Hello there! The name's Beck and welcome to my first (published) fic in five years!
I was an avid FF writer in middle and high school, but the closer I got to college the less and less time I had to take advantage of this creative outlet. A little information about me and the life I have going on: I'm approximately a year out from finishing undergrad and I will, hopefully, be pursuing my Masters and Ph.D. in the near future, but I'd rather not think about that right now. I work two jobs, I'm in two Greek organizations, and I am the President of two honors societies and the Vice President (former President) of an a cappella group. I have a tight-knit group of amazing friends and the most wonderful boyfriend I could ever ask for.
Why do I tell you all of this? Well, dear readers, I am absurdly busy. I always said I'd never publish a fic again unless it was totally finished. This one right here, Noise & Confusion, is nowhere near finished. Why am I publishing it then? I am DYING for feedback. So, if Noise & Confusion captures your interest, I will be absolutely overjoyed, but I will also have to apologize because there is no way I will be able to update consistently, so I am just warning you all now.
I have many many ideas for Noise & Confusion, including two sequels and all kinds of fun character arcs, scenes, and chapters, so I hope that if you all enjoy this, you will stick with me as I struggle through adulthood and cope with it by working on random fic ideas that pop into my head.
With all of that, I hope you enjoy this first chapter, and I beg of you, PLEASE give me some feedback.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything other than Roxy Mayhew, Mason Lehman, Kelly Crisp, and any other characters you are unfamiliar with.
CHAPTER ONE: Week One; Monday
"So let me get this straight," Roxy Mayhew quirked an eyebrow as she tried to take in what her friend was explaining to her. "We just… Throw eggs at people?"
Mason Lehman grinned, nodding in affirmation. "Yup."
"And it's just called… Egging?" Roxy blinked, still vaguely confused.
Another nod from Mason. "What's so confusing about it?"
"It's just… So simple… I can't believe I've never heard of it before. It's a common practice in the muggle world?" Roxy shook her head, annoyed that she had so little of an understanding about the muggle world. As she was a half-blood, many might have thought she would know about most muggle things, but Roxy's parents were different. Her wizard father had swooped her muggle mother up into the world of magic and she'd never left it, choosing to raise their two children in that world of magic and practically acting as though the muggle world didn't even exist.
For Mason, however, it was quite different. He, too, was a half-blood, but he was raised as a muggle. His mother was a squib and his father a muggle. Imagine his parents' surprise when he began to show signs of magic and, upon turning 11, received his Hogwarts letter.
Mason nodded for the third time. "Yes, ma'am."
Roxy paused for a moment, thinking on what her best friend had just explained. She hummed, running a hand through her hair as she thought, before looking up at him once more. "So we'll be sneaking into the kitchens tonight, correct?"
Mason grinned, but his answer was cut off by shouting.
Gryffindors were known for being rowdy, but the Common Room typically wasn't the place in which rowdiness was prevalent - specifically because of the usual, almost constant, presence of a prefect.
Not to mention, it had only just been the first day of classes. Roxy quirked an eyebrow as she searched for the source of the shouts. Were people really up to shenanigans already?
"YOU FUCKIN' PRICKS!"
Apparently, the answer to that question was yes.
The shout was distant, coming from the corridor outside of the common room, but the familiar voice and the open portrait hole allowed for the two to discern exactly who was shouting. Roxy and Mason spun around in their seats (having been seated at the fireplace, away from most of the regular common room action) to face the portrait hole, where they watched as James Potter and Sirius Black tumbled into the common room, the portrait hole swinging closed behind them.
Roxy looked over at Mason, who nodded once. The two hurriedly packed away their homework into their bags before making their way past the infamous duo, who had fallen over into two chairs, cackling at whatever their most recent prank had been. Through the small tunnel and out the portrait hole they went, finding exactly the person they knew they would.
Kelly Crisp stood outside the portrait, positively fuming. Roxy's eyes grew wide at the sight of her friend, taking in her appearance rapidly. She didn't quite know how to respond just yet, but when Mason burst into hysterical laughter, Roxy truly couldn't help but follow.
"Shut the fuck up," Kelly ground out, now even more aggravated and even somewhat embarrassed at being seen in her current state of being. "I mean it!" She snapped.
Mason and Roxy didn't listen and only continued to laugh at the sight before them. "K-Kell…" Roxy could barely speak due to how hard she was laughing and it took her a moment before she could finally get words out. "You're green!"
"I KNOW!" Kelly shrieked, her voice carrying down the corridor that brought one up to Gryffindor tower. The girl's skin was, in fact, the same shade of emerald green as that of her house colors. "I swear, those fucking idiots are going to get it."
Her friends paused in their laughter as they grasped just how the situation had come to fruition and their eyes widened. "Oh my god, Potter and Black did this?" Mason was shocked - while the two Marauders were notorious for pranking various Slytherins, they usually stayed away from Kelly due to her friendship with himself and Roxy. While Roxy and Mason weren't excellent friends with the Marauders, there was a mutual sense of respect between the Gryffindors (and Mason had to get along with them considering they were all his roommates).
Kelly's eyes narrowed. "Yes, they fucking did and I'm going to kill them."
"Holy shit, Kell, what was it?" Roxy asked, unfamiliar with any kind of jinx, hex or product that might do just what had happened to her poor friend. Kelly's frown deepened. "Can I explain after we get this shit off my skin?"
Mason and Roxy couldn't help but start giggling again before agreeing. "I overheard Potter telling Black the password for the prefects' bathroom during practice the other night if you guys want to go there?" Mason proposed. Kelly cracked a smile then. "That sounds good to me."
Pulling their bags up over their shoulders, Roxy and Mason formed somewhat of a protective barrier around poor, green Kelly as the trio made their way down the corridors to where the prefects' bathroom was hidden away, Mason whispering the password and the three hurrying inside.
Not long later, one could find Roxy and Kelly scrubbing away at Kelly's skin in bathwater that once was clear, but had long since turned green. Mason was respectfully faced away from his friends, still joking around with them as they scrubbed and scrubbed.
"So what was it?" Mason asked, his curiosity having reached its limit. He heard an aggravated sigh from Kelly.
Roxy looked up from her friend's arm as she took a sponge to it, eyebrows raised as she silently repeated Mason's question. Kelly shook her head. "Fuckin' Marauder prats. I don't know if they were aiming for me or someone else but they got me and when they saw the color my skin turned, they were fuckin' hysterical."
While Kelly Crisp was definitely more of an abrasive human when people first interacted with her, and anyone who didn't know the Slytherin well enough might be afraid of her, she wasn't actually as angry and scary of a person as people thought. She had inherited her Scottish temper from both of her parents and wasn't too keen on taking bullshit from people, but she was, in all reality, kind at heart - kinder than most might expect a Slytherin to be. Hence why the two Gryffindors considered her their best friend.
Mason and Roxy often caught shit from fellow Gryffindors for it, but neither of them cared all that much - Kelly was their best friend, had been since they were three 11-year-olds with no notion of who the other was, shoved into a tiny train compartment together.
"It was some new Zonko's shit, I think," Kelly explained. "Similar to a dung bomb but instead of makin' you smell like shit, it fuckin' turns your skin green."
A snort came from Mason's direction and Roxy giggled quietly as well. Kelly scowled at her friends. "It's not fuckin' funny!"
"It really is, Kel." Roxy mumbled as she finally removed the last of the green from her friend's skin. "I'm just glad it was washable. Didn't think it would work."
"I'm gonna fuckin' get 'em." Kelly mumbled. "I can take a decent prank here and there, but turning my fuckin' skin green? I think the fuck not."
Mason ran a hand through his hair as he chuckled at Kelly's words. "Hey, Crisp, just remember they're my roommates, okay, I don't need them getting me because I'm associated with you."
Roxy nodded. "Yeah, same. I'm not roommates with 'em but I am housemates and I catch shit from Black too often as it is."
"No promises," Kelly ground out, drying off and getting dressed again. "You can turn around, by the way."
"You did what?!" Remus Lupin groaned, falling onto his bed as he took in what his friends were saying. Peter Pettigrew sat on his own bed, giggling away at the tale they'd just been told, but Remus wasn't having it.
James and Sirius grinned victoriously, snickering along with Peter as they recounted the tale once again. "We accidentally turned Crisp's skin green," James repeated.
"And it was fuckin' hysterical," Sirius smirked. Remus gave his best friends an exasperated look. "Oh c'mon, Moony, it was an accident. You know we wouldn't turn the love of your life green on purpose."
Remus threw a pillow at him, James and Peter laughing away as Sirius was smacked in the face by the fluffy object. "She's not the love of my life, Padfoot," He mumbled. "And how do you accidentally turn someone's skin green?"
"We were aiming for someone else," James explained. "And it just so happened we got her instead."
"Don't tell me you were-"
"Oh, we were."
"Damnit."
"You know, thinking back, Crisp probably deserved it." Peter chimed into the conversation. "She's been hanging around with Snivellus and his ilk a lot more."
"They're her housemates, Wormtail. She was literally only with them because she got stuck into that Charms project with them. You know she's practically inseparable from Mason and Roxy."
Sirius smirked at the mention of Roxy Mayhew but held his tongue, allowing the image of the brunette beauty to float through his mind. Since they'd met at the welcome feast during their first year, he'd always kept an eye on her. He wasn't as into her as, perhaps, James was the one and only Lily Evans, but he would be a filthy liar if he said Roxy Mayhew wasn't the fittest girl in their year, and he'd always wondered what she'd be like behind closed doors.
It seemed as though he'd never get to find out, though, much to his distaste. She clung to Mason Lehman like he was the only thing that held her together. He couldn't ever tell if there was any kind of romantic interest there, but he wasn't about to overstep. Mason was a big guy. Big as in he towered over Sirius by quite a bit (which was saying something as Sirius, himself, was pretty tall). Not only was Sirius not open to causing conflict within their dormitory, but he'd rather not have his fellow beater hitting him with the beater's bat rather than the bludger (or worse, sending the bludgers in his direction. When Mason Lehman sent a bludger at you, you were done for and you knew it).
"Oi, Sirius!"
James's voice pulled him out of his thoughts and Sirius looked up in surprise. James quirked an eyebrow. "Where'd you go, mate?" He chuckled, having a feeling he knew exactly where Sirius's thoughts had wandered off to. Sirius was excellent at lying and could keep a secret from just about anyone - except him. James always saw right through his best friend, whether the latter liked it or not.
"Just hungry," Sirius lied. James rolled his eyes but didn't bother calling him out. Even if he had planned on it, he couldn't have, for just seconds after Sirius responded, the door opened and in walked their fifth roommate and the exact girl occupying Sirius's thoughts.
Sirius smirked when Mason and Roxy walked in, ignoring Mason entirely as he eyed Roxy. "Looking ravishing today, as per usual, Mayhew." On the contrary, Roxy had most definitely seen better days. With her sleeves pushed up, the top two buttons of her shirt undone, and her tie loosened, she looked somewhat of a disheveled mess. Sirius liked it though.
Roxy's eyes narrowed. "I swear I'll hex you if you don't fuck right off, Black. I just spent two hours helping Kelly get her skin back to its normal color." His eyes wandered to her hands, then, and he smirked as he noticed the slight tinge of green.
Peter and James snickered off to the side as Remus just shook his head. While the latter of the three usually enjoyed joking around as much as the rest, he hated that they picked on Kelly Crisp. Unlike most Slytherins, Crisp had never done anything wrong. She wasn't a wanker or into the dark arts like the rest of them. Remus liked that about her. Despite all the negativity that surrounded her, Kelly was unafraid to do her own thing and be her own person. She went against the Slytherin norm and most didn't bother to see that in her - but he did.
"Don't mind us," Mason cut in before Sirius could say anything back to her. "We're just grabbing some things and then we'll be on our way."
"Ah, really?" Sirius's voice was tinged with mock disappointment - only for the purpose of grating on Roxy's nerves, of course. The two ignored him as they headed over to Mason's corner of the room, Mason opening his desk drawer and grabbing a few unseen items. He shoved them into his pockets and, as promised, the two were on their way.
As they headed out, Sirius called after Roxy and if it weren't for Mason shutting the door as quickly as he could, Roxy most likely would have followed through on her hex threat.
"Hate to see you go, Mayhew, but Merlin do I love to watch you leave!"
Hope y'all enjoyed! Please review! xxx