Galavants

Lorelei Lovegood knocked quietly against a Gryffindor Tower window. Though the wind was quite ferocious that evening, whirling around Hogwarts, she knew that at just before midnight, most of the dorm would be quiet and fast asleep.

Apart from a certain few.

Lorelei’s broom lurched away slightly as the window flew open, and a warm rush of air hit her cheeks. 

“‘Ello gorgeous,” Fred Weasley met her gaze with his characteristic grin and a cocked head. He was dressed in a well-worn sweater, with so many faded threads she couldn’t quite tell the most common colour, and long slacks that bunched a little as he climbed up onto the window sill.

Lorelei carefully maneuvered her broom closer. Behind Fred, she could see George tugging a black sweater over his head, still barefoot and bed-headed.

“I hope you weren’t waiting long,” Lorelei whispered. 

While the window had made a bit of noise when it had opened, she hoped none of the Weasley’s sleeping dormmates would stir as they made their way out.

Fred shook his head, moving to allow her room to back the broom up so it hovered over the window sill. Now next to her, Fred gave her a chaste kiss on the cheek in greeting, his lips so warm compared to her cold skin.

“You need gloves,” Fred concluded, climbing back down to search his trunk, obviously less worried about waking his dormmates as he tugged the large truck out from under his bed.

Lorelei rubbed her hands together as she watched George greet her with a kind wink and quietly tuck his trunk under his bed. “I ran out of candles for the lantern. Have you got a spare?” she asked George.

The twin curled his lower lip under his teeth in thought before nodding and searching through another drawer. 

There was an unmistakable rush below her as two other brooms flew up to hover outside the open Gryffindor window. Oliver Wood and Cedric Diggory were dressed far more appropriately for the colder autumn weather: scarfs, gloves, long pants and boots.

“Sorry we’re late. Cedric had to go back to get his gloves.”

“Entangled minds think alike, it seems,” Fred snickered as he handed Lorelei his dark grey gloves, which she proceeded to lightly bat his shoulder with.

Cedric sat back on his broom, a small smile on his face. 

“Alright, let’s do this,” Fred climbed onto the back of Lorelei’s broom, his feet still touching the stone while hers hung in the air. He rested his hand on her waist and closed one-half of the window.

Oliver leant back, hands on his thighs. “ This is my racing broom, so I can’t actually take two people on here.”

Cedric laughed softly, “Great, guess we’re together again George.”

“You two really need to get your own brooms,” Lorelei tilted forward and flew out of the way for Cedric to back his broom up into the Gryffindor to grab the other twin. With everyone on and the windows shut behind a final groan from a woken Gryffindor, the group darted into the night.

“Hey, the team’s ones are free. We just can’t use them outside of practice.” Fred calls over the wind as they passed over the Hogwarts greenhouses. 

Lorelei slowed down behind Oliver as the Quidditch star took the candle from George and pushed it into the empty frame of Lorelei’s lantern. Now that they were far enough outside of the Hogwarts grounds, it was safer to light their lanterns so they could see each other in the dark. The last time they had all snuck out like this, Cedric had accidentally run up the back of Lorelei’s broom and nearly knocked her and George off. His broom slowed to a stop in the air as he handed it back to Fred.

George whistled, and she looked back towards him and Cedric as they both had their eyes below. Tonight, they had decided to take a coastal route around the Black Lake as they headed north to Upper Hogsfield, hugging the black water’s edge while remaining a safe few hundred feet above it.

Between the three lanterns and the half-moon’s light above them, it felt like they were the only ones awake in the valley; even the birds and beasts had settled away for the night.

The wind blew her hair behind her shoulders, and though she was hesitant to admit it, she was grateful for Fred’s gloves keeping her fingers warm in the chilly air. Fred had wrapped his arm around her stomach, and his chest pressed to her back as he held the lantern down at their side.

George was in a similar statue on the broom to their left, though he was leant back with one hand on the broom and the other holding the lantern.

“Happy witching hour,” Cedric began as the group turned away from the Black Lake and soared over the sprawling farmlands between the lake and Hogsmeade. He turned his eyes off his watch to glance over at Lorelei.

“Ayy! Happy birthday bunny!” Fred unfastened his grip and manically ruffled her light blonde hair.

George reached out with his foot to gently bump hers, “Happy Birthday bun.” 

Oliver threw his fist up, “Happy birthday,” a few feet in front of them both.

Cedric just smiled softly, “Happy birthday, Lori.”

“Thanks guys.”

“Sixteen huh? Now we’re only waiting for the twins to catch up, as always.” Oliver cracked a sharp smirk back towards them, the cold winds pushing his untrimmed hair around his face. He usually cut it very short for quidditch, but the year had just begun, and he had apparently been trying to grow it out over the Christmas break.

“Hey, we’re April babies. Means we’re rams,” Fred continued, “and we have magnetic charisma!” 

Lorelei turned backwards towards the lanky Gryffindor, “You know about that sort of stuff?”

“Girls love that sort of stuff.”

She was positive Fred would have winked to make his point, but she was focused on their small change in course as Oliver turned them sharply away from the minimal but present lights of Hogsmeade’s night owls.

“Maybe other girls,” she said.

Oliver laughed. 

Just a short distance below, a few small air balloons were crested around Hogsmeade like a floating tiara of reds, greens and golds. She knew it wasn’t for her, but it made Lorelei smile, wondering if they’d left the New Year’s balloons up late to celebrate her birthday.

January 5th, classes would start back today after the break for the winter term. But first, her friends were going to take her for hot chocolate at the only place in the valley that served breakfast drinks at the witching hour—Choc ‘n Rummies.

“To the witch’s hour!”

They raised their mugs and said cheers, all packed into a dusty little booth by the window of the small cafe. The proprietor of this little unpopular gem was an ex-house-elf named Ms Beanie, who was at an unimaginable old age yet still spry enough to curse the lot of them for being up so late for this stupid tradition.

“As the witch of the hour,” Lorelei’s customary mantra began, and the boys all thunked their mugs onto the table, “I decree… that the slowest to fly from here to the docks and back has to wear one of my skirts for the whole day!” 

Oliver snickered, “First day back in a skirt?”

“She’s diabolical,” George forced into his sleeve, unable to control the jaunts of hiccups that yelped from his uncontrollable laughter. His brother was in a similar state; only his laughter was very much emerging from his nerves.

“No fair Lori, Oliver’s got the fastest broom,” Cedric nudged Lorelei’s arm with his elbow. His expression was warm, with dirty blonde hair hanging over one of his eyebrows.

“We can all use my broom,” Oliver said, standing up from their small table to refill his mug. “Just to make it fair, and Lorelei can time us.”

Ms Beanie shuffled past their table, magically conjuring another jug of hot chocolate onto their table. Cedric thanked her as the others all began debating the course to the docks and back. Fred and Oliver’s debate over the fastest quidditch player was certainly taking up the most talk at the table. Neither was likely to concede to being the slowest when given the same broom.

“However,” George interrupted, and the table fell quiet. “Before we race for Lorelei’s skirt, I wanted to give you this first; it’s from our mum.” Lorelei lifted her hands up as George placed a messily wrapped present into them. Given its size and shape, it was likely a blanket or clothing.

“Oh, that’s lovely of her. I’ll be sure to write her a letter in thanks.” She started to unwrap the gift as the other three onlookers leant closer to see. “And I see you did the wrapping job,” she laughed. 

There was more spellotape than wrapping paper.

When she finally got a side open, she slid out what appeared to be a hand-knit, soft cream-coloured sweater with a gold trim. As she looked closer, she noticed the neckline of neat golden hearts that went all the way around the collar.

“Oh my!” Lorelei smiled so brightly that instant grins were spread across the group. “It’s just lovely!”

Cedric helped her tug the sweater over her head and tugged her bundles of long curls out from the collar to where they spilled down her back like a waterfall.

“Now that you’re even better dressed for the weather,” George stood, “let’s all go see who the best flyer is. I, for one, don’t intend to wear a skirt today.”

Oliver pulled one of his gloves off and threw it into the air as they stood at the top of Upper Hogsfield’s tallest slope. Lorelei and Cedric’s brooms were propped up and crossed over one another against a short fence line as the group watched Oliver’s hat drift and fall.

“There isn’t a lot of wind at the moment,” Cedric had his arm around Lorelei, pulling her smaller body against his side. “Who wants to go first?”

Unusually, it was George who put his hand into the air first. He bumped knuckles with Oliver before taking hold of Oliver’s racing broom and stepping up to where they’d deemed the ‘start’ and ‘finish’ mark.

He mounted the broom, and the whole group counted down before he blasted off through the night air, straight towards the Hogsmeade Docks. The route had been decided: once entirely around the outer edge of Hogsmeade, then down to the docks where they had to tear a strip of old sail off the tall dock post before blasting back up towards the hill and landing on the mark.

Simple.

Well, except for the fact no one was allowed to take a lantern, as the three lanterns brought with them now made a triangle on the ground to mark the finish. Lorelei bent down, using the flickering glow of her lantern to shine on Oliver’s pocket watch.

“How’s his time?” Cedric asked, staring off into the dark towards the Black Lake and, in the distance, the silhouette of the grand wizarding school castle.

“Still under a minute. Though I’m not sure how far through the course he is,” Lorelei tugged the sleeve of her new sweater down. She laughed, “Maybe we should have given him a light.”

“No, it’s more fun this way!” Fred had his eyes far off, intensely. As though he could tell how far away George was even without seeing him. 

“It’s further than I thought…” Lorelei rechecked the pocket watch.

“He should be back by now,” Cedric lifted a lantern off the ground, holding it up towards the darkness. “Maybe he got lost? Or—.”

“RIGHTOOO!” A loud, whispered yell announced a blast of air that knocked all of their hair back as George landed the broom sharply in the end zone. Lorelei’s finger snapped down on the stop button. 1:57. George sighed, breathing a little harder than before, “how was that?”

“1:57!” Lorelei grinned, “that’s going to be tough to beat Sneertail.”

“Lovely as your skirts are Bunny, they’re not for me.” George pointed two thumbs at himself, after handing his broom back to Oliver. “Your turn, Twigtooth.”

“You want a record broken?” The quidditch keeper leapt onto his broom and looked confidently back at them, “Just watch,” before blasting off into the dark air.

The racing continued, and the boys became more spirited with each gleeful return to the starting area. Oliver got an impressive 1:43, and Fred got a sluggish 1:59 (evidently he missed a turn and almost went for a swim in the Black Lake). Leaving Cedric to either beat Fred’s time, or suffer the humiliation of wearing his friend’s skirt for the entire school day.

Cedric climbed onto Oliver’s racing broom, and with a knowing smile back to Lorelei as she pushed start on her pocket watch, the broom flew off into the night…