Hello again! I know it's been an extremely long time since I've posted anything on here, and I know I'm an awful person for starting so many projects and not finishing them. But I'm here with a new fic, one that I feel is TRULY different than all of the other fanfics I've posted on here. Yes, it involves OCs and the twins, but the plot is so different and the characters are so different and I think that you'll honestly see how different this fic is from my others if you read them.
That said, I will give fair trigger warnings here. There is swearing, alcohol use, violence, sex, etc. So if you don't like any of those things, don't read this fanfiction. If you're a-okay with those things, then good luck, my friend, and read on. I hope you enjoy. And I would be honored if you felt so inclined to leave a fave, a follow, or a review, because Merlin, I do love hearing from y'all.
I'm shutting up now. Enjoy.
June 20, 2001.
The Dancing Hippogriff Nightclub and Concert Venue, Diagon Alley, London.
It was a warm night for early summer in London, and all of Diagon Alley was crammed full of people waiting for the doors of the Dancing Hippogriff (which was arguably the hippest place for young witches and wizards in the UK nowadays) to open. The line of people waiting to get in went all the way down the long alley, and the excitement in the air was infectious. Everyone was waiting to see their favorite band, a band called Wormwood, who, since all of the members graduated from Hogwarts in 1996, had become the most popular musical group in the wizarding world. Tickets to this show were particularly sacred to fans, as it was rumored to be their last show.
While the large hoard of fans all seemed overjoyed and full of excitement, the four members couldn't seem less excited to go onstage. In fact, all of them seemed quite bored and quite apathetic, not at all giving off the impression that they gave the slightest of a damn about the show they were about to put on or the people that were waiting for them outside. All four of them were in the green room backstage, clad in leather, denim, combat boots and heavy jewelry, passing around bottles of firewhiskey and vodka and smoking cigarettes.
The lead singer of the group, the dashing, mysterious, and sexy Andrew Fawley stood before a floor length mirror attached to the wall, styling his long, dark hair to messy perfection. His lifelong best friend, who he considered his sister, and bassist of the group, Laura Marlow-O'Malley noticed his moment of vanity (something she had always teased him about) and decided to comment.
"Whatever you do to your hair, you're still going to be a sex god to all the girls out there," she commented with a smirk, draping a playful arm over his leather jacket clad shoulders.
"Oh, sod off," he grumbled, swatting her away.
"You're so vain," she sang, singing the old Carly Simon tune as she twirled around in a bit of a drunken stupor. "You probably think this song is about you, don't you? Don't you…."
Truth be told, even though her brain was soaked in alcohol, Laura had a beautiful singing voice. She could've been her own solo act without Andy or the rest of the band, but oddly enough, she was far too shy for that.
"Merlin, shut up, will you?" grumbled the drummer, Carter Morris, as he chucked an empty firewhiskey bottle at Laura.
With a quick flick of the wand, Laura deflected the bottle away from her, making it land safely on the nearest table. At that moment, one of the band's many assistants, a young man whose name they all had neglected to learn, came in with a nervous expression, clutching his wand and a clipboard.
"Er, excuse me, Mr. Fawley….," the young man interrupted hesitantly and awkwardly.
"Yes, what is it, Jerry?" Andy retorted curtly. Jerry wasn't the assistant's actual name, it was just Andy's best guess at what it could be.
"Er, sir….your….er, your hippogriff, sir, he's gotten a bit wild….," stuttered 'Jerry.' "He's torn up an entire sofa, and…."
"Well, give him a bit of firewhiskey, and calm him down, then," Andy demanded dismissively.
It was a well known fact that he had to bring his pet hippogriff, Moonbeam, with him everywhere. And hippogriffs weren't exactly easy pets to travel with.
"Yes, sir," the assistant nodded, still red in the face.
"Oh, and when you're out there, send Xavier back here, will you?" Andy said, referring to their guitarist, Xavier Crowley. "He can finish fucking his women of the night later."
The assistant dashed out of the room in a nervous hurry. In the opposite corner of the room, Laura collapsed against the place where the two walls met. Her drinking made her more "depressed" than usual (she used that term lightly, as that's what the Muggle doctors told her she had, while the Healers at St. Mungo's diagnosed her with some kind of wizarding syndrome) and currently the depression or whatever was crashing down around her. She felt awful. She felt that they were all awful - Andy, and his vanity and bit of narcissism, Carter, and his drinking that was worse than her own, and Xavier, who had reduced himself to a sex fiend who wanted to fuck anything with two legs, two breasts and a head of long hair.
They'd all turned into awful people, and Laura was feeling the sting of that revelation. There was something in her gut telling her that something was going to happen tonight; something awful was coming at them in return for all the awful things they did and the awful people they'd become.
"Alright, you lot, get out there," grumbled their manager, a very thick man called Ed Mudgett. He glanced around the room, as Andy lifted Laura off of the ground, and angrily yelped, "Where the bloody hell is Xavier?!"
"I'm here, you git," Xavier shot back, stumbling through the doorway.
Xavier was shirtless, only clad in a pair of (extremely) tight leather pants, leather boots, and a collection of leather studded belts and his impressive collection of necklaces. There seemed to be a few new hickies developing on his neck, and his hair was an absolute mess.
Ed used his wand to summon the instruments up for everyone, sending Xavier's guitar at him with a particular force. Laura caught her bass, Carter caught his drumsticks and Andy caught the microphone. Xavier and Carter started to the stage, while Andy stayed behind, hands on Laura's shoulders as he looked her deep in the eye. He'd known her since they were born - he knew better than anyone when something was wrong with her.
"What's on your mind, Sunshine?" Andy inquired lowly.
He used Sunshine because that's what her parents used to call her.
"I don't have a good feeling about this show," Laura admitted, nervously chewing on her black-painted nails. "Something's not right. Something's not good. I don't feel good about this; I want to go home."
"You're gonna be just fine, Laur," Andy assured her. "We're all going to be just fine. We're gonna go out there and play a show like we've done ten million times already, and we're going to kick arse and be just dandy afterwards. Alright?"
Laura looked up at him; she was tall herself but he had a good six or so inches on her. Her hazel eyes met his clear blue ones. She trusted him. She always had. And she wanted to trust him on this, but she couldn't, not fully, at least.
"Sure," she mumbled, her eyes falling to his old black tee shirt. "Sure, okay."
"Okay," Andy said, brightening up as he slapped Laura on the shoulder encouragingly.
He was off, practically sprinting in the same direction that Carter and Xavier had gone. Laura took a deep, deep breath. And she went too.
There was a strong, vibrant, and completely palpable energy running through the Dancing Hippogriff as the crowd roared upon seeing the four members of Wormwood appear on stage. First came the notoriously raunchy drummer Carter Morris. Second was the ladies' man and guitarist Xavier Crowley. Third was the dark and sexy vocalist Andrew Fawley. And last, but not least, the fashionable, slightly tortured seeming and snarky Laura Marlow-O'Malley.
The crowd really went wild as Andy started to scream his usual crowd warm-up speech thing, while Carter downed another bottle of firewhiskey and Xavier magically adjusted his guitar tone. Laura was in the back corner of the stage, looking strangely nervous to all of the fans, who knew her as someone who was more than comfortable on the stage. She looked sick. She certainly did not look as though she wanted to be there.
"Alright, are you motherfuckers ready for us?!" yelled Andy, as the crowd reacted with even more energy than he had expected. "Okay then! This first one's called 'Cedar and Pine!'"
The four band members thought the crowd had been going hard earlier, but now the party had really began. The crowd was screaming, roaring, thrashing, chanting and dancing, even thought it was only Carter playing up the drum intro. There was a fun, yet feral, and slightly dangerous feel that the band evoked from the fans at their shows, and it was infectious - it was dirty, raucous rock'n'roll.
Xavier played the opening chord, and at that moment, it seemed that all hell broke loose.
The screaming now was not that of fun and rock'n'roll, it was now screaming of panicked, frightened people. People were Disapparting by the dozen, sparks flew from the tips of wands, people began to sprint like chickens with their heads chopped off.
Seemingly without thought, Laura chucked her bass aside, pulling her wand from where it was stashed in the side of her boot. Xavier and Andy had already leapt into the crowd, wands out, dueling people in blood-red robes wearing masks….Death Eater masks?!
No, thought Laura. No, no, NO. It can't be….all the Death Eaters are dead, or in Azkaban….Voldemort's dead, you watched him die….they can't be, it can't be, how could it?!
Before Laura had much more time to contemplate the complete and utter chaos around her, she heard Carter shouting, "LAURA! WATCH OUT!"
Her eyes flew up, seeing a curse coming straight at her from the tip of one of the masked foe's wand, a fearsome jet of ink green light. Thoughtlessly, she jabbed her wand, and at the very last second, deflected the curse away from her, as she felt the familiar feeling of adrenaline flooding her veins. She'd fought plenty of bad guys in her life, plenty of Death Eaters - this feeling of adrenaline and fear and acting on pure instinct was something she learned to be used to from all of those experiences.
"Drop the wand, you mudblood bitch!" commanded the foe, amidst the duel that had ensued between the masked man and Laura.
Mudblood?!
Swiftly, Laura dodged another curse, chucking one back his way. Hers made contact with his shoulder, causing him to fall paralyzed on the ground. She stepped forward, thinking to go stomp on the man's wand so that it snapped in half and became useless, but she was stopped.
She was stopped dead in her tracks, feeling a thick set of arms seize her from behind, holding her against a man, who held something cold to her throat - a knife.
"Drop. The. Wand," the man demanded coldly, digging the knife into her throat so that it just started to break the first layer of skin.
"Fuck you," she spat, elbowing him hard in the gut so that he released her.
She had just gotten out of the man's grip when he kicked her to the ground, hard. She landed with extreme force, causing her wand to go flying away, far out of her reach. The man leapt over her, causing her to roll on her back to face him. In the brief moment she had here, she got a look at his blood-red robe, which bore a crest on his chest, a crest with a red-eyed snake and the letters C.O.V. in ink-green lettering. She saw the man's eyes through the holes in the mask - eyes with no soul to be seen through them.
Instead of going for his wand, the man swung his silver knife up over his head, preparing to stab her. Instinctively, Laura threw her hands up in defense, as she readied herself for probable death.
"LAURA!" someone shouted, this time, it was Andy.
She heard his voice, and she felt incredible pain in her gut. And she knew pain.
The man over her chuckled maniacally, pulling the knife out only to stab it back in again. Laura choked, she was in pain, she couldn't breath, she felt blood leaking out of her mouth now as she inhaled and exhaled rapidly. Everything hurt, and then nothing hurt anymore. Everything was fine. Warm. Light.
I'm fucking dying, Laura thought. Mum….dad….I'm coming….I'm coming….
Everything was warm and everything was light, and then everything suddenly vanished right before Laura Marlow-O'Malley's eyes.