Icarus

"You know Slytherins have green ties? You'd better change it before anyone finds out." She said looking incredulously at the couple who had noticed her presence at that moment.

"Oh fuck." Evan said while fixing his heavily tousled bangs. Dorcas just turned around and started walking towards the exit without another comment when Barty blocked her way.

"You won't say a word about it Meadowes." He put a hand on Dorcas' shoulder and made a serious face, as if he was trying to look menacing. His eyes, however, betrayed one great terror.

"Maybe try a nicer tone, Crouch." She smiled contemptuously, and before Barty could retort, Evan was beside them.

"Hey, take it easy, you won't tell anyone, right Doors?" He took his boyfriend's hand off her shoulder.

"Maybe, and will you promise never to call me Doors again?" Of course, she would never use that kind of information against anyone, she was keeping a similar secret herself. Evan chuckled nervously.

"It can be done. That's it... We can go now and forget..." Evan started to slowly walk away to, probably, collect the rest of the things left in the toilet, but Barty pulled him back. This time his eyes were darker, as if he concentrated all his stress in them.

"I swear Meadowes, if anyone finds out..." He raised a finger in a threatening gesture. Dorcas was about to retaliate, but Evan stood between the two of them again.

"Nobody will know!" He said firmly, looking deep into Bartie's eyes, then turned a little quieter to Dorcas. "We all have secrets that shouldn't be revealed, right Doors?" He emphasized the last word, implying that he knew something that could break the conspiracy of silence. Dorcas shuddered slowly, but kept her face straight. This boy knew something about her.

"I'm not a snitch." She responded by piercing his gaze with a thousand mini lightning bolts.

"Sure. Leave first, we need to have a word." He turned back to the still furious Barty.

He didn't have to repeat it twice. Dorcas left quickly, her head still buzzing. The situation didn't bother her at all. But Evan's suggestion haunted her the rest of the way to the dormitory. She knew exactly what she was hiding from the world. There were many secrets, but none of them should see the light of day. Dorcas was careful every step of the way and couldn't believe anyone could actually meet one of them. What did Evan know? From whom? She promised herself that she would find the answer to those questions as soon as possible.

When she finally got to the dormitory, her roommates were sitting on the bed. They were reading aloud one of the love letters that probably belonged to Emma.

"...and your flying is like daydream! Oh Emma! Oh... Oh, hey Dorcas!" Amelia, as soon as she noticed her, turned her head and stopped the dramatic recitation.

Dorcas didn't manage to answer anything more than a fleeting "Hey." Fortunately, Jelly started making her usual sounds that suggested she was hungry. So she put the carrier back on the shelf and moved the toad to the terrarium, then started looking for a bag of amphibian food.

"We're just reading one of Emma's anonymous admirer's long confessions. Want to join in?" Amelia made a seat next to her, giggling in the process.

"As tempting as it sounds, I need to rest. This day has been so fucking weird." Right after she put her shoes next to the bed, she dropped dramatically on top of it. Her friends must have been watching from across the room, because Dorcas could almost feel that they were waiting for an explanation. After a while, Emma finally asked.

"The audition didn't go well...?" Her voice seemed to be getting closer, and after a moment, two heads appeared above Dorcas's. The girls started stroking her from both sides on the shoulder.

"Ugh, worse!" Dorcas rolled over to cover her face with the pillow. She really didn't want to explain the situation, but she knew her roommates wouldn't let her sulk for long.

"They chose someone else?" Amelia asked with a note of disbelief in her voice.

"No." She replied, slightly muffled by the pillow.

"So they chose you?" Emma tried to work things out from the handful of bits of information.

"No." After a while, however, Dorcas decided that this was not entirely true. "I mean like, kind of yes..."

"So what, what's the matter? Why are you in your BAT mood?" 'Bat mood' was one of Emma's favorite catchphrases for Dorcas' temporary mood swings. She couldn't see the resemblance, but in those moments her friend used to say that she looked like a nocturnal creature that had been told to hunt in the middle of the day.

"Because that stupid Gryffindor messed up our choir!" Dorcas couldn't take it any longer and turned to look at her friends. She felt they would understand.

"Who was it!? I swear if I find them, no spell will fix their teeth!" Emma moved closer and immediately clenched her fists in a defensive gesture. Dorcas sometimes felt like she was the overprotective sister she never had.

"If you want, I can find a section on them in the choir rules or the Hogwarts charter, and I'm sure we'll get rid of them in no time!" Amelia added with her usual fervour, when there were any legal aspects involved.

"Thank you, you guys are lovely, but it was added there by one of the professors. Also as a punishment! Would you believe it?" She shook her head as if she still couldn't come to terms with the fact that someone had gotten a place in something she had to work for so long.

"But who? Who are we still talking about?" Her friends watched her expectantly, and Dorcas decided not to delay the story. She told them in detail what had happened that afternoon. How Marlene entered her life uninvited, leaving a red-hot mark on her mind.

They spent the night lying on the bed in their pajamas complaining about all the Gryffindors put together. Although they all realized that what house you came from usually didn't matter, it felt good to rail.

Amelia even made her famous hot chocolate with, what she called, 'dancing stars' to lighten the mood. It was cacao laced with an enchantment that made the sugar sparkle slightly under the tongue. Dorcas couldn't say her anger was over, but she definitely went to bed much calmer. She fell asleep, unable to get Marlene McKinnon's irritatingly smiling face out of her mind.

…

The next day, Dorcas tried hard to focus on class. Her thoughts, however, still revolved around this one golden-haired Gryffindor. During her lunch break, she couldn't stop staring at Marlene and her noisy circle of friends. As usual, the girl was sitting next to James Potter and together, with Black also, the three of them were talking about something, gesticulating vividly. Dorcas felt pitiful because she knew full well that Marlene had probably forgotten about the case that had occupied herself so much.

Peter Pettigrew was also sitting at the Gryffindor table, probably trying hard to join the conversation of the other three. After a moment, he gave up and turned to Lily Evans, whom Potter glanced at from time to time. The red-haired girl quickly included the abandoned boy in the conversation, embracing him with her hand and placing her head on his shoulder. Also sitting in front of them were Mary Macdonald and Lupin, who looked as if they were passing secrets to each other. Dorcas quickly connected their behavior with the information Evan had given her, as the two of them glanced at Emmeline Vance from time to time.

"I recently heard of a spell that makes you see the skeleton of the person you're watching." Hearing this, Dorcas looked up quickly to see Pandora smiling at her. The girl must have seen her strange staring. After a while, she sat down to the table without a word and continued. "Did you hear that Muggles have special devices for that? Sometimes they're so fascinating! They call it an X-ray machine. It almost sounds like this kind of dinosaur...T. Rex!" Pandora was probably trying to reassure Dorcas with her strange comparisons, but she couldn't stop leaning over to look at Marlene again. "Helloooo, earth to Dorcas Meadowes! We're landing!"

Pandora enthusiastically waved a piece of half-eaten pumpkin pie in front of Dorcas face. She could no longer be ignored. Dorcas took a deep breath and joined the conversation. Of course, it was not without explaining the whole story from the previous day. Although Pandora wasn't as inquisitive as her brother, she definitely had the ability to convince people to talk with her unyielding gaze.

"Well... Bummer. But hey! Maybe it's an opportunity to try something new!" Pandora always had to find the positive side of any situation. Dorcas rolled her eyes as she went back to picking at her piece of cake. "Why don't you give this McKinnon a chance? They say she can play the guitar very well, they're having a party at the Gryffindor's tonight, we may come over and eavesdrop!"

"Firstly, no. Secondly, Slytherin at the Gryffindor party?" It didn't occur to Dorcas that the idea was at least one percent good. But Pandora was already set for the party.

"Oh come on! Emmeline invited me, she recently broke up with her boyfriend and I don't want her to play alone! Be a good friend! Female pact!" Pandora leaned so far over the table that her head, with her hair in colorful braids, now hung just above the battered cake. "Pleaseeee!"

"You don't happen to have another favorite Slytherin to bring to this unusual as usual party?" Of course, she meant young Black, without whom her friend usually did not move an inch.

"Reggie won't go, you know his brother will be there. Besides, I want to go with you!" She brought her head even closer to Dorcas and looked at her with big puppy dog eyes. Pandora always knew how to convince her. It was hard to say no to someone so nice and kind, someone who could stop a storm if a friend didn't like the rain. Such was Pandora Rosier.

"Fuck, okay okay! Just get the hair out of my plate already!" Of course, instead of doing so, Pandora leaned even further, throwing herself at Dorcas, which got all of her blue tie and the rest of the robe stained with pumpkin cream. The girl seemed unfazed.

"Great, great! I told Emmeline we'd be there after 9pm. Xenophilius got me something extra for the party." She gestured, raising two fingers to her mouth and pretending to exhale smoke. Then she winked knowingly.

"Wait, how did you tell her that? You mean you knew I would agree before I said yes?" Dorcas crossed her arms, looking at her friend, who was already preparing to run away.

"Well, you know nothing can resist my charm!" Pandora giggled and Dorcas was about to retort, but the Ravenclaw spotted someone in the distance. "Oh, I think I see Reggie. REGGGIE WAIT FOR ME! Okay dear, see you, soon just don't wear that striped dress, your aura looks gloomy in it."

"Wha-at?" She started, but Pandora had long since been jumping happily on her way to the exit. Her white hair was still glued together at the ends by pastry cream.

Dorcas was alone again. Most of the students have already started to leave for their last classes. She also decided to get up herself, because the cake on her plate was no longer edible. She looked at the Gryffindor table one last time. Only McKinnon and Pettigrew were left this time. Their conversation took a completely different turn. It looked like the boy was comforting her.

Marlene had a depressed face and only when Peter patted her lightly on the shoulder and added something quietly, she smiled gently. Then something happened that made Dorcas realize she had been staring. Marlene looked up and their eyes met. It had been the most awkward fifteen seconds of Dorcas' life. As if both of them were in a momentary shock and the moment that should have been fleeting lasted far too long. She gathered her things as fast as she could and marched towards the classroom without turning back once.

…

Evening came quickly and Dorcas was ready to leave even an hour before the appointed time. It wasn't that she excited for the party. She just couldn't stop replaying the choir audition scene in her head all day long, again and again.

Her typical character trait was to hate uncertainty. She had everything ready until Marlene McKinnon appeared on her way. Now she had no idea how to make the whole holiday performance make sense. Which is why, to occupy her mind, she put dark makeup on her eyes, changed her outfit three times, and fed Jelly more than once, totally by accident.

When she looked in the mirror one last time as she left the room, she realized that Pandora had been right about the stripes. So this time she put on a white puffy shirt and flared pants. That was the fashion these days, at least that's what she'd seen on muggle TV when she watched it over the summer.

There was also Amelia in the room, who had been devouring the pages of the book and paying no attention to her friend. Until Dorcas wanted to leave. The girl poked her head out from behind the curtain of the bed.

"Are you going out tonight? I thought we'd study together." She made a face that was supposed to be angry. Combined with her round face and freckles, she looked more like a squirrel whose peanut had been taken.

"Ami, it's Friday." Dorcas knew her roommate wouldn't mind. Besides, it was one of the few nights she actually intended to go out to a party. And one of the few when she didn’t have to lie about where she was going.

"Oh sure, leave me all alone you both! Ems is probably in the middle of her wild rendezvous by now, and you... well, where are you going?" Amelia straightened up and raised an eyebrow in curiosity. Unfortunately for Dorcas, Emma chose that night for one of her meetings with what she called her "multi-task" friend. Although the girl rejected all dating offers, she had other ways to meet her needs. Because of this, Amelia had no one to talk to, and Dorcas had to admit where she was going.

"Okay, if I tell you, no questions asked, no comments, you'll let me leave without a word. Deal?" The last thing Dorcas wanted to do was go into details about how she'd gotten herself into a party at Gryffindor Tower. She didn't really know what possessed her to go. Fortunately, Amelia simply nodded and Dorcas, knowing her perfectly, simply quickly added. "I'm going to the Gryffindor party. Pandora talked me into it."

"But..." Amelia began but failed to finish.

"No buts! Bye bye I'll be back late!" However, her friend managed to stop her in the doorway before she could sink into deeper embarrassment.

"Wait!" The girl put her hand on Dorcas' shoulder and surprisingly, she smiled perversely. "If you're going to the lion's cage, at least remember to look more dangerous than the lion. Come on, I've got something to spice up your look."

Dorcas didn't protest, she was genuinely curious what her friend meant. Amelia rummaged in her makeup bag for a moment, then pulled out a bloody dark lipstick.

"On me, this lipstick looks a bit overwhelming with that damn red hair." She pushed her bangs out of her face and continued. "I got it from my aunt and I was going to give it to you anyway. You're going to look bomb!"

"Well... don't you think that's a bit..."

"Hey hey hey! I don't ask questions, you agree to look super hot! Now sit down here, I'll paint your lips."

It was a comment Dorcas had no counterargument to. She didn't want to explain the complicated situation she'd gotten herself into. Besides, when Amelia gently touched her face and applied the product to her lips, she decided that the pleasant feeling was worth it.

When the girl finally decided that her work was finished, Dorcas began to hurry to the meeting place with Pandora. Sneaking through the corridors late at night was no easy task, you had to be clever around Mrs. Norris, but Dorcas had her ways. It wasn't her first time, after all. In fact, she sneaked out quite regularly, just not to party.

This time the task was simple, as usual, she used the previously prepared potion, which eliminated her smell for half an hour. The cat couldn't sense it, so she didn't alert Filch either. But that didn't change the fact that she had to keep quiet. When she finally arrived at the appointed place, Pandora was already waiting for her along with, ironically, Barty Crouch.

"Doriii!" Pandora threw herself into her arms, to which Dorcas immediately responded with an equally strong hug. When they were younger, they called themselves Panda and Dori for short. Only one of them was still using it though.

"Okay, okay, love's over!" She allowed her friend one last hug and set her down slowly. She then looked at the boy standing next to her. "Crouch."

"Meadowes." His gaze continued to throw daggers at Dorcas's eyes.

"No Evan?" Dorcas couldn't help but ask the question. There was no subtext to it for Pandora, so while Barty stood silent, she answered for him.

"Oh my little brother is probably already there. One of the Gryffindor girls invited this gossip boy. Poor one!" Pandora was too busy telling the story to notice that Bartie's expression had dropped. "She must have been fooled by his eyes, there's nothing you can do about their beauty!"

"You're just saying that because yours look the same?" Dorcas asked, and they all slowly walked towards the Gryffindor tower.

"Maybe! But you'll admit there's something to it! The true charm of the Rosier siblings..."

The rest of the way passed in considerable awkwardness. Dorcas felt the companion on her left stiffen from the comments about Evan. In fact, even though she didn't like the boy, she understood that he must be confused. After all, Evan was now at a party with a girl he didn't know, and he was just his secret. They would probably never be allowed to live outside closed doors anyway.

When they finally reached the portrait outside the entrance to the Gryffindor common room, Dorcas realized what she had agreed to. It was too late to run, especially since before she could think about it, Emmeline had come out the door to fetch them. Behind her, a hum muffled by a noise canceling charm could be heard.

"Hi Pandi!" Gryffindor drew Pandora first, then looked a little less enthusiastically at the rest of the gathered and added with a smile. "Come in!"

The Gryffindor common room was definitely different from the Slytherin dungeons. It felt warmer, cozier. Around the fireplace there were soulful armchairs and a sofa, on which there was already some Ravenclaw couple kissing. It even smelled very nice there, autumn, baked apple pie and vanilla. Dorcas felt envious. She didn't understand why her house had to have chambers in dark dungeons, while others lived in a cozy tower with stained glass windows. It wasn't fair.

The room must have been even nicer on a weekday when it wasn't so crowded. There was even a small stage set up that evening. Basically, they were just clothes chests connected to each other, on top of which now lay several instruments. Whoever cast the silencing spell must have gone to great lengths to tone down what was about to come. Dorcas didn't even manage to take her place in the crowded room when her attention was drawn to a girl with long, golden hair, dressed in a rockstar outfit.

Marlene McKinnon entered the makeshift stage.