golden girl

hazels first full day in hogwarts was spent in a blur of motion, constant clamour and chatter, and the occasional hex to two. she had awoken early to the sounds or marlene’s light snoring, debating the merits of using her only feather soft pillow to throw at the oblivious girl who was so rudely interrupting her dreamless sleep. she however decided against it and instead snuggling further into her thick duvet, content on wrangling every last moment she possibly could dozing lightly before the others eventually awoke.

mary was the first to do so, the sound of her curtain ripping open and soft footfalls padding over the floor alerting hazel to her presence. she leaned over to rip her own curtains, slipping out of her beds warm embrace as she smiled at the sleepy girl before her who was standing half way to the bathroom, eyes sleep addled and one first brought up to rub at them as she returned the gesture, quickly stifling a yawn that tried to escape her lips before disappearing into the bathroom. hazel made her own way to the trunk lining the end of her bed, flipping its lid open with a resigned sigh and beginning the undoubtedly long process of sorting out her clothes and belongings, pulling a seemingly never ending stack of clothes and small products from the trunk and dumping them onto the bed before her.

by the time she had finished emptying her belongings from the trunks clutch mary had finished with her showering and had just exited the bathroom, footfalls light as she made her way over to her bedside table as to not disturb the others and snatching up her wand that lay atop it. silently she padded over to where hazel was kneeling, wordlessly helping her with moving her stuff into its accompanying places, muttered spells and wand flicks whooshing the clothes that littered her space into the closet nearest her bed. hazel did not use her wand, opting for manually carrying her belongings and positioning them, going first to stack her books in one of the cabinets open drawers, making sure to leave the three books she was currently reading on the cabinet top for easy access later.

with that done, she set to bringing her wash products to the bathroom while mary worked on magician her shoes in a neat line at the bottom of her cupboard. the girl did not once question why hazel was pointedly not using her own wand to speed to the unpacking process, and once all was cleared away, trunk stashed under her bed just smiled at her, before moving to her own bed and beginning her process of accessorising. hazel took a moment to admire her unpacking, letting herself simply stare for several heartbeats as she took in her new home that was hers for the next two years.

now littered with most of her belongings, it looked less like the plain bed she had spotted when she had first entered the room last night and now properly lived in, duvet covered in her blue sailor embroidered knitted blanket, bedside cabinet littered with small knickknacks and novels alike.

she had used its surface to hold her sage inscence and wooden carved instance holder pandora had gifted her the night before entering the great halls from her own collection as a welcoming gift, which was sitting beside her small stack of books, three half red novels stacked one onto of the other, small reaccepts and scraps of paper peeking out from their pages as bookmarks. beside them on the cabinet she had placed the circular glass ashtray tony had gifted her, filled with an assortment of lighters she had dumped inside it, those having been stolen from tony, who always pretended not to notice hazels attempts at slyly snatching the lighters from his coat pockets or jeans whenever they where out. at the front of the cabinets top she had scattered an assortment of small trinkets that reminded her of home, a collection of stamped out bus tickets and small pins littering the wooden surface. to the left of her momentous lay a little silver rusted platter she had picked up in a second hand market with cass on trip to london, on which she had placed all her jewellery, thick bangles and glittering earrings glowing golden in the soft morning light.

on the wall above her bed she had stuck up all her polaroids and posters she had collected in her eighteen years of life, large printings of bowie, t-rex, queen and any other artists she had particularly liked (or whatever music poster had looked the coolest) plastered on the wall, some of their edges slightly tattered from where she and cass had ripped them off club bathroom walls, lampposts or from album covers alike.

surrounding the posters where her polaroids, all taken on her camera she had gotten from cass on her fourteenth birthday, white rimmed photos depicting various figures in in differing poses, some smiling readily at the camera while others depicted them sprawled out, unaware that the picture has even been taken. she had had a large friend group back home but all of her favourite pictures bar from one where ones with just the three of them, her, tony and cass in various stages of soberness. she ran her eyes over those favourite pictures now, smiling fondly at the memories that dredged back up in her.

one was the three of them smiling broadly at the camera, smoke curling up from the rollie dangling limply from one of tonys hands while the other was thrown around hazels shoulder, his tousled dark curls windswept and cheeks flushed from the biting december cold the picture has been taken. hazel was in the middle, caught mid laugh alongside cass who flanked her right, thick bleach blond hair tumbling over her shoulders and oversized silver jewellery flashing in the cameras light.

another one depicted the three of them sitting in the shagged orange carpet on tony’s bedroom floor, beer cans and half empty bottles of off brand vodka littering them as they all sat huddled together cross legged,  hazel in the middle of rolling up a joint with a look of utter concentration on her face while cass’s hand was reaching in the small pouch of baccy before them. another was of hazel perched on tony’s shoulders at one of the first concerts they had attended together, the two pressed in amongst the crowd of sweaty pressing bodies. she had her arms flung up to the pale twilight sky, clad in tony’s oversized navy windbreaker and in the process of belting some of the lyrics out, face aglow and hair waving wildly around her. tony himself was clad in dark washed loose jeans and his favourite led zeppelin t-shirt, one large ring clad clamped around hazels thigh and the other clutching a bottle of heineken, half lit joint dangling loosely from his mouth and lazy grin on his lips.

another one her eyes snagged on was one taken by hazel herself one the first night they had all gotten blackout drunk together at far to young age of fourteen, cass and tony both passed out in the middle of the hallway, tony lying halfway in the door to the bathroom and half in the hall way and mysteriously shirtless (to this day none of them had the faintest idea what had happened to it) and cass curled around the toilet bowl after just emptying her insides within it, now curled around it and napping, dark eyeliner smudged and hair a tangled mess. in her own inebriated state hazel had felt the overwhelming  urge to take a picture immediately, finding it deeply hilarious before she too, had thrown up. one of the last ones favourites was of cass perched on tony’s broad shoulders, night dark around them as she reached silver clad fingers up to the road sign before them she was currently in the process of removing, laughter on her lips.

the last of her favourites was one of her and marcus, one she still had even after they had broken up from their short four months of dating when they had both been fifteen, one of her favourites simply because she looked particularly good in that picture. she justified its place on her wall as although romantically they hadn’t lasted all that long, he still remained a close friend to this day, and it would be a crime to throw out a photo in which she looked so good.

looking at the snapshots of her life back home she felt a sudden pang of longing. it hadn’t been long since she had last saw both cass and tony, but she still missed their presence like one missed the feeling of a lost limb, a longing that clung to her as she gazed at her friends faces before her. marlene had promised there was a phone booth in hogsmead where she had already arranged to call them both every sunday at twelve mid day each week paired with the letters she was already planning on writing them whenever she has chance, blaming the odd method of communication on the old fashioned rules of the school to them before she had left. they had promised to write back, declaring they would send a constant supply of packets of smokes and other contraband she was sure not to get in her stuffy old school (as cass had put it), but hazel had reframed, unsure on the ethics of using owls to smuggle in banned goods into a magically secured school.

she had settled with just asking them to write back to her, straight up threatening rather creative methods of harm if they dared to not read the letters she sent or respond to them just because the method of communication was unpractical. tony had simply laughed at her, stating that she better be careful with what she wished for because the between the two of them they were sure on sending enough mail to overflow the schools post box to the point she would need a separate on just to herself to avoid their post clogging up the main one. at that she had tried not to burst into tears.

shaking her head to rid the memories that clung to her thoughts like cobwebs she tore her eyes from the wall before her, snatching up her uniform from where mary had neatly folded it during unpacking and making her way into the bathroom. there, she turned the water up as hot as she could possibly manage, using the wrapping heat and cloying steam to rinse out the memories of her past few years at home from her sud covered scalp, massaging her shampoo in slightly aggressively before rinsing it off, applying the rest of her bath products in a similar fashion. once finished. she roughly scrubbed herself dry with her plush white towel, halting to apply a generous amount of her moisturiser and allowing it to settle before changing into her uniform, the warm scent of spiced cinnamon and lingering vanilla clinging to her dampened skin as she exited, hair still damp, small droplets running down from her curls and splattering onto her neck.

marlene and lily where both awake at this point, smiling at hazel and biding her a good morning as she passed them, which she returned as she plonked back down on her bed. marlene entered the bathroom next, lily already preoccupied with grabbing her own uniform and towel in preparation for a shower of her own as mary turned to hazel, taking one look at her sodden curls and rising from her bed, making her way over to hazels.

‘no need to get a cold from that your first day here.’ she simply said with a wink, before flicking her wand and muttering a spell under her breath, the moisture immediately evaporating from hazels hair and settling into its natural thick bouncy waves.

‘thanks.’ she responded gratefully to the girl before her who just winked again at her, making her way over to her wardrobe to pull on a pair of thick white leg warmers in place of stockings. once marlene had finished with her shower lily took her pace in the bathroom and soon all girls where dressed and clean, finishing up the last touches to their uniforms, or in mary and marlenes case their makeup before they were ready to head down to breakfast. mary was the first to finish, leaning back on her bed and plucking up an open witch weekly from her bedside as she began to flip through it, waiting for the other girls.

she had forgone a blazer simply staying in her school shirt, the same shade of white as her leg warmers, her natural bouncy tight curls pulled back into a top bun, although she had left two pieces at the front of her face down, curls framing her cheeks. she had long, dangling gold earrings in that extenuated the length of her smooth neck, a light brown winged kohl framing her dark eyes and lashes painted a dark black, lips lined and glossy. quite frankly, she looked absolutely stunning. marlene was just finishing up the last of her dark eyeliner, smudging the coal pencil around her eyes with a thumb, her choppy blond hair soft and falling just below her shoulders, silver earrings lining the entirety of her ears, fingers similarly covered in enough silver rings to kill a small army of naffelers. her uniform was the messiest of the lot, the top few buttons of her shift open and tie slung loosely around her neck, shirt untucked and clad in thick souled black shoes that bordered on the edge of uniform appropriate.

hazels uniform was simple enough although she too had forgone the blazer, thick gold earrings she had collected from various second-hand shops and flee markets adorning her lobes and crawling up her ears, wrists adorned in similar shaded metal chunky bracelets. lily was the most put together out of all of them, uniform pristine and fresh faced, small green gems dotting her lobes and bringing out the deep emerald of her irises, thick auburn hair pulled back into a loose fishtail plait, whips of shorted strands escaping the braid and framing her pretty round face.

‘right’ marlene grinned as hazel fixed the last of her bracelets upon her wrists, jumping up from where she was perched on her bed, eyeliner pencil still clasped in one hand. ‘breakfast!’

hogwarts knew how to do breakfast. the three girls escorted her down to the great hall, striding towards the middle of the already packed gryffindor table, making a bee line to a group of boys she vaguely recognised. sirius she remembered from yesterday, who was seated beside a boy with unruly black hair and wide framed glasses that kept slipping down his nose, while two unfamiliar boys sat opposite them. one of those boys was the first to notice their little group as they approached, looking away from a smaller blond boy seated his left to glance at the girls.

his eyes flicked over them, landing on hazel and lingering as they widened slightly in what she could only assume was surprise, and she couldn’t help noticing the details of his appearance as she drew closer, noting the sandy shade of his curls and the large brown eyes that where now fixed upon her own. he has very pretty eyes, her mind offered uselessly. his reaction was enough to gain the attention of the other three, who turned as hazel and the rest finally reached their place on the table. the boy with the glasses was the last to notice them, fork full of eggs already raised to his open mouth when his attention shifted from the boy to focusing on her. eyes widening slightly, he didn’t even seem to notice his fork veering left and completely missing his mouth as he blinked owlishly up at her before his face split into a wide grin.

‘ah, you must be hazel!’ he cried, sounding far too energised for just past eight in the morning. she glanced briefly down at his notably empty coffee mug and then back at his earnest, smiling face as she smiled back.

‘that’s me.’

‘hello you lot.’ marlene chirped from beside her, all eyes trained on them and marlene grinned down at the table’s occupants.

‘who..what- er..’ the blond boy spoke up, struggled as if all the words had suddenly evaporated from his skull and mary grinned, waggling an eye brow suggestively.

‘what’s the matter with you, never seen a pretty girl before?’ she asked sweetly, batting her lashes as marlene smirked, lily copying the gesture as she too focused her attention on the blushing boy.

‘honestly,’ mary continued, with an over exaggerated pout, ‘i’m feeling slightly offended that i didn’t get such a flattering reaction when you first laid eyes on me.’

the boy- peter blushed, cheeks staining an almost alarming shade of pink as he levelled an affronted glare at mary who just smiled back at him, before nudging him with an elbow in a silent request to make space. he did so, and the four of them slid in beside the boys, shuffling as they made themselves comfortable. she smiled warmly at him, before turning to the rest of the sitting groups.

‘its smashing to finally meet you.’ the boy with the glasses (defiantly james, if she was going on the descriptions marlene had given her over the years) declared with a lopsided smile, almost buzzing in his seat, though weather that was from excitement or caffeine overload she wasn’t particularly sure. most likely a combination of both.

‘im james,’ he continued, using a piece of toast he was still holding in one hand to gesture to the other three, ‘and that’s sirius, pete and remus.’ he gestured to each of them in turn. sirius greeted her with a half smirk and a ‘hello again. i see you made it back from the slytherin compartment in one piece.’

it took her a moment to register his words, time that allowed james to scrunch up his face in equal confusion and distaste.

‘slytherins?’

sirius nodded solemnly, explaining ‘they where kidnapped by a bunch of reggies slytherin mates before we sat down. id rather my chances hanging onto the trains engine by my fingernails then be locked up in a compartment with a bunch of those snakes the entire trip.’ he made a face, as if personally affronted by the fact that those mentioned slytherins where even permitted on the same train he was forced to take, nudging james’s elbow out if the way to grab for the sugar bowl, dumping a tea spoon into his coffee before taking a gulp of the dark liquid.

‘slytherins?!’ james repeated, whirling to face a slightly red faced marlene, who had just managed to swallow her mouthful of food. ‘that’s who you where sharing a compartment with in the way up?’

marlene just shrugged, cheeks pinkening as she mumbled something along the lines of ‘they’re not all that bad.’ into her mug of tea, vehemently avoiding the wide eyed gaze of the boy across from her.

‘honestly,’ lily chided, pining james with a stern look as she reached out and grabbed the marmalade jar from where it stood beside mary, brining it over to her plate and unscrewing the lid. ‘i thought we where past all this house discrimination bollocks, seeing as we’ve already spent six years with them. you know well enough by now that there are plenty of perfectly pleasant people in slytherin. plus, they’re hazels mates, so they must have been nice company for the train ride.’

james whirled towards hazel, nose scrunching in confusion as he all but balked ‘how do you have mates in slytherin already?! you’ve only just been here for a single night! and in the name of merlin, why are they slytherins?’

she shrugged, slightly amused the way he was working himself into an almost fit, even as the eyes of those seated next to her fell upon he. ‘im mates with dorcas, i didn’t know the rest until meeting them on the train just there. and i knew her before, from running  into her in hogsmead while picking up my stuff for hogwarts. quite literally. she bought me burty’s every flavoured beans.’ she explained, as if that was all that was needed to sum up her immediate friendship with the girl. she supposed it was.

‘an admiral choice of sweets.’ james murmured, then scowled at himself for the accidental compliment. ’still, she’s a slytherin.’

‘well not all of them are. pandoras actually in ravenclaw.’

he seemed to think this over for a second, then shrugged slightly, pacified which allowed hazel enough time to actually survey the food spread around her.

looking out at the table overflowing with assortments of toasted breads, bowls heaped with fruits off all colours, silver dishes filled to the brim with cereals and creamy porridge  and heavy jugs of juices that stained the table below, hazel didn’t know what to look at first. actually that wasn’t quite true. the first thing she got to sorting for herself was as always, a cup of tea, reaching across lily to grasp a silver jug and pouring herself a mug full, topping it off with just the right amount of milk before straightening back up and bring her gaze back to the assortment of food before her.

she settled on a bowl of porridge, accepting the silver dish as peter passed it over to her from where he was sitting on her left, lily to her right and marlene and mary opposite them both and dished herself out a generous amount, sprinkling over a mixture of brown sugar and cinnamon over the top and waiting until it had caramelised slightly before she stirred it in. she though she felt brown eyes upon her own for a moment and glanced up but found the boy in question locked in a conversation with james, eyes fixed firmly on the boy in front of him who was aggressively gesturing with his slice of toast to the point small dollops of jam flew off each time he waved his hands, remus watching in slight amassment as they landed on the table before him. giving her head a slight shake, she brought her attention back to the food before her, quickly making work of the tea before her, the porridge smooth and sweet as it filled her mouth and stomach, warming her from the inside out.

‘i swear the breakfasts get better and better every year’ marlene sighed, practically stuffing an entire breakfast sausage that she had speared onto her fork into her mouth in one go, mary nodding in agreement as she reached for her second slice of toast, taking a large bite of it before setting the rest on her plate and beginning the process of buttering it. hazel, after finishing her first cup of tea poured herself another, brining it to her lips before her attention was snagged by the tail end of a conversation sirius was having with james, having interrupted the boys seeming attempts to cover the entire gryffindor table with specks of jam from his toast gesturing.

‘… still cant believe it- honestly, slytherins…’

she rolled her eyes, and marlene who seemingly had picked up the same tail end of their conversation leaned forwards to tease ‘james is right you know. i dont think your allowed to make your own friends after this, seeing the questionable ones you’ve already made.’

‘i have excellent choice in friends’ she protested indignant as the others watched on in amusement.

marlene only raised a single brow. ‘you mean like the ones back home that spend practically each weekend sneaking into pubs and getting pissed off of stolen booze?’

‘its not every weekend’ she protested, ‘and we dont steal it, tonys old enough to buy. also, i think your forgetting that half the time were breaking into somewhere, im the one that’s brining them along. plus, i think your also forgetting that every time your back from a break your right there with us.’

‘okay, maybe that’s fair.’ marlene amended, earning a piece of toast in the face from where hazel had snatched up a slice of the table, tearing off a chunk and throwing it at the now spluttering girl, reflexes thankfully fast enough to avoid the grape marlene flung back.

‘marls!’ lily gasped, affronted. ‘that’s what you spend your free time doing when back home?’

‘dont look at me!’ she protested, flinging an accusatory hand out at hazel. ‘she’s the one that’s the bad influence.’

‘im a perfectly good influence.’

‘at what, getting me in trouble?’

‘at teaching you valuable life skills.’

‘skills such as how to shotgun and how to roll the perfect spliff?’

‘exactly.’

‘so that’s how you got so good.’ mary exclaimed, rounding on marlene with narrowed eyes. ‘i was always wondering how you learnt how to do that.’

‘courtesy of yours truly.’ hazel retorted sweetly as the rest chuckled, sirius leaning forwards to rest his head on one hand, looking at hazel in amusement. ‘i can just tell your going to be great to have around. though ill have to question your perfect spliff rolling skills. nobody here can roll a better one then our dear moony here.’ remus just shrugged glancing briefly up at hazel before down again, poking at his spread smeared toast before mumbling ‘im alright’

‘nonsense!’ sirius exclaimed, before sighing dramatically. ‘thats just our moons, ever the modest. wait- i know what well do!’ he bolted upwards, eyes alight with some inner mischief ‘well have a competition. who can roll the best. a spliff roll off. a spliff off!’

‘please never utter that sentence ever again.’ peter muttered, cringing.

‘its perfect!’ the boy continued, completely ignoring the looks from both peter and remus as he went on ‘then its decided! this saturday, well see who rolls the best. ill have to give each of them a try of course, for research purposes naturally…’

‘you tosser, you just want an excuse to bum off of others stashes!’ james cried, tackling sirius in an arm lock that he tried desperately to free himself, laughing loudly as they both tussled. ‘how come always mooching of the rest of us, seeing as your the most loaded out of all of us here, huh?’

‘a black never wastes money on something so trivial, not when one can just take it for free.’ sirius sniffed, adopting a haughty accent that had james chuckling.

‘but your willing to blow it all on firewhisky?’ mary questioned, brow raised high.

‘ill have you know that firewhisky is a fine investment, worth every single gallon and then some.’ he retorted with such fervour hazel couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

breakfast finished quickly after that and she found herself dragged out of the great hall by the girls, insistent that they show hazel around the expanse of the castle so she could begin familiarising herself with its layout. they spent well over an hour wandering down the castles many meandering corridors, hazel attempting to keep track of the various rooms the girls painted out to her, occasionally poking her head into abandoned classroom stuffed full of cauldrons or wooden desks as they past them. she had familiarised her self enough to find her way to the common room from the great hall and quidditch pitches, the first place marlene had been intent on showing her by the time her hap-hazardous tour was complete, and noted a few of the classrooms she was soon to occupy well enough that she could probably  find her own way to them in needed. her favourite two spots she had been led to so far was the owlery and the astronomy tower, both of which took her breath away when she first laid eyes upon them.

the owlery was the first, breaths laboured as they had finally made their way up the winding staircase that led to it on the eastern wing, the spiralling turret levelling out into a large spacious room resembling a barn with its pale wooden floors and wood beams that laced over the ceiling, owls precariously perched upon them, claws digging into the flaking wood. the floor had been scattered with hay that crunched softly under her feet as she made her way deeper into the sun filled room, light spilling in through the large open windows towards the furthest wall facing the horizon beyond and filling theorem with its soft glow. a gentle breeze was drifting in through them, carrying the scent of owl feathers and hay as it stuffed itself down her nose, surpassingly pleasant and comforting as she breathed it in.

the room was louder then she could ever have anticipated, the hoots the creatures above and their soft scuffling and fluttering of soft wings filling the chamber. it was the view that really stole the feather scented air from her lungs as she stood before the massive paned windows, their view offering an unblocked sight of the sprawling countryside before her, deep green hills blending into the bright cloud specked sky as they met in the horizon, sunlight peeking through their occasional gaps and spilling onto the landscape underneath. she noted the quidditch pitches to one side, large looming wooden turrets spiking into the sky above as it attempting to reach splintering fingers into the grey mottled clouds over head and drag them down, all four house banners flapping gently in the constant breeze that ran through the stadium that decked each side of its inner ring.

behind the stadium stood an expanse of closely woven together trees, bark dark as if the light had been leached from their very roots, deep green leaves and twisting gnarled branches tangling above and intertwining with one another to blot out almost all the sun that pierced their barrier. to the opposite side of the grounds glistened a large body of water, water seeming black with the lack of light illuminating it, surface rippling with white created waves that beat gently against the smooth stoned shore. the rest of the grounds consisted of neatly trimmed green fields and dotted occasionally with cobblestone patios, both in which students where lounging with in, grass stained robes bright against their sprawling masses. it was a similar view that was provided by the astronomy tower and one of the reasons she loved both spaces from the moment she stepped foot upon them.

after their speed tour of the castle both her and marlene found themselves sprawled side by side on one of the grass pitches close to the great lake, both lily and mary having being dragged off somewhere between the potions classrooms and the trophy display cases, the former by a professor requiring her assistance in setting up some cauldrons for oncoming lessons the following day and the later by a ever persisting headache that found her slouching off to the infamy, promising to meet up with the two girls once she had obtained one of ms pomfreys apparently well renowned healing draughts. this lead to just hazel and marlene lounging side by side on the soft grass field, green blades soft under her tracing fingers and spotted with clumps of wildflowers, both girls on their backs as they gazed up at the billowing clouds above them, pointing out ones that resembled familiar shapes. hazel had just pointed out one that looked particularly like a hunched over cat to where marlene had tilted her head to the side, hair rumpled and shirt creased from where she lay, squinting up at where hazel pointed before announcing that it looked far more like a hunched over griffin. hazel then had to remind her that she had no clue what a griffin in fact looked like to which marlene retorted that it was similar to a cat, only larger, logic which hazel could not refute as she gazed back at the hunched over cat- griffin cloud.

she had just spotted a particular cloud that looked alarmingly similar to dolly when she was clad in her little speckled apron, parting her lips to say as much to the figure beside her when a shout rang out across the billowing grass, causing her head to snap up. there, one hand waving frantically from side to side as if there was any chance hazel could miss her, regardless of the fact that the figure and those beside her where the only students currently near them strode dorcas, with pandora, evan and barty in tow, as they made their way towards the two girls.

marlene had raised her head at this point attempting to pin point where the commotion was coming from and when her eyes fell upon the nearing figures she made a little chocked splutter, shooting up from where she had previously been lounging, one ring covered hand flying up to her tousled hair and attempting in vain to flatten its static. hazel looked at her for a moment, brows knitting in confusion before she brought her gaze back to the approaching figures, perplexed over her friend’s odd behaviour. she had been pretty vocal at breakfast that she wasn’t the biggest fans of slytherins, and looking now hazel couldn’t figure out why she was seemingly trying to straighten out her appearance for the group that was now approaching them.

could she have a thing for one of them? knowing marlene’s preferences, the only two suitable candidates where the two girls that where now almost upon them. perhaps it was pandora that had caught her attention- she was a ravenclaw after all, and rather beautiful in an almost ethereal way.

the group had now reached them, hazel smiling brightly up at them as dorcas shot her a bright ‘hi you.’ before plopping down on the grass beside her, seemingly in the furthest spot she could find from the gryffindor beside hazel. pandora flopped down next, even managing to make the movement graceful as she settled herself between marlene and dorcas, greeting both gryffindor girls with a light ‘hello’ and warm smile as barty practically threw himself down on the grass beside her, evan being the last to lower himself as if voluntarily spending time with the two gryffindors was something utterly against his will. noting his scowl, hazel assumed it was.

‘got your castle tour yet?’ dorcas asked, just having rolled the sleeves of her school shirt up and was now crossing her legs, leaning back on her palms as she peered at the girl, braids slipping over one shoulder and beads blinking prettily in the slivers of sunlight that broke through the clouds over head.

‘yeah, the girls just finished bringing me around the place. can’t say i remember much of it though, just the directions to the great hall, common room and a few random classrooms.’

‘they’re the only places that matter.’ barty piped up from where he was sprawled beside her. ‘half the classes are a waste of space most of the time anyway.’

‘easy for you to say,’ evan scoffed, rolling her eyes at the boy ‘seeing as you hardly show up to an of them and still manage to get top marks every time.’

barty simply shrugged. ‘can’t help im a natural genius, evs.’

‘natural pain in the arse more like it.’ the boy grumbled back, a startled laugh tumbling from marlenes lips before clamping them shut, as if was a personal offence to her gryffindor status to find anything a slytherin said even remotely funny. dorcas shifted her eyes to hers briefly, slight smile playing on her lips before her eyes quickly flicked away again.

‘he’s right.’ she added, fixing barty with a look although it was laced with fondness ‘it wouldn’t hurt sharing some of that natural genius with the rest of us lowly folk. salazar knows we could use it, especially for sprouts herbology lessons. i swear half the time she’s actually trying to get those plants to kill us.’

‘right!’ marlene added, her never ending eversion to talk bad about her most hated teacher apparently outweighing her reluctance to find any similarities with the green robed students gathered around her. ‘christ, the last time i had class with her she made us attempt to gather petals from a poly wink plant while it had just hatched. bloody thing nearly took my arm of.’

‘that the same professor i have next thing tomorrow morning?’ hazel asked, suddenly slightly less eager to attend her first magical lessons if that was what she could look forward to experiencing.

‘the same one.’ marlene confirmed with a sigh.

‘thats the same first class as ours,’ dorcas exclaimed, jerking her head in evan’s direction and fixing hazel with a bright smile. ‘guess ill see you there.’

‘ill be hard to miss.’ hazel responded with a wince. ‘seeing as my complete lack of real life experience with any plants, let alone carnivorous ones isn’t exactly going to be easy to hide.’

dorcas shot her a sympathetic smile as pandora turned to hazel, eyes kind as she cut in ‘there’s no need to worry about any plants trying to eat any of your limbs tomorrow. dont worry, he only brings out the flesh eating ones halfway through the year.’

unsurprisingly, this was not particularly comforting.

‘well that’s what you all get for picking the worst subject.’ barty butted in, raising a hand to lazily run through his tousled dark hair. ‘me and panda here will be sitting nice and cosy in trewlany’s office, sipping tea and reading leaves and shit. personally, i can’t wait.’

‘its called tea leaf reading, and its nothing to joke about. one can read real future omens in those leaves if you know what to look for.’ pandora snipped, eyes narrowed at the boy. he held up his hands, amending ‘sorry love, im not trying to take the piss. i know if anyone’s going to be learning anything useful from those classes, its going to be you.’

‘i know. thank you.’

‘i can never make out anything in those leaves.’ marlene noted wistfully. ‘maybe its different for you, but they always just look like a soggy clump at the bottom of a mug to me.’

‘that makes two of us.’ barty agreed, shooting marlene a smile which the girl returned.

‘both of those still beat ancient runes.’ evan stated, frowning as if already picturing himself sat back in the classroom surrounded by the ancient carvings and nonsensical scribblings. ‘its the last time im ever letting this one-‘ he shot a glare in dorcas’s direction who just stuck her tongue out at him ‘rope me into joining a class with her.’

‘i would have joined that class if i could have.’ hazel said, drawing his gaze to hers as she continued, shrugging slightly ‘i think three something nice about it, learning how to speak in languages that have been long forgotten. the was they shaped their ideas, how those ancient symbols contain secret meanings only decipherable to those who know how to decode them.’

‘why didn’t you take it then?’ he asked, and although his eyes where still cold and voice bland, there was no bite behind the clipped words, only slight curiosity. she shrugged fully then, retorting ‘didn’t have the option to. dumbledor made me take my newts before i came to hogwarts, and the only subjects i could take them in was the ones marlene studied, since i was already familiar with them, having read most of her old text books and helping her with assignments over the past few years. apart from picking up muggle studies and dropping divination and arithmacy, we’ve got the same classes.’

her newts had been a right ordeal to take. it of course helped that she was, as she said, was already familiar with all the subjects she was tested in to a high degree, having used to love reading through marlenes school text books to the point margret would sometimes purchase double, one for each daughter as hazel would pour over them for hours at a night, fascinated by the knowledge contained within each ink filled page. however, naturally there was still a lot that she did not know, simply parts she hadn’t found interesting enough to read over or parts she didn’t understand, and although she had received personal tutoring over the few weeks before her entrance exams and acceptance into hogwarts, her marks had only been slightly above average. enough that she would probably be able to sit through most lessons easily enough, understanding the general gist of what was to be lectured to her and her fellow students, but not enough that she wouldn’t have to pick up extra slack to be on the same level as the rest of those in her class.

‘oh, so you have your newts already.’ dorcas exclaimed, looking optimistic. ‘then it shouldn’t be to hard to help you catch up in whatever your falling behind in, if you at least you have the basic groundwork.’

‘i do for everything but actually using magic. i honestly dont have a clue how go about learning that.’

‘well, charms will help with that,’ marlene replied practically. ‘and your set on getting extra lessons from flintwick each evening, so im sure you’ll catch up in no time.’

‘classes at night?’ barty exclaimed, looking insulted on hazels behalf. ‘sounds more like a punishment then a help to me.’

‘well i need all the extra help i can get.’ she responded. ‘im sure it won’t hurt.’

‘evan can defiantly help you in nailing some of the basics, he’s the best out of all of us when it comes to charms.’ pandora suggested, looking at the boy in question. he bristled slightly, but as he brought his gaze to hazels own he only hesitated for a few moments before simply shrugging, which must have been as good as a confirmation according to him as pandora beamed.

barty, seemingly already bored with the conversation was subtly shuffling ever closer to her, hand stretching slowly to close the ever shrinking gap between them. he rolled his head so his eyes met with hazels, who just raised a singular brow at the trouble that brewed in them. ‘what.’

‘what can i say, your even prettier outside in the sun.’ he winked. ‘brings out the gold in your eyes.’

‘well i can’t say the same for you.’ she responded sweetly, swatting away his hand that was slowly creeping towards the half eaten chocolate bar she had placed beside her before her cloud gazing, the boy almost having reached it and smirking as he only chuckled, content to flop back in the grass once more.

somewhere between barty’s failed distraction and attempted chocolate thievery evan had stiffened slightly, and the cool indifference in his glacier eyes replaced with open hostility as levered his gaze on hers, jaw clenched to the point of straining. the expression flickered on his features for only a moment before quickly sliding off, replaced with that of indifference his features seemed permanently fixed in as he brought his attention back towards pandora, who was now plucking wildflowers that grew scattered around her, threading them into a makeshift flower crown. it had been so rapid she could have sworn she had imagined the entire thing, yet when he slid his eyes back onto hers the cold anger seemed to lurk just beneath their surface.

he stood abruptly, movements slightly stiff as he straightened, not meeting the eyes of all those that turned towards him as he muttered ‘im back off to the dungeons.’ before making his way back, all but stalking through the field and back towards the castle.

‘godric.’ marlene murmured, eyes tracking his swiftly disappearing form ‘is he always this grouchy?’

‘oi, that’s my best mate your on about.’ barty protested before adding with a smirk, ‘and yes, he is.’

the girl smiled back as if helpless to resist, rolling her eyes before shifting so that she too was sitting cross legged, clasping her pale ring covered hands before her. baryt’s eyes where drawn down to them, widening slightly as he took them in.

‘salazar, thats a lot of metal.’ he sounded appreciative, adding ‘my dad would hate those. cas, why dont i have cool rings like that.’

‘because your not cool.’ she responded with a sweet smile, earning an eye roll from the boy before her. ‘literal the entire rest of slytherin and most of the year would disagree with you there.’

‘maybe, but im not the rest of slytherin nor the rest of the year, and it’s not my job to inflate your ego any more than it already is. you do enough of that yourself already.’

he pouted until marlene reached down, prying one of the simplest metal bands off her middle finger, one of her rings hazel knew was one of her least favourites yet still wore regardless in her apparent quest of fitting as much metal onto her fingers as humanly possible and tossed it towards the boy who caught it in one fluid motion, eyes wide as he peered down at it.

‘i doubt it’ll make you any cooler, but anything is worth a shot.’

he grinned at her, slipping it onto his thumb and wriggling the finger around, testing its feel before confidentiality announcing ‘i can now officially say you are my second favourite gryffindor.’

‘and who’s your first?’ dorcas asked, brows raised in scepticism to which he just flashed hazel a smile, retorting ‘hazel, naturally. well, that’s after she shows me how to deck someone, that is.’

‘ooh, are we trading friendship rings now?’ pandora asked excitedly, sitting up straighter. ‘i’ve always wanted to do that.’

‘its not a friendship ring!’ marlene protested, an expression of alarm staining her features as she eyed the smirking before her as if honestly debating reaching over and snatching the ring off of his thumb, barty waggling his eyebrows back at her, grin painted onto his lips as if daring her to try. ‘its merely an attempt at making him less annoying. dorcas was right, he needs all the help he can get with it.’

the three girls chocked on laughter while barty scoffed affronted, narrowing his eyes at the smug looking blond. ‘well, now you’re in third place.’

‘third place for what?’

‘my favourite gryffindor.’

‘you dont even know three gryffindors.’ dorcas stated flatly. he took a moment to think this through, scrunching his nose as he contemplated, finally settling with ‘well not yet, but when i do, they’re replacing your spot, mckinnon.’

‘i pity any other gryffindors that have the displeasure of getting to know you.’ she retorted, words softened by the laughter she was attempting to hold back, shoulders shaking slightly with the effort. he matched her smile, even as he playfully narrowed his eyes at her.

‘carefully mckinnon, dont want to make it down to fourth place.’