Late nights
The variety within Dorcas’ friend group was truly amazing, sometimes it means arguments between the group and sometimes it means Pandora and Dorcas dragging their boys to study outside before winter sets in.
So under a bare tree sat the whole group on an old blanket. Barty had his head in Evan’s lap, Evan was getting absolutely nothing done as he was solely focused on running his fingers though Barty’s hair.
Regulus was backed up against tree scribbling away in his little notebook.
Pandora was drawing on her arm with deep blue ink and Dorcas was re-read a book on Matagots.
Dorcas felt something poke her in the side. She turned her head to look at Pandora. Pandora nodded her head at the castle.
Dorcas spotted a blonde woman leaning against the castle wall. A woman she almost instantly recognized as Marlene McKinnon.
She was standing against the wall all alone. Smoke came up from her mouth in a thin line.
Barty sighed, “if she wasn’t a lesbian, I’d hit that.” He stared over at McKinnon.
“Oi!” Evan yanked on Barty’s hair, “I’m right here y’know.”
“Ow! Rosey,” Barty winced, “I’m just saying that-“
Dorcas cut him off, “Wait, McKinnon is a lesbian?”
“Yeah, I thought-“ Barty sat up with his hands bracketing Evan’s thighs as he tried to avoid another one of Evan’s jabs, “God Rosey! What’s your problem?”
“What’s my problem! What do you think is my problem Barty?” Evan said, clearly annoyed.
Regulus looked at Dorcas and Pandora, he cocked his head as if asking if they should get involved. Pandora shook her head.
“I just wish you wouldn’t make those little comments, Barty!”
“They’re harmless Evan,” Barty scoffed,”you know I wouldn’t act on them.”
“They’re harmless until you act on them!” Evan shoved Barty away.
Barty looked hurt, “But I wouldn’t Rosey, you know that.”
“Do I?” Evan started to stand up, “like you haven’t before?”
Barty flinched back, “Rosey...”
“No!” Evan started to walk away, “just stop.”
Barty watched as Evan walked away with his mouth hanging open. He turned to look at the rest of the group. The group quickly tried to look like they were actually doing something.
Dorcas stuck her nose further into her book, Pandora started to braid her long wavy hair and Regulus went back to scribbling in his notebook.
“I- he- we-“ Barty opened and closed his mouth, “ugh! Pandora,Regulus tell her the story please.” He turned and then ran after Evan.
Pandora clapped her hands together, “Well I only remember some parts because I took you back to the dorm after a couple of hours.”
Regulus laughed,”Merlin, I remember that, you threw up so much.”
“However Barty, Evan and I stayed.” Regulus started his part of the story, “it was an end of year party that some seventh years hosted at the edge of the forest, you remember?”
“I do remember getting invited to an end of year party,” Dorcas said.
“Well at said end of year party, McKinnon was being hit on by a seventh year boy and she was not having it, and she was well into her cups at that point so she announced loudly to the whole party that she wasn’t interested and that the boy looked like,” Regulus chuckled, “A gross cow and then she said somethings in Irish that I didn’t understand but he cleared did because he asked her-,” Regulus cleared his throat, “He asked her ‘what are you a dyke?’ And then McKinnon goes ‘so what if I am?’ She then grabbed the face of the seventh year girl she’d been chatting up all night and kissed her.”
“Regulus left after that, but I heard that McKinnon and that girl made out for like thirty seconds.” Pandora cut in.
“Then she got a howler the next morning!” Dorcas remembered.
Dorcas could say that she remembered that morning clear as day but that would be a lie. Honestly Dorcas thinks that she was still drunk that morning, however she does remember McKinnon running out of the great hall with a smoking red envelope. Then later in class. Dorcas was pretty sure McKinnon’s eyes were red.
Pandora turned to Regulus, “I saw her start crying in the library and her friends had to walk her back to the dorm.”
“Merlin, the dorm!” Regulus cried, “I do not want to be in that dorm tonight.”
“Why not?” A voice came from behind Dorcas.
Dorcas jumped and turned around. Standing behind her was Marlene McKinnon. She still had a lit cigarette in her mouth. McKinnon wasn’t wearing her robe despite the chill, most of the time McKinnon stretched the rules of the dress code by wearing trousers and today was no exception.
“Why don’t you want to sleep in your dorm tonight?” McKinnon repeated.
“None of your business, McKinnon.” Regulus said dryly.
“Whatever, baby black,” she held out a scrap of parchment, “I have something to give you, it’s from James.”
Regulus paled, “I don’t want it.”
McKinnon held the paper out closer to Regulus, “Don’t worry I didn’t read it, I mean I tried to but it just said ‘piss off Marlene’ whenever I looked at it.”
Regulus stood up to take the paper from McKinnon, “I’m sure it’ll actually say something to you though,” she said.
Regulus unfolded the parchment, his eyes trailed along, when he finished he crushed the paper in his fist.
He held his wand up to the parchment, “Incendio,” the paper started to blacken and curl in on itself.
He turned sharply and started to walk away.
“Wait!” McKinnon yelled after him.
“Piss off McKinnon!” Regulus yelled over his shoulder.
“You can crash in my dorm, Reg!” Dorcas called at Regulus.
When Dorcas turned back to McKinnon she had a puzzled look on her face, Dorcas opened her mouth to say something but McKinnon beat her to it.
“How is Regulus going to get into your dorm?” She asked.
Dorcas rolled her eyes, “through the door I suspect.”
“But do you not have the anti-male charms on your dorms?” McKinnon gaped.
Pandora laughed, “they do, but I figured out how to let Regulus in.”
“You figured out how to break the charms on the girl’s dormitory?” A voice said from behind McKinnon.
They all jumped, behind McKinnon stood Lily Evans, the head girl cocked her head.
Pandora straightened up upon seeing the red head, she smoothed her skirt and ran her fingers through her hair.
Pandora smiled, “Yup! Just for Regulus though.”
Lily seemed even more intrigued,”But how?” she asked.
Pandora mimed zipping her lips. Dorcas knew she wasn’t going to tell Lily, as she hadn't even told Dorcas. She actually doubts anyone except Pandora herself knows how she did. Even Regulus wasn’t entirely sure how she did it, the only thing he seemed to know was that she took some of his blood.
Not unusual for Pandora, she has a cupboard full of weird things, like her friends hair and blood.
All Dorcas knew was the one day she was reading on her bed when Regulus walked into her room to give her quill back.
She’d almost fallen off the bed in surprise. After a bit of explanation Dorcas calmed down.
So after a chat with her roommates about how she trusted Regulus completely and that he had no ill intent, he was welcome to stay in Dorcas’ dorm. Which wasn’t often as he really only slept there when Evan and Barty were fighting or shagging. After about a year dealing with their bullshit they’d learned that there wasn’t much of a difference.
————————-
When Dorcas walked back into her dorm that evening she found Regulus face down on her bed. The whole scene looked rather funny to Dorcas and she had to hold back a laugh.
A grin spread across her face,”Reg?” She asked.
Regulus groaned,”I went to get some of my things from my dorm and-“ He paused to sit up,”Let’s just say they aren’t fighting anymore.”
“Oh,” Dorcas scrunched her nose,”ew.”
They sat in silence for a bit before Regulus asked Dorcas if he could set his bed up.
While Regulus set up his cot that Dorcas had transfigured from the chair that used to be in the corner of her dorm, one of Dorcas’ roommates came in; she barely spared Regulus a glance before walking into the bathroom.
Her roommates had become accustomed to Regulus being in their dorm occasionally. She had made them swear not to snitch.
Dorcas actually thinks that some of them have grown quite fond of Regulus. Despite his sour attitude and lack of interest in any of them at all.
Dorcas’ roommate stuck her head out of the bathroom door, “Dorcas I just remembered,there’s a some Ravenclaw sitting outside of the common room asking for you.”
Dorcas raised her eyebrows, “Blonde hair?” She asked.
Her roommate nodded, “Yup and she looked really sad.”
Regulus stood up, concern spreading across his face. Dorcas turned away from her roommate sharply and started to walk towards the door.
While on the stairs Regulus asked if they should get Evan.
Dorcas shook her head, “she’s probably alright, let’s just see what’s going on.”
When the pair emerged from the common room, sure enough Pandora was outside by the door.
She was curled into a ball with her back against the wall, she had her head down and her back shuttered like she was crying.
Dorcas knelt down, “Panda…” She said putting a hand on Pandora’s back, “Are you alright?”
Pandora lifted her head to look at Dorcas, mascara running down her cheeks. Pandora then quickly wrapped her arms around Dorcas.
Pandora sobbed quietly into her shoulder, “Can we go up to your dorm?” She said softly in between sobs.
Dorcas and Regulus walked Pandora through the common room, shooting dirty looks at anyone who looked at Pandora funny.
When they got to Dorcas’ dorm Pandora sat on Dorcas’ bed still crying.
Regulus sat down beside her, “What happened,Dora?” He put an arm around Pandora’s shoulders.
Regulus, who often had no empathy for anyone, was always surprisingly good at comforting Pandora.
“Why am I like this?” She sobbed.
Those words felt like a stab to the gut. They’d been here before, it was often after she had a vision.
Pandora sometimes had vivid and violent visions that really made her hate being a seer.
She hated anything and everything she's ever seen in the visions. Sometimes they were small things, like a mark on a paper or the outcome of a Quidditch game. Most of the time her visions were just violent flashes of light,feeling or images. One morning she barely ate any breakfast and just kept mumbling something about a drowning star.
It made Pandora feel ill and it made her really hate herself sometimes and in turn it made Dorcas feel awful. Pandora was the first real friend Dorcas had made at Hogwarts, so naturally Dorcas was fiercely protective of her. So knowing that something she couldn’t change or fix what was hurting Pandora so badly made her feel awful.
Regulus leaned into her,”You’re okay Pandora, you’re safe.” He whispered.
Regulus was always better than Dorcas when it came to comforting Pandora, better than everyone really (other Evan maybe) he always knew what to say.
“Was it a bad one?” He asked.
Pandora looked at Regulus, “I didn’t have a vision Reg,” She said.
Dorcas cocked her head, “then what happened?”
Pandora sobbed harder, “It’s so hard, I’ve seen it,” she said, “I don’t want to like it. It’s just so hard.”
Dorcas sat down on Pandora’s other side, “Panda, what are you talking about?”
“I don’t want to like it,” she cried, “I don’t want to like her.”
Oh. Oh no. Dorcas thought, was Pandora saying what Dorcas thought she was saying? She must be. Dorcas knew how Pandora felt right now. This was why Pandora had asked for her.
Because Dorcas remembered how it felt crying into her pillow wishing she was literally anything else.
Dorcas hugged her again but Pandora kept going, “And I’ve seen how Evan and Barty are treated sometimes,” She sniffed,”It’ll never be easy.”
Dorcas pulled Pandora closer to her, she stroked Pandora blonde curls.
“No…” Dorcas said softly, “It won’t be, but trust me Pandora you’ll feel so much worse trying to pretend to yourself”
Pandora didn’t respond to this, in fact she was so still against Dorcas that she thought Pandora might have fallen asleep.
That was until she said, “But it’s not all bad?” She asked.
Dorcas smiled at this, “No it’s not all bad Dora, not when you have us.”
A few minutes of silence followed where Pandora stayed latched onto Dorcas. Regulus watched them with his back up against one of the support beams for the canopy.
Dorcas wanted to say something more, something else to reassure Pandora that it’ll be okay but Dorcas doesn’t think she could bring herself to lie to Pandora because she doesn’t know if it’ll be okay. It is more likely that Pandora’s life will just get harder from now on. But she’s lucky to have a group of friends like her, Dorcas knows that it’ll make her feel less alone.
Dorcas also knows that the hole in her heart and that shadow in her mind will remain forever.
She knows that the world has never been kind to people like her and Dorcas doubts she’ll live to see the day where the world is kind, if that day ever comes.
————————-
Sometimes Dorcas wishes she never signed up for the tournament.
Okay, maybe it’s not the tournament maybe it’s Marlene fucking McKinnon.
In Dorcas’ opinion Marlene McKinnon is the biggest moron on the planet. Dorcas comes to that conclusion as she’s resting her forehead on the table with a headache drilling into her temples.
Despite this extremely obvious indication that she is done talking, McKinnon keeps going on about a rock that makes light that she bought at Zonko’s, Zonko’s.
Dorcas finally lifts her head to speak, anything to get McKinnon to stop talking.
“McKinnon I genuinely don’t understand how you get through life if this-“ she points at the rock, “is your best idea.”
McKinnon looks stunned, she sputters, “I- we- you-“ she takes a breath, “Well I don’t see you coming up with anything better Meadowes!” She finally spits out.
“You got this from a joke shop, McKinnon, a joke shop.”
“So? It doesn’t matter where it came from if it helps.”
Dorcas puts her head in her hands, “How are we supposed to win if we’re using joke products?” She rubbed her temples, “That rock is for annoying people by shining light in their eyes.”
“You’re being ridiculous Meadowes,” McKinnon huffed.
Dorcas’ head snapped up, “I’m being ridiculous for wanting you to take this seriously?”
McKinnon stood up, “I do take this seriously!” She snapped.
Dorcas stood up as well, at her full height Dorcas was slightly taller then McKinnon.
“You take this seriously, McKinnon?” Dorcas scoffed, “yeah, I can really see that.”
Dorcas gathers her stuff up before McKinnon can say anything else.
As she walks away with her bag clutched against her chest she hears McKinnon calling out to her.
“Meadowes! Meadowes! Dorcas!”
Dorcas ignores her.
————————-
Dorcas Meadowes would like to go on the record and say that she isn’t a violent person and she doesn’t condone violence in most situations.
The current situation is one of the exceptions of this rule. How does she know this you may ask?
Well a good indicator of a violent situation is well you’re being slapped while you pull a blonde girl's Dutch braid.
Dorcas feels someone grab her by the waist, she lets go of McKinnon’s braid just in time so McKinnon isn’t yanked with her.
Dorcas looks up. Professor Mcgonagall is standing between her and McKinnon who was being held back by Potter and to Dorcas’ satisfaction had a cut on her cheek.
“Miss McKinnon! Miss Meadowes!” Mcgonagall said, “My office, now!”
Dorcas and McKinnon walked up to professor Mcgonagall’s office in silence. McKinnon held her hand up to her cheek to stop the bleeding.
Dorcas wasn’t bleeding but she could feel some bruises coming on.
Once they got to Mcgonagall’s office, she left to get Madam Pomfrey. Leaving Dorcas and McKinnon alone.
Dorcas stared down at her hands, Should she say something? Should she apologise?
Then she saw a flame flicker to life out of the corner of her eye. She turned her head to see McKinnon holding a small cylinder with a bit of metal on the top. The flame was coming from the top of it.
“What the hell is that?” Dorcas said.
McKinnon turned her head, she had a cigarette in her mouth, “What?”
Dorcas pointed at the cylinder, McKinnon snorted. When Dorcas didn’t say anything McKinnon squinted at her.
“Oh you’re serious?” She said and then McKinnon the cunt started to laugh. She laughed so hard it was almost hysterical.
Dorcas felt her face heat, “What?”
McKinnon just kept laughing.
“What?! Marlene what?!”
McKinnon giggled “Fuck Dorcas, I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“Yelling at you, punching you and hating you.”
Dorcas cocked her head, “You hate me?”
“I’ve hated you for the last two years.” McKinnon stopped laughing.
“Why?”
“Because in fourth year you mess up our potions project on purpose,” McKinnon said.
It was Dorcas’ turn to laugh now, “McKinnon, that's so stupid, I can’t believe you hate me because of something I did in year four.”
McKinnon turned red, she sputtered, “You’re also rude and entitled and your friends are creeps!”
Dorcas just laughed harder, “I’ll tell Barty you said that.”
McKinnon just looked down at the floor, after a few seconds Dorcas went quiet too, returning to staring at her hands. After a few more seconds she said,
“I didn’t mess up our potion on purpose.”
“What?”
“I said that because,” Dorcas sighed, “because I didn’t want to admit that I couldn’t do something in front of you.”
“Oh.” McKinnon said.
A few more minutes of silence passed. Were they getting somewhere? Could Dorcas and McKinnon be friends?
“Dorcas?” McKinnon smiled, “you called me Marlene.”
Dorcas groaned, putting her head in her hands. McKinnon giggled, the cunt.
McKinnon poked her in the head, “You did!” She laughed, “don’t you know what this means?”
Dorcas lifted her head to shoot a confused look at McKinnon. What could she have possibly gotten from this?
McKinnon giggled again, “It means you actually like me.”
Dorcas groaned again because fuck she really did like McKinnon. Dorcas liked Marlene McKinnon and now Marlene fucking McKinnon knew that Dorcas liked her. This might actually be the worst day of Dorcas’ life.
She sighed, putting her head back into her hands, “I guess you could say in these last few weeks I have found you less-” Dorcas took a deep breath, “less of a nuisance.”
McKinnon whooped, she full on cheered like an idiot, “I knew it!” She said in a sing-song voice, “You do actually like me!”
“Oh get fucked, I’m never calling you that again.”
But McKinnon just kept smiling, she was smiling so wide that for just a fleeting moment. Dorcas felt like maybe she and McKinnon could be friends. Maybe in some other timeline they could have been friends.
Dorcas doesn’t know if they could be friends in this timeline, she doesn’t know if she could take it.
————————-
Stress is something Dorcas has never handled well. It’s a well known fact. She’s well aware of this fact. Her stress mostly manifests in Dorcas being hyper focused and her pretty much losing the ability to feel hunger.
Dorcas wishes that last one was a joke, once during her fifth year Dorcas was so focused on her O.W.Ls that she didn’t eat for three days. Barty had to practically shove food down Dorcas’ throat when he found her in a corner of the library, dehydrated and almost starving.
The good news about Dorcas’ stress mode is that it doesn’t last long. After a while she’ll crash, often sleeping for long hours.
The bad news is that the first task of the Triwizard Tournament is in less than ten hours. So it was safe to say Dorcas was in stress mode.
She drank a cup of tea at breakfast that morning and since then Dorcas has consumed about five more cups.
It’s not that Dorcas wasn’t confident in her and McKinnon's plan, in fact their plan was actually pretty good considering the limited information they had.
It’s just the pre-task jitters that she’ll probably be getting for the rest of the year.
Dorcas put her head down, using her arms as pillows. She should probably make her way down to the dungeons for a good night's sleep in an actual bed. However her legs seemed to be too tired to function.
The librarian was long gone, all Dorcas had to do was flash her prefect badge and she could stay in the library long after it closed.
Just as she felt herself drifting off she heard a small tap. Dorcas looked up, expecting Barty or Regulus, what she didn’t expect was McKinnon standing over her, holding a plate piled with food. Extra surprisingly McKinnon stood there in the school issued grey skirt.
“What’s this?” Dorcas squinted up at McKinnon.
McKinnon chuckled, “peace offering, I figured you haven’t eaten, sense I didn’t see you at supper,” McKinnon set the plate down onto the table, “And I really want us to be friends.”
Dorcas scoffed,”What if I have eaten?”
“Then I leave here looking like a fool,” McKinnon smiled.
Dorcas reached for the plate reproachfully, it was true that she hadn’t eaten. The plate McKinnon had brought her was piled high with all kinds of delicious looking food. Roast beef, baked potatoes smeared in butter, buttered green beans and peas and to top it off the whole meal was absolutely drenched in gravy.
McKinnon took a seat beside Dorcas, setting down a fork as she did.
Dorcas immediately snatched up the fork and began scoping food off the plate and shoving it into her mouth.
Dorcas only slowed after McKinnon let out a low laugh from beside her.
Dorcas swallowed a chunk of roast beef, “Are you ready for tomorrow?” She asked.
McKinnon fiddled with her hands before saying, “I think so, I mean how ready can you actually be for something like this?”
“Well I think you’re going to do fine, McKinnon,” Dorcas said chewing on some potato.
McKinnon wined, “Please call me Marlene,”
“In your dreams,” Dorcas laughed.
To Dorcas’ horror McKinnon seemed to have become less of an annoyance over the last few weeks being forced to be around her.
When your name is pulled from the goblet of fire you plan and hope that you win. The unpredictable nature of the tournament makes it impossible to form a foolproof plan.
However as Dorcas went over their plan in her head she could only think,
Damn, we could actually win this thing.