Chapter 1
Aubrey’s black Dubarrys skid against loose debris on the tiled floor as she rushed down the corridor, fretting over the darkened sky and mindful of the fluttering papers in her hands.
Her usually pristine skirt and sweater vest were uncharacteristically rumpled with twigs and leafs stubbornly stuck to its fabric. Her red tie whipped back with the pace of her run, making it flutter against the side of her neck.
But there was no time.
At least that's what her brain told her after waking up by the lake shivering from the absence of warm sun beating down on her, clearly having missed her very important Frog Choir Meeting. Perhaps the most important meeting of her 7th year.
If she hadn’t been rushing, and if she’d been paying closer attention, she probably wouldn’t have run into the unfortunate scene that she did.
“Hey!”
“Bloody hell!”
Aubrey let out a squeak as her turn into one of the entryways was interrupted by two students who were tucked into the side, blocking her path to the Great Hall.
“What the hell?” A tall boy shrouded in the shadows sounded angry with her as she seemed to have made him stumble away from the other figure leaning against the marble archway. Aubrey, however, paid little mind as she checked that nothing was missing or damaged in her hands.
“Um- what the fuck-“
Aubrey took a moment to blink at the obviously more American accent of the girl to her right, it being fairly alien-sounding in a place like Hogwarts. But once the girl stepped closer, entering a small patch of warm light from the hallway, Aubrey could see that this person’s features were also beautiful. Beautiful enough to be just as atypical as the chiming twang of her accent.
Green eyes gleamed in the low light, looking like glass marble.
“Where’s the fire?” the girl asked again with that mocking sass in her voice, and suddenly Aubrey didn’t have time for girls with half-open uniforms and this other fellow whose belt jangled in the otherwise silence of the empty hall.
The audacity of these two to think Aubrey was at fault for interrupting them!
She could write them up. Hell, she could hex them to the next century.
Aubrey stared right back into the girl's eyes unwaveringly , imagining performing wandless magic to make her melt into a puddle before her feet. "No student is to be out this late unless coming back from an activity or club, or if you're on duty."
Brown eyebrows rose up and green eyes smiled- which only made Aubrey more annoyed- and to her horror, the girl stepped into her personal space more.
Her hand came up to pluck a blade of grass from Aubrey's blonde waves, causing Aubrey's heart to jolt.
"This is an activity, and I was hoping to be on duty tonight, yeah." She smirked while twirling a strand of her long brown hair between two fingers, like she knew the angry shitstorm her words whipped up within Aubrey.
Aubrey blinked, breaking their eye contact to give a sound of clear disgust. She huffed and moved past the girl to keep barreling through this little powwow.
“Now hold on,” the boy drawled cockily, holding a large hand to her sternum. Aubrey had almost forgotten he was there and now hated how she had to slightly tilt her head to glower at him too. “That’s mighty rude of you to interrupt without a proper apology. Why don't you give me one, love?”
Aubrey shivered at his voice and immediately despised whoever this was and the fact he thought he could touch her. She glared at both their silhouettes and vaguely processed the cold air brushing against her arms and legs now that her adrenaline levels were dropping.
“Get out of my way or-,” Aubrey bit out, already feeling a headache from how tight she flexed her jaw and breathed through her nose.
“Just let her go,” the girl, who’d now slumped her body against the archway leisurely, stared at her nails.
"Sta-"
The girl pushed off the stone to slink up against the boy. Aubrey watched, anger rising up through her stomach like a dragon, as the girl clutched his tie and moved their bodies closer.
Aubrey gripped her papers so hard her fingers almost punched holes through them and trudged past the two, continuing on her way with a dark look across her face.
After all, she had papers to deliver to Professor Flitwick, and she already wanted to smack herself for falling asleep studying near the lake. Being late led to unfortunate events like running into the students of Hogwarts doing- doing-
She screeched to a halt and whirled around, suddenly realizing what she was doing. Running away without getting the names or clear identifiers of students fornicating in the hallways after hours? It was too dark to have seen who they truly were. She must have lost her sense.
The archway was vacant sans for the flickering of the candles against old stone.
“Unacceptable. Bloody no respect.” She breathed as her mind flashed back to the couple and the girl’s nonchalance to the whole thing. How Aubrey shrunk away from that boy's boorishness and she leaned in. Emboldened him!
Unacceptable. Aubrey Posen would be keeping an eye out; keeping a grudge. Next time they’d be at the other end of her wand.
For now, she had to find Flitwick.
And Chloe so she could blow off some steam grouching about the audacity and the green eyes.
The soft morning sun shined upon Chloe's hair, making it glow like a fiery halo, but Aubrey couldn't appreciate the vision over her anger.
Her best friend sat across from her, hunched over a bowl of muesli and glancing up every once in a while to nod at Aubrey's stiff form.
"And then the girl pressed all up on him like some sort of slag!"
Chloe entertained her by dropping her jaw in shock before going back to her food, mostly unbothered.
Aubrey held back her ire to look around the Great Hall at the students who've accumulated since they'd arrived. What house would the girl be in? The boy? She couldn't remember the colors of their uniform or if they'd still had their colors on at that point.
"What do we think of the new arrangement for auditions? I'm not sure if assigning such a complicated Latin piece right off the bat is a good idea for some of these kids..maybe we can pick something from the top fifty," Chloe mused in between bites as she fingered some of the papers laid out in front of them both.
Aubrey glanced back at her and then the papers, "How else are we going to prepare them for the caliber of our singing group, Chloe? We ought to take in individuals who are prepared to take on-"
Chloe subtly rolled her eyes- and if it were anyone else, Aubrey would have made their life hell- "I know, I understand, Aubs. But I just have this gut feeling that it's not going to be like our 4th year. You know the underclassmen of the past couple years are known for being rowdier than usual, and the feedback we've gotten for the Frog Choir from them so far has been..."
Aubrey clenched her jaw and then let out a big sigh, succumbing slightly. She glanced around again, right when a flock of Ravenclaw girls passed their table. A tall brunette trailed behind them, and Aubrey followed her with her eyes.
"That one."
Chloe turned around, confused, trying to see where her friend was looking intently.
"Okay..?"
"That was the girl from last night. A Ravenclaw? That hardly seems right after the decorum she displayed. Here I was looking at the Slytherin table this whole time."
Another eye roll from the redhead until the blonde rose from her seat, ignoring her mostly untouched breakfast.
"Where are you going?"
"I'm going to go talk to her! She's my only lead to find the boy."
"Aubrey, sit down," Chloe hissed. "Can you focus please? We don't need one of your hyperfixations right now when auditions are this week! You can emasculate this man later." It's not like it'd be the first time Aubrey had used physical or verbal discipline against one of the nastier characters at Hogwarts. It was one of her things. Chloe didn't mind when Aubrey's passion sent her overboard, but it definitely kept her hands full putting out fires. It was kind of nice though: to be the more mellow one between the two sometimes. Chloe was never described as calming before she had to be, for Aubrey.
She looked over her shoulder again at the Ravenclaw table.
"Plus, I know who that is."
"You do?"
"Yes, that's Conrad. Well, Stacie's her name."
"And how do you know her?" Aubrey finds herself asking, even though Chloe tends to know people others wouldn't.
"Because she snogged one of my ex-boyfriends last year at Barry Dawson's birthday party. Remember that night I walked into the library in tears and you almost flipped the table over, " Chloe looked at her meaningfully as if willing her to remember, "She has a bit of a reputation. I think she's a 5th year?"
Aubrey felt the angry dragon within her whip its tail.
"No- no. Aubrey, I know that face. Just leave it; she's harmless. Just one of those girls," Chloe clipped, finally letting a bit of bitterness she harbored slip. "Besides," she held up the paper for Aubrey to see, "this is what we should do right now. I have some really awesome suggestions, can you just please hear me out?" She nearly whined.
Aubrey looked into the clear blue eyes of her best friend and frowned at the pout on clear display. Great, she broke out the puppy dog eyes.
"Fine," she sighed as if listening to Chloe was the biggest burden. "Let's hear it then.
She spent the rest of breakfast planning with Chloe but, more than she'd ever admit, her eyes strayed to watch the Ravenclaw who'd foolishly stumbled onto her radar.