows the feeling of being discriminated against for something he can’t change about himself.)

(This is also a man who tried to raise a dragon egg in a wooden cabin. He doesn’t necessarily think things through.)

And so begins Operation Get-My-Friends-A-Wizard-Education.

Phase One: Preliminary Education.

Hagrid spends the rest of the summer teaching these two kids everything that he can remember from his first year of school. He’s got a month. He’s got his books. He’s got enough determination to intimidate God. He’s only got the one wand, but he’ll make do.

And as late August comes? He thinks they’re ready as they’re gonna get.

Phase Two: Smuggling Time.

Now, Hagrid is an oversized lad. And one of the things that comes with being an oversized lad is oversized clothes. And one of the things that comes with oversized clothes is an oversized trunk.

Hagrid also has an undersized father with an oversized heart and an undersized sense of what is a normal and sane thing to do. (The man had sex with a giantess for Pete’s sake!)

With a little convincing, said undersized father could make said oversided trunk be even more oversized on the inside.

Geri and Freki? Welcome to the Hogwarts Express, viewed from the luxury seats of “Inside Hagrid’s Trunk.” No complimentary beverages, I’m afraid, and the view’s not great, but all the oversized clothes end up being quite comfortable cushions.

So Hagrid smuggles two kid werewolves into Hogwarts.

Phase Three: Ah, Shit, Didn’t Think This Through… Er… Live Under My Bed I’ll Bring You Homework

So they live under his bed while he teaches them everything that he is learning in all of his classes, sometimes in the dorm room when no one else is there, sometimes in the Forbidden Forest when they can sneak out, sometimes in empty rooms around the castle. They spend each full moon as deep into the forest as they can go, hoping against hope that they won’t hurt anyone and they will be safe.

(In this universe, the rumors of werewolves in the forest came from somewhere. The stories of glimpses of wolves through the trees during this time were passed down through the generations. “My aunt’s cousin’s friend’s dad saw a werewolf in the forest” may not be the most credible of sources, but in this case, it holds a grain of truth.)

They are careful, and, for a while, they don’t get caught.

How long are they at Hogwarts? I don’t know. A while, certainly. A month? A semester? A full year? Maybe they make it through to when the Chamber of Secrets was opened and everyone became more suspicious and more alert before they were found out.

Once they are caught, the Canid children are promptly sent home. After all, you can’t have monsters in a school like Hogwarts, and what are werewolves if not monsters.

The staff lets Hagrid off with a warning, thinking maybe this was a one-off occurrence of idiocy. But they do view Hagrid with more suspicion after that. After all, he brought monsters into the school. Who’s to say what he’ll let in next?

That being said, Tom Riddle’s probably just dumb as shit.

Posted on Archive of Our Own here.

#harry potter #hp #hagrid #fanfiction #kat talks #look ma i over analyzed #my fic

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ladyhallen · 6 years

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Mermaid AU part 5

Professor Snape was the only teacher who didn’t adjust to Amy’s disability, given that he pretended she didn’t exist.

The Gryffindors, who had adopted her, tended to hex people who insulted her with extreme prejudice.

Naturally, this would cause an explosion. In the literal fashion, because Neville was loyal but a bit of a klutz with potions.

Amy got very very good at dodging exploding potions.

There was an unexpected side-effect in being adopted by a pack of feral Gryffindors.

People couldn’t really bad mouth her in the vicinity of said pack of feral Gryffindors without some repercussions.

Except.

Everyone seemed to forget that Hermione was a Gryffindor.

And one unfortunate Ravenclaw said in Hermione’s hearing, “Why can’t Potter find a spell to use for her mouth. I can’t understand her!”

The Ravenclaw’s friends spotted Hermione and frantically tapped on her friends shoulder, but the Ravenclaw continued obliviously, “It’s not even attractive to look at!”

Hermione’s hair got bushier the ever, almost sparking with magic.

“Excuse me,” Hermione said with a nice smile, making the speaker jump in surprise and everyone else around them freeze. “What were you saying about my friend?”

They looked at Hermione’s Gryffindor tie and seemed to want to melt to the ground.

“Because honestly, that you can’t understand my friend is not on her, it’s on you,” Hermione said, still smiling. It looked less like smiling and more like a baring of teeth. Her front teeth, which had seemed a bit big at a first glance, looked incredibly sharp and perfect for tearing out throats. “She’s speaking a different language, and if you want to understand her, you can learn the it yourself.”

Ron, who had already received that lecture from Percy, nodded sternly.

“And you call yourself Ravenclaws,” Ron added blithely.

All Ravenclaws listening in stiffened, House loyalty making them all outraged.

The two friends swept off, not noticing that they’d left a near riot behind them.

Within a week, Amy was delighted to discover that she could talk to a lot more people than before.

Professor Flitwick and Professor McGonagall were her favorites and the reason was that both of them stayed after hours to help her with her spellwork.

She had finally understood what emotion was needed for Charms, but Transfiguration tended to go with whatever object she needed to transfigure.

“It’s difficult, but I think I got it now, Professor,” Amy signed. Both of them had learned basic signing just for the efficiency in communications. Privately, she thought Flitwick just liked the challenge.

“You’re learning this faster than your mother, Ms. Potter,” Professor Flitwick said. “She could speak, but she had the same problems with emotions needed in spells like you.”

Which was weird, but maybe it was a bloodline thing? Amy wanted to know, but she couldn’t possibly ask anyone but Aunt Petunia...never mind.

“Thanks Professor!” she signed happily.

Hagrid invited her over to tea and Amy was pleased to ask if she could also invite Hermione and Ron.

The two people who were her first friends, who made her stay in Hogwarts the best thing in the world and made it home.

“You settling in okay?” Hagrid asked.

Hermione and Ron had squeaked and stiffened in terror when they saw him in daylight. Then they saw his smile through his bushy beard and the kindness in his eyes and unwound.

“She says she’s fine,” Ron translated. “But spells are hard.”

“Aye, your mother had the same problem,” Hagrid nodded, repeating what Professor Flitwick had said. “She could cast charms like Merlin himself, but let her try out Transfiguration, and she’d turn red as her hair.”

“How does that happen?” Hermione asked. “Because I’ve never heard anyone else having this problem.”

Ron looked uncomfortable. Hagrid exchanged a glance with him and said, “Well, usually wizards who have that problem have a ... mix, somewhere in their bloodline.”

Amy already knew she was a mermaid, but she had never considered the implications of why that was.

“Is that common?” she asked.

“It’s more common than you think,” Ron told her. “If you look really closely, you can sort of tell. But your blood must be really strong.”

The mermaid thing was unsaid in front of Hagrid. Some secrets were still too new to be said around other people.

“Don’t let anyone ever tell you you’re a freak,” Hagrid told her sternly. “I figure someone’s been telling you stuff like that. But no, you’re not a freak, Amy. You’re precious and wonderful.”

Amy hugged Hagrid extra tight when they left and the man’s hands were gentle on her shoulders.

Amy received her first Christmas presents, and among them was an invisibility cloak that made Ron look incredibly shocked.

“It must be an heirloom, it looks incredibly old. And that’s expensive, because they don’t last that long,” Ron explained.

An invisibility cloak!

All of a sudden, the entirety of Hogwarts lay before them for exploration.

“Wanna go anywhere?” she signed, looking excited.

Ron’s smile reminded her that yes, he was related to the Weasley Twins.

“Let’s visit abandoned classrooms and see if they got anything interesting?” he asked.

They had a week more of Christmas break.

Amy was incredibly interested in what all those other classrooms had that got them abandoned in the first place.

And with that, both of them stumbled on the Mirror of Erised on the second night of exploration.

The following asked to be tagged:

@hi-pot-and-news, @north-peach, @ruelukas22 and @tomoe-san

#fanfiction #harry potter #hp post #hp #mute fic #mermaid au #genderbend #Hermione Granger #ronald weasley

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missjosie27 · 5 years

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Year 1 Part 6- Halloween

Hey guys,

Been awhile since an update so I hope you like this chapter which is actually one of the longest I’ve ever written. I hope it sheds some more depth on David’s character as well as Chiara :) Enjoy!

David Grant had never been one to care much about personal popularity, but he supposed that an improved standing among the populace wasn’t the worst thing in the world.

News of his winning duel against Merula spread like wildfire around the school. And though he had lost a chunk of house points and ended with a weeks’ worth of detention, the benefits far outweighed the negatives. For one, he had earned the older Gryffindors respect as he received several ‘nice jobs’ or ‘way to go, mate’ from them over the course of the next couple of weeks. Bill Weasley was especially proud when he was told of the outcome.

“Always knew you could do it, Dave,” he said with a wink. “Keep it up and you’ll be the best duelist in the whole school before long.”

It wasn’t just Bill and the older students that sang his praises, however. As David soon found out, it paid to have someone Penny Haywood become your friend. She was in the know not just with her own house, but pretty much everyone. What was even more incredible was that her gossip was never mean spirited or used to talk badly about someone. It was akin to a nonstop news cycle, a column of a school newspaper that reported a feed of stories every day for the public to consume. People naturally gravitated towards her for almost anything and it was refreshing to see someone so kindhearted use their talents for higher purposes.

David enjoyed getting to know Penny immensely, and she seemed to reciprocate that feeling. But an added benefit was also getting to know some of the others within her inner circle, particularly the Hufflepuff. The young Gryffindor had heard others speak dismissively about the House of the Badger, but he personally thought they were the most admirable of any among Hogwarts. For one, there was Nymphadora Tonks, a talented, good natured witch who was always good for a laugh despite having a bit of a clumsy streak. By far her most intriguing aspect was her bubble gum pink hair and her status as a Metamorphagus, someone who could change their appearance at will and a rarity even in the wizarding world. Needless to say, she was constantly earning herself lectures and detentions from her professors.

There was also Diego Caplan, a promising duelist and self proclaimed best dancer at Hogwarts, though no one had actually seen him actually do so. His confidence could be mistaken for arrogance, but one never had a conversation with Diego without the subject of honor, which was extremely important. A Spaniard by birth (his family had moved to England after the British Civil War) and naturally friendly, though some would say flirtatious, he was essentially the opposite of Merula when it came to fighting- principled and fair, values he held dear.

Last but not least, was Chiara Lobosca, one of the most laid back people David had ever met in his life. A kind hearted soul, as well as soft spoken, Chiara had a way with people that surpassed even the most perceptive of their age. Often able to see through a person’s emotions, she offered sensible counsel and was good for a quip when you least expected it. Though slightly paler (Diego had the best tan among the fair skinned Anglo-Saxons) than most, she sported silvery-platinum blonde hair along with deep, brown eyes that were filled with radiance and light every time you looked at them. So it came as a puzzle one day in Herbology when she not only seemed afraid, but slightly irritable.

It was the eve of Halloween, and Hogwarts was abuzz with chatter and excitement, especially among the first years, who had yet to experience a Halloween Feast. As a result, none of the Gryffindors or Hufflepuffs were very focused on their wormwood plants.

“This year’s feast is going to be amazing,” Penny told him enthusiastically as they applied the proper amount of fertilizer to their plant. “You should see the pumpkins Hagrid grew this year.”

“From what I hear, you could fit inside of one!” Rowan added. “They’re huge!”

“What are you looking forward to the most, David?” Penny asked.

The young Gryffindor couldn’t help but smile as he watered his plant. It had been a long time since his family had done anything for the holiday and he was very much looking forward to seeing what Hogwarts had to offer.

“Well, nothing beats an evening with your friends, right?” he said answered. “At the same time, I can’t say I’m not looking forward to eating all the sweets I can get my hands on. Mum’s pretty strict at home about what we eat.”

“Nothing like a sugar induced coma to bring out the holiday spirit,” Tonks laughed. “Also seeing as I’m half blood, I thought I might introduce a little ‘muggle’ tradition into this year’s festivities.”

Rowan and David looked at each other in confusion. Being largely of pure blood, they didn’t have a large of a grasp on anything muggle related.

“What do you mean?”

“Muggles have a tradition on Halloween of dressing up in costume and going from house to house where people give you free candy,” Ben Copper explained, passing along the water bucket. “I used to do that all the time as a kid with my family. Of course, I wasn’t the best person to take trick or treating, I always got too scared.”

“Right you are, Ben,” Tonks snickered. “Only I’m focusing more on the ‘trick’ aspect of things if you know what I mean.”

She immediately transformed into Snape and began doing a crude yet hilarious imitation.

“Mr. Grant what are you doing? Ten points from Gryffindor. Mr. Khanna, you incompetent nincompoop, I need ten jars of picked rats brains now on the double. Is that dust on your robes Miss Haywood. How can you properly brew a potion with dust on your robes? This is unacceptable.”

Laughter rang out among the group before Professor Sprout put an end to it.

“Miss Tonks, as amusing as your impersonations are, I will be forced to give you detention on the Halloween Feast should you continue them in my class, is that clear?”

Tonks immediately shifted back into her regular form, a sheepish grin plastered on her face.

“Sorry, Professor. Won’t happen again.”

“Yes, and I’m sure I’ll believe it the next fifteen times you say it. Anyway, focus class. Your wormwood leaves need to be cut and preserved before end of the period. No dilly dallying, please.”

Still chuckling from the impersonation, David couldn’t help but tease his friend.

“Nice one, Nymphadora.”

Tonks’s hair briefly flashed orange before settling back to bubble gum pink.

“Do not ever say that horrid name again or I will end you, David Grant.”

“You realize I just say it to get a reaction out of you, right? And that no matter how horrid it’s still your first name?” he laughed, ducking Tonks’s swipe at his head.

“What about you, Chiara?” Penny turned towards the silver haired girl. “What are you looking forward to most?”

But there was no response, as Chiara continued to stare at her plant as though it were something from outer space.

“Hello, Chiara?”

Still no response, with only the sound of trimming leaves filling the silence of Greenhouse one.

“Chiara?”

“WHAT?”

The irritation behind the answer only served to puzzle the rest of the group even more as the Hufflepuff took on a look of shame at her outburst.

“I-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you guys.

The period ended with the sound of the courtyard bell before she could expound further, and she immediately ran off to the confusion of everyone.

“What’s with her?” David asked aloud.

“No idea,” Penny said, concern in her voice. “I’ve never seen her snap like that before.”

“Probably just daydreaming about the feast,” Tonks shrugged. “That’s what everyone’s thinking about anyway.”

“I’ll hand in her wormwood leaves,” Rowan offered scooping up the leaves in his hands. “She’ll miss her marks otherwise.”

David had a hunch that whatever was bothering Chiara went beyond a simple feast.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Herbology that day was followed by lunch and that meant two things: giant sandwiches and leftover newspapers that others had left behind, that usually being the Daily Prophet.

For most teen and preteen students, the main political news of the day held little interest. However, in the past week a series of headlines had grabbed the attention of kid and adult alike: that of Fenrir Greyback.

Known throughout the country as the most savage and feared werewolf in Great Britain, Greyback had been heavily rumored to be aligned with Voldemort during the war and responsible for a number of attacks on both adults and children alike. However, he was never caught and had continued to elude capture since the downfall of the Dark Lord, thereby continuing to threaten the populace with his presence.

But that wasn’t the scariest part. In the past couple months, his attacks had grown closer and closer to Hogwarts, leaving many to wonder if the school was next on his list.

“How on earth have they not caught him by now?” Tonks asked, as the hodgepodge of Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs began chowing down. “You’d think someone who attracts that much negative attention would be simple for the Aurors to track down.”

“It’s not that simple, Tonks,” Bill Weasley interjected, sitting down next to David, grabbing the newspaper and reading it. “Rogue werewolves are notoriously difficult to capture. My dad says they often go into hiding and form their own groups to avoid persecution. Perfect recruiting opportunity for someone like Greyback. He’s got so many hiding places that by the time he attacks it’s often too late.”

“There are rumors he’s going to attack Hogwarts, is that true?” Ben asked worriedly.

“I don’t think so,” Bill reassured, realizing he had put some of the group on edge. “He’d never attack Hogwarts with Dumbledore around.”

“They say he targets children,” David said quietly. “More so than anyone else. Mum and Dad wouldn’t let Jacob and I out of the house during one of his sprees in 1979. What better place than the school that holds almost all of the country’s young wizards?”

It was then that he noticed two things: that Penny had a strangely dark look on her face and that Chiara looked highly uncomfortable.

“Penny, are you okay?”

“I hate werewolves,” she said with a bitterness David had never heard her use before.

“They’re not all like Greyback,” Chiara spoke up now, injecting herself into the conversation. “Many manage their condition just fine without hurting anyone.”

This raised some eyebrows.

“And how would you know?” Rowan asked.

Chiara gazed down again at her plate, which she hadn’t touched, suddenly appearing very pale.

“Never mind, forget I said anything.”

Before anyone could press the topic further, Hagrid arrived and interrupted, which in David’s opinion was most welcome.

“Afternoon, everyone! I hope yer all excited fer the feast tomorrow!”

“We certainly are, Hagrid,” David smiled. “Your pumpkins are brilliant, by the way.”

But the false cheer couldn’t hide the slight pall that cast over the group.

“Thank ya, Dave. But I can’t but notice yer lot seem a bit down. What’s the trouble?”

“Fenrir Greyback,” David answered. “People are worried he might attack Hogwarts.”

Realization lit up in Hagrid’s beetle eyes as he immediately tried to reassure the young students.

“Ahhh, Greyback. Don’t you go worrin ‘bout him, alrigh’? He’s a savage tha’ one, but he wouldn’t dare attack Hogwarts with Dumbledore around.”

“That’s what I tried to say,” Bill shrugged half apologetically. “I probably shouldn’t have brought it up.”

“I understand you’re concerned, but nothin’s going ter happen. You should be focusin’ on the feast. It’ll take yer minds off things.”

He placed a hand on David’s shoulder, nearly causing him to collapse from the weight.

“Believe it er not, werewolves aren’t all tha’ bad. I’ve known a few in my day tha’ were good hones’ folk.”

“They’re all just a bunch of disgusting, mindless, killers!” Penny burst out, slamming her fork into a tray of shepherd’s pie.

That brought another uncomfortable silence before surprisingly Albus Dumbledore came up to the podium with a surprise announcement.

“Wait, since when does Dumbledore address during lunch?” David asked aloud.

“He doesn’t,” Bill affirmed. “At least I’ve never seen him do that. Must be important.”

Though not every student was present, the Great Hall was full enough that the message would be spread soon afterwards by those not in attendance.

“May I have your attention, please?” his deep, booming voice echoed throughout room, instantly silencing any idle chatter. “I apologize for interrupting your lunch and for not being able to gather the entire student body for this announcement. Nevertheless, it was quite last minute, and I must inform you of what has just been decided.

“As some of you may be aware, Fenrir Greyback has recently been active in this area and has been rumored to be planning an attack on Hogwarts. I can assure you that will not happen. However, the Ministry has been insistent that they station a member of the Werewolf Capture Unit from the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures at least until the full moon.”

It was subtle, but Dumbledore’s lips tightened slightly, indicating whomever they sent was not particularly adequate or welcome.

“May I please introduce, Mr. Cecil Lee,” The Headmaster said, side stepping to allow a tall man with a handlebar mustache and an awkward demeanor step to the podium.

One glance was all anyone needed to know why Dumbledore did not seem pleased with the decision. Cecil Lee was goofy in appearance- purple robes, white gloves, with matching trousers and a top hat with a chin strap. Adding insult to injury was his bumptious way of speaking that indicated he was not the brightest candle in the room.

“Good day to you students of Hogwarts. I am Cecil Lee of the Werewolf Capture Unit. I understand many of you may be feeling afraid or ‘struck with the fear’ to use the euphonium. But I can assure you, I am here to protect you from and destroy the bloodthirsty beasts that threaten this fine institution. If you have any information regarding werewolves or anything similar, please inform me immediately.”

There was a smattering of uninspired applause as Lee puffed himself up proudly, unaware of just how little the students respected him.

“Well, we’re doomed,” David joked. “Was nice knowing all of you.”

“He’s not related to Barnaby Lee, is he?” Tonks asked. “That big Slytherin bloke who can barely remember to talk and breathe at the same time?”

“His uncle,” Bill affirmed. “And if he’s anything like Barnaby, I may have to join David and draw up a will.”

“Come on, it can’t be that bad, right?” Rowan tried to offer with some sense of optimism. “I’ve read about Hogwarts extensively. It’s protected by a whole series of powerful spells and ancient magic. How would a werewolf get in here anyway?”

No one said anything as it was not a prospect anyone wanted to think about. Werewolves were the scourge of wizarding society. To be bitten and become one was a fate worse than death to many. Add in the most savage werewolf to exist in centuries, no one wad feeling very safe at the moment.

It was then that Chiara pushed her plate forward, declaring, “I’m not hungry” and hurrying away from the table.

No one seemed to notice that much, as the anxiety among the group was too high to think of much else besides the possibility of Greyback storming through the doors and turning every single one of them. But David kept his gaze fixed on Chiara even as she walked out of sight. She was definitely acting funny. And though it may have been a trick of the light, did she seem paler than usual?

All in all, it was shaping up to be one frightful Halloween.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

But the true drama surrounding the holiday was not revealed until the next day and even then, quite by accident. It began with a mix up in Potions. Classes had been moved forward by a few hours that day in order to give the students some preparation before the feast and therefore, they had Potions in the morning instead of the afternoon. What started out as a simple day of brewing a simple Wiggenweld Potion turned into a minor disaster when Barnaby drank some of it before it had finished settling.

“Professor Snape, I think I’m going to-”

He finished his sentence by hurling all over the floor to the disgust of everyone present. Needless to say, the Potions Master was not pleased.

“Mr. Lee, this is the third time this year you have botched a brew by illicitly swallowing a substance toxic to the human body. Should I extend the list of ingredients you aren’t to touch? Or perhaps merely all cauldrons and sharp objects will do.”

Barnaby didn’t answer, the pain in his stomach too acute to reply. Snape waved his wand, vanishing the vomit and pointed towards the Slytherin half of the room.

“Miss Murk, escort him to the hospital wing. The rest of you, finish your potions and leave a sample on my desk. I have no more patience for this foolishness.”

David and Rowan did as ordered, quickly bottling their Wiggenweld Potion in an effort to leave as soon as possible. You did not want to be around Snape for long when he was in a foul mood.

Before he could leave, however, he was called back.

“Grant. Come here.”

Cursing his bad luck, David reluctantly approached the Potion Master’s desk.

I probably brewed it wrong and is going to dock more points, he thought resisting the urge to roll his eyes.

“Yes, sir?” he said, gazing into the cold black eyes of his Professor. “Was there something wrong with the potion?”

“Your Wiggenweld was adequate, Grant, that is not the issue here. Now cease talking and listen carefully.”

Pulling out a brown goblet of what looked like recently brewed potion, Snape placed it on the desk carefully and edged it towards the young Gryffindor.

“I am required to ensure Mr. Lee’s unfortunate mishap has not melted his intestines. While I go to the Hospital Wing, you are to bring this to Miss Lobosca. I believe you are familiar with her.”

“Yes, but-”

“Do not ask questions,” he snapped. “The less your feeble mind knows, the better Grant. You are merely to give this to her and go about your day. Am I quite clear?”

Half tempted to say something cheeky, David nevertheless resisted and took the goblet.

“Yes, sir.”

“Good. I consider this a task easy enough even for you not to botch. I expect to hear Miss Lobosca has received this potion without spilling a single drop. Now, be gone.”

Without another word, David carefully grabbed the goblet and headed towards the Hufflepuff common room. He didn’t know precisely where it was, but he was aware that it was somewhere near the kitchens in the basement. That’s where he would go first.

Maybe I’ll also find out what’s bothering her

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

David had been traversing the basement for a good fifteen minutes. He wasn’t precisely sure where the entrance was, information like that was pretty tight lipped but he didn’t need to know. The Hufflepuffs would be returning from Transfiguration in just a few minutes in order to get ready for their last class of the day before the start of the feast. He just hoped Chiara was among them. He didn’t want to be carrying around a goblet of potion all day long.

Thankfully, his patience was rewarded when he saw a crowd of a half dozen first years approach from the left and Chiara was among them. But before he could even so much as take a step he was confronted by a rather cross looking fifth year prefect.

“What are you doing down here, Gryffindor?” the prefect asked with a degree of hostility. David couldn’t help but notice how dark and penetrating her eyes were, as if they were gazing into your very soul which was highly disconcerting.

“Aren’t Hufflepuffs supposed to be more polite?” he joked in an attempt at humor. It sailed right over her head, unfortunately.

“I’ll ask again, Gryffindor. What are you doing here?”

“Well I was going to try and put bulbadox powder inside of your bed, but I guess you caught me so that plan’s out the window.”

She didn’t like that at all.

“I have half a mind to put you in detention for the rest of the year.”

“Well, shit. There go my plans to become a professional dancer.”

David supposed he shouldn’t push it too far, but in his mind there was a difference between an authority figure like Dumbledore or McGonagall and a prefect with a stick up their arse. In the case of the latter, he saw no reason to treat them any more seriously than any other student, especially a person like this.

Before the prefect could actually give him year long detention, however, Chiara intervened in the nick of time.

“Jane, it’s okay. He’s my friend.”

Thankfully, it was enough to fend off any more questions.

“Ask him what he wants and make sure he leaves as soon as possible,” she said sternly, the soulless eyes gazing into him once more as if to say, ‘or else’. And she stormed off down the hall.

“Nice to meet you too,” David muttered as she left while Chiara laughed.

“You’re lucky, Dave. I haven’t seen many people go toe to toe with Jane like that and live to tell the tale.”

“I can’t believe that monster is your prefect,” he said shaking his head.

“She’s the scariest thing in this school sometimes,” Chiara admitted. “Every one of the younger students are afraid of her. It’s the eyes, really.”

“I know what I’ll be having nightmares of tonight.”

After sharing another laugh, it was time to get down to business.

“But really though, Dave, why are you all the way down here near the kitchens?”

He picked up the goblet of potion that he had set on the ground and showed it to her.

“Snape told me to bring you this. I have no idea what it is, he wouldn’t tell me. I assume he wouldn’t intentionally try to poison you.”

It was a joke of course, but something within Chiara’s blue eyes seemed to shatter.

“W-wait, he wasn’t supposed to give me that until later tonight. W-why did he give it to you?”

That definitely piqued his interest several notches. So, Snape was making a potion for Chiara that she didn’t want anyone else to know about? Why?

“That Barnaby bloke accidentally swallowed unfinished Wiggenweld potion and he had to take him to the hospital wing. He basically ordered me to take this to you.”

Chiara looked fearful and also incredibly hesitant. It seemed as though part of her wanted to take the potion but another part was telling her to knock it out of his hand.

“What’s going, Chiara?” he asked seriously. “The past couple days you’ve been pretty on edge. That’s not like you.”

Tears began to well up in her eyes and David wasn’t sure if he had unintendedly offended her and was prepared to apologize. But before he could, she spoke as though something was about to burst out of her.

“I have to tell you something,” she said in barely more than a whisper. “But you have to promise me you’ll keep it a secret.”

“Okay-”

“Promise me!” she urged, a flash of great fear crossing her normally calm, porcelain features. “No one else can know.”

“Your secret is safe with me,” David assured her and he sat the goblet down once more and brought her into a hug. “Now what’s on your mind.”

Sighing softly, Chiara looked directly into his eyes.

“I’m not what you think I am, Dave. I’m….a werewolf.”

David blinked a few times before doing a double take.

“Wait….what?”

“Please don’t make any jokes,” she pleaded with him. “Nothing about this is funny. I wouldn’t pull your leg on something like that.”

“No, no I swear I’m not making light of this,” he said putting his hands up in the air. “I just…don’t know what to do really. It’s the last thing I was expecting you to say.”

Chiara put her back to the wall and slowly began to slide down.

“It’s the last thing anyone expects me to say. Only a handful of people know and you’re the first person I’ve ever told at Hogwarts. I can’t tell Penny and the others though. You saw how much she hated werewolves. If she or anyone else found out, she’d tell everyone and I’d be expelled for sure. You know how popular she is.”

David rested himself by the wall next to her. This was all a bit overwhelming but despite the revelation no part of him saw a bloodthirsty killer in front of him, just Chiara looking incredibly upset and in need of a friend. Werewolf or not, he wasn’t about to abandon her in the cold.

“Why don’t we start from the beginning,” he said with what he hoped was a comforting tone. “Does Dumbledore know about this?”

“He’s the one that made it possible for me to even come here,” Chiara affirmed. “He said he’s had werewolf students in the past and could take necessary precautions so I could have a necessary education. But my story goes farther back than that.”

“Tell me everything. I want to know.”

Chiara gave him a smile.

“You really are an amazing friend, David. It’s actually more complicated than you know.”

She cleared her throat and began to explain.

“My family isn’t English by birth as you can probably tell by my last name. Mum and Dad were born in Italy to wealthy families but they fled during the second World War because the muggle government was trying to round up those with magic and turn them into weapons. My grandmother spits whenever the name ‘Mussolini’ is mentioned in the house,” she added with a chuckle.

“Anyway, they settled here as refugees and managed to make a life for themselves. They became British citizens under the Ministry, got married and ended up having me. One of those happily ever after stories.”

“But…”

David didn’t need too much context to know there was a ‘but’. Happily ever after stories didn’t tend to last long. He knew from experience.

“The Civil War in this country began under You Know Who and people were being tortured and blackmailed left and right by Death Eaters. My family is extremely wealthy and they came knocking on the door one day for money to help finance their cause. They thought us being Italian might make us more susceptible to their tricks and lies. Well needless to say, Mum and Dad weren’t having any of it and slammed the door in their faces. But I don’t think they truly grasped the danger of having defied You Know Who. They had seen and lived through Grindlewald and thought he was nothing more than a fraudulent copycat.”

“But he wasn’t,” David spoke factually. Anyone who had lived through that time knew just how terrible the Dark Lord had been at the height of his power.

“No, he was much more,” Chiara said sadly. “When my parents refused to help him, he sent Greyback after me knowing full well my parents were naïve enough to believe he wouldn’t retaliate.”

“How old were you?”

“Seven. I was old enough to remember too. Some get bitten when they’re toddlers. They don’t remember what it’s like to be fully human. I do. He broke into the house one night when everyone least expected it. The rest is history.”

Listening to the story tugged on David’s heartstrings and he suddenly grabbed Chiara’s hand in his.

“I don’t know what to say except that I’m sorry,” he said, giving it a light squeeze. “I can’t imagine what it must be like to go through something like that.”

“I’m actually lucky,” she admitted to his surprise. “Most werewolves live in poverty and can’t afford any kind of treatment. My family has money and therefore we’ve found ways to lessen the effects of my condition.”

She pointed towards the goblet of potion he had been carrying.

“That, is what is known as the wolfsbane potion. It was invented only three years ago and it isn’t widely known. Partially because the ingredients are expensive and the potion is quite difficult to make, but essentially it allows me to keep my mind when I transform so I don’t hurt anyone. Most werewolves are highly dangerous around humans, but the wolfsbane potion alleviates the worst of the symptoms.”

“I see,” David said picking up the goblet and handing it to her. “And I take it your family pays for the ingredients while Snape brews it for you every month.”

“Exactly. I have to take it once a week before the full moon for it to work properly. Tonight is the last night.”

She took a massive swig from the goblet and instantly made a face.

“Blecch! It also tastes terrible just so you know. Don’t ever become a werewolf, Dave.”

“Right, because that’s the worst part, right? Not the body hair or the paws, but the horrible tasting potion that keeps you from losing your mind. Though I suppose I could live with the fleas.”

Chiara began laughing again, the sparkle returning to her eyes.

“You’re always good with a joke, Dave. Thank you. But this goes beyond my personal problems as a werewolf. Fenrir Greyback is coming tonight. I know it.”

“How do you know? Just because the papers and the Ministry-”

“For once they’re right, but not for the reasons you think,” Chiara interrupted. “Greyback is coming for me. He’s been after me since the day I was bitten. Not only that but it gives him an opportunity to bite and infect more people. Bill Weasley was right at lunch today, he tries to infect as many children as possible so he can alienate them from the mainstream wizarding world and turn them against it. That’s why he’s been attacking so close to here lately.”

The whole conversation just took on a brand new meaning with that information and David’s heart skipped a beat.

“You mean, you know for sure he’s coming here tonight. Not just because of you but so he can attack the entire student body?”

“He will if given the opportunity. I can’t let that happen.”

“Well then we need to tell Dumbledore or one of the Professors,” David declared before Chiara pulled on his arm shaking her head.

“They already know, and they can’t do anything more than they already have,” she told him.

“There’s always the magnificent brilliance of Cecil Lee.”

“Cut it out, Dave. You don’t even want to know how savage Fenrir Greyback is in real life. As far as I’m concerned, I’m responsible for putting the whole school in danger. It’s my job to make it right.”

“You’re only a first year, how are you supposed to fend him off?”

“Werewolves are a lot stronger than humans,” she explained. “The evening before every full moon, Madam Pomfrey takes me down to the edge of the Forbidden Forest so I can transform away from the student body. When Greyback comes, I’ll be ready to drive him off.”

“You sound more like a Gryffindor than a Hufflepuff right now,” David tried to point out to her. “Seriously, you can’t think you can do this by yourself. Even when you’re in wolf form. At least get some help.”

“You’re the only person that knows my secret,” Chiara said. “I can’t ask any of the older students because they’d just try to get me thrown out. I have to do this by myself.”

“Chiara, you’re not thinking properly,” David said to her, adopting his most serious tone he saved for situations like these. “If you won’t tell anyone else, at least let me help you.”

She appraised him before saying.

“David, I would never forgive myself if you were bitten or worse…”

“And I would never forgive myself I let you try and fend off a bunch of werewolves by yourself.”

A small smile adorned her soft features.

“Alright. If you insist.”

“On one condition.”

“What’s that?”

“You allow me to bring backup.”

That immediately brought the fear back into Chiara’s face.

“No! Dave, you can’t…”

“I’m not telling anyone except Tonks and Rowan. Penny and everyone else won’t find out, I promise. But if we’re taking on Fenrir Greyback, it’ll take a solid team to bring him down. And I know I can trust those guys. I promise, we won’t let you down.”

Chiara considered this for a couple of seconds before letting out a relenting sigh.

“Okay, David. I trust you on this,” she picked up the goblet again and polished off the rest of the potion before continuing. “Here’s what we’re going to do…”

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When David told his two friends the news, they reacted better than he originally anticipated.

“So that’s why she was acting so weird all week,” Tonks said, rubbing her chin.

“It definitely makes sense,” agreed Rowan. “Though I admit I had about twenty seven other theories before believing she was a werewolf.”

David had managed to find them both at a late lunch hour after their later classes were finished and had gathered them into a huddle in one of the more private corridors so they could chat. He was pleased neither one had any inclination to rat her out, with Tonks exclaiming she thought it was neat and Rowan commenting on it in his usual bookworm manner. The real trick was convincing them to go along with Chiara’s plan.

“You can’t tell anyone though,” David continued to remind them. “Only Dumbledore and the Professors were supposed to know. If word gets out around the student body, she might get kicked out.”

“Consider our lips sealed, Dave,” Tonks said, making a zipper motion across her mouth.

“So what do we do?” Rowan asked. “I don’t know the exact odds of three first years defeating a fully-grown werewolf, but they probably aren’t good.”

“You’re right,” David said. “But it won’t just be us. Chiara told me Madam Pomfrey takes her down to the Forbidden Forest each month to transform. When she does, she’ll be a werewolf, but her mind will be intact. We’ll meet her there a half hour before sunset. If we can hold Greyback off long enough, he might give up the fight.”

“No offense, David,” Tonks said to him skeptically. “But I don’t think Greyback is the type to just give up so easily.”

“Probably not,” he admitted. “But maybe we can buy time. At the very least, he won’t get any closer to Hogwarts.”

He leaned them in closer, making one last appeal.

“Look, this isn’t about going into some half-mad situation just to get our jollies. I don’t care about that. I care about Chiara and making sure she’s safe. I know you two do as well.”

Tonks and Rowan looked each other for brief moment.

“We aren’t just half mad for doing this, we’re completely bonkers,” Tonks said. “Even so, I’ll go. For Chiara.”

“Me too,” Rowan agreed. “I’m not going to leave my best friend, or any of you out in the cold.”

David nodded, knowing he could entrust the two of them to show up when it counted. It wasn’t going to be easy, but if what Chiara said was true, they couldn’t stand idlely by and do nothing.

“You sure we shouldn’t get more people, Dave?” his best friend asked. “Why not ask Penny?”

“Rowan, for someone so book smart you really are thick sometimes,” Tonks told him, eyebrow raised. “You saw the way she reacted towards werewolves. She would go ballistic if she found out Chiara was one.”

The sound of glass breaking echoed behind them. David had tried to warn his metamorphagus friend but alas, it was too late. Penny had heard everything from Tonks’ last sentence.

“What were you saying about being thick?” Rowan shot back at her.

“I-I…tell me I didn’t just hear that,” Penny stammered, the contents of the potion she was carrying long forgotten on the floor.

“Penny, just let us explain…” David tried to reason with her.

“Explain?! What else is there to explain?! Here I am trying to find you before the feast only to find out you’re planning some conspiracy with a bloody werewolf?!”

“You better take off,” he muttered to Rowan and Tonks. “Meet me at six by the courtyard.”

They obliged, leaving David to clean up the damage, which was mainly preventing Penny from doing anything rash. When the blonde girl tried to brush past him, he stopped her.

“Penny, stop.”

“Let go of me, Dave!”

“Not until you promise to keep Chiara’s secret.”

Deep pain flushed into her bright blue eyes as she wrenched herself from David’s grip.

“You would allow a werewolf to walk around at Hogwarts, ready to kill someone at a moment’s notice?!”

David knew he didn’t much a leg to stand on at the moment, but he had never known Penny to be this irrational about anything.

“That’s not right and you know it,” he said to her as she continued to try and go around him. “Chiara isn’t a killer. She’s nothing like Greyback or any of the other werewolves that try to hurt people.”

“I’m not taking any chances! You weren’t there the day it happened!”

Now he was utterly confused.

“When what happened?”

“When I was eight, I stayed out past sunset playing with a friend when a werewolf attacked us. It missed me but it got her instead. I ran to get my mom, but by the time she got there it was too late…and she was dead.”

It was then Penny stopped struggling and broke down crying into David’s arms.

“I’ve never forgotten that day,” she sobbed into his shoulder. “And I’ll never forget that a werewolf took her away from me.”

For the second time that day, David found himself playing the role of counselor to a friend in need. Hardly an area he was familiar with, but adopted nonetheless.

“Penny,” he said, holding her tight in his arms. “There’s nothing I could say or do to alleviate that pain you feel. I’m sorry. Truly I am. But Chiara wasn’t the one who killed your friend. In fact, Greyback was the one who made her this way. This is a chance to help her and make things right. Please, the best thing you can do to honor your friend’s memory, is by helping us take down the savage bastard who’s threatening Hogwarts as we speak.”

Penny sniffed, drying out her eyes, unsure of what to say. David, perhaps foolishly, decided to leave the decision in her hands.

“I’m not going to stop you, anymore, okay?” he said to her, letting go of her body. “You do what you feel is best. But I think you know deep down what the right thing to do is. At the very least, don’t tell the rest of the students about Chiara’s condition.”

Unable to remain in the corridor any longer, the blonde Hufflepuff made her exit.

“I’m sorry, Dave,” she whispered, bolting down the hallway and towards the kitchens where the Hufflepuff common room lay.

David sighed, supposing that if Penny was going to rat them out, he had no control over it now. The best thing to do was to prepare as best he could before six and hope for the best.

Feeling a fair amount of guilt, he made his way back to his own common room.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The hours came and went and before long, six o’clock had arrived. At this point in the year, the days were quite a bit shorter, so they were rather short on time before the sun went down and the inevitable occurred.

Thankfully and to his slight surprise, David and Rowan received no visits from any professor to stop them from what they were about to attempt, which meant at the very least, Penny hadn’t told anyone yet. That theory was confirmed when Tonks arrived at the courtyard only minutes after them.

“Glad you made it, Tonks,” David told her. “Have you seen Penny?”

She shook her pink haired head.

“Nope. In fact, no one’s seen her for a couple of hours. She must be hiding somewhere.”

“Well let’s just get to the edge of the forest quick as we can. Madam Pomfrey should have finished escorting her by now. Everyone’s too distracted by the feast to notice us.”

“Let’s go then.”

Silently as they could and without wizarding robes to slow them down, the trio quietly descended the steps down onto the grass of the training grounds. They continued onward, down past Hagrid’s Hut, past the center for Care of Magical Creatures class, right down to the border of the Forbidden Forest. By the time they got there, the light had faded considerably from the sky, the canopy of towering trees becoming a shadow looming over them.

“Where is she?” Tonks asked, scanning around. “It’s getting harder to see.”

“Right here,” came a reply.

Out stepped Chiara from behind one of the trees. Contrary to everything else around here, she seemed to glow as though her body was anticipating the coming of the full moon.

“You kept your word,” she said to David, giving him a hug.

“Well you know me, words are pretty much all I got.”

“Are you feeling okay?” Tonks asked her. “David told us, well everything really. I promise, we won’t tell anyone.”

Except of course for Penny, David thought irritably, but now was certainly not the time to bring that up.

“To be honest I’m quite scared,” Chiara admitted. “But I do appreciate you all coming down here to help and for keeping my secret.”

“Do we even have a plan?” Rowan interjected. “Or are we just waiting for Greyback to just…show up?”

“Hit him with everything you got,” the Hufflepuff told everyone. “Especially after he transforms. I’ll be there to help but I can only do so much. This will have to be a combined effort.”

“And you know he’ll be coming through the Forbidden Forest?” David asked. They never really went over that part of the scenario that thoroughly.

“It’s the only place near Hogwarts grounds he can hide undetected. I’m quite sure he’ll be coming through those trees.”

That brought a tense silence between the four. A calm before the storm that was coming.

“I may be in Gryffindor,” Rowan said, swallowing. “But I’ve never felt less brave in my life.”

“Bravery isn’t about not being scared, Rowan,” Tonks told him. “It’s about doing what needs to be done in spite of being scared.”

“Maybe you should have been sorted into Gryffindor,” David teased her.

“My mum left a fanatical pure blood house to marry a muggle born during the height of the war,” she explained her face hardening. “If that isn’t bravery, I don’t know what is.”

“You’re all brave,” Chiara said quietly. “That being said, you’re going to want to stay away from me during my transformation. I’ll still have my mind, but they’re not exactly…pleasant to witness. Nor is it pleasant to experience.”

“I’m sure,” David nodded. “We’ll keep a safe distance.”

“I can’t emphasize it enough,” Chiara said to them, urgency in her voice. “Even with the wolfsbane potion I could still potentially infect you by accident. I would never forgive myself if that happened.”

Nodding the Gryffindor-Hufflepuff trio took out their wands and took stances. By estimation, they only had fifteen minutes until the rising of the moon.

A hushed, deep quiet seemed to spread from the essence of the forest itself, as though containing some hidden, unspeakable evil yet to be unleashed. The dread was so rampant throughout David’s body, he found had barely any saliva in his mouth.

“Maybe it was a false alarm,” Rowan said hopefully. “Maybe we can go back to the feast.”

“We can’t go anywhere until the moon rises,” David said, not lowering his wand. “If no one shows up by then, we’ll go back and tell Dumbledore.”

A few more minutes passed and still nothing. Personally, the young Gryffindor was more than hoping nothing came of this little excursion himself. He preferred the safety of the castle to being in this extremely vulnerable position. But he would not run, not until he knew Chiara was safe.

Just as he thought Rowan may be right, footsteps could be heard from the forest. Heavy ones, lumbering heavily through the autumn underbrush. Though the darkness was nearly complete now, what emerged from the forest was none other than the most hated werewolf and man alike in Britain. Grayish, brown hair slicked back across his head, matted, untamed whiskers roamed across his face. The fingernails were filthy and caked with a combination of dirt and blood, sharpened into deadly points. He wore a large overcoat, trousers and black boots. But by far the most terrifying aspect of this man, was the savage look upon his face; the face of an unremorseful killer.

Fenrir Greyback.

“My, my,” came the growl of his deep tenor. “Don’t we all look delicious tonight.”

David, though quite frightened at this point, held his wand steady, as did Rowan and Tonks. Chiara stood on a hill five feet behind them, looking defiant as possible.

“Take one step closer and I blast you to pieces,” David warned him, though he did not have the capability and Greyback knew it.

“A little morsel like you?” he laughed horribly. “Hardly.”

He turned his attention towards his true target.

“Miss Lobosca, how nice to see you again. Still denying your inner wolf I see.”

“I don’t deny it,” she said defiantly. “I just don’t let it turn me into a cannibalistic monster like you.”

(Rowan whimpered. “Did she just say cannibal?”)

“Same old Chiara,” he said shaking his mane of a head. “Constantly runnin away from what you truly are. If you had joined my pack all those years ago when I bit ya, you woulda known that by now.”

“Save the speech,” Chiara cut across him. “I’m not joining you. Not now, not ever.”

“Oh but perhaps your three friends here, will,” Greyback leered, licking his lips. “I could use my pound of flesh as always, but why kill when I could simply add to my pack?”

“Not happening, ugly,” David said, shifting his stance to block Chiara from view.

“You children are so naïve,” Greyback purred in a disturbing sort of way. “You take comfort in your homes, the walls that surround you, totally unaware of the monsters that await just outside the door. Chiara learned that well enough and so will you. As I discovered long ago, the essence of power isn’t the man, it’s the beast that resides in all of us. All it takes is one bite to bring it out.”

Licking his teeth, which were much sharper than the average human’s, he gave a toothy smile.

“Hogwarts is ripe for the picking,” he continued. “Mark my words, this is just the beginnin’ of the reckoning that’s to come.”

“Yes that’s all well and good,” David shot back, having little patience for Greyback’s sinister speeches. “But the fact remains that there are four of us and only one of you.”

But that only brought another horrid laugh from the werewolf.

“Dave, maybe you should stop antagonizing him,” Tonks suggested, no irony lost in her voice.

“You didn’t think it was just me tonight, did ya?” he taunted. “No doubt Lobosca told you I was coming. But I also brought a couple friends. After all, what kind of leader would I be if I didn’t let my pack sample the feast as well?”

Out of the shadows, two more men came into view, and these were far scragglier and unhealthier looking than Greyback. Thin, with raggedy clothes and unkempt hair, they held the same ravenous look their leader did, the mark of those who had gave up their humanity a long time ago and would take comfort in whatever solace they could find.

“Now that we’re all here, I’d say it’s time to get acquainted with the full moon, shall we?”

Indeed, the moment of reckoning had arrived. As the thin, wispy clouds parted, the light of the full moon shone down upon both parties. Only then, did David realize just how much trouble they were in.

“Oh, shit.”

Greyback and his followers began to grunt as they sank to their knees, joints and muscles popping, twisting, and extending, each one growing steadily larger as their anatomy altered to suit their soon to be wolfish forms.

But David, while keeping an eye on the enemy in front couldn’t resist sneaking a glance to the girl he was protecting in the back. And what he saw indeed horrified him.

Greyback and company were merely breathing and grunting but Chiara was screaming as the transformation began to affect her too.

“D-David,” she said through clenched teeth that were quickly becoming fangs. “D-don’t forget who I-I am.”

That was the last human sentence she uttered before the transformation began to spread more rapidly. As with Greyback, her joints popped and creaked uncomfortably as her limbs lengthened and her feet and hands curled into paws. Her clothes ripped as a powerful, yet slightly hunched spine emerged from her backside. Her silvery hair retreated, while thick brown fur started to cover her body. Finally, her face began to morph and push forward as it completed its trajectory into a snout.

Staring back at them all was no longer Chiara Lobosca, but a full-fledged werewolf with luminous yellow eyes. It was one of the most terrifying sights he had ever seen.

“Okay, I think it’s safe to say I’ll be having nightmares from now on,” Rowan announced shakily.

“Yeah, if you live to actually have nightmares!” Tonks shouted. “Dave! Pay attention.”

The young Gryffindor was so preoccupied as to whether or not the mind of Chiara was still inside the beast, he had temporarily forgotten Greyback and his men, who were now fully realized werewolves themselves.

“Duck!”

David had to roll over as one of the beasts leapt towards them, jaws primed for biting any organ or limb it found.

Drawing himself into a stance, he soon realized that taking the traditional route would not work against the unpredictable savagery of a werewolf. No, this would require a different kind of fighting.

“We have to be quicker than them!” he said to Tonks and Rowan who were casting whatever spells they knew to keep their adversaries away. “Anticipate the attack and move accordingly.”

“And how do we do that?!” Rowan cried, sending a trip jinx towards his werewolf.

“Don’t think. Just do,” David said to him. “Tonks, use your powers if you have to.”

They obliged and went to work. Though still chaotic, their strategy began to pay off. Despite only knowing a handful of spells, some of the more powerful ones were enough to slow down and drive back the werewolves, especially in a tandem. They would often switch targets to ensure no one was caught off guard, standing in a semi circle to watch the other’s backs.

“Keep at it!” David shouted over the growls and whimpers and sending a leg locker curse towards one of them. “If we can hold them off-”

But werewolves appeared to be smarter than at first glance, as the largest one (Greyback) launched himself from one angle towards Tonks while another ignored Rowan and went towards her from the other side. The Hufflepuff aimed a curse at one and caught in the shoulder but didn’t have time to face the other one. In other words, she was toast.

That is until a jet of purple light streamed out of nowhere, hitting the werewolf in the shoulder, sending a cascade of blood pouring from the wound as it hit the ground with a yelp.

“Who in the name of Agrippa was that?” Rowan asked aloud.

David, still facing his own werewolf, couldn’t be sure, but the moon was bright enough to illuminate a figure with two platted braids.

“No…Penny?”

“Sorry I’m late,” she said running over. “Come on, everyone cast the cutting charm.”

“Where on earth did you learn that?!” Tonks asked, barely able to catch her breath after the near miss on her life.

“It’s dead useful when you’re sewing,” Penny answered, a battle ready smile on her face. “Also brilliant at taking down werewolves apparently.”

“Incantation?” Rowan inquired.

“Diffindo,” came the reply. “Let’s get this next one.”

They concentrated all their energies on the second werewolf, sending carefully aimed cutting charms at the creature’s fur, legs, and arms. Though not everything was a precise hit, the blood loss was great enough to weaken it significantly. Finally, it fell to the ground in a whimper, licking its wounds, snarling but taken out of action.

However, in their combined efforts to take it down. They had been blinded to the fact that the biggest of them all had circled around to the left and was prepared to launch itself straight at them.

With an almighty roar, it reared back and took a massive swipe at the four first years, causing David to fall over and land awkwardly on his knee, his wand rolling over somewhere in the grass.

“ARGH!”

Though the beast had missed, he was primed and ready for another attack and David had no means to protect himself. The rest of his friends were still reeling and had no time to react or defend their fallen comrade. He simply put up his hands and waited for the inevitable bloody pain to come.

Except it never did.

Opening his eyes, he saw something miraculous. The wolf that was Chiara was battling Greyback one on one, viciously biting, scratching and clawing the bigger male with everything it had. That’s when David realized that the wolfsbane potion had worked and that Chiara, despite being in her wolf form was defending him from harm.

“I don’t believe it,” Penny said in awe. “Is that-”

“It is,” David answered for her as she handed him back his wand. “Chiara’s protecting us.”

So awed the four first years were, they followed the fight with mesmerized gazes. She was easy to spot due to her lighter coloration and her smaller size. Only then did they see why Greyback was so feared, he was huge and twice as big as the average man in his wolf form. The fact that Chiara was keeping up gave them elation.

“We’ve done our jobs,” Rowan told them. “This is where we need to get a Professor.”

“But we can’t just leave her there with Greyback!” Tonks pointed out. “What if she gets hurt?”

That fear was realized as the male werewolf grabbed the smaller one and threw her head hard into a tree at the edge of the forest, causing her to fall unconscious.

“Can we get a professor, now?” Rowan asked again, panic in his voice as the creature noticed them and began another charge. Even with four of them, they were woefully unprepared for another attack with David’s injured knee and their wits out of focus. For a third time, he thought they might actually be done for.

‘Incarcerous’ yelled out a strong, masculine voice.

Ropes conjured out of nowhere wrapping themselves around Greyback causing him to fall flat on his face while he continued to roar and snarl incoherently.

Looking around wildly, David’s eyes finally settled on a tall, white bearded figure wearing purple robes.

“Dumbledore,” he breathed.

They were saved. Three, beaten down, exhausted werewolves were no match for the most powerful wizard in existence, even for one as aggressive as Fenrir Greyback. When one of the other wounded wolves attempted another charge, Dumbledore’s eyes flashed, flicking his wand like a whip and sending the beast flying backwards and onto the hard ground. This time, he would not be getting up.

‘Stupefy’ came the squeaky command of Professor Flitwick, knocking out the third. Ropes were secured around all three within seconds. The battle was finally over.

“Good work, Professor,” came the bumbling voice of Cecil Lee. “But I believed you missed one.”

He pointed his wand at the prone form of Chiara before Penny stood up and blocked his path.

“Don’t touch her! She saved us!”

Cecil looked completely bewildered, even in the dark.

“What? Saved you?”

“I’m afraid I must concur with Miss Haywood,” came Dumbledore’s light, but firm voice. “That particular werewolf is under my care here at Hogwarts. I will not allow you to capture her Mr. Lee.”

“But-”

“Answers will come,” he assured the utterly perplexed man. “But for now, I think we need to ensure none of our students have been seriously injured. Madam Pomfrey will want to give them a lookover. Minerva, please alert the Ministry to the capture of Fenrir Greyback and two of his followers. Severus, will you escort them to the holding cells until Aurors arrive?”

He and the remaining professors moved quickly. Thankfully, none of them were too banged up other than David’s knee, which felt more like a minor sprain than broken.

Rowan helped him up.

“Can you walk?”

“I think so,” David said, putting enough weight on his knee so that he could at least stand. “Nothing Madam Pomfrey can’t fix.”

Rowan supported him just in case he needed it. There was pain there, but it was not unbearable. All in all, they were extraordinarily fortunate to be alive. Tonks echoed that sentiment as they were escorted back up to the castle.

“Is it just me, or are we bloody lucky as hell?”

“Language Miss Tonks,” Professor Sprout admonished. “Although I daresay you’re right. What you all did was the height of foolishness.”

She paused, giving the group of four a look of admiration.

“It was also one of the bravest, most noble acts I’ve seen in my years at Hogwarts.”

“Indeed, you are right Pomona,” Dumbledore acknowledged. “I would like to get the full story myself.”

David initially thought the Headmaster might be angry with him, especially so soon after his duel with Merula, but even within the darkness there was a definite twinkling in his eyes as he spoke.

Well at the very least, I won’t be expelled

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Madam Pomfrey, always cautious and protective of students in her care, thankfully didn’t need much to fix David’s knee or the minor cut on Tonks’s shoulder. As such, she would not require them to spend the night. Since their injuries were minor, Dumbledore was allowed to ask questions at will and by the time he finished hearing the story, the normally calm, stoic Headmaster looked sufficiently impressed.

“The four of you have done something incredibly important tonight. You not only miraculously fended of Fenrir Greyback and his pack for over half an hour, but more importantly, defended a friend in need, a girl who is quite vulnerable due to her condition.”

His face did turn serious, however.

“That being said, I would ask that if something of this nature comes to your attention once more, please defer the matter to myself or one of the Professors. If any one you were to have been killed or infected with lycanthropy, the consequences would have been quite dire.”

“We understand, Professor,” David nodded. “I guess we felt like there was no other choice. Chiara felt she had no choice as well.”

“Understandable,” the old man mused. “But as young Gryffindors are apt to learn, bravery does not entail looking for trouble.”

It was meant to be an admonishment, but the twinkling was back in his blue eyes.

“And for you Hufflepuffs: loyalty and honor do not have to be your burden to bear alone. Telling a Professor would have been acting in Chiara’s best interests even if she did not believe it at the time.”

Tonks and Penny indicated they understood as well.

“That being said, you have both been exemplary examples for your houses and for the school. I will ensure the Minister knows of your contributions tonight. And fifty points to each of you for outstanding heroism.”

The foursome couldn’t resist giving each other excited looks, but there was still one more question burning in David’s mind.

“Sir, where is Chiara? Will she be alright?”

“Miss Lobosca is in an undisclosed but secure location where she is being tended to,” Dumbledore assured them. “As you know by now, the wolfsbane potion has kept her harmless. By the sun’s rise she will be human once more.”

“Thank you, Professor.”

“You are welcome. The feast is still ongoing and underway. When Madam Pomfrey gives you permission, you may rejoin it.”

The old man gave one more smile before exiting the Hospital Wing and leaving them to talk amongst themselves.

“Barely a scratch on us and a hundred points for each of our houses? I’d call this a successful night,” Tonks said, leaning back in her chair.

“A successful night does not include nearly losing your lives to Fenrir Greyback and a pack of werewolves, Miss Tonks,” Madam Pomfrey admonished, coming over to give them one last checkup. “Any further recklessness will result in having to stay overnight as punishment.”

“Sooo…you’re saying we can go?” she asked with a toothy grin.

Madam Pomfrey sighed heavily.

“Yes, all of you may go. And I do pray that your visits to my ward are infrequent.”

“You’ll probably be seeing me within a week, I’m dead clumsy.”

“Miss Tonks…”

“Right, going.”

Chuckling to himself David rose from his bed and followed the rest of his friends out of the door to join the rest of the school at the feast. But there was one last loose end he needed to tie up.

“Penny, wait.”

She needed to know the full weight of what she had done tonight, or even perhaps what she had not done.

“What is it, Dave?”

“We’re all alive because of you. You came to help us despite what happened all those years ago. I can’t thank you enough.”

Penny suddenly hung her head in shame.

“It wasn’t a hard decision to make once I managed to look past my own feelings. I’m just sorry I didn’t come to your aid sooner.”

“No one could blame you for feeling the way you did,” he comforted her.

“I’m still terrified of werewolves you know,” she admitted. “That hasn’t changed. But you’re right about Chiara. I’ve lived with her all this time without knowing what she was until now. It doesn’t change who she is as a person. I should have realized that.”

“It’s over now,” David smiled at her. “She’s safe as is her secret.” He paused before adding. “You’re not going to tell right?”

“Really, Dave?”

“Hehe, sorry.”

“That’s one piece of gossip I know I have no desire to share,” she laughed. “Come on, let’s go to the feast together.”

“Right behind you.”

But there was one more secret to be revealed. For the second time that month, David could hear the echoes of a conversation outside the hall. And the voices were awfully familiar.

“Can you hear that?”

Penny nodded, indicating that she could. Both of them strained against the crack in the door to hear more accurately.

“…cannot understand why you let the boy get away with these things,” came the annoyed tone of Severus Snape. “Exploding cauldrons, dueling on school grounds, taking on the most dangerous werewolf in Britain. What’s next? Is he going to seek out a mountain troll in his first year as well?”

“Severus,” came the soft reply of Professor Dumbledore. “Much of what you rail against was circumstance. I do not believe David Grant looks for trouble. On the contrary, trouble tends to find him. You have not prevented the Snyde girl from continually antagonizing him.”

David could not see what was going on, but he was positive Snape was bristling at the minor rebuke.

“It is more than an issue with Miss Snyde. What if he discovers the cursed vaults? What then? Will we have to endure another Grant sibling manhunt to find them and thereby endangering the school itself?”

“As far as I know, he still does not know of their true existence or nature. He is a very talented wizard, Severus especially for an eleven year old. Indeed, we are fortunate we have prevented the student body from finding out little more than rumor.”

“He would not be the first talented first year to go astray,” Snape reminded him slowly. “You know that Albus. Should the vaults be discovered, it could be a catastrophe.”

“There is no use worrying in what has not yet happened or perhaps never will,” Dumbledore responded a little more firmly. “In any case, continue to ward away any student from going near the vaults. Indeed, I have begun to conduct an investigation of my own on that front.”

“Very well.”

“Come now, Severus. The feast awaits. And I hear the entertainment is particularly amusing this year.”

The conversation had ended, but the once more, the gears of David Grant’s mind began to turn as Penny looked at him with a silent request for answers.

She could not have known that he was just as lost as she was.

#hogwarts mystery #hphm #mc #chiara lobosca #penny haywood #nymphadora tonks #diego caplan #rowan khanna #ben copper #bill weasley #david grant #fanfiction #harry potter

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catch22inareddress · 6 years

Text

Kismet

Della Fontaine is the typical girl next door. Fresh from North Carolina and coming to the Big Apple for the change of scenery. However, her next door neighbor, Sebastian, is the opposite of her. Outgoing, handsome, popular, with a twinge of heartbreaker lurking around his soft edges.

His ex is the epitome of everything she’s not. A model, vicious to the core, and willing to go to extremes to make sure that Sebastian’s sees Della for what she isn’t. Her.

What happens when neighbors become friends while trying to ignore the chemistry between them? Will the stars keep pushing them together or will it all come crashing down?

Chapter One: Designed by Destiny

1. Fate; a predetermined or unavoidable destiny.

I never believed in fate or kismet or whatever the hell you want to call actions or consequences that makeup one's life. It's arduous to think that no matter what you do, no matter what decision you made you will end up at the exact same point because it was by fate's design. I've made selfless choices and been a reasonable person in hopes that the next person would pay it forward, not to benefit myself or my situation. Other times, I've been selfish and made a decision only to help myself, I'm human. Yet, none of these choices that I have ever made hurt anyone.

Every break up I've ever had has been amicable. Although, it probably helped that it lacked in all things passion and was more practical than anything else.

The reason I'm currently mulling over my belief in kismet is the fact that my very handsome and recently unattached neighbor is doing pull-ups from his balcony while I'm pretending to read my book.

While I could say that me choosing to sell all of my belongings and leaving all of my friends behind in North Carolina to move to New York was just an arbitrary decision. That this building that my new boss just happened to need to sublet was a fluke when I had no place set up to live. I could also say that the fact that my neighbor being non-other than Sebastian Stan, the walking lady boner, was just pure luck and nothing else.

Kismet? Luck? At this point, do I really care? Not particularly. He's single, sure. However, let's be realistic. I'm not like his last drop dead modelesque Brazilian style girlfriend. I'm the girl next door type who works mostly from home as a graphic designer who decided that for whatever reason, wanted to work closer to the actual office when I don't EVER go into said office. Him just being single means I don't feel guilty for eye diddling him from the next balcony.

I've been here for a few months and still haven't gotten used to his god-like perfection. I keep thinking that staring at him more will help with that but ...no, not yet. Like many other women, I am not immune to his charms. At our first encounter, I nearly was a stuttering mess of goo all over the floor. The mere recollection of it makes me turn shades of pink.

3 months ago:

"Hmm, box number 5?" I said looking for my mailbox. The numbers were worn off even though the building was newly renovated and in near pristine condition.

I spotted it and inserted the key, but it got stuck to my dismay. "Seriously?" As I grunted and tugged at the key, I heard a girlish giggle from behind me.

"Have you never worked a mailbox before?" I turned to see this 5'10'' model that was apparently a mean girl in school. I gave her my best smile despite myself.

"I have, but it would seem the ones in New York are sooo different from North Carolina....and I just can't figure it out." I drew out my southern accent for effect.

Just as I said it a broad-shouldered man with a baseball cap came around the corner chuckling at my statement, while his girl toy was huffing at my sarcastic remark. To be frank, I was surprised she even picked up on the sarcasm. "Not funny, Sebby."

He shrugged. "Funny, especially because you were being rude, Sophia." Hmmm. Sophia. Sounds exotic. As soon as my eyes meet his bright blue orbs, all my snark went straight back to the Carolina's in a handbasket. "H-Hi."

He held out his hand. "Sebastian. We're neighbors. This is my girlfriend. Sophia. I apologize for her manners, she can help it, but she chooses not to."

My slack jaw must've thrown him off because he just smirked and stared at me. I managed to garner some of my wits back, yay for womanhood everywhere. "Well, that sounds like a personal problem. I'm sure she'll do great things in life.." He smiled as we both took in her making funny faces at her selfie camera. He grunted out a sarcastic yea as I tried to hide my snicker.

He reached over my shoulder while I held my breath wondering what in the good gravy he was doing. Unfortunately, he didn't grab a lock of my hair and gently put it behind my ear, he did do the next best thing. At least, that's what I will keep telling myself. He grabbed the key that was currently within the grips of hell, otherwise known as my antique mailbox.

He laughed while he gently tried not to manhandle the government's property while I ogled him and his primadonna princess stared at her snapchat and took selfies behind us. "All the boxes get stuck occasionally. You have to pull the key out just a bit, then turn." I tried to hold my breath versus breathing the scent of him in. All woodsy pine and pure deliciousness. "Ah. Thank you for letting me in on the building secret. And here I thought I would have to move." He instantly frowned.

"Now we can't have that, neighbor. The last woman that lived here was a wallbanger and kept me up most nights." Had I been drinking the pretentious drink that his girl was drinking, I would've spewed it all over his preposterously handsome face.

"Sorry, wallbanger? Loud?" He chuckled while Sophia cleared her throat showing her readiness to leave. Slowly, the three of us made our way to the elevator while she remained transfixed on her social media app. I couldn't help but think that if this were my man, I would put my phone in the sink disposal for more talk time with him, yet here she was squandering precious minutes. Like they say, 'One man's trash is another man's treasure.'

He blushed a bit before continuing his explanation. "Yea. She had a few boyfriends throughout the few years she lived here. But man was she noisy, the walls aren't thick just so you know. Our beds are on the same one, and her frame would knock the wall and wake me up. I was sooo happy when she moved." I couldn't contain the laugh that bubbled up from within my noticeably smaller chest. Damn Sophia and her genetics....or surgeon.

"Well, that's just fantastic. I'm never gonna look at my boss the same way." He looked at me with his brow furrowed. "Oh, I'm subletting from her. She's..my boss." He let out this heartstopping laughter that made my cheeks hurt I smiled so hard. I probably looked like the Chesire Cat just got a catnip toy, but I didn't care. I risked a glance at Sophia, and she seemed annoyed at his larger than life presence and laughter. He held his stomach as his laughter quieted down.

"That is rich. Please, tell me how that goes." The elevator came to a stop on our floors, and he gestured for Sophia and me to get off before him. I walked past him to go to my door and looked back after he let her inside. He spoke a bit softer to my surprise.

"Sorry about her. She's...well nevermind. Just sorry. But hey, don't be a stranger." I smiled as I tried and failed miserably to be casual and missed my door, nearly falling into my apartment. Sebastian, thankfully, stifled his laughter and only smiled at my clumsiness. "Thanks, but I don't want the fake nails to come out. Oh! That was mean. I'm sorry."

He shook his head. "No worries. What's your name, Carolina?" I smiled. "Della, Della Fontaine." He went closer into his apartment. "Sebastian Stan. Nice to meet you, Della Fontaine."

Present:

He was the most genuine person I had met since coming to New York. Well, his whole crew was pretty straightforward, to be fair. He took me under his wing and showed me the best food trucks and places to gorge myself properly.

"Hey, Della!" He ripped me from my thoughts as he threw a pen at my head from his balcony, missing me entirely but scaring my cat Hagrid. Sebastian yelled out a sorry to the beautiful Maine Coon as he skirted inside to find sanctity.

"You shouldn't throw things, Seb. Last time you pegged Will, and it poked Chris in the eye. Not even sure how that happened." He shrugged and wiped the sweat off his brow while leaning on the railing; naturally, I ogle. I give good ogle.

"What are you doin' tonight, Carolina?" I put my book down, sitting up and shrugging. "I'm suupppooossseee to be setting up my dating profile, but if someone dangles a twinkie in front of me with better plans, I'm game. By better plans I mean laundry, grocery shopping, moving, even driving you to the airport." He frowned but then smiled at my ridiculousness.

"You can't do online dating in New York. So I will definitely rope you in on something better." He stood up stretching. Was he purposely trying to torture the women and me across the street? I know at least two of them have binoculars. One of which is his ex. Yep. Different story, another time.

"First, thank you for whatever plans you have pre-emptively made for me. Second, why can't I date online in New York?" I stood up and wandered over to my side of the balcony to be closer to him.

He gave me his famous, "Are you serious?" look, like that was going to provide me with allll the answers to the universe. My rebuttal was a challenging, yet mature, raising of the eyebrows.

"Alright, you want me to say it? You're too sweet and good, the girl next door. Wallstreet will devour you. Which means you'll have to bail me out for kicking the douchebags ass for hurting you." Part of me jumped for joy at the thought of my very own knight in shining armor, but then the nail in my coffin came.

"Look, if you really wanna date someone. I can set you up." What's that? Oh sure. I love roses on my headstone. Red, please.

I cleared my throat and tried to sound sprightly. "Only if I get to screen them like online dating can. I don't want to be set up with your dry cleaner or shoe repair guy. Not when you have people like Evans in your arsenal of friends. Not sayin' Evan's would go for a girl like me, just don't set me up with a dumpy loser or I'll cut you. Or at the very least jump on my bed all night long."

He narrowed his eyes, daring my sauciness. "You wouldn't." I nodded. "Oh, one bad date and trust me, I would. Chose wisely." As I turned to sashay into my flat. "Text me my plans tonight, so I know what to wear."

I felt like I won this round as I looked back at the playful glint in his baby blues.

The strikethroughs below didn’t work so head on over to the tag list and take a peek or make corrections.

Feel free to add yourself or comment below!!! Tag list: LINK

PLEASE COMMENT AND MY ASK BOX IS ALWAYS OPEN. I’M A LOVER OF ALL MY READERS SO FEEL FREE TO HIT ME UP ANYTIME!!! THANK YOU!!!

Forever: @ssweet-empowerment @shynara51 @loislp @dragonselene @frozenhuntress67 @shorteststories97 @haru-ririchiyo @sabr-n @hothornymetalkinkygirl @kaelamarissa @m-a-t-91 @whyyougottabesorudee @you-be-mad-bitch @goalie-love @moodygrip @myersge @slytherin-in-hufflepuff-robes @pvnk-bivch @peaceinourtime82 @just4muggles @darrkshhhadow @zlixlle @tacohead13 @9769997118 @afacelessgirlinthecrowd @killerbumblebee @helloitsmeamie203 @buttercupbandit @heidimonkey @violetrose90201 @nishanki1 @mrs-meghan-winchester @thejourneyneverendsx @coffeebooksandfandom @scuzmunkie @shallowshawn @booksbeforebois @wonderlandfandomkingdom @extremelydyingontheinside @cheeseburgermikey @nerdypinupcrystal @strangersstranger

Sebastian Stan: @guera31 @irishwaffle @hiddlestonstansworld @mcdesij @marvelsvalhalla @sebstanwintersoldier27 @sj-thefan

#Sebastian Stan #sebastianstan #sebastian stan x reader #sebastian imagine #fluff #romance #reader #sebastian stan reader #love #friends to lovers #stalker #crazyex #imagine #miniseries #kismet

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pkmntrainergreyze · 6 years

Text

I Am Up To No Good Pt. 1 (Pete Wentz x Reader)

a/n: Sorry I didn't updated so quickly, I had tons of drafts I want to finish all at the same time! I learned that I can do things one at a time.

I noticed I've been leaning more on First Person POV, I'll try to make this in 2nd. Also, I couldn't think of the character names so I used my friends' OCs. I hope you'd like this modern HP!Au

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Pete had always been the friend you love to hate. Whether the circumstances involve the Hogsmeade games or not, in the end he'll always be the man you'll call for help when pranking Brendon or bricking Joe's Samsung.

Yeah, usually the "hate" intensifies when it's the infamous decking halls season. Especially when old Mrs Minerva initiates the Hogsmeade field trip, which she also did this year. The duels in form of curses— whether work of magic or foul mouths— it's what made the Hogsmeade games so popular.

The magic of your friendship had been slipping lately, a shame really. He rarely ever joins your party, putting your letters back to the rejected-Pete-invites mailbox.

Now's the 27th invite, and you prayed prank wars will spark your friendship once more.

So here's to the fifth anniversary of the Hogsmeade games

You created a group

Nicole Row What's this group for?

You named the group Genius Ravenclaws

Andy Hurley I'm honored

Dallon Weekes I failed divinations why am I here?

Ray Toro Good evening everyone

You Hey genuises

Nicole Row set his name to Nic

Dallon Weekes set his name to DJazzy

You Where do you find trolls?

Nic ?

Ray Toro What for?

You Pete

Dallon Why do you insist on participating.

Nic Forbidden forest. Saw one near Hagrid's place, almost made an unbreakable vow

Ray Toro Maybe it's about time you stop? Let me remind you last time you got the all of us in detention

You Thanks guys

Nic Don't tell Hagrid I said that

Andy Hurley Are you sure you're not a slytherin??? @Nic?? Seen by Nic, Dallon and Ray Toro

You went offline.

You dove back to your azure blue bed. The bedsheet engulfed you in a light hug in seconds. The more you sunk, the more you can sniff the 4th year's "love potion" project, like yesterday, it reeks of wood, mint and... vinegar?

You hooked your hand to the edge of the mattress and kicked high enough for you to reach the faraway lamp. Before you could complain about the smell you heard a distinct cough, a very gutteral one. Almost intended.

You turned to look, only to see a disappointed Hufflepuff in a riddle secured Ravenclaw dorm.

The dandelion haired boy lingered beside your nightstand. He pulled his hand back as he saw the lights flicker on. When your eyes met he immediately fixed his tie and took a deep breath.

"I heard the game's still on" He's soaked in what seemed to be his house's trap. The acid slid into your nostrils. Your immediate action was to grab your wand. You waved it and like magic— no, with magic, the awful stench was gone and his cloak's dried.

Patrick muttered "thank you"

He rubbed his shirt and smiled a bit "I was absent when Miss Quills taught that" Thankfully he went for one of the brightest witch of the year, but the gleam in your eyes told him no excuses.

"Were you also absent when Sir Ford taught us the hot-air charm?"

"Um, yeah.... that seemed to be the case" He chuckled. He ruffled his hair and avoided your eyes. No, I didn't understand a word Mr Ford said.

You chuckled.

"Understood" You chirped "but why are you here? How did you got here?"

Patrick looked at you as if he was expecting for you to know the answer to life's toughest questions, then cleared his throat. His eyes balled around, reluctant to answer

"Pete"

When the name rolled off his tongue you dashed and dug your wand in his neck. He yelped, taking large steps backward, nearly tumbling down. His terrified eyes had no effect on your daunted aura. His lips wobbled and nose scrunched. You directed your malice at him. Eyes twitching in anger.

"Talk."

"HetoldmethepasswordfortheHufflepuffdormchangedandsaidIshouldaskMikeybutthenitturnsoutitwasn'ttherealMikeyitwasBrendonUrieandhetoldmethepasswordwasSherbertLemonsbutitwasn'tandoneofthebarrelsspiltvinegaralloverme—

"Um" You stopped kneading his cloak "Say what?"

Once you held back he scurried two feet apart from you. He took a Marina's Trench deep breath, before he attempted to rap.

"PetewillneverstopteasingmeandIneedreveng—

"Are you trying to copy Eminem, the Rap God or Ryan Ross?" You furrowed your eyebrows. "Cause honestly, no one knows what Ryan tells his girlfriend"

He raised both his hands, and bended his spine down. He bowed down for seven times till his chanting morphed into something audible

"please let me help you in the Hogsmeade games..."

With that, you clapped both hands to his shoulder. You turned your head up, and greeted him with sun bright eyes with zigzag smile crooked enough to scare him.

"Permission granted"

You both entered a dim room at seven pm.

"Are you sure this is the right place?" You asked. The blonde nodded and swiped the curtains up.

"Yeah, from what I've heard, Miss Clovette stores it in her chest"

You gave him one last stare before you scurried to find said chest. The Hufflepuff said the box is supposed to look give a luxurious and ancient vibe. You checked under the table, around the bookshelves, stumped the floorboards for a secret passage— alas, nothing.

You turned back to Patrick, defeated and skeptical.

"You said this was the place?"

"I'm sure it's here somewhere," He bit his bottom lip "I saw the third years practicing the riddiko-what-lous charm in it"

You can faintly remember that Bogarts were part of your brother's lesson, and he's a third year. If your recollection is correct then Patrick's statement wouldn't be so far fetched. He grinded his teeth, fingers subconsciously sneaking up his mouth. You sighed. What's his motif anyways?

While you turn books and scraps around, you asked questions.

"What did you say your reason to help me was again?" You paused for a bit. You levitated another pile with your wand and Patrick mimicked your movements, before he gave up and had to use labor instead.

Patrick groaned as he dispatched another pile aside. The weight lifted from his chest set him eased him. He wiped his brow.

"Payback"

Shame, for a Ravenclaw you find yourself completely puzzled. You opened your mouth but shut it. You tried to think about an image of Patrick and Pete arguing but none were valid in your standards. Besides, the only moments you see the two together is in Quidditch.

But the word does compliment a hot ass like Pete's, so you let your experiences talk for itself.

"As much as I want to believe me, cause everyone knows Pete can be a dick" Patrick chuckled slightly, which made you huff a laugh too "—Aren't you two the bestest of friends?"

Patrick frozed

"Y-you" He gawked "You don't get it do you?"

You shook your head "No, why?"

"He forces himself that he's my quote on quote" He drew an air quotation mark

"—Best friend, treats me like his personal entertainment at reunions, finds a way to push my buttons, makes a scene, next thing I know I had him covered in purple paint and have detention!"

"Wait" You poked his chest "Good boy Patrick is in detention?!"

You refused to believe such thing. Maybe Patrick is in Pete's side of the war on this one.

He squalled "What's more disappointing is that you actually thought Pete and I are close!"

You scowled "well it's not that farfetched, you're cousins and Quidditch fanatics"

"Yeah, but it gets annoying how Slytherin wins all the time"

"Cause Hufflepuffs are weak"

He squeaked. The voice was dark but it cheeped like a bird. It didn't felt natural.

You made sure you focused on Patrick, and only him, even when his crooked finger pointed behind.

"Patrick...." You cooed "take out your wand"

He whimpered "W-why?!"

"Just do it"

"Aww Patrick's quivering, look at his eyes (Y/n)! Look at him!"

You tried eyeing the man behind you but your eyes reached it's peak. You don't need to look to know what it was, the cold shivers down your spine spiked a wave to your left brain.

"You know the spell"

Patrick gulped and with shaking hands, he reached for his pockets. It took him a while to feel the edge of his wand, before he slowly aimed above your shoulder.

He took a deep breath

"Riddikulus!"

You turned around quick and tried to contain the Bogart. However, when you did, you saw nothing. You looked from left to right, then found the answer down below.

An egg wearing eyeliner.

"Didn't thought it would work" He gasped in disbelief

"So... is turning Pete into a hard boiled egg one of your wildest dreams?" You smirked, in which he returned with a shrug and toothy grin.

"You could say that" He chuckled "last Christmas he told the entire Stumph and Wentz family when making eggnogs that he usually scrambles eggs but would fertilize them for some quote on quote crazy superfine lasses—"

"Alright! Alright!" You covered your ears, feigning innocence "I don't need to know that!"

Patrick grabbed the egg and pursed it to his abyss-like bag. You avoided gazing at it. Everyone would prefer not to look directly at their fear, unless paid with a million galleons perhaps.

"Is it in?"

"That sounds awfully dirty" Patrick shivered. With the amount of time he must've spent with Pete his quotes rubbed off him. You smacked him directly at the head without looking. You felt sorta proud of your achievement and guilty at the same time.

"Merlin's beard, just tell me!"

"Yes, it's in the bag"

This is going to be a long week, ain't it?

----------

a/n: Sorry Pete's barely in here. He appears more on the next parts, I just wanna cut things off so it wouldn't last 5k like last imagines. Promise I'll try to make up for it.

#pete wentz #x reader #pete wentz x reader #pete wentz imagines #fall out boy #imagines

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schreibfeather · 6 years

Text

Dreams of Today 12

Characters: Haley Potter (femHarry), Draco Malfoy, Luna Lovegood, Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom, Ron Weasley, Rating: T Genre: Friendship/Romance, Angst, Fluff, Slow Burn Summary: Number one: Malfoy was a git. Nothing new there. Number two: He was an arrogant, annoying, little ferret. Number three: He used every chance he got to humiliate her and – and… that wasn’t right. Last year… at the Yule Ball… he had been acting surprisingly nice toward her. To be fair, Malfoy had also spent a big part of that night annoying the hell out of her… but… he’d also been… really sweet.. … Sequel to Songs of Yesterday. Haley Potter still has nightmares about that night at the graveyard. But is the nightmare really over? Luckily she has her friends to keep her from worrying too much. Her friends and… a certain Slytherin that is really bad at pretending he hates her.

Chapter 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | (link to masterlist)

12 – Under Stars

HALEY

The night air was cold. But the quiet surrounding the astronomy tower was peaceful. Haley pulled her warm cloak tighter around her. She was glad she had thought of bringing it.

"Are you cold?" The voice of Draco Malfoy asked lowly from her right. She had almost forgotten he was there. They had been sitting there on the edge of the Astronomy tower, looking out across the school grounds below them for a while. It seemed surreal that she could sit there next to the Slytherin and appreciate the silence of the peaceful night.

"No," she whispered almost soundlessly. His gaze lingered on her thick cloak for a moment before he looked away again. The silky robes he was wearing didn't look too warm.

"Why did we have to meet out here in the cold again?" He muttered, frowning slightly.

"You were the one who said it was suspicious if we kept meeting at the same spot. Besides, you wanted to check something on your moon chart, remember?" She reminded him.

Malfoy scoffed. "But it's December! Surely, we could have found a different place? Something indoors? Where it's warm?" He argued, completely ignoring her second statement.

Haley rolled her eyes. "It's not that cold. At least it isn't snowing yet."

He eyed her cloak once more. Almost making a show of it. She knew it was petty but somehow she couldn't just offer her cloak to him. She wanted him to ask. She wondered how long it would take until he asked.

"Maybe we can find an empty classroom next time," she added as an afterthought.

"Next time?" He echoed. His voice sounded surprisingly interested now. She saw him looking at her from the corners of her eyes. "You know… it's not long until Christmas break now."

He was right. Christmas was only three weeks away. It was already December. The last weeks had gone by so fast, it seemed like time had begun to pass twice as fast. Still, it wasn't all that surprising with all the school work the fifth years had to do. On top of that there was Quidditch and the secret DA meetings, which hadn't really given Haley much time to pause and revel at how many weeks had passed by. The little time she did have was mostly spent doing homework or going to see Hagrid or spending time with her friends. Malfoy, she had seen only in class, in the Great Hall or occasionally on the school grounds. It hadn't bothered her too much, since she still wasn't sure how she felt about him. But when Luna had slipped her a note from the boy, saying he wanted to meet up it had filled her with nervous excitement and she had agreed to come. Which is how the two of them ended up sitting on the edge of the astronomy tower on a cold winter night.

...

DRACO

Draco waited. But Potter didn't seem to get the hint. She was just staring out into the night as if there was something extraordinary about it. Why wasn't she looking at him like that? Well, it was no use. He needed to know. What are your plans for Christmas? Should he ask it like that? It was simple enough and she could just give him an answer without him having to reveal anything first. Like how he planned to stay at Hogwarts, too, in case she wasn't leaving. And how much time he had spent fantasizing about all the things they could do when the castle was almost empty and they weren't busy with school and homework all the time. He really hoped she would stay.

"So, um… are you going to stay at Hogwarts over the holidays?" Draco asked in a casual tone. He hadn't meant to ask that directly but perhaps it was for the best. There was no room for misunderstandings at least.

Potter turned to look at him. Finally. Surprise was written all over her face.

"I don't know." She seemed to think about it. "Probably not."

"Oh." He tried not to show how disappointed he was. "Well, I probably won't be here either," he replied almost petulantly. Was she going to stay with the Weasel? Or was she going to stay somewhere else? He was a tad curious but if she wasn't going to offer up the information herself, he wasn't going to ask. She would probably think he asked to spy on her or something like that.

...

HALEY

He wasn't asking where she was going to spend Christmas. To be honest, she didn't even know herself yet. But it would be nice if she could spend it with Sirius and everyone else. Malfoy seemed to be nervous about something. His fingers were tapping against his leg restlessly and he kept glancing over at her like… he was waiting for something? But what could he be waiting for? Was he going to steal her cloak? Well, she had to admit that it wasn't all that cold any more, now that the wind had receded.

"So..." Malfoy started to say eventually, "What's on your Christmas list?"

"Hm?" She hadn't expected something that trivial.

"You know… that list you make so everyone else knows what to get you for Christmas," he explained to her in a tone that made her feel really stupid.

"I know what a Christmas list is," she bit back with a glare. Malfoy simply raised his eyebrows at her mockingly and smirked in that way that used to make her blood boil. Now, she found it only mildly annoying.

"I'm impressed," Malfoy, the git he was, replied sounding unbearably amused.

"You're such a-" Haley stopped herself before she said something she might regret later. She watched him closely while looking for the right words. The smirk looked slightly forced and it seemed almost like something else was hiding behind the amusement in his eyes. She noticed his fingers that were playing around with the seams of his robes now. Those were definitely signs of nervousness. This was interesting. The expression on Malfoy's face and the movements of his hands seemed to completely contradict each other. Haley filed that information away for later. Now, she wanted to find out what the boy was anxious about.

"Why were you asking in the first place?" She asked, curiously.

"I don't know. For what possible reason might I have asked such a question?" He asked in return. He wasn't looking at her, but she could practically hear him roll his eyes.

"Were you planning… on getting me something for Christmas?" She asked, straight to the point. She didn't have the patience tonight for beating around the bush.

"I-I" He spluttered, turning to look at her with a start. He probably hadn't expected her to get straight to it.

"I wasn't – well, I-I…" Where was the cocky smirk now? The blush that was starting to colour his cheeks made Haley grin. She could barely stop herself from snorting loudly. She liked that she could turn the Slytherin into this bumbling, blushing boy. It felt exhilarating. And she didn't even have to do much.

Malfoy took a deep breath and seemed to get a grip on his composure again.

"I was merely asking out of politeness. You know, hypothetically speaking. If I wanted to get you a present…" He looked up into the night sky, pensively. "What would you like?"

It was really sweet the way he was trying to pretend this didn't matter to him when it was obvious how much thought he had put into it.

"I don't know," she replied with a shrug. "I never really got many presents so…"

"There's nothing that you want?" He asked incredulously, like she had just told him she hated Quidditch or something equally upsetting. He pulled up his leg, which had been dangling from the edge, and turned his body halfway toward her.

Well, it wasn't completely true. There was something she wanted. But she doubted he could clear her godfather's name or get rid of Umbridge for her.

So she shrugged again. "Not really," she mumbled softly.

Malfoy's eyebrows were knit together so closely they seemed like one white blond line.

"Fine," he replied with a sigh. He ran his hand through his hair that was free of gel once more. He had worn it like that a few times over the past weeks.

"What about you?" Malfoy asked after a moment.

"What about me?"

Malfoy rolled his eyes. "Aren't you curious about my list?"

"Wait, you seriously have a Christmas list? How old are you, four?" Haley teased him. She couldn't help it. It was a reflex almost.

"Very funny, Potter," Malfoy growled, squinting his eyes at her. "How else am I supposed to let people know what to get me?"

"I don't know… You could let them surprise you," she suggested.

The Slytherin frowned. "But what if I get something I don't like?" He asked, sounding honestly confused. That boy really was ridiculous.

"You're right! What a tragedy that would be!" She remarked sarcastically. It was so easy to make fun of him in this playful way. It seemed almost natural. Effortless. And she liked it much better than the hurtful insults and jabs that had been their form of communication before. Malfoy on the other hand didn't seem to share her amusement if the dark look he was shooting her was any indication. It hadn't been too much, had it?

...

DRACO

If anyone one else had talked to him in that manner, Draco would have hexed them without hesitating even for a second. But for some deluded reason that was beyond him the girl's remarks amused him. He felt all warm and fuzzy inside at the thought that she was comfortable enough with him to tease him like that. Not maliciously but somehow… in such a familiar and friendly way.

It didn't mean he had to show her that though. Instead he scowled at her and narrowed his eyes.

"You're awfully bold today," he drawled, lifting an eyebrow. "You're not planning on throwing me off the tower and getting rid of me, are you?" He stared into her eyes intensely, unconsciously leaning closer until he could even count the lashes that framed her green irises.

Haley shook her head, slowly. Seemingly taken aback at the sudden proximity. Draco noticed her licking her lips and it took all of his self-control not to grab her face and press his own against them. He leaned backwards, creating a safe distance between them again. He had a point to make here. He couldn't let himself get distracted. There was a flicker of surprise flashing across the girl's face. Or perhaps it was disappointment. Draco told himself it was disappointment. Back to the point, Draco!

"So..." he began, studying his fingernails absently. His fingers were paler than usual. They were as cold as icicles. He really should have worn something warmer. "you don't want to know what's on my list?"

Potter snorted. "Not necessarily. I mean, it's not all that hard to guess, really."

Draco shot her a sceptical look. She shrugged. She did that a lot, he noticed.

"It's either something incredibly expensive or… a really dark and evil artefact that can only be found at Nocturne Alley."

He glared at her in annoyance. She was really pushing it today.

"Careful Potter, you don't-"

"Oh! I know." She interrupted him, something was glinting in her eyes. Was that mirth?

"What now, Potter?" He wasn't whining. Absolutely not.

"I know what you want." She replied excitedly.

What? Where in Merlin's name was she going with this?

He waited for an answer but the girl wasn't answering. She simply kept grinning at him. Then she opened the clasp that was holding her cloak together and removed it from her shoulders. Draco froze. His heart beat sped up considerably. Why was she undressing herself? Did she-? Did she want to-? Did she think this was what he wanted? Right here on top of the astronomy tower? His cheeks felt uncomfortably hot all of a sudden.

Then the world went dark. And his face was covered by something heavy and soft. He reached for the cloth that was covering his face and pulled it off him. It was Haley's cloak. Draco wouldn't complain if the earth decided to swallow him up right this moment.

...

HALEY

She had come to the conclusion that he wasn't going to ask on his own. Maybe he thought that she was cold and that's why he didn't ask. But as much as she enjoyed teasing the Slytherin, she didn't want him to actually freeze to death. So she offered him her thick woolen cloak. Well… she threw her cloak at him more than offering it. But the result was the same. After pulling the cloth off him Malfoy blinked at her, seemingly confused and shocked and also… embarassed? But why? Because she had thrown her cloak at him?

"Well, put it on," she prompted him, after a moment of silence.

"Why would I want your cloak, Potter?" He mumbled without looking at her. Haley rolled her eyes.

"Because you're obviously freezing," she explained, before adding, "And in case you freeze to death I don't want people to think I was the one who killed you."

Malfoy snorted at that. "Oh please, like you could as much as hurt a fly."

"Fine. Give it back then," She replied holding out her hand.

Malfoy hesitated. "I'm not cold," he said but while he was saying the words a visible shiver went through him.

"Knew it," the Gryffindor commented, lifting one eyebrow. The boy still didn't move. What was he waiting for, now? Was he embarrassed that she caught him lying?

In a quick move, Haley snatched her cloak from the boy's fingers and sloppily draped it over his shoulders. She blamed the late hour for her lack of patience.

...

DRACO

All of a sudden he was surrounded by pleasant comfortable warmth and a foreign smell. Well, not that foreign. He had smelled the fragrance before… Unconsciously, he took a deep breath. He smelled the soap the house elves used to clean the laundry with. But also… something else. Something flowery and also… something that reminded him of owl treats. It shouldn't have smelled as good as it did. It was her. Haley. It was her fragrance. He pulled the cloth tighter around his shoulders absently. Then he noticed that he was being watched. His fingers froze where they were holding onto the fabric. Looking up, he realised it was just Potter. Well, not just Potter. The Gryffindor was never just anything. The look on her face was positively gleeful or… no she looked definitely smug.

He scowled. He didn't like people looking at him like that. But apparently Potter wasn't done taunting him.

"See, this is why sensible people wear warm clothes when it's cold outside," she mocked him. Ah. That was a jab at his silk robes. Draco had to admit that they weren't exactly warm but they were really soft. And he looked handsome in them. Potter herself was wearing a pair of loose muggle pants and a dark green wool jumper that looked like it was selfmade. And also oddly similar to those tasteless jumpers that her Weasley friends always wore.

"Funny, for a second I thought you sounded like my mother," Draco replied dryly. Why was the thought of his mother entering his head now? He didn't want to think about his mother when he was on a date. And really, this wasn't something his mother would have said in the first place.

"Do sensible people also give away their clothes when it's cold?" He added in a bored tone. What he really wanted to ask was whether she was cold now that she didn't have her cloak any more. But of course, he couldn't ask her in such a direct manner.

"Don't worry," Potter replied. "My jumper might not be made of silk but at least it's really warm." And scratchy, he imagined. Had his question been really that obvious? Or was she simply able to see right through his mask of indifference?

"Who said I was worried?" He questioned, trying not to show his relief. "And besides there's nothing wrong with wearing silk robes. I wouldn't expect you to understand that." Draco remarked, while he pulled the cloak tighter around him, nestling into it. It was really warm. And it smelled so nice.

The only thing that was slightly irking him was the smug grin that had reappeared on Potter's lips. At least she didn't seem to be freezing. That was good. She could have given the cloak to him sooner, really. Wait…why hadn't she given it to him sooner? He squinted his eyes at her, suddenly suspicious. "So, you knew I was cold the whole time and you happily watched me suffer?"

The girl had the audacity to shrug. "Well, I wouldn't say happily but… old habits die hard, I guess."

He was scandalised. Well, well, well. Who would have thought the golden girl was holding grudges?

"Is this some kind of belated payback?" He scoffed. "Are you sure you're not actually a Slytherin?"

Potter rolled her eyes. She opened her mouth like she wanted to say something but ended up biting her lips instead. It almost seemed like she was hiding something she wasn't sure whether to tell him. Well, he had enough of her mocking. To some extent it was enjoyable. Not the mocking part but… the banter. It seemed almost friendly. But… would it kill the girl to actually give him the impression that she only slightly liked spending time with him? If that was the case. Which Draco had not an inkling on. She was almost better at hiding her emotions than him! Or perhaps it was because she wasn't feeling anything? He sighed, placing his hands on the ground next to him and looking up into the night sky.

Then he felt a surprisingly warm touch on his hand. He didn't have to check to know what it was. His skin seemed to remember the feeling of Haley's small but warm hand and his fingers curled up to greet it almost reflexively. She chuckled in a way that made him think she found his reaction amusing. He had to admit that it was a tad pathetic. But that didn't bother him enough for him to pull his hand away and go without her touch. Not when it made his skin tingle as if a thousand little ants were crawling up and down his arm.

...

HALEY

Honestly, she felt a bit bad about letting Malfoy suffer in the cold. And then also telling him she had done it intentionally. Maybe she had crossed a line there. There was a frown around his mouth as he looked up into the sky. But what could she say to make it disappear? Did she even want it to disappear? Before she could try to come up with an answer to either of these questions her hand had reached out toward him almost on its own accord. The boy seemed slightly startled by her touch but even so, he didn't hesitate to turn his hand over and take hold of her own. His eagerness made Haley chuckle softly. It was kind of cute how he seemed to refuse to look at her.

"You know… your hands are really cold," she found herself whispering after a moment of silence.

That made Malfoy finally turn to her. "Obviously," he scoffed. "It's December, isn't it?"

"I've noticed it before, though." She replied sheepishly. She was aware of how her words drew attention to the fact that she had held Draco Malfoy's hand often enough to know about his usual skin temperature.

The Slytherin squinted his eyes at her. "So?" He asked in a rather bored tone.

"Well… I've read about… some… people with cold skin," She answered hesitantly. It was a good thing she hadn't said creatures instead of people.

"People?"

She nodded. "People and… you know… well... vampires." She didn't know why she had said it. Of course, she didn't actually think Malfoy was a vampire. She had just wanted to lighten up the mood or… something. But she certainly hadn't expected him to react like this. Apart from the crease between his eyebrows the expression on his face seemed frozen. What was he thinking? Haley was just about to ask him exactly that when the boy seemed to come back to life. He chuckled once. Then he smirked at her in a way that could only be described as roguish. "So, you've finally discovered my dark secret, haven't you?"

What?

The Slytherin pulled up his other leg as well and knelt down next to her, leaning into her personal space. "I actually lured you here to suck all the blood from you and cast your dead body off the astronomy tower."

He was kidding… right?

"Come on, do you really think I'd believe this rubbish?"

"I don't know… you tell me," he drawled lazily, while he lifted her hand and slowly ran his fingers across her skin, following the path of her artery. If this was a joke Haley really didn't find it funny at all. Now he was even raising her wrist to his lips… like he wanted to bite her...

"Stop that," she muttered in annoyance and tried to pull her hand free. He didn't let her.

"Let go!" She pulled once more, this time so forcefully that she fell onto her back, pulling the Slytherin right along with her.

He blinked down at her in surprise, his elbows resting left and right from her face. Then the smirk was back again.

"Are you scared?" He asked, while pushing dark locks out of her eyes. She shook her head violently. There was no reason to be scared. He was just messing with her. There was no way she wouldn't have noticed that Malfoy was a vampire. Haley ignored her heart that was madly beating in her chest. Did Malfoy actually feel it?

"You're not actually a vampire, right? You were just kidding?" She bit her tongue but it was too late. The words were already out. Malfoy stared at her for a long moment that seemed to span several minutes. Then, finally, he broke out into loud, roaring laughter. A wave of relief washed over her. Of course, it had been a stupid joke. She was such a fool. He rolled off her and lay down on his back next to her. She wanted to scowl at him but his laughter sounded so carefree and light that she smiled softly instead.

"I think you'd have noticed if I was a vampire," the boy mumbled, still chuckling slightly. "Honestly Potter, just because my hands are a little cold? Did you pay attention during Defence Against the Dark Arts at all?"

Haley pouted. Defence Against the Dark Arts was her best subject!

"It wasn't just that! Your… your skin is also incredibly pale."

"So?" He asked, sounding awfully smug. "Did you ever actually see me suck someone's blood?"

"Well.. no but… you could have done it in secret," she replied stubbornly, rolling onto her side to face him. He didn't say anything in reply. Surprisingly. He simply watched her. The smug grin on his face was changing into something softer. His grey eyes were glimmering, all warmth and playfulness. She liked him that way. It made her almost forget that he had just made a major fool out of her. Almost. Quickly, Haley lifted her left hand and placed her fingers on Malfoy's chin. Then she pulled open his mouth and pushed his upper lip upwards. His canines were a bit pointy but they seemed like regular teeth.

"What are you doing, Potter?" The Slytherin drawled, sounding slightly disconcerted. He bit his teeth together, almost chopping her fingers off.

"Just confirming," she answered innocently. The boy took hold of her hand that was just hovering there in front of his face. His eyebrows were pulled together. Like he wasn't quite sure what to make of her. Then he snorted, shaking his head. "You're ridiculous," he mumbled softly. His words were far from flattering but his voice sounded so affectionate and sweet that he might as well have told her she was adorable or something along those lines. She didn't think she could ever get used to this side of him. How was she supposed to react to that?

...

DRACO

The girl really was ridiculous. Him? A vampire? Was she completely daft? He had to admit that it was a tiny bit cute, though. Completely ridiculous but endearingly so. He lifted her hand to his mouth and pressed a soft kiss to the back of it. It was just a hand. Nothing special. But even so, this small hand holding his filled him with undescribable joy. Because it was Haley's hand. And she was letting him hold it. He closed his eyes for a moment, basking in the overwhelming feelings that were welling up inside him. When he opened them again and saw Haley right there he was hit with the overpowering desire to kiss her. He noticed her eyes widening slightly as he scooted closer to her.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to bite you," he muttered, while he tried not to let her reaction discourage him. Haley rolled her eyes at his words. But she was definitely grinning. And then he felt a light pressure on his hand that made his doubts disappear all at once. He grinned back and leant in the last few inches that separated his lips from hers. Getting to finally kiss her again was like gulping down a cold glass of water after not drinking anything for weeks. His hand crawled over her jumper toward her back and pulled her closer to him. Her hand had found its way into his hair and the way she was gently running her fingers through his silky strands made pleasant tingles spread all across his skin, starting from his scalp. There was not an inch between them but still he needed to be closer. Rolling the girl onto her back, he loomed above her. He pulled away for a second, catching his breath. Looking down at Haley's flushed cheeks, her kiss-swollen lips and her sparkling eyes, he suddenly felt like he was suffocating. His heart felt like someone was squeezing it. She was so… lovely? Amazing? Precious? Wonderful? But he couldn't think of a word that would adequately describe her. She was so much more than any words could express. Was this love? He didn't know. He cupped her face in his hand and stroked her cheek tenderly. She leaned into his touch with a soft smile.

"I…" He started to say but he didn't know how to continue. "I… you – I…"

He gulped, taking a deep breath to try and calm his pounding heart. What was he doing? Perhaps he should just keep his mouth shout. Perhaps it was better to wait. But what was he waiting for?

Clang. Draco froze. What was that noise? Haley seemed alarmed as well.

"You heard that, too, right?" She whispered worriedly. Before he could answer she pushed him off her, firmly but not ungently, and got to her feet.

"Wait, where are you-?"

"Stay here," she instructed and ran after the noise in true Gryffindor fashion.

...

HALEY

Hearing a suspicious noise really should have worried Haley. And it did worry her but at the same time she felt relieved for the distraction it provided. She liked kissing Malfoy. As crazy as that sounded she could admit that. And she had already admitted it to herself. But… from the looks of it the boy had been about to tell her something… something that she wasn't ready to deal with yet. So she had been glad at the chance to escape his intense eyes for a moment. It was eerily quiet in the hall that opened toward the observation deck and the moonlight didn't provide much light. Where had the noise come from? She had almost reached the stairs when she spotted something shiny lying in front of one of the windows. Carefully she approached the thing and knelt down in front of it. It was a telescope. Nothing more, nothing less. She sighed in relief. Someone had probably forgotten it on the window sill during one of the Astronomy lessons and the wind had caused it to fall down. Right? That seemed logical enough. From the corner of her eyes she registered a sudden movement. What was-?

Tiny orange velvet paws came into her view then. Haley sighed again. It was just a cat. Light-footedly, it jumped onto the window sill and rubbed its head against the dark stone wall. Maybe the cat had caused the telescope to fall down in the first place. She got up and watched the animal thoughtfully. There was something caught between its teeth. A mouse? No. It was… a toffee? The cat dropped the toffee and meowed at her in a way that seemed almost disappointed. Then it hopped down again and vanished into the darkness. Haley picked up the candy and held it in front of her eyes. It wasn't a brand she had seen before. She shrugged, putting it back on the window sill again. It was just candy.

She turned around and made her way back toward the observation deck. Malfoy was already waiting for her. There was a frown on his face and his arms were crossed in front of his chest.

"It was just a cat," she informed him, her voice a soft whisper.

"A cat?" He echoed.

She nodded.

"It wasn't Filch's cat, was it?"

She shook her head. Malfoy sighed, running his hand across his face. He was probably relieved as well.

"I told you that you're annoyingly reckless before?" He asked tiredly.

"Once or twice," Haley offered with a grin. Malfoy snorted but the corners of his mouth were definitely twitching. She wondered if he was disappointed that the noise had interrupted them earlier. If he was he didn't show it.

"Maybe it's better if we head back. Just in case, you know?" Haley suggested. She hadn't brought her watch but she was sure that it was already close to midnight. Maybe even later.

"Oh," he said, seemingly surprised. "Well, you're probably right." Despite their words neither of them made a move to go.

"Um… so, about Christmas," Malfoy began, shuffling his feet.

"Yes?"

"You know… will… will we see each other before?"

"Of course. We see each other every day, don't we? In class, in the Great Hall, on the grounds..."

Malfoy scowled, squinting his eyes at her. "Don't push it, Potter."

She chuckled. Where was his sense of humour?

"Okay, okay," she relented. "When do you want to meet?"

"I was thinking, the day before the holidays begin."

"That should work. Are you going to give me my present then?"

"Your present? What makes you think I would give you a present after the way you were making fun of me?"

"Fine. No presents then." Haley replied with a grin. "That way I don't have to feel bad for not giving you anything either."

"Brilliant," Malfoy grumbled. There was a pout on his face that made Haley think he had not understood the real meaning behind her words after all. But only a second later, he took one step toward her, leaned into her personal space and softly whispered into her ear, "I'm looking forward to it."

When he leaned back there was a real smile on his face. It was beautiful. And for some reason it made her want to do something stupid like kiss him.

"Night Potter," he whispered before leaning in to quickly press his lips against her cheek. The soft touch seemed so innocent and sweet that she only stared at the boy for a second as if she had forgotten he was capable of doing something like this.

The next thing she registered was a heavy cloth being thrown at her. Oh. Her cloak.

"I believe this is yours," Malfoy drawled lazily, his smile turning into an amused smirk. Then he turned around and left the observation deck. He hadn't even thanked her, she realised. Of course he hadn't. Malfoys didn't thank people. She rolled her eyes. On her way back toward Gryffindor tower she wondered what in Merlin's name she was going to get the boy for Christmas. Maybe she could ask Luna if she had an idea.

…

#dreams of today #dreams of today fic #my writing #harry potter #draco malfoy #harry potter fanfiction #fanfiction #fanfic #Fem!Harry #fem harry #female harry potter #girl!harry #drarry #feather writes

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braith-eisen-isms · 7 years

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Get-to-know the Writer

Thanks to @zsweber-studios for tagging me in this! It looks like a lot of fun!

Rules: tag 5 or more other writers. If you aren’t tagged, feel free to use these questions anyway and consider yourself tagged!

1. Short stories, novels, or poems? I’ve been told I write some fairly decent poetry, but I personally really don’t enjoy doing it.

Novels are my main focus, but mine tend to get a little too big to write easilly, so I’m trying to branch out and write two novella’s this year. On top of study, this and everything else in my life. So no pressure.

It’s going good though, I have two solid ideas and one is almost a third of the way to being complete. And if I just get one finished this year I’ll still be happy!

2. What genre do you prefer reading? Fantasy definitely. My favorite books at the moment are definitely The Red Knight by Miles Cameron (if you love Knights fighting monsters this is the book for you, Cameron really knows his armour), and Promise of Blood by Brian Mcellan, the French revolution with magic and the book that really inspired me to start writing my own gunpowder fantasy novel! (I had already started when I first read it, but it really inspired me to keep going!)

3. What genre do you prefer writing? All kinds of fantasy. I love mixing up and messing with the genre though, I don’t generally write your ‘typical’ high or low fantasy. My big novel project is to create a Fantasy Epic inspired by the Thirty Years War (In essence it’d be like Game of Thrones/ASOIAF with gunpowder.I’m also very fond of Science Fiction, but I haven’t done too much on that front in years... Might have to change that.

4. Are you a planner or a write-as-I-go kind of person? Both! I love to plan out how a world works, to make it feel lived in and real. And if I can’t write the main story for a lack of inspiration or whatever then I might just do some world building or planning.

But I only give myself a skeleton plan, the rest of the time I go where the muse takes me!

5. What music do you listen to while writing?

I love Metal and Rock. I always have and I always will. But when I write I actually listen to classical music and movie soundtracks for the most part. I listened to more metal back when I wrote Sci Fi, but Classical and soundtracks really put me in the mood for fantasy.

And yes, the Lord of the Rings Soundtrack features quite heavily in my writing playlists.

6. Fave books/movies? For movies I have a handful of true favorites. Naturally all three Lord of the Rings movies sit pretty high on this list (and how could they not!) As does the original Star Wars trilogy. Other than that I love Kingdom of Heaven (historical innacuracies aside), and Zulu (not least because of the major lack of historical innacuracies. Also despite being such an awesome movie you probably couldn’t make anything like it today unfortunately). And special mentions to Dunkirk and The Darkest Hour, two absolutely beautiful movies depicting the darkest days of the Second World War.

As for books, I’ve pretty much mentioned my favorites already (The Red Knight and Promise of Blood, and their respective series), but another honourable mention needs to go to the Skulduggery Pleasant Books!

Also a recent discovery is the Apocalypse: Diary of a Survivor series by Matt J Pike, he’s a local author and it’s set in the city I live in! (I think I died though, a comet didn’t land on my house but a tidal wave hits my suburb :/ if only I lived a couple of streets down I was on the very edge of this apocalpyse!)

7. Any current WIPs? With TRRA done I’ve kind of put a stop to writing fics on here for the time being as I have two Novella’s on the workbench and a novel. If that sounds insane, that’s probably because it is.

8. If someone were to make a cartoon out of you, what would your standard outfit be?

Now I have a reputation for loving history and being a bit of a re-enactor, that would definitely have to go into my style.

If it was a kids cartoon I’d be the guy wearing the ‘knight helmet’ in the background, but otherwise wears normal clothes all the time. The helmet never comes off.

If it was a more serious cartoon I’d like to have a sword or even my chainmail become a part of my character. The mail is really heavy but I’d wear it more often if I had more undertunics, and practiced fighting more...

Other than that, boots and cargo pants/shorts would probably be my outfit on the side.

Or full medieval garb. Depending on when/ where it’s set.

9. Create a character description for yourself: Now this is a tough one... Here goes.

He was tall and solidly built, with a short crop of fiery hair and a ruddy face. With long arms and more often than not a slouched stance. While a jolly smile always seemed to be on his lips. In fact, despite his relative youth he had something like the air of a jolly uncle about him.

10. Do you like incorporating people you actually know into your writing? In High School I wrote a Sci Fi novel, by the time I was in Year 10, my entire Year 8 class featured in the novel in some way or another, largely at their own insistance.

I wound up killing a lot of them off, because it’s hard to track that many named characters. No one cared.

More recently I don’t tend to incorporate people into my characters too much. Sometimes I’ll put bits and pieces, but it’s more likely to be mannerisms than anything else for the most part.

I put myself in there a lot though. Or bits of me.

My first novella has pretty much a self insert. Aside from the fact he was crippled in a hunting accident.

11. Are you kill-happy with characters? Not without a reason. I’ve been told in my big novel I need to kill more of the characters off, but I’ve planned out a whole series so I can’t kill them all off yet.

12. Dream job? Definitely being an author. I’d settle for part time writing part time teaching quite happily though.

13. Coffee or tea while writing? Hot chocolate. I’ve never really liked tea or coffee. Except the local brand of iced coffee because that stuff is amazing.

14. Slow or fast writer? Sometimes I’m as slow as a snail. Others... Well my novella more than doubled in size over the past fortnight and I haven’t written anything in the past four days.

15. Where/who/what do you find inspiration from? Where don’t I find inspiration?

The real world, particularly real world history is a HUGE inspiration for me. I love incorporating the weird and wacky bits of history into my stories.

Also everything I’ve ever read has probably influenced me on some level. My favorite authors in particular have done a tonne.

And some of my favorite RPers as well, because they’re basically just unpaid authors, sadly (looking at you @miss-pyrrha-nikos-isms)

16. If you were put into a fantasy world, what would you be? I will 100% be either a storytelling knight or the most absent minded wizard you have ever seen.

Either way I’ll be the jolly, big guy in the group. Who probably dies at the end for dramatic effect. :/

Although Hagrid didn’t die in Harry Potter so it’s not too set in stone.

17. Most fave book cliche? Least fave book cliche? Yet another tough one

My most favorite cliche would probably have to be the heroic last stand. I love them, I love writing them. Even if I feel dead inside if my favorite character dies in the stand. There’s something so powerful about it.

Least favorite is easilly forced romance. If there isn’t any chemistry between two characters and you throw them together because they’re your two leading characters... Also can we agree to write more wholesome relationships rather than driving a relationship through the mud to create more drama for the characters. Unless it’s a romance book because that’s their thing (to my knowledge, I’ve never read one... Unless 1984 counts... Most romantic line ever said in a book: The first time I saw you, I wanted to bash your head in with a brick.)

18. Fave places to write: At my desk. Usually around 11pm for some reason.

19. Fave scenes to write? Whatever the muse decides. Although I love battle scenes. I need to be at my A game to write them though.

20. Most productive time of day for writing? 11pm.

21. Reason for writing: I am, and always have been (since I could talk) a storyteller. It’s not that I choose to write, it’s that I have to.

Now I think aside from @hothead-carr-hayes Zack has tagged all my main writing friends on here. But if I’m forgetting you (sorry!) feel free to tag yourself!

#about mun

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scaredofrobots · 7 years

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The Failed Advent Calendar

For @petalstofish who is my fellow “skip everything its Christmas” pal. This is a prequel to THIS which is also Petals’ Fault. Lily Evans attempts an 84 Day Advent Calendar FFN

October 1, the sun rose over the grounds of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and caused several individuals within the sixth year dorms of Gryffindor tower to be filled with excitement and anticipation for a variety of reasons.

In the boys dormitory, James Potter woke up before the sun and headed down to the Great Lake to begin preparations for his Halloween prank. He bid goodbye to his sleeping mates and cheerfully made his way with Hagrid’s recommended “squid snacks”.

In the girls dormitory, Lily Evans was still sleeping. She had her “October 1 Christmas Jumper” laid out to wear for her Invitation Only Big 84 Days Until Christmas Event to take place that evening in the Gryffindor common room and was dreaming of dancing Sugar Plums.

While James was attempting to communicate with the Giant Squid through morse bubble code, his mates were planning their “Lilytober” activities on their way to breakfast and were blissfully unaware of the plans created for them by the woman who their favorite month had been named after. Remus had to go to the library to return a book, so Sirius and Peter gleefully headed toward the Great Hall after promising to bring him some tea and toast to charms.

Later, Sirius would reflect upon the moment he should’ve known that the entire month was going to go to shit was when he was greeted at breakfast by an all too cheerful Lily Evans.

Lily Evans, who he had only been friends with since August 22nd when she completely drank him under the table at the Longbottom’s wedding and somehow still successfully talked them out of not only the underage magic citation but the underage drinking citation. James had been suspicious when Lily greeted Sirius so cordially on the train on September 1st. But Sirius simply said “I had a ‘Chat with Evans’ and the Longbottom’s wedding and we are now mates”. He shuddered to think how disgustingly besotted James would get if he knew not only how much of a lush the love of his life was but also how good she was getting out of trouble.

However, on October 1 Sirius was just glad to see his newly found mate- holding a plate filled with his preferred breakfast (50% bacon, 25% toast, 10% eggs and 15% potatoes) that he didn’t even think to be suspicious.

“Hello Sirius!” Lily said offering him his plate as he sat down, “Sleep well?”

“How come you got him breakfast?” Peter asked pouting

“Like the dead. It’s October 1st you know” Sirius said, salting his eggs.

“Really, it’s like I don’t even exist” Peter interjected as he spooned some porridge onto his plate

“YES! 84 days until Christmas you know! And of course you exist Peter, I just never know what Marauders will actually be at breakfast besides Sirius ” Lily responded, passing Peter the bacon.

“OI! It’s the most important meal of the day and you do not want to see Sirius Black without his breakfast ” Sirius said as he snatched another piece of bacon from Peter’s plate.

Lily only laughed before handing each of them an envelope. She watched nervously as they each opened them. As they read over the invitation Lily began to explain herself.

“So since it is the beginning of the countdown to Christmas,” she started nervously, “I have activities planned for each evening for the next 84 days. I would invite James but I know he is mad in October and I tried to speak to him about it yesterday but he grunted something about October being sacred”

“It’s the month for the big prank….you’ll love it this year Lily- really….James is going to try and” Peter started but was interrupted by Sirius throwing the crust of his toast at him.

“Do something completely mental and probably fail and we will not divulge the secret to you Evans so don’t even try”

With a huff, Lily responded “I am aware of the great prank planning and execution. I am also aware of the quidditch obligations and how bored you lot get without your fearless leader so I decided to include you in my First Ever Annual 84 Day Advent Activity Calendar!”

Sirius and Peter exchanged a look before Lily continued to ramble

“Some of the activities are repeated both indoor and outdoor, of course. And naturally we have several evenings dedicated to Christmas Pageant rehearsal- then there are all the letters to Santa and I am hoping that maybe we can get two Christmas trees each time we are getting a tree so we have six trees instead of three but then we have to plant baby trees to replace the old ones and I don’t know how much time we will have to sneak out and get back. And before you even ask, Sirius, yes there will be food and drink and occasionally alcohol how the hell else do you think I got Marlene to agree. So please please join us? I know it is a lot but it’ll be good for us to bond as a group this year and I just think we could do with a little cheer?”

With a sigh and a nudge from Peter, Sirius begrudgingly agreed “Alright Evans, show me this list and I’ll let you know if we are in”

With a squeal, Lily rummaged in her bag and pulled out two feet of parchment on which was written an extensive list of 84 activities complete with illustrations and glitter:

Jingle Bell Hunt

Ornament Making

Christmas Charades

Christmas Pageant Auditions

Decorate Dumbledore’s office

Movie Night

Make Paper Snowflakes

Indoor Snowball fight

Build a Gingerbread house

Make Christmas Candy

Story Night

Make a bird feeder

Random acts of Kindness

Write letters to santa

Indoor Snow Angels (for two hours)

Movie Night

String popcorn

Hang tinsel in the hallways

Indoor Snowmen Making Contest

Gingerbread Hunt

Story Night

Serve a meal to the house elves

Donate old clothes to a charity

Make Christmas Candles

Christmas Pageant Rehearsal

Christmas Caroling

Movie Night

Christmas Caroling

Sledding

Ice Skating

Eat cookie dough

Christmas Pageant Rehearsal

Make Christmas Cards

Story Night

Paint Wooden Toys

Dress Up Like Elves

Knitting Party

Movie Night

Write Letters to Santa

Decorate room like north pole

Hang christmas lights outside

Make Hot Cocoa and Snuggle

Story Night

Make Christmas Sweaters

Ride a Santa Train

Find Deer and make them pull a sleigh

Ornament Making Round 2

Movie Night

Jingle Bell Hunt Round 2 Outside

Outdoor snowball fight

Outdoor Snow Angel Making (2 hours)

Write another letter to Santa

Story Night

Re enact “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer”

Christmas Pageant Rehearsal

CANDY CANE HUNT!

Lifesize Gingerbread Houses Outside

Christmas Caroling Round Two

GET OUR CHRISTMAS TREE

DECORATE OUR CHRISTMAS TREE

Pie making

Pre pre Christmas feast

Christmas Card Delivery

Christmas Pageant Rehearsal

Random Act of kindness Day

GET OUR SECOND CHRISTMAS TREE

DECORATE OUR SECOND CHRISTMAS TREE

VISIT SANTA

DRESS LIKE ELVES AND GO CAROLING

Christmas Pageant Rehearsal

GET OUR THIRD CHRISTMAS TREE

DECORATE OUR THIRD CHRISTMAS TREE

CHRISTMAS SWEATER CONTEST

Christmas Pageant Rehearsal

FINAL MOVIE NIGHT

Christmas Pageant Rehearsal

Cookie making and cookie dough eating

Winter Wonderland Building Contest

Nutcracker Race

Look at Christmas Lights

SET UP THE NATIVITY

Christmas Pageant Rehearsal

CHRISTMAS PAGEANT AND CHRISTMAS DAY

While they were considering the list, Sirius and Peter both reflected on the Marauder Code:

Nothing on the list was a threat to their masculinity (Marauder Code Section 1 Part D)

Every event had the opportunity for mischief (Marauder Code Section 1 Part A)

And provided ample opportunity to Prove to Lily Evans that James Potter was not a bullying toerag and an upstanding bloke (Marauder Code Section 4 Part A)

“Alright Evans, we agree to your mad list and will attend every event that we can” Sirius proclaimed crossing his hand over his heart, Peter followed suit. Lily squealed again and hugged him- and then Peter.

Despite their initial reservations, most of the sixth year Gryffindors were enjoying the 84 Day Advent Activity Calendar.

Granted, it was only day 6 and they were enjoying Miracle on 34th Street in the room of requirement and drinking butter beer and Lily hadn’t nagged anyone about responsibility or homework all year. Because of this and despite the fact Christmas was ages away, all of the 6th year Gryffindors (except for James Potter who was last spotted dragging a tutu and several pairs of tap shoes toward the Great Lake) were feeling festive.

In fact, in the courtroom scene when all the mail was brought in Sirius Black cried real tears and had to admit to Remus that this was “actually not a shit movie” and that “they could watch Die Hard next time”.

The festive mood carried the Marauders to their dorms and they had forgotten it was October until they were hit with the undeniable smell of wet lake clothes and greeted by a bruised and soaking James who was meticulously pulling chunks of slime from his hair.

“I’ll get there mates!” James was saying in a peppy mood “Come Halloween you’ll regret telling me this was a bad idea and wish you’d helped”

After a quick muttering a quick “scourgify” with his wand pointed at James’ head Remus told him, “No, you’ll be glad we made a plan B”

Once James had left the room to take a shower Peter asked “What Plan B?” through bites of his leftover Christmas cookies (Lily had surprised them on day 2)

“We’ll come up with something” Remus responded, vanishing the remaining slime from the floor.

The following weeks passed in much the same way. Lily forcing them to do mad Christmas activities, James vanishing toward the Great Lake muttering, and an overall pulsing of excitement about the general holiday season.

Occasionally Peter would ask “But what about plan B? But this was usually after a fantastic item being checked of the 84 Day Advent Activity Calendar and Sirius and Remus would brush him off with something like

“You worry too much” Sirius told him as he pummeled Lily with 12 paper snowballs on day 8 or,

“We’ve got loads of time”- Remus as he added another bunch of tinsel to the hallway outside of charms on day 18.

On day 20, Sirius was surprised to find Lily Evans and James Potter in deep discussion as he entered the great hall for lunch. As he approached the table he heard James say “right- charms- brilliant. Later, Evans” and without so much as a flirty smile or an acknowledgement to his best mate, James Potter ran from the great hall leaving behind an entirely full and decent meal.

As he sat behind said plate and pulled up another Sirius asked “Did Prongs have some sort of prank epiphany?”

With a huff Lily told him, “I have no idea what your daft mate is up to. He was muttering about animal training and I told him ‘Well you know they say you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink- but if you’re clever enough you can charm them’. Then he started asking me about all sorts of charms for animal training and did I know if Flitwick knew anything about training aquatic animals. Then I was asking if he meant aquatic mammals and he told me there were no aquatic animals and you know how I feel about dolphins Sirius so I had to explain to him that they are not fish and that I don’t know if you could train something like a squid and that he should talk to Hagrid and not Flitwick. Then he stood up- thanked me about charms and left”

Blinking at her owlishly, Sirius asked “How do you breathe when you talk so fast?”

Whacking him with the Advent List, Lily told him “Shut Up Prat. I’m off to set up our gingerbread hunt! We’ll be in teams- and they are riddles so you might want to reconsider Peter.”

“OI!” Sirius started

“Peter brings a lot to the group dynamic- you tell me that all the time- some days I even think you believe it” Lily finished and swooped out of the Great Hall.

Day 21 of the 84 Day Advent Activity Calendar had been Sirius’ favorite night. He, Remus and Lily acted out the entire Christmas Carol with assistance from the house elves and any time a ghost appeared they would play a round of truth or dare. By the end of the re enactment, Sirius was so invested in his final line of“God Bless Us Everyone” he didn’t even notice his best mate dragging himself up the steps to their dormitory covered in seaweed. Later, he noticed an odd smell in the dormitory but was so invested in preparing for Day 22, Feeding the House Elves a Meal, he forgot to ask what it was.

On Day 24, Sirius was seriously invested in making the 84 Day Advent Activity Calendar an annual event. For all of her absolute madness, Lily Evans was a lot of fun. He also felt he had felt he and Peter has made significant progress on Section 4 Part A of the Marauder Code if the daily lunchtime conversations he interrupted between James and Lily were any indication. He had even begun plans to lock Lily and James in a closet on Day 42 , make Hot Chocolate and Snuggle, when tragedy struck.

Day 24, Make Christmas Candles, ended the 84 Day Advent Activity Calendar tragically and, in the opinion of one Sirius Black and one Lily Evans, much much too soon.

It all had to do with “Plan B”. While Remus and Sirius were quick to dismiss the need for such a plan. Whether it was truly from “ABSOLUTE FAITH AND TRUST IN OUR LEADER PRONGS” (Sirius) or “I HAVE SO MUCH HOMEWORK FROM THE FULL MOON YOU WORRY TO MUCH” (Remus)- they had somehow lost sight of the importance of the Halloween prank. So, naturally, Peter Pettigrew took it upon himself to create his own Plan B.

The fact that Plan B involved storing a multitude of fireworks in the very abandoned classroom that Day 24’s activities were being held was an unfortunate coincidence. Making the candles had gone splendidly. They had made enough candles to gift to all their professors and had taken a few extras to make s'mores.

Peter, who was in the middle of a story about his favorite Christmas present, panicked when his marshmallow caught fire and tried to shake it off the stick when it went flying. Right into the pile of fireworks.

As chaos descended, nearly all of the Gryffindors began to stampede out- knocking over the candles which naturally landed on any and every flammable surface and causing an inferno. While they were running Lily called out “Did you all forget you are wizards? Use your wands” but only Sirius heard her and stayed behind to try and fix the problem before they were caught.

Miraculously they had managed to put out all of the flames and somehow vanish the fireworks before Filch arrived with McGonagall on his heels.

Filch entered first bellowing, “I TOLD YOU IT WOULD BE ONE OF THEM- It’ll be expulsion for sure this time Black”

Before either of them could speak McGonagall interrupted,“What is the meaning of this? Really I’ve come to expect this sort of thing out of you Sirius but Ms. Evans I don’t understand why you of all people are here unless you caught this miscreant in the act”

Sirius began to think up no less than 126 excuses and was ready to spout them all off when Lily interrupted, “It’s my fault Professor. I was trying to make some Christmas Candles for my 84 Day Advent Activity Calendar and when I lit them- I guess I got the wick or something wrong- they exploded. And Sirius just happened to hear the explosion and come running. It’s my fault”

Turning to Sirius with a sharp look she asked “Is this true Mr. Black?”

Not missing a beat Sirius said “Yes ma’am and might I just say you are looking lovely tonight and Evans really shouldn’t get detention for this- it is her first offense you know”

“Maybe so” McGonagall started, “Nevertheless Ms. Evans, while I appreciate your enthusiasm… there are still two months until Christmas Eve and I think we will be all be better off if we see no more Christmas cheer from you until December. If I spy any more Advent activities before then I will make you serve detention. To be safe I’ll be taking 24 points from Gryffindor and will request you put this room back to its original condition”

Before she could complain, Sirius poked Lily in the side which prompted her to say “Yes Professor, Sorry Professor”.

This seemed to satisfy their head of house who snapped her fingers and Filch who skulked out of the room after her.

Turning to Lily with a large smile Sirius said, “No too bad Evans! Only 24 points. Bit sad we still have 60 activities on the list but we can do 31 of those in December and then….” he trailed off as Lily began to cry in earnest.

“I…..I….worked so so hard to plan all of those Sirius. We were…… ss-s-upposed to go c-c-caroling t-t-tomorrow! I had it all worked out with Hagrid and everything and……and…..now…..” she wailed, throwing her arms around his neck.

“There, there Evans. We’ll find some way to go caroling tomorrow. And Minnie will never know”

The next day, October 25 dawned early for Sirius Black. He took the map, cloak and headed out towards Hogsmeade.

“Where are you going?” Remus asked as he rolled over.

“I’ve got to have a ‘Chat with Evans’ today. It’s time we ended this Advent madness”. The lie seemed to appease Remus who said “Bout bloody time” as he settled back into his pillows.

As he descended the steps, Sirius saw James rushing off ahead of him and called out “Prongs! Its Saturday what are you doing?!”

“Squids are most docile at sunrise- Padfoot! See you soon!” James responded as he vanished from view.

The day passed quickly. Preparing for the “Chat” or really “Getting drunk and Caroling to Hagrid’s animals and then crying over the end of The 84 Day Advent Activity Calendar” proved more difficult than Sirius thought. He wasn’t sure why he cared about making the shrieking shack look like a winter wonderland for Lily but he supposed somehow she had Christmas Cheered her way into his heart and he was only trying to help James out since he was distracted by his mad plan for a prank.

At dinner- Sirius stormed into the great hall, demanded “EVANS WE NEED TO CHAT” and dragged her from the hall, trying hard not to laugh at her fake and frankly pathetic complaints.

As they walked up the path to the shack he told her “Nice Jumper”

“Thanks” Lily said a little wistfully, “It’s my two months till Christmas jumper which was McGonagall approved this morning as not a violation of my detention contract after I cleared that room this morning”

“Well file tonight under ‘NEVER TELL A PROFESSOR’ so you keep to that contract”

When they entered the shack, Lily cheered.

“Four Christmas trees…..and it looks just like the North Pole….and…is that….”

“Firewhiskey? Yes Evans, we are going to get piss drunk. Cry about the end of the 84 Day Advent Activity Calendar and then go sing badly to all of Hagrid’s animals”

Hours later, Remus found his boyfriend and fellow prefect skipping around the astronomy tower singing

God rest ye merry, hippogriffs, Let nothing you dismay, For Lily and Sirius Will feed you Christmas Day, And save you all from Slytherins Who all are dirty gits O tidings of comfort and joy, Comfort and joy, Oh tidings of comfort and joy.

“OI! YOU TWO” he said, rolling his eyes as they collapsed into giggles onto the floor “It’s past curfew and Sirius your best mate is in the hospital wing”

“No, my best mate is singing Christmas Carols with me on October 25” Sirius managed between fits of laughter.

“It’s actually now the 26th and past curfew. I’ll get you both back to the dorm” Remus said and grabbed each one by the elbow.

“Where’s Pete- crying at Potter’s beside?” Lily asked, and found this to be hilarious.

After many more jokes (none of which were funny to Remus at all). And many more badly rewritten Christmas Carols, Remus somehow got them back to Gryffindor tower.

“Right, well….Marlene said that if you interrupted her beauty sleep tonight Lily she would have your head- since James is in the hospital wing you can have his bed”.

“BUT REEEEEMMMMMMMUUSSSS” Lily whined “He smells like the great lake. What is he on about anyway? Is he”

“Shit” Sirius interrupted suddenly sober “We need a Plan B Remus. If Prongs is out for the count we need a new prank and we have less than a week”

“Is James-” Lily tried again

“I KNOW!” Remus exploded “But Pete’s Plan B literally crashed and burned and we’ve been so invested by the Christmas activities we forgot to make one”

“Wait I think I can” Lily started

“SHIT SHIT SHIT. Prongs is going to be so sad. When will he be better did they say?”

“At least a week. Pete is panicking and she gave him a calming potion but-”

“OI!” Lily yelled as they got to the top of the stairs

The boys stopped bickering.

“I have a question and it’s important. I’ve been trying to s…solve the mystery”

“O…..k” Remus said raising an eyebrow at Sirius

“Is James….is he….trying to train the Giant Squid to tap dance on Halloween”

Both Mauraders burst out into the same fake laugh

“Of course not”

“That’s ridiculous”

“Whatever would make you think that Evans”

She ignored this and plowed on “Because if he is- the solution is pretty obvious…I mean wouldn’t you just stun it and then charm the tap shoes to dance so it’s the illusion he is dancing. Is the squid a he? I’ve always wondered?”

Stunned to silence Sirius stared at Lily Evans, who was apparently a brilliant prankstress when she was drunk.

“How did you figure this out Lily?” Remus asked- puzzled.

“I’m not a completely clueless idiot. He’s been rambling about animal training and asking me all sorts of questions about my childhood tap lessons and is at the lake every bloody day at breakfast and everyone knows that is when squids are most docile”

Before Remus could interrupt Sirius pinched him and muttered “Shuttup she’s got that gleam and I think she is about to say something else brilliant”

“And really- it would be quite a good prank. Especially if you transfigured the Squid into a pumpkin or something and then had it charmed to transfigure back when the phrase ‘Tuck In’ was said. Then you could have all the ghosts come in and play their God awful Halloween ballad they always want to play. I bet the house elves would help you.”

With a look and a nod Sirius said “Help us, Evans. Help Us.”

“Alright,” Lily said, “But James can NEVER know I helped. This is only because of the Christmas ban”

The next week passed by in a blur and even Lily had to admit prank planning and execution was almost as fun as the 84 Day Advent Activity Calendar.

After much begging and pleading, Peter had somehow convinced the nurse that James should be released from the hospital wing from the feast. Peter was dejected when he told James “We didn’t have a plan B”

and they both trudged down to the feast. James had never been so depressed on Halloween and had never felt sorrier for himself.

Even the fact that Lily Evans was sitting next to him and smiling at him couldn’t raise his spirits. Halloween was ruined. The squid was stupid. His mates were stupid. He was done with the whole stupid month of October when Dumbledore announced “Tuck In” and the largest pumpkin on the head table exploded and in its place-

stood STOOD the fucking animal that had given him nightmares, an embarrassing rash and no less than 6 broken ribs.

The squid stood and James nearly wept when the ghosts burst in playing their horrid Halloween waltz and the squid began to tap dance down the center of the great hall. As all the students cheered James looked over to his friends who simply winked and began to play off their typical

“It wasn’t us” routine.

Each line was superb and James was surprised that Lily had no negative comments. In fact as the Mauraders escorted James back to the hospital wing and Lily followed them.

They chatted for a bit and relived the finer moments of the dance with quiet glee. James couldn’t believe that Lily Evans was there with them. It was getting late and Lily had to leave for rounds but before she left she leaned down, kissed him on the cheek and told him “it was a brilliant prank James, really”.

As she passed by Sirius she gave him a wink and touched her nose in a very Santa Clause fashion and Sirius began to guffaw with laughter.

James missed all of this however, he was too busy holding his cheek and smiling. “Did you see that! Lily Evans kisses me on the cheek! It’s a Halloween miracle”

“No mate,” Sirius said, “That’s a Christmas Miracle. Tis the Season after all.”

#look ma I did read more all by myself old person uses tumblr jiltober bonus christmasfroever no discernible reason #robots writes #jily fanfiction #jily fic #jily

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dixiechikdigger · 8 years

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THE 7 SIGNS YOU'RE IN A CULT

😕THE 7 SIGNS YOU'RE IN A CULT🙁 The Seven Signs You're in a Cult A former member of a tight-knit college prayer group describes his community's disintegration—and how one of its members ended up dead. Bethany Deaton in 2008. Boze Herrington/The Atlantic BOZE HERRINGTON JUN 18, 2014 U.S. November 2, 2012, was a beautiful Friday in Kansas City—clear and cool and sunny. I had spent the afternoon reading in the library at an unaccredited college affiliated with the International House of Prayer, an evangelical Christian organization commonly referred to as IHOP (no relation to the restaurant). Around 6 pm, I got a call from my friend Hannah*. “I found out something that’s truly devastating. I didn’t want to tell you this way, but I want you to know,” she said. “Bethany Leidlein committed suicide on Tuesday.” I was shocked. For seven years, I had spent hours every day with Bethany, eating and talking and praying. We had been best friends. She was 27, newly married; she had just completed her nursing degree. I felt like she would always be part of my life. Now, she was gone. For three weeks, Hannah and I had been trying to contact leaders at IHOP about a prayer group that we, Bethany, and many of our friends had been part of—a small, independent community that drew on IHOP's teachings. In February, I had been formally excommunicated, and Hannah had left in June. Looking in from the outside, both of us saw the group differently than we had when we were part of it: We saw it as a cult. Several years ago, the founder of IHOP, Mike Bickle, created a list of seven ways to recognize the difference between a religious community and a cult. Written down, the signs seem clear: 1. Opposing critical thinking 2. Isolating members and penalizing them for leaving 3. Emphasizing special doctrines outside scripture 4. Seeking inappropriate loyalty to their leaders 5. Dishonoring the family unit 6. Crossing Biblical boundaries of behavior (versus sexual purity and personal ownership) 7. Separation from the Church But when it’s your friends, your faith, your community, it’s not so obvious. For several years, roughly two dozen people, all younger than thirty, had been living together in Kansas City, Missouri, and following the leadership of Tyler Deaton, one of our classmates from Southwestern University in Texas. In the summer of 2012, Tyler had married Bethany; by the fall, she was dead. What started as a dorm-room prayer group had devolved into something much darker. * * * I met Bethany and Tyler during the week of their freshman orientation in 2005. Small, with a heart-shaped face and bright blue eyes, Bethany’s effortless wit and warm presence quickly attracted a devoted group of friends. She often spoke about the “glories of the world” and its wonders over brunch in the dining hall. We bonded over our shared love of stories and would often stay up late discussing our dreams of becoming great novelists and joining the ranks of our literary heroes. One day during that first week, I found Tyler in the school’s chapel. He was seated at the piano, the late-afternoon sunlight illuminating his dark eyes and hair as he swayed back and forth, stomping the pedals and singing a popular evangelical chorus in a voice full of heartache and passion: Your love is extravagant Your friendship, it is intimate I feel like I’m moving to the rhythm of your grace Your fragrance is intoxicating In the secret place Because your love is extravagant At the end of the song, he came over and introduced himself. Something about the nasally pitch of his voice made me wonder if he was gay. A few months later I would work up the courage to ask him; the question offended him so much that I didn’t bring it up again until the end of that year, when he conceded that he had been “struggling with same-sex attraction” for years. That semester, we became close friends. Early on, I felt as though Tyler often tried to manipulate people into doing what he wanted, but he was also a committed Christian, zealous and humble. Inspired by his sensitivity toward others and bravery in confronting his personal demons, I learned to ignore my initial reservations and trust him. Our prayer group became an enchanted sphere where supernatural things seemed to happen all the time. Two years later, in the summer of 2007, Tyler returned from a trip to Pakistan and announced that God was going to launch a spiritual revolution on our campus. Those of us who knew him well were surprised by the changes in his personality. He had always been extraordinarily perceptive, but now this ability had reached uncanny levels. He could describe conversations he wasn’t involved in that were taking place on the other side of campus. He said God was always speaking. He claimed he could tell what we were thinking, when we were sinning; he said he could feel in his own body what God felt about us. When I found out he and Bethany were meeting every night for prayer with their two roommates, June and Justin*, I begged them to let me join. It was discouraging to see some of my best and only friends at Southwestern sharing an experience from which I was excluded; I wanted to belong to their group. I was lonely and bored, and I wanted to experience something extraordinary before I left school: a mystery to solve, a battle to fight, a romantic quest, like the heroes in the stories I had read. All my favorite songs and stories ended with some powerful and often tragic moment of catharsis. I wanted college to end like that. If it didn’t, my life would be boring, anti-climactic … normal. I had always imagined my life in terms of a story, and now Tyler was offering me the chance to be a part of one. He had developed a distinctly Charismatic vocabulary of “spiritual warfare” and claimed he was communicating directly with God. He said the five of us had been chosen for a dangerous but important mission: changing the nature and understanding of Christianity on our campus. Like the characters of Morpheus or Hagrid, he became our escort into a secret community where evil was battled at close quarters and darkness lurked around every corner. That first semester was exhilarating. Our prayer experiences were very emotional; sometimes, we wept. Though I still secretly had doubts about the authenticity of the group’s beliefs, I was profoundly moved by the courage and loyalty my friends were showing towards one another. It felt like being in an epic adventure, in which each of the main characters bravely faces his or her own weaknesses while bonding together in the heat of battle. Bethany continued to be my closest friend in the group. We confided in one another—including our mild doubts about the group. One night in early November, a few of the group members tried to “heal” a girl with cerebral palsy, even pulling her out of her wheelchair and dragging her around the chapel. Word quickly spread around campus that the girl had been miraculously healed, but I told Bethany I wasn’t convinced that anything really unusual had happened. Near the end of November, she admitted she had feelings for Tyler. She said God had told her they were going to be married, once he was fully healed of his struggle with homosexuality. During vacations, we would discuss this for hours. She cried regularly. RELATED STORY The Vigilante of Clallam County Around this time, Tyler attended an IHOP conference. At the four-day gathering in Kansas City, Missouri, where the movement is based, he joined 25,000 other young people to pray for spiritual revival on college campuses throughout America. He heard the evangelical leader Lou Engle share a dream he’d had, in which college students were cutting off the heads of their professors, suggesting the end of the “spirit of intellectualism” that gripped academia. He heard Bickle declare that God was raising up a prophetic generation that would perform “signs and wonders,” and numerous stories of angelic visitations. After Tyler returned from the conference, his experiences with the supernatural seemed to intensify dramatically. As we walked across campus, he would see an army of demons carrying banners in front of the library. At the end of January, God revealed to him that his calling in life was to be an apostle and train God’s “final people.” When Bethany and June insisted that we find mentors who could train us and brought us to visit a Christian couple who lived nearby, Tyler “discerned” that the husband was living in “graphic sexual sin.” Somehow, when he said this, the rest of us realized we had all been feeling the same thing. We never went back. I was profoundly affected by IHOP’s teachings. I began to seriously consider the possibility that we were living in the last generation. The teachers and staff all had a message for the students: Everything we thought we knew about the world was wrong. We had been poisoned by a liberal culture teaching seductive lies about “love” and “compassion” that the devil was using to prepare his end-times deception. Before joining the prayer group, I had been a fairly tolerant person. Now I was different. I was belligerent toward my gay and atheist friends. I picked fights and insulted them viciously. But I felt justified; I thought they were blind to God’s truth. As the prayer group expanded, it became an enchanted sphere where supernatural things seemed to be happening all the time. I began having ominous dreams in which the school was flooded and taken over by monsters. Once, we found a candy wrapper in the ceiling of one of our members, Micah Moore; we burned it, because God showed us that it had been used to practice witchcraft. In the everyday college world of exams and choir concerts and dining-hall meals, these episodes seemed outlandish—and to outsiders, maybe even disturbing. But within the Gnostic dream world of our small Charismatic enclave, they seemed perfectly normal. By the end of the next semester, several of us were already making plans to move to Kansas City. * * * I was kicked out of the prayer group for the first time a year and a half later. Roughly two dozen of us were now living together in group houses in Missouri, sharing our money and working part-time jobs while we attended classes at IHOP University. Three nights a week, we worshipped together. Tyler and other members of the group claimed I had a “wicked heart, prone to self-protection, anger, unforgiveness, and hate” and a “malicious, accusatory, group-rejecting, self-protective hatred towards most people.” After an intense night of confrontation in the fall of 2010, the group stopped speaking to me. I continued to live in the house, but I was completely isolated. Why did I stay? I was conflicted. All of my friends said I had a serious problem—so serious that I had been effectively quarantined. These were my closest friends in the world. I began to wonder if they might be right. Maybe I truly was hateful, malicious—wicked. I no longer trusted by own instincts. I was belligerent toward my gay and atheist friends. But I felt justified; they were blind to God’s truth. When my boss saw that I was depressed and had stopped eating, she contacted one of the senior leaders at IHOP University. We met, and I described my living situation. “Hold on,” he said, in a very serious voice. “Are you being shunned as a punishment?” With his guidance, I emailed Tyler and asked if I could return; under pressure from IHOP University’s leaders, he consented. The group threw a huge party in my honor, but within a few days, I began to wish I had never come back. Tyler now said he could sense when a person was sinning. “There’s nothing you’ve done for a long time that doesn’t have sin in it,” he explained to me. Under his mandatory system of “behavioral modifications,” as he called them, the entire group was being rapidly restructured. People were giving up their nicknames, distancing themselves from their romantic partners, and taking breaks from their music or families—anything to which they had developed “idolatrous attachments.” I was forbidden from reading and writing, prohibited from having serious conversations with the girls, and forced to wear new clothes, which Tyler picked out for me. The group was being run like a military boot camp, with chores and activities to keep us occupied virtually every hour of the day. The girls would wake up around seven to clean their house before the guys came over for lunch. During the afternoon, some of us would go to class at IHOP University while others worked or prayed. Around five, we would reconvene at one of the houses to prepare dinner. We would eat between 6:00 pm and 7:30 pm and then spend several hours praying or singing. Once every few weeks, there was even a surprise evacuation drill. We had prophecy time at least three nights a week. During these sessions, the group would sit in silence and listen for the whisper of God’s spirit. Everyone said similar things, although they often ended up being proven wrong later. Those who disagreed were called out for being arrogant and rebellious and were forced to repent. By the end of that summer, even the slightest gesture, no matter how innocent, could be misconstrued as evidence of demonic influence. One night in August, Tyler and June both had dreams in which God “revealed” that my individuality was endangering the community. As a precaution, I was isolated, and two of the boys kept constant watch over me. I could be reprimanded for scratching another man’s back, for sitting with a blanket over my legs, for looking at someone the wrong way. Once, Micah accused me of manipulating someone into coming over and hugging me. The group decided I should be forbidden from reading and writing. After a woman in the group had her bedroom door and Bible taken away from her, she complained to IHOP. The organization’s leaders met with Tyler and warned him that his group was becoming “cult-like.” Tyler began having regular meetings with them. He was ordered to quit punishing people and stop mandating that the students in our group come to his Saturday worship session rather than IHOP University’s mandatory meeting. And I was beginning to face my own doubts. My questions about the group had been accumulating for years, but one night, I heard the group praying against me in the next room. That moment helped me admit something to myself, something big: They weren’t actually hearing the voice of God. My friends and I were all being whipped into a frenzy by the delirious tonic of prophecy and persecution fantasies. The week after Bethany and Tyler’s engagement in February 2012, the men came to me and asked me to leave the community. At first I was distraught. If I moved out, I would be walking away from all my best friends. I had hoped I could push the group in a more positive direction. But the more I thought about it, the more I knew it was time for me to go. On the first day of April, I moved out. The rest of the group was forbidden from contacting me, and I wasn’t invited to the wedding. * * * Bethany Deaton and the author in 2008. (Boze Herrington/The Atlantic) The weeks after Bethany’s death were among the blackest of my life. One of my dearest and best friends was dead, and I couldn’t accept the explanation that she had killed herself two months into a marriage she had been looking forward to for years. Even the logistics of grieving were complicated; on the day of her visitation, Tyler tried to have me removed from the funeral home. Meanwhile, IHOP sent several leaders to investigate the prayer community. It took them only a couple of hours with the group on the night after Bethany’s death to conclude that Tyler was leading a cult. The boys who still lived with Tyler were asked to move out immediately, and current and former members were questioned. And then they interrogated Micah, the person who had been charged with guarding me during one of my periods of isolation from the group. During questioning, he broke down and confessed that he had suffocated Bethany. He later said Tyler had told him to commit the murder, saying he “had it in him to do it.” The next day—the day of Bethany’s funeral in Arlington, Texas—he drove to the police station and turned himself in. There, he told a lurid tale: He and other men in the group had sexual relationships with Tyler, and together, they had ritually assaulted Bethany. She had been killed, Micah said, because they were afraid she would tell her therapist about the assaults. This raised intense questions in the IHOP community, and Bickle and others held information sessions to address them. When one student asked how this kind of dangerous group could have existed with hardly anyone noticing, they explained that my friends and I were transplants from Texas who had developed an intense loyalty to one another and a spiritual leader who operated in secrecy. “There were people there who should have had careers," he said. “They had degrees, law degrees. But they had given up their goals for the vision of this one man.” He reminded the students that Judas had spent three years in the company of Jesus and his disciples without anyone suspecting the wickedness he was capable of. Tyler was the product of a phenomenally twisted system. Talking to members of the IHOP community, I get the impression that they want to forget what happened. If only they had read their Bibles more, I hear them saying. If only they had paid more attention to Bickle’s teachings. If only they hadn’t been led astray by their secular college environment. If only... I believe the movement's leaders have encouraged the perception that we were not “real, born-again Christians”—Tyler was not dangerous because of his grandiose delusions, they say, but because of his “evil homosexual agenda.” Though some of the group’s former members remained part of the prophetic movement, I mentally checked out after Bethany’s death. I joined a church in a liturgical tradition and formed a new circle of friends, many of whom had also left IHOP. I began to rethink my views on homosexuality and other marginalized groups. I also underwent counseling with IHOP leaders. During this process, I tried to renounce what I saw as harmful beliefs, including the conviction that our group had been messengers called to battle the forces of the anti-Christ. To my surprise and dismay, they told me, “No, Tyler was right about that. You need to pray out loud for God to show you your calling.” In other words, our group’s biggest crime wasn’t an excess of zeal—it was not being zealous enough. It seems to me that our community was not exceptional, given the high-intensity spiritual environment we were part of. Tyler was not an isolated individual, but the product of a phenomenally twisted system. It’s unclear who is responsible for Bethany's death. Micah's trial is set for this November. He has recanted his confession; his lawyer said his statements were made by “a distraught and confused young man under extreme psychological pressure.” Tyler has not been charged in the case. But it is clear that when Bethany died, she was part of a community shrouded in fear and hatred, a community where those who spoke out were treated as though they didn’t exist. Their loves, desires, opinions, feelings, and whole personalities were invalidated, all in the name of God.

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